Someone once asked Rav Zvi Yehuda Kook zt”l if we can be sure that we are in the process of Geula, that there won’t be another exile, and he answered that Atchalta D’Geula has been clear since the Balfour Declaration in 1917/תרע”ז, but after the Six Day War, we are already “up to our waist in Ge’ula”!
Today it’s already an empirical and statistical fact:
1. After the Six Day War there were 2,400,000 Jews in Israel, and today there are 7,200,000. Some statisticians say that it’s already most of the Jews in the world, but all agree that within 8 years in תשצ”ב/2032, the majority of the Jews in the world will be in Israel, for the first time since the exile of the 10 tribes about 2,700 years ago! If that mass gathering from 104 different countries is not Kibbutz Galuyot, what is?! Does anyone think that Hashem is bringing His children home even if we don’t deserve it (as He said He would), just in order to send us out again to bring us home once again?
2. Chazal say that when Eretz Yisrael will be revived from being a desert to once again blooming, that is the clearest sign of redemption (Sanhedrin 98a). Today Israel is the 11th strongest economy in the world, and we even export fruit and flowers all over the world. These are facts.
3. Halachically, throughout the exile whenever a Jew came to Beit Shemesh, Hevron or Be’er Sheva, he would tear his clothing as a sign of mourning (Shuulchan Aruch תקסא, א). The Mishna Brura explains there, that as soon as we will once again have Jewish rule, we will no longer have to tear kriya for we know longer will be in a status of “churban” (destruction). Has anyone ever seen even one Jew tear kriya upon visiting Israeli cities since the Six Day War? (some just still do kriya when seeing Har HaBayit as long as there is no Beit HaMikdash, but the Mishna Brura doesn’t differentiate even there). This is black and white halacha that Israel is no longer in churban.
In short, empirically today 55 years later, R. Zvi Yehuda Kook would say we are already “up to our necks” in Ge’ula! That doesn’t mean that the process will be “smooth sailing” or that we know how long it will take, as we clearly still have challenges and enemies. But as opposed to 2,000 years of exile, where we just went from one exile to another, from one Tisha b’Av to the next, we are told that in the Geula process there will be temporary setbacks, but they are just a “ירידה לצורך עלייה”. Just like we bend our knees in order to jump to a higher stage, and the lower one presses a spring the higher it will rise, we were told from the start that the occasional setbacks we see will always be a preparation for the next advancement in the process (Vilna Gaon, Kol HaTor 1, 13). Rav Kook (Ma’amarei HaReiya, p. 360), already showed this to be true 100 years ago after the first few decades of Zionism, and reminded us of this after the Arab riots of 1929/תרפ”ט. He didn’t even see the invasion of 6 Arab countries at the beginning of the War of Independence, or the siege preceding the Six Day War nor the surprise attack of the first day of the Yom Kippur War!
We already see that the ratio of terrorists killed in Gaza compared to IDF soldiers in the present battles, is by far the highest of any war in the history of Israel, as they hide like mice underground. Just as the Hamas is getting walloped, so will the Hizballah and Iran and anyone else who wants to be among those of whom it is written, “Woe to the fool who bothers a Father when he wants to redeem His children, or who tries separating the Lion when He wants to mate with His beloved lioness” (Sanhedrin 106a) after a 2,000 year separation. Let us just pray that we should have as few casualties as possible! Shabbat ‘Nachamu’ Shalom! Rav Ari