I am writing these words two days after the tragic news of another terrorist attack in Israel. We were inundated with images of innocent men and children whose lives were taken way too early by people whose hatred for the Jewish people far exceeds their own love for their families and their own lives. As their loved ones cried as these holy kedoshim were being buried, we too could not help but feel the incredible loss for klal Yisrael and the loss of future generations that could have come from them. 

This is nothing new. At one of the most intense moments of the Pesach Seder, we cover the matzot and lift a full glass of wine, and say the paragraph of Vehi Sheamda, which includes the lines, “For it was not one alone who rose against us to annihilate us, rather in every generation there are those who rise against us to annihilate us, but the Holy One, Blessed is He, saves us from their hand.” Some will even sing these words with a beautiful melodious tune. Why are we raising a glass at this moment? Why are we singing words that testify to the fact we have enemies who want us destroyed? 

Avraham was referred to as an Ivri, Hebrew. The word Ivri comes from the word “ever”, the one who stood on the other side. All the world stood on one side, and he stood on the other. This isn’t a geographical statement, it means that Avraham had principles that set him apart from the rest of humanity at that time. Nimrod, seeing a threat in this independent thinker threw Avraham into a fiery furnace, which he miraculously survived. In much the same way, this ability to be isolated from the rest of the world, is how the Jewish people, Avraham’s descendants, were also isolated in Mitzrayim and thrown into a kur habarzel, a smelting furnace, which purified them. This insistence on being different, via dress, language and names, while maintaining a higher moral ground and ethical standards, elicits a visceral hatred in those who do not. 

According to the midrash (Bereishit Rabbah 44:22) during Avraham’s prophetic vision at the Covenant Between the Parts, God promised Avraham that he would exact retribution from the Egyptians and eventually free his offspring from slavery. This promise included salvation from future exiles too. God assured Avraham that “And also the nation that they serve I too shall judge” (Bereishit 15:14) The word “also” includes all the future kingdoms and nations that will persecute the Jewish people throughout our history, will not escape punishment, and, adds Rashi, that our enemies will be paid back for their cruelty. So it is only because of the promise that Hashem made to Avraham, that Hashem saves us from their hands and punishes them. 

The Klausenberger Rebbe related that once he was languishing in a Nazi slave labor camp, and he was approached by a professor who asked him derisively, “So what do you have to say about the lot of the Jews now?”

He responded, “It will be good. I am not a prophet, rather my conviction is based on historic fact. How many nations have resolved to annihilate the Jewish people. Consider how many millions of Jews have already perished in sanctification of God‘s name at the hands of mighty empires and nationalities. Empires and nationalities, of which there remains no living trace today. The Jewish people continue to exist, their many persecutions and travails notwithstanding. There are today sizable families who trace their ancestry to a particular grandfather, who had perished some generations earlier in sanctification of God’s name, even as his executioners, and their commanders have fallen into total oblivion. Although I cannot tell you what will happen to me personally, I am nevertheless certain that the Jewish people as a whole, will survive, and will witness the downfall of their adversaries. I can guarantee this based on thousands of years of Jewish history, persisting to this very day.” Lowering his head, the professor conceded the point to the Rebbe. 

The first word of the stanza, “vehi” “it is this” signifies something very important about our survival abilities throughout the galut. The Abarbanel views the word vehi as a numerical acronym for the secret of Jewish survival. The Vav refers to the six orders of the Mishnah, the foundation of the Torah She Ba’al Peh. The Hey refers to the Five Books of Moses, Torah SheBichtav. The Yud is the Aseret Hadibrot which contains within it all the mitzvot of the Torah. Finally the Aleph refers to the ultimate One, God, that gave them to us. That is what stands before us, and permits us to keep enduring the long galut, our loyalty to the Torah, Hashem and His mitzvot. 

The ability to raise our cups while reciting this passage may be because we have a greater vision than the galut we are currently in right now. We raise our cups to the future and the ultimate salvation that will arrive when Mashiach reveals himself and ends the end of every galut we have ever been through. 

May we see the final redemption come to fruition very soon and end the galut speedily in our days.