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bspear and a shield; but I come to thee in the name of the L-rd bof Hosts, the G-d of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast humil- biated. b“This day will the L-rd deliver thee into my hand, and I bwill smite thee and take thy head from thee . . . that all the earth bmay know that there is a G-d in Israel.” bAnd David slew him and took his head from him and the bearth—and the Jews—knew that there was a G-d in Israel. bWhat is wrong with us? Who blinded us and blocked from bour memories the existence and power of the G-d of Israel? Did ba Jewish people exist for 2,000 years without state, government, bor army, wandering the earth interminably from land to land, bsuffering pogroms and Holocaust and surviving powerful em- bpires that disappeared into history, just by coincidence? Did a bJewish people return to its land from the far corners of the earth bto set up its own sovereign state—exactly as promised in the bBible—through mere natural means? What other nation ever bdid such a thing? Where are the Philistines of Goliath today? bWhere is imperial Rome with its Latin and its gods? Who de- bfeats armies in six days, and on the seventh they rest? bWho if not an Israel because there is a G-d in it! The Land bof Israel is His divine Land, the State of Israel is His divine bhand. History is not a series of random events, disjointed and bcoincidental. There is a Creator, a Guide, a Hand that plans band directs. There is a scenario to history. The Jew has come bhome for the third and last time. “But the third shall be left btherein” (Zechariah 13:8). “The first redemption was that from bEgypt; the second, the redemption of Ezra. The third will never bend” (Tanhuma, Shoftim 9). bWe live in the era of the footsteps of the Messiah, the begin- bning of the final redemption. The rise of the State of Israel from bthe ashes of Auschwitz marks the end of the night of black hu- bmiliation and agony, of Hillul Hashem, and the beginning of the bdawn of the final, total redemption, of Kiddush Hashem, sanc- btification of G-d’s name. bThe State of Israel is not just one more Asian nation. It is bG-d’s Land, raised high—at last!—to put an end to the humil- biation of His name. “Therefore say unto the House of bIsrael . . . I do this, not for your sake, O House of Israel, but brather for My holy name which you desecrated through the na- b
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