In Shemot 6:1, the Kli Yakar offers a comforting observation for hard times:
For it is one of the known phenomena that this is the quality that exists within each day close to sunrise:
The darkness is at its darkest, even more than the darkness of night.
And after that, the light of morning breaks through and increases.
And so it is with the majority of ill people: Close to their death, they grow strong and sit up on the bed and ask to eat—and after that, death overwhelms them.
And so with the days of winter: Close to the rising of the Sun, the cold increases and overwhelms—until finally, it is conquered by the Sun.
And this is a natural phenomenon.
Because in the natural world, every thing that senses when something opposite it is coming against it—something which desires to abolish its existence—so it fortifies itself to its utmost against that which comes against it and resists submitting before it.
And according to its nature, it draws upon every resource it possesses to action.
Yet in the end, it is conquered because its opposing force overwhelmed it.
So it is with all the things that we mentioned.
Likewise, so it was with what Paroh was evil toward Yisrael now even more than he was in the past: This is a sharp sign that his end is approaching, and that the time of Redemption is approaching to nullify all the functions of Paroh—therefore, he wants to strengthen his actions…therefore, he wants to rise up against them with a strong arm.
And this is a sign that My Salvation is near to come and My Righteousness to be revealed.
It’s like Rabbi Wallerstein’s parable of the flapping fish dying on the fishing dock.
Fish are never as active and wild as when they’re taking their last breaths. Rabbi Wallerstein said then that lots of craziness and sin is coming to the surface because all the bad is gasping its last breaths.
It’s true now that a lot of loonies and people expressing anti-Torah values regularly work themselves into a frenzy—and it’s only increasing.
Many of us keep saying, “It can’t get worse than this; it can’t get crazier than this”—and then it does exactly that: It gets worse and crazier.
And we’ve been repeating that pattern for years now.
I don’t know when the end of bad is going to come and the good revealed.
But it really does seem close because the insanity is overwhelming—it’s like the Plague of Frogs, with the slimy little varmints getting into every crook and cranny.
And yes, because it’s only natural for one force to fortify itself to the utmost and fight back with everything it’s got against a rising counterforce, things could get even crazier, chas v’shalom.
If we can all just HOLD ON AS BEST WE CAN, I really think we can make it.
B'ezrat Hashem.
Fish are never as active and wild as when they’re taking their last breaths. Rabbi Wallerstein said then that lots of craziness and sin is coming to the surface because all the bad is gasping its last breaths.
It’s true now that a lot of loonies and people expressing anti-Torah values regularly work themselves into a frenzy—and it’s only increasing.
Many of us keep saying, “It can’t get worse than this; it can’t get crazier than this”—and then it does exactly that: It gets worse and crazier.
And we’ve been repeating that pattern for years now.
I don’t know when the end of bad is going to come and the good revealed.
But it really does seem close because the insanity is overwhelming—it’s like the Plague of Frogs, with the slimy little varmints getting into every crook and cranny.
And yes, because it’s only natural for one force to fortify itself to the utmost and fight back with everything it’s got against a rising counterforce, things could get even crazier, chas v’shalom.
If we can all just HOLD ON AS BEST WE CAN, I really think we can make it.
B'ezrat Hashem.
The above is mostly my translation, with some help from Elihu Levine's incredible & highly recommended translation of the Kli Yakar, Shemos I. But any errors are still mine. Sigh...
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