Sniff away from the Promised Land

We stand poised at a unique moment in history. We are at the cusp of the final redemption of which the prophets of Israel spoke so voluminously. 

We are at the end point of more than a 2 000 year-long exile, and stand at the border of the Promised Land, about to usher in the Messianic age. There is a precedent to this process, albeit micro-cosmically, in the 40-year journey in the harsh desert followed by entering into the Promised Land. 

Let’s analyse this further. After leaving Egypt before entering the Promised Land, the Jewish people journeyed through 42 encampments. The last encampment before entering the land was “at the Jordan River near Jericho”. Jericho, in Hebrew, “Yericho”, comes from the word that means “scent”; “odour”; or “smell”. This is directly linked to Moshiach because it describes a unique quality he will possess using the term “smell” – that Moshiach’s sense of smell is so keen, he will be able to sniff out the soul and inner being of an individual. 

Let’s now go back to the first movement out of Egypt and the very first encampment that G-d took us to, named “Sukkot”. 

But to preface it, King Solomon established a principle that the beginning and the end are wedged together: “The beginning is wedged in the end.” 

Question: what’s the connection between the last encampment just preceding entry into Israel, Yericho, that hints at Moshiach, to the first encampment, Sukkot? 

As the Jewish people left the bondage of Egypt, they entered the place, Sukkot, which, of course, alludes to the Sukkah that we build and dwell in on the festival of Sukkot. 

The Sukkah is the entity that represents the unity of the Jewish people. The Talmud (Sukkah 27b) makes a remarkable claim regarding the Sukkah. Quoting the verse: “For seven days … all who belong to the people of Israel will live in sukkot,” (Lev. 23:42), they say, “This teaches that it is fitting for all of Israel to sit in one sukkah!” 

This statement is unparalleled in scripture. It declares that the Jewish people are fitting to be in one abode together, one home, one space. This is a most profound expression of the unity of a people. It’s a utopian concept, and one to be fully realised only in the era of Moshiach, when the oneness of the Jewish people is revealed. 

So perhaps the message is this: that the component most needed for us, the Jewish people, to weather the exile and succeed in the mission of getting to the “Promised Land” (Moshiach), is “Sukkot” – unity – to recognise our essential connection to one another, and to be keenly aware of the preciousness of each of our fellow Jews. 

It is this continued bond of brotherhood of the Jewish people that not only has brought us to the dawn of redemption, but is the catalyst finally to cross over into it. 

Thus, the beginning and end are wedged together.