(14) Hope in the LORD; be strong and of good courage! and hope in the LORD!
On a similar note, Rabbi Ḥama, son of Rabbi Ḥanina, said: A person who prayed and saw that he was not answered, should pray again, as it is stated: “Hope in the LORD; be strong and of good courage! and hope in the LORD!” (Psalms 27:14). [Meaning: One should turn to God with hope, and if necessary turn to God again with hope.]
Lo! this is as the bread of affliction, which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt; let all those who are hungry, enter, and eat thereof; and all who are necessitous, come, and celebrate the Passover. At the present time we are here, next year we will be in the land of Israel. at the present we are servants, next year we will be free.
רבי אמי כי מטי להאי קרא בכי (איכה ג, כט) יתן בעפר פיהו אולי יש תקוה אמר כולי האי ואולי רבי אמי כי מטי להאי קרא בכי (צפניה ב, ג) בקשו צדק בקשו ענוה אולי תסתרו ביום אף ה' אמר כולי האי ואולי רבי אסי כי מטי להאי קרא בכי (עמוס ה, טו) שנאו רע ואהבו טוב והציגו בשער משפט אולי יחנן ה' [אלהי] צבאות כולי האי ואולי
When Rabbi Ami reached this verse, he cried: “Let him put his mouth in the dust, perhaps there may be hope” (Lamentations 3:29). He said: A sinner suffers through all this punishment and only perhaps there may be hope? When Rabbi Ami reached this verse, he cried: “Seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you shall be hidden on the day of the Lord’s anger”(Zephaniah 2:3). He said: All of this is expected of each individual, and only perhaps God’s anger may be hidden? Likewise, when Rabbi Asi reached this verse, he cried: “Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish justice in the gate; perhaps the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious” (Amos 5:15). He said: All of this, and only perhaps?
ת"ר (דברים לב, לו) כי ידין ה' עמו [וגו'] כי יראה כי אזלת יד ואפס עצור ועזוב אין בן דוד בא ... עד שיתייאשו מן הגאולה שנאמר ואפס עצור ועזוב כביכול אין סומך ועוזר לישראל כי הא דר' זירא כי הוה משכח רבנן דמעסקי ביה אמר להו במטותא בעינא מנייכו לא תרחקוה דתנינא ג' באין בהיסח הדעת אלו הן משיח מציאה ועקרב
Our Masters taught: "For the Lord shall vindicate His people...when He sees that their power is gone and there is no one being ruled and no one being helped" (Deut. 32:36) Messiah, son of David, will not come...until they despair of redemption is given up, as is said, "there is no one being ruled and no one being helped" until, if one dare say such a thing, there is neither Supporter nor Helper for Israel. Whenever R. Zera found sages engaged [in calculating the time of the Messiah's coming], he would say to them: I beg of you, do not put it further off, for we have been taught that three come without warning: Messiah, something found, and a scorpion.
שהיה יעקב אבינו רואה אותו וסבור בו, שהוא מלך המשיח, כיון שראה אותו שמת, אמר: אף זה מת, לישועתך קויתי ה'. אמר רבי יצחק: הכל בקווי - יסורין, בקווי; קדושת השם, בקווי; זכות אבות, בקווי; תאותו של עוה"ב, בקווי.
For Yaakov saw [Shimshon] and understood him to be the Messiah. When he saw him die, he said "Even he dies?! I hope for Thy salvation, O Lord". Rabbi Yitzchak said everything through hope: [healing from] suffering, through hope; sanctity of God, through hope; merit of the forefathers, through hope; desire of the World to Come, through hope.
מאמרי ראי"ה - קודש וחול בתחית ישראל (מן עתון 'ההד', תרצ"א)
ביחס לתקוה המפעמת בלב כל יהודי מדור דור לישועה ולגאולה השתמשו חז"ל בביטוי 'צפיה'. שואלים לאדם 'צפית לישועה', ולא 'קוית'. צפיה היא מגזירת 'צפה'[1]. תפקיד הצופה להשתמש בכל מאורע שהוא להזהיר על תקלה ולעורר למפעל של ישועה. וכך עלינו להשתמש בכל המאורעות שבעולם, שעל ידם תוכל לבוא או לצמוח תשועה לישראל...
Regarding the hope for salvation and redemption that beats in every Jew's heart from generation to generation, our rabbis used the term צפיה. A person is asked "did you hearken (צפיה) for salvation?" and not "did you hope". צפיה comes from the word "scout". The role of the scout is to use every occurrence to warn against problems and to awaken the undertaking of salvation. So it is upon us to make use of every occurrence in the world, for through them salvation for Israel can arrive or spring up.
In what way is hope related to action?
How does hope inform and affect how you act in this political moment?
“Hope locates itself in the premises that we don’t know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act. When you recognize uncertainty, you recognize that you may be able to influence the outcomes–you alone or you in concert with a few dozen or several million others. Hope is an embrace of the unknown and knowable, a alternative to the certainty of both optimists and pessimists. Optimists think it will all be fine without our involvement; pessimists take the opposite position; both excuse themselves from acting. It’s the belief that what we do matters even though how and when it may matter, who and what is may impact, are not things we can know beforehand...Or perhaps studying the record more carefully leads us to expect miracles - not when and where we expect them, but to expect to be astonished, to expect that we don't know. And this is grounds to act.
― Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark
From where does Solnit draw hope? Why?
In what way could uncertainty be a source of hope for you?
What might it look like for us to be open to being surprised in this political moment?
The Dignity of Difference p. 206
Rabbi Sacks
“One of the most important distinctions I have learned in the course of reflection on Jewish history is the difference between optimism and hope. Optimism is the belief that things will get better. Hope is the belief that, together, we can make things better. Optimism is a passive virtue, hope an active one. It takes no courage to be an optimist, but it takes a great deal of courage to have hope. Knowing what we do of our past, no Jew can be an optimist. But Jews have never – despite a history of sometimes awesome suffering – given up hope”
Rabbi Sacks
Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld
I have come to believe that the most important verse in the entire megillah—the verse that represents the pivotal turning point in the Purim story—comes near the end of chapter four, when Mordechai sends a message to Esther, urging her to reveal her identity to King Achashverosh and plead on behalf of the Jewish people.
(1) ותקח מרים הנביאה AND MIRIAM THE PROPHETESS TOOK — But where had she prophesied? When she was THE SISTER OF AARON alone — before Moses was born she said, “My mother will at some time bear a son who will deliver Israel etc.”, as is stated in Treatise Sotah 12b (cf. Megillah 14a). Another explanation of אחות אהרן, the sister of Aaron: because he jeopardised his life for her by entreating on her behalf and so possibly incurring God’s displeasure when she was stricken with leprosy, she is called by his name (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 15:20:1; cf. Rashi Genesis 34:25). (2) את התף A TIMBREL — an instrument for a particular kind of music. (3) בתפים ובמחלת WITH TIMBRELS AND WITH DANCES — The righteous women in that generation were confident that God would perform miracles for them and they accordingly had brought timbrels with them from Egypt (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 15:20:2).
R. Johanan said: When you see a generation ever dwindling, hope for him [the Messiah], as it is written, "And the afflicted people thou wilt save." [IISamuel 22:28] R. Johanan said: When thou seest a generation overwhelmed by many troubles as by a river, await him, as it is written, "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him;" which is followed by, "And the Redeemer shall come to Zion."
Future Tense – How The Jews Invented Hope
Rabbi Sacks
...Human beings are the only life form capable of using the future tense. Only beings who can imagine the world other than it is, are capable of freedom. And if we are free, the future is open, dependent on us. We can know the beginning of our story but not the end. That is why, as He is about to take the Israelites from slavery to freedom, God tells Moses that His name is ‘I will be what I will be.’ Judaism, the religion of freedom, is faith in the future tense.
Western civilization is the product of two cultures: ancient Greece and ancient Israel. The Greeks believed in fate: the future is determined by the past. Jews believed in freedom: there is no ‘evil decree’ that cannot be averted. The Greeks gave the world the concept of tragedy. Jews gave it the idea of hope. The whole of Judaism – though it would take a book to show it – is a set of laws and narratives designed to create in people, families, communities and a nation, habits that defeat despair. Judaism is the voice of hope in the conversation of mankind.
It is no accident that so many Jews are economists fighting poverty, or doctors fighting disease, or lawyers fighting injustice, in all cases refusing to see these things as inevitable...
Judaism is a religion of details, but we miss the point if we do not sometimes step back and see the larger picture. To be a Jew is to be an agent of hope in a world serially threatened by despair. Every ritual, every mitzvah, every syllable of the Jewish story, every element of Jewish law, is a protest against escapism, resignation or the blind acceptance of fate. Judaism is a sustained struggle, the greatest ever known, against the world that is, in the name of the world that could be, should be, but is not yet. There is no more challenging vocation. Throughout history, when human beings have sought hope they have found it in the Jewish story. Judaism is the religion, and Israel the home, of hope.
כִּי֩ אָנֹכִ֨י יָדַ֜עְתִּי אֶת־הַמַּחֲשָׁבֹ֗ת אֲשֶׁ֧ר אָנֹכִ֛י חֹשֵׁ֥ב עֲלֵיכֶ֖ם נְאֻם־ה' מַחְשְׁב֤וֹת שָׁלוֹם֙ וְלֹ֣א לְרָעָ֔ה לָתֵ֥ת לָכֶ֖ם אַחֲרִ֥ית וְתִקְוָֽה׃
