An Exile Like No Other

TO describe the times that we are living in now as “devastatingly painful and overwhelmingly frightening” would not fully capture their true essence. However, we who are maaminim bnei maaminim understand in the very core of our neshamos that this is not just about defeating a group of barbaric monsters in human form, but the final chapter in an epic battle thousands of years old.

Midrash Rabbah explains why Noach’s name is mentioned three times in the first pasuk in parshas Noach, when one reference would be sufficient: It is because Noach actually lived in three distinct worlds. There was Noach before the Mabul, Noach during the Mabul, and Noach after the Mabul. Each was a different existence.

When Rav Simcha Wasserman ztz”l spoke to American audiences after the Holocaust, he referenced this midrash, saying, “I feel like Noach, too. I was one Simcha before the war, another Simcha during the war, and now I am Simcha after the war.”

All of us can relate to that experience. We lived in the world before October 7, we’re now living in the world of the subsequent war that is raging on, and hopefully we will soon live in a more secure and consistent world after all this ends.