וְלָקַחְתִּ֨י אֶתְכֶ֥ם לִי֙ לְעָ֔ם וְהָיִ֥יתִי לָכֶ֖ם לֵֽאלֹהִ֑ים וִֽידַעְתֶּ֗ם כִּ֣י אֲנִ֤י יְהוָה֙ אֱלֹ֣הֵיכֶ֔ם הַמּוֹצִ֣יא אֶתְכֶ֔ם מִתַּ֖חַת סִבְל֥וֹת מִצְרָֽיִם׃
Aku akan mengambil kamu menjadi umat-Ku, dan Aku akan menjadi Allahmu; dan kamu akan mengetahui bahwa Akulah Yang Mahakekal, Allahmu, yang membawa kamu keluar dari bawah beban kerja paksa orang Mesir.
Kol Dodi Dofek
When we delve into our historical existence we come to an important realization regarding our Weltanschauung. The Torah relates that the Holy One concluded two Covenants with Israel. One Covenant was made in Egypt. “And I shall take you unto Me for a people, and I will be to you a God” (Exodus 6:7). The second Covenant was at Mount Sinai. “And he [Moses] took the book of the covenant … and he said: ‘Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord made with you in agreement with all these words’” (Exodus 24:7-8). (The third Covenant, in the Book of Deuteronomy (28:69), is identical in content and purpose to the Covenant of Sinai.)9 What is the essence of these two Covenants? It appears to me that this question was already answered at the beginning of our essay. Just as Judaism distinguished fate from destiny in the realm of personal individuality, so it also differentiated between these two concepts in the sphere of our national-historical existence. The individual is tethered to his nation with bonds of fate and chains of destiny. In accordance with this postulate, one can say that the Covenant of Egypt was a Covenant of Fate, and the Covenant of Sinai was one of destiny.
Kol Dodi Dofek
While the Covenant of Egypt was concluded without the consent of the people of Israel (the Holy One took them unto Him before He consulted with them: “And I will take you unto Me as a people” (Exodus 6:7), the Covenant of Sinai was offered to them before it was promulgated. The Holy One sent Moses to tell them His message, and Moses returned to the Holy One with the people’s answer. The halakhah perceives the Covenant of Sinai as a contract which is valid if written with the consent of the obligated party, in this case, the community of Israel. The proclamation that “We shall do and we shall hear” (Exodus 24:7) is the foundation of the Torah.15
Kol Dodi Dofek
These mistakes are outgrowths of the primary error made by secular Zionism when it wished to erase both the feeling of isolation and also the phenomenon of shared suffering from our history books. The beckoning of the Beloved must open the eyes of all of us, even the most confirmed secularists. The State of Israel was not and will not be able to abrogate the covenant of, “And I will take you unto Me as a people”(Exodus 6:7) and put an end to shared fate, the source of Jewish aloneness. The State of Israel is as isolated today as the community of Israel has been during the thousands of years of its existence. And perhaps the isolation of the State is more pronounced than in the past because it is so clearly revealed in the international arena.