No Yid Left Behind
No Yid Left Behind
This can be understood in light of the words of Dovid HaMelech (Tehillim 18:27(כי אתה עם עני תושיע – "For You save an impoverished people."
Imagine a king who announces that on a certain day, he will provide for all the poor throughout his kingdom, supplying each of them with everything they need. Word spreads, and on that appointed day, the poverty-stricken from every corner of the kingdom make their way to the gates of the palace. They are filled with joy. At long last, their poverty will come to an end.
Yet among them is one poor man who does not share their joy. On the contrary, he stands at a distance, broken and weeping.
When they ask him why, he answers, “I am exceedingly poor. My poverty is so great that I cannot even afford the journey to the king's gates. And I am so weakened by my destitution that I no longer have the strength even to walk there. I will not make it to the Palace."
The nimshal is abundantly clear. Even if we were to know with absolute certainty that today is the day of the Geulah, we would still have reason to cry out and plead הושענא למענך גואלנו. For the question is not only when Geulah will come, but who will be there to greet it? Who among Klal Yisrael will merit redemption?
Only one out of every five Yidden left Mitzrayim (Rashi, Shemos 13:18). And Chazal similarly teach (Sanhedrin 111a) regarding the future Geulah that of every six hundred thousand, only two will remain to greet Moshiach.
It is for this reason that Dovid HaMelech praised Hashem with the words כי אתה עם עני תושיע. Even if we are like that poor man, so impoverished and so weakened that we cannot make our own way to the gates of salvation, even if our sins and shortcomings have left us without the strength or merit to enter on our own, Hashem Himself will save us. He will take us by the hand and bring us within the gates of Geulah, including us among those who are redeemed.
Saved in Peace
Indeed, it is almost impossible to comprehend the anguish of enduring years of darkness, of waiting and yearning and davening for redemption only to arrive at the moment of Geulah and discover that we will not be among those who experience it. To have borne the pain of galus for generations, only to find that the Geulah has arrived without us, that its light will be witnessed by only "one from a city and two from a family."
Yet there is a comfort in knowing that this is only if the Geulah comes through chevlei Moshiach, through the birth pangs and suffering that precede redemption.
There is, however, another possibility.
The Geulah can come in fulfillment of the promise (Yeshayah 30:15(בשובה ונחת תושעון – "In tranquility and rest shall you be saved." As Yirmiyahu )31:8( prophesied, "I will gather them from the ends of the earth; among them will be the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor; in a vast throng they shall return.”
And if Geulah will be of this nature, then all of Klal Yisrael will be included. Not one Yid will be left behind. Not one family forgotten in galus.
This is why we repeat our plea, saying again and again,הושענא למענך גואלנו .הושענא
First, we simply ask and daven for the Geulah Sheleimah to come, for the light of Moshiach to arrive and dispel the darkness.
But we do not stop there.
We cry out again, הושענא—Save us, Ribbono Shel Olam. Do not let the Geulah be a redemption in which only a few are saved. Let it be a yeshuah for all of Klal Yisrael. Let every Yid be included. Let every family be reunited. Let every child and every parent, every broken heart and every weary soul, merit to stand together beneath the light of the Geulah.
Let us not merely hear that the Geulah has come. Let us see it. Let us live it. Let us and our children be there to greet it. Let us be among those whom You gather from the farthest reaches of the earth to walk through the gates of the Geulah Sheleimah.
הושענא למענך גואלנו הושענא—For Your sake, our Redeemer, save us. All of us. Leave not one Yid behind.
