The Solution

Just as G-d fulfilled all the curses when we abandoned the Torah, He will fulfill all the blessings if we return to it. The course recalls the negative prophecies fulfilled: the Romans with their eagles, from afar, incomprehensible language; the return to Egypt by ship; the people eternal despite the exile; the people few in number; dispersion into every country; irrational antisemitism.

Rav Ziegler makes a statement that, according to the course, runs against the prevailing pessimism: “Never has the people of Israel been so well off as today. We are very close to the end. VERY close to the end.”

One should not think the situation is very bad, despite appearances: there is enormous merit in the people of Israel. We survived 2000 years of exile, we returned to our land, the State of Israel exists despite all the enemies. The Creator has seen the will of the Jews, their devotion, their sacrifice.

According to the Rav, the problem is not the people but its leadership: “I know that Israelis are at a very high level. I am with Israelis every day, in Tel Aviv, in Haifa, everywhere. I know they are very upright, very good, devoted. The misfortune: this leadership does not represent Israelis. […] The people has enormous merit in Israel and the leadership does not represent it.”

Reminder from the course: the covenant was made on the leadership of the people of Israel, not on each individual. If all Jews are religious but the leadership is not according to the Torah, it is not enough; if not all are, but the leadership is according to the Torah, there is blessing, because the non-Jews look at the government of Israel, which represents the whole people in the eyes of the world and of G-d.

The Rav sets out the dilemma: a non-Jew looking at Israel today sees, in his view, that the people has abandoned the Torah, has taken Western democracy instead, and that only a few “religious” (considered marginal) still follow the Torah.

If He blessed Israel even though the leadership abandoned the Torah, He would be telling the whole world that democracy is better than His Torah. He cannot: His honor and the credibility of His covenant are at stake.

According to the Rav, the leadership of Israel must be changed so that it conforms to the Torah. It is not necessary for all Jews to become religious overnight, but a leadership is needed that represents the Torah, not a Western democracy replacing divine laws. The day it changes, “everything will be turned upside down,” because G-d has committed.

The Rav uses a bold expression: “We can oblige the Creator to give blessings. How did He give us curses? We can oblige Him to give blessings. I can oblige Him if He is committed. Because if He does not fulfill these blessings, I am not obliged to fulfill the Torah. We made a covenant.”

According to the course, this is not arrogance but the understanding of a bilateral contract: if we keep our part, G-d must keep His.

When a Jew performs the mitzvot, he obliges the non-Jews to behave in a certain way toward Israel; when he does not do what he should, he obliges them to behave differently, to persecute us. The power of all the peoples depends on the Jew. According to the course, this is not an abstract theory: it is what the thousands of fulfilled prophecies demonstrate.

Never despair: the Creator has committed, the people of Israel will always be eternal, it cannot be destroyed. It is the people that holds the solution, that will solve all of humanity's problems. The end of days passes through the land of Israel; the Mashiach will come from the land of Israel.

“We must strengthen ourselves in belief: we have a contract with the Creator. G-d fulfills His commitments. That is belief: that all of history depends on the commitment. We believe in G-d, we trust Him. What He said, He carries out.”

The course has seen: what belief truly is (trust that commitments are kept); the covenant of Mount Sinai (a real, bilateral legal contract); the criteria of a true prophecy; Babylon; the exile; the solution (changing the leadership to return to the covenant). Every fulfilled prophecy is further proof that the Creator rules history. The covenant works both ways.