I would like to share a beautiful Midrash with words that are inspiring:
The pasuk tells us,
“As the Egyptians tortured and pained the Jewish people, so they became more, and so they became powerful.”
The Midrash says that normally a person who is being subjugated gets weaker, and his children diminish. But here it was the opposite
God said, “I told Avraham that I would make his children like stars, And you Egyptians think that you are going to outsmart Me?Let’s see whose word stands. Mine or yours?”
Gos is telling them, Let’s see who prevails..
And sure enough,
“I said that they would be like the stars in the heavens. You think that you are going to limit My people?”
The Midrash Tanhuma on Parashat Toldot says,
The Jewish people tell God, “Master of the universe, look at how the goyim subjugate us. They have nothing else to do but sit and plot against us.”
To which God says, “All of their gezerot/decrees will not do a thing.
They will make decrees against you, and I will undo them.”
This does not only apply to Mitzrayim. This Midrash is describing a general discussion between God and the Jewish people. The Jewish people said, “They have nothing else to do but make decrees against us?” We have seen this throughout history. No Brit Milah, no shechita, no praying in shuls, no teaching children in schools etc. There are all kinds of decrees, in all shapes, colors, and sizes, that have been decreed against the Jewish people over the past thousand years. We are disturbed by this. We wonder why they have nothing else to do… all they have to do is sit and plot against us?
That is the whole reason for being of the United Nations. They have nothing else to do but make resolutions and hold votes against the Jewish people? Is there nothing more important going on in the world? Why do they have to pick on a little country like Israel, when there are dictators and inhumane conditions all over the world?
When you read this Midrash, you get Hizuk. This has been going on for literally thousands of years.
And it’s always the same answer. Hashem says, “Don’t worry, they make gezerot but I’m going to undo them.”
God says, Let’s go back to the first decree on the Jewish people when Paroah commanded that all the Jewish baby boys be thrown into the river. The Midrash says, “the Holy Spirit screams out ( Eicha 3/37),
מי זה אמר ותהי א-דני לא צוה
Whose decree will come about if Hashem did not command it?
Can anybody make anything happen unless God commanded it?
“Paroah commanded, but God did not command.”
Therefore, even as the Mitzrim persecuted them, so too they multiplied and got stronger.
The story of Galut Mitzrayim is a lesson for us, throughout the generations: Do not fear. Nobody can make a decree against us, unless God Himself decided that it should be.
Of course, there are decrees against us which are due to our sins, and they will come true because God decided so.
But we can’t look at it as though it’s the goyim making these decrees. Whether it was the Greeks or Haman- it wasn’t them, it was God making these decrees. And we know that the answer is Teshuva.
If it was actually the goyim who made the decree, we would have to see how we could fight back- whether through politics or other means of hishtadlut.
But that isn’t the source of the gezerah. God is the source of the gezerah, and therefore, we have to deal with God.
The goyim can’t do anything. Do not be afraid of them. Paroah tried it, and many others have tried it since, but the rule always stays the same: As they pain us, we become stronger and greater.
Have a Shabbat Shalom