The Eye of the Hadassim – A World Redeemed
“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your Lord reigns!” Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy. When God returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes.
Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for God has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem.
God will lay bare His holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our Lord (Isaiah 52:7-10).”
We regularly confront three types of exile (See “Exiled To The Succah-I-Restoring God’s Glory): Physical exile, exile of the Shechinah – Divine Presence, and exile of the soul. In theses verses, Isaiah describes how following redemption from physical exile, “who proclaim peace,” the soul is redeemed as in, “who bring good tidings,” and then, “who say to Zion, ‘Your Lord reigns!’ the end of the exile of the Shechinah (Tzafnat Pa’anei’ach, Page 17).
In a world redeemed, “God will lay bare His holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our Lord.”
The leaves of the Hadassim represent the eyes that can see a world redeemed. We pray, with each movement of the Four Species in all directions, to see this vision of a world redeemed wherever we look.