„(Shemonah Kevatzim, Collection VIII, 200)”

"Ephraim shall assimilate among the peoples." In the course of the life of the people of Israel there were spiritual and physical downfalls; one of the downfalls is the fall and assimilation of the tribe of Ephraim. After the destruction of the Kingdom of Samaria in 722 BCE, the remnants of the tribe of Ephraim remained in the hill country of Ephraim (also called the hill country of Samaria). They assimilated among the foreign inhabitants whom the kings of Assyria transferred to the region, and from them grew the Samaritans, the Kutim.

Rav Kook says that even this deed was ultimately of benefit; the downfall of the tribe of Ephraim among the nations raises the nations to higher places. The Jews who assimilated will return to their people, and the nations among whom the Jews assimilated will be at a higher level for the generation of the end of days. Later in the passage (you are invited to look) the Rav explains that the mixing of blood and families, even though of course it is forbidden and disqualified from the outset (the Rav calls it a dulling of the heart and an impoverishment of deeds), this mixing brings about an elevation of the world's readiness for redemption.

I bring this passage in a week in which, in our Holy Land, there are quite a few places that celebrate a new Christian year. There is no doubt that the blessed immigration of the past twenty-five years, and the transformation of the entire world into a small global village, brought with it to our land, alongside many good things, also corruptions that were not once customary here, and certainly not on such a scale.

New Year's Eve and the Christian year must not be celebrated, but even if there are those who do so, let us find merit in them, that this is part of the divine plan for our complete redemption.

Have a good evening.

For the recovery of Nirit bat Miriam.