"Geulah as Process, Not Event — Part II"

Abarbanel’s Anatomy of Delay: Why Redemption Makes Things Worse First

Introduction — The Shock of Failed Expectations

If Parshas Shemos were read naively, Moshe’s arrival should have eased suffering. He brings Divine words, promises redemption, and announces that Hashem has “remembered” His people.

Instead, everything deteriorates.

Labor intensifies. Straw is withheld. Whips multiply. And the people turn on Moshe:

“יֵרֶא ה׳ עֲלֵיכֶם וְיִשְׁפֹּט”
“May Hashem see you and judge.” (Shemos 5:21)

This is not a marginal reaction. It is the Torah’s central problem:
Why does redemption make things worse first?

Abarbanel insists that this worsening is not accidental, punitive, or a detour. It is structural.

Abarbanel’s Core Claim — Delay Is the Process

Abarbanel reads Shemos as a carefully staged historical drama. Redemption does not interrupt history; it passes through it, exposing its fault lines.

According to Abarbanel, three processes must occur before geulah can proceed:

1. The nature of oppression must be fully revealed
2. Human expectations of salvation must be stripped of illusion
3. Faith must mature beyond dependence on outcomes

Delay is not the absence of redemption.
It is the environment in which redemption becomes meaningful.

Why Pharaoh Must Harden First

Abarbanel notes that Pharaoh’s reaction to Moshe is not defensive—it is aggressive. The moment redemption is announced, Pharaoh escalates cruelty.

Why?

Because systems of oppression rely on ambiguity. They survive as long as suffering can be rationalized as policy, necessity, or order.

Moshe’s arrival clarifies the moral battlefield. Once redemption is named, oppression must either retreat or reveal itself openly.

Pharaoh chooses revelation.

This is why suffering intensifies: evil, when exposed, does not fade quietly. It hardens.

Faith That Depends on Speed Is Not Faith

Abarbanel delivers his most difficult insight here.

Faith that collapses under delay was never yet ready to redeem a people.

As long as belief depends on:

• Immediate improvement
• Visible progress
• Predictable timelines

It remains fragile and conditional.

True geulah requires emunah that survives disappointment.

This is why the people’s reaction matters. Their inability to bear delay reveals not failure—but unfinished formation.

Moshe’s Crisis Is Part of the Process

Moshe himself struggles:

“לָמָה הֲרֵעֹתָה לָעָם הַזֶּה”
“Why have You done evil to this people?” (Shemos 5:22)

Abarbanel stresses that Moshe’s question is not rebellion. It is prophetic honesty. Even leadership must be purified of naïve expectations.

Redemption does not proceed until even Moshe learns that:

• Presence does not guarantee comfort
• Mission does not guarantee success
• Faith does not guarantee relief on demand

Only after this reckoning does the Divine response deepen.

Delay as Moral Clarification

Abarbanel reframes delay as clarity through pressure.

When suffering worsens:

• Motivations are exposed
• Loyalties are tested
• Belief separates from fantasy

The Torah does not shield Israel from this stage because it is indispensable. A people redeemed without this refinement would reproduce Egypt internally, even after leaving it physically.

Application — Faith After Disillusionment

This teaching is uncomfortable — and necessary.

Many people believe until:

• Life worsens
• Prayers go unanswered
• Redemption delays

Abarbanel teaches that this is not the failure of faith.
It is the beginning of mature faith.

Belief that endures without guarantees becomes capable of freedom.

Closing — When Delay Becomes Preparation

Parshas Shemos does not promise that redemption will feel good while it forms.

It promises something more demanding:
that delay itself is part of the cure.

According to Abarbanel, redemption must first dismantle illusion, strip dependency on outcomes, and refine faith under pressure.

Only then can salvation arrive — not as a fragile miracle, but as a transformation that endures.

Geulah does not begin when suffering ends.
It begins when belief survives delay.

📖 Sources

• Full sources available on the Mitzvah Minute Parshas Shemos page under insights and commentaries.