Erev Rav - 008 Erev Rav Today

In Shemoneh Esrei we ask Hashem, “And gather our dispersed, and rescue us from our land.”

Many of the Jewish people have already returned to the Land of Israel. We have not merited the full redemption yet, but there are still many Jews who have returned to Israel, who were previously dispersed among the other nations.  

In everything in the world, there is a mixture of good and evil. We must see the good – and evil – in everything. If something is evil, it must have good in it, and if something is good, we must see how some evil is also contained in it. Nothing is totally good or totally evil. Everything is a mix.

For example, even in learning Torah, which is the ultimate good, there is always some evil involved, because a person always learns with a little bit of shelo lishmah (ulterior motivations, not for the sake of Torah). So even good has some evil in it.

The fact that Jews have returned to the Land of Israel thus has in it good and evil as well. It is good that Jews have returned, but there is evil in it too: the Erev Rav (the “Mixed Multitude”, souls of non-Jews who left Egypt together with the Jewish people and have repeatedly been the source of bad influence throughout the generations), has returned with them.

The fact that Jews have returned to the Land of Israel is obviously a good thing. Is it a beginning of the redemption, or is it all work of the Satan? This is an issue that has long been the source of much debate. It definitely is a spark of the redemption, but with it has come much evil – the jurisdiction of the Erev Rav on us, who are in “the fiftieth gate of impurity.” The heads of the Erev Rav are ruling us.

There is so much good and evil going on here that it is incredible how mixed up everything has become. The fact that the Erev Rav is with us shows how deep our exile is – although we have begun a spark of the redemption, so much evil has come with it. It is a whole new depth to our exile we are in.

This present exile is the exile of the Erev Rav. There was the Egyptian exile, the Babylonian exile, the Persian exile, the Greek Exile, the Roman Exile, the Arab Exile and the Exile of the Erev Rav. The exile of the Erev Rav is very different from other exiles in that it is a great mix of good and evil. There was never an exile like this before! Yes, there is a spark of good contained here, because we are on the way to redemption. But this spark has been captured by evil – the Erev Rav.

Erev Rav has the same letters as the word areivus – which means “mixed.” They are mixed with us, and this causes all the problems. It can also mean “sweetness”. Their terrible desires have mixed with us and make us connected with them, causing us to think that it is they who have “sweetness.”

The Chofetz Chaim did say that the Jews returning to Israel is the beginning of the redemption. That was true then, but now, much evil is coming along with this.

Someone who doesn’t know the depth of our exile has no idea what is going on today.

We cannot mix with them without being affected by them. Their mixture with us causes areivus – evil sweetness. It makes people think that they have discovered “sweetness” in the evil desires of the Erev Rav. That is the depth of the “areivus.” They are not just “mixed” with us – they make us believe that what they have is “sweet.”

We are so mixed with them that we don’t even realize how mixed we are with them and how much they affect us. That is the depth of their evil. They are so mixed with us that they go unnoticed.

Frum Jews that want to deal with them are obviously so captured by this evil that they don’t even realize.

This is the depth of our exile – that the Erev Rav appears so “sweet” to us.

We ask Hashem to redeem us from exile, but we are really asking that He return us to the true way that the land of Israel is supposed to look. We must connect ourselves to the Creator in spite of the great doubts that the Erev Rav cause – evil souls who rebel against Hashem.

This is what we ask Hashem that He redeem us from exile.