Suffering in our generation, like in Egypt, is not a punishment but a preparation for redemption.
In the United States in 2024, there were approximately 3.1 million deaths and if you look at births in that same year, there were 3.6 million births. Just about even! (Final figures for the most recent year have not yet been published.)
In Israel in 2025 there were roughly 50,000 deaths and that includes the war and terror attacks. In contrast, there were about 182,000 births! More than triple!
When we want to understand the magnitude of the miracle taking place in Israel compared to the United States or other countries, these numbers speak for themselves.
Another important detail: Israel has a population of over 10 million people. About 75% of the population is Jewish, about 25% is Arab, with a small minority belonging to other groups. Interesting enough, the same pattern appears in births as well: roughly 75% of the babies born are Jewish, about 25% are Arab, and the rest from other groups.
This week we begin reading the Book of Shemot and the story of the Exodus from Egypt. As we say in the Passover Haggadah, “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt.” The Jewish people were enslaved for more than eighty years. The question arises: what gave them the strength to endure, to suffer, and to survive the overwhelming hardship of slavery? Especially at the most difficult stage, when Pharaoh decreed that the children be thrown into the Nile and similar atrocities.
How did they know this was not a punishment? Perhaps G-d was punishing them for improper behavior? What kept them from losing hope, from thinking that G-d had abandoned them? What sustained them for so long?
The first answer is the Covenant Between the Parts. Already Abraham our forefather, at the very beginning of his journey—before Isaac was even born—was told by G-d, in Parashat Lech Lecha: “Know with certainty that your descendants will be strangers in a land not their own; they will enslave them and oppress them for four hundred years.”
In other words, G-d informed him in advance that this would happen. The children of Israel who went down to Egypt knew this: Abraham passed it on to Isaac, Isaac taught Jacob, and it was transmitted from generation to generation. They knew it was part of a larger plan. They were expecting it to happen; they just didn’t know when. That is why they did not despair.
Divine success
But there is something more than this. Not long ago we read the story of Joseph in Egypt: how he was sold as a slave, then imprisoned. The same question arises there as well: what sustained Joseph? What gave him the strength to believe this was not a punishment, not proof that G-d was displeased with him—when trouble followed trouble?
One answer is found when Joseph was sold into slavery. The Torah tells us in Parashat Vayeshev: “His master saw that the L-rd was with him, and that whatever he did, the L-rd made successful in his hand… He appointed him over his household, and everything he owned he placed in his care… From the time he appointed him over his house… the L-rd blessed the Egyptian’s house because of Joseph, and the blessing of the L-rd was in everything he had, in the house and in the field.”
In other words, Joseph saw that wherever he went, and in whatever he did, he experienced success. It was as if everything he touched “turned to gold.” And even after he was sent to prison, the Torah again testifies: “The L-rd was with Joseph and extended kindness to him, and He gave him favor in the eyes of the warden of the prison… The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s charge, because the L-rd was with him, and whatever he did, the L-rd made successful.”
Joseph understood that if everywhere he was there was success beyond the natural order, it was a sign that he was not there as punishment, but for a greater purpose—a broader mission. Just as the entire exile in Egypt was part of a Divine plan, so too his personal suffering was not meaningless pain. There was something hidden here, a stage on the path that G-d wanted him to pass through so that, through it, he would reach his destiny.
And indeed, that is what happened: Joseph ultimately became viceroy of Egypt, ruler over the entire land.
Blessing for Children
Something similar occurred during the Egyptian exile. The Jews suffered terribly from slavery and later from the cruel decrees—such as throwing the children into the Nile and many other hardships they endured in Egypt. Yet alongside all the suffering, what sustained them was the great kindness that G-d showed them.
The more the suffering increased, the more the blessing increased. The great blessing of “The more they oppressed them, the more they multiplied and spread.” As Rashi explains: “In everything they sought to afflict them, the Holy One, blessed be He, sought to increase and expand them. The Divine Spirit says: you say ‘lest they increase,’ and I say ‘indeed, they will increase.’”
The blessing of children is one of the greatest blessings of all, and everyone understands this. We see it with Abraham and Sarah, who waited decades for a child. After so many prayers, hopes, and promises, they were granted one son—Isaac. Isaac and Rebecca also had to struggle in prayer, as it says: “Isaac prayed to the L-rd opposite his wife, for she was barren,” and Rashi adds: “He stood in one corner and prayed, and she stood in another corner and prayed.” In the end, they were blessed with twins—Jacob and Esau. The same story repeated itself with Rachel, who was unable to bear children and was barren, to the point that she said to Jacob: “Give me children, or else I am dead.”
Here we see something remarkable: specifically out of suffering—precisely where it seemed one should give up and despair—that is where the blessing came. “The more they oppressed them, the more they multiplied and spread.”
As the Rebbe explains on the verse “The children of Israel were fruitful, swarmed, increased, and grew exceedingly strong, and the land was filled with them,” this was a case of preparing the cure before the illness. In order for the Jewish people to have the strength to endure the exile and bondage, so that they would not, G-d forbid, be lost in exile—and on the contrary, that they would use the Egyptian exile as a preparation and prelude to the Giving of the Torah, as it says: “When you take the people out of Egypt, you will serve G-d on this mountain”—this was accomplished by G-d’s conduct toward them in Egypt being above nature: “They were fruitful and multiplied and grew exceedingly strong.”
And as we learn further, the tribes that suffered more were precisely the ones that multiplied more, while those who suffered less had fewer children. In the Book of Bamidbar, when the tribes are counted, we find that the tribe of Levi is the smallest. Nachmanides explains that this strengthens what our Sages said—that the tribe of Levi was not subjected to the full bondage and harsh labor of Egypt. While the Egyptians embittered the lives of Israel with hard labor in order to diminish them, G-d increased them in direct opposition to Egypt’s decree, as it says: “The more they oppressed them, the more they multiplied and spread.” But the tribe of Levi increased in the normal way of the world. Everything followed the principle of “the more they oppressed them.” Since they were not oppressed, they did not merit that blessing to the same degree. As the English saying goes: no pain, no gain.
Therefore, the Jewish people knew that even when they were suffering so greatly, it was not a punishment—on the contrary, it was a sign that something enormous was about to happen for them. They knew that the suffering was not the end of the road, but a preparation. It was the path to the Giving of the Torah.
In the language of the Torah, they had to pass through the iron furnace—to go through basic training—in order to be ready and worthy of receiving the Torah. All the hardship, all the affliction, was nothing more than preparation for the greatest moment in human history: the revelation at Mount Sinai and the giving of the Torah.
And this is true today as well. When we look at the number of Jewish children being born in the Land of Israel and compare it to the number of deaths, we see that this is an extraordinarily great blessing. It is a blessing that reveals itself specifically in a time of troubles—and perhaps because of those troubles. The Holy One, blessed be He, wants to show us that He loves us. And how does He show that love? By giving us the greatest blessing of all—the blessing of living, enduring children, zera chaya v’kayama.
This post is also available in: עברית