The Voice of My Beloved Leaping Over the Reckonings of Redemption

"The voice of my beloved! Here he comes, leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills" (Song of Songs 2:8). Rabbi Judah, Rabbi Nehemiah, and the rabbis interpreted this. Rabbi Judah said: "The voice of my beloved, here he comes" - this is Moses. When Moses came and said to Israel, "In this month you are to be redeemed," they said to him, "Our teacher Moses, how can we be redeemed? Did not the Holy One, blessed be He, say to our father Abraham, 'and they shall enslave them and oppress them four hundred years' (Genesis 15:13), and we hold only two hundred and ten?" He said to them: since He desires your redemption, He does not look at your reckonings; rather, "leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills" (Song of Songs ibid.) - leaping over the appointed end-times, the reckonings, and the intercalations, and in this month you are to be redeemed, "This month shall be for you the beginning of months" (Exodus 12:2). Rabbi Nehemiah said: "The voice of my beloved, here he comes" - this is Moses. When he came and said to Israel, "In this month you are to be redeemed," they said to him, "Our teacher Moses, how can we be redeemed when the land of Egypt is full of the filth of our idolatry?" He said to them: since He desires your redemption, He does not look at your idolatry; rather, "leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills." And "mountains" means nothing other than houses of idolatry, as it says, "They sacrifice on the mountaintops and burn offerings on the hills" (Hosea 4:13). And the rabbis said: "The voice of my beloved, here he comes" - this is Moses. When he came and said to Israel, "In this month you are to be redeemed," they said to him, "Our teacher Moses, how can we be redeemed when we have no good deeds in our hands?" He said to them: since He desires your redemption, He does not look at your evil deeds. And at whom does He look? At the righteous among you, such as Amram and his court. And "mountains and hills" mean nothing other than courts of law, as it says, "Let me go and go down upon the mountains" (Judges 11:37). Rabbi Yudan said: servitude and being strangers in a land not theirs, "and they shall enslave them and oppress them four hundred years" (Genesis 15:13), even in their hospital. Rabbi Yudan in the name of Rabbi Eliezer son of Rabbi Yose the Galilean, and Rabbi Huna in the name of Rabbi Eliezer ben Yaakov: "The voice of my beloved, here he comes" - this is the King Messiah. When he comes and says to Israel, "In this month you are to be redeemed," they will say to him, "Our teacher, King Messiah, how can we be redeemed? Did not the Holy One, blessed be He, say that He would subject us to seventy nations?" And he answers them with two answers and says to them: if even one of you were exiled to Barbaria and one of you to Sarmatia, it would be as though you were all exiled. And more than that, this wicked kingdom drafts conscripts from every single nation; let one Cuthean come and subjugate, it is as though he subjugated his whole nation; let one Ethiopian come and subjugate, it is as though he subjugated his whole nation. And in this month you are to be redeemed, "This month shall be for you the beginning of months" (Exodus 12:2).