Shemoneh Esrei 31: Achdus – Always

תקע בשופר גדול לחרותנו, ושא נס לקבץ גלויותנו, וקבצנו יחד מארבע כנפות הארץ

Sound the great shofar for our freedom, raise the banner to gather our exiles and gather us together from the four corners of the earth.

In this brachah, we ask Hashem to blow the “shofar gadol” (the larger horn of the ram used in the Akeidah) that will be blown at the time of the ingathering of the exiles of klal Yisrael.  At that time, Hashem will gather all of klal Yisrael from around the globe back to our homeland, Eretz Yisrael.  Even the “נדחים–nidachim” (“nidchei amo Yisrael”), the lost estranged Jews in the farthest corners of the globe, those who aren’t even aware of their heritage and those who are steeped in the illusions of material and physical pleasures in this world, blinding them to the truth of the immense and far greater pleasures of the eternal world, will return when Hashem raises the banner (“שא נס–sa neis”) by displaying unmistakable miraculous events (neis).

We ask Hashem to gather us “יחד–yachad,” together.  HaRav Avigdor Miller zt”l (quoted by HaRav Chaim Feuer) teaches us that it is insufficient if we are gathered physically but are still separated by discord over differences in our ideologies and spiritual matters.  We ask Hashem to help us overcome these differences so that we can rebuild a unified Jewish nation.  While our methods of serving Hashem within the Torah framework differ, our final goal is one and the same.  We will one day stand in a circle, each tzadik serving Hashem in his unique way, as guided by Hashem, and all will point to the center and proclaim (Yeshaya 25:9):

ואמר ביום ההוא, הנה אלקינו זה, קוינו לו ויושיענו, זה ה' קוינו לו, נגילה ונשמחה בישועתו

He shall say on that day, “Behold! – this is our G-d, we hoped to Him and He saved us; this is Hashem to whom we hoped, let us exult and be glad in his salvation.”