"The cloud represented the shepherd's crook, as it were, by means of which God, the Shepherd of Israel, made his will known to the people He was leading: where and when they were to pitch camp, and when and in what direction they were to journey forth. And we are told here that the will and purpose of His guidance seemed unpredictable indeed to those who were to be led by it. There were times when they had to stay in one place for a long period; at other times, they were allowed to remain at rest for a few days only.... Such was the training school of our wanderings through the wilderness in which we should have learned for all time to follow God's guidance with devotion and trust, no matter how incomprehensible it may seem so us, whether He command us to leave a place just when we have become attached to it, or to remain in a position we find most untoward.... However, on closer consideration of the narrative in Verses 17-22, describing the exercise with which God sought to train the people whom He seeks to guide for all time, it would see that the primary function of these exercises was not so much to subject the people to the stresses of prolonged wanderings as it was to teach them patience and endurance over long periods of rest.... It is clear then, that particular stress is placed on Israel's endurance and patience. This is all the more understandable if one considers the inhospitability of the wilderness, and particularly the fact that the people were fully aware that the wilderness did not represent the end of their wanderings. They knew that their destination lay not in the wilderness but elsewhere. Therefore every stop they made in the wilderness, particularly the stop preceding the fateful decree that ordained for them forty years of wandering, served only to keep them away from what they knew to be their final destination. Herein lay the exercise in that virtue of quite, serene resignation and trusting patience, which the nation guided by God was to need more than all else in its galuth wanderings through what the prophet calls "the wilderness of the nations," though so many centuries in the future ,and concerning the purpose which the prophet says so significantly "although it tarry, wait for it" (Habbakuk 2:3).
Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch, Bamidbar 19: 16-23.
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In other words, don't force the end of exile. In the midbar Hashem moved us from place to place. Sometimes, we'd set up the mishkan only to be told to move it the day we erected it. The lesson is patience and obedience to Hashem's will. So too will Moshiach come, will redemption come, when Hashem decrees as we sit patiently, working on our mitzvos but not pushing the redemption. Our actions and thoughts should be directed towards improving our deeds. Zionism does the opposite. It neglects our deeds on focuses on politics. Slamming the USA with more political pressure that, according to President Truman, he had ever witnessed in his life, threatening Liberia with economic problems, threatening Indian leaders with assassination all of which was done by Zionists in 1947, as well as committing terrorism on the British rulers of the land is not sitting patiently, waiting for the redemption and working instead on our deeds. I saw in Tel Aviv recently a plaque that boasted of a bank robbery committed by Zionist militia to get money to fund their activities. I don't have a smart phone so I couldn't take a picture. This plaque glamorized theft. Remember, thou shall not steal? The Zionists did the opposite of keeping the mitzvos and waiting for redemption. They dumped the mitzvos and staged a false redemption.
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