Are we really looking forward to the geulah?
I’ve been accused of not only looking forward to the geulah but of being obsessed by it. My columns and talks are replete with references to Moshiach and the Final Redemption.
Given the times we live in, I don’t see how one cannot be consumed with this belief. Gemara masechet Shabbat 31a tells us that when we arrive after 120 years and meet our Maker, He will ask us, ”tzipita l’yeshua? (did you look forward to the redemption?)”
When Israel and the Jewish people worldwide can see prophecy come to fruition — with the prominence and power exhibited by the small Jewish state and its influence and involvement in world affairs; when the hatred for Jews and their return to Zion has reached epic proportions; when we are still engaged in a brutal and bloody conflict that involves all the world‘s nations, including Persia (Iran), Edom (all the Western nations, including the US) and Yishmael (all the Arab and Muslim nations) in what bears an uncanny resemblance to that of the war of Gog u’Magog — how can we not desperately long for Moshiach’s arrival?
And yet we are wary, hesitant. We’ve been literally and figuratively burned before by the arrival of false messiahs (some from our own ranks, some from outside) who have seduced many of our coreligionists along with the rest of the world. Nevertheless, our tradition compels us to look forward to his arrival — to expect his arrival.
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How do we do that? Rabbi Shimon Schenker, in a 2019 YU Torah article, cites three approaches.
Maimonides, the Rambam cited the custom to recite daily the 13 Principles of Faith that he articulated, known colloquially as the “ani maamins.” The most famous of these is the “Ani maamin b’emunah shelaim b’viat ha’Mos (I believe with absolute faith in the coming of the Moshiach).”
According to the Rambam, the ultimate “rationalist,” this is not a metaphysical concept but a direct fulfillment of the act of “expecting the Moshiach” as described in the Gemara Shabbat 31a. Perhaps this is why in Israel, especially in the dati Leumi community, where so many have bravely fought and fallen, this declaration is sung to an emotional tune at the end of ceremonies of both tribute and tragedy, rivaling only the Hatikvah in meaning and importance on those occasions.
Rabbi Shimon Schwab, preeminent leader of the Breuer’s Kehilas Adas Yeshurun post-WWII community in Washington Heights, notes that the verse from Tehillim (10:16), “Avdu goyim mei’artzo (May the nations be removed from His land),” that we recite daily in Yehi Chavod, does not mean the nations will be physically removed or destroyed but rather that the whole concept of “other nations” (nations separate from Hashem) will be removed.
At the first Knesset Hagedolah in 1923, the legendary Chafetz Chaim, asked the assembled gedolim, “when we say every Shabbat morning the kedusha in Shacharit, “mimkomcha malkenu tofia (from Your place our King, You will appear) … “v’timloch alenu ki me’chakim anachnu lach (and reign over us, for we await You!),” are we really waiting?
The Chafetz Chaim said that we must show we are waiting, like a mother and father desperately yearning and waiting for their only child who they haven’t seen in a long time, and who is on the next incoming train. And even if their child isn’t on the train that passes by, they eagerly await, expecting him on the next train.
That’s what it means to expect, look forward to Moshiach, to redemption “v’tzipita li’shua!” We need not be embarrassed or apologetic. This is what our tradition, our belief, compels us to do. This is what Hashem expects of us!
With so many of the signs currently around us, we must dedicate all our kochot, neshamot and tefillot (our strengths, souls and prayers) to this belief so that we can make it happen, bimehaira yamenu, amen!
Shabbat shalom.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
