- The Lubavitcher Rebbe

We daily anticipate the coming of Moshiach and the era of global peace and elevated existence he will bring. But some have a basic misunderstanding as to what this new world will bring. They envision their prior lives being wiped out. They wonder: will all that I have built and accomplished, the painstakingly construed business connection and personal relationships, be rendered meaningless?

The word in Hebrew for the ultimate redemption, geulah, implies that the opposite is true. Geulah is comprised of the entire word golah ("exile") - the word for our present condition - with the addition of the letter alef. This means that the state of geulah includes within it everything positive that our present life in golah consists of, plus. Everything, but with the addition of the element of "alef".

The "alef" in geulah refers to the "Alef ("Master") of the World." The condition of golah allows for the existence of evil and strife: material considerations distort the divine truth and stand between man and his Creator. But every positive deed, word, and thought contributes towards a world which expresses, rather than conceals, the perfect goodness inherent in all that G-d created. In the geulah-era of Moshiach inner good of our present-day lives will come to light.

So the world of Moshiach is not a negation of what we are now. Rather, it is the perfection and enhancement of the very same elements which make up our lives today.

- The Lubavitcher Rebbe

One of the signs cited by the Talmud as an indication of the imminent coming of Moshiach is a generation notorious for its brazenness and audacity: "Chutzpah will increase... youths will shame their elders.. a son will disgrace his father, a daughter will rebel against her mother..."

Since these signs have all been fulfilled, and more then fulfilled, and still the redemption has not yet come, I suggest that we make positive use of the chutzpah with which our generation has been blessed. Let us boldly demand of G-d, in no uncertain terms, that since all deadlines for the redemption have come and gone, He is to immediately send Moshiach. The Almighty will certainly be pleased by our audacity and bring the long-awaited era of universal peace and divine perfection to the world.

- The Lubavitcher Rebbe

The Talmud relates:

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi asked Moshiach: "When are you coming?"

Replied Moshiach, "Today".

Later, Rabbi Yehoshua met Elijah the Prophet and complained: "He told me that he is coming today, yet he didn't come." Answered Elijah, "This is what he meant: 'Today, if His voice you will harken.'"

What is the meaning of this seemingly evasive and misleading statement? Does Moshiach engage in diplomatic wordplay?

But Moshiach is conveying an attitude: The Jew knows that the world is inherently good, that the true, intrinsic state of G-d's creation is the perfect world of Moshiach. He knows that the currently deficient 'reality' is superimposed and unnatural. The fact that things have been this way for thousands of years makes it no more genuine or real.

So despite centuries of 'experience' to the contrary, The Jew fully and realistically expects Moshiach instantaneously. His response to the question "When is Moshiach coming?" is an unhesitent "Today!" Only if, G-d forbid, a moment passes and somehow Moshiach has not arrived, is he compelled to explain "... if His voice you will harken." Namely, that G-d desires that the world undergo a process of refinement and elevation before its true, quintessential reality may come to light.

Someone once asked my father in law (the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn): "We are told to stand ready to receive Moshiach, confident that he is indeed coming immediately. Yet at the same time, we are charged with the mission to improve the world. Which state of mind is one to adopt, that of the anticipant believer or that of the pragmatic doer?"

Indeed, the Jew must straddle both worlds. He must adopt two diverse mind-sets side by side. On the one hand, he must bring holiness to a mundane world by working to perfect an imperfect "reality". In doing this, he deals with conditions as they are. So he formulates budgets, contracts for construction, and plans long-term projects.

At the same time, he anticipates, nay expects, Moshiach's immediate coming. An instantaneously perfect existence is not only feasible but the most natural thing in the world.

Reprinted with permission from Chabad.org

Comments (1)

Subscribe to this comment's feed