Continued. The beginning is here.
If only we can survive chevlei Mashiach —the “birth pangs” before the coming of the Redemption. And they will not be only physical.
The Talmud (at the end of tractate Sotah) writes: “Before Mashiach comes, insolence will soar to the heavens, prices will be exorbitant, the vines will bear fruit, yet wine will be expensive. The authorities will reject the Torah, and there will be no one to rebuke them; the house of assembly will be a place of debauchery. The wisdom of those who study the Book (the Torah as a whole) will be despised, those who fear sin will be rejected, and truth will be absent. Young men will disgrace the elderly, the elderly will rise before the young, a son will shame his father, a daughter will rise up against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a person’s household will become his enemies. The face of the generation will be like the muzzle of a dog; a son will feel no shame before his father…”
Hasn’t all this, or almost all of it, already come to pass?! Yet people still have a desire for justice. Despite the ever-worsening state of the generations, there are people who swim against the current and return to the Torah. And the Almighty never abandons this world to become mired in evil.
As it says in Daat Tevunot, precisely when it seems that the Almighty has abandoned the world, He is, on the contrary, renewing His influence upon it for good. All the Almighty’s thoughts and actions are directed solely toward rectifying this world, rather than harming it. But because, according to His plan, He conceals His intentions so deeply (hester panim), it seems that He has abandoned the world and that people are suffering. In reality, at that very moment He is bringing about their salvation.
The Chafetz Chaim wrote in his “Letter on (the Time) Before the Coming of Mashiach”: “Reason compels us (to recognize) that the coming of our righteous Redeemer cannot be delayed much longer, because we have already reached a state that could not be worse or lower. And we should hasten the Redemption by returning to teshuvah and preparing ourselves through Torah and good deeds.”
So may we dare to hope that everything will end well this very year? The Talmud (ibid.) says: “And we have no one to rely on except our Father in Heaven.” To hope for His salvation, we should do something to transform the attribute of Divine judgment into His attribute of Mercy.
Our Sages say that anyone who wishes to be spared the suffering before Mashiach comes must devote himself to Torah and gemilut chasadim (mercy and good deeds).
And one should pursue them as one would one’s own business—that is, striving to do as much as possible, personally and with one’s possessions, so that not a single day passes without this. This should help, because the attribute of Chesed (mercy) is stronger than the attribute of Din (Judgment).
And, of course, to avoid arousing the attribute of Judgment, we should speak only well of others and refrain from anger and insults. This includes teaching children that it is wrong to give others hurtful nicknames. We should refrain from taking any part in quarrels, even when they seem to be “for the sake of Heaven.”
The Chafetz Chaim also speaks about prayer: even if a person is entirely unworthy of having his prayer accepted, if he prays, asks, and pleads, the Almighty, in His mercy, grants him what he asks for. All the more so should we ask and pray for the Redemption.
One of the main elements of awaiting Mashiach is the waiting itself.
We will even be asked about this in the Heavenly Court: “Did you await salvation?” (Shabbat, 38). The Chafetz Chaim explains why the Torah paid such close attention to Sarah’s doubt when the angels brought her news of Yitzchak’s birth. Sarah’s laughter shows us (according to the principle “the deeds of the fathers are a sign for the children”) that at the end of days, people will also laugh at and disbelieve those who point to the imminent Redemption. It is hard to believe: after such a long and bitter exile, when the people of Israel have reached the depths of despair, are humiliated, and suffer from countless troubles and attacks—could they suddenly be saved? Just as in Egypt, when they did not listen to Moshe “because of shortness of spirit and hard labor.”
And even if people believe, they do not believe in an imminent redemption, but in one at some indefinite time in the future, so we, too, will work on ourselves later, “closer to the time.” We lack a vivid sense that Mashiach could come on absolutely any day—tomorrow, for example! And we are not ready!
Exile is night. And the darkness before dawn is the deepest.
We are now at this stage—the stage of impenetrable darkness. Should we be afraid? Probably. But we need to know what to fear. We fear terrorism, we fear a financial crisis, and we are overwhelmed by fear of what tomorrow will bring. Yet we should realize that all these fears are temporary, lasting only until the first ray of dawn begins to glimmer.
Meanwhile, we should pray for the speedy Redemption with the coming of our righteous Redeemer, speedily in our days, at least as fervently as we pray for the health and well-being of our loved ones. Amen!
Prepared by Z. Skarzhinskaya