Who Needs Mashiach?
The spiritual pay-dirt is Fat City for those who remain faithful to Hashem and his Torah. If so, you ask, then who the heck needs Mashiach?
King Solomon, the wisest of men, said (Ecclesiastes 12:1), “And there shall come days of which you will say that you have no use for them.” What did he mean? The Gemara in tractate Shabbat (151b) explains that the “worthless days” are the days of Messianic times, when people won’t have either reward or punishment for their deeds, because everyone will automatically behave according to G-d’s laws. Without a context of free choice and spiritual opposition (the Yetzer Hara, or Evil Inclination), rewards and punishments are meaningless, like a football team bragging that they scored ten touchdowns, only the other team hadn’t yet arrived at the stadium.
The Melitzer Rebbe shlit’a says that it was worth Hashem’s efforts to create the world just to hear one Jew say, Baruch hu u’varuch shmo, or blessed is He and Blessed is His name. The Rebbe continues, and says that one Amen is worth a hundred times Baruch hu u’varuch shmo. One Y’he shmay raba in Kaddish is worth a hundred times Amen. That’s not all: One word of Gemara study is worth a hundred times Y’he shmay raba. Therefore, a single word of Gemara study is worth a million Baruch hu u’varuch shmo; that means that Hashem is willing to create a million universes just to hear one word of Gemara study. Now, if a person can say – learning slowly – 90 words a minute, then in one hour he accumulates 5400 million reasons for Hashem to continue to sustain the universe. As you can see, the rewards for Torah learning are mind-boggling.
Now, imagine the rewards of an individual who devotes his life to learning and outreach, helping others to learn Torah and fulfill its commandments. In addition to his own merits, he reaps dividends from the merits of those he has taught and influenced, along with their offspring until the arrival of Mashiach. The accrued mitzva value for such a “Mezakeh rabim” is beyond human comprehension.
With the above in mind, one would think that such leaders of the Teshuva movement as Rabbi Amnon Yitzchak, Rabbi Shalom Arush, and Rabbi Uri Zohar – may Hashem bless them and all the mezakey rabim, wherever they may be – would be protesting day and night against the arrival of Mashiach. Sure, the current spiritual wars are so tough that our holy sages were afraid of what Messianic times hold in store, but the spiritual pay-dirt is Fat City for those who remain faithful to Hashem and his Torah. If so, you ask, then who the heck needs Mashiach?
We all do. But why?
1. To stop the chilul Hashem, or defamation of Hashem’s Holy Name. Every day, some new politician or journalist sprouts like an unwanted weed here in our beloved holy homeland to sling filth about Hashem’s loyal sons and daughters, while trampling Hashem’s Holy Name G-d forbid, the Torah, and Tzaddikim G’Dolei Yisroel (the righteous leaders of Israel). The chilul Hashem (defamation of Hashem’s name) must stop immediately; only Mashiach can put a stop to it.
2. To end ignorance, for in Israel alone, 1.5 million children are totally ignorant of their Judaism, and don’t know the meaning of kriyat shema. The Teshuva movement, which all its might, has succeeded in solving a mere 7% of the problem with their dedication-fueled meager resources, bringing about 100,000 children into religious education; even with our greatest efforts, we’re not cutting the mustard. Only Mashiach can save all these kids from a dismal spiritual future.
3. To mitigate severe judgments; never since the holocaust, has there been such harsh decrees as the current one threatening the homes of tens of thousands of Jews here in the heartland of Israel, Heaven forbid. We face existential threats from every direction. If that’s not enough, the deadly Mexican virus has reached the shores of the Holy Land too. Every day, we hear hair-raising stories about righteous young people with terminal illnesses or wonderful families that have lost their source of income. Only Hashem knows what the future holds in store. For the future of our people, we need Mashiach now!
4. To save the Jewish people! Despite Boro Park and Stamford Hill, the numbers of Jews in the Diaspora are rapidly decreasing because of assimilation and intermarriage, which together comprise a spiritual holocaust that only Mashiach can prevent.
A devout Torah scholar can’t sit in the comforts of his Williamsburg or Stamford Hill home and say, “I don’t care about the others – my Olam Haba (world to come) is set!” Sorry, pal – Klal Yisroel is like a ship; you may have a berth on the luxury deck, but if someone down in the hold drills a hole in the floorboards, you’re going to sink with everybody else.
Looking at our own expected rewards is utterly egotistical. Every single one of must tear his or her clothes at the sight of chilul Hashem. Every single one of us must pour his or her heart out in prayer that a fellow Jew doesn’t lose his home – anywhere – and especially in Eretz Yisrael. Every single one of us has to do everything in his or her power to support Jewish outreach and to spread emuna in the world until every Jewish child in the world carries Shema Yisroel on his or her lips. Every single one of us has to beg Hashem to send Mashiach now in order to stop the spiritual holocaust, and to raise the Holy Shechina (the Divine Presence) from the dust of diaspora.
Editor’s Note:
Rabbi Arush’s urgent message to us is to pray for the Jewish people to do teshuva, especially in the mitzvot of ahavat Yisrael b’mesirut nefesh – loving each other with self-sacrifice. Read his articles in Stop the Tragedies.
