Let’s be honest. Is it so terrible not to long for Geula? After all, isn’t the geula for our benefit? So if we don’t care so much about it, that’s our problem, isn’t it?

Yet when we look in Chazal, that’s not what we find at all. The Gemara in Shabbos tells us that when a person is brought to judgment in the next world, he is asked a series of questions. Among them: Did he conduct his business affairs in good faith? Did he set aside time to learn Torah? And was he yearning for redemption?

While the first two are quite understandable as they speak to the heart of how the person lived his life, what’s not so clear is why yearning for the geula falls into the same category. It must be that yearning for Geula is not merely a matter of personal preference, but an obligation that is reflective of how the person lived his life.

“Why?”

As I elaborated on in the previous episode, being that Yetzias Mitzraim is in many ways the template for the Geula Shlaima, the obvious place to look for the answer begins in Egypt, some 3300 years ago.

The Medrash tells us that Hashem brought Choshech, the plague of darkness, upon the Mitzrim because there were Jews in that generation who were r’shaim, wicked people, because they didn’t want to leave Mitzraim. Though Hashem needed to kill them for their evil, at the same time, He wanted to protect their dignity, so He did it under the cover of darkness.

But this answer is problematic because when we think about it for even a moment, we realize that the mere suggestion that Jews didn’t want to leave Mitzraim seems preposterous for two reasons.

First of all, the Jewish People were eyewitnesses to 10 months of plagues that stood nature on its head. Hashem systematically destroyed the Yidden’s tormentors in the most miraculous ways possible. Weren’t the Yidden completely convinced of Hashem’s absolute might and complete control, not to mention his love for his People? Did anyone doubt for a moment that Hashem could free them from their evil taskmasters and take them out of Mitzraim?

But beyond that, why did they want to stay? Depicting their lives as unabated, absolute misery is insufficient. Incessant backbreaking labor in the hot sun, suffering regular beatings, watching their families and future being decimated as their children were being murdered right in front of their eyes, and no hope of ever escaping from under the heel of the most powerful nation on earth! Would anyone but a deranged masochist want to stay?

What is this all about?

If we look further in the Medrash, we find the answer. Chazal tell us that “Hashem looked deep into their hearts and saw that although they desired to leave, that desire wasn’t that strong. They weren’t dying to go.”

But, how could that be? How could they possibly have preferred this Gehinom of being slaves in Egypt to Geula?

Rav Chatzkel Levenshtein zt’l advises us not to jump to conclusions. Before we judge them, we need to better understand their choices. On the one hand, by staying, they would continue to live a life of unfathomable misery, yet it was a misery that they knew. It was predictable. Following Hashem out of Mitzraim was walking into the desert, into the unknown, and it required absolute trust in Hashem.

Think about it. The thought of millions of people walking into a desert with no water, no food, and no shelter was unconscionable. How were they supposed to live? Their only hope was that they would be taken care of through incessant miracles. Remember, the plagues were not continuous miracles, and the Jewish People’s moment-to-moment existence didn’t depend on them. Although miracles appeared often, daily life still had the ring of being natural. Following Hashem out of Mitzraim without any comprehensible plan was another matter entirely.

The second option was to end their misery. But the caveat was that they needed to have incredible bitachon in Hashem’s miraculous involvement in every second of their lives to survive. This was something they never experienced nor even ever saw.

The Navi relates to us that this second option of following Hashem blindly into the desert wasn’t so simple. Yirmiayaha HaNavi tells the Jewish People, “Zacharti lach chesed n’uraich, ahavas k’lulosaich, lechti achari bamidar b’eretz lo zaruah.” “Hashem remembers the kindness of your youth, leaving Egypt, the love you displayed by following me into the wilderness, a barren land.”

If the choice was so clear and simple, then why did Hashem laud the Jewish People so? It must be that being Moser Nefesh by following Hashem into the Midbar wasn’t so easy, thus it was worthy of Hashem’s praise.

So these were the two options. And only 20% chose to leave, completely trusting that Hashem would be performing miracles for them every single moment indefinitely.

But based upon what we just explained, it seems that the nisayon was one of bitachon- could they completely trust Hashem to take care of them in the barren desert? The Medrash, however, says that their failure was that they had insufficient desire to leave. Bitachon is one thing, desire is something else.

In digging deeper into this Medrash, it seems that Chazal are teaching us a compelling yesod. Bitachon in the Geula has its limits. To reach the madreiga of bitachon that this extremely difficult decision required, that bitachon needed to be grounded in desire.

In other words, the Yidden needed to abandon any other desire, such as the desire to remain in their secure, albeit miserable place, and yearn with their entire being for the Geula, and the Geula alone. This desire for Geula would be able to unleash the bitachon that was required to actually walk out.

But while wanting the Geula because we want to be part of it is certainly ample reason for us to desire it deep within our hearts, it goes beyond that.

Chazal teach us that desiring the Geula is actually a force to make it happen. The Medrash in Parshas VaYechi tells us, “Hakol b’kivui”, Everything comes through hoping and longing. The Nezer HaKodesh explains that although a person isn’t worthy, nevertheless, he can be zocheh to all the matanos through “kivui,” his hoping and longing for them. When he genuinely says, “I long for your yeshua Hashem,” despite being unworthy of Geula, the yeshua nonetheless comes from that yearning.

Longing for the yeshua so deeply has the capacity to m’orrair Hashem to fulfill our desire and to give it to us. The Chafetz Chaim, zt’l illustrates this powerful yesod with the following maaseh.

After serving as the Rav in Warsaw, the Beis HaLevi was resolute that he didn’t want to take another position as Rav of a city. A delegation came to him from the town of Brisk to ask him to become their Rav. He refused. When they told him that 25,000 people were waiting for him to become their Rav, the Beis HaLevi decided that he couldn’t let down so many people, and he conceded to take the rabbanus. Hashem is no different.

Now that we know that yearning for Moshiach is so central to the Geula itself, the next step is to learn how we can increase that longing. And there are two dimensions of this. First of all, how do we build our desire? And secondly, how to leverage the hashgacha in our lives to unleash that desire that already resides within us. The upcoming episodes will be devoted to this crucial Avodah.

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Deja Vu? Have we all been here before? Does it feel like that? For most of us, on a conscious level, probably not. But when we go beyond what we feel, and plumb the depths of our deeper collective unconscious, it is nothing less than Deja Vu; that we have been here before. What do I mean?

Without any power to stop it or even slow it down, we are witnessing the world we have always known spinning out of control. Conflicts between individual countries carry within them the growing threat of world war, which could easily spill over into the nuclear dimension.

The vilification of Israel has become a weekly, if not daily, occurrence. That thin and disingenuous distinction between being Anti-Israel and a timeless Anti-Semite has all but disappeared. The hatred of our people and accompanying violence have become practically daily occurrences. While for the most part, while still targeted at individuals, as the unchecked protests and rhetoric grow both in worldwide demonstrations and on Social Media, there is a growing threat that these could morph into violence on a larger scale, Chas v’Shalom. Many have this foreboding sense that we are heading into perilous and explosive times.

In Eretz Yisroel, the Olam HaTorah is under assault by a Jewish government and a Jewish army as bochurim live in fear of being arrested for learning the Torah HaKedosha.

With astonishment and fear, we ask, “Where is this all leading to?”

One thing is certain: as the problems continue to increase and become more severe, we have this sinking feeling that the Geula that Hashem has promised us is moving further away than ever!

And yet, strangely enough, this is where the Deja Vu begins.

What am I talking about?

Let’s take a look at how Moshe Rabbeinu reacted to a situation almost exactly like ours. The Ribbono Shel Olam told Moshe Rabbeinu and Aharon HaKohen to stand before Paroah, the most powerful man in the world. They were not instructed to ask Paraoh to allow the Jewish People to leave Mitzraim, but rather to demand in the name of Hashem, “Shlach Ami v’Avduni”. Send out my nation so that they should serve me!

Not only was Paraoh unimpressed, but he decided to punish the Yidden for their leader’s insolence by taking away the straw needed to make the bricks. This effectively made their unimaginably difficult situation impossible.

Moshe was confused and distraught. Hashem sent him to Paraoh to bring the Geula. Not only was there no Geula, but the situation was deteriorating and was traveling in the opposite direction, at high speed!

How different is our situation today? We know that we are on the precipice of the Geula, and yet things are moving quickly away from it. Are we better than Moshe Rabbeinu? He was broken by what he observed and asked Hashem point-blank. “Lama Haraiso?” Ever since you sent me to Paraoh, it keeps getting worse. Why did you send me?” Why shouldn’t we think the same? The Geula seems to be slipping away from us, Chas v’Shalom!

Before answering that question, we need to drill down a bit deeper to understand the way that Hashem brings the Geula. The Vilna Gaon shows from the pasuk in Yeshia that the Chevlai Moshiach, the birth pangs of Moshiach, mirror the Chevlai Laida mamash, the pains and difficulties that a mother experiences before birth. It’s not just the general pain associated with having a baby, but the frequency and intensity of that pain increase unabated up until the moment of birth itself.

After Moshe Rabbeinu and Aharon HaKohen demanded that Paraoh set the Yidden free, the pasuk tells us “Tichbad HaAvodah,” the work became more difficult. But contrary to our simple understanding, Paraoh took away the straw not because he was taking revenge against Hashem, Chas v’Shalom, but rather because as the Geula became closer, the pain and difficulty needed to increase. Paroah’s reaction was the apparent cover for what Hashem intended all along.

So too, Hashem will take away our “straw” to increase the frequency and intensity of our difficulties as we draw closer to the Geula. But as we will see momentarily, contrary to what we might think, this is not cause for despair, but rather for hope and yearning for the Geula that is becoming ever closer.

To complete the thought, let’s return to Yetzias Mitzraim; more specifically, how Hashem answered Moshe Rabbeinu’s question, “Lama HaRaiso”, Moshe asked, “Why do things continue to get worse?” Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu, “Atah Tireh Yeshuas Hashem.” Now you will see the yeshua. Why didn’t Hashem just say, “You will see? What was Hashem referring to by telling him, “Now you will see?”

The Kli Yakar explains that Hashem was telling Moshe Rabbeinu that the path to Geula is counterintuitive. You, Moshe, think that as the situation deteriorates, the Geula is becoming further away. Just the opposite is true. Just as the coldest part of the winter is just before the advent of spring, and just as the darkest part of the night is just before the dawn, so too the most painful and difficult time of the Galus is the moment just before the Geula. Hashem told Moshe that it is “davka” now that the Galus is so intolerable that the Geula is ready to come.

Why is this so difficult for us to grasp?

Because our minds are rational. We discern patterns and, based on them, make predictions. We think inside the box. But it’s not merely that Hashem thinks outside the box. Hashem has no box. He is not limited to what we consider rational thought. He does whatever He wants, whenever He wants, however He wants. And His “path” to Geula illustrates just that.

We would think that Geula is the final step in some orderly sequence, the last piece of the puzzle, the next segment of the pattern. But Chazal tell us, “Yeshuas Hashem k’heref ayin.” It comes in the blink of an eye, literally out of nowhere.

The more we understand this, internalize it, and live it, the more we will be able to protect ourselves from reacting to our deteriorating situation with fear and yiush. And instead, we will know that as those Chevlai Moshiach increase in frequency and intensify, we are drawing ever closer to the Geula, and our yearning for Moshiach will become the shiafa of our lives that will both define who we are and what we are living for!

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When we take a cold, hard look at the world today, it doesn’t take much time or insight to recognize that we are living in an unusual or, as some people put it, a “crazy world.” Things just aren’t normal anymore. It’s a meshigana “velt.” Slowly but surely, we are witnessing firsthand, and we sense that things are spinning out of control.

Although we could draw upon any number of things to illustrate this point, I want to focus on just one in this episode. And once we absorb that particular anomaly, drill down to its core, we will be in a better position to extrapolate to better understand other anomalies as well.

While some parents may not be experiencing firsthand any of what I am about to talk about, especially those with young children, a growing number of parents have been experiencing a shift in their relationships with their children. This is particularly true regarding parents who have children who are teenagers or older, and all the more so those with adult children.

This shift spans the spectrum. On the relatively more innocuous end, parents are finding it more difficult to have honest dialogue with their children. This isn’t just limited to helpful criticism. Many parents claim that they can’t tell their children anything anymore. Even helpful suggestions that would improve their children’s lives or at least make it easier are off the table. Remaining silent has become the strategy for success. And those courageous parents who will say it anyway are indulging in risky behaviour, as those good intentions may be just the thing that will create more distance.

And yet, while this alone is enough to be very hurtful to a parent, not every child’s pushback stops there. For some parents, their children have, to various degrees, literally pushed their parents out of their lives. Visits and even phone calls aren’t as frequent. Those tender family moments have largely become memories.

And believe it not, for some, the situation has crossed all red lines, as there is a disturbing trend of children cutting themselves off from their parents completely. Parental estrangement has become a growing phenomenon in our community.

Among the most frightening developments in Klal Yisroel today is the expanding population that has completely pushed their parents out of their lives. Although as baffled as the rest of us, Boruch Hashem, a growing cadre of caring and talented m’chanchim and therapists are struggling to address this phenomenon. This past Tisha b’Av, the Chofetz Chaim Foundation devoted its annual video to raising awareness and strengthening the mitzvah of Kibbud Av v’Ame.

With all of our other pressing needs, we need to ask ourselves, “Why would something as fundamental as the 5th Commandment in the Aseres HaDibros be selected to be the Tisha b’Av video? How could it be that Broken Ties, a wonderful organization devoted to supporting and helping these broken-hearted parents who have lost the relationship with their precious children, be steadily growing across the globe?”

What is going on?

It seems that the answer can be found on the final daf of Mesechta Sota. The braisa tells us that B’ikvasa d’Meshicha, as the footsteps of Moshiach approach, there will be numerous anomalies: chutzpa will run amok, the economy will crumble, the social order will deteriorate, governments will become fountains of heresy, respect for Talmidei Chachomim will decline, and the leaders of nations instead of leading, will be following the masses they supposedly control. In a word, society as we have always known it will deteriorate; the foundations will crumble.

But perhaps the most startling of all is that the backbone of society that has existed since time immemorial, the family structure, will disintegrate. The Braisa tells us that the youth will humiliate their elders. A son will disgrace his father, and a daughter will rise against her mother. Fathers will find that the members of their households will become their enemies.

We need to ask, “Why is it that the Geula needs to be preceded by the deterioration of society in all of these many facets, and especially the disintegration of family itself? “ What is the common thread that we see in all of this deterioration?

HaRav Yisroel Moshe Sorotzkin in his sefer, Kaitz HaYeshua, quotes the Rambam who says that the entire purpose of the Creation in general, and of Man in particular, is for Man to recognize and internalize the Oneness of Hashem.

What does this mean?

The Ramchal explains that the Rambam means that Man needs to recognize that “Ain Od Milvado.” “Ain Od Milvado” is the complete recognition that there is nothing besides Hashem. Whatever we think has existence, animate or inanimate, only exists because Hashem wills it to exist. There is no independent existence to anything, despite our perceptions otherwise. Included in this is that everything in history is carefully designed to bring Man to this recognition.

Regarding the Braisa in Sota, we previously mentioned, that delineates what will occur prior to the Geula, HaRav Yeruchem Levovitz, zt’l, explains that for us to fully grasp that Hashem is everything, “Ain Od Milvado”, anything and everything that we thought was foundational, independent of Hashem must cease to exist beforehand. When the Geula finally occurs, Hashem will be appearing on what is essentially a clean slate.

Common respect, the economy, the social order, governments, leadership, and, of course, at the core, the family structure upon which everything else is built will become nullified. It is only then that Hashem will bring the Geula.

So, as painful as what is happening to our precious families is, at least now we have a context. The breakdown of communication between parents and children, the respect, the closeness, and the inviolability of the family unity, by necessity, need to fracture. This isn’t punishment for the parents’ sins. It isn’t even the consequence of inadequate or “bad parenting,” but rather a necessary step in dissolving the structure of society as a precursor to the Geulah.

Although we don’t know Hashem’s cheshbon with every individual, it is very possible that since only certain parents are experiencing this breakdown, for them, the agonizing pain may very well be what Chazal call “Yissuim shel Ahava”. Rashi explains that “Yissurim shel Ahavah” are when HaKodesh Boruch Hu gives a person pain in this world, not as punishment for a sin, but rather to increase a person’s reward in the World to Come beyond any reward that person could earn as a result of his Mitzvos that he did.

Parents who are enduring what seems to be inexplicable need to see their pain in the larger picture- what is necessary for the coming of the Geula. Although this doesn’t assuage the pain itself, it does give that pain purpose. This is not dissimilar to the biggest tzaddikim in history, such as Rebbe Akiva, who understood what he needed to tolerate as the path to elevating his neshama and bringing him closer to Hashem, not to mention increasing his Olam HaBa.

So, as we witness society continue to crumble, and we lose those foundations and anchors upon which we have built our lives, we certainly feel insecurity and trepidation. After all, this is the only world that we know, and to feel it slipping away is traumatic.

At the same time, as Yidden who are longing for the Geula, we need to focus on where this is all leading, what this is really all about.

Just as when it comes time for a seed to germinate, the seed coat, or covering over the seed needs to break down to allow the embryo, or the immature plant contained within the seed to emerge and grow into a seedling, so too the order of the world in all of its various dimensions needs to break down to allow the Geula to emerge. It is only then that we can hope to fully grasp, “Ain Od Milvado”, the purpose of Creation and Man itself. We yearn for that Geula despite its painful path.

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