B”H
DO WE REALLY WANT MOSHIACH?
Every time we learn the famous sicha of koach nissan, the same question always comes up, “How is it possible that since the Rebbe said those words, there weren’t even 10 Yidden who REALLY truthfully cried out Ad Mosai?! There definitely were way more than ten!
Just one of many many examples, is the video of the woman who painfully cried out to the Rebbe right after the sicha,
“I want Moshiach! I want my son back!...”
It’s obvious that she meant those words with her whole heart and soul!
And since then there have been hundreds or even thousands of such cries!
How can it be that Moshiach still hasn’t come?
I still don’t know the answer, and Hashem has absolutely no excuse at all for delaying the Geulah this long!! He owed it to us years ago and it seems to me like a big mistake that He hasn’t taken us up on the many perfect opportunities we gave Him for this, especially like this past Pesach...!
Hashem has A LOT to answer for when Moshiach comes!!!
But to myself, and only to myself, (Hashem, this post is not written to you!,) I say that, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results.”
Something is clearly wrong with the way we are wanting Moshiach. We have no choice but to go deeper and ask, “Maybe what we’ve been wanting until now, wasn’t really Moshiach, but something else?”
Did the mother in that video really want Moshiach, or did she really want her son back?
What if her son was never taken away, would she still want Moshiach so badly? What if there was some other way to bring him back without the whole Geulah package, would she still need Moshiach, or would that be good enough?
And the same is true for so many other reasons that we cry out for Moshiach.
If it’s because we need an escape from the physical and emotional pain of Golus, is that considered wanting Moshiach, or just wanting the current hardships to disappear? And will such reasons for wanting Moshiach be emes, which means consistent? Or will they keep changing along with all our highs and our lows, our good days and our bad days?
They tell a story of a man with a large amount of money in a certain bank, who happened to bump into the bank owner, and ask him how he’s doing.
The owner sighed and answered that he’s waiting for Moshiach!
The man quickly rushed to the bank to pull out all of his money, and sure enough the next day, he heard the news that the whole bank chain just went bankrupt.
When the bank owner confronted him about how he knew this insider's information, he replied, “It’s you who made it obvious that there must be a big problem with the bank! Why else would you suddenly be talking about Moshiach?!”
It’s supposed to be a joke, but perhaps many of us have been like that bank owner who only felt the need for Moshiach when times were really black?
Even if the main reason I want Moshiach is because I want to see the Rebbe, and I want my kids to see the Rebbe.. Does that mean that I really want Moshiach? Did we not need Moshiach to take us out of galus before gimmel tammuz? And before chof zayin adar?
And even if the main reason I want Moshiach is because I don’t want the Rebbe to suffer, and I want the Rebbe to be truly happy, and to see His dream and life shlichus finally come to fruition, does that mean that I really want Moshiach or that I just don’t want the Rebbe to be in pain?
What if theoretically we could make the Rebbe truly happy even while we remained in golus, would we no longer need Moshiach?
That’s exactly what the Rebbe was frustrated about on Chof Ches Nissan - that we only cry out because we are told to. In other words, that we only ask for Moshiach to try to please the Rebbe... We are meant to also truly want it for ourselves.
And if today it especially pains me that 770 is closed, and that the Ohel is almost empty, and that shuls and schools all over the world are shut down, and that so many people are suffering from illness, or from loss, or from economic loss, or emotional stress, and anxiety and fears... does that mean that I really want Moshiach?
Did the world not need Moshiach before the virus? And if someone would find the magic cure for the virus today, and the world could truly return to “normal” tomorrow, would we no longer need Moshiach as urgently?
If we want Moshiach as an escape from our problems, and if that kind of motivation for crying “ad mosai” is what it would have taken to make Hashem send the Geulah, there have sadly been way darker times in our history, when Yidden have no doubtedly cried out from even greater depths...
We’re taught that while that kind of crying out was good enough to bring about geulas mitzrayim, Hashem clearly needs something deeper for our Geulah...
One of the first classes that I taught on relationships was from JLI soulmates course on “Why Marry?”. In it, there was a list of all sorts of reasons why people want to marry, (like to have children, to be part of a nuclear family, for emotional support, financial security, etc) and the point of the lesson was that while all those are great side benefits of marriage, they should never be the foundational motive of why we want to marry.
Technically, we can have all those things without marriage. And even if we can’t, none of those are ever a good reason to marry someone.
And even worse than any of those listed reasons - imagine someone wanted to marry you mainly because they can’t stand living in their parent’s house any longer, or can’t stand the shidduch scene any more, or just want to finally make their impatient mother and grandmother happy and proud....
Would you accept such a proposal?
Or do you want to marry someone who may already have a great life, but feels something is missing because you are the other half of his soul, and he wants to be with YOU. He wants to really get to know you and have an intimate relationship with you, and share every part of his life with you? That while he will surely enjoy many side benefits by marrying you, none of those are the reason for his proposal.
This morning I got to have a 15 minute Moshiach learning call with a friend that we signed up for on learnmoshiach.com/join. We are trying to slowly learn the 1st Sicha of the dvar malchus booklet based on the Rambam, that I was lucky to receive from the Rebbe when I was a little girl.
The last point that we learned today made me realize that wanting Moshiach for the right reason is not only a nice bonus, but actually a Halacha.
The Rebbe explains that the reason the Rambam in hilchos melachim only focuses on Moshiach’s role to restore Torah and Mitzvos like in the times of Dovid Hamelech, and not on all of Moshiach’s other great qualities, is because our faith in Moshiach and our reason for waiting for him needs to be not (only) for him to take us out of galus, but for him to bring about the return of all the mitzvos. The whole purpose of Moshiach being appointed and of Him gathering all the Yidden and building the Beis Hamikdash - is to make it possible for us to fully keep all 613 Mitzvos like before.
“It was for this alone that the chachamim desired Moshiach.”
We’re not supposed to believe in and await Moshiach as an escape or a vacation, but as a time when we will finally be able to see and know and unite with Hashem.
Even on a good galus day, even on the best galus day, we are still living in the dark, we are still living in a world of lies, we are still so far from connecting with Hashem as we are meant to.
What seemed to pain the Rebbe the most of all, is that after all His efforts, we are still in a “galus prati in our avodas Hashem.”
Perhaps this is one of the meanings of “Lekabel penei Moshiach tzidkeinu” - to receive the pnimiyus of Moshiach. To desire not just the external benefits of Moshiach, but the innermost aspect of Moshiach, the essence of what Moshiach is really all about - which is the completion of Torah and mitzvos, and for “the world to be filled with the knowledge of Hashem as the waters cover the ocean bed.”
I’ll admit that I don't yet know how to have such spiritual desires and altruistic motives, (isn’t that what we need Moshiach for?), but there was a video going around recently that I think I’m starting to relate to. In it, the Rebbe cries with so much pain and emotion after saying that, “It’s obvious why the nefesh habehamis wants Moshiach - he doesn’t want to be an animal anymore!”
Yes, the real reason I want Moshiach is because I don’t want to be an animal anymore!
I want to finally be freed from my golus prati! From my ego, from my selfish motives, from my negative traits, from the chains of my yetzer hara,
As the Rebbe cried on Yud Shvat 5711, “that each person knows in his soul that he has it..”
There’s a reason our generation was blessed with such material and spiritual freedom and abundance - it’s because Hashem wants us to be crushed from within, not crushed from without.
To be crushed by the world of lies and masks...
To be crushed because we want the TRUTH to finally be revealed to the whole world!
What’s the kuntz to want Moshiach for selfish or side reasons?
How is that different than serving avodah zara?
How is that different than serving Hashem for gan eden?
But the Rebbe teaches that it IS totally different - because Moshiach is not about us.
It’s about Hashem’s desire to have a home in this world.
It’s about reaching the ultimate purpose and intent of all His creation.
Although it’s the time that we’ll receive our reward, it’s not about the reward.
Although it will be the time of freedom from all material concerns, that’s only to allow us the peace of mind to pursue the knowledge of Hashem.
Although it’s the time we’ll be experiencing the greatest pleasure humanly possible, that will just be the reflection of the ultimate joy and pleasure that we finally cause Hashem to experience.
The truth is that this still doesn’t answer the question, because Chassidus teaches us that, “Mitoch shelo lishma, ba lishma.” - Within every selfish motivation, there is a selfless motivation.
So no matter why we each think we want Moshiach, deep down we all really truly want Him for the right reasons, and so Hashem has no excuse at all to chv keep us waiting even one second longer!!!
May Hashem finally allow Moshiach to be fully anointed, to gather us all together, and to build the 3rd Beis Hamikdash in Yerushalyim, NOW MAMASH!!
