Anticipating Moshiach

Question:

I’ve got many long questions about Moshiach. If it would be ok, I’d really appreciate it if you could take the time to answer each one, please!

I davened and hoped very much that moshiach would come, before Tishah Beav, and that the Beis Hamikdosh would finally be rebuilt. But he still didn’t come. Not now and not for 1000’s of years.

1) How are we supposed to still keep this anticipation alive?
2) Also, it says about הסתר אסתיר את פני ביום ההוא, but where does it say that Hashem will turn His face back to us?
3) We are all told about how we should forgive each other, and so many have done so despite the suffering they have suffered at the hands of their abusers. We are told that Hashem, too, forgave us, as said, סלחתי כדברך.
So why then has He not brought the גאולה yet?
4) What is Hashem waiting for before He brings the גאולה? I’ve heard so many different things which we need to work on, שמירת שבת, שמירת הלשון, אהבת הזולת. What is Hashem specifically still waiting for us to do before He brings the גאולה?
5) If it says in the הפטורה that we were punished sevenfold for our עבירות, then why are we still in גלות?
6) I heard that either it would be in the greatest generation that moshiach would come, or otherwise the lowest one. If so, what’s the point of taking steps to improve ourselves? I doubt we’d reach the highest generation, but it seems we’d be distancing ourselves even more by not being the lowest!
7) How are we supposed to think with regards to davening, if hashem hasn’t yet answered any of the תפלות and when it says in the הפטורה,
“ובפרשכם כפיכם אעלים עיני מכם גם כי תרבו תפלה אינני שמע”. Does Hashem no longer hear our tefillos or care if we daven?!
What’s the point of yearning for moshiach and waiting, when it seems like things are so frozen and distanced?

Thank you.

Answer:

Hello,

It is so nice to see that you are a thinking person with a neshoma that is very alive, and functioning. I will try to answer all of your questions, one at a time.

• How are we supposed to still keep this anticipation alive?
  A. Keeping the anticipation alive is the lifework or the Jews for the last 2000 years! We NEVER give up, and we specifically say it in the Ani Ma’amin about Moshiach, “v’af al pi she’yismameah im kol ze ahachkeh lo” even though his coming is stalled, nevertheless we still keep on waiting and anticipating his coming. The reason why we never give up is because we KNOW that it will come, sooner or later. We were told by Hashem, the one who is all powerful, and the one who is in control of everything, through the Neviim, that it will come. Therefore, we believe that it will come, and we hope that it will be sooner than later, but we know that it will happen.

How do we keep the anticipation alive? By talking about it, and mentioning it every day, and numerous times a day. This keeps the idea and yearning for Moshiach alive in our hearts. This is why it is mentioned in Shemona Esrei in a number of ways, we daven for Yerushalayim, for the kingship of the house of Dovid, to bring back the Bais Hamikdash, the service in the Bais Hamikdash, the Sanhedrin, to destroy those who are against Hashem, all of these brachos are part of our yearning for Moshiach. We sing about it, we talk about it, etc. all of these things help keep our yearning alive.

• Also, it says about הסתר אסתיר את פני ביום ההוא, but where does it say that Hashem will turn His face back to us?

1. Yes it does… many times, this is what Moshiach is all about. Between Tisha B’av and Rosh Hashana there are seven Haftorah’s of consolation, called “Shiva D’nichemta” and these haftoras are full of such statements, about what thing will look like when Hashem will turn towards us again. If you want a posuk that says this specifically it is in this week’s Haftora ישעיהו פרק נד פסוק ז “בְּרֶגַע קָטֹן עֲזַבְתִּיךְ וּבְרַחֲמִים גְּדֹלִים אֲקַבְּצֵךְ”: “For a small second I left you, and with great mercy I will gather you in”.

• We are all told about how we should forgive each other, and so many have done so despite the suffering they have suffered at the hands of their abusers. We are told that Hashem, too, forgave us, as said, סלחתי כדברך. So why then has He not brought the גאולה yet?

1. Forgiving each other is definitely a step in the right direction, and it causes that Hashem should in turn forgive us for our aveiros, but this doesn’t automatically mean that we have eradicated sinas chinom from our hearts. What happens on the day after Yom Kippur, does ill-feeling pop up in our hearts regarding things that were done to us? Also, Hashem is mochel us, but that doesn’t mean that all of our aveiros and bad middos have disappeared. There is still plenty of work that we need to do to clean out neshomos, in order to have a clean beautiful neshoma, which is ready to greet Moshiach, Eliyahu Hanavi, Moshe Rabeinu, etc.

• What is Hashem waiting for before He brings the גאולה? I’ve heard so many different things which we need to work on, שמירת שבת, שמירת הלשון, אהבת הזולת. What is Hashem specifically still waiting for us to do before He brings the גאולה?

1. Good question. We don’t know what Hashem is waiting for. We don’t know all the conditions that are needed. But one thing we do know, is that Hashem wants to bring moshiach, a million times more than we want it. I once heard a like moshul for this. A child that is dangerously ill in the hospital might not realize the extent of the danger that he is in and the ramifications of his illness. His parents, however, understand a lot more about the child’s situation, therefore their pain is so much more. What would we say to parents that have five children in five different hospitals with life threatening illnesses? What is the level of pain that the parents are suffering? We can’t describe it. We know that everyone in Klal Yisroel is considered a beloved child of Hashem, and Hashem sees all of our suffering, meaning that Hashem has thousands of children in the hospital! Thousands of children that need a shidduchim, hundreds of his daughters that are widows. Can we imagine Hashem’s pain because of the golus. Therefore, we know that Hashem wants to bring Moshiach much more than we want it. However, Hashem also knows what is needed in order for Moshiach to come in order that it should be a complete salvation, and it should be best for Klal Yisroel. Therefore, despite all of His suffering He wants it to wait for the correct time. It is our job, however, to do as many mitzvos as we can to help speed up this time.

• If it says in the הפטורה that we were punished sevenfold for our עבירות, then why are we still in גלות?

1. It says in the Haftora of”נחמו נחמו עמי” , that we were punished doubly of our sins, and that the consolation is going to be a double consolation, that is why it says “נחמו נחמו עמי” that no matter how much we have suffered, Hashem’s consolation will be much more than all of the suffering that all of Klal Yisroel has endured.

• I heard that either it would be in the greatest generation that Moshiach would come, or otherwise the lowest one. If so, what’s the point of taking steps to improve ourselves? I doubt we’d reach the highest generation, but it seems we’d be distancing ourselves even more by not being the lowest!

1. What you are referring to is the Gemora ( סנהדרין צ”ח)that says that Moshiach will come either in a generation that is fully guilty or fully virtuous. I heard a number times from my Rosh Yeshiva Horav Yisroel Kanarek zt”l, that the Gemora is saying, that Moshiach will come in a generation such as ours, where there are tremendous nisyonos, and a tremendous amount of tuma, and a tremendous amount of aveiros that are being done. However nevertheless, those who will fight against all of this and try to get close to Hashem and still do the mitvos, their zechus will be so big that even if they are not on a great as the people in other generations, they are still considered kulo zakai, totally virtuous! Therefore, we don’t have to reach the level of the highest generation, even what we do, being that there are so many temptations to get past, if we do it, it is the biggest zechus.

• How are we supposed to think with regards to davening, if Hashem hasn’t yet answered any of the תפלות and when it says in the הפטורה,
  “ובפרשכם כפיכם אעלים עיני מכם גם כי תרבו תפלה אינני שמע”. Does Hashem no longer hear our tefillos or care if we daven?!

1. Although moshiach has still not yet come, chazal say that even though there are things that are blocking Moshiach from coming, nevertheless Hashem still wants us to daven, and the fact that we weren’t yet answered doesn’t mean that Hashem no longer hears our tefillos. There is no such thing as a tefilla that doesn’t get answered nor a tefilloh that doesn’t have an effect. Let’s add a little to what you are asking. What about all those millions of people for the last 200 years that davened to see Moshiach, and they died? What happened to their tefillos? The Rashba answers that essentially there will be two levels of techiyas hameisim. The regular one is after the period of Moshiach, however there will be a different techiya, when Moshiach comes, which will be specifically for those who davened and hoped for Moshiach, but their time came to die. They will still merit “seeing Moshiach”, because there will be a special tichiyas hameisim for them. We see from this that even though it might appear as if these people’s tefillos were “for nothing” but that is far from the truth. They will be rewarded for their tefillos, and their tefillos will be answered.

What we see from this is that even though it seems as if nothing happened to our tefillos, that is only because it is not yet the right time for us to see their effect, but IY”H that day will come, and it will all become clear to us.

We daven and hope that that day will come soon.

Best wishes