I think most people have heard Ancient Chinese saying (or is it a curse): May you live in interesting times. And the times we are living in are nothing if not interesting. First of all, the Wall Street Crash. In my other life, I work as a financial writer and editor, and I was on maternity leave during the disaster in the stock market, which happened amid the Days of Awe nonetheless.* Rabbi Simon Jacobson says the stock market crash reminds us that the material world is fleeting and we should focus on what is more lasting than money, our spiritual lives. Second, the war on terrorism continues to rage on and there is no end in sight. Some people think this is the end of days, and they may be right. But I would prefer to call it “the Beginning of the REAL days”, rather than the end of days.
I have discussed the Jewish concept of the Moshiach (the Jewish king) before and what the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneersohn said about the issue. I was listening to Rabbi Gershon Avtzon give a summary on why the era we live in now is the end of the long exile and the beginning of the time of the Complete Redemption.
1. The Rebbe predicted the fall of the Soviet Union over ten years prior to the bloodless revolutions in the late 1980s. No one would have imagined this would have happened peacefully.
2. According to Ancient predictions, there would be a war started in the Middle East among Arabs and the Jews would be afraid (this was the Persian Gulf War). The Rebbe, quoting ancient sources said “Fear not, for the time of Redemption has arrived.” The war ended quickly with no direct casualties in the Land of Israel from Iraq’s scud missiles.
3. Some believe that the wars with Iraq are the wars predicted in the Torah as Gog and Magog, the war before the Messiah comes. But unlike dire predictions, Rabbi Avtzon interprets the Rebbe’s remarks to indicate the wars will become more spiritual in nature and there will not be mass destruction or G-d forbid a nuclear war as some believe.
4. Today, everyone is talking about kabbalah. It isn’t always the most authentic version, but people are showing interest in the mysteries of the Torah which will be studied by all when the Messiah comes.
Rabbi Avtzon completed his talk with Tamar Yonah of Israel National News by saying the Jews have suffered enough throughout the exile that we will not have to suffer more for the Messiah to come. On the contrary, he referred to the Chassidic saying “Think Good and it will be good.”
The Rebbe says all we have left to do is to greet Moshiach…so if that is the case, Moshiach, here we are!
*a side note…Anti-Semites noticed the correlation between these two events and pointed a finger at us, without thinking for a moment that 1) if the Jews “control” the banks, why would they want the banks to fail and 2) even many of the secular Jews were in the synagogue on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, so how could they possibly wreck havoc on Wall Street at the same time? As with all Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories…it doesn’t make sense…