I was shocked to hear about the terrible fire that happened on the third day of Passover at the Chabad synagogue in Florida. As I looked at the bare beams of the synagogue and the charred remains of prayer books in the pictures on news sites, one thing occurred to me; “We said never again after the Holocaust. But it is happening again. All over the world in subtle or violent forms.”
Anti-Semitic incidents are increasing throughout the world. Just a few years after Jews living in the former Soviet Union had been encouraged by Prime Minister Vladmir Putin not only to practice Judaism publicly, but to encourage others in the observance of Torah, there have been fresh incidents of attacks against Jewish institutions and against Jews themselves.
Hate speech is increasingly out in the open, in addition to Holocaust denial and graffiti. After a period of relative stability, it seems that the world is exploding once again and is on the brink of chaos. Other factors are creating unrest, not just those affecting only the Jewish People. Global warming, rising food prices, the plunging of the dollar and global unrest throughout the globe because of food shortages are causing everyone to wonder: Will we make it?
As we see problems multiply and a perennial shortage of solutions, it is time to return to the one and only solution, that proposed by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneersohn. Not just the Jewish People, but the entire world, should long and pray for the arrival of the Jewish messiah as soon as possible. Many prophecies about the era of Redemption are being fulfilled as we speak, including rising food prices and rebellion among the young. This ideal state of affairs is not unworldly or impossible, but involves the world we are living in and changing it for the good.
A request to G-d cannot hurt. A request and a sense of preparedness for the arrival of the ultimate leader and the perfect time can only bring us closer to the only true solution.