In response to these troubled times, there
seems to be an epidemic of messianic fever
running wild throughout certain segments of
the religious communities. While belief in
the coming of Mashiah is central to our faith
in Torah and we acknowledge that such an
advent can come at any moment, still this
belief, like many others can be taken to a
dangerous extreme.
Biblical prophecies and later revelations of
our Sages from Midrashic, Talmudic and
Kabbalistic sources all point out to us that
there is a greater scenario involved here
than the simple revelation of the new Israeli
King. The coming of Mashiah is a global
event that will affect everything on our
planet. The changes that such an advent will
usher in can be described as nothing less
than evolutionary. The epoch of Mashiah will
be the dawn of a new chapter in human
civilization. Humanity as a whole will
literally evolve into a higher species. This
will not happened randomly over millions of
years, but rather suddenly. This will not
happen magically but rather by intervention.
The coming of Mashiah will begin a whole new
world. Yet, what we must understand is that
before there is room for the new world to
come, the old world must be completely
removed. This is only natural; it is common
sense and it is clearly stated throughout
every Biblical prophecy and later revelation
made by those of our Sages "in the know."
However, the modern epidemic of Messianic
fever seems to stand in direct opposition to
everything our Sages have taught and even in
contradiction to reality itself. Starting
with those whose communities witnessed the
Holocaust, those who originally stuck their
heads in the sand, there has spread a
terrible rumor that all the Biblical
prophecies and all the revelations of our
Sages are now null and void. These
soothsayers are proclaiming that all our
sufferings in the past have been enough and
that there is no more suffering to come.
These blind and misguided souls are
proclaiming that "the sever prophecies and
stern judgments will be mitigated and the
Geula (redemption) will come peacefully and
sweetly."
These types of proclamations are sticking
one's head into the sand. Words of this
nature contradict everything Torah teaches
and even contradicts nature itself. Those
so-called great leaders proclaiming these
sentiments will be responsible for the
misguidance of all those who listen to them.
Like in Europe those who embrace these
wishful "pie-in-the-sky" fantasies are
destined to suffer a terrible awakening.
These sentiments are not just an optional
benign opinion, they sow seeds of false hope
that prevent people from seeing the truth
nature of world events which would then
enable them to prepare for the great turmoil
that is necessarily yet to come.
Mashiah is certainly coming, maybe sooner
than later; but such an event will not be all
sweet and peaceful. Mashiah comes as a
conqueror. He comes with war and imposes a
new peace; the peace of the conqueror, not
the peace of a warmly welcomed and desired
elected official. Prophecy is clear; Mashiah
comes with an army; not an army of human
beings, but rather an army of "Kodashim" as
the prophet Zecharia calls them. Kodashim
are angels and we know from the vision of
Ezekiel's chariot that the angels called
Ofanim are those who make contact with the
Earth. Their appearance is nothing less that
frightening, very much extraterrestrial.
When Mashiah appears with an army of what the
world will interpret as extraterrestrials,
how do you think the global news media will
report it? They are certainly not going to
be singing and dancing saying, "here comes
Mashiah now." Rather, I assume they will be
terrified out of their wits and scream that
we are being invaded from outer space.
The coming of Mashiah will be no peaceful and
sweet event. The removal of our entire
present civilization cannot be called sweet
and peaceful. Global societal collapse is not
sweet and peaceful. But yet, it is necessary
and all the proclamations of all the big
Rabbis cannot change this not even the
slightest. The proclamation of the old
Rabbis in Europe did not stop or lessen the
Holocaust; today's Rabbis hanging on to the
coattails of their predecessors from Europe
can also not make things peaceful or sweet.
We are living in tough and dangerous times
and matters are only deteriorating. They
will not get better before they get a whole
lot worse. This is most certainly not the
time to stick one's head into the sand and
pretend that everything will magically
correct itself. Ignorance is not bliss and
denial is a recipe for disaster. The only
way through a problem is not to deny it or
avoid it but rather to tackle it head on and
pass through the best we are able.
Here now is the real absolute solution to all
our modern woes. Rather than try to drug
ourselves up on the calming words of this
Rabbi or that, we must instead sober
ourselves up to the harsh realities of our
day and act as mature, responsible, Torah
inspired human beings. While no one knows
what tomorrow may bring and therefore no one
can honesty and securely prepare for the
unknown, there is still one kind of
preparation that we can do and, in my
opinion, we must do.
We can never control that which can happen to
us. That comes from the outside. What we
can control is how we respond to what happens
to us. This comes from the inside. We are
in control of ourselves, our thoughts, our
emotions and most certainly our actions and
behavior. We can choose how to act, how to
feel and what to think. Therefore, with
Torah as our foundation and our guide, we can
choose a Torah path, one that strengthens the
heart with truth, justice and righteousness.
Trusting in Heaven is key to all this.
Whatever good or bad comes our way, we must
always acknowledge that the Higher Hand of
Heaven has ordained this. No more false hope
in false promises; we must prepare ourselves
for the worst to come and yet at the same
time hope and pray for the best.
We cannot live in fear; yet we also cannot
live in fantasy. We cannot live by sticking
our heads in the sand. Although sand blocks
our vision from further seeing our problems,
it also suffocates us with a lack of fresh
air to breath. And as we lose consciousness
with our heads stuck in the sand we begin to
hallucinate with euphoria that everything is
beautiful. This is the clear recipe for death.
Embracing truth and living life accordingly,
this is the recipe for life. Those in
pre-Holocaust Europe who learned this lesson
for the most part lived to see another day,
to put into practice the hard-taught lessons
that they had learned. If not for them, we
would have no Israel today. If we had no
Israeli today there is no telling what shape
modern anti-Semitism would have taken and to
what ends it would have gone to have finished
what the Holocaust began. At least, now we
have a chance. We have a Righteous Father in
Heaven and we have clear minded, grounded and
honest children of Torah here on Earth.
Stay away from all the soothsayers of
sweetness and peace. They are being misled
and they are misleading, even though the rest
of the Torah they teach might be some of the
best on Earth. Take from them the good and
cast aside the bad. Become strong in faith
and know Mashiah might still not come in our
lifetimes and if so, then so be it. We will
still wait daily for his coming. In the
meantime however, we will continue to live,
with Torah, mitzvot, faith, strength, honor
and truth, without all the falsehoods of
misguided soothsayers of fantasy.