The world is changing fast. As we have discussed, much of it is now in the hands of madmen, and these madmen are armed with weapons that can wipe out all life and make the world unbearable for those who survive. These madmen know how to use these weapons. They also do not care about the life of the world; they care about their own lives and the things they personally desire.
As the world becomes more clearly insane, the idea grows on us that we need to go beyond our own experience to find our anchor in the chaos, the Rock to which we will cling. Indeed, Moshe Rabbeinu says it in the Torah: “The Rock: perfect is His work, for all His paths are justice, a Hashem of faith without iniquity, righteous and fair is He. Corruption is not His: the blemish is His children’s, a perverse and twisted generation….”
I thought I had seen a good world in the past, but then I realized that I had no experience of the world the way it is supposed to be, because for that one must return to Gan Eden or the days when the Temple stood in the Holy City of Yerushalayim and no one alive today has seen those things.
“How majestic was the Kohain Gadol as he left the Holy of Holies in peace, without injury …. Like the heavenly canopy stretched out over those who dwell above was the appearance of the Kohain Gadol … Like lightning bolts emanating from the radiance of the Chayos … Like the fringes attached to the four corners …. Like the image of the rainbow amid the cloud … Like a rose placed amid a precious garden … Like a crown placed on a king’s forehead … Like the morning star on the eastern border was the appearance of the Kohain Gadol …. Fortunate is the eye that saw all these….”
There is no halfway. Either the world must be the way Hashem created it to be or it will be nothing. That is where we are now. Once maybe it was different, but no more. There will be no halfway. It is going to be either the way Hashem wants it or nothing.
In the beginning, the world was “astonishingly empty, with darkness upon the surface of the deep.” That is how the world began and that is where we are now.
This is the end. It is also the beginning.
We have to know that the world will be perfect again.
Hashem is over all. “Rabos machashavos b’lev ish … many thoughts are in man’s heart, but only the will of Hashem will prevail.” Mankind’s foolish schemes are at an end.
I hope we will have the strength to focus on Hashem when the explosion comes, because we will need incredible strength and we will have to be prepared as best we can. If we are taken by surprise, we will not make it.
But the new world … ah, the new world. I do not pretend to know what it will be except what one can glean from the prophets, but … it will be a world of perfection. A world of peace, filled with Torah. No longer will we have to eat our bread by the sweat of our brow.
“A staff will emerge from the stump of Yishai and a shoot will sprout from his roots. The spirit of Hashem will rest upon him, a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and strength, a spirit of knowledge and fear of Hashem. He will … not need to judge by what his eyes see nor decide by what his ears hear. He will judge the destitute with righteousness and decide with fairness for the humble of the earth. He will strike [the wicked] … with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be the girdle around his loins and faith will be the girdle around his waist.
“The wolf will live with the sheep and the leopard will lie down with the kid… They will neither injure nor destroy in all of My sacred mountain, for the earth will be filled with knowledge of G-d as water covering the sea bed. It shall be on that day that the descendant of Yishai who stands as a banner for the peoples, nations will seek him and his resting place will be glorious. It shall be on that day that the Lord will once again show His hand, to acquire the remnant of His people who will have remained … He will raise a banner for the nations and assemble the castaways of Israel, and He will gather in the dispersed ones of Judah from the four corners of the earth.”
May Hashem, Who has guided us through history, guide us through the coming years so that we reach this moment in peace and safety. We have to do everything possible to merit redemption, but we are deep in Exile, and, in the end, it is only “l’ma’an shemo b’ahava … for the sake of His Name, with love,” that Hashem will send the redeemer, just the way He sent a redeemer to our ancestors in Ancient Egypt.
The Prophet says, “The Word of Hashem …. I scattered [the House of Israel] among the nations and they were dispersed among the lands. According to their ways and their doings did I judge them, and they came to the nations … and they desecrated My holy Name when it was said of them, ‘These are Hashem’s people, but they departed His land.’
“But I pitied My holy Name that the House of Israel desecrated among the nations to which they came.
“Therefore, say to the House of Israel …. Thus says my Lord Hashem: Not for your sake do I act, O House of Israel, but for My Holy Name that you have desecrated among the nations to which you came. And I will sanctify My great name that was desecrated among the nations, that you desecrated among them. Then the nations shall know that I am Hashem – the words of My Lord Hashem – when I become sanctified through you in their sight.
“And I shall take you from the nations and gather you in from all the countries and I shall bring you to your Land, and I shall sprinkle pure water upon you, that you be cleansed. From all your contamination and from all your filth I will cleanse you, and I shall give you a new heart and a new spirit shall I put within you. I shall remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And My spirit shall I put within you, and I shall cause you to go by My decrees and guard My laws and perform them, and you shall dwell in the land that I gave your fathers, and you shall be to Me a people and I shall be your G-d.
“And I shall save you from all your contaminations and I shall summon the grain and increase it, and I shall not place famine upon you, and I shall increase the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field so that you no longer accept the shame of hunger among the nations. Then you will remember your evil ways and your doings that were not good and you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight because of your sins and your abominations. Not for your sake do I act – the word of My Lord Hashem – let it be known to you. Be ashamed and be humiliated because of your ways, Oh House of Israel.
“Thus says my Lord Hashem: On the day when I cleanse you from all your sins, and cause the cities to be inhabited and the ruins to be rebuilt and the desolated land to be tilled instead of being desolate in the eyes of every passerby, then they shall say, ‘This very land that was desolate has become a Garden of Eden and the cities that were destroyed and were desolate and ruined shall be fortified … inhabited!’ And the nations that will remain around you will know that I am Hashem, I will have rebuilt the ruins, replanted the wasteland. I, Hashem, have spoken and acted.”
“Remember the exhausted [nation] that won
[Your favor], and return her to Your soil.”
* * *
“Please be revealed, and spread upon me,
my Beloved, the shelter of Your peace.
Illuminate the world with Your glory
that we may rejoice and be glad with You.
Hasten, show love, for the time has come,
and show us grace as in days of old.”
2 comments:
Looks like a great sefer!
ITS THE MESSAGE WIYHIN!
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