8 Elul 5784
I read something somewhere yesterday but I can't give credit where credit is due because I can't recall where it was or who said it and could not find it again. However, it was something to the effect that loads of people have done teshuvah since the events beginning on October 7th of last year and are now calling for Mashiach to come. I find this very hard to believe and I don't think they have a clue what they are asking for.
A misconception about suffering and teshuvah seems to have developed, if I'm understanding people correctly. Suffering does not replace teshuvah, it's another means toward doing teshuvah. It's not like either we do teshuvah or we will suffer, but either way leads to salvation. There is no salvation without teshuvah.
Ideally, we are supposed to do a regular self-examination, determine where we are lacking and change our ways, adjust our course, as needed. Going down the wrong path without any correction leads to massive suffering, which should bring us back around to step 1: self-examination for the cause of the suffering, leading to step 2: teshuvah, which does not simply mean feeling bad for our errors, but correcting them as well. We have to leave the path of error and get back on the track of truth. I'm not sure that is really happening on a massive scale.
It looks more like to me that people just want to stop hurting. If they think about Mashiach at all, it's as a quick fix to end the suffering that they've brought upon themselves and others. They want to actually bypass the teshuvah process, but that's impossible. That's not how HKB"H runs His world. And with the advent of Mashiach is actually going to come a whole lot more suffering, so that's not the solution they are after either. They don't get that whereas up to now, Torah Law has only been self-imposed, in Days of Mashiach, it will be enforced upon everyone. Those who rebel at the very idea have not done teshuvah at all.
The world is out of balance right now because of our sins (lawlessness) and geulah (the restoration of the rule of law) is going to bring it back into balance again. There is currently too much chesed in the world and only more din will balance it. Chesed is described by our sages as like water. Without limits or boundaries which contain it and confine it to a particular place, it becomes a destructive force - a flood. Do you think it is an accident or a coincidence that the Arabs called the October 7th attack Al Aqsa Flood? Or that the entire planet is being inundated by flood waters? Or that the national borders of Western countries are being flooded with illegal immigrants? This is the message - too much chesed and not enough din. You see it in the wild mobs protesting and the flash mobs stripping stores of their wares. And people rightly ask: What has happened to the rule of law? Where is the justice?
When Mashiach arrives, the world is going to learn quickly how The Law is going to be restored and applied and enforced globally. The teshuvah that must be done is to regret and repent the rejection of HKB"H's Law and then to embrace it. The "Free" West has more to learn than anyone. They broke down their own dikes and then went about breaking them down all over the world, including in Eretz Yisrael, which was their biggest mistake.
Of course, those who are suffering due to the lack of din and who pray for it to be restored, they will rejoice with the coming of Mashiach and their pain will be relieved. But those who want to be pain-free without teshuvah, while continuing to contribute to the problems, it is only going to get worse for them. The West (Edom), as we know it now, will cease to exist and so will the State of Israel which is attached to it. It simply has to because it is rotten to the core. The Kingdom of Israel will arise out of it and be raised above it. And the whole world will look to Jerusalem to learn how to live in balance with the New World, because...
Mashiach is going to make Torah great again!!
