Who Wants Mashiach?

Translated from Rabbi Arush’s feature article in the weekly Chut shel Chessed newsletter. The articles focus on his main message: “Loving others as yourself” and emuna. 

Last week we started a series of articles about praying for Mashiach, and we mentioned the first point. With Hashem’s help, in this article and the next ones too we will continue to bring up very special points relating to this important topic. 

Is there any reader out there who doesn’t want Mashiach? And, if possible, even “Mashiach now”? 

There is no one who doesn’t feel, “Enough! He must come as soon as possible, because we have no strength left…” 

Do you pray for Mashiach? For the Geula (final redemption)? 

It is very possible that you ought to stop praying for these things – right now! 

It is very possible that your prayers, instead of hastening the Geula are only delaying it! 

I said in my shiur in the yeshiva that the prayers for Mashiach awaken Heavenly accusation. Everyone in the audience was outraged: What?! Can that be?! The Geula is the most important thing – and we should stop praying? Heavenly accusation?! 

No, of course one must pray. Chazal instituted many prayers for the Geula and the coming of Mashiach. But the question is how to pray, and what are we really asking for when we pray and ask for Mashiach. 

If you ask for Mashiach because you think that things are very bad now and only when Mashiach comes life will be good – then, please forgive me, but that is a great flaw in one’s emuna (faith), because there is no evil in the world, and Hashem is merciful and always does only good. 

Don’t you believe that the Jewish people must go through exactly what they’re going through, and everything is with great mercy?! 

When you think that what is happening now is bad – that is lack of emuna, and lack of emuna awakens great accusation from Above, as Rabbi Nachman says, that lack of emuna, a flaw in emuna, causes Heavenly anger.  

Also, lack of emuna delays the Geula, because “the main reason for exile is only due to lack of emuna,” says Rabbi Nachman. So of course you can’t hasten the Geula with lack of emuna! 

Also, Rabbi Nachman says that “Emuna is tefilla (prayer),” and prayer that is coming from lack of emuna – is not a prayer… 

Therefore, if you want to pray for Geula – first believe in Hashem! First believe that what is happening now is the best thing that could happen! Believe that there is no evil in the world! Believe that Hashem is good and merciful! Believe that Hashem loves us endlessly and does and will do for us only good, and only the best and even better! 

Don’t pray for the Mashiach, if you don’t have full faith in Hashem! 

And therefore, before you pray, give many thanks for everything you’re going through and everything the Jewish people are going through. Don’t ask for Mashiach because you want to be rid of your troubles, but only from the starting point of emuna that everything is good and everything is for the best.  

In addition, I said in my shiur that many times, when a person prays for Mashiach, he thinks about his personal problems in life and he secretly expects that the Mashiach will come and solve all those personal problems; he will be healthy and wealthy and have a good marriage etc…. 

Such a “Mashiach” is simply a kind of escape from reality. And it is also a flaw in emuna because it comes from an unwillingness to accept reality with emuna, and cope with it.  

One person in my shiur approached me afterwards and said: “Listen, Rabbi, at the beginning it was hard for me to accept this. What?! I want Mashiach to solve my personal problems?! But after I looked into it deeply, I understood that that is exactly so!” 

If you feel that you have problems in life and are not happy – that means that you lack emuna. Rabbi Nachman says that when emuna becomes perfected, all the lacks that you feel disappear. If you feel you lack things, you don’t need Mashiach; you just must learn The Garden of Emuna. Because you are not happy and feel bitter about life – you want Mashiach? What’s the connection?! Is Mashiach coming to make us happy? Only emuna brings happiness into one’s life! Study emuna, acquire emuna, live with emuna – and you will be happy! 

Therefore, before we explain what Mashiach is and what one is really praying for when one prays for Mashiach, let’s make this clear: Remember there is no connection between your trials and problems in life and Mashiach!  

So what is the Mashiach? What is his role? What is the Geula? 

Mashiach comes to publicize and reveal Hashem’s glory, His emuna, His kingship. “Therefore, we put your hope in You,” we pray and hope. What are we hoping for? For an easy life? No! Rather, “that we may soon see Your mighty splendor… all humanity will call upon Your Name, … All the world’s inhabitants will recognize and know… and they will all accept upon themselves the yoke of Your kingship…” 

That is the hope for Mashiach, and when you ask for Mashiach, you should have only that intention! 

“And He brings the savior to their sons’ sons,” we say in every prayer. For what? “For the sake of His Name with love.” Not to solve our problems.  

If you want Mashiach, that means that you want Hashem to be the King – so start crowning Hashem yourself – accepting His kingship on yourself! In other words, start believing in Hashem, start coping with your difficulties with emuna, to the point that you will rejoice and dance and thank Hashem for everything that happens in your life – big problems and small, short-term problems and long-terms ones – everything! 

Also, if Mashiach is truly important for you, in other words, Hashem’s Name yitbarach and publicizing His kingship and believing in Him – if so, you should be showing this not only in speech but in deeds as well. How? By publicizing and disseminating emuna in the world! Because His Name is important to you, and you want all of creation to call upon His Name. 

If Mashiach is important to us and we want Mashiach, we can begin to perform the actions of Mashiach in the world, which are those of revealing Hashem’s kingship in the world – each and every one of us, male or female – within their own circles. 

When you live with emuna and increase emuna in the world and accept everything that happens to you with love and emuna, then you are, first of all, a happy person, but then you can also ask and pray for the Mashiach and the Geula for the honor of Hashem and for Hashem, and not because you feel you have a hard life. 

Therefore, the strongest and most powerful prayer for Mashiach is kaddish: “And may His salvation blossom and His Mashiach be near.” What is ‘His Mashiach’? It means that the Mashiach is Hashem’s. 

I am being exacting in my words: We are not praying for our Mashiach who will solve all our problems, rather we are praying for Hashem’s Mashiach, and therefore the goal of the kaddish and the purpose of a Jew’s life is only that His great Name be exalted and sanctified. That is the prayer of the Jew and of the Jewish People. 

Emuna is tefilla and tefilla is emuna! Only tefilla that comes from the complete faith that Hashem always loves us and that everything is good is called tefilla. And only such a tefilla hastens and brings the Geula, because Yisrael will experience salvation only in the merit of emuna, as Rabbi Nachman says, “When emuna will increase in the world, Mashiach will come, because the main part of Geula depends on that.”