How Mashiach Can Come for Our Generation

By RaBBi Daniel Glatstein

After World War II ended, and the Holocaust was over, my paternal grandfather, HaRav Mordechai Leib Glatstein zt”l, was interviewed by the secular media; the interview was recorded in a book entitled After the Holocaust: The Migration of Polish Jews and Christians to Pittsburgh 1

My grandfather was asked, “After being an eyewitness to the brutality of the Germans, and after seeing — with your own eyes — the butchery of your nation, the mass murder of your brothers and sisters, did you at any point lose faith in your G-d and in the promises of the Torah?”

My grandfather responded, “Did I lose faith? Yes, I lost faith in humanity. How could human beings become animals and barbarians, how could a civilized society like Germany shed all conscience? How could the United States look the other way, stick their heads in the sand, and ignore what was happening to the Jewish people in Europe? So yes, I lost faith in mankind. But never, not even for a moment, did I lose faith in my G-d.”

This is the attitude of a Jew. A Jew never loses faith. Jews marched to their deaths reciting Shema Yisrael and singing Ani Maamin: “I believe with complete faith in the coming of Mashiach, and even though it tarries and delays, nevertheless I await its coming, whenever it may be.”

It is one of the Thirteen Principles of Faith to believe in the coming of Mashiach. Rav Moshe Feinstein writes that the obligation is not to just be “metzapeh,” to await, the coming of Mashiach — thinking, “Maybe he will come today.” We must anticipate Mashiach’s arrival as if it is imminent, as if he is most assuredly coming today. As the Navi Malachi says, “Suddenly the L-rd [Whom you seek] will come to His Sanctuary” (Malachi 3:1).

Suddenly. There need not be any sign or indication that his arrival is imminent. There need not be any world-shattering event heralding his coming. Pisom, suddenly, he can come.

How Can We Expect to Merit Mashiach?

Maseches Shabbos tells us that one of the primary questions a person will have to answer l’achar meiah v’esrim is: Tzipisa li’shua? Did you actively await the Geulah, the Final Redemption? Did you anticipate and yearn for the great days that Hashem has promised us through the Neviim?

On the other hand, at times, we may have considered the following question: How can we possibly hope to bring Mashiach? We all recognize our own unworthiness; we are cognizant that our level of serving Hashem falls short of what is truly expected of us. We understand how lowly we are as compared to earlier generations.

If Mashiach did not come for them, if the previous greater generations were unable to accomplish that which is necessary to bring Mashiach, how can we possibly expect to bring him?

If the Taanaim Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Meir, and Rebbe were not able to bring Mashiach, how can we? Each Amora mentioned in the Gemara had achieved a spiritual level that afforded him the ability to perform techiyas hameisim, revivification of the dead. Yet they were unable to bring Mashiach. Ravina, Rav Ashi, Abaye, Rava, Rav Yochanan, and Reish Lakish all yearned for Mashiach, but he did not come for them.

Mashiach did not come for the Gaonim or the Rishonim. The Geulah did not arrive in the merit of the Rambam, Ramban, Rashi, Rashba, Rif, and the Ran.

We are nowhere close to the level that these tzaddikim were on. How, then, can we aspire to bring the Geulah? How can we even consider it within the realm of possibility if all these luminaries and tzaddikim could not do so?

Mashiach did not come for the Maharsha, Taz, or the Shach. Nor did he come for the Chasam Sofer, Rabbi Akiva Eiger, or the Vilna Gaon. And it’s not even necessary to go that far back. Rav Yerucham once said2 that we don’t even begin to understand the greatness of our great-grandmothers. Rav Yerucham chose his words carefully. He did not just state that our great-grandmothers were on a much higher level than we are. He said that we don’t even begin to understand the level they were on.

This burning question gnaws at us: If Mashiach did not come for our grandparents, why should we realistically think that Mashiach will come for a generation like ours?

This question is raised by the Chofetz Chaim in Mach- aneh Yisrael, a compendium of halachos that he wrote for soldiers fighting in the Russian Army. He wrote: “And, let not a person wonder how can we be zocheh to that which even the earlier generations could not merit because this is not a question at all; the truth is that even though we are much smaller than our ancestors, Hashem adds up and is metzareif our zechusim together with the merits of the generations that precede us.”

The Chofetz Chaim likens this to a dwarf who rides on the shoulders of a giant. Picture a giant who is ninety-nine feet tall. Try as he may, he will not be able to reach the top of a building that is just beyond his reach. He tries and tries, and keeps coming up a foot or two short. If he were to take someone, even someone who is only two and a half feet tall, and place him on his shoulders, the short person will be able to grasp the top of the building with ease.

No one would wonder how the really short person could reach the top of the building when even the exceedingly tall giant could not. The giant brought the much shorter man more than 99 percent of the way to the top, and the man on his shoulders is tasked with traversing only the small distance that is remaining. A mere foot or two.

This, writes the Chofetz Chaim, is how we can understand our role in bringing Mashiach — and why we can aspire to bring the Geulah. Our ancestors, our forefathers, our zeidies and bubbies, were spiritual giants. They got us most of the way there. It is true that beside them we are of minute stature, we are small and unworthy. But we don’t have to do it on our own. We can stand on the shoulders of our illustrious forebears, and together, the collective body of the Jewish people will be able to bring the Geulah Sheleimah

We may be small, but by standing on the shoulders of the giants who came before us, we can reach heights they could only dream of reaching.

I present another thought as to why our generation has the ability and the capacity to bring the Geulah Sheleimah, perhaps even more than the earlier generations.

Our Generation is Unique

Rav Chaim Vital was the primary disciple of the Arizal, who would encourage his talmid at length by telling him how lofty and holy was the neshama with which he was blessed. Rav Chaim Vital wondered about these accolades being showered upon him. After all, he said, even the lowest, simplest person in the earlier generations was such a tzaddik and was so pious that he, Rav Chaim Vital, did not come close to their level of greatness. He felt that he was not on the madreigah, spiritual level, of even the simplest of people from the past.

The Arizal responded that Hashem does not judge a person based on his accomplishments. Rather, a person is judged based on the times in which he is living. He is judged in the context in which he performs. Our times, the Arizal told him, are unique as compared to prior generations. The forces of tumah, impurity, are so strong, and the challenges we face are very difficult. Even the smallest mitzvah performed in an environment such as this is equivalent to many, many, mitzvos being performed during the times of our ancestors.

One of the great baalei mussar, Rav Yerucham Levovitz, writes that one who sits and studies the words of Torah giants of previous generations, and who applies himself to understand what these tzaddikim are saying, even if he does not achieve an understanding as to what was said, may be greater in Hashem’s eyes than that Torah personality was. This lowly student may be even greater than the Torah giant whose words he is seeking to understand.

We don’t want to talk about this too much, adds Rav Yerucham, because we don’t want to make people feel not accumulate in his entire lifetime a hundred years ago, even with considerable effort. haughty. However, the truth is that we have no idea what one single solitary mitzvah being performed in our generation, a generation of darkness and impurity, a generation where we are confronted by enormous challenges heretofore never seen in the world, could accomplish. Even one single mitzvah performed in these spiritually challenging and trying times is priceless to Hashem.

The yetzer hara surrounds us on all sides, and the temptations are quite formidable. The nisayon of making a parnassah is very difficult. It is not easy for a person to give priority to the needs of his neshama and overcome the myriad challenges he faces. It is hard to set aside time for learning Torah and tefillah. It is not easy to curb one’s desires and control his eyes. But one who does so is very special indeed in the eyes of the Ribbono Shel Olam. One mitzvah he does, one tefillah he davens, one shiur he attends, and one act of self-control may be equivalent to thousands of mitzvos performed in earlier generations, when the nisyonos were not nearly as challenging.

A few years ago, I had the zechus to travel to South Africa to give shiurim. One of the highlights of my trip was an encounter I had in a shul in Cape Town. Sitting next to me was a young boy of about thirteen, whose intensity while davening was inspiring. I was moved to tears by his tefillos.

There I was, in a far-flung corner of the world, at the southern tip of Africa, in a vacation village beach town, and this boy was davening with tremendous heart and emotion. It was so apparent that this boy’s neshama is nisdabek, truly and deeply connected, to his Creator, and it was a very moving sight. The Ribbono Shel Olam has loyal servants everywhere, even in the most remote places in the world. Even in the twenty-first century, when standards of decency and morality are plummeting to previously unimaginable depths, the Ribbono Shel Olam’s people exhibit an unparalleled and historic loyalty.

This is what the Arizal wrote about mitzvah performance during his lifetime, given the situation in the world he lived in, about 500 years ago. He wrote that his was a generation of impurity, a generation of darkness and tumah

What can we possibly say about the challenges that our generation is facing? If the forces of impurity and immorality were strong in their generations, then nowadays they are simply out of control. Immodesty, indecency, and promiscuity have reached unheard-of levels. The advertisements that bombard us from all sides are horrifying. Appalling aveiros are accessible to us today with the mere click of a button. Tumah is readily available on a small device kept in one’s pocket. These represent spiritual ruination that a person can easily bring upon himself in a few brief minutes with little to no effort, and they embody levels of exposure to devarim assurim that a person could

The Ribbono Shel Olam has loyal servants everywhere, even in the most remote places of the world. I realized that perhaps this is what we, as a nation and community, have going for us. Our generation is truly unique and special in its avodas Hashem.

The Challenges We Face Render Us Giants

Perhaps it is for this precise reason that it is our lowly generation that has the power to bring Mashiach. We face seemingly insurmountable challenges, and we are incessantly bombarded with nisyonos and temptations of an extreme nature. By continuing to serve Hashem, despite all the difficulties we face, we are special indeed. And we merit Mashiach more than any generation before us.

In a way, we are not just dwarves standing on the shoulders of giants, but rather we can be likened to the tallest of giants standing on the shoulders of the giants who preceded us.

The arrival of Mashiach, the coming of the Geulah, is dependent on us. And if the Ribbono Shel Olam left it up to us, then Hashem trusts that we are fully capable of rising to the challenge.

HaGaon Rav Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, zt”l, would often adjure his students to treat every moment of life as priceless. He would encourage them to take advantage of every moment to be involved in mitzvos and positive endeavors. Rav Kahaneman would quip that the Chofetz Chaim merited a long life. This wasn’t simply because he lived over ninety years. Someone may live ninety years, but his life could still be considered short. The Chofetz Chaim’s life was long because he took advantage of and properly used all the minutes he was allotted in his ninety-plus years.

Rav Kahaneman related that one time he and his chavrusa, Reb Elchonon, needed to research an item in an obscure sefer. They noticed that the Chofetz Chaim quoted from that very sefer in his work, the Mishna Berura. They approached the Chofetz Chaim and asked to borrow the sefer. The Chofetz Chaim responded that he didn’t own the sefer in question. He explained that when he needed to use the sefer he would borrow it from the library of the Reb Yaakov Brevda in Warsaw. (The Chofetz Chaim, in one of his introductions, specifically thanks Reb Yaakov for the use of his li-