Sunday, July 29, 2007

I Do Not Want the Messiah

I don't want the Messiah.

I know that I should want him. I see other people who glow whenever they mention the Mashiach. They dance and sing and their every action is genuine. I envy them.

I have never wanted the Messiah.

When I was younger and questioned as to what I would wish for could I have anything, I asked for my grandmother's health. Many others in my class dutifully answered, "We want Mashiach!" Since the Mashiach was not a real concept to me, whereas my grandmother was, that answer would never have occurred to me.

But that is not all. As a child, I read about two sages who prayed to God so that they would not have to live through the Messianic era (Sanhedrin 98b.) They did this because the sufferings would be so great, the pain so terrible, that they did not wish to have to live through it. As someone who was very imaginative and could envision a great deal of pain and destruction, and as someone who is afraid of that pain, this thought took hold of me and would not let me go. To want the Messiah is to live through unbearable pain; I determined that I could not do this.

Happily, I realized in eleventh grade that the Messiah need not be brought through pain. I read the following passage from The World of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik:

    In the midst of their discussion, one of the Jews exclaimed: "If only we could be certain that these were the pangs of redemption that precede the coming of the Messiah." Before he was able to complete the sentence, Reb Chaim interrupted him and exclaimed: "I do not agree with you!"

    Taken aback, the Jew responded to Reb Chaim: "What did I say, Rebbe, that you did not agree with. I barely said anything."

    Reb Chaim replied: "You said too much! You implied that all the sufferings and sacrifices would be worth it if only we could be certain that these were the pangs of the redemption. I do not agree with this approach because it is totally against halakhah. The law is that saving lives [pikuach nefesh] cancels the entire Torah. Accordingly, it also cancels the coming of the Messiah. Who says that the Messiah will come only through the murder of innocent Jews? God has many ways to bring the Messiah, and certainly He does not have to bring him through the shedding of innocent Jewish blood."

    This is the tradition I received from Reb Chaim of Brisk. (131)

Thank God, I breathed. The Messiah can come without pain; this means I can want him now, and want him totally, and I will fulfill the law and be at peace with myself.

But this is not the case.

Had I been born during a different time period, it would be easy for me to want the Messiah. Had I lived through the Holocaust, had I truly suffered anti-Semitism, had I been physically hurt or separated or made to feel different, I would of course desire a Savior, a Redeemer. My every thought and prayer would be for him.

And I have read the stories of the sages who listen so attentively to hear whether the King Messiah approaches, who even packed suitcases so that they could follow him as soon as he arrived, who are crestfallen because they mistakenly think he has come only to realize he has not come.

But none of this changes the fact that the reason I do not want the Messiah is because I think our world is very beautiful.

Our world, with all its flaws, with all its angry and divisive people, its penchant for so many opinions and ideas and arguments, still, to me, is beautiful.

And I have pity on the world and I don't want the Messiah to come.

What do I mean? I'll try to explain.

We learn that when the Messiah comes "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea" (Isaiah 11:9).

And it seems to me that if that is so, so much that I love and hold dear would have to die. For example, there is so much art that I find beautiful and inspiring. But in a world where we all have knowledge of God, would the Sistine Chapel be permitted to remain? Despite the fact that the ceiling is exquisitely painted by Michelangelo, could we permit such a church, that last ironic picture of The Last Judgement, to remain? Or forget the Sistine Chapel. Any religious art, art dedicated to Jesus, perhaps of his Crucifixion; could any of that remain? Beautiful temples, pagodas, places of worship, would all that have to be destroyed?

In my mind's eye, the coming of the Messiah equals the destruction of everything that is suddenly learned to be false, no matter how beautiful it is. There would be no more Sistine Chapel, none of these gorgeous pieces of art; all this would be smashed down with axes and burned, as is the case with any form of idol worship. After all, our God is a jealous one, and would he permit all these monuments to other gods to remain in this world? No! Unless perhaps the fact that the world is filled with knowledge of God would mean that we would be able to appreciate these works of art for what they are, art, and not see them as reflecting a God in any way. But I do not think that is the case. After all, idols can be very beautiful, can't they, lovingly carved and made of silver and gold? And yet they must nonetheless be destroyed.

It is not that I don't believe the Messiah will come. I believe he will come. I believe it so much that whenever I look at something, I look at it with a queer breathless feeling that it will not be there tomorrow. I try to memorize anything that holds meaning for me; I watch movies like The Passion of the Christ and think, "If the Messiah comes tomorrow, that won't exist anymore..." even though it teaches me and I am able to learn from it. I look at Michelangelo's Pieta and feel a strange sense of worry for that, too, that that, too, will be destroyed. And it is not only art. This extends to books, magazines, so many forms of information that I look to and learn from, but if God is evident, none of this will exist any more.

I once spoke thus to my friend and told her that I am sad for all the wonders that it seems to me will be destroyed once the Messiah comes, and alarmed her for she said, "Oh, but Chana, it will be so much more and so much better than we can comprehend!" And I believe what she said and it is true that there will be new wonders to replace the old, as described:
    R. Hiyya b. Joseph said: A time will come when the just will break through [the soil] and rise up in Jerusalem, for it is said in Scripture, And they will blossom out of the city like grass of the earth,29 and by 'city' only Jerusalem can be meant for it is said in Scripture, For I will defend this city.30

    R. Hiyya b. Joseph further stated: The just in the time to come will rise [apparelled] in their own clothes.31 [This is deduced] a minori ad majus from a grain of wheat. If a grain of wheat that is buried32 naked sprouts up with many coverings how much more so the just who are buried in their shrouds.

    R. Hiyya b. Joseph further stated: There will be a time when the Land of Israel will produce baked cakes of the purest quality33 and silk34 garments, for it is said in Scripture, There will be a rich35 cornfield36 in the land.37

    Our Rabbis taught: There will be a rich cornfield in the Land upon the top of the mountains.37 [From this] it was inferred that there will be a time when wheat will rise as high as a palm-tree and will grow on the top of the mountains. But in case you should think that there will be trouble in reaping it, it was specifically said in Scripture, its fruit shall rustle like Lebanon;37 the Holy One, blessed be He, will bring a wind from his treasure houses which He will cause to blow upon it. This will loosen its fine flour and a man will walk out into the field and take a mere handful38 and, out of it, will [have sufficient provision for] his own, and his household's maintenance.

    Ketuboth 111b

But these new wonders do not make up for the loss of the old. I cannot resign myself to the loss of so much that is precious to me...

And it is more than that. Suppose Mashiach ben Yosef comes and dies. Then Mashiach ben David comes and reigns. And then there is a time of justice and righteousness and peace on earth for a span of a thousand years or so. And then (or before then) tehiyat ha'meisim, the Resurrection of the Dead. Even then, as a sidepoint, my soul will not necessarily be resurrected within my body, but within the body that served God best. So fine. We have our peace on earth, our Resurrection of the Dead; God serves the tzaddikim the Leviathan and bathes them in celestial light.

And then what?

There is no purpose, no meaning anymore. The whole point of existence, to discover God and serve him and to eventually bring the Messiah; it would have been fulfilled. We live, but knowledge of God fills the earth. There is no struggle anymore. There is no choice. Or if there is, it is limited.

So what happens then? Does the world die? Does the sun go out, as the scientists predict, and we all are incinerated or otherwise killed? There is certainly no reason for the world to continue on...

It is not just the ending of my personal story; it is the ending of all our stories. We have no purpose, no meaning, no reason to live anymore. We have fulfilled our purpose.

And once our world is destroyed, what then? Does God then create a new world? A new world in which to place his servants, to begin a new story, to hand them a new Torah? A new world where there will be a Midrash that God "created and destroyed many worlds before this one?" Does the entire story begin again? Is it all one everlasting cycle? Will these people have a new Abraham, a new Moses, a new conflict and struggle, a new quest to bring the Messiah?

Will they go through the same realizations we have gone through, realize that their text does not fit historical and archeological evidence? Will they too have fights and questions about God's existence?

Imagine for everything to begin again, to happen again, but to different people, people who are making all these discoveries for the first time, just as we did. There is something grand in this but something tragic as well, something so completely futile and hopeless, something that terrifies me!

No. I do not want the Messiah to come.

For me, the Messiah suggests the beginning of the End. For when the Messiah comes, after our allotted time of service in comfort and joy, our reward, after techiyat ha'meisim, what then? There is no more purpose, no more reason to be, no point, no struggle. There is nothing.

And the earth shall descend into darkness and nothingness, and the spirit of God shall hover over the face of the waters, and God shall create, again...

I do not want all our stories to end. Perhaps this is my personal selfishness, but I feel like we have so much more to learn, so much more to discover, so much more to teach but once the Messiah comes all this will be halted; we will have our requisite reward and then we shall fade away. And then there will be a new beginning, and it will not include us, or if it does, it shall only include our souls, and that will be the great and tragic irony, that we shall not remember the destruction of the last world, and we shall see this all as new, and suffer and struggle in the same way again, just as we always have done.

Imagine, for a moment, those other destroyed worlds; perhaps they too had people? Perhaps they too had Messiahs? How many years have we been living this cycle? This is assuming there even is a cycle, but I cannot imagine there not being one, for otherwise you mean to tell me our world is so vastly important that once it dies God will never create another one? No, that I cannot believe.

Tell me, those of you who want the Messiah, who truly desire him, why do you want him? How can you want this ending, even if it brings a momentary good; does it not end all of our stories? Or do you perhaps not see it as an ending...and if you do not, how can you not?

I wish I could want the Messiah. I wish I saw a way to want him, honestly and truly.
But once again, what I feel is the desire to desire.

16 comments:

Erachet said...

This is not something I have voiced to very many people but, I used to say I didn't want Mashiach to come as least until Harry Potter was over, because I wanted to find out what happened!

I know exactly what you mean. Part of me, the very idealistic part, definitely wants Mashiach to come, in part also because it's a change, it's an adventure, it's the unknown and that's exciting to me. But a part of me doesn't want him to come just yet, not until I experience everything I want to in this lifetime, because there are so many things I want to do and I'm afraid of losing them before I get a chance to do them.

But then again, we don't exactly know what's going to happen when Mashiach comes, anyway. All the wonders of our world might still be here.

Rebecca said...

I see where you are coming from, Chana. But I disagree.

I don't think that the world as we know it will end completely with the coming of Moshiach. I think that it will take upon a new form, something we have never experienced, something that will be absoutely wonderful.

Because Chana, the world that we live in now prevents us so much from serving Hashem as we should. There are so many Jews today who have been lost in that which prevents us, so many of them who do not know the beauty of Yiddishkeit. I'm not talking about those who have gone "off the derech"--I'm talking about those Jews who never knew what Judaism was, who think that it's all about bagels and lox, or going to Temple on the High Holidays, or maybe even a Passover Seder with matza--and that's it. They have no inkling (!) of what it is to be a Jew.

Then there are some of us who are more dedicated Jews on the surface, but fail to grasp ideal Judaism.

Allow me to explain. You speak of the beauty of Christian art and the like; I do not disagree that it probably is very beautiful. But think of the times of the Bais HaMikdosh, when such art did not exist. Then we were able to see that true beauty came directly from Hashem, our Hashem, in the form of our holy Torah and mitzvos. I do not preach here, I am no Bais Yaakov teacher and do not intend to become one. I am simply voicing my opinions. There was no need for Christian art, because we could see true beauty from its Source--that is, from Hashem Himself.

The world of Moshiach, then, I believe, is not going to be as formidable as you fear. I believe that it will not be a new world in which all we have known and loved is lost--rather, I believe that it will be a world realigned to show us the true Source of all goodness. We will not need the Christian art or other forms of beauty, because we will see the beauty in its pure, unadulterated form.

And no, I do not think that we shall all disappear with the coming of Moshiach. Again, I believe that we will be in a world where service of Hashem will be so obvious to us, so wonderful and so pure, that we will not wish to have it any other way. In terms of the bechirah that you speak of, I do not have an answer for you because I too am unable to understand what the exact parameters of bechirah will be. But I know, it will be beautiful and blissful.

Yes, it is scary to leave this world for the unknown. But let us imagine a baby in the womb. The baby spends nine months growing and developing in a dark, warm womb, nurtured by its mother and quite comfortable. It is quite content...

And then the birth pangs come. And the baby is scared. Because now the baby will leave the home, the only home it has known and loved, for the unknown. And that is enough to make the baby cry.

Upon reaching the world outside the womb, however, the baby will slowly come to realize that this new world is much better than the womb. While in the womb the baby was given all of what he/she needed and was comfortable, the womb-world was dark and prevented the baby from seeing true beauty. Once the baby left the womb, he/she understand what the real world is.

We live in the womb, Chana. Yes, much of what we see even outside of Judaism is beautiful; I do not disagree. But the world of Moshiach, the world where we will see everything from its true Source, will be so much more beautiful, much more beautiful than any of us can imagine.

Anonymous said...

I suggest that you take a look at Rav Aryeh Kaplan's essay "The Real Messiah." He brings up a potential moshiach scenario that you may not have considered, one where the world as we know it stays very much the same.

Miri said...

Chana, I know what you mean. And I have additional reasons for not wanting the Moshiach. What happens to Eretz Yisroel then? Do we become a theocracy? Does that man we start administering corporal punishment for tzniut violations? What would a religous government look like? What happens to all the dissent and varied opinions which are part of what makes our religion glorious?

But I still want it and I'll tell you why: Because then we can stop wondering. Suppose the Moshiach doesn't come in my lifetime. I'll still die. My personal story will still be more or less at an end. But I won't have gotten to see how it all came together. I mean I don't really know, maybe G-d explains stuff to you after you die. But if I get to see the Moshiach, I'll know. I'll have seen with my own eyes what happened in the end. And beyond that, how is anything much different from what happens to us after we die?

And yes, it does make everything seem sort of futile. All cycles leave you with a sense of futility; e.g. why go to school? to get into college, why? to get a job, why? to support a family, who will go to school, why? etc etc etc. Just belonging to the massive chain that is humanity sometimes feels futile. Maybe that's what King Shlomo meant when he said "Hakol hevel..." But that only allows me to be existentially angsty even within the confines of my religion, so maybe we just get the best of both worlds;)

Anonymous said...

You were wrong :-)

More to come later.

-Y

Chana said...

Rebecca,

You will forgive me, I hope, for saying this. I have heard words like yours before, words spoken by good and well-meaning people, but they have no affect on me. It is because in all things I have to look for some kind of meaning, some kind of purpose. Suppose that our Messianic world shall be good and beautiful and blissful, that we shall all know and love God. But then...what is our purpose?

You write of the Jews who do not know God and will come to know him during such an age. But see, that is precisely what some people do in our world nowadays, is try to reach out to their brethren and offer them a different way of seeing. And when the world is full of God, there shall be no purpose to that anymore, will there be? Take anything that we do or try to change. In such a time of bliss and peace, there will be no need.

One of the most important quotes I've ever read in any book was in The High King by Lloyd Alexander:

"Yes, Arawn is slain," Taran replied. "Evil is conquered and the blade's work done."

"Evil conquered?" said Gwydion. "You have learned much, but learn this last and hardest of lessons. That was th easiest of your tasks, only a beginning, not an ending. Do you believe evil itself to be so quickly overcome? Not so long as men still hate and slay each other, when greed and anger goad them. Against these even a flaming sword cannot prevail, but only the portion of good in all men's hearts whose flame can never be quenched" (300).

The most fantastic works of literature all focus upon this truth: evil is never fully destroyed. Oh, there may be a great leader who represents evil who is killed, let us take Sauron, for instance. Do you think killing Sauron is the end of evil? Absolutely not. If so, why does the Age of Men begin? As Gandalf himself says, "The Third Age was my age. I was the Enemy of Sauron; and my work is finished. I shall go soon. The burden must lie now upon you and your kindred" (RotK, 278). There is much still to clean and purify and to fight again; there will be a new evil and a new quest.

I do not like endings. I do not like endings where the protagonist succeeds in finishing off an evil character and it is assumed there will be no more evil ever again. But what is the Messianic age if not such an ending? The Messiah will come, the Angel of Death will be cast down, Samael slain, evil will depart from the world and the knowledge of God will fill it.

You see, with such endings comes lack of purpose; reward may be enjoyed for a time, but after a while it would seem to me that lack of purpose and meaning grates on a person and bothers him, which is why such reward must be limited.

To some extent this all comes down to my personal struggle with pride, surrender, submission and acceptance. I feel like I, and anyone who feels like me, must make the choice Galadriel makes:

"She stood before Frodo seeming now tall beyond measurement and beautiful beyond enduring, terrible and worshipful. Then she let her hand fall, and the light faded, and suddenly she laughed again, and lo! she was shrunken: a slender elf-woman clad in simple white, whose gentle voice was soft and sad. 'I pass the test,' she said, 'I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel."

To all things there must come an ending and an acceptance of that ending, the choice to diminish, to accept that one's work is done, and to pass from this stage that is our world into anonymity.

I am learning this and I will learn this, but it is a sad truth and one that I cannot love, just as Galadriel could not love it, though she accepted it. To some extent, as their purpose was to destroy the ring, our purpose is to bring the Messiah. And if that brings an age which shall cause all who worked for it to have to pass away, so be it...I am learning to accept it, but it is so against everything that I want and love that it is hard.

Anonymous said...

Chana,

You write so well and so much more knowledgeably than me that I hesitate to totally contradict you, but I think that while there is a lot I can agree with here, there is a lot more that you are missing.

I will ignore the question of whether Christianity is actually idol-worship, and whether Christian art would have to be destroyed. Even if you look at more clearly idolatrous cultures, I believe that the halacha is that an idol does not need to be destroyed if its non-Jewish owner renounces it. However, I am not sure about all this and I think some of it is debated anyway, so I will not stress it. I will, however, say that just because something is aesthetically pleasing, it does not necessarily follow that it is beneficial for mankind. As George Orwell put it in his essay on morality and art Benefit of Clergy: Some Notes on Salvador Dali “The first thing we demand of a wall is that it shall stand up. If it stands up, it is a good wall, and the question of what purpose it serves is separable from that. And yet even the best wall in the world deserves to be pulled down if it surrounds a concentration camp. In the same way it should be possible to say, ‘This is a good book or a good picture, and it ought to be burned by the public hangman.’”

Looking at the more general question of whether the Messianic Age will see an end to our personal stories, I am inclined to say that it will not. As you know, in English, ‘peace’ has the connotation of an absence: no fighting, no noise, no movement. However, in Hebrew, ‘shalom’ has a very different connotation, one of wholeness and completion. This is how I understand the Messianic Age: a world not of peace, but of shalom, of completeness. The world is full of suffering, hatred, mistrust and contention (which, by the way, would be reason enough for me to want the Messianic Age even if I shared your concerns: there are many people in the world whose lives are hanging in the balance right now, and I think it would be worth losing some pictures or creativity to save their lives). Moreover, the Jewish people is, I feel, in the middle of a great crisis, its sense of identity and purpose shattered by the events of the last century or so. There is a desperate need for shalom, for wholeness, for the harmonisation of the component parts into a peaceful, coherent whole. For I do not see the Messianic Age as one of homogenous intellectual conformity as you seem to fear. The fact that “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” does not imply to me that everyone will think the same. For we know that the infinite God is perceived in different ways by different people of necessity (because people are only finite) yet different opinions may be equally valid (e.g. Hillel and Shammai). Rather, the difference between then and now as I see it is that now these differences are a source of hatred and violence; then we shall be able to respect our differences and journey on the path to truth together.

Of course, it is difficult to understand how this could be, and how we could find it intellectually stimulating and enjoyable. The arrival of Mashiach will be a paradigm shift: our entire way of looking at the world will change, and it is difficult to imagine how it will be from within our current paradigm. It is like trying to explain relativity to Newton. Perhaps this is why the redemption is seen as like waking from a dream (Psalm 126), a change in consciousness.

All that said, I don’t think the view you have presented and the view that is enthusiastic about Mashiach are contradictory; rather, they come from different perspectives on life. You might be interested in this short essay by the British Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, on different views of time in Judaism. Comparing it with what you have written, it strikes me that you, like Hillel live each day for its own sake, for its own spiritual potential, contrasting with Shammai, who lived focusing on his spiritual destination, represented by Shabbat (for Shammai) or the Messianic Era (for many other Jews).

Rebecca said...

My focus on the above comment, Chana, was on beauty. On finding true beauty with the coming of Moshiach.

Like I said, I disagree with you in virtue to bechirah, but I don't have much evidence to offer as to an alternative option. Not because there is no other option, but because I simply do not have enough knowledge in this area. A better bet would be to consult a Torah authority who is far more knowledgable than I.

Nevertheless, I truly appreciate your response to my comment. :-)

Chana said...

Daniel, I like your answer!

Thank you so much! Incidentally, I never meant that I wouldn't want people to be well for the sake of art, only that it makes me sad that we would lose that art. But it's your second point that really speaks to me:

"For I do not see the Messianic Age as one of homogenous intellectual conformity as you seem to fear. The fact that “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” does not imply to me that everyone will think the same. For we know that the infinite God is perceived in different ways by different people of necessity (because people are only finite) yet different opinions may be equally valid (e.g. Hillel and Shammai). Rather, the difference between then and now as I see it is that now these differences are a source of hatred and violence; then we shall be able to respect our differences and journey on the path to truth together."

Daniel, that is brilliant! For that suggests that there would still be ideas and creativity and still be a functioning, beautiful world, and it wouldn't be an ending after all.

And your point regarding Hillel and Shammai is exactly right; I live each day for that day and the joys and pleasures of that day, which is why I don't have to dwell on contradictions; each day offers the new potential to create and be better and has nothing to do with the last. I thrive on change from day to day, not on finality and not on endings...

I think I'd best delve into the works of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks; this is the second time you've quoted him and he's said something that I really like.

Chaim said...

I just wrote a comment on my blog about this post. Very well written and very interesting, especially the comments.

As I wrote there, I think the best answer is to learn as much as possible about Moshiach. In the practical real sense. Read Rambam there are a lot of interesting pieces of information there.

I think the best thing is to want Moshiach, you have to fully understand every aspect and reality of it.

David_on_the_Lake said...

Judaism is a religion that does not obssess over Moshiach. The Rambam warns not to make it the focal point of the religion and the Chasam Sofer once said that if he were to find out that there is no Messiah absolutely nothing would change in his goals in life and in his conduct.

The Messianic Prophecies of Tanach have been interpreted this way and that way and have been abused countless times by countless Religious and Idealogical movments.
The bottom line is, there is nothing on which to act on from NaCH. We don't learn any of the 613 Mitzvos from NaCH now do we base any idealogies on her texts and Prophecies.

Sure we have Gemaras, Midrashim based on and explaining the Messianic era and we learn them because they are Torah, there is nothing tangible there for anyone to fret or act on.

Our Religion is based on the here and now and the fundamental and simplistic task of doing Gods will, whatever that might be.
So, my desire for Moshiach is simply because I cannot bear the pain of Hashems pain, and the belief that the Messianic era will bring peace between all peoples, between God and Mankind and inner peace within each and every one of us.

Anonymous said...

Chana,

I'm glad you liked my answer. By the way, I did realise you didn't want people to suffer for the sake of art, but I felt you were downplaying just how much suffering there is in the world by focusing on the loss of art.

"I think I'd best delve into the works of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks; this is the second time you've quoted him and he's said something that I really like."

I'm glad you liked the quotes. I think Rabbi Sacks is to me what Rabbi Soloveitchik is to you; discovering his writing over the last couple of years has helped me navigate some personal problems.

For a couple of years he has been writing a weekly essay on the parsha, often using a minor detail in the text to explore a bigger ethical or philosophical issue. This has the advantage of being available for free on his website! Unfortunately this year's essays have just been slightly amended versions of older ones.

Of his books, I've read The Dignity of Difference, his book on globalisation, which was somewhat controversial when released, but the book that really changed my life is Radical Then, Radical Now (I think the American title is A Letter in the Scroll), which is his book on the nature of Judaism and why Judaism is worth perpetuating in an age of assimilation and secularism.

haKiruv said...

There are many fews of this age, and a lot of it has to do with the permissability of bnai Noah and it's truly a huge topic but...

I think the age of Moshiach will be a time of a different perspective and understanding, and not so much of a different place. Moshiach will not only be an external material reign, but an internal one as well. There will be a global consciousness striving for G-d, but still in the same physical world. Perfection isn't a place, so much as a state of being. Actually existing, working, etc. as we were truly meant to.

The one thing I read on a regular basis is filled with all kinds of evil descriptions: adultery, rape, murder, etc. But, that thing is Torah. It's the positive perspective and understanding that goes with the Word of G-d that makes it into a unique and holy work.

Maybe the trick isn't destroying idols, but seeing things for what they truly are. Things can be made as good examples, and others as bad examples. Both can serve to glorify G-d and during the age of Moshiach, everything will be existing truly as we were meant to exist. Isn't all of existence the Word of G-d anyways? Programmers will program, doctors will heal, writers will write and everyone will tend to their own gardens.

Jack Steiner said...

Good post. I relate to it so very well.

Jameel @ The Muqata said...

But once again, what I feel is the desire to desire.

That's a first step.

I wish people would desire to desire to make aliya.

Or...think about thinking about aliya.

Thats good enough!

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