Tefillah - 130 Hoping For The Full Revelation

Hoping: What Is It That We Hope For?

The blessing of את צמח דוד concludes with כי לישועתך קוינו כל היום , “For in Your salvation we hope for every day.” We hope for the salvation of Hashem, for His full revelation in the world – for the entire world in general, and in particular, for Klal Yisrael.

There are a few terms for the word “hope”: “ichul”, (wishing), “tzifiyah” (awaiting), and “tikva” (hope).

The word ichul comes from the word chalal, “empty space.” This is when a person feels empty, therefore he hopes to fill the emptiness. If a person fills the chalal in his soul, he doesn’t feel a need to have any hope, because he is content. Thus, the concept of hoping - ichul\tzifiya\tikva - depends on how much we feel missing.

If we don’t feel what we are missing in not having a Beis HaMikdash, even if we know about it intellectually how great it was, we are missing the recognition of what we are missing. This will result is a lack of hope. In order to have more tzifiya\awaiting, we need to first recognize what we are missing in the first place - the chalal, the void.

Thus, the “Keren Dovid” which we await - the salvation of the future - we must first reflect into it with our mind, and then let it settle on our heart.

“Ichul”: Reflecting Into What We Are Missing

We are missing the Beis HaMikdash. The first two temples were destroyed, and the third Beis HaMikdash isn’t here. Even more so, the Sages state that each day is more cursed than the day before it. In order to really have tikva\hope for the salvation, we first need to see what we are missing in this generation. The more we see how much we are missing, the more we feel the spiritual void now in the world, and we will then wish to come out of it.

If someone simply tries to await the salvation of the future – whether it is during the rest of the year or whether it is during the Three Weeks, in which we contemplate the destruction – such hoping is superficial. We first need to deeply reflect, through an inner lens, into the void of the generation, to feel how Hashem is a Keil Mistater (Hidden G-d) to us now, how He is concealed from us.

The word “chalal” is from the words “chilul Hashem” – the depth of this is that there is a void of feeling His presence, and that is the depth of the current situation of chilul Hashem. “Ichul” means that a person wants to fill the chalal, to fill the chilul Hashem. That is the first level of this avodah in hoping for the salvation: to wish that the chalal be filled.

“Tzifiyah”: Reflecting Into The Future

The higher aspect of hoping for the salvation is “tzifiyah” (lit. “awaiting”). The word “tzifiyah” is from the word “tzofeh”, to see. It means to “see” the words of our Sages and prophets, about both past and future. Tzifiyah is to hope for the future prophecies, to hope for the fulfillment of the words that we read.

This comes from a clarity seen through one’s daas (mature perspective and depth of understanding). The more a person increases his daas, the more he has true feelings, the more he has hope for the future fulfillment of the prophecies.

Hoping That The “Covering” Be Removed

Tzifiyah can also come from the word “tzipuy”, a cover.

Earlier[1], it was explained that the inner world is really here in front of us, and it is just hidden from us. At first a person needs to wish that the void be filled, which is called “ichul”. Then, he needs to hope for the future, which is “tzifiyah”. But then comes a deeper aspect of this avodah, and it is another meaning of “tzifiyah”:  it is to realize that all is here, it is just covered over. That is the depth of “tzifiyah”:  everything is covered over - but it’s all here.

The Sages state the third Beis HaMikdash will come down in a fire from Heaven. The depth of this is that it’s already waiting in Heaven to descend onto Earth, where it will be fully revealed out in the open. The superficial understanding of this is that the tzaddikim in each generation build the third Beis HaMikdash. This is true, but there is a deeper way to understand it.

Yaakov said he saw the Beis HaMikdash on Har HaMoriah, even though it wasn’t here yet. The depth of this is because the Avos represented each of the temples. Avraham represented the first Beis HaMikdash, Yitzchok is parallel to the second, and Yaakov is parallel to the third. The third Beis HaMikdash can be seen when a person accesses it, thus, Yaakov saw it, for he represented it.

We hope it will be rebuilt – both in the physical sense as well as in the inner sense, that it come down perfectly from Heaven; that we should “await the salvation” - to await that the covering be removed, so that all will be revealed.

So the concept of tzifiyah is to see the words of our Rabbis about the past, and to hope for the future. But even more so, it means to hope for something that exists which is just covered over; it is to hope that the covering be removed, so that the inside of reality become revealed. It does not mean to wait for something that doesn’t exist right now.

Hashem is called “Keil Mistater”, a Hidden G-d, but He exists; He is the absolute havayah. He is hidden, He is covered over, but we await that this covering be removed. That is the depth of awaiting the salvation.

In the future, Chazal say that Hashem will remove the sun from its sheath – this does not just mean that the sun’s sheath will be removed. It means that all coverings will be removed. It will be to go from galus (exile) to geulah (redemption), and the essence of the geulah is giluy (revelation) - in which all will be revealed openly. So it’s all here now, it just hasn’t been revealed yet in the open. What we are awaiting is that all that is here and existing become openly revealed.

Awaiting The Revelation of Hashem

But even more so, the deepest aspect of awaiting the salvation is, as we say here in this blessing of Shemoneh Esrei, - כי לישועתך קיוינו כל היום”For in Your salvation we await, every day” – that every day, we await Hashem’s salvation. This describes the deepest aspect of our tikva (hope).

Tikva is from the word “kav”, a straight line, which is also called “yoshor”, straight, from the word yashrus (uprightness). It is written, “G-d made man upright, but they seek many calculations.” Initially, before the sin of Adam, man was yoshor\upright. After the sin, our initial state became that of “cheshbonos rabim” – “many calculations” – in that man tends to veer from the straight and righteous path to seek his various agendas. Therefore, the depth of our tikvah\hope is to await the return to our original perception, which was the state of yashrus – a wish to return to the original kav hayashrus, the original straight-mindedness of man.

The superficial use of tikva is to await that the Beis HaMikdash be rebuilt and that Moshiach should come, and this is a truthful hope, but we need to reveal the depth of tikva in our soul – by wishing that we can return to yashrus.

Even more so, tikva is not just to await the salvation from our state of “cheshbonos rabim” and to return to yashrus. It is mainly about wishing to return to the full recognition of Hashem’s existence.

“Kavei el Hashem” - “Hope in Hashem” - and the Sages explained: “to continuously hope”. What does this mean? Simply, it means that when you don’t get what you hope for, keep trying again and again until you get it. But the deeper meaning is as follows. Kav can also mean a chut, a string. The more tikva a person has, the more he weaves together string after string, until it is permanently binding.

Tikva – Hoping For The Revelation of The Existing Reality

So tikva is not about hoping for something I don’t have. That’s not tikva – such hoping is imagination! Tikva is that I am attached, by a string, to what I am hoping for. If a person hopes for Hashem, he has a bond with Hashem; he is attached by a string. Creation is down below, Hashem is Above – and through tikva, we can have a string that binds us with Him.

So to keep hoping in Hashem means to connect myself deeply to what I already have.

When a person hopes to have a house, he doesn’t have it. That’s not tikva; he imagines how much he wants a house, he wants it badly, but that’s not tikva. Tikva is that I am attached deeply with what I already have, that I am connected to something existing; thus, I hope for its full revelation.

This is the depth of the concept that our Rabbis spoke about that a person can merit a private redemption in his soul even if he doesn’t experience the general redemption. There were Gedolim in past generations who testified that they experienced redemption in their own souls.

Chazal say that Moshiach is in every generation, and that he sits in the gates of Rome, as is well-known. There is an argument if this is to be taken literally or not. We won’t get into that. But the meaning of it is, that Moshiach is in every generation – he exists right now! He is merely covered over.

When we hope for the revelation of that and we attribute Moshiach as an existing reality, we bond ourselves more and more with the redemption, and this is tikva. We are not creating a bond – we are strengthening a bond that is already there. Tikva is to keep connecting oneself to the reality of Moshiach’s existence, who is present here in this generation, and to keep binding ourselves more and more to the redemption with the more we hope and believe in its reality.

This is the depth of one how can merit a personal rebuilding of the Beis HaMikdash in his times. “Whoever properly mourns Jerusalem will merit to see its rebuilding.” We can connect in our own soul to the third Beis HaMikdash, to be deeply connected to it in our soul, and this is the string that binds us to it.

Tikva is not to hope in something concealed, which implies that it’s not here. It is to await the full revelation of something that is already here, something which is covered from being openly revealed – not something which isn’t here.

Awaiting the salvation is to reflect into what we are missing. In Shulchan Aruch it is codified that the Three Weeks are the times to reflect more into how we are missing the Beis HaMikdash and Moshiach. The main thing we have to realize we are missing is, that we are missing the full revelation of the Creator on the world.

If a person works on the concepts described here, to him, he will not feel that Hashem is a “Keil Mistater”. Yirmiyahu wrote Sefer Eichah, a book full of mourning. How was he able to write it with prophecy, when prophecy only comes with happiness? The answer is, because even as he was mourning, he also had happiness, in awaiting the future revelation, to await the full revelation of Hashem.

The complete kind of tikva is two-fold. On one hand, we must realize what we are missing, the great void in our life that we don’t have the Beis HaMikdash. At the same time, our tikva is to hope in something that is already here, just that it’s not fully revealed in the open. The reality of Hashem’s existence is here, just, it is not openly revealed.

So tikva is not just about hoping that the Beis HaMikdash be rebuilt in the future; that is being superficial. The depth of tikva is to await that the very present reality of the inner Beis HaMikdash and Moshiach in the soul (which is experienced by those who merit it in this generation) that it become fully revealed out into the open.

In Conclusion

As we mourn over the situation of the generation, the fact that Hashem’s Presence is so concealed from us – and there was never more concealment as in today’s times – at the very same time, we can reveal tikva and hope that His Presence become fully revealed.

May we merit to connect to our inner revelation of the Beis HaMikdash in the soul – and that this should not just be experienced by individuals, but in its full revelation which all people will experience in the future.