Bilvavi Part 5 - 256 Who Will Merit Moschiach

בלבבי ח"ה  עמ' רנו

Waiting for Moshiach

One of our 13 principles of faith (listed by the Rambam) is that we believe that Moshiach will come, and “even though he tarries, I wait for him every day that he should come.”

The Chasam Sofer asked: Why is belief in Moshiach one of the 13 fundamental beliefs? If a person doesn’t believe in Moshiach coming, does that mean that he doesn’t believe in G-d? Why is belief in Moshiach’s arrival so important that it is considered to be one of the 13 basic tenets of our faith?

Why We Wait for Moshiach

In order to be able to wait for something, we need to be able to conceptualize it. If we don’t know what something is, why should we wait for it? By knowing the concept of whatever it is that we are hoping for, we can then hope for it.

The more we know what a concept is, the more we await its revelation – and the less we know about it, the less we care about it.

Believing in Moshiach is not just to believe that he will come. There is more to this belief, and this is eminent from the fact that we have to awaken this belief every day. If we don’t know what Moshiach is all about, why should we care if he will come or not, and what would we need him for? Only if we know clearly what Moshiach is about – what his purpose is, and what we are missing because he’s not here – can we have await him.

Anyone who is waiting for Moshiach to come but doesn’t know who or what Moshiach is just imagining things, and he’s just fantasizing of a better world – he’s dreaming about the unknown. This isn’t belief in Moshiach, it’s just a fantasy. In order to really await Moshiach, we need to know who and what Moshiach is.

The Concept of Moshiach

Chazal state that the first redeemer will be the last redeemer (Bamidbar Rabbah 11:2). The first redeemer was Moshe Rabbeinu – so he will be our last redeemer as well. Why is Moshe Rabbeinu our redeemer?

Moshe has the same letters as the word lishmah (to act for the sake of Heaven). This is because Moshe reached a level in which he was divested of all physicality, any vestige of ulterior motives that stem from the body. He was connected to the Creator at all times with the greatest closeness, and all of his desire was about fulfilling his Creator’s desire. He did not live at all for himself – he considered his existence only as a connection to Hashem.

The redemption is rooted in the ability to act lishmah, and thus Moshe will be the redeemer, because he personified lishmah.

Who Will Merit Moshiach?

It is written (Yeshayahu 43:7), “All is called in My name, for My honor I created it.” All of Creation, everything in existence, was all created for the sake of Hashem.

We are currently in exile. What is exile? Exile is essentially a situation in which we do not recognize how everything is all about Hashem. In exile, we are either missing this recognition in our minds or in our hearts. But redemption will be a situation in which we recognize – both from our internal self and the rest of our external self – that everything is all for Hashem, and we do not live for ourselves.

This is what Moshiach is about. Moshiach is a recognition – a revelation of this recognition – that everything exists for Hashem.

If a person considers his life to be for himself – whether he’s looking for honor, or some other desire in life – he’s disconnected totally from the concept of Moshiach. His whole existence is contradicting the idea of Moshiach. Only when a person lives lishmah will he merit the revelation of Moshiach.

A person always has some part of him that isn’t lishmah. When Moshiach comes, only the lishmah aspect of a person will remain, while the rest of the person  will disappear – the parts in us that are shelo lishmah. Our shelo lishmah will vanish from all of our senses.

Now we can understand why belief in Moshiach is one of our fundamental faiths – it is because Moshiach is about the purpose of Creation.

Click here for the Rav's shiurim on the Rambam's 13 Principles»