All Governments will turn heretical before Moshiach —Parshas Tazria-Metzorah

What's worse than finding a worm in your apple? Finding half a worm. I'm sure everybody's familiar with this classic joke, right? Cuz the if you find a half a worm means you already ate the other half, right? Okay. Well, anyways, by uh by deductive reasoning, one could then further argue, "What's worse than finding half a worm in your apple?" Finding a quarter of a worm. "What's worse than finding a quarter of a worm? Finding an eighth of a worm. And what's worse is worse than finding an eighth of a worm? A 16th of a worm. And then finally, what's the worst thing you can No worm. If I know worm, that means you you ate the whole worm. Okay. But obviously, nobody actually reacts that way. Um nevertheless, okay, what's my point? This week's parsha, parsha's Tazria, we have a double parsha actually, Tazria and Metzora, uh which both speak about the affliction known as tzaraat. And an interesting thing we read about in parsha's Tazria, there's a a lesion, a a a white spot on the skin called a nega, and uh the cohen comes and he assesses whether or not that spot has grown, how much of the skin has it spread out on. And uh there's a quarantine process where where the the metzora is it has to wait in order for the to be diagnosed by the cohen. But anyway, the the the the signifying um symptoms of the tzaraat element are these negoim, these uh white uh aberrations on the skin, discolorations. At any rate, so we learn all about this, and then we learn a very interesting law. What happens if somebody's entire body is covered in tzaraat? His entire body is all the color of these tzaraat afflictions, meaning this this white color. Very interesting law. The the pasuk tells us, "Kulai hafakh lavan, if he entirely turns white, this this this shade of white, taher hu, the the ruling is he is pure." So, it's very funny. You think about it. A person has a little bit of a spot, tamei, he's impure. If he has a big spot, tamei. If he has half of his body covered in these spots, tamei. 90% of his body covered in these spots, tamei. 100%? Taher, he's pure. It's very funny. It's very interesting. Now, I want to point out that this law hamalatically, on the level of drush, is also the source for an interesting statement that our sages make regarding the time right before Mashiach comes. And in addition to this being connected to this week's parsha of uh Tazria and Metzora, I also wanted to talk about it this week because last week our class on parsha Shmini spoke about Mashiach. We spoke about the law of uh a cohen not being able to drink lest Mashiach arrive and uh he would not be able to perform the avodah. And um some of the feedback I got from some people was a little bit, I'd say, uh tenuous. They were like, "Is it necessarily such a good thing that uh Mashiach could come so quickly? I mean, I hear negative things about the time right before Mashiach. It's going to get really really bad." So, I wanted to address uh that attitude, the um people who are hesitant or wary about Mashiach's coming. And this is a perfect opportunity to do so. There's a section in the Gemara Sanhedrin towards the end of the mesechta, uh which which we know which we know as the aggadata of chelek. The whole perek is known as perek chelek. Uh it starts with the mishna "Kol Yisrael yesh lahem chelek le'olam haba." All the Jewish people have a portion in the world to come. And there are many aggadic passages there about Mashiach and the time right before Mashiach. So, here's one of the things it tells us. In uh the Gemara Sanhedrin, daf tzadik zayin amud alef, Amar Rebbi Yitzchak, "Ein ben David ba ad she nit'hapakh kol hamalkhut leminus." Ben David, the descendant of King David, meaning Mashiach, will not come until the malkhut, the government, has been completely turned over to heresy. The Gemara continues, "Amar Rava, mikra, Rava asks, "What is the scriptural basis for that for for for this statement? Everything has to come from Torah. For So, where do you get it from Torah?" "Kulai hafakh lavan, if he became completely white, taher hu, he is pure." In other words, you're going to ask, "What's the source for saying that right before things get really really good, right before Mashiach comes, it's going to get really really bad, that not only really bad, completely bad, that the entire government or all governments, kol hamalkhut, nit'hapakh leminus, will become heretical. Where do you get this from? Where do we get it from?" At least on a hamalatic level, on on on the level of drush, we get it from this concept that if somebody becomes completely tzaraat-like, "Kulai lavan, completely white like the tzaraat affliction, taher hu, the ruling is that he's pure." So, in other words, it gets so bad that it's good. So, let's talk a little bit about this. What does it mean it gets so bad that it's good? So, there there are two ways of of looking at this, two approaches. Both regarding the ruling about tzaraat as well as the uh teaching about the time right before Mashiach. Same two approaches. Let let let let's let's go through them. But let's first let's let's talk about it in terms of tzaraat. One approach is that the whole thing is a gzeiras hakasuv. That means a scriptural decree. It's not logical. Doesn't have to make sense. This is just a rule. So, you're going to say, "But if the guy becomes entirely white, now all of a sudden he's fine? If he had a little white spot, that's bad. If he had a lot of white spots, that's also bad. All white spots, now now now now it's fine?" Okay, yeah, fine. Yeah, that's that's what it is. What, and the rest of tzaraat makes sense to you? The whole thing is a gzeiras hakasuv. The whole thing is a suprarational decree. It transcends logic. Doesn't have to conform to to your expectations. The whole thing is spiritual. The whole thing is is is beyond our mortal minds are able to to understand. So, so there you go. So, you Don't don't be shocked. Don't Doesn't have to make sense. That's one approach. The other approach and I want to understand, it's not a push-off. It's it's it's an it's an earnest, it's a sincere answer. The whole thing of tumah vetaharah, of purity and impurity, the the this this isn't a physical condition. This is not a medical condition. It has symptoms on the body as if it were a medical condition, but the whole thing is a spiritual thing. It doesn't even exist anymore uh because we're we're not spiritually elevated enough to even experience this this affliction. So, it it's a spiritual thing. It's an otherworldly thing. You want to make it make sense? It doesn't have to make sense according to human intellect. So, it gets so bad that it becomes good. Doesn't make sense? Okay, doesn't have to make sense. All right. So, that's that's the first approach. Second approach, an exact opposite approach. Some will say me'il simcha betaimah. It's very logical. Makes perfect sense. What what's what's the logic? The logic is like this. Follow here. Tzaraat is an aberration, a dysfunction, an abnormality, right? It's different than the rest of the skin. And that's why it's a sign that there's something wrong with the person. And that's what makes him ritually impure. However, let's say there's a guy whose entire epidermis, all of his skin, you know, we were when we were kids, we used to harass each other and say, "Your epidermis is showing." Anyways, imagine all of his skin, his entire epidermis, has become this color. Well, now you can't call it a dysfunction. You can't call it an aberration or a deviation. That's what his skin is. "Kulai lavan, it's all this white color, taher hu, so apparently this is his norm. It's not a break from the norm. It's not abnormal. This is his normal." Okay, it's not normal compared to other people, but for him, that's his normal. So, that's the second approach. That when you have the breakout of the negoim, of these these these lesions, where they are a deviation, so then it's a sign of of impurity. But when it becomes the entire skin is that way, so that's just what his skin is like. And therefore, it's not a sign of impurity. Okay. Those are the two approaches. Now, after we've seen how they apply to understanding this law about tzaraat, let's apply it to Mashiach. First, the um the approach that it's ex nihilo ex nihilo nihilo nihilo that it doesn't have to conform to rationality. Here's the approach. The approach is like this. So, um human history sort of goes along and um different governments rule and uh different forms of government and different parties and different systems of government and but eventually it gets really really bad. You know, human corruption leads to just like the the the the most severe most uh absolute state that it could ever reach. And things are just totally terrible. And there's no way out. And then Hashem just swoops in and he redeems everything. You know, in in in drama, in literary terms, I'm saying going back to the ancient Greeks. In fact, this is a Greek originally it's a Greek term in the in English we use the Latin version of it. But the term is the deus ex machina. Deus means God. Ex means from or out of. Machina means the machine. God from the machine. What is that talking about? In the old plays, in the ancient plays, sometimes the the writer you know, a play is about conflict. You have to have drama. You have to have, you know, an antagonist. You have to have a problem. So, the the more the the bigger the problem, the more the the the more formidable the enemy, then the you know, the the more exciting it is. But sometimes the writer so good that he paints himself into such a corner he can't even write himself out of it because it's just too big of a problem to solve. So, what they would do, literally, this is this is where the expression comes from, they would have the deus ex machina, the god from the machine. They would have an actor who would be portraying one of their their gods, one of their would literally swoop in on a crane, who'd be hanging from a crane, and he would swoop onto the stage and he would fix everything and hooray ending, everyone's happy, okay? Like like the Americans like, a nice Hollywood ending. Everything ends happy. Okay. And that's one approach to human history is saying, "Look, it gets bad and it gets bad and it gets bad and it gets so bad there's no way to fix it. It's just completely systemically broken." And then, what do you want? You know, Hashem can do anything. Hashem swoops in and he brings Mashiach. It's incongruous, yeah, it doesn't make sense. It's like totally out of it's it's it's totally out of step with what's been going on. But Hashem can do it. Why why why not? Just like we're talking about before about the tsaraas. So, does tsaraas make sense to you? Doesn't have to make sense. Just however Hashem wants to do it. The same thing here. History just gets worse and worse and worse and people get worse and governments become more and more corrupt. And then very, you know, when it gets totally corrupt Hashem just swoops in and he fixes the whole thing. Okay, fine. That's one approach to understanding it. And I could understand why according to that approach we were mentioning before people were like hesitant about Mashiach coming. According to that approach, I understand that. You know, that the things are going to get so bad that really there's no way that they could get better except for the fact that, you know, Hashem can ultimately just do whatever he wants. Then there's the second approach. Second approach we said was the rational approach, the logical approach that there's a certain inherent or at least in internal logic here working. What we said before, the guy becomes entirely uh tsaraas-like, then it's not tsaraas. That that is his normal. So, too, there's a there's a logical way of looking at why all governments becoming completely heretical would be a natural precursor to the coming of Mashiach. Okay, what is that logic? Very simple. Um you know, Winston Churchill said that democracy is the absolute worst form of government ever devised by man until you compare it to all the others. There's a certain truth to that. What what was Churchill saying? Churchill was saying, "All man-made forms of government are corrupt. They're all broken. They're all messed up. Democracy is the least messed up." And and that's that's basically true. All forms of government, all those who exercise power if it's based on human reason human morality human uh sense of sensibilities is going to be fundamentally flawed and lacking. And then you just pick the one that's least fundamentally flawed and lacking. You know, there's a story the the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe was once on a train and a couple of intellectuals were having a discussion. Which is more similar to Torah? Communism or capitalism? Okay, so that's an economic system, not a political system, but the the same similar kind of kind of idea here. And so they asked uh the Rebbe Rayatz to chime in to sort of settle the debate. So, it's very interesting. The Rebbe Rayatz said to these uh intellectuals, he says, "You know uh there's truth in both of them. In in capitalism is the truth of Yivarechecha Hashem B'chol Asher Ta'aseh. Hashem will bless you in everything that you do. You have to put forth effort to be successful. But then in communism is the truth of Efes Ki Lo Yihyeh B'cha Evyon that there will not be any poor among you. Communism says, "We're not allowing anyone to be poor." Uh and they're both truths within Torah and each of these economic systems has one of those truths reflected in it. The thing is though, neither of them have the whole truth. And no man-made system of economics or or politics has the whole truth in it. The only system that has the entire truth is Torah. And furthermore, whatever truth that is in any of the man-made systems ultimately comes from Torah. I think just a remarkable story, especially if you think about the fact that the Rabbi the Rebbe Rayatz was was persecuted by the communists and arrested by them and and and and tortured. And you know if it were me, you'd ask me to, you know, chime in on a conversation about capitalism. Communism, those are the guys who, you know, you know what they did to me. But um you know, the the objectivity, the detachment with which he was able to to answer the question um it's uh very enlightening. Look, there's truth in all the isms or most of the isms or a lot of the isms. Just none of them has the whole truth. And whatever bit of truth each of them have ultimately comes from Torah. Torah brought that idea to the world. Torah introduced it to humanity. So, the point is, what am I saying? I'm saying like Churchill said that democracy is the worst government until you compare it to all the others. Every man-made system is broken and flawed but has some good in it. And it's based on that little bit of good in it that people put up with it. So, for a while people, you know, they they they had their kings. And a few hundred years ago they decided they don't want their kings, they they wanted a democracy. And then then everyone became democratic. And it's like basically human history is the story of people saying you know what's the lesser of the two evils at this point? You know, what are we willing to put up with? And uh until you get to a point like we're at right now where basically that's, you know, that's the way most people are feeling uh today in America 2020, you know. We we're we're about to go into a presidential race or really in the middle of a presidential race right now. We just had one 4 years ago. Uh it most people the polls showed were not voting for a candidate. They were voting against the candidate that they didn't want. So, really it was it was a question of, you know, just lesser of two evils. Which one of these is do I do I Which one of these is is the least offensive option to me? Um and uh about 10 years ago, you know there was a a the poll that they asked people where they where they got their political news from or what they felt was the most reliable source of political news. And um a Jewish comedian Jon Stewart had had no one one the the poll or he was most people said he was the most reliable source of political news. And it's interesting because they asked him about it. He was interviewed. And they said, "You're a comedian, you know, you're doing political humor. What do you think about the fact you're more trusted as a source of political news than the anchors of the uh you know, the the the network news stations?" And uh he says, "It was a it was a protest vote. You know, it was a none of the above vote." In other words, he wasn't even taking it so seriously as a compliment to himself. He was basically saying, "Look, people are fed up. They know that everybody is corrupt. Everybody's trying to sell them uh a load of goods. And so, you know, basically who do they say is the most reliable person? The comedian. Cuz they basically it's the way that's people's way of saying, "We don't like any of the options that we're being presented with." And um that really is sort of the the day and age that we live in today is sort of this day and age of of of profound disillusionment with all political parties, all governments, all forms of government, all of the the media which deliver information about government, whether it's left or it's right. I mean, it's always just what's the lesser of of of two evils and it's all evil, it's all corrupt, it's all manipulative. And that seems to be the prevailing attitude today. And the truth is that's not a bad thing. In fact, that is part of a natural process that leads seamlessly to Messiah. Yeah, sure. Because basically what's happening is that we're going through a process where we're gaining clarity. We're getting clarity. Clarity is a good thing. See, it's been taking thousands of years of human history, but you know, until now it's sort of like, well, you know, this government's not perfect, but you know, it has this benefit or that benefit and we rationalize all this flawed and imperfect um and and and and ultimately harmful stuff because what what choice do we have? What choice do we have? But as we're coming closer to the end of golus, we're getting clarity and we're saying, you know what? This stuff is all bad. We don't want any of it. Like really like Churchill said, democracy is the worst form of government. It it We don't want any of these man-made governments. They're all minus, they're all heresy. You want to tell me this one's better than that? You know what? Forget about these gradations, this sophisticated way of saying, well, this is the lesser of two evils. That's the sophisticated way of rationalizing evil. Well, it's relatively not as bad when you compare I don't you know what? It's good or it's not good. So baruch Hashem, we're getting to the point where we're saying all forms of government, all the ruling parties, it's all minus, it's all heresy, it's all bad and we don't want anything else but what? The one pure, true form of government. Yeah, Messiah. That's all we want. In fact, this this gemara about ein ben david ba uh ad she nishtabekh kol hamalkhus leminus that when right before Messiah comes, all the governments will will will become heretical. So, I mentioned this is from Sanhedrin where we're learning it. A similar line, pretty much the same line, also appears at the end of the gemara Sota, which by the way, we're learning right now, it's a custom. There's 49 pages or folios in um in Sota and there's 49 days of Sefiras HaOmer and there's a custom to learn a page a day, daf a day. But at the very end of the tractate, uh it also talks about Messiah over there. And it also has this line that right before Messiah comes, all governments will be heretical. And I mentioned some other things that'll be going on that are seemingly negative at the end of uh the time right before Messiah comes. And then it concludes and says ve'al ma yeish lonu leehsha'ein So, what then can we rely upon? If everything is corrupt, what are we relying upon? Alavinu shebashamayim. Only upon our father in heaven. That's the point here. That we're coming to the point of clarity. We're coming to the point where we're saying, you know what? All these governments, all these forms of rulership that we've been rationalizing and and and and saying, you know, it's good enough or could be worse, could be worse, could be We don't want any more. We we We only want the one true, pure, holy, God-given form of government. We want Messiah as as a king with a Sanhedrin in Yerushalayim with a Beis Hamikdash. That's the only thing we want. And we we we want to stop tolerating all of these defective forms of man-made government. You know, after the forming of the the state of Israel, so there was a a a rabbinical proclamation that came out that said it's a mitzvah to vote. They were encouraging the the religious to to vote in Israel. So, a certain rabbis came out, said it's a mitzvah to to vote in Israel. So, somebody came to the the Belzer Rebbe and uh Reb Aaron and they asked him, "Taka, it's a Really? It's it's a mitzvah to vote?" And he says, "Yeah." And they said, "A mitzvah like eating matzah?" He said, "Nah, maybe more like eating maror." What did he mean? He meant we don't relish this. This is not Nobody's enjoying this. But in the situation, what choice do we have? It's like eating maror. It's bitter. It's bitter. But we have to be politically involved, so that's the way that the Belzer Rebbe saw it to be to to be politically involved. And that's what he told his close The point is the only point I'm making here is it's a necessary evil of the exile of being in golus that we have to eat that maror. And that we have to decide which one of these corrupt forms of man-made governments is is going to be worse and then go pick the other one. We don't want that anymore. We want to be able to say, "You know what? Get rid of it all. None of the above. We only want Messiah." So, therefore, let's talk about how all of governments becoming heretical right before Messiah coming is a natural precursor and lead-in to Messiah's coming. It's very simple. The narrative is very very it's it's it's natural, it's organic, seamless. That as we through process of elimination, all of these history has been a big laboratory. The planet Earth has been this laboratory where we've experimented with every form of of of government and rule that every genius has ever come up with. We've tried them all out and you know what? They're all minus, they're all heresy. We only want and we've come to the point where we're ready to say we want nothing less than Messiah.