Are We Living in the Time of Mashiach? The 12th Principle of Faith - Rabbi Lazer Brody

[music] [music and singing] [music] >> Good evening from the south of Israel. This is Laser Brody with Emunah Hour number 212. Uh tonight we're going to learn the 12th principle of Emunah, which is all about Mashiach. Well, even though Mashiach, which is Hebrew for Messiah, uh is not yet come, nevertheless we we eagerly anticipate his arrival and the event of the Messianic era, the time of Mashiach. It includes the Geulah, that's the full redemption of our people and the ingathering of the exiles back here to our holy homeland of Israel and the rebuilding of our holy temple in Jerusalem. That's all the good times that await us and we believe that this could happen at any moment. And this is the good news. What's the seemingly bad news? We see the difficulties in the world, but we call this it's no by no small chance that this period is called both in the revealed Torah and the esoteric Torah Chevlei Mashiach, which is the birth pangs of Mashiach. The coming of Mashiach is compared to a birth. It's like before a baby's born, uh so the mother she screams, has this horrific pain and with everything want to be graphic about what goes on uh what goes on that's involved in the birth, but when it smoke clears, the biggest joy, baby's born. And this is happening with what we're waiting for the a new birth, a new era where Isaiah the prophet says in chapter 60 of Isaiah, Mal'ut Hashem, that the whole world will be full of spiritual awareness. Well, that's exactly what we're doing right now with our Emunah Hour lessons. We're enhancing our spiritual awareness and Emunah and then we'll be prepared. We'll be prepared for Mashiach. Most of the world will be caught off guard. And people say, "Well, let me get on the train. Let me let me know No, it's too late now. Too late now. You could see Hashem's revelation the world. You could see Mashiach bringing the light of the Almighty to the world. The regathering of the exiles. You see the miracles with our own eyes." And uh that it'll be too late to develop Emunah because what do you have Emunah? We need Emunah now when everything is darkness. We don't understand what's happening. Okay, so what we'd like to do is if we're already on principle number 12, let's very briefly review the first 11 principles and then we'll get on to principle 12. So, we'd like to review all the time. The more we review, the more we internalize, more we increase increase retention. The more we increase retention, the more we can live by our principles of Emunah and then not be theoretical. They're practical. What happens is when in in case we confront a difficult situation, called the challenging situation, right away then we get into Emunah mode rather than panic mode. What happens in panic? Panic a person goes in that's extreme stress, um extreme anxiety, puts you into panic. We have physical panic. In physical panic a person feels headaches. A person feels indigestion. Some people they Well, they feel the same symptoms as a severe indigestion. Well, that's that's all caused physical from the nervous system. And nervous system comes from the brain and the brain tells the body They take their their their blood pressure. Take their blood pressure. Their blood pressure you can see physically it's higher. So, it's it's no joke. This really does affect the body. But we can see this is how Emunah affects our physical health. When we internalize Emunah and we live by our Emunah and we have a a challenge, a difficult piece of news that looks difficult, then we stop and think, "Wait a second." We say, "Yes, this is difficult, but Hashem everything Hashem does everything for the best. Hashem is my beloved father in heaven. I'm his only daughter, only son. He has no one like me." And as we said last week's lesson, my finger my fingerprint proves that that that Hashem created me unique. And it doesn't matter how many billions of children Hashem has, each one of us is unique. Each one of us is special. And we're the only child. So, if Hashem is my father in heaven, if I'm the only child, and Hashem loves me more than I love myself, much more than the most loving parent loves its child, then it's a no-brainer that I got nothing to worry about. So, we don't we're not upset about what's happening to us. This is why we all the time review our Emunah and internalize it as well as we can. Okay, so very quickly, principle one. Principle one, this is most important thing to live by. I believe with complete belief that the creator, blessed be he, is creator director of all the creations and he alone did, does, and will do every deed. This is our belief in the existence of the creator. This is the first of the 10 commandments and that he is the life force behind all of creation. Nothing can exist without his will. From the greatest mega galaxies in macro to the tiniest parts of the atom in micro. And the creator makes everything happen and nothing can happen or exist against his will. And that's what we learn in Deuteronomy Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 35, there is nothing but him. Ein Od Milvado. This we have engraved on our hearts, engraved in our memories. Ein Od Milvado, there's nothing but him. Principle two. I believe with complete belief that the creator be creator, blessed be his name, there is no unity like him under any circumstances and he alone is our God past, present, future. What does it mean there's no unity like Hashem? This is the belief that the creator is one and he doesn't have any assistants, no triumvirate, no trinity, no no it's only Hashem, only the creator. And he is a perfect, inseparable, unified whole with no co-deities whatsoever and independent of everyone and everything. And that's why the most important prayer and we we say is also from Deuteronomy chapter 6 chapter 4, Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad. Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. That brings us up to principle three. Principle three is I believe with complete belief that the creator, blessed be his name, is not a body nor can any physical entity comprehend him. He is incorporeal with no image whatsoever. So, creator defies any description and nor can a mortal understand him or his workings in any way. Well, even the Torah's terminology, Kabbalistic terminology, refers to the mouth of Hashem, the word of Hashem, that Hashem's arm, Hashem's hand. Well, we also call the ultimate name. Hashem has no name really. The names we use are descriptions of Hashem's actions. Even the ineffable uh the ineffable name Yud Kay Vav Kay, the true name of Hashem is Okay, it's Ein Sof, according to Kabbalah. No end. Ein Sof, there there is no end. It's the the infinite, the infinite. There's no description. And that's why when we talk about the source of godliness that we don't really even aware of. We're not even aware of our own souls, which is a spark of this godliness. Our own soul is a tiny spark of Hashem, as the Zohar teaches us. But uh we describe that Ein Sof, Hashem Ein Sof. So, we can't understand our our own souls, we certainly can't understand uh Hashem. Principle four. I believe with complete belief that the creator, blessed be his name, is first and last. That this is our belief that Hashem defies time and space, can't be limited in any way, is infinite, eternal, preceded the beginning of time, and existing forever way past the end of time. The Gomorrah tractate says, "Don't even try to think about this cuz it'll make you go crazy." We can't even think of something that we we can't begin to comprehend as long as our souls are trapped inside the body. Principle five. I believe with complete belief that the creator, blessed be his name, is the only entity to whom it is befitting to pray and it's not befitting to pray to anyone or anything else. Well, this is the foundation of monotheism and it forbids idolatry and false gods and therefore it precludes any worship or submission to anyone or anything other than the creator. Some people that that for example seances, that's dark side. And trying to uh conjure up uh dead souls or or angels. People There there are cults that are that are connected with angels, different angels. No, we don't pray to anybody. The angels are servants of Hashem. They're servants of Hashem. We don't make them the gods. Some people that the star the star worshipers. This is the the idolaters. They worship the sun, the moon, the stars. So, worshiping a creation, not the creator. We only worship the creator, nothing else. Principles Principle five. I believe that the creator, blessed be his name. That's what we we just said. You so not befitting to pray to anyone else. Principle six. I believe with complete belief that all the words of the prophets are true. We believe in the prophecies of the 48 prophets and the seven prophetesses, together 55, that are mentioned in the Tanakh with the the Torah and the scripture and the prophets. And we don't doubt these prophecies as the word of Hashem and therefore truth. Principle seven. I believe with complete belief that the prophecy of Moses, may he rest in peace, was real and that he was the foremost of all the prophets, the ones before him and the ones after him. We believe this what we call the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses. And this is the Torah, the this the written Torah, that this was given to Moses from Hashem on Mount Sinai and that every word is absolute truth. Whereas prophecy was Hashem's way of speaking to the prophets. We believe that Hashem spoke to Moses directly as we see in chapter 33 in Book of Exodus. We see all through the Torah, especially chapter 34 in Deuteronomy. Check that out. Principle eight, I believe with complete belief that the entire Torah we have in possession today is the one given to Moses, may rest in peace. This is a belief in the divine origin of the Torah and the Torah we read and learn today is the same exact Torah that Hashem gave to Moses and it's the blueprint of the entire world. People say, "Well, where do you see high-tech in the Torah?" It's in there. It's in there. Those that learn how to know in-depth enough can find it. So, the Torah is universal and the Torah never becomes outdated. The Torah is always relevant because it's Hashem's blueprint. You look the This is Hashem's blueprint, the plan for making the world. Principle nine, I believe with complete belief that the Torah it shall not be replaced nor to the creator, blessed be his name, will make a different Torah. This our belief that the Torah we have today is the same Torah for posterity, unchangeable and irreplaceable, and once again, it's relevant for posterity. Principle 10, I believe with complete belief that the creator, blessed be his name, knows the actions of every human and all their thoughts as it says in the Book of Psalms in Psalm 33, he produces the hearts of them and discerns all their doings. One thing King David he revealed to us. This is a belief in Hashem's omniscience. And since his divine providence determines everything, it's a divine direction, everything everything in our lives is no thought or utterance or occurrence in the universe is slips away from Hashem. Everything is known to him. And if you want to understand, well, but people look they look at Google search and they see everything's there. How does Google search Google search is something that's mechanical. That Hashem knows everything. Hashem knows our thoughts even before we say them. Google search can't know that. They can only know something once it's been published up on the web. The same thing with artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is one big Google search. It's all this information compendium and when you ask something for artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence can't think. It just goes through all these zillions of archives and brings things up. Okay, but it can't think. It can't think. Our principle 11, I believe with complete belief that the creator, blessed be his name, rewards those who observe his commandments and punishes those who transgress his commandments. This was last week's lesson. I strongly urge people before Rosh Hashanah to go back and review last week's lessons. It's already posted up on amunabeams.com and on laserbeams.com. It's our belief in reward and punishment, our accountability. People they blame their troubles on other people. King Solomon spoke about this in Proverbs. He says that the fool has difficulties in life and the fool skews his way, but then he complains to Hashem. Hashem wrote right in the Torah, "If you do this." Torah is really cause and effect. It's not so much reward and punishment, it's cause and effect. Okay, if you stick your hand in the fire, you're going to get burned. And if you stick your hand in ice water, it's going to be really cold. Then we see we can see that it's cause and effect. So, if a person does have doubt, "Why doesn't Hashem just happen right away?" That right away instant reward and instant punishment, because we're humans. Hashem wants us to exercise our free choice because there is no reward or punishment outside the context of free choice. If a person is converse is coerced to do good, he or she doesn't deserve a reward. And if they're coerced to do the opposite, to do something that's not good, that they're forced at gunpoint, they don't deserve to be punished. Okay, so we get reward or punishment. This is an explanation by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, the Ramchal, that the reward and punishment only makes sense in the context of free choice. So, that's why Hashem gives us the free choice and this is something we have to know. Our free will, everything is our choice and this is something we have to be accountable for on Rosh Hashanah, which is less than two weeks away. So, it's a good to review last week's lessons in preparation for Rosh Hashanah. Tonight's lesson is our 12th principle, the principle of Mashiach. Once again, I believe with complete belief in the coming of Mashiach, even though he tarries, we nonetheless await him every day whenever he comes. So, we believe that the Messiah, the Mashiach, he hasn't come yet, but we eagerly anticipate his arrival together with the advent of the Messianic era, which as we mentioned in the beginning includes the full redemption of our people and gathering the exiles and the rebuilding of our holy temple here in Jerusalem in rebuilt holy land of Israel. So much has been said and written about Mashiach and Geulah and redemption throughout the years, not all of which is authoritative. Not everything, especially if you read about Mashiach on the web or in uh social media, it's it's certainly not authoritative. And it's not all in accordance with Torah and Masorah. People have all these ideas and that's why uh they tend to follow these false Messiahs. So, this is the real Mashiach. This is principle 12. This is according to our Jewish tradition. With that in mind, our belief in Mashiach is based on the teachings of Maimonides, the Rambam, and he disperses the myths and clarifies the truth. In other words, the Rambam, if we look at the Rambam's writings, they're called the Yad Hazakah. It's the 14 volumes. The Rambam took the entire Talmud and boiled it down into laws according to different subjects. And there's laws of women and laws of holidays and laws of Shabbat and and laws of they just everything that a lawyer learns at law school. Property law and and torts and and rights and damages. Everything is all in the Rambam. Everything is all in the Rambam. The Rambam in the laws of kings, once he tells us about what are going to be the conditions for Mashiach, how to recognize the real Mashiach and how to recognize the false one. So, in his elaboration of the Mishna, the Rambam writes this. Look, this is I'm quoting the Rambam verbatim. English translation, my translation of the Rambam. He says, "We are obliged to believe in the coming of Mashiach and not think that it will be delayed. Even though Mashiach tarries, we nonetheless await him. A person should not speculate about the time of his arrival nor look for proofs in Torah that seemingly predict the time of his coming. For our sages say in the Gemara in Sanhedrin, tractate 96A, 'May the breathing of those who calculate the end cease.'" From curses. He brings this shows this curse in the Gemara. You see, the people think, "Oh, this is it. With all the signs that Mashiach is on the way, Mashiach is going to be here in 1 year and 6 months and this." No. No. There's a a a joke they tell about the people that predict Mashiach. And they say that the Marlboro, the tobacco company, they finance people to make these false predictions. And why they do that? They say, "Well, when people see that Mashiach doesn't come, then they give up their Emunah and they start smoking cigarettes on Shabbat." That's a sick joke, but it there is a truth to it. That's why we don't speculate Mashiach because what happens if we're wrong? What happens when a person gets to something you wait for, you wait for every moment and it doesn't happen, you become disappointed. Well, this is why in our 12th principle of Emunah, we wait for him any moment he comes. In other words, if he didn't come, I wake up in the morning, Mashiach hasn't come today. But by the way, warm regards from Hebron for our matriarchs and patriarchs. Where I go, I take all of you with me. And I had the feeling on the way to the Machpelah Cave, we know that Mashiach is going to come and he's going to pay his respects to the matriarchs and patriarchs. And maybe on the way to their gravesite, the holy gravesite in Machpelah Cave, going to greet Mashiach. Okay, being ready to meet Mashiach any single moment. Somebody tells me that Mashiach has just landed on Ashdod Port right here by us. Okay, excuse me, we're going to Well, I'm I'm going to go down to the Ashdod Port. I'm taking the move the move our lesson and move the the Zoom land online class but we wait him. It doesn't matter. We expect Mashiach any single moment. This is our belief. This is our belief. The Lubavitcher Rebbe used to say that we shine our buttons. We shine our buttons. Means everything is all ready for Mashiach. Just we have to make sure to shine our buttons. That the garment, the festive garment that we greet Mashiach, it's got to be perfectly clean, perfectly ready. This way, the great tzaddikim, what they used to have in their closet, they would keep a closet that's special festive garment that as soon as they hear that Mashiach comes, "Oh, no, it's in the dry cleaner. Oh, no, it's here." No, it's ready. It's ready. We're ready to greet Mashiach. They used to do all types of preparations for Mashiach, but never never did they speculate about Mashiach. The Eliyahu Hanavi tells us in Tanna Debei Eliyahu, the Midrash of Eliyahu Hanavi, that uh Yeshua ben Levi was Yeshua ben Levi. Yeshua ben Levi was a perfect tzaddik. Yeshua ben Levi, he made an a rise of his soul, what we call Aliyat Hanashamah, and he met the soul of Mashiach. He went up to the upper worlds. He met the soul of Mashiach. And he said, "Mashiach, when are you coming?" Mashiach said, "Well, today." Today. Okay, [snorts] he said then he he didn't come. And then Yeshua ben Levi made another thing. He said, "Mashiach, why didn't you come? Why why did you say today you didn't come? He says, "Well, I was going to come today, but the Shem didn't want for for me. They the generation deserve it." Okay, but today as far as Moshiach is concerned, come today, reveal himself today. As soon as Shem gives him the green light, reveal himself today. This is the way we feel we're ready for Moshiach, and this was one of the most important things that the Lubavitcher Rebbe did, he heightened the world's awareness of Moshiach. Okay. So, let's ask go back to the Rambam where he brought the curse from the Gemara about that a person who speculates about the coming the time that Moshiach will come, that he should stop breathing. There's another curse in the Gemara, there's several curses that that his intestines should turn inside out. So, let's ask ourselves a question. We don't see things like this in the Gemara. All right, our gentle, peace-loving sages, they only wanted good for people. Why would they utter such fierce curses against those that speculate and try to calculate the date of Moshiach's arrival? Well, I heard a wonderful answer from Rabbi Yisrael Teitelbaum of blessed memory. Rabbi Yisrael Teitelbaum was a one of this this generation's great spiritual leaders and and thinkers. He was a Holocaust survivor. And he explained that the belief in Moshiach and Geula gave us the strength to endure such a purgatory as the Holocaust. They were on the cattle train on the way to Auschwitz. On the way to the gas chambers. And there's this moving song from the Holocaust. And I think it was the Modzhitzer Rebbe that composed it. With the Yes of Moshiach and then and then the whole train started thinking they they were broken. Some people they they lost their faith completely. They started thinking about Moshiach and they they sang it the whole way on the train to Auschwitz. And one of the people jumped off the train, managed to escape. And he took this he revealed revealed this song before that this this was the I think it was the Modzhitzer Rebbe. Modzhitzer Rebbe was very musical. And this is what Rabbi Yisrael Teitelbaum told us. This gave us the power. Like we mentioned in the beginning that Chevlei Moshiach, the birth pangs of Moshiach. The Holocaust. And everybody thinks when Moshiach comes, how could be how is the Holocaust people ask how is the Holocaust for the best? Well, maybe you could give different explanations that the Holocaust people give explanations that the Jewish world was on a downslide spiritually and Hashem had to save them. Hashem had to do a mercy operation. They can give all types of explanations. They're holding with those explanations. Don't argue against them. But do one thing. One thing that I do not understand. Don't understand what Hashem is doing. Hashem did brought the Holocaust by divine wisdom and knows what's best. And we do know one thing spiritually that every it's a spiritual Newton. Every descent has an equal and opposite ascent. Okay, so we have this descent that was a Holocaust. We have this ascent which is going to be this the Holocaust was a decimation of the people. A decimation of our of our of our nation. Then what's the opposite? And the opposite of extermination that's rebirth. So, you have a rebirth of a nation that's Moshiach. Exactly what we're talking about Moshiach Geula. So, this had to be why the precursor we will know when Moshiach comes. Moshiach is going to reveal to all types of things we didn't understand. But what happens we don't understand this is Emunah. Where does Emunah kick in when the brain kicks off? Where does Emunah begin when logic leaves off? When our human logic cannot process anything, cannot understand, cannot fathom. We don't understand why we're having some of difficulties. People ask me all the time. I hear this so much that through all the time and it people that are wonderful people and have been doing their best to learn Emunah and doing their best to strengthen themselves and they had difficulties that they never imagined. They Rabbi, why am I getting into difficulties? I got these difficulties in health, health challenges, financial challenges. I can't pay my bills. Why all these challenges? But it's the same thing. This is the spiritual Newton. Because Hashem is bringing them down to raise them very, very high. Now, if you hold on, if you hold on our sages tell us in this era before Moshiach that it's going to be they bring a passage from the book of Job. The passage of Job that says that the passage of Job says you shall grab the ends of the earth. What does it mean grab the ends of the earth? And our sages explain that right before Moshiach comes, Hashem is going to take the world like a carpet. You ever take a carpet you want to shake it out or take a rug want to shake out the dust. You take it up and you shake it out. Give it a big shake. Well, that's what Hashem is going to do. Hashem is going to take the world. Maybe this is the for period of Moshiach right to right now. And we see the challenges and Emunah that people having. And Hashem is going to shake the world. And those with weak Emunah they're going to fall off. That means you got to hold on. What does it mean to hold on to the to the edges of the earth? Hold on with our Emunah. We hold on to to our existence on earth with Emunah. That's the only thing that keeps us here. Keeps us from floating away into oblivion. And this is what we have to remember. So, once again, Rabbi Yisrael Teitelbaum said that that the belief in Moshiach it gave us the strength. It gives us the strength, present tense, to endure what we have to endure. Otherwise, we just might lose heart. So, in light of this explanation by Rabbi Teitelbaum, we can understand how all the false Messiahs in history caused so much damage and a breakdown of faith. Well, gullible people they put their hope in a deadline or a person and they say, you know, oh, this person is Moshiach and they they really hope this is Moshiach. What happens when he turns out he leaves the world and he's not Moshiach? Then they start smoking Marlboros on Shabbat. What what happens to them? And gullible people they put their hope in a deadline. And what happens when the date passes and Moshiach doesn't come? They're shattered. They lose everything. They lose their faith. For that reason, uh that's why that cynic quoted that the the tobacco companies they financially support the false Messiahs. Because when they prove wrong, then they're going to sell more tobacco on Shabbat. Well, the Rambam thread stresses. He says like this. Let me go back to to the Rambam. He says even though Moshiach tarries, we nonetheless await him any day that he arrives. So, our sages went to great lengths to prepare themselves for Moshiach for Emunah like we say praying the the fine details. Preparing their garment, their festive garment they're going to greet Moshiach. Now, speculation is forbidden. Anticipation is what we want. That's a mitzvah. That anticipation is okay. Not only is it okay, anticipation is desired. Anticipating. We anticipate Moshiach, but we don't speculate. And that's one of the most important plus if we open up our our Gemara tractate Shabbat, page 31A, uh our sages teach us that when a person goes up to heavenly heavenly court after they terminate their duty on earth, uh they are asked one question, "Did you anticipate salvation? When did you anticipate salvation?" So, salvation is a whole package that includes Moshiach. It means salvation is when all the lies that all the lies we see that I also hear from people, uh especially all over the world, all over the world. Rabbi, why does Hashem let this really evil regime run our country? It's a great question. Why does Hashem reveal his It's a I don't know. It's to anticipate Moshiach. So, Moshiach that is in the redemption package, in the salvation package, that's when the banana republics and the tyrants and the dictators and all the crooked people and the mafias and the the crooked police and the crooked court systems, they're all going to go. They're all going to go because Hashem is bringing down the light of truth in the world. They're going to be burned. They're going to be burned in the truth. This is what the Gemara tells us that the righteous they're going to get all this beautiful suntan in the light of truth, Hashem's light. For them, it feels like the warmth of sunlight. They get their their vitamin D for their soul. But the the wicked, it's going to burn them because they won't have it. So, that's why for example, our our group our group that learning Emunah. I looked down the list of the our group of people that participated at for the last let's see we've been for 5 years going we're going 5 years already. The growth, the spiritual growth that each one of you made it to 5 years. You can't recognize it. Can't recognize. And this is shows you're going to be that much more prepared for Moshiach. Because Hashem we have a privilege we have a a tight-knit group and it's accessible and people can communicate here by by way of letter, by way of email. And I can see the questions people ask and the challenges people have and how they handle them and where they are. Even though you're down on yourself, don't beat down on yourself. You're a much higher spiritual level than you were 2 years ago and 3 years ago and 4 years ago. And this is preparing you to receive light of Moshiach. Okay. So, Moshiach is the catalyst that is going to trigger salvation in the world. Once Messiah comes to the world, that's a whole thing. And the people think Messiah, what's this little rabbi? The Gamorah tells us it's going to be this tzaddik that comes on a white donkey. See on the poster that the we made the preparation. We said that one of the downtown streets, a little side streets in in Jerusalem and you see Messiah riding a white donkey. Coming a white donkey. So this this Torah scholar, this righteous person on a white donkey, what's he going to do against all these armies, the army of red China? Wait and see. Wait and see because of Hashem. This is the power of King David. We saw at the time of the Holy Temple and King Solomon when the entire world was subservient to kingdom of Solomon. They they they they they had peace in that generation and that's what going to come back but even now more more permanently. So Messiah and salvation, they're juxtaposed in our daily liturgy, in our in our prayer. Every day we say it three times a day. We say "Let spring forth the horn of Yeshua." And that speedily cause the sign of David, your servant, to flourish. Who's the sign of David? Messiah is going to be a sign of David. He's going to be a descendant, a great great great great grandson of King David. And increase your power by your salvation. And what does it mean increase your power? Hashem increase it by Hashem's salvation that the power of a wonderful Christian on earth and and they believe Hashem because if there's no there's if there's no kingdom, there's no king. And we hope for your salvation and we anticipate your salvation. As we said, we hope we we so we don't speculate about salvation but we anticipate it. It's going to come. It will come. So the sign of David, of course, is Messiah and our double expression of hoping daily for salvation while constantly anticipating when it's said with intent it enables each of us to answer the heavenly court, "Yes, I did await Messiah." This particular prayer is certainly a legitimate answer to the heavenly court that I did await Messiah. So this is something even all of us in our personal prayer. Hashem let your light be apparent on earth and send us Messiah, send the sign of David. It's not people ask, "Well, what Messiah for? Then I'm not going to have a I'm not going to be overdrawn in the bank anymore. I'm not going to have a mortgage." But here the Rambam explains "Olam k'minhago noheg" that after Messiah comes the natural course of the world will still continue. There will be commerce and you go to the supermarket and you'll pay for food and you do work and you get money. This But mal'ut ha'aretz that the world's going to be full of spiritual awareness. So we beg Hashem for Messiah and the wonderful happenings that come with his arrival, redemption and gathering the exiles and the rebuilding of our Holy Temple in Jerusalem and the inundation of the world with the knowledge of Hashem and the spiritual awareness called in Hebrew da'at that is the result of emunah. And that's exactly what all our lessons in emunah like King Solomon said, "Kol hanachalim holchim el hayam." All the rivers go to the sea. Everything we learn, everything we do is to enhance our emunah. And this cherished brothers and sisters, this is the greatest spiritual investment we can make. The the time and the effort that we're investing in emunah this is not only going to help ourselves when Messiah comes and we see what So what what happens if I'm not here when Messiah comes? Yeah, but that we get next week we're going to learn the revival of the dead that we'll all be back here when Messiah does come. And it'll be a big difference between the people that learned emunah once again the people that that didn't learn emunah. So we're far from finished in asking uh Messiah just by our our daily our daily prayers in the synagogue. Every time we say grace after meals, we're asking for Messiah because we repeatedly ask for Messiah and the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Every time we say the Kaddish prayer bagal u vizman kariv that it should come speedily in our days. That every time we say the Aleinu prayer. All our prayers one by one we beg Hashem to bring down the divine monarchy to the earth. We all want the divine monarchy in the earth. When you say you have Rafael and El Salvador show you tell us about the the corrupt El Salvador government. Yeah, we don't want the the the the junta in El Salvador. We want Hashem. We want divine. We want the the divine regime all over the world. Okay, so this is this is the salvation package where at Messiah and the redemption of our people and emunah being spread all over the world. And this is the building of our Holy Temple in Geulah which mark the establishment of Hashem's reign on earth. Because the Messiah is What does Messiah literally mean? Messiah means Hashem's anointed. But Hashem's anointed, where where do we first see that? We see the word in the book of Samuel when Samuel poured oil on King David's head. King David was a lad and Hashem showed Samuel that he is the intended king of Israel and it's mashiach shemen. Messiah means to to anoint, to anoint with oil that when or to spread. When you you you spread you you you spread oil on something as you have limshoach shemen. And he says Messiah means that the anointed. The anointed. This is Hashem's anointed. So again we come into Shabbat, we cry out in the bottom of our hearts on Shabbat we have the special Kedushah prayer. "When will you reign in Zion?" Matay timloch betzion? Yeah, Hashem. When are you going to reign in Zion? Speedily in our days bekarov yameinu sheyitzei it should dwell among us forever. And this is spiritually suffocating atmosphere now brings tears in your eyes. You look around. Don't look around. If they they guard our eyes, they guard our thoughts. But look around. What do we see? We we look and say they they tell people to just stay off the don't surf the web. Don't do their chat rooms. Don't go to untold places where you're not going to know what you see. And even open up the media. What do you find? Debauchery agnosticism. Who writes the news? Agnostics. The people that that don't believe. Immorality. It's not mussar. It's not the ethics of Torah. And all this stuff that characterizes political correctness and woke and modern society. Wow. We yearn for Messiah just because spiritually the air is polluted. We yearn for Messiah for some spiritual fresh air. And it's a spiritual fresh air like when leave the coast. It's really muggy here on on Israel's coast at the end of the summer. And going up to the mountains of Judea and up to Hebron which is 3,300 ft above sea level or 1,000 m above sea level. And the air air is so delightful. The air is dry even though it was warm. It was warm just as warm as here here in Ashdod. But the up there the humidity is 30%. We're down here it's 82%. It's a big difference. And you could just think it's the same thing when Messiah comes >> [snorts] >> the spiritual air we breathe can take a deep breath and put a smile on our face because right now it's just like with the immorality in the air it's like a smoke-filled environment where a person can barely breathe. It somebody have been in living in the the coal miner district in West Virginia or Pennsylvania where people get black lung from all the coal in the air and people especially the ones that work down in the mines. That's it's a person can get spiritual black lung from the the immoral air they breathe. That's why we have to keep ourselves in connected to emunah. Keep our minds and source of emunah. Keep our minds healthy and read about emunah. Read keep our heads in prayer. Read King David's Psalms. Every time we read a Psalm. Every time we read a Psalm. Every time we recite a Psalm. Every time we talk to Hashem. To talk to Hashem, spend our our free time speaking to Hashem. It's spiritual fresh air. It's great for our our our our spiritual lungs. So our anticipation of Messiah is so very important that the Gemorah says anyone who doesn't equally await Messiah is a heretic. No, he says a person could be he keeps Shabbat, eats kosher, he follows it. You don't know he didn't know you don't await Messiah? No, this is a heretic. And it because it it's denying this is also this for right out of the Rambam. The Rambam says like this, I quote exactly. Anyone who does not believe in Messiah or one who does not anticipate his coming not only denies the prophets but denies the Torah and denies Moses our teacher. You find this in Laws of Kings chapter 11 and this is clause one, verse one. So our great spiritual leaders, they anticipated Messiah. They all followed the Rambam to the T and they anticipated the Geulah with all their hearts and practically as well. And that's not only the thing. The Hafetz Chaim Hafetz Chaim Hafetz Chaim died in 1933. So how long ago was that? Well, it was uh 92 years ago. The Hafetz Chaim lived to the ripe old age of 95. So it did three generations ago. The Hafetz Chaim established a special rabbinical seminary for learning the laws that apply to the Holy Temple and divine service there which few people are familiar with them today. You say, "Well, how exactly do perform this particular ritual in the Holy Temple?" Well, the Hafetz Chaim made a special religious seminary, a special coil for the He himself was a kohen. He himself was from the priestly tribe. And he wanted to be ready. He just He didn't want to be caught. He He expected Mashiach any minute. So, what's going to happen when Mashiach comes? And what's going to happen to the holy temple? It's going to be so embarrassing. And he chastised himself, the Hafetz Chaim. He says, "You throw a mirror. They're going to yell at you. You throw a mirror. You don't know the laws of the holy temple? And you're a kohen? And you're a rabbi? Your teacher said can't allow that to happen. We have to learn it and learn it and learn all the time." So, people see that we learn the Gemara and tractates Zevachim. We learn certain tractates that only have relationship to holy What are you learning that for? I can't understand. You learn property law and Gemara tractate Bava Batra. So, what are you learning Zevachim? What are you learning Menachot? What are you learning the the the tractates that only relate to to the holy temple? It's preparation Mashiach. We have to know them. We have to know that they're applause the laws that that apply. And especially if a person is a kohen. And we mentioned before there was the Hafetz Chaim that is very special festive coat that he planned to wear when he greeted Mashiach. And he would don it from time to time in anticipation. What he would put it on to make sure that the buttons are well sewn on, that there wasn't loose button. And if there was a button that wasn't exactly tight, loose button, he said, "He's going to put on my my coat and and and a button fall off?" No, he paid that down to the tiny the tiny details. So, once again, this is anticipation and it's not speculation. I cannot stress anticipation enough. And I can stress to stay far away from speculation and date guessing. And the Rambam also he reiterates the Gemara's curse against those who speculate in the times of Mashiach. If you want to If you want to know where this is, source is that the laws of Malachim laws of kings chapter 12 and this is clause two or law two. Speculation is devastating, potentially devastating. And we see We've seen it with the false Messiahs, especially in the Baltic countries. In the Baltic countries which are Greece, Italy, with the Ladino This was a where the exiles the Spanish Spanish exiles at the Spanish Inquisition that Sephardi Jewry they exiled east and they went to Italy, they went to Yugoslavia, they went to Bulgaria, they went to Greece, they went to Turkey. And the side I know my wife is one of these. And David is also one of these. Also from from Turkish families. And they they had a really spiritual knockdown when many of the Baltic Jews followed We call him Shots. We don't like to say his name, but historically I'll say his name Shabbatai Zevi. Shabbatai Zevi was one of the worst worst false Messiahs because he had a lot big gathering. In the end, Shabbatai Zevi became a Muslim. And one thing when he was in his height of popularity, the Taz The Taz is Rabbi David HaLevi. Rabbi David HaLevi is one of the greatest Ashkenazi commentators Shulchan Aruch. The Meller Rebbe is descended from him. And the Taz sent his two sons We're talking about 16th century, sent his two sons 17th century, early 17th century. We're talking late middle 16th century, early 17th century. But he sent his two sons to Turkey to see Shabbatai Zevi. And Shabbatai Zevi I think he was there in He was not in Istanbul. He was in uh Smyrna, I think it was. It was Izmir. Thank you, David. He was at Shabbatai Zevi was in Izmir in Turkey. And he sent his two sons to see Shabbatai Zevi. And they went in to see Shabbatai Zevi. And Shabbatai Zevi was lying on his on his chaise lounge. His guy He was lying on his back. And they said that's all. They didn't need to know. They said hello and goodbye. They turned around and they came back to Poland. And they told their father This was the They said the Taz Rabbi David HaLevi and his son and his son-in-law went together. He says, "It's a false Messiah." So, how do you know? He was lying on his back. He had lying on his back. That's it. The The Gemara says a man is not allowed to lie on his back. Not lie on his back because lying on his back he's liable to have lewd thoughts. He He's liable to have lewd thoughts. And that's where Commander we sleep we sleep on our side, right side or left side, not on our stomach and not on our back. This is halakha. This is the way we have to sleep. So, when they see there was that tiniest detail according to halakha that Shabbatai Zevi doesn't doesn't uphold, he knows the false Messiah. And we talk about the the world's worst false Messiah. He trampled the whole Torah. He trampled He said, "This is irrelevant. This is irrelevant. This is irrelevant." And it even the Shabbat. What that Shabbat is is so You can see it, but people follow him. People It's such It's such an obvious lie. And they said, "Why do you follow him?" "Oh, so no, he's a He's a seed of David." "Oh, he's a seed of David?" "Yeah, what do you say seed of David?" "Oh, yes, his father was a descendant of David from the tribe of Judah." "Oh, hold it. But you told me 2 minutes ago that the immaculate conception that the mother was visited by Come on. Decide what you want." So, what's convenient you can say any A third grader could could debunk that this whole this whole thing that zillions of people believe in. And with this false Messiah, this is what the Crusades and the Inquisition and they've killed millions and millions and millions and millions of Jews throughout the generations and throughout the generations. So, they said, "Wait a second. We're talking about false Messiah." We know that uh No, it was not a It was not a Messiah, but ask yourself who is Messiah? So, one second. Just before you explain who is Messiah, uh speculation is a blemish in our simple emunah, but anticipation is not. Just what we spoke about speculation and anticipation and just to to conclude it. And when anticipation we await him every day, whenever he comes. And anticipation this is the purest declaration of pure emunah. I don't understand a thing. I don't need to understand a thing. Hashem has his timeline and I expect Mashiach whenever he comes. Just like I expect redemption whenever he comes. I expect it's not going to be long where everybody look down the list. Everybody be on a on a plane the wings of eagles and come to the to the holy land. Look, it's all going to happen. So, who is Mashiach? Well, the Rambam stresses that Mashiach is a human being like everyone else. He's not a son of God. There's no such thing as a son of God. We say metaphorically that our souls are tiny parts of the Almighty where we're all we have the spiritual DNA. And this way we're children We're Hashem's children. But nobody is the physical son of God. We're the physical sons of our daddy and our mommy because everything we have is our in our physical DNA it comes from dad and it comes from mom. Okay. So, don't think that King Mashiach has to perform miracles and walk on the water and do all kinds of silly things and all kinds of unprecedented actions in the world and and revive the dead. No. And this is the This is the law. It's again laws of Rambam, laws of kings chapter 11 verse three where the Rambam explains exactly what Mashiach. The Rambam shows us the stark contrast of our concept of Mashiach and other religions' concept of Mashiach, whether it's the Islamic Mahdi or the Christian Messiah or Mashiach with the have the triumvirate or whatever they believe in. No part of it. No part of it. So, the Rambam stipulates that Mashiach doesn't need to be a miracle worker. He's not going to pull rabbits out of a hat. And he differentiates between the genuine Mashiach and the false Mashiach. And that's also in chapter 11 of laws of kings verse four. And he says like this. He says, "King Mashiach will arise from the descendants of the house of David." And how do we know him? He immerses himself in Torah. And he's impeccable at his mitzvah observance like his forefather King David, both the written Torah and the oral Torah. And he leads all of Israel to live lives of Torah and to strengthen themselves in every detail of observance. And he fights the battles of Hashem. And he brings the entire world to emunah. Brings the entire world to emunah. Okay, that's it. The whole world that the real the whole the whole being And if a person we see a person like that, he could be regarded as Mashiach. So, if he's done all this and he succeeded, in other words, you you could see he's uh He's succeeded in in in He's been in the Washington. And he is Trump has accepted accepted Hashem only. Then he's been to Moscow and Putin has thrown away the communist doctrine. He's accepted Hashem. And then he's been So, he's gone to Kim Jong in North Korea. And that We see this one particular individual and he the Torah scholar. And he's impeccable in in in what he's doing. Make sure he goes to North Korea in the middle of the week so he could be some place I don't know if there's a Chabad house in North Korea. So, if there's not a Chabad house where he could stay and properly observe Shabbat, he probably won't be in North Korea on Shabbat. Okay. So, this is He's we can see we can then think this person might be Messiah. But uh if he's done all this and succeeded and in addition now he's rebuilding the temple in its proper place which is Mount Moriah in Jerusalem and gather the exiles now he's certainly Messiah. Okay, when he's bringing the whole world close to Hashem we could believe he's Messiah. But now when he's building the holy temple in Jerusalem now he's Messiah. So let's pay close attention to the Rambam's differentiation between regarded as a Messiah and certainly Messiah. Let's compare between the two. This is really coming down to fine fine tooth and this is this is the litmus test of someone who is real Messiah or not. First of all, a person is regarded as Messiah. This is regarded as Messiah. Number one, he needs to be a descendant of David. Number two, he has to be totally immersed in Torah and mitzvah observance. Number three, he leads all of Israel lives of Torah, not just all group but everyone secular religious and all ethnic groups with no exception. Four, he fights those who rise up against Hashem and his Torah. And he spreads Emunah in the whole world. Okay, so if he fulfills these above four conditions totally and not partially we are obliged to regard him as Messiah but we're still not sure. Okay, now then we need that few other another three conditions preconditions to be certainly Messiah. So now he defeats the enemies of Hashem and Torah. He comes here to the land of Israel and he throws away the civil courts and he throws away the civil government and he throws away all this this maybe some of the the the worst heresy in the world is in the the civil anti-Torah government that is throwing people in in jail just today. Just today they caught it a a boy wanted to go to Uman for Rosh Hashanah. A student of Rabbi Arush's Yeshiva. And the military police caught him and he said oh you're not in the army you're going to jail. He says rather than going to Uman he's going to be Rosh Hashanah in jail. So this is this wouldn't happen in the Messiah because Messiah will defeat all his enemies not in the army anyway. So Messiah will defeat the enemies of Hashem and his Torah. Number two, he's going to build the holy temple in its proper place in Jerusalem. And number three, he's going to gather the exiles from the four corners of the earth to our holy homeland in the land of Israel. And if he fulfills these three conditions he's certainly Messiah. Well, clearly no one in history since King David has come close to fulfilling the prerequisites of regarded to be Messiah certainly not Messiah. People that they thought to be Messiah they if they learn the Rambam they say it's not even the preconditions of regarded to be Messiah. And that's why the TaZ sent his two sons to Izmir in Turkey to check out this Shabbetai Zevi. He said check out the the first condition. The first condition does he uphold Torah? And he wasn't immersed in Torah. He didn't uphold Torah. Boom, the guy's out. The guy's out. The HaTaZ was a one of our great rabbinical lawgivers and he knew the Rambam backward and forward. This is this our law. This is right here. They don't have to speculate. Just go down the list. If he doesn't fill this list bye-bye. You are a fake. You're not the real so Let's ask you one thing in in concluding tonight's lesson. What is life going to be in the era of Messiah? People ask us what's going to be like? What's going to be like? Are we have to pay our bills? Are there going to be banks? What's going to be? So the Rambam describes the nature of Messiah. And after that and this is in chapter 11 Laws of Kings in chapter 12 he talks about what life will be like once Messiah comes. He says don't think that the natural course of the world will be altered during the time of Messiah. But nature shall continue to run its course. The sun is going to rise and the the lunar lunar year will be 29 and a half lunar month will be 29 and a half days. The solar year will be 365 days. That's the things that they the sun's going to rise in the east and set in the west and a day be 24 hours. Everything is according to nature. Nature's going to run its course. In other words what the world we live in now the physical world the physical world will be the same. But a person is still going to pay electric bills and still going to pay mortgages. Messiah will not pay off your credit card bills. Beloved brothers sisters, you have to learn to finance handle your finances and not waste money on needless things and use your money on for what you need because Hashem gives you what you need. And so there's still going to be rich people and poor people and strong people and weak people. So this is okay so so what's going to be different? What's going to be different when Messiah comes? Well, the monarchy will return to thousands of David. The world will fill with knowledge of Hashem. Earning an income will be much easier for those who devote their lives to divine service. In other words, when Messiah comes every one of you oh, you were in the the Emunah group you spent all these years learning Emunah. Okay, every single one of you will be the head of a Yeshiva the head of a seminary the head of a Noahide Academy in the whole country. Can you Can you imagine? Could be the the head of the Noahide Academy in the UK, the head of the Noahide Academy in El Salvador. And it's going to be your job to bring millions of people and teach them the knowledge of Hashem. Because you prepared yourself with the knowledge of Hashem before Messiah came. In other words, you're you're greeting Messiah. Messiah is going to greet you with a big smile. Oh, you learned when everybody said that it was a it wasn't popular and it wasn't right and everybody argued against you and why why why did I just can't begin to imagine the rewards for Noahides. The whole world against them. Their families against them and they'd be pushed away by everybody pushed away the their friends and and they held on to their Emunah. Come on, you cannot imagine what is going to wait you. They did it would the greatest investment you can make in the world that you you make it right now and that's what you've been making. And the this this is what awaits you. Then this is your income since you're going to be spending time teaching Hashem's light Hashem's going to take care of your income. For this yes, there'll be a big difference in income for the ones that learned Emunah now and the ones that strike themselves in Emunah now and the ones that Hashem picks to teach Emunah now to become the heads of Yeshivas the heads of seminaries the heads of whether they're Jewish seminaries or Noahide seminaries doesn't matter because Kol Yisrael Arevim we're all going to be serving Hashem. It's just we have different souls just like we mentioned this in our introduction to Emunah. We talked about spiritual anatomy. We talked about that there's a a a petrol a benzene soul and a diesel soul. Just like some cars use diesel some cars use petrol some cars use electricity. And we have different the difference in the one soul and another soul. A tractor uses diesel. And a jet airplane uses high octane very very high octane to burn it depends what the what kind of combustion it needs to do its work. And the same thing with the nature of a soul that the Jewish soul has its job. That's why it has the 613 commandments. And the Noahide soul has its job. It has the seven main and the Rambam adds another 33 about 40 commandments. Okay, the the ethics commandments they're also Noahides are commanded with that. And each one has its job to do. Each one has its job to do. For example a a Jewish person won't be able to spread Emunah to a foreign nation foreign people. This you need a Romanian Romanian to spread Emunah in Romania. And you'll need a Latino from El Salvador or Colombia or Nicaragua to spread Emunah to the people cuz they know where they're coming from. They know where they come from they know their background that this to spread Emunah. But the difference is whereas you have to run after an income now then these people will not have to run after income. And that's going to be the difference between the Messianic era and the era now that it's for the people that are involved in teaching Torah it's going to be easier for them to learn the Torah easier for them to incomes will be taken care of. And this is geared to prepare the world for its ultimate rectification. Now in concluding tonight's lesson cherished brothers and sisters, now is the time now is the time to learn Emunah because there's one big disadvantage of the Messianic era as opposed to now. Now we're still awaiting Messiah. Where despite wars and pandemics and and all types of nations are at each other's throats but the value of Emunah and Teshuvah will be much less. Once Messiah comes and once Hashem reveals himself oh, that thank you. Now you can see you can see I I I Hashem's presence on earth. Oh, I believe too. >> [laughter] >> Now right now right now when you see the the the evil people and the highbrows and the tyrants running the world and all the the atheists and the agnostics and we go the unpopular road and we hold on to Emunah we hold on to truth. That's the value of Emunah right now. When Messiah comes it's going to be much less. So only an imbecile a total nincompoop who transgress Hashem's laws and after Messiah comes cuz that's going to be a suicide right away. And then that's where sages describe this the needless days. You may mention by Hashem. This is days of Muna where there's no reward no punishment. That's the Midrash in Vayikra says like they call that the day that there's no reward no punishment everything perfect spiritual winners. So now is the time to reap the full benefits of strength and Muna and purifying ourselves and Teshuvah and Hashem is love our group so much and so proud of everybody cuz that's exactly what they're doing. So why then do we yearn for Messiah if now is the great time we have the challenges? Why do we yearn for Messiah? But there's no greater sublime pleasure anywhere than getting to know Hashem and getting close to Hashem. And the days of Messiah will bring all of us to a spiritual level beyond what we could fathom today. And on that day this is when that day what does prophet Jeremiah tells us? On that day as speak Hashem, I will put my Torah in their midst and I will write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people for they shall know me. Wow, isn't that give me chills up this when you read this? And this is a joyous day we all anticipate when Mullah Aretz Das Hashem when the whole world fills with the knowledge of Hashem and speedily in our days and hope that have right away and our coming year 5786 where everyone should be inscribed and signed in the book of long life for all your hearts wishes for the very best. Amen.