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Bringing Mashiach To This World

Rabbi David Mivasair - Or Shalom, Vancouver, BC

Did you ever try to put your finger on just what the overall goal of Or Shalom is_ What are we ultimately about_ There are so many parts and pieces of this lively community, so many ways that our neshamas touch each other and the world around us. What do we want it all to add up to_

My answer - and an answer I'd want everyone to consider - is, "To bring the Mashiach- - to bring the Messiah to this world." Like many traditional images in our language, the idea of bringing the Mashiach- is easy to misunderstand and reject. It's important to take another look at it and see how it fits our map of reality.

When I think of Mashiach, of course, I don't think of a special person, a kind of superman who will ride on a white donkey over the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem and magically redeem the world. Instead, I think of the coming of Mashiach as the spiritual transformation of the world, a transformation that has been slowly taking place through the ages and that every person in the world can play a role in.

I think, like Rambam, the great 11th century rabbi philosopher, that in the time of the Mashiach, in many ways life will be like it is now. The natural order will be the same. There will still be storms and earthquakes and other challenges from nature. People will still be born, live, sometimes get sick and eventually die. We'll still need to work hard to gain an education and earn a living. Just like now, we'll need to consciously nurture our relationships with friends, neighbors and loved ones. We will still need some kind of government. We'll still speak many different languages.

But, in other ways, there will be a huge difference. We - all of us - will learn to live in harmony with one another and with the natural world, of which we are an integral part. There will be no more war, no more needless hunger, no more shameful perpetuation of oppression and suffering by one person or group of people on another. We will live the way we are really meant to live.

The coming of the Mashiach is happening in thousands of myriads of ways, little by little. I remember that Reb Shlomo CarIebach told stories of humble people who did the simplest things to make the world a tiny bit better. He'd say that they brought the Mashiach one step closer. And - gevalt! - what an incredible thing that is. Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi teaches that the Mashiach will come when we begin to live as if the Mashiah were already here. So, for me, that's the goal, the measuring rod to hold up to everything we do: Are we bringing Mashiah_ Our Shabbat dawening, our kids' school, our reaching out into the world, our holidays, our parties and our schmoozing---- - it all should contribute to the coming of the Mashiah. I believe it does. And, every once in a while, it's good to look at ourselves and ask: Can we, a Jewish spiritual community blessed with so much in so many ways, do any more to bring the Mashiach even one tiny step closer on this age-old journey of 10,000 miles_ Let us bring a consciousness of that question to everything we do.
 

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