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Chabad.org » Ideas & Beliefs » Moshiach » Moshiach: an Anthology » Is the World Really Getting Better?


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Is the World Really Getting Better?



Question:

You are always talking about how the world is ready and prepared for the Age of Moshiach. I don't see it. It looks like a pretty awful world to me. Looks like we've got a long way to go.

Answer:

That's because you don't see where it's coming from, what it used to be and how much it changed.

Let me illustrate: Nowadays you can call anywhere from anywhere. Imagine a call to the past. Say you called up your great-grandparents.

"Hi, great-grandma, great-grandpa! This is your great-grandchild calling from a hundred years later!"

"So wonderful to hear from you! How is life in the 21st century? Do you have enough to eat?"

"Well, when I want to eat, I go to my refrigerator. It keeps all the food cold and fresh."

"You only eat cold? Poor thing!"

"No, I stick it in my microwave for a minute and it comes out warm and cooked."

You go on to describe your menu, including produce and packages from every part of the world. And not just food, but people, too: You can take a cute little device out of your pocket and have a conversation with someone anywhere in the world, anytime. And if you need a piece of information, or to study any subject, you have access to millions of computers and many helpful people around the world-without even stepping out the door.

Your home is warm in the winter and cool in the summer. No Cossacks come to burn it down. In fact, the government provides subsidies so your children can study Judaism. Even in Moscow, the government helps build places of worship for Jews, as well as people of all faiths. The people around you teach their children tolerance and love of peace. The world produces enough food to feed each of its six billion citizens. Scientists, rather than challenging faith, point out the mysterious wonders of the universe and its essential oneness. For the first time in history, war is looked down upon and world peace is a value.

To them, you are describing a miraculous world. A world more distant from their world than theirs was from the ancients. They could only reach one conclusion: You must be calling them from the Times of Moshiach.

Yes, you left out a few details. For example, that you still owe the bank for that house. That the food produced is not reaching those who need it. That the information superhighway is often used for trash and pornography rather than for the wisdom it is destined for. That the world is still filled with much evil and suffering. But the point is, the stage is set, all is in place. Never before has the world been anywhere near this position. All that's left is for the curtains to be drawn and the lights to shine on the scene.


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By Tzvi Freeman   More articles...  |   RSS Listing of Newest Articles by this Author
Rabbi Tzvi Freeman heads Chabad.org's Ask The Rabbi team, and is a senior member of the Chabad.org editorial team. He is the author of a number of highly original renditions of Kabbalah and Chassidic teaching, including the universally acclaimed "Bringing Heaven Down to Earth." To order Tzvi's books click here. Rabbi Freeman is available for public speaking and workshops. Read more on his bio page.

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Reader Comments
Latest Comments:
Posted: June 15, 2009
-Impressed-
I don't watch the secular news on TV anymore for the simple reason that I don't want to be impressed with what the devil is doing. I'd rather get my news about miracles that G-d's doing today. Meditate on what HE has done and will do. I cannot afford to have a thought that is not of His. Anyone can be 15 minutes from discouragement or enthusiasm it depends on what we focus on. G-d has done so much already and is doing and will do. HE is GOOD.
Posted By Celine Bennett, Elliot Lake, Canada, Ontario

Posted: Feb 21, 2009
Moshiach coming to a world of madness?
I can see where Rabbi Freeman is coming from. Life today does seem better than what it was in the past, for the most part. And yet, the problems today, though fewer, are the same -- in more modern forms. But what I believe *has* changed is mankind's questioning of the status quo. There is a belief in, and not just a longing for, better things to come.
Assuming that life really is what we make it to be, the following words, part of a beautiful and famous monolgue, might apply:

"When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps, to be too practical is madness; to surrender dreams --this may be madness. Too much sanity may be madness! But maddest of all is to see life as it is and not as it should be!"

We could never accept, appreciate nor utilize the Coming of the Moshiach unless we are ready to believe in what He will bring. Sometimes we must look beyond what we see, to what is really there.
Thanks,
Posted By D.A.Levit, Signal Hill, CA

Posted: Dec 10, 2008
coming of moshiach
Using the advances in technology and our freedom as reasons that Moshiach is soon to come is misleading. Yes, the telephone and the cellphone and the computer allow us to communicate better, but technology has also allowed us to kill each other more efficiently. Every advance, every freedom that has been given to us, has led to both marvelous and horrible things at the same time. This is our humanity; this is our free will. We have the choice to love each other or to kill each other, like Cain. Don’t we have to earn Moshiach? I know that we are not supposed to ask why, or to understand why things happen, but we cannot continue to be satisfied with the presence of evil because we hope to be redeemed. We need a course correction, and soon. On the other hand, I do have unlimited hope. I have to.
Posted By Steve Finson, West Haven, CT/USA



 


Moshiach: an Anthology
From the Teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe »
Facing Reality
For Real
Land and See
The Right Not to Know
The Quest for Peace
The Window
The Fifty-Sixth Century
Stories »
The Clock
The Palace and the Pigeons
A Surgical Procedure
The Old Man on the Island
Cholent
Contemporary Voices »
Coming In for a Landing
A Mother's Plea
Timed Out
Between Fire and Ice
Sighting Moshiach
Is the World Really Getting Better?
Cold Soup
Belief in Moshiach
The Truth about Moshiach
A Chaos of Infinite Light
A Taste of Future
Who Believes in Moshiach?
Technology of the Redemption
The Seven Fat Cows
A Gathering with the Rebbe in 1992
Is Judaism a Theocracy?
Skeptic & Believer
Eternity
What Lies Inside
From the Sources »
Source Texts