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Belief in Moshiach: What For?

by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg

Does belief in Moshiach make the world a better place? If Moshiach's coming will bring changes for the good, let's wait and see. What benefit is there in the preoccupation with Moshiach now?

This questioner is not seeking a Biblical source for the belief in Moshiach. He is interested in understanding how this belief will enhance his life.

When one professes to believe in Moshiach, he is, in essence, proclaiming to himself and to the world around him a sense of optimism about life and a hope for the future.

As was demonstrated in an earlier answer, the belief in Moshiach is not simply a hope for a state of blissful, carefree utopia. Rather, it is a belief in a world realizing its G-d-given potential, in which we will be able to strive for greater spiritual heights. Since the advent of Moshiach is the culmination of a process and the beginning of a new and higher dimension of Divine service, every effort we make now is part of the messianic process.

We experience Moshiach today by living that kind of life today.¹ Belief in Moshiach entails a sense of responsibility now to do only responsible things. A person who, for example, denies a poor person a meal, because, he argues, "Moshiach's coming is imminent and he will provide you with a gourmet meal," has made a pronouncement that is totally anti-Moshiach! Moshiach implies doing good, being more charitable, more caring, performing uninhibited, unmitigated and unabashed kindness. The denial of charity because of Moshiach is the equivalent of telling a student not to learn elementary subjects because when he reaches graduate school he will have a much higher level of understanding. Obviously, one cannot reach graduate school if he doesn't pass the elementary levels of learning.

¹ Sefer HaSichos 5751. vol. II, pp. 691-708.

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