[Avodah] Ani Maamin...

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 06:30:33AM -0600, Steven J Scher wrote:
: We hope for Moshiach to come; but, can we be pessimistic that that coming 
: will arrive any time soon?

See the thread
<http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/getindex.cgi?section=M#MOSHIACH>
Starting from my hijack (it begins "On a totally different note")
in v8n84.

The pasuq is "im tismahmeiha, chaqei lo", and the author of Ani Maamin
felt this was central enough to include (reconjugated) in his formulation.
So clearly he thought it was okay to entertain the possibility of "if he
tarries".

The Rambam (Peirush haMishnayos, intro to Cheileq, ikkar #12) writes
    ... ve'ein lomar shenis'acheir -- "im tismahmeiha, chaqei lo" --
    ve'ein liqvoa' lo zeman...

Both RSRH and RYBS are quoted as saying (nth hand, therefore don't take
as Torah miSinai) that they rarely if ever discussed mashiach because
they thought the possibility was to remote for their generations.

So then what does "chaqei lo" mean? A bride, a month before her wedding,
might be ansiouly counting the days and awaiting the event. It doesn't
mean she thinks the wedding is eminent. Here we can't count the days,
but even if you believe it couldn't possibly be today, we can still
anxiously anticipate and prepare toward that day.

On the other hand the CC famously had everything ready, in case mashiach
came that day. Although he also raised funds for a mosad in Radun, that
even if he believed would literally fly as a building intact to EY,
would not require that hishtadlus if that were to happen the day he was
raising funds.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Our greatest fear is not that we're inadequate,
micha at aishdas.org        Our greatest fear is that we're powerful
http://www.aishdas.org   beyond measure
Fax: (270) 514-1507                        - Anonymous