Reading the story and the liturgy of Tisha B’Av, a word that kept popping up is “Hope.” There is the passage in Jeremiah with the voice of Rachel crying for her children going in to exile and G-d says to her “Refrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears… there is hope for your future and your children will return to their borders.” This word is evoked repeatedly in our liturgy and our teachings.
Is hope an illusion? Are the promises of a return and the rebuilding of our people and our land just there to help us get through challenges? Were the prophets just stringing us along so that we can stand up again after being knocked down by yet another persecutorial enemy? Are the sages of the Talmud in on the conspiracy when they speak of a future Redemption? Did the Rambam, Rashi, the Arizal, the Baal Shemtov and all the others who speak of hope for the future, just come along for the ride in hoodwinking our people into believing in a Mashiach who will never come?
Years ago, I met an older man in Shreveport along with two friends and he told us about his encounter with the Rebbe. He shared how much he admired the Rebbe for what he did for the Jewish people. Then he concluded, “I just don’t understand why he insists on the ridiculous notion of Mashiach’s coming. Even the Rambam and the sages just used Mashiach as a way of offering hope to Jewish people during challenging times.” 19-year-old me was bursting with incredulity. How could an intelligent man accuse the Rambam of being a charlatan?
53-year-old me still insists that hope is not an illusion. I believe with complete certainty that words of the Rebbe and all those who preceded him, all the way back to the prophets and Moses, are an articulation of the promise of Hashem, which is the absolute truth.
Can we prove it? I believe that we can. The greatest proof that hope is real and that our future is G-d’s promise of Redemption, is the fact of Jewish survival. Today we mourned the destruction of our Temples by the Babylonians and the Romans, two mighty empires who dominated the world scene in their day. Where are they now? Where is Pharoah’s Egypt? Where is the Greek empire of Antiochus? Where is the Persian empire of Achashverosh? Where are the mighty crusaders? Where is the caliphate? Where is the Spanish kingdom of Ferdinand and Isabella? Where is the third Reich? Where is the Soviet Union?
But we, the Jewish people are alive and thriving. Am Yisrael Chai. We are a sliver of the world’s population. We always have been. And yet, here we are. In fact, humanity is quite obsessed with us, despite our diminutive proportions. We have survived every effort to eradicate us. We have survived one attempted genocide after the next. We believe with complete faith in the coming of Mashiach. Though he has tarried, nevertheless, we wait every day for him to come and fulfill the hope of Hashem’s promise. May this take place speedily. Amen
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Mendel Rivkin