Rabbi Rael Blumenthal

#יתרו #תשפב

In 1957, Elie Wiesel visited Disneyland in California for the first time, and commented:

“If one wants to calm his nerves and forget the bitter realities of daily life, there is no better-suited place to do so than Disneyland. In Disneyland, the land of children’s dreams, everything is simple, beautiful, good. There, no one screams at his fellow, no one is exploited by his fellow, no one’s fortune derives from his fellow’s misfortune. If children had the right to vote, they would vote Disney their president. And the whole world would look different.”

In the coming days, thousands of Jews will be visiting Disney World in Florida. It's always fun to watch as Yidden arrive in the parks with shtick. How to maximize fun, minimize waiting, enjoy glatt kosher food and spend as little money as possible doing it. (Though, who are we kidding?)

After all of this, one thing is clear: Leaving Disney World is always accompanied by tired children with bitter tears, begging to stay in Disney World forever.

Everyone wants to live in Disney. Every moment there is living the fairy tale. The entire experience is designed to ensure that we leave with the feeling of happily-ever-after.

But one may wonder if such happy endings are educationally sound. As Yarei Shamayim and Ohavei Hashem, is the Disney vision of sailing off into the sunset, reflective of reality?

Practically, we don't seem to educate this idea in any other sphere. The philosophy of our lives, as we live them, is that fairytale endings are for kids. Mature adults need to grow up and take responsibility. No pain, no gain – לפום צערא אגרא. Real life does not give us three wishes or magic wands.

Emotionally, when facing challenges, we bristle at the suggestion that “it'll all work out for the best”. Tell that to the couple struggling to have children. Tell that to the family trying to make ends meet. Tell that to the parents desperate to marry off a child.

And yet, with all that said, we as Jews believe, that no matter what, somehow, some why and from somewhere, אני מאמין באמונה שלמה בביאת המשיח – we believe in Geulah. We believe that there is a realiy beyond our reach that is better than this one.

We are not alone in this faith. In addition to our deeply rooted Jewish Emunah, it seems that much of humanity agrees to the concept of Geulah in some way. This understanding is manifest in cultures and societies across the globe, and every major work of fiction tells the same story: A broken world, that is somehow redeemed. How did this phenomenon come to be?

In a previously censored text, the Rambam (הל׳ מלכים סוף פרק יא) explains:

The Thoughts of the Creator of the World are beyond any man’s understanding. For our ways are not His Ways, and our thoughts are not His Thoughts. And all the doings of Christianity and that of that Islam are nothing but to pave the way for the Melech HaMashiach and prepare the entire world to serve Hashem together... How is this so? These religions have made people accustomed to the idea of serving God... And when Mashiach will come, they will know that He is true, and they will understand that they had been led astray.

Somehow, Hashem has made it that the world understands that redemption is possible on a global scale.

But we are now left with a conundrum. How do these completely contradictory ideas fit together? On the one hand, we are charged to take responsibility for our actions and our lives. And yet, on the other hand, we believe that Geulah will come to this broken world with broken people even if we don't figure out how to fix it?

There can be only one solution: Ultimately, we will fix ourselves, we will fix each other and we will fix the world.

Rav Kook (שבת הארץ) explains that everything in existence is drawn to live in accordance with and to express its basic nature. The basic nature of a Jew is to be connected to Hashem. Our life is defined by this connection, as Moshe Rabbeinu tells us: וְאַתֶּם הַדְּבֵקִים בַּי״י אֱלֹהֵיכֶם חַיִּים... – You who are clinging to Hashem your God are all alive this day.

Like a tree that twists and turns to poke its head above the canopy of the forest, a Jew is constantly moving upwards. It's the source of our lives. We cannot help ourselves; it is who we are.

What then is left for us to work on? What is our role, our responsibility? Hashem reveals this secret to us just before giving the Torah:

וְעַתָּה אִם שָׁמוֹעַ תִּשְׁמְעוּ בְּקֹלִי וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם אֶת בְּרִיתִי וִהְיִיתֶם לִי סְגֻלָּה מִכָל הָעַמִּים... And now, if you will listen my voice and keep my covenant, then you will be Mine uniquely, from among all peoples...

All that we need to do is begin to do that which we already know to do. We already know that we should be working on our middos and giving greater care to the mitzvos that we do. We know that we should be connected to Hashem in davening and learning, and connecting to each other with love and empathy. The moment we allow ourselves to do so, we change the world along with us.

The Koznitzer Maggid, however, notes that the pasuk does not simply say “if you listen...”. Instead, the pasuk begins “and now, if you listen...“. When is the וְעַתָּה, the now of the Pasuk?

The word “now” in the Torah means Teshuva (שמות רבה). Hashem is telling us, just before we receive the Torah that from the vantage of right now, our past mistakes are irrelevant. Our flaws and our failings are incidental to who we are. No matter how many twists the trunks of our trees have endured, it is still in our basic nature to climb upwards. When? Right now.

The Talmud (Brachos 17a) relates the various tefillos that Tanaim and Amoraim would say at the end of davening:

ר' אלכסנדרי בתר דמצלי אמר הכי רבון העולמים גלוי וידוע לפניך שרצוננו לעשות רצונך ומי מעכב שאור שבעיסה ושעבוד מלכיות יהי רצון מלפניך שתצילנו מידם ונשוב לעשות חוקי רצונך בלבב שלם.

Rav Alexandri would say: Master of the Universe, it is revealed and known before You that our will is to perform Your will, *and what prevents* us? The yeast in the dough, and the subjugation to the nations of the world. May it be Your will that You will deliver us from their hands, so that we may return to perform the edicts of Your will with a perfect heart.

That's the secret. We want to live in Hashem's world. Everyone does. All that we need to do is remove that which prevents us.

We Jews believe in a world happily-ever-after. But not because of wishes, magic, or fairy tales. We believe it is so because the fundamental nature of the world is to be good, to become great, to overcome negativity, pain and shame. That we are capable of doing so.

There is a little Geulah in each and every moment of trying again, of starting from fresh. It's the deep understanding that a happy, healthy, moral, ethical world is not only possible, but inevitable. And it starts with us, it starts with “now”.