What Matters in the End
One thing is clear; our hopes, prayers and dreams from last Rosh Hashana did not turn out the way we wanted.
The lights of 5784 are beginning to fade this Shabbos. By Wednesday night, as Rosh Hashana enters, our world will be shrouded in the darkness and mystery of what is yet to come. Once again, we will enter the fray, yearning to move Hashem from the seat of Judgement to seat of Mercy.
The Alter Rebbe writes that until we sound the Shofar on Rosh Hashanah morning, the world is still in flux. It hangs in the balance between being and not being, and we are the ones who are charged with the responsibility to bring it into existence for the year ahead. It is up to us to recreate it and reconfigure it.
Being that we have the power to do so, I think I know what we’re all aiming for.
We are trying to change the world into one where Jewish boys and girls are not stolen from a music festival, and held in torturous captivity for almost a year. We would like to see a world where an army of terrorists occupying territory in Lebanon are not treated with any legitimacy on the world stage.
The world we would create includes the safe return of our soldiers to the homes, and the safe return of the residents of the North.
Of course, there are thousands more specific needs, many more details to pray for. But if we could all yearn for just one thing, perhaps it might be that this should be the End. This year should mark the ultimate end. Meaning, that we should be the final generation before the Geulah. That all the pain comes to an end.
But what if the way to achieve it is hiding in plain sight?
It’s humbling to realize that Moshe Rabbeinu in his prophetic vision saw all the way to our time and beyond. He saw me and you, our lives and challenges. And this Shabbos, he reveals what will happen in the end:
וְאָמַר הַדּוֹר הָאַחֲרוֹן... עַל־מֶה עָשָׂה ה’ כָּכָה לָאָרֶץ הַזֹּאת מֶה חֳרִי הָאַף הַגָּדוֹל הַזֶּה
And the last generation will say ... why has Hashem done this to our Land? Why is He so upset?
They will answer:
וְאָמְרוּ עַל אֲשֶׁר עָזְבוּ אֶת־בְּרִית ה’ אֱלֹקי אֲבֹתָם Because they abandoned the covenant of Hashem the God of their ancestors.
Moshe Rabbeinu was standing on the border of Eretz Yisrael, looking thousands of years into the future, to a time when calamity would strike his people. After generations of straying from Hashem and His Torah and suffering in exile, Klal Yisrael will finally ponder the reason for our troubles.
R’ Shlomo HaKohen of Radomsk (פר’ אחרי) explains this enigmatic vision: Moshe Rabbeinu is not simply predicting the future. He is prescribing it. This parsha is not revealing events that are yet to unfold, it is telling us how to make them happen.
Who is this final generation? It is the generation that finally asks the question “Why is this happening?” And answers “because we abandoned Hashem.”
כל דור שישים על לבם את הדברים האלה להצטער על גלות השכינה ולשוב אל ה' הנה הם יהיו הדור האחרון כי מיד ושב ה' אלהיך את שבותך ולכך קראם הכתוב הדור האחרון כי אם יעשו כן יושיעם ה' מיד ויהיו הם האחרונים בהגלות
Any generation that will internalize this message, to be pained over the Exile of Hashem’s presence, and chooses to return to Hashem; that will be be the final generation to experience the exile.
Our obligation is not, Chas V’Shalom, to point fingers at others Jews and decry their lack of observance. That is not our Avoda. Rather, Moshe Rabbeinu is challenging us to take stock of our place in this process. To ask ourselves honestly: What could I do better? If the world is not perfect and I am not perfect, then perhaps by fixing myself, I can fix a little bit of the world.
The task is daunting, but perhaps now is the time. Perhaps we are finally ready to become that Final Generation.
If we accept the mission to do so, then we enter into the final stage of the prophecy: וְשָׁב ה’ אֱלֹקיךָ אֶת־שְׁבוּתְךָ וְרִחֲמֶךָ וְשָׁב וְקִבֶּצְךָ – Hashem will return our captives, and have mercy on us, and gather us together. וֶהֱבִיאֲךָ ה’ אֱלֹקיךָ אֶל־הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר־יָרְשׁוּ אֲבֹתֶיךָ וִירִשְׁתָּהּ וְהֵיטִבְךָ וְהִרְבְּךָ מֵאֲבֹתֶיךָ – Hashem will bring us to the Land of our ancestors; He will be good to us. Better than ever before.
May He give us the strength to achieve it. Wishing us all a כתיבה וחתימה טובה and the sweetest year ahead.