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Preparing For Redemption: What To Do Now For Then – By Pinchas Winston
THERE IS A remarkable story in Tanach that probably too few people know. It’s too bad, because it contains one of the most important insights into life in general and Divine Providence in particular.
The king of Aram was greatly disturbed about this matter, and he summoned his servants and said to them, “Will you not tell me who of ours [reveals my secrets] to the King of Israel?” (II Melachim 6:11-17)
After an ambush by the Aramean army was successfully avoided, the Aramean King assumed that the northern kingdom of Israel had been tipped off about the impending secret attack. He had been right about his suspicion, just not about the source of the leak.
One of his servants said, “No, my master, the king. Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the King of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.”
Naturally, the King of Aram then turned his focus to the true source of his problem, and said:
“Go and see where he is, and I will send and take him.”
“He is in Dosan,” he was told.
He sent horses, chariots, and a great army there. They came at night and surrounded the city.
In the meantime in Dosan, Elisha and his right-hand man, Gechazi, went about their business as usual. Perhaps Elisha, being a prophet, was aware of the danger heading his way, but apparently Gechazi was not:
The servant of the man of God arose early and went out, and an army with horses and chariots was surrounding the city. His attendant said to him, “My master! What shall we do?”
Clearly outnumbered, Gechazi panicked. It’s one thing to be a prophet. It is something else to have the power of an entire army—at least from Gechazi’s viewpoint, but not from Elisha’s. He calmly responded:
“Have no fear, for those who are with us are more numerous than those who are with them.”
“What?” Gechazi must have thought to himself, scanning the surrounding area for any evidence he could find to support his master’s remarkable and bold claim. “Really?” his facial expression must have conveyed, perhaps prompting Elisha to pray:
“O God, please open his eyes and let him see.”
What happened next must have awed Gechazi to no end. More than likely he already greatly respected his master as a prophet, which meant hearing God speak—a great merit. But until that moment he had probably just assumed that whatever HE saw was all there WAS to see, and therefore what Elisha saw as well. No longer.
God opened the lad’s eyes and he saw: behold, the mountain was full of fiery horses and chariots around Elisha. (II Melachim 6: 11-17)
Seeing is believing, it is true. Whether the seeing is actual or just intellectual, people cannot believe in something they don’t see, at least on SOME level. But what Gechazi learned that day, and EVERYONE should have learned since that day, is that “seeing,” in whatever form it takes, is a GIFT, a MERIT, something NEVER to be taken for granted:
You graciously–chonain bestow knowledge on man and teach mortals understanding. Graciously bestow on us, from You, wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. Blessed are You, God, Who graciously bestows knowledge.
It’s all about PERCEPTION, and perception is something that requires help from God:
OPEN MY EYES and I will SEE wonders from Your Torah!
What our senses take in may be a common reality shared by all people looking at the same thing. But what our brains do with the input, determining what we do or don’t do in life, is a GIFT FROM GOD:
Shimon ben Levi said: “Every day the yetzer of a man strengthens itself, seeking to kill him…If the Holy One, Blessed Is He, did not help him, he would not prevail.” (Kiddushin 30b)
Sometimes the yetzer hara, that contrary-to-truth reality can actually get people to end their life. Most of the time it just “kills” us with false notions of good and bad, causing countless people to waste precious moments of life on ultimately meaningless acts.
Historically, the yetzer hara has prevailed far more times than it has failed. MANY more. This is because people thought they could fight it on their own. The Misyavnim–Hellenists ended up becoming the yetzer hara’s spokespeople.
That our yetzer hara distorts our perception of reality is precisely the message that Chanukah came to demonstrate. And Chanukah was the last holiday established before the lights on Jewish history were extinguished, closing off prophecy and direct divine intervention. Like Elisha and Gechazi, the Chashmonaim were dangerously outnumbered by the enemy. Like Elisha and Gechazi, they won the war anyhow.
And like Elisha and Gechazi, the Menorah had limited resources to do its job. But like Elisha and Gechazi, that resource went far beyond its APPARENT boundaries, and burned with an OTHER-WORLDLY ability. Nais gadol hayah sham.
God opened their eyes.
They saw more.
They changed history.
Not coincidentally, Chanukah and chonain share the same root—chayn. This was the very trait that allowed Noach to set himself apart from the rest of his generation, and thus survive world devastation:
God said, “I will blot out man, whom I created, from upon the face of the earth, from man to cattle to creeping thing to the fowl of the heavens, for I regret that I made them.” But Noach found favor—CHAYN—in the eyes of God. (Bereishis 6:7-8)
This is significant in its own right. The verse makes a simple equation: CHAYN equals SURVIVAL. But the significance of chayn is amplified by the Talmud, which even equates chayn with one of the most important objectives in life: Yiras Hashem—fear of God:
Someone who has chayn has fear of God. (Succah 49b)
Why? Someone who has chayn may be a nice person. But what does chayn have to do with fear of God? The Rambam actually answers this question, albeit indirectly:
What is the process for coming to love and fear God? When one contemplates His actions and His wondrous and great creations and SEES in them HIS WISDOM, that it has no limit and no end, immediately he will love and praise Him, and desire tremendously to know His Great Name. (Yad Chazakah, Yesodei HaTorah, 2:2)
The question of how one achieves fear of God is one of the most commonly asked in Torah Judaism. The answer, though, is completely unique. Yiras Hashem is a perception thing, the Rambam says, the result of being able to SEE something SPECIAL in the mundane, something others see but overlook.
Halachah and mussar help, but what helps most is one’s ability to see past the external aspects of life and into the inner awesome and amazing wonders of everything.
It’s what saved Noach.
It’s what iconized Avraham.
The truth is that the Final Redemption is taking place right BEFORE OUR VERY EYES, and has been for some time now. But people have a difficult time believing this because they do not see or hear the signs they expect to. The shocking thing is that it is not because these signs are not taking place, but rather because they cannot see them. It is to such people that the Talmud gives a warning:
It is taught in a baraisa: Rebi Yosi says: “Woe to them, the creations, who see and know not what they see…” (Chagigah 12b)
Prepare for redemption?
First you have to learn how to see it.
