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World of Lies: What it is, why it is, how to cope – By Rabbi Pinchas Winston
It is such a bizarre statement to make: Let him come, but don’t let me see his coming. The “him” to which this refers is Moshiach, which is why this is such a strange thing to say.
We’ve been waiting for Moshiach to come ever since we were exiled to Babylonia after the destruction of the first temple, millennia ago. He represents the final redemption of the Jewish people and the threshold to an idyllic period of world history. Who wouldn’t want to be around for that?
Probably the same people who authored this:
It is taught that Rebi Yehudah says: During the generation that Ben Dovid comes…The wisdom of scholars will diminish, and sin-fearing people will be despised. And the face of the generation will be like the face of a dog [in its impudence and shamelessness]. And the truth will be lacking, as it says: “And the truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil is negated” (Yeshayahu 59:15)…Anyone who deviates from evil will be deemed insane by the people. (Sanhedrin 97a)
So therefore though these rabbis agreed that Moshiach’s arrival is inevitable, they didn’t want to be here for it. The thought of a world so built on falsehood and shameless immorality was scarier than the joy of anticipating Moshiach’s arrival and the return to a world of truth. Who could blame them?
Who can blame us, at least those of us watching the words of the Gemora come true before our very eyes, and are horrified by it? Day after day, week after week…year after year, the world sinks deeper into an abyss of falsehood, and people act as if it is the most natural thing in the world to happen!
It has been said that, “With social media you just have to do something false a few times and it becomes the truth,” because “when a ‘fact’ tastes good and is repeated enough, we tend to believe it, no matter how false it may be.” It’s the way man works, and it has been the reason for so much baseless hatred and unfathomable destruction since man first talked to the snake in Gan Aiden.
Historically, truth always outlasts falsehood, and the time will come when falsehood will no longer exist at all ever again. Truth is reality and falsehood is a distortion of it, and lacks the wherewithal to stand the test of time. The burning question is though, how much damage will it do until they are exposed, and how much of that damage will be irreparable?
More to the point, how do you survive it? Once upon a time, truth seemed to be in the majority, and people seemed to have scruples. Liars have existed since the beginning of man, and there will always be cheaters looking to take advantage of the naive until Moshiach comes and God dispenses with the yetzer hara.
And even though Marketing and Advertising did its best to convince us that we needed things we didn’t, or that we were about to buy something that was better than it was, we somehow knew we were being conned on some level, so we didn’t mind it that much. And most of it was just people making an extra buck, not vicious attacks on ideologies, not like what is going on today.
But the truth is, we should have seen it coming. History repeats itself and there are patterns that tell you what to expect when certain things happen. As the Gemora says, a wise person is one who projects the impact of today’s decisions on tomorrow’s reality. If society becomes less “religious,” as has happened in the past, truth will disintegrate, as has happened in the past.
It’s very simple. For truth to be truth it has to be absolute, universal. If it is only relative then it has to be downgraded from truth to only opinion, and those are completely subjective. You know, one person’s good is another person’s evil, and just like that someone can become someone else’s enemy. How many people have picked up the fight for causes they know little about, or know the wrong things about?
Not only this, but man has very strong drives. He has a very powerful yetzer hara that, left unbridled, can make a person very selfish and demanding. This creates a certain sense of entitlement, which makes anyone who interferes with the fulfillment of personal desires an enemy as well. How much more so if they interfere because of what seem like antiquated religious laws which, to the opinionated person is just the imposition of other opinionated people.
War is the inevitable result. Historically, it is usually such attitudes and ideologies that lead to it, for one reason or another. Philosophically, war seems to be a way to reboot history, because nothing brings man back down to earth again more than the fear of death. It’s kind of hard to be liberal with all that blood and destruction.
Should we be concerned today? Very. Aside from the fact that Chazal predicted today’s level of falsehood as a prelude to the Messianic Era, we are in the eighth year of a Shmittah cycle, a year during which Moshiach is supposed to come, which more than likely means the War of Gog and Magog first.
Furthermore, according to Kabbalah, we are already in the Messianic Era, at least since 1990. We’ve been in the process of ingathering Jewish exiles to Eretz Yisroel since the early 1800s, fulfilling prophecies in the Torah and setting up prophecies from the Prophets. The “instigators” may be fighting for their ways of life, but they are unwittingly acting as the catalyst for both.
It is very unnerving because the sheker (falsehood) is all-pervasive today, and reaching corners it once overlooked. People once oblivious to the mistaken opinions of the outside world are having a tougher time not getting dragged down by them. The world is far less peaceful than it was just ten years ago, and that is not a good sign.
The question is, can a person transcend Olam HaSheker, the World of Falsehood? Are they allowed to? Is it like shirking responsibility, and will it backfire in the end? In 1948, the religious world turned its back on the secular world assuming that, eventually, it would just go away. It will, especially once Moshiach comes and absolute, objective truth descends upon mankind. But the damage it has done and is doing until that time makes one wonder about such strategies.
At the end of the day, all of it is Hashgochah Pratis—Divine Providence, both on the national level and the personal one. It’s also quite kabbalistic, but we’ll get to that later. As the Gemora also says, no one can lift a finger against someone else if not first decreed in Heaven.
And of course, we believe, or we’re supposed to believe in ain od Milvado, that there is none other than God. None. That means no matter how prominent or powerful someone seems to be, it’s all God just working through them.
As the great Rebi Chanina Dosa once told a witch who tried to curse him:
“If you succeed, go and do it. I am not concerned about it, as it is written: ‘There is none else besides Him’ (Devarim 4:35).” (Chullin 7b)
What he meant was, “You have no power to do good or bad to me. If your curse seems to take effect, it is only because God has decided to curse me. I need only be concerned about what I may have done to be worthy of this.” This is true of anybody and everybody in any generation.
This is good to know when trying to navigate deceitful seas. It’s the people who forget this that Amalek drags from the protective custody of the Clouds of Glory, and subjects them to all the ills of a world of lies. It’s our job, and really our need to deny him the opportunity to do so by staying inside the “Cloud,” or by finding a way into it if we’re still on the outside.
