Every Shabbat, many shuls read the Tefilla L'Shlom HaMedina which opens: "Heavenly Father, Israel’s Rock and Redeemer, bless the State of Israel, the first flowering of our redemption.." Please read remarks given by Rabbi Yaakov Bieler about this tefilla: http://www.kmsynagogue.org/RabbiSpeeches/5764/Geulatainu.html Please respond to the following:
1) Give two reasons why Rabbi Ariel (as cited by Rabbi Bieler) considers our era to be the "pre-Messianic" age.
2) Give two difficulties, according to Rabbi Bieler, of why it is hard to call our current era "pre-Messianic."
3) Give two things, according to Rabbi Bieler, that we can do to jump start the Messianic age.
4) Do you think the modern State of Israel marks the early stirrings of the Messianic era? Why or why not?
Instructions: Answers to Questions 1-3 should be sent to me via e-mail while the answer to Question 4 should be posted on the blog.
In some aspects of Israel today, I do feel like it is the beginning of the Messianic era, though on different aspects I feel the exact opposite. Although many people do currently live in Israel, it is not nearly close to the majority of the nation. We have learned in the past that that is a key factor in the Messiah coming. On the other hand there are a lot of reasons why I do think is is the right era. For one the Mamila mall happens to be just like the kind of "mall" they had during the beit hamikdash. I think that Israel is also advancing in agricultural ways. This is a very important part for the Messiah to come. Another problem though, is that many Jews do not keep the mitzvot. There is a lot of sins going around in every Jewish circle. I think that just inside the Jewish community alone, having so many different categories of "Jewish-ness" is a problem as well. In addition unfortunately we do not have peace in our country. Peace would play a big part in the Messiah coming. I think though that not having the majority of the nation residing in Israel at this time is a huge setback for the Messiah.
ReplyDeleteI do not think it is becoming the Messianic era. There are a lot of Jews in Israel that are doing their best for the "messianic era" to come faster, but it will be very hard to get all of the Jewish population to move to Israel AND stop sinning (Considering that there are reformed Jews as well). It is a very unlikely that all of the Jewish people will be on the same level of judaism. In order for there to be a Messianic era, all of the Jewish people will need to be on the same spiritual level ofJudaism.
ReplyDeleteI feel like it could be both situations. It could be becoming the messianic era because people are moving to Israel often because of their love of Israel and for their country to populate and become one. At the same time, we have to think of the Jews who aren't as religious, the ones who do study Judaism but would most likely not pick up all of their stuff and move to another country. This could not be becoming the messianic era because of what I previously said and the fact that, there are so many Jews in the world and not every single one of them will want to go to Israel. Sometimes, we have to face reality and realize that everyone is in a different situation. Some people are where they are because of family and jobs, and they can't just leave, although it would be a step to our nation becoming one and Moshiach coming.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is fundamentally important that we all believe that the modern State of Israel marks the early stirrings of the Messianic era. Now more than ever, Israel is flourishing, in many aspects. Jews aren’t being largely persecuted so we can resort more of our time to helping Israel and doing our part to bring in the Messianic era. Redemption is coming, that we can be sure of. I cannot sit here and think of when exactly that time may be, but I can say that we are already on the road to redemption. If we have learned anything in these past few years of Zionism, it is that Zionism was founded on the idea of man-initiated redemption. Our forerunners, like Alkalai and Kalischer were radicals at the time for suggesting this- all other religious Jews believed in God initiated redemption- that G-d would redeem us and that we should wait for that time to come. Well, (wo)man has already started initiating redemption. I don’t care if you say it started with the first aliyah or with the foundation of the state of Israel, but right at this moment, we are gradually getting closer to redemption. If not now, when? Our position in Israel is unprecedented in history (besides during the time of the Temple) and we are only getting better. Israel is already an or lagoyim- a light onto other nations- and our flame will only continue burning. Whether you are a believer in linear redemption or just in the state of Israel, there is no doubt that by now, we are only going forward. Therefore, yes, I do believe that the Messianic era is ever looming. Perhaps Messiah will not come in my lifetime. It is our nation’s responsibility to continue to take steps forward, and so , with open arms and ready hearts, welcome in the coming of Mashiach.
ReplyDeleteIn some ways I feel like yes, we are becoming closer to the Messianic Era. But in some ways I feel like we aren’t. They reason I feel like we are is because a lot of people are living in Israel today and are all for the land. Like doing anyting they can that is Zionistic. But in all seriousness, I think that it will be very hard for all of the jews in the world to stop sinning, breaking shabbos and holidays and learn torah all day. The Messianic era is gonna to be a very important time in Jewish history, it just depends when it happends. When it happens all of the Jews will be united. I think that with Jews living all over the world, it will be very difficult right now to have the messiah come. Every jewish person is looking forward for the coming of the messiah, but right now i dont know if we are ready.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that we are in the pre messianic era. there are many Jews who are religious and try their hardest to bring moshiach, but there are tons of secular Jews in Israel that are very uninterested in the whole idea.For the messianic era to come there must be a greater awareness of this and more effort to reach this time.
ReplyDeleteDo you think the modern State of Israel marks the early stirrings of the Messianic era? Why or why not?
ReplyDeleteI think that we are because of the facts that there is a Jewish majority in the land and that there are so many religious people, but I also think that it might not be so because of all the bad things that are happening. It is mentioned that the end of days will be a war to end all wars, which seems like a bad thing, but isn’t the coming of משיח a good and happy thing? Why would there be so much hate, violence, anger, and fear in a time when everything will become peaceful. I can easily see both sides, but I’m leaning just a little bit more to the side that says that we still have a little while and a lot of work to go.
I feel like we are in some ways coming closer to Meshiach, but in a lot of ways I feel like we aren't. I think we are because a lot of people are living in ISrael today and support and work the land. But still, we're at a time where a lot of people sin and do bad things and there's so much hate in the world that there's no way that Meshiach could be coming now. With everyone spread out in various countries all over the world it's really difficult to imagine that Meshiach will be here soon. But we all hope and pray for Meshiach everyday, and with more work on ourselves I think that we have the potential to reach a level that could bring Meshiach.
ReplyDeleteDo you think the modern State of Israel marks the early stirrings of the Messianic era? Why or why not?
ReplyDeleteI personally do not believe that Israel has achieved this level. I believe we are very far from the Messianic era; we cannot even see it off in the distance. In my opinions, the pre-Messianic will be a time of unity and tolerance among the Jews. There are currently an innumerable amount of different groups within the Jewish nation who have completely different opinions and strong beliefs. Many Jews do not even support the state of Israel itself. Not only is the diversity among Jews overwhelming, but also, these groups constantly clash and protest each other. The people of Israel are far from a state cooperation. If we cannot support each other, it does not matter how religiously devout we are or if we follow Hashem’s commandments. If we cannot pull ourselves together as a nation, salvation will not come any time soon and we will not reach the Messianic tines.
Do you think the modern State of Israel marks the early stirrings of the Messianic era? Why or why not?
ReplyDeleteSometimes I feel like meshiach is right in front of us, however when times are tough I feel like it is farther away than ever. It is hard to imagine that Meshiach will come before we are all in one location, Israel. It is also very hard to believe that Meshiach is coming soon because of the amount of people that do not know they are JEwish. There are many people who are Jewish, who act as Christians. This is a huge problem for the JEwish people and I can't imagine MEshiach coming before it is resolved
I think that in some ways the Modern State of Israel right now marks the early stirrings of the Messianic era but in some ways not. Yes, Israel has improved crazily and the Jews in Israel are working very hard to fulfill the redemption, but we still have many flaws that everyone needs to improve to reach Moshiach. It is so interesting to think about because Moshiach could be right in front of us, but we would have no idea because some people are not thinking about it and improving. Some issues that need to be resolved first is the support of our state. Jews all over need to support our state of Israel. This is a key aspect to reaching redemption. If we do not support our own state, there is no way we will reach Moshiach any time soon. Aside from that, we also need to work as a nation to improve our religiousness, Some Jews do not keep their religion close to them, and although they are JEwish, they follow other beliefs and Gods. First, people need to support our state and follow our beliefs from Hashem or we will get no where. I strongly feel that we can reach this redemption soon and it could even be right in front of us waiting for us to fix our issues.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe that I nor anyone else in this world is qualified to say whether or not we are in the beginnings of the era of mashiach or not, as only Hashem can say. However, in my never to be humble opinion, if i have to say, I do not think we are anywhere close to mashiach. I mean seriously. Look around. As far as the eye can see is corruption, violence,and suspicion. This is a survival of the fittest, dog eat dog world that is only getting worse and we think mashiach is coming?! Even among the Jews there is strong dissension. If we can't accept each other, how can we expect the rest of the world to accept us. All in all I think that there is no way the mashiach is coming any time soon without an extreme miracle from Hashem.
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