לרפואת
הרב זאב חיים בן חי' אידל
מרים בת שושנה
גולדה בת אסתר
ר' נחמיה בן שרה
We all have problems. Whether they be emotional, spiritual, financial, familial, health, etc. etc. וחדלו לספור כי אין מספר. Some people have a lot of trouble sleeping but you would never know because you don't see them in bed. Some people are haunted by difficult experiences of the past. Some are in difficult marriages or have trouble with children [if you have children then you have trouble with children]. Some people are consumed by envy when they see the success of other vs. their own failures. The list goes on and on.
On the other hand - life has NEVER been this good. Every single one of us is living MUCH better than a king lived a hundred years ago. We have countless comforts that were never dreamt of in world history. Think about it - indoor plumbing, iphones, super comfortable automobiles with a GPS or Waze, computers, air conditioning, heating, ELECTRICITY, washing machine, dryer, fridge, freezer etc. etc. All relatively new inventions. We have food galore. We have more food prepared for one Shabbos meal than our ancestors had for months. Then we spend Shabbos afternon snacking....
In ruchiniyus life is also REALY good. We all enjoy complete religious freedoms. We have free access to hundreds of thousands if not millions of recorded shiurim. Not to mention blogs [like these] and websites where you have limitless Torah and inspiration offered to you completely free of charge. We have all the Artscroll and other books to make learning easier and more enjoyable etc. etc. We have kosher food, clean, comfortable mikvaos, shuls that are well lit, air conditioned and heated, well stocked with sefarim, often with a kitchen for those who want a snack or drink. We don't have to go to work until we are at least 22 years old, so we can expand our education. There is so much to enjoy and be thankful for.
So do we really want the geulah? Why should we - things are so good as they are [putting aside all of the problems we have:-)]?!!! Asks the Tiferes Shlomo [ח"ב שבת קודש ד"ה ממקומך]: How can we say every Shabbos morning ממקומך תופיע עלינו וכו' כי מחכים אנחנו לך - Please Hashem redeem us for we are waiting for you. But we are not, so how can we lie???
He answers that we are asking for Hashem that He should shine His light upon us so that we in fact start to genuinely wait for His redemption. Moreover, once the geulah comes and the light, clarity and holiness of Hashem shines on our souls we will realize that ALL ALONG this is what we really wanted. All of the other solutions we sought out for our problems were only partial solutions. Only the complete geulah is the absolute solution to all of mankind's ills.
