Thursday, January 6, 2011

The Pain of the Last Generation

Dreaming of Moshiach was the first blog to call our attention to the imminent coming of Moshiach: it's author (Nava) was way ahead of her time, and also the inspiration for a lot of us who followed in her footsteps. 

In November 2007, she blogged this:

In Gemara, Chazal tells us that 3 divisions of sufferings came down to the world.

The first division of suffering was placed on the generations of the seven holy shepherds: Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov Avinu, Moshe Rabenu, Aaron HaKohen, Yosef HaTzaddik, and Melech Dovid, zs'l.

The second division of suffering was placed on the remaining generations, excluding our generation.

The third division of suffering was placed on our generation, the last generation.

The first 2 sufferings were a gradual process but the last suffering, the third, is the hardest and harshest. Whether it's an illness, unnatural death in a family, livelihood, divorce, finding a spouse, having children, etc. Every Jew, regardless where, when, what, who, why, is suffering!

This is the reason Chazal wrote in Gemara that if a person is not suffering in the generation of the End of Days, know that this person is not a Jew!!! If someone tells you he is not suffering, he is not the son/daughter of Avraham Avinu, zs'l.

Why is this very harsh decree occurring specifically in our generation, all at once and so numerous? The suffering is a necessity required before the arrival of Moshiach Tzidkenu. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, zs'l, explains it further in the Zohar HaKadosh, as follows:

When Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, zs'l, (Rashbi) was hiding in the cave, he wrote the Zohar HaKadosh in Ruach HaKodesh (Divine Spirit). Thru Ruach HaKodesh, he saw that  the last generation will be in a large fire and he cried for us and said, ווי לון מאן דגרמי דיוזיל ליה Oy to the people who will live in the last generation. Rashbi saw that our generation will transgress the Torah and commit adultery, lust, promiscuity, stealing, heresy, secularism, etc. He cried because he saw that we will need to go thru so many tests and suffering.

But why so much suffering in our generation? Why is the Yetzer Hara (evil inclination) so powerful in this generation, more than in all past generations?

It is because HKB'H is so merciful and so generous!

The Zohar HaKadosh explains: Every soul comes into this world only for the reason to correct past lives for sins committed. HKB'H saw throughout all generations that many souls were unable to correct themselves and remained unworthy to enter Gan Eden. Even though they were reincarnated as humans, animals, inanimates, plants, food, etc., and also placed in Gehenom or Kaf Hakela. Yet, they were still unable to correct their souls.

Even after so many reincarnations, these souls were unsuccessful in their tikun and were placed in Heichal HaNeshamot (hall of souls).

The Zohar HaKadosh continues and says that HKB'H revealed Himself to the souls placed in Heichal HaNeshamot and the neshamot cried to HaShem, "Merciful Heavenly Father, help us correct ourselves, we want to succeed in cleansing our souls, we reincarnated as humans, plants, animals, we went thru Gehenom, Shaol Tachtit, Kaf Hakela... But we still have not properly corrected our souls...".

When Merciful HKB'H heard this, He said, "I'll place you all in one generation, a generation that will have much confusion, tests, suffering, and hardships, a generation where the truth will be absent, a generation where one will be easily trapped by the evil inclination. There will be many opportunities to get trapped into terrible sins; everything will be available to you in split seconds. It will be a generation that will feel exhausted from trying to do Teshuva, the evil inclination will be very powerful and adultery, lust, temptations, promiscuity, stealing, heresy, secularism, etc. will be everywhere."

"BUT, despite all these hardships, all neshamot that will succeed to pass these difficult tests and continue to have Emunah, will be tremendeously rewarded and will merit to live in the Geula."

This is the reason the holy Rashbi also said "אשרי מי שיהיה בדור הזה, Overjoyed is the person who lives in that generation."

Although it's difficult to comprehend, it's important to know: ALL PEOPLE IN THIS GENERATION: YOU, ME, HIM, HER, THEM, ARE FROM HEICHAL HANESHAMOT!!!

Read the complete post here: Understanding the Heels of Moshiach

11 comments:

yaak said...

Just to clear up the history a little bit:

While Nava did contribute a great deal to geula-blogging, her blog was not the first.

I believe Mystical Paths and Lazer Beams were the first and second (I'm not sure which order) blogs to exist to post on Mashiah issues, followed by mine. I may have been the first blog to post on the imminent arrival of Moshiach. I say this because I did not see this speculation in any other blog anywhere before I did it. I'll admit to not having seen everything.

There were also a few non-blog geula websites like gog1.com (along with its English equivalent), Erev Moshiach, and the original Moshiach and Geula Forum from R' Yaakov Nathan. Later came Hashem1.com and a few other blogs, like Nava's and your own.

If there were some from 5765 and earlier that I missed or if I'm mistaken about this, please let me know.

This would make a good post - "The history of Geula-blogging".

yaak said...

Of course, there was also R' Dov Bar Leib's blog, which started a bit before mine.

Leah said...

Thank you very much for printing this timely article. I am going thru a new test today and it is a difficult one. It definately seems that it is meant for htis generation.
It does seem that Moshiach is coming so soon. Sometimes I look at the news( on the web) and it will be about Iran/Haman and I will think that there is such a veil behind how much time there realy is before he completes his bomb- lo aleinu and other times I will see some other things, like the massive bird/fish kill that is mysteriously happening literally all over the globe in odd places...it's too too weird and yet one can feel the yad Hashem in all of this...... It seems that all frustrations and the like are increasing and at the same time myself and my friends and other jews are working on themselves and getting rid of old habits and strengthening ourselves.......any comments anyone?

Devorah said...

Yaak: you're right, she wasn't the first, but she was the one who woke me up and inspired me to blog.

Leah: I don't know anyone who isn't suffering right now, in some way.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Devorah. It's a good reminder to re-read this article. We all need chizuk to stay afloat in these times.

Lea Farkash said...

Thank you, Devorah for posting great and valuable articles every time again and again.
With your permission and the permission of all the other bloggers who wrote or copied this article, I like to copy this article to my blogs
http://yiddishe-mamme.blogspot.com/ http://joodsmetneshomme.blogspot.com/

Devorah said...

As far as I'm aware, on the internet you can copy part of any article as long as you supply a link back to the original - which in this case is Dreaming of Moshiach.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for a wonderful post! Could you please cite the part of the Zohar your excerpt comes from?

Many thanks!

Devorah said...

Days of Return: I have no idea, you will have to email Nava at Dreaming of Moshiach blog.

Anonymous said...

Thank you! I looked up Dreaming of Moschiach, but couldn't find the same reference to Zohar there. Do you remember where on that site it comes from?

Many thanks! It's a very beautiful piece and I'd love to find out where in the book it comes from to study it further.

Devorah said...

Here is the link to the original article:

http://dreamingofmoshiach.blogspot.com/2007/11/understanding-heels-of-moshiach.html