Hype of imminent arrival of Moshiach may give birth to a false messiah
ב"ה we have such גדולים to guide us in a responsible Torah manner, in accordance with our מסורה, our holy tradition.
In one particular segment of his words that I especially enjoyed, he shared:
When the גדולי ישראל went through the '73 (Yom Kippur) war, the '67 (Six Day) war, like Rav Schach, Rav Moshe Feinstein, (זכר צדיקים לברכה) we didn't hear such things from them, they weren't talking about משיח, they were talking about התחזקות כראוי (general proper spiritual strengthening).
The difference between hope and hype may be limited to one letter, but, as we know, even an אות אחת wrong renders a ספר תורה unkosher.
יה"ר מלפני אבינו שבשמים שנשמע ונתבשר בשורות טובות ישועות ונחמות בקרוב
R' Elchonon Wasserman expressed sentiments that the Holocaust and the events that preceded it had many signs of עקבתא דמשיחא . As explained by others who analyzed what he wrote, he was not predicting that Moshiach was here but rather that it was a זמן מסוגל for it. Obviously we did not merit that should happen.
ReplyDeleteR. Ribner's comparison to historical Messianic movements is hard to understand. Those were spawned by the actual events that took place, by unscrupulous individuals who exploited the people's pain of their tzaros and were desperate for brighter things. We would be hard-pressed to find murmurings of Moshiach leading to false Messianic movements.
Perhaps R. Ribner's main point should've been that people cannot declare anything about Moshiach unless they are truly worthy and can prove their point from sources, which no one has done to date.
שלום עליכם!
DeleteI think you're more or less in accord with the position of the ראש ישיבה שליט"א. His response (as I believe is the general format there) seems to have been an off-the-cuff reply to a questioner in an informal discussion forum. In such a case not every word is scrutinized to the same level as it might be in a written exposition.
As such murmuring now would definitely seem related to the conflicts in the word at present, particularly in ארץ ישראל, it seems that a comparison with past dangerous false messianism is apt. כנלענ"ד.