Rabbi Shimon Apisdorf shares the third segment from his new book, The Absolutely Remarkable ... Story of Exile, Anatomy of Redemption, and Thrilling Challenge of Our Times, addressing the question: Is the coming of Moshiach dependent on Am Yisrael doing teshuva?
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Open the file below to read the full segment.
Excerpt from the segment:
. . .From these sources there appears to be a direct causative relationship between teshuva and Moshiach. It seems to me that this teshuva-leads-to-redemption formula is the historical paradigm that most observant Jews live with, but is it completely accurate? Is it actually the case that until the Jewish people does teshuva that redemption is on hold?
“No matter what, there is an eventual time when exile will come to an end, and this is so even if we have no merits whatsoever.”
The Chofetz Chaim, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan,
Shaar Hahitchazkut, 13
Indeed, while the Chofetz Chaim wrote that his time was witness to widespread and unprecedented abandonment of Torah throughout Europe, he also repeatedly told his students that the era of final redemption had arrived.
“When I had the privilege to meet the tzaddik of the generation, the Chofetz Chaim, I heard him say that there is no doubt that we are living in the time of ikvasa d’mshicha—the footsteps of Moshiach—and the signs that our sages say will characterize that time have already transpired. And in recent years, many of his students say that he has been emphasizing this.” (R. Shimon Schwab, Beit HaShoeva, 22)
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