Anticipating Shavuot, Anticipating the ultimate redemption

However, Rav Yitzchak Arama (one of the great Jewish thinkers from the last generation of Spanish Jewry. He is most famous for his work on Chumash titled “Akedas Yitzchak”) in his work ‘Chazos Kasheh” chapter 12 explains that in reality the preparation period for Shavuous was much much longer than 49 days. If one looks at things from a broader perspective, in truth, Hashem was preparing the world for 2,448 years until finally He felt the world was ready for His holy Torah which was given to the Jewish people on the sixth of Sivan, 2448. After a long period of spiritual darkness, Avraham Avinu began the process of bringing kedusha back to the world. However, it still took another 7 generations and the long painful Egyptian exile to make the Jewish people ready for this incredible gift.

Before we received the Torah at Sinai, there were many people in the world who recognized Hashem and served him.However, there appeared to be a partition between the physical world and the spiritual one. The main ‘chidush’ of the receiving of the Torah at Sinai was that this partition was removed. The giving of the Torah to the Jewish people created an incredible holistic fusion between physicality and spirituality. The hide of a cow could now be used for the sacred object of tefillin, something our earlier forefathers could not do. Wool from a sheep could be used as tzizis etc. This was a radical change in the relationship between spirituality and the physical. Rav Yitzchak Arama teaches us that to achieve this fusion the world needed 2,448 years of preparation.

Based on this, Rav Arama takes things a step further and offers us great comfort in our long sojourn amongst the nations. He explains that just like it took the world a long time to be ready for receiving the Torah, so too the purpose of this long exile is to prepare the Jewish people and the world for the next great revelation: the coming of the Mashiach. But this takes time and every generation  makes it contribution to this great goal.

But what is the great revelation of Moshiach that we anticipate that was not already revealed at Sinai? The answer is multi faceted: 1.) Sinai was primarily for the Jewish people (even though many non Jews benefited indirectly). Mashiach will be a revelation of divine awareness that will penetrate the entire world as mentioned explicitly many times in the Prophets 2.) Sinai revealed that the physical can be used for spirituality such as in the example of tefillin mentioned before. The physical and the spiritual are two different things but they can work together. However, Mashaich will reveal that at the deepest core the spiritual and physical are all one as everything is an expression of God’s unity. Moreover, he will help us understand that the entire process of history was really all a divine revelation of expressing divine unity. So to achieve this high level understanding on a global level the world needs time to get prepared. And just like it took time for the world to get ready for the Torah it is taking time for the world to get ready for Mashiach. May we merit his revelation speedily in our days!

Ariel