When he's finally here

Guest post by Daniel

I was thinking about the kinds of kiddushei Hashem that will occur when Moshiach is revealed.

The first thing I thought was that there will be a great kiddush Hashem in the eyes of the Jews. We will be astonished at the massive number of Jews that come to greet Moshiach.

What I mean is the following:

Each group of Jews naturally thinks that its group is "the Jewish people." This just seems to be the way people operate. It's difficult to see past our own community.

When Sephardi Jews came to Seattle in 1902, the Ashkenazi community was flustered by these "strange people" calling themselves Jews. Sephardi culture was as foreign to the Ashkenazim as another religion. Only after their Rav explained to them the truth did the people open up.

Similarly today, the Jews where I come from think that that bulk of klal Yisrael lives here. The Jews where you live think that klal Yisrael primarily lives there. Yes, we "know" that other communities exist. We may even visit them from time to time. But it's not real to us.

When Mashiach comes and unites us all, we'll come out of our cupboards, so to speak, and face one another in all our stripes and colors.

The Jews in Eretz Yisroel will see the Jews of chutz la'aretz, and the more modern folks will see the more orthodox community, and on and on - all of us arising to greet the same Moshiach sent by the same G-d with the same one Torah. "Goy echad, am echad, ha'meyachadim shimcha Hashem Elokainu Hashem echad."

Who knows what kind of Jews we'll get to see that we never even knew existed, that we never knew were out there saying in their hearts "achekeh lo b'chol yom she'yavo."

If you can picture this in your mind, you'll see that it's both a humbling and an empowering experience. Humbling, in that each of the communities will be brought to realize that their community is but one shevet in the midst of an entire am (there are 12 different tribes, not one monotone tribe). Empowering, in that we should no longer feel alone or small in numbers. We truly will be numbered like the stars.

What I'm trying to say is that perhaps we already are. And if you can see that, then you can put that inspiration toward your avodas Hashem. Toward accepting other Jews. Toward accepting your own community.

May we merit to greet Moshiach bimhera b'yameinu and say together:

“Baruch Atah Hashem Elokeinu Melech Ha’olam chacham ha’razim.”