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Parshat Ha’azinu begins: “Remember the days of yore, contemplate the coming generations”(32:7) and ends: “Behold G-d’s people etc.”
(32:43).
Both refer to the Moshiach and the ideal world he will bring.
Similarly, in the prayers of Rosh HaShanna (in just a few days), we say: “Therefore, G-d, sanctify Your name with the Kingship of Moshiach etc. All beings will bow to You G-d. All your creations will be called in Your awesome name etc.”
So Moshiach seems to be the main focus of both our Torah reading and of our prayers in Rosh HaShanna. But why?

Why is one man so important in Judaism? How can he change the world? Why doesn’t G-d just do it all himself? What does He need a Moshiach for?

To understand this here is a story that I heard some 20 years ago from Daniel; the one it happened to.

Daniel was just a baby when his parents moved from Russia to Israel. His father was a doctor and quickly found work in the Holy Land and things were looking good. But when Daniel was only four and a half years old his eyes began itching.
At first it was just annoying but it didn’t let up until it developed into a throbbing pain that was almost unbearable.
After months of theorizing the doctors finally figured out that it was a rare virus that caused Daniel’s eyes to react violently to light, especially sunlight.
They administered pills, shots and special thick sunglasses with flaps on the side to ensure that no sunlight at all would enter. But, although it was better than nothing, it wasn’t much better and the pain persisted.
His eyes itched constantly and a bright light of any sort; a flash from a camera, the passing glare of a car window on the classroom wall, the clouds parting on a rainy summer day, felt as though long needles were being twisted into his eyes and he would scream from the excruciating pain.
But his parents refused to be defeated. They vowed to spare no money, time or trouble to search for the cure. They took Daniel from one doctor, professor, medical center, hospital to another. And each time was the same story; the doctors made examinations, analyzed the preceding attempts, made conferences, developed new theories and tried new approaches, but inevitably also failed.
Then they tried ‘alternative methods’. They took him to the greatest experts in acupuncture, massages, herbs, oils, diets, meditations, amulets, unique gems, ancient Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Russian healing etc. but nothing worked.
Then there were Tzadikim. Daniel’s parents, unlike most Jews from communist Russia, were religious. And when they heard that there were holy Tzadikim whose blessings bore fruit, their hopes again rose.
They went from Rabbi to Rabbi, city to city. All of the greatest Tzadikim in Israel that had made the lame walk and the barren give birth gave their blessings and prayers, but with no results; Daniel remained in pain and torture.

For six years he suffered hell on earth; indescribable suffering discomfort and humiliation. It would take him an average of a half an hour every morning to open his eyes; the lids were simply stuck closed. In school he had to sit behind a special partition in the classroom where no bright light could enter and it goes without saying that he could not play outside with the other children.
Finally, after they had tried everything available and Danny was eleven years old the foremost eye expert in Israel sadly contacted Danny’s parents and advised them to teach him Braille and prepare him psychologically for total blindness because in another year Danny would be blind.
It was just at this time that Daniel’s parents decided to move to America.
Israel was nice, but the U.S.A had always been their goal. They had landed good jobs in New York; their friends found a place for them to live and also found a good specialist for Daniel (maybe there was still hope). Perhaps the change in place would change their ‘mazal’ (luck) as well.

The first Shabbat in America they spent at the home of a friend in the district of Brooklyn where the Chabad-Lubavitch Chassidim live, and one of the features of that Shabbat was a ‘Farbringen’ with the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
Daniel, despite his handicap, was a lively boy and although he didn’t understand a word of Yiddish (the Rebbe knew tens of languages but in public usually spoke Yiddish) he attended, and the farbrengen and the Rebbe’s face made a strong impression on him.
So their host invited them to stay for ‘dollars’.
Every Sunday, for years, the Lubavitcher Rebbe used to stand and pass out dollar bills ‘to be distributed to charity’ to thousands of Jews that came from all corners of the world.
At first Daniel’s father refused to go saying; we’ve seen the best doctors and greatest Rabbis. We have a busy day with a lot to do. We’ve been your guests long enough. We aren’t Lubavitchers etc.”

But Daniel wanted to go. So the next morning, they were standing in the long line before the Rebbe’s headquarters and when their turn came little Daniel was not shy.
He looked up through his thick, dark glasses at the Rebbe and said in Russian, in as loud a voice as he could,
“I want to be healthy and I want to be a Talmudic Scholar. And I wish the Rebbe Success and health.”
The Rebbe smiled, gave him a dollar and said “Amen” and as Daniel was about to leave, the Rebbe added “B’korov Mamash” (Very Very soon!)
The next Sunday morning, exactly one week later, Daniel woke up and, for the first time in six years, his eyes weren’t stuck closed!!! And it seemed that  the itching stopped!

He put on his dark glasses, went to the window, opened the shades, then the window itself, he could feel the warmth of the sun on his face. He opened his eyes as wide as possible, slowly removed the glasses and began to cry from joy.
The pain was gone!!!
The next day the specialist, after giving him a thorough examination, determined that he probably needing reading glasses. but except for that there was and never HAD BEEN any problem! (If it wasn’t for the fact that Daniel’s father saved the medical records no one would have believed differently).

Daniel went on to receive his rabbinic ordination from the Chabad Yeshiva in Morristown, got married and a month later began working in a growing Chabad house in Russia (that is where I met him and heard his story).

The message of the story is: that everyone (especially every Jew) is important. But in every generation there is one special Jew that feels this and has the ability to do miracles to reveal it. In ours it is the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
And the grand finale will be Moshiach who will make the entire world healthy.

This answers our questions about the importance of Moshiach.

Just as, in our story, the Lubavitcher Rebbe miraculously healed Daniel (and many others like him) totally defying nature, so Moshiach will miraculously heal the ENTIRE WORLD.
That is the topic of our Torah reading and our prayers on Rosh HaShanna
But it is up to us to do all we can to bring Moshiach even one second earlier.
And that is the purpose of sounding the Shofar on Rosh HaShanna.. To beseech G-d, to “Open our eyes”, “Coronate the Moshiach” and do ALL WE CAN to make sure that THIS YEAR will be the one we have been waiting for since the beginning of Creation: the END of exile and beginning of Redemption.

And not much is lacking Today we are standing on the merits of thousands of years of Jewish suffering, prayers and self-sacrifice. Now it could be that just one more good deed, word or even thought can bring the Geula.

Wishing all our readers a Ktiva V’Chatima Tova! A Happy healthy successful sweet NEW year with …… Moshiach NOW!!

Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad, Israel

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