The days rush by quickly, and here we are in the thick of the Three Weeks mourning period for both the First and Second Holy Temples, 2,500 and 2,000 years ago, respectively. In Hebrew, this period is known as Bein HaMetzarim, "Between the Straits," based on Eichah (Lamentations) 1,3.  

These are days not only of mourning, but also of increased anticipation for our complete Redemption. The crux of Redemption is our total return – teshuvah – to ourselves and our essence. To understand Redemption, let us begin with Exile, which is depicted by the Prophet Yechezkel in the first verses of his book as follows: 

It came to pass [in Hebrew: Vay'hi] in the thirtieth year in the fourth [month] on the fifth day of the month, with me in the Exile by the river Kvar: the heavens opened up, and I saw visions of G-d… This was the fifth year of King Yehoyachin's exile." (1,2)

Our Sages teach that the first word here, vay'hi, often signifies deep sorrow. As our esteemed Rabbi and Teacher Tzvi Yehuda HaCohen Kook, of saintly blessed memory, taught: "The initial letter vuv with the patah vowel of vay'hi is a tense-changing vuv, and thus turns what follows (y'hi, meaning "will be") from future into past. This is the greatest sorrow of all: the turning of our glorious national future into the past."

The prophecy that Yechezkel begins with was, as stated above, delivered in the fourth month in the year, namely, Tammuz, the month we are in now. This introductory verse emphasizes that Yechezkel was "in the exile" in Babylon. And thus this great prophetic work begins by emphasizing the deep sadness that the Exile brings about. 

HaRav A. I. Kook, father of Rav Tzvi Yehuda and the first Chief Rabbi of modern-day Eretz Yisrael, elaborated further with great profundity in his work Orot HaKodesh (Vol. 3, p. 140): 

"Yechezkel said, 'I was in the Exile' – referring to the very essence of "I," of both the individual and the community… Adam's sin happened when he became estranged to his essence and accepted the serpent's opinion, thus losing himself, unable to answer clearly the [Divine] question, 'Where are you?' (B'reshit 3,9)." 

This, then, is the core of the Exile: loss of our selfhood. When we return to it, this is the root of Redemption, as Rav Kook the father continues there: 

"Eichah 4,20 describes the Messiah of G-d as the very breath of our nostrils – and this is his might and the splendor of his greatness. It is not external to us, it is our own spirit; we seek the Mashiach and David our King... It is ourselves that we are seeking and will find…" 

The anticipation and longing for the kingdom of Mashiach son of David is itself the quest for our identity, for ourselves, as Rav Kook explained (Shmoneh Kvatzim 5, 157). He writes there that the Messiah is the greatest level of the internal selfhood of all of Israel.

But it is often asked: Is it really possible or realistic to sit in anticipation of the Messiah every single day? After all, we see that the Prime Minister is well entrenched in his office and there seems to be no apparent path to his replacement in the near future. And another, more general question: Is our nation ready for the Messiah? Are we prepared for the Beit HaMikdash, including sacrificial offerings and laws of impurity? 

These are all logical questions. So what? Ever since we became a people, from the days of our Patriarchs, we have come to learn that the Master of the Universe, the King of Kings, is the One Who runs His world - not necessarily in step with human logic. Did not our Sages teach us, in their Divine wisdom, that "a Sage is greater than a Prophet"? The Talmud states as follows: 

The Messiah will not come until they despair from the Redemption, as is stated, "their power is decreasing, with no protection or help" (D'varim 32,36), as if there were no supporter or helper for the Jewish People. This is as Rabbi Zera would do when he found Sages engaging in discussions about the coming of the Messiah; he would say to them: "Please, I ask of you, do not delay his coming by calculating the end of days. For as we learn in a baraita: There are three matters that come only when our attention is diverted from them, and they are: The Messiah, a lost item, and a scorpion." (Sanhedrin 97a)

R. Zera was saying that by calculating the time of the Mashiach's arrival, the scholars were not enabling themselves to be surprised by his coming. 

Thus, the Sages teach us that only when we have despaired from salvation – which happens when we lack good leadership and therefore cannot set our path correctly – precisely then is when the descendant of David will come. And the Gemara continues by bringing a baraita [Tannaitic text] that teaches that the Messiah specifically comes when we are not ready for him, just as a scorpion arrives on the scene, as far as humans are concerned, by total surprise, and the same is true for one who finds a lost object on the street.  

The holy Maharal of Prague explains (Netzach Yisrael, chapter 40) that in general, the world is conducted in what appears to be a logical order. However, there are cases that don't belong to the regular scheme of things, and they are represented by the above three cases: The scorpion is a negative example of that which is abnormal; finding a lost object is a positive example; and Mashiach symbolizes the higher-world level of that which is beyond our world. As the Maharal writes there (Chapter 17), "the King Messiah is of a level from the Upper World" – and that is why his appearance is sudden and abrupt, separate from the natural order of things.

So, too, taught us our teacher Rav Tzvi Yehuda in Tammuz 1981, as [I wrote in] HaTorah HaGoelet Vol. 2, p. 211: 

"The Prophet Elijah, Eliyahu HaNavi, is on a very great spiritual level… His personage remains with us throughout all the generations, as he is quoted in the Gemara, in the Halakha, and in the Aggadah, wherever it says, 'Tanna d'vei Eliyahu,' meaning, 'It was taught in the academy of Eliyahu.' From here progresses the bond between Eliyahu and Mashiach, a bond of miraculous revelation. The Gemara says that the Mashiach will come when we are not "paying attention," meaning in a wondrous manner. The students asked what that means precisely, and Rav Tzvi Yehuda answered by quoting this verse: 'Behold I send My angel, and he will clear a way before Me. And suddenly, the Lord Whom you seek will come to His Temple' (Malachi 3,1)."

Translated by Hillel Fendel