COVID-19 and Moshiach

Here's a prediction for the most uncertain of times: you will see a lot of memes and comments about Moshiach in the coming weeks. Many of them will draw tenuous links to current events based on various commentators and midrashim. They will interpret pesukim about yetziyas mitzrayim and prophecies of hope and redemption from Yeshaya and others in ways they have not been interpreted before. Some will throw in an apparently compelling gematria or two to spice things up (no offence to the gematria-lovers out there).

There are many ways to think and talk about Moshiach. Now more than ever, it's important to find the right ways to do this, and to be wary of the ways that can cause confusion.


I call the current wave of Moshiach memes 'postdictions': predictions or prophesies that have many possible interpretations, and are reinterpreted in the context of current world events to mean - really - whatever we want. They can easily fool people, but with a bit of knowledge and common sense, they are easy to spot. They often are very specific ("enemies of the Jews are being punished", "Moshiach will come on date X", "if you do Y, you will not get sick" etc). The principle to remember is that whenever someone makes an assertion that will be either proved or disproved in a short amount of time, we need to prepare for two possible outcomes: they are right or they are wrong.

If we hang a piece of our emunah on them being right, then we are creating a potential problem for ourselves. What if they are wrong? To be robust, our emunah cannot depend on whether a specific thing will or will not happen. The nature of emunah is that it transcends specific events and specific times. When talking to children about current events, it is especially important to couch our emunah in the correct terms .

You may recall this sort of talk during the Gulf War when scud missiles rained down on Israel, and during other times when Israel and/or Jews were under threat. There have been precipitous moments in our history that were considered a ripe time for Moshiach, but alas it did not happen. "Those who say don't know, and those who know don't say" is the adage regarding when Moshiach will come.

So how should we think about Moshiach? Conceptually, and avoiding prescriptive detail.

These times fill me with hope. Hearing media commentators and experts say things like "the [...] will never be the same again" and "we will inhabit a different world" is quite staggering. I don't recall people ever using such strong language. This tells me that as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, people around the world are now prepared for change that will be global and radical. Prepared, but at the same time totally unprepared. Prepared because they know the world will be very different. Unprepared in that they have little certainty over what will happen tomorrow, how things might evolve toward change, and how things might look afterwards.

I recently participated in a webinar with a well-respected expert and he spoke about the importance of pausing. He noted that the most important moments in a community is when it pauses. At times like this, the most important action is no action. Instead, it's a time to renew the compact that bonds us together so as to prepare for the next stage of our collective journey.

Jewish communities around the world are doing just that: staying at home, avoiding all the social interactions that usually fill our days and our weeks. In the bigger picture, the entire world is also in a pause. During the pause, we (families, communities, the world) have the opportunity to reflect on what is important in our lives, and what is not. It's as if a reset button is being pressed on the entire world - a reboot into something new and hopefully better. If that's not the era of Moshiach, then what is?

Despite this, it's very difficult to think about Moshiach in purely conceptual terms. For many, there is still a gap between conceptual and actual. "But what about X?" "Doesn't Rambam says Y?" We have a huge wealth of scripture and midrash that speaks about the future, and some of it seems to be quite specific as to what will and will not happen, and when. But much of it can be understood allegorically rather than literally.

It's important to be prepared to say "I don't know" to almost any specific question, and become comfortable with this uncertainty. We don't know if Zaide will suddenly rise from the grave. We don't know if everyone sick will instantly be healed. We don't know if El Al is going to fly everyone to Israel. We don't know if we will continue to put on Rashis, Rabbeinu Tams, or both.

So what do we know? We believe that when Moshiach comes, the world will be different and better. We know and see that the entire world is experiencing some kind of reset that may well be the harbinger of Moshiach. It's that simple.

If anything, the current crisis has caused us to accept that there is so much we don't know and so much we can't control. We need to leave the details to emunah.