Transforming the World to the Messianic Age
When I was in high school, the shadow of the Vietnam War loomed over us. To express my hope for peace, I carved a wooden sign. I symbolically "transformed" war into peace by removing the letter "A" from the word WAR and moving it into the middle of the word PEACE.
Decades later, I realized this wasn't just an art project; it was a premonition of a deep Jewish teaching found in this week’s portion, Terumah.
The Torah describes the Mishkan, a portable sanctuary built from physical wood and gold. Our Sages teach that this service transformed "the material” into "spiritual."
The Tabernacle wasn't just a building; it was a blueprint for personal transformation. As the verse says, "Make Me a Sanctuary, and I will dwell in them." The plural: 'within them,' and not 'within it, ' teaches that God also dwells within us when we transform ourselves and our surroundings.
I found the most profound example of this in the Hebrew words: Golah (Exile) and Geulah (Redemption). They are similar, except for one letter, an Aleph, the first letter of the Hebrew Alphabet.
In Hebrew, Aleph has the numerical value of one, representing the One God who is the Aluf, or Master of the World.
The Hebrew words for 'Exile' (Golah) and 'Redemption' (Geulah) are spelled similarly, with one crucial difference: the letter Aleph. When we take the word Golah and insert an Aleph, the conscious awareness of God’s Oneness, we transform this word for exile into Geulah, the redemption.
Judaism believes that the messianic redemption can occur quickly at any moment and not, as some missionaries incorrectly claim, divided into a first and second coming thousands of years apart.
By revealing God’s oneness through our daily actions, we aren't just waiting for peace; we are transforming and preparing the world for the imminent redemption.
When the redemption arrives, we will witness the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophesies “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of God,” and “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, and neither shall they learn war anymore.”
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Bentzion Kravitz
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