I say everyday in davening "ani ma'amin be'emunah sheleima beviat hamashiach"
I try very hard to believe that mashiach is coming any day now but at the same time, I see how jews of various sects treat each other and the current situation in Israel. I have a hard time believing that mashiach is going to come in a time like this when nobody can get along with one another. If we just get along, don't you think this would bring mashiach faster?

You are asking how its possible to believe? Or are you asking if people don't get along how can mashiach come?

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Don't worry. You don't have to believe mashiach is coming any day now.
You just have to believe a) Mashiach is going to eventually come
B ) tzpiya lmashiach- you have to wish he will come now, achakeh lo, is same thing, you have to want him to come and wait for him
There used to be a song that went "Am Yisroel have no fear Moshiach will be here this year." That song was wrong. There is no source (prior to the authoring of that song) that says Mashiach is necessarily coming this year. He's definitely coming. Maybe in 3 years though.

used to be?

every time i hear ppl singing it i have an urge to ask them "well he didnt come last year when you were singing it"

This is nothing new. There have always been sectarian differences among the Jews, bubemaysehs from the Rightists about Jewish unity in holy pre-war Eastern Europe notwithstanding. Take during second temple times, for instance, where there were tzadokim in high priesthood and sanhedrin, and likely upwards of 200 Judean desert sects, and chazal at that time of enourmous sectarian differences had every expectation that the mashiach was nonetheless imminent.

there are a lot of people who do believe that moshiach is coming at any moment, me being one of them. I truly believe we are in the times of moshiach. I thought that was what blind faith was?
My husband is a little nervous that my faith will be shaken if Moshiach doesn't come very soon.
I also think the situation in EY is so terrible because Moshiach is coming.

Why do you say that like it's desirable?


Your husband is a wise man, and the Chazon Ish and R' Yaakov Kaminetzky agreed. The CI was against promulgating the Moshiach will be here by 6000 medrash since it's just 1 view and in 200 years if its wrong a lot of people will be disappointed. Talk about thinking ahead! RYK heard that a non frum Jew started closing his store on Shabbat because someone had told him Moshiach was coming, and he went and explained to the man that even though we hope he comes, we have no reason to assume he'll be here soon. He felt that the man's emunah would be shattered if Moshiach didn't come soon enough and preferred having him continue to sin - with the hope of one day repenting - rather than have his emunah totally dashed to the point that he would never be interested in yahadut in the fututre.


R' Elchanan Wasserman wrote a little sefer called ikvisa d'mishicha about how the bad times leading up to the Holocaust were proof that Moshiach was imminent - as in, in his lifetime. It's a fascinating and very sad sefer, since it's so full of hope, and yet it didn't happen and R' Elchanan was himself murdered a scant few years later. As a religious Zionist I believe he was partially right in that the evil times of the Holocaust directly led into reishit tzmichat geulateinu, but the fact is that this is only a start and Moshiach still hasn't made an appearance generations after the Holocaust. If you think times are worse now than they were when REW wrote that sefer, you are delusional.

I agree on the one hand that the times of the shoah were horrific and we should never again see the world try to destroy the Jewish nation.
however, the times now in EY are, in another way, worse. It is not the world trying to destroy us, it is Jew trying to destroy Jew. This is true sinas chinam.

There's a true story that goes something like this: The previous Lubavitcher Rebbe once started a campaign for Jews to keep shabbos, saying that if everyone keeps shabbos for three weeks, moshiach will come. A notyetfrum storekeeper asked Rabbi Kaminetzky if he should keep shabbos for those weeks. Rabbi Kaminetzky said, "No. Better you be mechallel shabbos for three weeks than become a kofer, a heretic, because if moshiach doesn't come in three weeks, not only will you not keep shabbos, you also won't believe in moshiach's coming." Eventually the shopkeeper became completely frum.

The answer does not make sense because first of all it is much worse to be mechalal shabbos than be a "kofer" whatever that means, no?

And also the LR's campaign is that EVERYONE should keep Shabbos for 3 weeks, and so the shopkeeper keeping it for 3 weeks and nothing happening is no proof against the LR. It's a stupid story -- and an ugly one.

[A story that starts off, "There's a true story that goes something like this..." to me is a red flag to be skeptical].

I don't think this is a true story for a number of reasons.

there is a video of the LR where someone asks [to put it in a polite way...] him why does he not start a campaign that every jew keep two shabbosim [Yes I believe what it says in the Gemora Shabbos 118b is about the jews keeping TWO shabbosim]. the LR answerers him that first of all [he already said (told him before?) that] it is really just one more shabbos needed because the jews already all kept one (I forget what was cited, perhaps a gemora or yerushalmi? ETA but it is a MBD song so that should be enough proof;)). second of all he (I don't remember the wording maybe a chabadnik on this site can help me out) in general did not take very kindly to the idea [to put it mildly - (if anyone knows if or where this video is available online please let me know)] NOW anyone who knows how the LR regarded he FIL (the previous LR) knows that if this is a campaign his FIL did, he would at the very least be launching the campaign himself.

Thank you, I've actually heard this one several times and am very surprised it isn't true. Will have to ask about it.

I also doubt the story is true.
First of all as was pointed out it is NOT 3 shabbosim. It is two and we already did one.
2. It's a gimmick and not the Rebbe's style. Now if it were "keep Shabbos to bring the geula" or what the Previous Rebbe really DID say "alter l'teshuva alter l'geulah" I would believe it. But it wouldn't be to keep a certain number of shabbosim, or have everyone do something on a certain day etc as a "segulah"...
3. I never heard of it, and if it happened it would be more "mefursam"...
4. In order for it to work EVERY Jew would have to keep Shabbos, so there would be no reason for the storekeeper to be discouraged, because the likelihood of that happening is slim to none, and if moshiach doesn't come they will just assume someone messed up....

I still haven't had a chance to discuss this story, but it's on my todo list.

Uhm, I posted a different version of this story above, but apparently no one noticed. I don't know if the LR was involved, but the version I have seen was not about 2 or 3 shabbatot - the storekeeper was convinced to close his store on shabbat period since Moshiach wold be here soon. RYK's concern was that in a few months or years he would grow disillusioned and throw out any interest in ever becoming fully observant, and that therefore it was better to tell him that Moshiach was not necessarily coming, even if that meant he would be mechallel shabbat again, in order to preserve the chance that he might one day become fully observant (as actually happened).

The story, without reference to Lubavitch one way or the other, is found in all biographies of RYK, including the Artscroll one.

Sorry, I didn't notice.

I heard the year 6000 thing repeated numerous times as fact, and it always disturbed me for this very reason.





It's a similar thing with regards to the Gaza disengagement, and the intense disillusionment of people who were told by rabbis to believe that this can never happen. I remember being in Israel that September and talking to my cousins who were extremely active in the anti-disengagement camp, who told of their friends who developed depression and substance abuse, and their whole world was crushed. I was really saddened by how irresponsible the rabbis of the movement were in fostering those kinds of convictions [i.e. the disengagement can never happen] in the minds of young and very idealistic kids.