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Is the World Really Getting Better?



Question:

You are always talking about how the world is ready and prepared for the Age of Moshiach. I don't see it. It looks like a pretty awful world to me. Looks like we've got a long way to go.

Answer:

That's because you don't see where it's coming from, what it used to be and how much it changed.

Let me illustrate: Nowadays you can call anywhere from anywhere. Imagine a call to the past. Say you called up your great-grandparents.

"Hi, great-grandma, great-grandpa! This is your great-grandchild calling from a hundred years later!"

"So wonderful to hear from you! How is life in the 21st century? Do you have enough to eat?"

"Well, when I want to eat, I go to my refrigerator. It keeps all the food cold and fresh."

"You only eat cold? Poor thing!"

"No, I stick it in my microwave for a minute and it comes out warm and cooked."

You go on to describe your menu, including produce and packages from every part of the world. And not just food, but people, too: You can take a cute little device out of your pocket and have a conversation with someone anywhere in the world, anytime. And if you need a piece of information, or to study any subject, you have access to millions of computers and many helpful people around the world-without even stepping out the door.

Your home is warm in the winter and cool in the summer. No Cossacks come to burn it down. In fact, the government provides subsidies so your children can study Judaism. Even in Moscow, the government helps build places of worship for Jews, as well as people of all faiths. The people around you teach their children tolerance and love of peace. The world produces enough food to feed each of its six billion citizens. Scientists, rather than challenging faith, point out the mysterious wonders of the universe and its essential oneness. For the first time in history, war is looked down upon and world peace is a value.

To them, you are describing a miraculous world. A world more distant from their world than theirs was from the ancients. They could only reach one conclusion: You must be calling them from the Times of Moshiach.

Yes, you left out a few details. For example, that you still owe the bank for that house. That the food produced is not reaching those who need it. That the information superhighway is often used for trash and pornography rather than for the wisdom it is destined for. That the world is still filled with much evil and suffering. But the point is, the stage is set, all is in place. Never before has the world been anywhere near this position. All that's left is for the curtains to be drawn and the lights to shine on the scene.


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By Tzvi Freeman   More articles...  |   RSS Listing of Newest Articles by this Author

Rabbi Tzvi Freeman heads Chabad.org's Ask The Rabbi team, and is a senior member of the Chabad.org editorial team. He is the author of a number of highly original renditions of Kabbalah and Chassidic teaching, including the universally acclaimed "Bringing Heaven Down to Earth." To order Tzvi's books click here.


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Reader Comments
Latest Comments:
Posted: Dec 10, 2008
coming of moshiach
Using the advances in technology and our freedom as reasons that Moshiach is soon to come is misleading. Yes, the telephone and the cellphone and the computer allow us to communicate better, but technology has also allowed us to kill each other more efficiently. Every advance, every freedom that has been given to us, has led to both marvelous and horrible things at the same time. This is our humanity; this is our free will. We have the choice to love each other or to kill each other, like Cain. Don’t we have to earn Moshiach? I know that we are not supposed to ask why, or to understand why things happen, but we cannot continue to be satisfied with the presence of evil because we hope to be redeemed. We need a course correction, and soon. On the other hand, I do have unlimited hope. I have to.
Posted By Steve Finson, West Haven, CT/USA

Posted: July 11, 2008
Re: is world getting better (anon in England)
Since you're British, and I assume you know a little British history, let me ask you one simple question:

Let's say today one million Irishmen were dying of starvation. What would England do? What would the world do?

Now tell me the world hasn't changed in the past 150 years.
Posted By Tzvi Freeman (author)

Posted: July 9, 2008
is world getting better
re tzvi freeman

well you sound elated to me. i dont know where you live but in england: the youth are knifing each other all over the place, people pinch your identity and money on the internet, nobody cares about anybody but themselves, fuel food etc. are astronomically high, the governments wrapping everybody into slavery and dictating everything we should be doing in our lives.

elsewhere, robert mugabe lives in a palace while his people starve and are forced to vote for him at gunpoint, theres war in iraq afganistan darfur etc etc, global warming threatens to wipe everyone out and is now irreversible, americas psychotically paranoid about everthing espcially islam, and has created a holy war with no end in sight, breaking all gods commandments in one killing everywhere. israel and palestine just keep on keeping on with murder, there’s more haves in the world controlling the have nots, poverty fighting extravagance, selfishness resting on laurels.

where is your closeness to the moshiach era? i cant see it...
Posted By anonymous



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