By Yochanan Gordon
The Rambam concludes his Mishnah Torah with a utopian description of how the world will look in the Messianic era. One of the unique features of the Rambam’s magnum opus, otherwise known as Yad HaChazakah, an encyclopedic compendium of the Torah’s laws, in contrast to the Shulchan Aruch, which is a code of Jewish law in its own right, is the fact that the Rambam addresses what the commentators term hilchesa l’Mashicha, the laws that will only be reinstated with the coming of Mashiach.
But we can’t lose sight of the fact that the work of the Rambam is exclusively legal in nature. There is one place, I believe in the context of the laws of parah adumah, the red heifer, where the Rambam, in the midst of telling us about the 10th cow, which will be revealed in the Messianic era, seems to be unable to contain himself and says, “It should come speedily in our days.” The Lubavitcher Rebbe, credited with innovating the systematic study of the Rambam, is bothered by the presence of this uncharacteristic prayer in the legal code of the Rambam and is compelled to search for a rationale that would justify it. He explains that the Rambam is codifying into law that when a person is discussing matters pertaining to the coming of Mashiach, the law is that we need to enter a prayer to herald its birth.
I have always been drawn to the depictive words describing the Messianic era. I guess you can attribute it to the strong Lubavitch DNA pulsating through my bloodstream but the words of the Rambam in his laws of Kings and their Wars, as well as the prophecies of Isaiah and even some of Jeremiah fill me with a palpable sense of hope as to the imminent fulfillment of these romantic prophecies.
If you’re an avid reader of this column or a voracious consumer of Jewish music, then you are already aware of my side hobby in music composition. My latest installment was just released in a cappella form by Jewish music impresario Doni Gross and sung by Benny Friedman. The song, U’ve’oso Ha’zman, describes the world in the Messianic era as a time when there will be no hunger, war, jealousy, or competition. The main preoccupation of the world will be the intuitive awareness of G-d alone. In a previous law, the Rambam describes that era as a time when pleasures will be at arm’s reach wherever a person turns, a time when goodness will be abundant, and the knowledge of G-d will suffuse all of existence.
I would often conjure up these words and try to picture what that might look like. However, with a sober conception of the way that our world looks today—with the existence of hunger, war, strife, and competition—antonyms of every description that the Rambam uses in describing that time would serve as a fitting description of the world that we are currently living in. But as distant as that reality seems, just uttering those words fills me with calmness and the faith that our reality can shift with the batting of an eyelash. In the Shir HaMa’alos that we recite before bentching, we acknowledge that all of exile will feel like a dream when the light of redemption dawns. However, sitting here, typing these descriptions of that future, seems like a dream that has yet to materialize as we are stuck in a setting that seems all too real from where we are.
But the truth is, it’s all a matter of perspective. Chassidus often quotes the verse “Kel dei’os Hashem,” which means that G-d is a master of philosophies. We are used to characterizing G-d’s creation of this world as “something out of nothing” or in the more philosophical term ex-nihilo, meaning “out of nothing.” Who is the something, and who is the nothing? Chassidus explains that from our vantage point, we are the something and G-d is the nothing. However, from the spiritual vantage point, G-d is the ultimate Something and this world is just illusory. You can have someone who sees this world as the constant and G-dliness as the exception, and someone else occupying the same space who sees G-d as the ultimate existence and this world as the novelty.
When I wrote the song “U’ve’oso Ha’zman” and sold it to Benny, my hope was that it would safely make it onto his next album. From the time that we made the transaction until its release, I was not apprised of its plans or progress. I thought it would be nice if the song would be released in the context of the Siyum haRambam but it isn’t something Benny and I ever discussed. Maybe I’m divulging TMI (too much information), but last week a friend of mine sent me a WhatsApp message with what in hindsight was an album cover that said “U’ve’oso Ha’zman” along with a series of hand emojis and a message saying it sounds amazing.
Being that I hadn’t expected anything, I was kind of caught off guard and wondered out loud what it was that he was sending me. I wrote back: “What sounds amazing?” As I was writing that message a feeling within me said that my song was being released with the start of the new Rambam learning cycle. And then his message came back: “This is your song, isn’t it? It sounds amazing.” By that time it was only a matter of seconds until I was in touch with Benny and I had gotten the song, which was just released last week.
This isn’t my debut song. I’ve been down this path a number of times already, but there is something about how this song was sung: the dreamy vocals, the high register, which has become Benny Friedman’s stomping grounds of late, that adds a whole new dimension to the words, breathing life into them and giving them wings to soar.
If you are in your car listening to the immersive sound on Bluetooth audio while passing by a gas station that reads $4.00 a gallon, inflation at its highest rate since the Great Depression, banks going belly up overnight, and the probability of world war and the use of nuclear warheads being spoken about at a rate never before heard since the Cold War, all the while humming the words “In that time there will be no hunger, no war, no jealousy, or competition … the main preoccupation of the world will be but to know G-d intuitively…”
The image of the Rebbe holding court, reciting the same words in contradistinction to the reality that was happening on the outside of those walls at 770 Eastern Parkway, was seeing G-d as the constant and the tumultuousness of exile as the illusion. The knowledge of the release of this song came upon me abruptly without even the slightest expectation. Chazal say that Ben Dovid will arrive at a time when people least expect it. The Ba’al Shem Tov said that Mashiach will arrive on a random Wednesday afternoon. Well, I wrote this on a Wednesday evening, and as I hear these words sung over and over, I can almost sense him coming. May it happen today.
Yochanan Gordon can be reached at ygordon5t@gmail.com. Read more of Yochanan’s articles at 5TJT.com.
