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By Yochanan Gordon
The Rambam concludes his magnum opus, Mishnah Torah otherwise known as Yad Hachazakah which is an encyclopedic compendium of the Torah’s Laws with a utopian description of how the world will look in the Messisnic era. In fact, one of the unique features of the Rambam’s work 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’Meshicha meaning the laws that will only be reinstated with the coming of Moshiach.
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, the one 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 which would justify it. He explains that the Rambam is codifying into law that when a person is discussing matters pertaining to the coming of Moshiach 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 don’t know what it is; 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, Uveoso Hazman describes the world in the messianic era as being a time wherein there will be no hunger, war, jealousy or completion. The main preoccupation of the world will be the intuitive awareness of God alone. In a previous law, the Rambam describes that era as a time where pleasures will be at arms reach wherever a person turns,; a time when goodness will be abundant and the knowledge of God will suffuse all of existence.
I would often conjure up these words and try to picture in my minds eye what they might look like. However, a sober conception of the way that our world looks today with the existence of hunger, war more on the horizon today than it has ever been in any of our lifetimes, hostility, strife, completion and pretty much every antonym of every description that the Rambam uses in describing that time would serve 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 a calmness and the faith that our reality can literally shift with the batting of an eyelash.
In the shir Hama ‘alos which we recite before bentsching 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 time seems like a dream which has yet to materialize as we are stuck in a setting which seems all too real from where we are. But the truth is, it is all a matter of perspective. Chassidus often quotes the verse kel de’os Hashem which means that God is a master of philosophies. We are used to characterizing Gods creation of this world something out of nothing or in the more philosophical term ex-nihilo meaning out of nothing. The question is who is the something and who is the nothing. Chassidus explains that from our vantage point we are the something and God is the nothing. However, from the spiritual vantage point Gid is the ultimate something and this world is just illusory. In other words you can have someone who sees this world as the constant and Godliness as the exception and someone else occupying the same space who sees God as the ultimate existence and this world as the novelty.
When I wrote the song uveoso hazmann and sold it to Benny my hope was that it would safely make it onto his next album. The truth is, from the time that we made the transaction until it’s release I was not really apprised of its plans or progress thereof. I had thought that it would be nice if the song would be released in the context of the Siyum ha’Rambam but it isn’t something that Benny and I ever discussed. The truth is, and maybe I’m divulging TMI (too much information) but last night a friend of mine sent me a WhatsApp message with what in hindsight was an album cover which said Uveoso Hazman 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 earlier today.
This isn’t my debut song. The truth is 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; that breathes life into them and gives them wings to be able to soar. If you are in your car listening to the immersive sound on Bluetooth audio while passing by a gas station which reads $4.00 a gallon, with 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 God 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 God 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 Baal Shem Tov said that Moshiach will arrive on a random Wednesday afternoon. Well, it’s Wednesday evening now and as I hear these words sung over and over I can almost sense him coming. May it happen today.
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Exquisite!