Dear Friends,
I’m taking a few weeks off for R&R. While I’m away this month I thought I might share some of my favorite stories and teachings from the Talmud and the early Hasidic masters.
This week’s story is one of my all-time favorites.
“Where,” our sages asked, “shall we look for the Messiah? Shall the Messiah come to us on clouds of glory, robed in majesty, and crowned with light? The [Babylonian] Talmud (Sanhedrin 98a) reports that Rabbi Joshua ben Levi put this question to no less an authority than the prophet Elijah himself.
“Where,” Rabbi Joshua asked, “shall I find the Messiah?”
“At the gate of the city,” Elijah replied.
“How shall I recognize him?”
“He sits among the lepers.”
“Among the lepers?” cried Rabbi Joshua. “What is he doing there?”
“He changes their bandages,” Elijah answered. “He changes them one by one.”
(Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 98a)
As one of my colleagues once commented,
“That may not seem like much for a Messiah to be doing. But, apparently, in the eyes of God, it is a mighty thing indeed.”
It is easy to think that it is only through large, public changes that the ills of the world will heal. The ancient rabbis knew better. They understood that a sense of wholeness and peace can only be achieved through one small, seemingly insignificant act of kindness that is followed by another and then by another. And each of us can play a role in making that happen.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Daniel Cohen