Imagine!

Imagine living in a world above time and space: a world with transportation but without traffic jams.  Imagine not having to wait on line in the supermarket - even in the express lane!  Everyone comes and goes as they please (of course they pay for their goods - money will be no problem).

Imagine a sumptuous home-cooked meal that should take hours to prepare.  All you need to do is wish for it and it's yours, instantaneously.  Imagine plucking ready-to-wear clothing right off a tree, just your size and style.

Imagine wishing to communicate with a relative or friend who is far away.  There's no need to lift a telephone to make the connection.  You can just go there and see them - faster than you can push the buttons on your touch-tone phone.  And imagine total recall: never fumbling for the right word or phrase, or stumbling over an assumed fact stored away in memory.

Imagine never worrying about the next mortgage or tuition payment, or about affording your next vacation.  You'll have incredible wealth, never lacking anything your heart desires.  And so will everyone you know - for poverty will no longer exist.

Imagine a world with the ideal environment: no air pollution, no holes in the ozone layer, no acid rain, no rain forest destruction and no nuclear or chemical waste to worry about.  The temperature is just right: not too hot and not too cold.  No hurricanes or tornadoes or sandstorms, no icy rains or sleet.  There will be plentiful rainfall, but never on anyone's picnic or parade.  Animals will also be secure.  No poaching of elephants or rhinoceros for their tusks, no wanton destruction of minks or ermine.

Imagine people luxuriating in the warmth of the sun, without fear of sunburn - or of skin cancer.  A world without illness or suffering: no cancer, no heart disease, no AIDS; no bronchitis, tuberculosis, typhus, malaria or even the flu or the common cold.  Everybody goes busily about their daily lives without incurring even a scratch or stubbing a toe.

Imagine a world without jealousies and without hatred; without arrogance or anger; without the pursuit of power to intimidate or dominate others.  Instead, it will be a world in which people will love and respect one another - simply for what they are - without any ulterior motives.

Sound utopian?  It certainly does and definitely does not seem even remotely feasible in our age.  But then, prior to 1800, nobody thought that many of the comforts of today's world would ever exist.  A forty-mile trip was, if one were lucky, an all-day affair in a horse-drawn buggy over dirt roads.  Today, many people commute that distance in less than an hour without a second thought.  Communication between cities used to take weeks, but today you call using a telephone or fax halfway around the globe in less than a minute or communicate by computer instantly.

Suits and dresses, pants, skirts and shirts are available by the thousands straight off the rack; but, two centuries ago people were fortunate if they found enough ready-made yam to knit a pair socks.  And all foods were "raw materials, with every dinner having to be made from scratch - not some microwave dinner available from your local supermarket.

The world's technology has advanced at an incredible pace since the Industrial Revolution.  In its early years, inventions were introduced every few years.  In today's world, technology jumps forward by gigantic leaps at an increasingly dizzying pace.  Progress seems to scream out to everyone: "Move forward! Move! Move! Move!" But the questions stand out: "Why?" "For what purpose?" and "To what end?"

Mashiach, a windfall and a scorpion

"Three [things] come unexpectedly [to a person]: Moshiach, a windfall and a scorpion." Sanhedrin 97a

Hashem created Adam, the First Man, with the intention that a human being in corporeal form be able to live a spiritual life. Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden, a spiritually rich and rewarding environment, to facilitate this goal.  But on their very first day of life, they transgressed.  Man was severely punished - banished from Paradise - and penalized with the need to struggle in order to sustain himself in a material world.  He must now work very hard (Genesis 3:19), "By the sweat of his brow," to find spirituality.

But the question remains, if man were penalized with the need to pursue the material, how can he ever attain spirituality?  And even more baffling, what of those who succumb to their physical lusts and temptations, causing man and mankind to plunge deeper into materialism?  If, on their very first day of life, Adam and Eve were unable to maintain a spiritual existence, is there a chance for anybody to ever ascend from that abyss into which mankind has fallen?  Has it ever happened?  And, if so, is it possible that all of mankind could ever make that ascent?

Before Hashem created the world, He knew of man's fallibility - after all, it was He Who created the evil inclination.  He knew that man would be lax in his pursuit of the spiritual.  But Hashem created the world to reveal His goodness (Etz Chaim, Shaar HaKlalim 1) and His plan is that everyone should benefit from His goodness – even the unworthy.  Thus, everyone (well, almost everyone – there are individuals who are totally not deserving) can, through some means, find rectification for his deeds and attain a level of perfection.

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But who in his right mind would even think that this is possible?  As the world plummets to new depths of corruption and immorality, of perversity and depravity, one wonders how any rectification could ever take place – let alone one in which the entire world reaches a stage of perfection!  But then again, not all that long ago, nobody believed man would ever fly.  We have reached a perplexing stage in history.  Contemporary man has lived through a century of some of the most despicable and bestial behaviors ever exhibited by the human race - against humans, animals and the environment.  And yet man has a better chance of living today than ever before.  Life expectancy has risen, health care is infinitely better (if you are in the right place), the global standard of living rises each year (if you are in the right place) and people have been blessed with wonderful inventions that have benefitted countless lives.

We are beset by a profound paradox having come into the 21st century.  At the very same time that the technology of modern
communication forces everyone into contact with everyone else, those small crevices that divide all the various levels of our society are widening into yawning fissures.  The loftier the heights man reaches through his intellect – as evidenced in his scientific and technological breakthroughs – the greater the depravity that is revealed in his soul.

The explanations that are offered for this are all abstract, like the very concept of Moshiach.  But therein lies a profound commentary on contemporary life.

We constantly find ourselves with "windfalls" – with even more breakthroughs in technology yet to come.  Concurrently, we also find ourselves beset by life's "scorpions."  The only answer that connects these two opposites is that we are in the "End of Days," with the arrival of the Moshiach, imminently.  Therefore, the unexpected always happens.

Global stability no longer exists.  The environment is deteriorating, yet man is living longer.  The great financial institutions upon which western civilization has relied are crumbling, yet the standard of living steadily rises (if you are in the right place), with more people able to enjoy the windfalls of life (if you are in the right place).  In short, as the 20th century is over; there is no longer any tangible explanation for the way the world continues.

Yet it does continue, and any day now Moshiach will arrive and set things right.  In fact, his presence is already here and can be easily felt by everyone, if we but choose to feel it.  The kind of life we will live when Moshiach comes; can be experienced in a microcosmic manner in the present.  But we need to hasten its advent.  By living the Torah life now, we can see how Moshiach is so much a part of us already.

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And then, "The wolf will live with the lamb and the leopard will lie down with the goat; the calf and the lion will dwell together ... the cow will graze with the bear and their young will forage side by side; and the lion, like cattle, will eat straw.  The child will play with the cobra ... for the world will be filled with the knowledge of Hashem ..." (Isaiah 11:6-9).

This was the Prologue to the book "Mashiach Who What Why How Where When" by Chaim Kramer.  I have made minor changes to bring the Prologue up to date since it was written in 1994.  I highly recommend the book since it has such insight.  It is 18 years since the book was written and the events are happening with great accuracy.  See the note below for additional information.