In part the reason for that is because the evidence cited by
those that believe we are in messianic times are unique to their Hashkafos and possibly
even contradictory to the Hashkafos of each.
Many in Chabad actually believe that he has already appeared on
earth in the person of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe; died; and will be resurrected
in a second coming. Or variations on that theme.
Religious Zionists believe that regaining possession of the
land of Israel for the first time in 2000 years is the first flowering of the redemption that will be heralded soon by the arrival of Moshiach. The lightning victory of the 6 day war in 1967 which
recaptured more of that land including the very significant recapture of Temple Mount - added to this thinking.
Basing himself on the words of the Vilna Goan and the
Gemarah, Rav Elchonon Wasserman believed that the antisemitism of his time in
Europe and rise of the secular Zionist leadership of the Jewish people where
Torah scholars are scorned presages the type of holocaust against the Jewish
people foretold as a possible scenario prior to the arrival of Moshiach. It is
hard to argue that the holocaust did not fulfil that prediction. Except that we
are now 70 plus past the holocaust.
Rabbi Yaakov Menken mentions in a recent Cross-Currents post
that the Conservative Movement’s leadership is indicative of a famous quote
from the Gemarah. That by hiring a re-branding firm - they leaders aren’t really
leading. They are following. I made a similar point on a recent post. That may
be true. But let us examine the actual quote and see whether it applies.
The Gemarah in Sotah ( Mishna 49a-b) describes what the
world will be like in pre-messianic times. After a description of our behavior
in those times showing how far we will have fallen from our lofty ideals; the
Mishna concludes with the following declaration: Pnei HaDor K’Pnei HaKelev. The
face of the generation is like the face of a dog.
Rav Yisroel ben Ze'ev Wolf Lipkin - better know as R' Yisroel Salanter explains this cryptic comment as
follows. The face – meaning the rabbinic leadership – of that generation will
behave like dogs. How so? Dogs run ahead of their masters and appear to be
leading them. But in actuality they are following – always looking back at
their masters to know which way to go. They look like they are leading. But they are following.
This is not a description of the Conservative rabbinic
leadership. This is a description of Orthodox Rabbinic leadership. I don’t
think Rav Yisrael Salanter recognizes Conservative rabbis as leaders of the generation.
But is this how our rabbinic leadership behaves today? Are
they looking back at their masters to know which way to go? And who might those
masters be? Their Asakanim? Some might say so. There have been many incidents where
a rabbinic leader was manipulated by their Asaknim to act based on how they characterized
events and people - manipulating the desired response from them. Rav Nosson
Kamentsky’s famous description of how his book was banned is a wonderful example
of that.
I am not God forbid casting any aspersions on the rabbinic
leaders of our generation. I do not believe that they purposely look to their
Asknanim and base their decisions on what they think. I believe they are men of
very high integrity that always try and see things through the lens of the
Torah as they understand it. An understanding based on considerable knowledge gained
during a lifetime of Torah study And as I said, I do not believe we are in the
immediate pre-messianic era anyway. On the other hand when one sees this kind
of thing happening one wonders what – exactly - is going on???
