POL #3- Beit Midrash

Throughout this entire year we have learned many Jewish texts that can be applied to our day to day lives and will help make each of us better people.

In Tefilla Talks we read and discussed the first two chapter of Pirkei Avot.

משנה אבות ב׳:ג׳

הֱווּ זְהִירִין בָּרָשׁוּת, שֶׁאֵין מְקָרְבִין לוֹ לָאָדָם אֶלָּא לְצֹרֶךְ עַצְמָן. נִרְאִין כְּאוֹהֲבִין בִּשְׁעַת הֲנָאָתָן, וְאֵין עוֹמְדִין לוֹ לָאָדָם בִּשְׁעַת דָּחְקוֹ:

Pirkei Avot 2:3

Be careful [in your dealings] with the ruling authorities for they do not befriend a person except for their own needs; they seem like friends when it is to their own interest, but they do not stand by a man in the hour of his distress.

For me, this source teaches me to surround myself with people who actually care about me and want to stand by my side instead of people who just want something from me then once they get it they leave or someone who I would help but as soon as I need help, they are nowhere to be found. I try to be the friend for people who is genuinely there to be their friend and help them when they really need it.

In Inquiry Beit Midrash this year we learned about a topic that was interesting to us. I decided to learn more about Mashiach. My partner and I studied many source about what the world look like when Mashiach comes. Then we created an art piece representing all the sources that we learned. This was a source from our art piece:

אמר רבי אלכסנדרי רבי יהושע בן לוי רמי כתיב (דניאל ז, יג) וארו עם ענני שמיא כבר אינש אתה וכתיב (זכריה ט, ט) עני ורוכב על חמור זכו עם ענני שמיא לא זכו עני רוכב על חמור

Rabbi Alexandri says: Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi raises a contradiction between two depictions of the coming of the Messiah. It is written: “There came with the clouds of heaven, one like unto a son of man… (Daniel 7:13–14). And it is written: “Behold, your king will come to you; he is just and victorious; lowly and riding upon a donkey and upon a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9). Rabbi Alexandri explains: If the Jewish people merit redemption, the Messiah will come in a miraculous manner with the clouds of heaven. If they do not merit redemption, the Messiah will come lowly and riding upon a donkey.

I wrote in the artist statement for the art that the main thing we learned was that Mashiach is going to come no matter what, whether we've earned him or not but he will come. Our actions just effect how he is going to come. One of the examples we gave was from the source above: Will he come with the heavenly clouds of glory or riding lowly on a donkey.
I think the is idea that Mashiach is going to come no matter what is important to spread because it gives us hope. It may also motivate people to try and earn him because when you work for something, big or small, it always feels better when you worked for it than just given it. If we earn Mashiach we will cherish the time more because we earned it more than, "Oh Mashiach is here...Who cares? If he is here now why should we change our actions? We have nothing to work for now."
This teaches me to own up to my mistakes and fix them because I would rather earn something that we spend our Jewish lives working toward that just have it and not appreciate it.

Elie Rawson