Birth-Pangs

ח ב ל י    מ ש י ח

5 Advanced Insights

o f     M o s h i a c h

Behind the Pain

בס"ד

A Jewish (Torah) Perspective

Which Pangs are Birth-Pangs

• We can count 9 months with a normal pregnancy.  
• That’s a helpful gauge to ascertain if labor is near (although sometimes we even get that wrong).
• But with the unknown span of Gola, we’ll be really struggling to discern the final pangs of Geula from other pains along the way.
• That’s why the Prophets have spoken, and our Sages have defined, the actual signs indicating we’re going into the labor of Geula.
• Once the baby is engaged in position, there’s no way back.

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1

The Cause - Not the Symptoms

• Birth-pangs are no good.
• Let’s pray for them to go away!
• No, silly.  The contractions are there because something (wonderful) is coming out.  Why don’t you pray for the birth to happen?!
• Then (and only then) will she – please G-d – be well again.
• No one enjoys the pains that mark the end of Gola.
• But the only way to cure them is to treat their underlying cause –  the coming of Moshiach – not to fight the symptoms as if they were a separate problem.

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2

Gola is Unbearable

• The baby will need to come out one day – yeah, we know that.
• Already?? (See, you did need reminders!)
• Ok, but why unfriendly reminders?  And why so tormenting?
• Because the baby needs to come out now, you get it?  We don’t want you to bear it any longer.  Now, push!
• The end of Gola is its ugliest.  Extremely unfriendly.
• It should be unbearable.  We need you to want to come out of it.  To help push the Geula through.
• BTW this overpowering feeling need not be a result of personal misfortune.  It’s the mental state of frustration with Gola that we’re after. 

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3

Birth-Pangs are Extreme

• The womb keeps the baby inside. 
• At labor, the womb is still trying to do this same old job.
• But the baby is extricating... 
• So the womb contracts its hardest.
• That’s why the pain is so severe.
• Geula has been cooking in the background all along the Gola. 
• But well covered.
• Once it’s time, The Geula is pushing through. 
• So Gola is stretching itself to the limit to keep concealing.
• Hence the pangs of birth are so acute.

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4

Prolonged Labor Pains

• The baby is about to come out – how exciting!
• Why is it taking so long now?!  How frustrating!
• Wait a minute – why the sudden excitement and frustration?  Isn’t birth a gradual process?
• Yeah but before, birth was a thing of the future (and there was no pain). 
• Now the baby is ready to come out (and every moment is terrible)!
• Pleasure (excitement) and anguish (frustration) are anonyms.
• Geula, its long-awaited coming, is the biggest pleasure. 
• For us, and for On-High.
• Before, when it wasn’t time, delays were “deemed” acceptable.
• As the Geula is finally eventuating, nothing should be standing in its way now.  
• So any delay of the Geula then, results in much more anguish than ever before.
• Hence the uniquely extreme Birth Pangs of Moshiach. 

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