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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5

Birth-Pangs (Advanced)

By Itamar Hatzvi

Birth-Pangs (Advanced)

5 advanced insights into the pain of a laboring woman and its relevance to the pain associated with the Coming of Moshiach

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