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.
בס"ד
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.
בס"ד
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.
בס"ד
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.
בס"ד
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.
בס"ד
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
- 1,519