Q:
Over the years the Rov has spoken a number of times about how in the time of the coming of Moshiach that we will regret, we’ll sigh that we lost the opportunity of freewill and perfection in certain areas of emunah and so on. But now the Rov has told us that there seems to be a compensation that we will have more areas of perfection that we didn’t have before?
A:
Question: Will the Yemos Hamoshiach give us more opportunities for shleimus or less opportunities?
And the answer is, it will give us more shleimus, no question about it. But it will be a less לפום צערא אגרא; the benefit of doing things against difficulty won’t be there.
For instance, today if a person is going to wear his tzitzis out, let’s say, in a neighborhood where there are no Jews or only irreligious Jews. It’s not so easy. If he does it, he gets much more sechar – לפום צערא אגרא. He could stick his tzitzis in his pants when he gets out in those neighborhoods, but he doesn’t do it. So he’ll get more reward. In the Yemos Hamoshiach, on the contrary you’ll get more kavod when they see your tzitzis are out. The more you demonstrate that you are oveid Hashem you get more honor. So therefore, you will be lacking in the לפום צערא אגרא – the reward according to the difficulty.
In the days of Moshiach everybody will have a sukkah and they’ll sleep in their sukkah. Today when you sleep in a sukkah, many times it’s a little dangerous too. And af al pi kein you do it. People still sleep in sukkahs today too even though Cuomo is the governor in New York and he’s against capital punishment. People are still mikayeim the mitzvah. So they’ll get a bigger reward. But in those days, certainly it will be much easier to keep mitzvos.
However, the Rambam explains, in those days opportunities for shleimus will be much more. Because then we will be free of the necessity to work for the goyim. We are paying very high taxes. You know we are supporting so many loafers in Bedford Stuyvesant who live on our money? In Harlem hundreds of thousands of loafers are lying in their basements and smoking marijuana and taking drugs on our money; we are paying our taxes for them. That time we spent making that money we could have used to learn Gemara. So in the Yemos Hamoshiach we will be free from the shibud of the goyim and we will have time to sit and learn. That’s what the Rambam says; we will sit and learn and be קונה שלימות and be worthy of a greater share in Olam Haba.
So therefore, both are true. It will be more opportunity for shleimus but the לפום צערא אגרא, the reward we get today we’ll lose out on. Today sometimes people say, “Dirty Jew!” But in those days of Moshiach it will be the biggest kavod to be called Jew. The gentiles would like that you should call them Jew; but you won’t do it. It will be ossur to do that in the next era when Moshiach will come. The gentiles would like to wear tzitzis; we won’t let them, no. Tzitzis is only for the Am Yisroel. So therefore, לפום צערא אגרא will not exist in the world in Mashiach’s time.
TAPE # 853 (November 1991)
