The Medrash (Shocher Tov 17:4) writes:
כל אותן אלפים שנפלו במלחמ ה בימי דוד לא נפל ו אלא על שלא תבע ו בנין בית המקדש. והלא דברים קל וחומר ומה אם אלו שלא הי ה בית המקדש ביניהם ולא נחרב בימיהם נעשה להם כך ונענשו על שלא תבעו אותו אנו שחרב בימינו ואין א נו מתאבלים עליו ולא נבקש עליו רחמים על אחת כמה וכמה. לפיכך התקינו חסידים הראשונים שיהיו מתפללים שלש תפלות בכל יום והתקינו בו אנא רחום ברחמיך הרבים השב שכ ינתך לציון וסדר העבודה לירושלים ותקנו בונה ירושלים ברכה בפני עצמו בתפל ה ובברכת המזון.
“All the thousands that fell in wars in the days of David fell only because they failed to demand the building of the Beis HaMikdosh. And this is a kal vechomer [fortiori] — if those who didn’t have a Beis HaMikdosh, and it was not destroyed in their times are punished for not asking for it, we – in whose days it was destroyed and fail to mourn it or ask for mercy for it –will escape judgement? Therefore, the early righteous people instituted praying three times a day: ‘Please O Merciful, in Your great mercy return Your Shechinah to Tzion and the order of the Service to Yerusholayim’ and they instituted a separate blessing of ‘Builder of Yerusholayim’ as a separate blessing in tefillah and in birchas hamazon.”
This Medrash indicates that the practical expression of hoping for the redemption is by davening for it.
The Arizal (Sha’ar Hakavanos, derush 6) writes: When reciting the words לישועתך קוינו כל היום – “I await your salvation all day” in the shemonei esrei, one should bring to mind his hope and yearning for Hashem’s final redemption, so when he will be asked upon death “Did you await salvation?” his answer can be in the affirmative. The Ya’avetz in his siddur writes the same idea.
(Interestingly, the last words that appear in the Nussach Sephard siddur ומצפים לישועה are printed there due to a mistake. The Eshel Avraham and Piskei Teshuvos both write that those two words were added by printers in parenthesis, to remind the users of the siddurim that this was the place to remember their hope for redemption. After a while, the parenthesis were mistakenly dropped and the words became part of the actual text of the tefillah.)
Rav Yitzchok Zilberstein (Chashukei Chemed, Bechoros 50a) quotes his father-in-law, Rav Elyashiv zt”l who was once asked: Why the Gemara (Rosh Hashanah 30a) teachs that Yerusholayim requires caring through acts of commemoration as inferred from the pasuk: כי אעלה ארוכה ל ך וממכותיך ארפאך נאם ה' כי נדחה קראו לך ציון היא דורש אין לה- “For I will restore health to you, and I will heal you of your wounds, said Hashem; because they have called you an outcast: She is Tzion, there is none who cares for her” (Yirmiyahu 30:17)? Don’t we all care for her? We daven every day, three times a day in the shemonei esrei, ולירושלים עי רך ברחמים תשוב, and in,ובנה ירושלים , in birchas hamazon?
Rav Elyashiv answered: “Halevai people would mean what they say.”
Walking the walk and talking the talk is not enough. Saying the words “we anticipate the redemption” will not make them a reality without us seriously meaning what we say, and taking practical steps in that direction.
There is a story about a chossid who complained to the Tzemach Tzedek: Why hasn’t the Moshiach come already? I wait for him so fervently! The Tzemach Tzedek answered him: “The Moshiach that you are waiting for will never come. And the Moshiach that will indeed come, you never waited for.” We must take an honest look at ourselves. Do I really wait for Moshiach? Do I truly look expectantly toward his coming?
The Chofetz Chaim (Torah Ohr, chapter 12) writes that if we really mean what we say, we would be thinking of the practical implications of the geulah, spending time learning the halachos that pertain to that time, to be prepared. Then he ends: “And when Hashem Yisborach will see that we are making every effort to restore the service of the House of Hashem (through learning of the halachos) He will surely speed up the geulah and build his House, and we will merit seeing the Kohanim in their service in our times, amen.”
I hope that after reading the above, the reader realizes that anticipating the final geulah is not something which should be in the back of our minds, rather, it must be something at the very forefront, and it’s something we must truly be aware of and believe can happen any second. May we merit to the see the final geulah speedily in our days, and if it doesn’t happen this second, then at least until the next second may we merit to fulfill the mitzvah of tzipisa liyeshuah properly.
(The above writeup is based on a Teshuvah from Torah and Hora’ah and a Teshuvah from R’ Yom Tov Sanger in his Madanay Yom Tov)
