“Do you look like your dog?” originated in a photo series by Gerrard Gethings featuring canines alongside their owners. That’s not the first time humans have been compared to hounds; the Talmud posits that people prior to Moshiach’s arrival will have “the face of a dog”. Commentary ranges from the pessimistic prediction of a generation of spineless leaders, like a dog who sprints ahead but always turns back for its walker’s direction, to the more positive spin of relating a dog’s appetite to a future insatiable hunger for knowledge. Which is it?
Sages of the Talmud talk of the signs that humanity is progressing toward redemption. Chief among the positive fortellings, are the words of Rabbi Abba:
And Rabbi Abba says: You have no more explicit manifestation of the end of days than this following phenomenon, as it is stated: “But you, mountains of Israel, you shall give your branches, and yield your fruit to My people of Israel, for they will soon be coming.” (Yechezkel 36:8).
The (Good) Guns
“Seed missiles” are pods of nutrient-rich, germinated soil fired by drones in barren, inaccessible areas. The pod sprouts and vegetation grows. This technology, developed in the last decade, has the ability to plant 400,000 trees in a single day with a fleet of just ten drones. The goal of these programs is to improve air quality and renew resources in depleted environments, reversing damage caused by industrialization and technological advancement themselves. The Talmud has a succinct truism for this phenomenon (though admittedly, it is not in the interest of reforestation): “From (the forest) itself comes the handle of the ax.”
This is an era where great wars are fought with the most advanced weapons, yet many of the world’s superpowers pursue peace. Agricultural yields surpass any previous era, but food prices continue to soar. This is a generation of billionaires and abject poverty. Tsunamis, earthquakes and forest fires abound, including in the Holy Land, but, at the same time, the desert blooms.
While this may all sound quite familiar to the digital natives of the 21st century, these are actually all predictions concerning the era immediately preceding the arrival of Moshiach, as recorded more than a millennium and a half ago in the Talmud, and even earlier in the Torah itself.
The prognoses of the prophets and the sages reveal a landscape that seems to straddle both ends of the spectrum. “The Galilee will be destroyed,” the Talmud in Sotah tells of the future, while, simultaneously, in the words of Rabbi Abba in Sanhedrin, “the mountains of Israel will (once again) bear fruit.”
In the bigger picture, this particular discussion of the Talmud concludes, the good outweighs the bad and humanity is on an upward trajectory. Perhaps the most telling development of the last century in progressing toward a time of Jewish sovereignty and a return to Torah-based values is how Jews, a minority nation all over, are afforded the educational opportunities and freedoms to access the wealth of Torah and mitzvot.
After the Miraculous Salvation
After the miraculous salvation of Israel from the Iraqi nuclear threat, historical alliances between Western and Arab nations, and global arms treaties, the Lubavitcher Rebbe pointed to the Torah sources driving these events (in Sefer Hasichot, 5752/1992).
Since we are situated in the most opportune time for the arrival of Moshiach following the fulfillment of prophecies that are a harbinger for the redemption and, “Behold, here he (King Moshiach) comes,” we can already experience (a foretaste and) the onset of the king Moshiach’s influence on the nations, which the prophet Yeshayah foretells, “And he Moshiach will judge among the peoples, and he will direct many countries and as a result, they will beat their swords into plowshares, etc.” This will come about because once Moshiach is ready to arrive, G-d will place within the hearts of the rulers of the gentile nations the idea to resolve and announce together concerning, “and they will beat their swords into plowshares.”
