The holidays are past; the days of introspection for the previous year have come and gone. This week, Parshat Noach, is therefore an appropriate time to make a good account of the coming year. As we continue to improve on the past and try to plan for the future, we need to keep one thing in mind: Although an individual may realize that he has things and areas that need improvement, as a whole the Jewish people have accomplished what needs to be accomplished. As the Rebbe taught, “We must be conscious that all the service necessary has been completed and we are ‘ready to receive Moshiach.’
Therefore, even if there is a particular dimension of our own personal service which is lacking... this does not diminish the fact that as a whole, our service is complete and we are ready for the Redemption. “On the contrary,” the Rebbe explained, “the fact that, as a whole, we are prepared for the Redemption, makes it easier for us to complete all the individual elements of our service and to do so with happiness.” The Rebbe went on to use an analogy to further explain this concept.
When a person is healthy as a whole, if he has a small ailment in one of his limbs it can easily be cured. Similarly, since as a whole, the Jewish nation is healthy, i.e., our service has been completed, teshuva [repentance] which is described as “healing,” can cure all the particular difficulties of both individuals and the Jewish people. Whether or not on an individual basis there are small ailments that need to be cured, as a whole, the Jewish people are healthy and our service in this long and bitter exile has been completed.
Let us not, Heaven forbid, give G-d excuses as to why we are still in exile. As the Rebbe told someone at Sunday dollars who suggested that there are conditions that still need to be met before Moshiach can come, “Why are you making conditions? Moshiach is long overdue!”
