“Also the bird found a house, and the wild bird a nest for itself” (Tehillim 84:4). The bird is a metaphor for the Jewish people, as Rashi explains there. When the time of redemption arrives, the Jewish people will go up to Jerusalem and find a house, a Beis Hamikdash already built by Hashem and brought down from Heaven. But the wild bird will make a nest for itself. The wild bird is a metaphor for the wicked Jews who want to be wild and free from the mitzvos. They force the end and wish to build a nest, a sovereign state, on their own, pretending that this is the ultimate redemption. But it is obvious and known that they speak falsely, and that their way is the complete antithesis of the Torah. See the Targum on Shir Hashirim 8:4: “The king Moshiach will say, I adjure you, my people, house of Israel, why do you fight with the people of the land, to leave the exile? Wait a little more until the nations who ascended to war in Jerusalem are destroyed, and after that the Master of the World will recall the love of the righteous ones and it will be His will to redeem you.” And this is based on the Gemora in Kesubos (111a), that Hakadosh Baruch Hu made the Jewish people swear not to force the end.
The Torah needed to warn the Jews not to follow these people, not to be influenced by their false beliefs. Therefore it says, “And if his hand was not able” (Leviticus 25:28) – if the Jewish people did not yet merit the complete and true redemption, then they should not think of doing as the wild bird does, building a nest for themselves, but rather “it is enough to return to him” – it is enough that they do complete teshuva. For the redemption is only dependent on teshuva (Sanhedrin 97b), and if they will only do teshuva then “also the bird will find a house,” for Hashem will redeem us and reveal the Beis Hamikdash from Heaven. (Kedushas Tzion on Tanach, p. 92)
On Hoshana Rabba, we say, “Hoshana Tzion Hametzuyenes” – save Zion, the designated one. The Bobover Rebbe, Rabbi Ben Zion Halberstam (1874-1940), asks: What is the meaning of this extra word “hametzuyenes” – the designated one? What is this designation or indication that Zion must have? He answers that the author of the Hoshanos saw with holy inspiration that there would come a time when wicked Jews would take the name Zion for themselves, to use for their movement to conquer Eretz Yisroel by force before the proper time. Then, whenever the simple Jewish masses would see the word “Zion” mentioned in the prayerbook, for example, “May you cause a new light to shine on Zion,” they would think that it refers to this new movement, G-d forbid. Therefore he wrote in the Hoshanos, “The designated Zion” – the Zion that has the mark and indication that it is the right one. What is that mark and indication? The Hoshanos continues, “Hoshana kodesh hakadashim” – it must be a Zion that is holy of holies, with the holiness of Eretz Yisroel – not, G-d forbid, the movement of these wicked men who call themselves Zionists. They have no connection to holiness. (Kedushas Tzion, Moadim, Hoshana Rabba p. 45).
The Bobover Rebbe composed a song describing how moshiach will come: “One fine day, while the storekeeper stands by his scale, and the tailor is in the middle of sewing, the porter is carrying bags and the gardener is in the middle of planting, suddenly we will hear a cry that the time has come! Jews will be free from exile at last!” He based the song on Sanhedrin 97a, where it says that moshiach will come when the Jewish people least expect him. This, he said, is the meaning of the verse in Micha 7:15, “I will show you wonders like the days when you came out of Egypt.” The Exodus happened suddenly, without preparation by the Jews. They stood at the shores of the sea, with Pharaoh’s army closing in on them. Four groups formed, expressing different opinions about what to do. Suddenly their salvation came in an unexpected way: Hashem commanded Moshe to stretch out his hand and split the sea. In the same way, we don’t know how our future redemption will come, and how we will leave exile. This is what the Rambam says (Melachim 12:2). We don’t have to form groups and look for ways to speed up the redemption by gathering the exiles and emigrating to Eretz Yisroel. Rather, we must rely completely on Hashem Yisborach, who will bring the redemption suddenly, in the middle of an ordinary day. (Related by Rabbi Yehoshua Wolf Zaffern, who heard it from the Kedushas Tzion)
tags: