What will the world be like? Are there any realistic indicators of the better times coming? Insights courtesy of some big cats, little ants, and thumpers for Israel. Moshiach. A sneak preview. – by Arnie Gotfryd
In prophesying about the Days of Moshiach, Isaiah, the premiere prophet of redemption, invokes a host of ecological innovations, mostly having to do with predators becoming gentle and sociable. While some commentators, like Maimonides, understand these verses allegorically as referring to the nations being at peace with Israel[1], others say it is intended to be literal as well. Which of the following partners in peaceful coexistence seems least likely to you? Wolf and lamb; leopard and kid; calf and young lion; Israel and the nations. If you answered (d) you are in good company. Indeed who wouldn’t agree? Nonetheless, we are starting to see a glimmer of change, both in the wildlife and in the wild world of geopolitics. In the political arena, we have a remarkable and unprecedented innovation: The Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, and indeed his cabinet and party as a whole are unwavering supporters of Israel and the Jewish people, both within Canada and abroad. In America, too, support is waxing. An estimated 50 million Americans are rallying unequivocal, vociferous and unqualified support for the people and land of Israel. Listen carefully to this videotape of a keynote address by John Hagee at the AIPAC 2007 Conference last month. New waves are rippling in the zoological realm as well. In a foretaste of Isaiah’s idyllic scenario, a Kenyan lioness recently rewrote the laws of nature by actually adopting newborn oryx calves instead of devouring them as prey. It made world news the first time it happened, but it kept recurring, with the ferociously protective female nurturing as many as five of the infant antelopes, one after the other.[2] 
And in a more recent case, filmed by National Geographic, a leopard adopted a baby monkey and raised it as her own, as this video attests. Like our feathered and furry friends, we’ve all got our instincts kindly and otherwise, but humans are unique in one thing: Their exercise of free choice. The taming our own animalistic tendencies reverberates throughout society and even into the animal kingdom itself. But how can we get the good times rolling even faster? After all, if one could bring Moshiach just one minute faster, that would save a minute of suffering for each of the 6.5 billion people gracing the planet way, for a total of well over 10,000 man-years of suffering averted globally. How’s that for value? But bringing Moshiach is not so easy. Most people feel conflicted within their own psyches, which impairs their effectiveness as redemption catalysts. The key to success? Take lessons from the ants. Yes, ants. Let’s say you’ve got a conflict. You’ve got to do the laundry, but you’ve also got to do the dishes, but you’ve also got to make a phone call, but you haven’t yet been to the gym. So what do you do? Nothing of course. You’ve got to ‘sort out your priorities’ so you sit down and have something to eat and flip through a newspaper. What’s the problem here? Well, I don’t know about you but mine is laziness. What’s holding me back is that I don’t really want to do any of it. King Solomon was what most people would call an intelligent person. He said, “Go to the ant, you lazy one. Consider her ways and grow wise.”[3] Ants are industrious. They are always out there getting things done for the good of the nest. When they find food, they lug it home for collective storage, carrying burdens up to 70 times their own weight. But they not only work independently for the good of the group. They will collaborate brilliantly with no one taking the credit. In this video, you can see for yourself how one solitary ant is willing to let himself be literally walked on by hundreds of his colleagues just so they can get to the food.
Similarly in the photo below, you can see how dozens of the insects form those famous ant-bridges so that hundreds of their ‘brethren’ can bridge the gap. Work hard, sacrifice, collaborate. This is surely a great way to bring Moshiach, but there is even more to it than that. 
Getting walked on isn’t easy. It takes a lot of humility, and humility is probably the No.1 virtue in Judaism. Moses was the humblest man in history and Moshiach will be comparable. So it just makes sense that this is a quality we must cultivate as well. We even pray for it, as one of the concluding passages of the amidah goes, “Let my soul be as dust to everyone.” One day, a fellow felt insulted by his friend and said, “True, my soul should be as dust to all. But you, you piece of dust. Who gave you the right to step on my piece of dust?” Here the ants can help us too. We are so small and Hashem is so great. To get a feeling of this imagine you are an ant looking up at a person. You will feel like absolutely nothing. Beyond the size factor, who can compare their intelligence to ours? They have a few tens of thousands of nerve cells in their brains while humans have about a hundred billion! When you go on to compare the number of connections that makes, we may be zillions of times smarter than the lowly ant. But as smart as we are, we can learn how to learn from the lowly ant. When an ant brings food back to the nest, he is noticed by other ants, who may follow him out on his next foray. When the follower ant taps the successful ant on the back, that serves as a signal for that ant to become a leader. He then walks ahead a ways and stops, waiting for the follower ant to tap him on the back again. In this way, the follower learns the route to the food but at the expense of the leader’s time, as it takes four times longer for the leader to retrace his steps with a student in tow.[4] We can learn a lesson in bringing Moshiach from how ants teach and learn. The Rebbe has shown us the ‘food’. He’s seen the redemption and brought us back a taste. He’s able to get there quickly on his own, but he is first and foremost a teacher. He’s waiting for us to ‘tap him on the back’, to let him know that we are following him. He advances a bit along the way and we scramble to catch up. No matter that he’s out of sight. He’s left us his teachings, and we will find him if we just go straight. No big brains required. Just follow. But what if we don’t see him? What if the pressure mounts? What if many people are running off to the sides? What do we do then? For times of stress, there is one more teaching from the ants: Avoid mob mentality. When groups of ants are placed in enclosed containers with several openings, they come and go, using all the gateways in equal measure. But once insect repellant is sprayed on them, they start panicking, crowding around one door and ignoring the others, which of course delays their escape. Here too we have what to learn. As long as we saw the Rebbe, we had a signpost which way to go. At a time like ours, when people are running helter-skelter, we can either follow the crowd or follow the leader. Our door exits from exile and enters into redemption. That’s the door we were shown and it doesn’t matter how many or few are headed that way. Just follow the Rebbe, (study his teachings, follow his directives, associate with his followers) tap him on the back, and tell him, “Wait for me, I’m coming.”
[1] Laws of Kings, 12 (1) [2] Kenya Tourist Board Official Website [3] Proverbs, 6:6 [4] Nature, vol.439, p.153 |
