Pure evil reared its ugly head again and one evil man shot and killed 11 innocent Jews praying on the holy day of Shabbat. As we near the final redemption with the imminent coming of Moshiach, things seem to get darker and darker and harder to even try to comprehend. But our role now is to add light. Because ultimately light prevails over darkness and banishes darkness.
How do we add spiritual light? By adding in Torah and mitzvoth, in deeds of goodness and kindness. Each perpetration of evil or anti Semitism must be met with an addition of light. That is the only answer to evil. Because evil has no real existence of its own. It cannot stand up to light. And although the world looks darker , in reality we are nearing the greatest light possible with the final redemption. We know the darkest part of the night is just before dawn. And spiritually it is the same: the darkest part of the world and of galus is just before the redemption. So we need to hang in there and keep ourselves strong and be an example to the world of holiness and goodness. And when Moshiach comes G-d Himself will avenge the blood of all the innocent people who were killed for no reason other than being Jews.
Our patriarch Avraham and his wife Sara stood alone against a confusing world filled with idolators and people who believed in falsehood. But they were not afraid to stand for truth. Avraham spent his life breaking idols, physically and spiritually. He spent his life promoting the knowledge of one G-d, of One Creator. He spent his life basically knocking down falsehood in any form.
Each and every Jew has this as an inheritance from Avraham: we have the ability and holy duty to stand up against falsehood and evil in whatever form it takes. And it takes many forms.
The world today is a confusing place filled with immorality, where truth and holiness loses its meaning and people no longer understand what is right and what is wrong. The line between evil and good is blurred. The fact that an evil person could shout anti semitic words and then proceed to murder innocent men and women is totally unfathomable in what is supposed to be a “civilized” and “educated” society. But this is not about civilization. The germans were very civilized but they were one of the most corrupt evil nations that existed. The atrocities they committed were unfathomable and unforgivable until this very day. Evil does not care about civilized or uncivilized. Evil exists everywhere because people no longer care about G-d, or they have a totally corrupt view of G-d (like the terrorists who murder innocent Jewish men, women and children in the name of their so called “religion”). A religion that advocates murder is obviously not a truthful religion and such doctrines have no place in a spiritually healthy world. In fact, this is a form of idol worshipping: to worship wrong ideals, to worship evil, to worship one’s ego.
In such a place of darkness the Jewish people have to be a beacon of light unto the nations. We need to stand up and not be afraid to oppose falseness, to oppose any type of idol worship (even on a subtle level) , to oppose impurity, to oppose any form of evil or anything that is against our holy Torah or G-d’s truth. We need to be the Avraham and Saras of our generation.
And may we truly merit very soon the complete redemption with the coming of Moshiach!