When He Comes: Part V

I find it hard to wait for Mashiach’s arrival because it feels so distant, and I can’t manage to tap into the longing. What can I do?

My father, Reb Avraham ben Naftuli z”l, passed away this summer, at the beginning of the Three Weeks. Since all of us sisters were together on the Shabbos of shivah, we got to sing “Kiryas Masos.”

My father was a Stuchiner chassid. Stuchin, a Galicianer chassidus originating in Ropschitz, has a repertoire of zemiros that includes numerous songs of intense longing depicting the Geulah. My father would sing them at various occasions during the year.

“Kiryas Masos” is a particularly moving passage from the Rosh Hashanah yotzros, which declares: “The city of joy, the Beis Hamikdash and the Azarah… The heaven and earth will then sing His name; the forests will clap their hands from great joy in sweet praise, because Hashem has remembered His nation.”

While the chassidim sing this during the Rosh Hashanah davening, they also do so during the Shabbosos of the Three Weeks in order to arouse longing for the Geulah.As we finished singing, my sister remarked, “Imagine if all who are anxious about Mashiach could sing this song? Placing ourselves in the grandeur of Mashiach’s times cuts through the fears surrounding his coming.”