The Rebbe And The Only Solution

By Faige Lobel

My friend and neighbor passed me on the street carrying an orange flag. Gush Katif? I wondered. But no, the flag in Hebrew lettering proclaimed, “The Only Solution is Moshiach ben Dovid.”
“That’s a defeatist slogan and I don’t accept it,” I told her, “because it means giving up, shirking our responsibility. While sitting and waiting for Moshiach, more Jews will be expelled from their homes; more Jews will die.
“No,” she said, not understanding me at all. “Moshiach is coming right now. There isn’t any waiting.” And then she delivered the punch line, the accusation that has no answer: “You don’t learn enough Chassidus.”
But what I said is true. While believing with perfect faith in the Only Solution, six million Jews died! While religious Jews were occupied with the Only Solution, other Jews – secular with a pioneering spirit – paved the way for the State of Israel. We must ask ourselves a very serious question: Who accomplished and who merely sat on the sidelines? Praying, believing and waiting – on the sidelines.
My friend wants me to go on mivtzoyim to hand out flyers that say things I don’t believe in (like the Only Solution) and she really thinks that this effort will bring Moshiach. Neither she nor anyone else knows what will bring Moshiach. Even the Lubavitcher Rebbe told his followers that he had done all he could.
I honestly believe that my position does not contradict the Rebbe’s position. He always said that Maaseh hu ha-ikur, the deed is the main thing. The Rebbe was always an activist and his accomplishments changed the face of the Jewish world.
I came home feeling disappointed that my friend did not understand me and with a determination to clarify my thoughts.
On the personal level no Jew speaks of the Only Solution. If one needs a wife, children, a job, everyone understands that action is required. No one expects Moshiach to do what he himself has to do. If r”l one needs a refuah, again one does what one can. One davens, gives tzedakah – and calls the doctor. We are told that the doctor is given permission to heal.
On the family level or community level, again, no one is relying on the Only Solution. There is work to be done and responsible people go ahead and make the effort required.
We have learned that Jews are responsible for one another.
Or have we? When we consider the problems facing Am Yisrael, when we consider the situation of our brethren in Israel – all of a sudden we’re not so sure. That is when the slogan of the Only Solution becomes attractive. We throw up our hands. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that we can do other than to daven, give tzedakah – we can dress modestly and get others to do the same and we can do acts of kindness – and repeat, ad nauseum, the Only Solution. With that slogan we are absolved of further responsibility.
Moshiach will take care of it – when he gets here. And just how will Moshiach take care of it? Not our problem. Not our responsibility. We don’t even have to offer our help to those Jews who are working hard, very hard, trying to remedy the situation. We have already proclaimed their efforts futile, even counter-productive.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe understood Jewish problems on a global level. He understood the responsibility that every Jew carries for every other Jew. Only we, with our small minds, reduce his great words to a simplistic level and wash our hands of the whole thing.