Q. A couple of years ago in Elul, Erev Rosh Hashanah of the year 5767 Binyamin Golden gave a message titled "The Greatest Rosh Hashanah in History". One might think from this that this is it: that year everything would come to an end (this world before the days of Moshiach) and yet, here, two years passed, we are now facing the third Rosh Hashanah since then and the world still appears to be the same?

Daniel: Abba, we are not prophets, but the message we got (from Shamayim) two years ago, Erev Rosh Hashanah was that it was a very good opportunity for Am Yisrael to do teshuva and prevent the harsh way we are now going to have to receive Moshiach Tzidkenu [the Messiah, the Redemption].

If then - about a year before the worldwide financial system crashed which truly frightened very many people, and that was about a year before Obama entered the White House turning the world upside down - so many things have happened since then, the world is now in great danger. And if anyone dares to suggest that nothing is happening in the world, that all is quiet and good as always, even the simplest goyim can show him how wrong he is. 

I'm not going to review all the dangers that exist today and all the changes that have taken place since then (2 years ago). However, we could have - we had the option and we were capable of doing - complete teshuva two years ago, Rosh Hashanah. We could have thereby received Moshiach with much less pain and much joy.

Yet most of us preferred to stay in our deep slumber, to just wait for Moshaich to come by checking the internet, listening to the news etc. or asking each other, "Nu? Has anything happened yet? No?" and then going on with life as usual.

Instead of busying ourselves trying to do teshuva, we spent most of our time dealing with materialistic things, the olam hazeh (vanities of this world). Yes, there were tragedies over the past couple of years and there still are and a lot of things in the world are turning upside down. There is great fear throughout the world, and horrible threats the likes of which have never existed throughout history, yet nevertheless, most of the Jews prefer their deep slumber over doing real teshuva.

Abba, I won't now get into everything we need to do in order to do teshuva but the first thing I will repeat and if I have to I will repeat it again and again, because without it there is no teshuva and that is, "kedoshim tihiyu" (you shall be holy), "kedoshim tihiyu", "kedoshim tihiyu". I'm not going to explain what this means because we have explained this over and over again and every true Jew knows what it means. It is the foundation of yiddishkeit (Judaism) - kedoshim tihiyu (which is the opposite of materialism and Egel Hazahav).

Every Jew will now have to stand alone; he won't have a Rabbi to tell him what to do and what not to do - every Jew will have to decide for himself. By the way, there are those who have already made their decisions. People must decide whether they are going follow the path of emes (Truth) and throw away the yetzer hara (Evil Inclination) or follow the ways of the yetzer hara, may we never know such things.

Whoever chooses the path of emes will merit eternal life. Whoever chooses the sheker (falsehood) of this world, chas veshalom, will disappear completely, lo aleinu.

We will all have to make a choice. Again, we are not prophets. There was a mesugal time and we missed it. We gave over the message. You don't want to listen - don't.

Those who want to be close to Hakadosh Baruch Hu are not interested in material matters (except as a means of achieving spirituality). They need food to live, to make kiddush, for a seudas mitzvah, for holydays and so on. We need a place to sleep because people must sleep. We need water to wash ourselves because we must be clean. We need water for drinking - people have to drink.

But all this is only so that we can spend our days following the Torah of Moshe Rabbenu. That is emunah (faith), bitachon and tefillah to Hakadosh Baruch Hu in every thing we do. To achieve this, one does not need much materialism. He needs a lot of spirituality and that means to praise Hakadosh Baruch Hu, to live in kedusha (holiness), to live only for the sake of fulfilling Hashem's will, and if that is what we want, we will be saved (for eternal life).

I only hope and ask Hakadosh Baruch Hu to have mercy on us, on Am Yisrael. Thousands of years of suffering have passed; we suffered for being Jewish, all sorts of pogroms, terrible anti-Semitism and many, many people were killed al Kiddush Hashem (to sanctify Hashem's name). In the city York, in England, the entire community, men, women and children, committed suicide in order not to become notzrim. In the holocaust, how many Jews went to their deaths saying Shema Yisrael?

I only hope Hakadosh Baruch Hu will have mercy on us because the world is truly confused and frightening.

Our body is physically pulling us, so strongly, with such force that the greatest hero could not withstand it. So how indeed are we withstanding it? Only through the help of Hashem. If we are with Hashem, He is with us. If we are with Hashem, He protects us from these troubles. If He is not protecting us, our connection with Him must not be strong enough.

However, this situation can always be rectified because Hashem is prepared to accept us at any time. Am Yisrael, Am Yisrael, return. There really is no time. Really no time.

Q. If I understand you correctly, your message is that if we would have done teshuva two years ago, the Redemption would have come easily and with mercy, but since we did not, the Redemption will now come with difficulties and suffering?

Daniel: That's right Abba, we had a chance two years ago as a nation to do complete teshuva, or at least to start going in the right direction, which means lessening our desires for gashmius (materialism) and putting our focus on building a connection with Hashem. But we didn't do that and thus lost a tremendous historical chance.

Now, Abba, the Redemption will come be'itah (with suffering) and every man on his own will have to choose between emes and sheker. As we said before, whoever chooses emes will gain an eternity with all the benefits that come along with it. Yet those who choose the sheker, chas veshalom, and apparently that is the majority, will lose their eternity and that is the greatest punishment that exists (As explained by the Rambam, hilchos teshuva  8:5).


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