What's the Melech HaMoshiach going to do? What does the Melech HaMoshiach look like? The Rambam writes in Perek Yud Aleph of Hilchos Melachim, המלך המשיח עתיד לעמוד ולהחזיר מלכות בית דוד ליושנה הממשלה הראשונה ובונה מקדש ומקבץ נדחי ישראל וחוזרים כל המשפטים בימיו כשהיו מקדם מקריבין קרבנות ועושין שמטין ויובלות ככל מצוותן האמורה בתורה.
So within the space of these few lines, within this one short paragraph, the Rambam three times emphasizes the same point. להחזיר מלכות בית דוד ליושנה הממשלה הראשונה. He's going to reinstate, restore Malchus Beis Dovid. In the days of the Melech HaMoshiach, i.e. in Yemos HaMoshiach, וחוזרים כל המשפטים בימיו כשהיו מקדם. All Mitzvos HaTorah once again as they had previously been become operative. And finally, מקריבין קרבנות ועושין שמטין ויובלות ככל מצוותן האמורה בתורה. The Melech HaMoshiach is coming to restore, to restoration project, to restore Malchus Beis Dovid, to create the conditions in which וחוזרים כל המשפטים בימיו כשהיו מקדם, in which we are מקריבין קרבנות ועושין שמטין ויובלות ככל מצוותן האמורה בתורה. What's our task? What are we supposed to do to pave the way for the Melech HaMoshiach, to usher in Yemos HaMoshiach? כל הנביאים כולם ציוו על התשובה ואין ישראל נגאלים אלא בתשובה.
It's a machlokes tannaim in Sanhedrin, but the Rambam paskens that ואין ישראל נגאלים אלא בתשובה. So we know earlier in Perek Beis of Hilchos Teshuva, the Rambam has defined Teshuva first: יעזוב החוטא חטאו ויסירו ממחשבתו ויגמור בלבו שלא יעשהו עוד.
But what is it, what does it amount to? It's that we restore ourselves by regretting, renouncing, and redressing our chatoim. So we reposition ourselves. No new dramatic initiatives. And clearly these two elements are coordinated. To merit the Yemos HaMoshiach in which וחוזרים כל המשפטים כשהיו מקדם and מקריבין קרבנות ועושין שמטין ויובלות ככל מצוותן האמורה בתורה. So we have to be poised to take advantage of that Bracha. The Rambam before saying אין ישראל נגאל אלא בתשובה begins כל הנביאים כולם ציוו על התשובה ואין ישראל נגאל אלא בתשובה.
Why does he need the כל הנביאים כולם ציוו על התשובה? For the Melech HaMoshiach to come, for the world to be the way it should, so we have to simply do what we've been told throughout history to do, which is to be the way we're supposed to be. What's missing is not some something new and dramatic. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is going to do the new and dramatic things. That כימי צאתך מארץ מצרים אראנו נפלאות. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is going to orchestrate the nissim veniflaos. But mitzideinu כל הנביאים כולם ציוו על התשובה. What we've been told, what we were told time and time again during the tekufas haneviim. We just need to do what was supposed to be doing anyway. Ribono Shel Olam created a mitzad its potential a perfect world. Ribono Shel Olam gave us a perfect Torah and the only in quotation marks the only missing component is if we live by the perfect Torah, so then that potential of the perfect world is realized. There's nothing dramatic and that's what Yemos HaMoshiach is. מלכות בית דוד ליושנה memshala harishonah חוזרין כל המשפטים שהיו מקודם kechol mitzvosan shmitin veyovlos ככל מצותה האמורה בתורה. The utopia of Yemos HaMoshiach there isn't there aren't ingredients that don't exist. There's no new ingredients that need to be infused. We just need to do כל הנביאים כולם ציוו על התשובה. We just need to finally listen and do what we're supposed to be doing. The Haftarah for Parshas Tazria we missed it as one often does in the cycle of krias hatorah. So in Melachim the story is told of Naaman the sar tzava of Aram and he was a metzora. And he's told that if he'll consult Elisha the navi beYisrael, if he'll consult Elisha, so he'll be healed from his tzaraas. So Elisha sends him a message הלוך ורחצת שבע פעמים בירדן וישוב בשרך לך וטהר. Go immerse yourself seven times in the waters of the Yarden and you'll be healed. Vayiktzof Naaman. So Naaman is angry. He's furious. He says we have plenty of rivers in Damascus. הלא טוב אמנה ופרפר נהרות דמשק מכל מימי ישראל ויפן וילך בחמה.
Then his avadim prevail upon him, you know, if the navi said it, it's kedai to do. ויירד ויטבול בירדן שבע פעמים כדבר איש האלהים וישב בשרו כבשר נער קטן ויטהר.
And sure enough, when he listens to what Elisha said, he's healed. So what was Naaman so angry about initially? So I heard a drasha once from Rav Belsky. zichrono livracha. And he said, Naaman wanted, Naaman expected that Elisha is gonna do something dramatic. Something, sparks, something dramatic. Elisha comes and tells him to do something prosaic. Tells him to go be toivail. Tells him something prosaic. No, he doesn't want something prosaic. Something prosaic, that doesn't yield anything. No, you have to give me something dramatic, something exciting. When he relents and he does the prosaic, so then he's nitrapeh. Ad kan devarav. I don't know, but that tendency of Naaman, maybe Naaman wasn't the only one who had such a tendency. We want new dramatic gestures and that's what we should be doing if we're living in the time of atchalta degeulah, when the reality is that what we're supposed to do is כל הנביאים צוו על התשובה, what we've been supposed to be doing for millennia. You know, if, and with this I'll conclude, a dramatic gesture can constitute a noble and even exalted deed. But steadiness, consistency, dikduk bemitzvos, kevi'as itim latorah, so that can and does create a noble and exalted person. And our mandate in life and the geulah doesn't depend upon the isolated noble or exalted deed. It depends upon the development and the emergence of noble exalted people.