By: Rabbi Dovid Markel
In summation, redemption is a process in which the underlying unity and perfection of Creation unfolds, as the true essence of every created being is realized.
As such, each one of us needs to undergo a personal geulah – redemption. Through this, the redemption in the world at large will also be achieved. We each have a responsibility to make the world a better place by increasing in acts of goodness and kindness—this tips the scales and ushers in a reality of a redeemed world that is at peace with itself.
Each one of us needs to become more aware of the Aleph. Today, it is not hard to see that our world is steadily approaching that tipping point. The world is steadily becoming a “smaller place,” so to speak. Every day we are becoming more and more dependent on cooperation and symbiosis rather than competition and working against each other.
Not so long ago it was difficult to fathom instantaneous connection with someone on the other side of the globe, but now, with internet-based technologies we connect and share ideas with virtually anyone, anywhere, at anytime.
World economies are linked together more than ever before. Our world is literally becoming a global village.
Today we realize that the environmental choices we make affect us not only locally, but globally. Today it is not enough just to want world peace; we need world peace for the world to survive!
Today we realize the incredible importance and effect every individual can have on the world and that no person or action is insignificant. A post on the internet can bring down dictators and a video posted online can go viral in minutes.
Clearly, today we live in a world in which even our seemingly insignificant actions can take on cosmic proportions.
Text VII
לפיכך צריך כל אדם שיראה עצמו כל השנה כולה כאילו חציו זכאי וחציו חייב וכן כל העולם חציו זכאי וחציו חייב חטא חטא אחד הרי הכריע את עצמו ואת כל העולם כולו לכף חובה וגרם לו השחתה עשה מצוה אחת הרי הכריע את עצמו ואת כל העולם כולו לכף זכות וגרם לו ולהם תשועה והצלה
רמב”ם הל’ תשובה פרק ג הל’ ד’
Therefore, each person needs to regard himself throughout the year as if he is half meritorious and half guilty, and that the whole world is half meritorious and half guilty. If he commits a single sin, he tips the scales for himself and for the whole world toward guilt, thus causing destruction; if he fulfills one mitzvah, he tips the scales for himself and for the whole world toward merit, thus causing salvation and rescue to himself and to the world.
Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Teshuvah, 3:4
In our times it is easy to understand this statement not just theoretically or on a spiritual plane, but in a concrete, practical sense as well. Every individual through a single action has the ability to turn over the entire world for either good or evil[29].
Imagine if we all really adopted a “paid it forward” attitude, creating a chain-reaction of goodness, each of us inspiring others to do good and each one of those people continuing the chain and inspiring others too! The positive change that it could bring would be beyond imagination.
It would create that “tipping point” and would usher in the era of the true and complete redemption, may it be speedily, now!
[1] The Lubavitcher Rebbe’s visionary attitude set this ball moving in an incredible fashion, building on itself in an exponential manner through sending his emissaries across the world with the mission do good and to get others to do good. It is this amazing model that has the power to usher in this era.
