Speedily AND in our Days

I was once setting up the cable TV box for my grandfather a’h so that it could play simultaneously in two rooms. I loved tinkering with what was new tech in my adolescence, and I wanted to figure out a way to get my grandfather’s room to mirror the television in the living room. There had to be a way, I just needed to figure it out. “There is no way this is gonna work,” said my uncle; we would always get into disagreements about how technology worked, but I knew I was right. Then, in one instant, a flash of inspiration, a eureka moment! I rearranged the wires in the cable modem and the VHS and finally, my grandfather’s room worked, and my uncle was in disbelief! He asked, “How did you do it?”

Oftentimes I find it difficult to explain a conclusion in a relatable way. I imagine the clarity I receive as a lightning flash that illuminates a very dark night for one instant, everything becomes clear, but no one else sees that flash. I have to record the flash of that moment in the darkness and slow it down. I have to play it back in slow motion at a thousand frames a second and explain that sudden inspiration frame by frame, to help another see what they at first did not. 

My Rebbe shlit’a teaches that this is the meaning of bimheira biyamenu (speedily in our days). The bimheira (speedily) is the lightning flash, the moment of clarity where an idea races into my head for a split second. The biyameinu (in our days) is taking that moment and expanding it so anyone can, b’ezrat HaShem, enjoy the lightning’s illumination. 

I imagine when we pray that Hashem answers our prayers bimheira (speedily), but for the answer to materialize biyameinu (in our days) Hashem needs to manifest it in our world frame by frame. This is similar to the experience Am Yisroel had on Har Sinai. In Parshat Yitro (Shemot 20:1) the verse states וַיְדַבֵּ֣ר אֱלֹהִ֔ים אֵ֛ת כׇּל־הַדְּבָרִ֥ים הָאֵ֖לֶּה לֵאמֹֽר׃ “God spoke all these words to say.” The Rashi comments that אֵ֛ת כׇּל־הַדְּבָרִ֥ים הָאֵ֖לֶּה “all these words.” means “that the Holy One, blessed be He, said all these words [the Aseret Hadibrot] in one utterance.” In other words, God presents all of Torah in an instant, bimheira (speedily). Afterwards, Hashem breaks down the ten statements one by one so the nation can relate to them in a this-worldly time frame. I pray  that the rebuilding of the Beis Hamikdash come speedily AND in our days (so that we can process it frame by frame).

This reminds me of last week’s parashah telling us not to eat chametz on Pesach כי בחפזון יצאת מארץ מצרים (Dvarim 16:3). This is often read as just commemorating that our bread didn’t have time to rise, but there were far greater consequences of our hurried formation as a nation. In some ways, we were not given a chance to “rise” before we formed, and so, if other nations are bread, we are matzah, and it is our hurried formation—bimhera—that we commemorate on Pesach. (This is largely from Rav Kook.)

Yeshayahu explains that the reason geulah is taking so long is that this time, we need to do it “right” (beyamenu): כי לא בחפזון תצאו ובמנוסה לא תלכון (Yeshayahu 52:12).