How can we be required to await Moshiach constantly if Chazal state, “Moshiach will come only b’hesech hada’as”?
1. Even if this is what the statement means, numerous other statements of Chazal and Halachos contradict it, exhorting us to expect Moshiach imminently.
2. This statement doesn’t say not to think about Moshiach; it simply means that Moshiach will catch us by surprise, even as we think, pray and prepare for his arrival constantly!
Chazal say, “Three things come when the mind is otherwise occupied — Moshiach, a found article, and a scorpion” (Sanhedrin 97a). — a person can spend the whole day looking to find a lost object, yet the moment he finds it, he is nonetheless completely surprised.
3. Admittedly, whenever R. Zeira chanced upon scholars discussing the Geulah, he would say to them, “I beg of you, do not postpone the Geulah” quoting this teaching. Yet Rashi explains that these scholars were not merely talking about the Geulah, they were trying to calculate its date. It is this calculation that R. Zeira decried.
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Chassidus gives a deeper understanding of the matter:
4. The revelation of Moshiach is supra-rational, transcending the faculty of da’as. It is a gift from Above, unattainable intellectually. (Tanya, Iggeres Hakodesh, Epistle 4 — see inside)
5. When a Jew examines his surroundings and deems the Geulah naturally impossible, but distracts himself (hesech hada’as) from these thoughts, thereby maintaining perfect belief in Moshiach’s imminent arrival, then he will indeed come. (Likkutei Sichos, vol. 10, p. 172)
6. “B’hesech hada’as” is the highest form of expecting Moshiach. We must cast aside all thought of material or spiritual gain from Moshiach, focusing on only one thing: that with the coming of Moshiach, the Divine intent of creation will be fulfilled. (Sicha of Parshas Eikev 5713)