Why Geulah Is Hard to Believe — Until It Isn’t

At every moment of redemption in Jewish history, the pattern is strikingly consistent: first disbelief, and only afterward recognition. Not because the facts are unclear, but because the heart cannot absorb hope so quickly. When Yosef’s brothers returned and told Yaakov the impossible — that his son was alive and ruling Egypt — the Torah says his heart went numb; he could not believe them. Only later does the Torah say Yaakov’s spirit came back to life.

The Sforno explains that this was not doubt of facts, but emotional impossibility. After 22 years of grief, the soul could not absorb such a reversal. Chazal add that Yaakov’s Ruach HaKodesh had departed during Yosef’s absence and returned only when recognition became possible.

What finally convinced Yaakov was not testimony, power, or wealth. It was the wagons Yosef sent. Chazal explain that the agalot were not logistical proof but a Torah signal, referencing the last sugya Yaakov and Yosef learned together before the separation. In that moment, Yaakov understood not only that Yosef was alive, but that he had remained Yosef — spiritually intact — and only then did his spirit return.

The same pattern appears at the national level. When Moshe announced redemption in Egypt, the people could not listen “מִקֹּצֶר רוּחַ וּמֵעֲבֹדָה קָשָׁה” — suffering constricted the soul, leaving the vessel too narrow to receive the truth.

Chazal teach that this dynamic may exist even at the final geulah. In a striking midrash, Mashiach stands on the roof of the Beit HaMikdash and announces that the time of geula has arrived, then adds, “If you don’t believe — look at the light that has shone upon you.” Exile trains us to misread holiness when it appears in unfamiliar clothing. Chazal say that Mashiach comes בהיסח הדעת — not according to the expectations people have formed. The Rambam therefore warns that the days of Mashiach will not begin with open supernatural spectacle; the world will continue in its natural order.

We are already living in miraculous times. The Navi promises that the mountains of Israel will give fruit again, and the Gemara says there is no clearer revealed sign of the end. The Torah promises kibbutz galuyot, and today Jews are returning from every corner of the world. We daven Boneh Yerushalayim, and before our eyes Yerushalayim is being rebuilt — not yet the Beit HaMikdash, but the foundations of a nation returning home. Geulah is close. We need to open our eyes to see it.

How do we prepare not to miss the moment? Chazal say that when a person leaves this world, he is asked whether he anticipated redemption — not whether he believed it could happen someday, but whether he lived as someone waiting for it. The Rambam formulates this in Ani Maamin: “ואף על פי שיתמהמה — עם כל זה אחכה לו.” The Chafetz Chaim once explained that waiting for Mashiach means waiting the way a mother waits for her only child at the train station when he is finally coming home after a long time away.

That is emunah and bitachon in their deepest form: trusting not only that Hashem can and will redeem, but living as someone ready to recognize geulah when it arrives. Every geulah has begun with disbelief — not because it was false, but because the heart was not yet ready. Let us train ourselves to be truly metzapeh l’yeshua, so that when the ultimate and final geulah comes, it may feel like a dream — but we will not be sleeping.