Q. I once read that Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetzky responded to a query about when Moshiach was going to arrive, "Those who know don't say and those who say don't know."
How does that statement square with today's news report (see below), and what is Rabbi Miller's opinion about the report and similar statements popularized?
A young talmid chocham from Chutz L’Aretz visited Rav Chaim Kanievsky on Shabbos and asked the Rav if he should apply for Israeli citizenship in order to vote in the Israeli elections being held on April 9.
“There is no need,” Rav Kanievsky reportedly responded. “Moshiach will already be here before the elections.”
The young man was unsure that he had heard the rabbi correctly so after he departed from the house, he asked Rav Chaim’s grandson, a venerated rabbi in his own right, to confirm the answer. The grandson entered Rav Chaim’s chamber and asked again: ‘Should the young man apply for citizenship before the elections?’
The Godol Hador responded, “I already told him that there is no need. Moshiach will be here before the elections.”
A. Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit'a pointed out that it is not unusual for Gedolei Yisrael to possess a very high and strong belief in the immediate coming of Moshiach, as the Chofetz Chaim zt'l and others did.
These great tzadikim are constantly preparing and becoming fully ready to receive him, and measure constantly all future occurrences in the light of this undeniable fate.
After all, the later of the "any maamins" are not any less real and factual than the first ones. These great luminaries express themselves often by seeing the world in that very light that guides them.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit'a
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