For generations we have hoped, prayed, and yearned for the coming of Moshiach. The Gemara in Sanhedrin sets forth various preconditions for the coming of Moshiach. What are we to make of all these conditions? Are they to be taken literally? How are these teachings meant to help us in our avodah to bring Moshiach? “[Moshiach] Ben-Dovid will not come until fish is sought out for an ill person, and yet none is found.”1 The Gemara states that Moshiach will come in a generation that is either entirely righteous, or entirely transgressors. The Jewish nation will either be on an...
