Empty Heart
Where has “Jewish Excitement” gone before Moshiach comes?
Another aspect to the Sign of “Moshiach not coming until coins run out”
Summary
From the last article, about Spiritual Currency:
Gold
Silver
Awe of G-d
Love of G-d
Wallet = Heart
storage of
silver & gold
storage of
love & awe
Silver & gold can be obtained through:
Inheritance | Work | Gift
So too Love and Awe of G-d:
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The natural love and awe a Jew inherits by birth.
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The emotions acquired as a result of learning and pondering (intellectual labor) over the greatness of G-d.
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Love and awe given as a gift to those who have excelled in their labor (2).
How to Survive
With no "Silver & Gold"
In Heaven
The soul enjoys plenty ("Thousands) of gold and silver" while in Heaven.
The thousands are not about the quantity of coins but the levels of intensity of G-dly emotions experienced. Synonymous with those experienced by means of a gift from Above (even in this world, but by seldom exception).
Ah... Beautiful!
Down Here
Can't compare heavenly riches (spiritual ecstasy) to the bare minimum, just enough for bread and, if lucky — butter. That's the sort of G-dly emotions that the soul inherits by birth. A huge drop in value to what it had before coming down to this world. But enough to make do (motivate the service of G-d) in untroubled times (spiritually).
In Exile State
That's when it really hits you. "Exile" is when the surroundings are opposed to Jewish Life. The inherited silver and gold are insufficient to make ends meet in such state.
Have to go to "work" — to "mine" some new, dearer silver and gold. How? By learning (digging into) the deep dimensions of the Torah ("Torah of Your [G-d's] Mouth").
These silver and gold will be worth more than those inherited (higher intensity of love and awe).
Survival of the soul enabled!
At the End of Exile
Survival in Exile is all good so long as you have both:
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Access to the Mine (Torah and its deep dimensions), and the
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Tools (brain capacity) to dig up the silver and gold (love & awe) you so desperately need.
But at the end of Exile, things worsen to a new low:
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The study of Torah has decreased significantly
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Intellectual capacity and attention span have been reduced substantially
So silver and gold will be very hard to come by...
May be even lucky to have pennies (= minimal feelings toward G-d).
And that's the deeper aspect of this
Sign for Moshiach:
He will come when there are
No more Coins in the Wallet =
No more Love and Awe (of G-d) in the Heart.
What will be in the heart instead?
Mobile Phones are pushing out of the pocket any loose change or cards that were there for millennia until not too long ago...
(The phone also needs a wallet — a case).
Spiritually too, the depletion of love and awe of G-d (coins) from the heart (pocket) makes room for the ever-growing Other loves and awes to take their place —
Made extremely accessible by those cell phones...
What's the Purpose
Of having no cash (love & awe of G-d) and a growing debt (other loves & awes)?
Pondering — Light Version
It is hard to learn and appreciate the greatness of G-d ("mine"), before the Coming of Moshiach.
But you still have a brain.
So you can ponder over this very issue:
Here you are — a Jew at the end of Exile,
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With no dollars to your name, and a growing debt
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The "scraps" of previous generations' spiritual giants ("millionaires")
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But still expected to survive, and with flying colors too (win over Exile)
Pondering over this will bring to feelings of humility.
How does that help?
Infinite Revelations are also "Scraps"
The world is finite.
It cannot contain infinity. So infinity was forced out of the worldly equation when the world was created, effectively rendering it as "scraps".
Scraps — not because it's useless or just not required but on the contrary — because it's too much for the world to handle.
If you had delicious food to serve for the main course but your guests all got full with the starter cocktails, all that amazing food becomes "leftovers"... To be stored away for another day.
That day is when Moshiach comes:
What changes when Moshiach arrives?
Haven't you seen what's happening to our spirituality across the board (described above)?
As undesirable as it is, this dire situation encourages humility (also described above).
By feeling humility like scraps and residue we tap, arouse and draw those infinite levels ("scraps") into the world.
These "scraps" are the very revelations reserved for the Messianic Era.
Summary
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Moshiach will not come until cash runs out of the wallet.
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Spiritually: Moshiach will not come until love and awe of G-d (cash) are no longer found in people's hearts (wallets)
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It's very hard to spiritually survive like that... But there's a purpose:
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The resulting humility of the soul (feeling like leftovers) will arouse the revelations of the Messianic Era (infinite levels left over after (and because) a finite world was created).
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The Essence of Torah will be revealed then, synonymous with the Messianic Revelations, and much higher than the "Torah of Your Mouth" accessible now.
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Spiritual crises solved. Eliminated forever. Big time.
NEXT
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What all that "spiritual staff" (this article and the one before it) has to do with the physical financial markets (the plain meaning of this sign, explored in earlier articles).
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The future of currency, in the near future (Messianic Times) and later on.
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The role that Cryptocurrency is playing in this transition.
NOTES & REFERENCES
Thousands of gold and silver, the Torah of Your Mouth: Psalms 119:72:
"טוב לי תורת פיך מאלפי זהב וכסף / The Torah of Your Mouth is better for me than thousands in gold and silver".
The second part of the verse (1000's of gold & silver) refers to the experience of the soul in Gan Eden.
The first part of the verse (the Torah of Your Mouth) refers to the secrets of Torah which reveal dearer gold and silver by the soul that engages with them in this world.
See Sefer Halikutim, on the term “Zahav”.
The study of Torah decreases significantly at the end of Exile: Refer the sign of "Reduction of Students" (in the same group as this sign), Talmud Sanhedrin 97b.
Intellectual capacity reduces substantially at the end of Exile: Refer Declining Generation article, where this is illustrated in detail.
Other loves and awes: Cf Idol worship ("Avoda Zara", literally means "foreign worship") which means dedication to anything but G-d. Some examples, wealth, sport, music, food, women (all — for the sake of one's personal pleasure).
Pondering over the spiritual meaning of this sign (no love and awe at the end of Exile): See Short Discourses of the Alter Rebbe p.137, analyzing the biblical story in Kings II 4:1 and on.
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Also cf Tanya 29 regarding the type of pondering (recommended in Zohar III p.168a) to break up coarse materialism via chopping it to small pieces like one would chop a thick block of wood that's proving hard to ignite.
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Also cf Tanya 31 regarding the utilization the attribute of bitterness (negativity) to overcome the concealment of the Animal Soul over the G-dly Soul within the person. This is an acute (desperate) form of awe.
This is a lighter version of pondering over the greatness of G-d, so very much accessible (and required!) at pre-Mashiach times.
This analysis also explains the use of the term "Expire" (תכלה / Tichleh, I.e that coins will expire from the wallet) used in this sign, for if the absolute intention of this sign was that there should be no feelings at all, then a simpler expression should have been used (e.g. שלא תהי׳ פרוטה וכו׳ / when there will not be coins etc):
Rather, "Expire" is also a feeling (in the heart) as in the verse:
נכספה וגם כלתה נפשי וגו׳ / My soul has longed and expired etc (Psalms 84).
This is an acute (desperate) form of love (longing), resulting from the near-death experience of the soul at the end of Exile, in having no means to survive (on the verge of spiritual death)...
G-dly levels which are beyond the world are like leftovers: Likutei Torah Masei 96b. "Leftovers" in a positive sense.
Being humble (leftovers) arouses the infinite levels that were left out ("leftovers") in the creation of the world: Talmud Rosh Hashanah 17a. One of G-d's Attributes of Mercy (which are boundless) is "the leftovers of His People / לשארית נחלתו / Lisherit Nachalato — Micha 7:18. The Talmud states that this level is given to he who considers himself as leftovers (למי שמשים עצמו כשיירים).
You may ask, if the world is still finite, how does such an infinite attribute of G-d "land" here?
Humility -- feeling insignificant -- makes room for infinity, because it mentally means there's nothing else (just like there was before creation...).