On Thursday I caught an unplanned ride with my brother back to New York City when a Jew living in a remote town in Alabama called him. This fellow’s brother lives in Wichita, KS where my brother and his wife lead the local Chabad Center. Every week both brothers participate in his online Torah class and there are often follow questions and discussions by phone. My brother was preoccupied with driving so he handed me the phone and suggested I share some thoughts on the weekly Parsha with his friend from Alabama.
Happy to oblige we started chatting about the mitzvah of “Sanctuary Cities.” In parshat Shoftim the Israelites are commanded to dedicate special cities in the Land of Israel to serve as safe havens for anyone who killed another person accidentally. Even though the murder was unintentional, the fact that such a devastating tragedy occurred through him or her warrants an intense atonement through being displaced from home and forced to live in a sanctuary city.
Three sanctuary cities were designated on the western side of the Jordan River (mainland Israel) and three others were designated on the eastern side of the Jordan River - territory annexed to the Land of Israel even before the conquest. The Torah states that there will come a time in the future when G-d will broaden Israel’s borders to include three new territories. When that happens we are commanded to designate another three sanctuary cities in those territories for the same purpose.
Maimonides explains that Israel’s future expansion will occur in the era of Moshiach and concludes that the fact that the mitzvah of three additional sanctuary cities cannot be observed until the ultimate redemption proves the redemption will definitely happen. G-d would not give us a mitzvah that can never be fulfilled.
“How do we bring Moshiach?” my new friend from Alabama asked.
“Through doing another Mitzvah and learning more Torah,” I replied. We don’t know which Mitzvah will make it happen. We must view ourselves and the world as equally balanced between good and evil. Doing one good deed can tip the scale and bring redemption to yourself and the entire world.
But my unplanned and accidental conversation with the Jew from Alabama itself was illustrative of the unique connection between the mitzvah of sanctuary cities and Moshiach. The Chassidic masters taught us a rule that nothing happens by accident. You may have never planned to be someplace or meet someone but the circumstances that brought you together were pre planned before creation and have a purpose.
Sanctuary cities were created to help people who did terrible things by accident, and Moshiach will come when we utilize every “accident” or unplanned encounter for positivity. Be sure to have a Torah thought or inspiring story in mind to share with everyone and anyone you meet and turn every encounter into an opportunity for sharing and inspiration.