Don't Hope - Expect

Any athlete will tell you that one of the hardest things to do is - expect to win. Every athlete hopes to win, but to expect to win? That requires a whole different mind-set.
And what's true of athletes is true of anyone who has to perform. Ask any artist. They all hope to perform well, win the prize, get the part, etc. Ask anyone in sales. They all hope to close the deal.

But expect to perform well, get the part, get the contract, close the deal? Only those who always win, the lucky ones, only they can expect to succeed.

If we ask those who do succeed, who do win, achieve, make it to "the other side of hope" - if we ask them how they do it, they'll tell us it requires two things: First, doing it, and doing it again. Second, practicing, and practicing it again.

Doing it the first time means doing it in your head. That's more than role-playing. That's more than conjuring a general sensation of what it feels like to win. That's playing the game, performing the piece, going through the conversation, in all its details, down to the last detail - but doing it first in our heads.

That's not just rehearsing. That's pre-experiencing.

There's a story of the Maggid of Mezritch who was questioned by a merchant why he took so long to complete his prayers. The Maggid replied that it takes time to make the spiritual journey. When the merchant looked skeptical, the Maggid changed the subject, asking the merchant about his business. He encouraged the merchant to describe in details the buying, bargaining, selling, calculating profit and loss. At the end, the merchant realized that just as one can't do business superficially, one must focus, mentally on the details, involving one's head so that is the only reality of the moment, so too with prayer.

In other words, one has to experience the experience, in all its details, moment to moment, in the mind, before experiencing it a second time, in the mind with the body.

And that brings us to practicing, and practicing again. Just as the mind has to experience the experience once before experiencing it "for real," so too the body. It has to build what athletes call "muscle memory" - practicing so that the performance is just another practice.

That's the difference between hoping and expecting. One hopes for what one hasn't experienced. One expects what one has experienced.

This is true, as in the story with the Maggid, with making our prayers meaningful. Or any mitzva (commandment).

But it's also true when it comes to Moshiach. We don't say, "I hope Moshiach comes." We say, "I expect Moshiach to come."

So, in order to experience the era of Redemption, we need to put in the time and effort to pre-experience the times of Moshiach - to leave in peace with our neighbors, to have harmonious family relationships, to immerse ourselves in Torah teachings, to work toward and end to poverty and illness. May the practice, experience and realization be simultaneous!