Oven vs. Microwave Heating Instructions: Two SETTINGS for Redemption
You know, if you think about it, there's generally two primary ways of heating up frozen food. Take the smackin' good potato caniches, for example. Delicious kosher uh potato canches that they're frozen and you just whoop them out and you could have them within minutes and enjoy the deliciousness. But if you notice the heating instructions, there's actually two options. There's the oven setting, which I'll read to you, preheat oven to 400, place the frozen potato canish in the pan, heat 25 to 30 minutes. The microwave option, place one frozen kanish in the oven for a minute and 45 seconds. Incredible. You could have the same exact food, a potato canish, yeah. And you put it in the oven, it takes a half hour. You put it in a microwave, it takes a minute and 45 seconds. And if you notice heating instructions on pretty much all frozen food, it's a similar setup, it's a similar analogy. The oven takes much, much longer than if you would put it in the mic wave. And it's for a specific reason. It's because the mechanics of how a mic wave works is very different than how an oven works. See, the oven works through conduction. It heats the area around the food, heats the walls, heats the area around the food, and through conduction, eventually that heat will penetrate into the food. And a mic wave, though, is very different. A mic wave uses what we call electromagnetic waves or microwaves, and it shoots it directly into the food, causing the molecules within the food to move at an incredibly fast rate, and that creates heat. So it doesn't heat it from the outside, it goes straight to the source, and that's why it can heat up much quicker. I was thinking about this as a beautiful illustration, perhaps, for two settings of gaula redemption. You're probably wondering why I'm talking about potato conditioners, why I'm talking about oven versus a microwave, and I think it's a really good analogy to illustrate two options, two settings for gaulah for redemption. See, the verse in Isaiah and Yeshia tells us Baita Ahishana that Hashem will bring the Ga'ulah sped up in its time. Well, the Gemara, the Talmud asks, which one is it? Is it going to be sped up or is it going to be in its set established time? And the Gemara tells us that it really depends. You know, either the Ga'ulah, the ultimate redemption, at the end of days, it can happen b'ita in its set time. That is, God has in his ultimate plan a set time for when that redemption date will occur. When everything falls together, and that moment in history is going to be, or that moment in the future rather, right? That moment's going to be an amazing moment of gaula, of redemption. But we can also preempt that. We can bring it upon quicker. We can tap into achishana and speed up that process, speed up the redemption. We don't have to wait for that set date. We can make it occur much sooner. And that's our hope, that's our dream. And if you think about it, these are really the two settings for frozen foods. You could take the oven setting, or you could take the microwave setting. The oven setting represents b'ita, represents at its time, represents waiting, waiting till the timer of redemption ultimately goes off. And for that, you have to wait till the world is ready, till through conduction, till everything heats up, till you know the events of history you allow it to unfold, and you sit by passively, waiting for that date, waiting for the oven timer to go off. That's one option. That's Biita. But Isaiah tells us there's another option, that's achishana. That's speeding it up. How do you do that? That's the mic wave. You don't wait for conduction, right? You don't wait for the outer elements to heat up and for the ultimate time to be ready, but you go straight to the source, to you. You go straight to and allow those molecules to move really quick. What's the analogy? The analogy is that the microwave represents you and I. The microwave represents the fact that I, with my God-given strengths, talents, and weaknesses, I can hasten the ga'ulah. I can do my personal avodha, my tafkit, my mission in life that God has bestowed upon me. And through that, I can be the one to bring the gaula a little bit sooner. Can you imagine if we lived with that awareness? And this isn't just a random thought. The Rambam Maimonides teaches us. A person is always supposed to imagine and think about the world as standing halfway, halfway between merit and halfway between guilt, halfway between zakai and halfway between chai. And a person should realize that what I do right now, my one mitzvah, my one deed of goodness can tip the scales for the entire world. You know, the Rambam, maybe he had a sense of humor, but it wasn't a joke book that he wrote. He was writing the MS, he was writing the truth. We are meant to view the entire world in a balance between merit and guilt. And my one positive action, my positive speech, my positive thought at this given moment in time can hassen the ga'lah, can bring it a little bit closer, can tip the scales towards positivity and can bring the redemption a little bit quicker. Can you imagine if we felt like that? Can you imagine what the world would look like if each of us realized Bishvili Nivraulam, the world was created for me? Each of us in our own unique way can be responsible for bringing the ga'ah a little bit quicker, a little bit sooner. Let's not wait for the oven method where we have to just sit and wait for life to unfold and for redemption to happen. But rather, let's tap into achishana. Like the Gemar tells us, we can hass in the Ga'ula. You know, the Pasuk, the verse right before Ba'ita Ahishana, you know what it tells us? It's the well relatively well-known verse that's recorded in the introduction to uh Perkyavos, where it tells us, the ameh kulam sadiken, you are a nation, the Jewish people are a nation of righteous ones. Deep down at our core, you are a tzadik, you are righteous. Yes, have you made mistakes in life? Of course. Have you are you a human being? Also, yes. But deep down there's a part of you, it's called your nishama, your soul. And that part is pure goodness, that part is pure good, that part connects to God, that part always yearns for goodness, for positivity, for happiness. It's always seeking for more. And the more we relate to the mic wave method of just pouring it straight to the source, of going to our personal avoda, of really tapping into our personal mission in life, tapping into my own strengths, talents, and weaknesses, and my life experiences, and realizing the world right now stands in a balance, half merit, half guilt. And what I do right now can change the trajectory of the world. Don't wait for the oven timer to go off. Put the food in the mic wave instead. Again, I'm saying this as an analogy. Truth is, a lot of people prefer the quality of the food in the oven. So, in this regard, the mushul, the parable is not exact. But in terms of redemption, let's choose the setting, the mic wave setting, the achishana, the sped-up setting. But it's up to us individually. Let's each tap into our personal life calling and mission and make this world a better a better place and bring it one step closer to the ultimate, to the ultimate redemption. May it be Bemehera Vyame, may it be speedily microwave speedy in our days. All the best.
