This is how the Shpoler Zaide used to daven for the Geula and the Rizhiner's amazing addition to the Zeide's point. Their statements here are something only someone on their level can say...
The Shpoler Zaide used to daven and plead before Hashem in the following way: "Master of the World! Just so that you can win a little argument you are having with the Jewish people, we have to tolerate the yoke of such a long exile!?!? You have a disagreement with the Jewish people. They say, 'Return us to you Hashem, and we will return!', הֲשִׁיבֵנוּ יְהוָה אֵלֶיךָ וְנָשׁוּבָה. Eicha 5:21. And you say, 'Return to me, and I will return to you!', "שׁוּבוּ אֵלַי וְאָשׁוּבָה אֲלֵיכֶם." Malachi 3:7. For this You are delaying the redemption and waiting until the Jews do teshuva?! Therefore, I swear to you in my holy name that the Jewish people will not do teshuva before the redemption!"
The Rizhiner would add this: "I say the same thing, but I promise that it will come to pass in a clear way. When Moshiach comes, we will definitely do teshuva. But the Jewish people have a valid claim; We say in davening, "And because (מפני) of our sins we have been exiled from our land." "מפני," "because" can also mean "before." Meaning: Even before we had sined, it was already decreed that we would be exiled. Because at the Covenant between the parts, the Bris Bein Habesarim, (at the time of Avraham Avinu) the four exiles were already decreed against us. And just as you, Hashem, decreed exile on us before we sined, so too you must redeem us before we do teshuva!"
-Taken from the Sefer Sipurei Chassidim by Rav Shlomo Yosef Zevin
-Dixie Yid
(Picture of the Rizhiner's Kever courtesy of A Simple Jew)
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