"Turn northward." (Devarim 2:3)
A short lesson
The Chofeitz Chaim once invited a group of yeshiva students to his home for a shiur in halacha, a class in Jewish law. When the students were gathered, the Chafeitz Chaim began this class by quoting a Gemara that discusses the arrival of Moshiach saying (Sanhedrin 97a): "Rav says: All the ends [of the days that were calculated] have passed and the matter depend only upon repentance and good deeds".
Then the class ended.
The Chofeitz Chaim was teaching his students an important lesson. We are living during the era described as the birth pangs of Moshiach's arrival. We see yidden suffering through this bitter exile. Yet, the halacha is, that everything we experience is meant to inspire us to do teshuva, which is the key, as Chazal said above, to hastening the final redemption.
The Secret for Redemption
The Rambam has a similar ruling in Hilchos Teshuva (Chapter 7, Halacha 5):
"Yisroel will only be redeemed through Teshuvah. The Torah has already promised that, ultimately, Yisroel will repent towards the end of her exile and, immediately, she will be redeemed, as the pasuk (Devarim 30:1-3) states: 'There shall come a time when [you will experience] all these things... and you will return to Hashem, your Lord.... Hashem, your Lord, will bring back your [captivity]'."
Similarly, the Gemara in Sanhedrin (98a) relates that R' Yehoshua ben Levi met Moshiach by the gates of Rome and he asked him, "When will you arrive?"
"Today," Moshiach answered.
Eliyahu HaNavi explained to R' Yehoshua ben Levi, that Moshiach was referring to this pasuk in Tehilim (95:7), "For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the flocks of His hand, today, if you hearken to His voice." If the Jews do repent, then Moshiach would come today.
The Zohar (Volume II, p. 17a) taught that the galus of Edom, this current exile, was only decreed to last for a thousand years. However, the reason that it has continued for longer is that the yidden have not done teshuva yet. And, the yidden cannot be redeemed without teshuvah.
Redemption's prerequisite of teshuvah is for the benefit of the Jews. The Tiferes Shlomo taught, that the galus has continued for so long, that the Heavens asked for the exile to come to a final end by destroying all of the wicked, like during the redemption from Egypt where only the righteous were redeemed while the wicked perished during the plague of darkness. However, explained the Tiferes Shlomo, the tzaddikim in the Heavens asked that the redemption shall be postponed until more Jewish people return to their Father in Heaven through teshuva.
Don't behave like a dog
The Heavens orchestrate challenges and difficult circumstances, in order to arouse the Jewish people to repent. Chazal taught (Sanhedrin 97b), that when the Jews don't do teshuvah, then Hashem brings over them a king with harsh decrees like Haman. And, when the Jews repent because of those decrees, everything returns once again to goodness.
Therefore, it is critical to recognize that everything that happens – the good and the seemingly bad – are by Divine Design. You cannot allow yourself to be influenced by the heretics who credit everything to happenstance.
The Mishnah at the end of Sotah taught, that in the era before Moshiach's arrival, the "face of the generation will be like the face of a dog." The Chofeitz Chaim explained, that when you throw a stone on a dog, he goes to bite the stone that hit him, and he doesn't recognize to look or care who threw the stone. So too, in the generation before Moshiach arrives, we don't look to see that it is Hashem that is "throwing" these challenges and hardship at us to arouse us to do teshuvah.
R' Elchanan Wasserman wrote (Maamar Ikvasa D'Meshicha, 1:13): "There is no point to wage war with a stick. The heavens don't lack sticks and they have many messengers. They use the nations like sticks against us. The new Jewish leaders wage war against mighty kingdoms. The outcome is that there is only more wrath thrown upon us. These leaders fail to realize that all these nations, these enemies, are merely sticks. They fail to see the One who is utilizing these sticks."
A Threat from the North
The prophet Yirmiyahu said (Yirmiyahu 1:14): "And the Lord said to me; From the north the misfortune will break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land... "
The seforim explain, that this is also referring to the era before Moshiach's arrival, when there will be a nation that threatens Eretz Yisroel from the north, and endangers all of Israel's inhabitants.
The tzaddikim explained, that this is the reason that R' Shimon Bar Yochai and so many tanaaim went to live in northern Eretz Yisroel. They wanted to be buried there, so that in the future they could protect Eretz Yisroel from these dangerous forces in the north.
However, this threat from the north only exists to inspire the yidden to do teshuvah, to return to their Father in Heaven. When the yidden realize this and do teshuvah, they will immediately be saved from this danger and merit the arrival of Moshiach.
This will fulfil what the prophets wrote (Yoel 2:20), "And the northerner I will distance from you, and I will drive him to a land barren and desolate"... The Abarbanel explained that this is a prophecy about the arrival of Moshiach, when Hashem will uproot and destroy those who threaten Eretz Yisroel from the north.
The Midrash (Yalkut Shimonei, Shir HaShirim ) taught that the "Norther wind will say, 'I will bring the redemption.'" Meaning, the threat from the north will arouse teshuvah and, therefore, result in the final redemption.
Accept a resolution
Now is the time when each yid must accept upon himself a positive resolution.
Chazal taught (Avodah Zorah 10a) that "a person can acquire his world in one moment". The Great Maggid of Mezritch explained that the word "שעה-moment" can also mean to "turn away" as it says (Breishis 4:5), "But to Cain and to his offering He did not turn"... Meaning, if a person turns himself one turn towards the path of the righteous, and they do teshuvah and return to Hashem, then he can "acquire his entire world."
The beginning of our Parsha (1:7) says, "Turn and journey for yourselves" - "Turn" yourself to return to Hashem. If you do teshuvah, then, "come to the mountain of the Amorites and to all its neighboring places" - you will be able to come to Eretz Yisroel and not fear the nations that surround it. For, their strength, their threat, can only exist as long as the yidden have not done teshuvah.
This explains the pasuk quoted above. Hashem was telling Bnei Yisroel that in the era just before Moshiach's arrival: "turn yourselves" to do teshuvah, because of the "northward" - the threat from the north.
If we see that threat as a message to accept upon ourselves a positive resolution and do teshuvah, we will merit the final redemption speedily in our days, amen.
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