6/28/2025

Singing for Moshiach in Chilmark

During the summer months, when down-island is busy and crowded, we often find ourselves spending our afternoons in Chilmark.

Mendel and Chaya love swinging on the General Store’s rocking chairs, munching popcorn and sipping orange juice, before heading across the street to the playground.

And I love it, because I always—unfailingly—run into someone I know, or someone I’ll soon come to know. The Chilmark General Store porch is one of the Island’s best places to connect and strike up a conversation.

Yesterday was no different. I took the kids out and we were enjoying our Chilmark routine. But as the popcorn was finishing and the kids were itching for the climbing frames, I hadn't yet struck any conversations. A little disappointed, we began to head out.

As we walked off the porch, Mendel started singing to himself a new song he'd recently learnt. "We want Moshiach now, we don't want to wait," the lyrics go.

It's a children's song about the Jewish dream and yearning for Moshiach, the end of days, a time of peace and harmony, when there will be no more wars or jealousy, we'll all live in Israel, and "nobody will be hungry or thirsty but for the word of G-d."

I hadn't noticed that Mendel was singing the song, but as we continued to walk off the porch I noticed a man sitting on one of the chairs at the other end unable to control his smile.

I realized I needed to say hello. As I approached him, I thought I recognized his face, but I couldn't place it.

"Hi, I think I may recognize you," I said.

Turns out he's a Jewish actor from Hollywood who summers on the Vineyard, but we had never met before.

"I can't believe this," he tells me, his face beaming with a mix of amusement and surprise.

"He's singing for Moshiach in Chilmark!"

"He's singing for Moshiach in Chilmark!" he repeated.

Who could have possibly predicted that.

This coming Sunday, June 29th, will be the 31st yahrzeit of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

I never met the Rebbe, as I was born two years after he passed away, but he's inspired every part of my life. Or at least the parts that I live correctly.

Our family moved to Martha's Vineyard, inspired by his vision of opening Chabad houses across the globe.

The Rebbe wanted to ensure that wherever a Jew might find themselves in the world, there would be a home—a warm, loving, and embracing community to help them connect to their roots, to their people, and to themselves.

His vision was largely guided by his dream for Moshiach. An end of days when each person would be in touch with and guided by their soul. For this age to come about on a global and macro scale, it needed to begin with each and every individual. It needed to begin with me and you.

When he would meet with groups of children, he would encourage them to sing "We want Moshiach now." He was inspiring them to bring about a Moshiach reality in their own lives, to listen to their parents, to do an extra mitzvah, and to yearn for the day that all our individual, collective actions would bring about a better world for everyone.

A world of peace and harmony when swords would be turned into plowshares, we would all be gathered safely in the land of Israel, and the earth would be full of the knowledge of G‑d as the waters cover the sea.

Chilmark General Store, perhaps the embodiment of Vineyard culture, where families lunch and celebrities feud, was yesterday home to a little Jewish boy yearning for Moshiach.

With the Rebbe's yahrzeit around the corner, something about that just felt right.

Rabbi Tzvi Alperowitz