A Chanukah Story

- as told by Rabbi YY Jacobson:

A Pot of Margarine

At the conclusion of every 16-hour work day in the hell called Bergen-Belsen, the block commander liked to have some fun with his Jews.

Now, the meal at the end of the day consisted of old dry bread, filthy watery soup and a pot of something like margarine made from vegetable fat.

The margarine was scooped out of a large tub, and after the meal had been distributed and the tub was empty, the commander allowed the starving prisoners to jump into the empty tub and lick the remaining margarine from the walls of the tub. The sight of starving Jews licking up bits of margarine provided nightly entertainment for the commander and his guards.

One prisoner, however, refused to be a part of the commander's show. Though like all the rest he was a withered, starving shadow of a man aged far beyond his years, still, he would never allow himself to scavenge for a lick of margarine. The other prisoners called him Elijah. In some unspoken way, the others drew strength from Elijah's refusal to join the frenzy. Then, one night, something happened that seemed to shatter whatever spirit remained in the prisoners.

Elijah cracked. All at once he threw himself into the greasy vat and furiously rolled around like a crazed beast.

And how the commander howled. It was a deep belly laugh of satanic satisfaction. The last of the Jews had been broken.

Later, after the guards left and the Jews were in their barracks, Elijah took off his shirt and began to tear it to shreds. The others looked on in silence. Had Elijah gone mad? He would study the shirt for a moment, carefully looking it over, as if searching for some exact location, and then tear that area into a strip. He looked up. His eyes were on fire.

"Do you know what tonight is?" he demanded.

"Tonight is the first night of Chanukah." Elijah studied the shirt again, finding another choice spot to tear. A spot he had purposely saturated with grease from his rolling in the margarine tub.

That night Elijah led the others in the lighting of the Chanukah flames. The wicks came from the strips of his shirt, and the bits of margarine Elijah had furiously scavenged was the oil.

Elijah's light continues to shine to this very day. In his world, the times of plenty and times of famine were never disconnected.

3 NY Yankee Baseball Caps

Speaking of Donald Trump, here's a 1st-hand story about his son-in-law.

I had taken my kid and his two friends to a Yankees' game at Yankee Stadium several years ago one sunny afternoon. After the game, on the way out of the stadium, we passed Bronx vendors selling overpriced baseball caps. I wasn’t going to shell out $28 per Yankee-logo cap.

We climbed the stairs of the nearby subway station and got into the train. Just as I entered, I noticed two fellows hurrying up the remaining steps to make it before the subway doors shut. I held the door open for them.

One of the two saw the kids sitting next to me. Right away he came over and gave each kid a brand new NY Yankees baseball cap! He was holding 4 of them under his arm and now he was left with one. His friend smiled approvingly.

Now I happen to have a long beard, sport a Chabad fedora and wear my tzitzis out, definitely looking of Jewish persuasion. And the boys were wearing their kippahs.

Seeing an opportunity to inject some Judaism, I got up and walked over to the other one. “Are you Jewish?”, I asked. My impression is these young men had no head covering.

“Not only am I Jewish”, said he, “I’m Orthodox”! That took wind out of my expected conversation.

“Where do you daven”, I asked. He mentioned a Lower East Side location, also mentioning the synagogue he davened at. I asked him what it is he does and he said he runs a newspaper, the NY Observer.

At home, out of sheer curiosity, I looked up that journal I never heard of, did a little research and discovered I had met Jared Kushner and his good friend, the one who handed the kids the baseball hats. His friend was the journal’s editor-in-chief, at the time retiring from his job to seek another challenge. I think he lived in Westchester. His name was Peter Kaplan. I never did get to speak to him. The few words I spoke were with the young Kushner.

They impressed me as two successful, smart fellows who were naturally kind. They got off in lower Manhattan; We kept going to Brooklyn.

This story happened years before Trump became a household word. I knew practically nothing of him back then.

I relay this story now only because I like Trump and, as you see, I also regard favorably his son-in-law.

The Gematria of Donald John Trump

After 2,000 years of Jewish exile, the world is in transformation, becoming what will be for its remnant Jewry a utopia - the "Era of the Complete and Irreversible Redemption". This process gets easier to detect with time. The Jewish People, and in turn the rest of the world, are now in Redemptive mode, advancing rapidly. (That's what this blog's about.)

Gematria findings some "redemption blogs" herald as significant are by their nature amateurish because they post these after the fact, and their results are speculative.

Mine that I present here also is groundless because who knows what to look for to decipher what or how an individual is "configured" somewhere in Torah (the blueprint of all of life). The find is at least charmful.

With Trump, sometimes they incorrectly use only part of his name, or their spelling is arbitrary. I suppose people feel enchanted with a mathematically divine sanction.

Gematrias are rarely used as tools of prophecy anyhow. Gematria is not meant for that. It's more like spices that draw you to Torah, rather than anything else.

Here’s a gematria I found, for what it’s worth. It seems fitting for the time we're in.

The gematria of the name Donald John, the son of Fredrick Christ Trump, written so:
דונאלד גון בן פרדריק קרייסט טראמפ
is 1519.

Two successive possukim in Tehillim (136:17-18) add up to that sum.
Here’s the finding:

You can test this for yourself* at toraware.com!

למכה מלכים גדלים כי לעולם חסדו

ויהרג מלכים אדירים כי לעולם חסדו

For what it’s worth, it simply says: Great and mighty rulers shall fall -- by the grace of God. Is this perhaps the role our new president-elect is meant to accomplish; Is his mission to be a top general in these conflicts? And just who might these felled giants be? The War of Gog & Magog is, after all, presently raging (link).

As for the "by the grace of God" clause, twice said suggests emphasis, that too is well explained in the above link.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

* On toraware's Option Page, pick these
options to see the above result:

Redemption Unfolding in 5777

Just before "Yishmael" rose to ultimate prominence, a day or two before he could get into highest office and start World War III, God sent a messenger to depose him.

The Muslims gained tremendous power with their huge wealth hard at work for a good 30 years. This power wound all the way up to effect, no less, the commander-in-chief of the United States Forces. Muslim countries "invested" in America's political, educational and judicial infrastructure to seed devastation and propaganda as the preamble and fertile soil for Islamizing the West. They finally got what they wanted -- the Democratic establishment's leadership as their puppet. With money they could operate by remote control. If it's upheaval they wanted, upheaval they almost got. They had groomed Hillary as their surrogate.

Just then the Islamic juggernaut fell over the precipice!

For all it would have taken at this point was a win by Hillary Clinton. Clinton was the puppet remotely controlled for her greed and her disinterest in America’s welfare. To be sure she would toe the Muslim line, Hillary needed a chaperone. Hillary, in full cognizance of the game she was meant to play, in accordance with her greed for money and power, had the Saudi Arabian mole Huma Abedin as her right-hand advisor.

The Muslim Abedin grew up in the Clinton machine. But meanwhile another woman was growing up in the Trump family. She, it turns out, is Jewish. Thus, instead of some Muslim countries gaining choke-hold advantage, the Muslim gambit failed, and failed big -- with the election of Donald Trump.

A Jewish girl took the place of the Arab girl. Evil had almost arrived at its pinnacle. The country would have become 3rd-world. At the last moment Good vanquished the Evil.

By the way, it’s not for nothing God chose Trump for leadership of the USA. Like his father, who donated a significant sum (some 50 years ago) to allow a Jewish school to rise on new ground, Donald too contributed (in 2005 about) to help the Israelis who were kicked out of their homes and land, forced to resettle elsewhere. These Jewish families were tossed out their homes, lands and livelihoods, some after 3 generations, for the sake of their worst enemy, by a foolish government gesture of appeasement. (link - witness)(link - press)

Just as God told Abraham the first Jew, “and all those who bless you I will bless” (Genesis 12:3), God blessed the Trump family too -- the dad with business success, and the son with that plus the presidency too.

Hillary needed war on a grand scale to keep herself socially afloat, without all her criminality bogging her down. This way she could run a war, sitting high at the helm of some “important” battle, and thus weather the criticism coming from internal policies. This is probably what Putin was thinking when he had to face an effeminate Obama who could get into a frenzy to call upon his dogs to attack, when he said the Democratic party leader (either Obama or Hillary) was likely to start a World War.

Soon is Purim. And real soon is Kislev. Kislev is a time for many miracles. Purim had Esther in the royal palace. This Purim we’ll have an “Esther” of our own. Haman the evil one was destroyed, and thankfully the evil Democrat party and the "establishment" too has been toppled.

By the way, Cheshvan too fits into this one big scheme of miracles transpiring to take Jews into their Torah-true Redemption era. We saw in Cheshvan that Trump’s daughter and son-in-law went to the grave site of the Lubavitcher Rebbe to ask for a brachah. This aspect of the world-in-transformation happened revealed the hidden hand of the one in charge of the fighting the wars for the sake of God and His Jewish People -- the Rebbe (link).

But all aspects of world events fit well in the scheme of the unfolding redemption. The Muslim must fall before the Jew can rise (Ba'al Haturim Genesis 25:18); Damascus must fall before Jerusalem is free of foreign entanglements (link); The Jewish people collectively swing to the right and swing to the belief in the One God and respect the Torah and Jewish tradition (over reformist attempts to dilute the belief); That Jews wherever they are can now practise their religion without governmental interference, without the Jew having to feel like a second-class citizen; That the whole world remains focused on that little plot of land called Israel in the Middle East; That good and evil are being blatantly touted for what they are and people eventually must take one side, the side the Jews are on, or the other; And that the USA will now take, when Trump enters office, the side of Israel (unlike the evil incumbent's).

The United States has a rosy future because it was founded on the belief in God and the freedom to practise your religion. (These traits would have disintegrated had the Democratic party won.) This is a charitable nation and a charitable people, and probably will remain that way until Moshiach.

The distinction between good and evil must be clearly identified so people can take sides and only then, with evil now separated out, can it be wiped away. Evil is being exposed for the whole world to see wherever it is.

For example, Castro just dropped dead. We now find out he demanded Israel withdraw from "the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem." He took the side that foists the false “Palestine” concept. The whole world will realize this ruthless dictator was on the (bad) Muslim side.

The world sees, now on a daily basis, just how brutally Arabs or Muslims behave. This is the War of Gog & Magog -- now ongoing! They watch while Muslims or of their ilk kill each other. Meanwhile, Jews are sitting pretty watching the spectacle without being actively involved, much like spectators (link). Instead of eating up the Jews, Arabs eat each other up.

The world sees too how Germany, Sweden and much of Europe now are in deep turmoil. Jewish blood had drenched European soil. The irony is that Germans now have Arabs as their bedfellows. Arabs, after all, had strongly supported the annihilative attempt of Germany against the Jewish people. Other European countries too now suffer for their "political correctness" they keep trying to impose upon the Jewish country. Like a boomerang effect. Now the world sees that just as God blesses those who bless the Jews, so too God curses the nations that demean the Jews (Genesis 12:3).

The world sees how fires rage across Israel, more than hundreds started, by Arabs living inside Israel. The world thus needs to realize that the internal Arab population is just as ominous as those surrounding the small country. Those empathetic to Israel will recognize Muslims could never have it so good under any other nation’s auspices -- and that the Arabs are ingrates. It is by the grace of God that gave us no deaths, God forbid, from this broad arson-terror attack.

Let's not forget we saw God’s grace getting back our Holy Land 70 years ago. Then with every single war Israel saw tremendous miracles. Israel today thrives, its desert blooms and everything in Israel is on the up and up. This despite the inferno that surrounds it every which way you look.

The biggest miracle, the true and final Era of Redemption for the Jewish People, the one now only seen by connecting the dots of this vast mosaic that lingers in the background, should soon be brought to the foreground for us to see in full glory with our own fleshy eyes, amen.

The Hidden Hand of the Rebbe

It’s hard to see The Redemption unfolding unless you know where to connect the dots of innumerable scattered world-wide events. Yet for those imbued with the dream of Geulah as the Rebbe promulgated, his followers and chassidim, it’s rather easy to decipher.

The hand of the Lubavitcher Rebbe could easily spotted, when, on the Motzei Shabbos just days before the 2016 presidential election, Trump’s daughter and his son-in-law visited the Rebbe’s Ohel. They obviously went to ask for a brachah for her father’s victory.

This event may have passed under most people’s radar, or it drew undue short shrift, but a Lubavitcher recognizes his Rebbe’s imprint. This event broadcast to the Jewish people this rabbi’s influence, for one thing.

But more importantly, it broadcasts the continuing involvement of the Rebbe to finally bring us the divine revelations that will transform existentialism. The world is about to embark on a new, Messianic journey and the pieces are being put in place. Trump's victory is one such cog in the mechanism.

The daughter is not a Chabadnik, nor is her husband, so it must be they recognize the Rebbe’s exalted influence, even as he “rests in peace”, as many would deem it; Or, as those keyed in on Moshiach note (we "Moshichists"), he continues to fight “the wars of Hashem” for us, without even our, or Israel’s, involvement.

Fighting the wars of Hashem and winning, by the way, is the precursor phenomenon that qualifies as a step before Moshiach's revelation. For, as the Rambam asserts, it is only thereafter that Moshiach will build the Beit Hamikdash and ingather the Jewish exiled.

(Step one was getting most Jews cognizant of their being Jewish and recognizing the significance thereof. The Rebbe has seen to that quite well, what with many thousands of Beit Chabad emissaries, appointed or self-appointed, all working as soldiers of the Rebbe with self-sacrifice, disseminated world-wide. Never mind that Lubavitch heritage from all 7 Rebbes has bred an immense library of Chassidus and spawned thousands of volumes of current, moshichist Judaic studies.)

Step two -- “He will fight the wars of Hashem. If he does so and succeeds ... he's presumed to be Moshiach!”.

If he succeeds, steps 3 and 4 will then follow.

It's spelled out right here:
The Laws of Kings and Wars 11:8

ויכוף כל ישראל לילך בה ולחזק בדקה

ויילחם מלחמות ה' -- הרי זה בחזקת שהוא משיח

  אם עשה והצליח  וניצח כל האומות שסביביו

 ובנה מקדש במקומו  וקיבץ נדחי ישראל -- הרי זה משיח בוודאי

)

The war of Gog and Magog, now raging among the enemies of Israel, as they swallow each other up, as yet the Jewish people remain on the sidelines as spectators, had been foretold by the Rebbe. In 1980 he explained, based on our sages, that the Jewish people during this war of nations will remain immune during the ongoing internecine destruction! {LINK}

The Rebbe alone, the general and chief-of-staff, is alive and well, albeit invisibly handling the show; He leads the war and, as well, solely fights it for the Jewish people.

May he be revealed in the full glory that soon awaits the Jewish People, who will take the world to a higher transcendent view of God and His world, to experience how all that exists really is ONE.

The Year the Holy Ark's Torah Scroll Remains Outside

How does this new year 5777 relate to the Hakhel year 5776?

Last year, 5776, was a Hakhel year. It would have started with the King of Israel reading from the Torah scroll, the same one that normally stayed all year round housed inside the Holy Ark inside the Holy of Holies.

The King would read the Torah scroll before the entire Jewish population on the 2nd day of Succot. The question is, how could he have read it then when on that day nobody must enter the holy Kodesh Hakodoshim? And how could the holy scroll have been returned into the Ark if nobody must enter that sanctity on that day?

It all starts on the 10th day of the Hakhel year, the day of Yom Kippur. That day the Kohen Gadol would enter the the Holy of Holies for his 24-hour workday service. The Kohen Gadol, when he would emerge from the Kodesh Hakodoshim, also would take out with him the Torah scroll. Five days later, on the 16th of Tishrei, the 2nd day of Succot, the King would read from it.

The Torah scroll then would remain outside the Kodesh Hakodoshim for an entire year, most of it spanning the Hakhel year!

When the Kohen Gadol would enter the Holy of Holies the next year on Yom Kippur, that’s when he would take the Torah scroll with him back into the Holy of Holies and return it to its place inside the Holy Ark.

Source: (תשובות ראבי׳׳ה השלם - מכון ירושלים - ח׳׳ג סימן תתקצ׳׳א)

                    -  -  -  -  -

A word frequently used to refer to Torah is the Hebrew word עז. Its numeric value is 77. This new year 5777 has the acronym (תשע׳׳ז) that can read as:
“It will be a year of Torah”!

God, Torah and the Jews are one. May this year bring that revelation to full fruition!

The Hebrew Origin of "Syrup"

Just want to share an insight into the origin of the word SYRUP (as in Maple syrup). Obviously, it derives from this Hebrew origin -- from the word “שרף”!

How can I be sure? Simply by citing the Talmudic verse itself; It’s self explanatory:

"הצרי אינו אלא שרף הנוטף מעצי הקטף"

The balm[?] is simply the resin that exudes from the wood of the Balsam[?] tree.

If you seek the origin of the word 'syrup' in Gentile sources, such at Merriam-Webster or Online Etymology Dictionary, you’re led astray to many other languages, but never to Hebrew that outdates them all.

So here you see:
1) It oozes from a tree.
2) The word שרף also comprises the verb to burn. You can see it's made for burning, inasmuch as it comes from a tree, as logs are the quintessential form of fuel. So these resins were created as flammable, but with an added benefit too, to yield a wonderful aroma - thus the source of incense.

(As for the same word “שרף” that defines a rank or type of angel, this too has to do with “burning”, probably in reference to their appearance or in metaphor, but I know too little to comment here.

This word may also relate to "serpent" (at least the first half of the word) - for the serpent's bite delivers a burning sensation, unlike the scorpion's that is cold.

A previous post [here] speculated on this topic.)

Turkey Neutered - 5776

Adjust your lens and see in sharper focus the impending Geulah. Whereas Turkey once boldly could bully Israel, today things have shifted in favor of little Israel.

See what transpires now in Turkey after the so-called “coup attempt” (on י׳ תמוז). The killings and brutality among the populace has begun. Because a huge swath of humanity has suddenly become terrorized by a radical, oppressive Muslim element from within, grievances will abound. For the long term, children will learn to hate, fear and be vengeful of neighbors as they grow up, while adults will seethe against many injustices that abound from of a forced, undesirable cultural upheaval.

The perspective from Israel, however, is now pleasing. As a member of NATO, and having the second largest army therein, Turkey long held a prominent position of might. Turkey at one point was strongly opposed to Israel’s existence.

Here’s how one foreign policy newspaper described the situation following the Marmara flotilla’s attempt to break Israel’s Gaza siege:

“One of the most striking political consequences of Israel’s raid on the Gaza flotilla at the end of May has been the emergence of a seeming new strategic triangle in the region: an Iran-Turkey-Syria axis. While Iran and Syria are touted as implacable ‘enemies’ of Israel, it is precisely moderate Turkey’s tentative alignment with the two revisionist powers that has caused much anxiety in Western corridors of power.”

Turkey, with virulent Erdogan at the helm, could well have become a powerful enemy of Israel. But suddenly, this aggressive giant has been emasculated. Just as in Ancient Egypt the ruling class had been decimated by a strong element from within, represented by their “firstborns” (“למכה מצרים בבכוריהם”) [Psalms 136:10], just prior to the Jewish emancipation, so too today, Turkey, a "firstborn” among Muslim nations, is being punished by internecine, savage warfare - from within - just prior to the Geulah.

Just as God recently debilitated other Israel-haters, as when He instigated “Egyptians against Egyptians” to stultify Egypt’s threat against Israel, as when Syrians clash with Syrians, so too now God is eliminating Turkey’s threat - by imploding the country from internal strife.

As was prophesied:

 וסכסכתי מצרים במצרים, ונלחמו איש באחיו ואיש ברעהו, עיר בעיר, ממלכה בממלכה

“And I’ll incite Egyptians against Egyptians, and brother against brother will fight, man against friend, city against city, nation against nation.” (Isaiah 19:2)

Erdogan may now feel safer than before, but to be sure, the country - its citizenry - is destined for years of oppression. After all, so many people have been “purged” indiscriminately and unfairly. The bitterness will simmer for years because suddenly tens of thousands of jobs, careers and educational goals became impacted. Many more years of internal dissension seems evident. As a result, Turkey’s aggressive “foreign policy” against Israel will have to be shelved for now; For now, “Israel’s existence as a threat” has become less than compelling.

(A previous post, invoking the Ba'al Shem Tov as the source, spoke of the significance of Istanbul's fall: here.)

Balak & Moshiach - Since 1991

The “times of Moshiach” is a term that resonates well with most Jews today. Many, to be sure, like many of our secularly-based Jewish friends from academia, see world affairs and divine scripture as unrelated. Orthodox Jewry, on the other hand, aware that Torah commandments have eternal, practical value, feels the imminence of Moshiach in the air.

The Era of Redemption no longer is some quaint, quackish topic for back-room conversation. Jews tuned to Moshiach feel a shift in the winds of history gripping the world and, however things play out dynamically, the world is moving closer to the betterment of the Jewish people and their prophesied cozy utopia.

A particular Midrash tells us what it’ll be like when Moshiach arrives. Well, that scenario, inscribed as prophecy since this Midrash was written, has begun to unfold -- when the Rebbe declared it, in 1991.

This is, by now well-known, the prophecy of the sage Rabi Yitzchok (Yalkut Shimoni, Isaiah:499), namely, “During the year Moshiach is first revealed, all leaders of the world’s nations are inflamed by each other. The King of Persia provokes the Arab King, and an Arab King goes to Aram to seek their advice ... fear not ... for ... I only did all this for your sake, so why are you afraid? Stop being afraid -- your Era of Redemption has arrived!”

The Rebbe in 1991 invoked this Midrash not as a repetition of a prophecy for the future but rather as a prophecy that is currently actualizing. The time line of demarcation from past to present has been crossed.

We’ve crossed over the threshold of this important milestone. The Era we are in now has a quality that went missing two thousands years. What Jews accomplished throughout these two millennia of exile, by keeping Torah and mitzvot, is in this present period being vindicated and redeemed!

Of course we can see the half-filled glass as half-full or as half-empty.

The Rebbe wants us to see it as half-full because a positive perspective reveals that other unexpected lights, though they may appear as random, fit in as pieces of a greater puzzle. A positive view helps you connect the dots of light of the unfolding, underlying Messianic mosaic. A negative perspective robs you of this encompassing view; You remain blind to the cohesiveness that binds the scattered events into the unique phenomenon we are now able to palpably feel happening -- to the world, to the collective Jewish People and to Israel.

It’s no longer a prophecy. It was a prophecy; Actually a sage's prophecy of some details that depict and debut as the Torah's prophecy of a Moshiach era. It is now ongoing -- before our very eyes. If you look, you can see how everything is preparing the Jewish People for their huge crowning state of glory and eternity.

The Torah portion of Balak in particular hoists high the idea of Moshiach who will show up as the King of all the Jews. This end-of-times period is one that waxes honor on Jewish folk. Even though Bilaam hated Jews, he could foresee nothing but praise for the Jewish people, praise for that nation’s matriarchs and patriarchs and praise for their good nature and noble humility.

Bilaam had remarkable prophetic power, at least of the same caliber as had Moses (the sages tell us)! So important was this prophecy, our sages considered including this portion in the daily prayer of the Shema. A mere technicality kept them from including it.

So important is this scriptural portion that even before any praise of God is mentioned in morning prayer, even before quotations from the Torah and Talmud, the very first verse of prayer, the very opening verse of Jewish morning prayer in the synagogue is -- a quote from this Torah portion of Balak (24:5) (“How goodly your tents, of Jacob, your dwellings, of Israel”)!

This prophecy's main end point is clear: In the "Days of Moshiach" the Jewish Nation will rise to supernal glory. During these times they will climb from strength to strength! This is the meaning of the words near the end of this divine prophecy (Balak 24:18):

" ... and the Jews wax in triumph”
וְיִשְׂרָאֵל עֹשֶׂה חָיִל

The Russian Horse in Istanbul - 5776

The strait of Bosphorus that divides the city of Istanbul in Turkey, was recently where the Russian warship Caesar Kunikov passed through while on deck a Russian soldier stood armed with a rocket launcher on his shoulder. This came several days after Turkey shot down a Russian jet in Syrian territory. (Probably Russia was interfering with the flow of oil that Turkey’s wealthy Erdogan family had been importing from Syria, getting the oil cheaply from the terrorist ISIS organization which conquered much of Syria and its oil resources). Russia decried the rogue behavior, scolded Turkey, and days ago brought into Syria next to the Turkish border its latest missile systems to prevent further encroachment.

Wouldn’t you know it, here too we see yet a further sign of the Geulah as these keep popping up. (At least it’s new to me.)

It turns out the Shefa Chaim of Sanz-Klausenburg zt'l brings something down from the Ba’al Shem Tov - no less. He writes, in the name of his dad, who heard it from the Ba’al Shem Tov, that “When they will see a Russian horse in the city of Constantinople they should know Moshiach’s arrival is imminent”! (see below, 2nd para.)

Constantinople today is Istanbul! And just as Moshiach’s arrival on a “donkey” can be taken metaphorically, the Russian’s “horse” may turn out to be the tank!

Turkey took offense of that warship's bravado, and Russia too hasn’t yet been placated for the downing of its aircraft and murder of its pilot. The situation at the Syrian-Turkish border remains tense.
(David Mark at IsraelRising tells why he thinks the two may well go to war soon.)

UPDATE! (7/17/16) - (י׳׳א תמוז ה׳תשע׳׳ו)

Now hear this news, happening today, after a so-called "coup" in Turkey, where a grand, ruthless hoax is being hoisted upon its people, much like happened during Stalin or Lenin with millions of citizens "purged", Turkey has begun to simmer. America too is being dragged in. The conniving leader of Turkey, Erdogan, has fine-tuned his grab for full power, all while castigating countries that recognize the Armenian holocaust, in case anyone wants to remind Turks (as any typical Muslim culture) that genocide is in their bad blood. Terror has come to the streets of Turkey. If one happens to be of the Muslim fundamentalist crowd, they now have the upper hand. Poor boys who went into the army are now suddenly made to look like the bad guys. The civil war there looks to be gruesome. The 1,500 Americans held in Turkey's locked-down Incirlik Air Base, whence jet sorties are made against ISIS, may serve this weasel's desire for pawns to revenge himself against an Iranian defector given refuge in the USA (link), whom Erdogan wants extradited.

ANYHOW, the point is that Istanbul now is one giant step closer to becoming embroiled with Russia or America. As quoted from the Ba’al Shem Tov [above]: “When they will see a Russian horse in the city of Constantinople they should know Moshiach’s arrival is imminent”!

In other words, there are two sides to this story, two views you can take; You can see it as a local phenomenon between competing nations, or you can see it as a sign of global activity predicted to happen as a prelude, or as a forerunner, to a much wider global event  - the imminent revelation of Moshiach!

Update - 10/14/16
Seems these days that Russia is cozying up to or flirting with Turkey, trying to iron out a new relationship where a new oil import-export route can be achieved for their mutual benefit. It could be therefore the Ba'al Shem Tov's aforementioned words mean to say when a high positioned Russian military personage arrives in Turkey, even to partner up in some new relationship - that too could be the meaning of his words, meaning to say, they will align against the USA and perhaps too against Israel, or therefrom will come the pressure to try and squeeze Israel ... which of course will finalize with the full triumph of Moshiach saving the day for all Jews once and for all!

Updates - 10/15, from today's Debka headlines:

Russia & Turkey carve anti-US enclaves in Syria

Turkey agrees to be the first NATO member to house a Russian air defense missile system, which is to be coupled with a Russian air defense missile shield located in Syria.

The Wars of Hashem

Jews find themselves in this 2nd half of the Hakhel year 5776.

The first order of the day for Jews as a whole is that they must appoint a king when they enter their Holy Land. Then comes the need to conquer the Amalekites, a war waged to cleanse the atmosphere for the next and 3rd obligation - to build the Third Temple.

The first obligation for Jews in Israel, then, is the nomination of a king. Well, that king years earlier made his presence in Brooklyn, NY. This king, otherwise known as “The Rebbe”, was accepted by many Jews whose prominent rabbis ruled on this by signing such a declaration. Even a giant of the non-chassidic Litvish element (Rabbi A. Soloveichik) agreed that the claim these rabbis make coincides with Torah view, leaving his legacy as a stalwart supporter of the cause (link).

Then, on the 3rd of Tammuz, 5754, he may well have made his move to Israel - as King Moshiach. (The 3rd of Tammuz is significant in Jewish history for then it became obvious how the whole world order caters to the wishes of the “Leader of the Jewish People”, the day Joshua froze the entire orchestrated motions in the heavens above.) That we cannot see him in person for now is a problem we have, but only if perceived from lightweight faith in the Rebbe’s words, or from undue faith in Nature for a people who transcend Nature, or simply underestimating the supernatural powers of Moshiach who is no less a personage than Moses or Joshua.

The next obligation, that of wiping out the enemies of the Jews (the Amalekites and their Jew-hating supporters), is now in progress. Enemies of the Jews are enemies of God. Right now, as you read these words, King Moshiach is fighting the wars against God’s enemies for the sake of the Jewish people. He’s doing it all on his own. No soldiers of Israel need be involved. While Jews sit in security watching with folded arms the world’s stage, seeing how Jew-haters fight Jew-haters, Jews remain unblemished spectators while their enemies swallow each other up with vicious violence.

The words of the Rambam, “And he will fight the wars of Hashem” [Kings 11:4], make a little more sense to me now. Normally the reader figures it means Moshiach as general will command that war be waged against so and so, and we assume he’ll lead brigades or battalions into battle. Apparently the wording of the Rambam is precise. We can assume it means that he, the general himself, will be doing all the “fighting”. Let’s put this into context. After all, the enemy is fighting another enemy, so what kind of fighting is the general himself doing? Evidently it means he is “mediating” between enemies that they fight each other, generating conflicts among these enemies. For this war of “mediation”, the general himself is handling it - all by his lonesome.

Now, in this age of instant communication, where the entire world has an open window to see all that transpires in every corner on earth, a phenomenon is unfolding. Evil has surfaced for the whole world to observe and/or to choose sides between good and evil, between being pro- or anti-Jewish. It all boils down to this simple distinction. Israel and the Jewish people always take center-stage; Whether you’re in Tibet or in Timbuktu. For evil Amalek must be vanquished before the purity of space provides the proper base upon which to build the physical sanctuary on earth for God - the 3rd and ultimate Beit Hamikdash. As long as weaponry remains significant, we must lay aside the tools of construction. The king we have. The wars of Hashem are now in process; And, may it be very soon, once the Beit Hamikdash is rebuilt in Jerusalem, all Jews from the world over will stream their way to live and thrive in their wonderful Holy Land.

These wars are very significant because they decide for us, based on victory or defeat, whether we speak of Moshiach with certainty. Unless “this general” emerges victorious and afterwards builds the Temple, he may cast doubt about who he really is. Only complete victory followed by the rebuilding of the Temple shall be the final gauge.

Nevertheless, for now, in this 2nd half of the Hakhel year 5776, we remain firmly committed to seeing our general trounce our enemies from this old world order and create for us the new world order, the Era of the Final and Ultimate Redemption, which is barreling its way headlong into our modern history.

Further Signs of Redemption - Adar 5776

Adar is here. Purim’s in the offing. The spirit of a virtual turnabout (ונהפוך הוא) hangs in the air. Just as back then Jews went from being undesirables and suffering the dread of genocide to noble status and exhilirating triumph, we Jews sense an imminent bright light soon to poke through the dark clouds.

You don’t have to be as old as I to remember just how sinister Russia was to Jews and to Israel in years not too long ago. Russia was a main provider of arms to bolster the Syrian army and Assad’s provocations against the Jewish state.

At the same time, Israel could count on America to side with her, helping financially and militarily to stay ahead of Arab foes by keeping a superior technological edge.

Now too Russia was only too happy to comply when Assad asked for help to fight off the many rebel groups that formed since the Arab Spring.

Only this time what in effect is happening is that Syria is being turned into an utter wasteland. Russia is “helping” Assad by literally destroying all of Syria. Ever watch a drone film the streets of Homs, for example? The whole city is a wasteland. Maybe one in 200 homes stands unscathed; A total wipe-out.

Notice too how America, with its Shiite-loving administration, turned its back on Israel.

Not that that’s a bad thing because only those who would deny God’s Hand would have thought we really needed America. God, by placing this regime at the helm of the American ship, knowing just how virulent the captain’s hatred for Jews is, shows clearly now that, if anything, the USA needs Israel, and not the other way around.

A nice battle may also soon erupt between Russia and Turkey, another foe of the Jews, where the USA will simply watch from the sidelines as this NATO "member-ally" gets pounded.

The Ba’al Shem Tov says - that if, on Purim, you read the Megillah (or listen to it) regarding it as a story of the past, a historical tale with no contemporary significance, without sensing its message in our very days, without considering the Purim spirit infused in modern-day events, you are disqualified and must reread the Megilla!

The ancient Jews on Purim in a matter of days celebrated a real, decisive turnaround. Similarly too, no matter that anti-Semitism again simmers the world over, we Jews will triumph a come-from-behind victory, a complete turnaround that will manifest as the true and ultimate Geulah that awaits the Jewish people unfolds. Damascus shall fall as Jerusalem shall rise; Damascus will be a junkyard and Jerusalem will be the venue where Jews will gather to dance with Moshiach.

In the 66th year Moshiach will be Revealed

I don’t pretend to understand Zohar, but throw this out to those who may find this a tasty “condiment of wisdom” (“פרפראה לחכמה”). Think of it as “hors d’oevres” before the Redemption's meal.

The holy Zohar writes (119a; or in 478, depending on how the book is published):
“In the 66th year Moshiach will be revealed
in the land of the Galil ....”

Like I said, I’m not here to explain, but only to point out that the 66th year is significant relative to the Lubavitcher Rebbe because on the 11th of Shvat of this year the Rebbe entered the 66th year of his “reign” (as far as ‘Moshichists’ see it).

As far as I’m concerned, we’re up to our necks in signs of the Geulah (סימנים) and want the real thing already, but this gem is too valuable to keep private.

This gem was pointed out to me by a friend, Rabbi Yaakov Bock, who also points out that which the Rebbe said about the “Galil” (referring to the same Zohar):

Translation (a part of a conversation):
The Rav Mordechai Eliyahu shlita:
“'U’va l’Tziyon goel' (It says ‘And the Redeemer will come in Zion.')”

The Rebbe shlita (smiling):
“'U’va l’Tziyon goel' is said in future tense, but we need it said already in past tense, or at least a moment after this already occurred!”

“Our sages in Midrash say Moshiach (Eliyahu HaNavi) will first reveal himself in the Galil, specifically in Teveria, which is of “goodly appearance”, but no one will mind if Eliyahu HaNavi first appears in the Diaspora, even in Brooklyn, and the next day Moshiach will go to Teveria.”

The Dash to Redemption in 5776

The Lubavitcher Rebbe inaugurated 1990 as the “year of miracles”. Since then we saw the dissolution of the Soviet Union, bringing Communism to a halt without one shot fired; The takedown of the Berlin Wall; The miraculous Persian Gulf War where 39 Scud missiles fired into Israel from Iraq killed nobody, this when just one Scud missile killed scores of American soldiers stationed in Saudi Arabia; As well as a significant reduction of nuclear proliferation by the superpowers - ;“and they will turn their swords into plowshares”. (Isaiah 2:4).

Another not small miracle becoming apparent is the coming demise of the Islamic world. The whole world now has an open window to the cruelty and depravity of Islamic culture, where over 50 Muslim countries have zero to show in terms of success or advancement since the Middle Ages. Islam is still eating dust. It looks like Arab borders will soon disintegrate entirely; Whereas once you had Iraq, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Egypt, Lebanon, etc., ever since the “Arab Spring” it seems these borders will soon disappear, leaving behind havoc and anarchy. So the world will see, if not acknowledge, that this Jew-hating culture is and always was morally destitute.

We are watching the unfolding of Isaiah’s prophecy “I will instigate Egyptian against Egyptian, brethren against brethren and peer, city against city, kingdom against kingdom” (19:2), where Muslim enemies of the Jews swallow each other up, as Israel sits with arms crossed watching the show (thank God!).

The World War of Gog & Magog is pressing full-steam ahead while generally Jews remain and will remain untouched, as the Rebbe prophesied in 1980! (link)

The Arab chaos recently shifted into higher gear with the sudden onset of “Isis”, to accelerate the process.

Recall what Torah says of the Muslim (Yishmael): “He will be a human maniac; He will impose on every nation, and then every nation will be against him.” (Gen. 16:12) Torah tells us about this - that when Yishmael ultimately falls, Israel will finally rise. (eg, Baal HaTurim; Gen.25:18)

That is, before their fall, Muslims will become a gigantic threat across civilization. The tsunami of Muslims invading Europe may just be God’s payback to that continent where Jewish blood spilled like water. In an ironic twist, we see how today’s virulent anti-Semites now have Germans and other past supporters of Hitler as bedfellows.

This while waves of Jewish immigrants, mostly from invaded Europe, are flying to Israel.

And, while most Western countries have been thrown into economic distress, little Israel is finding gas and diamonds, building military prowess (eg. “Iron-Dome” technology, drones), and pushing forward full of vigor. (Even as domestic Muslims and queer sympathizers do their utmost to destroy the country from within.)

In summary, we are witnessing God promise in Torah coming true: As per the words of Bilam, “The Jewish nation will by itself prevail, without kowtowing to other nations”. (Numbers 23:9)  Despite prevalent and rising anti-Semitism in the West, in the U.N. and elsewhere, the Jewish people have a loyal shepherd in Hashem protecting them, taking His People to redemption.

We’ve turned the corner of exile, now dashing headlong to the Era of Ultimate Redemption. Soon we’ll dance with Moshiach in the streets of Yerushalyim, may it happen NOW, amen!

(Of course, if your perspective derives through the prism of “Nature”, then of course you will remain distraught about the “natural” threats of missiles, ISIS, tunnels, cyber attacks, etc. However, in contradistinction, trust in the Rebbe’s words and in Hashem’s Torah renders an alternate, very bright perspective.)

“The Great Shabbat” before Pesach - as of 5776

We call the Shabbat before Pesach “The Great Shabbat” because of a great miracle that transpired on the Shabbat before the Jewish Exodus from ancient Egypt.

What miracle was that? It turns out many answers exist to this question, but here we’ll only consider the unique view of Chabad’s Alter Rebbe, from his “Shulchan Aruch”.

“When the Jews ushered in their Pesach lambs on that Shabbat, Egyptian firstborns clustered around them and asked the Jews what they were doing ... They were told, ‘It’s for a sacrifice to God Who will kill the Egyptian firstborns.’”

“The firstborns then went to their fathers and to Pharaoh requesting they expel the Jews. When rejected, the firstborns went to war against their fathers and Pharaoh, killing many of them. This is what is meant by ‘the Egyptians were struck down by their firstborn’.” [Psalms 136:10]

Note the Alter Rebbe makes no mention of the Jews’ success but rather highlights the internal war that arose between the firstborns and their fathers. So what greatness is there in this miracle?

The answer lies in what the Rebbe continues to say, that this miracle served as “the start of the redemption and the miracles.” That is, the greatness of this miracle is not just because many Egyptians were killed (“the Egyptians were struck down by their firstborn”), but rather the order and demand by the Egyptian firstborns to free the Jewish People was the turning-point that embodied the beginning of the Exodus!

This miracle had even higher value than the miracles of their exit from Egypt. The exodus from Egypt occurred once the power and force of Egypt was broken or annulled, during the Plague of Firstborns, when God took out the Jews. In contrast, the miracle of The Great Shabbat occurred while Jews were still within the Egyptian exile, when, nevertheless, the dominant representatives of Egypt (their firstborns) demanded the freedom of the Jews.

This is why on The Great Shabbat we read part of The Hagaddah, for, just as on the night of Pesach, when the Jews left Egypt, we read The Hagaddah, so too we read part of it on this Shabbat, because that’s when actually began “the start of the redemption and the miracles”!

So what has this to teach us now? In my humble opinion, we are seeing the start of The Ultimate Era of Redemption as today we watch all enemies of Israel striking down and destroying each other (in accord with Isaiah 19:2).

(On the other hand, why we continue to suffer horribly from individual sacrifices by Muslim vermin - eludes me! It is simply unintelligible and horrifying.)