Following the Footsteps of Moshiach in 5778

Some footprints of the Rebbe in action are easy to spot.

Today’s deserves mention. Today is
י׳׳ט כסלו תשע׳׳ח.

World events after all stem from Torah - the blueprint of the world. So let's look at secular developments to see how Torah life renders a refreshing perspective.

Today President Trump announced that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish People! As far as America and most of the world was concerned, Israel was a country without a capital until now.

Today is Yud-Tes Kislev! Yud-Tes Kislev is a rather new chassidic holiday. An ancient primordial brightness, unbearable for mankind to have seen over the course of most of its history, until recently, is now finally becoming easy to behold. Chabad had turned this day into a Rosh Hashanna of Chassidus. This holiday is in commemoration of the Alter Rebbe's emancipation from certain death at the hands of the KGB in Soviet Russia. His freedom had vindicated his efforts to further disseminate the wellsprings of Chassidus.

That is, permission was granted from on high to spread these hidden aspects of Torah wholesale worldwide. Thereafter, with every Chabad Rebbe, these teachings gushed forth and burgeoned even more. That primordial bright light they were disseminating - is the new light of Moshiach!

The Alter Rebbe spurred his chassidim to “live with the times!”. He meant, put your heart into study of Torah as apportioned by the week and by day of the week.

Under the Rebbe MH”M this idiom transformed to mean that all you see, feel, hear and interact with should consider the imminence of Moshiach or his presence as its backdrop; The Rebbe urged us to always “think Moshiach!”

So, let's think Moshiach. Today is Yud-Tes Kislev. What does the industrious talmid find in today’s portion of Chumash (parshas Vayeishev, in the 4th section, being that today is Wednesday)? He learns the segment about Yehuda and Tamar.

In perek 38, possuk 15, says the Baal Haturim:

לזונה. ב' במסורה. ויחשבה לזונה. איכה היתה לזונה (ישעיה א, כא). מה תמר בבזיון ולבסוף בכבוד אף ירושלים סופה בכבוד, כדכתיב (זכריה ב, ט) ולכבוד אהיה בתוכה. וזהו זאת קומתך דמתה לתמר  (שה"ש ז, ח

Translation: Just as Tamar had to compromise herself (for the sake of lawful progeny) stooping to apparent humiliation in order to serve a future glorious cause, so too Jerusalem must first suffer disgrace before it can exult in its return to dominion.

This the Baal Haturim learns from a 5-letter word that repeats itself only twice in all of Tanach (see image of search results - 2 "hits" in all of Tanach), once in reference to Tamar; the other in reference to Jerusalem. This same word in both places suggests an association can be made between Tamar and Jerusalem.

(This connection, between Tamar and Jerusalem, is also alluded to by King Solomon in Shir Hashirim (7:8) - זאת קומתך דמתה לתמר.)

By coinciding Yud-Tes Kislev with the day Trump made his epic announcement, the Rebbe shows the association is operative for the era of Moshiach. If we "live with the times", then today’s Baal Haturim bespeaks of worldly events -- happening today in our times!

Here’s another "living with the times" nuance:

This week's days are among the shortest of the year. Midday is therefore close to noon, unlike the midday on any other summer day. Were we to make the Jewish calculation where each of "God's day" counts as 1,000 human years, then we are presently already into Friday, or Erev Shabbos. That means by the year 5778 we are plenty past 12 noon already (ie, past 5500)! The timing of glorifying Jerusalem on a day when Shabbat enters earliest seems significant. It suggests the rapid advance of The Era of Ultimate Redemption, the days of eternal Shabbat.

Hope to dance with you all in Yerushalayim, very soon, in our days!

UPDATE (12/24/17):
Just discovered too that last year on this day, on Yud-Tes Kislev 5777, Monday, December 19, 2016, Donald Trump won the electoral college vote (-- which counts -- as opposed to the popular vote, which doesn't count) and became President of the USA! So here we have yet another of the Rebbe's imprints.

Footprints to the Era of Redemption - 5777

Not only can Jews practice their religion freely today in most of the world (when in most of Jewish history that was hardly the case), not only are two superpowers aligning today with Israel, not only does Israel thrive as a tiny country of its own with enormous physical and intellectual resources, not only have most Jews heard of the forthcoming so-called Era of Moshiach, and not only is the World War of Gog & Magog now raging, but notice how Jews and Israel remain immune to all the bloodthirsty infighting among Israel’s enemies. (The Rebbe’s 1980 Striking Prophecy)

Yes, were you to follow the standards of Nature, you might want to wallow in reasons for fear. For example, you might worry that Enemy X is destabilizing Jordan to the East of Israel, or that Enemy Y can menace from the North or that Enemy Z is tunneling from the South. But Nature too, is a divine facade meant to conceal the obvious. In fact, not only is the worrying needless, says the Rebbe, worse yet, it provides extra energy to the impure forces, in effect slowing the enemy’s quick demise, much like adding fuel to an enemy vehicle low on gas (Feeding Klipah at Sanctity's Expense).

Scanning the political\social panorama, it looks like it’s coming down to a matter of Jewish versus Muslim. Jewish versus Muslim serves to contrast between good and truth versus lies and bloodthirsty culture. Both cannot coexist. The Jewish nation, now that it’s long exile is coming to a close, waxes in glory while Muslim forces for the world to see wane into disrepute.

The verb that well depicts this final phase of Jewish exile, with the Era of Redemption’s full blown glory around the corner, is “to be pitted against”. For evil to be vanquished among people, it first must be highlighted, to delineate itself clearly from its foe, the good. And what constitutes good, and bad, for that matter? Truth of Torah, God and the Jewish family will be pitted in sharp contrast to the Muslim creed and tradition, or to any other identity that abhors Judaism.

Will such cognizance spread across the whole world? After all, Moshiach will reach out to every Jew no matter where he\she is. Will therefore the whole world’s populace have their radars tuned to this one particular issue, of all that’s out there?

If Redemption is in the wings, then that’s exactly what must happen, no? How then will the whole world be drawn in to one focal point of contention? Mankind will have to choose sides; Would everyone know what two sides are pit against each other?

You see it happening right under our noses right now. The world is at war with evil, which translates from the confrontation between Klipah and Sanctity, in its final duel. The Rebbe is taking and leading the charge, by himself! (The Wars of Hashem)

We recognize this general’s silent orchestration of local and world events because he leaves footprints on his trail. One such footprint we found earlier (The Hidden Hand of the Rebbe).

Putin too is part of the show. Is not the scene where Putin honorably presents a Chabad rabbi common, well in the open?

A 3rd footprint we noted is that Trump’s daughter and son-in-law bought a home next to a Chabad shul in Washington DC (Arutz7).

Trump is not just a locally popular name being bandied about; He’s being telecast worldwide! The whole world will soon know everything Trump says or does. The whole world must know this because all of mankind will be involved. The internet sprung up for this very reason, no doubt.

Perhaps Trump and Putin will forge a victorious flank that will subdue the evil counterforce that Muslims now represent, with all the terror they are fomenting. The actual logistics we can only guess, the alliances of pro or anti, who will topple who, etc. We could do well not to speculate, because the more Torah light we shed and the more Mitzvos we do, the calmer will be the final waves of exile.

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)(Hebrew blog post)

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 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)

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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!