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.

"Garments" - And of Redemption - 5778

מחשבה דיבור ומעשה
These Garments Can Lift the Soul ...

Whether at any moment you are thinking, speaking or taking action, you are using these 3 faculties as a generous gift offered by God to mankind.

These are faculties that do not belong to the soul; That is, because they can be expressed in more ways than one, they can be used by the soul in a non-deterministic way. There is no instinct for us to think, talk or act in specific ways under such restrictions.

You can, for example, change garments, as when you catch yourself thinking, saying or doing negatively and then you quickly revert to thinking (speaking or doing) positively!

These 3 faculties the Ba'al HaTanya calls "Garments of the Soul".

Besides being independent of the body's soul's makeup, these 3 garments are also independent in that they can be controlled by one of the body's two souls. They can succumb to the will of the Animal Soul, that soul that comes with the body as a built-in feature. Or, they do the will of the Godly Soul that resides in every Jewish body as well.

An analogy might be: It's like when you step onto an escalator - but here, in our case, you can either take the "up" escalator, or the "down" escalator. One way or another you operate. But - either the product of thought, speech or action elevates you, or it denigrates you.

Your decision can lead to two paths of expression, two paths before they are emitted. The two represent your human choice. (More on "garments", here.)

So what's a good thought to now have, for example? Well, that the Era of Redemption is quickly unfolding before our very eyes - this year already being 5778! But unless you're tuned in to see, you may well miss it.

But thoughts of redemption, or words that express the phenomenon, demand a compatible perspective from current events. So here's one for you:

It says in Yeshayahu (49:23),

והיו מלכים אמניך ושרותיהם מיניקתיך אפים ארץ ישתחוו לך ועפר רגליך ילחכו וידעת כי אני יהוה אשר לא יבשו קוי

"And kings shall be your nursing fathers and their princesses your wet nurses; they shall prostrate themselves to you with their face on the ground, and they shall lick the dust of your feet, and you shall know that I am the Lord, for those who wait for Me shall not be ashamed."

Seems the world is finally headed in that direction!

Take the election of November 2016. Had it not been for that miraculous election of Trump to the White House a year ago that disposed the Clinton machine, the free world would surely have been overwhelmed by corruption and evil. Had Hillary grabbed the reins, Muslim terrorism would have had intimate governmental effect. She took money from the sheiks and had as her right-hand lady the daughter of a founder of the Moslem Brotherhood. Suddenly, out of nowhere it seems, came a miraculous turnaround, all in a matter of a few hours. It was very much like the Purim story, now with a Jewish princess in the office instead of Orwellian overseers.

But instead of a Muslim presence that was taking hold of the White House, we now have one where Jewish interests are at heart. The Trump administration subserves the waxing glory of God and His Jewish People for the good of mankind.

We see too how the Rebbe plays an important role, albeit, under the radar, in all of this (link).

Then there is, for example, the recent trip of Trump's Jewish son-in-law to Saudi Arabia. This came after Trump visited and spoke to the older Saudi King. Next thing we know, terrorism is being strangulated financially. Qatar is ostracized. Terrorism in Saudi Arabia, where oil money long cultivated evil octopuses, was being choked off. Now too seems to begin a new era wherein Muslims too feel the need to forge better ties with Israel and the Jews.

If that's not what the above verse is intimating, then maybe your vision of the upcoming Era of Ultimate Redemption of the Jewish People and the world at large is still buried in textbooks.

As the Malbim explained the above verse regarding the Jewish People's future - that they will be as the newborn, care given to have him breast-fed, and raised under complete protection from harm, so the world will know God is in full control.

Reminds me too of what the Rebbe said of this Era back in 1980 - that Israel's rise to glory in these days of Gog and Magog will be under full immunity from harm (Link)!