Chassidic Countdown to Redemption: 5780

חצות

Today is Friday, the 6th day, God's 6th millennium since He created Earth, after the night has passed, the time at 5780 being 12:43 pm.

If, as Moses explains,

כי אלף שנים בעיניך כיום אתמול כי יעבר

"For a thousand years are in Your eyes like yesterday, which passed ...." (Tehillim (90:4)

then we've passed from nightime, the first 500 years of that millennium, which began in year 5000, and have already entered daylight hours. If 500 years equals 12 hours, and we are 280 years since morning, and morning was at 6:00 am - let's say - then the time right now is 12:43 pm, 43 minutes after חצות!  

עלות השחר

The year the Ba'al Shem Tov went public was at 6:00 am, at dawn of the 6th day. The Alter Rebbe of Chabad became the 3rd generation thereafter to expose Chassidut, in the year 5550.

The light of Chassidus was lost from most Jews for 1,950 years; Since the 2nd Temple's destruction in the 4th millennium. Jews stuck with Torah, to be sure, but only to the well known 4 layers of Torah. The 5th layer of depth was an entirely new perspective of Torah that only Chassidus now brought to the public's cognitive grasp. 

This was a taste of the new light of Moshaich. This made for Jews for Moshiach to again become a valid topic of discussion. This new insight would have been shunned by Jews before that had they learned about it then because this topic brought about sorrowful memories. It had been a taboo subject earlier. The Jewish mind back then was unprepared to entertain the concept of Moshiach having been deeply frustrated over the years with fake candidates and, instead, met only with severe oppression by host countries.

The Wellsprings of Chassidus Opening Up

Kabballah, which preceded the exposure of Chassidus, began the reawakening of this secretive aspect of Torah, but only to a limited extent. Some secrets were then revealed, but kept under low profile because not everybody was "suited" in mindset to accept these. Kaballah opened the gates, so to speak, for Chasidus to begin trickling out.

Dawn arrived with the Ba'al ShemTov in 5500, and especially after sunrise the Alter Rebbe, in the year 5550, began to spread the word widely. By then all Jews were cognitively equipped by God to better digest this new light, this new spiritualism, of Chassidus.

These dates are significant from a Jewish Halachic perspective! How so?

We know that Chassidus will be learned during the Sabbatical Era in the 6th millennium. We will then be immersed in it, learning the most inner secrets of the infinite Torah. That will be the entire purpose of Jewish existence. This is what is meant by the metaphor, that in Moshiach's time we will partake in the festive "feast of the Leviathan and the Wild Bull" (סעודת שור הבר והלווייתן). That food is Chassidus.

Halachically, on Friday, once daytime arrives, it is a Mitzvah - a commandment for every Jew - to taste of the food being prepared for the Sabbath (טועמיה חיים זכו). That Mitzvah is time-dependent, sanctioned only starting at daybreak. Thus since the year 5500, we are obliged to taste some of that food in anticipation of what it'll be like.

Had you learned some Chassidus before 1740, it would have meant little to you because the command to learn Chassidus, that is -- to taste the future food of Shabbat -- only took effect in the year 1740, with the exposition of the Ba'al Shem Tov.

Other halachic aspects concern the times when formal prayer services begin or end. So, for example, the time of Tefillah, the  Shmoneh Esrei morning prayer, is a time that Chassidus regards as a fight -- as a struggle to keep well concentrated in prayer, doing our best to keep from being distracted. These times may well translate into what happened to the Jewish people during the progroms and then the holocaust.

Anyhow, those time of day aspects, as to how and when they occurred, are now well behind us. For us Jews today, we only await the Ultimate Redemption that's about to happen any day now. Surely God won't wait until the last minute to debut Shabbat aspects, as if Friday hours were as secular as before. Rather, along the lines of the אחישנה possibility, which is one way Moshiach can come, aside from the other inevitable way (בעתו), the blessings will shower down a lot sooner than expected.

 
[Gleaned form a Maamar (להבין הקושיא הידוע) of the 5th Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Rebbe Rashab, who founded the first officially Chassidic Yeshivah, said in 1903.]

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 Rising of the Fallen House of David

So begins the laws of Moshiach: "King Moshiach will rise and restore the Kingdom of David ...."

Precisely then, Moshiach's 1st mission is - to rise!  But why the ostensibly superfluous words "to rise"? What would we miss had it just said "King Moshiach will restore the Kingdom ...."? What means "to rise"?

The question is even more pronounced. Kingship, if anything, expresses itself by "sitting" rather than "standing"! For example, "And Solomon sat on the throne of Hashem" (Melachim 1:12:23), or, as we pray on Shabbat, "The King, who sits on a lofty, sublime throne". (המלך היושב על כסא רם ונשא)

(Later in this chapter we again find the term "to rise", where signs of Moshiach's identity are listed, but there it intuitively means Moshiach will "prove himself"; But here, where general goals of Moshiach are presented, the term remains enigmatic.)

Is there a source from our sages to support Rambam's assessment "Moshiach will rise"? He states, in fact, this "rising" must precede restoration of the Kingdom of David to its original state! So what does this "rising" mean?

Rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpo (in his sefer "יחי המלך") says Rambam's source comes from the following dialogue (Sanhedrin 96b):
"Rav Nachman said to Rav Yitzchak, 'Had you heard when arrives the son of Nefillim (of those who fell)?'
"Said he to him, 'Who is the son of Nefillim?'
"Said he, 'Moshiach'.
"'You call Moshiach son of Nefillim?!'
"'Yes, for it says, 'On that day I will raise the Sukkah of David that fell'" (Amos 9:11).
And Rashi explains "The Sukkah of David that fell" means, "because the Kingdom of David fell, Moshiach is called the son of Nefillim."

This must be why Moshiach is initially destined "to rise". Only by first reversing the prior fall will the Kingdom finally be restored!

Rabbi Wolpo probes deeper into this insight, relying on the Malbim (Amos 9:11): "The House of David (the Temple) was a permanent fixture in all its glory, passed from generation to generation. During the Second Temple, once the Kingdom of David was voided, it became a temporary structure. .. Because rulers of the seed of David sometimes ruled, the structure now resembles a temporary structure (Sukkah). Then that Sukkah too fell.. Eventually Hashem shall raise the Sukkah of David."

The Maharsha, in a similar vein, explains what Rabbi Chiya says to Rabbeinu Hakadosh (Sanhedrin 38a): "The son of David will not come until two Houses of Fathers (the position of Prince and the position of Chief of Beit Din) will be destroyed, etc. .. The intention relates to the secret of the new moon to which the Kingdom of David compares. Just as the moon after the 15th begins to lessen, so with the Kingdom of David ... On the one hand it is a good sign, for King David of Israel lives eternally ... for just as the new moon will manifest ... the Kingdom of David will again renew, as will the greatness of the rulers' families."

Both the Malbim and Maharsha speak of the nullification of the rulers (נשיאים) during the Gemora era, but thereafter the rulership of the House of David will again rise and remain steadfast, and that rising of the ancestry began when the holy Ba'al Shem Tov revealed himself, who was a spark of Moshiach - and thereby the Sukkah of David was re-established. (Rabbi Wolpo notes: "The Sukkah of David" in gematria = 494, the year in this millennium when the BS"T revealed himself.)

Our holy Rebbeim explained "The fall of the Sukkah of David" does not mean, God forbid, the nullification of the rulership ("ביטול הנשיאות"), because "David, the King of Israel, lives forever" - as an eternal king. Moreover, the Rebbe explains, and this is important to note - the "falling" is only from the aspect of the observers ("המקבלים"). The fall does not affect the eternal house of David. Every generation has a king from the House of David, but he is a concealed king. As sure as the moon always receives sunlight, the eternal status always characterizes the House of David. Only, it needs to again start shining - so WE can see it again! This illumination began its incremental emergence (= "rising"), starting with the Ba'al Shem Tov.

This is the meaning of Psalms (89:37-38): "His seed will endure forever; His throne like the sun before Me." God testifies that above, in heaven, David's throne is always complete. And if you'll ask, but below, on earth, this kingdom is not revealed, the next verse explains: "Like the moon it is ready in concealment;" Although the kingdom of David is not revealed yet below, it remains alive and existent in concealed state (בהעלם). When the moon is concealed below, it does not mean it lost any of its essence. And who testifies this is the truth? Eternal God! "And the Witness in heaven is forever faithful."