Signs of Redemption - Early 5776

After a brief brush with annihilation only 75 years ago, remaining Jews (today’s grandparents) today still feel the heat of that inferno in the form of yet another threat - from the latest, powerful, big Jewish-hater, today’s archetype of the Persian Haman - among others.

But we Jews fear no more such threat of violence or intrusion into our private lives because the leader of this Jewish generation, the Rebbe of Lubavitch, gave us optimistic words that now resonate ever louder.

The word “prophecy” in Hebrew also spells “we will come”, as if the spoken words themselves attest to their own future encore.

From one of our holy sources, the Midrash, of Yalkut-Shimoni, (Isaiah, 499): “R’ Yitschak says, ‘The year in which Moshiach will be revealed ... a Persian king provokes an Arab king ... and says to them [God to the Jews] my sons, fear not, for all that I do I do for you, your era of redemption has arrived.’”

The Midrash continues: “The time when King Moshiach comes, he stands on the roof of the Beit Hamikdash, wherefrom he tells the Jewish People, ‘Modest ones, your era of redemption has arrived!”

Is it not strange for a king to proclaim good tidings from a rooftop?

The Rebbe explains halachically that a rooftop lacks the holiness its abode houses beneath it. By wording it this way the Midrash invokes the rooftop as the appropriate metaphor for an event to transpire outside the Holy Land (a place with less sanctity than Israel). The Rebbe elsewhere asks, similarly, why does the Rambam in his book of halachah say Moshiach will build the Beit Hamikdash “in its place”? Why not just say, “in Jerusalem”; Why the obscure “in its place” terminology? The answer of the Rebbe, again, is that the debut for the redemption begins in the exiled land (in its place) - outside the boundaries of the Holy Land.

Perhaps others will argue with Brooklyn, NY as the optimal venue from where Moshiach makes his announcements, but they too first must answer the above questions at least.

But whatever your belief here, open your eyes to see - that the Redemption is in gear, moving along. (Not as fast as we’d like, to be sure.)

You can see it in the irony playing itself out in Germany, for example. Where once Germany sought to expel an "other" people, they now have the opposite happening to them - an influx of an other people. And to further note God’s ironic hand in this, as it prophecises in Psalms(2:4), “God is mocking them”, Muslims, all of whom supported Hitler and his “final solution”, now have joined together with their German peers. Two peoples who agreed on Jewish extermination now have themselves for bedfellows.

Do you smell Redemption in the air yet?

Yes we haven’t yet been driven down far enough along this entire highway of Redemption because we still witness individuals falling as sacrifices, (חס ושלום), with Jews still made to suffer; But, a global Redemption landscape is clearly visible worldwide. What all can see is evil raising its ugly head, exposed on an internet of windows. We can see how one Jew-hater goes after another Jew-hater, as they swallow each other up. Meanwhile, as Redemption progresses, Jews today can calmly enough lock arms across their chest and sit back and watch. The world is watching evil vanquish itself.

That Iran’s Khamenei is today’s Haman - is obvious. That they both derive from Persia in itself is telling, as is the pronunciation of their names. Both wanted the total physical annihilation of the Jewish People. This is of course the final issue that all peoples of the world will have to reckon with anyhow one day, who is it that will inherit the Earth in the Era of Redemption? The Jews - that’s obvious, but the sectors of Gentiles that will also benefit in this Jewish utopia may well find they have come from fragmented nations.

How about America - how can we account for a stealth outsider who usurped the reins of power in the mightiest of all nations? How is it that Americans now find themselves much as would feel a king forced to cater to his slave? Perhaps it’s God’s way of removing from Americans their haughtiness? Can't be, because most American folk are decent folk, and when they gain wealth they remain modest, knowing God has graced them. I personally cannot figure this one out vis-a-vis Americans.

Vis-a-vis Israelis I do see a clear sign. Israelis for so long have clamored they “need America”, be it for its generosity or culture, so God says “Enough!” because He wants to show the Jews they need rely only on Him and Torah, so He places a despot into the seat of highest USA office, to put a halt to all help to Israel, (significantly - while keeping all the good public of Americans pro-Israeli!). It’s Redemption time Jewish folk, and it’s about time you evidence God’s Hand manipulating the world to this dear end.

Still, if you come from a well-seasoned "naturalist" perspective, you're still seeing Redemption behind a vague curtain. You do not know of the Rebbe's assertions in 1980 that the final war, the one Messiah will fight and is fighting, will be a world war that cannot and will not infringe upon Jewish soul or body. The wars that will rage will be “about Jerusalem” - but Jews will have no concerns of invasion. (link)

Those waiting to see these words exemplified in amplification will soon enough get to see more of that too, because that’s what the Rebbe forecasts.

I take this tzaddik’s word for what it is, words of a prophet, words of the leader of this generation, words by him who represents all his predecessor Rebbes wrapped into one, and, significantly - of King Moshiach!

He created an army of believers spreading the word of Moshiach worldwide. These are his foot soldiers.

During the 6-Day War the Rebbe stood alone and declared Jews will win. In ’73 he told us too. Before the Persian Gulf War he urged that Eretz Yisrael is the safest place for a Jew, and all the bombs that fell caused nothing but concrete to bite the earth. He invoked the Yalkut Shimoni Midrash and introduced the conflict that had the Middle-East riled up then as the debut of the Era of Redemption, telling Jews their time for redemption has arrived and telling them they have nothing to fear.

Just as Abraham began by standing as one alone in the world, so too Moshiach is alone, now, a lone general fighting our battles for us.

Purim Revisited

All that happens in the world, especially on a high-profile political scale, where many can tune in, projects itself onto life for the sake of the Jewish people. When heads of governments, especially those with immense military might, broadcast their politics across the world, Jews should take notice to the extent they register the incident, and act in Torah ways with complete confidence in Hashem that this way will redeem the Jew and bring the world one step closer to Redemption.

The "King of Aram" (ref. here), a Muslim mole in the White House, characterizes King Achasverosh of ancient Persia. He hated Jews even more than his deputy, Haman,  so he needed no persuasion to kill all Jews of his large Empire that comprised 127 countries.

The current Iranian aristocracy, headed by some "Khameini", characterizes Haman, in that here too they seek a "final solution" to exterminate all Jews. In fact, it is no coincidence, is it, that Khameini (with a guttural pronunciation of Kh) and "Hamani" sound similar, and neither is it coincidence this seed of evil derives in Iran - Persia!

So what we have during these Adar days are inside-closet meetings of two "leaders/governments", one from פרס and the other from "ארם", quietly and in private secrecy plotting to expedite the "Jewish problem".

Much as Haman wanted, and Achashverosh let happen, the Jews, because they streamed back to Hashem in total self-sacrifice and in regret for not having listened to the "Leader of the Generation" 10 years earlier, when Mordechai warned them NOT TO ATTEND the Achashverosh feast at the Shushan Party, now got their salvation from Hashem. Things suddenly took a sharp turnabout and Jews became

"ליהודים היתה אורה ושמחה וששון ויקר"

- as we too will during these great days of Adar -

"כן תהיה לנו"

Jewish Demise from Unsuspecting Quarters

"In every generation," the Passover Hagadah tells us, "people rise to destroy us, and Hashem saves us from their plots".

Those who wish evil upon the Jewish people fall into one of two categories; Either they want to extinguish the Jew's spiritual bond to Hashem; Or they wish to destroy the physicality of Jewish presence.

The Greek king Antiochus tried to extinguish Jewish spirituality. He instituted harsh decrees to force Jews to forget their Torah and break their faith in Hashem.

Haman, on the other hand, chief viceroy to the Persian king Achashverosh, tried to exterminate the Jews scattered throughout the 127 countries of the empire by killing every Jewish man, woman and child.

In recent history we can point to two such notorious villains as well, Stalin and Hitler.

Stalin successfully destroyed millions of Jews - spiritually. He forced Jews to break with Torah and faith in Hashem, by destroying synagogues and yeshivas and banning religious observances. Hitler, on the other hand, in his attempt to engineer "the final solution", murdered some six million Jewish people throughout Europe, from infants to the elderly.

It's not known that Jews helped Haman, but it is known Jews helped Antiochus. It's not known that Jews helped Hitler, but it is known Jews helped Stalin.

Besides these two sorts of Jewish destruction, yet another form of destruction arose from the Jewish quarter, probably unwittingly, in recent Jewish history. These unsuspecting destroyers of Jewry comprise the secular leftists, the "reform" Jews (whatever brand their reform takes), or the ignoramuses. These three groups, in effect, also render nothing short of a Jewish holocaust. They first suffer a spiritual suicide, because they, their children and grandchildren abandon Torah observance and tradition, and then these assimilated offspring intermarry and drop out of the Jewish gene pool, which effectively translates into a passive, physical genocide. After all, Jewish men who marry Gentile women break their branch of genetic Jewish continuity. What Hitler or Stalin would have done to them, these do for Hitler and Stalin in abstentia!

This present generation's counterpart of Haman or Hitler is the Iranian regime, among others.

Apropos of the group of Gentile haters who seek to destroy Jews spiritually, a present menace looms large. This hostile bunch seeks the demise of Jews - on the sly. They are the Catholic missionaries funded by America's Southern Baptists who by stealth work to "convert" Jews. By stealth - like the pig who flaunts his split hooves to onlookers and says, "Look, I'm kosher!" (when, in fact, it lacks the internal physical sign for being kosher). Obviously the Jews they bait are the ignorant ones, those weak on Torah knowledge. They have well over 300 million dollars budgeted for this cause. You already find them peddling their piddling spirituality in every large city of Israel, under some "Messianic" rubric [A theme they steal from authentic Judaism]. In the U.S. they have succeeded in persuading some 300,000 Jews to regard their human idol as a god. They succeed because these baited Jews hunger spiritually and cannot find or cannot meet Jewish representatives to satisfy their hunger. One of several missionary agencies for this duping purpose is called "Jews for Jesus" (יש''ו).

In the end, of course, the outcome will be "... and Hashem saves us from their plots". But meanwhile, because all Jews constitute one family - one big collective body - if the left arm hurts, the right arm wants to help. The best way to fight these destroyers is to teach the truth of Torah to these Jews "roaming in the dark". Torah is the glue that binds Jews to Judaism. This blog, for example, might just serve one day to attract the hungry soul of one lone Jew in some far flung corner of this world who, upon learning the truth, returns to Hashem; And by saving that one soul - I will have saved an entire world.

A Lesson of the Cherubs

Picture by Yoram Raanan

The Cherubs ("Kruvim") atop the Holy Ark were a pair of winged figurines with the "face of a child", says Rashi (Ex. 25, 18). This isn't the first time Cherubs are mentioned in Torah. The first mention of them is when Hashem placed them before the entrance to The Garden of Eden, to prevent Adam and Eve from re-entering and eating of the Tree of Life. These Cherubs, says Rashi, were "Angels of Terror" (Gen. 3, 24). How could Rashi ascribe antithetical definitions to the same term?

The lesson is that, in fact, they are one and the same, only that opposite characteristics emerge from different upbringings, as these two contexts suggest. If the upbringing rests upon a holy foundation, children grow up to become angelic; But if brought up spoiled by giving them most of what their hearts desire, they become demonic.

Let's recall the story of Adam. He was intelligent, handsome, had a gorgeous wife, lived in Eden among the finest and largest selection of delicious fruits, was meant to live eternally, with the whole world as his domain. Only one small constraint limited his freedom - he was told not to eat the fruit of one tree out of thousands.

That little challenge proved to be his downfall.

Similarly, a child raised to get everything he wants, will in the end lose everything he has because the smallest restriction he cannot tolerate will take him down. He will become egotistic, haughty, abusive and have no friends. On the other hand, the same child, if brought up to hold dear the holiness of Torah and its restrictions, will end up being a source of goodness to everyone around him.

From where the Cherubs were atop the Holy Ark, the voice of Hashem emanated to reach the ears of Moses. In contrast, the Cherubs guarding the Garden of Eden had swords swinging in their hands.

Our sages ask (Chulin 139b) "Where is there a hint of (the evil) Haman in Torah?" They answer, referring to the words of Hashem in rebuking Adam, "Have you eaten from the tree I forbade you to eat from?" The Hebrew words "from the" spell out "Haman".

Our sages (Sota 9b) list 10 people in Tanach who lost everything they had because they could not accept the slightest restriction confronting them. One was Haman.

Haman was the viceroy of the King of Persia, whose empire embraced 127 nations. Haman had a large family, including ten sons. He was extremely wealthy. People were ordered by the king to bow down to Haman when he passed by. You could say he lacked nothing.

But one small thing Haman did not have. It angered him that one old man, the Jew Mordechai, refused to budge when he passed by. "Everything I have is as good as worthless," he complained to his wife, "because that [old man] Mordechai won't bow down to me." (Esther 5, 13) This emotional anguish consumed him so he plotted to destroy Mordechai, who in the end, ended up with everything Haman had, and Haman was hanged.

Based on this fine lecture by Rabbi YY Jacobson.