A Great Miracle Happened There

I copied this from the journal “Hakriyah Vehakedushah”, Dec. 1941, published by the Previous Rebbe of Chabad. As you read bear in mind the year this was printed: during the Holocaust, before the state of Israel was reborn! If you bear that in mind, you can count the miracles since these words were written.

A Great Miracle Happened There

The Jewish nation was born by a miracle; We live by miracles and by a miracle we hope to be able to exist henceforth.

At the age of 90 Sarah, Abraham’s wife, gave birth to her son Isaac. After her womanhood was entirely gone she was rejuvenated, became young again and brought a child into the world. This was the Almighty’s proclamation to the future Jewish generations that they, too, will suddenly come to life again many times, become young and astound the world through a great miracle.

After our forefathers had slaved in Egypt for over 200 years and there wasn’t the slightest possibility of their ever emerging as a nation again, the great miracle occurred. Not only were they freed from their bondage and emerged as a separate nation but they became the chosen people from among all the nations. We, more than any other nation, have given the world spiritual treasures and we have existed longer than any nation of ancient times, thank God. We have outlived the greatest nations as well as our enslavers and oppressors.

We were set free from Egypt with many reoccurrences of the great miracle.

We lived in the desert for 40 years; We acquired a land of milk and honey; After we had lost our great land by being sinful we returned from exile by a miracle and again rebuilt our country. And with a great miracle our champions the Chashmonoim defeated the mighty enemy, the Greeks, the world conquerors of that time which holiday we have been celebrating unintermittently until this very day, a period of 2080 years.

We are existing as a separate nation while in exile by a miracle, without a land, without an army, without a navy and without a single nation whom we can call our friend and protector, and in spite of the fact that most every nation has wanted and still wants to exterminate us.

By a great miracle we have outlived the historical “Haman the wicked” and his tens of thousands of children in every land since then. It seems as if the children of the “ancient giants” haven't got one-thousandth of the life-strength in them that the offspring of Isaac have, the children of a man who was born to aged parents, a father of 100 years of age and a mother 90 years old. According to the rules of nature such a person should have been weaker than ordinary normal children and not be able to bring forth into the world a race that is stronger than any other one upon the face of the earth.

In the normal course of events such a wonder would not be possible but it did happen because of the great miracle. Nations, as hard and strong as iron like the Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans and their like were not able to overcome their first national defeat and have disappeared without even so much as a goodbye. Only the Jewish nation had the Godly miracle occur to them to be able to exist while drowning in a sea of national calamities.

If the world had any sense, any justice and respect for God it would look at us in awe and wonder and would think 10 times before it would attempt a new attack upon us. It would realize that we are under the special protection of God and that to oppress and torture us is a deed which can bring no good. But the world doesn't want to see the truth; It persecutes us wholesale and retail; The entire Jewish nation as a whole, each part of it separately, and every Jew individually. Its punishment is that it doesn't see any other truth as well, not even the simplest truth that war is the greatest insanity and international suicide.

From the day of our birth until today and as long as we Jews will exist it was and will be by miracles. This is a fact that the world refuses to listen to and unfortunately many of our Jews don't understand this as well. The truth of the matter is that we are the “Chosen people” and that in spite our many and great troubles it still is an honor to be a Jew. It certainly must be a very great privilege to be a member of a nation over whom God watches specially so that they should exist by His miracles. This is positively a very big thing even if one doesn't understand all the particulars of this type of providence.

When a nation lives through thousands of years of persecution by the entire world and is saved each time by a miracle, then the miracle by which this nation exists is a triple one; It is a past, present and future miracle.

Because the Chashmonoim defended the honor of the Torah and sacrificed their lives without the slightest chance for victory, praying for a miracle to happen and to save them, they deserved to win and did because of the great miracle that was happening, so much so that all later Jewish generations can rejoice with the great miracle that “did happen”.

This teaches us that in all times, our own included, we Jews must do everything possible and even impossible to raise the honor of the Torah in the hope that a great miracle “will happen”. We must not lose hope and give up, heaven forbid, just because we don't see the miracle “happening” right now. It is surely here and it will become in the future a “great miracle which did happen” if we will fulfill our obligations believing as the Chashmonoim believed in the great miracle “that will occur”. The Almighty will crown our suffering with victory.

Therefore, we must not despair because of all of the persecutions and tortures which are horrible and threaten us with destruction, heaven forbid. We must hope for the great miracle that “will occur” in spite of the fact that we don't see it “occurring”. It is here and is shielding us. We will, with God’s help, live through the persecution and torture; And our children and grandchildren, as well as we ourselves, will positively see and understand later the great miracle that “did occur”. Because God's watch is upon us always, every day, every hour and if we are suffering then it surely our own fault. Unfortunately we know that we are deficient in many ways and we are paying for these deficiencies. But in general and as a nation, as a whole, we are always better than the other nations. And for this very reason we are assured against annihilation, heaven forbid. The fact is that once before, about 2000 years ago in Asia we were almost completely destroyed and we, as well as the other nations believed that that was our end and that there would never again be a Jewish nation. Later we awoke from our bitter dream of several hundred years and discovered that all the other great nations of Asia have disappeared forever and that the Jewish nation remained in existence.

Individuals, single isolated cases, yea, thousands of these if you wish, departed this world before their time and in a horrible manner because they were deficient in some of their spiritual requirements, but, as a nation in general, we remained in existence thank heaven. Today, once more, many nations have begun to persecute us and because of their cruelty Jewish blood is flowing like water. They think that it's only a matter of short while and we will disappear too. Many Jews who don't have the right faith also fear for our nation's future. But the “great miracle which occurs” is doing its work and it will in the future become with God’s help a “great miracle which occurred”. The coming generations will discover that both the big and small nations who tried to annihilate us were themselves exterminated and have disappeared forever but that the persecuted and tortured Jewish nation has remained.

Therefore let the current holiday of Chanukah serve as a comfort and encouragement for us in the present time of the new “Antiochuses” that we will with God’s help outlive them as well. Their terrible cruelty will boomerang and be spent on themselves. Although we find ourselves in such a bad predicament that there is no natural possibility for our rebirth as a nation in view; Although we are old and dried-up like an old woman of 90, nevertheless we have already gone through such a time before and like our mother, Sarah, became young again and there is no doubt that it can and will occur again, with God’s help.

“And with His mighty arm He has delivered the chosen ones, the might of Pharaoh and all his children sank to the bottom of the ocean like a heavy rock”.

In these words which we say every Chanukah lies the secret of the “great miracle”. God's “mighty arm” brings on the “great miracle” and God has sufficient pits into which to hurl all the Pharaohs and Antiochuses past and present.

As “Chasidei Chabad” and because we are now going to celebrate the holiday of deliverance of the 19th day of “Kislev” we should like to take this opportunity to remember also the “great miracle which occurred” through which the old rabbi, the author of the “Tanya” and compiler of the “Shulchan Aruch” Rabbi Schneer Zalman of Liady and afterward the second rabbi were freed from prison and the second “great miracle which occurred” before our very eyes through which our rabbi of Lubavitch was freed from the hands of present-day Russia.

The time of deliverance hadn't come yet in old Czarist Russia for the millions of other Jews who still had to suffer in exile. The time of deliverance still didn’t come for the few million remaining Jews, in present day Russia, who are being cleansed, may God help them, in the Red melting pot just like in old Egypt, because there were not and still are not as many pious Jews as there were in the time of the Chashmonoim, holy and pure men in whose merit the millions of Jews should be delivered, but there were a few such people and God did His part for them only. Between the few remaining holy and pious Jews the flowers of the Jewish nation were not neglected. The author of the “Tanya” and his second rabbi, as well as our own Rabbi of Lubavitch have witnessed the great miracle which occurred even in the darkest hours of our exile and the modern “Antiochuses” held no power over them.

Witnessing with our own eyes what a good God we have and how He protects the true “believers in Him” by opening all iron doors to free them, the great holiday of the 19th of “Kislev” becomes a bit beclouded by the thought of how easy it might be for the entire Jewish nation to be delivered if it only had just a little more than the few pious men; If all or even the majority only realized that they can bring on the great miracle whenever they want to! But we must suppose it was so desired that before the appropriate time Jews shouldn't discover their possibility. Let us hope however, that now is the proper time and that the great miracle will come of itself because of God’s benevolence and because we have already paid for our old and new sins more than enough!

Clouds of Glory during Hakhel Year 5776

See how Hashem is tightening the screws to hasten the Era of Redemption. He stirs up an enormous hurricane (“Patricia”) to raise the specter of potential terror. Had the hurricane come well into land, much of Mexico would have been devastated. Suddenly we open eyes to the possibility that millions more refugees will now stream into America from the South. The porosity of America’s borders with Mexico will now send shudders into many more minds and hearts.

The decay of America socially, economically and morally seems well on its way. Universities are becoming anti-Jewish; Cities across America are becoming “refuge sanctuary” cities where crimes go ignored; Torrents of illegal migrants are making their way into the heart of the country; The morale and religious backbone of the country is in tatters; Christians are losing their prominence; and “Every Jew is fair game!” shout the mullahs and shmullahs.

But despite the rising threats of invasion and chaos, and despite America's apparent tailspin towards Sodomite values, Jews have every reason to rejoice. True the Redemption picture as of now looks like it's only collectively at work, as some individual lives fall as sacrificial lambs (ה׳ ישמור), the rumblings of the oncoming ultimate Redemption cannot be ignored.

For the very contrary of a broad misery that bleakens the world today is happening in the Jewish quarter. To Jews worldwide the prospect of imminent redemption is palpable. Everywhere Jews exist today they enjoy the freedom to observe their religion to a tee. No longer do Jews suffer persecution under government sanction. Today when police escort Jews, they do so to protect them. Not too long ago the escort of police meant Jews were being transported to gas chambers.

Just as in ancient days just prior to their redemption, Jews were surrounded with God’s “Ananei Shemaya” to protect them against the Egyptian military onslaught, so too - today - in this process of Final Redemption, Jews worldwide (this time) are again protected by God’s “Clouds of Glory”. These clouds may not appear physically as they did back then, but they exist today around every Jew, by divine providence of events wherein he finds himself. The Jew is protected against the rising worldwide evil as evil exposes itself worldwide and as evil itself then swallows evil.

By “tightening the screws” I refer to the phenomenon referred to by the Previous Rebbe, who indicated this was exactly how Geulah will unfold (link). Groups of Jews will be streaming towards the Holy Land. In the end, all Jews will become observant of God’s Torah, only some before others, and the worldwide change in demographics and politics is setting up for Jews just that landscape and avenue to Israel.

That article’s link above starts out like this: “A deep secret every intelligent person must find interest in concerns the final Jewish Redemption and, particularly, the logistics of departure from the diaspora.” I invite you to read it.

As for America, the Rebbe has said, in his booklet “קונטרס בית רבינו שבבל”, that the Beit Hamikdash will first adjoin 770 Eastern Parkway, in Brooklyn NY(!), and therefrom be flown by Clouds of Glory to Jerusalem (however that actually manifests). That scenario itself guarantees America shall remain a safe and powerful haven until Moshiach’s exposition, which bids well for a good future for America, despite the grim outlook as of now with what looks like a Muslim usurper/anarchist having snatched the reins of its highest office.

But it all bodes well for Jews and may this Hakhel year finally bring the march to Jerusalem with upright pride, for every Jewish man, woman and child.

The Whys of the Wise

The Haggadah refers to "the 4 sons" about whom Torah speaks to. The wise son's mention is followed by mention of the wicked son.

Why this juxtaposition? Why aren't the 4 sons ordered from good to bad, so that better sons appear before the worst of them (such as the "simple one" or the "one that can't ask")?

Placing the wicked son next to the wise one comes to teach us, by way of hint, the great value there is in performing Torah's commandments in a simple, humble and unpretentious manner, in performing them without questioning. After all, Torah enjoins us, "Be faithfully simple with Your G-d" (Deut.18:13).

Even though the wise son asks questions - to dig deeper all the time to reach a more profound level of understanding, from which no harm can come, nevertheless, occasionally, like a double-edged knife that can turn on you, a multitude of questions can demonstrate the lack of a simple attitude, a lack of submission to the yoke of Torah. Questioning can on occasion become a slippery slope to slide off the good path, a means to justify wickedness, G-d forbid.

This juxtaposition, therefore, comes to suggest a warning. As the Previous Rebbe once overheard from elder chassidim, "The asking of WHY can sometimes arise from an impure instinct!" There can be a fine line between the whys of the wise and the whys of the Rasha.

The Truth about the Present Jewish Disaster

The following article appeared in an early edition of a magazine (June 1941, p.142) published by the Previous Rebbe during 1941-1945 entitled 

‪‬הקריאה והקדושה

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE PRESENT JEWISH DISASTER

The truth must finally be told, openly and without fear, however unpleasant the task!

The leaders of American Jewry, of all groups, are themselves astray, and they are leading their followers astray by uttering false prophecies!

Since last Tishrei, eight months ago, we have been rousing American Jewry to become aware that we are living in the last days before the Redemption. In various ways, earnestly and temperately, we have summoned our fellow Jews to return to our 13 holy Credos, indicating that we are near the end of the diaspora, that we are living through the era of pre-messianic travail, and that certain steps are necessary in order that the Jews in America should be saved from the same catastrophic fate as has overtaken the millions of Jews in Europe.

Every rabbi whose address we could obtain has received this monthly journal regardless of whether he paid for it. Thousands of Jews who attend at synagogues have received free copies. Our cry has been: We Jews are not like all the nations! We have special troubles, and our own special hope! We have our own Prophets of yore to guide us, and no need of the new, modern type who contradict themselves anew each day.

We have shown that it is impossible to say with the mouth "I believe that all the words of the Prophets are true" while at the same resting all Jewish hope on the scale of the coming world-peace, ignoring our Prophets and their promises concerning the coming of the Messiah.

We have advised American Jews to do their duty as loyal citizens, but not to forget the first Credo, that G-d rules the world, that He is the cause of all the events through which the final redemption of the Jewish people is being prepared. We have shown that no matter what the outcome of the present war, the Jewish Messiah is about to arrive - he is already standing within reach of us!

All this is published, black on white, in the eight issues of this journal. It is undeniable. But our spiritual leaders of all kinds have ignored our call. They have preached only the hope of the victory of the democracies, exactly as the non-Jewish world does, having no other hope. As a result, the American Jewish masses, from the frankly irreligious to the pious habitués of the synagogues, think of Jewish deliverance as depending solely on the defeat of Hitler. They have heard not a word from the Jewish spiritual leaders concerning the good news that the Messiah is about to appear. What they have heard, in fact, completely deprecates the genuinely Jewish hope of the coming of the Messiah, concerning which we have been writing!

Unhappily, the universal enemy refuses to do us the kindness to be defeated. He spreads the shadow of death over more countries and more millions of Jews. He lurks ready now even to destroy, Heaven forfend, the Jewish settlement in Palestine. Yet even now, great as the danger is that Britain may be defeated and America also attacked, our spiritual leaders cautiously avoid building our Jewish hope on the coming of the Messiah and the final deliverance!

At the recent convention of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis it was at last conceded that all hope of salvation through the course of world events was extinguished. A call was issued to fast, and recite Psalms, and pray to G-d that He should nullify the evil edicts, save Palestine, and speedily send the righteous Redeemer. But this call, as old as the diaspora, neither proclaims anything new nor can it accomplish any good in the bare state of its issuance; on the contrary, it may effect an injury to our cause!

American Jews, fed daily on a diet of wordly prospects, ignorant of the real cause of the world catastrophe, seeing only that the Jewish people is drowning in its own blood while G-d does not come to their aid, have lost all faith in G-d, in our Prophets, in the rabbis, and in the measures they propose to invoke: Divine help by penitence and prayer. The rabbis speak the same words as the world press, which is so abysmally ignorant that it has thus far been unable to foresee a single truth in the developments of the war. Why, then, should the Jews fast and pray at the call of the same rabbis who are blundering along without knowing the correct explanation of the Jewish disaster?

Without a proclamation by the rabbis that we are living on the eve of the era of redemption their call had to remain a voice crying in the wilderness. And that is what happened. American Jewry did not fast on the appointed day, they did not crowd the synagogues, they did not recite special Psalms. It was done in each synagogue only by the half-score elderly habitués who constitute the steady minyan, and who recite Psalms every day anyhow!

Soon there may be more bad news of the course of the war, and the same Jews who ignored the call of the rabbis will use it to deprecate the whole affair. They will not say that instead of fasting on the appointed day they ate trefah food as usual, and that far from reciting special Psalms they did not even once recite the Shema, nor donned tfillin, nor even thought of the daily prayers. They will say: "There you have the rabbis with their impractical measures -- they made a fast, with a day of Psalm-saying, and it has as much effect as cupping a corpse!"

When it came to answering the rabbinic call, nobody had even heard about it; but when it comes to casting up blame, hardly anybody will fail to remember it!

Imagine what might have happened if the several hundred rabbis at their convention had issued a manifesto announcing the approach of the final deliverance and proclaiming that the present Jewish sufferings are pre-messianic travail. How the various classes of Jews might have been roused! How they would have discussed it in homes, shops, offices! How it would have been publicized by the entire press so that every person would know about it!

The synagogue would have been crowded. Thousands of Jews, even the non-observant, would have fasted and joined in the recitation of Psalms. The call would have been appropriate -- and likewise the Divine response.

The rabbis in convention did not issue the announcement of the impending redemption because they do not know as yet that we are on the verge of this great event! Otherwise they would surely have proclaimed it! Did they not publicly weep because of the universal travail? If they saw in all this suffering the pre-messianic travail they would surely have revealed to the despairing Jewish masses this only consolation!

Therefore the Jewish masses say: "G-d is high up in heaven; the promised deliverance is far off; so we must look for salvation from other sources." Meanwhile they send the Torah back to Sinai ....

On the same day as it carried the rabbinic call to fast and recite Psalms the press published the news that 31 Jews recently were converted to Catholicism in New York. We know from other sources that thousands of Jews have gone over to Christian Science. For the Christian missionaries know how to use the present situation to build up the advent of their own Messiah. It remains for Jewish children to learn from them the "answer" to the question why the Jews are suffering so much. The pious Christian answer is that it is due to failure to accept the Christian Messiah who is about to appear!

Our Jewish spiritual leaders are preoccupied with partisan politics. Each one is busy building his castles on the exile-soil which, meanwhile, is being dug away from underneath their very feet! Our spiritual leaders are practical men who cannot be bothered with the "dream" of deliverance through the coming of the Messiah.

Jewish young people are forced to seek and find a messiah among the Christians, for in their own homes they never hear their parents speak a word about Messiah! Jewish parents must seek and find a Messiah in the newspapers; and they see one in Churchill and other non-Jewish statesmen, for they hear a word about it from the rabbis!

We know now, unhappily, that as late as at the beginning of the month of Iyar, 5701, a convention of hundreds of rabbis was afraid to mention to American Jewry our eight-months-old announcement that we Jews are nearing the final redemption!

We also know now, unhappily, that the American rabbinate, ignoring our call to prepare for the swiftly oncoming redemption, give consent-by-silence to the belief of the Jewish masses that our salvation depends on non-Jewish savior a -- a false, misleading, and dangerous assumption. It is contrary to all that out Prophets and Sages taught. Only fraudulent messianic movements are forbidden -- but not belief in imminent redemption, which we maintain because it is the purest truth. We say it daily in our prayers: "And even though the Messiah delays to come, we expect his arrival every day!" Unfortunately American Jews have no room in their hearts for this Credo because their spiritual leaders tell them about salvation and relief through other means than the Jewish Messiah. Their spiritual leaders preach new credos to them: "I believe in Churchill; I believe in democracy; and I believe in the coming of the world-peace!"

According to the spiritual leaders of American Jewry we are nowhere near the final redemption, for they themselves do not mention the subject to the people, and our call has remained ignored as a dream which holds no interest for such practical leaders as they are!

According to our proclamation we are indeed near to the final redemption; and according to our warning it is rather the practicality of all the practical people which is the product of vain dreams and ineptitude!

According to our call and warning much more is now necessary than to pray to G-d to nullify the evil decrees and send us the righteous redeemer. It is time, indeed, for sincere penitence, for a new and earnest, voluntary and joyous, acceptance of the Torah. For the Messiah is coming soon, even though he is not expected. But the thunders and lightnings preceding his arrival, necessary in order to cause American Jewry to say again "We will do and heed," are a much more dangerous affair than our spiritual leaders imagine. To pray to G-d to recall the evil edicts is now insufficient. These are not ordinary evils intended to punish sinners; they are to force them to repent! The pre-messianic travails can be avoided only through a new, speedy, voluntary re-acceptance of the Torah, together with a new and speedy return to the sacred old Credos!

We have assumed and we accept the full responsibility for our pronouncement. In a very brief time, G-d willing, American Jewry will be convinced that only our call and warning are true and timely. But it may be too late for many who still let themselves be misled by false prophecies!

We announce and we warn that the time is very short, and that the single greatest Jewish trouble is the complete indifference of American Jewry to the true hope of deliverance, and it's total unpreparedness for the swiftly approaching final redemption which out generation is destined to experience!

The truth about the Jewish disaster is that which our Prophets and Sages told us in advance: the pre-messianic travail at the approach of the final redemption!

If the American Jews will refuse to rouse themselves bedtimes from their lethargy, refuse to recognize the truth, and persist in consoling themselves with the patent nostrums of false prophecies of salvation through the coming world-peace, we can only regret the great price they will have to pay for being revived from their torpor by violence. To those, however, who wish to have their eyes open, and who do not wish to have their hearts shut fast against the truth, we bring the good and joyous news that the present world darkness is the ninth plague; but one more after this -- the plague of the first-born -- and then the bright final redemption will come. All these dark powers which now seek to seize the world's birthright and to rule over all mankind by brute force will be wiped off G-d's world; the Jewish people will then by means of great miracles and wonders be freed from its exile status; and the prophecy will be fulfilled: "He will annihilate death forever; and Almighty G-d will wipe the tears off all faces, and He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; thus hath G-d spoken!" (Isaiah 25:8)

No new disasters should now dismay Jewish hearts! No new upsurge of anti-Semitic waves and evil decrees should cause the Jewish people to despair! Let Jews from now on greet each other with the joyous greeting, "To the nearing redemption!" No matter how bad things may become at the last hour, let every Jewish man and woman remember that the Jewish people is not breathing its last but that the world is in labor giving birth to twins: A new Jewish nation and a new Jewish land!

Concerning our times the Prophet tells us: "A tumult comes out of every city, it sounds from every temple; it is the sound of G-d, avenging Himself upon His enemies: With a fore-pain for the woman in childbirth, with an earlier onset of pains to her that is about to give birth to a male child. But who has heard such a thing, who has ever seen such as these, that a whole land should be racked in one day? that a whole nation should be born at one time? -- This will be heard after Zion shall have labored and brought forth her children!" (Isaiah 66:6-8)

The Redeemer of Zion and Jerusalem, the Almighty, is about to come and deliver His land and cause the rebirth of His people. The labor-pains have begun, but they shall not endure for long!

This and no other is the truth about the present Jewish disaster!

To the nearing redemption!

Who were the Erev Rav? (part 4 of 4)

A few among the Erev Rav, those who stand at the tip of every outcast Jewish movement, most probably have non-Jewish roots! These have been bastardized in foreign nations via some former mixed-marriages, or via sin, by mistake or purposely. But the rest of the Erev Rav are kosher Jewish children. The Jews are being misled through their ignorance. They do not grasp that their misleaders make them lose both worlds.

Both worlds indeed! This very expression is important to remember; Not only the world-to-come are the mislead made to lose, but actually this physical world as well, because, undeniably, when an accumulation of misled Jews reaches a critical mass within the Jewish nation, a new inquisition appears on the scene, a new Haman, where the Jewish nation loses blood. At such times all Jews suffer, including the non-misled, because the latter are also guilty for not having fought the Erev Rav with full vigor and earnestness.

In the outcome, however, genuine Torah-true Jews survive, while the Erev Rav factions entirely perish. Of all sorts of Hellenists in Jewish history, no traces remain. Only those Jews remain who keep tugging the Jewish fiber.

In our days [1942], everyone knows very well that again a horrifying "ביעור חמץ", "burning of the leaven" is transpiring today to exterminate the spiritual contamination amid the Jewish nation, and therefore confronts the present-day Erev Rav with the logical call to consider what they are doing. The punishment that Jews suffer therefrom the Erev Rav cannot avert because the Hitlers and Coughlins offer no noble status for Jews who broke away from Judaism. The anti-Semites even pursue and send to ghettos and concentration camps children and children's children of converts.

So to what sin must the Erev Rav/political provocateurs hold on to, in their skirmish against Judaism, to set themselves up for extinction; When, in fact, with an about-face back to their own Jewish people and to Torah and faith, these provocateurs can be rescued from downfall?

We ask them, do they not yet see that Egypt has forsaken them, or that they can no longer persist with their foul play? We remind them they have only one choice -- to remain faithful Jews and live in Jewish communities -- or fall in the desert!

We regret their ripping themselves away for a downfall when so easily they can avoid it. Finally we remind them the Erev Rav emerged from Egypt together with the Jews -- and did not suffer a downfall! Those Erev Rav who left Egypt changed their minds before the Plague of Darkness, during which time the real evil ones, the leaders, perished. Those that left Egypt shook off their resistance sooner and committed themselves to drop their leadership, to go with the Jews and become elevated with the entire Jewish nation. So why present-day mislead ones fall deeper instead of fetching for themselves an opportunity?

These sound assertions every Jew can learn from. It must become clear that today too we have an Erev Rav -- and that they are all kosher sons and daughters, except that they are misled by a few obstructionists to adopt every viewpoint that no Jew shares -- by actual Gentiles who have no Jewish soul, by "Nefilim", as the Zohar calls them, fallen into our midst from Gentile derivation -- and therefore these leaders are so strongly drawn to Gentileness, so strongly wanting to prevent anything that smacks of Jewishness. These misleaders are the true evil ones among the Jews and every Jew must run away from them lest they get dragged away by them to their deaths and to Hell. These very evil people are to be found everywhere; They are among the rabbis, among union workers, among journalists, among the most intimate movements, even among the synagogue leaders and other leaderships. As our sages tell us, on the eve of the Era of Moshiach, the Erev Rav will occupy the best Jewish leadership positions, which is why that generation's face will be the face of a dog.

Jews, sons of Avrohom, Yitzchok and Yakov, use your built-in, congenital sense and smell out these "canine personalities" and -- flee from them.

Who were the Erev Rav? (part 3 of 4)

God told Avrohom, "Through Yitzchok will pass your descendants". Yitzchok locked out Esav and passed on Avrohom's blessings to Yaakov. Yaakov, proud of all his righteous children, received the inheritance derived from Avrohom's blessings. During his lifetime, Moshe counted each tribe a few times and precisely recorded every paternal family's numbers. Before his passing, Moshe blessed each tribe separately. It was he whom God sent to the Jewish people. He spoke to the Jewish people. The prophets punished the Jewish people. King David in his Psalms speaks of the forefathers and refers to the Jewish people as "The Children of Israel", "The Tribes of Yeshurun", "The Tribes of Israel". Nowhere in Torah is even one word spoken of an alleged Gentile presence among the Erev Rav, whom some venture to say constituted more than half the Jewish population!

Among those who left Egypt, the Torah speaks of one solitary son of a Jewish mother and Egyptian father. Torah mentions both his lineage and his bitter end, because the man cursed Hashem. Torah says "And he was the son of an Egyptian among the Children of Israel"; One son of an Egyptian among all the Jewish people! How could Torah have said this had there been among the Jews, in fact, millions of Egyptians?

According to Torah, the Prophets, the Holy Books and the sages, the Erev Rav were a Jewish lot! This is why Moshe took them along - and suffered from them. This is also why they were able to raise trouble among other Jews, even to persuade the making of a Golden Calf; Because back in Egypt this bunch happened to be among the famous, assimilated and influential politicians.

Even though the Erev Rav were unworthy, many of their children became much better Jews, just as Korach had good children who remained alive and became important members of the Jewish nation.

Neither Yishmael's progeny nor that of Esav wanted to accept the Torah, even though they too descended from Shem and from our forefathers. Only the Jews proclaimed "We shall do and we shall understand!" (נעשה ונשמע). For this reason they became God's chosen people and merited all sorts of praise by the prophets and sages.

No reason in the world exists to think that particularly the children of Cham - Egyptians - took Torah upon themselves together with the children of Avrohom, Yitzchok and Yaakov - and even in greater numbers! The Prophets warned Jews of Egyptians; They described Egyptians as "flesh as the flesh of donkeys and their ejaculate quantity as that of horses!" Had Egyptians constituted the Erev Rav, why were Jews so proud of their forefathers if Cham's children outdid the Jews quantitatively for recognizing Hashem's unity and adopting the Torah of Moshe?!

"Erev Rav" means an excessive mixture, Jews who excessively mixed with the other nations, and excessively differed from each other. They were idealists, but with nothing that bonded them to the Jewish people. Not only did we have such a mishmash group in Egypt, but we have an exact copy of them here today in America! Take together all those various sorts of Jewish isms, all those who tore away from Judaism for one reason or another, from the wealthy assimilationist to the poor Yevsektsian, and you have no other name by which to call this bunch besides "Erev Rav" - a large mixture; Because they stand for hundreds of ideals as if they belonged to hundreds of different nations.

The kind of Erev Rav as we have today, we certainly had in Egypt, an age that preceded the giving of the Torah. They distance themselves from the authentic Jewish people - but Jewish they are! They join in with non-Jewish churches - but born as Gentiles they never were!

For some reasons, this segment of the Jewish nation finds itself with no sense for which most Jews had suffered for much of their lives, for which most Jews would sooner be burned alive than submit. This portion, in whom the core affiliation with Judaism is absent, is strongly assimilated, confused and mixes with many foreign ideologies and mannerisms, actually willing to sacrifice their own lives for the foreign ideologies and even for foreign nations. These are Jewish children who betray their own nation in the interests of modern Egypts! A few, like the wealthy assimilationists, think only for the benefit of the nations wherein they find themselves, while others, like the impoverished Communists, become obsessed with the like of a foreign "Red Russia". Only for their own Jewish people they possess no spark of love or consideration. Unfortunately, this Erev Rav in fact seeks a Jewish holocaust and would happily squander away the Jewish nation's existence!

These facts everybody knows. To understand such people for a few is near impossible. But we here will not touch the explanatory rationale of this bizarre phenomenon. We only want to mention the essential fact - that we presently also have such Judaism-hating elements today that tear from our flesh, spit us in the face, either from a religious or political perspective, or from a national one. This is our Erev Rav, who drag our children to all sorts of isms, to Godless grade schools, to all sorts of conversions, to spread enmity to Jewish Torah and its faith.

(Part 4 of 4: Here)

Who were the Erev Rav? (part 2 of 4)

The former questions, and innumerably more one can ask - really are not questions at all - because the Erev Rav actually constituted a mixture of assimilated and foreign-minded Jews! Only an insignificant number of actual converts were scattered in their midst, and of these the Torah tells us nothing.

This mass of Jewry that accompanied the Jews who left Egypt the Torah calls Erev Rav. They were a mixture of foreign-minded Jews who, at the time of exodus, stood distant from devoted Jews. They were truly from the lineage of Avrohom, Yitzchok and Yakov, but grossly assimilated. They were a riffraff of arbitrary and whimsical thinkers.

Even today we have such a bunch, and when Moshiach will come to redeem the Jewish majority he will surely apply the same name, Erev Rav, to those Jews torn away by Communistic doctrine, anarchist rationale, socialistic beliefs, or break-away mindsets, whom today Hitler is chasing back into their ranks! Among these we can include the Reform movement or other torn-away heretics. If after the birth pangs of Moshiach such Jews remain, they will probably want to follow all the Jews. They will certainly be called Erev Rav, and Moshiach will certainly have to let them tag along, just as Moshe had no heart to stop them from tagging along.

This is how we must understand it, and are permitted to understand it, because nowhere does Torah say among those who left Egypt more than half were Gentiles. Had, in fact, a large mass of Gentiles actually accompanied the Jews, our sages would probably have created a separate tractate and called "Masechet Erev Rav".

The fact is, our sages do not call this group attached to the Jews as "Gentiles"; They use the specific term Erev Rav!

Everything Torah tells us about the generation in the desert simply does not dovetail with an exodus that comprised a majority of Gentiles.

Regarding several rabble-rousers or malcontents, Torah conveys to us their stories, telling us they were Jewish. The spies were Jewish. Korach and his company were Jewish. Datan and Aviram - Jewish. According to those who would cast several million Gentile bastards among 600,000 Jews, would mean that only Jews were the bad ones and trouble-makers, whereas the Gentiles happened to be Moshe's most loyal adherents; After all, Torah never reports (except the single incident of the Ish Mitzri) how any convert made so much as a peep against Moshe! How odd that Torah deems so worthy to tell about all those "sinful" Jews, as their misdeeds are repeatedly told and recounted, yet never does Torah see fit to breathe one word about the millions of "righteous" Gentile converts!

Certainly Moshe felt grief from his Erev Rav. A third of Jews, at most, were faithful Jews, believers in the ways of their forefathers; Two-thirds, on the other hand, were Egyptian assimilationists and foreign ism worshippers. The latter called themselves "Moshe's Erev Rav" because faithful Jews would gladly have left them behind. Perhaps it's also true God Himself did not want to expressly say these people should be taken along and left it up to Moshe, but definitely these were a Jewish flock.

The Torah speaks nothing of Gentiles among Jews who left Egypt. It makes sense and we can understand that Moshe had no good reason to take along more than 3 million Gentiles together with the 600,000 Jews. But he certainly did have a good reason to take along all Jews without exception, as well as a small number of Kosher Egyptians who submitted to servitude to the Jews. The Holy Zohar states this expressly: It tells us the converts stayed next to the sheep outside the encampments, and these were sustained by their Jewish masters.

(‫'‬דיהבין לון ישראל כמאן דיהיב לעבדיה‫'‬    כי תשא דף קצא‫:‬ב)

We can therefore conclude the Erev Rav were Jewish and among these a small number of converts came along who probably, still in Egypt, befriended some assimilated Jews.

Those who account for converts among those who left Egypt are correct - but they surely do not speak about the entire Erev Rav! R' Yishmael, R' Akiva and R' Yonanssan speak of the Erev Rav and their large numbers without mentioning one word about converts! They meant to say faithful Jews, faithful as their forefathers, numbered no more than 600,000, whereas the majority who left Egypt had assimilated and were distant from the faith. Other commentators who speak of converts furnish no numbers; They speak generally, as did the Rashbi, saying converts lived outside the camps, and for whom Manna did not fall, and that these were sustained by leftovers of the Manna that fell for Jews. From this alone it's understandable their numbers were small - because nearly 4 million converts could not possibly be sustained from leftovers of 600,000 Jews!

(Part 3 of 4: Here)

Who were the Erev Rav? (part 1 of 4)

The following article (translated roughly from Yiddish), written in 1942 (May, p.326-9, הקריאה והקדושה), under the auspices of the Previous Rebbe, appeared at a time when Europe was convulsing in the throes of WWII, while Jews were being murdered by the millions.

The Rebbe here explains the term "Erev Rav" - a term many Jews, until today, still get wrong. I segment his article into 4 parts. By the 4th segment you'll understand the connection between the Erev Rav and the Holocaust.

___________

In only five simple words Torah neatly dispenses with the entire issue of the Erev Rav:
וגם ערב רב עלה אתם
A big mix joined them.

How many were they? R' Yishmael reckons there were 1,200,000 of them. R' Akiva says there were 2,400,000; And R' Yonanssan sets their count to 3,600,000! The Mechilta says "twice as many as made the exodus", which could mean twice 600,000 - or much more if women, children and elderly were included!

And what were their demographics? Here too opinions vary. Holy Rashi believes "they were converts from variegate nations". The Midrash, in a few places, says they were "Kosher Egyptians". The Zohar (191:1) says they were "Egyptian Magicians".

During processions through the desert, or when camped, where did they hang out? Rashbi says "the Clouds of Glory did not embrace them [i.e., they dwelt outside the camp proper], and in procession they followed after the livestock." "The Manna", he says, "did not descend for them; They would get their food from leftovers Jews gave them."

Besides the above inconclusive data, many questions remain on all the above standpoints. It makes no sense Egypt had in their midst that many "Kosher" Egyptians; Or that many "Magicians". And why does Torah remain silent about them; Like, did they or did they not circumcise themselves? Or, how did they fit into familial accounting, if at all, or where was their place in the Jewish encampment? Did they marry, have children? Did they enter Eretz Yisroel in disregard of the law that Egyptians must not merge with the Jewish community until the 3rd generation? For if they did enter, this could mean the genuine Jews became diluted with 5 or 10 times 600,000 converts - a fact that's hardly credible.

After the Golden Calf affair, when Moshe prayed for the Jewish people, his main argument based itself on Jewish lineage with their forefathers. He said they were descendants of Avrohom, Yitzchok and Yakov. He said not one word about converts that led astray the Jewish people. When Moshe ordered the Levite tribe to kill those who worshipped the Golden Calf, he said to kill "a man his brother", a man his friend and a man his relative". Later, when he praised these Levites, he spoke of killing "a man his own son and a man his own brother". This means those who died were Jews! Nothing was said of converts who died. What our sages did tell us was the Erev Rav bore responsibility for persuading the Jews to stray, and that Moshe brought them out of Egypt on his own accord.

When prophets, later in history, punished the Jews, they reminded the nation of their illustrious forefathers:
‪.‬"הביטו אל צור חצבתם ... אל אברהם ... ואל שרה"
Certainly the prophets could not have said this had the Jewish nation absorbed 3 million Egyptians, converts or other nationalities. That the Holy Books make refer to the Jewish nation with terms such as
"שבטי ישורון" , "בית יעקב" or "שבטי ישראל",
proves their familial lineage stems from Jewish forefathers. Had the Jewish people been a minority among those who left Egypt, then a few generations later it would have been impossible to lay claim to the pure pedigree of the Jewish forefathers that ran in their blood.

Otherwise, the Jewish people would not have been a nation but some mass of people clinging to a Moses-given religion, tugging about after him in the desert. What purpose could it have served the true children of Yakov to submit to persecution when foreign converts got the same privileges with no hardships to endure and no sorrow to taste? Why did God never once mention anything to Moshe about taking converts out of Egypt - when all God ever spoke about were the children of Israel and His promise to the forefathers?

Can anyone really believe the Erev Rav who dragged the Jews into all the quarrels in the desert were actually real Gentiles; Or that Jews would allow themselves to be so influenced by Gentiles? Or, that Moshe would refuse to send them away (but rather took upon himself they should come along)? Or that Korach and his cohorts, his family and the many Jewish leaders he influenced, God allowed be swallowed by the earth, but Gentile converts God wouldn't touch? Or, had Gentiles actually wanted to convert, that they would then have the audacity to oppose Moshe?

Many more questions remain on the Erev Rav topic had their real origin been from conversion. But the main question would involve the bond God made with the forefathers, as when God told them their descendants will be "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." If 5 or 10 times that many converts shared the paternal privileges accorded Jews, then the entire covenant made with Avrohom, and the promise "for your children shall be strangers in a land not theirs" (כי גר יהיה זרעך בארץ לא להם ...)‬ would amount to nil!

This is what Christians say in their teachings - that one need not be from Avrohom's lineage in order to be "The Chosen People". It's enough, they say, to be spiritual children of Avrohom. They make this claim so they can thereby take over the special status of being "The Chosen People".

(Part 2 of 4: Here)

Yossele Rosenblatt with the Previous Rebbe

Reb Yossele Rosenblatt visited the Previous Rebbe in Warsaw in 5688 [1938] after the Rebbe had just left Russia. Those present expected that he would sing. However, he understood from the Rebbe’s facial expression that he did not want that.

When he left the Rebbe’s presence and went into a side room, he met the Rebbe’s daughters and sang something in front of them. He had a very strong voice and was heard in the next room where the Rebbe was. Afterwards, the Rebbe said, “Er hot mir aroisgenumen fun atzvus, er zugt gut, er ken pirush hamilos” (He took me out of depression. He says well. He knows the meaning of the words).

(I heard this from my good friend Reb Shneur Zalman Baumgarten, who heard it from his uncle Reb Sholom Ber Hacohen Eichorn, who witnessed the story.)

In the year 5690, the Previous Rebbe visited America and stayed in Brooklyn for Shmini Atzeres.

During the Yom Tov, the famous Chazan Reb Yossele Rosenblatt walked from the Bronx, where he lived, to visit the Rebbe. The walk took him many hours. When he arrived, the Rebbe honored him to sing several pieces of chazonus. When he finished, the Rebbe turned to Reb Zalman Havlin – who sang nigunim with Heavenly sweetness - and said, “vaizt vos ir kent” (demonstrate what you can do). Reb Zalman sang several niggunim.

When he concluded, Reb Yossele said, “Ir mit eire nigunim macht finster mayne chazonus” (You, with your nigunim, darken [comparatively] my chazonus.)

(Reb Shneur Zalman Baumgarten heard this story from the elder chasidim Reb Shlomo Aharon Kazarnovsky and Reb Eliyahu Nochum Sklar, of blessed memory.)

Reprinted from Vert-a-lach (43) by Eliezer Zalmanov

The Role of Every Jew

Wherever we turn we are apt to encounter moral filth. The world is drenched in lewdness, falsity, violence, corruption - all things impure.

A Jew might think God's plan actually requires this omnipresence of decadence, therefore he can hardly expect to change it; Better, he figures, he should minimize his contact with the outside presence and immerse himself entirely in prayer and study, living a religious hermit's life.

Says the Previous Rebbe, creation of the world began with an atmosphere of purity and sanctity. Decadence never was built in. Decadence resulted only as an addition, as a result of the sin involving the Tree of Knowledge. On the contrary, the very purpose of creation was so God's presence would ultimately yield maximum exposure in this human habitat. The Jew is expected to interact with the world and not withdraw therefrom, to elevate it to its ultimate purpose.

Well then, if the world began in pure form, and has as its goal a pure and even loftier purpose, we can conclude the current state of affairs, being transitory and temporary, bears no consequence on the world's ultimate state because the essence of the world - intrinsically - constitutes purity.

With this logic applied to the individual, we can turn the religious hermit's reasoning inside-out. Since the body, once a man passes away and his soul departs from it, undergoes rot and decomposition, then what good does it do, all during life, to try refine and sanctify himself, when no trace of it will remain after death?

The answer lies in the fact that God chose the Jewish people to provide for God an eternal "home" on earth. This act of "choosing", by itself, brands the target of choice with an attribute it never had before the choosing. Before the choosing, Jews and Gentiles had bodies and souls that were equivalent, on par with each other. But the moment the choosing was executed, the Jewish body gained sanctity and it also gained an extra soul that was implanted.

The purpose of creation is for God's Torah to be established on earth as the manual by which all Jews will ultimately serve God so that God can "dwell in their presence", so that God can "feel at home" among His people. It will be a time when we will have extra dimensions of perception to perceive a more revealing God Almighty. Righteous Gentiles who will participate in that world-to-come will also subserve this reality as they commit themselves to the 7 Noahide Laws that Torah dictates for them.

So the body of the Jew does NOT vanish. Those who passed away will again be reincarnated.

Well then, why bother doing the commandments, especially with eagerness and gusto, in this world if Jews receive eternal life? Says the Previous Rebbe, because every Jew plays a vital role in bringing this Era of Redemption to bear, and the sooner they accomplish them, the sooner that Era dawns.

Is it Time to Turn On the Pressure?

There needs to be some "trigger" for the Redemption to take place that will finally get all Jews aboard the bandwagon wishing to see that era materialize. Because as of now, plenty of Jews are just fine with WHERE they are and with WHAT they are doing and with HOW things are going rather smoothly for them. These Jews cannot be bothered with a quaint mystical concept heavy on the spirituality but light on physicality. They cannot deal with a prospect that trivializes secularity and holds the same prognosis for money as it does for dust. The magnificence of that utopia attracts them much as would a doomsday.

We can learn something about that "trigger" if we reflect upon the 10th of Tevet, when the Babylonians set a siege around Jerusalem - which then led to the breach of its walls, the burning of Jerusalem, the 1st exile of the Jews, the Second Temple's lesser status and the final, longest exile ever, which exists until today.

The Rebbe explains how Hashem brought the cure of the plague even before He brought the plague. The cure was the siege itself of that day. The siege should have served to promote unity among Jews. Furthermore, it could have provided an atmosphere imbued with holiness.

Being surrounded should have spawned unity and free love among fellow Jews, and the fear of heaven could have supplemented their unity with sacred worship.

The plague was the breach into Jerusalem and the awful sequel of events, that propagated until our present day. Had they behaved in a desirable way, the exiles could have well been eliminated.

In other words, because they were surrounded and had no place to go but stay within the city's walls, and because the atmosphere in Jerusalem gave tangible expression of God's presence, the situation was actually quite ripe and amenable to express to another Jew your brotherly love. And because the first Beit Hamikdash stood in all its glory, in a city that reverberated with fear of God, that brotherly love could have been enhanced with religious activity.

Like when Hashem first just made it rain, hoping the people would abandon their evil ways, before turning on the faucets full blast to bring the Great Flood. The siege should have been enough of a signal and incentive to turn away from transgression, but alas here we are today yearning for another chance to commune with Jews and God in a holy union.

Perhaps then, because many Jews are outside the circle of this yearning state, and that includes many of us who express that yearning more from the lips outward than from within, God will create a situation that will force us to rethink our desire to stick it out in exile.

Just how that will manifest I have no idea, but a situation may well come about to strongly hint to us that we must abandon the exile mentality and be ready to pack our bags. Instead of just a hint, Hashem may even begin twisting our arms.

However Hashem creates this trigger, the sooner the better.

By the way, the Previous Rebbe speaks of this "turning up the pressure" phenomenon as the logistics involved in bringing about the Era of Ultimate Redemption - here.

Elul and the Actual Redemption

The following editorial, entitled "Elul and Redemption", appeared in the final edition of a magazine published by the Previous Rebbe
(הקריאה והקדושה, Sept. 1945, p. 780) - roughly translated from Yiddish.

A deep secret every intelligent person must find interest in concerns the final Jewish Redemption and, particularly, the logistics of departure from the diaspora. Even deniers of our Final Redemption - as per the prophets and sages - really believe Jews will eventually attain some sort of independence in Israel being as a nation among equal nations, but how great a percentage of Jews will depart from their lands of exile, and under what circumstances this will occur - this they know not. Similarly, faithful Jewish believers know not how the Final Redemption will unfold, whether it will arrive suddenly and completely, or slowly and piecemeal. Be this as it may, it's difficult to imagine Jews will evacuate their exiled lands en masse at one time, as happened in the exodus from Egypt.

Elul, the month of penitence, and the prophet Isaiah, in chapter 52, give us an answer to all the above questions, and a precise picture of how the final exodus from exile will manifest. Nobody must make the mistake that Isaiah's divine prophecy merely suggests a possible scenario of the future. It is of utmost urgency for every Jew to familiarize himself with this scenario, which is in fact a precise picture of the exodus from exile, and however more quickly and not to forget it for a minute!

Here we will present the facts and let them speak for themselves.

In chapter 52, Isaiah speaks of a time when, in Jerusalem, the tip of the Redemption begins to appear. It will be a time when the Jewish guard will proclaim to the Jewish nation, "Your God reigns!" (!מלך אלקיך); "Your God has taken over the kingdom!" It will be when all the world's nations will marvel at the great, divine help rendered to the Jewish nation (see too the chapter's first half and following chapters).

From this we can easily understand in Eretz Yisroel the Jewish redeemer will suddenly appear and miraculously he will free the entire state , establishing a Jewish kingdom and calling all Jews of the world to come home! Most likely, then, all Jews will be free to leave their domiciles, otherwise it would be foolish to issue them the invitation.

It is this time period for which the prophet instructs us how to respond to the call, and for this reason he paints for us a picture how the exodus will proceed. He tells it to us in two short verses (11,12). Twenty-seven words that contain the entire secret of the Jewish Redemption, the entire program of exodus from exile. It tells HOW we will depart; WHO will depart, and what will happen to those who do NOT depart! This compact, rich content provides the passport without which no Jew can leave without, one every Jew himself will write, knowing precisely what he must write therein.

" סורו סורו צאו משם טמא אל תגעו צאו מתוכה הברו נשאי כלי ד׳ "
"כי לא בחפזון תצאו ובמנוסה לא תלכון כי הולך לפניכם ד' ומאספכם אלקי ישראל"

"Turn away, turn away; Go out from there; Impurity do not touch; Go out of it; Cleanse yourselves, carriers of God's vessel.
For not in haste will you depart; Nor by flight will will you go; For God goes before you, and the God of Israel gathers you up from behind."

These words seem superficial or practically incomprehensible. First the prophet says "Get out from there" - telling us to leave exile. But then he says we won't be leaving in haste, nor by flight, and we'll have to wait for God who gathers us to lead us out.

And, were we to leave on our own, without waiting for God's lead, then it will anyhow happen slowly, so what sense is there in urging us to "Get out"? And so - how do we get out?

And how does a Jew's impurity or purification relate to a non-hasty departure? "Cleanse yourselves ... for not in haste will you depart" seems to say we can make a hasty exit without cleansing ourselves. And what about those who cleansed themselves already beforehand? Why should these be restrained from a hasty getaway?

The prophet could have just said, "For not in haste will you depart, for God will go before you." Instead, the prophet injected the issue of cleansing as somehow associated with a non-hasty exit!

The meaning of both verses is simple. By "Turn away, turn away", the prophet refers to two types of "turning away". Then he immediately tells what he means by these. The first "turning away" is, "Impurity do not touch". That is, turn away from tangible impurities, as from non-kosher, intermarriage, from family-purity laws, and other corporeal impurities.

The second "turn away" refers to "Cleanse yourselves, carriers of God's vessel". This means turn away from spiritual impurities of the soul. Jews are carriers of a Godly soul; They must therefore turn away from all false ideologies, from all the "isms", from their trust in non-Torah cultures and foreign gods. They must self-cleanse by penitence and a return to Torah and the practice of its mitzvot.

On both these demands the prophet strongly urges the Jews because every Jew will have to satisfy them. His argument is furthermore twofold.

"For not in haste ... will you go". Firstly, the redemption will be a slow one. At the very beginning, only the cleansed ones will be redeemed - those who turned away from both types of impurity. Those NOT YET cleansed will remain behind, getting more time to "return" and to self-cleanse.

Secondly, thereafter, God Himself will take the initiative to gather in the remaining diaspora. This means, He will apply such means that will leave no Jew any other choice but to either self-cleanse or, God forfend, go under! "For God goes before you!" God will stand before you prepared to take in all those cleansed and lead them to join those earlier redeemed - to Eretz Yisroel. "And the God of Israel gathers you up from behind". And behind all those as yet uncleansed in the exile lands, the God of the Jews will do the ingathering. The "God of Israel" means God will gather in those not yet entirely lost to Judaism, those still amenable to persuasive action to come clean. It's self-evident that AFTER God's ingathering, nobody of redeeming value will remain behind. Those who won't want to purify themselves or won't be able to, will perish.

Here then is the deepest secret - the scenario of the Final Redemption, of the new Egyptian exodus from all exile lands. We will have a very bright rejuvenation through wonders and miracles in the liberated Land of Israel, which will be marvelled at by all nations of the world. A difficult situation in all exile lands will be avoidable for all Jews who resolve to repent and thereby become redeemed to a happy life in Eretz Yisroel. A time when a long chain of groups of happy, emigrating Jews, who cleansed themselves of bodily and spiritual impurities to become fit to join a Torah-inspired Jewish collective in the Holy Land. The earlier a Jew self-cleanses of impurities, the sooner he'll be freed from exile and lead into Eretz Yisroel. This will happen with the very last ones, after which no single Jew will remain in exile lands. Israel will of course resist absorbing into itself someone unjustifiably, because blessed God will be the gatherer and the leader of this exodus.

The deep idea of redemption is thus the idea of true penitence, the same that stands behind the the calling of the month of Elul every year - to strive to do penitence. Had all Jews done this sincerely whenever since the Temple's destruction , they would surely have been redeemed. Instead, they could not make up for the great sin for which the destruction occurred. We thus had to wait for redemption to arrive at its own pace, in its due time - which will, according to the prophets, occur slowly. Not all Jews shall be redeemed quickly, together, at one time. Instead it will proceed in groupings, each group redeemed as per their earlier or later decontamination of impurities in body and soul. And the very last group will be forced into it via a heavy dose of needless adversity, God help them.

This year's Elul, taking place in the Era of Redemption, unfolding in its due time now, gives every Jew the best oppotunity to book himself for the front rows among those who will be first redeemed among Jewry, speedily in our days! There are and shortly will be more than enough proof that the Jewish guard will soon herald the redemption officially with the words "Your God reigns!". For those more alert will be privileged to achieve quicker results; "First come, first served!" Those sooner redeemed will be able to claim for generations that they enjoyed this privilege among all the Jews.

Elul calls for penitence. And the prophet warns us that only through penitence can the final redemption arrive; And only via penitence can it be decided who will constitute the first wave of the redeemed, who the following waves and who the last wave. Every Jew can, and will, himself write his own passport and his own position among the camp of the redeemed coming to Eretz Yisroel at Redemption time, soon in our days.

If someone, meanwhile, wants NOT to understand this, it's his own fault and responsibility. But our words are not written only for today; They are meant also, in fact mainly written for near future, when the news of Redemption and the words "Your God reigns" will already be heard by everyone. At least then every Jew will need to know the progress by which Jews are achieving redemption. An Elul-fitting penitence will be the secret of the general redemption and also the secret for being one of the first groups to achieve redemption.

Every Jew must sometimes cleanse himself in body and soul; Even during the redemption process there will be those earlier and later redeemed; But those who will cleanse themselves the last will also join the Redemption as the very last.

And the Days of Redemption will already not have too many Eluls, Amen!

The Case of the Missing Week

Imagine sitting at the same table opposite the holiest rabbi of the generation, close enough so you can see into his eyes and near enough to catch every sound he makes. Your attention is peaked to listen to everything he now has to say.

The time of year adds more lift to your adrenaline rush. It's the 2nd day of Shavuot, the holiday we celebrate to commemorate the fabulous gift God gave us - the holy Torah. God gave it to us, we His people, and the leader of the generation, the best representative of that holiness, is now about to deliver, at this opportune time, words of Torah. And you know it is as if God Himself speaks from the throat of this holy man.

This informal get-together took place 71 years ago, as the Previous Rebbe sat with chassidim, on the 7th of Sivan. He began by speaking of the habits of Jews, that they constitute Torah as well. Then he spoke of the custom to greet Shabbat early and escorting it out late, thereby extending the holy day beyond 24 hours.

Then he said this, "I don't mean to get into complicated reasoning; I just want to be frank and clear. The world's custom is, in preparation for a guest, that we begin to prepare long before the guest's arrival. Two weeks earlier we get the house in order, and we clean out all the corners. The entire household speaks about it, and they tell their neighbors too about the guest that's due to arrive."

After a slight pause he said, "For the time is now soon that Moshiach arrives, so we must prepare for the guest."

"We must wash and purify; We must wash and clean for the guest who's coming. We must clean ourselves, our household, where we eat, where we sleep, where we sit; We clean everywhere, everyone as best he can, rabbis, workers, businessmen, students, everyone according to his conditions." Then he spoke on other topics.

Upon reading this talk (Sefer Hasichot, 5701, p.129), which transpired on the 7th of Sivan, I was taken aback. It was on the 28th of Sivan that the present Rebbe set foot on American soil. But the Previous Rebbe had everyone believe this event was - two, not 3, weeks away! How could the Previous Rebbe, a man of divine insight ("ruach hakodesh") be off by one week?

I asked a rabbi friend, who found part of the answer in the book "Yemai Melech", vol. 1, pp. 535-6. There it describes the short interlude of history that occurred between the talk and the Rebbe's arrival. And the late Rabbi Tzvi Meir Steinmetz, ע‫''‬ה, a friend of Rabbi David Halberstam, who knew the Rebbe when he too was in Paris, told me what Rabbi Halberstam told him, which filled in more details of the story.

This happened in 1941, with World War II erupting. The Rebbe and Rebbetzin sailed from France to Portugal. From there they stole their way into Barcelona, Spain. Many sought urgently to get tickets to sail to America, which were hard to come by. The couple did as well, and succeeded. A short time before the embarkation day, the Rebbe received a telegram from his father-in-law, the Previous Rebbe, telling them not to take that ship. They heeded the Previous Rebbe's exhortation. The danger of sailing waxed, because German U-boats patrolled the seas, but, by the grace of God, the couple managed to find tickets for yet another ship that would set sail from Barcelona to America a week hence. The ship arrived safely to New York City.

Now we know the cause for the Rebbe's one-week delay in arriving. As for the ship they opted out from, it was captured by Mussolini, and its passengers remained in captivity until the Fascists surrendered years later at the end of the war.

(Rabbi Steinmetz, who retold the story, tells of his friend's amazement, not so much of the Previous Rebbe's ruach hakodesh, but of the unquestioning simplicity with which the Rebbe and Rebbetzin discarded the tickets in heeding the Previous Rebbe's words.)

(See this short video of that eventful day the Rebbe arrived to America, here.)

A Ruling by the "Moses of Our Generation"

God assured Moses at Sinai that, "And also in you the Jews will have faith in, for always".
(וגם בך יאמינו לעולם) [Ex.19:9]

Why the word "also"?
Rashi explains, "Not only will Jews believe in Moses the prophet, but they will also believe in all the prophets who will appear in generations thereafter."

Chabad got lucky because their Rebbeim happened to be the leaders of the last 7 generations. The Rebbeim, besides being leaders of a generation (נשיאי הדור), were also, like Moses, blessed with נבואה, prophetic power. But our entire generation - that of the 7th Rebbe - really got lucky; Because the Moses of our generation also happens to be the Moshiach, who very soon will usher us into the Era of Ultimate Redemption!

Literally scores of times our Rebbe spoke of himself in strong hints as the Messiah. One such indication we find in the Ma'amer, Ve'Ato Tetzave, he delivered in 5741 (10 Adar A), and handed out, after footnoting it, in 5752. This was the last publication he handed out before the 3rd of Tammuz. Here's what he said:

"... And we can conclude that, since the Previous Rebbe made reference to the Midrash, where it states 'Mordechai in his generation was the equivalent of Moses in his generation', the Previous Rebbe thereby ruled this ruling upon himself, namely, that he [too] was the 'faithful shepherd' of the entire generation (in a revealed way!)."

To drive home this point, the Rebbe adds an analogy as a footnote. It says in Pirkei Avot that a person eventually "is destined for a judgement and an accounting" when he finally appears before the heavenly court. But what sense does that make; Don't you first need an accounting before a judgement can be made; So why do the sages reverse the order of these terms? The Rebbe answers (elsewhere) - that the way the person himself had judged others in similar situations on earth will be the very same way the heavenly court will judge him, and then the accounting will proceed accordingly. I.e., the way he had judged people will in turn decide how he himself will be judged for similar situations. Thus "judgement" proceeds "accounting".

Similarly, just as the Previous Rebbe asserted that Mordechai was the Moses of his generation, "in a revealed way", in effect thereby ruled himself to be the Moses of his generation (in a revealed way) , this very same ruling applies to the Rebbe's own evocation of it as well. Just as he explained how the Previous Rebbe broadcast his status as Moses of the generation, the Rebbe too broadcast his own status in the same way!

Like I said, there are literally dozens of such invocations, or strong hints. (As to why it had to come by way of hints, I postulate here.)

All these indications, taken together, give the chossid, a soldier of the Rebbe, the impetus to take his words public, to let people know, that he is both prophet (let that be for another post) and Moshiach, i.e., the leader of this generation bound to take us into the Era of the Ultimate Redemption.

PURIM & DEMOCRACY

Taken from a Chabad journal (הקריאה והקדושה) distributed by the Previous Rebbe, written in 1941. Though written 70 years ago, its lesson rings true and loud today too!

PURIM and DEMOCRACY

The importance of associating Purim with democracy is, unfortunately, not well enough known among Jews. If all of us realized the importance of this great association, things might have been different for us and we would not be in such difficulties as we are in today!

A well-known Jewish idiom has it, that Purim is no holiday and fever is no sickness. Wise men know that this is true. Fever by itself is no sickness, it is merely a forewarning of a disease that is about to appear. Likewise, Purim alone is no holiday, but a reminder of Jewish troubles that may come, and the riddance of which will call for a day of rejoicing!

Purim was given us, as our Purim-scroll relates, to immortalize the causes which led to the "fast-and-prayer" miserable days that the Jews had to go through, during the time of Mordechai and Esther, and to serve as a warning to avoid similar miseries in the future.

Perhaps this too, is the reason why "Hallel" is not said during prayer-time on Purim as it is upon all other holidays which commemorate miraculous escapes for us; Purim is a warning, not only the celebration of a miracle! A warning not to bring down the curse of another "Haman" and another planned massacre upon us, heaven forbid.

At this point, we come to the relationship between Purim and democracy; the cause that brought on the Haman of old was the overdone Jewish love for world democracy, overdone because it took the place of religion.

For the first time in world history, king Ahasuaerus introduced something new in the world. He realized that he had more to gain from his 127 conquered countries by permitting them to go scot free, granting them complete autonomy and demanding nothing but tribute in exchange for all this than by oppressing them, thus making it necessary for him to suppress all sorts of revolutions. Until this king's time conquerors usually laid waste to a good portion of the lands that they captured. The majority of the populations of these countries were forced to migrate to distant lands in order that they should not rise in revolt as they might have had the courage to if permitted to remain at home. Only the weak, the poor and the ignorant ones were allowed to remain, to till the soil and work in the vineyards. Later on, prisoners of other conquered nations were moved in, just as Nebuchadnezzar did in our hold land.

Ahasuaerus introduced a revolutionary idea. He called a meeting of the leaders of all the conquered lands, proclaimed the law that each country shall enjoy complete autonomy, speak its own language, worship its own idols, and revere its own customs - democracy in the full sense of the word for the entire empire with its 127 countries. All that these countries had to do to enjoy this was to contribute toward the upkeep of this empire - pay taxes to the apex of this structure, Persia.

In those days this was a sensational event, a most unusual, revolutionary idea. It meant an end to all wars, to all destruction; a united mankind, a united states of Asia without wars, destruction and the necessity for each country to arm itself. People would pay taxes and be assured of a happy life. Even paying to their idols for national protection would no longer be necessary.

To all outer appearances, the other countries rejoiced with this. Inwardly, however, they cherished the hope that at some future, opportune time, they would cast off the Persian yoke. Only the Jews rejoiced more than anyone else. They were convinced that the world was progressing and that it was becoming so highly civilized that there was no longer any need for their religion; it was time to forget about the Torah entirely and become like all other nations, for under a democratic system there is no longer any need for the Godly protection. In all events, Jews would benefit from all the freedoms and would have no reason to fear anyone.

The appearance of Haman upon the scene has demonstrated, however, that what was good for all the 127 countries was no good for Jews. In spite of all the democracy a pogrom was quickly prepared, to massacre all Jews, men women and children and all the 127 countries agreed to it wholeheartedly.

In order to avoid in the future a repetition of any great love on the part of the Jews for any world-salvation, which might even be good for all others, the festival of Purim was proclaimed. It simply means, that Jews must not rejoice too much with any new orders which might be introduced as the other nations do, with any new economic systems, or with any new political innovations. These may be good for all others, but not for Jews without Torah. You may be sure that somewhere a Haman will arise who will see to it that the Jews don't benefit from these new world-gains, and the end will be that conditions for them will become even worse under this system for world-betterment. They will eventually realize that without the Torah, without their own Jewish salvation, and without their own kosher Jewish foods, everything must go against them. They may defile their souls by eating forbidden foods at strangers' tables without any benefit for their bodies and the only end possible is - new Jewish delicacies with which to celebrate the miracle by which they escaped a new, bloody massacre!

Purim serves to remind us, therefore, of the bad aftertaste left in our mouths as a result of the first democratic order introduced into the world, an aftertaste from which our modern, present-day Jews refuse to learn the necessary lesson. The American democracy just like the one of old, has caused many a Jewish soul to become defiled by the eating of non-kosher foods; Jews have permitted themselves to be led astray by the same foolish idea that in a democratic country there is no longer any need for fearing God, heaven forbid, and that it is time to regard the Torah as something which has outlived its usefulness. The result of this is already visible. Here, too, there are 127 nations, immigrants from countries all over the globe and here too, hatred is preached against no group except the Jewish one. Anti-semitism in America is on the upgrade. The government has already realized this and is continually warning the population against the spreading of race-hatred, which all know means anti-semitism, the modern form of "Hamanism". Only the Jews who possess the thousands year old warning not to bring upon themselves a new Haman by defiling their souls with forbidden edibles and the adoption of foreign ideologies, refuse to face the truth, and stop to think what results such actions can bring, heaven forbid!

No one can deny that democracy in any land is a good blessed thing. It is also good for the Jews because under it they are freer to practice their own religion than in any of the cruel totalitarian countries. Democracy in all countries of the world, as the free allied countries are trying to establish by the sacrifice of so much blood, certainly is a step in the right direction for all mankind in general, but it will avail the Jews nothing if they will regard this as a substitute for their Godly Torah and religion! This was the great mistake which the Jews made during the reign of Ahasuaerus. They were overjoyed with the new democracy and stopped thinking seriously about their Torah and religion. Later, they paid dearly for the forbidden food that they ate by living through a terrifying period, waiting for the massacre which was prepared for them. This is why we were given the Purim festival, to serve as a warning to us, never to repeat the same mistake, and if it fails in its purpose, then the reason for celebrating that past miracle becomes a hollow one instead of a holy one, and only proves that we remained the same frivolous fools as then.

Still more tragic and painful is the light-heartedness with which the Torah is regarded today, when the champions of world-democracy have just begun their fight to establish that system in the world and while they themselves are still not sure whether they will win that war or not, and because just now the worst "Haman" of all is raging against us, and for the very reason that we have celebrated so many Purims by rejoicing too frivolously with world democracy!

Let the Purim sober us up from our "democracy versus religion idea", let's remember that democracy without Judaism is even worse than Judaism without democracy because the former brings new "fast and prayer" days, for life, heaven forbid! One day after the triumph for world-democracy, some newly freed countries will not be ashamed to proclaim openly that democracy was not meant for the Jews any more than they were ashamed to announce it in the time of Ahasuaerus.

Without strict adherence to the Torah and commandments the fate of the Jews is a lamentable one even in time of democracy, and this is what the Purim teaches us.

If the struggle for democracy all over should be won, it would mean that each nation could remain as it formerly was, speak its own language, and live its own life. Surely it can not mean just the reverse for the Jewish nation, that they should be led to assimilate and to become that which they are not and must not be!

Democracy or no democracy, here or everywhere Jews must primarily remain Jews and never abandon their Torah. On the contrary, those who have strayed from the camp must return at once, unless they want to celebrate a new Purim, which means that the anticipated new democracy will first have brought them a new miracle to get rid of a newly planned massacre for them, heaven forbid!

The connection between Purim and democracy is, therefore, very strong and it is imperative that every Jew fully realize it before it becomes too late!

Democracy must be fought for by the Jews, as by all freedom-loving peoples, but it must not take the place of our loyalty to God, to the Torah and to our ancestral tradition!