Default, Downgrade, and the Redemption (Part 2)

Gog U Magog and the New World Order

In the introduction of Netzach Yisrael the Maharal titles Gog U Magog a kingdom.  To understand this point further and of course to acclimate ourselves with the identity of this Kingdom and its function at the end of days we can use the Arizal who points out that the Gematria of Gog UMagog is 70.  This mirrors the 70 nations of the world.  These 70 nations have sought for the entire world’s existence to control and run things, yet have failed due to their infighting. Rebbe Nachman in Torah 36 of the Lekutei Mohran points out that it is these 70 nations which our souls descend into as they are the dark side of the 70 souls of the collective “House of Israel.”  Rebbe Nachman points out that the primary weapon that the 70 nations use to pull us down is sexual indecency. To understand where we are in relationship to the events of Gog U Magog we must understand the concept of Exile and Redemption.

To Reveal G-d’s Light

The concept of Redemption is actually a lifting off or removal of the control of the 70 nations.  This control or covering has been ongoing since the exile into Bavel (translated as confusion).  Since then there has been 4 central Kingdoms in history as pointed out in the prophecy of Daniel.  These four Kingdoms are Bavel, Persia, Greece, and Rome.  Each was built on the ruins of the other and in prophesying on them Daniel uses the image of a giant statue. It is this statue and the apparatus that has been built around it which has smothered the light of the Creator in the World.  Redemption requires a removal of this statue and world control in order for HaShem’s light to shine forth.

As Rome in its current visage as the Western World has realized that it’s power is diminishing it has tried to set up what many have called the New World Order.  This began to come into existence shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union and the 1^st Persian Gulf War.  This New World Order has spread through the world by way of finances and humanistic global education.  Moral relativism and political correctness have reigned supreme in the ensuing years and with a rise in a lack of traditional morality and family. 

This is Gog U Magog and the goal is to cement the “statue of the four kingdoms” onto the Earth.  The midrash in Esther Rabbah says that the Kingodom of Gog U Magog tries to do what all the other enemies of the Nation of Israel failed to do and they do it by trying to cut our connection with the Creator. 

Yet, despite all the issues surround us, there is hope and oddly enough it rests with the obvious collapse of the New World Order and the Western hegemony over us.

Default, Downgrade, and the Redemption (Part 1)

There has been much clamor made on the many Geulah and Moshiach forums about the cosmic mincha gedolah.  Of course there seems to be some discrepancy on which date it is supposed to be.  Most gedolim have held that it is the first of Av of this year and a minority have suggested it is the 25^th of Tammuz.

I want to first say that I believe the date has significance, but that we shouldn’t be caught up with trying to find out what “climactic event” occurred on either of those two days.  Our emunah is based on HaShem running events the way he sees fit and not trying to impress on them what we want.  Meaning, trying to pigeon hole the tremendous and transformative events of our time period into predefined time frames can be a downer.

That being said I want to focus on what I believe is the significant event or series of events happening over this period of time.  Everyone has watched and seen how the real possibility of an American default and downgrade has increased in the past few days.  A seeming sense of insanity has rippled through Washington, D.C. as the divisions have only grown.  I for one have believed it was going to go this way for a few months, but it has grown apparent to all in the last few days.  Yet, what does this mean for Geulah/Redemption?

These are the issues I want to tackle in the coming posts:

•         Gog U Magog
•         The Four Kingdoms
•        New World Order
•         The Weapon of Moshiach

Each of these could be a post unto itself, but I will break it down into two posts following this one.  Before I close with this introductory post I want to reiterate what the Tzaddikim have said about what we are going through and that ultimately we need Emunah.  It will get scary for all of us but we must know that everything is for the best and for our own good!

Moshe-Mashiach: From the Dust I will Arise

Today is Gimmel Tammuz.  It is the day that HasShem stood the sun in its place for Yehoshua bin Nun and it is the day that the light of the world, the Moshe of the generation was "seemingly extinguished."   The Lubavitcher Rebbe's yartzheit is a very powerful day.  It signals in many ways a transitionary period between galut and geulah.  Yet, what is the connection between the Rebbe and Yehoshua bin Nun, and why is this connected to our redemption?


The role of the Moshe in every generation is to inject the Nation of Israel with the light of Torah.  The Moshe has what is called the "collective soul."  In other words he has a conscious interaction with our National soul called Knesset Yisrael.  It is through this interaction that he can see and direct the National enterprise.  As redemption has moved closer, the Moshe has become more and more revealed. According to the Ari there is a role at the end of Galut for the Moshe-Mashiach.  The Rebbe made this clear in many sichot and of course we understand his last ma'amer (dissertation) as a direct reference of his connection to this role.

The Rebbe's torah is the blue print or cosmic understanding of Mashiach and Geulah (similar to Rav Kook's Torah being connected to Eretz Yisrael and our National rebirth).  It is the pure potential Mashiach consciousness waiting to be expressed and actualized into reality.  This can and will happen in Eretz Yisrael.   As it says in Lecha Dodi: "I have awoken, from the dust I will arise."  The dust here is the life giving dirt of Eretz Yisrael, where the Torah of the Moshe-Mashiach will become actualized (Rav Yitzchak Ginsburgh - Malchut Yisrael Vol. 2).

Yehoshua the Actualizer

It is known that Yehoshua was compared to the moon and Moshe to the sun.  Moshe could have come into the Land of Israel if we had merited it, but we didn't and instead the Torah remained in potential only until we entered.  Yehoshua remained the servant of Moshe even after he entered the Land, and it was in this capacity that he began actualizing the Torah of Moshe.  In this sense it is the miracle of the sun which symbolizes the actualization process of the Torah of Moshe.

David the Builder

The process of Malchut Yisrael took 400 years from the redemption of Egypt to actualize and build.  It is this actualization process that Yehoshua started and David (and his son Shlomo) nearly finished with the building of the Beit HaMikdash. As we have begun the journey along the process of Geulah, the Torah of Mashiach and redemption has moved from potential to actualization, from the Moshe to the David.  Gimmel Tammuz represents that transition.  We are somewhere along that path and although we find ourselves home we have yet to fully begin our task of building our Malchut Yisrael.  May this Gimmel Tammuz remind us that it is not enough to live in the consciousness of the Mashiach, but we need to actively actualize it in order to witness its full revelation.

"...the Midianites came up..."

ג וְהָיָה, אִם-זָרַע יִשְׂרָאֵל--וְעָלָה מִדְיָן וַעֲמָלֵק וּבְנֵי-קֶדֶם, וְעָלוּ עָלָיו.

3 And it was, when Israel had planted, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east; they came up against them;

(Shoftim 6:3)


The struggle over the Land of Israel is an intrinsic part of the furthering of the redemption of Israel and thus the entire world.  Every piece of Land we settle and inhabit draws light and life into the earth and infuses the particles with G-dliness. The inverse is also true...every piece of the Land of Israel that is taken away from us and settled by our enemies and those which seek to remove Israel from its Land draws impurity and darkness into the earth and stalls the redemptive process.

This is why the non-Jewish nations in the area of Israel in the time of Gideon sought to take our Land when we planted. It was this planting which restores the inherent G-dliness to the soil and in turn furthers the building of Malchut Yisrael (the Kingdom of Israel).  So too today we have a similar problem.  We have come home to settle and to live and whether subconsciously or consciously we are aware that we are building a Kingdom of G-d and yet our enemies close by with the help of those abroad and those among our Nation who have lost their way seek to take our Land from us.

Below are some pictures that I took just before Shabbat of new illegal Arab buildings 100 meters from the road descending to our community.  The attempt is clear and is a planned effort to choke our community of 62 families off from the main North South road between Beer Sheva and Jerusalem.

These are three of the 7 Arab Houses close to the turn off

Behind me are the above houses. Ahead is my car and the turn off to our Community to the left or to the right back to the main road.

Bani Nayim...the Main Arab village near us has expanded rapidly with help from Saudi, American, and European funding

To understand the significance of the juncture, the top of the hill is about 1000 meters above sea level.  Our community Pnei Hever/Maale Hever is located at 810 meters above sea level.  The top is believed to be the place where Avraham and Lot stood and gazed out at the Land, dividing it (Lot getting Ever HaYarden and Avraham getting Canaan.)  Although the Arabs call the top the Nebi...I would like to rename it Mitzpe Avraham and in truth when hiking or driving up to the top there is a beautiful area (the IDF has a pill box there) to look out and gaze out onto the Dead Sea Valley, the Moav Mountains, Karmel, Maon, and more.

With the help of the Almighty we can reclaim our Land and reset our redemptive course towards the full revelation of Mashiach.

Arresting the Torah

Rav Dov Lior

There is news today that the police have arrested Rav Dov Lior of Kiryat Arba.  By arresting one of the giants of Torah in our generation, the police are assuming they can constrain and restrict the Torah.  They cannot.  The opinions of Rav Lior are not his alone, but can be found throughout the Talmud and it's commentaries, most notably the Rambam.

Yet, this has always been the plan of those connected to the Erev Rav: to diminish the strength of the Torah in the Land of Israel.  It is the Torah and most importantly the Torah of Rav Kook that has the power to remove the impurities of our Land.  The Erev Rav knows this and so while they pay lip service to "Jewish Values" they do not tolerate the Torah of Truth, the Torah of the redemption to hold a presence in Israel.

The detention of Rav Lior is part of a wider strategy to play the National camp against itself, while allowing  a slow death and encirclement of the communities in Yehudah and the Shomron (more on that in the coming days).  For every move to the right the Prime Minister makes he has back tracked on other very important issues and so the battle for leadership continues and until then those Rabbis that dare speak the truth found within the unblemished supernal Torah are dragged through mud.

May the Children of Israel yearn for true teshuva on both a national and individual level. For "It is impossible to become attached to the foundation of Israel's Nationalism unless one's soul has become purified already..." (Orot HaTeshuva 13:1)


By purifying both our personal and national middot we can more clearly see the line between right and wrong; G-dliness and and the lack there of; unity and division.  When we eradicate the infection of Western thought within our minds and hearts, we will be able to disconnect the nation from the influences of the Erev Rav and walk in the straight path blazed by leaders like Rav Dov Lior.

"...let me go;"

 תְּנָה אֶת-נָשַׁי וְאֶת-יְלָדַי, אֲשֶׁר עָבַדְתִּי אֹתְךָ בָּהֵן--וְאֵלֵכָה:  כִּי אַתָּה יָדַעְתָּ, אֶת-עֲבֹדָתִי אֲשֶׁר עֲבַדְתִּיךָ.

30:26 Give me my wives and my children that I have served you for them, and let me go; for you know my service that I have served you.'

There are times when we must draw a line in the sand and cut our losses and walk away. America has given Israel a lot, but it is never out of direct love of the Jewish people or the State of Israel, rather it is mainly a type of giving which benefits its own interests. When Yaakov finished his time with Laban he had grown, both spiritually and in stature. He had two wives and their hand maidens and many children, yet he was trapped for he felt compelled to stay with Lavan, until he decided it was time to go.

Am Yisrael is afraid to walk away from America. We are nervous at the prospect of being on our own, of truly being independent, yet this need has never been more critical. We are facing a serious security situation as well as a political onslaught. America has benefited from our partnership and yet we, other than money that we are forced to spend on American weaponry have begun to suffer a great deal from this relationship.

We are reminded by America and their government how great of friends they are, yet they have crossed a line now and have decided to place a reset button on our relationship.

Pollard as the Paradigm

America tells the world that it is a freedom loving country. A nation of principles, yet it keeps Jonathan Pollard in jail. Now, when asked to simply allow Jonathan to spend time with his dying father, they have refused.

This has ceased to be a healthy relationship if it ever was. It is now time for Israel to walk away. America is falling and we have no need to be dragged down with it. We must say thank you and then walk away from America the way our father did with his uncle Lavan, after all years from now (or perhaps shorter the Beit Lavan (White House) and the Nation it leads will be long gone and we will continue on our way to live int he Land of our Fathers and to build it and extend it West and East; North and South as promised in the Torah Yaakov and his descendents.

"...and He came to Hevron"

Moshe commanded 12 spies to enter into the Land of Israel.  What should have been a fairly easy scouting mission turned into the biggest sin in Am Yisrael's history. The Nation had been promised by the Creator of the world, that they would dwell in their eternal inheritance as was sworn to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov their forefathers. Yet, 10 out of the 12 spies reported negatively on the ability for the Nation of Israel to conquer the land.  As a punishment Am Yisrael would have to wander in the desert until a new generation would be ready, cleansed of the impurities of foreign lands to conquer what was rightfully theirs.

Only Yehoshua and Calev did not falter.  Yehoshua needed an additional letter (added to his name by Moshe) in order to hold strong against the Spies' faltering emunah (certain faith).  But what of Calev? 

כב  וַיַּעֲלוּ בַנֶּגֶב, וַיָּבֹא עַד-חֶבְרוֹן,
22 And they went up in the South and He came to Hevron

The verse indicates a change from plural to singular and it is Rashi that points out that this was indeed Calev who gathered strength from the Avot and Imahot buried in the Maarat HaMachpelah.  It was this connection that Calev drew upon to withstand the loss of Emunah from the other 10 spies.

Ben Gurion: Hebron is Jerusalem's Sister

In 1970 Ben Gurion wrote a letter in reflection of the return of Israel to Judea and Samaria. Here is a piece of the letter:

Before Jacob died in Egypt, after going down there to see his son Joseph, he made his sons promise to bury him with his fathers "in Hebron in the cave, in Ephron the Hittite's field, where were buried Abraham and his wife Sarah, Isaac and his wife Rebecca and where I buried Leah" (Genesis 49:29, 31). And that is what Joseph and his brothers did. It is thus clear that only the three Patriarchs and the three Matriarchs of the Jewish People were buried in the Cave of Machpela.

However, the importance of Hebron is not merely its role in the lives of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs of our nation. After Saul, the first King of Israel fell upon his sword in the war with the Philistines, so that he might not be taken captive, and David replaced him as King, David inquired of the Eternal: "Shall I go up to one of the cities of Judah?" And the Eternal answered: Go up!" And David said: "Unto where shall I go up?" And G-d answered" "To Hebron." And David went up there...and the men of Judah came and anointed David there as King of Judah" (Samuel II,2.4). Finally, after the death of Abner, commander of Saul's army, "and all the tribes of Israel came to David in Hebron and proclaimed: "Behold we are of the bone and flesh; and so it was yesterday and the day before, while Saul was King over us, it was you who were the leader of Israel; and the Almighty has said "You shall shepherd my people Israel and you shall be prince of Israel." And all the elders of Israel came to the king in Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them in Hebron over Israel" (Samuel II, 5:1-3). Thus arose in Hebron the greatest royal dynasty that Israel ever had. Read the whole letter...

We are living in a generation where the world is quick to forget its roots. It dismisses that which lies within everything, the divine root of Creation, the director of History, the one and true G-d. The sin of the spies is a continuous sin. It is the sin of forgetting where we came from and from that stems the loss of knowing where we are going and how to hold onto to who we are. The world wants to forget, to move into a new era. The world wants an era where rules are just there to make life a little easier and society just a bit better, but Am Yisrael is meant to be a reminder to the world, and Hevron is the source of that reminder.  Hevron and the Maarat Hamachpelah are the way back to our source, to our path.  If Jerusalem is our future, the center and heart of our Kingdom, then Hevron is our Nation's memory, the place of our fathers and mothers.  With it we can return and bring the world back to its true essence, the One G-d of Israel.