"Return With Us...And You Shall Be the Head..."

In the first three pasukim in 6th chapter of Shoftim (Judges) it introduces Yiftach, the future leader of Israel, specifically of Gilead in the following way:

וְיִפְתָּח הַגִּלְעָדִי, הָיָה גִּבּוֹר חַיִל, וְהוּא, בֶּן-אִשָּׁה זוֹנָה; וַיּוֹלֶד גִּלְעָד, אֶת-יִפְתָּח.	1 Now Yiftach the Gileadite was a strong man of valour, and he was the son of a harlot; and Gilead begot Yiftach.
ב  וַתֵּלֶד אֵשֶׁת-גִּלְעָד לוֹ, בָּנִים; וַיִּגְדְּלוּ בְנֵי-הָאִשָּׁה וַיְגָרְשׁוּ אֶת-יִפְתָּח, וַיֹּאמְרוּ לוֹ לֹא-תִנְחַל בְּבֵית-אָבִינוּ--כִּי בֶּן-אִשָּׁה אַחֶרֶת, אָתָּה.	2 And Gilead's wife bore him sons; and when his wife's sons grew up, they drove out Yiftach, and said unto him: 'You shall not inherit in our father's house; for you are a son of another woman.'
ג  וַיִּבְרַח יִפְתָּח מִפְּנֵי אֶחָיו, וַיֵּשֶׁב בְּאֶרֶץ טוֹב; וַיִּתְלַקְּטוּ אֶל-יִפְתָּח אֲנָשִׁים רֵיקִים, וַיֵּצְאוּ עִמּוֹ.  {פ}	3 Then Yiftach fled from his brothers, and dwelt in the land of Tob; and empty men were gathered to Yiftach, and they went out with him. {P}

Eventually the elders of Gilead under threat from Ammon go to Yiftach and beg him to be their head and military leader.  He eventually agrees and rules Israel fro 6 years.  The question is, what was Yiftach's trait that attracted "empty men" to him and yet allowed him to be the type of leader Am Yisrael needed.

He Will Open

The word Yiftach in Hebrew means He Will Open.  The men that came to Yiftach were empty.  We learn in Perkei Avot in the 2nd Perek/5th Mishna that one who lacks fear of heaven is like a well.  The Rabbeinu Yonah points out that this is an "empty" well.  Later we learn that Rabbi Eliezer ben Horkunus is likened to a closed well that loses no water (i.e. Torah). By being filled up with the divine light a true chacham or leader has the ability to open the closed wells around him and fill them with the water of life or the Torah.

This was Yiftach's trait.  He drew those empty of Torah and Emunah and filled them with HaShem's light.  It was this trait that the elders of Gilead longed for in a leader and thus yearned for even when they saw it in  a lowly "son of a harlot."

We know that every Rosh Memshelah of Israel is an empty vessel that is still considered the head of our political system.  Just like the Medinah is an empty vessel void of the light of the Creator so to are its leaders. We need to pray that a true leader will arise and open our politicians eyes and all of Am Yisrael to the true light, the light of Emunah and Torah.  When this happens no force on Earth can take away what by Divine Right belongs to the people of Israel.

The Medinah when filled with the light of the Creator will become the Medinat Malchut Melech HaMoshiach.  This is the level where everyone and everything is reconnected to its true root, the pure divine light of the Creator. The light will be so strong it will cover the world.  With HaShem's help we will be led with proper leaders, filled with the divine light of Moshiach.

Earthquake, Hurricane, and Pollard

As I landed in Eretz Yisrael on Tuesday afternoon after a four day express visit to NYC to see my father and grandparents I heard news of an earthquake on the east coast of the USA.  We all know by now that the Washington Monument has been cracked.  This is an overt sign to all those who have open eyes that the USA is in fact crumbling. Read my posts on the downgrade to understand more. My boss pointed out that the obelisk was also the same shape prized by Rome and Egypt.  The crack, is a huge crack in the American Empire, yet we must understand why this is happening.

The earthquake spanned from its epicenter in Virginia North to Martha's Vineyard while the President was there vacationing and the South to North Carolina. Jonathan Pollard is being held in Butner, North Carolina.  By this weekend Hurricane Irene is set to hit the Carolinas and then go North through DC/Baltimore, NY, and smack into Cape Cod, once again where the President is vacationing. Another link between Pollard who rots in jail, barred from visiting his dying father and attending his funeral.

Let My Brother Go

The message is clear.  Jonathan is entrapped in jail, because we as a nation are entrapped by the klippot of the Western culture.  Our souls yearn to be free as Jonathan yearns to come home to his own land.  Our fates are entwined.

A friend of mine asked me why  this message is being sent now to the USA and to Obama and not all the years before. He wanted to know why this year was different.  This year was the first time a Prime Minister made an official request for Pollard's release.  When Bibi did that has the head of Medinat Yisrael it changed the dynamic.  No longer had we failed to undertake pidyon shevuyim. By actively embracing the all encompassing mitzvah we placed the onus and responsibility both morally and spiritually on the shoulders of the USA.  We have screamed: Let My Brother Go! And so now HaShem is sending messages to Obama and the US to let him go, because by letting Jonathan Pollard go free we will be let go as well.  So far Obama is not listening and the US is crumbling.  Like Pharoah before him his heart is hardened and the miracles will grow great until Jonathan and all of us are freed from our inner galut and able to experience the light of the Creator in an open and revealed way.

The Western Downgrade

The West is collapsing...tomorrow? No, but it is on a downward trend and forecast is it will get much worse.  China seems to be rising, but without desire to rule the world.  The 70 nations are trembling, because without their money they are powerless and so that is what is happening.  A part of us is going down with them.  We are connected somewhat with that world, a world physical pleasure and yet deep down inside we know that we want and need to be free.  Our Nation is the hand and sword of the Creator in the world and our weapons are the mitzvot and prayer.  The more we do and the more plead and connect with the One source of creation, the more we can will bring the redemptive light into the world.

The Nation of Israel is the collective Moshiach and it is with this light that we can will repair our world.  The Western crash is for our own good.  It releases us from our the captivity of physical prison and allows to achieve our true purpose.  Emunah is the light of the Creator and the true Tzaddik is the messenger and catalyst for the activation of this light in each one of us.  The more we connect and yearn for it the more we can express this light, this essential truth to the world.  In order to do this we must break free of our shackles, our constraints.  If we won't do that, then the Creator, the blessed holy one, the one source of being and creation will and is doing it for us.  Hold on to your seats, what ever crash the markets have had and what ever uneasiness about the world you have had...its only just beginning!

No More Sadness

From America to Afghanistan, China to Rothchild the world seems to be careening out of control.  The truth is we have been in this situation for a while now.  When the World Trade Center collapsed into a fiery inferno, the world shook and has been shaking ever since.

We are hours away from Tisha B'Av and we seem to be entering another level of chaos.  America "our friend" is in clear decline.  The Middle East is quaking and the disgruntled "masses" are making Woodstock Tel Aviv style.  With all of this going on fear and uncertainty are growing.  And despite all of this we are ignoring the simple solution to our problems and that solution is to know with perfect and complete belief that the Moshiach is here with us.  The answer to our problems is not QE3, government entitlement, better military, but the full and complete revelation of Moshiach and the rebuilding of the Beit Hamikdash.

Reb Nathan of Breslev points out that the purpose of the Beit HaMikdash was to remind Am Yisrael and the nations of the world what the true purpose of life is about.  We forget that this world is part of , many worlds above and that our spiritual galut is one where we are disconnected from birth with our source.  Geulah is the revelation of our true connection above.  The only thing that can guide us properly is a clear focus and goal in life.  The Beit HaMikdash reminds of that goal and with impending Geulah and the realization that all is for the best we will once again be sad no more because we and the whole world will know the truth and live by it.

Default, Downgrade, and the Redemption (Part 3)

A Post Gog U Magog World

I have been of the opinion that George W. Bush was Gog.  Now you are going to ask: What about the invasion of Israel and division of Jerusalem as Yechezkel fortold?

It is very important to understand that Yechezkel’s timeline of events of the Redemption starting in the 36^th chapter are very allegorical.  It is clear they are written to convey deep points about the end of days and the process that unfolds.  In chapter 38 Gog leads the nations of the world against us in fact he is called Nasi (Prince or President). 

When one looks at the events surrounding George Bush he clearly fought wars against the Arabs and Muslim world as most commentators suggest will happen at the end.  These same commentators then say that at the end they will join forces against us. 

When was that you might ask.  That was at the Annapolis Conference on the 27^th of November in 2007.  The nations of the world gathered together to divide Jerusalem and Israel.  Our government was led by Ehud Olmert and Shimon Peres (with of course Livni and Barak in toe) probably the most revealed and public members of the Erev Rav.  Yet we made it through.  Even the Toldos Aharon Rebbe predicted that everything would fall apart from then on out.  He used the word Naphal because it is the root of the word Annapolis.  Nov. 27^th was right before the economic crash of the Western World and America.  George Bush came to Israel twice in 2008 and both time with a large entourage.  The economic collapse was well underway by his second trip and even more so after it. 

The Kingdom of G-d

The Kingdom of G-d comes not from the four kingdoms, but in place of them as Daniel describes it as a stone which comes smashing the statue of the four kingdoms to pieces.  Essentially what is happening is the fall of the New World Order and the Four Kingdoms.  This is happening financially and directly after the events against Israel in 2008.  The world has been in a tailspin since then and the world economy has been unraveling.  At the end of this process which is being sped up now with the very real possibility of a default and downgrade in the USA will be a world without the coverings and restraints and what we will see is a full revelation of HaShem’s light.

The Weapon of Moshiach

Rebbe Nachman states in the second Torah of Lekutei Mohran: “The essential Weapon of Moshiach will be prayer. “ All the events we are witnessing are coming about now because the Moshiach is here and is praying for the unraveling of the “Evil Empire” and the revelation of the Creator’s light.  He is fighting the “Wars of HaShem” with his mouth and we are witnessing the outcome in reality.  At the end of the break down he will be revealed and he will teach us how pray with nothing holding us back. We know that according to the Rambam that he goes in the way of Torah like King David his father.  King David was the master of prayer and that is the Torah and Weapon of the Moshiach.

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!