The Timepiece for B'itah, the Koreas Leaving the Twilight Zone

Today is the Day of the Dry Bones (Yom HaAtzamot HaYevashot) when the first half of Yechezkel's prophesy on the Dry Bones occurred on the Fifth of Iyar 5708 aka Israel Independence Day (Yom HaAtzma'ut).  The difference in spelling is that Atzma'ut has one extra Aleph, the Aleph of Elokim, who decided that the time of PHYSICAL wandering for the Jewish people was coming to a close.  The spiritual prophesy on the Arba Ruchot, the second half of Yechezkel's vision, the spirit of the Messianic Era, has yet to occur.

This post is based on the previous two posts:
The Light of Mashiach Courtesy of the Korean Peninsula Leaving the Twilight Zone
and
The Two Legged Goat .

It is also based on all other posts that I have written on this blog since its inception in 2005.  Some of those posts are linked to in the first post above.  I suggest everyone review the material in all those posts because this post will incorporate in it the combined work of all posts discussed before on this blog dealing with the Korean Peninsula at the halakhic international date line.

As discussed previously according to the Vilna Gaon and others, B'itah and the ingathering of the exiles "officially" began with Rosh HaShanah 5751 (19 September 1990 at sundown) which was 3/4 of the way through the 6th Millennium and which corresponded to high noon on Friday, the 6th day of the week.  In came the Lost in the Land of Ashur (Russian Jewry) and the castaways in the Land of Egypt (Ethiopian Jewry) like clockwork as if the shofar blast at high noon on Friday to call Jews in from their fields for Yom SheKulo Shabbat had been blown precisely on time.... because it WAS blown in Heaven precisely on time.  So it was time for those two groups of Jews to come home.  (This was discussed in post #1 above.)   Keep in mind that Yom sheKulo Shabbat, the day that will always be Shabbat is the entire 7th Millennium which should "officially" begin b'itah no later than Rosh HaShanah 6001, the first year of the 7th Millennium.  Now every observant Jew knows halakhically we are allowed to bring on Shabbat as early as Plag HaMincha which is half way between Mincha Ketanah and sunset.  This would correspond with approximately being 1 and a quarter halakhic hours before sunset on Friday afternoon.  Depending on the time of year 1 1/4 halakhic hours could last 1 hour and 20 or 25 minutes in the Summer OR 1 hour and 5 or 10 minutes in the Winter.  Usually those who bring Shabbat on early do it in the Summer time when the sun sets rather late such as at 8:20 pm.  So they bring on Shabbat at 7:15pm in order not to have Shabbat dinner at an unG-dly hour late at night every week.  Now 1 1/4 hours before sunset can be calculated as being the last 1/8th of the 2nd half of the 6th Millennium or the last 1/4 of the last 250 years of human history between 5751 and 6001.  Each quarter of 250 years is equal to 62.5 years.  So from this simple calculation it would seem that b'itah cannot begin until 62 1/2 years before the end of the year 6000 in the year 5938.  That date would be a long way off, and talking about b'itah bringing the Utopian Age of human history that far into the future would be a big let down.  So why would one want to anticipate Mashiach's coming since it is obvious that he is not coming because of our merits Achishena at any hour of any day?  He is obviously coming B'itah while we are hanging on at the 49th level of impurity while Edom has beaten us to the Sewer of -50 last Shavuot 5776.  He is coming In its time very likely, and even those who say that Mashiach could come in the next five minutes agree that after Mincha Gedolah of the 6th Millennium which was in Av 5771, he is almost assuredly coming B'itah.  See our conundrum?

Into this fray comes the Zohar HaQodesh VaEira 32.  We are told that B'itah, the third battle of Gog UMagog will begin when "wicked" Rome has to fight a war against a nation  at the edge of the World for about three months.  Since the world is round, there is only one way to understand what is the "edge of the world".  The edge of the world is the halakhic international dateline.  This dateline is determined when it is high noon in Yerushalayim, for if Rosh Chodesh is sanctified for the entire world by the Sanhedrin BEFORE high noon, then Rosh Chodesh is that very day not just in Yerushalayim but all over the world.  If the Sanhedrin delayed until after high noon to sanctify the new month, then Rosh Chodesh for the entire world is not that day but the following day.  So from this we learn that at High Noon in Yerushalayim, the actual day or date of the month on the calendar is determined for the Entire World!  Since Yerushalayim is at 35 degrees longitude on the Globe, then at the moment it is high noon in Yerushalayim, it is sunset 90 degrees to the east at the 125 degree longitude mark, separating between one day and the previous day.  So 125 degrees to the east of Yerushalayim at this 125 degree mark IS the halakhic international dateline!  From a Global map we can see that this 125 degree line separates China from the Korean Peninsula in the Yellow Sea.  Approximately 2000 miles to the south of Pyongyang, N. Korea is the southern Philippines island of Mindanao where ISIS terrorists are trying to take over the island (and where President Duterte has threatened to eat them!).  The importance of this will become clearer later on either in this post or in comments.  Here we are just noting the geographical facts.  If we extend this 125 degree line into the Southern Hemisphere, we see that it cuts in half the Island nation of Indonesia through the island of Timor.  And further south, it cuts through the western deserts of the Australian continent in what is for the most part a sparsely inhabited part of Australia.  The two places where we will concentrate our understanding though will specifically be in the Northern hemisphere (Korea and the Philippines) because Yerushalayim, and its high noon timepiece is specifically in the Northern Hemisphere.  So it seems much more likely that the places of final war of GogUMagog will be at least experiencing the same season as Eretz Yisrael at the time of its onset.

Yet, as we see from previous posts about this matter, it is at this 125 degree line or "Sunset" line that we begin to have a problem.  D'Oraita, that is according to the Torah, the day may begin at Sundown, but it does not end until the stars come out the following day approximately 45 minutes AFTER sundown.  So for each potential day during Twilight, between Sundown and "Tzeit Kochavim" it is BOTH the day before Sundown and the new day after Sundown at the same time!  On the Globe we know that there are 15 degrees for each hour time zone.  So for let us say 42 minutes of Twilight, 42/60 = 10.5/15, we have 10.5 degrees of Twilight where at high noon in Yerushalayim on Rosh Chodesh or on Shabbat or on Yom Kippur, it is both the day before and the day after at the same time.  Anyone who would live in that "Twilight Zone" would need to keep two days of Shabbat out of every seven days, and they would need to fast for 48 hours on Yom Kippur!  This actually happened to the Mir Yeshivah when they escaped Nazi Germany and ended up at first in Kobe, Japan which is just inside this Twilight Zone shaded area.  The Chazon Ish ruled that the Mir refugees would need to do just that (two days of Shabbat every week and fasting for 48 hours on Yom Kippur).  They did not stay in Kobe long. They quickly moved to Shanghai in order to NOT have to live with these halakhic issues because Shanghai is significantly less than 90 degrees to the east of Yerushalayim.  So in Shanghai there is no doubt D'Oraita what day it is.  So there in Shanghai, one day of Shabbat every week and 24 hours of fasting on Yom Kippur are just fine.

Now why mention a Twilight Zone of 42 minutes?  Isn't that arbitrary?  Well actually not.  I went to MyZmanim.com, and looked up Seoul, South Korea, the capital city in the Korean Peninsula a mere 30 kilometers from the DMZ (DeMilitarized Zone or No Man's Land between N. and S. Korea).  Now here is the table that came up for the month of Nissan.  In order to view this table, you may have to log in with a UserName and Password.  You might even have to make a contribution.  They are a private site that needs funding, and who am I to complain if they want me to give them a few bucks to have access to their exact Zmanim times over the course of an entire year.  They even have a new feature to take into account the altitude of the place you might be at!    I started with Nissan because I noted that the it was at the very beginning of Tekufat Nissan that Trump sent those 59 missiles to destroy the Syrian Airforce base because Assad used chemical weapons.  Almost immediately after that the situation of the Korean Peninsula began to explode into the headlines, and Trump used his military action against Assad as a show of force to convince the Chinese to help him against Kim Jong Un.  So the Whisper of War against the country at the edge of the world did begin during the month of Nissan 5777.  Notice that the time between sunset and Tzeit Kochavim (stars coming out) is between 41 and 42 minutes for Seoul, South Korea at least during the entire month of Nissan.  Again this corresponds with an additional 10.5 degrees on the Globe AFTER the 90 degree mark east of Yerushalayim for 100,5 degrees on the Globe.

Now let us put two concepts together.  High noon on Yom ShiShi (Friday) was at Rosh HaShanah 5751 which kicked off the "official" period of intense ingathering of the Exiles.  Ostensibly it could last 250 years until the year 6001.  At the same time it is Sunset through Tzeit Kochavim on the entire Korean Peninsula.  So it is a Saffeik (a halakhic doubt) that at high noon in Yerushalayim on Friday whether that Saffeik area, between 125 degrees and 135.5 degrees, is going into Shabbat or into Thursday night at the same time.  Assuming that the Saffeik assertion that they are entering Shabbat is true, then there are 100.5 degrees on the Globe that enter Shabbat before Israel enters Shabbat.  Over the course of those 250 years, places to the east of Eretz Yisrael enter Yom sheKulo Shabbat BEFORE Eretz Yisrael enters Yom SheKulo Shabbat, that is especially with places which are within either 90 to 100.5 degrees to the east of Yerushalayim.  Yet because the first 10.5 degrees to enter are a Saffeik (A DOUBT) UNTIL those 10.5 degrees have fully entered Tzeit Kochavim so that the 90 degrees to the east then begin to enter, the period of time from Rosh HaShanah 5751 until the 10.5 degrees to the east of 125 degrees fully enter into the darkness of the starlight, Yom sheKulo Shabbat could not begin b'itah.  Upon entering the darkness of twilight, the light of Shabbat would begin to shine upon the world from the places on the Globe furthest East of Yerushalayim once there is no doubt that those places entering are now within the 90 degrees east of Yerusahalayim!  At the point that the area 90 degrees east of Yerushalayim begin to enter Yom SheKulo Shabbat, the entire area 10.5 degrees further to the east enters Yom SheKulo Shabbat with it.  From the number above we see the following:  Over the  course of 250 years, 100.5 degrees on the Globe enter Yom SheKulo Shabbat.  That is 2.5 years per degree on the Globe starting in the year 5751.  If the Twilight Zone shaded area of doubt is 10.5 degrees as it is at the DMZ and Seoul on the Korean Peninsula, then it takes 2.5 years/ degree x 10.5 degrees to bring the Korean theatre and places to the west of it in the Yellow Sea into Yom SheKulo Shabbat.  2.5 x 10.5 = 26.25 years.  Rosh HaShanah 5751 + 26.25 years is precisely Tevet of the year 5777!, this year at the beginning of the Nine Months!  From this we see that the entire Korean Peninsula has now entered Yom SheKulo Shabbat, and on Shabbat the wicked are judged.

From the Psalm 92 for the Day of Shabbat:

  ח  בִּפְרֹחַ רְשָׁעִים, כְּמוֹ עֵשֶׂב, וַיָּצִיצוּ, כָּל-פֹּעֲלֵי אָוֶן:    לְהִשָּׁמְדָם עֲדֵי-עַד. 8 When the wicked spring up as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they may be destroyed for ever.

ט  וְאַתָּה מָרוֹם--    לְעֹלָם יְהוָה. 9 But Thou, O LORD, art on high for evermore.

So as the entire Korean Peninsula now has its time guaranteed as entering Yom SheKulo Shabbat, it is from there that G-d brings judgement upon a Wicked world less that 250 years before the end of the year 6000 long before Plag HaMinchah.  

If this material is confusing, please leave a comment asking for elucidation, or if you want, you can clarify for others.  To be Continued.......

The Two- Legged Goat

In a previous post we spoke of how Klal Yisrael became like Yosef who is compared to a Bull who is a vehicle for giving parnassah to his nation.  In this post we start with the assumption that Esav is compared to a Goat.  There are many sources for this:

1. When Ya'akov fooled his father Yitzchak to think that he was his brother Esav so that he could receive Esav's brachah, he wore the skin of a goat on his arm and neck.

2. When Esav inherited his portion in this world, his first territorial inheritance was Mt. Se'ir, the Mountain of the Male Goat.  A Se'ir is a male goat.

3. Me'am Lo'ez based on the Zohar compares the meeting of Ya'akov and Esav when Ya'akov is traveling back from Lavan's house in Aram Naharai'im to the meeting of two goats on Yom Kippur.  Ya'akov goes LaShem by traveling on to the next festival, Sukkot while Esav goes to Mt. Se'ir (toward Aza'zel) to be "thrown over the cliff" there at the End of Days.

In actuality though, it is not at Mt. Se'ir, Esav's ancient homeland, where Esav is thrown over the cliff.  The text of Yishayahu 34 and 63 and the Zohar VaEira 32 from the previous post tell us that the Angel of Edom will be slaughtered in Batzrah, the modern city in southern Iraq at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers as they enter the Persian Gulf.  These two rivers flow from Gan Eden, and their mineral wealth (50% of the world's sweet non-shale oil reserves) will only be truly valuable in Olam HaZeh.  So when Olam HaZeh makes way for Yemot HaMashiach, Esav's guardian angel will be slaughtered there.  Even the text of Yishayahu 34 compares Esav's guardian angel to a Male Goat.

 וּפָגְשׁוּ צִיִּים אֶת-אִיִּים, וְשָׂעִיר עַל-רֵעֵהוּ יִקְרָא; אַךְ-שָׁם הִרְגִּיעָה לִּילִית, וּמָצְאָה לָהּ מָנוֹחַ. 14 And the wild-cats shall meet with the jackals, and the (Se'ir or satyr) shall cry to his fellow (satyr); yea, the night-monster (Lilith, the Chief Se'ir's feminine companion) shall repose there, and shall find her a place of rest.

In this verse we see that the Sar (Heavenly Minister) of Esav is dead at this juncture because the Chief Goat, the Ministering Angel of Esav, has already been slaughtered in Batzrah, but his servant demons called satyrs in English continue to live on in this burning wasteland.  And the Heavenly Minister of Esav had a mistress named Lilith who continues to live on in this barren hell on earth with burning oil fires that are never quenched and tar on the principle rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, continuing to burn in smoldering fires.  

This of course happens after the oil rich Persian Gulf and the two Rivers themselves go up in flames as described in the text of Yishayahu 34, and no Red Adair will go to the Gulf to put out the fires at one million bucks per oil well, demonstrating that it will not be economically feasible to put out these oil fires in Yemot HaMashiach.  The oil just won't be worth that much as it was in 5751 after the First Persian Gulf War when "Red" Adair went to Batzrah and neighboring Kuwait to douse these fires to preserves the ancient "Red"'s inheritance called in the Torah, Shmanei HaAretz, the Oil of the earth.

Bereishit 27:    לח  וַיֹּאמֶר עֵשָׂו אֶל-אָבִיו, הַבְרָכָה אַחַת הִוא-לְךָ אָבִי--בָּרְכֵנִי גַם-אָנִי, אָבִי; וַיִּשָּׂא עֵשָׂו קֹלוֹ, וַיֵּבְךְּ. 38 And Esau said unto his father: 'Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, O my father.' And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.

לט  וַיַּעַן יִצְחָק אָבִיו, וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו:  הִנֵּה מִשְׁמַנֵּי הָאָרֶץ, יִהְיֶה מוֹשָׁבֶךָ, וּמִטַּל הַשָּׁמַיִם, מֵעָל. 39 And Isaac his father answered and said unto him: Behold, of the fat places of the earth {or Oil of the earth.  (This is a double entendre.)} shall be thy dwelling, and of the dew of heaven from above;

From here we see that Esav's blessing gives him the oil of the earth cart blanche.  He does not have to have merit for it.  The dew of heaven which he also receives comes as a result of all the merits that he has in This World, but since the dew is mentioned AFTER the blessing of the oil of the earth and not before as it is with Ya'akov's brachah, the oil is not dependent upon his merits whose reward comes through the Dew.  Also the name Elokim is missing from his brachah meaning that unlike Ya'akov he will not necessarily suffer for his sins in This World.  He will only suffer from them primarily in the World to Come.  That aspect of his brachah made him extremely angry and is the source of much of his hatred for Ya'akov throughout all of history.  And at the very end of history when his merits have been used up, Esav's angel will flee to Batzrah to permanently receive his reward of the Oil of the earth.  And there the Angel, the two legged goat as we shall soon see, will be slaughtered.

 A more detailed discussion of this was presented in my 2006 post about Esav's angel fleeing to Batzrah.     I have in previous years written extensively about this topic on this blog.

A chicken has two legs called Kra'ayim, but a bull, a sheep, and a goat have four legs.  It is well known in Hebrew grammar that when there is two of something that is when things are paired, the plural form Cheerik dot followed by a Yud and a Final Mem (the regular plural form) is transformed into Patach Yud Cheerik under the Yud followed by a Final Mem.  In modern Hebrew an extra Yud is added after the Cheerik to distinguish it from the regular plural consonants of the three letter shoresh followed by a Yud and a Final Mem.  In ancient Hebrew though, no such second Yud was added.  Consonantally it was impossible to distinguish between the two forms, the regular plural form and the form that meant a pair of something.  Here are examples from the Torah and Na"kh:

From Sefer BaMidbar 22 in the story about Bilaam we see that he hit his jackass three times:

כח  וַיִּפְתַּח יְהוָה, אֶת-פִּי הָאָתוֹן; וַתֹּאמֶר לְבִלְעָם, מֶה-עָשִׂיתִי לְךָ, כִּי הִכִּיתַנִי, זֶה שָׁלֹשׁ רְגָלִים. 28 And the LORD opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam: 'What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?'

Or when speaking of the three Pilgrimage festivals when in ancient times we all walked to Yerushalayim, we have this verse from Shemot 23:

יד  שָׁלֹשׁ רְגָלִים, תָּחֹג לִי בַּשָּׁנָה. 14 Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto Me in the year.

Notice in both cases the regular masculine plural form.  Now here is the form referring to pairs of legs:  Iyov (Job) 29:

טו  עֵינַיִם הָיִיתִי, לַעִוֵּר; וְרַגְלַיִם לַפִּסֵּחַ אָנִי. 15 I was eyes to the blind, and legs was I to the lame.

I specifically chose that pasuk so that you could see the Pair of limbs and organs form of both the word for Eyes and Legs in Tana"kh since almost every human being on the planet was born with two of them each.

Now from this past week's parsha, Shmini, let us look at an insect whose hind legs are for hopping and its front legs are for stabilizing their body.  These are the kosher locusts that can be eaten if you have a mesorah to know exactly which species of locusts are kosher:  VaYikra 11:

כא  אַךְ אֶת-זֶה, תֹּאכְלוּ, מִכֹּל שֶׁרֶץ הָעוֹף, הַהֹלֵךְ עַל-אַרְבַּע:  אֲשֶׁר-לא (לוֹ) כְרָעַיִם מִמַּעַל לְרַגְלָיו, לְנַתֵּר בָּהֵן עַל-הָאָרֶץ. 21 Yet these may ye eat of all winged swarming things that go upon all fours, which have jointed legs above their feet, wherewith to leap upon the earth;

Notice the Pair of limbs form of the word כְרָעַיִם.  It makes sense because for a locust, the hind pair of legs are for leaping upon the earth (as the pasuk itself says) while the front legs are only for standing on all four legs.  The hind legs have knees above the plane of the body while the front legs do not.  In this case you really have two distinct pairs of legs.  Just to point out where we are headed with this, notice the singular form of of the word Kra'ayim.  It is Kera which is a combination of both the lower and upper legs.  For a chicken the lower leg is called a shok while the upper leg known as a thigh in English is called a Yarech.  They are joined at the knee, and together they are called a Kera spelled Kaf Reish Ayin. So the Hebrew word for kneel is Korea (כֹּרֵעַ) (Yes, you read that right.)  From the Book of Esther 3 when Mordechai refused to kneel before Haman we have the following:

   ב  וְכָל-עַבְדֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ אֲשֶׁר-בְּשַׁעַר הַמֶּלֶךְ, כֹּרְעִים וּמִשְׁתַּחֲוִים לְהָמָן--כִּי-כֵן, צִוָּה-לוֹ הַמֶּלֶךְ; וּמָרְדֳּכַי--לֹא יִכְרַע, וְלֹא יִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה. 2 And all the king's servants, that were in the king's gate, knelt down, and prostrated themselves before Haman; for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordechai knelt not down, nor prostrated himself before him.

and   ה  וַיַּרְא הָמָן--כִּי-אֵין מָרְדֳּכַי, כֹּרֵעַ וּמִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה לוֹ; וַיִּמָּלֵא הָמָן, חֵמָה. 5 And when Haman saw that Mordechai would not kneel, nor prostrate himself before him, then was Haman full of wrath.

So now here is the important point of this post.  Starting from the first chapter of VaYikra we learn about the various Qorbanot.  In only one case are the limbs themselves burnt upon the altar.  It is with a fully burnt offering, usually a personal and voluntary one.  It is often offered up for failing to do positive commandments since the Qorban Cheit (Sin offerings) are for unintentionally transgressing the Thou shalt nots.  In all other cases, the limbs are either eaten by the Kohanim or in the case of Peace offerings are eaten by the general public in Yerushalayim when they are tahor.  Sometimes they are burnt outside the Temple Mount compound.  But in the case of the fully burnt offering or the Qorban Olah, they are burnt upon the altar.  So notice from VaYikra 1, first the Torah tells us about how to sacrifice a Bull, a Par.  Notice the words used to describe the four limbs that are burnt on the altar:

  ט  וְקִרְבּוֹ וּכְרָעָיו, יִרְחַץ בַּמָּיִם; וְהִקְטִיר הַכֹּהֵן אֶת-הַכֹּל הַמִּזְבֵּחָה, עֹלָה אִשֵּׁה רֵיחַ-נִיחוֹחַ לַיהוָה.  {ס} 9 but its inwards and its legs shall he wash with water; and the priest shall make the whole smoke on the altar, for a burnt-offering, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.

Now this makes sense because in the case of a four legged kosher mammal, the front legs and the hind legs serve virtually the same purpose.  It allows for the four legged mammal to walk on all four legs, and each of the four legs has a split hoof.

Yet, just four pasukim later, we read about the exact same Qorban from the flock instead of from cattle.  There should be precise parallelism since a four legged sheep or goat has legs which serve the same purpose as a four legged bull or cow.  Therefore it should read Kirbo UKra'av, meaning its innards and its legs, but it does not! 

Instead for the sheep and goat Olah it reads:
יג  וְהַקֶּרֶב וְהַכְּרָעַיִם, יִרְחַץ בַּמָּיִם; וְהִקְרִיב הַכֹּהֵן אֶת-הַכֹּל, וְהִקְטִיר הַמִּזְבֵּחָה--עֹלָה הוּא אִשֵּׁה רֵיחַ נִיחֹחַ, לַיהוָה.  {פ} 13 But the inwards and the legs shall he wash with water; and the priest shall offer the whole, and make it smoke upon the altar; it is a burnt-offering, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.

Now we all know that unlike a chicken or a turkey, a goat or sheep does NOT have two legs.  So it should not read Kra'aim.  It should also read either Kra'av (its limbs) or Kra'im (limbs) without the extra patach before the Yud.  I have yet to find the reason in Chaza"l why there would be this difference between the bull and an animal from the flock.  So I have to conclude it is a hint that the Qorban of Edom, who is compared to a goat, at the End of Days will have two limbs, two proxy limbs fighting each other which when the time comes will both be placed on the altar in Batzrah when Western Civilization is brought to its knees.  The two limbs?  The Korea (Kera) of the North and the Korea (Kera) of the South.

To the East we go to Enter the 7th Millennium, The Time Piece for B'itah before the Year 6000; Why it is necessary for a nation at the Edge of the World to enter Yom sheKulo Shabbat less than 250 years BEFORE Eretz Yisrael enters Yom sheKulo Shabbat in the year 6001:

To be continued later......

The "Light" of Mashiach Courtesy of the Koreas Leaving the Twilight Zone

For several years now, basically covering the years of this blog's lifespan, I have written several posts about North and South Korea being in the Twilight Zone of our halakhic international dateline and the End of Days implications of their placement there.  As Rav Levi Sa'adia Nachmani zt"l said years ago. that the Great light of Mashiach will come from the following two cryptic verses from Parshat Ha'Azinu (Devarim 32:21-22):

כא  הֵם קִנְאוּנִי בְלֹא-אֵל,  {ר}  כִּעֲסוּנִי בְּהַבְלֵיהֶם;  {ס}  וַאֲנִי אַקְנִיאֵם בְּלֹא-עָם,  {ר}  בְּגוֹי נָבָל אַכְעִיסֵם.  {ס} 21 They have roused Me to jealousy with a no-god (atheism); they have provoked Me with their vanities (nonsensical pursuits); and I will rouse them to jealousy with a non-people (the PaLeStinians who are not a nation, just an Arab collection of  Squatters from Jordan and Egypt since the P(h).L.S(h). root in Hebrew means "to squat on someone else's land"  This is true in all Semitic languages by the way.  The derogatory name for Ethiopian Jews in the Amharic language with the same P(h).L.S(h). root,  given them by Ethiopian Xtians, was FaLaShah or Squatters in their midst.); I will provoke them with a vile nation (Tzarfat or France).
כב  כִּי-אֵשׁ קָדְחָה בְאַפִּי,  {ר}  וַתִּיקַד עַד-שְׁאוֹל תַּחְתִּית;  {ס}  וַתֹּאכַל אֶרֶץ וִיבֻלָהּ,  {ר}  וַתְּלַהֵט מוֹסְדֵי הָרִים.  {ס} 22 For a fire (a nuclear blast) is kindled in My nostril, and burneth unto the depths of the nether-world (She'ol or Seoul, South Korea), and devoureth the earth with her produce, and setteth ablaze the foundations of the mountains.

Now Rav Nachmani seemed to insinuate that the North Korean nuclear program MAY first be used against Seoul, South Korea or against Japan or even against the American Pacific Coast, but its final target address would at least be an attempt to nuke Eretz Yisrael.  So over the course of the past week we see this, lo and behold, Israel had to bomb a convoy of hi tech missiles from North Korea that were being transported in Syria to Hezbollah!    So if the missile and high grade fissionable uranium and plutonium technology, which is being produced in North Korea and disbursed to their Axis of Evil ally in Persia, is now being disbursed to Syria and Hezbollah, we are right now not far away from at least an attempt to actualize Rav Levi Nachmani's nightmare scenario.  These are telling moments and telling times while our Supreme Court focuses its evil efforts on the destruction of Jewish life in Yesha, the rest of the world makes no distinctions and focuses in on murdering all of us.  But alas they will not succeed.  G-d is overseeing this last and final ingathering of exiles which began in earnest in several stages over the last 100 years (1917, 1948, 1967, 1990-1991).  The last one was predicted by the Vilna Gaon.  The final push to ingather the exiles of Israel would take place 3/4 of the way through the 6th Millennium in the years 5750 and 5751 (1990- 1991) to fulfill the verse in Yeshayahu 27:13 that with the Teki'ah blast of a Great Shofar, the Lost ones in the Land of Ashur and the castaways in the Land of Egypt would come on Aliyah.  Since the Lost ones in Ashur were at least in part absorbed by the Khazar tribe, the tenth son of Togarmah (the Turks), who migrated north to form their 500 year kingdom between the Black and Caspian Seas and since the Khazar kingdom did convert en masse to Judaism because of the convincing arguments of Rav Yehudah Almangari (recorded in the Kuzari by Yehudah HaLeivi), and since Khazaria was destroyed by Russia around the year 1240ce dispersing Jews northward into the Pale of Settlement in Russia and the Ukraine mixing in with Ashkenzaic Jews migrating eastward, the ingathering of Russian Jewry which began in 1990 and the ingathering of the castaways from Egypt, Ethiopian Jewry, in Operation Shlomo and Sheba in 1991 were a tremendous fulfillment of this incredible prophesy, right on schedule according to the Vilna Gaon.  This ingathering began the last 250 years BEFORE Yom sheKulo Shabbat too.  According to Sefer HaLeshem, that final ingathering would take a maximum of 40 years so that Techiyah HaMeitim could begin by the year 5790, 40 years after 5750.

In order to continue this post, though, we need to pause for review of the following three posts that I wrote many years ago on this blog.

1.  The Koreas (Are) In the Twilight Zone  from December 31, 2005
and
2.  North Korea is Emerging from the Twilight Zone from September 17, 2007
and 
3.  The Korean Peninsula is Inching Closer to World War from March 31, 2013

Also ponder the following from the Zohar VaEira 32a:

Zohar 32a continued, after discussing how the Children of Yishmael were given merit for 1300 years, 400 years after the last Tanna, Yehudah HaNassi, wrote down the Mishneh because of the emptiness of Eretz Yisrael.

At that time, a nation from the end of the earth (halakhically determined international dateline) will be aroused against evil Rome and wage war against it for three months. Nations will gather there, and [Rome] will fall into their hands, until all the children of Edom will gather against it [that nation] from all the corners of the world. Then G‑d will be roused against them. This is the meaning of: "For G‑d has a sacrifice in Botzrah"(Yishayahu 34:6). (Botzrah is the city in Iraq controlled by the Shi'ite Arabs at the behest of neighboring Iran. This points to an endtimes alliance between the nation at the edge of the world (N. Korea) and Persia/Iran.) And afterwards, it is written: "That it might take hold of the ends of the earth..." (Job 38:13) He will destroy the descendants of Ishmael from the land, and break all the powers of [all the nations' guardian angels] Above. There will not remain any power of any people on earth, except the power of Israel alone. This is the meaning of "G‑d is your shadow upon your right hand". (Psalms 121:5)

Here, below, is the preceding text for the above excerpt from the Zohar from the Kabbalah On Line website from Chabad.org:

Come and see: for four hundred years (after the year 4000 when Eretz Yisrael was being emptied of Jews), the Heavenly minister of the children of Ishmael stood and begged before G‑d. He said to Him, 'whoever is circumcised has a portion in Your name'. He (G-d) said to him, 'it is so'. He (Yishmael's Minister) said to Him, 'Behold Ishmael who is circumcised. Why does he not have a portion in You like Isaac?' He said to him, 'It is not so, the one (Isaac) was circumcised properly and according to the full requirements, while the other was not so' [as Ishmael does not fulfill “periyah/uncovering of a fourth layer of skin after three are removed”]. Moreover, the ones (Children of Isaac) cleave to Me as is specified on the eighth day, while the others (Children of Ishmael) are distanced from me for many days[being circumcised only at age 13]. He [Ishmael's guardian angel] said to Him, 'But still in all, since he is circumcised, would he not have a good reward for this?'

[R. Hiyya then says] Woe is to the time that Ishmael was born into the world and was circumcised. What did G‑d do [to appease Ishmael]? He distanced the children of Ishmael from supernal cleaving and gave them [only] a portion below in the Holy Land (for 1300 years or 26 Jubilee cycles, 100 years (or more exactly 98 years) for each year when Ishmael was circumcised) on account of their circumcision.

And in the future, the children of Ishmael are destined to rule over the Holy Land for a long time when it is empty from anything, like their circumcision which is empty and imperfect. And they will prevent the children of Israel from returning to their place until the reward for the merit of the children of Ishmael reaches completion (26 Jubilee cycles of control of Eretz Yisrael in the merit of his imperfect circumcision).

The children of Ishmael [i.e. the Arab nations] will (THEN After their 1300 year reward) cause great wars in the world and the children of Edom will gather against them and wage war against them, one on the sea (First Persian Gulf War as lead by Gog H.W. Bush, Sr.), one on the dry land (2nd Persian Gulf War as lead by Gog ben Gog W Bush, Jr.), and one near Jerusalem (to be determined). And they [the children of Edom]will rule over them [the children of Ishmael], but the Holy Land will not be given over to the children of Edom. [The children of Edom is the Christian West, for Edom is Rome (see Num. 24:19, Rashi) and Rome signifies Greece-Rome and the Roman Catholic Church, the foundations of Western Civilization]

Then, the following from above:

At that time, a nation from the end of the earth (halakhically determined international dateline) will be aroused against evil Rome and wage war against it for three months. Nations will gather there, and [Rome] will fall into their hands, until all the children of Edom will gather against it [that nation] from all the corners of the world. Then G‑d will be roused against them. This is the meaning of: "For G‑d has a sacrifice in Botzrah"(Yishayahu 34:6). (Botzrah is the city in Iraq controlled by the Shi'ite Arabs at the behest of neighboring Iran. This points to an endtimes alliance between the nation at the edge of the world (N. Korea) and Persia/Iran.) And afterwards, it is written: "That it might take hold of the ends of the earth..." (Job 38:13) He will destroy the descendants of Ishmael from the land, and break all the powers of [all the nations' guardian angels] Above. There will not remain any power of any people on earth, except the power of Israel alone. This is the meaning of "G‑d is your shadow upon your right hand". (Psalms 121:5)

This post is a work in process, but it does require that the three previous posts be studied and understood in light of the page of Zohar VeEira 32a from above.  I will continue with this post in a few days.

The War Against Amaleq and Machtzit HaShekel, Stage 2

Both this post and the previous post flowed from correspondence with a Rav who is a friend of this blog.  It is important to understand that the mitzvot of Adar and their special parshiyot flow one into the other.  They are not meant to be simply understood as a unit onto themselves.  They are truly the pathway to the Final Redemption which at least begins in Nissan, or more specifically in the Adar immediately preceding it, even if it also flows into Shavuot and later on into Yom Kippur and peaking in intensity during Sukkot and Shmini Atzereth when the entire world is judged.  But as Reb Nachman of Breslov said, it really begins in Adar.  Machtzit HaShekel flows into Remembering and Blotting out Amaleq.  Blotting out Amaleq flows into mitzvah of becoming pure in the ashes of the Red Heifer (Parah Adumah).  Moving into Nissan, becoming pure in the ashes of the parah adumah, seven days later, flows into sanctification of the New Moon of Nissan.  Sanctifying the New Moon of Nissan flows into the appearance of Eliyahu HaNavi to actually herald the Geulah.  Potentially a propitious time for his arrival is Motzei Shabbat HaGadol in the week before Pesach.  And finally, (at least the beginning of the end), Eliyahu's arrival leads to the Qorban Pesach on the actual site of the mizbeach on the Temple Mount.  Now although we disagree with each other on whether the 3rd Temple is coming down from Shamayim or whether we have to actually spend several years building it, we do have the opinion of Chaza"l that if other halakhic issues such as permission from the Muslims and other thorny details could be resolved, we can, if we desire, offer up the Qorban Pesach on the spot of the mizbeach even before the 3rd Temple is built or descends from Heaven!  Here is a lengthy discussion of this matter as proposed over the last 1000 years by Rav Yechiel of Paris when he came to Yerushalayim in 1257ce along with several of the Ba'alei Tosefot after the burning of 24 cartloads of the Talmud by Louie the IXth (yemach shmo) and later proposed by Rav Tzvi Hersh Kalisher in the early 19th Century.  The nugget to realize is the major difference between the Qorban Pesach and other Qorbanot is that originally it was slaughtered before the eyes of the Egyptians without either a Mishkan or a Temple or even a high place where Qorbanot Olah could be offered up on private altars.  So it is unique in this vein even though I am not sure if Qorbanot Olah can or can't be considered in the same category of offering them up on the Temple Mount without a Temple.  Like the Qorban Pesach the Qorban Olah shares its distinction of being offered up in ancient times before there was a Mishkan or a Beit HaMiqdash.  No'ach started the tradition on the day he left the Ark after the Year of the Flood.  All the other Qorbanot (Cheit, Asham, Shelamim, Todah, and others) were only commanded or were given the opportunity to be offered up once and only after the Mishkan was erected or when the Temple was built.   The point of mentioning all the above about Qorbanot is to make us all aware how in order to reach the process of offering up Qorbanot, we have to travel through these other steps in the Geulah process from Machtzit HaShekel to Eliyahu HaNavi before Offering up Qorbanot with or without a Temple becomes possible. 

Here is my correspondence with the Rav.  I should mention here that included here are several other themes that I have spoken about throughout the years of this End of Days blog.  I preface this by saying that for many survivors of the Shoah, these matters cannot be discussed.   In their minds any attempt to try to give an explanation to the magnitude of their suffering is trivializing their suffering.  On the other hand, there are some survivors who don't mind discussing this at all.  Rule of thumb:  Before discussing this with a survivor, know him/her well enough before continuing with this.  For the rest of us, I see no reason NOT to discuss this.  It is downright therapeutic to discuss the deepest, most profound reasons for the Shoah, and we can then begin to fully comprehend our suffering as a nation in order to be consoled from it.

There is an inyan about the Shoah that is often missed.  Rav Shlomo Carlebach zt"l in his introduction to the Krakow Niggun and the Klausenberger Rebbe zt"l, though, make a point of bringing it up.  The Redemption comes when there are 6 million Jews in the Land of Israel BECAUSE those in Eretz Yisrael at the Final Redemption are either gilgulim OR nitzolim from that horrible Holocaust.  So in a sense we are all survivors except that most of us were murdered and sent back into this world to witness the Final Redemption.  The Shoah was the 7th Churban spoken of in the tochachah both in Leviticus and in Deuteronomy that if we choose the lower path of rebuke with the destruction of the First Temple and then the 2nd Temple (which according to Daniel was decreed early on to be eventually destroyed), then we will be chased in "7 different directions."  The Gemorrah in Megillah tells us that each partnership between a prince in Germamia and a Prince at the Vatican in Rome would last one day.  Since there are 365 principle saints of the Roman Catholic Church and there were 300 princes in Germany, then each go around would last precisely 300 years.  So the Asarah harugei Malkhut (the 10 martyrs who died of/for Malkhut) died in the 70 years between Churban Bayit Sheini and the crushing of the Bar Kochbah Revolt and its aftermath 70 years later (70ce to 140ce).  That was the "first Churban of Malkhut Edom" and it lasted 70 years corresponding with the Ayin in Esav's name.  After that each Churban would last 300 years corresponding with those alliances between the princes of Germamia and the Vatican and the Sin in Esav's name.  So harugei Yesod corresponds with the years 140 to 440ce.  Harugei Hod corresponds with the years 440 to 740ce.  So those who were harugei Netzach died between 740 and 1040ce.  Those who were harugei Tiffereth died between 1040 and 1340ce with a final push in 1348ce when Edom blamed the Jews for poisoning the wells and causing the Bubonic Plague.  The next 300 year (1340 to 1640ce) were for those who were harugei Gevurah with a final push AGAIN 8 years later in 1648ce with the Chelminitzky massacres of Tach veTat (5408 and 5409).  And finally those who were harugei Chessed died between 1640 and 1940 for the midah of Chessed.  Yet, notice that there are precisely 21 years from the end of WW1 and WW2.  Those years were keneged the days between the 17th of Tamuz and the 9th of Av.  So the Satan figured that IF he could really top off the 7th Churban in earnest, he would have to start it BEFORE the year 1940 which would have corresponded to the 10th of Av.  So he started it two weeks before Rosh HaShanah in the Hebrew year 5699 in 1939.  Then has given 6 years from Tisha B'Av (end of 5699/ Sept 1939 until the 15th of Av (5705 or 1945ce) to complete the job of Churbanot and of chasing the Jews in 7 different directions.   Notice that those 6 years of the Shoah (5700 until 5705) correspond with the Vav in Esav's name.  So Esav's name is written out through the long period of history of being chased in these 7 different directions.  The Ayin (70ce - 140ce), the six-fold Sin (those 300 year cycles), and finally the Vav (1940 - 1945).

And now the inyan of Why??  When Yosef was sold into slavery, each brother received 2 dinar since he was sold for 20 dinar and since ten brothers were considered there for the sale.  The Dinar was 1/4 of the ancient shekel.  So each of the ten brothers excluding Binyamin who was not there from beginning to end received 1/2 of a shekel (Machzit haShekel) with which they bought shoes from the Midyanim who were also there.  Not just the Yishmaelim were there, but the Midyanim were there from whom they bought shoes with that half of a shekel.   From this we see that Yosef was not just sold for 20 dinar.  He was sold as if he were a bechor for five sh'kalim.  From this time forward, the Bechor would be redeemed with five sh'kalim even though Yosef was just the bechor of Rachel, and not the bechor for purposes of yerushah.  Ultimately Yosef's double earthly portion would be in Eretz Yisrael where he would be given two nachalot (tribal territory inheritances) not just one.  So when we were given the mitzvah for the Shabbat of Parshat Sh'kalim of Machtzit haShekel, it was originally meant as a kappara, a blotting out of the sin of Mechirat Yosef.  600,000 men would give a total of 300,000 sh'kalim in order to redeem or buy back from slavery the 60,000 men from the two tribes of Yosef.  This is an approximate calculation.  Adding the men in Ephraim and Menasheh at the first census in the desert, there were slightly more than 60,000 men.  The actual census at that time for both of them was more precisely slightly more than 72,000 combined.  I realize this, but the purpose of the mitzvah was to redeem the 1/10th of themselves that they sold into slavery.  You might say 1/11th, but this particular sin was not Yosef's sin.  Since the sin was divided amongst the ten brothers (Reuven is also for some reason considered to be at fault), they had to redeem 1/10th of themselves.  

But alas then came the Sin of the Golden Calf, the calf that was made by the Kishuf (black magic) of the Erev Rav using the plate which was meant to raise Yosef's coffin from the Nile River.  On this plate was written the words Rise Bull Rise.  Now a bull more than a goat or sheep gives its owner parnassah since a bull can pull a plow while a species from the flock cannot.  It is the main reason we see from Parshat Mishpatim why if a thief steals and slaughters a bull he must replace it with five times the monetary value of the bull while if he steals and slaughters a sheep or goat, he must replace it with four times their monetary value.  The extra dimension of a bull's value is that it provides its owner with parnassah since it can pull a plow.  Since the Calf (or the potential bull) represented the idea that we worship G-d JUST to bring prosperity, those who worshiped it confused Prosperity with Utopia (Yom sheKulo Shabbat) when prosperity is just a portion along the Way to Sinai which may be a necessary cog to create a Utopian existence here on earth.  Prosperity was secured in the desert on Lag B'Omer when the Mon(ey) fell for a third day so that we would have a chazakah on the Mon(ey), the supernatural sustenance for our entire time in the Desert from the 31st day of the Omer in 2448 until we could eat the grain of the new agricultural year in Eretz Yisrael on the 2nd day of Pesach 2488, 40 years later.  But of course we continued all the way to the 49th day of the Omer in our first year in the desert and then onto the transcendent 50th day to receive the Torah because until the 33rd level the purpose for serving G-d is to be blessed with prosperity while from 33 until 50 the purpose for being prosperous is to serve G-d.  Notice the converse is true only after Lag B'Omer.  Notice from here that the ultimate purpose of Prosperity is therefore to make serving G-d lishma (for its own sake) easier.  From this we see that the purpose is to serve G-d for its own sake, and prosperity is what helps significantly to make that possible.  By worshiping the idea that the Shekhinah could dwell between the horns of the potential Bull, though, those doing so were saying that they would be happy only to rise until the 33rd level of purity in order to get the prosperity and not higher than that since the be all and end all of Utopia IS the prosperity that we can get out of it.  By doing this, those who wanted to worship the Shekhinah in this way were saying that they were not interested in doing what was right in G-d's eyes lishma.  They just wanted the (Mon)ey which comes from doing so at the 31st, 32nd, and 33rd levels of purity, but they would not progress further, G-d forbid!!!  As discussed elsewhere on this blog, we see this in Malkhut Edom a lot since Xtianity does afford one with the mistaken opportunity to believe that one's world to come has already been given to them as a free gift by virtue of what one believes not what one does.  So then the question comes up about why one should do the right thing in this world in G-d's eyes, and the answer is often (not always) that doing the right thing helps one prosper because of Divine favor.  So the 33rd level of purity is the peak of one's service in Malkhut Edom from Xtianity (some Xtians not all) to Free-Masonry.  Now since Yosef more than any other tribe represents the ability to give parnassah, in a very strange way they were worshiping Yosef himself when they bowed down to the Golden Calf!  Remember originally the Bull that arose from the Nile was the bones of Yosef.  Suddenly not only Yosef was enslaved in Mitzraim.  The transformation that took place at the Cheit HaEigel was that all 600,000 men excluding Leivi became like Yosef himself, enslaved once again in Mitzraim, the Mitzraim from which they just had been redeemed!!!  And how many Jews must give Machtzit HaShekel at the end of days in order to redeem those 600,000 slaves who sold themselves to the foreign parnassah god?... The answer is 10 x 600,000 = 6 million Jews, for 6 million Jews giving 1/2 of a shekel redeem all of those 600,000 Yosefs who became Yosef, the slave, by serving the Golden Calf.  By the way there will need to be another 6 million Jews in the world to accomplish this for a total of 12 million because half of us are women who do not have the mitzvah of giving Machtzit HaShekel.

So where do we see that 6 million were bought by Amaleq for Churban in order to achieve that there would be 6 million reincarnated Jews in the Land of Israel to welcome the Messianic Era in the merit of those who were murdered??  It is in the Book of Esther when Haman purchases the Jews of the Persian Empire for 10,000 kikar of silver.  According to Chaza"l of course, Haman as Amaleq is purchasing every Jew in the world for slaughter.  And he was purchasing those Jews from G-d Himself since the reference for Ginzei HaMelekh (Treasury of the King) does not mention the name Achashveirosh.  In the Megillah when it simply says HaMelekh, it refers to the King of Kings of kings.  3:9

  אִם-עַל-הַמֶּלֶךְ טוֹב, יִכָּתֵב לְאַבְּדָם; וַעֲשֶׂרֶת אֲלָפִים כִּכַּר-כֶּסֶף, אֶשְׁקוֹל עַל-יְדֵי עֹשֵׂי הַמְּלָאכָה, לְהָבִיא, אֶל-גִּנְזֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ. 9 If it please the King, let it be written that they be destroyed; and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those that have the charge of the king's business, to bring it into the King's treasuries.

So how many Jews did Haman purchase IF we accept that at the Golden Calf we had all become like Yosef who could be redeemed with 5 silver sh'kalim??   Well the answer to that lies in the conversion factor in Parshat Pekudei in the Book of Exodus when we are told that from the 300,000 silver shkalim collected from the 600,000 (excluding the 3550 who gave an additional 1775 shekalim), Betzalel made 100 adanim each weighing one kikar.  So from here we see 300,000 shekels of silver equals 100 kikar, or we see that there are precisely 3000 shekels per kikar!  So getting back to the number of Jews that Haman purchased for slaughter we see that he placed 10,000 kikar into the ginzei HaMelekh x 3000 shekels per kikar equals 30 million shekalim.  30 million shekalim divided by 5 shekalim for each Jew who is like Yosef equals 6 million Jews.  Haman purchased 6 million Jews for slaughter.... and HaShem said not yet, not in that generation.  But at the End of Days so that there will be 6 million Jews in the Land of Israel to welcome Mashiach, I HaShem will accept your price in the generation prior to Mashiach in order to give unbelievable merit in the Final Generation of 6 million Jews so that in the third war of GogUMagog the final war, the 3rd world war WW3, the one between Edom and Persia (or Dubi'el including Persia and Russia as the Vilna Gaon said), those 6 million will survive to give Machzit HaShekel in order to redeem the original 600,000 from the Cheit HaEigel.  

I should mention the obvious with regards to the 7 Cycles of Churban in the world.  Notice that the purification of Hod through suffering really ended in the 8th year of the next cycle in 1348 when there was a massive pogrom because of the poisoning of the wells.  And again Gevurah purification was finally complete with Tach veTat in 1648.  From this we see that the Chesed purification did not require another Churban in 1948.  LeHefech...the opposite occurred.

Also there is another reason why the cycles of Churban were 300 years apart.  The Cheshbon (the spiritually negative residue) on our sins even after repentance and the sins of Mankind must be cleansed every 300 years.  This is because of the original covenant of the rainbow which HaShem showed Noach after offering up one from each species of pure animals after the Flood.  The Brit or Covenant of the Rainbow with Noach was only half a rainbow.  This is from the Zohar .... That HaShem would only allow Mankind to metamei (make impure) the planet earth up to the half-way point before sending the correction upon the world.  So if it took 600 years of Noach's life to open up all ten gates to the Waters of the Deep bringing on the Great Flood, it would take only 300 years of Cheshbonot (spiritually negative residue) on Sins to open up half of those gates causing HaShem to send the Churban (as destruction to the Jews) in lieu of the Qorbanot that could not be offered up in a destroyed Temple.  This is why the Churbanot had to be spaced apart by 300 years, not 600 years.  If HaShem had waited 600 years, He would have had to destroy the world again. During the time of the Temples we had Qorbanot which did this job.  We had our own system of Qorbonot Olah and Cheit, and the nations of the world had their 70 bulls (notice it is bulls as in Yosefs) during Sukkot.  When there was no longer a Temple because of our sins, WE, the Jewish people, became the Qorbanot for the nations of the world in lieu of there being no bulls offered up because there was no longer a Temple.  So we became the Yosefs that died.  So while the physical world in total is purified of the Cheshbon of sins, the ones who were murdered get Heavenly reward in the World to Come. Over the course of history there have been 70 bulls for slaughter.  We specifically know about the ten harugei Malkhut.  In the same way there are in a sense ten principle harugim for each of the sefirot of the nefesh behamit leading to a total of 70 principle harugim.  But again notice it was bulls.  This more than anything else explains why we were considered as if we were all Yosefs dying in the Shoah.  6 million Yosefs or Bulls for slaughter.  (At this point I could link to the song Dona Dona, but it is sung by singer Joan Baez.  So I can't link to it.)  It is ironic that the majestic passage of the Suffering Servant in Yishayahu 53 is really a passage about Israel's suffering servitude to G-d to be the Qorbanot for all Mankind, and not Oto Ish.  It is ironic because so many Jews (willingly and wittingly or not) died in this purpose by the hand of many of those Europeans who thought Oto Ish was that servant.... Ironic, isn't it?

And so we see the necessity of of one mitzvah flowing into another at the End of Days.  Without Machtzit HaShekel there would be no Zecher and Mechiyat Amaleq.  And as we may soon see, without Remembrance and Blotting Out of Amaleq, there would be no Parah Adumah which comes the following week.  This is the progression of the Final Redemption.

Machtzit HaShekel and the Collapse of Fiat Currency in the Month of Adar (part 1)

From the moment that Avraham plopped 400 silver shekels onto Efron the Hittites scale to buy a burial plot for his wife and descendants as well as himself, we see that G-d Himself considers silver more than anything else to be the Real medium of exchange in the World.  When it came to purchasing the holiest places on earth from Avraham buying the Cave of Machpela or David buying the inner courtyard and Holy of Holies on the Temple Mount, it was always Silver that was plopped on the scales (not even gold, not beads, not Monopoly colored funny money, not even greenbacks with pictures of dead American Presidents on them).  It was always meant at least to be silver and not coins with primarily numismatic value, but real silver by Weight (as in the Hebrew word for weight: Shekel).  Now David purchased the holiest parts of the Temple Mount for a bargain.  He only paid 50 silver shekels for the place around the mizbeach and the Holy of Holies while Avraham paid eight times that price for the Cave on the outskirts of Chevron from Efron the Hittite.  But Our Father in Heaven considers both those purchases along with Yosef's tomb in Shekhem to be Eternal purchases whose bill of sale can be redeemed at any time until the completion of the Messianic Era and beyond.  The Hebrew word for Silver, Keseph has a Root (Kaf Samech Pey) which also means Intense Desire or Yearning.  As the Zemer Yedid Nefesh says in the third verse relating to the Vav in HaShem's Name (Nichsof Nichsafti!), I have intensely yearned to quickly see the charisma of Your Strength! as the song goes.   So Keseph, the Silver metal by weight, more than anything else that G-d created reflects the intense desires of our animal souls, the emotional sefirot tied to the Vav in HaShem's Name.  That is the main reason why Nichsof Nichsafti is in that particular third verse of Yedid Nefesh.  Since G-d did create us with an animal aspect to us, serving him with our animal souls or our six emotional sefirot and our intense desires plays an important role in our Divine Service and ultimately in the process leading to the Final Redemption.

Now what is that process?  Well we go through it every year starting just before Rosh Chodesh Adar.  Notice that it begins really on Rosh Chodesh Adar and not Rosh Chodesh Nissan.  The first mitzvah of the Redemption from Mitzraim began with the Sanctification of the New Moon for the month of Nissan, but the Final Redemption b'Rachamim, partly in honor of Purim and the willful acceptance of the Oral Torah during Adar, begins on Rosh Chodesh Adar a full 30 days earlier.  According to Chazal, the Shabbat before Rosh Chodesh Adar or on that Rosh Chodesh itself is called Shabbat Shekalim, a Shabbat dedicated to reminding us of the importance of setting aside one-half of a Shekel for public Divine Service.  Years ago it was used to buy public Qorbanot in the Beit HaMiqdash.  And even before that in the Desert of Sinai, it was used to make the Adanim (the connecting bases) of the pillars for the Mishkan itself AND the hooks, capstones, and even the decorative hoops around the pillars in the Courtyard of that same Mishkan.  In a very deep way, the Silver dedicated for the Mishkan represents our deepest desires, and the placement of that silver in the Mishkan represents how we use our deepest desires to serve G-d.  Yet, from a perspective of Geulah starting in Adar, the Silver coins of Redemption are the same Machtzit HaShekel.  To be explained deeper into this essay in part 2, they are the silver coins worth half of a shekel that were dispersed amongst the brothers of Yosef to purchase shoes from Midyanite traders when they sold Yosef into slavery.  And when their descendants worshiped the Golden Calf, a Yosef-like idol which confused Prosperity with Utopia (a Day that will be always like Shabbat), then all 603,550 who participated in making and worshiping this idol or the Shekhinah that they hoped would dwell between the calf's horns, all of them need this last generation to redeem them from their servitude to this god or from their servitude to the idea that Prosperity is Yom sheKulo Shabbat... which of course is utterly wrong!  Yet, THIS redemption is only the first step in the process of the Final Redemption, for when they are redeemed by real Machtzit haShekel given by 6 million Jews, it is only the first step to the next phase, the War against Amaleq which leads into Purim.  Now we really have the entire month to give the Machtzit HaShekel because even though this War against Amaleq concludes on Erev Purim the 13th of Adar, it actually began during Pesach of the previous year when Esther risked her life to appear before the King (Achashveirosh and the King of king of kings too) in order to plead for the survival of her people in the vast Persian Empire.  So all of our Machtzit HaShekels have to be in the Treasury of the Temple by Rosh Chodesh Nissan when all Redemptions in Nissan are declared in order to counter the 10,000 kikar of Silver that Haman placed into the Treasury of the King of kings of kings to annihilate us.  .  to be continued in part 2 very soon....

Piercing (Pirtzah) the Darkness that is (Tzarfat) at the End of Days, Part One

Three Decades ago the seventh and last Lubavitcher Rebbe told us that Tzarfat would be the last home base of the Evil Inclination at the End of Days when the 70 nations of the world would unite against us to divide the Land of Israel as mentioned in Zecharia 14 and Yo'el 3 and 4.  In both Zecharia and Yo'el, the language is that "all" the nations or "all 70" nations from the Tower of Bavel would unite to divide Yerushalayim (in the case of Zecharia) and all of the Land of Israel (in the case of Yo'el 4).  And the language in both cases is TO DIVIDE.  He said this based on Bereishit 28:14 which says that while HaShem appeared before Ya'akov Avinu after Ya'akov had his dream of a ladder with angels ascending and descending, HaShem told him:  יד  וְהָיָה זַרְעֲךָ כַּעֲפַר הָאָרֶץ, וּפָרַצְתָּ יָמָּה וָקֵדְמָה וְצָפֹנָה וָנֶגְבָּה; וְנִבְרְכוּ בְךָ כָּל-מִשְׁפְּחֹת הָאֲדָמָה, וּבְזַרְעֶךָ. 14 And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south. And in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.  From this we see that at the End of Days, while not in our ancient past, Ya'akov seed would Ufaratzta, a double entendre which can mean "to pierce or burst through" or "to spread out". that is that the Messianic Era would erupt on the world scene through as veil of darkness and would encompass the entire planet by bursting through the last great darkness of our world of lies!  And when would this occur?   Well we see from the verb Ufaratzta (וּפָרַצְתָּ) that first we remove the Vav which turns a past tense verb into a future tense verb leaving us with (פָרַצְתָּ).  Then we juggle those same letters around a bit and we get the name Tzarfat (צרפת).  Now according to the Lubavitcher Rebbe from this we learn that at the time the light of Mashiach bursts through the darkness of this present World of Lies, the 70 nations who yearn to divide the Land of Israel at the End of Days will try to execute their evil plan from Tzarfat!  (Remember that the Gematriah of Gog UMagog (גוג ומגוג) is 70.)  And 70 nations DID gather in Tzarfat on January 15th, 2017 (17th of Tevet 5777) for this purpose precisely 271 days, the length of an ideal pregnancy, before the end of Chag Sukkot 5778!  If Kislev had had 30 days as it usually does, then the 271st day would have been Hoshana Rabbah itself!  But this year because of a necessary tweak in the Jewish calendar, Kislev only had 29 days JUST so that next Yom Kippur would not fall on a Motzei Shabbat so that we would not have two days in a row of total Issur Melachah (when all creative work is forbidden for 48 hours including not being able to cook).  Notice that the the molad for Shevat was actually immediately after the beginning of Rosh Chodesh Shevat on Friday night here in Israel.  It was at 5:36pm while sunset on Shabbat Rosh Chodesh Shevat was around 5:10 pm.  Surely a new moon would not have been seen in ancient times on the night of this past Rosh Chodesh, but this was done this way by those who inter-calculated the calendar in the Fourth Century just so that the following Yom Kippur would not fall on Motzei Shabbat. If Rosh Chodesh Shevat and later Rosh Chodesh Tishrei 5778 were to be declared solely from spotting the nascent crescent New Moon, Rosh Chodesh would be the following day in Tishrei, Rosh HaShanah 5778, making the 1st of Tishrei on a Friday instead of a Thursday.  So it is easy to see that in Shamayim this Paris Pieces Conference was PRECISELY 271 days prior to and including Hoshana Rabbah 5778, the length of an ideal pregnancy in the Talmud in Niddah.

This story, though, of France as a nation of debased prostitution in the bedroom and in the halls of international diplomacy does not have a recent beginning.  It goes back to the beginning of the 70 nations.  We read from Bereishit 10 that Yafeth's son Gomer had three children: Ashkenaz, Rifat, and Togarmah.  It is an accepted mesorah that Ashkenaz is Germany, and many think that Togarmah is Turkey. But what about Rifat?  Rifat is the progenitor of ancient France which at its inception was a Celtic nation, only later to become a Romance nation after Caesar's invasion of Gaul.  The name for Rifat in Sefer Ovadia is Tzarfat which is Rifat with a Tzadee added to the front of his name.  To understand why he may have added that tzadee, an explanation will follow later in this post, but before there was Tzarfat (צרפת), there was Rifat (רִיפַת) without the initial tzadee.  Now these Celts from Tzarfat migrated up into England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, but they got their start in the heart of France.  So a study of Celtic immediately tells you that Celtic is a Germanic (or Gomeric) language which fits our profile.  And as we know from Sefer Yechezkel, Rifat as one of the 70 original nations will gleefully join, the invasion of Israel lead by Meshech and Tuval as it says in Yechezkel 38:6:    גֹּמֶר, וְכָל-אֲגַפֶּיהָ--בֵּית תּוֹגַרְמָה, יַרְכְּתֵי צָפוֹן וְאֶת-כָּל-אֲגַפָּיו; עַמִּים רַבִּים, אִתָּךְ. Gomer, and all his bands (that is including Rifat and Ashkenaz); the house of Togarmah in the uttermost parts of the north, and all his bands; even many peoples with thee.  

Looking at the original name for the French nation, the actual origin of the name screams for an interpretation.  The name Rifat is part of the Hebrew verb conjugation group called Binyan Pi'el (פיעל) with a Yud between the first and second letter of the root.  Binyan Pi'el is always active voice and unlike the basic binyan Pa'al (פעל), Pi'el with a Yud almost always has a direct object as an object that is acted upon even if the object being acted upon is only implied and not mentioned.  For instance, one can say that I sat or I sat down (ישבתי), Yashavti.  Notice the sentence "I sat." or "I sat down." does not have a noun after the verb which is a direct object and that you can say that sentence without the listener asking for that direct object.  This is often the case with Binyan Pa'al even though Binyan Pa'al may or may not act on a direct object.  It can go either way.  One can say "I wrote" (Katavti) or "I wrote the book" (Katavti et HaSefer.), same verb with or without a direct object.  Yet, with Pi'el, the verb usually begs for the need for a direct object.  Getting back to the Yud Shin Vet shoresh (in Pi'el), Yishavti ( יישבתי) means "I settled" which is very similar to "I sat down" except that I sat down does not have a direct object while to say "I settled" begs the listener to ask, "You settled what?"  The answer would then be, (יישבתי את היישוב), I settled the yishuv or from another Pi'el word (קיימתי את היישוב) (Qiyamti eth haYishuv.)"I maintained the settlement."  In both cases a direct object is called for by the conjugation of the verb in Binyan Pi'el.  So getting back to our name Rifat, we see that Rifat (ריפת) before it became Tzarfat (צרפת) is a word in the Pi'el conjugation of the root (רפת).  A Refet is a cow barn, a place where one houses cows and a place where one milks cows too.  So our implacable enemy at the End of Days is an ancient Dairy Farmer!  From his name we see that he works long hours in cow barns.  Now for those of us who only drink Cholov Yisrael here in Eretz Yisrael and in places where it is readily available such as on the East Coast of the US or in Chicago, we really don't know if the French dairymen mix some of their cow milk with milk from horses or pigs, but at least the "face" that they show the world is that they are dairy farmers EVEN onto this present day.  Notice that number One and Two in the world in dairy production are Canada at number One and France at number Two.  Canada would of course be number One because in addition to their large French province, Quebec, their dairy production is supplemented by all their English speaking provinces in a much larger land mass than France or Quebec alone.  Yet, the French are STILL number Two in the world while Canada with Quebec included is at number One at dairy farming and dairy product production.  From this we see that Rifat IS still a dairyman even to this present day.  (In the previous post at the End of Comments on that post, I discussed why this might be important for those who can begin to put this post together with that comment.  I don't want to discuss it here.)

Yet, the French have another national character trait which personifies who they are as a nation.  The French have always been a nation whose pre-eminent feature is Zenut (not just in the bedroom but in the world of adopting the mores of others in order to be loved by them).  So when Julius Caesar showed up in this land of the Celts, they easily disposed of their Gomeric language, and they instituted a new Romance language just so that their culture would now be palatable in Rome.  Time and time again the French would repeat this pattern of easily surrendering their ancient heritage to the heritage of others in order to be loved by them.  This character trait or lack of character of the French nation would in a basic sense become characteristic of who they really are.  So in addition to being whores in the bedroom, they became the whores in the halls of international diplomacy too.  Yet, since Ancient France was really Rifat, how did they appear later with a Tzadee in front of their name?  In short, how did Rifat become TzaRfat??

For this we need to venture forth to Rav Matis Weinberg's Sefer on Chanukah where he discusses the difference between Yawan (יון} and Tzion (ציון).  Notice that the only difference between Yawan and Tzion is the tzadee or the Tzaddik.  Yawan and Tzion are very very similar in so many ways.   When Noach sent the dove forth from the ark it was a male dove which is usually known as a ben Yonah in Hebrew (בן יונה), he was sending forth into the world two nations, Yawan and Yisrael.  But in reality Yonah is the female of that species and usually represents Yisrael.  Truncating off of Yonah its femine Hey gives us Yon (יון).  Now from this we see that the male of the species is Yawan!.  Now, Mashiach ben David, as opposed to Mashiach ben Yosef who represents all of Yisrael, the Yonah, physically at least, is also the male aspect of the Good inclination and is also represented by the exact same letters that represent Yawan and are also pronounced Yon (יון)!!  But Mashiach ben David is called a ben Yonah because he comes out of the Tribes of Yisrael who are called Yonah.  Now it is said about Greece and Yisrael,  They had their sages, and Yisrael had their sages.  They have eternity (Netzach), and so does Yisrael.  They believed that the greatest fruits of Man come from Wisdom and Reason.  So does Yisrael.  The similarities between Yawan and Yisrael run very very deep and are easily confused as a first impression by a perfunctory glance at the two civilizations.  From Shir haShirim (the Song of Songs) we see that HaShem recognizes the Equal Beauty of both Yawan and Yisrael, one from Yefeth and the other from Shem:

טו  הִנָּךְ יָפָה רַעְיָתִי, הִנָּךְ יָפָה עֵינַיִךְ יוֹנִים.

15 Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; Your eyes are as two doves.

  The difference between the two nations lies in what comes next after Noach sent forth the dove a second time (not the perfunctory first time), the dove who represents both civilizations. from the Ark.  So first he sent forth the dove and it returned to the Ark because it could not find rest for its feet.  Then Seven Days later ON THE 8TH DAY, he sent forth the dove a second time.... And lo and behold the dove returns  לְעֵת עֶרֶב towards evening whose gematriah is 772, the first full year after Minchah Gedolah of the 6th Millennium (after 12:30pm on the Cosmic Clock), the year 5772, which is towards evening with an olive branch in his mouth.  This olive branch, of course, is a remez to Chanukah and how the difference between Israel and the nations of the world is the difference between the natural order in the number 7 and the transcendent or sanctified order in the number 8.  Even the word for oil Shemen refers to the number 8 or Shmonah!  And while other kosher oils that can be used to light Shabbat candles also attach the physical world to the transcendent world, Olive oil bypasses all spiritual intermediaries and attaches us to G-d's Throne of Glory.  Also the laws of the Torah that most bothered the Greeks were the laws that pointed to Israel as The transcendent, peculiar nation of the world.  From Brit Milah on the 8th day, to determining actual dates by spotting and sanctifying the New Moon and thereby determining destiny for such and such day of a particular month, Antiochus IV sought to forbid such activity.  The Greeks were a nation infatuated with the number 7 and the natural order especially after their desire for idolatry was removed from the world by the Men of the Great Assembly before Alexander the Great went forth to Hellenize the world (7 Wonders of the World or 7 notes in a musical scale aka the 7 Sephirot of the animal soul which they called the Music of the Spheres).  They despised the one nation that was commanded to serve a G-d who transcended nature itself. And by forcing Nature upon the nation that is commanded to serve a transcendent G-d,  that nation had no choice but to break the chains of the Hellenistic culture that tried to enslave its soul.

וַתָּבֹא אֵלָיו הַיּוֹנָה לְעֵת עֶרֶב, וְהִנֵּה עֲלֵה-זַיִת טָרָף בְּפִיהָ; וַיֵּדַע נֹחַ, כִּי-קַלּוּ הַמַּיִם מֵעַל הָאָרֶץ. 11 And the dove came in to him at eventide; and lo in her mouth an olive-leaf freshly plucked; so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.

And just PRIOR to sending forth the dove the first time we read:

וַיְשַׁלַּח, אֶת-הָעֹרֵב; וַיֵּצֵא יָצוֹא וָשׁוֹב, עַד-יְבֹשֶׁת הַמַּיִם מֵעַל הָאָרֶץ.  7 And he sent forth a raven (or crow), and it went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.

So in verse 7 we learn that first Noach sent forth the menuval or reprobate bird representing the most morally debased nations of the world as represented by the Oreiv (the Raven or the Crow).  These nations accuse even Noach of having relations with their mate (the female raven) because they would have relations with Noach's wife if they could have the opportunity.   Then according to Rashi, Noach waited 7 days to send forth the Dove who represents both Yawan and Israel because both are without blemish. As it says, in the Zohar 237a on the verse from BaMidbar 19:2 dealing with the red heifer:

ב  זֹאת חֻקַּת הַתּוֹרָה, אֲשֶׁר-צִוָּה יְהוָה לֵאמֹר:  דַּבֵּר אֶל-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, וְיִקְחוּ אֵלֶיךָ פָרָה אֲדֻמָּה תְּמִימָה אֲשֶׁר אֵין-בָּהּ מוּם, אֲשֶׁר לֹא-עָלָה עָלֶיהָ, עֹל. 2 This is the statute of the law which the LORD hath commanded, saying: Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer, faultless, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke.

The Zohar states that this is Yawan who is close to the path of emunah (but not there yet).  What the Zohar seems to be saying is that Yawan, more than any Noachide nation, has the potential to keep the 7 Noachide Laws.  This is the difference between the reprobate bird (our raven in the Flood account) and the dove who is released seven days later.  With their infatuation with the number 7 and the laws of nature, one might think that this would be second nature to the Greeks, but it isn't, of course.  Free will is a second nature, but choosing the Yetzer HaTov is NOT a foregone conclusion.  It is so much easier just to morally follow the other nations of the world that you are Hellenizing because of your conquest.  And that is precisely what ancient Greece did.  Because they had no Tzadee attached to the name Yawan, there was no guarantee for them to choose the harder path of righteousness.   So ancient Greece fell away, and only the Dove who attaches the tzadee or righteousness to its national destiny gets to turn the Yon (יון) the male dove released by Noach into (ציון) Tzion.  From Tzion the Torah will go forth, and the Word of the L-rd from Yerushalayim!

So the French seeing all this and knowing their antecedents (since they are from Yafeth like Yawan is) on the Ark of Noach, see all this and decide that they too want to be tzaddikim!!  But their definition of a tzaddik is NOT to follow the commands of their Creator.  Remember the French have a national tendency far more than the Greeks to adopt the culture of the nations of the world in order to be loved by them.  That is really the essence of their evil inclination, and they seem more adept at doing that than every other nation.  So, presto!, they decide to determine their own definition of their righteousness by how beloved they are!!  And in that merit of being beloved by so many nations (70 it seems), they get to add a tzadee to their name!!  So from working in the Refet, as a milk producer, suddenly they are instantly a tzaddik!!....in their own minds of course.  Remember in the 18th Century, there were two Revolutions for spreading democracy to Mankind:  The American Revolution which predicated their revolution on making a this worldly covenant with the Creator of the Universe and the French Revolution who simply believed in their motto:  Liberté, égalité, fraternité  (We are all free.  We are all equal (not because we are created equal but because where we must end up must be equal). We are all brothers.)  Notice that by not predicating their revolution on a barometer of Noachide righteousness attached to their Creator, the French Revolution was doomed from the start.  And the American Revolution?  Well it just produced the greatest self-generated noble experiment in human history at least for serving G-d for reward in Olam HaZeh.  American national service to G-d may not be for Olam HaBa, but it is not America that is the Eternal nation in Olam HaBa anyway.  That distinction belongs to Israel.  But as a Noachide nation, at least America got the Olam HaZeh interaction with G-d down pat.  In contrast, the French Revolution internally was a disaster, but in their intense desire to be loved by the world, they continued to apply those disastrous principles to the world in which they excelled, the World of International Diplomacy.  So now at the end of history when 2/3rds of the people in all nations have reached a level of putrid reprobation, the spiritual level of the raven on the Ark, the French have become the focal point of uniting the debased values of the 70 nations of the world and pointing at G-d's chosen nation claiming to be more righteous than we are by virtue of how beloved they are amongst those 70 debased nations.  In this way, France is the last seat of the Evil Inclination at the End of Days.

Note: None of the above is meant to imply that all Frenchmen are steeped in the immoral value of diplomatic prostitution.  While the tendency of that French nation IS precisely that, individuals are often better than the cultural tendency of the nation that they are a part of.  And while the peak of the bell curve in France is toward this bad midah, the range of individuals at the base of any bell curve is far greater than the differences between nations as represented by where the peaks of the curve are in comparison with the peaks of the curves of other nations.  And French Jews?:  Obviously, the less French you are in this horrible character trait of desiring to be loved by a fallen world, that some have absorbed over this long galut, the more likely that none of this applies to you.