The Conundrum of the 33rd Level of Purity

 Long time readers of this blog know that we have discussed Edom's mean limit to serve G-d only until the 33rd Level of Purity.  Since Edom's purpose for serving G-d is to make money and to ensure prosperity in Olam HaZeh for the rest of human history.  He does a calculation.  Moshe Rabbeinu is told that the Divine blessing for serving Him in the Desert comes through the Mon, His Divine Money, in the desert.  Specifically Moshe is told about the Mon on the 30th day after leaving Egypt, the 30th day of the Omer which was a Shabbat.  The night at Midnight when HaShem sent the Destroying angel into the homes of the Egytian firstborn was "Wednesday night" at Midnight.  The Day of departure on the 15th of Nissan was a Thursday, and the 30th day was a Shabbat four weeks and two days later.  So that night Motzei Shabbat, the Mon (Mannah) fell for the first time, and the 3rd time that the Mon fell was on Lag B'Omer.  So in order to become "part owner" of the Mon by having a Chazakah on it, one had to wait until the 3rd night that the Mon fell (a Monday night) or Yom Shlishi before someone who wanted to have keys to G-d's prosperity machine would then borrow the Mon for the rest of history.  So if a people were to create a system of belief that one's Olam HaBa was signed, sealed, and delivered by believing that an itinerant Jewish preacher could be crucified and rise from the dead so that those who believe that he did this would have G-d's Eternity guaranteed to them, alas they would need to build a system in this World to guarantee G-d's blessing for them in Olam HaZeh forevermore.  By rising to the 33rd level of purity, they could have their Olam HaBa and their Olam HaZeh too, kind of like having one's cake and eating it too in both worlds.  While many Xtians rise to greater heights of decency than the above worldview, Xtianity as a belief system does not "reward" those who rise above the 33rd level of purity.  So at its "Mean", the focus of spiritual growth amongst Xtians is precisely that, the 33rd level of purity.  This in a nutshell is the short version of Xtianity that I have covered in multiple places on this blog.  Once again, I do recognize that many Xtians rise above their philosophical worldview to become very decent human beings beyond the 33rd level, but alas many do not.  And we see loads of them around today with names like Candace and Tucker and Ron Paul.

So getting back to what really is a spiritual ladder.  First we recognize that if the levels of purity (and impurity) is a 7 by 7 matrix between the Animal soul and the 7 lower Sefirot of the Neshamah, the Divine soul, we get the weave that we see every year during Sefirat HaOmer (Chessed that is in Chessed, Gevurah that is in Chessed, Tiffereth that is in Chessed, etc... for a total of 49 spaces) in the matrix.  A matrix set of values can be understood as the Coefficients of the variables in a Wave function.  So if a Wave function were to have four variables for three spatial dimensions and time (x. y, z, t), then there would need to be four wave functions in order to come up with solutions to the problem.  So in our example of a 7 by 7 matrix we need 7 wave functions, and as it turns out, in  , If one does an Operation on series of wave functions, the solutions appear in the Diagonal boxes of the matrix.  In German, these values are called Eigenvalues after Diagonalization where a complex set of multivariable functions, where the number of variables equals the number of functions, can be simplified by zeroing out all cross terms which combine different variables to only be left with solutions for the Diagonals.  Since I do not want want to discuss Quantum Mechanics here, think of it this way.  If we could diagonalize our  7 by 7 matrix and only be left with values for the diagonals, then those diagonals might tell us something like the length of the various exiles or the length of time for Mashiach ben Ephraim or Mashiach ben David.  Since only G-d knows the variables and their coefficients, this would be theoretical, but our sages have given us hints which Empire that ruled over Israel corresponds with Chessed that is in Chessed, Gevurah that is in Gevurah, Tiferreth that is in Tiffereth, Netzach that is in Netzach, and Hod that is in Hod.  Yesod that is in Yesod is Mashiach ben Ephraim, and Malkhut that is in Malkhut is Mashiach ben David.  

For this we need some basic understanding.  Chaza"l tell us that when we left Mitzraim we were at the lowest level of purity below which we would not have been redeemed.  This would be the level of Chessed that is in Chessed in Mitzraim.  Below this point we would have fallen into the Abyss of one of the cities we were building there, Pithom, or פתם.  If we expand that store city's name into its actual essence, the name of the city is פי תהום, The Mouth of the Abyss.  Notice that the letters that prevented us from falling into the Abyss, were the letters in HaShem's Name Yud, Hey, and Vav which are absent from the name of the City as it appears in the Torah (Shemot 1:11).  From this we see that Chaza"l identified that Galut at Chessed that is in Chessed as Mitzraim, for had we fallen below that level, we would not have been redeemed.  Previously on this blog we discussed that the entire period of the 70 years of the Babylonian Exile and the 420 years of the 2nd Temple correspond to 490 years where as a Nation we rose through 49 levels of Taharah, one level every ten years.  Since the First Temple had already corresponded with the Exodus from Egypt which took 7 days from the Plague of the First Born to Crossing the Yam Suf, so the first 7 levels (the ___ she beChessed levels) of Sefirat HaOmer correspond to Pesach.  And only the remaining 42 levels correspond with the years of the 2nd Temple leading up to but not including Shavuot.  Since were were not One People with One Heart because of Sinat Chinam during the 2nd Temple, the 2nd Temple was then destroyed at the end of those 420 years (42 levels beyond Pesach x 10 years per level).  Because of Sinat Chinam we never quite made the 2nd Temple into a Spiritual Shavuot.  

So in order to understand the corresponding Galuyot for each of the remaining diagonals of our matrix, we need one more pasuk from the Navi (Zekhariah 8:23)

כג  כֹּה-אָמַר, יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת, בַּיָּמִים הָהֵמָּה, אֲשֶׁר יַחֲזִיקוּ עֲשָׂרָה אֲנָשִׁים מִכֹּל לְשֹׁנוֹת הַגּוֹיִם; וְהֶחֱזִיקוּ בִּכְנַף אִישׁ יְהוּדִי לֵאמֹר, נֵלְכָה עִמָּכֶם--כִּי שָׁמַעְנוּ, אֱלֹהִים עִמָּכֶם.  {ס} 23 Thus saith the HaShem of hosts: In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold, out of all the languages of the nations, shall even take hold of the Corner (of a four cornered garment) of him that is a Jew, saying: We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.

From this we learn that if we purified ourselves one level of purity during the 2nd Temple period every ten years, during the years leading up to the 3rd Temple, the mitzvot of Klal Yisrael would purify the nations of the world one level every one hundred years.  If this is the case according to our eigenvalue hypothesis, at the end of 900 years, we would see evidence of the next stage or the First exile.  Now the Exodus from Egypt was in the year 2448.  890 years later, the First Temple was destroyed at Gevurah that is in Gevurah, the 9th space on our 7 by 7 matrix.  There are only three negative mitzvot where there are no extenuating circumstances where there is a heter to not do the negative commandment (not to murder, not to worship idols, and not to engage in Biblically mandated immorality (adultery, homosexuality, bestiality, and incest).  There is NO Pikuach nefesh to save your own life where one is permitted to do either of those three prohibitions.  As these three things are defined, there is never a reason where one can intentionally take life by targeting innocent human life, bow down to an idol or declare someone else as a god besides HaShem, or commit one of the cardinal acts of immorality.  These three sins are the ultimate acts that require a punishment of Gevurah.  Gevurah is not mitigated by Chessed to get Emeth for those three sins, and it is specifically those three sins which destroyed the First Temple.  So we can say that the First Temple was destroyed at the level of Gevurah that is in Gevurah almost 9 Centuries after the Torah was given because that Temple was destroyed by the commission of the 3 sins that are judged with strict Gevurah (with no extenuating circumstances).

For now let us skip and return to the next exile, the Persian Exile at (Tiferreth that is in Tiferreth, the 17th level of purity, the level of Emeth of Yaakov Avinu).  We will come back to it in the End.  The next diagonal Eigenvalue that we arrive at is Netzach that is in Netzach (the 25th level of purity as represented by the Greek Exile and Redemption from it).  Rav Matis Weinberg in his Book on Chanukah, carefully and meticulously proves that the differentiating characteristic between Yisrael and Yawan is in the Sefirah of Hod, that basically Israel gives the Glory to G-d and Yawan gives the Glory to Man.  Anyone know that song Fanfare for the Common Man by Aaron Copland?  (MY L-RD, DID A HELLENIZED YID HAVE TO WRITE THIS QUITESSENTIALLY GREEK SONG?)  For some reason, back in the 1970s this song was always played at the beginning of the Olympic Games and was introduced to the crowd as Ode to the Common Man.  I specifically remember this from watching the Opening Ceremonies to the Summer Olympics in Munich in 1972 and Montreal in 1976.  Just remember that Hod in Hebrew is Ode in Ancient Greek.  We see this difference and the corresponding similarities between Yisrael and Yawan specifically in the essence of Netzach (Eternity) where on many levels the Netzach of the Avot is rivalled by the Netzach of Socrates and Plato, and the Netzach of Aristotle is rivalled by the Netzach of Moshe Rabbeinu, leHavdil.  But we do share one thing in common with the Greeks.  The name recognition of our Great prophets and thinkers 2500 years later is rivalled by the name recognition of Greek philosophers and thinkers.  This is the essence of Netzach, the apparent Eternality of ideas that affect history for all time.  We remember Moshe and Aristotle, LeHavdil because we remember their ideas, even if the ideas of these two men are vastly different from each other.  But the essence of difference between Yisrael and Yawan is to whom we give Hod.  On that we are polar opposites.  They give the Glory to Man, and We give it to HaShem.  And since the one who is pure in Hod of all the Sefirot is Aharon HaKohen, his descendants were given the privilege to defeat Yawan specifically at the level of Netzach than is in Netzach, the 25th level of purity.  It is noteworthy that the 25th Century after Matan Torah were the years 4848 to 4948 (1088 until 1188ce).  Rav Moshe ben Maimon lived from 1138 to 1204ce.  So the end of the 25th Century and the beginning of the resultant Century was part and parcel his Half- Century.  It is not a coincidence that during his lifetime, besides his other noteworthy achievements, he used the Aristotelian logic, Aristotle's most longlasting method of deduction, to give several proofs for the Existence of G-d.  He thereby took what was one of the more proven and enduring Mathematical techniques of the Ancient Greeks applying it for its Holy purpose, not the purpose that the Greeks intended but the purpose that G-d intended by giving the Greeks keys to so much wisdom.  One could almost say that the time for the purification and sanctification of what Greece gave to Mankind was the 25th Century after Matan Torah and the resultant beginning of the 26th Century.  

This brings us to the Century with the next eigenvalue, the 33rd Century after Matan Torah from 5648 to 5748 (1888 until 1988).  This Century is often called America's Century because it was the 100 year period of America's greatest achievements.  It was the Century of Hod that is in Hod, the Century where America shined but like Greece at level 25, America could not quite purify.  Its spiritual decay reached an epic pace of decline in the 1960s around 2/3rds through that Century.  Why?  Because as often discussed on this blog, America's purpose for "Giving G-d the Glory" was to prosper and to make money, its tachlit as a Civilization.  The example that has been given on this blog of Edom desiring only to reach the 33rd level of purity is the Mon which first fell from Shamayim on the 31st day after leaving Mitzraim.  Moshe was told on a Shabbat, the 30th day after leaving Mitzraim that Mon would fall overnight on Motzei Shabbat, the 31st day of the Omer for the first time.  And on Lag B'Omer, Klal Yisrael would receive the Mon for the third time, giving us a Chazakah on the Mon.  If our purpose for serving G-d were to just reach a level of prosperity in order to receive the Mon forever through having a Chazakah, then there would be no need to continue for the next 17 days until Shavuot to receive the Torah.  The lesson here is of course that the purpose of serving HaShem is lishma, not the financial gain that can be derived by doing so.  Yet, in Edom's clever mind where his World to Come is signed, sealed, and delivered by what a son of a Jewish carpenter did for him 2000 years ago, the baseline reason for serving G-d in this World IS to make money or to create a Civil Society which " insures [ensures] domestic Tranquility, provides for the common defence [defense], promotes the general Welfare" of its citizens with an emphasis on promoting the General Welfare of the Klal.  Notice that the United States of America was founded on the 17th of Tamuz 5536 (4th of July 1776) in the 31st Centuray after Matan Torah but reached its zenith in the 33rd Century after Matan Torah.  It seems to have come into existence for the express purpose of Serving G-d like a Merrill Lynch bull in a China shop, prospering while being careful about all the delicate luxuries that is could accumulate only needing G-d to bless its future with eternal prosperity at the 33rd level.  Keep in mind that the Golden Bull is just an adult Golden Calf though.  Never forget that was the real error on the 17th of Tamuz when we left Mitzraim.  The Erev Rav and about 3000 from Klal Yisrael actually worshiped the Calf.  They were executed by the Leviim on that very day.  The rest of the 603,550 Bnei Yisrael had made a spiritual error.  They thought that the resting place for the Divine Presence here on earth was between the horns of the Golden Calf, the nascent bull in that China shop.  They had conflated Prosperity with the Utopian vision of Yom sheKulo Shabbat, that they were one and the same.  In short they made the similar error of America's founding fathers, but unlike those founders, they had a prophetic eye from Matan Torah to discern the difference that was not given to America's gentile founders.  So what was an exulted vision of a greater tomorrow in the eyes of America's founders was a huge leap in the wrong direction for those at Sinai who thought the Divine Presence would dwell between the horns of a nascent bull.  And I believe I need to stress that point.  Until America's founding, the Gentile world could not even dream to reaching the 33rd level.  So despite it all, America was the greatest spiritual achievement of humanity that had not directly received the Holy Torah in its entirety.  But like those at Sinai, they conflated unparalleled prosperity with the Utopia of Yom SheKulo Shabbat, or more likely, they had no intention of going further than that 33rd level, assuming mistakenly that their belief in what the Jewish carpenter did for them would carry them the rest of the way.  Yet, they erred in another way too.  

In other places on this blog, we have discussed that until the 30th level of purity, the World of Chessed and the World of Din can be approached from an understanding of pure Chessed and pure Din, that the two are not necessarily intertwined.  So Yishmael whose vision of G-d is only through the Midat haDin and pure Cbessed without Din can only rise to the level of serving G-d as a servant serves a King to this 30th level of purity as if he were spiritually growing from Rosh Chodesh Elul until Rosh HaShanah, but when it comes to seeking a level of G-d as a father on Rosh HaShanah, he gets stuck taking care of the donkeys when Yitzchak goes up to Har HaMoriah.  When seeking Rachamim, there is a fusion of both G-d as a King with His Chessed to understanding G-d as a Compassionate Father starting on Rosh HaShanah when Avinu Malkeinu is first pronounced.  Yishmael never fully grasps that concept, and until this very day really only understands G-d as a King and not G-d as a Father.  But since Yitzchak deeply understood this, he went the next step.  Since Edom like Yaakov also comes from Yitzchak, he too understands G-d as his loving Father..... up to a point.  It is said that when he realized that he had lost his Olam HaBa but had kept his entire reward for Olam HaZeh upon receiving his father Yitzchak's blessing that Edom shed two tears, one to take him to the 31st level of purity and another to take him to the 32nd level of purity, by appealing to his Heavenly Father with two of his tears, but alas the third tear welled in his eye and did not fall.  So the third tear which would have taken him to the 33rd level of purity never quite emerged.  So at the very end of his efforts his attempt to assure himself eternal life with eternal prosperity at the 33rd level, well in the end that attempt would fail.  So just like Yawan (Greece) fails at the level that he thought that he could achieve, the 25th level of purity, Edom also fails to achieve his goal at level 33.  And it is at that level that Western Civilization, the Civilization that he built started to fail (as mentioned before, referring to America's epic spiritual collapse beginning in the 1960s).  So when Gog HW Bush Sr. comes on the scenes as President in the year 5749 (1988), the 3301st year after Matan Torah to build the proverbial roof over American Civilization after achieving its objective of serving G-d to make money for 3 consecutive Centuries, America was already in steep spiritual decline.  His attempt at declaring a New World Order was already at least 20 to 25 years too late.  In actuality, I think that when the film Rebel Without a Cause became a sweeping success in the mid-1950s, the all encompassing spiritual decline of the United States had already begun.  That happened to be exactly 2/3rds of the way through the 33rd Century after Matan Torah at the exact point where Edom failed to produce his third tear.

To be Continued.....  This post is not complete, but I think I need to post this now and finish it later.  

The Nightingale Owns a Pruning Shears

 Yes, it has been a very hard year.  So I was looking for some really good news that would seem to conform with a hard and fast Geulah circumstance that would confirm that we are approaching successfully the end of the Mashiach ben Yosef stage of our long and storied history.  Suddenly last week after almost all of the Erev Rav Generals from 7 October 2023 have handed in their resignations or have been fired, a new Ramatkal was hired either on the 6th or 7th of Adar.  His name is Eyal Zamir (אייל זמיר).  I bring this up because the verse from which we know that Sefer Kol HaTor is about the process of Mashiach ben Yosef, we have the verse from Song of Songs chap 2 v. 12

 יב  הַנִּצָּנִים נִרְאוּ בָאָרֶץ, עֵת הַזָּמִיר הִגִּיעַ; וְקוֹל הַתּוֹר, נִשְׁמַע בְּאַרְצֵנוּ. 12 The first buds appeared in the Land; the time of the Nightingale (songbird) has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land;

There are several verses dealing with the Rise, Work, and Completion of Mashiach ben Yosef in Song of Songs that precede this verse including two verses related to the Sanctification of the Moon:

ח  קוֹל דּוֹדִי, הִנֵּה-זֶה בָּא; מְדַלֵּג, עַל-הֶהָרִים--מְקַפֵּץ, עַל-הַגְּבָעוֹת. 8 Hark! my beloved! behold, he cometh, leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.

ט  דּוֹמֶה דוֹדִי לִצְבִי, אוֹ לְעֹפֶר הָאַיָּלִים; הִנֵּה-זֶה עוֹמֵד, אַחַר כָּתְלֵנוּ--מַשְׁגִּיחַ מִן-הַחַלֹּנוֹת, מֵצִיץ מִן-הַחֲרַכִּים. 9 My beloved is like a gazelle or a young hart; behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh in through the windows, he peereth through the lattices.

Rav Hillel Rivlin was a student of the Gaon who made Aliyah to Yerushalayim in 1809 at the behest of his teacher the Vilna Gaon before he died.  In The Sefer Kol HaTor, by Rav Hillel Rivlin of Shklov in chap 1 records that his teacher the Gaon of Vilna tried to make Aliyah when he was growing old in the year 1782 because according to the calculation of the Gaon, the 12 hours of the 6th days daylight hours can be divided into the last 500 years of the 6th Millennium from Adam's expulsion from the Garden of Eden.  The first 500 years (5001-5500) or 1240 to 1740 of the 6th Millennium corresponded to the nighttime hours of the 6th Day.  So beginning with the year 5501 beginning in 1740, the daylight hours of the 6th day commenced.  Dividing the last 500 years amongst the 12 daylight hours, one gets 41.67 years per Creation hour on the 6th day of Creation starting with Sunrise.  According to the Talmud in Sanhedrin 38b, the 12 hours are divided thusly:

Rav Yochanan ben Chanina said, The day on which Adam was created consisted of twelve hours. During the first hour his dust was gathered; the second hour it was made into a shapeless mass; the third hour his limbs were stretched out; the fourth hour a soul was placed in him; the fifth hour he stood on his feet; the sixth hour he named the animals; the seventh hour he was paired with Chava; the eighth hour they had two children; the ninth hour he was commanded not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge; the tenth hour he sinned; the eleventh hour he was judged; and the twelfth hour he was banished from the Garden of Eden and went on his way (Sanhedrin 38b).

So the Vilna Gaon darshaned that the beginning of the Mashiach ben Yosef period of World History would begin 42 years after the beginning of the 2nd half of the 6th Millennium in the year 1782 specifically at the point of the 6th day of Creation after the dust of the earth had been gathered and had been lumped into a Golem, a shapeless mass.  So he started to come on Aliyah, something which Kol HaTor records, but for some reason he got as far south as Prussia and was forced to turn back.  From the available evidence, he may have turned back when his wife Chana got very ill while in transit and then passed away the following winter.  The Gaon himself was 62 in 1782 and lived another 15 years.  Kol HaTor does not record why he was forced to turn back, just that he tried to make Aliyah in 1782 because it was the beginning of the 2nd hour of daylight on the 6th day of Creation.  In the words of many Rabbeim who came later, it was understood that the Baalei Emunah and the Mitzvot observing Jews would have about 100 years to come before the many Kofrim amongst the Bnai Yisrael would also begin to come about 100 years later.  In order to get ahead of the curve and to philosophically control the direction and leadership of the Yishuv in Eretz Yisrael, a critical mass of frum Jews needed to come between 1782 and 1882.  Failing to achieve that critical mass, the Redemption would proceed with the Kofrim taking the lead.  As recorded on this blog in other places, EXACTLY 100 years later in 1882, five agricultural Yishuvim were founded (Mazkeret Batya, Rishon LeTzion, Zikhron Yaakov along with the Refounding of Rosh Pinah and Petach Tikvah after they had been destroyed by Arab terrorists and a Malaria epidemic respectively).  HaShem had Rachmanut on that first Aliyah where a majority of the Jews who came were G-d fearing.  By the time of the 2nd Aliyah in 1905, though, the Communists and Socialists took control of the Yishuv leadership as predicted because the critical mass of G-d fearing Jews did not come in the 19th Century.  The failure of the G-d fearing to take the lead in Aliyah in the 19th Century dramatically affected how the Redemption would proceed in the 20th Century.

One of the important things to note is when the Sefer Kol HaTor discusses the pasukim of its namesake it says the following:

 צפנת פענ״ח. באתחלתא דגאולה בהגיע עת לחננה שהיא ע״י משיחא דאתחלתא מתחילים גלויי הרמזים שבתורה וחז״ל ולהבין ע״י זה את דרכי האתחלתא ועקבות משיחא המרמזים על ״יעודים מועדים ומיועדים״ עפ״י הכתוב ״הנצנים נראו בארץ עת הזמיר הגיע וקול התור נשמע בארצנו״ ועפ״י הכתוב ״ישרו בערבה מסלה לאלקינו״. כמבואר להלן פרקים ג־ד. ורבנו נחית משמיא לגלות רמזי התורה בעקבות דמשיחא בסוד צפנת פענ״ח ולהורות לנו על־פיהן את דרך המעשה בעקבות משיחא. (ראה לעיל סעיף ד׳ ולהלן פרק ג׳). 

[g]. Tsofnat Paneach. At the beginning of the redemption when “it is the time to favor her” [Ps. 102:14], which will occur through Mashiach of the beginning of the Redemption, then hints in the Torah and in the works of our Sages of blessed memory will begin to be revealed. Thereby, people will begin to understand the ways of the beginning of the Redemption and the footsteps of the Mashiach hinted at in the words, “designated deeds, times and emissaries, ” as is written: “the buds were seen on the land, the songbird’s time has arrived, and the voice of the turtle-dove is heard in our land” [Song 2:12]. Also, according to the command, “make straight in the desert a highway for our God” [Isa. 40:3]. As explained below in chapters 3 and 4, the Gaon came down from Heaven in order to reveal the hints of the Torah regarding the footsteps of the Mashiach, hinted at in Tsofnat Paneach, and accordingly to instruct us how to act during the period known as the footsteps of the Mashiach (see above section 9 [d], and below Chapter 3).

What is says above is that in analysis of Shir HaShirim 2:12 above, (The Nitzanim or first buds that would be seen in the Land) would be the Greening of Eretz Yisrael mostly through Agricultural Aliyah.  This happened in actuality in 1882, a full 100 years after the Vilna Gaon hoped to achieve it.  It seems that we are often a dollar short and 100 years too late.  In this case the Edmund James deRothschild helped fund many of these five Yishuvim along with Gardens in honor of his father and mother.  So they were bankrolled, but perhaps there should have been far greater efforts 75 years earlier to initiate the process.  Either way Sefer Kol HaTor calls that part of the pasuk the ייעוד, or the process or deed of Designating the Redemption.  It follows that the Mo'ed (מועד) or the Time of the Redemption is עֵת הַזָּמִיר הִגִּיעַ.  And the Main Emissary (המיועד) is Mashiach ben Yosef called here the Turtledove.  In symbolism from the Covenant between the Parts from Genesis, we see that the Tor or the Turtledove is Mashiach ben Yosef and that the Ben Yonah (Male Dove) is Mashiach ben David.  Since this section of Shir HaShirim concerns itself with Mashiach ben Yosef, the focus is on the Turtledove.

So what I have found fascinating during the past 2 weeks is that a full 142 years have passed since the founding of those "first buds", the five agricultural Yishuvim in Eretz Yisrael, and for most of that 142 year period, the steps of Mashiach ben Yosef have been checked step for step by the Erev Rav.  When the Erev Rav check your steps, miracles are hard to come by, for they darken the path and simply make the process more difficult by 1000 fold.  Derekh HaTeva, G-d withdraws from the Erev Rav Qlipot that they represent, and as we have seen during the past year, many righteous people die because the Erev Rav are mainly an impediment to filling the vessels of Redemption with light.  And they are relentless and never cease to slow down the wheels of Redemption by pouring piles of mud before the wagon of Redemption.  Slowly over the last year, we have seen the Erev Rav Generals resign, quit, or being fired.  Every step is like sloshing through mud when carrying such dead weight.  And by their resistance and their effort to darken what is righteous, the progress forward seems interminable.  And even now, they seek to destroy the progress that has been made from Brothers in Arms, Attorney Generals, and incessant trials of the Prime Minister for what purpose?  But to destroy what is G-dly.  What other world leader in the history of Mankind had to fight a national existential war and fight off a media driven Supreme Court that calls passing legislation in order to get good PR from a hostile media a "Bribe"?  And to spend three days of every week in court in trials that never end.  Really, has this ever happened before in the history of the world?   Suddenly when all the Erev Rav Generals are resigning or being fired month after month, a ray of light finally shines through as the mudslingers have their numbers reduced, and his name happens to be the name from Sefer Kol HaTor signifying the Mo'ed of Redemption.  After all is said and done, the new Ramatkal, may G-d bless him, is Eyal Zamir.  And both his first and his last name are in the Pasukim above.  

דּוֹמֶה דוֹדִי לִצְבִי, אוֹ לְעֹפֶר הָאַיָּלִים; הִנֵּה-זֶה עוֹמֵד, אַחַר כָּתְלֵנוּ--מַשְׁגִּיחַ מִן-הַחַלֹּנוֹת, מֵצִיץ מִן-הַחֲרַכִּים.

עֵת הַזָּמִיר הִגִּיעַ  (The time of the Zamir has arrived.)  Zamir is a double entendre.  It can mean a nightingale or a pruning shears to destroy bad growth on grapevines.

Is this just a huge coincidence?  I have been looking at these pasukim for years and wondering how this will unfold.  I find the apparent "coincidence" that the Name is right out of the Pasukim rather remarkable and not a coincidence at all.   

Twelves Months of Fighting the Erev Rav

 Bibi has morphed into Mashiach ben Yosef (even if he really is Ben Yamini from Shimi ben Geira ben Kish from Zekhariah 12 verse 13).  He is the last PM who MIGHT be thrust through with a dagger by Armilus (Olmert?) in Zekh 12 verse 10.  He is that PM, though.  So all the positive prophecies regarding him must come true while the negative prophecies need not come true if tikkunim for his life have been successful throughout the Centuries.

Here are verses 10-13 which in detail describe his Assassination, funeral, and Shivah if this 5th Mashiach ben Yosef must die.  Notice once again from his Yichus, his ability to destroy Amaleq in the world comes matrillinearly from Shimi the Binyaminite, not from Ephraim (to be discussed later).  In the meantime, these are the four verses in Zekhariah 12 that describe the Assassination (G-d forbid), funeral, and Shivah of this last PM before Ben David.  

Also note that the first four MBYs who have all died violent deaths are likely:  Yoseph Trumpeldour, Avraham "Yair" Stern, Yonatan Netanyahu, and Rav Meir Kahane.  Rav Kahane's arch-enemy was Ehud Olmert who wrote the Kakh Law in 1988 banning him from running in the Knesset where he likely would have received 18 seats or more.  Instead, Kahane was assassinated two years later.  So maybe Olmert has outlived his usefulness on the Assassination front.  I am not specifically accusing Olmert of doing the heinous crime, but Rav Kahane was taken from us shortly after Olmert successfully stopped him from reaching his goal.  Again, look at Medrash Sefer Eliyahu in the sidebar of this blog on how Olmert, spelled תרמלא in the Medrash is supposed to be the last leader of the Erev Rav when Mashiach comes.  This has been discussed multiple times on this blog.

י  וְשָׁפַכְתִּי עַל-בֵּית דָּוִיד וְעַל יוֹשֵׁב יְרוּשָׁלִַם, רוּחַ חֵן וְתַחֲנוּנִים, וְהִבִּיטוּ אֵלַי, אֵת אֲשֶׁר-דָּקָרוּ; וְסָפְדוּ עָלָיו, כְּמִסְפֵּד עַל-הַיָּחִיד, וְהָמֵר עָלָיו, כְּהָמֵר עַל-הַבְּכוֹר. 10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look unto Me because they have thrust him through; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born.

יא  בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא, יִגְדַּל הַמִּסְפֵּד בִּירוּשָׁלִַם, כְּמִסְפַּד הֲדַדְרִמּוֹן, בְּבִקְעַת מְגִדּוֹן. 11 In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.

ב  וְסָפְדָה הָאָרֶץ, מִשְׁפָּחוֹת מִשְׁפָּחוֹת לְבָד:  מִשְׁפַּחַת בֵּית-דָּוִיד לְבָד, וּנְשֵׁיהֶם לְבָד--מִשְׁפַּחַת בֵּית-נָתָן לְבָד, וּנְשֵׁיהֶם לְבָד. 12 And the land shall mourn, every family apart: the family of the House of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the House of Nathan apart, and their wives apart;

יג  מִשְׁפַּחַת בֵּית-לֵוִי לְבָד, וּנְשֵׁיהֶם לְבָד; מִשְׁפַּחַת הַשִּׁמְעִי לְבָד, וּנְשֵׁיהֶם לְבָד. 13 The family of the House of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of the Shimeites apart, and their wives apart;

So the Good in this prophecy that must occur must include:

1.  Including winning Wars.

2.  Including being a Baal Teshuvah before he dies even if he spent most of his life not having Emunah.  This comes from the Targum Yonatan on Zekhariah 12:11 where we hear that (G-d forbid) after he is assassinated, this figure, a Levite from the House of Natan, will have a funeral compared to a funeral that never occurred.  It never occurred that there was a king of Israel or Judea (Yehudah) that was killed by HaddadRimon in the Valley of Har Megiddon (Armegeddon).  Achav ben Omri the notoriously idolatrous king of Yisrael was killed by Ben Haddad I son of TavRimmon  in a battle between Yisrael and King Yehoshafat's Yehudah against the Arameans, and Yoshiyahu the teshuvah King of Yehudah was killed next to Mt. Megiddo by Pharoah Necho.  Achav unlike his notoriously wicked wife, had one redeeming feature.  He loved his people, his nation Yisrael, probably as much as he loved himself.  So he usually won his battles, but he was killed "accidentally" by a stray arrow in this battle with Ben Haddad son of TavRimmon.  But the battle's location was Ramot-Gil'ad.  So the story of this final PM is incomplete without understanding that Yoshiyahu the great teshuvah king was killed in the Valley of Megiddo.  So throughout his long tenure as virtual Melekh, he, the last PM of the pre-Messianic State, starts out like Achav and ends like Yoshiyahu King of Yehudah.   (Gem. Megillah 3a)

3. When he dies, he will have a great hesped (eulogy) given for him.  This would indicate that this last PM will be great, probably toward the end of his reign or term.  

4. He falls as Mashiach Ben David's Malkhut is rising at the same time.  And just as King David sat Shivah for King Shaul when he was killed along with Yehonatan at Mt. Gilboa, so will Mashiach ben David sit Shivah for this last PM as described in the above verses.

5. Including going to war against Amaleq in the Persian Empire as was the case with other descendants of Shimi grandson of Kish, as we read about the lineage of Esther and Mordechai in the Book of Esther.  

.  אִישׁ יְהוּדִי, הָיָה בְּשׁוּשַׁן הַבִּירָה; וּשְׁמוֹ מָרְדֳּכַי, בֶּן יָאִיר בֶּן-שִׁמְעִי בֶּן-קִישׁ--אִישׁ יְמִינִי. 5 There was a certain Jew in Shushan the castle, whose name was Mordecai the son of Yair the son of Shimei the son of Kish, a Benjamite,

ז  וַיְהִי אֹמֵן אֶת-הֲדַסָּה, הִיא אֶסְתֵּר בַּת-דֹּדוֹ--כִּי אֵין לָהּ, אָב וָאֵם; וְהַנַּעֲרָה יְפַת-תֹּאַר, וְטוֹבַת מַרְאֶה, וּבְמוֹת אָבִיהָ וְאִמָּהּ, לְקָחָהּ מָרְדֳּכַי לוֹ לְבַת. 7 And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's daughter; for she had neither father nor mother, and the maiden was of beautiful form and fair to look on; and when her father and mother were dead, Mordecai took her for his own daughter.

This would seem to indicate that she was Yair's brother's daughter.  The koach to destroy Amaleq in the world is matrilineal, but the X chromosome can go to a Man for one Generation.  Yet, it must be passed on to a daughter in the next Generation.  This explains why the vehicle of destruction of Amaleq in the Persian Empire in the generation of Esther and Mordechai went specifically through Esther as the agent of Amaleq's destruction.  Mordechai ben Yair was the Gadol HaDor, but Amaleq was destroyed through the action of his cousin, Queen Esther.  So in order for a Mashiach ben Yosef or Binyamin figure to arise as a Man, he must receive this koach from his mother not his father.  In our case we know that Bibi is a Levite from the House of Rav Natan Mileikovsky HaLevi.  Rav Natan would write his Torah works with his proper Name Rav Natan Mileikowsky, but whenever he wrote essays on Zionism, he used the pseudonym, Netanyahu, placing his first name into his pseudonym.  His more Zionist sons, Elisha and BenTzion HaLevi, chose the pseudonym for their last names, once again stressing that that they were from the House of Natan.  And BenTzion's children were Yonatan, Binyamin, and Dr. Iddo all Levi'im from the House of Natan.

Also the only time that Bibi took on the American Administration when Obama was President was when he gave a speech before the US Congress on Ta'anit Esther on the 3rd of March of 2015 to prevent the Mullahs in Iran from getting Nuclear Weapons.  The speech was at 11am on the 12th of Adar in Washington DC, but from yours truly's perspective it was seven time zones ahead, 6pm on the 13th of Adar, the day of the War against Amaleq in the Persian Empire in the Book of Esther.   Sunset in Kokhav Yaakov on the 13th of Adar 5775 was at 5:38pm.

Also as mentioned before, notice in the Yichus of the Shivah for this last PM, in the case of him being a from the House of Natan and a Levite, the verse says "House of" indicating Patrilineal descent, but when is refers to Shimei as an ancestor, the verse only says from the Family of Shimei, once again indicating matrilineal descent.  And just for good measure, Zekhariah reminds us that Mashiach ben David is patrilineal by indicating that the family of the "House of" David will mourn the passing of this last PM. G-d forbid that it happens this way, but seriously, this is how we learn about the Yichus of this last leader.   And notice that in spite of what Xtians say this has nothing to do with Yoshke (who was not a Levite from the House of Natan).  Nor was he a descendant of Shimei from the House of Kish.  Believe it or not, Xtians actually think that this person who is thrust through (with a dagger) is Yoshke.  This is OBVIOUSLY not the case.

Finally, it must be mentioned that All these positive things from Zekharia 12 will occur.  And because there is a prediction in Chaza"l that the last and 6th Mashiach ben Yosef will be a descendant of the daughters of Yehoshua bin Nun of Shevet Ephraim, I have discussed here why I believe in my heart of hearts that Yehonatan Pollard will be the Defense Minister to replace Yoav Gallant to complete this horrible war, when the Rules of  Engagement set down by Edom for us no longer are of use to us.  As discussed on this blog, it is fantastic that the prostitute amongst the nations, France, seeking approval and love from a Majority Reprobate world hates us. So we must be at the finish line.  In a majority Reprobate world, it is the French who desire deeply to be loved and popular amongst the growing majority of Reprobates, and more than any other Edomite nation, they are now our mortal enemy.  

This has been a very very hard year.  I believe this was perpetually slowed down by the cadre of Erev Rav fools in the War Cabinet and in the IDF.  Slowly but surely they have resigned from their posts.  Benny Gantz and Gadi Eizenkot resigned about four days prior to Shavuot, and Aharon Haliwa just recently resigned to take his fat Army pension.  This war is also massive teshuvah for the Disengagement over 19 years ago, a process of destruction that also took about 1 year and 3 months from Sharon proposing it to it actually happening on the 10th of Av 5765.  I do believe that as Sefer Kol HaTor seems to say, that the Erev Rav keeps Mashiach ben Yosef in check for 999 steps.  Even though this process has been unfolding since 5542 (1782) as Sefer Kol HaTor implies, the progress has been breathtakingly slow.

One Final Tekiah Gedolah For those Who Deny that the First Two Have Already Occurred.

 This will be a post where I need to write in shorthand because frankly, Time is short.  If we look at Musaph Rosh HaShanah davening, we notice several things about the Order of prayers called Malkhuyot (Verses of Kingship), Zikhronot (Verses of Remembrance), and Shofarot (Verses of Blasts from the Ram's Horn).  Each set has three verses from the Torah, three verses from the Holy Writings (usually from the Book of Psalms), and then three verses from the Prophets (Nevua) followed by another final verse from the Torah.  One can say that the entire essence of the Day of Judgement (1st of Tishrei, the 7th month) is wrapped up in those three themes.  We have a once a year Coronation ceremony for HaShem Elokim as King of the Universe, actually twice per year since we repeat the Coronation on the 2nd of Tishrei because of doubt if the New Moon for Tishrei was actually seen.  So that part is Malkhuyot.  We also ask HaShem Elokim to remember the righteousness of the spiritual Giants who were our forbearers, Zikhronot, taking "advantage" of G-d's stated Holy attribute that while He recalls the sins of the ancestors for three or four generations in Judgement for the non-penitent, He remembers with Kindness the righteousness of one's ancestors for 1000 or thousands of generations.  Since Sinai if we count each generation as about 30 years between one Dor and the next, we have only passed the torch of Torah 112 times.  So we are well within our 1000 generation limit.  If we go back to Abraham, there are only an additional 6 generations between Abraham and Moses for a total of 118 generations, again well within our 1000 generation limit.  By recalling the merit of our ancestors on Rosh HaShanah, we definitely add "weight" to our balance of merit vs debts owed on our personal Scale of Justice, for which Tishrei is known amongst the Mazalot (signs of the Tzedeq of G-d aka the Zodiac).  By the way, I am using the Name HaShem Elokim here because this refers to the Name of G-d on the Throne of Judgement in the 5th Heaven as opposed to the Name of HaShem alone on His Throne of Mercy in the 7th Heaven.  Also when Adam and Chava were thrown out of Gan Eden on Rosh HaShanah 5783 years ago, it is precisely by that Name that He is known in the Torah on that First Day of Judgement in the Year 1.  (Only on a deeper level was there are Year 0.)

This brings us to Shofarot, the blasts of the Ram's Horn, for which this Day is known in the Written Torah as Yom Teruah (Numbers 29:1) or Yom Zikhron Teruah (Lev 23:24).  On Rosh HaShanah, according to the Torah, we are obligated to hear three sets of three (Tekiah, Teruah, Tekiah) for a sum total of 9 Shofar blasts!  Yet, because there is a Saffek D'Oraita (doubt about the nature of a Torah commandment) on what is a Teruah, we need to hear three possible combinations of what a Teruah might be as the middle blast in each set of three.  9 short blasts is called a Teruah by our Machzorim, and 3 mid-range blasts is called Shevarim.  And then the possibility that a Teruah is 3 mid-range blasts followed by 9 short blasts also must be taken into account.  Since we call Shevarim- Teruah two separate blasts even though the one who calls for the blasts mentions them both at the same time, taking into account the potential doubt of what a Teruah might actually be, we need to hear 30 blasts of the Shofar on Rosh HaShanah.  

3 x (Tekiah, Shevarim- Teruah, Tekiah) = total of 9 or 12 blasts.  Each Tekiah is simply one long blast of the Shofar.  The Teruah is the broken blast.

3 x (Tekiah, Shevarim, Tekiah) = total of 9 blasts

3 x (Tekiah, Teruah, Tekiah) = total of 9 blasts for a final total of 27 or 30 blasts.  Probably we should count Shevarim- Teruah as one blast because that combination might be the ancient Teruah after all.  So in reality there are 27 total blasts.  What is important to remember though is that IF we knew precisely what a Teruah was supposed to sound like, we would only be obligated in hearing 9 blasts of the Shofar on both days of Rosh HaShanah!  So why nine blasts?

Our sages give many reasons for these 3 sets of 3 blasts of the Shofar on Rosh HaShanah.  One of these reasons is that we need to chop up The Satan's accusations with the instrument that sounds most like a wailing man crying bitter tears.  So the custom is to blow the Shofar on the right side of one's mouth because The Heavenly Accuser/Prosecutor stands to the right of the Accused which is to the Left of G-d's Heavenly Throne during which the 3 mid-range or 9 short blasts of Teruah cut The Satan's accusations into pieces on the very day of our yearly trial before the King of the Universe.  Why do we need three Teruot?  Because The Satan has three roles in the world:

1. To enhance our existing Yetzer HaRa when we are being tested to see if we can overcome our Evil Inclination.  The Satan enhances this Yetzer HaRa when we are being tested to, according to G-d's standards, have a 50/50 chance of passing a test.  In many cases doing the right thing might be very easy, but if the Satan is involved in making the test more difficult, other extenuating factors will be added to make the test on honest exam.  Only in this way can we have true moral free will to pass or fail the test.  What is interesting is that the only day of the year where The Satan does not enhance our Yetzer HaRa is on Purim (14th and 15th of Adar).  In a year with 2 Adars, I do not know if this applies to Purim Qatan in Adar Rishon.  So if a person has subdued his/her Yetzer HaRa by Purim, they will not sin on that day...... even if he/she is drunk, for The Satan will not push a righteous drunk person into the situation of being tested on that day.

2. As the Heavenly Prosecutor from which he gets the name HaSatan:  The Satan is active the entire year, but just like he takes one day off from his role as the Enhancer of our Yetzer HaRa, he takes another day off from his role as the Heavenly Prosecutor.  That day is Yom Kippur.  We see this in his name itself, השטן, The Gematriah of which is 364.  So for 364 days in a solar year he is active in Heaven, but on Yom Kippur, he is absent from that role (if we heard the Shofar 8 and 9 days earlier on Rosh HaShanah and if we are fasting like angels to merit being before the Throne of Mercy in the 7th Heaven on the 10th of Tishrei.)  So there are stipulations to not being prosecuted by the Satan on Yom Kippur.

3. As the Angel of Death or the Malakh HaMavet.  Once again he is active in this role all year long, but there is one day a year where part of his role as the Angel of Death is taken away from him.  That day is Hoshana Rabbah (the 7th Day of Sukkot, 21st of Tishrei) when only G-d Himself slays the very wicked and sits in Judgement of the final status of where the various nations of the world will be one year later in terms of their physical existence and their well being.  Spiritual judgements are written and sealed before the Full Moon of Tishrei, but one's physical judgement descends through the 7 Heavens over the 7 days of Sukkot starting with the Full Moon for that month.  This applies especially to nations because unlike Israel, most nations as nations do not have a world to come.  Human beings as individuals have a World to Come, but Nations (except for Israel) do not.  So Hoshana Rabbah is a unique day where the Angel of Death, in part, takes a rest.

For those who keep the custom, it is customary on all three of these days to eat a three cornered pastry in honor of The Satan's reduced prowess on these three days.  Every one knows about HamanTaschen (Haman's three cornered ears on Purim), but the custom also extends to Erev Yom Kippur and Hoshana Rabbah (in the Sukkah) where many eat kreplach in the Ashkenazic world which is a three cornered meat or potato pastry.  

So getting back to the main plot, we have specifically three sets of three blasts of the Shofar because, for one, the three Teruot need to chop up the three various roles of the Satan on that day.  And that must be done with the horn of preferably a Ram, because a Ram more than any other Qorban "accentuates our positive commandments and our positive midot" to contrast with the Satan's accusations, something that can be discussed at another time, and it sounds most like the wailing tears of a human being (9 short blasts or 3 mid-sized blasts or the combination of the two described above).  Notice, the Satan is fully active on Rosh HaShanah in all three capacities mentioned above.  So all three roles must be chopped into pieces by an instrument that most represents our tears.

Alas, we get to the part where one must ask, "Ok, I get the need for the three Teru'ot on Rosh HaShanah, but why must we add a Tekiah before and after each Teruah like bookends?"  What is the purpose of a Tekiah before and after each Teruah to give us a Tekiah Teruah Tekiah sandwich?   Well according to the Sages of our Ages (Chaza"l), the Torah in Parshat Yithro mentions that at Matan Torah we heard three blasts of the Shofar.  There are only three references to Kol Shofar or Kol HaShofar in chapter 19 and 20 of Shemot (Exodus) when the first two of the Ten Statements were given directly by G-d and where the remaining eight were given by G-d through Moshe as an intermediary.  (The people were frightened that they might die if they heard all Ten Statements directly from HaQodesh Barukh Hu.)  What is fascinating is that one can even see this in the text of the first two Commandments compared to the last eight commandments.  The first two refer to G-d in the 1st Person(אנוכי הי אלקיך in the first Commandment and לֹא-יִהְיֶה לְךָ אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים, עַל-פָּנָי or וְעֹשֶׂה חֶסֶד, לַאֲלָפִים--לְאֹהֲבַי, וּלְשֹׁמְרֵי מִצְוֺתָי in the 2nd Commandment.)  I am HaShem you G-d, You will not have other (false) gods in MY presence, and I the L-rd your G-d.......who does lovingkindness to the 1000th generation for those who love Me and for those who observe MY Commandments.  While in the Third Commandment we already see G-d being referred to in the Third person:  כִּי לֹא יְנַקֶּה יְהוָה, אֵת אֲשֶׁר-יִשָּׂא אֶת-שְׁמוֹ לַשָּׁוְא.  For HaShem will not clean up the damage of those who carry HIS Name in vain.  From here we can clearly see that starting with the Third Commandment, Moshe gave over the Statements as an intermediary because Klal Yisrael had complained of the overwhelming power of hearing G-d's voice, directly, in the first two Commandments that they might die.  But with regards to these Shofar blasts we know that they were Tekiot and not Teruot from the second blast where it says in Chapter 19: verse 19:  

יט  וַיְהִי קוֹל הַשֹּׁפָר, הוֹלֵךְ וְחָזֵק מְאֹד; מֹשֶׁה יְדַבֵּר, וְהָאֱלֹהִים יַעֲנֶנּוּ בְקוֹל. 19 And when the voice of the ram's horn waxed louder and louder (or waxed continuously louder), Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice.

The "waxing louder and louder" or "waxing continuously louder" reference can only refer to a longer single blast of the Shofar and NOT a broken blast.  So if all three Kol Shofar references are to be equivalent in their essence, then all three of them were a Teki'ah.  We learn the same from verse 13 where we see that the blast of the Shofar, which is blown when the Divine Presence is on the Mountain, will be elongated, that is a Single blast called here a Yovel.  This instruction in verse 13 was actually given on the 3rd of Siwan, three days before the events of the 6th (or 7th) of Siwan.  So this statement about the elongated blast was a preparation for the fateful day of Matan Torah itself:

יג  לֹא-תִגַּע בּוֹ יָד, כִּי-סָקוֹל יִסָּקֵל אוֹ-יָרֹה יִיָּרֶה--אִם-בְּהֵמָה אִם-אִישׁ, לֹא יִחְיֶה; בִּמְשֹׁךְ, הַיֹּבֵל, הֵמָּה, יַעֲלוּ בָהָר. 13 no hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live; when the ram's horn soundeth long (sound is elongated), they shall come up to the mount (when the blast concludes). 

There seems to be a debate about whether we were supposed to ascend the Mountain to see G-d Face to face during the Tekiah blast, or whether we were correct to wait until the end of the blast when the Shekhinah had departed before ascending the Mountain.  This matter is discussed here in detail.   Had we been ready to meet G-d Face to face while the Shofar blast was occurring, we likely would have never sinned at the Cheit HaEigel according to this drashah from the Har Etzion Yeshivah.

So if this summary of Matan Torah is correct, though, there were three Tekiot at Har Sinai, but looking closer at the Verses, only one of them was the Kol HaShofar.  One was the Voice of G-d.  A second was the Thunder from the Intensely Dark Cloud that gathered to conceal the Shekhinah's descent upon Mt. Sinai, and the Third was the long continuous Blast (Tekiah) of the Shofar itself.  I do not mean to skip over the depth of this, but the final subject of this Essay is the End of Days, not the Day of the Revelation at Sinai.  So we will leave this matter by mentioning that the Torah itself refers to this long Tekiah Shofar blast three times as Kol HaShofar.  This becomes more evidential when at the end of the 3 psukim from Torah, then for some reason 4 psukim from Psalms, and 3 more from the Prophets, the last pasuk from the Torah is not a Tekiah on the Shofar at all!  It is on the pair of Silver Trumpets that Moshe was commanded to fashion in Parshat BeHa'alotkha!  In the entire Torah there are only three Teki'ot of the Ram's horn (or one long tekiah or voice from the Noise of the thick, dark cloud on the mountain, one long tekiah from the ram's horn, and the Voice of G-d Himself) , the three Voices mentioned at the Revelation at Sinai.  All the other Tekiot mentioned are on the Silver Trumpets made by Moshe Rabbeinu for gathering the nation at the Tent of Meeting or for gathering the Princes of the tribes or for blowing the trumpets over elevation offerings and Peace offerings for Shabbatot, Festivals, and New Moons.  The Talmud DOES derive that when Trumpets were sounded on Shabbatot and Moadim, so were Shofarot, but this derivation is not in the Written Torah.

Now let us look at the pasukim (verses) for the Nevi'im, The Prophets.  During the Order of Malkhuyot (Kingship), all the p'sukim of course deal with the Crowning of G-d as King of the Universe.  Two of them are prophetic for the End of Days, but only one of them gives us specific information about a specific event, when Saviors will ascend Mt. Tzion to judge Mt. Esav (Vesuvius), and the Kingdom will belong to HaShem.  The intent of these three p'sukim though is not to provide the Roadmap for Redemption at the End of Days.  The intent to instill Reverence for G-d.  Then we come to the Three verses from the Prophets in Zikhronot (Remembrances).  This time the prophets are focusing on the Greatness of our Ancestors or the Spiritual bond that HaShem had with one particular ancestor, Ephraim the son of Yosef and Osnat.  So the Prophetic verses here reflect on our past, not on our future.  Remember the purpose of these verses is to add credit or weight the Scale of Justice in Heaven in Our favor by recounting the Righteousness of our ancestors or the Joy that they gave to HaShem.  The third verse here though is significant because of the final role of Mashiach ben Ephraim (Yehonatan Pollard?) in the month of Adar Sheini (The 2nd month of the Fish) of the Final Redemption, mentioning it here (Yirm 31:19)  

יט  הֲבֵן יַקִּיר לִי אֶפְרַיִם, אִם יֶלֶד שַׁעֲשֻׁעִים--כִּי-מִדֵּי דַבְּרִי בּוֹ, זָכֹר אֶזְכְּרֶנּוּ עוֹד; עַל-כֵּן, הָמוּ מֵעַי לוֹ--רַחֵם אֲרַחֲמֶנּוּ, נְאֻם-יְהוָה.

19 Is Ephraim a darling son unto Me? Is he a child that is dandled? For as often as I speak of him, I do earnestly remember him still; therefore My heart yearneth for him, I will surely have compassion upon him, saith the LORD.

Finally, we get to the three verses from the Prophets on the End of Days Shofar blasts, and I can verily promise that the first two Shofar blasts are NOT prophesies for the distant future.  They are Tekiot that have already occurred.  In all three cases, these are blasts commemorating specific events which are duteously described in the verses themselves.  And even if the first two blasts are inverted according to Nusach Ashkenaz and Nusach Eidot HaMizrach (Sephardic and Babylonian and Persian Jews), their themes are in chronological order.  According to Nusach Ashkenaz:

Isaiah (Yishayahu) 18:3 כָּל-יֹשְׁבֵי תֵבֵל, וְשֹׁכְנֵי אָרֶץ, כִּנְשֹׂא-נֵס הָרִים תִּרְאוּ, וְכִתְקֹעַ שׁוֹפָר תִּשְׁמָעוּ.  {ס} 3 All ye inhabitants of the world, and ye dwellers on the earth, as an ensign (flag) is lifted up on the mountains, you will see it; and as the ram's horn is blown (like the blowing of a ram's horn), you will hear it.

This is a prophesy about the Founding of the State of Israel.  The flag raised in the Mountains was the establishment of (West) Yerushalayim as the capital of the new state.  Yet, because the State was established by International Socialists and some Communists, the State was founded by the Erev Rav as a husk to protect what was within it.  So what was heard throughout the world was "like" the blast of a Shofar.  It has accomplished four goals necessary as a foundation for the Messianic Era, with the process of Mashiach ben Yosef working within its midst.

1. The Ingathering of at least 6 million Jews since the State was founded by just over 600,000 Jews

2. The building of the physical infrastructure that will be used in the Messianic Era

3. The establishment of Torah institutions by those who wanted to establish them often with financial help from the State itself

4. The uncovering of Archeology of our distant past from the Altar of Yehoshua bin Nun on Mt. Eibal through the Bar Kokhba Revolt attaching our distant past to our brighter future

One can safely say that that particular Shofar blast that was Like the Tekiah of a Shofar was on the 5th of Iyar 5708.  The rest of the sound and light show associated with the founding of the State will soon be transformed into the earthly Footstool for the Heavenly Throne.

Years ago during August of 1989, Rav Motti Berger of Aish HaTorah came to speak at the Jewish Federation of S. Louis in what was a main Auditorium in the Jewish Federation Bldg.  What he had to say that August was shocking in every respect of that word.  He gave over a Dvar Torah of the Vilna Gaon that the Ingathering of the exiles expressed in the next verse would occur 3/4 through the 6th Millennium (either in 5750 or in 5751) because high noon on the 6th day is 3/4 of the way through Yom Shishi, and at that moment Shofar blowers would ascend hills and mountains in Eretz Yisrael to blow a Tekiah to call Israel in from her fields to prepare for Shabbat.  Until High noon on Friday, one could do mundane work and labor as one did the other days of the week (Sunday - Thursday), but at high noon, only work which was necessary to prepare for Shabbat could be done.  The reason for the possible discrepancy between 5750 and 5751 as to whether the ingathering would begin in which of those two years is because the Gaon was not 100% sure on whether the 6000 years of Olam HaZeh would end at the end of the year 5999 or at the end of the year 6000.  If Olam HaZeh ends at the end of the year 5999, then the 3/4 mark was in the year 5750.  If it ended at the end of the year 6000, then the 3/4 mark was in the year 5751.  I remember this was an issue when years ago we were discussing the beginning of Mincha Gedolah of the 6th Millennium or 12:30pm on Yom Shishi after which Mashiach could only come b'itah since all the Achishena dates had passed.  So doing the calculation, that date was either Rosh Chodesh Av 5770 or Rosh Chodesh Av 5771, once again depending on the same criterion whether the 6th Millennium ended at the end of 5999 or at the end of the year 6000.  So here is the 2nd verse of Nevua in Shofarot Musaph Rosh HaShanah according to Nusach Ashkenaz/ Sephard Chassidim:  Isaiah 27:13

 וְהָיָה בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא, יִתָּקַע בְּשׁוֹפָר גָּדוֹל, וּבָאוּ הָאֹבְדִים בְּאֶרֶץ אַשּׁוּר, וְהַנִּדָּחִים בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם; וְהִשְׁתַּחֲווּ לַיהוָה בְּהַר הַקֹּדֶשׁ, בִּירוּשָׁלִָם.  {פ} 13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great ram's horn shall be blown; and they shall come that were lost in the land of Assyria, and they that were dispersed in the land of Egypt; and they shall worship the LORD in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

Notice the uptick from the previous Shofar blast.  This blast is a REAL Shofar blast, but the blowing of the Tekiah is in the passive voice.  So we do not know which Angelic being in Shamayim blew the Shofar in 5750/51.

Now I realize that the Temple has not yet been rebuilt.  So the last part of this verse has yet to occur, but it is noteworthy what the Gaon said next.  According to Rav Berger, the Gaon juxtaposed this verse about a Shofar blast being blown in Isaiah 27 with the ingathering of the exiles described in Yirmiyahu 31, specifically this verse 31:7:

  הִנְנִי מֵבִיא אוֹתָם מֵאֶרֶץ צָפוֹן, וְקִבַּצְתִּים מִיַּרְכְּתֵי-אָרֶץ--בָּם עִוֵּר וּפִסֵּחַ, הָרָה וְיֹלֶדֶת יַחְדָּו:  קָהָל גָּדוֹל, יָשׁוּבוּ הֵנָּה. 7 Behold, I will bring them from the land of the north (of Eretz Yisrael), and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together; a great company shall they return hither.

From here we see that this Shofar blast would be heard and would be FIRST manifest in the world with a massive ingathering of all the Jews north of Israel.  The Vilna Gaon seems to be referring here to all the Jews of Russia or Eastern Europe which was due north of Eretz Yisrael.  Now perhaps this might also refer to Turkey, but since 1948 (5708) a Jew in Turkey could make Aliyah under his own auspices.  He did not need a Shofar blast to bring Turkish Jews on Aliyah.  Taking a Turkish Airline Aliyah flight to Israel in 1990 or 1991 was not a big deal, and it certainly did not require a Shofar blast.  But from Eastern Europe, behind the Iron Curtain?  A miracle would be needed.  Now this is where the Vilna Gaon seems to require one to use his/her head to see when that Shofar blast might occur.  Just 7 verses later, we see in whose merit this great ingathering would take place!  Yirm 31:14-16

 כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה, קוֹל בְּרָמָה נִשְׁמָע נְהִי בְּכִי תַמְרוּרִים--רָחֵל, מְבַכָּה עַל-בָּנֶיהָ; מֵאֲנָה לְהִנָּחֵם עַל-בָּנֶיהָ, כִּי אֵינֶנּוּ.  {ס} 14 Thus saith the LORD: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children; she refuseth to be comforted for her children, because they are not. {S}

טו  כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה, מִנְעִי קוֹלֵךְ מִבֶּכִי, וְעֵינַיִךְ, מִדִּמְעָה:  כִּי יֵשׁ שָׂכָר לִפְעֻלָּתֵךְ נְאֻם-יְהוָה, וְשָׁבוּ מֵאֶרֶץ אוֹיֵב. 15 Thus saith the LORD: Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears; for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come back from the land of the enemy.

טז  וְיֵשׁ-תִּקְוָה לְאַחֲרִיתֵךְ, נְאֻם-יְהוָה; וְשָׁבוּ בָנִים, לִגְבוּלָם.  {ס} 16 And there is hope for thy future, saith the LORD; and thy children shall return to their own border.

Lo and behold, the puzzle is unlocked.  The Great Shofar blast of the 6th Millennium (Isaiah 27:13) which would FIRST bring in the Jews from the North of Eretz Yisrael would occur in the merit of Rachel our Matriarch, most likely on her Jahrzeit, the date of her death, when her merits appear yearly before the Heavenly Court (the 11th of Marcheshvan 5750 or 5751!!)

Now, keep in mind that Rav Berger came and gave this talk during August of 1989.  Rosh HaShanah 5750 was about one month to five weeks away.  We did not have to wait long for the Jahrzeit of Rachel Immeinu in the year 5750.  So the 11th of MarCheshvan 5750 was the 9th of November 1989.  On that very day the Great Shofar blast was blown, and in came the Bnei Ephraim from the Land of Ashur from the North country.  On that very day, the Berlin Wall came crashing to the Ground!  And into Eretz Yisrael poured about 1 1/2 million Eastern European Jews, just as the Vilna Gaon predicted about 200 years before it happened.  So if you want a definitive date for the Great Shofar Tekiah of the 6th Millennium, it was on the 11th of MarCheshvan 5750.  For every Jew in the world, if you are davening for that Shofar blast on Rosh HaShanah to occur for you, perhaps perhaps you missed the frequency of that blast.  It is history.  It has already occurred, over 34 years ago.

Oh, but we are not finished yet.  There were two ingatherings predicted for that two year period.  Only one of them was the Lost from the Land of Ashur (Assyria).  There would be another group of ancient Northern Kingdom Israelites who would be "Castaway in the Land of Mitzraim (Egypt)" who would also be ingathered during either 5750 and 5751.   For this we need to learn a bit of Oral History from Ethiopian Jews.  In the early 1980s before Operation Moses in 1984- Jan 1985, I spent about 6 months in Arad, Israel.  At that time Begin had been quietly ingathering Ethiopian Jews and bringing them home to Israel.  For whatever reason, the Absorption Centers in Arad were half-filled by Ethiopian immigrants.  The other half were immigrants from the rest of the world.  And I became friendly with a few families, and they told me their history in the Galut of Shwa along the tributary of the Blue Nile in Gondar Province.  Apparently, Shlomo HaMelekh and the Queen of Sheba had a son named Menelik.  He was sent to Shlomo's Kingdom by the Queen to be raised in Shlomo's Palace around the year 995 bce (taking into account Rav Shimon Schwab's tikkun of 165 years).  Upon King Shlomo's death around 965 bce, Menelik returned to Schwa with Shlichim from the Tribe of Dan to convert the entire Royal household to Judaism.  240- 245 years later around the year 722 bce, tragedy strikes the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  Shalmanezer the 5th followed by Sargon II who overthrew Shalmanezer V in a Palace coup sacked Samaria and exiled most of the Northern Kingdom to the eastern most realms of the Assyrian Empire.  Many of the northernmost tribes of Asher, Naftali, and the part of Dan that had conquered SE Lebanon had already been taken prisoner, and they were being used as slave porters for the Assyrian Army in later invasions of Judea, The Sea People's Palestine (Philistia) and later on Egypt around 670 bce by Esserhaddon son of Senncharrib who extended the Assyrian Empire down to Southern Egypt.  (I believe the southernmost city in Esserhaddon's reign was Memphis, Mitzraim (not Tennessee).  Upon doing this, he gave his Israelite porters whom he no longer needed a choice to be exiled to the far-eastern portion of the Assyrian Empire OR to leave his Empire for Sub-Saharan Africa.  Around 670 bce,  almost 300 years after the founding of the Jewish Kingdom of Schwa in Ethiopia, these "Castaway" Israelites departed the Assyrian Empire for Sub-Saharan Africa.  They became the Nidachim b'Eretz Mitzraim in the Isaiah 27 prophesy above and joined the existing Jewish kingdom in Ethiopia around 670 bce.  For over 2650 years they remained there, even when the kings of Ethiopia converted to Xtianity and took on non-Jewish wives.  Those kings were still descendants of King Shlomo, but they were no longer Jewish kings.  

Still the Beita Yisrael of Ethiopia remained there.  They had a legend that their portion of the tributary to the Blue Nile from Lake Tana in Northern Ethiopia roared all week long with rushing waters, but on Shabbat it was calm and placid.  Yet, they could not leave their villages for Eretz Yisrael on Shabbat by crossing the Blue Nile to return to Israel.  So they named that portion of the Blue Nile, the Sanbat River, Amhari or ancient Ge'ez for Shabbat.  (I am not kidding here.  This is their own Oral history.)  When Operation Moses occurred, people had to make a 1000 mile trek to the Sudanese Desert from Gondar Province where Pres Numeri of Sudan was secretly allowing Israeli cargo jets to land and take off with Israelites who had made the trek.  The operation went smoothly for about two months, rescuing about 7000 more Ethiopian Jews above the 7000 Israelites that Begin had been able to rescue earlier in the 1980s.  It was suddenly stopped when the Arab World found out and pressured Numeri to stop the Operation.  About 1000 Ethiopians were trapped in the Sudanese Desert until March when God HW Bush Sr. as Vice-President rescued whoever had not starved to death or died of thirst in the Desert in another operation called Yehoshua.  And there things remained for over 6 years, nuclear families split in two.  Half of some families were in Eretz Yisrael and half were in Ethiopia under the Communist Govt of Mengistu Miriam.  In 1991 during the Civil War in Ethiopia, the Eritrean People's front in encroaching on the capital Addis Ababa.  Suddenly in mid-May 1991 the Communist govt loses control of the Airport.  The Israeli govt realized that they had a 48 hour window to sweep into Addis Ababa and rescue the approximately 16000 to 18000 Ethiopian Jews who are in a compound run by the North American Council or Conference on Ethiopian Jewry that had been operating there as a refuge for over 6 years to reunite all the nuclear families that were split in two after Operation Moses.  It is May 24th and 25th, and guess what?  It is Friday afternoon and Shabbat, Parshat Nasso, and during that 36 hour period, precisely at the time that the Sanbat River became placid for 2650 years, 16,000 to 18,000 Ethiopian Jews were rescued in Operation Shlomo.    But wait a minute!  It was not Parshat Nasso in Eretz Yisrael.  That year Seder night had been on Shabbat, and there was an 8th day of Pesach on Shabbat outside of Israel.  So Eretz Yisrael was on the following week's parshah on the Shabbat of the 24th of May (11th of Siwan 5751).  In Eretz Yisrael when they landed it was Parshat be'Ha'alotcha not Parshat Nasso.  At the very end of Parshat Be'Ha'alotcha Miriam, the sister of Moshe gets tzara'at (leprosy) because she spoke lashon hara about her brother marrying a black woman!  No joke.  This was the Parshah in that miraculous two year period of 5750 and 5751 when HaShem rescued the Nidachim b'Eretz Mitzraim, the Beita Yisrael of Ethiopia.  So if anyone wants to challenge the Vilna Gaon on the veracity of his word that that Second Shofar blast for Geulah has already occurred over 30 years ago, you will need to challenge the established historical facts.  וְהָיָה בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא, יִתָּקַע בְּשׁוֹפָר גָּדוֹל, וּבָאוּ הָאֹבְדִים בְּאֶרֶץ אַשּׁוּר, וְהַנִּדָּחִים בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם has already occurred. 

There is only one Shofar blast left, and it is occurring as I write this.  And contrary to what many say, the Shofar blast in Zekharia 9 that brings Mashiach relates to WW3 beginning in Yemen.  The last Shofar blast for Geulah in Shofarot Rosh HaShanah is:

Zekharia 9:14  יד  וַיהוָה עֲלֵיהֶם יֵרָאֶה, וְיָצָא כַבָּרָק חִצּוֹ; וַאדֹנָי יְהוִה בַּשּׁוֹפָר יִתְקָע, וְהָלַךְ בְּסַעֲרוֹת תֵּימָן. 14 And the LORD shall be seen over them, and His Arrow (Missile) shall go forth as the lightning (Laser-guided?); and the Lord GOD will blow HIS own personal ram's horn, and will go with Stormwinds of Yemen.

This prophesy above is the Final Shofar blast for Redemption.  Take it to the Judge.  Because of the late hour, I will continue at a later time, hopefully before we might lose Electricity near the beginning of Adar Sheini. 

The Final Rabbinic Regalia

 I would like to make my readers aware of a Dvar Torah that the Sefath Emeth (Sefas Emes, Rav Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter zt"l) said about 130 to 150 yrs ago.   I found it in a very old version of an old Rabbanut Yom HaAtzma'ut Machzor that we still have in our possession.  I found this wort not only amazingly prophetic but a key to unlock how the birth of the State Israel would somehow, someway suddenly one Tisha B'Av in the very near future morph into the vessel for the Messianic Era.  More exactly how would this chaotic mixture of at least 6 million exiles be suddenly made the receptacle for the Coming of Mashiach ben David?  (At this point the Jewish population here is at significantly over 7 million.)  At this time watching the painstaking minuscule Judicial Reforms and the resistance of half the country under the leadership of Armilus (Ehud Olmert אולמרת with a thav or sav), it seems at a cursory glance decades into the future.  As a matter of fact the sheer undignified Chutzpah of leftist pilots to threaten to ground their planes in protest might be the key to encourage Hezbollah to launch a surprise attack when the abandoned airforce jets remain in their hangars.  

Either way, we remain in great need of a spiritually rejuvenating event for those secular Israelis who are not from the irredeemable Qlipot of the Erev Rav.  The Prophecy in question is in Ezekiel 37.  We shall call it Ezekiel's backup prophecy of the Arba Ruchot or his Prophecy of the 4 winds, a prophecy on the tail of the Dry bones, but unlike the dry bones prophecy, the 4 winds complimentary prophecy has not yet occurred!  This is how I came by this.  

The Sefas Emes made two indelible points.  First he notes that the Shalosh Regalim (Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot) are like piercing brilliant sunlight.  They are given in the Torah in several places, particularly in Parshat Emor (Lev 23) and in Parshat Pinchus (Numbers 28-29) and in Parshat Re'eh (Deut 16) amongst other places in the Written Torah.  He then proceeds to make the point that we have two Rabbinic Regalim, festivals of joy or song or both, decreed by Chazal through Ruach HaQodesh either near the time of the end of prophetic inspiration or after the Ages of Prophesy had already terminated.  These Rabbinic festivals, though, are lunar reflections of the Shalosh Regalim!   So where the 3 Regalim from the Torah shine like the Sun, the 2 Rabbinic Regalim reflect the light of the Sun as the Moon does.  He further goes on to hint that at the end of History there will be one more (or two more as we will soon see) Rabbinic festivals to reflect as the Moon does the light of the Torah's three Regalim.

The Sefas Emes then goes on to explain that The 8 days of Chanukah reflected the original dedication of Shlomo HaMelekh's Temple which concluded during the 7 days of Sukkot/ +1 day of Shmini Atzereth.  And then he describes how at Sinai the Written Torah was accepted with love (on Shavuot), but how Klal Yisrael was forced to accept the Oral Torah through coercion by threatening to drop Mt Sinai on their heads.  Only when Queen Esther decreed a 3 day fast to annul in Heaven Haman's extermination decree (during Pesach, by the way), did Klal Yisrael accept the Oral Torah with love during Pesach to alter their original reticence during Shavuot 2448.  The realization of the annulment of the extermination decree was realized the following Purim and Shushan Purim, 11 months later (after the original decree was annulled on the 23rd of Siwan).  To be exact, the Fast of Esther lasted either the 13th, 14th and 15th of Nissan with the first banquet of the King and Haman on the 16th at night and the hanging of Haman on the 17th at night, the 2nd night of Chol HaMoed.  Or the fast was on the 14th, 15th, and 16th of Nissan with the first banquet on the 17th at night and the hanging of Haman on the 18th of Nissan, the third night of Chol HaMoed.  Either way, the Feast of Unleavened Bread on the 1st night of Pesach was canceled that year, for the afternoon of the 14th and the 15th at night were central to Teshuvah b'Ahavah for originally rejecting the Oral Torah.

So this is where the Sefas Emeth's dvar Torah on this subject SEEMS to end, but one realizes that he was saying a lot more.  First of all, let us digress into how Isru Chag of all the festivals is actually from the Torah.  Everyone knows that a Qorban Shlamim was a festive offering that could be brought all year round.  One offered it during the day and after allowing for the Kohen to properly pour its blood at the Altar and to partake of his portion of the Qorban and to give to G-d His portion on the altar, the party of people had 2 days and the night in the middle to festively eat the Qorban.  The following night at Sundown, the Qorban was forbidden at which point if one partakes, he/she gets Karet (spiritual excision).  Now in a majority of circumstances, most people would come to the Tabernacle at Shilo and the Temples in Yerushalayim to offer a Peace offering during the 3 Regalim or Pilgrimage festivals and would offer it up during the festival from the first day, during Chol HaMoed or on the last day of Chag Pesach or on Shmini Atzereth.  In this way, if the Peace offering was offered up during the festival the Peace offering was a Chagigah which could be eaten on the day that it was offered + one additional day.  Shavuoth stands out as a one day festival, but our sages made it possible to offer up Qorbanot for 6 additional days so that Israel or later just Judea would not neglect to come for just one day of Shavuot.  Imagine walking for 3 days and turning back around on Isru Chag 2 days later to walk home for 3 days!  I believe these extra 6 days for Shavuot are D'Rabbanan though.  So the only D'Oraita day to turn your Peace offering into a Chagigah was on Shavuot (6th of Siwan or day 50 of Sefirat HaOmer) itself.  But once again as with other Festive offerings (Chagigot), the Qedushah of that Chagigah lasted until the end of Isru Chag, that one day after the holy party seemed to be over.  In this way that one day after had the Qedushah of the days of the festival, at least the Qedushah of Chol haMoed for anyone still partaking of a Qorban Chagigah.  This is the spiritual essence of Isru Chag.

So going back to the words of the Sefas Emes, what did he mean that Purim and Pesach were lunar reflections of 2 of the 3 Shalosh Regalim?  To be the lunar reflection of something, one needs to follow the regularity of the cycles of the Moon!  So just like Pesach is the full moon for the month of Nissan, Purim and Shushan Purim are at the Full moon for the previous month of Adar.  So Purim falls exactly one lunar cycle (30 days) before Pesach begins.  And the way the holy calendar usually works, the full moon for 30 day months like Nissan is the 15th of the month while the Full moon for 29 day months like Adar or Adar Sheini is between the 14th and 15th of Adar or Adar Sheini!  Now THIS is what the Sefas Emes ALSO  meant, for how is Purim a "lunar reflection" of Shavuot simply because it completed the acceptance of the Oral Torah that had begun on Shavuot 2448??  What does accepting the Oral Torah out of Love have to do with the cycles of the Moon?  Why mention the Moon at all?  But here we see that Purim really is a lunar reflection of Pesach!  Now going to the end of Chag Sukkot/Shmini Atzereth 6 months later we recognize that Shmini Atzereth is on the 22nd of Tishrei and Isru Chag is on the 23rd of Tishrei.  From there, the end of Isru Chag, we count forward, not 30 days, but 60 days or 2 lunar cycles.  In every year Tishrei has 30 days, and in most years (not every year) Cheshvan has 29 days.  So 60 days after the end of the day on Isru Chag Sukkot we reach Sundown on the 25th of Kislev, the first night of Chanukah!  Now THIS is what the Sefas Emes was referring to!  Both Purim and Chanukah are lunar reflections of Pesach and Sukkot, one 30 days before and the other 60 days after Isru Chag.  And only at the End of Days would there be a certain prophecy which would come to pass divided in two, part of it 30 days prior to Shavuot and part of it 60 days after the 7th of Siwan, Isru Chag of Shavuot.  So in this way do the words of the Sefas Emes really make sense.  The question then comes down to which prophecy, how can we pin it down, and how do we know that that very prophecy comes in two parts separated by years of doubt or better yet a Nisayon.

To be continued.....

Just to give a preview, the Prophecy in question is the Haftarah of Chol HaMoed Pesach, the first half of Ezekiel 37.  It is the prophecy chosen for Shabbat Chol HaMoed Pesach for a reason, to be the Acharit HaYamim prophesy for both Pesach, Sefirat HaOmer, until the day of Atzereth (Shavuot) itself.  Exactly 30 days prior to Shavuot is Hey B'Iyar, The Day of the Dry Bones.  It is a oft quoted joke of Chareidi non-Zionists that Yom HaAtzmaut (Independence Day) is really Yom Atzamot (Day of the Dry Bones).  The really funny thing is that the joke IS the Truth, the physical redemption of Israel without the Ruchniyut Redemption, and G-d in the year 5708, 3 years after Auschwitz, was not laughing.  Exactly 60 days after Isru Chag of Shavuot is Tisha B'Av, the long awaited future event that can be best translated as the Prophecy of the 4 Winds, the future event which has not yet occurred.  It IS a separate prophecy in Ezekiel 37.  First he prophesied on the dry bones, and when he saw that there was no spirit in those ingathered exiles, HaShem told him to prophesy over the 4 winds.  So Ezekiel in that rather short Haftarah for Chol HaMoed Pesach, prophesied twice, once about the physical redemption on Hey b'Iyar, the ingathering of Dry Bones, that everyone remembers and once about the spiritual redemption on Tisha B'Av, the Arba Ruchot, that few even know about.

More than anything I wanted to discuss my thoughts on other matters, but I want this posted by Rosh Chodesh Av.  Chodesh tov.

 

And the Dead Do Not Praise the L-rd, Neither any that Go Down to Duma

Please forgive the shorthand brevity of this new post.  I will gladly explain the reason for my brevity in the Comments.

To be honest, I have noticed an uncharacteristic inconsistency in this second to last verse in Psalm 115 for as long as I have been saying Hallel (Psalms 113- 118) as a Baal Teshuvah in the early 1980s.  Every Chag except Purim and every Rosh Chodesh includes this verse whether full Hallel or Half Hallel is recited.  Something about it was unsettling, and early on I put my finger on it:  I am speaking about Psalm 115:17.   Psalm 115 is the third psalm in Hallel, and even when only half-Hallel is said, verse 17 is included.

  לֹא הַמֵּתִים, יְהַלְלוּ-יָהּ;    וְלֹא, כָּל-יֹרְדֵי דוּמָה. 17 The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence (Duma);

יח  וַאֲנַחְנוּ, נְבָרֵךְ יָהּ--    מֵעַתָּה וְעַד-עוֹלָם:

הַלְלוּ-יָהּ. 18 But we will bless the LORD from this time forth and for ever. {N}

Hallelujah.

We are told at the beginning of this verse that the Dead do not praise HaShem.  So If those who go down to Duma are those who need to have their souls cleansed for up to 11 months in Gehinnom after they die, why emphasize that they ALSO do not praise HaShem??  According to this peirush, Duma is the Angel that guards the Gate to the fires of Gehinnom.  Yes, we are talking about an unusual Fire that tries all Ten Sefirot of the Neshamah.  This is no ordinary fire, but if the Psalmist, David, is trying to emphasize the worst possible punishment against the Dead, Gehinnom does not hold a candle to eternal cancellation of the soul or Kaf HaKela, when the Angels fling one's soul across the Universe back and forth for 100 years or 1000 years or Eternity (a form of Angelic Chai ALai) mentioned in Shmuel Aleph 25:29.  Assuredly, those who are in Kaf HaKela do not praise HaShem either.  So we are stuck with the apparent redundant nature that the Dead do not praise Kah including those who do not go down to Gehinnom or those who go to Kaf HaKela or those who go down to She'ol or those who go directly into Gan Eden....  Take your pick.

Usually when the Psalms mention two things in parallel with each other, one sees a comparison between something more kal or light with something more chamur or stronger in order that the addition of the new aspect at the end of the pasuk adds a Chiddush.  For instance, 

ז  צַדִּיק יְהוָה, בְּכָל-דְּרָכָיו;    וְחָסִיד, בְּכָל-מַעֲשָׂיו. 17 The LORD is righteous in all His ways, and a Chassid in all His works.  from Psalm 145

From here we see that in all G-d's ways measured by His Laws, He is Just, but Beyond the Measure of His attribute of Justice, we see His Chessed in His Deeds (not just His Ways).   So we see here that the second half of the verse comes as a Chiddush on the first half of the verse.  There are no wasted words, and the second half of the verse is not a redundant expression of the first half.   This type of parallelism with a Chiddush in the second half is a regular feature in Sefer Tehillim.  The words were given to the Psalmist (for the most part King David) through Ruach HaQodesh (Holy Spirit) channeling sanctity into the words and guaranteeing that none of the words would be either redundant or flippant.  So that leaves us with the APPARENT exception to this rule, Psalm 115:17.  Now I write apparent exception because deep down we know that none of David's words were redundant or flippant.  There has to be a different understanding of this verse than the oft-noted explanation which solves the problem of redundancy and flippancy,  G-d forbid.

The second point about Psalm 115 is something I noticed several years later after I learned of the deep structure of Redemption expressed through the Order of Service in the Pesach Seder.  We notice right away that the the 4 cups of wine are divided neatly two before the Main Meal and two after the main meal (Shulchan Orekh) because the first Redemption was done with the Yud and the first Hey in HaShem's Name while the Final Redemption will be done with the attaching of the Vav and the Final Hey in HaShem's Name to the Yud and the First Hey once Amaleq can be destroyed in the world.  This explains why ALL of the Maggid (Telling) of the Redemption from Mitzraim, followed by the 2nd cup of wine, must be completed BEFORE the HaMotzi and the Torah Mitzvah of Eating Matzah which begins the Meal.  Maggid must come after the Middle Matzah has been split during Yachatz with the Smaller piece of Matzah being the one over which we tell the story of the Exodus while the larger piece of Matzah is the piece of Matzah that symbolizes the Greater and Grander Final Redemption After the Meal.  The meal itself is reminiscent of eating the Qorban Pesach with Maror and Matzah and the Qorban Chagigah for Pesach when there was a Temple and of all of  of Jewish history since the Temple was destroyed when we had neither Qorban  Surviving this larger segment of Jewish history when there was no Temple required this annual spectacle called the Pesach Seder to ensure that we and our descendants would still be around almost 2000 years later.  So the Meal somehow represents the entire span of Jewish History from the Exodus from Egypt until the Simanim of the Arrival of the Era of Mashiach ben Yosef.  We have discussed on this blog how the simanim of Mashiach ben Yosef was the greening of the hills of Eretz Yisrael from the First Agricultural Aliyah of 1882 when 4 agricultural settlements were founded in the same year 1882 (Rosh HaPinah, Petach Tikvah, Rishon LeTzion, and Zikhron Ya'akov).  Two of these settlings were actually repeats.  Rosh HaPinah and Petach Tikvah had previously been established but had been wiped out either by Arab terrorists in Rosh HaPinah and a Malaria epidemic in Petach Tikvah.  Both Rosh HaPinah and Petach Tikvah had been unsuccessfully established in 1878.  Somehow the hidden Matzah is reminiscent of the world falling to the 50th level of Tumah before Mashiach ben Yosef, something that has recently occurred about 6 1/2 years ago.  The Run up from the founding of Zikhron Yaakov (when G-d remembers Ya'akov) until today is just over 140 years.  Alas after the ingathering of exiles and the 6th election of Bibi Netanyahu (the 5th Mashiach ben Yosef) and the Aliyah to Israel of Yehonatan Pollard (the 6th Mashiach ben Yosef), we arrive at the moment of the 3rd cup of wine (The Vav in HaShem's Name).  At this stage because Eliyahu HaNavi lost the mantle to herald the Coming of Mashiach ben Yosef, we arrive at the event of the coming of Eliyahu HaNavi to herald Mashiach ben David (the 4th cup of wine and the Final Hey in HaShem's Name).  So after drinking the 3rd cup of wine, we pour the cup of Eliyahu HaNavi and open the front door and proclaim with a loud voice for HaShem to pour out His Wrath on the Gentiles that do not know Him, specifically against those who have massacred the seed of Ya'akov with bloody pogroms throughout the Ages.  One of the ways that we will know that we have reached that moment in history is if the nation that spilled the most Jewish blood for the last 2000 years is itself having its blood spilled almost indiscriminately.  For that nation will be completely wiped out from being a nation under the Heavens!

If one does a quick study of the various nations of the world where Jews have lived in significant numbers and which nation has shed the most Jewish blood at least in the last thousand years (including the last 3 generations) invariably we will arrive at the Ukraine or Ukraine.  For hundreds of years The Ukraine was The Borderland for at least three empires (Russian, Lithuanian, and Polish and sometimes Polish-Lithuanian).  Until 1648 The Ukraine (The Borderland) was not Ukraine, an independent country.  The year 1648, that very year, that Ukraine finally became an independent country under its leader Bogdan Chielminitzky (whose statue is all over Kiev), Ukraine proceeded to slaughter anywhere between 200,000 and 700,000 Jews!  They did horrible tortures reminiscent of the future Shoah slightly less than 300 years later.  Sadly there was no census that had been done of the Jews that were murdered in the areas that the Ukrainian Cossacks conquered including large parts of Poland, BelaRus, and Galitcia.  So all we have are estimates of the numbers who were murdered.  In most of the estimates up to 1/3 of all Eastern European Jews may have been murdered between 1648 and 1649 on the very birthday of the founding of a the nation that slaughtered them, the Ukrainians.  If there be any place in Europe that might be called the Graveyard for World Jewry, that place would be the blood soaked land of Ukraine.  And it really did not stop.  From Tach veTat to willing accomplices with the Nazis to murder European Jewry almost 300 years later, the Ukraine topped the list in most categories of Blood and Gore.  Is it a wonder that when we say and pray to G-d:  

Pour out Your wrath upon the nations that do not acknowledge You, and upon the kingdoms that do not call upon Your Name. For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his habitation. Pour out Your indignation upon them, and let the wrath of Your anger overtake them. Pursue them with anger, and destroy them from beneath the heavens of the L‑rd.  

Is there any question that the number one nation that we should have in mind that has done these things in a consistent manner for the last 375 years since its inception as a nation to the descendants of Ya'akov is Ukraine?  Without even one Jew pushing any button, is it a wonder that the G-d's Revenge against the nations of the world that have tortured Jews throughout the centuries begins right there?   And have the Ukrainians EVER apologized for Tach veTat (1648 and 49) or all the massacres of Jews since?  Have they ever taken down their statues of Bogdan in the Kiev public square in shame for what he and their ancestors did?  Have they taught their kids in schools "Tach veTat studies", the same way that all German children today must know about the Holocaust?  No reflection on their wicked past, just crickets and the proclamation that their President is a Jewish comedian who renounced his Judaism by raising his children in the Ukrainian Church years ago cutting his descendants off from any Jewish destiny.  I have no personal animus against Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but if he is the monument to the new Ukrainian Jewry, then Bogdan Chielminitzky succeeded in his mission without slaying any more Jewish babies with his sword.  The point for this essay is we have arrived at this stirring statement in the Haggadah for the End of Days after pouring Eliyahu's cup, and we prepare ourselves for what comes immediately next:  Psalm 115, yes the above Psalm 115, one and the same.  

Let us take a step back.  First notice that in the Pesach Seder, we also say Hallel, albeit without a Brakhah specifically no Brakhah for Hallel.  But the first two psalms in Hallel are said with the Maggid step in the Hagaddah, at the end of Maggid, before the Meal!  This tells us immediately, that the first two prakim of Hallel are for the Redemption from Egypt and not for the Final Redemption!  So we arrive at the inevitable conclusion that since the first two chapters of Hallel are specifically for the Redemption from Egypt, then the last four Prakim (Psalms) of Hallel are for the Final Redemption specifically starting with Psalm 115.  It is why we start with Psalm 115 after praying for revenge against the nations that have murdered us and conclude with Psalm 118 before Hodu LaShem ki Tov and Nishmat Kal Chai followed by the 4th cup of wine.  So in this way, Psalm 115, not Psalm 113, is emblematic of the beginning of the Final Redemption (after the Revenge against those who have murdered us has already begun).  

So now I must return to the Winter and Spring of 2016.  Several young adult "Hilltop youth" had been implicated in an arson case in the Arab town of Duma where an entire Arab family may have been murdered in the Summer of 2015.  The question that has never been answered was Who Dunit?  Was it done by a group of Jewish arsonist extremists or another Arab family in the same village looking for revenge?  Apparently, only G-d knows because to be honest, the Jewish Division of the Shin Bet never proved a d-mn thing.  The leader of the youth who were implicated wrongfully without a body of evidence was the grandson of Rav Meir Kahane zt"l, Meir Ettinger.  That would be Meir Ettinger was the son of Rav Kahane's daughter, Tova Kahane- Ettinger.  Almost a dozen of these youths were put wrongfully in prison for months on end often tortured to extract a confession.  Shaba"k was able to extract one conviction from all this without any evidence to support this conviction.  Amiram ben Ulliel is still in prison for this conviction.  What was fascinating from the conviction from the beginning is that for months on end, these youths did not have regular discussions with a lawyer.  They could be held and potentially tortured inside a Shaba'k dungeon without Habeas Corpus or of what should be required, a Writ of Habeas Corpus.   No regular meeting with a lawyer.  Techniques to extract confessions that may be the equivalent of torture.  I always imagined that Shaba"k had a 500 year old Torqemada torture rack in a dungeon somewhere, and they were using it to extract confessions.  Since there was 0 oversight over what they were doing with these youths for months on end, it could be easily imagined that they tried almost everything.  And since their techniques for extracting confessions were done in complete secrecy, imagining what they were potentially doing is 100% justified.  Down in the dungeon of the Jewish Division of Shaba"k where no one can hear you scream where no one could praise HaShem.  Sometime near the end of Adar 5776 there was a Brit Milah for a boy, the son of Meir Ettinger, who by this time had been held for 7 months?  8 months?  But the Shaba"k authorities would not let Meir out of the dungeon to attend his own son's brit milah!  So thousands of us went.  I even saw Betzalel Smotrich at the event at the Breslov Shul in the Shaarei Chessed neighborhood.  Betzalel was in street clothes.  He was not there in any official capacity for Bayit Yehudi.  Yes, it was a fascinating and moving affair, a brit milah for a boy whose father was being tortured by Shaba'k to extract a confession that he never gave.  Eventually after 10 months in this dungeon he was let free.  What I remember most of all is that there was an organization for the Yordei Duma (those who had gone down into the Shaba"k dungeon to be questioned about the Duma arson case.)  The name of that organization was Choneinu.  And there was a young lawyer who took on the entire case of clients that he could not even talk to pro bono.  He did not expect a shekel for his services.  Perhaps he was paid a measly stipend by Choneinu.  It mattered not.  The Tzaddiq who took this case on was Itamar Ben Gvir, and I knew right then and there that somehow, someway this tzaddiq would be the lightning rod to introduce Mashiach ben David to the entire world, a man that 2/3rds of Mankind (the world's reprobate majority) would learn to hate for being that very tzaddiq!  Almost 7 years have passed since that fateful Brit Milah of Meir Ettinger's son, and Ben Gvir has burst on the scene almost precisely as I expected him to.  The Yordei Duma (those who went down because of Duma), well, they are the parallel construct, the Chiddush on the second half of that second to last verse in Psalm 115 that only makes sense after the fact with 20/20 hindsight  What happens, next, we shall see.

For anyone thinking of censoring, in no way do I approve of Rav Kahane's call to exile all Arabs from this Holy Land.  Every gentile who has the privilege to live here must keep 7 Laws of human decency.  Amongst the 7 are laws against Murder and laws to passionately be revolted of those who do murder to be a witness against murderers in Courts of Law.  A gentile does not have to put his life on the line to uphold the Courts of Justice clause, but if he celebrates in any way the murder of Jews, he has lost his right to be here, for he celebrates murder and would not be a witness against a murder suspect.  Those who take candy in public in the squares of Ramallah to celebrate the success of murder or who attend parties for a shahid suicide bomber, they have forfeited their residency in Eretz Yisrael because of a lack of human decency.  Sadly approximately 70 to 75% of Israel's Arabs with or without citizenship support the murderers who blow up pizza parlors or civilian busses.  So 70 to 75% of Israel's Arabs have forfeited their residency through their lack of human decency according to Noachide Law.  So as we hone in on the final exact figure, Meir Kahane was 70 to 75% correct..

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