The 8th Plague; The Plague of Locusts

Well not much time.  We have a simcha this weekend.  Yet, we all know that the the 8th plague struck Mitzraim on the 21st of Adar, this past Sunday.  We also know that the 8th plague in the Torah also took place in Adar.  The ninth plague followed quickly also in Adar without warning, 3 days of intense darkness in which no light could be seen even if someone tried to light a candle.  Some say that the darkness was so intense that the Egyptians could not even move because the darkness locked them in place for three days.  Now in the previous comment section I noted that this year the calendar of Hillel HaSheini is one day early in order that this coming Yom Kippur should fall out on Shabbat and not on Motzei Shabbat.  He specifically designed the calendar so that after this past Kislev would only have 29 days that all of the moladim for the Roshei Chodesh (New Moons) with 30 days would fall on Rosh Chodesh itself.  Therefore he set it up that the New Moons would occur before the new moons could even be seen!  So this year even if we keep the holy days one day early because we are following the calendar which we must continue to do, then in Shamayim the actual days might be one day later.  I realize that Beit Din in ancient times could extend a month by one day from 29 days to 30 days if non-kosher witnesses showed up on the 30th day.  So Beit Din had it within its power to set the holy days one day later than they would have been if the witnesses had been kosher witnesses to the New Moon.  Yet with our calendar something really peculiar is happening in this 11 month stretch.  We are celebrating Rosh Chodesh before the New Moon can even be seen!!  Halakhically Hillel HaSheini had the power to set it up that way in order to avoid other halakhic problems such as beginning the fast of Yom Kippur over 18 minutes before sunset on Shabbat afternoon since the fast of Yom Kippur begins at least 18 minutes before sundown based on the pasukim which describe it in the Torah.  This is not a problem for Tisha B'Av where the fast begins at sundown and not before sundown.  So having Tisha B'Av fall on Motzei Shabbat is less of a problem.  I am not advising here to start commemorating our festivals coming up one day later than scheduled, but I am noting that there is no precedent in ancient times where Rosh Chodesh would have been declared before the New Moons could even be seen at sunset at least four to six hours after the molad itself.  So we have an important question.  Was this past Sunday the 20th of Adar or the 21st of Adar, my son's 13th birthday?  Here is the reason why I ask the question.

It says in Medrash Sefer Eliyahu that there are three dates when a Messianic process will begin.  The first date which we discussed back in 5766 was the 20th day of Shevat.  On that day angels of destruction were set up to destroy the whole vast multitude dwelling from the great "plain" down to Yaffo (aka Tel Aviv) and all the way down to Ashkelon.  At the time this described the Left Coast of the State of Israel that was about to elect Ehud ARMiLuT (TRMLO) by about 40 seats in the Knesset.  On the 20th of Shevat in 5766, Hamas installed its government in the Yehudah and Shomron and scared at least 300,000 Left Coast Israelis away from voting for Armilut.  Later that summer, all of Armilut's plans to destroy Yesha unilaterally fell apart when the 2nd Lebanon War began with the pummeling of the Galilee on the 17th of Tamuz 5766.  And according to the Zohar Mashiach appeared in the Galil in year 66 that year in 5766.  Yet, the process started on the 20th of Shevat 5766 when Hamas installed their government of our annihilation on that very day.

So here we go again.  Another time where it says that Mashiach will appear and a process will therefore start is the 20th of Adar.  It says on that very day (the 20th of Adar) Mashiach will come, and with him will be 30,000 tzaddikim, as it says in Yishaiyahu 11:5, Righteousness will gird his waist, and Faith will gird his loins!  This verse specifically refers to Mashiach ben David because the entire paragraph speaks about a Staff shooting forth from Yishai (Jesse).  The medrash continues:  When the nations of the world behold this happening, immediately each one of them will putrefy, both it and its calvary, as Scripture says in Zecharia 14:12-15: "And this will be the affliction with which the L-rd will strike all the nations which with armies come against Yerushalayim.  Each one's flesh will melt away while he is standing on his feet; each one's eyes will melt away in their sockets; and each one's tongues will melt away in their mouths.  It shall be on tha day that there will be a great panic of HaShem among them; each one will grab the hand of his fellow, and his hand will be raised up against of his fellow.  And Yehudah will wage war against Yerushalayim; and the welath of the nations all around will be gathered - gold, silver, and garments in great abundance.  And similarly will be the plague of the horse, the mule, the camel, and the donkey, and all the animals that will be in those camps where the plague hit (the humans)."  At that time the Holy One, Blessed be He, will address the nations of the world: 'Woe to you, oh wicked ones, who are alive at the cessation of the Four Kingdoms (that conquered Eretz Yisrael)!  All of you are to be expelled from the world, one wherein one kor of wheat will yield about nine hundred kors, and there will be analogous (fantastic yields) for wine and oil.  Every tree will bear choice produce and fruits, as Scripture says (Yechezkel 36:8):  "And you, Oh mountains of Yisrael, will make your branches yeild, etc."  And Israel will eat (these fruits from this bountiful harvest) and will rejoice for forty years.    

And it continues:  After this the Holy One, blessed be He, will bring up Gog and Magog 'and their associates' and then all the peoples of the earth will assemble together and surround Yerushalayim in order to make war.  the Holy One, blessed be He, will come up and do battle with them.  Mashiach will arrive, and with the help of HKBH, he will wage war on them, etc.  

From this we see that a process of judgement on the nations of the world has now begun with the Plague of Locusts against Mitzraim.  From this particular medrash, there is no way of knowing the total length of time all the events of this Medrash will take place, but it has begun with the 8th plague against Mitzraim on the 20th or the 21st of Adar 5773.  And we are in the middle of the 8th month of pregnancy which began on Tisha B'Av 5772.  The ninth month will begin on the 10th of Nisan 5773. 

So who are the 30,000 righteous ones you might ask?  Well the verse uses a military expression for girding both the waist and the loins.  The word Aleph, Zayin, Reish is usually used when referring to soldiers preparing themselves for battle.   In the last election about 31,500 votes corresponded to one seat in the Knesset.  Before the soldier votes were counted after the election Bayit Yehudi only had 11 seats.  After the soldier votes were counted, BY had an additional seat.  There were therefore an additional 30,000 soldier votes at least which wanted to tell King Shaul that we are sick and tired of going to war in accordance with the rules of the nations of the world.  The ground invasion during the Gaza War never took place because it required bombing all the buildings at the border with Israel where men with RPGs were stationed on the third floor of those buildings which were apartment buildings where civilians lived.  King Shaul was scared of incurring the wrath of Obama by bombing those buildings and and therefore allowing the ground invasion to win the war.  According to G-d's law, halakhah, those buildings were military targets because military Hamas personnel were stationed there on top of civilians in order to shoot at tanks and other ground vehicles once the ground invasion had occurred.   In honor of the righteousness of those soldiers who want to tell Mankind to Go to H-ll and to stick their rules in a very dark place, a Messianic process began on the 20th of Adar 5773.