Humble Origins

Art Tim Gagnon



  וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה אֶל אַהֲרֹן קְרַב אֶל הַמִּזְבֵּחַ

"Moshe then said to Aharon "Draw near to the altar" [Shemini 9:7]

Rashi explains that Aharon was embarrassed and afraid to approach the altar.  Moshe therefore said to him "Why are you embarrassed? This is what you were selected for."

The Baal Shem Tov elucidated Rashi's words.  Moshe was saying to Aharon: "Why are you embarrassed? It is specifically due to the fact that you possess the character trait of humility and that you feel ashamed before Hashem that you were chosen to be the Kohen - "This is what you were selected for!"

Source: Rabbi Y. Bronstein

Outreach

Art: Kjherstin

Even though Moshe received the Torah from its Heavenly source and transmitted it to the people below, Aharon actually caused the Divine Presence to come down to earth.

Smilarly, in these final moments of exile, it is the approach of Aharon - bringing the Jewish people closer to observing the Torah [Avos 1:12] - which will bring the Divine Presence back to earth once again.  For, in this respect, the approach of Aharon is even greater than that of Moshe [Torah study].

Source: Based on Sichas Shabbos Parshas Shemini 5732 Lubavitcher Rebbe

The Chasidah

The Chasidah [white stork]

 וְאֵת הַחֲסִידָה  "The chasidah" [Shemini 11:19]

Why is its name chasidah (literally meaning "kind one") asks Rashi. "Because it does kindness with its companions with food."

According to the Ramban, said the Chiddushei HaRim (R' Yitzchak Meir Alter of Gur), the reason why the nonkosher birds are not kosher is because of their cruel nature.  If so, the chasidah should have been a kosher-type bird; after all, it bestows kindness upon its companions!

The chasidah acts kindly towards its companions, answered the rebbe, but it does not act kindly toward anyone else. This is why it is considered not kosher.

Decoding Psalm 93 - The Era of Redemption

Psalms Chapter 93

1. The Lord reigns, he is clothed with majesty; the Lord is clothed with strength, with which he has girded himself; the world also is established, that it cannot be moved.

2. Your throne is established of old; you are from everlasting.

3. The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their roaring.

Friediker Rebbe, R. Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn

4. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, than the mighty waves of the sea.

5. Your testimonies are very sure; holiness becomes your house, O Lord, for length of days.

Psalm 93, authored by Moses [B. Basra 14b; Rashi], contains a prophecy relevant to our days. That is to say, 3,300 years ago, the world's greatest prophet foretold how the pre-Messianic era, our present period (as per The Lubavitcher Rebbe), will unfold. The Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe [Friediker Rebbe, R. Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn], in August 1944 [הקריאה והקדושה], deciphered this Psalm's explanation - and added his own prophetic details of the events to take place. The brevity of these 5 verses is inversely proportional to its profundity.

In outline: The first third of the article nails down our current era as the period in question. The middle third predicts the sort of events we will witness, with specificity added by the Rebbe. The final third of the Psalm takes us further in time - into the Era of Redemption.

Continue reading at: Current World Events in Bright Perspective - Psalm 93 Prophecies

The 11th Hour

The eleventh hour is a colloquial expression meaning "a time which is nearly too late".  So says Wikipedia.... but there are some other origins of this expression, notably:  This expression comes from the Bible. The 11th hour is the last hour before the end of the world.

Interesting...that number Eleven  again ....even more so when you listen to Rabbi Winston's shiur about Moshiach and the 10th Hour.  (I know a lot of you don't have the time, so I've typed up the relevant bits)

Disclaimer: Any mistakes are mine, not his.

[the following is taken from Rabbi Winston's shiur with a few added clarifications from me in blue]

5750 was a major turning point in Jewish history, as the Vilna Gaon explains:

Each 1000 years represents one day of Creation. The first thousand years represent Day One of Creation, the second millenium is Day Two.... and so on. Therefore this current millenium represents Day Six, the eve of Shabbat. And we know that Moshiach needs to come before Shabbat, before the end of 6000 years. 

History Repeats

Everything that occurred at the time of Creation is going to have a corresponding reality in each millenium....each event will present itself again, in some way, every thousand years. History literally repeats itself - on a different level - during each "day" (a "day" being a thousand years).

Knowing this, we can actually calculate the time Moshiach will arrive, so to speak, even though we are not permitted to calculate the date of His arrival, we can come close. {The Zohar says that as we come closer to the Geulah, even children will know how it will be.}

Moshiach's arrival is about tikkun - rectification. Therefore, Moshiach's arrival will correspond with the ideal time for tikkun as set out at the time of Creation.

The only reason we are all here is to rectify the original sin of Adam HaRishon in the Garden of Eden - the eating of the forbidden fruit. Adam ate from the tree of knowledge at the time of the 10th hour of day six of creation.

The gemara explains that during the 9th hour he was warned, and during the 10th hour (just before Shabbat) he ate the fruit.

The ideal time for tikkun/Moshiach will be in the period in history that corresponds to when he ate the forbidden fruit. 5750 was when the world entered that period of time - the time that corresponds to the 10th hour of the sixth day of creation. (see Rabbi Winston's books at his website for all the details) 5750/1990 was the turning point, and the 10th hour lasts for 83.6 years (from 1990). What happened in 1990: as a starting point, Russia imploded, Jews were allowed to leave: some went to Israel, some to America.  Soon after in 1991 we had the Persian Gulf War. 10 years later, Y2K and then 911 when the world really did change for all to see.

The book that can change history

The one book that tells us what we're supposed to do at the end of history is Kol HaTor (The Voice of the Turtledove) based on the manuscripts of the Vilna Gaon and passed down through his talmidim until today. People don't talk about it, it gets pushed to the side, but that's the book that can change history.

The Zohar tells us that Techias Hamaisim - the revival of the dead - takes place 210-214 years in advance of the year 6000, and the Zohar further says that Techias Hamaisim takes place AFTER the 40 years of the ingathering of the exiles. So according to the Zohar, history has to wrap itself up within 15 years from now. Techias Hamaisim is within 15 years. Hashem is bringing the end very fast.

I'm sure Moshiach ben Yosef has already come and gone, and there's reasons for that opinion - the Gra says that the job of Moshiach ben David is to conquer Yishmael - and this is the age of Yishmael - when Moshiach comes, Yishmael will go down. Before then, there are gevurahs (strict judgments) which have to be rectified (sweetened). For example...last week's murder of the Fogel family in Itamar represented a bucket-load of gevurah.

The Gra says ultimately it depends on what we do.   We should be talking about Moshiach, informing people... and reading Kol HaTor.

The Purim Torah Codes

[adapted from Keeping Posted with NCSY, Fall 1999 edition and also from Torah.org article by Rabbi Dovid Rosenfeld]

There is a famous "code" in Megillat Esther :- towards the end of the story, King Ahashveirosh allows the Jews to avenge themselves of their enemies on the 13th day of Adar. In Shushan, the capital, the Jews kill 500 men and hang Haman's ten sons on a gallows. Queen Esther then approaches the King with an additional request: "...allow the Jews who are in Shushan to do tomorrow as they did today, and let the ten sons of Haman be hanged on the gallows" [Esther 9:13]. It's curious that she would request the hanging of Haman's already slain sons. Nevertheless, the King complies.

The Hebrew word for "tomorrow" ("machar") occasionally refers to the distant future. Further, the Sages tell us that whenever the word "king" appears in the Megillah it alludes to the King of kings as well. Thus, the verse could be understood as a request by Esther to G-d to again hang the ten sons of Haman at some point in the distant future. Now, when the Megillah lists the ten sons of Haman during their hanging [Esther 9:7-9] there are a number of unusually-sized letters. (There is a tradition to write certain letters in the Torah larger or smaller than the standard size.)

According to the most accepted tradition, there is a large 'vav' [numerical value = 6] and a small 'tav' [400], 'shin' [300] and 'zayin' [7]. The following suggestion has been made: The large vav refers to the sixth millennium (of the Hebrew calendar); the small letters refer to year 707 of that millennium. The meaning, then, is that G-d agreed to hang Haman's ten sons again in the year 5707 = 1946-7.

When listing the ten sons of Haman who were hanged [Esther 9:6-10], three letters, namely Taf, Shin, and Zayin, are written smaller than the rest (most printed texts reflect this; if yours doesn’t, look in another). The commentaries offer no explanation for this other than that it is a prophecy. The letters "Taf-Shin-Zayin" represent the Hebrew year 5707, corresponding to the secular year 1946-47.

On October 16, 1946 (21 Tishrei, 5707) ten convicted Nazi war criminals were hanged in Nuremberg. (An eleventh, Hermann Goering, a transvestite, committed suicide in his cell. The Midrash tells us that Haman also had a daughter who committed suicide.) As if the parallel were not obvious enough without further corroboration, Nazi Julius Streicher’s last words were: "Purimfest 1946". (In case you question the accuracy of Streicher’s last words, they are are well-documented; they appeared in Newsweek, October 28, 1946.)


It is fairly safe to assume that (a) Streicher did not know about the three small letters in the Megilla, (b) he did not know that these letters corresponded to the year in which he was being hanged, and (c) even had he known, he would have had no motivation to reinforce the validity of Jewish texts, traditions, or prophecies. One could not ask for a more independent confirmation of the all encompassing knowledge to be found in the Sifrei Tanach.

Rabbi Weissmandl - a great Hungararian scholar and holocaust survivor - made a number of findings concerning Megillat Esther using skip distances of 12,111 letters - the exact number of letters in Megillat Esther. If one starts with the first regular mem (as opposed to the "final mem" ) in Bereishis 4:14, where the name Esther (vocalized differently) appears for the only time in the Torah, and count at intervals of 12,111 letters, one finds spelled out the phrase "Megillat Esther." Coincidence? I think not.

Rabbi Winston on Current Events [video]

Rabbi Pinchas Winston speaks on why the world seems to be falling apart, why we should not be worried, and why Moshiach is not very far away.

Also see: The Eleventh Hour

Everything happens for a reason

Source: Malbim's commentary on Megillat Esther, translated by Jonathan Taub

Before recounting the troubles that befell the Jewish people, we are told that "the cure preceded the wound". We are taught that the Almighty only strikes us in order to heal us. This is the meaning of the verse: "All the diseases which I brought on Mitzrayim I will not place upon you, because I am Hashem Who Heals You." [Shemos 15:26]

When the messengers sent by Hasach gave Esther's instructions to Mordechai, Mordechai told them to reply to Esther: "Do not think to yourself that you can escape in the king's house more than all the Jews." [Megillat Esther 4:13]

Why did Mordechai say "Do not think to yourself" when "Do not think" would have sufficed?

Mordechai informed Esther of several fundamental principles:

1) Any time something unusual and extraordinary occurs, we must realize that the Almighty has brought this about as a means to achieving some important providential end.  Esther's remarkable elevation to the position of queen was clearly Divinely determined for some significant purpose.  With the revelation of the decree to annihilate the Jewish people, it was now obvious that Esther was intended to help save the Jews.

2) For any tragedy that befalls the Jews, there is a specific time and day ready for their deliverance by certain prepared means. If these means are not actualized, then the Almighty will prepare other means to save them.

3) Anything that does not exist for itself, but to help something else, has its entire existence dependent on what it was destined to help.  For example, if a gardener wants to plant certain flowers in the winter, he will construct a special greenhouse with a heating system to help these flowers grow.  If he changes his mind and wants the flowers to flourish in the summer, when there is an abundance of natural light and heat from the sun, he will dismantle the greenhouse, for it is no longer required.

Mordechai was telling Esther that her position in the royal house was not for her own benefit, but for the sake of the Jews.  If Esther decided not to help rescue them, the Almighty undoubtedly had other means and methods of bringing about their redemption, regardless of how improbable they might seem.

Since Esther was granted her position as queen only in order to help the Jews, and since the date for their salvation had already been determined, if she did not act immediately she might miss the appointed time and the Almighty would use other agents to affect their deliverance.

This was Mordechai's warning to Esther.  Do not think that your elevation to royalty is to yourself, for your own benefit, so that you can escape in the king's house, rather than for saving the Jewish nation.  The opposite is true: it is only to enable you to rescue the Jews.