(If you prefer to take in more than one video in a session, R' Allen has assembled them all HERE. The last one will be included next week because this week is about Purim, be"H. HDG, 3 March 2026)
Introduction
I've been wondering for a long time what my people have to say about Mashiach and the Jewish People, and how scholars of Biblical Hebrew understand some of the most pertinent prophecies regarding them.
Finally, someone is rising to the occasion.
R' Hoshea Allen has been creating a series of videos that explain the Hebrew in the prophet Isaiah, chapter 52:13 through all of chapter 53, called The Suffering Servant.
This is the first part, which covers 52:13, the third-to-last verse of the chapter.
R' Allen discusses these well-known prophetic utterances said to involve Mashiach, mainly due to fervent Christians preaching the gospel, convinced that Isaiah's words there allude to their man-g-d. A problem lies in the fact that they don't teach it from the original language and therefore can't possibly translate or understand it correctly and in context.
Even Christians in Israel are most likely not to be familiar with the nuances and even the simple meanings of Biblical Hebrew. Particularly when it comes to the Prophets, it is not so simple.
The writings of the prophet Isaiah under discussion are accessible HERE (Hebrew & English, starting with Isaiah 52:13). You will be able to scroll down to the appropriate verses being discussed from there in the remaining parts of this series. The rest of the videos are linked to at the top and bottom of the main part of this post.
Ramban is the famous Nahmanides (R' Moshe ben Nahman); it's a Hebrew acronym. R' Hoshea's notes in Hebrew, for viewers to follow along with this video — should they so choose — are on Al haTorah HERE.
(If you prefer to take in more than one video in a session, R' Allen has assembled them all HERE. The last one will be included next week because this week is about Purim, be"H. HDG, 3 March 2026)
The whole earthly reason the Jewish people are oppressed is because the nations, especially the ruling secular governments, even more than the Christians and the Muslims (as if this weren't enough, already, with very few exceptions), don't want us to have our place in the world. Weakness, smallness and dependency are their watchwords for us. They were genuinely afraid when, over this past summer, we were temporarily victorious in the Middle East, some even calling us the "hegemon" of the Middle East.
It doesn't mean we won't win in the end, but perhaps we've been delayed for a while. Hopefully, it won't be too much longer. R' Pinchas Winston wrote an article in 5772 ( called Interpreting Signs: Parashas Vayechi about the approximate time period when tichiyat hametim (resurrection of the dead) could happen, 214-210 years before the year 6000. According to this, all the Jews have to be here by 5790 (four years from now).
In truth, we haven't been ready for our final deliverance for a very long time. A great many here, as our state sits on the Holy Land of Israel, the Jews with many levels of relationship with God relying on her merit paired with their observance — those who consider themselves to be the "adults in the room" and who haven't been the majority in the nation for quite some time — don't want to see the Kingdom of Israel rise, along with our laws ensuring adherence to the Torah, replete with explanations in the Prophets and Writings as to why these laws exist and are necessary.
Lately, their self-perceptions, and the actions that followed, which have been backed by the United Nations and other international organizations, have been challenged and found wanting. The judgments and the consequences the secular-oriented governances around the world have not yet been rendered.
Because their system still stands for the time being, we don't have a real chance to prove how effective Jewish Law, and its non-Jewish component, the Seven Noahide Laws, would be in ensuring that goodness and justice win in the world.
Thus, our vulnerability.
***
Some variables to consider:
Christians are very good at getting people scared about going to hell; I know this from personal experience. Many times people are so scared that they don't think about the implications of believing the way the believers in Jesus are directing them to do...let's begin at the beginning, the way they usually present their religion and their man-g-d.
(For modern readers, "beget" is an old English word that has to do with the male's part in reproduction. The word that indicates this in Hebrew is "zera" (זרע), or seed. Nowadays, it's used in a gender-neutral way concerning concepts. See here for more details on beget, and much more.)
As for Islam: No matter how much their laws resemble ours, we must not make the mistake of thinking that they would enforce them in the same way.
Islam's laws are more similar to Jewish Law; in fact, many of them ARE OUR LAWS. It's the way they are enforced under Islam, rather the opposite from how we were commanded to do so if our current governance were not in the way, that makes the difference.
Have you noticed that they've been making an open attempt to conquer Europe — they may have
succeeded there already — and the United States — they've only just begun
in New York City and other places there...? It's part of their grand strategy.
We are looking at a perfect example of another strategy, currently ongoing in Iran. There is much to sympathize with, particularly regarding their civilian population.
In fact, Iran (formerly PERSIA..sound familiar?) was taken over, by Muslims who don't seem to have come from there, in 1979. We can see this by the uprising happening as I type; the orders of the leadership seem to have no regard in them for the civilian population, reportedly arresting over 2,000 and killing 27 as of 6 January 2026, and killing at least 217 from 28 December 2025 to 9 January 2026. These numbers include children: 6 in the first link. The second doesn't mention them.
It's interesting to see all the ethnicities in Iran nowadays; religiously, most of their
families were not Muslims in 1979, when the Muslims took it over. (See Wikipedia there.)
Also, most of the Muslims who lead the country today are not Persians. A prime example is the supreme leader himself: Seyyed Ali Khamenei is Azeri (family from Azerbaijan).
A chilling Israel Realtime update on 11 January cites human rights organization estimates to be 2,000 to 6,000 killed.
I take this trend estimate to possibly mean the Iranian leadership doesn't care about them because they are not related to them. The people of the land Iran sits on, we should know and remember, are PERSIANS. They come from an indigenous civilization: different from ours, but still originating in the region. Their current leadership isn't directly related nationally to most of the people they rule over.
(Similarly, it's possible that the world is confused over the Jews of Israel because certain parts of our leadership don't relate to us citizens much better than the Iranian leadership does with the Persian population.)
I'd like to note that it is the Persian Iranian civilians who have been on Israel's side for quite a long time now. I suspect their "government" knows this too. As I've been writing this article, the death toll has increased a lot.
I'm not the only one (certainly, there are many others who know better than I). Avi Abelow, on behalf of one of his media outlets, Israel Unwired, wrote this excellent article about how Iran's revolution is unraveling (unfortunately, at great cost to the civilian population, which might be far greater than anything posted on news sites).
A more penetrating article about the history and situations a civilian in Iran might remember and encounter is Iran: "The Final Battle" by Dr. Anjuli Pandavar (who's now on Substack, by the way. See below.).
And here's another point to consider: While today most Western-cultured nations have mixed populations, in other parts of the world it isn't quite so much that way. I found it interesting that most other parts of the world's nations have only one people in them.
Independently, a second person found the same link and posted it there not long after. The comments to the rabbi's article reflect optimism in this regard. I will add that even if it doesn't come true exactly the way he worded it, there might be another way that it will, with the help of God.
When the Ribono shel Olam (Ruler over Creation) finally takes His place openly, the secular organizations that oversee and overrule much of the religious world, will have to go away in one way or another, or even the other.
And, there won't be any time to convert to Judaism (or whatever our way of life will be called then) because only when we're down do we accept converts. The reason is that they must convert only because they're convinced it's the truth and they want a real relationship with God, not because we're the "top dog."
***
Here are some authors who specialize (or tend to) in dealing with Xians:
This gave me an insight. What do you think of this:
All antisemites are cowards.
They point their fingers, their pens, pencils, rulers and more dangerous things (whatever they can get their hands on) at us because they know that we don't shoot from the hip. We consider our next steps carefully.
But what makes it more cowardly to spew hatred towards Jews openly is our pitiful numbers, compared to all the other established nations. It's like a high-school football player beating up on a five-year-old boy, for crying out loud.
Dear reader, whichever side you're on, I'm not asking you to pity us. But please consider that
the bigger party ought to pick on someone his own size.
It's only the right thing to do if you need to duke something out.
The whole world, picking on less than twenty million (the 2025 estimate according to Wikipedia is 18.5 million) Jews in the whole world...WHAT???
Also, don't pretend to be something you're not, just to put yourself in a position to strike out at Jews.That's what the "palestinians" are doing.
They're not a separate people, but part of the Arabs, like most of the rest of the population here in the Middle East. Many of their families came from Egypt, for example.
Al-Masri is the most obvious family name indicating Egyptian family origin, although by no means the only one (I don't know any others, but that doesn't mean they don't exist.). It means "Egyptian."
A lot of times their family name does give them away, if you know what to look for. This site will give you a good education on Arabic family names, as it did me. However, look out for omissions, such as the lack of the mention of Hebrew origin of Ibrahim and Ishak, for example (I bet you can guess what these are; there are more like this as well.).
In any case, the seeming smallness of the "palestinian" population, compared to the Jews of Israel — even of the whole world — is false, not to mention cowardly on the part of the rest of the Arab population.
You could say that they are the arms of the Arabs, at least for the duration of this war, whether it is active or passive, whether one front or many. This could change, some other part of the Arab population taking their place, at any time.
Or, it could start up again, like before.
In any case, all antisemites are cowards. But what's even worse is an antisemite who made his fame and fortune on being PRO-Israel first, before he went ANTI. That would be a more accurate description of Tucker Carlson's career.
It makes me wonder which one he really was, all along.
Does anyone else besides me remember this?
The only thing keeping us from utter extinction is GOD. The One who made all.
***
One last thing for today: Gedaliah Blum from "Mossad Commentary" on X, put it this way to Tucker Carlson on video: What does US get from Israel? (and includes, what does the US get from Qatar?)
NOTES: "Lib" stands for LIBERATION, for those who don't remember those days, or who weren't alive yet, then.
This post was inspired by an article from Vision Magazine, "They didn't teach me Hanukah" by Danit Grady. Like her, I didn't learn the real story of Hanukkah until later in life. For me, it was MUCH later.
***
People might be forgiven for thinking that from the end of the Holocaust until the Six-Day War, almost 20 years, was the process of liberation of the Jewish people from the notion that we were weak and helpless against our enemies. We had gained and declared a state, after all, within the boundaries of our ancestral homeland in the Middle East.
The June 1967 victory was so great, the world stood up and took notice. But, unfortunately, it's hard to describe the relationship between the Israeli government and its citizens as having any kind of unity. The army and the government were taking all the credit for the victory, but the rest of us — as well as many Arabs who witnessed this with their own eyes — saw the miraculous happenings. Unlike the Holocaust, which ended almost 20 years prior, God was not "hidden" from the Israeli Jews that fateful June.
Our leadership, however, was oblivious. They have taken credit for every victory then and ever since. We've been paying for it even during the Simchat Torah/October 7th massacre and followup war.
I was a pre-teen at the time of the "6-Day War", and it was the first time in my life that I could stand up straight and look my peers in the eye. It didn't last very long, unfortunately.
We cannot allow them to get away with whatever shenanigans they've been up to, then and ever since. The liberation we were expecting at that time didn't come. It still hasn't.
Rather than accepting and ensuring that Judaism would flourish in the Land, our leadership suppressed and mocked anything particularly Jewish, to the point of allowing Arab Muslims to be in our government, even though these were enemies of the so-called Jewish leadership that invited them in and the laws of the country, and especially of our religion and relationship with God.
Certain leaders made a point of abdicating leadership, for example the handing over of the Temple Mount to the Arabs there and not allowing Jews the same rights. (Ideally, no one should be up there at all until King David's scion and heir to the throne is revealed (and who would also be Mashiah). But no one was ready to treat Jews equally with Arabs. Either both on, or both off.)
The article linked to above, if you haven't read it already, is about the struggle of the Hebrew people to retain our religion and the culture that grew out of it. You might want to say that nowadays it's about the Palestinians...but unfortunately for us, and also for you, dear reader, is that today the moniker Palestinian is applied to the wrong people. Our government screwed up, quite frankly, when then-prime minister Golda Meir decided to throw that name to the dogs, so to speak. They picked it up and ran with it, and we don't even bat an eyelash when we hear it used by our enemies as their identity.
EVERY REFERENCE TO PALESTINIANS UNTIL THEN WAS TO THE JEWS. The Palestine Post (and many other names of things I can't think of right now) was JEWISH. My maternal grandmother was a Palestinian Jew (not many American Jews can say they have a relative who was a Palestinian Jew before the declaration of the state; but I can, and in her merit I returned here, after asking Heavenly Permission.).
But I didn't only come here to rehash a bit of history. I came here to insist that we demand liberation from the necessity to follow the dictates of the nations so that we can recover ourselves from our own sources.
The best way to do that is to SAY BYE-BYE TO THE NATIONS and come home to the Land we were given by God millennia ago. Even Israel Behind the News is writing about this HERE, saying: "Jews are no longer welcome. The days of comfort for Jews in the west are over!"
While things were relatively good in lands across the seas and over dry land, we might have needed to ask permission to come home, as I wrote about doing in the link three paragraphs above. But now HQB"H (God) seems to be forcing us to reconsider and even run home as soon as possible!
Despite everything I heard about our governance system while I was still in chutz la'aretz, I have not regretted a single moment since I made aliyah. I have found that it's more important to choose a city, town or village — wherever you want to live — where you can make friends with your neighbors, if you don't already have friends there, and trust them.
It may even be that HaShem will guide you there, in times like these.
We may never have a completely joyful occasion again until we're all gathered together and Mashiah makes himself known.
We need to try to have a happy Hanukkah as best as we possibly can, through our tears.
...and maybe we should call what should have been the Jewish Liberation movement back in the 1960s/5720s the "goodness liberation" movement...and have it now, in the 2020s/5780s. What do you think?
***
P.S. The US First Amendment to the Constitution limiting certain forms of expression from freedom of speech is exemplified by the phrase "shouting 'fire!' in a crowded theater." Why? See here for more.
The reversal there and in Europe is more evident by the day.
