Today I am co-hosting - or co-posting (or whatever this is) with Neshama at Going Home...to Yerushalayim concerning three of her posts containing commentary on the notice that, according to R' Matityahu Glazerson, R' Chaim Kanievsky advised an American citizen who asked him whether he should take out Israeli citizenship so that he will be able to vote in the upcoming elections. The Rav told him: "It's unnecessary. The Mashiah will come before then." More of this conversation is quoted in English here. The original Hebrew is on video here. The Ask Project video post in between them is a compilation of interviews asking how we will know when the Messiah comes.
Blessed news indeed...if it turns out to be as R' Kanievsky replied to his interlocutor. I am more inclined to believe this conversation actually took place — as opposed to the many that were publicized falsely — because of the video from R' Glazerson that mentions it. I'm not close enough to the situation to have a better way of knowing or telling.
Two questions:
- Does haShem have a sense of humor regarding the timing of the elections this time around?
- If Mashiah reveals himself or gets revealed before then, as posted above, what significance does this have for us? That post will have to wait until we see whether it materializes.
HDG (link added):
IF THIS IS TRUE...
H's sense of humor is coming to the fore once again. Do you realize the elections come on the Tuesday between parashiot Tazria and Metzora??? ;-)
NESHAMA: Thanks for the comment. Ok, so elaborate on that for our readers!
HDG: Well, parashiot Tazria and Metzora are about the metzora, a person who has a disease similar to, but NOT leprosy - it is often translated this way in English. In fact, it is a spiritual disease that occurs only in Israel, brought on by lashon hara (evil speech), that hasn't occurred in this exile. Only a kohen can diagnose it. The person with this disease is usually on a very high spiritual level. You can see more about tzaraat, and its relationship to Mashiah, here.
And this is when we're having our elections!!! Between these two parshiot, davka!
NESHAMA: So your reference is to Lashon Hara. However, it is not clear to me why you thought this. Maybe not clear to readers. What is the ikkar to your thoughts?
HDG: The funny thing is that tzaraat, of all things, surrounds our elections, which are full of lashon hara! Also, the references to Mashiah having it as well.
Sources from the About Moshiach site:
Tzaraat is a punishment for negative speech - Talmud, Arachin 15b
Hefty Criteria for Tzaraat - Likutei Torah 22b
The Torah enables purification of Metzora - Etz Hayim, Shaar Rachel and Leah, Ch.7
R' Sprecher has 3 videos on the subject as well.
from 2018
from 2017
from 2016
More sources, again from the About Moshiach site, on Mashiah as metzora:
Moshiach is a Metzora - Talmud, Sanhedrin 98a and 98b, Rashi
Concept of Tzaraat applying to the world at large - Sefer Hasichot 5751 Tzaria/Metzora Pt.2 p498
HDG: I hope that this will be taken, as you suggested later, as part of a primer for the elections. The funniest part, as I see it, is that the government chose 9 April, 2019 (4 Nisan 5779), the Tuesday (Yom Shlishi) between the two parshiot that discuss tzaraat, 10 days before Pesah, for the elections to take place. HaShem truly has a sense of humor.
NESHAMA:
I wonder, based on the hysterical actual opposition and (overt) assassination attempts, could DJ Trump be a METZORA (no, not משיח.) While I do not believe lashon hara applies to him, and he does not reside in Eretz Yisrael, he IS fighting against evil in the world and wants to right many wrongs of history. This is a gargantuan endeavor.
In fact, there might have been as many as 17 attempts (don’t quote me). Read this FICTIONAL STORY: YellowSubmarine, and remember it is FICTION. In any event, you HDG may have touched upon an important episode in the ongoing process of Geula.
HDG: I will not comment on DJT. Actually, I'm not sure a non-Jew, even with Jewish grandchildren, can get tzaraat. Maybe a zera' Yisrael (the closest thing to being "part Jewish" we get; the person so designated has Jewish blood but doesn't belong to the nation unless s/he converts) can, but I haven't studied that issue, so I can't comment on it.
Thank you for starting this conversation, and letting me be a part of it! We are living in great times now!
***
We open this discussion to all commenters! See Neshama's version here. Differences are because we agreed to show our different perspectives.
Thanks so much for this recording, Uri!
ReplyDeleteהוא כבר היגיע! הוא כבר היגיע! הוא כבר היגיע!
(He's already arrived! 3x)
We kind of knew that. But many of us, if not most of us, don't know who he is.
"I'm not sure a non-Jew, even with Jewish grandchildren, can get tzaraat. " What about Naaman, commander of the Aramean army?
ReplyDeleteWhen you're right, you're right, Anon. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI was searching for something else after Shabbat and found, again, the telling of the events around Na'aman the non-Jewish metzora. (I will not translate it as leper because it is a different disease.)
ReplyDeleteHis wife's attendant, a young girl from Israel, told her that Na'aman should go to the prophet of Israel and he would be healed. That prophet was Elisha. He went to the prophet and heard his advice to immerse himself in the Jordan River seven times (ורחצתה שבע פעמים בירדן), and at first rejected it. Then his servants convinced him to accept and do it because they figured that if Elisha had told him to do something difficult, he would have done it without question; how much more should he do something simple, like go into this "inferior" river and immerse himself 7 times! So, he did it (ורד ויטבל בירדן שבע פעמים...). The relationship between lirhotz (to wash) and litbol (to immerse), be"H, will be discussed another time. Suffice it to say that not only Na'aman, but the sages consider these infinitives to be synonymous in this circumstance.
But, anyway, the point here is that all this should be considered when thinking about the elections. It's serious because 1) the main reason our exile has been so long is said to be due to sinath hinam (difficult to translate, but often rendered baseless hatred or free-floating hatred, hereafter SH); 2) SH is most often incited by lashon hara (evil speech, even if true, hereafter LH); 3) LH is cited as the reason for tzaraat, sources in the main article above; and 4) politics is highly divisive for all the foregoing reasons, especially in Israel. And, if Mashiah is indeed revealed before the elections, whether the Rav actually said it or not, it could also allude to what is said about him, that he has been a leper as atonement for the sins of the Jewish people; this could be 5).
It's also embarrassing that the government keeps telling on itself. Remember when Ariel Sharon originally scheduled the expulsion of Gush Katif and northern Shomron for Tisha b'Av??? At least this one isn't quite as bad. Still, they should keep an eye on the Jewish calendar, whether they believe in it or not, when they schedule important events.
Rabbi Lazer Brody of Breslov said:
ReplyDelete“I hate elections in Israel,
because they pull Jews apart”.
SOURCE: The Planted People,
a public lecture by Rabbi Lazer Brody, 2019 January 6
www.lazerbrody.net/lazer_beams/2019/01/the-planted-people.html
Yes, Mr. Cohen, I read that one. I hear. I only wish we'd find out the identity of our Go'el Tzedek Yisrael.
ReplyDelete