Gog u'Magog & What's Happening Now

We have come to the final day of Sukkot, the seventh day, which is known as Hoshana Rabbah, that famous Yom Hadin. After we've had 21 days from Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, we conclude with the final notes that are being thrown up to Shamayim, which is known as the pitka of Hoshana Rabbah. That's why many people stay up all night. We take the aravot, as we know, and we walk around the bimah, as we are familiar with with our lulav and etrog. Now, I want to connect this idea, A, to current events, but to first of all, understand a little bit of the meaning behind what is going on. First of all, a basic idea that we have to know is the number seven is a prime number. It's not a very useful number in mathematics, but in Judaism, wow, it's a big one. It's the number that takes six, because we live in a world of six kibonim, six directions, which of course, including up, down, right, left, front, and back, as we do with the lulav, is the number six. So, number seven, which I said is a prime number, it's not divisible by anything, that is the that is the number that kind of wraps it all together. It takes all that six in Olam HaZeh, and it makes it spiritual. It takes it and it brings it to a higher level. That's why in the midbar, we had seven ananim, seven clouds of glory, six for the directions, and one to take us to a spiritual world in the higher in the higher realms. That's why, of course, we know Shabbat is seven days, because it is the most spiritual day that we have it together. It takes all the days of the week, sheshet yamim ta'avod, and the shrei, of course, on the seventh day after working is the day of rest. It becomes that spiritual day. We always have this number seven all over the place, the seven days of Sukkot, the seven days of Pesach. Sheva brachot after a wedding, we celebrate seven days, and even aveilut, when one lo aleinu is sitting as a mourner, he does it for seven days in order to show spirituality into a very mundane activity. This is something that we do always. Not only that, the yetzer hara has seven names, Gehennam has seven names, the Gemara in Eruvin Yud Chet, the Gemara in Sukkah towards the end, and of course, most importantly, is that there are seven sefirot. The building blocks of the world are made up of, yes, 10. Three don't count, the seven bottom ones that contain in this world, known as the seven bottom sefirot are here as the number seven, because in this world, we have the number seven to take us up to a different level. 10 is in the higher worlds already. Seven is in this world to make it a spiritual world. That's why we have seven reki'im, which are firmaments, and seven yevashot, as Chazal tell us, there are seven ground there are seven masses of ground that we have around us. Anyways, this idea of seven is very fundamental, and it is extremely connected, obviously, as you can understand, to our special day here that is known as Shamash Hoshana Rabbah. First of all, it's on the seventh day. What a coincidence. It's the seventh day, the final day of Sukkot. Hoshana Rabbah has reached the climax, the apex. It has reached the epitome of where we've been headed for on all of Sukkot. How many times do we go around the bimah? We go seven times around the bimah. Yes, every day we did one time, but here on Hoshana Rabbah, we do a special seven times, because we have gone to a different level. What are we carrying when we walk around the bimah? We carry our lulav and etrog. How many species? No, no, not four. I know what you're thinking. It's seven, believe it or not, because we have three adasim, two aravot, one lulav, and one etrog. Go ahead, use your fingers. That one you can get on your fingers still. We come out with seven species that we're going around on the bimah. And of course, we have the seven ushpizin during this time. It's the seven ushpizin, which occurs during the time of Hoshana Rabbah. And on Hoshana Rabbah, we do every day we are makriv korbanot, we give over many sacrifices of the cows. We start with 13, 12, 11, 10. On Hoshana Rabbah, we come out with seven. That's right, seven cows that are nikrav on Hoshana Rabbah. So, Hoshana Rabbah is playing this important role of the number seven, the one of absolute serenity, the one of bliss, the one that is living in this world, but in absolute completion. The world of Shemini Atzeret, the next day, Simchat Torah, that's already above teva. That's already above, cuz that's the number eight. But I'm talking about in this world to having an absolute completion, similar to what we are familiar with with Shabbat. Now, listen to this, and this is the climax here of what we're trying to get at. And that is Hoshana Rabbah, of course, every day of Sukkot has one of the ushpizin, one of those special guests that we invite inside the sukkah. Baruch Hashem, we have seven ushpizin, as we are familiar with. We start with Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, which of course, makes sense. We move on to Mosha, Aharon, Yosef, and then the finale, the grand finale is David HaMelech. That's right, David HaMelech. David HaMelech, the special man who is number seven on the ushpizin list. He is what we refer to as the David who is the eventual harbinger of Mashiach, as we are familiar with. Now, David HaMelech is very uh apropos to this middah of Hoshana Rabbah, as I will speak out, because David HaMelech represents malchut. From all the seven sefirot, there are seven sefirot, which I don't want to get into much detail, but it's chesed, gevurah, tiferet, netzach, hod, yesod. The bottom one is malchut. Malchut is the receptacle, it's the kli that receives all the shefa, what we call all the influence. Everything that comes down from Shamayim comes through the number seven, which is malchut. Malchut is the recipient of everything. He is the one who's able to receive, and that is David HaMelech, and that's why it's very apropos. And you know, the Arizal says, when you write the name Yud Kay Vav Kay, as sofer, when he's writing the name of Hashem, Yud, and then a Hay, and then afterwards a Vav, and a Hay, then each letter, you should know, is parallel to the sefirot, which is not for now. The building blocks of the world is sefirot, but the last Hay, the Hay at the very end, is k'neged malchut. It is the last sefirah. That Hay at the very end is the last sefirah, and he says you have to have in mind, when you make a Hay of the outside level is a Dalet, and inside, the little chip chicken inside the Hay is a little Vav. What's that? That's Dalet Vav Dalet, David. Meaning, in the Hay in the name of Hashem, Yud Kay Vav Kay, is a Dalet, a Vav, and another Dalet. What an incredible name. You're probably wondering why I'm advertising it. If you look down underneath this film over here, you'll see it says David Ganish. So, maybe I have a little bit of bias in this name, David. But al kol panim, this idea of David is the idea of malchut. He's the one who brings all the shefa down into this world. He's the one who's here to bring down everything into this world, and he is the epitome of the number seven, also. You want to know why? I'll tell you why. Guess how long David HaMelech lived. You'll never believe it, 70 years. That's right, 7 * 10. He lived 70 years. His ushpizin is on the seventh day of Sukkot, like we said, he appears on the seventh day of Sukkot, Hoshana Rabbah. Not only that, he died on Shabbat, the seventh day of the week, and he died on, you know which day? On Shavuot. David passed away on Shavuot. Shavuot is after 7 * 7 of Sefirat HaOmer. When we count the Sefirat HaOmer, 7 * 7 comes Shavuot, and that's when David HaMelech was niftar. So, he's also connected to this incredible power that we know as Olam HaZeh, because he was involved in this world, but in a very spiritual way. He took this world to a different notch. He raised it to a different level. That was the power of David HaMelech, and that's why he's the one who's going to bring Mashiach. He He He's the one who is able to humble himself even in distress, even in difficult times. Daloti v'li oshi'a, daloti from a Dalet. He was the one who brings it from the bottom to the top, and that's the greatness of David HaMelech. Now, let me explain, and this is the last part over here of this year, and this is incredible. Now, Sukkot, the epitome of all of Sukkot has to do with what? With the Geulah. The idea of Gog U'Magog, the big battle that will occur in the end of days, as we have read already in the Haftarah of Sukkot on the first day, and also on Shabbat, we read about Gog U'Magog, because Sukkot is the time, as is brought down in the Torah in Siman Tav Bet Samech, Tav Tzadi, when Gog U'Magog will occur will will occur. That is the time when it will um happening. All the fights and the milchamah that happens. What happens during Gog U'Magog? So, it says the psukim in Yechezkel, V'haya bayom hahu beyom Gog Gog al Admat Yisrael, when Gog comes to Admat Yisrael, he will make a milchamah. He will make a milchamah talichah u'mativah pi. And Hakadosh Baruch Hu will be a little bit upset with us, but will still do nisim. And it says, and there will be a big ra'ash gadol al Admat Kodesh. On Eretz Yisrael, there will be a ra'ash gadol, a big earthquake. There will be a tremendous amount of carnage, of killing, of death. It will be horrible. It will be sights that are indescribable. Something, unfortunately, that we saw 2 years ago in taf shin pei dalet. During this time period of Sukkot with Simchat Torah, as we are familiar with, what's otherwise known in English as October 7th. Everybody in the world will hear about this. And there will be different epitomes of people, different types of people from both sides. Listen to this. All the walls of the land will fall. What does it mean all the walls of the land? All the gates surrounding Aza will be broken. They will be They will be able to go through the walls. All the walls will fall, and the enemy will go into Eretz Israel. Something that, unfortunately, we were witness to 2 years ago. That is the milchama that will happen with Gog u-Magog. But as the pesukim continue there in Yechezkel lamed chet perek lamed chet, it speaks out the idea that Hashem will put us together. He'll be mekabetz otanu together. And even other nations will, yes, be against Israel also. They will come against Israel. And this person will go ahead and gather all his people against Eretz Israel, against all the people of Israel that are sitting inside of it. Now, what does that mean? This rasha gomer His name is Yekhisanwar. He is the person that that was going to do the plan of gathering everybody together, meaning Hezbollah, the Houthi, Syria, and the Iranim. And on the plan was it should be all done in 1 day to completely annihilate us. Rachmana litzlan, if his plan came through, if they listened, if they were attentive to his request, then we can't even imagine what would have happened. Gog u-Magog would have been a complete description of absolute annihilation. There was no way we were in such a bilbul, we were in such a commotion at that time, we would have never been able to succeed in that war. But Hashem did a credible ness, as it says in those continuing pesukim, that Hakadosh Baruchu will do nisim veniflaot bechol ha'aretz in order that even though we had a lot of sevel, Hashem ninkam, Hashem will get revenge, and he will protect us, and his name will be glorified amongst everybody. What happened? Yes, Hezbollah attacked, but they gave us a few days to recuperate. Yes, the Hezbollah the Houthi in the south also attacked, but they gave us a few months to recuperate. Yes, the Syrians wanted to attack, but they didn't get a chance cuz they were too busy with their own. Yes, the Iranians were attacked, but they were too scared to do it until they eventually did it. But Baruch Hashem, by then we were able to hold cup, to be able to hold up. An absolute miracle that this was the way things worked out. And Baruch Hashem, that was two Sukkot ago, last Sukkot a year ago in taf shin pei hei, this Yekhisanwar was annihilated, wiped out on Sukkot also. It was also during Sukkot, the same time period of Gog u-Magog, which describes this war, which eventually he will be killed. This uh whatever he is, this king rasha that is trying to get everyone together against Israel will eventually be annihilated. And Baruch Hashem, that is what we are witness to at this point of time. Now, of course, we can't conclude with taf shin pei vav. Here we are 2 years later, ready to have Baruch Hashem our hostages released. There's going to be some type of peace that will go on, which over here we are a little wary about that because we're still waiting to see what's going to happen to these reshaim. Are they still going to stay there? We're releasing a bunch of good-for-nothing reshaim from the from the jail cells. But what do the pesukim say? Vayasoo. But what do the pesukim say about that? So you open in Nechemya in perek chet, which discusses the idea of Sukkot after they celebrated Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, it says and it says over that everyone celebrated Sukkot. And you know what it says right at the end of perek chet? All those that have returned from bondage, all those that have returned from the land, from being captured, they will all go sit in the Sukkot. And it will be a happy and pleasant time, almost like the time of Yehoshua bin Nun. And it wasn't done so with such fervor, with such exhilaration as it was since the time of Yehoshua bin Nun. Simcha gedola me'od, says the pasuk. What is simcha gedola? That it will be a tremendous simcha. It will be a tremendous simcha. And it says over there the Torah tel Elokim that people will listen and they'll connect to the Torah. So here we have it. Yes, 3 years with three kind of nevuot that we have about Gog u-Magog that happened 2 years ago. And last year, when we actually killed the guy who started the whole event. And then, of course, we have this year with the coming together of the shvuyim coming to celebrate Sukkot. And yes, it is a time of happiness, but I have to conclude with a very important parting remark about this whole thing. And that is what is Gog? The meaning of the word Gog is gag. This refers says this in the in the pesukim that refer to over there by Sukkot in Bamidbar in in perek kaf tet. Gog is from rosh gag, a roof. The idea behind the Gog atmosphere that we are surrounded in. The idea of Gog and the meaning behind it is that we are safe, secure, impenetrable. Nothing can beat us. We are very powerful, and we are strong. We have a strong roof on top of us. That is why dafka dafka, on purpose, why what's the connection between Gog u-Magog and Sukkot? Because dafka in that time period, we have to do the antithesis of Gog. The meaning of Gog in the atmosphere and the breath that we are that we breathe inside of the air that we are surrounded by is the idea that we are impenetrable, we are powerful, we are strong, we are safe, and nothing can beat us. Comes Comes the chag of Sukkot and says, get out of your house, go into some little shack without any type of security at all, and over there you will be completely protected by Hakadosh Baruchu. The Vilna Gaon says Gog u-Magog will take place during Sukkot, and you better be in the sukka. That's your safe room. Don't go anywhere else because that's the safest place. Why? Because the ananei hakavod, the clouds of glory, are parallel to the Sukkot. And of course, what do the clouds of glory in the desert do? They protected us from scorpions and snakes and bandits. They protected us from the Mitzrim when they were shooting at us their ballistic missiles and they were aiming at us. They were the ones that protecting us all the time. That's the clouds of glory. The Sukkot are there to protect us. There's nothing better than the power of the sukka to be our protective device. Gog is the idea of Magog giving out security. I'm in charge, what we call koach ha'otzam miyadi. And we are coming to a different scenario of going out and saying I completely humble myself to you, Hakadosh Baruchu. I'm not interested in any death, destruction, power, as they are coming to display by the Arab side, just absolute fierce brutality without any type of hindrances to women and children, nothing to do with anything. Just kill and and kill, and blood and no difference. We walk out into the sukka to show we humble ourselves in front of Hashem, and we know we are protected there. We know we're in a safe environment. That's why Sukkot and Gog u-Magog come together. And how did we finish? Who's the Mashiach coming from? David Hamelech. Hoshanah Rabbah has to do with David Hamelech. Why David Hamelech? Because David Hamelech is dalet. Dalet is dal, the one who is humble, the one who humbled himself. As the Gemara says, his gimmel is gamol, dalet is dal. David Hamelech is the epitome of dal, the one who humbled himself. Daloti v'li Yoshia. Yoshia. David Hamelech humbles himself before Hashem. He says, I know you will protect me. I know I'm self. He's a person who knew how to do wars. He beat a lot of countries. He was very powerful. But he did it only in the name of Hashem, understanding that we are under under completely under the auspices of Hakadosh Baruchu. What do we say? Shema Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echad. Now, that dalet really should be stretched out. We don't know how to do it properly. The teimanem do. But up here alacha, that dalet is very big, and it's meant to be stretched out long. Why do we end Shema Yisrael with a long dalet? Because the idea, the yesod, the foundation of Shema Yisrael is a humbling. It's dalut. It's a humbling before our great God, in front of Hakadosh Baruchu. And with that, li Yoshia, that we have a success. This we learn from our great David Hamelech, the man who knew how to be humble, the man who wasn't supposed to be alive. Those 70 years he received from Adam Harishon, from the first man, who was supposed to have a thousand years. He turned to 930 years because he gave 70 years to David Hamelech, who will be the correction for Adam Harishon. David Hamelech did teshuvah instead of Adam and Eve. That's why we Adam is Adam, David is David, and man is Messiah because that stretch of time stretches over these 6,000 years, which eventually will lead to the 7,000 year. The final the final redemption will be when we get to that Adam and Eve to the 7,000 of year because as we said seven is the status of perfection. That's David and Goliath. That's Gog and Magog. That has to do with Sukkot, and that has to do with this power of humbling ourselves before our sham. So if we've learned one lesson from these past two years, let it be this, that we've realized that Gog is not the one in charge, that we've been surrounded and hit left and center by this power that we call Gog, the roof that thinks that it is all about power and might and strength and survival of the fittest as we have seen and we've unfortunately been hit by left and right, but we have come to the conclusion and understanding that Shema Yisrael we are humble before you we know that there is no way out over here because even with this deal and I don't want to sound pessimistic because of course we're very happy our people are coming our hostages are coming back. It's a time of celebration and happiness, but in the end of the day