Moshiach ben Yosef: Chizuk for Iron Sword by Rabbi Dr. Ahron Adler

boov do we hear me now yes okay good okay um so we're beginning already um almost almost going to be finishing two months of this war this is hard to believe it's very very hard to believe but um we've made a lot of progress on the ground unfortunately we've sustained some losses and uh each Who falls is a whole world for all of us not only for the family we're also in some mode of relief with at least 26 of the hostages who have gotten out in the last two days we know that there's a price for that as well and I don't want to get into the um the politics of the decision makers on that score but certainly we can be thankful together with the families that their loved ones have returned home and should allow us the possibility of bringing about a total return of and a safe return of all of the hostages um exactly how this war is going to pan out nobody is a Novi we don't know but we do have certain um ideas that from our sources and you can't get better than Shabbat this coming com week to give us some inkling on how we handle our Affairs and we just begin with yobu in his um encounter with asov so prior to their meeting Yakov aino is in preparation for this encounter knowing fully well that his reasons for leaving ER Kanan at the time were twofold one was for Aid and and that yovino took care of uh he um he he marries uh Rael well he first marries Leia but he doesn't know that at first but he ends up marrying Lea and Rael and then bah and Zila and we have the four imot and we have in parl the 12 son who's going to be born and that is bamin where in yesterday's par we had the birth of the 11 Sons we also had the birth of Dena in in that paraa so from that point of view when um y in the end of parot sends off his son yov to find a shid uh that is taken care of already in par and the last son as I mentioned is born here inl but there was another side to that fleeing from the house of yak and that was Rifka telling yov that asov was planning to to to kill him because he took the BR and now after over 20 years uh Yakov is returning home and he knows he's going to have to face up with his brother asov and he doesn't have a clue as to what mood ASA is going to be in and hence kazal teach us that Yakov makes various preparations and in in in a phrase that Rashi quotes from the mid doron actually means gifts and we we see in the para that y aino sends uh a delegation to meet up with asov and there are many many gifts that are given I I would translate these gifts into modern day idiom as the Diplomatic route before he does anything else he wants to see if he can solve the difficulties uh diplomatically by talking it out by sitting around the table over a cup of coffee and cake and and and seeing what what what the differences are and if they're we can resolve them and so on so he does this with the with these gifts the second is I mean we know that anytime we're going to be in a precarious situation when things are down we turn to I mean the ra teaches us something interesting that we turn to even if things aren't down the r tells us that there's a daily Mitzvah to turn to as a Biblical Mitzvah way before the entered into the picture in the beginning of the second bet mikdash ER and structured for us the and structured for us three time Frameworks of daving ran believes from the days of mosu at siai we received a Biblical commandment to daily turn to with some request fine and not all of the agreed with this but that's okay but that was the Ram's opinion and he has that now the r believes that there is additional TR in a of Crisis he gives it a different name he calls it shouting to where it's interesting that the ran argues with the r on the principle of daily and says that there is no such biblical commandment of daily and the only that you see in the Tor is Crisis moments when somebody's in a real Jam so so the ran says that's when there's so for one person it could be five times a day and for the next it could be once in five years so because everybody's life in terms of Crisis Cycles are very very different whereas the rambam says no there's a daily Mitzvah to and um and we do it today three times a day in accordance with the schedule of the and indeed if there's crisis moment we add and whatever the addition might be it could go along with fasting with it goes with it can go with the added say whatever that might be it's a framework that allows us for additional in a moment of Crisis actually once pointed out that we can somehow put together the r and the ran and make shom between the two because the r always believe that on an existential level a person is always in the only thing is he doesn't always know about it that the explained the of that we say at night time that God should protect us from the Satan in front of us and behind us the r interpreted the Satan as moments of danger so if there's a moment of danger in front of us danger lurks not from behind but we can see it then you can actually take steps to try to prevent it if you know that there's an epidemic you can try to fight it with vaccination and so on and you take measures to of hygiene so that it doesn't spread you can do things so too with regard to war you can take measures U to sometimes prevent the battle and and in any other area of danger that you see in front of you human beings are capable of figuring out a way to take proper measures um so that we do not uh fall into the Trap but what happens if the if the danger lurks behind us and we have no clue that we are in danger so that's a real problem we ask not only but also from behind us so said that human beings always have dangers behind us except that we're not aware of them and hence even according to the ramban who says that we should be doing only in moments of Crisis would have to agree that every day is a moment of Crisis except that we're not sure how to identify the crisis but that we are in a moment of Crisis the r said even the ramban on a philosophical level would have to agree to this so he the r made shom between the rambam and the ran on that level so here Rashi is telling us that yinu is involved in the The Diplomatic um side the donon the gifts he's involved in which you would expect in a moment of impending crisis but also he's not satisfied just with his tillum in the hand but he prepares for battle now we know that there's a famous midash that's echoed by the tarus of all things when yino at the end of his life in speaks about how he had to take over the city of Shem after the story of Dena andar benar yovino had to somehow do we don't see the battle but we see that they had to take over the city and says that he took it over with my sword and my bow which means he had ammunition to toide but it's interesting that the the unus translates this based on so you might think that only used and to get the military on on his side no it's both It's a combination you have to also have to have the the the weaponry and I explained in the previous that is the explanation of yes we have the we have the tanks we have the artillery we have the Air Force we have the Navy we have all this but we also have the we go with the T and if a is busy because he's on the battlefield It's Our obligation we're not in the battlefield to perpetually say and that should guide the soldiers to Victory so gives us and it's a a a triangular type of strategy when approach as what's interesting is that when the meeting actually does take place so Yu bows down to asov kazal actually thought that he bowed down a little too often and and a Jew is supposed to stand up for his pride national pride of being am Israel and not the Bowing down the symbolic bowing down respectful bowing down would have been in order but apparently kazal felt that yovino did the Bowing here to ASA and what he does is he he presents the entire family in a type of parade to ASA and asa's like reviewing this parade so he sends first the the B and Zila and and and their children and then he sends H Leia and her children and she obviously has more than all of the others and he leaves Rael for the end and it does not say that he presents Rael and hard child who at that point it's only y bamin had not yet been born he does not present ra and Y it says y ra he presents Y and Rael now it's with all the other wives he presents the wives first billah and Zila and their children he presents Leia and her children and the tah should have continued and he present Rael with Y her child but here it says ra Y is presented before ra and teach us in very interesting the gar says that basically jakov presented Rael and afterwards was to follow y like all the others the mother would precede the the son in this case the son but yev jumped in front of Rael yev did not want as to gaze at the beauty of his mother now this was an act of defiance this was an act ofah for ysep to do this I mean my gosh he's got his father there setting up the raid in front of uh of asov and here ysf jumps the gun and and and stands in front of Rael so kazal lorded yos for doing this and said that ultimately the downfall of as will take place with the children of Yosef and that is very very important which means kazal interpreted this uh Act of ysf Act of defiance act ofah in a very very positive way and um the the kazal derived this from a Pur that we will be reading in the this coming Shabbat now this coming Shabbat there are some that give you variant readings for the but it's pretty much accepted in most of the Kil to read the book of I say the book of because the book of Oya only carries one chapter it's in the trasar very small book and and it is the entire for this week and it ends with the famous P now we know that from the S we say it at the end of before every single day but this speaks of the downfall of as and in the context of that particular the um the tells us the house of yob will be fire but the flame is going to be the house of and the house of as will be straw and the house of Asam will ignite and will be consumed there will be no longer a remnant of the House of as God has spoken and then comes beautiful Pim of how the sections of Isel are going to be occupied that's a great word in this country in the political realm occupied and it says the will be inhabited and the area of um what today is and all the way as and ashalon then the days of that's where the wars of the took place and they came from AA so somehow there's a reference to the Contemporary situation of taking over these lands the St so this is all the area that we call today Shon area because the area we call Yehuda and shamon is Yehuda is from yam South all the way down past Kon much paston until Theon you have until not far from B you have theud so the area of yud is south of Y bamin is immediately north of Y and then becomes the section of Ephraim and we even use those names today in on the map of the municipalities uh of of of har and beta and so on they're still used and then afterwards comes safe which is Minasha which um is basically the area of the the Goan Heights one side and the area of Taria in other side of the half of manasha on one side and the other which really means when you think about this that the key areas of s Israel that were given to the children of RA children of raahim and that is bamin and Yosef they are the quote unquote contested areas of Med Isel today whether it's the Golan whether it's yudon and udah okay so that's already sh that's the son of Leia and the most prominent son of Leia Leia with six children the most prominent clearly is Yuda and he has from y South but from y North it's the contested areas of shamron which include really the these the sections of Ben ra and they are ysep and bamin so the navi tells us that this of teaches us ultimately the downfall of as is going to be through y why what does that mean through the down through the household of Yosef now let's just remember that ASA is the grandfather of so this is really the climactic ending of where tells us in after the first war of God will eradicate the um the memory of Amal now you may argue and say one second doesn't it say in the end of that we have a MIT we have to annihilate erase the memory of this LED some of the posim to say that eradication of Amal is not a active Mitzvah because is going to fulfill the Mitzvah at the end of their days we just have to make sure we get by every single generation the rabam disagrees he believes that every generation that you have your amalik you have to do your best to deal a death blow last um last Shabbat um a week ago for Shabbat I was not here in Israel just for a few days for a very very important Family Matter and that's why I could not be here to give the share on Sunday morning but uh I was in tck New Jersey for Shabbat and I spoke a few minutes there about the fact that what we're seeing on what we saw on I I I do not I do not like to hear that this is a Holocaust A Shah I said this at the beginning of the shum the series I agree with the Yem that while you might be able to take a frame out of the Shah and and take a look at what happened in Bei and and the other places inasa and say this looks you know Vaguely Familiar that you can do but this is not a Shah for sure not but what you can say it was a prrum it was a prrum in the style of 1096 it was a program in the style of 1298 it was program in the style of 1648 1649 yes that you can say but there's one market difference in those pogroms the only thing the Jews could do in the aftermath was to say Kadesh and to say isar they could not fight back and today it is very different yes the Hamas pulled off a pgam a very painful painful pum and we're not going to deal now with the the fault the blame game that will leave to the politicians and the Judiciary later on but it was a prrum no doubt but in this case we were able to fight back and fight back um decisively there's no question about that and what does the word ASA mean in in this context what does it mean that the act of yose in in an act of defiance was able to stand in front of Rael in face of the asov of his day and kazal say this is the act of defiance that will stand in front of the asov at the end of days there's at the end of M that tells us that prior to the coming of mhia there will be a period called in the footsteps of mhia in Aramaic it's called in the footsteps of mhia Mia's coming and it gives various signs that we could look for and the first one isah is going to reign supreme so I tell you friends we're here we have arrived at the the days of greatah the state of Israel was was predicated on an act ofah the r one said that if Boran didn't have kah he would not have announced the formation of the state on the fifth of ER in t in 1948 because so many of our friends in the world told us not to do it on that day hold off a little bit and um and and and uh the the question would be hold off and the gurin always said what hold off till when you're always going to tell us to hold off so we just have to do it and they did it right away and that was an act of defiance um on the world scene but um we have seen today many acts of defiance and even in the context of what's happening in this particular War there there were moments that our government is going to have to stand up against um the wishes and whims of whether whether it's the Europeans whether it's the United States whether it's the United Nations we're going to have to stand up uh and and do what we think is correct obviously we're going to try to do things as craft things as politically correct as possible but the bottom line is we're going to have to do things that will be appropriate for ourself now with regard to this idea of Yosef comes along an idea developed by kazal called Messiah Ben Ys so we talk about Messiah so we always talk about messia benav the davidic line of the monarchy will be restored rabam tells us in the very end of the in the 11th chapter of of the laws of of monarchy say the is going to restore theic line of of of the kingdom and there's everything about David will you see it in yesah who talks about in the 11th chapter it will come from the trunk of of of of yes which is yes the father of David of course and you see it in in in chapter 37av your servant will rule over you so what does that mean so yes there's an opinion that says that that the M time is also going to be connected with Resurrection with the ran believes this and therefore is going to come around once again but most do not accept that the rambam says that is is an era Way Beyond the era ofia so the na is talking about a descendant of DAV David speaks of a descendant of D so it's the divic line being reconstituted re re restated and and this will be theia who will build mikash and so on and cause everybody who couldn't come on alah until that day to come to Isel fine what's mhia who is this is it a person is it an era is it a concept we're not sure the speak very vaguely about mhia Ben and the rambam never mentions it at all even though it's mentioned in various midashim I I did a scan just before the she of all my sources now I'm not the biggest expert in all of the ROMs but you know I have a computer and that does the the leg work for me and I went through every single rambam source that we have available today and to see what he had to say about MH knowing that in the Mish he says nothing and it turns out that in he says nothing and in the mishna commentary says nothing in the says nothing in all his famous letters and he's writing to the emite Jewish Community often about Messianic times not a word about messia Ben Y which is rather startling that the ra literally has nothing to say about mhia so that's okay he doesn't see this as an integral part of the tradition that there has to be an appearance of mhia B but the one who tried to give some understanding the mhia was RA Z and that was in a hpid in a eulogy that he gave in 1904 for none other than Herzel for Herzel bamin Herzel rauk delives a HP and in this hpid while he doesn't call herel M he does identify the era of what will be present at the time of mhia Ben and is more than suggestive that what's happening in the beginning of the 20th century and you have to realize the RAF goes on to live till 1935 and he sees things developing he sees the yesu of iner Israel being built he does not live to see the emergence of the state of Israel as we bashem are here and the unity of and expansion of the borders and so on we are Way Beyond what the ruk saw but nevertheless the was a Visionary and he speaks of the two different types of Messiah the Messiah that will prepare ER Isel on the material Level and then there's the Messiah that will advance am Isel to the upper spiritual levels of what we call Messiah times so with regard to mhia Ben he says let's take a look at ysph in mitan ysep becomes appointed the vice King in Egypt second only to parro and he has two particular jobs he's called the mashbir so mashbir people know that as a store in downtown y but the word Mash means feeding feeder feeder sh where where Ys is sold to MIM and then yov there's a fam in m and they send yob sends the sons down to M for food there is food there's food so therefore m is the one who's the provider of food that's where the store got its name m but the U provider of food and that's means yoseph has an economic uh position in Egypt to be the food provider and you see that takes place after the dreams that parro has that there's going to be famine in Egypt and and yoseph suggests a very pragmatic plan of action of how to guarantee the survival of the Egyptian people and obviously parro is very impressed and that's why Yosef is elevated to Great position so he's also a MH he's also a Shalit Shalit is already a political situation where ysep had power he had enormous power in MIT so RAF says that the point of Yosef was to give am Isel a tasting of political power and economic Independence or economic um abilities to to run a country because you can't run a country unless you have those abilities um of power and power means Army and so on so this was in yose's um uh let's say in his in in in his uh with his abilities he's now given those opportunities to demonstrate that he can lead the the family ultimately in these two great areas Rook says this is what's going to happen at the days ofia on the eve of yot mashia Isel is going to have to learn how to leave the galut now leaving the galut means leaving a scenario where you are basically attached to a foreign country and you're you're surviving with the ground rules of the host country whatever the host country may be now you want to set up an independent country so you have to learn how to run an independent country you have to know how to set it up with with proper economics structure with proper political structure proper military structure all this is Mia says RAF and he believed that Herzel kicked off the process kicked off the process and it's interesting that Theo actually does write about he has a saer called called where he talks about Messianic ideas and he believes that when K spoke about the M they did not necessarily point a finger at a person it doesn't have to be an individual it could very well be an era and to This Light ruk Builds on where he says that the MH is going to be an era and he says that Herzel with the first Zionist Congress in in 1897 basically kicks off a process that's going to lead to the emergence of an independent Jewish State and obviously the Jewish people are going to have to get their act together and GNA have to learn how to uh create an economy and create a an infrastructure of of Army and create an infrastructure of government and all this is mhia and here ruk in 1904 is in a prophetic way prophesying that that which Herzel kicks off is ultimately going to usher in the era of mhia benos so again rauk if those people who think that rauk thought that Herzel was mhia Ben he never says that in the in the in the hpit in the eulogy but he definitely is more than suggestive that what Herzel did accomplish is something that will usher in the era of mhia Ben and rauk believed that he was already living that era and I say again he dies on the third of ell 1935 and we for sure are are in this era um compounded you know even to the hund power beyond anything that Ru cook ever could imagine in his own lifetime so this is the mhi that will ultimately conquer the asov of Our Generation which means you have to have strong country you have to have a strong Army and B BH has allowed us to come to this day now we don't make a for winning a war the um it says we do not celebrate the fall of the enemy but nevertheless we can feel comfortable more than comfortable that allows us to be able to bring down the enemy and we are going to do this we are going to do this no doubt um my son who's uh who's uh been for the last seven weeks on the on the fronts of the of of the north you know believes that it's only a question of time that we're going to have to deal with theal in the north as well and the country obviously made a strategic decision to hold off as long as possible till we finish what we have to finish our work in the south in Gaza and then we're going to turn our attention to the north and we have to deal with that as well because we have people in the north whether it's in Matula K and various in the northern near the northern border who are who have been evacuated and they have to go home and not live in Tera so this something we're going to have to do and I remember when my son was in high school it's a good 15 20 years ago um where that then the president of Iran was threatening to drive us into the sea and my son told me ABA this is not 1939 we have Kim mimim we have things in our Arsenal today using citing a says we have we have things in our Arsenal today that the president of Iran knows all about that too so that's why we can you know sleep comfortably at night and and and and this is what I told the people in Teck New Jersey Just A Week Ago Shabbat I said the only thing people could do after those pums was say kades and Yar and today we can fight back and it's a very very very big difference and it's also very consoling no doubt very very consoling I just want to end with u another point that the Ramba makes it's Point that's that's actually midrashic and says about Yosef that you know he marries osnat and that that she's given she's the btif and that's mentioned already in thees question who is this usat so there is a midic idea that she's actually the daughter of Dena in the relationship between Dena andar there's a daughter that's born out of this relationship and her name is osnat and she ends up being sold down to Egypt and she's um the daughter of potifar she's she's in the household of potifar and and potifar marries her off to to um to Yosef and it was ysph who discovers in this medish that she had some amulet detailing the story of where she hailed from that showed that she was part of the family and and and and a worthwhile for himself and this is just amazing I mean amics you know can really go to town to try to explain what this is all about but it's in the tum yonathan benel on that says that when ysph had two children y had children in Egypt who gave birth who gave birth to the children OS B Dina osat the daughter of Dina now this could my humble opinion can only mean that there's some type of a merger here between the family of Rael and the family of Leia because ra and Leia in seit are are unfortunately not not together at all putting it Marly I mean Leah feels the enity feels that the favoritism that yov has shown to ra and so on and even shows up in the names God saw my pain God sees that that I I'm the hated one you can't accuse yov of hating Leia but but but this is what felt because of the the the love that he showed for ra and and she now maybe he's gonna pay maybe Y is gonna pay some attention to me you know I have three sons already and and and Rael has nobody no Sons at the moment so you see Rael is is going through great Agony in se but at the end of the day Ys causes some type of approachment between the house of Leia and the house of Rael by he being the son of Rael and he's marrying off a a a grand a daughter of Leia which is which is amazing that that kind of idea but the idea of unification does take place in what we're gonna read in the from and that is the the tree of Y epim and Y which is y and the tree of Yehuda which represents Leia they're going to merge together into one tree so that which you know broke up the the households and we know that the malav was yud but the Mal that split after schl wasan from eph and we know that that Ephraim does have claim to monarchy mosenu appoints Yeshua who's from the tribe of Ephraim which comes from Yosef so there's something there that there is some monarchy in the house of Yosef as well and Begins the is and he's from epim and that's why epim becomes the symbol of the northern kingdom when when talks about and the various references to EP in t here in is the merger of the House of or the tree of Ephraim and the tree of yudah which is the merger of the House of of Leia and and Rael and ultimately the merger of am Israel to one tree it'll be end up being one tree you know we we we are a fragmented people right here in Israel not in a shavid sense nobody's walking around saying they're from sh Ru shim leuda and so on but on various levels very fragmented but this war put us all together and really put us all together and um hopefully hopefully when this world will come to an end am Israel will be wise enough to know that even in peace time we should remain one people we should have a good week a peaceful week we should hear vot on so many different levels and should send to all the families who require T and and send the to the many many soldiers who are wounded and recuperating in various hospitals here in should allow us to see all the all the hostages come home balom in speedily the and should give us all the Shalom have a nice week