Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz -Tzemach and the Messianic Process Behaloscha 5778

So here is everybody. So today we're going to go back to the the haftorah and then I'm going to connect it to the parsha. The parsha of course is parshas Balak. And parshas Balak just to set the sequence and we'll move to the haftorah right away. Is that the Mishkan has been dedicated, right? The Mishkan was dedicated Rosh Chodesh Nissan. And starting on that day each of the Nesiim, each of the heads of the tribes brought an identical offering. And that went on for 12 days. And on the 13th day, the 13th of Nissan Aaron is very distraught because all of the Nesiim brought korbanos. And Shevet Levi and Aaron were not given any role in bringing those korbanos. And Aaron figured perhaps he was excluded because of the sin of the golden calf. Cuz he was the one that made the golden calf or at least allowed the golden calf to be made. So as a result God comforts Aaron by telling him I'm giving you a mitzvah that's even greater than the korbanos. I'm giving you the mitzvah of lighting the menorah in the Beit Hamikdash every day. And that is the comfort to Aaron that he was not really rejected, that God accepted his teshuvah. Why is it bigger? What does it mean to say I'm giving you a bigger mitzvah than them? Why is it bigger? So the Ramban actually says because korbanos are only brought when there is a base of miktash. But menorah is commemorated even in the future. And the Ramban actually says, this is a prophetic reference to the mitzvah of lighting Hanukkah candles that will be a perpetual memory of the menorah. But more than that, the menorah is a very powerful symbol. It is the power of the divine light of God that permeates the darkness. That even in moments of hopelessness and despair, and even when we feel that there is no holiness left in the world, the menorah reminds us that light will vanquish darkness. And therefore, the menorah is an eternal symbol. That's why it's really no accident, although the symbol of the state of Israel was not necessarily adapted adopted by religious people, but the seven branch menorah. Because remember in the temple of the base of miktash, the menorah was seven branches, not eight. We have eight because of the Hanukkah story. Uh but the seven branch menorah is the great great symbol of the light of goodness that permeates the world. Now, based on that, the haftorah for this parsha is a repeat haftorah. It is the same haftorah as shabbos Hanukkah, which is usually around parshas Mikeetz in Bereishis. And the reason is Hanukkah is about the light of the menorah. This haftorah is going to be about the light of the menorah, as you'll see. Balak is about lighting the menorah. So again, you can understand why the same haftorah for the parsha of the week will be appropriate for shabbos Hanukkah. Um I actually think we didn't cover it shabbos Hanukkah. For whatever reason, we didn't have a class or whatever it is. So, this likely be the first time we are covering the haftorah. And the haftorah is is a very interesting one because it comes from the navi Zachariah. And here, the historical background is extremely important. The last three prophets of Israel are Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. And this is right after the Babylonian exile at the end of the book of Malachim, we read that Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the first Beit Hamikdash. Uh the standard date that is given by historians, although there's a lot of questions about that, is 586 uh before the common era, 586 BCE. Although as I say, it's not clear that uh Chazal would go with that date. And the Jewish people were exiled. And then eventually the Babylonian empire fell and was conquered by the Persian empire. And Cyrus the Great, Koresh, allowed the Jewish people to return to Eretz Yisrael. Uh very, very few people did return. And eventually Koresh was succeeded uh eventually by Ahasuerus, and then you had the Purim story. Uh and after Ahasuerus uh was the king who was none other than the son of Ahasuerus and Esther, Darius II, Darius the Second. And Darius the Second is the actual Persian king who authorized the final building of the Bayit Sheni. So, it's an interesting irony of history that the the Persian monarch who allowed the building of the Second Temple was technically Jewish. Now, we don't know if he identified himself as Jewish, you know, was he frum, was he not frum, did he keep mitzvot, did he not keep mitzvot? We're not really sure if he himself followed matrilineal descent, as it were, but halachically, he was, of course, Jewish. So, the prophets, right? So, we're dealing right now, the book of Zechariah is already after the Purim story. And it's at the time when Darius the Second is allowing the Jews to build the Beit Hamikdash. But the Jews are very, very uncertain because they just don't see this as a real redemption. Because they remembered the redemption, the vision of redemption they had was yet see us mitzrayim, yet see us at the 10 plagues, the splitting of the Red Sea, the smashing of the oppressors. And here no miracles, no Nissan. Uh they are in a state of servitude and conquest and subjugation. And they come back to a desolate land, a land that had been abandoned for many, many years. And as a result, there's a tremendous sense, although you might think it would be a happy time coming back to the land of Israel. But not really. Most of the Jews did not come back. Most of the Jews had gotten acclimated to life in Babylonia and then Persia. They did not come back. Again, very similar to today, although Baruch Hashem today, we're almost we almost have um 50 uh percent of the Jews of the world uh living here, although you never know, you always we always discover new tribes of Jews in Afghanistan or or or or or whatever it is. So you have to understand that the books of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi are the last messages of God before prophecy dies being spoken to a demoralized people. A people that even though they're technically allowed to come back, they don't see the promise. They don't see the redemption. They don't see the love of God. They remember yet see us mitzrayim in their collective unconsciousness. And this is absolutely so different. And even the second temple itself, you know, it's very, very interesting. When we think of the picture of the second temple, we see the magnificent building that Herod built. That is much, much later. That is several hundred years later. The second temple in the time of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi is a very simple little structure. It is not at all even like King Temple. So, they're going through the motions, but they don't see the love of Hashem. And therefore, these last prophets, because prophecy is going to fade, we're not going to get those direct messages from God anymore. These last messages are messages of his look and messages of comfort and messages of knowing that there's an eternity of divine love that will never go away. And you should look at the simple start in building up this abandoned and desolate land as the beginning of a redemptive process that will turn into something beautiful. So, as a result, even to people like Ben Gurion, who were not necessarily, you know, religious in the conventional sense, these chapters in particular, they they actually treasured because having gone through the Zionist struggle. And again, I always remember I remember reading the um autobiography of Golda Meir at some point. And uh you know, again, she's not the greatest writer in the world uh to be sure. Uh but uh it was so interesting. She described what it was like to come to Palestine, as it was called, in whenever she came, 1920, 1925. You know, you we have no idea if you know about it, you know about it, but but but basically, you know, people complain here, you know, if the air if it takes uh a week to fix the air conditioning or or whatever it is. I mean, we're talking about people sleeping in the mud and uh surrounded by mosquitoes and and, you know, having to dig wells in order just to get water. I mean, there was not there was like nothing nothing here at all. And they took a yesh meyam, they created something out of nothing. For that alone, uh even if you're a Haredi or whatever it is, I mean, there's a certain eternal gratitude that you have to have to the people who built this infrastructure under tremendous tremendous mesiras nefesh devotion. And in many ways that's kind of the situation that Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi are dealing with. People are coming back to a desolate abandoned land, a land that is overrun with wild animals, a land that is overrun with hostile nations that are not very happy to have the Jews come back to the land. Okay? Very, very similar. And so few Jews did come back. Many Jews were already well established in those other countries and they said, "We don't really need to come back uh to Eretz Yisrael." Right? So, that is that is the theme of the of the Haftorah. And therefore, Zechariah is giving these words of chizuk and he starts off by addressing not the uh Jewish people individually, but Bas Zion, the daughter of Zion, who is really kind of addressing the Jewish people in the land of Israel together. And the message is, "Rani v'simchi Bas Zion." "Joyously sing, daughter of Zion." "Ki hinni ba." Behold, Hashem is saying, "I am coming. I am here. U'shachanti b'tochech." "I will dwell in your midst." "Ne'um Hashem." Says Hashem. It may not look like it. It may not look like I'm here with you. But I am here with you. And I'm dwelling with you. Again, as I say, these are very contemporary words. And then, there's an additional claim that although the nations of the world might despise you now, or at least the surrounding nations despise you, there will come a time that many, many nations will gravitate to the Jewish people and to Eretz Yisrael looking at it as a spiritual center. Not that they will necessarily become Jewish, but they will come. Now again, you walk in the street sometimes you see these uh I don't even know who they are, these Japanese groups and these different different different groups with Israeli flags and singing uh I mean you shalom aleichem or whatever whatever it is. And uh you we we've begun to see this even today. And in fact, uh many you know, many many uh tour guide uh tour tours will tell you that at times when Jewish tourism was very much down during intifadas and the like, you know, some of the Christians kept on kept on coming. And although obviously we have a history where we're we're we're kind of suspicious of missionary activity and the like, but the truth of the matter is, you know, many many fundamentalist Christians are very supportive of idea of a Jewish state. They see this as part of uh redemptive process, although they understand it very differently. Second coming. Uh it's part of the second coming, but but they're not necessarily actively in involved in proselytization. They say they Jews do what they do and then will get what what they want to get. And this too is the idea that the new rule rabim el Hashem beyomahu, that many many nations will come to Jerusalem. But God will still choose the Jewish people. Okay. So, that's the first part of the haftarah, which are general words of comfort to a demoralized people who came back to an abandoned land under very decidedly non-miraculous conditions. And Hashem is assuring them of his presence. Now, the next thing Zechariah sees is a prophetic vision. And here we're introduced to an important character in the book of Ezra and Nehemiah, but he's first introduced in Zechariah, and that is Yehoshua the Kohen Gadol. Now, this is not the famous Yehoshua bin Nun, all the way back in Moshe Rabbeinu's assistant. Yehoshua bin Nun was not a Kohen Kohen at all. Yehoshua bin Nun was from Shevet Ephraim. But, Yehoshua ben Yehotsadak has the distinction of being the very first Kohen Gadol of the Second Temple of the Bayit Sheni. And he is up there with Ezra and Nehemiah and Haggai and Zechariah and Malachi as the Kohen Gadol. Now, uh he is portrayed in Chazal as a very, very righteous person. But, uh as many righteous people sometimes uh have suffered, his own two children intermarried. They married non-Jewish women. And if you read the Book of Ezra, which talks about the beginnings of the Bayit Sheni, you will see that there, like today, intermarriage was a a real scourge. It was a real plague. Many, many men were marrying non-Jewish women. Uh vice versa was less. There were fewer Jewish women marrying non-Jewish men, but certainly many Jewish men were marrying non-Jewish women. And I'm I'm uh yeah. And not only that, but many of the people who were intermarried were from very prominent families. They were like leaders, the political and social leaders of the kehilla. Again, if you go to any Jewish Federation uh in a major city in the United States, you will find, uh to our great, great pain, that many of the Federation leaders are themselves either intermarried or they certainly have children that are intermarried. Now, one can debate whether somebody should have a position in Jewish communal leadership uh if they have intermarried, but the way it works uh is that if you have a lot of money, uh it makes no difference who you marry or what you do, uh that give you the leadership. At least in the American uh Jewish community, and I suspect in most countries in the in the world. So here Zechariah has the following vision. I saw a vision of Yehoshua the Cohen Gadol who was standing in heaven. Yehoshua is still alive, but this is the vision. He is standing in heaven before a malach of Hashem, before an angel of God. And that's seen as he's being judged. And there is a satan. Now satan, remember, in in Tanakh satan is not a proper noun. It does not It should not be translated Satan. It's not a name. It is a job description. Ha satan, that means the accuser. The satan is not a fallen angel. The satan is not an expelled angel. The satan is not an angel that now rebels against God, like the Antichrist. The satan is an employee of the heavenly court. And given the fact that in biblical imagery God sits in judgment over the world, there are defense attorneys and there are prosecuting attorneys. Defense attorneys try to point out the good and the merit in a person or nation. And the satan's job is the chief prosecutor. So he actually has an honor honorable position in the heavenly court. And the satan is basically telling God, "Hey, this guy Yehoshua does not deserve to be the leader of the Jewish people." And the image of the satan actually is there lissitno to accuse Yehoshua that if he can't raise his own children to follow the way of God what gives him the right to have leadership capacity? But God says "For you Hashem el Satan." God speaks directly to the prosecutor. "Yigar Hashem Hasatan." God rebukes you, Satan. "Yigar Hashem God is rebuking you." He who has chosen Jerusalem. "Haloz ut mutzal me'esh." Okay, this is an expression that is often applied to Holocaust survivors. An utz is like a firebrand, like a stick that's in the fire. And the galut and the hurban is like being in a destructive fire. And Yehoshua is a stick that has been plucked from the fire to survive. So, what is the point here? The point basically is you, the Satan, are being so self-righteous. But you have to understand all that the Jewish people have been through. And if someone manages to survive and remains faithful to Hashem, that itself is a great, great level, even if some of his family has wandered away. He was in the fires of hell, the fires of destruction. And he passed through. You know, they tell the story of Satmar Rebbe that when people would come to him for a bracha, he would say "Don't get a bracha from me. Go to somebody who has concentration camp numbers on their arm. And they'll be able to give you a bracha because they've suffered so much in this world that they now stand before God in the state of purity and goodness, even if they're not so religious." Fact, I read a story about the Muncher Feinstein, which is really uh almost hilariously unbelievable, but it's it's such an amazing story and in some ways it's so typical of Reb Moshe's personality. I'll share it with you. This was a story written by a psychiatrist. He's a young psychiatrist in his uh 40s or 50s. And he writes that when he was 9 years old uh his aunt he had a he had an unreligious aunt and uncle who were Holocaust survivors. They were not religious at all. But his aunt was a nurse in a camp for the summer. He was a nurse during the year and in the summer she was the nurse in an Orthodox camp. Now uh this boy grew up in a religious home. His parents were frum and he grew up frum. So one day his aunt says to him, "Did you ever hear of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein?" And the person says, "Yeah, yeah, yeah." He said, "Great, the greatest rabbi in the world." He said, "Yeah, he is. Well, you know, he comes to our camp every summer. And I always uh check him out with my husband, with your uncle. Would you like to meet him?" So the kid was so excited. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, I want to meet Reb Moshe Feinstein." So he comes and he puts on a hat and a jacket and a tie, you know. And uh he walks in. Uh he's not there yet. He gets there an hour before Reb Moshe Feinstein comes. So the first thing that bothers him is he sees his aunt is wearing a sleeveless uh dress. So he So he says, you know, "Couldn't you dress up? Reb Moshe Feinstein's coming. You have to dress that way?" You know. He didn't say anything, but he was already a little worried. So then Reb Moshe Feinstein comes in. Reb Moshe comes in. And the aunt greets uh him, you know, wearing uh her sleeveless uh dress. And then to the boy's horror, it's like those movies when something is happening and you say, "No." He sees his aunt extend her arms and going up to him. And he And the boy The boy described The boy describes himself as paralyzed. He says, "He couldn't talk. He couldn't move. He just couldn't believe." And his aunt hugs Reb Moshe and says, "Rabbi Feinstein, so good to see you." And she kisses him on the cheek. So So the boys at some point goes over to Reb If I find them when they meet and they talk a little bit. And he he starts to apologize. He says, "I'm so you know, I'm so embarrassed. I'm so ashamed, you know." And Reb If I find staying puts his finger to his mouth and he says, "She survived the concentration camps. You don't criticize. You don't criticize people that have been through been through that." Now, here in Eretz Yisrael, okay, you know, a woman sits next to next to a guy in a bus and the guy punches her off the seat, you know. That's what happened. But this is the difference between real kedusha and greatness and what passes for it today, uh sometimes. So this is what Hashem says to the Satan, "You don't judge people that have been plucked from the fire of destruction and devastation." Things happen. And the fact that Yehoshua himself remained faithful to Hashem is a great great tribute to him. But then there's another aspect to this. The possuk says, "In my image, in my vision, Yehoshua was wearing the begadim tso'im." He was wearing filthy clothes. Because I'll say this actually means clothes encrusted in excrement, which is kind of a remez. Hmm. He does have all of these children that left God and isn't he responsible? And Hashem said, "Remove the filthy clothes from him." And Hashem decreed, "Behold, I have taken away your sin and I have given you glorious garments to wear. And then we read the following. Right, so this is the second part. The first part is a general comfort to Am Israel. The second is the vision of Yeshua the Cohen Gadol, whose filthy clothes are removed and he's wearing glorious radiant clothes. And we actually have a famous pasuk, "Ki Im Al Hashem So says God, Im Bidrachai Telech If you follow my ways Im Es Mishpatai Tishmor, if you keep the responsibilities I'm giving you V'gam Et Ha Din Aspeci, and you will judge my people faithfully, because the Cohen Gadol was also a judge. V'tishmor Et Chatzerai, and you will protect my courtyard, which is the Beit Hamikdash. Then V'nasati L'cha Mahalchim I will give you a pathway or pathways Bein Haomdim Eileh, among the pillars that you see in Shamayim. So let me just share with you just as an aside, the Vilna Gaon has a very beautiful interpretation of this somewhat enigmatic phrase, "I will give you pathways among the pillars." Mahalchim Bein Haomdim Eileh. Says the Vilna Gaon, a malach, a human being is called a mahalche, a human being is called a traveler. Because we can go from level to level. We can start off at a low level and we can raise ourselves. Vice versa, we can be at a high level, we can lower ourselves. The condition of humanity is never static. In fact, the Vilna Gaon says there is no no thing as remaining in one place. You are either consciously striving to become better or inevitably you will deteriorate. I do uh use a Forrest Gumpism, so to speak, if you know the association, uh life is like a downward escalator. If you stand still, you are going down. Right? You have to try to go up just to stay where you are. So, a human being is a mahalech. Now, angels are much higher than us. Angels are much holier than us. But angels are static. Angels are created to be a certain way and that is what they are. And they cannot move from level to level to level. There are many levels of angels. There are lower levels, higher levels. All levels of angels don't have a yetzer hara. All levels of angels are totally removed from physicality. Right? So, if you simply look at my units of holiness and the angel's units of holiness, the angel will always win. And yet the angel is omed, stationary. A human being is mahalech. So, the promise here is that even when you are among the omed, even when you're among the angels after your death, you can still be a mahalech by the goodness that you created in the world, that continues to operate. Now, that could be through your children. In Yeshua's case, that probably was not the case. Uh that could be through your students. That could be through the good deeds that you do. Because what happens is the good that you do does not stop after your death. If people follow the Torah because of your teachings, then all the mitzvahs they do continue to elevate your soul. All right, that's why we do things like eloying the shamah to raise a raise somebody's soul. And therefore, that is the idea that even when you're among the omdim, you can still be a mahalech. In fact, this is the meaning of the talmudic phrase, "Bar ah kara d'avuh." That's Aramaic. That means a child or a son is the leg of the father. The gemara is going to say that a son is a continuation of the father, but why the notion of leg? Because the leg is the mahalech, the one that goes from level to level. A son can raise the level of the of the of the father. So, uh that's a very, very important idea that the goodness we create in the world keeps on going. That is why it's brought down. Uh the midrash says, "Why is Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, belashon rabim?" Right, the torah does not call it Yom Kippur. The torah calls it Yom Kippurim. That's It's a little curious why we call it Yom Kippur. Because that that is not a term that the torah ever uses. It's always called Yom HaKippurim. So, the midrash actually says because Yom Kippurim is a day of atonement both for those who are dead and those who are alive. And that's why that's why we say yizkor, no? Our minhag is we say yizkor each each one of the holidays. We say it Yom Kippur and we say it the sholosh regalim. Uh uh the last day of Pesach and Shavuos and Shemini Atzeres. But the original makor of of yizkor is only for Yom Kippur. Because Yom Kippur is the day of atonement even for the dead. And the question you might ask is, "Why would dead people need atonement at least after the first year? I mean, a person dies, you could say the first Yom Kippur after his death, you know, God has to look at what he did the last year of his life and there needs to be a forgiveness. Okay, but that's taken care of the first Yom Kippur after his death. And for carrots, there's actually a custom some people have that they don't say Yizkor the first year of death, although one should not follow that custom, but there is such a custom. But certainly we say Yizkor all the years afterwards. Why is that so? So, Rav Chaim Volozhiner says that every single year Hashem looks at the repercussions of the good and the bad that we created. So, a person could have died a hundred years ago. A person could have died a thousand years ago. And Hashem is saying, "Okay, if he did something wrong that may have affected somebody, that could have carried over for generations and generations." All right, let's say somebody didn't become religious because of the way we behaved towards them. So, they have descendants and descendants and descendants and descendants, all of whom might have been in the derech ha Torah. That's a sin for which I'm accountable. And vice versa. I bring one person to the holiness of Shabbos and as a result he marries a shomeres Shabbos and they have kids. It goes to my zechus. So, every single Yom Kippur there is a new judgment about people who died, no matter how many years. And that is the meaning of mahalchim bein ha'omdim ha'eilah. And then uh it ends that this part ends with the idea shim'u na Yehoshua. This is the angel talking in Zechariah's vision. Listen well, Yehoshua the kohen gadol. Hineni mevi es avdi tzemach, I am bringing my servant tzemach. Now, tzemach is an interesting term. Uh tzemach is one of the names that Zechariah uses for Mashiach. Now, tzemach, of course, comes from growing. And the metaphor of growth is that growth does not occur suddenly. You plant a seed. And if the seed is cultivated and nurtured, it can turn into a beautiful crop or a beautiful tree or a beautiful plant. And the suggestion is Mashiach will come through the idea of tzemach. Meaning, don't expect a sudden messianic process. The messianic process itself is like a beautiful like a flower, which the the seed needs to be cultivated and nurtured. That is why the expression in the tfillah lishloma medina is actually an evocative expression. It's a controversial expression. You know, there are people that say the tfillah and they leave out those three words. reishit tzmichat ge'ulatenu the beginning of the growth of our redemption. Now, let me point out that the Aramaic phrase for the beginning of redemption is atchalta dig'ulta. Now, in Hebrew, that would be reishit ge'ulatenu. In other words, the phrase reishit tzmichat ge'ulatenu is not synonymous with atchalta dig'ulta because it throws in an extra word tzmicha. And that word, I would suggest, although I I I don't have any any evidence about uh the intention of the people who wrote the prayer. By the way, who wrote the prayer of the Shloma Medina is also an interesting uh little controversy. Uh it's not 100% sure to this very day. Uh many believe that I mean Rav Herzog promulgated the prayer, the first Rav Roshei of the Medina, the Ashkenazi Rav Roshei. Uh but many uh are convinced that the author of the prayer was actually Shai Agnon, the famous uh Israeli novelist who won a Nobel Prize. And Agnon uh was from Poland, and he was a shomer Shabbos devout Jew. He was close to Rav Kook. He was a baal teshuvah, I believe. I believe there was a time that Agnon went off the derech a little bit, and then through Rav Kook's hashpa'ah, Agnon came back and became very devout. And Agnon's writings are all about uh essentially uh Torah Judaism and and and the like. So, many say that uh Rav Herzog commissioned Agnon to write the prayer of the Shloma Medina. Uh I believe that the most recent research, I'm not an expert on this, reveals that Rav Herzog himself wrote the t'filah, and he sent it to Agnon for editing. So, Agnon may have added some things, but the primary author was in fact uh Rav Herzog. But l'ani astati, I think calling something reishit tzmichat ge'ulateinu is a very very deep idea, because when you call something atchalta d'ge'ulah, you're basically saying it's a done deal. This for sure is the beginning of a Messianic process. But when you say it's the beginning of the growth of redemption, what you're saying is if we nurture, if we protect, if we provide the um the environment and the care, then it becomes Geulah. But if Has Veshalom, we don't take advantage of the blessing that Hashem has given us, then it could turn out to be a dead end until some other time. And therefore, it's Simcha is a very, very evocative term. And by by appreciating, I mean a lot of things, a lot of different things. I mean Achdut and Ahavat Yisrael. And trying to rectify Sinat Chinam. It also means spreading the learning of Torah and the growth of Mitzvahs. It also means the Chesed. It also means Or Lagoyim, that in our interpersonal conduct, we have to try to be an inspiration to the morality of the world. Um, in some ways, in some ways indeed, uh, Israel has met some of some of these milestones. In many, many ways, in spite of in spite of everything, it's kind of a miracle, in spite of all of the negatives, uh, those that are clear-eyed and objective, can see the unselfishness of of of Israel. Even people who are not religious, as I say, you know, that whenever there's any type of calamity or any type of natural disaster anywhere in the world, even among people who would destroy Israel in a minute, our people, the Israelis, are there first to provide humanitarian assistance. You know, it's just hard to believe why the world doesn't appreciate this. It's just It's just It is just hard to believe because it is so obvious and so clear. Antisemitism. I should say. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe maybe I'm still too American. It's I just It just It just doesn't compute to me how people can cannot see such an obvious thing. So, in some ways, we've done good. We've done good. We're We're meeting. Uh we're cultivating the things that you need for Geulah. In other ways, not so good. The rivalry, the polarization, the sinas chinam, the lack of appreciation of, let's say, the the very religious for the army, and and the lack of appreciation of the secular for the importance of limud haTorah. You know, I I don't want to talk about the chicken and the egg problem, which one causes which. But, okay. Whichever it is, the phenomenon of of of hostility and distrust are very much here. So, what can I say? Uh the jury of Hashem, I think, is still out whether this is a schalta di Geulah or not. Let me point out, though, and again, I I I don't want to be a person that kind of links biblical prophecies to current events. I I don't want to I don't want to do that because, as the Rambam says, we're not in a position to know. But, the analogies to uh odd odd figures like Trump uh to to the Bayit Sheni are very, very uh interesting. Because Koresh was a non-Jew, and he was the one that gave permission to the Jewish people to come back. And it didn't occur through miracles, and it didn't occur through supernatural means. It occurred through a non-Jewish person of authority giving us permission. And yet, that was at a time when most of the Jews did not want to go back. And Zechariah is telling us this is also the hand of God, and this is part of the smicha, part of the growth towards redemption. So, here, you may remember when Harry Truman recognized the state of Israel in 1948, uh so, I think Rav Aharon Kotler told him, he said Rav Aaron Kotler also considered to be a good thing. Now, Rav Aaron Kotler told him, "You are Cyrus. You are Koresh." You are Cyrus. You are the non-Jew that God has chosen to enable his people to come back to their land. Now, Harry Truman, who was a student of the Bible, Harry Truman knew his uh Tanakh, uh at least King James version, and Harry Truman was very taken with that idea. So, the rest of his life when he was honored at all the Jewish banquets, they would honor him and they would talk about his role in the state of Israel, etc., etc. If they forgot to mention he was Cyrus, so he would pull their coat and say, "Hey, you forgot to say, you know, I'm Cyrus." And by the same token, you can have two Cyruses. Donald Trump, I think in some ways, has this role of Cyrus. Again, very unlikely candidate to be sure of a whole bunch of things, but again, the the the when sometimes the hand of God is most apparent in the unlikely nature of the person that he's chosen to carry out this task. Because uh a fellow like Trump to be president of the United States, whatever your feelings about him is, this was a virtual impossibility. I mean, nobody nobody believed it. He he did not. I am I am very today that don't believe it. I mean, I am certain that he had no he had no he had no idea that he would win. I mean, his his his his idea was he would make a lot of money from this, you know, this failed campaign, and it would improve the brand, and he'd go back to rehab his TV, and uh you know, "Hey, you know, I had a real good run as president, etc." Uh he was as surprised as as everybody else. Maybe Hillary was more surprised than maybe the only uh the only one. And yet, and yet, what Hashem is saying is, you know, when I want something to be done, then I will decide who wins elections. I will decide. And you can have the most unlikely person in the world. Again, I am not expressing positives or negatives about it, but it's certainly unlikely that anything I promoted that it makes no sense. And and again, I'm not 100% sure that moving the embassy to Jerusalem is is fundamentally so important, but symbolically it does have a great importance that the most holy that the greatest superpower in the world has officially recognized over the objections of the State Department, which objected by the way back in 1948, too. You know, so they So So the State Department never changes. Like whatever the administration is, they're the same. They're back to what they were in 1948. Uh that this symbolic recognition and this was that the most holy are going to come to Jerusalem and recognize it as the city of God. So, this is not Mashiach. This is not uh Giluy Shechinah. This is not the restoration of prophecy. This is not building the Beit Hamikdash. But Semach Semach, the beginning of a growth, it is. And this is uh why the Messianic process is described as Semicha. Reishit Semichat Ge'ulah Tzion. Hineni Mevei Yesh Atzei Semach. Now, the truth of the matter is this idea that the Messianic process, which will culminate in Mashiach and the building of the Temple, but it will be preceded by a lot of natural political events, building up the of the land, the return of the Jewish people to the land. This is going to be This This is precursors to Mashiach. Even the fertility of Eretz Yisrael, because as you know, one of the amazing characteristics of this country is that it doesn't yield its productivity except for the Jewish people. Meaning Mark Twain visited Palestine in the 19th century when there were not so many Jews here. Relatively small, and he just couldn't understand why this was the chosen land. Like why did God choose this land? Nothing grows here. Uh it's the whole the whole country even though even the in the north was like a desert. And yet what happens? You look look at the what we have. And Hazal say Hazal say based on the Heschel that this is like a mother. She only cooks for her children. Whatever it would be. Meaning to say, when the Jewish people come back the land becomes fertile. So it's not just Israeli ingenuity, although that may be part of it as well. It's a metaphysical concept that this land yields its productivity only for her children which are the Jewish people. So this idea that before Messiah comes there will be what is called derech hatava. There will be naturalistic things like fertility of the land, return of the Jews, the building up of a nation, start-up nation. Actually it's found in the writings of the Vilna Gaon. And this is called uh by by Sforno Geula b'derech hatava. That at least part of the redemption process will come through naturalistic means. You won't automatically see some miraculous event. By analogy to the Biur Chaim. And in fact the Vilna Gaon suggests that this might be might be the inner meaning of the two Messiahs. right? We have We know that the ultimate redeemer is called Messiah from David. A descendant of David and others. But before he shows up, there's an earlier Messiah figure that was called Messiah ben Joseph from the tribe of Ephraim. And we know very little about Messiah ben Joseph. There's not There's not a lot in Hazal about Messiah ben Joseph. But one of the things that it says is that Messiah ben Joseph will be killed in the wars of Gog and Magog, which are before Messiah, etc. And the like. So, the Vilna Gaon says the following comment. The Vilna Gaon says, "Messiah ben Joseph can be a person, but it can also be a movement." Meaning to say, it doesn't have to be a person. And he says that just as was the case in Misrayim, when Messiah when Joseph set up the economic infrastructure that kept the society going in times of famine, and then Yehuda created the spiritual environment, so too Messiah ben Joseph actually represents the physical building up of Eretz Israel as a precursor to the spiritual rejuvenation of Messiah ben David. And it is suggested therefore Now, this is an extrapolation because the Vilna Gaon was not talking about not only these builders, I mean he's talking about people who would build up the land and be faithful to Torah. But the Vilna Gaon does but people extrapolate from the Vilna Gaon, and I think it's you know, it's going further than him, but some have said that you can look at the whole Zionist enterprise as an expression of Messiah ben Joseph as a precursor to Messiah ben ben David. And again, uh What about the death? Exactly. where does Where does the death of Joseph Right. Well, that that that could very well have been the Holocaust. That that could have been the Holocaust itself, meaning to say so many Jews did die in the Holocaust, including those that were involved at least from afar in the Zionist enterprise. But I think the Vilna Gaon also suggests that the death can be bypassed in different ways, meaning by focusing on building up Eretz Yisrael, you can bypass the death aspect. All right. Now, uh you may ask, where does the Vilna Gaon say all this? I need I need to give you a little little history here because I I I said the Vilna Gaon says, but that's a little bit open to question. Uh we have a safer, small safer called Kol HaTor. That means the voice of the turtledove. Which was allegedly written The The author that is said to have written this uh book is Rav Hillel of Shklov, from Shklov, city in Lithuania. And Rav Hillel of Shklov was a talmid of the Vilna Gaon. And he attempted to record the Vilna Gaon's teaching on yeshuv Eretz Yisrael and the coming of Mashiach. So, the Kol HaTor is written by a talmid, a well-known talmid of the Gra. And this is where these ideas are expounded. Now, I do have to say there is a view in some quarters that this is a forged book and it attributes teachings to the Vilna Gaon that were never there, and the Hillel of Shklov was not the real author. So, uh those who are against the philosophy espoused in this book uh do have some evidence that it was uh forged. On the other hand, on the other hand, uh a decidedly non-Zionist great great uh Godol Rav Chaim Friedlander, the Mashgiach of Ponevezh, uh he examined it very very carefully and he considered this to be an authentic teaching. Uh Rav Moshe Sternbuch says it's not, so you know, I I can't uh totally decide this. In fact, there's something else the book says that also some segments don't like. The Vilna Gaon is quoted as saying, "This is not about Eretz Yisrael, it's about secular wisdom. That for every measure of secular wisdom you don't possess, your knowledge of Torah will be deficient tenfold." And therefore, uh the Vilna Gaon is quoted that it is incumbent on people to master secular realms of wisdom such as mathematics, science, and and the like. Uh again, those who are not in favor of that will also say that this is proof that it was written by the Haskalah and passed off in the name of the Vilna Gaon. So, there's a bit of a controversy in this. But, this is the idea of Geulah b'derech hatevah that the redemption will follow, at least initially, a natural course. And again, the prototype and precedent for this is the Bayit Sheni. Because this is the Bayit Sheni. Now, you may say, "Well, wait a second. With the Bayit Sheni, there was no Mashiach at the end. I mean, it was destroyed." But, but the truth of the matter is it was a smicha that did not pan out. But, the Malbim and all of them are for sure saying that the original plan, so to speak, was that the Bayit Sheni would be the inauguration of a messianic presence. The fact that it didn't happen is because we turned out not to take advantage of the opportunity. Perhaps because most of the Jews did not come to Eretz Yisrael. And some of our force them say that, "Had most of the Jews come to the land of Israel, the Bayit Sheni would have been the final Bayit. And that would have been the Geulah without the Romans, without the Greeks, without all of those all of those things." Okay? So, that is the um So, that is part two. So, part one of the Haftarah, which is relatively short, were simply the words of comfort and strength. Part two is the vision of Yehoshua and the message of Avdi Semach, that Messiah will be like a growth. Now, so far I didn't mention menorah, so that comes in part three. Part three. Part three, it's that Zechariah says he sees in shamayim a big gold menorah of seven candles. And on top of the menorah is a big bowl. So, imagine that in the central shaft there's a big bowl. Uh and on either side of the bowl are olive trees, from the right and to the left. And the picture is that the olives are being squeezed and their oil flows into the bowl. And from the bowl there are pipes or pipelines that go into each of the seven candles. And the malach says to Zechariah, "What do you see?" And Zechariah says, "I see this menorah where the oil from the trees goes into the bowl and from the bowl into the seven candles." And the malach says, "What does it mean?" And Zechariah says, "I have no idea what it means. I just see something." And the malach says, "You know what it means. You know what this represents." Zechariah says, "No." So, finally the malach says, And this is a very, very famous pasuk. This is actually the motto in many buildings even in Israel. Lo v'chayil v'lo v'choach ki im b'ruchi amar Hashem Your success in life will not be by your heroism and will not be by your strength. It will be by my spirit that will be with me. With my spirit you can do everything. And this is addressed to yet another character here because there are uh two central characters at the beginning of the Bible chain. There's Ezra and Nehemiah who are really the spiritual leaders. But Yehoshua is the Cohen Gadol. And the second person is Zerubbabel. Remember in most of that for a lot of people, the only time they hear the name Zerubbabel cuz they they don't learn Tanakh necessarily, is they remember the song Kate's Babel Zerubbabel. For some reason, little kids often find that a funny name and they they kind of laugh. Uh but Zerubbabel was a person. Zerubbabel was a person. And who is Zerubbabel? Zerubbabel was the first governor, the first Jewish governor. Yehoshua is the Cohen Gadol. Zerubbabel he's not Melech because we don't have Melechs now. Like Persia was ruling over us. But Chazal say Zerubbabel was in line to be Melech had we played the cards a little differently and come. Right? And in fact, he's called Zerubbabel. It's an interesting story. Zerubbabel is really a contraction of two words. Nizar Babavel, he was conceived in Babel. There's a fascinating story. The next to the last king before the destruction of the Temple was Jehoiachin, Yechanya. And Yechanya was deposed by Nebuchadnezzar after only 3 months. And so his uncle Zedekiah became the last king, but Zedekiah was killed without children. So Messiah is descended from Jehoiachin. Jehoiachin or Jeconiah, the same same name. And Jeconiah is described in Jeremiah as a very extreme Russia, which is why he was deposed, why he was imprisoned. He was in prison for many years, for decades. He was eventually released as a very old man, but he never became king or anything. And Hashem describes Jehoiachin as Jeconiah, Jehoiachin, the same name. He says, "You are so disgusting in my eyes that even if you were a ring on my finger," Hashem says, "I would remove the ring and throw it into the garbage." So Jehoiachin was rejected by the Almighty. And he's languishing in prison for decades, decades, decades. Who imprisoned him? Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar had already conquered the land, and he uh he imprisoned He didn't execute him, he imprisoned him. Even though he was a uh a descendant of the royal family? Of King David, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's what he did, he imprisoned him. He wanted to humiliate him. So at some point, apparently, the Babylonian prison system allowed for conjugal visits. Although it was such a He was really in a pit, it wasn't a prison cell. So they had conjugal visit, they had to have relations standing up, and that was it. And his wife is lowered down to him for a conjugal visit. And they had not been together for a very very long time. Their desire was very strong. And right before the act, she notices a drop of blood that renders her a nida. And she says, "We can't do it." And for some reason, in spite of the fact that he was he was a Russia, he was not a righteous person, for that moment he decided to obey Hashem's commandments. And when he was eventually freed, he had a child in his old age. And either the child or the grandchild was Zerubbabel. Because God decided that that In fact, when the Rambam in Hilchos Teshuvah discusses the idea that even if a person does teshuvah at the very end of their lives, they're all forgiven. Instantaneous transformation. He uses Jehoiachin, Jeconiah, as the example. And Zerubbabel is the I think the grandson, not the son, that's the grandson from that union. And he was supposed to be Mashiach. He certainly had great great uh potential. And that's what the Haftarah ends, that Zerubbabel, you will be able to uh surmount even the greatest mountains that shall be made like valleys before you. So, this is the great great uh hope, and this is what the menorah represents. The menorah is lo b'chayil v'lo b'choach. Ki im b'ruchi. It is my spirit, Hashem says, that will give you your success in life. And as long as we are aware of this, Hashem will bless us. Now, in many ways, we have to say, the Bayit Sheni turned out to be a profound disappointment. Because the message of the Nevi'im is this can turn into something great. In fact, it didn't turn into something that great. We had a Beit Hamikdash, that's a good thing, but for the whole period we were dominated by the Persians, by the Greeks, by the Romans. The Hasmonean dynasty in the middle was not such a great thing either. They persecuted the observance of Torah. Initially, they were righteous, but eventually they became Hellenists. So, the Bi'at Sheini is and we didn't have prophecy, we certainly didn't have Mashiach. The Bi'at Sheini is really shattered illusions, dreams that didn't come to fruition. And that's very sobering because once again, we might be facing a very similar type of predicament, right? So, the Bi'at Sheini and our tekufa is somewhat similar. The big difference is that we do have Jewish independence, which for most of the Bi'at Sheini, uh we do not. So, that already gives us a little bit of a of a plus. But a lot of the problems and a lot of the issues we still face. So, this Haftarah is both a message of comfort and a reminder of what things can become if we tend the tzemach, tend the plant in the right in the right way. So, may God help us to be zocheh to to respond to that. God bless you.