Category: Redemption Watch

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END OF DAYS: Britain, Israel, and the Unleashing of Radical Islam

With the recent terror attack in Britain directed against the British Parliament and the tepid response by London’s first Muslim mayor, a sort of karmic end to Britain’s one time global rule has come upon it. The British government insists it does not have a problem, but outside observers sense that its capital London, renamed Londinistan by journalist Melanie Phillips in her 2006 book titled by the same name is heading towards two countries, one Muslim and the other British.  There appears no turning back and yet the British government continues to placate Radical Islam by encouraging Muslim immigration into Britain.  It was this immigration policy which fueled Brexit and yet with all of the push to finalize Brexit under the May government, immigration continues.

The problem for Britain did not start in the 21st century. It began 100 years ago, just before the end of World War One. Lord Balfour declared famously:

His Majesty’s government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

Not quite a state and yet it was perceived by all as the beginning of nation-state in the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people, Balfour’s declaration galvanized the Zionist movement like nothing else. Jews who had been streaming back to the Land of Israel since the early 1800’s were ready to back the British war against the Turks in what would become the Palestinian Mandate.

Balfour himself had always been sympathetic to Jewish aspirations in the Land of Israel, but Britain began to back track after Balfour.  Winston Churchill would himself become the leader of the push-back against Balfour’s promise. Although never dismantling the idea of  the Palestinian Mandate being a homeland for Jews, he zeroed in on the word homeland and made it abundantly clear that Arabs should have nothing to worry about since no state would arise. This need to placate the Arabs found its way into Churchill’s 1922 White Paper with these words:

“The tension which has prevailed from time to time in Palestine is mainly due to apprehensions, which are entertained both by sections of the Arab and by sections of the Jewish population. These apprehensions, so far as the Arabs are concerned are partly based upon exaggerated interpretations of the meaning of the [Balfour] Declaration favouring the establishment of a Jewish National Home in Palestine, made on behalf of His Majesty’s Government on 2 November 1917.”

“‘Unauthorized statements have been made to the effect that the purpose in view is to create a wholly Jewish Palestine. Phrases have been used such as that Palestine is to become “as Jewish as England is English.” His Majesty’s Government regard any such expectation as impracticable and have no such aim in view. They would draw attention to the fact that the terms of the Declaration referred to do not contemplate that Palestine as a whole should be converted into a Jewish National Home, but that such a Home should be founded “in Palestine.” In this connection it has been observed with satisfaction that at a meeting of the Zionist Congress, the supreme governing body of the Zionist Organization, held at Carlsbad in September, 1921, a resolution was passed expressing as the official statement of Zionist aims “the determination of the Jewish people to live with the Arab people on terms of unity and mutual respect, and together with them to make the common home into a flourishing community, the upbuilding of which may assure to each of its peoples an undisturbed national development.”‘

Britain’s colonial policies post World War One no matter if it was Africa, India, Afghanistan, or the Middle East sought control through setting up perpetual conflict between inhabitants within a particular boundary. Balfour’s declaration was an anomaly to this policy and although successive British governments tried to push back on the Jewish return to the Land of Israel, the Zonist movement grew and broke through these attempts.

British Arabism Unleashed Today’s Radical Islam

It is no secret that British governments have been inclined to support Arab and Islamic claims to large swaths of the Middle East. This policy directly led to later White Papers which curtailed Jewish movement into the Land of Israel. This in turn led to the extermination of millions of Jews during the Holocaust.  If it was just Israel then perhaps, one could simply label Great Britain’s leadership as anti-semitic or anti-Zionist, but the same policy extended and is still active in Nigeria, with the British government overtly supporting the Muslim Hausa against the Judeo-Christian Igbo or in India where the British went out of their way to support Islamic rights in Kashmir or the Duran line, which cut the indigenous Pashtun in half in order to allow them to become engulfed by Pakistani Shiites.

The British seem to be enthralled with the idea of Islamic armies settling an untamed world that was laid to waste by the British imperialism of the 19th and 20th centuries. By pitting indigenous peoples whom they conquered (yes, Jerusalem had a majority Jewish population by 1863) against Radical Islamic hordes and barbaric Jihadist Arabs they have unleashed the very Radical Islam they claim to be fighting against.

Imagine a world, in which Britain had stood up to the stooges in Mecca and backed Balfour’s declaration to the end or if Britain had refrained from forming Nigeria and allowed the independent Judeo-Christian republic of Biafra to grow. Radical Islam and the supremacist current so prevalent in today’s Arab culture would have been kept caged and contained.

At the End of Days, the Western World stands hollowed out, a rotten corpse consumed by greed and a misplaced moral relativism.  The foot soldiers of Islam whom it has tried to manipulate against others have now turned their heads against the very master which set them free.  Ishmael has become unbound and unleashed against a Western World that appears to desire its own end. The Torah says the following when referring to Ishmael: “He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.”

Great Britain’s treatment of Jewish national aspirations and the placating of the armies of Radical Islam and oppressive Arabist regimes have sown the seeds of its own demise. Ishmael will not stop at London or Paris.  He is following the divine script written for him. This is the final act of the sojourning of Jacob and his return to spiritual and physical leadership. Britain and the West can put aside their animosity for Jacob’s movement towards redemption and thereby salvaging their countries or become consumed by Ishmael’s fury.  Either way, Israel will be redeemed.

 

 

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North Korea, Israel, and the Light of Redemption

For several years now, I have written several posts about North and South Korea being in the Twilight Zone of our halakhic international dateline and the End of Days implications of their placement there.  As Rav Levi Sa’adia Nachmani zt”l said years ago. that the Great light of Mashiach will come from the following two cryptic verses from Parshat Ha’Azinu (Devarim 32:21-22):

כא  הֵם קִנְאוּנִי בְלֹא-אֵל,  {ר}  כִּעֲסוּנִי בְּהַבְלֵיהֶם;  {ס}  וַאֲנִי אַקְנִיאֵם בְּלֹא-עָם,  {ר}  בְּגוֹי נָבָל אַכְעִיסֵם.  {ס} 21 They have roused Me to jealousy with a no-god (atheism); they have provoked Me with their vanities (nonsensical pursuits); and I will rouse them to jealousy with a non-people (the PaLeStinians who are not a nation, just an Arab collection of  Squatters from Jordan and Egypt since the P(h).L.S(h). root in Hebrew means “to squat on someone else’s land”  This is true in all Semitic languages by the way.  The derogatory name for Ethiopian Jews in the Amharic language with the same P(h).L.S(h). root,  given them by Ethiopian Xtians, was FaLaShah or Squatters in their midst.); I will provoke them with a vile nation (Tzarfat or France).
כב  כִּי-אֵשׁ קָדְחָה בְאַפִּי,  {ר}  וַתִּיקַד עַד-שְׁאוֹל תַּחְתִּית;  {ס}  וַתֹּאכַל אֶרֶץ וִיבֻלָהּ,  {ר}  וַתְּלַהֵט מוֹסְדֵי הָרִים.  {ס} 22 For a fire (a nuclear blast) is kindled in My nostril, and burneth unto the depths of the nether-world (She’ol or Seoul, South Korea), and devoureth the earth with her produce, and setteth ablaze the foundations of the mountains.

Now Rav Nachmani seemed to insinuate that the North Korean nuclear program may have been first to be used on Seoul, South Korea or against Japan or even against the American Pacific Coast, but its final target address would at least be an attempt to nuke Eretz Yisrael.  So over the course of the past week we see this lo and behold, Israel had to bomb a convoy of hi tech missiles from North Korea that were being transported in Syria to Hezbollah!    So if the missile and high grade fissionable uranium and plutonium technology, which is being produced in North Korea and disbursed to their Axis of Evil ally in Persia, is now being disbursed to Syria and Hezbollah, we are right now not far away from at least an attempt to actualize Rav Levi Nachmani’s nightmare scenario.  These are telling moments and telling times while our Supreme Court focuses its evil efforts on the destruction of Jewish life in Yesha, the rest of the world makes no distinctions and focuses in on murdering all of us.  But alas they will not succeed.  G-d if overseeing this last and final ingathering of exiles which began in earnest in several stages over the last 100 years (1917, 1948, 1967, 1990-1991).  The last one was predicted by the Vilna Gaon.  The final push to ingather the exiles of Israel would take place 3/4 of the way through the 6th Millennium in the years 5750 and 5751 (1990- 1991) to fulfill the verse in Yeshayahu 27:13 that with the Teki’ah blast of a Great Shofar, the Lost ones in the Land of Ashur and the castaways in the Land of Egypt would come on Aliyah.  Since the Lost ones in Ashur were at least in part absorbed by the Khazar tribe, the tenth son of Togarmah (the Turks), who migrated north to form their 500 year kingdom between the Black and Caspian Seas and since the Khazar kingdom did convert en masse to Judaism because of the convincing arguments of Rav Yehudah Almangari (recorded in the Kuzari by Yehudah HaLeivi), and since Khazaria was destroyed by Russia around the year 1240ce dispersing Jews northward into the Pale of Settlement in Russia and the Ukraine mixing in with Ashkenzaic Jews migrating eastward, the ingathering of Russian Jewry which began in 1990 and the ingathering of the castaways from Egypt, Ethiopian Jewry, in Operation Shlomo and Sheba in 1991 were a tremendous fulfillment of this incredible prophesy, right on schedule according to the Vilna Gaon.  This ingathering began the last 250 years BEFORE Yom sheKulo Shabbat too.  According to Sefer HaLeshem, that final ingathering would take a maximum of 40 years so that Techiyah HaMeitim could begin by the year 5790, 40 years after 5750.

In order to continue this post, though, we need to pause for review of the following three posts that I wrote many years ago on this blog.

1.  The Koreas (Are) In the Twilight Zone  from December 31, 2005
and
2.  North Korea is Emerging from the Twilight Zone from September 17, 2007
and
3.  The Korean Peninsula is Inching Closer to World War from March 31, 2013

Also ponder the following from the Zohar VaEira 32a:

Zohar 32a continued, after discussing how the Children of Yishmael were given merit for 1300 years, 400 years after the last Tanna, Yehudah HaNassi, wrote down the Mishneh because of the emptiness of Eretz Yisrael.

At that time, a nation from the end of the earth (halakhically determined international dateline) will be aroused against evil Rome and wage war against it for three months. Nations will gather there, and [Rome] will fall into their hands, until all the children of Edom will gather against it [that nation] from all the corners of the world. Then G‑d will be roused against them. This is the meaning of: “For G‑d has a sacrifice in Botzrah”(Yishayahu 34:6). (Botzrah is the city in Iraq controlled by the Shi’ite Arabs at the behest of neighboring Iran. This points to an endtimes alliance between the nation at the edge of the world (N. Korea) and Persia/Iran.) And afterwards, it is written: “That it might take hold of the ends of the earth…” (Job 38:13) He will destroy the descendants of Ishmael from the land, and break all the powers of [all the nations’ guardian angels] Above. There will not remain any power of any people on earth, except the power of Israel alone. This is the meaning of “G‑d is your shadow upon your right hand”. (Psalms 121:5)

Here, below, is the preceding text for the above excerpt from the Zohar from the Kabbalah On Line website from Chabad.org:

Come and see: for four hundred years (after the year 4000 when Eretz Yisrael was being emptied of Jews), the Heavenly minister of the children of Ishmael stood and begged before G‑d. He said to Him, ‘whoever is circumcised has a portion in Your name’. He (G-d) said to him, ‘it is so’. He (Yishmael’s Minister) said to Him, ‘Behold Ishmael who is circumcised. Why does he not have a portion in You like Isaac?’ He said to him, ‘It is not so, the one (Isaac) was circumcised properly and according to the full requirements, while the other was not so’ [as Ishmael does not fulfill “periyah/uncovering of a fourth layer of skin after three are removed”]. Moreover, the ones (Children of Isaac) cleave to Me as is specified on the eighth day, while the others (Children of Ishmael) are distanced from me for many days[being circumcised only at age 13]. He [Ishmael’s guardian angel] said to Him, ‘But still in all, since he is circumcised, would he not have a good reward for this?’
[R. Hiyya then says] Woe is to the time that Ishmael was born into the world and was circumcised. What did G‑d do [to appease Ishmael]? He distanced the children of Ishmael from supernal cleaving and gave them [only] a portion below in the Holy Land (for 1300 years or 26 Jubilee cycles, 100 years (or more exactly 98 years) for each year when Ishmael was circumcised) on account of their circumcision.
And in the future, the children of Ishmael are destined to rule over the Holy Land for a long time when it is empty from anything, like their circumcision which is empty and imperfect. And they will prevent the children of Israel from returning to their place until the reward for the merit of the children of Ishmael reaches completion (26 Jubilee cycles of control of Eretz Yisrael in the merit of his imperfect circumcision).
The children of Ishmael [i.e. the Arab nations] will (THEN After their 1300 year reward) cause great wars in the world and the children of Edom will gather against them and wage war against them, one on the sea (First Persian Gulf War as lead by Gog H.W. Bush, Sr.), one on the dry land (2nd Persian Gulf War as lead by Gog ben Gog W Bush, Jr.), and one near Jerusalem (to be determined). And they [the children of Edom]will rule over them [the children of Ishmael], but the Holy Land will not be given over to the children of Edom. [The children of Edom is the Christian West, for Edom is Rome (see Num. 24:19, Rashi) and Rome signifies Greece-Rome and the Roman Catholic Church, the foundations of Western Civilization]
Then, the following from above:

At that time, a nation from the end of the earth (halakhically determined international dateline) will be aroused against evil Rome and wage war against it for three months. Nations will gather there, and [Rome] will fall into their hands, until all the children of Edom will gather against it [that nation] from all the corners of the world. Then G‑d will be roused against them. This is the meaning of: “For G‑d has a sacrifice in Botzrah”(Yishayahu 34:6). (Botzrah is the city in Iraq controlled by the Shi’ite Arabs at the behest of neighboring Iran. This points to an endtimes alliance between the nation at the edge of the world (N. Korea) and Persia/Iran.) And afterwards, it is written: “That it might take hold of the ends of the earth…” (Job 38:13) He will destroy the descendants of Ishmael from the land, and break all the powers of [all the nations’ guardian angels] Above. There will not remain any power of any people on earth, except the power of Israel alone. This is the meaning of “G‑d is your shadow upon your right hand”. (Psalms 121:5)

Originally Published in Years of Awe.

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END OF DAYS: Russia is Coming for Israel

The Middle East is becoming unhinged. Whether Putin maliciously planned to allow Israel to be cornered by Iran and Hezbollah or not may never be known, but what is clear is the agreements between Russia and Israel on “freedom of attack” when Iranian arm transfers to Hezbollah are determined to be for attacking Israel appears to be changed from their original parlance.  When the IAF attacked a convoy that inadvertently destroyed Russian armaments, Israel’s relationship with Putin changed.

True, Putin most probably set the confrontation up as a test to see how serious Israel was in taking out Iranian weapons, but the question is why.  With the Syrian crisis far from over and the Ukrainian conflict growing in the Don-bass, Russia is trying to demarcate who stands where.  It had been assumed before Friday’s attack and Sunday’s Hezbollah movement to the Golan that Israel would elect to stay out of the burgeoning war between Russia and the West.  Israel’s reaction proved this hypothesis wrong.

The next stage is a purposeful allowance of Iranian and Hezbollah soldiers to take the Syrian Golan.  This is a red line for Israel and  yet vitally important for Russia to execute in order to put in place a Gordian knot on the Jewish State.  While Putin cements his control of Syria, the last thing he needs is for Israel disrupt it.

Making Deals with Putin Never Ends Well

Bibi Netanyahu responded to Putin’s summoning of the Israeli ambassador with these words: “Our policy on the subject will not change,” declared Netanyahu. “If there is a feasibility from an intelligence and military standpoint – we attack and so it will continue.”

Yet, it was Bibi himself who insisted that he had struck a deal with Putin.  The changing parameters of that deal, which shift by the day show how ridiculous it is to toy with KGB directors turned Presidents.  Bibi is a good chess player and out-foxed Obama for eight years, but Putin is a champion at it and despite Bibi’s tough talk he knows Israel is becoming cornered.

In December of of 2015 I wrote this concerning the embracing of Russia as a partner for Israel:

“a regionally strong and globally ascendant Israel should not run to embrace a looming Russian Bear just yet. Especially a Russia that is purely pragmatic and whose leaders do not share the biblical values that have made Israel function beyond the realm of pragmatism. These values in many ways have made the dream of an Israel that went from persecuted to global leader a reality far more than the tactical pragmatism of Putin. We have to remember that as much as we want to be accepted by a strong Russia, Putin himself lives in a world of tactics and tactics can change if Mother Russia needs them to. In other words an alliance with Russia will only happen if it is good for Russia and its length will only last if it is good for Russia.” 

Putin’s shifting tactics have finally caught up with Israel’s strategic needs.  In the next phase of the Syrian and expanding Levant conflict, the Israeli government would do well not to rely on earthly kings for security and perhaps take the time to put their trust in the only King that truly matters.

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Did Donald Trump Just Trigger the Islamic End of Days?

News that America has sent marines into Syria to first bolster Kurdish forces in the North of the country and then to spearhead the fight to rake Raqqa has raised the prospect of all out war with US boots firmly on the ground.

This sudden injection of US fighting forces has changed the nature of the war being fought to wipe out ISIS.  Up until Trump gave the go ahead, the Russian along with Syrian and Iranian forces were fighting head on against ISIS.  There have been some wins, but nothing decisive.

With the American military now directly involved in Syria, the battle of Raqqa may prove fatal for the young caliphate. Yet, Donald Trump’s decision to send troops into Syria may offer something else to ISIS, hope.

There is an Islamic Hadith dating back to the time of Muhammed that says the following:

“The Last Hour would not come until the Romans would land at al-A’maq or in Dabiq. An army consisting of the best (soldiers) of the people of the earth at that time will come from Medina (to counteract them).”

The Hadith is referrng to the Western powers coming to do battle with the army of the Caliphate.  The US troops were sent to a base West of Manbij.  Their first mission was to protect the Kurdish forces there from the Turkish army.  Now that this has been accomplished, the US troops and their Kurdish allies will move on Raqqa in an attempt to finish off ISIS.

Look at the map below and notice that Dabiq is about 36 miles from Manbij.  The US troops landed west of Manbij, putting them awefully close to Dabiq.  Many observers falsely quote the Hadith in saying the battle takes place in Dabiq, but it clearly states they land there.

Have a look at the map below to learn just how close Dabiq is to Manbij.

Map from Google

So why are we quoting a Hadith, afterall Muhammad was crazy, right?

Two points must be made clear. First, Muhammad did not know how to read or write.  He was orphaned at a young age and spent lots of time with the Jewish merchants in his area.  He began to keep many Jewish traditions.  When he proposed that he was actually the long awaited Messiah, many Jewish tribes rejected him outright.  Many of these tribes were either killed or expelled.

Despite the Jewish opposition many Jewish tribes actually converted after the Exilarch Shallum ben Hushiel (the head of the Jewish community in Babylon and descendent of King David) met with Muhammed and converted. This weakened the resolve of the Jewish tribes’ opposition to Muhammed.

The Koran and early Hadiths were inspired by Muhammed’s connection to Judaism.

The second point is the fact that Islam draws from what is called “Dark Side Emunah (faith).”  This gives its followers strength to see the task through to the end, yet there is something far deeper than simple preserverence. The fact that the Hadith were drawn from a point of faith that was twisted means there are elements of truth to it. Afterall, those Jewish tribes that converted did so even after they saw their brothers and sisters massacred in the battle of Kaibar.

Keep in mind this does not mean the Hadith will come true in its entirety, but that pieces of it may point to signs of an end time war.

The Bible also speaks of an End Time War in the North of Israel in Zecharia and then again in Isaiah chapter 17 with the destruction of Damascus.

Whether it is the Hadith or the Bible, US troops in Syria in combat positions seem to indicate an important line has been crossed.  Is the final battle coming? We are certainly closing in on it.

 

 

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Redemption Requires Israel to Shed its Slave Mentality

“Pharaoh approached; the Children of Israel raised their eyes and behold! – Egypt was journeying after them, and they were very frightened; the Children of Israel cried out to HaShem. They said to Moshe, ‘Were there no graves in Egypt that you took us to die in the Wilderness? What is this that you have done to us to take us out of Egypt? Is this not the statement that we made to you in Egypt, saying, Let us be and we will serve Egypt? – For it is better that we should serve Egypt than that we should die in the Wilderness!’

Moshe said to the people, ‘Do not fear! Stand fast and see the salvation of HaShem that He will perform for you today; for as you have seen Egypt today, you shall not see them ever again! HaShem shall make war for you, and you shall remain silent.’” (SHEMOT14:10– 14)

Acknowledging that Israel greatly outnumbered the Egyptian military at the Sea of Reeds, the Ibn Ezra provides a remarkable explanation of the above verses. He writes: “How could a camp of six hundred thousand men fear their pursuers? Why should they not fight for their lives and the lives of their children? The answer is that the Egyptians had been Israel’s masters. The generation leaving Egypt had learned from childhood to endure the Egyptian yoke and they possessed a low soul. Being weak and unaccustomed to warfare, how could they now fight against their masters? We see that Amalek came with a small force and, if not for Moshe’s tefillah, they would have weakened Israel. G-D alone does great deeds and orchestrates events. He arranged for all the males who had left Egypt to die out – because they lacked the strength to fight the Canaanites – until another generation arose who had not seen exile and who possessed an exalted spirit.”

The Ibn Ezra teaches that despite their superior numbers, Israel was not commanded to stand and fight. The Hebrews had been conditioned by several generations of slavery to fear and obey their Egyptian masters. Possessing a low soul made them near incapable of warfare, thus requiring Moshe’s tefillot to later overcome the Amalekite ambush (SHEMOT 17:8-13). According to the Ibn Ezra, this low soul was the reason that the generation departing Egypt would later need to die out in the desert over a forty-year period. Their children – a new generation raised in freedom – would then be able to wage a war of liberation against the Canaanite kings.

The low soul that the Ibn Ezra speaks of is similar to what modern psychologists term “learned helplessness.” At various historic points, this slave mentality has prevented the Jewish people from successfully advancing our national mission. One example of this neurosis in recent decades has been the confusion among many scholars concerning the process of redemption and how the Jewish people must relate to – and interact with – the historic events unfolding in modern times.

Israel’s Prophets and ancient Sages teach that there are two ways in which the final redemption can occur. There is the miraculous way (aḥishena) and the more mundane natural process (bi’eta). Due to the bitter realities of life in the Diaspora, Jewish communities in recent centuries were conditioned to believe that the redemption could only transpire through open miracles. Taking the initiative to advance salvation through physically conquering the Land of Israel was scorned as forbidden by many rabbis who claimed that Israel must sit patiently and wait for the Kadosh Barukh Hu to redeem His people. In the ghettos of Europe, where day-to-day life included a fear of gentile persecution, the idea of Jews valiantly recapturing Eretz Yisrael by force of arms seemed as if it would be even more an aberration of the natural order of the world than HaShem performing supernatural miracles on our behalf. As a result of this reality existing for so long, many Jews became trapped in this mindset of helplessness even once the political reality surrounding them had changed.

Other factors also contributed to the Jewish idealization of learned helplessness. Because of the internal damage inflicted upon Israel by so many unsuccessful messianic movements, the study of the redemption process was halted in most houses of study throughout Europe, leading to any attempt at bringing salvation closer through human efforts becoming widely seen as tantamount to an act of heresy. The combination of these factors created an expectation that the redemption would occur through supernatural events above and beyond human participation. Practical efforts to achieve redemption came to be viewed as destructive behavior stemming from a weakness of faith.

Learned helplessness became most prevalent in Jewish circles during the decades leading up to the development of political Zionism. The handful of Torah giants at the time who understood that Hebrew liberation could – and most probably would – unfold through a series of natural historic events were unable to effectively spread their ideas or inspire the faithful masses to actively participate in the redemption process. But examining the words of these visionary scholars can help us to retroactively recognize how correct they truly were and how much their teachings still illuminate our proper path.

Rabbi Yehuda Ḥai Alkalai, the famed kabalist of Sarajevo, wrote of redemption from within in Raglei Mevaser. In it he explains: “Redemption will reach us in a natural way. Had the Almighty wished to redeem His people through miracles, the exile would not have lasted so long. Moreover, in the present Jewish situation even a naturally attained redemption would be miraculous. Redemption will grow from within the people and not with the Messiah performing miracles, as in the days of the Exodus from Egypt. Final redemption will be the result of national initiative aided by G-D, as it is written: ‘And the Children of Judah and the Children of Israel will be gathered together’ (HOSHEA 2:2), and ‘Shake yourself from the dust, arise and sit down, O Jerusalem, release the bonds from around your neck,’ (YISHAYAH 52:2). Yishayah uses the reflexive form to emphasize that redemption will stem from self-help.”

In his Reply to the Skeptics, Rabbi Eliyahu Guttmakher states: “To our great misfortune there are yet many who mistakenly believe that they will sit in the comfort of their homes when suddenly a voice from heaven will proclaim redemption. But it will not be so! The Babylonian exile, though destined to last no more than seventy years, required the practical leadership of Daniel, Ezra and Neḥemia to achieve a significant return toEretz Yisrael. Unlike many of our own contemporaries they did not say ‘let every man remain at his place and redemption will come of itself.’”

Rabbi Zvi Hirsh Kalisher illuminates the way to redemption in Drishat Tzion. He writes: “It is wrong to believe that redemption will come as a sudden revelation of G-D from heaven, calling upon His people to leave the Diaspora. The vision of the Prophets must come true, but not as a sudden event. Final redemption will come in stages with the return of the people to the land and ultimately by the coming of the Messiah. Dear friend, you must rid yourself of the illusion that the call of the Messiah will come as a bolt from the blue arousing the sleeping masses. Redemption will come about through an awakening of well dispersed gentile leaders and governments, viewing favorably the return of Jews to the Holy Land.”

In regards to Rabbi Kalisher’s last point, Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Ḥarlop – a prominent disciple of Rabbi Avraham Yitzḥak HaKohen Kook and former head of Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav – teaches in the sixth volume of Mei Marom (Mayanei HaYeshua) that initial gentile support for Israel’s return to our land must eventually give way to hostility from the international community in order facilitate a later stage of the redemption process that will force the Jewish people to become independent through the realization that our strength and security stem not from alliances with other nations but directly from our relationship with the Kadosh Barukh Hu.

In Awake, Rabbi Shmuel Mohilever teaches: “Even though natural events will lead to redemption, this is not simply an historical accident. There are no coincidences in the Universe, since G-D’s Will is also manifested in the course of natural events. Accordingly, it is for us to rouse the powers that be to treat the Jewish people favorably, whereupon Divine help will surely be forthcoming in the ingathering of the exiles to the Holy Land. As the Prophet proclaims (YISHAYAH 62:10): ‘Go through, go through the gates; clear the way of the people; cast up, pave the road; clear it of stones; raise a banner over the peoples.’ Yishayah’s intention is clear: we must awaken and do all in our power to clear away the obstacles in the path of our redemption.”

These scholars stressed the fact that human initiative would be necessary in bringing Israel’s redemption to fruition. Their ideas were highly advanced for their time – especially when compared with many of their contemporaries – and their teachings represent a Torah of action that challenges the psychological state of learned helplessness. While it is clear that we have still not yet tasted full redemption, the process has certainly begun to unfold. There exists a sovereign Hebrew state in much ofEretz Yisrael but in order for us to participate in bringing total salvation, a higher approach to Torah study must be adopted.

The holy Ohr HaḤaim speaks of redemption and self-awakening in his commentary on VAYIKRA 25:25. There he states: “Redemption will start with a stirring in men’s hearts urging them: Do you feel secure living in a strange land, exiled from your G-D? What pleasure does life offer so far removed from the lofty values that were yours in the presence of the Almighty? Superficial, ill-conceived desire will then become repulsive and a spiritual craving will awaken your soul, improving your actions until G-D will redeem. Who will be called to stand in judgment? The Jewish leaders of the Diaspora who throughout the years did not encourage their people to return to Zion. They will be made to bear the shame of a forsaken homeland.”

In Eim Habanim Smeiḥah, written during the Holocaust, Rabbi Yissakhar Shlomo Teikhtal echoes the Ohr HaḤaim’s statements on the dangers of passivity. “The Orthodox, on the other hand, those zealous for G-D’s Will, stood aside and took no part in this effort. They remained with their traditional view that ‘sitting back and doing nothing is best’… It seems to me that all the leaders who prevented their followers from going and joining the builders [of Eretz Yisrael] will never be able to cleanse their hands and say ‘our hands have not spilt this blood.’”

A new generation has arisen today, alive with a more vibrant Torah of redemption. It is a generation infused with an exalted spirit of vitality as Israel’s youth is again being raised on our natural soil. The homeland – which had for so long refused to provide fruits to any stranger – has blossomed under the renewed political sovereignty of her native people.

The vitality infused into the Jewish people today has inspired incredible acts of valor and self-sacrifice, even amongst those not observant or even knowledgeable of mitzvot. At nearly impossible odds, Israel has won miraculous victories over our enemies. We have liberated portions of our homeland and revived the Hebrew language after many long centuries of separation from both. These incredible events are part of a greater process prodding history forward as Israel returns to the international stage in order to ultimately shine blessing and light to mankind. HaShem has inspired a new generation with a lofty spirit uncorrupted by fear, passivity or the learned helplessness of the Diaspora. Israel’s youth demands a greater and fuller Torah that encompasses and infuses all aspects of life with the necessary strength and courage to usher in an era of universal redemption.