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Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Follow-up to Gog Umagog Post

Yesterday, i posted a quote from Lazer Beams that Gog Umagog is over. Today, he clarifies:
From the unfortunate experiences of nuclear explosions around the world, we've learned that post-explosion fallout is no less perilous than the explosion itself. Years after an explosion, high levels of radioactivity remain in the soil, distorting and causing sickness to flaura, fauna, and man alike.

The Melitzer Rebbe, my esteemed and beloved teacher and spiritual guide, explained to me yesterday - in the exact words that he heard from the holy Rebbe Aaron of Belz of blessed memory - that the murder of 6,000,000 Jewish martyrs in the Nazi Holocaust was the pinnacle of Gog and Magog's attack against Am Yisroel, the people of Israel. As a result, a third of the Jewish people was destroyed.

Gog and Magog are dead. The Almighty no longer hides His holy countenance from us, as He did in the Holocaust. In 1948, He helped a handful of farmers, factory workers, and concentration-camp survivors defeat the combined standing armies of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. In 1967, He again delivered Israel from her enemies. In 1973, when according to all military logic Israel should have been destroyed, The Almighty turned the tables around in Israel's favor. Don't be mistaken - the Syrian and Egyptian commandos are superb soldiers; at the time, their armies boasted state-of-the-art Russian weaponry. Defeating them was a major miracle.

Twice, in 1991 and again last year, The Almighty fought Israel's battles for her by removing Sadaam Hussein. Sadaam's Scud missiles could have reached all of Israel's major population centers.

The Almighty, only 14 short years ago, dismantled the USSR without firing a shot. Why? He promised long ago that before the coming of Moshiach, He'd bring all the dispersed Jews home to Israel.

Enough miracles?

In 1945, Torah and Judaism were almost dead. The renown Lithuanian and Chassidic communities of Eastern Europe were wiped out. Anyone who visits Israel, and sees what's going on in Jerusalem, BnaiBrak, Ashdod, Beitar, Kiryat Sefer, Elad, Arad, and Kiriat Gat can't believe their eyes. Torah and the communities of its faithful are alive, vibrant, and growing from day to day.

Fallout. Gog and Magog, the pograms and the Holocaust, have left a terrible aftermath. Nuclear fallout is radioactivity, which threatens bodies. Spiritual fallout is epikorsis, the denial of faith, which kills souls. Rebbe Nachman of Breslev, just about 200 years ago, warned that epikorsis would be a bigger threat to the Jewish people than any physical calamity. A large number of Jews around the world - including Israel - die spiritual deaths while falling victim to epikorsis and assimilation every day. The damage is a thousand-fold worse than the combined damages of the Intifada and world terror.

Moshiach. We are now facing the final test of faith before the coming of the Moshiach, our messiah, and the redemption of our people. The world is now like a blanket; The Almighty is giving it a tremendous shake, and only those who hold on tight - by clinging to their faith in Him - will stay aboard. Therefore, now is the time to strengthen our faith, to wash our eyes from the materialism that blinds us, and to see Hashem's miracles, which are now out in the open for everybody to see.

Bnai Noach Movement. Who would have believed that thousands of non-Jews around the world would be categorically accepting the absolute truth of Torah? These are the very bright people who have developed a keen sense of spiritual awareness, and want to share in the glory of redemption. One Ben Noach, a regular Lazer Beam reader and close friend, wrote me an email saying, "Anyone who can't smell Moshiach on the way needs an ear, nose, and throat specialist!"

Tshuva Movement. The Tshuva Movement in Israel alone has long surpassed six figures. Never - in the entire 34 centuries of Jewish history since Mount Sinai - has there been such a phenomenon of spiritual rebirth.

Faith is one of the prime garments of the soul. Blemished faith is tantamount to wearing a blemished garment. Even worse, with no faith, the soul is rendered naked, and exposed to untold ridicule and shame. The palace guards certainly won't let those with blemished garments see the King, much less someone who's unclad altogether.

Now's the time to rectify; if the world were a baseball game, then we're now in the bottom of the ninth inning. Little time remains, but mark my words, the faithful are going to be the big winners.


With all due respect to Rabbi Brody and his rebbe, the Melitzer Rebbe, shlit"a, this interpretation doesn't help explain how all the nations will come to Yerushalayim and fight against the Jewish people. I would love to hear a good explanation on how this fits in to that known concept. I hope that he's correct, but I've unfortunately heard differently.

Here are a few sites that disagree with this interpretation:
http://aharit.com/A-05.html
http://magog.web-site.co.il/gog/e_war.shtml
http://www.gogumogog.com
http://www.shofar.net/site/ARDetile.asp?id=6392

That said, Rabbi Brody's conclusion where he calls for Teshuva is 100% correct.

3 Comments:

At Wed May 18, 07:06:00 PM 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yerushalayim is yira shalem -- perfect yiras shomayim. The goyim coming against Yerushalyim is the attempt by the goyim to separate the Jewish people from G-d.

According to the view that Gog and Magog has three parts, then it would imply that the Melitzer Rebbe is speaking about the first parts, which are a physical war full of death and destruction. This we have already passed, and the Lubavitcher Rebbe said as much numerous times.

We could then understand that the third part of the war is the war against emunah, against the connection of Yidden to Eretz Yisroel, which is going on right now. But the death and destruction on a physical plane we won't see, as this already happened, rachmana litzlan.

The neviim and especially the meforshim talk about the war of Magog as being a situation where the Jews will seemingly have no chance, and then Hashem performs wonders for them. The M. Rebbe seems to imply that this has already happened. I would humbly suggest, trusting in the statements of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, that despite the great miracles Hashem has performed for the Yidden over the past 60 years, that we still have yet to see the complete and revealed fulfillment of the posuk "kimei tzetzchem m'eretz mitrayim areinu niflaos"--like the days of your coming out of Egypt, I will show you wonders.

 
At Thu May 19, 10:04:00 AM 2005, Blogger yaak said...

Anonymous,

Nice Peshat! I hope that you are correct. It still disagrees with many others about this. We will have to wait and see.

MN,

Also, a nice Peshat! But I don't think the Pesukim fit exactly with this interpretation.

 
At Mon Oct 15, 02:03:00 PM 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The most obvious evidence for the proof of what Rabbi Brody is saying comes from two directions. The first is straight from Zechariyah 4:6 and the classic commentaries there like Abarbanel, Metzudot David and Malbim.

That the nations come to Yerushalayim perhaps even to make war is one thing. But everyone accepts that Moshiach "fights" these wars and wins them. The prophecy from Zechariyah states explicitly that Moshiach accomplishes this not through military might and conquest but by changing the spiritual perception of the nations.

Like with all prophecy, most of the language is to be understood as allegory and analogy, not in a plain sense. This is also the approach Rambam uses in Mishnah Torah in the Laws of Kings. This is emphasized in many places in the Torah.

This point actually becomes obvious when it is understood that the prophets that were chosen for inclusion in the Tanach were chosen specifically because their prophecies applied and were relevant to each and every generation. If they were to be understood literally as many suggest, it would mean the exact same actions would be happening in every generation which is clearly not the case.

The other proof also relates to understanding concepts relating to Moshiach. In Jewish law it is known that Moshiach is going to build the third Temple. This is found in the Mishnah Torah and also Aruch HaShulchan HeAtid. This must be understood according to the plain sense of the words.

If we look at the example from the building of the first Temple, King David determined the correct location for the Temple and collected all the materials needed to build. He then asked HaShem if he could be personally involved in the actual building of the Temple. HaShem told King David that he was not allowed to build it because he had so much blood on his hands from the actual wars he had fought. G-d's house was not to be established on a foundation of violence but rather on a foundation of peace. It was for this reason that David's son, King Solomon, whose name is "peace" would build it. Solomon's kingdom was established upon a foundation of peace.

This clear example teaches why Moshiach's kingdom will be built on a foundation of peace and not the violence that is being popularly discussed. It is part of the requirements to his fulfilling the mitzvah of building the third Temple.

Yashar

 

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