Various Unrelated Mashiah Things

• I previously mentioned the book גליא רזא. I just found the reference to 5760 in HebrewBooks.org here in the right column.
• Rav Paysach Krohn recently came to our בית כנסת to speak - he didn't say this there, but he said it on a CD I bought in the name of R' Zelig Epstein, who said it in the name of R' Shimon Shkop. In Pesahim 117b, it says:

  א"ר שמעון בן לקיש (בראשית יב) ואעשך לגוי גדול זהו שאומרים אלהי אברהם ואברכך זהו שאומרים אלהי יצחק ואגדלה שמך זהו שאומרים אלהי יעקב יכול יהו חותמין בכולן ת"ל והיה ברכה בך חותמין ואין חותמין בכולן

  Said R' Shimon Ben Lakish: (Bereishit 12) "And I will make you into a great nation" - that's what people say [in the Amida] "The G-d of Avraham". "And I will bless you" - that's what people say "The G-d of Yitzhak". "And I will make your name great" - that's what people say "The G-d of Ya'akov". I may think that they will conclude the blessing with [mentioning] all of them. Therefore, the verse tells you "And you will be a blessing" - [meaning that] they will conclude [the blessing] with you [i.e. Avraham] and they will not conclude [the blessing] with all of them.

  
  So, he says that the word "חותמין" (they will conclude) can be referring to the conclusion of time. When it's time to finish off time before the coming of Mashiah, we won't be like Yitzhak, who had a father to teach him how to be a tzaddik, nor will we be like Ya'akov, who had a father and a grandfather to teach him how to be a tzaddik. Rather, we will be like Avraham Avinu, whose father was an idol-worshipper, and was still able to come to the realization of the Master of the Universe on his own. We are a דור יתומים - and generation of orphans, a generation of Ba'alei Teshuva - just like Avraham, and that is how Hashem will be חותם the world before Mashiah's arrival.
  
  I saw a similar idea on a Modzhitz website quoting the Kozmir Rebbe - he says that Hashem will be חותם the world when we perform acts of kindness with each other - the character trait of Avraham Avinu.


• I was looking at the Minhagim of Hoshana Rabba (in Hebrew) from Wikipedia and it mentions an old Minhag of circling Har Hazeitim 7 times (likely having to do with the Haftara we read this past Shabbat). (Also, see there about the fascinating Minhag of seeing your naked shadow in the moonlight, which was an abolished Minhag due to "Tamim Tihye". See the Rema here and the Kaf Hahayim's explanation here (אות ח"י וי"ט).)