The End of the Telegraph

The world's last telegram will be sent in India on July 14th (2 days before Tish'a Be'av).

Here are some areas of Halacha on HebrewBooks.org that had to do with telegraphs (not necessarily Halacha Lema'aseh - consult your LOR):

• Can one accept testimony via a telegram that a woman is divorced ?  See here.
• How about testimony about when an animal was slaughtered in order to know until when salting can be performed?  See here.  (Talks about the previous case too.)
• Is sending a telegram on Shabbat a biblical or rabbinic prohibition?  See here.
• If someone was notified of a relative's death via telegram, when does Aveilut begin?  See here.
• Can one use telegraph wire as part of an Eruv?  See here and here and here.
• Can you perform the Mitzvah of Pidyon Haben via telegram?  See here.

I'm sure there are more, but you get the drift - it has taken its place in halachic discourse, and we see that it's the end of an era.  Perhaps, though, the era of the telegraph is more important than first thought.

Samuel Morse conducted the first successful experiment with an electrical telegraph in 1837.  Cooke and Wheatstone developed the first commercial telegraph in 1838-39.  In 1844, Morse sent the verse  from this week's Perasha (Balak) "WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT" as the first telegram from the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. to Baltimore.  (This verse has Mashiah-related importance, as we find in the Yerushalmi Shabbat 6:9 and Iggeret Teiman.)

All this was going on about the same time that the Zohar explained that in the year 5600 (1840), all the gates and wellsprings of wisdom will open up.  As I translated from Rav Shmuel Eliyahu Shlit"a:

And really, it's amazing to see how all the great inventions of the world began from the year 5600: the industrial uses of coal and oil, electricity and all the technology that depends on it, the paving of roads and the invention of cars, motors and airplanes - all this started around the year 5600. All this development which is called the "Industrial Revolution" brought the world out of its ignorance and changed its life. All of it is a preparation for the days of Mashiah, which as is known, will change the face of all of humanity and not just the nation of Israel.

Rav Eliyahu also quoted the Gr"a and the Be'er Yitzhak that Ikveta Dimshiha started in 5600.  Also, Rav Fish mentioned that עקבתא has the root of עקב, with a gematria of 172.  This implies that the end of this era is about now.  He also mentioned the Targum Yerushalmi that talks about Mashiah coming after 172 "days".

Bye, bye, telegraph.  Hello, Mashiah.

May it be so.