Geula-Related Recent Links

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Rabbanit Eliyahu: Don't Work on Shabbatot of Xmas and New Years to bring Mashiah

Life in Israel:
The upcoming Christian and secular holidays, Christmas and New Years, fall out on two consecutive Saturdays. I don't know how often that happens, and I doubt Torah Tidbits will give us the stats and the probabilities for such a sequence.

Rabanit Tzviya Eliyahu, the wife of Rav Mordechai Eliyahu zt"l, realized the opportunity this would present in the sense that on two consecutive Shabbos days Jews will not have a need to go to work. She saw the opportunity presented that it would therefore be easier to encourage people to keep shabbos, thus presenting the opportunity have all or most Jews keep two Shabbatot in a row thus guaranteeing the immediate arrival of Mashiach, as per the dictum of the Gemara.

She got a team together and they promoted their message in a number of countries. They say the response has been tremendous. Obviously not every Jew is going to keep Shabbos completely, but perhaps enough will, the one Jew who will tip the scales will be keeping Shabbos in some way, and Mashiach will come.

The Rabanit says that before her husband died he said that the time is ripe and all the conditions have already been met and all we need is just the one Jew who will tip the scales, and the redemption will be immediate. He said, everything happened already, including the war of Gog and Magog, and we have experienced everything we need to experience. We are ready.

Additionally, according to the YNet article, she said that people who are excited about this were calling her constantly, asking what is permitted and what is forbidden. Religious families will be hosting non-religious families to make it easier for them. She said that the chief rabbis of France and England told her that they will publicize this idea to their respective constituents.

She was asked, "So there is a situation that on Sunday in two weeks there will be Mashiah here?"

She answered, "Definitely.  According to our recruitment and the telephone calls that we're receiving, it's tangible.  I am working all the time on the one Jew who will tip the scales in our favor.  I see this happening.  It's enough to have one Jew raise himself up and in 2 weeks, we will all sit down and eat from the Shor Habar.

"When I read the news, I'm doing this in order to know how we are proceeding toward the Geula according to the prophets. Everything that happens here is connected to prophecies. We're not Meshichists, but we believe in the coming of Mashiah and we're expecting something good."

May her idea be successful.

Update: Arutz Sheva (Hebrew) has an article and an audio interview with the Rabbanit. Also, Rav Shemuel Eliyahu has an article there about the concept and about Shemirat Shabbat in general.
Update 2: Now in Arutz Sheva English.

12 Comments:

At Tue Dec 21, 11:57:00 AM 2010, Blogger joshwaxman said...

while certainly done with good intentions, there seems to be a potential for bad here. another Charlie Brown kick-the-football moment is the works.

'Additionally, according to the YNet article, she said that people who are excited about this were calling her constantly, asking what is permitted and what is forbidden.'

and

'She was asked, "So there is a situation that on Sunday in two weeks there will be Mashiah here?"'

I wonder what the impact on these non-religious families will be, come the third Shabbos with no mashiach, chas veshalom.

'May her idea be successful.'
Amen.

kt,
josh

 
At Tue Dec 21, 12:18:00 PM 2010, Blogger yaak said...

Do you think this is being billed as something that must work?
Obviously not.
It's being billed as something to try to arouse Shamayim to help the situation. No one in their right mind would say that if this doesn't work, well that's it - nothing else will help. Come on!

 
At Tue Dec 21, 01:22:00 PM 2010, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I doubt it will work for nothing the rabbis or there followers ever has regarding mashiach but shes trying .

 
At Tue Dec 21, 01:40:00 PM 2010, Blogger joshwaxman said...

'Do you think this is being billed as something that must work?'

well, we do have this:
'She answered, "Definitely."'

i wonder what the irreligious folk are thinking.

kt,
josh

 
At Tue Dec 21, 03:03:00 PM 2010, Blogger yaak said...

The Hebrew is:
אז יש מצב שביום ראשון בעוד שבועיים יש פה משיח?

I may have mistranslated it. Although it's not so clear from the words themselves, from the context, I should have translated it like this:

She was asked, "So there is a situation that on Sunday in two weeks there can be Mashiah here?"

Even if that's not was the interviewer asked, that's probably what the Rabbanit assumed he/she asked. I would even say that that is what the interviewer asked.

 
At Wed Dec 22, 05:39:00 AM 2010, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hope shes the one to bring mashiach all else has failed to oviousely thus far.

 
At Wed Dec 22, 07:41:00 AM 2010, Blogger Devorah Chayah said...

Thank you so much, Yaak!

 
At Wed Dec 22, 10:40:00 AM 2010, Blogger Unknown said...

יש מצב is slang for "it is possible". Besides, secular dates fall equally on all days of the week. So Xmas and New Year will be on Shabbat once in seven years, on average.

 
At Wed Dec 22, 11:47:00 AM 2010, Blogger yaak said...

Thanks, CS, for the slang translation.

She is saying that this time around is just a good opportunity to keep 2 Shabbatot in a row, something that won't happen for another 7 years or so.

 
At Thu Dec 23, 12:50:00 AM 2010, Anonymous Devorah in Chicago said...

It's a good time to invite Jewish friends who you think would like to experience Shabbat and help them along. Keep them out of trouble for a couple of Shabbatot, and who knows, they may just want to continue to learn and slowly make a permanent change in their lifestyle!

 
At Thu Dec 23, 05:05:00 AM 2010, Blogger Pinhas said...

The last time these dates appeared on Shabbat was in 2004 but it will not occur again until 2021.

 
At Tue Dec 28, 08:38:00 AM 2010, Blogger joshwaxman said...

ah. in that case, i retract. my bad.

kt,
josh

 

Post a Comment

<< Home