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Monday, July 02, 2012

Length of Galut Edom was Shown to Dor Hamidbar

Bemidbar 21:4:
וַיִּסְעוּ מֵהֹר הָהָר, דֶּרֶךְ יַם-סוּף, לִסְבֹב, אֶת-אֶרֶץ אֱדוֹם; וַתִּקְצַר נֶפֶשׁ-הָעָם, בַּדָּרֶךְ.
And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea, to compass the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became impatient because of the way.

The Ba'al Haturim notes the following:
וַתִּקְצַר נֶפֶשׁ-הָעָם - מלמד שראו כל הצרות שיבאו עליהם בגלות אדום ואיך ימשך הגלות
My translation:
This teaches us that they saw all the troubles that will come upon them in the Exile of Edom and how the exile will last long.
We also find a similar statement in Eicha Rabbati 5:10 and Shir Hashirim Rabba 3:3 that they were able to smell a little of the troubles of all four exiles based on this verse.

At this point of the Torah, they were in the year 2487.  If this verse is hinting to us about our travels through our final exile of Edom, then we can perhaps use this verse to see how long it will last from the time it was foreseen.  We can exclude the first four letters from the first word since that is the minimum amount of letters to tell us that the nation traveled.  Perhaps, to find out how long this travel takes place, we'll get the gematria of the rest of the verse, shown in red:

וַיִּסְעוּ מֵהֹר הָהָר, דֶּרֶךְ יַם-סוּף, לִסְבֹב, אֶת-אֶרֶץ אֱדוֹם; וַתִּקְצַר נֶפֶשׁ-הָעָם, בַּדָּרֶךְ.

The gematria is 3285.

3285 + 2487 = 5772.

6 Comments:

At Mon Jul 02, 10:02:00 AM 2012, Anonymous Racheli said...

I love your posts, but I'm very confused...can you please explain the difference between the Redemption in 5772 and the appearance of Mashiach ben David in 5776? Will Mashiach ben Efraim lead us up until that point? What does this mean, practically speaking? Does it mean that all of klal Yisrael will go through more hardships until 5776? Thanks for clarifying.

 
At Mon Jul 02, 10:13:00 AM 2012, Blogger yaak said...

Racheli,

You'll need to ask those who have made that claim. I haven't. I have no idea when he's coming. I am always hopeful that the full redemption will come this year.

Rav Fish has talked about 5775 being a significant year (see here).

R' Dov Bar Leib mentioned 5776 as significant as it is מוצאי שביעית, so you may want to ask him.

 
At Mon Jul 02, 11:10:00 AM 2012, Anonymous Racheli said...

Thanks, yaak. I was looking to find it in your post from a few days ago, but I couldn't find it. It ended with something like "when ben David makes his appearance in 5776." This is what confused me. If this is a potential scenario, can you please elaborate a bit on what we should expect? Will everyone suffer more and more difficulties throughout the Redemption process?

 
At Mon Jul 02, 11:25:00 AM 2012, Blogger yaak said...

It may have been a comment to my post as I don't remember saying anything of the sort.

Regarding more difficulties before the Redemption, according to one scenario, yes. The gemara in sanhedrin 98a quotes R' Yohanan as saying that if you see a generation where many troubles come upon it like a river, await for Mashiah. See similar ideas quoted on 97a and 98b.

 
At Mon Jul 02, 11:43:00 AM 2012, Blogger Moshe said...

Our Generation

In his later years, the Hafess Haim, z”l, (1838-1933) often referred to his times as the generation before Mashiah, noting the occurrence of all the signs mentioned by the prophets.
He eventually published a pamphlet entitled Waiting for the Redemption, seeking to raise the Jewish public’s awareness of the onset of the pre-Messianic era, and the need for spiritual preparation. In anticipation of the imminent restoration of the Bet Hamikdash,the Hafess Haim urged Torah scholars, and especially kohanim, to learn and teach the laws pertaining to the Temple rituals. He also published a series of scholarly works elucidating these laws, and established a kollel devoted to this area of study. As a direct result of his pioneering efforts, many yeshivot today include the laws of the Mikdash in their curricula.[1]
It must be emphasized that when the Hafess Haim and others speak of “the generation before Mashiah,” they do not refer to a particular number of years after which Mashiah will arrive. The precise point at which Mashiahwill arrive remains unknown, never to be revealed before his actual arrival.[2]

http://www.communitym.com/article.asp?article_id=100262

You can click on Past articles to find out more about this topic.

 
At Mon Jul 02, 01:52:00 PM 2012, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Racheli you are referring to a statement from Dov Bar-Leib, link: http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=11016836&postID=8214128177454016339&isPopup=true

 

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