Eliezer Meir Saidel: Anatomy of Exile JP

Parshat Shemot is all about exile

In the beginning of the parsha we read about Yaakov and his family going down to Egypt, 70 souls in all. 210 years later (a mere five generations), Am Yisrael numbered close to 15 million people! From 70 people to 15 million in 210 years is an annual growth rate of 10%. 

If you study global population growth rate statistics, there are a very few (Arab) countries that come close (7-8%) and only for a limited period. A constant 10% population growth rate for a period of 210 years is unprecedented in history – never before and never since. Chazal says that each time a woman gave birth it was to sextuplets.

This must have been unnerving to Pharaoh and the Egyptians, that the maternity wards in all the Egyptian hospitals were inundated by Jewish women and instead of hearing Egyptian in the streets all you heard was Yiddish!

Pharaoh decides to use scare tactics “Am Yisrael is greater and more powerful than we are, let’s deal with them cleverly, because if there is ever a war, they (the Jews) will join with our enemies to fight against us!” His concern is understandable. According to historians the Egyptian population at the time was around two million, they were certainly outnumbered.

What is Pharaoh’s “clever” idea to deal with Am Yisrael? To appoint tax collectors! We’ll raise their taxes. What’s so clever about that?

To get to the root of the matter, we have to return to parshat Mikeitz. 

The Midrash says that Pharaoh was a dwarf. At the entrance to his throne room he installed a door that was his height. Anyone else entering had to bend down to get in, thus automatically bowing down before him. After you entered there were 70 steps and on the top step sat Pharaoh on his throne. 

Egypt at the time was the most advanced nation on earth, they had a highly developed culture (albeit of idol worship) and they were the center of technology and learning. To be the leader of such a nation, you had to be pretty smart and the Midrash says that Pharaoh could speak 70 languages. 

Each time someone entered his throne room, Pharaoh would test them. If they spoke one language they could ascend one step, if they spoke 10 languages, 10 steps and so on. Nobody ever reached the 70th step.

According to the Midrash, the night before Yosef was called on to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams an angel taught him 70 languages. When Yosef entered, Pharaoh tested him – he said hello to him in Dutch, Greek, and Danish and each time Yosef conversed with him fluently in each language and ascended another step until finally he was on the top 70th step together with Pharaoh. 

Pharaoh made Yosef swear he would never reveal that like Pharaoh, he also knew 70 languages. Yosef then proceeded to correctly interpret Pharaoh’s dreams and to propose a solution to the problem.

On the one hand Pharaoh was happy that he finally had a solution to his perplexing dreams but on the other hand he was intimidated by Yosef who he immediately recognized as being smarter than himself. In the ancient world, when someone was more powerful or wiser than the leader – they overthrew him. Pharaoh lived in constant dread that Yosef would attempt a coup. 

So, he did exactly what any scheming leader would do, he kept his friends close, but his rivals even closer and he made Yosef viceroy of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself, where he could keep a close eye on him. There was never any love lost between Pharaoh and Yosef. After being appointed viceroy, the next contact we hear between Yosef and Pharaoh is when Yaakov dies and Yosef asks Pharaoh to bury Yaakov in Canaan. 

Pharaoh initially refuses, but then Yosef tells him that Yaakov made him swear not to bury him in Egypt, “If I break my oath to my father, what is to stop me breaking my vow to you to not reveal I know 70 languages,” says Yosef. Pharaoh agrees. It is a fragile and tense relationship.

Pharaoh (the same Pharaoh or a new one – it is a debate in the Gemara), has no trouble inciting the masses with his scare tactics. The Egyptian masses hate Yosef. He stripped them of everything they possess! They look at the Jews in Goshen living the good life while they are mortgaged lock, stock and barrel to Pharaoh, because of Yosef!

One of Pharaoh’s most insidious tactics to weaken the Jews was to appoint tax collectors. Not just any tax collectors, but Jewish tax collectors. He appointed Jews to office. This was a Pandora’s box which gnawed at the unity of the Jewish community.

This self-repeating pathology manifests itself everywhere the Jews go or have ever gone in history. Am Yisrael is compared to an olive tree (Jeremiah 11:16), because like olive oil, Am Yisrael naturally ascend to the highest levels wherever they are. This arouses jealousy and animosity and the end of the story is always the same; the Jews are removed, by expulsion, by extermination or by assimilation.

This phenomenon is by design, G-d designed it that it would be so! G-d does not want the Jews to be any place other than Eretz Yisrael, so He programmed the world to spit them out wherever else they went. Sometimes it was quicker, sometimes it took hundreds of years, but the end was/is inevitable.

Am Yisrael is like a flower that is only indigenous to one kind of soil. Plant it anywhere else and it eventually withers and dies. Only when we are in Eretz Yisrael, serving Hashem, can we truly thrive. If we sin however, even Eretz Yisrael spits us out – into exile.

Shemot is the parsha of exile, but it is also the parsha of the beginning of our redemption.

 

Parshat HaShavua Trivia Question: What was Pharaoh’s daughter’s name?

Answer to Last Week’s Trivia Question: What was Yaakov’s punishment for saying to Pharaoh “Few and troubled were the years of my life (Bereishit 47:9)?” The Midrash (Bereishit Rabba) says that Yaakov’s lifespan was shortened by 33 years.

Shemos: The Mystical Contamination Paroh Was Trying To Generate Through the Cities of Storage

 

Eliezer Meir Saidel: The Mashiach's Resume – Shmot

 

וַיֵּלֶךְ אִישׁ מִבֵּית לֵוִי וַיִּקַּח אֶת בַּת לֵוִי.  וַתַּהַר הָאִשָּׁה וַתֵּלֶד בֵּן וַתֵּרֶא אֹתוֹ כִּי טוֹב הוּא וַתִּצְפְּנֵהוּ שְׁלֹשָׁה יְרָחִים (שמות ב, א-ב).

 

This week we begin reading sefer Shmot, which the Ramban calls סֵפֶר הַגָּלוּת וְהַגְּאֻלָּה. In parshat Shmot we read about the first "Mashiach", Moshe Rabbeinu.

 

It is interesting to note that the word Mashiach in Tanach does not appear in the context that we tend to think of it – Messiah/Redeemer. The word מָשִׁיחַ in the Tanach refers to something else entirely - someone who has been anointed with oil. There are only two types of people in Am Yisrael that can be anointed with oil. One is a Kohen Gadol and the other is a king.

 

Whenever a Kohen Gadol is appointed, he is anointed with the שֶׁמֶן הַמִּשְׁחָה. This involves יְצִיקָה, pouring oil onto his forehead and then מְשִׁיחָה, spreading the oil with the finger over his forehead, in the pattern of the Greek letter Chi *   (כריתות ה, ב; הוריות יב, א). There is a machloket in the Mefarshim whether this pattern resembles the English letter X (Tiferet Yisrael) or the Hebrew letters כ, ח or נ (Rashi, Rambam).  

 

A newly appointed king is also anointed with oil. If the king was not from the lineage of Yehuda, like Shaul, he was anointed with שֶׁמֶן אֲפַרְסְמוֹן (רמב"ם, הלכות כלי המקדש א, יא). If he was from the lineage of Yehuda, i.e David, he was anointed with שֶׁמֶן הַמִּשְׁחָה. The pattern of the מְשִׁיחָה is different for a king - the pattern of a crown, either around the entire head (Rashi), or just the forehead (Rambam).

 

The difference between a Kohen Gadol and a king is that every new Kohen Gadol had to be anointed, even if he was the son of a previous Kohen Gadol. Anointing of a king is only theoretically done when a king is first instituted in Am Yisrael (Shaul and David). Following that, the descendants of the king are not anointed with oil (unless there is dissension over their right to the monarchy, like with Shlomo HaMelech, in which case they too are anointed, to dispel any doubts).

 

These are the only two types of people who may be anointed, however there is one other "thing" (not a person) that is also anointed, and these are the כֵּלִים in the Beit HaMikdash.

 

The symbolism of anointing is greatness and authority (רש"י, שמות כט, כט). In a previous shiur (Mikeitz 2024) we discussed why Am Yisrael and the Torah are compared to oil, because oil always rises to the top of any other liquid, it always aspires upwards.

 

After that brief introduction, you will notice one important point – Moshe was never anointed with oil, so technically we cannot really call Moshe a "Mashiach".

 

Perhaps he is referred to by another title, like גּוֹאֵל? Every day, 3 times a day (4 on Rosh Chodesh, Shabbat and Chagim, 5 on Yom Kippur) we say in the Amidah וּמֵבִיא גוֹאֵל לִבְנֵי בְנֵיהֶם לְמַעַן שְׁמוֹ בְּאַהֲבָה. However, not once is Moshe referred to using this term. In the entire Torah, Moshe is only once given a title and we will see later what that is. Moshe does not, in fact, appear to be any kind of "Mashiach" (by definition) at all, at least the way we imagine the Mashiach to be.

 

In this shiur, I will try to show how Moshe Rabbeinu was in fact the blueprint for our conception of the Mashiach. "Someone" who will eventually redeem Am Yisrael and herald the age of the Geulah. Let us, therefore, try to compile a "resumé" for Moshe Rabbeinu and in so doing, obtain a deeper understanding of what we are in fact davening for when we ask HKB"H to send the Mashiach.

 

The first thing that appears on a person's resumé is their name. On Moshe's resumé the name that appears is <anonymous> - no name! In fact, the entire parshat Shmot has no names. וַיֵּלֶךְ אִישׁ מִבֵּית לֵוִי וַיִּקַּח אֶת בַּת לֵוִי - a man from the tribe of Levi married a woman from the tribe of Levi. What were their names? In next week's parsha we find out – Amram and Yocheved, but here they are anonymous. וַתַּהַר הָאִשָּׁה וַתֵּלֶד בֵּן What name did she give him when he was born? Surely "the woman" gave him a name? She did - Malkiel (קדמוניות המקרא, ט, טו), but in our parsha no mention is made of it – in fact in the entire Torah the name she gave to her son does not appear. The son subsequently became known by the "Egyptian" name given to him by his adopted mother.

 

Strange way to start a resumé – no name, or the name not given by your birth mother!

 

The next feature on Moshe's resumé is that he was born circumcised. The Midrash (תנחומא נח, ה) on the passuk וַתֵּרֶא אֹתוֹ כִּי טוֹב הוּא says - מֹשֶׁה נוֹלַד מָהוּל. Where was Moshe born? Certainly not in Cairo General Hospital, he was born at home, with the best midwives in Egypt in residence - his mother and sister.

 

The next feature on the resumé is the first 3 months of his life. וַתִּצְפְּנֵהוּ שְׁלֹשָׁה יְרָחִים – Moshe was kept hidden, out of sight, incognito! Yes, this was to escape the decree of Pharaoh regarding the male babies, but there is more to it, as we will later see.

 

Moshe's first "occupation" … he was a sailor! Well sort of – after three months when she could no longer conceal his existence, his mother placed him in a small "boat", a bitumen lined basket and sent it "floating" down the Nile River.  Not exactly. She placed the basket in the reeds on the banks of the river, the basket was stationary. We imagine all these "Hollywood" images of how things were, but if we simply read the psukkim (never mind the perushim), they paint a different picture. Moshe's sister watched from a distance to make sure nothing would happen to him. What was Moshe's sister's name? The passuk doesn't say. She is also anonymous (she was Miriam of course).

 

Next item on the resumé is Moshe's adoption. Along comes Pharaoh's daughter בַּת פַּרְעֹה, who also remains nameless (her name was בִּתְיָה), and plucks the baby from the river. She immediately realizes he is Jewish, since he is circumcised. She then calls the baby's mother to nurse him, which she does.  After the baby is weaned (Malbim), the mother gives him back to Pharaoh's daughter. She takes him back to the palace, adopts him, names him, according to the Ibn Ezra, with the Egyptian name of מוֹנִיוּס (which translated into Hebrew is מֹשֶׁה) and raises him as her own son.

 

Next, we have the first "blip" in the resumé, a twenty (some say forty) year blip no less (שמות רבה א כז). What was Moshe doing in this time? The Torah does not say. The Midrash (שמות רבה א כו) says that he grew up in the palace as a "ben bayit". Pharaoh would hug and kiss him and baby Moshe would remove the crown from Pharaoh's head. The Midrash goes on to tell the famous story of the test with the plate of gold and the plate of hot coals, which resulted in Moshe's stutter. Aside from this incident, very little is known of this period in Moshe's life. The Abarbanel says that the purpose of his growing up in Pharaoh's palace was to acquire leadership skills.

 

The Torah "resumes" the resumé with Moshe's "activist" period - וַיְהִי בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם וַיִּגְדַּל מֹשֶׁה וַיֵּצֵא אֶל אֶחָיו וַיַּרְא בְּסִבְלֹתָם. Moshe discovered his true identity and became an "activist" for his fellow Jews. His first achievement was that he managed to convince Pharaoh to give the Jewish slaves one day of rest in the week "to replenish their strength so that they would become more productive". Which day? Shabbat of course! This is what the tefila יִשמַח משֶׁה בְּמַתְּנַת חֶלְקוֹ in Shacharit on Shabbat is all about (טור, אורח חיים, הלכות שבת, סימן רפא).

 

The Torah then relates three "violent" incidents.

 

First an Egyptian guard beating a Jewish slave (Datan – see shiur on Emor 2021). Moshe killed the Egyptian with the שֵׁם הַמְּפֹרָשׁ (שמות רבה א, כט). The fact that Moshe knew the שֵׁם הַמְּפֹרָשׁ leans toward the opinion that while Moshe was in the palace of Pharaoh, his father Amram taught him Torah (אלשיך, משלי פרק כא). It does not correlate with the opposing opinion that until Har Sinai Moshe did not know the Torah (see later).

 

The second incident was when Moshe saw two Jews fighting with each other (Datan and Aviram – see Emor 2021). When Moshe reprimanded them, they informed on him to Pharaoh, who sentenced Moshe to death for killing the Egyptian. By a miracle, when the executioner tried to kill Moshe, his neck turned to rock (שמות רבה, פרשה א, לא). Moshe then fled to Midyan.

 

In the third incident, Moshe arrives in Midyan and sees the shepherds harassing (some say trying to drown - באר מים חיים, שמות ב, טז) the daughters of Yitro. He rescues them and returns with them to Yitro's house and ends up marrying Tzipporah, Yitro's daughter and tending his flocks.

 

How long was the "Midyan" period in Moshe's life? 60 (or 40) years, depending on which opinion you follow regarding Moshe's age when he left Pharaoh's palace – 20 or 40. It is simple math - when Moshe returned to Egypt, he was 80-years-old (80 minus 20 or 40 = 60 or 40).

 

What was Moshe doing in Midyan for such a long time? According to one opinion (ילקוט שמעוני שמות רמז קס"ח), Moshe was made the king of כּוּשׁ and served all those years as king. This does not correlate with the psukkim, however, because at the end of this period we have the episode of the Burning Bush and the passuk there says וּמֹשֶׁה הָיָה רֹעֶה אֶת צֹאן יִתְרוֹ (שמות ג, א), which seems to indicate that at the end of this period Moshe was still a shepherd.

 

The Midrash (שמות רבה, פרשה ב, ב) describes an incident when one of the goats of Moshe's flock ran away and Moshe chased after it, only to find that it had run away in search of water. Moshe said "I did not know that is why you ran away, because you were thirsty". Moshe lifted the weak goat on his shoulders and carried it back to the flock.

 

Next, we have the incident of the סְנֶה. Moshe sees a strange sight, a thorny bush on fire, but the fire does not consume the bush. Moshe does not continue about his business - he takes a time-out to investigate this further. The passuk says וַיַּרְא ה' כִּי סָר לִרְאוֹת וַיִּקְרָא אֵלָיו אֱ-לֹקִים מִתּוֹךְ הַסְּנֶה (שמות ג, ד). And what if Moshe would not have סָר לִרְאוֹת? Would HKB"H not have spoken to him and not chosen him to redeem Am Yisrael?

 

HKB"H commands Moshe to return to Egypt and redeem Am Yisrael. Moshe refuses out of humility מִי אָנֹכִי כִּי אֵלֵךְ אֶל פַּרְעֹה. Next, Moshe argues that Am Yisrael will not believe that HKB"H sent him. HKB"H gives him a sign, but Moshe still does not want to go, he says כִּי כְבַד פֶּה וּכְבַד לָשׁוֹן אָנֹכִי. HKB"H then replies, with perhaps the most crucial statement of this shiur מִי שָׂם פֶּה לָאָדָם אוֹ מִי יָשׂוּם אִלֵּם אוֹ חֵרֵשׁ אוֹ פִקֵּחַ אוֹ עִוֵּר הֲלֹא אָנֹכִי ה'. Moshe does not want to supplant his older brother Aharon and again refuses. HKB"H becomes angry and orders Moshe to go.

 

Moshe returns to Egypt and, together with Aharon, begins the next paragraph on the resumé – the "Ten Plague" period. Moshe asks Pharaoh to set Am Yisrael free … again and again. Pharaoh refuses and is each time smitten with another plague, until the final מַכַּת בְּכוֹרוֹת where he finally acquiesces.

 

Moshe, the now undisputed "shepherd" of his new flock, leads Am Yisrael out of Egypt and over the Red Sea until they reach Har Sinai and receive the Torah. Of all his achievements, the one that Moshe is most remembered for is for bringing the Torah down from Har Sinai and giving it to Am Yisrael. The Torah that we have to this very day, is called Torat Moshe - in his honor.

 

What a genius Moshe must have been, what an astronomical IQ, that he could absorb and memorize the entire Torah in 40 days and nights on Har Sinai. The entire Tanach, Shas, Tur/Shulchan Aruch, Midrashim, Rishonim, Acharonim, Kabbalah, Chasidut, Musar, etc. etc. The comprehensive yeshiva library we have today is so vast that it is impossible for any one person to absorb it all … and it is but a fraction of Moshe's Torah. Much has been lost over the generations. When Moshe died, the Gemara (Tmura 16a) says that Am Yisrael forgot 3000 halachot. Moshe's Torah knowledge was absolute!

 

However, the Midrash (תנחומא, כי תשא, טז) tells a different story. The Midrash says that each day of the 40 days and nights that Moshe was on Har Sinai, not eating nor drinking, studying the Torah directly from HKB"H with total mesirut nefesh, at the end of each day he could not remember a thing he had learned that day. At the end of the 40 days, an exasperated Moshe said "Ribono shel Olam, the 40 days are up and I know absolutely nothing!" What did HKB"H do? He gave the Torah to Moshe as a מַתָּנָה. He made Moshe miraculously remember the entire Torah, so that he was able to write it down and teach it to Am Yisrael, down to the last nut and bolt, both the תּוֹרָה שֶׁבִּכְתָב and also the תּוֹרָה שֶׁבְּעַל פֶּה.

 

While Moshe was up there, Am Yisrael sinned with the egel. HKB"H said to him "I will wipe them out and reseed Am Yisrael from you!" Moshe fell to his knees and begged HKB"H to forgive Am Yisrael, וַיְחַל מֹשֶׁה, he became critically ill from it.  What bigger honor could there be than to be the "father" of Am Yisrael? Moshe could easily have said יִמָּחוּ עַל קְדֻשַּׁת שְׁמֶךָ (Shabbat 89b), like the actual fathers Avraham and Yaakov say when HKB"H will approach them to defend Am Yisrael. But no, Moshe, unlike Noach, defended his flock and prayed for HKB"H to forgive them.

 

It would have been a nice epilogue to a resumé if it could have ended with Moshe leading Am Yisrael into Eretz Yisrael, building the Beit HaMikdash and living happily ever after … for eternity! However, it was not to be. Moshe's bottom line (in bold/italics/underline) on the resumé is forever - Giver of the Torah to Am Yisrael and humanity.

 

Even without the hopeful epilogue, which we wish could have been included, it is undoubtedly a super-impressive resumé.

 

What can we learn from such a resumé and what does it teach us about the future Mashiach? What type of person will he be?

 

The first thing is that the future Mashiach, before he becomes the Mashiach, will not be well known, he will be someone "without a name", nobody will know who he is. It is not that he will be some hermit, secluded away on a snow-topped mountain, somewhere far away from civilization. Lots of people will know him, but when he becomes the Mashiach, nobody will believe it. "Who? Him? No way that he could be the Mashiach! Who would have thought!"

 

The future Mashiach will be a "dark horse", concealed - in plain sight! Visible, yet invisible. It is not incidental that baby Moshe was placed in a kind of a boat, a סְפִינָה/תֵּבָה, because he was destined to become the מְחֹקֵק סָפוּן, the one who would eventually teach the most enciphered חֻקִּים in the Torah.  Why is this necessary? To confuse the ס"מ (see shiur on Vayeitzei 2020).

 

It will not be someone that comes from an apparently "suitable background", from some shtark yeshiva, in the middle of Mea'h Shearim, with a well-known yichus of Rabbanim (in retrospect his yichus will be well known – all the way back to David HaMelech). It will perhaps be someone with not even a Jewish sounding name! Someone who was born and grew up in a non-Jewish country.

 

It will be someone who is born circumcised, just like Moshe and … David HaMelech (אבות דרבי נתן ב, ה).

 

The future Mashiach will be someone who cannot stand idly by when he sees injustice of any kind, between a Jew and a non-Jew, between two Jews and even … between two non-Jews. He will be someone who is socially involved, trying to make things better for others and trying to make peace between rivals.

 

It will be someone who is kind, empathetic – to all living things and to all people, not only those that are his close family.

 

The Mashiach will be someone who, when he sees something out of the ordinary, does not continue about his regular business, but rather takes a time-out, steps "out of the box" to examine it closer and try fathom its meaning. סָר לִרְאוֹת – the word סָר essentially means "to leave", for example וְהֶעָנָן סָר מֵעַל הָאֹהֶל וְהִנֵּה מִרְיָם מְצֹרַעַת כַּשָּׁלֶג (במדבר יב, י), or אַל תִּירְאוּ אֶת עַם הָאָרֶץ כִּי לַחְמֵנוּ הֵם סָר צִלָּם מֵעֲלֵיהֶם (במדבר יד, ט). It is someone who can leave behind pre-conceptions about things, people and be open to exploring other, alternative possibilities and realities.

 

It will be someone who is exceedingly shy and humble, not extrovert, who is sensitive to other peoples' feelings, trying not to hurt or shame them.

 

If you haven't noticed by now, most of the above profile relates to middot – inherent, instinctive character traits that a person either just has or does not have. It does not relate to any inherent talents or abilities. In fact, it is someone who probably does not have any genetic talents from birth, like good looks, high IQ, physical strength, etc. In fact, such talents would be a detriment to a Mashiach.

 

Why would they be a detriment? Because if the person had such talents, other people might attribute his achievements to his natural talent. The Mashiach has to clearly be unable to achieve the things he does solely because of his natural talent. It has to be patently obvious that what he is doing is not him – it is HKB"H!

 

If a stutterer is chosen to represent G-d before Pharaoh, it is because HKB"H davka wants it to be totally obvious that what Moshe is saying is not Moshe, because Moshe could not possibly speak those things. It is HKB"H talking through him.

 

Undoubtedly Moshe must have been an intelligent individual, many of the character traits listed above are prevalent in people with high IQ, but it had to be obvious that it was not Moshe's IQ that enabled him to be the giver of the Torah. Moshe studied Torah from Amram. HKB"H already gave some Torah to Moshe at מָרָה, before Har Sinai. So how could it be that Moshe forgot everything his father taught him, everything HKB"H taught him in מָרָה, and also everything HKB"H taught him during the 40 days and nights? Because it had to be totally transparent that it was not Moshe giving the Torah, it was HKB"H giving the Torah through him. If there was even the slightest suspicion that something Moshe taught Am Yisrael was derived from his own intelligence, the entire Torah would be invalid. This is what Korach accused Moshe of. In the end, Moshe did not acquire the Torah through his high IQ or talent, it was a gift from HKB"H. All it required was mesirut nefesh. What a profound lesson for those who study Torah. It does not depend on how smart you are, it depends totally on how hard you try! (see shiur on R' Eliezer ben Horkenos).

 

In the entire Torah, only once is Moshe given a "title" - לֹא כֵן עַבְדִּי מֹשֶׁה בְּכָל בֵּיתִי נֶאֱמָן הוּא (במדבר יב, ז). Moshe is not called Mashiach or גּוֹאֵל, he is called עֶבֶד ה'. This is the true essence of Mashiach, that it is not him at all, it is totally HKB"H. Moshe's name does not appear once in the Pesach Seder, for this very reason.

 

Unlike Moshe Rabbeinu, the future Mashiach ben David will have the final line in his resumé "Lived happily ever after for eternity!" Moshe had the potential to be that Mashiach, but it was not yet time. The future Mashiach was predetermined even before HKB"H created the universe and HKB"H will reveal him when the time is right.

 

Meanwhile, until then, the important thing is to not give up hope. The important thing is to think to yourself "I could be Mashiach!" None of us knows which tribe we are descended from (except if you are a Kohen or Levi). It is very possible that you might be the Mashiach ben Yosef or the Mashiach ben David. Perhaps you discerned some of the above character traits in yourself?

 

If each and every one of us looks closely at ourselves and thinks "What do I have to fix in order that I match the above resumé?" and then sets about fixing the things that need fixing, so that they align – then, statistically speaking, we will be much closer to discovering the Mashiach וְעַמֵּךְ כֻּלָּם צַדִּיקִים לְעוֹלָם יִירְשׁוּ אָרֶץ.

 

As I write these words, Am Yisrael is facing a Mishpat Shlomo regarding the hostages in Gaza. I do not pretend to know the correct answer to this inhuman choice that we have to make. All I do know is that I am so proud to be part of Am Yisrael, the only nation on earth who collectively feels every other member of its nation's suffering. You don't see the citizens of Thailand demonstrating in public squares for the Thai hostages that were taken by Hamas. You don't see Thailand torn apart to the very core. Am Yisrael is torn apart, we are all bleeding.

 

Ribono shel Olam look at Your people! Look how far we are willing to go, what price we are prepared to pay to save one Jewish soul! Have mercy on us even if we do not deserve it. Step out of the nistar and show the world finally Who is really running the show. Return all our hostages and our soldiers back to us safely and defeat our enemies. Send the Mashiach we so long for and rebuild the Beit HaMikdash בבי"א.

  

Shabbat Shalom

Eliezer Meir Saidel

Machon Lechem Hapanim

www.machonlechemhapanim.org

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