Mashiach Explained-Lesson 3: Introducing Elijah as the First Step of the Redemption

so we here are preparing for the redemption we know meshech is coming the world is ready as ready as it ever as it ever was and we're waiting for the revelation of mashiach but we now know that before the coming of mashiach we have to experience the coming of someone else who is it that we have to welcome before the coming of mashiach that is the prophet this guy has got to be one of the most interesting characters of all of our jewish history i mean he's all over the place literally you think about it there's a bris elijah's got a chair if there's a pesach seder elijah's got a seat at the table he's even got a glass of wine right you think about it anybody who's really holy gets a revelation from elijah the prophet and also he is the harbinger the one who announces the coming of mashiach but now tonight we're trying to separate the facts from the fiction we're going to try to understand who is this guy who is eliyahu what is his connection to the redemption to the what is the source of this idea that he will that he will herald the redemption is it from some obscure madras or is it perhaps something a little bit more mainstream um now how can we believe in the imminent coming of mashiach how are we supposed to believe that is able to come every single day today if apparently elia was going to come before he comes so you've got to make a quick calculation if you didn't come today it means mashiach can't come today because apparently legend goes that elijah is going to come a day before so mashiach couldn't possibly come today if elijah didn't come yesterday i guess maybe he can come tomorrow right and another question which you really have to understand is why is all of this necessary in the first place why does mashiach even need someone to announce his arrival i mean it's nice to have someone to announce your arrival i mean imagine you know before you walked into a room somebody would run before you and say uh here ye here he here comes corey i mean that'll be nice but but you know what i mean at the end of the day like well just rock up just show up and finish you know that's it why do you need someone to announce that you're coming like why is this necessary that's what we're going to answer tonight in the first of a two-part mini-series which is two parts about discussing who aliyahu navy is and answering all of these questions let's first begin by introducing by starting at the very beginning of the story understanding who aliyahu navi is now we the scholars of the community have already been have already already had the good fortune of being able to study a lot about elijah especially if you've been able to study with me on monday mornings and the past few weeks and months you know even though we've been physically distant we've been spiritually very connected we've been learning a lot about eliana v on monday mornings in our prophets seminar in the in the the navi classes the classes about the prophets you know we learn about the five books of moses we learn very little about the prophets which we read about in the haftarah every shabbat but that series on monday morning is dedicated to filling in the gaps of our judaism of our knowledge making sure that all these ideas that we come across randomly will will understand the context by understanding by learning through the flow of the prophets but in case you've missed it or even if you have learned it with me and you maybe need to refresh your memory i'm gonna just go through a few of the ideas that we've learned in that class a little quicker to understand who eli yahoo is eliahu is first introduced to us in the book of kings when we learn learning about two of the most wicked kings of israel king ahav and king yehoshafat prolific idol worshippers and eliyahu is the one that was sent by god to to rebuke them to tell them to get themselves straight to shape up or ship out to let them know that they better get their act together he was known as because he came from a place called tishbe also in that beginning story we had the fascinating introduction to eliahu when god sends him to a very controversial shiva house to the shiva of a grave sinner against god and and eliyahu says to god seriously you want me to go pay a shiver call to that wicked man i'm going to lose my temper it's not going to be good so god says that's fine you lose your temper whatever you you say whatever comes out of your mouth i will endorse so you can you can say anything you want that's going to happen i mean that's a pretty cool uh pretty cool blank check to be given by god that whatever comes out of your mouth god will fulfill right and indeed at that shiver house it says be said to king aha as the lord the god of israel whom i serve lives if they will be during these years due or reign there will be no rain or do except according to my word only when i say there will be rain there will be rain and indeed there was a three-year famine like the world has never seen uh through that shiva call that eliyahu hanavi made at that time so that's our first introduction to the we read another story about him coming across a widow in a place called sarfat which is in phoenicia modern-day lebanon and there's the famous story of her son who suddenly dies and eliahu resurrects the boy brings him back to life and perhaps the most famous story of aliyahu is the showdown on mount carmel near haifa where the 700 prophets of the baal of idolatry had a contest against they offered an ox to their idol aliyah who offered an ark to hashem and whichever whichever god would send the fire from heaven in the form of a lightning strike would be proven as the true god and that was probably the most dramatic story well maybe not the most dramatic there's one more coming up um a very dramatic story of yahoo which was a public uh spectacle where the entire people of israel were able to witness his extraordinary power and devotion to hashem in one of the most [Music] significant moments of eliahu's life he's running away from king achav and queen isabel who are trying to kill him and he hides in mount sinai where god appears to him and he says what are you doing here unlike moshe who tried to defend the jewish people when they sinned eliyahu complained bitterly against the jews against their unfaithfulness and he said look god i'm the only one left i'm the only one who's still loyal to you after a series of visions there god basically tells them that he needs to be replaced god tells him to go go back and anoint hazael as the king of aram yehu as king of israel and his own successor elisha to take over eliyahu as his replacement because if you speak badly against the jewish people then god doesn't want you to be his agent anymore that story is going to be significant in a few minutes there are many other details of the life of eliyahu but i'm going to race to the very end of his life where he was walking with the student elisha and they come across the river jordan eliot hits the river with his with his coat and the river splits open and in a dramatic story probably the most dramatic story a chariot of of fire horses and a wagon of fire a pier from heaven and this serves as his extraordinary end of an extraordinary life where liahu is uh taken from this world he doesn't die a normal death his body normally people leave their body behind when their soul rises up to heaven but in the case of elijah we took both his body and his soul up to heaven on this angelic chariot of fire and what i'm about to do now is i just would like to show you this particular story on the screen so i'm going to share that screen with you right now so let's take a look at the story the um this fascinating story of elijah and he took his mantle and he rolled it up and he struck the water and it divided to this side and to that side and they both crossed on dry land and it was then they crafted elijah says to alisha is his successor ask what i shall do for you while i'm not yet taken away from you while i'm still alive and alicia said please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me i want to be twice as great as you and he said you've made a difficult request if you see me taken from you it will be so to you and if not it will not be that's basically a sign if you can see how i die your request will be fulfilled if not you've been denied and it was that they were going walking and talking and behold the fiery chariots and fiery horses and they separated them both and elijah sent it to heaven in a whirlwind and elisha saw any was crying my father my father the chariots of israel and their writers and he saw him no longer now he took hold of his garment and he rent them in two pieces okay so that was the story of elijah fascinating character so how exactly does elijah fit in to the story of the future redemption the coming of meshiach why is he the next guy that we're going to meet i mean there were many great jews who ever lived we're going to try to understand the connection between elijah and the coming of mashiach so let's go a little bit closer we learned elijah in the past but now let's learn about elijah today in the present tense so who is who was elijah his different opinion some say it was from the tribe of god others say he was from the tribe of binyamin the majest concludes that elijah actually once appeared to the sages of israel and he testified that he was from the children of rochelle but perhaps the most fascinating identity of elijah is what i'm about to share with you does anybody have any idea about who elijah really was anybody can suggest have you ever i know elaine knows this andy anybody suggest who elijah really was well the prophet who uh we read much a lot of his prophecies and since much of it uh dealt with the coming of the mashiach so he's a important point of reference okay but elijah is much more than that the torah actually tells us imagine imagine if i told you that corey is really robert imagine i'm sorry that corey and robin eisemann is the same person you'd be like um no no no robin's too skinny to be me that would be that would be like really weird imagine if i told you that mickey was king david now that could be more interesting because you know yeah you'd be like okay king david's no longer alive maybe some sort of a reincarnation that's that's kind of interesting you already prepped us for that you already told us that we're all the generation of uh uh who was in the desert so okay now we happen to be fortunate enough to know from the arizona that our generation has already lived collectively we've already been in this earth in the generation we were the generation that came out of egypt but it's very very unusual when the torah tells us about an individual about his former life identity and that's what we learned about eliahu the torah tells us that eliyahu was formerly pinhus is exactly the same person okay so we learned a little bit about eliahu but um who's pinhos so what do we know about pinchas we know there's a torah portion named after him right this we know we know there's a torah portion named after pinchas parasha's princess is actually my bar mitzvah hi and um we know that pinchas was an interesting guy not ex you know rabbis don't like to give sermons in my pinhos at least me i don't like giving sermons about princess because what pink has did is a very difficult lesson to emulate what happened was that there was a there was uh the the tribe that's sorry the prince of the tribe of shimon his name was he was sinning with a mid-united woman by the name of kosovi the daughter of surah a midianite princess and he was sitting with her in front of moses and followed after him with 22 000 or 20 24 000 no maybe 22 000 uh members of the tribe of shimon who are also following their leader they were also sitting with the woman of midyan pinhas enters into the tent and he murders both cosby the princess and zimri the jewish prince simultaneously there was actually a plague sweeping through the camp at that time a pandemic an epidemic i'm sorry an epidemic was sweeping through the camp at that time and the moment that pinchas executed zimri and cosby the plague stopped and the torah says that pinchas was awarded the gift of shalom he was given the gift of shalom he and his descendants were basically made into kohanim now it's very difficult to give a sermon on that because you're like yes everybody we should go out and when you see somebody sinning you should do like pinchas you should murder the sinner it's not going to go over too well in the sermon you know what i mean it might be a little bit uh a little over the top if you know what i'm saying right so so pinhos that's that's who he was he you know he did something very very important but um now that we are when we understand that elio and pinchas is the same person it starts to give us a little context let's take a look at this idea in the um in the con in sources okay so here we are on the screen back to the screen oops no i got the wrong thing over there hold on stay bear with me okay who is elijah today let's take a look this quote comes from pirkei and from the metro sprinkler elijah escaped and he fled to mount horev that's mount sinai as the verse states and he got up and he ate and drank there god revealed himself to elijah god asked him what are you doing here elijah kanoa kinase hashem i've been zealous for hashem oh says god you've been zealous for hashem you've always been zealous you were zealous and to stand up to promiscuity as the verse states pinhas the son of al-azhar the son of the high priest and here you too have been zealous so this is pinchas who was zealous the first time the torah testifies that he was zealous when i when i when i was avenged the revenge or the zealotry of god and i have been zealous for god as well now we're going to come a little closer we're going to analyze this idea of this connection between pinchas in just a few short moments but now that we understand this idea we can we can have start to understand el elyon's role in our lives today let's let's see how elia fits into our lives today remember before we said that um elia didn't die um he didn't die he went up to heaven with a physical body and remember how he he said to god that uh the jews are no longer faithful and he's the only one who remained loyal to god so take a look at what god tells them it is customary to set aside a chair for elijah the angel of brismillah when the baby is placed on the chair we proclaim this is the chair of elijah why do we make a chair of elijah because he was the one that complained that the jews are no longer faithful and therefore god says don't speak like that about my children if you feel that they broke the covenant with me then i'm going to make you personally testify every time that they make a covenant with me therefore every time you make a breast remember bristol does not mean a circumcision which is a surgical procedure a breast means a covenant a covenant with god almighty that covenant which we make with our children and god that's the one that god wants elijah to bear testimony to and that's why elijah has to appear at every time that we have a breast another time that we see elijah is when we have the pesach seder every time we have a peso there's always a seat there's uh kos shel eliyahu the cup of elijah why do we have a cup of elijah sedar let's take a look at this custom from the code of jewish law the author of the tanya the al-trebis code of jewish law he says there is a custom in certain communities not to lock the doors or the rooms in which they sleep on the seder night has anybody heard of this custom it's called leila shimurim the knight of guarding to the jewish people in the night of pesach right right therefore we sleep with our doors open talk about faith huh it takes a lot of faith to sleep with your front door open remember in south africa not my front door the bedroom door not the front my father used to leave the front door open but the security gate was locked you know so um so so he says alton ever says ford is the guardian night for all of israel for all time it is a night for redemption from this exile and when elijah comes he should find an open door imagine elijah comes to tell us about the redemption and then the door is locked never you know what's he gonna do you see he's been waiting three thousand years to come and tell us about the redemption now he's gonna he's gonna wait outside until the morning it's it's not respectful right there therefore we should go out to greet him very soon now travis kenzie rules in the code of jewish law that um we leave the door open for the the night of redemption because pesach is the night of the redemption of the past and also the night of the redemption of the future and that's the reason that we have a um that we have a cup of elijah but sorry that's that's the reason why we leave the door open but why the cup of elijah let's understand this so why do we have a cup of elijah right he continues over here hold on we believe this right and there is great reward to this belief of course in places where there are many thieves we do not rely on miracles so that's where you can core you can leave your bedroom door open and not the front door the custom in these communities is to pour an extra cup and we call it the elijah the profits come so we're supposed to leave the door open but you can't really leave the door open it's no longer safe to do that so the altar says you know what we do is we'll have elijah's cup and that's how we remember elijah on eliyahu on the ninth of the face of seder so what's up where does the auhou fit into the pesach cedar we understood the way he fits into the breasts before but where does he fit into the face of theater so one answer is that um we know that we have to have four cups of wine in the seder four cups corresponding to four expressions of redemption four expressions in the torah about the promise of redemption but there's actually a fifth promise of redemption the hivesi which is unclear about whether we should be drinking another cup of wine over that and therefore since it was unclear we figured you know what we'll make a cup but we don't really drink it we don't drink the fifth cup we just pour it for elijah and it's a known thing that um you know in in israel when you play chess in hebrew when you play chess what do you call stalemates you know how you say stalemate in hebrew it's called the teku teku t-e-i-k-u teku teku means a stalemate taekoo also is an acronym for tishb remember what tishbi means tishvi means the man from tishbe that's who came from tishman elijah will resolve any questions and and and um problems we say you know any questions that we don't know today we cannot resolve we say we'll put them in a special place when mashiach will come he will answer all of our questions right so so therefore when we have the fifth cup of wine and pasta we're not sure if you're supposed to drink the cup of wine you're not supposed to drink the cup of wine we figured you know what we'll make that for elijah to answer the question when he comes he'll come to drink the cup of wine the fifth the fifth cup will make that his first question to answer we'll say by the way tell us please are you supposed to drink a fifth cup of wine or you're not supposed to drink a fifth cup of wine right so that's uh why we call it symbolically the cup of elijah because he's gonna have to resolve that doubt but on a deeper level we have a beautiful explanation from the marathon the maral explains that mashiach is the theme of the pesach seder you know we're celebrating not only the redemption from the past through redemption from egypt but also the redemption of the future as your days um as the days of your exodus from egypt so too in the future where i show you great miracles great wonders that's that's what it says in the prophets we're celebrating not only the redemption of the past but also the redemption of the future and in fact the very end of the seder the last two steps of the seder you know after everybody leaves yeah people leave at the the meal right but there's actually more to the sailor after people leave after the the eating and that is hallel and niritsa halal the songs of praise for the future redemption and nirza means we hope that our seder is accepted before you god before we can set and you'll bring us the future redemption before we speak about the future redemption we have to bring the cup of eliahu for a very specific and beautiful reason take a look at um take a look at this um at this idea one second i share the screen with you again hold on um okay sharing the screen and here it goes okay so this is from the maral of prague i suggest the following explanation for this custom of the cup of elijah the halal and nirita sections of the seder are to arouse god's mercy and evoke our merits before god so that he redeem us with the final redemption for this reason we must let our children know and publicize our tradition from the prophets that prior to meshiach's arrival eliyahu will come and announce the redemption that's all we have the kappa before we talk about meshiach at the seder so that our children will know that if you ever if you ever need to identify mashiach bear in mind that he has to have aliyahu come before him scripture makes it clear that prior to mashiach's arrival to his holy chamber eliyahu will arrive and nasa's arrival is the clear sign that mashiach comes after the true redeemer this is a fundamental peace in our messianic belief and anticipation that guards us from falling into the of a false messiah thus the customer is to open the door for elijah the prophet and to pour a glass in his honor a special cup of redemption the intent of it all is to publicize our families and let them know that the final redemption is hinged panelio coming to announce that indeed his arrival is the litmus test to gorge to gauge the legitimacy of the righteous redeemer so that's where yahoo fits into the today into our pacifiers and why he's actually a household name in our homes because aliyah was not just an ancient character of jewish history he's also very very current at all of our prison and at our pace because of his very important role to announce the coming of meshiach so we see that the reason that you have a cup of eliau the reason that you open the door for a liang with the seder is in order to remind us that before mashiach comes aliyahu has to come before him so what question yeah you read on the previous page scripture says where does scripture say this is just uh the uh rabbi hudaloa that said that scripture makes it clear that prior to mashiach's arrival to his holy chamber will arrive oh hold your horses handy hand and hang in there we're going to get there in just a moment we'll get there in just a moment to that answer about scripture okay so where is this idea of eliahu coming before um where does this idea come from that yahoo has to be before mashiach right is it a fact or fiction is it like a fable or a or a fairy tale we'll get that in just a moment i'll give you a black and white source okay so stay with me on that for a moment but one more thing one one final experience that we have with eliahu in our current day experience is sporadic revelations you know every once in a while you hear a story about someone and that had gilui aliyahu the revelation of eliyah there's a great story about a jew in sfat it was a rainy night in the north of israel very very it was like middle middle ages 16th century gets a knock in the door late tonight long story short basically elijah the prophet revealed himself to this jew and he says i have been sent by heaven to reveal to you the secrets of kabbalah however i will only do so in one condition the reason that i've been sent to teach you the secrets of kabbalah is because of what you did on the day of your bar mitzvah in heaven nobody is allowed to know what it is that you did in the day of ever mitzvah but i refuse to teach you the secrets of kabbalah unless you tell me what it is that you did on the day of your bar mitzvah would you reveal the secret joe would you would you tell the liar what you did in the day of your mitzvah if you wanted to ask you like that i know i can't hear so give me a thumbs up or thumbs down when you do it thumbs up you would do it okay well this man said no he refused elias said i'm gonna give you three days i'm coming back in three days time my final offer either you tell me in three days time on the day of your mitzvah or i'm out of here long story short [Music] long story short what happens is that um he comes back three days later ali says to him no you're going to tell me there you go and he says no it's a seeker between me and god nobody's ever going to know not even you and aliyahu says fine have it your way i'm not going to teach you the teachings of kabbalah and the legend goes that that soul was reincarnated as the baal shem tov right interesting interesting story he became the baal shrimp who taught the kabbalah to the whole world so you hear these stories you know there's actually a major called say there and yahoo rabbah the the great order of elijah and said zuta which is the short order of elijah which is basically teachings that aliyahu taught to rav one of the uh one of the commentaries of the on the talmud right so you hear about these sporadic revelations by the way how does that happen when elijah reveals himself when elijah reveals himself how does it happen is he a physical being is he not a physical being so there's a lot of debate about this remember how he died he didn't really die properly he sort of half died his body went up to heaven like our souls normally do right so so uh the hassan sofa explains that when elijah died he left his body in the lower realms of ganedan which is part somehow part of this world so when he needs to come to this world invested in a body he has a body to use when he wants to come to this world divested of a body he can come without it too so he he's got the very unusual uh ability to pick and choose his mode of transportation if he wants to come as a physical being or if he doesn't want to come as a physical being it's quite an interesting experience okay anyways that's elijah today we learned about elijah in the past we learned about elijah today yeah so to this point of of elijah being so unusual the only person that can have this option of coming in in his own his old body or a new body but the story just before was about the uh uh you know the pinchas story and because he was uh so presumptuous let's say uh as to bad mouthed the the jewish people therefore he gets to sit at at every uh every brisk every covenant uh so that doesn't sound like it's such a great merit to be so unusual to to be able to climb into any any appearance or come in his old appearance if in fact he uh you know he shouldn't have badmouthed the jewish people right so and god made them pay for that rabbi where does it say in the torah the torah that elijah is after after the five books of moses obviously right so it wouldn't be in the torah but it's in the t in the talmud which is the oral torah which states [Music] we actually quoted it before i brought a a quote from the medras that didn't say they were saying personally it didn't have it explicit it wasn't explicit of that you said that as the same as binkers no hashem said no mickey hashem said him there you have all you have always been zealous you were zealous in to stand up to promiscuity as the verse states the son of eliza the son of the priest and here too you have been zealous it's pretty explicit there mick right i mean the actual words pinch oh that comes from the talmud but here in the meadows it says you were zealous previously and you were zealous now so so it's consistent but we're going to actually tie it all together andy you'll see when we get a title together about it now that we understand who ya is in the past and who are the elders in the present we now are are going to slowly understand why it is that aliyahu is the one that has to be the harbinger of the redemption right just like we understood where he fits into the breath we're going to understand where he fits into the redemption as well all right so let's take a look at that just but just as we do that i want to just um talk about now we spoke about the past and the present let's move now to the future as we talk about eliahu being um being the the one that uh introduces to us the redemption so where does this idea come from i mean who came up with this idea that yahoo is the one that's gonna announce the redemption is it a fact or is it a fiction actually it comes from this verse andy to answer your question this verse in malachi chapter 3 part of the tanakh part of the prophets behold i will send you eli yahoo the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome day of god in fact the talmud in tractate aravin actually derives halachic implications of what happens sorry the implications of aliyahu coming before the coming of mashiach we've learned before in this course or maybe in a previous course that a kohen is not supposed to drink wine why because mashiach can come at any moment in time right and if mashiach comes at any moment in time he has to be ready to serve in the temple we spoke about that idea so in the next piece of talmud attracted aravind the talmud gets a little a little tangential here but we'll try to stick on point where it talks about a person who swore that he's not going to drink wine so this person swears that he's not going to drink wine when is he allowed to sorry he's not going to drink wine on the day that mashiach comes i won't drink wine on the day that mashiach arrives so is he ever allowed to drink wine the answer is yes he's allowed to drink wine on certain days when mashiach won't come when mashiach can't come let's take a look come in here that which was taught in a brighter with regard to one who said i will be a nazirite i won't drink wine on the day that the son of david comes i.e upon the rival then he is permitted to drink wine on shabbat sanjantiv because mashiach is not supposed to arrive in those days however he is prohibited to drink wine on all weekdays in case mashiach has come and he has not yet been informed now here is the kicker the talmud clarifies granted if you say that the prohibition of shabbos of shabbos limits applies above above 10 hand breadths that is why on travis and yanta if he is permitted to drink wine because the mashiach will certainly not arrive from outside the shabbos limit on those days but if you say that the prohibition of shabbos limits does not apply above 10 handbrakes that bashir is allowed to come from a spiritual reality to this physical world then why is he permitted to drink wine on travis if she is allowed to come and shabbos and yantra then why would this be this guy be allowed to drink wine and try this in yante again without getting a little lost here in the town would look at the answer the talmud answered it is different there is the verse stated behold i will send you elijah the prophet this verse teaches that elijah will arrive the day before the coming of meshiach since elijah did not come the previous day therefore the mashiach will not come today and therefore he may drink how do we know that these guys are going to drink wine and travis and yanta because sorry didn't arrive the previous day therefore we know that mashiach can't come today because today would have to be the day elijah comes and then rasheed will come tomorrow and that's why this guy would be allowed to drink wine what's the obvious question if anybody's still with me in case you got lost it's a little a little convoluted this piece of and he drink wine every day exactly there you go why couldn't he drink wine any day says mickey because machiavelli because illya didn't come yesterday right he should always be allowed to drink wine as long as delia right sorry so he so mickey's got a great question the tom would reject this argument mickey you and the tom were on the same page the talmud rejects this argument that in weekdays too he should be permitted to drink wine each and every day as elijah did not arrive the previous day rather the reason for the prohibition on weekdays must be that we say that elijah may have already arrived at the great court but it's not become a matter of public knowledge this is before facebook and twitter likewise here too we say that a library arrived the previous day at the great court on the eve of shabbos or festival now i don't want to get caught up with the details of the announcement of the the the the drinking of the wine all that i wanted to bring out to you from this piece of talmud without getting too distracted the one little piece i wanted to bring out from this talmud is to show you that the talmud states explicitly that there's a legal consequence about whether this nazirite is allowed to drink wine or not allowed to drink wine because of elijah's coming before the coming of mashiach by the way by the way this is actually the reason you ever noticed that right after have dalla right after abdallah at the end of shabbos you know how we sing a song about elia wanna be right suddenly we're singing about elia wanna be right why are we singing about a v you know why we're singing about him because eliau can't come before shabbos because he's gonna it's gonna be too much of a schlep for us to start getting ready for a shift before shabbos and he can't come on shabbos because of what we just spoke about but once shabbos is over the moment we ended shabbos the first thing that we do is we say we say we'll come already now it's time shabbos is over we're going back to the workday we're going back to the mundane world we really we really could use your uh participation right now and that's that's why we say elia wanna be at the end of shabbos because it's so fundamental to us the belief that mashiach is um is going to be preceded by the coming of of eliahu and that's that's why it's so important for us to sing this right off the shoppers but now it's a bit of a problem with what we just said the problem now i think mickey's thinking right now i could see it on his face is that one second okay so you just told this rabbi the mashiach has to come only after liahuana and you've also told us that we want meshiach now i believe in perfect faith in the coming of mashiach we may terry i believe in his coming every single day how can i how am i supposed to believe that moshe can come any day how could i possibly believe that can come right now if um eliot didn't come yesterday basically what we're saying is that can't come tonight because elio didn't come to didn't come yesterday right cookie agrees i can see it right so right that was really mickey's question i was like if you think about it that was really your question right so we it's like we're shaking our whole faith over here on on the belief of the imminent coming of mashiach when we suddenly realize that there's one more step in this process that we didn't get the memo on so how can we say that we believe that moshe can come at any moment when suddenly we just discovered that he has time limits so you may remember i'm going to give you two or three answers to this three answers first thing i want to tell you as you may remember that we said that there's two ways of shifting remember we learned about this in a previous class it says in his time i will hasten it in its time i will hasten it has a set time but it also will be hastened how can it be both if we're worthy he will be hastened if we're not worthy mashiach will come in his time so some commentaries explain that if mashiach comes in his predestined time it could be at any time but if he comes when because we're worthy then it has certain time limits right so that's one way to answer this question right another way to answer it is that is even a little bit more radical to say um this one's from mirabionita abushids is that if we're worthy then there will be no elijah at all in other words if mashiach comes in his time in the predetermined time everything has to go according to the proper sequence of events as a proper protocol that's when elia was to come before the redemption but if we're worthy and mashiach comes before his predestined time then there's no need for liawa navi then there is no need for elio to come before him and that's why indeed we don't have to worry about this extra step of elio coming before moshiach rabbi doesn't that make the prophecy that uh that the shiite has to come after elijah needs to announce the coming of the mashiach incorrect and not a correct prophecy no it makes a conditional it makes a conditional let's take a look at that prophecy all right let's take a look at a second ready changing the prophecy i'm looking out on the screen hold on behold i will send you elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome day of god so look closely at the verse the coming of the great and awesome day of god in other words the predestined day but if you guys will be will be um worthy and i will and and you'll arrange for the coming of meshech before the great and awesome day of god then there won't be a need for leo to come before that day you know elijah is only scheduled to come before a certain date but if we are are able to arrange that he comes earlier mashiach comes earlier then there's no need that prophecy doesn't apply that's a shabbos elevator that's not mickey come on come on you can say it's all right it's a nice interpretation there man come on all right let me um let me uh show you this beautiful answer um in the words of ravionita on a bishop so we're going to neighborhoods a jew lived in prussia a great rabbi lived in prussia he used to debate against the uh christians and forced debates and he was very friendly with the with the german kaiser or the prussian kaiser take a look at what he says this idea that we're talking about right now our sages postulation that if they are worthy i will hasten it if not in its time is well known that there's two ways either hastened or on time now elijah's role to answer redemption is certainly an integral part of the messianic process but it is only necessary if the redemption happens in its time however if the jews are worthy enough to hasten their redemption god will skip over mountains and jump over hills this is what we say in the halal prayer and change the protocol for the love god displays to his worthy people we'll bend the rules maybe that's your shabbos elevator god himself will bend the rules to accommodate us right and and god knows that we need the coming of mashiach and we don't need to wait one more day in in exile for the coming of eliahu right with all the bloodshed and worry and anxiety and animus that's going on in the world especially against the jewish people right we know that uh we would really appreciate it if hashem hastened it up a little bit of course it is very much appropriate that elijah arrive and announce redemption but that is not necessary per se for perhaps god will have mercy on his people and bestow upon the holy spirit to rouse them and to serve him wholeheartedly then the redemption will be hasten so that can arrive even without eli yahoo's announcement now mickey if you're still not happy with this answer then i can share with you the rep is answer how can it be that we believe in the coming of mashiach every day if elijah didn't come yet no that's going to be another answer for eliahu to deal with another question that we're going to pose till to illion when mashiach comes and we say hey according to our calculations you're not supposed to be here right now right we'll put that in the pile in this huge pile of four thousand euros worth of questions that we have right and we'll let aliyahu answer it taku stalemates tishbi atarez koscius will answer all questions and problems right so very good you got a problem you got a good question right we saying nobody ever died from a question no we have a question okay as long as you know the question we're halfway to the answer we don't know the answer yet but at least you know the question right can i ask you a basic question yes go ahead um we're um what's this task list what what's what's yahoo's uh uh mission uh uh items to to accomplish i mean we're going to go in in one moment from a screwed up world to a world where or where all of a sudden the veil is lifted and we all understand god the same way you'd think that el yahu's job might be something more substantial than to say here's mashiach right you think that he might be uh the bridge somehow yeah what's his name so so what i'm about to explain andy and thank you for that question what i'm about to explain is the general the general um role of eliahu as the uh harbinger of the redemption now that we understand the context of who he was in the past who he is in the present and who he is in the future we can tie it all together very nicely the details however of his role that's going to be what we're going to talk about next week in part two of elijah but generally speaking that's what we're going to talk about right now is general rule okay and i think that his general role actually will put things into into a nice context to prepare us for next week which is part two of elijah so when we look at elijah now that we understand who he is you know if we had to pick a candidate to serve as the harbinger of world peace of the utopia which is mashiach of the higher consciousness which is mashiach you know all things considered i could probably think of of better candidates maybe more worthy of being the harbinger of the redemption more than eliawa navi why was eliyahu chosen to be the one he was quite a stern character you know the always was quite a stern character in the past a very harsh prophet you know the the kings of israel wouldn't did not like listening to him you know a guy like this he brought three years of famine when he lost when he lost his temper i mean he was a pretty serious guy you don't want to mess with this guy i don't want to cross his path so he's not exactly the paradigm of compassion which seems to be the role of the harbinger of the redemption of the future right but we can really understand why aliyahu was chosen when we realized that let's take a closer look at pinchas remember what pinchas did here he was he did an act of violence right but what was the result of his violence he restored it he ended the epidemic which was sweeping through the people of israel and he restored peace between hashem and the jewish people if you take a step back you realize that the promiscuous act of zimri the head of the tribe of shimon with the the midnight princess that was actually an act of violence the promiscuity was an act that caused the epidemic it was an act that caused the disunity between hashem and the jewish people and it was pinchas violent act that restored the peace and that's why pinchas reward was british shalom my covenant of peace where he becomes a cohen and he and man of kindness because he was given the covenant of peace for having restored the peace in israel in other words though on the outside his actions looked violent and aggressive nevertheless on the inside the the essence of his actions were actually very very peaceful actions that's why he merited shalom therefore he will merit pinchas for merit to usher in the redemption because just like he brought shalom between hashem and the jewish people at a time when our relationship was on the rocks back then so too before the coming of meshiach the role of pinchas is to serve as the one who brings who ushers in their redemption the era which is about true peace and equilibrium between hashem between heaven and earth within hashem and his world okay so now that we understand who pinchas is let's take a look at that this idea on the screen just take a look at this idea on the screen um a quoted from torah to mema classic commentary on homash sounds like this according to the idea that pinchas is the same person as elijah this blessing of peace is understood based on the talmud which states that elijah will bring peace to the world god blessed pinchas of the privilege of restoring peace in the world in the future when mashiach comes as a reward for the peace he restored between god and the jewish people when he stopped the plague right and now what's interesting rabbi is that pinchas pincusto's grandfather was aharon right yeah and iron was the o'hafe shalom and wrote dave shalom and inherited peace and pursuit of peace even though it's interesting on the outside his actions seem to be violent but when you look closer look what he did he restored the peace the entire jewish people god forbid could have been decimated by that epidemic it was because of his actions of his decisive actions that he was able to restore the peace within hashem and the jewish people he was the ultimate man of peace and that's why god gives him the sign breakthrough peace and now he can finally understand that the same thing is with eliahu as well he might have been stern but what was his life's role was about inspiring the people to teshuva his entire life's role was in order to bring peace and restore the peace between hashem and the jewish people who had grown apart that's what eliau's role is before the coming of meshiach to restore that peace like andy suggested right instead of having just a uh just a shock and awe moment when suddenly we're experiencing higher consciousness and serenity the coming of um the coming of eliahu braces us for impact by serving as the equalizer to help bring the two entities together to serve as the shadren as the marriage arranger between hashem and his people and in our divine service as well as we prepare for mashiach we realize what what caused the destruction of our temple what caused our exile in the first place it was it was the uh it was baseless hatred right the opposite of shalom when we hated each other for no reason when we provide the antidotes to baseless hatred by experiencing baseless love we overturn the reason for the exile and we bring about to breathe we bring about a covenant of peace we bring about the redemption this is the deeper meaning of what the talmud says represents the redemption and pinchas represents achieving peace what brings the redemption pinchas brings us peace brings a redemption brings us to eliyahu so in other words when we are able to experience peace in our own relationships with our fellow jews that is what's going to bring about the redemption let's take a look at this idea in the words of the rabbi this is the significance of the idea that pinchas is elijah is a man of peace as the torah testifies namely peace and harmony between one jew and another this harmony is elijah namely it will bring elijah the one who will come and tell us that tomorrow and taking us out of exile may it be very soon and speedily in our days so that my friends is the general idea of the of the role of eli as the harbinger of the redemption is to usher in a state of camaraderie of peace between each other so that we can be prepared for the peace between hashem and the jewish people between heaven and earth and thus be prepared for the glorious era which is uh the era of mashiach the era of divine revelation you

Channel: Chabad of Palm Beach Gardens

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Length: 53min 31sec (3211 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 04 2020