"Zayin Adar"

9 Adar I 5771

Feb. 11th, the day that Hosni Mubarak resigned as President of Egypt was also "Zayin Adar"---anniversary of both the birth and death of Moshe Rabeinu, the man who brought down Egypt 3,323 years ago.

In his commentary on Parshat Tetzaveh, Rabbi Sitorsky remarked the following:

“…We know that Zayin Adar is a very, very important day. In fact, the Chatam Sofer, who has many, many drashot on Zayin Adar in his sefer basically says that it is the greatest day of the year. He says it’s the whole purpose of why Hashem created the world so that Moshe Rabeinu would come to this world…. That was the day that Haman mistakenly believed to be on his side being that it's also the day of the passing of Moshe Rabeinu and the Gemara says that he did not know though that it was the day in which Moshe Rabeinu was born....

"...The nes of Purim is all because of Zayin Adar.... Why should the birthday of Moshe Rabeinu be different? And it is different. And this year is also different. This year is a leap year, a shanah meuberet. A shanah meuberet is very, very unique because we are being visited by a month that's not part of time. It's above time."

He goes on to say that the year that Moshe Rabeinu was born was a shanah meuberet, as well as the year that Haman orders the attack on the Jews. He discuss which Adar is the one that was added. Is it the first Adar,the one that follows Shevat or is it the second Adar, the one that preceeds Nisan?

"The Yerushalmi seems to indicate that Adar rishon is the tosefet. ...The question is, where does it come from? So, this is the month that is above time because time only has twelve months. The world was created that every year should have twelve months. There are twelve shevatim, there are twelve boundaries to the universe....The number 13, that is the number that is associated with being above nature. Thirteen attributes of mercy. Purim, according to the Yerushalmi, was also in a leap year and the actual nes occurred in the second Adar.

"The question is though, when was Moshe Rabeinu born? Moshe Rabeinu, says the Gemara in Sotah, ...was born in Adar rishon. That year was a shanah meuberet." [If you want to know how they could declare a leap year before the Torah was given, you'll have to listen to the entire shiur. :-)]

Because Moshe Rabeinu was such a special and unique person, he had to be born in a month that was special and unique---a month outside of time---which is Adar rishon, the tosefet.
What does it mean that this earth-shattering event in Egypt happened on this particular date? I don't know. But what I do know is that it didn't happen by chance and it ultimately bodes well and good for Bnei Yisrael.
Following are some interesting remarks reported on that day which agree with recent predictions made by Rabbi Nir Ben Artzi.

Ex-Egypt Envoy: Israel In Trouble
...“It’s over, Egypt is no longer a superpower,” former Israeli Ambassador to Cairo Zvi Mazel told Ynet. “Egypt has completely lost its status in the area, while Turkey and Iran are on the way up. It’s a different world.”

“As long as we had Mubarak, there was no void in our relations with the region. Now we’re in big trouble,” he said.

Israel, Mazel said, had many reasons for concern. “From a strategic point of view, Israel is now facing a hostile situation. It’s over, there is no one left to lead the pragmatic, moderate state.”

...“We may see a series of upheavals in the region now. Mubarak’s downfall supports revolutionaries everywhere, from Yemen to Algeria. The question is whether such a Middle East will be manageable. What if there are coups in Jordan, Morocco or Saudi Arabia? Only God knows who will take power.”

Mubarak Slammed U.S. In Phone Call With Israeli MK Before Resignation

...Ben-Eliezer said Mubarak expanded in the telephone call on “what he expects will happen in the Middle East after his fall”.

“He contended the snowball (of civil unrest) won’t stop in Egypt and it wouldn’t skip any Arab country in the Middle East and in the Gulf.

“He said ‘I won’t be surprised if in the future you see more extremism and radical Islam and more disturbances — dramatic changes and upheavals,” Ben-Eliezer added.