"When Adar Enters, Joy Increases"

1 Adar Bet 5784
Rosh Chodesh Bet

Reposting from 19 Adar Bet 5779.  It is even more meaningful today than the day originally posted in light of recent events.  Well worth re-reading!  Quoting from Rabbi Meir Kahane's, ztz"l, Hy"d, Ohr HaRa'ayon: The Jewish Idea:

Pesikta Rabbati 37: "I will greatly rejoice [sos asis]" (Isaiah 61:10); [Why the double wording for rejoice?] Sos refers to the Messianic era; asis to the fall of wicked Rome.  "My soul shall be joyful in my G-d" (Ibid.): This refers to the War of Gog and Magog.

I have elaborated on this in order to make clear to the nation smitten with insanity, blindness and mental confusion just how great redemption "in haste" can be if we are but worthy of it. What intelligent person would not be willing to exchange redemption of suffering and holocausts, horrors and Messianic birthpangs - Heaven help us - for redemption in glory and majesty?  Yet such redemption cannot come so long as Israel depend on the nations and lack complete faith in G-d.  It will not come as long as Israel profane G-d's name by their refusal to expel from Eretz Yisrael the Ishmaelites, who revile and profane G-d's name, as long as the Temple Mount remains a den of alien Ishmaelite foxes who come near yet are neither killed nor banished.  As long as Israel fear flesh and blood and therefore refuse to perform mitzvot and great deeds for fear of the nations' reaction, redemption "in haste" will be impossible.  No redemption based on Kiddush Hashem can arrive while Israel concede regarding Chillul Hashem.

If Israel do not merit redemption "in haste," and the end passes and redemption "in its time" arrives, G-d will free Mashiach ben Yosef, yet only so that he can go to war accompanied by suffering, tragedy and horror, and indeed he will be slain in this war.  Only a few will follow him, whereas the vast majority of Israel will ridicule and oppose him, and the mixed multitude of the impoverished regime which will be in control will fight him as well (according to the Gra, Armelius is the head of the mixed multitude, and he will slay Mashiach ben Yosef).  There will be a great fall at the start of redemption, yet it will pave the way for the final redemption of Mashiach ben David.

Whether redemption comes "in its time" or "in haste," Mashiach ben Yosef will act to promote Kiddush Hashem, namely, through the conquest of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, and he will do things which will anger the nations, yet he will not fear them.  Precisely these deeds of his which sanctify G-d's name will bring the final redemption, by the fact that all the nations will go to war against Israel, and Israel will be alone with no helper but their Father in Heaven.  Only in this way will we be able to achieve the final redemption through Kiddush Hashem - G-d against the whole world.

...Mashiach ben Yosef will be the spark which will begin to burn and destroy Esau. 

...G-d will bring the final redemption the same way He brought the first, in order to be elevated and sanctified, and in order to show the world that "His ways are as of old" (Habakuk 3:6). And in order to lower the proud and prove to them that He directs the universe, G-d will cause the Messiah to emerge precisely from the country of Gog, as he did with Moses who grew up in the palace of Pharaoh and went out from there to smite the Egyptian.  Our sages said (Tanchuma, Shemot, 8):

Pharaoh would hug and kiss him, and Moses would remove Pharaoh's crown from his head and cast it down the way he would do later on.  Likewise, G-d said to Hiram, "I have brought forth from your midst, and it has devoured you (Ezek. 28:18).  The daughter of Pharaoh was raising the one who would ultimately punish her father and her land.  Just so, the Messiah, who will in the future punish the nations, will grow up with them there in their country, as it says, "There shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down and consume its branches" (Isaiah 27:10).

Similarly we find (Tanchuma, Tazria, 8):

The Messiah, who will in the future punish Gog and Magog and his forces, will grow up with them there in their country, as it says, "There shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down and consume its branches" (Isaiah 27:10).

The trouble and grief of Gog and Magog will surpass all the troubles and holocausts of the past, Heaven help us.

...Yet certainly, even redemption "in its time" with all its terrors shall end with G-d's final, majestic victory over His enemies through His revenge and anger, and the revelation of the glory of His kingdom throughout the world.

...Indeed, at the end of the [MBY] process, G-d will rout and defeat the nations who come with Gog, and Mashiach ben David will appear.

This concludes the quotations on the subject of Mashiach ben Yosef (chapters 30 and 31) taken from Rabbi Meir Kahane's, ztz"l, Hy"d, Ohr HaRa'ayon: The Jewish Idea.

May all our sorrows soon be turned to joy in the month of joy!