"Anyone who has been just looking around and has his or her eyes open must be frightened. Things are happening that just don't make sense. Overnight, our cherished institutions, our icons, have collapsed. We don't understand it. People blame this one and that one. It's not just in the United States, it's all over the world, and we have so many natural disasters, and so much illness. What is happening?"
Rebbetzin Jungreis says G-d is bringing the world closer to redemption in a process called "chevlei Mashiach" – the labor pains of the arrival of the Messiah.
"Now labor pains, you know, could be very, very painful…as the birth becomes more imminent, the pain becomes more intense, to the point where the mother can not bear it anymore, and just when she thinks she can not bear it, it's 'Mazal Tov!', and the baby is born."
I've done my best with the many Hebrew and yeshivish words and terms that follow, but in spite of our ignorance, we can all grasp the gist, relevance and urgency - of this:
Rav Moshe Wolfson spoke Tuesday night in a rare mid-week assembly ... in Boro Park, asking bluntly why there is no greater uproar within the community over the potential for war over Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
“Why are we quiet? Where is the awakening? Why is everyone so apathetic?” asked Rav Wolfson, who is also mashgiach of Yeshivah Torah Vodaath. “Everyone is busy with narishkeiten [foolishness], we don’t hear the alarm? We don’t know that we have to pierce the heavens for rachamim [mercy, compassion] from the Ribbono Shel Olam [Master of the universe] ?”
Rav Wolfson told the packed beis medrash of nearly 1,000 people that the potential for a war encompassing Iran, Israel, Europe and the United States over the next few weeks is a real one, and Klal Yisrael must prepare itself spiritually.
.... Rav Wolfson quoted the Pesikta, who says that the year when Moshiach [the final Messiah] will come all nations will battle each other. The spark that will set it off, according to the Medrash, will be when the king of Paras – which is modern-day Iran – will threaten “Arabia,” presumably Saudi Arabia, such as is happening today.
Arabia will go for an alliance with Edom – the culture of Edom is today’s Western world, Europe and United States. Paras will then destroy the world and the Yidden will be thrown into turmoil. Hashem will then say: “Do not fear, the time for your Geulah has come.”
Rav Wolfson noted how eerily similar this Medrash is to what is occurring today.
“We don’t have to be in a panic,” Rav Wolfson said, “Hashem will perform miracles for us. But efsher takeh. Maybe the time for the Geulah [redemption] has arrived. We must prepare for the Geulah.”
Rav Wolfson said that since the Holocaust, Hashem has performed great miracles for the Yidden. Eretz Yisrael, which today hosts most of the world’s Yidden and most of the Torah world, merited supernatural siyatta diShmaya [the help of Heaven] during its wars. When the Palestinians shoot missiles from Gaza , they land mostly in empty areas and cause little damage.
When then-Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein shot 39 Scud missiles during the Gulf War, only one Yid was killed – that man had previously received a klalah from the Chazon Ish....
.... But just like Eliyahu had to daven on Har Hacarmel [see especially 18:36] even though Hashem had already promised to bring rain, Hashem still wants the tefillos [prayers] of Klal Yisrael [literally, "all of Israel," the overarching soul of the entirety of the Jewish people] today, even though He had promised to bring yeshuos [salvation].
In order to qualify for these miracles, Rav Wolfson said, we must strengthen in Torah, tefillah [prayer] and chessed [kindness].
He specifically suggested saying Tehillim (Psalms) 46 every day, adding that he is asking his own kehillah to have the kapitel [chapter] printed out and stuck to the back of every siddur {Jewish prayer book]. During the Suez campaign in 1956, the Belzer Rebbe asked that people say that particular kapitel, since it is a segulah [action of spiritual effect] to prevent warfare.
“Everyone has to be mispallel that Klal Yisrael should be saved from chevlei Moshiach ["birth pangs" of the coming of Moshiach] that he and his family should be saved,” he said....
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