אִם יִרְצֶה הַשֵּׁם
י״ח חֶשְׁוָן תשפ״ז
After The dog at the corner the sugya is still the appointed time.
Talk that blows air
Ki od chazon la-mo'ed.
There is still a vision for the appointed time. Every named ketz is already emptied by this pasuk.
Yafiach la-ketz: talk that blows air. Let them talk, but lo yechazev: let them not falsify.
If it tarries beyond the time you can name, keep waiting. He will surely come. He will not be late past the time that is his. He will not come after the time that is his, but not after the times that are yours.
Three calculations that failed
Daniel's mo'ed mo'adim va-chatzi they took as one period of four hundred years, from Isaac to the yetziah, plus two more plus half. Three and a half times four hundred is fourteen hundred years after the churban sheni. That is not what the pasuk means.
Rabbi Shimon said sholish is the measure of tears. Four hundred from Isaac to the yetziah plus the seventy of galus Bavel is four hundred seventy. Three times that is fourteen hundred ten. Rabbi Natan says that also is not true.
Rabbi Akiva read od achas me'at as a little more after the churban, a short victory, then Mashiach. He thought Bar Kokhba's brief success was that little more. Rabbi Natan: od achas speaks of the little glory before the churban, not after it.
The seventy years of the Chashmonaim while they fought and held power. After that their power waned under foreign dominion. Then Herod, powerful in name though an eunuch. Then Bar Kokhba's two and a half years in Yerushalayim before the fall of Betar.
After Betar
Rashi: the churban here is not only the churban of the Beis HaMikdash. It is the end of the churban, which is the churban of Betar. The Rambam says the churban of Betar was worse. It was the culmination about sixty years later.
After Betar there is no longer any power for the Jewish people and no precursor of Mashiach. Bar Kokhba's independence in Yerushalayim was still before the fall of Betar. Once Betar fell, the pasuk gives no further sign of when the ketz will arrive.
Yafiach / tipach
Those who calculate the ketz and then, when it fails, declare that Mashiach will never come. They said it after Yeshu perished. They said it after Shabbetai Zvi perished. On such people the pasuk places a curse: tipach, let them be swollen.
Yafiach and tipach are a play on words. They blabber about the ketz and cause falsehood so that people say there is no more hope. Continue to hope for the true one even if the false ones have already come and gone.
Mutual waiting
Ve-lachakeh Hashem la-chananchem.
Because you wait for Him, He waits to be gracious to you in the time that is due. He will be exalted when the time comes to show mercy.
What holds it up is that we are not yet good enough. The din holds it. Even so we wait, and the waiting itself is rewarded. When Mashiach comes that particular opportunity ends. Now is the time to gain it.
Ashrei kol chakei lo: fortunate are those who hope for Him. In the yaggut of Shir ha-Shirim the nations offer blandishments. The Jewish people answer that all of them are worthless beside the reward that comes for the waiting. The emunah that continues despite tribulation is itself the service.
Thirty-six and the illuminated mirror
Abaye: the world never has fewer than thirty-six tzaddikim who receive the face of the Shechinah in every generation. Lo in gematria is thirty-six. One foundation of a tzaddik is emunah, tzaddik be-emunaso yichyeh, and part of that emunah is the waiting for the yeshu'ah.
They sit and learn Torah while they wait. Rav Miller zt"l: the Brisker continued his learning when they said Mashiach had arrived. That is why the study of Kodshim was restored and spread: it is a form of hoping for the yeshu'ah. This group sitting and learning the subject is already among those who are ashrei.
There is a mishteh of the firmament like the Sanhedrin that sat in a crescent with rows ranked by stature. In the front row sit eighteen thousand tzaddikim. The malachei ha-shareis stand outside and ask those in the last row what is being said.
Thirty-six see as into an illuminated mirror. The eighteen thousand see more dimly. In olam ha-ba there is no eating or drinking. The tzaddikim sit with their crowns and receive the happiness of gazing at the Shechinah. Those closer and clearer have greater happiness.
When Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his son came out after thirteen years of yissurim (sand, cracked skin, only carobs and spring water), he said: if there are a thousand of the highest station, I and my son are among them. If a hundred, or if only two, I am confident we are of them.
Those who enter with permission are the thirty-six who see the illuminated mirror. Those who enter without permission are the bnei heichala, the palace people who may open the door at any time. Even the illuminated ones still need permission. The bnei heichala do not.
All the ketzin have passed
Rav: they have finished all the ketzin. Nothing remains except teshuvah and ma'asim tovim. Regret of the past is not enough. Positive deeds are required.
That is why Rav, when he returned from Eretz Yisrael, did not settle in Nehardea where Shmuel was. He went to Sura, a place without Torah, and spent the rest of his life building Torah there. Rav Miller zt"l: our function in this galus is to spread Torah.
Shmuel: we will not wait until we are worthy. Like a mourner who has a fixed term after which the avelut ends, so the tribulations of the nation will bring the geulah even if we are not ready. This is a machlokes of Tannaim: be-teshuvah nigalin versus a forced teshuvah caused by a decree like Haman's.
One side: shuvu banim shovavim, return, and then I will heal your waywardness. The other: chinam nimkartem, you were sold for nothing (idolatry is nothing), and not for money will you be redeemed. You will be redeemed without dependence on good deeds, by force if necessary: one from a city, two from a family.
Anonymous: with teshuvah and nachas (tranquility, humility) you will be saved. Isaiah: the Redeemer will come to the despised soul, the one abominated and enslaved. The kings will see and rise, the princes will bow, because of the slavery itself. Daniel's man in linen raises both hands and swears by the Eternal that when the power of the holy people is broken, then it ends.
Open signs
When the land of Eretz Yisrael becomes extraordinarily fertile once more, that is the sign it is preparing for the restoration of its children. While the people were there the land was fertile. After they were pushed out (Yehudah to Galil, then the massacres) it became desolate. The Arabs who lived there for centuries barely eked out a living because the land was barren. Only when bnei Yisrael begin to return does the land give its produce again.
Another open sign: before those days the wage of a man will not be, nor the wage of the beast, and there will be no peace for the one who goes out or comes in. Great tribulations. There will be great sorrow even for those who love Torah. The talmidei chachamim will not be protected from this tzarah. One reading: the enemy. Another: the yetzer ha-ra, because the quality of Torah will have fallen so low that it no longer protects.
Shmuel: all the gates will be equal. Two perushim: either everything will be in abundance (the land preparing), or nowhere will anything be available and everything expensive (the tribulations so great that the ketz is near). Rabbi Chanina: until Ben David comes they will seek a fish for a sick person and will not find it. The rivers will flow like oil, sluggish and shallow, so that even fish, available in ordinary famine years, will cease.
What must be pruned
Ben David will not come until the malchut hazola departs from Israel. Malchut hazola: the cheap imitation of a kingdom, the unnecessary branches that are pruned so the tree can give its true fruit. After that the gift will be brought: the people who have been dragged and plucked will be raised, and the nations will transport them in style as an offering, eager to show they have repented of what they did.
Until the alizei ga'avah, the happy ones of pride who live in luxury and imitate the Gentiles, are removed. Wealth itself is not the problem. Rabbi Akiva, Rabban Gamliel, Rabbi Tarfon were wealthy. It is the arrogance that looks to the Gentiles and copies their ways. What remains will be a poor and low people who trust in the name of Hashem, living in Jewish ways.
All the judges and officials must leave, the false leaders, the heads of organizations. Only then is there hope. Hashem will turn His hand upon the dross and purify as with soap. Sigim are the cheap metals mixed into the precious. Once they are removed the true judges return as of old.
Yerushalayim will be redeemed only by mishpat and tzedakah. Mishpat is keeping the din of the Torah. Tzedakah in the pasuk is righteousness (ma'asim tovim, gemilut chasadim). The Chachamim revealed the secret that by giving tzedakah a man already enters that category, and thereby can help bring the geulah.
If the arrogant ones go lost, then the Magi go lost. The Magi (amgushi) forced conformity and seized children. That is religious persecution. Why do we suffer it? Because the arrogant among us yearn for the ways of the Gentiles. Sig (dross) and sagi (big, arrogant) are a play: purify the arrogant ones as with soap, and then remove all the bedil, those who separate between Israel and HaKadosh Baruch Hu.
If the dayanim are lost (corrupted, not up to the standard the Torah requires), then the Gentile magistrates remain. Once the Torah officials are what they must be, the magistrates of the Gentiles depart. Hashem removes the judgment that is against you, and the enemies go away.
The pasuk of Habakkuk voids every named ketz, yet the Gemara still records open signs: fertility of the land, equal gates, absence of fish, removal of malchut hazola. How does an open sign that can be observed differ from a calculated ketz that is forbidden, and does the return of fertility already count as one of those signs having begun? The machlokes of Rav and Shmuel remains open on whether the tribulations alone are sufficient or whether a minimum of teshuvah is still required before the din releases the ketz.
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