אִם יִרְצֶה הַשֵּׁם
כ״א חֶשְׁוָן תשפ״ז
After One bandage the sugya is still the appointed time. Tape: Perek Chelek 17 - 98b. Rav Avigdor Miller zt"l. Printed Gemara is Sanhedrin 98b.
The horse in the stall
The hosts of above and of below turn green. The problem is the ousting. When the time comes so that only one civilization remains for the Am Yisrael, HaKadosh Baruch Hu so to speak faces a great sacrifice. Whatever the nations built, cities, governments, institutions, was made by Him. It must all come tumbling down like the dust of old Babylon.
Yadav al chalatzav: a figure of speech. Hands on the loins. You cannot have Kesari and Yerushalayim together. You cannot have Esav and Yaakov together. One nation rises only when the other goes down.
Rav Papa brings the saying of people. The ox runs and falls, so they put a horse into his stable.
The Am Yisrael is the ox for whom the world was made. While the ox stands, the master keeps him, because he produces more. When the ox falls into exile the stall is empty and the horse is put in. The horse makes noise and runs fast, but does not produce what the ox produces. The horse is what has taken the Am's place. Noise and speed are not production. When the Baal ha-Bayis wants the ox back, the horse is reluctant to leave. It will have to be ousted.
Does the saying picture only that prominence has to change hands, or also that the cities, governments, and institutions He built through the nations must come down with the horse?
Eat the years
Rav Gidal in the name of Rav: Yisrael are destined to eat the years of Mashiach.
Eat: the form of speech for enjoyment that people understand. In the days of Shlomo they ate and drank and rejoiced with the Beis ha-Mikdash. So too in the days of Mashiach there will be eating and drinking and much more.
Rav Yosef: certainly not Chilik and Biluk. Tam and Jim, gentile names. They had their chance and ruined the world.
The saying excludes the opinion of Rebbi Hillel. Rebbi Hillel says there is no Mashiach for Yisrael, for they already ate him in the days of Chizkiyahu. He does not deny a final geulah. All the Nevi'im foretold that. He says the person of Mashiach already came.
The deed he pointed to: Sanheriv was discomfited at the gates of Yerushalayim. The spoils were so great that even the lame on sticks found plenty left. Chizkiyahu was a great tzaddik. The land studied Torah. That, he held, fulfilled the prophecies of the person of Mashiach. The final geulah is a different story.
The Chachamim spoke strongly against him. Mashiach is yet to come: not only the geulah, but even the person of Mashiach.
For whom the world was made
Rav says the world was created only for David. Shmuel says for Moshe. Rebbi Yochanan says for Mashiach.
No man will arise as great as Moshe Rabbeinu. Half of him was above humanity, special gifts bestowed because HaKadosh Baruch Hu knew he would choose to be an eved Hashem. David is the most perfect example of a man who made use of this world by his own efforts. He conquered the enemies of the Am, united the nation, collected the materials and plans for the Beis ha-Mikdash. His Tehillim fill every Jewish mouth every day.
David danced before the Aron like one of the slaves: humble and energetic even as melech. Even his sin shows he was human, so that backsliders can still look up to him and emulate his ways. The world was created so that people should succeed by studying the life of David.
Why not Avraham Avinu? HaKadosh Baruch Hu proclaimed Avraham from the beginning and gave him great gifts and talents. Everybody is called talmid of Avraham Avinu. David is the model within our scope.
Shmuel holds the world was created for Moshe, the greatest and most perfect person, whether by gifts or not. Rebbi Yochanan holds for Mashiach, the culmination in whom all great qualities will concentrate.
What is his name
Each beis midrash projects the ideal they know onto Mashiach. They could not picture any perfection other than the rebbe they saw.
Devei Rebbi Shila: Shilo shemo, from ad ki yavo Shilo. Their rebbe exemplified the perfect man: pure, true, full of chesed, no nickel earned from Torah.
Devei Rebbi Yannai: Yinon shemo, from lifnei shemesh yinon shemo. Yinon means become great. Their rebbe's qualities will become great in Mashiach.
Devei Rebbi Chanina: Chanina shemo, from asher lo eten lachem chanina. A remez: I will not give you the man of favor.
Yesh omrim: Menachem ben Chizkiyahu shemo, from ki rachak mimeni Menachem meshiv nafshi. We weep on Tisha b'Av because Menachem is far.
Rabbanan: Chivara de-bei Rebbi shemo, the leper of the house of Rebbi, from Yeshaya: achen chalayeinu hu nasa u-mach'oveinu sevalam. The deed: he suffered greatly, tolerated yisurim with cheerfulness, and was a kaparah. At first thought punished, later recognized as yisurim shel ahavah of a great tzaddik. The name is the beis midrash projecting that deed onto Mashiach.
Somebody will be disappointed. It will be the apex of all greatness.
Rav Nachman says: if he is from the living, like me. He is not saying Mashiach will have my qualities. He is saying Mashiach will have a status like mine. The deed: he lived with both tohar and gedulah. Halacha ke-Rav Nachman be-dinei. He was son-in-law of the Reish Galusa, accustomed to authority, not a nedafol. Moshe was brought up in the house of Paroh and trained to lead. If Mashiach is from the living, he is of that standing. Ve-hayah adiro mimenu u-moshlo mi-kirbo yetze: a mighty one from their midst.
Rav: if from the living, like Rabbeinu ha-Kadosh. If from the dead, like Daniel ish chamudos. Things equal to the same thing are equal to each other. Both had similar qualities of perfection. This needs investigation, but not now.
Caesar and half-Caesar
Rebbi Yochanan says HaKadosh Baruch Hu will raise up another David.
Ve-avdu es Hashem Elokeihem ve-es David malkam asher akim lahem.
I will raise up a new David for them. Abaye objects from David avdi nasi lahem le-olam. Answer: like Caesar and half-Caesar. The first David will be assistant to his descendant. The qualities of the first will reappear in the second in much greater form.
The chicken and the bat
Hoy ha-mit'avim yom Hashem.
Woe to those who desire the day of Hashem. It will be darkness and not light.
It depends. A chicken and a bat both waiting for the light. The chicken says: I wait for the light because the light is mine. The bat goes out of business when light comes. The light is not a general sunrise. Hoy ha-mit'avim yom Hashem is darkness for the nations and light for the Am. All the goyim are waiting for their messiah. When the day comes it will be light for us and the opposite for them.
A min said to Rebbi Avahu: when will Mashiach come? Rebbi Avahu: when darkness will cover those men. The min: you are cursing me? I will denounce you to the Romans. Rebbi Avahu: I am only repeating the pasuk.
Ki hineh ha-choshech yechaseh eretz ve-arafel le'umim, ve-alayich yizrach Hashem u-chvodo alayich yera'eh.
Years of recompense
All the numbers rest on samcheinu ki-yemei inisanu shenos ra'inu ra'ah: cause us joy like the years You afflicted us, the years we saw evil. They measure what is owed for the years of affliction. They are not another named ketz.
Rebbi Eliezer: forty years. Arbaim shanah akut ba-dor. The forty years of the midbar, Dor ha-De'ah.
Rebbi Elazar b'R Azarya: seventy years. Ve-nishkachas Tzor shiv'im shanah ki-yemei melech echad. The seventy of golus Bavel.
Rebbi: three generations. Yira'ucha im shemesh ve-lifnei yare'ach dor dorim. The sun is Mashiach conspicuous. The moon is malchus Beis David.
Rebbi Eliezer, another baraisa: four hundred years. From the birth of Yitzchak to yetzias Mitzrayim, the years of being strangers in the land. Va-ya'anecha va-yar'ivecha, read with samcheinu ki-yemei inisanu.
Rebbi: three hundred sixty-five. Ki yom nakam be-libi u-shenas ge'ulai ba'ah. The day of revenge is a year of redemption, a sun year. Another girsa: three hundred sixty-five thousand, the day as a thousand years.
Tanna de-vei Eliyahu: seven thousand. U-mesos chasan al kalah. Seven days of a choson, each a thousand years.
Rav Yehuda in the name of Shmuel: from creation until now. Ki yemei ha-shamayim al ha-aretz. All setbacks from the beginning.
Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak: from the days of Noach. Ki-yemei Noach zos li. Only after the mabul changed the world.
Why from creation, or only from Noach? One opinion holds mankind had setbacks from the first misstep of Adam, leaving Gan Eden, shorter lives. The other holds that until the mabul the world was still beautiful: spring climates everywhere, perfect ecology. The mabul changed climates, killed species needed for the balance, and marked the great deterioration. HaKadosh Baruch Hu compensates only from then.
The day of revenge is secret
Le-libi giliti le-evarai lo giliti. Even to the malachim it was not revealed. Under Rome there were spies who looked like Jews. If a Jew described the day of nokam the spy would master him. Therefore the secret stays inside. The Am suffers in golus and does not know when. They wait without a date, and that waiting is counted. They have emunah and receive reward for waiting. Redemption will come with revenge on the umos ha-olam. Those who died will be brought forth and sentenced again.
Rebbi Chiya bar Abba in the name of Rebbi Yochanan: all the Nevi'im prophesied only for yemei ha-Mashiach. For olam ha-ba, ayin lo ra'asah Elokim zulascha ya'aseh la-mechakeh lo. No eye, not even Moshe, has seen olam ha-ba. He would belittle it.
This differs with Shmuel. Shmuel says: ein bein olam ha-zeh li-yemei ha-Mashiach ella shi'abud malchuyos bilvad. In the days of Mashiach the world remains a natural world. All the wonderful things the Nevi'im said will be only in olam ha-ba. The only difference is that the Am Yisrael will no longer be subject to the nations and will be paramount. The whole world will recognize that the Jews have the truth.
What more is needed to explain Shmuel's opinion that yemei ha-Mashiach remain a natural existence, and how that sits with the glorious visions of the Nevi'im?
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