THE COMING REDEMPTION-THE PROPHECIES OF THE TIMES

[Tzvi Ben Roshel1]

THE COMING REDEMPTION
THE PROPHECIES OF THE TIMES
WHEN MASHIACH WILL ARRIVE
“For I will gather all the nations against
Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken,
and the houses rifled, and the women ravished,
and half of the city shall go into exile, and the
residue of the people shall not be cut off from the
city”. (Zechariah 14)
R. Shimon Bar Yochai lifted up his hands and wept. 'Woe,' he
said, 'to him who will live at that time! Yet fortunate he who
will live at that time! When the Holy One comes to visit the
"Hind" (Israel), he will examine who it is that remains loyal to
her at that time, and then woe to him who shall not be found
worthy, and of whom it shall be said, "I looked and there was
none to help" (Isa. 22, 23)- Many sufferings shall then befall
Israel. But fortunate he who will be found faithful at that
time!
(ZOHAR Shemot, 7a)

R. Abba quoted here the verse "Who is this that comes from Edom,
with dyed garments from Bozrah?" (Isa. 68). 'G-d', he said, 'will one
day put on garments of vengeance to chastise Edom for having
destroyed His house and burnt His Temple and driven the Community
of Israel into exile among the nations. He will wreak vengeance on
them until all the mountains are full of the slain of the nations, when
he will summon all birds of the air and the beasts of the field and they
shall feast on them, the beasts twelve months and the birds seven
years, and the earth shall not bear the stench thereof. G-d shall come
from Bozrah, because from there the world's hosts went forth to war
against Jerusalem, and they began to burn the Temple, and the
children of Edom threw down the walls and destroyed the
foundations. G-d will be "glorious in his apparel", His robes of
vengeance, and "marching in the greatness of his strength". Said the
Israelites to Isaiah. "Who is he that shall do all this?" He replied: "I
that speak in righteousness, mighty to save". And why all this?
Because "for his sister a virgin that is near unto him, which hath had
no husband", to wit, for the Community of Israel who does not belong
to the portion of Esau, for her He may be defiled, to wit, in those
garments of vengeance with which He will stain himself among all
those hosts.'
(Zohar, Emor 89)

[Tzvi Ben Roshel1]

“Rabbi Elazar was asked by his students: what will a man do to be
spared from the pains of the arrival of the Mashiach? Let him occupy
himself with the Torah and let him perform acts of kindness” (Talmud
Sanhedrin 98a)
“Redemption is dependent on faith. The root cause of the exile is simply
a lack of faith” (Rabbi Nachman of Bresslov, Likute Moharan 7:1)
“Even a person who attains a certain level of religious insight and
understanding must take good care to ensure that the perception he has is
suffused with faith. Intellect alone is not something to rely upon” (Rabbi
Nachman of Bresslov, Likute Moharan 24:6)