Given: February 7, 2022
I want to dedicate this shiur to Rini Malco, Regina bas Yosef Reuven, for her memory, for the zechus---merit of this woman. In addition, for someone who is niftar---passed recently, Rav Eliyahu ben Safia, that his neshama---soul should have an aliyah---ascension from this shiur.
---amen.
I’ve been talking about Ya’akov and Esav and, last week, I was talking about one of the forms of Esav that, according to the Torah, Esav is Edom, the Edomites. The Gemara says that Edom is “Romi” and that Rome was transformed into a religion. The Jews who would go into any Christian country would be under the domination of Esav. Christianity, today, is Western Civilization, the dominant culture for 2,000 years. Therefore, we are under the dominance of Esav for that long and I’ve talked about the repercussions of this.
Population
We know of some interesting phenomena, interesting patterns, and all this is happening right before the geula---Redemption. What is that pattern? The world reached one billion people around 1800. It took thousands of years for the world to go from Adam ha’Rishon---Primordial Man to one billion. From 1800 to today, about 220 years, there are close to eight billion! Imagine the acceleration! In two centuries, we’ve multiplied eight times, an acceleration in the last two centuries that didn’t happen in the previous millennia. If you were to add up all the people born over thousands of years, 8-9 billion, that number are all on the planet living today. What took thousands of years to accumulate is the current sum of who is alive on the planet today. How do we understand that?
What’s possible is that, all who have come and gone in their time, must now, at the End of Time, be brought back at once to witness the transformation of mankind. It seems that the Ribono Shel Olam---G-D has brought back all the neshamos---souls in one generation to witness the transformation of what will be in the End of Time. It’s an interesting indicator that all living now would be the accumulated number for thousands of years of this world’s existence.
One of the results with this is that it’s kind of a ‘rush job.’ Everybody has to go through whatever they need to go through. Those who have to complete their tikkunim---rectifications, those who have to be punished, suffer some retribution, those who have to be rewarded or be given a different task and, therefore, different circumstances, all that has to happen at the End, must transpire quickly, especially because everyone is back.
The Stock Market
G-D accomplishes that by having created a business form that can make a person wealthy or poor overnight. There is no time to radically change peoples’ circumstances economically, alterations which help determine a person’s mission. What business form is that?---the stock market.
The stock market is a very interesting form of business though it isn’t really a business. In real business, goods or services are provided and paid for. In order to become wealthy, it usually requires a long time, time for customers to hear about you, time to build a customer base. If the Ribono Shel Olam wants to bring somebody back to fulfill his mission, it takes too long in the normal give-and-take of the economic world. So, G-D put it into the mind of a person---I read somewhere that this person was a Jew---to have the concept of a “stock market.”
The concept is that a person can become a partner in a business venture without having to conduct business in the normal way we conceive of business, buying and selling or providing a service. The shares themselves have a value, sometimes connected to the profitability of the company, the debt it carries, and sometimes not. Sometimes, the share value is connected to the reputation of the company. The share has value which can go up or down and you can make, or lose, a lot of money quickly. In fact, the market is, basically, the only way somebody can become fabulously wealthy overnight. Of course, the company you’re invested in can take a nose-dive and you become fabulously poor overnight. It depends on the perception of the value of being a partial partner in the company. What kind of “business” is that, really? It’s not tied, necessarily, to actual profit or loss, of the company’s balance sheet, although it should be.
The stock market is a way that G-D can reward somebody overnight or impoverish somebody overnight. Nothing that mankind does is an accident. The stock market is an indicator that we are in a messianic time, reward and punishment coming swiftly.
The Characteristics of Esav and Nations
We know that Esav had three characteristics; we see that in the Torah. The first is that he is a bal gaiva—practitioner of arrogance. We see this when Esav sold his birthright to Ya’akov and the Torah says that Esav despised the birthright, despised his role as spiritual representative of his family. He despised that which was his legacy from Avraham and Yitzchak. That indicates great arrogance.
Second, he was a rasha---evil-doer, a rogue, but his evil was cloaked with a veneer of righteousness which he pretended to. The chazal---sages tell us that he asked his father if he was required to give a tithe on salt (knowing full well there was no such tithe) so his father would be deceived into thinking he was pious. Esav was an imposter, a fraud.
The third characteristic of Esav was as a bal taiva---hedonist. He was greatly immersed in pleasure.
If that’s the case, we can examine the three nations that Esav/Edom turned into. As I pointed out before, Rome became Christianity which became Western Civilization which manifest in three “sections,” each representing one of those three characteristics.
The arrogance is manifest in Russia, particularly when it functioned as the Soviet Union with its dictatorial tyranny and atheism---arrogantly thinking itself to be god-like under the communistic regime, but less so when it was Christian. It was so bad that G-D allowed it to persist for only seventy years.
The characteristic of fraudulence is represented best by Europe. It hasn’t been as arrogant as Russia in a flagrant show of secularism, but has long been hypocritical, preaching loving-kindness, the “turning of the other cheek.” When struck, however, it is not their cheek that turns; it’s yours! They profess to be religious and peace-loving yet more people have died in the name of Christianity than in all wars combined. Europe has slaughtered many millions, especially Jews. Just think about the Middle Ages, of the pogroms, expulsions, inquisitions. All these happened while they were professing their religiosity. Think about the Crusades. It was one of the worst times in Europe during which they used the pretext of freeing Jerusalem from the Arabs to butcher everybody. How many Jews died in the Crusades? It’s staggering. What kind of a religion is this? That’s the deception of Esav, the charade.
The third characteristic of Esav, his hedonism, the pleasure-seeking aspect, is embodied by America. It is concerned with materialism, comfort, luxury.
Interesting is that Esav, despite these negative character traits, and in the midst of his pleasure-seeking, was deeply respectful of his mother and father. He was very good at fulfilling the mitzvah of kibud av v’eim---honoring mother and father. It is not surprising that America has long instituted Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day.
The Eight Kings and the Soviet
The Torah, at the end of parashas---bible chapter “VaYishlach,” says that there were eight kings before there reigned a king in Israel. It reckons eight of them and the last one’s name is Hadar ha’Melech---King Hadar. This portion of the Torah is very kabbalistic. The Zohar says, regarding this, that the last king named “Hadar,” bears this name because he will reverse the evil of the prior seven. This is a first indicator that Esav will do teshuva---repentance. The name “Hadar” is derived from “m’hader”---to reverse, to turn-around. He will reverse the evil of the previous seven Edomic kings. The kings of Edom are in the plural while the king of Israel is in the singular. That singular king is mashiach---messiah. Before mashiach comes, Edom/Esav will reverse its evil trend via Hadar ha’Melech.
I was thinking about this idea of reversal in 1991, the significance of “eight.” There were eight---I think they were called “secretaries”---but were really prime ministers, dictators really. The first was Lenin, the one who conducted the revolution. Stalin was #2. Malinkov was #3, Khrushchev was #4, Brezhnev was #5, Andropov was #6, Chermenko was #7, and Gorbachev was #8. The one who turns around the evil of the previous seven was Gorbachev. He overturns the Soviet regime.
Just to show you how fascinating the Torah is, the gematria---numerological value of Hadar ha’Melech, which is ‘304’ is the same value as the name ‘Gorbachev’ when you include the number of osiyos---Hebrew letters.
We see from this that, before the mashiach can reign in Israel, that communist regime must die. Let’s remember that Putin is not interested in restoring the character of the former regime which was the really bad part of Esav. He does want to restore the Soviet empire but he’s not interested in the “communist” aspect that was.
An interesting historical note is that when the Soviet Union dissolved itself on Wednesday, December 25th of 1991, it was recognized that it was the Christmas holiday. Yet, on that exact day which Christians consider the date of Christianity’s founding, the worst aspect of Esav dissolved itself legally. I find that to be totally fascinating.
Also fascinating is that “304” is also the gematria of ‘Germamia’ which is Germany. In 1991, the fall of the Soviet Union was signified by the collapse of the Berlin Wall in East Germany. We were witnessing the historical beginning of the end of the Soviet Union even if Putin would like to restore its unity.
The Primordial Dynamic
There’s a very important dynamic here involving the Satan’s ongoing existence because he is able to “yoneg”---nourish himself on the energy of the sefiros---spiritual energies that the Jews reject. How do the Jews reject these energies? G-D told Adam: your job is to ignore the advice of the primordial snake when he advises you, tempts you, to eat from that tree.
But what happened? Adam and Chava both ate so G-D told them that, up to that point, their job had been to reject the advice of the Satan but since they bought into his argument, gave him credence by eating, which was against His Will, their job would now be compounded. It would involve not just ignoring him, refusing to lend him credence (which would have destroyed him). G-D says: Your job is now to destroy him, annihilate him. But how? How can a man destroy a malach---angelic being?
Normally, what a Jew does---which at that time only affected Adam---is perform a mitzvah---Divine commandment. When he does that, he brings down energy of the sefiros, a holy energy that, ultimately, transforms the physical universe into a spiritual one. If a Jew sins, the energy that should have come down to him is diverted to the Satan. When the Jew sins, it’s not that the energy doesn’t come down; it does, but is diverted.
It comes out that there are two beings, two entities, that can nourish off kedusha---holy energy of the sefiros. One is Adam ha’Rishon and, since Adam’s sin, the other is the Jew. If the Jew sins, the holiness goes to the Satan. That’s a transference of kedusha from the Jew to the Satan. That’s how it works. The problem is that, as I mentioned a long time ago, there is only enough energy coming down for one side to exist. If the Jew does the Will of G-D, the energy comes to him and he flourishes in all ways while the Satan begins to die because there’s only so much energy for one side to exist and flourish. One side benefits at the expense of the other. One side will benefit greatly, feel energized, feel healthy, live long. The Satan, denied that energy, weakens. If enough energy is diverted to the Jews due to their lack of sinning, the Satan’s stature and power diminishes until he dies.
On the other hand, if enough holy energy goes to the Satan, he can grow; he’s the only angelic being who can. So, it’s combat. It’s like a see-saw. When one side flourishes, the other is deprived and suffers. There is constant conflict for the energy of the sefiros, the holy Light. This is a very important dynamic in world history, particularly in the history of the Jews.
What is critical to know, having learned all this, is that this is the mission of the Jew. He is to deprive the Satan of his energy, thereby killing him and his “side” of angelic evil. A Jew’s mazal---fortune depends on this equilibrium or lack of it. His mission is to destroy the sitra achra---the evil inclination is done by restoring holiness to its proper “side.” Once it is restored, the Jews’ mission is to bring down the rest of the holy energy to change the entire world.
What we need to understand as we approach the messianic era is what happens as the Satan nears bankruptcy. Most of his energy has been taken from his side. The Satan becomes unbelievably desperate. This is a very important dynamic toward the End of Time. When he is bereft of his power of the sefiros, because it’s being restored to the Jews because they are taking it back through their mitzvos, their acts of teshuva---repentance, or suffering when they don’t do either. The Satan is in panic mode. When he is panicking, you can believe that incredible things will happen. He will desperately try to hold on.
Satanic “Armies” and “Firstborns”
This is one of the reasons why the Eirev Rav, those Jews who dominate and try to destroy Torah’s influence, become powerful at this point in time. It’s like the sin of the Golden Calf when the Eirev Rav of that time, who tried to destroy Judaism, exerted influence. When the kedusha is within the grasp of the Jewish people, not on the side of the sitra achra, the Satan needs to go to the Jews to try to convince them to sin. That is how the Eirev Rav are the agents of the Satan, his soldiers. That is why the Eirev Rav become powerful. The Satan uses their wrong-doing in his kitrugim---prosecutions in the heavenly court. He uses their sins to take back some of the holy energy.
What does the Satan do with the holy energy he may win back due to cases he successfully prosecutes against Eirev Rav Jews? He distributes it, doles it out, to the nations of the world because that is how they survive, by the energy of the sefiros that is in the hands of the Satan, and he has his favorites.
For example, at the time the Jews were in Egypt, Egypt is called the “firstborn of the Satan.” They were the nation the Satan used to do his will which was to make the Jews sin. During the course of history, a variety of nations become the bechor---firstborn, the generals of the Satan’s army.
Besides Egypt, there was Babylon, Persia, Greece and then, of course, Rome which is synonymous with Christianity and, later, Western Civilization.
Now we understand the mechanics of how the Satan survives and what threatens his survival. When he is defeated, we can bring down the rest of the holiness to do what is termed “mezakech”---purify the world. It is the Jewish people, and Mashiach ben Yosef, who do this. He fights the Satan. Then, it is Mashiach ben David who brings down the rest of the holiness to change the world. That is the concept of t’chias ha’meitim---resurrection of the dead which occurs once the Satan is dead because he’s been deprived of all nourishment.
The Dynamic Playing Out: Three Strategies
Here's how it is playing out in our time. I mentioned that the Satan is dying so he must engage in some type of strategy or he dies. Imagine a general fighting a war with another nation when, suddenly, he realizes that he only has one week’s worth of firepower left. If he runs out, he’s finished. He has three possible strategies he can employ.
One strategy is to bluff his way out by using all his firepower all at once to try to impart that he has a lot of firepower. The enemy might resign themselves to their fate figuring they’ll never win, so they give up.
But if the enemy is not dismayed, if they fight on and the general runs out of firepower, he can try to convince the enemy that he, himself, is fighting to stop the war, saying something like, “We don’t want war anymore” and try to create dissidents within his enemy’s country to oppose the war, ensuring his own survival.
If that doesn’t work, he has one more strategy left, to secure more armaments from another country, an ally. If that doesn’t work, he’s out of options.
The Satan does the same. He uses the bluff to try to get the nations of the world to destroy the Jews thereby instilling within the Jews the notion that they’ve been abandoned by G-D. That was the Holocaust. Most nations were guilty is some way either by killing Jews directly or being part of the plot. They would refuse them entry to their land or participate in other ways. The Satan’s objective, surprisingly enough, was not to kill Jews so much as to dishearten them. He hoped that the measures against them would be so extreme and expansive that the Jews would say to themselves: See? G-D has abandoned us so let’s forget about the mitzvos. If the Jews have no mitzvos, then they will stop being religious, stop serving G-D, and all the kedusha goes to resupply the Satan. His bluff was to make the Jews become apikorsim---heretics. Did he succeed? No. There were many Jews who did feel abandoned, unfortunately, and gave up their Judaism. But there’s, even now, a great resurgence, renewal of religion whether it be in America, Israel, or Europe. So, the Satan clearly failed.
He turns, finally, to his major soldiers, the Eirev Rav, as I mentioned before. They are Jews who wish to remove the Torah as the supreme document, the belief system. They try to reduce Judaism to culture, to bagels and chicken soup. To them, the Torah is no more than great literature, like Shakespeare. The Satan sends out his Eirev Rav troops. It is they who established the State, who’ve taken over the land of Israel, took over those who emigrated from other lands of the Middle East and Europe and tried to turn them into apikorsim. We all know what was done to the Yemenites and the Asians and Ethiopians. What they did to these people! Their ways pervaded the Jewish people overall creating heretics. You’re looking at the Reformed, Conservative, and Reconstructionists. All these movements have been trying to change the Jews into apikorsim. That is why the state was founded by people who were utterly non-religious. But, overall, this too failed.
A New Firstborn and the Repentance of Edom and Yishmael
Now, the Satan has to go to a new place to obtain his nourishment. He turns to a new army, new allies. But, wait a minute! There are only two beings that can obtain nourishment of the sefiros: the Jews or the Satan himself.
There is a third option---Yishmael. Why, the Arabs? When Avraham was told that he would have a son, Yitzchak, he responded, “Lu (Yishmael) yichyeh l’fanecho”---O that Yishmael might live before You! (Bereishit 17:18). This means that Yishmael, per Avraham’s request, can derive his ability to exist not from the Satan but from his own good deeds and from fear and awe of Heaven. As a result, the Satan says to Yishmael’s angel: I need your energy because you have it independent of me.
Yishmael’s malach agrees but makes a contingency. What will you offer me for in exchange for that?
What would you like? the Satan asks.
The angel of Yishmael responds: Who is your firstborn? Who represents you and does so much evil? ---Edom. The answer, of course, is Edom/Esav. I want you to make my people, those whom I represent, the Ishmaelites, the Muslims, the bechor---firstborn instead of Edom.
The need of the Satan for their holy energy garnered independently from the sins of the Jews, prompts him to make the deal. Seemingly out of nowhere, a Muslim becomes the president of the United States, Obama. He represents Yishmael. He was born into Islam and grew up as a Muslim. Deep down, that’s what he is even though he was affiliated with a church, one headed by a preacher that was terrible, even anti-American.
How can somebody who is, basically, a beginner in politics---that’s what he was---become president? That was the deal. The Satan was dying and made a deal with Yishmael’s angel. Therefore, lo and behold, Obama, a Muslim, becomes the president of Edom.
G-D allowed this to go through. Why? At the End of Time, not only does Esav have to come back to do teshuva, but so does Yishmael. We know this because Yishmael allowed Yitzchak to go first in the act of burial when Avraham died. From this, chazal learn that he repents.
It seems that G-D wanted to give Obama a tremendous merit, a reckoning by G-D that Obama would restore the peace between the Arabs and Israel. But what happened? Because Obama is a megalomaniac, a colossal narcissist and selfish person and---I might add---a bal gaiva---a practitioner of arrogance, he kowtowed to the Arabs. He made it supremely difficult for the Jews and Arabs to reach any common ground. He destroyed the opportunity G-D gave him. He not only had the presidency, he had the House and Senate. Both were democratic. He had enormous power. Besides these, everyone was hypnotized by him. It was as if many were in a trance. His inauguration in 2008 was more like a coronation.
So, he failed in the mission meted out to him by G-D. He is an evil fool. He could have done what it took being Trump to do, to bring the Jews closer together with Yishmael to enact Yishmael’s teshuva.
Now that we’re at the End of Time, there’s a monumental war because the Satan is dying; Yishmael too is dying. They are running out of the energy of the sefiros. They maintain some based on their behavior but that’s also running out and the Satan doesn’t even have the energy of Yishmael as Obama is no longer president. The evil of Esav and the evil of Yishmael are combined to do what they’re doing. Obama is still working behind the scenes, behind Biden, to conduct the evil of Yishmael. Together, they serve Edom which is the “progressive” faction, the Democratic Party, etc. They serve the ra she’b’Esav---the evil aspect of Esav. This is the predominant battle going on in America.
G-D then brings in Trump---I’ve spoken about this extensively---who is the tov she’b’Esav--- good aspect of Esav to do what Obama should have done as part of the teshuva of Yishmael.
What we are witnessing now is the Satan dying, conducting an incredible war between the evil of Yishmael, which is Obama’s influence, and the evil of Esav, which is Biden (behind whom is Obama) and all those who fortify him, to destroy the good part of Esav.
In taking a look at Biden, he knows what Iran is, what Yishmael wants to do to Israel. But he is desperate for some type of victory, some type of public relations stunt like that which he attempted in Afghanistan. He doesn’t care if Iran gets nuclear weapons; that’s obvious. Such weapons in the hands of Iran are a formidable existential threat to Israel. Biden, together with Obama’s help to overcome his incapacitation, is simply being led. We know he’s being led by Obama and perhaps too by Susan Rice. Biden has one, perhaps two, scheduled appointment(s) per day. He spends his weekends at home in Delaware. He’s barely awake.
Things are going very fast now despite the fact that, with Trump’s ouster, the messianic process stopped because justice had to be satisfied before the messianic process could proceed and the “restart button” be pushed.
According to the Zohar, we really have eight years to go because it says that t’chias ha’meisim---resurrection of the dead takes 210 years from the time that Mashiach ben David is anointed. This 210 years endures to the end of the messianic era in the year 6,000 which is, on the Gregorian calendar, 2240. If you subtract 210 from 2240, that’s 2030. That’s eight years from now, eight years from Mashiach ben David!
But this means that Mashiach ben Yosef and everything that he performs, executes, has to happen within these eight years. That is why you are seeing so many rapid developments. There’s not much time left. It’s all being whipped up by the Satan. How else to explain America’s degradation, depravity, immorality? Its obsession with materialism, its sexual perversion---gender “fluidity,” the LGBTQ agenda, a lifestyle that’s not just accepted, it’s preferred, even applauded. I’m not even going to go into the economics.
It's a good sign that “Biden and company” is failing. The tekufa---cycle within which G-D has allowed the evil of Yishmael and Esav to proliferate, is ending. It is no longer necessary, so we have to hope that is what’s really happening and G-D will resume progress toward the messianic era, bring back sanity to America.
All this is orchestrated in heaven based on messianic, spiritual requirements.
Q & A
Participant: This week was a very big kiddush ha’Shem---sanctification of G-D’s Name. In Saudi Arabia, they played Hatikvah. Isn’t that like….
R’Kessin: No, I think that was the UAE….
Participant: ….in Abu Dhabi, not in Saudi Arabia. It’s a kiddushha’Shem.
R’Kessin: It’s unheard of. Could you imagine a nation that used to be the enemy is now playing Israel’s national anthem! This is what I mean. What is that?
Participant: So, Yishmael’s bad angel is dying?
R’Kessin: I don’t know if I’d call it “dying” but, at least, failing. He’s not making it because he, himself, has very little to offer the Satan. The Arabs used to be a world power in and of themselves with oil. But they have, in many ways, been relegated to the sidelines because the U.S. has become oil-independent. They’re developing other energy sources to minimize oil dependence. Their ability to be successful and powerful based on oil is severely diminished. Why? Their access to the energy of the sefiros is severely diminished. As a result, the good part of Yishmael now achieves ascendancy over the bad. The Satan is not finding any nechama---consolation with the malach of Yishmael. These ideas explain what is happening today, the dynamics of political movements based on messianic necessities.
Participant: By the way, rabbi, today is the yahrzeit---anniversary of the passing of Moshe Rabbeinu. It’s a big thing too. Maybe you could pray for us.
A Startling Chidush
R’Kessin: Yes, we talked about that. Correct. I want to talk about something which is highly unusual, something most people have never heard of. How much time do I have, really?
Participant: Don’t worry. We have time. Keep going!
R’Kessin: It’s interesting. Who is Aharon ha’Kohen, Aharon the High Priest? We know that Moshe Rabbeinu is Mashiach ben Yosef. But when you look at the chumash---Five Books of Moses, we find that Aharon ha’Kohen was an equal to Moshe Rabbeinu. In fact, Rashi says that, in a couple of places, the Torah puts Aharon before Moshe. Rashi says it’s to teach that they were equal. The question then is: who is this person. If Moshe Rabbeinu is Mashiach ben Yosef, who is Aharon ha’Kohen?
Participant: Mashiach ben David?
R’Kessin: No, not at all. Mashiach ben David doesn’t come until later. What you begin to realize is a very remarkable idea. I’ll just throw it out, okay? Really, Mashiach ben Yosef is two people.
Participant: What does that mean?
R’Kessin: Here’s what it means. The functions within the messianic process are based on Mashiach ben Yosef which has to have two people. One person is the source of chochma, the “Ohr Rishon”---First Light, Messianic Light. There is an individual who is the source and that was Moshe Rabbeinu. Let’s take a look.
Moshe was the source of the Torah. He received the Torah from the Ribono Shel Olam, and there were certain times that Aharon received it as a sort of reward but, basically, Moshe was the ”fountain” of Torah. That requires the energies of one person. But somebody has to be a “bridge.” Moshe couldn’t be the bridge because he had a speech defect. In fact, the Ribono Shel Olam says, in the beginning of “Shemos,” when Moshe says he can hardly speak, G-D tells him not to worry, that He will send Aharon ha’Kohen with him. So Aharon ha’Kohen is a necessary assistant---I would even say “equal”---to Moshe Rabbeinu. The Torah says this. But Aharon wasn’t the source of the Ohr Mashiach. That is Moshe. Aharon ha’Kohen’s job was to take this Divine information, the holy Torah itself, and bridge it, connect it, to the Jewish people. The Gemara goes into how it was taught, saying that Moshe taught it to Aharon who taught it to his two children who taught it to the 70 elders who taught it to the whole Jewish people. Obviously, they had an incredible structure of the teaching system.
Aharon was the first one to receive the Oral Law, the Written Law. He was the bridge, the conduit to the Jewish people to convey the Torah. These are the jobs of Mashiach ben Yosef, divided in two; one is the source, the other, the continuity, the bridge. From them, it could spread to the rest of the nation.
We begin to realize that the function of Mashiach ben Yosef is really that of two people. If that’s the case, we now understand why there are two “Adars” (Hebrew month of Adar doubles in a leap year) because there are thirteen tribes. The tribe of Yosef is divided into two tribes, Ephraim and Menashe but that only happens sometimes. One of the reasons why there are two Adars then, obviously, is because there are thirteen months, each month representing one tribe. If you count Menashe and Ephraim as two separate tribes of Yosef, there you are! Thirteen months, thirteen tribes.
But there’s another concept which I’m introducing, that the first Adar is one mashiach and the second Adar is the second mashiach, his “partner” if I can use that expression. Each has a distinct role. It’s not as if Aharon could do the job of Moshe. He couldn’t. That’s why G-D says to Moshe not to worry. He’ll let Aharon be his spokesman. Why should that be? It’s very difficult for one person to do both jobs. It takes everything you have to be the source of Divine revelation. The second job also takes everything you have, to communicate that, to teach it to the Jewish people. That’s a major job!
It's the same concept with Ya’akov and Esav. You have two people doing the concept of tiferes. You have to have different characteristics.
So, the two Adars, besides representing thirteen tribes, are also: one Adar is Mashiach ben Yosef as one person, and the second Adar is the Mashiach ben Yosef as another person. Wouldn’t that be fascinating!
In “Kedusha,” it records that G-D says, “Behold, I will redeem you the second time just as the first,” that the final geula will be exactly like the first, a replication of the tikkun process which is Redemption itself. It has to be the same thing as happened in Egypt, which I’ve spoken about. So, is it possible that Mashiach ben Yosef will involve two people?
Mashiach ben Yosef is the chochom, the receiver of the Light which Mashiach ben David executes, as king. Mashiach ben David is the executive, administrator of Klal Yisrael. But the chochma itself comes, apparently, from Mashiach ben Yosef. In fact, the Beis ha’Mikdash ha’Shlishi---Third Temple will be built by Mashiach ben Yosef. We know this because the Gemara, in “Ma’aser Sheini, Yerushalmi” actually says that the Third Temple will be built before Mashiach ben David. That’s Mashiach ben Yosef.
I suspect very strongly that what’s going to bring the Jews together---and I’ve quoted this pasuk many times---is expressed by, “Behold, even if your outcasts be at the ends of heaven, from there”---in that country---"I will gather you” which means that G-D will separate the Jews from among the goyim, and “take you”---meaning, give us the Torah---and then bring us to Eretz Yisrael.
It’s an open pasuk. But how? It’s a great mystery but I suspect how. As I once said, G-D will lower the Beis ha’Mikdash that’s in heaven, in Olam Yetzira. That will be the Beis ha’Mikdash ha’Shlishi. That means too that the shechina---Divine Presence in Olam Yetzira, in that world, will become the shechina here in this world. That’s an actual descent of the Messianic Light.
The messianic figure called “Yosef” not only exists, but exists as two people. If it is true that the Redemption from Egypt will mirror the latter-day geula, it would make sense that there would be two people, the source and the bridge. No one can deny that Aharon was the equal of Moshe though not in prophetic power. Moshe had to have it because he was the source of the Torah itself. It requires the highest level of nevuah---prophecy to be able to receive that Light.
But in terms of tzidkus---righteousness, they were equal. Rashi says that. Rashi says that’s why, in certain places in the Torah, Aharon is mentioned before Moshe. The Torah itself testifies to their equality. If they are equal---not in prophecy but in kedusha and stature---they have to be equal in their function, in the inyan---matter of Mashiach ben Yosef. It’s just that they have two different areas of that. That’s why we have two Adars.
Participant: Would there be two separate pekidot for each of the two persons?
R’Kessin: No, because it is still one inyan, one subject matter.
Participant: Do they get it at the same time?
R’Kessin: Yes. It will be at the same time. And, by the way, if that’s the case---one more idea about the suffering of mashiach to which I devoted an entire shiur----for the messiah to survive, according to sources I’ve cited from Yalkut etc., it would mean the suffering of a second person also. He would share the burden of yesurim---suffering.
Participant: Now that we have two Adars this year, is it more likely for the pekida to happen because it represents both parts of mashiach?
R’Kessin: Yes. And not only that. Remember, this year is also shmittah. The Gemara says that the mashiach comes at the end of shmittah. This really makes this year a candidate, doesn’t it?
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