Thursday, July 26, 2007

Understanding the Essence of the Keitz

From what I see written on Jewish websites, a lot of people seem to think that the Geulah is something fairly simple. It is when all the things written in the Rambam happen. This is simplistic and leads to people entering in to calculations and guessing games as to when it will occur. However, the awesome ideas behind what the essence of Geulah represents should dissuade people from these number excercises. The Ramban brings down in his explanation of Breishit that the events of the 6 Days of Creation parallel the events of the 6,000 years of human existence that followed. While the Ramban was definitely not the first to bring this idea, his explanation is in many of our libraries in Mikraot Gedolot. See Breishit 2:4 for the Ramban's commentary, where he describes the parallels for each millenium. It therefore is derived that the events of the 6th millenium parallel the day when Adam HaRishon was created. This is the background for the statement in Kol HaTor regarding the "hours of the day". The 6th millenium is divided amongst the hours/stages that Hashem created Adam HaRishon on the 6th day. In Kol HaTor, the 6th Day is divided in to 24 hours, with the creation occuring during daylight hours, from 5500-6000. In Pirkei D'Rebbi Eliezer, chapter 6, it is stated that 84 years is one hour for Hashem (The 84 years discussed here is a whole other conversation). Therefore we can say that the day is divided in to 12 hours (the night hours are swallowed up in the day). Know that there is no contradiction between the two. I will not delve in to this further, but understanding of the 6th day is key. When the GR"A proclaimed in his peirush on Sifra Ditzniuta that he knew the secret to the End, he stated that it was based on this knowledge. What results from this knowledge is the following:

  1. Calculating the Gematria of one word will not give you the year of Geulah.
  2. Adding 60 or 66 years to the starting year of your choice will not give you the year of Moshiach ben Yosef's revelation.
  3. The conjunction of Birkat HaChamah and Erev Pesach does not mean that the Geulah will occur in 5769.

True understanding of our times, where we come from, and where we are heading, comes from understanding history, the calendar, and the parallel between the 6 days and the 6 millenia.

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