Sunday, December 7, 2008

On the Midrash Ne'elam Timeline

I'd like to write a little bit of analysis on the Midrash Ne'elam of Parshat Toldot, referring to the timing of Techiyat HaMeitim.  See here for a translation of the relevant section.  I encourage reading the original Hebrew/Aramaic text.

  • The general Techiyat HaMeitim of the average person in Israel will be at the end of 408 years of the 6th millenium.  Due to the nature of the language used, it appears that an extra line may have been added to indicate that this is the year 5408 exactly.
  • Techiyat HaMeitim of the Tsaddikim will preceed this ending point by either 210 or 214 years.
  • This year of Techiyat HaMeitim of the Tsaddikim will be after 40 years of tranquility, the beginning of which is called Kibbutz Galuyot.  It is not 40 years of the actual ingathering, per the text, but a starting point which is called Kibbutz Galuyot.  Furthermore, these 40 years will be without trouble for Am Yisrael.  See the beginning of Midrash Ne'elam on daf 139b: "and from the time that the troubles pass until the resurrection of the dead is 40 years".
If these 408 years terminate in the year 6000 or 6001, then that means that the troubles of Am Yisrael would have left us some 15-20 years ago.  But rather here, like other places, the Zohar is not speaking in a way that is clear to the average reader.

15 comments:

  1. Assuming that the 210 years must be in the sixth millenium, it is an understatement to say that the 40 years make things very tight, and that could be part of the pressure behind some of the Geula-now predictions.

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  2. The main reason for writing this is the idea that we are currently in the 40 years of Kibbutz Galuyot (6000 - 210 = 5790, and then 40 years prior are Kibbutz Galuyot). But this is clearly talking about a state of the galuyot being mekubatzot, and not of a 40 year process, therefore it is not proper to think this is talking about 5750-5790. Basically the Beit HaMikdash would have had to be built by 5750 for this to work according to "pshat".

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  3. Furthermore, it is mashma from this Midrash Neelam that the bad events of Daniel 11/12 finish prior to the 40 years. Is that how you have it?

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  4. How does the counting work then to allow this, where 40 starts before week 69 starts?

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  5. And it davka starts the 69th week on the left.

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  6. This is a diffult subject. The problems of week 69 need not be realized, and if they are not, the prophecies regarding it will have been fulfilled by the trouble before. Should we not merit this, still the 40 years starts at the same time. It is like one turns right at the end of the road (of trouble), but actually after the exit to the right there is still a small stretch of road going straight, a dead end.

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  7. BTW There is a girsah of the Zohar Chadash Darach Kochav miYaakov that we didn't see before on the Bar Ilan project. It mentions the 59th year.

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  8. No, not instead, in addition. Search חמשין ותשע in the Zohar Chadash on responsa.org and you should be able to find it. Both the 59 and the 60 are at the end of the maamar. Mashma is that the 5727 calculation is before then, so we may assume 58 or 59.

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  9. Excuse me, the URL is http://www.responsa.co.il

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  10. If we could decode the dates and events here, it would open up other places in the Zohar as well to our understanding.

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  11. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, who has the Halachic status of Novi in Yisrael, stated explicity that Techias HaMeisim will occur immediately with the arrival of Moshiach.

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  12. I understand the reasoning for the statement; the quicker the Geulah, the better. But this is the opposite of the logic presented al pi sod. Read the original ma'amar in the Zohar. There is a reason for the delay, which is davka chesed for the tsaddikim. And the non-instantaneous method by which the Geulah is arriving is also a chesed for Am Yisrael. See Kol HaTor chapter 1.

    The Rebbe did not and does not have the halachic status of a Navi, and that is not up for discussion on this blog.

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