Three dates serve to characterize the life of the Arizal. He started his study of Kabbala in the year 5310, under the guidance of Rabbi Betzalel Ashkenazi. In the year 5317, he received a copy of the Zohar. It was likely the most pivotal event in his live and clearly a great impetus to his studies. In the beginning of the year 5331, the Arizal started teaching in the city of Zefat in the Land of Israel.
If the Arizal repaired something, how did it get broken? The world was existentially broken by the destructions of the first and second Temples. After the "tikun" in the time of the Arizal, the world regained as it were the level of spiritual harmony that had been before the destruction of the second Temple.
The destruction of the second Temple was the fulfillment of an old decree, recorded in Daniel 9:27: "After half a week He will cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease." If the 6000 years of world history are divided into 50 "days" of 120 years, half a "week" is 420 years, which was the time our sages say the second Temple stood.
It is important to realize that the days of the second Temple were only a shadow of the days of the first Temple. Moreover, the period of the second Temple was one of steady spiritual decline. For that reason, as much as was accomplished by the Arizal, much more was to be gained in his footsteps. Hence, parallel to the 420 years of decline during the time of the second Temple, a compensating half "week" of spiritual growth was decreed, to recover the level of spiritual harmony that had been at the time of the completion of the second Temple, the time of the latest prophets. In the beginning of the year 5751, 420 years after the Arizal started revealing his knowledge, this "tikun" was completed.
At this very time, the beginning of the year 5751, a horrendous tragedy happened: Rabbi Meir Kahane was murdered. It was 434 years after the Arizal started his study of the Zohar. Could it be that more words of Daniel were fulfilled in 5751? We read: "And after 62 weeks a Moshiach will be cut off, and none will be left to him (Daniel 9:26)." Seven times 62 equals 434. Could there be a more appropriate description of the rejected prophet Rabbi Meir Kahane than "none will be left to him?"
Rabbi Kahane was Moshiach ben Yosef. In his last shiur in his Yeshiva, Rabbi Kahane taught about Moshiach ben Yosef, the self-sacrificing Moshiach who is not recognized by his brothers, but prepares them for the coming of Moshiach ben David. In his magnificent book Or HaRa'ayon, which Rabbi Kahane was frantically working on in the final months of his life, and which he almost finished, the subject of Moshiach ben Yosef stands out because two independent chapters are devoted to it. He was not given the time to merge the material into one chapter.
After the 62 weeks, seven weeks were decreed until another Moshiach, as it says: "Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Yerushalayim until a royal Moshiach, shall be seven weeks. (Daniel 9:25)."
Perhaps not by chance the number 5751 is one plus a multiple of 50. If indeed the 62 year-weeks ended in 5751, that year was the penultimate "Yovel" year, and the subsequent seven year-weeks are as seven "Shmita" countings towards the final "Yovel" year.
Alternatively, the seven final year-weeks are like the seven weeks of the counting of the Omer, a counting towards the final giving of the Torah in the 50th year.
As a corroboration of my thesis I propose that the "Shmita" years 5765, 5772, 5779, 5786, 5793, and 5800 are all hinted at by two famously intractable verses of the book of Daniel about the very last phase of history:
"It shall be for time (mo'ed), times (mo'adim), and a half, and when the crushing of the power of the holy people shall have been completed, all these things shall be finished." (Daniel 12:7)
"And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken way and the abomination that makes desolate be set up, there shall be 1290 days. Fortunate is he who waits, and reaches 1335 days." (Daniel 12:11-12)
The year 5765 is one Mo'ed of 1290 years after after the abomination that makes desolate was set up. This abomination is the El Aksa mosque, finished in the year 4475, close to the location of the Temples of Shlomo and Zerubavel. It follows from "Why Do We Live in the Year 5765" that the year 3192 was in a sense year zero of the Jewish counting of the years (see also this). The year 5772 is two mo'adim of 1290 years after this year zero. The year 5786 is one mo'ed of 1335 years after another abomination that makes desolate was set up. This abomination is the mosque that was erected in the year 4451, at the spot where many think once the temple stood. The year 5800 is two mo'adim, one mo'ed of 1290 years and one mo'ed of 1335 years, after the daily sacrifice of the first Temple was taken away in the year 3175.
Concerning the last figure, the Seder Olam brings down that the first Temple was destroyed in the year 3338. Historical sources, however, corroborated by biblical data, quite unanimously and precisely prove that the real year of the destruction was 163 years earlier. We accept the truth from who says it.
Returning to the topic of the "Shmita" years, one can see the verse Daniel 12:7 being fulfilled in the fact that the mo'ed year 5786 is exactly halfway the two mo'adim years 5772 and 5800. Moreover, the intermediate "Shmita" years 5779 and 5793 can be seen as other fulfillments of the same verse: both are exactly halfway a mo'adim year and the mo'ed year.
The Talmud teaches in Sanhedrin 99 that the "days of Moshiach" (the final period towards the redemption) are three generations. It brings two opinions about the length of this period in years. In one view, the "days of Moshiach" are 40 years; in the other view they are 70 years.
The three generations are the generations of Moshiach ben Yosef, Eliya the prophet, and the royal Moshiach, Moshiach ben David. The task of Eliya the prophet is to connect Moshiach ben Yosef and Moshiach ben David, by "turning the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers (Malachi 3:24)."
The parallel between the "days of Moshiach" and the 70 years that were decreed for the Babylonian exile is obvious. Like the 420 years of "Ikveta DeMeshicha" undid the spiritual damage of the second-Temple period, the "days of Moshiach" are to be a tikun for the Babylonian exile.
If the "days of Moshiach" are 70 years, and if Rabbi Meir Kahane was Moshiach ben Yosef, the days of Moshiach ben Yosef were the twenty years before 5751 and the days of Eliya the prophet and Moshiach ben David are the fifty subsequent years. Therefore, we must now be living in the years of Eliya the prophet. If so, soon prophecy will return, the Sanhedrin will be restored, and the hearts of the children will turn to their fathers. Regarding the "days of Moshiach," with the help of HaShem, I will elaborate in later posts.
The principle "time, times and a half" yields two more dates, both in between "Shmita" years. Taking the mean of the Mo'ed year 5765 and the Mo'adim year 5800 brings one to 5782/5883. And halfway the "Shmita" period from 5765 to 5772, in 5769 it will be three and a half years after the expulsion from Gush Katif. The years 5769 and 5782/5783 should be dramatic years of Pekidah. With the help of Heaven, I will elaborate later.
The Zohar brings, at the end of Parshat Va’Era: "Come and see, for four hundred years the minister of the sons of Ishmael stood and requested before HaKadosh Baruch Hu and asked Him: Who is circumcised, does he have a reward in Your Name? And He replied yes."
Which reward did Ishmael get?
The Zohar explains: "The sons of Ishmael will rule a long time over the Holy Land when it is empty of everything, just like their circumcision is empty, lacking completeness. And they will delay the return of the sons of Israel to their place, until this merit of the sons of Ishmael will be completed."
The merit of their empty circumcision at age 13 gave them the right to rule the empty Land for 13 centuries.
The Zohar goes on to explain what we should expect when the merit of the sons of Ishmael is completed: "The sons of Ishmael will cause strong wars in the world and the sons of Edom will be gathered to them and cause war against them."
Rabbi Kahane was murdered, by a son of Ishmael, in 5751, 1300 years after the erection of the Dome of the Rock. The period 5769 to 5775 is 1300 years after the period during which the El Aksa mosque was built.
יד
