A rabbi who has dedicated his life to acts of lovingkindness revealed an obscure teaching that links Israel’s current political impasse with Moses and the final divine Davidic dynasty that precedes the resurrection of the dead. He also reveals the unlikely key that Moses gave to the Jews to unlock the final gate that released them from Egypt.
Rabbi Aryeh Weingarten has been working his entire life to helping others, leading a unique charitable organization. As a young man, he longed for the Messiah so deeply that he penned a prayer to bring the Messiah. Millions of copies of the prayer have been printed and can be found tucked inside prayer books around the world.
“It is clear that people should be preparing for the Geula,” Rabbi Weingarten said. “The stock market is falling and no one knows what the economy is going to do. But if you believe that the prophets in the Bible told the truth, that shouldn’t matter since, in the big picture, gold and silver are not the currency you will need to prepare for what will be. What you need is to store up credit with Hashem (God, literally ‘the name’).”
Rabbi Weingarten cited a teaching in Tikkunei HaZohar, a separate appendix to the Zohar compiled by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai consisting of seventy commentaries on the opening word of the Torah, Bereishit, in a style of Kabbalistic Midrash. The text is in a form of Aramaic that is particularly difficult to understand so Rabbi Weingarten paraphrased his discovery.
“Moses had to cope with the two who will come as Messiah; the Messiah from the house of Joseph and the Messiah from the house of David.”
Rabbi Weingarten was referring to the two stages of the Messiah described in Jewish tradition. The first stage, the Messiah from the House of Joseph, is a practical mundane process of the exiled returning to Israel and restoring the land. The Davidic dynasty will return and the Third Temple will begin to be built. The final stage, the Messiah from the house of David, marks the arrival of an actual Messianic figure and will be marked by supernatural and miraculous events including the resurrection of the dead..
“The resurrection of the dead for the Messiah from the House of David will come after three ‘voices’ call for a leader to lead Israel during the ‘year of Moses’.”
Rabbi Weingarten noted that through an unanticipatable series of events, the third round of elections was initially scheduled to be held on Purim; the anniversary of Moses’ death as well as his birth.
“Israel is looking for a leader right now and cannot decide on one. We are even looking at Arabs to lead Israel. Can you imagine? What we are really looking for is a leader like Moses. The politicians are going to great lengths to avoid that, to look for someone to lead us to a higher level of serving Hashem. It required three elections to make this clear. Until the politicians understand this, no leader will be found.”
“But when they do, that is the final tikkun (fixing) that will bring Messiah from the house of David,” Rabbi Weingarten emphasized.
Rabbi Weingarten noted that a similar impasse almost prevented the Exodus.
“God gave them the Passover sacrifice and the Seder in Egypt so they would be able to gain additional merit but it was still not enough.”
Rabbi Weingarten described how God commanded the Children of Israel to ask the Egyptians for gold and silver.
“The Jews were slaves,” Berger said. “They were the poorest people in Egypt. But they each went around giving charity to other Jews and even to non-Jews in Egypt who were not as poor as them. When God saw this, when he saw that their true nature was to give to others, he couldn’t hold back. He immediately brought them out of Egypt. He knew that they needed to be free in order to give more charity.”
Rabbi Berger emphasized that Jews learn about the Exodus every year as a reminder that once, we were slaves in Egypt who had nothing.
“Someone who has nothing prays for worldly goods,” Berger said. “But when a slave who has nothing prays to be able to give charity, God cannot help but answer his prayers.”
Rabbi Weingarten cited this Biblical precedent as establishing the period before Passover as auspicious for charity.
About 15 years ago, Rabbi Weingarten founded Karmey Chesed, an organization that helps poor families in Israel with charitable donations, food, and, in an innovative program, provides them with second-hand donated appliances.
Go to their website to connect with Karmey Chesed
Source: Israel in the News
