Our prophets and sages taught us that when the Messiah's footsteps can be heard in the End of Days, with the ingathering of the exiles and the arrival of millions of Jews in the Land, with Eretz Yisrael flowering and yielding its fruit for the Jewish People ? precisely then there will be a terrible crisis in Israel, from within and without (see Sanhedrin 98).
From within: impudence will increase; the government will become heretical; "the border dwellers", i.e., the settlers who sacrifice themselves for the Jewish People, will wander from city to city and be shown no grace. The moral level will deteriorate, Torah wisdom will be loathed, there will be no rebuke, the G-d-fearing will be scorned and the truth will disappear.
People will not show one another respect. Youths will insult their elders and the family unit will be in a state of crisis. Sons will dishonor their fathers, daughters will rise up against their mothers and daughter-in-laws against their mother-in-laws. A man's household will be his enemies (see Sotah 49).
From without: the nations will pressure us and will make plans to drive us out of our land and from Jerusalem, heart of the nation. As King David said, "Why are the nations in an uproar? Why do the peoples mutter in vain? The kings of the earth join ranks, the rulers take counsel together against the L-rd and against His anointed." (Psalm 2:1-2) They will not resign themselves to the rebirth of Israel in their land, and they will fight us to snuff out the candle of Israel, just as they did before and after the State's establishment, and as the Prophets Ezekiel and Zechariah describe regarding the wars of Gog and Magog.
Today, we are seeing with our own eyes how the words of the prophets and sages are being realized. We are seeing how the crisis in social and moral values is developing from within, and how the nations in the aggregate, especially the US and Europe, are pressuring us to return to the 1967 borders, the "Auschwitz borders" (so called by one of Israel's statesmen in the past). Those nations would establish for the murderous Arab terrorists a state in the very heart of Eretz Yisrael.
Under these circumstances, we have to derive much courage from G-d's words to Joshua bin Nun: "Be strong and of good courage, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give them." (Joshua 1:6) We have to fight for our hold on Eretz Yisrael. We have to grab hold of every piece of land with our fingernails, out of an absolute faith that this is the land that G-d swore to give to our ancestors and to us.
We have to become stronger in Torah: "Only be strong and very courageous, to observe to do according to all the law, which Moses My servant commanded you. Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left." (ibid., verse 7) We have to learn Torah and to teach it to the Jewish People. Torah study strengthens our heart and spirit, so that through us will be fulfilled the end of verse 8: "...for then you shall prosper and be successful."
As for our enemies who are pressuring us, G-d asked, "Have not I commanded you: Be strong and courageous. Be not frightened or dismayed, for the L-rd your God is with you wherever you go?" (verse 9)
Through this strength and courage, let us continue marching forward in faith and trust along the ascending path towards complete redemption, speedily in our day; amen.
From within: impudence will increase; the government will become heretical; "the border dwellers", i.e., the settlers who sacrifice themselves for the Jewish People, will wander from city to city and be shown no grace. The moral level will deteriorate, Torah wisdom will be loathed, there will be no rebuke, the G-d-fearing will be scorned and the truth will disappear.
People will not show one another respect. Youths will insult their elders and the family unit will be in a state of crisis. Sons will dishonor their fathers, daughters will rise up against their mothers and daughter-in-laws against their mother-in-laws. A man's household will be his enemies (see Sotah 49).
From without: the nations will pressure us and will make plans to drive us out of our land and from Jerusalem, heart of the nation. As King David said, "Why are the nations in an uproar? Why do the peoples mutter in vain? The kings of the earth join ranks, the rulers take counsel together against the L-rd and against His anointed." (Psalm 2:1-2) They will not resign themselves to the rebirth of Israel in their land, and they will fight us to snuff out the candle of Israel, just as they did before and after the State's establishment, and as the Prophets Ezekiel and Zechariah describe regarding the wars of Gog and Magog.
Today, we are seeing with our own eyes how the words of the prophets and sages are being realized. We are seeing how the crisis in social and moral values is developing from within, and how the nations in the aggregate, especially the US and Europe, are pressuring us to return to the 1967 borders, the "Auschwitz borders" (so called by one of Israel's statesmen in the past). Those nations would establish for the murderous Arab terrorists a state in the very heart of Eretz Yisrael.
Under these circumstances, we have to derive much courage from G-d's words to Joshua bin Nun: "Be strong and of good courage, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give them." (Joshua 1:6) We have to fight for our hold on Eretz Yisrael. We have to grab hold of every piece of land with our fingernails, out of an absolute faith that this is the land that G-d swore to give to our ancestors and to us.
We have to become stronger in Torah: "Only be strong and very courageous, to observe to do according to all the law, which Moses My servant commanded you. Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left." (ibid., verse 7) We have to learn Torah and to teach it to the Jewish People. Torah study strengthens our heart and spirit, so that through us will be fulfilled the end of verse 8: "...for then you shall prosper and be successful."
As for our enemies who are pressuring us, G-d asked, "Have not I commanded you: Be strong and courageous. Be not frightened or dismayed, for the L-rd your God is with you wherever you go?" (verse 9)
Through this strength and courage, let us continue marching forward in faith and trust along the ascending path towards complete redemption, speedily in our day; amen.