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Instead of Just Waiting for Mashiach, Let’s Make His Job Easier!

You can become Mashiach

Instead of just waiting, let’s make Mashiach’s job easier!

Shmuel Sackett

The best sefer (book of Judaica) on the mystery and concept of Mashiach (Messiah) ben Yosef is unquestionably “Kol Ha’Tor”, written by the brilliant sudent of the Vilna Gaon; Rabbi Hillel of Shklov (over 200 years ago). Everything in that sefer – literally every word – are quotes and teachings of the Vilna Gaon on this topic. Here are four highlights from that sefer, as taught by the great master, the Vilna Gaon:

 

“Everything involved in the ingathering of the exiles (i.e. Jews from outside the land, moving to Israel), building of Jerusalem (the Bet Ha’Mikdash) and settlement of Eretz Yisrael… are included in the mission of the first Messiah; Mashiach ben Yosef. (Chapter 1:2)

 

“The two Messiahs are; Mashiach ben Yosef who will sustain and strengthen Israel physically and Mashiach ben David who will sustain both the Jewish People and the individual Jew spiritually… They cooperate and assist each other… They live and endure in every single generation… If not for their strength, valor and protection, Israel could not survive for even one moment…” (Chapter 2, Part 2:1)

 

When Joseph’s brothers came to Egypt looking for food, they met with Joseph and the verse says; “Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him” (B’resheit 42:8). The Vilna Gaon writes; “This is one of Joseph’s attributes. Not just in his generation, but in every generation, Mashiach ben Yosef recognizes his brothers and they do not recognize him.” (Chapter 2, Part 1:39)

 

“The general tasks of the two Messiahs; Mashiach ben Yosef and Mashiach ben David, together throughout the generations, is defense and was against the three chiefs of impurity – Esav, Yishmael and the Erev Rav (mixed multitude). Mashiach ben Yosef’s job is to confront Esav, Mashiach ben David must confront Yishmael and together they work against the unity of Esav and Yishmael.

 

Before I bring this all together, allow me to quote the Ramban. After the Children of Israel crossed the sea, the nation of Amalek was there to fight us and the Ramban raises an interesting point. In other battles, Moshe appointed a leader to fight and then stepped back. However, in the battle vs Amalek, Moshe appointed Joshua to lead the battle but he stayed involved, holding his hands up to motivate Bnai Yisrael. Why?? The Ramban’s answer will give you chills; “Esav’s descendant, Amalek, initiated the first war of the nations against us. Esav’s seed brought upon us the exile and the last destruction which we are still suffering from today… Therefore, Moshe and Joshua fought them together and in the future, Elijah (Eliyah Ha’Navi) and Mashiach ben Yosef will fight their descendants. This is why Moshe exerted himself so much in this battle.” (Sh’mot 17:9)

And finally, the big question: When will the Mashiach appear on the scene? Rabbenu Sa’adya Gaon, in his monumental work, “Emunot Ve’Deot” (Article 8, Chapter 5) addresses this point and states that if we repent, we will be redeemed immediately and if not, we will still be redeemed… but only at the set time (which is much later). He writes; “If our repentance is incomplete, we will remain unredeemed until the end comes… This is in line with Talmud Sanhedrin 97b: ‘If Israel repents, they will be redeemed…”

 

Let’s summarize all of the above in a few short sentences. First of all; there are two Mashiachs and the first one to come – led by Eliyahu Ha’Navi – will be Mashiach ben Yosef. He is here now (as is Mashiach ben David) but we don’t recognize him. He is hidden and waiting for either a fixed time or for the Jewish people to do what is required of them. When that happens – hopefully soon, when we do our part – Mashiach ben Yosef will then bring the Jews home (Aliyah!!), settle the Land, fight the bad guys and build the Bet Ha’Mikdash (and you thought you had a lot to do??!!)

 

OK, and now to my main point. For 2,000 years we have been waiting for some hero to ride into town and simply “save the day”. Unfortunately, this is not a Jewish concept. Our Mashiach needs to accomplish many tasks – all listed above, very clearly by the Vilna Gaon – so if you are waiting for a WhatsAPP that he’s here… you are going to be very disappointed.

 

Therefore, instead of just waiting, let’s make his job easier! Mashiach ben Yosef is going to bring the Jews home to Israel??? Let’s go home now! Mashiach ben Yosef is going to settle Eretz Yisrael? We can do that too! Mashiach ben Yosef is going to fight the Jewish enemy? Let’s join the IDF and do exactly that! In other words… let’s each become a Mashiach ben Yosef!!! Don’t get me wrong; we shouldn’t ride around Jerusalem on a white donkey proclaiming our kingdom (there are far too many weirdos who do that already!) but we should perform the tasks that the real Mashiach ben Yosef is obligated to do.

 

I am totally serious about this. Stop just waiting for Mashiach and stop singing Mashiach songs. Instead, learn the things he must do… and do them yourself! We have never been a nation of “watchers”… we are a nation of “doers”. So, dearest friends, don’t wait for it to happen – MAKE IT HAPPEN!

 

Am Yisrael Chai!!

Shmuel Sackett is the Founder and Director of the Am Yisrael Chai Fund, which supports agricultural, educational and building projects across Eretz Yisrael.
www.AmYisraelChaiFund.org

From Arutz Sheva, here.

Real Strength in Foreign Policy Comes From Restraint!

The Debate Should Be a Wake-Up Call For Americans

by  | Jul 1, 2024

There were plenty of surprises in last week’s presidential debate. For one, Americans who rely on the mainstream media for their news learned that they had been lied to for the past three years about President Biden’s capability to do the job he was elected to do.

The realization that the media has been lying for years about Biden is a positive development, as, hopefully, thoughtful Americans might begin wondering what else the media has been lying about. For example, they will find out that the media has been lying to them for years about Russia and Ukraine and about the Middle East and elsewhere. They will find out that our hyper-interventionist foreign policy does not make us safer and more free, but the opposite.

Unfortunately for most Americans, foreign policy is something that happens “over there,” with few direct effects back home. Dumping nearly $200 billion into the lost cause called “Ukraine” may at most seem like an annoyance to many Americans, but it’s not like they are being snatched up by gangs of military recruiters and sent to the front line as is happening to Ukrainian men.

However, $200 billion is real money and the effect on our economy is also real. The bill will be paid by each American family indirectly through the inflation “tax.” Each dollar created out of thin air and spent on the Ukraine debacle devalues the rest of the dollars in circulation.

The danger posed by our foreign policy seemed to escape both candidates, who each tried to convince us they were “tougher” than the other. Despite Donald Trump’s sober and accurate warning that Joe Biden has taken us to the brink of World War III, his solution to the problem is doing more of the same. His stated foreign policy seems to be that were he in office the rest of the world would not dare do anything against his will.

He would have been so tough that Russian president Vladimir Putin would never have dared to invade Ukraine, he claimed. He would have been so tough that Hamas would never have dared attack Israel on October 7th. It’s only Joe Biden’s “weakness” that leads to these disastrous foreign policy outcomes.

But the world does not work that way. Decades of US sanctions placed on any country that fails to do what Washington demands have backfired and led to the emergence of a bloc of countries united in their resistance to American dictates. Being “tough” on less-powerful countries may work…until it doesn’t. That’s where we are today.

Neither candidate seems to realize that the world has changed.

I have always said that real strength in foreign policy comes from restraint. To prevent these bad outcomes everywhere, stop intervening everywhere. It is not “toughness” that would have prevented Russia from taking action against Ukraine. It is restraint. Not launching a coup in Ukraine in 2014 would have prevented the disastrous war in Ukraine. Just like not stirring up trouble in the South China Sea would prevent a war with China. Not continuing to occupy and intervene in the Middle East would prevent a major regional war which might include Iran and other big players in the region.

Restraint is the real toughness. Non-intervention is the only foreign policy that will keep us safe and free. We’ve tried it the other way and it does not work. Let’s try something different.

From RPI, here.

שיר – עם ישראל עוד חי

יהודי זה הכי – מקהלת משאלות | Yehudi Ze Hachi – Mishalot Boys Choir

Nov 20, 2022

מילים:
כל העולם נושא עיניים
לירושלים
לארץ כה קטנה
ומדברים בלי סוף עדיין
אבל בינתיים
חלפה לה עוד שנה

כל מקום שבו תלך
כולם יודעים שבניסים הוא מתקיים
וכל מי שרק תשאל
יאמר שעם ישראל עוד חי

יהודי זה הכי
זה שלם, לא חצי
זהו כוח אדיר
לעולם הוא מאיר
יהודי זה הכל
לעולם לא ייפול
זהו זן מיוחד
זה עם אחד

וארץ ישראל פורחת
זורחת
ממש מעל כולם
ואת הדלת היא פותחת
לכל מי שרוצה לבוא לכאן

כל מקום שבו תלך
כולם יודעים שבניסים הוא מתקיים
וכל מי שרק תשאל
יאמר שעם ישראל עוד חי

יהודי זה הכי
זה שלם, לא חצי
זהו כוח אדיר
לעולם הוא מאיר
יהודי זה הכל
לעולם לא ייפול
זהו זן מיוחד
זה עם אחד

מאתר יוטיוב, כאן.

RON PAUL: Stop Taxing Tips!

From RPI

Ron Paul | Jun 24, 2024

Donald Trump recently promised that, if he wins the November election, he will support eliminating taxes on tips as part of his proposal to renew and expand the 2017 tax cuts. This tax law change would be a long overdue boost for millions of Americans.

Tips often comprise a substantial portion of the earnings of waiters and waitresses, as well as of other service-sector employees. However, unlike regular wages, a service-sector employee usually has no guarantee of, or legal right to, a tip. Instead, the amount of a tip usually depends on how well an employee satisfies his customers. Since the amount of taxes one pays increases along with the size of tips, taxing tips punishes workers for doing a superior job!

Many service-sector employees are young people trying to make money to pay for their education, or single parents struggling to provide for their children. Making tips tax free gives these hard-working Americans an immediate pay raise. A person may use this pay raise to devote more resources to his children’s or his own education, to save for a home or retirement, or to start a business.

Eliminating taxes on tips will provide some (limited) relief from the Federal Reserve’s inflation tax. This tax results from the decline in the dollar’s purchasing power caused by the Federal Reserve’s monetization of federal debt. The inflation tax is the worst form of tax because it is hidden. Thus, most people will not blame the Fed for higher prices. The inflation tax is also regressive, as price inflation is more of a burden to those at the lower end of the income scale than to billionaires. The Fed-created price inflation has forced many Americans to work two jobs.

This is not to suggest that reducing taxes on tips will fully compensate working people for the income they lose to the inflation tax. The best way Congress can help relieve the people of the inflation tax is to cut federal spending that leads to the Federal Reserve monetizing debt. Congress should also pass a law forbidding the Fed from monetizing debt by purchasing federal debt instruments.

It is also long past time to stop talking about tax cuts “costing” the government money. Talking about tax cuts in terms of how much money they cost the government, as opposed to how much money they leave in the hands of the people, accepts the premise that the government has a greater moral claim to the money than those who actually earned it. In truth, saying cutting taxes cost the government money makes as much sense as saying stopping a mugger from taking everything in your wallet “cost” the mugger money. Instead of worrying about how much tax cuts cost the government, the politicians should worry about how much welfare and warfare spending cost taxpayers.

The idea that tax cuts should only be supported if they promote “efficiency” should also be rejected. All tax cuts promote efficiency because, as economist and Ludwig von Mises Institute President Thomas DiLorenzo put it, “private individuals always spend their own money more efficiently than government bureaucrats do.” Instead of worrying about whether the government can “afford” tax cuts or whether tax cuts promote economic efficiency, those concerned about the government deficit should focus their efforts on reducing government spending. If the government stopped trying to run our lives and run the world, there would be no need to punish hard-working Americans by taxing their tips.

Copyright © 2024 The Ron Paul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.

From The RPI, here.

הרב הבית: עלה נעלה וירשנו אותה! – הרב אליהו ובר

נעלה, נעלה לבית המקדש | לעלות לפי ציווי ה’

Jun 15, 2023

רבים נוהגים לשיר בכניסה להר הבית: ”נעלה, נעלה לבית המקדש” • יש בכך המשך לדברי כלב ומעין תשובה לדברי האומרים: ”לא נעלה!” • דתן ואבירם לא רצו לעלות ובניגוד לחבריהם, לא נשאר מהם זכר • סביב המקדש יש איסורים רבים, חלקם במיתה • עלינו להתקרב לה’ בזהירות ובהתאם להלכה • הרב אליהו ובר • פרשת קרח בבית המדרש בהר הבית

מאתר יוטיוב, כאן.