We have entered the month of Elul. The very word “Elul” brings back a thousand and one memories.
I see the saintly face of my father, HaRav HaGaon HaTzaddik Avraham HaLevi Jungreis, zt”l. Those of you who are regular readers know that I try to mention my revered father’s name in almost every column so that his merit may be a shield and a blessing for all of us. Even as I write these words I hear his beautiful trembling voice: “Es iz shoin ELUL – it is already Elul.” No further commentary was needed.
Today that reverence for the meaning of Elul cannot be easily understood. We have come a long way from the time when Elul awakened hearts and souls. It is Elul that expresses the eternal love that ties the Jewish people to the Almighty with the kind of bond that is hardly comprehended in our day.
Elul is an acronym for “Ani L’Dodi V’Dodi Li – I Am My Beloved’s And My Beloved Is Mine.” Many young couples try to express their love for one another by utilizing this biblical passage, not realizing that doing so is actually a desecration of the verse, which depicts the love between Hashem and the Jewish people.
So we’re in Chodesh Elul – and if ever there was an Elul that demanded that we awaken ourselves and call out in love to our Heavenly Father, it is this Elul.
Today we see the fulfillment of the prophecy of our Torah regarding Ishmael and his descendants: “His hand will be against everyone…. and over all his brethren he shall dwell.”
Consider the sheer terror – the barbaric decapitations, the suicide bombings, the random murders of Jews and other “infidels” – inflicted on both young and old, male and female. We see the blood flowing everywhere.
We have other prophecies, and I have shared many of them with you in numerous columns. Perhaps the most chilling one for our generation is found in Yalkut Shimoni, where it is written that before the coming of Messiah, the king of Persia (today’s Iran) will be capable of destroying the entire world. This teaching was reinforced by great Torah luminaries such as Rabbi Elchanan Wasserman, who told us that we are entering a period in time called ikvesa deMeshicha – footsteps of the Messiah – a time when the approach of Mashiach will be audible and we will have to contend with tribulations that will come from Yishmael.
We Jews have suffered through four exiles in addition to our slavery in Egypt – Babylonian, Persian/Mede, Greek, and Roman. The exile in which we presently find ourselves is the Roman exile. It was the Romans who destroyed our second Temple and took us in chains from our land.
In Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer, an early midrashic work, it is written that before the coming of Messiah we will have to contend with a fifth source of tribulation –Yishmael inflicting barbaric horrors on the world and on our people.
This teaching is reaffirmed by Rabbi Chaim Vital, the illustrious disciple of the Arizal, who wrote that before the final curtain falls on the stage of history Yishmael will unleash barbarities on a level the world had never before seen.
One need not have great powers of discernment to recognize the painful veracity of these predictions. We are the generation that has been destined to witness the fulfillment of the prophecy regarding Yishmael.
There is yet another amazing prophecy in Yalkut Shimoni: Though the ruler of Persia (Iran) will terrify the world prior to the revelation of Mashiach, we are told, “My children, do not fear when you see that the time of your redemption is at hand….”