Kikar is reporting that Rav Yitzchak Kolodetzky, the son in law of Rav Chaim Kanievsky, recently spoke in a shul in Bnei Braq about the topic of exile and redemption. In his shiur he said that the Chafetz Chaim famously "predicted" the eventual start of World War II. The Chafetz Chaim also famously predicted that there will be refuge in the land of Israel and the tyrant would not step foot in Israel. Despite being on his way to conquer the Land of Israel, we know Rommel's forces were turned back and the prediction came true. Rav Kolodetzky added that the Chafetz Chaim also said something else that is less known - that 50 years after the war that would break out the redemption would come.

Rav Don Segal, aka "One of the Mashgichim" made an unusual statement today. 

Prophets abound.

According to Actualic, Rav Mordechai Granot, the publisher of a luach, a Jewish-themed calendar, named Davar B'Ito, (with the halachic times and relevant information), has predicted that Tisha B'Av of this year, 5780, is going to be a time uniquely ripe for the geula. He explained that the calculations of the Prophet Daniel fit very well with this year.

According to the article, Rav Granot published in the 5780 calendar prior to Rosh Hashana that there would be a plague and the elderly will die from it. As well, on the calendar entry for 17 Adar he again wrote about this plague and the elderly suffering from it - and 17 Adar 5780 is when the Ministry of Health started locking down the populace of Israel with regulations due to CoronaVirus.

Regarding the solar eclipse, Rav Granot says that an eclipse in Tammuz is a sign of many wars that will take place during the year. The solar eclipse we experienced yesterday was prior to Tammuz, so hopefully we will not have wars to go through as well. We've already gone through enough this year, in my opinion.

As I always say in the face of such predictions, the only thing I can say, from his mouth to God's ears! Halevai!

I am not sure what to do with this. I am not a "Messiah blogger", I do get a kick out of such statements, but my general attitude is halevai he should be right. From his mouth to God's ears.

Kikar is reporting that Baba Baruch, Rav Baruch Abuchatzeira, one of the son's of the Baba Sali, said that nothing is going to come of Trump's Deal of the Century, to be announced later today. According to Baba Baruch, nothing is going to happen because Mashiach is going to come before any of that becomes an issue.

According to Baba Baruch, with Trump as the president of the USA, we have all the signs of Mashiach (whatever they are). Nothing will happen because Mashiach will come and he will cancel everything. There will be no plan.

Things like this are way way way above my paygrade, so all I can say is "halevai". I hope he is right and Mashiach is right around the corner.

The haredi media is reporting about a visit  two anonymous Jewish friends of Donald Trump paid this week to Rav Chaim Kanievsky.

According to the reports, they introduced themselves as friends of President Trump and they delivered warm regards from president Trump to the rav, as he had heard great things about the rav's influence on world jewry.

It seems Rav Chaim was slightly amused but not really interested and he asked them if they have anything further to ask or discuss. It turns out they did.It turns out the burning question on Trump's mind is to find out from Rav Chaim Kanievsky when Mashiach is due to arrive. They asked him that in the name of President Trump.

Bemused, Rav Kanievsky responded turning it back on them asking what they have done recently to hasten mashiachs arrival - have they moved to live in Israel? When they answered that they have not, Rav Chaim instructed them that they should move to Israel and then we will soon see the final redemption.
sources: Behadrei, Actualic

Remember the time Rav Chaim Kanievsky recently told someone that mashiach will be coming to redeem us before the upcoming Israeli elections? It seems his daughter, Rebbetzin Kolodetzky, also repeated this in his name to her followers. Rebbetzin Kolodetzky strengthened the idea by adding instructions to people that they should prepare their Shabbos finest and musical instrument in preparation to greet mashiach in the coming weeks.

In case you were getting excited in anticipation, Rabbi Yitzchak Kolodetzky, Rav Kanievsky's son in law and husband of Rebbetzin Kolodetzky, has thrown a damper on that prediction.

Rabbi Kolodetzky has explained that Rav Chaim Kanievsky is not a prophet and is not in the mashiach prediction business and he does not actually know the date mashiach will be actually coming to redeem us.

According to Kikar, Rav Kolodetzky explains that Rav Kanievsky, like all gedolei yisrael, has a deep belief in the 13 Principles of Faith and all his life has waited expectantly for mashiach to come on a daily basis. When asked about questions further into the future, the answer comes naturally to him and bursts out expressing that one need not worry too far in advance as mashiach will come prior. Rav Chaim Kanievsky is not making a prediction and does not know the future date of mashiach's arrival and regularly says only a prophet can know such a thing, and he is not a prophet.

According to a report on Matzav, the upcoming elections might not mean as much as they have been made to be.. As a matter of fact, they might be meaningless. They might not even happen at all!

The story goes that someone from abroad went to visit Rav Chaim Kanievsky and get a bracha. he asked Rav Chaim Kanievsky if he should make aliya so that he will be able to vote for Degel hatorah in the upcoming elections.

That's dedication!

Rav Chaim Kanievsky responded that there is no need for this. Rav Chaim explained that Mashiach will be coming before the elections!

The young man was startled and before leaving he asked a grandson of Rav Chaim to confirm and make sure he understood correctly. When the grandson asked Rav Chaim Kanievsky to confirm what had been said, Rav Kanievsky confirmed it.

So, whatever troubles you've got, just hold out until April 9... and don't get too worked up about elections and election campaigns, as they won't really be relevant!

I wonder if Rav Kanievsky is instructing Degel Hatorah to not bother working too hard for these elections...

Here is an interesting report from the Daily Star out of England.

To excerpt:

Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, one of the world’s leading Jewish scholars, revealed he believes the Jewish saviour was born this Saturday.
The 90-year-old predicted the world on the cusp entering the Messianic Age.
[....]
Kanievsky said he believes the current age of “hatred for those who learn the Bible” fits with prophecy about the Messiah
He added the “signs of redemption” are starting to appear – comparing the current age to the “sunrise”.
Rabbi Kanievsky said: "This generation displays absolute hatred for those who learn the Bible, especially in recent years.
"We are seeing all of the conditions described in the Talmud appear before us.
"It is for this reason that we anticipate the appearance of the Messiah at any moment, God-willing”.
He added he believed the Messiah was born this Saturday based on his reading of ancient texts – as it was the Jewish festival Tisha B’Av.

Israel’s High Court won’t hear man claiming to be ‘Messiah’

  -- Times of Israel

this is weird.  Thsi Mashiach guy should have said something against the Rabbanut or connected it to the yeshiva draft and then they might have agreed to hear his case....

The Jews of Tiberias have a new fight on their hands - the municipal swimming pool has been opened and will remain open and operational on Shabbos. The Haredi community, and seemingly at least some of the traditional community, are upset about this.

Tiberias was largely a secular and traditional city, and in recent years has seen some influx, and the development, of a Haredi community.

The fight itself does not interest me. Their problem. Happens all over the place and is an example of why some cities refuse to allow new construction plannign for Haredi communities. They regularly reference the fight sin Bet Shemesh, but it happens all over. Haredi communities get built and they start changing things that have always been done in the area as they gain political power in the area and refuse to approve of businesses open on Shabbos and the like, or even before they get that far (as actually holding significant political power) they still fight it along the way..

What interests me is one of the things said in the fight.

Someone, upset at the situation, complained that the religious people have only come to Tiberias because "they were told that Mashiach would come via Tiberias".
source: Kikar

Not only is it a funny reason to move to a city, as even if Mashiach comes there first it obviously wont be his final destination, it is also a funny complaint about people who moved to that city.

It is nobody's business why I moved to a city and bought my house there. And whether my reason for moving to a city was a good one or a bad one does not increase or decrease my rights in that city.

Last week a rosh yeshiva went to Rav CHaim Kanievsky to get a bracha before leaving on a fundraising trip.

Rav Nissim Naftali, head of the "Beit Hanassi" institutions, was surprised to hear back from Rav Kanievsky "Do you want to miss mashiach's arrival? How can you travel now?"

Rav Naftali canceled his trip.
source: Bechadrei

There have been reports recently of Rav Chaim Kanievsky saying Mashiach's arrival is imminent (in various ways) .

May it be so! God knows, we surely need it!



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This blog is not a "mashiach blog", and I do not report every time a rav or mekubal mentions the word mashiach or says mashiach is ready to come... I personally don't get any chizzuk from such statements, and in the 2000 years of our galus since the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash, so many people have said mashiach is coming by this or that date, and they have all been wrong, no matter how great the rav who said it was.. so I don't see a point in tracking such statements... if I am going to report a "mashiach sighting" it is because of a different aspect of what happened that I feel is noteworthy.

For example, Rav Moshe Shternbuch, "gaavad" of the Eida, recently said mashiachis coming soon and pointed to the Russian takeover of Crimea, based on the Vilna Gaon, as his indication, and added that if we strengthen ourselves in our faith at this time, mashiach will come now. OK. I hope he is right.

More interestingly, Kooker reports that a rosh yeshiva went in to Rav Chaim Kanievsky this past week for a bracha that he should be successful on the fundraising trip he was about to embark upon.

According to the reported story, Rav Kanievsky refused to bless him with a successful trip. Rather, Rav Kanievsky said that there is no need for the fundraising trip, as mashiach is coming very soon.

It seems that the rosh yeshiva actually canceled his trip because of what Rav Kanievsky said. I am impressed with his emunas chachomim, and especially for his sake, but also for all of us, I hope the summer zman opens up with the yeshiva under the auspices of Melech Hamashiach. I am also surprised Rav Kanievsky would say such a thing - saying not to do hishtadlus necessary for the upkeep of a yeshiva - I am sure he knows the history of "mashiach sightings" far better than I do and knows how many times they have turned out to be incorrect. It looks like Rav Kanievsky is really convinced that the mashiach's arriival is imminent.

We are in the month of Nissan, and we know that Nissam is the month of the redemption. Only one week of Nissam has passed, so we have 3 more to go. Hopefully Rav Kanievsky is right. I don't know any other way out of so many of our fights and internal squabbles and problems.

Somebody just sent this to me. I have no idea where WND got it from, I have no idea if it is accurate and/or reliable, but it is a fascinating read of Rav Yehuda HaChassids prediction about Israel...

WND EXCLUSIVE

12TH-CENTURY RABBI PREDICTED ISRAEL'S FUTURE

Now his prophecies about return of Messiah are being studied
Published: 11/14/2012 at 7:56 PM

JERUSALEM – Judah Ben Samuel was a legendary and prolific German rabbi of the 12th century
who made some astonishing and specific predictions about the future of Jerusalem and Israel that
came true.

Judah Ben Samuel, also known as Judah he-Hasid (Judah the Pious), lived and worked from the
end of the 12th century until the beginning of the 13th century in Regensburg, authoring a number of
books in the German language.

Ludwig Schneider of Israel Today magazine has translated some of his work into English over the
last few years, including “The Book of the Pious – Sefer Hasidim” and the “Book of Calculations –
Sefer Gematriyot.”

Following the Christian crusades to the Holy Land, between 1096-1270, a regular correspondence
developed between the Jews in the Holy Land and the Christian West. Thus, for example, the rabbis
in Worms and Regensburg in Germany knew that Saladin’s Ayyubids had been ruling in the Holy
Land since 1187.

At this time, Judah Ben Samuel published the results of his biblical calculations (Gematria) and
astrological observations and summarized as follows: “When the Ottomans (Turks) – who were
already a power to be reckoned with on the Bosporus in the time of Judah Ben Samuel – conquer
Jerusalem they will rule over Jerusalem for eight jubilees. Afterwards Jerusalem will become noman’s land for one jubilee, and then in the ninth jubilee it will once again come back into the possession of the Jewish nation – which would signify the beginning of the Messianic end time.”

One jubilee is 50 years (Leviticus 25). It is the 50th year after seven times seven years, the year in
which each person should regain ownership of his or her land. Ben Samuel’s calculations were
purely theoretical; there was absolutely no sign at that time of their being fulfilled. He himself was not
able to experience their fulfillment, for it was only 300 years after his death that the first of his
predictions were to come true.

The Mamluks, who had been reigning in Jerusalem since 1250, were conquered in 1517 by the
Ottoman Turks. They remained for eight jubilees (8 x 50 = 400 years), that is to say they were in
Jerusalem for 400 years. Exactly 400 years later, in 1917, the Ottoman Turks were conquered by the
British. The League of Nations conferred the Mandate for the Holy Land and Jerusalem to the
British. Thus, from 1917, under international law, Jerusalem was no-man’s land.

Then, when Israel captured Jerusalem in the Six Day War of 1967, exactly one jubilee (50 years)
after 1917, Jerusalem reverted to Jewish-Israeli ownership once again. Thereby, according to the
prophecies of Judah Ben Samuel, the Messianic End Times began.

Many scholars have studied and made reference to Judah Ben Samuel’s writings in an effort to
understand how he reached his conclusions. Among those referencing Ben Samuel were Rabbi
Isaac Ben Solomon Luria, a mystic dealing with the messianic world (Jerusalem, 1531-1572, Safed);
Joseph Solomon Delmegido (1591 Candia – 1655 Prague), a mathematician and astronomer
(“Mazref le-Chochma”), Azulai I (1724-1806), a famed bibliographer; Samuel David Luzzatto (1800-1865), a Bible scholar; historian Heinrich Graetz (1817-1891); and Torah scholar Jacob Epstein
(1925-1993).

The secret of how Judah the Pious arrived at such accurate predictions has less to do with the
actual calculations than it does with the fact that he had consecrated his life to God. His pupils Rabbi
Isaac ben Moses (Vienna), Rabbi Baruch ben Samuel (Mainz) and Rabbi Simcha (Speyer) testify
that Ben Samuel was a model of abstinence and selflessness and was awaiting with a burning
desire the coming of the Messiah.

Ben Samuel was often called “Light of Israel.” Even bishops came to him for advice. If anyone asked
him where his wisdom came from he would answer, “The prophet Elijah, who will precede the
Messiah, appeared to me and revealed many things to me and emphasized that the precondition for
answered prayer is that it is fueled by enthusiasm and joy for the greatness and holiness of God.”

But to recap the astonishing predictions: In AD 1217 this scholarly and pious rabbi prophesied that
the Ottoman Turks would rule over the holy city of Jerusalem for eight Jubilees. Now, keep in mind,
he made this prediction 300 years before the Ottoman Turks seized control of Jerusalem in 1517. If
indeed 1217 and 1517 were jubilee years as Judah Ben Samuel believed, then his prophecy was
exactly right, because exactly 400 years after the Turks took control of Jerusalem they were driven
out of the city and the holy land in 1917 by the Allied forces under the command of General George
Allenby – on Hanukkah, by the way.

But it gets more interesting still.

The rabbi also prophesied that during the ninth Jubilee Jerusalem would be a “no-man’s land.” This
is exactly what happened from 1917 to 1967, due to the fact that the Holy Land was placed under
British Mandate in 1917 by the League of Nations and literally “belonged” to no nation.
Even after Israel’s war of independence in 1948-49, Jerusalem was still divided by a strip of land
running right through the heart of the city, with Jordan controlling the eastern part of the city and
Israel controlling the western part of the city. That strip of land was considered and even called “noman’s land” by both the Israelis and the Jordanians.

It was not until the Six Day War in 1967 when the entire West Bank of the Holy Land was conquered
by the Israeli army that the whole city of Jerusalem passed back into the possession of Israel. So
once again the prophecy made by the rabbi 750 years previously was fulfilled to the letter.

It certainly would be significant if both 1917 and 1967 were Jubilee years, considering the
significance of what happened in Jerusalem on those years. But it gets even more interesting,
because Judah Ben Samuel also prophesied that during the 10th Jubilee Jerusalem would be under
the control of the Jews and the Messianic “end times” would begin. If he’s right, the 10th Jubilee
began in 1967 and will be concluded in 2017.

“The Bible should be our standard for prophecy and interpretation of prophetic events,” said Joseph
Farah, editor and founder of WND, upon learning of Judah Ben Samuel’s predictions in Israel
Today. “But one cannot ignore what this 12th-century rabbi said and wrote. It’s well-documented.
And I applaud Israel Today for bringing it to light. The implications of these predictions is staggering
to say the least.”

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2012/11/12th-century-rabbi-predicted-israels-future/#i8gfrFLDfGqGifre.99


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Donate to the Schneider Hospital so I can run the Schneider benefit marathon..

US judge changes baby's name from Messiah to Martin

   -- CNN

that's pretty serious government intervention in private affairs..

1. I hope our Messiah won't be born in the United States, because the courts will disqualify him pretty quickly and change his name...

2. anyways this kid could not have been the Messiah, as he was born on January 9, and not on 9 Av.

Have you already made plans for this coming Motzei Shabbos? If not, you might want to save the date, and not make any specific plans just yet. If you already have made plans, you might want to consider canceling them.

It seems that some rav in Jerusalem from Neve Yaakov has been predicting, or prophesizing, for over a month already that this Saturday night, the night of 18 Iyyar (the article says the 17th, but that is Shabbos itself, not Motzash), there will occur an apocalyptic incident that will spur on the birthpains of mashiachs arrival, and only those who cling to the Torah and mitzvos will survive it. The rav is described as a Litvishe rosh kollel. Many of his students are taking these words seriously, and are preparing for the end of days.

Kikar went to speak with the rav, whose name has not been publicized, to heardetails of what is going to happen. The rav says that he has been seeing the events already for two months, through his tefillos. This is the date it will happen because according to the Gemara, the 17th of Iyyar is the date on which the flood began (in the days of Noach). this rav says he does not know exactly what is going to happen, but he saw a number of times that it is going to be big and will clearly be the onset of the birthing pains of mashiach, and that this will be the final awakening for us, shaking us up, prior to our receiving mashiach, and this is not a punishment but the process of redemption. The way to be saved, he says, is to be very strict about humility (maybe the reason he did not want his name published..), and people who have not kept Torah and mtizvos should run to keep Shabbos, family purity and kashrus as much as they can grab right away.

with less than 3 days to go, and only 1 Shabbos, time is running out to do what needs to be done to be saved!

The rav qualifies his statements, knowing that many before have made similar predictions that did not actually come true, by saying that if it does not happen, people should not lose their faith or allow it to weaken. if it does not come true it must be because of his own mistake in understanding the date that he saw, but the process of final redemption has clearly begun.

As I said above - if you haven't made plans, don't, and if you have, maybe you should consider canceling them....