חישוב הקץ

00:01 This is Igris, and we are back after an extended pause, and this is, I think, a new season. So we're now in a new season of Igris, and the topic that we're looking at today is kitzim. We're going to look at end times for Mashiach coming. The Rebbe Shitan, whether we should be calculating these things, how seriously we should take them, whether they are kosher in the first place. And, uh, I wanna start with a letter because this is officially an Igris year, although we're going to be all over the place today. We have Sichas, we have a Ksav Yad, we have a, a Yechidas. Um, and I think we're going to, with God's help, of course, build a shita as to what we think about end times for Mashiach coming. I, I assume everybody's familiar with the idea of a ketz, the basic background. Uh, but throughout history, as we're about to see, throughout history, uh, gedolim, gedolei Am Yisrael have said, "By this date, Mashiach will come. This is the time that's set up for Mashiach to come." People have gotten very excited, and I think you probably know that it hasn't happened during any of those kitzim by, uh, by the fact that we are still right here in our present situation. So, uh, we're gonna open with a letter. This letter is labeled Zayin Taf Kuf Ayin Ches. It is in Igris, and, uh, unfortunately today, all of my things are screenshots instead of regular files because Eitz HaChochma was acting

01:02 up. But, uh, I think you can still see them pretty well. Here's the letter. This is from Chaf Zayin Shvat of Taf Shin Chaf Alef, and the Rebbe writes, "Shalom Ubracha." He says, "Maimei Michtavim BeChaf Be Shvat." I'm responding to your letter from the twenty-second day of Shvat. "Be'kesiv ma sheshama umesnak bepsukim ve'remazim." You write to me about the things that you have been interested in and the things that you've heard involving verses and hints, etc. Uh, it doesn't say it explicitly in the letter, but it does say it below the line and in the front of the book and the back of the book and everybody who quotes this. This was a letter that somebody had written to the Rebbe where they'd heard that there was a ketz coming up. They heard that there was going to be an end time for Mashiach coming, and they wanted to know what the Rebbe thought of this new ketz. And so there's a remez and a pasuk. They, they dug through the primary texts. Not this individual. This individual had spoken to somebody who'd dug through the primary text and come to a c- come to a conclusion as to when Mashiach's coming. So the Rebbe answers, "Hineh b'klal," and I love the word b'klal because we're always looking for klal when it comes to the Igris here. We don't want the something that the Rebbe answered only once. We want the Rebbe's general ideas, general rules. So, "Hineh b'klal," generally speaking, "ein likanes v'chashvenes ha'amurim."

02:03 I don't want you involved in these things. Don't enter yourself into these sorts of chashvenes, these sorts of calculations. "Shini be'zeh rak elu sheyesh beyam ei zeh mesorah beketz bezeh." These things are only for people who have a mesorah or something like it. People who calculate end times have a tradition on how to calculate end times, or as we'll see in a moment in the case of the Rambam, a literal tradition passed down from father to father to father to son, father to son, going back a very long time, telling him when that end time would be. This is not something that no matter how good of Kabbalah you get, you're allowed to just open a book and start making your calculations. If you''t have the mesorah, you're not involved. "Ma sheein kein belev chachi," whereas if somebody does not have this mesorah, this tradition telling them how to figure it out or what the date is, "har kol echavecha maamin bevas Mashiach v'chulu ve'chake lechayim sh'yave." If you don't have a special tradition either in how to learn this or in, uh, when the end time is going to be, you default to the default, and the default for every single Jew is, "har kol echavecha maamin," every single person must believe, "bevas Mashiach," that Mashiach is coming, "ve'chake lechayim sh'yave," and to wait for him eagerly every single day. Which means that if you're not somebody who's in the parsha of figuring out when a ketz is, trying to figure out a ketz

03:06 would be essentially a stira, a contradiction to your baseline obligation to expect Mashiach every day. And you can see how this can get complicated. If somebody believes that Mashiach is coming in, I, I don't know what, what-- I don't even remember what year it is. It's, it's twenty twenty-five by the, by the secular calendar. If somebody tells you Mashiach's coming in twenty twenty-seven, they may have an issue with their daily obligation to expect Mashiach at any moment. Now, people will get around this by saying that that's like the deadline, whatever. The Rebbe's saying here that, uh, if somebody doesn't have a standard tradition on how to interpret these things, they should be doing what everybody has do-- what everybody else has been doing for thousands of years, which is awaiting Mashiach eagerly every single day. "Ela shebiach nimzeh," in addition to that, "al kol echad la'aseh kol ha'talub alei lemaher la'achish vas Mashiach tzedkenu." In addition to eagerly awaiting Mashiach, it is also an obligation for every single person to do whatever is possible to expedite Mashiach, to make Mashiach come faster, of course, through Torah and mitzvahs. "Uvefrat," specifically, "hu hadeh afatzat hamayanach hutza," the best way to bring Mashiach faster, to bring Mashiach now, is to sprel-spread the wellsprings of Hasidus outward. "Ka yedua, igereh ha'kedeh shel Baal Shem Tov, ma-ma'aminas malka Meshiha, lechishaf etzemanach hutza kazi," as is known that in the letters of the Baal Shem Tov, that the answer that Mashiach gave him as to when he would be coming

04:14 is when the wellsprings of the Baal Shem Tov burst outward. So we're seeing here not a lot of enthusiasm from the Rebbe for calculating end times. Uh, the Rebbe says, "If you have a mesorah, that's great, but if you don't have a particular tradition in how to do it, I want you to do what you're supposed to do, the baseline, which is await Mashiach eagerly every day and make Mashiach come faster and spread the wellsprings of Hasidus outward." The Rebbe then says that he will mention this person's name by the Tzaddik, etc., etc. So we get an idea from this letter alone. This is just one letter. We get an idea from this letter that the Rebbe might not be thrilled about people in our day and age trying to calculate end times for Mashiach coming and might be a little bit more enthusiastic, a lot more enthusiastic, about people expecting Mashiach at any moment, saying Mashiach now, and doing Torah and mitzvahs, specifically spreading Hasidus in a way that will bring Mashiach. Let's take a step back into our primary sources for a second. Not the primary sources that'll help us calculate an end time, 'cause I'm not sure I'm allowed to do that, but primary sources that give us an idea about end, about end times in the first place. I have some on the screen for you. This is a Gemara Massechet Sanhedrin. It's on Tzadik Zayin Amud Beis. And, uh, you might know this one. It's pretty popular. Uh, the entire

05:11 halakh is pretty popular. "Ma yehi apeach leketz ulehi khazev?" What does it mean, this pasuk, that a person will, uh, will hope for the end and, uh, not, uh, and not be, uh, not be, not be fooled? "Amar Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmeni amar Rabbi Yannai, tepach atzei machshive ketzim." The interpretation of this Gemara is that a person should be-- We curse somebody. A person should be cursed if they calculate the end days of Mashiach coming. So the Gemara says, "We curse such people. We admonish, we curse. We look very down on people." We-- I, I believe tepach is a lotion of curse. We curse a person who tries to calculate when Mashiach will come. Why do we curse such a person? "She'yu amnim keve tsheyigiha. Haketz v'lo ba, shuv eino ba." Because if you're wrong and you tell people that it's-- Mashiach's coming by a certain day, people will look for Mashiach then and if Mashiach doesn't come at that point, they're going to say, "Since he didn't come by that end date, I guess he's never coming." "Ela khake lei." Rather, what a person should do is they should wait for Mashiach eagerly. "She'ne'emar im yisma me'ah yecha-- excuse me, khake lei." If he tarries, you should wait for him. Okay, so we have a Gemara telling us that we are not allowed to calculate end times. This is brought lehalakha. We have a Rambam in Hilchot Melakhim at the very, very end. This is the twelfth perek, the second, uh, the second entry

06:15 in the twelfth pe- in the twelfth perek. Rambam there says that there are-- I'm-- I, I don't, don't know if we'll read all of this, but I have it all on the screen for you. "Yesh min hachachamim szem sh'kenem biyas Mashiach yavo eliyahu." There are some wise men who have told us that Eliyahu is going to come before Mashiach, and all these sorts of things the Rambam says, "vekiyatzeh ben, lo yeda adam ech yihu ad shihyu." We're not really going to know how Mashiach will happen until it happens. The prophets didn't really know exactly what was happening. Hashem hid that from them. Most of the wise people, the wise people also, the chachamim, they don't have any particular tradition in this matter. Uh, and he goes on to say, I'm just gonna go to the bolded part at the bottom, uh, "V'chein lo yechashe v'kitzim." Furthermore, a person should not calculate end times. "Amru chacham tipach rucham shemachsheve kitzim." Does that sound familiar? He's bringing the Gemara Mesache Sanhedrin lehalacha, that a person should be cursed if they calculate end times. "Eli yichakev yamim bechalal adavek ma shbi'arnu." Rather, we should eagerly await and believe in the general principles of the thing. That is, look forward to Mashiach, but don't necessarily get, uh, muddied in the details because people don't know the details, especially not the details of exactly when Mashiach is coming. Now, uh, so far, even without seeing other commentaries, I'm just struck by the fact that just about everything we read in

07:23 the Rebbe's letter is a Gemara and a Rambam. The Rebbe says here that, uh, there is-- unless you have Mesira, don't mess with it, which we haven't seen yet, but we will. And as for everybody else, I expect yichakel and I expect emunah, and I expect you to try to bring Mashiach soon. Now, I do need to point out that despite the fact that we just knocked, uh, chishuv kitzim very seriously and said people should not be calculating end dates, everybody does it. Everybody has done it. As a matter of fact, even Rambam, who brings lehalacha that you're not allowed to do it, very specifically does it in Igeres Teiman. In Igeres Teiman, the letter that he wrote to the M&A community in chapter three of Igeres Teiman, Rambam does predict an end time after saying you're not allowed to predict end times. So Rambam in, uh, in Mishneh Torah curses people who predict end times and then, uh, does it in Igeres Teiman. I have the lashon in front of you right here. Uh, let me just read to you some pieces of it 'cause I don't wanna spend lo-- it says in the Rambam here. But he says here that, uh, "Amisa zeit al buri ein ha modas," the exact time that Mashiach will come is not known. "Aval yesh etz leinu kabbalah gedel uvneflah. Kibalti etzeh me'avi shekiba me'aviv u'me'avi aviv hu kiba ladavar." The Rambam says, "But we do have something wondrous and incredible that I received from my father, who

08:24 received from his father, who received from his father, uh, the following thing." And he says that we have received this tradition that when you calculate the amount of years between the creation of the world and Bilam, who gave the, uh, curse/blessings that would be the predictor of Mashiach in the Torah, that time plus itself is the time that Mashiach will come. So when you add those two numbers together, you get the year four thousand nine hundred and seventy-six. We are now in the year five thousand seven hundred and eighty-five, so, uh, that one did not materialize, at least in the literal sense. I'm sure something very special happened during that period of time. But Rambam himself predicts a year in Igeres Teiman, four thousand seven hundred-- four thousand nine hundred and seventy-six. Uh, and we have a tradition that I don't think we're gonna look at today, but it's all over Chassidus, that on the years where there's supposed to be a kate, something special does happen. But there, uh, of course, Mashiach did not come in the year four thousand nine hundred and seventy-six. Uh, the Rambam was not the only one to break this rule. We have a couple of sichas from our Rebbe where he lists the sheer number of people who broke this rule. I'm actually gonna go a little out of order. Let me show you this ksav yad. I found this two minutes before we started this year. Behashkah brought this. This is on the Chabadpedia website. They posted

09:26 this ksav yad. I don't know where they got it from. I guess I probably could figure it out. It says in-- it says where they got it from. But anyway, the ksav yad is on the screen. Somebody wrote to the Rebbe saying that there was a certain individual who was, uh, very involved in Lubavitch for a while, and he was helping us out with stuff. And then once the Friediker Rebbe announced a kate, which the Friediker Rebbe did, the Friediker Rebbe was one of many great tzadikim, probably, as a matter of fact, he's the most recent, the most recent of the great tzadikim to mention a kate, a time when Mashiach will come by. This individual heard him mention a kate and says, "Uh, now I don't want anything to do with Lubavitch anymore." The Rebbe wrote back, and we have the ksav yad. I'm going to read it in the Hebrew down here because I'm bad at Rebbe handwriting, as you all recall. Anyway, the Rebbe responds, "Al pi zeh," if this is the case, that you're not happy with the Friediker Rebbe predicting a kate, and therefore you want nothing to do with Lubavitch, excuse me, "Al pi zeh tzarichu lisnachak min kol elu sheamru katz vaheim." Therefore, the Rebbe says, "If you're really interested in distancing yourself from anyone who says a kate when Mashiach will come, you should also distance yourself from all of the following people," and the Rebbe lists them. Rav Saadia Gaon, who gave a kate. Rashi, who

10:27 gave a kate. Rambam in Igeres Teiman. Uh, that would be the Ibn Ezra, I believe. The Ibn Ezra, who gave a kate. The Baalei Teshuva, Salater, who gave a kate. The Ramban, who had a kate. Uh, Don Yosef Abba Yehia, uh, I don't know who that is. Perish HaMegillas, but I, I mean, I should. It's my fault that I don't know. The Abarbanel, who also gave a kate. The Arachim, who gave a kate. The Gra, the Vilna Gaon, who gave a kate. So the Rebbe's just listing, going, "If you don't like people giving kitzim, and therefore you're distance, distancing yourself from the Friediker Rebbe, you're going to have to distance yourself from a lot of other people." And he says, "The, uh, apparently, the Arizal gave a kate." So you're going to have to cut off just about everybody. Obviously, a lot of kitzim have been given, so we're gonna have to figure out why this is happening. We have a Gemara that says people are cursed if they give one. We have a Rambam who brings it lehalacha, and then we have every gadol hadar breaking the rule. Uh, the Rebbe mentions this also in a sicha. You'll find this in, uh, Vayechi, Likutey Sichas Vayechi. It's the first sicha. Um, I didn't write down-- Excuse me. It's from the year Taf Shin Mem Beis, but I-- Oh, there we go. It's down here. "Mesichta Sitar B'tevis of Taf Shin Mem Beis." It's in Likutey Sicha, so it's edited. And, uh, the Rebbe brings

11:24 a couple others in a footnote down here. He says that it's well known that, uh, the Alter Rebbe had a kate, and it's brought in the Rebbe Rashab's writing, Torah Shalom. And, uh, also if you see the writings of Rav Margolius, he brings a ton of them in Shut Min Hashamayim. And, uh, he lists a bunch of other ones too. And as a matter of fact, the Rebbe himself mentions an upcoming one. He says that it's brought in Sfarim that one of the years of a kate will be Taf Shin Mem Beis. That was nineteen eighty-two. And, uh, for your general reference, in Hayemim in Shaar Sha'ar, when the, uh, Rebbe writes-- when there, there's sort of a, uh, an introduction to Hayemim, where major dates are mentioned in Rebbeim's lives, uh, the Rebbe edited that into the front of Hayemim and also mentioned it there, that one of the years when Mashiach should come is Taf Shin Mem Beis. Now, this is not the Rebbe coming up with a kate or predicting a kate, but this is the Rebbe pointing out that other Sfarim have mentioned a kate that was relatively recent, Taf Shin Mem Beis. Uh, and then the Rebbe says in the footnote right after that, "Nisicha, ma she'inkin begeal lechol Yisrael shem razal, tefach atzem meshal machshive kitzim." Now, here the Rebbe is giving us our answers. Let me just spell out what the Rebbe just did in this sicha. He does it in a few places, but I think it's

12:21 clearest here. Although I sent you a supplement, Likutei Sichos, uh, from Shabbos Chazon, uh, and this is from Chelek Chaf Tes on page twenty-nine. I'm saying the source here 'cause you might wanna look it up. That is essentially a sicha on this topic. And there, the Rebbe concludes that, uh, normal people are not allowed to have chishuv Kitzim. There's two people-- two kinds of people who are allowed to. People who are leaders of the entire Jewish people are allowed to calculate an end date, and people who have a mesorah, a tradition of how to, or a tradition from their parents are allowed to mention an end date. But otherwise, average people are supposed to do this, uh, supposed to default to the Gemara, which says, "I curse anybody who does this stuff." And the Rebbe, the Rebbe explains why in the same lashon as the Rambam uses in Yoreh De'ah, which is that the entire reason that we're worried about people saying over a ketz, really. Look back in the Gemara Mesechta Sanhedrin. The whole reason we're worried about people saying a ketz is we don't want to discourage the Jewish people. Can you imagine? Uh, we now know that Mashiach is coming in the year of five thousand seven hundred and eighty-five, right? 'Cause Mashiach's coming now. Can you imagine telling that to somebody who lived in the time of Rashi? They would, they, they would lose it. To hear, to hear, to hear that it would be even another thousand years before Mashiach

13:21 would come, that would just, that, that, that would hurt them. So, uh, we don't, generally speaking, do Kitzim because we're worried about what's going to happen to people who hear that a ketz is far away. The Rebbe points out in this sicha over here, and also in this footnote down here, that leaders of the generation have their finger on the pulse of what will encourage people, and they know when to mention a ketz that could be a likely time for Mashiach to come in such a way that it's not going to discourage anybody else. But outside of these individuals who are very insightful and know that first of all, a ketz could be at this point, and second of all, that it won't destroy everybody when they find out, destroy their spirit when they find out that the ketz has passed and God forbid, Mashiach has not come, those people alone are the ones who are allowed to calculate a ketz and nobody else. So we have very seriously limited who can be involved in calculating Kitzim, and now I want us to look at this letter again. 'Cause now looking at this letter again, uh, I will note that I looked in a lot of places, and I found a lot of people writing this, so I trust them. I never found the Rebbe, um, saying a ketz himself. As far as I know, the Rebbe never predicted an end time. The Rebbe told us Mashiach's coming in our generation, Mashiach's coming now, but

14:19 a specific end date, end year, as far as I know, the Rebbe never said. And not only as far as I know, four or five people have, uh, have written on the subject of Mashiach, of Kitzim, of the Rebbe, and all of them that I found on Etz Chaim specifically note in writing that the Rebbe never said a ketz. So I'm quite confident telling you that unless we find some information we've never seen, that nobody's ever seen, the Rebbe never said an end time, despite the fact that he quoted other people's, the Rebbe never said one. Let's take a look here at this letter that we read initially again in new light now. So this letter says, "In general, I don't want anybody involved in these sorts of calculations unless they have a mesorah or something like that." So this is somebody that the Rambam had a mesorah, um, the other Rabbis were involved. Per the Rebbe's sicha, they were allowed to do it because they had an understanding of how saying the ketz would encourage their generation. But v'lav hachi, otherwise, every single person must believe in Mashiach's coming, v'chakeh l'vo chaim sh'yaavoh, and wait for him eagerly. So what we're seeing in this letter is really just a really good summary of, uh, the Gemara of Rambam, of the Rebbe's sicha, and of the Rebbe's Iggrot all put together in one letter form, which is why this is kind of a cool letter. It's not, uh, it's not just one letter, it's a

15:17 letter that encapsulates, I think, the-- and I'm gonna show you a couple other sources that prove it, the Rebbe's shiur on this, which is that as far as we're concerned nowadays, nobody should be saying Kitzim. That, uh, it was interesting back then, it was worthwhile at different times in history, but if anybody comes up with a ketz nowadays, uh, unless they are the Rebbe, they have no such authority, and obviously, the Rebbe did not say any Kitzim. Let me show you another example. This is a letter in English. Um, I used the Rebbe Letters app. I always shout it out when I use it 'cause it's-- you guys should know it exists. It's called the Rebbe Responsa app. It's fantastic for searching for things 'cause the s- the search function is just great. And these are mostly from the Mendel collections. They're all i- in letters that were originally in English. So this letter was, uh, from the twenty-sixth day of Tammuz of Tav Shin Chaf Hey, and, uh, somebody writes to the Rebbe from Ferndale, New York, and the Rebbe writes back. It says, "I received your letter in which you write about a number of questions which seem to be bothering you." I'm reading now in the English literally. The English is on your screen if you're watching. "I must say," writes the Rebbe, "that I was disappointed to see the nature of your questions, for I had hoped that if you have any questions at all, they would be in Gemara, Pesach,

16:15 or Tanakh, and the like. Instead of which, your questions have to do with predictions concerning the future, which in no way have any bearing on you and your immediate environment. And I cannot see what benefit you could derive from brooding about these questions. This would have e-- been true even if you had filled yourself to overflowing with Torah. How much more so, as I note, that there is still a great deal of room for increasing your devotion and diligence to your Torah studies." So the Rebbe said in this first half of the letter, "I'm disappointed you're asking me about predictions about the future because I would hope that a Yid would wanna talk about Torah. A Yid's Inyan is Gemara, Pesach, Tanakh, things like that. And even if you were somebody who knew Kol Hatorah Kulo, I would be disappointed about you wasting your time on this stuff. But given that you still have a long way to go in your learning of Torah, I don't know why you're wasting your time on these things." "However," the Rebbe writes, "in order not to leave your letter completely unanswered, I will very briefly answer some of your questions. With regard to your prediction, which you read in some book, as to what the world will be like in nineteen ninety-nine, namely, that there will be someone who will unite the whole world under an all-embracing religion, and you ask my opinion about it? Surely you know that the answer is to be found in the Torah

17:13 many times, where the end of days is described, that is to say, when Mashiach will come. It may also be found in Rambam at the end of Hilchot Teshuvah, at the end of Hilchot Melachim. See it there." "You write that you heard from--" So first of all, in answer to this one where he says that it sounds like this person writes to the Rebbe that people are predicting that there will one day be a great leader who will unite everybody under one religion, the Rebbe sort of is-- pushes away the idea of it being a date and just says, "Of course, Rambam, we, you know, lear- learn more Torah, you'll discover Mashiach is a Jewish idea." Now, "You write that you heard from--" The Rebbe writes, "You write that you heard from someone that Mashiach will come in a certain year. Certainly, you know the text of the Ani Maamin, which is-- where, where it is said that I will wait for his coming every day. And although the text of Ani Maamin is not printed in all siddurim, these basic principles of our faith, these--" excuse me, "these principles of our faith are basic with every Jew. Thus, it is obvious that Mashiach can come any day." So this person writes to the Rebbe saying, "I heard Mashiach might come in a certain year," and the Rebbe s-- the Rebbe completely redirects him and goes, "No, no, no, you are supposed to think Mashiach will come every single day." The Rebbe does not reject

18:10 this. Note that he talks around it rather than through it. But he writes-- I'll read this part to you one more time. "You write that you heard from someone that Mashiach will come in a certain year." And the Rebbe's answer, "Surely you know the Ani Maamin, which says that it's, uh, that the principles are basic, that we wait for him, it's coming every day." The Rebbe is skirting around this issue entirely, uh, because it's not really relevant for somebody who doesn't have it as a mesorah. Uh, or is not a godol who's trying to decide what would be good for the people, and the Rebbe clearly doesn't think that us knowing this case would be helpful, or he'd tell us. In any event, just because I need to finish off the letter, and the letter includes something kind of weird and awesome, uh, the Rebbe says, "You also mentioned about Nostradamus." How many of you are familiar with Nostradamus? A secular philosopher of some kind. Uh, there's notes down here. Uh, apparently Latinizes Nostradamus, French astrologer, physician, and reputed seer from the fifteen hundreds. Uh, he predicted a lot of things that if you, if you po-- I, I suggest you learn Torah, not poke around on the internet. But if you poke around on the internet looking for Nostradamus, you'll find that people say he predicted a lot of things that actually happened. Anyway, the Rebbe said, "You also mentioned about Nostradamus. As a matter of fact, some people believe that he was really

19:09 a Jew in disguise." The Rebbe writes this, okay? In any case, his prophecies are phrased in such an obscure way that they are open to many interpretations. So the Rebbe vent- essentially says, "You can't really-- Whether Nostradamus is right or not, you can't really use him." Anyway, the conclusion is my favorite part. "I hope you will forget about all of these questions," the Rebbe concludes. "I hope you'll forget about all these questions and will concentrate on your studies of the Torah with devotion and diligence, both nigla and chasidut," that is the revealed and hidden parts of the Torah, "the kind of study that leads to the fulfillment of mitz- of the mitzvot with hider. This will illuminate your way of life and all around you, and you will not be bothered by questions and doubts which only distract your attention from your real purpose in life, namely to learn Torah and to conduct yourself accordingly with blessing," the Rebbe's signature. So what we're seeing here is really a lot of what we saw in that first letter, perhaps spelled out in a, in a more comprehensive way, that when it comes to kitsim nowadays, the Rebbe's really not interested. The Rebbe's really not interested in people trying to make new predictions or talk about new predictions. Although the Rebbe does mention an old prediction from Tav Shin Mem Bet. Other than that, we don't have the Rebbe talking about kitsim much in letters, and when people bring them up, the Rebbe seems to push them

20:08 away pretty hard. Um, I have here a sicha. This is from Purim of, uh, Tav Shin Mem Zayin. You'll find this in Terias Menachem, Volume Two, page two sixty-one. And, uh, this in general, if you want a, if you want a sicha that's all about Mashiach, that is just every line of it is mind-blowing, you usually look in the Nuns, and that would be a good idea. But if you want another one that's not in the Nuns that people skip over, this one in Mem Zayin from Purim is just absolutely wild. Uh, in any event, the Rebbe writes, "Regarding," regarding, regarding us. Up until now it has been sufficient to just learn Halakhah. So the Rebbe wants people to not just learn Halakhah as they did before, but to really throw themselves into it. Now, the part I wanted to show you. The Rebbe says the kate that was mentioned by The Frieda Rebbe, the time when Mashiach was supposed to come, that too has already passed. I don't know offhand. Maybe somebody at the end of this year can tell us. I don't know offhand what year The Frieda Rebbe pr- uh, uh, predicted as a kate for Mashiach. I know it was part of the Alter Rebbe with Alter the Gula thing, but I don't, I don't remember what year. Anyway, uh, the Rebbe writes, "The year that The Frieda Rebbe predicted Mashiach would come-" Tav Shin Gimel. Huh? What year? Tav Shin Gimel. Tav Shin Gimel. Thank you very much, Moisha. Tav

21:30 Shin Gimel. Anyway, since this has already passed, And now, there is no one who is capable of calculating end dates. Even furthermore, there's no need to be calculating end dates. We're done with cheshbonos with these calculations. And all of the end dates have passed. The past just literally We need to practically get this done and bring Mashiach. So, uh, the Rebbe here says a bunch of things that up until now we've only sort of guessed, but here we're seeing it very explicitly. Number one, the Rebbe says there's no one in this-- There's no one alive now, no one in this generation who is capable of calculating kitsim. Of course, the Rebbe could, but, uh, the Rebbe certainly extends that to everybody here right now. So nobody here is capable of calculating kitsim from a- from afresh. Furthermore, the Rebbe says, "Even if you could, there would be no need for it." There's no need to do such a thing. We're done with cheshbonos. There's no more kitsim to worry about. And the Rebbe says here literally, the reason why the Rebbe says, "The past just," I think, is And obviously, that's not the past just because the past just many other people calculated kitsim. But now the Rebbe says, "the past just." Literally, all of the kitsim are done, so there's none more to calculate. There's no more point. All we need to do is actually bring Mashiach. Now, after the sicha, a couple days later, there was a yechidas where the Rebbe goes

22:40 over that sicha again and adds some things. So I want to read to you this yechidas where the Rebbe sort of, uh, highlights his most important points from the sicha. So the Rebbe says in the yechidas, uh, I would like to repeat, the Rebbe says, this thing that we talked about, uh, by the farbrengen of Purim regarding the coming of Mashiach. That all of the end dates have already passed. They've already been finished. We are wait- waiting right now in the final moments before Mashiach comes. And the event that we're in right now, that's Mashiach has still not come, at this very moment, it's not because the time has not come up yet. It's not because we're waiting for a kate. Mashiach is not not here. Uh, not not here. Double negatives. Mashiach is not not here because we are missing time. Because we're missing action. Or a word, or or a thought. We're still waiting for that one action, that one word, and that one thought that will, uh, balance, unbalance, that will flip, that will tilt, that will t- tilt's the word I want. That will tilt the entire world toward the side of merit and bring the geulah. So the Rebbe says we're not waiting for kitsim. What would be the point in telling you an end date? We're not waiting for end dates, we're waiting for you. It's possible a child, a Jewish child, will be the person who does something to bring Mashiach because children are also capable of actions.

24:15 The Rebbe says, "I would like you to do calculations, but not the kind of calculations people are interested in in the Kabbalah books. I would like every single Jewish person, from the lit- from the littlest to the biggest, to begin calculating, to begin thinking over, to work on the problem of geulah And in the place where a person is thinking and calculating, that is where a person is. When you think about inyanim shayech to the redemption, that will make you feel the geulah, that will make you feel redemption. And that will lead you to do everything that you must do. Then you, you yourself would do the right thing, and you'll also have an impact on other people. And to bring down the final redemption, So what we've seen today from a bunch of sources is, uh, there is an, uh, ancient-- There is, uh, from the Gemara, an idea that we're not supposed to be calculating end times, and that's brought to Halakha from the Rambam. And nonetheless, we see that throughout the ages, there are many, many people, many, many who have calculated end times. The Rebbe, I think my favorite one's the Kesav Yad, where he lists just everybody. The Gra did it, and the Aruch HaChaim did it, and the Abarbanel did it. In addition to a lot of Arabim, the Alter Rebbe did it, the Friediker Rebbe did it. Uh, I believe other ones did too. So a lot of Arabim also had kits that were calculated. While-- So despite

25:30 the fact that the Gemara says not to do it, everybody does it. And the Rebbe has a Sikha where he, which we looked at, where he addresses this and explains that if it's going to be, if calculating an end date is going to, uh, make people feel sad, make people feel, uh, regret, pu-put people's faith in danger in any sort of way, then obviously you're not allowed to do it, and that's what the Gemara is worried about. But when the Gedolei Am Yisrael use their long-standing traditions and their long-standing abilities and their understanding of the people around them to calculate an end time, we, uh, we can trust them to do a good job with it. Uh, when it comes to the calculating end times nowadays, we saw one letter in, he, one letter in Hebrew, one letter in English, a Sikha and Yechidas that all pointed in the same direction regarding the Rebbe Shlita. The Rebbe Shlita on this seems to be, based on all these sources, that nowadays it makes no sense at all to be calculating end times. The Rebbe says in that Sikha that we saw that there is nobody capable of doing it nowadays. The Rebbe says, uh, even if you could, it wouldn't be worth it because you should be doing actions to bring Mashiach, not trying to calculate end times because there is no more time to wait, "Kala, kala kitzvim hapashutos." We had the Rebbe in the Yechidas elaborating upon that point. We had an English letter

26:30 where the Rebbe told somebody that, "I hope you stop thinking about this stuff," uh, and keeps on redirecting him and telling the individual, "You think Mashiach's coming at this time or this time. I want you just to think Mashiach's coming and focus on Torah." And of course, we have the letter that we started with, where the Rebbe says, "Ein likanot bechashenes ha'amurim." I don't want you involved in these sorts of things. "Shin dim bezeh, rak leili sheyesh beyadhem eizeh mesorah bekiyat bezeh." It's for special people, people who have a tradition, not for you. "Ma she'ein ken, be'al avchaki." In all other regards, the case would be, "Harei kol echad ve'echad ma'amin biyas Mashiach." The baseline is we should all be spending our time believing that Mashiach will come at every single second and doing whatever we can to bring Mashiach Tzidkeinu. Okay. Thank you all very much. Questions, comments?