By Rivkah Lambert Adler
November 13, 2015
A note from Pastor Kevin Lea follows this article.
“The smallest shall become a thousand and the least a mighty nation; I am the Lord, in its time I will hasten it.” (Isaiah 60:22)
image: https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/rabbi.jpg
Rabbi Shlomo Amar, one of the chief rabbis of Jerusalem, gives a ruling that the Messiah must come. (YouTube)
In a surprisingly under-reported story, one of Jerusalem’s chief rabbis, Rabbi Shlomo Amar issued a ruling on Monday that God must bring the messiah and expedite the ultimate redemption. The ruling was delivered during an all-night spiritual gathering of rabbis from the Chabad-Lubavitch movement and a recording of the moment was posted to YouTube (in Hebrew).
In the days preceding the ruling by Amar, close to 6,000 rabbis and Jewish community leaders attended the annual Kinus Hashluchim (International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries) in Brooklyn, NY. The Chabad-Lubavitch movement has emissaries who serve the Jewish people in over 75 countries around the world. Each year, they gather in New York for their annual conference.
After the official conference proceedings were concluded, Amar and others gathered at the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters, also in Brooklyn, NY, for an informal farbrengen. A farbrengen is a get-together in the Chabad-Lubavitch world, where inspirational thoughts are shared and wordless spiritual tunes, called niggunim, are sung. Sweet foods, wine and other items are often served.
During this spontaneous gathering, and no doubt influenced by the heady success of the conference that had just concluded, Rabbi Berel Lazar, one of Russia’s two chief rabbis, reminded Amar that 25 years ago, the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the last head of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, who passed away in 1994, had asked Amar to issue a psak din (a formal rabbinic ruling) on the issue of the redemption of the Jewish people.
Twenty five years later, at this gathering in the early morning hours of November 9, 2015, Amar agreed that the time had come to rule that God must hasten the arrival of the messiah.
In the presence of dozens of colleagues and holding the hands of the two men sitting closest to him, Amar pronounced, “We hereby rule according to the demand of the audience – we see the plaintiff but can’t see the defendant – that God Almighty speedily bring an end and reveal the Moshiach (messiah) in front of our eyes in actuality.”
Despite the late hour, his statement was greeted with a hearty “Amen!” from the crowd. Immediately after, the crowd began singing “We want Moshiach now! We don’t want to wait!” These words come from a song that Lubavitch children are taught to sing from a very early age.
How is it possible that a rabbi, even one of the chief rabbis of Jerusalem, can make a ruling in Jewish law that obligates God? Breaking Israel News posed this question to senior Chabad Rabbi Uri Kaploun who said, “All that comes to mind is the axiom in Chazal (the Jewish sages) that Lo BaShamayim Hi (it is not in Heaven): once the Torah was given, the earthly court makes the rulings, and the Heavenly Court is, as it were, bound by them.”
Note from Pastor Kevin Lea: This is really amazing news. Although it sounds arrogant for these Rabbis’s to demand that God send the Messiah now, they are really acting out of faith in God’s word. They know that God has promised the Jewish people (in dozens of places in the Old Testament) that He will send them a Messiah who will deliver the Jews from their enemies and set up His kingdom on earth, ruling from Jerusalem.
But the current geopolitical situation looks dire for the Jewish state and the Jewish people. Europe has recently required that all products coming out of the “West Bank” (biblical Samaria) must be labeled as such, thus making it easier to boycott these products. This is economic warfare on the Jews and is just one of many ways that the Europeans have turned against the Jewish state.
Also, Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, and a host of other historical enemies of Israel are bringing advanced weapons and manpower right up to Israel’s borders. The conflict in Syria could very quickly come into Israel with enough speed and deadliness to threaten the Jewish state (if not for the promises of God to preserve them until the end).
These and a host of other reasons are likely behind the Chief Rabbi’s petition to God that He send the Messiah now; because failure to do so will mean that there is no Jewish nation for Him to come to.
The tragic twist in all this is that a “messiah” is about to come to Israel, but not the one sent by God. Instead, it will be a false messiah that Jesus warned about in John 5:43, and in the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21). This false messiah will actually be the Last-Day’s Antichrist. At first, as the world leader, he will bring a temporary peace to Israel and allow them to build their temple. This man’s support of Israel’s yearning for true peace and their aspiration to reestablish temple worship in accordance with the Mosaic Law will deceive them into thinking that he is the long awaited one.
But Daniel and Revelation prophesied that this man of Satan will then turn against the Jews, defile their rebuilt temple and start a war of annihilation against them. Jesus then returns to earth defeating the Antichrist and his armies just before Israel and Jerusalem are defeated in the battle of Armegeddon.
To the bible believing Christian, this Rabbi’s demand leads us to believe that we are truly at the very threshold of prophesied events associated with the Last Days, when the surviving Jews will finally see and worship their true Messiah, the returning Jesus.
“And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. Zech 12:10 NKJV