Shabbat Parshat Chukat-Balak - 5762

“And Impudence will Rise”

Bilaam HaRasha, Bilaam, the evil prophet of the heathen world, attempted to curse the Jewish People in service of and in willing conspiracy with, Balak ben Tzippor, King of Moav. But HaShem took his thoughts and his words, and turned them upside down, so that the curses were turned into blessings. An example of the above is BaMidbar 24:17, where we find Bilaam prophesying against his will concerning the Mashiach, “I see it, but not now; I behold it, but it is not near; A star shall go forth from Yaakov, And a scepter shall rise out of Israel,...”

Rabbi Akiva believed that this Messianic reference applied to a great hero in his time, who led the last successful Jewish revolt against Rome, and he gave him the name “Bar Kochba,” based on the prophecy of Bilaam. And indeed this was the appropriate time for the emergence into history of the Mashiach, according to the tradition that appears in Masechet Avodah Zarah 9a and elsewhere, based on the Midrash in Tanna D’vei Eliyahu, that history is divided into three 2,000 year periods:
Years 1-2,000 from Creation: Period of Tohu, “Chaos”
Years 2,001 – 4,000 from Creation: Period of Torah
Years 4,001 – 6,000 from Creation: Period of the Arrival of the Mashiach
Following that, the world would enter into a state of “Shabbos.”

The Talmud in Avodah Zarah 9b and elsewhere identifies the beginning of the Period of Torah as the time that Avraham and Sarah were doing their “Kiruv” work in the world, beginning when Avraham was 52 years old, exactly at Year 2,000 from creation. The end of the Period of Torah and the beginning of the Period of the Arrival of the Mashiach is identified by the Talmud as the time of the compilation of the Mishnah by Rabbi Judah the Prince; namely 200 CE, or 4,000 Years from Creation. This was but a short time from the time of the Revolt of Bar Kochba, that took place in the Year 135 CE, or 3,935 Years from Creation. In fact, the process of Compilation of the Mishnah was actually begun by Rabbi Akiva, the primary Rabbinic supporter of Bar Kochba, continued by Rabbi Meir and only finalized by Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi. And, had Bar Kochba not fallen from the path he seemed to be on, he probably would have succeeded in building the Third Temple, the true identifier of the Mashiach, according to the RAMBAM, in approximately the year 4,000 from Creation.

The Talmud there says that because of our many sins, the time of the actual arrival of the Mashiach has been delayed long into the potentially Messianic Period. The Talmud in Sotah 49b also says that close to the arrival of the Mashiach, “Chutzpah Yasgi,” Impudence will Rise in the world. I believe that the present state of affairs in the world could be described as a rise of “Chutzpah.” When brazen attacks are launched against super-powers, such as that which occurred in New York City on 9/11, without regard to loss of innocent life, when one suicide-homicide bomber after another attacks the citizens of Israel in the midst of their daily lives, and bald-faced lies are told about these events, switching the roles of terrorist and victim, this could easily fall within the parameters of “Chutzpah.”

Another “interesting” historical consideration is that, while we generally use for the current “Year from Creation” the year 5,762, it is highly likely that that date is 165 years too low. This is because, as argued by Rav Shimon Schwab, in an essay entitled “Comparative Jewish Chronology” appearing in the Rabbi Joseph Breuer Jubilee Volume, CHAZAL, for reasons of their own, minimized the length of rule of the Persian Empire by 165 years. Given that error, our true date in Years from Creation is 5,927, not very long, historically, according to the Midrash cited above, from the “end of the game.”

May the One described by King David, Tehilim 90:4, as “A thousand years, in your eyes, is only as yesterday, ...” redeem us from our enemies, who are also His enemies. Let no more innocent Jewish blood be spilt, and send the Machiach in the manner of “The Salvation of G-d comes in the blink of an eye,” to our aid.

Rabbi Pinchas Frankel

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