When we last left off, we were talking about the sixth millennium dividing into two parts, the Yesod and the Atarah. While Yesod proper governs history, exile and destruction occur. Once history passes from Yesod to the Atarah, Yemos HaMoshiach officially begins.
Since the Yesod and Atarah correspond to the entire sixth millennium, Yesod is the first part and Atarah is the second part. Therefore, if we can know the proportion of Atarah to Yesod then we can know the point during the sixth millennium that it should begin. But who knows that?
The amount of the Atarah beyond the Yesod is known to those who have tasted the Aitz HaChaim… (Hakdamos uSha’arim, Sha’ar HaPoneh Kadim, Ch. 39)
People who learn the Aitz HaChaim know this because the Atarah is discussed there quite a lot. For example, it says:
…then its measurement will be like that of the Atarah of the Yesod…which is a third of the Yesod. (Aitz Chaim, Sha’ar 35, Ch. 1)
If this is true, and it is, then the equation is simple to solve. Two-thirds of 1,000 years is 666.67 years, which would have been 1906 (5000+666=5666, or 1905-06). According to what has been said, that year should have marked the end of exile and destruction of the Jewish people, and begun the Messianic Era.
That was certainly not the case. In another 36 years the Holocaust would begin, one of the greatest and most deadly exiles the Jewish people have ever faced.
It is interesting to point out that for the first two-thirds of Moshe’s life, the Jewish people experienced the same thing, exile and destruction. The redemption began in the last one third of his life. Likewise, Rebi Yochanan ben Zakkai and Rebi Akiva did not become the great leaders they were until the last third of their lives. And the greatest teachers of Torah are said to have souls that come from the sefirah of Yesod (Sha’ar HaGilgulim).
So what happened? Did we get something wrong, or partially wrong? Did we miss something, or is this just part of God’s way of hiding the information from us? Because when it comes to God, He is THE master of deception, making what is happening right before our very eyes seem like something else altogether…until He decides otherwise.
Again, Moshe Rabbeinu’s birth meant the beginning of redemption. But that’s not the way it looked to the Jewish people for the first 79 years of his life, especially when he was forced to flee Egypt to save it. Even after he finally showed up to announce the impending redemption, everything seemed to go south for the next six months, causing even Moshe himself to question God.
Moshe: You call this redemption?
God: You call this exile?
If you ask me, I’d say we’re not only well into Yemos HaMoshiach, but towards the end of it, once you understand what it can include. And I would add that there are so many signs of redemption everywhere that can easily be misconstrued as just plain old progress or ignored completely as incidental events. Jewish history has never been straightforward. Why do we deal with it as if it is?