[Avodah] Being M'karev ha Geulah

[Brent Kaufman]

Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2021 11:31 PM GMT
From: "Prof. L. Levine" <llevine at stevens.edu>
> The last words that Rav Joseph Breuer heard from his father were,
> "I am fully convinced that Rav Hirsch's way will be m'karev ha-geulah"
> - bring the redemption closer.

> Question: When was the last time you studied some of the writings of
> RSRH and did your part to bring the geulah closer?

I didn't take it as meaning that every time his writings/teachings are
learned it is somehow, spiritually, pushing up the current, final date
of the geula.

But rather that his teachings and approach, will play a big part in the
overall kiruv movements, that appeal to mainstream, educated, working
families, that can relate to his acceptance of "Derech Eretz", however it
is defined and/or interpreted by any given person. That is how I read R.
Breuer's recollection, anyway.

However, I very recently read an academic article that discusses the
disparity between the traditional Torah calenderical chronology putting
us at the year 5781 and the standard historical chronology which has an
additional 165 years, which the Jewish calendar does not account for.

The paper (found here:
<https://www.academia.edu/44403580/The_Case_of_the_Missing_165_Years>)
is based upon the search for these missing years on a long article, or
paper, written by R. Shimon Schwab ztz"l, in 1962, iirc, that comes to
the conclusion that Daniel left out the reigns of the last 10 kings of
Persian, at the beginning of the return to rebuild the Bh"M and Gemara's
statement about the end of the minyan hashtaros. (Possibly the period
of the Anshei Kenesses HaGedola, give or take.) This was done to conceal
the date of the geula, thus making it actually 5946, only 54 years before
the end of the sixth millenia, and all that that implies.

Soooooo.... in a way, his derech and teachings put us closer to the
geulah, in an actual way.

cb kaufman