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Balak


This week's Torah portion deals quite a bit with the time of Moshiach, and all the preparation around the time coming for Moshiach, and so it is natural for us to talk about Moshiach and the time around the Moshiach. Rashi states about Moshiach- the "Holy Righteous on" referred to in Bamidbar 24:3, compares it to the temple inside of which offerings are made for atonement.

With Open Eye:

Heb. שְׁתֻם הָעָיִן. His eye had been gouged out and its socket appeared open. This term שְׁתֻם is mishnaic;“enough time to bore a hole (יִשְׁתֹּם) [in a cask], seal it, and dry it” (A.Z. 69a). Our Rabbis said, Because he said, “the number of the seed of Israel” (23:10), implying that the Holy One, blessed is He, sits and counts the seed that issues from the Israelite sexual unions, waiting for the drop from which a righteous man will be born, he thought, “The One Who is holy, and Whose ministers are holy should direct his attention to matters such as these?” On account of this, Balaam’s eye was blinded (Mid. Aggadah). Some say that the phrase means “of the open eye,” [meaning of clear sight], as Onkelos renders. As for its saying, “with an open eye” rather than “with Shiloh and the eternal Temple when they are inhabited, for offerings are brought up in them to atone for you."

The Baal Haturim goes even farther in this vein in his Remez on the 23:5 stating "How goodly are your tents oh Jacob.The plural form your tents is used." (According to the Talmud Taanis 5B. Rashi and Ramban to Genesis 49:33 ...thus he is still living in his earthly tent) Because Jacob is in an earthly tent and in a heavenly tent on the throne of Glory." Here is the text of Taanis 5B

בתר דסעוד א"ל הכי א"ר יוחנן יעקב אבינו לא מת א"ל וכי בכדי ספדו ספדנייא וחנטו חנטייא וקברו קברייא א"ל מקרא אני דורש שנאמר (ירמיהו ל, י) ואתה אל תירא עבדי יעקב נאם ה' ואל תחת ישראל כי הנני מושיעך מרחוק ואת זרעך מארץ שבים מקיש הוא לזרעו מה זרעו בחיים אף הוא בחיים

After they had eaten, Rabbi Yitzḥak said to Rav Naḥman that Rabbi Yoḥanan said as follows: Our patriarch Jacob did not die. Rav Naḥman asked him in surprise: And was it for naught that the eulogizers eulogizedhim and the embalmers embalmed him and the buriers buried him? Rabbi Yitzḥak replied to Rav Naḥman: I am interpreting a verse, as it is stated: “Therefore do not fear, Jacob My servant, says the Lord, neither be dismayed, Israel, for I will save you from afar, and your seed from the land of their captivity” (Jeremiah 30:10). This verse juxtaposes Jacob to his seed: Just as his seed is alive when redeemed, so too, Jacob himself is alive.

The Ramban states here on Bereshis 49:33 "Similarly, with respect to the verse, and when Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, we must say that to them he was dead or it may mean that they did not know at all of this. Now the purport of the Midrash which states that Jacob our father did not die is that the souls of the righteous are bound with the life of the Eternal, and his soul covereth him all the day, wearing a scarlet garment, so that she not be stripped naked, as Jacob's soul was privileged to do continually."

Kal V'kamor should this be true for the Holy Righteous one for whom Hashem has counted the seeds during Israel's sexual unions? And as for the not dying but dying this is true of Joseph, Moshe, and Jacob, and the First Redeemer Moshe is like the last redeemer Moshiach.

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