The Years in the Chumash Parallel Jewish History (Vilna Gaon) (1/2)

We are taught that the world is to exist for 6,000 years. Then there will be another thousand years of Tohu. The cycle then starts again. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 97a) comments:

Rav Katina said: “Six thousand years the world will exist, and one [thousand] it shall be desolate (harov), as it is written, ‘And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.’ (Isaiah 2:11)” וְהָיָה֙ בַּיּ֣וֹם הַה֔וּא שֹׁ֣רֶשׁ יִשַׁ֗י אֲשֶׁ֚ר עֹמֵד֙ לְנֵ֣ס עַמִּ֔ים אֵלָ֖יו גּוֹיִ֣ם יִדְרֹ֑שׁוּ וְהָֽיְתָ֥ה מְנֻחָת֖וֹ כָּבֽוֹד: And it shall come to pass that on that day, Hashem shall continue to apply His hand a second time to acquire the rest of His people, that will remain from Assyria and from Egypt and from Pathros and from Cush and from Elam and from Sumeria and from Hamath and from the islands of the sea. Abaye said: “Two [thousand years it will be] desolate, as it is written: ‘After two days will He revive us, on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His presence.’ (Hosea 6:2).A tanna taught per Rav Katina: “Just as the Shmita year occurs one year out of seven years, so too does the world have one thousand years out of seven thousand that are fallow (mushmat), as it is written, ‘And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day’ (Isaiah 2:11); and further it is written, ‘A psalm and song for the Shabbat day’ (Psalms 92:1) – meaning the day that is altogether Shabbat – and also it is said, ‘For one thousand years in Your [God’s] eyes are but a day that has passed.’ (Psalms 90:4)”

The Tanna deBei Eliyahu Rabbah taught,

The world consists of six thousand years: two-thousand years are unformed (Tohu), two-thousand years of Torah, two-thousand years the era of the Moshiach, but due to our many sins many of those years have already been lost.

The Zohar states,

In the 600th year of the sixth thousand [i.e., 5600, or 1839–1840 CE], the gates of wisdom on high and the wellsprings of lower wisdom will be opened. This will prepare the world to enter the seventh thousand, just as man prepares himself toward sunset on Friday for the Shabbat.

The Zohar explains further,

The redemption of Israel will come about through the mystic force of the letter “Vav” [which has the numerical value of six], namely, in the sixth millennium. … Happy are those who will be left alive at the end of the sixth millennium to enter the Shabbat, which is the seventh millennium; for that is a day set apart for the Holy One on which to effect the union of new souls with old souls in the world.

The Vilna Gaon (Gra) teaches us that there are 5,845 Pesukim in the Torah which is approximately parallel to the 6,000 years the world is to exist. According to this theory, it is not clear why the Torah has 155 less Pesukim and not exactly 6,000? Nonetheless, each Pasuk signifies a significant event for the Jewish People during that year (or Pasuk). There is a method to count the pesukim in the Torah according the years on the Jewish calendar. The first Pasuk in the Torah (Bereishis 1:1) is equivalent to year one etc.

The Vilna Gaon explains, that the footsteps of Moshiach (עִקְּבוֹת דמְשִׁיחַ) began the first hour of Friday morning in the sixth millennium. That was the year Five Hundred [i.e. 1739–1740 CE], and from hour to hour the footsteps have continued to progress in many aspects (Meseches Avot 1:1; Talmud Bavli Sanhedrin 38a). As is known, every hour consists of forty-one years and eight months (around 41.7 years). We need to count from the time that the bonds on the Moshiach’s heels were loosened, as it says, You have loosened my bonds (Tehillim 116:16) אנא ה’ כי אני עבדך אני עבדך בן אמתך פתחת למוסרי. As also revealed in: A decree He declared it for Yosef. … I delivered his shoulder from the burden his palms were loosed from the hod (Tehilim 81:6–7) עדות ביהוסף שמו…הסירותי מסבל שכמו כפיו מדוד תעבורנה.

Beginning with the second hour (i.e. from 8 months into 5541 i.e. 1781 CE), the entire House of Israel took the stage, both as a whole, and with regard to each individual member of the nation, as an order from above. Thus started the era of Moshiach ben Yosef and the beginning of The Final Redemption.

The Vilna Gaon had intended to immigrate to the Land of Israel in the summer of 1778, but for reasons not fully explained, he did not. In a letter to his family, Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman Kramer, better known as the Vilna Gaon or Gra (1720 – 1797), expressed his intention to make aliya to Eretz Yisrael. Leaving his hometown of Vilna, he made his way to the Austrian border.

It could be that if he entered Eretz Yisrael, he would have been Moshaich ben Yosef; and it was not the correct time for this revelation. The land of Israel was relatively empty of Jews and desolate at that time. There were no Jewish masses in Israel for Moshiach to reveal himself to; at that time.

The students of Vilna Gaon started returning to Eretz Yisrael in the year 1808 (5568).  They were led by Rav Menachem Mendel of Shklov, a student of the Gra. A year later, two more groups made their way to Eretz Yisrael, accompanied by the Gra’s student Rav Yisrael of Shklov. Thus from 1808 to 1810, five-hundred and eleven of the disciples of the Vilna Gaon and their families arrived in Eretz Yisrael; they first settled in the Galilee region and later on, in Yerushalayim.

Their settling in Yerushalayim in 1816 ensured that by 1860 there was a Jewish majority in the Holy City, which has been maintained continuously to the present day. The Jewish resettlement of Yerushalayim, led by the Vilna Gaon’s disciples, was an implementation of the idea of hastening the Redemption via natural means. The rebuilding of the Old City and the first neighborhoods outside the city walls formed the foundation upon which the State of Israel was established in the following century. According to Dr. Morgenstern, the Aliyah of these pioneers, known as the Talmidei HaGra, should rightfully be called the “First Aliyah” in terms of modern Jewish history.

The Geulah is not a one-time event but rather a gradual process. Thus, we are currently experiencing the “ikvata d’Meshicha”, the pre-Messianic period. On the historical timeline, we are standing on the threshold of the “Moshiach ben Yosef” period. According to the Gra’s approach, Redemption begins by natural means, as in the days of Coresh and the Second Temple, via Aliyah to Eretz Yisrael. Settling the Land, bringing it out of its desolate state and, most importantly, rebuilding Yerushalayim. The Gra’s work Aderet Eliyahu states, “For the main thrust of the mitzvos is dependent on the Land.” It was the Gra who, through his charismatic authority, dismissed the traditional passive approach of waiting for heavenly miracles to initiate the Geulah; which was based on the prohibitions known as the “three vows.” These vows are to not “go up as a wall” (referring to mass immigration to Eretz Yisrael), to not attempt to hasten the Redemption and to not rebel against the ruling nations while in exile. In his commentary on Shir HaShirim, the Gra states that these three vows apply only to the building of the Beis Hamikdash: “They are sworn not to, of their own volition, go out to build the Temple, until [the Mashiach] comes.” However, we are allowed to accelerate the Redemption.

This idea to accelerate the Geula, is based on a verse in Devarim (25:15), “A perfect and honest weight you shall have…you shall have long life in the Land [Israel]…” אֶבֶן שְׁלֵמָה וָצֶדֶק יִהְיֶה לָּךְ, אֵיפָה שְׁלֵמָה וָצֶדֶק יִהְיֶה לָּךְ לְמַעַן, יַאֲרִיכוּ יָמֶיךָ, עַל הָאֲדָמָה, אֲשֶׁר ה’ אֱלֹקיךָ נֹתֵן לָךְ. The verse, found in the sixth Parshah of Sefer Devarim, includes the words “Even Sheleimah,” which are understood to allude to Eliyahu ben Shlomo (the Gra). According to this kabbalistic interpretation, the books of the Torah represent human history:

The story of Creation in Sefer Bereishit represents the first millennium of the world’s existence.

The rest of Bereishit refers to the second millennium.

Sefer Shemot tells of the third.

Sefer Vayikra, the fourth.

Sefer Bamidbar, the fifth.

Sefer Devarim, the sixth.

Each of the ten Parshiyos in Devarim (with Netzavim and Vayelech counted as one) represents one century of the sixth millennium. On this timeline, the words “Even shleimah vetzedek,” towards the end of the sixth parashah of Devarim, fall just at the point in history when the Gra, made his appearance on earth to carry out his Divine mission. The following Parshah, corresponding to the seventh century of the sixth millennium, is that of “Ki Savo el HaAretz”, when you shall come to the Land. According to this interpretation, this clearly means that from the year 5600 (1840) the process of “Kibbutz HaHagaluyos”, the ingathering of the exiles, begins, and the process of Redemption on the deterministic path of “BeItah,” in its appointed time, starts to unfold. The Gra himself, in the view of his disciples, was “a spark of Moshiach ben Yosef.”

The French Revolution of 1789 and Napoleon’s expedition to Eretz Yisrael in 1799 were interpreted by the Gra’s followers as historical proofs of the dramatic changes taking place in the world. As a result of these changes, the belief that the Gra indeed had a Divine mission to advance the Redemption was strengthened, and his disciples began organizing groups for Aliyah.

The travelers settled first in Teverya and Tzfat but ended up moving to Yerushalayim. They established a large and prominent community. The community was referred to as “Perushim”, a name still used today.