called Hilchot Mashiach. We're holding here the second of the two, the last two of Hilchot Melachim is the law, are the laws of Mashiach, we're learning, we're holding at the second halacha of the second chapter. What the Rambam said here in the beginning of this chapter, he said that a person should not think that when Mashiach will come there will be a change in the nature of the world, or there will be a complete change in the things as they were made in the time of creation. The Rambam says it's not so. And the Rambam explains that even though from different places in the Nevi'im, in the prophets, it seems as if there will be a change to things that'll happen in the world which are completely different than they are now, but the Rambam says we should not accept that as a simple meaning, but all these things are only mashalim, mashalim means they're parables. And the Rambam gave the example where it says וגר זאב עם כבש, that the wolf is going to live peacefully with the sheep, that's the famous, you know, everyone imagines when Mashiach will come that's going to happen. So the Rambam says don't think it means in simple terms, it means as a mashal. The זאב, the wolf, represents the goyim, the sheep represent the Yidden, and what it means is that the Yidden are going to live peacefully with the goyim. So the famous expression of the Chazal that the Yidden are called כבשה אחת בין שבעים זאבים, we're one sheep among seventy wolves, because there are seventy nations in the world. So we are called the sheep, they are called the wolves, and now we don't live peacefully. We have all kinds of problems with the goyim. Certain times in history was better, certain times worse, but we don't live peacefully. When Mashiach will come, that's going to happen. So the Rambam explains clearly that there will be no change in the nature of the world. And here the Rambam continues in perek, in הלכה ב׳, the second halacha, and in some prints of the Rambam, this actually the this next line was not a separate halacha, not a beginning of a new halacha, but it was the end of the previous halacha because actually it's a continuation to before. The Rambam says, אמרו חכמים, חכמים said, our sages said, אין בין העולם הזה, there will be no difference between the current age, the way things are now, לימות המשיח, and the Messianic era, אלא שיעבוד מלכיות בלבד. The

only thing it will be, the difference will be our subjugation to the goyim. Now we are under the goyim, and when Mashiach will come we'll not be under the goyim. So this is basically what the Rambam had said before, that there will be no change in the nature of the world, not like people imagine that there will be change, but there won't. And I won't repeat everything I said last week, but as I explained last week, that we do find different places in the Chazal where it does say that there will be changes in the nature of the world when Mashiach will come. So as I said the Rebbe explains that even according to the Rambam there is going to be two periods in Yemot HaMashiach, in the Messianic era there are going to be two periods. Here the Rambam is talking about the first period. That means in the beginning. In the beginning, after Mashiach will come, the world will remain the way it is now. The only difference is that we will be free, we will be independent, we will be the superpower of the world, and all the goyim will be under us, but there will be no change in the nature. Later on, as time will pass, then there will be a change in the nature of the world. Later on, there will be all these berachot, all these blessings, all these prophecies that we find will exist later on. The

best proof is we all know that there will be Techiyat HaMetim, there will be the resurrection of the dead. It's one of the thirteen principles. And according to the Rambam, not from here, but according to the Rambam the way he writes in Hilchot Teshuvah, this is not going to be a second period. Techiyat HaMetim is going to be within the period called Yemot HaMashiach, the Messianic era. Because as I mentioned last time, there is a big argument between the Rambam and the Ramban. I don't think I elaborated on it last time. The Rambam and the Ramban. The Rambam says that the ultimate will be that we will not have any bodies, we will only become neshamot, only our souls, and the bodies will disappear, while the Ramban says that the ultimate is when we will have bodies with neshamot, and that's how it's going to stay forever. According to this, two opinions, there is a difference in what Olam Haba means. Olam Haba means the world to come. Now, we know that now, even now we have Gan Eden, when a person passes away his neshamah goes to Gan Eden, that's also called Olam Haba, the world to come, even though it exists now, but the reason it's called Olam Haba because it comes after the person lives in this world. So that's called the world to come. You have Olam HaZeh is this world that a person lives in, Olam Haba is the world that comes later. But there's another level of Olam Haba, which is the future. According to the Rambam, Olam Haba means the time when there will be no bodies, and that is the future after the time of Mashiach. According to the Ramban, Olam Haba of the future, people will have bodies. We're going to remain neshamot and bodies together for forever. According to that, the level of Techiyat HaMetim, the time of Techiyat HaMetim, the period of Techiyat HaMetim, of the resurrection of the dead, according to the Rambam, is not going to be a second period. We have two general periods. It's called Yemot HaMashiach, the days of Mashiach, and Olam Haba. Now, since according to the Rambam Olam Haba means neshamot without bodies, then where does Techiyat HaMetim come in? Where does the resurrection of the dead come in? So, according to the Rambam, this is still part of Yemot HaMashiach, that in the time of the Mashiach, we will have Techiyat HaMetim. According to the Ramban, תחיית המתים is the level of עולם הבא. So when we say that there are two levels, two stages, ימות המשיח, days of Mashiach and עולם הבא, according to the Ramban, it's fine. ימות המשיח is time of Mashiach, then עולם הבא is we call it עולם התחייה, תחיית המתים. But according to the Rambam, he holds that עולם הבא is a time when we won't have any bodies. So what's תחיית המתים? תחיית המתים is still part of ימות המשיח, part of the time of Mashiach. So the question arises, how does that fit to what the Rambam says here, that in the time of Mashiach there will be no change in the nature of the world? There is no greater change in the nature of the world than תחיית המתים and the resurrection of the dead. So therefore, we must say that even according to the Rambam, there will be two stages, two periods within that first period itself. In the period known as ימות המשיח, there are two parts. The first part is when the Rambam says there will be no change, the only difference will be שעבוד מלכויות, whether we're under the goyim or not, but the second period within ימות המשיח is going there is going to be a change in the nature of the world. So what I'm saying is that when we learn the Rambam, now don't get scared, because we're all waiting for the future, and we know the time will come when all the things will change, and we will have, like the Gemara says, we will be able to pick baked challot off the tree. We won't have to bake for Shabbos any challah. We'll be able to pick silk garments off the trees. Imagine! You won't have to go to the store to buy it and dress, and go straight to the tree and pick off silk garments. And we're all waiting for it. So if we learn the Rambam, it seems like the Rambam doesn't פסקן like that. What? But שעטנז you mean? They'll be checked. They'll be checked. It says It's You'll be out of business. It says in the Midrash, I think I mentioned it once before, that when we'll go over to a tree, and the tree is going to be ערלה, for instance, ערלה are the first three years when you're not allowed to eat from the fruits, the tree won't let you eat. The tree is going to say, \"Please stay away from me.\" So if the garment has שעטנז, it won't grow on those trees. So we're just wondering, what if according to the Rambam this is not going to happen? So I'm saying it will happen. The Rambam is just talking about the first period. I also mentioned that when is this going to happen? When is the second period going to take place? When is going to be תחיית המתים? So in the Zohar it says that it'll be 40 years between Mashiach's coming and תחיית המתים. But that is only a maximum. If we are zocheh, it could happen earlier. So it's possible that it'll be earlier than the 40 years. Mimela, all these things that it says in the Chazal that will change might happen very, very soon, even according to the Rambam. And especially, I don't want to go into this again, but the Rambam writes himself in Iggeret Teiman, in one of the letters that he wrote, he writes that when he wrote He refers to this halacha. When I wrote in the Yad Hachazakah, in his sefer, when I wrote in the Mishneh Torah that when Mashiach will come there will be no change in the nature of the world, I wasn't sure. I just wrote it because I wasn't sure which way it's going to be, so I left it that it won't be a change. In other words, he himself left a place that there might be a change. And really, what is the safek? What is the doubt? The doubt is because if we will be zocheh, if we will merit, then there will be a change. If we won't merit, there won't be a change. So therefore the Rambam picked, at worst, there won't be a change in the nature of the world. But if we are zocheh, then there will be a change in the nature of the world. You mentioned it, because I was going to say it and I just forgot. Now, when it comes to that argument with the Rambam and the Ramban, so we know like this: these things, generally, are more kabbalistic things. Even though it's halachot, and when I gave the introduction to our class, I explained that it's not like people think these are just abstract matters. It's in the Rambam. The Rambam is a sefer sefer of halachot. He writes in the introduction that his whole sefer is only a sefer of halachot. So these are halachot, but nevertheless people do think that. No, but the truth is these are halachot, but I would say spiritual halachot, halachot of the future. So these are more kabbalistic things.

There is a rule: whenever there is an argument in any halacha, how do we pasken? So to use the best example, there's a machloket, there's a klal, a rule when there is an argument between Rav and Shmuel. Rav and Shmuel in the Gemara we find constantly arguing, so a rule is like this: הלכה כרב, כשמואל בדינא כרב בממונא. When it comes to monetary questions, halacha is like Rav. Comes to issurim, ba'issurim, comes to questions of heter and issur like kasher and non-kasher, tamei and tahor, then the halacha is like Shmuel. That's the rule of the Gemara. What's the reason for this rule? So the Rosh says the reason is because Rav worked more, was more involved in monetary discussions of halacha. So therefore he was the expert, therefore the halacha... Shmuel, right, Shmuel, he was the expert, and Rav was more in issur, and therefore he was the, since he was the expert, the halacha is like that. The same thing when it comes to these matters. If we want to know how do we pasken? Now it's not something that we have to pasken that we have to do now, but nevertheless, what should we accept as the right opinion? Now first of all, אלו ואלו דברי אלקים חיים. They're both true, like we find in the Gemara, when there's an argument between Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel, anybody who argues, all these Chachamim, it's always both true. But halacha has to be one. So we want to know what should be the accepted halacha. So since these are more spiritual matters, so the one that studied, was more expert in spiritual matters, the halacha is like him. Now here we're dealing mainly with the Rambam and the Ramban.

Which of the two is the more expert in Kabbalah? Well, as we all know, the Ramban studied a lot of Kabbalah. The Ramban even writes his ספר, ענינים, in his ספר ענינים in Kabbalah, while the Rambam did not. But I must explain that, no one should leave with a mistake: I am not saying the Rambam did not learn Kabbalah. There are people that say that, there are sefarim that write it, that the Rambam did not study Kabbalah. As a matter of fact, Rabbi Chaim Vital, who was a student of the Ari z"l, the main student of the Ari z"l, writes an explanation according to Kabbalah why the Rambam didn't learn Kabbalah, why the Ramban did. He explains the levels, spiritual levels of the Rambam, and the spiritual level of the Ramban, the way they are in higher worlds, and because of the Rambam's level in whatever world he belonged to, that's why he didn't study Kabbalah. Nevertheless, we have a tradition by Chassidim going back all the way to the Baal Shem Tov that the Rambam did learn Kabbalah. I mentioned that earlier once before. And even one halacha in the Rambam is based, the Rogatchover writes, is based on a Kabbalah, but he hid it. So what I'm trying to say is not that the Rambam did not learn Kabbalah, the Rambam did study Kabbalah. And in all his sefarim a lot of Kabbalah is hid, not only in this sefer, especially in the Moreh Nevuchim. The Moreh Nevuchim, The Guide for the Perplexed, there, which is a sefer actually that so many people were against in his time thinking that it doesn't fit with the proper belief of Yiddishkeit, there is so much Kabbalah hidden there. And a lot of sefarim in Kabbalah explain different parts of the Moreh Nevuchim according to Kabbalah. I don't want to mention examples, but I could give examples if needed, of things that the Rambam says which seem to contradict Yiddishkeit and they're based on Kabbalah. So he did study Kabbalah. But nevertheless, he did not openly write his ספרים על פי קבלה. Therefore, when we deal with the Rambam and the Ramban, the Ramban is considered the expert in Kabbalah. So therefore, Chassidus, the Chassidic philosophy, starting from the Baal Shem Tov and on, accepted the Ramban's opinion in that area over the Rambam. And therefore, we have accepted that תחיית המתים is not the ultimate. תחיית המתים is a stage that's going to happen, I mean, I'm sorry, I must change it, תחיית המתים is the ultimate according to the Ramban. Not like the Rambam who said that it's not the ultimate, but it is. That means at the end will be that we will be נשמות בגופים, even the bodies are also going to exist forever. This fits to many other explanations when one of the things just to touch upon it, when we say Hashem chose כלל ישראל, ובנו בחרת, we say every day in davenen, You chose us. So we usually are used to saying, what part of us did He choose? He chose our neshama. What, on which way are we better than the goyim? With our neshama. He chose our neshama. In Tanya, he says, ובנו בחרת goes on the body. And he says, he gives a very simple explanation: the concept of choice is when you have two things which are equal. You can't say that our neshama is equal to what the goyim have, to say that Hashem chose us over the goyim. What we have, they don't have. So how could Hashem have a choice? A choice means, free choice means when you have two equal things and you choose one of the two. If one is better than the other, then that's not choice. If someone gives you two things to choose from, he could use a simple example, an apple and a pear, and you happen to like a pear, you don't have a choice. I mean, physically you have a choice, I mean you could take the apple, but that's not called free choice, there was something pushing you to take it. So when the Eibershter looks, Hashem looks at us and the goyim, and he sees our neshama, their neshama, whatever we'll call it, there's no question that he takes us. So that's not choice. The choice is on the body. Our body and the goy's body are the same. And Hashem chose the body of a Yid over the body of a goy. So it comes out that the body is just as holy as the neshama, and there is an expression in sefarim, גוף ישראל קדוש הוא, the body of a Yid is holy. So the

body is holy. Why are there so many halachos, a person passes away, what to do with the body, because the body is holy. So the body is holy, the body also has to be eternal. Holiness means eternal, holiness means connected to Hashem. There is a Midrash that says there are ten things which are called chaim, called life. Hashem is called life, and the Torah is called life, and the Jews are called life. Everything has a pasuk. By the Jews it says, ואתם הדבקים בה' אלוקיכם חיים כולכם היום, you are connected to Hashem, you are alive. What does really life mean? Life doesn't mean that you live a short amount of time. True life means something that exists forever. Something that is only temporary is not true life, because potentially it's not going to live. So even though at this point it's alive, but since it's potentially not going to live, so it has the concept of death in it from that day on. That answers the famous question, in the beginning of Chumash, it says Hashem told Adam v'Chava, Adam Harishon, that the day you eat from the chet, from the עץ הדעת, you're going to die. So what happened? They ate from the עץ הדעת and they didn't die! Adam Harishon lived for a 1,000, for 930 years. So where was, Hashem said something? Well, some answer he said that day means a thousand years because a thousand years is like a day, so he didn't live a thousand years and no one lived a thousand years except very, very few exceptions, but in Chumash it says no one lived a thousand years. But Rabbeinu Bachya says a different peshat: התינוק שנולד מתחיל להתייבש. A child the day he's born starts dying, there are certain cells that die. So from that moment on, certain cells started dying in Adam Harishon, so they started dying already. Till then, nothing died. But Chassidus says a different peshat. That time, Hashem decreed death. So already Adam Harishon potentially was going to die, so already he's not alive. The true meaning of life is when you're really going to live forever. So since we say that a Yid's body is alive because it's connected to Hashem, so it has to be eternal. So we have to say, Chassidus says, so we have to say that not only the neshama is going to get up, but the body is also eternal. If it's connected to Hashem who's eternal, so the body is also eternal. So therefore, the accepted opinion is that techiyat hametim is the second stage and that's going to stay forever. It's no contradiction to the fact it says that in Olam Haba, which means techiyat hametim, there will be no eating and no drinking, because there will be a change in the nature of the world at that time. But it doesn't mean that there won't be bodies. We will have bodies, but instead of existing and living through food, we won't have to have that. We will live by enjoying Hashem. It says that we will sit with the crowns over our head, ונהנים מזיו השכינה, we will enjoy the glory of Hashem. That will give us physical sustenance. That will change. That's only a certain period when we need it. After we won't need it, we takeh won't have it. That's only the period when we will need it. Yeah. Now, I just want to say, really, we got into the subject of techiyat hametim which I really didn't plan, I thought later on, but the question is a question everyone asks. So it says like this, this is again from the Arizal, that when a person's neshamah is, I'll use the goyishe word just so that people understand, but I don't mean it the way the goyim mean it, is reincarnated, it means the neshamah comes down again to this world. The reason it comes down again is because the first time it wasn't metaken, it didn't finish everything it was supposed to finish. That means that there's a certain part of the neshamah it

didn't accomplish, because when a person accomplishes his avodah, then it means that the whole neshamah did what it was supposed to. If there was something he didn't do, there's a certain part of the neshamah that still has a job to do. That part of the neshamah comes down again. That means that every body, every time it comes to another body, there is another nitzotz of the neshamah. And therefore, when Mashiach will come, all the bodies will get up, and from the same neshamah the different nitzotzot, the different sparks of different parts will go into the different bodies. Now one might ask, that means that some people will have half a neshamah, it means, what, this body will have half a neshamah, this body will have the other half? It is not so. Each half is a whole. Each half is an entity in itself. I'll give you an example. I'll give you an example the way it's now. We all know what it says in the Zohar, that a husband and a wife originally were one one neshamah. And it split, comes on to this world as two separate people, and then eventually they get together again and they become one again. But they're two separate human beings, and it's really one neshamah. And this one neshamah is split into two. When it says in Chumash that על כן יעזב איש את אביו ואת אמו, person leaves his father and mother, ודבק באשתו, goes to his wife, והיו לבשר אחד, they become one. So pashut pshat is that the child that comes from both of them is one person. But it means really that the two neshamot are combined again. But nevertheless, they're two people and they're two parts of one neshamah. I'll go a step further. We know that it says that really there are always in for in every generation there are 600,000 neshamot, 600,000 neshamot. Now, we

look around, Baruch Hashem, they're more than 600,000 Jews. Sometimes we have 18,000 18 million Jews, now 12 million Jews, whatever it is, we have millions of Jews. How does that fit? So it says that it means that there are 600,000 neshamot, and each neshamah has branches, or we call them nitzotzot, so you could have 50 people and they're really one neshamah, and just divided into different neshamot. So here we see that you have one neshamah, and there are nitzotzot from it and they're separate people. Same thing going to happen with the neshamah that was in גלגול, that there are a few neshamot, the same neshamah, but it'll be broken up into parts and go into different bodies. So techiyat hametim? ימות המשיח? Oh, that's what, it's very it's important to be clear. ימות המשיח is the beginning, no, whoever is alive will be then. Few people or the great tzadikim will get up techiyat hametim, it says, right away, but then most people not. But by the time techiyat hametim comes, all the neshamot will have had their tikkun, their perfection, and we'll be able to get up. Now, there are some it says it says in Mishnah, there are some people, but because of certain aveirot, will not get up techiyat hametim. So the truth is, what it means is they won't get up techiyat hametim right away, because they have a greater process to go through, a process of purification. But they, too, will have a purification eventually, and eventually every neshamah will be up in its body. Yeah, even resha'im. But you're you're right, we're coming back, but better than before. That's the concept of yeridah letzorech aliyah. There was a ירידה, the thing went down and we have to come back, but because of that, when we'll come back, we'll be better even than it was before. We have worked for it. Right, right, no bread of shame, and therefore it'll be even higher than it was before. But as great as Adam Harishon was, and as holy as his neshamah was, and as great of a level the world was in in the beginning of creation, on a spiritual level, we will be even greater, because if not, if we'll come back just to the same way it was before, so what was the purpose, it wasn't worth it. What did we gain? We went through all this just to come back to the same? So we'll come back, but it'll be much greater than before for many reasons, some of the reasons you mentioned, or other reasons. Okay, I think we can continue. Then the

Rambam continues, יראה מפשוטן של דברי הנביאים, it seems from the simple interpretation of the words of the prophets, שבתחילת ימות המשיח, in the beginning of the time of משיח, תהיה מלחמת גוג ומגוג, there will be the war of Gog uMagog that'll take place at that time. So there's one thing that we see from the nevi'im, there will be a war of Gog uMagog. Now, Gog uMagog is not Some people make a mistake, they think it's Gog against Magog, that there's going to be a war between Gog and Magog. Gog uMagog is the same side. They're going to fight against the Jews. Gog, look at the way it says here: Gog Gog is the king, and Magog is the שם האומה, it says, yeah, is the nation. So it's all the same. Gog uMagog is the same side, they're going to fight against the Yidden. But the Rambam here doesn't go into the details of what's going to happen in the time of Gog uMagog, where the war is going to be, how the war is going to be, but it does seem from different mefarshim and different midrashim says that it's going to be in and around Eretz Yisrael. That's why during the Second World War, when everyone was saying, \"These are the חבלי משיח,\" says in the Gemara that before Mashiach will come there will be a lot of hardships, just like a woman before she gives birth there are labor pains, the geulah, the redemption is called is like giving a birth, therefore there will be labor pains. So, everyone was saying that the Second World War were the labor pains of the geulah, which probably were, but many of the Gedolei Yisrael wrote that this is not the war of Gog uMagog, because it was not in and around Eretz Yisrael. It had made much more sense like the Gulf War should have been מלחמת גוג ומגוג, if it was or it wasn't I wouldn't know, but that would make more sense because that was in the area around Eretz Yisrael, especially if it fits with the Midrash, a famous Yalkut that says that before Mashiach will come there will be in a a war around there in in the Middle East and then the in different places it says that a country from all across the ocean will come and help and work. So it says, and then Mashiach will come, the Yidden will be scared, and Mashiach will come and say, \"Don't get scared, because this is a sign that the time of your redemption has come.\" And the Rebbe has actually said that הגיע זמן גאולתכם, that statement comes from that Midrash. So I don't know if this is Gog uMagog or not, but what the Rambam does say is that it'll be there will be a war of Gog uMagog. Now, it's interesting that the Rambam doesn't go into the details, now probably because the Rambam only writes those things which he felt was halacha, which is something that has to be. Other things that might take place and all the details that take place, that's not halacha, so the Rambam didn't write it. The Rambam is not a Midrashist, right? So all we know from here is that there will be a war of Gog uMagog. Then he says something else: שקודם מלחמת גוג ומגוג, before the war of גוג ומגוג, יעמוד נביא, there will be a navi, a prophet, ליישר ישראל, to make to straighten out the יידן, ולהכין לבם, and to prepare their hearts. שנאמר, as it says, הנה אנכי שולח לכם את אליה הנביא, השם says, \"I am sending you Eliyahu Hanavi,\" etc. What does the pasuk continue there? \"I am sending you this navi before לפני בוא יום הגדול והנורא, before this fearful day is going to come.\" Now, that יום הגדול והנורא refers to the war of Gog uMagog, because that's going to be a very scary time. Before that, Hashem says, \"I will send you Eliyahu Hanavi.\" Now, Eliyahu Hanavi, he's the prophet that never died, he's the prophet that went up to heaven alive. And Hashem has used Eliyahu Hanavi constantly for many things we find in different Midrashim and different places where Eliyahu Hanavi used to come down back to this world and do many different things. So Eliyahu Hanavi is going to come to straighten out the Yidden before this war of Gog uMagog. Now, what's he going to do, Eliyahu? So he says ואינו בא, he's not going to come לא לטמא הטהור, not to declare that something that was considered pure, he should come and say, \"Well, it was a mistake, it's impure,\" ולא לטהר הטמא, or not to come and say on something that's considered impure that he will come and say, \"Well, you made a mistake and really it was pure,\" ולא לפסול אנשים שהם בחזקת כשרות, not to come and say concerning people, Yidden, who are assumed to be kasher Yidden and to say that they are pasul, that they are not כשר, ולא להכשיר מי שהוחזקו פסולין, or not to come and say that certain Jew- Jews who might have been considered pasul, pasul means that they, like a mamzer, or somebody... there are certain categories of Jews which are considered pasul, not by their fault, fault might be the fault of their parents or what they did, but they are pasul. So he is not going to come and say, \"Well, you think these people are kasher? No, I'm telling you as a prophet that they're pasul.\" Or he would come and say people who are pasul, they're kasher. So what is he going to come for? אלא לשום שלום בעולם, he's going to come to make peace in the world. שנאמר, as it says, והשיב לב אבות על בנים, that he is going to make the hearts of the parents return to the father, that people who argue, people who are separated, he has he is going to make peace in the world, that's going to be his job. When is that going to be? So the Rambam says he will come before the war of Gog uMagog. Now, since Gog uMagog will be right right in the beginning of ימות המשיח, and Eliyahu will come even before that, that means that Eliyahu will come quite a while before Mashiach, before the time of Mashiach, because the war of Gog uMagog is going to take a certain amount of time, it's not going to be in 1 minute. So מלחמת גוג ומגוג will be right before Mashiach, before that yet Eliyahu Hanavi will come. So that's one opinion. But יש מן החכמים שאומרים, there are chachamim, some chachamim say שקודם ביאת המשיח יבוא אליהו, that Eliyahu will come right before Mashiach. Not like the opinion before that he will come before the war of Gog uMagog, which means that he will not come immediately right before coming of Mashiach, but this opinion says he will come right before Mashiach. But then the Rambam continues and says וכל אלו הדברים, all these things, וכיוצא בהן, and all similar things, לא ידע אדם איך יהיו עד שיהיו, a person does not know how they will be till they will be. שדברים סתומין הן אצל הנביאים, because these matters were hidden, unclear even to the prophets. גם החכמים אין להם קבלה בדברים האלו. Even the chachamim, the the sages, didn't have any tradition handed down from one generation to another in these matters. אלא לפי הכרע הפסוקים, the only thing they could do is learn the pesukim and figure out from the pesukim what's going to happen, but they didn't have any tradition in it. ולפיכך יש בהן מחלוקת בדברים האלו. Therefore there are arguments in these things. Aval al kol panim, in any event, אין סידור הויית דברים האלו ולא דקדוקיהן עיקר בדת. Exactly what the order was going to be is not a very fundamental matter in our religion. ולעולם לא יתעסק אדם בדברי הגדות, a person should not really concern himself with these דברי הגדות, which means, how would you translate הגדות, let's see, like הגדות are not halacha, but just stories and sayings of the ולא יאריך במדרשות האמורים בעניינים אלו וכיוצא בהן, and you should not go into lengthy discussions in the midrash of these things, ולא ישימם עיקר, don't make them a very fundamental part of your life, שאינם מביאים לא לידי יראה, they don't bring to fear of God, ולא לידי אהבה, not to love of God, so you shouldn't do it. Let me just finish this halacha, and then I'm going to go into the explaining it. וכן לא יחשב הקיצין. You should not try to calculate the time when Mashiach will come. אמרו חכמים, the chachamim said even more: תפח רוחן של מחשבי קיצין. Let the spirit of those that calculate the ends of days, let their spirit leave them. It was just like a curse to those people who get occupied in this. אלא יחכה, you should hope, ויאמין, and you should believe, בכלל הדבר, in the general idea, כמו שביארנו, as it's explained, but don't go into the details. Well, before I go to explain some of the matters, I want to stop first at the end, rather than usually you explain in order of the way the Rambam writes, I have to explain this: If we just learned this, someone might think, the Rambam is telling us not to get involved in discussing the עניין of Mashiach. That's what he says here. So how come we have a shiur in עניין of Mashiach, or how come we're learning about Mashiach when the Rambam says don't get involved? So I want to make it clear. What the Rambam says here is don't, he says, אין סידור הויית דברים האלו ולא דקדוקיהן עיקר בדת. The order of events and the small details of all this is not an important matter in our religion. That's all it is. But the general idea of what Mashiach is and what Mashiach is going to do, that is an important part of our religion. And I'll prove it to you. Otherwise the Rambam contradicts himself. If the Rambam feels that it's not important for our religion to get involved in this, why did he get involved in it? Why did the Rambam write these halachot? And the Rambam himself writes that many things we don't know how they're going to be. And therefore it's not important to get involved because we don't know, we don't know, who cares. Some of the things the Rambam wrote exactly the way they're going to be. In other words, the Rambam feels that those things that he wrote, those are very important. Other matters which he didn't write are not important in our religion. That's what it is. These things that he wrote, that's halacha. And it's halacha not only when Mashiach will come, and Mashiach is going to want to know what to do, he'll say, well let me look in the Rambam what the halacha is, and I'm going to do this. It's a halacha for us. What's the halacha for us? There is a halacha that we have to believe that Mashiach is coming, yes. There is a halacha that we have to wait for Mashiach, yes. All the things that the Rambam wrote is part of the halacha. That means we have to believe and await these things that the Rambam writes. In therefore, it's hard to say this, but therefore if someone believes Mashiach will come, and he waits for him, but doesn't know these halachot of Rambam, his belief in Mashiach is not complete. Because this is a halacha. And the Rambam writes clearly that this is what's going to happen. So whatever the Rambam writes he doesn't know, or whatever the Rambam writes is not important, so obviously that's not important. So if we know or we don't know makes no difference. But whatever the Rambam does write, obviously he felt that's important, and that's halacha. That we must know. So therefore it is very important to learn these halachot of Rambam, because that is the halacha of what we have to believe in. If someone will ask a person, according when you're waiting for Mashiach, are you waiting for Mashiach to perform miracles or not? They'll say, I don't know. You're missing because the Rambam says he doesn't have to perform miracles. And if the Rambam puts it down as a halacha, obviously that's what we have to believe in. But those things that the Rambam doesn't write, those are the things which are not important. The Rambam writes in other places too concerning תחיית המתים. He says people, he complains, how come people get involved in these small matters of תחיית המתים? It's not the right thing, don't get involved in it, he says. And he gives examples. People care, always want to, when people get up תחיית המתים, will they get up with their clothes or without their clothes? Will they look young or will they look old? The Rambam says, why get involved with this? That's not important. So there again, the Rambam doesn't mean we should not study about תחיית המתים. If it's one of the 13 principles, imagine, what would the Rambam tell us? Don't study the foundation of your religion? Don't study the principle of your religion? What the Rambam is complaining about, I think it's Iggeret Techiyat HaMetim, what he's complain complaining about, that people get involved in the wrong parts of it. They get involved in the small matters, but they don't get involved in understanding what is the concept of תחיית המתים, why it's going to be, what's going to happen then. That's what we should get involved, that we should get involved. And the same thing here, we shouldn't get involved, he says, in the small matters. He says in the order, so what will be first, this will be first, that will be first. But the things which he does write, that we have to get involved and we have to learn. That's one point. Make up their own things. That's also true. Right, right, right, right, right. Make up on your own. True that these are things we can't make up, because these are facts. So the facts is from Torah, whatever the Torah says we can't imagine, that's also true, 100%. Yeah. Details, there's nothing wrong if someone says I learned a pasuk and I found out the details. There's a Midrash that says that a person will get up without clothes or with clothes, or whatever. The question is, is that what you're involved and that's what you're looking into and overlooking the main part? If you look into the main part and also by the way you happen to know the details, there's nothing wrong, it's part of Torah. If it's said in the Midrash, it's Torah. There's nothing wrong if a person is well-versed in all the Midrashim that tell us all the details about תחיית המתים. Nothing wrong with that. Yeah, and I'm saying there's a lot of Gemarot. Yeah. Yeah, it would be I'm saying, but these are all part of Torah. So the Rambam could write and the Gemara could say. The question is what do we care about and what is what we're involved in, not and that detail should be our whole discussion, that's why he says we should not. Eliyahu. He's talking about Eliyahu. So here you see that the other things, not these, are not important, and this happens to be important. That's what I'm saying, since the Rambam himself says that the details are not important, nevertheless he himself goes into some details, that is the best proof that the details that the Rambam writes are important. That's why And where he took it from, I don't know, I mean he had his sources or he figured out that these are the details that are important. And the other details are not. You see, if the I'm I'm just saying the opposite the way it seems. If the Rambam wouldn't have written that the details are not important, then someone might say that even the detail of Eliyahu HaNavi's coming is also not important. Because who knows which parts are important and not. But since the Rambam himself goes into certain details and then makes a statement that the details are not important, so I'm sure he wouldn't contradict himself. So, what's he trying to say? That only what I wrote, that's important. Everything else which I didn't write are not important halacha. Right. And what's the כלל הדבר? The ikar, the main What's the klal? So, the things that the Rambam writes, those that's the כלל הדבר, that's the ikar, right. But not other השלישי? No, a lot of times we have a third pasuk. We have sometimes a contradiction between two pesukim, then there's a third pasuk that tells us Ah, ah. Okay. Okay, that's I'll get to that in a moment. That's a different thing. That's a different thing. I was That's early. I said in this case I was going to start explaining the end of the halacha before the beginning because I didn't want anybody to leave after this Rambam thinking that the Rambam says we shouldn't get involved in ימות המשיח, because it says it doesn't bring you to fear of Hashem and

love Hashem. It does. Only the details that are not mentioned here, which are not important, those details don't bring you. But knowing the details that the Rambam does say, obviously we understand from the Rambam, they will bring you to יראה and they will bring you to אהבה. Also another point before I even get to that, another point: It says you should not calculate the ends. People should not get involved. Now, the reason, and the he quotes a Gemara, the Gemara says, cursed, a person who gets involved in this, so תיפח רוחם, curse them, they should die. Now, I have a the same question in this also. The Rambam himself writes a קץ! Not here, but the Rambam himself, in Iggeret Teiman, writes a date for the coming of Mashiach. It passed long, long ago. His date is, he writes it, so I'll just tell you what it is. He bases on a pasuk, he says, קיבלתי מאבא ואבא מאבא עד משה רבינו. He says, I have a tradition in my family from my father, who heard from his father, heard from his father, going back to Moshe Rabbeinu. What does he write? That when Bilam said, כעת יאמר ליעקב ולישראל מה פעל קל. Bilam, who came to curse the Yidden and instead he blessed them. So, part of Bilam's prophecy is that like כעת, like Now, people will say to Yaakov, what is Hashem doing. What that means is, that there will be a time when the nevuah will come back to the Yidden. Prophecy will come back. So people will be able to come up to a Jew and say, what's Hashem doing? Because a prophet would know. When is that going to happen? Mashiach will come, or close to his time. So the Rambam says he heard from his father going back, that when the same amount of years that have passed from the beginning of creation to Bilam's time will pass again, then Mashiach will come, then this will happen. When did Bilam say this? Bilam said this in the year ב' אלפים תפ\"ח, the year 2,488 from creation. So when another 2,488 years will pass, then this will happen. And this was close to the Rambam's time, so he himself writes a קץ, right? But he

does, but he does write, but here he says you shouldn't. Rav Saadia Gaon, who lived many years before the Rambam, writes a קץ. From the Rambam's time on, we have so many, Rashi writes a קץ. All these גדולי ישראל write קיצין. So how does that fit with what the Rambam says here, a person should not get involved in calculating? Now, there is a difference how you do it, that's the answer. What is the reason why the Gemara doesn't want a person to get involved in, in calculating the dates? Because if you calculate the date and you see it is a long time till Mashiach will come, you give up hope, and you fall into ye'ush, despair. Therefore they said, don't do it. But if the purpose of being מחשב the קיצין is to bring in more emunah into the Yidden, then you're allowed. Therefore, the people who said the קיצין, it was usually concerning a time that was close to theirs. So what they were really saying is that look, Mashiach is coming very, very soon. That's different. If they would say Mashiach is coming in 1,000 years, so 1,000 years, oy vey, so long, who knows what's going to happen until then. But if someone would come and say according to my calculation, like the Rambam did, according to his kabbalah, Mashiach is going to come very, very soon. What does that mean? We know when Mashiach will come, we're going to want to greet him in a proper way, so we have to do teshuvah, we have to change, we have to prepare. So that's, that's allowed, and that's what they used to do. But then the question is, but were they lying? So many גדולי ישראל gave dates, so what happened? The answer is, Mashiach could come anytime, that's true.

Rambam says, as soon as Yidden do teshuvah, Mashiach could come anytime, anytime. Nevertheless, there are certain times which are more מסוגל, auspicious for the ability for Mashiach to come. And that's what they said. The Rambam said this is a date when Mashiach will come, he meant this is a time when he's very, very possible for him to come, which means we need less effort to bring him than we would need other times. So that certainly is a good reason for the Rambam to tell us that קץ. And the same thing with all the גדולי ישראל of all generations, they never wrote that Mashiach is going to come in 500 years. I mean maybe they wrote it someplace hidden, just for their own sake they wrote it, and I can't you know, say this, so let's say anywhere, but generally what they used to do is write about a time that's going to be very soon, in order to make Yidden do more teshuvah. And it says in sefarim like this, that for those tzadikim, when they gave the dates, for them משיח טאקע came that time. In other words, for the Rambam, in his level, whatever spiritual revelation is supposed to take place by the coming of משיח, טאקע took place by him. And he lived like a life like Mashiach, because the coming of Mashiach means, as we've been learning the whole time, not only the physical meaning is that there'll be a king with all the things which are going to happen, but what will all that bring? It'll bring a great, godly revelation to the world. These tzadikim did. It doesn't matter that physically it didn't happen, I mean it matters, I'm not saying, but there was a coming of Mashiach, a certain degree of coming of Mashiach for this tzadik. Also possible, they made it closer, that time, at certain stage, yes, that's also true.