Gathering in Unity at the End of Days

1“Gather together, and I will tell you... Assemble and listen, sons of Yaakov, and listen to Israel your father” [Bereishis 49:1–2]. The Midrash says (Bereishis Rabbah 98:2): “‘Gather together’ means ‘purify yourselves,’ as it says, ‘they gathered and purified the chambers’ (Nechemiah 13:9). The Rabbis said: he commanded them about strife. He told them, ‘Be all of you in one gathering... prepare yourselves for the redemption.’”

2aThe Midrash can be explained by way of hint. Although the Shechinah left Yaakov and he did not reveal the End, he still gave counsel on how to conduct ourselves and stay strong until the End. It is like what David HaMelech said: “I have reached the end (hakitzosi), and I am still with You” (Tehillim 139:18). In the End of Days, when there are no waters to remove impurity¹, the main purification of Israel comes through the gathering of all Israel and the uniting of their hearts as one. The two depend on each other, through “assemble” (hikavtzu). Assembling (kevitzah) means collecting the parts of something and joining them into one, while gathering (asifah) means bringing many things into one place. This is what Chazal mean when they say (Chagigah 26a) that on the pilgrimage festival all Israel is pure, because the Torah “made them all chaverim,” trusted in matters of purity. See Rashi (Niddah 34a): “When all Israel are gathered, they are called chaverim.” Once all Israel has gathered, everything becomes pure. For the purifying power of the red heifer's ashes comes from emunah and humility: “let my soul be like dust to all” [Berachos 17a], and “let him lower himself like the hyssop, and he will be healed” [cf. Rashi on Vayikra 14:4]. Through unity a person reaches this.

2b“The End” of Days is the time of the footsteps of Moshiach. As is known, time as a whole is like the full stature of Adam HaRishon, and the End of Days is his heels, like the feet, the lowest place in the body. It is also known that day is called “sun,” the giver, and night is the receiver, as the moon receives its light from the sun. At the end of the day, “the shadows of evening lengthen” [Yirmiyahu 6:4]. The hint is that Yaakov Avinu gave counsel on how to conduct ourselves in the End of Days, at the end of the day, when the sun is no longer at its full strength. That is, there will be no one fit to teach words of Torah. His faithful counsel is “assemble and listen.” A tzaddik who has set himself aside before Hashem, as though he did not exist at all, does not coarsen his words. They remain in their essence holy and pure, as they were given at Sinai, and they enter the innermost being of the listener [cf. Mishlei 18:8], for “the voice of Hashem hews out flames of fire” [Tehillim 29:7]. But someone not on this level coarsens his words as he speaks them, and they cannot accomplish as much. They can do so only through the unity of the treasured people, who join their hearts together. Then added holiness comes to the speaker, and through this they can hear Torah even though the teacher is not so great. “Accept the truth from whoever says it” [Rambam, introduction to Shemoneh Perakim].

3aThat is why the verse says “listen” twice. “Assemble and listen, sons of Yaakov”: from the side of Yaakov, the lower level, remember that you are all children of one father. Through this, the teacher's words will enter your hearts, even if the one rebuking you is not on a high level. Then it says, “and listen to Israel your father.” “Listen” (shim'u) here is a word of gathering. As the Kabbalists say on “Shema Yisrael” [Devarim 6:4], shema means gathering, as in “Shaul summoned (vayeshama) the people” (Shmuel I 15:4). Through the gathering of Israel they will know that Hashem is One. As is known, Yisrael (ישראל) has the letters of li rosh, “a head to me.” So this means: listen to the teacher who has set himself aside before Hashem, as though he did not exist at all. That is what the Midrash says [Bereishis Rabbah 98:3]: “‘and listen to (el)’: listen to God (E-l).” For then his holy words are the words of the living God.

3bWhen the one who rebukes is on a high level, as was once the case in Israel, there is no need to assemble, only to listen. True, even when the teacher is on a high level, unity is needed for the Torah, as it was at the giving of the Torah, when “Israel encamped (vayichan) there”² [Shemos 19:2] as one. But when the teacher is at a low level, there is no other way for him to accomplish anything and teach the people the ways of Hashem except through the unity of the treasured people, who join their hearts together. Through this, added holiness comes to him. Then his words go out from the heart and enter the heart, and they bring healing to broken hearts in every matter, spiritual and physical.

4What emerges for us is that today our main and faithful counsel is to be all together in love, brotherhood and affection. In this way we can receive the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven from one another. Through our being bound together, may we speedily merit the eternal redemption, both the redemption of all Israel and the personal redemption of every single Jewish soul, spiritually and physically, Amen.