The stars will sing for two years before the end
Excerpt of a shiur that Rav Eliezer Berland gave after the shacharit prayers, on Shabbat Chukat, 5778, based on the book of Iyov (Job).
It’s written in the Zohar that two years before the netz (end of days), the stars start to sing. A person needs to wake up two years before the netz.
ויסך בדלתים ים בגיחו מרחם יצא, בשומי ענן לבשו וערפל חתלתו
Here, this is the first time in the Torah that the word hitool, (mockery, ridicule) is written, and we are not reminded about this in any other place in the Torah, that the ridicule of Hashem is arafel (fog, mist, haze)….
This is all referring to 50 seas…”And [God] said come until po (here).” Why is Yaffo (Joppa) called Yaffo? Because Hashem said ‘come until po’[1]. And why is Haifa called ‘Haifa’? Also, because Hashem said ‘come until po’.
Hashem limited the spread of the oceans
The oceans were spreading out in all directions, the Mediterranean Sea was spreading out. In the time of Enosh, it spread out in the direction of Yaffo and Haifa, and after that, in the generation of the mabbul (great flood), it spread out in the direction of Gibraltar….
When we get up in the morning, and we see the new dawn, we see that the sunrise knows its place; “the four corners of the world are grabbed, and the wicked ones are shaken from it”.
At the end, Hashem is going to shake off all the rashaim (evildoers). He’s going to turn everything over, and prevent the evildoers from seeing the daylight, and the deceitful limbs [He will] break.
The gates of death, at the bottom of the ocean
“You brought them until the obscure sea.”
Have you seen the fish in the sea? “Enquire of the t’hom (depths) to move about, and to disclose the shaarei mavet (the gates of death).” There [at the bottom of the ocean] are the gates where the Angel of Death walks around, and the Tzaddik rules over these gates.
Because the Tzaddik rules over these gates, a person can’t leave, [the Tzaddik] has total authority. So, Iyov (Job) was asked, ‘Can you rule over the gates of the Angel of Death? Can you stop the Angel of Death?’
“And you will see the gates of pitch-darkness”.
The secret of the sun’s light
Now, how is the sun rising and shining? Every day, through a different window, who is causing it to rise in the East? The Tzaddik….If you know the secret of where the sun’s light derives from, then you’ll live for eternity.
There are two secrets that you need to know: To know where the light of the sun comes from, and where the gate and the path from where the light of the sun continues to shine – and then [if you know these two secrets], a person can live forever….
You need to uncover the treasure house of the snow, “and the treasure house of the hail, that I reserved for the time of siege, for the day before the war.” The hail doesn’t have any gate in the world….
The ikkar (essence) is the dew drops, the dew of techiyat hametim (reviving the dead). Hashem wanted to reveal to Iyov the dew of reviving the dead….
The greatest secret of all
Why was Korach called ‘Korach’? Because he was kerach (ice-cold)….Now, here, we have the greatest secret of all. “Connect the epochs of Kimah[2]”. Kimah is 100 stars. When we see a star, it’s really 100 stars. How can you connect all these stars together? Only the Tzaddik [can do this].
“Or open the measures of Kesil.”
Can you take Kesil, and place it [where you want], and drag it to do what you want it to do?
The Tzaddik can do this.
[1] In Hebrew, the ‘P’ and ‘F’ are interchangeable so ‘PO’ could also be pronounced ‘FO’
[2] The Rav was referring to many of the concepts found in both the book of Iyov (Job) and in the Gemara, in his remarks on the constellations and stars.
For example, “‘Ash” or “‘Ayish” is mentioned twice in Job, and has been identified with the Great Bear. The Gemara in Brachot 58b says: “But for the heat of Kesil, the world could not endure, on account of the excessive cold of Kimah, and vice versa.”
‘Kimah’ the star (often associated with the Pleiades) is the source of cold in the world. Kesil the star (associated with Orion) is source of heat in the world.
In Amos 5:8, Kimah is mentioned before Kesil. In Iyov 9:9, Kesil is mentioned before Kimah. The Talmud quoted above says that this means that God uses each constellation to balance the other. Pleiades keeps Orion from boiling the world to death; Orion keeps Pleiades from freezing the world to death.
Elsewhere, the Gemara explains how the stars Kimah and Kesil are directly related to the mabbul, which came about when God took two stars from one constellation and moved them to another, leading to Noah’s flood.
