The Key to Defeating Persia  

After enduring a long history plagued by bitter exiles, we now find ourselves in the midst of Galus Yishmael, which the Zohar (2:17a) calls “the most difficult of them all.” Myriad sources (see Pirkei D’Rabi Eliezer; Rav Saadia Gaon on Sefer Daniel (7:7); Rav Chaim Vital on Tehillim) all point to the war against the scions of Yishmael as the final exile we must overcome before crossing the long-awaited threshold to Yemos Hamashiach. But the last nation that will engage us in direct combat (Targum Yonasan, Targum Yerushalmi, Esther Rabbah) is Paras/Persia, the nefarious country of modern-day Iran, consumed by a raging desire to annihilate the Jewish People and conquer our cherished land (Malbim on Yechezkel).

Down through the millennia, we have persevered, and as Rav Yaakov Emden points out in the introduction to Siddur Beis Yaakov, we have manifested the greatest miracle of all time: the survival of Klal Yisrael through pogroms, crusades, exiles, and perennial attempts to eradicate us. The Navi Shmuel tells us (Shmuel I, 15:29), “Netzach Yisrael lo yeshaker”; with HaKadosh Baruch Hu watching over His am hanivchar, our perpetuity is fully secure. While we might not always know what our immediate future holds in store, we can rest assured that Avinu ShebaShamayim holds us in His ever-loving hands.

With the horrors of the Holocaust forever etched in our minds, we are currently up against Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis — and now war directly with Iran. The evil descendants of Yishmael and Paras have joined forces at the end of days. Nisgaber k’ari, awake and ready for action. What is the chief message for us?

WE begin with a fascinating remez from Rav Menachem Mendel of Shklov, one of the closest disciples of the Vilna Gaon. In his Kisvei HaGram”am, he explains the Gemara in Berachos (54a–b) that makes reference to two “lepers” (metzora’im) known as “Es” and “Vaheiv” (based on the pasuk in Chukas, Bamidbar 21:14), walking in the desert behind the Machaneh Yisrael. The combined gematria, he writes, of Es (401) and Vaheiv (13) is 414 — the same total as the names of the respective “founders” of Christianity (Malchus Romi-Edom) and Islam (Malchus Paras-Yishmael): “Yeishu” (316) and Muchmad (Muhammad, 98).