‘MY FATHER WILL RISE UP AND BE MOSHIACH’

In the words of the Shtefaneshter Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Nochum Friedman. * From Chapter Fifteen of Rabbi Shloma Majeski’s Likkutei Mekoros, Volume 2

Translated by Boruch Merkur

In the year 5600, it was commonly accepted that my father [the Holy Ruzhiner, Reb Yisroel Ruzhin] would be Moshiach. But after his passing, everyone’s attention to the matter waned (haya hesech ha’daas b’chol ha’olam). The truth is, though, I had heard from my father, my teacher, of blessed memory, prior to his passing – two relevant points [suggesting that there is no reason for there to be a change]. Prior to his passing, my father left an individualized will to each person. These are the two things I heard from him.

One: Why do people not continue to visit tzaddikim after they pass on, as they did when they were alive, by going to their burial sites?

Two: Our Sages say that there are forty years between the onset of redemption and the Resurrection of the Dead. But I say: When was that so? Were the redemption to have begun two or three hundred years ago – then there must be forty years from the time of the coming of the redeemer until the Resurrection of the Dead. But now, I say that the coming of the redeemer and the Resurrection of the Dead will take place on the same day.

According to these two things that I heard from my father, my teacher, of blessed memory, I assert that my father himself will rise [from the dead] and be Moshiach.

(From Kerem Beis Yisroel, pg. 111)