יח. וַיַּסֵּב אֱ־לֹקים אֶת הָעָם דֶּרֶךְ הַמִּדְבָּר יַם סוּף וַחֲמֻשִׁים עָלוּ בְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם18. So God led the people around [by] way of the desert [to] the Red Sea, and the children of Israel were armed when they went up out of Egypt. (Shemos 13:18)
Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis elaborates the modern ten plagues occurring today. She says that the way we left Egypt, will be the way we leave chutz la'aretz. Rashi says regarding the word חֲמֻשִׁים that only 1/5th of Jewry made it out of Egypt because the 4/5ths simply refused to. So, they perished in the 9th plague, the plague of darkness. Some say because because they lack faith in Hashem, some say because they were too comfortable in Egypt. Remember that after the plagues started, the Egyptians did leave Bney Yisrael a "lighter" load and a "better" life. This Rashi has been used by many Israeli Rabbis to advocate aliyah for the past decade and counting. Rebbetzin Jungreis did not do this. She does stress that when Moshiach comes, will we be ready to leave? This is in stark contrast with the late Lubavitcher Rebbe's message that all Jews will be saved.
2. And it shall come to pass on that day, says the Lord of Hosts: I will cut off the names of the idols from the earth, and they shall no longer be mentioned. And also the prophets and the spirit of contamination I will remove from the earth. (Zechariah 13:2)
The plague of דם (blood) was all about idol worship since the Nile River was worshiped as one of the major gods of Egypt. Today, our two gods are money and science. The Wall Street collapse and the collapse of the American dollar and other global currencies will follow suit. It is part of the master plan to diminish the value of money, hence to eradicate a god of today. As for science, mankind has misused technology to a great extent, such as building nuclear weapons and using the Internet for evil. In fact, mankind has also attributed the strange weather patterns not to Hashem, but to some scientific reason, be it "global warming", "global cooling", "ice-age", "solar flares", etc. Japan, being the global leader in consumer electronics, is on its way towards destruction. China too, being a current technology leader in some areas, IMHO, has suffered devastating earthquakes in the past few years. The US is a military leader and if it continues on its path of ga'avah, it too will collapse. The current destruction of Japan, according to Rebbetzin Jungreis, is not because of the two Jewish boys being captured, but because of its being hailed as a leader in science and technology. Israel too, who has been boasting about its various high-tech advancements (drone technology, solar energy, fiber optics to name a few), has to watch out less it becomes arrogant.
כינים (lice) is similar to the infestation of bed bugs in hotels, dormitories and homes in the US.
דבר (pestilence) is similar to all the dead animals (birds, fish, livestock, etc) we have encountered in the past years. And scientists have no valid explanation to the cause of deaths of these animals.
Watch live streaming video from rebbetzinjungreis at livestream.com
8. And it shall come to pass throughout all the land, says the Lord, two parts of it shall be cut off. They shall perish, and the third shall remain therein. (Zechariah 13:8)
Listen/watch Rabbi Yossi Mizrachi describes this prophecy above and how the remaining one-third will survive the world, as money will no longer be a concern. There will be too much money left from the two-thirds who perished. You can forward to the time 1 hr 21 mins of the video to listen.
Regarding the plague of darkness, the Vilna Gaon writes:
About this it says, "Behold, I will persuade her and take her out into the wilderness' (Hoshea 2:16), and there all the wicked of Israel will be picked out during three days of pitch-black darkness. There they will suffer great troubles" (Even Sheleima 11:5)
Who are these wicked of Israel? Rashi explains:
They do not believe that the religion of Moshe comes from Hashem!
The Zohar says (according to Rabbi Mizrachi) that 15 days before Moshiach comes, the entire world will go through a period of darkness, and whoever survives after this period, will be the ones who will greet Moshiach. This plague of darkness is somewhat consistent with the prophecy of Zechariah below:
6. And it shall come to pass on that day that there shall be no light, only disappearing light and thick darkness.The prophet Amos's words regarding the wicked of Israel:
7. And it shall be one day that shall be known to the Lord, neither day nor night; and it shall come to pass that at eventide it shall be light.
8. And it shall come to pass on that day that spring water shall come forth from Jerusalem; half of it to the eastern sea, and half of it to the western sea; in summer and in winter it shall be.
9. And the Lord shall become King over all the earth; on that day shall the Lord be one, and His name one. (Zechariah 14)
By the sword all the sinners of My people will die, those who say, 'Evil shall not approach or come ahead of us' ... On that day I will stand up the fallen shelter of David ... and rebuilt it as in days of old. (Amos 9:9-11)On the above verse, the Zohar comments:
What is meant by 'on that day'? On the day that the Holy One, blessed is He, carries out judgment in the world and repays the wicked for their deeds. For Knesses Yisrael has no enduring existence while the wicked of Israel continue to exist in the world. What is written before this verse? "By the sword all the sinners of My people will die, those who say, 'Evil shall not approach or come ahead of us." What is written after that? "On that day, I will stand up the fallen shelter of David." (Zohar, Parashas Pekudei 240).
