The Rabbi also states that throughout history false messiahs appear before the real Moshiach, so that it would rile up the Jews to think about redemption. The false messiahs include JC, Shabtai Tzvi, Bar Kochba and others. Interestingly, the article that CNN published concerning Christopher Columbus on his yahrzeit was mentioned as well. This article, probably written by non-Jews, brought proofs that Columbus was a secret Jew (maranos). These proofs were based on his last will and testament as well as his correspondence to his son and his financiers as follows:
Two of his wishes -- tithe one-tenth of his income to the poor and provide an anonymous dowry for poor girls -- are part of Jewish customs. He also decreed to give money to a Jew who lived at the entrance of the Lisbon Jewish Quarter.On those documents, Columbus used a triangular signature of dots and letters that resembled inscriptions found on gravestones of Jewish cemeteries in Spain. He ordered his heirs to use the signature in perpetuity.
At the top left-hand corner of all but one of the 13 letters written by Columbus to his son Diego contained the handwritten Hebrew letters bet-hei, meaning b'ezrat Hashem (with God's help). Observant Jews have for centuries customarily added this blessing to their letters. No letters to outsiders bear this mark, and the one letter to Diego in which this was omitted was one meant for King Ferdinand.
Scholars point to the date on which Columbus set sail as further evidence of his true motives. He was originally going to sail on August 2, 1492, a day that happened to coincide with the Jewish holiday of Tisha B'Av, marking the destruction of the First and Second Holy Temples of Jerusalem. Columbus postponed this original sail date by one day to avoid embarking on the holiday, which would have been considered by Jews to be an unlucky day to set sail. (Coincidentally or significantly, the day he set forth was the very day that Jews were, by law, given the choice of converting, leaving Spain, or being killed.)
The Rabbi does mention the war of Gog uMagog and hopes that it has already occurred as in the 2nd World War, and that we will merit no more wars before Moshiach. The Rabbi also mentions the Internet Asifa and how we are all "lost" to this situation of controlling our access to it. The whole world needs a wakeup call and we need Moshiach desperately to change our way of life and our way of connecting to Hashem.Columbus' voyage was not, as is commonly believed, funded by the deep pockets of Queen Isabella, but rather by two Jewish Conversos and another prominent Jew. Louis de Santangel and Gabriel Sanchez advanced an interest free loan of 17,000 ducats from their own pockets to help pay for the voyage, as did Don Isaac Abrabanel, rabbi and Jewish statesman.Indeed, the first two letters Columbus sent back from his journey were not to Ferdinand and Isabella, but to Santangel and Sanchez, thanking them for their support and telling them what he had found.
