As a result of a social media misunderstanding, thousands of Jewish women worldwide will get together on the evening of Tuesday, February 26 for gatherings of song, prayer and dance, to help usher in geula (the final redemption).
Last month, a short video that was created in 2012 inexplicably came back to life and started circulating again on the texting app WhatsApp. Rivka Malka Perlman, the creator of that original video, explained to veteran Israel News Talk Radio host Tamar Yonah how it all happened.
“There was a WhatsApp video that went out that was me and it was saying ‘Sisters! Unite in unity. God wants this unity. So many terrible things are happening and we’ve got to get together. February 26! Everybody!’
“This video was not on YouTube and therefore there was no date on it. People thought that is was this February 26, so they started to say, ‘We want to come! We want to make a unity event in our community. We want to live stream your event!”
The only glitch was that the video was seven years old. There was no geula event being planned for February 2019.
“At the same time,” Perlman continued, “I had gotten a Divine message that right now we are so close to the End of Days. Each of us has a piece of Miriam in her, Miriam the prophetess who God guided the women in Egypt.
“She was the midwife there. She helped them. She encouraged them to beautify themselves. She taught them to make tambourines in anticipation of leaving Egypt. We don’t have a Miriam, but we have the women, and each of us has a spark of Miriam inside, and if we collaborate, that would be the ultimate unity.
“All of a sudden, the whole thing came together and it erupted. Yes! This is what I was talking about without realizing what I was saying. The women need to gather. When? Well, the Master Planner already planned it on a video – February 26.
“So right this minute, there are hundreds of women planning these Geula Gatherings all over the world. I’ve got women in Moscow, Sweden, the Five Towns, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Beit Shemesh, Jerusalem… I’m not sleeping! I’m sitting at my computer navigating all these people who are yearning for redemption.
“And now they are volunteering their gifts to create evenings of song, prayer and dance that we’re saying, ‘God,’ not just that we’re going to cry, “Oh, we want Moshiach (Messiah),’ No! We’re going to be dancing. Because we know You’re bringing the geula. We’re not cool with this anymore. The women are demanding. And standing up and dancing and saying, ‘Now! Please, now! It’s a pretty exciting time.”
Since the interview last week, many more cities have joined in and are planning local Geula Gatherings. There are dozens of communities worldwide who will be participating in this global event, including Yad Binyamin, Haifa, Jerusalem, Tzfat, Raanana and Ramat Beit Shemesh in Israel and Philadelphia, Deerfield Beach FL, South Bend, IN, Brooklyn, Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, Passaic/Clifton NJ, Queens NY, Lakewood NJ, Woodmere NY, Cincinnati, Toronto, Cleveland, Baltimore, Silver Spring MD, Scottsdale AZ and Sherman Oaks, CA in North America.
The efforts have been blessed by Rabbi Reuvain Feinstein, son of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein who was one of this generation’s most renowned Jewish leaders. “It is with great pleasure that I give a bracha (blessing) to the women who are uniting in their efforts to bring nachas (pride) to Hashem (God) with Geula Gatherings. These tefillos (prayers) for Geula from the pure yearning hearts of the women are invaluable to Klal Yisroel (the Jewish people) and I give them a bracha for hatzlacha (success) in their endeavours.”
Perlman, whose work focuses on helping women heal, told Breaking Israel News, “I really look forward to Moshiach because people are in a lot of pain. It’s just the galus (exile), oy, this veil that we’re under that is causing all this pain. And I think it’s enough.”
She expanded on how the Geula Gatherings can grow to include people from the Nations. “I’ve had a fair amount of non-Jewish people get very, very excited about this,” she said. “I feel like one of those on the front lines with all the prophecies coming true and all the Nations coming closer to Torah.”
Her message to non-Jewish women is clear. “If you want to make your own Geula Gathering because you are yearning for Hashem, please do! The website is very geared for Jewish people, because that is the comfort of the audience that is currently participating, but I want to encourage you that redemption is for everyone.”
The Geula Gatherings are a piece of an even larger, more ambitious undertaking called The Redemption Project. Coordinated by Ziva Glanz who lives just outside of Jerusalem, The Redemption Project is planning a massive event in Jerusalem for April 7, 2019, which is the first of the Hebrew month of Nisan, a month that carries the energy of redemption.
In the traditional Jewish understanding, unity is a crucial necessity for advancing redemption and for bringing Moshiach. Glanz’s work in this arena was strengthened three years ago when she gave birth to a baby son, born prematurely, who passed away. His name was Malachi.
In his memory, Glanz began studying the Book of Malachi, which is the very last of the Biblical Books of Prophets. She discovered that, “It talks about everything happening at End of Days. Malachi [says] ‘Here’s a formula for Moshiach.’”
Lo, I will send the Navi Eliyahu to you before the coming of the awesome, fearful day of Hashem. Malachi 3:23
“The goal is to declare on high that we are ready for Moshiach,” Glanz stated unambiguously. “The second goal is to create achdut (unity) which hastens the geula. People need hope as big as the fear they get reading through the daily news.”
Energies are coalescing. Perlman, Glanz and thousands of other women worldwide are pointing their intentions toward letting God know that we are ready for redemption. And even if, despite their efforts, Moshiach doesn’t come, they will have advanced the Messianic process by creating unity across the globe.
