How much Hay can you buy with a diamond, even small in size?
It may be heaps and heaps even mountain full of hay and it will not reach the value of a little diamond. The referent of the parable is that if a person does not know the true value of the diamond, he will not understand why it is fair trade to give so much hay for such a small think. Like wise we do not know the value of 'good' that it is worth living through so much darkness in order to tap into it.
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聽聽The sages in the Gemarah refer to all of the sufferings that there is in the world today as an extension of the attribute of Esav.聽 It is said that at the end of times all of the houses of Esav will be like a big pile of hay, and the little spark will come out of the house of Yakov, and within a short time, the whole house of Esav聽will be gone. Had we said this 100 years ago it would have been too far out but today we see it come closer and closer to our reality.聽
This spark the sages have taught us is Yosef, the attribute of Yosef is a direct contradiction to the attribute聽of Esav, or we can say that it is referring to the Mashiach ben Yosef who will do the battles for us.聽 We can connect these 2 and explain that Mashiach ben Yosef uses the attributes of his forefather Yosef, to fight against all of the qualities and outcomes of the attributes of Esav.聽
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This all relates to Zot Chanukah, which also represents the revelation of the light at the end of times. This day includes all the blessings and miracles that we will see at the end of days (bezrat Hashem soon), there is an ancient Kabbalah book that is called Sod HaGeulah" "The Secret of the Redemption" by Rabbi Yitzchak ben Yosef HaCohen.聽 There He says that the last time for the redemption is hinted in the words in the migilah of Rut (4:6) "讙职旨讗址诇 诇职讱指 讗址转指旨讛 讗侄转 讙职旨讗只诇指旨转执讬" " You
will redeem for you my Redemption."
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Rabbi Yekutiel Fish, that visits our Yeshiva often had made a calculation of the words in that pasuk with the miluy that comes exactly to the number 5781 which is this year.聽聽
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Even though we all have a stupid voice within us telling us "but there were so many calculations before for so many dates and we are still waiting?聽what is the use of having another date?" we should answer this thought with the words of faith, that every sign of redemption strengthens the potential and bings it closer to be actual reality.聽
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Knowing that with each sign we are one step closer, and the possibility that we will be redeemed today is so much greater! Chas ve Shalom (Heaven forbid) not to fall to despair if after one date goes by and it did not happen, the fact that we have Hope, Trust in Hashem in itself brings salvations.聽聽
