IKVESA DEMESHICHA: Rav Elya Ber Wachtfogel Dons Shabbos Clothing as Russian Warships Move In

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Rav Elya Ber Wachtfogel, rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Gedolah Zichron Moshe of South Fallsburg, put on Shabbos clothing last week when he heard news of the movement of Russian warships. The response of the rosh yeshiva is based on a Kabbolah that he has that when the Russians will cross the Dardanelles River, it will trigger the start of a series of events before Moshiach comes, and therefore, in his words, “Men ken shoin untun Shabbosdike kleider.”

Rav Elya Ber recently told a talmid, “I’ve been waiting for this moment for 70 years.”

Matzav.com learned from those close to Rav Elya Ber that he first heard this kabbolah when he was 10 years old from his father, the mashgiach, Rav Nosson Wachtfogel. Rav Nosson heard it from Rav Doniel Movoshovitz of the Kelmer Talmud Torah, who heard it from the Alter of Kelm, who heard it from someone who heard it from Rav Chaim Volozhiner, who heard it from the Vilna Gaon.

{Matzav.com}


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50 COMMENTS

  2. Dardanelles is not a river, but a second of the two straights, which connect the Black and the Mediterranean seas, thus forming a waterway that separates Europe from Asia, at that location. Today, Turkey occupies both sides of the straights.
    Russian invasion of the Ukraine, even if every inch is taken, doesn’t take place anywhere near the Dardanelles, being few countries away, therefrom.
    Now, which are we to question in regard to accuracy – the mesorah, or this report, which very possibly named the wrong body of water, or a totally different geographical location?
    I am betting on the report, obviously.

  4. Waiting for the the naysayers to comment.
    Those who are too afraid of it will always deny.
    this doesnt necessarily mean it will be today, tommorrow, or this year! But it can very well be.
    The point is that l’fi that Kabbalah, the events are all the more closer. Do Teshuva.

  6. A few years ago, when Russia took back Crimea, there were some people promoting a similar thing. However, it didn’t come to pass.

    Their alleged tradition is quite questionable.

    • The tradition is impeccable. However it’s what that is supposed to mean is obviously unclear
      For example there is some basis that it happened in 1967 and happened in 2009-10

        • You think you’re smart? Look all around you at how Hashem created every chemical, compound (food that we can digest, air that we can actually breathe and water), see the amount of nerves that it takes just to simply raise a hand. Even an egg, if the shell was thicker, the baby bird would die trying to crack it, thinner and it wouldn’t protect it as it grows – and this is true of each type of bird, each having their own shell with tailored thickness. Open your eyes and take your relationship with Hashem, who does all things, seriously.

    • When Russia entered Crimea a number of years ago, I heard in a shiur from Rav Mordechai Finkelman that the Vilna Gaon said “When the Rus (Russia) enters Crem (Crimea) – ‘The bells of Moshiach’, and when they enter Shtambul (Turkey), put on Shabbos Clothes and don’t remove them”

  8. This is a legitimate Messora.
    It’s dangerous neverless to publicize it, as it has more downside than upside to do so (vehameivin …).

  9. If someone can please clarify because the map shows Dardenelles straits in Turkey, not near where any of this action is taking place. Unless these are different rivers with similar names.

  11. Oy

    this is what happens when people don’t study Geography
    there is no Dardanelle river
    there is a Dardanelle strait but it isnt near the Ukraine, Russian ships traverse it all the time on the way to and from the black sea

  14. “Rav Elya Ber Wachtfogel, rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Gedolah Zichron Moshe of South Fallsburg, put on Shabbos clothing last week”
    Yup on Friday afternoon.

  15. The Dardanelles is a strait (not a river) that separates the Black Sea from the Mediterranean. Russia has no need to cross the Dardanelles in order to reach Ukraine. Please look at a map.
    In fact, the Russian fleet crossed the Dardanelles many times over the years visiting Latakia in Syria.
    At any rate let’s hope that the Rosh Yeshiva’s prediction will come true .

  16. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Will we all live in order to see the Moshiach? Were we yotzai the chazal that 4/5ths will be wiped out before Moshiach comes? This is a little scary, to be honest. We keep davening for this moment but it’s unclear exactly how it’s going to happen.

    • We need to Daven that what we sadly and unfortunately lost 70 years ago, as well as what we lost to intermarriage in Russia and other places be considered that 4/5th you speak of.

      Hashem has many ways to make that cheshbon – just as the 400 in Mitzrayim went back to the days of Avrohom Ovinu….

  19. The Russians need to pass through that strait to reach their naval base on the Black Sea and they established that base in the 1700’s when they took Crimea from the Ottoman’s. So they have been passing through that strait on a steady basis for hundreds of years. Therefore its not clear what the Goan was referring to when he spoke of the Russians passing through the Dardanelles.

  21. Look it up, the only way to get to the Black Sea from the Atlantic/Meditteranean is through the Dardanelles Straights and then the Bosphorus Straights. That means that any Russian navy ship that has has ever been in the Black Sea, and they are always there, has come through the Dardanelles, unless the ship was built near the Black Sea. It was in the news two weeks ago because of the Ukraine crisis, but they cross through there every other day.
    I’ve heard this mesorah slightly differently, (I think I heard it from Rav Kalman Krohn ztz”l) that the sign is when the Russians march through the gates of Istanbul.

  24. Please, please. To comprehend, one must read and watch all matzav postings and take them in the aggregate. Just reading this piece alone will stir up all the questions you raised. Matzav already before this posted the Ben Shapiro video explaining that the Ukranian incursion is a litmus test for Putin to tesr out his strategy for taking over Ruusian populations situated in other countries without firing a shot or taking casualties. One of his next targets is the Russian populated area in Turkey.
    This is just stepA1 of the mesorah coming into frution. Stay tuned for next steps. Even R Wachtfogel waited 70 years for this step. We’ve all waited since 1948 for successive steps. For us, years is a long waiting period. For the ONE Above, 1,000 years equals only 1 day in our terms.

  25. Boris heard from his close friend Rav Lazar that “Bnisan nigalu ubenisan asidin lhigalois”.He also knows quite well that Moshiachs arrival is dependent on his forces crossing the Dardanelles.He wanted to do that a time ago untill Rav Lazar told him “Boris,my friend,no,not yet,too early ! We have an ibber yohr this year,r”ch nisan is only on shabbos April 2nd you must hold back a few more weeks”…………..Ok,said the president “ive got to keep my forces occupied and alert, so we`ll chepper Ukraine untill that date you gave me,then we’ll cross that strait”.”Just let me know when the moilad is and we go!”.

  26. Today’s news: Ukraine has asked Turkey to close the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits to Russian ships, Ukraine’s ambassador to Ankara said on Thursday, after Russia launched air and ground assaults on its neighbor.

  28. The Rosh Yeshiva Did not don shabbos clothes , In fact i spoke to his son and he said that The Gaon was prepared with hi shabbos clothes , but we have a lot more to prepare then our shabbos clothes . Quoted direct

  31. According to news reports, a Russian navy ship passed through Turkey’s Dardanelles Strait on Tuesday. One of the ships of the Black Sea fleet of Russia, “Dmitriy Rogachev 375”, with a length of 104 meters (over 341.2 feet) entered the strait from the direction of the Aegean Sea, and reached the Dardanelles Strait. The patrol boat, which was sailing in the direction of the Sea of Marmara, was accompanied by the Turkish Coast Guard Command at the crossing, the sources said, adding no information was given about the port where the ship will go.

    Turkey is set to implement an international convention on naval passage through two of its strategic straits, which would allow it to limit the movement of Russian warships between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea.

    Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister, said on Sunday that the situation in Ukraine had become a war, a declaration that authorizes Ankara to activate the Montreux Convention and ban Russian war vessels from entering the Black Sea through the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits.

    “In the beginning, it was a Russian attack,” Cavusoglu said in an interview with broadcaster CNN Turkish. “Now it has turned into a war.”

    “Turkey will implement all provisions of Montreux Convention in a transparent manner,” he added.

    The decision comes three days after Kyiv had asked Ankara to close the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits to Russian ships.

    But what does the Montreux Convention entail and how could its implementation affect the war between Russia and Ukraine?

    The Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, also known as the Turkish Straits or the Black Sea Straits, connect the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea via the Sea of Marmara. It is the only passage through which Black Sea ports can access the Mediterranean and beyond.

    More than 3 million barrels of oil — about 3% of the daily global supply, mostly produced in Russia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan — pass through this waterway every day. The route also ships large amounts of iron, steel, and agricultural products from the Black Sea coast to Europe and the rest of the world.

    According to the 1936 Montreux Convention regarding the Regime of the Straits, often referred to simply as the Montreux Convention, Turkey has control over both the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits.

    In the event of a war, the pact gives Ankara the right to regulate the transit of naval warships and to block the straits to warships belonging to the countries involved in the conflict.

    Russia’s location on the Black Sea complicates the situation.

    Article 19 of the treaty contains an exception for the countries on the Black Sea that can effectively undermine Turkey’s power in blocking the Russian warships entering or exiting the Black Sea: “Vessels of war belonging to belligerent powers, whether they are Black Sea Powers or not, which have become separated from their bases, may return thereto,” it says.

    That means Turkey cannot prevent warships from returning to their original bases through the passage.

    For example, a Russian fleet registered in the Black Sea but currently located in the Mediterranean Sea is allowed to pass through the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits and return to its base. The condition also applies to Russian fleets currently in the Black Sea that belong to a base in the Mediterranean or Baltic sea: Russia is free to move them out of the Black Sea.

    Cavusoglu raised this point in his interview with CNN. “If this warship is to go to the base in the country that is a party to the war, then this passage cannot be prevented,” he said, adding that there should be no abuse and that “the ships returning to their bases should not be involved in a war after saying it will go back to the base.”

    The official assignment of a ship to a port determines whether it has the right to pass through the Straits or not. Such assignment , according to theInternational Maritime Organization (IMO) . Therefore, another possible way for Russia to exploit the Montreux Convention, would be to reassign some of its vessels to the Black Sea.

    The extensive freedom that Russia enjoys due to its location on the Black Sea casts doubts on whether invoking the pact will have significant military consequences on the ongoing conflict. “This is mainly order-reinforcing; any military relevance will be minor & long-term,” wrote Cornell Overfield, analyst at the Center for Naval Analyses, in athread of Tweets.

    According to the treaty, vessels that Russia decides to bring into the Black Sea or take out, will have to remain there until the end of the war. In addition, “warships, including auxiliary vessels, not currently in the Black Sea and not traditionally based there, absolutely may not enter the Black Sea,” Overfield wrote. “This might be irrelevant in the short term but could be big if the conflict drags on.”

    Sinan Ulgen, former Turkish diplomat and researcher at the Carnegie Foundation in Europe, believes that invoking the treaty will make it more complicated for Russia to balance its military presence in the Black Sea and the East Mediterranean.

    “Before Russia was able to flexibly use its Black Sea fleet naval assets including submarines,” he wrote on Twitter. “Now not anymore. It has to choose which asset will be in the Black Sea and which one will remain in the Mediterranean.”

    “What Turkey is doing is more like what countries closing their airspace to Russia flights are doing,” Overfield wrote.

    “Closing the Straits might never have a military impact in the Russo-Ukrainian War,” he adds. “But it is Turkey’s unique way of punishing Russia for its crime of aggression and showing commitment to international law.”

  32. I do not understand the title of the article. Did not the Chofetz Chayim and his disciple R’ Elchonon Wasserman already say in their generation that we are in the era of Ikv’sa D’meshicha? Does this article purport to predict for us where we are in this process? Does the Vilna Gaon perhaps only wish to dispute the aforementioned Gaonim and declare that Ikv’sa D’Meshicha only begins when the Russians cross the Dardanelles Strait?
    BTW, it is true that the Russian navy has never traversed the Dardanelles Strait (in WWII Turkey was neutral and blocked all belligerent nations from travelling through the Strait) until yesterday.

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