Plan to Use Christmas, New Year to Bring the Messiah

From Israel National News: 

(Israelnationalnews.com) Rabbanit Tzivya Eliyahu, widow of former Sephardic Chief Rabbi (Rishon LeTziyon)  Mordechai Eliyahu, spoke to Arutz Sheva's Hebrew-language news service and revealed a plan to bring the Messiah closer through Sabbath observance – with help from the non-Jewish holidays of Christmas and New Years.

This year, the two holidays fall out on the Sabbath (Shabbat) day. “That means that the Christian world takes a rest, the stores and banks are closed, and tens of thousands of Jews who don't always observe Sabbath can rest from their work,” she explained.

Jewish observance of the Sabbath day is a known way to bring the Messiah, she said. It is written in the Talmud that if the Jews were to observe two Sabbath days in a row, “they would be redeemed immediately,” she noted.

Each individual can make a difference, she said, “When I asked the rabbi, he always said that even just one extra person keeping the Sabbath day could tip the scales in favor of everyone.”

“I am convinced that this is a favorable time,” the Rabbanit continued. “Many people have free time, and many Jews who unfortunately work on the Sabbath day can avoid doing so on the next two Sabbaths, the twenty-fifth of December and the first of January.”

“I call on everyone to recruit people for this important task. 'Taste and see that G-d is good,' let us all taste the Sabbath day,” she concluded.

Rabbanit Eliyahu also spoke of the value of unity, saying it is challenge of the generation. “That was the rabbi's motto, to bring us all together like one person with one heart. If we will stand united nobody will break us.”

Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu was a prominent rabbi and beloved leader of the religious-Zionist community. He served as a dayan (religious judge) from a young age, gave widely spread halakhic [Jewish legal] rulings, and from 1983 to 1993 served as the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel. He passed away this past June.