Moshiach Ben Yoseph will continue to blossom by this point and play an even more vital role in the expanding redemption. But it seems that the above-mentioned fruit-tree will need to be not only “pruned” but cut off, and Moshiach Ben *David* — the ultimate Redeemer — will be the one to do that. In fact, the thickets surrounding the Jewish Nation “will (need to) be utterly cut off in the end of days” so that “the pure ones can remain pure”.

What this all refers to is the “great war between holiness and impurity” that will be played out in the universe at this juncture, and the subsequent defeat of unholiness.

In any event, Isaiah indicated that “a rod will (eventually) come forth from the stem of Yishai” (Isaiah 11:1), which refers to Moshiach Ben David, who’ll begin to turn up some time in the course of the events to follow, thanks to the actions of Moshiach Ben Yoseph.

In the meanwhile, Moshiach Ben Yoseph will “cut down the thickets of the forest with iron”, which is to say that on some arcane and mystical level, he’ll see to it that the ministering angels of the other nations will “rot away” so that unholiness will no longer feed off-of holiness as it had been doing to that point.

As a consequence, “impurity will no longer have any power” over us, and we could be redeemed even further. There’ll then come a point when “holiness will return and reassemble at home where it belongs”, and when “the Jewish Nation will garner strength from within, and the power of the husks will … wither away”.

At a certain point beforehand, though, impurity will begin to “garner strength … and will become very powerful” once again, and things will become precarious for a while. But rest assured, we’re told, because holiness will have “prepared for that beforehand” and will react accordingly.

The forces of unholiness “won’t be able to summon the strength needed to ascend” by that point, but the good within it (since everything in this world is a combination of good and evil, by degrees) will “leap upward, ascend, and draw closer to holiness”, while its remaining unholy aspect “won’t be able to”, and holiness will have prevailed. And finally, “all the ministering angels of the idolatrous nations will fall”, and Moshiach Ben Yoseph will have been victorious both on heaven and on earth.

Text Copyright © 2006 by Rabbi Yaakov Feldman and Torah.org.