One of Israel’s most powerful groups believes the Gaza and Iran wars herald the Messiah’s coming
Netanyahu at the Western Wall, during the war with Iran (June 2025). The prime minister is increasingly using a language that isn’t natural to him, drawing on core concepts from messianic discourse
Dror Greenblum writes in Haaretz on 17 July 2025:
Moments after the war with Iran broke out last month, it became clear that what had been framed in public discourse as a military-political struggle was, for certain influential circles, a completely different kind of event.
In the Hardali – nationalist ultra-Orthodox – community, this wasn’t just another war in the name of Israel’s security, but a historic moment in which the heavens opened, miracles became overt – and the Messiah was approaching in great strides. The spiritual leadership of the community, which for years had been somewhat cautious in its language, dropped all restraint, openly declared divine intervention in the course of events, and even granted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the explicit status of Messiah. Beneath the surface, an extraordinary eruption of messianism is occurring, sweeping up in its wake the leaders of the Hardali community, and threatening to dramatically impact the future of the entire country.
A similar, significant awakening had already accompanied the events of October 7, but it seems that the 12-day conflagration with Iran has taken it to the next level. For several years I’ve been following the mood among the rabbinic leadership of this community – the most messianic and nationalistic wing of the greater religious-Zionist public – and believe there has perhaps never been a period as turbulent as this. What we’re seeing is an outburst of unfettered, ecstatic fervor.
This shift lies not in the belief that the advent of the Messiah approaches, but in the removal of the few remaining filters relating to how this emerging reality is presented to the greater public. In light of the “open miracles” and “wonders upon wonders,” as the rabbis put it, there is no longer any reason to be circumspect or constrained in the rhetoric. On the contrary: There is an obligation to convey to society the magnitude of the moment and the unfolding redemption it portends.
Netanyahu, too, has increasingly adopted a language that doesn’t come to him naturally, using key concepts from messianic discourse. During a visit to the Western Wall, amid the exchange of hostilities with Iran, he offered a special prayer for Donald Trump’s well-being: “He who gives salvation to kings and whose dominion is the dominion of all worlds, who delivered David his servant from the evil sword, who makes a path through the sea and waters, may he bless, guard, protect, help, exalt, magnify, and raise up the president of the United States, Mr. Donald John son of Mary Anne, for he has taken it upon himself to banish evil and darkness from the world.”
According to the Hardalim, purging the world of evil is the Jewish people’s primary mission, ahead of redemption, and everything that has happened to us and is still happening is part of that mighty struggle against global wickedness. This is how Rabbi Yigal Levinstein, head of the Bnei David pre-military academy in the West Bank settlement of Eli and one of the most influential rabbis in the community, put it on December 3, 2023: “Says the Holy One, blessed be he: There are moments in history when, if I don’t create an earthquake, people will continue to live in a terrible error that runs counter to the foundations of true justice, divine justice… What does the Master of the Universe do? He allows the worldview of evil to be revealed in all its wickedness… This is a universal earthquake… We have paid the price for the entire Western world.”
Rabbis Yigal Levinstein. “We are privileged,” says Levinstein, “to witness things the prophets dreamed of. Why were we the ones to deserve it in this generation? Because this generation gives its life for the redemption of Israel. Who can stop us?”Credit: From Levinstein’ YouTube channel
From this perspective, the apparently still-unfinished war with Iran is a direct continuation of Israel’s battle against global evil, and now Trump too is joining that mission.
The language of redemption does not speak in terms of national security or political considerations – those are entirely different realms. That’s why it doesn’t matter whether Netanyahu himself truly believes the words of the prayer he recited at the Wall (he probably doesn’t); what matters is that messianic concepts are being employed and imbued by him. The significance lies in the growing symbiosis we are witnessing between him and the messianic streams within religious Zionism.
There are many examples of statements that reflect the messianic mood among the Hardali leadership. Let’s start with the end-times calculations. Rabbi Elyakim Levanon, head of the hesder yeshiva in the settlement of Elon Moreh (which combines army service and religious studies), one of the leading spiritual figures in the religious Zionist world today – and one of the most influential and prominent figures of his generation in its nationalist ultra-Orthodox stream.
As early as October 15, 2023, in the midst of the inferno in southern Israel, Levanon offered an explanation for the horrors that had happened a week before, as essentially being a move “by the Holy One, blessed be he… We see it with our own eyes… these horrors are part of a very, very clear divine plan to create deep cracks within the nation… and when people don’t wake up, he creates terrible cracks that wake everyone up… There’s a transformation, and God is leading our great plan, his plan, toward a great upheaval.”
The “great upheaval,” then, began on October 7, and the wars in Gaza and in Iran are its natural continuation. Rabbi Levanon had already declared several months ago, based on calculations attributed to the Vilna Gaon, the date on which the period known as the “time for peace” (defined in the Book of Ecclesiastes as “a time to give birth,” “a time to die,” etc.) would begin. According to this complex arithmetic, details of which are beyond the scope of this discussion, the precise date is the 17th of Sivan, 5785 (June 13, 2025). Remarkably, that is exactly the day the war with Iran began.
In light of the ‘miracles’ and ‘wonders upon wonders,’ as the rabbis put it, there’s no longer any reason to be circumspect in the rhetoric. On the contrary: There is an obligation to convey to society the magnitude of the moment. And if one wonders what war has to do with peace, Rabbi Levanon explains that, according to the Bible, “peace” marks the beginning of an era in which Israel’s enemies are too afraid to wage war against it. More importantly, however, it constitutes the last period before redemption.
News of this calculation spread like wildfire. On the 19th of Sivan (June 15), Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, another prominent rabbi in the world of religious Zionism and someone who is particularly influential among the Hardalim, presented it with great excitement to the students of the hesder yeshiva in Safed. Eliyahu explained to them that the “time for peace,” which has now begun, is the period in which the Holy One purifies the world of its enemies, who are the enemies of the People of Israel.
Thus, Levanon and Eliyahu, two of the most important Hardali leaders of our time, are experiencing a revelation – ostensibly seeing with their own eyes the hand of God at work, and sharing the messianic ecstasy in which they are immersed with others.
A day after the war with Iran broke out, Rabbi Dani Lavi, a popular Hardali rabbi, offered his interpretation of the “wonders upon wonders” unfolding before our very eyes. “The time of your redemption has come” was the title given to his op-ed of Friday, June 13, on the Arutz Sheva website in Hebrew. “In these exalted moments,” Lavi wrote, “it is impossible not to look at one of the unique midrashim that speaks directly to our time.”
He quoted from Yalkut Shimoni, a compilation of biblical exegeses: “The year in which the King Messiah will be revealed – all the kings of the nations of the world will provoke one another. The king of Persia will provoke an Arab king, and the Arab king will go to Aram to seek counsel. Then the king of Persia will destroy the entire world… and Israel will be shaken and confused and will say, ‘Where shall we come and go?’ And God will say to them: My children, do not fear. All that I have done, I have done only for you. Why are you afraid? Do not fear, the time of your redemption has come.”Lavi concluded with the following words: “I rub my eyes and thank God for the privilege of living in this wondrous time. The Bible is coming to life, the people of Israel are standing tall, and the Messiah is at the doorstep.”
Rabbi Hagay Lundin, another esteemed figure in the Hardali world, echoed Lavi and was quick to frame current events in the language of redemption. In an article published in Hebrew on Arutz Sheva on June 16, titled “The war that came at just the right time,” Lundin wrote: “The Holy One, blessed be he, is ‘the Master of wars, the sower of righteousness, the one who brings forth salvation.’ We are arriving prepared for this moment.”
According to Lundin, the past five years have prepared us Jews, with perfect timing, for this miraculous moment, especially on the emotional and spiritual level: “5780-5783 (2020-2023) – the coronavirus pandemic: building mental resilience in the face of a sweeping crisis, getting used to lockdowns and long-term disruptions, gaining control over fantasies and illusions. 5783 (2023) – confronting the deep state as it revealed itself, developing communication and consciousness networks of national resilience, early signs of replacing the elites in key institutions. 5784-5785 (2023-2025) – Operation Swords of Iron: eliminating the ring of fire surrounding Israel, bringing military, civilian and emotional readiness to its height.”
Lundin gave a lecture on June 30 on Arutz Meir – an internet channel operated by a Hardali yeshiva called Machon Meir in Jerusalem – headlined: “The day after the victory over Iran: Moved to tears by the light.” “We saw a great light,” he proclaimed. “How does one look at what we saw… does one cry from joy or from sorrow… moved to tears by the light. There is such great light here, we need time to process it.” Hostages are rotting alive in Hamas tunnels, soldiers are being killed daily, and this rabbi is moved to tears by light and joy.
Lundin wasn’t the only Hardali figure overcome with emotion by the unfolding events. A few days after hostilities erupted between Israel and Iran, Rabbi Levinstein, head of the pre-military program in Eli, also delivered an impassioned sermon, in which he declared that “God’s spirit was upon Bibi when he chose the name of the operation” (Netanyahu called the Iran war Am K’lavi, a reference to the biblical phrase “a people like a lion,” or Operation Rising Lion). “These are mighty days,” he said. “We see the hand of God in everything that’s happening right now. We are in the midst of a process of sanctifying God that is increasingly being revealed, a nation of lions achieving a blue-and-white victory without the help of any other nation. The truth is wondrous; there are no words to describe the magnitude of this moment.”
According to Levinstein, everything taking place now was already promised by Moses during the Exodus from Egypt, “After the section of curses comes the section of blessings, and it describes exactly what is happening to us now: ‘The Lord your God will place all these curses upon your enemies.’ Everything is turning back on our enemies. What a terrible choke hold there was around us. The Master of the Universe created the necessity of that choke hold, drawing out the tremendous strength within us. God forced us to see who we really are, and what a miraculous people we are. ‘Happy is the eye that saw all this.’ We are privileged to witness with our own eyes things the prophets dreamed of but never saw. And why were we the ones to deserve it in this generation? Because this generation gives its life for the redemption of Israel. Who can stop us?”
This wondrous messianic process has an obvious spearhead: “Blessed are you, prime minister,” wrote Rabbi Dror Aryeh, a member of the extremist Noam party, in an open letter to Netanyahu (Arutz Sheva, June 15; in Hebrew). “You stand firm like a rock in the face of the storm, maintaining faith in the righteousness of the path, filled with a deep sense of mission.” He emphasized that Netanyahu was not chosen merely at the ballot box, “but rather, as many believe, by divine providence, to awaken the lion within the nation and to strengthen its spirit.” Rabbi Lundin echoed this view in a lecture that same day, declaring: “You’d have to be blind not to see that there is divine supervision over Benjamin Netanyahu.”
Another influential figure in the Hardali world, Rabbi Yosef Kelner, also explained to students at the Bnei David pre-military academy: “The State of Israel now stands at the pinnacle of humanity, and the rest of humanity looks up to it from below… Israel is the leader of the world, and Bibi is God’s emissary in this process.”
The notion that Netanyahu is Messiah ben Joseph, the forerunner to Messiah ben David (the actual Messiah), is not foreign to the spiritual world of the Hardali community. But we are now witnessing a clear shift: a new development in which the premier is crowned God’s chosen emissary. While the word “Messiah” is not explicitly used to describe him, the gist of the rhetoric is unprecedented. And from the Hardali perspective, not offering support to a personage who is in some contexts being compared to Messiah ben Joseph is simply unthinkable.
This is not a debate about whether attacking Iran was right or wrong, or about what is best for Israel’s security. Discourse surrounding such issues cannot take place in the current nationalist sphere of religious Zionism. The conversation there is drastically different from anything discussed in the pages of this newspaper.
The sector of the public that currently wields the greatest influence over government decisions, and by extension, over the country’s future and its ability to survive – the Hardali community and its rabbis – is experiencing what it sees as redemption coming to pass before its very eyes. For them, the miracles are visible and undeniable. The Messiah, they believe, is already at the doorstep.
Dror Greenblum has a PhD in the history of the People of Israel and is an independent researcher who is currently studying the Hardali community’s response to the events of October 7.
This article is reproduced in its entirety