Moshiach Online
By Shlomo E. Ben Rokeach

Dovid Kaleky is a Lubavitcher businessman who lives in Florida. When Internet first began to become a household word, Kaleky realized how important the names of Internet sites would be. He registered names such as Florida.com and Moshiach.com. He knew that plenty of people would want the Moshiach domain name and he thought it only right that a Lubavitcher get it first.

Word got out that he had acquired the name and he was flooded with requests from many Lubavitcher sites for use of the name. Dovid didn’t relinquish the name that fast. He thoroughly investigated site after site until he finally selected Moshiach Online as his choice to which he would release use of the name. A glance at the site quickly apprises you of the reasons for his choice. The site is simply exceptional, no matter how you look at it; both content and presentation are of superior quality.

Beis Moshiach wanted to focus on this site for an article on the Internet. How surprised we were to discover that the people responsible for the site are none other than two bachurim from Yeshivas Oholei Torah! Two young Tmimim bypassed dozens of others, including directors of mosdos, both Lubavitchers and non-Lubavitchers, some quite well known. The names of the two are Menachem Mendel Elishevitz and Yosef Yitzchok Lowenbein.

Mendy opened the door shyly and brought me into the site’s office – an apartment in the Oholei Torah dormitory. On the small table were piles of dozens of files and books, and in the center of it all was their computer.

The two didn’t waste any time. We immediately sat down facing the screen and began our tour. Said Mendy, "The site is made to engage even someone with no previous knowledge about Moshiach or even about Yiddishkeit. Even he will leave the site an expert on the topic and will want to come back again.

"This was our first goal – that we would be able to send absolutely anyone to this site. So if a shaliach meets someone and can’t get into long explanations, he can simply offer our address and we do the rest."

The site is set up to convey the message patiently and thoroughly (a.k.a. b’ofen ha’miskabel). On the first screen appear four basic questions: What is Moshiach? Who wants a king anyway? What will happen to our free choice? What’s wrong with life as it is now? These are followed by clear, yet brief, answers. From here you can go to other sections such as the Moshiach Study Center, the Moshiach Studio, and Living with the Times.

The virtual library contains hundreds of books on Geula and Moshiach of all sorts. It has a huge collection of audio tapes from a broad selection of mashpiim and lecturers. Near the library is the studio with songs of Moshiach and Geula. A visitor can select songs and use them as background music while touring the site.

You could spend days in the library without running out of material. It is divided into three main sections, with one designated for beginners that has 200 pages of material on Moshiach! The material is presented as a dialogue between a skeptic and a believer, through which a visitor to the site learns basic information about Moshiach.

Then there’s a section that explains about the Messianic Era according to Kabbala, which is followed by yet another section for those who want to delve into the topic more deeply. Those who prefer listening to information can simply select an audio tape.

The site also produces a beautiful virtual e-zine each week, which is sent by email to 1,500 subscribers. A visitor merely has to type in his address at the bottom of the page. This subscribes him to the e-zine, which contains a thought on the sidra connected to Moshiach. It also presents a story, Chassidic thoughts and interesting news items that illustrate how the world is progressing towards the Era of Redemption.

A little over a year ago, Tamim Menachem Mendel Elishevitz heard about the Internet and the opportunities it provided. He thought of the Rebbe’s directive for every shaliach to prepare his city and even his country for the coming of Moshiach. Until he had heard of the Internet, he didn’t understand how this was possible, for even were a shaliach to work day and night for years, he still wouldn’t reach a fraction of the people.

Along with his friend, Tamim Yosef Yitzchok Lowenbein, he began building a Moshiach site on the Internet. Mendy is mostly in charge of the design and programming of the site, while Yossi is more involved in administrative matters. With the help of Rabbi Yosef Rosenfeld, executive director of the yeshiva, the bachurim were given a room in Oholei Torah’s dormitory as the base of their operation.

The two quickly learned whatever they needed to know, and within a few months they were able to take off on the information superhighway with a site that would do credit to old-timers in the field.

When they acquired their new name, they changed the appearance of their site, which had begun to provide serious competition to the many other religious sites available. Thousands of people visit the site each day!

The site provides many services which barely exist in the frum world of the Internet. One such service is a questions and answers section. They guarantee to provide answers within 24 hours. This places a serious responsibility on them, as well as non-stop work, which explains why hardly any other site is willing to make such a promise.

The questions that appear on the site are many and varied, and come from varied populations, such as religious Jews in Boro Park, those religiously unobservant, and even l’havdil gentiles. A high percentage of the questions are about the Rebbe and his revelation as Moshiach.

I noticed letters on the screen that were posted within the past few days. "I am writing to express my tremendous appreciation for the site. The tour of the Beis HaMikdash really made things real for me. I am a Jewish student in New Zealand and practically cut off from things Jewish. Thanks to your site I am able to remain connected."

"I read some of the material on your site. I really enjoyed it. The site has become my favorite...The truth is that I found it by accident, but thank G-d for that... I learned a lot and I feel much more connected to my Jewish roots. Carry on with your great work!"

Mendy showed me a letter from a boy learning in Bnei Akiva, in a "modern orthodox" youth group, who asked for material in order to be able to give a class on inyanei Moshiach and Geula.

And from gentiles: "I am not Jewish...but for a while now I have noticed serious contradictions in the teachings that were offered to me throughout my life ... I want to learn the Jewish view about Moshiach... I am literally thirsting to learn. I await your response."

"Dear Rebbe" – the writer of this letter thought the site is run by the Rebbe MH"M himself – "blessings and greetings. I am a gentile but I hope that you will answer my question... I really enjoy your terrific site... I read the ad that appeared in the New York Times in honor of your fifty years of leadership ... First I want to express my pain for the cruel behavior of Christians against G-d’s chosen nation... I know that all members of the Christian community feel likewise… It is only now that we understand that it is the Jews who have led the world towards an era of goodness and justice for all nations."

"My question is: What connection is there between the nations of the world and Moshiach? Will they believe in him immediately? What value is there in a mitzva done by a gentile to hasten the Redemption?"

These excerpts are only a fraction of the questions that appear daily. Mendy says that every spare moment is devoted to answering these questions.

Do you run back to the dorm during every break?

Mendy smiled and removed a tiny handheld computer from his pocket. "Modern technology has done it again. Every question sent to the site is directed to this little computer, so we can send our answers directly from yeshiva."

Many of the questions are referred to shluchim and mashpiim, who either offer their opinion or even write the answers themselves. Many thanks to Rabbi Simon Jacobson, who has been extremely helpful in this area.

The screen dimmed for a moment and then lit up again with sketches of the Beis HaMikdash. "Choose a point on the picture and click on it," said Yosef Yitzchok. I did as directed and clicked on "Beis HaMokeid." A square frame appeared in which there was an enlarged picture of the structure. On the side was a detailed description of the building, its various functions, etc.

It’s a virtual reality tour of the entire Beis HaMikdash, in which a visitor can learn about every section of the Mikdash by means of colored pictures which depict every detail. It had to have taken weeks to assemble. I asked the bachurim in amazement, "When did you have the time to do all this?" They replied, "Last summer’s bein ha’zmanim [yeshiva intercession] was devoted to this part of the site."

From the research we did, we discovered that there are a number of Internet sites which offer information about the Beis HaMikdash, but not one of them comes close to the level of professionalism of this site. Dozens of other sites which deal with the topic of the Beis HaMikdash send people to tour the Mikdash at Moshiach Online, although some of them ardently oppose other material on the site. Yosef Yitzchok showed me how some of the sites have links to Moshiach Online, including religious Jewish sites, secular sites, and even Christian sites.

"350 sites have links to Moshiach.com. One of these sites actually has a warning to people they send to our site that says, ‘Just view the Beis HaMikdash and leave immediately. Do not view anything else!’"

A graphic design showing a globe with flags of a number of countries tells us we have entered another room. On the bottom of the screen it says: "In search of the Lost Tribes." The screen fills up with dozens of documented claims about populations and communities around the world, whose leaders and traditions indicate a possible connection between them and the Jewish people. This might be one of the most interesting topics for hundreds of thousands of people around the world. A very high percentage of visitors to the site come especially for this link.

Mendy relates, "One day I came across a little site which discusses the connection between certain Japanese communities and the descendants of one of the Ten Tribes. The one who operates the site offered visitors additional information. We wrote to him and he sent us an entire book he had written on the subject.

"There’s an amazing story behind the book. The book was originally written in Japanese by a rabbi from New York who served as a rav in Japan and then returned to New York and wrote the book. In Japan, a Japanese gentile read the book and translated it into English. So in New York the book was written in Japanese and in Japan it was translated into English!

"In any case, the book is quite fascinating. The Rebbe said that finding the Ten Lost Tribes is connected with the revelation of Moshiach, which is why this material was added to the site.

"We put the entire book on the site, in addition to any other information we could find. We included documents and pictures sent to us by the gentile who translated the book, and that’s how one of the most fascinating and popular sections came to be."

The thing that’s so amazing about Moshiach Online is that any one of the sections in the site could be a site in and of itself, one that wouldn’t shame any large Jewish organization. For example, we clicked on the Seven Noachide Laws, which is an entire world unto itself! It begins with simple explanations of the subject, continues with an in-depth lesson on each mitzva, and concludes with an audio/visual library, which has a tremendous amount of material on this topic.

To the side of each section in the site appear electronic aids: a search engine for the particular section, a search engine for the entire site, and a print function.

Now we arrive at one of the new sections, "And they will grind their swords into plowshares," which is made up to a large extent of the research and writing of Rabbi Shimon Silman.

"Do you know the sicha of Parshas Mishpatim 5752?" asked Mendy.

"Of course. It’s the famous sicha about the meeting between the presidents of the two superpowers about ending the Cold War and preparing the world for Moshiach!"

"Nu, and what do you think the two presidents intended? Do you think they also thought about that aspect, when they spoke about abolishing warfare?"

"I don’t know..."

"Come look at this." Mendy clicked to enter the first part of this section and right before my eyes appeared a video of the American president’s speech, the very speech referred to by the Rebbe. The quotes are just incredible, because the speeches of the two presidents are replete with pesukim and quotes from sources about Moshiach and about the world entering a new era.

Mendy scrolled to the next part, in which you hear the speech of Rabbi Naftali Berg, a’h, who was an ardent Chassid of the Rebbe MH"M, as well as one of the senior employees at the Pentagon. Rabbi Berg made the effort to attend every Moshiach gathering he could possibly attend, despite his hectic schedule.

He became seriously ill at the end of 5754 and passed away, but even during his illness he made tremendous efforts to participate in the Moshiach gatherings. He regularly spoke about the many strides made in the world of science, which testify to our being in the era of Moshiach, and about our obligation to proudly publicize the besuras ha’Geula. He exhibited tremendous mesirus nefesh when just a few days before his passing, after Gimmel Tammuz, he asked that he be brought from the hospital to the large gathering held in his city in order to reiterate the obligation to publicize the besuras ha’Geula.

Rabbi Berg explained the signs of "and they will grind their swords into plowshares," which we actually witness in our times. He spoke about the new plan the president of the United States mentioned, after pointing out the awesome potential that exists within the domestication of military technologies. The president spoke about the formation of a plan which would subsidize 50% of the costs of any company that develops a project in this area.

A link allows you to visit the Internet site of this department. We didn’t spend much time there, but just a glance was enough to see the most amazing facts. There are over 300 projects to harness weapons for peaceful purposes, and more on the way.

To complete the picture, the site presents a series of colorful articles surveying five projects that have already been completed. In order to edit these articles, Mendy went through dozens of newspaper articles and books, and came up with amazing information which plainly indicates that we are seeing the actual fulfillment of the ancient prophecies.

One of these articles describes a huge bunker at the Pentagon, which was built in case of nuclear war, ch’v. This would be used in the event of war by the Senate to hold its meetings there. However, with the advent of the post-Cold War era, the bunker has been transformed into a warehouse for important microfiche files.

Along with the astounding information he provides, Mendy locates opening speeches made by directors of companies, in which you can hear many quotes refering to the "end of days."

"Okay, we’ll show you just one more section," says Yossi. "It’s our e-mail site, where anybody can get a free email account. This functions just like other e-mail sites, except that under each letter appears a small paragraph about Yemos HaMoshiach. Actually, just using an e-mail address that ends with the words Moshiach.com helps promote Moshiach.

You’ve seen for yourself how dozens of questions arrive each day, how other Internet sites send their visitors to us – these are the best responses we could hope to have. Many newspapers report about us in columns reviewing the best Internet sites.

Then there are personal reactions such as the Jew who wrote to us and said that after seeing our site he decided to have a regular shiur on Meseches Sanhedrin. Or the reaction of the director of the Internet site for Arutz Sheva, who told us that he has never seen a more impressive religious site.

But the main reaction we wait for is the immediate revelation of the Rebbe MH"M, who will come in response to the work of thousands of shluchim who work day in and day out to bring the long-awaited Geula.

We are working on a number of fronts. First of all, we want the site translated into other languages. The site is presently being translated into French with the generous help of Rabbi Zushe Silberstein, shaliach in Montreal, and Tamim Menachem Mendel Asulin. In the near future the site will be appearing in Italian, which will be translated by Rabbi Michoel Almaliach, shaliach in Milan, Italy.

We have also been working on a site for the Three Weeks, with an array of classes and more on the subject of the Beis HaMikdash. Another area we’ve been working on is a Moshiach site for children, which will have all the books available for this age group in order to prepare them for the coming of Moshiach, too.

It’s important for all shluchim and all Lubavitchers to know that it’s possible to convey the concept of Moshiach to anyone in the most acceptable manner via this site. We all remember the special sicha which was said at the Kinus HaShluchim in 5752, in which the Rebbe defined the role of every shliach – "to prepare all the Jews of your place and city, etc., to greet Moshiach through explaining the matter of Moshiach as explained in the written and oral Torahs. [This should be] in a way that will make it receptive to every single person according to his intellect and understanding, including and especially through learning inyanei Moshiach and Geula, particularly in a manner of chochma, bina, and daas."

We have met Jews on mivtzaim and we speak to them briefly about Moshiach, but you just can’t do it properly on one foot. Today, through the Internet, you can learn about Geula on a level appropriate for you, and all you have to do is offer the web address!

With Hashem’s help we will all merit to see the leader of our generation, the Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach, who will take us out of Galus now!

For additional information and to receive brochures and material which advertise the site, send an e-mail message to: info@moshiach.com.