In a recent lecture delivered just days after the Trump-brokered ceasefire that resulted in the release of Israeli hostages from Gaza, Rabbi Mendel Kessin offered a deeply spiritual—and provocative—interpretation of current events. Far from being merely a geopolitical turning point, Rabbi Kessin argued that the hostage ordeal is part of a larger divine accounting, a cosmic reckoning unfolding in real time.

“Everybody’s got it basically all wrong,” Rabbi Kessin declared. “Let me try to explain what the whole idea of the hostages is, based on the Divine plan.”

At the center of Rabbi Kessin’s thesis is the belief that we are witnessing the decline of the spiritual force represented by Ishmael, the progenitor of the Arab nations. He pointed to recent Israeli military victories and Western strikes against Iran as signals that this era is closing.

“We are in the generation now, or the end of the domination of Ishmael, the Arabs, right? That’s what we are now in a generation. You see that because of what Israel did to the Arabs, they destroyed Arab domination. It’s not just Lebanon, it’s also Hamas. They basically wiped them out,” he said. “And the real key is Iran. They are a basket case.”

Rabbi Kessin emphasized that this is not just military success, but a sign of divine intervention.

“ So what we clearly see, this is a divine assistance that the Arabs are on the way out militarily and so on. The Arabs are on the way out, militarily and otherwise,” Rabbi Kessin said. “According to the divine plan, they are losing influence and the ability to harass Israel. This is what’s happening, and it’s being done miraculously. It’s almost like Israel doesn’t fail.”

“So the question as we approach the Messianic era, because that’s really what it means. The last enemy of the Jews, basically, is Ishmael, the Arabs. They are the last enemies of the Jews, and their reign ends at the end of time, and this is what we’re seeing. You see, that’s very important to understand now when that happens.”

But according to Rabbi Kessin, divine justice is not so simple. While the dominance of Ishmael is fading, their ancient grievances against the Jewish people must be answered before the messianic era can fully emerge.

Citing Jewish mystical sources, including the Zohar and teachings of the Ramchal (Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto), Rabbi Kessin explained that the Arabs—descendants of Ishmael—have longstanding, legitimate claims in Heaven.

“They have complaints that have to be compensated in favor of the Arabs,” he said. “Since Yitzchak—we’re looking at 4,000 years—they say the Jews did what was wrong to them.”

“Justice is justice,” he continued. “Therefore what God must do is allow them domination, to justify their complaints.”

The Zohar, he said, predicts that in the end of days, the Jewish people will fall under the temporary domination of Ishmael for nine months. That period, he argues, has played out in our own time.

“That gives them legitimacy to dominate us,” Rabbi Kessin said. “But as we approach the Messianic era, God must accelerate the process. This is the problem. There’s a reckoning that will be recognized at the end of timeTherefore, the hostages now become the solution.”

Rabbi Kessin framed the hostages not as random victims, but as spiritual representatives—“volunteers,” in his words—chosen by God to bear suffering on behalf of the Jewish people.

“As we approach the Messianic era, God must accelerate the process. This is the problem, therefore, the hostages now become the solution. The hostages are in the hands of the Arabs, and it’s not just 250 people, the hostage pains the Jewish people all over the world in many ways, God chose 250 people as what He calls ‘volunteers’ to represent the ability of the Arab people to dominate the Jews… to pain the Jews,” he said. “They don’t realize it, but their reward will be infinite.”

He drew on the teachings of the Ramchal, explaining that divine justice often requires the suffering of the righteous to balance spiritual claims.

“To make that happen, righteous people have to suffer… Even if it means people—righteous people—have to suffer to allow evil to grow. These hostages don’t realize that their reward. They will be compensated infinitely for allowing God to use them to comopensate the Arabs. It’s not that they volunteered,” he clarified. “But God chooses them to be worthy to compensate the claim of justice—even by evil people.”

“In order to make that happen, righteous people have to suffer. You see, in order to compensate people that claim that they’ve been wronged by Jewish people or whatever. God has to settle the score.”

“Since we’re very close to the Messianic age, it’s got to be done now. There is no time.

Rabbi Kessin emphasized that the hostages were released on Hoshana Rabbah, the final day of judgment in the Jewish calendar—a sign, he said, that the event was orchestrated by Heaven.

“It shows that the whole hostage deal… is justice-related. Or else they wouldn’t be returned exactly on the Day of Judgment.”

The significance, in his view, is monumental: the spiritual claim of Ishmael has been satisfied.

“What’s good is that the claim is now ended… Since it’s ending on Hoshana Rabbah and Shemini Atzeret… it’s going to be very good,” he said.

He described the release as not just a political victory but the closing of a long and painful chapter in Jewish history.

“We have been released from their claim that we have done to them for thousands of years.”

Rabbi Kessin connected the suffering of the hostages to the suffering of many Jews today—through illness, poverty, family crisis, or doubt—arguing that these too may serve the divine plan.

“Righteousness is losing. Many people are becoming apikorsim—heretics—because evil has a claim,” he explained. “God has to use this to level the justice claim of what goes on.”

“This hostage event, which was terrible for two years, is part of the Divine plan to remove the weight of error against the Jews and to continue the Messianic process.”

He concluded with a sobering yet hopeful assertion:

“Justice, justice you shall pursue—even when the claimant is evil itself,” he said. “Everything has to be right in the end. Even evil that was done to evil wrongly. This is what’s going on. So do not wonder. This is what’s happening.”

Rabbi Mendel Kessin is a respected Torah scholar and lecturer with semicha (rabbinical ordination) and a Ph.D. in psychology from Fordham University. He is best known for his teachings on Jewish mysticism, history, and the Messianic era, often weaving together Torah sources, world events, and deep spiritual insights. His lectures are widely followed in both the Jewish and broader spiritual community.