Hi Rabbi Shvat, I listened to this shiur of yours on YUTorah- thank you for posting, it was very informative! You said the second proof that Zionism is not a false messiah is because of kibbutz galuyot, and you brought crazy statistics to show how many Jews came to Israel bH! However, I thought that kibbutz galuyot is only after the "shofar" is blown, when mashiach comes at the end of the process and blows the shofar- since in the bracha in shemonah esrei, tika bishofar, it seems like that is the order. Therefore, any Jew who comes before the shofar is blown, will just mean that there will be less Jews coming once the shofar is blown, since they are already there. But only the rest of the Jews that come afterwards will be considered part of kibbutz galuyot happening.

Shalom! If you wish to read my article on the topic in English, see: https://www.yeshiva.co/midrash/10933 In the source quoted from Megilla 17b, it says explicitly that the Mashiach is the final stage of redemption, but mass aliya coming back to Israel will be way before that! But the answer to your question is a very major principle in understanding the prophets and rabbinic literature. The concepts are all obviously true but very often figurative. For example, Chazal explain that when it says the Mashiach will come riding on a donkey, they explain that the Hebrew word for donkey: Chamor is related to the word Chomer=materialism, and that the process will first see a materialistic/national redemption, which will be gradual/slow like a donkey, rather than a horse which is fast. In kindergarten we take these things literally, but if you look in the commentaries they are usually meant symbolically. Yes, the barren will conceive (Dvarim 7, 14), but who says that it's not through modern science and fertility treatments, which God has revealed to man in this, our messianic era. I don't think any infertile couple would or should wait for a messiah to come and "snap his fingers" to make them conceive, and until then, do you think they should suffer not having children?!! Similarly, just as the prophets say we will return to Israel on wings of an eagle, or fly back like doves or clouds (Yishayau 60, 8), it was apparently referring to airplanes. Anyone waiting for a magical eagle or clouds will probably be waiting a long time (or really forever, and meanwhile "missing the boat" of redemption), just because he never grew out of that childish picture from kindergarten. Similarly, the prophet says that the shofar will be sounded (BTW not by mashiach but by God). We know that God doesn't have lips or lungs to blow and doesn't need a physical Shofar, but the Torah explains that the shofar was used in the desert to gather the tribes and/or heads of the tribes (Bamidbar 10), and so the call to gather the exiles is likened to a shofar (Yishayu 27, 13). Do you actually think that the 7,000,000 Jews who have already miraculously been returned to Israel, will have to go back to their 103 exiles in order to bring them back the way your kindergarten teacher thinks they will return?! Only Hashem could have brought the Jews from Germany for one reason, the Jews from Russia for a different reason, those from Morrocco, Iraq, Yemen, Ethiopia etc. etc. each was brought by Hashem via a unique and different reason, but the common denominator is that Hashem, Who runs the world, is bringing us home to Israel. As Rav Kasher writes, "If this isn't Kibbutz Galuyot, what is?! The Rambam writes explicitly against the "magic show", approach, writing that the Mashiach is not going to do super-natural miracles, but the process will be a natural one (Hil. Milachim 11, 3), again, through scientific, technological, political and military means. The Netziv explains that was why Hashem was angry at Moshe, for Moshe thought that the redemption should be brought otherwise. He writes: "We should not tell Hashem how to run His redemption!". Someone who really believes in the redemption will take it seriously and not childishly, and not deny when he sees it taking place, simply because he enjoys the gashmiut of golus and is looking for excuses why he "doesn't have to make aliya". We should want to make aliya and participate in God's redemption, and search and recognize it, and thank Hashem for it as it appears, and not deny all the kindness that He has done for us over the past 100 years.