In Parshat Vayechi, Breisheet 49:1, Yaakov called his sons over and said “Assemble yourselves (Heasfu) and I will tell you what will befall at the End of Days (B’Acharit HaYamim).

The question is asked in Breisheet Rabba 98:2: What is the most important event that Yaakov is hinting at that will happen to the Jewish people in the “End of Days”?

Rabbi Simon said: In the “End of Days” we will witness the fall of Gog and Magog (and other enemies of the Jewish people). In Yechezkel 38: 16 we read: “It shall be in the ‘End of Days’, I will bring you against my land that the nations shall know me, when I shall be sanctified by you, O Gog before their eyes”.

Rabbi Yehuda said: In the “End of Days” we will build the third Beit HaMikdash (Temple): As it says in Michah 4: “In the ‘End of Days’ it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of God shall be established on top of the mountains and it shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall stream towards it.”

According to the Noda B’Yehuda, we learn from this midrash the strength of the word “heasfu”, “assemble yourselves”. Rabbi Simon’s view is the if we are unified then we will be able to fight the enemy, while Rabbi Yehuda says that through unity the Beit HaMikdash will be built.

At this time in Jewish history when it seems that the world is against us, it is crucial that the Jewish people become unified. Only through unity can the end of the prophecies of Yechezkel and Michah be fulfilled:

Yechezkel 39:25: “Therefore says the Lord God; Now will I bring back the captivity of Yaakov and have mercy upon the whole house of Yisrael and will be zealous for my holy name; and they will be quit of their shame and of all of their faithlessness in which they have been faithless to me, when they dwell securely in on their land with none to make them afraid.”

Michah 4:2-4 “Many nations shall come and say : Come and let us come to the mountain of God and to the house of the God of Yaakov and He will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths; for Torah should go forth from Tzion and the word of God from Yerushalayim. And He shall judge between many peoples and decide concerning strong nations afar off. And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift a sword against nation nor shall they learn war anymore. But they shall sit every man under his fig tree and none shall make them afraid…”