Redemption song

I'm still learning Megillah (chapter 2) and Makkot (chapter 2) with my respective chavrevata, though I've realized that there just isn't enough time to continue live-blogging them on a weekly basis.

This week in Megillah there was a cool sugya (pericope) on 17b-18a, where it goes through all 18 (or 19; the extra one is hinted at) blessings of the weekday Amidah and provides prooftexts (or logical arguments) for why they're in the order that they're in. (We saw the beginning of this on Rosh Hashanah 32a, but that was just the first three blessings.)

Ge'ulah (redemption) appears in the 7th spot, because the future redemption (specifically, the war at the end of which Mashiach ben David emerges victorious; see Sanhedrin 97a) will occur in the 7th (sabbatical) year.

We had a chiddush (novella) about this (unless someone else already came up with it): according to rabbinic tradition, the redemption will occur not only in the 7th year, but also in the 7th month (Tishrei). That's according to Rabbi Eliezer. But according to Rabbi Yehoshua, it will be in the 1st month (Nisan). (See Rosh Hashanah 10b for their controversy.) Therefore, our liturgy embraces both positions: we have ge'ulah as both the 7th blessing of the Amidah (go'eil Yisraeil), supporting R. Eliezer, and affixed to the 1st blessing of the Amidah (ga'al Yisraeil, and ha-someich ge'ulah litfilah and all that, it should be connected without interruption), supporting R. Yehoshua.

If you want, say that it is all according to R. Yehoshua: ge'ulah attached to the 1st blessing refers to the past and future redemption in the 1st month, and ge'ulah in the 7th blessing refers to the future redemption in the 7th year.

If you want, say that it is all according to R. Eliezer: ge'ulah attached to the 1st blessing refers to the past redemption in the 1st month, and ge'ulah in the 7th blessing refers to the future redemption in the 7th month (and year). Dika namei (the language is also precise): ga'al (attached to the 1st blessing) is in past tense, and go'eil (in the 7th blessing) is in present tense.