FOUNDATION

The foundation of Judaism and the basis of all true religion is the realization that existence is purposeful, and that man has a purpose in life.

writings from “Handbook of Jewish thought”  by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan

It is unthinkable to conceive of the universe as arising by chance without  a purposeful Creator, as it is to conceive of a beautiful poem written with a random splash of ink.

The first of the Ten Commandments reads, “I am God your Lord, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery” (Exodus 20:2). This is a positive commandment to believe in God.  This commandment depends on thought and can fulfilled at any time.  from its wording, it is evident  that this commandment  includes an injunction to believe in God both as the God of creation , and as the God of history.

Judaism therefore rejects the deistic concept that G-d created the universe, and then abandoned it with neither ruler, guide nor judge.

The existence of God as the ethical Power and motivating Force behind the universe is indicated by the experience of men and nations that only the good is stable, while evil tends to destroy itself. It is thus written, “There are many thoughts in man’s heart, but it is God’s  council that shall endure”         (Proverbs 19:21)

The second of the Ten Commandments reads;  “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3)

This is a negative commandment not to believe in any deity other than the one true God, Creator of the universe. This commandment also depends on thought and can be observed at all times.

This commandment forbids us to accept any being, entity or object as a deity and call it a god.  This is true even if one still believes  in the one true God and man. This is also considered idolatry.

This command also forbids us to accept any being, entity or object as a mediator between G-d and man. This is also considered idolatry.

It is for this reason that Judaism utterly rejected the Christian concept of a mediator between God and man.

Most authorities extend this prohibition to Jew and non-Jew alike. Others, however, maintain that a non-Jew may accept another being as a deity or mediator, as long as he does not actually worship it as an idol, and also believes in God . They base this on the verse, “Lest.. you be drawn astray and worship them, the ones God,  your Lord has allotted to all the gentiles…(Deuteronomy 4:19).  According to the second opinion, Christianity may be a permissible religion for non-Jews, and it maybe in fulfillment of God’s ultimate purpose.

Of all the Ten Commandments, only these first two are written in the first person. According to tradition, only these two commandments were given to us directly by God, while all the others were transmitted by Him through Moses.

Regarding this, it is written, “God has spoken once, two of which I heard” (Psalms 62:12)

If a person denies the existence of God, or accepts any other being as a deity, he is denying the very essence of Judaism, and is totally rejected by God. This is the only case in which one can be punished for mere thought.

We are commanded always to be aware of God and not to forget Him and His miracles as it is written, “Beware, lest you forget God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the very house of slavery” (Deuteronomy 6:12).   We are likewise warned not to forget God by ignoring His commandments, as it is written,  “Beware, lest you forget God,  your Lord in not keeping His commandments, His decrees and His laws” (Deuteronomy 8:11).  Some authorities count this as a negative commandment.

One should therefore constantly be aware of God’s presence, and the Psalmist thus said, “I have set God before me at all times”(Psalms 16:8)

We are similarly enjoined not to forget the revelation at Sinia where  the Ten Commandments were given.  It is thus written, “Take the utmost care, and watch yourselves scrupulously, so that you not forget the things that you saw with own eyes, that they not fade from your mind as long as you live. Make them known to your children, and to your children’s children: The day you stood before God at Horeb…” (Deuteronomy 4:9, 10) . This is stated in the most emphatic terms, and it is counted by some authorities as a negative commandment.

 

For man to fulfill the purpose of creation he must be aware of that purpose.

Understanding the purpose of creation obviously does not mean fathoming God’s internal reasons. Since we cannot understand God, we certainly cannot understand His motivations.

Still, we can look at God’s  creation, and seek to comprehend the reason for existence.  We can also study what God Himself has taught about the purpose of creation.

Since God is absolutely perfect in Himself, it is obvious that He Had no inner need to create the universe. It must  therefore be concluded that God’s creation of the universe was a most  perfect act of altruism and love. It is thus written, “The world is built of love”  (Psalms 89:3).

God  thus created the world to bestow  good to His handiwork. Thus it is written, “God is good to all;

His love is on all His works” (Psalms 145:9). God Himself called His creation good, as it is written, “God saw all that He had made, and behold it was very good”. (Genesis 1:35).

To fulfill His goal, God created the universe as an environment for a creature capable of partaking of His goodness. The creature would be capable of understanding,  joy and happiness, as well be capable of communing with God.

Everything in the world is thus a means through which mans becomes  able to attain goodness.  It is thus taught that upon completing His creation, before creating man, God said “If there are no guests, what pleasure has the King with all the good things He has provided?”.

Man was therefore created as a creature capable of to some degree understanding, and ultimately experiencing, the greatest possible good,  which is God Himself. It can therefore be said that God’s purpose in creation was to allow Himself to be experienced by a creature far remove and much lower than Himself. It is thus taught that God created the universe because “He desired to abode in the lower world”.

The recipient of the good for which God created the universe was destined to be man. However, it was initially not determined whether the entire human or only part of it would be the recipient of this good.

The group that would be the recipient of the divine good was defined as Israel. These people would be the ones who would perceive the divine and become the recipients of God’s goodness. It is thus taught that the concept of Israel was God’s very first thought in creating the universe. It is thus written, “Israel is God’s holy portion, the first of His harvest” (Jeremiah 2:3).

Besides creating the concept of “Israel” as the recipient of His good, God also created a means through which this “Israel” would receive this good. This means was the Torah, which, as such, was God’s blueprint for creation.

The Torah is the way to God’s good, as He said, “I have given you a good teaching, My Torah, do not forsake it” (Proverbs 4:2). It is thus taught that, “There is no good other than the Torah”.

The Torah was thus among the prime ingredients of creation. The Torah itself allegorically says, “God made me as the beginning of His way, the first of His original paths” (Proverbs 8:22). Still, the Torah did not assume its present form until it was given.

The Torah was created for the sake of Israel. God’s purpose in creation required that Israel accept the Torah. If not, all creation would have been lost its reason for being, and would have ceased to exist.

If Adam would have been worthy and would not have sinned, then all of his decedents would have worthy of the Torah. If not for Adam’s sin, all mankind would have had the status of Israel.

Because of Adam’s sin, however, the Torah was restricted to the small portion of humanity who would eventually be worthy of receiving it. The rest of humanity who would were given seven commandments, binding on every human being.
They are:
1. Not to worship idols.
2. Not to curse God.
3. To establish courts of justice.
4. Not to murder.
5. Not to commit adultery or incest.
6. Not to steal.
7. Not to eat flesh from a living animal.

Of these commandments, the first six were to Adam himself. The seventh commandment would have been redundant for him, since the eating of all animal flesh was forbidden until the generation of Noah, following the Great Flood. Thus the final commandment, prohibiting the eating of flesh from a living animal, was given to Noah and his sons. Since this completed the giving of the commandments binding on all humanity, these seven commandments are referred to as the
“Commandments of Noah’s Son’s”. (Mitzvoth Beney Noach).

These commandments were given so that all humans could partake of God’s good by obeying them. It is thus taught that non-Israels who obey these seven commandments have a portion in the World to Come.

More teachings from other Rabbi’s and teachers

Rabbis: The End of the Left-Wing Signals the Beginnings of Messiah
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz May 29, 2018 , 11:30 am
“A wise man’s mind tends toward the right hand, a fool’s toward the left.” Ecclesiastes 10:2 (The Israel Bible™)
Thousands of Israelis attended a march organized by the left-wing “Peace Now” movement in Tel Aviv, October 24, 2015. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)
Rabbi Matityahu Glazerson (Screenshot)
According to Rabbi Matityahu Glazerson, a Torah Codes expert, the political conflict between the left-wing and the right-wing is a mystical war that has Biblical roots. According to the rabbi, hidden clues in the Bible indicate that the Left-Wing will be defeated this year as a precursor to the Messiah.
As in the US, the battle lines in politics are drawn according to religious observance. Rabbi Meir Mazuz, a leading Sephardic Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) rabbi in Israel who is the spiritual head of the Yachad political party, gave a speech last week in his yeshiva (Torah Seminary) of Kissei Rachamim (Seat of Mercy) in Bnei Brak. In the lesson, the rabbi described the imminent demise of the political left-wing and the corresponding rise of religion.
“Once, it was not considered ‘modern’ to speak about God,” Rabbi Mazuz said. “Now, a lot of water has flowed (a lot has changed), and people speak about God. The Left is going down and nothing of it will remain. Slowly, everyone will be speaking about God, and the crazy leftists will remain outside in their own camp. The tide of the times is to return to faith. People are returning to faith, even someone who does not say so explicitly – he has something in his heart.”
This demise of the left was also discussed by Rabbi Glazerson in a recent video. Rabbi Glazerson agreed with Rabbi Mazuz’s assessment of the future of the left-wing. The rabbi noted that the name of the political movement has mystical connotations.
“It is not by chance that the left-wing is named as they are,” Rabbi Glazerson said to Breaking Israel News. “In Kabbalistic (mystical) terms, the left signifies din (judgment), which is characterized by limitation, or contraction.”
Rabbi Glazerson explained this quality of contraction as it was exhibited by the erev rav (mixed multitude) in the Bible.
Moreover, a mixed multitude went up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds. Exodus 12:38
“The erev rav were responsible for the sin of the Golden Calf. Rather than worship the God of Israel who has no physical form but fills the world with spirit, they wanted a strictly material god, a smaller god that could be contained. This is din, the left wing in Kabbalah that is contraction and limiting. But with the Golden Calf, they were trying to limit God. This is precisely the materialist philosophy that has taken over the universities.”
“The Zohar (the seminal source for Jewish mysticism) states that in the end of days, the erev rav will be the heads of Israel, ruling over the courts and learning institutions, even over Torah learning,” Rabbi Glazerson said. “Elohim, the name for God that represents judgment, also represents nature. They have taken God out of nature.”
Rabbi Glazerson found clues in the Bible that indicate the demise of the left-wing is imminent as a precursor to Moshiach (Messiah). Using a Torah program that searches for equidistant letter sequences in the Bible, Rabbi Glazerson searched for the words “erev rav”, “left” and “Moshiach.”
The rabbi also searched for “Amalek,” a Biblical nation that has become the archetypal enemy of Israel, since he found an implicit link between all these concepts. Amalek is the grandson of Esau. His descendants formed the nation of Amalek that attacked Israel as they left Egypt. The attack was particularly despicable in that it targeted the weaker members of the people, children and the elderly.
He found all of the words concentrated in the 25th chapter of Exodus.
Rabbi Glazerson found the words “ketz smole” (“end of the left”) and “ketz erev rav” (end of the mixed multitude) and “Amalek”. All these phrases were adjacent to the letters tav (ת), shin (ש), ayin (ע), chet (ח). The numeric equivalent of these letters is 5778, the current year according to the Hebrew calendar.
“This is significant, showing that the left wing is connected to Amalek and the mixed multitude,” Rabbi Glazerson explained. “And this year will mark the beginning of the end of the left-wing as a first stage to Moshiach.”
“King David’s successful war against the Amalekites will be replayed in the end of days as a part of the Messiah from the house of David,” Rabbi Glazerson explained, emphasizing that the code indicated that the process leading to the end of the left-wing would begin this year.
The word smole (left) has a hidden connotation in Hebrew connecting it to ‘Samael’, the main archangel of death. The rabbi explained that in Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism), the letters sin (ש) and samech (ס) are interchangeable. This exchange of letters makes the word smole (שמאל) (‘left’) identical to the name Samael (סמאל).
Rabbi Glazerson said that the left-wing combines the forces of Samael with Amalek.
“Samael is the angel of Amalek. The gematria (Hebrew numerology) of Samael, 131, plus the gematria of Amalek, 240, totals 371,” Rabbi Glazerson pointed out. “This precisely equals the gematria of smole (left). The left takes its strength from both Samael and from Amalek.”
“Anything that lessens life in the world is against Torah and against Moshiach as per the contractive nature of the left side of din,” Rabbi Glazerson said. “The left-wing promotes these things, like abortion, homosexuality, and euthanasia. They condemn the IDF in its battle against groups that openly call for death. The left claims they are doing it out of love and caring, but it is really because they draw their essence from the left side.”
“This attachment to lifelessness has to be overcome for the Moshiach to come,” Rabbi Glazerson said. “The Moshiach will bring t’chiyat ha’matim, (resurrection of the dead), a miraculous increase of life.”

Syrian and Palestinian religion ancient religion
Written By:
• Simon B. Parker
Syrian and Palestinian religion, beliefs of Syria and Palestine between 3000 and 300 bce. These religions are usually defined by the languages of those who practiced them: e.g., Amorite, Hurrian, Ugaritic, Phoenician, Aramaic, and Moabite. The term Canaanite is often used broadly to cover a number of these, as well as the religion of early periods and areas from which there are no written sources. Knowledge of the religions of these groups is very uneven; it usually consists of mere glimpses of one or another aspect. Only from the city-state of Ugarit (14th–13th centuries bce) is there a wide range …(100 of 5169 words)

Baal ancient deity

Written By:
• The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Baal, god worshipped in many ancient Middle Eastern communities, especially among the Canaanites, who apparently considered him a fertility deity and one of the most important gods in the pantheon. As a Semitic common noun baal (Hebrew baʿal) meant “owner” or “lord,” although it could be used more generally; for example, a baal of wings was a winged creature, and, in the plural, baalim of arrows indicated archers. Yet such fluidity in the use of the term baal did not prevent it from being attached to a god of distinct character. As such, Baal designated the universal god of fertility, and in that capacity his title was Prince, Lord of the Earth. He was also called the Lord of Rain and Dew, the two forms of moisture that were indispensable for fertile soil in Canaan. In Ugaritic and Hebrew, Baal’s epithet as the storm god was He Who Rides on the Clouds. In Phoenician he was called Baal Shamen, Lord of the Heavens.

Palmyra, Syria: Baal Shamen, Temple ofThe Temple of Baal Shamen, Palmyra, Syria.
Knowledge of Baal’s personality and functions derives chiefly from a number of tablets uncovered from 1929 onward at Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra), in northern Syria, and dating to the middle of the 2nd millennium bce. The tablets, although closely attached to the worship of Baal at his local temple, probably represent Canaanite belief generally. Fertility was envisaged in terms of seven-year cycles. In the mythology of Canaan, Baal, the god of life and fertility, locked in mortal combat with Mot, the god of death and sterility. If Baal triumphed, a seven-year cycle of fertility would ensue; but, if he were vanquished by Mot, seven years of drought and famine would ensue.
Ugaritic texts tell of other fertility aspects of Baal, such as his relations with Anath, his consort and sister, and also his siring a divine bull calf from a heifer. All this was part of his fertility role, which, when fulfilled, meant an abundance of crops and fertility for animals and mankind.
But Baal was not exclusively a fertility god. He was also king of the gods, and, to achieve that position, he was portrayed as seizing the divine kingship from Yamm, the sea god.
The myths also tell of Baal’s struggle to obtain a palace comparable in grandeur to those of other gods. Baal persuaded Asherah to intercede with her husband El, the head of the pantheon, to authorize the construction of a palace. The god of arts and crafts, Kothar, then proceeded to build for Baal the most beautiful of palaces which spread over an area of 10,000 acres. The myth may refer in part to the construction of Baal’s own temple in the city of Ugarit. Near Baal’s temple was that of Dagon, given in the tablets as Baal’s father.
The worship of Baal was popular in Egypt from the later New Kingdom in about 1400 bce to its end (1075 bce). Through the influence of the Aramaeans, who borrowed the Babylonian pronunciation Bel, the god ultimately became known as the Greek Belos, identified with Zeus.
Baal was also worshipped by various communities as a local god. The Hebrew scriptures speak frequently of the Baal of a given place or refers to Baalim in the plural, suggesting the evidence of local deities, or “lords,” of various locales. It is not known to what extent the Canaanites considered those various Baalim identical, but the Baal of Ugarit does not seem to have confined his activities to one city, and doubtless other communities agreed in giving him cosmic scope.
In the formative stages of Israel’s history, the presence of Baal names did not necessarily mean apostasy or even syncretism. The judge Gideon was also named Jerubbaal (Judges 6:32), and King Saul had a son named Ishbaal (I Chronicles 8:33). For those early Hebrews, “Baal” designated the Lord of Israel, just as “Baal” farther north designated the Lord of Lebanon or of Ugarit. What made the very name Baal anathema to the Israelites was the program of Jezebel, in the 9th century bce, to introduce into Israel her Phoenician cult of Baal in opposition to the official worship of Yahweh (I Kings 18). By the time of the prophet Hosea (mid-8th century bce) the antagonism to Baalism was so strong that the use of the term Baal was often replaced by the contemptuous boshet (“shame”); in compound proper names, for example, Ishbosheth replaced the earlier Ishbaal.
Baal
The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.
Copyright The Columbia University Press
Baal (bā´əl), plural Baalim (bā´əlĬm) [Semitic,=master, lord], name used throughout the Bible for the chief deity or for deities of Canaan. The term was originally an epithet applied to the storm god Hadad. Technically, Baal was subordinate to El, the supreme god, the creator, and the father of Hadad and other gods.

Baal is attested in the Ebla texts (first half of 2d millennium BC), and by the time of the Ugarit tablets (14th cent. BC), he had become the ruler of the universe. The Ugarit tablets make him chief of the Canaanite pantheon. He is the source of life and fertility, the mightiest hero, the lord of war, and the defeater of the god Yam. There were many temples of Baal in Canaan, and the name Baal was often added to that of a locality, e.g., Baal-peor, Baal-hazor, Baal-hermon.

The Baal cult penetrated Israel and at times led to syncretism. In the Psalms, Yahweh is depicted as Baal and his dwelling is on Mt. Zaphon (Zion), the locale of Baal in Canaanite mythology. The practice of sacred prostitution seems to have been associated with the worship of Baal in Palestine and the cult was vehemently denounced by the prophets, especially Hosea and Jeremiah. The abhorrence in which the cult was held probably explains the substitution of Ish-bosheth for Esh-baal, of Jerubbesheth for Jerubbaal (a name of Gideon), and of Mephibosheth for Merib-baal. The substituted term probably means “shame.” The same abhorrence is evident the use of the pejorative name Baal-zebub (see also Satan).

As cognates of Baal in other Semitic languages there are Bel (in Babylonian religion) and the last elements in the Tyrian names Jezebel, Hasdrubal, and Hannibal. The Baal of 1 Chronicles is probably the same as Ramah3.

Tarot Cards: Recent Trend, Ancient Evil

By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz June 25, 2018 , 3:14 pm

You shall not eat anything with its blood. You shall not practice divination or soothsaying. Leviticus 19:26 (The Israel Bible™)
Sales of tarot cards have risen sharply in the last year as self-proclaimed witches claim that divination and dark-magic are effective in opposing President Trump. One end-of-days expert cites this as an illogical yet divinely guided step in setting the stage for the Messianic showdown in which the two sides, Good and Evil, are clearly defined.
The BBC published an article last week noting a 30-percent increase in sales in tarot cards last year, citing data collected by US Games Systems, a publisher of tarot games. Tarot may be a modern trend but it’s roots are ancient, with some sources claiming the deck has its origins in the Book of Thoth, a legendary tome of Egyptian occult and idolatry. Based on four suits, tarot cards are similar to common playing cards but with some significant differences that serve its primary purpose: divination.
The Latin root of the word ‘divination’ means “to foresee, to be inspired by a god,” but the Torah expressly forbids the practice.
Let no one be found among you who consigns his son or daughter to the fire, or who is an augur, a soothsayer, a diviner, a sorcerer. Deuteronomy 18:10
Rabbi Daniel Asore, a member of the Sanhedrin, noted that the anti-divine aspect of divination is precisely the reason why the practice is proscribed and considered one of the more egregious forms of evil.
“Diviners and witches both try to take God out of heaven, out of the world, and replace him with ‘self’,’” Rabbi Asore told Breaking Israel News. “They assign the power to nature and try to control it using esoteric methods that do not include God. This has ancient roots but in our era, it has taken on the appearance of New Age. Even if it looks modern, it is exactly the same as the idol worship we read about in the Bible.”
Rabbi Asore explained how divination works as an anti-God mechanism.
“New Age wants to convince people that they are divine, that the power is inside of them,” Rabbi Asore said. “They want to disconnect people from the Bible and prayer, which sets God firmly in all of Creation, in every aspect of your life.”
“Atheists, like all Satanists, see themselves as the ultimate authority, independent of any higher rule, so morality becomes entirely subjective,” he said. “Since the self is the center of the universe, they are anarchists, believing in limiting the world’s population through war, abortion, and non-productive relationships. Nature has usurped God’s eternal aspect, so the individual is the all.”
Tarot is making a comeback in other forms as well. Last May, Dior, one of the the most prominent names in fashion, based their summer collection on a feminist version of the tarot deck. The image from the death card, a skeleton huddled in a fetal position encircled by a molting snake, featured prominently in their line of casual wear.
Karen Vogel, the designer of the feminist tarot deck that served as the model for Dior explained the choice of the death card.
“It’s not necessarily about physical death,” says Vogel. “[It’s about] the beauty of the shedding of the skin that a snake does, that we can transform our lives.”
In an interview with BBC, Vogel credited the current interest in tarot to the election of Donald Trump.
“Our societies are going through an extreme sense of alienation,” Vogel said. “People are lonely and angry. Tarot helps them to cope with insecurity in these difficult times.”
The BBC article cited another occult phenomenon as a negative reaction to Trump’s election: the #MagicResistance movement, a monthly call on social media to curse the president using explicitly arcane methods. Rabbi Asore explained the use of witchcraft and divination in politics is “Witchcraft, or its real name, Satanism, is explicitly a power struggle, which is why it is so readily dragged into politics. Satanism, in its essence, pits the adversary against God.”. “Though this power struggle has been brewing throughout history, today, when we are so close to Moshiach (Messiah), the role it is playing in politics could not be clearer.
“The politicians who believe that man can control all aspects of the world are coming from a belief system based in Satanism, whether knowingly or not,” Rabbi Asore said. “This New Age form of witchcraft and divination is idolatry dressed up so it can be used as a tool of the New World Order.”
Rabbi Pinchas Winston, an end-of-days expert and prolific author, noted that tarot and black magic were an incongruous choice for atheists and people who rejected religion.
“If you want to be secular or atheist, if you say that you went to a church or synagogue and rejected it, that is okay,” Rabbi Winston told Breaking Israel News. “But to go to something that is straight-up idolatry, openly embracing evil, that is not a logical decision.”
“Anytime people act illogically and don’t notice it, it is a sign that Divine hands are setting the stage,” Rabbi Winston said, explaining that this was all part of a “Messianic endgame.”
“According to Jewish sources, the end-of-days will see an enormous polarization of good and evil,” Rabbi Winston said. “This is so that when we stand before God and he asks us ‘why didn’t you choose good?’, no one can say they couldn’t see the difference, that good and evil were not obvious. No one can say that they were kind of good. The end-of days is all or nothing, with the ramifications clearly spelled out.”
Winston explained that this process of clear good versus clear evil was clearly true in how American politics has played out in recent years.
“Obama was the first step of this polarization but he was able to hide most of the polarization and dress it up as social justice,” Winton said. “He could hide the evil he promoted, make it sound like good. So people who supported him could support evil but give the excuse that it was reasonably presented as good. To accomplish that, they need to be masters of disguise, to hide the truth even from themselves. They need to embrace Hollywood. They need for it to be all about appearances and subjective reality because the truth is too painful.”
“Trump is one step further,” Rabbi Winston said. “There is no hiding. You either love him or hate him, and he doesn’t know how to hide the truth in pretty words. Good and evil are laid out for everyone to see.”

An End-of-Days Guide to the Palestinians and Gaza

By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz June 4, 2018 , 11:30 am

“And I will wipe out the inhabitants of Ashdod And the sceptered ruler of Ashkelon; And I will turn My hand against Ekron, And the Philistines shall perish to the last man —said Hashem.” Amos 1:8 (The Israel Bible™)
As Israel’s southern border is threatened by rockets, mortars and incendiary kites, End-of-Days experts weigh in on the prospective roles that Palestinians in Gaza play in the Messianic era.
Palestinians: Spiritual Roots in Israel’s Biblical Enemy
Rabbi Matityahu Glazerson, a Torah codes expert, believes that the modern day Palestinians have their spiritual roots in the Biblical Philistines.
“We can see this in the name they choose for themselves and we can also see this in their attraction for Gaza,” Rabbi Glazerson told Breaking Israel News.
He emphasized that not only was Gaza a military stronghold but it was also a major center for the Philistines’ idolatry and temple. “Their hatred for Israel is so great that it is clearly an ancient conflict and not just one from the last few decades. Their recent kite attacks, burning the fields in Israel, are precisely a desire of revenge for Samson burning the Philistine fields in a similar manner.”
He lit the torches and turned [the foxes] loose among the standing grain of the Philistines, setting fire to stacked grain, standing grain, vineyards, [and] olive trees.Judges 15:5
In a recent video on the subject, Rabbi Glazerson used a computer program that searches for equidistant letter sequences in the Bible to find the word “Palestinian” in the Torah. He found it in the book of Deuteronomy, which he explained is the section of the Bible that corresponds to the current era. The word “Palestinian” intersected with a verse that described God giving the land of Israel to the Jews.
Hashem your God will bless you in the land that Hashem your God is giving you as a hereditary portion Deuteronomy 15:4
“The Zohar (the seminal source for Jewish mysticism) states that this conflict that began in the Bible will continue until the Moshiach (Messiah)” Rabbi Glazerson said. “This is a spiritual battle which will never be solved by politics. It has to be fought on spiritual terms by learning Torah and keeping the Sabbath.”

Palestinians: A Nation That is no Nation
Rabb Levi Sudri, an award-winning Bible expert who is well-versed in esoteric sources, believes the appearance of the Palestinians is a final attempt to fix a nation that was flawed from its Biblical beginnings.
“Reincarnations are an attempt to fix things and this era, the time preceding the Messiah, is the final chance to fix problems that have their sources in the Bible. What we are seeing in the Middle East is the entire world focused on the final fixing of the Philistines. We first saw this in the Bible in Ham, the son of Noah, who was cursed for gazing on his father’s nakedness.
He said, “Cursed be Canaan; The lowest of slaves Shall he be to his brothers.” Genesis 9:25
“Abraham and Isaac tried to fix Ham by making a covenant with Abimelech the King of the Philistines, Ham’s descendants. But the language of this Biblical agreement is important today”, Rabbi Sudri emphasized.
And Abimelech said, “Here, my land is before you; settle wherever you please.” Genesis 20:15
“This covenant was broken by the Philistines in the days of Joshua, and again in the days of Saul,” Rabbi Sudri said. “It is precisely this agreement that is being broken again today.”
Rabbi Sudri noted that despite Israel’s clear military superiority, the Palestinians are succeeding in creating a challenge Israel cannot defeat.
“How can it be that Israel, with such a strong military, cannot cope with the Palestinians?,” the rabbi asked. “If there is a clear enemy, even a strong enemy, we can fight them. We cannot defeat them because the fight is on a spiritual level, the angel of one nation against the angel of another nation. Every nation has an angel but the Zohar explains that the Philistines do not have an angel.”
Rabbi Sudri referred to the Philistines as a “nation that is not a nation.”
“Every nation has a patriarch but the Philistines did not have a patriarch,” Rabbo Sudri said. “The word ‘Philistine’ is derived from the Hebrew word meaning ‘wanderers’ or ‘foreigner.’ With a real nation, you can make war or peace. Since they are not a nation, we cannot do either, neither war nor peace, with the Palestinians.”
According to Rabbi Sudri, this confrontation with the “nation that is not a nation” has a corresponding negative effect on the Jewish Nation.
“Israel is the most ancient nation, with the clearest claim to being a nation. But by entering into relations with the Palestinians, by agreeing to that definition of what is a nation, we shed doubt on our identity as a nation which is explicitly outlined in the Bible, a stronger claim to nationhood than any other nation in existence. By calling the Palestinians a nation, we have brought into doubt our claims to nationhood and our claims to our land, a claim that is clearly seen in the Bible, in archaeology and in every history book in existence.”
The Battle for Prayer
Rabbi Yosef Berger, the rabbi of King David’s Tomb on Mount Zion, believes the spiritual roots of the Palestinians goes back to Ishmael, the brother of Isaac.
“As such, his fate is to be in conflict always,” Rabbi Berger said, quoting the blessing given to Ishmael by an angel.
He shall be a wild ass of a man; His hand against everyone, And everyone’s hand against him; He shall dwell alongside of all his kinsmen.” Genesis 16:12
“His warring nature will continue until the very last moment before the Messiah,” Rabbi Berger said. “It will be the spark that brings the Messiah.”
“But the name ‘Ishmael’ means ‘God will hear,” Rabbi Berger pointed out. “By the merit of Ishmael, God heard Hagar praying in the desert. The real battle is over who God will listen to. That is why the Palestinians are concentrating on the Temple Mount, and specifically on prayer. They want to be the only nation that God listens to, and they think they can do that by preventing the Jews from praying on the Temple Mount.”
“Prayer has much more power than people realize, especially prayer in our times just before Messiah, and especially on the Temple Mount,” Rabbi Berger said. “We see this in the fact that since only Muslims are allowed to pray there, Islam is getting stronger in the world. It isn’t Islam that is getting stronger, it is the angel of Ishmael. The Temple Mount is where the final battle between Ishmael and Israel is going to be, and it is going to be a battle of prayer, a battle of the angel of Ishmael against the angel of Israel.”

‘Run for the Ship’
Rabbi Pinchas Winston, a prolific end-of-days author, believes the Palestinians are a prophesied wake-up call to motivate the Nation of Israel to focus on Messiah. To illustrate his point, he related a midrash (homiletic teaching) from the Talmud (Tractate Baba Batra 73b). According to the Talmud, Rabbah Bar Hana was traveling on a ship and went ashore to cook some food. The island turned out to be an enormous fish covered in sand. Feeling the heat of the fire, the fish turned over, sending Rabbah Bar Hana scrambling for his ship, which fortunately was ready to sail.
Rabbi Winston cited Rabbi Yaakov Lorberbaum, the rabbi of Lissa Poland in the 1800’s, known as Rabbeinu Yaakov.
“Rabbeinu Yaakov taught that this peculiar story in the Talmud is actually an allegory of what will happen in the days before Messiah,” Rabbi Winston said. “He explained the Talmud as teaching that the Jews will return to our land but we will end up ruling over another nation. The other nation will appear weak and small but they will actually turn everything upside down.”
“If the ‘boat is ready’, if the Jews are ready for Messiah, everything will be fine and we will enter into the Messiah,” Rabbi Winston explained. “If the Jews are not ready, we will ‘drown from the problems this small nation will cause us.”
Rabbi Winston sees this allegory as a perfect description of the Palestinian Intifada.
“The Intifada started in 1987, precisely 40 years after Israel became a nation,” Rabbi Winston explained. “40 represents is a complete period of gestation. A woman is pregnant for 40 sabbaths.”
“After Israel became a state, we were given a period of 40 years to show what was really conceived when Israel first became a state,” Rabbi Winston said. “We weren’t ready to ‘run for the boat’, to bring the Messiah. Since we hadn’t prepared for the Messiah, the Intifada was sent to wake us up, to push us to do what we need to bring the Messiah. In this case, the wake-up call came from a small nation that succeeded in overturning the entire nation of Israel, making us ‘run for the ship’.”

The Death Decree—In Its Time I Will Accelerate It
1 Excerpts from Dedicated to MBY and MBD—Avraham Sutton

The Decree of Death

In Pri Etz Chayim, Shaar HaAmidah, Birkat Tishkon, that Rabbi Chayim Vital was told by his master to pray that Mashiach ben Yoseph not die. He thus quotes the Ari, saying:
Whenever we mention in our prayers “And speedily re-establish the throne of David Your servant in its midst,” we must plead that Mashiach ben Yoseph not die by the hand of Armilus the wicked. For Mashiach ben Yoseph is called “the throne of David Your servant” [because, as we have seen, he prepares the way for Mashiach ben David]. This was King David’s intention when he prayed for Mashiach ben Yoseph’s life to be spared, “Life, I have asked from You; You have given it; length of days forever and ever!” (Psalm 21:5; Succah 52a).
After a masterful discourse on the concept of the Trein Mesheecheen, Rav Chayim ben Attar (1696-1743) also repeats the Ari’s admonition: “And…the Gedolei Yisrael (Great Masters of Israel) have instructed us to plead mercy for Mashiach ben Ephraim—that he not be killed in battle!” (Ohr HaChayim, Numbers 24:17). The Ohr HaChayim also clarifies the connection between the Trein Mesheecheen and the two possible redemption scenarios. The context for this is the prophecy of Bilaam concerning the Messianic Era:
Bilaam prophesied three times concerning Israel. His last prophecy deals with the Messianic Era: “This is the word of Beor’s son, Bilaam, the word of the man with the enlightened eye; the word of the man who hears God’s pronouncements, knows the thoughts of the Most High, and sees a vision of the Almighty, [while] fallen in a meditative trance: ‘Er’enu ve’lo atah—I see it, but not now; ashurenu ve’lo karov—I perceive it, but not in the near future. Darakh kochav mi’Yaacov—a kokhav (leader; star) will go forth from Yaacov, ve’kam shevet mi’Yisrael—and a shevet (ruler; comet) will arise in Yisrael, u’machatz pe’atei Moav—crushing all of Moab’s princes, ve’karkar kol bnei Shet—and dominating all of Seth’s descendants…’” (Numbers 24:15-17)
“Er’enu ve’lo atah—I see it, but not now…” The entire prophecy concerns the Mashiach and the Final Redemption. It can be clarified according to the sages’ explanation of the verse, “The least one shall become a thousand and the smallest one a mighty nation, I, Hashem, will accelerate it [the Redemption] in its due time” (Isaiah 60:22). In Sanhedrin 98a, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi pointed out an [apparent] contradiction. It is written [with regard to when the Mashiach will come], “in its due time,” yet it is also written, “I, Hashem, will accelerate it” [which implies before the due time, and thus the phrase appears self-contradictory]. [There is no contradiction.] If they [Israel] are worthy, “I will accelerate it.” If not, it will come “in its due time.”
When the prophet said “In its due time,” he was indicating a time very far in the future. In this he was correct, as we are presently already at the beginning of the sixth century of the sixth millennium (5500 = 1739-1740). The verse thus speaks about two possible types of end-times. Paralleling “If they are worthy,” Bilaam said “I see it, but not now.” Of course, such an end-time needn’t have been in the distant future, as the sages said, “If Israel would return in teshuvah, they would be redeemed immediately…” Paralleling “If they are not worthy,” Bilaam said, “I perceive it, but not in the near future.” For due to our sins, this end-time is very distant.
This is further clarified by the continuation of the Talmud’s discussion about how the Final Redemption will come about: Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi juxtaposed another two verses. It is written, “And behold, one like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven” (Daniel 7:13), while elsewhere it is written, “Behold, your king comes to you lowly and riding upon a donkey” (Zekhariah 9:7). [Again there is no contradiction.] If they are worthy, he will come “with the clouds of heaven” (i.e., swiftly and miraculously). If not, [he will come] “lowly riding upon a donkey” (through the seemingly natural course of historical events).
This is what Bilaam said here. Paralleling the redemption of “I will accelerate it,” he added “A kokhav-leader will go forth from Yaacov.” This refers to the redeemer who will descend miraculously from the heavens…Paralleling the redemption of “In its due time,” he added “and a shevet-ruler will arise in Yisrael.” This refers to a ruler who will rise up in power in the [seemingly] natural course of historical events…
The Death Decree—In Its Time I Will Accelerate It 2

Again, in speaking of the miraculous redemption of “a kokhav-leader will go forth from Yaacov,” he alluded to Mashiach ben David. In speaking of the redemption of “a shevet-ruler will arise in Yisrael” which will come about by [a seemingly] natural historical process, he alluded to Mashiach ben Ephraim. The intention here is that, if the nation is on the lower level of “Yaacov,” the light of Mashiach ben
David will not shine openly on them, and Mashiach ben Ephraim will die in the first battle at the hands of Romilus (aka Armilus, Gog). If they are all righteous tzadikim, on the other hand, then even the ruler from Ephraim who arises will not die at the hands of Romilus. And this is why the Gedolei Yisrael (Great Masters of Israel, namely, the Ari) have instructed us to plead mercy for Mashiach ben
Ephraim—that he not be killed in battle! (Ohr HaChayim, Numbers 24:17).
The dynamic here is not a simple one. On the one hand, it seems that Mashiach ben Yoseph is bound to a slow, natural process in which the hand of Divine Providence is largely hidden (“lowly and riding on a donkey”). On the other hand, it seems that Mashiach ben David is bound to Israel’s free-willed teshuvah (return) to Hashem and hence to an accelerated miraculous redemption (“with the clouds of heaven”).
The truth is that both contain elements of both. Thus, although the idea of the Trein Mesheecheen seems to imply that there are two distinct modes or periods for each, this must be qualified. In truth, there is much overlapping between the two. The ben David mode is always present in the immediate background of the ben Yoseph mode, and vice versa. The two modes are always present in one another. It remains to clarify if and why Mashiach ben Yoseph must or must not die. As we have seen,
an ancient tradition foretold that he would die and that his death would forebode evil for the Jewish people. Only after suffering this great loss would Eliyahu HaNavi come and herald the final redemption. Let us examine the text of the Talmud that speaks about this tragedy. In commenting upon the prophetic verse, “And the land shall mourn, every family by itself…” (Zekhariah 12:12), the Talmud (Succah 52a) asks: “What is the cause of the mourning?” and it answers, “It is the
slaying of Mashiach ben Yoseph, as it is written ‘And they will look upon Me because they have thrust him [the Mashiach] through, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son’ (ibid. 12:10).” The Talmud then continues: The Holy One says to Mashiach ben David: Ask anything of Me, and I will give it to you, as it is written, “Ask of Me and I will give you nations as your inheritance” (Psalm 2:8).
When he is shown that [in the future] Mashiach ben Yoseph is to be slain, he replies: Master of the Universe, I ask only for the gift of life [for him], as it is written, “He asked You for life, You gave it to him” (ibid. 21:5).
In Chapter 2a of Kol HaTor, “The 156 Aspects of Mashiach ben Yoseph” (#46 and #48), Rabbi Hillel adds: “This is one of the prayers contained in the Book of Psalms in which King David prays for the life of Mashiach ben Yoseph.” Concerning the slaying of Mashiach ben Yoseph, Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitzhak, 1040-1105) comments, “The prophet Zekhariah foresaw that in the future the Jews would mourn the death of Mashiach ben Yoseph who would be slain in the battle of Gog U’Magog.”
As noted (in our translation of Rav Saadyah Gaon’s Emunot VeDeyot 8:2), Gog and Armilus are one and the same. Gog/Armilus is the leader of the nation of Magog. Magog is usually associated specifically with Germany and/or Russia, but clearly alludes to the 70 archetypal nations listed in Genesis 10 from which the entire non-Jewish world is descended. (The phrase “Gog U’Magog” has the exact numerical value of 70.)
Linguistically, the name Gog is associated with the Hebrew word gaag, meaning “roof.” According to Rabbi Shimshon Rafael Hirsch, this is connected to the fact that the Beit HaMikdash (Holy Temple) is called Succat David, literally, “the Thatched-roof Hut of David.” The main feature of a Succah is its thatched semi-permeable roof. It must be the perfect mean between a solid enclosed space (roof) and a completely open skylight (no roof). That is, while during the day there must be more shade than sunlight in the Succah, still, at night, the stars must be visible. This special thatched-roof of a Succah represents a special kind of openness between heaven and earth. As Succat David, the Beit HaMikdash
thus represents the ultimate interpenetration of heaven into the earth plane.
Gog is thus more than a single individual. It is more correctly the very force of evil that wishes to seal earth off from heaven—a force that one man or many men can embody. Ultimately, it is the force of the Accuser fighting for its very existence (knowing full-well that, when Hashem reveals the awesome Messianic Light that He has hidden beneath His Throne of Glory, this will spell its demise). Gog is nothing less than the gaag (roof) of God-Denial or God-Distortion that threatens to clamp down on and enclose and engulf mankind in absolute spiritual darkness. As foreseen by the great prophets and sages of Israel, this counter-force will be increasingly active
during the period preceding the Messianic Era of Mashiach ben David. This period is known as Ikvot or Ikveta d’Meshicha, associated specifically with Mashiach ben Yoseph. As Rabbi Hillel Rivlin writes in Chapter 2a of Kol HaTor, aspect #104:
Ikvot Meshicha — This period is designated ikvot (footsteps or heels) for two reasons. First, because the process develops in tiny increments, and second, because all the conditions for the final redemption will be brought about in a round-about manner. This is based on the meaning of the root akev [the root of the name Yaacov], which, because of its etymological affinity with akef, “to circumvent,” means “to deceive” [as seen in Esav’s enraged, “Hakhi karah shemo Yaakov, vayaakbeni
zeh paamayim—now I understand why his name is Yaacov, for he outwitted me twice!” (Genesis 27:36)]. The redemption process must proceed in a round-about manner in order to deceive the shells of impurity [forces of evil] and prevent them from interfering. As the Ikvot / Footsteps quicken their pace, and History accelerates towards its ultimate rendezvous with God, the Force of Evil will double and redouble its efforts to cut mankind off from the spiritual reality that lies above and beyond our extremely limited earthly reality. It will do this in any way it can, with all the weapons it has at its disposal. That is, the Battle of Gog U’Magog will take place on many levels and on many battlefields. Some of these battles will be fought physically, and some spiritually. Some have already occurred, and some have yet to occur. At present we are in the midst of the final and most crucial stages of this battle in which each and every manifestation of Gog U’Magog parallels a corresponding level in Mashiach ben Yoseph. This is an application of the kabbalistic principle that states, “God has set the one parallel to
the other” (Ecclesiastes 7:14), i.e., God has constructed all existence upon a cosmological law of parallelism. This is reflected in the numerical equivalent of the words Mashiach and Nachash / Serpent (358). According to the Gra (Kol HaTor, Chapter 2a, aspect #1), this is also the meaning of the numerical equivalency of the name Armilus (331), the spiritual leader of Magog, which equals that of Ephraim
(331), which, as we have seen, is one of Mashiach ben Yoseph’s code-names.
Recall now the Talmud’s statement (followed by Rav Saadyah Gaon and Rav Hai Gaon, Ramban, and others) that Mashiach ben Yoseph will die at the hands of Gog / Armilus / Nachash / Satan. Based on the same abovementioned principle, we must say that this “death” too will take place on a number of parallel battlefields. That is, regardless of whatever level on which Mashiach ben Yoseph’s death take place, it always occurs through his confrontation with the corresponding level of Gog (the individual leaders who embody the Force of Evil which seeks to harm and destroy Israel and its Torah) U’Magog (the 70 archetypal nations of mankind who are fooled by their leaders into thinking that the God of Israel is their enemy). Similarly, the mourning over Mashiach ben Yoseph’s death must also be felt on all the corresponding levels. Above, we began to see that, somehow, at some point, a change occurred in this Talmudic tradition. We mentioned that the Zohar is very explicit in saying that Mashiach ben Yoseph will not die. The reason given (3:276b) is that Moshe suffered in order to save him. The Ramchal says the same (Kinat Hashem
Tzevaot, p. 104-5). The Gra, too, is most emphatic. Mashiach ben Yoseph will not die. Again, Rav Hillel writes in the name of his master: “Od Yoseph Chai—Yoseph lives on” (Genesis 45:26). Our master based his entire doctrine on the
underlying principle of “Yoseph lives on,” i.e., Mashiach ben Yoseph is not only alive, but will continue to live; and the decree that he is to be slain by Armilus/Gog the wicked [the spiritual leader of Magog] has been nullified. The entire It’chalta d’Geulah—in all its manifestations—depends on him. The decree
has therefore been [atoned for and] nullified by virtue of the length of [Israel’s] exile and the suffering he endures by carrying our afflictions (Isaiah 53:4).
It is also nullified by the actions performed with mesirut nefesh (self-sacrifice) by those who are involved in the ingathering, which itself is his [Yoseph’s] task. It is nullified by the Chevley Mashiach (Birthpangs of the pre-Messianic Era) and the afflictions suffered by all those who come to settle Eretz The Death Decree—In Its Time I Wil Accelerate It 4 Yisrael [in preparation for the redemption]. It is nullified by our constant prayers, each day, that Mashiach ben Yoseph’s life be saved and that he be granted success [to complete his mission] (see below, Tefillat Od Yoseph Chai, Chapter 5a, end). [In all these ways] those who are involved in the
ingathering alleviate some of Mashiach ben Yoseph’s suffering during [the period of] the Ikveta d’Meshicha. The decree has been nullified in the sense that it has been broken up into numerous smaller parts. This is the meaning of the analogy in the Midrash: “It is comparable to a king who became angry at his son and swore that he would hurl a massive stone at him. Later he regretted this and had compassion on the boy. In order to fulfill his oath, however, he had the stone broken up into small pebbles. These were thrown at the boy, one by one” (Midrash Tehillim 6:3; Yalkut
Shimoni 2:635). In the same way, Mashiach ben Yoseph will not be subjected to the death penalty, although he must still suffer the pain of the smaller rocks. These are the Chevley Mashiach (Birthpangs of the pre-Messianic Era) that come little by little, together with the 999 Ikvot Meshicha [incremental steps or phases that will lead to the final Redemption], thus indicating that the decree has also been broken up into 999 smaller segments. Corresponding to these [segments], the side of salvation [will also be present], as hinted in the verse, “Ve’et tzarah hi leYaacov—it will be a time of distress for Yaacov; u’mimena yivashe’a—but from it [and through it] he shall be delivered” (Jeremiah 30:7). The gematria of “Ve’et tzarah hi leYaacov” is 999… (Kol HaTor, Chapter 1, paragraph §6). As we have intimated, the apparent contradiction between the two traditions is actually a paradoxical
dialectic between two sides of one coin—what might be called the “frontside” and the “backside” of Mashiach ben Yoseph. The Mashiach, in addition to being a potential individual in each generation, is a process that is forever living by constantly dying. And it is here that the entire meaning of death takes on another dimension. It is the dimension that the Zohar and the Ari speak about when they state:
“Death is the descent from one level of existence to another” (Zohar 3:135b; Etz Chayim 4:3, 9:2). Thus, what appears on the surface as an absence or even the death of any aspect of the messianic process of Mashiach ben Yoseph can only mean that it has gone “underground” and taken on an alias. The “death” of Mashiach ben Yoseph thus signifies that only the second—“backside”—of the two possible modes of the Messianic mission is operative. It is the forced descent of the Mashiach into a lower level of existence. In our tradition, this is called the Mashiach in the Klipot [the Mashiach descending incognito into, and working through the forces of evil (unknown to these forces), in order to bring about the ultimate Messianic redemption]. According to the Gra, the entire history of the world is one massive process which leads inevitably towards Redemption. The Trein Mesheecheen are two interlocking and complementary aspects of this SINGLE UNIFIED PROCESS. According to the Gra, Mashiach ben Yoseph is not just a single man. It is a spiritual principle, and a cosmic imperative. Mashiach ben Yoseph is a man, and it is also many men. In
one sense, it is the human side of Hashem’s creation, representing the esponsibility He has given to us to bring creation to its goal. Mashiach ben David, on the other hand, is the heavenly side of the equation of Hashem’s providence which leads creation to its perfection (if necessary, irrespective of man’s actions).
The heavenly or miraculous is always hidden in order to ensure man’s free will. It is never inoperative, but it is hidden, like a hand in a glove. For Hashem wants man to earn his own reward. His struggle to be righteous—the tremendous effort he must exert to return to Hashem—all this must take place in an environment of concealment. Man may not fully grasp the awesome stakes of living in this world. It will only be revealed in the World to Come. In the meantime, the Torah is the only way to know what Hashem is doing, and yet the power of the Torah is completely hidden from the eyes of most of the Jewish people, let alone the eyes of the world. The time will come, however, when the two aspects (which have always functioned together and in unison) will begin to do so in a most dramatic way. We now turn to the continuation of the text quoted above from Kol HaTor: BeItah Achishenah—In its due time, I will accelerate it (the redemption) — On the verse, “The smallest one shall become a thousand and the youngest one a mighty nation; I, Hashem, in its due time will
accelerate it” (Isaiah 60:22), the sages advanced the following homiletic interpretation: “If they are worthy, ‘I will accelerate it’; if they are not worthy, ‘in its due time’” (Sanhedrin 98a). Our master said, “In the final analysis, ein mikra yotzei midei p’shuto (a scriptural verse cannot be divorced from its plain/literal meaning). The literal intention [of this verse] is that even its predetermined time will be accelerated. And when will this occur? When ‘hakaton yihiyeh le’elef va’hatzair legoy atzum—the smallest one shall become a thousand and the youngest one a mighty nation.’” The “katon-smallest one” and the “tzairyoungest
one” both refer to Ephraim [ben Yoseph] who is [an aspect of the principle of] Mashiach ben Yoseph..
As is known, the extreme threshold level of Mashiach ben Yoseph that is achieved through [the process of] arousal from below is [the power of] 1000 minus 1, that is, [the formula] “999 in Yesod.” “The smallest one shall become a thousand” thus means that when the preparatory activity [of Mashiach ben Yoseph] reaches a degree bordering on [the climactic conclusion of] 1000, then, “I, Hashem, even in its due time, will accelerate it”…
Many times I saw our master pacing back and forth in his study, addressing [Hashem] in an awesome stormy spirit, “Master of the universe, don’t You have a middle path between be’itah (in its due time) and achishenah (I will accelerate it)? We are relying with all our strength on the plain and literal meaning of Your promise: ‘I, Hashem, in its due time will accelerate it!’” [that is, “I, Hashem, will accelerate the in-its-due-time phase of the redemption process”] (Kol HaTor, Chapter 1, paragraph §8). According to the Gra, Mashiach ben Yoseph will not die. No matter how much the force of evil will succeed in fooling mankind into perpetrating untold acts of evil, no matter how much it distorts the truth, no matter how much it tries and even seems to succeed in manipulating, subjugating, oppressing and killing the very essence of Godliness in the world, Mashiach ben Yoseph will not die. Yoseph is alive
and will live on! David, the King of Israel, is alive and well! The true light of Mashiach which Hashem implanted into the very fabric of creation will not die. Hashem will not allow the historical process to end in failure. He will consider Israel’s exile among the nations; He will regard the suffering of His people,
and the heartrending prayers of generations of Jews, and He will divert the decree. How? Without violating the precise step-by-step sequence of events that characterizes our world, “heaven” is stimulating and accelerating “earth” towards its final goal. This is the “middle path” the Gra spoke about in which Israel and mankind are carried closer and closer to the Redemption even as the natural laws
of history remain in full force. When this process will be accompanied by the total teshuvah of the entire nation of Israel, it will pick up even greater momentum. At that point, the “natural process” will be “miraculously” catapulted ahead to its end and the once-necessary veil of concealment of Hashem’s Presence will be lifted.
This is the path of “I, Hashem, will accelerate the in-its-due-time phase of the redemption process.” This is what the Gra meant when he pleaded for a middle path between achishenah and be’itah. In essence, he was saying to Hashem: “Although we have passed the time of ‘pure’ achishenah (‘I will accelerate it’ in one swift jump), and entered the period of bi’itah (‘in its due time’), nevertheless, even
the period of be’itah has an accelerated achishenah aspect.” In Its Time I Will Accelerate It After having tried to come to Eretz Yisrael twice, and not being able to realize his dream of accelerating the Redemption in the Land, the Gra understood in his old age (he passed away in 1797), that the possibility no longer existed of “jump-starting” the Redemption process ahead in one shot. In other words, he understood that, by that time, Israel and mankind were already considered “not worthy.” As a consequence, we had forfeited the possibility of “pure” achishenah (“I will accelerate it”), and entered into the be’itah stage of history (“in its due time”).
This pained the Gaon greatly, for he knew that a pure “be’itah” redemption (“in its due time”—i.e., at the last possible moment) would necessarily involve tremendous suffering for Israel and the world. This is why he pleaded with Hashem, saying, “Don’t You have a middle path between be’itah and achishenah?”
And this is why (in another place) the Gaon distinguishes between what we have called “pure” achishenah, on the one hand, and on the other hand, achishenah d’be’itah (the “I will accelerate it” aspect within the “in its due time” aspect). What did he mean by making this distinction? And what do we gain from it?
Recall the second set of verses cited in the Talmud above, based on which, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi concluded, “If they are worthy, [the Mashiach will come] ‘with the clouds of heaven’ (i.e., swiftly and miraculously). If not, [he will come] ‘lowly riding upon a donkey’ (i.e., slowly, with unbearable pain and suffering).”
For the Gaon, a pure achishenah redemption would have involved mankind being jumped ahead to the Great Shabbat in one miraculous instant. Similar to the concept of kefitzat ha’derekh, in which one can “jump” from one place to another without having to traverse space, Pure Achishenah would have meant bypassing the historical process, and finding ourselves at the doorstep of the seventh millennium without
having to traverse all the time in between. Having forfeited that, he searched for some middle path, some way in which we wouldn’t have to suffer the awesome consequences of being found “not worthy.” He found this middle path in the very words which the rabbis of the Talmud had made into a seemingly iron-clad either/or. Here, in Yeshaya’s own words was the key: Ani Hashem be’itah achishenah. This is
not either one or the other, but an amazing combination of both. According to the Gra, the literal meaning of this phrase is: “I, Hashem, will accelerate the in-its-due-time phase of the redemption process.” Stated otherwise: “I, Hashem, will miraculously accelerate the slow, painful process of be’itah.”
This is what the Gra meant when he pleaded for a middle path between achishenah and be’itah. In essence, he was saying to Hashem: “Although we have passed the period of pure achishenah (I-willaccelerate-it in one swift jump) and entered the period of bi’itah (in-its-due-time), nevertheless, even the period of be’itah has an accelerated achishenah aspect.” Based on the teachings of the Gra,1 Rabbi Shlomo Elyashiv explains that the sixth millennium, corresponding to the sefirah of yesod (the brit milah), is divided into two time-phases: (1) The first few centuries of the sixth millennium correspond to yesod proper; (2) the final period of the sixth millennium, which is called yemot ha’mashiach, corresponds to ateret ha’yesod (the crown of the yesod). Based on this distinction, he writes: 2 The period of ateret ha’yesod is known to all who have tasted the taste of the Etz HaChayim [i.e.,
those who have learned the deepest mysteries of the Torah as taught by the Ari]. Behold, this entire period is included in the ketz d’be’itah (the end-period of be’itah) that will continue for some time. [That is, be’itah is not a single moment in time but an entire time phase or period.] Indeed, this is the meaning of the verse, “Ani Hashem be’itah achishenah—I, Hashem, will accelerate it in its due time.” This verse contains Hashem’s promise that the redemption will come before the end of the be’itah period. Hashem yachish (will accelerate/hurry) the be’itah process itself. In this way, be’itah and achishenah will work together [in synergy, as opposed to them being diametrically opposed; this is the middle path of the Gaon]: bei’tah ashishenah. This is also the meaning of “Ki od chazon la’moed—there is another vision about the appointed time; veyafeyach la’ketz ve’lo yekhazev—it speaks of the End and it does not deceive; im yitmahme’ah, chakeh lo—though it may tarry, await it; ki vo yavo—for it will surely come; lo ye’acher—it will not
delay” (Chabakuk 2:3). “Im yitmahme’ah—though it tarry” refers to ketz d’be’itah. “Though it tarry, chakeh lo, await it, for it will surely come; it will not delay.” As stated, it will not be necessary to wait until the conclusion of the be’itah period, chass ve’shalom. Rather, it too will be accelerated, one way or the other.
How does “achishenah d’be’itah” differ from “pure achishenah”?
1. Gra’s Commentary on Sifra d’Tzeniuta, Chapter 1, s.v. melekh ha’shemini hadar, p. 10a.
2. Leshem Shvo VeAchlamah, Hakdamot VeShearim, Shaar HaPoneh Kadim, Chapter 39, p. 86d, and continued in the hashmatot (corrections to the text) at the end of the sefer, p. 106a-b. The Death Decree—In Its Time I Wil Accelerate It 7
Although, in the achishenah d’be’itah mode we aren’t worthy of bypassing and skipping over history, still, the speed at which events unfold will be accelerated tremendously. History will move faster and faster. This itself will clue many to the fact that something awesome and amazing is happening. As we said above, for the Jewish people, it will serve as a sure sign that the Great Shabbat is coming.
Certainly, as opposed to a pure achishenah scenario (in which Israel is found totally worthy), in an achishenah d’be’itah scenario, all accounts must be paid, and nothing will be overlooked. Nevertheless, this entire process will move at lightning speed. We are living now in the throes of achishenah d’be’itah, in which we are moving faster and faster towards the Edge of History. But the Gra went even further. Not only are we accelerating towards the End Time, but that very End Time is moving towards us as we race to meet it! In the 4th Chapter of Kol HaTor, R. Hillel brings his master’s explanation of the following two verses in Tehillim (Psalm 102:14-15):
Atah takum terachem Tziyon—arise, have compassion upon Zion, ki et lechenenah—for it is the time to favor her, ki va mo’ed—for the appointed time is coming. Ki ratzu avadekha et avaneihah—for Your servants hold her stones dear, ve’et afarah yechonenu—and cherish her very dust.
Rabbi Hillel wrote:
This is the meaning of “Ki va moed—for the appointed time is coming” (Psalm 102:14). That is, it is not necessary to go to the appointed time[s], rather the appointed time[s] will come to us, since “Your servants hold her stones dear, and cherish her very dust” [i.e., the source of stimulation is aroused from below by Israel returning to her land]. It will then be completed via the central column, the
[harmonizing] principle of rachamim (mercy), as indicated at the beginning of the verse, “Arise and have rachamim upon Zion…” (Kol HaTor, Chapter 4, paragraph §3). [Ki va mo’ed—the appointed time is coming. It is literally coming towards us as we move inexorably towards it.]

Is Unprecedented Space Explosion a Nibiru like Phenomenon?
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz June 26, 2018 , 2:08 pm
He reckoned the number of the stars; to each He gave its name. Psalms 147:4 (The Israel Bible™)
An explosion in space, far brighter than the entire Milky Way.
A recent flash in the cosmos, far brighter than any nova, has scientists stumped, but one rabbi who delved into esoteric ancient sources, suggested an answer to this astronomical riddle, while heralding a powerful Messianic message.
On June 17, astronomers at the University of Hawaii’s Institute of Astronomy twin Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescopes discovered an enormous, unprecedented bright flash in space that had just appeared in the heavens. Supernovae typically take several weeks to develop but this flash, 10 to 100 times brighter than an average supernova, appeared in a region of space the astronomers had checked only two days before.
“It really just appeared out of nowhere,” said Kate Maguire at Queen’s University Belfast, part of the ATLAS team, to New Scientist.
The discovery was designated AT2018cow in the Astronomer’s Telegram, a website where professionals in the field post new observations of cosmic phenomena. The serendipitous letter ending of the random designation inevitably led astronomers to dub the new discovery, ‘the Cow.’ Due to the extreme brightness, researchers initially believed the flash originated in our galaxy but a group of astronomers in China determined that the Cow was actually quite distant, approximately 200 million light years from earth.
Astronomers are still not sure how to classify this stellar explosion with speculations ranging from a cataclysmic variable star, gamma-ray burst, gravitational wave, supernova or something else entirely.
“There are other objects that have been discovered that are as fast, but the fastness and the brightness, that’s quite unusual,” Maguire said. “We’re not sure yet what it is, but the normal powering mechanism for a supernova is radioactive decay of nickel, and this event is too bright and too fast for that.”
The Cow is indeed fast, and astronomers now believe that it is some sort of explosion carrying high-energy particles. The particles are moving at 12,000 miles per second, close to the speed of light and are burning at an estimated 16,000 degrees Fahrenheit, 1.6 times hotter than the surface of the sun.
Yuval Ovadia, a filmmaker and lecturer on the subject of Nibiru and other astronomical phenomena, was not surprised that researchers could not precisely identify the Cow.
“Science does not have all the answers. Encountering unexpected things that can’t be explained by previous assumptions is part of the scientific process of discovery, especially when studying the cosmos,” Ovadia told Breaking Israel News. “This new discovery is something entirely new and may be a Nibiru-like appearance.”
Nibiru, also known as Planet X, is a planet some believe will collide with the Earth in an end-of-days catastrophe.
“This can’t be Nibiru since it is not heading for the earth but it could be similar,” Ovadia said. “But to truly be scientists, they need to consider every possibility and not just the ideas that conform to their agenda or preconceived ideas.”
Ovadia predicted that as the end of days draws closer, extreme and unprecedented natural phenomena will appear in the heavens and on the earth.
“There were at least 12,000 earthquakes in Hawaii last month,” Ovadia said. “There is a connection between what happens in space and what happens to our planet. It may not be a coincidence that scientists discover this powerful nova at the same time that we are seeing so much seismic activity in the world. We know that what happens in the cosmos can affect our planet. This is part of what we know about Nibiru: that its arrival will be accompanied by earthquakes and volcanoes.”
Ovadia emphasized that implicit in this recent discovery is an admission by NASA that the danger of a a Nibiru-like impact is real enough that it requires attention. The observatory in Hawaii that first reported the Cow is part of ATLAS, which became fully operational just last year and with the express purpose of identifying planet-threatening meteors.
Rabbi Yosef Berger, the Rabbi of King David’s Tomb on Mount Zion, noted that the discovery could not be more timely since this week, Jews around the world will be reading the portion of the Torah describing the blessings Balaam gave to Israel. One of these blessings is enigmatically called the Star of Jacob.
What I see for them is not yet, What I behold will not be soon: A star rises from Yaakov, A scepter comes forth from Yisrael; It smashes the brow of Moab, The foundation of all children of Shet. Numbers 24:17
“It is highly significant that when we read about the Star of Jacob that will come to accompany the Jewish Messiah a powerful light appears in the sky since there is a powerful connection between what is read in the Torah at a given time and what happens in the world,” Rabbi Berger said to Breaking Israel News. “This particular blessing is the source for the future arrival of the Jewish Messiah being accompanied by a powerful new star.”
Rabbi Berger cited Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, known by the acronym Rambam, the foremost Torah authority of the 12th century, whose rulings are still used as the basis for much of Jewish Law.
“The Rambam brings this verse about a star appearing as proof that the Messiah will come one day,” Rabbi Berger said. “But he says it will come from Jacob, and not from Esau. More specifically, from the tribe of Judah.”
Rabbi Berger suggested that the Jewish sources concerning the Star of Jacob may hold clues that could help the scientists understand the new astronomical appearance. He cited the Zohar, the foundational work of Jewish mysticism, which described Star of Jacob as a star with seven “stars” orbiting it.
After forty days, when the pillar rises from earth to heaven in the eyes of the whole world and the Messiah has appeared, a star will rise up on the east, blazing in all colors, and seven other stars will surround that star. And they will wage war on it. (Zohar, Parshat Balak)
“The astronomers are only familiar with novas that come from one star,” Rabbi Berger said. “Since this flash is so much larger, it may have come as the result of several stars, maybe even seven stars, similar to what the Zohar described. If that is the case, this event has greater implications than the scientists realize.”

Avraham ben Yaakov
KNOW YOUR BIBLE
________________________________________
JEREMIAH CHAPTER 19
Vv 1-15: Allegory of the Flask and its meaning:
Further to the allegory of the potter in Ch 18 vv 1ff, Jeremiah is now instructed to carry out another highly public demonstration through the purchase of an earthenware flask or bottle that he was later to smash, symbolizing how God would break the people of Jerusalem because of their rebellion. This demonstration was to be held in the presence of the elders of the people and the elders of the priests. These surely included the outwardly pious bulwarks of the establishment who were the most entrenched in their bad habits and the most resistant to Jeremiah’s rebukes and who were sure to find his present demonstration most provocative.
The demonstration was to be carried out at one of the greatest abominations in Jerusalem, the “Valley of the son of Hinnom”, which has given its name to the Torah concept of “hell”, and which in late First Temple times was the center of the Molech cult involving child sacrifice, as indicated in v 5 of our present text. This valley was immediately outside the “Dung Gate” of Jerusalem (Rashi), where the inhabitants of the city would throw their broken pottery shards (for earthenware pots, which are easily broken, were the “disposable crockery” of those times).
It was the Molech abomination that would be requited with the coming calamity, which would bring a famine so severe that parents would eat the flesh of their own children (v 9).
Jeremiah was to ceremonially smash the flask that he had purchased in order to symbolize how God would smash the city and its inhabitants because of their idolatry.
Vv 14-15: Having carried out his demonstration, Jeremiah returned to the city and entered the Temple , where he publicly spelled out the message of doom.
CHAPTER 20
V 1: “And Pashhur son of Immer the Cohen heard.” This Pashhur is called by Targum SAGAN, indicating that he was the deputy High Priest. He was clearly one of the main pillars of the recalcitrant establishment and considered himself a prophet, while perceiving Jeremiah as a fifth columnist whose prophesies of doom were sure to discourage the common people from resisting the Babylonians. The establishment priests and leaders were convinced that they could succeed in their resistance as long as the public did not become demoralized. It would not have been difficult to portray Jeremiah as a traitor since when Sennacherib laid siege to Jerusalem in the generation of King Hezekiah, the prophet Isaiah had told the king not to surrender despite Ravshakeh’s attempts to demoralize the people (II Kings 19:6).
V 2: After beating Jeremiah, Pashhur had him put in “prison” (AL HA-MAHPECHES). RaDaK explains that this was a kind of stocks or pillory in which the necks of the prisoners were locked between timber beams. This was a gross assault on the person of God’s prophet.
V 3: On his release on the following day, Jeremiah fearlessly rebukes PASHHUR, making a play on his name. Its positive connotations are PASH (Aramaic=great) and HUR, “free” (as in BEN HORIN), but Jeremiah “changes the connotations around” (cf. MAHPECHES, “turn around”), for the root PASHAH means “split asunder”, while SHAHOR means dark. SAHOR in Aramaic means “round about”: thus a multitude (PASH) of gathered (MAGOR) troops will surround Jerusalem round about (MI-SAVIV) (Rashi, Metzudas David).
Jeremiah prophesies that Pashhur and all his household and friends will die in exile in Babylon .
Vv 7ff: “You persuaded me, HaShem, and I was persuaded.” Jeremiah’s prophecies were laden with rebuke and doom. He surely did not want to be the bearer of such evil tidings, yet God “persuaded him” to prophecy, and the prophet was “persuaded”. He was unable to hold back the fire that burned within him – he simply could not contain it. He had to speak, even though his one-time “friends” were now against him, waiting to pounce.
V 12: Jeremiah takes strength in the fact that God knows the truth and will vindicate him and take vengeance on his enemies.
V 14: Even so, Jeremiah laments the day on which he was conceived. In doing so, he was like Job, who also wished he had never been born (Job 3:3). “Said Jeremiah: I am like a priest to whose lot it has fallen to administer the bitter waters to a certain woman suspected of infidelity (SOTAH). When they bring the woman to him and remove her veil, he takes the cup and lifts it to her and looks in her face and realizes it is his own mother! He starts screaming, ‘Woe is me! This is my mother, that I always tried to honor and now I am disgracing her.’ So too I face my mother, Zion , about whom I hoped I could prophesy goodness and comfort, but now I have to prophesy punishments” (Midrash).
The verse specifies that Jeremiah was conceived BY DAY, which is unusual since in normal circumstances a Talmid Chacham is forbidden to have relations with his wife by day. The rabbis taught that Jeremiah’s father, Hilkiah, was forced to flee from King Menasheh, who sought to kill all the prophets. Just before leaving, he went into his wife, despite the fact that it was day, because in these extenuating circumstances this was the only way to ensure that he would have progeny (Rashi on v 14).
BACK TO KNOW YOUR BIBLE HOMEPAGE
AZAMRA HOMEPAGE
By Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Greenbaum
© AZAMRA INSTITUTE 5767 – 2006-7 All rights reserved

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 23
Vv 1-2: The “shepherds” are the last kings and leaders of Judah , whose failures brought exile and dispersal upon the people.
V 3: God himself will eventually gather in the exiled “flock” at the end of days and establish leaders who will bring about their restoration.
V 5 refers to King Mashiach: “and a king will RULE.” – unlike the kings in Jeremiah’s time, whose sovereignty was limited, King Mashiach will truly RULE (RaDaK).
V 6: “In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely.” This verse prophesies that the Ten Tribes will be restored in the time of Mashiach, unlike in the time of the Second Temple , when they did not return (Metzudas David). “This is the name people will call him: HaShem is our righteousness.” The commentators are at pains to emphasize that Mashiach will not be called by the Name of HaShem, but that he will be described as the one in whose days HaShem will cause us to become righteous (Rashi, Metzudas).
Vv 7-8: The future redemption and ingathering of the exiles will be so striking that it will outweigh even the redemption from Egypt .
Vv 9-15: The glorious future that awaits Israel at the end of days can only come about after the cleansing of the people through the tribulations of exile. But the false prophets of Jeremiah’s time were telling the people that the evil foretold by the true prophets would not materialize and that they would not suffer, thus encouraging them not to repent (see v 17).
Vv 10-11: If the land was full of adulterers, it was because of the influence of the false prophets and the priests, who were “flatterers,” telling people what they wanted to hear rather than what they needed to hear.
Vv 13-14: “I saw fraudulence in the prophets of Shomron.” The false prophets of the regime of the Ten Tribes had set a precedent that was later followed by the false prophets of Jerusalem .
Vv 21-22: “I did not send the prophets, but they ran, I did not speak to them but they prophesied.” The false prophets were not sent by God: they were self-appointed and pushed themselves forward with pure CHUTZPAH (“impudence”). If they were true prophets, they would address the people with the unpopular message that they had to repent.
V 23: “Am I a God only from nearby – says HaShem – and not a God from afar?” – “Do I only see what is near to Me? Do I not have the power to judge the lower realms that are far from Me? Do I not know their deeds?” (Rashi).
V 24: “Can a man hide in concealments.?” – “This can be compared to an architect who built an entire city complete with all kinds of underground passageways, caves and cellars. Afterwards the tax collectors went around the city. The people started hiding their silver and gold in the underground cellars. But the architect said to them, I built the city and I made the cellars – you want to hide from me???” (Tanchuma).
V 25: “I have had a dream! I have had a dream!” The false prophets considered their dreams, which were the products of their own imaginations, to have the status of prophetic visions.
Vv 28-9: There is no comparison between the fantasies of the false prophets and the Word of God, which is like fire, and like a hammer that smashes a rock, causing sparks to fly in all directions. Rashi explains that true prophecy is compared to fire because it comes through the attribute of GEVURAH (=might). “It was in my heart like a raging fire” (Jeremiah 20:9). True prophecy is like a hammer that causes sparks to fly in all directions, because every word and letter of true prophecy contain infinite aspects of meaning and allusion, on all the levels of PARDES — PSHAT (the “simple” meaning), REMEZ (“allusion”), DRUSH (“allegorical significance”) and SOD (“mystical, esoteric meaning).
Vv 33ff: “If this people, or a prophet or a priest, should ask you, What is the BURDEN (MASA) of HaShem.” In numerous passages, prophecy is called a BURDEN (cf. Zechariah 9:1; 12:1 Malachi 1:1 etc. etc.). The people made a mockery of this, taunting Jeremiah by asking him what new burden of prophecy he had received. God’s answer is that the people themselves have become a “burden” that He will cast off.
CHAPTER 24
THE TWO BASKETS OF FIGS
V 1: Yechoniah (=King Yeho-achin) was taken into exile in Babylon eighteen years before the destruction of the Temple . Thus the Temple was still standing when God showed Jeremiah the vision of the two baskets of figs positioned ready to eat in front of the Sanctuary. Yechoniah had gone into exile together with “the officers of Judah and the ARTISANS (CHARASH) and GATEKEEPERS (MASGEIR)”. The rabbis explained that the ARTISANS and GATEKEEPERS were the outstanding Torah sages. When one would begin to speak, this would cause all the others to become silent (CHARASH), and if one closed and sealed matters (MASGEIR), nobody could open up again (Gittin 88a; Sanhedrin 38a).
Vv 4-10: Interpretation of the vision. The “good figs” were the righteous sages who submitted to the decree of exile and went peaceably to Babylon . God “put His eye upon them for good” (v 6) and would eventually restore them to their land, as happened in the time of Zerubavel and Ezra.
The “bad figs” were Tzedekiah and his officers and the remainder of the people who stayed in Jerusalem or fled to Egypt . They believed that they had the power to flout God’s decree and resist the Babylonians, and they were harshly requited for their rebellion.
By Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Greenbaum

Mathematical Prophecy or Predicting the Future
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz June 18, 2018 , 2:07 pm
“I foretell the end from the beginning, And from the start, things that had not occurred. I say: My plan shall be fulfilled; I will do all I have purposed.” Isaiah 46:10 (The Israel Bible™)
Saul Kullook, a scientist with many patents to his name, has developed a formula correlating the axis of the earth and the latitudes of Israel’s Biblical borders to Prophecy. The proofs are convincing but what he said about next year will shock you.
Kullook was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and immigrated to Israel in 1974. In addition to his scientific research, Kullook has made an intense study into physical-mathematical structures contained in the Hebrew Bible and the ancient tradition of Israel. Remarkably, he discovered predefined timings for major physical events involving the People of Israel during the last 3,500 years which are correlated to physical events. Kullok is in the process of publishing his study.
Kullook discovered that major events affecting the return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel can be numerically obtained by a mathematical relation between two observable physical factors: the inclination of the planet and the latitude of the Biblical borders in Israel.
“The proofs are all written out but nobody wants to check it. It is too intimidating,” Kullook said to Breaking Israel News.
The study is complicated but that is not what intimidates other scientists according to Kullook.
“They fear the implications,” Kullook said. “It proves that God established a timetable in nature, that this is what determines the movement of the earth and not just the known laws of nature.”
He described the discovery in the simplest possible terms.
“The inclination of the planet on the year of the immigration plus the constant angular value equals the latitude of a border of Israel,” Kullook said.
“The mean inclination of the earth’s axis has decreased continuously during the 3,500 years investigated in this study; from the biblical time of Israel crossed the Jordan River after their biblical Exodus from Egypt until present times,” Kullook explained. “For each point in time, biblical and historical, the earth’s axis has a different mean inclination or axial tilt. For the contrary, the latitude of physical and biblical borders (or places), are fixed geographical values obtained in accordance with the Book of Joshua. The algorithm is a mathematical expression involving a correlation between points in time of history and the latitude of a place or border in the Biblical Land of Israel.”
“The formula means that if I know the latitude of the border, I subtract the constant angular value to obtain the mean inclination of the earth, from where the time at which this inclination took place gives the date of the event,” Kullook said. “Conversely, if I know the date, I can use the formula, insert the axial value and get the latitude of the border. This is an absolute correlation.”
“Put simply, the discovery shows that the Jews come back to Israel at fixed times that are set in the forces of nature, in the sun, stars, and earth,” Kullook said.
He emphasized that the factors in this algorithm are a powerful combination of heaven (the mean axial tilt of the Earth) and earth (the geographical latitude of the territorial borders in the Biblical Land).
“The timings given by the algorithm should be considered as predefined by astronomic and geographic physical factors, which are not under human control,” explained Kullook. “This means that the timing of a significant number of biblical and historical events involving the migratory movements of the Israelites to and from the Biblical Land was, and will be predefined.”
Kullook gave several examples of the accuracy of the algorithm, the first being the entrance of the Jews into Israel after the Exodus from Egypt. Based on sources in the Bible and the Talmud, Kullook placed the Exodus from Egypt at 1,476 BCE.
“This means that the Children of Israel came into the Land of Israel in 1,436 BCE, which according to my formula correlates with the latitude of Jericho, their entry point into the land,” Kullok said.
He noted that like any mathematical formula, this works in both directions.
Another example he gave concerned the Babylonian Exile in the sixth century BCE. Kullook’s formula correlated the date of the exile and the subsequent return with the northern and southern borders of the Biblical city of Jerusalem.
“We know the geographical latitude of the southern biblical border of ancient Jerusalem. The corresponding historical time given by the algorithm is the year 539 BCE, which is the time for when the fall of the Babylonian Empire took place,” Kullook said. “This major historical event was soon followed by the King Cyrus Edict of 538 BCE allowing for both, the beginning of the Jewish return from the Babylonian Exile and the start of the Second Temple construction.”
Kullook also explained about the definition of the border of the Arnon River, which is in the portion of Israel in the eastern side of the Jordan River. The river marks the southern border of the Tribe of Reuven. The latitude for this algorithm was slightly less precise since the Arnon River forms a delta as it joins the Dead Sea. Kullook’s algorithm correlates the convergence of the Arnon and the Dead Sea to the years 1830-1840. Though this may seem unrelated to the State of Israel, Kullook insists these years were critical to the establishment of the modern state of Israel.
“This is precisely the time for when the Ottoman Empire started to disintegrate in its Middle-Eastern domains,” Kullook said. “The process for the restoration of the House of Judah in the Biblical Land started right there by the active participation of England, a Christian Nation, and more recently with also the United States of America, also a Christian Nation. There was a theological revival at that time, a change in theology that led them to their fundamental participation in this process of return.”
Kullook said that this inclusion of Christianity in these preordained times signifies its role in the prophesied return to Israel.
“Jewish and Christian endeavors toward returning the Jews to Israel are necessarily very different,” he said. “But they are nevertheless complementing each other while working towards the same goal. They represent a two-sided parallel process, each in accordance with the words of the prophets of Israel.”
The latitude of the significant east-west section of the border delineated by the Arnon River bears an additional prophetic result, corresponding to the years 1947-1951. More significant than the UN Partition Plan establishing the State of Israel, 700,000 Jews immigrated to Israel in these years.
But Kullook’s formula is not limited to the past. The latitude of the southernmost point of the Arnon River corresponds to next year.
“The results show the year before an aliyah (immigration to Israel, literally ‘ascending),” Kullok said. “This means that in two years, there will be an aliyah which, according to the calculations, will be the largest yet. Since it is the most southern latitude of all the borders of Israel, this is the final aliyah and there will be no more exiles.”
Kullook made one final comment on the nature of his formula.
“Since the formula bears accurate results based on the Biblical borders of Israel, what is known as Greater Israel, the relevance of these borders is prophetic and still relevant today.”

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 27
THE YOKE OF SUBJUGATION
V 1: “In the beginning of the reign of Yeho-yakim.” – “Three years before Nebuchadnezzar ruled Jeremiah already prophesied that he would become king” (Rashi).
RaDaK states that in this prophecy God informed Jeremiah that Tzedekiah would rule after Yeho-yakim and Yeho-yachin, and He instructed him that when this would come about, Jeremiah was to send his “straps and bars” (symbols of the yoke of exile) to the kings enumerated in verse 3 and to tell them the contents of this prophecy. It appears that after Tzedekiah became king, these kings send him messengers to persuade him to join them in a collective rebellion against Babylon . This was why Jeremiah was instructed to tell Tzedekiah and these other kings that they must submit to Nebuchadnezzar if they wanted to survive. The rabbis stated that when Nebuchadnezzar appointed Tzedekiah as king (after the exile and death of Yeho-yakim), he gave him power over the other kings in the region. The purpose of sending this prophecy to Jeremiah at the beginning of the reign of Yeho-yakim, fifteen years before it would be actualized in the reign of Tzedekiah, was so that Yeho-yakim would know that Nebuchadnezzar was destined to rule in order that he himself should not put his trust in the king of Egypt, who had appointed him as king of Judah (see RaDaK on Jer. 27:1).
V 2: “Make for yourself straps and bars and put them on your neck.” Rashi states that Jeremiah had these straps and bars on his neck for FIFTEEN YEARS from the first year of the reign of Yeho-yakim until the fourth year of Tzedekiah, until Hananiyah ben Azoor broke them (as related in the next chapter, Jer. 28:10).
V 7: All the nations would be forced to serve Nebuchadnezzar and his offspring for the full duration of God’s decree. Nebuchadnezzar’s son was Eveel Merodach and his grandson was Belshazzar.
V 9: “Do not listen to your prophets and your magicians and your dreamers and your wizards and sorcerers.” Evidently it was only the priests and false prophets of Judah who were in denial: the entire establishment of gurus and diviners in all the surrounding nations could not accept that the whole face of the world as they had known it until that time was destined to change decisively as a result of the onslaught of the Babylonians.
V 11: Only the peoples that were willing to submit to Babylon would remain in their own lands. All the others would be deported.
Vv 18ff: The false prophets of Judah were soothing the people by prophesying that Babylon’s ascent was only temporary and that the Judean exiles and Temple vessels that had been taken there when Nebuchadnezzar exiled King Yeho-yachin would soon be returned (see ch 28 vv 3-4). Jeremiah challenges the false prophets to entreat God to avert the even greater disaster that he foresaw, in which all the Temple treasures that still remained in Jerusalem would also be seized and taken to Babylon.
CHAPTER 28
“And it was in that year, at the BEGINNING of the reign of Tzedekiah.” Rashi states that this was in fact in the FOURTH year of Tzedekiah. This was the “beginning” of his reign in the sense that in that year Tzedekiah visited Babylon to appear before Nebuchadnezzar, who then appointed him over the other kingdoms enumerated in the previous chapter (Jer. 27:3: Edom, Moab, Amon, Tyre and Sidon). It was after this that the rulers of these kingdoms sent to Tzedekiah trying to persuade him to join them in rebelling against Nebuchadnezzar. In the prophecy in the previous chapter (Jer. 27:2ff) Jeremiah had been instructed that when this juncture would arrive fifteen years after that prophecy was delivered, he was to send his “straps and bars” to these kings as a warning not to rebel (see Rashi on v 1). It was then that the false prophet Hananiyah ben Azur directly challenged Jeremiah in the Temple in front of the priests and all the people.
V 2: “Thus says HaShem of Hosts.” The false prophet uses exactly the same phraseology that we find in the true prophets.
V 9: “When a prophet speaks of peace, it is only when the word of that prophet comes about that it is known that that prophet was indeed sent by HaShem.” Jeremiah here states the basic rule as to how to determine if a prophet is true or false (see Rambam, Hilchos Yesodey HaTorah 10:4). If a prophet prophesies a disaster and the disaster does not come about, this in itself does not make him a false prophet – because God could make a decree against a people and send the prophet to warn them, but if the people repent, He might revoke that very decree because His compassion has no limits. This happened in the case of Jonah’s prophecy that Nineveh would be overturned. The fact that it was not overturned – because the people repented – did not turn Jonah into a false prophet. But if a prophet says that something GOOD will happen and it does not, this proves that he is a false prophet, because in His compassion God would never revoke a good decree! Only when the prophet announces good tidings and they are actually fulfilled does this show that he is a true prophet. [By this criterion all those Israeli leaders and pundits who prophesied that peace would reign in the Middle East after the Oslo agreement have been exposed as false, yet many of them still occupy leading positions in the country.]
V 10: “And Hananiyah the prophet took the yoke from upon the neck of Jeremiah the prophet and broke it.” In imitation of the true prophets, the false prophet likes to indulge in dramatic theatricals in order to emphasize his points.
V 14: “.And I have also given him the wild beasts of the field.” The rabbis tell that Nebuchadnezzar rode on a lion and tied a crocodile around his head (Shabbos 150a).
V 17: “And Hananiyah the prophet died IN THAT YEAR in the seventh month.” Rashi points out that the “seventh month” (Tishri) is already part of the New Year, making the verse seemingly contradict itself. Rashi tells us that in fact Hananiyah died on the very eve of Rosh HaShanah, the New Year, but he instructed his sons to bury him only after Rosh HaShanah and not before. This was in order to conceal the fact of his death until after the New Year had begun so as to make it appear that Jeremiah had prophesied falsely when he said that he would die in THAT YEAR, i.e. the year of his prophecy.
By Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Greenbaum
© AZAMRA INSTITUTE 5767 – 200