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Thursday, November 29, 2012

Kings of Edom as Empires and Chiefs as Presidents?

Here's an idea that crossed through my head.  I don't know how accurate it is or if it's totally baseless, but you can be the judge.

Parshat Vayishlah concludes with the 8 kings and 11 chiefs of Edom:

וְאֵלֶּה, הַמְּלָכִים, אֲשֶׁר מָלְכוּ, בְּאֶרֶץ אֱדוֹם--לִפְנֵי מְלָךְ-מֶלֶךְ, לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל.
And these are the kings that reigned in the land of Edom, before there reigned any king over the children of Israel.

Perhaps, these kings refer to world empires who ruled over the traditional "Land of Edom", which was to the south of Eretz Yisrael and not necessarily Edomite kings.  These were basically the same empires that ruled over Eretz Yisrael, starting after the Hashmonaim.

The first (#1) is:
 וַיִּמְלֹךְ בֶּאֱדוֹם, בֶּלַע בֶּן-בְּעוֹר; וְשֵׁם עִירוֹ, דִּנְהָבָה.
And Bela the son of Beor reigned in Edom; and the name of his city was Dinhabah.

This refers to the Romans themselves.  This is the only king for whom it is mentioned that he ruled "in Edom" as Rome is the headquarters of "Edom" (which is different than the "Land of Edom").  He is called Bela since Rome swallowed up all other nations.

For #2, we have יוֹבָב בֶּן-זֶרַח מִבָּצְרָה who represents Byzantium.

For #3, we have חֻשָׁם מֵאֶרֶץ הַתֵּימָנִי, representing the Persian Sassanids for the short period that they had control (חשם is a bit similar to Khosrau, who also fought in Yemen).

For #4, we have הֲדַד בֶּן-בְּדַד, representing successive Muslim caliphates; namely, the Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, and Fatimid Caliphates.

For #5, we have שַׂמְלָה מִמַּשְׂרֵקָה, representing the Crusaders.

For #6, we have שָׁאוּל מֵרְחֹבוֹת הַנָּהָר, representing the Ayyubids, Mamluks and briefly, the Mongols.

For #7, we have בַּעַל חָנָן בֶּן-עַכְבּוֹר, representing the Ottoman Empire.  (Note the death of the last Ottoman princess earlier this year.)

For #8, we have הֲדַר, representing the British Empire, whose current monarch is still living since that time, just as the Torah does not record the death of Hadar (unlike the other kings).

Regarding the chiefs mentioned immediately after the kings, we can possibly say that starting at the birth of the State of Israel, the great empires of the world are no longer, and the great powers of the world have shifted to nations that are ruled by presidents - not kings. First and foremost among them is the United States of America.

When the British Mandate left Eretz Yisrael in 1948, Harry Truman was President. However, since his presidency did not start in that year, we will begin the chiefs starting from his successor, as follows:

Chief of EdomCommander in Chief
תִּמְנָע
Eisenhower
עַלְוָה
Kennedy
יְתֵת
Johnson
אָהֳלִיבָמָה
Nixon
אֵלָה
Ford
פִּינֹן
Carter
קְנַז
Reagan
תֵּימָן
Bush I
מִבְצָר
Clinton
מַגְדִּיאֵל
Bush II
עִירָם
Obama

As I once mentioned long ago, the Midrash says that Iram will empty his treasuries to give treasures to the Mashiah.

And immediately following listing the chiefs, it says:

וַיֵּשֶׁב יַעֲקֹב, בְּאֶרֶץ מְגוּרֵי אָבִיו--בְּאֶרֶץ, כְּנָעַן
And Jacob dwelt in the land of his father's sojournings, in the land of Canaan.

May that day come very soon.

4 Comments:

At Thu Nov 29, 03:21:00 AM 2012, Blogger Dov Bar-Leib said...

Sorry, St. Iram (Santorum) could have been Iram. It was a potential that did exist within America. But it was roundly rejected even in the Republican primaries. It is worth noticing that Romney basically won in all states that already granted marriage contracts and Civil Union contracts to homosexuals. The exception to this rule for whatever reason was Iowa itself which was extremely close between Romney and St. Iram anyway. So notice that the number of chiefs in the final list is 11. St. Iram was the prospective 11th chief. Instead in large part because of Hurricane Sandy, America re-elected the 11th horn dude. And from the Roshei hateivot,"VeEila Hamelachim Asher Malchu Beeretz Edom....", we get Vav Hey Aleph Mem Bet Aleph. The alephbet soup is rearranged into OBAMA. Time to come home. The end of the little reign of this evil man will not be pretty.

 
At Thu Nov 29, 03:28:00 AM 2012, Blogger Dov Bar-Leib said...

I was speaking about Romney's victories over Santorum in the Republican primaries. Romney won in the states that were already in favor of certified abominations (except Iowa by a very slim margin). In the general election all those abominable states went for Obamanation. So one might say that those states are both abominable and Obamanible. St. Iram never had a chance. As one of your Rabbe'im in America just said, in today's moral environment in the US, Reagan would lose too. Time to come home.

 
At Thu Nov 29, 07:23:00 AM 2012, Anonymous Anonymous said...

An IMPROPER DEFINITION of ISRAEL and EDOM leaves a GAPING hole in your theory !!

No one can understand these things till maschiac comes anyway, however GUESSES are in order as long as they are recognized as GUESSES and not ABSOLUTE TRUTH.

 
At Thu Nov 29, 09:05:00 AM 2012, Blogger yaak said...

An IMPROPER DEFINITION of ISRAEL and EDOM leaves a GAPING hole in your theory !!

Improper? Please explain how it is improper.

No one can understand these things till maschiac comes anyway, however GUESSES are in order as long as they are recognized as GUESSES and not ABSOLUTE TRUTH.

How many times can I make clear that it is a guess? Is the question mark in the headline, writing "Perhaps" and boldfacing it, and writing "possibly" not enough for you?

 

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