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Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Is Damascus Destined to be Destroyed?

A few months ago, Rav Fish brought down some material from the beginning of chapter 7 of Yeshaya and applied it to our days.  However, he stopped at verse 7 and did not comment on verse 8.  I assume the reason for the lack of comment is that doing so would be controversial at best and being פותח פה לשטן at worst.  This is because if we apply that verse to today, the logical reading of the verse foretells the downfall of the State of Israel after 65 years.  However, there are less controversial ways to explain it, as we will explain.

A little background: Pekah the King of Israel and Retzin the King of Aram are fighting against Yehuda. Pekah had slaughtered 120,000 and captured 200,000 (Divrei Hayamim Bet 28:5-8), but he and Retzin were unable to conquer Yerushalayim (Yeshaya 7:1). The prophet is now describing the downfall of both Pekah and Retzin.

Yeshaya 7:8 reads:
כִּי רֹאשׁ אֲרָם דַּמֶּשֶׂק, וְרֹאשׁ דַּמֶּשֶׂק רְצִין; וּבְעוֹד, שִׁשִּׁים וְחָמֵשׁ שָׁנָה, יֵחַת אֶפְרַיִם, מֵעָם.
For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people.
Note, however, that Mechon Mamre's translation is not completely accurate according to Metzudat David and Radak. They explain the words יחת אפרים מעם to mean that Aram will be broken while Ephraim will also be broken as a people. (That is, they will go into exile.)  Note that according to Metzudat David and Radak, the verse is mainly speaking about Aram's fate, while also mentioning the fate of the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  The verse would therefore be translated like this:
For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall it be broken, and that Ephraim be not a people.
All the commentators seem to say that the 65 years mentioned here were not to begin from the moment this prophecy was given, but rather, they began earlier with the prophecy of Amos (chapter 7) where it states that Israel would be sent into exile. Metzudat David notes that the prophecy of doom against Aram was within the 65 years (see Melachim Bet 16:9) while the prophecy against the Northern Kingdom of Israel was for exactly 65 years, and it mentioned 65 as the maximum for the doom of both.

If we do two things to keep the simple meaning of the verse, however, we can make an interesting observation. The two things we can do is to first start counting from when this prophecy was given, and secondly, we can make the 65 years an exact year count - even for Aram.  How do we do this? By applying it to today.

If you take the beginning of the verse, in addition to the ו of ובעוד:
כִּי רֹאשׁ אֲרָם דַּמֶּשֶׂק, וְרֹאשׁ דַּמֶּשֶׂק רְצִין; וּ
you get a gematria of 2523.

Furthermore, we know from Seder Olam Rabba that Yeshaya 7 occurred in the 20th year of Pekah. According to this chart, that would be just before Hoshe'a ben Elah took over in 3186, so it would be sometime in late 3185.  If you add 2523 to 3185, you get 5708, the year the State of Israel was declared.

Then, the verse says:
בְעוֹד, שִׁשִּׁים וְחָמֵשׁ שָׁנָה, יֵחַת
meaning, in another 65 years from 5708, it will be broken. That is, Aram will be broken. Aram is today's Syria - the Syria of the end of 5773 and beginning of 5774.

Ok, but how about the rest of the verse? The verse concludes:
אֶפְרַיִם, מֵעָם

This could possibly have a positive spin to it, and mean that the concept that our nation requires a leader from Ephraim will be broken, as it says in Yehezkel 37:22:
and I will make them one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.
As it says in Otzar Hamidrashim, when the Nero of the East (נרון מזרחי = באשאר אסאד) who's in Damascus falls, all the kingdoms of the east fall, and then the salvation for Israel will sprout and Mashiah ben David comes...

May we merit to see this speedily in our days.

11 Comments:

At Tue Aug 27, 11:07:00 AM 2013, Blogger jack said...

I hope you guys realize,you are all criminally insane,and need to be locked up In a insane asylum

 
At Tue Aug 27, 11:56:00 AM 2013, Anonymous Anonymous said...

*:-)

 
At Tue Aug 27, 12:39:00 PM 2013, Anonymous John said...

I think cruise missile attacks are imminent. The American public doesn't have the stomach for another quagmire in the Middle East, but Obama has to do something. He boxed himself in with all that talk about "red lines". The real question is how Russia will respond. All hell could break loose.

 
At Tue Aug 27, 03:29:00 PM 2013, Blogger Dov Bar-Leib said...

The answer to the question in the title of this post is yes. There is no way around it now. And the 999 steps of Mashiach ben Ephraim come to an abrupt end in 5773 according to the Sulam on the Zohar VaYeira 119. Too bad and really sad that he is still in an American prison in his 28th year as 5773 comes to a close. He wrote his swan song letter for Malkhut Ephraim in his recent letter to Klal Yisrael. He writes like a Melekh. So from now on, it is ben David or bust.

 
At Tue Aug 27, 06:25:00 PM 2013, Anonymous Anonymous said...

in blog, Absolute Truth this was written though he quotes the Zohar, no exact chap or verse is given.

The Zohar says that when the king of Damascus falls, Moshiach will come. The numerical value of the words: Melech Shel Damesek = Bashaar Assad

 
At Tue Aug 27, 08:10:00 PM 2013, Anonymous shevey said...

So the whole world know there is a holy G-d. Because they really are that dull spiritually that they don't know. When everything falls we alone will be held. The hope and the promise that in the end of days when Moshiach rules, it will be from this holy place which will still exists. When EVERYTHING their wisest and richest and greayest have build does not have any promise from Hashem, Israel does. Yay!

 
At Tue Aug 27, 09:49:00 PM 2013, Blogger yaak said...

10rainbow, I'm not sure how that gematria works out as Melech Shel Damesek = 864 and Bashar Assad is at most 570 or 601 if you add "al". Maybe a piece of the puzzle is missing.

Anyways, in my post I mentioned Retzin the king of Aram. Retzin = 350 and with the Kollel = 351. Assad's brother Maher al-Assad (who was the one who ordered the chemical attack) plus the letters = 351.

 
At Tue Aug 27, 09:51:00 PM 2013, Blogger yaak said...

Perhaps, you were referring to what I mentioned in the post, but only put in Hebrew in parenthesis - that Niron Mizrahi = Bashar Assad.

 
At Tue Aug 27, 11:12:00 PM 2013, Anonymous Anonymous said...

B'H" I have a baby girl, she was born on 21 Elul, right before sunset. I want to thank all who prayed for my baby. You should all see Nahat from your children and they should be healthy and happy!
I have many syrians friends and they say all the time that they have kabbalah from their elders that when Damask will be finished MBD will come.
We should pray that Damask should be in ruin after first attack and it will be the last and shortly after that we should greet MBD and sing the last song beSimha.

--Moshe Ben Baruh

 
At Wed Aug 28, 09:22:00 AM 2013, Blogger yaak said...

Mazal Tov, Moshe!

 
At Wed Aug 28, 05:12:00 PM 2013, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Amen! thanks

 

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