Edre'i and Gog Umagog

Bamidbar 21:33:

לג  וַיִּפְנוּ, וַיַּעֲלוּ, דֶּרֶךְ, הַבָּשָׁן; וַיֵּצֵא עוֹג מֶלֶךְ-הַבָּשָׁן לִקְרָאתָם הוּא וְכָל-עַמּוֹ, לַמִּלְחָמָה--אֶדְרֶעִי.

33 And they turned and went up by the way of Bashan; and Og the king of Bashan went out against them, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei.

Edre'i is indeed a city of battle then and now. Today, the city is known as Daraa.  Daraa is arguably where the Syrian Civil War started.  Will it also be where it ends?  The Syrian government recently dropped leaflets on Daraa, warning the rebels to surrender or be killed.  Now, the U.S. has warned Syria against attacking Daraa.

BEIRUT (AP) -

The United States warned it would take “firm and appropriate measures” to protect a ceasefire in southern Syria if President Bashar Assad’s forces move against rebels there.

The area in southwestern Syria, between the border city of Daraa and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, has emerged as a flashpoint in a wider standoff between regional archrivals Israel and Iran.

The U.S., Russia and Jordan agreed last year to include Daraa in a “de-escalation zone” to freeze the lines of conflict. But government forces have recently dropped leaflets on rebel-held areas warning of an imminent offensive and urging fighters to lay down their arms, Syrian state media said Friday.

In a statement released Friday, the U.S. State Department said it was concerned by reports that Assad’s forces were preparing for an operation in southwestern Syria. It warned the government against “any actions that risk broadening the conflict.”

From SyrianCivilWarMap.com
Blue = Israeli-controlled Golan 
Dark gray = ISIS-controlled
Red = Assad-controlled
Green = Rebel-controlled

As I mentioned in a post from 7 years ago, Edre'i was given to half of the children of Machir, the son of Menashe. (There is a different Edre'i attributed to the tribe of Naftali.) Wikipedia says that it was the eastern border of Eretz Yisrael during the time of King Yannai in the Second Beit Hamikdash period.

Note in the map above where all the flurry of activity is.  That's Daraa.  Could it be there where Gog Umagog takes place?

A few years ago already, the Mishkoltz Rebbe Shlit"a declared that the Gog Umagog War had been moved to Syria.  This especially can be true in areas that are historically part of Eretz Yisrael, areas that were even captured in Moshe Rabbeinu's lifetime.

Interestingly, people who prophesied about Gog Umagog are buried in or near Edre'i, according to אלה המסעות.  It states there:

that Eldad and Meidad were buried in Zor'a and Iyov is buried in Edre'i.  Zor'a is identified as Izra.  On the map above, it was already captured by Assad's forces.  According to the אלה המסעות, it is a parsang away from Edre'i.  (Although, when you look at a map today, it seems like it's a 40-minute drive.  וצ"ע.)

Eldad and Meidad prophesied about Gog Umagog, as the gemara (Sanhedrin 17a) states.  And Iyov also referred to Gog Umagog (Iyov 38:22-23):

כב  הֲבָאתָ, אֶל-אֹצְרוֹת שָׁלֶג;    וְאוֹצְרוֹת בָּרָד תִּרְאֶה.	22 Hast thou entered the treasuries of the snow, or hast thou seen the treasuries of the hail,
כג  אֲשֶׁר-חָשַׂכְתִּי לְעֶת-צָר;    לְיוֹם קְרָב, וּמִלְחָמָה.	23 Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?

and Rashi and Metzudat David both say that it refers to Gog Umagog.

Note also how the city of Bosra, Syria is also not too far from Daraa.  This reminds me of the verse:

א  מִי-זֶה בָּא מֵאֱדוֹם, חֲמוּץ בְּגָדִים מִבָּצְרָה,

1 'Who is this that cometh from Edom, with crimsoned garments from Bozrah?

where Hashem, in the future, will have taken vengeance against Edom in Botzra (see Rashi there).

Returning back to the verse I started off with in the beginning of this post (Bamidbar 21:33):  If you take the gematria of that verse including final letters as bigger numbers, plus the words, letters, and kollel, you get 5770.  If the world was created in Year 1, 5770 years later is 5771.  The verse talks about a war in Edre'i.  5771 is when the uprising started in Daraa.  A 7-year Shemitta period later, and the battle for Daraa is continuing.

We'll see how it ends.