Tag Archives: China

Chinese Zodiac in Judaism

Why are the Chinese calendar and Jewish calendar nearly identical? What are the mysterious spiritual origins of Chinese and East Asian peoples according to the Torah? And what role might China and the Chinese Zodiac play in the End of Days? Find out in this class where we unravel what really happened with the Tower of Babel, explore the Kuzari and Khazarian conspiracy theories, and learn about the symbolic significance of Chinese Zodiac animals in Judaism.

For Part 1 of this series on the Dragon and the Snake, see here.
For more on the Chinese Zodiac in Judaism, see here.
For more on Cosmic “Sabbaticals” and 7000 Year Cycles of Civilization, see here.
On the Khazars and the origins of Ashkenazi Jews, see here.

Will Mashiach Come This Year?

The Torah speaks of a new star appearing in the night sky to herald the coming of Mashiach. Scientists predict that such a “star” may indeed appear later this year – could it be the long-awaited “Star of Jacob”? And how does this tie in with other ancient prophecies about the End of Days, and major events happening around the globe today? Find out in the class below! 

For the original class on the End of Days from 2021, please see here.
For the ‘Third Rome’ series, see here.
For the article on the significance of the solar year, please see ‘The Kabbalah of Solar’.

China’s Spiritual Origins

This week’s parasha, Beshalach, describes the climax of the Exodus, the great Splitting of the Sea, following which Israel began its sojourn in the wilderness. We are introduced to an important geographical region, midbar Sin, the “Wilderness of Sin” (Exodus 16:1, 17:1). Presumably, this is where the name of Mount Sinai comes from. In the past, we have already explored the true location of Mount Sinai and the Sin Wilderness (which is not where the “Sinai Peninsula” is today, in Egypt).

Sin does appear earlier in the Torah, in the “Table of Nations” that describes the 70 root nations that emerged from Noah and his three sons (Genesis 10). There we learn that the Sinites (Sini, סִּינִֽי) were descendants of Ham, through his son Canaan. Apparently, they were originally a subgroup of Canaanite! What’s more perplexing, however, is that today the term Sini refers to an East Asian person, and more specifically, a Chinese person. This is not just a Modern Hebrew appellation, but goes back at least to the time of the Rishonim. How did the Far East become associated with the ancient Wilderness of Sin?

A “Table of Nations” from the ArtScroll Stone Chumash

The First Shabbat

At first glance, it seems like China and the Far East make no appearance in the Torah. The simple explanation for this is that China was too far away to register on the radar of the Israelites. It would be irrelevant to discuss distant peoples who had no relationship with Israel. That said, we know that the Torah is eternal, the Word of God, and encodes all key aspects of human life within it. There is no way that the Torah does not, in some way, refer to the great peoples of the Far East, especially because they have played such an important role in human history. Today in particular, we recognize China as a global superpower that is instrumental on the world stage. Surely, the Torah (and our Sages) had something to say about this. Looking a little deeper, we find that this is, indeed, the case. In fact, China and the Far East are the subject of an intriguing halakhic discussion.

Our Sages taught that Israel is the centre point of the universe. Creation began with Even HaShetiya, the “Foundation Stone”, which lies beneath what is today the Dome of the Rock. From that initial point, the universe burst forth and expanded ever rapidly, eventually resulting in all that we have today (this expansion was first alluded to by our Sages in the Talmud, Chagigah 12a, and in much more depth in the Zohar). Thus, the events of Creation could be said to have first taken place in Israel, and spread outward from there. That being the case, the first Shabbat was surely marked in the Holy Land. Yet, that presents a huge problem: Continue reading