This essay was meant to be for last week’s parasha, Massei, but the insight only came to me on Shabbat as I was reading the parasha and wandering, once again, what is the deeper significance of the Torah listing all 42 stops of the Israelites in the Wilderness? As I was going over the list, a few of the location names jumped out at me for being of great historical significance. What if, I thought, the 42 stops represent a historical timeline for all the major events in Jewish history, from the Exodus to the End of Days? Could it be that the Torah was encoding all the key national “journeys” of Israel in the future? As I went through them, it made more and more sense, and a neat picture of Jewish history emerged. I decided to write about it this week instead of saving it for next year because some of the “stops” on the Israelite journey are particularly relevant now, both in light of what is happening around the world and in the Holy Land, and as we get ready to commemorate Tisha b’Av this Sunday. Let’s take a deeper look at the 42 stops of the Israelite journey. Continue reading
Tag Archives: End of Days
Podcast: Iran & Mashiach in the End of Days
Last Friday I had the honour of being a guest on the Empowered Jewish Living podcast with Rabbi Shlomo Buxbaum. We spoke about a variety of fascinating topics, including current events and geopolitics in light of our ancient prophecies, various approaches to the concept of Mashiach, the interplay between the physical and spiritual realms, and how AI might transform the world in the near future. Click on the links below to listen to the episode.
Constellations and the Jewish Calendar
Yesterday marked the start of the new month of Nisan, first of the Jewish calendar. According to our ancient mystical texts, like Sefer Yetzirah, each of the twelve months of the Jewish year corresponds to one of the twelve Zodiac constellations (mazalot). The month of Nisan corresponds to Aries, or tal’e in Hebrew. Aries is depicted as a sheep or ram and, of course, the highlight of Nisan is the holiday of Pesach, referring to the korban pesach, the “paschal lamb”—a sheep!
The Ram-headed idol Ra
Our Sages pointed out that God specifically commanded this species to be sacrificed because it was what the Egyptians worshipped at the time. This is likely referring to the ram-headed deity Ra. Amazingly, Ra is actually mentioned in the Torah when Pharaoh tells Moses that Ra neged pneichem (Exodus 10:10), typically translated as “evil [ra] will be before you”. Rashi comments here that Ra is an Egyptian idol and Pharaoh was warning the Israelites that they would perish under the wrath of his god Ra. Of course, the entire Exodus narrative was about showing God’s mastery over all aspects of Creation, and His destruction of Egypt’s false idols, Ra chief among them.
In astrology, Aries is a “fire” sign, which is quite appropriate for the Exodus connection. The fire alludes to the fire of the sacrificial altar for the korban pesach, as well as the pillar of fire that led the Israelites out of Egypt and through the Wilderness. Furthermore, at the Pesach seder, the Haggadah reminds us to say “blood, and fire, and columns of smoke”, dam v’esh v’timrot ashan, in memory of the Ten Plagues and the Exodus. (Actually, this phrase originally comes from Joel 3:3, straight from the prophet’s vision of the End of Days!) Continue reading