WAKE UP AND BE PREPARED FOR A TIME OF CLARIFICATION
Rabbis and students of Torah take the rise of anti-semitism as a sign of the end times, the days of "final redemption" by their Messiah
For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet, till her vindication shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch. The nations will see your vindication, and all kings your glory; you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will bestow. You will be a crown of splendor in the LORD’s hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God. No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate. But you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for the LORD will take delight in you, and your land will be married. As a young man marries a young woman, so will your Builder marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you. I have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the LORD, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth.
The LORD has sworn by his right hand and by his mighty arm: “Never again will I give your grain as food for your enemies, and never again will foreigners drink the new wine for which you have toiled; but those who harvest it will eat it and praise the LORD, and those who gather the grapes will drink it in the courts of my sanctuary.”
Pass through, pass through the gates! Prepare the way for the people. Build up, build up the highway! Remove the stones. Raise a banner for the nations. The LORD has made proclamation to the ends of the earth: “Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your Savior comes! See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him.’” They will be called the Holy People, the Redeemed of the LORD; and you will be called Sought After, the City No Longer Deserted. ISAIAH 62.
The passage quoted above is one of the prophecies about the future of Jerusalem in God’s plans where Jerusalem will be the city of God in the last days when the kingdom of God comes to the earth. The new will emerge from the old but it will be completely different from the old. The glorious city of Zion, i.e., Jerusalem will be ‘called by a new name’ and ‘the Holy People, the Redeemed of the LORD’ gathered in from all nations as well as from Israel will inhabit there.
The passage depicts that when the promised Messiah, the Redeemer comes, His people will no longer be plundered and exploited by their enemies. Instead, the city will be filled with the redeemed, holy and righteous people and the whole earth will be full of joy.
We, living in the last great era of human history, are now beginning to see what Isaiah prophesied with confidence and clarity. Year after year, anti-semitic incidents such as the recent massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh of the US, in 27th Oct., are on the increase worldwide. Rabbis and bible-believing Jews are starting to connect such anti-semitic trend worldwide with the “end of days” or the days of “final redemption” by their Messiah. In this way, they are able to see the positive in what is going on now because they believe in God, His promises and prophecies written in the Hebrew Bible, i.e., the Old Testament.
Rabbi Shimon Apisdorf is one of them. According to an article, he claims that if anti-semitism is a tool to help Jewish people find deeper significance in their role, it would send out a positive message about the end of days in the aftermath of the tragedy of the synagogue massacre. He describes it as follows:
It’s coming about through an incredibly horrific event, but a real thing that’s coming about is that tons of non-Jews are coming to identify with a Jewish message.
He also claims that the rise in anti-semitism in general, and the Pittsburgh massacre specifically, has brought about a connection of human beings one to another, despite their differences, which is a core Jewish message to the world, and that we all need to see one another as being created in the image of God.
Rabbi Apisdorf and others also point out another spiritual significance of the rise in anti-semitism; that Jewish national endurance in the face of anti-semitism comes from the Torah and belief in God. A student of Torah who has named anti-semitism “a wake-up call” warns the Jewish people and the world about the blindness of the vast majority of them to what is happening today in the world.
While the general public is spiritually sleeping, there is a small group of autistic young men in Jerusalem who are claiming to hear from God. According to an article, one of those who is gifted with the power of prophecy and have for several years attracted attention of many, warns that the difficult times preceding Messiah are very near, i.e., the Messiah is about to be revealed.
The most recent message given by him was published on the website, Ki La’Hashem Melucha, a Hebrew language website dealing with Jewish mysticism and the end-of-days. The young man, having transmitted his messages via facilitated communication (FC), a technique that has been in use since at least 1985 as a way of communicating with those who cannot speak normally, put it:
Most people don’t want to understand that we are near the end …The Messiah is about to be revealed but we have to undergo something very difficult first. God is going to destroy two-thirds of the world. Don’t think this is going to be due to a nuclear war, though that may be part of it. Man can’t destroy the world. Only God, who created the world, can destroy it.
After referring to a star, which is in a prophecy written in the “Zohar”, the basis for Jewish mysticism, which states; ‘in the end of days, astronomical phenomena, including a war between seven stars, will be seen from earth’, he also mentions that another process essential to the end of days would be “a clarification”, to what each individual belongs is to be clarified. He would have meant by it, that own faith expression in Yahweh is to be required.
He also describes how to prepare for them:
The only way to save ourselves is full confidence in God. …Even if you have a bunker, weapons, food, and water…for a few years, it will not help you if you do not do teshuvah (repentance). And if you do teshuvah, God will take care of you: food, water, electricity and all that is needed. …like when the Jews left Egypt. … as the plagues did not harm the Am Yisrael, the Jews will not suffer.
While FC is not necessarily universally accepted as means to carry out a right of the free will, it is worth noting that the “Zohar” states the special prophetic ability of shotim, who is described in rabbinic literature not as ‘fools’, but as a person with distinctive lack of social functioning, in whose classification autistic people would be included. The “Zohar” reads:
Before disaster and destruction happens to some nation, Heaven announces this throughout the whole world, and sometimes this is transmitted to shotim.
