End of Days and Messiah Nearing Talk with Yalkut Shimoni Literature

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                

The world is going to pot-and maybe pot is helping it to happen, I don't know.

Chatter on the web is about the end of days bringing on the Messiah.  We Jews differ in our expectations about such a figure, and so people interpret what they read in the Bible quite differently.
                                                                       

I'm going to prophesize something right now.  The Messiah the Jews are waiting for is to be from the House of David, King of Israel in ancient days.  He was the son of Jesse who was from the tribe of Judah.  As a direct descendant, he had the same haplogroup of DNA as Aaron and Moses, and that is J1, the Cohen gene.  The Messiah will be a Cohen  with the J1 Y haplogroup in the synagogue.  
                                                                         

First of all, the Yalkut Shimoni that someone just stumbled on and the buzz is all about are facts found that are to happen to bring on the Messiah.  

It happens to be  a midrashic collection relating to all the books of the Bible or Tanakh, but not the New Testament of the Christians or the Koran of Islam.  It was said to be compiled by Simeon Ha-Darshan presumably of Frankfort-on-Main (in Germany) in the 13th century.   The work preserves many sections from Midrashim which are no longer in existence.  Many Jews had gone to Germany and France after 70 CE when the 2nd Temple fell and Worms in Germany was a city where many Rabbis lived and worked together.  They were probably from the Sanhedrin group.

The word Midrash means finding of new meaning in addition to the literal one in the Scriptures.  Talmudic tradition has certain rules to deduce such hidden and new meanings.  Midrashic literature are Rabbinic books containing biblical interpretations in the spirit of the Aggadah (oral law) not pertaining to laws of our daily activities) .  Aggadic literature extends over 1,000 years from tannaitic times (when Hillel and Shammai died 1st century BCE) to the 10th century.  The Midrash Rabbah is a collection of aggadic Midrashim to the Pentateuch and 5 megillot composed of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiates, and Esther.  These books come from different periods and differ among themselves in their general character.
                                                                             

Talk about finding new meanings.  The Bible Code is something discovered by an Israeli mathematician, Dr. Eliyahu Rips,  who is also an orthodox Jew, and he has found meaning under the literal words using the computer and a complex code system that actually was started long ago by scientists before computers.   The Bible Code is different from using Moby Dick and putting that through the computer to find codes in that the material of the bible has a lot to do with the code found. First of all, the Bible in Hebrew was used.  It was Michael Drosnin who really promoted the ability to use the computer to find hidden meanings under the words of the bible, like a mechanical midrash at work.  What was surprising for Rips was finding a prophecy that PM Rabin would be assassinated and he was.  He tried to tell him but he didn't listen.  Usually they find information after it has happened. UPdate: http://www.realbiblecodes.com/blog/people/.  This is worth checking.  It has continued charts for this year on subjects of interest.  
                                                                         

 But as Einstein said, " THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE IS ONLY AN ILLUSION, HOWEVER PERSISTENT.

However, it has been discovered in the Yalkut Shimoni that goes back to 1310 or earlier such things as:
1. All the nations of the world are provoking each other.
2. The king of Persia (Iran) (Ayatollah)  provokes an Arab King and the Arab King turns to Aram (Syria) for advice.  Well, he turned to all the Arab nations who have now united, and the scuttlebut I just heard is that Israel has joined them quietly.
3. The king of Persia goes back and destroys the entire world.  (They are getting their way with Kerry and group on nuclear matters.  Deadline is tomorrow March 31st).  This is what Netanyahu is trying to prevent from happening.
4. All the nations are in a panic and distress and they fall upon their faces and are seized with pains like those of a woman giving birth.
5. And Israel peoples are in a panic and distress and asking, "where shall we go?" and ...their time of redemption has come...This means the Messiah will appear.
                                                                             

This Yalkut Shimoni warns of a conflict in the Middle East involving the Arab nations and Persia/Iran which causes Israel and Netanyahu to be in fear.

According to other Jewish writings, the coming of the Messiah will be preceded by days of spiritual decline and trouble.
1. Insolence will abound.
2. The young will make the faces of the elderly grow ashen with shame; sons will disgrace their fathers, daughters will rise up against their mothers, members of one family will become his enemies.
                                                                         

3.  The government will turn atheist and there will be no protest.  Truth will vanish.    Sanhedrin 97a, Sotah 49b. 
                                                                             

4. The Talmud describes a time which will be scientifically and technologically advanced to the extent that it will have the power to destroy the world.  (Midrash Rabbah on song of Songs 2:29)  

The prophets speak of a time of unique trouble.  We've always had trouble and wars, but never has there been power in one country's hands that could destroy everyone on this planet such as atomic power.  It beats swords and bombs anytime.  Ask Japan.  

The Jewish concept of a Messiah is quite different from the Christian one.  It does mean king, however, someone who has been anointed (made official).  In this case he must also have Divine sanctions.  He's to be from the House of David.  Today we have DNA and I have found that Abraham must have had the J1 haplogroup, also passed on to   the 12 sons of Jacob as it goes from father to son like a tag on clothing.  It would also be the haplogroup of Ishmael, Abraham's first son by Hagar the Egyptian.   It would have also been the haplogroup of King David, son of Jesse of the tribe of Judah.  So any Messiah today has to have the J1 (Cohen Gene) and most likely would be a Cohen in the synagogue.  

The Messiah would be a person who would bring about the political and spiritual redemption of the people Israel through the ingathering of the Jews to their ancestral home of Eretz Yisrael and the restoration of Jerusalem to its spiritual glory.  This has been happening.  

The Messiah  would bring about an era marked by the moral perfection of all mankind and the harmonious coexistence of all people free of war, fear, hatred, and intolerance.  Isaiah and Micah can be read to find this.  Such an era has never happened so far.  

We've seen plenty of false messiahs in our time and had been warned about them by Moses.  One as late as in 1889 declared himself the Messiah in Yemen.  Our general Bar Kokhba was acclaimed by many in the year 131 to be the Messiah as he fought against the Romans for 3 years, longer than any other Roman adversary.  Through him, Jews had moved back into Jerusalem after being kept out.  Our Messiah is to be a human being, never a god, for we believe in one unseen G-d.  

Frequent predictions as to its timing were based on the Book of Daniel and other biblical passages.  When Jews revolted against the Romans from 115-117  after the Romans had burned down the 2nd Temple in 70 CE, the revolt itself had a messianic content and this last revolt with Bar Kokhba also seemed messianic.  

Gershom Gorenberg wrote THE END OF DAYS-fundamentalism and the struggle for the Temple Mount, and that certainly is going on and held at bay by PM Netanyahu whose cabinet is allowing Jordan to preside over this awesome place where the 2nd Temple used to stand an a mosque now sits over it.  You can see the problem already, I hope.  As the flap of his book says, passions are aroused by the Temple Mount.  Conflict over who Jerusalem belongs to is rooted not only in the past but even more in expectations of the future and the fiery belief in apocalypse has a very real impact on contemporary life and international politics.  
Jerusalem, capital of Israel regardless of who will recognize it,  is one city under one Israeli mayor and is to stay that way.  The fight is in east Jerusalem which the Palestinian Authority wants to take over as their capital.  Jerusalem's other name is City of David.  King David built this city up from the few piles of stone that had been started by more ancient than the HABIRU/ Hebrew people, the Canaanites.  David had captured this spot in 1010 BCE and became his capital.  

There are lots of other signs.  One is the lunar eclipses known as 4 blood moons with 4 dark suns.  The first 2 happened last year  on Passover and Sukkot.  The 2nd pair are to happen this year, same time.  They've only happened 3 other times in history:
1. 1492 during expulsion from Spain and finding New World by Columbus
2. 1948 with birth of Israel
3. 1967 Six Day War

A Jewish teaching is that the messiah is more likely to come during the months of Tishrei and Nissan.   Passover is on Friday night, 3rd of April  (14th of Nissan).  Succot starts on 29th of September (16 of Tishrei).  

Claimants of the Messianic title were judged as follows:

. Did he succeed in accomplishing what the Messiah was supposed to accomplish?

None qualified.  The Messianic era has been ahead of us Jews and may be upon us now or very soon.  The reestabishment of a Jewish State in our times and the restoration of a united Jerusalem as the capital of that State has led many devout Jews to hope that these times may be the beginning of that process of redemption that will ultimately lead to the realization of all the other ideals inherent in the Messianic belief.  

This is the Jewish year of 5775.  Is there a plan for only 6,000 years?  Chabad's answer is "The Talmud tells us that this world, as we know it, will last for six thousand years, with the seventh millennium ushering in the cosmic Shabbat, the Messianic Era. Six days a week we work, and on the Shabbat we rest and enjoy the fruits of our labor; the same is true with millenniums.

However, it is certainly possible for Moshiach to come earlier. And we believe, hope, and pray each day that this is the day when Moshiach will come. This is also analogous to the weekly Shabbat, which we have the prerogative of ushering in early on Friday afternoon.

So yes, we don't know exactly when Moshiach will come, but we do know that it will be before the year 6000. "  That gives us the next 225 years or less to play with, my friends.  Let us hope for an end to atomic bombing and frightening wars and IS cutting off heads.  

Resource: http://www.jerusalemonline.com/news/world-news/the-jewish-world/op-ed-will-the-messiah-come-soon-12561
The New Jewish Encyclopedia
Book:  To Be a Jew by Rabbi Hayim Halevy Donin
Bible Code I, II and III Saving the World by Michael Drosnin; 3 separate books by Drosnin
http://www.cogwriter.com/six_thousand_year_plan_6000.htm
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/607585/jewish/Significance-of-the-year-6000.htm

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3rd Century PhD Level Jewish Scholars of Law in Palestine and Babylonia: The Amoraim

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                    

The 10 Commandments were not the only laws given to Moses.  These of course were given to him on 2 tablets, written in the stone.  He was also given an Oral Law on the Sinai mountain together with the Written Law, according to our tradition.  So from early times in Israel there have existed a tradition of interpretation and analysis of the Written Law which was handed down orally from generation to generation.

During the 2nd Temple period from 538 to 515 BCE when the temple was being rebuilt and major reconstructions were carried out, the ancient oral tradition was upheld by the Pharisees who were more lenient and supported by the majority of the people.  The Sadducees, who clung to the letter of the written law and the Essenes, who were close to the Pharisees but had their own specific beliefs and customs didn't recognize it.  They had their own traditions regarding the interpretation of the Written Law.  When these sects disappeared after the destruction of the Temple, the Pharisaic view won national acceptance.  The Oral Law was studied in the many academies.  The manner of instruction differed.  In some places it was taught as a commentary on the relevant section of the Written Law.  In others, it was studied in a systematic and topical arrangement.  Each teacher gave his own interpretation and the Sanhedrin was sometimes called upon to decide between conflicting opinions.  The majority view was accepted in practice, but rejected views continued to be taught theoretically.
                                                                           

In time, people recorded privately parts of the Oral Law they were afraid might be forgotten.  A complete outline, called the Mishnah,  which incorporated earlier versions, was compiled and became the basis for study.  The discussion was just oral and only recorded several centuries later as the Talmud or Gemara.

After the redaction of the Talmud, study was around the written text, still known as the Oral Law because  its roots were in the oral tradition.  During the Gaonic Period of 6th to 11th centuries, the Karaites rejected the Oral Law and denied the validity of the Talmud.

These biblical scholars who were able to make legal decisions like  judges were recorded in the Talmud and were the Amoraim.  There were originally  lecturers who spoke about the view of previous scholars or interpreted them for the masses; biblical commentators like Rashi who lived from 1040 to 1105, only the Amoraim were the original academics living in Palestine from the 200's to 500's.   (Palestine was a newly coined term for Israel and Judea, changed by the Romans in 135 CE)

Later, the Amora himself explained the Mishnah and its application to practical issues. The Mishnah was the legal codification containing the core of the Oral Law.  It was compiled by Rabbi Judah Ha-Nasi on the basis of previous collections and arranged logically.  It is divided into 6 Orders dealing primarily with the religious
1.  laws pertaining to agriculture
2. laws of the Sabbath, festivals,
3. laws of marriage and divorce,
4. laws  of civil and criminal  legislation,
5.  laws regulating ritual slaughter, sacrifices and consecrated objects
6. laws of ceremonial purity

Every order is subdivided into tractates so each deals with a specific topic.  Every tractate is divided into chapters, and these contain smaller paragraph divisions called mishnayyot.

 Sometimes he started laws which were accepted as equal in authority to earlier legislation.  They taught in the period after the end of the Mishnah, their work being comprised in the Gemara.

There were 2 basic types of amoraic scholars;  (1) those distinguished for erudition (extensive knowledge acquired chiefly from books)  and (2) those noted for logical acumen (keeness of perception, discernment, discrimination, especially in practical matters).  The amoraic method was original and needed extensive preparation.  Specific training was a prerequisite to being accepted into the academy.  After entering, the student had to gain thorough experience in halakhic discussion before he was able to make legal decisions.

Many amoraim were well known for their aggadah or Haggadah, that part of Oral Law distinct from Halakha, that is that which doesn't deal with the laws uncumbent upon the Jew in his daily activities.  From this follows the positive definition in that the aggadah is primarily the sequel to those parts of the bible which include stories and chronicles, sayings of the wise and moral  instructions, and the admonitions and consolation of the prophets.  It is limited to an explanation of why they were given and what they teach.  Aggadah complements halakhah.  .  Their influence came from the originality, literary construction, and effective delivery of their ideas.  The amoraim, of whom over 3,000 are known by name, were honored by the people and their judicial decisions were authoritative.  They were not paid for their teaching but earned their living independently.

There was constant contact between Palestinian and Babylonian sages during this period from the 3rd to 6th centuries.  For external reasons, the influence of those in Palestine declined rapidly after the end of the 4th century.  That's why the Babylonian Talmud was more popular.  They were 2 great compilations, distinguished respectively in which are collected the records of academic discussion and of judicial administration of Jewish Law by generations of scholars and jurists in many academies and in more than one country during several centuries after 200 CE when the Mishnah was finished.

"In these centuries, in which Israel's national language became superseded by the Aramaic, the literature of Tradition arose, in which Aramaic was predominant by the side of Hebrew; it was a species of bilingual literature, expressing the double idioms of the circles in which it originated. In the academies —which, on the destruction of Jerusalem, became the true foci of Jewish intellectual life—

The Hebrew language, in its new form (Mishnaic Hebrew), became the language of instruction and of religious debate. With but few exceptions, all literary material, written and oral, of the tannaitic age, whether of a halakic or non-halakic description, was handed down in Hebrew. Hence the whole tannaitic literature is strongly distinguished from the post-tannaitic by this Hebrew garb. The Hebrew language was also the language of prayer, both of the authorized ritual prayers and of private devotion, as handed down in the cases of individual sages and pious men. According to a tannaitic Halakah (Tosef. Ḥag., beginning; compare Bab. Suk. 42a), every father was bound to teach his child Hebrew as soon as it began to speak. It is no doubt true that there was a knowledge of Hebrew in non-scholarly circles of the Jewish people besides that of the Aramaic vernacular; indeed, attempts were not lacking to depose Aramaic altogether as the language of daily intercourse, and to restore Hebrew in its stead. In the house of the patriarch Judah I., the female house-servant spoke Hebrew (Meg. 18a). The same Judah is reported to have said that in the land of Israel the use of the Syriac (Aramaic) language was unjustifiable; people should speak either Hebrew or Greek (Soṭah 49b; B. Ḳ. 83a). This remained of course only a pious wish, exactly as that deliverance of Joseph, the Babylonian amora in the fourth century, who said that in Babylon the Aramaic language should no longer be used, but instead the Hebrew or the Persian (ib.)."

The Pope disagreed with Netanyahu recently on this, insisting it was Aramaic that everyone spoke.  Not the academics, for sure.  

Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/115261/jewish/The-Talmudic-Age.htm
 http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Amoraim.aspx
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/texts/Rabbinics/Talmud/Talmud/Studying_Talmud/Tannaim_and_Amoraim.shtml
http://www.webyeshiva.org/class.php?cid=1089
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1707-aramaic-language-among-the-jews

Discord in Abraham's Tent Over Control of Son Ishmael and Grandson, Esau

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                       

                                                                        Abraham and Isaac
Was Abraham and his father Terah members of Habirus?  They were mercenaries or slaves.  Records of them were found in the Tel el-Amarna tables and in other documents of the 15th-14th centuries BCE.  Many scholars think that the word Habiru is identical with Ivri or Hebrews.  The references are in connection to threat of the Habiru to Canaanite cities and are one of the stages in Israelite conquest of Canaan.  They were said to come from the East.

Jews and many Arabs can trace their ancestry back to the Biblical patriarch, Abraham.  He was the son of Terah.  They lived in Ur of the Chaldees, which is in today's Iraq, and moved to live among the Canaanites and Philistine inhabitants of  Canaan.   There he pitched his tent and lived with his wife, Sarah.   He is known as the Father of Monotheism.  The people of Ur had believed in idol worship which necessitated the move.

Abraham was told by G-d that his seed would inherit the land "from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates," and made a covenant with him.  His first son was Ishmael through Sarah's young handmaid, Hagar.  Ishmael  and his mother were sent away from Abraham's tent due to discord between Hagar and Sarah, who in her old age finally also became pregnant with Isaac. Sarah may have been elderly,  however managed to nurse Isaac, but had been needled by Hagar about this.   Sarah felt that Ishmael was teasing  and picking on Isaac and the two women failed to get along. On Isaac's day of being weaned, probably at age 2, Sarah was very agitated with  Hagar and didn't want Ishmael to inherit anything with Isaac.  After all, Hagar was a slave and of another people, though Abraham had taken Hagar as a wife.  This distressed Abraham so G-d told him that Ishmael would also have a nation but to listen to Sarah.    Hagar, who had gone from slave status to wife, , chosen to be one to carry Abraham's child because of the her bareness  at that time, had become disrespectful  towards, Sarah.  Sarah was  the first and older legal wife and niece of Abraham and G-d told Abraham to listen to her.

 Ishmael and Hagar then went to live in Paran, which was a desert, a wilderness in the Negev.  It was situated NE of the traditional Mt. Sinai, south of Kadesh, extending to the shores of the Gulf of Elath and the Arabah.    Ishmael's daughter, Mahalath,  married his half-nephew, Esau, twin son of Isaac.  Ishmael did meet up with his half brother, Isaac at the funeral of Abraham where they both buried him.  Ishmael is considered the Father of the Arab peoples, making Jews and Arabs "cousins."

The prophesy about Ishmael  by an angel of G-d to Hagar was thus: He shall be a wild-ass of a man;  his hand against everyone, and everyone's hand against him;  and over all his brothers shall he dwell."  Abraham was 86 years old at the time of his birth.  (Genesis 16:11-12).

In the Jewish version of this event, Isaac is used as the sacrifice that Abraham was told to perform, while in the Muslim version, it is Ishmael.  The two versions do vary in places with the Torah being the oldest version by 2,000 years.   The Torah was written by Moses (1391-1271 BCE). Writing was a skill he learned in Egypt being he was a son of the Pharoah's daughter and raised as a prince.  He had had a thorough education.   Islam's Koran, written by Mohammad (570-632 CE), came about 2,000 later.

 In the Midrash, a section that works on finding new meanings besides the literal ones in the Scriptures in the Talmud, it says that Ishmael's offspring or descendants  were destined to persecute and murder Jews.  G-d responded that he would judge Ishmael only according to his present deeds and not according to what would happen in the future.(Rashi).  The Midrash usually refers to legends and ethics.

Abraham died at age 175 in the year 2123 from Creation (Jewish Calendar). That was 3,650 years ago being that this year is 5773 on the Jewish Calendar.  That makes his death as we would understand it in the year 1,637 BCE.   Ishmael lived for 137 years.  He had been living from Havilah to Shur, which is near Egypt-toward Assyria.  To put this into perspective, Moses (1391-1271 BCE) was Abraham's 3rd great grandson.

Esau was born to Isaac and Rebecca, his first cousin once removed,  and was the elder of  twins with his twin brother being Jacob.  Esau was hairy and Jacob was smooth skinned. Rebecca was told by G-d that two nations were in her womb; two regimes from your insides shall be separated;  the might shall pass from one regime to the other, and the elder shall serve the younger.  Esau had been born red, entirely like a hairy mantle; so they named him Esau.  Jacob was born holding onto the heal of Esau, so he was named Jacob.  Esau grew up doing the hunting, a man of the field.  Jacob was a wholesome man, abiding in tents.  Isaac's favorite son was Esau,  but Rebecca loved Jacob more.

 Jacob is later given the name of Israel upon a change in status.  These twins became enemies when Jacob, the younger, became the owner of the birthright from their father which is a firstborn blessing.  The story is that Jacob actually had tricked Esau in getting this over a bowl of porridge.  Esau had come in from hunting and was so hungry that he gave up his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of food instead.  Jacob took that to mean that Esau didn't think much of the honor and responsibility in the first place.

 Of course this is a tale of sibling rivalry that goes on today between siblings, but they usually love each other anyway today.  We read all the time of sibling rivalry in Egypt and Rome where there was no love, only jealousy many times resulting in death.    Esau didn't have any love for his twin for this loss of his and wanted to kill Jacob for it.  Jacob had to move out of the compound and flee to Haran. Haran was the brother of Abraham and father of Lot. He had remained in Ur.  Terah, Abraham's father and Abraham had lived there in a Habiru (Hebrew?)  settlement.  It was a trading town and the center of a moon cult.    He returned home 20 years later and they had an affectionate reunion.   (Gen.35).  The Torah identifies Esau with the land of Edom and Jacob becomes known as Israel.

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the leaders of Judaism, are the ones to carry on Abraham's religious thoughts of monotheism.  It wasn't until Mohammad, Islam's prophet,  came into being when he decided to also follow monotheism as he came from pagans worshipping many gods.  The moon god, Allah, was the most powerful one  This is probably why the symbol on their flag is a crescent moon. Muslims face the Kabba in Mecca  when they pray which is very sacred to them. It's a large  cuboid made of near-by granite known as the Sacred House.

Ishmael, by being a child harder to discipline, was "out on the streets" so to speak and not under the tutelage of his father, Abraham, thereby growing up in paganism.  He most likely followed the beliefs of Hagar, who was an Egyptian.  Judaism had a head start on monotheism by a good 2,000 years through Isaac.

If anything, this part of Genesis is a lesson on the seriousness of raising one's children.  By circumstances and prophecy, the whole world is affected by decisions from our ancient ancestors.  I also see a great plan, and that our destiny had some controls at the helm.

Corrected/Edit: 5/26/16 -Hagar was wife, not concubine of Abraham
Resource: The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
Tanakh (Bible) ARtScroll Series, The Stone Edition, Genesis
 http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080703100620AARAvBO
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Islamic_Arabia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaaba
http://www.cogwriter.com/arabprophecy.htm
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2014/10/following-in-footsteps-of-abraham.html