Is the world on its way to an end? What exactly does that mean?
In this past weeks Torah Protion, Yaakov wanted to tell his children about the end of days, but the midrash says he was unable to because the divine countenance left him. He suspected his children of being sinners, but they said shema yisrael hashem elokeinu hashem echad. He was then comforted and gave them their blessings. That is the midrashic explanation, but if you look at the text of the pasuk, which my chavrussa (study partner) likes to do, you will see a slightly different story. Yaakov said he would like to tell them about the end and then they gather around and he starts talking about each one of his sons in what is commonly called the birchas yaakov. According to the textual explanation, the paragraphs about the sons, the fathers of the tribes of Israel, is a prophesy of the future and what will come at the end of days. There have been reports that many of the "lost tribes" have been found in rural, secluded places living as Muslims, Christians or other such folly. It would be interesting to see which of this prophesy actually applies in today's terms to the people who they are claiming belong to various tribes. Is the warrior tribe in northern afghanistan really Gad, about whom he said "Gad is a unit of soldiers?"
What is very interesting is the other major religions are also expecting an end of the world, or something similar.
Christians believe in the apocolypse, which basically includes a world war until Jesus comes to save the whole world.
I just read about the Hidden Imam who Muslims believe will come with Jesus. (sounds like Eliyahu Hanavi with Mashiach)
In any case, my point is that the majority of religious people in the world today believe that great upheavals will be coming. Whatever form it is in is irrelevant, because everyone knows that they are right and they may just be in their own parallel.
What happens in the next year will be very exciting and scary. Living in Israel, I think we have center stage to the upcoming fireworks.
3 comments:
Rock: Thought of you this past Friday, as we drove to the Galil for shabbat. I was thinking as I drove through how much I love the Galil...and it reminds me a lot of the Shomron.
Dropping off some kids in Hoshaya, I rang the doorbell of someone I hadn't see in 17 years. It was pretty funny...
The major difference between the Galil and Shomron is that you are a pioneer Zionist, while I'm considered an rampaging colonialist scum-sucking occupier. Other than that - there's isn't much of a difference.
Anyway - enjoy the Galil - its wonderful. I guess it's where we'll be headed if thrown out of the Muqata.
You can reestablish the muqata in the galilean heartland, if needed. We hope to keep you in the shomron for the duration otherwise we'd all be blogging about the same piece of land.
We hope to keep you in the shomron for the duration otherwise we'd all be blogging about the same piece of land.
And G-d knows how boring that would be.
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