Seder Olam Revisited: C49a- 7x7
- Albert Benhamou
- Nov 24
- 24 min read
CHRONOLOGY OF JEWISH HISTORY
Generation 49: Hebrew years 5760-5880 (2000-2120 CE)
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To return to the list of chronological generations from Seder Olam Revisited, click here.
Introduction
With the start of the 49th chronological generation in secular year 2000 CE, the world has entered the last generation before the ultimate 50th Jubilee of generations that will mark the messianic era. The 49th generation is thus a pre-messianic era, and world events unfold to confirm it.
This 49th generation is the 7th cycle of 7 chronological generations, equivalent to a last year of Sabbatical cycle, before the Jubilee (the 50th year). The importance of the number 7 has been explained throughout this site (for further Jewish symbolism in numbers, click here). As a reminder, it has been explained at the time of the Exodus (see document C21b, year 1305 BCE), in the 21st chronological generation (also a multiple of 7), that there is a recurrent pattern of divine intervention towards mankind, and in particular towards the Jewish people, at every return of a Sabbatical "generation" (by Sabbatical "generation", we mean a chronological generation which is a multiple of the number 7). And these Sabbatical generations thus far have been the following ones:
7th generation: death of Cain, as promised by God, and start of a new era of mankind with the Bronze Age
14th generation: the Flood, as the eradication of evil on Earth, and re-start of the Creation with new rules
21st generation: the accomplishment of the divine Covenant with the Exodus of the Hebrews and their establishment in the Promised Land
28th generation: the construction of the 2nd Temple and the self redemption of the Israelites after their threat of annihilation in Persia
35th generation: end of the Jewish political nation at the hand of the Romans, and completion of the Talmud; the Israelites become a spiritual nation
42nd generation: persecutions of the Jews but strengthening of their spirituality in exile (Zohar, Maimonides, Nahmanides), thus preparing for the future redemption
49th generation: present generation with final return to Sion and pre-Messianic times
The 49th Generation is thus the last Sabbatical generation before the Jubilee of mankind (the 50th "messianic" generation), similarly to the fact that a 49th year is always the Sabbatical year (7 x 7 years) prior to a Jubilee year (the 50th year).
In this document, we review the conditions set at the turn of this new 49th generation, before embarking in the next page into the events that compose this generation. Obviously, this work is not complete because this 49th generation has just started in secular year 2000 CE and will end in secular year 2120 CE. But this is the generation that should see the arrival or unveiling of the Messiah according to Jewish tradition.
The pre-Messianic signs
In the 49th generation, and before the venue of Messiah, the human society will lose its foundations and its faith will regress. It will be a time when there would be plenty for the world to enjoy and yet the world will enjoy nothing:
Thus has Rabbi Johanan said: "In the generation when the son of David [i.e., Messiah] will come, scholars will be few in number, and as for the rest, their eyes will fail through sorrow and grief. Multitudes of trouble and evil decrees will be promulgated anew, each new evil coming with haste before the other has ended."
[...]
It has been taught: Rabbi Nehorai said: "In the generation when Messiah comes, young men will insult the old, and old men will stand before the young [to give them honour]; daughters will rise up against their mothers, and daughters-in-law against their mothers-in-law. The people shall be dog-faced, and a son will not be abashed in his father's presence."It has been taught, Rabbi Nehemiah said: "In the generation of Messiah's coming impudence will increase, esteem be perverted, the vine yield its fruit, yet shall wine be dear, and the Kingdom will be converted to heresy with none to rebuke them."This supports Rabbi Isaac, who said: "The son of David will not come until the whole world is converted to the belief of the heretics." Raba said: "What verse [proves this]? It is all turned white: he is clean. [Leviticus 13:13] (Talmud, Sanhedrin, 97a)
How true this situation is compared to the times that we experience today, with a decay of traditional society values (education, parenting, politics, etc.), the succession of global world crisis (finance, food, war on terror, epidemic) and the increase of conflicts that they cause? Ironically the world has a crisis of food supply at the same time that it has never enjoyed so much food supply compared to previous decades and centuries. As for the regression of the morale in society, it is no secret that churches are more and more deserted, that the Arab nations have experienced a so-called "Arab Spring" with the awakening of the masses after years of bigotry imposed by corrupt dictators, and that the Jews face an unprecedented risk of absorption (assimilation) in golden exiles. All is set for a major clash in mankind.
The land of milk and honey
During the years when the Jews were out of the land of Israel, in exile, it laid waste and desolated for centuries. Many travellers of the past have confirmed the poor state in which the Promised Land remained (to read, as an example, the testimonial from Mark Twain, click here and check year 1867). However, as soon as the Jews started to return, the land started to produce, the swamps that covered the land for centuries finally dried out, and cities were raised from the sands.
In the current times, with the help of technological advance, the land produces about everything in abundance. Today the land of Israel in particular has become a large producer of milk and honey, thus accomplishing the Biblical promise:
But I have said unto you: 'You shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land flowing with milk and honey.' (Leviticus 20:24)
Concerning milk, Israel's dairy cows are the most productive dairy cows in the world. In 2011, an Israeli cow produced an average 11700 litres of milk per year, compared to 9678 for an American cow, 8699 for a Canadian cow, 7849 for a British cow, 5728 for an Australian cow and 3003 for a Chinese cow. Fore more information, click here. No wonder why, in May 2014, China has taken a controlling stake in one of the largest dairy producer in Israel, the company Tnuva (to read the announcement, click here).
What about honey? God stated to the Israelites in the desert seven species of products that they will easily obtain from the land:
A land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig-trees and pomegranates; a land of olive-trees and honey. (Deuteronomy 8:8)
But the above-mentioned honey is not the produced by animals (bees), as it refers to a honey produced from the land itself. This honey, in Biblical times and still today, is in fact "date honey" or date syrup (called Silan in Hebrew, סילאן) and date trees are indeed very abundant in Israel, even in the desert of the Negev. According to a press report of 2012, Israeli dates have 35% global market share of the best date type called Medjool (to read this report, click here).
Beyond these natural products, Israel is also on the path to achieve energy independence in these times: natural gas has been found off its shores in the Mediterranean Sea, electricity is currently produced by burning imported coal but the change to gas in on the way, and water is now produced in abundance from desalination plants. In the 2020's, Israel has also become an exporter of gas and water. Water is a dear necessity in many poorer parts of the world. If the world would be at peace with Israel and spending money in water production rather than in military equipment, the shortage of clean water would be a plague of the past. But, obviously, the world is not investing enough in water solutions: one example is Iran which earns vast amount of revenue from the sale of crude oil but spends it into military and nuclear programs; as a result, Tehran is suffering from a lack of water and Iranian rulers have announced they have no other choice bu to displace the capital... But they do have choice: they should spend money on water solutions not on nuclear and missiles !
Although very small in size and in population compared to the rest of the world, the Jewish state has also contributed to many other improvements that can be experienced by all citizens of the world in many aspects of their day-to-day life, often without knowing their origin:
the mobile phone technology was first developed in Israel
the chipsets of most of the personal computers sold around 2000 (Pentium 4, Pentium MMX, Centrino, etc.) are the results of research labs in Israel
the critical networks, such as the public Internet or the private corporate ones, are protected by security devices called 'firewalls', first invented in Israel
the instant messaging, used by millions of people today with app's such as WhatsApp, was first developed in Israel
the dynamic navigation system with app such as Waze was developed in Israel
This situation is an echo to a very ancient promise made by God to the Israelites before they entered Canaan and after predicting their sins, the subsequent exiles, and the final ingathering:
And the Lord, your God, will make you abundant for good in all the work of your hands, in the fruit of your womb, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your soil. For the Lord will once again rejoice over you for good, as He rejoiced over your forefathers. (Deuteronomy 30:9)
By looking at these achievements, and many more which are less known (in space, in medecine, and so on), one can only recall God's promise to Abraham:
"And in your seed [the Hebrews] shall all the nations of the Earth be blessed; because you have hearkened to My voice." (Genesis 22:18)
The Jews in the world
After the death of about six million European Jews during the Holocaust (for more background, click here), the Jewish population has drastically evolved geographically. The European Jewry has regressed in numbers from 1945, leaving Eastern Europe before and after the Holocaust and due to assimilation in Western Europe, while the Jewish population has been steadily on the increase in the State of Israel.
At the beginning of the current 49th chronological generation, about 85% of the world's Jewish population live in Israel or in North America while European Jewry only represents about 7% of the total. Based on the birth date in Israel and assimilation in Diaspora, it is expected that over 50% of the Jewish population will be living in Israel around the end of the 2020's.
In a report of June 2015, the world Jewish population was estimated at 14.2 million, of which 6.1 million lived in Israel (43% of world Jewry as of early 2015; to read this report, click here). In April 2017, the number raised to 6.5 million in Israel with apparently the same 43% ratio of the worldwide (to see the report, click here). In May 2025, the population in the State of Israel was just over 10 millions, of which over 76% was Jewish and 21% was Muslim (the Israeli Arabs), and it represented about 45% of the world Jewish population. In other words, the year 2025 marks the first time since the Holocaust that the world Jewish population has returned to its figure pre-Holocaust at over 16 million.
The ingathering of the Jewish people
The return of the Jews to Zion in the years before and after 1948 (creation of the State of Israel) is a clear sign, according to Jewish tradition, that the world has entered the pre-messianic times. This ingathering being a prelude to the venue of the Messiah is echoed in multiple passages of the Scriptures:
I will bear you on the wings of eagles and bring you unto Myself. (Exodus 19:4)
"With your sweet savour will I accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples, and gather you out of the countries wherein you have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you in the sight of the nations. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country which I lifted up My hand to give unto your fathers. And there shall you remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein you have polluted yourselves; and you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that you have committed." (Ezekiel 20:41-43)
And I will let you find Me, said the Lord, and I turn your captivity, and gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, said the Lord; and I will bring you back unto the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive. (Jeremiah 29:14)
Behold, I bring them [the remnants of Israel] from the north country and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travails with child together; a great company shall they return hither. (Jeremiah 31:7)
"I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of you; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will render them all as sheep in a fold; as a flock in the midst of their pasture; they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men." (Micah 2:12)
Many Jews who currently live in Israel are descendants from Ashkenazi Jews who came after the Holocaust, having lost about everything (families, homes, cultural centres, etc.) But most of the Jews of Israel today originated from parents who were forced out of Arab countries since the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. By expelling their Jews, the Arab nations have de facto contributed to the prophesised ingathering of the Jews in the Promised Land.
The ingathering of the Jews is however not enough for messianic times to come: unity must also prevail.
And Jacob called unto his sons, and said: "Gather yourselves (הֵאָסְפוּ), that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the end of days. Group yourselves together (הִקָּבְצוּ), and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father." (Genesis 49:1-2)
The call from Jacob to his sons on his deathbed is clear that two conditions must prevail: gather and group together.
Last but not least, the return of His people to Zion also means the return of divine presence without which the ingathering won't be possible. One prophecy testifies from His return :
Therefore thus saith the Lord: I return to Jerusalem with compassions: My house shall be built in it, saith the Lord of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth over Jerusalem. Again, proclaim, saying: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity; and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.' (Zechariah 1:16-17)
Islam and Israel
The current era is marked by the conflict between the Arab nations and the State of Israel, and this conflict affects the Jews in the Diaspora as well. The return of the Jews to their ancestral homeland is not happening without causing obvious problems with Arab peoples who had settled in that land in the meantime. But this situation is not different from the one that took place at the time of Zerubbabel when the Samaritans and other peoples who occupied the Judean land after the Assyrian conquest had resisted the return of the Jews from Babylon or Persia to Sion. They complained against the Jews to the ruling authorities, first to the Persian kings who ordered to stop the reconstruction of the Temple of Jerusalem for several years (see document C27c, year 637 BCE), and second to the Greek conquerors who initially thought of annihilating the Jewish nation (see document C29, year 332 BCE). Similarly today, the Arab nations want to ostracize the State of Israel in the international authorities (the United Nations organizations, the International Court of Justice, etc.) History invariably repeats itself...
The Arab Israeli conflict stems from the fact that the Arab world, in its majority, refuses the right for Jews to have their own state in their ancestral land, claiming that this land has been ruled by Muslim nations for several centuries, which is true, and therefore is a Muslim land as Islam dictates (a land which has been Muslim once is Muslim for ever). Yet, in the early days of the Jihad conquest or in the times of Saladin or the Mamelukes, most Muslim leaders authorized the Jews to return to Judea and even to Jerusalem despite the remonstrances from the local Christian authorities who wished to prolong the ban that the Romans imposed in their times against the return of Jews. Furthermore, the Prophet Muhammad actually favoured the return of Jews to their ancestral land, rather than them remaining in the Arabian Peninsula. On this matter, the Quran states the following verses (to read the Quran online, click here):
O Children of Israel, remember My favour that I have bestowed upon you and that I preferred you over the worlds. (Sura 2:47, repeated again in Sura 2:122)
And We did certainly give Moses the Torah and followed up after him with messengers [prophets, Jesus, Muhammad]. (Sura 2:122)
And, when Moses said to his people, "O my people, remember the favour of Allah upon you when He appointed among you prophets and made you possessors and gave you that which He had not given anyone among the worlds. O my people, enter the Holy Land which Allah has assigned to you and do not turn back and thus become losers. (Sura 5:20-21)
And We did certainly give the Children of Israel the Scripture and judgement and prophethood, and We provided them with good things and preferred them over the worlds. (Sura 45:16)
And We made it [the Holy Land] an inheritance for the Children of Israel.Sura 17:104 - And We said after Pharaoh to the Children of Israel, "Dwell in the land, and when there comes the promise of the Hereafter, We will bring you forth in [one] gathering." (Sura 26:59)
Some Muslim scholars have explained these passages by stating that the Promised Land was taken away from Jews because of their sin of the golden calf at Mount Sinai, and that the Sura concerning the promise of Allah to give them the land had been abrogated ! Yet the assumption that a word from the prophet can be abrogated is not written in the Quran: the text does however mention that the Israelites were punished by not being allowed to enter the Promised Land for forty years, which is correct as it was already known from the Jewish Bible.
Also, the argument makes no sense regarding the golden calf because Allah/God allowed the Jews to enter the land 40 years after the golden calf. So, this sin cannot be used to state that the Jews lost their land inheritance.
Besides, the Quran is very specified on this: Enter the Holy Land which Allah has assigned to you clearly alludes to a permanent divine decree. This understanding is reinforced by the fact that the translated word assigned is actually the Arabic word written (as kataba in the text), which indeed alludes to a permanent decree.
One of the greatest Muslim scholar of all times, Ibn Taymiyyah (1263-1328 CE) who is known as Sheikh ul-Islam, declared the following regarding the claim of Muslim "holiness" for the city of Jerusalem and for its mosques on the Temple Mount:
In Jerusalem there is no sacred place [for Muslims], and the same is true for the tombs of Hebron. (Charles D. Matthews, "A Muslim Iconoclast, Ibn Taymiyyeh, on the 'Merits' of Jerusalem and Palestine", Journal of the American Oriental Society, volume 56 (1935), pp. 1–21)
Another point regarding the Quran is that one of the most cited characters is... Moses (called Musa) ! Indeed, he is mentioned 136 times in the Quran as compared to Muhammad who is only mentioned 4 times. This denotes the importance of Judaism in the root of Islam. The same is true for Christianity which considers that Jesus was the Messiah of the Jews. In fact, without the Jews and their sacred Torah, Christianity and Islam would have never started as they are today. Sadly, unlike the Jews who are encouraged to study the Torah, the majority of Muslims do not actually read their own sacred book, the Quran, but rather rely on religious leaders (imams, ayatollahs) to preach politically motivated tales to them. Worse, Arab countries teach their young children in schools to hate Jews and that they should not rest until all Jews of the world are dead. But the fact remains that, in the own words of Allah/God, the land of Israel belongs to the Jews, and this should be understood as a permanent decree for all those who follow Judaism, Christianity or Islam.
Let's also remind that, in order to prevent the Jews from claiming future rights on Jerusalem, one Umayyad caliph had built a mosque on top of the Temple Mount (see document C38, year 692). This can only cause a curse upon all Muslims because of their own holy scripture which claims what Allah has decreed towards the Jews and their ancestral land. And the more they would attempt to prevent the Jews from achieving their return to Zion, which is explicitly mentioned by the scriptures of all three monotheist religions, the more they will be cursed for not adhering to their own scripture. The day Muslims would realize their mistake and, instead, would seek true peace with the Jews in Israel, the era of blessings will come back to all the Muslims and to Islam as well. The Golden Age of Islam only happened when they showed not only tolerance towards the Jews but even allowed them to establish themselves in their Promised Land in these times. Indeed, at the time of the early Ottoman rule, Jews were allowed back into what they called the four "holy cities": Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, Tiberias. And the Ottoman ruler who authorized the Jews to return to Zion enjoyed a happy reign (1520-1566) and was nicknamed Soliman the Magnificent. This is reflected in the last two verses of the first chapter of the Quran:
Guide us to the straight path, the path of those upon whom You have bestowed favour, not of those who have evoked [Your] anger or of those who are astray. (Sura 1:6-7)
And who are those upon whom You have bestowed favour if not the Jews, Children of Israel, as clearly stated in Sura 2:47 and Sura 2:122? This Sura 1:6-7 thus tells Muslims to look upon Jews as guidance. There is religious and historical destiny for the Jews to return to Zion. Christians and Muslims have their destinies and roles in mankind, and so do the Jews. If there was no divine destiny for the Jews to return to Zion, or if Allah wanted the State of Israel to be destroyed, why does He allow this Jewish state to survive at all and not make the Muslim armies victorious? The answer to this question is really in the Quran, Sura 5:21: O my people, enter the Holy Land which Allah has assigned to you... Some Muslim scholars have however understood this truth and, although being in a minority, they have expressed their opinion on this important Muslim dilemma:
If Muslims must choose, we must believe more in Islam than in Palestine. [...] Should Palestine one day not exist, the Palestinian will always be able to be Muslim and so too, his child. [...] In contrast, without modern Israel, Jews may indeed, one fearful day, become permanently lost to us. Without Israel, there is no Jewish nation. [...] For the Palestinian, there is always a place in a billion-strong Ummah [all the Muslim lands], even our Prophet Mohammed himself was the prototypical Muslim migrant. But for the Jew, there is no such luxury. There is only Israel. If we care for wider humanity at all, we must all be 'accidental' Zionists and want for the Jews, for the Israelis, what each Muslim already has for themselves: a future, a nation and a faith, secured. (Dr Ahmed Qanta, article in the Huffington Post, 2010)
The "Exile of Ishmael"
The conflict between Jews and Muslims represent what some Jewish scholars call the Exile of Ishmael, which is the fifth and last "exile" that the Jews must endure before the venue of the Messiah. Why is it an "exile"? Because Ishmael would fight against the return of Israel to their homeland, and would want to keep them in exile from this homeland.
What is different about this exile compared to the four previous exiles (Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman/Christian)? The author of the Zohar had stated very long time ago (even before Islam even existed) that the descendance of Ishmael has earned merit in the eyes of God, because he was Abraham's first beloved son and because, unlike any other people, his descendance has maintained the most important covenant between God and Abraham, the circumcision, even if the circumcision commandment was "corrupted" at the time of Islam (changed from the prescribed 8 days to the 13 years of age). This is what the Zohar had to say about the matter:
Through his circumcision, Ishmael entered the holy covenant before Isaac was born. Now, for four hundred years, the supramundane representative of Ishmael stood before the Holy One, blessed be He, and pleaded thus with him: "He who is circumcised has a portion in Your name?" "Yes." "But what then of Ishmael? Is he not circumcised? Why then has he no portion in Your name like Isaac?" The Holy One answered: "Isaac was circumcised according to rule, not so Ishmael; moreover, the Israelites attach themselves to Me from the eight day of their birth, but the Ishmaelites for a long time and far from Me." Said he: "Yet, as Ishmael has been circumcised, he ought to have a reward !" Woe, woe, that Ishmael was born into the world and was circumcised ! What did the Holy One do? He banished the children of Ishmael from the heavenly communion and gave them instead a portion here below in the Holy Land, because of their circumcision. And they are destined to rule over the land a long time, so long as it is empty, just as their form of circumcision is empty and imperfect. And they will prevent Israel from returning to their own land until the merit of the children of Ishmael shall have become exhausted. (Zohar, Exodus 32a)
It seems that the time stated until the merit of the children of Ishmael shall have become exhausted refers to the year 1917 as Muslim rule effectively ended over the Holy Land when a British corps entered Jerusalem (see document C48b, year 1917).
There are about 1300 years (within a decade) from the time of the revelation of Muhammed (see document C37, year 610 CE), marking the start of common religion for the children of Ishmael, and the year 1917. These 1300 years correspond to the 13 years before a Muslim boy gets circumcised. Or, from another point of view, we can count 1300 years from the year Islam was established in 622 CE, to year 1922 which marks the San Remo Conference and the start of the British Mandate to establish a Jewish state (see document C48b, years 1920-1922).
And the sentence they will prevent Israel from returning to their own land is a clear reference to what has happened since 1917: the Arab world has rejected many attempts to find a peaceful solution to the immigration of Jews back to their ancestral land. A 2000-year-old midrash has even been more precise about predicting their actions in the end of days:
Rabbi Ishmael said : In the future the children of Ishmael will do fifteen things in the land (of Israel) in the latter days, and they are : They will measure the land with ropes; they will change a cemetery into a resting-place for sheep (and) a dunghill; they will measure with them and from them upon the tops of the mountains; falsehood will multiply and truth will be hidden; the statutes will be removed far from Israel; sins will be multiplied in Israel; worm-crimson will be in the wool, and he will decay with insects paper and pen; he will hew down the rock of the kingdom, and they will rebuild the desolated cities and sweep the ways; and they will plant gardens and parks, and fence in the broken walls of the Temple; and they will build a building in the Holy Place; and two brothers will arise over them, princes at the end; and in their days the Branch, the Son of David, will arise, as it is said, (Daniel 2:44) 'And in the days of those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed.' (Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer, chapter 30)
This text has been composed about 2000 years ago as it is attributed to Rabbi Eliezer ben Orkenos, a tanna. What did he mean by the above expressions? The children of Ishmael are obviously the Arab world. They will persecute the Jews in the end of days, in many ways:
measure the land with ropes: they will argue about ownership of the land inch by inch
change a cemetery into a resting-place for sheep (and) a dunghill: they had transformed the old Jewish cemetery of the Mount of Olives as a land for their sheep, and the passage to the Western Wall as a dunghill (the gate of the city leading to the Western Wall is also called the Dung Gate)
they will measure with them and from them upon the tops of the mountains: in the ancient times, the tops of the mountains (or hills) were all Jewish villages in Judea and Samaria (which the world calls West Bank today), which were taken over by Muslims to build their villages over the centuries
falsehood will multiply and truth will be hidden: they tried to change History by claiming that the Temple Mount never had a Jewish temple, or that Jesus was a "Palestinian" (to read it, click here); this is an historical non-sense because (a) the Gospels clearly explained that Jesus was actually a practising Jew, and (b) the word "Palestine" was re-invented by the Romans after the Bar-Kochba revolt (see document C33b, year 136 CE), thus about 100 years after Jesus' crucifixion; they also accused the Jews of all sorts of falsehoods such as responsibility for 9/11 or for Arafat's death and so on
the statutes will be removed far from Israel: for centuries they prevented the Jews to settle in their ancestral land (lately during the 400 years of Ottoman regime), but they allowed non-local to settle instead (in the 19th century, Druzes, and Muslims from Egypt and North Africa were allowed to populate the Holy Land; they also brought in people from as far as Turkmenistan and Bosnia); by the 20th century, the Arabs then claimed that the Jews were few in the land, but forgot to mention that it is the Arabs who prevented their return !
sins will be multiplied in Israel: the State of Israel was mostly established by secular Jews from Eastern Europe; at the beginning of the State, Ben-Gurion once mentioned that there were just 5000 religious Jews (he surely meant "black hat" Hasidim) in the country
worm-crimson will be in the wool, and he will decay with insects paper and pen: when it will be in the hands of Ishmael, the land of Israel will be in a state of decay and nothing will prosper; this was indeed the situation of the Holy Land as witnessed by hundreds of Western travellers (including Mark Twain) in the 19th century for example (see document C47b, year 1867)
he will hew down the rock of the kingdom: this refers to the building of the Dome of the Rock in 692 CE, many years after this midrash was composed or compiled; they built the Dome of the Rock and the El-Aqsa mosque on top of the Jewish Temple Mount (at the time it was done by political motives made up with a religious assertion that had no supportive evidence in the Quran) (see document C38, year 705 CE)
they will rebuild the desolated cities and sweep the ways: when the Muslims took the land, they used the stones of the destroyed Jewish villages and built their own villages on top of the ancient ones, thus covering any trace of historical identification; this happened for example in the City of David, that included the tombs of the Kings of Judah, which was defaced by the Arabs who built habitations on top of it, and covered up all the ancient structures; it also happened in the ancient Sepphoris (Tsipori, capital of the Galilee in Roman times, and the presumed birth-place of Mary mother of Jesus) where the Arabs built their own village on top of it; in fact, all ancient Jewish villages of Judah and Samaria have been covered by Arab villages; sometimes they kept some form of the original name and this helped the later excavations (from the 19th century) identify the correct locations
they will plant gardens and parks, and fence in the broken walls of the Temple: they have built all around the ancient Second Temple, or rather the Western Wall that remained from it since the Romans destroyed it in 70 CE; it was only in 1967 that Israel recovered ownership on their ancient Temple and cleared the way from Arab habitations that obstructed access to the Western Wall; at the beginning of the Ottoman period, the Caliph Suleiman the Magnificent also rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem
and they will build a building in the Holy Place: this is referring to the Dome of the Rock; it is worth reminding that this text has been composed some 600 years before the Dome of the Rock was erected !
and two brothers will arise over them, princes at the end; and in their days the Branch, the Son of David, will arise: this is referring to pre-messianic times, when there will be a fight between two factions of Ishmael over who will rule in the land; this may be pointing to the current struggle between two factions of the Palestinian entities, one called Fatah which is sponsored by Sunni Islam, and the other called Hamas which is sponsored by Shia Islam (Iran) although being Sunni itself (hence the two brothers)
And indeed the children of Ishmael have created the ultimate trouble to the children of Israel. Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the Arab world has initiated several conflicts to try destroying the Jewish entity (or as they term it, the Zionist entity):
1948, war of Independence of Israel, against 9 countries (Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sudan, Iraq, Pakistan)
1967, Six-Day War, against 4 countries (Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq)
1973: Yom Kippur War, against 2 countries (Egypt, Syria)
1982-2000: wars against Palestinian insurgency in Lebanon
1987-1993: First Intifada, against Palestinians in the administered territories
2000-2005: Second intifada, against Palestinians in the administered territories
2008-2009: First Gaza War: against Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip, as they rejected the Oslo Accords once they won the Palestinian elections
2012: Second Gaza War (operation Pillar of Defence): against Hamas in the Gaza Strip
2014: Third Gaza War (operation Protective Edge): against Hamas in the Gaza Strip
2021: the massacres of October 7 (for more details, click here)
After each war, the number of belligerents against Israel has actually reduced globally, to the point that the only direct belligerents today are composed of radical Muslim groups affiliated with global Jihad (Iranian Ayatollahs, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and others). But, as the same text puts it, God will be the ultimate rescue to His people in the end of days:
Six individuals have received their name before they were born: Isaac, Ishmael, our master Moses, Solomon, Josias, and the Messiah king. [...] How do we know it for Ishmael? It is said: "And the angel of the Lord said unto her [Hagar, the maidservant of Abraham]: 'Behold, you are with child and shall bear a son; and you shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your affliction.'" (Genesis 16:11). And why was he named Ishmael? Because, in the future, the Holy One, blessed be He, will hear the clamour of the who will be oppressed by the children of Ishmael. So he is named Ishmael, as it is said: "God shall hear and humble them." (Psalms 55:20) (Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer, chapter 32)
The above text explicitely mentions that the children of Ishmael will be the last oppressors of the children of Israel, who will ultimately call upon their Lord for help, and He will hear them. The name Ishmael does not mean the Lord has heard (the past tense would have been ShamaEl) but instead it means the Lord will hear (the future tense is IshmaEl). So, the name Ishmael applies not to the children of Ishmael but to the children of Israel who will rise their clamour to the Lord because of the final oppression.
It is worth noting that Christianity, in contrast to Islam, although it stemmed from Jews who kept the Jewish laws (Torah), has totally deviated from them and has not keept one single commandment. This situation is even in contradiction with the Gospel of Matthew which recorded Jesus' own words during the Sermon of the Mount as follows:
Think not that I have come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I have not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. (Matthew 5:17-18)
The fact is that Christians did not follow the words of Jesus, as Matthew noted them, while the Muslims at least kept the key commandment of Abraham's Covenant with God.
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Albert Benhamou
Private Tour Guide in Israel
Kislev 5786 - November 2025
