Upcoming Blood Moon to Lead to “Messianic Advancement”
“The sun shall turn to darkness, and the moon to blood,
prior to the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.” (Joel 3:4)
April 2014 Blood Moon. (Photo: Anne Dirkse/ Wiki Commons)
Blood
moon enthusiasts around the world have eagerly awaited the appearance of a
final blood moon of a special four-moon cycle, known as a tetrad, on September
28, 2015. What made this particular tetrad unique is that each blood moon
occurs during a Jewish holiday, making it a very rare historical occurrence.
In a recent talk he gave
in Jerusalem, Rabbi Mendel Kessin, a rabbinic scholar, spoke about the
connection between the appearance of blood moons on Jewish holidays and historical
events that bring the ultimate redemption closer.
At the
36-minute mark, Rabbi Kessin introduces the history of blood moons to his
Orthodox Jewish audience and explicitly connects the blood moons to redemption.
Kessin
begins by explaining that a lunar eclipse occurs when the earth is between the
sun and the moon, turning the moon dark. Lunar eclipses happen approximately
every 12-18 months, according to Kessin.
Rarer
than an ordinary lunar eclipse, he continues, is a blood moon, which turns the
moon red instead of dark.
Rarer
still are tetrads – sequences of four blood moons six months apart.
And
extremely rare, happening only four times in 500 years, are tetrads that fall
on the significant Jewish holidays of Passover and Sukkot [Feast of
Tabernacles]. These sequences included the years 1492, 1948, 1967 and 2015.
It is
commonly known that in 1492, Columbus discovered America. What is less
well-known is that, on July 30, 1492, the entire Jewish community of Spain,
approximately 200,000 individuals, were expelled by King Ferdinand and Queen
Isabella.
Columbus’
discovery of America provided the Spanish Jews with safe harbor. As Kessin
teaches, the discovery of America softened the exile of the Spanish Jews and,
in that way, moved redemption forward. According the Kessin, the exile of the
Jewish people began to ease up as far back as 1492.
The next
tetrad falling on Jewish holidays happened in 1948, when the State of Israel
was founded. The third extremely rare tetrad on Jewish holidays was in 1967,
when the city of Jerusalem was reunited.
Now, in
2015, the final blood moon of the current tetrad fell on the first night of the
Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
In
addition, the blood moon this Sukkot will occur just two weeks after the end of
the current Shemitah year.
This is significant because the Talmud, the most important collection of
rabbinic teachings in Judaism, suggests that the Messiah will come in the year
following a Shemitah year.
Speaking
to Breaking Israel News, Kessin
said, “Each one of these is a messianic advancement. There are incredible
events that predate the Messiah.”
Why would
God make blood moons a sign for the Jews? Traditionally, as recorded in the
Talmud, a lunar eclipse is a bad sign for the Jews, who mark time with the
moon.
On the
other hand, the Jewish holidays of Passover and Sukkot are considered nights of
the greatest protection of the Jews. The first night of Passover is referred to
in Hebrew as leil shimurim, a night
of guarding.
Additionally,
the outdoor booths in which Jews dwell during the holiday of Sukkot are meant
as reminders of the fragile huts that protected the newly freed slaves during
40 years in the desert after the exodus from Egyptian slavery.
In
essence, Kessin explains that the presence of a blood moon, which would
otherwise have been a bad omen, is a good omen for the Jews whenever it falls
in this sequence. “Every time a blood moon happens [on a Jewish holiday
tetrad],” said Kessin, “there is messianic advancement.”
Kessin
reminded Breaking Israel News that the
threat from Iran is also messianic, which he says
can be clearly seen from the 13th century Biblical rabbinic commentary known as
the Yalkut Shimoni. Rabbinic scholar and author Rabbi Nachman Kahana translates the relevant section
of the 800-year old commentary:
Paras
(Persia-Iran) will be the dread of humanity. The world’s leaders will be
frustrated in their futile efforts to save what they can, but to no avail. The
people of Yisrael will also be petrified by the impending danger. And HaShem
will say to us, “Why are you afraid? All of this I have done in order to bring
you the awaited redemption. And this redemption will not be like the redemption
from Egypt, which was followed by suffering. This redemption will be absolute,
followed with peace.
“We have
now entered the countdown to the Messiah, which is unbelievable,” Kessin told Breaking
Israel News. “Based on the [verse from the Book of Joel cited
above], based on what’s happening, something awesome seems to be in the works.
Fascinating!”
Related Posts:
Dr. Rivkah Lambert Adler is a Bible and Prophecy
Watch reporter on Breaking Israel News. She made aliyah in 2010 from Baltimore,
where her husband served as a synagogue rabbi. Rivkah currently lives in Ma'ale
Adumim, just east of Jerusalem. On September 11, 2001, she became passionate
about the Land of Israel and the Final Redemption, about which she has been
writing, speaking and teaching ever since. Rivkah also enjoys writing about
women and Judaism and about making aliyah. She has a Ph.D. from the University
of Maryland.
http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/46098/upcoming-blood-moon-messianic-advancement-jewish-world/
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