Tamar Yonah
WORLD WAR III
A three hour [nuclear?] war. Two thirds of the world's population destroyed? The West obliterated? Is this what the King of Persia [Iran] will do?
A few shows back, I read out one of the more famous predictions of what mankind may face in the future during the Messianic era. It was taken from MEDRISH “YALKUT SHIMONI” (Yeshiya 60). I roughly translated it from the Hebrew on air, but I now received a better and complete translation in my email inbox just yesterday already in English, so I am reposting this article from www.torahnews.org here:
WORLD WAR THREE
MEDRISH “YALKUT SHIMONI” (Yeshiya 60):
“Rabbi Yitzhak said: The year that Melech HaMoshiach will be revealed, all the kings of the nations of the world will provoke each other. The king of Persia [in modern times they changed the name of their country to “Iran”] will threaten the king of Arabia [today called “Saudi” Arabia] and because of this the king of Arabia will go to the king of Edom [USA] for advice.
Afterwards the king of Persia will destroy [most of] the world. The remaining nations will be hysterical and frantic and fall on their faces and will be seized as if by “birth pains”.
And the people of Israel will be frantic and hysterical and they will say, where will we come and go? Where will be come and go?
And Hashem will say to them: Do not fear my children, do not fear. All that I have done I did only for you. Why are you afraid? The time for your Redemption has come!
THE EXPLANATION OF THIS MEDRISH:
Rabbi Yitzhak said [about 2000 years ago!]:
The year that Melech HaMoshiach will be revealed [what is expected to happen in the world at the time when Melech HaMoshiach will be revealed], all the kings of the nations of the world will provoke1 each other [the threats of war among the nations will be heard in every corner of the world throughout the countries and between one another].
SUMMARY OF THE DEVELOPMENTS
[The numbers in parenthesis refer to further explanations found in the Hebrew version]
PHASE 1 (2) King of Persia [Leader of Iran] (4) will threaten (3) the King of Arabia [threats of war against the king of Saudi Arabia (which is the only Arab country which still has the name “Arabia”)]
PHASE 2 (5) The king of Arabia goes to Edom to get advice from them [The king of Saudi Arabia goes to the Western countries, which are led by America, to consult about how to act against the threat of war from Iran].
PHASE 3 “And King of Persia goes back (6) and destroys the whole world [it is clear that you cannot destroy the whole world with conventional weapons. It means to annihilate the world with nuclear weapons. ["and destroys the whole world"– the meaning isn’t actually the whole world, the meaning is "most of it is as all of it", meaning to destroy most of the countries of the world]”.
“And all the nations of the world will be frantic and hysterical and “falling on their faces” and will be as if seized by (7) something like birth pains [a terrible and horrified fear that was unknown until now will grasp all the remaining nations - lest they too will die in a nuclear war (because they will be unable to protect themselves from the nuclear explosion and the radioactivity that will be formed)].
And the people of Israel will be frantic and hysterical [because of the terrible fear that will be in the world that Iran (Persia) will also attack Israel]. And they will say, where will we come and go [since there will be no possibility to find help or support and there will be no natural way to be saved - and about this situation it is said "we have no one to rely on except our Father in Heaven"] and they will say: “Where will be come and go?” [The Medrish repeats this twice to emphasize the helplessness and fear that will be then].
And Hashem will say to them [HaKadosh Baruch Hu to the people of Israel]: do not fear my children [you have nothing to fear], all that I have done I did only for you [HaKadosh Baruch Hu calms Israel, that all the destruction of war was only for your good - to destroy the wicked Kingdom of Edom and to remove evil from this world and make it possible for the Melech HaMoshiach to be revealed and rule over the world] Why are you afraid? “The time for your Redemption has come!”
CAN WE SEE THIS HAPPENING NOW?
In order that one should not think these words of the Medrish are incompatible with the reality of our days, it is important to clarify what often appears in the media regarding the “King of Persia” (President of Iran) and about the "mahdi".
The current president of Iran since his election has declared several times in public, that the main purpose of his government is to promote the arrival of the "mahdi", and for this purpose all military and economical resources will be given. He also said in the UN Assembly (September 25, 2007) that very soon the powerful Western countries will fall and be destroyed.
According to his belief and the belief of the radical cult that he is part of, the way to bring "the mahdi" (the Shiite "messiah” who is supposedly, according to their distorted beliefs, going to impose the region of Islam on the whole world) is by creating a situation of chaos with local and international destruction. That is why the President of Iran says they must ignite a local war and then destroy the Western world (which in his opinion is the root of all evil) using nuclear bombs.
This threat isn’t just an ideology or idle talk. Recently there was an article in the press that Israeli Intelligence has concrete information that Iran has a secret nuclear reactor that it is producing there nuclear warheads for rockets.
As it is known today, the government of Iran is made up only from the people of this cult who believe in this "mahdi" ideology. Whoever doubts this is dismissed from the government (as was the commander of the Iranian revolutionary guards; he was removed from his position and replaced by someone loyal to the President of Iran ym"s)
Another interesting item that often appeared in the world press: astrologists see something amazing: very soon the Western world will be destroyed by Iran by nuclear weapons (this corresponds exactly with the words of the Medrish above). To differentiate, lately there have been a few Tzaddikim in our generation who also say that soon there will be a nuclear war outside of Israel and in Eretz Yisroel will be the “selection” that was foretold in the prophesy of Zecharia (13:8) and Isaiah 6 ("v'od ba assirya etc" –see Kesubos 112b) by an earthquake, terrifying in its power, unlike anything known in the past.
In view of all this, it is clear that the words of this Medrish: "and the King of Persia returns and destroys the whole world" are very realistic and in light of ongoing world events, it is quite possible that this will actually happen in the near future.
There is also another striking event related to this in the words of our Torah Sages of 2000 years ago (in Yalkut Shimoni Shs”h 4:988) "Rabbi Barchiya said: in three hours in the future HaKadosh Baruch Hu will punish Esav and his men." Thus our Torah Scholars (z"l) tell us here that the destruction of the evil Kingdom of Edom will be accomplished "in three hours".
It is very possible that a nuclear war, as mentioned above, could last only 3 hours and in that time, the evil Kingdom of Edom could be destroyed . It is known from our sages z”l [Malbim, Abarbanel etc.] that today Esav is America, the countries of Europe and the West.
NOTE: When the Medrish says "and destroys the world", it doesn’t mean "the whole world, literally"; it means according to the Talmudic axiom “most of it is considered as all of it”. One can understand the words of the Midrash from the prophesy of Zecharia (13:8) "and there was throughout Land the words of HaShem, "two parts [of the world] will be cut off and destroyed and a third of it will remain", which means two thirds of the population of the world will die. Only a third will be left.
All this is regarding the nations of the world as it says in the commentaries there. However concerning Am Yisroel, chas v'shalom, the situation could be even worse if we don't do Tshuva, as it is written in the Gemorrah (Kesubos 112b, see there). Rashi explains there "when nine parts (of Am Yisroel) will be lost and nothing will be left but a tenth". Meaning that in the selection process that will take place before the arrival of the Moshiach, 90% of Am Yisroel will die chas v'shalom (if they don't do tshuva) and only a tenth will survive.
WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM ALL OF THIS?
We can see that we are very likely right before a third World War, the like of which has not been known in the past, which will start because of Iran. As we saw clearly the Prophets and Torah scholars of Israel predicted this thousands of years ago. According to their words as we explained above, the war will develop in 3 stages, one after the other:
Phase 1 - Iran threatens and provokes the king of Saudi Arabia
Phase 2 - King of Saudi Arabia goes to the countries of the West [lead by America] to get advice how to protect themselves
Phase 3 - Iran opens a nuclear war and destroys the Western world.
(It is possible between these phases there will be only a few hours)
WHAT EACH OF US CAN DO
Now everyone has a last opportunity and must choose the direction in which he is headed and decide where his loyalties stand. He has to choose between the good and the bad, between life and death. He has to choose between complete loyalty to the Creator of the World and abandoning himself to the dangers of death, chas v'shalom (if he continues to act according to his desires and follow the vanities of this world).
Whoever wants to save himself, his family and more Jews, the path he should take what he should do to be saved B'Ezrat HaShem is: to accept upon himself Mitzvat Aseh of Tshuva, and make a true chesbon nefesh [accounting] as he never did before, on all his deeds until now (as many as he can remember) and then:
1. Regret every sin that he did against the will of G-d (lo taaseh) and every sin he avoided doing, Mitzvos HaShem [mitzvat Aseh]
2. Confess with as much tears and sorrow as possible
3. Accept upon himself that he will be faithful to the Creator, will keep all the mitzvos, keep the ways of HaShem with all his heart and not go back to his evil ways.
4. Of course, if one fails and falls again, then he must immediately get up and start anew, and also l'asok B'Torah and gmilus chassadim l'shem Shomayim, and he will be saved B'Ezrat HaShem, and merit to greet Moshiach Tzidkaynu speedily in our time, Amen.