By Daniel Abraham and Shmuli Phillips
When it comes to assessing the veracity of revealed religions, the accuracy of any prophetic predictions and statements are likely to feature pretty high on one’s checklist. It is most surprising therefore how distinguished biblical commentators, such as Malbim in his introduction to the book of Chaggai, openly note and grapple with the problem of apparently unfulfilled or incorrect prophecies. Judaism Reclaimed explores this subject in detail, noting the approaches of various rabbinic thinkers as well as identifying distinct categories of prophecy.
One prominent prophetic theme, however, which features regularly throughout both the Torah and other prophetic books, is astoundingly historically accurate: the unique status of the Jewish people.
It is worth sitting back and taking stock of Jewish accomplishments – foretold thousands of years ago:
You have a small tribe around 3000 years ago. They are going to go on to:
1. Give the world its all-time best selling book.
2. Survive not just those ancient times up until modern times, outliving literally thousands of other groups, tribes and nations that will die out over the ages. They will do this under some of the most horrendous circumstances imaginable. This by itself is not inexplicable, but it is truly remarkable.
3. The teachings in their holy book will revolutionize much of the world’s understanding and practice of morality. A point noted darkly by Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf.
4. These people in their exile will end up establishing communities across the entire world among all the nations in a way that no other people on earth has accomplished. This is predicted in detail in the Torah – (Devarim 28:64 “And God shall scatter you among all the peoples from one end of the earth to the other…” and many later biblical prophecies).
5. This people will not only survive as a people, but will also maintain their cultural and religious identity, again in very hostile environments that would grant them many benefits if they would only convert.
6. While this people is exiled from their land, the land will remain largely empty and desolate, with only a handful of cities maintaining any significant population. The land will become a barren wasteland. This is predicted by the Torah in a number of places. This fact is rather strange given the importance of Israel as a land bridge between Asia Africa and Europe, as well as its importance to Christianity and Islam. The fact remains that there were only three times Israel was a sovereign nation. Israel before the Babylonians, Israel after the Babylonians, and Israel in 1948
7. This tiny ancient tribe will become one of the most persecuted groups on earth. Their very name “Jew!” will become a bad word. They will face more attempted genocides than arguably almost any other group on earth. The hatred of them will unite neo-Nazis and radical Islamists. Every generation someone will try to destroy them. And even up until modern times this theme will continue.
8. This small group will continue revolutionizing the world with their accomplishments. They will achieve more per capita than any other group on earth. Though they are a mere .2% of the world’s population they will receive 22% of Nobel Prizes, 51% of Pulitzer Prizes. They will be the founders of all Hollywood studios. Three of the greatest four thinkers of the 20th century it will turn out are Jews – Freud, Marx, and Einstein. Jews will be in the leadership of almost every major “ism” to arise in the 20th century. The Communists, Anarchists, Feminists, Hippie movement, civil rights movements, and Jews were also in all socialist movements, whether revolutionary or reformist, universalist or nationalist, etc. Jewish accomplishments, inventions, innovations, are simply off the chart for this tiny people.
9. The Jewish people will also find a small opportunity in which to return to their rather desolate land and try to make it into a state. This will be done largely by secular Jews who do not believe that the prophecies of the bible are from God, nor do they believe there is any divine connection between the Jews and the land of Israel. This entire founding of the state will require the confluence of so many unlikely factors, each of which will have to happen or the entire enterprise could collapse and lead to total slaughter:
a) It just so happens that the land is open for large scale immigration, and the Jews have the ability to leave their lands.
b) their numbers are small and they are facing a hostile Arab population some of whose influential leaders are plotting the eventual genocide of the Jews, such as the mufti of Jerusalem.
c) at just this time, the antisemitism of the Nazis rears its head followed by the holocaust which will lead to the necessary emigration of large numbers of people who would otherwise had stayed in Europe. These numbers will be an indispensable factor in winning the 1948 war.
d) The Jews will win the 1948 war with minimal forces and weapons. The Jews had just lost 1/3 of their numbers and now they have a state. Losing this war would likely have ended in a second holocaust.
e) There is a very brief window in which the US, Soviet Union, and other nations supported the founding of the state. Within just a couple of years the Soviets had completely changed their mind. Abba Eban has pointed out that without the arms given to Israel by the Soviets, and without the Soviet vote in favor of partition (along with the votes of four satellite nations) “we couldn’t have made it, either diplomatically or militarily.””
f) The Arabs forcibly evict around 1 million Jews, most of whom move to Israel. These numbers are once again indispensable to the country and to the future engagement in 1967. In an almost miraculous fashion, factors in a very short span of time lead to hundreds of thousands of Jews being practically forced to move to Israel from so many from European and Moslem lands.
g) The 1967 saw predictions of total destruction of Israel by Russian intelligence estimates, as well as predictions of very high casualties from US estimates. This could have been it. Yet Israel achieved one of the most stunning victories they could have imagined. How do the Jews in Israel get lucky every single time?
h) The 1973 war also could have easily lead to destruction. After the counter attack of June 8th failed, reports say Moshe Dayan was depressed and truly feared this would be the first and last war that Israel would lose. The major battle fought in Valley of Tears is about as close to a miracle as you can get.
10) The Torah predicts very clearly that once the Jewish people return to their land, the nations of the world will join together and try to destroy the state of Israel. It is interesting that in today’s world, there is no other country on earth whose very existence is called into question by groups and nations from across the globe. People may hate North Korea’s leadership or the Iranian ayatollahs, but they don’t want to destroy these nations and/or exile their people. Israel is the one country on earth that receives this distinction. Israel is arguably one of the most hated countries on earth, and polls and public protests have consistently shown that.
Taking a step back it is astounding to note the numerous pages of Jewish and human history which appear to attest to the predictions of Bila’am and his fellow biblical prophets concerning the fate of the people of Israel. While a one-off prophecy or prediction concerning an individual may be considered a fluke, this becomes highly unlikely when the predictions pertain to an entire nation over the course of its national history.
First posted to Facebook 2 July 2023, here.
