The Harbinger II

by Jonathan Cahn

  “Every parasha has a name. Ki Tavo is the name given to one of the appointed words.”

  “The scripture appointed to be read just before 9/11?”

  “Three days before it happened.”

  “Was it significant?”

  “Most significant.”

  “What exactly is Ki Tavo?”

  “It comes from the last of the five books of Moses, from the Book of Deuteronomy, from the last passages of that book. It represents Moses’ last words to the nation of Israel.”

  “What does it say?”

  “It speaks of what will happen in the days to come, the blessings of the nation that follows God and the curses of the one that doesn’t.”

  “And the nation that once knew God but then . . . ”

  “Yes,” he replied, “that is specifically what the passage centers on, a nation that once knew God but then departed from Him and turned against His ways.”

  “Sounds like a warning.”

  “It is.”

  “So the word appointed for the last Sabbath before 9/11 was a warning?”

  “It was not only a warning but one specifically directed to a nation that once knew God but had turned away.”

  “And what exactly does it prophesy?”

  “That which will befall such a nation.”

  “And what is it that will befall such a nation?”

  “Calamity,” he said. “Judgment.”

  “So the word appointed for the Sabbath before 9/11 was a warning to a nation concerning coming calamity and judgment?”

  “Yes.”

  “What calamity?”

  “Come,” said the prophet, “and we’ll see.”

  He led me down the hallway, around corners, down staircases, and down more hallways and corners until we passed through the chamber’s large stone doors. Then we descended two flights of stairs until we found ourselves in one of the library’s main halls full of tables and chairs for studying. It was at one of these tables that the prophet sat down and motioned for me to join him.

  “Kind of like the New York Public Library,” I said, “except with no electricity.”

  He didn’t respond but motioned for me to hand him the scroll, which I did. He unrolled it.

  “Are the words of the appointed scripture a prophecy of America?” I asked.

  “The words are a prophecy of Israel and with specific warnings of judgment unique to that nation, its exile, its scattering to the world. But they speak to and warn any nation that has known God and then turned against His ways. The words of the scripture contain the signs of national judgment.”

  “As in America?”

  “As in more than America . . . but as in touching America.”

  “As American civilization was, from its beginning, especially connected to ancient Israel.”

  “Yes, and so that which was given to ancient Israel could be used to speak to America and manifest as signs of warning and judgment. The appointed passage of Scripture contains not one calamity but a multitude, a list of signs concerning a nation under judgment.”

  “And those signs of national judgment were recited throughout the world just days before 9/11.”

  “Throughout the world,” he replied, “and specifically in New York City.”

  “So what calamities were recited just before 9/11?”

  The prophet began moving his finger across the words of the scroll. Since they were in Hebrew, he first read them to himself, then spoke the translation.

  “It begins by speaking of the nation that knows of God and walks in His ways.

  Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God . . . all these blessings shall come upon you. . . . Blessed shall be . . . the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds.1

  “And so, inasmuch as America followed the ways of God, America was blessed, and more so than any nation has ever been blessed. The scripture speaks of fruitfulness and the produce of the land. So America’s soil was blessed with fruitfulness to the point that it would be known as the bread basket of the world. The scripture also uses the word increase. So America became the nation of productivity and increase in every realm.

  Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.2

  “So America would be known not only for the blessings of its fields but, as it grew as a nation and a world power, for the greatness of its cities.

  Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.3

  “The scripture speaks of prosperity, abundance, the blessings of a nation’s economy. And so America was blessed with a level of prosperity no nation had ever known. The appointed scripture goes on:

  The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.4

  “And what blessing is this?” he asked.

  “The blessing of military power.”

  “And thus America would defeat its enemies in war, be kept safe from attack in peace, and become the strongest nation on earth, so strong that many believed it invincible.

  The LORD will command the blessing . . . in all to which you set your hand.5

  “Thus America became known for doing what other nations would have deemed impossible, becoming the world’s leading technological power and blessed in all it set its hand to do, from overseeing the world order to setting a man on the moon.

  Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of you.6

  “So America would be esteemed and envied throughout the world. Many would seek to emulate it. Few would seek to rise up against it.

  You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.7

  “The blessings of God would apply not only to the nation’s economic realm but also to its financial realm. By the end of the First World War, the United States had overtaken the British Empire to become the world’s greatest financial power, with New York City as the world’s new financial center. America would become the world’s leading creditor nation and ‘lend to many nations.’

  The LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. . . . And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath.8

  “And so, in the twentieth century, America would become the head of nations.”

  He paused from reading text and turned to me.

  “But it doesn’t end there, not the scripture and not America. At the height of its power, its blessings, and its predominance over the world, the nation began turning, more and more brazenly, away from the God of its foundations.”

  “And what about the scripture?”

  “Do you see all this?” he asked, pointing to all the lines of words beneath those from which he had just read. “All this is a prophecy and a warning to the nation that had known God and His blessings but had now turned away from Him. All these are the calamities. The blessings it was given are undone, one by one.”

  “Such as?”

  “The heights from which it towered over the nations. And so America’s global supremacy relative to the rest of the world would start to fade away. Other nations and powers would begin vying for its crown.

  “According to the Scripture, the nation will begin losing its military invincibility. So in the midst of its turning away from God, America would suffer the most traumatic military defeat in its history, a defeat that would haunt it for decades to come.”

  “Vietnam.”

  “And as for the nation that lent to many nations, listen to the scripture’s warning concerning the nation and its rivals:

  He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him.”9

  “So that,” I said, “would mean that America would cease from being the world’s greatest creditor nation?”

  “It would.”

  “Did it happen?”

  “Yes, and it happened at the same period when the nation
was departing from God’s ways. In the late twentieth century, America not only ceased from being the world’s greatest creditor nation; it was transformed into the world’s greatest debtor nation.”

  “From the head to the tail.”

  “But the mystery goes deeper. This is the word that was appointed to be read on the last Sabbath before 9/11, chanted in synagogues throughout New York City three days before the calamity fell. And it spoke of the signs of national judgment.”

  “Like what?”

  “The nation’s hedge of protection will be lifted up. Its enemy will be allowed to enter its borders. The enemy will come . . .

  . . . against you from afar, from the end of the earth.10

  “So on 9/11, America’s enemies came against it from afar, from the Middle East, as from the ends of the earth. With the nation’s protection removed, the attacks from which it had, in the past, been protected now come to its shores.

  And they shall besiege you at all your gates.”11

  “The enemy will attack the gate. That’s the scripture you quoted from!”

  “Yes.”

  “And it was also the appointed word leading up to 9/11?”

  “Yes. So on 9/11, the enemy attacked the gate of America, New York City.”

  “And those in New York City were reciting the prophecy that said that the enemy would attack the nation at its gate. And three days later, the enemy would attack the nation at its gate.”

  “And the appointed word went on:

  Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.12

  “The two sites epitomize the nation’s judgment: the city and the field. So the attacks of 9/11 took place in the cities of New York and Washington and in a field by Shanksville, Pennsylvania. In the appointed Scripture, the city is mentioned first, and then the field. So on 9/11, the destruction began in the cities and ended in the field.

  Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.”13

  “The nation’s sustenance,” I said, “its economy.”

  “And so on 9/11, the terrorists attacked the nation’s financial center and the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, the symbols of its global economic power.

  And your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you shall be iron.14

  “To an ancient hearer, these words could be taken figuratively to describe the signs of drought on the land. And yet on 9/11, they had a literal fulfillment. The essence of the World Trade Center was steel. On 9/11, it all collapsed into the ruins of Ground Zero. Steel is an alloy of iron. The base metal of the steel ruins of Ground Zero was iron. In other words, after 9/11, the earth that was under those who came to the ruins of Ground Zero was iron.”

  “What about the bronze?”

  “Bronze is an alloy of copper. In fact, the Hebrew word used in the passage, nechoshet, also means copper. And the passage can also be translated as “The sky above you shall be copper . . . ”

  “And on 9/11?”

  “On 9/11 a cloud hovered in the sky over Ground Zero and lower Manhattan. The particles of that cloud remained in the sky above the city for days. It was found that in the cloud and the air of Ground Zero were particles of copper. And thus the earth under them was iron and the sky above them, copper.

  The LORD will change the rain of your land to powder and dust.15

  “Again, to an ancient hearer, these words could be taken as describing the barren dryness of a drought. But on 9/11, there was again a literal fulfillment. From the fall of the two towers came massive clouds of white powder and dust that descended on Ground Zero and lower Manhattan.

  You will grope about in broad daylight like someone blind, and you will not be able to find your way.16

  “On 9/11, as the clouds of dust descended on the streets, those caught in the midst lost all visibility. Even though it was a sunny morning, they groped in broad daylight as one would grope in the dark.

  The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them.17

  “And so on 9/11, America’s enemies were victorious. Those who should not have prevailed did prevail and brought a great nation to a standstill.

  America suffered a traumatic defeat at the hands of its enemies. And with each strike, the nation’s enemies came in one direction and those on the ground of destruction fled in many directions. Tell me, Nouriel, what realm does this judgment involve?”

  “War,” I replied, “the military realm.”

  “So this is a strike against the nation’s military power. And so what was struck on 9/11?”

  “The Pentagon,” I replied, “the striking of the nation’s military power.”

  “Notice something,” said the prophet, “the numbers. ‘You shall go out one way against your enemies and flee in seven.’ When it speaks of the nation dealing with its enemies, the ratio is one to seven. How did 9/11 begin?”

  “With the attack on the towers,” I replied.

  “The first plane—what flight was it?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “It was flight 11. The number 11 is made up of 1 and 1. And what flight was it that struck the Pentagon?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Flight 77. The number 77 is made up of 7 and 7. So we have the same numbers as in the appointed word and the template of judgment, the number 1 and the number 7. What is the ratio of 11 to 77?”

  “1 to 7.”

  “And the ratio is linked to the attack of the enemy. And the prophecy begins with the number 1 and ends with the number 7. And so the striking of the first building was marked by the number 1, and the striking of the last house, by the number 7.”

  “The nation’s enemies will come from far away. Does it say anything else about them?”

  “The passage describes them as:

  . . . a people whose language you will not understand, a people of fierce countenance, who will show no reverence for the elderly nor grace to the young.18

  “So the terrorists of 9/11 spoke a language that most Americans could not understand. So too they were of fierce countenance. And so too they showed no respect to the old or favor to the young. They were brutal and merciless.

  “The passage speaks not once but four times of the enemy attacking or causing distress at the gate. But one of the references mentions something else:

  They shall besiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down.”19

  “You quoted that Scripture as well, when you spoke about the wall.”

  “And what did it mean?” he asked.

  “America’s gate is New York City, and its wall, its defense, is the Pentagon. And the Pentagon is built after the pattern of a fortress with fortified walls. So on 9/11, the enemy attacked first the gate and then the wall, the towers of New York City and then the Pentagon of Washington, DC. And all that was in the appointed word that was recited just before 9/11!”

  “Yes. Did you notice a pattern in the prophecy?”

  “No.”

  “In the first part of the scripture, the nation is blessed in the city and the field. In the second part, it’s cursed in the city and field. In the first part, it’s blessed in its basket and kneading bowl; in the second part, it’s cursed in its basket and kneading bowl. In the beginning, they lend to many nations. In the end, they borrow from other nations. In the beginning, their enemy flees from before them. In the end, it is they who flee from before their enemies. In the beginning, rain falls on the land as a blessing; in the end, there falls a rain of powder and dust, the sign of a curse.

  “The second part of the prophecy is the inverse of the first. The judgments at the end are the opposites, the inversions of the blessings at the beginning.”

  “The mystery of inversion.”

  “And juxtaposition,” he said. “The two things are joined together. And so the mystery of why it happened on 9/11 goes all the way back to the wor
ds of Moses, to this passage.”

  “The day of building up becomes the day of the breaking down—9/11.”

  “And so,” said the prophet, “on the last Sabbath before 9/11, three days before the calamity, the appointed passage was being chanted all over the world and all over New York City. It would speak of enemies who would come from a faraway land, who would speak a foreign language and be of a fierce countenance. They would show no respect for the old and no compassion for the young. They would attack the nation’s gate and bring destruction. In the midst of the attack, people would flee in every direction. A curse would come upon the city and then upon the field. It would affect the nation’s economic power and military power. There would be iron on the earth and copper in the sky. And powder and dust would rain down from above. In broad daylight people would be groping as in darkness, unable to find their way, as if blind. The attack would begin with the striking of the nation’s gate but would conclude with the bringing down of the nation’s wall. It would be a day that joined together the nation’s building up with the breaking down and the planting with the uprooting.”

  “So the ancient words that were chanted that day,” I said, “they would become 9/11.”

  “And all from the appointed passage that identifies the nation that had known God and His blessings but had turned away from blessing . . . to judgment.”

  The prophet rolled up the scroll, got up from his chair, and motioned for me to do likewise. With the scroll in hand, he led me over to a small, high table, around which were no chairs. The table was illuminated by a shaft of sunlight coming down from a high window on the library’s opposite wall. He laid the scroll down on the table and unrolled it. It was now bathed in light.

  “Why did he take you there?”

  “He told me that the table was made for deeper study, for the illumination of a single word or verse.”

  “So he was going to open up a different revelation.”

  “It would be a revelation within a revelation.”