End Times and the Biblical Jubilee Cycle

Rabbi Judah ben Samuel was born in 1140.  He was known as Judah the Pious and was known for his emphasis on studying the bible, prayer and righteous living.  According to Wikipeida, Rabbi Judah ben Samuel was “descended from an old family of Kabbalists from Northern Italy that had settled in Germany.  Side by side with the official, dogmatic religion of the Church or the Synagogue there has always been a mysticism dealing more largely and more intimately with the personal relation of the individual to God, which at times was in opposition to the religion of the Synagogue.  Judah's mysticism was in such a stage of opposition; he therefore undervalued the study of the Halakhah and indulged in marked departures from the accepted religious practices. He endeavored to deepen the feeling of devotion and piety and emphasized the importance of studying the Bible rather than studying the Talmud.  He deals mystically with prayer, regarding it as more important than study.”  In essence, he was a very spiritual man who strove to follow God and live righteously.  He had a burning desire for the coming for the messiah and according to legend, the prophet Elijah is said to have participated in his Passover "Seder" meal and to have been seen by him in a synagogue.

Dr. Robert Mock has an excellent write-up on his Destination Israel Blog concerning Rabbi Judah’s prophecies that relate to the Jubilee Cycle and the year that the messiah comes.  Instead of writing the details of the prophecies I am going to excerpt a portion from Dr. Mock’s blog (shown in dark text) and refer the reader to his site for those that want to read more about Rabbi Judah from his blog.  Dr. Mock provides the following summary from his blog:

http://destination-yisrael.biblesearchers.com/destination-yisrael/2012/12/rabbi-judah-ben-samuels-jubilee-prophecy-gives-the-year-of-the-messiah.html

Rabbi Judah ben Samuel - “When the Ottomans (Turks) – who were already a power to be reckoned with on the Bosporus in the time of Judah Ben Samuel – conquer Jerusalem they will rule over Jerusalem for eight jubilees. Afterwards Jerusalem will become no-man’s land for one jubilee, and then in the ninth jubilee it will once again come back into the possession of the Jewish nation – which would signify the beginning of the Messianic end time.”

According to Leviticus 25, one Jubilee period is 50 years in which the 50th year, each person will regain ownership of his or her tribal lands. As Rabbi Judah the Pious looked into the future, he was postulating theoretical calculations, which today are showing them to be amazingly accurate. It would be over 300 years after his death that his first prediction would become true.

During the Roman Christian Crusades, the Mamluk began their reign in Jerusalem in the year of 1250 CE when the last Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt, Turanshah was assassinated by his Mamluk slave General Aibek. Aibek then founded the Mamluk Bahri dynasty. They held power over Jerusalem until they were conquered by the Ottoman Turks in the year of 1517, three hundred years after the death of Rabbi Judah ben Samuel.

According to Rabbi Judah he-Hasid, the Ottoman Turks would later wrestle power and control over the Middle East and assume power and control over Jerusalem. They would control the Land of Palestine and Jerusalem for eight Jubilees, according to his predictive calculations.

Well, eight Jubilees (50 years x 8 Jubilees) are 400 years. We know again by history that the Ottoman Turks gained control of Jerusalem in the year 1517 and held power over Jerusalem for 400 years, when they were conquered in 1917, by the British military forces under the command of British military General Edmund Allenby on Hanukkah, December 17, 1917.  The Ottoman Turks began to falter in 1918 after the defeat of the army at Jerusalem. The city of Damascus fell on October 1, Homs on October 16, and Aleppo on October 25 and Turkey capitulated on October 30, 1918. After this date the League of Nations conferred the Turkey, Syria, and Egypt to the British Mandate that included the Land of Israel, then called Palestine, and Jerusalem to the British.

Then the prophecy continues when it states; “Afterwards Jerusalem will become no-man’s land for one jubilee.” Is it not amazing that from the year of 1917 when the British Mandate controlled the city of Jerusalem, Jerusalem did become under international law a “no-man’s land for one jubilee”. It was fifty years after that year in 1917, that the Israeli army captured the city of Jerusalem in the Six Day War on June 17, 1967. Exactly one Jubilee, 50 years later, Jerusalem returned for the first time to the control of the Jewish-Israeli ownership since the day when Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 CE.

As Judah ben Samuel predicted the years of 1217 and 1517 were recognized as the biblical 50 year Jubilee Years. Three hundred years of six Jubilees after 1217, the Ottoman Turks took control of Jerusalem until its fading years when the Allied Forces swept the last ruler of the Ottoman from power by the forces of the British military troops under the command of General George Allenby in 1917.

Even after the Declaration of Independence by Israel in May 15, 1948 and Israel’s War of Independence against five Islamic nations, the city of Jerusalem still remained a “divided city”. The Jordanian government controlled the eastern part of Jerusalem including the Temple Mount and the Old City of Jerusalem. A strip of land divided the State of Israel control of Western Jerusalem and the Jordanian controlled East Jerusalem. This strip of land was called “The No-Man’s Land” by both Israelis and Jordanians.

Then in the year of 1967, Israel was once again attacked. After the Six Day War, on June 17, 1967, the entire region of the West Bank was conquered by the Israeli Army and the entire city of Jerusalem returned back in possession of the Jewish people. Seven hundred and fifty years after the prophecy was first made by Rabbi Judah the Pious, from 1217 to 1967, all the conditions of the prophecy were fulfilled to the letter of the prophetic oracle. Then Rabbi Judah heHasid wrote:

Rabbi Judah heHasid – “In the ninth jubilee Jerusalem will once again come back into the possession of the Jewish nation – which will signify the beginning of the Messianic end time.”

This leaves one more Jubilee, the tenth Jubilee since the Ottoman Turks took control of Jerusalem and the Land of Promise in the years of 1517. According to this Jewish sage, the end of this tenth Jubilee will “signify the beginning of the Messianic end time.”

The end of the 10^th Jubilee would be the year 2017.  Rabbinical teaching is that the messiah could come anytime between now and then depending on our level of repentance.  They teach that if enough people truly repent and turn to God, then the coming judgments will not be as severe and the messiah will return sooner.  So instead of focusing on the evil all around, we need to focus on God and implement true repentance.  The evil is only there to remind us of God and His salvation!

http://www.wnd.com/2012/11/12th-century-rabbi-predicted-israels-future/