The Oracle

by Jonathan Cahn

“So what was the meaning,” I asked, “of the four jeweled keys?”

  “When Israel came back into the world,” he said, “the nation’s gates were opened wide for the return of the Jewish people in numbers never before witnessed. From every corner of the globe they returned to the ancestral land. 1948 was the year of Israel’s return and the return of her children. When was it,” he asked, “that the nation was first given the command to return?”

  “In the Book of Deuteronomy?” I replied.

  “That was the first prophecy of the return, but when was the command to return first given?”

  “In the Jubilee?” I replied. “In the Jubilee they were commanded to return.”

  “Yes. It first appears in the law of Jubilees. It’s there where the command ‘you shall return’ was first given in the plural to the many, to the entire nation. That’s the first thing to understand. The second is that in Hebrew, numbers are represented by letters. For example, the first letter, aleph, denotes the number 1. The second letter, beit, denotes the number 2. Other Hebrew letters stand for tens, hundreds, and thousands. And the third is that Hebrew years are different from the Western years. For example, on the Western calendar the year 1900, up until the autumn of that year, was the Hebrew year 5660.

  “So if you were going by the Hebrew calendar, how would you write out the year 1900?”

  “As 5660.”

  “Yes, except in Hebrew, letters are used to represent numbers.”

  “So then I would use letters that add up to 5660.”

  “That’s right,” he said, “except it’s simpler than that. In Hebrew dating, the millennium is taken for granted. So the letter representing the millennium is either absent or written separately from the other letters. So you only need to use the Hebrew letters that add up to 660, and by that the year 1900 would be identified.”

  “If every Hebrew letter represents a number,” I said, “then every Hebrew word has a numerical value.”

  “Technically, yes. And there are those who seek numerical meaning for every word. But this is something else. This is simply the standard way of writing out or identifying a year in Hebrew.

  “Now we can open up the mystery. In the Jubilean ordinance in Leviticus 25 it is written: ‘You shall return, each one to his own family.’ 1 Three verses later it is written, ‘You shall return, each one to his possession, his ancestral land.’ 2 The words you shall return are the translation of just one Hebrew word: tashuvu.”

  “Tashuvu.”

  “Tashuvu is the Jubilean command contained in one word. Hidden in that one Hebrew word is a secret that spans the ages, a mystery of four Hebrew letters.”

  “Four Hebrew letters,” I said. “They were the four keys, the four symbols in my vision. The four keys were the letters of tashuvu.”

  “Yes,” said the Oracle. “It was all there in your vision at the end when the man was told that by these keys you shall return. He was referring to the Jubilean command. You shall return is tashuvu, and the word is made of four Hebrew letters.”

  “But I didn’t recognize the keys as Hebrew letters.”

  “The symbols you showed me,” he said, “were Hebrew, just a different kind of Hebrew, the most ancient of Hebrew scripts, Paleo-Hebrew. In your vision the wandering man represented the Jewish people in the wanderings of their exile. The man was continually trying to unlock the doors of his exile. So the Jewish people in their wanderings continually longed to return to their homeland.”

  “But the man couldn’t open any of the doors.”

  “And the Jewish people couldn’t open the doors of their return until the appointed time.”

  “If the keys are letters,” I asked, “then are the letters also keys? Does the Hebrew word for you shall return itself contain the mystery concerning the return of the Jewish people to the land?”

  “The four Hebrew letters of tashuvu are the letter tav, the letter shin, the letter beit, and the letter vav. And remember, each letter is also a number. Tav is the Hebrew number for 400. Shin is the Hebrew number 300. Beit is the Hebrew number 2. And vav is the Hebrew number 6. 400, 300, 2, and 6. What number does the word tashuvu come out to?”

  “708,” I replied.

  “708. That’s correct. Now tell me,” he said, “what year do those Hebrew letters and that word pinpoint on the Western calendar?”

  “If the Hebrew letters for 660 stand for 1900,” I said, “then 708 is . . . 48 years later. So the Hebrew letters stand for . . . the year . . . 1948!”

  “Yes,” said the Oracle, “the word tashuvu pinpoints the year 1948.”

  “1948! The year Israel came back into the world.”

  “The year of the return.”

  “Amazing! And so the Hebrew word that means you shall return contains the secret of the time when the nation of Israel would return! The ancient Jubilean ordinance actually identifies the year of Israel’s return!”

  “And in what command does that Hebrew word appear? The command to return to your possession, to your ancestral land. So the Jewish people returned to their ancestral possession in 1948.”

  The Oracle paused for a moment, then spoke.

  “And there’s more to the mystery. Further on in the Bible the word tashuvu is written differently, with a second vav; so too in modern Hebrew. But in Leviticus 25 it appears without the second vav. It’s all the more striking since it is this particular spelling that appears in the Jubilean ordinance at the mystery’s inception. But remember what I told you about Hebrew dates: one letter or numeral is kept either absent or separated from the others.”

  “The letter that represents the millennium.”

  “Yes, so in the case of tashuvu the missing or separated letter is already identified—the Hebrew letter vav.”

  “So then could it stand for the millennium?” I asked.

  “The full Hebrew year was 5708. And the number 5 would commonly be used to represent the millennium. But which millennium actually was it? In which millennium of the Hebrew calendar did Israel actually return?”

  “It was in the sixth millennium.”

  “So the missing or separated number, the number of the millennium, would be 6. And what Hebrew letter stands for the number 6?”

  I was silent.

  “The letter that stands for 6 is the vav. And the vav is the missing or separated letter of tashuvu. So the return of the nation would take place in the year 708 of the sixth millennium. Or, in other words, the 6 would indicate how many times the number 708 would recur in the Hebrew calendar. On its sixth recurrence they would return . . . which comes out to the year 1948.”

  “At the end of my vision the man opened the fourth door and entered a room filled with people. It was the room in which the declaration of Israel’s birth was proclaimed, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes. And at the very end of that declaration and document appears the Hebrew year, 1948, when Israel returned home.

  “So it was all there in the ancient law of the Jubilee, in the command to return to your ancestral possession. It was all there from the very beginning of the mystery! It was all there from the beginning in the very words they were given in the desert: ‘You shall return.’”

  “That was the final mystery the Oracle revealed to me in the cave. Now I would wait for the vision that would lead me to open the next door, the fourth door.”

  “And what mysteries would it hold?”

  “A Jubilee of lightning, a song of prophecy, the shaking of nations, the man with the trumpet, the return of the priests, a mystery of lions, a man called the Nazir, a time code hidden on a mountaintop, a day two thousand years in the making, and much more.”

  “So you opened the fourth door . . . ”

  THE FOURTH DOOR

  Chapter 33

  THE FOURTH DOOR

  IT WAS A cold night. I was bundled up in my tent when the vision began. I stood in front of the fourth door with the Oracle at my side. I opened it and walked through. I was again on top of the desert mountain, and ther
e again was the old man in the red robe, Moses. At his side was a ram. There was nothing especially distinctive about it except that it was younger and thinner than the other rams I had seen. Around its neck was a chain and pendant, on which was a symbol that matched that of the fourth door.

  “The ram made its way down the mountain and across a desert plain. I followed. It turned its gaze to the right. I did likewise, and the visions began.”

  TEN MEN WITH TORCHES

  “I saw a band of men with torches, journeying through the desert by night. There were ten of them, including their leader, a man in a fedora. They arrived at a mountain. In its base was an opening, a shaft. They entered it. Guided by the light of their torches, they made their way through stone chambers, stone steps, and stone passageways. Finally they came to an entranceway that was sealed with a large boulder. They rolled it away and entered a circular chamber. All around the chamber were openings, ten of them, the entrances to ancient-looking tombs. The ten men approached the tombs, holding up their torches to see what appeared to be an engraving in the rock face over each entrance. Engraved above each tomb was the image of an ancient soldier. The face of each soldier matched the face of the man viewing it. Then I heard a voice. ‘You have returned,’ it said, ‘and have opened up your own tombs.’”

  THE WILLOW AND THE HARP

  “The ram resumed its journey, then stopped again and turned its gaze. I turned as well. I saw a bearded man in a ragged, dust-covered robe. He was sitting under a tree by a river. Hanging above him on the branches was a harp. He stood up, pulled it out, and sat down again, now with a harp in his lap. He began plucking its strings and singing. It was a song of mourning and longing. As the song continued, the sky began to darken and the sound of war grew louder and louder. When the song ended, there was silence. In the sky above a distant mountain was a blinding radiance, as if from a thousand suns.”

  THE CLOUD PROCESSION

  “I turned again and saw a great procession of men in white robes and white cloth hats moving through the desert. Those in front were bearing on their shoulders a tent. Above the tent was a cloud that appeared to move as they moved, or they moved as it moved. Finally they reached the gate of a city, the doors of which had been removed and were lying on the ground. In front of the gate was what appeared to be a gathering of ancient warriors. The warriors parted to the sides to allow the procession to pass through the gate. Then they passed through as well and, as they did, were transformed. They were now dressed in modern army fatigues of olive green, holding guns and radio transmitters. The procession now began ascending a mountain inside the city walls. The men in white and the soldiers who flanked them were now illuminated by the cloud that moved above them and that was now bursting with light.”

  THE CHARIOT RIDER

  “In the next vision I saw a man standing in a stationary chariot. He was arrayed in an ornate robe and had Middle Eastern features, black curly hair, and a full black beard. ‘Come,’ he said, ‘and I’ll take you to the city. I know the way. I’ve been there before.’”

  “He said that to whom?”

  “To me. So I stepped into the chariot, and we rode away. ‘It’s not far,’ he said, ‘only nineteen minutes.’ We rode through plains, valleys, and terraced hills. Finally we arrived at our destination, the walled city. I knew it was Jerusalem. ‘Who are you?’ I asked the man. ‘A king,’ he said, ‘but not of this land . . . but from the land of two rivers.’ I stepped out of the chariot and entered the city.”

  THE MAN IN THE BLACK ROBE

  “I turned again and saw a city on fire and people fleeing it in every direction. In their midst was a man in a black robe with a hood that covered his head—likewise fleeing. The scene changed. I was now standing on a ship filled with slaves in chains. One of them stood out from the rest. It was the man in the black robe. The scene changed again. It now seemed to be something out of the Middle Ages—a procession of men, women, and children, all carrying baggage. Some were crying. In the distance was a burning village. I knew it was their village. And there in the procession was the man in the black robe. Again the scene changed, scene after scene, each of some kind of calamity or sorrow, and departure. And in every scene he was there, the man in the black robe. Finally I approached him. ‘Who are you?’ I asked. ‘My name,’ he said, ‘is Separation.’”

  THE IMAGE OF A SIEGE

  “I turned again and saw a bearded man in ancient garments walking along a bas-relief carved in the side of a mountain. It depicted the siege of an ancient city; ancient horsemen, soldiers, archers, and lancers; after that colossal birds; and finally lions just as colossal as the birds. The man turned to the engraved lions and spoke to them. They began to move and then to emerge from the wall. They now stood as giant statues, except they were moving. In the distant landscape a war was raging. The lions set out in the direction of the battle. I watched as they encircled one of its mountains and two of them made their way up to its peak, where one of them roared. When the battle ended, the lions returned to the mountain, where they reentered its side and resumed their original positions in the stone relief.”

  THE THRESHING FLOOR

  “In the next vision I was standing in a meadow. To my right were two angels in the midst of a conversation. ‘Who will perform the sounding?’ the one asked the other. ‘Come,’ said the other, ‘and I’ll show you.’ They walked through a meadow until they came upon a little boy sitting on the grass, dressed in the black clothing of an Orthodox Jew. The two angels sat down beside him, one on each side. One of them handed him an object. It was a ram’s horn. ‘When am I to sound it?’ asked the boy. ‘At the time of the harvest,’ said the angel, ‘and in the place of the threshing floor.’ The scene now changed. The fields and hills were now filled with workers reaping the harvest. ‘It’s time!’ said the boy. He ascended a high hill and entered the gate of a threshing floor made up of golden stones. He then took out the ram’s horn and sounded it. When the people heard the sound, they began converging on the threshing floor with rejoicing and tears.”

  THE SUNDIAL

  “In the last of the visions within the vision, I found myself standing in front of an antiquities store. I went inside and began browsing through its pottery, coins, oil lamps, and other ancient artifacts. ‘Can I help you?’ asked the man in the store. ‘I’m just looking,’ I replied. ‘You’re looking for answers,’ he said. ‘Come.’ He led me over to a square plate of stone covered with markings. Engraved on the plate was the image of two mountains, one on each side of the stone. ‘It’s a sundial,’ he said, ‘but no ordinary sundial. Watch what it does.’ As I looked, the shadow began moving across its surface from the engraving of the one mountain to that of the other. We were inside, so it had nothing to do with the sun. ‘Keep watching,’ he said. The shadow now began reversing its motion, moving back from the other mountain to the one. ‘This,’ he said, ‘is the clock of restorations.’”

  “The larger vision now moved toward its conclusion. I followed the ram through the desert. I began to hear low rumblings, the sound of war. I could now see armies lining up in the distance on every side. The rumblings were growing louder and louder. The armies were drawing near. I feared for the ram. But just then a transformation began. The ram began increasing in size and appearing more and more lionlike.”

  “As in the vision of the lions.”

  “Yes. And whenever the ram moved, it was as if its movements were generating flashes of lightning and peals of thunder. The ram then ascended the mountain of the ancient walled city. It turned its gaze to one of the city’s closed gates and began to charge it. As its horns struck the gate, the doors burst open and fell off. The ram then entered the walled city, followed by a great procession. And the vision ended.”

  Chapter 34

  THE YEAR OF THE KIRYAH

  I KNEW IT was only a matter of time before I would see him.”

  “The boy . . . ”

  “Yes. It was the next morning. I was getting ready for the day
. In the corner of my eye I noticed a movement in the tent curtains. I pulled them aside, and there he was. He had grown bolder. He had been peering in to see if I was awake. He smiled and motioned for me to come.

  “I followed him through a plain, alongside a mountain, and through a winding canyon. At the end of the canyon was a small valley. In the middle of the valley was something of a garden, hedged in by a low wall of irregular stones, a little over three feet high. He led me through the gate. The garden was filled with all types of trees—olive trees, fig trees, palm trees—and flowers and plants and vines. And there were gardens within the garden, each in a compartment framed by the same low stone wall that enclosed everything. And then I saw him.”

  “The Oracle.”

  “He was sitting on a rock surrounded by flowers of different colors and varieties.”

  “Welcome,” he said. “It’s a little pleasure of mine, bringing life to the desert. Join me.”

  So I sat down on a rock beside him and told him the vision.

  “The ram you saw behind the third door stood for the Jubilee that was unlike the others and of its own fifty-year cycle. But when you walked through the fourth door, you were taken back to the mountain you had seen at the beginning. Thus you were returning to the larger mystery and the progression, that which began with the Jubilean year of 1867 and continued into that of 1917. What you saw behind the fourth door is the continuation of the larger progression. So the ram you saw behind the fourth door represented . . . ”

  “The next Jubilee.”

  “Yes. Remember, each of the Jubilean years sets in motion the events of the next cycle. So the next Jubilee would seal the cycle begun in 1917.”

  “What events did the Jubilee of 1917 set in motion?”

  “It would set in motion the fall of the Ottoman Empire and ultimately the defeat of the Central Powers in the First World War. The consequences and repercussions of that fall would lead to the Second World War and beyond. The central document of that Jubilee, the Balfour Declaration, would lead to the British Mandate, in which Great Britain would administer the land of Israel in view of a future national home for the Jewish people. Beyond that the declaration would be critical in the rebirth of Israel. It was President Truman’s belief in that declaration as an unbreakable promise that strongly influenced his decision to support Israel’s rebirth.