On the End Times, Mashiach, and Syria
Elbit System 900, Israel.
The drones may be a modern-day technology, but their deadly impact was predicted more than three thousand years ago in the last book of the Torah, in the Torah portion “Eikev”, “Because” (Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25), fully charged with prophecy and admonition. To this Torah portion we now turn.
The common custom throughout all Israel is to complete the reading of the Torah in one year with the Torah divided into 54 portions. A portion of the Torah is read in the synagogues every Shabbat in a yearly cycle that begins on the holiday of Simchat Torah. The Torah readings are universal, while there are minor variances between Israel and Diaspora. Usually, each weekly Torah portion takes its name from the first distinctive word in the Hebrew text of the portion.
Torah portion Eikev begins like this,
And it shall be, because (eikev) you hear these ordinances and shall guard and do them, that the Eternal your Elohim shall guard with you the covenant and the loving kindness, which He swore to your fathers, … (Deu 7:12)
There is much to ponder over in this text. For the purpose of this study and considering the unique standing of the subject we will focus more particularly on the meaning of the Hebrew word עֵקֶב eikev and show that the matter is far from being semantic. The word eikev in this verse is an uncommon usage for the translation “because” (derived from “to be” and “cause”), which conveys the idea of “to be the cause of”, “for the reason that”, or “on account of”. Why did Moshe use eikev instead of simply כִּי kiy, “because”, which usually indicates causal relations of all kinds, or even im, “if”, which is a conditional clause. The Torah commentators have noticed this peculiarity and see a connection between עֵקֶב eikev and the word עָקֵב akeiv, “heel”, which has the same spelling but different vowels (see Gen 3:15 and Gen 25:26,) or figuratively, “steps” (Psa 56:6). They both come from the primitive verb עָקַב akav which means to restrain, to hold back. This literal meaning is seen in Job 37:3-4. So, what is the connection between עֵקֶב eikev, עָקֵב akeiv, “heel”, and עָקַב akav, “to restrain”?
Grammar insight: In Hebrew language there are no vowels, only consonants. Thus, in ancient times the readers of script had only context and oral tradition as a guide for properly vocalizing the text. Vowels points were added some time after the first millennium C.E. by scribes called the Masoretes to preserve the received reading tradition. All of the Dead Sea Scrolls, for instance, lack vowel points. We now return to the text.
Reward at the end
In Biblical Hebrew, the beginning of something is usually referred to as בראש, berosh, which means “at the head”, like in the first verse of the Bible, “In the beginning (bereishit) …” Gen 1:1. In such cases like this, the Torah employs body parts to illustrate beginnings or ends of something. Hence, it is therefore not strange that it employs a body part in our verse, the heel, as something describing the end or the conclusion. The Rabbis approached the matter from this angle when they commented on the Torah portion “Eikev”.
The medieval commentator Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitzchak, best known by the acronym “Rashi”, interprets this verse as an allusion to those laws which a person tramples with his heels with contempt, but in our opinion, this is too far stretched. Ohr HaChaim explains the verse that true satisfaction and fulfillment comes at the “end”—the complete fulfillment of all the Torah laws (see Psa 119:33, Psa 119:112 where we find the phrase “to the end”). Similarly, the commentators Ibn Ezra and Radak have said that the meaning of the word eikev is that “in the end” there will be reward for the fulfillment of the laws of the Torah.
On a deeper level, Ba’al HaTurim gives a gematriatic explanation that the word eikev is used because it has a numerical value of 172—the number of words in the Ten Commandments.
Like the nations which the Eternal is destroying before you, so you are to perish, because (eikev) you did not obey the voice of the Eternal your Elohim. (Deu 8:20)
The word eikev (because) here refers to retribution at the end, but it also may refer to both to retribution or reward, in the sense of payback. There is another noteworthy comment by Rabbi Mosheh ben Nachman, also known as Ramban.
In his commentary to Deuteronomy 8:20, Ramban while agreeing with these rabbis adds a new element. In his words: “And the commentators have said that the meaning of the word eikev is that “in the end” there will be reward, as Psa 19:11 says, “in keeping them [the ordinances of God] there is great reward (literally: eikev rav “in the end”). Therefore, according to Ramban, our verse here is thus stating: “and the end [the ultimate consequence] of your hearkening to the ordinances and your observing them is that God shall keep the covenant and the mercy. “This is correct”, Ramban concludes, “for in the Sacred Language the beginning of anything is called rosh” [literally: “head”].
The Hebrew language allows an alternative interpretation, namely, that eikev means “base”, as the heels are the lowest part of the body that supports the whole weight. Thus, the verse implies that the observance of the Torah laws is the base of everything.
… and shall love you and bless you and multiply you and shall bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you. (Deu 7:13)
As a result [eikev, “the end”] of the observance of the Torah laws, the Eternal shall keep the covenant and the loving kindness and multiply the fruits of everything man does: the fruit of the womb, the fruit of the land, and the fruit of any labor man does under the sun.
Showing pity to the evil
Good and evil are laid out for everyone to see. If you are merciful to the cruel, you end up being cruel to the merciful. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Lutheran pastor, participant in the German resistance against the National Socialism said, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak, not to act is to act”.
And you shall consume all the peoples whom the Eternal your Elohim is delivering over to you; your eye shall not pity them. And do not serve their gods, for that is a snare to you. (Deu 7:16)
“And you shall consume all the peoples …, your eye shall not pity them” is difficult to take in a liberal society of multiculturalism. All nations that occupied the Land should see no mercy but extermination? This is what the wise man taught in Pro 12:10, namely, that “showing compassion to the wicked is cruelty”. Compare to the common slogan that the showing pity to an enemy is a virtue. The Torah teaches in the words of Mosheh that this is not so, because the reason of not pardoning the seven nations of Kana’an is given where the command is given, “and so that you will not serve their gods”, [if you allow these people to survive in your country]. This is stated to warn that as a result of a misunderstood pity Israel will suffer, as their idols and cruel practices of worshiping their deities with child sacrifices burned in fire, will be a snare to Israel, and eventually it will lead to her destruction instead of theirs. And all Israel does for the sake of pity will come back with a heavy price to pay. And because Israel did show pity and left some of the Kana’anites among them, the chosen people eventually did exactly what their enemies had done before them.
“When kindness is shown to the undeserving, it corrupts them further.” (The Sages)
Compare to where Israel stands today in a multiple front against Iran, Hezbollah, Houthis, Gazans, Syrians, all of them seeking Israel’s total annihilating. Showing “pity” to the evil Gazan terrorists, who did unheard atrocities, which did not even come to mind of the Nazis to do, feeding the enemies through “aid programs”, providing medical treatment, water and electricity supply in a time of war, this and more the State of Israel has done for Gaza and the Palestinian Authority, which did not even come to mind of the Allies in WWII to do, all this misplaced pity to her enemies led to the absurd situation in which Israel receives even more cruelty instead of peace. Enemies who say, “We love death as much as you love life”, do they have the granted right to receive pity?
But if Israel says, “These nations are greater than I, I am unable to drive them out”, Mosheh urged them to remember, saying, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember well what the Eternal your Elohim did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt” (Deu 7:17-18). Remember well what the Eternal your Elohim did to your enemies, O Israel, the great trials which your eyes saw, and the signs and the wonders, the strong hand and the outstretched arm, by which the Eternal your Elohim brought you to the Land of Promise! He does so to all the peoples of whom you are afraid (Deu 7:19). But you are not hearkening to His words, are you Israel?
Ma’asei Hashem comments Deu 7:17-18: “When you understand that the nations are more numerous than you, and that you, with your own power, cannot defeat them, but are totally dependent on God’s help, then you need not fear them. But if you begin to believe that you can defeat them on your own, then you indeed have great cause for fear”.
The hornet that brings affliction
Moreover, the Eternal your Elohim will send the hornet (tsir’ah) among them until those who are left, who hide themselves from you, are destroyed. (Deu 7:20)
The choice of words begs for an explanation. We need to understand why the Torah has made the choice of words, saying, “the hornet among them”.
Mosheh told the people that if they would observe the commandments, they will inherit the Land of Promise, and moreover the enemies that remain will face the “tsir’ah” sent by YHVH their Elohim (Deu 7:20) to destroy them. Tsir’ah is commonly translated as a “hornet,” but this hornet in the verse is especially deadly, causing their enemies to hide themselves and perish. The “hornet” was to attack the enemies of Israel, who were hiding themselves in the Land, while the Israelites were conquering it. So, what is the “hornet” in Deuteronomy 7:20?
The use of euphemisms by the Torah is nothing unusual. The Hebrew word צִרְעָה tsir’ah, “hornet”, evidently refers to an affliction which affects the body as from stinging. This word has only three occurrences in the Hebrew Scripture, in Exo 23:28, Deu 7:20, and Jos 24:12 with no modifiers indicating its immediate meaning of a hornet. We should also note here that in all three occurrences of this word, it aways appears in a singular. The word צִרְעָה tsir’ah is related to the word צָרַעַת tsara’at (commonly mistranslated as “leprosy”), with which it has a common verb root צָרַע tsara, meaning to scourge, to be stricken. If our word in question is used only three times in Tanach with no modifiers, only in singular, and is related to a word that has no proper equivalent in translations, what is Mosheh referring to here? Can one hornet do the affliction Torah speaks of?
In our opinion, the word צִרְעָה tsir’ah, must be taken figuratively, rather than literally, referring to an affliction that causes harms as if from swarms of hornets. If our line of reasoning is correct and this explanation is accepted, then, we have the fair reason to believe that what Mosheh forewarned the nation about what we have been witnessing in the conflicts in the Middle East, namely, the use of Israeli drones Elbit Hermes and Heron, loitering munitions Harop and Harpi, IAI Scout, IAI Panther, Eitan, to name a few, and F-35 Adir, the state of the art fighter jet, an advanced Israeli version. Today, Israel is indeed a leading maker of such “hornets” that force the enemies to “hide themselves from you”, even in a literal sense, as the supreme leader of the Islamic State of Iran, who is still hiding in a concrete bunker deep in the earth from the “hornets” of Israel.
And the Eternal your Elohim shall drive out those nations before you, little by little. You are not able to destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. (Deu 7:22)
But the Eternal drives out those nations before Israel by the means of these “hornets”, little by little, for Israel is not able to destroy them quickly. The Rabbis explain that the word תוּכַל (from יָכֹל yachol), “unable”, is not to be understood as an inability, but that it is not in Israel’s interest to do so, as this would create a vacuum of having not enough people in the land, and the Land would become desolate. They therefore should drive out the nations, but only gradually, as assured in Exo 23:30-31, and discomfit them with a great anxious embarrassment, until they be destroyed (verse 23). And indeed, one by one, little by little, first the pager attack on Hezbollah, then the humiliated escape of the dictator of Syria, now Hamas and the Houthis in Yemen, and the embarrassing for Iran war in which it was abandoned by its mentors Russia and China, all enemies of Israel will be destroyed at the end (eikev), for this is spoken by the prophet. But reversely, if Israel does not listen to YHVH and does not hearken to His word, then,
Like the nations which the Eternal is destroying before your face, so you are to perish at the end (eikev), [because] you did not listen to the voice of the Eternal your Elohim. (Deu 8:20)
As literal as this translation can be, the literal translation of the verse in Genesis below explains what is implied in Deuteronomy. These are the words of the messenger of YHVH, who called Avraham from heaven, after the patriarch attempted to mistakenly offer his son Yitschak on the alter.
And in your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have listened to My voice. (Gen 22:18)
How does this help us translate the verse in Deuteronomy? We will explain the grammar of this verse.
As we noted above, the Torah employs body parts to illustrate beginnings or ends of something. This is the language of the Torah. In Genesis 22, we find another body part employed in the text to convey the idea of blessing a person. This is the Hebrew word barak, which literally means to kneel, but also figuratively to graft onto something. The literal application of barak, “to kneel”, can be seen in Gen 24:11 and Psa 95:6. Thus, the messenger assures Avraham that all nations will be blessed by being grafted onto the nation that would come out of his son Yitschak. This peculiar use of the word barak, as “to graft” something we explained elsewhere. Next comes our word eikev, which is immediately followed by the word asher. Now, if eikev is to be translated here as “because” followed by word asher with the same meaning, i.e., eikev asher, then we will have the redundancy “because, because” in the translation. The use of different words in the verse suggests a difference in meaning. So, this is how, in our opinion, the Hebrew translates literally,
And in your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be grafted (barak, kneeled) at the end (eikev, heel), because (asher) you have listened to My voice. (Gen 22:18)
This is the literal translation of the text, which permits each detail to fall into its place. Eikev, “heel”, is the lowest or last part of the human body, hence it figuratively implies the idea of a reward at the end ultimately given for performing good deeds. Thus, the verse in Genesis conveys: “as a reward because you have listened to my voice”. Similarly, in all cases where the word eikev is used in Tanach (total of 13 occurrences), it may be rendered to refer to “payback at the end”, wherein it may refer both to reward and punishment. Hence, our choice of translation.
Often the Torah delineates Biblical events as having layered background, in which it must be read not only in the immediate context, but also in the context of what had happened before or will happen after the narrative. Although the subject of our study refers to the time of the conquest of the Land, the prophecy in it seems as relevant today as ever.
Is Syria within the borders of the Land?
Then, Mosheh wanted the people to understand the implication of his words stressing that they were to cross the Yarden River to dispossess the nations greater and stronger than themselves. In the conquest of the Land, they would not be alone, for YHVH Elohim would pass over before them as a consuming fire that would destroy and subdue their enemies before them, so that Israel could enter into possession of the land quickly (see Deuteronomy 9:1-3).
Every place on which the sole of your foot treads is yours: from the wilderness, and Levanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even to the Western Sea is your border. (Deu 11:24)
The borders of the Land given in Num 34:1-12 were nowhere near the Euphrates River; those were the borders of the generation that entered the Land. In the opinion of the Rabbis, the borders Mosheh gives here are the borders of the generation of the coming of the Messiah, when the Euphrates will be the border of Israel. Mosheh assures the nation that “there shall no man be able to stand against you” whether in the land mentioned in Numbers 34 or the land in Deuteronomy 11, or in “every place where on the sole of your foot shall tread”.
After the fall of the dictator, Syria fell under the rule of “former” ISIS fighters. Contrary to what their leader promised, the new government of Syria began assaults on the Druze and Christian minorities in the country. Once ISIS, always ISIS. In the war against those who seek the destruction of the State of Israel, IDF stepped in the territory of Syria partially occupying the land of the Druzes in Southern Syria. The Israeli government felt the domestic political pressure from the Druze minority in Israel to get involved in the Syrian conflict to protect their brothers in Syria. Was that legal move from Torah’s point of view?
Regarding the conquest of the Land of promise, Ramban comments that it is from here that originated a division of opinion among the Rabbis regarding Syria which King David conquered. Some Rabbis called it “the conquest of an individual” and not a national conquest, because Syria has the legal status of outside of the Land of Israel. But other Rabbis say that the conquest of Syria is termed “a legal conquest”, because, although David did not carry it out properly, Mosheh’s assurance, “Every place on which the sole of your foot treads is yours”, was fulfilled and it is part of the Land of Israel, and within the borders of Deuteronomy 11:24. The studious reader needs no reminding that when Torah refers to a war, it always means either a mandatory war (against the seven nations in Kana’an), or it means a defensive war, when the nation is attacked. Israel has the legal obligation to defend the Druzes, the descendants of Mosheh’s father-in-law, Yitro. When Israel was ready to march to the Land of Promise to take it, Mosheh asked Yitro to come with them, saying,
We are setting out for the place of which the Eternal said, “I give it to you”. Come with us, and we shall do good to you, for the Eternal has spoken good concerning Israel. (Num 10:29)
In our opinion, this is the legal justification for Israel to get involved in Syria and defend the sons of Yitro, namely, “we shall do good to you, for the Eternal has spoken good concerning Israel”. This subject requires a lengthy exposition, but it is all explained in our commentary in the article “The Druzes–The Forgotten People in the Scripture“, to which we would like to turn the reader’s attention.
One final thought. As the word eikev literally means “heel”, and just as the heel is the end of the body, eikev in this context implies the end of time.
The Mishnah ends with Sotah 49b referring to “In the end times (בְּעִקְבוֹת) of the Messiah (מְשִׁיחָא)”, Aramaic, be’ikvot meshicha; this is the same word in our Torah portion: עֵקֶב eikev. The Mishnah forewarns of the end times preceding the arrival of the Messiah, which will be a period a disrespectful behavior. We read as follows,
“And the wisdom of scribes will putrefy, and people who fear sin will be held in disgust, and the truth will be absent. The youth will shame the face of elders; elders will stand before minors. Normal family relations will be ruined: A son will disgrace a father; a daughter will rise up against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man’s enemies will be the members of his household. The face of the generation will be like the face of a dog; a son will no longer be ashamed before his father. And upon what is there for us to rely on? Only upon our Father in heaven.”
We are right there.
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May we merit seeing the coming of our Mashiach speedily in our days!
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