their grave and found a prophecy that said, ‘I will open your graves.’” 1
“And what was it that fell before the fall of Masada?”
“Jerusalem.”
“And so if the Jubilee reverses that which was lost, then what happens if everything is reversed?”
“If the loss of Jerusalem led to the loss of Masada, then in the reversal the return to Masada will lead to the return to Jerusalem. And if in the fall of Jerusalem Jewish soldiers left the gates of the city, then in the reversal Jewish soldiers will again enter its gates. And so if Israel returned to Masada, it would also return to Jerusalem. It would all come to pass in the Six-Day War.”
“In your vision” said the Oracle, “you came into an antiquities store and were shown a sundial.”
“Yes, why?”
“Because the mystery would now be one of timing. On the sundial were the engravings of two mountains. The two mountains were Jerusalem and Masada. The shadow moved across the sundial from one mountain to the other and then back again. The mystery concerns the timing between the two events. The fall of Jerusalem and the fall of Masada took place in the same decade. So in the restoration . . . ”
“The return to Masada and the return to Jerusalem would take place . . . in the same decade.”
“Yes. And so the return to Masada and the return to Jerusalem would happen in the same decade—the 1960s.”
“When exactly did Masada fall?”
“Masada was originally assumed to have fallen in AD 73. But that was before the discovery of Latin inscriptions that dated the reign of Flavius Silva, the Roman governor of Judea who laid siege to Masada. The inscriptions ruled out the year 73 as too early. Thus the fall of Masada was determined to have taken place in the spring of AD 74. So how much time passed between the fall of Jerusalem and that of Masada?”
“From AD 70 to AD 74, about four years.”
“What happens then,” said the Oracle, “if we now apply the mystery? What happens if we take the fall of Jerusalem and Masada and reverse it? Could it foretell the redemption of those events in modern times? Could it reveal the timing between the return of the Jewish people to Masada and their return to Jerusalem?”
“We would have to know the year that Israel returned to Masada,” I said, “and then add to it the same period of time between the loss of Jerusalem and the loss of Masada. So when did Israel return to Masada?”
“Israel returned to Masada in 1963. 2 So if we add the four years, where does it bring us?”
“To 1967! It brings us to the year of Israel’s return to Jerusalem!”
“So the Jewish people lose Jerusalem in AD 70, and four years later, in AD 74, they lose Masada. In 1963 they return to Masada . . . ”
“And four years later they return to Jerusalem.”
“But let’s now go deeper,” said the Oracle, “to the Masada algorithm.”
“The what?”
“The algorithm of Masada,” he replied. “When exactly was it that Jerusalem was lost and the exile began? According to the ancient account, the Temple was set on fire on the tenth day of the Hebrew month of Av. It would have been a Sunday. The following morning began the first day that the sun rose on a Jerusalem with no Temple . . . the first day that Jerusalem was no longer in Jewish hands, the first of the countless days of Israel’s exile from its Holy City, and the first day the Jewish people were bereft not only of their Holy City but their holy house, the Temple.”
“When did it happen,” I asked, “on the Western calendar?”
“The Hebrew date places it forty-nine days before the Feast of Trumpets. The Feast of Trumpets takes place on the new moon that begins the Hebrew month of Tishri. In the year AD 70 the new moon of Tishri took place on September 24 on the Julian calendar. Forty-nine days back takes us to August 6, the first day of the exile.”
“And when exactly did Masada fall?”
“According to the ancient accounts, the defenders of Masada died by their own hand on Passover, the fifteenth day of Nisan.”
“And when did it take place on the Western calendar?”
“In AD 74 it fell on March 31.”
“Then we have the two dates.”
“So what happens if we take the exact number of days between the two ancient dates and apply the mystery of reversal?”
“What happens?”
“Between the loss of Jerusalem