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| Surviving on salty roots in the desert during the last 45 days of exile |
Unlike Yechezkel, our prophet Zechariah, describes the war of Gog and Magog with Jerusalem and the people of Israel as its focus. The following is read as the Haftarah for Sukkos every year . Note the significance of this war for the nations during the time of Sukkos in the future.
I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem for war. The city will be captured. The houses will be destroyed and the women violated. Half the city will go out into exile, and the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. His feet will stand on that day on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem to the east. The Mount of Olives will burst open from its midpoint toward the east and west, into a great valley, and half the mountain will move to the north and half of it to the south. You will flee to the valley of the mountains, for the valley of the mountains will go as far as Atzal. You will flee as you fled because of the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Yehuda. And Hashem, my G-d, will come. All of the holy will be with you (Zecharia 14:2-6).
This will be the plague by which Hashem will strike all the people who gathered as an army against Jerusalem. His flesh will waste away as he stands on his feet. His eyes will waste away in their sockets, and his tongue will waste away in his mouth. It will be on that day that Hashem's commotion among them will be great. Each man will take hold of the hand of his fellow, and his hand will rise up against the hand of his fellow (Zecharia 14:12-13).
All who remain from all the nations who came to attack Jerusalem will ascend every year to bow down to the King, the G-d of Hosts, and to celebrate the festival of Sukkos (Zecharia 14:16).
It will be that they who do not ascend to Jerusalem from among the families of the earth to bow to the King, G-d of Legions, will not have rain upon them (Zecharia 14:17).
The Gaon of Vilna, Rabbi Eliyahu Kramer, zt"l, said that the war of Gog and Magog will last only 12 minutes. With a nuclear bomb, that is a possibility. But with Hashem, anything is possible. One third of the world will be destroyed, one third will be injured, and one third will be spared. This alternate course to the war, we pray will not take place. We would much rather prefer the prophecy of Yechezkiel.
In both courses of the war, all the nations of the world will simultaneously rise up against us. It will be clear to all that there is no possibility of our survival by any natural means, except from Hashem.
All of the nations surround me, yet in the name of Hashem I will destroy them. They will encircle me and surround me, yet in the name of Hashem I will destroy them. They will surround me like bees, as a fire devours thorns, yet in the name of Hashem I will destroy them. They will push me so that I would fall down, but Hashem will help me. My strength and my song will be for Hashem, and Hashem will be a salvation for me. (Tehillim 118:11-14)
According to the Zohar, the days before Moshiach will be divided into two periods: a period of 70 years, which is alluded to in the 70 words of Psalm 20, and a period of 9 months corresponding to the 9 verses of that same Psalm. In the nine months of the golus (exile), troubles will increase, there will be great fear, and then Moshiach will be revealed. (Zohar Chodosh, Balak, from Derech Kochav MeYaakov, Even Shleima, Chapter 11, section 5)
Rav said: Moshiach ben Dovid will come only after the kingdom will rule over Israel 9 months, as it is said, therefore He shall give them until the time of birth, a young girl and the rest of her brothers shall return to the Children of Israel. (Sanhedrin 98b)
The final 45 days of that nine months of golus will be extremely difficult, whose intent is to move Israel to do complete teshuva to merit the geula (redemption).
The troubles shall increase as they never did before ... These are the 45 days in the future when Israel will go out of Jerusalem to be in the desert of the nations of the world, just as Lot was displaced during the upheaval of Sedom, when he was not able to save even a small piece of bread, and he was rushed out into the desert. Actually, the troubles of Israel will be very similar. Bnei Yisrael will be dispersed throughout the desert, and all the troubles that Israel ever experienced will not be like these troubles ... There, Israel shall count 45 days .. and they will eat only salty roots that they will find in the desert, and then they will all repent there. Those who cannot stand it will go to the nations of the world, and be destroyed with them. The rest will have their share of suffering, each according to the measure of his sin. The tzaddikim will be grateful for the salty roots in their stomachs, as if it were 'manna', and they will become stronger in their belief and trust in Hashem; the mediocre ones will do teshuva; the evil ones will turn away, or will repent and be remorseful. (Rav Avraham Azulai, Chessed l'Avraham, Maayan 5, Nahar 35)
Just as in the first redemption, Israel left Egypt and went to the desert, similarly in the future redemption, when many of Israel will go out into the desert, Hashem will sustain and guide them, just as He did to Israel in the desert.... (Rabbeinu Bachya's commentary on BaMidbar 23:22)
Additional Readings: The War of Gog and Magog Part 1, A Message from Heaven
