By: Bob Mitchell on January 8^th 2010  (For more on this article, click here.)

  According to Israel Today there is a Rabbinic prophesy that remains pretty much unknown. According to this article, Rabbi Judah Ben Samuel was a top Talmudic scholar in Germany. Just before he died in the year 1217 he prophesied that the Ottoman Turks would rule over the holy city of Jerusalem for eight jubilees.

That is 400 years (8 x 50). The Ottoman Turks did take control of Jerusalem 300 years after the Rabbi’s death in 1517 and as according to the prophecy, the Ottoman Turks then lost Jerusalem 400 years later in 1917. It was during WWI that British General Edmund Allenby walked into Jerusalem on Hanukkah without firing a shot in 1917. The timing of this with the holiday and the ease at which it occurred indeed make this moment of history extremely significant.

In the book, ‘Signs of the End,’ http://www.jesus2006.org/ the significance of this date and its events helped launch the book. This was without even knowing of the Rabbi’s prophecy. The key was Allenby’s entrance into Jerusalem during Hanukkah. With the first World War underway, with nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom, there was added importance. In 1917 all nations that were involved in the war had become involved. But the kick-off day for WWI was the 9th of Av 1914 when Russia and Germany entered the war establishing the plurality of nations involved in the war.

The Rabbi then went on to say that after the eight jubilees, the ninth jubilee would have Jerusalem being a no-man’s-land, which it was from 1917 to 1967 until the Six-Day-War.

The Rabbi’s prophecy then stated that in the tenth Jubilee that Jerusalem would be controlled by Israel and then the Messianic end times would begin. That would then bring the time to 2017.  

Rabbi Judah Ben Samuel’s Prophecy of 1217

Date	No of Jubilees in Prophecy	Event
1517 - 1917	1-8 ie 8 x 50 = 400 years	Ottoman Turks to rule over Jerusalem
1917 - 1967	9th ie 1 x 50 = 50 years	Jerusalem a, “No-man’s land”
1967 - 2017	10th ie 1 x 50 = 50 years	Jerusalem controlled by Israel
2017	n/a	Messianic End Times to start

Will the Third Temple be built this year?

According to a centuries-old rabbinical prophecy that appears to be coming true, on March 16, 2010, Israel will begin construction of the Third Temple in Jerusalem . During the 18th century, the Vilna Gaon, a respected rabbinical authority, prophesied that the Hurva Synagoge in Jerusalem , which was built during his day, would be destroyed and rebuilt twice, and that when the Hurva was completed for the third time, construction on the Third Temple would begin.

The Hurva Synagogue was first destroyed shortly after its initial construction when Muslims demanding the return of loans tore it down. The synagogue was rebuilt a hundred years later and became the most important Jewish house of worship in the Holy Land, only be blown to pieces by Jordanian troops during Israel's 1948 War of Independence.

In 2001, Israel finally decided to rebuild the landmark, which today stands in the centre of the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem 's Old City . The building is scheduled to be completed and the Hurva Synagogue dedicated for the third time on March 15 of 2010.

written by Bob Mitchell of Shofar Ministries