Jerusalem, Israel - May 14, 2024 - An attendant at the Kotel tunnels approached me when I last visited there and gifted me a book that he authored. “My name is Yisrael Rosenberg”, he introduced himself. “After working for many years in high-tech in the US, I made Aliyah, and today at my age I am proud to be an attendant at the Kotel".
The book is titled “Only Good Tidings — Consoling Prophecies from the Bible.” This special Jew went through the entire Tanach and combined all the optimistic passages into a single inspiring volume.
I started reading. There are passages that describe our return to the land of Israel: “The Lord your God will bring you back and be merciful toward you; and He will return and gather you from all the peoples where the Lord, your God, scattered you.”
There are glorious descriptions such as this of rebuilding, planting, and settling the land: “I will restore My people Israel. They shall rebuild ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine; they shall till gardens and eat their fruits.”
And, of course, verses like this that speak of universal peace and how we will be the spiritual center of the world: “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war any more", "Torah will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”
Even when our hearts are broken over the hostages, the Nova victims and fallen soldiers and the evacuees, we must always remember that the story of the nation of Israel is greater than every crisis, challenge, and political upheaval.
When we finish reading the words of the prophets in the Haftarah on Shabbat, our blessing includes the following assurance: “And not one of Your words is ever retracted unfulfilled.” Every positive prediction will come true, every word and every promise. Our forebears in Yemen and in Poland believed this a thousand years ago in a dark and bitter exile, while we have been privileged to enjoy days of rebuilding and rejoicing in our land.
If a rabbi had put together a book like this, it would have been uplifting. But when a nice Jew from the United States makes Aliyah and collects all these promising Bible passages while attending to the ancient wall of the Holy Temple, it is a sign that these prophecies are coming true before our very eyes and may soon be entirely fulfilled in our own days.