The Harbinger II Page 4

  “You were looking at an image of what?”

  “A battle scene. The Assyrian army was laying siege to a walled city. As I watched, the images came alive.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “They began to move, and accompanying the movement were sounds of war. The Assyrian soldiers began shooting arrows and slinging stones over the city walls. The city’s defenders, those who stood on the ramparts and in the towers by the gates, were hurling stones and torches down on the invaders. Then the Assyrians began setting ramps against the walls and rolling siege engines up the ramps. As the battle raged on, I noticed more and more battering rams lined up against the city walls, on the ground and on the ramps. They pounded the stone wall over and over again. It seemed, at first, as if the battering was having no effect. Then, suddenly, one of the battering rams opened up a breach. With that, the focus of the attack and the battering shifted to that one breach. And then it all gave way. The wall collapsed. The resulting opening was so great that the entire army was able to flood through. It was then that I knew the city would be destroyed. And then the movement stopped, and everything was again still, frozen in place.”

  “The siege of the enemy . . . the beginning of the end.”

  It was the prophet, standing beside me.

  “What were you looking at, Nouriel?”

  “Another siege of an ancient city.”

  “A city of ancient Israel,” he said. “You were watching that of which the nation had been warned. ‘They shall besiege you . . . ’1 It was the fulfillment of prophecy. And what did you see, specifically?”

  “The shooting of arrows, the battering of siege works.”

  “And where did you see them attack?”

  “At the gate . . . at the towers by the gate . . . ”

  “And?”

  “The wall. They were attacking all along the wall.”

  “So we have these three,” said the prophet, “the gate, the towers, and now the wall . . . the three focal points of siege—and the first three signs concerning the beginning of judgment. We have opened up the mystery of the gate, and then of the towers. Now we must open up that of the wall. So tell me, Nouriel, what is a wall?”

  “A barrier,” I replied.

  “And to an ancient city, what was the wall?”

  “Its defense. Its protection. The walls would protect the city against the attack of its enemies.”

  “The wall was less vulnerable than the gate, but on the other hand, there was much more of the wall than there was of anything else. So the wall gave the enemy the opportunity to attack from virtually any direction and position. And like the gate, once the wall was breached, it would only be a matter of time before the city’s destruction. In fact, the Jewish people have observed days of fasting and mourning to specifically commemorate the dates that Jerusalem’s defensive walls were breached. The breaching of the walls was the beginning of the end.”

  “And what does this have to do with . . . ?”

  “It is another sign of a judgment. On the day that begins a city’s judgment,” said the prophet, “its wall of protection is broken . . . and not only a city but a nation, a kingdom, a civilization. The day that begins a nation’s judgment sees the breaching of its wall of protection . . . the wall of a civilization is broken.”

  “I see America’s gate. And towers are obvious. But a wall around the nation? It doesn’t exist. And without a wall there can’t be a breach.”

  “But there is a wall,” he said. “You don’t see it because it’s not of stone. A wall of stone is of little use in modern warfare. But the need for protection is just as critical now as it was in ancient times. And America does indeed have a wall. What was the purpose of the ancient wall? To protect the city or kingdom against danger, the attack of its enemies. So tell me, what would be the walls of a modern nation?”

  “Its defense,” I said, “its protection against attack and danger.”

  “The wall of America is its defense, its structures and systems of defense, its military, its weaponry, its intelligence systems, its operatives around the world. The ancient walls of defense have been replaced by modern departments of defense.”

  “The Defense Department,” I said. “That’s the wall of America.”

  “Yes, and where is it headquartered? What is the central structure of that wall?”

  “The Pentagon!” I replied.

  “And what happened on 9/11?”

  “The enemy attacked the Pentagon.”

  “Because it was the wall,” said the prophet. “The Pentagon is America’s wall of defense. And so the attack was the third sign of biblical judgment. On the day of a nation’s judgment, its barrier of defense, its wall of protection, is broken. On the day of Israel’s judgment, its enemies come to its walls. And on 9/11, America’s enemies appeared at its wall.”

  At that, there came a rumbling from the ancient stone reliefs. Cracks began forming in the image. And then pieces of stone began falling off until a large opening was left in the engraving. The opening was of the same size and shape and in the same place as the wall’s breach in the engraving. Daylight began pouring in from the other side.

  “Come,” said the prophet as he led me through the opening.

  When I came out on the other side, I found myself standing in the midst of smoldering ruins, except nothing was moving; everything was frozen in time.

  “What am I seeing?” I asked.

  “9/11,” he replied.

  “And is this the Pentagon?”

  “Yes. Do you know that the Pentagon was built in the shape of a fortress? It bears the form of a fortress of many walls. Look at what the terrorists did, Nouriel. What does it look like?”

  I looked up at the destruction the terrorists had inflicted.

  “It looks like a gigantic breach in a colossal wall.”

  “Yes, the symbol of a nation’s protection . . . lying in smoldering ruins.” He gave me time to take it all in.

  “Up to this time,” I said, “when you spoke of what happened on 9/11, you focused on New York City. This is the first time you’ve touched on the other side . . . what happened here in Washington.”

  “It’s all connected,” he replied. “Do you remember, Nouriel, the warning Moses gave Israel concerning what would happen in the days of judgment, the enemy who would come to the gate?”

  “I do.”

  “I didn’t tell you the rest of it. It says this:

  They shall besiege you at all your gates. . . ”2

  “The attack at the nation’s gate,” I said. “New York City.”

  “Yes, but then it continues:

  . . . until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down . . . ”3

  “The attack at the nation’s wall,” I replied. “Washington, DC, the Pentagon.”

  “Notice,” he said, “the two signs of judgment are joined together. And in America, the two signs of judgment were manifested on the same day. The scripture speaks first of the attack at the gate and then of the breaking down of the wall. And so on 9/11, the attack came first, at the nation’s gate, in New York City, and then came the breaking down of the wall in Washington, DC. And do you remember Isaiah’s prophecy about the day of judgment when every high and lofty thing is cast down?”

  “Yes.”

  “Yes. It says that the judgment will fall . . .

  Upon every high tower, and upon every fortified wall.4

  “So the terrorists came first to the nation’s high towers, the World Trade Center . . . and then to the nation’s wall, the Pentagon.”

  “All three signs of judgment: the gate, the towers, and the wall.”

  “Yes. The enemy appeared at the gate, the towers, and the wall. He struck all three. The gate was broken into, the towers fell, and the wall was breached. The three signs that signal the beginning of a nation’s judgment—and all in one day—September 11, 2001.”

  “And what does it mean?”

  “The breaking down
of the wall is that which begins judgment and opens the door for destruction. It was the beginning, the beginning sign, the warning. On 9/11 the wall of American civilization was breached.

  The Pentagon embodied the wall that protected the nation, that kept it safe from danger. The breaching of the wall is a warning . . . a warning that the nation is not safe. It’s unprotected and lies in danger. A nation that departs from God will, in the end, find no safety in its walls, in the defenses on which it relies. And if it does not return, then it will find, on that day, that the walls in which it placed its trust will come crashing down.”

  “The next mystery would be different from the first three.”

  “How?”

  “It would involve a weeping prophet and an act that took place not before the entire world—but in secret.”

  Chapter 7

  The Selichote

  I WAS WALKING THROUGH a landscape of devastation. It was night, but under the light of the moon I could clearly discern my surroundings.”

  “Which were?”

  “Ruins . . . the ruins of fallen buildings, fallen walls, fallen towers, ruins of what appeared to have been an ancient city. I could see billows of smoke rising and fires in the distance. And every so often I could hear the crumbling of a half-destroyed building collapsing to the ground. I knew that whatever it was that had caused all this destruction had just happened.

  “As I continued walking, I heard the sound of a man’s voice speaking in a foreign language, which I took to be Middle Eastern and, most likely, Hebrew. The tone, volume, and manner in which he spoke were in continual fluctuation. At times it seemed as if he was weeping, and at other times pleading, at other times reciting, and at still other times worshipping. What was beyond natural was the fact that I heard his voice for some time with no sign of his presence. I finally saw him.

  “Sitting on top of the ruins was a bearded man clothed in a simple cloth garment that covered his entire body, including his head. His garment was, in turn, covered in ashes and illuminated by the light of the moon. With his arms outstretched, his palms turned upward, and his eyes sometimes closed and sometimes gazing upward into the night sky, he continued his speaking, his pleading, and his weeping as if totally oblivious to my presence.

  “I watched him for some time. Then I heard another voice. Standing behind me was the prophet.”

  “You don’t have to understand his words,” said the prophet, “to know what’s happening.”

  “He’s weeping,” I said, “because of the destruction of his city.”

  “That’s correct.”

  “Who is he?”

  “A prophet.”

  “Which one?”

  “One of several who mourned over Jerusalem’s destruction. But they didn’t only mourn; they came before God to confess the sins of their nation, to acknowledge the justice of the judgment, and to plead with Him for mercy and restoration.”

  It was when he finished speaking that the scene began to undergo a transformation. It was still night, and I was still surrounded by ruins, but the ruins had changed.

  “How so?” asked Ana.

  “They were now the ruins of Ground Zero, the massive heap of ruins where the towers had once stood, metal beams and frames jutting up from the heap as if sculptures of modern art, and all of it covered by the haze of white dust and ash. And there, sitting on top of the heap, was the man in sackcloth and ashes, still weeping, still praying, and still pleading with his outstretched hands.”

  “There is,” said the prophet, “a series of prayers recited by the Jewish people called the selichote. The prayers were committed to writing in ages past and contain scriptures from times still more ancient to be spoken at the appointed times.”

  “What does selichote mean?”

  “The word refers to forgiveness, the forgiveness of God. The selichote are pleas for God’s mercy in light of the nation’s sin, specifically a nation that had known the ways of God but departed from them. So they involve the confession of sin and its pleas for God’s mercy. They also involve judgment. Judgment is the context behind their cries for mercy and restoration . . . the day of national judgment.”

  “Judgment in the form of what?”

  “Calamity,” he replied, “national calamity and, most specifically, the attack and devastation inflicted by its enemies. So one might say that the selichote are prayers ordained for the days of national judgment.”

  “You said they were written down in past ages to be spoken at the appointed times. When are the appointed times?”

  “For most of the Jewish world, the appointed times fall in the last days of the Hebrew month of Elul, the days leading up to the Feast of Trumpets. It is then that the first prayers of selichote are spoken.”

  “How are they spoken?” I asked.

  “Certain parts of the prayers require the presence of ten men. But other parts may be spoken in smaller groups or alone. So the ancient words are recited in synagogues, in Jewish homes, and wherever else the Jewish people choose to recite them. It all begins in the days before the Feast of Trumpets, at midnight following the Sabbath, so from Saturday night until dawn or sunrise on Sunday morning comes the first selichote. Then from midnight on Sunday to dawn or sunrise on Monday morning comes the second selichote. The prayers may be recited anytime between midnight and dawn, though they are most often recited at the approach of dawn. The third selichote ends at the breaking of day on Tuesday morning.”

  At that, he paused.

  “Why are you stopping?” I asked.

  “The prayers appointed for the day of national judgment . . . were finished at dawn Tuesday morning . . . on that day.”

  “On what day?”

  “September 11, 2001. The events of 9/11 happened to fall during the days of the selichote, the days of the prayers appointed for a nation’s judgment.

  “And so as that day began, the prayers concerning national calamity were lifted up. And it was then that the calamity fell. On the morning of 9/11 they recited the ancient words that concern the striking of a nation by its enemies. And it was that day and that morning that America was struck by its enemies. The words they prayed on the morning of 9/11 concerned the shaking of a nation that had once known God but turned away. And it was that morning that the nation that had likewise turned away from God would be shaken.”

  “What’s that?” I asked. “I couldn’t make out what I was hearing or which direction it was coming from.”

  “Look, Nouriel,” he said, pointing to the cityscape that surrounded the ruins. I saw a man standing on top of a building, looking very much like the man I had seen in the ruins at the beginning of the dream, robed and hooded and with his arms lifted up as if in prayer. Then I saw another figure, similar to the first, standing on top of a more distant building, and then another and another, and then through the windows of lit-up apartments, the silhouettes of like figures, all of them as if in the midst of prayer.

  “What you’re hearing,” said the prophet, “are their voices, the voices of those speaking the selichote. New York City is home to more Jewish people than any other city in America. So what would that mean?”

  “It would mean that the selichote would be spoken all over the city and throughout the region.”

  “It means that as 9/11 began, the ancient words were being recited all over the city concerning national calamity, an enemy attack, and the devastation of a city—before it took place.”

  “What words specifically?” I asked.

  “For the Jewish people, it echoed back to the destruction of their city, Jerusalem. But it would now echo forward to speak of what was about to come. The words recited the morning of 9/11 spoke of enemies who would come to the land and seek to bring destruction to the nation’s buildings:

  They said: Raze it! Raze it down to its foundations!1

  “On 9/11, the high towers that embodied the glory of American civilization became a desolation. So the ancient words that were spoken on the morning of 9/11
said this:

  Our desires have been devastated and our glory has been demolished...our palace has become a desolation.2

  “And the end of that day, as America gazed at the desolation of its crowning city, many were led to invoke the words ‘God bless America.’ But before the calamity had even taken place, the plea for God’s mercy was already echoing through New York City:

  My God, incline Your ear and hear, open Your eyes and look upon our desolations and the desolations of the city. . . 3

  “By the night of 9/11, the entire nation and much of the world had seen or heard of the devastation. At midnight it was time for the next series of prayers appointed from ages past to be lifted up. They were the prayers of the fourth selichote. They would speak again of the nation’s devastation, of the desire of its enemies to raze its buildings to their foundations, and of the demolishing of the nation’s glory. But the greatest tragedy of 9/11 was not the loss of buildings, but lives. So the ancient words would now speak of the loss of life caused by the nation’s enemies:

  They cut off our life. . . . They spilled our blood in order to destroy us.

  . . . violent men drove them to destruction. . . 4

  “The calamity of that day began as the first plane crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Then, as the first calamity was not yet finished, the second suddenly followed as the second plane crashed into the South Tower. The ancient words of the fourth selichote said this:

  The first visitation of calamity was not yet finished when the second one suddenly followed it. . . 5

  “The most iconic image left in the wake of the calamity was that of the massive heap of ruins left in the place where the nation’s high towers had once stood. The selichote appointed for that night said this:

  My city is reduced to a lasting ruin heap and my high places are brought low.6

  “And as the nation gazed in shocked horror that night at the dust-covered desolation of Ground Zero, the words of the selichote appointed for that night were recited: