The Jazan region of southwest Saudi Arabia was drenched with more than ten hours of non-stop torrential rainfall on Saturday causing significant damage throughout the region. Vehicles were swept away by flash floods, roads collapsed, and at least one fatality was reported. One road bridge collapsed as a result of the flooding.
Jazan is home to Saudi Aramco’s $21 billion refinery that just began operations.
In addition, rainfall has reduced visibility in many parts of Saudi Arabia, especially in the city of Al Baha and its suburbs, affecting various other governorates and regions, including Baljurashi, Bani Hassan, Al Qura, Al Makhwah, Qalwa, Al Hajra, and Ghamad Al Zanad.
The scenario is strongly reminiscent of the verse in Isaiah describing the end of days:
I am about to do something new; Even now it shall come to pass, Suddenly you shall perceive it: I will make a road through the wilderness And rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:19
Indeed, intense precipitation is appearing around the globe. Deadly mudslides hit China’s Sichuan Province last week.
Hazardous rainfall and flooding hit the west coast of Florida and the Southeast U.S., killing at least six as Tropical Depression Four passed through.
Rabbi Aryeh Weingarten, who has been working his entire life to help others through his charitable organization, noted that despite God’s promise in the generation of Noah not to destroy the world by flood, the Messiah would be preceded by a period of global floods.
“Israel and the world are undergoing an unprecedented upheaval as never before seen developments take place,” Rabbi Weingarten began. “This started with the Coronavirus pandemic which led to even greater changes.”
The rabbi compared it to similar events in the Bible, most notably the flood in the generation of Noah. Rabbi Weingarten cited a verse from Genesis.
This is the line of Noach.—Noach was a righteous man; he was blameless in his age; Noach walked with Hashem. Genesis 6:9
Rabbi Weingarten referred to the explanation of this verse by Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, a 16th-century Torah scholar known as the Maharal of Prague.
“The Maharal explained this verse as meaning that Noah and his sons, who represented all of mankind, ‘walked with Hashem’, meaning that they went in God’s ways, which were the laws of nature. All of mankind was instructed to obey God via the laws of nature.”
Rabbi Weingarten explained that the laws of nature are represented by the number seven, which is why the world was created in seven days.
“The six represents all directions, and then the seventh, which is the Shabbat, which brings the neshama, the soul, into the center of reality.”
“The sons of Noah and all of mankind, all of the 70 nations that came from them, were commanded to serve God through nature, through the seven Noahide laws,” he explained. “But Israel is commanded to transcend nature,” “This began with Abraham circumcising himself and his sons on the eighth day, one day more than the creation of the world. All the nations come to Jerusalem for the seven days of Sukkot, but Israel completes the feast with Shemini Atzeret, the eighth day only for Israel.”
“The nations serve God through nature, as does Israel, but we complete them by transcending nature in the service of Hashem. We do this to be the intermediary and one step closer to God, who is beyond nature.”
“That is why the Exodus began with wonders of nature in Egypt, the natural put phenomenal plagues. But for us to become Israel in the service of God, the redemption from Egypt transcended nature, first at the splitting of the sea, and then at Mount Sinai.”
“The Exodus was the template for the final redemption. First, the Messiah from the House of Joseph will prepare the land of Israel. This is a natural process. But this is just the preparation for the Messiah from the House of David, which will complete the Third Temple and establish the Davidic Dynasty. This will be an explicitly miraculous process that transcends nature.”
“When the Jews were in Israel, if a Jew were sick, he would pray. If there were an epidemic, we would bring a sacrifice. If we served Hashem properly, the rain would fall. Israel was able to access the transcendent aspect of serving Hashem until the Temple was destroyed and we were taken out of the land of Israel. We then were among the nations; like them, our service of God was restricted to the seven planes of nature.”
Close to the end
“We are now close to the arrival of the Messiah. We are in the process of redemption, just like the Jews just before they left Egypt. We have seen wonders of nature. There were massive floods in Europe and China, earthquakes, and all kinds of natural phenomena. These are signs that nature is changing. With the coronavirus, we saw one virus shut down the entire world. This is astounding in an age when medicine performs so many wonders.”
“This is moving us towards the stage of redemption when Israel connects to God by transcending nature, by going up to the level of eight. When Israel does this, when the Third Temple is present to allow us to access this conduit for serving Hashem, Israel can serve as it should, as a nation of priests to connect the world to Hashem.”
Information about Rabbi Weingarten’s organization, “Karmey Chesed” can be seen on their website.
