When Israeli and American aircraft struck Iranian targets in what became known as Mivtza Sha’agat HaAri — Operation Roaring Lion — the strike came at a moment that stopped Torah scholars in their tracks. It was the 11th of Adar, the first date on the Jewish calendar when the Megilla can be read under certain circumstances. More striking still, synagogues across Israel were reading Parashat Zachor — the Torah portion commanding Israel to wipe out the memory of Amalek. And as the bombs fell, the very words of the reading hung in the air:
“תִּמְחֶה אֶת-זֵכֶר עֲמָלֵק, מִתַּחַת הַשָּׁמָיִם” — “Thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.” (Deuteronomy 25:19)
Blotting out the enemies of Israel. From aircraft. In the skies. The timing was not lost on anyone paying attention.
Torah blogger Yeranen Yaakov, who has tracked what he calls “Kreplach Wars” — Middle East conflicts that flare up around Jewish holidays — notes that Operation Roaring Lion began just days before Purim, the holiday commemorating Israel’s ancient deliverance from a genocidal Persian enemy. He also points to a striking numerical convergence: the gematria — numerical value — of Mivtza Sha’agat HaAri (מבצע שאגת הארי) equals 1122. The gematria of Purim Tav-Shin-Peh-Vav (פורים תשפ”ו) — Purim 5786 — also equals 1122.
The Pesikta and Yalkut Shimoni, classical rabbinic texts cited for centuries by the Sages. The passage, recorded in the name of Rabbi Yitzhak, reads as though it were written for a newspaper:
“The year that King Mashiah will be revealed, all the kings of the nations will provoke each other. The king of Paras [Persia/Iran] will provoke an Arab king [Saudi Arabia], and the Arab king will go to Edom [understood by the Sages as the dominant Western power, in our day the United States] to take advice from them. Then the King of Paras will go ahead and destroy the whole world. And all the nations of the world will tremble and be panicky and will fall on their faces. And pains like birth pangs will take hold of them. And Israel will tremble and be panicky and will say: ‘Where will we come and go?’ And He will say to them: ‘My children, do not be afraid! Whatever I made, I only made for your benefit. The days of your redemption have arrived!'”
These texts described the kings of the nations provoking each other which we see today: Ukraine-Russia, India-Pakistan, and the long list of conflicts President Trump claimed to have resolved. The king of Iran provoked the Arab king, who turned to America for guidance. Saudi Arabia reportedly pushed the Trump administration to strike Iran before the operation began, and asked Washington to keep hitting them even after it started. Check. Iran is trying to destroy the world — whether through direct attacks on multiple countries or through threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz and choke the global oil supply. Check. The nations trembling in panic — Europe, Canada, Russia, China, and American Democrats have all gone into a fury over the American and Israeli strikes. Check. And Israel itself is trembling — Israelis have been living under sirens every ninety minutes, unable to sleep, afraid to be caught far from a bomb shelter..
The one line that has not yet been fully realized is the last one: “The days of your redemption have arrived.”
Perhaps not yet, but, as Yeranen Yaakov writes, this is very close.
October 7th began the night after Hoshana Rabba. Operation Roaring Lion began on Parashat Zachor, days before Purim. The Sages spoke of a Persian king who would shake the world before the final redemption. Iran is the heir of Persia. The symmetry here is not manufactured — it is written in the texts, confirmed by the calendar, and playing out in real time on the world stage.
The ancient prophecy is checking its own boxes. Whether this is the final war or another step toward it, Jews across Israel and the world are watching the skies — and reading their texts — with new urgency.