The Mystery of the Shemitah (16 page)

We now take the mystery to another level. The mystery of the Shemitah is not only a phenomenon operating behind the world’s economic and financial realms—it is also a phenomenon linked to judgment. Is it possible that the dynamics of the Shemitah are moving increasingly toward judgment? The answer will lie with the transpiring of a calamitous event and the days in which the mystery of Shemitah coalesces with the mystery of the harbingers.

Chapter 13
The 9/11 SHEMITAH

The Days of Harbingers

T
HE MYSTERY THAT
begins in the wilderness of Sinai has a larger context—judgment. The Shemitah can bring blessing or judgment. To a nation that has turned against the God of its foundation and driven Him out of its life, the Shemitah comes as a sign of judgment that specifically strikes that nation’s source of blessings and sustenance, its financial and economic realms.

Is it possible that if such a national apostasy grows more marked and severe, that the signs of the Shemitah will likewise grow more marked and severe accordingly? And is it possible that we are already witnessing this phenomenon?

We now move to another stage in which the mystery of the Shemitah will combine with the mystery of the harbingers. It will do so in the form of a calamity of national and global proportions.

The Shemitah Begins

It is the year 2000. The American economy has been undergoing an extended period of economic expansion, the longest on record. At the same time America’s departure from God has been continuous and progressive. A Shemitah is coming. In the spring preceding the Shemitah, the stock market begins to decline. Its fall will continue into 2002.

The Shemitah begins September 2000. Though the stock market is descending, the economic realm is not yet in recession. Several factors are taken into account in declaring the start of a recession. One of these is employment, another is sales, and another is production.

In March 2001 employment reaches a peak and begins to decline. This, combined with other economic signs of decline, will constitute the beginning of a recession. So in the spring of 2001, the center of the Shemitah, both the stock market and the economy, the nation’s financial and economic realms, are collapsing together.

And yet, one of the key factors of a recession is industrial production. Several months before the recession was declared, America’s industrial production began to decline. Within a year the decline reached 6 percent, surpassing the production declines of past recessions.

When did the downturn begin? America’s industrial production peaked in September of 2000 and then began to decline. The Shemitah, by definition, causes production to decline. When did the Shemitah begin? The Shemitah’s exact beginning was September 30, 2000. When did the decline in production begin? At September’s end. The Shemitah of 2001 and the downturn of the nation’s industrial production began simultaneously.

The Shemitah’s Climax: September 2001

The Shemitah, as we have seen, begins almost unnoticeably, as to outward appearance, but then builds in intensity as it heads towards its dramatic and climactic conclusion on Elul 29, the Day of Remission.

The Shemitah began in the autumn of 2000. The first signs of economic downturn followed. By the spring the economy had descended into recession. But it was as the Shemitah headed to the autumn of 2001 that its dramatic climax took place.

First Warning

What are the signs of a nation in danger of judgment? One of the classic biblical signs of national judgment is this: Years before the destruction falls, a warning is given. The nation’s hedge of protection is removed. Its borders and national security are breached. An enemy is allowed to make a strike into the land. The strike is contained, limited in time and scope. It is a shaking, a wake-up call, an alarm—the first massive warning of judgment. The nation is then given a grace period to either turn back to God or to continue on its course and head to destruction—the first harbinger.

The first harbinger was manifested on American soil on September 11, 2001, as America’s hedge of protection was lifted. An enemy was allowed to make an incursion, a strike on the land. America’s national security was breached. The strike was contained, limited in time and scope. It was a shaking, a wake-up call, an alarm. But in the wake of 9/11 America did exactly as ancient Israel did in the wake of the ancient attack. America refused to turn back and, in fact, became even more defiant in its apostasy. And the ancient harbingers of judgment then began to manifest.

But 9/11 didn’t take place in just any year;
9/11 took place in the Year of the Shemitah.

The Shemitah of 9/11

As the Shemitah especially impacts the nation’s financial and economic realms, so too did 9/11. The calamity struck lower Manhattan, also known as the “financial district.” The twin towers stood as symbols of America’s economic and financial preeminence. The calamity struck the heart of America’s financial sector as it created a shock wave that opened a crack in one of Wall Street’s most famous buildings.

But 9/11 struck Wall Street in a more direct way—it paralyzed it. It forced the New York Stock Exchange to close down. The calamity took place on Tuesday. Its impact forced Wall Street to shut down for almost a week. The following Monday was set for the reopening of the stock market. It was September 17, 2001. Wall Street collapsed. The market plunged 684 points in one session. It was the greatest stock market point crash in American history up to that day.

So here we have yet another one of the great stock market crashes in world history. And here, again, the ancient mystery of the Shemitah manifests:

•
  The crash of 2001 is linked to the Year of the Shemitah.

•
  It takes place in September 2001, the time of the Shemitah’s climactic end.

•
  It is joined to the biblical month of Tishri, the time of financial repercussions. On the very night of the crash Tishri will begin.

•
  It constitutes a mass nullification of the financial realm “at the end of the seventh year,” the time ordained in the Bible for mass nullification of the financial realm.

Elul 29, 2001

But there’s more. The mystery of the Shemitah centers on one day above every other—the Day of Nullification, the very last and climactic day, Elul 29, the day when financial accounts are wiped away. When did the greatest financial crash in American history up to that day take place?

The greatest financial crash in American history up to that day took place on Elul 29, the biblical Day of the Shemitah.

The greatest financial collapse in American history up to that day took place on the very day given in the Bible to wipe away the financial accounts of a nation. It not only fell on Elul 29, but it also fell on the one Elul 29 that comes around only once in seven years and is appointed to cause mass nullification in a nation’s financial realm.

2001: Elul 29—Biblical Day of Financial Collapse

The Elul 29 Sunset

It happened on the exact day, down to the exact hours. The ancient command ordains that financial accounts be wiped clean “at the end of the seventh year.” The end of the seventh year, as we have seen, was taken to mean the last day of the seventh year, Elul 29, and, more specifically, the end of that day, sunset. Thus all accounts of debt and credit had to be wiped clean and nullified by the time the sun went down on Elul 29. At the moment of sunset they were reckoned as nullified.

So Elul 29 was the day of canceling one’s debts, one’s credits, and nullifying financial accounts before sunset. But at the moment of sunset it was Tishri. Beyond that, it was a holy day when the trumpets are sounded. So in the hours leading to sunset, Jewish people would prepare for the high holy days. The remission of Elul 29 had to be completed by late afternoon.

The Day of Nullification

So on Elul 29, 2001, the Day of Nullification, came the greatest nullification, cancellation, and wiping away of financial accounts in the nation’s history up to that day—the most massive single-day transformation of America’s financial realm ever recorded. That day, around the world, observant Jews were symbolically nullifying their accounts while on Wall Street accounts were being nullified in reality. It was the Shemitah sweeping through the New York Stock Exchange. It was Wall Street’s most colossal nullification—and it was all taking place on the ancient Day of the Shemitah.

And then, just a few hours before sunset, in late afternoon, it was over. The Day of the Shemitah was finished, the Year of the Shemitah was complete, and the seven-year cycle had come to a close. The greatest financial collapse in Wall Street history was also finished, just in time for the sunset closing of the seventh year.

The final days of the Shemitah are its most intense and dramatic of days. So too the final days of the Shemitah 2001 were its most intense and dramatic of days. And 9/11 was part of it. It would mark the Shemitah’s final week and complete a cycle that had begun seven years earlier.

And there was another connection between 9/11 and the end of the seventh year. Since 9/11 had caused Wall Street to shut down for almost a week, it meant that the stock market had been, in effect, frozen in time as it approached its reopening on Elul 29. In other words, the Day of Remission opened up on the number appointed for 9/11. Or in other words, the number that appeared the morning of Elul 29 and from which the collapse of Wall Street began was the same number that appeared the morning of 9/11 when the calamity began. As far as the stock market was concerned, there was no space between the two days. September 11 and Elul 29 were joined together. The opening of the one became the opening of the other. The same number would again appear on Wall Street eight years later—
on the same day
—the anniversary of 9/11. Investors were reportedly “spooked” by the occurrence.