A rash of inexplicable ground-shaking BOOM sounds being heard around the world in recent days has prompted some Israeli rabbis to suggest they are the anticipated signs of the imminent coming of the Jewish Messiah.
The mysterious sounds and their shocks that have rattled both nerves and the ground were first chronicled by WND Sunday and have since received global attention. They have been accompanied by dramatic sightings of fireballs that have NASA scientists scratching their heads.
While local news reports have recorded the BOOMS in Michigan, Florida, Idaho, California, Tennessee, Oregon, Minnesota, San Diego, Russia and Denmark, among other cities and countries, one heard and felt in Alabama last Tuesday has been investigated by the U.S. Geological Survey and other authorities and experts. It was heard and felt in 11 counties, but an earthquake has been ruled out.
A followup report in the London Daily Mail identified a total of 64 such incidents this year.
There are lots of theories – from sonic booms to military exercises – but no definitive explanations.
But one Israel rabbi thinks he may have the answer.
Loud and disturbing sounds are described in Jewish sources as being associated with the coming of Messiah ever since Rabbi Yisroel ben Eliezer, often called the Baal Shem Tov, was an 18th century Jewish mystical rabbi who founded the Hasidic sect. Stories of him describe an incident on Yom Kippur in which his spirit went up to heaven and saw the Messiah “surrounded by a loud noise,” according to a report in Israel Breaking News.
This was later explained, the report said, by his great-grandson, Rabbi Nachman, who wrote that the unprecedented noise accompanying the arrival of the Messiah served a practical purpose. Nachman noted that in the Talmud (oral law) it is stated that the Messiah will come by way of “distraction.”
“The arrival of the Messiah will be sudden and surprising, accompanied by a loud noise that will cause everyone to stop what they are doing … so they may run to greet Him,” the rabbi said.
Rabbi Yosef Berger, the rabbi of King David’s Tomb on Mount Zion, said the loud sounds and accompanying fireball events conform to the end-of-days prophecy in Zechariah.
“The Zohar (the basis of Jewish esoteric learning) describes warring stars as accompanying the Messiah,” he said. “A large pillar of flame will also appear, as was seen by the Children of Israel in the desert.”
He added that the prophet Joel (in Joel 3:3) prophesied astronomical phenomena as signaling the imminent arrival of the Messiah.
