September 11, 2001 

10 Tishri, 5762
September 27, 2001

Rabbi Pinchas Winston
Perceptions - Parashas HaAzinu: Developing Our SIXTH Sense
Mon, 24 Sep 2001

As part of an effort to read Biblical and historical significance into the events of the last two weeks, some people turned to Nostradamus and came up with a prediction that was never written by him. Some people even felt poetic license to alter an already false quote to make it "fit" the events a little tighter.

What a waste of time. All they had to do was open a Tanach [Hebrew Bible/Old Testament] and read, among other prophets, Yeshayahu [Isaiah] and Daniel (Chapter 8). Yeshayahu wrote:

The prophecy that Yeshayahu son of Amotz saw, concerning Judah and Jerusalem: It will happen in the end of days . . . Its land became full of silver and gold with no end to its treasuries; its land became full of horses with no end to its chariots. Then its land became full of false gods; each one of them bows to his own handiwork, to what his fingers have made. Humankind will have bowed and man will have humbled himself; yet, You will not forgive them. Humankind's haughty eyes will be brought low and men's arrogance will be humbled; and G-d alone will be exalted on that day. For G-d, Master of Legions, has a day against every proud and arrogant person and against every exalted person -- and he will be brought low; and against all the lofty mountains, and against all the exalted hills; and against every TALL TOWER and against every FORTIFIED WALL . . . (Yeshayahu 2:1, 7-15)

[* Zohar (Heb. "splendor"), major work of Jewish mysticism, attributed to Simeon bar Yochai but written mostly in Spain in 13th c. by Moses de Leon although containing earlier material. Written in Aramaic in form of commentary on Pentateuch; vivid, imaginative symbolic description of inner life of God and His relationship to man. Became one of three "holy books" of Judaism after Bible and Talmud. Subject of many commentaries.--Encyclopedic Dictionary of Judaica

Pentateuch (Heb. Chumash), first division of Bible, divided into 5 books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy...--Encyclopedic Dictionary of Judaica]

I will show you, but not for now, for these things will only come to be at that time, some after time and some in the Days of King Moshiach. "A star has gone forth from Ya'akov [Jacob] ..." (Bamidbar [Numbers] 24:17). This teaches us that in the future, The Holy One, Blessed is He, will build Jerusalem and one star will spark within seventy pillars of fire and seventy sparks will receive light from it in the middle of the sky. The other seventy stars will be swallowed within it. It will give off light and blaze for seventy days. At the end of the sixth day [6,000 years] it will become visible at the beginning of the twenty-fifth day of the sixth month [25 Elul 5761, September13, 2001]. It will be gathered in at the end of seventy complete days [November 20, 2001] and be visible in the city of Rome, and on that day, three great walls will fall and great hail will fall [Leonid meteor shower? November 14-21, 2001], and the power of that city will die. Then this star will become visible in the world, and it will instigate a great war from all four sides ... When Moshiach becomes revealed the people of the world will be suffering trouble after trouble, and the enemies of the Jewish people will be prevailing. Then the spirit of Moshiach will be aroused and the evil Edom [Esau, Jacob's brother] will be destroyed and the Land of Seir [Esau's land] will be burned with fire ... (Zohar, Balak, 212b)

...it DID take place in the sixth month of the Jewish year (months are counted from Nissan and not Tishrei), in Elul, in the SIXTH millennium, Yosef HaTzaddik's millennium. According to the Talmud, one of Yosef's prime roles in Egypt was to collect all the money into one single location: Egypt (Pesachim 119a). And, interestingly enough, that money has relevance to the end of history as well:

Rami Chama son of Chanina said: Three treasures Yosef hid in Egypt. One was revealed to Korach, one was revealed to Antoninus son of Asviros, and one is hidden away for the righteous in the Time-to-Come. (Pesachim 119a)

Says the Talmud:

And it was evening and it was morning, the sixth day (ha-shishi). (Bereishis [Genesis] 1:31) - the letter "heh" (preceding the word "shishi") is extra . . . to say that (G-d) made a condition with them (all of creation): If the Jewish people accept the Five (represented by the letter "heh") Books of the Torah, then you can remain stable; if not, then you will resort back to 'null' and 'void'. (Shabbos 88a)

The earth was null (tohu) and void (vohu), and there was darkness upon the face of the deep, and the spirit of G-d hovered above the water. (Bereishis 1:2)

Far fetched as it may seem at first, what happened in New York and Washington was a function of the original null and void of primordial creation, in a major way. All chaos anywhere in creation is a function of the original "tohu" that the Five Books of Moshe are meant to vanquish. In light of this, can we call it purely coincidental and incidental that the Pentagon has five sides, or that the Twin Towers looked like two big Hebrew "vavs," the letter which represents the number SIX?

And by the way, the Vilna Gaon's* version of the Zohar says that the twenty-fifth day should read, "twenty-third day," which, this year was the Tuesday of infamy [Elul 23 5761, September 11, 2001].

[* Elijah Ben Solomon Zalman (the “Vilna Gaon” or “Elijah Gaon”; acronym Ha-GRA = Ha-Gaon Rabbi Eliyahu; 1720–1797), one of the greatest spiritual and intellectual leaders of Jewry in modern times.--Encyclopaedia Judaica]

The time for this revelation is not known, though, it is known that it cannot be in the fifth millennium . . . It can only be in the SIXTH millennium . . . What this means is that there is one year during which redemption can come, and that is the year after the Sh'mittah* year, for that is when the Chesed is revealed in the "mouth" of Yesod, and that is when Moshiach comes . . . (Safra d'Tzniusa, Chapter 1)

[*Sh'mittah year 5761 = October, 2000 through September 17, 2001. Year after the Sh'mittah year = 5762 (which started September 17, 2001), Jubilee year? Please see Jubilee for more info.]

For, you can change your clothes and even become more advanced. But G-d will always be G-d, man will always be man, and the purpose of creation will never change, ignore it as we might.

Rabbi Pinchas Winston
Perceptions - Parashas HaAzinu: Developing Our SIXTH Sense
Mon, 24 Sep 2001

[all info in brackets are my additions--Moza]

Please see The Number 666 

Leonid Meteor Shower: Wild Meteor Storm Predicted for November 2001

By Robert Roy Britt, Senior Science Writer
posted: 12:03 pm ET, 27 July 2001

Few cosmic events in modern history have equaled the 1966 Leonid meteor shower. Residents in the western United States saw a storm of shooting stars estimated to rain down at a rate of 100,000 per hour during a brief peak.

One eyewitness, who was 14 at the time, said he was frozen in place for 30 minutes, "watching an alien fireworks display."

This November, the wildly varying Leonids are expected to produce another storm. Though not likely to rival the 1966 spectacle, the 2001 version of the Leonids may offer a meteor storm unlike anything since, with up to 15,000 meteors per hour at the busiest stretch, likely to last just tens of minutes.

The Leonids run from Nov. 14-21 and will peak on the 18th.

Improving predictions

The activity of the annual Leonids was accurately predicted in 1999 and 2000, boosting confidence that a forecast for this year will be on target also. This year, hundreds or possibly thousands of shooting stars are expected to zoom through Earth's atmosphere each hour.

The most widely watched Leonid predictions are made by Rob McNaught of the Australian National University and David Asher of the Armagh Observatory. Even these two researchers, however, admit that prior to 1999, meteor forecast had a checkered past.

"But a new theory is able to explain the historical events and should thus be able to make sound predictions for the near future," McNaught says. "Prospects appear good for a moderate storm visible in dark skies from Australia and eastern Asia in 2001, and in moonlit skies over Europe, west Africa and North America in 2002."

America will not be left out this year, either.

"It seems certain that the America's and the Far East will be treated to a grand display without interfering moonlight in 2001," said Robert Lunsford of the American Meteor Society, shortly after reviewing last year's event and noting that predictions were on target.

How many?

The Leonid meter shower is caused by the comet Tempel-Tuttle, which swings around the Sun every 33.2 years and leaves behind a trail of dust and debris. When Earth passes through this stream of material, the small bits burn up in the atmosphere and create shooting stars.

Predicting the Leonids is a challenge because each year Earth passes through different portions of the debris stream, which itself moves through space, mingling and spreading the densest areas which are refreshed every 33.2 years.

McNaught and Asher study these dust trails to make their predictions. They expect a peak this year of up to 15,000 meteors per hour over Austraila and East Asia and as many as 2,500 per hour over North and Central America.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/leonids_2001.html

Satellites Face Worst Threat Since 1966 With November Meteors

By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 12:39 pm ET 24 September 2001

A severe meteor storm expected to peak in November will challenge the world's satellites with an unusually dense flurry of space dust, creating the greatest threat of a meteor impact since 1966, NASA scientists said Monday.

The Leonid meteor shower occurs annually but is forecast by some experts this year to be a storm unlike anything seen in recent decades. The last time the Leonids produced what astronomers call a storm, only a handful of satellites orbited Earth and confronted the threat.

Now, hundreds of satellites will be at risk, providing services ranging from pagers and television to weather forecasts and monitoring for potential nuclear blasts by rogue nations.

Forecasts for the number of meteors per hour during this year's peak on Nov. 18 range from 1,400 to 15,000, reflecting wide disagreement in methods used by various scientists to predict the potential of the November shower of "shooting stars."

Leonid meteors are bits of comet leftovers, most no larger than a grain of sand, that vaporize when they zoom through Earth's atmosphere at 260 times the speed of sound. If they hit a satellite, the small grains can destroy an imaging mirror, plow right through fragile parts or, worse, create electrical shorts that can disable the craft. Just the momentum imparted by an impact can throw a satellite off course.

Bill Cooke of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center told SPACE.com that the odds of a satellite being damaged during the peak hours of the Leonid meteor shower are between 1-in-10,000 and 1-in-1,000. Overall, at least one satellite could be significantly damaged during the entire storm which spans several days, Cooke said.

For satellite operators, there's not a whole lot that can be done.

Cooke said preparations will likely mirror recent efforts, in which many satellites are simply "put to sleep" during the storm and operators hope for the best. Craft also are rotated to turn their slimmest profiles into the oncoming stream of meteors.

Telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope are designed to be maneuvered frequently and easily. Some smaller satellites are not.

In 1999, the last year that a strong Leonids meteor shower was predicted, satellite operators effectively put many of their spacecraft into hibernation (turning off or minimizing data collecting and sending operations) while still maintaining critical services here on Earth.

That year, Cooke headed up a Leonids Environment Operations Center at Marshall, where 26 engineers gathered radar data from the Arctic to Israel to the middle Pacific and provided continuous alerts to satellite operators. This year, a scaled-back operation will involve just a few people who will provide updates once an hour based on two meteor-detecting radar devices running in the United States and Canada.

"We discovered in 1999 that people batten down the hatches and ride things out," Cooke said. "If you've done this, there ain't much more you can do."

Satellites emerged unscathed in 1999, but the risk is five to 10 times greater this year, Cooke said. For several hours around the peak, roughly ten meteors will fill every square kilometer (0.62 miles) of sky at any given moment.

The Leonids are caused by dust and debris left behind by the comet Tempel-Tuttle, which passes through the inner solar system every 33 years. The debris is burned off the comet's nucleus by a wind of charged particles that stream outward from the Sun.

Because Tempel-Tuttle orbits the Sun in the opposite direction compared to Earth -- a backward motion called retrograde -- its debris would hit a satellite with much greater velocity than other meteors created by the debris from other comets.

"It's like two cars hitting head-on," Cooke says, adding that the penetration power is 16 times that of a normal meteor.

The greatest danger, Cooke says, is the generation of a plasma cloud -- a byproduct of high-speed impacts that could cause an electrical short circuit.

When a meteor as fast as a Leonid strikes something, it vaporizes, creating a cloud of plasma, or electrically charged particles. An electrical current can then flow from one part of the craft, through the plasma cloud, and then destroy an instrument on another part of the craft.

Few such instances have been documented.

In 1993, during the August Perseid meteor shower, a meteor hit an Olympus communications satellite. The impact formed a plasma cloud, and the craft's attitude control system was zapped. By the time operators could stabilize it, they had depleted all of its attitude-control propellant and the satellite was lost.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/leonids_satthreat_010924.html

Asteroids to be Named for Terrorist Victims

By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 02:02 pm ET 21 September 2001

The international organization responsible for naming asteroids plans to name three space rocks in memory of the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the United Airlines flight 93 hijacking.

The plan, which has not been detailed publicly but was explained to SPACE.com, would involve names that officials hope will resonate with a world struck by the tragedy and grieving its victims.

"We're trying to be positive, use names that would be positive, in what is after all a terribly negative situation," said Brian Marsden, an asteroid researcher and secretary of the International Astronomical Union's Committee for Small Body Nomenclature.

He would not divulge the names.

The idea grew out of suggestions on an internet e-mail newsletter called the Minor Planet Mailing List in which professional and amateur astronomers had been discussing the idea of naming an asteroid for each of the victims, now thought to number some 6,000 or more.

There are currently 29,074 known "minor planets," mostly asteroids and a handful of comets and other objects. Of those, only 8,830 have been named, leaving 20,244 that are numbered but not yet named.

Asteroids, most of which orbit the Sun in a wide swath of space between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, have been named for rock stars, classical musicians, politicians and even cities and countries. There is a strict process involved, overseen by the Committee for Small Body Nomenclature.

An asteroid name must be 16 characters or less. In proposing a name, a submitter (typically the discoverer) must supply by a brief, four-line explanation for why the name deserves to be on the list. An international group of 13 volunteers reviews and judges each entry.

Given the process, only about 100 asteroids are named each month. Meanwhile, the pace of discovery is torrid: More than 1,000 newly found asteroids are catalogued and numbered each month, and the quantity grows as telescopes improve and more resources are devoted to the task.

Marsden said naming an asteroid for each victim would be highly impractical for several reasons. For one thing, it would put a tremendous burden on the 13 volunteers who make up the judging committee and would have to study each application.

Second, he said uncertainties on the list would make it very difficult to be sure each victim in fact was properly awarded an asteroid and that no asteroids were mistakenly named after terrorists or others who were possibly missing but not dead. Officials involved in counting victims have said the list is not entirely accurate, and it has changed frequently as more information is gathered.

The Committee for Small Body Nomenclature hopes to finalize the proposal soon and announce it Oct. 2.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/asteroid_names_010921.html

BPR Home | Miscellaneous Files | Jewish Calendar | Reference Guide | Online Books | Search | About Us

Please be advised that this domain (Philologos.org) does not endorse 100 per cent any link contained herein. This forum is for the dissemination of pertinent information on an end-times biblical theme which includes many disturbing, unethical, immoral, etc. topics and should be viewed with a mature, discerning eye.