Days Of Old Are Days Of Now!

Blessed are You, King of the Universe Who has kept me in life and has sustained me and has enabled me to hear the leader of the free world utter the momentous words “I just want to thank …in particular G-D [and] to say ‘we love You G-D’  …G-D bless Israel!”  _________________

Together with the tens of thousands of Jews committed to the Daf Yomi (page-a-day-of-Talmud) cycle, I have just commenced study of the tractate Avoda Zara.  Its opening folios capture some of the most trenchantly eye-opening agadic lore in the entire Babylonian Talmud. It projects an extended dialogue in the future existence between G-D and the nations of the world,, each of which attempts futilely to defend its moral and ethical record in particular vis-à-vis its treatment of the nation of Israel

Two world powers only are singled out by name: the Roman and  Persian empires.  Asks the Gemara (A.Z. 2b): “what is unique about these two empires?” And it answers: “these two powers [alone] will endure until the coming of the Messiah!”

The rabbis of the Talmud were not prophets. The age of prophecy came to an end in the 4^th century BCE. However a lesser level of ruakh ha-kodesh (Divine inspiration and insight) continued to manifest and exists even today! Parents, say our rabbis,  are invested with ruakh ha-kodesh  when they name their children. (A personal anecdote: just last week, I was asked by the father of a new baby daughter to suggest names I particularly liked with “good gematrias”. I declined, saying that parents have Divine insight and the most I would do is listen to his ideas for names and comment only if absolutely necessary. I didn’t hear back from him. Last Shabbat, he named the baby. I asked him what name he had chosen. I was amazed to learn that it was the same unusual name with the same unusual spelling that we had given to our daughter over three decades ago!  He had not had an inkling of our daughter’s name. Pockets of ruakh ha-kodesh continue to operate in strange and wonderful ways!)

Our leading Mishnaic and Talmudic rabbis combined a towering degree of spiritual and metaphysical insight with immense wisdom and sagacity,. The Talmud (Baba Batra 12b) goes so far as to say: chacham adif mi-navi, a great sage is [in certain ways] superior to a prophet!  I can think of no better illustration of this than the above remarkable Gemara observation.

In the famous seventh chapter of Sefer Daniel, the seer envisions four kingdoms represented by beasts emerging from the sea symbolising mighty empires that would rise and fall. The kingdoms are identified as Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome.

Yet the Talmud only singles out Rome and Persia as empires that would endure (albeit in weakened states) until Mashiakh comes!

The Babylon of old has disappeared. Modern Iraqis inhabiting the territory of ancient Babylon do not speak the ancient Babylonian-Akkadian tongues.  These are dead languages.  Nor do they speak Aramaic. This language in its various dialects survives, of course, in our literature and liturgy and is spoken by pockets of  Syriac and Lebanese Christians. But the official spoken language of modern Iraq is Arabic.  And culturally most Iraqis are Arabs.

As for ancient Greece, its culture, religion, language, political structure and society totally differs from modern Greece. There is no direct, unbroken line of descent. Modern Greek is markedly different in vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and syntax from ancient Greek. The legacy of the Greece of old has all but gone.

But when we come to the relationship of modern Iran with ancient Persia, the picture is significantly different.  Modern Persian – also known as Farsi – is the official language of Iran and a direct spawn of the Persian spoken at the time of King Cyrus. The core grammar and structure of ancient and modern Persian are the same. While the vast majority of Iranians practise an extreme form of (Shi’ite) Islam, this is only since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Iranians aren’t Arabs. Iran is still essentially Persia with a different name since 1935. In 1959, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi announced that it was still appropriate to use either “Persia” or “Iran” in formal correspondence.   Persia continues to endure, as the Gemara asserts.

As for “the holy Roman empire”, its heirs are the Christian Church and the Western world. Many Western countries still retain significant aspects of Roman law. Its legacy is woven into the legal and governmental fabric of the West, both directly and indirectly. While Christianity is on the wane, it still boasts 2.4 billion adherents, at least on paper.    Roman influence continues to permeate linguistically (French, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Italian and Romanian are all wholly founded on Latin, with English partially based) as well as culturally in literature, art and social customs. The Gregorian calendar, based upon the Julian calendar, is a Roman invention.  Roman architectural and building techniques continue to be studied and utilised., not to mention roads and infrastructure.  Rome too continues to endure, in accordance with the Talmud’s assertion. And its most powerful scion is of course the USA of today.

With the watershed US attack on Iran on behalf of that other enduring empire – the one which our Scriptures promise will exist until the end of time, namely Am Yisrael – we indeed feel ourselves to be in Messianic times!

The legacy of  Rome and Persia, the Gemara declares, will endure until the coming of Mashiach – but not beyond!

Perhaps we are truly approaching the era passionately foretold by the prophet Zecharia (8:23) when ten individuals from all the different cultures of the world will grasp the garment of a Jew saying: “We’re going with you – because we’ve heard that G-D is with you!”