Page 278 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

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CHAPTER 20 COINCIDENCES IN JEWISH HISTORY AND BEYOND
CHAPTER 20 COINCIDENCES IN JEWISH HISTORY AND BEYOND 257

• Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. This invasion triggered the Gulf War.

Date: August 1, 1990 (in fact, on the night between the first and the
second of August).
• A cease-fire was declared in the Gulf (end of hostilities in Iraq), and the

end of the emergency state in Israel was declared. Date: February 28,
1991.

• Restarting the war in Iraq by American bombings over Baghdad. Date:
March 19, 2003 (in fact, on the night between March 19 and March
20).

Let us recheck the dates.
In 1990, Tishah B’Av was on July 31. On the night between August 1 and 2, Iraq
invaded Kuwait. This was the beginning of a chain of events, during which missiles

were launched against the Jewish state. Anxiety about the possibility of chemical
war-heads falling on Israeli population triggered distribution of gas masks.
3
Purim in the Hebrew calendar is always on the fourteenth of the Hebrew
7

month of Adar, and Shoshan Purim (second day of Purim) is on the fi fteenth of

Adar. On February 28, 1991, the United States declared a cease-fire in the Gulf.

This was on the fourteenth of Adar, the first of the two days of the festivity of
1
Purim, the Jewish festivity celebrating the Jews’ rescue from disaster.
The following is an imaginary dialogue:
“What about the third event, the beginning of the bombings in Iraq in
2003?”
“Well, this happened the next day.”
“What do you mean by the next day? Twelve years have elapsed since!”
“I mean ‘next day’ according to the calendar.”
“Still, this needs explanation. The cease-fire in the Gulf was declared on

February 28; bombings in Iraq started on the night between the nineteenth and
the twentieth of March, twelve years later. So even according to the calendar,
this is more than two weeks later (ignoring the year), rather than the next day.”
“Well, not according to the Hebrew calendar. The war in Iraq 2003 started
on the fifteenth of Adar—March 19, 2003. According to the Hebrew cal-

endar, that’s ‘a day’ after cease-fire was declared there, on the fourteenth of
Adar, twelve years earlier …”

A summary of these dates, in both calendars, is given in Table 20.1.