Page 282 - 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 261
of the earth; and He has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem , which
in Judah” (Ezra 1:2). This time, many Jews immigrated to the Holy Land, with

the specific permission of the ruler of that region. No wars had to be waged, so
the only signature of sovereignty for the Jews was the start of the building of the
second temple .
When did the construction of the second temple begin ? The book of Ezra

specifies it:
“Now in the second year of their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem , in
the second month, began Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son
of Jozadak, and the remnant of their brethren the priests and the Levites, and
all they that were come out of the captivity unto Jerusalem; and appointed
the Levites, from twenty years old and upwards, to superintend the work of
the house of the Lord” (Ezra 3:8).

In other words, on the month of Iyar , the construction of the second temple

had started (just as with the first temple), this time as a sign of sovereignty for the
Israelites returning back from exile to the Promised Land, under the auspices of
the ruler of the country (Cyrus, king of Persia) .

20.3.5 Declaration of Independence

The fifth defining moment in Jewish history as the Jews proclaimed sovereignty
over the land of Israel was with the Declaration of Independence on the fifteenth

of May, 1948. The Hebrew date was the fifth of Iyar . This date was not pre-

planned by the Israelis; it was determined elsewhere, by the British, who had
ended their mandate over Palestine the following day (see below, in a list of major

historical events that took place in the month of Iyar, which were significant for
Jewish history and nationhood).
Thus, the fifth cycle, when Jews proclaimed their right for sovereignty in Eretz

Israel , started once again in Iyar , and then was followed by a bloody war with Arab
armies invading the country. This war left 6,373 Israelis dead—about 1% of the
Jewish population at the time (about 600,000 people).

20.3.6 The Six-Day War

The sixth cycle in bringing parts of the land of Israel under Jewish control,
including the old city of Jerusalem (where the Wailing Wall, a remnant of the sec-

ond Jewish temple , has withstood the ravages of nearly two thousand years since
the temple destruction at 70 CE) took place with the outbreak of the Six-Day