The Harbinger, page 17
“The remission of credit and debt.”
“With the tightening of credit markets and the plunging of housing prices, increasing numbers of homeowners find themselves unable to make their mortgage payments. More and more begin defaulting on their mortgages, entering foreclosure.”
“The cancellation of loans, another wiping away of credit and debt.”
“And as they default, the firms standing behind those mortgages now find themselves absorbing greater and greater losses.”
“Every creditor must release his debt.”
“And so the economy continues to deteriorate as the absorbing of losses sets off still more crises. Shock waves reverberate throughout the financial world as some of the nation’s most powerful lending institutions begin to fail. Some are bailed out or bought out through government intervention; others go bankrupt. Each failure, each remission, each Shemitah triggers the next and the next as the global economy continues disintegrating. Then, in late August, early September, as the year of Shemitah enters its last and climactic phase, so too does the financial crisis.”
“With the collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.”
“Yes,” he said, “and then of Lehman Brothers, and then of the global economy—everything reaching the climax on September 29, 2008, the last and climactic day of the Shemitah.”
“Everything following the ancient pattern.”
“Speaking of the ancient pattern, Nouriel, read back to me what you took down.”
So I took out my notepad and began reading back the words of his dictation:
The effect and repercussions of the Shemitah extend into the financial realm, the economic realm, and the realms of labor, employment, production, consumption, and trade.
“Thus,” said the prophet, “the global crisis began in the financial realm but didn’t stop there. Before long virtually every economic indicator and every major sector of the economy was affected. The crisis quickly spread into the realms of labor, commerce, production, and consumption. Continue.”
Over the course of the seventh year, the nation’s production is severely decreased as its fields and vineyards lay fallow.
“So the crisis,” he said, “causes industrial production to decline and, in some cases, to cease altogether as demand dries up. Corporations downsize, factories cut back on output, businesses close their doors.”
The nation’s labor is greatly reduced or comes to a cessation.
“So the crisis batters the labor force, workers are laid off, unemployment skyrockets.”
Its fields become, in part, the possession of all.
“So private corporations are increasingly bought out, bailed out, and nationalized, or else become increasingly subject to the public realm.”
The buying and selling of the land’s produce are restricted.
“So commerce and consumption suffer a massive decline. Consumers cut back on spending and sellers grow more desperate to find ways of reviving their sales.”
The fruits of labor are abandoned.
“So merchandise sits untouched in stores and piles up in warehouses. The nations that rely most heavily on export trade now suffer extensive economic damage.”
Credit is canceled and debt is wiped away.
“And so,” he said, “the entire global collapse is a manifestation of the ancient mystery of the Shemitah.”
“I have a question.”
“Ask it.”
“The stock market crash happened on the twenty-ninth of Elul, the last day of the seventh year. So that day was the end of a cycle of seven Hebrew years.”
“Correct,” he said.
“So then there has to be another part to the mystery. That which takes place on the twenty-ninth of Elul would be the conclusion of something that began seven years earlier.”
“And . . . ?”
“And so there should be something that took place seven years before the crash, something connected to it . . . something that lead up to it . . . something that inaugurated the seven-year cycle.”
“So, Nouriel, how would you find out if such a thing exists?”
“You’d have to count back seven years from the crash.”
“Which would bring us to what?”
“The year 2001 . . . to September . . . of 2001 . . . the month of . . . ”
“The month of 9/11,” he said, finishing my thought.
“So then the seven-year cycle that reaches its conclusion in the global collapse would have had to have begun somewhere around the time of 9/11. It would go along with the Isaiah 9:10 Effect. It was 9/11 and the nation’s response to 9/11 that led to the economic collapse seven years later.”
“Good, Nouriel . . . but you were looking for an event of the Shemitah. It would have to be a major event transpiring in the economic realm.”
“And . . . was there such an event?” I asked.
“There was,” he replied.
“What was it?”
“It happened on Monday, September 17, 2001. It took place in the economic realm, and it would match . . . and would foreshadow what would happen seven years later.”
“And it was . . . ”
“It was the greatest stock market point crash in Wall Street history up to that day. The record would remain intact for seven years, seven years until the crash of 2008.8 Take note, Nouriel, of what we have.”
“What do we have?” I asked.
“A seven-year period that begins with a stock market crash and ends with a second stock market crash. We have a seven-year period framed by the two greatest stock market crashes in Wall Street history up to that time.”
“A seven-year cycle beginning and concluding with two massive remissions of credit and debt.”
“Which is what?”
“The Shemitah,” I answered.
“Correct.”
“It happens at the same time as the first and second shaking.”
“And the mystery goes deeper still,” he said. “What do you think it was, Nouriel, that caused the stock market crash of September 17, 2001?”
“What?” I asked.
“It was 9/11. It was 9/11 that caused the New York Stock Exchange to close down for six days and then, when it reopened the following Monday, to suffer the greatest loss in its history up to that day. The crash of September 17, 2001, was the aftershock of 9/11 . . . ”
“Just as the crash of 2008 was also the aftershock of 9/11 . . . the extended aftershock . . . the Isaiah 9:10 Effect. So each one was an aftershock of 9/11—two shakings—and ‘there comes a second.’”
“And the two events were inextricably bound together, seven years apart. This too goes deeper still. The biblical year isn’t based on the Western Gregorian calendar but on the Hebrew lunar calendar. So the seven-year cycle of the Shemitah has to be based not on the Western year, but on the biblical Hebrew year. So no matter what date it is on the Western calendar, the Shemitah will always end on the twenty-ninth day of Elul on the Hebrew calendar, which, in the year 2008 fell on September 29, the day of the crash. But in other years, the same day in the biblical calendar would fall on a different date in the Western calendar.”
“And . . . ?”
“So what happens if we go back seven years from the greatest stock market crash in history, back to the other greatest stock market crash in history, the crash of 2001, the one directly triggered by 9/11. On what day did it fall on the biblical Hebrew calendar?”
“Tell me . . . ”
“On the twenty-ninth day of Elul. It all happened on the twenty-ninth day of Elul . . . the exact same day . . . the one day of the biblical calendar ordained from ancient times to cause the wiping away of credit and debt.”
“My God,” I said, “both of them?”
“Both of them,” he answered.
• • •
Ana now appeared noticeably shaken, visibly pale. Nouriel paused from relaying the account to address her response. “What?” he asked.
“It’s astounding,” she replied. “The two greatest stock market crashes America had ever known, both taking place on the exact same biblical day, separated by the exact period of time ordained in the Bible, seven years to the day, both occurring on the one biblical day appointed for the wiping out of credit and debt. Absolutely stunning!” She paused to collect her thoughts.
“And nobody saw it?” she asked.
“Apparently not.”
“You were right, Nouriel.”
“What do you mean?”
“When you first came into my office and started telling me about this ancient mystery that was supposed to explain everything from 9/11 to Wall Street . . . to the global economy . . . to my bank account . . . I really thought you were crazy.”
“I know.”
“No, I mean actually crazy . . . clinically crazy.”
“How could you not?”
“It was just way too out there. You’d hear something like this in the movies . . . or in novels about the supernatural, but not in real life. But I never . . . I never could have imagined . . . this.”
“How could you have?”
“Accept my apology, Nouriel.”
“There’s no need. If I were in your place, I would have thought the same thing.”
“It’s just so mind-boggling.”
“I know.”
“September 17 . . . ”
“What about it?”
“It came up before,” she said, “didn’t it?”
“It did.”
“Why did it come up before?”
“The Isaiah 9:10 Effect.”
“That was it . . . the interest rates . . . September 17 was the day the Federal Reserve slashed the nation’s interest rates.”
“That’s correct. It was beginning of the extreme post-9/11 suppressing of interest rates . . . The first concrete act of defiance in the face of 9/11 . . . and that which would lead to the economic collapse seven years later.”
“So,” she said, “that would mean that the Isaiah 9:10 Effect began on the day of the Shemitah.”
“It would mean that,” he replied, “wouldn’t it?”
“And therefore,” she said, “it would mean that it was on the day of the first stock market crash in 2001 that the seeds were sown for the second.”
“And that would make sense,” he said.
“Why would it make sense?”
“Because one Shemitah leads up to the next, and the first calamity leads to the second.”
“Now I have a question for you, Nouriel.”
“Ask it.”
“The twenty-ninth of Elul comes around once every year. Correct?”
“Yes.”
“But there’s only one Elul 29 that can close the seven-year cycle. Only one could be the actual day of remission, the one that comes around only once every seven years. So on which Elul 29 did the stock market crash of 2008 take place?”
“I asked the prophet the same thing.”
“And what did he say?”
“Yes.”
“Yes?”
“It was the one. The crash of 2008 took place on that precise twenty-ninth of Elul that comes around once every seven years—on the one and only day that comes around once every seven years.”
“Incredible!”
“And do you realize what that means?”
“What?” she asked.
“It means that the other crash, the one that happened seven years earlier, the one set off by 9/11, the other greatest stock market crash in history also took place on that exact twenty-ninth of Elul . . . that comes around only once every seven years.”
“So then the two greatest Wall Street stock market crashes not only happened on the same day on the biblical calendar, and on the one day of the biblical year ordained to wipe away credit and debt, but each one fell seven years apart on the exact once-in-seven-years occurrence of that one Hebrew day. It’s beyond amazing . . . ”
“And yet real.”
“And what else did the prophet tell you?”
• • •
I asked him if the biblical Shemitah was still observed.
“Yes,” he said, “in the form of ritual.”
“Then was the ritual of the Shemitah taking place on the day of the crash?” I asked.
“It was,” he answered. “As religious Jews were observing the conclusion of the Shemitah, closing the seventh year in ritual acts, symbolically wiping away their credits and debts, on the same day the force of a more mysterious Shemitah was operating, causing Wall Street to collapse and astronomical sums of credit and debt to be wiped away . . . not in symbol . . . but in reality.”
“But the mystery of the Shemitah could not have been manifested if 9/11 had never happened . . . and just when it did . . . at that exact time. Without 9/11, the stock market would never have crashed on the twenty-ninth of Elul. So 9/11 had to be woven into the mystery of the Shemitah.”
“It had to be,” he answered, “and it was.”
“And for the crash of 2008 to have happened seven years later, exactly seven biblical years later . . . to the day, all the key events from the fall of Lehman Brothers to the vote on Capitol Hill, to the actions of the Federal Reserve, to the entire global crisis—to every other event that affected the economic realm from politics to war to culture—every event had to also be a part of the same ancient mystery.”
“They had to be part,” he replied, “as they were.”
“It’s . . . ” I couldn’t finish the thought. I couldn’t think of any word to describe what it was. Just at that point, the wind again picked up in intensity, sweeping rapidly over the fields and extending the pause in our conversation.
“And one more thing . . . one more thing to note,” he said, turning to look directly into my eyes. “The Hebrew word Shemitah has one other meaning.”
“Which is . . . ”
“The fall or the letting fall.”
“As in a collapse?”
“As in a collapse. So you could translate Shemitah as The Year of the Fall or The Year of Letting Fall.”
“And that’s the mystery of what happened, isn’t it?”
“Yes . . . behind everything . . . the fall of the stock market . . . the fall of the housing market and credit market . . . the fall of commerce and business and trade—everything fell. Every bankruptcy, every foreclosure, every financial failure, every plunge of every major economic indicator, the global collapse itself—everything was a fall. And the entire global collapse began with the fall of Lehman Brothers.”
“Which was not only a fall,” I said, “it was a letting fall. The Federal Reserve decided to let it fall.”
“Yes.”
“So the entire global collapse began with the American government performing an act of Shemitah.”
“And it goes deeper still.”
“How?”
“No human hands could have orchestrated the countless actions, reactions, and transactions required to cause Wall Street and the global economy to collapse and for everything to happen just as it did, at the exact times ordained in the ancient mystery.”
“Then by the hand of . . . ”
“ . . . God,” said the prophet. “It was His Shemitah. It was His letting fall.”
“His letting fall of . . . ”
“The American economic world order. With the collapse of the global economy, new challenges to American power and leadership would be unleashed—a foreshadowing of the ultimate end of the American-led global order.”
“And all triggered by 9/11,” I said.
“And all a prophetic message,” he replied, “just as it was in the days of the prophet Jeremiah as he gazed out at a land devastated, devoid of its fruits and harvests, as he fathomed the sign of the Shemitah, the sign given to the nation that has forgotten its foundations, placed its trust in its powers and prosperity, and ruled God out of its life.”
“And now it appears again.”
“As a sign to another nation that has likewise ruled God out of its life, a sign to give warning to that nation that apart from His presence, its blessings must turn into curses and its prosperity must become its judgment.”
• • •
We stopped speaking and just stood there . . . watching the wind sweep over the fields. It had to have been a good two minutes before the silence was broken . . . by the prophet . . . with a question. “Are you ready, Nouriel?”
“Ready?”
“For the next mystery?”
“I don’t know. I’m still trying to absorb this one. It’s a lot to take in.”
“You have the seal?”
“Yes.” So I returned it to him, and he, in turn, then handed me another.
“Are you sure you meant to give me this one?” I asked.
“Why?”
“It’s the scroll.”
“It is.”
“You’ve already given it to me . . . two times before.”
“And now a third.”
“It’s the Prophecy . . . Isaiah 9:10,” I said. “So what am I supposed to see in it that I haven’t already seen before?”
“Nothing,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s not in the seal; it’s in the giving.”
“I don’t understand.”
“How many times have I given it to you now?”
“Three times.”
“So there comes a third.”
“A third what?”
“A third witness.”
Chapter 18 The Third Witness
The third witness . . . that’s all he told me.”
“So there was no other clue?” she asked.
“No.”
“And that was the end of the encounter?”
“Yes. I headed back through the stalks of wheat to my car. The prophet remained . . . in the midst of the fields. Halfway there I turned back. He was still standing there in the distance . . . as when I first saw him.
