The year will go out with a bang as the sun over Israel hides its face for a few minutes on December 25th. Though

In the wee hours of the morning on December 26th in Israel, the central path of the last solar eclipse of 2019 will pass through the Saudi Arabian Peninsula, southern India, Sumatra, Borneo, Philippines, and Guam. While the sun is struggling to be seen in the Middle East morning, Americans will be tucked in bed in the middle of the night.

Rabbi Mordechai Genut, author of Davar B’ito, a guide to the calendar based on esoteric Jewish sources, noted that the eclipse will appear after the Christian holiday of Christmas.

“It will, however, still be Hanukkah,” Rabbi Genut told Breaking Israel News. The rabbi noted that in its discussion of eclipses, the Talmud (Sukkot 29a) specifically described solar eclipses as being a bad omen for the nations who base their calendars on the solar cycle. 

Indeed, the complete solar eclipse that transversed the continental United States last summer ushered in the most devastating hurricane season in US history.

“Hanukkah is entirely about the power of the Torah to bring light into the darkness,” the Rabbi said. “Hanukkah culminates in the Sanhedrin declaring the new month by activating the series of bonfires that announce the new moon, establishing the calendar for the entire world.”

The eclipse will only be partially visible from Israel. Since the new moon is slightly further away than usual from the earth, it will appear smaller in the sky so will only block 97% of the center of the Sun’s disk. Referred to as an annular solar eclipse, it will appear as a ring around the Sun, what astronomers poetically describe as a “ring of fire”, lasting for a maximum of 3 minutes and 40 seconds.

Pastor Paul Begley made a video in which he pointed out that this is the third year in a row that a solar eclipse appears during Hannukah.

“The eclipse will begin in Mecca,” Pastor Begley noted. “The entire Islamic world will see this solar eclipse during the Hanukkah season.”

“This is a prophetic sign for the time we are in when we are discussing Trump’s Deal of the Century and the potential for the covenant of many to be signed which could lead possibly to the building of the Third Temple.”

Pastor Begley noted that another solar eclipse will appear in South America during Hanukkah next year on December 14, 2020. And yet again the year after on Dec 4, 2021 a solar eclipse will appear in Hanukkah that will be visible in Antarctica.