In a lecture last month, a young rabbi revealed a section of the Zohar which predicts that in the later stages of the final days, the world will be hit with a pandemic. As horrifying as that sounds, the Zohar goes on to predict that the initial disease will be followed by another, similar to the first but far more lethal.

Rav Yaakov Yagen gave a lecture last month concerning the synagogue and public prayer. He referred to classical Jewish sources stating that public prayer is one of the things that protects the public from plagues and disease. 

“The sages of Israel said about public prayer, honoring the synagogue, and other things like that are important and protect us from epidemic. So the more we are strengthening in these so we don’t have to panic, we can remain calm that God,will be with us.”

The lecture was given at a time that the coronavirus was considered threatening but the measures taken to prevent the spread were relatively mild when compared to the total lockdown many governments are enforcing.

“I’m not downplaying this virus,” Rabbi Yagen said. “This could be a very dangerous thing and if, God forbid, this should spread, this could be the end. But God watches over us. We have to do our effort by respecting the synagogue more, and the rest is up to God to protect us.

The rabbi then referenced the Zohar (page 172:b), the seminal work of Jewish mysticism, paraphrasing the text.

“At the end of days, when it is time for the Messiah, there is first going to be one virus that the people are going to have some sort of control over it when it spreads around the countries of the world. And after that, it doesn’t say how much later, there is going to be another virus that is going to be similar but worse than the first virus.”

“And that is going to be God’s way of purifying the world so Messiah can come.”

“So according to the Zohar, we are at the end of the days. Not the days leading up to but we are at the end of the end of the days leading up to Messiah. So, God willing, this Passover, we won’t have to book hotels and we will all be in Jerusalem and the Temple where we will all merit bringing the Passover offering.”