The 23rd of Elul and the Three Walls — signpost 5 | Rav Ziegler zatsal
Signpost 5 · Rav Haim Ziegler זצ״ל

The 23rd of Elul and the Three Walls

A date the Zohar had veiled
A teaching of Rav Haim Ziegler zatsal · Éditions Gueoula
Translated from the French original; the French version remains the reference text.
The 23rd of Elul and the Three Walls
A date the Zohar had veiled

The Zohar announces a day when kingship will return to Jerusalem: “a Friday, the twenty-fifth of the sixth month”.

But the 25th of Elul can never fall on a Friday: the date is veiled.

The Or HaHaim recalculates: it is not the twenty-fifth but the 23rd of Elul, seven days before Rosh Hashanah.

For that day it is written that three high walls will fall.

📖 Read the lesson
1 The veiled date
“There will be a day when the Creator decides to bring back His kingship over Jerusalem. It will be a Friday, the twenty-fifth of the sixth month.” — Zohar

The Rav pointed to the obstacle: in our calendar the 25th of Elul never falls on a Friday. The text has therefore hidden the date.

2 The recalculation

The Or HaHaim takes up the count and concludes: it is the 23rd of Elul, seven days before Rosh Hashanah.

What the Zohar veils, a later master unfolds. That is how tradition works: the text keeps, the commentary opens.
3 The three walls, and what the Rav saw
“On that day three high walls of that city will fall.”

The Rav told how, on that very day, he was giving a lecture on the end of days and had announced a coming shock. Someone took the microphone to report what had just happened.

The Rav reported what he lived through. Setting an ancient text beside an event of the day remains a reading — it illuminates, it does not prove.

Did you follow the lesson?

Four questions on the fifth signpost.

1
What date does the Zohar announce?
A date that immediately raises a problem.
2
What is that problem?
The date is therefore veiled.
3
Who takes up the count, and what does he conclude?
The text keeps, the commentary opens.
4
What does the Zohar announce for that day?
The Rav reported what he lived through that day.

Result