By Mark Ellis —
In the next few years, there will be more Jews living in Israel than in other parts of the world, a gigantic demographic shift with prophetic implications.
In 1947, roughly 630,000 Jews lived in the British Mandate, comprising less than 6 percent of the global Jewish population.
Since then, the Jewish population in Israel has increased more than tenfold. Israeli Jews now represent over 43 percent of the global Jewish population. Soon, the majority of Jews in the world will be found inside the borders of Israel, according to a report by Breaking Israel News (BIN).
“In July, the Sanhedrin ruled that the conditions exist to establish that Israel is now in the prophesied third inheritance of the land, the first being by Joshua, the second after the Babylonian exile,” Rabbi Hillel Weiss, a spokesman for the Sanhedrin, told BIN.
The re-established Sanhedrin includes 71 of the most prominent rabbis in Israel, but currently has no political or legal status.
“The third inheritance refers to the prophesied return of the Jews from the exile that followed the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 CE.,” according to BIN. “Jewish tradition holds that this return will usher in the building of the Third Temple, the return of the Davidic Dynasty, and the messianic era.”
Many have debated whether modern Israel represents the fulfillment of this prophecy. “The Sanhedrin’s previous ruling was that we are currently in that third return, but the majority of Jews are not yet in Israel. When that eventually happens, it will mean a major shift in the observance of Jewish law,” according to BIN.
“For this reason, the Sanhedrin initiated the Biblically mandated commandment of counting the Jubilee,” Rabbi Weiss told BIN. “But when the situation changes and most of the Jews are in Israel, as the statistics seem to indicate will happen shortly, many more aspects of Judaism will change.
“Possibly the biggest change will be the redistribution of land and the return of Jewish
tribal identity,” Rabbi Weiss explained to BIN. “When most of the Jews live in Israel we will be required to divide the land into tribal territories.”
He cited Ezekiel to demonstrate that this is a necessary part of the prophesied redemption.
However, one complication is that most Jews have ceased identifying with a specific tribe. Rabbi Weiss insists, however, this will not only be possible, but a legal requirement to assign tribal lands, as was done in the time of Joshua.
Perhaps genetic testing will assist the identification process, something unavailable when the modern State of Israel formed.
“We are required to have twelve tribes,” Rabbi Weiss told BIN. “The land will be divided according to the Biblical territories. Every Jew living in that territory will receive an inheritance and be considered as if he is from that tribe.”
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