UFO ROUNDUP
Volume 7, Number 28
July 9, 2002
Editor: Joseph Trainor
STRANGE PHENOMENON APPEARS IN JERUSALEM
Two Hasidic Jews were arrested Tuesday (July 2, 2002) when they attempted to scale the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem's Old City in order to have a closer look at a strange phenomenon on the millenia-old structure.
"Jews are flocking to the Wailing Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem to view a phenomenon that is interpreted as a sign of the coming of the Messiah. A wet spot measuring 40 by 10 centimeters (15 by 4 inches) appeared on the face of the Wall. It has led religious Jews to proclaim that it is a portent of the Messiah's imminent arrival."
The phenomenon began on Saturday, June 29, 2002--the Sabbath--when, shortly after sunrise, Hasidic Jews praying at the Wall noticed water seeping from the smooth face of the stone 4 meters (13 feet) above the ground.
The seepage has continued without interruption ever since.
However, not everyone believes that the flow is "miraculous."
"An archaeologist of the Authority for Antiquities of Israel says there may be an ancient water pipe within the Temple Mount which has ruptured, and that this is the cause of the damp spot."
(Editor's Comment: If that were the case, the seepage would be at ground level, not several feet above ground where the man-made wall touches empty air.)
But Hasidic Jews who have witnessed the seepage claim "the Wall is weeping" and cite an ancient prophecy, which proclaims, "When you see water coming through the stone, know that such is a sign that the coming of the Messiah is nigh."
The phenomenon's appearance just days before Tisha B'Av (the Ninth of Av on the Hebrew calendar, corresponding to July 17--J.T.) is considered significant. This is because the Ninth of Av is the date of tumultuous events in Jewish history.
July 17 was the day Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, captured Jerusalem and destroyed the First Temple in the Seventh Century B.C.
July 17, 70 A.D. was the day the Roman general Titus and the Tenth Legion sacked and destroyed the Second Temple, of which the Wailing Wall is the only piece left standing.
July 17, 1941 is the day the Nazis began mass executions at Oswieicim, Poland in the concentration camp they called Auschwitz.
(See the Jerusalem Post for July 3, 2002 and July 5, 2002. Many thanks to Rick Wiles and Ayesha al-Khatabi for these news reports.)
(Editor's Note: This type of phenomenon is called a flow in Forteana. Sometimes they are associated with religious sites, such as the flow that appeared in the church at Ars in southern France, after St. Jean Vianney, the Cure d'Ars (Parish Priest of Ars--J.T.) was laid to rest. Another sprung from the ground in October 1921 at Cova da Iria, near Fatima, Portugal, four years after Lucia Abbobora dos Santos, Francisco Marto and Jacinta Marto last saw the Virgin Mary. Then there was the mysterious flow from an acacia tree in La Feria, 11 miles (18 kilometers) west of Harlingen, Texas in 1972, which has absolutely nothing to do with religion. The current phenomenon in Jerusalem marks the first time a Fortean flow has taken place at a long-established religious site.) |
