Earthquakes in the Land of Israel

Parshas Bechukosai (5778)

I don’t know if you heard about – or felt – it, but last Tuesday there was an earthquake in the Land of Israel.

That’s right! On May 15, as social media was weighing in on the first round of Eurovision finals and readying for the second round, a series of posts started to appear around 8:00pm Israel Time. “Did anyone feel an earthquake?”; “Earthquake in Israel – who felt it?”; “Earthquake?”; “That jiggle was an earthquake”; and so on. Measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale, the tremor’s epicenter was about 200 kilometers (125 miles) off the coast between Haifa and Hadera. No injuries or damage were reported, and all was forgotten by the following night.

The truth is that this is nothing new for Israel. This region has consistently experienced large-scale earthquakes every 80-100 years for centuries. Israel sits along the Syrian-African fault line, which runs along the border with Jordan, part of the Great Rift Valley that extends from northern Syria to Mozambique.

Exactly 92 years ago on July 11,1927, the last major earthquake struck the Holy Land. Known as the 1927 Jericho Earthquake, the 6.25 magnitude quake lasted approximately five seconds and rippled from its epicenter in the northern Dead Sea region to Jerusalem, Jericho and Nablus, reaching Ramle, Lod and Tiberias. The earthquake claimed 500 lives and injured an additional 700 people. It also caused massive structural damage throughout the region.

A century before that, the Safed or Galilee earthquake of 1837 was estimated at a magnitude of 6.25–6.5 and destroyed the town of Safed (Tzfat), with over 5,000 killed.

And there have been many more devastating earthquakes in Israel dating back over the centuries and millennia.

The Chid”a, in his work Roshei Avos on Ethics of the Fathers (5:5), quotes Avos D’Rabbi Nosson (35:1) which makes the following amazing statement/prediction: “Never will a Jew perish in a building that collapses in an earthquake in Jerusalem”. The Chid”a continues to relate that in the year 1759 there were major earthquakes in both Tzfat and Jerusalem. Yet while 165 Jews perished in Tzfat, none died in Jerusalem!

[Ed. Note: The same holds true for the 1927 Jericho Earthquake. While many buildings in Jerusalem collapsed, no casualties were reported among the Jewish population.]

You may not know this, but our Sages instituted special Birchos HaShevach (“Blessings of Praise”) to be recited when experiencing all kinds of special phenomena, such as lightning, earthquakes, hurricanes, rainbows, etc. [There are even special blessings to be recited upon seeing kings, queens, and heads of state – or upon seeing exceptionally strange-looking people or animals!]]

Upon experiencing an earthquake and feeling the ground shake, the Halachah (Jewish law) is that one should recite either one of the following two blessings (within 2-3 seconds from when the quake ends): Blessed are You, L-ord, our G-d, King of the universe, Who makes the work of Creation. …or… Blessed are You, L-ord, our G-d, King of the universe, for His strength and His power fill the universe.

In this week’s Torah portion, Parshas Bechukosai, G-d promises the Jewish people that if they study the Torah and observe its many mitzvos, then things will be good for them. Among other things, the Torah tells us that there will be peace in the land, and “you will lie down without trembling” (see Leviticus 26:6).

Rabbi Refael Meyuchos, in his work Pri Ha’adamah, quotes the Yalkut Shimoni on Shmuel II #158 which teaches that one of the “spiritual causes” of earthquakes is machlokes (strife and disharmony) among Jews. He then goes on to explain homiletically the verse in Leviticus quoted above to mean that if there will be peace and harmony in the land, then you will be able to lie down without fear of the trembling of earthquakes.

[See Talmud Bavli Berachos 59a and Talmud Yerushalmi Berachos 9:2 where additional reasons are given for why earthquakes occur. Leaving aside the seismological causes, our Sages point to several factors on account of which G-d will cause the earth to shake.]

Rabbi Yisrael of Shklov, a leading disciple of the Vilna Gaon and leader of the Jewish community in Tzfat, offered an explanation as to why Tzfat was so badly hit by the 1837 earthquake. [The rabbi happened to be in Jerusalem at the time when the earthquake hit so he survived.] He wrote in a letter to Rabbi Moshe Sofer, the great Hungarian Torah scholar and leader of world Jewry (also known by his main work Chasam Sofer) that he regarded the earthquake in the Galilee as a sign of the approaching Redemption, and he explained as follows:

The Talmud in Sotah 49b lists fifteen signs of what the world will be like immediately prior to the coming of the Messiah. This pre-Messianic period is known as the Ikvesa D'Meshicha - the "footsteps of the Messiah" - the time when we believe the Messiah is just around the corner and his footsteps can be heard.

One of the fifteen signs mentioned on the list is that “the Galilee will be destroyed” – and the devastating earthquake in Tzfat and the Galilee was very likely a fulfillment of that prediction and a sign that the Messiah is on his way!

The Chasam Sofer added that now we can understand the cryptic sign mentioned on the list just before this one - “the meeting place (of Torah scholars) will be used for prostitution”. Tzfat in the 1830’s was a “meeting place of Torah scholars” from three different Torah communities: the Chassidic community, founded by the disciples of the Baal Shem Tov; the Perushim community, founded by the disciples of the Gaon of Vilna; and the Sephardic community which had been there for centuries.

Yet these three communities didn’t get along with each other at all. There was constant infighting, jealousy, and lashon hara and slander going around. And it was creating a massive Chillul Hashem, desecration of G-d’s Name.

And when Torah scholars, who are supposed to be marbim shalom ba’olam, living in harmony and peace with one another, instead act like prostitutes who are in constant competition and fighting with each other, then as a punishment, the Galilee will be destroyed!

The Chasam Sofer had his own view as to why Tzfat was so badly hit in the 1837 earthquake. In a eulogy for those who perished in the earthquake, Chasam Sofer offered the following spiritual explanation for the great calamity that befell the Jewish community of Tzfat:

“Our G-d is righteous. The earthquake was a consequence of the jealousy of Jerusalem. There is the gate to Heaven, the city that was joined together. There is Har HaMoriah, the site of the binding of Isaac. There Jacob slept and had his dream of the ladder; there was the Temple Mount; there is the hill that all mouths turn to [in prayer]. The Shechinah [Divine Presence] never departed from the Western Wall. For close to a hundred years, people have entirely turned to Tzfat. The grave of the man of G-d the Rashbi is there in Meron; the Ari in Tzfat. Those who make aliyah to Israel look only to Tzfat and Tiveriah, and Jerusalem is completely forgotten… [so Jerusalem avenged its honor, so to speak]”

[If you would like to see a full treatment of all fifteen signs of Ikvesa D’Meshicha and what they might mean for the times in which we're living, I highly recommend a book written by Rabbi Ezriel Tauber ZT”L called Days Are Coming, and especially Chapter 3 pages 142-176, in which he elaborates on each of the 15 signs in great detail.]

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