The Harbinger (24 page)

“Then each stalk represents a year,” I said. “Each stalk represents a harvest.”

“Correct. And the missing stalk?”

“The missing stalk would stand for the seventh year. It’s not there because the seventh year is the Sabbath Year. So there’s no harvest.”

“Well done,” he said. “The seventh year was given a name. It was called the
Shemitah
. The word
Shemitah
means,
the release, the remission, the letting rest
. In the year of the Shemitah, all laboring over the land was to come to a rest. There was to be no plowing, no sowing, no pruning, no reaping, no harvesting. The fruits of the harvest would be abandoned…let go:

“Look over there, Nouriel. What do you see?”

“A field with no harvest,” I answered.

“Only the remains of a past harvest. It’s fallow ground. The land is resting. In the year of the Shemitah, all the fields of Israel became like that, fallow and resting.”

“But how did they live without a harvest?”

“They would eat whatever grew of itself:

“In the seventh year, each landowner was required to open up his land to those in need. The poor would share equally in the fruit of the rich. The land’s produce would become, in a very real sense, the possession of all.”

The wind was now beginning to pick up in speed and strength, its gusts beating down all the more intensely on the stalks of wheat. The resulting waves were now more rapid and dramatic than before. The prophet paused for a few moments as I took it all in…then continued.

“But the Shemitah,” he said, “touched not only the fields but also the people. The last remission took place in an entirely other realm:

“Thus, the last
letting go
of the Shemitah would touch the economic realm and transform it. So in the seventh year, all debts were canceled. Everyone who had made a loan had to annul it. Those in debt were released. Anything still owed was forgiven. All credit was nullified, all debt was wiped away.”

“And all this took place at the
end
of the seventh year?” I asked.

“Yes, at the very end on one specific day—the twenty-ninth day of the Hebrew month of Elul, the last day of the civil year, the very end of the seventh year. So the twenty-ninth of Elul was the climax, the focal point, and the finale of the Shemitah—the day when the nation’s financial accounts were nullified.”

“But wouldn’t the canceling of all debt and the nullifying of all credit cause economic chaos?”

“It could,” he said. “Most economies are dependent on some sort of system of credit and loans. So the economic repercussions of such a sweeping change would be immense, so immense that, over the centuries, the rabbis would seek ways to get around these requirements in the fear that keeping them would cause economic disaster.”

“But it was supposed to be a blessing,” I replied, “a sabbath.”

“Yes, a year of release and freedom, a year of rest from one’s labors and of drawing near to God. And yet still, in outward form, it could resemble an economic collapse.”

“But if the Shemitah Year was meant to be a blessing, what does it have to do with judgment—or Isaiah 9:10 or America?”

“The Shemitah
would
have been a blessing had Israel observed it and not rebelled against God. But Israel did rebel and didn’t keep the Sabbath Year. And the breaking of the Sabbath Year became the sign of a nation that had ruled God out of its life. The nation had no more time for Him. The people were now serving idols. Their Sabbath Years would be filled, not with peace, but with the restless pursuit of increase and gain. The breaking of the Shemitah was the sign that the nation had driven God out of its fields, out of its labors, its government, its culture, its homes, its life. The Shemitah
was
meant to be a blessing, but in its breaking, its blessing turns into a curse.”

“And what does that mean?” I asked.

“The Shemitah would still come,” said the prophet, “but not by choice—but by judgment. Foreign armies would overrun the land, destroy the cities, ravage the fields, and take the people captive into exile. And the land would rest. The fields would become fallow. The buying and selling of its produce and the flow of commerce would come to a standstill. Private ownership would become virtually meaningless. And every debt, credit, and loan would, in an instant, be wiped away. One way or another, the Shemitah would come.”

“Does the Bible connect the Shemitah to judgment…explicitly?”

“Yes,” he answered. “The connection was foretold from the beginning, from Mt. Sinai:

“And it would all be fulfilled centuries later when the armies of Babylon invaded and ravaged the land and took multitudes into captivity. The people would remain in exile for seventy years. Why seventy? The answer was hidden in the mystery of the Shemitah.”

“Seventy was the number of Sabbath Years not kept?”

“Correct.”

“But now, with the land lying still for seventy years, the law of the Shemitah would be fulfilled, even if not by choice.”

“Correct again.”

“It’s ironic. In the pursuit of prosperity the people drove God and the Shemitah out of the land. But now it was the Shemitah that drove the people out of the land…and their prosperity…nullifying all their gains and increase.”

“And it was the Shemitah,” he said, “in which was hidden the mystery of the timing.”

“The timing?”

“The timing of their judgment—seventy years for seventy Shemitahs.”

“So the Shemitah is meant to be a blessing, but for the nation that once knew God but has driven Him from its life, the Shemitah becomes a sign of judgment.”

“Correct,” he said. “So now let’s piece the mystery together. In order to do that, we must first identify the pieces. Record this.”

“I’ve recorded everything,” I replied. “The machine’s on.”

“I don’t mean that. You have your notepad?”

“Yes.”

“And a pen?”

“Yes.”

“You’re a writer, Nouriel…write.”

So I jotted down the next part in shorthand as he dictated:

“Did you get all that?” he asked.

“Yes. But what does it have to do with America? America has never had a Sabbath Year.”

“That’s correct. It was only commanded for one nation. But the issue here isn’t the literal observance of the Shemitah or any requirement to keep it.”

“Then what
is
the issue here?” I asked.

“The issue here,” he replied, “is its dynamic, its effect, and its consequence.”

“And what does that mean?”

“The issue is the Shemitah
as a sign
.”

“The Shemitah as a
sign
…?”

“The sign of the Shemitah, given to a nation that has driven God out of its life and replaced Him with idols and the pursuit of gain. The issue is the Shemitah as a sign of judgment, the sign that specifically touches a nation’s financial and economic realms.”

“I still don’t see how it connects with America.”

“Behind the collapse of Wall Street and the implosion of the American and world economy, behind all of it lies the mystery of the Shemitah.”

“Tell me.”

“The economic collapse of 2008 was set off by a series of trigger events in early September. At that time, about half of the American mortgage market was owned or backed up by two corporations: the Federal National Mortgage Association and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation.”

“Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.”

“That’s right,” he said, “and by early September, both of them, along with the mortgage and housing markets, were teetering on the edge of collapse. On September 7, in one of the most dramatic economic interventions since the Great Depression, the federal government seized control of both corporations, placing them under government conservatorship.”

“In effect, nationalizing them.”

“Their seizure caused global alarm. And then, just as the mortgage market was reeling from their collapse, an even more economically cataclysmic collapse was about to take place.”

“The fall of Lehman Brothers.”

“At the start of the twenty-first century, Lehman Brothers stood at the pinnacle of the world’s leading financial firms. But when the subprime mortgage market began to disintegrate, Lehman’s standing and assets began to collapse. When the news spread that a deal to rescue the ailing firm had fallen through, its shares plunged along with the stock market. The following day Lehman Brothers announced a loss of nearly four billion dollars. The day after that, the firm’s stock plunged another 40 percent, and news spread that it was seeking a corporate buyer. In the following days, a flurry of emergency meetings took place between the Federal Reserve and the leaders of Wall Street in a frantic effort to prevent Lehman’s end. But the effort failed, and on Monday morning, September 15, 2008, one week after the first collapse, came the second, and this time with no safety net to break the fall. Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy—the largest bankruptcy in American history up to that date. It would be called the collapse
heard around the world
. The fall of Lehman Brothers would, in turn, trigger the collapse of Wall Street and the global financial implosion.”

“The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression,” I said. “But what does it have to do with the mystery of the Shemitah?”

“In the days of the prophet Jeremiah, with Jerusalem lying in ruins and the people taken away in captivity, the key that held the timing of the nation’s judgment was hidden in the mystery of the Shemitah.”

“So there’s something in the timing of the economic collapse that’s significant?”

“The collapse of Lehman Brothers and the American economy took place over the course of one week. It was the anniversary week of another American calamity…”

“9/11.”

“Yes, 9/11,” he said. “The collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac happened on September 7. The collapse of Lehman Brothers began two days later on September 9 when it lost 45 percent of its value. It was on September 10 that it announced its loss of almost four billion dollars. The following day its stock took a second precipitous plunge.”

“September 11.”

“It was that second collapse on September 11 that Lehman’s death knell sounded throughout Wall Street and Washington DC. It was then that the Federal Reserve set in motion a series of actions and emergency meetings that would end in the fall of Lehman Brothers, triggering the implosion of the American and global economy. It was also on that September 11 that a second fall reached its critical mass and a second alarm was sounded as the chief executive of AIG alerted the Federal Reserve of New York that his firm was, likewise, in critical danger of collapsing. Two alarms of the coming collapse, both sounding on September 11. So as the nation was commemorating the calamity of 9/11, a second calamity, one that would ravage the economic realm, was just beginning.”

“And the time separating the two events…”

“Seven years,” said the prophet. “There were seven years between the two.”

“Seven years—the biblical period of time that concerns a nation’s
financial
and
economic
realms.”

“Yes,” he replied, “and that concerns the judgment of those two realms. Seven years between the first and second shaking. And what happens, Nouriel, at the end of seven years?”

“At the end of the seven years comes the remission.”

“‘
At the end of every seven years, you will have a release, a remission, a canceling of debts
.’ So it was a remission of what exactly?” he asked.

“Of credit and debt,” I answered.

“And what did all these collapses have to do with?”

“Credit and debt,” I replied.

“So not only did the collapse of 2008 take place at the seven-year mark from 9/11, but it specifically concerned the principle of the Shemitah. The collapse of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Lehman Brothers all concerned the issue of credit and debt. In the case of the first two, the government intervened. It was a bailout. The two corporations were relieved of their debts of over five trillion dollars.”

“A remission of debt.”