Midras Yoel 3:4: Otzar Midrashim, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition) & Midrash Tanchuma Buber

And again I returned to pray before God with fasting and sackcloth and ashes until I saw, and behold, a hand touched me and set me on my feet and said to me, Ask a righteous man what you will ask, and I asked him and I told him in the last days of God how all Israel will be gathered from the four corners of the earth, and how their exodus will be under the hand of the kings, and if they go out for the portion they are going out, and how will they go and what will they be able to do? I would like you to tell me these things and the like until the end of the whole thing. And clouds appeared from the gates of heaven and he said to me: At the end of the reign of the sons of Ishmael, the Romans will go out against Jerusalem and make war with the sons of Ishmael and the land will be conquered before them, and they will come into it and kill many of the sons of Ishmael in it, and they will make many dead in it, and they will take captives from the daughters of Ishmael, a great captivity, and they will take the brains out of the babies and butcher every day a thousand babies. "And at that time He created a great deal for Israel, and at that time God will awaken the tribes of Israel and they will come to Jerusalem, the holy city, and they will find in the Torah it is written, "And God will go before them their day in a pillar of cloud" (Exodus 13:21). And another scripture says, "The Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will provide for you" (Isaiah 12:12), and they will walk in a cloud and a fog, and they will make war with the Edomites, and they will kill a great number of them, and their name will go out in the world where the tribes came. from being a Gentile until that time, and at that time all your people who are found written in the book will flee (Daniel 12:1), and the nations will stand against Israel and kill many of them and many criminals from the peoples of the land, and torture many of the followers in chains to leave the Torah of God, and more that they will be in this tribulation for days For a few, God will bring a great and strong wind and a great and thick black famine, the like of which has not been seen in the world, and from that wind, the Almighty will scatter the tribes in every city and city, and about them, it will be said, Who are these? Bread and the Holy One with his blessing will bring back to Israel the salt for the selet, and at that time it was said that there would be a piece of barley in the land at the top of the mountains (Psalms 15:16), (see Midrash Ecclesiastes 5 what happened). And Nehemiah son of Hoshiel stood up and made letters in the word of God, and a king stood up and disbelieved in the law, and showed himself as a servant of God, and his heart was not right with him. And there came a great thunder in the world, and the whole world was afraid of it, and Israel gathered to Nehemiah son of Hoshiel, and the king of Egypt would make peace with him and kill all the countries around Jerusalem, such as Tiberias, Damascus, and Ashkelon, and they would hear God, and terror and fear would fall upon them. And the sign that will be at that time is that the stars will appear as blood, and at that time it is said that the sun will turn into darkness and the moon into blood (Joel 3:4), and God will send ten plagues in the Holy of Holies as He sent in Egypt, to fulfill what was said, and it was on that day that Joseph will add again His hand is to buy the remnant of his people (Isaiah 11:11). It was said that there is a marble stone in Rome and it is a beautiful girl figure from the six days of Genesis, and from The sons of Belial (The wickedness) are from the nations of the world and you lie between them and you pass, and at the end of nine months it splits and there came forth a male child in the form of a man, twelve cubits long and two cubits wide, and his eyes are crooked red, the hair of his head is red as gold and his legs are green, and he has two talons and they call him Armilus. And he came to Edom and said to them, I am your Messiah, I am your God, and he misled them and immediately they believed in him and they made him their king, and all the sons of Esau and none were with him. They bring a book... and he says to them that I have given before you and I say to them I am the Lord your God and I am your Messiah and your God, and at the same time he sends to Nehemiah and all Israel, and says to them bring me your Torah and testify to me that I am God. And immediately all Israel will tremble and be afraid, and at that hour Nehemiah will stand up and three men with him from the sons of Ephraim and will go with him and sit with them and call before him I will stand and you will not have it, and he says there is nothing of this in your Torah? I (I don't?) leave you until you believe that I am God the way the nations of the world believed in me, and immediately Nehemiah stands against him and tells him you are not God but Satan, and Armilus says to them why did you lie to me, I will order you to be killed and says to his servants take him to Nehemiah, and immediately thirty thousand heroes will arise of Israel and made war with him and killed two hundred thousand from the camp of Armilus, and Armilus also went out and gathered all the soldiers of the nations of the world, and made war with the Israelites and killed a thousand [and] thousand of Israel and more. And I darkened the land with a day of light (Amos 8:9), and the rest of Israel fled to the wilderness of the nations and sat there forty-five days without bread or water because the grass of the field would be their food. (Daniel 11:22), and he returns and sets his sights on Jerusalem to be destroyed a second time, as it is said, and the tents of our deliverance shall fall.

R. Elazar said again: "A house in which the words of the Torah are not heard during the night will finally be burned, as it is said (Job 20, 26) Entire darkness is laid by for his treasures: a fire not blown by man will consume him; it will destroy anyone (Sarid) left in his tent. Sarid refers to a scholar, as it is said (Joel 3, 4) Among the remnant (shridim) whom the Lord calleth." R. Elazar said again: "He who does not benefit scholars with his estate will never come into any manner of blessing, as it is said (Job 20, 21) Nothing was spared (Sarid) from his craving to eat; therefore shall his wealth not prosper. And the word Sarid refers to a school, as it is said (Joel 3) Among the remnant (Shridim) whom the Lord calleth." And from the same passage, R. Elazar said again: "He who does not leave any bread after his meal will not reap the fruits of any blessing, as it is said (Job 20) Nothing was spared (Sarid) from his craving, and Sarid refers to a scholar as above. But did not R. Elazar say elsewhere that he who left pieces of bread after his meal is considered as if he were worshipping idols, as it is said (Is. 65, 11) That set out a table for the god of fortune and that fill for destiny the drink-offering. This presents no difficulty. In the latter saying he means, that he puts a whole loaf on the table [which is prohibited], but in the former passage he speaks of leaving some crumbs of bread for the poor. R. Elazar said again: "He who changes his word is considered as if he were to worship idols; it is written here (Gen. 27, 12) I will seem to him as a deceiver; and it is written (Jer. 10, 15) They are vanity, the work of deception." R. Elazar said again: "A man shall always remain obscure (without an office) and he will live." R. Zera said: "We have also taught so in the following Mishna: If there seems to be leprsoy in a house which is dark, windows must not be opened for investigation." Hence it is inferred as above.

(Gen. 2:4:) THESE ARE THE GENERATIONS OF THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH WHEN THEY WERE CREATED. Let our master instruct us: When someone sees shooting stars and lightnings, what blessing does he say over them? Thus have our masters taught (in Ber. 9:2): OVER SHOOTING STARS, EARTHQUAKES, LIGHTNINGS, AND THUNDERS ONE SAYS: BLESSED BE THE ONE WHOSE POWER FILLS THE WORLD. Note that this is from the Mishnah. Where is it shown from Scripture? Where it is stated (in Ps. 104:32): WHO (i.e., the LORD) LOOKS ON THE EARTH AND IT TREMBLES. And what is written in connection with it (in vs. 31)? MAY THE GLORY OF THE LORD BE FOREVER. Elijah, of blessed memory, asked Rav Mari:³¹See yBer. 9:3 (12c); M. Pss. 18:12; 104:25. Why do earthquakes come upon the world? He said to him: When the Holy One sees Israel not separating their tithes as they should, earthquakes come upon the world. Elijah, of blessed memory, said to him: Upon your life, that is the < apparent > reason for the phenomenon, but the root of the phenomenon is this: When the Holy One looks at his world and sees temples of star worship sitting upon their tells in safety, security, and serenity, while his Holy Temple is destroyed, at that time he wants to overthrow the world and shakes < it >. The Holy One said: All this quaking is for the sanctification of my name, as stated (in Is. 43:7): EVERY ONE THAT IS CALLED BY MY NAME [AND WHOM I HAVE CREATED FOR MY GLORY, I HAVE FORMED HIM, EVEN MADE HIM].³²Isaiah goes on to list the blind and the deaf as examples. Thus God is sanctified by all creation, even earthquakes. Also, through that for which I deserve to be praised, the nations provoke me to anger. One says: The LORD does such and so. Another says to worship the constellations. Another says: I serve the sun and its rays. Therefore, I bring earthquake into the world. Although the heavenly bodies did not sin, because people provoke me to anger through them, they (the heavenly bodies) are also stricken along with them. So it is stated (in Joel 3:4 [2:31]): THE SUN WILL BE CHANGED TO DARKNESS, AND THE MOON, TO BLOOD. And what concern do they have? To make known that no other god created my world along with me. You yourself know that it is so.³³See above, 1:1, and the notes there. R. Johanan said: The angels were created on the second day, as stated (in Gen. 1:6): LET THE FIRMAMENT BE IN THE MIDST OF THE WATERS. Another text (Ps. 104:3) says: WHO ROOFS HIS UPPER ROOMS IN THE WATERS. And what is written next (in vs. 4)? WHO MAKES HIS ANGELS SPIRITS (ruah). Ergo, it says: The angels were created on the second day. R. Hanina said: The angels were created on the fifth day. Where is it shown? Where it is stated (in Gen. 1:20): AND LET THE FOWL FLY (ye'ofef) ABOVE THE EARTH. These are angels, as stated (in Is. 6:2): AND WITH TWO HE WOULD FLY (ye'ofef). Ergo, it says: They were created on the fifth day. Either according to the words of R. Johanan or according to the words of R. Hanina, you have learned this, that the angels were created only after the Holy One had created his world. Why so? It is simply that the Holy One said: If I create them at the beginning, people will say: They assisted me with my world. The Holy One said: I created my world by myself, as stated (in Is. 66:2): [AND] ALL THESE THINGS MY HAND HAS MADE. Where is it shown about the created beings of heaven and earth? {Where it is stated} [From what they have read on the matter] (in Gen. 2:4): THESE ARE THE GENERATIONS OF THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH….