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Does Judaism consider the state of Israel the fulfillment of ancient prophecy? Especially in reference to this Bible verse.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel%2037

18 “When your people ask you, ‘Won’t you tell us what you mean by this?’ 19 say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am going to take the stick of Joseph—which is in Ephraim’s hand—and of the Israelite tribes associated with him, and join it to Judah’s stick. I will make them into a single stick of wood, and they will become one in my hand.’ 20 Hold before their eyes the sticks you have written on 21 and say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land. 22 I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. There will be one king over all of them and they will never again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms. 23 They will no longer defile themselves with their idols and vile images or with any of their offenses, for I will save them from all their sinful backsliding,[b] and I will cleanse them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

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    No source, but this prophecy was not fulfilled AFAIK by the establishment of the State of Israel. In fact, I am not aware of a single prophecy which was fulfilled by establishment of the State.
    – Noach MiFrankfurt
    Commented Oct 25, 2015 at 14:20
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    possible dupe judaism.stackexchange.com/q/27070/759
    – Double AA ♦
    Commented Oct 25, 2015 at 20:06
  • The link is a Christian website.
    – ezra
    Commented Jan 10, 2017 at 21:45

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There are numerous prophecies about the Messianic era and they are generally viewed together as a "single package". As such, Orthodox Judaism is hesitant to declare a single prophecy of that package fulfilled in case there is a snag in the fulfillment of the other and it turns out that that declaration was in error. The more Zionist groups of Orthodoxy will tend to declare that the State of Israel is definitely consistent with the prophecy and that the prophecy is in the process of being fulfilled.

The less Zionist groups are concerned that the State of Israel doesn't fit their ideal of the Messianic state in that there is as yet no Temple, and the majority of Israeli Jews are secular. Also, they are wary of accepting Jewish States as the ones referred to in prophecy as the Hasmonean State turned to Saduceeism before becoming a puppet of Romans and the Bar Kochba state was also destroyed. Both of these states as well as other Jewish State movements such as the Revolt of 115 and the Shabetai Tzvi incident resulted in catastrophe.

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  • "and they are generally viewed together as a "single package" source?
    – mevaqesh
    Commented Oct 26, 2015 at 1:25
  • Shabetai Tzi was involved in a Jewish State incident?
    – mevaqesh
    Commented Oct 26, 2015 at 1:26
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    @mevaqesh I think Shabetai Tzvi was brought in just to stress the idea that mainstream Judaism tends to be a bit skeptical and err on the side of caution when dealing with messianic claims, as we've been hurt by it more than once throughout history.
    – Salmononius2
    Commented Oct 26, 2015 at 2:37
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    @mevaqesh the source is every single anti-missionary book out there. Christians say "Believe in Jesus, he fulfills the prophecy that his hands and feet will be pierced and he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey" The rebuttal is, that He's not the Messiah because all the other Messiah things haven't happened yet. If we believed you could separate the package into individual objectives, the rebuttal doesn't work.
    – Clint Eastwood
    Commented Oct 26, 2015 at 11:55
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    @ClintEastwood the comparison is inaccurate. In the case of Messianic identity, there are only two options; either a contender is the Messiah or not. If he fails most criteria then he cannot be the Messiah. There is no reason, however, why every Messianic prophecy must refer to the same point in time. BTW I am still wondering what you meant with Shabbetai Tzvi. please edit to clarify.
    – mevaqesh
    Commented Oct 26, 2015 at 13:04
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While the verse cited does predict a return of the Jews to the land of Israel it also includes details which have not yet been realized. The return of large numbers of Jews to Israel and an independent Jewish state are a necessary condition for the fulfillment of this prophecy (and others) but not a sufficient condition for its fulfillment. That this necessary condition has been met despite the overwhelming challenges has been taken by many as evidence that the full fulfillment of this prophecy is imminent.

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Rambam Melachim 12

There are some Sages who say that Elijah's coming will precede the coming of the Mashiach. All these and similar matters cannot be definitely known by man until they occur for these matters are undefined in the prophets' words and even the wise men have no established tradition regarding these matters except their own interpretation of the verses

so we'll have to wait and see how it plays out. it is certainly interesting though especially given the miraculous victories by the IDF (ex1 or ex2)

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  • Rambam says we wont know the details of the eschatological age, until it arrives. He doesn't say that we cant know whether or not a given prophecy has been fulfilled.
    – mevaqesh
    Commented Jan 10, 2017 at 21:26
  • The (first) source you cite seems to conflate lopsided numbers with nonequivalent forces. It also doesn't list a single one if the referenced prognostications. The second source suffers the same flaw. | This is probably because it is simply false, as evidenced by This CIA analysis that correctly predicted the results of the 1967 war.
    – mevaqesh
    Commented Jan 10, 2017 at 22:20
  • @ray I thought I had cleaned up comments here a week ago; regretably, I did not. Comments about other users aren't ok; focus on the content please.
    – Monica Cellio
    Commented Jan 18, 2017 at 21:31

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