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Yesterday I saw Rabbi Nir Ben Artzi's parsha sheet for Shabbat Hol HaMoed. The article was focused on his predictions for the coming year, though he did not really say anything specific. Rabbi Ben Artzi did say that the coming year would bring tragedies and natural disasters, such as earthquakes and hurricanes and others, that would be much harsher than those of previous years. Of course he also spoke about the safety of being in Eretz Yisrael, and the threat of war which would not amount to anything.
Kikar reported that he also weighed in on the "Shalit Deal" - the agreement to release Gilad Shalit. Rabbi Nir Ben Artzi said:
With God's help no harm will come to the deal and he will be released on Tuesday and will arrive in Eretz Yisrael. Some like it, and some don't like it and ask "Why?", but Hashem is the one who did this. Not the prime minister and not anyone else in the world - they didn't bring him to Eretz Yisrael.
Why did Gilad Shalit not come back three years ago? It is the same plan. Rather, the world was not ready for it back then. If these thousand would have been released then, wherever they would have been put - they would have caused great destruction, so Hashem decided only now to do this. If the deal had happened three years ago, they would have organized themselves and made a balagan 100 times worse than they can now.
Now they will destroy themselves, they will fight with each other, they will fight over who will rule. They will come to Gaza and will receive great honor, the honor of kings. In the end they will fight and consume each other - this is the plan of Hashem. Everyone can calm down - this is what Hashem has decided.
Am Yisrael should accept it with great love, that this should be successful. Now it is very fitting that there should be bracha and hatzlacha. Those thousand that are being released - their sword will come to their hearts and they will each consume the other.
Because I have given some coverage to the predictions of gloom, doom and redemption of the eccentric Rabbi Nir Ben-Artzi, I feel obligated to mention Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar's comments on the phenomenon as well.
Kikar has the audio interview of Radi Kol Chai and Rav Amar discussing the issue, you can hear it there. To summarize what was said, they discussed the issue without relating to any specific person, just the concept in general of someone making such predictions and claiming to receive messages from god.
Rav Amar said that such people are false prophets in every sense of the word.. and many of them are themselves very distant from Torah and have no yirat shamayim... there have always been false prophets, even in the days of the neviim, and they were cheats who presented themselves as prophets.. there are some in our days who claim to know more than the greatest neviim, yet the lions portion of them falls in the most serious of sins. It begins with stealing money from people, and leads to failings of very serious temptations and temptation of honor. Every person who is concerned for himself should keep his distance form these people. He has no kedusha, no tahara, and it is the use of deception...
There is no such thing as having special powers, and if a person says he can walk to the moon, it is impossible and you don't need to go check it.
Regarding the predictions of Rav Nir Ben-Artzi specifically, Rav Amar said that anyone who checks will see that the various predictions were only said after the events happened.
Rav Nir Ben-Artzi responded by saying that he is not looking to fight with anybody, and he is not doing any bad to anybody. All he wants to do is to help the people of Israel. I am in favor of unity of all of Israel and I have nothing bad against anybody. "I was given a gift from heaven only to use for good things. B"H I have zchut avot that comes from the chain of my ancestors".
Rabbi Nir Ben Artzi's website is claiming that in his weekly shiur Friday morning, 11 Mar '11, the rabbi was speaking about "a large earthquake happening in the world" at the very moment (7:45 am Israel / 2:45 Japan) that the earthquake in Japan occurred.
