Kol HaTor ( he, קול התור, "The Voice of the Turtledove", from ) is a book of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

thought written by Rabbi

Hillel Rivlin Hillel Rivlin of Shklov ( he, הלל ריבלין; 16 September 1757–- 2 June 1838 and the Hebrew date 2 Tishrei 5518–9 Sivan 5598) was a close disciple of the Vilna Gaon. Along with some other pupils of the Vilna Gaon, he is credited with hav ...

Shklov Shklow ( be, Шклоў, ; Škłoŭ; russian: link=no, Шклов, ''Shklov''; yi, שקלאָוו, ''Shklov'', lt, Šklovas, pl, Szkłów) is a town in Mogilev Region, Belarus, located north of Mogilev on the Dnieper river. It has a railway s ...

, a disciple of the

Vilna Gaon Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, ( he , ר' אליהו בן שלמה זלמן ''Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman'') known as the Vilna Gaon (Yiddish: דער װילנער גאון ''Der Vilner Gaon'', pl, Gaon z Wilna, lt, Vilniaus Gaonas) or Elijah of ...

. The text deals with the ''Geulah'' (Era of

eschatology Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of the present age, human history, or of the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic), which teach that negati ...

and

salvation Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...

) and describes its signs vis-a-vis an evaluation of a proposed 999 footsteps of the

Moshiach The Messiah in Judaism () is a savior and liberator figure in Jewish eschatology, who is believed to be the future redeemer of the Jewish people. The concept of messianism originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible a messiah is a king or H ...

's arrival. The Vilna Gaon believed the number 999 to be intrinsically connected to the idea of

Moshiach ben Yosef In Jewish eschatology Mashiach ben Yoseph or Messiah ben Joseph ( he, מָשִׁיחַ בֶּן־יוֹסֵף ''Māšīaḥ ben Yōsēf''), also known as Mashiach bar/ben Ephraim (Aram./Heb.: Māšīaḥ bar/ben Efrayīm), is a Jewish messiah from ...

, he also felt that this number is alluded to in the

gematria Gematria (; he, גמטריא or gimatria , plural or , ''gimatriot'') is the practice of assigning a numerical value to a name, word or phrase according to an alphanumerical cipher. A single word can yield several values depending on the cipher ...

of his own name.

Publication history

Kol HaTor was first published in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

in 1968 by Rabbi

Menachem Mendel Kasher Menachem Mendel Kasher ( he, מנחם מנדל כשר; March 7, 1895 – November 3, 1983) was a Polish-born Israeli rabbi and prolific author who authored an encyclopedic work on the Torah entitled ''Torah Sheleimah''. Early life Kasher was bor ...

, to whom the book was passed down over the generations. According to Rabbi Pinchas Winston,

"The original text of Kol HaTor was kept in the manuscript by the
Rivlin Rivlin ( he, ריבלין) is a primarily Jewish family with origins in Austria and Eastern Europe, which became established in early 19th century Palestine (now Israel). There are also branches of the family in several other countries. The family ...
family, descendants of Rabbi Hillel Rivlin, for over 200 years. In 1947, Rabbi Shlomo Rivlin, with the advice of the great Kabbalists of Jerusalem, decided to publish an abridged version of this lengthy and difficult treatise keeping the Kabbalistic terminology as simple as possible so that it could also be studied by non-Kabbalists. Therefore, the printed Kol HaTor is not the original text. In 1968 it was reprinted again by two different editors (unknown to each other), Rabbi Menachem Kasher and Rabbi Chaim Friedlander (Committee For The Dissemination of Kol HaTor). Rabbi Kasher omitted the chapter on the confluences of Kabbalah and science called Sha'ar Be'er Sheva (Gate of The Seven Fields of Wisdom). The B'nei Brak edition, which did contain this chapter, was out of print for over twenty years, thus making this "lost doctrine" of the GR"A he Vilna Gaontotally unnoticed by scholars and the public. Only recently a new print has appeared in Jerusalem with the Sha'ar Be'er Sheva."

Impact and controversy

The text has become popularized amongst the adherents of

Religious Zionism Religious Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת דָּתִית, Romanization of Hebrew, translit. ''Tziyonut Datit'') is an ideology that combines Zionism and Orthodox Judaism. Its adherents are also referred to as ''Dati Leumi'' ( "National Religiou ...

who perceive parallels between current and recent historical events and those forecast in the book. They maintain that we are currently in the years right prior to the full Redemption and that the indicators established in Kol HaTor are currently being manifested. However, some

anti-Zionists Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the modern State of Israel, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the region of Palestin ...

have disputed the authenticity of Kol HaTor, particularly Rabbi Moshe Shternbuch, who is a direct descendant of the Vilna Gaon and is the rabbi of the GRA Synagogue in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, which primarily follows the traditions taught and espoused by the Vilna Gaon. Rabbi Shternbuch argues against the work on theological grounds as well as textual grounds by drawing attention to certain words in the text that only a speaker of

modern Hebrew Modern Hebrew ( he, עברית חדשה, ''ʿivrít ḥadašá ', , '' lit.'' "Modern Hebrew" or "New Hebrew"), also known as Israeli Hebrew or Israeli, and generally referred to by speakers simply as Hebrew ( ), is the standard form of the He ...

would utilize. He first wrote against Kol HaTor in a ten page pamphlet in the year following its publication in 1968 and later expanded upon the matter in his work Teshuvos VeHanhagos.Teshuvos VeHanhagos
Part 4, Chapter 328. Pp. 411-419.

References

{{Reflist

External links

קול התור - Kol HaTor
Hebrew Text; Kabbalah La'am

English Translation; Yedid Nefesh * Kol HaTor
French Translation
Jewish philosophical and ethical texts Sifrei Kodesh