Mystic Predicts a Trump Victory

The Times of Israel

The head of the Republican Party’s branch in Israel told an ultra-Orthodox website that an unnamed but “great” Jewish mystic told him Judaism’s major mystical work predicts an election victory for Donald Trump.

“It wasn’t that way in the beginning. Haredim weren’t sure whether to vote at all, even before the decision about whom to vote for,” attorney Marc Zell, head of Republicans Abroad Israel, told Yanky Farber, a columnist for Behadrei Haredim, the website reported.

“But in the last two weeks, a decision has been made among the rabbis of all sorts of streams in the Haredi public in Israel that Trump is the one who will defend Jerusalem, the Land of Israel and the Jewish people,” Zell was quoted as saying.

He then told Farber that a mekubal, or sage steeped in the Jewish mystical tradition of Kabbalah, had informed him that according to the tradition’s seminal text, the Zohar, Trump will be the next president of the United States.

“Two days ago, a great mekubal came to me — I don’t want to say his name — with all his entourage from Bnei Brak, just to give me this message for Donald Trump,” Zell reportedly said. “According to the rabbi, the Zohar says Donald Trump will win next week. The rabbi didn’t ask for anything, but just wanted to send this message.”

Zell said he “passed this on to the Trump campaign in the US and the Jewish advisers were amazed, in a good way, about this news.”

He recalled comments made last month by Trump’s Israel adviser, David Friedman, according to which Trump, if elected, would fire any American official who opposed an order to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

“Everyone says they’ll move the embassy to Jerusalem. American law requires moving the embassy, but all the presidents vetoed it, arguing it would hurt American security.”

Trump is different, Zell insisted. “That’s Donald Trump. He comes from outside the establishment and doesn’t think like a run-of-the-mill politician. He says what he thinks.”

The mysterious mystic was not the only Haredi leader cited by Zell as supporting Trump. The head of a major Jerusalem cheder, or religious elementary school, “came to vote today,” Zell said. “He told me he had decided to vote, and explained to his students why he did so — because of the values of the Republican Party, belief in the Creator of the world and family values. I feel we have something in common.”

The Behadrei Haredim report concluded by quoting a Haredi halachic authority, Rabbi Sraya Deblitzky, who told his followers to “vote for the man. If a woman rules, it brings judgment, death and poverty.”