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    Gog & Magog – Ask the Rabbi

    Q. Who is Gog and why is he going to fight Magog?

    Gog MagogA. He is not against Magog but against Israel and God.

    In chapter 38 of Ezekiel he is a heathen prince who will invade Israel from the north and be heavily defeated.

    We are not certain what the name Gog means. He is ruler of Magog, though in rabbinic literature Magog is a person who is Gog’s ally. Their struggle with Israel will immediately precede the messianic age.

    Perhaps both Gog and Magog are symbols of the forces that constantly oppose God and His people.

    In our own age there have been and are interpreters who posit that we are living in the time of the ultimate struggle out of which the final redemption will arise.

    In Jewish tradition the conflict will take place during Sukkot, and the Ezekiel chapter was therefore selected as the haftarah for the Shabbat of Sukkot.

    There is a further link with Sukkot in that the festival symbolises the end of days when all mankind will sit together in the Divine tabernacle, sharing in their acclaim of the one God who created them all.

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