Four TOTAL lunar eclipses on the Jewish Passover and Yom Kippur in 842 – 843 AD. The Tetrad proved to be a divine warning of an Islamic invasion of Rome. Just three years later the Vatican Catholic Church suffered an Islamic Jihad attack, having all it treasures looted by Muslim invasion from Africa. In 842 a synod in the Eastern Church reaffirmed the use of icons, which had been banned for the second time in 814. In Europe, Muslims had been attacking Sicily for several years as they attempted to conquer Italy and Europe, and this continued as they attacked and captured Messina in Sicily in 842. In 843 the Treaty of Verdun divided the Holy Roman Empire into three parts. This affected Jews adversely because the French were tolerant of Jews, but when the French no longer had power over most of Europe, widespread Anti-Semitism led to persecution of the Jews.
Four TOTAL lunar eclipses on the Jewish Passover and Yom Kippur in 860 – 861 AD. In 861 the first Russians, sailing in 200 ships, attacked Constantinople. A few years later Russia’s first ambassador to Constantinople accepted Christianity, which laid the groundwork for the conversion of Russia. In 863 Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius began translating part of the Bible into the Old Slavonic language, which also helped in the conversion of the Slavs (Russians). This later led to a great persecution of the Jews by the Russian Christians.
In 861 Muhammed al-Mudabbir arrived in Egypt and tripled the jizya (tax) on Christians and Jews. Unable to pay the tax, they filled the prisons. The churches were looted and confiscated.
Shortly after the eclipses the Byzantine Empire defeated Arab armies at the Battle of Lalakaon in Turkey and permanently stopped the Islamic invasion of Eastern Europe.
Four TOTAL lunar eclipses on the Jewish Passover and the Feast of Trumpets in 1493 – 1494. Only months later King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain ordered all Jewish people to leave the country (After 200 AD, Spain became and had remained a second Jewish homeland for well over a millennia.
“In the same month in which their Majesties (Ferdinand and Isabella)] issued the edict that all Jews should be driven out of the kingdom and its territories, in the same month they gave me the order to undertake with sufficient men my expedition of discovery to the Indies.” So begins Christopher Columbus’s diary.
The expulsion that Columbus refers to was so cataclysmic an event that ever since; the date 1492 has been almost as important in Jewish history as in American history. On July 30 of that year, the entire Jewish community, some 200,000 people, were expelled from Spain. Tens of thousands of refugees died while trying to reach safety. Many fled to Morocco where they were later persecuted. 1492 was the year Christopher Columbus ‘amazingly’…. discovered America which is home today for more than 5 million Jews outside Israel.
