Jewish HistoryI give Chabad credit for noticing the date. It isn't receiving much attention elsewhere. They are using a rabbinic chronology that differs from the scholarly date by a good bit. The vision took place in the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin (Ezekiel 1:2), which according to the scholarly chronology was 593 BCE.
Ezekiel's Vision of the "Chariot" (429 BCE)
On the 5th of Tammuz of the year 3332 from creation (429 BCE), Ezekiel, among the only prophets to prophesy outside of the Holy Land, beheld a vision of the Divine "Chariot" representing the spiritual infrastructure of creation.
Ezekiel's wild vision of heaven and its denizens is recorded in chapter 1 of his book. A follow-up vision from a year later (September 592, Ezek 8:1) is recorded in chapter 10. This vision is the foundation for Western mysticism. I have discussed it in detail here with links. Additional relevant post are here, here, and here. The vision also acquired some connections with the Festival of Shavuot. See here and here.
And here's something I've been saving up. This seems like a good time to post it. Cross-file under Just For Fun: The secret Jewish history of UFOs (and why Ezekiel might have had a close encounter) (Seth Rogovoy, The Forward).
Ezekiel’s vision of a merkavah, or chariot, the foundation of a whole school of kabbalistic thought called Merkavah mysticism, is perhaps the best-known Bible story that can be read as an account of a close encounter.
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