Dear Friends,
The letter below was written by Buddy Macy to Sallai Meridor to protest the barbaric destruction of the Federman-Tor homes. We urge all friends of Israel in the US to do the same. Each and every letter makes a difference.
In addition, for US Citizens, send letters also to:
* the Israeli Embassy (202-364.5500) or consulate nearest you
* The SD's Bureau of Democracy (202-647.4000 or 1-800-877.8339), Human Rights & Labor,
Inform them and demand an appropriate investigation. As an American citizen, you can ask the State Department to investigate these human rights violations.
Shabbat Shalom,
Ruth and Nadia Matar
--------------------
Dear Fellow Activists,
Last Sunday morning, the Israeli Government ordered the execution of appalling actions against two Jewish families in Kiryat Arba. (Click the link to learn the details directly from one of the victims - http://www.hebron.com/english/ .) I urge you to send a fax (202-364-5423) and postal letter of any length, to Sallai Meridor, the Israeli Ambassador to the United States. And, please forward this email to everyone on your list.
Here is my letter, for your reference:
October 30, 2008
The Honorable Sallai Meridor
His Excellency Ambassador of Israel
3514 International Drive, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Dear Ambassador,
I am sure you are aware of the tragic events that took place this past Sunday morning (actually, in the middle of the night) at the Federman and Tor homes the smashing of their windows (reminiscent, dare I say it, of an event that took place 75 years ago) and forced entry by Israeli soldiers; the dragging of the startled, shocked children from their beds after being shaken awake; the beating of some children; the families' forceful expulsion from their own homes; and, finally, the crushing destruction of their homes, without them even having the opportunity to take any of their personal possessions! What type of state is it that treats its citizens in such an appalling, sickening fashion!
I am a secular Jew who has supported Israel my entire adult life. This support includes 25 years of volunteer service to my local Jewish Federation (Greater Clifton-Passaic, New Jersey) as a fundraiser, officer, and Board of Trustees and Executive Committee member, as well as numerous financial contributions to the Jewish State through Federation. IT IS OVER! Until the Israeli Government publicly apologizes to the Federman and Tor families and compensates them fully for their loss and suffering, including emotional trauma, and until Mr. Olmert and Mr. Barak are criminally charged for inciting and ordering the above inhuman behavior, I will not give one more cent to the State of Israel. And I will begin to suggest to others, some with substantial resources, to consider ceasing their Federation giving and, instead, contributing directly to specific pro-Jewish Israeli causes.
Ambassador Meridor, I hope you have the moral courage to call for such immediate action.
Most sincerely,
Buddy Macy
=============================================
Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green)
POB 7352, Jerusalem 91072, Israel
Tel: 972-2-624-9887 Fax: 972-2-624-5380
mailto:wfit2@womeningreen.org
http://www.womeningreen.org/
Friday, October 31, 2008
Shimon Peres had Yitzhak Rabin murdered
Avishai Raviv, Yigal Amir and Yitzhak Rabin's Assassination
Avishai Raviv was an Israeli government agent provocateur (whose code name was "Champagne" for the bubbles of incitement he created to tarnish the right-wing Israelis) who goaded Yigal Amir to assassinate Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (although this is hotly disputed by investigative reporters like Barry Chamish) and created the fictitious right-wing group, Eyal.
Avishai Raviv has never been charged with incitement or as an accessory to the murder of Yitzhak Rabin and has disappeared from sight, undoubtedly just following orders or else.
I was NEVER involved with the extremist Jewish group "Eyal" but had met Avishai Raviv during a Temple Mount Faithful demonstration in Jerusalem when he helped me to protect Gershon Salomon (chairman, Temple Mount Faithful) during Tisha B'Av when the police carried Gershon away from the Mugrabi Gate and dropped him and he hit his head and went unconscious and the throng practically trampled him except for me trying to cover him and shouting at the people to be careful that Gershon was on the ground -- and I'm pretty sure it was Avishai who helped me keep the people from stepping on him.
Howard Grief, an attorney and member of the Temple Mount Faithful, witnessed it all and wrote The Jerusalem Post about it (we both had a letter published the same day: Howard's letter was called "Police Brutality" and mine was called "Discrimination" - The Jerusalem Post, Friday, Aug. 25, 1995).
Before that incident I had met Avishai Raviv in the office of the Temple Mount Faithful when he and someone else came there. He had invited Moshe Weissfish (Gershon Salomon's cousin) and I to his apartment in Hebron, but it was later explained to me that Avishai was a "shtinker" (informer) and that the police wanted to falsely associate the Temple Mount Faithful with such people and how he had even taken it upon himself once in Tel Aviv to have an office on campus with "Temple Mount Faithful" on the door or something like that, which Gershon immediately forbade him upon knowledge of it as he had no authority to do it and did NOT represent the Temple Mount Faithful in any manner, shape or form.
This is what I remember of the agent provocateur Avishai Raviv and his fake group "Eyal."
I might add though that after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, some female (British?) reporter (probably my age) who knew Nick Day of The Traveller, kept trying to get Avishai's phone number or have me contact him (since she heard I had met him) until I told her I wanted nothing to do with him. She was unrelenting until Nick Day told her to back off. I guess she was his friend or acquaintance.
********************
Shimon Peres came to power over Rabin's dead body
Doctors Dead For Rabin
The Vatican and Yitzhak Rabin's Assassination
Avishai Raviv was an Israeli government agent provocateur (whose code name was "Champagne" for the bubbles of incitement he created to tarnish the right-wing Israelis) who goaded Yigal Amir to assassinate Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (although this is hotly disputed by investigative reporters like Barry Chamish) and created the fictitious right-wing group, Eyal.
Avishai Raviv has never been charged with incitement or as an accessory to the murder of Yitzhak Rabin and has disappeared from sight, undoubtedly just following orders or else.
I was NEVER involved with the extremist Jewish group "Eyal" but had met Avishai Raviv during a Temple Mount Faithful demonstration in Jerusalem when he helped me to protect Gershon Salomon (chairman, Temple Mount Faithful) during Tisha B'Av when the police carried Gershon away from the Mugrabi Gate and dropped him and he hit his head and went unconscious and the throng practically trampled him except for me trying to cover him and shouting at the people to be careful that Gershon was on the ground -- and I'm pretty sure it was Avishai who helped me keep the people from stepping on him.
Howard Grief, an attorney and member of the Temple Mount Faithful, witnessed it all and wrote The Jerusalem Post about it (we both had a letter published the same day: Howard's letter was called "Police Brutality" and mine was called "Discrimination" - The Jerusalem Post, Friday, Aug. 25, 1995).
Before that incident I had met Avishai Raviv in the office of the Temple Mount Faithful when he and someone else came there. He had invited Moshe Weissfish (Gershon Salomon's cousin) and I to his apartment in Hebron, but it was later explained to me that Avishai was a "shtinker" (informer) and that the police wanted to falsely associate the Temple Mount Faithful with such people and how he had even taken it upon himself once in Tel Aviv to have an office on campus with "Temple Mount Faithful" on the door or something like that, which Gershon immediately forbade him upon knowledge of it as he had no authority to do it and did NOT represent the Temple Mount Faithful in any manner, shape or form.
This is what I remember of the agent provocateur Avishai Raviv and his fake group "Eyal."
I might add though that after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, some female (British?) reporter (probably my age) who knew Nick Day of The Traveller, kept trying to get Avishai's phone number or have me contact him (since she heard I had met him) until I told her I wanted nothing to do with him. She was unrelenting until Nick Day told her to back off. I guess she was his friend or acquaintance.
********************
Shimon Peres came to power over Rabin's dead body
Doctors Dead For Rabin
The Vatican and Yitzhak Rabin's Assassination
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Fight against radical Islam
Re: Interview with Producer of Obsession
BHarold756 Says:
October 30, 2008
Thanks for this post. I’ve worked on “Obsession,” and I can’t express how important this film is. The fight against radical Islam and extremism is one that we must win, and “Obsession” truly is our blueprint for this new kind of battle - the battle between those who hate and those who value democracy and freedom.
BHarold756 Says:
October 30, 2008
Thanks for this post. I’ve worked on “Obsession,” and I can’t express how important this film is. The fight against radical Islam and extremism is one that we must win, and “Obsession” truly is our blueprint for this new kind of battle - the battle between those who hate and those who value democracy and freedom.
Noahide conversions
Re: Noahides and Jewish soul snatchers?
Judaism isn't exactly a proselytizing religion.
As a general rule, Judaism isn't a proselytizing religion, but Judaism has its record of coercion (the Book of Esther) and forced mass conversions (Edomites), and Shmuley Boteach, a rabbi, writes For a confederation of Noachides in The Jerusalem Post, saying "...the Jewish community should be spearheading this movement, and should fund a global campaign to have non-Jews join a Jewish confederation, if not adopt Judaism in its entirety."
Forgive me for being a bit facetious about "Jewish soul snatchers" to make a point, since too many Jews are hypersensitive to real or imagined proselytizing by professing Christians and hatefully refer to them as "soul snatchers." And the very fact Jews often publicize and praise Noahide conversions is a not-too-subtle form of proselytizing, isn't it?
David Ben-Ariel posted on 2008-10-30 21:32:07 ET Reply Trace
And G-d saw that it was Good
"And G-d saw... and, behold, it was very good."
(Genesis 1:31)
Rosh Chodesh MarCheshvan, 5769/October 29, 2008
"And G-d saw that it was good." (Genesis 1:12) Thus G-d concludes after each day of creation. At least for the first five days. But on the sixth and final day, having just created man, the crowning glory of all creation, G-d withholds comment. Yes, we are told that "And G-d saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good." (Genesis 1:31) But that was an appraisal of the entirety of His creation, not of man specifically. Why is that so? Was G-d mystified by His own creation of man? Was He uncertain as to the results of His own efforts?
By declaring His creation "good" on days one through five, G-d is neither heaping praise upon Himself for a job well done, nor is He expressing His hope that all will be well. By declaring "good" He is stamping creation with His moral imprimatur. He is making it good.
Man, however, is unlike all other creation. It was G-d's will to instill within the very essence of man the ability to choose between good and evil. We call it "free will," but there is nothing free about it. Each choice we make exacts its own price. By liberating man from being a pre-determined good, like all other creation, G-d was preparing man for a long and difficult journey through time and through space, in which man would, (and immediately did), make every mistake humanly possible.
Adam and Chava, (Eve), may have chosen poorly by eating from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, but by choosing at all they were fulfilling G-d's will for mankind. Their choice in effect took the place of G-d's "and it was good," as it proved the efficacy of His creation of man.
Of course, G-d's will is for man to ultimately choose good and not evil, to attach himself to G-d and to walk in His ways. His love and concern for man can be seen immediately upon following Adam and Chava's error and their subsequent attempt to hide themselves from Him. Not only does He clothe them in order to assuage their own new found sense of shame, and also to provide them with protection from the now harsh elements of the world, but, as Midrash teaches us, G-d made some literally last-minute adjustments in creation, adding ten additional phenomena to the world just moments before the first Shabbat entered, for the sole purpose of aiding man in the millennia to come in his ceaseless quest for redemption:
"Ten things were created at twilight of Shabbat eve. These are: the mouth of the earth [that swallowed Korach]; the mouth of the well [Miriam's well that accompanied the Israelites in the desert] ; the mouth of [Balaam's] ass; the rainbow [that appeared to Noach]; the manna [that fell in the desert]; [Moses'] staff; the shamir [worm that ate stone and was used for hewing the stones for the Holy Temple]; and the writing, the inscription and the tablets [of the Ten Commandments]." (Ethics of the Fathers, 5:6)
Each of these ten creations embodies aspects both of the physical world and of the spiritual world, and each served in its specific moment in time as a portal between man and G-d's will that mankind will successfully stay the course that G-d has set out for him, ultimately proving himself worthy of his own Divine origin.
At the conclusion of the first Shabbat it was a new reality that man faced, one that we will be reading about throughout the rest of the year as we proceed through the five books of Torah. An early and terrifying crescendo in history occurs during the generation of Noach, the generation of the flood. Noach, like Adam, received instruction from G-d, but Noach, unlike Adam, adhered strictly to G-d's word. No doubt this was a step in the right direction for mankind, but still, Noach seems to fall short of the mark that G-d had set for him. Why did he not raise his voice in prayer to G-d, and beseech Him, (as did Moses on behalf of the children of Israel, concerning the incident of the golden calf), to show mercy on mankind, righteous and sinners alike?
It would seem that only as man travels through history and comes face to face with the many challenges and tests that G-d has set before him, does he begin to realize his own awesome potential for good. Today the choices that are set before man are every bit as profound and every bit as fateful as those choices that confronted first Adam and then Noach. It is not simply our own personal salvation at stake, but the redemption of all mankind. There is no doubt that the concluding chapters of man's saga include the continued ingathering of the children of Israel into the land of Israel, the establishment of a Torah-led society in the land, and the building of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, "a house of prayer for all nations." (Isaiah 56:7) May we prove through our actions to be worthy of the appellation G-d is patiently awaiting to bestow upon us: "And G-d saw... and, behold, it was very good." (Genesis 1:31)
Tune in to this week's Temple Talk, as Rabbi Chaim Richman and Yitzchak Reuven discuss the annual transition from the spiritually charged holiday-filled month of Tishrei to the holiday-barren month of Cheshvan, from the warm sun-filled summer season to the beginning of winter's rains in the land of Israel, and from the hope-filled opening chapters of the book of Genesis which we read on Tishrei's last Shabbat, (parashat B'reishith) to the desperate situation mankind finds itself in by the following Torah reading of Noach and the narrative of the flood. Plus some reflections on the historic Hakhel events that occurred over the recent Sukkot holiday, and the much deserved recognition granted to Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, founder of the Temple Institute, and recipient of this year's Israeli Ministry of Education Award for Jewish Culture.
Torah describes Noach as a tzaddik - righteous man, and tammim - pure. Yet, while he saved mankind on the physical level, he failed to pray on their behalf for their spiritual salvation. Our relationship with G-d has limitless potential. But it is up to us to pursue this relationship through prayer and actions in order to reach our full potential. Click here to view Rabbi Richman's short teaching on parashat Noach (Genesis 6:9-11:32).
Blessings from Jerusalem for a Chodesh Tov - a good new month,
Yitzchak Reuven
THE TEMPLE INSTITUTE
PO Box 31876
Jerusalem, Israel 97500
http://www.templeinstitute.org/
To learn more about Rabbi Yisrael Ariel and the 2008 Israeli Ministry of Education Award for Jewish Culture, please click here.
If you still have not seen or read about the great Hakhel assembly and celebration that recently took place on the second day of Sukkot, in Jerusalem's old city and on the Temple Mount, please click here. (New photographs have been added.)
Today also features the new Light to the Nations teaching by Rabbi Chaim Richman, entitled, "Topography of the Temple Mount, Part II: Maimonides' Laws of the Chosen House, chapter six: The Rambam describes the topographical requirements of the very contour of the Temple Mount, as the surface of the Mount itself conforms to the increasing sanctity as we enter the Temple courtyards and draw near to the Holy Sanctuary." Click here to view.
Rabanit Rena Richman's Bat Melech teaching series will be back on schedule next Wednesday, November 5th.
(Genesis 1:31)
Rosh Chodesh MarCheshvan, 5769/October 29, 2008
"And G-d saw that it was good." (Genesis 1:12) Thus G-d concludes after each day of creation. At least for the first five days. But on the sixth and final day, having just created man, the crowning glory of all creation, G-d withholds comment. Yes, we are told that "And G-d saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good." (Genesis 1:31) But that was an appraisal of the entirety of His creation, not of man specifically. Why is that so? Was G-d mystified by His own creation of man? Was He uncertain as to the results of His own efforts?
By declaring His creation "good" on days one through five, G-d is neither heaping praise upon Himself for a job well done, nor is He expressing His hope that all will be well. By declaring "good" He is stamping creation with His moral imprimatur. He is making it good.
Man, however, is unlike all other creation. It was G-d's will to instill within the very essence of man the ability to choose between good and evil. We call it "free will," but there is nothing free about it. Each choice we make exacts its own price. By liberating man from being a pre-determined good, like all other creation, G-d was preparing man for a long and difficult journey through time and through space, in which man would, (and immediately did), make every mistake humanly possible.
Adam and Chava, (Eve), may have chosen poorly by eating from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, but by choosing at all they were fulfilling G-d's will for mankind. Their choice in effect took the place of G-d's "and it was good," as it proved the efficacy of His creation of man.
Of course, G-d's will is for man to ultimately choose good and not evil, to attach himself to G-d and to walk in His ways. His love and concern for man can be seen immediately upon following Adam and Chava's error and their subsequent attempt to hide themselves from Him. Not only does He clothe them in order to assuage their own new found sense of shame, and also to provide them with protection from the now harsh elements of the world, but, as Midrash teaches us, G-d made some literally last-minute adjustments in creation, adding ten additional phenomena to the world just moments before the first Shabbat entered, for the sole purpose of aiding man in the millennia to come in his ceaseless quest for redemption:
"Ten things were created at twilight of Shabbat eve. These are: the mouth of the earth [that swallowed Korach]; the mouth of the well [Miriam's well that accompanied the Israelites in the desert] ; the mouth of [Balaam's] ass; the rainbow [that appeared to Noach]; the manna [that fell in the desert]; [Moses'] staff; the shamir [worm that ate stone and was used for hewing the stones for the Holy Temple]; and the writing, the inscription and the tablets [of the Ten Commandments]." (Ethics of the Fathers, 5:6)
Each of these ten creations embodies aspects both of the physical world and of the spiritual world, and each served in its specific moment in time as a portal between man and G-d's will that mankind will successfully stay the course that G-d has set out for him, ultimately proving himself worthy of his own Divine origin.
At the conclusion of the first Shabbat it was a new reality that man faced, one that we will be reading about throughout the rest of the year as we proceed through the five books of Torah. An early and terrifying crescendo in history occurs during the generation of Noach, the generation of the flood. Noach, like Adam, received instruction from G-d, but Noach, unlike Adam, adhered strictly to G-d's word. No doubt this was a step in the right direction for mankind, but still, Noach seems to fall short of the mark that G-d had set for him. Why did he not raise his voice in prayer to G-d, and beseech Him, (as did Moses on behalf of the children of Israel, concerning the incident of the golden calf), to show mercy on mankind, righteous and sinners alike?
It would seem that only as man travels through history and comes face to face with the many challenges and tests that G-d has set before him, does he begin to realize his own awesome potential for good. Today the choices that are set before man are every bit as profound and every bit as fateful as those choices that confronted first Adam and then Noach. It is not simply our own personal salvation at stake, but the redemption of all mankind. There is no doubt that the concluding chapters of man's saga include the continued ingathering of the children of Israel into the land of Israel, the establishment of a Torah-led society in the land, and the building of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, "a house of prayer for all nations." (Isaiah 56:7) May we prove through our actions to be worthy of the appellation G-d is patiently awaiting to bestow upon us: "And G-d saw... and, behold, it was very good." (Genesis 1:31)
Tune in to this week's Temple Talk, as Rabbi Chaim Richman and Yitzchak Reuven discuss the annual transition from the spiritually charged holiday-filled month of Tishrei to the holiday-barren month of Cheshvan, from the warm sun-filled summer season to the beginning of winter's rains in the land of Israel, and from the hope-filled opening chapters of the book of Genesis which we read on Tishrei's last Shabbat, (parashat B'reishith) to the desperate situation mankind finds itself in by the following Torah reading of Noach and the narrative of the flood. Plus some reflections on the historic Hakhel events that occurred over the recent Sukkot holiday, and the much deserved recognition granted to Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, founder of the Temple Institute, and recipient of this year's Israeli Ministry of Education Award for Jewish Culture.
Torah describes Noach as a tzaddik - righteous man, and tammim - pure. Yet, while he saved mankind on the physical level, he failed to pray on their behalf for their spiritual salvation. Our relationship with G-d has limitless potential. But it is up to us to pursue this relationship through prayer and actions in order to reach our full potential. Click here to view Rabbi Richman's short teaching on parashat Noach (Genesis 6:9-11:32).
Blessings from Jerusalem for a Chodesh Tov - a good new month,
Yitzchak Reuven
THE TEMPLE INSTITUTE
PO Box 31876
Jerusalem, Israel 97500
http://www.templeinstitute.org/
To learn more about Rabbi Yisrael Ariel and the 2008 Israeli Ministry of Education Award for Jewish Culture, please click here.
If you still have not seen or read about the great Hakhel assembly and celebration that recently took place on the second day of Sukkot, in Jerusalem's old city and on the Temple Mount, please click here. (New photographs have been added.)
Today also features the new Light to the Nations teaching by Rabbi Chaim Richman, entitled, "Topography of the Temple Mount, Part II: Maimonides' Laws of the Chosen House, chapter six: The Rambam describes the topographical requirements of the very contour of the Temple Mount, as the surface of the Mount itself conforms to the increasing sanctity as we enter the Temple courtyards and draw near to the Holy Sanctuary." Click here to view.
Rabanit Rena Richman's Bat Melech teaching series will be back on schedule next Wednesday, November 5th.
Noahide nonsense
Noahides and Jewish soul snatchers?
Noahides Warmly Welcomed Along Unfamiliar Journey
Hillel Fendel
Accepting the Torah, But Remaining a Gentile
Non-Jews came to Jerusalem to take vows to follow the Sheva Mitzvot Benai Noach, and some Arabs talk of joining the Jewish people.
*********************
Noachides are barren fools, devoid of biblical festivals and without the Sabbath and other treasures given to all mankind, living in their limbo land of neither Jewish or Christian or anything, but feeling good about being nothing.
Basically the Noahides are simply required to live moral lives and not participate in pagan worship, which is what true Christians do, many who were Gentilized Israelites (Anglo-Saxon-Celtic peoples) but have returned to our Hebrew roots and biblical responsibilities.
Should Jews be considered "soul snatchers" for encouraging the Noahide nonsense rather than encouraging Gentilized Israelites to at least remember the Sabbath and holy days and dietary laws?
Joseph isn't Jewish!
All Twelve Tribes of Israel aren't Jewish?
Israel and Judah Must Get House in Order Before King Messiah Arrives
First Temple-Era Water Tunnel Revealed in Jerusalem
First Temple-Era Water Tunnel Revealed in Jerusalem
by Hana Levi Julian
(IsraelNN.com) A tunnel built thousands of years ago – and which may even have been used during King David's conquest of Jerusalem – has been uncovered in the ancient City of David, just outside the Old City and across the street from the Dung Gate.
Renowned Israeli archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazer, who is leading the dig, revealed the findings from the discovery Thursday morning at an archaeological symposium at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Mazer, who also uncovered King David's palace, has led the world in ancient Jerusalem findings. Some of her other discoveries have included proof of another Biblical story, in the Book of Jeremiah. A completely intact seal impression, or "bula," bearing the name Gedaliahu ben Pashur was uncovered. The bula is actually a stamped engraving made of mortar. Mazer also found a second such impression not far away, as as well as the remnants of a wall from the prophet Nechemia.
The archaeologist said there is a high probability that the tunnel is the one referred to as the "tsinor" in the Biblical story of King David's conquest of Jerusalem (Samuel II, 5:6-8; Chronicles I, 11:4-6).
"The new discoveries in the excavations in the City of David illuminate the ancient history of Jerusalem and the reality described in the Bible," she noted.
Ancient Engineering, Lasting Technology
The opening to the 3,000-year-old tunnel was found earlier this year during the ongoing excavations at the site. The tunnel itself is located under a mammoth stone building that was previously identified as King David's palace, built some time during the 10th century B.C.E., according to the Gregorian calendar.
Barely wide enough to allow a single person through, the walls of the passage were apparently created partly by carving rough stones, partly by making use of the existing bedrock. Only the first 50 meters are accessible at present, since the tunnel is filled with fallen rocks and debris, said Mazer.
Whole, undamaged oil lamps that were characteristic of the First Temple period were found on the floor of the tunnel during the dig.
The archaeologist added that the tunnel was probably used to channel water to a pool by the palace, and eventually was converted to an escape passage near the end of the First Temple period. Additional walls were built to block the tunnel from the sight of anyone of the nearby hill and to protect it from debris filtering in.
The dig, which is being sponsored by the Shalem Center research institute and the City of David Foundation, was carried out under the academic auspices of the Hebrew University.
by Hana Levi Julian
(IsraelNN.com) A tunnel built thousands of years ago – and which may even have been used during King David's conquest of Jerusalem – has been uncovered in the ancient City of David, just outside the Old City and across the street from the Dung Gate.
Renowned Israeli archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazer, who is leading the dig, revealed the findings from the discovery Thursday morning at an archaeological symposium at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Mazer, who also uncovered King David's palace, has led the world in ancient Jerusalem findings. Some of her other discoveries have included proof of another Biblical story, in the Book of Jeremiah. A completely intact seal impression, or "bula," bearing the name Gedaliahu ben Pashur was uncovered. The bula is actually a stamped engraving made of mortar. Mazer also found a second such impression not far away, as as well as the remnants of a wall from the prophet Nechemia.
The archaeologist said there is a high probability that the tunnel is the one referred to as the "tsinor" in the Biblical story of King David's conquest of Jerusalem (Samuel II, 5:6-8; Chronicles I, 11:4-6).
"The new discoveries in the excavations in the City of David illuminate the ancient history of Jerusalem and the reality described in the Bible," she noted.
Ancient Engineering, Lasting Technology
The opening to the 3,000-year-old tunnel was found earlier this year during the ongoing excavations at the site. The tunnel itself is located under a mammoth stone building that was previously identified as King David's palace, built some time during the 10th century B.C.E., according to the Gregorian calendar.
Barely wide enough to allow a single person through, the walls of the passage were apparently created partly by carving rough stones, partly by making use of the existing bedrock. Only the first 50 meters are accessible at present, since the tunnel is filled with fallen rocks and debris, said Mazer.
Whole, undamaged oil lamps that were characteristic of the First Temple period were found on the floor of the tunnel during the dig.
The archaeologist added that the tunnel was probably used to channel water to a pool by the palace, and eventually was converted to an escape passage near the end of the First Temple period. Additional walls were built to block the tunnel from the sight of anyone of the nearby hill and to protect it from debris filtering in.
The dig, which is being sponsored by the Shalem Center research institute and the City of David Foundation, was carried out under the academic auspices of the Hebrew University.
Hamas Hanna and Mosques Must Go!
Re: Christian leader urges Islamic control of Temple Mount
Hanna himself is closely aligned with the Palestinian cause. He was previously dismissed from his church position after Israel accused him of directly aiding terror organizations. He has held public solidarity meetings with leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah and appears regularly on Palestinian television urging children to engage in suicide attacks.
Hamas Hanna is a wolf in sheep's clothing, a tool, and he clearly aids and abets Nazi Muslim occupation of the Temple Mount - something no true Christian would ever do.
Why Israel doesn't treat Hamas Hanna like the sworn enemy of God and Israel he's proven himself to be, belies reason and betrays justice.
Shame on the Israeli authorities for enabling the Nazi Muslim occupation of Judaism's holiest site, the Temple Mount, to continue! Shame on the godless Israeli authorities for looking the other way as Nazi Muslim discrimination against Jews and Christians occurs daily upon the Temple Mount! Shame on the irresponsible rabbis for their woeful neglect of the Temple Mount, their miserable failure to restore the Temple Mount as the Temple Mount!
Thankfully, the Temple Mount Faithful and the Temple Institute are two witnesses against the current deplorable situation upon the Temple Mount and testify it will soon change.
A House of Prayer for All Peoples?
Jews Must Demand Rights to Temple Mount
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE RABBIS?
David Ben-Ariel posted on 2008-10-30 12:39:58 ET Reply Trace
Hanna himself is closely aligned with the Palestinian cause. He was previously dismissed from his church position after Israel accused him of directly aiding terror organizations. He has held public solidarity meetings with leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah and appears regularly on Palestinian television urging children to engage in suicide attacks.
Hamas Hanna is a wolf in sheep's clothing, a tool, and he clearly aids and abets Nazi Muslim occupation of the Temple Mount - something no true Christian would ever do.
Why Israel doesn't treat Hamas Hanna like the sworn enemy of God and Israel he's proven himself to be, belies reason and betrays justice.
Shame on the Israeli authorities for enabling the Nazi Muslim occupation of Judaism's holiest site, the Temple Mount, to continue! Shame on the godless Israeli authorities for looking the other way as Nazi Muslim discrimination against Jews and Christians occurs daily upon the Temple Mount! Shame on the irresponsible rabbis for their woeful neglect of the Temple Mount, their miserable failure to restore the Temple Mount as the Temple Mount!
Thankfully, the Temple Mount Faithful and the Temple Institute are two witnesses against the current deplorable situation upon the Temple Mount and testify it will soon change.
A House of Prayer for All Peoples?
Jews Must Demand Rights to Temple Mount
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE RABBIS?
David Ben-Ariel posted on 2008-10-30 12:39:58 ET Reply Trace
A House of Prayer for All Peoples?
On Simchat Torah (Festival of the Rejoicing of the Law/Last Great Day) I went up to the Temple Mount with my Bible to pray. Although I do not usually wear a kippa (skull cap), I took one with me.
My first challenge was to pass the guards near the Temple Mount entrance; if they saw me with my Bible they would not let me enter. I silently prayed all the way up to the site where God's Temple stood twice, and will be rebuilt for a third and final time, that I would be able to go in. I got past the guards.
You say Jewish guards prevent Christians and Jews from exercising their religious right to pray on the Temple Mount? That's right! Only Muslims have unlimited access to Judaism's most holy site. Only the Koran is permitted within. The Tanach (Jewish Scripture, known to much of the world as the "Old Testament") and Christian Scriptures (the New Testament) are forbidden. Yet Israel claims to respect the religious rights of all people.
Israel has no law against Christians and Jews praying or reading scriptures on the Temple Mount. However, it does have an unwritten agreement with the Wakf (Muslim religious authorities) prohibiting this. No sign is posted, stating: "Warning! Christian and Jewish prayers are forbidden! Bibles not allowed inside by Muslim religious authorities. Proceed with caution!"
I do not accept that Moslems have the authority to forbid me from reading appropriate Psalms or the New Testament account of Jesus celebrating the Water Libation Ceremony (Psalms 120-134, John 7:37). My question was, where should I read those passages? I ended up between the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aksa mosque, just to the right of the place where Moslems wash their hands and feet. I was on the other side of the raised platform there, if you face the Mosque of Omar.
First, I nervously sat and read. Then I put on my black kippa, stood up and started to read for a few minutes until I became distracted by fears of being attacked by the Moslem guards. I sat down, took off my kippa, and continued to read. Then one of the Wakf guards noticed me and asked what I was reading. I replied, "Yes, it's my book." He took it from me and saw that it was a Bible. He demanded to know if I was a Christian or a Jew. When I told him I was a Christian, he asked me why I was wearing a magen David (Star of David).
I did not feel obligated to explain that it was a gift from my mother and youngest sister, and told him, "Give back my Bible." He ordered, "You have to leave now!" Again I said, "Give back my Bible." When he refused, I demanded its return more loudly. He raised his fist as if to hit me and warned me not to raise my voice. This attracted the attention of some passing tourists, who gathered around us. I told them, "This thief has stolen my Bible!"
The Wakf guard told me to leave again and threatened to hit me. He said he would give me back my Bible outside. Since there was no reason for him to confiscate it in the first place, I told him to return it to me then and there and I would go. At this point he radioed an Israeli policeman, who came running. The Israeli handcuffed my right hand, which I raised and showed to the assembled tourists, saying, "This is Israeli democracy!" I asked the Israeli repeatedly, "What law have I broken?" knowing that I had not broken any law, yet was being treated like a common criminal.
I am shocked that Jewish police in the Jewish State help maintain Moslem domination of the Temple Mount by suppressing Christian and Jewish religious rights there. Is it the Temple Mount or the Mosque Mount?
An Israeli policeman led me away. I told the bewildered tourists, "This is what happens to a Christian or Jew who wants to read the Bible where the holy Temple stood. This is what happens to Christians and Jews who want to pray where our prophets and patriarchs prayed, and where Jesus and his disciples taught."
Why the exclusive religious rights for Moslems? And Israel wants to hand over control of Rachel's Tomb, Bethlehem and Joseph's Tomb to Moslem religious authorities?! Are they crazy or what?
In the police station at the Western Wall Plaza, the officers wanted to know who else was with me. They were relieved to find that I was alone. (They should have known I was performing a mitzva [religious commandment]). The police said they arrested me for my own protection. I told them they should have arrested the Wakf guard who threatened me! Why not remove, once and for all, the threat of Moslem violence? Why reward Moslem extremists?
The police laughed in disbelief when I told them I am a Christian and that my Bible includes the New Testament, which they returned to me. A Druze officer said, "But you must respect other religions." He remained silent when I asked, "Where was their respect for mine?" I explained that our Biblical goal is to enable everyone to come and pray on the mountain where God's Temple stood, and in the Temple when it will be rebuilt. It is prophesied to become a "House of Prayer" for all nations.
The police told me I could return to the Temple Mount as a tourist - without my Bible. I said that I do not want to go up there only as a "tourist;" I want to pray there. When they asked me how many times I had been up there, I said "a thousand." They wrote that down in their report. They said I could make a short statement for the record. I said something to this effect: "Is it too much to ask during this 3,000th anniversary of King David's Jerusalem to peacefully read his inspired words on the Temple Mount?"
When I left the police compound, one of the policemen told me I did a good thing. Once outside, I was met by some Jews who saw the incident and congratulated me.
I pray that this unfortunate encounter will raise awareness of Israel's religious discrimination against Christians and Jews. The situation must change. It will when enough people cry "Basta!" (Italian for "enough!").
May the day soon come when Christians, Jews and Moslems can say: "My House shall be called a house of prayer for all Peoples." (Isaiah 56:7).
The Bible says:
"Moreover, concerning the stranger, who (is) not of Your people Israel, but comes out of a far country for Your Name's sake. For they shall hear of Your great Name, and of your mighty hand, and of Your outstretched arm, and will come and pray toward this house. Hear you in heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calls to You for, that all peoples of the earth may know Your Name, to fear you, as (do) Your people Israel, that they may know that Your Name is called upon this house that I have built." (I Kings 8:41-43)
"And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord to serve Him and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants - everyone who observes the Sabbath - I will bring them to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon My altar, for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples." (Isaiah 56:6-7)
"And it shall come to pass at the end of days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established at the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and peoples shall flow to it. And many nations shall go, and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord...and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths,' for out of Zion shall go forth the Torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." (Micah 4:1-2)
(This article was originally published in the Jerusalem-based, Root and Branch Association newsletter, January 1996.)
See Israel's 1967 Protection of Holy Places Law they have failed to enforce and refused to uphold.
David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall.
My first challenge was to pass the guards near the Temple Mount entrance; if they saw me with my Bible they would not let me enter. I silently prayed all the way up to the site where God's Temple stood twice, and will be rebuilt for a third and final time, that I would be able to go in. I got past the guards.
You say Jewish guards prevent Christians and Jews from exercising their religious right to pray on the Temple Mount? That's right! Only Muslims have unlimited access to Judaism's most holy site. Only the Koran is permitted within. The Tanach (Jewish Scripture, known to much of the world as the "Old Testament") and Christian Scriptures (the New Testament) are forbidden. Yet Israel claims to respect the religious rights of all people.
Israel has no law against Christians and Jews praying or reading scriptures on the Temple Mount. However, it does have an unwritten agreement with the Wakf (Muslim religious authorities) prohibiting this. No sign is posted, stating: "Warning! Christian and Jewish prayers are forbidden! Bibles not allowed inside by Muslim religious authorities. Proceed with caution!"
I do not accept that Moslems have the authority to forbid me from reading appropriate Psalms or the New Testament account of Jesus celebrating the Water Libation Ceremony (Psalms 120-134, John 7:37). My question was, where should I read those passages? I ended up between the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aksa mosque, just to the right of the place where Moslems wash their hands and feet. I was on the other side of the raised platform there, if you face the Mosque of Omar.
First, I nervously sat and read. Then I put on my black kippa, stood up and started to read for a few minutes until I became distracted by fears of being attacked by the Moslem guards. I sat down, took off my kippa, and continued to read. Then one of the Wakf guards noticed me and asked what I was reading. I replied, "Yes, it's my book." He took it from me and saw that it was a Bible. He demanded to know if I was a Christian or a Jew. When I told him I was a Christian, he asked me why I was wearing a magen David (Star of David).
I did not feel obligated to explain that it was a gift from my mother and youngest sister, and told him, "Give back my Bible." He ordered, "You have to leave now!" Again I said, "Give back my Bible." When he refused, I demanded its return more loudly. He raised his fist as if to hit me and warned me not to raise my voice. This attracted the attention of some passing tourists, who gathered around us. I told them, "This thief has stolen my Bible!"
The Wakf guard told me to leave again and threatened to hit me. He said he would give me back my Bible outside. Since there was no reason for him to confiscate it in the first place, I told him to return it to me then and there and I would go. At this point he radioed an Israeli policeman, who came running. The Israeli handcuffed my right hand, which I raised and showed to the assembled tourists, saying, "This is Israeli democracy!" I asked the Israeli repeatedly, "What law have I broken?" knowing that I had not broken any law, yet was being treated like a common criminal.
I am shocked that Jewish police in the Jewish State help maintain Moslem domination of the Temple Mount by suppressing Christian and Jewish religious rights there. Is it the Temple Mount or the Mosque Mount?
An Israeli policeman led me away. I told the bewildered tourists, "This is what happens to a Christian or Jew who wants to read the Bible where the holy Temple stood. This is what happens to Christians and Jews who want to pray where our prophets and patriarchs prayed, and where Jesus and his disciples taught."
Why the exclusive religious rights for Moslems? And Israel wants to hand over control of Rachel's Tomb, Bethlehem and Joseph's Tomb to Moslem religious authorities?! Are they crazy or what?
In the police station at the Western Wall Plaza, the officers wanted to know who else was with me. They were relieved to find that I was alone. (They should have known I was performing a mitzva [religious commandment]). The police said they arrested me for my own protection. I told them they should have arrested the Wakf guard who threatened me! Why not remove, once and for all, the threat of Moslem violence? Why reward Moslem extremists?
The police laughed in disbelief when I told them I am a Christian and that my Bible includes the New Testament, which they returned to me. A Druze officer said, "But you must respect other religions." He remained silent when I asked, "Where was their respect for mine?" I explained that our Biblical goal is to enable everyone to come and pray on the mountain where God's Temple stood, and in the Temple when it will be rebuilt. It is prophesied to become a "House of Prayer" for all nations.
The police told me I could return to the Temple Mount as a tourist - without my Bible. I said that I do not want to go up there only as a "tourist;" I want to pray there. When they asked me how many times I had been up there, I said "a thousand." They wrote that down in their report. They said I could make a short statement for the record. I said something to this effect: "Is it too much to ask during this 3,000th anniversary of King David's Jerusalem to peacefully read his inspired words on the Temple Mount?"
When I left the police compound, one of the policemen told me I did a good thing. Once outside, I was met by some Jews who saw the incident and congratulated me.
I pray that this unfortunate encounter will raise awareness of Israel's religious discrimination against Christians and Jews. The situation must change. It will when enough people cry "Basta!" (Italian for "enough!").
May the day soon come when Christians, Jews and Moslems can say: "My House shall be called a house of prayer for all Peoples." (Isaiah 56:7).
The Bible says:
"Moreover, concerning the stranger, who (is) not of Your people Israel, but comes out of a far country for Your Name's sake. For they shall hear of Your great Name, and of your mighty hand, and of Your outstretched arm, and will come and pray toward this house. Hear you in heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calls to You for, that all peoples of the earth may know Your Name, to fear you, as (do) Your people Israel, that they may know that Your Name is called upon this house that I have built." (I Kings 8:41-43)
"And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord to serve Him and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants - everyone who observes the Sabbath - I will bring them to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon My altar, for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples." (Isaiah 56:6-7)
"And it shall come to pass at the end of days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established at the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and peoples shall flow to it. And many nations shall go, and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord...and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths,' for out of Zion shall go forth the Torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." (Micah 4:1-2)
(This article was originally published in the Jerusalem-based, Root and Branch Association newsletter, January 1996.)
See Israel's 1967 Protection of Holy Places Law they have failed to enforce and refused to uphold.
David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Israel's Lost Generation
It seems the days of the young, vibrant sabra in Israel, dedicated to working for retention of the rich Jewish heritage, are a thing of the past...
During the period between Israel’s fight for survival against Arab incursion in 1948 and the battling nation’s hour of glory in the Six Day War of 1967, the tough, tanned, hardworking youth of the Jewish nation became a source of legend. This was the generation that became known as the sabras, named after the cactus that thrives in the Judean hills...
Ron Fraser, Israel's Lost Generation
*****************
The same pioneer spirit is gone in the United States too, with the inspired drive of Manifest Destiny depleted by materialism and hedonism, idolatry and immorality.
Both Jews and Joes (British Israelites) are wandering in the wilderness, adrift, the living dead. Only national repentance can restore us to life, meaning and purpose (2 Chron. 7:14, Dan. 9:11) or the German-Jesuit Europe will be used to bring us to our knees and restore us to our senses.
Why doesn't Ron Fraser (or another PCG writer) visit the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City and write an article about Manifest Destiny?
As mentioned within From Toledo to Jerusalem -
You could say I have a God-given love for the Jews and the nation of Israel (Isaiah 62:6-7). That sacred bond has been strengthened over the years by the fact that I've been blessed to have lived all over Israel, getting to know its land and people quite well.
Apart from 5 months at Ramat Yohanan (where I met my "kibbutz mother," Miriam Weiss) I've also stayed at Sdot Yam on the Mediterranean, next to Caesarea, the site of my first ulpan (intensive Hebrew course), and where Israel's heroine, Hannah Senesh, was from - as well as mentioned in Exodus by Leon Uris; Regavim, near Zichron Yaakov, where I continued my Hebrew lessons amid its rolling green hills; Reshafim, near Bet She'an, with Mt. Gilboa practically in our backyard, and Jordan's mountains in lovely view out front; Adamit, on Lebanon's border, high up on a mountain, from where on clear days you can see all the way to Haifa's Mt. Carmel; Shoval, a rose in the Negev desert, just north of Be'er Sheva; Dan, way up in the northernmost part of Israel, in between Syria and Lebanon, next to the majestic snow-covered Mt. Hermon, where I was living when "Operation Desert Storm" blew in; and Ha'On, with its campground and ostrich farm on the eastern shores of the Sea of Galilee, across from Tiberias; and last but not least, my beloved Jerusalem, next to my favorite spot on earth: the Temple Mount.
During the period between Israel’s fight for survival against Arab incursion in 1948 and the battling nation’s hour of glory in the Six Day War of 1967, the tough, tanned, hardworking youth of the Jewish nation became a source of legend. This was the generation that became known as the sabras, named after the cactus that thrives in the Judean hills...
Ron Fraser, Israel's Lost Generation
*****************
The same pioneer spirit is gone in the United States too, with the inspired drive of Manifest Destiny depleted by materialism and hedonism, idolatry and immorality.
Both Jews and Joes (British Israelites) are wandering in the wilderness, adrift, the living dead. Only national repentance can restore us to life, meaning and purpose (2 Chron. 7:14, Dan. 9:11) or the German-Jesuit Europe will be used to bring us to our knees and restore us to our senses.
Why doesn't Ron Fraser (or another PCG writer) visit the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City and write an article about Manifest Destiny?
As mentioned within From Toledo to Jerusalem -
You could say I have a God-given love for the Jews and the nation of Israel (Isaiah 62:6-7). That sacred bond has been strengthened over the years by the fact that I've been blessed to have lived all over Israel, getting to know its land and people quite well.
Apart from 5 months at Ramat Yohanan (where I met my "kibbutz mother," Miriam Weiss) I've also stayed at Sdot Yam on the Mediterranean, next to Caesarea, the site of my first ulpan (intensive Hebrew course), and where Israel's heroine, Hannah Senesh, was from - as well as mentioned in Exodus by Leon Uris; Regavim, near Zichron Yaakov, where I continued my Hebrew lessons amid its rolling green hills; Reshafim, near Bet She'an, with Mt. Gilboa practically in our backyard, and Jordan's mountains in lovely view out front; Adamit, on Lebanon's border, high up on a mountain, from where on clear days you can see all the way to Haifa's Mt. Carmel; Shoval, a rose in the Negev desert, just north of Be'er Sheva; Dan, way up in the northernmost part of Israel, in between Syria and Lebanon, next to the majestic snow-covered Mt. Hermon, where I was living when "Operation Desert Storm" blew in; and Ha'On, with its campground and ostrich farm on the eastern shores of the Sea of Galilee, across from Tiberias; and last but not least, my beloved Jerusalem, next to my favorite spot on earth: the Temple Mount.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Fanatically negative reviews of Beyond Babylon
Beyond Babylon review
A Must Read, If You Share His Premises,
By Robert Locke
The fanatically negative reviews of other reviewers should clue the potential purchaser in on one thing only: this is a religious book, and as such, is contrary to some people's deeply-held beliefs. David Ben-Ariel is a Christian Zionist, something which upsets some people (read "Moslems") no end. But if you are a Christian seeking the connections between your own religion and Zionism, or a Jew, seeking to understand why some Christians are such staunch supporters of your cousins in the Middle East, this book is one of the best explanations out there. Ben-Ariel is not shy about taking the Bible, and what it implies about contemporary political events, seriously. If you are not a religious believer, you will find his connections between Bible verses and contemporary political events simply irrelevant, but that's up to you.
***************
http://www.davidbenariel.org/
A Must Read, If You Share His Premises,
By Robert Locke
The fanatically negative reviews of other reviewers should clue the potential purchaser in on one thing only: this is a religious book, and as such, is contrary to some people's deeply-held beliefs. David Ben-Ariel is a Christian Zionist, something which upsets some people (read "Moslems") no end. But if you are a Christian seeking the connections between your own religion and Zionism, or a Jew, seeking to understand why some Christians are such staunch supporters of your cousins in the Middle East, this book is one of the best explanations out there. Ben-Ariel is not shy about taking the Bible, and what it implies about contemporary political events, seriously. If you are not a religious believer, you will find his connections between Bible verses and contemporary political events simply irrelevant, but that's up to you.
***************
http://www.davidbenariel.org/
EU without UK
Re: We can never be part of a federal Europe
By Norman Tebbit
*****************
The UK must get out or get stuck in the muck of Babylon. Those nations who cherish sovereignty should exit now from the entangling alliances of the "European" Union, a Jesuit ruse for Germany's Fourth Reich.
We can expect the powers that be to accelerate efforts to forge a United States of Europe to rival and replace the United States of America, smelling blood, due to the globalist bankster scheme to further defraud and deflate weary Americans and the obvious bankrupt spiritual state of its people that foreigner and fraud Obama represents.
Those who continue to sit on the fence risk rupture, and with a deflated and vulnerable America and imminent Iranian nuclear provocation, the heat will be on for the EU to eliminate excess baggage, to trim to a core group of ten nations, that can move at lightning speed.
Posted by David Ben-Ariel on October 28, 2008 1:38 PM
**************************************************
This Philadelphia Trumpet article puts things in perspective:
Does Britain Know What It's In For?
By Norman Tebbit
*****************
The UK must get out or get stuck in the muck of Babylon. Those nations who cherish sovereignty should exit now from the entangling alliances of the "European" Union, a Jesuit ruse for Germany's Fourth Reich.
We can expect the powers that be to accelerate efforts to forge a United States of Europe to rival and replace the United States of America, smelling blood, due to the globalist bankster scheme to further defraud and deflate weary Americans and the obvious bankrupt spiritual state of its people that foreigner and fraud Obama represents.
Those who continue to sit on the fence risk rupture, and with a deflated and vulnerable America and imminent Iranian nuclear provocation, the heat will be on for the EU to eliminate excess baggage, to trim to a core group of ten nations, that can move at lightning speed.
Posted by David Ben-Ariel on October 28, 2008 1:38 PM
**************************************************
This Philadelphia Trumpet article puts things in perspective:
Does Britain Know What It's In For?
Zimbabwe suffers under Black rule
Re: Zimbabwe inflation hits 11,200,000 percent
Once considered the breadbasket of Africa, Zimbabwe has been in the throes of an economic meltdown ever since the country embarked on a chaotic land reform program that has decimated commercial agriculture.
White-Israelite managed Rhodesia was the breadbasket of Africa, but now under atrocious Black misrule, with their racist attacks against White Israelite farmers who worked the land and blessed everybody (why does the media fail to focus on this racial issue?), Zimbabwe is in ruins.
Sold-out South Africa is quickly reverting to its primitive state (due to lack of White Israelite leadership), ANC changes for the worse, and stupid Americans prepare to elect another Black Marxist to office, ignorant and indifferent to the real world and history lessons, having been Obamatized, falling under delusions of Obama's grandeur, easy prey to PC propaganda as White Rhodesians and White South Africans proved to be and now suffer horribly for it.
Warning For America From South Africa
It's A Sin To Vote For Obama!
South Africa's Lame-Duck President
David Ben-Ariel posted on 2008-10-28 10:39:49 ET Reply Trace
Once considered the breadbasket of Africa, Zimbabwe has been in the throes of an economic meltdown ever since the country embarked on a chaotic land reform program that has decimated commercial agriculture.
White-Israelite managed Rhodesia was the breadbasket of Africa, but now under atrocious Black misrule, with their racist attacks against White Israelite farmers who worked the land and blessed everybody (why does the media fail to focus on this racial issue?), Zimbabwe is in ruins.
Sold-out South Africa is quickly reverting to its primitive state (due to lack of White Israelite leadership), ANC changes for the worse, and stupid Americans prepare to elect another Black Marxist to office, ignorant and indifferent to the real world and history lessons, having been Obamatized, falling under delusions of Obama's grandeur, easy prey to PC propaganda as White Rhodesians and White South Africans proved to be and now suffer horribly for it.
Warning For America From South Africa
It's A Sin To Vote For Obama!
South Africa's Lame-Duck President
David Ben-Ariel posted on 2008-10-28 10:39:49 ET Reply Trace
Monday, October 27, 2008
The Bible is ethnocentric
Re: Colin Powell's desertion
Quote:
Originally Posted by scholar
Sheesh. God is no respecter of persons and yes that includes race. Did you conveniently overlook that in your Bible?
Did you overlook that the Bible is an ethnocentric book that focuses on the family of Jacob-Israel and only mentions other nations as they come into contact with the Twelve Tribes of Israel?
Did you overlook that Yeshua said He was only sent to the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel and commanded His disciples to avoid the Gentiles?
Did you overlook where God says to Israel that they alone are the only family He works with?
Did you overlook Paul spoke of sharing the gospel with the JEW FIRST and then the Greek?
Did you overlook the New Jerusalem will be named after the Twelve Tribes of Israel - not African or Beringian immigrant tribes?
Did you overlook where God commands the Israelites to never elect a Gentile over them?
Did you overlook that God says only men are to be ordained as ministers? Does this mean God is a respecter of persons or genders or nations?
Quote:
God loves you, and you know what? He also loves everybody else. He created ALL of us.
And why are you wrestling with yourself and playing with your strawman? NOWHERE in my post do I say God doesn't love Gentiles, Blacks or other non-Whites. Why have you failed to address the LEGITIMATE ISSUES I've dared to share in that OP? Like double standards, reverse discrimination, Black racism, etc.
__________________
Fighting for the Faith once delivered to Jerusalem
http://www.davidbenariel.org/
Quote:
Originally Posted by scholar
Sheesh. God is no respecter of persons and yes that includes race. Did you conveniently overlook that in your Bible?
Did you overlook that the Bible is an ethnocentric book that focuses on the family of Jacob-Israel and only mentions other nations as they come into contact with the Twelve Tribes of Israel?
Did you overlook that Yeshua said He was only sent to the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel and commanded His disciples to avoid the Gentiles?
Did you overlook where God says to Israel that they alone are the only family He works with?
Did you overlook Paul spoke of sharing the gospel with the JEW FIRST and then the Greek?
Did you overlook the New Jerusalem will be named after the Twelve Tribes of Israel - not African or Beringian immigrant tribes?
Did you overlook where God commands the Israelites to never elect a Gentile over them?
Did you overlook that God says only men are to be ordained as ministers? Does this mean God is a respecter of persons or genders or nations?
Quote:
God loves you, and you know what? He also loves everybody else. He created ALL of us.
And why are you wrestling with yourself and playing with your strawman? NOWHERE in my post do I say God doesn't love Gentiles, Blacks or other non-Whites. Why have you failed to address the LEGITIMATE ISSUES I've dared to share in that OP? Like double standards, reverse discrimination, Black racism, etc.
__________________
Fighting for the Faith once delivered to Jerusalem
http://www.davidbenariel.org/
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Shimon Peres came to power over Rabin's dead body
Shimon Peres came to power over Rabin's dead body
I met Yitzhak Rabin in the Israeli Parliament in 1982 during Hanukkah. I was able to talk with him briefly and mention I was associated with Ambassador College in Pasadena, California.That was a tactful way of saying I'm a Christian since I knew he personally knewHerbert W. Armstrong and the Worldwide Church of God, including the Plain Truth magazine. Herbert Armstrong had formerly presented him with a gift of Steuben crystal.I was a volunteer at Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan at the time, in Northern Israel near Haifa. Just so happens Yitzhak Rabin had lived there for over a year in the late '50s.
I initially considered Prime Minister Rabin -- born in Jerusalem -- a traitor for surrendering too much to sworn Arab enemies who had not changed their goal of genocide, only their tactics; for going against clear security concerns he once expressed. (I was in a cafe in Jerusalem when he was shot in Tel Aviv). I refused to attend his funeral, although I had attended the funeral of Meir Kahane, former Israeli parliament member and rabbi, some years before.
Later I found out Yitzhak Rabin was apparently being pressured by the dark powers that be to continue to go against what he knew was wrong and that he resisted and was therefore MURDERED by them for coming to his senses. Shimon Peres came to power over the dead body of Yitzhak Rabin.
I do not believe Yigal Amir murdered Rabin. (I've met Avishai Raviv several times at demonstrations -- he's the government agent provocateur who goaded Yigal Amir to murder Rabin). Yigal Amir is a patsy, the fall-guy, as is thoroughly expounded upon in Who Killed Yitzhak Rabin? by Barry Chamish, his first book that broached the subject and clearly indicts the traitor and murderer suspect Shimon Peres (whose Hebrew name appropriately means vulture).
I repeatedly condemn Shimon Peres as a kapo of compromise, a prostitute who serves his German-Jesuit EU masters, a traitor who has sold and is selling out Jews, Jerusalem and Israel and say as much in my book Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall.
I am on public record against the perfidy of Shimon Peres and continue to expose him. He was the Bolshevik in charge during my unjust deportation, who was very much aware of an article published in Jerusalem where I expose the EU plans for Jerusalem's occupation.
The Israeli Secret Police (six men interrogated me) had a computer disk with Beyond Babylon on it and said many would read it and examine it during their investigation of me during their wild goose chase. I told them to make sure then Prime Minister Shimon Peres read it.
New evidence further PROVES Yigal Amir did not kill Yitzhak Rabin. It's past time Israelis demand: REOPEN THE RABIN FILE. And now with the release of the Kempler video, many are doing just that!
I met Yitzhak Rabin in the Israeli Parliament in 1982 during Hanukkah. I was able to talk with him briefly and mention I was associated with Ambassador College in Pasadena, California.That was a tactful way of saying I'm a Christian since I knew he personally knewHerbert W. Armstrong and the Worldwide Church of God, including the Plain Truth magazine. Herbert Armstrong had formerly presented him with a gift of Steuben crystal.I was a volunteer at Kibbutz Ramat Yohanan at the time, in Northern Israel near Haifa. Just so happens Yitzhak Rabin had lived there for over a year in the late '50s.
I initially considered Prime Minister Rabin -- born in Jerusalem -- a traitor for surrendering too much to sworn Arab enemies who had not changed their goal of genocide, only their tactics; for going against clear security concerns he once expressed. (I was in a cafe in Jerusalem when he was shot in Tel Aviv). I refused to attend his funeral, although I had attended the funeral of Meir Kahane, former Israeli parliament member and rabbi, some years before.
Later I found out Yitzhak Rabin was apparently being pressured by the dark powers that be to continue to go against what he knew was wrong and that he resisted and was therefore MURDERED by them for coming to his senses. Shimon Peres came to power over the dead body of Yitzhak Rabin.
I do not believe Yigal Amir murdered Rabin. (I've met Avishai Raviv several times at demonstrations -- he's the government agent provocateur who goaded Yigal Amir to murder Rabin). Yigal Amir is a patsy, the fall-guy, as is thoroughly expounded upon in Who Killed Yitzhak Rabin? by Barry Chamish, his first book that broached the subject and clearly indicts the traitor and murderer suspect Shimon Peres (whose Hebrew name appropriately means vulture).
I repeatedly condemn Shimon Peres as a kapo of compromise, a prostitute who serves his German-Jesuit EU masters, a traitor who has sold and is selling out Jews, Jerusalem and Israel and say as much in my book Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall.
I am on public record against the perfidy of Shimon Peres and continue to expose him. He was the Bolshevik in charge during my unjust deportation, who was very much aware of an article published in Jerusalem where I expose the EU plans for Jerusalem's occupation.
The Israeli Secret Police (six men interrogated me) had a computer disk with Beyond Babylon on it and said many would read it and examine it during their investigation of me during their wild goose chase. I told them to make sure then Prime Minister Shimon Peres read it.
New evidence further PROVES Yigal Amir did not kill Yitzhak Rabin. It's past time Israelis demand: REOPEN THE RABIN FILE. And now with the release of the Kempler video, many are doing just that!
Yitzhak Rabin's blood on Shimon Peres?
Arise Ye, Saints and Knights
by Barry Chamish
On Yom Kippur, the former Nazi, Pope Benedict XVI, announced that he would approve Pope Pius XII as a saint. Pius, the Holocaust Holy See, could have done much to stop the slaughter of the Jews...
Everyone, but one in Israel, objected to Benedict's plans to raise the butcher pope to sainthood. Unfortunately, the one who did not object was Pres. Shimon Peres. He was too busy planning the pope's visit to Israel for that. And then, on Nov.4, the anniversary of the Peres' murder of Yitzhak Rabin, the Vatican will be mending its ties to the Moslems in Rome..
Pope Benedict made Peres very jealous when he named his plotter buddy, 'Rabbi' David Rosen, a Papal Knight. Not to be undone by his pipsqueak co-conspirator, Peres is pushing hard to be made a knight himself, this time by Queen Elizabeth II of the British Commonwealth...
Arise Ye, Saints and Knights
by Barry Chamish
On Yom Kippur, the former Nazi, Pope Benedict XVI, announced that he would approve Pope Pius XII as a saint. Pius, the Holocaust Holy See, could have done much to stop the slaughter of the Jews...
Everyone, but one in Israel, objected to Benedict's plans to raise the butcher pope to sainthood. Unfortunately, the one who did not object was Pres. Shimon Peres. He was too busy planning the pope's visit to Israel for that. And then, on Nov.4, the anniversary of the Peres' murder of Yitzhak Rabin, the Vatican will be mending its ties to the Moslems in Rome..
Pope Benedict made Peres very jealous when he named his plotter buddy, 'Rabbi' David Rosen, a Papal Knight. Not to be undone by his pipsqueak co-conspirator, Peres is pushing hard to be made a knight himself, this time by Queen Elizabeth II of the British Commonwealth...
Arise Ye, Saints and Knights
Friday, October 24, 2008
Noble like the Bereans
As a Bible-believing Christian, I encourage folks to be noble like the Bereans and search the Scriptures to see whether these things are so, and to remember the early Sabbath-keeping Church of God were falsely accused of being "cult members" by those proud and stubborn religious people who preferred idolatrous traditions over the plain truth of the Bible. God is witness.
Acts 24
14 But this I confess to you, that according to the Way which they [traditionalists] call a cult, so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets.
Acts 28
22 But we desire to hear from you what you think; for concerning this sect, we know that it is spoken against everywhere.
Do You Prefer TRADITION Over Truth?
Is The Plain Truth Too Strong?
The Plain Truth about Herbert W. Armstrong & the Worldwide Church of God
Acts 24
14 But this I confess to you, that according to the Way which they [traditionalists] call a cult, so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets.
Acts 28
22 But we desire to hear from you what you think; for concerning this sect, we know that it is spoken against everywhere.
Do You Prefer TRADITION Over Truth?
Is The Plain Truth Too Strong?
The Plain Truth about Herbert W. Armstrong & the Worldwide Church of God
Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem
"Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem"
(Psalm 122:2)
Tishrei 24, 5769/October 23, 2008
The twenty two days of the holiday season of the month of Tishrei, which includes Rosh HaShana, Yom Kippur, the seven day festival of Sukkot and Shmini Atzeret/Simchat Torah, are days of high spiritual energy. We emerge from Simchat Torah at once exhausted from the spiritual exertion, and at the same time sensing our spiritual batteries charged as we face the coming year.
Our new beginning "coincides" with our return to the book of Genesis, whose first verses we read on Simchat Torah and whose first chapters we read on this upcoming Shabbat, Shabbat B'reishith: The Sabbath of Beginning. Nothing brings forth so vividly and compellingly the challenges that lay before us as we enter a new year, as the Genesis description of Adam HaRishon - the first man, his fall, at it were, after eating from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, and the new and less exalted reality in which he found himself.
The story of Adam HaRishon is, of course, the story of us all. Not only are we all his descendants, but, our sages teach, each and every one of our souls was contained in the soul of Adam. When he erred we were all effected. But the significance of this is not that we are tainted or cursed, G-d forbid, but that we were all created directly by the hand of G-d and imbued with a pure soul. And having been an integral part of the fateful "miscue" of Adam we are empowered, no doubt, to play our part in the final rectification and redemption of mankind.
This twin challenge of rectification and redemption is both worthy of us and we are worthy of it. May G-d grant us the strength and courage to rise up the the tests that await us.
The events of the just concluded festival of Sukkot have inspired us with evidence of a spiritual sea change that is sweeping across the land of Israel. The loud and clear response of the thousands of visionary souls among the children of Israel, "the men, the women, and the children, and your stranger in your cities," precisely as prescribed by Moses, (Deuteronomy 31:12), to journey to Jerusalem and to assemble together as one, (hakhel), on the site of G-d's Holy Temple, (and later within the walls of Jerusalem's ancient city), and even the hesitant but positive response of the police who flanked us as we read from Torah with our feet firmly planted on the Temple Mount, fill us with confidence that the upcoming year will be one of great spiritual strides for the nation of Israel and for all the nations which place their trust in the G-d of Israel.
As a spontaneous expression of our gratitude and excitement, at the conclusion of the holiday season we gathered together in the Temple Institute's video studio and taped an informal discussion between Rabbi Chaim Richman and Temple Institute Director Yehudah Glick about the Hakhel events which the Temple Institute conducted during the first of the intermediary days of Sukkot, and the unprecedented response of the people of Israel who arrived from the four corners of the land by the hundreds and thousands to participate in the biblically commanded Hakhel ceremony and to ascend in reverence to the Temple Mount, where Torah verses were recited aloud to mark the Hakhel.
The Rabbi and Yehudah describe the spiritual awakening they were witness to and the growing reconnection of the Jewish nation with the Temple Mount, the holiest place on earth.
Click here to view.
Today also features the new Light to the Nations teaching by Rabbi Chaim Richman, entitled, "Topography of the Temple Mount, Part I: Maimonides' Laws of the Chosen House, chapter six: The Rambam describes the topographical requirements of the very contour of the Temple Mount." Click here to view.
Two new weekly Torah teachings are also available online this week. Parashat V'Zot Habracha which draws the five books of the Torah to a close, and parashat B'reishith which begins the yearly reading of Torah all over again:
"And this is the blessing with which Moses, the man of G-d, blessed the children of Israel [just] before his death." (Deuteronomy 33:1) Moses remains entirely dedicated to the children of Israel up to the moment of his death, even as he knows that these will be his last words and that he will not join his people in entering into the land of Israel. Click here to view Rabbi Richman's short teaching on parashat V'Zot Habracha (Deuteronomy 33-34).
Adam HaRishon - the first man contained within his soul the souls of all his progeny until the end of time. His "downfall" which occurred when he ate from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge became our opportunity to serve G-d even through our "evil urge." Click here to view Rabbi Richman's short teaching on parashat B'reishith (Genesis 1:1-6:8).
This coming Tuesday, October 28th, Rabbi Chaim Richman and Yitzchak Reuven will return with Temple Talk. The opening Torah readings of B'reishith and Noach, the upcoming month of MarCheshvan, the events of Sukkot, and their hope and plans and visions for the new year of 5769 will all be part of the discussion.
Blessings from the holy city of Jerusalem,
Yitzchak Reuven
THE TEMPLE INSTITUTE
PO Box 31876
Jerusalem, Israel 97500
www.templeinstitute.org
(Psalm 122:2)
Tishrei 24, 5769/October 23, 2008
The twenty two days of the holiday season of the month of Tishrei, which includes Rosh HaShana, Yom Kippur, the seven day festival of Sukkot and Shmini Atzeret/Simchat Torah, are days of high spiritual energy. We emerge from Simchat Torah at once exhausted from the spiritual exertion, and at the same time sensing our spiritual batteries charged as we face the coming year.
Our new beginning "coincides" with our return to the book of Genesis, whose first verses we read on Simchat Torah and whose first chapters we read on this upcoming Shabbat, Shabbat B'reishith: The Sabbath of Beginning. Nothing brings forth so vividly and compellingly the challenges that lay before us as we enter a new year, as the Genesis description of Adam HaRishon - the first man, his fall, at it were, after eating from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, and the new and less exalted reality in which he found himself.
The story of Adam HaRishon is, of course, the story of us all. Not only are we all his descendants, but, our sages teach, each and every one of our souls was contained in the soul of Adam. When he erred we were all effected. But the significance of this is not that we are tainted or cursed, G-d forbid, but that we were all created directly by the hand of G-d and imbued with a pure soul. And having been an integral part of the fateful "miscue" of Adam we are empowered, no doubt, to play our part in the final rectification and redemption of mankind.
This twin challenge of rectification and redemption is both worthy of us and we are worthy of it. May G-d grant us the strength and courage to rise up the the tests that await us.
The events of the just concluded festival of Sukkot have inspired us with evidence of a spiritual sea change that is sweeping across the land of Israel. The loud and clear response of the thousands of visionary souls among the children of Israel, "the men, the women, and the children, and your stranger in your cities," precisely as prescribed by Moses, (Deuteronomy 31:12), to journey to Jerusalem and to assemble together as one, (hakhel), on the site of G-d's Holy Temple, (and later within the walls of Jerusalem's ancient city), and even the hesitant but positive response of the police who flanked us as we read from Torah with our feet firmly planted on the Temple Mount, fill us with confidence that the upcoming year will be one of great spiritual strides for the nation of Israel and for all the nations which place their trust in the G-d of Israel.
As a spontaneous expression of our gratitude and excitement, at the conclusion of the holiday season we gathered together in the Temple Institute's video studio and taped an informal discussion between Rabbi Chaim Richman and Temple Institute Director Yehudah Glick about the Hakhel events which the Temple Institute conducted during the first of the intermediary days of Sukkot, and the unprecedented response of the people of Israel who arrived from the four corners of the land by the hundreds and thousands to participate in the biblically commanded Hakhel ceremony and to ascend in reverence to the Temple Mount, where Torah verses were recited aloud to mark the Hakhel.
The Rabbi and Yehudah describe the spiritual awakening they were witness to and the growing reconnection of the Jewish nation with the Temple Mount, the holiest place on earth.
Click here to view.
Today also features the new Light to the Nations teaching by Rabbi Chaim Richman, entitled, "Topography of the Temple Mount, Part I: Maimonides' Laws of the Chosen House, chapter six: The Rambam describes the topographical requirements of the very contour of the Temple Mount." Click here to view.
Two new weekly Torah teachings are also available online this week. Parashat V'Zot Habracha which draws the five books of the Torah to a close, and parashat B'reishith which begins the yearly reading of Torah all over again:
"And this is the blessing with which Moses, the man of G-d, blessed the children of Israel [just] before his death." (Deuteronomy 33:1) Moses remains entirely dedicated to the children of Israel up to the moment of his death, even as he knows that these will be his last words and that he will not join his people in entering into the land of Israel. Click here to view Rabbi Richman's short teaching on parashat V'Zot Habracha (Deuteronomy 33-34).
Adam HaRishon - the first man contained within his soul the souls of all his progeny until the end of time. His "downfall" which occurred when he ate from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge became our opportunity to serve G-d even through our "evil urge." Click here to view Rabbi Richman's short teaching on parashat B'reishith (Genesis 1:1-6:8).
This coming Tuesday, October 28th, Rabbi Chaim Richman and Yitzchak Reuven will return with Temple Talk. The opening Torah readings of B'reishith and Noach, the upcoming month of MarCheshvan, the events of Sukkot, and their hope and plans and visions for the new year of 5769 will all be part of the discussion.
Blessings from the holy city of Jerusalem,
Yitzchak Reuven
THE TEMPLE INSTITUTE
PO Box 31876
Jerusalem, Israel 97500
www.templeinstitute.org
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Temple Mount Visit Cut Short by Arab Mob
Temple Mount Visit Cut Short by Arab Mob
by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) A mob of dozens of Arabs threatened and nearly surrounded a group of Jewish worshipers who visited the Temple Mount over the Simchat Torah holiday on Tuesday. The police told the Jews to leave.
The Arabs, who were preparing for a demonstration, approached the Jewish group and chanted "Allahu Akbar" - a phrase ostensibly praising G-d, but often used to herald an imminent terrorist attack.
The police then intervened, told the Jews they should cut their visit short, and arrested two Arabs suspected of inciting the mob. No one was hurt.
Last week, during the Sukkot holiday, Temple Institute Director Yehuda Glick was arrested for several hours while waiting in line with hundreds of others to visit the Temple Mount. The police accused him of "instigation and provocation" in the framework of his activities to encourage Jews to visit the Mount, and asked for a court order keeping him away from the area for six months. Even after the police reduced their demand to 20 days, Jerusalem Magistrates Court Judge Morris Ben-Attar ordered them to release Glick immediately.
The judge stated emphatically that the Jewish right to pray on the Temple Mount is legally guaranteed by the State of Israel.
Some 400 people visited the Mount, Judaism's most sacred site, on Tuesday morning, and another 500 attempted to do so that afternoon - after having coordinated their plans with the police in advance. Despite this, the police were not prepared for such large numbers, refused to allow them in - and arrested Glick in the process.
Speaking later with Arutz-7, Glick expressed "sorrow that the police, instead of admitting their failure in preparing for the hundreds of visitors - even though they knew about them for months in advance - chose instead to take revenge on someone who has led an approach of cooperation with the police."
Glick said that the Tuesday holiday visit did not even start off smoothly: "It was a group of 16 members of the family of Rabbi Yosef Elboim, who has been promoting Temple Mount awareness for 40 years. But the police said that only 15 people were allowed up at once... It took them 20 minutes to decide that the 16th person could also go up. Then, while the Arabs were preparing to demonstrate, the police didn't do anything, and when it began to be a little dangerous, they told the Jews that they had to leave."
Ascent to the Temple Mount is a matter of rabbinic dispute. Many say that it is forbidden according to Jewish Law, because of the danger of setting foot in Biblically-prohibited areas. Other rabbis, however, say that these areas can be clearly delineated, and that those who immerse in a ritual bath [mikveh] and take other rabbinically-prescribed precautions before their visit can be assured that they will walk only in permitted areas. The latter add that it is not only permitted, but also recommended, to visit the Mount under these circumstances.
****************
I've written about how the religious rights of Jews and Christians are trampled daily after suffering such abuse during Simchat Torah years ago. Sad nothing has changed!
The Last Great Day
by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) A mob of dozens of Arabs threatened and nearly surrounded a group of Jewish worshipers who visited the Temple Mount over the Simchat Torah holiday on Tuesday. The police told the Jews to leave.
The Arabs, who were preparing for a demonstration, approached the Jewish group and chanted "Allahu Akbar" - a phrase ostensibly praising G-d, but often used to herald an imminent terrorist attack.
The police then intervened, told the Jews they should cut their visit short, and arrested two Arabs suspected of inciting the mob. No one was hurt.
Last week, during the Sukkot holiday, Temple Institute Director Yehuda Glick was arrested for several hours while waiting in line with hundreds of others to visit the Temple Mount. The police accused him of "instigation and provocation" in the framework of his activities to encourage Jews to visit the Mount, and asked for a court order keeping him away from the area for six months. Even after the police reduced their demand to 20 days, Jerusalem Magistrates Court Judge Morris Ben-Attar ordered them to release Glick immediately.
The judge stated emphatically that the Jewish right to pray on the Temple Mount is legally guaranteed by the State of Israel.
Some 400 people visited the Mount, Judaism's most sacred site, on Tuesday morning, and another 500 attempted to do so that afternoon - after having coordinated their plans with the police in advance. Despite this, the police were not prepared for such large numbers, refused to allow them in - and arrested Glick in the process.
Speaking later with Arutz-7, Glick expressed "sorrow that the police, instead of admitting their failure in preparing for the hundreds of visitors - even though they knew about them for months in advance - chose instead to take revenge on someone who has led an approach of cooperation with the police."
Glick said that the Tuesday holiday visit did not even start off smoothly: "It was a group of 16 members of the family of Rabbi Yosef Elboim, who has been promoting Temple Mount awareness for 40 years. But the police said that only 15 people were allowed up at once... It took them 20 minutes to decide that the 16th person could also go up. Then, while the Arabs were preparing to demonstrate, the police didn't do anything, and when it began to be a little dangerous, they told the Jews that they had to leave."
Ascent to the Temple Mount is a matter of rabbinic dispute. Many say that it is forbidden according to Jewish Law, because of the danger of setting foot in Biblically-prohibited areas. Other rabbis, however, say that these areas can be clearly delineated, and that those who immerse in a ritual bath [mikveh] and take other rabbinically-prescribed precautions before their visit can be assured that they will walk only in permitted areas. The latter add that it is not only permitted, but also recommended, to visit the Mount under these circumstances.
****************
I've written about how the religious rights of Jews and Christians are trampled daily after suffering such abuse during Simchat Torah years ago. Sad nothing has changed!
The Last Great Day
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
The Last Great Day
On Simchat Torah (Festival of the Rejoicing of the Law/Last Great Day) I went up to the Temple Mount with my Bible to pray. Although I do not usually wear a kippa (skull cap), I took one with me.
My first challenge was to pass the guards near the Temple Mount entrance; if they saw me with my Bible they would not let me enter. I silently prayed all the way up to the site where God's Temple stood twice, and will be rebuilt for a third and final time, that I would be able to go in. I got past the guards.
You say Jewish guards prevent Christians and Jews from exercising their religious right to pray on the Temple Mount? That's right! Only Muslims have unlimited access to Judaism's most holy site. Only the Koran is permitted within. The Tanach (Jewish Scripture, known to much of the world as the "Old Testament") and Christian Scriptures (the New Testament) are forbidden. Yet Israel claims to respect the religious rights of all people.
Israel has no law against Christians and Jews praying or reading scriptures on the Temple Mount. However, it does have an unwritten agreement with the Wakf (Muslim religious authorities) prohibiting this. No sign is posted, stating: "Warning! Christian and Jewish prayers are forbidden! Bibles not allowed inside by Muslim religious authorities. Proceed with caution!"
I do not accept that Moslems have the authority to forbid me from reading appropriate Psalms or the New Testament account of Jesus celebrating the Water Libation Ceremony (Psalms 120-134, John 7:37). My question was, where should I read those passages? I ended up between the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aksa mosque, just to the right of the place where Moslems wash their hands and feet. I was on the other side of the raised platform there, if you face the Mosque of Omar.
First, I nervously sat and read. Then I put on my black kippa, stood up and started to read for a few minutes until I became distracted by fears of being attacked by the Moslem guards. I sat down, took off my kippa, and continued to read. Then one of the Wakf guards noticed me and asked what I was reading. I replied, "Yes, it's my book." He took it from me and saw that it was a Bible. He demanded to know if I was a Christian or a Jew. When I told him I was a Christian, he asked me why I was wearing a magen David (Star of David).
I did not feel obligated to explain that it was a gift from my mother and youngest sister, and told him, "Give back my Bible." He ordered, "You have to leave now!" Again I said, "Give back my Bible." When he refused, I demanded its return more loudly. He raised his fist as if to hit me and warned me not to raise my voice. This attracted the attention of some passing tourists, who gathered around us. I told them, "This thief has stolen my Bible!"
The Wakf guard told me to leave again and threatened to hit me. He said he would give me back my Bible outside. Since there was no reason for him to confiscate it in the first place, I told him to return it to me then and there and I would go. At this point he radioed an Israeli policeman, who came running. The Israeli handcuffed my right hand, which I raised and showed to the assembled tourists, saying, "This is Israeli democracy!" I asked the Israeli repeatedly, "What law have I broken?" knowing that I had not broken any law, yet was being treated like a common criminal.
I am shocked that Jewish police in the Jewish State help maintain Moslem domination of the Temple Mount by suppressing Christian and Jewish religious rights there. Is it the Temple Mount or the Mosque Mount?
An Israeli policeman led me away. I told the bewildered tourists, "This is what happens to a Christian or Jew who wants to read the Bible where the holy Temple stood. This is what happens to Christians and Jews who want to pray where our prophets and patriarchs prayed, and where Jesus and his disciples taught."
Why the exclusive religious rights for Moslems? And Israel wants to hand over control of Rachel's Tomb, Bethlehem and Joseph's Tomb to Moslem religious authorities?! Are they crazy or what?
In the police station at the Western Wall Plaza, the officers wanted to know who else was with me. They were relieved to find that I was alone. (They should have known I was performing a mitzva [religious commandment]). The police said they arrested me for my own protection. I told them they should have arrested the Wakf guard who threatened me! Why not remove, once and for all, the threat of Moslem violence? Why reward Moslem extremists?
The police laughed in disbelief when I told them I am a Christian and that my Bible includes the New Testament, which they returned to me. A Druze officer said, "But you must respect other religions." He remained silent when I asked, "Where was their respect for mine?" I explained that our Biblical goal is to enable everyone to come and pray on the mountain where God's Temple stood, and in the Temple when it will be rebuilt. It is prophesied to become a "House of Prayer" for all nations.
The police told me I could return to the Temple Mount as a tourist - without my Bible. I said that I do not want to go up there only as a "tourist;" I want to pray there. When they asked me how many times I had been up there, I said "a thousand." They wrote that down in their report. They said I could make a short statement for the record. I said something to this effect: "Is it too much to ask during this 3,000th anniversary of King David's Jerusalem to peacefully read his inspired words on the Temple Mount?"
When I left the police compound, one of the policemen told me I did a good thing. Once outside, I was met by some Jews who saw the incident and congratulated me.
I pray that this unfortunate encounter will raise awareness of Israel's religious discrimination against Christians and Jews. The situation must change. It will when enough people cry "Basta!" (Italian for "enough!").
May the day soon come when Christians, Jews and Moslems can say: "My House shall be called a house of prayer for all Peoples." (Isaiah 56:7). The Bible says:
"Moreover, concerning the stranger, who (is) not of Your people Israel, but comes out of a far country for Your Name's sake. For they shall hear of Your great Name, and of your mighty hand, and of Your outstretched arm, and will come and pray toward this house. Hear you in heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calls to You for, that all peoples of the earth may know Your Name, to fear you, as (do) Your people Israel, that they may know that Your Name is called upon this house that I have built." (I Kings 8:41-43)
"And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord to serve Him and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants - everyone who observes the Sabbath - I will bring them to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon My altar, for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples." (Isaiah 56:6-7)
"And it shall come to pass at the end of days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established at the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and peoples shall flow to it. And many nations shall go, and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord...and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths,' for out of Zion shall go forth the Torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." (Micah 4:1-2)
(This article was originally published in the Jerusalem-based, Root and Branch Association newsletter, January 1996.)
See Israel's 1967 Protection of Holy Places Law they have failed to enforce and refused to uphold.
David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall.
My first challenge was to pass the guards near the Temple Mount entrance; if they saw me with my Bible they would not let me enter. I silently prayed all the way up to the site where God's Temple stood twice, and will be rebuilt for a third and final time, that I would be able to go in. I got past the guards.
You say Jewish guards prevent Christians and Jews from exercising their religious right to pray on the Temple Mount? That's right! Only Muslims have unlimited access to Judaism's most holy site. Only the Koran is permitted within. The Tanach (Jewish Scripture, known to much of the world as the "Old Testament") and Christian Scriptures (the New Testament) are forbidden. Yet Israel claims to respect the religious rights of all people.
Israel has no law against Christians and Jews praying or reading scriptures on the Temple Mount. However, it does have an unwritten agreement with the Wakf (Muslim religious authorities) prohibiting this. No sign is posted, stating: "Warning! Christian and Jewish prayers are forbidden! Bibles not allowed inside by Muslim religious authorities. Proceed with caution!"
I do not accept that Moslems have the authority to forbid me from reading appropriate Psalms or the New Testament account of Jesus celebrating the Water Libation Ceremony (Psalms 120-134, John 7:37). My question was, where should I read those passages? I ended up between the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aksa mosque, just to the right of the place where Moslems wash their hands and feet. I was on the other side of the raised platform there, if you face the Mosque of Omar.
First, I nervously sat and read. Then I put on my black kippa, stood up and started to read for a few minutes until I became distracted by fears of being attacked by the Moslem guards. I sat down, took off my kippa, and continued to read. Then one of the Wakf guards noticed me and asked what I was reading. I replied, "Yes, it's my book." He took it from me and saw that it was a Bible. He demanded to know if I was a Christian or a Jew. When I told him I was a Christian, he asked me why I was wearing a magen David (Star of David).
I did not feel obligated to explain that it was a gift from my mother and youngest sister, and told him, "Give back my Bible." He ordered, "You have to leave now!" Again I said, "Give back my Bible." When he refused, I demanded its return more loudly. He raised his fist as if to hit me and warned me not to raise my voice. This attracted the attention of some passing tourists, who gathered around us. I told them, "This thief has stolen my Bible!"
The Wakf guard told me to leave again and threatened to hit me. He said he would give me back my Bible outside. Since there was no reason for him to confiscate it in the first place, I told him to return it to me then and there and I would go. At this point he radioed an Israeli policeman, who came running. The Israeli handcuffed my right hand, which I raised and showed to the assembled tourists, saying, "This is Israeli democracy!" I asked the Israeli repeatedly, "What law have I broken?" knowing that I had not broken any law, yet was being treated like a common criminal.
I am shocked that Jewish police in the Jewish State help maintain Moslem domination of the Temple Mount by suppressing Christian and Jewish religious rights there. Is it the Temple Mount or the Mosque Mount?
An Israeli policeman led me away. I told the bewildered tourists, "This is what happens to a Christian or Jew who wants to read the Bible where the holy Temple stood. This is what happens to Christians and Jews who want to pray where our prophets and patriarchs prayed, and where Jesus and his disciples taught."
Why the exclusive religious rights for Moslems? And Israel wants to hand over control of Rachel's Tomb, Bethlehem and Joseph's Tomb to Moslem religious authorities?! Are they crazy or what?
In the police station at the Western Wall Plaza, the officers wanted to know who else was with me. They were relieved to find that I was alone. (They should have known I was performing a mitzva [religious commandment]). The police said they arrested me for my own protection. I told them they should have arrested the Wakf guard who threatened me! Why not remove, once and for all, the threat of Moslem violence? Why reward Moslem extremists?
The police laughed in disbelief when I told them I am a Christian and that my Bible includes the New Testament, which they returned to me. A Druze officer said, "But you must respect other religions." He remained silent when I asked, "Where was their respect for mine?" I explained that our Biblical goal is to enable everyone to come and pray on the mountain where God's Temple stood, and in the Temple when it will be rebuilt. It is prophesied to become a "House of Prayer" for all nations.
The police told me I could return to the Temple Mount as a tourist - without my Bible. I said that I do not want to go up there only as a "tourist;" I want to pray there. When they asked me how many times I had been up there, I said "a thousand." They wrote that down in their report. They said I could make a short statement for the record. I said something to this effect: "Is it too much to ask during this 3,000th anniversary of King David's Jerusalem to peacefully read his inspired words on the Temple Mount?"
When I left the police compound, one of the policemen told me I did a good thing. Once outside, I was met by some Jews who saw the incident and congratulated me.
I pray that this unfortunate encounter will raise awareness of Israel's religious discrimination against Christians and Jews. The situation must change. It will when enough people cry "Basta!" (Italian for "enough!").
May the day soon come when Christians, Jews and Moslems can say: "My House shall be called a house of prayer for all Peoples." (Isaiah 56:7). The Bible says:
"Moreover, concerning the stranger, who (is) not of Your people Israel, but comes out of a far country for Your Name's sake. For they shall hear of Your great Name, and of your mighty hand, and of Your outstretched arm, and will come and pray toward this house. Hear you in heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calls to You for, that all peoples of the earth may know Your Name, to fear you, as (do) Your people Israel, that they may know that Your Name is called upon this house that I have built." (I Kings 8:41-43)
"And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord to serve Him and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants - everyone who observes the Sabbath - I will bring them to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon My altar, for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples." (Isaiah 56:6-7)
"And it shall come to pass at the end of days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established at the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and peoples shall flow to it. And many nations shall go, and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord...and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths,' for out of Zion shall go forth the Torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." (Micah 4:1-2)
(This article was originally published in the Jerusalem-based, Root and Branch Association newsletter, January 1996.)
See Israel's 1967 Protection of Holy Places Law they have failed to enforce and refused to uphold.
David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall.
Shame on Colin Powell!
Colin Powell's surrender to race over reason
After all is said and done, all the pretty platitudes and syrupy speeches about the "brotherhood of man," "aren't we all equal?" and other abused mantras are mouthed mindlessly, some are shocked to see that RACE MATTERS.
Yes, race matters. Whites have been fooled into thinking it doesn't, our God-given privileges and proper status undermined as others gain ground we've conceded falling for treacherous PC lies.
We really shouldn't be surprised at what we're seeing with our own eyes (yet too many remain in denial and have a harsher rude awakening on the way), as realists, hotly branded as "racists" and tar and feathered as "White supremacists" (as if hateful name-calling dismisses the truth to power such brave souls speak), have warned about these consequences for years.
Colin Powell's surrender to race over reason is only the tip of the iceberg of the betrayals and blackmails the United States can expect to suffer under a Black Marxist regime as that fraud and foreigner, Barack Obama, would foment.
The rise of Obama is truly "a spiritual event," representing the decline of the United States, a CURSE that White Israelites are suffering from by increasingly militant minorities (due to our idolatry and immorality - Daniel 9:11), even as our White Israelite brethren in raped Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe ruins) and besieged South Africa suffer from the primitive majority they shamefully empowered.
Whether folks like it or not, the alternative to White Power is Black Power and history proves what a miserable failure that has been: how neighborhoods and nations go into rapid decline and everybody suffers, since the Blacks have demanded the most and contributed the least to world civilization and show no signs of improvement.
You don't believe it? You don't want to believe it? Read this revealing article written by a Black African man and free your mind of its shackles, get off the politically correct plantation, let the truth set you free:
Why Black People Have Remained Backwards
May our Great Creator God, the God of Israel, the God of the Bible, restore sanity in our White Israelite lands, and grant repentance that proper White power may be restored, blessing every color and creed.
After all is said and done, all the pretty platitudes and syrupy speeches about the "brotherhood of man," "aren't we all equal?" and other abused mantras are mouthed mindlessly, some are shocked to see that RACE MATTERS.
Yes, race matters. Whites have been fooled into thinking it doesn't, our God-given privileges and proper status undermined as others gain ground we've conceded falling for treacherous PC lies.
We really shouldn't be surprised at what we're seeing with our own eyes (yet too many remain in denial and have a harsher rude awakening on the way), as realists, hotly branded as "racists" and tar and feathered as "White supremacists" (as if hateful name-calling dismisses the truth to power such brave souls speak), have warned about these consequences for years.
Colin Powell's surrender to race over reason is only the tip of the iceberg of the betrayals and blackmails the United States can expect to suffer under a Black Marxist regime as that fraud and foreigner, Barack Obama, would foment.
The rise of Obama is truly "a spiritual event," representing the decline of the United States, a CURSE that White Israelites are suffering from by increasingly militant minorities (due to our idolatry and immorality - Daniel 9:11), even as our White Israelite brethren in raped Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe ruins) and besieged South Africa suffer from the primitive majority they shamefully empowered.
Whether folks like it or not, the alternative to White Power is Black Power and history proves what a miserable failure that has been: how neighborhoods and nations go into rapid decline and everybody suffers, since the Blacks have demanded the most and contributed the least to world civilization and show no signs of improvement.
You don't believe it? You don't want to believe it? Read this revealing article written by a Black African man and free your mind of its shackles, get off the politically correct plantation, let the truth set you free:
Why Black People Have Remained Backwards
May our Great Creator God, the God of Israel, the God of the Bible, restore sanity in our White Israelite lands, and grant repentance that proper White power may be restored, blessing every color and creed.
Monday, October 20, 2008
PCG
Philadelphia Church of God (PCG)
Philadelphia Church of God Leads the Laodicean Era (Part 1)
When Gerald Flurry wasn't anything in his own sight or mind God used him and now, unfortunately, it appears to have gone to his head, all the new revelation (simply a deeper understanding of some things), and he forgets that all truth is from and belongs to GOD and that God can use a donkey to deliver it (1 Cor. 4:7). Gerald Flurry has become so swollen in his own imagination that he fails to see that he is the leader of LAODICEA! He knows what warning God is giving the Laodiceans, of which he is chief! He had better heed his own words...
Philadelphia Church of God Leads Laodicean Era (Conclusion)
"It's certainly not my place to determine if what you believe God has shown you is true or not, but would you mind presenting Mr. Flurry with an abbreviated version of what you feel is inspired... as I highly doubt that he would have time to read your whole book."
Stephen Flurry and The Philadelphia Church of God
Stephen Flurry, son of Gerald Flurry, pastor general of the Philadelphia Church of God (based in Edmond, Oklahoma), has published a book that Amazon sells, Raising the Ruins: The Fight to Revive the Legacy of Herbert W. Armstrong.
The Work of God Must Go Forward!
The Work of God must go forward. The only work that's left to do now is focus on the NATIONAL LEVEL. We must get out God's ultimatum and fast! Europe is on the rise and Jerusalem is getting international attention (Zech. 14:2). Soon God's two witnesses will rise and shine in a world of darkness (Isa. 60:1-2). God's about to restore His lamp to the Middle East! (Rev. 11:3; 1 Kgs. 11:36; Amos 9:11; Zech. 12:8).
PCG: Carrying on Business as Usual
If you truly saw what is coming on this Earth, and had a vision of tomorrow, you would know that the Gathering Storm darkens as you sip champagne and boast that you're rich and in need of nothing, woefully ignorant that the Two Witnesses will soon be wearing sackcloth and fasting, not wining and dining at black tie dinners!
The Church of God Must Warn the World!
We know that certain prophecies were not to be fulfilled until these "last days." Therefore their sealed messages weren't to break their silence until the appointed time (Dan. 12:9). With the advent of the nuclear age, we've been living, for the first time in history, with the weapons of mass destruction that can erase all life from off planet Earth! (Matt. 24:21-22).
Politics in the Church of God Hinders Progress
Gerald Flurry refused to go forward with Beyond Babylon and fell backwards, treading old ground and is now going in circles, business as usual, as Europe rises and Judah and Israel have yet to be warned.
Worldwide Church Of God All Over Again?
Let’s see to it that Philadelphia Church of God (Judah) doesn’t go the way of the Worldwide Church of God (Israel). These biblical principles still apply: don’t put undue trust in men; work out your own salvation, it’s not a group affair; beware the scholarly approach that demands you rely on men - not God’s Spirit or personal Bible study.
The Watchmen
"I have set Watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem"
God has called us to do a Work! Anyone can and should do good works in private, but God has called us collectively to COME OUT OF THE CLOSET and deliver His Message! We're to help save individuals and nations from the coming Holocaust!
Philadelphia Church of God Leads the Laodicean Era (Part 1)
When Gerald Flurry wasn't anything in his own sight or mind God used him and now, unfortunately, it appears to have gone to his head, all the new revelation (simply a deeper understanding of some things), and he forgets that all truth is from and belongs to GOD and that God can use a donkey to deliver it (1 Cor. 4:7). Gerald Flurry has become so swollen in his own imagination that he fails to see that he is the leader of LAODICEA! He knows what warning God is giving the Laodiceans, of which he is chief! He had better heed his own words...
Philadelphia Church of God Leads Laodicean Era (Conclusion)
"It's certainly not my place to determine if what you believe God has shown you is true or not, but would you mind presenting Mr. Flurry with an abbreviated version of what you feel is inspired... as I highly doubt that he would have time to read your whole book."
Stephen Flurry and The Philadelphia Church of God
Stephen Flurry, son of Gerald Flurry, pastor general of the Philadelphia Church of God (based in Edmond, Oklahoma), has published a book that Amazon sells, Raising the Ruins: The Fight to Revive the Legacy of Herbert W. Armstrong.
The Work of God Must Go Forward!
The Work of God must go forward. The only work that's left to do now is focus on the NATIONAL LEVEL. We must get out God's ultimatum and fast! Europe is on the rise and Jerusalem is getting international attention (Zech. 14:2). Soon God's two witnesses will rise and shine in a world of darkness (Isa. 60:1-2). God's about to restore His lamp to the Middle East! (Rev. 11:3; 1 Kgs. 11:36; Amos 9:11; Zech. 12:8).
PCG: Carrying on Business as Usual
If you truly saw what is coming on this Earth, and had a vision of tomorrow, you would know that the Gathering Storm darkens as you sip champagne and boast that you're rich and in need of nothing, woefully ignorant that the Two Witnesses will soon be wearing sackcloth and fasting, not wining and dining at black tie dinners!
The Church of God Must Warn the World!
We know that certain prophecies were not to be fulfilled until these "last days." Therefore their sealed messages weren't to break their silence until the appointed time (Dan. 12:9). With the advent of the nuclear age, we've been living, for the first time in history, with the weapons of mass destruction that can erase all life from off planet Earth! (Matt. 24:21-22).
Politics in the Church of God Hinders Progress
Gerald Flurry refused to go forward with Beyond Babylon and fell backwards, treading old ground and is now going in circles, business as usual, as Europe rises and Judah and Israel have yet to be warned.
Worldwide Church Of God All Over Again?
Let’s see to it that Philadelphia Church of God (Judah) doesn’t go the way of the Worldwide Church of God (Israel). These biblical principles still apply: don’t put undue trust in men; work out your own salvation, it’s not a group affair; beware the scholarly approach that demands you rely on men - not God’s Spirit or personal Bible study.
The Watchmen
"I have set Watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem"
God has called us to do a Work! Anyone can and should do good works in private, but God has called us collectively to COME OUT OF THE CLOSET and deliver His Message! We're to help save individuals and nations from the coming Holocaust!
Biblical Ceremonies on Temple Mount
2000 Years of Silence Come to an End:
Hakhel Ceremonies Performed on the Temple Mount and in the Old City of Jerusalem
Chag Sukkot
Tishrei 18, 5769/October 17, 2008
While the nations of the world are being rocked by financial turbulence and meteorological volatility, in the holy city of Jerusalem history is being written with a steady hand amidst increasing signs that the long awaited redemption is at last drawing near. October 15th, the first day of Chol Hamoed, (1st day of the intermediate days of Sukkot), the designated day for the Biblically commanded "gathering" ceremony:
The unique commandment recorded in the book of Devarim - Deuteronomy - known as the Hakhel (literally, "gather together") tells us that the King of Israel is to gather together the entire nation of Israel - men, women and children - to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem once every seven years, during the intermediary days of the Festival of Sukkot, at the conclusion of the seven year Sabbatical cycle. There, he is to read the Torah before the entire congregation, from selected passages in the book of Deuteronomy. The purpose of this special gathering is to inspire the people to walk in the ways of G-d and cling to His Torah:
"'At the end of [every] seven years, at an appointed time, in the Festival of Sukkot, [after] the sabbatical year, when all Israel comes to appear before HaShem, your G-d, in the place He will choose you shall read this Torah before all Israel, in their ears.'" (Deuteronomy 31:10)
After months of quiet but intensive behind the scenes meetings with Israel's Internal Security Minister, top Jerusalem police officials, members of Israel's Knesset, and relevant parliamentary committees, (all the tireless effort of Yehudah Glick the Temple Institute's Director), word went out across the length and the breadth of the land of Israel that a Hakhel ceremony would be taking place on Biblical schedule upon the Temple Mount.
On Wednesday morning over 1000 Jews arrived at the Temple Mount's Moghrabi Gate entrance in order to perform the once-in-seven years commandment. To learn more about this historic event and to see photographs, please click here.
At the very same time, while conducting an on-the-Temple Mount Hakhel ceremony for the first time in 2000 years, the Temple Institute's entire staff was also busy with last minute preparations for a second Hakhel gathering, this one in the Gan Tekuma park adjacent to the Jewish Quarter inside of Jerusalem's old city walls. This Hakhel ceremony included, along with the appropriate Hakhel readings from Deuteronomy, a presentation of many of the Institute's accomplishments from the past (5768) year.
Included were newly fashioned silver trumpets, the golden crown - tzitz - of the high priest, the first time wearing of bigdei kehuna - priestly garments for the lay priests, by five distinguished kohanim - priests, and the official unveiling of the just completed Kiyor Nechoshet - Brass Laver for the sanctification of the hands and feet of the priests before they begin their daily service in the Holy Temple. The two ton Kiyor had been transported by truck prior to the first day of Sukkot from the northern Israeli city of Akko, where it was manufactured by the Buchbut Metalworks Factory. It spent the night in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Choma. Following the conclusion of the first day of Sukkot the Kiyor was then delivered to the Temple Institute. Arriving in the old city at two in the morning, it was lowered by crane into Gan Tekuma, where it was guarded throughout the night by a number of dedicated volunteers.
Meanwhile, the sound and lighting systems and the main stage for the ceremony were being put in place. The ceremony was scheduled to begin at 4:30 PM, but already hours before curious onlookers, intrigued by the massive Kiyor, now covered by a blue tarp, began to gather round.
By the time the Hakhel ceremony began, thousands of spectators had already gathered, spilling out of Gan Tekuma into the adjacent open areas. The road above Gan Tekuma filled with people making vehicular traffic impossible. The old city wall which ran high above behind the stage likewise filled with onlookers.
A very moving evening ensued. Each of the five kohanim, (Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Avi Kahane, Menachem Cohen, Ariel Reigel and Micha Katz), took turns reading Hakhel verses from a Torah scroll, after which they stood and sounded the silver trumpets. The golden tzitz was placed upon the head of one of the priests. A description of the details of the priestly garments followed, and as a grand finale the Kiyor was unveiled.
The enthusiastic assembly crowded around the Kiyor. Children touched and explored the Brass Laver, while parents described to them how the laver works and how the priests much sanctify their hands and feet each day. The Hakhel ceremony had officially concluded, but for well over an hour people thronged around the Kiyor, savoring, as it were, the magic of the moment, beholding the unfolding of history, the march of destiny. To see photographs from the Hakhel ceremony, please click here.
After emerging from the cleansing, powerful experience of Yom Kippur, we enter into the Sukkah to experience the loving embrace of the Divine Presence. "Armed" with the unique commandment of the Four Species (etrog, lulav, hadasim and aravot), we celebrate the "season of our joy," a time of renewal and the ingathering of our strengths and potentials. But Sukkot is even more than all that it brings with it the promise of Divine Inspiration and even the renewal of prophecy. Join Yitzchak Reuven and Rabbi Chaim Richman in this special Sukkot edition of Temple Talk for a tour de force of this incomparable season of pure joy.
To learn how Sukkot is observed in the Holy Temple, please click here.
This week features the latest Bat Melech video teaching by Rabanit Rena Richman, entitled, "Rachav: Profile in Repentance, Part II: Rachav, the women of "ill-repute" who lived in the wall of Jericho not only hosted the two spies sent by Joshua, but used the opportunity their presence afforded her to repent of her past deeds, and become herself a righteous woman of valor." Click here to view.
Today also features the new Light to the Nations teaching by Rabbi Chaim Richman, entitled, "The Sukkot Special: Deep secrets of the joy that characterizes the holiday of Sukkot." Both part I and part II are currently online. Click here to view.
Chag Sameach - a joy filled Sukkot to all,
Yitzchak Reuven
THE TEMPLE INSTITUTE
PO Box 31876
Jerusalem, Israel 97500
http://www.templeinstitute.org/
Hakhel Ceremonies Performed on the Temple Mount and in the Old City of Jerusalem
Chag Sukkot
Tishrei 18, 5769/October 17, 2008
While the nations of the world are being rocked by financial turbulence and meteorological volatility, in the holy city of Jerusalem history is being written with a steady hand amidst increasing signs that the long awaited redemption is at last drawing near. October 15th, the first day of Chol Hamoed, (1st day of the intermediate days of Sukkot), the designated day for the Biblically commanded "gathering" ceremony:
The unique commandment recorded in the book of Devarim - Deuteronomy - known as the Hakhel (literally, "gather together") tells us that the King of Israel is to gather together the entire nation of Israel - men, women and children - to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem once every seven years, during the intermediary days of the Festival of Sukkot, at the conclusion of the seven year Sabbatical cycle. There, he is to read the Torah before the entire congregation, from selected passages in the book of Deuteronomy. The purpose of this special gathering is to inspire the people to walk in the ways of G-d and cling to His Torah:
"'At the end of [every] seven years, at an appointed time, in the Festival of Sukkot, [after] the sabbatical year, when all Israel comes to appear before HaShem, your G-d, in the place He will choose you shall read this Torah before all Israel, in their ears.'" (Deuteronomy 31:10)
After months of quiet but intensive behind the scenes meetings with Israel's Internal Security Minister, top Jerusalem police officials, members of Israel's Knesset, and relevant parliamentary committees, (all the tireless effort of Yehudah Glick the Temple Institute's Director), word went out across the length and the breadth of the land of Israel that a Hakhel ceremony would be taking place on Biblical schedule upon the Temple Mount.
On Wednesday morning over 1000 Jews arrived at the Temple Mount's Moghrabi Gate entrance in order to perform the once-in-seven years commandment. To learn more about this historic event and to see photographs, please click here.
At the very same time, while conducting an on-the-Temple Mount Hakhel ceremony for the first time in 2000 years, the Temple Institute's entire staff was also busy with last minute preparations for a second Hakhel gathering, this one in the Gan Tekuma park adjacent to the Jewish Quarter inside of Jerusalem's old city walls. This Hakhel ceremony included, along with the appropriate Hakhel readings from Deuteronomy, a presentation of many of the Institute's accomplishments from the past (5768) year.
Included were newly fashioned silver trumpets, the golden crown - tzitz - of the high priest, the first time wearing of bigdei kehuna - priestly garments for the lay priests, by five distinguished kohanim - priests, and the official unveiling of the just completed Kiyor Nechoshet - Brass Laver for the sanctification of the hands and feet of the priests before they begin their daily service in the Holy Temple. The two ton Kiyor had been transported by truck prior to the first day of Sukkot from the northern Israeli city of Akko, where it was manufactured by the Buchbut Metalworks Factory. It spent the night in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Choma. Following the conclusion of the first day of Sukkot the Kiyor was then delivered to the Temple Institute. Arriving in the old city at two in the morning, it was lowered by crane into Gan Tekuma, where it was guarded throughout the night by a number of dedicated volunteers.
Meanwhile, the sound and lighting systems and the main stage for the ceremony were being put in place. The ceremony was scheduled to begin at 4:30 PM, but already hours before curious onlookers, intrigued by the massive Kiyor, now covered by a blue tarp, began to gather round.
By the time the Hakhel ceremony began, thousands of spectators had already gathered, spilling out of Gan Tekuma into the adjacent open areas. The road above Gan Tekuma filled with people making vehicular traffic impossible. The old city wall which ran high above behind the stage likewise filled with onlookers.
A very moving evening ensued. Each of the five kohanim, (Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, Avi Kahane, Menachem Cohen, Ariel Reigel and Micha Katz), took turns reading Hakhel verses from a Torah scroll, after which they stood and sounded the silver trumpets. The golden tzitz was placed upon the head of one of the priests. A description of the details of the priestly garments followed, and as a grand finale the Kiyor was unveiled.
The enthusiastic assembly crowded around the Kiyor. Children touched and explored the Brass Laver, while parents described to them how the laver works and how the priests much sanctify their hands and feet each day. The Hakhel ceremony had officially concluded, but for well over an hour people thronged around the Kiyor, savoring, as it were, the magic of the moment, beholding the unfolding of history, the march of destiny. To see photographs from the Hakhel ceremony, please click here.
After emerging from the cleansing, powerful experience of Yom Kippur, we enter into the Sukkah to experience the loving embrace of the Divine Presence. "Armed" with the unique commandment of the Four Species (etrog, lulav, hadasim and aravot), we celebrate the "season of our joy," a time of renewal and the ingathering of our strengths and potentials. But Sukkot is even more than all that it brings with it the promise of Divine Inspiration and even the renewal of prophecy. Join Yitzchak Reuven and Rabbi Chaim Richman in this special Sukkot edition of Temple Talk for a tour de force of this incomparable season of pure joy.
To learn how Sukkot is observed in the Holy Temple, please click here.
This week features the latest Bat Melech video teaching by Rabanit Rena Richman, entitled, "Rachav: Profile in Repentance, Part II: Rachav, the women of "ill-repute" who lived in the wall of Jericho not only hosted the two spies sent by Joshua, but used the opportunity their presence afforded her to repent of her past deeds, and become herself a righteous woman of valor." Click here to view.
Today also features the new Light to the Nations teaching by Rabbi Chaim Richman, entitled, "The Sukkot Special: Deep secrets of the joy that characterizes the holiday of Sukkot." Both part I and part II are currently online. Click here to view.
Chag Sameach - a joy filled Sukkot to all,
Yitzchak Reuven
THE TEMPLE INSTITUTE
PO Box 31876
Jerusalem, Israel 97500
http://www.templeinstitute.org/
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Sphinx Organization violates civil rights
The Sphinx Organization violates the rights of White children!
Re: Sphinx Organization isn't Racist?
Federal funds of $60,000 awarded to Sphinx in '04, it must be determined if they have since received even more.
NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS PROCEDURES FOR FILING CIVIL RIGHTS COMPLAINTS
Who Can File An individual may file a formal complaint with the Office of Civil Rights if they believe that they have been discriminated against by an organization which has received Endowment funds, on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, disability and age. In order to be eligible to file a formal complaint with OCR, you must be a member or a representative for a "protected class." A protected class is comprised of persons who fit into any of the aforementioned categories. Thus, if you believe that you have been discriminated against on the basis of your race, color, national origin, disability, sex, or age, you are a member of a protected class. Federal law prohibits discrimination against any of these classes of individuals. http://www.nea.gov/about/Civil.html
Re: Sphinx Organization isn't Racist?
Federal funds of $60,000 awarded to Sphinx in '04, it must be determined if they have since received even more.
NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS PROCEDURES FOR FILING CIVIL RIGHTS COMPLAINTS
Who Can File An individual may file a formal complaint with the Office of Civil Rights if they believe that they have been discriminated against by an organization which has received Endowment funds, on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, disability and age. In order to be eligible to file a formal complaint with OCR, you must be a member or a representative for a "protected class." A protected class is comprised of persons who fit into any of the aforementioned categories. Thus, if you believe that you have been discriminated against on the basis of your race, color, national origin, disability, sex, or age, you are a member of a protected class. Federal law prohibits discrimination against any of these classes of individuals. http://www.nea.gov/about/Civil.html
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Halloween
EACH YEAR millions around the world observe the strangest of all festivals, Hallowe'en.
What about this strange festival? CLICK HERE to find out more!
What about this strange festival? CLICK HERE to find out more!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Fox Report on PCG
A story on the PCG (Philadelphia Church of God) by Nick Winkler, a reporter at Fox 25 in Oklahoma City, will air in November.
Priestly Blessings
Tens of Thousands at Blessing of the Priests at the Kotel
by Hana Levi Julian
(IsraelNN.com) Thousands of Kohanim, Jewish men descended from members of the priestly class in the People of Israel, gathered at the Kotel (Western Wall) in Jerusalem on Thursday morning for the traditional Birkat HaKohanim.
The Western Wall plaza was packed with some 50,000 Jewish worshippers who streamed into Jerusalem from all over the country and around the world especially for the event.
During the recitation of the blessing, the Kohanim gathered into groups spread their prayer shawls over their own heads, spreading out their arms over the congregation to form a small enclosure that prevented congregants from seeing them during the actual blessing. There is a custom for the congregants who are being blessed to avoid looking at the Kohanim during the blessing as well.
Kohanim have the tradition of being direct descendants of the first High Priest of the Jewish People, Aharon (Aaron), the brother of Moshe (Moses), and as such have a separate status in Judaism. All Kohenim are members of the Tribe of Levi by direct patrilineal descent, although not all members of that tribe are Kohanim. The Levites who were not Kohenim served as Temple assistants and provided the music and songs to accompany ceremonies, among other tasks.
Following the ceremony, Israel's Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger recited a prayer he composed especially for the occation, asking G-d to "rescue" Jonathon Pollard, imprisoned in America for more than 20 years on a single count of espionage for handing classified information to Israel, an allied nation, and kidnapped IDF St. Sgt. Gilad Shalit, held captive by Hamas terrorists in Gaza since June 25, 2006.
Chief Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar followed with a supplication of his own composition as well, asking G-d to take away distress from the People of Israel, to end the numerous tragic motor vehicle accidents that have destroyed so many lives in the country over the past year and the sicknesses that have affected so many people, and finally to decimate Israel's enemies.
To both blessings, some 50,000 voices answered with a resounding, "Amen!" according to an eyewitness, who added that security officers were discreet but clearly present. "It wasn't an overwhelming presence, you didn't get the feeling they were imposing themselves on you, but you did see them everywhere," he said. "I saw one soldier up on a roof with binoculars."
by Hana Levi Julian
(IsraelNN.com) Thousands of Kohanim, Jewish men descended from members of the priestly class in the People of Israel, gathered at the Kotel (Western Wall) in Jerusalem on Thursday morning for the traditional Birkat HaKohanim.
The Western Wall plaza was packed with some 50,000 Jewish worshippers who streamed into Jerusalem from all over the country and around the world especially for the event.
During the recitation of the blessing, the Kohanim gathered into groups spread their prayer shawls over their own heads, spreading out their arms over the congregation to form a small enclosure that prevented congregants from seeing them during the actual blessing. There is a custom for the congregants who are being blessed to avoid looking at the Kohanim during the blessing as well.
Kohanim have the tradition of being direct descendants of the first High Priest of the Jewish People, Aharon (Aaron), the brother of Moshe (Moses), and as such have a separate status in Judaism. All Kohenim are members of the Tribe of Levi by direct patrilineal descent, although not all members of that tribe are Kohanim. The Levites who were not Kohenim served as Temple assistants and provided the music and songs to accompany ceremonies, among other tasks.
Following the ceremony, Israel's Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger recited a prayer he composed especially for the occation, asking G-d to "rescue" Jonathon Pollard, imprisoned in America for more than 20 years on a single count of espionage for handing classified information to Israel, an allied nation, and kidnapped IDF St. Sgt. Gilad Shalit, held captive by Hamas terrorists in Gaza since June 25, 2006.
Chief Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar followed with a supplication of his own composition as well, asking G-d to take away distress from the People of Israel, to end the numerous tragic motor vehicle accidents that have destroyed so many lives in the country over the past year and the sicknesses that have affected so many people, and finally to decimate Israel's enemies.
To both blessings, some 50,000 voices answered with a resounding, "Amen!" according to an eyewitness, who added that security officers were discreet but clearly present. "It wasn't an overwhelming presence, you didn't get the feeling they were imposing themselves on you, but you did see them everywhere," he said. "I saw one soldier up on a roof with binoculars."
Temple Congregation Ceremony
Thousands Gather for Temple Congregation Ceremony
by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) The Temple Institute in Jerusalem's Old City succeeded on Wednesday in arousing a spirit of longing for the Holy Temple amongst a crowd of thousands that gathered for a re-enactment of the Hakhel ceremony.
Of the two once-every-seven-years Biblical commandments - Shemittah and Hakhel - the first lasts for a whole year, while Hakhel takes only an hour or two, but packs a great burst of inspiration into that short period. Binding only when the Holy Temple is standing, it involves a public Torah reading by the King of Israel for the entire nation - men, women, and children - for the purpose of rousing all to stand in awe of G-d and follow the Torah's statutes.
The word Hakhel (pronounced Hock-hel) literally means, in fact, "Gather the people together" (Deut. 31, 10-12).
The Temple Institute held a smaller-scale re-enactment of the event in an Old City park on Wednesday, the first day of the Intermediate Days of the Sukkot holiday following the Shemittah year. Though only 500 people had been expected, several times that amount arrived. The event began with a procession of Kohanim, wearing priestly garments of the type used in the Temple and sounding of silver trumpets of the type sounded in the Temple, making their way through Old City streets until their arrival at the central stage.
Following the afternoon Mincha prayer, Rabbi Yehuda Glick of the Temple Institute introduced the rabbi-priests who were to read from the Torah. Among them were Rabbi Shlomo Riskin of Efrat, Rabbi Menachem Cohen of Jerusalem's Nachlaot neighborhood, and Rav Avi Kahane, as well as Rabbi Azariah Ariel - the head of the Temple Institute's kollel - and Yeshivat Shilo head Rav Araleh Harel.
The passages read aloud included Deut. 1 ("Behold, I have given you this Land; come and inherit this Land promised to your forefathers to give their descendants"), Deut. 11 (about the rewards for fulfilling the Torah and the negative consequences of not doing so), and others.
New Temple Vessel Serves 12 Priests at Once
The ceremony also featured the unveiling of the just-completed Kiyor HaNechoshet, the water source to be used for washing by the Priests several times a day. Built to replicate the Kiyor used in the Holy Temple, it is about nine feet high, weighs two tons, and is made mostly of copper. It comes complete with a computerized system that enables heated water to be used on weekdays, and non-heated water on Sabbaths and festivals, when heating the water is not permitted. Twelve priests can wash their hands and feet at once; each one presses one of two buttons to indicate whether he wants a large amount of water, such as after completing preparing an animal offering, or a small amount to merely purify his hands and feet.
The kiyor was built by Moshe Buchbut, a budding Torah scholar and a member of the family that owns Buchbut Metal Industries in the city of Akko (Acre). He repeated his explanations countless times to the many excited vistitors who asked how he built it and how it works. The Buchbut's decided to build the kiyor during the Second Lebanon War. "From the moment we made the decision," a family spokesman said, "we have been blessed, both in terms of Katyushas that seemed to stop hitting us during the war, and financially."
The actual faucets are expected to be installed in the coming weeks. The kiyor is now standing in a plaza in the Jewish Quarter, and is expected to be placed inside a protective glass container, as is the Temple Institute's Menorah. It had been hoped that the kiyor would be placed in the Western Wall Plaza, but this will apparently not occur in the near future.
A short film describing the Simchat Beit HaShoevah water pouring festival - a mainstay of the Sukkot ceremonies in the Holy Temple - was also screened. The film was prepared, as were the Temple vessels and clothing, by the Temple Institute.
Not Consecrated
Rabbi Glick explained that though the vessels were prepared in fulfillment of the Biblical commandment to fashion them - "we even recited the blessing 'He Who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to fashion the tzitz [Priestly headplate],' for instance" - the vessels have not been consecrated to the Holy Temple and may therefore be used for other purposes, such as education.
by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) The Temple Institute in Jerusalem's Old City succeeded on Wednesday in arousing a spirit of longing for the Holy Temple amongst a crowd of thousands that gathered for a re-enactment of the Hakhel ceremony.
Of the two once-every-seven-years Biblical commandments - Shemittah and Hakhel - the first lasts for a whole year, while Hakhel takes only an hour or two, but packs a great burst of inspiration into that short period. Binding only when the Holy Temple is standing, it involves a public Torah reading by the King of Israel for the entire nation - men, women, and children - for the purpose of rousing all to stand in awe of G-d and follow the Torah's statutes.
The word Hakhel (pronounced Hock-hel) literally means, in fact, "Gather the people together" (Deut. 31, 10-12).
The Temple Institute held a smaller-scale re-enactment of the event in an Old City park on Wednesday, the first day of the Intermediate Days of the Sukkot holiday following the Shemittah year. Though only 500 people had been expected, several times that amount arrived. The event began with a procession of Kohanim, wearing priestly garments of the type used in the Temple and sounding of silver trumpets of the type sounded in the Temple, making their way through Old City streets until their arrival at the central stage.
Following the afternoon Mincha prayer, Rabbi Yehuda Glick of the Temple Institute introduced the rabbi-priests who were to read from the Torah. Among them were Rabbi Shlomo Riskin of Efrat, Rabbi Menachem Cohen of Jerusalem's Nachlaot neighborhood, and Rav Avi Kahane, as well as Rabbi Azariah Ariel - the head of the Temple Institute's kollel - and Yeshivat Shilo head Rav Araleh Harel.
The passages read aloud included Deut. 1 ("Behold, I have given you this Land; come and inherit this Land promised to your forefathers to give their descendants"), Deut. 11 (about the rewards for fulfilling the Torah and the negative consequences of not doing so), and others.
New Temple Vessel Serves 12 Priests at Once
The ceremony also featured the unveiling of the just-completed Kiyor HaNechoshet, the water source to be used for washing by the Priests several times a day. Built to replicate the Kiyor used in the Holy Temple, it is about nine feet high, weighs two tons, and is made mostly of copper. It comes complete with a computerized system that enables heated water to be used on weekdays, and non-heated water on Sabbaths and festivals, when heating the water is not permitted. Twelve priests can wash their hands and feet at once; each one presses one of two buttons to indicate whether he wants a large amount of water, such as after completing preparing an animal offering, or a small amount to merely purify his hands and feet.
The kiyor was built by Moshe Buchbut, a budding Torah scholar and a member of the family that owns Buchbut Metal Industries in the city of Akko (Acre). He repeated his explanations countless times to the many excited vistitors who asked how he built it and how it works. The Buchbut's decided to build the kiyor during the Second Lebanon War. "From the moment we made the decision," a family spokesman said, "we have been blessed, both in terms of Katyushas that seemed to stop hitting us during the war, and financially."
The actual faucets are expected to be installed in the coming weeks. The kiyor is now standing in a plaza in the Jewish Quarter, and is expected to be placed inside a protective glass container, as is the Temple Institute's Menorah. It had been hoped that the kiyor would be placed in the Western Wall Plaza, but this will apparently not occur in the near future.
A short film describing the Simchat Beit HaShoevah water pouring festival - a mainstay of the Sukkot ceremonies in the Holy Temple - was also screened. The film was prepared, as were the Temple vessels and clothing, by the Temple Institute.
Not Consecrated
Rabbi Glick explained that though the vessels were prepared in fulfillment of the Biblical commandment to fashion them - "we even recited the blessing 'He Who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to fashion the tzitz [Priestly headplate],' for instance" - the vessels have not been consecrated to the Holy Temple and may therefore be used for other purposes, such as education.
God-given Names
God-given Names
I was born David A. Hoover on January 10, 1960 in Bowling Green, Ohio. However, I legally changed my name to David Ben-Ariel (with the help of my Jewish lawyer) during the Spring of 1989. It cost me $300.00.
It also required that I take out a small ad in a newspaper announcing my intentions 30 days beforehand. I placed my ad in the Bowling Green Sentinel.
I also had to appear before a judge (it depends on what county you were born) for him to privately question my motivations. He was assured by my lawyer that I wasn’t running from the law or trying to escape some outstanding debt, but that my reasons were religious in nature. The judge accepted that but wanted to impress upon me that I could have "trouble" with that name in America, without elaborating. I felt he meant because it was Jewish and/or could be difficult for some to know how to pronounce. I told him I wasn’t concerned about it since I planned on moving to Israel anyway.
My reasons for changing my name were religious in nature. Why? Because I honestly feel that Ben-Ariel is a God-given name. And why would I feel that way? Because after a Hebrew class where my teacher mentioned how many people change their names when they move to Israel, I went home wondering what surname I would have in Israel, knowing my first name is already Hebrew.
I had always liked the Hebrew last name of Ben-Ammi, after reading it in Leon Uris’ book Exodus, since it means "son of my people," but while thinking about it and wondering what name my father would’ve given me, if he would’ve given me a Hebrew name, I didn’t know. I then knelt down in prayer and asked God what name, IF ANY, would He give me since He's my Heavenly Father, and I couldn’t ask my dad because he died when I was twelve.
I expected God to perhaps lead or guide or influence me to like a particular name, but immediately ARIEL flashed into my mind and immediately I rejected it. Why? Because it means "the Lion of God" and I felt such a name only belongs to Jesus Christ, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. While wondering about the name of Ariel, I remembered that Israel’s defense minister was Ariel Sharon (whom I’ve since met in Jerusalem and Hebron). I reluctantly decided to keep the name in reserve (since it was really impressed upon me!) until God or circumstances might lead me to accept another, and went to bed.
The Bible mentions MANY INCIDENTS where God chose to change someone’s name or to name them before their birth. It is unusual but it’s not unscriptural. There was Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac (Gen. 17:5, 15, 19); Ishmael (Gen. 16:11); Solomon (I Chron. 22:9) and Solomon’s nickname Jedidiah (2 Sam. 12:25); Cyrus (Isa. 44:28; 45:4); John the Baptist (Lk. 1:13); Jesus (Matt. 1:21); Peter and the two brothers James and John whom Jesus nicknamed "sons of thunder" (Mk. 3:16-17); just to name a few.
God promises to give us each a new and unique name in the Kingdom, either in place of or in addition to our current one (Rev. 2:17), as well as sharing Jesus’ new name and bearing the Father’s name as Priest-Kings (Rev. 3:12, 14; Ex. 28:36; Lev. 8:9). God has many name or titles, descriptive of His wonderful qualities and characteristics (Isa. 9:6). The Jews even teach that God’s Hebrew name Elohim (literally Gods) is plural due to the fact that God is too great to be constrained to one name, and is used in the sense of the royal "We." That’s why Elohim said "let us...." We understand that it’s also because there’s presently two God-Beings in the one Kingdom of God, like Adam and Eve were two separate people who both shared the surname Adam as one family unit (Gen. 2:24; 5:2; John 10:30).
God has His reasons why He would change someone’s name and who are we to question Him? The April 1980 issue of The Good News magazine (published by the Worldwide Church of God) carried an article called "History of the Church" that helps us to understand why Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter: "...and He gave him a surname prophetic of the moral and spiritual strength he would eventually demonstrate. Jesus bestowed upon him the new name, before he had earned it that it might be an incentive to him to realize what Jesus had expected."
After going to bed, about to fall asleep, Isaiah 29:1 flashed into my mind. What’s amazing is that I had never memorized that Scripture! It reveals that Ariel is a nickname for JERUSALEM!I now understand why God the Father had chosen Ariel for me. Anyone who knows me knows that Jerusalem is always on my mind (Jer. 51:50), especially after my first visit there to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) in 1980, as mentioned in From Toledo to Jerusalem and Israel Work History (Worldwide Church of God).
God has shown me that He’s stirred me up and given me a burning desire for Jerusalem and Israel (Isa. 62:1, 6-7). I finally realized that God was calling me a "SON OF JERUSALEM."I got out of bed, got down on my knees with tears in my eyes, and thanked God for truly knowing us inside and out, just like His Word says, and embraced the new name God had given me! I also accepted it as a SPIRITUAL GOAL: to live worthy of one named after holy Jerusalem and all that it ideally represents.
I end my prayers facing Jerusalem every night with "Yerushalayim shel Zahav" (Jerusalem of Gold), a plea for Jerusalem to fulfill its calling (2 Chron. 6:38-39; Dan. 6:10).
Later, I began to understand how Ariel can also refer to Judah and King David. Since my family tree is traced back to the British and Scottish Royal Families (the Royal House of David) it’s also befitting that Ben-Ariel can mean "son of David" and "son of Judah" (whose tribal emblem is the lion).
I’m convinced that the God of the Bible, the God of Israel, and the God of my forefather David, has blessed me with the name of Ariel. Even if I chose Ariel for myself -- which I did not, I originally objected to it -- there wouldn’t be any harm in that since such a practice is Biblical: "One shall say, I am the LORD’S; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the LORD, and surname himself by the name of Israel" (Isa. 44:5).
God surnamed me Ariel back around 1982, however it wasn’t until 1989 that I finally changed my name legally. I knew that even though God had given me the name that I didn’t necessarily have to change my name. I was also hesitant to do so because I am the only son and the only Hoover males alive (that I’m aware of) were my grandfather and myself. I didn’t want the name to die out, not that I’m married and have any sons anyway (although God assures His spiritual "eunuchs" that we’ll be given excellent and eternal names - Isa. 56:5). I began to see that Hoover was possibly an Anglicized form of the German Huber (since many immigrants changed their names upon arrival in America).
I also didn’t want to hurt or offend my grandfather (Arthur Hoover of Risingsun, Ohio) or possibly get disinherited, but I made up my mind that since I was about to seek citizenship in Israel, starting a new chapter in our family history, I was going to take the lead and change my name. My grandfather ended up dying about four months before the fact, unaware of what I planned to do. So now I’ve been David Ben-Ariel for years and my family and friends are used to it.
My God-given name is ESTABLISHED BEFORE GOD who mentions Jerusalem twice in it: the City of David and Ariel.
I was born David A. Hoover on January 10, 1960 in Bowling Green, Ohio. However, I legally changed my name to David Ben-Ariel (with the help of my Jewish lawyer) during the Spring of 1989. It cost me $300.00.
It also required that I take out a small ad in a newspaper announcing my intentions 30 days beforehand. I placed my ad in the Bowling Green Sentinel.
I also had to appear before a judge (it depends on what county you were born) for him to privately question my motivations. He was assured by my lawyer that I wasn’t running from the law or trying to escape some outstanding debt, but that my reasons were religious in nature. The judge accepted that but wanted to impress upon me that I could have "trouble" with that name in America, without elaborating. I felt he meant because it was Jewish and/or could be difficult for some to know how to pronounce. I told him I wasn’t concerned about it since I planned on moving to Israel anyway.
My reasons for changing my name were religious in nature. Why? Because I honestly feel that Ben-Ariel is a God-given name. And why would I feel that way? Because after a Hebrew class where my teacher mentioned how many people change their names when they move to Israel, I went home wondering what surname I would have in Israel, knowing my first name is already Hebrew.
I had always liked the Hebrew last name of Ben-Ammi, after reading it in Leon Uris’ book Exodus, since it means "son of my people," but while thinking about it and wondering what name my father would’ve given me, if he would’ve given me a Hebrew name, I didn’t know. I then knelt down in prayer and asked God what name, IF ANY, would He give me since He's my Heavenly Father, and I couldn’t ask my dad because he died when I was twelve.
I expected God to perhaps lead or guide or influence me to like a particular name, but immediately ARIEL flashed into my mind and immediately I rejected it. Why? Because it means "the Lion of God" and I felt such a name only belongs to Jesus Christ, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. While wondering about the name of Ariel, I remembered that Israel’s defense minister was Ariel Sharon (whom I’ve since met in Jerusalem and Hebron). I reluctantly decided to keep the name in reserve (since it was really impressed upon me!) until God or circumstances might lead me to accept another, and went to bed.
The Bible mentions MANY INCIDENTS where God chose to change someone’s name or to name them before their birth. It is unusual but it’s not unscriptural. There was Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac (Gen. 17:5, 15, 19); Ishmael (Gen. 16:11); Solomon (I Chron. 22:9) and Solomon’s nickname Jedidiah (2 Sam. 12:25); Cyrus (Isa. 44:28; 45:4); John the Baptist (Lk. 1:13); Jesus (Matt. 1:21); Peter and the two brothers James and John whom Jesus nicknamed "sons of thunder" (Mk. 3:16-17); just to name a few.
God promises to give us each a new and unique name in the Kingdom, either in place of or in addition to our current one (Rev. 2:17), as well as sharing Jesus’ new name and bearing the Father’s name as Priest-Kings (Rev. 3:12, 14; Ex. 28:36; Lev. 8:9). God has many name or titles, descriptive of His wonderful qualities and characteristics (Isa. 9:6). The Jews even teach that God’s Hebrew name Elohim (literally Gods) is plural due to the fact that God is too great to be constrained to one name, and is used in the sense of the royal "We." That’s why Elohim said "let us...." We understand that it’s also because there’s presently two God-Beings in the one Kingdom of God, like Adam and Eve were two separate people who both shared the surname Adam as one family unit (Gen. 2:24; 5:2; John 10:30).
God has His reasons why He would change someone’s name and who are we to question Him? The April 1980 issue of The Good News magazine (published by the Worldwide Church of God) carried an article called "History of the Church" that helps us to understand why Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter: "...and He gave him a surname prophetic of the moral and spiritual strength he would eventually demonstrate. Jesus bestowed upon him the new name, before he had earned it that it might be an incentive to him to realize what Jesus had expected."
After going to bed, about to fall asleep, Isaiah 29:1 flashed into my mind. What’s amazing is that I had never memorized that Scripture! It reveals that Ariel is a nickname for JERUSALEM!I now understand why God the Father had chosen Ariel for me. Anyone who knows me knows that Jerusalem is always on my mind (Jer. 51:50), especially after my first visit there to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) in 1980, as mentioned in From Toledo to Jerusalem and Israel Work History (Worldwide Church of God).
God has shown me that He’s stirred me up and given me a burning desire for Jerusalem and Israel (Isa. 62:1, 6-7). I finally realized that God was calling me a "SON OF JERUSALEM."I got out of bed, got down on my knees with tears in my eyes, and thanked God for truly knowing us inside and out, just like His Word says, and embraced the new name God had given me! I also accepted it as a SPIRITUAL GOAL: to live worthy of one named after holy Jerusalem and all that it ideally represents.
I end my prayers facing Jerusalem every night with "Yerushalayim shel Zahav" (Jerusalem of Gold), a plea for Jerusalem to fulfill its calling (2 Chron. 6:38-39; Dan. 6:10).
Later, I began to understand how Ariel can also refer to Judah and King David. Since my family tree is traced back to the British and Scottish Royal Families (the Royal House of David) it’s also befitting that Ben-Ariel can mean "son of David" and "son of Judah" (whose tribal emblem is the lion).
I’m convinced that the God of the Bible, the God of Israel, and the God of my forefather David, has blessed me with the name of Ariel. Even if I chose Ariel for myself -- which I did not, I originally objected to it -- there wouldn’t be any harm in that since such a practice is Biblical: "One shall say, I am the LORD’S; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the LORD, and surname himself by the name of Israel" (Isa. 44:5).
God surnamed me Ariel back around 1982, however it wasn’t until 1989 that I finally changed my name legally. I knew that even though God had given me the name that I didn’t necessarily have to change my name. I was also hesitant to do so because I am the only son and the only Hoover males alive (that I’m aware of) were my grandfather and myself. I didn’t want the name to die out, not that I’m married and have any sons anyway (although God assures His spiritual "eunuchs" that we’ll be given excellent and eternal names - Isa. 56:5). I began to see that Hoover was possibly an Anglicized form of the German Huber (since many immigrants changed their names upon arrival in America).
I also didn’t want to hurt or offend my grandfather (Arthur Hoover of Risingsun, Ohio) or possibly get disinherited, but I made up my mind that since I was about to seek citizenship in Israel, starting a new chapter in our family history, I was going to take the lead and change my name. My grandfather ended up dying about four months before the fact, unaware of what I planned to do. So now I’ve been David Ben-Ariel for years and my family and friends are used to it.
My God-given name is ESTABLISHED BEFORE GOD who mentions Jerusalem twice in it: the City of David and Ariel.
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