"Cracking the Qur'an Code: God's Land, Torah and People Covenants with Israel in the Qur'an and Islamic Tradition", by Lowell Gallin, is a fascinating spiritual journey through good and evil, with all the real actors, places, and situations depicted in such a manner as if the reader is part of a journey beginning with Noah, continuing from Ibrahim to Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Solomon, Jesus and concluding with Muhammad.
Read more:
Review of "Cracking the Qu'ran Code" by Fazal ur Rehman Afridi
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
No Such Thing as a Free Lunch
"We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt free of charge, the cucumbers, the watermelons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic."
(Numbers 10:5)
Sivan 14, 5770, May 27, 2010
(Numbers 10:5)
Sivan 14, 5770, May 27, 2010
At what point is nostalgia transformed from a harmless bout of of wistful reverie to a clear and present danger? Nostalgia, by definition, is an act of embellishment, accentuating the positive aspects of times past. But the embellishment must possess an element of truth. Where was the lie in the people's remembrance of their lives in Egypt? Did they not eat cucumbers, watermelons, leeks, onions, and garlic? Of course they did. The great commentator Rashi takes issue with the expression bechinam - "for free," or "free of charge." What could they possibly be remembering he asks. The Israelite slaves were even ordered to collect on their own the straw needed for the bricks they were compelled to produce for their overlords, and we are to believe that the Egyptians provided them with food gratis? No, says Rashi, by free they meant free from responsibility for managing their own affairs as individuals and as a nation, and free of the great burden of having to uphold their Torah responsibilities. The moment that they cut themselves off from the Torah of G-d's trust in them, from the image of G-d in which they were created, and from G-d Himself, they became slaves to their base appetites, thus bringing disaster upon the nation.
Looking backwards is no way to move forward, and moving forward into the land of Israel was the preeminent task of the children of Israel as they made their way through the desert. Moving forward is also, of course, the preeminent task of life itself. The word of G-d is dynamic and fulfilling G-d's word through our words and actions is likewise dynamic and forward moving. How do we maintain our freedom from the self-destructive backwards thinking of the complainers in the desert?
Just prior to the cucumber and leek incident, the Torah reading of Beha'alotcha opens with Moshe's instructions to Aharon to kindle the menora lights. "Beha'alotcha," (ibid 8:2) commonly translated as "when you kindle," literally means, "when you cause to go upward." Moshe is telling Aharon to cause the menora lights to rise heavenward, and Torah tells us, "Vaya'as ken Aharon - and Aharon did just so." (ibid 8:3) In directing the lights upwards toward heaven, Aharon did so without hesitation or doubt, but with the great trust and confidence that informs our faith in G-d . But casting our gaze upwards, as spiritually rewarding and nourishing as that is, alone is not enough to propel us on our journey. For this we need a second type of vision.
The ability to cast one's gaze ahead and to take the spiritual and practical steps necessary to move forward are embodied in the person of Yitro - Jethro - who makes his final Torah appearance in this week's reading. Throughout our entire acquaintance with Yitro we are witness time and again to his great ability to negotiate the steps necessary to overcome every hurdle. It is for this reason Moshe exhorts him to stay with Israel, and to "be our eyes in the desert." (ibid 10:31) Yitro had been antiquity's most acclaimed practitioner of pagan worship, yet when he came to realize the reality of the one true G-d , he at once left idolatry and all the acclaim and honor it had afforded him. Later, when he saw that his son-in-law Moshe had been charged by G-d with rescuing the Israelites from servitude, he encouraged Moshe to return at once to Egypt. When he came to meet Israel in the desert and saw the great queues of people lining up to receive Moshe's judgement, he realized at once that this method of judicial procedure was bound to wear out both Moshe and the people, and he proposed an alternative system immediately adopted by Moshe.
If we can combine the upward gaze of Aharon as he kindles the menora, embodying faith in G-d and confidence in His instruction, with the forward searching eyes of Yitro, always navigating the path advancing toward our goals, we can most certainly avoid the pitfall of the backwards looking multitude, who, fearing the challenges of the future, and the responsibilities of the present are forever bent on living a perverted memory of an inglorious past. Torah doesn't promise us a free lunch. But it does assure us that with faith and with vision, with constant effort and determination, we can get to our G-d given destination, and once there, be able to enjoy the leeks and onions of our efforts.
Tune in to this week's Temple Talk as Rabbi Chaim Richman and Yitzchak Reuven talk about the generation of the desert, described in the book of Numbers. They made a lot of mistakes and at times seemed to have had a "bad attitude" about the Land of Israel. In this week's Torah portion of Behalotcha, the "rabble " even complained about the food that 
A Personal Invitation From Rabbi Chaim Richman To Join Him On His June 2010 American Speaking Tour: Please take two minutes to watch this video message from Rabbi Chaim Richman as he describes his upcoming USA speaking tour. Click here to view.
Rabbi Richman Tours America: The Battle for Jerusalem has Begun!"The prophecy of the word of the L-rd concerning Israel... Behold, I am making Jerusalem a cup of poison for all the peoples all around... it shall be on that day that I make Jerusalem for all the peoples a burdensome stone... and all the nations of the world will gather against it... " (Zech. Ch. 12)Rabbi Richman brings an urgent message from Israel: These prophecies are coming to pass now, they are the secret of every headline, every negotiation... come to learn how the future of Jerusalem will effect the entire world!
Rabbi Richman will also be exhibiting the completed Breastplate for the High Priest, featuring the 12 stones of the tribes of Israel, ready to be worn by the Kohen Gadol in the rebuilt Holy Temple. The Breastplate is the instrument of prophetic enlightenment in the Holy Temple.This coming month of June Rabbi Chaim Richman will be speaking to audiences across Texas, New Mexico and Minnesota. For more information on when and where, please click here.
For a printable map of Rabbi Richman's speaking tour, please click here.
For a printable schedule of Rabbi Richman's speaking tour, please click here.
For a printable schedule of Rabbi Richman's speaking tour, please click here.
This week Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, founder of the Temple Institute escorted a contingent of ultra-orthodox Jews to the Temple Mount. For many years, the ultra-orthodox community, (with very few, but notable exceptions), has refrained from ascending the Mount. Recent evidence suggests that this trend is about to change. For the complete story, please click here.
This week features the new Bat Melech video teaching with Rabbanit Rena Richman, entitled, "10 Commandments:The Inside Story: We are all familiar with the ten commandments, but most likely not fully aware of the depth and breadth of the spiritual message embodied in each of the ten life-instructions which are contained on the two Tablets of the Law." Click here to view.
This week features the new Light to the Nations teaching by Rabbi Chaim Richman, entitled, "Receiving Torah Anew: Receiving Torah doesn't end with Mount Sinai or with Shavuot festival commemorating the event. By pausing a moment to contemplate the fundamental principles of Torah we can prepare ourselves for receiving it anew each day." Click here to view.
Our lives are made up of spiritual trials and journeys. Just as the Ark of the Covenant traveled with Israel in her journeys in the wilderness, so does Blessings from the holy city of Jerusalem,
Yitzchak Reuven
The Temple Institute
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Excitement on Temple Mount as Rabbi Prostrates Himself
Excitement on Temple Mount as Rabbi Prostrates Himself
by Gil Ronen
A large group of hareidi-religious Jews ascended the Temple Mount Tuesday and received friendly service from the police there – unlike the harsh police treatment that Jews typically receive on the Mount in recent years. One of the Jews was even allowed to fully prostrate himself in prayer, facing in the direction of the location of the ancient Temple – which is now occupied by a Muslim mosque.
read more
************
See also articles on the Third Temple by David Ben-Ariel
by Gil Ronen
A large group of hareidi-religious Jews ascended the Temple Mount Tuesday and received friendly service from the police there – unlike the harsh police treatment that Jews typically receive on the Mount in recent years. One of the Jews was even allowed to fully prostrate himself in prayer, facing in the direction of the location of the ancient Temple – which is now occupied by a Muslim mosque.
read more
************
See also articles on the Third Temple by David Ben-Ariel
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Love for Jews and Israel
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; 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.
- excerpt from From Toledo to Jerusalem
http://www.davidbenariel.org/
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; 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.
- excerpt from From Toledo to Jerusalem
http://www.davidbenariel.org/
Renew America
Renew America by Restoring White Dominance
David Hines - a columnist at RenewAmerica.com - angrily responded to The United States by Grand Design (White and Christian) ...
David Ben-Ariel wrote:
What the hell do you think Balkanization is?! It's the very fragmentation into factions that you advocate!
You think that your ancestors, not your efforts, entitle you to certain things such as telling blacks to go back to Africa. This is to be preferably voluntary, but if not, under coercion. In other words, "Get out please, or get the hell out!"
The great majority of American blacks have no real ties to Africa. No linguistic ties, no economic ties, no personal ties. Many have paid their dues, working for a living and paying taxes. For generations. What makes their ancestral inheritance in this land less than yours? Mere skin color?
Who's next to be ordered out? Us Pollacks? Us Germans? Or is about five eighths British Isles ancestry enough to earn a pass?
************
I encourage you to go educate yourself about what Balkanization means. (See Balkanization Of America Accelerating and The Balkanization of America). Then you will hopefully understand I am merely exposing what has been happening in these United States of America and offering the biblical solution to this national sickness that threatens to divide and destroy us, even as it has destroyed Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe ruins) and South Africa where the animals are running the farm and the tail is wagging the dog! Yet too many Americans remain ignorant or indifferent to these two witnesses who testify against us and still imagine the smooth-talking terrorist Nelson Mandela is a hero (and he is to Communists, Socialists, atheists, and humanists - see and read Invictus Idolatry ).
My call to renew America, to remember our roots and restore the proper racial dominance of people of white color - specifically Anglo-Saxon-Celtic peoples (White Israelites to whom Providence promised this land: The United States is Manasseh) - will not lead to any "fragmentation" (it already exists due to an unnatural and adulterous racial mix) - but hopefully will lead to greater unity among white people who must wake up and assert our God-given rights to rule in our God-given country!
Abraham Lincoln was a white supremacist and naturally wanted white people to remain in power. Such common sense once ruled in our country. Later minorities clamored for equality as a stepping stone to supremacy and foolishly, suicidally, like the self-hating and/or misguided Rhodesians and South Africans, we gave them the vote. As the election of the fraud and foreigner Obama/Soetoro/Obama proves, blacks have no qualms about voting for one of their kind!
President Teddy Roosevelt said, "The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing as a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities."
We must remember "Providence has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united people -- a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs..." [Federalist # 2 John Jay].
We must renew America by restoring the racial dominance of people of white color as our former immigration policy insured (that the treacherous drunk and murderer Senator Ted Kennedy perverted in 1965).
We must enforce some improved "Project Wetback" (Eisenhower) and "Mexican Repatriation" (Hoover) and deport millions of illegal aliens (Truman deported over 2,000,000 illegal aliens). We must end illegal immigration - after all, whose country is this?
We must say no to demands for "reparations" and encourage repatriation for African-Americans (talk about hyphenated Americans). I address these issues in Black to Africa and Chocolate Continent Awaits the Great Black Return! In fact, the president of Senegal has offered Haitians the opportunity for repatriation and free land, so let us hope he would be as generous to black Americans and that other African leaders and countries would follow his example inviting blacks to return.
The United States of America was primarily founded by and for white people, as Manifest Destiny confirms. We must secure our biblical borders and inheritance without apology or hesitation. If we fail to, if we permit the browning of America to continue, refuse to treat the Mexican invasion as an act of war and defeat it, we will have only ourselves to blame for the death of America.
"I can only wish that the glorious truth committed to our keeping may be cherished, and that we, as a nation, may work out our God-assigned task. The future has work and some trouble in reserve, but if we are faithful… we need fear no evil..." - Manasseh and the United States
David Ben-Ariel wrote:
Diversity demands: segregate now!
The Balkanization of America must end or our Republic will!
What the hell do you think Balkanization is?! It's the very fragmentation into factions that you advocate!
You think that your ancestors, not your efforts, entitle you to certain things such as telling blacks to go back to Africa. This is to be preferably voluntary, but if not, under coercion. In other words, "Get out please, or get the hell out!"
The great majority of American blacks have no real ties to Africa. No linguistic ties, no economic ties, no personal ties. Many have paid their dues, working for a living and paying taxes. For generations. What makes their ancestral inheritance in this land less than yours? Mere skin color?
Who's next to be ordered out? Us Pollacks? Us Germans? Or is about five eighths British Isles ancestry enough to earn a pass?
************
I encourage you to go educate yourself about what Balkanization means. (See Balkanization Of America Accelerating and The Balkanization of America). Then you will hopefully understand I am merely exposing what has been happening in these United States of America and offering the biblical solution to this national sickness that threatens to divide and destroy us, even as it has destroyed Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe ruins) and South Africa where the animals are running the farm and the tail is wagging the dog! Yet too many Americans remain ignorant or indifferent to these two witnesses who testify against us and still imagine the smooth-talking terrorist Nelson Mandela is a hero (and he is to Communists, Socialists, atheists, and humanists - see and read Invictus Idolatry ).
My call to renew America, to remember our roots and restore the proper racial dominance of people of white color - specifically Anglo-Saxon-Celtic peoples (White Israelites to whom Providence promised this land: The United States is Manasseh) - will not lead to any "fragmentation" (it already exists due to an unnatural and adulterous racial mix) - but hopefully will lead to greater unity among white people who must wake up and assert our God-given rights to rule in our God-given country!
Abraham Lincoln was a white supremacist and naturally wanted white people to remain in power. Such common sense once ruled in our country. Later minorities clamored for equality as a stepping stone to supremacy and foolishly, suicidally, like the self-hating and/or misguided Rhodesians and South Africans, we gave them the vote. As the election of the fraud and foreigner Obama/Soetoro/Obama proves, blacks have no qualms about voting for one of their kind!
President Teddy Roosevelt said, "The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing as a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities."
We must remember "Providence has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united people -- a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs..." [Federalist # 2 John Jay].
We must renew America by restoring the racial dominance of people of white color as our former immigration policy insured (that the treacherous drunk and murderer Senator Ted Kennedy perverted in 1965).
We must enforce some improved "Project Wetback" (Eisenhower) and "Mexican Repatriation" (Hoover) and deport millions of illegal aliens (Truman deported over 2,000,000 illegal aliens). We must end illegal immigration - after all, whose country is this?
We must say no to demands for "reparations" and encourage repatriation for African-Americans (talk about hyphenated Americans). I address these issues in Black to Africa and Chocolate Continent Awaits the Great Black Return! In fact, the president of Senegal has offered Haitians the opportunity for repatriation and free land, so let us hope he would be as generous to black Americans and that other African leaders and countries would follow his example inviting blacks to return.
The United States of America was primarily founded by and for white people, as Manifest Destiny confirms. We must secure our biblical borders and inheritance without apology or hesitation. If we fail to, if we permit the browning of America to continue, refuse to treat the Mexican invasion as an act of war and defeat it, we will have only ourselves to blame for the death of America.
"I can only wish that the glorious truth committed to our keeping may be cherished, and that we, as a nation, may work out our God-assigned task. The future has work and some trouble in reserve, but if we are faithful… we need fear no evil..." - Manasseh and the United States
Will Israel right the wrong?
Israeli police sent on wild-goose chase
The Israeli police knew they didn't have a shred of evidence against me other than some hateful letter filled with false accusations that misled them.
I received a call (at the Palm Youth Hostel in Jerusalem where I lived and legally worked) from a friend in the United States that "KP" sent him a copy of a letter he reportedly also sent to the Israeli authorities, claiming I was involved in some plot to blow up the mosques to stop the peace process and prepare the way for the Temple; was involved in arms smuggling (distorting my travels through the war-zone of Yugoslavia by train from Germany and visit to South Africa and Zimbabwe, as well as other adventures - thanks to a gracious inheritance from my Hoover grandparents) and that I wasn't Jewish. I told my friend the Israeli police would recognize "KP" was a crackpot and would dismiss his bizarre letter. I wasn't worried about it...
(read more ...)
The Israeli police knew they didn't have a shred of evidence against me other than some hateful letter filled with false accusations that misled them.
I received a call (at the Palm Youth Hostel in Jerusalem where I lived and legally worked) from a friend in the United States that "KP" sent him a copy of a letter he reportedly also sent to the Israeli authorities, claiming I was involved in some plot to blow up the mosques to stop the peace process and prepare the way for the Temple; was involved in arms smuggling (distorting my travels through the war-zone of Yugoslavia by train from Germany and visit to South Africa and Zimbabwe, as well as other adventures - thanks to a gracious inheritance from my Hoover grandparents) and that I wasn't Jewish. I told my friend the Israeli police would recognize "KP" was a crackpot and would dismiss his bizarre letter. I wasn't worried about it...
(read more ...)
Monday, May 24, 2010
Nations are bound by bonds and borders
Obama's Comment That Nations Are Defined by Bonds, Not Borders, Called 'Wishful Thinking'
Monday, May 24, 2010
By Nick Dean
************
The president usurper must realize nations are bound by bonds and borders and that he's a fraud and a foreigner who doesn't fulfill either. Let the con man from Kenya, the bastard from Africa, read The United States by Grand Design (White and Christian) and Renew America by Restoring White Dominance and let the truth set Obama/Soetoro/Obama free from his politically correct shackles.
Monday, May 24, 2010
By Nick Dean
************
The president usurper must realize nations are bound by bonds and borders and that he's a fraud and a foreigner who doesn't fulfill either. Let the con man from Kenya, the bastard from Africa, read The United States by Grand Design (White and Christian) and Renew America by Restoring White Dominance and let the truth set Obama/Soetoro/Obama free from his politically correct shackles.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
White and Christian
The United States by Grand Design (White and Christian)
The politically correct cultists seethe with anger whenever White Israelites - those of Anglo-Saxon-Celtic origins - dare to share the plain truth about our unparalleled contributions to world civilization and our unique role in fulfilling Manifest Destiny. Yet the flaming hypocrites ignore or downplay the double standards of militant minorities and reference to themselves as "La Raza" (The Race), insistence on undermining English as our official language, subverting the Protestant (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) foundation for Catholicism, etc.
President Teddy Roosevelt said, "The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing as a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities."
This Balkanization of America has been noted by those who don't fear to expose the importance of race and religion. despite being hatefully branded as racists and bigots. Race matters, as everybody but people of white color seem to realize! We must face the plain truth about race and responsibility. Diversity demands: segregate now!
The Balkanization of America must end or our Republic will! Most illegal immigrants are Roman Catholic and would vote Democrat and the dark powers that be know it. They are behind the destructive browning of America.
"I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth." - A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1765
That was all made possible, by the grace of God, because we were primarily all people of white color and Protestant, since our Great Creator God decreed the United States of America would fulfill the biblical inheritance of Manasseh, the son of Joseph.
Federalist # 2 John Jay
With equal pleasure I have as often taken notice that Providence has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united people -- a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs, and who, by their joint counsels, arms, and efforts, fighting side by side throughout a long and bloody war, have nobly established general liberty and independence.
This country and this people seem to have been made for each other, and it appears as if it was the design of Providence, that an inheritance so proper and convenient for a band of brethren, united to each other by the strongest ties, should never be split into a number of unsocial, jealous, and alien sovereignties.
Similar sentiments have hitherto prevailed among all orders and denominations of men among us. To all general purposes we have uniformly been one people each individual citizen everywhere enjoying the same national rights, privileges, and protection. As a nation we have made peace and war; as a nation we have vanquished our common enemies; as a nation we have formed alliances, and made treaties, and entered into various compacts and conventions with foreign states.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Pentecost - "Sunday Or Sivan 6"?
An answer to a Sermon by Vance Stinson of the Church of God International
April 5, 1991, Vance Stinson of the Church of God, International gave a sermon entitled "Sunday Or Sivan 6," in which he attempted to refute the Sivan 6 date for this holy day of God. In this article, Nick Wood in England answers Stinson's arguments and draws attention to the REAL issues, as opposed to "smokescreen" arguments!
Nick Wood
The incredible revelation in the sermon of Vance Stinson entitled "Sunday Or Sivan 6" is the almost complete acknowledgement that the vast majority of the Jews at the time of Christ, were keeping Pentecost on Sivan 6 according to the Pharisees reckoning. This is at least a step in the direction of TRUTH. The whole issue then hinges on the question -- "Where the Pharisees correct in their reckoning?"
Vance makes much in his sermon of the following point: -- "If all there was to go on in determining Pentecost was Leviticus 23, then we would all be forced to conclude that Pentecost was on a Sunday."
Very well, let us try and be fair and reasonable as well as open-minded and acknowledge that this may be so with one important qualification. If all there was to go on in determining Pentecost was Leviticus 23 in the KING JAMES version, then yes, I can see how Sunday is arrived at, and of course I myself accepted this teaching without question for many years, I freely admit.
To make the statement, as Vance does, that the Hebrew word "SHABBAT" can only ever be translated "Sabbath" and never "Week," is entirely a matter of opinion which many eminent Hebrew scholars have argued for generations. The fact is of course that besides the King James version we have many other translations of the Bible into English. Some of these in Leviticus 23:15-16 translate "SHABBAT" as "Sabbaths" (ie., New King James), while others translate "SHABBAT" as "Weeks" (ie., NIV, RSV, GNB as well as the Jewish Tanakh). To simply say that all these modern translations are wrong and leave it at that WITHOUT CONCLUSIVE PROOF is just not good enough. Of course Vance is perfectly entitled to HIS OWN OPINION just like anyone else, but with all due respect to him, I for one am just not prepared to take another man's opinion on such an important issue.
What does all this haggling and disputing over the Hebrew word "SHABBAT" really prove anyway? Absolutely nothing, except that there is a continuing dispute and always has been over the exact meaning of this Hebrew word. Let us all calm down and step back a moment and remember Paul's warning in II Timothy 2:14 (New International Version): --
"Warn them before God against quarrelling about WORDS; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen."
Sound advice, so let us all pay heed to it and get away from this useless dispute. Besides, why do we just have to concentrate on Leviticus 23? The first rule of Bible study is to get together ALL the Scriptures bearing on a particular subject.
". . . Here a little, there a little" (Isaiah 28:10, NKJV). By applying this rule fairly and consistently we can come to a definite conclusion and a full understanding of the TRUE day of Pentecost.
Opponents of a Sivan 6 Pentecost find the inspired words of Scripture in Matthew 23:3 difficult to handle. They seek, as Vance does, to place their own human interpretation upon it, simply because it is so powerful and decisive a Scripture regarding this whole issue. They level the charge at Sivan 6 observers, of "following the Pharisees," seemingly oblivious of the fact that it was Our Lord And Saviour JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF who uttered these words: --
"The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. ALL therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works, for they say and do not" (Matt.23:3).
Instead of trying to bend and distort this verse and PRETEND that it doesn't really mean what it plainly says, let us all be honest with the Word of God and accept and believe it, even if we sometimes don't like to admit that maybe, JUST MAYBE, our preconceived ideas may be wrong. A very plain and simple expounding of this verse can be found in the Jamieson, Fausett and Brown Commentary: --
"THE SCRIBES AND THE PARISEES SIT" -- The Jewish teachers stood to read, but sat to expound the Scriptures, as will be seen by comparing Luke 4:16 with v.20.
"IN MOSES' SEAT" -- ie. as interpreters of the law given by Moses.
"ALL THEREFORE" -- ie. all which, as sitting in that seat and teaching out of that law.
"THEY BID YOU OBSERVE, THAT OBSERVE AND DO" -- The word 'therefore' is thus, it will be seen, of great importance, as limiting those injunctions which He would have them obey to what they fetched FROM THE LAW ITSELF (emphasis mine) . . . . but He who denounced the TRADITIONS (emphasis mine) of such teachers cannot have meant here to throw His shield over these."
In other words, as long as the Pharisees were teaching and expounding from the LAW OF MOSES, which included the Holy Days (ie. PENTECOST), the people were to "OBSERVE AND DO" what the Pharisees taught.
SO SAYS THE UNBREAKABLE WORD OF GOD.
Of course anything above and beyond the LAW OF MOSES, was a teaching or tradition of men and OBVIOUSLY not covered by this COMMAND of JESUS CHRIST. Notice very carefully to whom this DIRECT COMMAND was given in Matthew 23:1 --
"THEN JESUS SPOKE TO THE MULTITUDES AND TO HIS DISCIPLES" (New King James Version).
Vance winds up his sermon with an ingenious interpretation of Acts 2:1 -- "When the day of Pentecost had FULLY COME . . ." He postulates that as there were TWO Pentecosts, one Sadducean and the other Pharisaic, then the phrase FULLY COME must mean -- "When the day of the True Pentecost had come a few days AFTER the False Pentecost." In the crucifixion year of 31 A.D. he correctly states that the Sadducean Pentecost would be on a Sunday (as it always was), and the Pharisaic Pentecost would come 2 days earlier on the Friday. Vance then takes a quantum leap and suggests that Pentecost had only FULLY COME on the Sunday. There is however a much better and clearer definition of that phrase's TRUE meaning, without resorting to speculation.
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance gives the Greek word -- SUMPLEROO rendered "FULLY COME" in the King James version as meaning: --
"To Implenish Completely,"
"To Accomplish,"
"To Be Complete."
A marginal note in the New American Standard version gives the literal meaning of the phrase as -- "Was Being Fulfilled."
This is surely the TRUE meaning of Acts 2:1 -- "When the day of Pentecost had FULLY COME (or HAD COME TO BE FULFILLED)."
Vance concludes by saying that he needs much more proof before he is willing to 'repent and change.' I am puzzled by this statement because the 37 page article which he continually referred to, [must have] contained just what he was asking for, MUCH MORE PROOF, most of which he never addressed or even referred to in his sermon. [Aside from that article, whatever it was, I would be happy to send Vance, or anyone else who is interested, my own articles on this subject. They are: "Pentecost -- The Final Answer!", "How Should We Count Pentecost?", "Pentecost -- The Untold Story," "Pentecost -- the Plain Truth!", "The Incredible Truth about Pentecost," and "Pentecost -- The Bottom Line!" -- Editor.] To be absolutely fair to Vance though, he was constrained in his sermon by the time factor. The Scriptures which were never addressed or referred to, actually provide the clinching proof of a Sivan 6 Pentecost.
Paul addressing the Sanhedrin: --
"Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, 'My brothers, I AM A PHARISEE, the son of a Pharisee'"
(Acts 23:6, NIV).
Notice the use of the PRESENT tense "I AM A PHARISEE." Paul DID NOT say I WAS A PHARISEE, because although a Christian, he still considered himself to be a TRUE Pharisee.
Just prior to this, Paul had been proclaiming to the mob in Jerusalem which was baying for his blood: --
"I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, UNDER GAMALIEL I was THOROUGHLY TRAINED in the LAW of our fathers . . ." (Acts 22:3, NIV).
Gamaliel was a PHARISEE, a teacher of the LAW held in respect by all the people -- Acts 5:34. Most commentators believe that he was a grandson of the great Rabbi Hillel, who gave his name to one of the two main "Houses" of Phariseeism, the House of Hillel; the other being the House of Shammai. Eventually Gamaliel himself became the "Elder" of the House of Hillel. Although there were certain differences between these two "Houses" -- the House of Hillel being, in most cases, more moderate and compassionate than the House of Shammai -- they were totally united on the issue of counting Pentecost from the day on which the "Wave Sheaf" was offered, the day after THE ANNUAL SABBATH. Although like anyone else I stand open to correction, I challenge the opponents of a Sivan 6 Pentecost to produce any SOLID evidence to the contrary. While searching for it my hope and prayer would be that they themselves would become convicted by the PLAIN, SIMPLE, PROVABLE TRUTH.
Paul before King Agrippa: --
"THE JEWS ALL KNOW THE WAY I HAVE LIVED ever since I was a child, from the beginning of my life in my own country, and also in Jerusalem. They (ie. ALL THE JEWS) have known me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing, that according to the strictest sect of our religion, I LIVED AS A
PHARISEE" (Acts 26:4-5, NIV).
This is all so very plain and clear that Paul was extremely well known to ALL THE JEWS, and that he had lived as a STRICT PHARISEE ALL HIS LIFE, one very distinct hallmark of this being a SIVAN 6 PENTECOST. Vance was honest enough to acknowledge that the vast majority of Jews at the time of Christ, were keeping Pentecost on Sivan 6 according to the Pharisees' reckoning. The Scriptures leave us in no doubt that the Apostle Paul had lived as a STRICT PHARISEE all his life, and apart from those who do not wish to see, everyone must acknowledge that Paul also kept Pentecost on Sivan 6, at least up until the time of his conversion.
COULD PAUL HAVE BEEN IN ERROR ALONG WITH THE PHARISEES, IN KEEPING PENTECOST ON SIVAN 6? ON THE ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION HINGES THE WHOLE CONTROVERSY. LET THE INSPIRED AND PERFECT WORD OF GOD GIVE US THE TRUE AND ONLY ANSWER.
Paul's Letter to the Philippians: --
"If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; IN REGARD TO THE LAW A PHARISEE ; as for zeal, persecuting the church; AS FOR LEGALISTIC RIGHTEOUSNESS, F A U L T L E S S"
(Philippians 3:4-5, NIV).
This is so important here is the same Scripture in the NEW KING JAMES VERSION.
"If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so:
circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Ben-
jamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; CONCERNING THE LAW, A PHARISEE; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; CONCERNING THE RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH IS IN THE LAW, B L A M EL E S S."
Dare anyone refute the inspired words of the Apostle Paul in which he claimed to have observed THE LAW WITHOUT FAULT? If the Sadducees were correct in reckoning Pentecost and the Pharisees WERE IN ERROR, then this Scripture could never have been inspired.
I call upon my brothers and sisters in the Church of God International [and Worldwide Church of God, and other splinter groups! -- Editor] to NOW SERIOUSLY ADDRESS THIS QUESTION, PLEASE.
I would like to end on a conciliatory note and reveal that I have just recently read an article by Vance Stinson, refuting the abominable doctrine taught by some, that the Jews are actually the offspring of Satan. Vance does an excellent job of demolishing this "Doctrine of Demons" and I thank him for it. But stop one moment and consider. Why is it that of all peoples on the earth the Jews have been singled out time and time again for the most horrific persecution and suffering that demoniacally influenced minds can devise? Simply because they and they alone have preserved the LAW OF GOD, including the Holy Days and the sacred calendar, to this very day. Satan hates them terribly for this. The Jews today keep Pentecost on Sivan 6.
"What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way! Chiefly because TO THEM WERE COMMITTED THE ORACLES OF
GOD" (Romans 3:1-2, NKJV).
April 5, 1991, Vance Stinson of the Church of God, International gave a sermon entitled "Sunday Or Sivan 6," in which he attempted to refute the Sivan 6 date for this holy day of God. In this article, Nick Wood in England answers Stinson's arguments and draws attention to the REAL issues, as opposed to "smokescreen" arguments!
Nick Wood
The incredible revelation in the sermon of Vance Stinson entitled "Sunday Or Sivan 6" is the almost complete acknowledgement that the vast majority of the Jews at the time of Christ, were keeping Pentecost on Sivan 6 according to the Pharisees reckoning. This is at least a step in the direction of TRUTH. The whole issue then hinges on the question -- "Where the Pharisees correct in their reckoning?"
Vance makes much in his sermon of the following point: -- "If all there was to go on in determining Pentecost was Leviticus 23, then we would all be forced to conclude that Pentecost was on a Sunday."
Very well, let us try and be fair and reasonable as well as open-minded and acknowledge that this may be so with one important qualification. If all there was to go on in determining Pentecost was Leviticus 23 in the KING JAMES version, then yes, I can see how Sunday is arrived at, and of course I myself accepted this teaching without question for many years, I freely admit.
To make the statement, as Vance does, that the Hebrew word "SHABBAT" can only ever be translated "Sabbath" and never "Week," is entirely a matter of opinion which many eminent Hebrew scholars have argued for generations. The fact is of course that besides the King James version we have many other translations of the Bible into English. Some of these in Leviticus 23:15-16 translate "SHABBAT" as "Sabbaths" (ie., New King James), while others translate "SHABBAT" as "Weeks" (ie., NIV, RSV, GNB as well as the Jewish Tanakh). To simply say that all these modern translations are wrong and leave it at that WITHOUT CONCLUSIVE PROOF is just not good enough. Of course Vance is perfectly entitled to HIS OWN OPINION just like anyone else, but with all due respect to him, I for one am just not prepared to take another man's opinion on such an important issue.
What does all this haggling and disputing over the Hebrew word "SHABBAT" really prove anyway? Absolutely nothing, except that there is a continuing dispute and always has been over the exact meaning of this Hebrew word. Let us all calm down and step back a moment and remember Paul's warning in II Timothy 2:14 (New International Version): --
"Warn them before God against quarrelling about WORDS; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen."
Sound advice, so let us all pay heed to it and get away from this useless dispute. Besides, why do we just have to concentrate on Leviticus 23? The first rule of Bible study is to get together ALL the Scriptures bearing on a particular subject.
". . . Here a little, there a little" (Isaiah 28:10, NKJV). By applying this rule fairly and consistently we can come to a definite conclusion and a full understanding of the TRUE day of Pentecost.
Opponents of a Sivan 6 Pentecost find the inspired words of Scripture in Matthew 23:3 difficult to handle. They seek, as Vance does, to place their own human interpretation upon it, simply because it is so powerful and decisive a Scripture regarding this whole issue. They level the charge at Sivan 6 observers, of "following the Pharisees," seemingly oblivious of the fact that it was Our Lord And Saviour JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF who uttered these words: --
"The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. ALL therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works, for they say and do not" (Matt.23:3).
Instead of trying to bend and distort this verse and PRETEND that it doesn't really mean what it plainly says, let us all be honest with the Word of God and accept and believe it, even if we sometimes don't like to admit that maybe, JUST MAYBE, our preconceived ideas may be wrong. A very plain and simple expounding of this verse can be found in the Jamieson, Fausett and Brown Commentary: --
"THE SCRIBES AND THE PARISEES SIT" -- The Jewish teachers stood to read, but sat to expound the Scriptures, as will be seen by comparing Luke 4:16 with v.20.
"IN MOSES' SEAT" -- ie. as interpreters of the law given by Moses.
"ALL THEREFORE" -- ie. all which, as sitting in that seat and teaching out of that law.
"THEY BID YOU OBSERVE, THAT OBSERVE AND DO" -- The word 'therefore' is thus, it will be seen, of great importance, as limiting those injunctions which He would have them obey to what they fetched FROM THE LAW ITSELF (emphasis mine) . . . . but He who denounced the TRADITIONS (emphasis mine) of such teachers cannot have meant here to throw His shield over these."
In other words, as long as the Pharisees were teaching and expounding from the LAW OF MOSES, which included the Holy Days (ie. PENTECOST), the people were to "OBSERVE AND DO" what the Pharisees taught.
SO SAYS THE UNBREAKABLE WORD OF GOD.
Of course anything above and beyond the LAW OF MOSES, was a teaching or tradition of men and OBVIOUSLY not covered by this COMMAND of JESUS CHRIST. Notice very carefully to whom this DIRECT COMMAND was given in Matthew 23:1 --
"THEN JESUS SPOKE TO THE MULTITUDES AND TO HIS DISCIPLES" (New King James Version).
Vance winds up his sermon with an ingenious interpretation of Acts 2:1 -- "When the day of Pentecost had FULLY COME . . ." He postulates that as there were TWO Pentecosts, one Sadducean and the other Pharisaic, then the phrase FULLY COME must mean -- "When the day of the True Pentecost had come a few days AFTER the False Pentecost." In the crucifixion year of 31 A.D. he correctly states that the Sadducean Pentecost would be on a Sunday (as it always was), and the Pharisaic Pentecost would come 2 days earlier on the Friday. Vance then takes a quantum leap and suggests that Pentecost had only FULLY COME on the Sunday. There is however a much better and clearer definition of that phrase's TRUE meaning, without resorting to speculation.
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance gives the Greek word -- SUMPLEROO rendered "FULLY COME" in the King James version as meaning: --
"To Implenish Completely,"
"To Accomplish,"
"To Be Complete."
A marginal note in the New American Standard version gives the literal meaning of the phrase as -- "Was Being Fulfilled."
This is surely the TRUE meaning of Acts 2:1 -- "When the day of Pentecost had FULLY COME (or HAD COME TO BE FULFILLED)."
Vance concludes by saying that he needs much more proof before he is willing to 'repent and change.' I am puzzled by this statement because the 37 page article which he continually referred to, [must have] contained just what he was asking for, MUCH MORE PROOF, most of which he never addressed or even referred to in his sermon. [Aside from that article, whatever it was, I would be happy to send Vance, or anyone else who is interested, my own articles on this subject. They are: "Pentecost -- The Final Answer!", "How Should We Count Pentecost?", "Pentecost -- The Untold Story," "Pentecost -- the Plain Truth!", "The Incredible Truth about Pentecost," and "Pentecost -- The Bottom Line!" -- Editor.] To be absolutely fair to Vance though, he was constrained in his sermon by the time factor. The Scriptures which were never addressed or referred to, actually provide the clinching proof of a Sivan 6 Pentecost.
Paul addressing the Sanhedrin: --
"Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, 'My brothers, I AM A PHARISEE, the son of a Pharisee'"
(Acts 23:6, NIV).
Notice the use of the PRESENT tense "I AM A PHARISEE." Paul DID NOT say I WAS A PHARISEE, because although a Christian, he still considered himself to be a TRUE Pharisee.
Just prior to this, Paul had been proclaiming to the mob in Jerusalem which was baying for his blood: --
"I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, UNDER GAMALIEL I was THOROUGHLY TRAINED in the LAW of our fathers . . ." (Acts 22:3, NIV).
Gamaliel was a PHARISEE, a teacher of the LAW held in respect by all the people -- Acts 5:34. Most commentators believe that he was a grandson of the great Rabbi Hillel, who gave his name to one of the two main "Houses" of Phariseeism, the House of Hillel; the other being the House of Shammai. Eventually Gamaliel himself became the "Elder" of the House of Hillel. Although there were certain differences between these two "Houses" -- the House of Hillel being, in most cases, more moderate and compassionate than the House of Shammai -- they were totally united on the issue of counting Pentecost from the day on which the "Wave Sheaf" was offered, the day after THE ANNUAL SABBATH. Although like anyone else I stand open to correction, I challenge the opponents of a Sivan 6 Pentecost to produce any SOLID evidence to the contrary. While searching for it my hope and prayer would be that they themselves would become convicted by the PLAIN, SIMPLE, PROVABLE TRUTH.
Paul before King Agrippa: --
"THE JEWS ALL KNOW THE WAY I HAVE LIVED ever since I was a child, from the beginning of my life in my own country, and also in Jerusalem. They (ie. ALL THE JEWS) have known me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing, that according to the strictest sect of our religion, I LIVED AS A
PHARISEE" (Acts 26:4-5, NIV).
This is all so very plain and clear that Paul was extremely well known to ALL THE JEWS, and that he had lived as a STRICT PHARISEE ALL HIS LIFE, one very distinct hallmark of this being a SIVAN 6 PENTECOST. Vance was honest enough to acknowledge that the vast majority of Jews at the time of Christ, were keeping Pentecost on Sivan 6 according to the Pharisees' reckoning. The Scriptures leave us in no doubt that the Apostle Paul had lived as a STRICT PHARISEE all his life, and apart from those who do not wish to see, everyone must acknowledge that Paul also kept Pentecost on Sivan 6, at least up until the time of his conversion.
COULD PAUL HAVE BEEN IN ERROR ALONG WITH THE PHARISEES, IN KEEPING PENTECOST ON SIVAN 6? ON THE ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION HINGES THE WHOLE CONTROVERSY. LET THE INSPIRED AND PERFECT WORD OF GOD GIVE US THE TRUE AND ONLY ANSWER.
Paul's Letter to the Philippians: --
"If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; IN REGARD TO THE LAW A PHARISEE ; as for zeal, persecuting the church; AS FOR LEGALISTIC RIGHTEOUSNESS, F A U L T L E S S"
(Philippians 3:4-5, NIV).
This is so important here is the same Scripture in the NEW KING JAMES VERSION.
"If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so:
circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Ben-
jamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; CONCERNING THE LAW, A PHARISEE; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; CONCERNING THE RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH IS IN THE LAW, B L A M EL E S S."
Dare anyone refute the inspired words of the Apostle Paul in which he claimed to have observed THE LAW WITHOUT FAULT? If the Sadducees were correct in reckoning Pentecost and the Pharisees WERE IN ERROR, then this Scripture could never have been inspired.
I call upon my brothers and sisters in the Church of God International [and Worldwide Church of God, and other splinter groups! -- Editor] to NOW SERIOUSLY ADDRESS THIS QUESTION, PLEASE.
I would like to end on a conciliatory note and reveal that I have just recently read an article by Vance Stinson, refuting the abominable doctrine taught by some, that the Jews are actually the offspring of Satan. Vance does an excellent job of demolishing this "Doctrine of Demons" and I thank him for it. But stop one moment and consider. Why is it that of all peoples on the earth the Jews have been singled out time and time again for the most horrific persecution and suffering that demoniacally influenced minds can devise? Simply because they and they alone have preserved the LAW OF GOD, including the Holy Days and the sacred calendar, to this very day. Satan hates them terribly for this. The Jews today keep Pentecost on Sivan 6.
"What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way! Chiefly because TO THEM WERE COMMITTED THE ORACLES OF
GOD" (Romans 3:1-2, NKJV).
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Great Britain's name fulfills prophecy!
God Bless British Israel!
Chris Newnham comments:
There seems to be no end to the scale and desperation of certain "scholars" on the Internet to disprove British Israel. I am dumbfounded how such Christians claiming to be in the Bible Scholar area of knowledge can deny such a truth! If they make it to heaven they are in for a shock! Any angel will correct their thinking! No nation other than Great Britain claims the name great! God said of Israel "I will make thy name Great!" No other nation can possibly claim the promise to Ephraim that he would become a "Nation and a Company of Nations"! These so called scholars with an axe to grind have become blinded by their own dizzy focus and are just straining at Gnats. It occurs to me that none of them has ever studied this subject in real depth or historical detail. Maybe they are suffering from laziness in this particular realm and just are too afraid to admit that this might be their trouble!
http://www.davidbenariel.org/
Chris Newnham comments:
There seems to be no end to the scale and desperation of certain "scholars" on the Internet to disprove British Israel. I am dumbfounded how such Christians claiming to be in the Bible Scholar area of knowledge can deny such a truth! If they make it to heaven they are in for a shock! Any angel will correct their thinking! No nation other than Great Britain claims the name great! God said of Israel "I will make thy name Great!" No other nation can possibly claim the promise to Ephraim that he would become a "Nation and a Company of Nations"! These so called scholars with an axe to grind have become blinded by their own dizzy focus and are just straining at Gnats. It occurs to me that none of them has ever studied this subject in real depth or historical detail. Maybe they are suffering from laziness in this particular realm and just are too afraid to admit that this might be their trouble!
http://www.davidbenariel.org/
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
And Israel Encamped There
"And Israel Encamped There Opposite the Mountain"
(Exodus 19:2)
Sivan 5, 5770/May 18, 2010
49th day of the Omer
Tune in to this week's Temple Talk as Rabbi Chaim Richman and Yitzchak Reuven talk about what it really means for each one of us to truly receive the Torah anew on this special holiday... this means you! Of course, the manner in which Shavuot, the Festival of the Giving of the Torah, is celebrated in the Holy Temple is completely different than what we are all accustomed to. What is the secret that connects the Torah itself to the first fruits of the Land of Israel? The answer is simple: It's the Torah of this world! Ruth the Moabite, King David and Mashiach, the harvest in the Land of Israel and the Sinai Revelation are all perfectly connected.
A Personal Invitation From Rabbi Chaim Richman To Join Him On His June 2010 American Speaking Tour: Please take two minutes to watch this video message from Rabbi Chaim Richman as he describes his upcoming USA speaking tour. Click here to view.
Rabbi Richman Tours America: The Battle for Jerusalem has Begun! "The prophecy of the word of the L-rd concerning Israel... Behold, I am making Jerusalem a cup of poison for all the peoples all around... it shall be on that day that I make Jerusalem for all the peoples a burdensome stone... and all the nations of the world will gather against it... " (Zech. Ch. 12)
Rabbi Richman will also be exhibiting the completed Breastplate for the High Priest, featuring the 12 stones of the tribes of Israel, ready to be worn by the Kohen Gadol in the rebuilt Holy Temple. The Breastplate is the instrument of prophetic enlightenment in the Holy Temple.
This week features the new Light to the Nations teaching by Rabbi Chaim Richman, entitled, "Celebrating this World: Spending the day of Shavuot immersed in the study of Torah, as is our custom today, is but a distant remembrance of the way Shavuot was observed in the time of the Holy Temple when we immersed ourselves in the reality of Torah as it is manifested in the very land of Israel, via the first fruits - the Bikurim." Click here to view.
It is worth your while to prepare for this Shavuot by watching the Bat Melech video teaching classic with Rabbanit Rena Richman video teaching with Rabbanit Rena Richman, entitled, "The Story of Ruth: Ruth, the story of the Moabite princess who attached herself to the Jewish nation and the G-d of Israel, is traditionally read in synagogues on the upcoming festival of Shavuoth. Rena Richman reveals fascinating midrashic insights into the historical background of the story, focusing on the unique personalities of Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz. These three individuals together create the foundations of the Davidic dynasty." Click to view this two part special: The Story of Ruth, part I - The Story of Ruth, part II
AFSI on the Temple Mount: Jerusalem Day, 2010: On Wednesday, May 12 2010, Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day), Rabbi Chaim Richman led a large contingent of Jews and Gentiles from Americans for a Safe Israel or AFSI as it is known. AFSI is an important, major political support group for Israel, which supports the right of Israelis, free from outside interference, to live, thrive and expand their communities in all of the Land of Israel. AFSI's head is Executive Director Helen Freedman, who participated in this event. The AFSI ascent to the Temple Mount with Rabbi Richman and Yitzchak Reuven has become an annual event in the itinerary of the group's missions to Israel.
Learn How Shavuot is Celebrated in the Holy Temple: The festival of Shavuot, although a one-day festival, really began with the conclusion of the first day of Passover, some fifty days earlier. On that second day of the Passover festival, the new barley crop was first harvested and offered in the Holy Temple. On Shavuot the wheat harvest was celebrated by the harvestng and bringing of the new wheat crop to the Holy Temple, where it was prepared and used in the baking of the two special Shavuot loaves. Likewise, pilgrims brought the firstfruits from their own fields and orchards, of the seven fruits of the land of Israel mentioned in Deuteronomy: Figs, grapes, dates, pomegranates, olives, wheat and barley. Despite being at the height of the growing season, when the physical demands upon farmers was great, the pilgrims joyfully gathered their firstfruit offerings, and set out for Jerusalem and the Holy Temple. Click here.
The case of the sotah - the woman accused by her husband of infidelity, has its parallel on the national level when Israels faithfulness has been tested by G-d . The historic exile of Israel which is coming to a close in our days, also embodies the ceremony conducted in the Holy Temple testing whether the covenant has been honored or whether it has been defiled. Click here to view Rabbi Richman's short teaching on parashat Naso (Numbers 4:21-7:89).
(Exodus 19:2)
Sivan 5, 5770/May 18, 2010
49th day of the Omer
On the sixth day of the third month, (the month of Sivan), in the first year of the exodus from Egypt, an event took place unlike anything that has ever happened since or before. The Holy One, blessed be He, arranged a meeting between Himself and the children of Israel, between heaven and earth. Of course we are referring to the revelation at Mount Sinai where G-d brought His Torah to the Israelite nation. This union between G-d's will and the innate (G-d given) ability of man to perform G-d's will, forever changed the course of humanity.
Midrash teaches us that G-d first offered Torah to each of the nations, and each nation, one after the next, demurred, understandably so, as the extent of the commitment required to keep G-d's commandments is daunting, to say the least. Where did Israel gain its strength and the courage to accept and say, "All that the Lord has spoken we shall do!"? (ibid 19:8) Our sages point out that in the words, "And Israel encamped there opposite the mountain" (ibid 19:2) the Hebrew word for encamped, vayichan, is written in the singular, revealing to us that the nation arrived at Sinai united, as one. One heart, one purpose and one destiny. So united, the immediate positive response to G-d's "initiative" was inevitable, as so united, their ability to successfully take upon themselves the challenge of living life according to Torah.
Another Midrash describes a different and seemingly contradictory insight into Israel's Mount Sinai experience. We are told that when the heavens opened up over Sinai the children of Israel saw the numberless hosts of heavenly angels which populated the firmament descending to the Mount, and each angel was holding a flag. Israel was so taken by this vision that they requested of G-d flags of their own. What did Israel find so compelling about the flags? Wasn't the entire Torah quite enough for them? In fact, our sages also tell us that the angels sought to keep Torah for themselves, but alas, Torah, with all its "hands-on" commandments designed to fit the human condition, was not appropriate to the angels who possess neither substance nor free will. All in all, Israel should have been quite pleased with its new acquisition, and not pining for the flags, but nevertheless, it was the flags they longed for.
Every angel is unique from all the other angels, for every angel is created by G-d for the fulfilling of one single purpose. The "flag" that each one was clutching was their specific G-d given mission, and this is what the Israelites saw, and this is what they so longed to possess for themselves: to know who they were and what was their purpose in life. But if the Israelites drew their strength from their unity, ("And Israel encamped there..." ibid), then what motivated them to suddenly desire to fulfill their own individuality? Can they truly be one people and at the same time be unique personalities?
This is the great gift of Torah. By its strength the nation of Israel is united and only a unified Israel can ultimately attain the full potential of Torah. At the same time it is incumbent upon each and every follower of Torah to pursue his own individuality within Torah and to fulfill the role that G-d has given to him and to him alone. Through Torah we find our unity and strength as a people and through Torah we discover our unique purpose on this earth, our reason for being.
The flag that each one of us possesses, upon which is emblazoned our uniqueness is akin to the brightly colored ribbon each Israelite would tie around his first fruits, designating them to be brought to the Holy Temple for the Bikurim offering on Shavuot. That first fruit, brought to fruition with such diligence and effort is the perfection of our own self, "the better angels of our own nature."
Chag sameach - a joyful Shavuot holiday celebration to all. May we find our true selves as we all stand together at the foot of Mount Sinai and receive Torah anew!
Tune in to this week's Temple Talk as Rabbi Chaim Richman and Yitzchak Reuven talk about what it really means for each one of us to truly receive the Torah anew on this special holiday... this means you! Of course, the manner in which Shavuot, the Festival of the Giving of the Torah, is celebrated in the Holy Temple is completely different than what we are all accustomed to. What is the secret that connects the Torah itself to the first fruits of the Land of Israel? The answer is simple: It's the Torah of this world! Ruth the Moabite, King David and Mashiach, the harvest in the Land of Israel and the Sinai Revelation are all perfectly connected.A Personal Invitation From Rabbi Chaim Richman To Join Him On His June 2010 American Speaking Tour: Please take two minutes to watch this video message from Rabbi Chaim Richman as he describes his upcoming USA speaking tour. Click here to view.Rabbi Richman Tours America: The Battle for Jerusalem has Begun! "The prophecy of the word of the L-rd concerning Israel... Behold, I am making Jerusalem a cup of poison for all the peoples all around... it shall be on that day that I make Jerusalem for all the peoples a burdensome stone... and all the nations of the world will gather against it... " (Zech. Ch. 12)Rabbi Richman brings an urgent message from Israel: These prophecies are coming to pass now, they are the secret of every headline, every negotiation... come to learn how the future of Jerusalem will effect the entire world!
Rabbi Richman will also be exhibiting the completed Breastplate for the High Priest, featuring the 12 stones of the tribes of Israel, ready to be worn by the Kohen Gadol in the rebuilt Holy Temple. The Breastplate is the instrument of prophetic enlightenment in the Holy Temple.This coming month of June Rabbi Chaim Richman will be speaking to audiences across Texas, New Mexico and Minnesota. For more information on when and where, please click here.
This week features the new Light to the Nations teaching by Rabbi Chaim Richman, entitled, "Celebrating this World: Spending the day of Shavuot immersed in the study of Torah, as is our custom today, is but a distant remembrance of the way Shavuot was observed in the time of the Holy Temple when we immersed ourselves in the reality of Torah as it is manifested in the very land of Israel, via the first fruits - the Bikurim." Click here to view.It is worth your while to prepare for this Shavuot by watching the Bat Melech video teaching classic with Rabbanit Rena Richman video teaching with Rabbanit Rena Richman, entitled, "The Story of Ruth: Ruth, the story of the Moabite princess who attached herself to the Jewish nation and the G-d of Israel, is traditionally read in synagogues on the upcoming festival of Shavuoth. Rena Richman reveals fascinating midrashic insights into the historical background of the story, focusing on the unique personalities of Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz. These three individuals together create the foundations of the Davidic dynasty." Click to view this two part special: The Story of Ruth, part I - The Story of Ruth, part IIAFSI on the Temple Mount: Jerusalem Day, 2010: On Wednesday, May 12 2010, Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day), Rabbi Chaim Richman led a large contingent of Jews and Gentiles from Americans for a Safe Israel or AFSI as it is known. AFSI is an important, major political support group for Israel, which supports the right of Israelis, free from outside interference, to live, thrive and expand their communities in all of the Land of Israel. AFSI's head is Executive Director Helen Freedman, who participated in this event. The AFSI ascent to the Temple Mount with Rabbi Richman and Yitzchak Reuven has become an annual event in the itinerary of the group's missions to Israel.The Temple Institute thanks AFSI for their uncompromising principled stand concerning Jewish inalienable rights in the land of Israel in general, and on the Temple Mount, in particular. We look forward to our next ascent together to the Temple Mount.
Learn How Shavuot is Celebrated in the Holy Temple: The festival of Shavuot, although a one-day festival, really began with the conclusion of the first day of Passover, some fifty days earlier. On that second day of the Passover festival, the new barley crop was first harvested and offered in the Holy Temple. On Shavuot the wheat harvest was celebrated by the harvestng and bringing of the new wheat crop to the Holy Temple, where it was prepared and used in the baking of the two special Shavuot loaves. Likewise, pilgrims brought the firstfruits from their own fields and orchards, of the seven fruits of the land of Israel mentioned in Deuteronomy: Figs, grapes, dates, pomegranates, olives, wheat and barley. Despite being at the height of the growing season, when the physical demands upon farmers was great, the pilgrims joyfully gathered their firstfruit offerings, and set out for Jerusalem and the Holy Temple. Click here.The case of the sotah - the woman accused by her husband of infidelity, has its parallel on the national level when Israels faithfulness has been tested by Chag Sameach Shavuot from the holy city of Jerusalem,
Yitzchak Reuven
The Temple Institute
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Judaizer
Judaizer?
That's how apostate Christians, Gentilized Christians, misled by Romanizers, spiritual drunks and whores, hatefully refer those who reject their counterfeit Christianity to faithfully keep the same biblical ("Jewish") Sabbath, the same biblical ("Jewish") festivals, the same biblical ("Jewish") dietary laws and beliefs as Yahshua, the King of the Jews, and the early Jewish Church of God observed and taught. The Gentile converts Polycarp and Polcrates were also "Judaizers!"
The Sabbath-keeping Church of God are pioneers of the wonderful World Tomorrow when all idolatrous traditions of unclean Christianity, baptized paganism pretending to be Christian, will be history! Come Lord Yahshua!
Do you follow Constantine or Christ?
That's how apostate Christians, Gentilized Christians, misled by Romanizers, spiritual drunks and whores, hatefully refer those who reject their counterfeit Christianity to faithfully keep the same biblical ("Jewish") Sabbath, the same biblical ("Jewish") festivals, the same biblical ("Jewish") dietary laws and beliefs as Yahshua, the King of the Jews, and the early Jewish Church of God observed and taught. The Gentile converts Polycarp and Polcrates were also "Judaizers!"
The Sabbath-keeping Church of God are pioneers of the wonderful World Tomorrow when all idolatrous traditions of unclean Christianity, baptized paganism pretending to be Christian, will be history! Come Lord Yahshua!
Do you follow Constantine or Christ?
Monday, May 17, 2010
Happy Shavuot!
Happy Shavuot
Hag Sameah! Happy Shavuot Holiday! Tomorrow night, Tuesday May 18, ushers in our cheese-eating holiday of Shavuot! For previous cartoons and postings about Shavuot click HERE.
-Dry Bones- Israel's Political Comic Strip Since 1973
Hag Sameah! Happy Shavuot Holiday! Tomorrow night, Tuesday May 18, ushers in our cheese-eating holiday of Shavuot! For previous cartoons and postings about Shavuot click HERE.
-Dry Bones- Israel's Political Comic Strip Since 1973
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Pentecost
Pentecost: Is Christ at the center of this feast?
In the Old Testament, the Feast of Pentecost is called the Feast of Weeks (Exodus 34:22). This is because Leviticus 23:15-16 mentions counting seven weeks (or Sabbaths) or "fifty days" from the day the wave sheaf was offered during the Days of Unleavened Bread. Thus the feast acquired the name of "fiftieth," which is what Pentecost means in the Greek language of the New Testament.
In the New Testament, 50 days after Christ had been resurrected, the first Christians were celebrating Pentecost, one of the feasts of the Lord. And, as recorded in Acts 2, what a day that was! On it they received the Holy Spirit from God. Suddenly the Old Testament Feast of Weeks had taken on a new meaning for them. The shadow of this feast had now become a reality! Pentecost would become the Church's anniversary of the receiving of God's Spirit.
Jesus Christ revealed the significance of this feast by sending the Holy Spirit to His brethren in the faith. He had told them, "Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high" (Luke 24:49; compare John 16:7).
God's Spirit plays a crucial role in the life of Christians today as it did then. When a person receives God's Spirit upon repentance and baptism, that Spirit begins a process of spiritual transformation in the person's life, a transformation the Bible calls conversion (to learn more, request or download the free booklet Transforming Your Life: The Process of Conversion).
Through this process, we shed our own way of thinking and living and allow Jesus Christ's attitude and way of life to guide everything we do. Paul described this life-transforming change in Galatians 2:20:
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (King James Version).
Thus we see that Jesus is at the center of the Feast of Pentecost as well. Yet the ultimate fulfillment will only be realized after He returns to earth to establish God's Kingdom, when all will have access to God's Spirit. So this feast should still be kept as a memorial and a shadow until its purpose is completely accomplished.
Do we find the first-century Church continuing to keep Pentecost? In the book of Acts, we read of the apostle Paul hurrying to be in Jerusalem to keep this feast with the brethren. "For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he would not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hurrying to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the Day of Pentecost" (Acts 20:16).
Even in one of Paul's epistles in which he writes so much about the gospel message, he refers to his plans to remain in Ephesus to observe Pentecost with the Church members there before traveling to Corinth.
He writes: "I do not want to see you now just in passing, for I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost" (1 Corinthians 16:7-8, New Revised Standard Version).
- excerpt from
The Biblical Festivals That Teach Us About Jesus Christ
In the Old Testament, the Feast of Pentecost is called the Feast of Weeks (Exodus 34:22). This is because Leviticus 23:15-16 mentions counting seven weeks (or Sabbaths) or "fifty days" from the day the wave sheaf was offered during the Days of Unleavened Bread. Thus the feast acquired the name of "fiftieth," which is what Pentecost means in the Greek language of the New Testament.
In the New Testament, 50 days after Christ had been resurrected, the first Christians were celebrating Pentecost, one of the feasts of the Lord. And, as recorded in Acts 2, what a day that was! On it they received the Holy Spirit from God. Suddenly the Old Testament Feast of Weeks had taken on a new meaning for them. The shadow of this feast had now become a reality! Pentecost would become the Church's anniversary of the receiving of God's Spirit.
Jesus Christ revealed the significance of this feast by sending the Holy Spirit to His brethren in the faith. He had told them, "Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high" (Luke 24:49; compare John 16:7).
God's Spirit plays a crucial role in the life of Christians today as it did then. When a person receives God's Spirit upon repentance and baptism, that Spirit begins a process of spiritual transformation in the person's life, a transformation the Bible calls conversion (to learn more, request or download the free booklet Transforming Your Life: The Process of Conversion).
Through this process, we shed our own way of thinking and living and allow Jesus Christ's attitude and way of life to guide everything we do. Paul described this life-transforming change in Galatians 2:20:
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (King James Version).
Thus we see that Jesus is at the center of the Feast of Pentecost as well. Yet the ultimate fulfillment will only be realized after He returns to earth to establish God's Kingdom, when all will have access to God's Spirit. So this feast should still be kept as a memorial and a shadow until its purpose is completely accomplished.
Do we find the first-century Church continuing to keep Pentecost? In the book of Acts, we read of the apostle Paul hurrying to be in Jerusalem to keep this feast with the brethren. "For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he would not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hurrying to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the Day of Pentecost" (Acts 20:16).
Even in one of Paul's epistles in which he writes so much about the gospel message, he refers to his plans to remain in Ephesus to observe Pentecost with the Church members there before traveling to Corinth.
He writes: "I do not want to see you now just in passing, for I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost" (1 Corinthians 16:7-8, New Revised Standard Version).
- excerpt from
The Biblical Festivals That Teach Us About Jesus Christ
Shavuot/Pentecost is May 18-19
Shavuot/Pentecost is May 18-19
Shavuot/Pentecost (Sivan 6) begins at sunset Tuesday, May 18, 2010 and concludes at sunset Wednesday, May 19, 2010.
The Oracles of God
God's empowered the Jews - despite themselves - to preserve His Word. They are the only people on Earth that God has blessed and ordained to fulfill such a calling! God will not retract His Word or renege on this gift and responsibility that He's graciously bestowed upon Judah.
The Pharisees
Who isn't aware of the sins of the Pharisees? Especially the Accuser of the Brethren? But does that mean the truths they teach, even if they don't live them, are no longer true?
Passover and Pentecost Differences Settled!
The correct dates to observe God's holy days should not be a Church of God issue, having been settled by God thousands of years ago and preserved throughout the ages by faithful Jews.
Raymond McNair Rejects God's government
Did Herbert Armstrong Ever Observe Pentecost on Sivan 6?
Pentecost
http://www.davidbenariel.org/
Shavuot/Pentecost (Sivan 6) begins at sunset Tuesday, May 18, 2010 and concludes at sunset Wednesday, May 19, 2010.
The Oracles of God
God's empowered the Jews - despite themselves - to preserve His Word. They are the only people on Earth that God has blessed and ordained to fulfill such a calling! God will not retract His Word or renege on this gift and responsibility that He's graciously bestowed upon Judah.
The Pharisees
Who isn't aware of the sins of the Pharisees? Especially the Accuser of the Brethren? But does that mean the truths they teach, even if they don't live them, are no longer true?
Passover and Pentecost Differences Settled!
The correct dates to observe God's holy days should not be a Church of God issue, having been settled by God thousands of years ago and preserved throughout the ages by faithful Jews.
Raymond McNair Rejects God's government
Did Herbert Armstrong Ever Observe Pentecost on Sivan 6?
Pentecost
http://www.davidbenariel.org/
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Jerusalem Day 5770
"Can these bones become alive?"
(Ezekiel 37:3)
Iyar 28, 5770/May 12, 2010
43rd day of the Omer
(Ezekiel 37:3)
Iyar 28, 5770/May 12, 2010
43rd day of the Omer
This week Jews around the world begin the book of Numbers, in Hebrew, Bamidbar, literally, "in the wilderness." The opening chapters of the book describe in detail how the tribes of Israel are to array themselves in the desert. Three tribal encampments on each of the four directions, east, south, west and north, create an outer perimeter around the Tabernacle, which, situated in the center of the encampment, is flanked by an inner perimeter formed by the encampment of the tribe of Levi, according to their family divisions.
This tribal deployment is but the latest stage in the development of the people of Israel from a formless band of freed bondsmen to a great and independent nation. The first transformation occurred at Mount Sinai where the children of Israel received Torah, and as a nation thereby acquired a soul. The second transformation was achieved by the building of the Tabernacle and the inauguration of the Divine service, in effect implanting a living, beating heart, animated by the soul, within the nation. And now, with the deployment of the tribes, each according to its own banner, a body is formed around the heart which is animated by the soul. Each tribe, each individual being assigned his own unique purpose to fulfill, as part of the whole.
The modern rebirth of the nation of Israel upon the land that G-d promised to Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, and their descendants, can be seen to be transpiring in reverse fashion. With Israel's declaration of independence in 1948, an army, consisting of refugees from the four corners of the earth had to be formed in order to defend the people and the land from the seven invading Arab armies. Only nineteen years later, on the 28th day of the month of Iyar, (June 7, 1967), whose Hebrew anniversary we are celebrating today, was ancient Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, the place of the Holy Temple, liberated. And thereby Israel reacquired its heart.
Just as in the prophecy of Ezekiel, the bones of the two thousand year exile, which ended in the furnaces of the Holocaust, were laid over with sinew, and upon the sinew new flesh has grown. So too Israel has returned to life back in the land G-d has promised. And now having regained Jerusalem, the heart of the nation that feeds nourishment to the entire body of Israel, Israel is searching for its soul, for that animating and guiding force rooted in G-d's will, which will inspire and direct the reborn nation.
Israel has made dramatic achievements throughout its short (modern) history. Her accomplishments in agriculture, science, medicine, humanitarian aid, literature, the arts, high tech, and the military have earned her great, if sometimes begrudging, universal admiration. What is less visible to the foreign eye is the intensive spiritual revolution that is occurring today in Israel and in the heart of Israel - Jerusalem. As in all true revolutions, the Torah revolution taking place today in Israel is intended to through off the yoke of foreign rule. Two thousand years of being oppressed strangers, of laboring in fields that were not theirs, has left an indelible mark upon the soul of Israel. But what looks like so much turmoil and dissent from the outside is, in fact, the first signs of Israel returning to its spiritual inheritance here in the land of Israel, as G-d intended it when He first set Israel upon eagle's wings, and brought them our of Egypt.
So it can be said that Israel today, having physically redeployed itself in the land, and having regained the heart of the nation, is marching toward Sinai in search of its soul. The celebration of Jerusalem Day, situated on the calendar six weeks after the Passover exodus, and two weeks after Yom Atzmaut - Israel Independence Day - and one week before the holiday of Shavuot, which marks the receiving of Torah at Sinai, could hardly be more propitious. From this privileged vantage point we can see with confidence what lies ahead: The rebuilt Holy Temple, the living, beating heart, which will house the soul of Israel, the Divine Shechinah - the indwelling of G-d's presence here on earth which will spread through the arteries and reanimate the nation of Israel in true holiness and attachment to G-d.
May the day come soon when Israel will no longer be in the docket of the travesty of what today is cynically called international "justice,' which is nothing more than the politically correct and self serving law of Sodom. May the day come soon when these same nations which today sit in judgement of Israel will turn their eyes and their hearts to Jerusalem in anticipation of His word:
"And many peoples shall go, and they shall say, 'Come, let us go up to the L-rd's mount, to the house of the G-d of Yaakov, and let Him teach us of His ways, and we will go in His paths,' for out of Zion shall the Torah come forth, and the word of the L-rd from Jerusalem." (Isaiah 2:3)
Tune in to this week's Temple Talk as Rabbi Chaim Richman and Yitzchak Reuven talk with Pastor Kenneth Rawson, an outspoken opponent on dividing Jerusalem, who shares his insights on American policies towards Israel, and his adamant opposition to Christian attempts to convert Jews.The Rabbi and Yitzchak also speak from the heart about Jerusalem Day, Rabbi Richman shares his experience of the recent ascent to the Temple Mount by 43 rabbis to mark the historic day, and together our hosts rejoice in the very fact that G-d has reunited His people with Jerusalem, the soul of our people and the heart of our land. What a privilege to live here! What joy just to walk the streets of Jerusalem!
Special Update: Next week the holiday of Shavuot begins on Tuesday evening. Therefore, Rabbi Chaim Richman and Yitzchak Reuven will be broadcasting Temple Talk live on Monday afternoon, May 17, at the usual hour, (3:00 PM Israel time).
Jerusalem Day 5770: When Israel liberated the Temple Mount on June 7th, 1967, the prophetic clock began ticking anew. The place where King David and his son Solomon first built the Holy Temple is back in the hands of their descendants. Come what may, the Holy Temple will be rebuilt!Standing at the foot of the southwest corner of the Temple Mount wall, Rabbi Chaim Richman delivers a passionate paean to Jerusalem and to the once and future glory of the Holy Temple. Please click here to view.
Jerusalem Day Reflections by Rabbi Yisrael Ariel: Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, paratrooper and founder of the Temple Institute, reflects on his experiences in the Six Day War and the liberation of the Temple Mount. Please click here to view.
43 Rabbis Ascend The Temple Mount, Marking The 43 Year Anniversary Of The Liberation Of The Temple Mount: On May 10th, 2010, two days in advance of Jerusalem Day, (Yom Yerushalayim), in which the nation of Israel and its supporters around the world celebrate the anniversary of the day upon which Jerusalem's Old City and Temple Mount were liberated by the Israel Defense Forces on June 8, 1967, (the Hebrew date of 28 Iyar, which falls this year on May 12), forty three leading Rabbis of Israel converged at the gates to the Temple Mount, where they proceeded to ascend the Mount. The number forty three was chosen to symbolize the forty three years since the Mount was liberated. Additional rabbis and members of Knesset joined the group. For pictures, and to learn more, please click here.Rabbi Richman Tours America: The Battle for Jerusalem has Begun! "The prophecy of the word of the L-rd concerning Israel... Behold, I am making Jerusalem a cup of poison for all the peoples all around... it shall be on that day that I make Jerusalem for all the peoples a burdensome stone... and all the nations of the world will gather against it... " (Zech. Ch. 12)Rabbi Richman brings an urgent message from Israel: These prophecies are coming to pass now, they are the secret of every headline, every negotiation... come to learn how the future of Jerusalem will effect the entire world!
Rabbi Richman will also be exhibiting the completed Breastplate for the High Priest, featuring the 12 stones of the tribes of Israel, ready to be worn by the Kohen Gadol in the rebuilt Holy Temple. The Breastplate is the instrument of prophetic enlightenment in the Holy Temple.This coming month of June Rabbi Chaim Richman will be speaking to audiences across Texas, New Mexico and Minnesota. For more information on when and where, please click here.
Project Heritage: Some months ago, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced a new government program in which Israel's most cherished and revered sites of national heritage would be receiving special attention for the purpose of refurbishing the sites, improving access to the sites and encouraging people to visit the sites. Yet, inexplicably, the Prime Minister left the Temple Mount, the holiest place on earth, off the list! We have an opportunity to try to correct this grievous omission: Representatives of the Temple Mount Lobby will be meeting next week with the members of Knesset who are the co-chairmen of the parliamentary committee which is overseeing the implementation of the Heritage Site Plan. We aim to present the Knesset members and the Prime Minister with a petition containing no less than 10,000 signatures. Your signature is required! Help us to make change. Help us to put the heart of the nation of Israel back on top of the national agenda. Click here to sign the petition.
This week features the new Bat Melech video teaching with Rabbanit Rena Richman, entitled, "The Month of Sivan: Shavuot and the entire month of Sivan offer us the opportunity to take stock of our spiritual well-being. Our spiritual maturity, like the first-fruits we bring to the Holy Temple on Shavuot, is the end result of a long and careful process of preparation." Click here to view.
This week features the new Light to the Nations teaching by Rabbi Chaim Richman, entitled, "The Pilgrimage Experience: The pilgrimage experience combined a sublime sense of expectation with an all-embracing feeling of total trust in HaShem, as Temple-goers left their farms and fields and made their way to Jerusalem and the Holy Temple. The festival of Shavuot, which celebrates the land of Israel and commemorates the receiving of Torah at Sinai epitomizes the total pilgrimage experience. Filmed at the southern wall of the Temple Mount." Click here to view.In the desert each of the Israelite tribes was assigned a flag. What was the significance of the flags? What made them so important to Blessings from the holy city of Jerusalem,
Yitzchak Reuven
The Temple Institute
Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land
"Proclaim liberty throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof."
(Leviticus 25:5)
Iyar 23, 5770/May 7, 2010
38th day of the Omer
Tune in to this week's Temple Talk as Rabbi Chaim Richman and Yitzchak Reuven reflect upon the timeliness and the Heavenly-ordained message of each week's Torah portion. What messages are being broadcast to us this week? And what is the true meaning of the "admonitions" found in parashat Bechukotei?
Reminder: Rabbi Chaim Richman and Yitzchak Reuven have begun broadcasting Temple Talk live, enabling our listeners to call in! For phone-in information please click here.
Rabbi Richman Tours America: This coming month of June Rabbi Chaim Richman will be speaking to audiences across Texas, New Mexico and Minnesota. For more information on when and where, please click here.
Project Heritage: Some months ago, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced a new government program in which Israel's most cherished and revered sites of national heritage would be receiving special attention for the purpose of refurbishing the sites, improving access to the sites and encouraging people to visit the sites. Yet, inexplicably, the Prime Minister left the Temple Mount, the holiest place on earth, off the list! We have an opportunity to try to correct this grievous omission: Representatives of the Temple Mount Lobby will be meeting next week with the members of Knesset who are the co-chairmen of the parliamentary committee which is overseeing the implementation of the Heritage Site Plan. We aim to present the Knesset members and the Prime Minister with a petition containing no less than 10,000 signatures. Your signature is required! Help us to make change. Help us to put the heart of the nation of Israel back on top of the national agenda. Click here to sign the petition.
This week features the new Light to the Nations teaching by Rabbi Chaim Richman, entitled, "Flags, Tribes & Stones: Torah lists twelve stones to be engraved and placed upon the breastplate of the High Priest. How are we to ascertain the true identity of each individual stone? Why even the most ancient of Jewish sources, the three Aramaic translations of Torah seem to disagree on which stones are to be used. And even the greatest Torah sages of old seem to be proposing different stones and even different sets of criteria for determining the stones. In this show, Rabbi Richman reveals why the Great Rambam could state with such unabashed aplomb that the identity of the stones as described by Torah are self-evident." Click here to view.
G-d commands the children of Israel to observe the sabbatical year by letting the land of Israel rest. This act of sanctifying the land by placing our total faith in G-d , grants us the peace we so fervently desire. Click here to view Rabbi Richman's short teaching on parashat Behar-Bechukotei (Leviticus 25:1-27:34).
(Leviticus 25:5)
Iyar 23, 5770/May 7, 2010
38th day of the Omer
Americans will no doubt recognize the words that appears on the Liberty Bell that has sat in the city of Philadelphia for over two hundred years. The words originally appeared in this week's Torah reading of Behar-Bechukotei. It wasn't the tolling of a bell that proclaimed liberty throughout the land of Israel, but the shofar. Nor was it liberty of a political nature that the shofar announced, but liberty of a deep spiritual nature. Nor was the proclamation of liberty intended only for the human inhabitants of the land, but also, and essentially, for the land itself.
Peoples around the world attach great spiritual value to their native lands, whose beauty and bounty come to symbolize the strength and prosperity of the nation. But the spiritual nature of the land of Israel is different than that of any other land in that it doesn't emanate from the people living on it, but directly from G-d Himself. And while the land of Israel is intended by G-d , from the beginning of time, solely for the people of Israel, the land is nevertheless commanded by G-d to reject the people of Israel if they fail to fulfill the word of Torah, especially as it applies to the land itself.
In turn, Israel is commanded to respect and honor the spiritual integrity of the land by letting her fields and vineyards and orchards lie fallow every seven years, and again on the fiftieth Yovel, (Jubilee), year, which follows every cycle of seven sets of seven years. On this fiftieth Yovel year the land of Israel is liberated from the toiling hands of man, and reverts to its true and only owner, HaShem.
There are among us those who claim that the land of Israel is nothing more than a patch of dirt, a parcel of real estate, with no value other that what it can reasonably be exploited for, and when its cost, as it were, is greater that its return, it should be forthwith jettisoned. And while these same detractors might even admit the historical connection between the people of Israel and the land of Israel, they will nevertheless deny that it was or is anything more than a stomping ground, convenient or otherwise.
While in the desert, G-d prepared carefully the children of Israel for their eventual entry into the land, not by revealing to them the land's hidden mineral or energy resources, or its strategic depth, vital as these features may be to both ancient and modern states. G-d first and foremost revealed the land's autonomous spiritual identity as embodied by the commandments concerning Shmitta and Yovel.
The land of Israel, like the Shabbat stands alone and independent. The land of Israel, bereft of its people for two thousand years became a vast wasteland, of no use to anyone, but it never lost, not for a moment, its sanctity. Likewise, the Shabbat retains its holiness whether or not a particular person or persons observe and honor it. And just as one would not consider compromising their allegience to the holy Shabbat in order to gain favor in the eyes of others, it is likewise unthinkable to compromise in any way the integrity of the land of Israel for the sake of currying political good will from even the most powerful of earthly potentates.
The relationship between the people of Israel and the land of Israel is that of husband and wife, in which mutual love and respect creates a home in which G-d's presence, the Divine Shechina, dwells. Torah states unequivocally the relationship between true Torah observance and Israel's security in the land:
"You shall perform My statutes, keep My ordinances and perform them then you will live on the land securely. And the land will then yield its fruit and you will eat to satiety, and live upon it securely. And if you should say, "What will we eat in the seventh year? We will not sow, and we will not gather in our produce!" [Know then, that] I will command My blessing for you in the sixth year, and it will yield produce for three years. And you will sow in the eighth year, while [still] eating from the old crops until the ninth year; until the arrival of its crop, you will eat the old [crop]. The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land belongs to Me, for you are strangers and [temporary] residents with Me. Therefore, throughout the land of your possession, you shall give redemption for the land." (ibid 25:19-24)
Every seven years the modern nation of Israel observes the Shmitta - sabbatical - year by allowing her fields to lie fallow. No doubt in the near future Israel will take upon itself the renewed observation of the Yovel commandment to liberate the land. This process of return and resumption of Torah law as it applies to the land of Israel, from the Shmitta and the Yovel to the rebuilding of the Holy Temple, is the only true process that will bring lasting peace and blessing, both to the people of Israel and to the hallowed land of Israel.
Tune in to this week's Temple Talk as Rabbi Chaim Richman and Yitzchak Reuven reflect upon the timeliness and the Heavenly-ordained message of each week's Torah portion. What messages are being broadcast to us this week? And what is the true meaning of the "admonitions" found in parashat Bechukotei?As we continue counting the days of the Omer and prepare for the upcoming month of Sivan and the giving of the Torah anew, all roads lead to the Holy Temple, where Israel - and the world - experience the constant renewal of the Sinai Revelation.
Everybody knows that during the Omer days, we recall the death of Rabbi Akiva's students. But there is an alternative opinion regarding these students... one that shed's light on Rabbi Akiva's views regarding the Messiah of Israel and what sort of a man he should be.
Reminder: Rabbi Chaim Richman and Yitzchak Reuven have begun broadcasting Temple Talk live, enabling our listeners to call in! For phone-in information please click here.
Rabbi Richman Tours America: This coming month of June Rabbi Chaim Richman will be speaking to audiences across Texas, New Mexico and Minnesota. For more information on when and where, please click here.
Project Heritage: Some months ago, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced a new government program in which Israel's most cherished and revered sites of national heritage would be receiving special attention for the purpose of refurbishing the sites, improving access to the sites and encouraging people to visit the sites. Yet, inexplicably, the Prime Minister left the Temple Mount, the holiest place on earth, off the list! We have an opportunity to try to correct this grievous omission: Representatives of the Temple Mount Lobby will be meeting next week with the members of Knesset who are the co-chairmen of the parliamentary committee which is overseeing the implementation of the Heritage Site Plan. We aim to present the Knesset members and the Prime Minister with a petition containing no less than 10,000 signatures. Your signature is required! Help us to make change. Help us to put the heart of the nation of Israel back on top of the national agenda. Click here to sign the petition.This week features the new Light to the Nations teaching by Rabbi Chaim Richman, entitled, "Flags, Tribes & Stones: Torah lists twelve stones to be engraved and placed upon the breastplate of the High Priest. How are we to ascertain the true identity of each individual stone? Why even the most ancient of Jewish sources, the three Aramaic translations of Torah seem to disagree on which stones are to be used. And even the greatest Torah sages of old seem to be proposing different stones and even different sets of criteria for determining the stones. In this show, Rabbi Richman reveals why the Great Rambam could state with such unabashed aplomb that the identity of the stones as described by Torah are self-evident." Click here to view.Blessings from the holy city of Jerusalem,
Yitzchak Reuven
The Temple Institute
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