Nearby to the Ramat Shlomo
Quarter, a large Ultra-Orthodox Haredi Jewish neighborhood nearby to and
northwest of Jerusalem, another Herodian Quarry of limestone used in the
quarrying of smaller megalithic stones for King Herod’s Temple has been
discovered. Over 2,000 years old, this ancient excavation site was discovered
prior to the paving of a Highway 21 by the Moriah Company, according to the
Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA).
This quarry which is about one
dunam in size is estimated to be 2,030 years old or about the year of 27
BCE. Located on Shmuel Hanavi Street
nearby to the neighborhood of Jerusalem’s American Colony, the excavation site
is bordered by the Jerusalem neighborhood Ramot to the west, Har Hotzvim to the
south and the Shuafat neighborhood to the east.
Originally call Reches
Shuafat (Shuafat Ridge), this rocky ridge was later named after the
Orthodox Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, one of Judah preeminent rabbinic
scholars whose estimated 300,000 – 500,000 supporters lined the streets of
Jerusalem in 1995 when this rabbinic Torah giant died. His first major publication, Meorei Esh
was written on the use of electricity on the Jewish Shabbat and endorsed by
Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinsky with these words; ‘A New Light will Shine upon
Zion’.
The quarry excavation site is
currently being explored by Dr. Ofer Sion and Yehuda Rapuano of the IAA, before
this area will be paved over with a street and developed into residential
buildings. According to Irina Zilberbod, IAA excavation director:
IAA Excavation Director Irina Zilberbod – “The quarrying phenomenon created a spectacular sight of bedrock columns and
steps and craters of sorts that were the result of the rock-cuttings. What
remained are rock masses in various stages of quarrying, and there were those
that were found in a preliminary stage of rock-cutting prior to detachment.”
According to Dr. Ofer Sion,
the large limestone blocks were excavated here and reused for the Temple Mount walls
nearby to the grand expansion and enlargement of Zerubabbel’s Temple into King
Herod’s Temple. This large stones were about the maximum height of two meters
(6.0 to 6.5 feet) and weighing in “tens if not hundreds of tons”. In total, the team
uncovered an area of around 11,000 square feet where the ancient quarry formerly
existed.
Yet, this was not the only quarry in the region. This
northern region, located along the entire slope of the rocky ridge from Musrara
Quarter to the Sanhedria Quarter have been the exploration grounds of prior
discovered quarries. This has prompted the name for this region as Jerusalem's
“city of quarries.” The youngest quarry dates from the Second Temple Era period.
Among the
artifacts discovered at the excavation site were multiple pickaxes plus metal
wedges that were used to “sever” the cut stones from the surrounding limestone
foundational layer. There was also an iron key, that was possibly used in a
large monumental door such as one of the gates to Jerusalem, or to King Herod’s
temple, plus metal plates or wedges that were used to sever the stones from the
bedrock, and coins and pottery shards dating back to the end of the Second
Temple period (the first century BCE). As Archeologist Irina Zilberbod, the
excavation director said in an official statement for the Antiquities
Authority:
Archeologist Irina Zilberbod - “The pick axes were used to cut the severance channels around the stone
block in the bedrock surface and the arrowhead-shaped detachment wedge, which
is solid iron, was designed to detach the base of the stone from the bedrock by
means of striking it with a hammer. The key that was found, and which was
probably used to open a door some 2,000 years ago, is curved and has teeth.
What was it doing there? We can only surmise that it might have fallen from the
pocket of one of the quarrymen (or a Temple Construction Supervisor).”
One of the prior excavations
sites nearby that was explored by the IAA over five years ago in 2007 were larger
megalithic stones reaching upwards to 26 feet in length and no doubt weighed over
100 tons in weight. These were used by King Herod and possibly even earlier by King
Solomon for Jerusalem’s monumental building projects. As Dr. Ofer Sion,
excavation director reported:
Dr.
Ofer Sion – “We know from historical
sources that in order to build the Temple and other projects which Herod
constructed, such as his palace, hundreds of thousands of various size stones
were required - most of them weighing between two and five tons each. The
dimensions of the stones that were produced in the quarry that was revealed are
suitable for the Temple walls.”
The
reason for the ridge site as a quarry zone is the fact that the Meleke
limestone rock formation was easily quarried for after the limestone was cut, shaped
and exposed to air, the limestone rock would harden immediately. The region of
the quarry was at a higher elevation than the Temple Mount so the transport of
the enormous limestone stone would have been taken downhill along a
first-century road that was discovered nearby.
How it
was transported was not exactly known except during the time of the Roman
Empire the use of giant wood-lifting devices were used and oxen plus giant
rollers could have brought the stones down to the site of the temple
reconstruction area by King Herod the Great. As explained by Dr. Ofer Sion:
Dr. Ofer
Sion – “The massive quarrying
effort, on the order of hundreds of thousands of stones, lowered the topography
of Jerusalem in the vicinity of the Old City. Today, with the exposure of this
quarry, the intensity of the building projects as described in the historical
sources can be proven.”
Quarried Stones on King Herod’s Temple Mount near
the Western Wall – Archives BibleSearchers
Reflections
Flavius
Josephus wrote that before Herod built the Temple he prepared the
infrastructure for it by quarrying stones north of the Temple Mount for eight
years in preparation for the largest platformed Temple in the entire Roman
Empire. With the preparation done, Herod’s Temple took only two years, a
remarkably short time to build such a monumental edifice. As Dr. Ofer Sion
continued:
Dr. Ofer Sion – “With
the exposure of the quarries in Sanhedria and Ramat Shlomo, it is clear that
Herod began quarrying closest to the Temple and worked away from it; first he
exploited the stone on the nearby ridges and subsequently he moved on to quarry
in more distant regions.”
According
to the archeologists, these multi-ton limestone stones were transported
downhill from the site of the quarry along an ancient road to the walled city
of King David, Jerusalem to the south where they would have been used in the
construction of the platform walls on the Temple Mount, King Herod’s Temple on
its own platform mount to the south, other monumental buildings such as King
Herod’s Palace nearby to the west.”
What is
clearly depicted is the historical fact that the Jewish people were living on their
own divinely appointed tribal homeland called the Roman Province of Judea under
the rule of King Herod the Great. They were participants with a massive
construction project to enlarge the Temple Mount site and to rebuild King
Herod’s Temple to the honor of the G-d of Israel as early as 30 BCE on a temple
site that was at least 500 years old at the time. This was more than 720 to
1220 years before the Islamic Shrine Masijd Qubbat As-Sakhrah was completed in
691 CE at the order of Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik.
************
The Battle for the
Minds of the Human Race is now coming to its fullest revelation. The forces of
Darkness battled against the Forces of HaShem’s angels of Light as the final
battle over 2000 years ago for the souls of men on Planet Earth. It was the
divine rule of HaShem that the Sheep of the House of Judah would be sent into
one last exile, yet out of this epic war would set the stage for the restoration
for Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel and the final redemption of All
Israel; the Ten Lost Tribes of the House of Israel and the Jews of the House of
Judah.
The Roman Empire was a
major part of this Drama of the Ages then and continues to be so today with its
Christian descendants, the Roman Catholic Church and her children of the Christian
Protestant faith. They will all be participants in the Final Act of that Divine
Drama.
These participants not
only include the Jews of the House of Judah, the Lost Ten Tribes of the House
of Northern Israel; both of the House of Jacob (Israel), but will include the
Roman Edomites of the House of Esau, the brother of Jacob of the House of Isaac
and the Arabs of the House of Ishmael, the brother to Isaac of the House of
Abraham.
If you want to learn
more, Contact “Kol Ha Tor Vision”, the Voice of the Turtledove. Here
is a joint Orthodox Jewish and 10-Triber Mission to bring awareness of the
imminent fulfillment of the Biblical Prophecies regarding the Redemption of all
Israel (12 Tribes Re-conciled and Re-United).
The author of this
blog is a supporter of Kol Ha Tor Vision and while we are publishing material
that may be relevant to the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel, the
leadership of Kol Ha Tor do not necessarily agree with everything we have
published. Yet, we understand, until the Messiah son of David comes to give us
full insight into what is happening to our lives and our world today, we may
know only in part while we continue to support the rabbanim of Israel and seek
reconciliation with the Jews of the House of Israel until we are finally one
family; the family of our Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
This reunification
will truly be a super Event of all Times that will entail Establishing Shomron
(the Ancient Bible Heartland of the Patriarchs) and the Judean Wilderness as
part of the Land of Israel, and preparing the “Land” for the Return of the Lost
Tribes of the House of Israel and then the Redemption of All Israel.
For inquiries about
Kol Ha Tor Vision for the Lost Tribes of Israel, we invite you to make a
personal Visit to Israel and stay at “Shomron Lives!”,a Spiritual Retreat and Guest House
in Samaria, that hosts Shomron (Samaria) Tours to reacquaint the Returning Lost
Tribers of the House of Israel.
Weekly Bible Reading
#24
- Year 5773 (2012/2013)
– March 23, 2013
Parashat Tzav (Command!): Leviticus 6:1 - 8:36
Haftarah: Jeremiah 7:21-8:3; 9:22-23
NOTE: Kol HaTor, in its commentaries on
the weekly Parashot, endeavors to search for and accentuate the Torah Messages
contained in the Parashot as applicable to the main Theme of Tanach of the
Return of the House of Israel, i.e. the Lost Ten Tribes of Northern Israel and
their Reconciliation with Judah to form the reunited 12-Tribed Kingdom of
Israel.
DISCLAIMER
- The authors whom we quote from for this Commentary are not associated
with KOL HA'TOR and need not agree with our views expressed herein or in
our other publications. While we publish their views for its
relative value to the interpretation of the Parashah, KOL HATOR does not
necessarily agree with the views expressed by these authors.
This year, Parashat Tzav coincides
with Shabbat HaGadol, the
Sabbath preceding Pesah.
The Parashah describes the sacrificial offerings and rituals to be performed in
the Tabernacle or Temple by the nation, in order to maintain a close
relationship with G-d. When Tzav coincides with Shabbat HaGadol,
the normal Haftarah from Jeremiah 7:21-8:3; 9:22-23 is replaced by Malachi 3:4-24 (which is Malachi
3:24-4:6 in non-Hebrew Version).
This Haftarah from Jeremiah
is disturbingly condemning of Judah, specifically. It raises perplexing
questions about the entire Sacrificial System and, of course, the problem that
for the last 2000 years Judah was not able to bring Sacrifices, due to the destruction
of the Temple and the Jewish Exile.
Jeremiah 7:28-34 – “The people
of Judah have done evil in my eyes, declares HaShem. They have set up their
detestable idols in the house that bears my Name and have defiled it. They
have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their
sons and daughters in the fire—something I did not command, nor did it enter my
mind.
So beware, the days are coming, declares HaShem, when
people will no longer call it Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the
Valley of Slaughter, for they will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no
more room. Then the carcasses of this people will
become food for the birds and the wild animals, and there will be no one to
frighten them away. I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and
to the voices of bride and bridegroom in the towns of Judah and the streets of
Jerusalem, for the land will become desolate.”
Jeremiah 8:1-3 - “At that
time, declares HaShem, the bones of the kings and officials of Judah, the bones
of the priests and prophets, and the bones of the people of Jerusalem will be
removed from their graves. They will be exposed to the
sun and the moon and all the stars of the heavens, which they have loved and
served and which they have followed and consulted and worshiped.
They will not be gathered up or buried, but
will be like dung lying on the ground. Wherever I banish them, all
the survivors of this evil nation will prefer death to life, declares HaShem
Almighty.”
Jeremiah 7:22-23 – “When I brought your
forefathers out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not give them commands about
burnt offerings and sacrifices, but I gave them this command:
‘Obey me, and I will be your
G-d and you will be My people. Walk in all the ways I command you that it may
go well with you.’”
Britain's Chief Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks – “Commentators
have been puzzled by the glaring contradiction between these words and the
obvious fact that G-d did command the Israelites about sacrifices after
bringing them out of Egypt. Several solutions have been offered.
According to Maimonides, the sacrifices
were a means, not an end, to the service of G-d. Radak argues that sacrifices
were not the first of G-d’s commands after the exodus; instead, civil laws
were. Abarbanel goes so far as to say that initially G-d had not intended to
give the Israelites a code of sacrifice, and did so only after the sin of the
Golden Calf. The sacrifices were an antidote to the Israelites’ tendency to
rebel against G-d.
The simplest explanation is to note that the
Hebrew word ‘lo’ does not invariably mean “not”; sometimes it means “not only”
or “not just”. According to this, Jeremiah is not saying that G-d did not
command sacrifices. He did, but they were not the sole or even most important
element of the religious life. The common denominator of the prophetic critique
of sacrifices is not opposition to them as such, but rather an insistence that
acts directed to G-d must never dull our sense of duty to mankind. Micah gave
this idea one of its most famous expressions:
Micah 6:6-8 (parts) – “With what shall I
come before HaShem and bow down before the exalted G-d?...Will HaShem be
pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil?...He has shown
you, O man, what is good. What does HaShem require of you:
To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your G-d.”
Yet the question remains. Why
sacrifices? To be sure, they have not been part of the life of Judaism since
the destruction of the Second Temple, almost 2,000 years ago. But why, if they
are a means to an end, did G-d choose this end? This is, of course, one of the
deepest questions in Judaism, and there are many answers. Here I want explore
just one, first given by the early fifteenth century Jewish thinker, R. Joseph
Albo, in his Sefer ha-Ikkarim.
Albo’s theory took as its starting point, not
sacrifices but two other intriguing questions. The first: Why, after the flood,
did G-d permit human beings to eat meat? (Genesis 9: 3-5). Initially, neither
human beings nor animals had been meat-eaters (Gen. 1: 29-30). What caused G-d,
as it were, to change His mind?
The second: What was wrong with the
first act of sacrifice -- Cain’s offering of “some of the fruits of the soil”
(Gen. 4:3-5). G-d’s rejection of that offering led directly to the first
murder, when Cain killed Abel. What was at stake in the difference between Cain
and Abel as to how to bring a gift to G-d?
Albo’s theory is this. Killing
animals for food is inherently wrong. It involves taking the life of a
sentient being to satisfy our needs. Cain knew this. He believed there was a strong
kinship between man and the animals. That is why he offered, not an animal
sacrifice, but a vegetable one (his error, according to Albo, is that he should
have brought fruit, not vegetables – the highest, not the lowest, of non-meat
produce).
Abel, by contrast, believed that there
was a qualitative difference between man and the animals. Had G-d not told the
first humans: “Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over
every living creature that moves in the ground”? That is why he brought an
animal sacrifice. Once Cain saw that Abel’s sacrifice had been accepted while
his own was not, he reasoned thus. If G-d (who forbids us to kill animals for
food) permits and even favors killing an animal as a sacrifice, and if (as Cain
believed) there is no ultimate difference between human beings and animals,
then I shall offer the very highest living being as a sacrifice to G-d,
namely my brother Abel. Cain killed Abel not out of envy or animosity but
as a human sacrifice.
That is why G-d permitted meat-eating after
the flood. Before the flood, the world had been “filled with violence”.
Perhaps violence is an inherent part of human nature. If there were to
be any humanity at all, G-d would have to lower his demands of mankind. Let
them kill animals, He said, rather than kill human beings – the one form of
life that is not only G-d’s creation but also G-d’s image. Hence the
otherwise almost unintelligible sequence of verses after Noah and his family
emerge on dry land:
Genesis 8:20-22 – 9:1,3,6 (parts) – “Then Noah built an
altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he
sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and
said in his heart, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even
though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood…”
According to Albo the logic of the
passage is clear. Noah offers an animal sacrifice in thanksgiving for having
survived the flood. G-d sees that human beings need this way of expressing
themselves. They are genetically predisposed to violence (“every
inclination of his heart is evil from childhood”). If, therefore, society is to
survive, human beings need to be able to direct their violence toward
non-human animals, whether as food or sacrificial offering. The crucial
ethical line to be drawn is between human and non-human.
The permission to kill animals is accompanied by an absolute prohibition
against killing human beings (“for in the image of G-d, has G-d made man”.
It is not that G-d approves of killing animals, whether for sacrifice or food,
but that to forbid this to human beings, given their genetic predisposition to
violence, is utopian. It is not for now but for the end of days.
In the meanwhile, the least bad
solution is to let people kill animals rather than murder their fellow humans.
Animal sacrifices are a concession to human nature (on why G-d never chooses to
change human nature, see Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed, Book III, ch.
32). Sacrifices are a substitute for violence directed against mankind.”
The contemporary thinker who has done most to
revive this understanding (without, however, referring to Albo or the Jewish
tradition) is René Girard, in such books as Violence and the Sacred, The Scapegoat, and Things Hidden since the
Foundation of the World. The common denominator in sacrifices, he
argues thus:
René Girard – “…internal violence –
all the dissensions, rivalries, jealousies, and quarrels within the community
that the sacrifices are designed to suppress. The purpose of the sacrifice is
to restore harmony to the community, to reinforce the social fabric. Everything
else derives from that." (Violence
and the Sacred, pg. 8).
The worst form of violence within and
between societies is vengeance, “an interminable, infinitely repetitive
process”. Hillel (whom Girard also does not quote) said, on seeing a human
skull floating on water, said in Avot 2:6:
Rabbi Hillel the Great (Avot 2:6) – “Because
you drowned others, they drowned you, and those who drowned you will in the end
themselves be drowned”
Sacrifices are one way of diverting the
destructive energy of revenge. Why then do modern societies not practice
sacrifice? Because, argues Girard, there is another way of displacing
vengeance:
René Girard – “Vengeance is a
vicious circle whose effect on primitive societies can only be surmised. For us
the circle has been broken. We owe our good fortune to one of our social
institutions above all: our judicial system, which serves to deflect the menace
of vengeance. The system does not suppress vengeance; rather, it
effectively limits itself to a single act of reprisal, enacted by a sovereign
authority specializing in this particular function. The decisions of the
judiciary are invariably presented as the final word on vengeance.” (Ibid.
pg. 15)
(End of Quote)
Not only does Girard’s theory re-affirm
the view of Albo. It also helps us understand the profound insight of the
prophets and of Judaism as a whole. Sacrifices are not ends in themselves, but
part of the Torah’s programme to construct a world redeemed from the otherwise
interminable cycle of revenge. The other part of that programme, and G-d’s
greatest desire, is a world governed by justice. That, we recall, was His first
charge to Abraham, to “instruct his children and his household after him to
keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just.” (Genesis 18:19).
Have we therefore moved beyond that stage in human history in which animal
sacrifices have a point? Has justice become a powerful enough reality that we
need no longer need religious rituals to divert the violence between human
beings? Would that it were so!
In his book, The Warrior’s Honour (1997), Michael Ignatieff tries to understand
the wave of ethnic conflict and violence (Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Rwanda)
that has scarred the face of humanity since the end of the Cold War. What
happened to the liberal dream of “the end of history”? His words go the very
heart of the new world disorder:
Michael Ignatieff – “The chief moral
obstacle in the path of reconciliation is the desire for revenge. Now,
revenge is commonly regarded as a low and unworthy emotion, and because it is
regarded as such, its deep moral hold on people is rarely understood. But revenge
– morally considered – is a desire to keep faith with the dead, to honour their
memory by taking up their cause where they left off. Revenge keeps faith
between generations…
This cycle of intergenerational recrimination has no logical end…But it is the
very impossibility of intergenerational vengeance that locks communities into
the compulsion to repeat…
Reconciliation has no chance against vengeance unless it respects the
emotions that sustain vengeance, unless it can replace the respect entailed
in vengeance with rituals in which communities once at war learn to mourn their
dead together. (The Warrior’s Honour, pg.
188-190)
Far from speaking to an age long gone and
forgotten, the Laws of Sacrifice tell us three things as important now
as then:
First, violence is still part of human
nature, never more dangerous than when combined with an ethic of revenge;
Second, rather than denying its
existence, we must find ways of redirecting it so that it does not claim yet
more human sacrifices; and
Third, that the only ultimate
alternative to sacrifices, animal or human, is the one first propounded
millennia ago by the prophets of ancient Israel. No one put it better than
Amos:
Amos 5:23-24 – “Even though you bring Me burnt offerings and offerings of grain, I will not accept them…but let justice roll down like a river, and righteousness like a never-failing stream.”
(End of Quote)
Shabbat HaGadol and the Healing Message
of the Malachi Parashah
Ismar
Schorsch – “Malachi, who lived in Judea some
time after the return from the Babylonian exile, was the last of the prophets
to make it into the Hebrew canon. We have but a few specimens of his message.
His final words, which constitute our haftarah, relate to the end of days, a
devastation that will spare only those who have remained faithful to God.
The return of Elijah, the prophet who
never died, will both foretell the impending doom as well as provide salvation
from it. In speaking of that day, Malachi uses the Hebrew word “gadol(great)”:
Malachi 3:23 – “So, I will send the
prophet Elijah to you before the coming of the awesome (gadol), fearful day of the
Lord.”
Malachi 3:24 – “He shall reconcile
parents with children and children with their parents, so that when I (the Lord
of Hosts) come, I do not strike the whole land with utter destruction.”
In short, the onset of the Messianic
Era begins at home with Familial Reconciliation.”"
(End of Quote)
In these Times of the
reawakening and Return of the House of Israel, we can look at these
"familial reconciliations" also as applying to the Greater Family
of Israel: The House of Judah and the House of Israel; the proverbial
'Prodigal Son" and the "Faithful Son".
Similarly, we can apply the following recommendations to the desperately poor
relationship between the two Houses of the Family of G-d (The House of Judah
and the House of Ephraim (Lost 10-Israel). In a commentary on Parashat Tzav, Jill
Minkoff of The Acadamy of Jewish Learning notes as follows:
Jill Minkoff – “Malachi’s verses also
speak to this relationship (with G-d) and are as poignant today as during his
lifetime. Rev. Dr. A. Cohen, in commentary on The Twelve Prophets,
describes the Jewish community of Malachi’s era as negligent: the Temple
service was in disrepute, Temple priests were careless with their duties,
people were not tithing appropriately, there was general skepticism and
indifference with regard to religion, morals were lax, and divorce and
intermarriage were common (Dr. A. Cohen,
pg. 335).
Gunther Plaut, in The Haftarah Commentary,
likens this to contemporary times: we often doubt G-d’s presence and justice,
there is instability within communities, and the rate of divorce and
intermarriage has increased (Gunther Plaut pg. 576). With these similarities
across time, Malachi’s messages are still important and meaningful to us. In
Malachi 3:6-7, G-d states:
Malachi 3:6-7 – “…I am
HaShem - I have not
changed… From the very days of your fathers you have turned away from My laws…Turn back to Me, and I will turn back to
you…” [These are very comforting assurances after the Divine Condemnations
and utter Rejections of the normal 'Jeremiah Haftarah'].”
These are words of hope. G-d does not and has not
changed; yet G-d can and is willing to “turn back”, make teshuvah, just as humans can. Cohen emphasizes
that G-d wants (us) to turn from apathy and “rekindle” the spirit of religion;
G-d is not necessarily concerned with the specific detail of ritual (as
found in Parashat Tzav), but with ritual
spirit that shows reverence to G-d (336). This ritual spirit, a process of teshuvah,
is not easy.
“How shall We turn Back?”
In Malachi [3:7]), one is able to uncover the following
seven-step process for teshuvah:
Step 1:
Acknowledge that one has turned away from G-d (3:4-5).
Step 2:
Determine whom the problem involves and who will need to take
the corrective action (3:5-7).
Step 3:
Determine how to take the corrective actions (3:8-9).
Step 4:
Know the reward for changing back to G-d’s ways (3:10-12).
Step 5:
Know that G-d is aware of the current realities and barriers to change
(3:13-16).
Step 6:
Know the consequences of not changing (3:17-21).
Step 7:
Know what to do and do it
(3:22-24).
When Elijah appears (and hopefully before), reconcile
relations between parent and child into a vision of family “unity and
affection” (Plaut pg. 579). Yet, family reconciliation is difficult. Rabbi
Missaghieh points out the immense nature of this challenge. There are no
demonstrations of this teshuvah in biblical narration; so there are no
“good old days” to look back upon and from which to learn (ibid pg. 288).
For us, other additions to this process may include being
aware that a change is needed, understanding the laws of Moses and Israel,
determining how to live according to these laws and rules, embracing the need
to foster family unity, and living accordingly. It is not an easy task. It
never has been.
We, the children of Jacob, must make the first ‘act-ion’
in the process of teshuvah; then God will
also turn and we will finally be face-to-face enjoying the radiance and
blessings that are our due.”
(End of Quote)
This portion from Malachi, the final
paragraphs of the Tanach) therefore ends with the admonition: “Remember
the law of my servant Moses, the Decrees and Laws I gave him at Horeb for all
Israel.”This Divine Admonition is directed at the
'faithful Remnant':
Malachi 4:16-18 - “Then those who feared HaShem talked with each other, and
HaShem listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence
concerning those who feared HaShem and honored His Name. On the day when I
act,” says HaShem Almighty, ‘they will be my treasured possession. I will spare
them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. And
you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked,
between those who serve G-d and those who do not.”
And, under the apt heading that was inserted
into the English Translation of this Final Admonition:
Breaking Covenant by Withholding Tithes
Malachi 4:6-12 – “I HaShem do not change. So you, the
descendants of Jacob [ALL 12 Tribes, both Houses of Israel], are not destroyed. Ever
since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from My Decrees and have
not kept them. Return to me, and I will
return to you,” says HaShem Almighty.
But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’
“Will a mere mortal rob G-d? Yet you rob me.
But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’
In tithes and
offerings. You
are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing Me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in
My House. Test Me in this,” says HaShem Almighty, “and see if I will not throw
open the floodgates of Heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not
be room enough to store it. I will prevent pests from
devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit
before it is ripe,” says HaShem Almighty. ‘Then all the
nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful Land,” says
HaShem Almighty.”
It should be significant
to all those interested in and striving for the Reconciliation of the Two
divided Houses of Israel, that a Divine
Call for Tithing underlies the Final Call of the Bible for the
Final Days towards Redemption!
To understand more about the Return of the 10 Tribes of
Israel to their Homeland in Shomron (Samaria), Israel, Contact “Kol Ha’Tor”, the Voice of the Turtledove. Here is a joint Orthodox
Jewish and 10-Triber Mission to bring awareness of the imminent fulfillment of
the Biblical Prophecies regarding the Redemption of all Israel (12 Tribes
Re-conciled and Re-United).
This reunification will truly be the supernal Event of all
Times for it will entail Establishing Shomron (the Ancient Bible Heartland of
the Patriarchs) and the Judean Wilderness as part of the Land of Israel, and
preparing the “Land” for the Return of the Lost Tribes of the House of Israel
and then the Redemption of All Israel.
For inquiries about Kol Ha Tor’s Vision for the Lost Tribes
of Israel, we invite you to make a personal Visit to Israel and stay at “Shomron
Lives!”, a Spiritual Retreat and Guest
House in Samaria, that hosts Shomron (Samaria) Tours to reacquaint the
Returning Lost Tribers of the House of Israel to their future and Prophetic
Homeland.
In Part One of this series, we once again witnessed the
continuing quest of a few of the religious Zealots who like their ancestors of
old, sought to return Judaism to the life of their ancient forefathers of old.
If only, they believe from the depths of their hearts, that if Torah observant
Jews fulfilled the exact precepts of Torah law including the sacrificing of the
Korban lamb upon the Temple Mount, their hopes and dreams would precipitate the
coming of the Maschiah ben Dovid (Messiah son of David).
So we ask; is the Zionist State of Israel part of the social
profane, or the sacred? If we truly believe that the G-d of Israel is the Sovereign
G-d of the Universe, then we also will believe that He alone is stirring up the
nations to the final fulfillment of prophecy that a future Messianic Age will
come.
Can we then believe that the words spoken by the G-d of
Israel spoke through the pen of the Prophet Zechariah to the Jews that returned
back to Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity also have a meaning to not
only to the Jewish people today but also to the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of
Israel?
Zechariah 1:3-6 – “Thus said HaShem,
Master of Legions: ‘Return to Me – the word of HaShem, Master of Legions – and
I will return unto you…Do not be like your fathers, to whom the prophets of
old, called out, saying…Return now, from your evil ways and from your evil
deeds, ‘but they did not listen nor pay attentions to Me…
Your forefathers, where are they?
And as for the prophets, could they live forever? However, My words and My
decrees, which I commanded My servants the prophets, did they not befall your
fathers? They repented and said, ‘Just as HaShem Master of Legions, thought to
do to us, according to our ways and our deeds, so did He with us.’”
Within the Prophetic Book of Zechariah
G-d left behind a message to us today, in the transliteration of the Prophet
Zechariah’s name in Hebrew: Zekaryah ben Berechiah ben Iddo (Zechariah
son of Berechiah grandson of Iddo). So we also learn, according to the traditions of the Hebrews, the names of the authors in the prophetic book of the TaNaKh have a special significance. In this prophetic book written for our end times, we see the following meaning of Zechariah unfold:
Zechariah (Zekaryah) is known as “HaShem remembers”, or “HaShem has remembered.”
Berechiah, the meaning of the name of the father of Zechariah is: “G-d blesses”
Iddo, the
meaning of the name of the grandfather of Zechariah was: “At the appointed
time”.
So the end-time message is: “G-d remembers and God blesses at the
appointed Time”
As Hebrew is translated from right to left, then, we might also consider that the following meaning of Zechariah’s
name spoken in reverse also means:
“At the Appointed Time, G-d blesses and G-d
remembers”
So today, we are witnessing prophecy in
fulfillment. Jewish organizers of the Sacrifice of the Korban Lamb/Goat rehearsal
that was now denied by the Israeli Veterinary Society, took a petition to the Jewish
court in Jerusalem. There they received a ruling that gave permission for the
Passover ritual of the sacrificing of the lamb or goat to continue. You may
witness this event below.
The Jewish Passover sacrificial ritual continued. It was
presided over by Rabbi Yehuda Glick, who, earlier had his Korban goat
“arrested” and later slaughtered by the command of the Israeli
Agricultural Minister at the Wildlife Supervision Department. Rabbi Yehuda
Glick later described that this riveting ritual was carried out with the
greatest of care for its biblical accuracy.
As he described:
Rabbi Yehuda Glick –
“We took the goat, as the Torah commands, we had an altar
built like the real one, and a cooking pit built according to halakhah (Jewish
Torah Law) We slaughtered the goat with Leviim singing and priestly clothing,
just like in the real Passover sacrifice. The ritual was emotionally moving.
The symbolism of standing opposite the Temple Mount and preparing for the real
Passover sacrifice – it was without doubt a special moment.”
Today, Rabbi Yehuda
Glick is the founder of the organization called “The Movement for the
Establishment of the Temple”. According to Rabbi Glick, the Jewish people
have become “psychologically connected, over the centuries, to the Western Wall
of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem because the rebuilding of the temple seems
like an impossible task.” It was only 25 years ago they the Jewish people
actually started ascending upon the Temple Mount. First it was small groups but
now hundreds of Jews and Christians are now going up upon the Temple. Yet,
recently the Jewish people once again been discriminated
against and not allowed to ascend to the Temple Mount
while Christians and Muslim are still allowed. So who is this Movement for the
Establishment of the Temple that is gaining so much public attention?
Motti
Inbari – “This article discusses the internal world of the Movement
for the Establishment of the Temple, a small and unique group within modern-day
ultra-Orthodox circles in Israel. This group seeks to achieve a religious
revolution within Israeli Orthodoxy through its demand to rebuild the Temple
and to abolish the grave halakhic prohibition against entering the Temple Mount
area. The movement argues that Orthodox passivity on this issue is due to a
theological error, and accordingly it offers an alternative historiographic and
theological approach.
The article discusses in
detail the manner in which this group has attempted to achieve religious change
and to address the dilemmas raised by this demand. It also discusses the manner
in which the group acts to encourage messianic activism within traditionalist
Orthodox circles.
This discussion may
provide valuable information regarding the behavior of modern-day
ultra-Orthodox society. The article describes the theological crisis provoked
in certain Orthodox Zionist circles by the Oslo process, which was based on a
territorial compromise between the State of Israel and the Palestinians in the
Land of Israel, and explains why this crisis enabled the movement's ideas to
penetrate growing circles within the rabbinical leadership of Gush Emunim.
Concern that the State
of Israel might hand the Temple Mount over to Palestinian control led to a
change in what had been considered for centuries to be a grave religious
prohibition.”
This Temple Mount
Movement understandably has caused great dissension among the Islamic people,
who believe that the Temple Mount is holy only to the Muslim people. Yet, Rabbi
Glick is now calling on all the Jewish people to unite and make every effort to
go to this sacred site and focus their prayers upon the rebuilding of the next
temple in Jerusalem.
In fact, it was back
April, 2011, that Glick claimed that the Children of Israel were commanded “in
perpetuity” to sacrifice a lamb or a goat on each anniversary of the
Exodus. Even though the current belief
that without the temple, that was last destroyed less than 2,000 years ago, in
the days of the Exodus, there was not a temple. The first Passover (Pesach) was
conducted by every Israelite family, and according to Glick, so they should be
doing so today.
Back in 2011, Rabbi
Glick, along with several influential rabbis, as written in The Jewish Daily Forwards
in the article titled, “300
Goats and Sheep, 20 Slaughterers, One Willful Rabbi”, we
learned that Rabbi Yehuda Glick contracted Jewish farmers to provide him with
300 sheep and goats for a sacrifice, should the Messiah come. Also, there were
20 Jewish slaughterers on stand-by. This event was written about on Destination
Yisrael in the article titled, “Will the Sacrifice of the Pesach
Lamb be reinstituted in Jerusalem in 2011?”
For those who wanted to
“share”, that is one ounce of lamb or goat meat, prepared according to the
halakhic command of a sacrificial animal, they were invited to purchase it by
phone, and a credit card for 12 shekels which was about $3.00. By the eve of
Pesach over 3,000 people had signed up.
The official inauguration
of the sacrificial ritual is, according to Rabbi Glick, the next step to the
actual fulfillment of biblical prophecy. At that time the work of the Temple
Mount Faithful will become fulfilled. According to the Temple Mount Faithful,
all the implements that are needed to be used in a new temple have been made.
This included the knowledge of where the site of the new Jewish Temple is to be
built upon the Temple Mount.
The Great Golden Menorah
to be used in the next Jewish Temple has been built and housed in a glass
protective casing for the visiting public to inspect. Also all of the 28,000
priests needed to conduct the sacrifices in the next Jewish temple have been
trained. Their priestly garments are now ready to be used.
Now, according to Rabbi
Glick, it is time for the Jewish people to become accustomed to “ascending the
Temple Mount” and now only to learn how to pray but to become involved as
participants in the future Temple services.
As such Rabbi Yehuda Glick has now proclaimed; “There should be no more
prayers at the Western Wall, but instead, let’s go up to the Temple Mount.”
Sanhedrin
97a – “Rebi Yochanan said: In the generation that Ben Dovid will come, talmidei
chachamim, the “pupil of wisdom” known as the Torah sage or scholar, will
decrease, and the eyes of the remainder will protrude from sighing and sorrow;
many chastisements and many evil decrees will be renewed; one will not cease
before another begins.”
Let us now look at the final four
years in this collections of passages in the Talmud in Sanhedrin 97a, as was
given by the famous Jewish sage, Rabbi Yochanan ben Zaccai:
According to Rabbi Yochanan ben Zaccai, these
immediate future days over the next 3½ years are part of HaShem’s vision for
our future life. Here was Rabbi Yochana’s vision of the final four years that
began with the Last Sabbatical Week of Years on Rosh Hashanah 2008. Here is how
he envisioned what will happen in the Land of Israel in the final four years as
the world is sinking into the economic
abyss, it’s affect upon the Land of Israel that will begin to improve in the
year of 2013, and the contagiousness about the coming of the Messiah will
become serious in the Jewish population by the years of 2014 to 2015.
Talmud
Sanhedrin 97a – “In the fourth year (2013), some will be satiated while
others are not,
In
the fifth year (2014), there will be plenty and
people will eat, drink, and be joyous, and the Torah will return to those who
learned it.
In
the sixth year (2015), there will be voices which
according to Rashi depict either the blowing of the shofars (war) or the hints
and voices about the coming of the messiah.
In
the seventh year (2016), there
will be war (GogUMogog War or Armageddon).”
Rabbi
Judah heHasid – “In the ninth jubilee (1967-2917) Jerusalem will once again
come back into the possession of the Jewish nation – which will signify
the beginning of the Messianic end time.”
As Destination Yisrael wrote:
Destination
Yisrael - “This leaves one more Jubilee,
the tenth Jubilee since the Ottoman Turks took control of Jerusalem and the
Land of Promise in the years of 1517. According to this Jewish sage, the end of
this tenth Jubilee will “signify the beginning of the Messianic end time.”
As
we review the Sabbatical Week of Years, this present Sabbatical Cycle began on
Rosh Hashanah 2008 5778. The 8th year would have been the day of the
Messiah ending Rosh Hashanah 2009, but the Messiah did not come.
If
this Sabbatical Messianic cycle 2009-2017 is completed and the GogUMogog war
does begin within the year between Rosh Hashanah 2015 to Rosh Hashanah 2016,
then the Messianic Era will commence before Rosh Hashanah 2017. We are
currently in the 4th year of the Sabbatical Messianic Cycle that
began on Rosh Hashanah 2009, now in the Jewish year 5773 (2013).
There
is still time for the Messiah the Prince, the anti-Messiah to forge a covenant
with the “Holy Ones” of the rabbanim of Jerusalem for a seven year hudna, for
the biblical text in Daniel clearly states that it will be abrogated by the
anti-Messiah within 3½ years.
Can
we look forward to a Middle East Peace Accord by Passover 2013? If so, 3½
years later, will be see the revealing of the Maschiach ben Dovid before Rosh
Hashanah 2016 (Jewish year 5777 between Rosh Hashanahs 5776-7)?
If
so, the Epic Year of the Messiah will be here on Rosh Hashanah 2016 or the
Jewish year of 5000 plus 777 years. The age of the Enlightenment of the Torah
will have begun. The forces of evil will have been destroyed and the Kingdom of
G-d on Planet Earth will begin with the Maschiach ben Dovid ruling with the
“rod of iron”.
The day will soon be
here when the HaShem, the G-d of Israel will open the gates of the supernal
heavens, and at that time, no man or any group will be able to stop the final
prophetic river from flowing towards the mighty waterfall that will cascade us
into the Age of the Messiah.
************
2013 Passover Series: The Jewish Quest to
Observe Torah Law on the Temple Mount
The Exodus and the Pesach Festival are an indelible link of
the ancient Israelites to the modern Jewish people. Even the Lost Ten Tribes of
the House of Israel who are predominately worshipping in Christian Churches
today, worship the Passover in a corrupted festival of Easter initiated by the
First Church of Rome in the 3rd century CE. Yet, there is still real
spiritual imagery that if taken back to their Hebrew-Judaic roots could become
the pathway of the Lost Christian Israelites to be reunited back with their
Jewish brothers of the House of Judah.
To understand more about the Return of the Lost 10
Tribes of Israel to their
Homeland in Israel, Contact “Kol Ha Tor”,
the Voice of the Turtledove. Here is a joint Orthodox
Jewish and 10-Triber Vision destined to bring awareness of the imminent fulfillment of the Biblical Prophecies regarding the Redemption of all Israel (12 Tribes
Re-conciled and Re-United). This super Event of all Times will entail
Establishing the Shomron (the
Ancient Bible Heartland of the Patriarchs) and the Judean Wilderness as part of the Land of Israel, and preparing
the “Land” for the Return of the Lost Tribes of the House of Israel and then the Redemption of
All Israel.
For inquiries about Kol Ha Tor Vision for the Lost Tribes of Israel, Visit – “Shomron Lives!”,
a Spiritual Retreat and Guest House in Samaria, that hosts Shomron (Samaria) Tours to reacquaint the Reawakening
and re-identifying Lost Tribers of the House of Israel with the actuality of
the Land and its population – the Jews, and how this integration can possibly
take place.
On the eve of the 2013 Passover Season, the police
detectives in Jerusalem were monitoring the activities of Noam Federman, a well known Jewish activist who yearly has been seeking the legal rights to prepare the
halakhically prescribed biblical ritual of sacrificing the Passover lamb or
goat on Passover on or near the Temple Mount.
So on Monday afternoon, the eve of Passover, the vehicle of Noam
Federman was seen and stopped for investigation. Inside he was transporting a
sacrificial goat halakhically prepared according to the commands of the Torah.
There Noam Federman was
arrested at the Dung Gate nearby to the Temple Mount. As he arrived with his
children along with the goat that he was preparing to sacrifice near the Temple
Mount as the Korban Pesach, he was apprehended by the police. After a scuffle,
Federman was arrested and taken to the police station nearby in a Jerusalem
police squad car.
After his investigation,
Federman was released with his children, aged 12, 10 and seven-years-old, that
accompanied him to the holy site. For one week, the Jerusalem Police banned
Federman from going near the Old City in Jerusalem. According to the response
by Federman, we read:
Noam Federman – “We demand to offer the Passover
sacrifice, one of the most important commandments. The Jewish police are
harming the freedom of religion. It’s a disgrace that the police prevent Jews
from keeping the Passover sacrifice mitzvah.”
As Federman later stated
in this Pesach Festival drama, the Jerusalem detectives came and claimed he was
violating a court order. When he asked what court order was he violating they
responded to him; “you’ll see it at the police station.” As it turned out, a court order did not
exist, yet he was detained for they admitted that questioning him in from of
all the public would have disturbed the peace.
According to separate
reports, the police admitted that they were planning on taking the young goat
to the Hurva Synagogue in the Jewish Quarters and there it would create a
provocation. In the meantime, a group of girls were also stated to have been
making their way to the Mount with a third goat. At the time Federman’s goat
was confiscated, his response was that later he would demand that he be given
back his own goat from his farm for as he admitted, “I chose the best goat of
the Alpine species.”
Meanwhile why Federman
was being investigated by the police, Rabbi Yehuda Glick, director of the Temple Institute in Jerusalem was arrested as he
entered the Jaffa Gate. Earlier in the week on March 24, he sought to obtain a
permit to officially perform an actually Pesach sacrifice on the Temple Mount.
It was denied.
In protest Glick,
director of the Temple Institute in Jerusalem, plus many of his members then
decided to lead a procession along with a goat, and then hold a prayer service
and perform a “mock Pesach sacrifice” without the goat, in the courtyard of the
Hurva Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.
On March 29, Glick plus
his two daughters and a goat were stopped at the Jaffa Gate as they were
entering the Old City of David. They
were taken to the Kishle Police Station just inside the Joffa Gate. There also,
Glick was apprehended for three hours, his goat confiscated and he barely made it back to his home at Othniel
for the evening Seder. In the meantime, his goat was taken to the Wildlife
Supervision Department and there slaughtered by the orders of the Israeli
Agricultural Minister.
At the same time others Temple Mount
activists were assembling near the promenade next to the Jaffa Gate in
Jerusalem’s Old City. There at 1:30 p.m. they also had their goats and lambs
where they were prepared to sacrifice outside the walls of the Temple
Mount. There they waited for Noam
Federman and when he arrived they were to advance and move towards the Temple
where they were preparing to set up a “minimal kosher altar”.
They were fully aware that the chance of
their achieving this goal was slim, for they had been doing this for years. Now
the police are waiting for them, blocking their movements by force and even arresting
some of them, charging them with warrants of unauthorized transport of animals
and cruelty to animals.
Earlier on Thursday, March 21, various Jewish
groups were participants in a “mock Passover sacrifice” that was held on the
Mount of Olives opposite of the Kidron Valley from the Temple Mount overlooking
Jerusalem. According to their admission, this yearly enactment was not just for
the public interest but was done in order to for the actual Leviim or the Cohanim
who are actual literal descendants of the priestly tribe of Levi, would have
the ability to practice and participate in the actual ritual of the Pesach lamb
so that they would be prepared after the soon to be reconstruction of the
Jewish temple in Jerusalem is completed.
Today, the Leviim are Jews, that is observant
Orthodox Jews in Judaism yet, they are still descendants of the Biblical tribe
of Levi, whose forefathers were participants of the Temple services during the
days of King Solomon’s Temple, Zerubabbel’s Temple, and later the expansion
into King Herod’s Temple in the 1st century BCE and CE era.
To the shock of the Jewish Leviim, this year (2013)
they were met with a surprising veto by Israel’s Veterinary Services who for
the first time this year refused to authorize the event, as they had previously
done for multiple years prior in honor of Passover. As Passover delegation accused the Veterinary
Services:
Temple Mount Leviim and Passover activists –
“After
preventing us from fulfilling the mitzvah [commandment] of the Passover
sacrifice in its proper place, in violation of the law and of a Supreme Court
ruling, now the authorities are plotting to stop us from even learning about
the way the mitzvah is to be performed. This stands in contrast to the approach
to events surrounding the Muslim sacrifice holiday [Eid ul-Adha], during which
thousands of sheep and cattle are sacrificed freely in Jerusalem and across the
country.”
If the Temple Mount, under the sovereign control of the
State of Israel, then this picture leads us to wonder, why are not Jews and
Christians allowed to worship their also? Is it because the G-d of Israel does
not want to mix the sacred with the profane? Yet the prophets are in unison
proclaiming that that day of almost over.
What is little known in the Western World is the fact that
both the Jews and Muslims both have Festivals of Sacrificing and the
sacrificing of animals are yearly reenacted by Muslims in Jerusalem. The
Islamic Feast of Sacrifice, the second most holy day in the Muslim Calendar,
comes at the end of Ramadan and is to celebrate an event honored by both Jews
and Muslim; the willingness of Abraham, the Patriarch to the Jews, and a
Prophet to the Muslims, to sacrifice his son.
The difference is in outlook on these two people who are both
descendants of Abraham; one through his son Isaac, the chosen one by the G-d of
Israel and the other Ishmael, as the Islamic religion claims was not Isaac, but
instead the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael when Abraham
went to Mount Moriah to sacrifice. After prayers on the Temple Mount, the
Muslims then slaughter thousands of sheep and goats in the surrounding regions
and the meat is then distributed to the family, neighbors and those in poverty
and in need.
************
2013 Passover Series: The Jewish Quest to Observe
Torah Law on the Temple Mount
The Exodus and the Pesach Festival are an indelible link of
the ancient Israelites to the modern Jewish people. Even the Lost Ten Tribes of
the House of Israel who are predominately worshipping in Christian Churches
today, worship the Passover in a corrupted festival of Easter initiated by the
First Church of Rome in the 3rd century CE. Yet, there is still real
spiritual imagery that if taken back to their Hebrew-Judaic roots could become
the pathway of the Lost Christian Israelites to be reunited back with their
Jewish brothers of the House of Judah.
To understand more about the Return of the Lost 10
Tribes of Israel to their
Homeland in Israel, Contact “Kol Ha Tor”, the Voice of the Turtledove. Here is a joint Orthodox Jewish and 10-Triber
Vision destined to bring
awareness of the imminent
fulfillment of the Biblical
Prophecies regarding the
Redemption of all Israel (12 Tribes Re-conciled and Re-United). This super
Event of all Times will entail Establishing the Shomron (the Ancient Bible Heartland of the Patriarchs) and the Judean Wilderness as part of the Land of Israel, and preparing
the “Land” for the Return of the Lost Tribes of the House of Israel and then the Redemption of
All Israel.
For inquiries about Kol Ha Tor Vision for the Lost Tribes of Israel, Visit – “Shomron Lives!”,
a Spiritual Retreat and Guest House in Samaria, that hosts Shomron (Samaria) Tours to reacquaint the Reawakening
and re-identifying Lost Tribers of the House of Israel with the actuality of
the Land and its population – the Jews, and how this integration can possibly
take place.
With
the recent election of the new Pope, Pope Francis I will now sit on the throne
of the Vatican in Rome. This new “Jesuit Saint” whose ministry to the poor and
the downtrodden in Argentina, has been carefully scripted into his future image
is now being transmitted around the world as the new personification of the
Roman Catholic “Jesus Christ” who will bring “Peace” to the Middle East.
Looking
through the telescope of history, it is thereby important for descendants of
the “Lost Sheep of the House of Israel” to bear in mind that it was this same Orthodox
Jewish rabbi who spoke to his disciples concerning the “last days” but gave
with this prophecy a warning:
Matthew 24:4 – “Watch out! Don’t let anyone fool you! For
many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah!’ and they will lead many
astray. You will hear the noise of wars nearby and the new of wars far off; see
to it that you don’t become frightened. Such this must happen, but the end is
yet to come.
For people will fight each other, nations will fight each
other, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various parts of the world;
all this is but the beginning of the ‘birth pain.’ At that time you will be
arrested and handed over to be punished and put to death, and all peoples will
hate you because of me.
At that time many will be trapped into betraying and
hating each other, many false prophets will appear and fool many people; and
many people’s love will grow cold because of increased distance from the
Torah.”
With these words in mind, recently the
outgoing Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon left his official post in the
Israeli government and when he did, it was revealed that he has left a stain of
deception which screamed out in the recent headlines in the Jerusalem Post that announced:
Jerusalem Post – “Jerusalem is on verge of signing agreement
to formalize diplomatic relations with the Holy See.”
Why would the
State of Israel be signing diplomatic relations with the Vatican? The international news has been quiet for
almost eight years on any diplomatic moves by the Vatican with the State of
Israel. With this announcement there
came the report of “conflicting and disturbing reports” concerning the status
of the “Upper Room” (Cenacle Shrine of the Coenaculum) where it is believed
that the Jewish rabbi, Yahshua HaNotzri (Jesus the Nazarene) once hosted with
his disciples the “Last Supper” that occurred on Wednesday evening according to
the Passover traditions of the Essenes.
What is most
interesting is that this Prince of David was actually presiding over a
“Passover” season meal with his disciples in a place that the Nazarene history
called the “House with the Upper Room.” What was even more amazing was that this
“Upper Room” was located physically in the midst of the Essene Quarters of southwestern
section of the ancient walled city of Jerusalem. Not only that, this Prince of King David,
known as Rabbi Yahshua was sitting right over the traditional Tomb of King
David; a powerful political statement.
Today, this same
site is now the central campus of the Diaspora Yeshiva on the hill called Mount
Zion. Back in October, 2005, BibleSearchers Reflections
quoting Israel National News stated this report:
Israel National News – “An official
Vatican newspaper has reported that during his upcoming visit to the Vatican, President Moshe Katsav will sign an
agreement giving parts of David’s Tomb over to papal control. If such an
agreement is signed, it will put an end
to drawn out negotiations that began in 1998. Israeli and Vatican
representatives began discussing issues
of jurisdiction over certain sites around seven years ago. These sites include various buildings and parcels
of land that the Catholic Church claims it used to control.
The church is now seeking to reclaim
its ownership of these sites. Among the places under debate is an area
that the church refers to as the site
of the “last supper,” which is situated at the burial site of Kings David, Solomon, Rechavam (Rehoboam), Assa (Asa),
Chezekiyahu (Hezekiah) and Amatzia (Amaziah). The Vatican newspaper, El
Messagero, reports that President
Katsav is expected to sign an agreement during his visit that will give the
church control over the upper part of David’s Tomb. The church has
already shown Israel a trial agreement, according to which the Vatican will
receive.”
The news after that
time went underground. Now eight years later it is resurfacing again. This time
it was not open to the media or to the Jewish people but in the back offices of
the Foreign Ministry department. In 2005, there was an uproar that was led in
part by the indomitable Jewish Israeli reporter
Barry Chamish, that uncloaked the underhanded diplomatic agreements
that were about to be signed by the Israeli President Moshe Katsav. This
included also the threat, later to Israeli President Olmert of creating a “Jewish
Holocaust in Rome” if the State of Israel did not accept the Vatican sovereignty
to the site of the “House with the Upper Room”, and did not accept the “Spanish
Initiative” to remove Israeli soldiers in Gaza and replace them with soldiers
from Vatican Europe.
The Times on Line – “Vatican is hoping to regain control of the Room of the Last Supper in
Jerusalem, one of the most sacred sites in
Christianity. It will, in exchange,
hand over to the Jewish community
the historic synagogue at Toledo in Spain, at present a Catholic church.
The proposals, contained in a draft
agreement between the Israeli
Government and the Vatican, come on the eve of a state visit to the Vatican next month by President Katsav. Final
details on a long-delayed accord on the status of Roman Catholic properties in
the Holy Land are expected to be agreed during the visit, marking a new era of reconciliation between Christians and Jews after centuries of hostility.”
The
current site of the “Church with the Upper Room” was rebuilt by the Roman
Christian Crusaders in the 13th century upon the earlier foundations
of the original Jewish
Hebrew Nazarene Synagogue that was spared
by the Roman general Titus in the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70
CE. Today, it is also believed that
three walls of this current structure still exist from its earliest Jewish
roots built by the guardians of King David’s Tomb.
The
Holy Zion Octagonal Church was later built by Theodosius I about 382 CE, and
later enlarged by Bishop John II into a rectangular basilica with five naves
alongside and outside the original and ancient foundations of the historic
Synagogue of the Nazarene’s Apostles. This latter building was razed by the
Persian in 614 CE, and partially rebuilt by the Patriarch Modestus.
It
is stated that the entire structure was razed to the ground by the Muslim
caliph, Al-Hakim in the 7th century CE, and afterwards was replaced
by the current structure built by the Roman Christian Crusaders in the 12th
century as a five aisled basilica in what is called today the Dormition Abbey named
after the Jewish Princess of David whom the Roman Christian Church recognizes
as Mary, the mother
of Jesus.
In
ancient times, there were four
religious parties in the 1st century Temple of Herod era culture
in Jerusalem. These were the Sadducees that included the aristocratic families
of the high priests of Jerusalem, the Pharisees Beit Shammai,
the competing yeshiva (Jewish seminary) to Beit Hillel, the party of the Scribes
and the Lawyers (Mechoqeck), and what was known as the 4th Philosophy or
the 4th
Party of Judaism; the Essenes and the Hassidim. As BibleSearchers
Reflections wrote in 1999:
BibleSearchers Reflections – “The tradition
of the Essenes goes back to about 150
BC when the Chasidim, rebelled and split off from the Jewish hierarchy
in protest to their secular accommodation with Persian and Roman
authorities. They were the most
mysterious of all the sects in Judea. Outside of Josephus and Philo, the early Jewish
and Christian scholars had very little documentation until the Dead Sea Scrolls
were uncovered in the Qumran site near the Dead Sea about this mysterious sect.
The most prominent thesis accepted today is that Qumran was a library and manuscript production site, and
possibly the major headquarters of the Essenes in Judea. Hundreds
of documents, scrolls and fragments have been discovered and catalogued on every book of the Old Testament except the
Book of Esther. Also included were scores of books and commentaries outside the Old Testament Canon.
What was even
more revealing were the words and their meaning of their literature such as, ‘the poor’, ‘the meek’, the ‘four thousand’,
the ‘five thousand’, the ‘elect’, which were used in the teachings and
ministry of the Nazarene. They were a prophetic group with a defined
apocalyptic mission. They felt they were to wait the soon coming messiah
and to protect him when he arrived.
The Essenes, about one hundred fifty years before Yahshua HaNotzri’s
(Jesus the Nazarene’s) birth, split as part of the Chasidim separatists, over the Sadducee party who were working as
‘accomplices’ with the Romans to rule and for the security of Judea. To
them, the Sadducees were usurpers of
the role of the temple priests. Later the High Priest from the descendants
of the Levitical priestly line of Zadok, the appointed High Priest of King
David, but they too, were collaborators with Herod the Great, who brought them
over from the Jewish
temple in Leontopolis in Egypt.”
Understandable, during this era, Imperial
Rome was trying to take control of Judea using Herod the Great as their ally
and accomplice. In the year of 37 BCE,
Herod the Great sent a courier to Alexandria, Egypt and to the Jewish temple at
Leontopolis. The noted priest by the name
of Boethus was requested to return to the land of Israel and assume the control
of the office of the high priest in the Temple in Jerusalem that Herod the
Great was now expanding to become the largest and most opulent temple in the world.
The Zadokians, according to some experts had set up a separate Temple service outside of Jerusalem,
at Khirbet Mird, a Hasmonean Palace, which they claimed was ministered
by the pure line of Zadok temple priests. Yet, it was in year of 6 CE that
the high priests now ruling as the official high priests of the House of Zadok became
corrupted when the famed high priestly dynasty of Ananus (Ananias) the Great
took control of the office of high priest by out bidding “bribing” the
Procurator of Rome sent to rule the Roman province of Judea and whose dynastic
family virtually controlled the office of the high priest until the temple was
destroyed in 70 CE.
The
Cenacle was later destroyed again in 1219, yet was again spared and rebuilt in
1340 CE, when the Franciscan Order of Friars took custody and possession of this site. This
possession by the Roman Catholic Church lasted only 200 years when in 1552, the
Ottoman Turks took possession and transformed this building into an Islamic Mosque.
The
truth of this fact is that within the Cenacle is a semicircular niche called a
mihrab that indicated to the Muslim worshippers the qibla, or the direction where the Kaaba in Mecca was located. This
was important to know by every Muslim worshipper for they were to pray towards
that direction; not towards the Temple Mount and the sight of Solomon’s Temple but
towards Mecca. This again suggests the
disregard that the Arabs who lived during the Middle Ages had towards the
Temple Mount. Even then the Arabs did not place any sanctity to this place but
only further to the East in Mecca.
It
was in 1967, when the State of Israel won the 6-day war against her Muslim
neighbors who once again sought to annihilate the Jewish people in Israel.
Amazingly, it was seven hundred years earlier that a famous 12th
century Jewish rabbinic sage, Rabbi
Judah ben Samuel predicted, in that in the year
of 1967 the Jewish people would once again take possession of all Jerusalem and
the Temple Mount.
He
proclaimed that they, the Jewish people, would hold possession of this site for
one Jubilee (fifty years) before the Messiah son of David would begin his
messianic reign in Jerusalem in the year of 2017. Nowhere in any biblical or Jewish prophecy
does it suggest that the Jews with the State of Israel will relinquish
sovereignty of the Temple Mount. The Nazarene Judaism prophetic testimony
stated that there would be “Two Witnesses” who would protect Jerusalem and the
Holy Land for 1260 days (3½ years) up until about 18 hours before the revealing
of the Messiah, when they would be executed as the Islamic hordes dance over
their bodies. That said, there are numerous hints that a Jewish temple or a
Temple for all religions (Masonic Temple) would be built upon the Temple Mount
in an ecumenical bid to “Peace, with Great Security” for the whole earth.
Since
1967, the Jewish government in Jerusalem has faithfully guarded and allowed
peoples from all religions to worship in every holy site in the State of Israel.
This is a historical fact to the credit of the Jewish people and the State of
Israel. It contrasts, non-the-less,
against the Arab guardians of the Temple Mount called the Islamic Waqf, who
have desecrated every bit of Jewish evidence upon the Temple Mount even though
the State of Israel still maintains sovereign control and that they have been
given only semi-autonomous rule over the Temple Mount.
When
we look at the history of the Roman Christian Church, we also see an even more
predator like role, of possession for the sake of power, greed and control.
This gave rise to the Roman
Catholic Inquisition in the 13th century and its role of
destroying all forms of free speech and the right to the free expression of
worship.
What
is the historical truth today? Of all
peoples that come to worship in the Holy Land of Israel, as former Labor MK
Daniel ben Simon shockingly observed, only the Jewish
people are discriminated from worshipping upon the Temple Mount in Jerusalem; the holiest sacred place in Judaism today.
Another historical truth, the Cenacle where the disciples of the Jewish rabbi
called Jesus the Nazarene participated in a sacred ritual called the “Last
Supper” that was akin to the Wednesday evening Passover rituals as celebrated
by the ancient Essenes in Judea.
As
a matter of symbolism, it was a statement of authority when Yahshua, the Prince
of David sat in his reclining couch as was the custom in that age. Why? He was
sitting directly over the Tomb of David. The fact that it was protected and
guarded by the Essenes in its original site in the 1st century city
of Jerusalem and that it was the Essenes who were the guardians of all Princes
of David, suggest, that layers of hidden truth still remains as to the identity
of this mysterious rabbi who claimed that his only mission was that he was
“sent by his Father, to find the “Lost Sheep of the House of Israel.” (Matthew 15:24)
When
all the apparent and literal knowledge we know of this “One Man” who has made
the most profound impact upon human history, whether it be in its most simple
understanding (peshat) or in his most
hidden and mysterious meanings (sod)
and understandings, the most profound implication is that the Roman Christian
“Jesus Christ” and the Jewish Orthodox Nazarene “Jesus the Nazarene” are about
the same historical man, but the Roman Christian Jesus of corruption of the
Prince of David Yahshua.
There
is overwhelming evidence that the Jewish messiah of the Nazarenes was lifted
out of the philosophic and religious domain of historical Judaism in the 1st
century Temple of Herod era and corrupted and replaced with the philosophical
and religious understanding of the Greco-Roman Hellenistic world at that time.
The
archetypical and historical reality is that when the Jewish (yehudi) neshama soul was placed in time
and space in Judea and Galilee as an observant Jew, a prince of David, and a
Jewish Pharisee who evoked the halakhic understanding of Torah after the
Yeshiva (school) of Hillel the Great, his imprint upon the majority of the
peasantry class of Jews was profound in its impact. Yet this understanding was three
centuries later carefully remolded and amalgamation with the surrounding pagan
ideas of Mithraism and the Roman gods of the Greco-Roman world.
It was the First
Church of Rome that destroyed the documentation and original historical archives of
this Jewish prince of David and messiah and replaced its authentic Jewish
history with a power structure that rose up in history as the Roman Catholic
(world-wide) Church who sought to smother all of his authentic Jewish roots.
The
facts still exist that the pathway of halakhic Torah truth as espoused by 1st
century Judaism was permitted by the G-d of Israel to become the pathway of
restoration eventually for the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel. It was they who completely lost their identity,
their way, and their G-d. Even so, the G-d of Israel promised them that He
would restore them also to their chosen destiny as Klal Yisrael (All Israel).
Since
the day of the liberation of Eastern Jerusalem from the Occupiers of the State
of Jordan in 1967, this site, the “Upper Room” sitting directly over the Tomb
of King David has also been for almost one Jubilee the site of Jewish religious
schools called yeshivas. Today they are teaching the new generations of
observant Jews how to live and keep the commands of the Torah.
Yet,
like the Temple Mount, who also the State of Israel claims sovereignty rights
over its possession, did give control of the Temple Mount to the Islamic Waqf,
only to have the Waqf begin a process of systematically destroying all the
evidence of its Jewish heritage and replace it with Islamic mosques forbidden
by Jews and Christians alike from entering. So today, the sites of these Jewish
seminaries (yeshivas) are now being threatened to be turned over to the control
of the apostate Christianity called the Roman Catholic Church.
Yet,
Jews have already walked that walk before, when in 1967, they turned over the
managing control of the Temple Mount to the Islamic Waqf of Jerusalem. What did
they receive in return; riots, Jewish people arrested, rocks thrown down from
the Temple Mount to the praying worshippers below and more recently
throwing “fire bombs” as Israeli police
protecting the Temple Mount that turned one policeman into a fireball? All of
these things are committed by the Islamic occupiers while the Jews have to observe
that the sanctity of the site where once stood the two sacred temples of
Judaism; Solomon’s Temple and King Herod’s Temple while they also observe children
playing games, adults loitering with abandonment, and no real care given to the
real sanctity of this site to the G-d of Israel.
At
that time, the official negotiator of the “Upper Room” was the President of
Israel, President Moshe Katsav. Yet this same Israeli president later received
his reward by the Divine when on December 3, 2011, President Moshe Katsav began
serving a seven year sentence in the Israeli Maasiyahu Prison in Ramlafor two counts of rape,
obstruction of Justice plus other charges in a landmark decision that was
upheld by the Israeli Supreme Court. Will this same scenario also be repeated
today? Or will the City of Jerusalem truly have to descend once again to the 49th
level of Tuma (Degradation) as it did in the 40
years between 30 CE and 70 CE
when the entire city of David and Herod’s Temple were destroyed in a fiery
inferno. As BibleSearchers Reflections wrote in 2005 in the article titled: “The
Vatican seeks to reclaim it own; “The Vatican wants Jerusalem”:
BibleSearchers Reflections – “Within all the conflicts of the Middle East, the first
implication is what Jesuit Father
Francesco Rossi de Gasperis of the Pontifical Biblical Institute of Jerusalem called
a “theological negation of the people
of Israel, a kind of cultural and spiritual Shoah, not dissimilar to what was
seen in the churches of Europe during the age of ‘Christendom’.”
By creating a Catholic Church within Israel and “for
Israel” comes from its deep seated denial for even the very existence of the
state of Israel. Over the course of Christian history, the original “Church”
was actually a Hebrew community composed of Jews that were faithful to the
Torah, believers in the Jewish rabbi, Yahshua haMaschiah (Jesus the
Messiah). Is the guiding hand of
the G-d of Israel even calling the core of the Catholic faithful back to
a “historical turning point,” nominating
a Catholic bishop ´ad Judaeos´? Is the soul of the Catholics also at stake in
that the overarching bid to gain
control over the holy sites of Jerusalem will in turn radically change the nature of Christian
Catholicism today?
While this shift may isolate the Jewish
secular Zionists, it also isolates
a Latin patriarchate that is intentionally of an “overwhelming
Palestinian character.” This political
and religious battle for the hearts of souls of both the Arabs and the Jews,
the Vatican is playing very carefully. It is a battle that does have its costs.
Over
the years the Latin patriarchate has
overtly declared its diminishing interest in any dialogue with the Jewish
people. In the city of
Jerusalem, there is no Catholic library at all. In 2001, the Pontifical Institute “Ratisbonne” in
Jerusalem was shut down and placed for sale. The contenders to buy
were the Opus Dei (of Dan
Brown’s “De Vinci Code” fame), the Salesians
and the Neocatechumenal Way.
Abbot Gourion came under the
wrath of the patriarchate for receiving an honorary award in one of the halls of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament
while the Melkite pastor of
Nazareth, Émile Shoufani, who though an Arab is not anti-Semitic
nor anti-Israeli when he was
attacked mercilessly for taking an ecumenical pilgrimage of Jews and Palestinians together to Auschwitz.
While
the prophetic vision of bringing all
men to Jerusalem as the “house of the Lord of hosts” is seriously
considered in the revival of Hebrew
Christianity, the Jewish
rabbinate see a threat to the survival of Judaism with the rise of Jewish
believers who believe in Jesus as the Jewish and Christian messiah.
The pathway to the expectations of the
coming of the coming messiah may bring some unexpected surprises to both Christians and Jews.
This rift or fissure in the Catholic community is
serious and thought provoking
especially within the orthodox circles
of the Roman Church. The Christian Church is already fractured by
many different denominations. Now within the Catholic community the dialogue centers around whether the
Hebrew-speaking Catholic ecclesiastical church should remain separate or in
close affiliation with the Arab Latin patriarchate. Though the Jewish Catholic members number about 250
members, it is a vibrant community with its leader, French Benedictine abbot, Fr. Jean-Baptiste Gourion of
the Monastery of the Resurrection in Abu Ghosh. What is
fascinating is that in Israel, two of
the three main Catholic representatives in Israel are of Jewish descent.
This tension between the Jewish and the
Arab interests keeps the
Roman Catholic Church embroiled in the
broader issues between the
Israeli-Palestinian and the
Jewish-Christian.”
With
the inauguration of the new Pope Francis I, as the visible supreme head of the
Roman Catholic Church, we may be in for a big surprise if the Prophecy of St.
Malachi comes to its final prophetic fulfillment.
Today,
the outgoing Deputy Foreign Minister, Daniel Ayalon, who has retired and
Israel’s Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman,
who has recently taken a leave of absence awaiting trial for charges of fraud
and breach of truth are about to face off in court over charges that include money
laundering and bribery. Both of these
“servants of the State of Israel” officially represented the State of Israel
with the Vatican in Rome’s legal dispute for sovereignty rights to multiple
sites in Judea and Samaria.
According
to the LA Times, outgoing Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon will now
become an instrumental witness against his former boss and Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu’s senior ally with Lukud-Beitinu Party, Avigdor Lieberman.
It was this controversial Israeli foreign minister who was indicted in
December, 2012 on charges of fraud and breach of trust that included prior
charges of money-laundering and bribery.
Yet,
Danny Ayalon
also has shadows of corruption hovering over him. Over the years he has been
implicated in cozy relations now not only as the chief negotiator with the Vatican
in Rome but with numerous Christian Evangelical Organization who also continually
seek possession to claim and possess the sacred land in the Land of Israel, but
also the political rights, to “missionize” and proselytized Jews into becoming “apostate
Christians.” According to JewishIsrael:
Both Daniel Ayalon and
his wife, Anne, are intimately involved with the Evangelical and Catholic
communities and have comfortably appeared on missionary television. Anne hassignificant business and real estate dealingswith the Christian community and was listed as a "Talking Head" for the
Pope's Visit on Christian-Israeli Relations” in a pamphlet put out by The
Israel Project (T.I.P.) at the time of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit in May 2009
In November 2005, this
writerreacted
to reportsof an apparent swap deal
between Israel and the Vatican which would grant the Vatican control of the
Upper Room. I was in correspondence with David Chappell, then deputy managing
editor of the Times of London,
who confirmed my concerns of a draft agreement. At the time, a number of
activists formed theCommittee to Save Mt. Zionand effective pressure was exerted on the
Israeli government to abandon the plans to relinquish control of the Upper Room.”
It
is important to look at the context of the above international diplomatic push
for the Roman Catholic Church to take possession of one of Israel’s most
important landmarks, the tomb of King David. It is also important to see these
present international Vatican thrusts to not only grab Mount Zion that not only
includes the ancient site of the “Church with the Upper Room” and sits
literally over the “Tomb of King David”.
So
we ask, will we soon see Pope Francis I, who is being reincarnated as the new
Francis of Assisi in the Roman Catholic Church, now carry forth the mantle of the
Franciscan Order of Friars who have over
the centuries sought complete control and rights to the Land of Israel?
Will
this current pope, representing the Roman Catholic “Saint” Francis of Assisi, one
of the most venerated religious figures in religious history also carry the
mantle of the transformed human life by giving up wealth and fortune and become
one of the iconic poor where wealth is evil and poor is righteous except for global
possession, when “The Church” has every spiritual right to become the temporal and
spiritual ruler over the entire world?
Though
Barry Chamish and Benjamin Fulford do not walk in the corridors of international
power that seek Power, Greed, and Control over the entire world, they both,
being Jewish, do appear to pose the microscope of international investigation
with the same premise, the global powers that have controlled the world of the
past, are still active and well today. As Benjamin
Fulford recently posted his perspective on the New Pope, the New Israeli
government and their relationships as the One World Order is created to rule
during the “Last Days”, as we read the hints of this fact in the following:
Benjamin Fulford – “It may
be just a coincidence but it may also be a sign that something big is about to
happen. There will be a new Pope, a new Bank of Japan governor and a new
Israeli government taking office on March 19th, a date of occult significance
for Asian secret societies (and also, by sheer coincidence, this writer’s
birthday).
Pope Francis has
already made it clear the soon to be reformed Vatican bank will now be spending
its money helping the poorest and weakest people on the planet. Haruhiko
Kuroda, the new BOJ governor, also supports plans to use Japan’s overseas
assets, the world’s largest, to finance a major campaign to end poverty and
stop environmental destruction. The new
Israeli government is bankrupt and cannot finance anything but perhaps they
are about to become serious about peace for the first time since that troubled
country came into being.
There are also many
reports of bad guys dropping off the radar screen recently.
In Japan, for
example, the Zionist slave and war-mongering right-wing crypto-North Korean pseudo-nationalist politician Shintaro Ishihara has gone into hiding, according
to Japanese military intelligence. This is clear a sign the entire post-war
cabal apparatus for secret control of Japan is falling apart. In the US and
Europe the arrests and resignations are continuing as well. See this site
for a partial list:
As far as Queen
Elizabeth, (who like the Pope supports a big push to end poverty), is
concerned, this is what an MI5 source had to say:
“She is well. She has
some ‘lingering’ symptoms which she said last week that the doctors can’t
explain. This serves to confirm our previous reports of avoiding the Rome trip
[for security reasons]. She has missed some public appointments in the UK also
but is working hard behind the scenes.”
However, the biggest
change in the past week has been at the Vatican. Pope Francis, the first Jesuit
to become Pope, chose March 19th to formally take the job
because it is theFeast
day of St. Joseph, the guardian of Jesus.
The name Francis was
chosen for a series of reasons, according to a P2 freemason source. First of
all, St. Francis of Assisi, among other things, introduced the concept
of caring for nature to Catholicism. Another namesake, Francis Xavier,
was the top Jesuit for Japan and India. Finally, the third head of the Jesuits,
Francis Borgia (from the aristocratic Italian family) challenged corrupt
popes.
The Jesuits are also
featured as prominent fighters against Satan, notably in the movie the
Exorcist, which was supposedly based on a true story.
However, there is
also a spooky side to the name because the Pope’s family comes from Rome and
one of his birth names was Peter. For believers in the prophecies of St.
Malachi, it means he is Peter the Roman, the last pope. The prophecy of
Malachi, according to Wikipedia, ends thus:
“Peter the Roman, who will pasture his sheep in many
tribulations, and when these things are finished, the city of seven hills [i.e.
Rome] will be destroyed, and the dreadful judge will judge his people. The
End.”
If Pope Francis is
serious about reforming the Vatican bank, he will confront the Satanic cabal
that has illegally commandeered the Western financial system. The last time
somebody tried to do that, the (Rothschild) cabal staged the 911 terror
attacks to preserve their financial control. It is thus extremely urgent to
make sure the cabalists are prevented from any attempt to destroy Rome and its
priceless cultural and social heritage.”
As
we see with the “Signs of the Times” swirling around us, it suggests that there
is truly more undercurrents flowing in the vast prophetic river than we can
imagine. It appears that all the mini-streams of prophetic history are now
merging into the final raging vortex of the “time of the end”. The important
thing to remember, the G-d of Israel is the sovereign G-d of the Universe. His
power and control is universal and in the end, the rule of our planetary system
will be by the Maschiah ben David, who will rule with the “Rod in his mouth” as
evil people and as evil systems will be destroyed. Only then will the Era of Messianic
Torah Enlightenment begin in Israel.
************
Re-unification of the 2-Houses of Israel without
proselytizing
BibleSearchers
Reflections and Destination Yisra’el is a supporter of The Kol HaTor Vision and
recognizes the great Stumbling Block that evangelizing of Jews presents in the
Reconciliation Process between Judah and Messianic 10-Israel. The most extensive
damage done to the Jewish people over the centuries has been the attempts Christians
to convert the Jews to Apostate Roman Christianity.
Kol HaTor, as a
representative Voice not only of Judah, but also of Returning 10-Israel, does
not support any of these missionary activities, either historically or
currently. Kol HaTor associates of the House of 10-Israel declare their commitment
not to proselytize Jews, or to influence Jews in any way whatsoever to
abandon their historic and correct faith.
Rather, Kol Ha Tor
strives to influence re-identifying 10-Tribers to return to their Hebraic
Roots of the Original One True Faith, to Torah and to Jewish Halakhah and
Rabbinic authority.
************
We
invite You to Read both Parts of this Destination Yisrael Series: “Pope Francis
I and the Final Days”
The Battle for the
Minds of the Human Race is now coming to its fullest revelation. The forces of
Darkness will battle with the Forces of HaShem’s angels of Light as the final
battle for the souls of men are played out on Planet Earth. Out of these epic
war will come the restoration and redemption of All Israel; the Ten Lost Tribes
of the House of Israel and the Jews of the House of Judah.
The Roman Catholic
Church has been a major part of this Drama of the Ages and will continue to do
so until the Final Act of that Divine Drama. It will include the Jews of the
House of Israel, the Lost Sheep of the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Northern
Israel; both of the House of Jacob (Israel). It will also include the
Roman Edomites of the House of Esau, the brother of Jacob of the House of
Isaac. It will also include the Arabs of the House of Ishmael, the brother to
Isaac of the House of Abraham.
If you want to learn
more, Contact “Kol Ha Tor Vision”, the Voice of the Turtledove. Here
is a joint Orthodox Jewish and 10-Triber Mission to bring awareness of the
imminent fulfillment of the Biblical Prophecies regarding the Redemption of all
Israel (12 Tribes Re-conciled and Re-United).
The author of this
blog is a supporter of Kol Ha Tor Vision and while we are publishing material
that may be relevant to the Lost Ten Tribes of the House of Israel, the
leadership of Kol Ha Tor do not necessarily agree with everything we have
published. Yet, we understand, until the Messiah son of David comes to give us
full insight into what is happening to our lives and our world today, we may
know only in part while we continue to support the rabbanim of Israel and seek
reconciliation with the Jews of the House of Israel until we are finally one
family; the family of our Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
This reunification
will truly be a super Event of all Times that will entail Establishing the
Shomron (the Ancient Bible Heartland of the Patriarchs) and the Judean
Wilderness as part of the Land of Israel, and preparing the “Land” for the Return
of the Lost Tribes of the House of Israel and then the Redemption of All
Israel.
For inquiries about
Kol Ha Tor Vision for the Lost Tribes of Israel, we invite you to make a
personal Visit to Israel and stay at “Shomron Lives!”,a Spiritual Retreat and Guest House
in Samaria, that hosts Shomron (Samaria) Tours to reacquaint the Returning Lost
Tribers of the House of Israel.
Weekly Bible Reading #23 - Year 5773
(2012/2013) – March 16, 2013
Parashot Va'yikrah (And He called ): Leviticus 1:1-5:26
Haftarah: Isaiah 43:21-44:23
NOTE:
Kol HaTor, in its commentaries on the weekly Parashot, endeavors to search for
and accentuate the Torah Messages contained in the Parashot as applicable to
the main Theme of Tanach of the Return of the House of Israel, i.e. the Lost
Ten Tribes of Northern Israel and their Reconciliation with Judah to form the
reunited 12-Tribed Kingdom of Israel.
DISCLAIMER
- The authors whom we quote from for this Commentary are not associated
with KOL HA'TOR and need not agree with our views expressed herein or in
our other publications. While we publish their views for its
relative value to the interpretation of the Parashah, KOL HATOR does not
necessarily agree with the views expressed by these authors.
************
The last five Parashot of
the Book of Exodus explained the structure of the Tabernacle and its vessels,
and Exodus concluded with an account of how the completed Sanctuary was finally
erected and arranged by Moses on the 1st of Aviv, almost one year after the
Exodus from Egypt. This was all done according to the Instructions of HaShem.
With the dedication of the Sanctuary, the Cloud of G-d's Glory (His Shechinah)
covered the Tent of Meeting.
Exodus
40:34 – “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the Glory of HaShem
filled the Tabernacle.Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting
because the cloud had settled on it and the Glory of HaShem filled the
Tabernacle.”
We have contemplated how
one of the main purposes for the Tabernacle was, that “in this way the
omnipresent Spirit Being, the G-d of Israel, could dwell amongst His People,
guiding them by day in a Pillar of Cloud, and by night in a Pillar of Fire.”
We have also considered the possibility that HaShem, similarly, wishes to “indwell
the physical bodies” (tabernacles) of His People individually. In the same
manner, ultimately, He would “completely fill” such a person.
Now that the Sanctuary was
complete, the next step is for us to learn what is to be done in it - what our responsibilities are. The
book of Va'yikrah (Leviticus) begins with the detailed Commandments relating to
the sacrifices, since these were to be the main activity in the Sanctuary and
in the Temple throughout the generations.
Our Haftarah, in Isaiah
43:21 proclaims: “The people I formed for Myselfthat they may
proclaim My Praise.” But, in the succeeding verses He complains:
Isaiah
43:23 – “You have not brought me sheep for burnt offerings (‘Horban Olah’
elevation offerings) nor honored me with your sacrifices. You have not bought
any fragrant calamus for Me or lavished on Me the fat of your sacrifices. But
you have burdened Me with your sins and wearied Me with your
offenses."
Clearly, He requires our
thanksgivings and praises. Sins, He forgives ... but where are the
Praises and exultations?
Almost the complete book of
Va'yikrah is about sacrifices, offerings and libations. When we search it
in the spirit of finding our responsibilities in regard to our “living
Tabernacles dedicated to HaShem”, we are bound to turn what otherwise
presents the “driest” section of the entire Bible, the book of Va'yikrah
(Leviticus) into “a Fountain of Living Waters.”
Rabbi
Avraham Greenbaum from Azamra Institutewrites in his commentary on Va'yikrah:
Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum – “G-d’s challenge to ALL of the Children of Israel was to
be ‘a kingdom of PRIESTS and a holy nation.’ (Exodus 19:6). While only the
Cohen-priest may officiate at the offering of sacrifices, they could be brought
by all. Many of the other Commandments in Leviticus relating to ‘holiness’ apply
not only to the Cohen-Priests but to all of us.
At
the very heart of Leviticus is Parshas KEDOSHIM, ‘Be holy.’ (Exodus ch's 19-20)
which contains the fundamental laws governing man's behavior to his fellows.
This is explicitly addressed to all of the Children of Israel (Leviticus 19:2).
The book of VAYIKRA also contains Commandments that apply to Gentiles. These
include the laws of sacrifices with which our present Parshah of VAYIKRA,
opens: the first commandment is that of KORBAN OLAH, the ‘elevation’ or
whole-burned offering, which both Israelites and Gentiles are eligible to
bring.”
At
the Woodlands
Community Temple at White Plains, New York, Rabbi Billy Dreskin states the
following concerning the temple sacrifices given to the G-d of Israel:
Rabbi Billy Dreskin – “Leviticus,
the third book of the Torah, is not the most compelling by a long shot ...
Leviticus’ limitations aside, it’s my favorite book of the Torah, not because
it’s a page-turner, but because it’s about human responsibility. Its words have
God challenging us, saying, “You want to have a relationship with Me? Then
there’s stuff you need to do. You want blessings in your life? You’re going to
have to work for them.”
The
Torah has a way of working things out through purgation offerings. But with the
fall of the Jerusalem Temple, we had to find an alternative path to taking care
of our shortcomings. So now, the sacrificial offerings have become a symbol
of our efforts in life to make things right.
We
need a pathway to return. We may find it in prayer, in relationship, or in
brave yet difficult action. However we proceed, that path is likely to be far
more constructive (and healing) than running from the problem. Leviticus is
about sticking things out. While yes, we make mistakes—and plenty of them—we
don’t run away but, to the contrary, we try to make things right. For our
ancestors, a goat or a ram offering did the trick. For us, there are offerings
of the heart that accomplish the needed repair.”
Rabbi David Kaufman – “What do we do to make things right? With what have we
replaced these offerings? Certainly, we replace them with prayers and
songs, but words alone hardly do justice to the actions and intentions
symbolized by the ancient sacrifices.
Actions must accompany our words. I am reminded of the passage from Isaiah, Chapter
58:6–9: ‘This is the fast I desire: to unlock the fetters of wickedness, ... ;
it is to share your bread with the hungry, and to take the wretched poor into
your home; when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to ignore your own
kin. Then shall your light burst through like the dawn ... Then when you call
out, the Eternal will answer; when you cry, G-d will
say: Hineini, Here I am.’”
Mark Kirschbaum, Tikkun Daily,
concludes the following in regard to
the Sacrificial system of the Torah:
Mark Kirschbaum – “Once we are ‘trained’ in recognizing sacred otherness in
our spiritual lives, we have the capacity to recognize that every person has
their own unique set of needs and drives, their needs are not our needs, and we
find ourselves living properly in community (perhaps this is what is meant when
Avraham is congratulated for not holding back his son from God at the Akedah –
that Avraham reached the point where he truly allowed another living being to
individuate, that is the sacrifice, the sacrifice of the illusion that one has
control over another).
Thus
the true moment of atonement comes when one realizes that the world is not
narcissistically absorbed in one’s own sins, etc., but rather, when one
realizes that all living beings, in their own unique and free way, are part of
a whole community of life, each with their own specific needs and desires,
where the truest atonement (and sacrifice) is the recognition of the Other’s
existence and autonomy.”
Consider this concise
delineation of the main purpose of the Tabernacle or Temple in the light of our
previous discussion (Parashat Va'yakhel) regarding the related root
meanings of Shechinah, viz. dwell, neighborhood, neighbor). Thus:
the indwelling Spirit of HaShem in our human tabernacles requires the corrective
attitudes and actions towards our neighbors (community) in life.
This underlies our whole duty and purpose in life - towards our fellow
earthlings and towards our Maker. This is what Torah is all about.
The interpretation of
Torah has been Divinely mandated to Judah until Mashiach ben David comes who
will rule over the nations (Genesis 49:10; refer to our Enlightening Study on this Topic, “Judah -The Lawgiver of God–Part One”
The ancient northern Ten
Tribes of Israel rebelled against this authority of Judah for which they were
exiled into oblivion by HaShem, cut off from His Covenant. Their
reconciliation, however, and Return to the Land was foretold by Divine
Oath, filling the major part of Biblical Prophecy - a process which now is in
fulfillment as millions of souls across the world are turning to Torah in
search of their original Hebraic Roots.
There can be no greater
commitment in these Times, by BOTH the Houses of Judah and 10-Israel, then to
dedicate our human ‘temples’ to the original Divine Intent, i.e. as a Dwelling
Place for HaShem; a sincere study of Va'yikrah (Leviticus) will assist the sincere
seeking soul to find its responsibilities to ensure the ultimate full
habitation of the Shechinah of HaShem (as in the Tabernacle of old).
To understand more
about the Return of the 10 Tribes of Israel to their Homeland in Shomron
(Samaria), Israel, Contact “Kol Ha’Tor”, the Voice of the Turtledove. Here
is a joint Orthodox Jewish and 10-Triber Mission to bring awareness of the
imminent fulfillment of the Biblical Prophecies regarding the Redemption of all
Israel (12 Tribes Re-conciled and Re-United).
This reunification
will truly be the supernal Event of all Times for it will entail Establishing
Shomron (the Ancient Bible Heartland of the Patriarchs) and the Judean
Wilderness as part of the Land of Israel, and preparing the “Land” for the
Return of the Lost Tribes of the House of Israel and then the Redemption of All
Israel.
For inquiries about
Kol Ha Tor’s Vision for the Lost Tribes of Israel, we invite you to make a
personal Visit to Israel and stay at “Shomron Lives!”, a Spiritual Retreat and Guest House
in Samaria, that hosts Shomron (Samaria) Tours to reacquaint the Returning Lost
Tribers of the House of Israel to their future and Prophetic Homeland.
Weekly Bible Reading #21
- Year 5773 (2012/2013) – March 9, 2013
Parashot Va'yakhel (And He assembled): Exodus 35:1 -
38:20
Parashot Pekudei: Exodus 38:21-40:38
Haftarah: I Kings 7:40-7:50
(Sephardic I Kings 7:13-7:26)
I Kings 7:51-8:21
(Sephardic) Kings 7:40-7:50)
NOTE: Kol HaTor, in its commentaries
on the weekly Parashot, endeavors to search for and accentuate the Torah Messages
contained in the Parashot as applicable to the main Theme of Tanach of the
Return of the House of Israel, i.e. the Lost Ten Tribes of Northern Israel and
their Reconciliation with Judah to form the reunited 12-Tribed Kingdom of
Israel.
DISCLAIMER - The authors whom we quote from
for this Commentary are not associated with KOL HA'TOR and need not agree with
our views expressed herein or in our other publications. While we publish their
views for its relative value to the interpretation of the Parashah, KOL HATOR
does not necessarily agree with the views expressed by these authors.
************
This week's Torah reading includes both the
Parashah of Va'yakhel (Exodus 35:1-38:20) and the Parashah
of Pekudei (Exodus 38:21-40:38).
With these, we conclude the reading of the first 2 Books of the Torah.
The final 5 Parashot of the Book of Exodus (chapters 25 to
40) and the first ten chapters of the book of Leviticus, focus on one specific
theme: the Mishkan (the Tabernacle - God's Sanctuary). Volumes are written
about the meaning and importance of the Tabernacle in Jewish liturgy. The most
prominent concept, which we will also use as our theme today, is that of
providing “A Dwelling Place for G-d to live amongst His People.”
Parashat Pekudei concludes therefore, with the inspiring end
result of the newly completed Tabernacle:
Exodus 40:34-28 – “Then the cloud
covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of HaShem filled the Tabernacle.
Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled on it and
the glory of HaShem filled the Tabernacle.
In all the travels of the
Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the Tabernacle, they would set
out; but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out—until the day it
lifted. So the cloud of HaShem was over the Tabernacle by day, and fire was in
the cloud by night, in the sight of all the Israelites during all their
travels.”
In this way the omnipresent Spirit Being, the G-d of Israel,
dwelt amongst His People, guiding them by day in a Pillar of Cloud, and by
night in a Pillar of Fire. In this Tabernacle, Moses would convene with G-d.
Exodus 34:35 – “But when Moses went
in before HaShem to speak with Him, he took the veil off, until he came out.
And he came out, and spoke unto the children of Israel that which he was
commanded. And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of
Moses' face shone: and Moses put the veil upon his face again, until he went in
to speak with Him.”
The Shechinah Presence of G-d in the Tabernacle
As Rabbi Juda ben Shalom once stated:
Rabbi Juda son of Rabbi Shalom – “It
was on the Day of Atonement that Moses was commanded ‘Let them make me a
sanctuary.’ ... You will find that on the Day of Atonement their sin [of
worshipping the golden calf] was forgiven, and on the same day the Holy One
Blessed be He said to them: ‘And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell
among them’ in order that all the nations should know that the sin of the golden
calf had been atoned for.”
In our previous Parashah we have seen how this atonement was
brought about by an offering of half Shekel on every member of the community -
like a national census.
The word, Shechinah, is derived from the Hebrew root שכן (sh-ch-n). In
Biblical
Hebrew it means
literally to settle,inhabit, or
dwell, In modern Hebrew, other concepts based on the same root are ‘neighbor’
(shochen) and ‘neighborhood’ (shechunah).
This close neighborly relationship is
portrayed in the community setting of the 12 Tribes in their encampment around
the Tabernacle.
Can this indicate that HaShem is purposing to dwell amongst
His People by way of indwelling the personal beings of His righteous People?
That each righteous follower would be a Living Temple for the Shechinah of
HaShem?
In previous Parashot commentary of Lech Lechah, we deliberated:
Kol Ha Tor in Lech Lechah – “When
Ephraim (the House of Israel, the re-identified Lost Ten Tribes) and Judah
(Jews) are individually regenerated and regathered into the rebuilt Tabernacle
of David, then we will begin to recognize each other as blood brothers, as
physical Israelites from different sides of the same family nation! This vision
does includes the truth of Israel's two houses and demands that Ephraim
renounce all paganism and embrace the fabric of Israelite living and holiness,
which is Torah.”
We then also considered this reconstructed and ruling ‘Tabernacle
of David’ from the vision of the prophet Daniel, as recorded in Daniel chapter
7:
Daniel 7:13-18 (parts) – “I saw in
the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son
of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before Him. And
there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people,
nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting
dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be
destroyed.
I, Daniel, was grieved in my spirit
in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me. I came near unto one of them that stood
by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me, and made me know the
interpretation of the things… the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom,
and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever.”
Is this not the Tabernacle that HaShem envisaged for Himself
to dwell amongst His People?
According to Jewish
tradition the radiance of the Shechinah, with its untold blessings,
"rests" upon all those who are pious and righteous. According to
ancient Rabbis the Shechinah appears in the midst of at least a minyan of
worshipers when they pray in congregation and of two or more Jews when they
engage in the study of Torah, or on a man when he recites the Shema.
The
Shechinah is said also to rest upon the chaste, the benevolent, and the
hospitable, and upon husband and wife when they live in peace and harmony. The
ancient Rabbis also said that the Shechinah appeared before Moses at the
burning bush, rested upon the Tabernacle in the Wilderness on the day of its
dedication, and in the holy of holies in the Temple at Jerusalem, and it has
illuminated the bliss of the righteous (Heb. tzaddikim) in the
world-to-come ever since.
The Talmudic Sages
conceived of the Shechinah as a spiritual essence of indescribable beauty and
exalting effect. In a commentary on
Va'yakhel, Rabbi Label Lam makes the following observation:
Rabbi Label Lam
- “The Nefesh HaChaim writes: ‘And so a person from the Holy Nation that
contains the whole organization of the creation…he is also constructed like the Tabernacle and the Temple and its
vessels, corresponding to the order and connections of the segments of
the limbs and the ligaments and their functions. So it is detailed in the Zohar how the Tabernacle and its vessels are each
referring to Man.”
There is a lot of talk in the world and great fears amongst
Arabs that the Jews will build a Third Temple in Jerusalem on the spot where
currently a Muslim Temple, the Dome of the Rock, stands. Now consider the
following statement of Jewish thought - a concept that could hint at the
possibility of such a collective body of a ‘Human’ Temple:
Rabbi Yissocher Frand - “The last 5 parshios -- Terumah, Tezaveh, Ki
Tisa, Va'yakhel and Pekudei -- have been dealing with the mitzvah of ‘You shall
make for me a Sanctuary and I will dwell therein’ [Shmos 25:8]. Apparently,
this is a mitzvah that none of us will ever have the opportunity to fulfill.
Even if, G-d willing, we will live to see the coming of Moshiach, it seems that
we will still not be able to fulfill this commandment. The reason for this is because our Sages tell us that the Third
Beis HaMikdash will descend from Heaven - theoretically complete.
This would appear to mean that in His Kindness, G-d is removing this mitzvah
from us. G-d will do it for us!”
In Lech Lecha we also noted:
Kol Ha Tor in Lech Lecha – “We have yet another
confirmation – an awesome eye-opener! It comes from the Song of Ascents, Psalm
(Tehillim) 126 - Translation and commentary by Rabbi Avraham Sutton. This Song
opens the Thanksgiving for the Meal on Shabbat – a Song of Joy by the Returnees
to Zion.”
Rabbi Sutton makes the revealing observation:
Rabbi Avraham Sutton – “When Hashem will come out of concealment (the
Return of His Shechinah, when Peace and Reconciliation is restored between the
2 Houses of Israel) and return with the
captivity of Tzion, (the exiles) we will all awaken as if from a deep
slumber; it will be so wondrous, as if an impossible dream has finally come
true.”
Rabbi Avraham Sutton continues to explain in a foot note:
Rabbi Avraham Sutton - “The verse does not state “behashiv
Hashem shivat Tzion—when Hashem will restore the captivity of Zion” but
rather “beshuv Hashem et shivat Tzion—when Hashem will return with the
captivity of Zion.” This implies that the Shechinah is in exile with the
Jewish people, and will be redeemed with us at the time of the Redemption.
The source for this teaching is found in the Talmud (Megillah 29a)."
(Refer to Lech
Lecha for full quote).
It is doubtful that this could refer to the Returnees that
have returned to the Land of Israel since 1948. It most likely could refer to
the body of ‘Holy Ones’ that the prophet Zechariah refers to in that fearful
forecast of the Day that ‘all the nations’ will draw up in battle against
Jerusalem”:
Zechariah 14:3-5 (parts) – “Then
HaShem will go out and fight against those nations, as He fights on a day of
battle. On that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of
Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west,
forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving
south. You will flee by my mountain valley, ... Then HaShem my God will come,
and all the holy ones with him.”
Can this
possibly refer to the ‘Heavenly’ Beit HaMikdash which will descend? - as that ‘Body’
that He will rule through - that Purpose for which He persisted to continue
Creation (for the sake of one righteous man and his family, Noah) rather than
destroy it? (As we have observed in our first Parashot on Creation).
Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky – “The
portion of Parashat Pekudei (Reckoning) begins in Exodus 38:21 – ‘These are the
reckoning of the Mishkan -- the Mishkan of testimony.’ The Medrash is bothered
by Moshe's repetitive expression. Why does he repeat the words Mishkan --
Mishkan? He should have said, “These are the reckoning of the Mishkan of
testimony."? The Medrash answers, homiletically, that the word Mishkan
has a close relative in the word Mashkon -- collateral. Moshe was
alluding, ‘to the two Temples that were taken back by G-d as collateral for the
sins of Israel.’”
Rav Zvi Shimon – “Judah son of Rabbi
Shalom said: “And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them” in
order that all the nations should know that the sin of the golden calf had been
atoned for. It is therefore called the ‘Mishkan Eidut’ (Tabernacle of
Testimony, see Numbers 1:53), a testimony to all the inhabitants of the world
that the Holy One Blessed be He dwells in our sanctuary. Said the Holy One,
Blessed be He, ‘Let the gold of the Mishkan come and atone for the gold of
which the calf was made ...’ (Midrash Tanchuma, Exodus 25:8).”
As Rabbi Zvi Shimon continued in his remarks:
Rabbi Zvi Shimon - “According to the
Tanchuma, the construction of the Mishkan is an act of atonement by the people
for the sin of the golden calf. The people sinned with gold by building a
golden calf and atone with gold by constructing the Mishkan which included many
gold instruments. The Mishkan is a testimony to the fact that God forgave the
people for their sin and dwells among them."
The True Temple of HaShem, whether a physical building or a
Body of People, would by necessity have to be a place of supreme righteousness,
to befit the Presence (Shechinah) of the Living G-d! As such, and as such only,
could it serve as a Testimony to the nations, a Testimony of what G-d expects
of mankind:
Micah 6:8 – “What does HaShem
require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your
G-d.”
Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky – “These
final portions in the Book of Exodus summarize the amazing accomplishments of
the Children of Israel in building the Mishkan -- the edifice that would house
the Divine presence in this temporal world -- while in the desert. It was a
mammoth feat, an act that consumed an entire nation. Men and women, young and
old each had a share in this great endeavor.
The Torah tells us: ‘Every man whose heart inspired him
came; and everyone whose spirit
motivated him brought the portion of Hashem for the work of the Tent of
Meeting, for all its labor and for the sacred vestments. The men came with the
women; everyone whose heart motivated him brought bracelets, nose-rings, rings,
body ornaments -- all sorts of gold ornaments -- every man who raised up an
offering of gold to Hashem.’ (Exodus 35:21-22)
And then there were those who did
the work. ‘Moses summoned Bezalel, Oholiab, and every wise-hearted man whose
heart Hashem endowed with wisdom, everyone whose heart inspired him, to come
close to the work, to do it (Exodus 36:2). The wording needs clarification. Why
use the term, ‘whose heart inspired him, to come close to the work, to do it?’
Why not just say ‘whose heart inspired him, to do the work?’ What is the meaning of coming close to do the
work? Just do the work!
Building a Mishkan, like any project
that entails difficult work for the sake of Heaven, can be arduous. It can
become depressing at times and it is easy to become dispirited and desperate.
The key to the success of the building Mishkan lies in the words of the posuk,
‘everyone whose heart inspired him, to come close to the work, to do it.’ In
order to do the work, you must draw yourself close to the work. If you take
small steps with love and bring a project close to your heart, then rest
assured you will complete the work in joy!’”
Rabbi Label Lam – “What is the first thing we need before starting to build a
building? I know some people will say, ‘Money!’ There's something more basic
than that. No, not a building permit. Right! A plan! You can't get money or a
permit without submitting first an architect's scheme. The drawing itself first
requires something even more fundamental before it becomes a reality. Yes. A
motivation! A will to create or become! And that all flows from an imaginative
picture, an ideal of how things will look or be after all the work is done.
Lest we be seduced into
thinking that the building itself is more important than its true function,
Moshe set the record straight. The vessels and their special internal use are
the real purpose of the project. The Almighty is not served by a meaningless building.
There is no ‘edifice complex’ at play here.
The main part, the
essence is the realm within. The outer world serves and thrives on the inner.
For practical logistical considerations the external structure needs to be worked
on first.”
This "Realm Within" would
be the Testimony to the Nations.
To understand more
about the Return of the 10 Tribes of Israel to their Homeland in Shomron
(Samaria), Israel, Contact “Kol Ha’Tor”, the Voice of the
Turtledove. Here is a joint Orthodox Jewish and 10-Triber Mission to bring
awareness of the imminent fulfillment of the Biblical Prophecies regarding the
Redemption of all Israel (12 Tribes Re-conciled and Re-United).
This reunification
will truly be the supernal Event of all Times for it will entail Establishing
Shomron (the Ancient Bible Heartland of the Patriarchs) and the Judean
Wilderness as part of the Land of Israel, and preparing the “Land” for the
Return of the Lost Tribes of the House of Israel and then the Redemption of All
Israel.
For inquiries about
Kol Ha Tor’s Vision for the Lost Tribes of Israel, we invite you to make a
personal Visit to Israel and stay at “Shomron
Lives!”, a Spiritual Retreat and Guest House in Samaria, that
hosts Shomron (Samaria) Tours to reacquaint the Returning Lost Tribers of the
House of Israel to their future and Prophetic Homeland.
Weekly Bible Reading #20 - Year 5773 (2012/2013) – March 2, 2013
Parashat Ki Tisah (When you elevate): Exodus 30:11-34:35
Haftarah: I Kings 18:1-18:39
Sephardic: (I Kings 18:20-18:39
NOTE:
Kol HaTor, in its commentaries on the weekly Parashot, endeavors to search for
and accentuate the Torah Messages contained in the Parashot as applicable to
the main Theme of Tanach of the Return of the House of Israel, i.e. the Lost
Ten Tribes of Northern Israel and their Reconciliation with Judah to form the
reunited 12-Tribed Kingdom of Israel.
DISCLAIMER
- The authors whom we quote from for this Commentary are not associated with
KOL HA'TOR and need not agree with our views expressed herein or in our other
publications. While we publish their views for its relative value to the
interpretation of the Parashah, KOL HATOR does not necessarily agree with the
views expressed by these authors.
************
The title of this Parashah, Ki Tisah, as is the
Jewish tradition for naming each Parashah, is taken from the opening words of
the portion. Various translations render it:
‘When you take a census of the Israelites to count them ...’
‘When thou take the sum of the children of Israel ...’
‘When you raise the head of the children of Yisrael’
Our heading title above,
taken from yashanet.com, reflects a
more literal translation of this text as, 'when you elevate'. So, what
has 'elevate' or 'raise'to do with a census?
The following review will show how fallible and even
misleading the translations are which we so much depend on in order to read and
understand the Bible - which is G-d's Message to mankind. Many non-Jewish Bible
students forget that the Bible was NOT written in their language, but in
Hebrew. They then draw their conclusions on their translations, which could be
off the mark in some instances.
Our Ki'Tisah portion bears proof of this and confirms how
important it is to understand Hebrew. But, even with a fluent understanding of
the Hebrew language, it still lacks much, viz. the communal 'academic' research
into the wider aspects surrounding the written Bible record. What better source
for this wider insight, than the 3500 year academy of higher Jewish learning,
containing the insights, debates, deliberations and conclusions of dedicated
students throughout the centuries, many with above average intelligence and
specialized knowledge?
We are referring to Rabbinic insight on these wider levels,
founded upon practical experience over more than 3000 years with the very nation
of the G-d of the Bible, the ‘G-d of Israel’. This knowledge, which initially
has been transferred orally from generation to generation, was later recorded
in various volumes which collectively became known as Rabbinic Oral Torah. Ki 'Tisah is a perfect example of the need
for Oral Torah as compiled by the Rabbinic academy - not by those interpreters,
no matter how specialized they are, who generally do not have an in-depth
Hebrew knowledge, neither any in-depth and practical experience with the
culture of the nation of G-d. These specialists each have their own ‘oral’
interpretations but without in-depth knowledge of the Jewish religion which was
born out of the nation which is the main actor in the entire Bible.
So, let us delve deeper into Ki'Tisah. We quote from Ohr Somayach, Jerusalem, Israel by Rabbi Yaakov
Asher Sinclair:
Exodus 30:12 – “When you raise the head of the
Children of Yisrael”
Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair – “Why
does the Torah choose the expression raise the head to mean that Moshe should
take a census of the Jewish People?
G-d explained to Moshe that the
People had placed their lives in jeopardy by worshipping the golden calf. The
process of counting them by the coins they were to donate would “raise their
heads,” elevate them spiritually from the depths to which they sunk, and earn
them atonement from their sin.
Moshe supposed that such atonement
would require a coin of a very large denomination indeed. Perhaps it would be a
kikar of silver, the equivalent of three thousand silver coins. ...
Since G-d's Name was defamed when they proclaimed “These are your gods,
Yisrael,” this might be the level of the atonement required.
At the very least, Moshe
conjectured, G-d would demand a coin to the value of thirty shekalim.
The owner of a goring ox must pay thirty shekels. By worshipping a calf, the
Jewish People had traded G-d's glory for the image of a calf.
In the event, Moshe's fears were
unfounded. G-d said to him "You need not pay Me coins worth a hundred, or
fifty, or even thirty silver pieces. All I ask is that you donate one small
coin to the value of a half-shekel.
Those half-shekel coins from the
census were melted down and used for the silver sockets, the “adonim”,
that were the foundation for the walls of the Mishkan (Tabernacle). In other
words, the Mishkan literally stood on the half-shekalim that the People
donated.”
In Parashat Terumah (week 19) we saw the importance for G-d’s
people to make offerings of gold, silver and exquisite fabrics for the
completion and maintenance of the Temple and Tabernacle. Ki'Tisah this week
opens with a minimal amount as a form of census - thus, it was levied on each
and every individual from the age of 20 on, as an atonement.
Exodus 30:15 - 16 - “The rich shall
not give more and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel when [you]
give this offering to HaShem to make atonement for yourselves. And you shall
take the atonement money of the Israelites and use it [exclusively] for the
service of the Tent of Meeting, that it may bring the Israelites to remembrance
before HaShem, to make atonement for yourselves.”
Many experienced fund raisers will confirm that it is the
cumulative value of small contributions which raise the required funds. Rabbi
Avraham Greenbaum, AZAMRA, comments as follows on the half Shekel atonement:
Rabbi Avraham Greenbaum - “When G-d
spoke to Moses, He “showed him a kind of coin of fire, the weight of a half
shekel” and He said to him: “THIS shall all who pass through the count give --
a half shekel” (Exekiel 30:13 and Rashi there). This fiery HALF SHEKEL COIN,
which made every single citizen an equal partner in the Sanctuary and its
upkeep, was the remedy for material lust and the appetite for wealth. Everyone
was to join and be a partner in an enterprise that elevates material wealth --
the finest vessels of gold, silver and copper, the finest fabrics, choicest
animals, flour, oil, wine and spices -- by incorporating them in the worship of
the One G-d. This is where the display of wealth is truly fitting, a place
where each may take a just pride in having a share. Having a joint share with
everyone else in the national treasure, the Temple, keeping one's eyes focused
on its splendid golden vessels and their implicit messages -- these are the
medicine for the selfish lust for wealth for its own sake.
Differences in wealth and assets
were of no significance in this annual half shekel tax that made each citizen
an equal partner in the Temple enterprise. The rich could not give more nor the
poor less. Souls cannot be quantified and counted -- each soul has its own
unique significance that would be violated by trying to quantify it or assign
it a number. What counts is that each person adds his or her own SELF and WILL,
and is willing to play his or her part by paying the “head tax” and “casting a
vote”. Numbers and wealth do not count in the eyes of G-d. What counts is each
person's WILL to make a contribution -- to have an equal share with everyone
else, without pride and without shame, in being part of the whole, feeding the
Altar and bringing the fire of G-d's presence into the world.”
The Half Shekel atonement was a united national effort - as
in a national census. Every one participated - the result? - the Mishkan (Tabernacle,
later the Temple in Jerusalem).
The Talmud says “if you never saw the Second Beit
HaMikdash (Holy Temple), you never saw a beautiful building in your life.”
The Beit HaMikdash was called the “eye of the world.” The eye is a physical
organ but it receives something that is about as non-physical as you can get:
Light. The Beit Hamikdash was called “the eye of the world” because it was the
portal for the Light. The Beit HaMikdash was the most beautiful building
not because of its dimensions and proportions or its finishes but because it
revealed the resting of the Divine Presence in this world.
Faith is like a shadow. Faith is the knowledge of something
that you cannot see”, Rabbi Yaakov Sinclair further remarks.
Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair – “The nation
that dwells in the shadow of faith proclaims that existence extends beyond the
here-and-now, beyond what can be perceived by the five senses of man. Faith is
something that takes place in the shade. In the shadow.”
Today, both the Houses of Judah and reawakening 10-Israel
reveal this Faith. What lacks though, is the “national unity.” They have to
find each other and co-operate in unison like HaShem expected of 12-tribed
Israel of old. Too often today, each House sees itself as the only cogwheel in
the machine. Both Houses think that they can achieve Redemption by themselves;
that the Divine Blessing applies to themselves only. We need to recall the
words of Rabbi Avraham Feld, founder of the Kol HaTor Vision:
Rabbi Avraham Feld - “Judah without
10-Israel is like an airplane without wings, a car without wheels.”
We need a “national census atonement”; …he will give Terumah of G-d’:
Exodus 30:14 – “Every one that
passes among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and upward, shall
give the offering (Terumah) of HaShem. The rich shall not give more, and
the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when they give the offering
(Terumah) of HaShem, to make atonement for your souls.”
Note how these Atonement offerings are referred to as ‘Terumah’
in the same context. Now experience the following Rabbinic insight into Terumah,
which is a Divine requirement on all of Israel - all twelve Tribes which
were involved in Exodus. Surely, today it applies to both Judah and the
re-identifying House of 10-Israel? Let us note what was written about Parashat
Ki'Tisah (for 2012) by Rabbi Yaakov
Asher Sinclair:
Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair - "The
entire Oral Torah begins with the question, “When do we read the Shema
prayer in the evening?” The Mishna answers, “When the kohanim (priests)
go in to eat their Teruma (the priestly gifts).”
What is the connection between
saying the Shema and the mitzvah (Command) of Teruma? Why didn’t
the Mishna (Oral Torah writings) just say, “The time to say Shema in the
evening is when it gets dark”?
The Torah obligation to give Teruma
is as little as a single grain. The Rabbinic obligation, however mandates
between one-sixtieth, which is considered miserly, and one-fortieth, which is
generous. The median amount is one-fiftieth. The word “Teruma” is an
allusion to this median amount, for Teruma stands for trei mi-me’ah,
two out of one hundred — one-fiftieth.
If the Torah was hinting through the
word Teruma to the median gift of one-fiftieth, why did it express that
fraction as two parts out of a hundred? Why didn’t it coin instead a word that
used the words for ‘one’ and ‘fifty — Chad and Chamishim? Why
wasn’t Teruma called “Chadshim” or something like that? And why
specifically the proportion of two out of a hundred? Why not four parts out of
two hundred, or eight out of four hundred?
The Vilna Gaon (author of the book
Kol Ha'Tor) explains that the core of Shema lies in the first verse, Shema
Yisrael, and in the next phrase Baruch Shem Kevod Malchuto le’olam
va’ed, “Blessed is Hashem’s name of the Honor of His Kingdom forever and
ever,” which we say immediately afterward.
The essence of Shema is to affirm
our belief that everything in existence is One and the smallest aspect of
creation ultimately leads to Him alone.
The Gaon of Vilna observed that the
twenty-five letters in the first verse of Shema and the twenty-four letters in Baruch
Shem together equal forty-nine.
The number fifty connotes something
beyond this world. We count forty-nine days of the Omer from Pesach till
Shavuot, but we do not count the final day, the day of Shavuot itself, because Shavuot
represents something beyond this world — the supernal moment of the closest encounter between G-d and man.
In this world, we can approach
fifty, but we cannot count it; we cannot define or delineate it.
When I say the Shema, I surrender
the ineffable, indisputable knowledge of my own existence and proclaim that
there is only One Existence, and that I am no more than just one expression of
that Ultimate Existence. That is the ‘one’ that I give to make the fifty
complete.
My recitation of the Shema – my own
closest encounter with G-d — represents the “one” that raises the forty-nine to
fifty. And as I say the Shema twice daily, it represents the trei mi-me’ah
– the two out of a hundred.
Trei mi me’ah– twice a day,
the Teruma that I give is the forty-nine letters that make up my declaration of
G-d’s total and absolute Unity, together with the ‘one’ — the surrender and
elevation of my own existence that joins me to ‘fifty’ — the Ultimate
Existence.”
In this, there may be a hint also of the supreme ‘oneness’
that we may achieve through the Redemption; that ‘oneness’ that seems to be the
underlying motive of HaShem's Creation Plan, which we have referred to in Parashat Commentary Lech’Lecha.
These important guidelines and Divine requirement of
offerings recorded in the opening Scriptures of Parashat Ki’Tisah, are reviewed
in another commentary on Ki'Tisah titled, YESHIVAT HARA'AYON HA'YEHUDI, Jerusalem,
Israel by HaRav Yehuda Kreuser SHLIT"A, Rosh Yeshiva and presented by
Rabbi Levi Chazen.
It also further confirms the deep insight that Rabbinic
interpretation holds in the background to the actual Scriptures - knowledge
without which it would be impossible to fully understand the Bible.
HaRav Yehuda Kreuser SHLIT"A –
“Every Jewish child knows the elementary rule in Judaism, that one does not
count the Jewish people by numbers, one... two...three. Rather, each person
gives a small coin worth half a shekel and once they are collected, the coins
are then counted to know the sum of the population. Rashi comments: ‘And there
will be no plague among them; otherwise there will be a plague, for the evil
eye can affect that which has been counted and pestilence can come upon them,
as we have found in the days of King David.’
And what took place in the time of
King David? We find in the book of II Samuel that King David ordered his
general, Yoav, to take a census of the Jewish people. This was in spite of the
fact that Yoav objected to the taking of a direct census because of the
biblical transgression of not counting the Jewish people. But King David was
adamant and the counting of the census went on. Immediately thereafter, 70,000
people died in a plague.
The question arises: How is it
possible that the mighty King David ordered his top general to take a direct
census, something that is clearly forbidden in the Torah, as even every young
child knows?
It is clear that a dark decree was
hanging over the Jewish people [12-Israel], and for this reason King David had
forgotten a very simple rule in Jewish law and caused a plague to befall the
people. But what was it that could have been so bad that it caused the death of
some 70,000 people?
Our Rabbis in the Midrash fill in
the blanks and teach us that the sin of the people at that time was that
they had no desire to build a House for G-d; each family was content with
their own homes and gardens, letting the Holy Temple wait for some other
generation, some other time. So great was G-d's wrath at His people that this
horrendous plague killed off 70,000 people!
And as in every generation, they had
all the excuses in the world for putting off the building of the Temple: It's
not the right time... the nation is not ready... the prophet Natan had told
King David that he would not be the one to build a House for G-d. They already
had the tabernacle, a temporary dwelling place, so why the urgency for a
permanent place? And still, in spite of all these seemingly ‘correct’ excuses,
the wrath of G-d came upon the Jewish people.
Interestingly, these same excuses
are still thrown around today by Rabbis and laymen alike.
‘In order to ensure that a
reoccurrence of this horrible plague will not happen again, the Rabbis tried to
awaken our desire for the Holy Temple.
Three times a day we [the Jews] pray
for the return to the Land of Israel, to rebuild the city of Jerusalem and its
House of G-d. At every wedding, our happiest moment, we break the glass to
remember the Temple.
When we build our home, we leave a
small area unfinished to remember that as long as the Temple is still not
built, our homes are also missing the final touch. And as we sit together at the
Passover Seder, we declare: ‘Next year in Jerusalem’. Alas. how many of us are
just saying the words, going through the motions - but in reality, it is
actually the last thing that we want, for the Temple and its service would not
fit into our daily lives. If we truly desired it, nothing would stand in our
way to make it happen.”
Practical fulfillment and evidence in this week's News
Once more and right on time, this week featured a statement
by a ‘shocked’
former member of Israel Knesset. He visited the Temple Mount for
the first time in many years and was ‘astounded’ at the shocking discriminating
treatment that Jews received on “the Holiest Site in the world - the Temple
Mount.”
A “Save the
Temple Mount” Call went out from a concerned source in Jerusalem and their
following response was reported:
“After many attempts to contact the Orthodox
Union, (largest Jewish Orthodox organization in the US) including emails and
phone calls to convince them to join our efforts to oppose both the destruction
of the Temple antiquities and the persecution of Jews who ascend to the Temple
Mount, we received today a loud and clear NO.
“The Orthodox Union will not speak to us nor
have anything to do with efforts for the Temple Mount."
The silence from Jewish authorities, the
Knesset and even Rabbis on this disgrace and desecration of the Temple Mount is
simply deafening!
Whereas our Parashah reading relates the idolatrous affair
of the 12 Tribes at Sinai, our Parashah relates the idolatrous affairs of the
10 Tribes under King Ahab before their exile. The king himself had built an
altar to Baal, and his Phoenician wife, Jezebel, encouraged pagan cults and
persecuted Israelite prophets. It is against this idolatrous and dangerous
state of affairs that the prophet Elijah battles.
1 Kings 18:18-20 – “I have not made
trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “But you [Ahab] and your father’s family
have. You have abandoned HaShem’s Commands and have followed the Baals. Now
summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring
the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of
Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”So Ahab sent word throughout
all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel.”
It may not be so commonly known that Elijah took on the Baal
prophets of Northern 10-Israel on this occasion. Ten Tribers are normally very
defensive about why the Ten Tribes rebelled against Judah and Jerusalem. They
insist that it was because of the heavy taxation that Jerusalem laid on them.
Elijah though, spells it out in the above encounter with Ahab (as it stands
confirmed in several other Scriptures in the Bible also), i.e. because of their
rebellion against Torah and acquiring themselves “other Lords” to follow.
Though they claim to serve the same God as Judah, they have
created for themselves an entire un-Jewish ‘trinitarian multiple godhead’ and a
Messiah whom most claim has “done away with” Torah and its Divinely mandated
judicial authority (the Mechoqeck) of Judah. On this occasion the prayers of
10-Israel's Baal prophets were NOT heard and despite an entire day of praying,
running around the altar, increasing their voices, NOTHING occurred. ‘Their god’
did NOT hear!
The Message of Ki'Tisah calls loudly for 10-Israel in these
days to join Judah in a ‘census atonement offering’ to build the Land and
eventually the Temple. Significantly this Message presents Elijah's
confrontation and confirmation that: "HaShem
— He is G-d! HaShem — He
is G-d!” (The concluding text of the Haftarah).
To understand more
about the Return of the 10 Tribes of Israel to their Homeland in Shomron
(Samaria), Israel, Contact “Kol Ha’Tor”, the Voice of the
Turtledove. Here is a joint Orthodox Jewish and 10-Triber Mission to bring
awareness of the imminent fulfillment of the Biblical Prophecies regarding the
Redemption of all Israel (12 Tribes Re-conciled and Re-United).
This reunification
will truly be the supernal Event of all Times for it will entail Establishing
Shomron (the Ancient Bible Heartland of the Patriarchs) and the Judean
Wilderness as part of the Land of Israel, and preparing the “Land” for the
Return of the Lost Tribes of the House of Israel and then the Redemption of All
Israel.
For inquiries about
Kol Ha Tor’s Vision for the Lost Tribes of Israel, we invite you to make a
personal Visit to Israel and stay at “Shomron
Lives!”, a Spiritual Retreat and Guest House in Samaria, that
hosts Shomron (Samaria) Tours to reacquaint the Returning Lost Tribers of the
House of Israel to their future and Prophetic Homeland.
NOTE: THIS EMAIL IS GOING OUT TO 6,000+ WORLDWIDE, OUR
COLLECTIVE VOICE WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
After many attempts to contact the Orthodox Union, (largest
Jewish Orthodox organization in the US) including emails and phone
calls to convince them to join our efforts to oppose both the destruction
of the Temple antiquities and the persecution of Jews who ascend to the Temple
Mount, we received today a loud and clear NO.
Public Relations
Director, Stephen Steiner declared today that the "Orthodox Union will not
speak to us nor have anything to do with efforts for the Temple Mount"
This means we must now send the Orthodox Union a clear message that they cannot
remain silent any longer
Please email and call Mr. Stephen Steiner and urge him to involve his
organization in this holy cause.
Email - steiners@ou.org
Phone - 212-613-8318 (9-5 Eastern Time)IMPORTANT TO CALL IF HE DOES NOT
PICK UP LEAVE A MESSAGE!
SAMPLE EMAIL: Please feel free to write your own
text, but please Cc us at tmount.intl@gmail.com
Yesterday you
presented the position of the Orthodox Union in regard to Temple Mount, which
is that your organization will not take a position. For an organization that
professes to believe in the Torah, this position is simply unacceptable. We are
shocked at your blunt and cold response to the plight of Jews who ascend the
Temple Mount in accordance with Torah law and the fate of the remnants of the
Temple that are continually being destroyed by the Muslim authority with the
permission of the Israeli Police. This position is tantamount to public consent
to the anti-Jewish and illegal behavior of the Israeli Police and Muslim
Authority.
We demand that the Orthodox Union take immediate steps to protest the
following:
1. The persecution of Jews on the Temple Mount
Only Jews are
forced to wait an extended period of time before being allowed through
security.
Only Jews are
forced to present their ID’s to the police.
Only Jews are
followed and harassed by Israeli police and Muslim Wakf guards throughout the
entire visit on the Mount.
Only Jews are
arrested for crimes such as prayer, closing eyes, bowing down or singing.
2. The ongoing
destruction of Temple Mount antiquities.
The State
authorities do not enforce the Antiquities Law and the planning and
Construction Law on the Temple Mount and allow the Wakf to grossly violate the
law
The Wakf has
built a mass new illegal underground Mosque in the southern area known as
Solomon Stables
Many truckloads
of dirt and archaeology have been dumped illegally into the Kidron valley by
the Wakf, Israeli archaeologists are attempting a salvage effort.
The Wakf has
even continued digging around the area of the Mizbeyach and placed a large
screen around that area to hid activity.
The Wakf is now
using Mikdash columns to pave a walk way of the Har, which is part of the
Halchicly permissible path for Jews who ascend the Har according to
Halacha.
3. The Day to
day desecration of the Temple Mount by Muslim visitors.
Muslim children
hold daily soccer games and other sports activities on the Mount.
Muslim families
gather picnics and family gatherings on the Mount.
Anti Israel Marches
are held on the Har and many times enemy flags such as Turkey, Hamas and PLO
have been raised over the Mount.
The Wakf
regularly used the loudspeakers on the Mount Muslim prayer towers to broadcast
their message of hate and destruction towards the Jewish People.
We who care
about the sanctity of the Temple Mount will not cease this campaign until the
OU comes out with an official policy statement in regard to the issues
mentioned above.
This Blog is Sponsored by the joint vision shared by Orthodox
Jews and 10-Tribers bringing
awareness of the imminent fulfillment of the Biblical Prophecies regarding the
Redemption of all Israel (12 Tribes Re-conciled and Re-United). This super
Event of all Times will entail Establishing the Shomron (the Ancient Bible
Heartland of the Patriarchs) and the Judean Wilderness as part of the Land of
Israel, and preparing the “Land” for the Return of the Lost Tribes of the House
of Israel and then the Redemption of All Israel. If you want to learn more, Contact “Kol Ha Tor Vision”,the Voice of the
Turtledove.
For inquiries about Kol Ha Tor Vision for the Lost Tribes of
Israel, make a Personal Trip to Israel, visit and stay at “Shomron Lives!”, a
Spiritual Retreat and Guest House in Samaria that sponsors Tours of Samaria the
Ancient Land of the Northern Kingdom of Israel the Ancient Homeland of the Lost
Ten Tribes of the House of Israel.
NOTE:
Kol HaTor, in its commentaries on the weekly Parashot, endeavours to search for
and accentuate the Torah Messages contained in the Parashot as applicable to
the main Theme of Tanach of the Return of the House of Israel, i.e. the Lost
Ten Tribes of Northern Israel and their Reconciliation with Judah to form the
reunited 12-Tribed Kingdom of Israel.
DISCLAIMER
- The authors whom we quote from for this Commentary are not associated with
KOL HA'TOR and need not agree with our views expressed herein or in our other
publications. While we publish their views for its relative value to the
interpretation of the Parashah, KOL HATOR does not necessarily agree with the
views expressed by these authors.
************
Tetzaveh is the 2nd
of a series of 5 Parashot about the Tabernacle, providing specifications of its
design, contents, apparel and services. From our previous Parashat Terumah, we
have, identified the important message for ourselves:
How the Tabernacle provides
man the opportunity to renew him/herself “in the image of G-d” and to draw
closer until G-d Himself “dwells with man”;
How it is man's
responsibility to support the building and maintenance of the Temple and its
services with his/her assets, possessions and abilities by returning to G-d
some of that which G-d in His Kindness has bestowed and which really belongs to
Him.
This week, in Parashat
Tetzaveh, we will see, from the apparel of the High Priest, what an important
part the twelve Tribes hold in the Creation and Redemption Plan of HaShem.
Tetzaveh, at great length,
describes the special clothing that the Priests (Kohanim) wore in the Temple.
These garments were of such importance that if anything was lacking, the Temple
service would become invalid. Eight garments were prescribed for the High Priest
(Kohen HaGadol). That is four more garments
than for the Priests.
The first mentioned of
these special garments for the High Priest, is the Ephod which was an
elaborate garment that rested upon the Kohen Gadol’s shoulders. Upon the
shoulders were two gemstones that were engraved with the names of the
twelve tribes of Israel. “This teaches us that at all times we have upon our
shoulders not only ourselves, but also the entire Nation of Israel [12 Tribes
of Israel]. This is true both in our relation with Hashem and with the rest of
the world ... Our acts, for the good and the bad reflect upon the entire Jewish
people. Thus, each of us carries the entire twelve tribes upon our shoulders.”
Then Rabbi Yonasan Biggs
with Chabad.org discussed another part of the High Priest's attire, the Breast
Plate (Choshen Mishpat). On it
were twelve different gemstones, upon each of which was inscribed the
name of one of the Tribes of Israel. As Rabbi Biggs wrote:
Rabbi
Yonasan Biggs – “The inscription of the Twelve Tribes on the Breastplate teaches that we must always have the entire Jewish
people [all 12 Tribes] upon our heart. When we pray, we pray for everyone, when
we make a decision, we concern ourselves with everyone… “The Choshen was
primarily an instrument designed to communicate Prophecy. The Choshen's
function as an essential garment of the Kohen Gadol was subsidiary. This
means that the stones and the letters engraved upon them were the main element
of the Choshen. The breastplate was fundamentally a garment designed to
display the stones which featured these engravings. If this possibility is
accepted, then it follows that the size of the stones and the lettering was
dictated by the primary function – communicating
prophecy. All letters [All Ten
Tribes of Israel] were equally essential.”
Rabbi
Bernie Fox – “The Torah describes the stones of the Choshen as “avnai miluim”. Most commentaries translate this term as “stones meant to
be set.” This is a strange appellation for these stones. Why did the Torah not
merely describe them as stones for adornment of the Kohen Gadol’s
garments? What message is the Torah communicating by referring to the stones as
avnai miluim?
Gershonides responds to this
question. He explains that the Choshen featured gold settings. The
stones were required in order to fill these gold settings. This is an odd way
to describe the relationship between the stones and the Choshen. The
simpler, more straightforward description would be that the settings were
required to accommodate the stones.
A simple example will illustrate
this point. What is the relationship between the diamond in an engagement ring
and its setting? It would be incorrect to describe the diamond as “required to
fill”, or complement, the setting (thus
suggesting that the diamond is secondary to the setting). The setting is designed to hold the diamond!"
(Thus, the Lost Ten Tribes played a primary role in HaShem's Temple Plan!)
Why does Gershonides describe the
stones as “required” to fill the gold settings? Gershonides’ point is that the
stones were designated to adorn and complete the Choshen.”
This enlightening insight presented by Mesora.org continues when
we review the High Priest's Head Plate:
“And you should make a Head-plate of pure gold.
And you should engrave upon it as the engraving of a signet ring, “Sanctified
to Hashem”.
Rabbi
Bernie Fox – “One of the eight garments of the Kohen HaGadol was the Tzitz – the golden Head-Plate. This band was worn on the
forehead. Engraved upon the Tzitz
were the words, “kodesh laHashem” – “sanctified to Hashem”.
The message of the Tzitz seems difficult to unravel.
The Tzitz is obviously declaring the sanctity of some object or person.
However, the specific entity to which the Tzitz refers is not clear.
Furthermore, we would expect the message of the Tzitz to be
self-evident. The Tzitz is making the overt assertion that it—or
someone—is ‘sanctified to G-d.’ Such a message should be easy to grasp!
This issue can perhaps be resolved from the comments of the Sefer HaChinuch. Sefer HaChinuch explains the garments of the kohanim and the
Kohen Gadol were designed to reinforce an important impression ... This suggests that the phrase, “sanctified to Hashem”
refers to the Kohen Gadol. He is sanctified to Hashem. The Tzitz
reminds the High Priest of his position and his duties. He must conduct himself
in accordance with his responsibilities. (Rav
Ahron HaLeyve, Sefer HaChinuch,
Mitzvah 99)
Rabbaynu Shemuel ben Meir – Rashbam – offers an alternative explanation of the message of
the Tzitz. Rashbam suggests that in order to understand the message of
the Tzitz, it is essential to evaluate it as part of the entire set of
vestments. The garments of the Kohen Gadol must be considered as a
whole.
The Tzitz was not the only vestment featuring words.
The Ephod – the apron – and the Choshen also featured words. On
the stones of the Ephod and Choshen the names of the tribes were
engraved. Rashbam suggests that the message of the Tzitz emerges when
considered in relation to these other vestments and their engravings. Rashbam
explains the Tzitz refers to the shevatim -- the [12-] Tribes
whose names were engraved on the stones of the Ephod and Choshen.
The Tzitz (therefore)
refers to these shevatim as sanctified to Hashem.” (Rabbaynu Shemuel ben Meir (Rashbam) Commentary on Sefer Shemot 28:36.)
What a glorious Calling! What an exalted position!
Deuteronomy 33:29 – “Blessed are
you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by HaShem? He is your Shield and
Helper and your glorious Sword.”
From its very beginnings, this “one nation” has been
comprised of twelve distinct tribes. Jacob had twelve sons; before his passing
he blessed them ‘each man according to his individual blessing,’ granting Judah
the majesty of the lion, Issachar the perseverance of the donkey, Dan
the ingenuity of the snake, Naphtali the swiftness of the gazelle, and
so on. Each tribe was thereby given a distinct vocation and role: Judah
produced kings and legislators; Issachar, scholars; Zebulun,
seafarers and merchants; warriors came from Gad, schoolteachers from Shimon,
olive growers from Asher, shepherds from Manasseh, and so on.
The descendants of Jacob’s children preserved their tribal
identities throughout their exile in Egypt. When the Red Sea parted to allow
them passage, it split into twelve pathways—one for each tribe. Each tribe
was counted separately in the various censuses taken of the people of
Israel; each [Tribe] had its own stone on the High Priest’s breastplate,
its own flag (in the color of its stone), its designated place in
line when the people of Israel journeyed through the desert, and its designated
position when they camped around the Sanctuary (mirroring the places that
Jacob designated for his sons around his bier at his funeral).
Twelve spies, each representing his respective
tribe, made up the reconnaissance mission sent in preparation for the conquest
of the Holy Land. Once there, each tribe was allotted its own territory
suited for its particular vocation; there was even a time when certain
restrictions were placed on marriages between the tribes to prevent the
ownership of land from passing from one tribe to the other.
Even as we each pursue our divinely ordained role, each
living his life on his “day” in his way, we are all doing the same thing.
For in origin and essence we are one, and our individual lives and
accomplishments are but the many expressions of a single quest.
The first aspect of our unity concerns only the end,
but not the means, of our national mission. It sees the common goal that is
the ultimate purpose of it all; but the process of life—what we
actually do to attain this goal—remains an area of difference and disparity. So
even if our present-day efforts are guided by, and permeated with, the vision
of our common objective, our actual lives are conducted apart and disconnected.
The second aspect, however, sees an intrinsic oneness in the process of
life itself. Even before our individual paths have converged upon the same
destination, it sees in the many ways in which we apply our particular
talents and abilities a single process, a single deed, a single
endeavor: making our lives a “Tent of Meeting,” a place to house the
goodness and perfection of our Creator.
HaShem's One Nation uniquely
features '12-Tribes' divided into TWO Houses.
Rabbi Simon Jacobson poses the question in the article
titled; “Meaningful Life”:
Rabbi Simon Jacobson - “How, indeed,
do a people comprised of various tribes, each with its own character,
temperament, talents and vocation, achieve union as ‘one nation’?
One approach is to focus on our
“interdependence”: to appreciate that since we share a common goal—namely, to
build for G‑d ‘a dwelling in the physical world’—and since we each have a
crucial role to play in the achievement of this goal, our various ‘tribes’ and
types complement and fulfill one another to create a single people. In other
words, our differences themselves are what unite us. Since the entity ‘Israel’
and what it stands for would be incomplete were any one ‘tribe’ missing from
the equation, no Jew is fully Jewish without his relationship with every other
type of Jew.”
The greatest stumbling block today in the way of Redemption
(i.e. Reconciliation of the two Houses, 12 Tribes), is the diversity amongst
the two Houses. It is clear from the above review, that we are blindly and
stubbornly stumbling across the Solution: HaShem sees us and wants us to be ONE UNITED Nation. He has in fact created
the diversity amongst the different Tribes - NOT to divide, but to perfect the
ONENESS of His Nation.
No one tribe could ever fulfill His requirements on all
aspects of life fully by itself. As pointed out above, it is the sum total of
the diversities that bring full Oneness. But, there has to be Unity across the
diversity! Rather than seeing these diversities as failures and stumbling
stones, it should be seen as stepping stones to Unity and Oneness.
Research has shown that the best lasting marriages come from
two totally diverse spouses. Look around you at those successful marriages -
how totally diverse the spouses are! Research has shown how that the children
from such marriages, being exposed to the two opposites of life options in
their own lives, benefit through their experience of the two opposites in their
parents. In this way they are given two extremes between which to make informed
decisions in their own lives. In this way our Creator has provided us with
additional life style tools to draw closer to Him and to enjoy the Blessing of
righteous living!
Unfortunately, more than often, we see these keys to life as
obstacles rather than stepping stones. And we do the same when it comes to
establishing Peace in the House of HaShem amongst His diverse people! Just as
in marriage, what generally causes the break down; is the individual insistence
to "have it MY way!”
May this life generating insight brought to us by our
Rabbis, into this otherwise 'dry' portion of Scripture, serve to help us appreciate
the diversities amongst 12-Israel and between the two greatly divided Houses of
HaShem.
Which would bring the ultimate
Redemption to the Door Step!
To understand more
about the Return of the 10 Tribes of Israel to their Homeland in Shomron
(Samaria), Israel, Contact “Kol Ha’Tor”, the Voice of the Turtledove. Here is
a joint Orthodox Jewish and 10-Triber Mission to bring awareness of the
imminent fulfillment of the Biblical Prophecies regarding the Redemption of all
Israel (12 Tribes Re-conciled and Re-United).
This reunification
will truly be the supernal Event of all Times for it will entail Establishing
Shomron (the Ancient Bible Heartland of the Patriarchs) and the Judean
Wilderness as part of the Land of Israel, and preparing the “Land” for the
Return of the Lost Tribes of the House of Israel and then the Redemption of All
Israel.
For inquiries about
Kol Ha Tor’s Vision for the Lost Tribes of Israel, we invite you to make a
personal Visit to Israel and stay at “Shomron Lives!”, a Spiritual Retreat and Guest House
in Samaria, that hosts Shomron (Samaria) Tours to reacquaint the Returning Lost
Tribers of the House of Israel to their future and Prophetic Homeland.
You are Israel!
The History was Revealed by the Prophets and Confirmed by Archeology, the Judgment of the God of Israel was Sealed as they were Exiled to Khurasan in Northern Iran, Eastern Afghanistan and Western Pakistan. They Disappeared into the Mists of History as they Migrated in Waves up through Georgia through the Caucasus and Followed the Tracks of their Cousin Dan who left his Name on the Rivers of his Passage (Don, Dniester, Dnieper, and the Danube) as they Migrated Northwestward towards Denmark. They Erupted into Northern Europe in the 3rd Century BCE as the Royal Scythians, Celts, Cymrics, Cimmerians, Goths, Angles, Saxons, Ostrogoths, Visigoths and Frisians.
They Populated the Lands of Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark), the Isles of the West (Britain, Ireland, and Scotland) the Lowlands (Netherlands and Belgium), the Colonies of Great Britain (United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa) plus the Lands of Northern France, and Germany. These today are the Lost Tribes of Israel!
If your Ancestry comes from any of these Lands,
Welcome, You are a “Lost Ten Triber” of the House of Israel!
The Prophets have Proclaimed, at the Time of the End, You will Return Home!
