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Showing posts with label Ezekiel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ezekiel. Show all posts

Monday, May 11, 2015

The Tribe of Dan and What Happened to the 10 Lost Tribes?

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                          

                                                                                 

Samson, our strongest man,  was from the tribe of Dan.  He was one of the Israelite judges, son of Manoah. He was born before Saul of the tribe of Benjamin  became a king which was in the 11th century BCE.   He was a Nazirite from birth, meaning for one thing that he was not to cut his hair or drink any alcoholic beverage.  His hair was where he got his strength and courage and was capable of doing feats against the Philistines.  Delilah, his love, a woman of the Valley of Sorek (grapes ?) , deceived him and told the Philistines where his strength came from,  for a price.1100 pieces of silver.  She then cut his hair for them.  The Philistines held a festival in Gaza where they mocked him by having him, now a slave of theirs, to turn the prison mill for them.  He ended his life by destroying the building  and killing everyone there, including himself.
                                                                         
The movie, Samson and Delilah came out in 1949 with Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr. This certainly immortalizes the pair.

The twelve tribes of Jacob were from 4 mothers, the sisters Leah and Rachel and their handmaids.    Dan was Jacob's 5th son and his mother was Bilhah, the handmaid of beautiful Rachel, Jacob's first love.  Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun were the sons of Leah, daughter of Laban.   Joseph and Benjamin were the sons of Rachel.   Dan and Naphtali were the sons of Bilhah,  and Gad and Asher were the sons of Zilpah, handmaiden of Leah. Gad had developed  a warlike reputation.   This made up Jacob's  12 sons. Dinah, daughter of Leah, was the only daughter.

Moses conferred the priestly office on the tribe of Levi. This meant that Levi would not receive any land as they were to be teachers and would travel to each tribe and live there while teaching.   To maintain the number of tribes receiving territory at 12, which was a sacred number,  he divided the tribe of Joseph into the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, Joseph's 2 sons.  Joseph was the son who had been kidnapped and taken away to Egypt where he rose in status to have a very high commission and be working just under the Pharaoh.  He had remained in Egypt.  The Levites must have been divided up between the Empires of Israel and Judah- the North and the South.

After the conquest of Canaan, Dan was allotted a portion south of Jaffa (today joined with Tel Aviv) , but was forced back into the hill country by the Amorites, and only a part of the tribe remained in the coastal region.  The greater part of Dan was forced to migrate northward where it eventually wrested from the Phoenicians a settlement area around Laish (Judg. 8:27-9)  On the map above it is shown as the farthest north in brown.  It is also mentioned in the MAR1 tablets( or Leshem (Jos. 19:47), the name of which became Dan.  The Danites had been expelled from their original inheritance by the Amorites so moved on to the sources of the Jordan River.  "The tribe of Dan  was one to be the avenger of his people.  Dan would be the snake that bites those that would come to harm his people."

Under Joshua's division of Canaan, Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh received territory in what was later called Transjordan, now just Jordan.  .  Naphtali and Asher were placed on the Sidonian frontier in the Galilee.  Issachar and Zebulun were settled in the Valley of Jezereel area.  Ephraim and the other half of Manasseh were to live in the mountains of Samaria with Benjamin to their south. and Judah even further south.  So Dan was to live basically along the seacoast around Jaffa and Simeon was placed in the Negev.

The rest of the tribe of Dan's   existence grew serious after the arrival of the Philistines.  Samson was a hero of the tribe.  The period of Saul and David helped.  The northern part of Dan was the site of a temple (Judg. 18:26-30) at which the descendants of Manasseh or Moses acted as priests.  This became one of the chief cult centers in the kingdom of Ephraim, and Jeroboam erected it it the image of a calf to deflect worshippers from the sanctuary at Jerusalem.

Some other tribes also didn't succeed in occupying the entire areas assigned to them.  Simeon seized further land in Seir and the territory of the Amalekites, a tribe of Caanan especially hateful of the Israelites who treated them horribly when they came through on the Exodus.  It is said that Haman in Persia much have been from the Amalekites, and possibly Hitler was, too.

Dan was captured by Ben Hadad of Syria during the rule of Baasha around 900 BCE .They would have been the closest tribe to Syria.

This tribal division of the land was maintained under the period of the Judges, but King Solomon (961-920 BCE)  changed the format of the division of land to suit his administration.

When King Solomon died, the land of Israel split into 2 halves with the southern half going to the tribe of Judah and Simeon, sons of Jacob and Leah,  and most of the tribe of Benjamin, son from Jacob and Rachel.  So Jews of today come from these 3 tribes.  

Then, in 732 BCE, the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser invaded and took away people of Israel in the north  as slaves.  While the state of Judah was crippled from the loss of warriors, in 721-715 BCE the King Sargon of Assyria also attacked and took away more people as slaves.  In all, 10 tribes had been exiled from the northern kingdom of Israel.  The kidnapped population had gone mostly to Assyria, of course, but also had been sold to Media and the lands neighboring  Aram-Naharaim.

Our 10 Lost Tribes to us were mourned.  This weakened the southern kingdom of Judah who were then attacked by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 586 BCE   and many were exiled.

An Israeli communal settlement at the foot of Mt Hermon near the source of the River Dan was founded by pioneers of Romanian origin in 1939.  It withstood a heavy Syrian attack in the War of Independence in 1948.  Their population in 1990 was 554.  Nearby is a tel, the site of the biblical city of Dan (Laish) which has been excavated by Avraham Biran.

 Modern Israel has a Soreq Valley and even a Sorek Vineyard (since 1994/5) producing Merlot. Soreq, however, is the grapevine itself in Genesis 49:11, Isaiah 5:2, and Jeremiah 2:21. Samson had been dedicated as a Nazirite, "from the womb to the day of his death"; thus he was forbidden to touch wine or cut his hair.

Ezekiel's prophecies (Ezek. 37:16)  about these northern lost 10 tribes has much importance as it is associated with the final Redemption with the reunion of the whole House of Israel that is to happen in the FINAL DAYS.  There has been reports in many generations of their whereabouts;

1. Eldad Ha-Dani reported them apparently in the mountains of Africa.
2. Benjamin of Tudela heard of them in Central Asia.
3. David Reuveni claimed to be the brother of one of their rulers in some region in Arabia
4. Antonio de Montezinos stimulated Manasseh ben Israel's political activity in  England by his reports that he had found them in South America
5. Shabbetai Tzevi appointed rulers over the various tribes.
6. One story associates them with the Japanese
7.  Votaries of the Anglo-Israel theory place them in the Anglo-Saxon countries. After watching a travel show into Scotland and their food  customs, I would say they had no connection to any lost tribe.  They proudly proclaimed that hunting for their food was the best thing to do and ate bloody meat.  Jews don't.  Whatever traces showing of their connection are usually in the customs, so this doesn't comply.

Actually as a historic fact, some members of the Ten Lost Tribes remained in the land of Israel and Judah,  later after 135 CE to be called Palestine.  Apart from the Samaritans, which is another case, some of their descendants long preserved their identity among the Jewish population.  Others were assimilated, while still others were presumably absorbed by the last Judean exiles who in 597-586 were deported to areas adjacent to the place of exile of the Ten Lost Tribes which was Media, Assyria and Mesopotamia.
                                                                         
Bnei Menashe In North East India, in the land mass that lies between Myanmar (formerly Burma) and Bangladesh, there lives a small group of people returning to Judaism
Today Israel is receiving reports and taking in people claiming to be of the lost tribes of Israel, who were surprised to find that others thought them lost, as they knew where they were.  The problem was that the Jews didn't know where they were and could not bring them back.  India's tribe of Menashe, called Bnei Menashe, one of the sons of Joseph, has returned to Israel.  2,000 now live in Israel.  In 2013, 7,000 more were waiting to return. Bnei Menashe are also from Burma (Myanmar) Recently a return to Judaism began. Several thousand people of Menashe decided to observe the laws of the Torah and returned to Judaism. They have synagogues in Manipur, Assam, and Mizoram. There are also those who emigrated to Israel. Thousands long for returning to Israel.

Several Christian organizations helped bring them home."In fact, the Hebrew prophets said when God gathered His Jewish people back from all the ends of the earth in the last days that there would be Gentiles helping and bringing them back," David Parsons, with the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, told CBN News."

"India is also home to the BenĂ© Israel, a group whose Jewish bona fides are not in question. India is also home to the Bene Israel, a group whose Jewish DNA is not in question. In fact, markers in DNA samples from the Bene Israel are consistent with descendants of a small group of hereditary Israelite priests or Cohanim—those descended from Moses’ brother Aaron. They now number less than eight thousand (most of them emigrated to Israel in the 1950s), but once, more than thirty thousand Jewish People lived in and around Mumbai (formerly Bombay). "That would be the dna Cohen gene of J1.  "Some associate them with either the tribe of Zebulon or Asher because of their tradition of working as oil pressers and merchants. Others think they are Jews who fled persecution from various Arab governments.

  It is thought that the Pashtuns of Pakistan and Afghanistan could contain some of the lost tribes as they have a history of descending from Benjamin and Joseph. Some Maasais of Africa claim to be of the lost tribe.  A few have returned.  A group from Burma has as well.

The Lemba tribe of Israel has been found to carry the Cohen gene.  They even believe they have the ark of the covenant.

"Ethiopians have finally convinced Israel's rabbis that they have Jewish roots.  65,000 have moved to Israel, starting in 1974.  They say they are either from the tribe of Dan, or are descendants of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba of Ethiopia, who had come for a visit to Jerusalem.  DNA did not turn up any evidence of a Jewish connection, but they have been practicing Judaism up to a point in our ancient history. " They should have a few of Solomon's  genes."  Today those in Israel are having a hard time adjusting, especially with rioting Blacks in the USA on TV bringing out their similar problems of education and position.    

 Anthropologist Shalva Weil of Jerusalem has documented differing tribes and peoples claiming affiliation to the Lost Tribes throughout the world.  Dr. Shalva Weil is a Senior Researcher at The Research Institute for Innovation and Education at the Hebrew University. She focuses on Indian JewryEthiopian Jewry, and the Ten Lost Tribes and specializes in qualitative methods, violence, gender, ethnicity, education, religion, and migration.  "Shalva Weil has published widely on the Bene IsraelCochin JewsBaghdadi Jews, and the Shinlung (“Bnei Menasseh”)."" Weil has published extensively on the Ten Lost Tribes and in particular, the Beta Israel, the Bene Israel, and the Pathans/Pashtuns, as well as on Judaising groups all over Africa, China and elsewhere. In 1991, she curated an exhibition at Beth Hatefutsoth: the Museum of the Jewish Diaspora on the Ten Lost Tribes entitled "Beyond the Sambatyon: the Myth of the Ten Lost Tribes".[17] She is on the international board of ISSAJ [International Society for the Study of African Jewry]"

Resource:  The New Jewish Encyclopedia p. 254,928-929
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GROcMlaGTA Shalva Weil
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioYAjdDALqk Jon Entine
Book:  The Lost Ark of the Covenant by Tudor Parfitt-mentioning the Lemba Tribe in Africa
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2014/06/found-lost-tribe-of-israel-right-in.html
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-assyrians-who-carried-away-10.html
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/12/lost-tribe-of-israel-living-in-india.html
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/11/india-burmas-lost-menashe-tribe-of.html
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/01/can-pashtun-tribe-of-afghanistan-have.html
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2012/04/10-lost-tribes-and-what-happened-to.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delilah
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2015/01/pashtuns-and-other-lost-10-tribes-of.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/09/death-bed-prophecy-for-jacobs.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/03/jacobs-twelve-tribes-of-israel-and-how.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2013/01/claiming-to-be-one-of-lost-10-tribes.html  Maasais
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2012/12/why-finding-israels-lost-ten-tribes-has.html
http://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2012/08/part-iii-lost-ten-tribes-of-israel-and.html
http://www.jewishvoice.org/messianic-education/messianic-vision/lost-tribes-of-israel.html
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1701071/jewish/Are-the-Ten-Lost-Tribes-Ever-Coming-Back.htm
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2013/January/Lost-No-More-Bnei-Menashe-Tribe-Returns-to-Israel/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Lost_Tribes
http://moshiach.com/tribes/ns/2.html
http://www.bneimenashe.com/history.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shalva_Weil




Saturday, July 5, 2014

The End Before the Messiah-Ezekiel's Prophecy About a Huge Army-Gog and Magog: Is It IS?

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                                  

With the advent of ISIS's development from Syria into Iraq and being so close to Baghdad, Israel is  being threatened by this most  horrible of all terrorist groups.   If they succeed in taking Baghdad, they've made it known that they will also take over Damascus,  Jordan and Israel.
                                                                               
                                                 Abu Akr al Baghdadi-leader of IS (Islamic State).
                                                     
Albert, a friend of mine wrote ": "The emergence of the ISIS-led Caliphate is a clear pre-Messianic sign that will bring in the so-called Wars of Gog and Magog, as described in Ezekiel 38. Here is an extract that shows the reunion of these states forming the Caliphate of the end of days: "and I will turn you about, and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you forth, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed most gorgeously, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them handling swords: Persia, Cush, and Put with them, all of them with shield and helmet". Persia= Iran, Cush= Africa (conflicts are already occurring all over there), Put= Babylonia (Iraq/Syria/Jordan/etc.)... Future will tell..."
                                                                        

So I turned to Ezekiel 38 in my Tanach (Bible)  and read this book, a book of tragedy but not despair, for this prophet tells us that Israel will rise again and return to its home.  There, in Jerusalem, it will assume a new and eternal name:  "Hashem is there".  The fact is that Ezekiel was talking to Jews who had been kidnapped and taken to Babylon, and Ezekiel was right.  Israel has risen again, and the world is rather shaken up about it.  What?  a prophet from the "Old Testament," prophecies are coming true?  They didn't think this could ever happen.  But then again, who would think in the year 2014 that a Caliphate would be born again and that they would be so brutal and bloodthirsty, disregarding  the states of Syria and Iraq, and the lessons they had been brought up with  by their own teacher, Muhammad.  The Babylonian Empire fell with the invasion of the Romans into the land.  

Ezekiel lived in the days of  Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon who also had a conquering army.  He destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem.  Jews never dreamed that could happen.  At that time, Ezekiel witnessed a change in the Jewish people as having become sinful.  Now that they were in exile, they had lost hope and believed that they had lost their share in the G-d of Israel.  Were they still a part of his people after he let Nebuchadnezzar take them away?  

Ezekiel was a prophet of hope and rebuke.  He spoke to those Jews remaining in the destroyed Jerusalem, too.  He shared everyone's suffering because his own wife died in the plague that hit.  He had told them that G-d would pick up Israel from the nations and purify it and replace their stubborn heart with a warm and feeling heart, and a humble, battered group of Israelites would rise and dwarf the haughty.  His vision of bones rising and coming back to life is that of an Israel becoming a vibrant new nation!    It's now happened!

In his prophecy, Judah and Ephraim are united again with a descendant of David as their king with the Land of Israel as their home and with G-d.   Judah was the largest of the 12 tribes of Jacob and was the southern part of Israel that broke away after the death of King Solomon.  Jews get their name from Judah.  The other 10 tribes were taken away by the Assyrians, leaving a huge vacuum in Israel of its best people.  

Ezekiel, son of Buzi, a Kohen (J1 DNA) ,  was one of those Jews exiled from Jerusalem to the land of the Chaldeans (Babylonia) and was by the river Chebar.  .  In the 30th year of exile, which happened 2 times-the first time in 597 BCE and again 11 years later in  586 BCE.  He was a member of the priestly family of Zadok and most likely served in the Temple before its destruction in 586 BCE.  Ezekiel was among those people exiled before then, for it went on for quite a few years.  He was taken to Tel Abib on the river Kebar in Babylonia where he was touched with prophecy.  This is how it happened.

Ezekiel said the heavens opened up and he saw visions of G-d.  This was in the 30th year of the 4th month on the 5th day that it happened.  By the 5th of the month, which was in the 5th year of the exile of King Jehoiachin(598-597 BCE as king) , he heard the words of G-d. 

One prophecy was when the words of G-d came to him saying, "son of man, look towards Gog of the land of Magog , the prince and leader of Meshech and Tubal.  (Ezekiel 38-39). Tubal-Cain was the first craftsman in iron and copper, son of Lamech. Lamech according to one tree, was the descendant of Seth and father of Noah (gen. 5:4-29).  According to another tree, he was the descendant of Cain.  (Gen. 4:18-24).  He had 2 wives:  Adah and Zillah, and 3 sons: Jabal, Jubal and Tubal Cain, the founders of civilization.   The  name is connected with the tribe of Tubal whose members were noted as copper miners and workers. (Genesis 4:22).  

  The king is Gog and the country is Magog.  Gog's downfall is predicted.  Can this  leader of ISIS (IS), Abu Akr al Baghdadi,  be Gog that is predicted? It says he will attack the Land of Israel as the head of the armies of many peoples.  This is to all come about, according to our Talmud, before the coming of the Messiah.  It's interesting that Jews, Christians and Muslims all are awaiting the Messiah foretold about in their respective religions.  All three religions tell about this war of Gog and Magog.  Remember, it was first told by Ezekiel in c597 BCE.  That's a good 600 years before the Christians were even Christians and 1,200 years before the Muslims were even Muslims.  

The tribe of Judah and the tribe of Ephriam are to be united again?  We know that Judah was the largest tribe of 12, from the son of Jacob and Leah.  Ephriam was the son of Joseph and Joseph was the son of Jacob and Rebecca, the woman he first fell in love with that was so beautiful.  Rebecca and Leah were sisters.  Of course, Jacob was the son of  Isaac, son of Abraham by Sarah.  All of the 12 sons and their male offspring should be of the J1 haplogroup of DNA.  This is predicting a unification of the tribes of Israel as being one again.  Picking out just Ephraim might be inferring that not all will be united when hit by this army.  I note that Manasseh, Ephriam's brother,  was not included in the return, nor were the tribes from the handmaidens of Leah and Rachel mentioned.  

The prophecy went on about the army coming. " Persia (Iran), Cush (Africa), and Put (Babylonia: Iraq, Syria, Jordan )  will be with them." They will have their uniforms and protection on.  

They will have people standing with this army:  Gomer and all her cohorts, However, GMR is well known to the ancient world as Gimarrai (GMR) of north central Asia Minor (Cappadocia). These people are also known as the Cimmerians (KMR, note the change in gutturals from "G" to "C"). This seems to be the simplest, most obvious interpretation.). The house of Togarmah (Togarmah is among the descendants of Japheth and is thought to represent some people located in Anatolia.   Medieval traditions variously claimed Togarmah as the mythical ancestor of peoples in the Caucasus and western Asia, including the Georgians, the Armenians and some Turkic peoples.) in the uttermost parts of the north, and all its cohorts-many peoples will be with you.  Prepare and make ready for yourself, you and all your hordes that are mustered about you, and be a guardian for them.    

So "Gog will come up against Israel with many peoples from the furthest north."  This could be referring to Russia and Norway, places that have been hard against Jews.  G-d will punish them  "with pestilence, and with blood, and with overflowing rain,"  This sounds like the Ebola virus from Africa and flooding.  For seven years the inhabitants of Israel will use the weapons of the enemy for fuel.

"They will attack simply out of a lust for violence and with the intention of destroying a peaceful kingdom. Indeed, other prophets prophesied about a people that would come up from the north to besiege Israel in the end of days, but Ezekiel, who prophesied after the destruction of the Temple, fixed the date of the last war after the ingathering of the exiles and the rebuilding of Jerusalem."  IS is coming from the north.  How far they get remains to be seen if Babylon can hold out.  

The war of Gog and Magog is seen as a war against G-d.(Gog is merely an official title or general designation for any enemy of God's people.).    It certainly may be as it is led by a Salafi Muslim who has extreme ideas about what is right and wrong in Islam.  They have been killing people viciously who are Muslims, so think what they will do to non-believers.  The Kurds are holding out, however way in the north of Iraq, and the army of Iraq is doing much better.  Fear is used by these violent people.  Maybe they're getting over their first fears of them.  Maliki, president of Iraq, a Shi'a, is offering amnesty to all Sunni's fighting against him, and " gave warning on the threat posed by the Islamic State, saying that "no one in Iraq or any neighboring country will be safe from these plans"

ISIS was known about in 1995.  This is what the religious body of Sunnis said. " Nothing justifies transposing this kind of attitude onto our scholarly resources in Islam, whether it is called "Islamic Movement", "Salafism", or something else, and the sooner we leave it behind, the better it will be for our Islamic scholarship, our sense of reality, and for our din. "   Just recently IS went through Iraq and slaughtered over 30 Sunni Imams.  


Resource; http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0007_0_07466.html
New Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/iraq-turmoil/iraqi-terrorists-appear-show-troop-massacre-bloody-photos-n131731
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/iraq-turmoil/u-s-bolsters-security-baghdad-amid-escalating-violence-n131661
http://www.aljazeera.com/category/city/baghdad
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/07/iraqi-pm-offers-amnesty-rebel-sunni-tribes-20147216226759995.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Togarmah
http://www.biblicalstudies.com/bstudy/eschatology/ezekiel.htm
http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/nuh/salafi.htm








Friday, May 17, 2013

When The Third Temple Will Be Built

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                    

                              Cornerstone for the 3rd Temple: 1999 with Temple in the Middle

The 3rd Temple, following the destruction of the 2nd Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans, is to be built no later that the year 2,240.  That gives us 227 more years to start building.  The very first Temple was built by King Solomon (961-920 BCE) and destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE.

The stipulations are many.  When the 2nd Temple fell in 70 CE, most all the Jews of Judah were dispersed.  Some were scattered into the Middle Eastern lands while others left it completely and were taken to Rome, and then later to Germany and points in eastern Europe.  Synagogues were created as a house of learning and prayer.  The 3rd Temple or Ezekiel's Temple  called the Beit haMikdah is described and prophesied in the Book of Ezekiel.  It is to be a house of prayer for all people and is to be an eternal edifice and permanent dwelling place of the G-d of Israel on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

The organization in Jerusalem called the Temple Mount get their plans that they already started working on in the 1980's from the Book of Ezekiel, chapters 40-47.  The Temple Scroll also has descriptions of the 3rd Temple.

Orthodox scholars and rabbinic authorities believe that rebuilding the Temple should happen when our Moshiach is at the hand of divine Providence and that Jews should try to rebuild the temple themselves.  Jews believe that the Moshiach is due anytime from now to about 200 some more years.  Christians are anxious for Jesus and his 2nd coming so are also anxious to have Jews rebuild the 3rd Temple.  The question of sacrifices which took place in the 1st and 2nd Temples are to become part of the 3rd Temple agenda, and there is mixed thought on that.  Orthodox feel that this will be resumed, but Maimonides wrote in his "A guide for the Perplexed" that "G-d deliberately has moved Jews away from sacrifices towards prayer, as prayer is a higher form of worship"  Then again, in his book, "Mishneh Torah", thought to be the final authority in Jewish law, says that animal sacrifices will resume in the 3rd temple and details how they will be carried out."  It could be that only grain offerings will be offered.
                                                                     
                                              Model of the 3rd Temple As Seen in Jerusalem

In an orthodox synagogue, one would hear prayers for the reconstruction of the 3rd Temple.  The morning prayer service includes a study session of the daily Temple ritual and offerings as a reminder.  They would also hear the daily and special-occasion psalms that the Levites used to sing in the Temple.  After the Torah reading is a prayer to "restore the House of our lives and to cause the Shekhinah (Divine Presence) to dwell among us.  The Amidah includes prayers for acceptance of the "fire-offerings of Israel."  It ends with meditation for the restoration of the 3rd Temple.

The Temple had rules of ritual purity before entering.  The laws of "family purity" are based on these Temple rules that are followed today at home.  Other rules come from the Temple days such as immersing in the mikveh before Yom Kippur, washing hands in the morning and before meals and after attending a funeral.  If ever the Israeli authorities permit Jews to ascend the Temple Mount, one has to observe certain ritual purity rules first..  Going to the mikvah is going to be expected.

Rabbi Shlomo Goren, Chief Rabbi of the IDF in August 1967, organized public prayer for Jews on the Temple Mount.  This was after winning the Six Day War which was a miracle in itself.  Jews had not been allowed there since 1948 by the Muslim Jordanians.  Rabbi Goren was all for Jewish sovereignty over the Temple Mount even though our 2nd Temple had been destroyed there and replaced with a Muslim mosque. The site was holy.  They had to fight off Muslim guards and Israeli police, but held a prayer service.  Rabbi Goren continued to pray in the Makhkame building overlooking the Temple Mount and conducted yearly High Holiday services there.  He called for the establishment of a synagogue on the Temple Mount and this call has been picked up by his brother-in-law, Chief Rabbi of Haifa, She'ar Yashuv Cohen.

This was despite the fact that Moshe Dayan had given the keys to the Temple Mount to the Muslim Waqf, so Goren was criticized by the Israeli Defense Ministry for doing this.  The Chief Rabbis have since restated that no Jews were allowed on the mount due to the issues of ritual and impurity.  The secular people went along with this as it kept the peace with the worried Muslims.  Goren continued to say that Jews were not only permitted but commanded to ascend and pray on the mount.  He did support building the 3rd Temple on the Temple Mount and was involved in projects involving the site, possibly such as the Temple Mount group.

Opposing this were the Chief Rabbis of Israel; Isser Yehuda Unterman and Yitzhak Nissim, along with others saying that they had warned for generations against entering any part of the Temple Mount.  This could have been prompted by the government's pressure in preventing Muslim-Jewish friction over the Mount.  The rule remains.  It is forbidden for Jews to enter any part of the Temple Mount.  In January 2005 a declaration was signed confirming the 1967 decision of Moshe Dayan who single-handedly made this decision on his own without consulting anyone.  The Jewish state of Israel controls everything in Jerusalem except the Temple Mount, which many people are frustrated about.  They feel the need to pray there as well.  Non Muslims are allowed to enter mosques in other places.  For the waqf to have this ruling here in Jerusalem is unfair, they state.  It happens to also be a big tourist attraction, and Christians have been allowed to visit.  Only the Jews are kept away.  This is the only discrimination going on in Israel and it comes from the Muslims against the Jews over the most precious holy site in Jerusalem.

Right now the biggest problem is the creation of Palestine in which the Arabs are insisting on taking over east Jerusalem which includes many sites such as the Western Wall that Herod built around the Temple area where all Jews come to pray today.  Israel has been legally unified as one city again, making life much better for all.  Thoughts about the 3rd Temple are causing the Muslims to react most fearfully with rioting.  If they were really smart, they'd open it to all people for prayers, fullfilling the desire of Levi Eshkol, who was Prime Minister in 1967 and died in 1969.  Then there would be no cause to riot.  All would be happy.

However, what is happening today is that the Al Aqsa Mosque site on the Temple Mount has been closed by the Jerusalem police to Jews and non Muslim visitors today as the police are afraid of riots from the Muslims.  It is open every day except Friday in the morning and afternoon but one cannot pray.  It is forbidden unless one is Muslim.  The police in Jerusalem are carrying shields that are about 10 feet high and look like they are made of pexiglass as they are transparent.  That's to protect them from things that are thrown;  chairs, food, rocks, etc.  Religious segregation causing violence practiced by rules issued from the Waqf is the worst type of apartheid!    Oh, but Moshe Dayan certainly didn't know what he was doing when he tried to calm the Muslims down by handing their waqf the keys to the Mount.  He gave us back all of Jerusalem, but deleted the most special of all sites.

Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Temple
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.templemount.org/recent.html
http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Temple-Mount-closed-over-security-concerns-313440

Thursday, October 27, 2011

UFO's Over Israel Reported

Nadene Goldfoot
Tonight I watched the Biography Channel (Bio-129 on Frontier) 7:30pm in Portland, and discovered that this program on  UFO's:  The Best Evidence Caught on Tape, showed a section about UFO's that have been visiting Israel.

Evidently they have had sighting over the last 12 years.  They even had a video showing the Israeli Air Force plane chasing one.  The UFO seemed to be playing with the plane.  One such sighting lasting for 3 nights happened over Kfar Saba and again over Kibbutz Hatzor.  Over 100 people have seen these sightings.  A gentleman interviewed about it had been a former Air Force member, Barry Chamish, the leading UFO researcher in Israel.  . 

Speculation was that the Bible records such a sighting in the section about Ezekiel 1: 1-23, which was Ezekiel's version of seeing the Merkavah/Chariot.  Ezekiel was among his people who were exiled to the River Chebar in the land of the Chaldeans. He talks about something that happened during the exile of King Jehoiachin to Babylonia when he said the heavens opened up and he saw visions of G-d.  Ezekiel was the son of Buzi, the Kohen.  He describes in this vision supernatural concepts in human terms, but they cannot be understood literally. This is why people today think of the chariot as a spaceship as that is something within our concept but not his.   It was mentioned that people thought UFO's visited Earth as long ago as 12,000 years.  If that had happened, the only thing worthwhile seeing would have been the Fertile Crescent as most of Earth would have been under ice then. 

Here's another reason to visit Israel.  You might catch a glimpse of a spaceship checking out the land, so bring your video camera.  Let's hope these aliens are friendly.  We have enough terrorists stalking our tiny country as it is.  Do you suppose they were looking for a good place to find some bagels and cream cheese? 

Research: TV program Biography Channel.  Bio.com.shop
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s9sVDaWCYk  Kibbutz Hatzor video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drsz5mn8kx4 Jerusalem: Dome of the Rock/Temple area/hoax
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drsz5mn8kx4 Barry Chamish
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10698-merkabah
Tanakh, the Stone Edition; Torah/Prophets/Writings: 24 Books of the bible; Rabbi Nosson Scherman

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Ezekiel Speaks to Us Again


Nadene Goldfoot


Ezekiel (6th Century BCE) spoke to the exiled Jews living in Babylon who were taken there when Nebuchadnezzar and his army conquered Israel. The Temple was destroyed in 586 BCE. He was one in the first group of exiles and understood their despair . His own wife had died in a plague. He told of the time when Israel would be picked from the nations and be given a warm and feeling heart when it was a humbled battered "vine" and would rise to dwarf the haughty cedars and redwoods. He tells that Israel would rise again and return to its home. In Jerusalem, it would assume a new and eternal name: Hashem is there. "Hkai Shamah" Hashem is the word we use today to replace the word "G-d" as we do not want to use that word in vain.

Ezekiel 37: 8-20

Behold, I am taking the children of Israel from among the nations to which they have gone; I will gather them from all around and I will bring them to their soil; I will make them into one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel, and one king will be a king for them all; they will no longer be two nations; and they will no longer be divided into two kingdoms, ever again. ... I will save them (take them) from all their dwelling places in which they had sinned, and I will purify them; they will be a nation to Me, and I will be a G-d to them. My servant David will be king over them, and there will be one shepherd for all of them; they will follow my ordinances and keep My decrees and fulfill them. they will dwell on the land that I gave to My servant Jacob, within which your fathers dwelled; they and their children and their children's children will dwell upon it forever; and My servant David will be a leader for them forever. I will seal a convenant of peace with them; it will be an eternal covenant with them...Then the nations will know that I am Hashem Who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary will be among them forever.

Here is something written so long ago that can be applied to today's historic events. This history is repetitious, but the words apply to us today. No wonder people are getting nervous. The reference to David being king is interesting. David was king of Israel in 1000 BCE to 960 BCE, the youngest son of Jesse. and was Israel's 2nd king. So somebody as great as David in mind and spirit will be the leader. Hopefully that is true today. We may not have a king, but we do have a Prime Minister and a President. Then again, some Jewish groups are believers of reincarnation. The rebirth of Israel today was not possible to so many of the polititians in the world. It's a shocking event. There are those who are doing their best to destroy the tiny state and are frantically doing everything in their power to cause people to turn against the Jews living in Israel.

Right now there are those "CNN special" that deny that David was ever in Jerusalem. There is the bus company in Seattle with anti-Israel propaganda ads pasted on the buses for all to read, those that declare that the Wailing Wall is not part of the Temple because it's located in East Jerusalem, and of course the ever present rockets that fly through the air from Gaza.

Behold, there was a wall outside the Temple, surrounding it. In the man's hand was a measuring rod of 6 cubits, each cubit being a cubit and a handbreath. He measured the thinkness of the wall's structure as one measuring rod; and its height as one rod. Then he went to a gate that faced eastward and went up its steps; he measured the doorpost of the gate as one rod in width and the other doorpost as one rod in width.....And people say the wall isn't Jewish. I guesss they can't read.

Ezekiel scolded the exiles feeling it was their turning from their duties that brought down their own destruction, and with a change of heart and mind Israel would be regained. He said that every generation was responsible for only its own deeds and would not have to bear responsibility for the actions of their ancestors.

There are people in Israel planning on rebuilding the 3rd Temple. My own cousin was a member. They are getting ready. The Ingathering has already happened.
Reference: New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
Stone Edition of Tanakh; the Torah/Prophets/Writing.