Jew, Jews, Jewish

Monday, April 5, 2010

Psalm 136

Thanksgiving to God for His Enduring Mercy
1 Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.
2 Oh, give thanks to the God of gods!
For His mercy endures forever.
3 Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords!
For His mercy endures forever:

4 To Him who alone does great wonders,
For His mercy endures forever;
5 To Him who by wisdom made the heavens,
For His mercy endures forever;
6 To Him who laid out the earth above the waters,
For His mercy endures forever;
7 To Him who made great lights,
For His mercy endures forever—
8 The sun to rule by day,
For His mercy endures forever;
9 The moon and stars to rule by night,
For His mercy endures forever.

10 To Him who struck Egypt in their firstborn,
For His mercy endures forever;
11 And brought out Israel from among them,
For His mercy endures forever;
12 With a strong hand, and with an outstretched arm,
For His mercy endures forever;
13 To Him who divided the Red Sea in two,
For His mercy endures forever;
14 And made Israel pass through the midst of it,
For His mercy endures forever;
15 But overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea,
For His mercy endures forever;
16 To Him who led His people through the wilderness,
For His mercy endures forever;
17 To Him who struck down great kings,
For His mercy endures forever;
18 And slew famous kings,
For His mercy endures forever—
19 Sihon king of the Amorites,
For His mercy endures forever;
20 And Og king of Bashan,
For His mercy endures forever—
21 And gave their land as a heritage,
For His mercy endures forever;
22 A heritage to Israel His servant,
For His mercy endures forever.

23 Who remembered us in our lowly state,
For His mercy endures forever;
24 And rescued us from our enemies,
For His mercy endures forever;
25 Who gives food to all flesh,
For His mercy endures forever.

26 Oh, give thanks to the God of heaven!
For His mercy endures forever.

Beyond Babylon at Buffalo Bill Dam!

After visiting Devil's Tower I was en route to Yellowstone and discovered the Buffalo Bill Dam. I thought I could kill two birds with one stone (or paver block) by advertising Beyond Babylon and the Buffalo Bill Dam. Now I can say Beyond Babylon is set in stone!

http://www.davidbenariel.org/

News from South Africa (SA)

Terry Lakin

The Huffington Post:

Terry Lakin: Army Officer Joins Birthers, Defies Orders

American Patriot Foundation: FTC Terry Lakin Defense Fund

A top-ranking, highly decorated officer in the U.S. Army says he's now refusing all orders until President Barack Obama finally releases his long-form, hospital-generated birth certificate to prove his eligibility to serve as commander in chief.

"I feel I have no choice but the distasteful one of inviting my own court martial," said Lt. Col. Terry Lakin, an active-duty flight surgeon charged with caring for Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey's pilots and air crew. "The Constitution matters. The truth matters."

"For the first time in all my years of service to our great nation, and at great peril to my career and future, I am choosing to disobey what I believe are illegal orders, including an order to deploy to Afghanistan for my second tour of duty there. I will disobey my orders to deploy because I – and I believe all servicemen and women and the American people – deserve the truth about President Obama's constitutional eligibility to the office of the presidency and the commander in chief.

"If he is ineligible, then my orders – and indeed all orders – are illegal because all orders have their origin with the commander in chief as handed down through the chain of command." - Army 'showdown' at eligibility corral

Lt. Col. Terry Lakin is the highest-ranking and first active-duty officer to refuse to obey orders based on President Obama's eligibility.

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President usurper Obama/Soetoro/Obama, regardless of his proud and stubborn refusal to be transparent (as promised - no change there), paying expensive lawyers hush money (at American taxpayers' expense) to keep his revealing documents in the dark, is not a natural born citizen of two American parents and is therefore not eligible to be POTUS according to the Constitution. It's past time the fraud and foreigner is brought to justice! Emperor Obama has got to go! And let him take his illegal alien aunt with him who has stolen from the American people.
http://www.davidbenariel.org/

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Dayenu -Enough? Not yet!

Dayenu -Enough? Not yet!

(Exodus 12:11)
Nisan 20, 5770/April 4, 2010
6th Day of Pesach

One of the most beloved moments of the Passover Seder is the singing of the song Dayenu. The tune is catchy, the refrain is infectious, and the message is one of unadulterated praise for all that G-d has done for His people. The song begins with the exodus from Egypt and fast forwards through the next five hundred years of Jewish history. Its fifteen stanzas, (corresponding to the fifteen steps of the Nikanor Gate leading into the Inner Courtyard, upon which the song would be sung in Temple times), reach their final crescendo with the words, "If He had built for us the Tabernacle and the Holy Temple, and not build for us His Chosen House, Dayenu - that would have been enough!"

The refrain, "Dayenu - that would have been enough!" sung after each stanza of the song begs the question: would it have been enough?

If G-d had brought us out of Egypt and done nothing more, would that have been enough?

If G-d had brought judgment upon Egypt and done nothing more, would that have been enough?

If G-d had slain the firstborn of Egypt and done nothing more, would that have been enough?

It is safe to surmise that the song Dayenu was written consciously with a sense of irony intended to drive home a double point: Yes, we are grateful for every individual miracle G-d performed for us and each individual miracle warrants our eternal gratitude. But would it have been enough to have left Egypt and then been left to our own devices? Absolutely not! Nowhere is this more starkly evident than in the splitting of the Sea of Reeds, the history shaping event that we commemorate tonight as we celebrate the Seventh Day of Passover. Had G-d not formed a path in the sea, we would not be here today singing Dayenu. The army of Pharaoh would have eliminated our forefathers then and there.

If we take a closer look at the epic crossing of the Sea of Reeds we witness not just a great escape for the children of Israel and a fitting denouement for the army of Pharaoh. We witness the maturation of the relationship between G-d and the children of Israel. While G-d was bringing nine plagues upon the Egyptian nation, the Israelites were passive observers at best, perhaps, out of weariness, even indifferent to the havoc G-d was wreaking, and in some cases outright hostile, (why rock the boat?). G-d predicated the tenth and final plague, the killing of the Egyptian firstborns, upon the willingness of the Israelites to make their own unequivocal statement of faith by slaughtering their Passover lambs. Quid pro quo. But at the Sea of Reeds a great leap forward is taken concerning the relationship between G-d and His children: this miracle, this final act of separation and liberation from Egypt is performed together. Faith, trust, intention, action all come together at this defining moment, G-d and Israel act as one, in unison and in love: What wouldn't G-d do for His people? What wouldn't they do for G-d?

If we envision G-d's actions towards Egypt on behalf of the children of Israel as a courtship, and the covenant at Sinai as a wedding ceremony, than the Sea of Reeds is undoubtably the engagement, where both halves of the whole act upon and announce to the world at large their total commitment one to the other. This commitment is, no doubt, what the prophet Jeremiah was making reference to when he said, "so said HaShem: I remember to you the lovingkindness of your youth, the love of your nuptials, your following Me in the desert, in a land not sown." (Jeremiah 2:2)

When we understand the events of the unfolding exodus from Egypt in this light, Dayenu is transformed from a a historical ballad into a most beautiful love song. No longer just chronicling events, Dayenu expresses the passionate love between Israel and HaShem as it grows deeper with each verse, beginning with tentative courtship and proclamations of mutual love to a relationship where both sides become inseparable. And this unbreakable bond is expressed climactically in the song's final verse: "If He had built for us the Tabernacle and the Holy Temple, and not build for us His Chosen House, Dayenu - that would have been enough!" Surely as any couple seeks to establish a home from which their love for one another can grow stronger with each passing day, so does the nation of Israel seek to build for G-d His Chosen House. Only when this is done can we pause to say, "Dayenu!"

This week Temple Talk returns to its usual Tuesday time slot. Be sure to listen as Rabbi Chaim Richman and Yitzchak Reuven reflect on the Passover festival, the urgent need for Israel to take a page from the Haggadah and declare by word and deed alike its independence from all those who seek to control her fate, the upcoming Torah reading of Shmini, the forty-nine days of Sefirat HaOmer - counting the days of the barley harvest, and preparing ourselves spiritually for receiving Torah at Sinai.

Will massive digital screens allow worshippers to observe the work of the Kohen Gadol from a great distance? Will escalators carry pilgrims up to the Temple Mount courtyards? Will special buses designed in such a way that they can't be tainted by spiritual impurity be employed to transport Passover pilgrims and their Pascal offerings? These, and many other fascinating and challenging questions were raised at this year's 29th annual Temple Institute Passover Symposium, under the banner of "Integrating Modern Technology into the Holy Temple." To learn more and to see pictures from the event, please click here.

This week's new Light to the Nations teaching by Rabbi Chaim Richman will be premiering on Thursday, April 8th. Click here to view.

The inauguration of the Tabernacle and the untimely deaths of the sons of Aharon, Nadav and Avihu. Click here to view Rabbi Richman's short teaching on parashat Tzav (Leviticus 6:1-8:36), (available Wednesday, April 7th).

Chag Sameach from the holy city of Jerusalem,

Yitzchak Reuven

The Temple Institute

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THE TEMPLE INSTITUTE

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Jerusalem, Israel 97500

www.templeinstitute.org

US has Bosnian blood on its hands

US gave birth to Muslim state in heart of Europe

By Ted Belman

The Ottawa Citizen reports - Former general speaks out about the war he can’t forget

Maj.-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie is once again making headlines in Sarajevo, where, 18 years ago, he led a United Nations peacekeeping operation that attempted to keep Bosnian Muslims and Serbs from killing each other.

While MacKenzie blamed Muslims for killing Muslims he also considered Serbian shelling of Sarajevo a war crime. But his condemnation was mostly directed at the US:

“There’s more than enough blame to go around for all sides,” he said, adding that if he was called to testify in the Karadzic case, he would not hesitate to lay blame at the former Bosnian leader’s feet. “Of the most serious accusations against Karadzic, I do consider the use of heavy artillery against civilian targets in Sarajevo … to strike fear into the heart of the population to be a war crime.”

But MacKenzie suggested that if fault lies anywhere for sparking Bosnia’s descent into civil war, it lies with the United States.

In 1992, under the auspices of the European Community, the Bosnian Muslims, Serbs and Croats signed a peace agreement, the Lisbon Agreement, in which Bosnia would be carved into ethnic cantons. But according to some accounts, former U.S. ambassador Warren Zimmermann met the Bosnian Muslim president Alija Izetbegovic and told him that if he withdrew from the agreement and unilaterally declared independence, the United States would support him. In effect, Izetbegovic was encouraged to think he would be establishing the first Muslim nation in the heart of Europe.

However, as far as the Bosnian Serbs were concerned, they weren’t going to be ruled by Muslims, who, the Serbs believed, were intent on creating an Islamic fundamentalist state. War was the only alternative once the Bosnian Muslims withdrew from the Lisbon Agreement.

The problem for the Muslims was that the Serbs had the stronger military, and unless they...

Read the whole entry »

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I believe that most Germans are merely naive or ordinary citizens (like this country), but that the powers that be behind the scenes, the real rulers of Germany, are intent on misleading and manipulating the German army and people again to form their final and Fourth Reich, just as Bible prophecy warns.

Growing evidence of this troubling trend was clearly manifest in the Balkans, where Germany led the assault against our faithful WWII allies, the Serbs, and raped and destroyed Yugoslavia and slaughtered the Orthodox, all as groundwork for their unholy Roman Empire of the German Nation.

How did Germany do this when the German constitution forbids it? The United States were useful idiots for Germany and the bloody Vatican under our shameful president, Bill Clinton, and helped to do their dirty work for them in lockstep with NATO (the same NATO/UN/EU forces about to be used and abused in the Middle East, wolves in sheep's clothing, "peacekeepers" with their evil eye on Jerusalem, especially the Temple Mount).

By foolishly aiding and abetting German hegemony throughout Europe, we are actually helping to create the Frankenstein Monster that will destroy us! Margaret Thatcher couldn't have been more right: "You have not anchored Germany to Europe; you have anchored Europe to a newly dominant, unified Germany. In the end, my friends, you’ll find it will not work" (The Downing Street Years). - Is Germany in Danger of Backsliding?