Letters from Jerusalem
July 13, 2019
"Then they said to Him, “Who are You?”
And Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning."
John 8:25 (yes, out of context)
Greetings with grace and mercy in The Blessed Name of our Lord, Yeshua h'meshiach. May HE be glorified and adored for Who He Is…for He is LORD! May you be blessed and edified…may we all count the cost and follow closely! R.Murray McCheyne (Scotland first half of 19th century) said "It is the look that saves, it is the gaze that sanctifies". MAY WE GAZE! As I was riding the bus home from work today, the music playing on the radio was 'deep'. I couldn't understand all of the words but there was a combination of natural love and the Fathomless Love of Abba God being sung about and my heart cried with the music. A very attractive young woman across the aisle seemed to sense my grief and took off her sunglasses, catching my eye she passionately told me 'It would be ok.' When she got off at her stop she came and hugged me tightly. Yes, it IS an Israeli thing. I didn't know her. But I did of course because she, too is Israeli. I pulled the newspaper out of my bag and pointed to the dreadful photo blazoned across the front page; a private car totally crushed by a huge truck…a baby car seat…ambulances. "Those were my friends." I told her. She looked deeply at me and kissed the top of my head.
It is still all a jumble of emotions…questions but NO…not really. HE IS LORD truly is the answer, and I 'know' that deeply!
When I got the news at 4:30 this morning I went to my knees and then the scriptures. I restlessly opened to Psalm 23 and saw that at some point I had written John 8:51 along side. I went and turned to John 8:51, but it wasn't until later in the day that I realized that He had brought my tear filled eyes to 8:25 instead (a mistake?)…and YES it was appropriate when everything around us looks strange and we might ask Jesus…(how brazen and how foolish) 'Who ARE YOU?'…AND HE SAID "JUST WHAT I HAVE BEEN SAYING TO YOU FROM THE BEGINNING." I HAVE NOT CHANGED. I WON'T CHANGE. IT IS ME…DO NOT FEAR.
The vehicle that was crushed had a precious load: Rodrigo, father of Ruthie 2.5 and Itai. Itai, just 2 months old being nursed in the back seat by his young mother Sophie…the car pulled well off the road in the safe area. Sophie and Itai are now home with Yeshua. Little Ruthie was physically not hurt badly. Rodrigo…a Major in the Israeli Air Force, suffered severe head injuries and is in critical condition following surgery. Believers from around the country are holding 24 hour prayer in his room. He is the oldest of 8. Ruthie is the first Granddaughter on both sides. It is a great shock…this beautiful, godly family…part of my kehila (the body that I am part of)…just as Eliyahu was whom we buried just 2 weeks ago. Rodrigo preached the message last week…a powerful one. It is a great shock and surprise to us…but not to God Who IS GOOD AND MERCIFUL, RIGHTEOUS AND JUST, FAITHFUL AND TRUTH, CREATOR KNOWING THE BEGINNING FROM THE END. And He HAS told us from the beginning WHO HE is. Sometimes as I read through the Gospels I wonder at some of the theologies that we have come up with. He has told us clearly about this strait and narrow path.
I met another sister from our fellowship on the way home from work today and she loaned me a suitcase for my very soon, short trip to London to see my children and Grandchildren. A third sister was there and we embraced and were strengthened in one another…the body…an amazing thing! Precious it is…it is His. And in the center of Jerusalem we encouraged one another in Him.
Meanwhile tensions are rising (again!) in the country and the more iron domes were deployed to the south, to the Gaza border. A few hours later a missile was launched from Gaza into Israel, and although it landed in an open area and there were no injuries or damage, it always begins this way. Reports are reading that Britain has sent a second warship into the Persian Gulf as tensions flair with Iran. I am torn, not wanting to be out of the country if there is another war but NEEDING to see our older daughter and family.
As I passed through the shuk this morning before IFI prayer meeting, and then after on toward work, I noted all of the benches full of people sleeping on them outside to escape the summer heat of the apartments. The bus and train are cool with air conditioning. When we arrived in the country, 25 years ago tomorrow (which is now 'today') air conditioning was very rare. Buses and even large stores were cooled with huge fans, covered in thick black soot. There were water faucets here and there along the streets and often people would simply put their heads under them and turn the water on, or at least wet down a scarf to put around their neck or wrists. Now that the use of air-conditioning is so wide spread, it seems that more and more people can not tolerate the heat as they used to.
I also remember when we came, being surprised by all of the noise on the buses. First of all…there was the RADIO! I had never been on a bus before where the driver had a radio blaring and I soon learned that this is how it is done here. The music style (and bent on the news) is up to the driver; we even have a driver who loves classical music. But it is not just the music and the news that fills the audio space on the bus but the sometimes very loud conversations! Now, I must admit to you that they USED to be more interesting before smart phones began competing with relationships, but there are still delightful (or irritating) stranger to stranger encounters on every ride. It is just the way IT IS. And I have grown to like it.
It is hard to realize that the buses still run and the birds still fly and the sun still shines and radios still play when shocking events suddenly shake the very foundations. None of us knows what lies ahead, but HE does…and if we gaze at Him I believe we can also walk with Him and stand no matter what lies ahead.
So I ask that you would pray. Many are being shaken through grievous losses, and the body here in Israel is where I am watching from. Please pray. Please remember Little Ruthie as you pray. And should He bring to mind, I am flying on the 16th to London with a return ticket for the 24th. My husband is staying here…our younger daughter and family is a few blocks away. It is all in His Hands. We can do nothing but pray….but pray we must. Lovingly, your sister here.
"Then they said to Him, “Who are You?”
And Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning."
John 8:25 (yes, out of context)
Greetings with grace and mercy in The Blessed Name of our Lord, Yeshua h'meshiach. May HE be glorified and adored for Who He Is…for He is LORD! May you be blessed and edified…may we all count the cost and follow closely! R.Murray McCheyne (Scotland first half of 19th century) said "It is the look that saves, it is the gaze that sanctifies". MAY WE GAZE! As I was riding the bus home from work today, the music playing on the radio was 'deep'. I couldn't understand all of the words but there was a combination of natural love and the Fathomless Love of Abba God being sung about and my heart cried with the music. A very attractive young woman across the aisle seemed to sense my grief and took off her sunglasses, catching my eye she passionately told me 'It would be ok.' When she got off at her stop she came and hugged me tightly. Yes, it IS an Israeli thing. I didn't know her. But I did of course because she, too is Israeli. I pulled the newspaper out of my bag and pointed to the dreadful photo blazoned across the front page; a private car totally crushed by a huge truck…a baby car seat…ambulances. "Those were my friends." I told her. She looked deeply at me and kissed the top of my head.
It is still all a jumble of emotions…questions but NO…not really. HE IS LORD truly is the answer, and I 'know' that deeply!
When I got the news at 4:30 this morning I went to my knees and then the scriptures. I restlessly opened to Psalm 23 and saw that at some point I had written John 8:51 along side. I went and turned to John 8:51, but it wasn't until later in the day that I realized that He had brought my tear filled eyes to 8:25 instead (a mistake?)…and YES it was appropriate when everything around us looks strange and we might ask Jesus…(how brazen and how foolish) 'Who ARE YOU?'…AND HE SAID "JUST WHAT I HAVE BEEN SAYING TO YOU FROM THE BEGINNING." I HAVE NOT CHANGED. I WON'T CHANGE. IT IS ME…DO NOT FEAR.
The vehicle that was crushed had a precious load: Rodrigo, father of Ruthie 2.5 and Itai. Itai, just 2 months old being nursed in the back seat by his young mother Sophie…the car pulled well off the road in the safe area. Sophie and Itai are now home with Yeshua. Little Ruthie was physically not hurt badly. Rodrigo…a Major in the Israeli Air Force, suffered severe head injuries and is in critical condition following surgery. Believers from around the country are holding 24 hour prayer in his room. He is the oldest of 8. Ruthie is the first Granddaughter on both sides. It is a great shock…this beautiful, godly family…part of my kehila (the body that I am part of)…just as Eliyahu was whom we buried just 2 weeks ago. Rodrigo preached the message last week…a powerful one. It is a great shock and surprise to us…but not to God Who IS GOOD AND MERCIFUL, RIGHTEOUS AND JUST, FAITHFUL AND TRUTH, CREATOR KNOWING THE BEGINNING FROM THE END. And He HAS told us from the beginning WHO HE is. Sometimes as I read through the Gospels I wonder at some of the theologies that we have come up with. He has told us clearly about this strait and narrow path.
I met another sister from our fellowship on the way home from work today and she loaned me a suitcase for my very soon, short trip to London to see my children and Grandchildren. A third sister was there and we embraced and were strengthened in one another…the body…an amazing thing! Precious it is…it is His. And in the center of Jerusalem we encouraged one another in Him.
Meanwhile tensions are rising (again!) in the country and the more iron domes were deployed to the south, to the Gaza border. A few hours later a missile was launched from Gaza into Israel, and although it landed in an open area and there were no injuries or damage, it always begins this way. Reports are reading that Britain has sent a second warship into the Persian Gulf as tensions flair with Iran. I am torn, not wanting to be out of the country if there is another war but NEEDING to see our older daughter and family.
As I passed through the shuk this morning before IFI prayer meeting, and then after on toward work, I noted all of the benches full of people sleeping on them outside to escape the summer heat of the apartments. The bus and train are cool with air conditioning. When we arrived in the country, 25 years ago tomorrow (which is now 'today') air conditioning was very rare. Buses and even large stores were cooled with huge fans, covered in thick black soot. There were water faucets here and there along the streets and often people would simply put their heads under them and turn the water on, or at least wet down a scarf to put around their neck or wrists. Now that the use of air-conditioning is so wide spread, it seems that more and more people can not tolerate the heat as they used to.
I also remember when we came, being surprised by all of the noise on the buses. First of all…there was the RADIO! I had never been on a bus before where the driver had a radio blaring and I soon learned that this is how it is done here. The music style (and bent on the news) is up to the driver; we even have a driver who loves classical music. But it is not just the music and the news that fills the audio space on the bus but the sometimes very loud conversations! Now, I must admit to you that they USED to be more interesting before smart phones began competing with relationships, but there are still delightful (or irritating) stranger to stranger encounters on every ride. It is just the way IT IS. And I have grown to like it.
It is hard to realize that the buses still run and the birds still fly and the sun still shines and radios still play when shocking events suddenly shake the very foundations. None of us knows what lies ahead, but HE does…and if we gaze at Him I believe we can also walk with Him and stand no matter what lies ahead.
So I ask that you would pray. Many are being shaken through grievous losses, and the body here in Israel is where I am watching from. Please pray. Please remember Little Ruthie as you pray. And should He bring to mind, I am flying on the 16th to London with a return ticket for the 24th. My husband is staying here…our younger daughter and family is a few blocks away. It is all in His Hands. We can do nothing but pray….but pray we must. Lovingly, your sister here.
July 4, 2019
..."If it pleases the king, and if I have found favor in his sight and the thing seems right to the king and I am pleasing in his eyes…" part of Esther 8:4
"You will guide me with Your counsel And afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." Psalm 74:24-26 Greetings, brothers and sisters, in The Name of Yeshua: He IS our Messiah and Lord! May He be blessed and glorified and may you be encouraged and blessed.
Shalom from Jerusalem, a city like no other…and to whom much is given from him much is required…and I suspect that applies to places as well as people (but don't quote me on that…it is 'my feeling'.)
Twenty five years ago today, on the 4th of July, American Independence day, we left permanently (the state we lived in at the time). He made it very clear; burn your bridges and do not look back. The tickets were cheap…no one flew on the 4th of July. We did not come straight here, but made several stops across the country to say goodbye to my family; a cousin, my sister and family and Aunts, Uncles and cousins. We said a final farewell to the land of our birth on the 12th and arrived in our new home on the 13th of July; a land that I had never seen before with my eyes…only with my heart.
When we arrived, honestly? it was terrifying! We walked on a sure and confirmed command and promise into a dry and brown land where we did not know the language or any people. We said 'Yes Lord!'. Some people thought that we were crazy, foolish, misled, deceived, and we had more than a fair amount of reprimands and not much encouragement at all. But the truth is…we really HAD HEARD, although we were so unworthy, and He has been faithful more than we could have imagined. Indeed our faith was small for He is such a great God! "You, Who have shown me great and severe troubles, shall revive me again. And bring me up again from the depths of the earth." (Psalm 71:20) It has NOT been 'easy'! God HAS been totally faithful and has seen us thus far and I trust that He WILL see us all the way!
So it was with one of our very first friends. Actually, my husband had come as a tourist with 2 friends a year before we made aliyah. God has His unique ways of bringing His plans about in an orderly manner. It was my non-Jewish husband who got off the plane and his first words to me were 'We are making aliyah!' (I thought that he was on a spiritual high.) While he was here on that trip, he met the Ben Haims, who later became dear dear friends. Many of you knew Eliyahu as the director of Intercessors for Israel (IFI). A number of you have come to Jerusalem for the yearly prayer conference in Jan. and even joined in our Friday morning prayer meetings…or gone on one of Hanna's (Eliyahu's wife) tours as she is surely the most anointed tour guide…
When I was on the first plane heading out of Alaska 25 years ago today, the cry of my heart was "LORD! SANCTIFY MY EMOTIONS! THEY ARE TOO BIG FOR ME!". That prayer continued for the entire trip and I prayed it through tears as we landed in our new/ancient homeland. Although He has not answered it yet, I am still praying it and am confident that He WILL answer it because…well…He is faithful and He hears and answers prayers according to His will offered by His children who walk before Him. That is why I quoted Esther 8:4 on the top of this page. Although out of context…it isn't really because the entire book of Esther speaks on the effective fervent prayer…and God's 'order'.
I prayed that prayer again at Eliyahu's graveside this past Friday and at the shiva (the 7 days of mourning and comforting…when the home of the immediate family is filled with people coming to comfort those grieving most deeply.)
We KNOW where Eliyahu is and yes, we rejoice with him and for him and we agree with The Lord's will. Hanna offered those familiar words of Job at the grave side "The Lord giveth and The Lord taketh away. Blessed be The Name of The Lord." Job 1:21. But his move to the next world came suddenly and he truly was a steadfast giant of faith.
The day before the funeral I was standing at the Central Bus Station waiting for the train and trying to 'wrap my head' around all that had happened when SUDDENLY I heard loud and beautiful strains on a piano of "IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL." Now…where you are this might be encouraging but…possible. Where I live…it is IMPOSSIBLE! You simply do NOT HEAR "IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL" at the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem! I went running up and down along the station looking for the source of the music.I scanned the faces of people with Iphones (just about everyone I guess!) to see who it was. There he was…across the tracks! There is a 'cement piano' (I think it is the only one in the world) that has been moved around the city for the past year or so. I didn't see it there behind a pillar but all of the sudden I saw him; a very tanned man with a shaved head and a kippa (Jewish skull cap) playing his heart out! My heart was pounding: "IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL"!! I was about to run across the tracks to find out who this man whom I never saw before was and he ended the hymn …just as I saw my train approaching. My heart pounded all the way home. There are many of you who find it difficult to grasp what it is to live where His Name is unheard of, unspoken, rejected, scorned and NOT at all part of the 'the cultural past'. This incident was NOT a matter of being in the right place at the right time…this DOESN'T happen here!
But there he was again the next day at the funeral…standing right behind Hanna. I kept an eye on him and wanted to go over and tell him 'I was there yesterday when you played for Eliyahu…for me really,.. at the Central Bus Station.'… But…then again…he was gone. Just like that.
And along of the promises, there is the shock of the loss and the grieving…we did see the graduation of two other local leaders in the same week…a harvest season. What are You saying Lord?
I have been praying that The Lord would break and mold me into one whom He would rejoice to see come home…one in whom He will see His Own reflection…and greet like a friend…a joy to His heart. He has a lot of work to do yet for sure but oh He is able.
So personally, and for much of the local body here, it has been a different season. But in this too He is faithful and a corn of wheat has fallen to the ground and I am believing for much fruit to the glory of God.
The body here is small and close, so please forgive me for sharing so personally with you. At the same time my first Pastor, beloved and greatly dear to me and so many others suffered critical heart problems as well this week. How graciously The Lord has kept him with us but he is not out of the woods yet and DEAR Pastor Hill (in America) as well as Hanna Ben Haim (here) are much in need of prayer.
And our country? We too seem to be upside down. With new elections called for September, the right and the left are battling it out in the mud yet again. Recycled failed ex-leaders are returning with fresh paint and I wonder at times how short the human memory is (mine included). How OFTEN we are told in the Word 'REMEMBER…' A dear sister once told me that she spent the year circling the word 'REMEMBER' during her reading through of the Word and it was sobering how many times we are told…fore-warned. Notice that ALL of our (where you are and here) holidays are about 'remembering'…and how much the enemy (and the flesh) likes to pervert them into something else.
I know that this letter is quite a diversion from my usual ones, but sobering moments stop us sometimes and we know it is a pause to reflect.
I currently (as of today) have a ticket to fly to visit my daughter and family from 16 July through 24th and I do appreciate your prayers 1) for all of His purposes to be fulfilled and that I will go in the fullness of the blessing of The Lord to them…and 2) for my health to be ok as it has given me a full display of challenges and I have experienced trouble with air travel in the past. I am trusting that this time I won't but none the less, it is the first time that I have flown in nearly 6 years. Thank you.
May The God of hope fill us all with joy and peace in believing, that we might abound in hope by the power of The Holy Spirit! Lovingly, your sister in Jerusalem
..."If it pleases the king, and if I have found favor in his sight and the thing seems right to the king and I am pleasing in his eyes…" part of Esther 8:4
"You will guide me with Your counsel And afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." Psalm 74:24-26 Greetings, brothers and sisters, in The Name of Yeshua: He IS our Messiah and Lord! May He be blessed and glorified and may you be encouraged and blessed.
Shalom from Jerusalem, a city like no other…and to whom much is given from him much is required…and I suspect that applies to places as well as people (but don't quote me on that…it is 'my feeling'.)
Twenty five years ago today, on the 4th of July, American Independence day, we left permanently (the state we lived in at the time). He made it very clear; burn your bridges and do not look back. The tickets were cheap…no one flew on the 4th of July. We did not come straight here, but made several stops across the country to say goodbye to my family; a cousin, my sister and family and Aunts, Uncles and cousins. We said a final farewell to the land of our birth on the 12th and arrived in our new home on the 13th of July; a land that I had never seen before with my eyes…only with my heart.
When we arrived, honestly? it was terrifying! We walked on a sure and confirmed command and promise into a dry and brown land where we did not know the language or any people. We said 'Yes Lord!'. Some people thought that we were crazy, foolish, misled, deceived, and we had more than a fair amount of reprimands and not much encouragement at all. But the truth is…we really HAD HEARD, although we were so unworthy, and He has been faithful more than we could have imagined. Indeed our faith was small for He is such a great God! "You, Who have shown me great and severe troubles, shall revive me again. And bring me up again from the depths of the earth." (Psalm 71:20) It has NOT been 'easy'! God HAS been totally faithful and has seen us thus far and I trust that He WILL see us all the way!
So it was with one of our very first friends. Actually, my husband had come as a tourist with 2 friends a year before we made aliyah. God has His unique ways of bringing His plans about in an orderly manner. It was my non-Jewish husband who got off the plane and his first words to me were 'We are making aliyah!' (I thought that he was on a spiritual high.) While he was here on that trip, he met the Ben Haims, who later became dear dear friends. Many of you knew Eliyahu as the director of Intercessors for Israel (IFI). A number of you have come to Jerusalem for the yearly prayer conference in Jan. and even joined in our Friday morning prayer meetings…or gone on one of Hanna's (Eliyahu's wife) tours as she is surely the most anointed tour guide…
When I was on the first plane heading out of Alaska 25 years ago today, the cry of my heart was "LORD! SANCTIFY MY EMOTIONS! THEY ARE TOO BIG FOR ME!". That prayer continued for the entire trip and I prayed it through tears as we landed in our new/ancient homeland. Although He has not answered it yet, I am still praying it and am confident that He WILL answer it because…well…He is faithful and He hears and answers prayers according to His will offered by His children who walk before Him. That is why I quoted Esther 8:4 on the top of this page. Although out of context…it isn't really because the entire book of Esther speaks on the effective fervent prayer…and God's 'order'.
I prayed that prayer again at Eliyahu's graveside this past Friday and at the shiva (the 7 days of mourning and comforting…when the home of the immediate family is filled with people coming to comfort those grieving most deeply.)
We KNOW where Eliyahu is and yes, we rejoice with him and for him and we agree with The Lord's will. Hanna offered those familiar words of Job at the grave side "The Lord giveth and The Lord taketh away. Blessed be The Name of The Lord." Job 1:21. But his move to the next world came suddenly and he truly was a steadfast giant of faith.
The day before the funeral I was standing at the Central Bus Station waiting for the train and trying to 'wrap my head' around all that had happened when SUDDENLY I heard loud and beautiful strains on a piano of "IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL." Now…where you are this might be encouraging but…possible. Where I live…it is IMPOSSIBLE! You simply do NOT HEAR "IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL" at the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem! I went running up and down along the station looking for the source of the music.I scanned the faces of people with Iphones (just about everyone I guess!) to see who it was. There he was…across the tracks! There is a 'cement piano' (I think it is the only one in the world) that has been moved around the city for the past year or so. I didn't see it there behind a pillar but all of the sudden I saw him; a very tanned man with a shaved head and a kippa (Jewish skull cap) playing his heart out! My heart was pounding: "IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL"!! I was about to run across the tracks to find out who this man whom I never saw before was and he ended the hymn …just as I saw my train approaching. My heart pounded all the way home. There are many of you who find it difficult to grasp what it is to live where His Name is unheard of, unspoken, rejected, scorned and NOT at all part of the 'the cultural past'. This incident was NOT a matter of being in the right place at the right time…this DOESN'T happen here!
But there he was again the next day at the funeral…standing right behind Hanna. I kept an eye on him and wanted to go over and tell him 'I was there yesterday when you played for Eliyahu…for me really,.. at the Central Bus Station.'… But…then again…he was gone. Just like that.
And along of the promises, there is the shock of the loss and the grieving…we did see the graduation of two other local leaders in the same week…a harvest season. What are You saying Lord?
I have been praying that The Lord would break and mold me into one whom He would rejoice to see come home…one in whom He will see His Own reflection…and greet like a friend…a joy to His heart. He has a lot of work to do yet for sure but oh He is able.
So personally, and for much of the local body here, it has been a different season. But in this too He is faithful and a corn of wheat has fallen to the ground and I am believing for much fruit to the glory of God.
The body here is small and close, so please forgive me for sharing so personally with you. At the same time my first Pastor, beloved and greatly dear to me and so many others suffered critical heart problems as well this week. How graciously The Lord has kept him with us but he is not out of the woods yet and DEAR Pastor Hill (in America) as well as Hanna Ben Haim (here) are much in need of prayer.
And our country? We too seem to be upside down. With new elections called for September, the right and the left are battling it out in the mud yet again. Recycled failed ex-leaders are returning with fresh paint and I wonder at times how short the human memory is (mine included). How OFTEN we are told in the Word 'REMEMBER…' A dear sister once told me that she spent the year circling the word 'REMEMBER' during her reading through of the Word and it was sobering how many times we are told…fore-warned. Notice that ALL of our (where you are and here) holidays are about 'remembering'…and how much the enemy (and the flesh) likes to pervert them into something else.
I know that this letter is quite a diversion from my usual ones, but sobering moments stop us sometimes and we know it is a pause to reflect.
I currently (as of today) have a ticket to fly to visit my daughter and family from 16 July through 24th and I do appreciate your prayers 1) for all of His purposes to be fulfilled and that I will go in the fullness of the blessing of The Lord to them…and 2) for my health to be ok as it has given me a full display of challenges and I have experienced trouble with air travel in the past. I am trusting that this time I won't but none the less, it is the first time that I have flown in nearly 6 years. Thank you.
May The God of hope fill us all with joy and peace in believing, that we might abound in hope by the power of The Holy Spirit! Lovingly, your sister in Jerusalem
June 8, 2019
Joyful Shavuot to you Brothers and Sisters in Yeshua. May THE LORD, The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, be blessed and glorified and recognized … His Messiah and Only Son, Deliverer Yeshua be known in our midst. May you be blessed and encouraged!
I know that I just wrote, but it is Shavuot.
Through my back window I could hear the Cantor (Worship leader in Synagogue) singing the prayers…the beautiful ancient melodies rising through the air, as Shabbat went out and Shavuot came in tonight, about an hour ago. People have left synagogue by now and I can see many dressed in traditional white, making their way by foot down to the Old City, to the Western Wall of the Temple, to pray and study and discuss Scriptures through the night. In the Synagogues, the book of Ruth is read.
The second of the commanded feasts (the first being Passover, Shavuot 50 days later, and Succot in the Fall being the last) when all the sons of Israel are commanded to come up to the Temple in Jerusalem and present themselves before The Lord, not empty handed, Shavuot seems to be the most 'cloaked' of the holydays.Most even religious Jews will say that it is about the giving of the law (Torah) to Moses and the people…about The Word of God. It is considered a time to eat milk products and dress in white (the sources of this tradition are debated) and a time to stay up all night reading and studying Torah, in groups or alone, many bringing mats to the Western Wall and lying there through the night reading, praying, debating. There is no work done and no shops are open nor is there public transportation.
The Bible says that it is the celebration of the FIRST FRUITS.
One of my Syrian (Jewish) friends surprised me by still eating matzo and almond cookies as we eat throughout Passover. 'Why are you still eating Passover food?' I asked Rivka one time, surprised. 'Because the Bible tells us that we should not eat of the new harvest until after Shavuot.' she answered matter of factly. Hum! I had not seen this before, although I did notice that matzo and Passover food was still sold in some places at the shuk. As I searched for understanding I read with fresh eyes the command concerning Shavuot (which literally means 'WEEKS'):
LEVITICUS 23:9-14 "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. And you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year, without blemish, as a burnt offering to the Lord. Its grain offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the Lord, for a sweet aroma; and its drink offering shall be of wine, one-fourth of a hin. You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings."
Sooo…I asked my son in law, Yitzhak, who is the oldest of 14 in a Haradi (ultra orthodox religious family) about this. 'NONSENSE!' he retorted, with a look that said 'You don't know what you are talking about.' As I said, traditions vary widely, but Rivka seemed to me to be following the command.
So, from my understanding, Shavuot is closely connected to Passover…indeed, the holyday of the celebration of the first fruits of our deliverance. The barley harvest began the day after Passover and lasts for 50 days until the offering of the firstfruits, (this time inbetween is called 'the counting of the Omer') … the two 'wave loaves' in the temple before the priest. This is the day that The Holy Spirit was poured out following the death and RESURRECTION of Yeshua at Passover.
How beautifully The Lord weaves His symbols into a tapestry for us and calls us near to hear and hunger and learn of Him Who is meek and lowly of heart and gives rest to our souls…for His yoke IS easy and His burden IS Light!
TRUTH is a precious and rare commodity indeed. Yet one of The Names of The Lord is The Truth and one of His great and precious promises is that all of those who seek Him WILL FIND HIM!
Tonight…this very night… so many seek- and TRULY seek Truth…it is a wonderful time to pray that they (and each of us. I for one know that I have NOT 'arrived'! HE is so much more than my limited knowledge!) FIND!That those who are seeking would grow more and more thirsty and hungry for Him. Yeshua said in John 6:44 "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him;…" and I'm praying 'Abba! Draw them to Yeshua! Draw ME to Yeshua! The 'tradition' is that on this night the heavens are open for understanding of The Word to be poured out. He is ALWAYS willing…may this night hearts be so tender that HE IS REVEALED.
God BLESS you as you seek Him. Thank you for taking time to read and mostly to pray for the children to find their way home to Abba Father. What joy to know that we are praying His will! Lovingly, your sister
Joyful Shavuot to you Brothers and Sisters in Yeshua. May THE LORD, The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, be blessed and glorified and recognized … His Messiah and Only Son, Deliverer Yeshua be known in our midst. May you be blessed and encouraged!
I know that I just wrote, but it is Shavuot.
Through my back window I could hear the Cantor (Worship leader in Synagogue) singing the prayers…the beautiful ancient melodies rising through the air, as Shabbat went out and Shavuot came in tonight, about an hour ago. People have left synagogue by now and I can see many dressed in traditional white, making their way by foot down to the Old City, to the Western Wall of the Temple, to pray and study and discuss Scriptures through the night. In the Synagogues, the book of Ruth is read.
The second of the commanded feasts (the first being Passover, Shavuot 50 days later, and Succot in the Fall being the last) when all the sons of Israel are commanded to come up to the Temple in Jerusalem and present themselves before The Lord, not empty handed, Shavuot seems to be the most 'cloaked' of the holydays.Most even religious Jews will say that it is about the giving of the law (Torah) to Moses and the people…about The Word of God. It is considered a time to eat milk products and dress in white (the sources of this tradition are debated) and a time to stay up all night reading and studying Torah, in groups or alone, many bringing mats to the Western Wall and lying there through the night reading, praying, debating. There is no work done and no shops are open nor is there public transportation.
The Bible says that it is the celebration of the FIRST FRUITS.
One of my Syrian (Jewish) friends surprised me by still eating matzo and almond cookies as we eat throughout Passover. 'Why are you still eating Passover food?' I asked Rivka one time, surprised. 'Because the Bible tells us that we should not eat of the new harvest until after Shavuot.' she answered matter of factly. Hum! I had not seen this before, although I did notice that matzo and Passover food was still sold in some places at the shuk. As I searched for understanding I read with fresh eyes the command concerning Shavuot (which literally means 'WEEKS'):
LEVITICUS 23:9-14 "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. And you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of the first year, without blemish, as a burnt offering to the Lord. Its grain offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the Lord, for a sweet aroma; and its drink offering shall be of wine, one-fourth of a hin. You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings."
Sooo…I asked my son in law, Yitzhak, who is the oldest of 14 in a Haradi (ultra orthodox religious family) about this. 'NONSENSE!' he retorted, with a look that said 'You don't know what you are talking about.' As I said, traditions vary widely, but Rivka seemed to me to be following the command.
So, from my understanding, Shavuot is closely connected to Passover…indeed, the holyday of the celebration of the first fruits of our deliverance. The barley harvest began the day after Passover and lasts for 50 days until the offering of the firstfruits, (this time inbetween is called 'the counting of the Omer') … the two 'wave loaves' in the temple before the priest. This is the day that The Holy Spirit was poured out following the death and RESURRECTION of Yeshua at Passover.
How beautifully The Lord weaves His symbols into a tapestry for us and calls us near to hear and hunger and learn of Him Who is meek and lowly of heart and gives rest to our souls…for His yoke IS easy and His burden IS Light!
TRUTH is a precious and rare commodity indeed. Yet one of The Names of The Lord is The Truth and one of His great and precious promises is that all of those who seek Him WILL FIND HIM!
Tonight…this very night… so many seek- and TRULY seek Truth…it is a wonderful time to pray that they (and each of us. I for one know that I have NOT 'arrived'! HE is so much more than my limited knowledge!) FIND!That those who are seeking would grow more and more thirsty and hungry for Him. Yeshua said in John 6:44 "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him;…" and I'm praying 'Abba! Draw them to Yeshua! Draw ME to Yeshua! The 'tradition' is that on this night the heavens are open for understanding of The Word to be poured out. He is ALWAYS willing…may this night hearts be so tender that HE IS REVEALED.
God BLESS you as you seek Him. Thank you for taking time to read and mostly to pray for the children to find their way home to Abba Father. What joy to know that we are praying His will! Lovingly, your sister
June 6, 2019
“You are My witnesses,” says the Lord, “And My servant whom I have chosen, That you may know and believe Me, And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, Nor shall there be after Me. I, even I, am the Lord, And besides Me there is no savior. I have declared and saved,I have proclaimed, And there was no foreign god among you; Therefore you are My witnesses,” Says the Lord, “that I am God Indeed before the day was, I am He; And there is no one who can deliver out of My hand; I work, and who will reverse it?”
15"… I am the Lord, your Holy One, The Creator of Israel, your King.” Isaiah 43:10-13 and 15
Greetings Brothers and Sisters along the path. May The Lord Who created the heavens and the earth, The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, One with His Son Messiah Yeshua, Alone be glorified and blessed and feared and loved. And may you be encouraged and blessed. May we KNOW HIM!
Ah my! Can I remember the things that I have seen and heard and have looked for a moment to share with you? I am attaching an article at the end of my letter that deeply touched me. It says well the flavor/wonder of Yom Yerushalym (Jerusalem Day): The events of the day that I will share about first. Please read that short article at the end; it's worth the time.
Some of you may remember that my VERY FAVORITE question to ask people on Yom Yerushalym is "Where were you on kaf- khet of Iyar (this year, the 2 of June on the Western Calendar…our days here are marked on the Hebrew calendar) in 1967?" I have mentioned before that it ALWAYS changes the countenance of the person whom I ask and a dream-like wonder cloaks their faces…often with tears in their eyes. This year I got to ask Ruthie, the secretary that I work with and whose husband Etan so many of you have effectively prayed for. Ruthie's face relaxed and the customary 'otherworldly' look crept over her as she thought back. 'I was 11 when the war broke out, and I was in school. We heard the rumble and the 'booms' and suddenly the bombs were falling all around us. Our teacher told us to all hurry up and make our way home. My brother and sister got home but I saw that it was too dangerous…too many bombs and I found a shelter and ducked into it. I spent the night there listening to the war…it was SO loud! In the morning the people of the house told me that I had to go home because there was no food or water there. I peeked out and tried to gauge when the bombs would fall and run from doorway to doorway, hiding in each doorway. That way I finally made it home. It was VERY scary and I was shaking with fear. I cried at home…we all cried…but SUDDENLY it all changed! All of the sudden we heard different noises from outside…excited noises. The bombs got further away and the sounds were just different! Carefully we stuck our heads out and we saw SUCH excitement…and dancing beginning in the streets! "HAR HA BAYIT! HAR HA BAYIT" [THE TEMPLE MOUNT - OR THE MOUNT OF THE HOUSE (OF GOD)] and people were running toward the Old City…to the Kotel [the Western Wall]…yelling 'Go to Har ha Bayit! It is free!'" She continued; 'Do you know what? Even with all of that, the trauma was completely washed away by the miracle that we saw and were part of! There was no fear afterward because GOD fought for us!'
An older patient came in and I asked her the same question…Same response…the transformed face. 'My first son was born that day.' She said shyly, almost like exposing such a tender spot that she could barely show it. 'I named him Ishai (pronounced Ee-shy, which means Gift from God in Hebrew) but NOT with the regular meaning. (The Hebrew letters are ישי or 'yod', 'shin', 'yod') The first yod is for 'God', the shin is for 'has set free, delivered or released', and the final yod is for YERUSHALYM!' So her son's name means 'God has delivered Jerusalem!' Wow! It is a wonder to me to be walking in such times of fulfilling prophecy and I must constantly remember to seek those things above, not the things of earth (Col. 4) as I walk through my everyday life.
Because everyday life can be REALLY TRYING…even in Jerusalem!
Before the first of each month I have to purchase the next month's public transportation travel time by inserting a 'smart card' into a machine (technology and I are NOT friends!)…followed by my (thankfully half price for old people!) money and pray that the card loads properly and I don't have to worry about it again for a month. I have learned how to get my receipt incase of (inevitable) occasional problems. I followed this routine on Friday 31 May and went about to enjoy my Shabbat rest. Sunday morning at 6am I confidently clicked my card on the train and was shocked by a red light and a grinding clicking sound! I jumped off of the train at the next stop (rather than risk the 180 shekel fine!) to examine my card and found to my great shock that it said 'lo b'tokef' or EXPIRED! 'Now wait a minute!' I thought. 'These (originally free) cards were SUPPOSED to be good 'forever'!' I made a pile of calculations: I would need to buy 3 full fare (not old-folks fare) tickets…one for each bus and a train…getting to work already a bit late…then leave work early because…IT IS JERUSALEM DAY AND EVERYTHING WILL CLOSE DOWN EARLY…get back to the control office and try to re-claim my monthly ticket that I had already paid for. Yes…I prayed. 'Lord! Please help me not to be stressed over this but to let Your Light shine in the midst.' Now, my 'nature' easily panics. The Peace that I needed could only come from Him. There was too much energy involved, too many past experiences and way too much potential for a bureaucratic nightmare. Perfect peace was granted, even as I took my number showing a mere 100 people waited ahead of me: the place was in CHAOS! It seems that I was NOT the only Jerusalemite taken by surprise concerning a sudden 'expiration date'. Mercifully, I found a seat beside an (also elderly) Israeli man of Ethiopian descent. I began thinking about the concurrent ceremonies taking place for the liberation of Jerusalem and the memorial for the thousands of Ethiopian Jews who perished during the brave, treacherous trek that brought them home through the forbidding deserts of the Sudan. Tragically, about 4,000 perished. Suddenly there was shouting again; the man beside me and I glanced at one another and burst out laughing. The entire picture was just too funny for word! 'It's a zoo.' I noted. 'He laughed and nodded.'
I made it home with my renewed pass still filled with my new monthly ticket…AND, most mercifully of all…with His Peace keeping my heart and mind, the greatest gift of all...WELL…EXCEPT FOR THE GIVER OF THAT GIFT…and for the miracle of Jerusalem after 2,000 years of waiting for that promise.
I TRUST that the promises for the revelation of Messiah to His own, through the removal of the scales will also BE SEEN!
I see that it is now late. It is not good for me to begin to set a preview of Shavuot (Pentecost) which begins at sundown on Shabbat through sundown on Sunday. I will share with you the wonderful scriptures and perhaps you will look at them. I plan, Lord willing to write about Shavuot this weekend as Shavuot is one of the three commanded holydays when all of the men of Israel were commanded to come up to the temple and present themselves, and their first-fruit gifts before The Lord - this being the offering of the first fruits. The verses are wonderful. I pray that you will enjoy them:
Leviticus 23:9-10, 16-17 ; Numbers 15:17-21; Numbers 28:26- ; Deuteronomy 26:1-11 and Acts 2:1-
Here is the article that I promised:
Yom Yerushalayim — why rejoice? - Sivan Rahav Meir-(from The Times of Israel - secular news)
I see three reasons to rejoice today:
First of all, we do not only celebrate the release of Jerusalem. We also celebrate the rescue of Tel Aviv. Those who were here during the days before the break of the Six Day War can tell you. The whole existence of the young State of Israel was in danger in 1967. Our 19-year-old country was not only saved; it grew several times in size, and return to the biblical areas of the Land of Israel.
Second, because of the fulfillment of the dream. Elie Wiesel, Nobel Prize Laureate, once said that Jerusalem connects people to each other in an mysterious, inexplicable way. When a Jew visits it for the first time, he says that this is not his first time. It is a return home. A friend of mine, a new olah (immigrant) from Ethiopia, told me years ago how every time she and her siblings saw, in their childhood in Addis Ababa, a stork flying in the sky, they used to cry to it: “Stork, stork, how is Jerusalem doing?”
Natan Sharansky once told how, when he was convicted together with his friends in treason of “Mother Russia,” they were asked by the court to sum up their defense arguments. Sharansky then said: “I have nothing to say to this court, but to the People of Israel and to my wife, I say: Next year in Jerusalem.” We are living within a 2,000 year old prophecy, that is being fulfilled.
Third and most important: We are happy today because of the enormity of the present challenge, because of the great chance we received precisely in our generation, of all generations. We won the lottery, and now, what do we do with this treasure? Our mission is to turn all this energy, all the ancient oaths and yearnings and prayers, which are thousands of years old — into something practical, to make the Heavenly Jerusalem (ירושלים של מעלה) and the earthly Jerusalem (ירושלים של מטה) become united, to make sure that this place will indeed announce an alternative culture to the whole world. We’re on our way there.
Chana Zemer, editor of the Davar newspaper (a famous secular newspaper, closed 1996), wrote in the newspaper after the arrival of our soldiers to the Western Wall: “ובא לציון גואל. Redemption came to Zion. For 2,000 years — 80 generations — the Jews turned to the East: during Shacharis, Minchah and Ma’ariv. (morning, noon and evening prayers) Thousands of years have not blurred the national memory with which a Jew is born just as he is born with all of his bodily organs. All the biblical verses are coming alive in front of our very eyes.”
People do not write like this in newspapers anymore, and yet we must not forget: the great-great-grandparents of all of us could have never imagine that they would ever merit to pay arnonah (city tax) in Jerusalem, to be stuck in traffic jams in it and also to quarrel and argue about its character. We merited to do so.
“You are My witnesses,” says the Lord, “And My servant whom I have chosen, That you may know and believe Me, And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, Nor shall there be after Me. I, even I, am the Lord, And besides Me there is no savior. I have declared and saved,I have proclaimed, And there was no foreign god among you; Therefore you are My witnesses,” Says the Lord, “that I am God Indeed before the day was, I am He; And there is no one who can deliver out of My hand; I work, and who will reverse it?”
15"… I am the Lord, your Holy One, The Creator of Israel, your King.” Isaiah 43:10-13 and 15
Greetings Brothers and Sisters along the path. May The Lord Who created the heavens and the earth, The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, One with His Son Messiah Yeshua, Alone be glorified and blessed and feared and loved. And may you be encouraged and blessed. May we KNOW HIM!
Ah my! Can I remember the things that I have seen and heard and have looked for a moment to share with you? I am attaching an article at the end of my letter that deeply touched me. It says well the flavor/wonder of Yom Yerushalym (Jerusalem Day): The events of the day that I will share about first. Please read that short article at the end; it's worth the time.
Some of you may remember that my VERY FAVORITE question to ask people on Yom Yerushalym is "Where were you on kaf- khet of Iyar (this year, the 2 of June on the Western Calendar…our days here are marked on the Hebrew calendar) in 1967?" I have mentioned before that it ALWAYS changes the countenance of the person whom I ask and a dream-like wonder cloaks their faces…often with tears in their eyes. This year I got to ask Ruthie, the secretary that I work with and whose husband Etan so many of you have effectively prayed for. Ruthie's face relaxed and the customary 'otherworldly' look crept over her as she thought back. 'I was 11 when the war broke out, and I was in school. We heard the rumble and the 'booms' and suddenly the bombs were falling all around us. Our teacher told us to all hurry up and make our way home. My brother and sister got home but I saw that it was too dangerous…too many bombs and I found a shelter and ducked into it. I spent the night there listening to the war…it was SO loud! In the morning the people of the house told me that I had to go home because there was no food or water there. I peeked out and tried to gauge when the bombs would fall and run from doorway to doorway, hiding in each doorway. That way I finally made it home. It was VERY scary and I was shaking with fear. I cried at home…we all cried…but SUDDENLY it all changed! All of the sudden we heard different noises from outside…excited noises. The bombs got further away and the sounds were just different! Carefully we stuck our heads out and we saw SUCH excitement…and dancing beginning in the streets! "HAR HA BAYIT! HAR HA BAYIT" [THE TEMPLE MOUNT - OR THE MOUNT OF THE HOUSE (OF GOD)] and people were running toward the Old City…to the Kotel [the Western Wall]…yelling 'Go to Har ha Bayit! It is free!'" She continued; 'Do you know what? Even with all of that, the trauma was completely washed away by the miracle that we saw and were part of! There was no fear afterward because GOD fought for us!'
An older patient came in and I asked her the same question…Same response…the transformed face. 'My first son was born that day.' She said shyly, almost like exposing such a tender spot that she could barely show it. 'I named him Ishai (pronounced Ee-shy, which means Gift from God in Hebrew) but NOT with the regular meaning. (The Hebrew letters are ישי or 'yod', 'shin', 'yod') The first yod is for 'God', the shin is for 'has set free, delivered or released', and the final yod is for YERUSHALYM!' So her son's name means 'God has delivered Jerusalem!' Wow! It is a wonder to me to be walking in such times of fulfilling prophecy and I must constantly remember to seek those things above, not the things of earth (Col. 4) as I walk through my everyday life.
Because everyday life can be REALLY TRYING…even in Jerusalem!
Before the first of each month I have to purchase the next month's public transportation travel time by inserting a 'smart card' into a machine (technology and I are NOT friends!)…followed by my (thankfully half price for old people!) money and pray that the card loads properly and I don't have to worry about it again for a month. I have learned how to get my receipt incase of (inevitable) occasional problems. I followed this routine on Friday 31 May and went about to enjoy my Shabbat rest. Sunday morning at 6am I confidently clicked my card on the train and was shocked by a red light and a grinding clicking sound! I jumped off of the train at the next stop (rather than risk the 180 shekel fine!) to examine my card and found to my great shock that it said 'lo b'tokef' or EXPIRED! 'Now wait a minute!' I thought. 'These (originally free) cards were SUPPOSED to be good 'forever'!' I made a pile of calculations: I would need to buy 3 full fare (not old-folks fare) tickets…one for each bus and a train…getting to work already a bit late…then leave work early because…IT IS JERUSALEM DAY AND EVERYTHING WILL CLOSE DOWN EARLY…get back to the control office and try to re-claim my monthly ticket that I had already paid for. Yes…I prayed. 'Lord! Please help me not to be stressed over this but to let Your Light shine in the midst.' Now, my 'nature' easily panics. The Peace that I needed could only come from Him. There was too much energy involved, too many past experiences and way too much potential for a bureaucratic nightmare. Perfect peace was granted, even as I took my number showing a mere 100 people waited ahead of me: the place was in CHAOS! It seems that I was NOT the only Jerusalemite taken by surprise concerning a sudden 'expiration date'. Mercifully, I found a seat beside an (also elderly) Israeli man of Ethiopian descent. I began thinking about the concurrent ceremonies taking place for the liberation of Jerusalem and the memorial for the thousands of Ethiopian Jews who perished during the brave, treacherous trek that brought them home through the forbidding deserts of the Sudan. Tragically, about 4,000 perished. Suddenly there was shouting again; the man beside me and I glanced at one another and burst out laughing. The entire picture was just too funny for word! 'It's a zoo.' I noted. 'He laughed and nodded.'
I made it home with my renewed pass still filled with my new monthly ticket…AND, most mercifully of all…with His Peace keeping my heart and mind, the greatest gift of all...WELL…EXCEPT FOR THE GIVER OF THAT GIFT…and for the miracle of Jerusalem after 2,000 years of waiting for that promise.
I TRUST that the promises for the revelation of Messiah to His own, through the removal of the scales will also BE SEEN!
I see that it is now late. It is not good for me to begin to set a preview of Shavuot (Pentecost) which begins at sundown on Shabbat through sundown on Sunday. I will share with you the wonderful scriptures and perhaps you will look at them. I plan, Lord willing to write about Shavuot this weekend as Shavuot is one of the three commanded holydays when all of the men of Israel were commanded to come up to the temple and present themselves, and their first-fruit gifts before The Lord - this being the offering of the first fruits. The verses are wonderful. I pray that you will enjoy them:
Leviticus 23:9-10, 16-17 ; Numbers 15:17-21; Numbers 28:26- ; Deuteronomy 26:1-11 and Acts 2:1-
Here is the article that I promised:
Yom Yerushalayim — why rejoice? - Sivan Rahav Meir-(from The Times of Israel - secular news)
I see three reasons to rejoice today:
First of all, we do not only celebrate the release of Jerusalem. We also celebrate the rescue of Tel Aviv. Those who were here during the days before the break of the Six Day War can tell you. The whole existence of the young State of Israel was in danger in 1967. Our 19-year-old country was not only saved; it grew several times in size, and return to the biblical areas of the Land of Israel.
Second, because of the fulfillment of the dream. Elie Wiesel, Nobel Prize Laureate, once said that Jerusalem connects people to each other in an mysterious, inexplicable way. When a Jew visits it for the first time, he says that this is not his first time. It is a return home. A friend of mine, a new olah (immigrant) from Ethiopia, told me years ago how every time she and her siblings saw, in their childhood in Addis Ababa, a stork flying in the sky, they used to cry to it: “Stork, stork, how is Jerusalem doing?”
Natan Sharansky once told how, when he was convicted together with his friends in treason of “Mother Russia,” they were asked by the court to sum up their defense arguments. Sharansky then said: “I have nothing to say to this court, but to the People of Israel and to my wife, I say: Next year in Jerusalem.” We are living within a 2,000 year old prophecy, that is being fulfilled.
Third and most important: We are happy today because of the enormity of the present challenge, because of the great chance we received precisely in our generation, of all generations. We won the lottery, and now, what do we do with this treasure? Our mission is to turn all this energy, all the ancient oaths and yearnings and prayers, which are thousands of years old — into something practical, to make the Heavenly Jerusalem (ירושלים של מעלה) and the earthly Jerusalem (ירושלים של מטה) become united, to make sure that this place will indeed announce an alternative culture to the whole world. We’re on our way there.
Chana Zemer, editor of the Davar newspaper (a famous secular newspaper, closed 1996), wrote in the newspaper after the arrival of our soldiers to the Western Wall: “ובא לציון גואל. Redemption came to Zion. For 2,000 years — 80 generations — the Jews turned to the East: during Shacharis, Minchah and Ma’ariv. (morning, noon and evening prayers) Thousands of years have not blurred the national memory with which a Jew is born just as he is born with all of his bodily organs. All the biblical verses are coming alive in front of our very eyes.”
People do not write like this in newspapers anymore, and yet we must not forget: the great-great-grandparents of all of us could have never imagine that they would ever merit to pay arnonah (city tax) in Jerusalem, to be stuck in traffic jams in it and also to quarrel and argue about its character. We merited to do so.
May 30, 2019
… “But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’?” ’ Now therefore, I urge you, give a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses—if you are able on your part to put riders on them! How then will you repel one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen? Have I now come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and destroy it.’ ”…" ‘Make peace with me by a present and come out to me; and every one of you eat from his own vine and everyone from his own fig tree, and every one of you drink the waters of his own cistern; until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand? Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their countries from my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’ ” But they held their peace and answered him not a word; for the king’s commandment was, “Do not answer him.”
ISAIAH 36:7-10 and 16-21
Greetings Brothers and Sisters in Yeshua, Jesus - Messiah, Risen Eternal King, - Lord of all. May HE Alone be glorified and blessed and may you be encouraged and blessed as you choose Him along the path.
I am always humbled by the portions of scripture above (which is accounted in full, also in 2Kings and 2 Chronicles.) I KNOW that I've quoted this portion before, more than once, but living here; in the Middle East…in Israel…and more specifically even in Jerusalem, the lessons taught and hopefully learned through this telling and re-telling seem so vital to understand 'today'…and the 'today of tomorrow' even more. It is just so apparent to me from these verses that the enemy does NOT KNOW OUR GOD! How much more I have to make sure that I DO indeed KNOW HIM, and His ways, and His Lordship, and His very Character…and bow to Him Alone.
So I know that some of you anyway had heard of our early, long intense heat and the ensuing fires (over 1,000) for which we requested and received the help of firefighters from other nations; Greece, Cyprus, Italy and Croatia and of GREAT note to us, Egypt helped extinguish fires on land that our two countries fought a horrific war on in the past…it touched the whole country to see our past enemy helping us on the very battle field upon one we battled.
The month of Ramadan is coming to a close (4 June) and Jerusalem Day proceeds by 2 days, Sunday the 2 of June with much flag-dancing in the streets and great gatherings and ceremonies at the Western Wall and other places of significance…each giving an opportunity to share of the miraculous return of the Old City to Israel after 2,000 years…the wonder of it all continues to grow, only LORD! MAKE US STEWARD OVER WHOM YOU CAN REJOICE! GRANT US YOUR SPIRIT!
One week after Yom Yerushalym (Jerusalem Day) is Shavuot, known in the Church as Pentecost. It marks the end of the 'counting of the omer' which begins on the second day of Passover and continues for 7 weeks until Shavuot. Shavuot is one of the 3 commanded Holy Days when all of the men of Israel were to gather in the Old City at the Temple to offer specific sacrifices. They still do 'come up' to Jerusalem. The offerings of Shavuot are the offerings of the first fruits, brought to the High Priest…rejoicing in the first grain harvest but the barley harvest in particular, the book of Ruth is read in the Synagogues worldwide. I have mentioned in the past how Shavuot was sort of a 'hidden' holy day or a covered vision when I was growing up in the diaspora. We never quite 'got it'…what it was about and what was the importance of it. One year reading through it grabbed me that the command says "When you come into the land you shall…" and suddenly it all began to open up and fall into place. THIS is the 'time' that The Lord chose to pour out His Holy Spirit on His first fruits body…here…down the road from me now…DO IT AGAIN LORD!
KEEPING THIS IN MIND…more continues to swirl around us. 'Around us' ofcourse means Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Jordan (just to mention our IMMEDIATE neighbors). Each one is boiling and plotting and daily the news simmers. Our friends throughout Europe are struggling with major issues…our British friends press on in the Brexit battle and are now looking to a new Prime Minister. Anti-Semitism in Europe AND America has become epidemic… again.
Remember, recently, many of you sent congratulations to our country on the 're-election' of our Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu? NOT! I waited to write until we were sure last night…and now, as the Knesset has voted itself out of office and we are going AGAIN to NEW ELECTIONS scheduled for 17 September. Our Prime Minister was unable to form a coalition government between the different parties…too much 'infighting'…wheeling and dealing…The deadline for the formation of the new government was reached at midnight last night…and the Knesset dissolved itself! …AS AMERICA'S JARED KUSHNER ARRIVED FOR PRE-PEACE TALKS! 'Zoo' anybody?
With this backdrop I was sitting before The Lord in Isaiah this morning, looking again at the words of the enemy who didn't (and still doesn't) know our God. V.36:7 " But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’?” Well…NO! That would be the altars of Ba'al! He is not GOD nor was he then, although he sought to be worshipped as such. Again the enemy continued " Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Well…NO! Ofcourse not! They were not GOD! But the enemy is like the daughters of Jerusalem in Song of Solomon 5:9 when they ask the Shulamite " What is your beloved More than another beloved, O fairest among women? What is your beloved
More than another beloved, That you so charge us?" and like the Shulamite we have the great PRIVILEDGE TO KNOW HIM AND RESPOND as she did in v. " Yes, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, And this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem!"
Oh WOW! I WANT to know Him that way! I WANT to quiet ALL of my flesh and the thoughts that arise from my flesh and the whispers of Sennacherib and feed by the Shepherd's tent. (Song of Solomon 1:7) AND THE RATIONAL SCREAMS AND SARCISM OF THE MEDIA! I USED to try to do this (quiet these things) by retreating to the wilderness. It worked. But The Lord, in His great and incredible and - OH THANK YOU LORD! - FAITHFUL MERCY, showed me that the sin of the noisy heart was still there in my flesh. I could quiet my flesh BY fleshly ways but He wanted to teach me more. HIS Peace can exist EVEN IN JERUSALEM! Even amidst war and noise and turmoil and evil reports (note Caleb and Joshua!) and lies…His Truth is stronger and can win and can prevail. I LOVE the verse in Isaiah 36 (above) ” But they held their peace and answered him not a word; for the king’s commandment was, “Do not answer him.”
On the train today, I was standing beside a soldier when suddenly I heard a very loud 'boom'. I felt it in my feet as well. I looked at him and he looked at me. "Did you hear that?" he asked me. "Yes…and I felt it in my feet as well." We listened for sirens. Nothing. He pulled out his cell phone and tapped in some special army numbers. Nothing. We looked at each other and smiled, sighing. "Todah l'El" I said to him (thank God). "ken" (yes) he answered and we continued on our ride. I thought back to the last intifada and how the 'booms' were constant and were never 'nothing'. It left a mark in me. I don't take 'boom's for granted…nor do I cease to wonder at His faithfulness that brought us THROUGH even that time.
The heat effected the strawberries and I grabbed up the last of them at the shuk. I hadn't yet frozen enough for this summer's 'smoothies' so I was thankful to get a couple of kilos, even at THAT price! The summer fruits have turned the shuk into a virtual rainbow of vibrant color! Oops…the peppers and grapes are pretty dried. I heard on the news that the water in the Jordan Valley is being stolen from the farmers and the crops are drying on the vines; I see the evidence of that at the shuk. But at the same time I pass the through the streets of Jerusalem on the way to work and open my mouth to thank Him for the…WOW!...what can I say! Tiny grapes hanging over fences, infant pomegranates bulging besides the lemons and figs and left over almonds…fragrant leaves of spices… rosemary ,of myrrh, thyme, hyssop, mint, bay, sage, on and on it goes gathering together into a virtual symphony of color, fragrance, shapes… trees heavy with flowers in every color, blue, orange, yellow, red, purple etc…hang over my head on my walk. I pray that my eyes may see the BLESSING in the midst of the chaos.
AND YOUR PRAYERS??? It is a wonder to me…R's husband E IS RESTORED! PRAISE GOD! After 4 months of not leaving his room, his bed…not sleeping or eating, - he got up and went out and right now they are away for a week in France and I'm waiting to hear how it went. R is giving GOD all the glory! Sadly…still not Yeshua…but she is thankful for everyone who has been praying and I trust someday that she will open her heart to Him. Meanwhile, I thank Him for restoring E! Thank you for praying.
Our health has continued to be a challenge…a battlefield on which He will get the glory and He will win. Thank you for your prayers. Our younger daughter and 2 small Granddaughters returned last night from London where they had a 2 week birthday stay with our older daughter and family and it was wonderful and I am so thankful.
And now to HIM Who IS ABLE to KEEP us from falling and even to present us faultless (can you imagine??) before The Throne of The Living God…to our only wise King…be honor and glory forever! God BLESS you! Lovingly , me
… “But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’?” ’ Now therefore, I urge you, give a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses—if you are able on your part to put riders on them! How then will you repel one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen? Have I now come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and destroy it.’ ”…" ‘Make peace with me by a present and come out to me; and every one of you eat from his own vine and everyone from his own fig tree, and every one of you drink the waters of his own cistern; until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand? Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their countries from my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’ ” But they held their peace and answered him not a word; for the king’s commandment was, “Do not answer him.”
ISAIAH 36:7-10 and 16-21
Greetings Brothers and Sisters in Yeshua, Jesus - Messiah, Risen Eternal King, - Lord of all. May HE Alone be glorified and blessed and may you be encouraged and blessed as you choose Him along the path.
I am always humbled by the portions of scripture above (which is accounted in full, also in 2Kings and 2 Chronicles.) I KNOW that I've quoted this portion before, more than once, but living here; in the Middle East…in Israel…and more specifically even in Jerusalem, the lessons taught and hopefully learned through this telling and re-telling seem so vital to understand 'today'…and the 'today of tomorrow' even more. It is just so apparent to me from these verses that the enemy does NOT KNOW OUR GOD! How much more I have to make sure that I DO indeed KNOW HIM, and His ways, and His Lordship, and His very Character…and bow to Him Alone.
So I know that some of you anyway had heard of our early, long intense heat and the ensuing fires (over 1,000) for which we requested and received the help of firefighters from other nations; Greece, Cyprus, Italy and Croatia and of GREAT note to us, Egypt helped extinguish fires on land that our two countries fought a horrific war on in the past…it touched the whole country to see our past enemy helping us on the very battle field upon one we battled.
The month of Ramadan is coming to a close (4 June) and Jerusalem Day proceeds by 2 days, Sunday the 2 of June with much flag-dancing in the streets and great gatherings and ceremonies at the Western Wall and other places of significance…each giving an opportunity to share of the miraculous return of the Old City to Israel after 2,000 years…the wonder of it all continues to grow, only LORD! MAKE US STEWARD OVER WHOM YOU CAN REJOICE! GRANT US YOUR SPIRIT!
One week after Yom Yerushalym (Jerusalem Day) is Shavuot, known in the Church as Pentecost. It marks the end of the 'counting of the omer' which begins on the second day of Passover and continues for 7 weeks until Shavuot. Shavuot is one of the 3 commanded Holy Days when all of the men of Israel were to gather in the Old City at the Temple to offer specific sacrifices. They still do 'come up' to Jerusalem. The offerings of Shavuot are the offerings of the first fruits, brought to the High Priest…rejoicing in the first grain harvest but the barley harvest in particular, the book of Ruth is read in the Synagogues worldwide. I have mentioned in the past how Shavuot was sort of a 'hidden' holy day or a covered vision when I was growing up in the diaspora. We never quite 'got it'…what it was about and what was the importance of it. One year reading through it grabbed me that the command says "When you come into the land you shall…" and suddenly it all began to open up and fall into place. THIS is the 'time' that The Lord chose to pour out His Holy Spirit on His first fruits body…here…down the road from me now…DO IT AGAIN LORD!
KEEPING THIS IN MIND…more continues to swirl around us. 'Around us' ofcourse means Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Jordan (just to mention our IMMEDIATE neighbors). Each one is boiling and plotting and daily the news simmers. Our friends throughout Europe are struggling with major issues…our British friends press on in the Brexit battle and are now looking to a new Prime Minister. Anti-Semitism in Europe AND America has become epidemic… again.
Remember, recently, many of you sent congratulations to our country on the 're-election' of our Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu? NOT! I waited to write until we were sure last night…and now, as the Knesset has voted itself out of office and we are going AGAIN to NEW ELECTIONS scheduled for 17 September. Our Prime Minister was unable to form a coalition government between the different parties…too much 'infighting'…wheeling and dealing…The deadline for the formation of the new government was reached at midnight last night…and the Knesset dissolved itself! …AS AMERICA'S JARED KUSHNER ARRIVED FOR PRE-PEACE TALKS! 'Zoo' anybody?
With this backdrop I was sitting before The Lord in Isaiah this morning, looking again at the words of the enemy who didn't (and still doesn't) know our God. V.36:7 " But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’?” Well…NO! That would be the altars of Ba'al! He is not GOD nor was he then, although he sought to be worshipped as such. Again the enemy continued " Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? Well…NO! Ofcourse not! They were not GOD! But the enemy is like the daughters of Jerusalem in Song of Solomon 5:9 when they ask the Shulamite " What is your beloved More than another beloved, O fairest among women? What is your beloved
More than another beloved, That you so charge us?" and like the Shulamite we have the great PRIVILEDGE TO KNOW HIM AND RESPOND as she did in v. " Yes, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, And this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem!"
Oh WOW! I WANT to know Him that way! I WANT to quiet ALL of my flesh and the thoughts that arise from my flesh and the whispers of Sennacherib and feed by the Shepherd's tent. (Song of Solomon 1:7) AND THE RATIONAL SCREAMS AND SARCISM OF THE MEDIA! I USED to try to do this (quiet these things) by retreating to the wilderness. It worked. But The Lord, in His great and incredible and - OH THANK YOU LORD! - FAITHFUL MERCY, showed me that the sin of the noisy heart was still there in my flesh. I could quiet my flesh BY fleshly ways but He wanted to teach me more. HIS Peace can exist EVEN IN JERUSALEM! Even amidst war and noise and turmoil and evil reports (note Caleb and Joshua!) and lies…His Truth is stronger and can win and can prevail. I LOVE the verse in Isaiah 36 (above) ” But they held their peace and answered him not a word; for the king’s commandment was, “Do not answer him.”
On the train today, I was standing beside a soldier when suddenly I heard a very loud 'boom'. I felt it in my feet as well. I looked at him and he looked at me. "Did you hear that?" he asked me. "Yes…and I felt it in my feet as well." We listened for sirens. Nothing. He pulled out his cell phone and tapped in some special army numbers. Nothing. We looked at each other and smiled, sighing. "Todah l'El" I said to him (thank God). "ken" (yes) he answered and we continued on our ride. I thought back to the last intifada and how the 'booms' were constant and were never 'nothing'. It left a mark in me. I don't take 'boom's for granted…nor do I cease to wonder at His faithfulness that brought us THROUGH even that time.
The heat effected the strawberries and I grabbed up the last of them at the shuk. I hadn't yet frozen enough for this summer's 'smoothies' so I was thankful to get a couple of kilos, even at THAT price! The summer fruits have turned the shuk into a virtual rainbow of vibrant color! Oops…the peppers and grapes are pretty dried. I heard on the news that the water in the Jordan Valley is being stolen from the farmers and the crops are drying on the vines; I see the evidence of that at the shuk. But at the same time I pass the through the streets of Jerusalem on the way to work and open my mouth to thank Him for the…WOW!...what can I say! Tiny grapes hanging over fences, infant pomegranates bulging besides the lemons and figs and left over almonds…fragrant leaves of spices… rosemary ,of myrrh, thyme, hyssop, mint, bay, sage, on and on it goes gathering together into a virtual symphony of color, fragrance, shapes… trees heavy with flowers in every color, blue, orange, yellow, red, purple etc…hang over my head on my walk. I pray that my eyes may see the BLESSING in the midst of the chaos.
AND YOUR PRAYERS??? It is a wonder to me…R's husband E IS RESTORED! PRAISE GOD! After 4 months of not leaving his room, his bed…not sleeping or eating, - he got up and went out and right now they are away for a week in France and I'm waiting to hear how it went. R is giving GOD all the glory! Sadly…still not Yeshua…but she is thankful for everyone who has been praying and I trust someday that she will open her heart to Him. Meanwhile, I thank Him for restoring E! Thank you for praying.
Our health has continued to be a challenge…a battlefield on which He will get the glory and He will win. Thank you for your prayers. Our younger daughter and 2 small Granddaughters returned last night from London where they had a 2 week birthday stay with our older daughter and family and it was wonderful and I am so thankful.
And now to HIM Who IS ABLE to KEEP us from falling and even to present us faultless (can you imagine??) before The Throne of The Living God…to our only wise King…be honor and glory forever! God BLESS you! Lovingly , me
May 14, 2019
"He said therefore, 'A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return.
And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.'"
Luke 19:12-13
"A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones."
Proverbs 17:22
Greetings, Sisters and Brothers in Yeshua, called, heeding the call, depending upon The Only One Who can ever fulfill that call…GREETINGS! May The Lord Yeshua h'meshiach, Jesus The Messiah, be blessed and glorified. May you be edified, refreshed and blessed.
"You went to the Bank AND the Post Office in the same day?!? WOW! Superwoman!" No one really said that to me, but they WOULD have had they known; and I DID say it to myself. I also added "Now you REALLY need to REST!"
When we made aliyah, that was one of the first warnings that we received everywhere: 'Do NOT plan to do any two bureaucratic transactions in the same day.' We thought that was funny…I mean…it WAS July, and it WAS hot (and there was no air-conditioning back then in most places, just very large ceiling fans)…but…'DON'T' is a pretty strong word.
We soon learned the wisdom of this instruction.
When we first came there were neither lines nor numbers…nor chairs; there were huge pushing mobs! We were used to…well…Western order and courtesy. Nor were we used to the fact that the Post Office also was a 'Postal Bank' and the Bank was also a place where you could do transactions that we were clueless about. Often the person in front of you would be there for an hour. The Hebrew word 'belegan' (loosely translated as 'chaos' - or -perhaps spaghetti thrown at a wall -) was really a perfect description. The 'wave of aliyah' that we immigrated with was the waning season of the Russian aliyah. Living under Communism for so many years, the Russians had mastered the fine art of 'I want to stand in front of you and if I push hard enough I can,', and being from America we had mastered the fine art of 'Well…ofcourse…excuse me…you first…I'm sorry.'
On top of this, the working hours for banks and post offices were sort of a mystery. 'You say the bank will be open Tuesday from 8-12 and the post office tomorrow from 9-2'? EVERYTHING closed between 2-4 and only SOME things opened in the afternoon and we could DEFINITELY NOT figure it out! We would attempt one chore in the morning and IF we succeeded to accomplish it without having to return the next day (or week), we would be ecstatic!
Things have changed.
First: there are signs and sometimes even in several languages which more and more is including English. There are now seats to wait in, numbers to take that are posted AND called over a loudspeaker, air-conditioning (so I take a sweater even during a sha'arav…heat wave off the desert) AND posted hours that I can write down and generally count on. The bank and the post have staggered their hours so that one is open in the afternoons on Sun, Tues and Thurs and the other on Mon and Wed. I have NOT mastered the newest item: making your appointment (to buy a stamp or do a bank transaction) online. I take a number. AND a book!
This Sunday was the first 'normal' day following weeks of holidays, elections, wars, mourning and more celebrations. I studied the schedules and the things that I HAD to do. The bank, which opened at 8:30, was only open until 1. I had deposited my pay check a week ago and it never showed up (fourth time!) so now I was 1,000 shekels in overdraft and they were charging me interest!
I got to the bank at 8:20 (kicking myself that it was so late as by now the line was long) and took a number that said F100. Could I really be FIRST?? YEP! The other people were trying to get in without a number. WOW! I WON! First time ever! The door swung open at 8:30 and we all sat down, eyes fixed on the screen. My number was called and I explained (in Hebrew) what had happened. 'Impossible' was the answer. Again I explained. She shook her head; 'Give me your teudot zehut' (Identity card).' Smugly she opened my files in her computer and called another woman over. 'This is the FOURTH TIME!' I told her as she backtracked embarrassedly . Time passes…adjustment somehow made. 'I want the interest paid back' I told them. Again they looked totally confused. After much discussion I was told 'I'm sorry. We can't do that. We don't have a WAY to do it.' Calmly I replied… 'So you are thieves and are stealing my money…because a person who takes what is not rightfully his is a thief.' That answer usually shakes people up, and it did this time too. These are people with moral standards usually. Thief is NOT a good thing to be. I gave them my phone number and with some re-assurances I left…running over to the post office.
The line was outside and around the building. Not a good sign! I took a number: 109. I looked up at the screen to see that they were up to… 67. I actually found a seat at which point the woman next to me began to scream at someone 'I have been here for an hour and you are taking a number that isn't yours?? Put that back!' She was loud enough that the woman did return the number that she had found on the floor. The tension in the room was palpable, so I prayed for His Peace and soon progress was made and I felt like someone who had accomplished a great feat: I HAD GONE TO THE BANK AND THE POST IN THE SAME MORNING! Ofcourse…I still had to do some shopping and babysit for my Granddaughters (it was my day off) but oh my…I had come of age! I am no longer a 'oleh hadasha' (new immigrant) but a 'vatika' (uh…I guess an OLD immigrant!).
That accomplishment was a good gift following a wonderful Yom h'atz'ma'oot! (Independence Day)
The week that I described in my last letter was capped off by a most wonderful day that I can't even begin to describe as I have in the past. I'm just adding this ONE ANECDOTAL PIECE OF INFORMATION FOR ANY OF YOU WHO COME AS A TOURIST: ALWAYS BRING YOUR PASSPORT AND VISA WHEN YOU GO OUT! (it's the law…and although it IS attached to a funny story, I do have to end here.
At this moment our daughter and two Granddaughters are in a plane headed to London to visit our older daughter for two weeks and we are all so excited (albeit I am ill again and do ask for your prayers that this will not progress into anything more serious. I am still weakened from the winter's hospitalization so am asking for prayer).
So although the balance of scripture tells us that sorrow is of more value than mirth, a time for laughter is still a gift from Him, and as it says in Proverbs 17:22 "A merry heart does good, like medicine…" and I hope that the vignette above left you with a merrier heart.
And oh, by the way, a little 'banking addendum'. I checked my account when I got home and saw that they had deposited the amount of my paycheck …BUT…they deposited it TWICE…3 minutes apart! I began to calculate when I could get back to the bank and convince them that they had made ANOTHER mistake! I did NOT want to be a thief. Monday I received a call from the bank (first time ever): "We are happy to tell you that we cancelled the overdraft charges! Uh…and…by the way…uh…we made a mistake and doubled your deposit so we have to remove half of it…' (she sounded terrified). I laughed. "I saw that, ofcourse you have to; I don't want to be a thief. Does that mean that I DON'T HAVE TO COME INTO THE BANK AND STRAIGHTEN ANYTHING OUT?" We both laughed.
This is just another way of seeing how God watches over this country…we CERTAINLY don't do it by our own wits…and PLEASE don't tell our enemies about this!!
Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for carrying both the weight AND the joy. Loving blessings, your sister
"He said therefore, 'A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return.
And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.'"
Luke 19:12-13
"A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones."
Proverbs 17:22
Greetings, Sisters and Brothers in Yeshua, called, heeding the call, depending upon The Only One Who can ever fulfill that call…GREETINGS! May The Lord Yeshua h'meshiach, Jesus The Messiah, be blessed and glorified. May you be edified, refreshed and blessed.
"You went to the Bank AND the Post Office in the same day?!? WOW! Superwoman!" No one really said that to me, but they WOULD have had they known; and I DID say it to myself. I also added "Now you REALLY need to REST!"
When we made aliyah, that was one of the first warnings that we received everywhere: 'Do NOT plan to do any two bureaucratic transactions in the same day.' We thought that was funny…I mean…it WAS July, and it WAS hot (and there was no air-conditioning back then in most places, just very large ceiling fans)…but…'DON'T' is a pretty strong word.
We soon learned the wisdom of this instruction.
When we first came there were neither lines nor numbers…nor chairs; there were huge pushing mobs! We were used to…well…Western order and courtesy. Nor were we used to the fact that the Post Office also was a 'Postal Bank' and the Bank was also a place where you could do transactions that we were clueless about. Often the person in front of you would be there for an hour. The Hebrew word 'belegan' (loosely translated as 'chaos' - or -perhaps spaghetti thrown at a wall -) was really a perfect description. The 'wave of aliyah' that we immigrated with was the waning season of the Russian aliyah. Living under Communism for so many years, the Russians had mastered the fine art of 'I want to stand in front of you and if I push hard enough I can,', and being from America we had mastered the fine art of 'Well…ofcourse…excuse me…you first…I'm sorry.'
On top of this, the working hours for banks and post offices were sort of a mystery. 'You say the bank will be open Tuesday from 8-12 and the post office tomorrow from 9-2'? EVERYTHING closed between 2-4 and only SOME things opened in the afternoon and we could DEFINITELY NOT figure it out! We would attempt one chore in the morning and IF we succeeded to accomplish it without having to return the next day (or week), we would be ecstatic!
Things have changed.
First: there are signs and sometimes even in several languages which more and more is including English. There are now seats to wait in, numbers to take that are posted AND called over a loudspeaker, air-conditioning (so I take a sweater even during a sha'arav…heat wave off the desert) AND posted hours that I can write down and generally count on. The bank and the post have staggered their hours so that one is open in the afternoons on Sun, Tues and Thurs and the other on Mon and Wed. I have NOT mastered the newest item: making your appointment (to buy a stamp or do a bank transaction) online. I take a number. AND a book!
This Sunday was the first 'normal' day following weeks of holidays, elections, wars, mourning and more celebrations. I studied the schedules and the things that I HAD to do. The bank, which opened at 8:30, was only open until 1. I had deposited my pay check a week ago and it never showed up (fourth time!) so now I was 1,000 shekels in overdraft and they were charging me interest!
I got to the bank at 8:20 (kicking myself that it was so late as by now the line was long) and took a number that said F100. Could I really be FIRST?? YEP! The other people were trying to get in without a number. WOW! I WON! First time ever! The door swung open at 8:30 and we all sat down, eyes fixed on the screen. My number was called and I explained (in Hebrew) what had happened. 'Impossible' was the answer. Again I explained. She shook her head; 'Give me your teudot zehut' (Identity card).' Smugly she opened my files in her computer and called another woman over. 'This is the FOURTH TIME!' I told her as she backtracked embarrassedly . Time passes…adjustment somehow made. 'I want the interest paid back' I told them. Again they looked totally confused. After much discussion I was told 'I'm sorry. We can't do that. We don't have a WAY to do it.' Calmly I replied… 'So you are thieves and are stealing my money…because a person who takes what is not rightfully his is a thief.' That answer usually shakes people up, and it did this time too. These are people with moral standards usually. Thief is NOT a good thing to be. I gave them my phone number and with some re-assurances I left…running over to the post office.
The line was outside and around the building. Not a good sign! I took a number: 109. I looked up at the screen to see that they were up to… 67. I actually found a seat at which point the woman next to me began to scream at someone 'I have been here for an hour and you are taking a number that isn't yours?? Put that back!' She was loud enough that the woman did return the number that she had found on the floor. The tension in the room was palpable, so I prayed for His Peace and soon progress was made and I felt like someone who had accomplished a great feat: I HAD GONE TO THE BANK AND THE POST IN THE SAME MORNING! Ofcourse…I still had to do some shopping and babysit for my Granddaughters (it was my day off) but oh my…I had come of age! I am no longer a 'oleh hadasha' (new immigrant) but a 'vatika' (uh…I guess an OLD immigrant!).
That accomplishment was a good gift following a wonderful Yom h'atz'ma'oot! (Independence Day)
The week that I described in my last letter was capped off by a most wonderful day that I can't even begin to describe as I have in the past. I'm just adding this ONE ANECDOTAL PIECE OF INFORMATION FOR ANY OF YOU WHO COME AS A TOURIST: ALWAYS BRING YOUR PASSPORT AND VISA WHEN YOU GO OUT! (it's the law…and although it IS attached to a funny story, I do have to end here.
At this moment our daughter and two Granddaughters are in a plane headed to London to visit our older daughter for two weeks and we are all so excited (albeit I am ill again and do ask for your prayers that this will not progress into anything more serious. I am still weakened from the winter's hospitalization so am asking for prayer).
So although the balance of scripture tells us that sorrow is of more value than mirth, a time for laughter is still a gift from Him, and as it says in Proverbs 17:22 "A merry heart does good, like medicine…" and I hope that the vignette above left you with a merrier heart.
And oh, by the way, a little 'banking addendum'. I checked my account when I got home and saw that they had deposited the amount of my paycheck …BUT…they deposited it TWICE…3 minutes apart! I began to calculate when I could get back to the bank and convince them that they had made ANOTHER mistake! I did NOT want to be a thief. Monday I received a call from the bank (first time ever): "We are happy to tell you that we cancelled the overdraft charges! Uh…and…by the way…uh…we made a mistake and doubled your deposit so we have to remove half of it…' (she sounded terrified). I laughed. "I saw that, ofcourse you have to; I don't want to be a thief. Does that mean that I DON'T HAVE TO COME INTO THE BANK AND STRAIGHTEN ANYTHING OUT?" We both laughed.
This is just another way of seeing how God watches over this country…we CERTAINLY don't do it by our own wits…and PLEASE don't tell our enemies about this!!
Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for carrying both the weight AND the joy. Loving blessings, your sister
May 7, 2019
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."
Deuteronomy 6:4-8
(SO HOW WAS YOUR WEEK?)
May The Lord be glorified and may each of you be blessed. May all of our words, yours and mine, be before Him for His glory alone. Greetings, brothers and sisters in The Name of Yeshua h'meshiach, Jesus Christ, The One we long to know and follow with our whole hearts.
"Did you ever think that maybe it IS 'all our fault' after all?" I suddenly asked my boss, sort of out of nowhere. He looked up at me totally surprised and stuttered: "What do you mean?" Actually I had taken myself aback. It surprised me that I said those words out loud to him. "When you were young, didn't you ever think that maybe without us the world would all get along and there would be no problems, just like they say all the time?" He actually looked startled… but deeply stirred…uncomfortable and yet I sensed that this was not an unfamiliar thought to him…there was a deep and cloudy look that came across him…a familiar look. The next patient arrived and we were spared continuing the existential conversation that my sudden blurt had begun.
The short, impromptu conversation took place this past Friday, (is that REALLY only 4 days ago??) the day after 'Yom h'Shoah' or 'Holocaust Memorial Day' and…uh… I think the day BEFORE 'the sort-of-war'…(I mean if 4 people get killed by rockets - on our side - and 131 end up in hospital because of those rockets and people duck into shelters while air raid sirens sound…when 700 rockets strike our territory…is that a 'war' or well…definitions are mightily confused these days) It was an 'emotional moment' following an emotional day or so, as Israelis open their hearts and collective memory to share in the burden borne by those who survived the unsurvivable and the unthinkable. A powerful body of drama…recording…documentation has sprung from it and Israel has perfected the way to 'never forget', and, indeed it is necessary that we not forget. The stories are again shared…many for the first time and many for the last by those nearing 100 years old. I have asked for prayer before, specifically for the Holocaust survivors who have literally MAJORED in 'SURVIVAL'…having promised loved ones who didn't 'I will survive at any cost…for you and for them.' and now do not know HOW to 'let go'…to shed the painful decaying shell…they CAN'T…and they are suffering terribly, yet again. I was PLANNING on sharing with you some of the testimonies and some of the scenes that I witnessed. I wanted to share with you some new, amazing 'tools' to help teach the next generation (for example, a powerful tool to speak to teens called eva.stories - PLEASE 'google' eva.stories especially if you know teenagers. The diary of a young girl who died in the Holocaust was recently found and taken and transformed by the question 'What is there was Instigram during WW2?' and her diary was portrayed as instagram postings…and it is a powerful teaching tool as well as a touching docu-drama). I was "PLANNING" all sorts of things to share as we enter 'the week' between Holocaust Memorial, Soldiers and victims of terror Memorial - Yom h'zicheron - which runs into Independence day (Yom h'atz'maoot). It is the sort of 'DRAMATIC WEEK' that I really do not imagine takes place anywhere else.
All of our television stations stop their regular programming and either have a memorial screen or air testimonies, personal stories or powerful dramas concerning those who were part of the Holocaust and a week later those who perished or were left behind through our wars.
Three times within the week our sirens wail and the country stops and stands still…buses stop and people file out to stand along with those exiting cars, taxis or trains or stopping mid stride to bow their heads for a minute or two (depending upon the siren)…a nation bows in remembrance.
Restaurants and places of entertainment close and music is subdued.
On Friday, R, whose husband E I have asked for prayer for, ran in and gave me a BEAUTIFUL homemade challah (the special Shabbat bread usually a braid) in the shape of a key and told me that this was the beginning of the month of Iyar and the heavens would be open to all of our prayers and she was praying for His key to open heaven before us. (She is of Moroccan descent and this is one of their traditions. I was very touched and I want to tell you that E is so much better and has left his room for the first time in 4 months - even leaving the house! God answers prayer - Amen! Thank you for praying for him!)
To record and share so much with you…those were my plans.
HA!
That was BEFORE Saturday.
Remember. Holocaust remembrance day was Thursday and today is only Tuesday.
ROCKETS! Again.
Radios and computers on. When I woke up on Saturday morning, Shabbat, our quiet day, I heard that there had been 30 rockets in the south. Then 50. Then 120…the numbers rose fast and our planes began answering…bombing Gaza as tanks moved south and troops were mobilized. Those neat little devices that show the 'red alerts' sounding in different areas around the country were beeping nonstop. 'Red Alert in Beit Shemesh'??!!?? That is 'nearby'. Our Pastor lives in that area. The home front command reported shelters opened in Beer Sheva, Ashkelon, later Tel Aviv and Netanya. 'I think that we should sleep with our clothes on tonight.' I said to my husband, as I remembered everybody running for shelters here in Jerusalem in their nighties, trying not to look at one another while we all joked about remembering to sleep 'modestly'…was that only 3 or 4 years ago? By Sunday morning there were 4 dead on our side, killed by rocket shrapnel or direct hit - 131 had been hospitalized, many homes and cars damaged or destroyed, a school hit as well as Barzelai Hospital. Six hundred and ninety to seven hundred rockets had been shot at us over the exhausting two day period…and it wasn't even Yom h'zikeron yet!
It was Sunday and already the week was getting long.
I went to work on Sunday and R said 'Where is the shelter here? We need to have it ready.' My boss trekked out to the shelter counting how many seconds it takes to get to it. Another 'cease fire' was announced. Ramadan began last night. People are angry. How many times will this happen? Each time they start this their 'reward' is bigger…Grumbling begins 'They tell us when to start and they tell us when to stop! We are too weak! We need to :…' you fill in the blank a) wipe them out b) negotiate again c) …'maybe it is all our fault?' I thought about having said that to my boss on Friday…having watched Holocaust witnesses and remembering my own childhood and my own wonderings …'Are we so bad? So obstinate? Are we the worst? Why do they hate us so much? Just go away and the world will work just fine.'
I remember meeting The Lord and recall "He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him." Isaiah 53:3 'WHY LORD? HOW CAN THEY NOT KNOW HOW WONDERFUL YOU ARE?' I wept. It is bigger than I am…WAY bigger. So He gives me a small patch to stand on and says 'Be My Peace right there and do not look to the right or the left or try to figure it all out. STAND!'
'We will fight even if it is yom h'zikeron' or 'yom h'atz'maoot' I heard a general say on the news last night. 'There will be other times to celebrate and remember but defending our land and our people comes first. Always.' They were good and strengthening words…even as the flag laying ceremony was taking place 2 blocks away from our apartment at the Mount Herzl Military Cemetery and as families began to come from around the country to sit and wail at the graves of beloveds snatched away, so many in their youth…young mothers bringing tiny children to show them their father and to show their father his children…only they can not touch one another. This was spoken as the flags were being hung all over the city of Jerusalem.
Our younger daughter and two small Granddaughters are going to London next week, Lord willing, to visit our older daughter and family and we went gift shopping today (Tuesday, my day off). In a small store a beggar came to the owner. As he left the owner said to this ancient weathered man, 'Chag atz'maoot Sameach!' The old man countered 'How can you wish us rejoice when we have buried so many dead? How can we rejoice?' What a fascinating passionate half hour speech followed in RAPID Hebrew! 'How can we rejoice, you ask? How can we NOT rejoice! We have a country and we have our God and we MUST rejoice!' As the beggar left he told us that he grew up right nearby, on rehov h'nevi'im (the Street of the Prophets) and he was stoned for the first time (by rock throwing Arabs) when he was just 4. 'How could anyone deliberately stone a 4 year old child?' he asked us incredulously. 'I had an Arab friend and he told me one time: You Jews do us a great favor. If we didn't join together to hate you and kill you we would be killing each other. My people have to kill…I don't know why.' He went on for a LONG time. My daughter and I were both touched by his passion; for God, for life, and for this nation to survive. 'Do you know how many pegu'im (terror attacks) have taken place right in front of my shop? I can not count them all! It is our God Whom they hate, but He is stronger…Bless His Name!'
Second Kings 18 and 19 describe so powerfully how God defended the nation (Judea anyway) when the heart of the King (Hezekiah in this case) truly sought HIM! I LOVE this portion…it screams to me 'He has SHOWN you, oh man, what is good and what He requires of you!' His ways are truly so simple…and yet past finding out…and yet simple! Oh that our people would turn to Him! Oh that my own heart would be fixed on Him!
It is almost time for the siren announcing the beginning of Yom h'zikeron. The flag will be dropped to half mast… the weeping and comforting and telling and re- telling of stories…and it will miraculously end…oh WILL they do it again? tomorrow (Wed.) night at 8pm with the transition ceremony from weeping to rejoicing and dancing in the streets and gathering and singing and recounting stories and yes, praying …oh my!
And this one 'year-long-week' is also in The Hands of The God Who IS ABLE! May He perfect those things that concern us…you and your family, me and mine…your nation…my nation…HIS body…He is well able. I am seeking for my opinions and my heart to be silent and to look to Him for all direction. I know that you are too. God BLESS you and KEEP you! Lovingly, your sis.
"For the Lord spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying: “Do not say, ‘A conspiracy, ’Concerning all that this people call a conspiracy,
Nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. The Lord of hosts, Him you shall hallow; Let Him be your fear,
And let Him be your dread."
Isaiah 8:11-13
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."
Deuteronomy 6:4-8
(SO HOW WAS YOUR WEEK?)
May The Lord be glorified and may each of you be blessed. May all of our words, yours and mine, be before Him for His glory alone. Greetings, brothers and sisters in The Name of Yeshua h'meshiach, Jesus Christ, The One we long to know and follow with our whole hearts.
"Did you ever think that maybe it IS 'all our fault' after all?" I suddenly asked my boss, sort of out of nowhere. He looked up at me totally surprised and stuttered: "What do you mean?" Actually I had taken myself aback. It surprised me that I said those words out loud to him. "When you were young, didn't you ever think that maybe without us the world would all get along and there would be no problems, just like they say all the time?" He actually looked startled… but deeply stirred…uncomfortable and yet I sensed that this was not an unfamiliar thought to him…there was a deep and cloudy look that came across him…a familiar look. The next patient arrived and we were spared continuing the existential conversation that my sudden blurt had begun.
The short, impromptu conversation took place this past Friday, (is that REALLY only 4 days ago??) the day after 'Yom h'Shoah' or 'Holocaust Memorial Day' and…uh… I think the day BEFORE 'the sort-of-war'…(I mean if 4 people get killed by rockets - on our side - and 131 end up in hospital because of those rockets and people duck into shelters while air raid sirens sound…when 700 rockets strike our territory…is that a 'war' or well…definitions are mightily confused these days) It was an 'emotional moment' following an emotional day or so, as Israelis open their hearts and collective memory to share in the burden borne by those who survived the unsurvivable and the unthinkable. A powerful body of drama…recording…documentation has sprung from it and Israel has perfected the way to 'never forget', and, indeed it is necessary that we not forget. The stories are again shared…many for the first time and many for the last by those nearing 100 years old. I have asked for prayer before, specifically for the Holocaust survivors who have literally MAJORED in 'SURVIVAL'…having promised loved ones who didn't 'I will survive at any cost…for you and for them.' and now do not know HOW to 'let go'…to shed the painful decaying shell…they CAN'T…and they are suffering terribly, yet again. I was PLANNING on sharing with you some of the testimonies and some of the scenes that I witnessed. I wanted to share with you some new, amazing 'tools' to help teach the next generation (for example, a powerful tool to speak to teens called eva.stories - PLEASE 'google' eva.stories especially if you know teenagers. The diary of a young girl who died in the Holocaust was recently found and taken and transformed by the question 'What is there was Instigram during WW2?' and her diary was portrayed as instagram postings…and it is a powerful teaching tool as well as a touching docu-drama). I was "PLANNING" all sorts of things to share as we enter 'the week' between Holocaust Memorial, Soldiers and victims of terror Memorial - Yom h'zicheron - which runs into Independence day (Yom h'atz'maoot). It is the sort of 'DRAMATIC WEEK' that I really do not imagine takes place anywhere else.
All of our television stations stop their regular programming and either have a memorial screen or air testimonies, personal stories or powerful dramas concerning those who were part of the Holocaust and a week later those who perished or were left behind through our wars.
Three times within the week our sirens wail and the country stops and stands still…buses stop and people file out to stand along with those exiting cars, taxis or trains or stopping mid stride to bow their heads for a minute or two (depending upon the siren)…a nation bows in remembrance.
Restaurants and places of entertainment close and music is subdued.
On Friday, R, whose husband E I have asked for prayer for, ran in and gave me a BEAUTIFUL homemade challah (the special Shabbat bread usually a braid) in the shape of a key and told me that this was the beginning of the month of Iyar and the heavens would be open to all of our prayers and she was praying for His key to open heaven before us. (She is of Moroccan descent and this is one of their traditions. I was very touched and I want to tell you that E is so much better and has left his room for the first time in 4 months - even leaving the house! God answers prayer - Amen! Thank you for praying for him!)
To record and share so much with you…those were my plans.
HA!
That was BEFORE Saturday.
Remember. Holocaust remembrance day was Thursday and today is only Tuesday.
ROCKETS! Again.
Radios and computers on. When I woke up on Saturday morning, Shabbat, our quiet day, I heard that there had been 30 rockets in the south. Then 50. Then 120…the numbers rose fast and our planes began answering…bombing Gaza as tanks moved south and troops were mobilized. Those neat little devices that show the 'red alerts' sounding in different areas around the country were beeping nonstop. 'Red Alert in Beit Shemesh'??!!?? That is 'nearby'. Our Pastor lives in that area. The home front command reported shelters opened in Beer Sheva, Ashkelon, later Tel Aviv and Netanya. 'I think that we should sleep with our clothes on tonight.' I said to my husband, as I remembered everybody running for shelters here in Jerusalem in their nighties, trying not to look at one another while we all joked about remembering to sleep 'modestly'…was that only 3 or 4 years ago? By Sunday morning there were 4 dead on our side, killed by rocket shrapnel or direct hit - 131 had been hospitalized, many homes and cars damaged or destroyed, a school hit as well as Barzelai Hospital. Six hundred and ninety to seven hundred rockets had been shot at us over the exhausting two day period…and it wasn't even Yom h'zikeron yet!
It was Sunday and already the week was getting long.
I went to work on Sunday and R said 'Where is the shelter here? We need to have it ready.' My boss trekked out to the shelter counting how many seconds it takes to get to it. Another 'cease fire' was announced. Ramadan began last night. People are angry. How many times will this happen? Each time they start this their 'reward' is bigger…Grumbling begins 'They tell us when to start and they tell us when to stop! We are too weak! We need to :…' you fill in the blank a) wipe them out b) negotiate again c) …'maybe it is all our fault?' I thought about having said that to my boss on Friday…having watched Holocaust witnesses and remembering my own childhood and my own wonderings …'Are we so bad? So obstinate? Are we the worst? Why do they hate us so much? Just go away and the world will work just fine.'
I remember meeting The Lord and recall "He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him." Isaiah 53:3 'WHY LORD? HOW CAN THEY NOT KNOW HOW WONDERFUL YOU ARE?' I wept. It is bigger than I am…WAY bigger. So He gives me a small patch to stand on and says 'Be My Peace right there and do not look to the right or the left or try to figure it all out. STAND!'
'We will fight even if it is yom h'zikeron' or 'yom h'atz'maoot' I heard a general say on the news last night. 'There will be other times to celebrate and remember but defending our land and our people comes first. Always.' They were good and strengthening words…even as the flag laying ceremony was taking place 2 blocks away from our apartment at the Mount Herzl Military Cemetery and as families began to come from around the country to sit and wail at the graves of beloveds snatched away, so many in their youth…young mothers bringing tiny children to show them their father and to show their father his children…only they can not touch one another. This was spoken as the flags were being hung all over the city of Jerusalem.
Our younger daughter and two small Granddaughters are going to London next week, Lord willing, to visit our older daughter and family and we went gift shopping today (Tuesday, my day off). In a small store a beggar came to the owner. As he left the owner said to this ancient weathered man, 'Chag atz'maoot Sameach!' The old man countered 'How can you wish us rejoice when we have buried so many dead? How can we rejoice?' What a fascinating passionate half hour speech followed in RAPID Hebrew! 'How can we rejoice, you ask? How can we NOT rejoice! We have a country and we have our God and we MUST rejoice!' As the beggar left he told us that he grew up right nearby, on rehov h'nevi'im (the Street of the Prophets) and he was stoned for the first time (by rock throwing Arabs) when he was just 4. 'How could anyone deliberately stone a 4 year old child?' he asked us incredulously. 'I had an Arab friend and he told me one time: You Jews do us a great favor. If we didn't join together to hate you and kill you we would be killing each other. My people have to kill…I don't know why.' He went on for a LONG time. My daughter and I were both touched by his passion; for God, for life, and for this nation to survive. 'Do you know how many pegu'im (terror attacks) have taken place right in front of my shop? I can not count them all! It is our God Whom they hate, but He is stronger…Bless His Name!'
Second Kings 18 and 19 describe so powerfully how God defended the nation (Judea anyway) when the heart of the King (Hezekiah in this case) truly sought HIM! I LOVE this portion…it screams to me 'He has SHOWN you, oh man, what is good and what He requires of you!' His ways are truly so simple…and yet past finding out…and yet simple! Oh that our people would turn to Him! Oh that my own heart would be fixed on Him!
It is almost time for the siren announcing the beginning of Yom h'zikeron. The flag will be dropped to half mast… the weeping and comforting and telling and re- telling of stories…and it will miraculously end…oh WILL they do it again? tomorrow (Wed.) night at 8pm with the transition ceremony from weeping to rejoicing and dancing in the streets and gathering and singing and recounting stories and yes, praying …oh my!
And this one 'year-long-week' is also in The Hands of The God Who IS ABLE! May He perfect those things that concern us…you and your family, me and mine…your nation…my nation…HIS body…He is well able. I am seeking for my opinions and my heart to be silent and to look to Him for all direction. I know that you are too. God BLESS you and KEEP you! Lovingly, your sis.
"For the Lord spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying: “Do not say, ‘A conspiracy, ’Concerning all that this people call a conspiracy,
Nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. The Lord of hosts, Him you shall hallow; Let Him be your fear,
And let Him be your dread."
Isaiah 8:11-13
April 24, 2019
“The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.”
NUMBERS 6:24-26 Shalom from Jerusalem dear sisters and brothers. May THE LORD be blessed and glorified and may you be encouraged toward Him. LORD…ALL for YOUR glory!!
That is a SHORT greeting from me, but I don't want to forget the sweet things that I have to share.
I have just gotten home from work and scarfed down an Israeli salad while still grinning on the inside from the scenes I have just enjoyed.
I'm SO glad that I didn't write yesterday when I had the time and have put it off until today when I definitely DON'T have the time or energy, but oh, come along with me because if I would have written yesterday I would not have had the window of hope and joy that I have today.
Tomorrow night at sundown, we will again sit down to our last Passover feast as the commands are to set apart the first and last day of Passover as a Holy day unto The Lord. This year Passover will end Friday at sundown…just in time for Shabbat to come in, effectively lengthening the holiday by a day as there will still be no bread…buying or selling (except for those who go into the Arab and more secular areas) until Sunday morning. That's fine with me as we have WAY TOO MUCH MATZO left!
I read a lovely true story yesterday of a young immigrant who didn't have anywhere in particular to go for Passover Seder and while taking a taxi home was asked point blank, by the taxi driver what she was doing for Seder. When she said that she would be home…alone…he INSISTED that she come to his home and join his family Seder, which she did, with the many generations of Yemenite Jews…and how at home she felt.
My experiences today made me feel…well…'at home'…and that is not always the way immigrants feel.
Until today, the weather has been unusually cold and wet, but today a hot dry wind blew in and the scenes that do warm my heart began to take place before my eyes.
'Nahag,(driver) nahag! How much longer until we arrive?' I looked to see what child would have called out to the bus driver, but, no! A grown woman with a sleeping baby in her arms, two or 3 other children and her husband had called out. The answer came: 'Solvanut! (be patient) I will tell you when we get there. It is a long while yet.' The driver sighed as they poured over the map and reminded him that they wanted to get off at the museum at Givat Ram. I quickly understood that this was NOT the first time that they had asked him (nor would it be the last!). I smiled at one of the sons who appeared to be about 9, all excited, bright eyed and bushy tailed as we used to say. 'Givat Ram! Doesn't that say Givat Ram? Are we here now?' The mother said again as the bus driver rolled his eyes, visible in his mirror. With my eyes, I took in the family with delight. They were an Israeli family but visiting Jerusalem from another area. They had a thick book about all of the places to visit in Jerusalem and were reading it intently. Religious families usually have several things in common. One is that they believe in very large families and I enjoy watching the dynamics. Secondly, they lead, by choice, a much more sequestered -sheltered from the world - life so have a (in my opinion) a delightful naiveté. It shows in their excitement at things that are often boring to more secular families.
Our own children were raised on the remote Alaskan Tundra and our village was very tiny with one road.The only way in and out was by plane. They also retained a naiveté that was made so apparent when we took a trip to the 'lower 48' one year. We were blessed to own a washing machine, but it was a 'top loader'. On the trip down we stopped at a Laundromat in a 'big town' and our (then) 8 year old daughter saw a front load washing machine for the first time in her life and got so excited yelling 'Mama look! The clothes go this way and now that way!' She was totally enthralled! I suddenly noticed people looking at her with a look of 'poor child…' and realized that they had no idea that this was such a brand new experience for her. It was the same when we stopped in a restaurant and she experienced 'real milk' instead of 'powdered milk' for the first time and we pointed out the cows in the field while the waitress stared on shocked. But what can I say when our older daughter was 6 and we had to stay 'in town' (a big city) for awhile and her 'bush school teacher' took her on a field trip to a 'car wash' and was she ever blown away! So naïve is - yes- delightful to me…watching people who are able to be enthralled by simple pleasures seems rare these days.
Well let me get back to this little Yemenite Religious family on the bus. We arrived at the science museum and they checked their guide book and decided that they had to get off so they all rose and filled the aisle in unison. The driver slammed the door. 'AAHHH' squawked the Mama. 'Isn't this 'IT'?' Shaking his head he said 'Nope! I said I would tell you. It is the next one.' They all sat down, but as the next stop came into sight what excitement filled the bus! 'Chag Semaech!' (Joyful Holyday!) we all chorused to the family. 'Chag Semaech!' they chimed back at us in the bus, smiling from ear to ear.
As they got off, another religious family got on after leaving the museum. This one had 7 teenage 'children' who were equally excited and naïve. They were not sure how to use their bus passes and tried unsuccessfully several different ways. Finally I watched as the father took the 9 passes to the driver who explained to him 'In Jerusalem THIS is the way that you have to do it.' One of the brothers began reading from a tour book about something that they had just seen to his sisters and brothers and they were all fascinated. Such excitement continued to increase at each stop as more large families got on and off, the scene replayed again and again. I noticed that I was smiling from ear to ear. People were moving all over the city, learning, enjoying, as families.
It changed a bit as I got on the train. The bus had held all religious families but on the train I was met by groups of secular families with tired, yes, noisier children. One woman stood for me to sit and insisted. Her husband stood beside her and her brother, sitting across from me held 3 squirmy little ones ranging from maybe 2-6 years. He was singing 'Shabhai, Yerushalym' (from Psalm 147). Soon another took up a rendition of Jerusalem of Gold (Yerushalym shel zahav). 'Are we in Haifa?' He asked one of the children mischievously. They laughed 'No Abba! We are in JERUSALEM!' they said jumping up and down. He began asking them questions about Jerusalem and they answered with excitement.
It was my stop…but I didn't want to get off. The scenes were so tender! The population was indeed loving Jerusalem…coming 'up' to worship in different ways…to wonder still at the ancient city…'OUR' city….GOD'S city! 'Chag semaech vay brachim h'baim l'Yerushalym' I said to them as I got off (Holiday joy and WELCOME TO JERUSALEM!) and they smiled and waved back 'todah todah! Chag semaech!' (thank you thank you! Holiday joy!)
Monday was the Blessing of the Cohenim…the time of the 'High Priestly Blessing' when thousands gather in front of the Western wall as those who trace their heritage to the Cohenim (or priestly tribe) extend their hands and recite the Ahronic blessing prayer printed at the top of this letter over the rest of the congregation of the house of Israel. In spite of the cold rain many thousands were there. It is a time to be in the Old City walls…the place where the Temple stood as Passover is one of the 3 feasts that all Jewish men are commanded to come 'up to Jerusalem' and to present themselves before The Lord.
I am thankful to see this beauty and report it to you…beauty in my eyes anyway.
The heaviness of the political and simply human situation in the world threatens to overwhelm me on occasion and the awful bombings in Sri Lanka laid a shared blanket of grief over Israel. Many of you have written to comment on our elections and it reminds me that our political system is complicated and awfully hard to understand and we haven't as yet 'elected a Prime Minister' exactly. Both the Likud (Prime Minister Netanyahu's party) and the Blue and White lead by Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz, received the same number of votes, but Likud had the 'stronger coalition' therefore it has been recommended that Prime Minister Netanyahu be charged with 'forming a new government'. IF he can do it within the prescribed 28 days, THEN the Prime Minister needs to be selected (yes, likely him) from within the governing ranks. If he can't succeed, then Gantz and Lapid will be given a go at it, but they are mostly backed by the Arab parties and the far left which is far smaller a coalition. I hope that explanation did not complicate it more!
My heart is full finally. I wondered if it would fill up this Pesach as it seemed as if fatigue was overwhelming me yet still. I am thankful that The Lord IS INDEED ALIVE AND ABOVE ALL and that He has give me yet another glimpse to share. GOD BLESS YOU AND KEEP YOU AND MAKE HIS FACE TO SHINE UPON YOU! Lovingly, your sister
shabechi Yerushalayim
“The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.”
NUMBERS 6:24-26 Shalom from Jerusalem dear sisters and brothers. May THE LORD be blessed and glorified and may you be encouraged toward Him. LORD…ALL for YOUR glory!!
That is a SHORT greeting from me, but I don't want to forget the sweet things that I have to share.
I have just gotten home from work and scarfed down an Israeli salad while still grinning on the inside from the scenes I have just enjoyed.
I'm SO glad that I didn't write yesterday when I had the time and have put it off until today when I definitely DON'T have the time or energy, but oh, come along with me because if I would have written yesterday I would not have had the window of hope and joy that I have today.
Tomorrow night at sundown, we will again sit down to our last Passover feast as the commands are to set apart the first and last day of Passover as a Holy day unto The Lord. This year Passover will end Friday at sundown…just in time for Shabbat to come in, effectively lengthening the holiday by a day as there will still be no bread…buying or selling (except for those who go into the Arab and more secular areas) until Sunday morning. That's fine with me as we have WAY TOO MUCH MATZO left!
I read a lovely true story yesterday of a young immigrant who didn't have anywhere in particular to go for Passover Seder and while taking a taxi home was asked point blank, by the taxi driver what she was doing for Seder. When she said that she would be home…alone…he INSISTED that she come to his home and join his family Seder, which she did, with the many generations of Yemenite Jews…and how at home she felt.
My experiences today made me feel…well…'at home'…and that is not always the way immigrants feel.
Until today, the weather has been unusually cold and wet, but today a hot dry wind blew in and the scenes that do warm my heart began to take place before my eyes.
'Nahag,(driver) nahag! How much longer until we arrive?' I looked to see what child would have called out to the bus driver, but, no! A grown woman with a sleeping baby in her arms, two or 3 other children and her husband had called out. The answer came: 'Solvanut! (be patient) I will tell you when we get there. It is a long while yet.' The driver sighed as they poured over the map and reminded him that they wanted to get off at the museum at Givat Ram. I quickly understood that this was NOT the first time that they had asked him (nor would it be the last!). I smiled at one of the sons who appeared to be about 9, all excited, bright eyed and bushy tailed as we used to say. 'Givat Ram! Doesn't that say Givat Ram? Are we here now?' The mother said again as the bus driver rolled his eyes, visible in his mirror. With my eyes, I took in the family with delight. They were an Israeli family but visiting Jerusalem from another area. They had a thick book about all of the places to visit in Jerusalem and were reading it intently. Religious families usually have several things in common. One is that they believe in very large families and I enjoy watching the dynamics. Secondly, they lead, by choice, a much more sequestered -sheltered from the world - life so have a (in my opinion) a delightful naiveté. It shows in their excitement at things that are often boring to more secular families.
Our own children were raised on the remote Alaskan Tundra and our village was very tiny with one road.The only way in and out was by plane. They also retained a naiveté that was made so apparent when we took a trip to the 'lower 48' one year. We were blessed to own a washing machine, but it was a 'top loader'. On the trip down we stopped at a Laundromat in a 'big town' and our (then) 8 year old daughter saw a front load washing machine for the first time in her life and got so excited yelling 'Mama look! The clothes go this way and now that way!' She was totally enthralled! I suddenly noticed people looking at her with a look of 'poor child…' and realized that they had no idea that this was such a brand new experience for her. It was the same when we stopped in a restaurant and she experienced 'real milk' instead of 'powdered milk' for the first time and we pointed out the cows in the field while the waitress stared on shocked. But what can I say when our older daughter was 6 and we had to stay 'in town' (a big city) for awhile and her 'bush school teacher' took her on a field trip to a 'car wash' and was she ever blown away! So naïve is - yes- delightful to me…watching people who are able to be enthralled by simple pleasures seems rare these days.
Well let me get back to this little Yemenite Religious family on the bus. We arrived at the science museum and they checked their guide book and decided that they had to get off so they all rose and filled the aisle in unison. The driver slammed the door. 'AAHHH' squawked the Mama. 'Isn't this 'IT'?' Shaking his head he said 'Nope! I said I would tell you. It is the next one.' They all sat down, but as the next stop came into sight what excitement filled the bus! 'Chag Semaech!' (Joyful Holyday!) we all chorused to the family. 'Chag Semaech!' they chimed back at us in the bus, smiling from ear to ear.
As they got off, another religious family got on after leaving the museum. This one had 7 teenage 'children' who were equally excited and naïve. They were not sure how to use their bus passes and tried unsuccessfully several different ways. Finally I watched as the father took the 9 passes to the driver who explained to him 'In Jerusalem THIS is the way that you have to do it.' One of the brothers began reading from a tour book about something that they had just seen to his sisters and brothers and they were all fascinated. Such excitement continued to increase at each stop as more large families got on and off, the scene replayed again and again. I noticed that I was smiling from ear to ear. People were moving all over the city, learning, enjoying, as families.
It changed a bit as I got on the train. The bus had held all religious families but on the train I was met by groups of secular families with tired, yes, noisier children. One woman stood for me to sit and insisted. Her husband stood beside her and her brother, sitting across from me held 3 squirmy little ones ranging from maybe 2-6 years. He was singing 'Shabhai, Yerushalym' (from Psalm 147). Soon another took up a rendition of Jerusalem of Gold (Yerushalym shel zahav). 'Are we in Haifa?' He asked one of the children mischievously. They laughed 'No Abba! We are in JERUSALEM!' they said jumping up and down. He began asking them questions about Jerusalem and they answered with excitement.
It was my stop…but I didn't want to get off. The scenes were so tender! The population was indeed loving Jerusalem…coming 'up' to worship in different ways…to wonder still at the ancient city…'OUR' city….GOD'S city! 'Chag semaech vay brachim h'baim l'Yerushalym' I said to them as I got off (Holiday joy and WELCOME TO JERUSALEM!) and they smiled and waved back 'todah todah! Chag semaech!' (thank you thank you! Holiday joy!)
Monday was the Blessing of the Cohenim…the time of the 'High Priestly Blessing' when thousands gather in front of the Western wall as those who trace their heritage to the Cohenim (or priestly tribe) extend their hands and recite the Ahronic blessing prayer printed at the top of this letter over the rest of the congregation of the house of Israel. In spite of the cold rain many thousands were there. It is a time to be in the Old City walls…the place where the Temple stood as Passover is one of the 3 feasts that all Jewish men are commanded to come 'up to Jerusalem' and to present themselves before The Lord.
I am thankful to see this beauty and report it to you…beauty in my eyes anyway.
The heaviness of the political and simply human situation in the world threatens to overwhelm me on occasion and the awful bombings in Sri Lanka laid a shared blanket of grief over Israel. Many of you have written to comment on our elections and it reminds me that our political system is complicated and awfully hard to understand and we haven't as yet 'elected a Prime Minister' exactly. Both the Likud (Prime Minister Netanyahu's party) and the Blue and White lead by Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz, received the same number of votes, but Likud had the 'stronger coalition' therefore it has been recommended that Prime Minister Netanyahu be charged with 'forming a new government'. IF he can do it within the prescribed 28 days, THEN the Prime Minister needs to be selected (yes, likely him) from within the governing ranks. If he can't succeed, then Gantz and Lapid will be given a go at it, but they are mostly backed by the Arab parties and the far left which is far smaller a coalition. I hope that explanation did not complicate it more!
My heart is full finally. I wondered if it would fill up this Pesach as it seemed as if fatigue was overwhelming me yet still. I am thankful that The Lord IS INDEED ALIVE AND ABOVE ALL and that He has give me yet another glimpse to share. GOD BLESS YOU AND KEEP YOU AND MAKE HIS FACE TO SHINE UPON YOU! Lovingly, your sister
shabechi Yerushalayim
April 20, 2019
Greetings with grace and mercy in The Blessed Name of our Lord, Yeshua h'meshiach… DELIVERER…SAVIOUR… BLESSED PASSOVER LAMB. May HE be truly glorified and blessed and may you and I be fruitful in our walk with Him, bringing to Him the offering of the glory and honor and praise that HE deserves … abundantly.
Today is Passover here…and tomorrow morning; the Resurrection is recognized…but I must go to work. WHAT A TIME!
Our Seder is now past (last night) and it is a well needed day of rest for me today. We now have 7 days of matzo before us…no leaven to be seen and a full holiday for much of the country (although I get to work as my boss - the Doctor - continues to have clinic) with children out of school and oh so many tourists mingling with the happy crowds.
DELIVERANCE into LIFE is what The Holy Spirit seems to be pressing into my heart this year…both the Exodus from Egypt and the Exodus from sin and death…great DELIVERANCE worked not by man's hands but by God's outstretched arm! No…I can't grasp it…it is too great for me…but I can worship and weep and bask in the truth that we serve The True and Living God and He has made the way through! WOW!
It is cold (by our standards here) and rainy and we are not planning on going to the Garden Tomb tomorrow morning. Last year we could barely see through the cell phones and other technology lifted high to record the yearly service and the chatter of people prevented our ears from hearing as well. I now also work on Sunday so years and patterns and traditions change…but HE doesn't!
Our Seder last night was small but wonderful. We had a pastor friend and his wife and another lovely couple newly arrived from England and the fellowship was rich and free and there was a sense of the body and of being pleasing to The Lord. We recounted the ancient story of Divine Deliverance from slavery into Life along with the commandment to remember and never forget…to pass the story from generation to generation and reading the ancient texts and the haggadah we spoke about how it was the same when celebrated by Yeshua, Who also remembered AND fulfilled…and how the story was ancient when HE called the disciples together and told them:
“Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.” ’ ”So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover." Matthew 26:18, 19
It is now 2,000 years MORE ancient and still being told…AGAIN in the land of Israel…unbroken, the story recounted in word and song… generation to generation. Would we crucify Him afresh this year as a people? How will Zechariah 12 play out? How will it look this time around? How will the eyes of all of the people be open and once again…'ALL ISRAEL WILL BE SAVED…' Not this time from the Pharaoh or slavery into our own promised land, but into the fullness of Life in Messiah? How will it look? And will we be found faithful to be and do and pray our part?
These are not the traditional 'Passover Questions' but the ones that fill our hearts and minds this year as we gathered around the table together. Today I heard of so many other wonderful Seders around the country as believers met in homes of other believers, gathering to recount the history and pass it down to the children…gathering to pray and worship The Lamb…that we may be a faithful part of the history leading from deliverance to DELIVERANCE.
Our tables are laden with the goodness and faithfulness of The God Who provides. "Let all who are hungry come and eat" says our haggadas and so it is. It should not be that anyone is alone on Passover. Exodus 12:4 says
"…a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb."I personally know of families who gather 70 or more. Ours was small…just 6 of us but enough to be gathered and rejoice together. Our Pastor friend always brings some insights that speak to my husband's heart. The Spirit of Joy lifts our hearts and it is the joy of Psalm 133 "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brethren to dwell together in unity!’
I will keep it short. I had wanted to share (and hopefully will share more later this week) with you at this time when the two dates fall together, some of the flavor here but I keep coming back in my heart to the total focus being The Deliverer Who has brought us Deliverance… and how MUCH the full revelation of HIM HIMSELF is needed today…here…and where each of us are. May the focus and concerns of HIS heart be all that occupies ours. And may He Alone get ALL OF THE GLORY! (and to borrow the words of the old song) Because HE lives, we can all face tomorrow.
Lovingly, your sister here.
Greetings with grace and mercy in The Blessed Name of our Lord, Yeshua h'meshiach… DELIVERER…SAVIOUR… BLESSED PASSOVER LAMB. May HE be truly glorified and blessed and may you and I be fruitful in our walk with Him, bringing to Him the offering of the glory and honor and praise that HE deserves … abundantly.
Today is Passover here…and tomorrow morning; the Resurrection is recognized…but I must go to work. WHAT A TIME!
Our Seder is now past (last night) and it is a well needed day of rest for me today. We now have 7 days of matzo before us…no leaven to be seen and a full holiday for much of the country (although I get to work as my boss - the Doctor - continues to have clinic) with children out of school and oh so many tourists mingling with the happy crowds.
DELIVERANCE into LIFE is what The Holy Spirit seems to be pressing into my heart this year…both the Exodus from Egypt and the Exodus from sin and death…great DELIVERANCE worked not by man's hands but by God's outstretched arm! No…I can't grasp it…it is too great for me…but I can worship and weep and bask in the truth that we serve The True and Living God and He has made the way through! WOW!
It is cold (by our standards here) and rainy and we are not planning on going to the Garden Tomb tomorrow morning. Last year we could barely see through the cell phones and other technology lifted high to record the yearly service and the chatter of people prevented our ears from hearing as well. I now also work on Sunday so years and patterns and traditions change…but HE doesn't!
Our Seder last night was small but wonderful. We had a pastor friend and his wife and another lovely couple newly arrived from England and the fellowship was rich and free and there was a sense of the body and of being pleasing to The Lord. We recounted the ancient story of Divine Deliverance from slavery into Life along with the commandment to remember and never forget…to pass the story from generation to generation and reading the ancient texts and the haggadah we spoke about how it was the same when celebrated by Yeshua, Who also remembered AND fulfilled…and how the story was ancient when HE called the disciples together and told them:
“Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.” ’ ”So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover." Matthew 26:18, 19
It is now 2,000 years MORE ancient and still being told…AGAIN in the land of Israel…unbroken, the story recounted in word and song… generation to generation. Would we crucify Him afresh this year as a people? How will Zechariah 12 play out? How will it look this time around? How will the eyes of all of the people be open and once again…'ALL ISRAEL WILL BE SAVED…' Not this time from the Pharaoh or slavery into our own promised land, but into the fullness of Life in Messiah? How will it look? And will we be found faithful to be and do and pray our part?
These are not the traditional 'Passover Questions' but the ones that fill our hearts and minds this year as we gathered around the table together. Today I heard of so many other wonderful Seders around the country as believers met in homes of other believers, gathering to recount the history and pass it down to the children…gathering to pray and worship The Lamb…that we may be a faithful part of the history leading from deliverance to DELIVERANCE.
Our tables are laden with the goodness and faithfulness of The God Who provides. "Let all who are hungry come and eat" says our haggadas and so it is. It should not be that anyone is alone on Passover. Exodus 12:4 says
"…a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb."I personally know of families who gather 70 or more. Ours was small…just 6 of us but enough to be gathered and rejoice together. Our Pastor friend always brings some insights that speak to my husband's heart. The Spirit of Joy lifts our hearts and it is the joy of Psalm 133 "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brethren to dwell together in unity!’
I will keep it short. I had wanted to share (and hopefully will share more later this week) with you at this time when the two dates fall together, some of the flavor here but I keep coming back in my heart to the total focus being The Deliverer Who has brought us Deliverance… and how MUCH the full revelation of HIM HIMSELF is needed today…here…and where each of us are. May the focus and concerns of HIS heart be all that occupies ours. And may He Alone get ALL OF THE GLORY! (and to borrow the words of the old song) Because HE lives, we can all face tomorrow.
Lovingly, your sister here.
April 7, 2019
Dear brothers and sisters: Shalom! "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." May HE ALONE be glorified…and may you be blessed and edified…May The Lord receive JOY in His children!
This will be a short email about a day long on deep feelings: It is a day that I step back and understand more of what it is to be an Israeli…and wonder. "Mamash m'rageshet!" (very much deep emotion) said my seat mate on the train this morning as we approached the shuk. I had held the seat down beside me for a lovely, dignified looking lady, about my age, making it easier for her to sit (when someone holds the 'pop up' seat down for you). She had thick black hair and just a lovely countenance. I don't remember HOW we opened the conversation…but there it was…all of those 'feelings'!
You know…I MIGHT have 'missed it' had it not been for a friend of mine, a sister in The Lord, who tirelessly worked to support the families of soldiers missing in action for all of the years that I have known her… and the Baumel family in particular. She worked behind the scenes but also right in there, personally, face to face with the families…filling needs…being there for them…and so through her I began to see some of the pain and understand some of the suffering. Hers was the first message that I saw this morning. "What? Do you mean it? Zachery Baumel's body (or rather his bones) returned to be buried here after THIRTY SEVEN YEARS?" Zachery is really coming home? It seemed like a fantastic dream, but as I write, still unsure if I have the strength to make it just up the road a ways to the Herzl Military Cemetery on the top of the hill and join with the thousands coming to the funeral…37 years late.
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Well…I DIDN'T have the strength so I watched the emotional ceremony that joined the entire nation, on our television. (and this is being written 3 days later and this letter will not be so short) The operation had been called 'Operation Bitter Sweet' and it was appropriately named for sure. Gathering a few more details from my friend several days later, I learned that it all happened 'suddenly'. The family did not know until they were told 'He is home'…and the funeral in our military cemetery had to be planned in hours, and thousands came. I heard some of the behind the scenes nearly unbelievable intrigue and marveled in the fact that He indeed calls us as we are…WHERE we are…chooses unlikely vessels not long on talent, but 'WILLING'. 'Here I am Lord. Send me.' So as a small body of believers here in the land, He plants us in the midst of places we would never have guessed…you shall be My witnesses…before kings and presidents and oh my…Esther was, after all, just a Jewish orphan but The Lord brought her into the heart and house of the king. I guess, after all of these years, it does not surprise me - and yet it always does afresh - that He can and will and does use the small things, the despised things to confound the rich and famous and wise… because it is Him…and perhaps He displays Himself best through the weak.
So Zachery Baumel has come home from the war in Lebanon via Syria and Russia, through the blunders of isis and their atrocities, and with the help of the Russians…I will be happy to forward YNET news articles to anyone interested. For one amazing day…Thursday…that was all that we read…and wondered. It was humbling.
And then the news switched again to elections.
Our national elections are to be held on Tuesday and I am touched and thankful that I know of some of you who have been praying for them. Thank you so much! One more day…May The Lord have mercy and may His choice be ours. There just is no hope without God and yet we are not yet a 'saved' nation…and we know that the government is upon His shoulders and that He puts up and pulls down leaders. May our lives be precious in His sight and may He have mercy.
But ofcourse…none of this goes on in a vacuum and while all of these dramas play out around us (not to mention wars riots and floods) everyone's main focus is PASSOVER PREPERATIONS!
For your convenience, I'm going to include the full text of Exodus 12 (NKJV) at the end of this letter, should you be inclined to read it and refresh your memory. It is only one of literally hundreds of places in the Bible that speaks of the Exodus that Passover commemorates and I find yearly that I am humbled more and more by the depth of the revelation of Himself that God has given to us in and through the Passover…even unto Yeshua h'meshiach, Jesus Christ being The Passover Lamb. I encourage you to study and to search the scriptures…not teachings…but the Scriptures themselves. You will find much reference to the Passover in nearly every book of the Bible…search and see if it is not true.
So how is it celebrated by the children of Israel today, to whom it was given as an EVERLASTING commandment? Well…pretty much as it has been down through the ages. The house is cleansed of leaven and leavened products…matzo is eaten…the feast is prepared : The Seder… and the entire story is recounted in singing and reading and demonstrations during the special dinner (Seder)…and surely this is the time to be meditating on the miraculous events that GOD HIMSELF preformed before our eyes to set us free…and this extends itself fully into the death and resurrection of The Pure Passover Lamb.
And PREPARING we do!
That was GOD'S choice for us and His pattern of preparation is clear.
Where we put our minds and our hearts as we make our physical preparations is OUR choice. The leaven of the heart comes into focus as we search out the things leavened and the leavening agents in our homes. Judaism is full of opportunities to separate the 'holy' from 'the profane' and as we clean it is an opportunity to search out the cracks in our armor…the mold growing in secret corners of our hearts and minds.
Over the years I have described the extent that the religious in Jerusalem in particular go to to make certain that their homes are 'kosher for Pesach'. I remember one year that there was a rash of suicides… young women who scrubbed the ancient stones of their apartments and the cracked window casings, afraid that there might be still a crumb of leavened bread somewhere…it became an obsession and the rabbis began to address the matter. I was impressed with how gently they spoke of God looking on the heart and how, yes, we need to do our best to have no leaven in our homes, but that God was merciful and would hear our prayer that we had done what we could and ask Him to cover anything that remained. At the same time they encouraged each one to search for the leaven in their hearts and banish that. How did I hear this from the Rabbis? you might ask? Well…the rabbis speak over the radios and television…they are published in the newspapers. The 'weekly portion' (prescribed reading for all of the sons of Israel) is published and expounded upon everywhere. The rabbis speak and all of the nation hears. NOT all LISTEN…but they consider every Jew as a member of the congregation.
As a child growing up in New York, my Mother would clean out the leaven and we would buy matzo and special Pesach macaroon cookies. Our food was limited for the week to eggs and tuna, matzo and butter, chicken and potatoes, fruit and vegetables and little more. There weren't very many 'kosher for Passover' foods in NYC back then. That was ok with us. NOW, however…you name it and it is made 'kosher for Passover', meaning that a Rabbi has certified that it has not been leavened nor in contact with leaven in any way. Soon HUGE cauldrons will appear on street corners, boiling over fires, and for a small fee you can bring your pots, dishes and other items to be 'koshered' (boiled in a prescribed manner). My Mother would open a box from a high shelf that contained my Grandmother's Passover dishes…precious to us…we children would gaze at them in wonder. They seemed like 'holy items'…set aside for this one time of the year; no leaven had ever touched them and that was a wonder to us. When The Precious Blood of The Pascal Lamb washes our hearts, aren't we as if the leaven of sin has never touched us? And isn't that a most holy wonder??
I must go to bed…and yes, I still clean the leaven out. I know others that don't but to me this symbol is beautiful and He gave it as a commandment to the children of Israel FOREVER. It is a small thing to do it with joy for His glory and honor and in memory that 'The Lord has done great things, whereof we are glad.' I do not do it to be saved…I do it because I am saved and I love to find out His ways and as a part of the house of Israel, may it be a witness.
So: Elections on Tuesday…Wonder over the operation to bring Zachery Baumel home…PASSOVER… God is SOOO GOOD! I send you my love and my prayer that The Lord would be glorified in you and in me and that we would be found among the faithful…only for His glory! Lovingly, a sister here.
EXODUS 12 "Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2 “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. 3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be withoutblemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. 7 And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. 8 Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entrails. 10 You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. 11 And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover. 12 ‘For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. 13 Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. 14 ‘So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance. 15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat—that only may be prepared by you. 17 So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance. 18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. 19 For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land. 20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.’ ” 21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb. 22 And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning. 23 For the Lordwill pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you. 24 And you shall observe this thing as an ordinance for you and your sons forever. 25 It will come to pass when you come to the land which the Lord will give you, just as He promised, that you shall keep this service. 26 And it shall be, when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ 27 that you shall say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households.’ ” So the people bowed their heads and worshiped. 28 Then the children of Israel went away and did so; just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. And it came to pass at midnight that the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock. 30 So Pharaoh rose in the night, he, all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead. 31 Then he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, “Rise, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel. And go, serve the Lordas you have said. 32 Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also.” 33 And the Egyptians urged the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.” 34 So the people took their dough before it was leavened, having their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes on their shoulders. 35 Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, and they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing. 36 And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians. 37 Then the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children. 38 A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and herds—a great deal of livestock. 39 And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they had brought out of Egypt; for it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared provisions for themselves." 40 Now the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in [j]Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. 41 And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years—on that very same day—it came to pass that all the armies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. 42 It is a [k]night of solemn observance to the Lord for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is that night of the Lord, a solemn observance for all the children of Israel throughout their generations. 43 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the Passover: No foreigner shall eat it. 44 But every man’s servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then he may eat it. 45 A sojourner and a hired servant shall not eat it. 46 In one house it shall be eaten; you shall not carry any of the flesh outside the house, nor shall you break one of its bones. 47 All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. 48 And when a stranger [l]dwells with you and wants to keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as a native of the land. For no uncircumcised person shall eat it. 49 One law shall be for the native-born and for the stranger who dwells among you.” 50 Thus all the children of Israel did; as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. 51 And it came to pass, on that very same day, that the Lord brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt according to their armies."
Dear brothers and sisters: Shalom! "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." May HE ALONE be glorified…and may you be blessed and edified…May The Lord receive JOY in His children!
This will be a short email about a day long on deep feelings: It is a day that I step back and understand more of what it is to be an Israeli…and wonder. "Mamash m'rageshet!" (very much deep emotion) said my seat mate on the train this morning as we approached the shuk. I had held the seat down beside me for a lovely, dignified looking lady, about my age, making it easier for her to sit (when someone holds the 'pop up' seat down for you). She had thick black hair and just a lovely countenance. I don't remember HOW we opened the conversation…but there it was…all of those 'feelings'!
You know…I MIGHT have 'missed it' had it not been for a friend of mine, a sister in The Lord, who tirelessly worked to support the families of soldiers missing in action for all of the years that I have known her… and the Baumel family in particular. She worked behind the scenes but also right in there, personally, face to face with the families…filling needs…being there for them…and so through her I began to see some of the pain and understand some of the suffering. Hers was the first message that I saw this morning. "What? Do you mean it? Zachery Baumel's body (or rather his bones) returned to be buried here after THIRTY SEVEN YEARS?" Zachery is really coming home? It seemed like a fantastic dream, but as I write, still unsure if I have the strength to make it just up the road a ways to the Herzl Military Cemetery on the top of the hill and join with the thousands coming to the funeral…37 years late.
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Well…I DIDN'T have the strength so I watched the emotional ceremony that joined the entire nation, on our television. (and this is being written 3 days later and this letter will not be so short) The operation had been called 'Operation Bitter Sweet' and it was appropriately named for sure. Gathering a few more details from my friend several days later, I learned that it all happened 'suddenly'. The family did not know until they were told 'He is home'…and the funeral in our military cemetery had to be planned in hours, and thousands came. I heard some of the behind the scenes nearly unbelievable intrigue and marveled in the fact that He indeed calls us as we are…WHERE we are…chooses unlikely vessels not long on talent, but 'WILLING'. 'Here I am Lord. Send me.' So as a small body of believers here in the land, He plants us in the midst of places we would never have guessed…you shall be My witnesses…before kings and presidents and oh my…Esther was, after all, just a Jewish orphan but The Lord brought her into the heart and house of the king. I guess, after all of these years, it does not surprise me - and yet it always does afresh - that He can and will and does use the small things, the despised things to confound the rich and famous and wise… because it is Him…and perhaps He displays Himself best through the weak.
So Zachery Baumel has come home from the war in Lebanon via Syria and Russia, through the blunders of isis and their atrocities, and with the help of the Russians…I will be happy to forward YNET news articles to anyone interested. For one amazing day…Thursday…that was all that we read…and wondered. It was humbling.
And then the news switched again to elections.
Our national elections are to be held on Tuesday and I am touched and thankful that I know of some of you who have been praying for them. Thank you so much! One more day…May The Lord have mercy and may His choice be ours. There just is no hope without God and yet we are not yet a 'saved' nation…and we know that the government is upon His shoulders and that He puts up and pulls down leaders. May our lives be precious in His sight and may He have mercy.
But ofcourse…none of this goes on in a vacuum and while all of these dramas play out around us (not to mention wars riots and floods) everyone's main focus is PASSOVER PREPERATIONS!
For your convenience, I'm going to include the full text of Exodus 12 (NKJV) at the end of this letter, should you be inclined to read it and refresh your memory. It is only one of literally hundreds of places in the Bible that speaks of the Exodus that Passover commemorates and I find yearly that I am humbled more and more by the depth of the revelation of Himself that God has given to us in and through the Passover…even unto Yeshua h'meshiach, Jesus Christ being The Passover Lamb. I encourage you to study and to search the scriptures…not teachings…but the Scriptures themselves. You will find much reference to the Passover in nearly every book of the Bible…search and see if it is not true.
So how is it celebrated by the children of Israel today, to whom it was given as an EVERLASTING commandment? Well…pretty much as it has been down through the ages. The house is cleansed of leaven and leavened products…matzo is eaten…the feast is prepared : The Seder… and the entire story is recounted in singing and reading and demonstrations during the special dinner (Seder)…and surely this is the time to be meditating on the miraculous events that GOD HIMSELF preformed before our eyes to set us free…and this extends itself fully into the death and resurrection of The Pure Passover Lamb.
And PREPARING we do!
That was GOD'S choice for us and His pattern of preparation is clear.
Where we put our minds and our hearts as we make our physical preparations is OUR choice. The leaven of the heart comes into focus as we search out the things leavened and the leavening agents in our homes. Judaism is full of opportunities to separate the 'holy' from 'the profane' and as we clean it is an opportunity to search out the cracks in our armor…the mold growing in secret corners of our hearts and minds.
Over the years I have described the extent that the religious in Jerusalem in particular go to to make certain that their homes are 'kosher for Pesach'. I remember one year that there was a rash of suicides… young women who scrubbed the ancient stones of their apartments and the cracked window casings, afraid that there might be still a crumb of leavened bread somewhere…it became an obsession and the rabbis began to address the matter. I was impressed with how gently they spoke of God looking on the heart and how, yes, we need to do our best to have no leaven in our homes, but that God was merciful and would hear our prayer that we had done what we could and ask Him to cover anything that remained. At the same time they encouraged each one to search for the leaven in their hearts and banish that. How did I hear this from the Rabbis? you might ask? Well…the rabbis speak over the radios and television…they are published in the newspapers. The 'weekly portion' (prescribed reading for all of the sons of Israel) is published and expounded upon everywhere. The rabbis speak and all of the nation hears. NOT all LISTEN…but they consider every Jew as a member of the congregation.
As a child growing up in New York, my Mother would clean out the leaven and we would buy matzo and special Pesach macaroon cookies. Our food was limited for the week to eggs and tuna, matzo and butter, chicken and potatoes, fruit and vegetables and little more. There weren't very many 'kosher for Passover' foods in NYC back then. That was ok with us. NOW, however…you name it and it is made 'kosher for Passover', meaning that a Rabbi has certified that it has not been leavened nor in contact with leaven in any way. Soon HUGE cauldrons will appear on street corners, boiling over fires, and for a small fee you can bring your pots, dishes and other items to be 'koshered' (boiled in a prescribed manner). My Mother would open a box from a high shelf that contained my Grandmother's Passover dishes…precious to us…we children would gaze at them in wonder. They seemed like 'holy items'…set aside for this one time of the year; no leaven had ever touched them and that was a wonder to us. When The Precious Blood of The Pascal Lamb washes our hearts, aren't we as if the leaven of sin has never touched us? And isn't that a most holy wonder??
I must go to bed…and yes, I still clean the leaven out. I know others that don't but to me this symbol is beautiful and He gave it as a commandment to the children of Israel FOREVER. It is a small thing to do it with joy for His glory and honor and in memory that 'The Lord has done great things, whereof we are glad.' I do not do it to be saved…I do it because I am saved and I love to find out His ways and as a part of the house of Israel, may it be a witness.
So: Elections on Tuesday…Wonder over the operation to bring Zachery Baumel home…PASSOVER… God is SOOO GOOD! I send you my love and my prayer that The Lord would be glorified in you and in me and that we would be found among the faithful…only for His glory! Lovingly, a sister here.
EXODUS 12 "Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2 “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. 3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be withoutblemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. 7 And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. 8 Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entrails. 10 You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. 11 And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover. 12 ‘For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. 13 Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. 14 ‘So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance. 15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you. No manner of work shall be done on them; but that which everyone must eat—that only may be prepared by you. 17 So you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this same day I will have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day throughout your generations as an everlasting ordinance. 18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. 19 For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land. 20 You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread.’ ” 21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the Passover lamb. 22 And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning. 23 For the Lordwill pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you. 24 And you shall observe this thing as an ordinance for you and your sons forever. 25 It will come to pass when you come to the land which the Lord will give you, just as He promised, that you shall keep this service. 26 And it shall be, when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ 27 that you shall say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households.’ ” So the people bowed their heads and worshiped. 28 Then the children of Israel went away and did so; just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. And it came to pass at midnight that the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock. 30 So Pharaoh rose in the night, he, all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead. 31 Then he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, “Rise, go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel. And go, serve the Lordas you have said. 32 Also take your flocks and your herds, as you have said, and be gone; and bless me also.” 33 And the Egyptians urged the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.” 34 So the people took their dough before it was leavened, having their kneading bowls bound up in their clothes on their shoulders. 35 Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, and they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing. 36 And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians. 37 Then the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children. 38 A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and herds—a great deal of livestock. 39 And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they had brought out of Egypt; for it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared provisions for themselves." 40 Now the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in [j]Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. 41 And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years—on that very same day—it came to pass that all the armies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. 42 It is a [k]night of solemn observance to the Lord for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is that night of the Lord, a solemn observance for all the children of Israel throughout their generations. 43 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the Passover: No foreigner shall eat it. 44 But every man’s servant who is bought for money, when you have circumcised him, then he may eat it. 45 A sojourner and a hired servant shall not eat it. 46 In one house it shall be eaten; you shall not carry any of the flesh outside the house, nor shall you break one of its bones. 47 All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. 48 And when a stranger [l]dwells with you and wants to keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as a native of the land. For no uncircumcised person shall eat it. 49 One law shall be for the native-born and for the stranger who dwells among you.” 50 Thus all the children of Israel did; as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did. 51 And it came to pass, on that very same day, that the Lord brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt according to their armies."