Monday, September 8, 2008

Our Two-Pronged War


Its open season on Jews in Paris. Saturday, as they were walking home from Mincha prayers, three counselors of the Bnei Akivah youth group were brutally attacked by a gang of Muslims. The counselors were walking when they had chestnuts thrown at them. When they protested, anti-semitic slurs were hurled. 10-12 gang members then joined in and beat them with brass knuckles.

This was the second attack near the Bnei Akivah branch in two months. In June, another 17 year-old Jew wearing a kippah was beaten up by a Muslim gang. And a few months ago, a neighbourhood store was caught selling shirts that read, in German and Polish, "Jews forbidden in the parks". Anti-semitic attacks are very common in France. The radical Muslim population is growing exponentially, veiled women from head-to-toe are a very common sight, and mosques are popping up all over the place. The same pattern is repeating itself in the UK, in Germany and all over Europe. This Islamic fundamentalist Jew-hatred combined with "the new-anti-semitism" of the anti-Zionist Left is lethal to Europe's remaining Jews. Many Jews no longer feel comfortable enough to wear kippot in public or to identify themselves as Jews. Entire communities are under siege as going to synagogue literally becomes an ordeal amidst intense security, guards and routine checks. Synagogues, monuments and Holocaust memorials are routinely vandalized. A few weeks ago, a video was placed on YouTube (and subsequently banned) showing a group of Greek students in Rhodes urinating on a Holocaust memorial with violent rock and anti-semitic lyrics in the background. The Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin was defaced for the tenth or so time.

Europe's tragic history is repeating itself. It feels eerily like 1938 for Europe as attacks on Jews reach a fever pitch. Not only are Jews violently attacked by Muslim anti-semites but the Jewish State is regularly demonized, delegitimized and condemned. The writing is on the walls for the Jews of Europe as Muslim sonei yisrael as well as Leftist anti-semites work tirelessly to make Jewish lives miserable. The Jews of Europe face an existential threat as the radical Muslim influence is growing. In mosques all over Europe (and the world), Jews are dehumanized, compared to insects and diseases and threatened with extermination. Millions of young Muslims are indoctrinated with Jew-hatred and the terrible fruits of this preaching are being reaped in Europe, as well as against Israel. Esau soneh et Yaakov. Once again, the Jewish nation finds itself in dire straights as the world sits silently by and allows anti-semitism to take hold and grow.


We Jews are in between a rock and a hard place. As Yishmael plans to destroy our bodies, Esau deceives us into giving up our souls. The World Evangelical Alliance, "Israel's best friends", have restated their goal to convert the Jewish nation to Christianity. Coming from the city in which the Final Solution of 6 million Jews was orchestrated, the Berlin Declaration calls for the evangelization of the Jews of Europe. "Everyone needs to hear this message including the Jewish people. Proclamation to Israel was Jesus’ priority. It also reflects the apostles’ practice of going to the Jew first. Nothing has occurred since Jesus came that changes the need for Israel and the nations. "

It is astonishing that hundreds of years after the public disputation at the order of the Church in which Jews were threatened with expulsion, death or forced conversion, Jews are again called upon to defend the validity and integrity of their faith. The Jews of Europe, when not being beaten up by anti-semitic mobs, will be swamped with pamphlets and missionaries urging them to convert. The Berlin Declaration in essence says that Judaism has no value and offers no salvation. The Jew who follows authentic Judaism is worthless and is condemned to the fires of hell unless he becomes a Christian. Jews are forced to explain themselves to Christians and to stand up for their faith. Evangelicals claim to be motivate by love for the Jewish people but in reality, they only reject anti-semitism as a means to further their hold on the Jewish soul. Hardly no strings attached! A real love for the Jewish people would be accompanied by a respect for Judaism's validity and choseneness, and the recognition of the legitimacy of Jewish tradition and belief. To issue this declaration of apostasy from the Nazi capital in which Hitler's henchmen orchestrated and planned the annihilation of the Jewish people is the height of insensitivity and callousness. By teaching that Judaism is incomplete and misguided, Evangelicals offer a surefire recipe of hatred and mistrust for the Jewish people.

With barely 15 million Jews in the world today, growing anti-semitism in Europe and North America, an existential threat against the State of Israel, rampant assimilation in the United States and an obsessive drive by Evangelicals to convert Jews, the Jewish future is difficult. We are caught between those who wish to kill us physically, to rob us of life, and those who wish to destroy our unique spiritual heritage by baptizing us. Whether by gas chambers and pogroms or by missionizing and assimilation, the ultimate goal is the same: the eradication of the Jewish people from the face of the Earth. We must take heart G-d's promise in the Torah that the seed of Abraham shall never cease to be a nation. The end chapter has been written. All that remains for us to decide is how many of us will make it to the finish line. The Jewish nation will outlive all of its tormenters and oppressors, the assimilationists and peddlers of foreign faiths. G-d will surely vindicate His people.

Cross-posted from For Zion's Sake

21 comments:

Ralph said...

BK, on Monday, September 8, 2008, you posted:-

"Its open season on Jews in Paris. Saturday, as they were walking home from Mincha prayers, three counselors of the Bnei Akivah youth group were brutally attacked by a gang of Muslims. The counselors were walking when they had chestnuts thrown at them. When they protested, anti-semitic slurs were hurled. 10-12 gang members then joined in and beat them with brass knuckles."

and I read:-

"Lev 26:1 Ye shall make you no idols, neither shall ye rear you up a graven image, or a pillar, neither shall ye place any figured stone in your land, to bow down unto it; for I am the LORD your God.
Lev 26:2 Ye shall keep My sabbaths, and reverence My sanctuary: I am the LORD.
Lev 26:3 If ye walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments, and do them;
Lev 26:4 then I will give your rains in their season, and the land shall yield her produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
Lev 26:5 And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time; and ye shall eat your bread until ye have enough, and dwell in your land safely.
Lev 26:6 And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid; and I will cause evil beasts to cease out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.
Lev 26:7 And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
Lev 26:8 And five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand; and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
"
(e-Sword Tanach - JPS)

So, what has gone wrong, BK?

Ralph said...

I also read:-
"Eze 36:24 For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land.
Eze 36:25 And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
Eze 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
Eze 36:27 And I will put My spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep Mine ordinances, and do them.
Eze 36:28 And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be My people, and I will be your God."
(source: e-Sword Tanach - JPS)

Could these verses possibly be referring to Judaism?

Avi said...

Ralph, things have gone terribly wrong. The Torah says that the fear of G-d will be upon all the nations surrounding us. We have no kept His mitzvot so they do not fear us.

Teshuva is the only solution. Return O Israel unto HaShem your G-d!

Ralph said...

BK you said:-
"We have not kept His mitzvot so they do not fear us."

Do you perhaps think that could have something to do with keeping annual Feast days on the wrong day because of the calendar postponements established by Rabbi Hillel 2nd in the fourth century?

Avi said...

?

Ralph, I will not accept bashing the Sages. The Torah commands that Passover be observed in the spring. the Jewish calendar has 9 days less than the Gregorian calendar. Unless this is corrected, the holidays will move around like those of the Muslims. To prevent this, we add a second Adar every two or three years.

Just so you know, declaring the New Month was the prerogative of the courts. G-d gave the Jewish people mastery over time in this since since it only became the New Month if two witnesses testified that they saw the New Moon in Jerusalem.

The Torah is not in the heavens.

Ralph said...

BK
It is not my intent to "bash the Sages" as you put it. Simply to discuss what has been done, as I see it, without authority.

Torah, the very word of G-d, is quite specific as to when Holy days will be observed, from Pesach through to Shemini Atzaret, and I do not find any leeway to change what has been given. I am somewhat familiar with G-d's Holy calendar and understand how the beginnings of months were, and should still be, determined.
You say "declaring the New Month was the prerogative of the courts" and so it was, but only on receiving reports of sighting the new moon by reliable witnesses.

The new moon still appears over Jerusalem each month and yet Judaism continues to reject it as a G-d given means of determining the new month. You have said:-
"things have gone terribly wrong."
and I'm only suggesting that perhaps this could be one of those things.
Could the words of Amos be as applicable today as they were so long ago? viz:-
"Amo 5:21 I hate, I despise your feasts, and I will take no delight in your solemn assemblies."
(e-Sword Tanach - JPS)

You also said:-
"G-d gave the Jewish people mastery over time"
and I cannot accept that. It is G-d who has mastery over time, He created time, and it was He who instructed Israel how to observe and use time. He has given no authority to change His laws of time. If He had done so, then what would be the point of His existance as supreme Law Giver. We could just make up our own laws, does that sound familiar?
At Judgment, the Romans will have a lot to answer for, particularly with regard to time and the Sabbath.

also:-
"The Torah is not in the heavens."

No, not exclusively, for Torah is everywhere. Unless you are suggesting that the 'heavens', ie. G-d's throne, is a lawless environment. Here on earth the Torah has been recorded in the Tanach. The problem is that so many are not prepared to follow it, including those I refer to as 'nominal Christians', those found in:-
"Luk 6:46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?"

גילוי said...

Ralph, you cannot understand the Jewish control of time, it is not something that can be explained to outsiders. The Jewish calendar, as it is set up, has an actual affect on the physical world as we know it. Perhaps one day it will be clear to you, but that is of no substance to this conversation. It is called Sod HaIbbur: The Secret of Intercalation. It is called a secret for a reason.

Papa Frank said...

It's a secret, kind of like God becoming man and walking among us.

Ralph said...

BK
you said:-
"The Jewish calendar, as it is set up, has an actual affect on the physical world as we know it."

and I guess you are serious in what you believe. I don't accept that the 'Jewish' calendar has an effect on the 'physical world' but it sure has an effect on the people who observe it, the calendar. Unless of course you are referring to humanity as the 'physical world', are you?

I don't see 'Intercalation' as a secret but as a means of keeping the feasts, especially Pesach, in their due season. This being done by adding an the extra month of Adar 2 at the appropriate time.

For Pesach, do you take into account the state of the barley during the month Abib?

You make no comment WRT the sighting of the new moon. Why is that?

גילוי said...

Papa Frank,

One difference between the belief that I've stated and the one that you've stated is that if I were to hold that belief, according to G-d's Torah I would be liable for the death penalty.

I don't see what the big problem is that Christians would have accepting the Jewish calendar after seeing the ludicrous nature of the Christian invention of some sort of 360 day year in order to get the calculations of Daniel to fit their theological positions.

Papa Frank said...

Just for the record, I don't discredit the Jewish calendar.

Avi said...

Daniel: You don't exist. You are in cherem.

Ralph: The New Moon could only be declared by the Sanhedrin when the Temple stood. The Sanhedrin sat in the Chamber of Hewn Stones on the Temple Mount. The Temple no longer stands so we cannot fulfill this mitzvah. Instead, Hillel codified the calendar for the next few thousand years.

Please stop quoting the NT here. It is irrelevant. And this is a Jewish site. Otherwise, questions are welcome. (Except loaded one --- Papa Frank).

גילוי said...

Papa Frank,

Furthermore it seems that you don't believe an explicit statement in the bible: the secrets of G-d are given over to those that fear him. There is a great amount of religious knowledge that is reserved for a select few. What you have said regarding manifestation in a human body is hardly a "secret" in Christian circles.

Ralph said...

on September 10, 2008 at 8:11 PM
I inadvertently addressed a response to BK whereas it should have been גילוי.
I should have realized my error when the 'secrets' popped up.

BK
You said, with referrence to sighting of the new moon that "The Temple no longer stands so we cannot fulfill this mitzvah."
And I ask, why not. Whether the Temple stands or not, the new moon still appears over Jerusalem each month.
I have heard no suggestion of forgoing Pesach because there is no Temple at which the lambs can be offered.

The words I quoted from the NT are just as applicable to the Jews as they are to Christians. The basic topic of this discussion relates to your comment of September 9, 2008 at 6:51 AM, where you said:-"Ralph, things have gone terribly wrong."
Let's face it, things usually go terribly wrong because we don't obey G-d.

Is it possible to determine what "things have gone terribly wrong." so that they may be rectified; before it is too late?

You also said:-"....Hillel codified the calendar for the next few thousand years."
and in doing so included 'postponements' which change G-d's ordained Holy Days. From where came the authority to do this?

Ralph said...

גילוי
on September 10, 2008 at 10:34 AM
you said:-
"Ralph, you cannot understand the Jewish control of time, it is not something that can be explained to outsiders."

I put it to you that if the matter cannot be "explained to outsiders" then it has no foundation.
You seem to overlook these scriptures:-
"Psa 111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all they that do thereafter; His praise endureth for ever."
and
"Isa 66:2 For all these things hath My hand made, and so all these things came to be, saith the LORD; but on this man will I look, even on him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word"
(source: e-Sword Tanach - JPS)

גילוי said...

Ralph, those verses do not contradict what I said.

Ralph said...

גילוי,
I put it to you that Psa 111:10 specifically contradicts your statement that:-"..you cannot understand the Jewish control of time, it is not something that can be explained to outsiders."

The proper and awesome respect ie.'fear' of G-d enables one to have understanding, as the Psalm confirms. Try me! How do the Jews have control of time?

If you cannot begin to explain then your postulation has no foundation.

גילוי said...

Ralph, obviously I would consider the idolatrous beliefs of Christianity to be a hindrance to true fear of G-d.

Ralph said...

גילוי
I repeat:-
"If you cannot begin to explain then your postulation has no foundation."
Try me.
Or are you forbidden to offer any explanation?

גילוי said...

It is forbidden to teach kabbalah to gentiles.

This knowledge explains events throughout history, including their timing, and of course has implications for the future as well.

Ralph said...

Now, I think I begin to understand!