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By JON D. LEVENSON http://online.wsj.com

The eight-day festival of Hanukkah, which Jews worldwide will begin celebrating tonight, is one of the better known of the Jewish holidays but also one of the less important.

The emphasis placed on it now is mostly due to timing: Hanukkah offers Jews an opportunity for celebration and commercialization comparable to what their Christian neighbors’ experience at Christmas, and it gives Christians the opportunity to include Jews in their holiday greetings and parties. What’s more, the observances associated with Hanukkah are few, relatively undemanding, and even appealing to children.

The story of Hanukkah also fits the political culture of the United States. Its underlying narrative recalls that of the Pilgrims: A persecuted religious minority, at great cost, breaks free of their oppressors. It wasn’t separatist Protestants seeking freedom from the Church of England in 1620, but Jews in the land of Israel triumphing over their Hellenistic overlord in 167–164 B.C., reclaiming and purifying their holiest site, the Jerusalem Temple.

Examined too casually, the stories of Plymouth Colony and Hanukkah seem to show heroes fighting for universal religious freedom. But the heroes of the Jewish story fought not only against a foreign persecutor. They also fought against fellow Jews who—perhaps more attracted to the cosmopolitan and sophisticated Greek culture than to the ways of their ancestors—cooperated with their rulers.

The revolt begins, in fact, when the patriarch of the Maccabees (as the family that led the campaign came to be known) kills a fellow Jew who was in the act of obeying the king’s decree to perform a sacrifice forbidden in the Torah. The Maccabean hero also kills the king’s officer and tears down the illicit altar. These were blows struck for Jewish traditionalism, and arguably for Jewish survival and authenticity, but not for religious freedom.

Over time, the stories of the persecutions that led to this war came to serve as models of Jewish faithfulness under excruciating persecution. In the most memorable instance, seven brothers and their mother all choose, successively, to die at the hands of their torturers rather than to yield to the demand to eat pork as a public disavowal of the God of Israel and his commandments.

To the martyrs, breaking faith with God is worse than death. In one version, their deaths are interpreted as “an atoning sacrifice” through which God sustained the Jewish people in their travail.

The tone here isn’t the lightheartedness of the Christmas season. The Christian parallels lie, instead, with Good Friday and the story of Jesus’s acceptance of his suffering and sacrificial death. In both the Jewish and the Christian stories, the death of the heroes, grievous though it is, is not the end: It is the prelude to a miraculous vindication and a glorious restoration.

The Roman Catholic tradition honors these Jewish martyrs as saints, and the Eastern Orthodox Church still celebrates Aug. 1 as the Feast of the Holy Maccabees. By contrast, in the literature of the Rabbis of the first several centuries of the common era, the story lost its connection to the Maccabean uprising, instead becoming associated with later persecutions by the Romans, which the Rabbis experienced. If the change seems odd, recall that the compositions that first told of these events (the books of Maccabees) were not part of the scriptural canon of rabbinic Judaism. But they were canonical in the Church (and remain so in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox communions).

And so we encounter another oddity of Hanukkah: Jews know the fuller history of the holiday because Christians preserved the books that the Jews themselves lost. In a further twist, Jews in the Middle Ages encountered the story of the martyred mother and her seven sons anew in Christian literature and once again placed it in the time of the Maccabees.

“Hanukkah” means “dedication.” Originally, the term referred to the rededication of the purified Temple after the Maccabees’ stunning military victory. But as the story of the martyrs shows, the victory was also associated with the heroic dedication of the Jewish traditionalists of the time to their God and his Torah. If Hanukkah celebrates freedom, it is a freedom to be bound to something higher than freedom itself.

Mr. Levenson, a professor of Jewish studies at Harvard Divinity School, is co-author with Kevin J. Madigan of “Resurrection: The Power of God for Christians and Jews” (Yale University Press, 2008).

By Gil Ronen www IsraelNationalNews.com

Jews familiar with an ancient compilation of Aggadic exegesis called Yalkut Shimoni noticed in recent weeks that current tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia matches a prophecy it contains regarding the year in which the Messiah – the King who redeems Israel and the world – is to appear.
In particular, the recently revealed Iranian plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U.S. and subsequent reports that the Arab nations are pressuring the West to attack Iran, appear to fit the sequence of events predicted in the Yalkut Shimoni.

In to the part of the book dealing with the Book of Isaiah, the following passage appears:
“Rabbi Yitzchak said: ‘In the year in which the Messiah-King appears, all the nations of the world are provoking each other. The King of Persia provokes an Arab king and the Arab king turns to Aram for advice. And the King of Persia goes back and destroys the entire world. And all the nations of the world are in panic and distress and they fall upon their faces and are seized with pains like those of a woman giving birth, and Israel are in panic and distress and asking ‘where shall we go? Where shall we go?,’ and He says to them ‘my sons, do not fear; all that I have done, I have done only for you. Why are you afraid? Do not fear, your time of redemption has come, and the final redemption is not like the first redemption, because the first redemption was followed by sorrow and servitude under other kingdoms, but the final redemption is not followed by sorrow and servitude under other kingdoms.”

Persia is currently known as Iran, and an Arab king – or the Arab king – can be reasonably understood, in modern eyes, as referring to the king of [Saudi] Arabia, the Arab homeland.

This passage is relatively well-known and oft-quoted, and some modern versions of it substitute “Edom” for “Aram.” Ancient Jewish references to “Edom” are nowadays generally seen as referring to Europe or the West. “Aram” refers to a part of ancient Mesopotamia, roughly congruent to the northern part of modern Iraq and eastern Syria. The instability in precisely this area is reportedly what most concerns the Saudis, as a U.S. pullout from Iraq looms and Syria’s pro-Iranian regime teeters.

The prophecy bodes ill for much of the world, which, if Rabbi Yitzchak’s quote is to be taken literally, is to be destroyed by Iran before the Messiah steps in.

The identity of the compiler of Yalkut Shimoni is not known with certainty but a copy of it is known to have existed 700 years ago, in 1310 AD. The works it quotes are even older, and go back to early Talmudic times.

Five of the seven Nobel Prize winners so far this year are Jewish.
By Elka Looks www.Haaretz.com

Israeli scientist Daniel Shechtman has made headlines at home for winning the 2011 Nobel Prize in chemistry, but he is not the only Jewish recipient, with members of the tribe making a strong showing this year in both medicine and physics.

Saul Pelmutter and Adam G. Ross, both American Jews, are two of the three Nobel Prize in physics winners, recognized “for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae.”

So far, five of the seven Nobel Prize winners this year are Jewish; their Yiddeshe mamas must be so proud.

By Maureen Donnelly www.SILive.com

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Jews around the world will mark the beginning of Passover at sundown tomorrow by taking joy in the practice of shared tradition — as if they themselves were part of the exodus from Egypt.

At the Seder table, guests will recount the story of their escape by tasting foods that symbolize the bitterness of slavery, the mortar used during that enslavement, the tears shed and the renewal of life and their eternal existence as a people.

They will eat matzo — or unleavened bread — to remember that those fleeing Egypt had no time to wait for the bread to rise. And they will set aside a glass of wine for Elijah who prophesied the coming of the Messiah.

“Passover is a celebration of our redemption from Egyptian bondage and ancient times, but the purpose of recalling that is to prepare ourselves for history repeating itself,” said Rabbi Judah Kogen of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, West Brighton.

“We look to the past, but also to the future and await the coming of the Messiah as announced by Elijah.”

Passover, an eight-day festival that this year ends on April 25, is a time of family gatherings filled with special foods, songs and customs.

It tells the story of the enslavement by the Pharaoh, of Moses asking the Egyptian ruler to let his people go, the Ten Plagues that fell upon Egypt when the Pharaoh refused and the miraculous parting of the Red Sea that led to freedom.

And it’s a time to pass on those stories to the children.

Rabbi Kogen noted that the asking of the four questions — usually by the youngest member at the table and designed to make the children feel involved and curious about their past — is the most enduring aspect of any Passover Seder.

“We don’t just tell a story about something that happened to our people a long time ago,” the rabbi said. “We make a reenactment of our personal experience through the text of the Seder and it becomes a masterful educational tool.”

By James W. Goll ElijahList.com

Abraham’s wife Sarah lived almost forty years after the birth of Isaac. Genesis 23:1–2 says: Now Sarah lived one hundred and twenty-seven years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. Sarah died in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan; and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.

Abraham loved Sarah dearly and must have experienced much grief and pain at her loss. After finding an excellent wife for his son Isaac, Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah. Genesis 25:2–4 says that Keturah: bore to him Zimran and Jokshan and Medan and Midian and Ishback and Shuah. Jokshan became the father of Sheba and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim and Letushim and Leummim. The sons of Midian were Ephah and Epher and Hanoch and Abida and Eldaah. All these were the sons of Keturah.

Keturah bore more children by Abraham than did Sarah and Hagar combined. I think that is interesting.

Before Abraham died, he gave gifts to the sons of Keturah and sent them far away from his son Isaac, to the land of the east (see Genesis 25:6). One of the sons of Keturah was Midian, the father of the Midianites. Some of the descendants of Keturah went to what was called Persia. Others were, apparently, scattered into Assyria. Genesis 25:7–8 records:
These are all the years of Abraham’s life that he lived, one hundred and seventy-five years. Abraham breathed his last and died in a ripe old age, an old man and satisfied with life.

What a way to leave this Earth – as an old man satisfied with life, and with a lineage left behind!

Abraham’s sons, Isaac and Ishmael, came together to bury their father in a cave. What a powerful statement! They came together – they united – to remember their father and put him to rest (see Genesis 25:9). I wonder if that could be a picture of things yet to come. Could it be that our Father will yet do such a work among the descendants of Abraham that they could come together in common purpose at some point and time in history?

Keturah’s Descendants Will Praise the Lord

Isaiah prophesied about the descendants of Keturah, saying: “A multitude of camels will cover you [Israel], the young camels of Midian and Ephah” (Isaiah 60:6). Remember that Midian was a son of Keturah, and Ephah was her grandson. In the next part of this verse, Isaiah mentions yet another grandson of Keturah: Sheba. “All those from Sheba will come; they will bring gold and frankincense, and will bear good news of the praises of the Lord.”

I cannot confirm that the Wise Men were descendants of Keturah, but they did come from the east, where the descendants of Keturah had settled, and they certainly fit the description of Isaiah’s prophecy. (Matthew 2:1–12)

Whether this prophecy was fulfilled literally at the birth of the Messiah or is a prophecy for the future yet to come, the minimum we can agree on is that there is prophetic destiny upon the children of Keturah. These people will rise up as people of wealth and will end up worshiping the one, true God. They will bring forth praise to the Lord!

Now let’s go to the amazing prophecy of Isaiah, which has not yet been fulfilled. In this passage you will see the descendants of Hagar, Sarah, and Keturah come together. As you read, keep in mind that Hagar was an Egyptian and that she returned to Egypt to find a wife for Ishmael, her half-Hebrew and half-Egyptian son. Remember, too, that the descendants of Keturah settled in Assyria and beyond. Isaiah 19:19-20, 23–25: In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord near its border. It will become a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the Lord because of oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and a Champion, and He will deliver them…

In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”

God is going to humble Egypt eventually, and Egypt is going to lift a cry for help. The Arabs are going to cry out due to the severity of their oppressors, and the Lord will manifest Himself as their Savior and Champion. After much pressure, and the probability of an all-out war in the Middle East, God will make Himself known to the Arabic peoples and they will turn to Him. Isaiah described the length to which they will go: “They will even worship with sacrifice and offering, and will make a vow to the Lord and perform it” (Isaiah 19:21). This not only means that they will have a God encounter, but that they will become true disciples and will walk in obedience.

Notice that this move of God will also impact Assyria: Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and other Middle Eastern territories. Keturah children were scattered throughout the vast lands of Assyria! They still have an identity today, but it is obscured because Abraham sent them all eastward into Trans Jordan and beyond (see Genesis 25:6).

Imagine – the very area of Asia Minor, where the early Church of Jesus Christ once flourished, will rise again out of the ashes into genuine, vibrant worship. Lands that appear to be held captive to the devil through Islam will be delivered and cleansed of their impurity. After thousands of years of broken promises, hatred, and enmity between Arabs and Jews, this will truly be a glorious day! A day in history when the curse is reversed and the blessing of the Lord emerges. What a day that will be! I can only imagine!

The Middle East is indeed a complex knot, but the Holy Spirit loves brooding over a mess of darkness. He is an expert at this task. Remember that the first mention of the Holy Spirit is that He hovered over the face of the deep. God loves bringing order out of chaos. The Holy Spirit is a Pro at creating change and making all things new!

There will be, according to Isaiah, a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and people will go freely back and forth – probably right through the middle of Israel – worshiping God together. I can only imagine!

All of Abraham’s Seed Will Be Blessed

The end of Isaiah 19 is so powerful that I want you to read it again:

Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.” Isaiah 19:24–25

Blessed are the descendants of Hagar, God’s people! Blessed are the descendants of Keturah, the work of God’s hands! Blessed are the descendants of Sarah, God’s inheritance!

God is the Supreme Multitasker. He can accomplish more than one thing at a time! Biblical prophecy indicates that alongside God’s gathering of the outcasts of Israel to their homeland, He is setting the stage to do a great work among all the descendants of Abraham. Surprise us all, O Lord. Let it be so!

Praying for All the Peoples of the Middle East

Isn’t this good? God has declared a prophetic blessing over all the peoples of the Middle East, because they all have come from Abraham’s seed. The devil has arisen, however, to thwart God’s blessing. A holy war – an unholy war, rather – has raged for thousands of years. The conflict continues to intensify and a massive, satanic battle is coming. But I am here to declare that the Lord is going to pierce the veil of Islam. A move of God is going to come from out of Persia, out of Iraq, out of Syria, out of Lebanon, out of Egypt and, of course, out of Israel.

Times of Darkness Precede Times of Great Light

Now just to set the record straight: From the angle that I presently read the Scriptures, I see a lot of intense bickering and warfare yet to occur before the fullness of Isaiah 19 comes to pass. I am not an ostrich, with my head buried in the sand! Isaiah 60:1–3 lays out a scriptural principle that says a time of great darkness will precede the unveiling of a great light. Gentiles will come to the brightness of its shining, and even kings will bow to the brilliance of this great light. But first comes gross darkness.

Consider with me now Psalm 83:3–8, 16–18:

They make shrewd plans against Your people, and conspire together against Your treasured ones. They have said, “Come and let us wipe them out as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more.” For they have conspired together with one mind; against You they make a covenant: The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites; Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assyria also has joined with them; they have become a help to the children of Lot…

Fill their faces with dishonor, that they may seek Your name, O Lord. Let them be ashamed and dismayed forever, and let them be humiliated and perish, that they may know that You alone, whose name is the Lord, are the Most High over all the earth.

Many Bible teachers agree that this text has not yet been fulfilled. This particular group has not yet been brought into an alignment with this degree of hatred. The passage does not say “the peoples of the land of the north,” nor does it say “Germany.” In fact, even Egypt seems to be missing from this list! Who and what is this alliance that conspires together?

Psalm 83 describes vividly a troubling alignment set against a wearied Jewish state. Let’s turn to the pen of Sandra Teplinsky for more details: “Verses 5–8 tell how every nation in the neighborhood (except Egypt) unites against Israel: Edom and the Ishmaelites (southern Jordan and Saudi Arabia); Moab (central Jordan) and the Hagrites (Syria and Arabia); Gebal (southern Jordan); Ammon (central Jordan) and Amalek (Sinai desert); Philistia (Gaza Strip area); Tyre (southern Lebanon) and Assyria (Syria/Iraq). Verse 4 sounds their bellicose battle cry: ‘Come… let us destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more.’”

In some ways this is nothing new. As I laid out earlier, the enemy has, from the inception of Israel’s rebirth, been standing close by with a knife to cut its throat! How did God’s prophetic psalmist respond to this threat? How should we respond when we see these things taking place? The psalmist calls for God to glorify Himself – to make His great name and His name alone known over all the Earth. God’s goal in times of testing is to glorify Himself.

He will ultimately use the Arab/Palestinian-Israeli conflict to do it. He wants both blood-drenched peoples to know that He alone is most High – not Allah, not Judaism without Jesus, not global secular humanism, not anything.

What if the eyes of the entire world were looking on at the moment of Israel’s apparent, imminent destruction – the moment when God brings humiliation to the enemies of Israel for the purpose of releasing His grace upon them?

Light Will Overpower the Darkness

Darkness comes first, and then the light shines (see John 1:5). There has never been a contest between light and darkness. When you enter a house, you simply flip the switch and (if it is wired properly) the light always drives away the darkness. Darkness is a temporary state! I am here not to declare the revival of evil – there are plenty of top-selling authors who will do that. I am here to broaden our horizons and to help us peer into the redemptive purposes of God, even in the midst of the most stressful, difficult times of the ages. Light will overpower darkness; eventually, somehow – someday!

The Scriptures I have shared regarding God’s promises to the descendants of Abraham are all for this purpose: to bring light and hope to the very dark situation in the Middle East. But if all we had was Joel’s prophecy we would still be assured that, before this world comes to an end, God will pour out His Spirit on all people (see Joel 2:28–29).

All three national families of Abraham have, by and large, failed to recognize the true Messiah, who is Yeshua, our Lord Jesus Christ. The Jews are still looking for their Messiah to appear, while the others do not even realize that they need one. Although most of them accept Mohammed and Jesus as prophets, they do not believe that a Messiah is necessary. Still the prophetic Scriptures predict that these descendants of Abraham will accept the true Messiah at a critical point in time.

I love the language of Isaiah 19:20: “He will send them a Savior and a Champion.” A champion shall come. A messenger of the new covenant will be sent to turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Yeshua/Jesus/the true Messiah said it succinctly: “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one Shepherd” (John 10:16).

A great spiritual revival is on God’s agenda, and it will encompass all the descendants of Abraham throughout the Middle East, from the Nile River to the Euphrates.

By Charles Krauthammer, www.WashingtonPost.com

The world is outraged at Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Turkey denounces its illegality, inhumanity, barbarity, etc. The usual U.N. suspects, Third World and European, join in.

But as Leslie Gelb, former president of the Council on Foreign Relations, writes, the blockade is not just perfectly rational, it is perfectly legal. Gaza under Hamas is a self-declared enemy of Israel—a declaration backed up by more than 4,000 rockets fired at Israeli civilian territory. Yet having pledged itself to unceasing belligerency, Hamas claims victimhood when Israel imposes a blockade to prevent Hamas from arming itself with still more rockets.

In World War II, with full international legality, the United States blockaded Germany and Japan. And during the October 1962 missile crisis, we blockaded (“quarantined”) Cuba. Arms-bearing Russian ships headed to Cuba turned back because the Soviets knew that the U.S. Navy would either board them or sink them. Yet Israel is accused of international criminality for doing precisely what John Kennedy did: impose a naval blockade to prevent a hostile state from acquiring lethal weaponry.

Oh, but weren’t the Gaza-bound ships on a mission of humanitarian relief? No. Otherwise they would have accepted Israel’s offer to bring their supplies to an Israeli port, be inspected for military materiel and have the rest trucked by Israel into Gaza—as every week 10,000 tons of food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies are sent by Israel to Gaza.

Why was the offer refused? Because, as organizer Greta Berlin admitted, the flotilla was not about humanitarian relief but about breaking the blockade, i.e., ending Israel’s inspection regime, which would mean unlimited shipping into Gaza and thus the unlimited arming of Hamas.

Israel has already twice intercepted ships laden with Iranian arms destined for Hezbollah and Gaza. What country would allow that?

But even more important, why did Israel even have to resort to blockade? Because, blockade is Israel’s fallback as the world systematically de-legitimizes its traditional ways of defending itself—forward and active defense.

(1) Forward defense: As a small, densely populated country surrounded by hostile states, Israel had, for its first half-century, adopted forward defense—fighting wars on enemy territory (such as the Sinai and Golan Heights) rather than its own.

Where possible (Sinai, for example) Israel has traded territory for peace. But where peace offers were refused, Israel retained the territory as a protective buffer zone. Thus Israel retained a small strip of southern Lebanon to protect the villages of northern Israel. And it took many losses in Gaza, rather than expose Israeli border towns to Palestinian terror attacks. It is for the same reason America wages a grinding war in Afghanistan: You fight them there, so you don’t have to fight them here.

But under overwhelming outside pressure, Israel gave it up. The Israelis were told the occupations were not just illegal but at the root of the anti-Israel insurgencies—and therefore withdrawal, by removing the cause, would bring peace.

Land for peace. Remember? Well, during the past decade, Israel gave the land—evacuating South Lebanon in 2000 and Gaza in 2005. What did it get? An intensification of belligerency, heavy militarization of the enemy side, multiple kidnappings, cross-border attacks and, from Gaza, years of unrelenting rocket attack.

(2) Active defense: Israel then had to switch to active defense—military action to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat the newly armed terrorist mini-states established in southern Lebanon and Gaza after Israel withdrew.

The result? The Lebanon war of 2006 and Gaza operation of 2008-09. They were met with yet another avalanche of opprobrium and calumny by the same international community that had demanded the land-for-peace Israeli withdrawals in the first place. Worse, the U.N. Goldstone report, which essentially criminalized Israel’s defensive operation in Gaza while whitewashing the casus belli—the preceding and unprovoked Hamas rocket war—effectively de-legitimized any active Israeli defense against its self-declared terror enemies.

(3) Passive defense: Without forward or active defense, Israel is left with but the most passive and benign of all defenses—a blockade to simply prevent enemy rearmament. Yet, as we speak, this too is headed for international de-legitimization. Even the United States is now moving toward having it abolished.

But, if none of these is permissible, what’s left?

Ah, but that’s the point. It’s the point understood by the blockade-busting flotilla of useful idiots and terror sympathizers, by the Turkish front organization that funded it, by the automatic anti-Israel Third World chorus at the United Nations, and by the supine Europeans who’ve had quite enough of the Jewish problem.

What’s left? Nothing. The whole point of this relentless international campaign is to deprive Israel of any legitimate form of self-defense. Why, just last month, the U.S. reversed four decades of practice by signing onto a consensus document that singles out Israel’s possession of nuclear weapons—thus de-legitimizing Israel’s very last line of defense: deterrence.

The world is tired of these troublesome Jews, 6 million—that number again—hard by the Mediterranean, refusing every invitation to national suicide. For which they are relentlessly demonized, ghettoized and constrained from defending themselves, even as the more committed anti-Zionists—Iranian in particular—openly prepare a more final solution.

By Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi, www.TabletMag.com

Over the past 15 years, the political conflict between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs has been reframed as a religious war in which leaders from Yasser Arafat to Hassan Nasrallah to Osama bin Laden have appealed to the authority of the Koran to support their goal of eliminating the State of Israel. The authority of the Koran has also been cited in support of a revisionist history that seeks to deny the historical connection of the Jewish people to the city of Jerusalem and to its holiest sites, including the Temple Mount. Ignorant of what the Koran actually says about Jerusalem, Western reporters have recently tended to ignore archaeological and historical evidence and give equal weight to the supposedly competing religious narratives of Jews and Muslims: Jews are said to believe that there was a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, while the Koran states that the historical and religious claims of the Jews are false.

The transformation of a political conflict over land into a religious war is one of the most dangerous and frightening goals of radical Islamist politicians—but it has nothing to do with the Koran.

Here the Italian Muslim communal leader and Koranic scholar Sheik Abdul Hadi Palazzi examines what the Koran says about the connection of the Jewish people to the land of Israel. Far from negating the historical claims of a Jewish presence on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the Koran actually confirms Jewish accounts of the building of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem and supports the biblical claim that the land of Israel was given to the Jews by God.

1. Jewish sovereignty in Jerusalem

In August 2002, the Yasser Arafat-appointed “mufti of Jerusalem and the Holy Land,” Ikrima Sabri, told the Western media that “there is not even the smallest indication of the existence of a Jewish temple in Jerusalem in the past. In the whole city, there is not even a single stone indicating Jewish history.” By saying this, he confirmed what Arafat had already said to the London-based Arabic paper al-Hayat and reportedly repeated to Bill Clinton and Ehud Barak at Camp David: “Archaeologists have not found a single stone proving that the Temple of Solomon was there because historically the Temple was not in Palestine.”

In making such statements, Sabri and Arafat not only blatantly denied history, archaeology, and the teachings of the Bible, but they also denied the words of the Koran. From the time of the Revelation of the Noble Koran until recently, all Muslims unanimously accepted that the Haram as-Sharif, or Holy Esplanade, on which the Dome of the Rock today stands is the same place where Solomon’s and Zorobabel’s Temples once stood. As a matter of fact, Haram as-Sharif, the Sacred Area of Temple Mount, includes a place called Solomon’s Standpoint, or Maqam Sulayman—according to the Muslim tradition, Solomon used to sit there and supplicate while Hiram’s masons were engaged in building the Temple. From that same place the Muslim tradition says that Solomon prayed to dedicate the House once it was completed and to intercede for those who will approach it for worshiping.

Accepting that Solomon’s Temple was in Jerusalem is compulsory for every Muslim believer, because that is what the Koran and the Islamic oral tradition, called the Sunnah, teach.

In the Koran, Sura Bani Isra’il (the Chapter of the Children of Israel), verses 1-7, we find a description of Solomon’s Temple and of how it was destroyed twice by the enemies of the Jewish people:

Glory to Him Who caused His servant [Mohammed] to travel by night from Masjid al-Haram [in Mecca] to Masjid al-Aqsa [in Jerusalem] whose precincts We did bless, in order that We might show him some of Our Signs: for He is the One Who heareth and seeth everything. We gave Moses the Book [Torah], and made it a Guide to the Children of Israel, commanding: ‘Take not other than Me as Disposer of your affairs.’ O ye that are the offspring of those whom We carried [in the Ark] with Noah, verily he was a devotee most grateful. And We warned the Children of Israel in the Book, that twice would they do mischief on the earth and twice be elated with mighty arrogance. When the first of the warnings came to pass, We sent against you Our creatures [Babylonians], given to terrible warfare: they entered the very inmost parts of your homes, and thus the first warning was fulfilled. Then We did grant you the return as against them; We gave you increase in resources and sons and made you abundant in human power. If ye did well, ye did well for yourselves; if ye did evil, [ye did it] against yourselves. So when the second of the warnings came to pass, [We permitted your enemies] to disfigure your faces, and to enter your Temple as they entered it once before, and to bring to destruction all that fell into their power.

Imam Abu Abdullah al-Qurtubi, who lived from 1214 to 1273 and was one of the most authoritative medieval Koranic annotators, in his Al-Jami’ li Ahkam il-Qur’an, or Encyclopedia of Koranic Rules, explains the context (asbab) of the verses by mentioning among other sources the authentic Prophetic tradition (hadith). He wrote:

Hudhayfah Ibn al-Yaman asked the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him:

‘I traveled more than once to Jerusalem, but saw no Temple standing there. What is the reason?’

The Prophet Muhammad replied:

‘Verily Solomon son of David raised Bayt al-Maqdis [i.e., Beth ha-Mikdash, the First Temple] with gold and silver, with rubies and emeralds, and Allah caused human beings and spirits to work under his command, until the raising of the House was completed. Afterward, a Babylonian King destroyed Bayt al-Maqdis and brought its treasures to the land of Babylonia, until a King of Persia defeated him and ransomed the Children of Israel. They rebuilt Bayt al-Maqdis for the second time [the Second Temple], until it was destroyed for the second time by an army led by a Roman Emperor.’

One can easily verify that Jewish and Muslim traditional sources are confirming each other: The Temple was built by Solomon and destroyed by a Babylonian king. A Persian king later defeated the Babylonians and ransomed the Jews, permitting them to return to the Land of Israel. The Temple was rebuilt but afterward was destroyed by the Romans. This Temple stood in the area referred to as Beth haMikdash in Hebrew and Bayt al-Maqdis in Arabic. Those political and pseudo-religious Palestinian leaders who claim that “there was never a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem” are surely aware that, in order to support their political claims, they are compelled to lie, hide sources, and contradict the letter of the Koran and the Islamic tradition.

An earlier Koranic exegete and jurist, Imam Muhammad ibn Jarir at-Tabari, who lived from 838 to 923, writes in his Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk, or History of Prophets and Kings, that the same sacred area was the place where Jacob had his vision of the Heavenly Ladder:

When Jacob awoke he felt blissful from what he had seen in his trustful dream and vowed, for God’s sake that, if he returned to his family safely, he would build there a Temple for the Almighty. He also vowed to perpetual charity one tenth of his property for the sake of God. He poured oil on the Stone so as to recognize it and called the place Bayt El, which means ‘the House of God.’ It became the location of Jerusalem later.

In Jerusalem on a huge Rock, Solomon son of David built a beautiful Temple to expand the worship of God. Today on the base of that Temple stands the Dome of the Rock.

Historical negation of Jewish and Islamic sources concerning Jerusalem is recent and does not predate the PLO and its political propaganda. In 1932, during the British Mandate period, the Supreme Muslim Council of Jerusalem published a Brief Guide to Haram as-Sharif for Muslim pilgrims, written in English. “This site is one of the oldest in the world,” it says. “Its sanctity dates from the earliest times. Its identity with the site of Solomon’s Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on which David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.”

Not only were Arafat’s minions and heirs in Jerusalem attempting to rewrite the history of Arabs and Jews in the region as told by others; they were also attempting to rewrite the history of Arabs and Jews in the region as told by Islamic Arab sources, too.

2. Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel

The Biblical notion that God granted the land of Canaan to the Children of Israel is confirmed by the Koran. In the Sura of Jonah, verse 93, we read:

We settled the Children of Israel in a beautiful dwelling-place, and provided for them sustenance of the best.

In Sura al-Ahraf (of the Barrier), verse 137, we read:

We made a people considered weak inheritors of the Land in both Eastern and Western side [of the Jordan river] whereon we sent down Our blessings. The fair promise of thy Lord was fulfilled for the Children of Israel, because they had patience and constancy, and We leveled to the ground the great works and fine buildings which Pharaoh and his people erected.

Sura al Maidah (the Table), verse 21, is the only passage in which the Holy Land is mentioned by that title (al-Ard al-Muqaddas). It refers to the words Moses spoke to the descendants of Isaac:

Remember Moses said To his people: ‘O my People, call in remembrance the favor of God unto you, when He produced prophets among you, made you kings, and gave You what He had not given To any other among the peoples. O my people! Enter The Holy Land which God hath written for you, and turn not back ignominiously [to this heritage of yours], for then will ye be overthrown, to your own ruin.

In a commentary of Imam Abu al-Qasim Mahmud al-Zamakshari, who lived from 1074 to 1144, titled al-Kashaf, or The Revealer, we read the following explanation:

As for the borders of ‘the Holy Land,’ some scholars says its northern border is the Mount [Hermon] and its surroundings, and for others in also includes a part of the Land of Sham [the Golan]. Others say it extends from the territory of the Philistines [Gaza] until Damascus and a part of Urvum. Some say that God presented to Abraham this Land as an inheritance for his children when he went up to the mountain and said to him: ‘Look around as far as your gaze can reach. Every place reached by your eyes will be theirs.’ The Holy Temple was the dwelling place of the prophets and the residence of the believers. ‘God hath written for you’ means ‘God swore it and wrote in the Divine Tablets of Predestination: that it is yours, belongs to your people and do not turn back from it. Do not be afraid of the Philistine giants who live there.

A similar note is also found in a commentary of Abdallah ibn ‘Umar al-Qadi al-Baidawi, who lived from 1226 to 1260, titled Asrar ut-Tanzil wa Asrar ut-Ta’wil, or The Secrets of Revelation and the Secrets of Interpretation.

3. Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel was never abolished

Moreover, the Koran explicitly refers to the return of the Jews to the Land of Israel before the Last Judgment when it says in the Sura of the Children of Israel, verse 104:

And thereafter We [God] said to the Children of Israel: ‘Dwell securely in the Promised Land. And when the last warning will come to pass, we will gather you together in a mingled crowd.’

Therefore, from an Islamic point of view, Israel is the legitimate owner of the land God deeded to her and whose borders were defined by Abraham in Genesis.

All recent claims according to which the “assignment of the Land of Israel to the Jewish people was withdrawn or abrogated” are bereft of scriptural or traditional evidence. The Koran mentions the territory that God assigned to the Jewish people, but neither it nor the traditional Islamic sources mention a supposed withdrawal.

Imam al-Qurtubi explains in al-Jami that the last promise concerning the return of the Jewish people “together in a mingled crowd” after the destruction of the Second Temple will be a sign that precedes the coming of the Messiah.

The Koran only mentions a double period of mischief and a double punishment with exile from the Land. God says:

We warned the Children of Israel in the Book, that TWICE would they do mischief on the earth and TWICE be elated with mighty arrogance.

According to this Koranic proof, the contemporary Zionist rebuilding of the State of Israel—the third entry of the Jews to their divinely appointed land—is not mischief but rather a fulfillment of what Imam az-Zamakshari reminds the Jews: “God swore it and wrote in the Divine Tablets of Predestination: that it is yours, belongs to your people and do not turn back from it.”

By Becca Owsley, The (Kentucky) News-Enterprise  www.TheNewsEnterprise.com

While many of us went about our daily business, Monday at sundown, Passover began.

The Jewish faith has been celebrating Passover (Pesach) since the time of the Old Testament and some Christian churches also celebrate it as a connection to the beginnings of their faith.

But what exactly is the Passover?

Morris Schwartz, Jewish Lay Leader at Fort Knox, explained.

On the Shabbat preceding the beginning of Nisan, the month in which Passover falls, he reads the Parshat HaHodesh, Exodus 12:1-20, that contains the command to observe the very first Passover while Israel was still in Egypt.

The significance of the event for all generations to come is found in Exodus 12:2, “this month shall be first among the months for you; it shall be first for you among the months of the year.”

“Given that we will be privileged to celebrate Pesach once again this week, the importance of this Torah portion is as a reminder that time has a spiritual, as well as a physical dimension, and that the celebration of this, our most favorite holiday, has the continuing potential to root us firmly in the story of our people and to bring us to a place of deeper connection with the Holy One,” Schwartz said.

His connection to the military gives a special meaning to Pesach. “We all know the slogan, ‘freedom isn’t free.’ It means that sometimes we have to make sacrifices for it, perhaps even the ultimate sacrifice–or that others have done so on our behalf,” Schwartz said.

For Jews, Schwartz said, freedom is endowed with special significance, signifying the removal of obstacles to their service to the Holy One.

While the Seder, or Passover meal, is typically a family event, many communities come together to celebrate one of the two Seders, Schwartz said.

Why are two Seders celebrated two nights in a row? “In Israel, there is only one Seder night because they are in the Promised Land,” Schwartz said. “We know they are in the right place at the right time to celebrate the anniversary of the Exodus from slavery into freedom.”

Outside of Israel, Schwartz said, two days are celebrated, with two Seders to ensure they have marked the anniversary date correctly.

Marnie Clagett, whose father is Jewish, has memories of celebrating Passover as a child. When she and her brother, Dave, were children, they were one of three families there who celebrated Passover.

“Dave and I have always been glad that we were able to be a part of those celebrations,” Clagett said. “Neither one of us is Jewish — we’re both Christian — but having an awareness of what the Passover celebration really means has deepened my awareness of where the Christian faith began. It’s much easier for me to imagine Jesus and His followers preparing for and celebrating the Passover, having experienced those Passovers as a kid.”

She remembers amazing cooks and a ton of food. Clagett remembers the Seder being filled with fantastic rituals such as men and boys wearing their yarmulkes and women pinning a piece of lace at the backs of their heads. Children had questions assigned to them.

“Everything is explained so that the children will remember what their Jewish ancestors went through in Egypt and how God delivered them from slavery into freedom,” Clagett said.

Rabi Vann Lantz is a Messianic Jew who’s ministry, Davar Emet, helps teach Christian churches about aspects of the Jewish faith that are foundations to their faith.

Part of that is conducting and explaining the Seder in churches. The Messianic Seder points out the element of Jesus in the celebration.

During the meal, the story of Passover is retold from a special book called the Haggadah, which means “the telling.”

“At a Messianic Passover we recognized the symbols of Jesus in all that happens as well as see the three special events that occurred during Messiah’s final Passover, called the Last Supper,” Lantz said. “We see where He washed the feet of the Disciples, where He and Judas dipped their matzoh — unleavened bread — and where he blessed the matzoh and wine, passing them in recognition of the new symbols of His sacrifice.”

While the Passover has many symbols in it, one of Lantz’s favorite is the three matzohs.

“There are three matzohs that are wrapped in a single white linen,” Lantz said. “This represents a mysterious three in one that Believers in Messiah can see as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”

During the Seder celebration, the middle piece (which Messianics see as representing the Messiah) is pulled out. Participants see it is striped and pierced—which to Messianics represent the stripes from the whips and the piercing of Jesus by a spear.

That piece is broken in half; one half is wrapped in linen and hidden by the father for later. The broken matzoh is called the afikomen — that which comes later. Jews have differing reasons for its tradition, but Christians recognize it instantly as Christ’s body buried before His resurrection. The afikomen and third cup of wine are likely what Jesus passed out to his Disciples as His Body and Blood.

At the end of the Seder they shout “Next year in Jerusalem.” For 2000 years Jews have concluded their Passover meal with this phrase, indicating their hope for a Temple in Jerusalem in which to conduct the required feasts and sacrifices.