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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.

By Chris Mitchell, Christian Broadcasting Network, www.CBN.com

This week marks the celebration of Passover for Jews and the beginning of Holy Week for Christians around the world.

For a growing number of Messianic Jews in Israel and elsewhere, the holiday has double meaning: commemorating the time of deliverance for the Jewish people, as well as the sacrifice and resurrection of the Messiah.

For days, Jerusalem has been filled with preparations for Passover, one of the most important of all Jewish feasts. It commemorates the deliverance of the Jews from the slavery of Egypt.

Some of the most visible and colorful preparations took place in the Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim. Many Jews brought their cookware to be cleansed in large vats of boiling water to make them kosher for use in the Passover.

On the streets, people burned hamatz. Hamatz is any food like bread that contains leaven. All hamatz has to be removed from Jewish houses to fulfill the biblical command found in the book of Exodus to cleanse their homes of leaven.

Instead of bread, Jews will eat matzoh, or unleavened bread, for the seven days of Passover. Prior to the feast, it was a time of intense preparations.

“Cooking and cooking and cooking and cooking. If you don’t have everything done as far as cleaning, you’re in trouble,” said one woman.

“It is a holiday when the family all sit together,” explained one man.

Jews here in Jerusalem and around the world are observing the Passover. Among the diverse Jewish groups observing the traditions handed down over 3,000 years ago are Messianic Jews– Jews who believe that Jesus is the Messiah.

“There are six elements put around the Pessach plate,” said Uri Marcus, a Messianic Jew. He sees within the elements of Passover a reflection of God’s salvation through Yeshua, or Jesus, as the Messiah.

“As Messianic Jews, we don’t have to look very far to apply our own traditional views of these elements, the matzoh inside of these covers, into our own understanding of what and who Yeshua was as the Messiah. It’s all a picture of redemption. Redemption for the world from the beginning of time until the end of time,” Marcus said.

“It fits very well with everything that the New Testament teaches us and everything that Yeshua Himself commanded us,” he continued.

Steve Schneider is another Messianic Jew. For him, Passover signifies not only national redemption but personal salvation.

“Passover to me is a joyous, joyous occasion as I recognize that all of the elements that are celebrated are all pinpointing and focusing in on Yeshua, my Messiah, Jesus Christ, the Son of God,” Schneider said.

“It’s a family gathering that we as a family that can come together and celebrating that which was commanded by the Lord God of Israel. To commemorate year by year, in light of what has taken place, of that great deliverance that God brought about so many thousands of years ago,” he explained.

“And in Jesus’ day, if I had asked you for a Passover meal you would have been so concerned not to touch any leaven that you would have brought your own dish and plate along to eat from it,” said Elfie Gill of the Biblical Resources Center.

Many believers in Yeshua believe Jesus not only celebrated the Passover meal, but fulfilled it. It’s this fulfillment with Jesus as the Passover Lamb that many Christians rejoice in at Easter. At the Biblical Resources Center just outside of Jerusalem, they explain the significance of the Passover meal and the relationship between the observance of Passover and celebration of Easter.

“Once you finished with the meal you would ask the youngest child to look for that special piece of bread called the afikoman,” said Gill as she explained the meal to a group of participants.

“That was also the piece of bread Jesus took that night. ‘This is my Body, broken for you’ — the afikoman. Now when you say, you break it, you wrap it, you hide and then take it out; doesn’t it also symbolize the Body of Christ? Broken for us, buried, and resurrected. And I’m sure God is saying to each one of us, eat from that bread which is the living Bread,” she continued.

“You would share it among you and then you would take the third cup of wine called the cup of redemption,” Gill said. “And that was the cup that Jesus took that night when He said, this is the blood of the new covenant, My blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Take you all from it and as often as you do so, you proclaim My death until I come back again. You know, I always remind people here that we have a beautiful promise — He’s coming back one day.”

It’s this promise of His return that is a source of hope for Messianic Believers.

“At this time we have a very special meaning for Pessach. We can celebrate it with more vigor than ever, with more faith than ever. These are times when anyone with eyes open to the Torah and to the Prophets and to the writings and to the New Testament can see with clarity that God is working the ends. We’re about to enter the End of Days and we’re looking forward to it,” Marcus said.

Yet this year, Israel is on edge and virtually at war with the Palestinians, so for Jews and Messianic Jews this Passover has extra meaning.

“We want to encourage Believers the world over to raise Israel up especially during this season, Passover/Pessach, because it is a season of redemption,” Marcus said. “It is a season of our protection. It is a season that points us to the reality of the world it will be in a Messianic Age–that God would be King over all the Earth.”

By Hillel Fendel, www.IsraelNationalNews.com

Passover is known as the Festival of Unleavened Bread (Matzot), based on the Torah commandment (Exodus 12:14-20 and Leviticus 23:4-8) to eat matzoh on the holiday. Matzohs (plural: matzohs or matzot) come in various forms; see below for a link to the actual baking process.

Matzoh is the baked product of grain and water that has not been fermented (leavened). Hametz, its forbidden-on-Passover counterpart, is any fermented grain product. Only wheat, spelt, barley, oats, and rye can become matzoh or hametz, according to the Torah. Strict custom (e.g., Ashkenazi Jews) also prohibits the consumption on Passover of rice, millet, and bean products, known on Passover as kitniyot; one reason is because they swell when dampened and resemble leavened products.

Fermentation takes place only after the flour and water have been in contact for at least 18 minutes. In order to become matzoh, therefore, the dough must be baked within that time period. This is accomplished by protecting the ingredients from moisture and/or heat before they are combined, kneading and otherwise preparing the dough very rapidly, and then baking it at extremely high temperatures.

For more details and do-it-yourself instructions, click on (or copy and paste) this URL: www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/Jewish_Holidays/Passover/At_Home/Food_and_the_Kitchen/Matzah_Baking.shtml

Different kinds of matzoh include the following:

Simple matzoh, made of flour that was carefully watched from the time it was milled. Not all “simple matzoh” can be eaten on Passover; it must have ”Kosher for Passover” certification.

Matzoh shmurah, made of flour made from wheat that was carefully watched from the time it was harvested, in accordance with Exodus 12:17 “and you must guard the matzohs.”  The custom of many is to eat only this at the Seder; others eat only this throughout the weeklong holiday.

Hand matzoh. No machines are used, and the flour is the same as in matza shmurah. It is traditionally used to fulfill the commandment of eating matzoh at the Seder meal, usually round and quite chewy.

Egg matzoh, known in Hebrew as “rich matzoh” – a dough kneaded with fruit juice or eggs.  It must not become hametz, but one cannot use it to fulfill the commandment of eating matzoh at the Seder meal, because of its “richness;” the Torah commands us to eat “poor matzoh” (Deut. 16:3). Strict custom is not to eat it at all during Passover, unless one is ill, weak, or a young child.

Soft matzoh. Unlike the hard matzohs familiar to most Jews around the world, the Yemenite and Iraqi Jewish communities eat soft, pita-like matzohs, as was apparently the custom in most of the Jewish world until recent centuries. In fact, many rabbis permit these matzohs to be eaten on Passover even today. They have gone out of mode not because of a Halakhic [Jewish legal] reason, but rather due to a technical issue: In the pre-freezer period, they did not retain their freshness and softness for more than a day or two, and therefore were customarily baked on Passover itself – when even a “drop” of hametz disqualifies an entire matzoh. However, now that there are freezers and soft matzohs can be baked before Passover – when a “drop” of hametz that might fall into a dough is “batel b’shishim” (less than 1/61 of the whole and therefore nullified) – such matzohs would be kosher. They must not be more than approximately a centimeter thick, however; one should consult a rabbi for precise instructions.

Gebrochts
A commonly held stringency forbids the eating of Matzoh shruyah (also known as  gebrochts), which is matzoh or matzoh products that were cooked or otherwise became wet after being baked. According to Jewish Law, once matzoh is baked, it cannot become hametz. However, some Jews, chiefly in Hassidic communities, do not eat matzoh shruyah, for fear that part of the dough was not sufficiently baked and might become hametz when coming in contact with water.

As described above, the process is precise and demanding, and is carried out under the constant shadow and fear of mishandling the dough and turning it into forbidden hametz. That is why many rabbis make a point of baking their own matzoh for the Seder night or holiday, making appointments to do so at matzoh bakeries.

At the bakery, the first step is measuring out the water and wheat flour in exact amounts, both having been specially preserved beforehand. A stopwatch is set for 18 minutes, after which time non-baked dough—and according to many, even unhandled dough within the 18 minutes—begins to ferment and rise.  Large batches require many hands and stations to process the dough in the short time.

With the clock ticking tensely away, kneading brings the mixture to a full-fledged dough as quickly as possible. After shaping into a long roll, the dough is cut up into small pieces and rolled into thin round circles, up to about 8 inches in diameter. Most of the pieces do not turn out exactly that shape; some are shaped more like triangles, elongated ovals, and other more unfamiliar shapes. Each is quickly turned over to the hole-maker (“holy work”) who uses small, specially-designed hole-fashioning tools to create the small openings that will allow the oven’s heat to escape while causing minimum puffing-up.

At this point, with the clock unyieldingly approaching the 18-minute cut-off mark, three of the flat, round, holed pieces of dough are rolled onto a long stick, which is quickly given over to the baker himself. Standing next to the large, flaming, very hot oven, the baker places them inside, and within seconds, the baking process is over — either because the matzoh has been successfully baked, or because it has caught fire…

After the matzohs are removed, the 18-minute deadline has been announced, and everyone has breathed a sigh of relief, the rabbi — having supervised and checked all aspects of the assembly-line process — checks each matzoh individually. Those that are not completely baked, meaning that they are still completing the fermentation process and becoming hametz, are thrown out, leaving only 100% kosher matzohs for the joyous Passover consumption of the participants and their families.

By David Bedein, Middle East Correspondent for The Bulletin (Philadelphia, PA)

http://thebulletin.us

Saturday, February 6 will be the observation of Tu Bshvat on the Hebrew calendar, the 15th of Shvat, the Jewish arbor day, a day when the Jewish people bid a “happy birthday to the Land of Israel.”

One rabbi, known as “the Ari of Tzfat,” declared in the 16th Century that Tu Bshvat should be celebrated as the real Jewish New Year.

In the modern era, Tu Bshvat combines a heavenly commitment of love for the land of Israel with the Zionist enterprise in order to make the Land bloom in the modern era.

The organization in charge of planting trees in the land of Israel, after two millennia of desolation, is known as the Jewish National Fund (JNF).

This is how the momentum of tree planting in the land of Israel has progressed over the past 90 years:

In 1920, the year the JNF was established, there were 14,000 dunams (a measurement of one-quarter of an acre) of planted forests in the land of Israel. By 1942 there were already 35,000 dunams of forest, and more than a half a million in 1980.

Israel is the only country in the world that will have more trees in its territory this year than it did in 1910. The trees that will be planted this year during the annual Tu Bishvat celebrations are part of the JNF’s “A Tree for Every Resident” program.

“In the framework of the program we are going to plant seven-and-a-half million trees,” said Efi Stentzler, the JNF chairman. “A tree for every resident of Israel. Our project is part of a global project that was announced by the UN, the goal of which is to fight the causes of pollution that humanity is responsible for.”

Forests currently cover some 1.6 million dunams of land in the state of Israel. A million of those dunams are administered by the Jewish National Fund.

The JNF has planted more than 240 million trees to date. The national master plan envisions another 300,000 dunams of available land to be covered with forests. This year, between 15,000 and 20,000 dunams of land will be forested. Tree-planting season ends in March. The saplings are provided by the JNF nurseries, which produce 1.2 million saplings every year.

In 1960, pine trees accounted for 85 percent of all trees planted in Israel, which made them the icon of JNF planting in Israel. In recent years, pine trees have come to account for under one-third of the trees planted. Rather, 70 percent of all saplings planted are indigenous trees.

The JNF plants 150 different kinds of trees and invests an average of five million dollars every year for that purpose. The JNF has recorded in a special diary an account of all plantings since Israel was re-established. In 1991, that diary was computerized.

The largest forest in Israel is the Yatir Forest, which is spread over 40,000 dunams, half of which are desert. The smallest forest is the Dalton Forest, which is on a modest 42 dunams of land.

The first forest ever planted by the JNF is the Ben Shemen Forest —which was initially called the Herzl Forest and consisted of just 18 olive trees.

By Ludwig Schneider, Israel Today

Most of the Jewish prayers are brachot (benedictions or blessings), in which the one praying blesses God. Blessings begin with this formula:

Baruch Ata Adonai, Eloheinu,

Melech ha’olam…

Blessed are You, O Lord our

God, King of the universe…

There are specific blessings for all occasions—for bread and wine on the Sabbath, for festivals like Passover and Hanukkah, and for simchot (joyous occasions) like bar mitzvahs and weddings.

Any individual Jew can pray alone in his room or at the Western Wall, but when the prayer occurs in the context of a religious service, there must be at least 10 men praying together, or a minyan. This is derived from Abraham’s struggle in prayer for the rescue of Sodom, going down to 10 men (Genesis 18:32).

In accordance with the daily sacrifices at the Temple in Jerusalem, three prayer times were established, which were later taken up for the service in the synagogue:

Shacharit—The Morning Prayer

Mincha—The Afternoon Prayer

Ma’ariv—The Evening Prayer

At all three prayer times, these two prayers are recited: the Shmoneh Esrei (18 benedictions), and the confession of faith, Shema Yisrael, the “Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4).

The prayers are mostly from the Psalms. However, when the word sela appears, the one praying can add his own extemporaneous prayers and bring his personal requests before the Lord. The sela acts as a finale in the sense of “God is my final help.”

In addition, one is to pray after getting up in the morning and before going to bed, as well as before and after meals and on other set occasions. These prayers are contained in the common prayer book, the Siddur. The word siddur comes from seder (order) because the book gives directions about what to pray and when.

For the Jewish festivals there is the Machzor (cycles), which has several volumes and regulates the cycle of prayers throughout the year. Since the Jews were scattered among the nations and spoke many different languages, the Hebrew text is often printed on the right-hand page of the Siddur while a translation appears on the left-hand page.

A religious Jewish man wears a kippah (skullcap) when he prays. The word kippah means cap, which in turn can be linked with kapparah (atonement), implying that “I am covered by a propitiation.” A religious woman wears a headscarf when praying.

The men also wear a prayer shawl or tallit (Numbers 15:37-41; Deuteronomy 22:12), which has tzitziot (tassels) on each of its four corners. In the New Testament, this term is often translated as the “hem” of the garment.

During morning prayers observant men bind prayer straps or tefillin (phylacteries) to their arms and foreheads. Inside the small tefillin box, which is tied to the forehead, are the following texts written on parchment: Exodus 13:1-10; 11-16; Deuteronomy 6:4-9; 11:13-21.

Jews always pray facing Jerusalem, and those who live in the Holy City pray facing the Temple Mount. In places of Jewish worship and in private homes abroad, a mizrach (a decorated plaque with a blessing, often Psalm 16:8-11) is often placed on the wall facing toward Jerusalem, indicating which way to face in prayer.

The posture of prayer includes bowing down, particularly when the name of God is spoken, or a spreading out of one’s hands before the Lord. Those who wish to demonstrate particular reverence will cover their heads with their prayer shawl or move back three steps. Placing your hands in your pockets while praying is considered irreverent.

While some holy days like Yom Kippur are solemn, prayer is supposed to be joyous, especially on the Sabbath and other festivals. For instance, on the festival of Simchat Torah (Rejoicing in the Law), congregants rejoice like a bridegroom over the bride, dancing around the synagogue while holding the Torah scrolls in their arms.

Outward appearance is not the key factor when praying; however, the outward appearance should mirror one’s inward attitude.

By Peggy Shapiro, www.americanthinker.com

Where could you hear radio talk show hosts Dennis Prager and Michael Medved, military analyst Elliot Chodoff, Israel’s Ambassador Michael Oren, Senator Joe Lieberman, country music star Randy Travis, and cantor and musical theater singer Dudu Fisher on the same stage with ministers and orthodox rabbis? Where could you see over four thousand Christians waving Israeli and American flags to the singing of national anthems of Israel and the U.S. and breaking out in spontaneous dance during the playing of Havah Nagilah? Where could you witness Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, and Pentecostals wearing Star of David necklaces, which they had just purchased at an Israel bazaar?  That’s what I heard, saw, and witnessed at the Conference of Christians United for Israel in Washington D.C. on July 19-22 when Christian Zionists from a multitude of denominations and backgrounds took up the huge Convention Center and made over 400 lobby appointments on Capital Hill to speak up for Israel and mark a change in the Jewish-Christian relationship.

The attendees were African Americans, Asians, Caucasians, Hispanics, teens, octogenarians, the affluent, and the unemployed from all over the U.S. I met a Nigerian mechanical engineering student who was pursuing a Master’s Degree and supporting a wife and child, a stunningly beautiful airline hostess who brought her granddaughter, an African American grandmother who was planning her 16th trip to Israel, and a food chemist for a large corporation. I spoke to a shy woman from the southern tip of Illinois. She had never made a public speech or taken political action and called herself “a hick from the sticks.” My roommate, along with 89 others, made their way to Washington from Minnesota on a 24-hour bus ride. The crowd was diverse, but they shared one common mission, which was proclaimed on the banners which hung from every rafter: “For Zion’s sake, I will not keep silent.” They were united by their commitment to speak up on behalf of the State of Israel and for its rights to exist, to self defense, and to sovereignty.

The focus of the conference was a two-pronged message to Congress and to the Obama administration, which has recently taken Israel to task for adding housing to accommodate the natural growth in its “settlements,” while soft-peddling any criticism of Iran’s nuclear ambitions: Israel is not the obstacle to peace, and the U.S. must place crippling sanctions on Iran to stop the terror-sponsoring state from acquiring nuclear arms.

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) told the group, “Critics say the stumbling block [to peace in the Middle East] is settlements or Jerusalem or refugees,” “We all know the real stumbling block to peace is posed by those who vehemently deny the nation of Israel’s historical right to the land of Zion.” Democrat Shelley Berkley (D-Nev) minced no words in her criticism,  “…to pin the peace process” on the settlement issue “is absolutely foolhardy. To publicly dress down the State of Israel is a huge mistake.”  CUFI founder and chairman Pastor John Hagee forcefully summed up the message, “America is singling out Israel…Despite all of the risks Israel has taken for peace, our government is pressuring Israel to take more risks. Hello Congress, we’re putting pressure on the wrong people here. You want to get tough, get tough with the terrorists, not the only democracy in the Middle East.” The crowd responded with a thunderous ovation.

Speaker after speaker pointed to the refusal of Palestinians and Arabs to accept a Jewish state in any part of the Middle East as the cause of the sixty-one year conflict, and to Iran for escalating the terror through its proxies of Hezbollah in the north and Hamas in the south. They urged the administration not to underestimate Iran’s nuclear ambitions and the existential threat they pose to Israel and to the entire region. U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), who accepted CUFI’s Defender of Israel Award at the Tuesday Night to Honor Israel, evening, said, “The chief obstacle to peace in the Middle East is not Israelis living on the West Bank but the regime in Tehran.”

After an extravagant Night to Honor Israel, on Wednesday, CUFI delegates took the message to Capitol Hill to tell their members of Congress not pressure the Jewish state but to respect the democratic nation and work with it as a friend. Representatives were also asked to co-sponsor legislation that could strengthen the President’s hand in the event that negotiations do not prove fruitful. One bill is the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act, which would impose sanctions on companies that help Iran import or produce refined petroleum. The other bill, The Iran Sanctions Enabling Act, which authorizes state and local governments to divest from companies investing in Iran’s energy sector, never made it to the floor when it was introduced last year.

The CUFI conference sent a message not only to Congress and to the President, but also to Jews. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who addressed the conference via satellite, acknowledged that the conference marked the changing relationship of Christians and Jews. “For centuries, the relationship between Christians and Jews was marked by conflict rather than partnership and friendship, but this is changing. A new chapter in the relationship between us is now being written.” Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice-chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, in a passionate speech proclaimed that the threats Jews face today from a regime that is determined to wipe Israel off the map are fundamentally different from the threats Jews faced in 1939 because now there are “tens of millions of Christians who will not be silent and stand with the State of Israel.”

In the breakout sessions to fellow Christians, pastors addressed the skepticism of some in the Jewish community about allying with Christian Zionists because of a history of Church anti-Semitism and replacement theology (which teaches that Christians replaced Jews as the “Chosen People”). In a number of meetings, clergy warned that some Evangelicals, such as former President Jimmy Carter, are spewing anti-Semitism when they profess Replacement Theology. The pastors gave the biblical foundation for the support of Israel. It is not the conversion of Jews nor hastening the end of days, but the strongly held belief that God blesses those who bless the Jews and curses those who curse the Jews. (Genesis 12:13)

C.U.F.I., established only four years ago, now has 150,000 members who are living their belief and who have aspirations for growing to millions of voices which “are silent no more” when Jews or the Jewish State are in danger.

By Ronald Kessler, www.NewsMax.com

Reaction to President Obama’s speech to a Muslim audience in Cairo in early June has drawn a range of reaction from many Jewish leaders. Detractors condemned it as a revision of the long and close relationship between the U.S. and Israel. But many who backed Obama were also surprised and dismayed over Obama’s speech. Such reactions from major Jewish leaders have largely remained beneath the surface, exchanged privately among them.

Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, spoke out. “I have no problem with addressing the Muslim world. We here at the conference have done it for about 12 or 15 years. But the question is, what is the message they get? It’s not so much what he says, but how do they perceive what he says?”

On the one hand, Hoenlein says, “His reference to Israel and the special relationship being unbreakable is important, and references to persecution and Holocaust denial were important.”

But Hoenlein is disturbed that Obama did not mention the Jewish people’s ancient connection with the land of Israel. “There was no reference to the 3,000 years of Jewish connection to this land,” he says. “And that is one of the propaganda lines that the Arabs use: that the Jews are interlopers, that the two Temples never existed, that there was never any Jewish history in Israel. I don’t believe that was the president’s intent, but not making those references is troubling.”

Jews have claimed a connection to the land of their forefathers since 1400 B.C. Even after the Roman destruction of the Second Temple in 70 A.D., many Jews continued to reside in Jerusalem through the centuries, surviving various invasions. An 1845 Ottoman census of Jerusalem showed Jews outnumbered Muslim Arabs by almost 2 to 1 and were the dominant ethnic group in the region.

In his speech, President Obama addressed the issue of the Holocaust head-on, saying “Six million Jews were killed — more than the entire Jewish population of Israel today.” But he quickly changed the subject, comparing Hitler’s genocide of the Jews to the Palestinian struggle.

Hoenlein doesn’t buy Obama’s line of reasoning. “The Palestinian refugee problem, or dislocation as he said, didn’t come about because of the creation of the Jewish state,” Hoenlein says. “It came about because the Arab states declared war on Israel and warned the Arabs that they would suffer the same fate as the Jews if they didn’t get out. And then they kept them as political pawns. The reason the Palestinians don’t have a state is because their leaders rejected every offer for peace. Whether it was in 1937 or 1947 or 1967, or later on, up until Ehud Olmert’s offer and Ehud Barak’s offer, they rejected everything, even when they were getting virtually everything they had asked for.”

That is because, “The problem really is not what Israel does, it’s that Israel is,” Hoenlein says. “And they’re not ready to accept the existence of the Jewish state.”

Obama also failed to mention the other refugee problem involving nearly a million Jews. In 1948, Jews populated the major Arab cities from Baghdad in the east to Casablanca in the west. After Israel saw its rebirth, Jews “were driven out of Arab countries penniless, and some of their families had lived there for a thousand years, and yet there was no reference to them.” Hoenlein adds, “It’s a question of the realities that are communicated to a vast audience in the Arab Muslim world.”

Passover begins April 9, with tonight being the First Seder on Passover Eve. 

Where Are You?
by Sara Debbie Gutfreund, www.aish.com

Every year my great grandmother stood by the living room window on Seder night looking for her son. Uncle Leo was always late, year after year. I would stand beside her in my pink and white dresses and new, shiny shoes, and peer through the lattices of the curtains as I glanced into the darkening, deserted street and then up at my great grandmother’s anxious face.

“Don’t worry Ma, he’s coming. Sit down,” my grandmother would always say. But my great grandmother refused to move from her spot. Sometimes she would pace in front of the window and notice me beside her. Then she would smile for a moment and put her hand on my shoulder as we both looked out past the red oak tree that towered in the front yard.

“Where is he already?” she would repeat as the rest of the family finished setting up the Seder table. And when he finally arrived, she would laugh with relief, and her eyes would fill with a kind of peace that I didn’t understand then. This happened so many times over the years that “Great Grandma standing by the window and Uncle Leo arriving late” became as much a part of Seder night as the matzah and the snow white tablecloth.

A few years ago I stood by my own living room window in the mountains of Jerusalem. I watched my children playing on the swing set in the backyard as I set the table for the Seder. And I felt a stinging pang of homesickness and yearning for the Seders of my childhood. I looked around me at the empty chairs, and I tried to conjure up the images of my grandparents, my great grandparents, my cousins running in and out of the rooms of my childhood home on erev Pesach. I could almost hear the laughter that used to float from the kitchen. But most of all I remembered my great grandmother’s face by the window, and I suddenly realized that her face was a reflection of a sliver of the love that God has for us as He waits for all of His children to come home on Seder night.

One year right before Passover, something happened to me that showed me just how powerful God’s love for us actually is. I was in the garden with my three-year-old, and we had a tall fence around the backyard. When the phone rang I ran inside for a minute, and when I returned my daughter was gone. I looked desperately all around me. Where could she have gone? She couldn’t have climbed over the fence.

And then I saw it. A tiny hole near the side of the fence where the ground was lower. But she couldn’t have possibly crawled under there! I unlocked the fence and ran to the front of the house. And there in the middle of the street was my three-year-old on her tricycle. A car was coming around the corner, and I ran desperately into the street reaching her just in time.

 Can a heart break from gratitude? I held my child and sobbed. I almost lost you. I almost lost my child. This is how the Almighty felt when He took us out of Egypt. My children, I almost lost you. I’m never going to let you go.

It took us so long to come home. We were so late we almost didn’t make it. And like a parent who almost loses a child, on the night of the Seder God promises every Jew that He will hold them and protect them no matter how far from Him they may be.

Personal Redemption

There is a custom for people at the Seder to tell their own stories of personal redemption. How many of us have felt stuck in the emptiness, the loneliness and the materialism of this world and thought that we would never emerge? And in the blink of an eye, our lives, our souls come alive again? Or maybe there was a time when you were lost and confused and then you heard the right words or read just what you needed to understand. Or maybe there was a time when you lost someone that you loved and the grief was so deep and so painful that you thought that you would never smile again. And then one day just when you were about to give up, a child’s laughter penetrated your soul and a hint of a smile began to return. The near miss in a car accident. The narrowly escaped diagnosis. The lost job that became a new opportunity.

Our individual stories of redemption are all integral pieces of our joint, unfolding journey towards national redemption. Because on Seder night God is watching all of us through the windows, waiting for us to come home to Him. And He promises us that when life becomes so hard that it looks like we are lost forever, that is when He will lift us up and bring us home.

Author Biography:
Sara Debbie Gutfreund holds a BA from the University of Pennysylvania and a MA in Family Therapy from the University of North Texas. She is currently researching women’s issues and specializing in pre-marital/adolescent counseling. She lives with her husband and children in Telzstone, Israel.

By Ben Lynfield, www.independent.co.uk

When Jaaber Hussein signed an agreement with Israel’s Chief Rabbis last Monday, he inked the only Arab-Jewish accord sure to be meticulously observed by both sides. The deal makes him the owner for one week of all bread, pasta, and beer in Israel – well a huge amount of it anyway. The contract, signed for the past 12 years by the Muslim hotel food manager, is part of the traditional celebrations ahead of the Jewish holiday of Passover.

Jews are forbidden by biblical injunction to possess leavened bread, or chametz, during Passover and ironically an Arab is needed to properly observe the holiday. The agreement with Mr. Hussein offers a way of complying with religious edicts without having to wastefully destroy massive quantities of food.

Jaaber Hussein, a hotel manager, prepares to take control of much of Israel's bread, beer, and pasta.

Through legal acrobatics, the forbidden goods belonging to the Israeli state are simply sold to Mr. Hussein for the duration of Passover and then revert back to the state once the holiday is over. Like the government’s adherence to the Sabbath and to dietary laws, the ceremony sets Israel apart as a Jewish state that upholds religious traditions.

Mr. Hussein, a resident of the Israeli Arab town of Abu Ghosh near Jerusalem, sees nothing odd in the arrangement, believing there are affinities between his Islamic faith and Judaism. He relishes the role the Jewish state has assigned him, one that puts his picture on the front pages of Israeli newspapers year after year.

“I see this as a way to help people with whom I work and live,” he said.

Mr. Hussein was a natural choice for the ritual because he works in a hotel that stringently observes Jewish dietary laws. He even keeps some of the strictures at home.

“There are many things that are close in the two religions. If not for politics, the religions would get along very well,” he explains. One example he cites is the halal slaughtering of meat, which he likens to kosher slaughtering.

Passover, which celebrates the biblical exodus from slavery in Egypt, starts tonight and lasts for seven days, eight outside Israel.

The reason for the prohibition of leavened bread is, according to the Bible, that the Israelites departed Egypt in such haste that their bread did not have a chance to rise and so they ate the cracker-like unleavened bread known as matzo.

Many of their descendants in modern Israel defer to this dictum every spring to the extent that a kind of fermented dough fixation suffuses the country. Housewives become the new slaves, scrubbing and vacuum cleaning to remove every trace of chametz. Religious men scald pots in the streets, making them kosher for the holiday.

For the Orthodox, there can be no half-measures. A single crumb that evades detection could spoil everything for Passover.

Those families who do not want the extra workload simply check-in to kosher hotels and escape the ardor. Even secular Israelis stock up on pita bread and put it in their freezers so that they too have enough supplies to survive the week.

Last Monday, Mr. Hussein put down a cash deposit of $4,800 for the $150m worth of leavened products he acquires from state companies, the prison service, and the national stock of emergency supplies. The deposit will be returned at the end of the holiday, unless he decides to come up with the full value of the products. In that case he could, in theory, keep them all.

At the close of the holiday, the foodstuffs purchased by Mr. Hussein revert back to their original owners, who have given the Chief Rabbis the power of attorney over their leavened products. “It’s a firm, strong agreement done in the best way,” Mr. Hussein said.

But Israelis are divided on whether the state should be enforcing Passover. A law introduced by religious parties in 1986 bans the display of bread in public areas, except in those where there is a non-Jewish majority. But a court decision last year said it was legal for restaurants to sell leavened products during Passover on the grounds that they are not public spaces. The move sparked anger among the ultra-Orthodox Jews.

This year, ultra-Orthodox activists in Jerusalem sent warning letters to stores, telling them not to sell bread or pizza because this could bring divine punishment on the city. And the chief rabbinate called for supermarkets to install a computer program that would enable cash registers to detect unleavened products by their bar codes so sales could be stopped. Supermarkets cover over their chametz with papers, but the rabbis are concerned that some customers lift the covers and buy proscribed foods.

Variations of the contract between the Israeli state and Mr. Hussein are being signed all over the world between selected non-Jews and rabbis, including those in the UK. The ceremony, like the absence of civil marriages in the country, reflects “some elements of theocracy” in the Israeli state, says Menachem Friedman, a sociologist at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv. “Israel is a unique state – very modern on the one hand but with very strong religious traditional elements on the other. Every government keeps this ritual.”

In one final Passover twist, the restaurants of Mr. Hussein’s town, Abu Ghosh, are gearing up for what is always their busiest week of the year, catering to secular Jews who want to get away from the holiday’s dietary strictures.

“It is also nice that you have people who don’t keep Passover, who eat leavened bread,” Mr. Hussein said. “It is good that we are also able to help the people who are not religious.”