October 7

A Second Exodus–What does this War have to do with It?

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Difficult times are here for us. Jews and Bible believers everywhere are holding their breath unsure of what is going on in terms of their beliefs and what the Bible says about end time events–especially events that are even now spiraling out of control in the Holy Land! But what is it all about? 

Israel has broken into a catastrophic war just at the time when Jews are returning to the land en masse. It is almost like a second Exodus and this time Pharoah seems to be IN THE LAND as well as on the borders trying to destroy anyone who wants to return. Now it is not only Egypt, but all the bordering nations who have joined in on the daily attacks to steal the land of Israel and kill its inhabitants. Why now?

Ok so Jews have celebrated the first day of Pesach of 2024, and at most seders the question is at least contemplated if not discussed as to why Jews seem to suffer eternally, as if it is our destiny to suffer. This year the celebration of our freedom is questionable. How can we celebrate freedom when the nations want to wipe us out, again! — this time from our own G-d given land? Surely Hashem must not be watching! Why is this happening? We thought the end times was about returning to the land, ending the exile and welcoming the Messiah! Maybe there is something else that we  have not seen. Maybe God’s people need a transformation! Maybe returning to the Land is a test!

Perhaps we can draw strength from the negative things that are happening. Let’s look behind the reality of what is going on.

According to a Times of Israel article dated December 23, 2023, more than 2600 people moved to Israel between October 7 and the date of the article. According to the Jewish Chronicle, over 6500 Jews emigrated to Israel by February 14 and many applications for aliyah have been made.

What can be deducted from this? As of the time of the statement in Times of Israel (12/23) not a lot of anti-Israel protests had taken place around the world– at least not like there have been recently.. So what motivated those who came? Guilt for not being in the land to support it? A feeling of wanting to stand together, come what may? Or is there something else?

During the seder at some friends’ house here in the Golan Heights, we met some new people who had just moved from the United States. They still have not established residency but they claim that Israel is the only place for Jews. They sold everything and high-tailed it over here, with or without aliyah benefits! This is definitely not the first time I have heard people claim this! 

Is Israel really the safest place for Jews as the above article suggests? It may well be, but it does not feel like it at the moment. Feelings aside, what is Hashem’s plan for Israel? Is there a plan? Are Jews going to be forever persecuted and targeted? Is it because they are the Covenant People? Is it because they somehow went astray way back thousands of years ago? Well, maybe, but I don’t see a loving and gracious G-d eternally punishing a people with persecution when they have no idea why. I am sure there is something else involved in the overwhelming drive to return to the land of our forefathers. Why are we here, indeed? 

Another thing, why do Christian organizations, especially evangelicals, believe that the Jews must return to the land?
According to the the Zionist Christian statement in Wikipedia:
“God the Father, Almighty, chose the ancient nation and people of Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to reveal His plan of redemption for the world. They remain elect of God, and without the Jewish nation His redemptive purposes for the world will not be completed.”
Of course underlying this statement is the premise that the Christian Messiah (Jesus) must return to Jerusalem and as some have stated, “convince the Jews of his “divine mission and Messiahship.”  

Be that false as most of us claim, the outcome is that many Jews are being helped to return. Shall we condemn their good will and refuse to accept their gifts, even though they are motivated by wrong reasoning? Do we throw the baby out with the bath water? I am not so sure. Hashem has worked with nations to bring about his will over the millennia  and I don’t see Him changing plans now. So what could be His purpose in bringing Jews to experience a horrible war against Israel at what many of us believe to be the end times? Are we to see something spectacular?

Some see this war as being completely controlled by a secular government that is not directed by YHVH. Some have stated that G-d is not in our midst and cannot work with this government? Wait!

Did G-d work with Cyrus of Babylon to send the Jews back to the land. Does that not mean that all is in the Hands of the Eternal Architect of History? 

Another thing, besides the attack on October 7 (see my article Dancing with the Devil here), there have been many missiles, drones, rockets, and bombs fired at Israel from all sides. Besides many of our dear soldiers being killed in the fight with Hamas, Hezbollah and other proxies of Iran, there have been very few civilian casualties. Like for example what happened on Saturday night April 13 when over 300 projectiles were fired at Israel from Iran and nobody was hurt except one bedouin girl who was injured. One missile landed in our town between a couple of apartment buildings and left a 10 foot hole in the yard and some structural damage. But curiously, it did not hurt anyone! Is the secret in the strength of our defense forces and our Iron dome? Or is it possible that Somebody Up There is watching out for us? It is true that our government for the most part looks to themselves as the sole protection of Israel. Evil as that may be, is Hashem there working behind the scenes? Is it possible that He alone is guiding the movements of the war? Can you tell me He is not? He can uproot kings whenever He wants to. It just happens that He is working alongside and bringing about what He wants?

Some of us still question the apparent stupidity of our government for being surprised at the October 7 attack, or even ignoring it until it was too late. Did G-d have a purpose in  allowing it? Did He have a message for us? Did He use it somehow to begin a bigger scale attack on Israel that would play out to show His Mighty Hand at the last? And now, what about our 133 hostages which many of us believe are mostly dead by now? I cannot fathom the reason for their torture and death, but I will not allow my faith in YHVH to fail. I have prayed for them over and over and it is time to leave them with the Almighty who protects the innocent. Does He or does He not? Some say He clearly has not protected any of them. So what do we do? Throw out our faith? Could there be a reason for all of this? I say there is, but I cannot tell you what it is. Shall we place the blame on the government, or is the government just a puppet in Hashem’s hands? 

If we read the prophecies of Ezekiel 37-39, it is pretty clear that something corresponds with what is going on. 

I know I am arguing to save G-d’s reputation. Some may claim that I am a religious fanatic. I may be. But a couple of things are clear to me.

  1. This war is necessary to fulfill the Divine Plan and is hinted at in the Bible.
  2. People have always suffered, especially the Covenant People.
  3. The Bible promises to bring back those who have died (hostages?) in the resurrection. (See Isaiah 26, Daniel 12, Ezek 37).
  4. The Land of Israel belongs to YHVH and He promises to wipe out Edom (Isaiah 63). He says he will do it alone (Isaiah 63:3).
  5. There is to be a separation between the righteous and the wicked. (Wickedness is showing its face especially now. This war is revealing people’s attitudes and secret motivations. Some Jews are hanging onto their money as the most important thing they have. Some are selling everything and moving to Israel, whatever the cost. Many non-Jews are lining up to help, while others are covering their ears so that they do not hear. Some are searching the ancestry of their parents and doing DNA searches  to see if they may be Jewish or from the 10 lost tribes. 

So, yes, there is a lot to contemplate and the best thing we can do is trust G-d to work out His will. He alone is in charge no matter what governments and organizations are doing. Let’s not get in His way!

My hope is for a greater faith while we see mountains crumble and towers fall. May we be faithful through it all!

Ariella

Please like, share, comment and follow if you like any of my articles! 

A Second Exodus–What does this War have to do with It?

Difficult times are here for us. Jews and Bible believers everywhere are holding their breath unsure of what is going on in terms of their beliefs and what the Bible says about end time events. Especially events that are even now spiraling out of control in the Holy Land! But what is it all about? 

Israel has broken into a catastrophic war just at the time when Jews are returning to the land en masse. It is almost like a second Exodus and this time Pharoah seems to be IN THE LAND as well as on the borders trying to destroy anyone who wants to return. Now it is not only Egypt, but all the bordering nations who have joined in on the daily attacks to steal the land of Israel and kill its inhabitants. Why now?

Ok so Jews have celebrated the first day of Pesach of 2024, and at most seders the question is at least contemplated if not discussed as to why Jews seem to suffer eternally, as if it is our destiny to suffer. This year the celebration of our freedom is questionable. How can we celebrate freedom when the nations want to wipe us out, again! — this time from our own G-d given land? Surely Hashem must not be watching! Why is this happening? We thought the end times was about returning to the land, ending the exile and welcoming the Messiah! Maybe there is something else that we  have not seen. Maybe God’s people need a transformation!

Perhaps we can draw strength from the negative things that are happening. Let’s look behind the reality of what is going on.

According to a Times of Israel article dated December 23, 2023, more than 2600 people moved to Israel between October 7 and the date of the article. According to the Jewish Chronicle, over 6500 Jews emigrated to Israel by February 14 and many applications for aliyah have been made.

What can be deducted from this? As of the time of the statement in Times of Israel (12/23) not a lot of anti-Israel protests had taken place around the world– at least not like there have been recently.. So what motivated them? Guilt for not being in the land to support it? A feeling of wanting to stand together, come what may? Or is there something else?

During the seder at some friends’ house here in the Golan Heights, we met some new people who had just moved from the United States. They still have not established residency but they claim that Israel is the only place for Jews. They sold everything and high-tailed it over here, with or without aliyah benefits! This is definitely not the first time I have heard people claim this! 

Is Israel really the safest place for Jews as the above article suggests? It may well be, but it does not feel like it at the moment. Feelings aside, what is Hashem’s plan for Israel? Is there a plan? Are Jews going to be forever persecuted and targeted? Is it because they are the Covenant People? Is it because they somehow went astray way back thousands of years ago? Well, maybe, but I don’t see a loving and gracious G-d eternally punishing a people with persecution when they have no idea why. I am sure there is something else involved in the overwhelming drive to return to the land of our forefathers. Why are we here, indeed? 

Another thing, why do Christian organizations, especially evangelicals, believe that the Jews must return to the land?

According to the the Zionist Christian statement in Wikipedia::

“God the Father, Almighty, chose the ancient nation and people of Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to reveal His plan of redemption for the world. They remain elect of God, and without the Jewish nation His redemptive purposes for the world will not be completed.”

Of course underlying this statement is the premise that the Christian Messiah (Jesus) must return to Jerusalem and as some have stated, “convince the Jews of his divine mission and Messiahship.”  

Be that false as most of us claim, the outcome is that many Jews are being helped to return. Shall we condemn their good will and refuse to accept their gifts, even though they are motivated by wrong reasoning? Do we throw the baby out with the bath water? I am not so sure. Hashem has worked with nations to bring about his will over the millennia  and I don’t see Him changing plans now. So what could be His purpose in bringing Jews to experience a horrible war against Israel at what many of us believe to be the end times? Are we to see something spectacular?

Some see this war as being completely controlled by a secular government that is not directed by YHVH. Some have stated that G-d is not in our midst and cannot work with this government? Wait!

Did G-d work with Cyrus of Babylon to send the Jews back to the land. Does that not mean that all is in the Hands of the Eternal Architect of History? 

Another thing, besides the attack on October 7 (see my article Dancing with the Devil here), there have been many missiles, drones, rockets, and bombs fired at Israel from all sides. Besides many of our dear soldiers being killed in the fight with Hamas, Hezbollah and all the proxies of Iran, there have been very few civilian casualties. Like for example what happened on Saturday night April 13 when over 300 projectiles were fired at Israel from Iran and nobody was hurt except one bedouin girl who was injured. Is it the strength of our Iron dome? Or is it possible that Somebody Up There is watching out for us? It is true that our government for the most part looks to themselves as the sole protection of Israel. Evil as that may be, is Hashem there working behind the scenes? Can you tell me He is not? He can uproot kings whenever He wants to. It just happens that He is working alongside and bringing about what He wants?

Some of us still question the lame stupidity of our government for being surprised at the October 7 attack, or even ignoring it until it was too late. Did G-d have a purpose in  allowing it? Did He have a message for us? Did He use it somehow to begin a bigger scale attack on Israel that would play out to show His Mighty Hand at the last? And now, what about our 133 hostages which many of us believe are mostly dead by now? I cannot fathom the reason for their torture and death, but I will not allow my faith in YHVH to fail. I have prayed for them over and over and it is time to leave them with the Almighty who protects the innocent. Does He or does He not? Some say He clearly has not protected any of them. So what do we do? Throw out our faith? Could there be a reason for all of this? I say there is, but I cannot tell you what it is. Shall we place the blame on the government, or is the government just a puppet in Hashem’s hands? 

If we read the prophecies of Ezekiel 37-39, it is pretty clear that something corresponds with what is going on. 

I know I am arguing to save G_d’s reputation. Some may claim that I am a religious fanatic. I may be. But a couple of things are clear to me.

  1. This war is necessary to fulfill the Divine Plan and is hinted at in the Bible.
  2. People have always suffered, especially the Covenant People.
  3. The Bible promises to bring back those who have died (hostages?) in the resurrection. (See Isaiah 26, Daniel 12, Ezek 37).
  4. The Land of Israel belongs to YHVH and He promises to wipe out Edom (Isaiah 63). He says he will do it alone (Isaiah 63:3).
  5. There is to be a separation between the righteous and the wicked. (Wickedness is showing its face especially now. This war is revealing people’s attitudes and secret motivations. Some Jews are hanging onto their money as the most important thing they have. Some are selling everything and moving to Israel, whatever the cost. Many non-Jews are lining up to help, while others are covering their ears so that they do not hear. Some are searching the ancestry of their parents and doing DNA searches  to see if they may be Jewish or from the 10 lost tribes. 

So, yes, there is a lot to contemplate and the best thing we can do is trust G-d to work out His will. He alone is in charge no matter what governments and organizations are doing. Let’s not get in His way!

My hope is for a greater faith while we see mountains crumble and towers fall. May we be faithful through it all!

Ariella

Please like, share, comment and follow if you like any of my articles! 

Follow Take Hold the Tzitzit on WordPress.com

Strong as a Dead Lion–Then What?

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Painting by a Highschooler named Uri in Katzrin, Israel

At the time before there was a king in Israel, Samson arose as a judge and spent his life wiping out the Philistines, one episode after another. After having killed a lion with his bare hands, he later came upon the carcass and it was full of bees which had made honeycomb and was dripping with the sweet honey. From this experience he thought of a riddle with which to trick the Philistines that should attend his wedding to a beautiful Philistine woman.

“…Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness…” Judges 14:14

Do we remember that the Philistines occupied in part what today is called Gaza? The town of Timnah, where the wedding was to take place, was located a few miles east of what today is Gaza.  

It comes to mind that Judah was called a lion in the blessing given to him by his father, Jacob. Judah was to hold the kingship of Israel and rule like a lion. But what we see today is appearing to be an almost dead lion. What will happen if the lion is killed? What then? Will sweetness come from the carcass? Let’s look a little deeper. 

What we see in modern Israel is a political government that is not concerned with its mandates from its covenant the God of Heaven. This is the lion we see trying to fight with all the worldly power it can muster, trying to satisfy the different nations that supply weapons and yet subjugate themselves to the foreign policy of nations who care nothing for Israel–those who wield world power at the touch of a switch, and we see our nation “going along to get along.” Perhaps this lion will die. Then what?

Could we even imagine that something could happen then to help Israel in its most trying time? Is there Anyone watching this struggle? Anyone in the Heavens who might just be ready to take the reins when all seems lost? Will there yet be a sweetness that exudes from this dead lion? Wouldn’t it be better if we were not looking to might and power but to something else?

“Then he answered and spoke unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.” – Zec 4:6

Few know what it means to depend on El Shaddai, and even those may wring their hands in fear of what is coming upon the world and especially what will happen to those in this land given and  promised to God’s people. It is mandatory that we take heart at this time. 

It will get very ugly before it gets over. Maybe it should get over, the sooner the better. We need to stop being led by those who think like the world thinks, however wise that may seem. What if we had pure faith (Emunah if you will) in YHVH and His great power? Will He let us down? Where are we in the line up of what is happening to bring about the Divine plan for this world? How does Israel play a part in this? Do we fight like the nations, or do we march out with trumpets blowing when we hear a sound in the mulberry trees? 

“And it shall be, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then you shall advance quickly. For then the LORD will go out before you to strike the camp of the Philistines.” – 2Sa 5:24.

But we are a long way from that type of trust. Why do we tremble? Is it because we have never seen the Hand of Providence guiding our lives? Is it because we remember pogroms, Holocaust, and the Kristanacht? Where was God during those times? Maybe somehow we were in the wrong places or worse yet, that we were not listening to Him? 

Maybe these terrible tragedies should tell us something. Maybe we need to step back and ask who we are following in our religion? Who wrote the instructions? When did we deny our Creator to go after a strange doctrine? 

The way I see it is that we follow the nations because we believe there is more wisdom and skill than that offered by the ONE who made a Covenant with us about land and protection and about raising us up to be a Holy Nation. 

What would happen if we really knew the God of Israel? Would He come alongside and win the war for us so that we could go out with tambourines and march (dance perhaps) to the sound in the myrtle trees?

Judah, “you’ve come a long way, Baby” but maybe in the wrong direction. 

In hopes of a new day after the storm…

Ariella

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Dancing with the Devil?

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At the October 7, Nova Festival thousands of young people were gathered in a quiet park near Gaza, many of them dancing to psytrance music with a giant illuminated Buddha in their midst. It was Shabbat and a day most observant Jews were celebrating Simchat Torah, a day dedicated as Joy of Torah. These festivities sound pretty condemnable, especially when you see the footage of the semi-nude dancers in their celebration of love and peace. But might there be another way to see it?

Perhaps we cross a red line when we open this topic—one that perhaps should be left in the virtual trash can and not resurrected.
So if this material is offensive, then you know what to do!

I certainly do not have all the answers! I could, in fact, be wrong and some of my best thoughts have been to ask others for their opinions. And I am going to do just that here. So please respond with your best judgment on this issue.

There are definite questions about the whole affair and most Bible believers would say that the dancers were doing something wrong or at least out of place. Were they?

And what part did the Eternal, Hashem, G-d, YHVH have to play in this? Was it discipline? Punishment? Was it that these dancers somehow opened up the door to the devil (evil, or however you call the dark side) by being in a state of idolatry? Immorality? Some would say so. Most of our world doesn’t even know the meaning of idolatry since it seems consigned to an era long past when people bowed down to images and believed they had some kind of magic powers.

Perhaps we should sweep this whole thing under the rug. But if we do, will there be a repeat of what happened? Has G-d somehow abandoned the Jewish people? Do we need to put some things under the microscope?

Why were foreign workers, who were in Israel simply to earn some money, slaughtered if it was about punishment for idolatry? They were not even present at the festival. I hate the word punishment and all it brings to mind although some declare it to be such. And how is the slaughter to be seen as punishment if nothing can be learned by it? At least not for those who died. But is there something for the rest of us to learn?

Why were there a lot of religious Jews slaughtered in their Kibbutzim if this was Hashem showing his anger? Could it have something to do with religion? Is there something that caused a rift among the young and blinded them to the 10 commandments? Keeping Shabbat? Immorality? Idolatry? How actually do the commandments play out in today’s world?

Can I play the devil’s advocate to extreme moralists? What if these people did not know the meaning of the commandments? What if somehow those who were Jewish were tired of all the burdens that were imposed upon them for the past myriad generations by those who taught religion to their ancestors? But if this be the case, then why were the foreign workers killed and some Muslims as well? Maybe it was not punishment. Or did this act open the door to something evil and as a result, a lot of innocent people got swept away with it?

Most of us who study the Bible know that dancing before a Buddha is wrong, actually similar to the Golden Calf at Sinai. But I think there is a difference. At Sinai, the act was done out of rebellion—just a few weeks after hearing G-d’s voice speak the commandments from the mountain. The Hebrews said something to Aaron about Moses having abandoned them and thought they needed a new leader. Some were ready to go back to Egypt. They were doing apparently what they had observed in Egypt and no, those who danced around the golden calf were not holy— that’s why Hashem told Moses to have them slaughtered. Wow! Seems so unjust in the light of modern thinking! And I say “seems” because maybe we have the wrong idea of G-d, again!

But what does this have to do with semi-nude dancing on Shabbat before a Buddha? Do we somehow need to go back to the Bible to learn what it says and means? Is somehow the Bible outdated?

If you have read this far, I am sure some of you are ready to stone me. It’s ok, then, let’s all throw out the Bible and be done with it! The problem may well be with a religion that has taken the place of the Bible. That the Bible—rather Torah, we hear, can only be understood by rabbis and we can only understand when we follow the interpretations written by the Sages. I remember Catholics telling me that only the priests in that religion can understand the Bible and so the members must go to mass to learn. Hmmm, has something similar happened in Judaism? Moses says in the Torah that it is not too hard to understand.

Deut. 30: 11“For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 14 But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.”

So why do we need extra interpretors? But that is beside the point in this article, it all boils down to why the apparently good suffered with those who were at least blinded to Torah and what was expected of them? I have heard it voiced on social media groups that we all need to become religiously observant in order that this not happen again. Then why were some of the people that were killed, raped or kidnapped, religious Jews? It doesn’t make sense.

So maybe we don’t have any clear answers, but we do need to take a closer look at the Judaism we know today how it compares to what was written in the Torah which came to us by the hand of Moses. Judaism claims to be the keeper of the Torah. But how close are its teaching to that which came down from Moses?

If our religion is wrong, we need to get it right. And yes, we are warned in the prophets that things like this would happen if we left the Torah. And on this theme, we might well ask, why the Holocaust? Why Pogroms? Are there answers? I hope so!

Ariella Golani

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Vayechi: Birds on a Wire

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If you have ever meandered around in the town center of Katzrin at night perhaps to eat a bite at a Shawarma or Falafel shop, you may have seen dozens of swallows perched near the ceiling in one of the dark hallways.

Katzrin, a small town located in the Golan Heights of Israel is a favored tourist spot, still shown on Google Maps as outside of the green line that Google is willing to accept as Israel.
But Israelis know it belongs to them and not to Syria, since Israel reclaimed this land in the bloody Six-Day War of 1967.

But I am not writing about that war. We are in another war called “Al Aqsa Flood” by Hamas and “Swords of Iron” by Israel—a war that started with a most horrible massacre. But let us step back even farther and look at what is happening behind the blood stained curtain. This is not all about the current war, though it certainly plays into it. It is about brothers and sisters coming together just as Jacob’s 12 sons came together after his death, put away differences and became one people. But let’s get back to the story!

On October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorists and many radical Palestinian Muslims, though technically classified as civilians broke through Gaza’s border fence and entered the Nova music festival and surrounding villages, killing and raping at random, burning and beheading babies and adults alike. At the same time many of them entered by air in para-gliders, which appeared as giant blood sucking mosquitoes as they filled the dawn sky.

That fated Shabbat, found many religious Israelis attending synagogues, completely disconnected from the news. In several towns, there were soldiers who passed by and alerted some synagogues as to what was happening, and the congregants increased their fervor in prayer with deepened emotion and passionate pleas to the Almighty who alone can save Israel from her enemies.

As I said, this is not about the horrors of war, though that may be the pressure that brought about what has happened since. The swallows in the picture represent the togetherness, the solidarity of togetherness that many Israelis and Jews are feeling around the world.

Soldiers in the field come in from a day of battle, arm in arm, the secular with the religious and feel a camaraderie that few have felt in the recent past. We are one people. And that is what is important here. Not that God is not important. Not that one’s observance is not important—but there is an overriding value that has been missing and is now coming into view. That of brotherly unity and the service of one’s fellow man and especially the right to claim the land of our ancestors. The importance of winning this war against evil is partly to reestablish the Jewish right to exist. And the war is being fought for the good of humanity. This is not just about the Jewish people. It is about good versus evil, hatred versus love, a good God versus an evil god. We fight on for the honor of the name of our God and the place of righteousness in the world. We fight for meaning in our own existence. And YHVH, the Eternal, the Most High, the Creator of the World is supporting this war and when all seems lost, He will come alongside and do things that other wars have not seen. But first we must learn unity. Though it seems to have little to do with God, it virtually has everything to do with Him. We must heal the breach before He can come to us. Love your fellow as yourself. And when we do so, a body will be formed, just as we see written by the prophet Ezekiel:

Eze 37:7 “So I prophesied as I was commanded. There was a sound when I prophesied – I heard a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 As I watched, I saw tendons on them, then muscles appeared, and skin covered over them from above, but there was no breath in them. 9 He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, – prophesy, son of man – and say to the breath: ‘This is what the sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these corpses so that they may live.'” 10 So I prophesied as I was commanded, and the breath came into them; they lived and stood on their feet, an extremely great army.”

At this time in the war we see other elements trying to disrupt the unity. We see left-wing factions presenting their pressure to undo our current government. Can we allow this? Would this not be our undoing at this time? Doesn’t the enemy know about weakening us? and perhaps these ones are and were involved in inciting the ones who called for division in our land! This is a time to stand together and not back down. And for the sake of the soldiers, for the elderly, for the young people, for the children and for those who volunteer to support our soldiers, we must not give in to these demons who divide the nation and who were involved in weakening us in the very beginning, pre-October 7. Military people in charge were asleep at the switch. Why? Many ask this question, but when we look at the political scenario during the last year we see division in our people.

So what do the swallows represent? There they are, night after night, clinging to shredded electric wires draped along the ceiling in a dark hallway of the town shops, protected from the chaos of wind and storm. They are almost touching each other. They are there every night and they stand for something. No, the halls are not nicely painted or decorated. The ceiling is peeling, the wires are bare in places, loose ends hang in different places. It is not about luxury, fame or status, and they don’t care! It is about being together—sharing safety in each other’s company; standing together against the elements as one of a common creation. Can we learn something here? Can we see the foreshadowing in the Parsha that we read week after week?

If you ever come to Katzrin, please hang out with us in the evening in the town center! Check out the lighted fountains and venture down the dark hallways behind the shops to see the swallows. They seem to be a symbol of what we must stand for. And we are indeed getting there—are we not?

Ariella

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