Chag Sameach! Happy Sukkot!

SUKKOT - The Biblical Festival which is for both Jews and Christians

Jewish men hold the Arba Minim (Four Species) in their hands as they
pray on Sukkot at the Western (Wailing) Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem.

"On the first day you are to take branches from luxuriant trees—from palms, willows and other leafy trees—and rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days."  (Leviticus 23:40)

Chag Sameach!  Happy Sukkot!

“In sukkot you shall dwell for seven days: all citizens of Israel shall dwell in sukkot.”  (Leviticus 23:42) Last night at sunset, the Biblical Holiday of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles / Booths) began.  This holiday completes the cycle of the Fall Feasts. This wonderful holiday lasts for a full seven days! It is one of three pilgrimage festivals called Shelosh Regalim (Three Pilgrimages), holidays during which the Jewish People were required to go up together as a nation to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. The other two of the Shelosh Regalim are Pesach (Passover) and Shavuot (Feast of Weeks) (Deuteronomy 16; Exodus 23:14–17). One of the names of Sukkot is the Festival of the Nations.  And we certainly see signs of the nations embracing this holiday.  People from all over the world gather in Jerusalem for it every year. According to the prophet Zechariah, this holiday also has a prophetic dimension that is yet to be fulfilled. When Messiah returns and establishes His Kingdom, all the nations will be required to keep this holiday by coming up to Jerusalem to celebrate Sukkot.  (Zechariah 14:16–17) In that day, Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) will become Israel’s sukkah (tabernacle).  His presence will shelter Israel, and she will no longer be oppressed by the nations.

Sukkot in the Synagogue, by Leopold Pilichowski

  

Blood Moon of Sukkot

"There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars.  On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea."  (Luke 21:25) Last night, Sukkot began with the fourth Blood Moon (full lunar eclipse) of the Blood Moon Tetrad, four consecutive lunar eclipses that coincided with Passover and Sukkot in 2014 and 2015. “God has absolute control of the sun, moon, and stars.  He has used them in the past to send signals to humanity that something big was about to happen,” said Pastor John Hagee, author of the New York Times bestseller Four Blood Moons.  “The heavens are still God’s billboard that sends signals to us today—but are we watching for them?” Some Bible scholars say that the Blood Moons are not actually signals from God because, except for the 1967 war, the tetrads came after significant events—not before.  Others believe that God can send a signal that something significant has ended and at the same time usher in a new era.  In the days of Noah, for instance, God sent a rainbow after the flood ended and at the start of a new kind of covenant with Him. In this train of thought, we might say that the 1949–1950 tetrad, which began April 1949 signaled the end of Israel’s War for Independence a month earlier and the beginning of a new move of God for the nation of Israel and the world.

 

This Science at NASA graphic reveals the sequence of the tetrad, four
lunar eclipses occurring in six-month intervals with no partial lunar
eclipses in between.

During this current tetrad, we saw the first Blood Moon on April 15, hailed several events in Israel that could usher in something much more significant. Shortly after it, the rival Palestinian groups of Fatah and Hamas formed a unity government.  Just after that, three Jewish teens were abducted and murdered.  Next, Hamas unrelentingly bombed Israel, causing war to break out between Israel and the Gaza Strip.  As war raged, anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism grew around the world. Also since that first Blood Moon, the terrorist group ISIS has grown in strength and numbers.  The world has seemed to stand helpless as resistance across Iraq was crushed with extreme violence.  People who refused to convert to ISIS' brand of Islam were driven from their homes and many have been brutally beheaded. Several thousands of Christians have died in the past year at the hands of ISIS, which holds strongholds around Israel in the Sinai, as well as in Syria. As well, many pundits believe that the nuclear agreement with Iran and Russia’s recent military support of President Assad in Syria has likely fueled a move in the Middle East that could lead to a major regional war against Israel, such as described in Psalm 83, Ezekiel 38 and Zechariah 14. It is possible that today's last Blood Moon comes before more events that signal we are in the Last Days, especially pertaining to prophetic events unfolding in Israel as described throughout the Tanakh (Old Testament) and New Covenant (New Testament).

"The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD."  (Joel 2:31)

   

During a full lunar eclipse, the moon turns red as it reflects the glow from
the earth of all of the earth's simultaneous sunrises and sunsets.  (NASA)

Sukkot: Remembering God's Faithfulness

The first day of Sukkot is a Sabbath and most forms of work are prohibited. The other days of the holiday are called Chol HaMoed (weekdays of the festival or intermediate period).  During these days the workload is reduced; and here in Israel, many people take the week off as vacation. After the somber, introspective time of Yom Teruah (Rosh HaShanah / Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), Sukkot is a joyous celebration of renewed relationship with God following atonement for sin. During this festive season, we recall how God’s faithfulness provided for our ancestors as they wandered the Sinai Desert wilderness for 40 years before entering the Promised Land of Israel.

“You shall dwell in Sukkot for seven days ... that your future generations shall know that I had the children of Israel live in Sukkot when I brought them out of Egypt.”  (Leviticus 23:42–43)

 
 

Jewish children learn to recite the blessings over the Arba Minim (Four
Species) on Sukkot at the Western (Wailing) Wall in Jerusalem.

At Sukkot we remember God’s kindness and mercy in leading and guiding Israel by day with a pillar of cloud and protecting them by night with a pillar of fire, and for providing them with daily manna. Just as Israel dwelt in temporary shelters called sukkot (sukkah is singular), so are we to dwell in sukkot for this entire week. Most people in Israel and Jewish people around the world build a temporary hut or shelter with a covering of branches or palm leaves. For seven days and nights, we eat in the sukkah and consider it our dwelling; some live in the sukkah entirely for the duration of the festival, even sleeping in it through all kinds of weather. The roof of the Sukkah is made in such a way that the moon and the stars are visible, and last night we certainly had a treat with the appearance of the lunar eclipse.

  

 

Sukkot in Israel are often built on verandas and balconies.
 

Arba Minim: The Four Species

“You shall take for yourselves on the first day [of the festival] the splendid fruit of a tree [etrog], palms of dates [lulav], the branch of the thickly leafed tree [hadas], and willows [aravot] of the brook.”  (Leviticus 23:40)

Another observance carried out each day of Sukkot except Shabbat is the Four Species (Arba Minim): an etrog (citron), a lulav (palm frond), three hadassim (myrtle twigs) and two aravot (willow twigs).  They are bound together in such a way that they can be held together easily. The lulav, hadassim and aravot are first taken up with the right hand and then the etrog is taken with the left hand.  A blessing is recited over the Four Species: “Blessed are You, God … who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to take the lulav.” Facing the direction where the Temple in Jerusalem once stood, the Four Species are then shaken in all six directions:  right, left, forward, up, down and backward. Rabbinic tradition explains that the Four Species represent the various personalities that make up the community of Israel.  They are held together and a blessing is recited over them to bless the unity of all people, which is emphasized on Sukkot.

 
 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds
the lulav and the etrog (citron) of Sukkot.

The Season of Our Joy

“You shall rejoice before the Lord your God.”  (Leviticus 23:40)

One of the names for Sukkot is Z'man Simchateinu (The Season of Our Joy).  In Scripture, in fact, the word "joy" appears several times in connection with Sukkot. “Be joyful at your Feast—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns.… For the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.”  (Deuteronomy 16:13–15) Since Sukkot is also a harvest festival, we can well imagine that there is great reason for joy.  Indeed, one of the other names for the holiday is the Feast of Ingathering. “Celebrate the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field.”  (Exodus 23:16)

 

Many evangelical Christians show their love of the Jewish People by
taking part in the annual Sukkot parade in Jerusalem.

The joy of this holiday is so singular and complete that many rabbinic texts just refer to it as HaChag (The Festival). During ancient times, every day of The Festival, except Shabbat, was characterized by music, song and dancing. Even today, Jewish people gather near the Western (Wailing) Wall to dance, sing and rejoice before the Lord.  People fill the synagogues and streets, singing and dancing with tremendous joy until the early hours of the morning. This is in partial fulfillment of prophecy.  The Prophets tell us that a day will come when the exiles of Israel return to Zion.  Her streets will be filled with the sounds of joyful melodies, and sorrow will disappear. “The ransomed of the Lord will return.  They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads.  Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”  (Isaiah 51:11)

   

A young man in front of a Torah Ark at the Western
(Wailing) Wall with the Four Species.

The Water Libation Ceremony

“With joy you shall draw water out of the wells of salvation.”  (Isaiah 12:3)

In Temple times, a special Water Libation (offering) ceremony took place daily during Sukkot. Every day, the priests, along with a procession, would go down to the Pool of Shiloach (Siloam), which was fed by the Gihon Spring, the original source of Jerusalem’s water.  At the pool of natural running water, they would fill a golden flask. The water was then brought back to the altar in the Temple to accompany the morning sacrifice.  This pouring of the water on the altar is called Nishuch haMayim (Water Libation Ceremony / literally, Pouring of the Water). This water offering not only celebrates the hope of winter rains in Israel, but also symbolizes the future Messianic Redemption when the Spirit of God (symbolized by the water) is poured out upon the nation of Israel.

 
 

Because it doesn't rain in Israel during the summer, this Israeli is
delighting in the first rainfall of autumn.

Yeshua on the Final Day of Sukkot: Hoshanah Rabbah

“I wash my hands in purity and circle around Your altar, O Lord.”  (Psalm 26:6)

The seventh and final day of sukkot is called Hoshanah Rabbah.  Hoshana comes from two words hoshah nah, meaning "Bring us salvation, please," and rabbah, meaning great.  This prayer to "bring salvation" was actually made by the priests every day of Sukkot. During the first six days of the feast, the priests would “place willow branches alongside the altar with the heads of the willow branches bent over the altar” to add joy to the holiday (Chabad). The priests would then sound the shofar, circle the altar once, and say, "Anah Hashem hoshiah nah.  Anah Hashem hatzlichah nah.  (Please, God, bring us salvation.  Please, God, bring us success)." On Hoshanah Rabbah, “The Great Hoshanah,” the priests circled the altar seven times.

 
 

Jewish men at the Western (Wailing) Wall pray on Sukkot with the
Four Species.

On this Great Hoshanah, probably during the water ceremony, Yeshua (Jesus) stood up and proclaimed Himself the source of Living Water—the salvation they joyfully prayed for. He invited all who were thirsty to come and drink, the water representing the Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh). “On the last and greatest day of the festival, Yeshua stood and said in a loud voice, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’  By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive.”  (John 7:37–39)

Children play in the Pool of Siloam in Jerusalem, from which the High
Priest drew the water for the Water Offering in ancient times.

Sukkot in the End Times and the New Jerusalem

“For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle….”  (Zechariah 14:2)

Sukkot also has a connection to the Last Days and the New Jerusalem. The Haftarah (prophetic portion of Scripture) that is read for this holiday contains a graphic apocalyptic vision of the destruction of all the nations that will attack Jerusalem. Earthquakes, plagues, heavy darkness, and signs of nuclear destruction characterize judgment on the nations.  These are the manifestation of God’s personal intervention on behalf of Israel (Zechariah 14:12–15). The eyes of the world will be opened, and all the nations will see that Israel is the apple of God’s eye.  Woe to those who dare to touch her.

 
 

This Israeli is building the roof of his sukkah.
Vegetation such as palm will be lightly woven
through the beams so those inside can gaze up
and see the stars at night.

The Lord declares through the Prophet Zechariah, “It will happen in that day, that I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all the peoples.  All who burden themselves with it will be severely wounded….”  (Zechariah 12:3) In those days, all nations will be required to come to Jerusalem to celebrate Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles).  Those who refuse will be cursed with lack of rain.  (Zechariah 14:16–19) While many Christians believe that God’s moadim (appointed times of Feasts and Festivals) have been abolished, Zechariah's Messianic prophecy clearly indicates that this is not so. Today, many Christians from the nations come every year to Jerusalem to celebrate Sukkot together with Israel in a beautiful foreshadowing of what will take place after the Lord returns and establishes His Messianic reign on earth.

  

Sukkot at the Western Wall in Jerusalem

  

God’s Timeline

“The Kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Messiah, and He will reign forever and ever.”  (Revelation 11:15)

While the spring feasts were fulfilled by the death and resurrection of Yeshua (Jesus), the fall feasts will be fulfilled with His second coming. Some believe that when Yeshua returns as Messiah King, He will be hailed by the blast of the shofar (ram's horn) on the Feast of Trumpets (Yom Teruah / Rosh HaShanah). His people will recognize Him as their Messiah and mourn nationally, perhaps ten days later on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). “I will pour on the house of David, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they will look to Me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for Him, as one grieves for his firstborn.”  (Zechariah 12:10)

 
 

Dutch Jews enjoy a meal in the sukkah built by the Beth Shoshanna
Congregation at the Great Synagogue of Deventer.

On Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles), God will finally "tabernacle" with His people.  He will dwell among us, establishing His Messianic Kingdom of righteousness. “Look!  God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and He will dwell [tabernacle] with them.  They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.”  (Revelation 21:3) This holiday reminds us that God will never forget the People of Israel. As well, end-time prophecy (Zechariah 14:12–19) seems to suggest that this holiday is the perfect time for the nations to also remember God’s people and stand with them. As we look forward to the prophetic fulfilment of God establishing His Kingdom of Righteousness on earth, dear readers let’s pray during Sukkoth to the restoration of people of Israel.

Russia and China Move into Middle East

After Blood Moon Russia, and WOW now China, and Egypt are part of an ALLIANCE in Israel's backyard! Is this the Ezekiel 38 Gog and Magog prophecy coming alive?

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives in Moscow.  (Photo by the
Israeli Embassy in Russia)

Russia and China Move into Middle East

"You stretch out your right hand, and the earth swallows your enemies.  In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed.”  (Exodus 15:12–13)

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took a "lightning-quick" trip to Russia to discuss with Russian President Vladimir Putin the "increasingly complicated situation" to Israel's north. Netanyahu said he wanted to avoid "misunderstandings" between Russia and Israel, while describing to Putin the cooperation of the Syrian army with Iran and Hezbollah in building a terror network against Israel from the north. Iran and Syria have been arming Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy, "over the last number of years and even more-so over the last few months," Netanyahu told Putin, showing him intelligence that Syria has tried to smuggle Russian artillery to Hezbollah. Iran, as well, is working to "build a second terrorist front against us from the Golan Heights" using the Syrian army, Netanyahu said.  "Our policy is to prevent these weapons transfers, and to prevent the formation of a terror front and attacks against us from the territory of the Golan.  In these circumstances, I thought it was very important that I come here, both to clarify our policy and to make sure there are no misunderstandings between our forces," Netanyahu said.  "Israel and Russia have a shared interest to ensure stability in the Middle East."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) shakes hands with Russian
President Vladimir Putin at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside
Moscow, Russia on September 21.

The meeting was reportedly cordial, with Putin promising that "all of Russia's actions in the region will always be very responsible."  He also condemned attacks against Israel. "We are aware of the shelling against Israel and we condemn all such shelling.  I know that these shellings are carried out by internal elements,” Putin told Netanyahu. “I understand your concern and I am very pleased that you have come here to discuss all issues in detail," Putin said.  "We never forget that a great many expats from the Soviet Union live in the State of Israel, and that has a special impact on relations between the countries."  While Putin has backed Syria's President Bashar al-Assad throughout Syria's brutal war, which began in March 2011, United States Secretary of State John Kerry has told Russia that its "continued support for Assad risks escalating the conflict and undermining our shared goal of fighting extremism." Syria faces the threat of the Islamic State in addition to continued devastation from the war between Assad's regime and the rebel factions, which has had a staggering cost of about 310,000 lives.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) talks with Russian
President Vladimir Putin at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside
Moscow, Russia, September 21.  Netanyahu sought to ensure Israel’s
ability to fight terror emanating from Syria, despite Moscow’s military
presence there.

With its presence in Syria, Putin told Netanyahu that Russia's "main goal is to defend the Syrian state."  According to satellite imaging, Syria has received a Russian investment of tanks, troops and at least 28 combat planes that surreptitiously reached western Syria and landed at the al-Assad airfield in the past few weeks. The United States, France, Britain and others have shown concern at Russia's "very significant" build-up in Syria. French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that “everyone can see the very significant build-up of Russian forces both in the port of Tartus and above all, with the setting-up of a military airport to the south of Latakia and the presence of several fighter jets, combat helicopters and drone capacity there."  He called on Moscow to justify its actions in Syria. The United States also noted four Russian military helicopters touched down in Syria last Wednesday, with Secretary of State John Kerry stating that he is not taking Russia's claims to be intervening against the Islamic State "at face value." "We look at the type of airplanes or the types of munitions and so forth, and it obviously raises much more serious questions about what is happening," Kerry told CNN on September 16, three days after satellite images showed the preparation of two additional military bases in Syria "for the arrival of a significant number of Russian ground troops."

A map showing Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan

The BBC also reported anti-aircraft systems, drones and 200 Russian marines already in Syria.

The joint mechanism discussed by the heads of state and confirmed Thursday by an anonymous senior Israeli official will bring the deputy chiefs of both Israel's and Russia's militaries together, starting next week, to talk over the countries' movements. Stray rockets and bullets from Syria into northern Israel have kept the Jewish state on alert as Syria's 4.5-year civil war continues. According to a September 21 Al Arabiya report, Israel has agreed to provide Putin "high-quality intelligence" about movements in Syria if Russia will "rein in" Iran and Hezbollah and agree not to interfere when Israel defends itself against attacks. Of course, this move into Syria provokes images of the Gog and Magog war described in Ezekiel 38–39, along with Iran's growing coalition in the region. "When my people Israel are living in safety, will you not take notice of it? You will come from your place in the far north, you and many nations with you, ...  I will bring you against my land, so that the nations may know me when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.'"  (Ezekiel 38:14–16) 

 
 

Syrian children amidst the rubble of war

  

Iran Itches for Israel to Strike First

"A man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. … Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones."  (Mark 5:2, 5)

Israel’s enemies and peace partners alike increased their slanderous claims last month that Israel has incited violence and terrorism against the Palestinians on the Temple Mount.  These claims are moving regional leaders in Iran and elsewhere to make aggressive threats. The Iranian army's commander-in-chief Maj. Gen. Ataollah Salehi voiced hope last week for a preliminary strike from Israel on Iran — an act that would give the Islamic Republic an excuse to finally destroy Israel while casting full culpability onto the Jewish state. "We will certainly destroy Israel," Salehi said, last Tuesday, at a Tehran parade that began Iran's Defense Week and commemorated the start of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War. During his September 11 speech, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel would not survive another quarter century.  Last Tuesday, Salehi underlined this hope. "We long for Israel to take action against us as soon as possible so we will be able to destroy it before 25 years are up," Salehi said.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Meanwhile, last Wednesday while speaking to Hajj pilgrims (Muslims who travel to Mecca), Iran's supreme leader condemned Israel for the "ultimate degree of ruthlessness and evil" in "crimes" toward the Palestinian Arabs. Khamenei also said that Israel's police authority over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is an "insult" to the al-Aqsa Mosque. "The Zionist regime's crimes in Palestine and repeated insult of the sacred sanctuary of Al-Aqsa Mosque ... are the foremost problem for Muslims," Khamenei said. Khamenei's comments to the Muslim pilgrims came one day before a stampede killed at least 700 people in a tent city near Mecca during the Hajj's final "stoning the devil" ritual.  This event mimics the Abraham of Muslim folklore who supposedly rejected the temptations of the devil by stoning him. In sobering irony, Khamenei accused Israel last Wednesday of "trampling the lives and properties of the oppressed Palestinians." Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon eased the way for Palestinian Arabs living in the eastern territories of Judea and Samaria to visit the Temple Mount plaza for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, "the Festival of the Sacrifice," on Thursday. The allowances permitted Muslim men 45 years or older and Muslim women 30 years or older to visit the Temple Mount complex on Thursday, despite continued ethnic-religious tensions in Jerusalem, including rock attacks during the Jewish high holy day of Yom Kippur.

Muslim visits to the Temple Mount are quite different than Jewish visits.
Muslim visitors enjoy unchallenged study groups and times of peace
and quiet.

Of course, Iran is not alone in its incitement. Last Tuesday, Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Mahmoud Abbas claimed to a Parisian audience that an intifada by the Arab Palestinians is a possibility if violence on the Temple Mount continued "and peace talks with Israel did not resume." "What is happening is extremely dangerous, and we do not wish for this situation to continue so that it does not result in chaos and in an intifada [uprising] which we do not want," Abbas told his audience, while standing beside French President Francois Hollande. Abbas has a history of claiming that Israel refuses to participate in peace negotiations, leading to talk of sanctions against Israel by world leaders—while the PA has repeatedly rejected sitting down at the table and ignored valid peace deals. As recently as September 1, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was "prepared to go to Ramallah or anywhere else right now to meet and hold direct negotiations without preconditions."  Netanyahu asked PA representatives at the time to convey to Abbas "that I am willing to meet with him and [to ask] if he is willing."  Netanyahu has called faithfully for conflict resolution, which he believes to be "two states for two peoples—a demilitarized Palestinian states that recognizes the nation-state of the Jewish people." The prime minister also rebuked the Palestinian Authority leadership this past week for lying about Israeli actions and security policies on the Temple Mount, and called the PA to "stop its wild incitement."

Happy Muslim visitors to the Temple Mount

At the same time, world leaders have rebuked Israel for maintaining security and defusing Muslim rioters that have plagued the Mount over high holy days.  Israel's activities include the September 13 seizure of pipe bombs, firecrackers and rocks piled upon prayer rugs that awaited Jewish pilgrims visiting the holy site for the Days of Awe observance between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. For these actions, nations such as Jordan who administers the site has accused Israel of violating the status quo—the agreement that the Muslim Waqf has administrative control over access to the mosques and over the Muslims who are able to pray on the mount.  In turn, Israel has security control, and Jews can visit the mount but not enter the mosques or pray anywhere on the platform. "We are preserving the status quo.  We are not violating it and all comments that we intend to harm Muslim holy sites are completely baseless," Netanyahu said, pointing out that Muslims bringing bombs into the al-Aqsa Mosque to harm Jewish or Israeli visitors are the ones who are altering the status quo. This fact has not stopped fingers of accusation from being pointed at Israel.  King Abdullah II of Jordan said in Amman earlier this month that he was "very concerned and angered with the recent escalations in Jerusalem, specifically in al-Aqsa Mosque."  The king reportedly has rejected meetings with Netanyahu to avoid a "business as usual" dynamic while the Temple Mount situation remains tense, stating that the tensions "will affect the relationship between Jordan and Israel, and Jordan will have no choice but to take action."

 
 

Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount must be guarded by Temple Mount
security because Muslim visitors to the Mount resent their presence.

10-Year-Old Finds King David Era Seal in Jerusalem

"Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm …"  (Song of Songs 8:6)

A 10-year-old boy, Matvei Tcepliaev, who is visiting Israel from Russia, volunteered to sift through discarded soil from the Temple Mount and found a rare 3,000-year-old seal from the time of King David.  It is the first of its kind to be discovered in Jerusalem. The Temple Mount Sifting Project invites volunteers of all ages who are at least three feet tall to the Tzurim Valley National Park on the western slope of Mount Scopus where around 10,000 tons, 400 truckloads, of excavated soil from construction projects on the Temple Mount were discarded. Much of this soil was taken from the entrance to King Herod’s construction known today as Solomon’s Stables, which lies 12.5 meters under the southeast Temple Mount courtyard. After the unauthorized excavations from 1996–1999, the stables were officially converted to the El-Marwani Mosque, a 500 square-meter underground Muslim prayer hall that can hold 10,000+ worshipers.

Volunteers sift through debris irresponsibly excavated from the Temple
Mount.  (Photo by Zachi Dvira)

From its inception, the Temple Mount Sifting Project has operated under Bar Ilan University, initiated and co-founded by former student Zachi (Zweig) Dvira, with the help of the City of David Foundation. Since this educational tourism site began in 2004, over 150,000 volunteers have taken part in the project's wet-sifting phase—spreading mud from the Mount over a screen and hosing it away to extract interned objects. Finds from the sifting project take time to be deciphered and dated, so usually international volunteers are not present to learn the significance of their finds. Tcepliaev's cone-shaped seal, archaeologists have revealed, dates to the 10th century BC during the reigns of Kings David and Solomon.  It "testifies to the administrative activity which took place upon the Temple Mount during those times." "What makes this discovery particularly significant is that it originated from upon the Temple Mount itself, " Dr. Gabriel Barkay, the cofounder and a director of the Temple Mount Sifting Project, stated in a press release. "The dating of the seal corresponds to the historical period of the Jebusites and the conquest of Jerusalem by King David, as well as the construction of the Temple and the royal official compound by his son, King Solomon," Barkay elaborated.  “All the parallel seals with similar stylistic designs have been found at sites in Israel, among them Tel Beit Shemesh, Tel Gezer and Tel Rehov, and were dated to the 11th–10th centuries BCE."

Volunteers for the Temple Mount Sifting project search
for coins, pottery, and other finds as they clean debris
excavated from the Mount during the building of the
El Marwani Mosque in Solomon's Stables.

Barkay described the seal as pierced through so that it could be hung from a string or chain, and said, "upon the base of the seal appear the images of two animals, one on top of the other, perhaps representing a predator and its prey." As expected, recovering history through tons of displaced soil has proven challenging.  Without archaeological supervision, the Waqf likely damaged or discarded significant evidence of Israel's rich Temple history; for certain, the haphazard removal especially from 1996–1999 broke up the holy site's earth strata, which are used for period dating. “In recent years, using newly developed statistical methodologies and technologies we have managed to overcome the challenge of having finds with no exact context since they were not recovered in a proper archaeological excavation," said Dvira. Project leaders of the sifting project call volunteers to look for pottery, glass shards, metals, bones, mosaic stones and worked stones, as well as rarer coins, seals or jewelry, which are then registered by staff members.

 
 

Muslim worshipers in El Marwani Mosque.

"The Temple Mount Sifting Project has focused its efforts on the enormous tasks of processing and studying the finds and preparing them for scientific publication.  Presently, more than half a million finds are still waiting to be processed and analyzed in our laboratory," Dvira said.  "Since the Temple Mount has never been excavated, the ancient artifacts retrieved in the Sifting Project provide valuable and previously inaccessible information.  The many categories of finds are among the largest and most varied ever found in Jerusalem." Ruth, a January 2010 volunteer with the sifting project shared the emotion of the experience. "When the guide handed me my certificate, I read the words, 'Thou wilt arise, and have compassion upon Zion; for it is time to be gracious unto her, for the appointed time is come: For Thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and love her dust (Psalms 102:14–15)' and saw that the dust was still on my fingers.  I just cried!" Ruth writes in her experience review. Another 2010 volunteer, Lindsay Ingalls, stated she found pottery, mosaics, Roman glass, a coin, an ancient nail and bones from the Temple sacrifices. "The soil was gray—filled with ashes from the sacrifices," Ingalls writes.

 
 

The entrance to El Marwani Mosque on the Temple Mount. 

Israel Tax Authority Will Pay to Repair Torched Church of the Multiplication

"Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor."  (Romans 13:7)

Israel's Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein has ruled that repairs to the Galilee's Church of the Multiplication will be covered by the Israeli Tax Authority following a June arson attack by two Jewish extremists.The Roman Catholic church is built next to the Sea of Galilee in Tabgha at a site thought to be where Yeshua (Jesus) multiplied a basket of loaves and fish for thousands to eat. On June 18, 2015, Yinon Reuveni, 20, and Yehuda Asraf, 19, set fire to the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes. The fire gutted large sections of the building, covering the stone walls in ash and littering the floors with a mess of charred Bibles.  The fire also destroyed large sections of the roof, blackening overhead beams.  Sunlight pouring in through the roof only highlights the devastation. The arsonists tagged a wall of the church with the words, "Idol worship will be destroyed."

The Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes in Tabgha, on
the shore of the Sea of Galilee, suffered serious damage after arsonists
set the building ablaze.

Even though a group of Orthodox rabbis raised $17,000 to help fund repairs to its Friendship Center, the total cost of repairing the church is reported to be $1.7 million. Israeli law requires the Tax Authority's Property Tax Fund to cover damages and to compensate victims of hate crimes, war or terrorism linked to the Israel-Arab conflict or to ethnic-national differences, according to The Jerusalem Post.  Even so, in early September, the Tax Authority argued against responsibility for funding the repairs, claiming the act by right-wing arsonists Reuveni and Asraf had been religiously motivated. Weinstein, after studying Reuveni and Asraf's July indictment, gave his opinion on September 21 that the attack was ideological and fell under the wider Arab-Israeli conflict. Before their indictment, Asraf had been living in an illegal outpost in Judea-Samaria, while Reuveni had been expelled and blocked from the eastern territories several times.  Reuveni also was suspected of Jerusalem's Dormition Abbey arson in February 2015.  Both arsonists reportedly hold the view that any non-Jewish worship in Israel, and that the state of Israel itself, are obstacles to the rebuilding of the Temple.  (TOI)

Nuns pray in the Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes,
which is located in Tabgha on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Under the
altar is a block of limestone believed to be the stone on which the miraculous
meal was laid.

Jerusalem Police Salaries Raised Due to Risk

"He is the God who avenges me, who puts the nations under me, who sets me free from my enemies.  You exalted me above my foes; from a violent man you rescued me."  (2 Samuel 22:48-49)

On Friday, the Israeli Cabinet increased the monthly salary of Jerusalem police officers by 800 NIS (about $200) after a new wave of terror attacks and violence began on Rosh HaShanah (Jewish New Year). Because of heightened dangers to security forces in Jerusalem, the city has been unable to fill 340 of its 450 positions, with police recruits refusing jobs in the capital over quieter towns around the country for the same wage.  More than 30 Israeli police officers have been hurt since the Jewish New Year began on September 13.

Two Israeli police officers guard the streets of the Old City of Jerusalem
on the Via Dolorosa, where Yeshua (Jesus) carried the Roman execution stake.

The Finance Ministry added that the increase in pay for Jerusalem police work also amounted to a "thank you" from the Israeli government for filling the city's security needs. Earlier this month, the Israeli police redirected an additional 800 police officers to the capital to defuse the Muslim day of rage that was expected after Friday prayers on September 18. Meanwhile, PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat slammed Israel's security cabinet for relaxing the country's open-fire policy, which now permits security forces to shoot if a third party's life is threatened.

A mounted policewoman carries a puppy in
Independence Park, Jerusalem.
(Photo by Adam Jones)

"The Israeli government continues to incite against Palestinian lives, with a culture of hate that dehumanizes a whole nation," Erekat said on Saturday about the change, calling the ruling a "mere pretext to justify the escalating Israeli crimes against the people of Palestine." Erekat stated to Palestinian Authority news agency WAFA that "Israel continues to ignore and gravely break its obligations under 'international law,'"—an empty but nevertheless influential catchphrase used in anti-Israel propaganda.

Dear reader, your prayer support is essential to reach the Jewish People with the message of Forgiveness of Sin through Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus the Messiah) during this end-times Sukkot season.