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A synagogue in Jerusalem was vandalized overnight, the assailants spray-painting black crosses across the front of the Jewish house of worship.
Police are currently investigating the incident.
Wadi Abu Nasser, a local spokesman for the Catholic Church, condemned the apparent hate crime, stating, “All peoples should respect each other, especially the others’ holy sites.”
Recent anti-Christian vandalism against churches in Jerusalem received heavy press coverage, while such attacks on synagogues typically garner less attention, though they occur no less frequently.
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The incense shovel after having been cleaned in the Israel Antiquities Authority metallurgical laboratories. Photo: Clara Amit (Photo: Israel Antiquities Authority/TPS)
2,000-Year-Old Bronze Artifacts Tied to Temple Unearthed Near Sea of Galilee
“And Aaron shall burn thereon incense of sweet spices; every morning, when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn it.” Exodus 30:7 (The Israel Bible™)
An ancient bronze shovel and jug tied to the religious rituals of the Second Temple were discovered in archaeological excavations at Magdala – an important Jewish town dating back to the period of Roman antiquity, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced on Tuesday, April 5.
During an ongoing excavation project, a group of volunteers from Chile discovered an ornate bronze incense shovel and a matching bronze jug believed to have stored incense or coals for ritual use.
“The incense shovel that was found is one of ten others that are known in the country from the Second Temple period. From early research it is thought that the incense shovel was only used for ritual purposes, for the embers and incense that were burnt in ritual ceremonies,” Dina Avshalom-Gorni, the Chief archaeologist on behalf of the IAA, told Tazpit Press Service (TPS).
The incense shovel as it was found in the excavation. ( Eyad Bisharat, Israel Antiquities Authority/MFA)
According to Avshalom-Gorni, incense shovels are known worldwide as ritualistic and religious implements in ancient religions, and their use has permeated into Judaism. The book of Exodus states: “You shall make the altar…you shall make pots for it to receive its ashes, and shovels and basins and forks and firepans; all its utensils you shall make of bronze,” a quote which ties these artifacts to the rituals of the Jewish Temple, at least symbolically.
“We know that these are certainly sacred tools, perhaps pertaining to the local synagogue discovered on this site, a synagogue which was quite grand and rich and important in the region,” Avshalom-Gorni explained to TPS. “It’s a rare and exciting find.”
The site is located near the town of Migdal along the western shore of Sea of Galilee. Migdal, or Magdala as it was known by its Latin name, was a large Jewish fishing and trade town in the Early Roman period. It is mentioned in Jewish sources, and at the time of the destruction of the Second Temple it served as a main military base for the ancient Jewish historian and general Josephus.
Another famous denizen of the city, according to the Christian tradition, was the penitent prostitute Mary Magdalene—named for her birthplace Migdal.
The jug as it was discovered in the excavation. (Photo: Eyad Bisharat/Israel Antiquities Authority/TPS)
In recent years the IAA has been leading extensive excavations at the site, overseen by the archaeologists Dina Avshalom-Gorni and Arfan Najar, in partnership with the Anahuac University of Mexico’s Dr. Marcela Zapata-Meza and with the help of volunteers from Mexico, Chile, Spain and Italy.
“It is a very impressive site and is open to the general public. The land actually belongs to a private developer from the Catholic Church, who planned to build a hotel for pilgrims on that plot,” Avshalom-Gorni explained.
According to Israeli law, before approving construction on any building project in the country IAA experts must first survey the plot to assure it will not damage an archeological site.
The stone with the menorah symbol which was discovered in the synagogue at Magdala. (Photo: Yael Yulowich, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority/MFA)
“We began exploratory digs in 2009 and little by little it became evident to us and to the Catholic Church that we have discovered a major site which was dated to the exact time of the ministry of Jesus in the Galilee, and the home of Mary Magdalene,” she added.
The landowner then decided to turn the location into an open-air museum alongside the ongoing excavations, which continue to produce thrilling archaeological finds.
China ‘notes’ Pope’s new year greeting, calls for flexibility
Jan.3, 2016 TRUNEWS
China said on Wednesday it had “noted” an interview in which Pope Francis sent Lunar New Year greetings to President Xi Jinping, and called on the Vatican to be flexible in creating conditions for better relations.
The Vatican, which has had no formal diplomatic ties with Beijing since shortly after the Communist Party took power in 1949, has been trying to improve ties with China and its state-sanctioned Catholic Church.
The main point of contention between Beijing and the Vatican is which side should have the final say in the appointment of bishops. Another stumbling block is the Holy See’s recognition of Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province. Pope Francis holds a skullcap given to him by a faithful as he arrives to lead the weekly audience in Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican February 3, 2016. REUTERS/Max Rossi
While he was in South Korea in 2014, the Pope urged China to pursue a formal dialogue to benefit both sides. While flying to South Korea, his plane was allowed to cross Chinese air space, a first for a pope.
In the interview in the Asia Times this week, the Pope did not mention difficult subjects like human rights, expressing his admiration for China and sending his best wishes to Xi and China’s people ahead of next week’s Lunar New Year holiday.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said he had “noted the relevant report”.
“China has always been sincere about improving Sino-Vatican ties, and have made many efforts in this regard,” Lu told a daily news briefing.
“We are still willing to have constructive dialogue with the Vatican based on this principle, meeting each other half way, and keep pushing forward the development of the process of improving bilateral relations. We also hope that the Vatican can take a flexible, pragmatic attitude to creating conditions for improving ties.”
A GROUP of Jewish leaders issued a historic public statement affirming their desire to accept “the hand offered to us by our Christian brothers and sisters.”
Agroup of prominent Orthodox rabbis in Israel, the United States and Europe have issued a historic public statement affirming that Christianity is “the willed divine outcome and gift to the nations” and urging Jews and Christians to “work together as partners to address the moral challenges of our era.”
“Jesus brought a double goodness to the world,” the statement reads. “On the one hand he strengthened the Torah of Moses majestically” and on the other hand “he removed idols from the nations,” instilling them “firmly with moral traits.”
This year 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the declaration issued in 1965 by the Second Vatican Council, which marked a watershed in Jewish-Christian relations.
In language unusual for its day, Nostra Aetate stated that “God holds the Jews most dear,” stressed the great “spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews,” and condemned “hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.”
Now, a group of Jewish leaders has responded in kind, expressing their desire to accept “the hand offered to us by our Christian brothers and sisters.”
“Christians are congregations that work for the sake of heaven who are destined to endure, whose intent is for the sake of heaven and whose reward will not denied,” the text reads.
The statement bears the title, “To Do the Will of Our Father in Heaven: Toward a Partnership between Jews and Christians,” and is signed by over 25 prominent Orthodox rabbis, who invite fellow Orthodox rabbis to join in signing the statement.
“Now that the Catholic Church has acknowledged the eternal Covenant between G-d and Israel, we Jews can acknowledge the ongoing constructive validity of Christianity as our partner in world redemption, without any fear that this will be exploited for missionary purposes,” it says.
Echoing recent words by Pope Francis, the document states: “We are no longer enemies, but unequivocal partners in articulating the essential moral values for the survival and welfare of humanity.”
“Neither of us can achieve G-d’s mission in this world alone,” it says.
According to Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, one of the statement’s initiators, the “real importance of this Orthodox statement is that it calls for fraternal partnership between Jewish and Christian religious leaders, while also acknowledging the positive theological status of the Christian faith.”
“This proclamation’s breakthrough is that influential Orthodox rabbis across all centers of Jewish life have finally acknowledged that Christianity and Judaism are no longer engaged in a theological duel to the death and that Christianity and Judaism have much in common spiritually and practically. Given our toxic history, this is unprecedented in Orthodoxy.” said Rabbi Dr. Eugene Korn, Academic Director of CJCUC.
Pope Francis issues a statement that Jews don't need to put their faith in Jesus Christ to be forgiven. (Wikimedia)
The Vatican Is Wrong: Jews Do Need Jesus
An important new statement from the Vatican on the relationship between the Catholic Church, the Jewish people and Jesus Christ makes many praiseworthy points. At the same time, it misunderstands Jesus' own mission to His Jewish people, thereby undermining fundamental tenets of the New Testament along with the very nature of the apostolic witness.
Issued on the 50th anniversary of the groundbreaking document "Nostra Aetate" ("In Our Time"), the new document, titled "The Gifts and Calling of God Are Irrevocable," rightly reiterates the Catholic Church's repudiation of replacement theology, also known as supersessionism, the teaching that the church has replaced (or superseded) Israel in God's plan of salvation. It also reiterates the Church's repudiation of anti-Semitism, quoting the dictum of Pope Francis that one cannot be both a Christian and an anti-Semite.
In addition, the new statement urges deep respect for Judaism and for the historic connection between the Jewish people and the God of Israel—the God whom Christians worship—also calling on Catholic Christians to learn from Judaism's interpretation of the Scriptures and to join with the Jewish people in standing for justice and caring for the poor.
All this is tremendously positive, as the Church continues to distance itself from the plagues of anti-Semitism and supersessionism, plagues that infected both Catholic and Protestant branches of the faith, in some circles until this day. And so it is right to recall the reality of the Holocaust, as this document does, since the Holocaust could hardly have taken place if not for more than a millennium of European, Church-based anti-Semitism.
Most importantly, the new statement states plainly that the Jewish people do not need to put their faith in Jesus Christ to be forgiven, since their faith culminates in the Torah, in contrast with the Christian faith, which culminates in Jesus. Therefore, we are told, there is no need for the Catholic Church to have a specific mission to convert Jews to Christianity, looking forward to the day when, in the mysteries of God, Jews and Christians will serve God together, shoulder to shoulder.
Not surprisingly, this statement has been hailed by Jewish leaders, in particular for its explicit call for the Church not to engage in an intentional, specific outreach to the Jewish people.
From my perspective as a Jewish believer in Jesus who is deeply indebted to my Christian friends who reached out to me as a rebellious, heroin-shooting, LSD-using, 16-year-old, hippie rock drummer, it would have been tragic had they thought not to share the Good News with me because I was Jewish.
To be sure, the new statement does allow for respectful interaction between the faiths and does not prohibit all Christian witness, but the overall sentiment of the statement, as reflected in numerous headlines, is that "Jews do not need Jesus to be saved," as if they can somehow be included in His salvific act while explicitly rejecting Him as Messiah.
Certainly, I agree that the Church's goal should not be to convert Jews to Christianity. Rather, the goal should be to help them embrace Jesus-Yeshua as their Messiah, discovering Him to be the one who fulfilled what was written in Moses and the Prophets (Matt. 5:17-20) rather than the one who came to start a new, somewhat foreign religion.
Yet the very fact that Jesus did come as the Jewish Messiah fundamentally contradicts the new Catholic statement. The reasons are both fundamental and significant.
1. Jesus was recognized by His followers as the one spoken of by Moses and the prophets, not as the founder of a new religion (John 1:45) but as the one who was born King of the Jews and died King of the Jews (Matt. 2:1-6; 27:35-37).
Jesus showed His disciples that the Hebrew Scriptures—the Jewish Bible—predicted His death and resurrection (Luke 24:25-27; 24:44-48) and He rebuked the Jewish leadership for not recognizing Him as the Messiah, saying that if they truly believed Moses, they would believe Him (John 5:45-47).
2. If Jesus is not the Messiah of Israel, then He cannot be the Savior of the world. Instead, He should be repudiated as a false prophet, false teacher and false messiah.
Many Jewish leaders today have great respect for the Christian faith, saying that while Jesus is not the Jewish Messiah, He is the Christian Savior, but this cannot be true. If He is not Israel's Messiah, He cannot be the Savior of the world.
If Judaism, then, is right in rejecting Yeshua as Messiah, there should be no such thing as Christianity, since the essential witness of the New Testament would be false. If the witness of the New Testament is true, then Jews need Jesus as much as Gentiles do.
3. The Jewish rejection of Jesus in the Gospels and Acts is seen as the culmination of Israel's rejection of Moses and the prophets.
Jesus warned the Jewish crowds that in the future, Gentiles would be sitting at Abraham's table while many of them—"the sons of the kingdom"—would be cast out (Matt. 8:10-12), and Peter, Stephen, and Paul all stated explicitly that their people's refusal to recognize Jesus as Messiah was in keeping with their history as recorded in the Old Testament (Acts 3:13-23; 7:51-52; 13:16-41).
4. Jesus warned His followers—all of them Jews—that they would be put out of the synagogue (John 16:3), and so it was incipient Judaism that first rejected "Jewish Christians" more than the reverse.
This pattern begins to unfold in the book of Acts, as the apostles—again, all of them Jewish—were persecuted and threatened by the Jewish leadership (e.g., Acts 4-7), and in each new city where Paul traveled, it was only after his message was rejected by the synagogue that he began to preach to the Gentiles (e.g., Acts 13:41-48).
5. According to Paul, the gospel is to the Jew first (Rom. 1:16; this echoes Jesus' words in Luke 24:47; Acts 1:8) and judgment is also for the Jew first (Rom. 2:6-11).
It is significant that the new Catholic statement relies primarily on Paul's teaching in Romans 9-11, choosing overtly not to emphasize the teaching of Hebrews (addressed to Jewish followers of Jesus), which stated that the old covenant system, which was even then "becoming obsolete and growing old" was "ready to vanish away" (Heb. 8:13). This, Hebrews tells us, is because the new and better covenant, prophesied by Jeremiah (31:31-34) and inaugurated by Jesus (Luke 22:17-20), was now in effect (8:7-12; 10:14-18).
Yet it is in Romans 9-11 that Paul spoke of his deep agony because His Jewish people were separated from the Messiah (9:1-3; he did this while affirming God's ongoing covenant with Israel in 9:4-5); he explained that both in past times and to this moment, it was only the remnant within Israel that was saved (9:6; 11:1-7); he prayed for the salvation of his people (10:1; why do that if the new Catholic statement is true?); he taught that Israel, on a national level, had been hardened but that in the end that hardness would be removed and his people would recognize their Messiah (11:7-27); thus, he explained, at present, the Jewish people are enemies of the gospel, even while still loved by God, "for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable" (11:28-29).
Significantly, it is this very verse, Romans 11:29, that inspires the title of the new document, yet it fails to understand what Paul meant when he wrote it. Jews are still loved by God and remain heirs of the divine promises, but outside of Jesus, they are alienated from God. That is why, to the end of his life, Paul engaged in an intentional mission to reach his people with the Good News that the Messiah of Israel had come (Acts 28:16-31).
If we truly love the Jewish people, we should follow his example, both with our tears and with our compassionate and sensitive outreach, recognizing that no other people on earth are so near and yet so far.
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Pope Francis began his historic U.S. trip this week, with thousands turning out to see him in the nation's capital. Upon his arrival Tuesday, he was greeted by the first family and then taken to the Vatican embassy.
He is now the fourth head of the Catholic Church to visit the United States. While Pope Francis and the current administration have many areas of common ground, he could bring up some sensitive political topics, like the Iran nuclear agreement and the relationship between the U.S. and Cuba.
The pope's first full day in the U.S. includes a visit to the White House.
The Wall Street Journal reports the Vatican has objected to some of the guests the Obama administration has invited, including transgender activists, an openly gay Episcopal bishop and a pro-abortion nun.
"It's something that we see he's trying to push his own political agenda and the Vatican of course found this offensive and really the pope doesn't want to be used as a political tool for the Obama administration," Arina Grossu, director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council, said.
Franklin Graham also took exception to the president's actions.
"Is there no end to the lengths the president will go to in order to push his sinful agenda?" he said in a Facebook post.
After his meetings at the White House, the pope will take part in a parade through the National Mall. Later in the day, he'll hold a canonization at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
On Thursday, will come one of the biggest events of the pope's visit to the U.S. - a speech to a joint session of Congress where he'll be talking about climate change.
For the first time, the Vatican on Friday signed a treaty with the Palestinians, naming the entity the "State of Palestine" rather than the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Israel strongly criticized the action.
The document governs the activities of the Catholic Church in areas of Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem. The Vatican officially recognized a Palestinian state two years ago.
Israel's Foreign Ministry called the text of the treaty "one-sided" and expressed regret.
"This hasty step damages the prospects for advancing a peace agreement, and harms the international effort to convince the PA (Palestinian Authority) to return to direct negotiations with Israel," the ministry said in a statement.
"We also regret the one-sided texts in the agreement which ignore the historic rights of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel and to the places holy to Judaism in Jerusalem," it continued. "Israel cannot accept the unilateral determinations in the agreement which do not take into account Israel's essential interests and the special historic status of the Jewish people in Jerusalem."
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotevely warned, "Any attempt by the Palestinians, or any other actor to undermine our historic right to Jerusalem and our country will be met by staunch opposition by us."
Meeting with his Palestinian counterpart in a ceremony in Rome, Vatican Foreign Minister Paul Gallegher signed and sealed the treaty.
Vatican officials say the document signed Friday reflect's the church's support of a "two-state solution" to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
No mention was made about Hamas, the terror group which entered into a unity government with the Palestinian Authority and calls in its charter for Israel's destruction.
Lonnie Rex shares Vladimir Putin’s idea of lighting a cathedral in Moscow using an Olympic Torch that was lit by the supernatural fire that appears in Jerusalem every year on Christmas Eve.
Jerusalem Synagogue Defaced With Christian Graffiti
