World Turning Against Jerusalem in Fulfillment of Biblical Prophecy - BIN

Palestinian youth hurl stones at Israel Police forces (unseen) during clashes with Police after Friday prayers in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras Al Amoud on February 28, 2014, Jerusalem, Israel. (Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

World Turning Against Jerusalem in Fulfillment of Biblical Prophecy

By Rivkah Lambert Adler October 20, 2015  BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS

“And it shall come to pass on that day that I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all peoples; all who bear it shall be gashed, and all the nations of the earth shall gather against it.” (Zechariah 12:3)

As seen through multiple recent events, the nations of the world are increasing their efforts to weaken or remove Jewish sovereignty in Jerusalem. Is this a fulfillment of Zechariah 12:3’s prophecy that, at the End of Days, the nations of the earth will gather against Jerusalem?

In the 1920s, the Muslims began calling the Kotel (Western Wall) the Al-Buraq Wall and the Kotel Plaza the Buraq Plaza. According to Muslim tradition, Al-Buraq was a horse with wings that carried Muhammad back and forth between Mecca and Jerusalem.

Historically, the Kotel is a part of the outer, western retaining wall of the Second Holy Temple that was destroyed in the year 70 CE. It has been sacred to Jews and Christians for 2,000 years. The millenia-long holiness of the Kotel derives from its association with the Temple Mount, where the two previous Holy Temples stood.

Recently, the Palestinian Authority, sponsored by six Arab states, submitted a resolution to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) seeking to claim the Kotel as a Muslim holy site, wresting the Kotel from the Jewish nation and claiming it as its own. In the proposal, the PA refers to Jerusalem as “the occupied capital of Palestine.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry vowed to fight the resolution, saying that it “is a clear endeavor to distort history, in order to erase the connection between the Jewish people and its holiest site, and to create a false reality.”

Riyad Mansour, the PA envoy to the UN, has also asked the UN Security Council to step in and assist Palestinian Arabs. Speaking to reporters after a Security Council meeting on Friday, October 16, painting Israel as the aggressors in the current wave of Islamic terrorism in Israel, Mansour said, “The situation warrants providing protection for our people in the occupied territory starting in the Old City of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa mosque.”  In this statement, Mansour clearly refers to the entire Old City of Jerusalem as “occupied territory”.

In response to Mansour’s claims that his people are being threatened by Israel, the French newspaper Le Figaro reported on Saturday that France is drafting a proposal to station international troops on the Temple Mount. Israel’s UN representative Danny Danon said that Israel will never agree to allow an international force to occupy the site of the two Biblical temples.

International involvement in the status of Jerusalem is also coming from the US and the EU. Current US engagement is evidenced by US Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts to clarify the meaning of the “status quo” on the Temple Mount through a series of meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Jordan’s King Abdullah and PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

A view of the Western Wall. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

The European Union also has a hand in attempting to clarify the status of the Jewish and Muslim presence on the Temple Mount, as EU Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini is set to meet with Netanyahu in Berlin later this week about the issue.

Scholar, author and End Times expert Rabbi Pinchas Winston believes that there is a great spiritual significance of the tug-of-war over Jerusalem.

“If you look at a map of Europe, Asia, and Africa, it is amazing that tiny little Israel is like the hinge pin that holds them all together. It really looks like the center of the world, and Jerusalem is its center,” he told Breaking Israel News. “Kabbalistically [according to Judaism’s mystical tradition], Jerusalem is even the center of the Universe, because that is where the light of God descends to the world before being shared with the rest of mankind.

“This is why so many nations and religions cherish and demand the holy city, even if they are not conscious of this. As every parent knows, little is more ‘burdensome’ than when several children desperately want the same thing,” he explained.

“When it comes to Jerusalem, how much so is this true when the sides are even prepared to kill for it, ‘forcing’ the world to have to deal with the issue when they’d rather be focused elsewhere?”

Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/51684/in-violent-jerusalem-tug-of-war-biblical-prophecy-unfolding-before-our-eyes/#U4kqqw2e76VcyhVl.99

Upcoming Blood Moon to Lead to “Messianic Advancement” - Jerusalem Orthodox Rabbi

Upcoming Blood Moon to Lead to “Messianic Advancement”

By Rivkah Lambert Adler July 31, 2015  BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS

“The sun shall turn to darkness, and the moon to blood, prior to the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.” (Joel 3:4)

April 2014 Blood Moon. (Photo: Anne Dirkse/ Wiki Commons)

Blood moon enthusiasts around the world are eagerly awaiting the appearance of a final blood moon of a special four-moon cycle, known as a tetrad, on September 28, 2015. What makes this particular tetrad unique is that each blood moon occurs during a Jewish holiday, making it a very rare historical occurrence.

In a recent talk he gave in Jerusalem, Rabbi Mendel Kessin, a rabbinic scholar, spoke about the connection between the appearance of blood moons on Jewish holidays and historical events that bring the ultimate redemption closer. At the 36-minute mark, Rabbi Kessin introduces the history of blood moons to his Orthodox Jewish audience and explicitly connects the blood moons to redemption.

Kessin begins by explaining that a lunar eclipse occurs when the earth is between the sun and the moon, turning the moon dark. Lunar eclipses happen approximately every 12-18 months, according to Kessin. Rarer than an ordinary lunar eclipse, he continues, is a blood moon, which turns the moon red instead of dark.

Rarer still are tetrads – sequences of four blood moons six months apart. And extremely rare, happening only four times in 500 years, are tetrads that fall on the significant Jewish holidays of Passover and Sukkot [Feast of Tabernacles]. These sequences included the years 1492, 1948, 1967 and 2015.

It is commonly known that in 1492, Columbus discovered America. What is less well-known is that, on July 30, 1492, the entire Jewish community of Spain, approximately 200,000 individuals, were expelled by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Columbus’ discovery of America provided the Spanish Jews with safe harbor. As Kessin teaches, the discovery of America softened the exile of the Spanish Jews and, in that way, moved redemption forward. According the Kessin, the exile of the Jewish people began to ease up as far back as 1492.

The next tetrad falling on Jewish holidays happened in 1948, when the State of Israel was founded. The third extremely rare tetrad on Jewish holidays was in 1967, when the city of Jerusalem was reunited. Now, in 2015, the final blood moon of the current tetrad is scheduled to fall on the first night of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

In addition, the blood moon this Sukkot will occur just two weeks after the end of the current Shemitah year. This is significant because the Talmud, the most important collection of rabbinic teachings in Judaism, suggests that the the messiah will come in the year following a Shemitah year.

Speaking to Breaking Israel News, Kessin said, “Each one of these is a messianic advancement. There are incredible events that predate the messiah.”

Why would God make blood moons a sign for the Jews? Traditionally, as recorded in the Talmud, a lunar eclipse is a bad sign for the Jews, who mark time with the moon.

Describing the Blood Moons in Hebrew, courtesy of v871.com

On the other hand, the Jewish holidays of Passover and Sukkot are considered nights of the greatest protection of the Jews. The first night of Passover is referred to in Hebrew as leil shimurim, a night of guarding. Additionally, the outdoor booths in which Jews dwell during the holiday of Sukkot are meant as reminders of the fragile huts that protected the newly freed slaves during 40 years in the desert after the exodus from Egyptian slavery.

In essence, Kessin explains that the presence of a blood moon, which would otherwise have been a bad omen, is a good omen for the Jews whenever it falls in this sequence. “Every time a blood moon happens [on a Jewish holiday tetrad],” said Kessin, “there is messianic advancement.”

Kessin reminded Breaking Israel News that the threat from Iran is also messianic, which he says can be clearly seen from the 13th century Biblical rabbinic commentary known as the Yalkut Shimoni. Rabbinic scholar and author Rabbi Nachman Kahana translates the relevant section of the 800-year old commentary:

Paras (Persia-Iran) will be the dread of humanity. The world’s leaders will be frustrated in their futile efforts to save what they can, but to no avail. The people of Yisrael will also be petrified by the impending danger. And HaShem will say to us, “Why are you afraid? All of this I have done in order to bring you the awaited redemption. And this redemption will not be like the redemption from Egypt, which was followed by suffering. This redemption will be absolute, followed with peace.

“We have now entered the countdown to the messiah, which is unbelieveable,” Kessin told Breaking Israel News. “Based on the [verse from the Book of Joel cited above], based on what’s happening, something awesome seems to be in the works. Fascinating!”

Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/46098/upcoming-blood-moon-messianic-advancement-jewish-world/#TwwBqyKbhmburDB7.99

Will God or the Messiah Build the Third Holy Temple? - Rivkah Lambert Adler

Will God or the Messiah Build the Third Holy Temple?

By Rivkah Lambert Adler July 27, 2015  BREAKING ISRAEL NEWS

“And they shall make Me a sanctuary and I will dwell in their midst.” (Exodus 25:8)

View of model of the third Temple on display in Jerusalem’s Old City. (Photo: Mendy Hechtman / Flash90)

Efforts are underway to make the Third Jewish Temple a reality. From preparing vessels to be used in ritualistic service to raising red heifers, controversy arises when questioning who can exactly prepare for and construct the Third Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

The opinion that the Third Temple will be built by human hands and that the Messiah will have a major role in its rebuilding is most famously ascribed to the Rambam, a renowned 12th century Jewish Bible scholar from Spain. Rambam taught that the very fact that the Temple is being rebuilt will be a major sign that humanity has reached the End of Days.

There is an opposing Jewish philosophy that asserts that the Third Temple already exists in Heaven and will descend onto the Temple Mount at the time God deems is proper. This position is generally associated with Rashi, the preeminent Biblical commentator who lived in 11th century France.

Which is correct? And what will the role of the Messiah be in building the Third Temple?

One way of reconciling these points of view is related to the two accounts of Temple construction in the Bible. The details of the First Temple, known as Solomon’s Temple, are described in the Book of Kings, beginning in the sixth chapter. This description is extensive and quite detailed. The First and Second Temples were built according to the directions that appear in the Book of Kings.

There is another description of Temple architecture in the Book of Ezekiel, beginning in chapter 40. This description is much less detailed, veiled in ambiguous prophecy and much more difficult to understand.

The two descriptions come together in the teaching that the Messiah will oversee the construction of those elements of the Third Temple, which can be understood from the Book of Kings. Following that stage of work on the Third Temple, God will explain the construction elements from the prophecy of Ezekiel that are not currently understandable. It is this knowledge that will come from Heaven, allowing the Messiah and his laborers to complete the building.

Another way to reconcile the two opinions is to consider that the Jewish people are commanded to build a Temple in Jerusalem to serve as a Sanctuary for God. Thus, the physical building is in the hands of the Jewish nation. Once the Messiah and his workers complete the external structure, the Presence of God will descend, filling the Third Temple with holiness.

Until the End of Days, we will not know which of these opinions is correct. However, world-renowned Temple Mount activist and founder of the Temple Mount Heritage Foundation Rabbi Yehuda Glick told Breaking Israel News why he is solidly in the camp of those who believe that the Third Temple will be built by human hands.

“Anyone who understands the concept of Bet Hamikdash – The Temple – knows that there nothing that contradicts this concept more than a Temple from heaven! The whole idea of the mikdash [a holy place] is that we build Him a sanctuary just as He creates us a world.”

Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/45847/will-god-or-the-messiah-build-the-third-holy-temple/#O1gs7IRFxwQxfRXW.99