Standing in support of Israel, Jews, and believers in all the nations, in the name of Jesus (Yeshua). Sharing biblical truth, encouragement, news and prophecy.
Hillary Clinton’s pick for running mate, Virginia senator Tim Kaine, could hurt her support with pro-Israel voters as the senator’s record on Israel comes under fire.
Kaine, the Democrat vice presidential candidate, strongly supported the US deal with Iran, boycotted Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address to Congress, was endorsed by the J-Street lobby, and was one of only 17 senators who refused to sign a letter urging the US president to increase the US military aid package to Israel.
Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, issued a harsh critique of Clinton’s pick.
“Whether it’s his vote for the Iran deal, which paves the way to a nuclear-armed Iran, or his proud support of the progressive anti-Israel J Street agenda which earned him their enthusiastic endorsement, Senator Kaine has shown how out of touch he is on the dangers facing our country,” Brooks said in a statement. “A Clinton-Kaine White House would continue the same failed policies that have made the U.S. and our allies around the world less safe.”
The official PAC of J Street, a lobbying group with a reputation for hostility against Israel, donated $133,382 to Kaine’s previous campaigns, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
Brietbart News also reported that Kaine appointed to his state’s immigration commission Esam Omeish, president of the Muslim American Society, an organization later described by federal prosecutors in 2008 “as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America.”
The American Islamic Forum For Democracy, an anti-terror Muslim organization, criticized Kaine’s lack of vetting.
“Omeish has repeatedly represented an Islamist agenda (political Islam) in his activism. The ideology of Islamism runs against the interests of a strong national immigration policy and American security,” AIFD said in a 2007 statement.
“Whether this will overcome the strong predisposition of the Jewish community to vote for the Democratic ticket, no matter who is on it, remains to be seen,” Abraham Miller, emeritus professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati, wrote. “Nonetheless, the choice of Tim Kaine gives ammunition to those who stand firmly on the non-traditional side of the political divide in the Jewish community.”
Approximately 70 percent of American Jews vote Democrat in US elections.
Hillary Clinton’s Jewish outreach director meanwhile attacked Trump’s record, telling The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that Trump’s willingness to accept a one-state solution in Israel “contravenes longstanding US foreign policy, it’s contravening the GOP platform, it contravenes Israeli policy.”
“There has been a tremendous amount of reaction, both independent as well as from the Republican side, who have actually really called out their position and said that it’s been a problem,” said Sarah Bard, a top Clinton staffer.
Clinton favors a two-state solution. The Democrats are expected to ratify a broader than usual platform at their convention this week that will recognize Palestinian rights to sovereignty and “dignity.”
As a Jewish boy growing up in the 1950s, it was always exciting to me to think about wearing the tallit. This is because in order to wear the tallit, you had to have had your bar mitzvah.
For years, you would study Hebrew and Jewish history, and Jewish customs and traditions. Then on the day of your bar mitzvah, you would wear a special new tallit and read from the Torah (the five books of Moses, which are the first five books in the Old Testament) and the haftarah (a series of selections from the books of the prophets, called the Nevi'im). You would also give a d'rash (exposition or exegesis) on the Torah reading, and then end with reading a letter of thanks to the rabbi, cantor, and board of the synagogue. The tallit you received at your bar mitzvah would be worn throughout your life for all the major life events. It would then be passed on to your son in your memory when your life here on this Earth ended.
To a Jewish person, the tallit is symbolic of one's Jewish identity because it is used in every major life cycle event. But to those not born Jewish, it is symbolic of the Jewish Messiah. More and more, as I travel to speak in churches, I meet people who are seeking to understand the Jewish roots of the Christian faith. They will blow the shofar, pray the Shema, and don a tallit during prayer. At the synagogue I lead, we keep tallitot (the plural form of tallit) for guests to use during the service, and many are eager to do so. Coming under the tallit often helps a person seek Yeshua without distraction and commune with the Ruach HaKodesh (Spirit of God) in a whole new way.
I do not believe that as followers of Yeshua we are obligated to pray under a tallit, but I have heard many people say that coming under a tallit in prayer helped them deepen their intimacy with Hashem. The tallit does not have special power in itself, but it reminds us of God and His Word, in which we find all power.
So if the tallit can be this significant in a person's relationship with God, you may be wondering: "What exactly is it and how is it used?"
The tallit is the Jewish prayer shawl. It is rectangular and generally white with blue or black stripes, and it has tassels on each of its four corners called tzitzit. The tallit can be large (tallit gadol) and cover a person's entire body, or it can be small (tallit katan), reaching only to the shoulders. But it must be long enough to be worn over the shoulders as a shawl and not just around the neck as a scarf. For a Jewish person, it is typically used in every major life cycle event—from circumcision to bar/bat mitzvah to marriage and even death. But it is most frequently used in prayer.
Tallitot are generally worn at morning Shabbat services and during morning prayers. An exception is the Kol Nidre, the evening service on the eve of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), during which the tallit is also worn. A person wearing a tallit will generally keep it draped over his shoulders, but during times of prayer he will use it to cover his head.
Traditionally men have worn the prayer shawl because Jewish law did not obligate women to wear them and the Torah discourages women from wearing men's garments. But now there are many styles and colors available that are very feminine, so both men and women wear tallitot. The stripes on the tallit are usually blue, black or purple, but they can be any color of the rainbow. The tallit is classically made of wool, cotton or silk, but it can be made out of any material so long as the prohibition against combining linen and wool is observed.
The wearing of the tallit commences in the Torah. We read in the 15th chapter of the Book of Bamidbar (Numbers):
"Adonaispoke to Moses saying, "Speak to Bnei-Yisrael. Say to them that they are to make for themselves tzitzit [fringes, ציצית] on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and they are to put a blue cord on each tzitzit. It will be your own tzitzit—so whenever you look at them, you will remember all the mitzvot [commandments] of Adonai and do them and not go spying out after your own hearts and your own eyes, prostituting yourselves. This way you will remember and obey all My mitzvot and you will be holy to your God. I am Adonai your God. I brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am Adonai your God." (Num. 15:37–41, TLV).
In ancient times, people in most cultures wore some type of blanket-like garment to protect them from the sun during the day and the cool air at night. So the command in Numbers 15 was not for the Jewish people to start wearing this type of garment but rather for them to add the tzitzit on the four corners, which would set them apart from other nations. Even today, Bedouins wear abayas, which can resemble the tallit but lack the tzitzit.
The purpose of the tallit was, in fact, to hold the tzitzitot, or fringes. The tzitzitot were to be tied on each of the garment's four corners so that when we look at the tallit, specifically the tzitzit, we would remember the commandments of God. Today there are T-shirts onto which the tzitzit may be tied at each of the four corners, illustrating again that the tzitzit are most important.
Traditionally on each tzitzit is a blue cord called the tekhelet. According to some, the blue tekhelet is to remind us of God's creation, the ocean, the sky, the tablets upon which the Ten Commandments were written and His throne of glory. This particular color blue was once very hard to acquire and was thus used on special garments.
During antiquity, it was derived from a type of snail found near the Aegean Sea. It has been thought that after the destruction of the second temple, knowledge of the actual source of the dye was lost. For this reason, it is now common for the tzitzit to have only white fringes. It is believed that some of the species that carry the dye have been found, but that is not universally accepted as fact.
There are places in Israel today where you can purchase the tzitzit with the tekhelet. They can be tied on to the four corners of a garment to make a tallit. During one of the tours of Israel that my wife, Racquel, and I co-led with two other rabbis over twenty years ago, we met an Israeli storeowner who sold the tzitzit with the tekhelet.
I purchased a tallit gadol (large tallit) and a tallit katan from him, and I still wear them today. There are also many websites that sell tallitot, some of which include thetekhelet. To learn more about how to purchase a tallit, you can visit our website atwww.GesherInternational.com.
Excerpted from The Tallit: Experience the Mysteries of the Prayer Shawl and Other Hidden Treasures, by Charlie Kluge (Charisma House, 2016).
3 Reasons Why you should read Life in the Spirit. 1) Get to know the Holy Spirit. 2) Learn to enter God's presence 3) Hear God's voice clearly! Go deeper!
Has God called you to be a leader? Ministry Today magazine is the source that Christian leaders who want to serve with passion and purpose turn to. Subscribe now and receive a free leadership book.
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The Lord Jesus Christ was the greatest motivator and example of living a purposeful life that the world has ever seen! He lived by the Scriptures since He is the living Word of God (John 1:1), and this is why all the greatest books on leadership and management operate with latent biblical principles, whether intentional or not.
The following seven principles are primary ways Jesus empowered and released purpose:
1. He asked questions.
Instead of just giving the answers to life's questions, Jesus demonstrated that the best way to teach people was to ask them questions. As a matter of fact, He asked over three hundred questions and only gave answers to three of them. When we allow people to answer questions, it reveals how much they really know, what's really in their heart and involves them in the process of discovery that enables them to remember and learn better.
2.He had goals and objectives.
If a person has no specific goals or desired outcomes, they will never know if they have succeeded or not. If a person has no vision or mission, they are clueless and have no idea what their final destination will be! In contrast, when Jesus began His ministry in Nazareth the first thing He did was announce His vision statement which was found in the words of the prophet Isaiah (Luke 4:18 and Is. 61:1-2). Furthermore, Jesus operated with objectives and goals which enabled Him to fulfill His mission and vision with a daily understanding of what, when and how to function (Luke 13:32).
3. He invested his time with those who bore fruit.
The Pareto principle teaches us that 80 percent of the work done is accomplished by only 20 percent of the people in any given church or organization. That being said, Jesus was wise and only invested most of His time with disciples who bore much fruit instead of with the crowds. (John 15:1-7 shows that He expected His followers to bear much fruit if they abided in Him.) Even though the Pareto theory was not yet written, Jesus knew that He would get the most results from pouring into a few rather than focusing on the many. Although He ministered to the crowds, the gospels clearly show that He invested most of His time with His twelve apostles and then the seventy disciples (Luke 9:1, 10:1).
4. He confronted superficial religion.
Jesus did not like superficial religion and attacked religious leaders who misrepresented the heart of His Father (Matt. 23). He insisted that religious leaders allow God to first cleanse the inner man before focusing on outward rituals and religion (Matt. 23:26; Mark 7:15). Jesus also taught that religious tradition often nullifies the word of God (Mark 7:13). Since He confronted superficial religion instead of placating it, He was able to raise up powerful men of God who demonstrated the truth with signs and wonders (Acts 3:6,7).
5. He confronted political power.
When Jesus was with Pilate He confessed that the primary purpose He had was to be recognized as the King (John 18:37). He was not afraid of offending those loyal to Caesar (which is the main reason He was crucified). He understood that the things that ruled external culture had to be shifted to another king and different gatekeepers if true systemic change was going to take place. Furthermore, He told Pilate that the power of His kingdom did not emanate from Rome but from His father (John 18:36). He did not say that His kingdom is not in this world but that it was not of this world!
6. He was motivated by compassion.
Jesus did not heal merely to demonstrate His lordship but because He was moved by compassion (Mark 1:41). He was great because He had empathy and connected to the pain of those around Him (Heb. 4: 15). Any leader without strong feelings of love for his people will not be motivated to serve and release them to greatness.
7. He was willing to die for His purpose.
Life is not worth living if there is no transcendent purpose worth dying for! Jesus not only believed in His mission but also was willing to die (on the cross) in order to fulfill it (Heb. 12:2).
Consequently, He was able to instill and inspire such passion in His followers that most of the original twelve apostles died a martyr's death while preaching the gospel. Truly, the seed of the early church was the blood of the first and second century church. Even today, two thousand years later, thousands of Christ followers continue to die for the cause of Christ, which is the main reason Christianity became the largest and most formidable movement in the history of the world!
Joseph Matterais an internationally known author, futurist, interpreter of culture and activist/theologian whose mission is to influence leaders who influence nations. He leads several organizations, including The United States Coalition of Apostolic Leaders (uscal.us). He also has a blog on Charisma magazine called "The Pulse." To order one of his books or to subscribe to his weekly newsletter go tojosephmattera.org.
3 Reasons Why you should read Life in the Spirit. 1) Get to know the Holy Spirit. 2) Learn to enter God's presence 3) Hear God's voice clearly! Go deeper!
Has God called you to be a leader? Ministry Today magazine is the source that Christian leaders who want to serve with passion and purpose turn to. Subscribe now and receive a free leadership book.
Did you enjoy this blog? Click here to receive it by email.
And we shall cut timber from Lebanon, as much as you need, and we shall bring it to you as rafts on thesea of Jaffo, and you will bring them up to Jerusalem.
In the times of King Solomon, mighty cedar trees of Lebanon were sent by Hiram "as rafts on the sea" to the ancient port of Jaffe, to be used in the building of the Temple in Jerusalem. It was deemed a great merit to Hiram, Solomon's non Jewish friend and ally, who bestowed these trees for such a holy purpose. Today you can share in the special merit of planting trees throughout all of Israel.
Amidst scorching temperatures, forest fires have repeatedly ignited all the way from Israel’s most northern locations to her most southern cities, with no less than 55 forested areas burned.
If you're looking to find this lovely boardwalk near Jaffe port, ask the locals for the "ta-ye-let," which is Hebrew for "promenade." The Jaffe Promenade runs 14 km along the beach and by foot or by bicycle, it's a fun day's activity.
I love Israel365. It has so much information that you do not hear on the mainstream news. Thank you so much for including me. Polly Katherine, Concord, North Carolina USA
I just enjoy the word of God and beautiful photos of Yisrael. Shabbat shalom, Rabbi Weisz. I'm from Honduras but living in greater Los Angeles.- Gabrielle Urizar
The earliest church in Japan, built on a site where 26 Christians were martyred by crucifixion in 1597, is a candidate to become a World Heritage Site by 2018.
According to Japan Today, Nagasaki's Oura Church was the main target of extensive Christian persecution from 1603-1868, when the faith was banned in the country.
From 1614-1640, up to 6,000 Christians were put to death for their faith.
Christianity was "presumed extinct" for many years, according to Christian Today. However, thousands of believers survived by living in the remote islands of Nagasaki and Sakitsu village, keeping the traditions of their martyred fathers.
When Japan opened its borders in 1865, villagers visited a newly built Catholic church in the area and told the priest they continued their hidden worship for 250 years.
The U.N. Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization will examine this site during the summer of 2018, after the government submits its letter of recommendation on Feb. 1, next year.
Shusaku Endo, in his book Silence, retold the story of the Japanese persecution of Christians. A movie by filmmaker Martin Scorsese is expected later this year.
"Christ did not die for the good and beautiful," Endo says in the book. "It is easy enough to die for the good and beautiful; the hard thing is to die for the miserable and corrupt."
Has the Biblical Garden of Eden Been Discovered Here?
CBN News 07-28-2016
The wetlands of southeast Iran, believed by many to be the location of the ancient Garden of Eden, is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The vast Ahwar marshes are fed by the Tigris and Euphrates river and are home to one of the world's most diverse ecosystems. UNESCO describes the region as dating back to the "4th and 3rd millennium BCE," and truly "unique."
But it was not always this way.
When dictator Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq with an iron fist, he almost completely drained the marshes to punish the Arab inhabitants for rebelling against his reign. What was once one of the most fertile places in the world became a desert.
The marsh inhabitants re-flooded the wetlands after Hussein was overthrown.
Although in recent years, the marshes have been used for drugs and arms smuggling and keeping hostages for ransom, many consider it a reflection of paradise on earth.
Many believe the vast wetland could be the location of the biblical story of the Garden of Eden, the paradise where God once walked and visited his prized creation, Adam and Eve.
"The Bible describes the area around the Garden in Genesis 2, even using recognizable place names such as Ethiopia. It mentions a spring in the Garden which parts into four major rivers, including the Euphrates," says Dr. John Morris from the Institute for Creation Research. "This has led many, including Bible scholars, to conclude that the Garden of Eden was somewhere in the middle eastern area known today as the Tigris-Euphrates River Valley."
But Morris is skeptical that the ancient Garden of Eden rests in the Ahwar marshes of today. He believes another piece of biblical history destroyed the chance for the discovery of modern-day Eden -- the Flood.
"As described in Genesis 6-9, the Flood would have totally restructured the surface of the globe," Morris said. "It would have done what major floods do--erode the land surface in one area and redeposit those sediments elsewhere."
He said the earth looks vastly different from what it was a few millennia ago.
"No present topography or underground surface could possibly bear any resemblance to the pre-flood world," he explained.
Therefore, although many believe the marshes of Iraq can be appreciated for their biodiversity, there is little evidence this is actually the home of the Garden of Eden.
Posted: 28 Jul 2016 Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG
The percentage of Americans that own a home has fallen to the lowest level ever recorded. During the second quarter of 2016, the non-seasonally adjusted homeownership rate fell to just 62.9 percent, which was exactly where it was at when the U.S. Census began publishing this measurement back in 1965. This is not what a “recovery” looks like. All throughout the Obama years, the percentage of Americans that own a home has gotten smaller and smaller and smaller. The reason for this, of course, is that the middle class in America is dying. Last year, we learned that middle class Americans now make up a minority of the population for the first time ever. In order to have a high rate of homeownership, you need a thriving middle class, and you can’t have a thriving middle class without good paying middle class jobs. This is why I write about the evisceration of the middle class so extensively, because the U.S. economy is systematically being hollowed out and most Americans don’t understand what is happening. Traditionally, owning a home has been a sign that you have arrived as a member of the middle class, but under Barack Obama the percentage of Americans that own a home has fallen every single year. In the past, we have talked about how it had fallen to the lowest level in decades, but now it has officially fallen to the lowest level ever. The following comes from CNBC…
After rising just over a decade ago to its highest level ever, the nation’s homeownership rate fell to match its all-time low and could drop even further in the months to come. In the second quarter of this year, the rate fell to 62.9 percent, not seasonally adjusted, which is the same as it was in 1965, when the U.S. Census started tracking the metric. During the epic housing boom in the mid-2000s, the rate soared as high as 69.2 percent. That was when politicians touted the so-called “ownership society.”
Rising home prices in an economy of stagnant wages (for the lower 80%) have pushed entry-level homes out of reach for many people.
Lower priced homes in many urban areas entail a huge and costly ($ and time) commute every day. And even then, these homes may be too much of stretch for big parts of the population in expensive urban areas.
First time buyers are having trouble saving for a down payment since they spend their last available dime to meet soaring rents.
Millennials have been blamed. They always get blamed for everything. They saw their parents deal with the American Dream as it turned into the American Nightmare, and they learned their lesson early in life.
The super-low interest rate environment hasn’t made homes more affordable because home prices, in response to super-low interest rates, have soared, and in the end, mortgage payments are higher than they were before.
Higher home prices entail other costs that are higher, including taxes, brokerage fees, and insurance.
Certainly all of those points are legitimate, but the truth is that what we are facing is much broader than all of that. The middle class in the United States has been dying for decades, and in recent years the long-term trends that have been slowly eating away at the middle class like cancer have accelerated significantly. Just consider these numbers… -In America today, nobody has a job in one out of every five families. -At this moment, 102 million working age Americans do not have a job. -According to the Social Security Administration, 51 percent of American workers currently make less than $30,000 a year. -In 1970, the middle class brought home approximately 62 percent of all income. Today, that number has plunged to just 43 percent. -The Federal Reserve says that 47 percent of Americans could not pay an unexpected $400 emergency room bill without borrowing the money from somewhere or selling something. -One recent survey discovered that 62 percent of all Americans have less than $1,000 in savings. -If you currently have no debt and you also have ten dollars in your pocket, that gives you a greater net worth than about 25 percent of all Americans. -According to Kathryn J. Edin and H. Luke Shaefer, the authors of a book entitled “$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America“, there are 1.5 million “ultrapoor” households in the United States that live on less than two dollars a day. If you can believe it, that number has doubled since 1996. -Back in 2007, approximately one out of every eight children in America was on food stamps. Today, that number is one out of every five. -Things continue to get worse for the middle class as we head into the second half of 2016. Gallup’s U.S. economic confidence index just hit the lowest level so far this year. I could keep quoting numbers at you all day, but hopefully you are getting the picture. The middle class in America just keeps getting smaller and smaller and smaller, and our politicians just keep on conducting business as usual. They don’t seem to care that they are strangling the life out of what was once the largest and most thriving middle class in the history of the planet. And things could soon get much worse for the middle class as this new global economic crisis accelerates. In fact, highly respected economist Peter Schiff believes that a major downturn in the U.S. is imminent…
HERE IS THE REALITY: The world has caught on, and the gig is up. Under Obama’s stewardship, the U.S. national debt has gone from $10 Trillion, to what will be $20 Trillion by the time he leaves office, with nothing more than 100 MILLION Americans out of work, and 50 MILLION in poverty and on food stamps. That’s what cheap money bought for us. It was all “borrowed” cheap money too, making it infinitely worse, and the world is tired of lending.
There are so many families out there that are really struggling right now, and more than two-thirds of all Americans believe that the country is on the wrong track. I would like to tell you that happy days are here again and that the best times for America are just around the corner, but unlike the politicians at the Republican and Democratic national conventions, I am not going to lie to you. Very rough times are coming, and things are going to get much harder for the middle class. Plan accordingly, and get prepared while you still can.
