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Passover prayers of Cohanic Blessing seek return to the Mount, not just the courtyards around it

(Video courtesy: The Jewish Filmmaker)

Many thousands of Jews gathered at the Kotel (the Western Wall) on the 2nd day of Chol HaMoed Pesach 5771 (the intermediate days of the Passover festival of 2011) for Birkat Kohanim (the Priestly Blessing) in accordance with the Torah's commandment in the book of Bamidbar (Numbers) chapter 6 verse 23-27.

The ceremony has become a tradition ever since the liberation of Har HaBayit (the Temple Mount) and the rest of the Old City of Jerusalem during the Six Day War in 1967. It is in commemoration of the Biblical obligation to visit the Holy Temple on the three annual festivals, namely, Pesach (Passover), Shavuot (Pentecost), and Sukkot (Tabernacles).

It is also a special opportunity for many Cohanim (Jews who trace their lineage to Aaron, the first High Priest) to fulfill the Biblical obligation of blessing the nation, and for non-Cohanim to be blessed (also a Biblical obligation, according to some).

It is to be noted that the Western Wall is merely a supportive wall of the Temple Mount in which the Holy Temple itself stood. The holiday prayers emphasize our goal of returning to the Mount, and not to the courtyards around it: "Bring us to Zion Your city with joy, and to Jerusalem, the House of Your Temple, with everlasting happiness... Build Your house as at the beginning, and establish Your Temple on its foundation; show us its construction and gladden us with its rectification... and to there we will ascend and be seen and bow down before You on our three festivals..."

Israel catches Fogel killers; expected to reward terror with state

Fogel Family Killers Caught  excerpted from FrontPage Magazine April 20, 2011
P. David Hornik is a freelance writer and translator in Beersheva, Israel. He blogs at http://pdavidhornik.typepad.com
Hakim Mazen Awad, 18, and Amjad Mahmad Awad, 19, of
West Bank village, Awarta, killed Fogel family to become martyrs
Last March 12, Israelis learned that, the night before, terrorists had broken into a home in the West Bank community of Itamar and murdered five members of the Fogel family—the parents, 11- and 4-year-old boys, and a 3-month-old girl. Sunday, the eve of Passover, brought the relieving news that the two terrorists had been nabbed by combined intelligence, army, and police forces. So had six accomplices who helped them hide the murder weapons and suppress evidence.
The two perpetrators are Hakim Mazen Awad, 18, a high school student, and Amjad Mahmad Awad, 19, also a student (the two are not directly related, though from the same clan). As expected, they’re from Awarta, a Palestinian village of 8,000 that is considered a “breeding ground for terror” and neighbors Itamar (pop. 1,000). Acting without leads, in the course of the investigation the Israeli forces detained hundreds of Awarta residents before fingering the culprits and their helpers. 
Although the two murderers have links to the Popular Front—a terror organization considered “secular” and not Islamist—it’s believed at this point that they did not act under its auspices. Terror, however, runs in the family for both of them. Among the suspected accomplices are Hakim’s father and one of his uncles, both from Awarta and the latter a Popular Front member (and the former as well, according to one report). As for Amjad, an uncle of his was involved in a 2002 terror attack on Itamar that killed five; the next year he was killed in a clash with the Israeli army.  
Officers of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, said the two gave a “chilling reenactment” that was one of the most “shocking, cold, remorseless and detailed” they had ever witnessed. Amjad said his motivation was to “die a martyr’s death.” Two other Fogel boys, eight-year-old Roi and two-year-old Yishai, were also sleeping in the house but were spared because the intruders didn’t notice them. The latter said, however, that they “would not have hesitated to kill them, as well. . . .

The Passover Story as told in "The Prince of Egypt" still relevant after 3,323 years

Happy 3,323rd Birthday to People of Israel by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu in Israel National News

The Passover holiday recalls the days of slavery in Egypt under the new pharaoh and the Exodus to freedom, which is the theme of the traditional Passover Seder.

However, the freedom of the Jews also marks their birthday as a people.

It was none other than Pharaoh whose mention of the “People of Israel” is the first such Biblical reference, 3323 years ago, using calculations based on information in the Torah.  Serbian-born Eliezer Shulman, who was exiled to Siberia by the former Soviet Union in the 1930s, recently showed how he was able to calculate it.

The redemption of the Hebrew children of Israel from the Exodus from slavery outside the Promised Land is brought to life in Disney's animated "Prince of Egypt." 

First, "Deliver Us" ("Hoshia' na") shows the experience of Moses and the Jewish people's exile from Israel into slavery.




The second song, "When You Believe" ("Eem Na'amin"), shows the experience of the Almighty returning the caretakers of His law and His land to their guardianship of the Promised Land.





The Prince of Egypt's composer, Stephen Schwartz, delivers perhaps the most important message through the song "Through Heaven's Eyes":

"How can you see what your life is worth or where your value lies? You can never see with through the eyes of Man - you must look at your life - look at your life through Heaven's eyes. . . ."

"How do you measure the worth of a man in wealth or strength or size? In how much he gained or how much he gave? The answer will come to him who tries to look at his life through Heaven's eyes. . . ."




"How do you judge what a man is worth by what he builds or buys? You can never see with your eyes on Earth - look through Heaven's eyes. Look at your life - through Heaven's eyes!"

The 28 different languages that "The Prince of Egypt" soundtrack was recorded in (for distribution in 50 countries) is testament to the universality of the story of the Jewish children of Israel and our G-d.


Christian media luminaries encourage Christians to visit Israel, support the Jewish people and Jewish self-determination

Religious media producers and distributors from around the world convened for the 2011 National Religious Broadcasters (N.R.B.) Association conference in Nashville, Tennessee over the weekend of Feb 26, 2011.

According to the Israeli Ministry of Tourism, while Jewish tourists accounted for 39% of the 2.7 million visitors to Israel, Christians in 2009 accounted for 54%. In its outreach to the Christian market, Israel's Ministry of Tourism provided an Israel Prayer Breakfast at the N.R.B. featuring Israeli culture and talks by Christian leaders about Israel's spiritual and experiential value. JooTube spoke with some of the Christian luminaries regarding their relationship with the Jewish State.
Dr. Frank Wright, NRB President


NRB President Dr. Frank Wright extols Israel as a transformational destination for Christians, encourages pilgrimages, and endorses the close relationship between Christians and the Jewish State.


Kay Arthur, Precept Ministries


Mrs. Kay Arthur of Precept Ministries cautions that any nation or politician which attempts to intervene in Jewish guardianship of the land of Israel (including removing Jews to provide Muslims exclusivity) defies G-d's will and provokes G-d's wrath.


Rev. Robert A. Schuller

Rev. Robert A. Schuller delineates several reasons why he encourages all Christians to visit Israel as a spiritually transformational experience which influences their understanding of life.

Dr. Woodrow Kroll of "Back to the Bible"


Back to the Bible's Dr. Woodrow Kroll, who has traveled to Israel more than 40-times, presents a comprehensive overview of a Christian's responsibility to support Israel, the Jewish people, and Jews' sovereignty over Israel.

Explosion at Chabad of Santa Monica triggers a bonfire of vanities from all sides; But will it awaken Jews to confront the tide against us?

Fire fighters work atop a roof next door to
the Chabad House in S. Monica.
(Photo: KTLA Live Video)
The Chabad of Santa Monica synagogue was one of the targets of an American-Muslim, homegrown terror plot which was reported about in DemoCast.com 4-years ago.

The phenomenology surrounding today's news about a real explosion at the Santa Monica Chabad illuminates perspectives which warrant analysis.

From an objective view - about the media-incited atmosphere conducive for hostile attacks against Jewish interests - and the gut reaction that an explosion at a Chabad would be a "hate-crime" or act of terrorism.

From the media's perspective - how eager they are to deny that it would be a hate-crime or terror-act (presumably committed by a militant Muslim) thereby negating their beliefs of Jewish-overreaction; or their fear that Islamophobia is a rational fear and really not racism.

And from Jews' perspectives - either an invalidation of the idealistic rationale that we are accepted as Americans and don't have anything to fear, provide deterrence against, or avenge against our enemies. As Rabbi Issac Levitansky once told me when I requested armed security be posted outside the synagogue during High Holy Day services "Even if anyone were to attempt to harm us, Hashem will protect us."  Another Jewish reaction is the rude proof that our enemies are not subscribing to our fantasy, and that naturally an explosion at a Chabad would be an act of  terrorism against Jews.

Particularly now, in the wake of the media and political complacency following the Samaria massacre of the Fogel Family of Itamar, Samaria, (when CNN's Piers Morgan interviewed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with impudence and without chastisement) there is an atmosphere that Jews are 'fair game.' Guy Milliere addressed this issue yesterday in his essay in Hudson New York, listed below.

The Real Meaning of the Murders in Israel by Guy Milliere in Hudson-New York  April 6, 2011


While so many tragedies and disruptions have fallen on Japan and the Middle East in recent weeks, a singular event went almost unnoticed: the extermination of a Jewish family in Itamar, Samaria.Although this event could seem insignificant -- there were only five victims -- it was nevertheless indicative of what is at stake in the Middle East, and how the world views it.
The borders between anti-Semitism and "anti-Zionism" are increasingly blurred, perhaps allowing Europeans feel less guilty about what they or their parents did in World War II. If Zionists are Racists and Jews are Nazis, then Europe can tell itself that it actually did the world a favor by sending six million sub-humans to crematoriums.
In this context, neither photos of babies whose throats have been slit, nor facts, nor any kind of proof even count anymore. If the trend continues, they will mean even less.
Other books, by writers such as Natan Sharansky, Léon Poliakov, Alan Dershowitz and Giulio Meotti speak of "demonization," and explain how it works: portraying people, such as the Jews in Europe, as less than human, preceded and made possible the slaughter that followed. Israel is now treated as "the Jew among nations." The intentions of the killers are clear and unambiguous: They would like to be able to commit genocide. What they lack is not the will, but the means.
Those in the West who remain silent about that willingness, who refuse to see even the most damning evidence put before their eyes, are accomplices.
The massacre of Itamar, the way it was minimized or widely ignored by politicians and the media, showcases the distressing degree to which attitudes have shifted towards what cannot, indeed, be called anything other than complicity. 
If the number of Jews killed is not higher, it is not because the desire to kill them is lower; it is only because the hatred has yet to spread some more, and the means to commit mass murder is not – yet – in the hands of those who would like to carry out these acts.

This follows Barry Rubin's theory about the media's downplaying that Egypt's revolts might benefit Islamists and the Muslim Brotherhood.
I now understand that the purpose of the mass media is to report on things that don’t fit the agenda only after they have happened and are so blindingly obvious that ignoring them is impossible. Oh yes, and by then it’s also too late to avoid catastrophes.
In their inability to distinguish Islamism from Islam, the press mollifies the public to the realities of Islamism (including its anti-Semitic precepts), resulting in the perception that Jews are "crying-wolf" flingers of anti-Semitism allegations, while Islamists exploit the absence of deterrence as open playing field for Islamism and anti-Semitism to thrive in liberal society.

Noble, Muslim student shocks U.N. Human Rights Council for stoking anti-Semitism with its anti-Israel obsession

British Muslim university student, Amran Hussain, represented the European Union of Jewish Students in contending the U.N. Human Rights Council's biased resolutions as stoking global anti-Semitism.

Watch video from United Nations Webcast www.un.org/webcast

Zionistic Christians, PJTN, invoke "never again" to Islamists exploiting anti-Zionism to gain empathy & power


American radio personality, Janet Parshall, delivered a rousing acceptance speech, in being awarded Proclaiming Justice to the Nations' 2011 Ed McAteer Tree of Life Award. PJTN founder, Laurie Cardoza-Moore, introduces Mrs. Parshall at an awards ceremony and special screening of PJTN's "The Forgotten People" at the 2011 National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Nashville, Tennessee.

Ed McAteer was so strongly Zionistic that in October 2004, upon his passing, Joseph Farah eulogized him this way in World Net Daily:
McAteer is best known, perhaps, as the founder and president of the Religious Roundtable. But, among his friends, he is better known as a champion of the Jewish state.

"When Jerusalem's mayor, Ehud Olmert, remarked some years ago that Ed McAteer 'should be America's ambassador to Israel,' he was right on the mark," said Herb Zweibon, president of Americans for a Safe Israel.

In fact, I know first hand that when Olmert made that suggestion to McAteer that his response was: "There's no job on Earth, including president of the United States, that I would like more."

McAteer is best known, perhaps, as the founder and president of the Religious Roundtable. But, among his friends, he is better known as a champion of the Jewish state.

"When Jerusalem's mayor, Ehud Olmert, remarked some years ago that Ed McAteer 'should be America's ambassador to Israel,' he was right on the mark," said Herb Zweibon, president of Americans for a Safe Israel.

In fact, I know first hand that when Olmert made that suggestion to McAteer that his response was: "There's no job on Earth, including president of the United States, that I would like more."
Mrs. Parshall called on Christians to overtly stand against anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, deeming them sins against G-d.  She called for Christians' unconditional support for Israel and the Jewish people in these testing times.

Also addressing the assembled audience of Zionists was Rabbi Gerald Meister. He talks of his recent experience talking with Christian Arabs in Judea and Samaria, Israel.