CHOOSE FAITH

 

 

It is a beautiful Shabbat morning here in Jerusalem. It is so quiet I can hear a man talking down in the valley below me.  The sky is a clear blue and, from my balcony, I can just make out the hills of Jordan across the Dead Sea, a far cry from last week when I couldn't even see to the other side of my neighborhood, because of the thick blanket of dust.

 

That week, we had the worst dust storm in recorded history in Israel as a NE wind picked up dust from Iraq and Syria, and carried it over the whole land, where it hovered in the still air for 4 or more days. At its worst, on the Wednesday, the particulate matter in the air  in Jerusalem was over 170 times worse than its normal readings. Those who suffer from asthma and other respiratory diseases were at great risk and our hospitals treated hundreds of patients having breathing difficulties. Thankfully however we recorded no deaths unlike in Lebanon and Jordan where several people died. The dust was combined with temperatures in the high 30s and even reaching in to the 40s at times, humidity levels reaching the 90s along the coast, and not a breath of breeze to blow the dust away. It settled on everything turning the whole landscape to yellow. One morning I awoke and looked out my window and thought it had been snowing. All the trees were covered in a thick whitish layer of dust. 

 

The view from the Promenade over the Jerusalem. The Temple Mount is totally obscured by dust (and this was taken after the worst of the dust had settled)

Approximately the same view on a normal day.

 

Thankfully the temperatures have now returned to more-or-less normal temps (30ish in the day and 20ish at night)  for this time of year. We even had some rain one night, but it mainly fell in the north and in the southern deserts. Here we just had a few drops for 10 minutes or so. I did enjoy the lightning though which was spectacular.  

 

 

 



http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4700653,00.html
Floods in the Negev this week



The weather may have settled (for now anyway) but not so the city. This week has been marked by increasing violence. Even this morning the quiet has been periodically broken by the 'thub thub' of police helicopters circling overhead, a sure sign that there is trouble in the city. On the way home from work on Thursday I saw that the police had once more put the huge concrete blocks across the road that leads up into the neighboring Arab village of Sur Baher, and the intersection was littered with large stones and concrete blocks, and the road was stained black from Molotov cocktails that had been thrown at passing cars.  Multiple such incidents have been occurring all over the eastern part of the city this week and on the Temple Mount. On the Eve of Rosh Hashanah a Jewish man was killed when his car crashed off the road into a ditch after it was pelted with stones. A bus driver was lightly injured on Thursday when his bus was stoned. Elsewhere in the city, on the same night, another bus was attacked and burned, but the driver managed to escape unhurt. For several days now, Arab youths have barricaded themselves in the Mosque of Omar on the Temple Mount  and have been throwing rocks and firebombs at security forces. One of the firebombs set fire to some wooden beams sending billows of smoke above the Mount.

 

Smoke billows from the Temple Mount this week
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4701596,00.html

 

 

Bus on fire in Jerusalem on Thursday
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4701596,00.html

Yesterday afternoon, as the riots continued not much more than 500 m away, our congregation met for a picnic in a park. It was idyllic - lush green grass under shady horse chestnut trees, and the children playing happily in the little stream.

 

What a contrast! But that is the nature of our city - a city of great beauty and great ugliness, peaceful and violent, ancient and new, full of light and great darkness, a city of tremendous contradictions and contrasts.

 

Perhaps that is the nature of life itself.  Sometimes I look around and see so much suffering, violence and distress. The cancerous ideology of ISIS and its consequences threaten the stability of the whole world. Thousands of refugees fleeing its violence, and that of similar extremist Muslim groups in Africa and Syria, flood Europe. Other refugees are stuck in no-man's land with winter approaching. An earthquake and tsunami strikes Chile. Iran is still enriching uranium and plotting the overthrow of the Western world unchecked. North Korea threatens to fire nuclear warhead armed missiles at the USA,. The brutal civil war in Syria continues, and Russian and Iranian troops are now on Israel's doorstep in Syria.

 

What is more, I look around my friends and I see them all battling illness and other traumas in their lives, and I myself have not been spared. It can be depressing. It can lead to despair and a failure of faith. This morning I woke feeling a bit like Job - just one attack after another, and no end in sight. Job in the midst of his distress cried out to God, saying

 

What is man, that You should exalt him,
That You should set Your heart on him,
 That You should visit him every morning,
And test him every moment?
 How long?

Job 7:17-19 

 

 

How long must all this suffering go on?  Why does God allow it? Why are men so evil and cruel, inflicting such terrible things on each other? Why is nature so treacherous?

 

These were the questions on my heart this morning as I pondered these things. Such questions can bring us down to the depths of despair and lead to a loss of faith. A few years ago I was suffering from such black thoughts and began to question, not God's existence, but his goodness.  Have you ever done the same? It is a scary place to be, because only in God's goodness is there any light, or hope in the world. I teetered on the brink of losing my faith. One day I poured out my heart to a wise friend, and she said, "Faith is something you choose". And I knew this was my answer, just as it was the answer that Job received so long ago.  God never answered his anguished questions, but He challenged Job to think upon God's majesty and power. 

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said:

² “Who is this who darkens counsel
By words without knowledge?
³ Now prepare yourself like a man;
I will question you, and you shall answer Me.

⁴ “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding.
⁵ Who determined its measurements?
Surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
⁶ To what were its foundations fastened?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
⁷ When the morning stars sang together,
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?...

 



Have you commanded the morning since your days began,
And caused the dawn to know its place,...

 

Have you entered the springs of the sea?
Or have you walked in search of the depths?
¹⁷ Have the gates of death been revealed to you?
Or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death?
¹⁸ Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth?...

 

    Job 38

 

God confronts Job with his puniness and contrasts it with His own greatness and power. Who is man to question God, who has created us and the whole Universe?  Yes there are questions, legitimate questions, but for now anyway God will not or cannot give us the answers. We have only a choice, Despair or Faith. And what is more,   without uncertainty and doubt, there can be no Faith.  

 

Having said that Faith is not blind. Faith is based on fact, logic and our own experience of the world. When we chose faith we do not throw away our brain. We use our brain to build faith. When I begin to doubt or lose my peace in God, I turn my thoughts to the revelation of His nature in Scripture, in my past experiences of His goodness and in the beauty of Nature. Paul in the letter to the Philippians said this

:

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.   The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

 

Philippians 4: 8-9

 

If we chose Faith, we may not find the answers to all our questions, but we will find peace - the peace that passes all understanding.

 

"Love in the Mist" Netanya Winter Pond

 

 



A WEEK IN THE CITY OF PEACE

 

 It has been a week of tragedy here in Jerusalem and for Israel as a whole. It began with the funerals of the four Israeli victims of the snow storm in Nepal which killed around 40 other trekkers and injured many others. The four Israeli victims were Tamar Ariel, Agam Luria, Nadav Shoham, and Michal Gili Charkesky. Tamar Ariel was the first orthodox woman to become an Israeli Airforce Navigator.


 Agam Luria                  Tamar Ariel               Nadav Shoham          Michal Gili Charkesky

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4581131,00.html
 

Another seven injured Israelis, all suffering frostbite in varying degrees, were flown home last Saturday in a plane sent from Israel to rescue them. Israeli rescue teams also helped the Nepalese to rescue many of the injured and trapped trekkers caught in the storm.  

The week ended with another tragedy in Nepal, in which two more Israeli young people died, and four others were injured when an overcrowded bus toppled off the road and fell 200m into a ravine. The two Israeli young women who were killed were Shira Dabush and Omer Shemesh. According to the Walla news site, Israeli travel agencies reported that these two women had planned to travel to the Annapurna region, but changed their plans after the deadly snow storms of the previous week.

Israel is a small country and in many ways it is like a big family. When something like this happens the whole country mourns. We all feel the loss together. In a nation which prizes its young people, it is always especially poignant when those killed are some of the nation's best. It is something of a rite of passage here for young people to travel the world after their years of national service in the army or after completing their university studies. Many venture forth on shoestring budgets to find adventure, and respite from the violence they have experienced, in the mountains and the wildernesses of the world.  For many it is a spiritual oddessy. It is a sad fact that sometimes, too often, they do not come home alive.



Haya Zisel - Braun

Just as tragic, perhaps even more so, is the death of one precious baby this week, a 3 month old girl, Haya Zisel-Braun who never got to live her life. She never got to go to kindergarten, much less university, or travel abroad with her friends. Her last great adventure was her very first visit with her parents to pray at the Western Wall. On their way home she was struck by a car driven by a terrorist as her parents were alighting from the Light Rail train  at the Ammunition Hill stop in East Jerusalem. Seven others were also injured, some seriously.




 Haya's funeral - Such a tiny corpse
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/25442/Default.aspx

Overnight and throughout the day following the death of Haya there were numerous incidents of rioting, and the throwing of stones, Molotov cocktails and fireworks around the city. On Thursday morning a Jewish kindergarten was bombarded with rocks, while the children huddled frightened inside.

Since then the city has been tense and there have been many other incidents of violence. I came home on Thursday to find a surveillance blimp hovering over my neighborhood. Our little shopping center at the end of my street had come under attack by stone throwing youths from the neighboring Arab village of Jebel Mukaber, one of the several 'hotspots' in the city.

Even as I am writing reports are coming in of more incidents this evening:

Riots broke out on Saturday evening in several locations throughout Jerusalem, where several dozen masked men threw Molotov cocktails and rocks, blocked a road and set fire to trash bins near the Beit Orot yeshiva, located near the At-Tur neighborhood.

Assailants also hurled stones at the Jerusalem Light Rail traveling the Beit Hanina-Shuafat line, shattering its windshield. No injuries were reported. Earlier in the day, youths threw stones and fired fireworks at a tractor in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan.

         http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4584058,00.html 

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/

Wednesday's terror attack was the worst incident of the so called "Silent Intifada" that has been raging in Jerusalem since May. Every day our city has been rocked by riots and incidents involving the throwing of rocks and Molotov cocktails and the firing of fireworks at cars, police and passersby. Since May more than 107 policemen have been injured and more than 700 Palestinians have been arrested, and yet the mainstream media has been curiously silent on the subject, even here in Israel. The silence has now been broken but it took the death of a child to do it.

One can only hope that now somehow peace can be restored to our beautiful city, and measures  will be taken by all involved to stop the escalation of violence and the incitement that feeds it. Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat has been reported as saying that the violence has become intolerable, and he has vowed to restore order.  On Thursday night a police spokesman said, "The police will operate decisively and show zero tolerance to anyone who tries to break the peace." He also said that, "new intelligence gathering facilities including small surveillance balloons are being deployed. He called the buildup a "strategic decision" connected to the overall situation, not a response to Wednesday's killing of the 3 month-old baby in the Ammunition Hill light rail stop attack.
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/25446/Default.aspx

 Although most of the violence has been in the vicinity of the Arab villages of East Jerusalem, and on the Temple Mount, there is an awareness that it can erupt anywhere at any time. It is very reminiscent of the time of the Second Intifada. There is  a feeling that at any moment the man walking along the street beside you, or sitting beside you on the bus, or in the car that pulls up alongside you at the traffic light could turn out to be a terrorist. Surveillance camera footage of the terror attack that killed Haya Zisel-Braun was broadcast on all our TV news reports this week. It showed us all how easily and quickly a normal, every day situation can become the scene of violence and death. With no warning a car just swerves out of its lane and plows into a crowded bus stop. It also demonstrates all too clearly just how impossible it is to predict or prevent such attacks.

On the whole most Jerusalem citizens are stoic and are just going about their lives normally. We are, after all, fairly used to such things. However it is wearying and increases stress levels. The Jerusalem Post reported that one Israeli woman interviewed at the site of the Ammunition Hill bus stop attack said, "I feel like an attack could happen at any moment". Another said, "I won’t let the terrorists terrorize me".  A resident of Ma'ale Adumim who uses that light rail train stop every day to get to and from work, had this to say, "The last time I felt this way was 10 years ago [during the Intifada] . I feel fear not only here, but everywhere in Jerusalem. They [Arab terrorists] are around us all the time – on the bus, the train, in the streets. It feels 100 percent that an attack could happen at any moment...I need to come here every day, and now I have to look behind my back for them [Arab terrorists].”http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Jerusalem-residents-afraid-but-stoic-after-attack-379714





http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/10/25/Iran-acid-attack-suspects-freed-as-lack-of-evidence.html#slide=3
It is perhaps very apt that this week's Parasha (Torah reading) is the story of Noah. It is in this story that the word for violence (hamas) first appears in Scripture.

The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.   So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 

And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

                  Genesis 6: 11-13

It is hard to conceive of a world more violent than ours at this time. It seems it is all around us.  I have spoken of the violence in Jerusalem but failed to mention the violence occurring all around us in the surrounding nations - terror attacks in Egypt, civil war in Syria spilling over into Lebanon, the ongoing fight against the "Islamic State", the threat of a nuclear Iran and more.  Neither did I mention the two soldiers who were injured on Wednesday by terrorists firing across the border from the Sinai, or the attack on the Canadian parliament. Yet, as the story of Noah tells us, God watches over the innocent and rescues them. The God of Israel has promised never to leave nor forsake those who rely on Him. Terrorists and the enemies of God may kill us but they can never separate us from the love of God.

I was deeply moved this week by an account of an incident that occurred in one of the towns held by the 'Islamic State' forces. A group of former Muslim converts to Christianity were being held by IS soldiers, who were threatening to kill their children if they did not recant their new faith in Jesus. They all denied their faith in order to save their children.  However when the children were offered their freedom if they would recant their faith in Jesus, the children refused, and immediately the soldiers killed them right there  in front of their parents. 

I was humbled by this true story. Such faith in the children! Such courage, and how deeply they knew and loved the Lord! It made me tremble. What would I have done?

What would you do? 

 

  

 

 

 





 

 




 

 



Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem

 

 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
May they prosper who love you

Psalm 122:6 New King James Version (NKJV)

 

It may come as a surprise to many who read the news these days  that in many respects Jerusalem could be held up as a model of peaceful coexistence. I live in a Jewish suburb surrounded by Arab villages. The large  majority of my Arab neighbors  live, work, shop and play quite peaceably with their non-Arab neighbors, and want nothing more than to get on with their lives in peace. I shop in the same shopping center  as my Arab neighbors, a center where shops are owned and operated by both Jews and Arabs. We get along just fine and I often see the little acts of kindness that ordinary people, both Arabs and Jews, carry out towards each other: a sympathetic smile for the mother with a crying baby, a seat for the elderly and so on.

 

However, sadly, there is another face of our city.  Recently there  has been a significant increase in the number of  incidents of violence, perpetrated in the main by a small minority of angry, disaffected young men.

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/24932/Default.aspx

Scenes such as the one above are becoming a daily event in Jerusalem but are largely going unnoticed by the press and even  by the residents of the city.  In the last two months there have been some 152 incidents of stabbings, rock-throwing and firebomb attacks, mainly occurring when Jews dare to stray into Arab-dominated neighborhoods.

Last  Monday (8 Sept) dozens of masked men stormed the gas station between French Hill and the Palestinian neighbourhood of Isawiyah, setting it on fire and looting the store, after a 16 year old Palestinian, Mohammed Sanuqrut had been killed during a riot earlier in the day. http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.615781

A few days later a family coming to Jerusalem from Ramat Gan narrowly escaped a lynch attempt  when their GPS led them to  make a wrong turn and enter the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi Joz, where rioters threw a volley of rocks and bricks at the vehicle  in which they were travelling.
Noam (Dabul) Dvir

Published:  09.12.14, 12:58 / Israel News

The main target of this 'silent Intifada' is the city's new light rail transit system.Since the beginning of July, there have been over  100 instances of stone-throwing, and the throwing of Molotov cocktails  and paint at the trains, which were meant to be a symbol of the city’s unification.  CityPass, the company operating Jerusalem's light rail system, announced last Sunday morning that "due to continued and repeated rock throwing that inflicts damage to the trains, this morning we only have 16 operable trains out of a total of 23."http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4570596,00.html
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.615781



ISLAM AND VIOLENCE



Obama speaking to the American people about Islamic State (Photo: AFP)http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4569912,00.html

On the 10th of this month, President Obama made a speech to the American people, "about what the United States will do with our friends and allies to degrade and ultimately destroy the terrorist group known as ISIL."

In this speech, among other things, he said,

"Now let's make two things clear: ISIL is not "Islamic." No religion condones the killing of innocents. And the vast majority of ISIL's victims have been Muslim. And ISIL is certainly not a state".

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4569912,00.html

Is he right? Does Islam condone the killing of innocents, or not? We can analyze the Koran, verse by verse, we can study the Hadith and Sunna, and argue academically either way. However the 'proof is in the pudding' as the saying goes. Take a look around you. Where is there violence and warfare in our world today? What drives the main terror organizations that threaten us today?  Of the 10 most deadly wars currently in progress around the world, 9 involve violent Islamic terror organizations or militias,  or struggles between competing Islamic sects or ideologies . http://www.internationalrelations.com/wars-in-progress/#syria
   
True, not all Muslims are violent, and not all Islamic sects or movements espouse violence, however violence has been an integral part of the spread of Islam since its very inception. During his lifetime Mohammed ordered 100 military expeditions and he himself took part in 27  of these. By the time Mohammed died  Muslim forces had conquered most of  the western Arabian peninsula.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_expeditions_of_Muhammad. During the period of the first four Caliphs,(632-661 AD) Islam had conquered most of the Middle East and a large part of North Africa. Under the  Ummayyad Caliphs (661-750 AD) Islam had by force  spread across northern Africa and entered even into Europe,  conquering Spain.   

Map of the spread of Islam from 622-750 AD

 http://www.maps.com/ref_map.aspx?pid=11393 

Certainly it would be difficult to convince anyone living in the Middle East today that Islam does not at least condone violence, even it does not actively promote it. 

Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of one of the five founders of the Hamas movement, put it this way:

"Islamic life is like a ladder, with prayer and praising Allah as the bottom rung. The higher rungs represent helping the poor and needy, establishing schools, and supporting charities. The highest rung is jihad.

The ladder is tall. Few look up to see what is at the top. And progress is usually gradual, almost imperceptible ... Traditional Muslims stand at the foot of the ladder, living in guilt for not really practicing Islam. At the top are fundamentalists, the ones you see in the news killing women and children for the glory of the god of the Qur'an. Moderates are somewhere in between. "

"Son of Hamas " Mosab Hassan Yousef , 2010,Tyndall, USA

The Salafist-Jihadist movements such as Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaeda, and now ISIL, just to name a few, attract those zealous Muslims who are drawn to desire the highest spiritual levels of Islam, namely Jihad. Although Jihad is not necessarily violent, it  has the goal of spreading Islam to the whole world by any means available. Historically and still in our times, Islam does not prohibit violence and even condones it. In Islam there is no way to be certain of forgiveness of sin, or of everlasting life, except through active participation in Jihad.
 

The Koran says this in Surah 3:157  "And if, indeed, ye be killed in Allah's way or die, surely forgiveness from Allah and mercy is better than what ye could have had on earth"  and again in Surah 16:110, "Then, verily, thy Lord, will be forgiving and merciful for those who left their homes after they had been tried and then carried out Jihad and were steadfast".  (Palmer English Translation)

 

For a fuller exposition on the violent nature of Islam see  "Islam: Religion of Peace or War?    http://my.cbn.com/pg/file/06823b10-ae06-4364-be15-72e351272f98/read/11546237/islam-religion-of-peace-or-war/