Latest News
- sWho’s Attacking Palestinian Christians? by Bassam Tawil
- aAustralian Jewish Group Says Proposed Swastika Ban Doesn’t Go Far Enough by Benjamin Kerstein
- Ehud Olmert: Nothing has changed since last election
- Build, Bibi, Build by Caroline Glick
- Local Newspapers Are Dying Because They Don’t Represent America
- UCLA Under Investigation for Anti-Semitism by Sara Dogan
- Expanding Settlement Construction Now Will Pay Dividends Later
- המסע היהודי לחלל: עשר עובדות על “העולמות העליונים”
- New Approach to Fight the New Antisemites
- sUS seeks normalization of ties between Israel, Arab states By OMRI NAHMIAS
On Mt. Zion, Jews and Christians Unite By Abra Forman
“Many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.’ The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 2:3)
The Zion Gate is one of eight gates built into the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. It was built for Suleiman the Magnificent in 1540. Located in the south of the Old City, facing Mount Zion and Hebron, the Zion Gate leads into the Armenian and Jewish Quarters. Zion Gate is also known as David’s Gate (Arabic: Bab el-Daoud; Hebrew: Shaar David), because the tomb of King David is believed to be on Mt. Zion. (Photo: Nati Shohat/Flash90)
Last Wednesday, Israel365’s Rabbi Tuly Weisz met with a group of American college students visiting Israel with the Christian organization Eagles’ Wings on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem.
Eagles’ Wings is a pro-Israel Christian ministry which runs an educational program called the Israel Experience for Christian students interested in learning more about Israel advocacy. The program brings groups of students on trips to Israel every year, where they travel the land and learn more about Israel’s Biblical origins as well as its present realities.
The students toured all over Israel to various significant sites including the Sea of Galilee, Mt. Bental, the Dead Sea and Ein Gedi. They came to Jerusalem to explore the wonders of the ancient holy city, visiting Jewish as well as Christian religious sites.
Rabbi Tuly Weisz addressing a group of Christian American college students on Mt. Zion. (Photo: Breaking Israel News)
Rabbi Weisz spoke to the group at the historical building of the Diaspora Yeshiva, established on Mt. Zion in 1966 by Rabbi Mordechai Goldstein, who came to Jerusalem from America with 200 of his students. His son, Rabbi Yitzchak Goldstein, who is deeply involved in running the yeshiva, also addressed the group.
“Mt. Zion is the only place in the world that accepts all three religions – Jews, Muslims and Christians,” said Rabbi Goldstein. “On this one hill, there’s a synagogue, a church and a mosque. Everyone is welcome.”
Rabbi Goldstein told a parable about the founding of Jerusalem involving two brothers, one rich and one poor. The unmarried and childless rich brother, concerned about his brother’s large family and poverty, decided to give his brother a gift. At the same time, the poor brother, feeling enriched by his loving family, decided to give his wealthy but lonely brother a gift as well. The place where the paths of the two brothers crossed, Rabbi Goldstein taught, was the place where God decided to build his holy city of Jerusalem.
“He wants to build his house in a place where people share, which is built on a foundation of people giving,” he said.
Joining the group was prominent Christian Zionist Donna Jollay, who shared a teaching from Isaiah Chapter 2:
“The mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established and the top of the mountain shall be exalted above the hills. And all nations shall flow to it.”
She related it to the present time. “This scripture just crystallizes this moment that is happening right now,” she said.
In a traditional close reading of Psalm 126, Weisz explained to the students, “The Jews have been preserving and safeguarding the Torah for thousands of years in Hebrew. When you’re reading the Bible in English, you’re reading a translation. They say that reading the Bible in Hebrew is like getting it directly from God.”
He distributed copies of the Israel Bible’s book of Psalms to each of the participants. This version of the Bible includes side-by-side Hebrew and English translations of each verse, plus transliteration of key verses, enabling people unfamiliar with Hebrew to partake in the singular experience of reading the Bible in its original language.
Rabbi Tuly Weisz with American Christian college students on Mount Zion. (Photo: Kaniel Bramnick)
The group read out the first verse of Psalm 126 together in Hebrew, using the transliteration provided in the Israel Bible, which in English reads: “A Song of Ascents. When the Lord brought back those that returned to Tzion, we were like unto them that dream.”
Rabbi Weisz explained that traditionally when Jews learn a Biblical text, they deeply analyze each word for multiple meanings, and he gave an example using the word meaning dreamers, “cholmim”.
When the Hebrew letters of the word “cholem”, dreamer, are rearranged, they spell “lochem”, meaning warrior. The word dreamer, therefore, also means fighter. “That meaning is woven into the DNA of the Hebrew word,” explained Rabbi Weisz. “A dreamer is somebody who is in conflict.”
Rabbi Weisz expanded on this idea when discussing with the students the intricate connection between the ideological roots of the Israeli state and the need for conflict which arose after its establishment.
The group then discussed the meaning of verses two and three of Psalm 126, which relate directly to the relationship between the Jews and the Nations (non-Jews).
(2) “Then was our mouth full with laughter, and our tongue with singing.
Then said they among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things with these.’ ”
(3) ‘The Lord hath done great things with us. We are rejoiced.’ ”
Rabbi Weisz clarified: “Who are the first to recognize great things happening in Israel? The Nations. And who are the ones who are sleeping? The Jews.”
The verse has clear ties to contemporary events. “What’s happening today is exactly this,” said Rabbi Weisz. “The non-Jews are saying, and have been saying, that God is going to bring back the Jewish people to the land of Israel. And when he does that, it will be amazing, and also difficult and conflict-ridden at the same time. And then the Gentiles are going to say to each other, the Lord is doing great things for them in Israel, and then Israel will recognize that the Lord is doing great things for us.”
He related the psalm to the current moment, saying, “Sometimes it takes outside validation for us to wake up, and that’s what’s happening today. Eagles’ Wings is a Christian ministry teaching Christians about Israel, but it’s having a big impact on how Jewish people see ourselves. If Christians throughout the United States and the world are saying that what’s happening in Israel is a miracle, then the Jews will start saying, maybe it is a miracle.”
Donna Jollay delivering a lecture to the group. (Photo: Breaking Israel News)
One of the greatest conflicts Israel faces today is the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS). Rabbi Weisz called on the student to make a difference when they return to their universities and, like warriors, confront anti-Israel movements.
“You actually are on the ground,” he pointed out. “I would imagine that the BDS movement is pretty vocal in your universities, and you guys are those campus warriors who need to keep your eye on the dream, and remember if you turn the word lochem, warrior, around, then you have the word dreamer.”
This trip to Israel was the first time most of the group participants visited the Land. For Shannon, a University of Michigan student, coming to Israel was an opportunity to see how the national and religious issues affecting Israel, often discussed in the foreign press, played out in reality. She described being particularly moved by seeing the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism.
“I’ve heard that there is a mosque right in the middle of the Temple Mount, but I’ve never seen it in person,” she told Breaking Israel News. “So when I came to see it and actually heard the Muslim call for prayer, it just hit my spirit really hard for that place, for the Temple Mount, and I started crying. That’s His area, His land, and it’s being oppressed. And it was right in front of my eyes, literally good against evil. It became very real.”
The seminar was the first session of a program which Rabbi Weisz is working to establish called “Yeshiva of the Nations.” Working with Christian activists and organizations like Eagles’ Wings, the Yeshiva of the Nations will offer opportunities in Israel for Christians who want to learn more about their religion and how it connects to the Holy Land.
Read more at
Related articles
More in this category
OUR SITES אתרי מבט
Poland’s forgotten civil strife and the struggle for Jewish statehood
Menachem Begin in December 1942 wearing the Polish Army uniform of Gen. Anders’ forces with his wife Aliza and David Yutan; (back row) Moshe Stein and Israel Epstein
(photo credit: JABOTINSKY ARCHIVES)
During the inauguration of a memorial to the victims of the Siege of Leningrad in Jerusalem’s Sacher Park on January 24, 2020, before the climax of Holocaust remembrance events at which Russian President Vladimir Putin was given a central platform, we were stunned to hear a rendition of The Blue Kerchief (Siniy
Belgian carnival to double down on antisemitic displays
Giant figures are seen during the 87th carnival parade of Aalst February 15, 2015
The annual carnival in Aalst, Belgium, is expected to take place on Sunday with even more antisemitic elements than in previous years.
Aalst’s organizers have sold hundreds of “rabbi kits” for revelers to dress as hassidic Jews in the carnival’s parade. The kit includes oversized noses, sidelocks (peyot) and black hats. The organizers plan to bring back floats similar to the one displayed in 2019 featuring oversized dolls of Jews, with rats on their shoulders, holding banknotes.
Pope Appears to Give Thumbs Down to Trump’s Mideast Peace Plan
Pope Francis waves as he arrives at the Basilica of Saint Nicholas in the southern Italian coastal city of Bari, Italy February 23, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Remo Casilli.
Pope Francis on Sunday warned against “inequitable solutions” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying they would only be a prelude to new crises, in an apparent reference to US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace proposal.
Francis made his comments in the southern Italian port city of Bari, where he traveled to conclude a meeting of bishops from all countries in the Mediterranean basin.
Israel, Palestinian Authority Agree to End Trade Dispute: Officials
Palestinians walk past a shop selling fruits in Ramallah, Feb. 20, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Mohamad Torokman.
Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) have reached an agreement to end a five-month long trade dispute, officials said on Thursday.
The dispute, which opened a new front in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, began in September when the PA announced a boycott of Israel calves. The PA exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank under interim peace deals.
Disturbing Images Emerge of Astounding Antisemitism at Belgian Carnival
Antisemitic caricatures on display at the annual carnival in Aalst, Belgium. Photo: Raphael Ahren via Twitter.
Disturbing images emerged on Sunday of the annual carnival at Aalst, Belgium, showing an astounding number of antisemitic themes, costumes, displays and statements.
Israeli journalist Raphael Ahren documented people dressed as caricatures of Orthodox Jews, a fake “wailing wall” attacking critics of the parade, blatantly antisemitic characters and puppets wearing traditional Jewish clothes and sporting huge noses.
News
New column!
KEN COHEN :UN Sinks to a New Low with BDS-Inspired Blacklist
The stench of anti-Semitism always hovers over Switzerland’s Lake Geneva when the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is meeting there. The foul emanations reached a new nadir last week with UNHRC’s publication of a “database” of companies doing business in the disputed territories in Israel.
Following the publication of the list, Bruno Stagno Ugarte, deputy director for advocacy of NGO Human Rights Watch, stated, “The long-awaited release of the U.N. settlement business database should put all companies on notice: To do business with illegal settlements [sic] is to aid in the commission of war crimes.”
David Suissa : Bad Globalism: China Controls our Meds
One of the many things that annoys me about politicians is how sure they are of themselves. Everything is black and white. Every idea is good or bad. Take globalism, for example. You either love it or hate it. It works or it doesn’t.
Another thing that annoys me is how so much of a politician’s life revolves around power: Do everything you can to get it, and everything you can to keep it.
Why am I ranting? Because, while our politicians have been consumed with power and the media with the fights over power, a threat to our nation has been virtually ignored.
Alex Traiman : Challengers Gantz and Lapid Attack Netanyahu-Trump Relationship
Blue and White Party leaders Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid are establishing their diplomatic credentials in the immediate run-up to Israel’s March 2 election with an insult to a U.S. administration that has arguably provided Israel with more diplomatic gains than any previous administration.
The Times of Israel reported that at a campaign stop in front of English-speaking Israelis, Gantz accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “of neglecting bipartisan ties in favor of exclusive support from U.S. President Donald Trump’s Republican Party,” under the headline “Gantz pledges to mend ties with U.S. Democrats if elected.”
CLIFFORD D. MAY : The Return of the Monroe Doctrine
Bipartisanship was in short supply at the State of the Union address earlier this month—with one notable exception.
Nancy Pelosi had been looking dyspeptic, shuffling the papers she would later rip to shreds, when President Donald Trump reminded his audience that “the United States is leading a 59-nation diplomatic coalition against the socialist dictator of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro.”
Suddenly, the House Speaker applauded. Trump then introduced “the true and legitimate president of Venezuela: Juan Guaidó.”
Melanie Phillips : Sanitizing Soros through Guilt by Association
The law professor Alan Dershowitz has thrown a legal hand-grenade into America’s political civil war by claiming to have evidence that former President Barack Obama “personally asked” the FBI to investigate someone “on behalf” of Obama’s “close ally,” billionaire financier George Soros.
He made his cryptic remark in an interview defending U.S. President Donald Trump against claims he interfered in the prosecution of his former adviser, Roger Stone.