State and other persecution of religious people

In last Sunday's lectionary passage from the book of Acts, the apostles are arrested for preaching that Christ is risen. They are questioned before the Jewish priestly Sanhedrin. The high priest reminds them that they had been ordered to stop such preaching.

Peter, speaking for all the apostles, responds, "We must obey God rather than any human authority." Acts records that had not a Sanhedrin member named Gamaliel argued otherwise, the apostles would have been executed that day.

Fast forward to today, and understand that there are still human authorities who will not countenance any resistance to their authority. China, for example, this month:


This was the destruction of one of the largest church buildings in the country. The Guardian reports,

Witnesses and overseas activists said the paramilitary People's Armed Police used dynamite and excavators to destroy the Golden Lampstand Church, which has a congregation of more than 50,000, in the city of Linfen in Shanxi province.

ChinaAid, a US-based Christian advocacy group, said local authorities planted explosives in an underground worship hall to demolish the building following, constructed with nearly $2.6m (£1.9m) in contributions from local worshippers in one of China's poorest regions.

The church had faced "repeated persecution" by the Chinese government, said ChinaAid. Hundreds of police and hired thugs smashed the building and seized Bibles in an earlier crackdown in 2009 that ended with the arrest of church leaders.

Those church leaders were given prison sentences of up to seven years for charges of illegally occupying farmland and disturbing traffic order, according to state media. 

And it is not just Christians. Muslims who have lived in China for centuries have suffered even worse: "Before-and-after photos show how China is destroying historical sites to monitor and intimidate its Muslim minority."

China is waging an unprecedented crackdown on a Muslim minority called the Uighurs, who live in the country's western frontier region, Xinjiang.

Muslims have for centuries settled in the region, sometimes referred to as East Turkestan. 

As part of its crackdown, which has seen the installation of facial-recognition cameras and seemingly arbitrary detentions, China's government has also destroyed traditional Uighur architecture including mosques and large parts of an ancient city called Kashgar.

Before-and-after images show the extent of some of the destruction of these historical locations.

When the state is the religion, it will always crush or suborn all others. Could never happen here, though, right? Oh, the ground is being tilled already. I give you Harvard University, April 25, 2019, and the keynote speaker of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences "Diversity Conference."

We are pleased to announce that our keynote speaker will be Tim Wise, prominent anti-racism writer, educator, and activist. A moderated discussion with Tim will be led by Renee Graham, an associate editor and columnist at the Boston Globe.

This is the same Tim Wise who posted on his Facebook page in 2015:

This is America…people basing their beliefs on the fable of Noah and Ark, or their interpretation of Sodom and Gomorrah…rather than science or logic…If you are basing your morality on a fairy tale written thousands of years ago, you deserve to be locked up…detained for your utter inability to deal with reality…NO, we are not obligated to indulge your irrationality in the name of your religious freedom…but we will provide you a very comfortable room, against which walls you may hurl yourself hourly if your choose. Knock yourself out….seriously, knock yourself out, completely, for weeks at a time…I’m sorta kidding but not by much…I don’t believe lunatics like this should be locked up, but I do think they have to be politically destroyed, utterly rendered helpless to the cause of pluralism and democracy …the world is not theirs. They have no right to impose their bullshit on others. They can either change, or shut the hell up, or practice their special brand of crazy in their homes…or go away. Their choice. And this argument applies to any fundamentalist religionist of any faith who thinks they have a right to impose their beliefs on a secular, pluralistic society. Go away.

That is not only no problem for Harvard, it is positively commendable. 

All that is bad enough. However, persecution of Jews in America (though thankfully, not by the government) is growing. Not only the violent kind, such as the anti-Trump, anti-Jew gunman, John Earnest, who killed one and shot two others in the Chabad of Poway synagogue in Poway, California. Take for example, this cartoon published by The New York Times in its overseas pages this month:

Yes, that infamous propaganda rag of the alt-right, The  New York Times - oh, wait, you say, the NYT is not alt-right? Really? How can you tell?

No wonder that this week Serge Klarsfeld, France's most famous Nazi hunter, said, "There is no safe place on earth right now for Jews." In Washington to receive the Elie Wiesel Prize, the highest award given out by the United States Holocaust Museum, Klarsfeld told reporters,

... the cartoon was "insulting," for Trump as much as for Netanyahu who was "treated like a dog."

"It is an anti-Semitic cartoon, that is to say that Jews are guiding the world and that corresponds to a stereotype very common among the far right, which one also finds on the far left," he said.

Klarsfeld, who spent decades working to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust, is worried about the future of Europe and called on centrists to mobilize ahead of the next European elections.

 "Never has a far-right or far-left regime made its people happy and prosperous, inevitably the extremes of power lead to misery and barbed wire."

In rhetoric, the far left and the far right differ only in whom they identify as class enemies. Religiously, the alt-right hates Muslims. The alt-left hates Christians. And they both hate Jews even more. So in practice, there is no distinction with a difference.

The killing fields of western civilization

If this is true, there are three broad areas that constitute the killing fields of modern civilization: academia, the churches, and corporate practices.

For academia, read "Decline & fall: classics edition -- On identity politics in classical studies."

Well, this year, [Donna] Zuckerberg noted, the magazine would aim to make sure that “at least [at least] 70 percent of our contributors be women and 20 percent of our writers be poc,” i.e., “people of color,” i.e., not white. (But isn’t race merely a “social construction”? No, silly, that was last year.) And just how are those percentages going to be achieved? Well, going forward, Eidolon will ask people pitching stories for “demographics,” i.e., are you black or white? Male or female? “I have no interest,” Zuckerberg sermonized, “in providing bland and false reassurances that we only care about good ideas and good writing and not who our authors are.” Who would doubt it? And what about merit? “[A]ppeals to merit,” she said, are “often . . . white supremacist dog-whistles.” So: “If you’re white and we publish you, you will know, for maybe the first time in your career, that it was because of the merit of your idea and not because you’re white.”

 We’d like to know if there are any cases of anyone anywhere being published in a classics journal because he (or even she) was white. 

The article's writer, btw, is not white.

For churches, "Why Social Justice Is Killing Synagogues and Churches -- Data suggests that the more a religious movement is concerned with progressive causes, the more likely it is to rapidly lose members."

Ultimately ... religions, including Judaism [and churches - DS], can only hope to thrive if they serve a purpose that is not met elsewhere in society. It is all well and good to perform good deeds, but if religions do not make themselves indispensable to families, their future could be bleak. [boldface added]

For the business world, the account of an information-technology security engineer, no link, this was posted on a closed Facebook group, but I am pasting all of what he wrote (protecting his name).

Fellow Members,

I just experienced a disturbing couple of days with my employer that I would like to share with you.

I work for the security unit of one of the largest consultancies in the world. Essentially, I help companies to secure their websites.

Once a year, our entire organization gets together for teambuilding, planning, networking, and that sort of thing. I went to the same event this time last year, and I found it rewarding and inspiring. I came away with many ideas on how to do my job better, and many new relationships with peers.

This year was different. While there were certainly many of the same networking opportunities, the overriding theme of the two days was inclusion and diversity. Essentially, we just spent thousands of dollars to fly everyone to one place to spend two days learning how to be more inclusive and more diverse.

As I’ve mentioned here before, my organization has a goal of being 50% women by 2025. I can’t imagine how we can reach such a goal, given that university technology programs are not graduating anywhere near 50% women.

Don’t misunderstand me. People want to come and work for us, so we have added some great women to our organization. It’s been a pleasure to work with them. However, it seems obvious to me that we are going to have to begin to forgo some great male talent soon if we hope to reach this 2025 goal.

I shared with you a couple of weeks back that an internal recruiter was complaining to me that she now has a diversity goal for talent which she is struggling to meet. So, again, our goal is no longer to find the right people, but to find the most diverse people. Our company gives referral bonuses if you were for good people who are hired. That number is now doubled if you refer “diverse“ candidates.

I have managed technical people for nearly 30 years. I’ve managed people of different races, nationalities, sexual orientation - whatever. As a manager, if you can help me reach my goals, you can work for me. I have been a popular manager throughout my career, because I take care of my people.

However, this is different than adding people to my team simply because of their gender, nationality, or sexual orientation. Why the hell should I even care about their sexual orientation? What does that have to do with securing some company’s website?

About 50% of the two days was spent on exercises related to inclusion and diversity. I was given a spreadsheet, and asked to fill it in with the names of the six people I trust the most (other than family). I was then asked to check boxes when the attributes of those people were the same as mine. The attributes were age, race, gender, nationality, and sexual orientation. I was then asked to look at all the checkmarks and ask myself if I should “re-think” the list of the people that I trust the most.

My list was filled with my oldest friends in the world – guys I went to high school with. I’ve been lucky enough to maintain those friendships over the years. I value them as much as anything else in my life.

My employer just asked me to re-think those friendships, because my friendships are not inclusive and diverse enough, in their opinion.

The reason they gave me is that we hire people we trust, and we won’t hire with an eye toward inclusion and diversity if we only trust people like ourselves.

Well, I’ve never hired any one of my old friends. They are my friends. These are not professional relationships. I trust many people professionally of many races, genders, national origins, etc. Again, my litmus test is simple. Can you help me sell my software and delight my customers?

I’m proud to be a good mentor of people younger and less experienced than myself. I’ve trained many people to be better technically, and better with soft skills, such as public speaking. The people I have trained have included people of many races, genders, and national origins. Some I know to be gay, simply because I found out somehow. One woman who worked for me shared with me, over a beer, that she was gay. She opened up to me because, she wanted to tell me how comfortable she was working for me, when other male managers were uncomfortable with her. Frankly, I can’t imagine how anybody could be uncomfortable with her. She did a great job, and every customer loved her. It was her choice to open up to me about her sexual orientation, and that’s fine, but it had no bearing on my view of her. Had another event, I met her partner. This woman was as I have it a baseball fan as I am. We hit it off completely.

This person doesn’t work for me today, but we’re still in touch. She reaches out to me sometimes for career advice, and she has used me as a reference.

We had a number of other exercises, such as putting little shapes on our shirts and then grouping ourselves in any way we thought appropriate, to “prove“ that we naturally go toward people like ourselves. What it proved to me what is that, to get done with the exercise, we’ll go stand next to the people who are closest to us.

I had a funny experience right after this exercise. The exercise was right before lunch. There was a woman ahead of me in the lunch line. I had spoken to her for a while in a different breakout session, and I thought she was great. I made a mental note to keep her in mind for a future project.

However, in the lunch line, she suddenly became very angry due to the lack of a vegetarian option. I looked at the lunch selections. There was a large salad, including a great deal of variety, plus carrots, potatoes, and potato pierogies. Weren’t these vegetarian options? This woman threw her tray down in disgust and stormed off.

I couldn’t help but wonder if all of the inclusion and diversity exercises we had just completed pushed her out of her “teambuilding“ mode, and into her “identity” mode. It was night and day. She was like the guy in the Snickers commercial who turns into Betty White when he’s hungry.

Then, the part that really disturbed me. After the exercises were completed, a woman got up and explained that we were going to begin to have Ask Anything webinars. Executives would essentially be put on the hot seat, and lower level employees could ask them anything. Examples cited were sexual orientation and religion.

So, executives in our organization are going to be forced to go on webinars and talk about their sexuality and their religion? Really?

And, while you would not be forced to attend these events, you would get a “flair” on your personal page if you did. Remember Jennifer Aniston in that movie where she was a waitress, and she kept getting in trouble with her boss because she wouldn’t wear enough flair? This is the same idea.

I don’t want to hear about somebody’s sexuality or religion, so I would be unlikely to attend such an event, but now everyone in the company would be aware of my choice, simply due to the lack of flair on my personal page. Will this be career limiting for me?

Of course, I’ve probably reached as high as I’m likely to go in this organization, given that I’m a 55-year-old white guy. I don’t meet the current leadership criteria.

Frankly, I think this whole idea is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

I work with some great people, and we do great work for customers throughout the world. I came away from these two days concerned that leadership is going to destroy the great thing we have by this over the top focus on inclusion and diversity.

Doesn’t it make more sense to grow our organization by bringing in great talent without consideration for all of these other attributes?

Well, I guess that’s my unconscious bias talking.

I posted earlier this excerpt from Victor Davis Hanson's essay, The Return of Ancient Prejudices.

What is behind the rebirth of these old prejudices? In short, new, evolving prejudices.

First, America seemingly no longer believes in striving to achieve a gender-blind, racially and religiously mixed society, but instead is becoming a nation in which tribal identity trumps all other considerations.

Second, such tribal identities are not considered to be equal. Doctrinaire identity politics is predicated on distancing itself from white males, Christians and other groups who traditionally have achieved professional success and therefore enjoyed inordinate “privilege.”

Third, purported victims insist that they themselves cannot be victimizers. So, they are freer to discriminate and stereotype to advance their careers or political interests on the basis of anything they find antithetical to their own ideologies. ...

And what fuels the return of American bias is the new idea that citizens can disparage or discriminate against other groups if they claim victim status and do so for purportedly noble purposes.

Oh, my: "Why Diversity Programs Fail," at Harvard Business Review.

It shouldn’t be surprising that most diversity programs aren’t increasing diversity. ...

In analyzing three decades’ worth of data from more than 800 U.S. firms and interviewing hundreds of line managers and executives at length, we’ve seen that companies get better results when they ease up on the control tactics. It’s more effective to engage managers in solving the problem, increase their on-the-job contact with female and minority workers, and promote social accountability—the desire to look fair-minded. That’s why interventions such as targeted college recruitment, mentoring programs, self-managed teams, and task forces have boosted diversity in businesses. Some of the most effective solutions aren’t even designed with diversity in mind.

To vast swaths of the Political Class, this is a feature, not a bug: "Millennial Males with Degrees are Getting Crushed in the Workplace."

What is "spiritualized Judaism?"

Only 7% of Reform households keep kosher. Without kashrut and Shabbos, you only have a spiritualized Judaism. And there's a technical term for spiritualized Judaism: "liberal Protestantism."

David Goldman, commenting on "Why Some See Judaism’s Future In Luring Converts — Taboo Or No."

"Just remove the Jews--THEY are the problem"

So pointed out Prof. Daniel Jackson in 2009, observing the Obama administration's hostility toward Israelis living somewhere it did not approve.

How ironic that under this administration the very policies that were decried as racist are now the essence of the new path to peace. It has an old ring to it--just remove the Jews--THEY are the problem. Once again, we hear the sound of a Final Solution to the Jewish problem.

And nothing has changed, eh, John Kerry?

Update:

How can Israel turn this around? My advice to Netanyahu would be to become rabidly anti-American. The  UN Security Council would spazz.

Dust storm by the hand of God?

Israeli News Network posted video of a large dust storm that appeared almost exactly above the border between Israel and Syria along the Golan Heights. The storm was Dec. 1.

Claims are being made that a biblical storm cloud of dust and rain was 'sent by God' to act as a barrier between Israel and ISIS .

The huge storm allegedly stopped on the border of Syria, and was 'unable' to enter Israel's Golan Heights region. ...

One Facebook user replied: Absolutely the divine intervention of God protecting Israel. Amen!"

Other more cynical viewers disagreed, adding: "Actually, sorry to be boring, but it's simply a weather phenomenon."

But Israel News Online hit back almost immediately, writing: "Yes it is of course. Now do we ask who controls the weather? Whatever the cause it sat between ISIS and Israel and did not enter Israel."

So, an act of God or freak of nature? Let's compare to the famous parting of the Red Sea by Moses when the recently-liberated Hebrew slaves of Egypt were fleeing Pharaoh's pursuing army. Probably this is the most famous cinematic rendition there is, from Cecil B. DeMille's epic The Ten Commandments, starring Charlton Heston as Moses:



The problem is that that this scene occurs nowhere in the Bible. Yes, Moses did hold his staff over the waters after being so ordered by God, but let's let Exodus 14 speak for itself from then:

21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

Did you read carefully? "... all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind.. ."

The same question applies to the strong east wind as to the Syrian-border's dust storm: was it an act of God or a freak event of nature?

Well, both events were acts of nature, after all, and doubtless can be explained in meteorological ways. But is that all there is to it? Maybe that great theologian Yogi Berra had some insight: "It's too coincidental to be a coincidence."

The Lord speaks about Fidel's death

Too late for Fidel, but there is still time for Raul - but probably not much time.

Why is Sunday for football?

Which is really just a way of asking what Sunday is for. Consider the NFL. Its ratings are falling and the league invents self-justifying reasons why. Do Colin Kaepernick, et. al. have a significant effect on viewing? Frankly, I doubt it, although some people have tuned out because of them for sure.

I have already explained that the reason ratings are falling is - Peyton Manning is not playing anymore. To elucidate further, I mean that there is no celebrity quarterback in the game now that Peyton retired. Tom Brady? Old and deflated by deflate-gate. Aaron Rodgers? Great quarterback. So what? Colin Kaepernick? Oh, wait, we already talked about him. And he's not a first-tier QB anyway. Games today are simply boring. (Update - In fact, the 10-23 evening game is being called "The Worst Game Ever.")

My 23-year-old daughter told me today that Millennials don't have the inclination to watch football or any other sport for three hours. To which I would add, "Unless their own kids are playing," which clearly none are yet. Millennials are far more likely to be glued to digital heroin than non-interactively observe what;s happening in some distant location.

As I type this, awaiting some time to pass before I must leave for my afternoon work, the Tennessee Titans are losing to the Colts in the second half. The Titans' season is 3-3 as of now. If they lose they return to losing-season status; if they win the gain winning-season status for the first time this year.

Does it make any difference to me which outcome occurs? No. Will my life improve if they go to 4-3? No. Will it be diminished if they to 3-4? No. Is there anyone whom I know who could answer affirmatively to any of those questions? No. So do I care whether they win or lose? Not in the slightest.

Yawn.

So again: what is Sunday for? This is not a question that particularly interests Jews or Muslims, of course, but since America has been a majority-Christian nation from the beginning (diminishing rapidly now) it has long been a question of interest here. Sunday is the Christian Sabbath, a concept we inherited from the Jews.

Jews honor Friday sundown to Saturday sundown as their Sabbath. Once the sun sets, Sabbath rules kick in and remain in effect for 24 hours. Generally, these are prohibitions of certain activities, mainly those of the workaday week, and their society of source was agricultural, not industrial. The command to honor the Sabbath springs from the Exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt and is found in the Ten Commandments, the heart of the Law of Moses.

Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.

Hence, the Sabbath was to be a day set aside with deliberation for purpose of honoring God and the commandments of God in the world.

The first Christians were almost all Jews and they kept the idea of the Sabbath, but not the day of the week. The use of Sunday as the Sabbath by Christians was a very early adoption, done because, of course, it was on a Sunday that Jesus was found to be resurrected from death. But through most of Christian history, the purpose of the Sunday Sabbath mirrored that of the Jewish Sabbath: to be a day distinct from the rest with a deliberate focus on the worship and work of God in the world.

That this orientation has been mostly abandoned in the US today hardly needs be said. And not just by "Nones" or other non-Christians. Probably the majority of American church goers are pretty much done with the Sabbath part of Sundays about noon.

That the ancient Jews often fell short in keeping the Sabbath is evident from reading the Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament). Take, for example, Isaiah 58, in which the prophet decries just going through the motions of faith while expecting the same results:

“Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
    Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
    and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
2 For day after day they seek me out;
    they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
    and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
    and seem eager for God to come near them.
3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
    ‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
    and you have not noticed?’ 

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
    and exploit all your workers.
4 Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
    and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
    and expect your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
    only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
    and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
    a day acceptable to the Lord? 

6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
    and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
    and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
    and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
    and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
    and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
    you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. 

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
    with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
    and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
    and your night will become like the noonday.
11 The Lord will guide you always;
    he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
    and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
    like a spring whose waters never fail.
12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
    and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
    Restorer of Streets with Dwellings. 

13 “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath
    and from doing as you please on my holy day,
if you call the Sabbath a delight
    and the Lord’s holy day honorable,
and if you honor it by not going your own way
    and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,
14 then you will find your joy in the Lord,
    and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land
    and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.” 

For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

There are consequences from not keeping the Sabbath, and there are results if we do. It is results we want, not consequences, yes? "For the mouth of the Lord has spoken."

Isaiah speaks of tonight's debate

One of the great prophets of ancient Israel was Isaiah, whose prophetic ministry was in the 8th century before Christ. The length of the Old Testament book bearing his name and especially the span of time it covers leads most scholars to say that the book encompasses the sayings of two prophets who preached a common theme. In fact, some scholars say three prophets.

No matter. We are going to consider only the final verse of Isaiah chapter 2, so that would definitely be the first Isaiah. Funny how prophecy from 2,800 years ago is so wise to read before tuning in to the Trump-Clinton debate. Here is verse 2.22:

Stop trusting in mere humans, who have but a breath in their nostrils. Why hold them in esteem?

Excellent question.

Is Allah the same deity as the Jewish and Christian God?

Professor Albert Mohler answers. I have written about this more than a little and will post a summary argument later.

Jews fleeing Paris by tens of thousands

Editor of Britain's Jewish Chronicle claims people are fleeing Paris | Daily Mail Online

• 'Every single French Jew I know has left Paris': Editor of Britain's Jewish Chronicle claims people are fleeing terror-hit French capital 
• Stephen Pollard says terror attack on Kosher store in Paris is no 'fluke'
• 'Every single French Jew I know has either left or is actively working out how to leave', he said
• Experts believe that more than 100,000 French Jews have left since 2013  
• France's Chief Rabbi has said after a number of attacks on Jews in the past year: 'Jews murdered were targeted specifically because they were Jewish'
• Policing stepped up across British Jewish areas, community body says 
• Mayor's office has announced closure of shops in famous Jewish area

Tel Aviv, Jerusalem struck by rockets

Hamas terrorists in Gaza have fired more than 40 rockets into central Israel, including parts of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem over the last day or so. This is in addition to smaller, shorter-range rockets that have been falling in others areas of country for weeks. In fact, Israelis have been under Hamas rocket fire for many years. More here.

An Israeli friend, Dr. Susan Jackson, emailed me today, saying "Day to day we are safe, and praying that God will protect the Land and all of its inhabitants." She also reminded me of this Prayer for the Welfare of the State of Israel, from the IFCJ website,

Our Father in Heaven, Protector and Redeemer of Israel, bless the State of Israel, the first flowering of our redemption. Shield it beneath the wings of Your love and spread over it Your canopy of peace. Send Your light and truth to its leaders, officers, and counselors, and direct them with Your good counsel.

Strengthen the defenders of our Holy Land; O God, grant them salvation and crown them with victory. Establish peace in the land and everlasting joy for its inhabitants.

Remember our brethren, the whole house of Israel, in all the lands of their dispersion. Speedily bring them upright to Zion, Your city, to Jerusalem, Your name's dwelling-place, as it is written in the Torah of Your servant Moses: "Even if your outcasts are dispersed to the uttermost parts of the heavens, from there HASHEM your God will gather you and take you in. HASHEM your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it, and He shall make you more prosperous and numerous than your forefathers."

Unite our hearts to love and revere Your Name, and to observe all the precepts of Your Torah. Speedily send us Your righteous messiah of the house of David to redeem those who long for Your salvation.  

Shine forth Your glorious majesty over all the inhabitants of Your world; let every creature that breathes proclaim: "HASHEM, God of Israel, is King; His dominion rules over all." Amen. Selah.

In 2007 I spent half a day in the Israeli town of Sederot, not long after it had been struck by a handful of Hamas rockets. See here. Since then Hamas' rockets have become much more powerful and accurate.

Ancient Jews and dancing bears

There is an old saying that the remarkable thing about a dancing bear is not how well it dances, but that it dances at all.

So why, exactly, would the ancient Hebrews be the sole people of their day who understood things that scientists have only recently confirmed? The remarkable thing is not that they got so much right, but that they got anything right at all, because no one else of their day did.

Click here.

This, too.

Jews in Afghanistan

JERUSALEM -- A trove of ancient manuscripts in Hebrew characters rescued from caves in a Taliban stronghold in northern Afghanistan is providing the first physical evidence of a Jewish community that thrived there a thousand years ago.

Link

"the skies proclaim the work of his hands ..."

This is NASA's astronomy picture of the day.

The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Psalm 19.1

"Let his name be erased"

James Holmes, YMS.

So would go an ancient Jewish curse if applied to the accused Aurora, Colo., shooter. YMS is an abbreviation of the Hebrew, "yemach shemo," which means "Let/May his name be erased."

In its own context, this is not to say that the accursed one merely should be forgotten, but an imprecation of extreme malignancy.

It is a curse, an active assault on the soul: it expresses a wish and a prayer for the utter annihalation of the evil individual referred to--that he be erased: Not merely from human memory, but from eternal memory. I.e., let his soul disappear, let him never have existed.

This occurs to me in the context of the massacre in Aurora because the two leading political figures relevant to the event have stated that they will not utter the name of the accused shooter.

Jordan Ghawi, related to one of the shooting victims reported after meeting President Obama during the president's recent trip to Aurora ...

... reported on Twitter that the president had promised not to speak the name "James Holmes." On Sunday, Ghawi tweeted that he had received word that the White House press secretary "will not utter the name of the suspect who committed this act."

During a recent evening vigil held for the victims and their families,

The governor of Colorado, John Hickenlooper, told the crowd, “We refuse to even allow our state, our communities to be defined by irrational, senseless violence.” Hickenlooper drew a strong ovation when he made it a point of saying he would not refer to shooting suspect James Holmes by name, only as “Suspect A.”

Obviously, the news media can't abide by such a concept. They must name the suspect by name in their reporting. But they can and should make sure not to nickname him as they have done in some prior, notorious cases.

Reporters, says [journalism instuctor Al]Tompkins, should avoid labels like "loser" and "mysterious," and should not create monikers for criminals, like "Son of Sam" or, in Holmes' case, "The Joker," or "Batman Killer."

Shall his name be erased? No, not possible. But neither should it be be magnified.

England braces for circumcision tourism

The Telegraph:

In what has been described as a landmark decision, a court in the city of Cologne said circumcision violated a child's "fundamental right to bodily integrity" and that this right outweighed the rights of the parents. ...

Jewish groups [protesting the decision] were supported by leaders of Germany's large Muslim population "I feel the decision is discriminatory and counters efforts to promote integration," said Ali Demir, chairman of the Islamic Religious Community in Germany. "This is a harmless procedure that has thousands of years of tradition and a high symbolic value.

"We will end up with circumcision tourism to neighbouring countries," he added.

Here is one of the most interesting things in the article.

The court case revolved around a four-year-old Muslim boy who was circumcised at the request of his parents but was later admitted to hospital with bleeding.

The doctor was charged and tried for grievous bodily harm but was acquitted on the grounds he had parental consent.

Prosecutors appealed against the decision but the doctor was again acquitted, this time owing to the imprecise nature of the law.

Get that? The first trial ended in acquittal, so the prosecution got to try him again. "Double jeopardy" ain't just a game hosted by Alex Trebek; it's a living legal principle in most of Europe.

More, A Jewish German lawyer responds to the court:

Germany's sin was to envy us, rather than to emulate us. The great German-Jewish theologian Franz Rosenzweig wrote of this envy before his death in 1929. The Gentile nations of the ancient past accepted their eventual extinction, he explained, until they learned of the hope of eternal life from the Jews.

Palm Sunday's caution for election year 2012

Today is Palm Sunday on the Christian liturgical calendar. It commemorates the day when Jesus rode into Jerusalem five days before his crucifixion. Palm Sunday is therefore always the Sunday preceding Good Friday, the days of Jesus's death.

Modern churches probably make a bigger deal of Palm Sunday than the early churches did. The Gospels don't emphasize the day very much, they just tell it almost in passing. The Gospel of Mark, generally acceded to be the first-written Gospel, is quite cursory about the day:

Mark 11:7-11:
7Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. 8Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. 9Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting,

‘Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!’

11 Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

Here is the scene as depicted in the miniseries Jesus of Nazareth.

The day was the first day of Passover Week. Passover was (and remains) the central commemoration of the liberation of the Children of Israel from centuries of chattel slavery in Egypt under the Pharaohs.

Jerusalem was an emotional place during Passover season. Jewish pilgrims from all over the country poured into the holy city to make their sacrifices at the Temple. There was enormous religious fervor in the city, so much that the Roman garrison there went on special alert since the Jews’ hatred of the Roman occupiers reached a fever pitch during Passover week.

We don’t know how many people greeted Jesus with palm fronds. Historians say there may have been as many as two hundred thousand people in the city on that day. It’s reasonable to think that this day’s crowd was large since the fact that Jesus attracted crowds was likely one reason the high council later had him arrested him at night, when everyone would be in bed.

The people waving palm fronds that day had a certain expectation of Jesus. Instead of entering triumphantly on a charging stallion, Jesus rode into town on a colt; other Gospels say a donkey. This was no act of humility on Jesus’s part. He was asserting kingly authority and messianic identity. Matthew’s account of the day refers to the prophecy of Zechariah that says that Jerusalem’s king would come “triumphant and victorious ... humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Mark, however, doesn’t make much of this. Neither, actually, does Mark say the crowd waved palm branches, but instead “leafy branches.” John’s Gospel says they waved palms, a practice the Jews of the day observed for a number of important celebrations. Even so, some of the crowd accompanying Jesus into Jerusalem shouted their excitement of his arrival:

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!

This is an overtly political acclamation. The crowd cheered Jesus from ignorance of who he really was and from their selfish ambition of what they wanted him to do. They hoped first that he would reclaim the throne of David - to which he was entitled - away from that apostate Herod. Then they hoped that Jesus, divinely assisted, would lead an uprising that would drive the Romans from Judea. Neither of these things were on Jesus’ mind. Jesus surely knew what the crowd expected and just as surely knew he was not their man, not like they wanted.

But we must not be too hard on those cheering Jerusalemites. We cannot blame them for wanting to be free of oppression. Nor should we scorn them for failing to imagine that Jesus was destined to be crucified, dead and buried, and on the third day to rise from the dead. No one imagined that before it happened. All the Palm Sunday people knew about Jesus was that he loved God, he spent a lot of time with the unlovable people of society, he was known to work miracles now and then, he was a compelling preacher and verbally fought with the powerful people of the Jewish nation.

There really was not much more to know about Jesus, five days before he was executed as a religious heretic and political insurrectionist. Everything of how Christians know Jesus as the Christ springs from Easter, not Palm Sunday. It is Easter, not Palm Sunday, that defines our faith. Unlike the crowd calling Hosanna! two thousand years ago, we know Jesus as the Risen One, the King of Kings whose throne is infinitely more glorious than that occupied by David or his descendants.

That being so, why on earth should we celebrate that crowd of two millennia ago and imitate them by waving palm branches during Palm Sunday services? Perhaps we should do so to remind ourselves that all earthly glory is fleeting. Acclaim does not last forever, often not even for a few days. Disappointments or worse always follow from staking one’s well being on any ordinary person.

The ugliness of fickle faith will never be more nakedly displayed than during Jesus’s last week in Jerusalem. The crowd will turn on him and call for his destruction. Having molded his reputation to fit their own desires, when they discover Jesus doesn’t fit their mold, the townspeople cheering Jesus’ entry into the city, waving palm branches, will turn on him with fury. They will call for his death only a few days later, yelling to Pilate, “We have no king but Caesar!” and “Give us Barabbas!” (an insurgent) instead of Jesus. Then finally, they will scream, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”

If we are to commemorate that crowd, it can be only to admonish ourselves not to be like them. In this election year, Palm Sunday drives home that we must not stake our lives on mere human aspirations and merely human leaders. It is to remind ourselves to be steadfast in faith, not fickle.

It must be to ask ourselves, even if only once per year, “What do we expect from Jesus?” Is it sensible that we should expect Jesus to give us more of what we already have? Was the mission of Jesus Christ simply to assure us that he’s okay, we’re okay, just keep doing what we’re doing, living like we’re living, wanting what we’re wanting, and somehow everything will work out all right? Or should we imagine that the Son of God has a different agenda than we do, and his agenda might topple our own as certainly as the ancient temple in Jerusalem came tumbling down forty years after Jesus entered the city?

These are questions to ponder this Holy Week. The answers are not found on Palm Sunday. For that Christians must push through to Easter.

Isaac Newton, theologian

It's not widely known that Sir Isaac Newton wrote more about religion than he did about science. So many more, in fact, that an Israeli library uploads Newton's theological texts.

He's considered to be one of the greatest scientists of all time. But Sir Isaac Newton was also an influential theologian who applied a scientific approach to the study of scripture, Hebrew and Jewish mysticism.

Now Israel's national library, an unlikely owner of a vast trove of Newton's writings, has digitized his theological collection - some 7,500 pages in Newton's own handwriting - and put it online. Among the yellowed texts are Newton's famous prediction of the apocalypse in 2060.

Newton revolutionized physics, mathematics and astronomy in the 17th and 18th century, laying the foundations for most of classical mechanics - with the principal of universal gravitation and the three laws of motion bearing his name.

However, the curator of Israel's national library's humanities collection said Newton was also a devout Christian who dealt far more in theology than he did in physics and believed that scripture provided a "code" to the natural world.

You can kill him, but you can't circumcise him

"SF May Ban Infant Circumcision"

Self-described "civil rights advocates" say that a ballot proposition to ban circumcision is on track for gathering signatures, meaning that San Franciscans may vote on the measure this November.

Only 7,000 signatures on a petition are required to get the measure on the ballot, a number that will be attained easily. There is no religious exemption, meaning Jewish infants could not be legally circumcised. The proposed law forbids circumcision for any reason for anyone not yet 18 years old.

So let me get this straight: the supreme idol of the liberal left (but I repeat myself) is "freedom of choice," meaning that a woman bearing a male unborn child may have the child killed for no reason other than she wants to. But once the child is born, the state will forbid freedom of choice for her to have him circumcised, even if she happens to be Jewish, whose traditions of circumcision go back more than 3,000 years.

So - free to kill an unborn male child? Yes! Free to circumcise him after birth? No!

Speaking of things affecting Jewish practice, here's the boo-boo of the month:

LONDON - UK budget airline easyJet apologized Tuesday to Jewish customers after the only food choices served on a flight from Israel were ham melts and bacon baguettes.

Passengers who follow the faith's ban on eating pork were forced to go hungry for the four-and-a-half hour journey from Tel Aviv to London.

No doubt once the San Franciscans hear, they'll put up a ballot measure that would compel people to eat pork on airline flights.

"Storming Heaven: The Cult of Green ...

... Worshiping Gaia, the False God"

My first article on Right Network is online this morning, an examination of how environmentalism has mapped itself into a religion in its own right, "complete with sin, expiation, ritual and cultic figures."

BTW, the photo of me at the bottom of the essay is really old. I'll send them a new one. Today, I look like this.