1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’” 2 But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.” 3 Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.” 4 But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens.” Exodus 5:1-4 Shemot 5:1-4
Tomorrow begins Pesach.
The original Pesach began when G-d decided his children had suffered enough of living in a land different than that he allotted to them. G-d sent Moshe to those in power over them to let them go and worship him as he had instructed them.
Pharaoh said “NO, it would threaten the Al-Aqsa mosque”. Actually that’s crap. Pretty much the same crap that muslims have been saying violently for years now. Long since before Israel was re-established as a state.
A quick history lesson. The first Temple was built by King Solomon in 957 BC. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC. Construction on the Second Temple was authorized by Cyrus the Great and began in 538 BC. It was completed 23 years later under the reign of Darius the Great. See the Purim story for more on this little gem. It was destroyed again by the Romans in 70 AD.
Mohammed the founder of the religion of pieces known as Islam lived from 570 AD – 8 June 632 AD. Around 613 AD he started preaching Islam. The first two Al-Aqsa mosques were built in 705 AD and 780 AD. They were destroyed by earthquakes. The third and still standing was built in 1035 AD. It is the 3rd holiest site is islam, and interestingly, at least to me, is there are Arab scholars which say that the mosque located on the Temple Mount is NOT the Al-Aqsa talked of in the Koran, it is not in the right location.
So, just in time for Pesach, the anti-Israel, anti-Semitic UN branch, specializing in anti-Israel actions, known as UNESCO has released a new resolution. It denies Jewish connection to the Temple Mount. You know, the Temple that was constructed to replace the Tabernacle Moshe built in the desert? But it goes a lot further than that. It
refers to Israel as the “occupying power” at every mention and uses the Arabic al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram al-Sharif without ever calling it the Temple Mount, as it is known to Jews. The text does refer to the Western Wall Plaza but places it in quotation marks, after using the Arabic Al-Buraq Plaza.
And
The resolution accuses Israel of “planting Jewish fake graves in other spaces of the Muslim cemeteries” and of “the continued conversion of many Islamic and Byzantine remains into the so-called Jewish ritual baths or into Jewish prayer places.”
Currently on the Temple Mount, holiest site in Judaism and holy to Christians, THIRD holiest site to muslims (if it is the right mosque, debate on that) Jews and Christians are NOT allowed to pray, recite verses from our Tanakh/Bible or wear any religious or Israeli symbols on our clothing. The Israeli police, yes Israeli will arrest you in a heartbeat. Yours or anyone’s. The muslim waqos, (hmm, may have left an “f” out of that somewhere) make sure the screaming harridans can yell “allah hu akbar” at visitors and safely stash rocks and incendiary devices to throw in their sacred Al-Aqsa. Pretty much like most Synagogues and Southern Baptist Churches, right?
Ok, I’ll stop. But the point is, Pesach began when the children were told to go and worship HaShem as he had commanded and the ruling powers tried to prevent it. Thousands of years later and what has changed? Moshe Dyan, you were an IDIOT!
But, there was a Pesach, and tomorrow night there will be a Pesach and I believe HaShem has still got a plan and has this covered. And so I will wish you Happy Passover, Pesach.
חג פסח שמח
Interesting, fun, funny, inspirational, and educational, now that’s a good blog post. Happy Passover.
As always, Sheila, I read this with more than a little fascination, in that you are able to make such a subject understandable to a diverse audience. I have to admit that I have some understanding of this topic as I went to Bible college many eons ago, and one of my favorite, although one of the most difficult, classes, was an Old Testament survey. Our professor was brilliant, but a very demanding man. Even though at the time many resented him for that, now I look back with nothing but gratitude for the fact that I struggled with so much memorization but I learned, and I retained much of what I learned.
Now, I have a couple of items related to your post. First, I have nothing but contempt for the United Nations and everything that they do, both in regards to Israel and to everything else. I look at not only their stance on small arms, meaning take guns away from individuals, to climate change, which could be helped immensely simply by them no longer allowing the many blowhards to speak on climate change nonsense, thereby reducing the hot air output considerably. I even think of who they allow as nations to be recognized. The list of the UN’s irrelevance is unending.
A final point, just to once again prove my lack of knowledge, is to ask why you label Moshe Dayan as an idiot? I remember him from when I was young, and I thought he was someone that Israel looked up to. I of course was kind of young and not as involved in world affairs as I am today, but I remember he was considered a military strategist worthy of some respect. Perhaps you meant that Dayan was an optimist? I am grasping for straws here. Can you set me straight?
Again, thank you for a great post, and Happy Passover, as I join you in prayer and celebration of the people of Israel.
Oh thank you both so much gentlemen for the kind compliments!
Pigpen, you ask the kind of questions I love answering! And I really do mean that.
Ok, on Moshe Dayan, you are very correct he was an excellent military man. Remember the joke? If Moshe Dayan had both of his eyes the Six Day war would have lasted three days! He was also a politician. The Israelis regained control of the Temple Mount in the morning. I sarcastically say fifteen minutes later Dayan gave it away. It wasn’t quite that quick, but almost, by that afternoon.
I can never listen to Motta Gur saying the “Temple Mount is in our hands” without tears.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l1ol69rRxo it has subtitles, but there’s better video shot at the time.
The thing is, the government at the time was more political and military than spiritual, not that it has changed that much for some. Despite pleas from Israel to Jordan not to enter the war, they did. And Israel was successful in beating them and regaining access, but Dayan did not understand the significance (in my opinion) of the Temple Mount spiritually. He gave control back to the Jordanians saying
What the heck? OTHERS?
But there was an attitude in the 50s from Ben-Gurion and others that the religious Jews, this was mostly directed at the Sephardim, the Jews coming from Arabic countries, needed to get with the program and be less religious. Many of the Jews first returning to Israel had come from the more socialistic communist countries. But when Ben-Gurion said it, he meant all of them. Levi Eshkol was Prime Minister at the time, and he did not want Dayan to do this.
It was also Dayan who decreed that while all could visit the Temple Mount, only muslims could pray there, Jews and Christians could not. And now there is beginning to be talk of not allowing us at the Kotel, the Western Wall.
But, perhaps Dayan was an optimist. He had a policy of collective punishment. Over time the the influence of the left wing has almost eradicated that. Now there are times that the house of a terrorist is not destroyed, only his room. Big deal, hamass and the PA give the family lots of money to build a bigger nicer house. Perhaps Dayan thought they would play nice. Fool. A folly that has cost much blood.
Big leap into personal opinion here. The Israeli police and the Jordanian waqos (oh, did I forget the f again?) and the screaming harridans are all very invested in keeping Jews & Christians from praying there. Jews and Christians very much want to pray there. It is as though both sides know if Jews and Christians pray there “something” might happen. The Jews and the Christians pray for something good, the muslims are terrified if they pray there it will come to pass. Whatever it is the Jews and Christians (they are both “People of the book” same book) are praying for they desperately do not want to happen. If you have something, a prize of great value, you do not give it away to those that hate it. So, to me, Moshe Dayan was an idiot.
Thank you for answering me Sheila. I come away from it understand at least 2 things about Dayan. One is that while militarily he was a great strategist, politically he was just another leftest who was more interested in his legacy.
And number two, I am convinced that Barak Obama and Moshe Dayan are somehow related. I say this because of the pattern established by Dayan in giving back the Temple Mount, and President Obama giving Iran the means to develop a nuclear bomb. Both were choices made that proves the leader to be an idiot.
As to the policy of collective punishment, I would rather call it common sense. Something lacking in DC under this current administration.
It seems like both nations suffer from the same thing today that they have for many years. Poor leadership. Not always the top person, but more often those who make laws and set policy. It can take a great deal of courage to do what is right in the face of strong opposition from not only your enemies, but also those who are supposed to be your friends. Let us pray that Israel and the U.S have people stand up and like Joshua, are strong and of good courage. They are needed more at this time in history as never before.