Unfortunately there's nothing new in the mistaken policies of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's government. In Jewish History we've already had strong, impressive, highly intelligent leaders who made stupid, foolish dangerous mistakes. I don't know if Bibi's well known brilliance and charm are up to the legendary Biblical King Solomon, but King Solomon quickly sent his kingdom and dynasty on its way down with a very serious mistake,
1 kings 9:11:
י וַיְהִי, מִקְצֵה עֶשְׂרִים שָׁנָה, אֲשֶׁר-בָּנָה שְׁלֹמֹה, אֶת-שְׁנֵי הַבָּתִּים--אֶת-בֵּית יְהוָה, וְאֶת-בֵּית הַמֶּלֶךְ.
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10 And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, wherein Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD and the king's house--
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יא חִירָם מֶלֶךְ-צֹר נִשָּׂא אֶת-שְׁלֹמֹה בַּעֲצֵי אֲרָזִים וּבַעֲצֵי בְרוֹשִׁים, וּבַזָּהָב--לְכָל-חֶפְצוֹ; אָז יִתֵּן הַמֶּלֶךְ שְׁלֹמֹה לְחִירָם, עֶשְׂרִים עִיר, בְּאֶרֶץ, הַגָּלִיל.
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11 now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar-trees and cypress-trees, and with gold, according to all his desire--that then king Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.
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A short time after building and dedicating the Holy Temple, the
Beit Hamikdash on
Har Habayit, King Solomon's ceded twenty cities to
Hiram the king of Tyre.
Not only doesn't it make sense as a commercial action, but Hiram wasn't impressed.
יב וַיֵּצֵא חִירָם, מִצֹּר, לִרְאוֹת אֶת-הֶעָרִים, אֲשֶׁר נָתַן-לוֹ שְׁלֹמֹה; וְלֹא יָשְׁרוּ, בְּעֵינָיו.
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12 And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him: and they pleased him not.
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We've seen that in recent times. Every single Israeli concession just brings out more demands from the Arabs and foreign "mediators." The only way to reduce the pressure is to refuse 100% any more "deals." We haven't gotten peace, true peace any time we gave Land or autonomy to the Arabs. We haven't gotten more security when trusting the United Nations or the United States to protect us.
Netanyahu's policies are no different from the now comatose Arik Sharon. Although Bibi is very knowledgeable in terms of the Bible and says he studies it regularly with his sons, he doesn't see it as a book of theology, which my teacher Dr. Yael Ziegler always stresses it is. Without seeing the Hand of G-d in Biblical events, one cannot fully understand the history it records.
Just before King Solomon gives Hiram those cities, G-d warns him and explains in very simple terms what the conditions of his rule are:
ג וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֵלָיו, שָׁמַעְתִּי אֶת-תְּפִלָּתְךָ וְאֶת-תְּחִנָּתְךָ אֲשֶׁר הִתְחַנַּנְתָּה לְפָנַי--הִקְדַּשְׁתִּי אֶת-הַבַּיִת הַזֶּה אֲשֶׁר בָּנִתָה, לָשׂוּם-שְׁמִי שָׁם עַד-עוֹלָם; וְהָיוּ עֵינַי וְלִבִּי שָׁם, כָּל-הַיָּמִים.
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3 And the LORD said unto him: 'I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before Me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put My name there for ever; and Mine eyes and My heart shall be there perpetually.
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ד וְאַתָּה אִם-תֵּלֵךְ לְפָנַי, כַּאֲשֶׁר הָלַךְ דָּוִד אָבִיךָ בְּתָם-לֵבָב וּבְיֹשֶׁר, לַעֲשׂוֹת, כְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתִיךָ--חֻקַּי וּמִשְׁפָּטַי, תִּשְׁמֹר.
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4 And as for thee, if thou wilt walk before Me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep My statutes and Mine ordinances;
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ה וַהֲקִמֹתִי אֶת-כִּסֵּא מַמְלַכְתְּךָ, עַל-יִשְׂרָאֵל--לְעֹלָם: כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבַּרְתִּי, עַל-דָּוִד אָבִיךָ לֵאמֹר, לֹא-יִכָּרֵת לְךָ אִישׁ, מֵעַל כִּסֵּא יִשְׂרָאֵל.
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5 then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom over Israel for ever; according as I promised to David thy father, saying: There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel.
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ו אִם-שׁוֹב תְּשֻׁבוּן אַתֶּם וּבְנֵיכֶם, מֵאַחֲרַי, וְלֹא תִשְׁמְרוּ מִצְוֹתַי חֻקֹּתַי, אֲשֶׁר נָתַתִּי לִפְנֵיכֶם; וַהֲלַכְתֶּם, וַעֲבַדְתֶּם אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים, וְהִשְׁתַּחֲוִיתֶם, לָהֶם.
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6 But if ye shall turn away from following Me, ye or your children, and not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, but shall go and serve other gods, and worship them;
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ז וְהִכְרַתִּי אֶת-יִשְׂרָאֵל, מֵעַל פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה אֲשֶׁר נָתַתִּי לָהֶם, וְאֶת-הַבַּיִת אֲשֶׁר הִקְדַּשְׁתִּי לִשְׁמִי, אֲשַׁלַּח מֵעַל פָּנָי; וְהָיָה יִשְׂרָאֵל לְמָשָׁל וְלִשְׁנִינָה, בְּכָל-הָעַמִּים.
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7 then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for My name, will I cast out of My sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a by word among all peoples;
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ח וְהַבַּיִת הַזֶּה יִהְיֶה עֶלְיוֹן, כָּל-עֹבֵר עָלָיו יִשֹּׁם וְשָׁרָק; וְאָמְרוּ, עַל-מֶה עָשָׂה יְהוָה כָּכָה, לָאָרֶץ הַזֹּאת, וְלַבַּיִת הַזֶּה.
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8 and this house which is so high [shall become desolate], and every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and when they shall say: Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and to this house?
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ט וְאָמְרוּ, עַל אֲשֶׁר עָזְבוּ אֶת-יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיהֶם אֲשֶׁר הוֹצִיא אֶת-אֲבֹתָם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם, וַיַּחֲזִקוּ בֵּאלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים, וישתחו (וַיִּשְׁתַּחֲווּ) לָהֶם וַיַּעַבְדֻם; עַל-כֵּן, הֵבִיא יְהוָה עֲלֵיהֶם, אֵת כָּל-הָרָעָה, הַזֹּאת. {פ}
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9 they shall be answered: Because they forsook the LORD their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them; therefore hath the LORD brought all this evil upon them.'{P}
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It's clear that King Solomon, haughty and over-confident with his power and foreign praise and wives didn't take G-d seriously. The Jewish Kingdom under King Solomon which had begun so gloriously ended badly and quickly split into two, Israel and Judah.
We can't have a united Jewish People when we cede our Land, and we're ruled by those who don't observe the
Mitzvot, G-d's Commandments to us. The Land is the container and the glue is Judaism.
Unlike many, I have no doubt that if we continue on this dangerous path of concessions to Arab terrorists and obeying the whims of foreign leaders, G-d will punish us and allow the destruction of the State of Israel and another Exile. For me the biggest question is how long this G-d forbid upcoming exile will last, because I have no doubt that we won't survive with an Arab terror state called Palestine in our Holy Land.
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Shiloh Hakeduma, First Capital of the Jewish Nation
Holes that could have been used to hold/support the "Pergola" for the walls of the Mishkan, Tabernacle
photo by Batya Medad |
10 comments:
The Land has already subverted justice and dishonored its dead!
I have not the slightest doubt that G-d has stiffened the hearts of the Arabs. No matter how much Israel's leaders do to get them to come around, they will be further away then ever.
Since when has doing evil ever led to peace? Nowhere in the history of the world! A peace based upon lies and injustice can never be.
If Israel is ever destroyed, it won't because its foreign enemies laid waste to it. In every instance, the Jewish people turned their back on G-d and found themselves in exile from their own land!
Its never too late! But one should be clear that the current path Israel is on will neither bring it security nor peace. The old lessons from the Bible should serve as a warning for all concerned.
Its time to heed them for the future.
David Wilder has things to say about Ariel Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu:
http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/hebron-will-not-miss-sharon/2014/01/06/0/
Jews who give away the Land Of Israel, do not escape divine retribution. G-d is active in the affairs in the world. We can either obey Him or we can endure the worst suffering to befall us!
Doing what is right isn't always popular. But for the Jewish people, G-d gave them a duty to live up to. And now they're being tested. And so are the Shepherds Of The House Of Israel!
At the risk of calling Batya's scorn down upon my head, I claim that Hiram and Shlomo were close military allies who shared the same language, had an actual joint-forces setup (Israelite boys were serving in Hiram's Navy; Shlomo never even felt the need to create his own - and remember he had a vigorous high-seas trade under the direct control of the Palace "National Security Council" with the British isles to obtain the tin needed to transform Timna's copper into weapons-grade bronze for swords and shields. You don't feed & water a thousand people getting copper out of the ground for jewelery's sake, ya know!).
Kings don't give away favors; everything which happens in a nation-state, occurs because the Sovereign adjudges it to strengthen his rule. Thus, Hiram built the Temple for Shlomo because it fortified his southern flank with a cousin-tribe. The Phoenicians were Hebrew-speakers who happened to never go down to Egypt. To this day, southwest Lebanon is at lesser risk of drought than is the territory a hundred kilometers south of it. Please recall that in those (pre-mechanized-farming and mechanized food-import) days, an extended drought meant large-scale death by starvation.
The United Kingdom fell apart after Shlomo because Shlomo went badly overboard in taxing people and in enforcing the mas-avoda - conscripted construction duty.
The northern 10 tribes separated away because they (correctly) felt they had gotten the sh*t end of the stick during Shlomo's rule.
Netanyahu truly believes that the Palestinians deserve something!
That's why he's willing to "share" our land. If he were to believe this Land is OURS (Biblically) I don't think he would be so bendable and squeezable.
Someone needs to get into his head, but fast!
Why should the powerless of Israel who are unable to effect any positive change be punished along with the current crop of sell-outs ruling Israel who like the previous crop subverted their way to assuming leadership over the Jewish people and continue to misuse their power for the benefit of foreign interests?
Especially when there does not appear to be anyone like Pinchas or the Hasmoneans on the horizon to take back the country from the hands of the sell-outs and defiantly telling the world to go to hell, a true leader / party people can put their full support behind.
Not just talking about a public individual or small group who can easily be contained, dismissed as a fringe group and later be taken out by the sell-outs (via proxies or not), but something far more decentralised and harder to contain in a similar manner to how the Leftists became the entrenched establishment in much of the Western/Developed World.
www.azamra.org
regarding king solomon the rabbi gave his indications......
It is therefore somewhat strange to discover that Solomon "gave" Hiram twenty cities in the Galilee which found no favor with the latter, who contemptuously dismissed the region as being "barren" or "fruitless" (vv 11-13; KAVUL literally means "chained", implying that the land was full of bogs from which it was hard to pull up one's feet when trying to walk there). How Solomon could have "given" even a small part of Israel 's God-given inheritance to a foreign king is explained by some commentators with reference to a parallel passage in I Chronicles 8:2, which says that it was Hiram who gave Solomon a number of cities that were then populated with Israelites. This would indicate either that Hiram returned the cities given by Solomon, or that each country's making some of its land available to the other was some kind of reciprocal leasing arrangement. Some say that Solomon intentionally gave Hiram inferior land so that he would not be able to make use of it. Despite the "diplomatic rumpus" caused by Solomon's unattractive gift, Hiram continued lavishing friendship upon his wise Israelite ally, sending him huge amounts of gold (v 14) and cooperating in ambitious naval ventures that brought even more gold and exotic treasures into Israel (vv 26ff; cf. ch 10 vv 11 etc.).
This whole story might be more important than we think, because this Hiram dude is the main caracter/cult hero of freemasonery. I would most modestly encourage anyone to study more about this and than share it ofcourse. So that Jewish foolks and spiritualy educated Noahides alike, can finaly figure this one out for once and for all. (?)
Norman, Neshama, amen!
a, Historically and according to the Bible you're mistaken.
Jester, yes, we do need a Pinchas and a justice system that won't jail him.
rainbow, vincent, yes there's lots more to learn from the Bible
Thanks for all the comments.
Batya: Loved today's post.
As far as Shlomo Hamelech, it just shows you that with all the wisdom in the world but not heeding to H's commands, the wise become foolish. His first great transgression was bringing in the foreign women to merge with other nations. This was a No-No that he was forewarned about. These women brought idolatry into Israel, and he even allowed them their fun. As far as his alliance with Hiram, that's another transgression, as Israel is a nation that dwells alone and that means alone. Also, H' is angry when His children rely on any other nation for help which Shlomo Hamelech did not need. But, even with these mistakes (which were highly paid for by the breakup of the future kingdom, where the Northern kingdom was sinful by ursurping the throne); there is the Song of Songs (Shir HaShirim) that King Solomon wrote which Chazal tell us is the holy of holies; that's how beloved that piece of beautiful poetry is to Hashem. King Solomon built the Temple, but the kingdom is in King David's name (G-D's beloved). One other thing, believe that the State is in its last phase because it was the doorway leading to our Geulah and all of Eretz Yisrael, which, we pray will soon be!
a2, thanks
We must always remember that things are fluid. "It's not over 'till it's over."
And considering that Bibi has always been known for his great intelligence, like King Solomon, not for his humility. Humility was a King David characteristic. We need a leader with humility to recognize that G-d is in charge.
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