“Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says Yahweh Sabaoth. (Zechariah 4: 6)
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Jewish People in Israel and the U.S. have some Serious Problems to Solve
See “Top ACLU Official: Israel ‘Exploiting’ Antisemitism to ‘Encourage’ Jewish Immigration”.
The Jewish roots of the ACLU are deep and undeniable.
Even so, the ACLU is accusing Israel of taking advantage of anti-Semitism because, in a nutshell, Israeli leaders are telling Jewish people the world over that anti-Semitism is potentially life threatening and warning them that now is the time to make aliyah.
Today, making aliyah means “moving to Israel”, but that’s not what aliyah means. Literally, it means returning to or moving up to Yahweh.
The ACLU’s conclusion tells me that the U.S. Jewish community has some serious problems. Interestingly, so did the Jewish community in Germany while Hitler was seeking power.
Many Jews in Germany thought that Hitler’s anti-Semitic rants were nothing more than campaign speeches that were designed to win popular support for the Nazi Party. They believed that he would sing a different tune if elected. Boy, were they wrong.
They had to learn their lesson the hard way. I fear that U.S. Jews will have to learn their lesson the hard way, too.
Thankfully, the State of Israel exists today. She will open her arms to Jewish people no matter how demented they are.
Yahweh works in mysterious ways.
About a year ago, I was standing at the intersection of King George and Ben Yehuda in Jerusalem waiting for the crosswalk light to change. The man standing beside me was haredi.
I’m profiling. It was June; the weather was hot; and he was dressed in a black suit with a black hat, probably wool. He was haredi. That’s their uniform, so to speak.
Unexpectedly, he stuck out his hand toward me as though he wanted to shake my hand. I didn’t automatically accept his friendly gesture. Instead, I looked at him with a quizzical expression.
He said, “You must think I want something.”
He was right. That’s exactly what I was thinking.
Why not? Every time I go to the Old City of Jerusalem, the Kotel, or the Temple Mount, I have to run a gauntlet of haredi men approaching me the same way and asking me for money. It happens every few yards. If you think I am exaggerating, you are mistaken, and the closer I am to the Temple Mount, the worse it gets.
Several years ago, Katie and I were standing in front of David’s Citadel conversing with some people we had met. While we were talking, a young haredi man ran up to us almost breathless and said, “I need 10 shekels.”
The way he said it made it sound as though he was our child, a misbehaving child at that. There was no doubt in his mind that we were going to simply hand him 10 shekels on the spot that second.
Katie was really put off by that behavior. She told him in no uncertain terms, “Get a job!”
FYI: David’s Citadel or David’s Tower is in the Old City of Jerusalem near Jaffa Gate. The name is misleading. David has no connection with it, but Herod the Great and Pontius Pilate do. Herod’s palace in Jerusalem was there, and that’s where Pilate stayed when he visited Jerusalem. Pilate spent most of his time in Caesarea on the Mediterranean Sea. A few meters from the entrance to David’s Citadel is the prison where the Messiah was scourged and beaten. It’s also very close to the spot where Pilate presented the Messiah to the crowd. In other words, it’s a special place.
It really bothers me when haredi men, supposedly ultra-Orthodox Jews who spend their time “studying the Torah”, try to sell me blessings as I walk toward the Kotel. They dangle a red string that they will give me after they bless me if I give them some shekels. If that’s not selling a blessing, I don’t know what is.
Since I walk in that area every day that I am in Jerusalem, I see the same people every day, sometimes several times a day. Each time I walk by, they try to sell me a blessing.
Awhile back, I had finally had enough. A haredi man who had approached me that day several times already, came up to me and tried to sell me a blessing. I looked him in the eyes and said, “Don’t you recognize me? You have tried to sell me a blessing several times today. Are you familiar with the Name Yahweh?”
He said, “Of course.”
My expression changed. Now I was angry. I said, “I know what you are doing, and you know what you are doing. If we know, then Yahweh knows. How do you think it makes Him feel when you camp out here beside the Temple Mount and try to sell blessings?”
He said, “I’m a rabbi. I want to bless people.”
“If that’s true,” I said, “then bless them, but don’t try to raise money doing it.”
I turned and walked away.
Not long ago, I was telling my Israeli daughter, Noam Markman, about the problem. She and her husband and daughter live in Tel Aviv. I could tell by Noam’s expression that she wondered if I was telling her the whole truth or if I was exaggerating.
Katie and I stay in Jerusalem most of the time while we are in Israel. We visit with Noam and her family in Tel Aviv on the day we arrive in Israel, and we typically go to Tel Aviv one day while we are in Israel to spend time exploring Tel Aviv and the surrounding area with them. On our last day in Israel, we spend the night with Noam’s Israeli parents because they live very close to Ben Gurion International Airport. It has become a ritual that both Katie and I enjoy very much.
Typically, Noam comes to Jerusalem for a day while we are in Israel to spend time with us. She is Israeli, a sabra Jew, but I know my way around Jerusalem better than she does. It’s because I have spent a lot of time in Jerusalem over the years, and I can show her things in Jerusalem that she hasn’t seen or hasn’t really explored.
On one of those visits, Katie and I made two trips to the City of David with Noam for guided tours. It’s across the street from the Temple Mount. On each trip, we had to pass by the entrance to the Kotel. Each time, I was accosted by haredi men who were trying to sell me blessings.
Noam got to see firsthand what I had told her about, and she wasn’t happy. The look on her face spoke volumes. The haredi men were blessed that day. If Noam had told them what she was thinking, they would have been mortified.
Getting back to the haredi man at the corner of King George and Ben Yehuda, this was my answer to his question:
“You are right. Every time I go to the Old City, I am attacked by haredi men begging for money.”
His response didn’t surprise me. It infuriated me. He said, “Israel shouldn’t even exist” and walked away.
Where did that come from?, I thought.
Truth is, I know where that came from.
Israel is loaded with haredi men and women who think Israel should not exist. They are the welfare class in Israel. By that, I mean that they are paid by the State of Israel to do nothing. The more children they have, the more they are paid.
Sound familiar?
The haredim in Israel have political parties. Their party leaders make deals during the formation of governments in Israel to siphon off more money from hardworking Israeli citizens.
Many haredi families like to live in dangerous places such as Hebron, Bethlehem, and Shiloh. I admire their willingness to raise their families in their Biblical homeland and wish that more secular Israelis would join them, but their being in those places puts a heavy burden on the IDF, the Israeli army.
The IDF must protect them. Protecting them translates into occasional skirmishes that attract global media attention. Sometimes people are killed. When that happens, “liberal/progressive”, left-wing nutjobs in the media have a field day. That inspires more anti-Semitism globally.
Unbeknownst to most consumers of media products in the U.S., the animosity toward the State of Israel by some haredi men and women in Israel is so great that they will physically attack young haredi men who volunteer to serve in the IDF. When they return from duty to their homes in Mea Shearim, for instance, wearing their uniforms, they are beaten up on the street by haredi men.
Mea Shearim is an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem that is well-known for being the home of Jewish people who believe that Israel shouldn’t exist. Katie and I have walked through Mea Shearim one time. It was on Shabbat. We decided to visit that day because we thought that they would be on their best behavior.
We were right. They did not attack us. It would not have been dignified for them to attack us on Shabbat while wearing their best Shabbat outfits.
If you think I’m kidding, you are mistaken.
Noam refuses to go to Mea Shearim even though it’s very close to the Old City. When we talk with Israelis in Tel Aviv about Mea Shearim, they warn us not to go there. We smile and say, “Too late. Been there. Done that.”
Maybe I should have a t-shirt made with “I survived Mea Shearim” blazoned across the front. I’m not kidding about that, either. That’s something that I might actually do. In fact, I’m thinking about ordering one now. Shopping on Amazon is so easy.
Back to the story. Unlike ordinary Israelis, the haredim are not required to serve in the IDF, but they can if they want to. Imagine how those young Orthodox soldiers must feel. They are protecting the people who are attacking them.
I know it sounds Orwellian, but some haredi men physically attack members of their own group who willingly risk their lives to protect them. They do that while they take money from the State of Israel so they can raise their families and then argue that Israel shouldn’t even exist.
It’s difficult to comprehend, but it’s true nonetheless.
This is the bottom line: Jewish people in Israel and the U.S. have some serious problems to solve. Regrettably, far too few of them in Israel or the U.S. take Yahweh into account when they make decisions about what they should do. It’s as though He doesn’t exist.
That has to change.
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“If My people who are called by My Name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7: 14)
Change that Yahweh calls “good” begins in the hearts of believers—people who are recognizable because they are different.
We are different because we belong to Him and are called by His Name. We are Yahweh’s people, His followers.
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His Name is Yahweh, the website, is a companion of the book His Name is Yahweh.
To download His Name is Yahweh: Revised Edition for free in PDF format, click on the title below:
- His Name is Yahweh: Revised Edition in PDF format
His Name is Yahweh has been downloaded and shared in congregations all over the world. Please take advantage of this opportunity to read and share essential information about Yahweh.
You have my permission to copy and print His Name is Yahweh: Revised Edition as many times as you want. Please, don’t sell it. Give it away.
To purchase His Name is Yahweh: Revised Edition in paperback or in eBook, click here.
To see videos that explain the importance of Yahweh’s Name, click here.
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Must Jewish People Convert to Christianity to be Saved? is a book that you will want to read.
In it, you will discover facts that most Christians are unfamiliar with. It will enlighten you about the true faith of believers dating back to the time of Abraham.
The Messiah didn’t try to create a new religion. Neither did the apostles nor His followers. For the most part, the religion that we know today as “Christianity” is either Catholic or an extension of Catholicism.
That’s a serious problem. Must Jewish People Convert to Christianity to be Saved? explains why.
The book is available in three formats: paperback, eBook, and PDF format. Click on the titles below to access the version you want:
- Must Jewish People Convert to Christianity to be Saved? in paperback.
- Must Jewish People Convert to Christianity to be Saved? in eBook.
- Must Jewish People Convert to Christianity to be Saved?in PDF format. This one is free.
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“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17: 22-24)
See “His Name is Yahweh”.
