What is the ancient hate that has infected the whole world? What is its beginning? Come see...

…Lessons from the Wilderness, Volume Seven…^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}

…Judenhass – The Shame of the Goy…

“O come, O come, Immanuel, and ransom captive Israel”

Amos 9:14-15 (NASB95)
14 “Also I will ^arestore the ¹captivity of My people Israel,

And they will ^brebuild the ruined cities and live in them;

They will also ^cplant vineyards and drink their wine,

And make gardens and eat their fruit.

15 “I will also plant them on their land,

And ^athey will not again be rooted out from their land

Which I have given them,”

Says the Lord your God. ^[5]

Ezekiel 39:25-29 (Tanakh)
²⁵Assuredly, thus said the Lord God: I will now restore the fortunes of Jacob and take the whole House of Israel back in love; and I will be zealous for My holy name. ²⁶They will bear^c their shame and all their trespasses that they committed against Me, when they dwell in their land secure and untroubled, ²⁷when I have brought them back from among the peoples and gathered them out of the lands of their enemies and have manifested My holiness through them in the sight of many nations. ²⁸They shall know that I the Lord am their God when, having exiled them among the nations, I gather them back into their land and leave none of them behind. ²⁹I will never again hide My face from them, for I will pour out My spirit upon the House of Israel—declares the Lord God. ^[6]

I have reached with this post dear readers a milestone – this is my one hundredth post – and I am saddened to have to post it. Four years ago I started this blog, with hopes of reaching whomever Father wanted me to reach; as of today here are a few of my statistics:

United States	6517
Israel	4521
Russia	2836
Ukraine	1771
France	556
Germany	541
Poland	151
Canada	135
United Kingdom	87
China	80

This week alone has seen traffic from:

United States	157
Germany	57
China	4
Australia	2
Netherlands	2
Argentina	1
France	1
Ukraine	1

This is just a small list – as readers have appeared from many countries that Blogger doesn’t add to the total. Nonetheless, the total number of page-views has been 18, 454 – a number I never dreamed of – and all glory goes to HaShem. I have wanted this blog to be a snapshot of my own journey, but it has turned into so much more. Have I done any good? I don’t know – nobody leaves any comments. Is that good or bad? I don’t know – I hope I have provoked thought; I pray I have up-lifted the glory of G-d. I have only the numbers to tell me if there has been any outreach to others – so if the words given to me by our Father have had any impact at all, may He be forever praised. And may He always correct me and never allow me to teach falsehood – I only want to bring Glory unto Him, and never myself.

So why am I saddened? The title of today’s epistle says it all: Judenhass – the hatred of the Jew. For a start, allow me to interject an open letter written to the world by Rabbi Meir Kahane in 1988:

DEAR WORLD
By Rabbi Meir Kahane, (November, 1988)

“…Dear World,

It appears that you are hard to please. I understand that you are upset over us, here in Israel. Indeed, it appears that you are quite upset, even angry and outraged! Indeed, every few years you seem to become upset over us. Today, it is the brutal repression of the Palestinians; yesterday, it was Lebanon; before that it was the bombing of the nuclear reactor in Baghdad and the Yom Kippur War campaign.

It appears that Jews who triumph and who, therefore, live, upset you most extraordinarily. Of course, dear world, long before there was an Israel, we, the Jewish people - upset you.

We upset a German people who elected a Hitler and we upset an Austrian people who cheered his entry into Vienna and we upset a whole slew of Slavic nations - Poles, Slovaks, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Russians, Hungarians, Romanians. And we go back a long, long way in the history of world upset.

We upset the Cossacks of Chmielnicki who massacred tens of thousands of us in 1648-49; we upset the Crusaders who, on their way to liberate the Holy Land, were so upset at Jews that they slaughtered untold numbers of us. We upset, for centuries, a Roman Catholic Church that did its best to define our relationship through Inquisitions. And we upset the arch-enemy of the Church, Martin Luther, who, in his call to burn the synagogues and the Jews within them, showed an admirable Christian ecumenical spirit.

It is because we became so upset over upsetting you, dear world, that we decided to leave you - in a manner of speaking - and establish a Jewish State. The reasoning was that living in close contact with you, as resident-strangers in the various countries that comprise you, we upset you, irritate you, disturb you.

What better notion, then, than to leave you and thus love you - and have you love us? And so we decided to come home - to the same homeland from which we were driven out 1,900 years earlier by a Roman world that, apparently, we also upset.

Alas, dear world, it appears that you are hard to please. Having left you and your Pogroms and Inquisitions and Crusades and Holocausts, having taken our leave of the general world to live alone in our own little state - we continue to upset you.

You are upset that we repress the poor Palestinians. You are deeply angered over the fact that we do not give up the lands of 1967, which are clearly the obstacle to peace in the Middle East.

Moscow is upset and Washington is upset.

The Arabs are upset and the gentle Egyptian moderates are upset. Well, dear world, consider the reaction of a normal Jew from Israel. In 1920, 1921 and 1929, there were no territories of 1967 to impede peace between Jews and Arabs.

Indeed, there was no Jewish State to upset anybody. Nevertheless, the same oppressed and repressed Palestinians slaughtered tens of Jews in Jerusalem, Jaffa, Safed and Hebron. Indeed, 67 Jews were slaughtered one day in Hebron - in 1929.

Dear World, why did the Arabs - the Palestinians - massacre 67 Jews in one day in 1929? Could it have been their anger over Israeli aggression in 1967? And why were 510 Jewish men, women and children slaughtered in Arab riots in 1936-39? Was it because of Arab upset over 1967? And when you, World, proposed a U.N. Partition Plan in 1947 that would have created a Palestinian State alongside a tiny Israel and the Arabs cried and went to war and killed 6,000 Jews - was that upset stomach caused by the aggression of 1967? And, by the way, dear world, why did we not hear your cry of upset then?

The poor Palestinians who today kill Jews with explosives and firebombs and stones are part of the same people who - when they had all the territories they now demand be given them for their state - attempted to drive the Jewish State into the sea. The same twisted faces, the same hate, the same cry of "idbah-al-yahud" - "Slaughter the Jews!" that we hear and see today, were seen and heard then. The same people, the same dream - destroy Israel. What they failed to do yesterday, they dream of today - but we should not "repress" them.

Dear World, you stood by the Holocaust and you stood by in 1948 as seven states launched a war that the Arab League proudly compared to the Mongol massacres.

You stood by in 1967 as Nasser, wildly cheered by wild mobs in every Arab capital in the world, vowed to drive the Jews into the sea. And you would stand by tomorrow if Israel were facing extinction. And since we know that the Arabs-Palestinians daily dream of that extinction, we will do everything possible to remain alive in our own land. If that bothers you, dear world, well - think of how many times in the past you bothered us.

In any event, dear world, if you are bothered by us, here is one Jew in Israel who could not care less…”

Rabbi Kahane was assassinated in 1990 by Egyptian-born American citizen named El Sayyid Nosair, the same Arab who later stood trial as a co-conspirator of Shaikh Omar Abdel Rahman and received a life sentence plus fifteen years’ imprisonment for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, conspiracy to use explosives against New York landmarks and a plot to assassinate U.S. politicians.[7]

But it was Judenhass that drove his assassin that day

and

Judenhass is the shame of the Goy – the nations.

I want to say it here:

To my Jewish brethren, I can truly only speak for myself, but I also must try to speak collectively for all of us Goyim – I offer you my humble and contrite sorrow for the sins of the nations who have since time immemorial inflicted horror and sorrow upon the Jewish people. We have sinned against YHVH – and we have sinned against you. We have sinned against Machiach Yeshua, your brother. We have sinned with heaven and earth as the witness to our cruelties, our omissions and co-missions.

I beg your forgiveness, first from our Father in Heaven –and then from you…

May you forgive me; may you forgive us.

I understand that we in the west, who call upon Yeshua as The Messiah, are at odds with you, my Jewish brethren. Such atrocities have been committed in His name against you by men who could not and did not have His love for you in their hearts, souls and minds. Their actions revealed their hearts – and this carries on from the past to the present. The church has blood on its hands, and it is a stain that won’t wash off until the church as a whole collectively repents and seeks to atone for its sin. The church has abused the Holy Scriptures for power, for lust, for gain – and for the most part, all of it at the expense of the Jewish people. I myself embrace the Hebraic Perspective – that is the Words of G-d cannot be known without examining them within the context of the times and culture that helped to shape and produce the writers YHVH chose.  I am a monotheist not a Trinitarian; I have not tried to usurp the covenant of the Jews, but have come endeavored to come alongside you first as a stranger; then as a sojourner: and finally as a G-d fearer. I freely admit it is only through the blood sacrifice of the one I have come to know as my Jewish Messiah that I have been grafted into the family of YHVH as written in the Messianic writings of the Apostles:

Ephesians 2 (JNT)

2 ¹ You used to be dead because of your sins and acts of disobedience. ² You walked in the ways of the ‛olam hazeh and obeyed the Ruler of the Powers of the Air, who is still at work among the disobedient. ³ Indeed, we all once lived this way — we followed the passions of our old nature and obeyed the wishes of our old nature and our own thoughts. In our natural condition we were headed for God’s wrath, just like everyone else.

⁴ But God is so rich in mercy and loves us with such intense love ⁵ that, even when we were dead because of our acts of disobedience, he brought us to life along with the Messiah — it is by grace that you have been delivered. ⁶ That is, God raised us up with the Messiah Yeshua and seated us with him in heaven, ⁷ in order to exhibit in the ages to come how infinitely rich is his grace, how great is his kindness toward us who are united with the Messiah Yeshua. ⁸ For you have been delivered by grace through trusting, and even this is not your accomplishment but God’s gift. ⁹ You were not delivered by your own actions; therefore no one should boast. ¹⁰ For we are of God’s making, created in union with the Messiah Yeshua for a life of good actions already prepared by God for us to do.

¹¹ Therefore, remember your former state: you Gentiles by birth — called the Uncircumcised by those who, merely because of an operation on their flesh, are called the Circumcised — ¹² at that time had no Messiah.

You were estranged from the national life of Isra’el. You were foreigners to the covenants embodying God’s promise. You were in this world without hope and without God.

¹³ But now, you who were once far off have been brought near through the shedding of the Messiah’s blood.

¹⁴ For he himself is our shalom — he has made us both one and has broken down the m’chitzah which divided us

¹⁵ by destroying in his own body the enmity occasioned by the Torah, with its commands set forth in the form of ordinances.  [8]

Let us pause here a minute and let Dr. Stern explain this verse:

“…15a    The Messiah “has broken down the m˒chitzah which divided us” (v. 14b) by destroying in his own body the enmity occasioned by the Torah, with its commands set forth in the form of ordinances. Following is a literal translation of vv. 14b–15a; the commas in brackets appear in some of the manuscripts which have punctuation but not in all:

For he is our peace, the [person] having made the both [things] one, and the middle wall of the fence having broken, the enmity[,] in the flesh of him[,] the Torah of the commandments in decrees[,] having abolished, in order that the two [persons] he might create in himself into one new person ….

Two questions call for attention here. First, some, considering the last two bracketed commas spurious, take “the enmity” as an explanation of what “the middle wall of the fence” is, so that Sha’ul is understood to be saying that Yeshua:

(1) broke the middle wall which is the enmity between Jews and Gentiles, and

(2) abolished the Torah.

However, many agree with me that “the enmity” goes not with “the middle wall” but with “the Torah.”

Second, what is the grammatical significance of Sha’ul’s placing “the Torah” in apposition with “the enmity”? If he means that the enmity is identical with the Torah, then when Yeshua abolished the enmity, he necessarily abolished the Torah too, in contradiction with his own statement at Mt 5:17. This makes little sense; and in fact, no one seriously considers the Torah to be enmity. My rendering offers another view, that since “the enmity” and “the Torah” are separated by the phrase, “in the flesh of him,” the conceptual relationship is looser and requires more explicit specification—which I have provided in the words “occasioned by.” The enmity is not the Torah. Nor did the Torah “cause” the enmity directly—see Ro 7:5–14 for Sha’ul’s own refutation of the idea that the Torah causes sin of any kind, and enmity between Jews and Gentiles is certainly sin. Rather, that passage shows that although the Torah is itself “holy” (Ro 7:12), it occasions sin (in this case enmity between Jews and Gentiles) by stimulating people’s sinful propensities (see Ro 5:12–21&N).

This enmity between Jews and Gentiles had four components:

(1)          Gentile envy of the special status accorded by God to Israel in the Torah.

(2)          Jewish pride at being chosen.

(3)          Gentile resentment of that pride.

(4)          Mutual dislike of each other’s customs. This is a common cause of friction between cultures, but in this instance, Jewish customs are different for a unique reason. They did not merely evolve; rather, they were the Jewish people’s response to the Torah, with its commands set forth in the form of ordinances.

This is why it is appropriate to say that the enmity between Jews and Gentiles was occasioned by the Torah.

The enmity was destroyed in the Messiah’s body when he died for all sinners, Jews and Gentiles alike. Whoever catches a vision of himself as the undeserving object of God’s grace, saved from eternally ongoing destruction by the Messiah’s atoning death in his place, realizes that in comparison with this salvation the distinction between Jew and Gentile is insignificant. Isaiah, faced with a comparable display of God’s holiness, said, “Woe is me, for I am undone!” (Isaiah 6:5). Jew and Gentile are equally undone before the Messiah; the Messiah destroys the enmity by showing Jew and Gentile equally needy at the foot of his execution-stake. This is what Sha’ul means by saying that in the Messiah “there is neither Jew nor Gentile” (Ga 3:28, Co 3:11).

Moreover, the cancelling of enmity between Jew and Gentile is not merely theoretical when both have been born again through trusting in Yeshua the Messiah. Inspiring examples can be found among Messianic Jews and truly believing Arab Christians in the Land of Israel today. Where the world expects hate or at best wary tolerance can be found a degree of trust and love from the Messiah that goes beyond politics; nothing testifies more eloquently to the truth of the Gospel. Arab and Jewish believers can express disagreement in dialogue over political issues while remaining united in the bond of the Messiah’s love.

The Jerusalem Bible, prepared by Roman Catholics, is the one prominent English version that agrees with the Jewish New Testament on this passage. It translates 2:14b–15a, “destroying in his own person the hostility caused by the rules and decrees of the Law.” Unfortunately, its note on v. 15 says that Jesus annulled the Law! And more unfortunately, the revised edition, the New Jerusalem Bible, reverts to a more traditional anti-Semitic rendering, “destroying in his own person the hostility, that is, the Law of commandments with its decrees.”

Two other versions, Phillips and Moffatt, say that the Messiah destroyed the “hostility” or the “feud” of the Law, not the Law itself. Although these renderings express an unfriendly view toward the Law, at least they avoid asserting that the Law has been abolished.

But usually this verse is rendered so as to say that the Messiah did away with the Torah. Those who think so can give only lip service to Yeshua’s own statement that he came not to destroy the Torah but to fill it up with its full meaning (Mt 5:17&N); only lip service to Yeshua’s interpretations of specific commandments making them more stringent, not less so (Mt 5:21–48); only lip service to Sha’ul’s assertion that “the Torah is holy; that is, the commandment is holy, just and good” (Ro 7:12); only lip service to his conclusion that the Gospel does not abolish Torah but confirms it (Ro 3:31). In order to arrive at such an opinion, other Pauline passages must be misconstrued as meaning that the Torah has been brought to an end (Ga 2:15–21&NN, 3:21–26&NN; Ro 9:30–10:10&NN).

The scholars who think this verse teaches that the Messiah abolished the Torah often offer arguments that either fail to convince or actually support the opposing view. By way of illustration, consider Francis Foulkes, The Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians, in the Tyndale Commentary series, pp. 82–83; my own responses are indented.

“The law of commandments contained in ordinances [had to be] abolished …. Peter was sent to Cornelius and bidden to regard no longer the distinction between ceremonial cleanness and uncleanness (Acts 10).”

Not true: kashrut was not abolished (see Ga 2:11–16&NN), although the custom of regarding Gentile homes as unclean was indeed abolished; but the latter was not Torah anyhow (see Ac 10:28N).

“The Church in its council at Jerusalem had agreed that there was no longer to be a barrier because the Jews had circumcision and all the other ordinances of the law, and the Gentiles did not (Acts 15).”

This does not mean that the Torah was abolished at the Jerusalem council, only that Gentiles did not need to become Jews in order to become Yeshua’s disciples.

“The Lord came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil (Mt 5:17).”

The last word means “fill up” (see Mt 5:17&N), but even rendering it “fulfil” gives no ground for thinking of the Torah as having been abolished when three words earlier in that verse Yeshua said he did not come to destroy the Law!

“Much of it (e.g. the sacrificial ritual) was preparation for, and foreshadowing of, the Christ, and so was fulfilled by what He did when He came.”

This kind of “fulfilling” does not abolish; one may say it transforms the older practice (MJ 7:11–12&NN) or gives new significance to it. For more on the sacrificial system see Messianic Jews 6–10&NN.

“The moral demands and principles of the law were not lightened by Jesus, but made fuller and more far-reaching (Mt 5:21–48).”

Also this is not abolishing! In fact, Foulkes’ remark here supports my earlier point about Mt 5:17.

“In the discipline of obedience that its detailed regulations demanded, and as the revealer of right and wrong, it was intended to lead to Christ (Gal 3:24).”

My rendering of that verse is: “The Torah functioned as a harsh disciplinarian until the Messiah came,” not “The Law was a schoolmaster leading us to Christ” (see note there). Even so, being led to Christ does not mean the Law is abolished.

“In an absolute sense it cannot be said to be made of no effect in Christ (rom 3:31).”

This is yet another argument against the Torah’s abolition by the Messiah, as noted in connection with Mt 5:21–48. Or, to make my point differently, if the Law is “in an absolute sense” not “of no effect,” then (with the double negative removed) it is “in an absolute sense” of effect, effective, in force.

“But as a code ‘specific, rigid, and outward, fulfilled in external ordinances’ (Westcott), and so serving to separate Jews and Gentiles, it was abolished (cf. Col 2:20–22).”

First, this description of the Torah is wrong; Cranfield and Burton do a better job—see Ga 2:16bN, where these scholars are quoted. What Westcott characterizes is not Torah but legalism; and if anything is “abolished” in this verse, it is not Torah but legalism. Second, Co 2:20–22 does not apply to Torah but to legalism; and the context is not Judaism but paganism, as implied by Sha’ul’s use of the term, “elemental spirits,” found in a similar context at Ga 4:1–11; see notes in both places and at Ro 14:1.

Elsewhere I have explained that while the Torah is not abolished, priorities within it are changed (Ga 6:2N). Surely that is what is done here; we know already from Ga 2:11–14&NN that fellowship between Jews and Gentiles in the Messianic Community is a more important mitzvah than any of the commands intended to separate Jews from Gentiles, such as kashrut. In this sense, fellowship is what rabbinic Judaism calls a “weighty” command, while the kinds of commandments set forth in the form of ordinances referred to here are, by comparison, “light” ones. Re-prioritization is not abolition. Where Jewish believers can carry out the “lighter” mitzvot without compromising their own relationship to believing Gentiles or otherwise transgressing “the Torah’s true meaning, which the Messiah upholds” (Ga 6:2), there is no reason not to do so—as Yeshua himself urged (Mt 23:23).

In this framework of thought one could understand the passage to be saying that for his Body, the Messianic Community, Yeshua abolished not the Torah in its entirety, but the takkanot (rabbinic ordinances) relating to the separation of Jews and Gentiles spiritually. The middle wall of the spiritual temple is done away with forever…” ^[9]

Let us continue with Ephesians 2:

He did this in order to create in union with himself from the two groups a single new humanity and thus make shalom, ¹⁶ and in order to reconcile to God both in a single body by being executed on a stake as a criminal and thus in himself killing that enmity.

¹⁷ Also, when he came, he announced as Good News shalom to you far off and shalom to those nearby,^b18 news that through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

¹⁹ So then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers. On the contrary, you are fellow-citizens with God’s people and members of God’s family. ²⁰ You have been built on the foundation of the emissaries and the prophets, with the cornerstone being Yeshua the Messiah himself. ²¹ In union with him the whole building is held together, and it is growing into a holy temple in union with the Lord.

²² Yes, in union with him, you yourselves are being built together into a spiritual dwelling-place for God! ^[10]

What I’ve tried to show in this section is how Paul is misinterpreted by Christians and Jews alike.

My point here in the beginning is to show that if read properly – Paul’s letters do not advocate the doing away with Torah – Paul {better Sha’ul} was a Torah observant Jew, and in no way sought to encourage departing from Torah. In fact, he pleaded with believers NOT to place themselves above their Jewish brethren.

Romans 11

^11:1 So I ask, God has not rejected his people, has he? Absolutely not! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.

^11:2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew! Do you not know what the scripture says about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?

^11:3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left and they are seeking my life!”¹

^11:4 But what was the divine response² to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand people³ who have not bent the knee to Baal.”⁴

^11:5 So in the same way at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. ^11:6 And if it is by grace, it is no longer by works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace. ^11:7 What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was diligently seeking, but the elect obtained it. The⁵ rest were hardened, ^11:8 as it is written,

“God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear,

to this very day.”⁶

^11:9 And David says,

“Let their table become a snare and trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them;

^11:10 let their eyes be darkened so that they may not see, and make their backs bend continually.”⁷

^11:11 I ask then, they did not stumble into an irrevocable fall,⁸ did they? Absolutely not! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel⁹ jealous.

^11:12 Now if their transgression means riches for the world and their defeat means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full restoration¹⁰ bring?

^11:13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Seeing that I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry,

^11:14 if somehow I could provoke my people to jealousy and save some of them.

^11:15 For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

^11:16 If the first portion¹¹ of the dough offered is holy, then the whole batch is holy, and if the root is holy, so too are the branches.¹²

^11:17 Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among them and participated in¹³ the richness of the olive root, ^11:18 do not boast over the branches. But if you boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.

^11:19 Then you will say, “The branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.”

^11:20 Granted!¹⁴ They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but fear! ^11:21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare you.

^11:22 Notice therefore the kindness and harshness of God – harshness toward those who have fallen, but¹⁵ God’s kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness;¹⁶ otherwise you also will be cut off.

^11:23 And even they – if they do not continue in their unbelief – will be grafted in,

for God is able to graft them in again.

^11:24 For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree?

^11:25 For I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters,¹⁷ so that you may not be conceited: A partial hardening has happened to Israel¹⁸ until the full number¹⁹ of the Gentiles has come in.

^11:26 And so²⁰ all Israel will be saved, as it is written:

“The Deliverer will come out of Zion; he will remove ungodliness from Jacob.

^11:27 And this is my covenant with them,²¹ when I take away their sins.”²²

^11:28 In regard to the gospel they are enemies for your sake,

but in regard to election they are dearly loved for the sake of the fathers.

^11:29 For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.

^11:30 Just as you were formerly disobedient to God, but have now received mercy due to their disobedience, ^11:31 so they too have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now²³ receive mercy. ^11:32 For God has consigned all people to disobedience so that he may show mercy to them all.²⁴

^11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how fathomless his ways!

^11:34 For who has known the mind of the Lord,

or who has been his counselor?²⁵

^11:35 Or who has first given to God,²⁶

that God²⁷ needs to repay him?²⁸

^11:36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever! Amen. ^[11]

 I know that many in the Hebraic Roots movement have drifted into a form of replacement theology – a sin of such magnitude as to be blasphemous. I only want as the Tanach says:

Zechariah 8:13-23 (Tanakh)

¹³And just as you were a curse^b among the nations, O House of Judah and House of Israel, so, when I vindicate you, you shall become a blessing.^b Have no fear; take courage!

¹⁴For thus said the Lord of Hosts: Just as I planned to afflict you and did not relent when your fathers provoked Me to anger—said the Lord of Hosts—¹⁵so, at this time, I have turned and planned to do good to Jerusalem and to the House of Judah. Have no fear! ¹⁶These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to one another, render true and perfect justice in your gates. ¹⁷And do not contrive evil against one another, and do not love perjury, because all those are things that I hate—declares the Lord.

¹⁸And the word of the Lord of Hosts came to me, saying, ¹⁹Thus said the Lord of Hosts: The fast of the fourth month, the fast of the fifth month, the fast of the seventh month, and the fast of the tenth month^c shall become occasions for joy and gladness, happy festivals for the House of Judah; but you must love honesty and integrity.

²⁰Thus said the Lord of Hosts: Peoples and the inhabitants of many cities shall yet come—²¹the inhabitants of one shall go to the other and say, “Let us go and entreat the favor of the Lord, let us seek the Lord of Hosts; I will go, too.” ²²The many peoples and the multitude of nations shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord.

²³Thus said the Lord of Hosts: In those days, ten men from nations of every tongue will take hold—they will take hold of every Jew by a corner of his cloak and say, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” ^[12]

I have endeavored to take hold of the tzitzit of my older brother and to learn of G-d from him – in humility and with respect.

All this being said – I can understand how and why my brethren view the Christian church as an adversary.

It is as written by Paul M. Van Buren:

“…The beginnings of this tragic development lie in the first-century split between the Christian church and the Jewish people, an event documented by limited and indirect evidence. We can be certain that the initial Jesus movement was at first totally Jewish, and can be seen as a Jewish sect. We know little about that Jewish community, because there are no firsthand accounts. The apostle Paul is the only author of the writings comprising the Church's New Testament who was certainly a Jew, but he only wrote to Gentile Christians about Gentile problems, such as, how Gentiles can escape from the curse of Torah, a curse richly deserved for having rejected Torah (the Law) when it was offered at Sinai. If we can trust the Gentile author of the Acts of the Apostles, Paul was thought to have taught that the Jews of the Diaspora should abandon Torah. That would have shocked any Jew, including those of the Jesus movement. There is no evidence from Paul's authentic letters to support this charge, but such a misunderstanding may have been the seedbed of distrust that led to the later split.
The future of the Church was not in the Jerusalem community. As it is continued in loyal Jewish practice and worship, the Diaspora movement was going in a different direction. It was drawing its members from the Gentiles. We may assume from Paul's letters that they were Gentiles well- versed in the Greek translation of Israel's Scriptures, for Paul based most of his teachings and arguments on those writings. It seems reasonable to conclude that these Gentile converts to the young Church were largely drawn from the so-called "God-fearers" of whom the first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus wrote-people attracted to Judaism, familiar with its teaching and Scriptures, frequenters of Diaspora synagogues, but not yet full converts. The Gentile mission of Paul and others, therefore, would seem to have harvested in fields well-planted and watered by the Pharisees and other agents of Jewish proselytism. What is certain is that the Church, originally a purely Jewish movement, in membership was well on its way by the middle of the first century to becoming an almost totally Gentile enterprise.
There were evidently those among the new Gentile converts to Christianity who thought that one could only be a member of this movement by becoming a full Jewish convert, accepting circumcision, and keeping Torah. Paul argued vehemently against that view, maintaining that in Jesus the God of Israel had done a new thing, opening the light of his love to Gentiles as Gentiles, to receive the blessing of Abraham alongside Israel. Paul, therefore, argued that his Gentile converts not seek circumcision nor follow the details of Torah observance, since this would be to deny God's new opening to them. Nowhere did Paul argue that Jews should abandon Torah, but after his death, an increasingly Gentile church was to read him as if he had spoken without respect to whether his audience was Jew or Gentile. What Paul wrote against Gentile imitation of Jewish practice was read later as an attack on Jewish practice by Jews. The grounds for Christian anti-Judaism were thus unwittingly prepared by one who was proud of his Jewish identity and heritage, convinced that God's covenant with Israel was eternal. It was planted and watered by Gentiles who failed to understand the complex understanding of Torah of the Pharisee Paul.
It is certain that Paul argued that Gentiles did not need to become Jews in order to know the love of God. It is equally certain that he was interpreted to have meant that Jews need not (and therefore should not) remain Jews in order to know the love of God. The question unfolds whether the theological roots of Antisemitism lie within the New Testament itself, or whether they are to be found in a Gentile misreading of writings rooted in the Jewish character of the original Jesus movement. In the case of the authentic letters of Paul, a case can be made for the second answer…” [13]

The misinterpretation of the Rabbi Sha’ul [Paul] has been the bane of the relationship between the Church and Jews for nineteen hundred (1900+) plus years – though the roots of Judenhass and anti-Semitism go further back, pre-dating even the beginnings of Christianity as seen in the story of Amalek:

Exodus 17:7-16 (Tanakh)

⁷The place was named Massah^a and Meribah,^b because the Israelites quarreled and because they tried the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord present among us or not?”

⁸Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. ⁹Moses said to Joshua, “Pick some men for us, and go out and do battle with Amalek. Tomorrow I will station myself on the top of the hill, with the rod of God in my hand.” ¹⁰Joshua did as Moses told him and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. ¹¹Then, whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed; but whenever he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. ¹²But Moses’ hands grew heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur, one on each side, supported his hands; thus his hands remained steady until the sun set. ¹³And Joshua overwhelmed the people of Amalek^c with the sword.

¹⁴Then the Lord said to Moses, “Inscribe this in a document as a reminder, and read it aloud to Joshua:

I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven!”

 ¹⁵And Moses built an altar and named it Adonai-nissi.^d

¹⁶He said, “It means, ‘Hand upon the throne^e of the Lord!’

The Lord will be at war with Amalek throughout the ages.” ^[14]

As stated in the Jewish Encyclopedia:

“…Amalek—the first foe to attack the people of Israel after they had come out of Egypt as a free nation; twice  designated in the Pentateuch (Ex. xvii. 14–16, Deut. xxv. 19) as the one against whom war should be waged until his memory be blotted out forever—became in rabbinical literature the type of Israel’s arch-enemy…A kinsman of the Israelites, Amalek nevertheless displayed the most intense hatred toward them: he inherited Esau’s hostility to his brother Jacob. When other nations hesitated to harm God’s chosen ones, his evil example induced them to join him in the fray. “Like a robber he waylaid Israel”; “like a swarm of locusts”; “like a leech eager for blood”; “like a fly looking for sores to feed on”; Amalek (‘am lak = the people which licketh) hurried over hundreds of miles to intercept

Israel’s march:

“Having taken the list of the tribes from the archives of Egypt, he arrayed his hosts in front of the Israelitish camp—over which God’s glory rested in the sheltering pillar of cloud—and called the names of the tribes aloud, one after the other, and pretending to have business negotiations with them, he treacherously slew the last, or, rather, the guilty ones among them, those chosen by lot ” (Tan. Ki Teze, ix., and Pesik. iii. 26b)…” [15]

Also:

“…With regard to the remarkable oath, “Truly the hand upon the throne of Yah! the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation” (Ex. xvii. 16: A. V. is not literal here); the rabbis say: “Never will the throne of God—the Lord of Truth, Justice, and Love—be fully established until the seed of Amalek—the principle of hatred and wrongdoing— be destroyed forever (Pesik., l.c., and Targ. Yer. I. and II. to Ex. l.c.). Henceforth “Amalek” became the

popular term for Jew-hater…” [16]

SO at least in the minds of the sages – it was here first that the Judenhass arose – in Amalek, and an Amalek has been in every generation since.

The question remains: where are we?  Let us start here – the names of Jews and others killed by terrorists in Israel in 2016:

Michael Mark; Hallel Yaffa Ariel; Michael Feige; Ido Ben Ari; Mila Mishayev; Ilana Navaa; Talyor Force;

Captain Eilav Gelman; Tuvia Yanai Weissman; Hadar Cohen; Shlomit Krigman; Dafna Meir; Alon Bakal and

Shimon Ruimi. [17]

During the Islamic holiday of Ramadan 2016, in a total of 238 attacks worldwide:

- in Florida, Turkey, Bangladesh, Baghdad, Yemen, and elsewhere –  

the end result was over 1850 dead Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, gays and co-religionists. ^[18]

Since September 2015, Palestinian terrorists targeted Israelis in 155 stabbings; 96 shootings; 45 vehicular attacks and 1 vehicle bombing resulting in 40 killed and 511 wounded. [19]

Now let us look at some more statistics:

The Amalek of today appears to be Islam. While not all Muslims are terrorists, almost all terrorists are either Muslims or those with ties to Islamic radicals. If we look at the carnage Islam has spread over the years, what do we find? Since 9/11/2001, there have been a reported 28,781 deadly terror attacks – all by groups affiliated with Islamic terrorists or those whose own ideologies are in line with the gals of the jihadists – the destruction of the Jewish people and the state of Israel. [20]

Figure 1 From http://www.adl.org/combating-hate/international-extremism-terrorism/

Here is a brief history of Jihad over the last 1400 years from “the Religion of Peace”:

 MUHAMMAD FOUGHT PERSONALLY 27 RAIDS INCLUDING:
The “Battle of Badr, 624 AD; The Battle of Uhud 625 AD and The Expulsion of Banu Nadir, 625 AD; The Attack on Banu Mustaliq, 626 AD; The Battle of the Trench 627 AD and The killing Banu Qurayza, 627 AD; The Battle of Khaybar, 628 AD”, The Invasion of Waddan, 623 AD, The Invasion of Buwat 623 AD, The Invasion of Dul 623 AD, The Ashir Invasion of Safwan 623 AD, The Invasion of Sawiq 624 AD, The Invasion of Banu Qaynuqa 624 AD, The Al Kudr Invasion 624 AD, The Invasion of Thi Amr 624 AD, The Invasion of Bahran 624 AD, The Invasion of Hamra al-Asad 625 AD, The Expedition of Dhat al-Riqa 627 AD, The Invasion of Badr 626 AD, The Invasion of Dumatul Jandal 626 AD, The Invasion of Banu Lahyan 627 AD, The Treaty of Hudaybiyyah 628 AD, The Conquest of Fidak 628 AD, The Third Expedition of Wadi al Qura 628 AD, The Battle of Hunayn 630 AD, The Battle of Autas 630 AD, The Siege of Ta’if 630 AD AND The Battle of Tabouk 630 AD.

After Muhammad Died, All Caliph Led Conquest Against the Infidels By The Sword:

Conquest of Persia and Iraq: 633–651; Conquest of Transoxiana: 662–751; Conquest of Sindh:* 664–712
Conquest of Hispania* (711–718) *and Septimania (719–720); Conquest of the Caucasus: 711–750; End of the Umayyad conquests: 718–750; Conquest of Nubia: 700–1606; Incursions into southern Italy: 831–902; Conquest of Anatolia: 1060–1360; Byzantine-Ottoman Wars: 1299–1453; Further conquests: 1200–1800; Decline and collapse: 1800—1924

Modern Jihad: 1948—2015 Muslim (Jihadist) Groups Like: al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, Hezbollah, ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Pakistan Taliban, Egypt Islamic Jihad, Palestinian Islamic Jihad & other splinter groups who follow the teachings of Muhammad have carried out, since 2001, Over 27,879 Islamic terror attacks around the world.

Between 200-2013, 1,227 Jews have been killed by terrorists, with 8,549 wounded. [21] These numbers have risen with an additional 40 killed and over 500 wounded since 2015-2016. [22] If you add in all the Jews killed in Israel since 1920 – 2015, the total comes to 3,742. [23]

Islam isn’t the only Amalek the people of Israel have faced:

• ·          Babylon was Amalek.
• ·         Assyria was Amalek.
• ·         Persia was Amalek (Purim anyone?)
• ·         Greece was Amalek – if it were not for the Maccabees, Jewish thought and life would have disappeared.
• ·         Rome was Amalek -  from 63 B.C. till A.D. 476, the Roman Empire shaped the culture and fortunes of the Jewish community, by its imposition of rulers and priests over the Jewish people. This led to outbreaks of rebellion against
• ·         Christianity was and to a degree still is Amalek: From the edicts of the Popes, from the pens of those considered “Church Fathers” to the BDS chants of various congregations today, Amalek still survives. During the Crusades from 1096 through 1190 A.D., estimates on the number of Jews killed range as high as one third of European Jews – well over 10,000 to the first Crusade alone. Add to this the Inquisition, forced expulsions (for a starter list of these see http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~jkatz/expulsions.html ) , forced conversions – we all know the history.
• ·         Russia was Amalek: From the 1880’s through 1921 there is partial data available on 530 communities in Russia in which 887 major pogroms and 349 minor pogroms occurred; there, an estimated 60,000 Jews were killed and several times that number of wounded. [24]
• ·         Germany was Amalek. Six million Jews died under this Amalek – as well as millions of others. Estimates of both civilian and military deaths run as high as over 56,000,000 souls perished because of this Amalek. [25]

·         I suppose the list could go on and on.

Wars and persecution have cost not only the Jews, but all of humanity. From time immemorial, how many have been lost? Humanity has shed itself of at the least over three hundred million souls – some estimates go as high as almost three quarters of a billion people killed by war, though due to widely ranging estimates and guesses, one could reasonably say these figures are low.  One graph depicts this over the last 600 years:

Figure 2https://ourworldindata.org/war-and-peace-long-run#global-deaths-in-conflicts-since-the-year-1400ref[26]

Not only have the Jews had their Amalek – but so have large portions of humanity. I am not attempting to downplay anything – I just want all to see the magnitude of the problem here – humanity as a whole has a sickness – sin lies crouching at the door of all hearts.

So what does this have to do with Judenhass? Everything.

The world, regardless of its pedigree, always seeks a scapegoat – always seeks someone to blame for its ills, always looks outward, and never inward. That is the way of the world. From earliest times, the focus of all this outward attention has been upon the only group of people courageous enough to expose themselves in their Holy books – the Jews. The Hebrew Scriptures tell us of a people – who were delivered by the Hand of G-d, and then proceeded to do everything wrong in practice, yet they chronicled it, they lamented over it, they were punished for it, and yet held on to their G-d, and sought to remedy their sins – by telling everyone about them. Name me one other society, one other ethnicity that has been willing to expose themselves in this way. I know of none. History is written by the winners – and winners always show themselves in the light, never the dark. The Jewish people have shown us their dark side as well as their light – and the world has hated them, hated them for their honesty, hated them for being human enough to admit their wrongs. The world has hated them because the Almighty Elohim of Heaven has chosen them – imperfect, rebellious, stubborn as they were and in some ways today still are – to be His people, and from them, one day, a Jew will rule the earth. That is why they are hated; hunted; slandered; killed. This is Judenhass. Despite the furious onslaught of the combined efforts of all the world throughout time to eliminate the Jew – they are still here. This is a testimony of the faithfulness of HaShem, of Yahveh.

Genesis 17:7 (NASB95)

7     “I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your ¹descendants after you throughout their generations for an ^aeverlasting covenant, ^bto be God to you and ^cto your ¹descendants after you. ^[27]

Psalm 89:20-38 (Tanakh)

²⁰Then^a You spoke to Your faithful ones in a vision and said, “I have conferred power upon a warrior;

I have exalted one chosen out of the people.

²¹I have found David, My servant; anointed him with My sacred oil.

²²My hand shall be constantly with him, and My arm shall strengthen him.

²³No enemy shall ^b-oppress him,^-b no vile man afflict him.

²⁴I will crush his adversaries before him; I will strike down those who hate him.

²⁵My faithfulness and steadfast love shall be with him; his horn shall be exalted through My name.

²⁶I will set his hand upon the sea, his right hand upon the rivers.

²⁷He shall say to Me, ‘You are my father, my God, the rock of my deliverance.’

²⁸I will appoint him first-born, highest of the kings of the earth.

²⁹I will maintain My steadfast love for him always; My covenant with him shall endure.

³⁰I will establish his line forever, his throne, as long as the heavens last.

³¹If his sons forsake My Teaching and do not live by My rules;

³²if they violate My laws, and do not observe My commands,

³³I will punish their transgression with the rod, their iniquity with plagues.

³⁴But I will not take away My steadfast love from him; I will not betray My faithfulness.

³⁵I will not violate My covenant, or change what I have uttered.

³⁶I have sworn by My holiness, once and for all; I will not be false to David.

³⁷His line shall continue forever, his throne, as the sun before Me,

³⁸as the moon, established forever, an enduring witness in the sky.”      Selah. ^[28]

Judenhass is the shame of the Goy – from America in the west to the Muslim nations in the east, to China, to Russia and all the lands in between. The nations will be judged by how they have treated these peculiar ones – the ones set-apart for G-d. The individuals of the nations will be judged by how they have treated the brethren of the Machiach. To those who say the land is “occupied”, that Israel has no “right” to the land – remember who really owns the land:

Leviticus 25:23 (Tanakh)

²³But the land must not be sold beyond reclaim, for the land is Mine; you are but strangers resident with Me. ^[29]

And as the land owner – YHVH can give it to whomever He desires:

Numbers 34:1-15 (NET)
The Southern Border of the Land

^34:11 Then the Lord spoke to Moses:

^34:2 “Give these instructions² to the Israelites, and tell them: ‘When you enter Canaan, the land that has been assigned to you as an inheritance,³ the land of Canaan with its borders, ^34:3 your southern border⁴ will extend from the wilderness of Zin along the Edomite border, and your southern border will run eastward to the extremity of the Salt Sea, ^34:4 and then the border will turn from the south to the Scorpion Ascent,⁵ continue to Zin, and then its direction⁶ will be from the south to Kadesh Barnea. Then it will go to Hazar Addar and pass over to Azmon. ^34:5 There the border will turn from Azmon to the Brook of Egypt, and then its direction is to the sea.⁷

The Western Border of the Land

^34:6 “‘And for a western border⁸ you will have the Great Sea.⁹ This will be your western border.

The Northern Border of the Land

^34:7 “‘And this will be your northern border: From the Great Sea you will draw a line to Mount Hor; ^34:8 from Mount Hor you will draw a line to Lebo Hamath,¹⁰ and the direction of the border will be to Zedad. ^34:9 The border will continue to Ziphron, and its direction will be to Hazar Enan. This will be your northern border.

The Eastern Border of the Land

^34:10 “‘For your eastern border you will draw a line from Hazar Enan to Shepham. ^34:11 The border will run down from Shepham to Riblah, on the east side of Ain, and the border will descend and reach the eastern side of the Sea of Chinnereth.^{11 34:12} Then the border will continue down the Jordan River¹² and its direction will be to the Salt Sea. This will be your land by its borders that surround it.’”

^34:13 Then Moses commanded the Israelites: “This is the land which you will inherit by lot, which the Lord has commanded to be given¹³ to the nine and a half tribes, ^34:14 because the tribe of the Reubenites by their families,¹⁴ the tribe of the Gadites by their families, and half of the tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance.

^34:15 The two and a half tribes have received their inheritance on this side of the Jordan, east of Jericho,¹⁵

toward the sunrise.” ^[30]

Figure 3 Israeli flag over Israeli settlements on the West Bank.

Judenhass is a sickness – a terminal illness – a cancer on all the nations of the world. For that matter – hate itself directed against any is the same sickness -  a disease that will rob the nations of blessings and peace. It is a sickness that infects all – and the Jew is not exempt – but regardless, the unbound hatred of the Jewish people is leading this world down to one inevitable conclusion – destruction.

This sickness - this hate -  fills hearts regardless of race, creed, nationality, orientation, ethnicity or religion. Judenhass is the outward expression of this hate – yet the madness hate causes inflict all who let themselves be taken over by it. For now, we hate because of color, because of situations, because of sometimes legitimate grievances – yet this hate then spills out into blood-shed and it will not stop until it consumes the whole world. And in the end, the world will look for a scapegoat – and all the ills of society, all the wrongs, all of the grievances will be placed on the door step of the Jew – it has happened before, and we are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. It is easier for the goy to point to the Jew as the reason for all these ills, rather than look within and see the sickness of our own heart, the depth and darkness of our own hate.

I wish I had an answer – but it will take the return of Messiah Yeshua to end this hate. He will have to put it down with a rod of iron, there is no other way. Till then, Judenhass will grow and fester like the wound it is – and this hate will spill out in many different forms before it is over.

This is my sadness. This is why I weep. The numbers of the dead and dying will only increase, the wails of those left behind will only grow louder, and there will be no peace, no justice for the nations, the Goy, have forgotten their G-d, they have forsaken His ways, and have ignored His salvation – Yeshua. They all clamor because of the “vast Jewish conspiracy” to rule the world – never realizing that this one fact is true: A Jewish king is coming – and He will rule and reign from Yerushalayim, the Torah (Law) shall go forth from Zion and the nations shall not know or practice war no more. G-d is bringing His war unto earth – a war to save His people Israel, to save the Jew. And with their salvation, will be life from death, for all of mankind that remains. Judenhass will be no more – hate will be vanquished – and we shall all see the Glory of G-d. There is good news for the end – but many tears before we get there. Whether or not you agree with me, or disagree, it does not matter to me. Your eternal destiny waits in the current condition of your heart right now, this very moment.

Is the sickness there? Is the darkness that blinds your eyes growing greater?

Does Judenhass fill your heart, or does hate for a black man, a white man, a red, brown or yellow man control you?

Does the hate of any person for their religion drive you?

Does the hate for authority, be it police or government or whatever consume you?

Is your master politics, and you hate because of it?

Does the fear of others, for their sexual orientation, for their ethnicity cause you to turn blind eyes away from legitimate discussion?

Can we put down the hate long enough to see one another as the same?

Or will we continue on this sick road of destruction:

Terror

Rape

Murder

War

Revenge

Vengeance

Ignorance

Intolerance

Bigotry

Racism (black, white, brown, red, yellow – it is all the same)

Division

Lawlessness (without Torah)

Lawlessness (without respect for the laws of man)

UnGodliness

Unrighteousness

Suppressors of Truth

Foolishness

Depravity

Dishonor

Impurity

Vain thinking

Wickedness

Covetousness

Malice

Anger

Deceit

Hostility

Gossips

Slanders

Insolent

Evil

Heartless

Addiction

Ruthless

Creators of our own religion(s)

…Covenant-Breakers…

…Disobedient to G-d…

…Lost, without hope…

This is where it all begins – the hate that fills our hearts,

A hate as old as time itself.

Judenhass. The Jew hater. Amalek.

Amalek exists in all hearts, minds and souls.

Is it any wonder Father G-d wants to blot out Amalek’s memory from under the sun?

…Please, Father, save us from ourselves, from this ancient hate…

The shame of the nations

Amein

---

[1] Authors note: Use of information from Jewish-themed websites should not be construed as these sites endorsing or confirming any thesis introduced by the author of this epistle. I present the information from their respective sites for instructional purposes only and/or to aid in the readers understanding of the subjects discussed. The inverse is also true – by using these sites in no way confirms or denies that this author holds to all things found on these sites – but brethren, we all can learn from one another, Jew and Gentile; may it be so in shalom and love and respect.

[2]  Author’s note:  Throughout this study I’ll be using the Net® Bible and  the Net® Notes: within the notes you’ll see symbols like this: ( א B Ψ 892* 2427 sy^s). These are abbreviations used by the NetBible© for identifying the principal manuscript evidence that they (authors and translators of the NetBible©)  used in translating the New Testament. Please go to  https://bible.org/netbible/ and see their section labeled “NET Bible Principals of Translation” for a more complete explanation on these symbols and other items pertinent to the way the NET Bible uses them.

[3] Author’s Note: In these studies I have used the notes that come along with the passages I cite from the sources that I cite: these need a bit of a disclaimer though. As in all things, not everything that is footnoted is something that I necessarily agree with, especially if it contradicts what I believe pertains to any matters of the Torah or the commandments of G-d. I give you the notes as they are written by the authors of the material I cite from, so that you can see the information contained within them. It truly is not my place to edit or correct them; if they state anything that is in opposition to what I teach, then so be it. I will address these issues if requested, but for the sake of brevity (as if any of these posts of mine are brief ☺ ) I insert them and let them stand as they are. If I don’t agree with them, why do I include them you might ask? I don’t believe in censuring anyone’s opinions or scholarship; as I would not want mine censured, so I will not do to that to another. As Rabbi Hillel once stated, “What is hateful to you, do not do to another. That is the whole Torah. Go and learn it.” Torah leads me to respect others, even if I disagree; it leads me to present both sides of the coin, even if it could mean I’d lose part of the argument. That is not to say I should not challenge something I believe contradicts the truth of G-d’s word; that I will do in the main body of my epistles; that is where my gentle dissent belongs. Most (but not all) of the differences will come when I quote from the NET® Bible (but not exclusively); it has a decidedly Western/Greek mindset to it, but as a wise man once said “How do you eat chicken? Swallow the meat and spit out the bones…” I do though want to present the NET® notes because there is a wealth of information and research contained within them that I hope you find helpful.

[4] One may wonder why I omit the “o” when I write the title “G-d”. While there are many who say that to leave out the “o” is a sign of being under the influence of the Rabbis who forbid saying the name of Yahveh, I say, one must come to a conclusion on their own, and do as their heart convicts them (within the bounds of G-d’s word of course). I believe in the power of the name of the Most High – the name of Yahveh – and in uttering it in awe and reverence, yet find no contradiction in my soul for the hyphenated title “G-d”. I have written it both ways – stopped doing it, and now I have returned to the practice – as I said, one must follow the conviction of their heart. I do not disrespect anyone else’s opinion on this matter, and regardless if you think it wrong or right, I ask for the same respect. Let each be fully persuaded in their own mind and heart – and let G-d sort it out with each believer. For now, this is right for me, till the Father corrects - or confirms; I am after all, a work in progress. Shalom. 

a  Ps 53:6; Is 60:4; Jer 30:3, 18

1  Or fortunes

b  Is 61:4; 65:21

c  Jer 24:6; 31:28

a  Is 60:21; Ezek 34:28; 37:25

[5]  New American Standard Bible : 1995 update. 1995. LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.

c  Change of diacritical point yields “forget.”

[6]  Jewish Publication Society. (1997, c1985). Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures : A new translation of the Holy Scriptures according to the traditional Hebrew text. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society.

[7] http://www.catholicamericanthinker.com/Rabbi-Meir-Kahane-Open-Letter.html

[8]

^[9] Stern, D. H. (1996). Jewish New Testament Commentary : a companion volume to the Jewish New Testament (electronic ed., Eph 2:15). Clarksville: Jewish New Testament Publications.

b  ^b  Isaiah 57:19

[10]  Stern, D. H. (1989). Jewish New Testament : A translation of the New Testament that expresses its Jewishness (1st ed.). Jerusalem, Israel; Clarksville, Md., USA: Jewish New Testament Publications.

·         [The following notes are taken from the NET Bible® footnotes, copyright (c) 1996-2006 by Biblical Studies Press L.L.C. All rights reserved. Used by permission from www.bible.org, n.d. Numbering system is unique to NET® Notes.  For more information, see footnote #2and 3.

¹ sn A quotation from 1 Kgs 19:10, 14.

² tn Grk “the revelation,” “the oracle.”

³ tn The Greek term here is ἀνήρ (anēr), which only exceptionally is used in a generic sense of both males and females. In this context, it appears to be a generic usage (“people”) since when Paul speaks of a remnant of faithful Israelites (“the elect,” v. 7), he is not referring to males only. It can also be argued, however, that it refers only to adult males here (“men”), perhaps as representative of all the faithful left in Israel.

⁴ sn A quotation from 1 Kgs 19:18.

⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

⁶ sn A quotation from Deut 29:4; Isa 29:10.

⁷ sn A quotation from Ps 69:22–23.

⁸ tn Grk “that they might fall.”

⁹ tn Grk “them”; the referent (Israel, cf. 11:7) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁰ tn Or “full inclusion”; Grk “their fullness.”

¹¹ tn Grk “firstfruits,” a term for the first part of something that has been set aside and offered to God before the remainder can be used.

¹² sn Most interpreters see Paul as making use of a long-standing metaphor of the olive tree (the root…the branches) as a symbol for Israel. See, in this regard, Jer 11:16, 19. A. T. Hanson, Studies in Paul’s Technique and Theology, 121–24, cites rabbinic use of the figure of the olive tree, and goes so far as to argue that Rom 11:17–24 is a midrash on Jer 11:16–19.

¹³ tn Grk “became a participant of.”

¹⁴ tn Grk “well!“, an adverb used to affirm a statement. It means “very well,” “you are correct.”

¹⁵ tn Greek emphasizes the contrast between these two clauses more than can be easily expressed in English.

¹⁶ tn Grk “if you continue in (the) kindness.”

¹⁷ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

¹⁸ tn Or “Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.”

¹⁹ tn Grk “fullness.”

²⁰ tn It is not clear whether the phrase καὶ οὕτως (kai houtōs, “and so”) is to be understood in a modal sense (“and in this way”) or in a temporal sense (“and in the end”). Neither interpretation is conclusive from a grammatical standpoint, and in fact the two may not be mutually exclusive. Some, like H. Hübner, who argue strongly against the temporal reading, nevertheless continue to give the phrase a temporal significance, saying that God will save all Israel in the end (Gottes Ich und Israel [FRLANT], 118).

²¹ sn A quotation from Isa 59:20–21.

²² sn A quotation from Isa 27:9; Jer 31:33–34.

²³ tc Some important Alexandrian and Western mss (א B D*^,c 1506 pc bo) read νῦν (nun, “now”) here. A few other mss (33 365 pc sa) have ὕστερον (husteron, “finally”). mss that lack the word are P⁴⁶ A D² F G Ψ 1739 1881 M latt. External evidence slightly favors omission with good representatives from the major texttypes, and because of the alliance of Alexandrian and Byzantine mss (with the Byzantine going against its normal tendency to embrace the longer reading). Internally, scribes could have added νῦν here to give balance to the preceding clause (οὗτοι νῦν ἠπείθησαν…αὐτοὶ νῦν ἐλεηθῶσιν [houtoi nun ēpeithēsan…autoi nun eleēthōsin; “they have now been disobedient…they may now receive mercy“]). However, it seems much more likely that they would have deleted it because of its seeming inappropriateness in this context. That some witnesses have ὕστερον presupposes the presence of νῦν in their ancestors. A decision is difficult, but νῦν is slightly preferred, since it is the more difficult reading and is adequately represented in the mss.

²⁴ tn Grk “to all”; “them” has been supplied for stylistic reasons.

²⁵ sn A quotation from Isa 40:13.

²⁶ tn Grk “him”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²⁷ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²⁸ sn A quotation from Job 41:11.

·         End NET® Bible Notes

^[11]  Biblical Studies Press. (2006; 2006). The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible. Biblical Studies Press.

^b  I.e., a standard by which men curse or bless; cf. Gen. 12.2 and note.

^b  I.e., a standard by which men curse or bless; cf. Gen. 12.2 and note.

^c  Commemorating, respectively, the events of 2 Kings 25.3 ff. (Jer. 52.6 ff.); 2 Kings 25.8 ff. (Jer. 52.12 ff.); 2 Kings 25.25 ff. (Jer. 41 ); 2 Kings 25.1 ff. (Jer. 52.4 ).

^[12]  Jewish Publication Society. (1997, c1985). Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures : A new translation of the Holy Scriptures according to the traditional Hebrew text. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society.

[13] The Theological Roots of Antisemitism: A Christian View by PAUL M. VAN BUREN; from http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/site/pp.asp?c=gvKVLcMVIuG&b=394841 The Museum of Tolerance Online Multimedia Learning Center, Copyright © 1999, The Simon Wiesenthal Center 9760 West Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90035

a  I.e., “Trial.”

b  I.e., “Quarrel.”

c  Lit. “Amalek and his people.”

d  I.e., “The Lord is my banner.”

e  Meaning of Heb. kes uncertain.

[14]  Jewish Publication Society. (1997, c1985). Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures : A new translation of the Holy Scriptures according to the traditional Hebrew text. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society.

[15] THE Jewish Encyclopedia: A DESCRIPTIVE RECORD OF THE HISTORY, RELIGION, LITERATURE, AND CUSTOMS OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRESENT DAY. COPYRIGHT © 2001 BY VARDA BOOKS ORIGINAL COPYRIGHT © 1901, BY FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY All rights of translation reserved; from the article AMALEK, AMALEKITES, pp 482- 484, Volume 1.

[16] …Ibid…

[17] http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Terrorism/victims.html

[18] https://www.thereligionofpeace.com/

[19] http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/ForeignPolicy/Terrorism/Palestinian/Pages/Wave-of-terror-October-2015.aspx

[20] http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/

[21]http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/foreignpolicy/terrorism/palestinian/pages/victims%20of%20palestinian%20violence%20and%20terrorism%20sinc.aspx

[22] http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/ForeignPolicy/Terrorism/Palestinian/Pages/Wave-of-terror-October-2015.aspx

[23] http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/osloterr.html  Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Terrorism Deaths in Israel; In Memory of the Victims of Palestinian Terror); Jerusalem Post, (January 4, 2009)

[24] http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/pogroms.html

[25] http://warchronicle.com/numbers/WWII/deaths.htm

[26] The Conflict Catalog (Violent Conflicts 1400 A.D. to the Present in Different Regions of the World) authored by Peter Brecke contains information on 3708 conflicts, data on parties, fatalities, date and duration between the year 1400 and 2000.
It is available at the Center for Global Economic History here.

The data on the military death rate after 1946 is taken from the Human Security Report Project, which takes data from the PRIO Battle Deaths Dataset v.3.0. The page presenting this data is online here.

1  Lit seed

a  Gen 17:13, 19; Ps 105:9, 10; Luke 1:55

b  Gen 26:24; Lev 11:45; 26:12, 45; Heb 11:16

c  Gen 28:13; Gal 3:16

1  Lit seed

[27]  New American Standard Bible : 1995 update. 1995. LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.

a  Referring to vv. 4–5; cf. 2 Sam. 7.1–17.

b-  Meaning of Heb. uncertain

-b  Meaning of Heb. uncertain

[28]  Jewish Publication Society. (1997, c1985). Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures : A new translation of the Holy Scriptures according to the traditional Hebrew text. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society.

[29]  Jewish Publication Society. (1997, c1985). Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures : A new translation of the Holy Scriptures according to the traditional Hebrew text. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society.

·         [The following notes are taken from the NET Bible® footnotes, copyright (c) 1996-2006 by Biblical Studies Press L.L.C. All rights reserved. Used by permission from www.bible.org, n.d. Numbering system is unique to NET® Notes.  For more information, see footnote #2and 3

¹ sn This chapter falls into several sections: the south (vv. 1–5), the west (v. 6), the north (vv. 7–9), the east (vv. 10–15), and then a list of appointed officials (vv. 16–29).

² tn Or “command.”

³ tn Heb “this is the land that will fall to you as an inheritance.”

⁴ tn The expression refers to the corner or extremity of the Negev, the South.

⁵ tn Or “the Ascent of Scorpions” (עַקְרַבִּים [’aqrabbim] means “scorpions” in Hebrew).

⁶ tn Heb “its going forth,” or the way it runs.

⁷ sn That is, the Mediterranean.

⁸ tn The word for west is simply “sea,” because the sea is west of Israel.

⁹ sn That is, the Mediterranean Sea (also in the following verse).

¹⁰ tn Or “to the entrance to Hamath.”

¹¹ tn Or “the Sea of Galilee” (so NLT); NCV, TEV, CEV “Lake Galilee.”

sn The word means “harp.” The lake (or sea) of Galilee was so named because it is shaped somewhat like a harp.

¹² tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

¹³ tn The infinitive forms the direct object of what the Lord commanded. It actually means “to give,” but without an expressed subject may be made passive.

¹⁴ tn Heb “the house of their fathers.” So also a little later in this verse.

¹⁵ map For the location of Jericho see Map5-B2; Map6-E1; Map7-E1; Map8-E3; Map10-A2; Map11-A1.

·         End NET® Bible Notes

[30]  Biblical Studies Press. (2006; 2006). The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible. Biblical Studies Press.