#and especially given the history of israel as we know it today. I Do Not Think That Is An Okay Thing To Say

[nonbinarychaoticstupid]

anyone else see the issue with comparing netanyahu to hitler or is that just me

[edenfenixblogs]

Look what Google just recommended to me!!!!

I already own (and love) Shabbat and Portico.

But I am OBSESSED with the rest and must acquire them immediately.

Top of my list is Love Japan because LOOK AT THIS BEAUITFUL BOWL OF MATZO BALL RAMEN!!!!!

We hear a lot about Jewish people in Europe and MENA, but we do not hear a lot about Jewish culture as it blends with East Asian cultures, and that’s a shame. Not just because it erases the centuries of Jewish populations there, but also because there are plenty of people of mixed decent. People who may not have come directly from Jewish communities in East Asia, but people who have a Japanese Father and a Jewish Mother, for example. Or people in intercultural marriages. These are all real and valuable members of the Jewish community, and we should be celebrating them more. This cookbook focuses on Jewish Japanese American cuisine and I am delighted to learn more as soon as possible. The people who wrote this book run the restaurant Shalom Japan, which is the most adorable name I’ve ever heard. Everything about this book excites and delights me.

And of course, after that, I’m most interested in “Kugels and Collards” (as if you had any doubts about that after the #kugel discourse, if you were following me then).

This is actually written in conjunction with an organization of the same name devoted to preserving the food and culture of Jews in South Carolina!

I’m especially excited to read this one, because I have recently acquired the book Kosher Soul by the fantastic, inimitable Michael J. Twitty, which famously explores faith and food in African American Jewish culture. I’m excited to see how Jewish soul food and traditions in South Carolina specifically compare and contrast with Twitty’s writings.

I’m also excited for all the other books on this list!

A while ago, someone inboxed me privately to ask what I recommended for people to read in order to learn more about Jewish culture. I wrote out a long list of historical resources attempting to cover all the intricate details and historic pressure points that molded Jewish culture into what it is today. After a while I wrote back a second message that was much shorter. I said:

Actually, no. Scratch everything I just said. Read that other stuff if you want to know Jewish history.

But if you want to know Jewish culture? Cookbooks.

Read every Jewish cookbook you can find.

Even if you don’t cook, Jewish cookbooks contain our culture in a tangible form. They often explain not only the physical processes by which we make our meals, but also the culture and conditions that give rise to them. The food is often linked to specific times and places and events in diaspora. Or they explain the biblical root or the meaning behind the holidays associated with a given food.

I cannot speak for all Jews. No one can. But in my personal observation and experience—outside of actual religious tradition—food has often been the primary means of passing Jewish culture and history from generation to generation.

It is a way to commune with our ancestors. I made a recipe for chicken soup or stuffed cabbage and I know that my great grandmother and her own mother in their little Hungarian shtetl. I’ll never know the relatives of theirs who died in the Holocaust and I’ll never meet the cousins I should have had if they were allowed to live. But I can make the same food and know that their mother also made it for them. I have dishes I make that connect me to my lost ancestors in France and Mongolia and Russia and Latvia and Lithuania and, yes, Israel—where my relatives have lived continuously since the Roman occupation even after the expulsions. (They were Levites and Cohens and caretakers of synagogues and tradition and we have a pretty detailed family tree of their presence going back quite a long time. No idea how they managed to stay/hide for so long. That info is lost to history.)

I think there’s a strong tendency—aided by modern recipe bloggers—to view anything besides the actual recipe and procedures as fluff. There is an urge for many people to press “jump to recipe” and just start cooking. And I get that. We are all busy and when we want to make dinner we just want to make dinner.

But if your goal isn’t just to make dinner. If your goal is to actually develop an understanding of and empathy for Jewish people and our culture, then that’s my advice:

Read cookbooks.

[mossadspypigeon]

I'm a lesbian zionist too hi !!

Curious to hear your opinion on the idea that Zionism can't exist or is allowed to be hated because it's been used by bad people.

hi!!

it depends on who those “bad people” are, because many zionist figures are demonized and credited with words and actions they did not say or do.

like i was digging into some shit i heard ben gurion “said,” in 1948 and the “quotes” were actually from a fake book put out by decolonize palestine that never existed. they took his diaries, claimed this new book was translated by the person whose book he wrote a foreword for (a book about the origins of the idf) and added extensive quotes he never wrote.

or say, massacres that never actually happened or the stories were changed.

and also when it comes to israel and israeli history, context IS important. like for example, certain words having different meanings in the 1800s vs today, or civilians actually being military targets.

i would say the actual “bad figures” are very much in the minority. are some people palatable to non jews or even many jews? no. but they shouldn’t have to be. like jabotinsky was not palatable, but was still an important figure whose works should be read and discussed in good faith.

we also need to consider showing jewish zionists and jews in general empathy. why would some people not be palatable? why would some hate arabs? is hatred okay? no. but if you saw the jerusalem riots or the farhud or dhimmitude or fought in wars or lived every day facing arabs who wanted you annihilated, said they wanted this, and took action to make sure it happened, including murdering innocent people…how would you feel about them? some people react peaceably to threats like that and others react with anger. especially when they saw their side giving up more and more of their land.

jews have been oppressed for over 3,500 years. of course we would have movements based on anger at our oppressors and a desire for liberation and freedom. that language for jews is also going to be different from other groups, but other groups are given more leeway than we are when tbh most of those groups have faced less than we have. is it a competition? no. but it’s the truth.

zionism represents jews fighting back, and that is the reason it’s hated, not because of the actions of any jewish zionist. people criticizing zionism usually do not know the actions committed by groups or the history of the movement. they read snippets of zionist works through a modern and biased lens or they read completely fabricated accounts and take them as fact.

i can talk more about who actually created some of these fabricated myths about zionism in another post.

[causticsunshine]

anne sharing her stance as neutral on the genocide through multiple of her instagram stories certainly doesn't help my opinion about this whole staying quiet thing. very disappointed but not surprised.

i literally saw this one this morning (screengrab via @/spacecowboysue on twitter):

(edit: i’m about to get properly irate here but my anger isn’t just aimed at her, it’s at everyone taking similar pages out of her book by claiming neutrality and calling for ‘peace’ and essentially playing I Pretend I Do Not See in this situation; there is no reason or excuse for anyone who claims to want ‘peace’ here to be playing the so-called neutral card anymore.)

like okay, what the fuck is a STATUE going to do? and reconcile what—nearly a century of systematic occupation and genocide pushed and backed by numerous western countries, including her own? yeah, i’m sure a fucking statue is going to just, y’know, poof all the palestinians’ past and active trauma away, rebuild all the rubbled homes and cultural centers and other buildings, regrow the natural flora and heal the traumatized and dying animals and bring back the desecrated olive orchards, rain down clean water and fresh food from the sky… oh and bring back all their martyred dead!

and on top of the fucking insult that it is to still be standing for ‘neutrality’ and just wanting ‘peace’ between an oppressive nation state committing apartheid and the peoples of an actual country continually being terrorized for existing in their own homeland, calling it the ‘palestine israel conflict’? no one has ANY valid excuse anymore to belittle a continual siege as a ‘conflict’, like it’s a fucking playground spat.

and perhaps besides the point a bit, but on top of all that—anne will let the public call her son a slag (since he was a CHILD), a cheater, a womanizer, a queerbaiter AND a zionist, but the second anyone’s come for his bald head? oh, now that’s just too much now!

so today alone, she can make a post and a story calling out people making fun of or talking about her nearly 30 year old child shaving his head, but the best she can do in terms of addressing ongoing genocide that over 290 british MPs voted no on a ceasefire towards, is making a story post implicating her further neutrality and whittling the situation down to being ‘fixed’ with that ugly ass fucking statue?

and for anyone who wants to jump down my throat or go after anyone else talking about this with claims of ‘well you don’t know what she’s doing or saying in private’ or getting mad we upset harry’s mummy—i think sharing this shit publicly tells you whereabouts she’s at on things! she posted 3 separate stories about some fucking boots she recently purchased or was given through sponsorship (tbh i wasn’t arsed to check the detail, all i saw was the same pic like 3 times on her available IG story) and a few others about some ted talk she attended and meeting the speaker there, then one about harry’s hair, and then made an actual POST about his hair and tagged it with TPWK….

she HAS a platform. she has over 2.8 million instagram followers alone. and this is what she chooses to prioritize, to push. there really is no excuse anymore, especially when you’re from one of the countries continually backing israel and voting no on intervening with their despicable terror! there are resources EVERYWHERE including constant updates on gaza, debunkings on the lies western and israeli propaganda are spreading, insights into the entirety of the apartheid, information on palestinian culture and values, on the true history of israel, holy books… what excuse is there to really be had at this point besides blatantly prioritizing your own comfort over the lives of thousands of occupied and terrorized and murdered people?

[roseverdict]

The Philestines were an ancient enemy of the Israelis who lived in the Mediterranean. Israel and Judea were renamed Palestine at different times by the Romans as a punishment meant to humiliate them following rebellions against Roman rule. Arabs didn't start living in Palestine until Ottoman rule. And Jews are actual people just like Israel is a nation state. Neither is dependent on what your Holy Books think should happen.

Oookay. It took me a second to remember that this is in reference to my half-asleep, already-known-to-be-probably-ill-informed ramblings, but lemme just make something clear:

We agree on that last bit.

Neither is dependent on anybody's holy books, mine or otherwise (because some branch-offs of Christianity have additional holy books I don't follow and I just wanna make it clear I'm talking about those too).

Unfortunately, the people in power over military superpowers sure seem to fucking think they are, and they are acting accordingly.

My brain was just making connections between similar-sounding words used to reference peoples who have called that stretch of the Mediterranean home during various points of human history. Part of why I posted about it instead of just letting it simmer silently in my head for who-knows-how-long; my memory is shit enough as it is, and I don't exactly want to be that person who convinces themself of something completely false, forgets that it's false, and then doubles down on it whenever someone points it out. ESPECIALLY not about something like this. I know a guy irl who pulls that bs constantly about all kinds of subjects, and it ranges from annoying to frustrating to downright infuriating, depending on the seriousness and impact of the subject he's spewing nonsense about at any given time. I've talked about him before- he donated half my DNA.

I don't exactly want to be a James Somerton or a Nick Hergott, who just sits there and thinks really hard about things and then says "okay, that's all my research done!" without so much as cracking open a search engine.

So thank you for pointing out that the history of that region has had more at play than just Today's Hot Topics over the past several thousand years. I didn't necessarily need a reminder that people who don't believe in the Bible don't believe in the Bible or what it says and shouldn't be held to the Bible's standards due to that, given that I've been trying to unlearn that very thing for the past decade or so and haven't colossally screwed up yet to my knowledge, but I appreciate it all the same. Keeps me humble. Clearly, though, I was correct in assuming I would need to do more research in order to figure out if the 2 AM thoughts of somebody with a special interest in linguistics had any basis in actual reality or not. I think I'll go do that.

[schlagerkopf]

Ableben

On paper, I’m supposed to despise Naftaly Bennett, very much so. But I don’t. I think he’s a solid dude. His external look gives me some kind of chill vibe. He’s got that Cheshire cat look. He’s the type of person I want to dance with, soaked in sweat, in a wedding or a big event.

Maybe it’s not Bennett I should despise, but his manager – the genius who came up with the elections slogan “Something new is happening”. This insanely transmittable slogan that showed on buses and other random places I’ve been and went these last few months has kept reminding me that terrible moment in which I was given the bad news that “something new is happening”.

It happened today exactly one year ago. Friday night, 15th of June 2012. I was 26, two months and four days. Lying on my bed, my old N95 phone from 2007 was stuck to my left ear. My airconditioner was making noises of working, hardly making anything cool – I wasn’t cool in any way, not the situation, not me. On the Friday night news in the living room, my parents were watching the panelists laughing about something, while I was slowly dying in my sinking bed. The room was lit only by the hour on the digital counter on the TV cable transmitter – eternalizing the hour in which love died. I won’t be 100% true if I will argue it is exactly what she said – “something new is happening”. Maybe it was “something is beginning”. Her stream of words continued without pause, her voice sounding as if she is a little unsure, trying not to hurt – but knowing how much it hurts, how much pain it brings about.

“He’s not sleazy, he’s really sweet”.

And then started my elegant pleas for another chance:

“I love you”

“Give love another chance”

“Please”

And the likes.

That also had a pretty built-in response, that was pretty much based around “too little, too late”.

“It’s over Amir, you do not hear how many ‘No’s’ I’m giving you in this conversation”.

Then: “Good luck in the exams”.

That’s it. Alles ist vorbei. I’m left alone, shocked, crying like a baby with my old ass phone, while everyone’s already got smartphone, and she’s probably going to kiss him and do other deeds that I will never ever do again with her in this dimension.

She tapped that long red thingy on iPhones to end the convo. For me it was a simple “END” button. And when they were hit, that’s it, it was over. One year and ten months. 18 months overall. 547 days. And that’s it. A little button is pressed, a little dance of a finger, and we turn from actuality to history. A notable part of two people’s lives has ended. One, as it seems, only wants to forget it. The other, good god, a 26 year old and 4 months man, crying like a baby.

  Yeshayahu Leibowitz was an Israeli public intellectual who said interesting things. On one show in 1994 he was asked if he missed old Israeli politicians, from the age of those who built up and founded Israel. He answered with his special accent that hints he was not born in Israel himself, that he does not understand the question.

“I do not understand the question. What does it mean to miss a person?”

The person who asked the question tried to sharpen, resulting in Leibowitz simply saying:

“All of these – they were right for their hour. And we are dealing in this hour”.

I watched this some sad evening and it lifted me up immensely. Here’s a role model. What is it to miss someone, at all? What good does it do? It helps nothing, it’s not constructive. What was once, was. What matters is now.

If Leibowitz indeed didn’t miss anyone, he was a superhero of sorts, and the strongest one. Superman can fly, yeah, sure, but doesn’t he miss someone? And Spiderman? Doesn’t Batman miss his parents?

Missing is my kryptonite. It makes me weak. Especially when I am in my bed, full of memories and so empty, and especially if it happens in a late-night hour.

Missing is a sort of alchemy. It’s not something real, existing, it’s not something you can touch or smell. Mine is the worst kind of longing. It’s for something that was but isn’t. I believe the Portuguese call it “Saudade”. You can miss your friend but you know you’ll see them next week. And you can miss your lover, knowing you’ll never see them again.

  It’s hard to write about breakups. I wrote her a letter two weeks after the breakup. It was six pages and I’ve included some chocolate and a flower. It didn’t help. Because writing about breakups is futile, in a sense.

It’s hard to write about breakups because seemingly there isn’t much to say. I mean, yeah, ok, there is, but what will I say? It’s a paradox seeing that I’m in the midst of writing a long piece about breakups. It also doesn’t go with the fact that if it weren’t for breakups, most music we would be listening to nowadays would be instrumental. So, let’s agree that there’s a lot to say about breakups but at the same time there isn’t – life is complicated like that. I can say that I am hurting so much but how will I transmit this pain to you, the reader? The longing, the pain, the regret, the heaviness on the chest at 2am, when you wake up from a dream where she still loves you, and you realize reality is here and she doesn’t anymore. She used to, a lot, but no anymore. No more “good morning” text messages.

And what can you say anyway? “Time heals”. “Many fish in the sea”. I spent all of summer 2012 depressed in my room, what a waste. Sleeping on the pillow she bought me for my 25th birthday. A 90s boombox she once found and gifted me on a random morning where we said goodbye with a kiss, five months before she dropped the bomb on me – if to quote the Gap Band.

On the morning of June 5th 2012, after she spent the night over at my place, we just kissed and she got into her car and left to work. It was just another goodbye. How was I to know it was the last one ever? That it’s the last time I ever see her? The last time I see her in a world where she loves me? In a world, in a galaxy, where she has love for me in her loving heart? I thought about this moment for so long, about our last kiss – not knowing it is our last kiss. Maybe she knew already? Just a kiss and she left. I was clueless. Like I always am.

  In university, I studied about Martin Heidegger the philosopher. The professor talked about a word in German named “Ableben”. Like many others in Deutsch, it has many meanings, one of them is “Came to an end.

I see the word as the following: “An idea that came to an end. An idea that died. The idea that was between her and me, love, has come to an end. Suddenly, one side decided it is over, and the other side must deal with that.

And that’s something I learnt about breakups in the sad year that I had since she said the words that ended up meaning “it’s over”. Breakups are TOTAL. That is why they are so hard to accept, why it’s so hard to let go. If you don’t accept the breakup you’re not in tune with reality. But reality doesn’t ask you. It’s a madness, like The Stranglers called it in their song “La Folie”. It’s crazy to think and cry about someone all the time, dedicating all that brain power to someone who, maybe on a good day, dedicates you two neurons. Why don’t you do something better with your time? It’s like dancing on a grave.

And here is the realness of “Ableben”. It’s not like somebody died. It’s an idea that died. It’s so abstract. No more good morning and night texts. No more emails that come in the right time in the middle of the day, filling you with love and hope. No more I love you’s, no more kisses and hugs. This all came to its bitter sad end at a certain moment.

I thought a lot about the moment in which love dies. I understand it’s a long process, stopping to love someone who you love dearly. You don’t stop loving in one second. But it feels like it’s some epiphany, some inner switch that you go to sleep loving Amir and you wake up not loving Amir anymore. And it’s so hard for me to fathom how you can stop loving someone you’ve shared so much with, that you were such close friends and lovers.

And it’s crazier that I lover her still, as I write these lines. Of course, not as strongly as I loved her last year, but I still love her. I’ll always love her, even if I don’t know who she is right now, she’s changed. I can feel closer to the woman in the grocery shop than her. And even though I am mad at her and understand that breakups exist and it’s part of life. I still can’t understand how you do that to someone who you call a friend. I stopped caring about the singing of the birds in the morning, and that’s the greatest loss.

And the memories, my my, the memories. They keep playing. It’s like self-torture. Some streets I won’t dare walk through in Tel-Aviv. The bench from August 2010 here we kissed on our first date. When something new was happening and nothing was ending. I still miss her and who she is and what we were. Our long hugs every time we met. And I regret my actions that led her to another’s arms. And still I bite my lips whenever I pass by that garden where we shared our first kiss and look at the empty bench and grass and try to understand that feeling that is so amorphic, knowing that something is dead and that something else, new, has begun, and that new thing is the most beautiful thing in the world but you’re not part of it, you’re dead in the water; for me the new thing died, and I continue staring at the “Game Over” screen.

[isaiahbie]

Is Christianity Compatible with Imperialism?

Christians in many parts of the world, such as Sri Lanka, are often accused of siding with Western imperialism rather than having solidarity with their own people. This is one result of nations in the Two-Thirds World having been colonized by Western powers. Although I cannot give the history of imperialism, there are biblical principles that militate against it and differentiate it from genuine Christian witness (apologetics and evangelism).

Christianity was born and developed in a largely hostile environment in the ancient Mediterranean world. Nevertheless, it expanded as it reached out to both Jews and Gentiles through its teaching, preaching, miracles and acts of service. Since neither Jesus nor the apostles ever sanctioned coercion as a method for mission, neither did the early church. While the state is given “the power of the sword” (Romans 13:1-7), the church is not. Its weapons are spiritual and have greater power (2 Corinthians 10:3-5; Ephesians 6:12). After Christianity was legalized in the Roman Empire by Constantine, and especially after Christianity became the state church, the situation became more complex. We know from history that the church has sometimes used the coercive power of the state to threaten or force conversions (or ostensibly Christian behavior where true faith was lacking). Yet we cannot find any basis for this strategy in the Bible itself.

In light of the postmodernist criticism that “totalizing metanarratives” (worldviews claiming objective and universal truth) are intrinsically unjust, we should note that Jesus commissioned His followers to persuade and influence people through teaching and actions that are empowered by the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:18-20; Luke 24:46-49; Acts 1:8). He never authorized imperialism, exploitation, coercion, threats or any other means of illicit power over others. Instead, He tells us to love our neighbors and even our enemies (Matthew 5:43-48). The book of Acts shows the early Christians winning conversions through persuasion, not coercion or manipulation. We find Christians, such as Stephen (the first Christian martyr), being persecuted and killed for their faith. This did not lead the Christians to an armed revolt but to fervent prayer, fasting and acts of faith in the face of opposition. Sadly, some later Christians who held the reins of political power did enforce Christian conformity through the sword. We would be hard pressed, though, to find any warrant for this in the teachings of Jesus or the apostles.

Some may hearken back to the territorial imperatives given by God to ancient Israel in which the Israelites were to take land from their neighbors and in some cases to exterminate them. Suffice to say that these injunctions were meant only for a particular people at a particular time and for a particular purpose. There is no warrant to regard the holy wars of the Hebrew Bible as general principles for Christian endeavors. Further, the purpose of these wars was not the conversion of the inhabitants of the land but their military defeat.¹ Therefore, there is no parallel to Christian witness today, which has nothing to do with conquering lands by force.

While the Christian crusades are often invoked as evidence against the goodness and truth of Christianity, this is simply not true. Much could be said about the distorted views of the crusades (especially their extent and purposes), but suffice it to say that they were a relatively short-lived and largely defensive action instigated by Roman Catholic popes to reclaim the Holy Land for Christendom from Islam.² Being a non-Roman Catholic, I reject the office of the pope as unbiblical. Claims made by popes that the soldiers dying in a crusade would be guaranteed heaven are entirely unbiblical and, in fact, resemble Islamic claims more than anything found in Holy Scripture. The call for a holy (military) crusade made by the church is always out of sync with the Bible itself.³

Notes:

¹ On the moral question of the conquest of Canaan, see C. S. Cowles, Eugene H. Merrill, Daniel L. Gard and Tremper Longman III, Show Them No Mercy: Four Views on God and Canaanite Genocide (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003); Paul Copan, “Is Yaweh a Moral Monster?” Philosophia Christi 10, No. 1 (2008): 7-37; Paul Copan, Is God a Moral Monster? Making Sense of the Old Testament God (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2011). ² See Thomas Madden, “The Real History of the Crusades,” Crisis Magazine, March 2002; and Dinesh D’Souza, “Rethinking the Inquisition,” in What’s So Great About Christianity (Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2007), esp. pp. 204-6. ³ This should be distinguished from the just war tradition, which stipulates conditions under which the state (not the church) can engage in warfare morally. See Darrell Cole, When God Says War Is Right (Colorado Springs: WaterBrook, 2002).

[a-queer-seminarian]

Jesus flipping tables: a more accurate & respectful reading

This post shares a large chunk of chapter two of Amy-Jill Levine’s book Entering the Passion of Jesus. (Read the whole chapter as a PDF here.) Levine is a Jewish woman who is also a Professor of New Testament Studies.

Levine combats traditional readings of the text with their antisemitic layers by evincing how Jesus’s anger reflects the anger of his predecessors Jeremiah and Zechariah — an anger focused not on the simple fact that sacrificial animals were sold in the Temples’ outer courts, but on the way the Temple (like many of our worship spaces today) had become a safe place for corrupt oppressors, who behaved as if their daily atrocities would be overlooked by God if they paid for a sacrifice every now and again.

TL;DR: to sum up Levine’s points, she evinces how:

Jesus’s whole table flipping, whip-wielding stunt is more symbolic than practical (echoing similar stunts pulled by his people’s prophets).

Some have argued Jesus is mad about gentiles not being allowed to worship in the temple, but they very much were welcome. (There were places and rituals off limits to them, just as there are certain things non-members can’t do in our own worship spaces, like take communion or be on a committee). 

Jesus wasn’t pissed about animals being sold in the temple’s outer courts; that was normal and logical. There’s also no evidence of exploitation or unjust prices, so he’s not angry about the poor being cheated here either.

Jesus did not reject the Temple, or its laws & rituals! He followed them himself and helped restore people to them. (He even has “zeal for his father’s house.”)

Jesus also isn’t condemning the high priest or other priests with his actions here. That’s just not in the text; plus Caiaphas’s worry about Jesus’s actions inciting political violence that could harm his people were reasonable.

What Jesus is communicating with his table flipping and whip-wielding: he’s upset that the Temple is as “a den of thieves,” a place where people who sin and oppress in their everyday life feel perfectly comfortable, instead of feeling called to repent and reform. His words hearken back to previous prophets with similar concerns.

And finally, in the version of this story told in John’s Gospel, Jesus seems to be looking forward to a time when the Temple is no longer needed, for all places will be sacred and God will speak directly to everyone of every nation -- once again, Jesus is hearkening back to previous prophets who looked forward to the same thing. This is also a concept that the Pharisees were into, so stop depicting the Pharisees as “evil” or “backwards” or completely at odds with Jesus! (One key difference between Jesus’s vision and the Pharisees’ if of course that Jesus identifies a “new temple,” his own body.)

One last thing: if you’re unfamiliar with the various Gospel versions of the “temple cleansing” -- Matthew 21:12-17, Mark 11:11-17, Luke 19:45-46, and John 2:13-17 -- or want to reference them as you read this post, visit this webpage to read them all.

Without further ado -- the excerpt from Levine.

________________

The incident known as the ‘Cleansing of the Temple’ is described in all four Gospels. Most people have the idea--probably from Hollywood--that this is a huge disruption. When we see this scene depicted in movies, we find Jesus fuming with anger, and we inevitably see gold coins falling down in slow motion. Everything in the Temple comes to a standstill. ...But we are not watching a movie: we are studying the Gospels. 

Here's what we know about the actual setting. We begin by noting that the Temple complex was enormous. It was the size of twelve soccer fields put end to end. So, if Jesus turns over a table or two in one part of the complex, it's not going to make much of a difference given the size of the place.

The action therefore did not stop all business; it is symbolic rather than practical. Our responsibility is to determine what was symbolized.

For that, we need to know how the Temple functioned.

The Jerusalem Temple, which King Herod the Great began to rebuild and which was still under construction at the time of Jesus, had several courts. The inner sanctum, known as the "Holy of Holies," is where the high priest entered, only on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, to ask for forgiveness for himself and for the people. Outside of that was the Court of the Priests, then the Court of Israel, the Court of the Women, and then the Court of the Gentiles, who were welcome to worship in the Temple. 

The outer court, the Court of the Gentiles, is where the vendors sold their goods. The Temple at the time of Jesus was many things: it was a house of prayer for all nations; it was the site for the three pilgrimage festivals of Passover, Shavuot/Pentecost, and Sukkot/Booths; it was a symbol of Jewish tradition (we might think of it as comparable, for the Jewish people of the time, to how Americans might view the Statue of Liberty); it was the national bank, and it was the only place in the Jewish world where sacrifices could be offered. Therefore, there needed to be vendors on site.

Pilgrims who sought to offer doves (such as Mary and Joseph do, following the birth of Jesus, according to Luke 2:24) or a sheep for the Passover meal would not bring the animals with them from Galilee or Egypt or Damascus. They would not risk the animal becoming injured and so unfit for sacrifice. The animal might fly or wander away, be stolen, or die. And, as one of my students several years ago remarked, "The pilgrims might get hungry on the way." One bought one's offering from the vendors.

And, despite Hollywood, and sermon after sermon, there is no indication that the vendors were overcharging or exploiting the population. The people would not have allowed that to happen. Thus, Jesus is not engaging in protest of cheating the poor.

Next, we need to think of the Temple as something other than what we think of churches. A church, usually, is a place of quiet and decorum. ...The Temple was something much different: It was a tourist attraction, especially during the pilgrimage festivals. It was very crowded, and it was noisy. The noise was loud and boisterous, and because it was Passover, people were happy because they were celebrating the Feast of Freedom. ...We might think of the setting as a type of vacation for the pilgrims: a chance to leave their homes, to catch up with friends and relatives, to see the "big city," and to feel a special connection with their fellow Jews and with God. It is into this setting that Jesus comes.

______________

Driving out the Vendors 

...It seems to me that Jesus, in the Temple, was angry. But what so angered him? I hear from a number of people, whether my students in class or congregations who have invited me to speak with them, that the Temple must have been a dreadful institution; that it exploited the poor; that it was in cahoots with Rome; that Caiaphas, the High Priest in charge of the Temple, was a terrible person; that it banned Gentiles from worship and so displayed hatred of foreigners; and so forth. ...Some tell me that the Temple imposed oppressive purity laws that forbade people from entering, and so Jesus, who rejected those laws, rejected the temple as well. No wonder Jesus wants to destroy the institution.

But none of those views fits what we know about either Jesus or history.

First, Jesus did not hate the Temple, and he did not reject it. If he did, then it makes no sense that his followers continued to worship there. Jesus himself calls the Temple "my Father's house" (Luke 7:49: John 2:16). ...

Second, Jesus is not opposed to purity laws. To the contrary, he restores people to states of ritual purity. Even more, he tells a man whom he has cured of leprosy, "Go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them" (Mark 1:44; see also Matthew 8:4; Luke 5:14). 

Third, Jesus says nothing about the Temple exploiting the population. As we'll see in the next chapter, when we talk about the widow who makes an offering of her two coins, Jesus is concerned not with what the Temple charges, but with the generosity of the worshipers. 

Fourth, we've already seen that the Temple has an outer court, where Gentiles are welcome to worship. They were similarly welcome in the synagogues of antiquity, and today. They do not have the same rights and responsibilities as do Jews, and that makes sense as well. When I [a Jewish woman] visit a church, there are certain things I may not do. We might also think of how nations function: Canadians, for example, cannot do certain things in the USA, such as vote for president; nor can citizens of the USA vote in Canadian elections.

As for Caiaphas...Caiaphas is basically between a rock and a hard place. He is the nominal head of Judea, and he is supposed to keep the peace. Judea is occupied by Rome, and Roman soldiers are stationed there. Caiaphas needs to make sure that these soldiers do not go on the attack. He needs to placate Pilate, and he needs to placate Rome. 

At the same time, as the High Priest, he has a responsibility to the Jewish tradition. Rome wanted the Jews to offer sacrifices to the emperor...but Caiaphas and the other Jews refused to participate in this type of offering because they would not worship the emperor. The most they were willing to do was offer sacrifices on behalf of the emperor and the empire.

When Jesus comes into the city in the Triumphal Entry, when people are hailing him as son of David, Caiaphas recognizes the political danger. The Gospel of John tells us that the people wanted to make Jesus king (John 6:15). Caiaphas has to watch out for the mob. Caiaphas also has to watch out for all these Jewish pilgrims coming from all over the empire celebrating the Feast of Freedom, the end of slavery. When he sees Roman troops surrounding the Temple Mount, Caiaphas has to keep the peace. And Jesus is a threat to that peace. But none of this has to do directly with Jesus' actions in the Temple. He is not at this point protesting Caiaphas's role.

Sometimes I hear people say that Jesus drove the "money lenders” out of the Temple. That's wrong, too. Money-lending was a business into which the medieval church forced Jews, because the church concluded that charging interest was unnatural (money should not beget money). Yet people needed, then and now, to take out loans. The issue for the Gospel is not money lending but money changing. These money changers exchanged the various currencies of the Roman Empire into Tyrian shekels, the type of silver coin that the Temple accepted. We experience the same process when we visit a foreign country and have to exchange our money for the local currency.

So, if Jesus is not condemning the Temple itself, or financial exploitation, or purity practices, what is he condemning? Let's look at what the Gospels actually say.

According to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, ...the concern is not the Temple, but the attitude of the people who are coming to it.

In Mark's account Jesus begins by saying, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations?" (11:17). Indeed, it is so written. Jesus is here condensing and then quoting Isaiah 56:6-7... Jesus' rhetorical question should be answered with a resounding “Yes!"--for the Temple already was a house of prayer for all people. More, he is standing in the Court of the Gentiles when he makes his pronouncement. ...Thus, the problem is not that the Temple excludes Gentiles. 

Already we find the challenge, and the risk. Are churches Today houses of prayer for all people, or are they just for people who look like us, walk like us, and talk like us?

How do we make other people feel welcome? Is the stranger greeted upon walking into the church? Is the first thing a stranger hears in the sanctuary, "You're in my seat"? When we pray or sing hymns, do we think of what those words would sound like in a stranger's ears? ...

Matthew and Luke drop out "For all nations," and appropriately so, for they knew it already was a house of prayer for all nations. Matthew and Luke thus change the focus to one of prayer. And prayer gets us closer to what is going on in the Synoptic tradition.

___________

Den of Thieves

Jesus continues, ‘But you are making it a den of robbers’ (Matthew 21:13). Here he is quoting Jeremiah 7:11: “Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight?”

A "den of robbers" (sometimes translated a "den of thieves") is not where robbers rob. "Den” really means "cave," and a cave of robbers is where robbers go after they have taken what does not belong to them, and count up their loot. The context of Jeremiah's quotation -- and remember, it always helps to look up the context of citations to the Old Testament -- tells us this.

Jeremiah 7:9-10 depicts the ancient prophet as condemning the people of his own time, the time right before Babylonians destroyed Solomon's Temple over five hundred years earlier: “Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are safe!’ -- only to go on doing all these abominations?" 

Some people in Jeremiah's time, and at the time of Jesus, and today, take divine mercy for granted and see worship as an opportunity to show off new clothes rather than recommit to clothing the naked. The present-day comparison to what Jeremiah, and Jesus, condemned is easy to make: The church member sins during the workweek, either by doing what is wrong or by failing to do what is right. Then on Sunday morning this same individual, perhaps convinced of personal righteousness, heartily sings the hymns, happily shakes the hands of others, and generously puts a fifty-collar bill in the collection plate. That makes the church a den of robbers -- a cave of sinners. It becomes a safe place for those who are not truly repentant and who do not truly follow what Jesus asks. The church becomes a place of showboating, not of fishing for people. 

Jeremiah and Jesus indicted people then, and now. The ancient Temple, and the present-day church, should be places where people not only find community, welcome the stranger, and repent of their sins. They should be places where people promise to live a godly life, and then keep their promises. ...

___________

Stop Making My Father's House a Marketplace

John's Gospel says nothing about the house of prayer or den of robbers. In John's Gospel, Jesus starts not simply by overturning the tables, but also by using a “whip of cords" (since weapons were not permitted in the Temple, he may have fashioned the whip from straw at hand), and driving out the vendors. Jesus when says to the dove sellers, "Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!" (John 2:16). He is alluding to Zechariah 14:21, the last verse from this prophet, "and every cooking pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be sacred to the Lord of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and use them to boil the flesh of the sacrifice. And there shall no longer be traders in the house of the Lord of hosts on that day."

In John's version of the Temple incident, Jesus anticipates the time when there will no longer be a need for vendors, for every house not only in Jerusalem but in all of Judea shall be like the Temple itself. The sacred nature of the Temple will spread through all the people. He sounds somewhat like the Pharisees here, since the Pharisees were interested in extending the holiness of the Temple to every household.

The message is a profound one: Can our homes be as sanctified, as filled with Worship, as the local church?

Do we “do our best" on Sunday From 11 a.m. to 12 noon, but just engage in business is usual during the workweek? Do we pray only in church, or is prayer part of our daily practice? Do we celebrate the gifts of God only when it is time to do so in the worship service, or do we celebrate these gifts morning to night? Is the church just a building, or is the church the community who gathers in Jesus' name, who acts as Jesus taught, who lives the good news? 

Jesus' words, citing Zechariah, do even more. They anticipate a time when all peoples, all nations, can worship in peace, and in love. There is no separation between home and house of worship, because the entire land lives in a sanctified state. Perhaps we can even hear a hint of Jeremiah's teaching of the "new covenant," when "no longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, 'Know the LORD,’ For they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more" (Jeremiah 31:34). Can we envision this? Can we work toward it? ...

[craigtowens]

The value of journaling

Do you keep a journal? I’m not talking about a diary of your daily events, but a journal of your ongoing dialogue with God. This is a discipline I began over 25 years ago, and it’s been immensely helpful to me.

Every time you read the history of Israel in the Old Testament, you are really reading a written history—a journal—of what God did for His people.

In Luke 1:46-55, we read Mary’s song about the soon-to-be-born Jesus that someone journaled to record for posterity. The same thing is true for Zechariah’s song about his son John in Luke 1:67-79. I am sure that many people found great comfort in reading and recalling these songs, perhaps even Jesus Himself and John the Baptist.

Even Jesus told His disciple John to journal the words He spoke to him about events still to come (Revelation 1:11, 19; 2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14; 14:13; 19:9; 21:5).

Journaling has helped me at so many crucial points in my life. Especially when I needed to look back to be reminded of something God had spoken to me. I shared one example of this in my book Shepherd Leadership: The Metrics That Really Matter—

      The board was making a major decision. They were considering a change in their leadership to one who had completely different credentials and training from all of their previous leaders. Because this change would be so momentous, the board interviewed me for more than four hours. When they finally felt they had deliberated long enough, they asked me to leave the room while they prayed and voted. I stepped out into the lobby for just a couple of minutes when the door opened again and they asked me to step back inside.

      “Well, Craig,” the spokesman began, “we prayed and we feel you are the one God has selected for this position.” I told them I would be happy to accept their offer. After they prayed over me, I began to pack up my things to head home.

      “Hold on a minute,” one of the board members said to me, “we’re about to discuss the budget, and we think it would be good for you to be a part of this discussion.” I agreed and resumed my seat at the table.

      I was handed both the year-to-date financial report and the projected income and expenses for the remaining quarter of the year. “As you can see,” the treasurer began, “we are projecting a $70,000 loss for this year.” Then he turned to me and asked, “What are you going to do about that?”

      I gulped, tried not to show that my stomach was doing flips, and said, “Honestly, I don’t know.” I paused, and since no one else said anything, I continued, “But I’ll let you know what we come up with.”

      All the way home, I kept thinking, “What have I gotten myself into? I’m walking away from a successful business to oversee an organization that’s going to go bankrupt before I even get started?!” But then I began to remind myself of something else: God chose me.

      When I returned home, I immediately went to my journal. I flipped to the page where I had written down all of the reasons why I had concluded that God chose me for this position. I looked at the way God had spoken to me and to my wife, and the way friends who knew nothing about this decision spoke a confirming word to me. I looked at the pages where I had written down the vision I believed God had given me for this new organization, and how the board chairman’s handwritten vision for the organization matched mine thought-for-thought. Looking at these words—at the specific dates and ways God had spoken, and confirmed, and re-confirmed His direction—gave me the confidence to step into this assignment, even when facing such a huge financial mountain. (excerpt from chapter 5 “A Humble Leader’s Attitude Adjustment”)

If you haven’t journaled in the past, I encourage you to begin this spiritual discipline today. I can tell you from both what I read in the Bible and my own personal experience how valuable this will be for you.

[lamortexiii]

Cryptic Mystic: What’s Your Sign?

Many of us are fascinated by astrology and all things outer space related. The great unknown that is beyond the stars has been a hot topic for centuries. But, how did the zodiac begin? What makes astrological signs and the alignment of planets and stars so magical? Is it truly prophetic? Does your sign define your personality, past, present, and future? Or is this simply another product of the Barnum Effect?

So I’ll start by asking the obvious: “what’s your sign?” I’m a Leo through and through. While I’m skeptical about the claims of some astrological signs and their relation to my life on a daily basis, I do believe there is some truth here - as is with most things. This topic is one that I have been wanting to write about for some time now. I have always found outer space, stars, planets, etc. to be fascinating. As a child, I remember laying in the grass and watching the stars above me. In my little valley in the forest, I could see so many stars that wouldn’t be visible if I were in the city. I am so thankful I had that childhood experience of growing up somewhere where I could truly connect with nature and the simple things around me that most take for granted on a day-to-day basis. I still stargaze to this day, but I can’t see near as many as I once did in my childhood forest valley home. I’ve seen a plethora of shooting stars throughout my lifetime, two meteor showers, two solar eclipses, and plenty of unidentified objects that were likely satellites… or were they…?

One time when I was driving home from work late one night I saw something that befuddled me. As I drove down the winding 2 lane highway in the darkness of the night I saw what appeared to be a helicopter hovering right above the trees. Now, this area I was driving through was rural. There are few houses in those woods, but there are some. The backroads leading to the site where the “helicopter” was hovering are seldom traveled, especially this late at night. I began processing the event in my mind and questioning if it was a helicopter, why would it be hovering so low and what exactly would it be doing in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night. It just didn’t make sense. I thought about logical explanations and could only come up with one. There is the slim possibility that someone driving on one of the many backroads in that area may have got into an accident and was getting airlifted to a hospital. I’ve seen it happen before on backroads near there. Aside from this idea, I had nothing. By this point, I had obviously slowed down so I could get a better look. Hell, there wasn’t any traffic so it’s not like I was worried about causing an accident or anything. As I looked closer I noticed it wasn’t a helicopter at all. There were about 4-6 large bright lights shining down below the area that the craft was hovering over. The circumference of this craft was much wider than a helicopter - more circular. The lights were far too big and far too bright. Whether it was fear, shock, tiredness, or my stomach growling, I continued to drive on and leave the peculiar scene behind. Now, I know this has nothing to do with astrology or zodiac signs, but it is an interesting story nonetheless. 

In reference to zodiac signs, I find that descriptions of a Leo with my particular birthdate are genuinely pretty accurate when describing my personality and conflicts. However, the daily horoscopes are definitely not accurate in my experience. I will say that when I read/listen to them I try to apply something positive from the reading to my daily life. I engage in a deeper thought process and practice mindfulness throughout the day, keeping that positive focus within my mind on the positive message I am supposed to be implementing into my day. I have also found that compatibility readings have been somewhat inaccurate as far as certain zodiac signs getting along or not getting along with other zodiac signs. The biggest obvious red flag for me is how many different sources there are. And guess what? They all say something different on the daily. If zodiac signs and horoscopes are supposed to be accurate, then why don’t all individuals who report them online all say the same thing - or at least something similar?? To play devil's advocate here, I did say earlier that I believe there is some truth to all of this, which is why it interests me so much and also why I believe in this stuff to a degree. There is a lot of magical and wondrous history to unpack in regards to the zodiac and horoscopes. So, let’s jump right in, shall we?

Interesting fact: the word zodiac is derived from Greek terminology meaning “circle of little animals.” We’re a circle of little animals - cute visuals there, eh? Hieroglyphs in Egypt dating as early as the 14th century BC were found to contain a circle of decans (constellations) depicting something that looks a lot like the constellations and zodiac symbols that we know today. In total there were 36 decans found within the temple.

During the first half of the first millennium, Babylonian astronomers created our modern zodiac. They also mapped the previous constellations that were seen in the Egyptian hieroglyphs but continued to add more as they were discovered. In the last half of the 5th century, the Babylonian astronomers divided the many constellations into 12 equal "signs” to represent the 12 months of the year at 30 days per month. Each sign contained 30° of celestial longitude, thus creating the first known celestial coordinate system. According to calculations by modern astrophysics, the zodiac was introduced between 409 and 398 BC and probably within a very few years of 401 BC. Unlike modern astrologers, who place the beginning of the sign of Aries at the place of the Sun at the vernal equinox, Babylonian astronomers fixed the zodiac in relation to stars, placing the beginning of Cancer at the "Rear Twin Star" (β Geminorum) and the beginning of Aquarius at the "Rear Star of the Goat-Fish" (δ Capricorni). Due to the precession of the equinoxes, the time of year the Sun is in a given constellation has changed since Babylonian times, the point of vernal equinox has moved from Aries into Pisces. 

You’ll be pleasantly surprised, intrigued, or disgusted to know that all of this does have some roots within religion. The Hebrew Bible shows knowledge of the Babylonian zodiac. E. W. Bullinger noted that the drawings found in the book of Ezekiel were quite similar to the middle four quarters of the zodiac (Lion/Leo, Bull/Taurus, Man/Aquarius, Eagle/Scorpio). You read that right, Scorpio is noted as being an eagle - not a scorpion. Some say that the twelve tribes of Israel are correlated with the zodiac signs found within the Hebrew 12 month calendar. There is an argument that the position of the Israelic tribes around the Tabernacle from the book of Numbers correlates with the exact order of the zodiac, with Judah, Reuben, Ephraim, and Dan representing the middle signs of Leo, Aquarius, Taurus, and Scorpio, respectively. It is shocking how I have heard religious people in modern times talk about how this is all a bunch of garbage, even though some of this is literally correlated with items from the Bible.

To explain daily horoscopes and the connection between the stars, planets, and our zodiac signs, you must engage in a bit of math (yuck). When planets and constellations of the zodiac would align, the Babylonian astronomers of that time would note the experiences that people had and found similarities. These experiences, along with the position of the Earth, Sun, Moon, and constellations and the positions relative to the zodiac signs were stored within a catalogue. This went on for several years and is essentially what began our modern-day daily horoscope. However, it is my personal opinion that a lot of these “professionals” who have their own magical websites where you can get a free daily horoscope, just make shit up to sound interesting. That is obvious by the previously mentioned differentials found within each page. I encourage you to do a quick Google search and you’ll see what I’m talking about. This ties into the belief that the Barnum Effect is in play here. You’ll remember the Barnum Effect from last month's blog. If you haven’t read the June 2021 blog The Imaginarium of Barnum, I suggest you head there next to get a deeper understanding of what I’m talking about before you continue reading. Much of what is broadcasted in daily horoscopes, zodiac sign descriptions, and even within mediumship and tarot readings is full of extremely vague generalities. Because the information is presented in such a vague and generalized way, it then becomes an instance where anyone could apply any of the information to their life in some way. So as you can see, there is some psychological manipulation at play here. Now, I am not saying this is true for all who present the information. I will say that there are A LOT of shams out there. I have seen far more fake sites/readings/etc. than I have seen legit ones. If I had to give a percentage from my personal experience, I’d say about 85% of what I’ve seen is bullshit. But you choose what you believe at the end of the day. I just ask you to keep an open mind and a wise eye about you when scanning the web for horoscopes, zodiac information, tarot, and mediumship. 

All of this information is interesting to stew on within your mind. I hope that you learned something new. I know I did when I was researching this topic for the blog. The religious ties were the most surprising thing to me. What did you find most interesting? Drop a comment under the blog on Tumblr or under the Instagram post for this month’s blog and let me know. Tonight if you are able, take a look at the stars and see if you can find the constellations. The plethora of shapes within the brightest stars are brilliant to gaze upon. Who knows, maybe you will find your zodiac constellation. Maybe you will depict a new constellation on your own by combining different combinations of stars. Or maybe you’ll see something that you can’t explain…

Cryptic Mystic Blog by PsychVVitch @psychvvitch

www.LaMorteXiii.com

[justforbooks]

Yuval Noah Harari: the world after coronavirus

This storm will pass. But the choices we make now could change our lives for years to come

Humankind is now facing a global crisis. Perhaps the biggest crisis of our generation. The decisions people and governments take in the next few weeks will probably shape the world for years to come. They will shape not just our healthcare systems but also our economy, politics and culture. We must act quickly and decisively. We should also take into account the long-term consequences of our actions. When choosing between alternatives, we should ask ourselves not only how to overcome the immediate threat, but also what kind of world we will inhabit once the storm passes. Yes, the storm will pass, humankind will survive, most of us will still be alive — but we will inhabit a different world.

Many short-term emergency measures will become a fixture of life. That is the nature of emergencies. They fast-forward historical processes. Decisions that in normal times could take years of deliberation are passed in a matter of hours. Immature and even dangerous technologies are pressed into service, because the risks of doing nothing are bigger. Entire countries serve as guinea-pigs in large-scale social experiments. What happens when everybody works from home and communicates only at a distance? What happens when entire schools and universities go online? In normal times, governments, businesses and educational boards would never agree to conduct such experiments. But these aren’t normal times.

In this time of crisis, we face two particularly important choices. The first is between totalitarian surveillance and citizen empowerment. The second is between nationalist isolation and global solidarity.

Under-the-skin surveillance

In order to stop the epidemic, entire populations need to comply with certain guidelines. There are two main ways of achieving this. One method is for the government to monitor people, and punish those who break the rules. Today, for the first time in human history, technology makes it possible to monitor everyone all the time. Fifty years ago, the KGB couldn’t follow 240m Soviet citizens 24 hours a day, nor could the KGB hope to effectively process all the information gathered. The KGB relied on human agents and analysts, and it just couldn’t place a human agent to follow every citizen. But now governments can rely on ubiquitous sensors and powerful algorithms instead of flesh-and-blood spooks.

In their battle against the coronavirus epidemic several governments have already deployed the new surveillance tools. The most notable case is China. By closely monitoring people’s smartphones, making use of hundreds of millions of face-recognising cameras, and obliging people to check and report their body temperature and medical condition, the Chinese authorities can not only quickly identify suspected coronavirus carriers, but also track their movements and identify anyone they came into contact with. A range of mobile apps warn citizens about their proximity to infected patients.

This kind of technology is not limited to east Asia. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel recently authorised the Israel Security Agency to deploy surveillance technology normally reserved for battling terrorists to track coronavirus patients. When the relevant parliamentary subcommittee refused to authorise the measure, Netanyahu rammed it through with an “emergency decree”.

You might argue that there is nothing new about all this. In recent years both governments and corporations have been using ever more sophisticated technologies to track, monitor and manipulate people. Yet if we are not careful, the epidemic might nevertheless mark an important watershed in the history of surveillance. Not only because it might normalise the deployment of mass surveillance tools in countries that have so far rejected them, but even more so because it signifies a dramatic transition from “over the skin” to “under the skin” surveillance.

Hitherto, when your finger touched the screen of your smartphone and clicked on a link, the government wanted to know what exactly your finger was clicking on. But with coronavirus, the focus of interest shifts. Now the government wants to know the temperature of your finger and the blood-pressure under its skin.

The emergency pudding

One of the problems we face in working out where we stand on surveillance is that none of us know exactly how we are being surveilled, and what the coming years might bring. Surveillance technology is developing at breakneck speed, and what seemed science-fiction 10 years ago is today old news. As a thought experiment, consider a hypothetical government that demands that every citizen wears a biometric bracelet that monitors body temperature and heart-rate 24 hours a day. The resulting data is hoarded and analysed by government algorithms. The algorithms will know that you are sick even before you know it, and they will also know where you have been, and who you have met. The chains of infection could be drastically shortened, and even cut altogether. Such a system could arguably stop the epidemic in its tracks within days. Sounds wonderful, right?

The downside is, of course, that this would give legitimacy to a terrifying new surveillance system. If you know, for example, that I clicked on a Fox News link rather than a CNN link, that can teach you something about my political views and perhaps even my personality. But if you can monitor what happens to my body temperature, blood pressure and heart-rate as I watch the video clip, you can learn what makes me laugh, what makes me cry, and what makes me really, really angry.

It is crucial to remember that anger, joy, boredom and love are biological phenomena just like fever and a cough. The same technology that identifies coughs could also identify laughs. If corporations and governments start harvesting our biometric data en masse, they can get to know us far better than we know ourselves, and they can then not just predict our feelings but also manipulate our feelings and sell us anything they want — be it a product or a politician. Biometric monitoring would make Cambridge Analytica’s data hacking tactics look like something from the Stone Age. Imagine North Korea in 2030, when every citizen has to wear a biometric bracelet 24 hours a day. If you listen to a speech by the Great Leader and the bracelet picks up the tell-tale signs of anger, you are done for.

You could, of course, make the case for biometric surveillance as a temporary measure taken during a state of emergency. It would go away once the emergency is over. But temporary measures have a nasty habit of outlasting emergencies, especially as there is always a new emergency lurking on the horizon. My home country of Israel, for example, declared a state of emergency during its 1948 War of Independence, which justified a range of temporary measures from press censorship and land confiscation to special regulations for making pudding (I kid you not). The War of Independence has long been won, but Israel never declared the emergency over, and has failed to abolish many of the “temporary” measures of 1948 (the emergency pudding decree was mercifully abolished in 2011).

Even when infections from coronavirus are down to zero, some data-hungry governments could argue they needed to keep the biometric surveillance systems in place because they fear a second wave of coronavirus, or because there is a new Ebola strain evolving in central Africa, or because . . . you get the idea. A big battle has been raging in recent years over our privacy. The coronavirus crisis could be the battle’s tipping point. For when people are given a choice between privacy and health, they will usually choose health.

The soap police

Asking people to choose between privacy and health is, in fact, the very root of the problem. Because this is a false choice. We can and should enjoy both privacy and health. We can choose to protect our health and stop the coronavirus epidemic not by instituting totalitarian surveillance regimes, but rather by empowering citizens. In recent weeks, some of the most successful efforts to contain the coronavirus epidemic were orchestrated by South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. While these countries have made some use of tracking applications, they have relied far more on extensive testing, on honest reporting, and on the willing co-operation of a well-informed public.

Centralised monitoring and harsh punishments aren’t the only way to make people comply with beneficial guidelines. When people are told the scientific facts, and when people trust public authorities to tell them these facts, citizens can do the right thing even without a Big Brother watching over their shoulders. A self-motivated and well-informed population is usually far more powerful and effective than a policed, ignorant population.

Consider, for example, washing your hands with soap. This has been one of the greatest advances ever in human hygiene. This simple action saves millions of lives every year. While we take it for granted, it was only in the 19th century that scientists discovered the importance of washing hands with soap. Previously, even doctors and nurses proceeded from one surgical operation to the next without washing their hands. Today billions of people daily wash their hands, not because they are afraid of the soap police, but rather because they understand the facts. I wash my hands with soap because I have heard of viruses and bacteria, I understand that these tiny organisms cause diseases, and I know that soap can remove them.

But to achieve such a level of compliance and co-operation, you need trust. People need to trust science, to trust public authorities, and to trust the media. Over the past few years, irresponsible politicians have deliberately undermined trust in science, in public authorities and in the media. Now these same irresponsible politicians might be tempted to take the high road to authoritarianism, arguing that you just cannot trust the public to do the right thing.

Normally, trust that has been eroded for years cannot be rebuilt overnight. But these are not normal times. In a moment of crisis, minds too can change quickly. You can have bitter arguments with your siblings for years, but when some emergency occurs, you suddenly discover a hidden reservoir of trust and amity, and you rush to help one another. Instead of building a surveillance regime, it is not too late to rebuild people’s trust in science, in public authorities and in the media. We should definitely make use of new technologies too, but these technologies should empower citizens. I am all in favour of monitoring my body temperature and blood pressure, but that data should not be used to create an all-powerful government. Rather, that data should enable me to make more informed personal choices, and also to hold government accountable for its decisions.

If I could track my own medical condition 24 hours a day, I would learn not only whether I have become a health hazard to other people, but also which habits contribute to my health. And if I could access and analyse reliable statistics on the spread of coronavirus, I would be able to judge whether the government is telling me the truth and whether it is adopting the right policies to combat the epidemic. Whenever people talk about surveillance, remember that the same surveillance technology can usually be used not only by governments to monitor individuals — but also by individuals to monitor governments.

The coronavirus epidemic is thus a major test of citizenship. In the days ahead, each one of us should choose to trust scientific data and healthcare experts over unfounded conspiracy theories and self-serving politicians. If we fail to make the right choice, we might find ourselves signing away our most precious freedoms, thinking that this is the only way to safeguard our health.

We need a global plan

The second important choice we confront is between nationalist isolation and global solidarity. Both the epidemic itself and the resulting economic crisis are global problems. They can be solved effectively only by global co-operation.

First and foremost, in order to defeat the virus we need to share information globally. That’s the big advantage of humans over viruses. A coronavirus in China and a coronavirus in the US cannot swap tips about how to infect humans. But China can teach the US many valuable lessons about coronavirus and how to deal with it. What an Italian doctor discovers in Milan in the early morning might well save lives in Tehran by evening. When the UK government hesitates between several policies, it can get advice from the Koreans who have already faced a similar dilemma a month ago. But for this to happen, we need a spirit of global co-operation and trust.

Countries should be willing to share information openly and humbly seek advice, and should be able to trust the data and the insights they receive. We also need a global effort to produce and distribute medical equipment, most notably testing kits and respiratory machines. Instead of every country trying to do it locally and hoarding whatever equipment it can get, a co-ordinated global effort could greatly accelerate production and make sure life-saving equipment is distributed more fairly. Just as countries nationalise key industries during a war, the human war against coronavirus may require us to “humanise” the crucial production lines. A rich country with few coronavirus cases should be willing to send precious equipment to a poorer country with many cases, trusting that if and when it subsequently needs help, other countries will come to its assistance.

We might consider a similar global effort to pool medical personnel. Countries currently less affected could send medical staff to the worst-hit regions of the world, both in order to help them in their hour of need, and in order to gain valuable experience. If later on the focus of the epidemic shifts, help could start flowing in the opposite direction.

Global co-operation is vitally needed on the economic front too. Given the global nature of the economy and of supply chains, if each government does its own thing in complete disregard of the others, the result will be chaos and a deepening crisis. We need a global plan of action, and we need it fast.

Another requirement is reaching a global agreement on travel. Suspending all international travel for months will cause tremendous hardships, and hamper the war against coronavirus. Countries need to co-operate in order to allow at least a trickle of essential travellers to continue crossing borders: scientists, doctors, journalists, politicians, businesspeople. This can be done by reaching a global agreement on the pre-screening of travellers by their home country. If you know that only carefully screened travellers were allowed on a plane, you would be more willing to accept them into your country.

Unfortunately, at present countries hardly do any of these things. A collective paralysis has gripped the international community. There seem to be no adults in the room. One would have expected to see already weeks ago an emergency meeting of global leaders to come up with a common plan of action. The G7 leaders managed to organise a video conference only this week, and it did not result in any such plan.

In previous global crises — such as the 2008 financial crisis and the 2014 Ebola epidemic — the US assumed the role of global leader. But the current US administration has abdicated the job of leader. It has made it very clear that it cares about the greatness of America far more than about the future of humanity.

This administration has abandoned even its closest allies. When it banned all travel from the EU, it didn’t bother to give the EU so much as an advance notice — let alone consult with the EU about that drastic measure. It has scandalised Germany by allegedly offering $1bn to a German pharmaceutical company to buy monopoly rights to a new Covid-19 vaccine. Even if the current administration eventually changes tack and comes up with a global plan of action, few would follow a leader who never takes responsibility, who never admits mistakes, and who routinely takes all the credit for himself while leaving all the blame to others.

If the void left by the US isn’t filled by other countries, not only will it be much harder to stop the current epidemic, but its legacy will continue to poison international relations for years to come. Yet every crisis is also an opportunity. We must hope that the current epidemic will help humankind realise the acute danger posed by global disunity.

Humanity needs to make a choice. Will we travel down the route of disunity, or will we adopt the path of global solidarity? If we choose disunity, this will not only prolong the crisis, but will probably result in even worse catastrophes in the future. If we choose global solidarity, it will be a victory not only against the coronavirus, but against all future epidemics and crises that might assail humankind in the 21st century.

Yuval Noah Harari is author of ‘Sapiens’, ‘Homo Deus’ and ‘21 Lessons for the 21st Century’

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[rivasremedies]

Do Horses Love Garlic?

The History of Garlic

Garlic is one of the oldest known foods and has been consumed by humans for several thousand years dating back to 2600-2100 BC. Its roots began in China, Japan, and Korea. From there it migrated to the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and then Great Britain. Today, it is one of the most popular medicinal foods in the world. Garlic is used across the globe, including India, Egypt, and Israel, for its nutritional and culinary value, as well as its medicinal properties. Close relatives to garlic include onion, shallot, leeks, and chives.

Garlic for Nutrition

Garlic, which is categorized as a vegetable, contains high levels of sulphur and vitamin B1 (thiamine), both of which nourish the skin. And because Vitamin B1 changes the body odor, it is a popular addition to supplements to help resist or repel insects including flies and ticks. Garlic also contains the essential minerals of calcium, phosphorus, manganese, and selenium, as well as a high content of Vitamin C. There is also germanium in it; a lesser known but still important mineral with antioxidant properties that heals wounds, strengthens the immune system, and has been used in cases of cancer.

Garlic as Medicine

Garlic contains allicin, a phytonutrient which breaks down to form a variety of organosulfur compounds, compounds which give garlic a number of therapeutic effects. Garlic is widely used for bacterial infections, yeast infections, viruses, colds, flus, immune problems, respiratory conditions, toothaches, abscesses, a lack of appetite, and low vitality. In war-time Russia, garlic was known as “Russian penicillin” because it was so effective in treating wound infections. In more recent times we have learned that garlic is also an effective blood thinner and helps to reduce high blood pressure as well as cholesterol. There is also an association between the intake of garlic and the reduction of certain cancers.

All this considered, garlic makes an excellent tonic.

Garlic is also thought to ward off ghosts and negative energies and can be used for those people or animals who are prone to attracting entities that deplete their life force.

Garlic as Horse Medicine

It seems that everyone is passionate about garlic! There are garlic lovers and there are garlic haters. Especially when it comes to feeding it to horses! In fact, one of my Facebook posts on garlic was in the top ten posts ever for record engagements. Whew! That’s a lot of passion over garlic. The conversation went on for days.

Garlic lovers see a lot of positive changes in their garlic-eating horses. Garlic can help horses with digestive upsets, leaky gut, respiratory problems, infections, skin problems, and overall malaise. It is also an excellent general detoxifier. Garlic can also be used as a poultice on abscesses, wounds, and joint infections.

What The Studies Say

Some horse folks are fearful to feed garlic because of its reported effects on red blood cells. But studies are sparse and often unreasonable and inconclusive. One study showed that high quantities of garlic over several weeks can lead to anemia, i.e., a reduction in red blood cells. The study included four horses and two of them were controls which meant that only two horses ate the garlic which was fed in freeze dried form. These two horses were given .1 grams/kg of body weight (approximately 45 grams in total) every day to start which was then gradually increased to .5 grams/kg (approximately 227 grams in total) of garlic over 41 days. This higher dosage was then continued for another 30 days for a total of 71 days.

This means that a one-thousand-pound horse would have been fed the equivalent to 7 medium cloves of raw garlic for the first 6 weeks and then up to 38 medium cloves of raw garlic for another month!

And so, perhaps of no surprise, after 2-1/2 months of these toxic doses the horses’ blood work showed a type of anemia called Heinz body anemia but no other visible signs of physical symptoms or other health problems. Symptoms of anemia can include fatigue, muscle weakness, loss of appetite, pale gums, and yellowish eyes. In any case, within 5 weeks of discontinuing the garlic, all of the blood work returned to normal.

Link to resource: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15822591/

Another study used 250 grams per day on 1,000-pound horses with the same results.

Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t know why any sensible horse person would feed their beloved horses these kinds of toxic dosages. It defies common sense. Few vegetables or plants would NOT be toxic if fed in this way. It’s all about the dose. Horses are very sensitive and do not need to be overdosed with anything for it to work.

According to the National Research Council in 2008, a presumed safe intake for horses is 90 mg/kg (= .09 grams) of body weight per day (6 raw cloves) and a historically safe intake is 15 mg/kg (.015 grams) of body weight per day (1 raw clove).

Meanwhile Health Canada has approved garlic for all equine supplements, with a precaution to not feed to any horses with a bleeding disorder. Fair enough.

Garlic as People Medicine

The effects of garlic on red blood cells are not exclusive to horses, it has the same effects on humans, and dogs too. In fact, it is these chemical properties that make it such an excellent antioxidant to improve circulation and reduce blood pressure. And so, while some people may be nervous about its supposedly adverse effects on horses, many of these same people are eating lots of garlic for themselves. But no one is worried about the same potentially toxic effects on people because they are focused on the benefits. In fact, the world production of garlic for human consumption is over 25 million tons! That’s a lot of garlic!

My own mother took garlic every day for many years and credited it for her strong immune system. Good thing she didn’t live in ancient Greece though, the authorities of the time forbade anyone who smelled like garlic from entering their sacred temples.

How to Feed Garlic to Horses

Horses are also garlic lovers and garlic haters, although most of them really like it. They must know that garlic has a long history of helping people and animals with its nutritional, medicinal, and therapeutic benefits. So, we side with both the horses and Health Canada and highly recommend it for equine medicinal purposes where indicated. But like all medicinal herbs and supplements, it should only be given if the benefits are obvious, and of course it should not be given over long periods of time as in months or years. A shorter duration will not only prevent any kind of toxic effects, but it will avoid desensitization where the body no longer responds to it in a positive way. Most herbs or supplements, if given for longer than is needed, will lose their potency. So, it is always best to use herbal plants or vegetables temporarily as indicated for specific situations.

The Garlic Equine Dosage

Raw garlic is the best and most potent form. Feed 2-3 medium or large cloves daily for 2-3 weeks or less if the condition improves. And if your horse doesn’t like the taste or stops eating it take that as a sign that your horse is finished with it. My own horses let me know when they have had enough because they start to flip the cloves out of their dish. This is usually after about 2 weeks of 2-3 garlic cloves per day. Horses know best!

~ Stop and Smell the Garlic ~

Marijke van de Water, B.Sc., DHMS

Equine Health Nutrition Specialist Homeopathic Practitioner Medical Intuitive & Healer Educator & Author

Marijke is a life-long horse lover, the author of the best-selling Healing Horses Their Way, and the founder, formulator, and CEO of Riva’s Remedies. She is a gifted healer who helps horses, and their people, from around the world live happier, healthier lives.

[indestinatus]

tiva fanfiction author recommendations plz I need some good tiva to read

OKAY SO

This has been sitting in my inbox for a couple of days because I had to think SO HARD about my favorite authors and I was sure I would forget some of them. I started reading fanfiction almost ten years ago, so a lot of the titles and names have been lost in my memory by now. There are some more recent stories (which the authors are active) and the ones I get back to reread, so I’ll list those. Some works are still in progress. Here are some of my favorite tiva stories in no particular order:

Christmas Meeting by @beatrixacs [M, 368,073 word count, in progress]

Christmas 2015. Prague, Czech Republic. An unexpected meeting between two former co-workers after more than two years from their parting in Israel that will make them realize that their feelings towards each other are stronger than before. But will they do anything about it? And what does the future look like for them? AU Season 13.

Kissing Deal by @beatrixacs [M, 247,815 word count, complete]

Tony and Ziva are posing as a married couple in a hotel for a week to keep an eye on another married couple that is involved in their last case and to find some evidence against them. As a part of marital necessities they make a deal about kisses. Will they finally find their way to each other thanks to it?

a crawl to cross the distance by @benditlikepress [M, 6,258 word count, complete]

Tony and Ziva’s first date ended up happening 15 years after they first met, 5 years and 7 months after their daughter was born, and just over a month after they were reunited for good.

leave before the lights come on by @benditlikepress [M, 9,049 word count, complete]

The night before Ziva is assigned to NCIS, she crosses paths with one member of the team in a bar. Set between Kill Ari Pt 2 and Silver War.

That We May Forgive by @justkindaoverhereobsessing [G, 12,875 word count, complete]

Ziva's second pregnancy is nothing like her first (makes a comparison between Tali’s pregnancy and a second child in the DiNozzo family)

We Are an Ocean by @justkindaoverhereobsessing [M, 120,164 word count, in progress]

The first time they sleep together, it's easy. It makes sense, partners transitioning to friends and maybe friends with benefits. Letting emotions in, though? That might be a different story (tiva sleeping together and the repercussions of it throughout the episodes)

Heat wave by jelenamichel [M, 24,685 word count, complete]

What was it they said about excessive heat having an effect on a person's ability to think clearly? A heat wave in DC brings the tension between two agents to boiling point. 

Famiglia by jelenamichel [T, 83,903 word count, complete]

When DiNozzo Senior's health takes a hit Tony finds out about long-kept secrets and lies. His life begins to change as his two families collide, and he battles with who he wants to be versus the man he seems destined to become.

I See You by @storywriter30 [T, 8,491 word count, complete] 

And suddenly, it is the Fall of 2009 and he is seeing her for the first time again. All of her strength, all of her scars, all of their history, lay bare in front of him (Tony finds Ziva is alive in Paris).

The Liaison by @hundan [E, 28,470 word count, in progress]

Some days it's hard to remember why it is you do your job, this was highly evident today for Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo. When he left Gibbs, his boss, in the motherland to take a overseas deployment to Israel he thought the whole thing would be an experience of a lifetime. Maybe he was wrong, but maybe he was right. AU

The Past Forgotten by @hundan [T, 75,315 word count, complete] 

"I'm sorry, I don't know you" Tony said, simply. Like that one single comment hadn't ripped her heart out and stomped all over it. She was his partner, she's not meant to be forgotten by him of all people.

Hoping for Happiness by @jaelke421 [M, 265,887 word count, complete]

Tiva romance. Chronicles their transition from friends to something more. Departs canon after Child's Play. Warning: Mention of rape and torture. 

Cold Tiles and Warm Air by @factoffictionwriter [M, 3,658 word count, complete]

But staring? It just wasn't her thing. Touching, kissing, stroking… these were all forms of intimacy she could get behind. But leave her to look - just look, not touch - and she typically grew antsy. Or worse: Bored. Tag 11x02. Bitter Sweet.

Family Second by @factoffictionwriter [M, 26,865 word count, complete]

Alternate ep 13x24. The team gets ahold of Ziva before the mortar attack. Follows along with the storyline of the episode for the most part. A true to character AU of sorts.

holding on (and letting go) by @thewintersoldierdisaster [G, 1,322 word count, complete]

Tony and Ziva are reunited again. Set in S17.

Cool Hand Luke by @thewintersoldierdisaster [G, 1,959 word count, complete]

Tony and Tali spend Ziva's birthday in Paris.

Of Plenty by Strawberry Shortcake123 [M, 28,748 word count, complete]

While celebrating their reinstatement as NCIS agents, Tony and Ziva drink too much and go too far. They decide to put the night behind them- until Ziva finds out that she is pregnant.

Treasure Map by @belletylers [T, 11,285 word count, complete]

"Tony had always considered himself fairly good at finding people who were missing. Especially if those people were Ziva." Tony and Tali go to Paris, searching for Ziva after the events of 13x24.

A Helping Hand by @loudlooks [M, 16,928 word count, complete]

Ziva comes up with a creative solution to help Tony, who refuses to take painkillers after injuring both arms.

Something I Left Behind by @aksannyi [E, 5,894 word count, complete]

This is a missing scene from Past, Present, Future, which explains how Tali came to be. Yes, the M rating is there for a reason. This is angsty, given the nature of the episode it comes from.

Under Pressure by @aksannyi [E, 4,338 word count, complete]

She didn't need to kiss him then, but she did, and suddenly they were no longer pretending. Tony and Ziva learn a lot about each other while they're under cover. Tag to 3x08, Under Covers. 

Treading Water by Mechabeira [T, 191,744 word count, complete]

"You can still swim, can't you? You're going to have to tow her in, DiNozzo. We aren't going to let her just tread water."

There are so so so many more great authors out there, so I’ll list their FF.net and AO3 pages (the ones I can remember): Zays, jae-vous, brightblue, Anonymous033, Strawberry Shortcake123, AliyahNCIS, quotelation (@quotelation), McGeekle (@mcgeekle), LittleSammy, pro-bee (@pro-bee), xoxonessie (@xoxonessie), alacarton (@ahtlolevad-fics) and MANY OTHERS THAT I SURELY FORGOT (for that I’m sorry, but I tried my best).

Please feel free to fangirl with me about all those stories (haha I’m always opened to that) and to click in their accounts to see more great ones!! I just linked some I like most, but there are authors who wrote about 20-50 tiva stories with the same quality I linked it here. Be sure to check their profiles out!!

ALSO IMPORTANT TIP

From someone who loves tiva fanfiction, the works about it are scattered throughout more than a decade, so there’s A LOT (a lot, no joke) of good fanfiction both on FF.net and AO3. Some of the authors are still active on Tumblr, and if you like someone’s type of posts, try to ask them if they wrote something (what I love here is that most people active on the fandom eventually turn into writers) or even if they haven’t I’m sure they would recommend some great ones!

I hope I could help you somehow, and I’m sure Anthony DiNozzo and Ziva David will still have a lot of new authors to cherish them, their story is not over yet. 

thanks, anon!! xoxo Sofia

[haleviyah]

First Century Rabbi Sketch

Let's dive into history for a moment here. According to archives, Israel was (and still is) not as pristine as you see in the movies or to anyone's liking. I (probably like you) have been raised/sold the narrative that this tiny strip of sand was suppose to be almost like a mini-Rome, with pious men walking the streets, and those who didn't agree with you or walked on the other side of the road was automatically your enemy without getting to know them first. Boy, was I wrong - AWFULLY WRONG. And I am glad the movie portrayals were fake! To put this in brief summary, the region where Rebbe Yehoshua Bar Yosef (or who you would like to call "Jesus Christ") is from would make Las Vegas look tame. Smoking (or vaping) and drinking were no strangers to the populous, obviously. Shisha molasses, marijuana and high alcoholic content wine were common at small dinners and large parties along with other substances. However, they were not used solely as means of intoxication and euphoria in contrast to today's assumptions based in the modern church. These substances were mainly used in gatherings, especially given to those who have it rough/stressful (i.e. prostitutes, tax collectors who would extort citizens, and other shades of the rainbow of life.) Please, understand this. This was during OLD COVENANT, meaning that the Immersion (or baptism) of the Holy Spirit was not available to everyone yet. There had to be methods used to slow down oppression in everyone's personal lives and things such as simple dinners to parties were essential to help the people to relax enough and get the stress off their shoulders. Rabbis (which I stress the word is NOT a religious title, but rather equal to calling a gentleman "Sir") would host these said gatherings often and happily pay for the food or whatever supplies is necessary. Sin (disbelief) was inevitable back then when it came to the Law. The Law was a mitigation process, much like how us quarantining a majority of 2020 was mitigation against the COVID-19. This was how the Law worked and it was effective to a degree, however it is NOT designed to heal us or make us righteous. Nowadays, that the Law is fulfilled, the dependency on physicality to slow down sin is no longer necessary anymore. We have the power to counter it easily. I stress this off and on, and I will do it again: the Bible is WAY more gritty and in depth than one would think. It’s way more down to earth and relational, and exercises altruism instead of keeping you up in the clouds while enticing you with euphoria. When you empathize Israel's (Judea's) history and let your guard down towards Truth and raise that guard against religious dogma/doctrines, I guarantee things will be smoother.   On a side note, you christians are probably wondering, "Is this what Jesus looked like and did?" Well, I hate to burst your pretty little bubble but YES! There is an extremely high likelihood he hosted these parties mentioned and payed for them in full (wines, hookahs and music) and ate, drank and chilled with the prostitutes, tax collectors and otherwise. One more thing I nearly forgot: I am in no means promoting abusing the usage of drugs, NOR am I a prohibitionist. However, if you have a rough day and you want to smoke a blunt, or have a glass of wine/beer to relax, I am not going to stand in your way. Stress kills you more, and making sure that you have a peace of mind is more way important than trying to police your life and making your uneasiness worse. This is how I have learned how to see things. 

[giftofshewbread]

World Government is Rising In America!

By Daymond Duck    Published on: May 9, 2021

Here are some recent events that seem to indicate that world government is rising in America.

One, concerning hyper-inflation, economic collapse, and famine: on Apr. 29, 2021, it was reported that the price of food is soaring in Asia, a region that contains more than half of the world’s population, and history shows that soaring food prices eventually lead to social unrest (The French Revolution of 1789, Europe’s Revolutions in 1848, and a revolution in Russia in 1917).

Concerning the signs of His coming: Jesus said there will be “upon the earth, distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring” (Luke 21:25).

This is usually interpreted in one of two ways: the waves and seas roaring represent an increase in cyclones, hurricanes, etc., at sea; and roaring (social unrest, rioting, demonstrating, etc.) in the sea of humanity (Rev. 17:15).

Two, also concerning hyper-inflation and an economic collapse: it is being reported that the Biden administration is planning to spend 6 trillion dollars just in the next 6 months alone.

Some economists say America’s debt-to-GDP ratio is higher than it has been since the end of WWII, and another 6 trillion dollars will destroy the U.S. dollar.

Three, concerning world government: on Apr. 28, 2021, Pres. Biden addressed the nation and a joint session of Congress.

As expected, he accused America of “systemic racism,” a vague term that many say means because of slavery and segregation in America, black people do not get fair treatment at school, at work, in elections, in housing, in anything; and everyone in America, especially white Republicans, is guilty.

Using the death of George Floyd as an illustration, Biden said, the “knee of injustice [is] on the neck of black America.”

In response, the black Senator from South Carolina, Tim Scott, said, “Hear me clearly: America is not a racist country,” and he added, “It’s backwards to fight discrimination with different discrimination.”

Aside from wondering how this black man got elected to the U.S. Senate if America is so racist, and aside from noting that this black man pointed out that Democrats want to fight racism by discriminating against all white people, U.S. citizens need to understand that the purpose of portraying America as a bad nation is to restructure America and bring it into a godless world government.

According to the Bible, America will be subjected to a godless world government that is far worse than what we have today; and billions of people, including multitudes of the black people, will regret the day it happened.

Four, concerning world government: on Apr. 30, 2021, Dr. Andy Woods and Jim McGowan discussed the U.S.-Mexico Border Crisis on Pastors’ Point of View #163.

The Biden administration has delegated authority over the crisis to Vice-Pres. Kamala Harris, but she has not even visited the border.

For whatever it is worth, she says she is working with the radical U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, to get the international community’s help.

Notice this!

Kamala Harris is delegating control of the U.S. border with Mexico to unelected foreigners instead of the U.S. Border Patrol, building a wall, etc.

The fact is, according to the Migration Policy Institute, during his first 100 days in office, Biden issued 94 Executive Orders that have dismantled America’s immigration policies and throw the border wide open.

Five, concerning the Battle of Gog and Magog: Pres. Biden is now involved in indirect talks with Iran over that terrorist nation’s quest for nuclear weapons.

This prompted Israel’s Intelligence Minister, Eli Cohen, to warn that “a bad deal will send the region spiraling into war.”

Cohen said, “Israel will not allow Iran to attain nuclear arms. Iran has no immunity anywhere. Our planes can reach everywhere in the Middle East.”

An Israeli attack on Iran would almost surely result in Iran attacking Israel, a war that the Bible says will happen in the latter years and latter days (Ezek. 38:8, 16).

Six, concerning the Mark of the Beast: on May 1, 2021, Dave Hodges reported on The Common Sense Show that New Zealand has just made Covid vaccinations mandatory without public notice, discussion, etc.

Seven, concerning persecution: Evangelist, Mike Gendron, bought a round-trip ticket from Texas to Green Bay on A.A. to speak at a conference.

Gendron said the only time he did not wear a mask was while he was drinking a cup of water, and no flight attendant ever asked him to put his mask on.

Two days later, when Gendron checked in at the airport to return to Texas, he was told he was banned from flying on A.A. for not wearing a mask on his trip to Green Bay.

An overnight hotel room and a ticket on another airline cost him another $600, and none of the money he paid A.A. for a round-trip ticket was refunded.

After a week of trying to straighten this out, A.A. stopped taking Gendron’s calls.

Why he was reportedly falsely banned for not wearing a mask is a matter of speculation.

Persecution of those that object to what is happening to America is intensifying almost daily.

Eight, A reader sent an e-mail reminding me that some past prophecy teachers have suggested that world leaders might use the Rapture to deceive people.

Several highly respected prophecy teachers speculated for years that globalists might promote the Rapture as an alien abduction to scare people into uniting against a threat from outer space and thereby accept a one-world government.

I consulted with a friend, and we agreed that it is time to remind people of this.

My friend even sent a link to an Apr. 30, 2021, article titled, “Pentagon whistleblower warns of UFO intelligence failure on ‘level of 911.'”

The whistleblower, a former Pentagon investigator, said there is something out there and U.S. citizens need to be told.

As it turns out, the U.S. government will release files on the subject in June.

Just know this: The Church will be removed from planet Earth by Jesus, not UFOs from outer space.

This is not to say that UFOs don’t exist or that people don’t need to know about them, but it is to say that people shouldn’t allow themselves to be deceived and scared into a world government because leaders have decided to admit that UFOs are not a conspiracy theory or because they have made up lies to convince people that a world government is needed to defend the planet.

The rise of the Antichrist over a Satanic world government is a greater threat than aliens from outer space.

Christians oppose a godless world government, but they support the coming world government of Jesus during the Millennium.

Christians oppose the false peace on earth that the Antichrist will promote, but they support the peace on earth that the Prince of Peace (Jesus) will establish.

Christians oppose the false religions of Mother Earth, the Green New Deal, Chrislam, etc., but they support the true teachings and worship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as recorded in the Bible (God’s will).

Nine, concerning godless world government: the fact that the Democrat Party left God out of their Party Platform is now old news, and so is the fact that on Feb. 26, 2021, Jerry Nadler, a Democrat from New York, said, “What any religious tradition describes as God’s will is no concern of this Congress.”

It has now been reported that the National Day of Prayer will not be allowed at the U.S. Capitol for the first time in 70 years.

There was a request for prayer at the Capitol, but it was denied supposedly because the Capitol is closed due to the January 6 protests.

This writer believes prayer is badly needed, and the truth is that those that have taken over the Capitol support a godless world government.

The America that was based on Judeo-Christian values no longer exists.

Jesus said the day of His coming will be like the days of Noah (Matt: 24:37).

In the days of Noah, God saw that the wickedness of man was great. He was grieved and decided to destroy man with a Flood (Gen. 6:5-7).

Ten, on May 2, 2021, it was reported that California plans to release at least 76,000 inmates.

63,000 of them have been imprisoned for violent crimes and repeat felonies.

20,000 of them have been given life sentences with the possibility of parole.

10,000 of them have been imprisoned twice.

About 2,900 of them have been imprisoned 3 times under the state’s “three strikes law.”

Critics say putting thousands of criminals back on the streets will increase wickedness and criminal activity in California.

To make matters worse, police are retiring or quitting in record numbers all over the U.S. because of the “Defund the Police” movement, the liability, and the abuse and hatred that is being directed toward them.

Finally, if you want to be rapture ready and go to heaven, you must be born again (John 3:3). God loves you, and if you have not done so, sincerely admit that you are a sinner; believe that Jesus is the virgin-born, sinless Son of God who died for the sins of the world, was buried, and raised from the dead; ask Him to forgive your sins, cleanse you, come into your heart and be your Saviour; then tell someone that you have done this.

[frmartinshomiliesandreflections]

17th December >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Matthew 1:1-17 for The 17th December: ‘A genealogy of  Jesus Christ’.

17th December

Gospel (Except USA)

Matthew 1:1-17

The ancestry of Jesus Christ, the son of David

A genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham:

Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah, Tamar being their mother, Perez was the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram was the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon was the father of Boaz, Rahab being his mother, Boaz was the father of Obed, Ruth being his mother, Obed was the father of Jesse; and Jesse was the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife, Solomon was the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa, Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, Joram the father of Azariah, Azariah was the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, Amon the father of Josiah; and Josiah was the father of Jechoniah and his brothers. Then the deportation to Babylon took place. After the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud, Abiud the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, Azor was the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Achim, Achim the father of Eliud, Eliud was the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob; and Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary; of her was born Jesus who is called Christ.

The sum of generations is therefore: fourteen from Abraham to David; fourteen from David to the Babylonian deportation; and fourteen from the Babylonian deportation to Christ.

Gospel (USA)

Matthew 1:1-17

The genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David.

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.    Abraham became the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar. Perez became the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab. Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. Boaz became the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth. Obed became the father of Jesse, Jesse the father of David the king.    David became the father of Solomon, whose mother had been the wife of Uriah. Solomon became the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asaph. Asaph became the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, Joram the father of Uzziah. Uzziah became the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah. Hezekiah became the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amos, Amos the father of Josiah. Josiah became the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the Babylonian exile.    After the Babylonian exile, Jechoniah became the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel the father of Abiud. Abiud became the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, Azor the father of Zadok. Zadok became the father of Achim, Achim the father of Eliud, Eliud the father of Eleazar. Eleazar became the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Christ.    Thus the total number of generations from Abraham to David is fourteen generations; from David to the Babylonian exile, fourteen generations; from the Babylonian exile to the Christ, fourteen generations.

Reflections (8)

(i) 17th December

Today we begin the Octave of Christmas. The readings, especially the gospel readings, relate much more to the birth and childhood of Jesus. The alleluia verses are a series of beautiful Advent prayers, each of which is worth making our own this Advent season. The genealogy of Jesus with its list of strange names may strike us as an unusual gospel reading. Why include it in the lectionary at all? Yet, it reminds us very forcibly of the humanity of Jesus. Yes, we believe that Jesus was the Son of God, but he was also a son of Abraham and a son of David. He belonged to the people of Abraham’s God, the people of Israel. Through Joseph, his father, he was a descendant of King David. Jesus was deeply rooted in the Jewish world and tradition. His family tree was a Jewish family tree. His Scriptures were the Jewish Scriptures. When God became human, he did so among a particular people, in a particular place, at a particular time in history. Yet, God sent his Son into the world for all peoples, for every place and for all future time. Jesus, now risen Lord, is to be found among us, in this place, in this time. When God sent his Son into the world it was for everyone, in every time and place. The child Jesus was born not just to Mary and Joseph of Nazareth two thousand years ago, but to each one of us today. That is why we celebrate the birth of this child as good news for us, for me personally. Christmas is the time when we give thanks to God for the greatest gift he could have given us, the gift of his very self, the gift of his Son, who is light from light. Having given such a wonderful gift, God will never take it back. Because of the birth of Jesus to Mary and Joseph, we have all been eternally graced and we are called to live out of that grace.

And/Or

(ii) 17th December

The gospel reading we have just read is probably one of the strangest gospel readings of the church’s liturgical year. We might ask, ‘Why bother with that long list of names?’ It was clearly important for the evangelist Matthew to communicate some sense of Jesus’ family tree. There seems to be an increasing interest in family trees in recent times. More and more people want to know ‘Where have I come from?’ and ‘Who are the people who have helped to make me the person I am?’ Each of us is very aware that the story of our ancestors is an important part of our story. It is the part of our story that is below ground, like the roots of a tree. And where would a tree be without its roots? In a similar way, Matthew knew that the story of Jesus’ ancestors was a very important chapter in his own story. In Jesus’ genealogical tree that Matthew gives us there are a number of people who were anything but paragons of virtue. Many of them had what we would call today a dark side. Yet, Matthew is declaring that God worked through all of these people, including those whose character left a lot to be desired, to give the world its Saviour. Matthew’s genealogy reminds us that, in the words of Saint Paul, God’s power can be made perfect in weakness. Even when we are not at our best, God’s purpose for our lives and for the lives of others continues to work itself out.

 And/Or

(iii) 17th December

The gospel reading we have just read is probably one of the strangest gospel readings of the church’s liturgical year. We might ask, ‘Why bother with that long list of names?’ It was clearly important for the evangelist Matthew to communicate some sense of Jesus’ family tree. There seems to be an increasing interest in family trees in recent times. More and more people want to know ‘Where have I come from?’ and ‘Who are the people who have helped to make me the person I am?’ Each of us is very aware that the story of my ancestors is an important part of my story. It is the part of my story that is below ground, like the roots of a tree. And where would a tree be without its roots? In a similar way, Matthew knew that the story of Jesus’ ancestors was a very important chapter in his own story. The genealogy, the family tree, of Jesus that Matthew presents in this morning’s gospel reading stresses in the very first line that Jesus was a descendant of Abraham and a descendant of David. As son of David, he is the promised Messianic King of the Jews; as son of Abraham he fulfils the God’s promise to Abraham that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Jesus, the long awaited Messianic king of the Jews has come, not just for the sake of Israel, but for the sake of all the nations, and that includes all of us. Jesus may be a Jew, but he is the light of the nations.

 And/Or

(iv) 17th December

This morning we begin the octave of Christmas. The readings for these eight days are very specially chosen. The first reading invariably consists of one of the great Messianic promises in the Jewish Scriptures. The gospel acclamation on each of these eight days is also very significant. Each one is a beautiful prayer, a variation on the simple, ‘Come Lord Jesus’. You may have noticed the gospel acclamation for this morning’s Mass, ‘Wisdom of the Most High; ordering all things with strength and gentleness, come and teach us the way of truth’. The gospel readings for these eight days, apart from tomorrow Sunday, are all taken from the first chapter of the gospel of Matthew and the gospel of Luke. This morning’s gospel reading consists of the opening seventeen verses of the gospel of Matthew. It is an unusual gospel reading; it is tempting to ask ‘what is the point of that long list of names’. What was Matthew doing by beginning his gospel in this particular way? He wanted to show that Jesus was rooted in the Jewish people; his family tree included Abraham and Isaac, David and Solomon, and many others. Jesus was hewn from the rock of Abraham, like the remainder of the people of Israel. We are being reminded that the deepest roots of our own Christian faith are to be found in the story of the people of Israel. That list of names is anything but a list of saints; there are plenty of people whose lives left a lot to be desired; we only have to think of David. Yet, Matthew is saying that in some mysterious way, God worked through all of those characters to bring Jesus to humanity. Matthew is reminding us there that God can bring great good out of human sin and brokenness. That realization is not an encouragement to sin but it gives us hope that even when we fall short of our calling the Lord’s saving purpose continues to work itself out.

 And/Or

(v) 17th December

Matthew’s gospel opens with the genealogy of Jesus. You may wonder why it is given to us as a gospel reading at the beginning of this novena of days before Christmas. After all, it is only a long list of mostly unpronounceable names. We are being reminded that the child whose birth we are soon to celebrate did not just drop out of the sky. He was fully human and like all humans, all of us, he had an ancestry, he had a family tree. He had roots and he was shaped by those roots. When you look at that list of names, they are a very mixed bag. Many of them are far from being paragons of virtue. Yet, each of them played a part in the making of Jesus. Each of them ultimately served God’s good purpose. There will be good and bad in our own family tree just as there will be good and bad in our own personal lives. Yet, God can work in a life-giving way even through the darker and what we would think of as the more negative experiences of our lives. Every experience can serve God’s purpose if we remain to God’s presence to us. He is constantly at work in our lives bringing new life out of death and great good out of failure.

 And/Or

(vi) 17th December

Today we begin the octave of Christmas. The gospel readings from the 17th December up to and including Christmas Eve are all taken from the first chapter of the gospel of Matthew and of the gospel of Luke. This morning’s gospel gives us the opening seventeen verses of Matthew’s gospel, the genealogy of Jesus. You might be tempted to ask, ‘Why do we read these verses at all in our liturgy?’ What are we to make of this long list of unpronounceable names? At the very beginning of his gospel Matthew is telling us that Jesus is a Jew, a descendant of Abraham and of David. His roots and our roots as his followers are to be found in Judaism. Matthew was aware that many of those listed in the genealogy of Jesus were anything but paragons of virtue. Yet they had a role to play in the coming of Emmanuel, God with us, to all men and women, Jew and pagan. Matthew may be reminding us that God can work powerfully in and through flawed human beings. Our own personal frailties and weaknesses do not prevent God from working through us. Even though we may be far from perfect, we can still have a role to play in bringing Jesus, Emmanuel, to all those who continue to long for his coming.

 And/Or

(vii) 17th December

Today, the first day of the Octave of Christmas, we traditionally read Matthew’s account of the genealogy of Jesus. At one level it seems like a rather dry list of names. Yet, this is how Matthew has chosen to begin his gospel and this list of names clearly had great significance for him. It tells us that Jesus had an ancestry; he did not just drop out of the sky, as it were. This ancestry was solidly Jewish. As the first line of the gospel reading states, Jesus was ‘son of David, son of Abraham’. Matthew is reminding us that Jesus, and the church that emerged from him, have their roots in the story of God’s dealings with the people of Israel in the Jewish Scriptures. In this solidly male list of names, four women are mentioned, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and the wife of Uriah. They are all non-Jewish in origin. Matthew is suggesting that Jesus’ heritage line brought in Gentiles as well. Jesus’ initial concern during his public ministry was for the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but he as risen Lord he sent his disciples to go out and make disciples of all the nations. The church, like Jesus, has deep Jewish roots, but is open to the world. Many of the named people in Jesus’ genealogy, both the men and the women, were anything but paragons of virtue. Matthew suggests that there were plenty of skeletons in Jesus’ cupboard. Yet, God worked through them all to bring us Jesus. The same can be true of our own ancestral story. Even out own personal story will not always be one of pure virtue. Perhaps one of the messages of this gospel reading is that the Lord can turn all of our experiences to a good purpose, both the sinful and the virtuous ones, both the darkness and the light. As Paul says in his letter to the Romans, ‘all things work together for good for those who love God’.

 And/Or

(viii) 17th December

Today, 17th December, we begin the octave of Christmas. The readings these days are special to each day. The Alleluia verse for these days is a special verse relating to the coming of the Saviour. They are lovely prayers in their own right, and would make a perfect prayer programme for these eight days. The Alleluia verse or antiphon for today is, ‘Wisdom of the Most High, ordering all things with strength and gentleness, come and teach us the way of truth’. The gospel readings for these eight days are all taken from the opening chapters of the gospel of Matthew and Luke, the story of the birth and infancy of Jesus. Today’s gospel reading is probably the strangest of all. Why do we read this long list of names on 17th of December? It is the genealogy of Jesus according to Matthew. This evangelist gives his version of the generations that led up to the birth of Jesus. In this way, he reminds us that this special child who has the unique name ‘God-with-us’, has a human ancestry. Like every human being, he has a family tree, a Jewish family tree. Jesus, the Son of God, is also the son of Abraham. Some of his Jewish ancestors mentioned in this list left a lot to be desired. Yet, God worked through them all to bring Jesus, God’s Son, to the human race in the fullness of time. The evangelist may be reminding us that God can always bring good out of what falls short of his desire for us. That is true of our own personal lives, as well. Even the darker experiences of our lives can serve God’s purpose for us, if we keep entrusting ourselves to God in love through it all. As Saint Paul says in his letter to the Romans, ‘all things work together for good, for those who love God’.

Fr. Martin Hogan.