#the way of yehoshua

[thewayofyehoshua]

THE TORAH: HOLY, JUST AND GOOD!

Those who think Sha'ul/Paul sought an escape from the Jewish Law in order to make Christianity easy for pagan converts must find this verse difficult. It proves that Sha'ul neither had an un-Jewish view of the Law nor desired to abrogate it. The verse witnesses to Sha'ul's lifelong high regard for the Torah, which corresponds to his lifelong observance of it (see Act_13:9 Act_21:21). This attitude would have been with him from his youth, since his parents were Pharisees (Act_23:6); it would have been strengthened by his studies with Rabban Gamli'el (Act_22:3); and there is no reason to suppose that his coming to faith in Yehoshua who did not "come to abolish the Torah" (Mat_5:17)-would have changed it. So many errors about Sha'ul's opinion of the Law could have been avoided had this verse been understood as constraining everything he writes about it. YHVH-God's holy Torah for holy living does not change. Why? Because YHVH himself does not change (Mal_3:6) and holiness does not change. Moreover, this verse is not alone: Rom_7:10, Rom_7:14, Rom_7:16, Rom_7:22 andRom_8:2, Rom_8:4, Rom_8:7-8 show that Sha'ul had a high regard for the Torah.

[antisemitism-eu]

Note to anti-Zionists: You cannot celebrate Passover

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but despite the fact that you think "Zionism is not Judaism", when you celebrate Passover, you're strengthening Jewish ties to the Land of Israel. And you don't want to do that! It's a problem for anti-Zionists. If you deny Jewish history, culture and religion - how can you then celebrate Jewish holidays?

On Passover we celebrate how God took Israel out of Egypt and freed them from slavery. Why? God talks about it several times. In Bereshit He tells Abraham He will bring the Israelites to Egypt and back again (Bereishit 17). Abraham was in Hebron when God said that He will bring Abraham's descendants back "here"

And He said unto Abram: 'Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge; and afterward shall they come out with great substance… And in the fourth generation they shall come back hither

In that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: 'Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates; the Kenite, and the Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Rephaim, and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Girgashite, and the Jebusite.

When it's time to free the Israelites, God appears to Moshe in the burning bush (Shemot 3):

And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said: 'Moses, Moses.' And he said: 'Here am I.' … And the LORD said: 'I have surely seen the affliction of My people that are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their pains; and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. And now, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto Me; moreover I have seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth My people the children of Israel out of Egypt.'

God couldn't be more explicit. If you celebrate Israel coming out of Egypt, you've obviously also celebrating them going back to the Land of Israel. This means you can't talk about Jews being colonialists and Arabs being indigenous since they conquered the area 1400 years ago. Now let's look at the Haggada. The Haggada was, of course, written in the Land of Israel.

Let's just list a few more things that will be problematic for your average anti-Zionist:

Once, Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua and Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria and Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Tarfon reclined [for the seder] in Benei Brak.

The ancient site of Benei Brak is in the Tel Aviv region, right by the modern Mesubim Interchange. In fact, it's called mesubim after this story. "reclined" in Hebrew is "mesubim"

In "Magid" we look over our history. Remember when God told Abraham to come to the Land of Israel?

IN THE BEGINNING, our ancestors were idol worshippers. BUT NOW the Omnipresent has drawn us close in His service; as it is said: “Joshua said to all the people, ‘This is what the LORD God of Israel has said: Beyond the river your ancestors always dwelled – Terah the father of Abraham, the father of Nahor – and they served other gods. But I took your father Abraham from beyond the river, and I led him all the way across the land of Canaan

In "Dayenu" we praise God for bringing us back to the Land of Israel and building a Temple in Jerusalem.

HOW MANY AND MANIFOLD THEN, THE OMNIPRESENT’S KINDNESSES ARE TO US – for He brought us out of Egypt …. and He brought us to the land of Israel and built for us the House He chose, SO WE COULD FIND ATONEMENT [THERE] FOR ALL OUR SINS.

We mention three things we have to have on Passover, and once again we mention the Temple in Jerusalem.

Rabban Gamliel would say: Anyone who does not say these three things on Pesaḥ has not fulfilled his obligation, and these are they: PESAḤ, MATZA, AND BITTER HERBS. The PESAḤ is what our ancestors would eat while the Temple stood

Every Jew should see himself as if he was redeemed from Egypt and brought to Israel. EVERY JEW.

GENERATION BY GENERATION, each person must see himself as if he himself had come out of Egypt, as it is said: “And you shall tell your child on that day, ‘Because of this the LORD acted for me when I came out of Egypt.’” It was not only our ancestors whom the Holy One redeemed; He redeemed us too along with them, as it is said: “He took us out of there, to bring us to the land He promised our ancestors and to give it to us.”

In the Hallel, we say Psalms, and as anti-Zionists know - that is a book of Tanach that you must never ever open

And then we bless the wine and ask God to rebuild the Temple in YOUR CITY. That's right, anti-Zionists - according to Judaism: The Land of Israel is God's Land Jerusalem is God's City And the Temple is God's house

This why we call the Temple Mount "Har Bayait". The Mountain of the House. That is, the Mountain of God's House. If you disagree, you might want to choose a faith that sees God's City elsewhere. In Rome or Mecca (or maybe even New York!) Since they support colonialism and renaming indigenous holy places - Anti-Zionists today call it Al-Aqsa, after the mosque that was built on Judaism's most holy site 1400 years ago.

Blessed are You, LORD our God, King of the Universe, who has redeemed us and redeemed our ancestors from Egypt, and brought us to this night to eat matza and bitter herbs. So may the LORD our God bring us in peace to other seasons and festivals that are coming to us, happy in the building of Your city and rejoicing in Your service; and there we shall eat of sacrifices and Pesaḥ offerings

In Korech, we talk about Hillel, one of Israel's greatest rabbis - who lived in the Land of Israel

In memory of the Temple, in the tradition of Hillel. This is what Hillel would do when the Temple still stood

In Birkat Hamazon we bless God for bringing the Jews back to Israel and ask Him to rebuild the Temple. I will not repeat it here, but let's just say that if you're anti-Zionist, you should never ever say Birkat Hamazon.

And finally, when the Haggadah is over, we ask God to bring us back to Jerusalem (AKA Zion).

The Pesaḥ service is finished, as it was meant to be performed, in accordance with all its rules and laws. Just as we have been privileged to lay out its order, so may we be privileged to perform it [in the Temple]. Pure One, dwelling in Your heaven, raise up this people, too abundant to be counted. Soon, lead the shoots of [Israel’s] stock, redeemed, into Zion with great joy. NEXT YEAR IN JERUSALEM REBUILT

[short-wooloo]

From Jediism to Judaism: Star Wars as Jewish Allegory, by Daniel Perez

A look at some of the Jewish elements – coincidental or otherwise – of Star Wars.

A long time ago in a place far, far away...

It is a period of civil war. A new government has declared the practice of the old faith a crime punishable by death, disbanding an ancient order of sages and sending many into exile. Rebel fighters, striking from a hidden base, have won their first major victory against the evil Empire, stirring a spirit of defiance among the populace. Outarmed and vastly outnumbered, the ragtag band of rebels – aided by an all-powerful, all-permeating Force that binds together all life in the universe – remain the only hope for restoring peace and freedom to their people.

It's one of the greatest epics known to mankind. No, not Star Wars. The above synopsis is actually the story of Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish festival that commemorates a miraculous victory of Israelite insurgents against the tyrannical Seleucid Empire roughly 2,200 years ago.

With Star Wars Episode VII set to premiere in just a few short weeks, I got to thinking about how certain aspects of the Star Wars universe are eerily similar to the history, beliefs, and teachings of the Jews. Now George Lucas did not set out to create a fantasy universe full of Jewish references, but the connections are nevertheless there. So let's put the “Han” back in Hanukkah (Harrison Ford, by the way, technically a member of the tribe) and look at some of the Jewish elements – coincidental or otherwise – of Star Wars.

A Galaxy of Hebrew Names

The heroes of the Star Wars series are members of a “rebel alliance,” basically Maccabees in outer space. It's right there in the name: Jedi. The Hebrew letter yud is often anglicized as a “J,” and syllables occasionally get dropped in translation. Hence, a Biblical name like “Yehoshua” makes its way into English as “Joshua.” It's not much of a stretch to see how “Jedi” can be derived the original Hebrew word for Jew, “Yehudi.”

Remember Luke Skywalker's Jedi rebbe, Grand Master Yoda? Is it just me, or is his peculiar syntax reminiscent of someone whose first language is Yiddish (“Yodish”)? More to the point, his name sounds a lot like “yada,” the Hebrew word meaning “to know.”

And how about those Skywalkers? Luke Skywalker might sound like a gentile name, but that name was clearly chosen to alliterate with his twin sister Leia (Leah). Also keep in mind that their parents were an interfaith couple. The father, Anakin Skywalker, played by the unmistakably un-Jewish Hayden Christensen, tried to convert to Jediism, but as we know he ultimately turned to the Dark Side instead. Their mother was Queen Amidala, portrayed by the beautiful and talented Israeli-born actress Natalie Portman. Suffice it to say their marriage did not end well, and it wasn't until much later in life that their children discovered their Jedi-ish identity.

Learning Academy

When an aspiring Jedi Knight goes to the Academy, he or she must complete what is essentially an apprenticeship with one more learned in Jediism than they are. Similarly, a future rabbi's yeshiva experience will consist largely of chavruta learning (studying with a partner – lit. “friendship”). Fun fact: The name for a young, unmarried yeshiva student, “bochur,” actually means “chosen” (as in “The Chosen People”). The idea of a foretold “Chosen One” who would “restore balance to the Force” was a theme running throughout the Star Wars films, wherein Anakin Skywalker was recognized for his extraordinary potential as a Jedi. As mentioned above, he went “off the derech” and became the villainous Darth Vader. In Return of the Jedi, however, Vader/Skywalker fulfills the “prophecy” when he does teshuvah (our term for repentance, which literally means “return.” Whoa. Return of the Jedi!), thwarting Emperor Palpatine to save his son's life, and ultimately, the galaxy.

Of course, if you tell a young rabbi-in-training that he is the “Chosen One,” it sounds cool and dramatic and is technically true, but then, the same can be said of all of his classmates.

While the Star Wars films don't feature Jedi trainees delving into sacred texts (it doesn't make for the most exciting movie montage), some of the greatest rabbinic books of ethics and Jewish philosophy would be right at home in any Jedi library. “Duties of the Heart,” “The Path of the Just”....tell me these don't sound like the reading list for a hero of the Light Side.

The Force

While Jediism isn't a theistic religion per se, its practitioners do teach of a Force that, in the words of Reb Obi-Wan Kenobi "...is what gives a Jedi his power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together." That almost sounds like some sort of Chasidic teaching – just replace “energy field” with “entity” or “consciousness,” and “created by,” with “that creates,” and what you have starts to come across less like new age hippie talk and more like an introduction to Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism.

One idea that devout Jews of all stripes share, is that God, the creative “Force” that sustains all, is the source of a Jew's power. “Ein od milvado,” there is none besides Him. The Jew expresses his or her connection to the universe by striving for an ever closer relationship with its Creator.

Another aspect of Jedi belief is the notion of balance, the idea that the Light Side and the Dark Side are both aspects of the same Force seeking equilibrium. The religions that branched off from Judaism tend to show the Creator and Satan, or “The Devil,” in an adversarial relationship, almost a sort of de facto dualistic theology with a God and an anti-God, if you will. Judaism maintains that the Satan (lit. “Accuser”) is the angel associated with temptation, and prosecution in the Heavenly Court. He's basically Slugworth to God's Willy Wonka. He's got a dirty job to do, but in the end, we're both serving the same Boss.

Judaism also teaches that the source of Light and Darkness are One and the same, as it says in the prayer book: “Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who forms light and creates darkness, Who makes peace and creates all things.” The source for this line of liturgy can be found in the Hebrew Bible, Isaiah 45:7: “Who forms light and creates darkness, Who makes peace and creates evil; I am the Lord, Who makes all these.”

Incidentally, one of the traditional names for God – invoked particularly by the Jewish mystics – is HaMakom, literally “The Place.” The deeper idea conveyed by this name is that the Creator does not exist within the universe; the universe exists within Him. It sounds a lot like The Force. The key conceptual difference between the fictitious all-uniting Force of Star Wars and the Shechinah or “Divine Presence” is that the former is impersonal and passive, the latter is an omnipotent consciousness that actively intervenes in human history, speaking with Prophets and working miracles until this very day.

So if you see the new Star Wars movie, directed by Jeffrey Jacob Abrams (who couldn't sound more Jewish if his name was Saul Cohen or Herschel Rosenblatt), perhaps you'll be able to seek out and appreciate the surprisingly Jewish flavor of the Star Wars universe.

Happy Hanukkah, and may the Force be with you!

[girlactionfigure]

🇮🇱After Rosh Hashana/Shabbat Updates  - events from Israel  

ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

( VIDEO - IDF soldiers doing Rosh Hashana prayers during a break deep in Lebanon. )

🔹HEZBOLLAH.. buried Nasrallah in a temporary grave in a secret place.  Israeli hacker group Red Evils believes they extracted the data and publish the site of the grave - suggesting the body be taken in trade for missing Israeli Ron Arad.

🔹IRAN SAYS.. “Israel does not have the military capability to strike vital facilities inside Iran except with Washington's support, and this makes America a partner in the aggression.”

🔹Lebanese media:  Ibrahim Amin al-Sayed, Hezbollah, refuses to accept the leadership of Hezbollah and asks to go to Tehran (Iran capital) to settle down and devote himself to his religion.

🔹FRANCE TO ISRAEL.. French President Emmanuel Macron: "The priority now is to stop arms shipments to Israel that are used for the war in Gaza, France is not supplying them. The priority is to avoid an escalation in Lebanon, I'm afraid we are not being heard enough in this matter. I told Netanyahu that I think this is a mistake." 

.. PM Netanyahu to the President of France: Israel will win with or without you - but your shame will reverberate long after Israel wins.

⚠️OCT. 7 - IDF spox: “IDF will be prepared and on on high alert for fear of terrorist attacks.”

♦️LEBANON - IDF called three Mukhtars and told them to evacuate the residents of the town due to the launches from their town.

♦️LEBANON - IDF attacked a mosque right next to a hospital in Lebanon - - being used as a Hezbollah HQ.  Warnings to evacuate given.

♦️LEBANON - Airstrikes in Gia, coastal city south of Beirut.

♦️GAZA - intense airstrikes in the north of the Gaza Strip.

▪️AID.. Israel allows aid planes from the United Arab Emirates to land at Beirut airport carrying medical aid.

▪️OCT. 7 EVENT LIMITS.. Due to the security situation and the directives of the Home Front Command limiting gatherings, the national memorial ceremony in the Yehoshua Gardens Park will be held in the presence of a limited crowd of families on Oct. 7.  The organizers regret to announce that the tickets for the general public are canceled and call on citizens to obey the instructions of Home Front, watch the ceremony in their residential area in a communal way, and stand together at 19:10 for a minute of silence in solidarity with the families who will be in the park.

[eretzyisrael]

From the first two interviews we have our baseline.

Conducted respectfully

The statements from the two religious leaders were not challenged

Both interviews were headed by related footage

And both were accompanied by numerous respectful religiously themed images.

It is time to turn to the interview with the Jewish Rabbi. The only way to balance this out would be to have played a video related to the hostages, or the rockets still being fired at Tel Aviv before the interview started. Or perhaps footage from the funeral of 12-year-old Yehoshua Aharon Tuvia Simcha who had been shot and murdered by Palestinian terrorists on 12 December. Instead there was nothing. The BBC gave the Reverend the unverified tent attack, and the Imam the week-old settler attack on the mosque – but the Rabbi had to start cold.

It began with the same type of questioning the other two had faced about general thoughts, peace and the idea of a two state solution:

Can there be more peace in 2025 than in 2024?

What about the idea of a two state solution – of Palestinians living in a homeland alongside an Israeli homeland – is that still a viable option?

And this facade lasted for about one minute and eight seconds. As Rabbi Gideon Sylvester was (correctly) stating the problem of peace required a Palestinian partner – the BBC’s Ben Brown (who had sat quietly as the Imam spouted his nonsense) interrupted the Rabbi and began to visibly unleash the BBC’s hatred of Israel, by turning what had meant to be a discussion about Jews celebrating Chanukah into a raw anti-Israel rant. His third question suggested the war was needless and Bibi Netanyahu was simply killing Palestinians to keep himself out of jail:

“But doesn’t it also (peace) depend on your government – on the government of Benyamin Netanyahu. Because there are a lot of Israelis who say that he has been pursuing war for his own ends in a sense and he has been pushed by some of the right wing nationalists in his government. And there are a lot of Israelis who want to see an end to war and also deals to release the hostages?”

His fourth question simply turns a Rabbi who had come to answer questions about Jews celebrating Chanukah into an IDF spokesperson being expected to personally respond to Hamas propaganda points and justify Israeli military action:

“when YOU look at the actions of the Israeli military in Gaza which many people around the world have condemned – some people in Israel itself have condemned as well – 45000 people dead according to the Hamas run health ministry in Gaza, most of them, the majority of them, they say, women and children – do you think that has been a proportionate response to the attacks of October 7?”

Struggling to make enough time to continue his attack Ben Brown squeezes in a fifth question.

“But, I mean, just very briefly, we have only got a few seconds left. I’ve frequently interviewed people like Gideon Levy from Ha’aretz Newspaper who said Israel cannot keep living in a state of war – it has to make peace.”

And when the Rabbi hits back (correctly) that Gideon Levy is not representative (it would be like frequently interviewing George Galloway types in the UK and holding them up as representative) Ben Brown continues arguing:

“we interview lots of voice in Israel (remember, he said he interviewed people like Gideon Levy ‘frequently’) including your own right now”

Then it was over.

And remember the respectful religious civilian images and footage, the BBC ran alongside the interviews of the Reverend and the Imam – well this is the imagery that the BBC put alongside the interview with the Rabbi. Soldiers, bulldozers, and tanks:

[apenitentialprayer]

are there any Jews who view Jesus in a positive way (aside from like messianic Jews who, as far I’ve understood, are considered evangelical Christians by all other Jews)

Okay, ah, to answer this question simply: to my knowledge, as far as Jewish communities who (1) self-identify as Jewish, (2) consider themselves practicing Judaism, and (3) deny that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah go, none of them have an "official" stance on Jesus. Jesus may be a false Messiah, but this is only a "doctrine" in Judaism the same way that the fact that Vissarion of Siberia is a false Parousia of Jesus is a "doctrine" in Christianity — which is to say, not so much an actually asserted belief, but a natural corollary to more deeply held beliefs.

That being said, individual Jewish people have held a variety of beliefs about Jesus of Nazareth. Some of them are, well, quite negative. For example, one Hasidic story tells of how the Baal Shem Tov saw Jesus and Sabbatai Zvi (both false Messiahs) stuck in the same level of Hell together; the infamous Toledot Yeshu, a parody gospel, certainly does not paint Jesus or His Mother in a particularly good light; Maimonides doesn't even use the usual "may his name be blotted out" as he would when talking about an enemy of Israel, but instead uses "may his bones be ground to dust" after citing Jesus by name.

There are relatively sympathetic views among those whose views are negative too, for the record; for example, there's a story of a Rabbi, Yehoshua ben Prachya, who was said to have been incredibly cruel to a student, and by the time he chose to relent that student had already gone off to form his own idolatrous sect. Struck by the consequences of his harshness, he would go on to emphasize the importance of kindness and giving people the benefit of the doubt. Though the timeline doesn't match up (Yehoshua lived two hundred years before Him), some commentators identified this student as Yeshu the Nazarene.

But, let's actually answer your question. You will find a spectrum of relatively positive views. Bob Dylan technically falls outside the parameters I listed above because he does seem to believe Jesus is the Messiah, but I'll use him as the extreme example, because he continued to be active in his Orthodox Jewish community after his conversion. You also have Leonard Cohen, whose Jewishness was very important to him, who could at least understand the importance of the mystical connection to Jesus that Christians claimed as their own — "the figure of Jesus, nailed to a human predicament, summoning the heart to comprehend its own suffering."

You have some scholars, like Amy-Jill Levine; in the work she did in The Misunderstood Jew, The Historical Jesus in Context, and The Jewish Annotated New Testament, she tries to emphasize the idea that the Person of Jesus is something that can bring Christians and Jews into closer ecumenical dialogue; that if Christians could get more comfortable with the Jewish context of Jesus, and if the Jewish community could see the New Testament as a corpus of texts that isn't non-Jewish, but rather a particular type of first century Jewish, then there could be ground for both groups to better understand each other.

During the early modern period, there were attempts by some Jewish thinkers to reclaim Jesus. Rabbi Jacob Emden argued that Jesus never meant to abolish the Law, and that He has actually "done a double kindness in the world" by increasing veneration of the Torah and bringing light to the Gentiles, if only the Gentiles could learn how to properly interpret their own Scriptures (talk about flipping the script!). Moses Mendelssohn also claimed that Jesus never meant to abrogate the Law, and suggested that Jesus and the early Christian community could be models that modern 19th century Jews living among oppressive Prussian authorities could emulate.

The above paragraph was about Jewish individuals who tried to distance Jesus from traditional Christian understandings of Him. So I'm going to end, I think, with Rabbi Jacob Neusner, who engaged the Gospel on its own terms. In 1993, he published A Rabbi Talks with Jesus. In this book, Rabbi Neusner imagines himself as a first century Jewish man and tries to earnestly listen to and consider the words of Jesus as depicted in the Gospel of Matthew. This work places the words of Jesus in conversation with the Rabbinic tradition, and ultimately ends with Neusner being unconvinced and unable to follow Jesus as His disciple. Pope Benedict lauded this work as an authentic exercise in interreligious dialogue, and cites it frequently in his own Jesus of Nazareth.

[mental-health-and-jesus]

3-02-2025 | Bible App Their Verse of the Day | Joshua 1:9

🕊️🧡 ““Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid, nor be discouraged, for יהוה your Elohim is with you wherever you go.”” Yehoshua ‬ ‭1‬:‭9‬ ‭🧡🕊️‬‬

LORD✝️ YHWH✝️ אֲדֹנָי✝️ אלוהים✝️ Is Always With You 💗

Today’s Church ⛪️ Reading 📖 | Luke 19:28-38

🕊️🌿 “And having said this, He went on ahead, going up to Yerushalayim. And it came to be, when He came near to Bĕyth Phaḡi and Bĕyth Anyah, at the mountain of Olives, that He sent two of His taught ones, saying, “Go into the village opposite you, in which, as you enter, you shall find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Loosen it and bring it here. And if anyone asks you, ‘Why do you loosen it?’ thus you shall say to him, ‘Because the Master has need of it.’ And those who were sent went away and found it as He had said to them. And as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, “Why do you loosen the colt?” And they said, “The Master needs it.” So they brought it to יהושע. And throwing their garments on the colt, they set יהושע on it. And as He went, they were spreading their garments on the way. And as He was coming near, already at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the entire crowd of the taught ones began rejoicing, to praise Elohim with a loud voice for all the miracles they had seen, saying, " ‘Blessed is the Sovereign who is coming in the Name of יהוה! Peace in heaven and esteem in the highest!”” ‭‭Luqas 19‬:‭28‬-‭38‬ ‬‬🌿🕊️

Adding | Zechariah 9:9

🕊️🫏 ““Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Tsiyon! Shout, O daughter of Yerushalayim! See, your Sovereign is coming to you, He is righteous and endowed with deliverance, humble and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.” ‭‭Zeḵaryah Zechariah 9‬:‭9‬ ‭🫏🕊️‬‬

[jewish-vents]

Today, a woman in the grocery store noticed my kippah. I heard her from behind me say "oh is that a yarmulke?" and when I turned around to see herz she grabbed me by the shoulders and looked me in the eyes. Then she started loudly praying to Jesus about protecting me and Israel. She called him "Yehoshua" and said "I know you don't believe in him, but he's going to help you and your people and keep you safe." And then she prayed some more. Her husband stepped over and put his hand on my shoulder as well. I am not a confrontational person, so I quietly said "thank you" and walked away. It made me feel gross. Especially that I said "thank you." I wish I had rebuked her in some way, but I just... Didn't want to cause a scene? Didn't want to be mean? What was I supposed to do?

Another time, I was at a laundromat and a man came up and started talking to me about Israel. Did I know anyone who died, did I know any of the hostages, how was I affected by Oct 7. Just a random guy at the laundromat.

Another time, at work, I accidentally popped my head into the wrong meeting room and my coworker's client immediately noticed my kippah and started asking me about Israel, about if/how I was affected by Oct 7, and what sort of antisemitism Id experienced. I didn't know how to tell him I was experiencing anti-Semitism in that moment. Thankfully my coworker cut him off. He also said he'd pray for me.

But I can't get the feeling of that woman's hands off my shoulders.

.

[haleviyah]

Hello! I've been following you for quite some time, and I figured it's about time I'd let you know something. I promise, this isn't trolling or anything like that. I just noticed that I don't remember seeing an ask like this on your blog. Your past posts about the relationship with you and Yeshua has inspired me to form a relationship with Him of my own. Like, I relate to how you said God led you out of Christianity, and I didn't identify as one for a long time. It's true what you said, just talk to Him and get to know Him, ya know? He's really cool once you get to know Him.

Anywho, I just thought I'd let you know that. Thank you and I hope you have a wonderful day!

You are in for a rollercoaster ride in a good way! That's all you need to know from this point forward.

I will let you know... the past nine or ten months have been very rough. I don't like putting the spotlight on myself, but I will admit there were moments where He and I's relationship were on rocks because of how much people threw hate just because I loved a Jew or just because I looked up to Israel. I have been damned, told to die, called a "whore", "baby-killer", or even a "nazi"... Hell, these keyboard warriors waving watermelons on their profile don't give a damn about my home (RGV) ...

However, the fact that you learned how a relationship with G-d should be and how to nurture it while also getting to know Him as a person rather than an icon... That really helps a lot, you have no idea. I will say this again, you have just begun this journey. It will shape you up and change you despite the crazy odds it will be worth it.

My advice, keep the integrity of the nature of Love and that will help you gain a better foothold as you keep walking. 1 Corinthians 13 and the book of John is a great to start for gentiles and you can germinate from there. Proverbs is the next step, but ruminate over those! Take your time, there is no rush at all.

Talking about this, believe it or not is helping me TREMENDOUSLY. You have no idea how this comment was like a drink from an oasis for not just myself but many others who are walking along side me.

You among a few others have helped me this week to get back on track, so you sincerely have my thanks. I am humbled to hear of your walk and I hope for nothing but the best. Again, you may be in for a ride, but it's a journey you won't regret.

I will end it on this note:

The Jews don't hate gentiles. If they do, that is a violation of Leviticus 19.

The Jewish people have longed for the gentiles to exceed far greater than they have imagined. They long for another Cyrus if not greater. This faith in the gentiles is what motivated Yeshua (Yehoshua Bar Yosef) to make his final case at the court. This faith in the gentiles is what contributed to his life being cut short. I refuse to believe the lie that Jews hate gentiles or "see them as animals" as the radial ones say... because why would one marry me, why would they treat me as blood, and why would the one you call "Messiah" or "King" died for them too.

So to you I leave you with this question that I know will build your relationship further: "Who do you say I am?" ... "Who are you in your heart?"

This is Zion: an ingathering under G-d (אהבה).

[goldyke]

Every time I see people responding to “this started way before October 7th” with “you’re right Jews have been here since fucking biblical times” or whatever I want to ask them to read Sefer Yehoshua (book of Joshua) which details how the ancient Jews colonized Israel the first time.

Like I’m not going to go back and criticize ancient history like that but I will say that it still doesn’t speak to indigeneity

[thewayofyehoshua]

Mat 4:19  Yeshua said to them, "Come after me, and I will make you fishers for men!" 

Galatians 3 addresses how we are justified—by faith, not by works of the Torah. However, once justified, we walk in the Torah out of love and obedience. (John 14:15)

The Torah doesn’t compete with faith; it complements it by guiding us in righteousness.

[rainintheevening]

buddy look, i dont know how to tell this to you but the fact that you are centering your christian religion (talking abt jesus) in relation to a war in which both participants are part of religions who are oppressed by christians is oppression. buddy, jesus has nothing to do with this, youre Personal spirtiual beliefs are not relevant. literally saying this would all be solved if we listened to jesus is literally a) islamophobic and antisemitic b) demeaning (i know the right way and these poor people are wrong) c) just blantantanly fucking callous, like imagine centering your religious beliefs when people are literally dying. jesus fucking christ.

Hi there. So for context, you're responding to my post about Anakin and radical forgiveness.

Why would I talk about Jesus, and forgiveness when there's a war on? Because He loves all those people in that war, and they need His forgiveness for themselves and each other. I'm pretty sure everyone talks about their 'religious beliefs' when people are dying.

Personal spiritual beliefs have everything to do with it—the attacks by the Hamas were driven by personal spiritual beliefs, and the retaliation is driven by personal spiritual beliefs. Everything you do comes out of your worldview, and that grows out of your personal spiritual beliefs. No matter what those are, whether you believe in an afterlife or not, whether you believe God is real or not, whether you belive in absolute truth or not, whether you believe there is right and wrong or not. Those are personal spiritual beliefs, and they will influence whatever you do.

Jesus is the Greek transliteration of His name, which spread the widest among the western gentiles thanks to the Roman Empire, but His name is originally Yehoshua, usually shortened to Yeshua. Hebrew, means 'the LORD is salvation'. Jesus, Yeshua, was a Jew, born in Bethlehem, grew up in Nazareth, preached around much of Judea (present-day Isreal and Palastine). Jesus was the fulfillment of thousands of years of prophecies given to and for the Jewish people first, and then the rest of the world. He was fully God, and fully man. He lived, died, and came back to life all on Israeli and Palestinian soil. He was a real person, and I encourage you to look into that, overhaul the evidence for yourself.

Yes, many people have done awful things to Jews in the name of Jesus, but those things didn't line up with what He instructed His followers to do. The first Christians were Jewish, and Jewish people continue to find hope in Jesus today.

Believing that Islam is a false and empty religion, does not mean I am afraid of muslims. I care deeply about them, that's why I am willing to disagree with them. It's like a person standing in the middle of a street licking an ice cream cone, and they say, "Hey, I'm fine, you can't tell me to move," when there's a dump truck about to run them over. Believing the wrong thing is dangerous. That's why asking questions and digging into the background and basis of your beliefs is so important. And many many Muslims have come to believe in Yeshua and everything he said.

I dunno, is it demeaning to tell people they need help, and I know someone who can help them, because He helped me? He saved me from despair and darkness and bitterness, and He forgave me of all the wrong things I've done, so I can forgive others with joy. That kind of saving, that kind of life is available to anyone. From murderers, to little kids, to doctors, to exhausted parents. Palestinian, Israeli, Canadian, American, whoever YOU are, my friend, wherever you are, you need saving. Jesus, Yeshua came for you too.

For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:16-17NLT)

How is it callous to talk about the source of hope in hopeless times? I'm praying for peace, and I'm praying that peace will come through something so much more powerful than a bullet or a bomb. I'm praying that peace will come through forgiveness and the power of God, of Yeshua who came for Israel and the whole world.

All the links are to YouTube videos, some of them are longer, but I hope you'll watch/listen to some of them, and do some digging of your own.

[roybunnies2023]

The Tough Times

Yehoshua B. Bautista                                                                                        Grade 11 - ROY (A)

Bullying was always an experience I never want to feel and experience ever again. It broke me mentally, and physically, and made me lose trust in the people that surrounded me. Back then, I was bullied because they said I wasn’t manly enough, and that my masculinity was not the same as the other boys in my class. It was a tough time for me since no one wanted to talk to me because of whatever rumors and untrue facts those bullies said to my classmates. Due to bullying, I didn’t have the confidence to be myself, and to properly express myself and my feelings around the people I find comfortable with. Back then, I was scared of who to trust, and because I feared that they’ll mock and make fun of me. What's more, hearing the words “weird” and “gay’ spew out of their mouths was such a painful and degrading thing to hear. It brought a drastic effect on my confidence because ever since they started bullying me, I was scared of what people thought of me, of what they could probably judge me for by the way I talked, the way I act, or the way I expressed myself. 

Although being bullied was such a painful experience, I managed to handle it slowly and made sure that I was healed mentally from that experience. I managed to handle that problem by simply cutting off those people. Cutting them off felt relieving as it helped me to move on from what they did to me, and helped me to feel much better mentally about myself now that no one is continuously bullying me because of my masculinity. Another way that I handled that situation was by ignoring the mockeries and insults they threw at me. At first, it felt maddening to hear them insult me, but I realized that they only insult me as a way to make me feel worse, and lose confidence in myself so, by ignoring the things they say to me, I can continue to grow and heal from the bullying experience. 

For those struggling with bullying, an advice I would give is to be strong and never let them win. Bullying can be a tough and challenging experience, but what you have to conquer this experience is by never fighting this alone. Ask help from your trusted and genuine friends, and from your family. Moral support is important especially in bullying and having the people you trust and love will help you to become stronger and confident about yourself. Never let those who bully you win, cutting them off helps if you feel like it’s really draining you mentally and physically. Meditate if it helps you to be calm and be mentally well. As someone who is still healing from bullying, this is the advice I can give to you to cope with an experience such as bullying.

[girlactionfigure]

Looking for tips on how to tell my kids that their principal’s son was murdered today. 

Shimon Yehoshua Asulin fell in Gaza fighting a vile terrorist organization that attacked his country unprovoked and in the most barbaric way the world has seen since the holocaust. 

A sweet kid whose father is a righteous man that has taught hundreds of students about the land of Israel, the Torah of Israel, the people of Israel, and how Judaism is a religion of peace. 

He now joins a club he never asked to be a part of. I can tell you first hand, this is a club no one wants to be a part of. 

Baruch Dayan Haemet. RIP, Shimon.

[eretzyisrael]

Following Hamas's criminal invasion of southern Israel, brave men and women have stepped up to defend their homeland, with dozens sacrificing their lives in the process; These are their names

Yoav Zitun, Ilana Curiel, Elisha Ben Kimon, Meir Turgeman, Israel Moskvitz, Roni Green Shaulov|Updated:10:13

Related Topi

More than 700 Israelis were murdered on the first day of the war against Hamas. So far, only a few dozen names have been released.

Reports emerged on Saturday of the death of Nahal Brigade Commander Col. Jonathan Steinberg among numerous others. He was killed in clashes with a terrorist near Kerem Shalom. On Sunday morning, the names of an additional 25 fallen soldiers were reported.

Nahal Brigade Commander Col. Jonathan Steinberg

(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

Steinberg, 42, from Shomria, was en route to a clash site where his soldiers were engaged with terrorists. He encountered a terrorist on his way there and was killed during a firefight near Kerem Shalom.

The names of the fallen IDF soldiers that have been released are as follows: Sst. Roi Weiser, 21, from Efrat, a Golani soldier; Sst. Adir Geori, 20, from Jerusalem, a Sayeret Matkal commando; Cpl. Ariel Eliyahu, 19, from Mitzpe Yericho, a 7th Armored Brigade soldier; Sst. Guy Simchi, 20, from Gedera, a Paratrooper; Cpl. Shira Shochat, 19, from Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut, a Unit 414 soldier; Sgt. Maj. Aharon Parash, 36, from Ofakim, a Technology and Maintenance Corps inspector; and Lt. Shilo Cohen, 24, from Sderot, a Shaldag soldier.

Maj. Amir Sakuri, 31, from Jerusalem, a Sayeret Matkal commando; Warrant Officer Ido Rosenthal, 45, from Ben Shemen, a Shaldag soldier; Maj. Ariel Ben Moshe, 27, from Kiryat Bialik, a commander in Sayeret Matkal; Cpl. Danit Cohen, 19, from Sderot, a soldier in Southern Command; Sst. Or Mizrachi, 21, from Petah Tikva, a Nahal soldier; Cpl. Amit Gueta, 21, from Rehovot, a Maglan soldier.

Earlier, the names of the following fallen were cleared for publication: Col. Roi Yosef Levy, 44, from Shavei Tzion, commander of the Multidimensional Unit, also known as the “Ghost” Unit; Lt. Col. Yonatan Tzur, 33, from Kedumim, the commander of the Nahal Reconnaissance Battalion, Maj. Avraham Hovlashvili, 26, from Ashdod, an officer in Caracal; Sgt. Itay-El Marciano, 20, from Shoham, a Paratrooper; Pvt. Ofir Davidian, 18, from Patish, a logistics soldier in the Home Front Command; Cpt. Tal Grushka, 25, from Kfar Saba, a Nahal officer; Cpt. Arye Shlomo Tsering, 27, from Raanana, a K-9 Unit officer. Sst. Ilay Gamzu, 20, from Ashdod, a Paratrooper; Sst. Ohad Cohen, 20, from Idan, a Shaldag soldier.

Cpl. Itamar Ayash, 19, from Kiryat Gat, served in the Southern District of the Home Front Command; Maj. Ido Yehoshua, 27, from Yavne, commander of the training platoon at the Special Air Forces School. Cpl. Uri Locker, 19, from Pardes Hana Karkur, a Golani solider; Maj (Res.) Omri Michaeli, 35, from Nes Ziona, a Duvdevan soldier; Maj. Vitali Skipkevich, 21, from Ariel, an Egoz soldier. Lt. Shoham Tomer, 23, from Srigim, company commander in the 934th Reconnaissance Battalion; Lt. Itai Maor, 23, from Rosh Ha'Ain, a platoon commander in the Golani Brigade's 51st Battalion; Lt. Rom Shlomi, 23, from Moshav Ganot, reconnaissance platoon commander in the Shaldag Unit. Cpl. Yaron Zohar, 19, from Kiryat Ata, a Golani soldier.

Cpt. Adir Aboudi, 23, from Modi'in, a commander in the Home Front Command; Cpt. Yotam Ben Bassat, 24, from Bat Hefer, a commander in the Multidimensional Unit; Sgt. Ofir Tzioni, 21, from Yokneam Illit, a commander in the Home Front Command; 2nd Lt. Adar Ben Simon, 20, from Neve Ziv, a commander in the Home Front Command; Sgt. Or Asto, 21, from Be'er Sheva, a logistics NCO in Golani.

Fallen IDF soldiers and officers from the Swords of Iron War

(Photo: Israel Police, IDF Spokesperson's Unit)

Sgt. Eden Alon Levi, 19, from Nirit, a commander in the Home Front Command; Sst. Yuval Ben Yaakov, 21, from Kfar Menahem, a solider in the 7th Armored Brigade; Cpl. Guy Bazak, 19, from Givatayim, a Golani soldier; Pvt. Nerya Aharon Nagari, 18, from Talmon, a Home Front Command soldier; Pvt. Naama Boni, 19, from Afula, a soldier in the 7th Armored Brigade; Lt. Iftah Yavetz, 23, from Ramat Hasharon, a commander in Maglan.

Lt. Col. Sahar Mahlouf, 36, from Modi'in, the commander of the 481st Signal Battalion; Sgt. Ofek Rosenthal, 20, from Kfar Menahem, a Maglan soldier; 2nd Lt. Yanai Kaminka, 20, from Tzur Hadassah, a commander in the Home Front Command; Lt. Or Moses, 22, from Ashdod, a commander in the Home Front Command; Sst. Omri Niv Feirstein, 20, a Home Front Command soldier; Cpl. Dvir Lisha, 21, from Nitzan, a Golani soldier.

Sgt. Ido Harush, from Mitzpe Ramon, a soldier in the 7th Armored Brigade; Sgt. Menashe Yoav Maliev, 19, from Kiryat Ono, an officer in the 7th Armored Brigade; Cpl. Netanel Yang, 20, from Tel Aviv, a Golani soldier; Maj. Chen Buchris, 26, from Ashdod, the deputy commander Maglan; Lt. Or Yosef Ran, 29, from Itamar, a commander in Duvdevan; Cpl. Adi Gurman, 19, from Hogla, a Unit 414 soldier; Sfc. Amir Fisher, 22, from Tel Aviv, a Duvdevan soldier; Lt. (Res.) Ido Edri, 24, from Givaton, an infantry officer.

Raz Tzioni, father of Sst. Ofir Tzioni, said, "We spoke to him for the last time Friday evening, he said that everything is fine with him. On Saturday when we realized what happened, I sent him a message 'Write that everything is fine...,' but he didn't respond. In the evening, the army representatives came to inform us."

Fallen police officers

After a day of intense combat, where Israel Police officers, Border Patrol soldiers and commandos valiantly stood at the forefront of battles against the enemy, the Israel Police solemnly announces the death of 30 of its members. The following are their names:

Chief Superintendent Ge-ar Davidov, commander of the Rahat station; Chief Superintendent Itzhak Shvili, commander of the Segev Shalom station; Superintendent Martin Kuzmickas, commander in the coordination of enforcement operations unit; Chief Inspector Shlomo Moshe Al, officer in the Yamam counter-terror unit; Superintendent Nisim Lugasi, deputy commander of a Magav unit; Superintendent Amin Ohonadov, squad commander in the Yoav unit; Inspector Andrei Poshivi, town station patrol officer; Inspector Alexei Shamkov, officer in the Yamam counter-terror unit; Senior Non-Commissioned Officer Meir Abragil, Sderot station investigation coordinator; Sergeant Major Chen Nahmias, sniper in the Yamam counter-terror unit.

Sergeant Major Roman Gendel, instructor in the Lotar counter-terror unit; Sergeant Major Yehuda Kedar, non-commisioned officer Border Police officer at the Eshkol Ein Habsor station; Sergeant Major Roni Abuharon, detective at the Rahat station; Sergeant Major Adir Shlomo, head of logistics at the Sderot station; Sergeant Major Igal Iluz, bomb sapper; First Sergeant Bar Sivan, fighter in the Yamam counter-terror unit; First Sergeant Alon Barad, investigator at the Rahat station; First Sergeant Alexey Borodovsky, Negev Yasam patrol unit; First Sergeant Vitaly Karsik, forensics department crime scene investigator, Tel Aviv District; First Sergeant Alik Poznyakov, detective in the Magen unit.

First Sergeant Melik Karim, investigator at the Be'er Sheva station; First Sergeant Yoram Eliyahu Cohen, fighter in the Yamam counter-terror unit; Staff Sergeant Major Dror Elton, sapper in the Yamam counter-terror unit; Staff Sergeant Yaakov Shlomo Krasninski, fighter in the undercover police unit; Staff Sergeant Major Elior Yifrach, detective; Sgt. First Class Avi Buzaglo, detective at the Rahat station; Sgt. First Class Michael Lizmi, detective at the Be'er Sheva station; Sgt. First Class Shai El Knafo, town patrol in police’s Southern District; Staff Sergeant Alyona Astapenko, town patrol at the Ofakim station; Corporal Ravit Hanna Asayag, Border Police officer in police’s Southern District.

The harrowing details from the incident near Moshav Re'im, where Hamas terrorists raided an open-air rave, are gradually coming to light. So far, the identified victims from the event include Tzur Saidi, Omri Ram and Aviad Halevi.

List of names of the deceased from Netiv HaAsara

Shortly before midnight on Saturday, the names of 15 victims in Netiv HaAsara, a town of less than a thousand people near the Gaza border, were cleared for publication: brothers Amit and Yigal Wax, Oren Stern, Shlomi and his wife Ayelet Molcho, Hevik Segal, Gil Ta'aseh, Adi Baharev, Tal Keren, Ruthi and Aryeh Akuni and their daughter Or, Nurit Berger, Marina Almagor and Danny Vobek.

Vobek, a resident of Netiv HaAsara, had been a volunteer with the ZAKA divers unit for many years. The organization said that "he took part in dozens of rescue missions, dedicated to saving lives and honoring the deceased. During the brutal attack on Netiv HaAsara, Vobek courageously defended his home and friends, ultimately losing his life in the battle against armed terrorists. ZAKA volunteers, alongside the entire nation of Israel, mourn his loss, share in the pain, and extend condolences to his family and loved ones."

Talia Marcelle, from Kiryat Arba, was murdered in the surprise attack on Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha near the Gaza border. A few years ago, Marcelle relocated from the Talia farm in the Hebron hills to Kiryat Arba. She was fatally shot on the kibbutz where she was celebrating the holiday.

Dolev and Odeya Swissa and their two daughters

Dolev and Odeya Swissa were murdered in their hometown of Sderot. They leave behind two young daughters, ages 3 and 7. Dolev, who was shot by terrorists, was found dead Saturday night. A search was conducted throughout the night for his wife Odeya, who was considered missing until her body was discovered in the morning. "We don't know how the girls were saved," said Rehovot Deputy Mayor Zohar Blum, who is married to Dolev's sister. "We woke up to a dark morning."

Blum added, "Following the heart-wrenching news of Dolev's murder and a sleepless night, we have now learned that Odeya, his beloved wife whom we searched for hours, was also mercilessly murdered by the assassins. This young couple's lives were tragically cut short in the war, simply because of their location near the Gaza Strip and the startling ease with which the terrorists invaded their home. A remarkable couple, they leave behind two young, now orphaned, daughters. My heart aches for my wife and her family in Sderot.

Aharon Haimov, a 25-year-old senior paramedic and ambulance driver with Magen David Adom (MDA) from Ofakim, was fatally shot on Saturday morning en route to treat the wounded in his hometown. He is survived by his wife and two children. Haimov began his career with Magen David Adom as a post-high school volunteer before joining the organization in a professional capacity.

Magen David Adom senior medic and ambulance driver Aharon Haimov, 25, of Ofakim was killed on his way to treat injured

“He was a person who put the good of others and the value of life ahead of everything else — including today, on this tragic morning,” said MDA Director-General Eli Bin.

Israel Fire and Rescue Services announced that Kiryat Gat Fire Station Commander Battalion Chief Shalom Tzaban and Senior Firefighter Yevgeny Galsky were also slain in the attack. Tsaban, 60, a father of two, joined the fire brigade in 1992 and was posthumously promoted to fire deputy chief. Galsky, 34, served in the Netivot fire station. He was promoted posthumously to the rank of sergeant firefighter.

Israel Fire and Rescue Services Commissioner Eyal Caspi extended his condolences to the families and commended the firefighters and commanders who were working tirelessly in numerous locations throughout the conflict zone.

Israel Fire and Rescue Services announcement of the death of Shalom Tzaban (right) and Yevgeny Galsky

The fire brigade on Sunday morning announced the death of Sergeant Major Firefighter Eric Yehuda Marciano, 50, who joined the fire brigade in 1996 and served as a team leader at the Kiryat Gat Fire Station. He is survived by his wife and three children.

His daughter Coral said: "He went on duty, and probably because of the pressure, he forgot his bag at home. I wrote to him, 'Dad, you forgot your bag.' At 7:05am, he told me he would come back to get it and at 7:20 he no longer answered me, he had already encountered the terrorists. Numerous trucks loaded with armed terrorists entered the area. He fought the terrorists and managed to save a child. I knew my father was dead before we were informed; someone saw him dead and sent me a picture. My father is a hero. He was my whole world. He was a father who always put us first, and himself second, placing everyone before him."

Head of the Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council, Ofir Libstein, was killed in the terrorist attack on the Gaza border town

(Photo: Contact)

The head of the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council, Ofir Libstein, was killed during fighting with Hamas terrorists Saturday morning. “Ofir was killed when he went to defend a town during the terrorist attack,” the council said.

Israel Amichai Vitzan and Moshe Yedidya Raziel (Rosenberg) were killed in Kerem Shalom. They were both residents of the West Bank settlement of Psagot.

Nine people, including a number of children, were killed when rockets struck their communities in the northern Negev, which do not have shelters, according to local authorities.

In Arara, Yazan Zakaria Abu Jama was killed when a rocket landed near his home. In Alba’at, brothers Malek Ibrahim Alkra’an, 14, and Jawad Ibrahim Alkra’an, 15, were killed in a direct strike. Alba’at cousins Amin Akal Alkra’an, 11, and Mahmoud Diab Alkra’an, 12, were also killed. Faiza Abu Sabaakh, 57, and her granddaughter May Zuheir Abu Sabaakh, 13, were also killed in Alba’at.

On Monday morning the IDF released the names of a further 16 fatalities among its force.

Lt. Col. Eli Ginsburg, 42, a commander of the Naval Commando 13 unit, from Dovrat; Private Lior Levy, 19, an operations commander in the Home Front Command, from Dimona; Corporal Adir Tahar, 19, a soldier in the Golani brigade, from Jerusalem; Staff Srg. Uriel Moshe, 21,from the Golani brigade, a resident of Rechasim; Major Peleg Salem, 30, from Netanya; Corporal Amit Tzur, 19, a fighter in the Golan Brigade from Eliachin; Corporal Elai Bar Sade, 19, a fighter in the Golani brigade, from Ramat Gan; Lt. Itai Cohen, 22, a commander in the Engineering Corps' Yahalom special unit, from Rehovot; Sgt. Ben Rubinstein, 20, from the Lotar anti-terror unit, from Hod Hasharon; Srg. Yaron Uri Shai, 21, from the Nahal elite unit, from Kadima-Tzuran; Srg.(Res.) Roi Nagri, 28, from the Lotar anti-terror school, from Tel Aviv; Staff Srg. Itamar Bruchim, 21, paratrooper and commander in the officers' school, from Ashdod; Lt. Nitai Amar, 22, Engineering Corps, from Ma'alumim; 2nd Lt. Yonatan Gutin, special forces, from Modi'in; Staff Sgt. Tashgr Tekah, 21, Golani Brigade, from Jerusalem; Staff Sgt. Naveh Eliezer Lacks from the Matkal special forces unit, from Lod

First published: 00:25, 10.08.23

[jc4ltm]

Six Days - [6.5] - Joshua / Yehoshua  

I hung there spitting and clawing at my pathetic and supposedly dead husband who was lying on the ground under Lou’s foot. If there was one thing Jack was ever good for it was making absolutely everything worse. Every bit of damage I had done to myself or him looking like myself was completely gone, and I wanted to make more damage, while Lou held me back from doing so. Lou then said in very distasteful voice which on anyone else would signify illness, “This is the other anomaly I had been waiting to materialize in all of this,” and I stopped trying to wriggle free and stopped dead looking at Lou. 

I yelled down at Jack in a spitting mad voice, “I thought you were fucking dead?” and I could care less about the strange noises Lou made when I said that word. For the life of me I had no idea what his issue was with swears. I turned to him since I found myself pissed off at both now, “Are you the King of Hell or what? How come the F word drives you crazy anyway?” and he pushed me down onto the bench making my butt hit hard. Until now I was proud that I did not have much padding on my rear but there have been a few times as of late I could have used it. 

Jack looked like he was about to say something, but Lou’s voice came out first from just in front of me even though he was staring at prince charming laying there on the ground but beginning to sit up, now that I was under control, “He is dead,” after a pause where Jack smirked directly at Lou he went on, “He’s very dead actually because I saw him in hell personally, when the event that brought me here occurred,” and with that he sat down on the bench next to me. I was contemplating whether I was going to dive back on top of Jack and start striking him when Lou looked at me like I better not dare. He speaking again, but his voice was different in a way, sort of like the way he talked about my unusual ability to jump in and out of time, “His soul is what you see in front of you, and I don’t understand how he simply walked out of Hell.” 

Jack started getting to his feet and mockingly brushed himself off. He shot Lou another disinterested glance and then said, “I got mad skills,” and then he looked at me. His look was appraising to say the least. There was a bit of an astonishment in it as he said, “I know things that you both don’t, and I came back to help,” he then put his hand up in a gesture to hold Lou back and then added, “and no, I’m not telling either of you what I know, so you are going to have to get over it,” which made me glance at Lou. His look was purely that of murder. The look of pure evil, and there was in that look of extreme anger, the devil as we would all know him despite the amazing beauty. His body shot up, hands darted out and grabbed Jack by the front of his shirt, and he got nose to nose with him. “You can’t send me back to Hell unless you take me there personally and you know what happens then jackass,” and I was dumbfounded by the amazing bravado Jack used when he talked to the Devil. 

Lou slammed Jack against the ground so fast that I did not see it, I heard a noise a second after I saw the two of them appear on the ground and that noise was both the dull thud of Jack’s body and the grunt of pain coming out of Jack. Lou was still nose to nose with Jack just down on one knee and bent over now above him, and he said very calmly considering how pissed off he was, “One great thing about your ex Jack,” and he put a lot of emphasis on the word “Jack” as if he wanted him to know that I was going to play a part in his misery one way or another, “is that we could spend eternity right here, reliving this day over and over again. I can cause you pain, then Stacy can cause you pain, then we both get to cause you some pain. I get to torment you here in a much better environment than the one you walked out of,” and then Lou backed off. 

Jack’s face went into a huge broad grin, which was oddly far scarier than the look of sheer infuriation that had passed across Lou’s face. He said nothing and simply started to shimmer and mold his own appearance to mimic the very creature that was holding him. Lou was standing there holding the identical duplicate of him and oddly started changing his expression to something that could be called panic, but far different than the normal panic of mortals. The amazing nerve of Jack as he reached out and patted Lou on the face, as he said, “Lesson one, oh darkest of Lords, is do NOT touch a soul outside the body in this reality, unless you want to give them the power to mimic you,” and the rage in Lou at that point had finally boiled over as he went to throw Jack against the wall of the school. Jack hit the wall and then flipped Lou the bird, and that threw Lou completely over the edge. 

The problem with his decision to throttle Jack, was that Jack had another trick up his sleeve, and that trick took Lou by surprise every bit as badly as any of this had. I watched Lou crash through the wall to the school as Jack had stepped completely through Lou as he lunged towards Jack, and as I said went through that wall. He then turned around to look through the hole in the wall saying, “Your lack of omnipotence is showing my good friend,” and then he turned around and started walking towards me, “Are you feeling particularly brave again?” 

I should have held my tongue under the circumstances, but I was still too new to all this in my own rights. I said, “I should have known that you were the only person in the world that would care about your memorial. I just did not think you would come back from the grave just to make sure someone went,” and Jack seemed to find that amusing enough because he started laughing. At least I hoped he was laughing at what I said and not because he was getting a diabolical thought that he was going to try out on me. 

In his own defense, Lou does appear to learn quickly enough as he did not attempt to do anything else to Jack. He simply stepped out of the hole in the brick wall he had launched himself through and then walked over to keep Jack within arms distance. Jack didn’t seem to care as he glanced at Lou who started talking in a calm voice, which you could tell at the time took a little effort, “So you can mimic the people that touch you, I don’t think personally that that is any big gift, I can mimic anyone on the planet without even having to be in the same time zone as them,” and there was a bit of that, “my penis is bigger than yours” in his voice, which gave me the giggles. They both stared at me, and I stopped at once, but you must admit the only advantage of being a spinster is the ability to laugh at everything a man does. 

Jack then transformed again, slowly at first and then quickly into the shape of me. I can see what Lou’s problem is with this because I immediately started feeling violated like I had before, and the towering temper in myself was starting to boil. Lou obviously sensed this as he held out his arm in front of me to stop me from making any brave movements. Jack said in a perfect imitation of my own voice, I would assume, but like a tape recorded version of your own voice it sounded different to me, “Let’s get the ground rules in place before we continue,” and he licked his lips that mimicked my own, “I figured Stacy owed me a few whacks so I let her touch me, but neither of you can touch me if I don’t want you to. It is hilarious to watch you try, but it is counterproductive,” and then he got this seriously hideous grin with my mouth which made me ill to look at. As if he was enjoying this way too much. “Secondly, I do not just mimic a form like you do; I completely take the form of who I can mimic. It takes some getting used to. For example the minute I take Stacy’s form I start thinking of the sickest sexual stuff with you and the need to vomit takes precedent,” and then he looked at me, “I might have stayed home more often if you had tried any of this stuff with me,” and looking back at Lou he said, “I never would have married her if I knew she would never get any better in bed, so you ...” and he never finished as Lou’s fist collapsed his skull, literally. It completely exploded in front of me, and I never saw Lou move so I just figured even though it made me jump. 

I swallowed hard to talk as rationally as I could at this point. It was difficult enough, since I hated this man for a good long time, but with that overwhelming jealousy that infests your system as you are staring at someone who violated your soul as Jack was doing it was all that much more difficult. Throw in the fact that I was about to talk to my body with only the bottom part of my head and you get the point, “What are you doing here Jack?" I never wanted to kill him as badly as I did now, and the fact that someone had beaten me to it pissed me off a bit too. I was hoping that somehow Lou would figure out a way that I could re-kill him and then just let me do it. 

He glanced back at me, but while he did it, he slowly, then quickly changed back into his own form. His own mouth was back when he said to me, “I told you that I know things, and because of that I had to come back,” he licked his lips and then added, “I add an extra dimension to it all. You can flip time around, Lou here, well let’s just cut to the chase, is Satan and all, and I have the information, and a certain level of means at my disposal to help you deal with your friend here’s idiocy,” and that seemed to do it, because Lou lunged toward Jack, then through Jack, and then on the ground again with a thump. “The definition of insanity after all is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results,” Jack said down to Lou as he lay on his belly beating the ground. 

“Ok genius, how about sharing the things you know with us?” Lou retorted before he had even turned over to look at Jack. There was something endearing in the silly way he behaved when he was out of his element. 

He stared at Lou again when Lou made it to his feet. It was an odd game he was playing, “I happen to know why Stacy jumps in and out of time,” and Lou stopped his pursuit of standing upright and remained seated on the ground looking up. Jack smiled and then said, “That doesn’t mean I am going to tell you, but I figured out how to exploit it when I dragged her to another time possibility, and I also figured out how her jumps in time are triggered while I did it,” and then he looked at me. “If your friend here cared to tell you then he would, so I hope you both don’t start getting on me about that.” 

I did not let him continue his stupid lecture, “Then what fucking good are you?” I blurted out and then instinctively looked down to see Lou wince where he was sitting on the ground. “I mean if you know things, but you can’t tell us, then what good are you to us, and why do you even have to bother us?” and before he could say another word, I threw out something to remove the power from him, “Yes I jump every time Darius kills me, and that isn’t all that big of a secret,” and his face froze, because he wasn’t as smart as he thought he was. “Let’s get one thing straight here Jack, and you will understand what I say as pure crystal,” and his face looked confused, “I have always been smarter than you, and I am not going to have you come back from the dead to continue to disrespect me,” and with a bit of venom I said, “and I sucked in bed because you sucked as a lover. You can talk about how bad I am but every woman that ever slept with you talks about how pathetic you were and how small your manhood was!” 

As bad as what I had just said was, it got worse when Lou nodding on the ground said, “Yeah. They all do,” and that changed the expression on Jacks face, but not for very long. Jack was able to get his smirk back, quick enough which probably would have scared me if I wasn’t already pretty sure that I was losing my mind repeatedly with every wrinkle that came up. Lou had gotten up during this exchange and walked to my side so that he could look Jack in the face. He still had the emotional look of someone that is angry, but I thought at the time that it had more to do with anger at him when he said, “Ok, I’ll play your game, but can you give us some sort of insight into what direction the things you know go?” 

That wicked smile that simply terrified me every time I saw it came across Jacks face again, as he said, “Oh I would be happy to show you exactly where my knowledge goes, but again I think it will ruin your whole day, and that’s saying something isn’t it?” The menacing looks on his face started shimmering and elongating, slowly and then much faster as his entire body started to swell. Jack was growing to a form of immensity that I had only seen once before in my life, and quite recently, but it had not come to me until it was too late, as usual. 

Standing before us was the hulking form of Darius, and my terror started rising, and forcing me to cower back. I watched with great realization in my heart of what a disadvantage Lou was at simply in plain size alone, as the two of them were both within arm’s reach of me. Darius being as big in corporeal form as any man he cast a shadow over me which filled my entire body with icicles. Worse than that the surprise was not just mine, but Lou had no time to react to Darius as he reached out and grabbed him by the throat lifting him a good two feet off the ground. Lou’s kicking legs and wheeling arms, despite being those of a deity were completely useless. The roaring voice yelled right into Lou’s terrified face, “Your object lesson Lucifer,” and then with hardly any effort he hurled Lou into a tree about four hundred feet away at least, snapping the tree as if it were a toothpick, and we both watched the tree fall on top of him even though it was so far away it almost looked cartoonish. 

I was far too terrified to move, and I didn’t know whether I was looking at my ex-husband in the form of Darius, or Darius reclaiming his natural form, but still my feet were rooted to the ground far better than that tree he had felled with what was a moment ago, my guardian’s limp body. I knew whoever this incarnation was it had both eyes, and I planned to make a mental note of that should I live through this. It was the roaring voice that told me the answer, “Now when I kill you Stacy we can get past that hideous six days rule once and for all can’t we?” and I didn’t even have time to wonder why Jack cared about the six days or, even if this was the real Darius or not. That seemed silly since I had finally admitted that Darius could not kill me if he wanted the six days to pass. Jack had a good point, but Lou knocked Jack over before he could grab me. The speed of both was slowed enough that I could see their streaks if not their forms. 

My flight reaction went into full effect, and it was frantic. I was so completely out of control that I really had no control over my own legs as I felt them start to stumble under me. Desperately I tried to regain the balance of my weak legs as they were giving out on me, but in the end, I was incapable of control over my own body when I went crashing to the ground. My arms had barely softened the blow as I laid there with my face staring at the hard tile floor. Mary’s voice was the first one that I heard as she came over to grab my arm forcing me to shutter over and convulse in terror with my back against the breakfast bar cowering between stools of the diner that I had watched explode twice today, or was it yesterday and today? Her voice was soft and concerned, “Are you alright dear?” and I did not have an answer to that considering I had just died again ... To be continued.