Tzemach Weblog

Tzemach Weblog is Moving

I am working on a new site for the Tzemach Institute and Fellowship Church, including this weblog. Future posts are avaialble at http://www.BuildUpZion.org/weblog.

20.Jul.08 Current Events Read more Comments (0)

Independence Day

Independence Day 2008: the Tzemach Institute looks at the origins of the United States and the decision before it at 232.

15.Jul.08 Current Events, KOG, Video Read more Comments (0)

“How Israelis Should Talk”

Shai Ben Tekoa of Deprogram Program links to an Al Jezeera interview posted on YouTube:

14.Jul.08 Current Events, Islam, Jerusalem Read more Comments (0)

Kiddush HaShem in the Streets of Jerusalem

by Rabbi Eliezer Waldman, Rosh Yeshiva, Yeshivat Nir Kiryat Arba
July 7, 2008 4 Tamuz 5768

Last Wednesday we experienced an extraordinary Kiddush Hashem (sanctification of G-d’s name) when an Arab murderer armed with a huge bulldozer went on a rampage on the streets of Jerusalem. He flattened occupied cars, turned over a bus and ran over innocent pedestrians until his reign of terror was finally stopped by what was described as a passerby. As a result of five minutes of horror, two mothers and a grandfather were killed and scores of others injured. That “passerby” was “M”, a hesder yeshiva boy on leave from a special army unit who took personal responsibility and immediately understood that he had to take action to save fellow Jews. He endangered his own life by climbing on the bulldozer, where he took a gun from a security guard and shot the savage terrorist, thereby putting an end to the ruthless killing.

This brave young hero, “M”, is one of our students at the Yeshiva of Kiryat Arba. When asked how he had the courage and determination to act so swiftly, he explained that he was inspired by the valiant actions of his brother in law who killed the Mercaz Harav terrorist, and by the educational values of faith in the Almighty, devotion to the ideals of the Torah and taking responsibility for each of his Jewish brethren. He mentioned several Torah commandments that instruct us to kill our enemies before they kill us and the warning in Parshat Kedoshim not to stand idly by the spilling of your neighbor’s blood (Vayikra 19:16). Any act taken to save Jewish lives from their murderers is a sanctification of G-d’s name.

Unfortunately this heroic action by “M” was taken after some of the police and security personnel did not respond adequately or quickly enough to save lives. I cannot put the blame in its entirety on these security people, the blame lies with the Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and others senior officials who have created an atmosphere of trepidation, of not responding to terror immediately and fear of getting involved in terror prevention. Any law enforcement officer who uses his weapon and succeeds in deterring a crime is liable to be arrested and dragged through the courts for years. This depressing situation leads to a climate which stimulates terror and completely destroys the government’s terror deterrent capabilities. For seven years the government has done nothing substantial against Kassam rockets fired on Sderot and other Western Negev towns. This inaction or “restraint” has encouraged the terrorists to continue their daily bombardment of Jewish towns. The failure to prevent aggression, and weakness of the Israeli government to secure the lives of its Jewish citizens is a result of the self degrading Israeli army fleeing from Lebanon and the crime of uprooting the Gush Katif and northern Shomron Jews from their homes in the Land of Israel.

The Arabs quickly grasped the utter deterioration of Israel’s basic moral obligation to protect her people and willingness to yield her rights to her homeland. There was a total lack of courage and determination to initiate operations that would prevent enemy violence and deter him from daring to even think of attacking or endangering Jewish lives. The moral principle by which every Jewish man, woman and child knew that his life could depend on Jewish soldiers has always been the backbone of the Jewish State. The bravery and valor of a Jewish warrior was the pride of the Jewish people and the world revered us as well. Saving Jewish lives was always a sacred mission even if it had to be carried out on foreign soil like Entebbe, thirty two years ago on July 4, 1976. Far and wide it was known that the Israeli government would send soldiers to distant places and go to all lengths to save Jewish lives.

But today, in the heart of Jerusalem, the government’s reaction indicates loss of all national survival instincts; our leadership has morally deteriorated by showing indifference and taking no notice of impending danger. Our leaders have become paralyzed and exhibit no willingness to fight the enemy.

The exemplary officer at Mercaz Harav and his brother in law, our student “M”, have thrust a new light of Jewish pride and determination into the confused atmosphere of national life in Israel. They have restored our dignity. They have restored the deepest essence of the Zionist ideal by navigating their actions according to a map of faith and Torah values. Their sanctification of the Almighty demonstrates that only Zionism which derives its power from divine values of Jewish faith, is able to confront and eliminate the threat to Jewish existence in Israel. Only a Zionism of faith will create the motivation and courage to overcome the moral fatigue of our government and revitalize the enthusiasm and pioneering spirit inherent in our people.

This thought is expressed clearly in the words of Bilam, in this week’s parsha in which we find a glowing description of Jewish valor which compares the awakening of Israel to a leopard and lion.

“Behold the nation will rise up as a leopard, and as a lion will demonstrate his prowess.” (Bamidbar 23:24)

The commentary of Rashi explains the source of the power of the leopard and the prowess of the lion: “they rise up early in the morning to recite the S’hma, to put on tefillin and tzizzit.” Our spiritual roots are brought to life by the performance of mitzvot that reveal our allegiance and devotion to the word of G-d, which gives us the power to rise up against our enemies.

The phenomenon of a Kiryat Arba hesder yeshiva student taking swift and decisive action against a terrorist murderer, thereby preventing him from taking the lives of more innocent Jews, is a direct result of the moral values ingrained in him by his rabbis. We are grateful to the Almighty who has granted us the privilege of being part of an educational process that produces such bravery and selfless devotion, that brought about a sanctification of Hashem and serves as a shining example to all of us.

10.Jul.08 Current Events, Encouragement, Islam, Jerusalem, Judea & Samaria Read more Comment (1)

Revelation 13

This week’s Tzemach Institute follows up on last week’s look at the Beasts of Daniel 7 with a look at the beast government from the Apostle john’s perspective. Among other things, the program looks at the second “religious” beast that works in tandem with the secular beast.

(At the time of this post, Google is reporting that the larger (broadband) version of the video is “currently not available”. If it is still unavailable, you should be able to watch or just listen to the program by using the smaller (dialup) version at the bottom of the post.)

03.Jul.08 Prophecy, Video Read more Comments (0)

Mother Saves Daughter Before Being Murdered

An Arab armed with a bulldozer murdered three Israelis. One of them, Bat Sheva Unterman, managed to save her infant daughter before being crushed.

Moshe Kempinski of Jerusalem Insights writes:

Bat Sheva and Ido Unterman waited a long time for the arrival of their first and only child, a daughter called Efrat. Ido , the grandson of the Chief Rabbi od Israel during the 60’s Rabbi Isser Yehuda Unterman, was working and did not even suspect that his wife and his five month old daughter were anywhere near the area of the murderous terrorist rampage in Jerusalem . Batsheva a kindergarten teacher at the Har Homa neighborhood who loved children was finally blessed with a child of her own. Bat Sheva was returning from a baby doctor’s visit with Efrat her five month old when she made that fateful turn on to Jaffa road. The bulldozer driven by the terrorist was finally standing motionless and the terrorist was lying across the steering wheel after having been shot by a vigilant policewoman at the scene. The terrorist suddenly woke up and he stepped on the gas pedal and crushed the front of Bat Sheva’s car with the bulldozer.

Bat Sheva had seconds to make the choice. She chose to unhook the safety strap of her baby’s car seat. Several citizens in the area quickly took the baby Efrat out of harms way seconds before the bulldozer continued its murderous rampage.

We live in a world where most of the choices we make are about which clothing to wear and which toothpaste to buy. We are living in a country where our government easily makes choices of surrender to evil and terrorism but has difficulty in deciding to punish the perpetrators of evil. We are living in an era where decisions regarding leadership are made according to which decision involves the least thought and carries the least commitment.

Yet we are of a people that for thousands of years have had to make choices like the choice Bat Sheva had to make. Every decision that this courageous woman had to make was faith based. These were decisions like the one to become a teacher of little children when she still could not have one herself or the decision to continue to pray and strive to have a child. And finally the horrific decision to choose to give up her life in order to give her daughter the gift of life.

May her memory be a blessing.May her choices be some measure of instructions for all of the rest of us and some measure of comfort for her daughter Efrat when she grows older.

We will see the day when mother and daughter are re-united in joy and these desperate atrocities of the enemy will be completely emptied of the horrible significance they hold today.

03.Jul.08 Current Events, Islam Read more Comments (0)

The “Beasts of Daniel 7″ Mistake (TV)

When interpreting the sequence of empires represented by beasts in Daniel 7, popular prophecy “experts” typically being with Babylon. This week’s Tzemach Institute program takes a look at the Scriptures to discover why this is a mistake and what the ramifications of this mistake are in understanding what is happening in the last days.

27.Jun.08 Current Events Read more Comment (1)

D’var Adonai

Oh that My people would listen to Me,
That Israel would walk in My ways!
I would quickly subdue their enemies
And turn My hand against their adversaries.
Those who hate the LORD would pretend obedience to Him,
And their time of punishment would be forever.
But I would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
And with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.
(Psalm 81:14-17)

May the God of Israel use the faithful in Judea & Samaria to turn the hearts of all of Israel toward Him.

20.Jun.08 Encouragement Read more Comments (0)

The Book of Ruth and Shavuot (Pentecost) (TV)

The book of Ruth is more than a beautiful story of a woman’s devotion to her mother-in-law, it is also a prophetic picture of Israel, the Body of Messiah and Christianity. Where the Body of Messiah recognizes and acts on Israel’s role in Redemption while Christianity sees no significance to Israel and either ignores him or, worse, actively opposes Israel.

In this week’s Tzemach Institute program, we uncover the prophetic significance of the Book of Ruth and it’s connection to the Biblical festival of Shavuot or Pentecost.

I have had trouble with Google Video this week, so here they are in Flash format (the dial-up link appears below the video screen).

Watch Now:

 The Book of Ruth and Shavuot [28:13m]: Play Now | Play in Popup
 The Book of Ruth and Shavuot (Dial-up) [28:13m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

18.Jun.08 Doctrine, Prophecy, Video Read more Comments (0)

Mysteries of Messiah

In his writing, Paul talked about the Mystery of Messiah:

By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, (Ephesians 3.4-6, NASB)

At least part of the Mystery of Messiah in Paul’s day was that the God of Israel intended to graft gentiles into the Body of Messiah. Today, the concept of Messiah being an office comprised of Jesus as the head and the Church as His body tends to be muddled in Christianity. Through Nicence doctrines such as the Mystical Holy Trinity the nearness and immediacy of the office of Messiah is negated and Jesus is afar off in the heavens as part of the godhead. The reality of a body of believers walking this earth as a vessel of Jesus has once again become a mystery to too many of us.

This week’s Tzemach Institute program looks at these Mysteries of Messiah and calls believers to function in a local body as part of the body of Messiah.

Click here to view or order DVDs of this and other Tzemach Institute programs.

11.Jun.08 Doctrine, KOG, Prophecy, Torah, Video Read more Comments (0)