Showing posts with label Jerusalem. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jerusalem. Show all posts

December 26, 2017

@The Great Kotel in Jerusalem


So we made it to the Kotel in Jerusalem yesterday.

What an amazing experience.

It's been too many years.

Definitely, one of the top moments of my life.

As we entered the old city and walked through the narrow ways toward the Western Wall of the Temple, my heart and breathing was racing and I could feel the spiritualness getting closer and closer. 

When we finally arrived at the Holy Wall, I was just completely overwhelmed and saying over and over, OMG!

We took some photos, and then immediately when to pray at the wall. 

I think I got lost in prayer and didn't realize how long I had been standing and clutching the Holy Wall of G-d's ancient Temple. 

I truly believe that our prayers ascend to Heaven at this special spot of G-d's earthly abode. 

I wanted to fall to my knees, but stopped myself repeatedly as this is not generally the Jewish custom. 

But in my mind, my body, and soul was prostrated completely before G-d Almighty.

I put myself in His hands.

We can only do our best, and the rest is all in His control.

We can try to make the best decisions we can, but the real guidance in life comes from Him and His will for us. 

We learned in Yeshiva, not to ask in prayer for specific things in life to happen for us, but rather to ask G-d to do what is right in His eternal mind for us. 

This is right...submit to the King of Kings and let Him show us the way for us.

What are the right words to say to G-d?

At the end, thank you and please continue to help us, your children. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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December 6, 2017

Mazel Tov On Jerusalem

Today, Jerusalem has been recognized as the capital of Israel--Mazel tov!

- 70 years after President Truman instructed the State Department to support the U.N. partition plan.

- 50 years since the Six Day War in which Jerusalem was reunified.

- 22 years after the Jerusalem Embassy Act was passed for relocating the U.S. Embassy to the capital, Jerusalem.

Everyone has been patient and waited a long time for this.

As President Trump stated, we are recognizing the reality, the obvious, and "it is the right thing to do!"

Yes, Israel is a sovereign nation with the right to determine their own capital as every nation does. 

And Jerusalem is that capital today as it has been historically from the times of the Bible. 

We are blessed to be witnessing in our time the miraculous fulfillment of G-d's promise for the quintessential return of the Israelites to the Promised Land, and toward the ultimate redemption.

From the ashes of the Holocaust, G-d has resurrected and brought us alive again.

Many that I have spoken with today express genuine fear about the ramifications of this announcement of recognition. 

But as President Trump displayed today, we must all go forward together courageously and in celebration. 

The State of Israel is blooming from its agricultural fields to the incredible medical and technological innovations that are helping people throughout the world.

We must never forget that it is only with G-d's blessing and under his watchful eye.

May we all pray for peace and security, and let their not be war or terrorism anymore! ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal via WhiteHouse.gov)
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July 29, 2017

We Remember and Cry

Today the Rabbi spoke about that on Monday night is the solemn night of Tisha B'Av (the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av).

It is the day that Jews remember and cry about the destruction of both temples in Jerusalem--on the exact same day in history almost 700 years apart--in 586 BCE and and 70 AD. 

Tisha B'Av is also the date when Germany entered World War I which as we know started a series of events that led to the catastrophe of the Holocaust. 

We remember and cry on Tisha B'Av as we went from freedom to worship and live in Jerusalem to the exile and servitude to the Babylonians and the Romans. 

It the polar opposite of the holiday of Passover, where we celebrate and commemorate going from servitude under the Egyptians to freedom and redemption to get the Torah and enter and settle the Holy Land. 
By the rivers of Babylon
There we sat (and) also wept
When we remembered Zion
On willows in its midst
We hanged up our harps
For there our captors asked of us
(For) words of songs and tormented us (with) mirth:
'Sing to us from the song of Zion'
How will we sing the song of God
On a foreign land? 
If I will forget you Jerusalem
My right hand will forget (its skill)
My tongue will stick to the roof of my mouth
If I will not remember you
If I will not raise Jerusalem
Above my happiness
We as a people have been through so much...servitude, expulsions, crusades, inquisitions, pogroms, genocide...thousands of years of discrimination, torture, rape, and murder--yet, Israel Doth Live!

As the L-rd promised the Jews--after exile would come redemption, and so it is!

For thousands of years, the Jewish people yearned for a homeland where we could live in peace and security and for the rebuilding of the Holy temple--please G-d in our days soon.

From the rivers of Babylon to the Nile in Egypt and the Rhine in Germany--we have paid the ultimate price and sacrifice to G-d and we pray that the Jewish people can once again be free to live and worship as foretold "from the River in Egypt to the Euphrates River." (Exodus 23:31) ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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May 11, 2017

A Curse That Is Really A Blessing

So here is an amazing true story from this week.

My wife was in Israel. 

She went to the Kotel (Jewish Temple Mount in Jerusalem) to pray. 

On the way, an old, poor man stopped her and asked for food. 

My wife gave him her sandwich. 

Then after walking another block, he stopped her again and gestured for assistance. 

This time, my wife gave him some money too.

After this, she asked him if he would bless our family.

And he did and also gave a special blessing to my elder daughter who had just recently gotten engaged. 

My wife also went to the Kotel and prayed for us and her. 

That same evening back in the States here, my daughter and her fiancee ended their engagement. 

At first, the breakup seemed like a big disappointment and that a terrible thing had happened--almost like a curse--but G-d works in mysterious ways. 

When we saw the reasons for the breakup, we realized fully that G-d had indeed heard the blessings of the old, poor man (maybe an angel) and the prayers of my wife.

We wish the young man all the best in his future, but we just saw clearly that this was not the right match. 

So what at first can seem like a curse is really a blessing in disguise. 

Truly, when you give charity, you're not only helping others, but it's really a blessing for you too. 

Thank you to the old, poor man in Jerusalem and to Hashem who heard my wife's prayers at the Kotel. ;-)

(Source Photo: Dannielle Blumenthal)
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April 10, 2017

Tunnel From Egyptian Bondage

On Passover, we celebrate G-d's redemption of the Israelites and the great miracles he wrought in bringing them from slavery to freedom, giving them the sacred Torah, and taking them to the Holy Land of Israel. 

His mercy and kindness endures forever!

While many people think that the Israelites crossed the Red Sea and the desert...

Little do most people know that there is also this miracle tunnel that many Israelites took when G-d took them out of Egyptian bondage and exile. 

It connected them from Egypt and straight to the IRT subway train, which took them to the shuttle that then got them to John F. Kennedy International Airport and on to El Al planes to the State of Israel.

In G-d's world, there is no limitations of time and space...and He literally brought them on wings on eagles to live in Israel and worship at his holy Temple in Jerusalem. 

For 3,500 years, the Israelite Jewish people have inhabited the land of Israel--from their days and until ours, may Judah be saved and may Israel dwell securely, and let us bless and thank G-d, and say Amen!  ;-)

(Source Photo: Michelle Blumenthal)
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January 8, 2017

In Memory of Shir, Yael, Erez, and Shira

Like the truck rammings in Paris and in Germany, four more 4 young people were murdered today in Jerusalem by a terrorist truck ramming a crowd.

This is the result of radical Islamist terrorism that the Obama administration can't even utter...and which unfortunately has resulted in the loss of so many innocent lives. 


As the Obama administration defends terrorism as "workplace violence" and traffic accidents, they condemn our friend and ally, Israel--the Holy Land.

Nor can we say that the Obama administration stood by and did nothing as the world descended into chaos...no, instead, they actively released the terrorists from GITMO, let Crimea be overrun by Russia, let China militarize the South China Sea, made a disastrous deal with Iran that legitimizes their attaining the nuclear bomb, watched as North Korea tested nuke after nuke and missile after missile, and ignored the overrunning of their "red line" as 500,000 were slaughtered in Syria and refugees streamed across Europe.

What a disgraceful legacy for the Obama administration--Anti-Israel hate and Anti-Semitism, and leadership from behind as the dark forces of terrorism and war engulf the Middle East and Western civilization, and the clock ticks down to midnight. ;-)

(Source Photo: Stand With Us)

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October 14, 2016

Jerusalem's Absolutely Jewish Temple Mount

So the Nazi's tried to make the world Judenrein--free of Jews--meaning dead, as in Holocaust and genocide!

The Babylonians tried. 

The Assyrians tried.

The Greeks tried.

The Romans tried.

The Persians tried. 

And more...

...but they all failed. 

Empires came and went with their anti-Semitism, hatred, racism, discrimination, and bigotry. 

Now the UNjust United Nations, heralded by demagogues, dictators, and human rights abusers from around the world come together against Israel.

The latest yesterday, by the corrupt UNESCO, which drafted yet another resolution against the Jewish State declaring that the Holy Temple Mount in Jerusalem where the Jews worship at the Western Wall of their twice destroyed temple (Beit HaMikdash) is not Jewish.

The First Temple: 
1 Kings 6: "In the 480th year after the Israelites came out of Egypt, in the 4th year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the temple of the L-rd. 

The Second Temple:
Ezra 1-3: "In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia...the L-rd stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia...thus says Cyrus king of Persia...whoever among you of all his people, may his G-d be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the L-rd, the G-d of Israel--he is the G-d who is in Jerusalem."

The anti-Semitic UN and it's farcical subagencies like UNESCO can make earthly resolutions--false and worthless--all they want. 

But there is a heavenly G-d, and only He/She reigns supreme and whose resolution is truth and will endure. 

Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Israel and the Temple Mount is the holy site of the Jewish people, and if the UN has a problem with the word of G-d then they have a very BIG problem indeed. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal; The beautiful painting by Penina Flamm)
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August 13, 2016

Shut Up In Shul

So today, I went to synagogue for Shabbat. 

I sat by one of my friends and in between some prayers was catching up with him from the week. 

Okay, I know that I shouldn't be talking (so much) in shule, but it is an important way for me to connect with other Jewish people and community. 

Then all of a sudden, another person says to me without any warning, "Shut up!"

At first, I thought it was a joke, then he says it again with a serious face, and I was so embarrassed. 

And only partially for me, but maybe even more for him.

What type of person uses that type of language to someone and in synagogue. 

He didn't say, can you keep it down or let's focus on our prayers or something human and kind. 

Instead, he talked to me like an animal and I couldn't believe it and tonight is Tisha B'Av, when Hashem twice destroyed the Jewish temple in Jerusalem (in part it is said because of hatred of Jew against Jew). 

It reminded me of how I saw some horrible videos on Facebook this week of Chasidim from Neturei Karta and Satmar protesting against Israel and their fellow Jewish people...what a complete sickness to wish evil and destruction against your own brothers and sisters, rather than helping them to build and grow a beautiful state in service to G-d and a light unto nations. 

In synagogue today, while I was silent before this person's horrible words of rebuke, my friend said to him, "This is how you talk?  You say shut up [and in shul]!"

I appreciated that he said something, and the other guy actually apologized then.

I hope Hashem can forgive me for talking in shule and the people who treat each other badly. 

I am sad at how twisted religion has gotten to some, and know this is not the way it is supposed to be. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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June 4, 2016

United Jerusalem Of Gold, Of Bronze, And Of Light

We had a beautiful Shabbat service today at Magen David Synagogue. 

It was in honor of Yom Yerushalayim, which starts tonight. 

The day commemorates the reunification of Holy city of Jerusalem after the 1967 War.

The Rabbi read from Naomi Shemer's poetic song called, "Jerusalem of Gold."

And then we all sang the song together...

"Jerusalem of gold, and of bronze, and of light,

Behold I am a violin for all your songs."

What was amazing to learn was that Naomi Shemer wrote this song in honor of Israel Independence Day (Yom Ha'Azmaut) three weeks before the 1967 War and reunification. 

She later added a stanza to turn the song from purely one of the longing for the holy city to one that rejoices in being reunited with it. 

Some people from the shule who actually fought in the 1967 War were called up to the bimah, in front of the Torahs, to recite the Psalms and lead us in joyous and moving prayer for the Holy Land of Israel. 

After almost 2,000 years of exile, G-d fulfilled his promise to the Jewish people. 

As the Prophet Amos said (9:14-15): 

"'I will bring back my exiled people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land that I have given them,' says the Lord your G-d."

And as Prophet Ezekiel said (37:10-14) and  (37:21-22)

"Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.' Therefore prophesize and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign L-rd says: O my people, I am going to open up your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel....I will put my spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land..."

[Note: Israel was reestablished in 1948 just three years after the end of the Holocaust where six million Jews perished.]

"I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land. I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. There will be one king over all of them, and there will never again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms."

We are truly living in miraculous times when the words of the prophets are fulfilled, and there is not only a State of Israel, but a united Jerusalem of gold, of bronze, and of light. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

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May 2, 2015

The HaTikvah By Andy Blumenthal

Trying my hand at singing the beautiful HaTikvah tonight. 

Thank you to my wife, Dossy, for her patience with me. ;-)
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October 23, 2014

Israel-America 2gether 4ever

The other day, I passed the prestigious George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and someone had quite prominently graffitied the wall with "Free Palestine."

But then yesterday again, we saw another terrorist attack strike Jerusalem, the eternal capital of Israel, and a 3-month old baby from America was murdered after being thrown 30 feet in the air and landing on it's head.

I applaud the GW students who came out today to celebrate the enduring relationship between the United States and Israel.

At the event, a banner hung high with the promise from President Obama, as of those similarly who came before in the Oval Office that "The bond between the United States and Israel is unbreakable today, unbreakable tomorrow, and unbreakable forever."

Moreover, last month, the Senate unanimously passed a bill upgrading and declaring Israel a "Major Strategic Partner" of the United States.

The defense of Israel as a secure and sovereign nation is an imperative as freedom and democracy shine forth as a beacon of hope and peace for humanity.

May G-d bless the 2 countries and may their flags fly as one--2gether 4ever. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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August 24, 2014

To The Holy Land

My youngest daughter, Rebecca, left for The Holy Land today.

I am so proud of her courage, love, and determination to visit there and learn more about her Judaism and Israel. 


Rebecca, you are going on an amazing journey, and we are all so happy for you and thinking of you. 


We all wish you nothing but the best time, lots of learning and meaning, new friends, and of course G-d's endless blessings and protection.


May you go in peace and return in peace--all our love. ;-)


(Source Photo: Rebecca Blumenthal)

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June 24, 2014

Western Wall 1000

About 20 years ago, we took on a little family activity to put together this 1000 piece puzzle of the Western Wall ("The Kotel") in Jerusalem. 

We all sat around the dining room table in my parent's house working to put the puzzle together. 

It was a pretty tough puzzle, since the pieces of a large part of the puzzle, The Wall, looked so similar.

But it was something we all rallied around, had fun with, and figured out as a family. 

The only problem we couldn't readily solve, came down to the last piece of the puzzle, and almost smack center--it was missing. 

A 1000 piece puzzle with only 999 pieces. 

My dad, ever the innovative one, took out a marker and colored in the missing piece.

He framed the picture of the holy Kotel and hung it in their living room.

I was amazed that he took such great pride in the puzzle we worked on, since it was imperfect.

But it taught me that while nothing in life is perfect, it is our bonding together in love that creates a type of spiritual perfection. 

It was also interesting to me that like Jews now-a-days put little pieces of paper ("Kvitels") with their deepest prayers into the crevices of the Western Wall, my dad put the families last piece into the representative puzzle picture of it. 

Finally, the Western Wall is itself just a piece of the destroyed (twice) holy Temple ("Beit Hamikdash") that stood in Jerusalem, and one day hopefully it will be rebuilt with all the pieces through the loving bonding of the people that yearn for that special connection to the Almighty again. 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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February 19, 2013

Emperor Titus and The Micro-Drones


The Talmud tells of how the wicked Roman Emperor Titus who destroyed Jerusalem and the Holy Temple in 70 AD was punished with a small insect that flew into his nose and gnawed at his brain for seven years.

By the time Titus died, they opened his skull and found the insect had grown to the size of a bird--the lesson was that Titus thought that he was so powerful with his legions, but G-d showed him that even a little insect sent by G-d could defeat him. 

Now when I watch this amazing video from the Air Force about micro-drones, I see this story come to life all over again. 

With Micro Air Vehicles, little drones the size of insects can carry out missions from surveillance to lethal targeting of enemy forces. 

They can fly, hover, perch, power up, sneak up, sense, communicate, and attack. 

With these micro-drones, especially in swarms, these small packages of sensors and weapons can bring a big wallop for our warfighters. 

And like with Emperor Titus, you would not want these buzzing around and giving you big headaches--because these little buggers will be able to take down the mightiest of foes. ;-)

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May 22, 2011

Peace and Security

With all the questions about peace in the Middle East, there is a lot of enthusiasm for a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, living side-by-side in peace.
This is a practical vision that would resolve a lot of suffering and enable us to move constructively forward.
It may be hard to understand why Israel needs very specific conditions to protect itself, but this video sent to me by a friend explains it very well.
In a historical perspective, I think it is important to be aware of the context of the Jewish security concerns as well:
1) Six million Jews (ONE out of every THREE men, women, and children) were murdered in the Holocaust just last century.

2) Tens of thousands more were lost in numerous wars to overtake Israel (in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982, 2006, 2008 and in the Intifada's).

3) Mid-East neighbors (that support terrorist organizations--like Hamas, Hezbollah and more) do not even recognize Israel's right to exist, and are chartered to their ultimate destruction.
As a Jewish American, I too share, pray, and hope for peace in the Middle East...let it be so as a genuine and lasting one.
While Middle East peace often seems impossible, G-d can do what we think is impossible.
(All opinions are my own)

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