Yam Ha Melach (The Salt Sea) aka The Dead Sea
Friday, August 24, 2007
Shabbat comes in at about 6:57 p.m. (The time is posted in the newspapers.) But the people started coming in to this hotel right on the Sea all day Friday. Young and old. Very healthy and the infirm. Most in families. The health benefits of the Sea and its environs draws them. Even in this hot (110 F) weather.
I looked forward to my first Shabbat meal. Every day the Mediterranean food buffet is wonderfully varied in its tastes. (I actually feel sorry for those who won’t try the tasty and healthy cuisine. If you are joining me here on our Rosh Hashanah Tour, decide now not to miss the food.) But on Shabbat there are certain foods one can count on to be there. Gifelta fish, for instance, with horse radish and beet sauce. This is a food from the Ashkenazi (European) Jewish community. It’s right there midst all the food favorites of the Jews who came from the Mediterranean and Arabian Diaspora.
Shelli and I walked into the (heder ochel) the dining room when it opened at 6:30. White tablecloths covered the tables. A small bottle of wine labeled “Sweet Kiddush Wine” sat atop each one. The Israelis around us simply poured the wine and began to eat. Was there no one who would make the Kiddush (pray over the wine and the bread as in our Communion)? Then I remembered. It is summer. The days are long. Shabbat begins in the evening at 6:57. The religious Jews would be in the Synagogue at prayer until later. (Every hotel provides a synagogue for its guests.)
We finished the delicious meal and sat in the lobby. About 8:15 a long line of those who had been at prayer came through to the dining room. Men wearing kippahs (yarmulkes). Women wearing festive dress. A large group of Yemenite Jews sat in chairs drawn up in a circle while they waited for a table to sit together. Joyously, they began to sing the Yemenite songs. The Jews from Yemen left the Land it is said in the days of Solomon. They went to the far South.
Oh yes, I noticed something new on the Shabbat buffet. Black caviar. The Russian Jews have come back in large numbers since 1991. Their ancestors went to the North.
Here I sit again. Touching shoulders with prophecy fulfilled. He has brought them back from the North, the South, the East, and the West.
After dinner, most gathered in the lobby for live music and dancing. No hard drinks. Young and old. Children. Families. The music is enjoyable. Fun.
Never mind the headlines speak of Syria and Missiles and IDF buildup in the North. It is Shabbat. One is not even to think of business, let alone those troublesome things.
Next Shabbat I am going to eat with the 8:30 crowd.
Shabbat Shalom
Billye Brim
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Thursday, August 23, 2007
The Dead Sea Will Live
August 23, 2007 Thursday
Yam HaMelach (Salt Sea) Israel
If you are reading this blog, we’ve had a minor miracle. I’ve figured out how to do it!
This trip, although I’ve been blessed to come to this Holy Land many times, is quite surreal. I think it’s because I just finished teaching an Eschatology seminar on the Book of Ezekiel. What a week of revelation we had!
Looking at the Book from its beginning to the last chapter, gives such an overview of Israel from the beginning of the exile to the Millennium. Ezekiel saw visions of God. His wheel within a wheel visions are the chariot (Merkavah) of God sent to escort the Shechinah from the Temple before Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Temple in 586 BC. The Prophet witnessed the leaving of the Shechinah in stages. (9:3; 10:3,4 18,19; 11:22,23.)
The first part of the Book is Israel’s judgment which led to the exile. The middle part of the Book is judgment of the nations around Israel. But the last third of the Book is the consolation of Israel. It tells what is happening now. And what will happen in the future. Right up to the Millennium.
Israel was so defeated. Their very connection to God was destroyed. They were carried off to Babylon. But God had a message of consolation. They would come back home. Even in “the end of days.” A great Millennial Temple is described starting in Ezekiel 40.
Ezekiel sees another Merkavah (chariot) vision and witnesses the future return of the Shechinah to that temple (43:1-5; 44:4).
On the plane, I sat among so many Jews brought back home just like God said. Driving down from Jerusalem through the Judean desert, I remembered that from under the threshold of the Millennial Temple waters will flow out eastward and down through the Judean desert and into the now Dead Sea. These waters where nothing lives now will come alive! There will be exceeding many fish. When I passed where the fresh waters of an Engedi stream flow into this Dead Sea, I had to think about how in the Millennium this would be a hot spot for fishing!!! (Chapter 47.)
I thought about how trees for the healing of the nations would grow along either side of that great river!!! And how the desert would become like the Garden of Eden. Wow! God’s Word is real!
I see its fulfillment with my eyes. Jews are home in their own land. The rest will come just like He said it would! I’m so glad I get to be a witness of it.
More later!
Shalom, Billye Brim
Yam HaMelach (Salt Sea) Israel
If you are reading this blog, we’ve had a minor miracle. I’ve figured out how to do it!
This trip, although I’ve been blessed to come to this Holy Land many times, is quite surreal. I think it’s because I just finished teaching an Eschatology seminar on the Book of Ezekiel. What a week of revelation we had!
Looking at the Book from its beginning to the last chapter, gives such an overview of Israel from the beginning of the exile to the Millennium. Ezekiel saw visions of God. His wheel within a wheel visions are the chariot (Merkavah) of God sent to escort the Shechinah from the Temple before Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Temple in 586 BC. The Prophet witnessed the leaving of the Shechinah in stages. (9:3; 10:3,4 18,19; 11:22,23.)
The first part of the Book is Israel’s judgment which led to the exile. The middle part of the Book is judgment of the nations around Israel. But the last third of the Book is the consolation of Israel. It tells what is happening now. And what will happen in the future. Right up to the Millennium.
Israel was so defeated. Their very connection to God was destroyed. They were carried off to Babylon. But God had a message of consolation. They would come back home. Even in “the end of days.” A great Millennial Temple is described starting in Ezekiel 40.
Ezekiel sees another Merkavah (chariot) vision and witnesses the future return of the Shechinah to that temple (43:1-5; 44:4).
On the plane, I sat among so many Jews brought back home just like God said. Driving down from Jerusalem through the Judean desert, I remembered that from under the threshold of the Millennial Temple waters will flow out eastward and down through the Judean desert and into the now Dead Sea. These waters where nothing lives now will come alive! There will be exceeding many fish. When I passed where the fresh waters of an Engedi stream flow into this Dead Sea, I had to think about how in the Millennium this would be a hot spot for fishing!!! (Chapter 47.)
I thought about how trees for the healing of the nations would grow along either side of that great river!!! And how the desert would become like the Garden of Eden. Wow! God’s Word is real!
I see its fulfillment with my eyes. Jews are home in their own land. The rest will come just like He said it would! I’m so glad I get to be a witness of it.
More later!
Shalom, Billye Brim
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