| L' Shana Tova, A Sweet and
Healthy Year to You, Israel, and World Signs in the Sky: What Do They Mean? |
 |
| As we enter into the High Holy Days this year, I began to reflect on a highly unusual happening this past Shavuoth. I was having lunch with my sister and a friend with her son. He is an attorney from Washington, DC that specializes in mergers such as AOL-Time Warner. He began to tell us how he had seen a double rainbow the previous week and how unusual it was. I asked if he had ever seen a completely round rainbow. He said no. I proceeded to tell him how we saw one while flying to Moscow in December of 1975 for the "To Russia with Love Concert Tour." Down below our plane, which was high above the Atlantic near Europe, was a perfectly round rainbow--and the shadow of our plane was in the center of it. Previous to departure, many of the 50 members were nervous and uncertain what may await us upon our arrival in the former Soviet Union. (Mind you, this was at the height of the Cold War while Khruschev was still in office) You cannot imagine the comfort that this rainbow brought to us with the shadow of our plane in its center. Only G-d can make a rainbow. We took its sighting as a sign from G-d that He was with us and that He would protect us and bring us home safely after a successful mission. At this point of my conversation with the young man, we noticed everyone in the restaurant going outside to look up into the sky. Where upon we too went out. What we saw along with everyone else in South Florida, was a perfect circle around the sun. It did not have the colors of the rainbow. But It was a large perfect circle around the sun. It was visible over South Florida. The Miami Herald printed a picture of it on its front page the next day. Some that were interviewed thought that it signaled the end of the world. Others thought it signaled the start of final conflict of the ages. (Events are shaping up very rapidly now in the Middle East for a major conflict). The meteorologist said that it was most likely ice crystals about 30,000 feet above the earth refracting the light of the sun. That is the most likely scientific explanation. However, I would like to call something else to our attention. This perfect circle around the son happened on Shavuoth, exactly fifty days after Passover this year. This was the day that the Torah tells us that G-d wrote the commandments with His finger on two tablets of stone and gave them to Israel. It was also the day that He gave Zion, the choicest land in all the world, to His beloved wife Israel. Could that perfect circle around the sun on Shavuoth this year be a confirmation from G-d to a secular and lawless generation that indeed He did give His law, covenant, and land to His people at Sinai? Also that | these gifts are still valid today even though the Palestinian Authority and other fanatic Moslem nations keep pressuring America, the United Nations and World to force Israel to give up more and more of its eternal inheritance?Let us remember this Rosh Ha Shana, Yom Kippur, and Sukot that all the nations that come against Israel or who will not assist wiyh Israel's regathering to the land of its inheritance will be destroyed by G-d Himself. (And by the way, He won't need any of our modern technological weapons of mass destruction to take care of them. He's perfectly capable of doing it all by Himself without a coalition of nations who do not believe that it is He that is regathering all the tribes and reuniting both houses of Judah and Ephraim/Israel.) The dictators of the Moslem and all other nations who are offended by a Jewish State in the Middle East will soon be overthrown by this awesome G-d. If nearly a thousand times Ha Shem is calling all of the tribes and the two houses from all of the nations of their scattering back to Himself and to the home (land) that He gave them as an inheritance forever, then Israel needs more land; not less. When will all the nations understand this simple truth? Also, how can Israel's secular leaders despise our birthright like Easau by selling the Temple Mount, Judea, Samaria, the Golan, or the Jordan Valley for a bowl of soup? (A few billion of American dollars.) G-d forbid. After all is said and done, what price in blood and money will we have to pay to redeem our inheritance that we foolishly bartered so that all of the tribes and the two houses have enough land for Ha Shem to regather them? In this new year let us not be penny wise and pound foolish. Ha Shem is the most valuable commodity that Israel and all G-d fearing nations will ever have. Will you trust the BULL OF WALL STREET (THE GOLDEN CALF) MORE THAN HA SHEM? If the Maccabees were like our trefe eating generation and did not care whether they could ever pray on the Temple Mount like our generation apparently doesn't care, we would not have Hanukkah to celebrate each year with its beautiful lighting of the eight candles to signify the faith and obedience of the Maccabees. Do we have any Maccabees, Davids, Elijahs in this generation who fear Ha Shem more than all the armies of the Middle East and World who hate Israel? If so, then let the modern day spiritual battle of Elijah for the Temple Mount, and for all of our Holy Places and Holy land begin. For G-d will surely keep His promise to regather all the tribes and reunite the two houses of Judah and Ephraim/Israel to His land; whether men and nations want it or not. |
Hag Samaach, [Happy Holidays]. See
you soon in Jerusalem
John Stembridge
Former Mayor of North Miami, FL.