Friday, December 29, 2006

Aliyah

Aliyah literally means "to go up." It was originally used in connection with "going up" to Jerusalem, which is over 2700 feet above sea level. In order to reach Jerusalem, one must "go up" in elevation.

Today Aliyah can still mean "to go up." For example, when one "goes up" in the synagogue to read the Torah, they are said to be "making aliyah to the Torah." But "Aliyah" today is widely used to mean immigration to Israel.

According to the Israeli Government/CIA world factbook there are:

3 million immigrants to Israel since 1948
1.2 million from the former USSR
75,000 from Ethiopia
30,000 from the UK
76% of Israelis are Jewish

This week, Rachel and Simcha Gluck became the 10,000th immigrants brought to Israel from the US by Nefesh b'Nefesh, an American immigration organization founded in 2002. (See ynet news for the complete story.)

Aliyah from the nations, the USSR (the North), and Ethiopia was prophecied in the Old Testament:
  1. Deuteronomy 30:3,5 says "That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee...And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers."
  2. Ezekiel 34:13 "And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country."
  3. Jeremiah 31:8,10 "Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth...Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock."
  4. Jeremiah 16:14-15 "Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, the LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers."
  5. Zephaniah 3:10 "From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants, even the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring mine offering."

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Jerusalem Forever

2 Chronicles 33:4b - "...the LORD had said, In Jerusalem shall my name be for ever."

2 Chronicles 33:7&8 - "...God had said to David and to Solomon his son... in Jerusalem, which I have chosen before all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever: Neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from out of the land which I have appointed for your fathers; so that they will take heed to do all that I have commanded them, according to the whole law and the statutes and the ordinances by the hand of Moses."

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Psalm 121:4

Psalm 121:4 - Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Kadosh

Isaiah 6:3 - "...Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts..." (Hebrew = "Kadosh, kadosh, kadosh ADONAI Tzvaot...")
The Hebrew word for "holy" is "kadosh" or another variation thereof. It means "set apart, separate, sacred, free from uncleanness.
Leviticus 10:10 says "And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean;"
According to Strong's Concordance, "unholy" means "common." God is holy. This means that He should be revered and not treated as commonplace.