JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER.
1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
WE KNOW THE BATTLE OF ARMEGGEDON IS JUST BEFORE SUKKOT IN THE FUTURE.BECAUSE ALL NATIONS COME TO STEAL JERUSALEM FROM ISRAEL.BUT JESUS RETURNS TO EARTH AND DESTROYS ALL WHO COME AGAINST JERUSALEM. AND JESUS RULES FROM JERUSALEM FOREVER.JESUS JUDGES THE ISRAEL HATER NATIONS AND PEOPLES. AND IF ANY NATION DOES NOT COME UP TO JERUSALEM FOR SUKKOT.THAT COUNTRY OR STATE GETS NO RAIN.
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
MATTHEW 25:31-46 WORLD NATIONS JUDGED HOW THEY TREATED ISRAEL DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD
31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
ZECHARIAH 14:16-21
16 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.
17 And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.
18 And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
20 In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the LORD’S house shall be like the bowls before the altar.
21 Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the LORD of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts.
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE
Sukkot'Each year the rabbis' arrival was a reason to celebrate'-In Calabria, rabbis and farmers continue a 2,000-year-old etrog tradition-Locals have seen Jews coming to harvest the cherished fruits from time immemorial, and welcome them as family and a key economic mainstay-By Rossella Tercatin-October 4, 2017, 8:11 pmTOI
MILAN — The life of Angelo Adduci has always been infused with the smell of citrons.“I grew up among the citron trees cultivated by my family,” he tells The Times of Israel.Adduci, 56, is the president of the Consorzio del Cedro di Calabria (Calabria Citron Consortium), the association of local citron farmers. He is a small farmer himself, and lives in the town of Santa Maria del Cedro, at the core of the Riviera dei Cedri. It’s an area about 40 kilometers (25 miles) long on the shores of the Calabria region, the toe of Italy’s boot.For centuries, the farmers of the Riviera have grown citrons that are considered among the best in the world: the cedro qualità liscio Diamante, or the “Smooth Diamante citron.” These citrons, named after the town of Diamante, are among the most requested as etrogim for the festival of Sukkot.Every year, during the summer, several rabbis from all over the world move to the Riviera to harvest the best fruits and send them to Jewish communities in the US, Israel, Russia, Canada, UK and the rest of the world.The Calabrian etrogim are very popular and are especially in demand within the Chabad-Lubavitch communities, whose late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson recommended using this specific variety for use on the Sukkot holiday.In the last decades, six or seven different groups have been settling in Calabria over the summer, totaling about 20 or 30 people. They rent out local houses, including one to serve as a synagogue for a daily minyan.The Riviera features a unique microclimate, where the warm air from the sea meets the cold air from the mountains, creating the ideal habitat for the delicate citron trees. The region’s friable soil is very suitable for the species’s short roots.This year, however, a frost destroyed over 90% of the crop.“The citron trees are very fragile, they can’t survive temperatures below -4 degrees Celsius (25 Fahrenheit), and in this past winter it got to -8 (17.6 Fahrenheit). We have planted over 4,000 new trees to replace the ones that died, but it takes four years for them to start bearing fruits,” Adduci sighs.To the local people of Riviera dei Cedri, the etrogim are as important as they are to the rabbis, as they are of key economic value. Calabria remains one of Italy’s poorest and least developed regions, and the Jewish demand for etrogim represents an important boost for the economy of the Riviera. The rabbis pay between 3 and 12 euros ($3.50 – $14) apiece. The rest of the crop is sold to the food or the cosmetic industry for 1 or 2 euros per kilogram (2.2 lbs).“Our ancestors, grandparents and parents have supported their families growing citron trees generation after generation. There was a time when parents would marry off their children only after a good citron crop, to be able to bear the costs of the celebrations and dowries,” Adduci recalls.He highlights how he has witnessed the rabbis arriving to the town of Santa Maria del Cedro since he was a child.“We called them ‘barbet’ — in our dialect that means ‘man with a beard’ — and their arrival was a reason to celebrate. They always brought presents, cigarettes for the adults, candies and the fabulous American chewing gum for the children. We have always considered them part of our community,” says Adduci.For the past few decades, the tourism industry has also represented a major source of income for the area, but the locals’ approach to tourists has been very different.“I remember when tourists started to arrive here in the ’70s. Many people almost felt they were invading the land. This never happened with the rabbis — they have never been considered foreigners,” he says.He adds that for local people it is also very important to respect Jewish traditions.“For example, farmers are aware of the kashrut requirements, so when they invite the rabbis to sit at their table they just offer fruit or vegetables, and they know that the rabbis will use their own silverware. Nobody gets offended,” he points out.At the beginning of September, the local Citron Museum featured an event where the rabbis enacted the most important customs of the festival of Sukkot, like shaking the four species — among them the etrog — and explained them to the local people.“It was the second year in a row that we did it, and it was a very powerful moment,” says Adduci.A slightly less idyllic picture of the relationship between the rabbis and the farmers is painted by one the founders of the citron consortium and a former mayor of Santa Maria del Cedro, Francesco Maria Fazio.“We started the consortium to be better organized to negotiate with the rabbis,” explains Fazio. “For the farmers, the ability to rely on the fact that they will sell the citrons to the rabbis is the equivalent of having a credit card, and usually every farmer works with a specific rabbi.”“However,” he says, “the rabbis sometimes sell the fruit for 10 or 20 times what they paid to buy it, and I thought it was important to work together to protect the farmers’ interests. Otherwise the rabbis could do as they pleased.”Still, says Fazio, relations between the groups are good. “I often also took part in Shabbat celebrations, it was wonderful,” he says.Revealing more problematic sides of the story were also the recent comments made by Chabad Rabbi Berel Lazar, chief rabbi of Russia, who visits the region every year to purchase the etrogim for his community.Speaking to a JTA reporter, Lazar described the relationship with the farmers as “of friendship and mutual respect” but “sadly not of trust.”He also mentioned the influence of the local mafia to manipulate the business, by pressuring farmers into trying to sell non-kosher etrogim. In order to be considered kosher, an etrog needs to be neither grafted nor hybridized with any other species, and at least egg-sized, yellow, elliptical, intact, with a tough peel.Fazio has had his own share of mafia problems. In 2012, the ‘ndrangheta — as the local mafia, among the most ruthless in Italy, is called — burned down his family hotel after he refused to surrender it to their control. Since then he has rebuilt it, turning it into a luxury hotel that has become a symbol of entrepreneurship and courage against mafia. He is certain that the ‘ndrangheta is not involved in the citron market.“When it comes to our land, it is probably true that mafia culture is very widespread, to the point that maybe we could say that to some degree there is some influence of it on everyone’s mindset, probably myself included, in spite of the fact that I lived for decades in Northern Italy,” says Fazio.“I think I fully realized how mafia influences our mentality only after they hit [my hotel]. However, I am positive that there is no actual mafia involvement in the citron market. Leaving any other consideration aside, it is too much of a niche business to be interesting for them,” he adds.There is no evidence for mafia involvement in the citron market, confirms journalist and mafia expert Arcangelo Badolati, a reporter at the local paper Gazzetta del Sud.“In that [geographical] area, the ‘ndrangheta is active in other businesses, like tourism and drugs, but not in agriculture,” says Badolati.Berel Lazar’s father, Rabbi Moshe Lazar, or “Rabbino Mosè”, as he is known in the Riviera, agrees with Fazio and Badolati.Based in Milan, the 83-year-old has been going to Calabria every year since 1965. He is worried about the grave consequences of the frost that decimated the etrogim.“I have never seen such a devastation, although some say that something similar happened in 1956,” says Lazar.But he has only words of praise for the local farmers.“We are like a family. I have seen children growing up, getting married and having their own children. They have always helped us and we never had any problem,” Lazar says.“The etrogim have been part of these lands for 2,000 years,” concludes Adduci. “The tradition tells us that they were brought here by Jews who established themselves in the area. For us, the rabbis are part of our landscape, together with the citron orchards, the farmers and the sea.”
Gag order placed on investigation into murder of Jewish man in Kafr Qassem-Police, Shin Bet probe death of Reuven Schmerling, whose body was found with 'signs of violence' in Israeli Arab city-By TOI staff-October 4, 2017, 9:44 pm
A court on Wednesday imposed a gag order on details of a joint police-Shin Bet investigation into the suspected murder of a Jewish man in the Israeli Arab city of Kfar Qassem.Reuven Schmerling, 69, from the West Bank settlement of Elkana, was found lifeless on Wednesday afternoon in the city’s industrial zone with “signs of violence” on the body, police said. Initial reports indicated he was stabbed; some Hebrew reports said he had also been badly beaten.Schmerling, a father of four, was set to celebrate his 70th birthday on Thursday. He owned a coal business in Kafr Qassem, about a half-hour drive from Elkana. His body was found in one of the business’s storage units.The motive for the suspected murder was still being investigated as the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, joined the probe. Security forces said they were looking at all possible avenues, including a possible work-related row between Schmerling and his workers.The Shin Bet said earlier it was also checking whether the suspected murder was perpetrated for nationalistic reasons.Asaf Mizner, head of Elkana Regional council, said the settlement was in “total shock and sorrow together with the family over Reuven’s terrible murder.”Mizner told Channel 10 earlier that when a “70-year-old Jewish man is found slaughtered… in Kafr Qassem, there’s nothing to conclude but a nationalistically motivated attack.”Mizner said that Schmerling’s family, including his four children and 17 grandchildren, had gathered in Elkana to celebrate his birthday Wednesday, as the Jewish holiday of Sukkot began at sundown.Schmerling’s body was discovered in the storage unit by one of his sons, who alerted police and emergency services.Paramedics declared Schmerling dead at the scene. Channel 2 reported that he may have been deceased for several hours before he was discovered in the early afternoon.The police and the Shin Bet said the investigation was ongoing.The head of security for Kaft Qassem, Khaled Issa, told Channel 10 that Schmerling “was a known figure in the city” and “this is a sad incident that has all of us in shock.”Issa said Kfar Qassem is known as a place for “partnership between Jews and Arabs” and where “everyone works in harmony.”Kafr Qassem has witnessed several murders in recent months that are believed to have been criminally motivated even as they remain unsolved.Town residents have criticized the police’s failure to crack down on crime in the city.In June, President Reuven Rivlin met with the town’s mayor, Adel Badir, and Israel Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem to discuss ways of restoring calm after a security guard shot dead a resident, Mohammed Taha, 27, while rioters attacked a local police station.The guard who shot Taha, who has not been named in the media, was questioned by police and released. Taha’s family had accused the guard of murder.
Best of booth worlds-Tel Aviv hosts 25,000 visitors in ‘world’s largest sukkah’-Five-year tradition, hosted by pluralistic Beit Tefilah Israeli, seeks to bring 'all the sectors of Israeli society' under one roof-By Melanie Lidman-October 4, 2017, 11:07 am
One of the central practices of the week-long holiday of Sukkot is “Ushpizin” or welcoming guests, but the pluralistic, independent Beit Tefilah Israeli has taken the tradition a step further. It plans to welcome upwards of 25,000 people to what it says is the world’s largest sukkah, a 700-square-meter (7,000 square feet) extravaganza constructed for the fifth year running at the Tel Aviv Port.“This is a place where we can meet different sectors of Israeli society in celebration — ultra-Orthodox, Reform, Ethiopian Jews, and also Arabs,” said Rabbi Esteban Gottfried, one of the two rabbis of Beit Tefilah Israeli along with Rabbi Rani Jaeger. “We have activities for everyone. We also have some [religious] ceremonies, but the main theme is living together with all the sectors of Israeli society.”During Sukkot, which begins Wednesday evening, the so-called “World’s largest sukkah” will host 72 different events, including daily yoga, dance, children’s activities, study sessions, lectures, and musical performances.The sukkah will also host an evening dedicated to exploring the relationship between American and Israeli Jews with a panel including MK Yehudah Glick and former MK Ruth Calderon.Beit Tefilah Israeli is an 11-year-old independent, pluralistic group based at the Tel Aviv port. It is known for its summertime Friday night Shabbat services, which can attract upwards of 1,000 people.This is the fifth year it has built an enormous sukkah, a wood and fabric affair that it takes a professional company eight days to assemble.The Jerusalem municipality also builds a large sukkah next to City Hall. That sukkah is larger than the one in Tel Aviv at 1,000 square meters (11,000 square feet), and is expected to host upwards of 100,000 visitors at a multitude of events.“What I love about this project and being the rabbi of BTI is meeting the people. It’s so amazing to see how many people from different parts of Israel are feeling at home and welcomed and included no matter where they come from,” said Gottfried. “For example, you can see in the sukkah refugee children playing with Haredi children and images you cannot see anywhere else, of different parts of Israel getting together. It’s really a ‘sukkat shalom’ (a sukkah of peace) in that sense.”
Largest lulav-harvesting kibbutz has fronds in high places-Tirat Zvi has perfected the art of the palm frond, part of the lucrative Four Species industry that flourishes for one week out of the year, during the festival of Sukkot-By Melanie Lidman and Video by Luke Tress-October 4, 2017, 8:34 am
In Tirat Zvi, Buddhists are the experts on kosher lulavs. The Thai agricultural workers who labor in the kibbutz’s date plantation are the first to separate the kosher palm fronds from the rest. The lulav forms the basis for the Four Species, a group of ritual plants used over the Sukkot holiday.“They’re Buddhist, but they know and understand what makes it kosher,” Avner Rotem, the manager of the date plantation on the kibbutz, said as Somjit, a Thai worker who declined to give his last name, deftly maneuvered a yellow cherry picker to the top of one of the 13,000 palm trees used for growing lulavs.It takes a bit of training to grasp the correct length, tightness, and unbent tips that the closed palm fronds need in order to meet kashrut standards. “They know if we get there too late and the fronds are too open, then they’ll leave it and choose another,” Rotem explained.The lulavs come from the baby palm fronds on the tops of trees, where the newest branches poke out. They must be harvested when they are about a meter in length, but before the fronds begin to split and open, rendering them unkosher.For seven months a year, Somjit brings the cherry picker to the top of the trees and reaches beyond the tough outer leaves, which have already split open into the traditional palm shape, to pick out the newest branches. With two quick snips, he cuts off two meter-long lulavs, checks them for size, ensures the tips are not damaged, and places them carefully in a cardboard box, before moving to the next tree.Sukkot, which begins at sundown on Wednesday, and lasts for a week, celebrates the fall harvest and recalls the temporary structures that housed ancient Israelites during their 40 years of wandering in the desert after their Exodus from Egypt. Jews around the world observe the holiday by building temporary huts, where they eat and sometimes sleep. Once a day, there is a tradition of shaking the Four Species, comprising the palm frond, myrtle, willow, and a “citron” or citrus fruit called an etrog in Hebrew. The origin of the four species is Leviticus 23:40.Tirat Zvi, a religious kibbutz that bakes in one of the hottest parts of Israel in the Beit She’an valley, is the largest producer of lulavs in Israel, shipping out 150,000 each year. Rotem estimates that Jews shake about 700,000 lulavs in Israel and 500,000 abroad during the festival.At Tirat Zvi, lulavs are harvested from a type of palm tree called the Dery Palm. As the story goes, in 1985, Shabtai Kovin, a young rabbi from Safed, came to the Beit She’an area in search of the “perfect lulav.” (Date trees love heat, so the Beit She’an Valley is one of the most popular places for date trees.) He met with growers from Tirat Zvi, examining all types of palm fronds that come from the kibbutz’s nine species of date trees. After careful scrutiny, he proclaimed that the Dery species produces the best lulav.The Four Species are priced based on to how well they satisfy certain criteria that make them “more kosher.” The myrtle branch, for instance, must have leaves that grow from the same point in groups of threes. The prices can vary wildly, with families shelling out serious cash for etrogs and lulavs deemed “superior” or “most kosher.”For the lulav, it’s the tight tiomet, or its two longest fronds. In the Dery species, the tiomet generally grows tightly together, and the closer the tiomet, the more prized the lulav — and the more expensive.Chabad Jews favor etrogs from the Calabria region of Italy, which this year is experiencing a massive shortage due to frost. The most beautiful or “kosher” etrogs this year can go for upwards of $500.Back in 1985, Kovin bought 100 lulavs from the Dery trees and went to Bnei Brak, where he sold them all within the hour. The kibbutz, sensing an economic opportunity, began planting more Dery trees.Dery trees also produce dates, but they are not as high quality as the more popular medjool species, which is why the kibbutz had not previously planted many Dery trees.Today, approximately half of the kibbutz’s 25,000 date trees, spread out over 1,500 dunams (370 acres), are Dery. While dates are the kibbutz’s biggest agricultural product, lulavs account for about a third of its profits.Tirat Zvi sells its lulavs wholesale, in boxes of 40, for approximately NIS 25 per lulav. They are considered high-end lulavs, and can sell on the market for NIS 100 for just the palm fronds (without the willow, myrtle and etrog). Rotem has seen Tirat Zvi lulavs for sale in New York for as much as NIS 350 ($100).The high prices mean the kibbutz’s date trees are also a target for theft. Over the past few years, hundreds of lulavs have been stolen from shorter trees during Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur, when the fields are empty.Tirat Zvi also exports lulavs to Australia, Panama and Argentina. Each lulav is individually packed in a plastic bag, stamped with the Tirat Zvi logo.Originally, the kibbutz would begin harvesting lulavs in the summer, after Tisha B’Av. But in the 2000s, it began experimenting with an antifungal wash that allows the lulavs to be stored for up to six months.These days, Rotem and his 25 workers begin harvesting lulavs for Sukkot when the kibbutz children pull out their Purim costumes in early spring. The lulav packaging house has seven refrigerators that can each store 20,000 lulavs throughout the blistering summer.Seven months of harvesting means a mature date tree can produce around 14 lulavs per year. The palm frond shoots grow at a rate of about three centimeters per day and are trimmed when they are around a meter in length, meaning each tree is harvested about once a month. The advent of cold storage also means that Israelis, unlike Diaspora Jews, no longer need to import lulavs from Morocco and Egypt to meet their needs.Among the lulav workers is Chaim Engelen, 22, who was a lone soldier on Tirat Zvi, part of a cohort of Garin Tzabar soldiers from around the world who live on the kibbutz and draft into the army together. “I got out of the army on a Thursday, and on that Sunday I already started working with the dates,” said Engelen, who has worked on the date plantation for 13 months. Now, he’s an expert on date pollination – each species requires a different ratio of date pollen to talcum powder, which is dusted on the female flowers – and how to tie the 25-kilogram (53-pound) bunches of medjool dates to the palm fronds so they don’t break under their own weight.“It’s interesting to think that someone in California or New York could be shaking this lulav,” said Engelen, who hails from Minnesota. “But it’s more interesting for me to see the lulav — you go out and cut it and six months later it’s still green. It’s amazing to see how it stays green.”Engelen said working on the date plantation has increased his appreciation of the lulav. “Usually you only see it for a week and then you throw it out,” he said. “Here, we’re thinking of lulavs almost all year round. We spend a good portion of the year working on things that people shake seven times and then throw in the trash.”On the Wednesday before Sukkot, Somjit and his coworkers were rushing to get the last lulavs down before the festival. They worked methodically, two snips per tree, before moving to the next one in the row.“We have several religions that work here,” said Rotem. “We have Muslim and Druze workers, Buddhist Thai workers; we also have a student from Nepal studying agriculture — all of them are working on our farm.”He said one of the reason he likes working with the date trees is that every part of the tree has a use. “It’s written in the Talmud that there’s no trash from the date tree. You eat its fruit, you use its leaves; even the trunk we use to make benches.”There’s even a second use for palm fronds over Sukkot, as schach, or covering, for the sukkahs (temporary huts) that families build. But with the medjool harvest, a big money-maker for the kibbutz, starting just before Sukkot, the kibbutz simply doesn’t have the resources to participate in the less-lucrative schach industry.As 10 workers frantically bagged the last thousand lulavs, another group laughed over the conveyor belt sorting large juicy dates into cardboard boxes.“We just don’t have time to cut down palm branches for schach,” said Rotem. “But it still feels good to provide for the Jewish people, to make the best lulavs we can.”
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
MATTHEW 25:31-46 WORLD NATIONS JUDGED HOW THEY TREATED ISRAEL DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD
31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
ZECHARIAH 14:16-21
16 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.
17 And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.
18 And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
20 In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the LORD’S house shall be like the bowls before the altar.
21 Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the LORD of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts.
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE
Sukkot'Each year the rabbis' arrival was a reason to celebrate'-In Calabria, rabbis and farmers continue a 2,000-year-old etrog tradition-Locals have seen Jews coming to harvest the cherished fruits from time immemorial, and welcome them as family and a key economic mainstay-By Rossella Tercatin-October 4, 2017, 8:11 pmTOI
MILAN — The life of Angelo Adduci has always been infused with the smell of citrons.“I grew up among the citron trees cultivated by my family,” he tells The Times of Israel.Adduci, 56, is the president of the Consorzio del Cedro di Calabria (Calabria Citron Consortium), the association of local citron farmers. He is a small farmer himself, and lives in the town of Santa Maria del Cedro, at the core of the Riviera dei Cedri. It’s an area about 40 kilometers (25 miles) long on the shores of the Calabria region, the toe of Italy’s boot.For centuries, the farmers of the Riviera have grown citrons that are considered among the best in the world: the cedro qualità liscio Diamante, or the “Smooth Diamante citron.” These citrons, named after the town of Diamante, are among the most requested as etrogim for the festival of Sukkot.Every year, during the summer, several rabbis from all over the world move to the Riviera to harvest the best fruits and send them to Jewish communities in the US, Israel, Russia, Canada, UK and the rest of the world.The Calabrian etrogim are very popular and are especially in demand within the Chabad-Lubavitch communities, whose late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson recommended using this specific variety for use on the Sukkot holiday.In the last decades, six or seven different groups have been settling in Calabria over the summer, totaling about 20 or 30 people. They rent out local houses, including one to serve as a synagogue for a daily minyan.The Riviera features a unique microclimate, where the warm air from the sea meets the cold air from the mountains, creating the ideal habitat for the delicate citron trees. The region’s friable soil is very suitable for the species’s short roots.This year, however, a frost destroyed over 90% of the crop.“The citron trees are very fragile, they can’t survive temperatures below -4 degrees Celsius (25 Fahrenheit), and in this past winter it got to -8 (17.6 Fahrenheit). We have planted over 4,000 new trees to replace the ones that died, but it takes four years for them to start bearing fruits,” Adduci sighs.To the local people of Riviera dei Cedri, the etrogim are as important as they are to the rabbis, as they are of key economic value. Calabria remains one of Italy’s poorest and least developed regions, and the Jewish demand for etrogim represents an important boost for the economy of the Riviera. The rabbis pay between 3 and 12 euros ($3.50 – $14) apiece. The rest of the crop is sold to the food or the cosmetic industry for 1 or 2 euros per kilogram (2.2 lbs).“Our ancestors, grandparents and parents have supported their families growing citron trees generation after generation. There was a time when parents would marry off their children only after a good citron crop, to be able to bear the costs of the celebrations and dowries,” Adduci recalls.He highlights how he has witnessed the rabbis arriving to the town of Santa Maria del Cedro since he was a child.“We called them ‘barbet’ — in our dialect that means ‘man with a beard’ — and their arrival was a reason to celebrate. They always brought presents, cigarettes for the adults, candies and the fabulous American chewing gum for the children. We have always considered them part of our community,” says Adduci.For the past few decades, the tourism industry has also represented a major source of income for the area, but the locals’ approach to tourists has been very different.“I remember when tourists started to arrive here in the ’70s. Many people almost felt they were invading the land. This never happened with the rabbis — they have never been considered foreigners,” he says.He adds that for local people it is also very important to respect Jewish traditions.“For example, farmers are aware of the kashrut requirements, so when they invite the rabbis to sit at their table they just offer fruit or vegetables, and they know that the rabbis will use their own silverware. Nobody gets offended,” he points out.At the beginning of September, the local Citron Museum featured an event where the rabbis enacted the most important customs of the festival of Sukkot, like shaking the four species — among them the etrog — and explained them to the local people.“It was the second year in a row that we did it, and it was a very powerful moment,” says Adduci.A slightly less idyllic picture of the relationship between the rabbis and the farmers is painted by one the founders of the citron consortium and a former mayor of Santa Maria del Cedro, Francesco Maria Fazio.“We started the consortium to be better organized to negotiate with the rabbis,” explains Fazio. “For the farmers, the ability to rely on the fact that they will sell the citrons to the rabbis is the equivalent of having a credit card, and usually every farmer works with a specific rabbi.”“However,” he says, “the rabbis sometimes sell the fruit for 10 or 20 times what they paid to buy it, and I thought it was important to work together to protect the farmers’ interests. Otherwise the rabbis could do as they pleased.”Still, says Fazio, relations between the groups are good. “I often also took part in Shabbat celebrations, it was wonderful,” he says.Revealing more problematic sides of the story were also the recent comments made by Chabad Rabbi Berel Lazar, chief rabbi of Russia, who visits the region every year to purchase the etrogim for his community.Speaking to a JTA reporter, Lazar described the relationship with the farmers as “of friendship and mutual respect” but “sadly not of trust.”He also mentioned the influence of the local mafia to manipulate the business, by pressuring farmers into trying to sell non-kosher etrogim. In order to be considered kosher, an etrog needs to be neither grafted nor hybridized with any other species, and at least egg-sized, yellow, elliptical, intact, with a tough peel.Fazio has had his own share of mafia problems. In 2012, the ‘ndrangheta — as the local mafia, among the most ruthless in Italy, is called — burned down his family hotel after he refused to surrender it to their control. Since then he has rebuilt it, turning it into a luxury hotel that has become a symbol of entrepreneurship and courage against mafia. He is certain that the ‘ndrangheta is not involved in the citron market.“When it comes to our land, it is probably true that mafia culture is very widespread, to the point that maybe we could say that to some degree there is some influence of it on everyone’s mindset, probably myself included, in spite of the fact that I lived for decades in Northern Italy,” says Fazio.“I think I fully realized how mafia influences our mentality only after they hit [my hotel]. However, I am positive that there is no actual mafia involvement in the citron market. Leaving any other consideration aside, it is too much of a niche business to be interesting for them,” he adds.There is no evidence for mafia involvement in the citron market, confirms journalist and mafia expert Arcangelo Badolati, a reporter at the local paper Gazzetta del Sud.“In that [geographical] area, the ‘ndrangheta is active in other businesses, like tourism and drugs, but not in agriculture,” says Badolati.Berel Lazar’s father, Rabbi Moshe Lazar, or “Rabbino Mosè”, as he is known in the Riviera, agrees with Fazio and Badolati.Based in Milan, the 83-year-old has been going to Calabria every year since 1965. He is worried about the grave consequences of the frost that decimated the etrogim.“I have never seen such a devastation, although some say that something similar happened in 1956,” says Lazar.But he has only words of praise for the local farmers.“We are like a family. I have seen children growing up, getting married and having their own children. They have always helped us and we never had any problem,” Lazar says.“The etrogim have been part of these lands for 2,000 years,” concludes Adduci. “The tradition tells us that they were brought here by Jews who established themselves in the area. For us, the rabbis are part of our landscape, together with the citron orchards, the farmers and the sea.”
Gag order placed on investigation into murder of Jewish man in Kafr Qassem-Police, Shin Bet probe death of Reuven Schmerling, whose body was found with 'signs of violence' in Israeli Arab city-By TOI staff-October 4, 2017, 9:44 pm
A court on Wednesday imposed a gag order on details of a joint police-Shin Bet investigation into the suspected murder of a Jewish man in the Israeli Arab city of Kfar Qassem.Reuven Schmerling, 69, from the West Bank settlement of Elkana, was found lifeless on Wednesday afternoon in the city’s industrial zone with “signs of violence” on the body, police said. Initial reports indicated he was stabbed; some Hebrew reports said he had also been badly beaten.Schmerling, a father of four, was set to celebrate his 70th birthday on Thursday. He owned a coal business in Kafr Qassem, about a half-hour drive from Elkana. His body was found in one of the business’s storage units.The motive for the suspected murder was still being investigated as the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, joined the probe. Security forces said they were looking at all possible avenues, including a possible work-related row between Schmerling and his workers.The Shin Bet said earlier it was also checking whether the suspected murder was perpetrated for nationalistic reasons.Asaf Mizner, head of Elkana Regional council, said the settlement was in “total shock and sorrow together with the family over Reuven’s terrible murder.”Mizner told Channel 10 earlier that when a “70-year-old Jewish man is found slaughtered… in Kafr Qassem, there’s nothing to conclude but a nationalistically motivated attack.”Mizner said that Schmerling’s family, including his four children and 17 grandchildren, had gathered in Elkana to celebrate his birthday Wednesday, as the Jewish holiday of Sukkot began at sundown.Schmerling’s body was discovered in the storage unit by one of his sons, who alerted police and emergency services.Paramedics declared Schmerling dead at the scene. Channel 2 reported that he may have been deceased for several hours before he was discovered in the early afternoon.The police and the Shin Bet said the investigation was ongoing.The head of security for Kaft Qassem, Khaled Issa, told Channel 10 that Schmerling “was a known figure in the city” and “this is a sad incident that has all of us in shock.”Issa said Kfar Qassem is known as a place for “partnership between Jews and Arabs” and where “everyone works in harmony.”Kafr Qassem has witnessed several murders in recent months that are believed to have been criminally motivated even as they remain unsolved.Town residents have criticized the police’s failure to crack down on crime in the city.In June, President Reuven Rivlin met with the town’s mayor, Adel Badir, and Israel Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem to discuss ways of restoring calm after a security guard shot dead a resident, Mohammed Taha, 27, while rioters attacked a local police station.The guard who shot Taha, who has not been named in the media, was questioned by police and released. Taha’s family had accused the guard of murder.
Best of booth worlds-Tel Aviv hosts 25,000 visitors in ‘world’s largest sukkah’-Five-year tradition, hosted by pluralistic Beit Tefilah Israeli, seeks to bring 'all the sectors of Israeli society' under one roof-By Melanie Lidman-October 4, 2017, 11:07 am
One of the central practices of the week-long holiday of Sukkot is “Ushpizin” or welcoming guests, but the pluralistic, independent Beit Tefilah Israeli has taken the tradition a step further. It plans to welcome upwards of 25,000 people to what it says is the world’s largest sukkah, a 700-square-meter (7,000 square feet) extravaganza constructed for the fifth year running at the Tel Aviv Port.“This is a place where we can meet different sectors of Israeli society in celebration — ultra-Orthodox, Reform, Ethiopian Jews, and also Arabs,” said Rabbi Esteban Gottfried, one of the two rabbis of Beit Tefilah Israeli along with Rabbi Rani Jaeger. “We have activities for everyone. We also have some [religious] ceremonies, but the main theme is living together with all the sectors of Israeli society.”During Sukkot, which begins Wednesday evening, the so-called “World’s largest sukkah” will host 72 different events, including daily yoga, dance, children’s activities, study sessions, lectures, and musical performances.The sukkah will also host an evening dedicated to exploring the relationship between American and Israeli Jews with a panel including MK Yehudah Glick and former MK Ruth Calderon.Beit Tefilah Israeli is an 11-year-old independent, pluralistic group based at the Tel Aviv port. It is known for its summertime Friday night Shabbat services, which can attract upwards of 1,000 people.This is the fifth year it has built an enormous sukkah, a wood and fabric affair that it takes a professional company eight days to assemble.The Jerusalem municipality also builds a large sukkah next to City Hall. That sukkah is larger than the one in Tel Aviv at 1,000 square meters (11,000 square feet), and is expected to host upwards of 100,000 visitors at a multitude of events.“What I love about this project and being the rabbi of BTI is meeting the people. It’s so amazing to see how many people from different parts of Israel are feeling at home and welcomed and included no matter where they come from,” said Gottfried. “For example, you can see in the sukkah refugee children playing with Haredi children and images you cannot see anywhere else, of different parts of Israel getting together. It’s really a ‘sukkat shalom’ (a sukkah of peace) in that sense.”
Largest lulav-harvesting kibbutz has fronds in high places-Tirat Zvi has perfected the art of the palm frond, part of the lucrative Four Species industry that flourishes for one week out of the year, during the festival of Sukkot-By Melanie Lidman and Video by Luke Tress-October 4, 2017, 8:34 am
In Tirat Zvi, Buddhists are the experts on kosher lulavs. The Thai agricultural workers who labor in the kibbutz’s date plantation are the first to separate the kosher palm fronds from the rest. The lulav forms the basis for the Four Species, a group of ritual plants used over the Sukkot holiday.“They’re Buddhist, but they know and understand what makes it kosher,” Avner Rotem, the manager of the date plantation on the kibbutz, said as Somjit, a Thai worker who declined to give his last name, deftly maneuvered a yellow cherry picker to the top of one of the 13,000 palm trees used for growing lulavs.It takes a bit of training to grasp the correct length, tightness, and unbent tips that the closed palm fronds need in order to meet kashrut standards. “They know if we get there too late and the fronds are too open, then they’ll leave it and choose another,” Rotem explained.The lulavs come from the baby palm fronds on the tops of trees, where the newest branches poke out. They must be harvested when they are about a meter in length, but before the fronds begin to split and open, rendering them unkosher.For seven months a year, Somjit brings the cherry picker to the top of the trees and reaches beyond the tough outer leaves, which have already split open into the traditional palm shape, to pick out the newest branches. With two quick snips, he cuts off two meter-long lulavs, checks them for size, ensures the tips are not damaged, and places them carefully in a cardboard box, before moving to the next tree.Sukkot, which begins at sundown on Wednesday, and lasts for a week, celebrates the fall harvest and recalls the temporary structures that housed ancient Israelites during their 40 years of wandering in the desert after their Exodus from Egypt. Jews around the world observe the holiday by building temporary huts, where they eat and sometimes sleep. Once a day, there is a tradition of shaking the Four Species, comprising the palm frond, myrtle, willow, and a “citron” or citrus fruit called an etrog in Hebrew. The origin of the four species is Leviticus 23:40.Tirat Zvi, a religious kibbutz that bakes in one of the hottest parts of Israel in the Beit She’an valley, is the largest producer of lulavs in Israel, shipping out 150,000 each year. Rotem estimates that Jews shake about 700,000 lulavs in Israel and 500,000 abroad during the festival.At Tirat Zvi, lulavs are harvested from a type of palm tree called the Dery Palm. As the story goes, in 1985, Shabtai Kovin, a young rabbi from Safed, came to the Beit She’an area in search of the “perfect lulav.” (Date trees love heat, so the Beit She’an Valley is one of the most popular places for date trees.) He met with growers from Tirat Zvi, examining all types of palm fronds that come from the kibbutz’s nine species of date trees. After careful scrutiny, he proclaimed that the Dery species produces the best lulav.The Four Species are priced based on to how well they satisfy certain criteria that make them “more kosher.” The myrtle branch, for instance, must have leaves that grow from the same point in groups of threes. The prices can vary wildly, with families shelling out serious cash for etrogs and lulavs deemed “superior” or “most kosher.”For the lulav, it’s the tight tiomet, or its two longest fronds. In the Dery species, the tiomet generally grows tightly together, and the closer the tiomet, the more prized the lulav — and the more expensive.Chabad Jews favor etrogs from the Calabria region of Italy, which this year is experiencing a massive shortage due to frost. The most beautiful or “kosher” etrogs this year can go for upwards of $500.Back in 1985, Kovin bought 100 lulavs from the Dery trees and went to Bnei Brak, where he sold them all within the hour. The kibbutz, sensing an economic opportunity, began planting more Dery trees.Dery trees also produce dates, but they are not as high quality as the more popular medjool species, which is why the kibbutz had not previously planted many Dery trees.Today, approximately half of the kibbutz’s 25,000 date trees, spread out over 1,500 dunams (370 acres), are Dery. While dates are the kibbutz’s biggest agricultural product, lulavs account for about a third of its profits.Tirat Zvi sells its lulavs wholesale, in boxes of 40, for approximately NIS 25 per lulav. They are considered high-end lulavs, and can sell on the market for NIS 100 for just the palm fronds (without the willow, myrtle and etrog). Rotem has seen Tirat Zvi lulavs for sale in New York for as much as NIS 350 ($100).The high prices mean the kibbutz’s date trees are also a target for theft. Over the past few years, hundreds of lulavs have been stolen from shorter trees during Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur, when the fields are empty.Tirat Zvi also exports lulavs to Australia, Panama and Argentina. Each lulav is individually packed in a plastic bag, stamped with the Tirat Zvi logo.Originally, the kibbutz would begin harvesting lulavs in the summer, after Tisha B’Av. But in the 2000s, it began experimenting with an antifungal wash that allows the lulavs to be stored for up to six months.These days, Rotem and his 25 workers begin harvesting lulavs for Sukkot when the kibbutz children pull out their Purim costumes in early spring. The lulav packaging house has seven refrigerators that can each store 20,000 lulavs throughout the blistering summer.Seven months of harvesting means a mature date tree can produce around 14 lulavs per year. The palm frond shoots grow at a rate of about three centimeters per day and are trimmed when they are around a meter in length, meaning each tree is harvested about once a month. The advent of cold storage also means that Israelis, unlike Diaspora Jews, no longer need to import lulavs from Morocco and Egypt to meet their needs.Among the lulav workers is Chaim Engelen, 22, who was a lone soldier on Tirat Zvi, part of a cohort of Garin Tzabar soldiers from around the world who live on the kibbutz and draft into the army together. “I got out of the army on a Thursday, and on that Sunday I already started working with the dates,” said Engelen, who has worked on the date plantation for 13 months. Now, he’s an expert on date pollination – each species requires a different ratio of date pollen to talcum powder, which is dusted on the female flowers – and how to tie the 25-kilogram (53-pound) bunches of medjool dates to the palm fronds so they don’t break under their own weight.“It’s interesting to think that someone in California or New York could be shaking this lulav,” said Engelen, who hails from Minnesota. “But it’s more interesting for me to see the lulav — you go out and cut it and six months later it’s still green. It’s amazing to see how it stays green.”Engelen said working on the date plantation has increased his appreciation of the lulav. “Usually you only see it for a week and then you throw it out,” he said. “Here, we’re thinking of lulavs almost all year round. We spend a good portion of the year working on things that people shake seven times and then throw in the trash.”On the Wednesday before Sukkot, Somjit and his coworkers were rushing to get the last lulavs down before the festival. They worked methodically, two snips per tree, before moving to the next one in the row.“We have several religions that work here,” said Rotem. “We have Muslim and Druze workers, Buddhist Thai workers; we also have a student from Nepal studying agriculture — all of them are working on our farm.”He said one of the reason he likes working with the date trees is that every part of the tree has a use. “It’s written in the Talmud that there’s no trash from the date tree. You eat its fruit, you use its leaves; even the trunk we use to make benches.”There’s even a second use for palm fronds over Sukkot, as schach, or covering, for the sukkahs (temporary huts) that families build. But with the medjool harvest, a big money-maker for the kibbutz, starting just before Sukkot, the kibbutz simply doesn’t have the resources to participate in the less-lucrative schach industry.As 10 workers frantically bagged the last thousand lulavs, another group laughed over the conveyor belt sorting large juicy dates into cardboard boxes.“We just don’t have time to cut down palm branches for schach,” said Rotem. “But it still feels good to provide for the Jewish people, to make the best lulavs we can.”
