Archive for the ‘Bee Social’ Category
Against The Name, Anti-Semitism
From Burt Yellin, Messianic Rabbi, Roeh Isra’el, Denver.
In an ironic twist, Yerushalayim – the City of Peace – has seen much violence since the time of Melchi-Tzedic (Gn 14). This present violence (hamas in Hebrew) has increased the ocean of blood that has been spilt on that holy ground. My friend Elhanan lives in that Holy City of God, and has written some insightful words for us to ponder.
“WHAT IS ANTISEMITISM? A very ancient phenomenon has been given a new name in the 20th century: Anti-Semitism – hatred of the Jew – which culminated in the atrocities of the Nazi Holocaust. It was that very destruction of millions of Jewish people because the were Jews that led to an international agreement to establish a national home for the Jews on their ancient homeland where they might defend their right to existence. But then with the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, that phenomenon known as Anti-Semitism morphed into a new form: Anti-Israelism.
But what is Anti-Semitism? The word arises from the term Semite, which is actually Shemite, being a descendant of Shem, one of the three sons of Noah- Shem, Ham, and Yafet. The two latter names are Hebrew adjectives- Ham (hot), and Yafet (pretty or beautiful), only the name Shem [is] a noun, meaning ‘Name.’ It is through the line of Shem that would arise Abraham, Izaak and Jacob, and the tribes of Israel and Moses the lawgiver, and through the tribe of Judah would come King David and then his seed, Yeshua of Nazareth, called the Messiah, King of the Jews. The line of Shem (Name) would be those elected to carry and witness to the Name of the one Creator God, YHVH.
Anti-Israelism is alternately called anti-Zionism. ‘Zionism’ derives from the Hebrew word Zion (Tzion- ציון), which essentially means a mark, or a marked place. In the Torah it is written, “then it shall come to pass that to the place which YHVH your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there,…you shall seek YHVH at the place which YHVH your God will choose from all your tribes, to establish His name there for His dwelling, and there you shall come” (Deuteronomy 12:5,11). That marked place is Mount Zion, Jerusalem of the tribe and land of Judah. Judah, Yehuda in Hebrew-יהודה – is the only word that fully contains God’s name YHVH, plus one letter, ‘d’ (dalet). The term Jew arises from Judah, thus being ‘the people called by my Name,’ and Jesus is from the tribe of Judah, the King of the Jews, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the quintessential Jew who said, “Salvation is of the Jews” [John 4:22].
From its very inception and the creation of the State of Israel, Islam has been its greatest and most consistent opponent, waging numerous unsuccessful wars to annihilate the tiny Jewish nation, Islam being boasted as the final replacement for Judaism and Christianity, being founded much later, in the 7th century AD. To this day such organizations as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and the Islamic Republic of Iran vow the destruction of Israel and its Jewish population. ‘Hamas’ (who has fired over 800 missiles into Israel as I write) is the Hebrew word used to describe why God brought the flood in the days of Noah, meaning ‘violence, corruption, deceit.’ Genesis 6:11,13, “The earth is filled with violence (hamas).” The Muslim deity Allah of the Quran is the driving force behind all this (allah in Hebrew is ‘a curse’, as in Isaiah 24:6: “for the curse – allah – has devoured the earth.”
Thus the root of the term Anti-Semite is to be against the Name, literally to take a stand against the very Name of the Creator of the universe, and the Creator of Israel, the people He has chosen to bring His Law and His Messiah into the world, and to whom He has apportioned as their inheritance the Land of Israel. Therefore, the support of Zionism and the prophesied return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel and Jerusalem after 2000 years is the correct and Biblical and Godly thing to do.
What is now termed anti-Semitism goes back long before the Nazis, can be found in the Amalekites and their descendant Haman in the book of Esther, in the invading Babylonians, Assyrians, Greeks and Romans who crucified many Jews, including Jesus. It can also be found in the writings of some of the Christian church fathers, including the German Martin Luther, who wrote “The Jews and Their Lies” which became an inspiration for Hitler’s atrocities, all the way back to Chrysostom and the fathers of the Replacement Theology heresy, and the distancing of the Christian religion from its Jewish roots at the Nicaean Council in 325 AD.
Antisemitism, and racism as well, can be outlawed and discouraged, but that will not make it go away. In America, one may rise to the heights despite that kind of opposition, as did many Jews and Blacks, right up to the top. But few ever speak about the reverse racism of Blacks who despise Whites and especially Jews, Louis Farrakhan and the Black Muslims for example. All this will not end or be resolved until there is a deep and true understanding that we are all created in the image of G-d, and the knowledge of God covers the Earth, and we act thus upon that knowledge.“
Elhanan 5-2021
Shavua Tov
May everyone have a blessed week in the LORD. May you plants seeds for His Kingdom and bring hope to this lost and dying world.