5/4/2008The Acceptable Day of the Lord, includes a reflection on Joinville's (a Crusader of the 13th century) commentary on the Assasins and how the practice continues among the Palestinians and others in the form of suicide bombers. See page 9.

On the Acceptable Day of the Lord

From Dust & Ashes Part II,
a conversation with Wm. F. Buckley Jr.
by Mel West

Preface
(From Who is of the Truth, by Mel West)

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Having seen the Jews [Children of Israel] restored to the Holy Land, which was May 15, 1948, after a long 2,000 year exile, according to the criteria given them in their Holy Scriptures (the Bible); we have living examples of a people who know without a doubt the meaning of Liberty.

Applying their experience and teachings, to defend similarly persecuted peoples in America, I thought to write to Mr. Buckley in December 1992, who took the time to answer our complaint: that some seven million homeless Americans (and there will be more) suffer because our leaders have forgotten the meaning of Liberty. This page does not show or imply Mr. Buckley's opinion on the matter addressed, in any way.

Out of our discussion with Mr. Buckley came a series of Small Books which continued my argument that our present form of government is exceedingly unjust and must be changed and then extended to reflections towards world peace. These books recording the conversation are: Against Leviathan, works associated with it, including Financial Institution Credit Watch and The Second Coming of the American Revolution; then we delved into ethics and morality in On The Breakage of the Holy Catholic Church, Works and Days among the Hyperboreans, Planks towards Freedom, Quest for Human Dignity, The Mehl Commentary, Duty and Profit, and Immoral Coercion, From Dust & Ashes to Joy  (this page is from Part II of From Dust & Ashes to Joy ), and Who is of the Truth.

Xenophon, Cicero and then Hobbs said that a people tend to resemble their leaders. Our leaders are corrupt; so it is with our people. Since our leaders and people are leading the world, it follows that the world is being led into corruption. This includes our religious institutions. Here we focus on the Christian Church, how it has been corrupted and has been corrupting our leaders. We focus on this church because its disciples wield the greatest power in the world. One wrong calculation by them will annihilate the world. As noted in Against Leviathan, Duty and Profit, Immoral Coercion, and our satire, Quest for Human Dignity, our leaders have already made enough miscalculations that the world I inherited as a youth has been substantially destroyed. I mean the trees, the creatures, the land, air and water and now the climate. Because the Church did not restrain them-though many of our miscreant leaders carry Bibles under their arms-we must therefore examine the Church.

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There was a knowledge in the world which restrained corruption, but that knowledge has been abandoned in favor of a new law based on exploitation. That new law is the law of Hell: it is every man for himself; you're on your own kid. Because of this new law, when one complains about injustice one receives blank stares.

How Corruption entered our Intellect

The Thesis of the Bible (Holy Scriptures) is to promote justice, which it views as defending the meek and the poor against the Nazi-like tempers which tread on them. If you take time to read the Psalms of David, for instance, you will get this message. If you can't take the time, read Psalm 12. The message of the entire Bible is carried in Psalm 12.

One cannot defend the poor and the meek and, at the same time, disparage and desolate a group of people. As you can see in Psalm 12 and can verify throughout the Holy Scriptures (except the epistles of Paul), all of the poor and the meek of the world are defended by the Holy Scriptures. Paul switched this gospel to include only those covered under his particular gospel which, incidentally, contradicted the Holy Scriptures, making all of the foundations of Jesus Christ old and obsolete. This resulted in a series of teachings which are now known to us as anti-Semitism; and we have seen their effect in Martin Luther's tract (see Maravot's_homepage_2.html) which begins with, What shall we Christians do with this damned, rejected race of the Jews? This led to Hitler's final solution of the Holocaust. We back-tracked this hateful mentality in On the Breakage of the Holy Catholic Church, through the Church Fathers to the Apostle Paul. Even saintly men like St. Maximos the Confessor-whose wonderful teachings you shall hear in this work- got contaminated through Paul's spoiled and rancorous epistles. Witness:

St. Maximos, Fifth Century of Various Texts #37[580-662 A.D.] When the Law is understood only according to the letter, it is hostile to the truth, as the Jews were, and as is anyone else who possesses their mentality.

The Jewish Mentality was obedience to the Law of Moses [Torah and its prophets]. That same mentality is also in the Koran. Paul and his later disciples condemned both the Jews and their Law, setting standards for continuing condemnations of not only the Jews but any others honoring the law, as seen in St. Maximos' comment. We intend to change such attitudes. Anti-Semitism must be cast away in order to realize the epiphany of this page, which is to deliver a promise made in the Bible having to do with a simple Jewish Wedding which will change many. As in all weddings first there will come tears and then joy.

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Our foundation on the Wedding refers to Jesus' sayings. Besides confirming and honoring the Law of Moses, they boil down to this:

That His Word is from the Father which includes the Law of Moses and the prophets [re: John 8.55; that the Father and His Word are Spirit [John 6.63]; and finally that in Christ ye might have peace, but in the world ye shall have tribulation [John 16.33].

Our desire, which is the desire of the Holy Scriptures, includes shouldering a curious Tent of Refuge [Tabernacle] through a sealed gate, called the Golden Gate, which faces the Temple mount. This selection from From Dust & Ashes to Joy explains why this is important. A picture of the Golden Gate is on Maravot's_homepage_2.html. The Tabernacle, our Tent of Refuge, is constructed as follows. The 16 th bar, the ridge-pole, provides a slight pitch to the roof which is not shown here. All people are invited to enter it once in their life, exchange a pledge of marriage before the Veil, before the Mercy Seat, and then exit. They will offer a gold or silver band which will be used to maintain the Tent. If they do not have their band, one will be given to them by the Nuns. The funds not needed to maintain the Tabernacle site will be delivered to shelters for the poor, the needy, and the homeless, as may be determined by the electorate of the Nuns. The Tent of Refuge will be administered by Nuns. The LORD is the only priest of the Tabernacle, where He resides between the two Cherubim upon the Mercy Seat. There will be no preaching or sacrifices – except penitent hearts – of any kind in proximity to the Tabernacle grounds. If there is bloodshed of any kind nearby, the Shekinah will lift up and move to another place. Remove your shoes and keep the silence for this is a holy place, and try to keep your pledge after you leave the grounds.

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Continuing the Tabernacle  portion of the argument with Mr. Buckley, we enjoined him and his Bishop in From Dust & Ashes to Joy to honor it as a sanctification pronounced in the Holy Scriptures, which concerns not only the Marriage of God to all nations and restoration of the Jews to the Holy Land, but also the renewal of the Temple. We described how this Promise of being Sanctified in Israel and the Tabernacle relates to Jesus' concept of His Second Coming. Keyed to the Promise, of course, is the pledge to provide a refuge for the poor of all nations (which presumes a time when all the world is exploited by a few greedy sociopaths and brother fights against brother). This page carries that plea.

The following is a woodcut attributed to Josephus that shows what appears to be the original Temple of Solomon (B) next to the peaks of the Temple mount. (However, based upon other maps detailing the same area, the building appears to be the governor's castle, Antonina - See "Philistia Triumph thou...") Covering the highest peak today is the Dome of the Rock. It is not likely that the Temple covered the top of Mt. Zion and would have been placed adjacent to the highest peak. This should dispel fearsome rumors among Moslems that to restore the Temple the Dome of the Rock would have to be razed to the ground.

"A" Shows a curious location for the three crosses, which appears to be close to the site of the Garden Tomb. "C" shows a flight of stairs going up from the Palace Grounds and stables approximately where stairs now ascend to the Temple Mount from the area of the Western Wall. "D" appears to be located near the modern site of David's Cenotaph. The Comet in the picture may be Halley's Comet of 66 A.D. Josephus was a prisoner of Vespasian and his son Titus before the walls of Jerusalem, when Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed in 70 A.D. Josephus recorded that event in his book "The Jewish Wars."

Protesting Modern Atrocities

Threaded through our works is the idea that the principles applied to set the Jews free from affliction will also set those Americans persecuted in our streets free. If you, the reader, feel shame over the treatment of the Jews, particularly during the formative days of the Holocaust-when they were forced into homelessness and then denied the right to beg (then 6 million of them murdered)-then you should be more particularly ashamed of the treatment of our 7 millions of homeless in America. They too have been forced out of their homes, denied the right to even raise a tent over their head, denied equal access to work (as they have no phones nor address by which a prospective employer may contact them); besides these atrocities, the homeless, lacking a shelter and means to get work, are then even denied the right to beg! This horrible and villainous practice has gone unnoticed, it seems, because most Americans have been falsely taught that because the homeless failed to achieve in our society it is not the fault of our society. Our argument with Mr. Buckley has been to the effect that the Homeless were not homeless before about 1985, that the condition is an effect of the Reagan-Bush (and now Clinton) Estate, and the lies it has perpetrated upon the American people [re: Duty & Profit and Immoral Coercion]. Our government engineered (and continues to do so) our state of homelessness. It was no mistake or accident. A part of this argument is carried on Maravot's_homepage_4.html.

We concluded in our argument that a people who will not challenge the lies which perpetrate our homelessness will not likely challenge the lies which the Apostle Paul engineered, or any other lies fostered by the Church (whose members should have defended the rights and dignity of the homeless and haven't). Thus, the way we treat our own poor is a reflection upon our churches-of all kinds and dominions-as well as our other "ethical" foundations.

Counting the numbers of multitudes shivering in tunnels and under bridges (who are usually chased out of their refuges), we can say as a general principle that the American people have devolved to a state where there is complete ignorance of those virtues which enabled tolerance and mercy: where liberty and providing for the common welfare have been replaced by a law which we call the Law of hell: it is every man for himself; you're on your own kid.

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This mentality has also undermined our foundations in the Holy Scriptures. The desire of the Holy Scriptures, as said, is easy to explain [re: Psalm 12]: of overcoming oppression, providing for the afflicted and the poor, and setting captives free. Our forefathers, through the Constitution, had, in fact, hoped to bring the desire of the Holy Scriptures into reality: when all men can live in liberty, justice for all, and peace. But this is hard to manifest when, at the same time, there are ministers teaching their congregations that certain peoples are to be despised (and thus it is okay to kill them). It is because of this relationship, then, in our argument with Mr. Buckley, that we cannot separate modern political realities from the desires of the Holy Scriptures. This is serviceable, we think, because our application of the desire of the Holy Scriptures is more meaningful when we contrast it against modern political realities and failures.

In the debate I took a formless nature. The principal characteristic of my form was that I would assume the spirit of a gathering of the important sages in history, which we call, a Great Troop; and we would use their arguments to defend not only our poor but also others similarly treated around the world, as for example in Bosnia and Israel. We apply our Great Troop as an eternal, common body of knowledge, and these include the teachings of Jesus Christ and the prophets of Israel. Where you see me use the word "we" it refers to my Great Troop.

In our argument with Mr. Buckley, whose status as an informed American and leader is well known, we quoted sages and scriptures why our leaders are in default of every moral institution honored by man; that they are consuming us with their avarice and lies about our National Debt [re: Against Leviathan, Duty and Profit and Immoral Coercion--see Maravot's_homepage_4.html] and its effects, causing homelessness and other ruptures in our lives; and pleaded for the case of a Wise Man to step forward to defend us from the indignity. We saw Mr. Buckley..

Because the argument involves ethics reflecting upon the Body of Christ and how we should thus recognize Christ, Mr. Buckley's argument carried us forward to a discussion on the epiphany of Christ's Second Coming. One can derive in the progress of our argument that the epiphany of the Second Coming must, to defend His Name, at least reproach this, the greatest nation on earth, for persecuting 7 million homeless people, and recall its implications and effects.

If your Bishop thinks this argument irrelevant to the Second Coming, then we ask you to prove us wrong that Jesus never attended a Jewish Wedding nor spent forty days in the wilderness (when He was born again before the First Passover of His Ministry, after His Baptism by John the Baptist), of which John the Baptist said:

John 3.29 He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.

Attending a Jewish Marriage Ceremony, we assure you, will give you a greater appreciation for not only what we have presented to date but also the teachings of John the Baptist and Jesus with regard to watching for His Second Coming.

 

Chapter 1
The Second Coming

 

We referred you to Enoch 32.2 which calls forth the Second Coming and pertains to the verse in Daniel of One Like the Son of Man coming in the Clouds of Heaven:

Daniel 7.13,14..And there was given him dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.

Now Jesus followed the prophets, such as Daniel, who referred to himself as the Son of Man. Jesus called Himself the Son of Man, which means the son and heir of Adam, which is a double entendre meaning not only the son of Adam and Eve, who were given the blessing that they and their children would one day be restored to Paradise, but also it involves all of the inheritance rights in that blessing (including the gift of carrying the Oracle of God); in addition the Son of Man means Son of the earth, meaning ultimately Son of Zion, since the Jews are joined to the Holy Land and the Holy Land is consecrated to YHVH through the consecration of the Temple Mount.

We all know the funeral oration, from dust returned to dust, etc., and in both Jewish Marriage and Funeral Ceremonies this is called into remembrance. For instance, the marriage is accompanied with the Bride's mourners and gnashing of teeth, and the groom sometimes throws ashes or dust on his head. The Wedding Ceremony, contrasts with the apparent despair shown among the mourners of the Betrothal Feast, for the coming of the Groom is a day of great joy and Torah reading.

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A Gentile attending the Betrothal Ceremony might be confused, in fact, whether it were a funeral or marriage, except for certain customs a Jew recognizes. Both those being Betrothed or being buried in Jesus' time were often dressed in white linen, accompanied by hired mourners, and this continues to this day.

Recognized by His Mastery of the Torah

The greatest excellence of a Jew is his knowledge of the Torah. This is shown both through his Wedding and his burial, since he was tested at his Betrothal on his knowledge of the scriptures, and, then at the time of Jesus, he was buried with his keys and scroll or writing tablet so that he would be prepared to write the Ketubah (marriage contract), if called to do so. All Jews had to be buried the same day of their death in their family tomb; however, if they were famous and it took more time to notify surrounding towns of his death, the burial could take place the next day. No corpse was ever allowed to remain overnight in Jerusalem, and all burials had to be at least 50 ells from the city. Galileans were carried on a bier to their tombs preceded by women mourners, and after they were laid to rest, as with all Jews, the final words to the departed were Lech b'sholom, meaning, go in peace.

By tradition (too long to explain here) all Jews were married to their land of inheritance and were to be interred there in the family grave. During the time of Jesus, as a result of Greco-Roman influence, the bones of the deceased were recollected and buried a second time in an ossuary and placed again nearer to their home. Most family tombs were then near the family house and usually in their garden. Although custom changed from time to time, generally the rich were buried in fine attire and their face left uncovered, but the poor had a napkin put over their face, as was in the case of Jesus. Jesus was not of a poor family as shown in our other works.

On the return from the grave the Jewish funeral procession would stop at seven distinct rest sites, and the rites of mourning lasted seven days after the funeral. Likewise, both the Betrothal and Wedding Ceremonies each would last seven days.

We do not have room here to discuss the keys which accompany the dead, but it should be suffice to recall Jesus' complaint to the scribes:

Luke (meaning Luminous ) 11.44 Woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them.
11.52 Woe unto you, lawyers! For ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.

Forbidden to walk through Graveyards

In the first part of Jesus' address, with reference to walking over graves, we noted in Immoral Coercion, how the placement of graves in front of the Golden Gate was believed to inhibit the Jewish Messiah from approaching the gate. This comes from the Jewish burial practice, where burial [ossuary] fields were marked off and it was forbidden to walk through them, because one could never be sure whether one were walking over a grave. Also, it was believed that one should not be caught in a burial field at night because of the haunting effects of the dead (who await Elijah).

The second part of Jesus' address, referring to the Keys of Knowledge, is better appreciated (see our Synoptic Matrix, line 1298) when one sees that where Luke referred to the Keys of Knowledge Matthew referred to the Keys of the Kingdom, which, we find, are the same. The Jew, who awaits the resurrection of the dead, awaits Elijah with his Keys of Knowledge. Christ, we recall, passed on His Keys to Saint Peter.

When a man died Betrothed his ink-stand and writing pen were laid with him in the coffin, and he was also left without a napkin on his face. In the case when a man dies childless the keys and or a writing tablet were especially placed in his coffin.

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A corpse to the Jews is contaminated (it could not be buried in the West; only in the East) and special acts of purification applied after the internment. During the first three days of mourning, for instance, the Torah was not read (since the Torah reading is an event of joy). These are things which would have applied in Jesus' funeral.

When the King comes

As in death so too is it with a Jew's marriage to the Messiah, when their King comes in the Last Days. That event, to the Jews, is known as their Redemption and an opening of the graves. Until that day comes they consider themselves ritually impure. This comes from many reasons but essentially relates to the idea that as long as they are separated from their land of inheritance they are impure. This again relates to the idea of the Son of Adam (adam meaning earth) which connects the Children of Israel to their land of inheritance; and, as Sons of Adam, they are ritually impure when separated from the land. Carrying the bones of the dead back to his home was practiced wherever possible and is seen in the story of Jacob and Joseph. Jacob was buried with his fathers in Hebron and Joseph was interred in his land of inheritance, in Ephraim. In life and death Jews are joined to their land of inheritance, and for Jews the most treasured place to be buried is Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives facing the Temple Mount. Moving their bones from Babylon, for instance, to the Mount of Olives is the same as redeeming them to God, for once they are redeemed to the land they are redeemed to God. This comes from the argument in the story of Adam and Eve, that Elohim will one day restore them to Paradise (but the date of the deliverance is hidden from Satan and his troops). So the precepts of the Son of Adam, or Son of Man, all connote redemption to the land. Again, as indicated in Immoral Coercion, p. 5, we have:

Ussishkin, Eretz Israel, 1932..When the Jewish people will have been redeemed to the Land of Israel, the Land of Israel will redeem the Jewish people.

Divorce and Redemption

After a manner of speaking, when the Jews were carried off to captivity in Babylon they were served a Bill of Divorcement (get ); but then it was torn up:

Jeremiah 3.8 And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.
3.9 And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.
3.14 Turn, O backsliding children saith the LORD, for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:
3.15 And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.
3.16 And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the LORD, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more.
3.17 At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart.
3.18 In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers.

So the Children of Israel are married to God, though they were cast off, and this is manifested in their redemption to the land, of Zion. It is upon this fact that modern Zionism is based. Again, this draws from the promise to Adam which is passed to Abraham and his heirs.

That He will give you pastors which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding also is revealing, since the Jews select their mates not according to wealth or comliness as the Gentile see it but according to wealth and comliness in the Torah. All Jewish knowledge, from the prophets to the wedding to funeral rites, link precept upon precept, line upon line, to the knowledge of the Torah-as is the case with our books.

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We have reviewed in many places how, building from the blessings and curses of Deuteronomy 30, etc., the relationship to the Jews is as a man to his bride: who may cast her away for a moment's wrath, but will redeem her. Since the Betrothal to God is wrapped up in the precept that they are joined to the Promised Land, His act of casting away his bride is done by casting them off the land. One reason they were cast off the land was because they did not allow the land to enjoy its Sabbaths. Another reason, pertinent to our thesis here, comes from Isaiah:

Isaiah 50.1 Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.
50.2 Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? When I called, was there no man to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver?..

Here we have a paradox: how the teachings of the Torah are so interlinked in the hearts of Jews; yet they suffer the ignominy of being scattered off their land because when their LORD calls they fail to answer! Thus we hear the Messiah speaking:

Isaiah 50.1 The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth me morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.

This is the "complaint" of the prophets of Israel: they are awakened early to receive God's revelations. In this sense they see themselves as Sons of Light--being the first to receive God's light--; and among the early Therapeutae, as recorded by Philo Judaeas of Alexandria, we saw how they rose early to greet the sun in prayer.This continues to be particularly a Christian rite to this day at the Easter morning Sunrise Service.

Whilst Christians await the second rising of the Messiah, Jews await the first rising and they, because they have been cast off the land, consider themselves impure until that day comes: when they see Elijah and the Messiah who redeem them back to their God and the land. This involves another paradox which we have yet to tell.

In addition to the Moslem Guards at the Temple Mount (who watch over the sanctity of the site and, as noted earlier, guard the Golden Gate), below the mount are Jewish guards who prevent Jews from going up to the mount for worship. Instead they worship at the Wailing Wall, which is the only surviving vestige of the Second Temple of Jerusalem completed by Herod and destroyed on the 9th of Av, 70 A.D., by the Roman general Titus ["Av" means "shelter" like those made of reed and wood in Babylon; ed. note] .

The reason why Jews do not go up to the mount has to do with their wait for the Messiah. A reminder of that wait is in the last and seventh benediction in a Wedding Ceremony. We hope to show you as best we can that the Jewish Wedding Ceremony, in fact, reflects the complete panorama of the Holy Scriptures, including both the weeping, from the curses, which is death, to the joy of their blessings, of life, and the Second Coming of their Messiah to redeem them to Paradise. With respect to being rejoined to their land, in fact, the Sons of Adam cannot separate the reception of the Messiah, their redemption, and the promise of long life from one another. They are all signs of their redemption.

As pertaining to the Gentile the scriptures connect the Redemption of the Jews to the Marriage of God to the nations. As noted earlier the Marriage to the Gentile connotes a time of Judgment, where you judge yourself. This we already argued extensively, but the following, for purposes of this proposal, should suffice:

Had we not a Biblical verse (II Samuel 7.23) we could not say it: Israel said to God, Thou hast redeemed Thyself! [Akiba, Sifré, Nu., #84]:
II Samuel 7.23 And what one nation in the earth is like thy people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to himself, and to make him a name, and to do for you great things and terrible, for thy land, before thy people, which thou redeemedst to thee from Egypt, from the nations and their gods?
7.24 For thou hast confirmed to thyself thy people Israel to be a people unto thee forever: and thou, LORD, art become their God.

Thus, it follows:

Gather our dispersion, free those in bondage, look upon them that are despised and let the nations know that Thou art God! [Apocrypha: II Macc., 1.27].

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This appeal is clear: for when the Redeemer comes to Zion, God shall be sanctified in Israel. We have called forth this before:

Ezekiel 37.21 And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land:
37.22 And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all:
37.23 Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwelling places wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.

So redeeming the Jews to their land involves cleansing them, and in the cleansing they shall be My People, etc. How are they cleansed?

Ezek. 37.24 And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them.
37.25 And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children forever: and my servant David shall be their prince forever.
37.26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them: and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them forevermore.
37.27 My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
37.28 And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them fore evermore.

Sanctified through the Shekinah

When God said He would be sanctified in Israel-and you would know it when you see His Tabernacle (meaning Tent, Pavilion) among them- this calls into remembrance the basic Marriage Contract among all Jews. For in the Tabernacle was the Shekinah and:

..Moses was wedded to the Shekinah [Zohar, Gen. 21b-22a].

And:

A great man should not disdain to serve as best man to one of minor position. The Holy One was best man at Adam's wedding [Talmud: Erubin, 18b; Talmud: Baba Bathra, 75a and Pirké R. Eliezer, ch. 12].

The Wedding of a Jew, as well as the Messianic Wedding, is one of great joy:

He shall open the gates of Paradise, and remove the threatening sword against Adam. He shall give to the saints to eat from the Tree of Life [re: the Torah is a Tree of life-see p.10 of Immoral Coercion; ed. note], the spirit of holiness shall be upon them, and all saints shall clothe themselves with joy [Apocrypha, Levi 18].
..Then the actual wedding will take place between God and Israel.. [Exodus Rabbah 15.31].

Thus:

..Then, as Israel will marry its land again, so the Holy One, blessed be He, will marry His Shekinah again, which is the Assembly of Israel. It is this whereof it is written (Zechariah 14.9) 'In that day YHVH shall be One and His Name One.'
The world can be redeemed only by the redemption of Israel and Israel can be redeemed only by reunion with its land [Martin Buber, On Zion ].

Now the word for Betrothal (Keddushin) in Hebrew comes from the word, sanctification, which is Kedushah. So to be sanctified means to be Betrothed. As we see in Ezekiel above, the precept is that the nations shall know that God is sanctified (Betrothed) in Israel when the nations see His Tabernacle in Zion. Thus, the proof that God exists (to the Gentile) is confirmed in the restoration of the Tabernacle to Mount Zion. How that occurs follows the Jewish tradition of a Wedding.

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The Bride's Betrothal and Wedding parties, for instance, are accompanied by hired musicians (Klezmorim) who play melancholy music; others, usually hired scullions along the street, in winter throw snowballs at the troop and in summer throw burrs which catch to the Bride's hair and dress, as she proceeds towards the Groom's father's house (for the Chupo Wedding). How humiliating! Sometimes the scullions taunted the Bride for being ugly, poor, and being beneath her groom: Look at that thing in the [litter] basket !; or they may harp on how uneducated she is, etc. This is the Betrothal part of the Marriage Ceremony, when the Bride's custody is transferred from her father to her husband.

In contrast to the Bride's procession, the Groom's party was accompanied with joyful music and the blessing:

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD..

Jesus used this expression when He said that He would not taste wine with his disciples again until He heard the words, blessed is He who comes, which refers to the time of His Second Coming:

Matthew 23.38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
23.39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

This comes from:

Psalm 118.19 Open to me the gates or righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the LORD:
118.25 Save now, I beseech thee, O LORD: O LORD, I beseech thee, send now prosperity.
118.26 Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD: we have blessed you out of the house of the LORD.
118.27 God is the LORD, which hath shewed us light..

Relating to this verse which begins with the righteous entering the gates of righteousness is:

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Daniel 12.10 Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand: but the wise shall understand.
12.12 Blessed is he that waiteth..

When Jesus entered Jerusalem for his last Passover He was preceded by disciples crying Hosanna ! (meaning, save Lord )..Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD, to which the priests chastised Jesus, saying, Master, rebuke thy disciples ! [Luke 19.39; note the difference in the saying at line 1181 of our Synoptic Matrix, where in Luke the appellation, King, is emphasized].

Afterwards, one of the disciples (Judas) became disenchanted with Jesus, because the Wedding of the King which he thought had come Jesus did not intend to confirm. This is because the phrase, Blessed is he who comes, pertains to the time when the Groom, the King Messiah, arrives in His Second Coming to redeem His Bride and in Jesus' mind-even though His disciples were calling for it then-that day had not yet come.

The Wedding mentioned in our December 31, 1994 letter, of which Jesus spoke, recalls the Second Coming of every Jewish Groom; for every Groom comes first to his father-in-law's house for the Betrothal Ceremony and then comes again (the Second Coming to the Bride) to redeem his Bride and bring her to his father's house for the Wedding under the Bridal Canopy called the Chupo. While he is away, his servants prepare for his return for the Wedding and make ready the Chupo. Thus:

Luke 12.36 And ye yourselves [be] like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately

The Marriage event has two ascents as noted: first there is the Betrothal and then there is the Wedding. During Jesus's time the Betrothal involved a procession to the home of the Bride, which could be in another town or far off as in the case of Jacob's Betrothal to his uncle Laban's daughters [Gen. 31.2-7]. Usually there was about a week between the two events, sometimes a year; and each took a week (as in the case of funerals); but as seen in Jacob's case, and also in the case of Moses, the period between Betrothal and the Wedding could be many years.

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The Betrothal Ceremony sets the Contract

In the Betrothal Ceremony the Groom's attendants must deliver a Marriage Contract (Ketubah ) to the Bride's family and an offering of purchase (for in the early Biblical days brides were purchased). All Jewish men are expected to be prepared to write the Ketubah, and, as seen earlier, they are expected even to be prepared to write it during the resurrection and, thus, are equipped with pen and ink in their tomb. Because of this, neither in life nor the after-life (or resurrection) are rabbis or priests needed to officiate at a Wedding. For any two or three Jewish men can and are expected to perform the rite. And with the contract they carry terms of purchase.

Price of Endearment

The price paid by the father of the Groom to the father of the Bride is called mohar and is still so-called by Arab peasants; in fact, claims Hayyim Schauss, much of the old Jewish marriage rites can be witnessed still being observed among Arab peasants [see Hayyim Schauss, The Lifetime of a Jew, union of American Hebrew Congregations, NY, 1950 for a thorough history of Jewish marriage and funeral practices]. Although we call the mohar in English a dowry, in early Biblical and Talmudic times the mohar may have involved an offering of services rather than money, or a combination of both, or other things of value, most of which were returned to the Bride and her Groom to carry them in their early marriage. Some mohar demands might, for instance, involve, as in the case of the most treasured bride of all-a daughter of a great scholar-funds which would keep the couple financially secure for ten years; where selection involved the most valued Groom of all-an excellent scholar in the Torah-the mohar might provide sustenance during the couple's entire lifetime so that the Groom could continue his profession in study of the Torah. Here, from the moment of the Wedding to the day a man is laid into the tomb, excellence is determined by knowledge of the scriptures (because, as seen above, God promised He would send His people men of knowledge and understanding to lead them).

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The family of the Bride-father, brothers, uncles, etc.- also might be given portions of the offering to keep them happy. Because of the expense of the mohar one might think that Jewish Brides might be more treasured, but in actuality one was more fortunate to have a son than a daughter. A prayer of young Grooms might be:

I thank thee 0 Lord that I was not born a women..

From a progression of precepts, how the Jews were married to the Shekinah and the Shekinah delivered the Torah, which also is feminine, all Jewish males are considered married to the Torah; and breaking the bands of the Torah would be the same as adultery.

..The Shekinah attends even one who is engaged in Torah [Mishna: Abot, 3.6].
..The Holy One studies with him who studies alone [Seder Eliyahu Rabbah, ch 18].
Where two meet in Torah, the Shekinah is present [Mishna: Abot 3.2].

How the Shekinah joins a Marriage

When a Jewish couple enter into the Wedding portion of their Marriage Ceremony they are brought under the Chupo before the Torah and, therefore, for the several reasons indicated, the Shekinah is considered to be between them when they are married. Also connected with this idea is that all marriages are made in heaven which relates to some precepts Jesus expounded.

Thus Betrothal or Sanctification began with the contract (Ketubah ) which is signed by two or three witnesses and cites all the conditions under which the Groom and Bride are obliged to each other. This also would include conditions and payments the Groom would pay to the Bride in the event of his death or their divorce. Over time the mohar money was reserved to the Bride as a guarantee by the Groom against his death or divorce.

During Jesus' time, because of the Roman dominion and general disturbance and uncertainties in the land, Grooms tended to marry late, into their late twenties and thirties; but in early Biblical times marriage could take place (and often was preferred) at the time of a youth's bar mitzvah, which for a girl could be at the age of fifteen and a boy at the age of seventeen or eighteen.

The Betrothal Ceremony in Biblical times need not be accompanied by a rabbi, as is now the practice. Because of the contract, the Betrothal was seen as we view a Wedding; and it could only be broken through a formal bill of divorcement called a get .

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Because the Betrothal Ceremony could last a week or longer, everyone in the town was invited to the feast during the period of the Betrothal. It was customary during the last days of the Betrothal feast to invite the poor of the village to the table and seat them beside the Bride and Groom at the head of the table. In processions to the feast coins were thrown to the poor.

Jesus' parable of the nobleman going into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return (Luke 19.12) recalls this Betrothal scene which is expanded by Matthew:

Matthew 25.14 For the Kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them..

Then Jesus continued the expression of the Betrothal scene as pertaining to returning for Judgment (Matthew 25.30-43) which concludes:

Matthew 25.44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
25.45 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.
25.46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal.

This, of course, is the fulcrum of our argument presented to you and other Christians, Sir.

Crowned

The Bride and Groom, in the early days, were crowned and addressed as the King and Queen of the feast. The Queen was often given a seat which was fashioned from a threshing board or a large grain storage jar which had a pillow put in it. Tradition provided that the women in the Bride's household would spend their time making sweet cakes, but since they could never make enough to serve the entire community over the days of the feast, women attending the Betrothal feast would bring cakes themselves. Everyone in the town(s) was invited to the Betrothal and Wedding feasts and expected at one time or another to attend.

Now Jesus (being a Jew) built upon this thesis, helping one to better appreciate what the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven is like, which we should recite in full (because of lazy Christian readers and other Heathen):

Luke 14.16 Then he said unto him, a certain man made a great supper, and bade many:
14.17 And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready.
14.18 And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.
14.19 And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused.
14.20 And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.
14.21 So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.
14.22 And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room.
14.23 And the Lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in that my house may be filled.
14.24 For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.

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During the Jewish Betrothal Ceremony each day Seven Benedictions were recited, accompanied with wine and foodstuffs, and at the close of the Seventh Benediction-which is addressed to the coming Messiah-the wine glass from which the Bride and Groom drank was dashed to the floor (repeated again at the close of the Wedding); and if it did not break an attendant would grind it into the floor with his foot. This is the mourning part of the feast, and it refers to the desolation of the First and Second Temples, and in later times the day when the Jews were thrown out of England and in Spain in 1492, which is remembered on the 9 th of Av (The fast day of Av 1 commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples as well as the expulsion of the Jews from Spain). Thus the melancholy music of the Bride's company then and still to this day, and the final breaking of the wine glasses (sometimes in the Betrothal Ceremony the women of the village brought all kinds of pottery to break from their homes), commemorate the mourning at the core of Jewish life; they'll mourn until they see the King Messiah, coming.

Nebuchednezzar destroyed the first temple in 586 B.C., which was rebuilt under Governor Zerubbabel by Nehemiah and finally "squared" by King Herod just before Christ's birth.

Betrothed to the land

When Nehemiah rebuilt the temple in the 4th century B.C., the people consecrated the site to God.

Nehemiah 8.8 So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.
8.9 And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the LORD your God: mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.

Later he said:

Nehemiah 9.36 Behold, we are servants this day, and for the land that thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold, we are servants in it:
9.37 And it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins: also they have dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.
9.38 And because of all this we make a sure covenant, and write it; and our princes, Levites, and priests, seal unto it.
10.1 Now those that sealed were..

The Sages in the Talmud debated whether this consecration of the site was for all time, or might have lapsed when the temple was destroyed; but finally they came to the conclusion that the consecration of the land was for all time. Because of this they have ruled that no Jew, who is ritually impure, may set foot on the Temple Mount. In these days the rabbis have concluded that everyone is presumed to be ritually impure, pending the Messiah and the rebuilding of the temple (as illustrated in the time of Nehemiah); and, thus, they place guards at the gate to the Temple Mount to dissuade Jews from going up there (although the Israeli government, as a secular body, does not forbid any Israeli from going up to the mount). Until the Messiah comes, they mourn at the Wailing Wall. In their prayers all of their bodies sway, and this comes from the verse in the Torah to the effect that God never rests, and in imitation of His continually moving body they move their entire body in prayer.

Humiliation of the Bride and her party, of course, relates to the curses imposed with the blessings (see Deuteronomy 30) which warn Israel that if they abrogate their covenant with Him He will scatter them to all the nations of the world (which Nehemiah recalled in chapter 1 of his book); and they will be held in scorn and derision wheresoever their steps may lead them; but then they would be redeemed. All of this is history and the Marriage Ceremony carries a double value here, since it reminds Jews of the mourning in their past, because they turned away from the LORD and they were thus scattered; they mourn also because the Messiah has not yet come in their eyes; they weep also because of the words of the Torah, as seen above. Also, since the Torah demands humility, (that Israel was scattered because of its haughtiness) a Bride's comeliness was not in her beauty but her good breeding through the Torah. Thus, the humiliation of the Bride, to remind her that she is a servant of the Torah, and the practice of keeping her and her entourage in tears has several meanings.

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 Second Coming, Second Burial and the Second Death

Just as the Jewish Marriage ceremony involves two steps, and the funeral also two steps (First and Second Burial) so too is it with their concept of Redemption. First comes the scattering:

Malachi 4.2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Son of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings: and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall.

– then the redemption of Israel and Judgment of the Gentile:

Isaiah 36.3 Strengthen ye the weak hand, and confirm the feeble knee.
Isaiah 36.4 ..behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you.
Isaiah 49.6..to restore the Preserved of Israel..
Isaiah 36.5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
36.10 And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Isaiah 35.8 ..it is the day of the LORD's vengeance, and the year of recompense for the controversy of Zion.
35.9 And the streams thereof [in Bozrah/Idumea] shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.

Those who are not redeemed at the Last Judgment are condemned to what is called the Second Death (Rev. 20.12-15). It follows that the nations cannot be redeemed to God until Israel is redeemed to its land, etc. All of this diffuses into the idea that the nations will be joined to YHVH through the Holy Scriptures first, the Children of Israel who carried them, and finally through the anointing of the Messiah. And the Messiah is the Light of the Anointing; to wit:

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Light is the symbol of the divine [Union Prayer Book, 10.7, 1940 ].

Psalm 36.9 For in thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.
Psalm 37.6 And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.
Psalm 43.1 Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.
43.3 O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy Tabernacles.
104.2 Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:
104.3 Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters..
18.7 He made darkness His Secret Place; His pavilion round about Him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.
104.4 Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:
Isaiah 8.20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
Psalm 19.4..In them he hath set a Tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber..
4 Ezra..He will destroy them without labor by the Law, which is like fire..
Psalm 78.63 The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage.
Revelation 10.1..His face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire..
Isaiah 29.27 Behold, the name of the LORD cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: His lips are full of indignation and His Tongue as a devouring fire.
Proverbs 4.18 But the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day..
Psalm 119. 105 NUN Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
Bavli CCXVIII.N He knew how to tell the exact time at which the Holy One, blessed be He, was angry.

Which leads to:

Isaiah 61.1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath annointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
61.2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn.

As noted in our December 31, 1994 letter, Jesus opened His Ministry with this: that this day this prophesy is fulfilled. In dealing with the particulars of the matter, He confirmed that He was the sign that Israel would be scattered and the Temple destroyed. In Matthew 16.2 He used the word Sign. The prophets identified the completion of an event of prophesy as a sign, as in the Sign of the Virgin (Isaiah 7.14-23) or the Sign of Zerubbabel:

Zech. 2.23 In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, saith the Lord, and will make thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee, saith the Lord of Hosts.
4.7 Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, Grace, unto it.
4.8 Moreover the Word of the Lord came unto me saying,,
4.9 The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house: his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the Lord of Hosts hath sent me unto you.

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Since it was Zerubbabel, with Nehemiah, who were Signs of the restoration, the prophets have used Zerubbabel, who is a Son of David and Jesus' ancestor, as a Sign of the Latter Day restoration, which, as shown above, includes restoration of the Tabernacle and the Temple. The Second Coming for whom you watch is another Sign; and just as Jesus knew the Sign of His times so too does the Second Coming know the Sign of His times, which is Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel, incidentaly, means, born in Babylon; and this precept connects with the principles reflected by the rabbis on Edom on page two of my December 31, 1994 letter. Without the Sign of Zerubbabel the prophesy is incomplete, and you would have no proof that God had sent Zechariah as His prophet, leaving you to speculate on the accuracy of Zechariah's other statements, such as the Messiah coming out of Bethlehem, riding upon an ass and a foal of an ass [Zech. 9.9], etc., which the Gospels have used to refer to Jesus' proof. Sir, I think if you give a bit of thought to the matter, you will conclude that Zerubbabel confirms Jesus. This is verified by:

 

Zohar..And He will shine like the Zohar of the sky. Which sky? As it is said: The sky of Moses..
The opening of the Tent is the opening of Righteousness,
As the Psalmist says:
Open for me the gates of righteousness..[Psalm 118.19]
This is the first opening to enter.
Through this opening, all other high openings come into view.
One who attains the clarity of this opening
Discovers all the other openings,
For all of them abide here.
Now that Israel is in exile, this opening is unknown;
All the openings have abandoned Her.
It is impossible to know, impossible to grasp.
But when Israel comes forth from exile,
All the soaring spheres will touch down upon this opening,
One by one.
Then human beings will perceive wondrous, precious wisdom
Never known by them before,
As it is written:
'The spirit of YHVH shall alight upon him:
A spirit of wisdom and insight,
A spirit of design and power,
A spirit of knowledge and awe of YHVH [Isaiah 11.2]
All these are destined to alight upon the opening below,
The opening of the Tent.
All these are destined to alight upon King Messiah
So that he may judge the world,
As it is written:
He shall judge the poor with righteousness [Isaiah 11.4].
Habbakuk 3.4 And His brightness was as the light; He had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power.

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And this brings us to:

Isaiah 49.6 And he said, it is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will also give thee for a Light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.`
Matthew 5.14 Ye are the light of the world..
5.16 Let your light so shine forth before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Which brings us to the place where Jesus picked up His Mission as the Light of the Gentile:

Isaiah 9.1 Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.
9.2 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.
9.3 Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
9.4 For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire..

As noted before, in the early part of Jesus' ministry, Jesus had spent some time going through Samaria preaching the gospel that the Kingdom of God was at hand; and, in reply to the Syro-Phonecian woman [Matthew 15.21; Mark 7.24], Jesus indicated that he had not come to minister to the Gentile but to seek the lost sheep of Israel. This goes with the paradox we mentioned concerning his mission as the Light of the Gentile who does not go into the streets [Mattthew 12.16]. In the beginning He saw this mission as the Light of the Gentile who comes out of Galilee of the nations-which is where He was from-who seeks out the Lost Sheep of Israel, as seen in Isaiah 9 above; to which Nathanael replied, first hearing of Jesus the Messiah, to his brother Philip:

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John 1.46..Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?

After Jesus' Second Passover, when John the Baptist was beheaded, Jesus' Light of the Gentile mission was questioned [ Matthew 12.6]; and after being queried about the matter, that the Light of the Gentile does not go into the streets (as He had been doing), Jesus answered that the disciples should not tell anyone that He had been in the streets; and the rule, with regard to his miracles, etc. was "tell no one".

Nevertheless, Jesus had come from Galilee, the entrance of which is through a valley known through history by the Jews as the Valley of Death, and Galilee of the nations is, of course, another place referring to a place of the Gentile. Obviously, seeing himself coming out of the circle of the Gentile, He would identify Himself as the Light of the Gentile; also, at that moment in Judah's history it could be debated whether or not it was the Last Day, as pointed out in our other works-with regard to the testimony of the Gospels, Dead Sea Scrolls and the Oral Torah.

After John the Baptist's death, Jesus changed His pitch from that of seeking out the Lost Sheep of Israel (which had yet to be scattered in accordance with Isaiah 9.5, 7.14-23, Mal. 4.2, and other correlating scriptures) to that of the redeemer and savior: that He would suffer and be put to death much after the manner of John the Baptist, that His blood would be an offering for the sins of My People per Isaiah 53; to wit:

Matthew 17.12 But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them.

There was much confusion among the disciples as to who John the Baptist and Jesus were. Jesus Himself had not at this point sorted out the two's missions; for He had called John the Baptist Elijah when, in fact, Elijah does not appear until the Last Days and is a Sign of the dreadful Day of the Lord, mentioned by Malachi:

Mal. 3.18 Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.
4.1 For behold the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up..
4.5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
4.6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

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Knowing this John the Baptist answered those who queried him whether he were the Messiah or Elijah (Elijah being considered a name of the Messiahs) saying:

John 1.20 And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ.
1.21 And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No.
1.22 Then said they unto him, Who art thou? That we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?
1.23 He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias [see Isaiah 40.3; ed. note].

What a brilliant man John the Baptist was! Picking up on this, later in His Ministry Jesus refined His mission into that thing which divides the father from the son, mother from daughter, etc.:

Luke 14.26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

How He related this to Malachi 4.6 we cannot say. However, Malachi 4.6 presumes a time when the nations are angry (Psalm 2; Rev. 11.18), where it is every man for himself, and the ultimate remedy is in the phrase: "lest I come and smite the earth with a curse". The covenant with Noah was that God would never again take his wrath out on the earth but only on man and his high towers, to wit:

Genesis 9.11 Neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.
9. 13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.
Zeph. 1.14 The great Day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hateth greatly, even the voice of the Day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
1.15 That day is a Day of Wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness.
1.16 A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.

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The threat in Malachi 4.6, then, provides a remedy, Elijah, who, according to Jesus:

Matthew 17.11 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.
17.12 But I say unto you, that Elias is come already, and they knew him not..

We conclude that Jesus by then had contemplated a Second Coming for Elijah too; and this is not altogether inconsistent with the views of the Oral Torah, that you cannot separate the name Elijah from among the names of the Messiahs (see Hidden Pavilions p. 612 on this; Zechariah 4.14, on its Two Messiahs). Other scriptures which define the conditions of the sacrifice of the Messiah, how he is denied, include Psalms 22 and 69, and the books of Adam and Eve and Enoch, previously mentioned, which provide for the resurrection of the Messiah after three days, etc. as cited by Jesus and his disciples. The denial and sacrifice of the Messiahs follows the treatment of the Two Witnesses mentioned in the story of Lot (Genesis 19.15) which is replayed in Revelation 11.3, where they are given:

Rev. 11.6 ..power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.

They are killed and their bodies are left in the streets three days and a half and then resurrected.

Lord of the Sabbath

In Luke 6.6 we hear Jesus saying that He is Lord of the Sabbath, which, according to the Gospel perception, would have been taken as blasphemous, that Jesus (as in other instances) had made Himself equal to God! But this could be taken as a blasphemy (pretending to be equal to God) or wryly, since we know that in Jewish tradition the Sabbath is viewed as a Bride. We rise to greet her as we would a Bride. Keeping in mind the idea that a Sabbath is a good day for the Wedding, because, after a manner of speaking the Groom under the Chupo greets all of His Brides: the Torah, the Shekinah, if it is the Sabbath, the Sabbath, and his Bride! The Groom on that Wedding Day is the King and therefore, to be technical, He is the Lord of the Sabbath on His Wedding.

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Jesus thus argued that the Sabbath is made for man (as Eve was made for Adam) and not man for the Sabbath. Clever, wasn't He?

If you love me, you will love the Sabbath, so the saying goes, to wit:

To observe the Sabbath is to bear witness to the Creator [Mekilta, to Exodus 20.13]
The Sabbath is the choicest fruit and flower of the week, the Queen whose coming changes the humblest home into a palace [Judah Halevi, Cuzari, 3.5, 1135 A.D.]
If Israel kept properly one Sabbath, the Son of David would come, for Sabbath is equivalent to all commandments. [Levi, Exodus Rabbah, 25.12].

Scapegoats vs. the Passover Lamb

In the prophets, the Redeemer is He who restores Israel and its Tabernacle and Temple. Here, in the Redeemer, a peculiar set of scriptures comes into view; for these do not pertain to the Passover Sacrifice (which is when Jesus' blood was shed, as a paschal lamb as it were) but rather to the Feast of Atonement, when two scapegoats are taken: one is sacrificed and the other released in the wilderness with a red ribbon tied to its horns. There was a time when the scapegoat was driven over a cliff in the wilderness or thrown off the Temple Mount. The scapegoat driven into the wilderness was chased with verbal abuse and scorned; as it was believed that it carried the latter year's sins of the people. Relating to this is:

Isaiah 52.14 As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men...
53.3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
53.4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
53.5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
53.6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
53.7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
53.8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
53.10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him: He hath put Him to grief..

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So the Messiah bore the sins of many at Passover rather than the Day of Atonement which is when the Scapegoats are sacrificed and is a day of joy.

Preparation for Sanctification

The rabbis have always considered the best days for a Wedding to be either in the spring, when the fields are in flower, fresh from the early rains, or in autumn, when the harvest (and New Year) is come. The Sages of the Oral Torah, thinking on this, concluded that the time when the Messiah should come should be on the 9th of Av; and this feast is called Tishbah be-Av. The reason for this conclusion is obvious, for it is in autumn (usually August) and just before Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which is the 10th day of the New Year feast of Judgment called Rosh Ha-Shanah. On Yom Kippur --which is also called the Sabbath of Sabbaths --one spends the entire day in prayer, forgives his enemies and those who offended him, and releases others of their debts, as noted in our earlier works, including Philistia Triumph Thou because of me. For the Torah says:

Lev. 23.27 On the tenth day of the seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you: and you shall afflict yours souls.

Dr. Schmuel Himelstein, (The Jewish Primer , p. 85) in the name of a hasidic rabbi, says:

I don't understand why the law forbids us to eat on Yom Kippur and on Tishbah be-Av. On Yom Kippur, when we spend the whole day in the synagogue praying to God for forgiveness, who wants to eat? And on Tishbah be-Av, when we remember how the glorious Temple was destroyed, who can possibly eat?

The atonement of the Jews is considered an atonement for not only their sins but more so the sins of the world. For, as noted above, the Salvation of the Jews is linked as a Blessing to mankind. For:

..the sake of Torah and Israel, let the world be saved! [Judah b. Simon, Levit. Rab., 23.3]

And in another place we have:

Many have been created, but few shall be saved [Apocrypha: 2 Esdras, 8.3]

 

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