Welcome to Voices from Zion. Together we'll explore the scriptures in their original Hebrew, wrestle with hard questions, and celebrate the beauty of what unites us and the respect that deepens when we acknowledge what doesn't.
So, welcome to the dialogue. Welcome to the wrestle. Welcome to Voices from Zion, Robbie and the Rabbi.
So, excited today to have you back as we are. continuing on our renewal of the Holy Land, which Obviously God is contiguing that is so good. And today we're going to head on into Ezekiel, but I have to know first before we get there. Uh How's the rain in Israel? Are we starting to get them?
Are we seeing some of the forecasts? Should we be praying? You know, I was just going to mention that because I think it was two weeks ago that we talked about. Joel chapter two and the Rain that begins the rainy season, the rain that ends the rainy season. And unfortunately, I have to tell you we have not yet received that yore or more, depending upon the declination that we find, In different passages in scripture, there refers to the first reign.
But It is forecast for later this week.
So we're very much looking forward to it. You know, I have this recollection. I'm not It's a little bit fuzzy in my mind. But From My youth. In the 1960s, That was, I think, particularly intended for children, and one of the The laugh lines in the intro was the Wife, mother, and the family comes outside in the morning and she sees it's raining and She's happy, and of course, the obvious association with all of urban humanity is they're crazy.
That is How can you be happy when you have a rainy day? But um no one In the land of Israel, would get that joke. Because yes, we're happy when we have a rainy day. That is, we are yearning for, pining for. The rains.
Because we really depend upon them again. Deuteronomy chapter 11: It's a land of mountains and valleys, it drinks of the rains of heaven, and we need to get that rain.
So we're really praying for it and we look forward to God willing. I think it's around the 50% chance, but that sounds pretty good.
So Be excited about that, and we'd be praying that you get a good one. But fascinatingly, again, because I Might mate. pastor or whatever my my congregation is a rural congregation We take offerings for rain. And it was a tradition that started before I got there. But if you want it to rain, you put rolls of quarters in the offering plate.
And we'd be praying for, talk about a group of people that's happy when it rains. Oh my goodness, yeah, they're out there dancing in the street because so it's fascinating though, but I grew up in rural America and I know that exactly what you're saying. Yeah. Of course. Certainly, the span of all human history is unequivocally the exception, the rare exception, rather than the rule for people not to rejoice.
when the rains come. Yeah, there you go. Sustenance. People grow up in cities think that You don't need your infra cells and this is need to go to the supermarket. But uh Obviously, there's more to it than that.
Yeah, so Um Let's move on to Ezekiel.
Okay.
Okay, now one one important theme that we'll note I'd like to focus on two passages in Ezekiel. First, in Ezekiel chapter 28. And we see something that really is a recurrent theme in the Bible They conjoining. Of related themes. In prophecies more current than today's newspapers.
namely, renewal of the Holy Land and ingathering of the exiles.
So in chapter 28 Verses 25 and 26. Thus says the LORD God, when I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered. and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the nations. Then shall they dwell in their own land, which I gave to my servant Jacob. And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses and plant vineyards.
Yea, they shall dwell safely. When I have executed judgments upon all those that have them in disdain round about them, and they shall know that I am the Lord their God.
So, a pithy prophecy, but really of such. Colossal ramifications. Again, we've noted. The vineyards were all in a state of utter ruin. And That was something that started to shift.
in the late 19th century and the early 20th century. And Of course, it's only the last few years that Israel has the First place vintage wines in wine competitions, and of course. This is nothing if not. The hand of the Lord. Yes, yes.
I'm interested in It it says when the people will be sanctified and his sight is It's God who was sanctified. That is. God is saying, I shall gather the house of Israel and I shall be sanctified in them. That is through them in the sight of the nations. Because when the whole world sees How faithful God is in His promises.
That is a sanctification of God's name. in the whole world. That's an important point because when you read that, you don't necessarily see that it almost Again, and As I'm reading it, and what a way of would have perceived it. Is again, it looks like the people of Israel are being sanctified, but you're right that. As people see what God has done, and hopefully we are seeing it.
That You know, his name is sanctified yet. you know parts of that don't appear to have come to pass yet right Yeah, of course this is a process. J just in terms of the the meaning of the verse. I should, of course, stress that since They Possessive form or the construct form that refers. to the one who is being sanctified is Intrinsic as a suffix in the word, there isn't any of the grammatical ambiguity that may exist in English.
In other words, the Hebrew is venik dashdi, I shall be sanctified through them in the eyes of the nations. And you know, at the end of the day, I'm going to say. God is being sanctified. through what takes place here. in the eyes of the nations.
Just inevitably we need to impose the caveat in the eyes of The nations who are prepared See God being sanctified. That is those who have already chosen the path of godlessness. The path. that leads to rebellion against God. Of course, they're not going to see God's name being sanctified through Israel.
On the contrary, they disdain Israel and they disdain the God of Israel. And I know we've we've noted this in the past, but Almost an inevitability here. particular Psalm eighty three. They Song of Asaf that is just so germane in this regard. Do not keep silence, O God.
Do not hold your peace and be still, O God, for lo, your enemies make a tumult. Those who hate you. have lifted up the head And how is that manifest? The fact that they hate God. They take crafty counsel against your people, and consult against your vouchsafed ones.
They have said, Come and let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name Israel may no more be in remembrance. It's it's um The red colours. unbelievably sad. Very. Getting back to the version that You know, I guess verse 25.
The word sanctified there is Kadosh, or you may pronounce it different than that. It's a declination of Kaddosh, Vinik Dashdi, because you see the three root letters of Kadosh, Kuftal-Chin, 100%. And so. That's a it's a fascinating idea. Obviously, God is already completely kiddosh, so he's not going to be.
anymore made holy, but it's the sight of the heathen that is made holy because they see what God has done. Is that right? Absolutely. Absolutely. That is that that unequivocally is the emphasis here.
After all, with respect to holiness, Perhaps. They most telling and unequivocal verse Is Isaiah chapter six, verse three.
Now, Isaiah chapter six is clearly. The inaugural prophecy of Isaiah, Weiss in chapter six and not in chapter one, is. as they say another story. But um Isaiah Here's The call of the seraphim. The angels.
Holy Holy Holy is the God of hosts. The whole world is full of his glory. That is a reality. That is a reality that is incontrovertible. That is a reality that is inseverable.
That is a reality that is constantly the case. The question The question that we always need to ask ourselves. is to what extent Are we perceiving reality? Therein, and which lines up perfectly with this idea. Of the The nations are going to see the holiness of God through the fulfillment of his prophecies.
It's essentially. You know, which is kind of cool to think. That if you can see that, if you're like me and you're listening to this podcast, and you see, oh, yeah, look, look what God is doing. That's it's it's it's you're literally getting a chance to see the holiness of God based on, and the holiness of the scripture itself. Of the Torah, that this is reality.
This is more real than anything else that we're seeing around here. You know, I have to admit. You've gotten me started on something now.
So, if I may take the lead. I think it's fascinating. Observation. With respect to Hebrew, The cannot possibly be preserved in translation. Actually I was just c contemplating this.
in a Bible study yesterday. That The self same Root. Of course. We know one of the most foundational premises in Biblical Hebrew is that everything derives from a three-letter root. And The root That means To profane, to desecrate, the opposite.
of holiness. The self same root. That means Hollowing out, voiding. And curiously, that means Initiating.
So maybe just to clarify this with some examples. We Encounter it. Unequivocally, in the sense of A profanation. For the first place. in Exodus chapter 20, the passage immediately following The Ten Commandments.
where we read The instruction pertaining to the construction of the altar. that the altar is not to be made of hewn stones. This is In the Bible that I'm using, it's Exodus chapter 20. Verse 25, it could be verse 23, verse 24, it depends because there are some ambiguities with respect to how to reckon the verses in the Ten Commandments. But what's Germain, of course, the content is the same content.
If you will make me an altar of stone. You shall not build it of hewn. Stone That is someone that has been cut. Because when you lift up your sword upon it. You defile it, profane it.
The Hebrew What the hell?
So again, of course, this is explicitly using this root. The root letters might appear to be Most grammarians would say the root is actually chet, vav, lamed. There's always an ambiguity with respect to these roots that have essentially two letters, and either you add a vav as the middle letter, or there's a doubling of the third letter. But in any case, this root unequivocally means profaning. It is in precisely.
the same vein. That we Encounter the same route With respect to the Sabbath, In Exodus Chapter thirty one. Verse 14. You shall keep the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes desecrates it.
Shall be put to death. And again, it's the same root. in the Hebrew mechaloleha. The Same het the blamer or heterogeneous. Lamid Lamid root.
Maybe just to Saved. One Additional instance because, of course, there are many in scripture, but in Leviticus. Yeah. Chapter 18. In Verse.
21. pertaining to the abomination. of the Moloch. Form of Paganism in which children were brought as sacrifices. You shall not let any of your seed pass through the fire to Molech.
Neither shall you profane, desecrate the name of your God. I am the Lord.
So again, clearly this route In each instance, it is the same root. The declination that appears in the last verse is techalel. These roots mean profane. But it's the self same route. that we encounter With respect to Initiating.
Which obviously Tests and a whole different light. What initially means? uh the first instance in which we encounter this root is in Genesis chapter 4. At the end of verse 26. That is It's in this First that we read of the birth of Enosh.
Son of Seth, son of Adam. And The last five words of this verse. In the Hebrew Or Subject to A great deal of divergence with respect to the question of How to translate that? in the hebrew As huhal likrobeshinoshen. Which could be translated as Then men began to call.
In the name of the Lord. But could also be translated as Then they began So A scribe the name of the Lord. with the implication ascribing it to Something else. The beginning of idolatry. And Since The route that I translated at the first attempt as began.
is precisely the same route as profanation. You could also translate this verse as Then Men profaned. calling in the name of the Lord. And indeed we have a tradition that This is where paganism begins. In this verse.
The fact that it isn't that Well, I'm sitting there looking and going, oh my goodness, they use the same word when Noah began. to be a husbandman when he he goes Right. You're stealing my lines. That's the robbery. That's actually the fourth place that it appears.
But there's there's there's something fraught. In not just this instance, and of course, you cited, we'll do the in chronological order if you want to.
Okay, okay, I don't mind at all. I'm just sitting there, I'm tracking with you, and I'm like. Oh my gosh, look at that. But you're 100% right, exactly. It's exactly the same route.
And the same issue. And um well.
Well well of course Get to this shortly. Spoiler alert. We know what happened after. Noah became a farmer. Right, right, right.
It didn't end very well, did it? No.
So, the next instance in which we appear, this verse appears, this construction. Um Hey, hell. is candidly, really overtly in the context of a passage that is Clearly humanity in free fall. In Genesis chapter six. Verse one And it came to pass when men began.
To multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them. Distinguished men saw the daughters of men that were fair, they took them wives, which may imply rape and may imply inappropriate. Relationships and whatever it means, it clearly is a lead-up into verse 3. The Lord said, My spirit shall not. Always Strive on account of man, for he is also flesh, and his days shall be 120 years, which in our tradition is.
The suspended sentence, but not indefinitely suspended, that will lead to the flood 120 years later.
So, we're talking about a process of degeneracy. And again, the same verb. Craps up. That can be rendered as began, but could also refer to having profaned or defiled themselves. And um The next place where it appears.
Which is admittedly A somewhat enigmatic context, but again, we have a tradition here that's. Less than stellar in its implications. With respect to Nimrod. In Genesis chapter 10.
So we read about Nimrod. In Verses eight and nine. Cus be get Mime Rod. He began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord.
Wherefore it is said like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the before the Lord. And exactly, what does being a hunter mean in this context?
So, it could, of course, mean that he was just a hunter. But there's also this tradition that he was Um attempting entrapment of people. And that he was the instigator of the Tower of Babel.
So And then it seems like it's a little bit more. Have you managed to relationship with God? In your tradition, aren't there some teachings too? about him having And again, maybe you can just dispel this for me: that he had the clothing. that God made Adam and Eve and that gave him part of this ability to hunt this way.
Right, there definitely there is, you always have these traditions, and I'm not going to deny it, right? But there's this idea that, again, they. In other words, on some level, he also is described Altogether as being this mighty man. One possibility is that he's the initiator of monarchy. Because he's explicitly described as king.
But there is definitely this pejorative aspect associated with initiation.
Now, again, the association of Nimrod with the Tower of Babel is not. In any way explicit in the text, but we find the same verb appearing.
Next time Um Right, right. In the canon power of Babel. That is in the power of Babel, we read explicitly in God's evaluation. of the tower in Chapter 11, verse 6: The Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have one language, and this they begin to do. And this they begin to do, of course.
This Tower Babel. With Implications that are unequivocally destructive.
Now exactly what they were doing that was so bad. I must note is enigmatic in the text. And as some of the commentators note, There's only one line here that might provide us with a key. And let us make for ourselves a name.
So, of course. ostensibly You might say What can be wrong with that? Let's make a name for ourselves. A black key. If you give me a moment, I realize I have to exercise this pause.
I'd like to bring in a a book. Sure, please. Yes, yes, Barn. I've always loved as we're waiting for Rabbi to get that the whole concept of why. In fact, the whole idea of curse of Babylon to me.
Is like the secret decoder ring of Well, Zephaniah's prophecy, but the confusing of language. Um Because people can be super productive. There's a book. uh that was written by napoleon hill that was called Think and Grow Rich. very popular book in America.
Yeah you know in the probably from 1950 on up. And In this book, he said he was going to write the secret. of Andrew Carnegie. That the way that Andrew Carnegie made his millions was going to be in every chapter of this book. He said in the foreword, he said, But I'm not going to tell you what the secret is.
He said, But when your mind is ready, you will know what it is. Because I've written it In every single chapter of the book.
Well, me being the person that I am, I'm like, I got to know what that is. I read that book probably. 15 times to ascertain beyond a shadow of a doubt where I could find it in every single chapter. And when I finally found it, It is exactly the undoing the curse of Babylon. And this is the best explanation I can give of one story he told about Charles Schwab.
Charles Schwab was one of his. leaders of his Um Factories. Besides, being somebody that was a great investor, obviously, but He, um Went into one steel mill plant that was the worst producing plant in all of. of Carnegie's steel producing plants. And he came in right at the changing of the shift from the last shift of the night to the first shift of the morning.
And when he got there, he said, How many pourings of steel did you make last night? And they said, We made seven. And so he took a piece of chalk and in the middle of the floor he wrote a great big number seven. and walked out of the plan. Of course, the next.
Shift comes in. What in the world is this seven? Sitting in, oh man, the big guy was here. He asked how many porns of steel we made last night. He wrote that seven down.
Like, well, oh man, we better do eight porns. And from then on, the production of the plant with the idea being very simply, when you get everybody on the same page doing the same thing. It's amazing what can be accomplished again, the idea of undoing what happened at Babylon. And This idea that that is being You know, happening here of the people working together to build this tower to make a name for themselves. I'm just adding a little while you were getting your book, I thought a little colorful commentary.
But we're not going to view this as a positive thing because if we're really positive, of course, God wouldn't have stopped it. He wanted to stop it. when it was going towards something other than That's exactly it. Other than what his purpose is. Making It's all embedded in.
Let us make a name for ourselves.
So, what I wanted to share. Good, good, good. If you're familiar with. They Plate. author and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Eli Weisel. Yeah. Yeah. Uh so the he um in one of his books Legends of our time. He presents the following story.
Chaklio was autobiographical. in the introduction. The old white-bearded rabbi looked at me disapprovingly.
So it's you, he sighed. You are Dodia Fege's grandson. he had recognized me at once. which both pleased and embarrassed me. I have not been so identified since my childhood.
Since the war. Of course referring to the Holocaust. Twenty years have elapsed since he last saw me. We were still in Hungary. My mother brought me to him to obtain his blessing.
Now we were alone in his in the room. in a suburb near Tel Aviv. And for some reason I felt more uncomfortable Than them. He sat in his armchair and studied me. He had not changed much.
His face remained friendly and pained. his smile contained all the wisdom in the world. Hmm, Dodia Feger's grandson. The Rebbe repeated as if to himself. His eyes were resting upon me and I wondered whom he saw and why.
He turned sad all of a sudden. Then I realized that unlike him I have changed. in more than one way. I was no longer his disciple. Rabbi has said, I've been working hard to acquire a name for myself, yet.
To you, I'm still attached to my grandfathers. It was a poor attempt to break the tension. It failed.
Now he seemed somewhat angry.
So That's what you've been doing all these years? He remarked He nodded his head and added. What a pity. And of course, inevitably. We need to consider What does it mean to say I want to make a name for myself?
We believe after all That God put us each of us In this world, with a mission to achieve. But we achieve that mission. Paradoxically, precisely not. By striving to make a name for ourselves. Because When you use the metaphor of making a name for oneself.
You know, what that kind of implies is if you picture the The skyline, I want to stick up out of the skyline. I want to have a name for myself. No Your role is to be part of the world and it's precisely through being part of the world. That you seek your true identity. Who?
What? You were put into this world to be. And if it's about I'm gonna make a name for myself. then it's precisely the negation of that. And on some level, I think this inexorably brings us back.
This um Convergence. of meanings In the same root. to profane, to desecrate on the one hand. and to initiate on the other. That is Getting back to Isaiah chapter six, verse three If the given But is Literally, the starting point.
The whole universe is holy, holy, holy, there's the Lord of hosts. The whole world is filled with his glory. Then The only possibility of perforation is When Someone takes an initiative in a negative sense. To void The world. of that glory.
So each one of these instances that imply initiation. Ironically, also imply profanation.
Now, obviously, that doesn't mean then that we should just sit around like the proverbial bump on a log and do nothing. But it does mean That what we're supposed to be doing is not. Part of this enterprise of trying to make a name for myself. On the contrary. I'm trying to uncover the God-given identity.
that my whole life was given to me. in order to achieve. And it's not going to be by saying, I'm going to make a name for myself in opposition to, in contrast with. the rest of the world. But precisely within the world.
I find My true identity. As God's faithful servant. That's the summons for each and every one of us. And the moment that it gets. contorted, perverted into I want to make a name for myself.
That moment I've lost it. I've become derailed. I'm initiating And simultaneously, inexorably profaning. And of course, the example that I skipped, but that. That's right.
is with noah. And It's this profound irony that is perhaps best exemplified in the identity of Noah. Then on the one hand He is this righteous man who was described by his father. As They Consolation. For the earth That God is cursed.
And on some level We appreciate the implications. Of That Consolation in the identity of Noah. Precisely because Humanity is running amok And Striving to take all sorts of initiatives that are precisely diametrically opposed to God. And no, it doesn't take any. And he's the righteous man.
But you know you can take That also to an extreme. Noah Truth be told, is a little bit of a bump on a log himself. The problem is that when he tries to take an initiative, you see what happens. He begins. But for him, it's an act of profanation because The first thing he does, he plants the vineyard.
And well, we won't talk about what happens next. Oh, man. changes the world. No doubt. No doubt.
And so It's fascinating to me, and I mean, when you just listen to the sound of that word, which means to initiate. and profane It it has Two lamas in it. And As you begin to think about that, I don't, you know, that the idea of aspiring that one letter that goes above the line, which is. you know kind of what Babylon did, right? But It's almost like going above the line on your own initiative rather than you know waiting on god with the you know, kind of thing, as I just think about the word.
Um And so, getting back to Ezekiel, as we were describing. Yeah. that Uh You know, we headed off there. It is a contrast. to holiness That Here we see God as in Ezekiel giving us an opportunity to see what Essentially, our own initiative has caused us not to see.
To some extent. Right. But maybe I'll just stress one additional dimension that I think is completely relevant. Ezekiel, and that is Um While the verb That conjures up profanation and desecration is indeed through the doubling of the Lamid. The root letters may not include the double blobed, and we'll just note that.
It is in that vein. That The Hebrew word khol. As we encounter it, for example, In Um Leviticus In describing The role of the priests as Separating between The holy Kodesh. And whole means mundane, it doesn't mean desecration. Just the mundane, the ordinary.
Um In some sense, In Hebrew Those are polar opposites. Indeed, It to this day. At the end of Shabbat. as we experience together Havdalah at the Dead Sea. We see the blessing of separation between the holiness of the Sabbath and the days of the week.
That blessing concludes with Extolling God as Hamabdil ben Kodesh Bechol. the one who separates between the holy and the mundane.
So, mundane is again not necessarily profane in any actively negative sense. It's just ordinary. I might add here. Possibly Hobiletically, but nonetheless. That The selfsame word ho besides meaning mundane, is also The Hebrew word for sand.
You can't get much more mundane than sand. A sand isn't anything profane or desecrated. It's just the epitome of the ordinary. Nothing could be more ordinary than sand. Especially here in the land of Israel.
Right, obviously.
So it's the ordinary. But now consider the implications with respect to God being sanctified. and its antithesis. Mm-hmm. If anyone comes along and says, Oh, this isn't a miracle.
This is mundane. This is ordinary. You know, it's just like sand. That's the negation of the holiness. And that ultimately is an act of profanation.
Because it is the voiding of the holiness. with which God's glory fills the earth.
So we always need to be careful about that. That is The moment We fail. to behold the miracle. We fail. to apprehend that it is God acting here.
And not The mundane. That in itself is tantamount to an act of profanation. And unfortunately, it could blind us to being able to see God's glory. Yes, beautiful. Wow.
So glad I asked. I am. I am just like, man. That was uh understanding I really I Like I said, those passages in Exodus have always fascinated me. And um Z.
And actually that worked. Um For profane. And now you just added all sorts of dimensions to my understanding. Thank you very much. That was amazing.
Oh, thank you. And I I'll just also add. The same route. I think I I noted this in brief before. also pertains to hollowing out.
Okay.
Which of course inevitably we can appreciate. Is What follows from the realization that God's glory fills the entire earth.
So The only way they could do anything different. is the profaner, as it were, hollows out. Avoid in that holiness. And uh by the way, just um For the record in Modern Hebrew. Precisely based upon this.
We have What? The word chalal meaning vacuum. And also khalal meaning outer space.
So, granted, there isn't any word for vacuum in biblical Hebrew because they didn't have vacuums in biblical times. And there isn't any word for outer space because that wasn't part of their. Understanding of the universe. But um but it's derived, of course. Naturally.
From this word that means hollowing out, voiding. And but it it to some extent it's It's profaning Okay. Because outer space is the glory of God, right? If you just call it a vacuum.
Well Again, as space. It's halal. But of course, we appreciate the way we should be relating to it. The way we should be relating to space in general is perhaps best exemplified by the words of Isaiah. in chapter 40, uh yeah, verse 26.
Lift up your eyes on high. And behold who created these things. Who brings out their host by number He calls them all by name. Because of the greatness of his mind. and because he's strong in power.
That one missing.
So you lift up your eyes and you see the glory of the Lord. But not because you're seeing space, because you're seeing the stars. You're seeing the grandeur of what God created that fills that space. Right?
So With Ezekiel. We talked a great deal about verse 25, 26. and they shall dwell safely therein. Yeah. We aren't yet at the stage of the final and complete fulfilment of these words.
So we earnestly believe that through having seen so much fulfilled, What has not been fulfilled? is unequivocally on the way. It was God is gathering the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered. And At least among those. who have chosen to see.
He is sanctified. Through them in the sight of the nations. And they are dwelling. in their own land which I gave to my servant Jacob. And they're building houses and planting vineyards too.
And We're not finished yet. Yeah, well that's the that's the The part that we get to um Have faith about, right? I mean, therein lies the idea of faith. Like, God, I know you got this. And I'm looking forward to seeing how you do it.
Uh 'cause it's beyond me, but um You know, that's That's some amazing stuff.
Well, we we don't do it. God does it. Right. We hope that we can be. as I pray you and I are in this Podcast.
His messengers. Exactly. Right. to see and to spot. Um And to be able to help others, right?
It's our responsibility to see, oh, that's holy right there.
Now this is something God's done. Don't miss it. Don't don't miss it. Um to say I'm excited about here in a few weeks coming back to see it again. And to observe it now with Fresh your eyes due to some of the things that you taught.
And um Again, it's it's Uh Really, really exciting as I've heard. recently have so many more groups going over there. Um And once again, it seems like tourism's opening up again, which is huge for you, right? I hope so. Yeah, that is.
I hope it'll be getting off the ground. I think we've discussed, we got hit by the pandemic and then we got hit by a war and yeah, it's been. It's been a tough roller coaster. And the rain is coming too.
So we got... Lots that we can be praying that God's sending the blessing of all these groups. Because when we were there in May, everybody kept saying, you know. But before the war, you would never park here, you'd never be able to stand in line here, you know, all these things. Um As Again, I was part of two or three groups that had been.
I'd never been to Israel. That was my first trip. But I was scheduled to go on two different ones. And they both got canceled due to American flights that wouldn't fly, but Mark. was smart enough to Book that on El Al.
And right now, I'm really, really glad that I'm coming again on El Al because American flights are. Struggling because the government shutdown. Of course. So it is. trying times that we get a chance to pray and all the more recent That we could be praying for Israel, praying for rain for Israel, praying for peace.
And praying that God will just continue to bless people to see these prophecies. Um being fulfilled that are, you know, just beautifully Illustrated. Here, thank you, Rabbi, again. And so excited to. We just scratched the surface of Zekil for understanding the other passage we're going to do next time.
Right, we said, okay, so we'll have Executive chapter 36 for next time, God willing. Once again, so amazing. Thank you so much, by the way. Thank you. Thank you for this opportunity to go together to God's Word.
God bless you. God bless everyone who's listening in on us. There's some The blessings of Zion, Jerusalem. Yeah. We are so honored that you would join us today on Voices from Zion, Robbie, and the Rabbi.
For more information about Rabbi Haim, Go to his website, zionbible studies.org. That's zionbible studies.org. Or visit me, Robbie Dillmore. At the Christian Cargai website. That's ChristianCargai.com.
Once again, Shalom from Jerusalem, the Holy City, God's City.
