Mourners of Zion
The three weeks; from the 17th of Tammuz until the 9th of Av, were designated by the spiritual leadership of Eternal Israel as a time of mourning for the destruction of the Temple. The fact is that a Jew who walks in the ways of his or her ancestors will carry the heartache of the destruction all the time. The “Three Weeks” are unique only in that they are a time for a more explicit outward expression of this steady mourning.
In the book of Isaiah we learn that the attitude of mourning for Zion is not a peripheral aspect of our relationship with God. In Isaiah 61:3 we find that the term: “Mourners of Zion” is synonymous with Israel as the servant of God. The promise to the mourners of Zion in this verse (61:3) directly parallels the promise to Israel in verse 60:21. The fact that the prophet gives Israel this name (mourners of Zion) in this context, tells us that the attitude of grieving over Zion is central to our calling as a nation before God, and is a crucial factor in our hope for the Messianic promises.
The heart of the Jew is the yearning to connect to God. Not that I, the Jew, should ascend to heaven, but rather that God should come to dwell amongst us here on earth. God promised that this will come to pass (Leviticus 26:12, Ezekiel 37:28). God also promised that it is through Israel that He will work towards the pinnacle of history (Isaiah60:2,3). God first revealed His glory to Israel (Deuteronomy 4:35), and Israel is charged with the task of witnessing to the world that there is but One God (Isaiah 43:10). After Israel encountered God, there is nothing on earth that could satisfy her but God Himself. No glory or pleasure could appeal to the heart of Eternal Israel but that her ultimate dream come to fruition – that the God of truth come to dwell in her midst here on earth. And as long as that has not yet happened, the heart of the Jew will pine and yearn for that great day.
The life of the Jew is filled with joy, the joy of serving God, the gratitude towards our loving Father who gives us everything – including our very existence, the joy of the hope inherent in the Messianic promises, and even the joy that as His servants we can mourn and yearn before Him. But it is only to the degree that the mourning for Zion is a reality in our hearts that we can hope for the restoration and the promises.
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Yisroel C. Blumenthal
1000 Verses - a project of Judaism Resources 
You missed the first visitation. According to Daniel 9 the Messiah was supposed to show up in Jerusalem and make an end to sacrafice and sin and all the rest around 30 AD. There is a candidate who did show up and accomplish all that was promised there.
Then according to Hosea 6 he will return “after 2 days to lift us up that we might dwell with him.”
Neither king Agrippa nor “the Egyptian” nor any other wannabe showed up then. In Hosea 6, the promise that Israel & Judah (or WE) has not been revived nor raised up. There is still sin, there is still ignorance of G-d in this world, and as any one who is truly pro-Israel (or even awake) knows, the restoration of Israel and a free Israel in a war-free world has not yet happened. Never surrender and be satisfied with such low expectations from G-d as you have! Mourn for Zion, rather than be comforted by the words of those who know not the real G-d of Israel.
Prorealisrael
I disagree with your interpretation of Daniel 9 – as I articulate in Contra Brown – but here is a question for you – Are you mourning for Zion?
You are so missing the boat. Just like the power hungry Pharisees of Jesus day, all you can see and think of is the restoration of the pathetic Jewish nation state, that is carnal. Why would anyone want to see that restored or elevated. It was a failure back then and without a genuine cleansing and transformation of the human heart into the godly character of Yeshua, it would even worse today. That’s not God’s big plan and never has been. You can’t seriously be mourning and wishing for that? What do you think God’s big plan is?
I, for one got off the “Yeshua boat”, because their teaching was about a “messiah” and not about God. I was getting away from God as the boat kept heading for the “other side” of the sea, the pagan side; the side I thought I had left for good. The “Yeshua” is carnal (an incarnation which is a symbol of idolatry; a replacement and a representation of God in a carnal man modeling pagan mythology & philosophy). You disparage the prophets (and God who sent them) and what they spoke, yet you, or the NT writers, use selected verses of theirs, sometimes contorted to make a point, in an attempt to give a man-god life and “authentication” or “authority”. And, despite what you honestly believe, you replace God with a man.
Jesus sometimes played the Pharisee; spoke and acted like them. From what you wrote about “power hungry” Pharisees, it appears that you take old Rome’s lies and anti-Jewish propaganda over what Pharisees actually wrote, preached, and lived. But Joshua’s or Yeshua’s (better known as Jesus to the world & originally in Greek more like Iesous) message comes out confused and contradictory and it needs to be cleansed and transformed or carefully parsed out. The Big Plan of God is not a nation/state. There you have been blind to what the Prophets actually spoke or have only heard certain “sound bites” authorized by the pastor or “rabbi”. God’s Plan is not one where he says “I am not a man, or son of man”, yet appears as a liar to the world by play-acting as a man for a few years, long, long time ago. Not one “of drinking blood & eating flesh” as a curse in one place and it is “true worship” in another. Loving mercy more than sacrifices in the Tanakh and in the NT, but yet enshrining a pagan styled man/god sacrifice as “true love” and “grace/mercy” in another. What will they think of such a god? God as master of the Universe in one book and in another book giving Satan all the kingdoms of the world (or Yeshua) and impotently sharing Heaven with the devil and “evil principalities”. Promoting a “one way” in which Yeshua’s followers almost immediately become divided, became heretics, plagiarized texts or forged signatures, etc. They acted like Israel of old.
Yes, mourn for Zion and pray for the “Promise”, the “bigger Plan” than the one you got. Pray for those whose god is small. And get off their boat that has floundered, walk on mud, and then build on solid ground.
We are missing the boat…Power hungry pharisees!!! Do you ever look in the mirror?
Have you witnessed the sacrilege of money hungry televangelists. The Pharisees I have known were givers not takers. Look at what your “Christian nations” did to the Jew. Good old Martin Luther… “Baptize a Jew yes on the end of my fishing rod in the Elbe River. Oh the Jew Deserved it because we rejected a man whose followwers said he is god….You are an idolater and as Isaiah stated “You are living under the Vail that is spread over the nations (Hebrew goyim) You are so lost you have no ability to even consider truth. So do us a favor get lost!
Prorealisrael
Before you accuse people of “missing the boat” – you may want to educate yourself about the beliefs of the people you are accusing – you might find the following article helpful – https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2011/05/24/hope-faithfulness-and-joy
In the third paragraph of the introduction post it is referred to Ezekiel 37:28
Eze 37:28 And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore. (KJV)
I recognize this quotation in its context with the two sticks, beginning with Verse 16. Every time, when Israel is mentioned in the public understanding, usually it is thought about Jews living in a certain land in the middle east and in the Diaspora. But is the House of Judah really all Israel? Does the House of Judah mourn about their lost brethren of the House of Ephraim as they morn about Zion or the lost Temple, likewise? Where are the House of Ephraim today? Do they (or we) morn with the House of Judah (Jews), too?
According to Jewish research the lost tribes are basically scattered amongst Christians and Muslims. Within the people of Israel I recognize the tension between the ten tribes on one hand and the two tribes of Yehuda and BinYamin (+ Levi) on the other. Mourning about Zion is one important point but mourning about the restoration of all Israel the other, not less important one.
Shomer
Shomer
Yearning for God to come and dwell amongst His people – includes the yearning that all of the stature of God’s firstborn son – Israel reunite in the land that God promised our fathers.
Shomer,
You are right to raise the question about Ephraim and the other 9 tribes with him (but some of Judah and Benjamin moved with them too). Hosea 1 tells us where they went and what happened to them. 1) They were conquered and lost their nation, 2) They were taken captives by Assyria up around the Caspian Sea until 604 BC when Assyria collapsed, 3) They were divorced by God from the Mosaic Covenant (as was Judah after the death of Messiah if they did not receive Him, and many did not) and they forgot they were ever Israel and lost the right to be called Israel, but nevertheless where they had been taken captive they 1) Increased vastly in numbers too vast to count (obviously not the nation that calls itself Israel today) and 2) It has been said to them “sons of the Living God”. What is that? See John 1:12 for a clue–“as many as received Him to them He gave the legal right and inner power to become sons of God.” Christ is the living God. “ian” is a suffix that means out of or son of. So, the gospel of Jesus was preached to them and they were given the privilege to believe like Abraham and be given a new name, Sons of the Living God i.e. Christians. That’s where Israel went and who they became–mostly the caucasian nations of Europe and of the British Empire. The historian Raymond Capt (who I’ve seen on the History Channel) wrote a good little book called THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT (from http://www.artisanpublishers.com) which shows how this migrating bunch moved and were renamed over and over and basically Ephraim became The British Commonwealth and Manasseh moved with him to split off and become The United States…”we the people” right out of Genesis 48:19.
Shalom prorealisrael
According to Jecheskel 37 I understand that in the end times all twelve tribes will be reunitedly living in Eretz Israel and King David will be their ruler. I agree with everything you write about the tribes in the past. But as Daniel noticed from the scriptures that the captivity of the house of Yehuda had come to an end, there are people today that have noticed the same about the House of Ephraim. I am anticipating the aliya of the “lost tribes”.
I know that Jews usually don’t like the idea that their lost brethren could be amongst the Christians and welcome “Christians” back home. Ephraim already had waged wars against Juda and I can see this mind set within crusades or the shoa e. g., too.
Greetings
Shomer
Prorealisrael
Your interpretation of Hosea is precisely the opposite of the point Hosea was trrying to make – I highly doubt it – but perhaps the following article may tell you something – https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2011/05/08/judge-not
The Prophets tell us that many of Israel, the Northern Kingdom were never “lost” as some believe. Some fled to the Judah, the Southern kingdom and Egypt, later known as the diaspora and many of its people would later be called Jews. There was a countless number of people living at the time of Abraham who had countless numbers of descendents and so those who lost any identify to Israel and its God and assimilated with that countless multitude are not special in any way. If they speculate (which is not of God but of carnal man), that they are 1/1000th part Israelite (if DNA is important to God) they may be drawn to Zion (in the far distant future), but they will have to reject their idolatry before God will accept them as true children of God.
Many people believe that Israel often turned away from God, but their rejection of God and their turning to worship of idols, baals/lords, and sun-gods or man-gods is minuscule in relation to the numbers of apostates, heretics, idolators, etc that have arisen over the last 1900+ years. There were several different “gospels & revelations” and numerous heresies in the earliest “Yeshua” movement. And in the 19th century up to today, or into the foreseeable future, there has been a great upsurge of Christian cults & heresies and the animosity among Christians of different beliefs (ALL “biblically based”?) has increased greatly. It is hard to attribute this confusion, division and animosity among “brothers & sisters” to God. Something is wrong “above the root”.
These are Christians (or followers/believers of the teachings of the dozens of “sacred name” variations of Jesus”). As a messianic or Christian blog poster on http://boards.jewsforjesus.org/dcboard.php? wrote, “Any time any one teaches that a portion of the bible has never before been understood, and that a “new” doctrine exists … is a dangerous cult. All cults begin this way…”. How true, but not just in the way he or she meant it.
If you want to know about “Ephraim”, or the “Ephraim Error” or the “Error of the Ephraimite Error” or the error of “messianic Jews” as seen by other “messianic Jews” check out some of these sites or articles: http://www.heartofisrael.net for the “EphraimiteError.pdf”, “The Ephraimite Deception”, “A Lie to Lead Gentiles Away from Y’shua”, and others. Search for “The History and Origin of the Celtic People and other People Groups of Northwest Europe”. Find “A Short History of the Ephraimite Movement. See “Errors of the ephraimite error” at http//www.messianicisrael.com. Check out the many articles at messianicliterarycorner.com or
seekgod.ca among others. There is some dangerous stuff here. Get y’alls stuff together.
For the faithful remnant, the suffering servants: when the Moshiach comes, there will be Joy in Zion, and the messi mess will be cleaned up.
Re: Ephraim Error
I suggest to let Jewish rabbis discuss this theme until they come to a final conclusion. Knowing about so many contradicting Jewish knowledge on this I have made up my mind on the base of the Tenach. Today, I can see what is wrong with the one or the other Jewish knowledge and I can see why the one ore the other Jewish party is contradicting the other(s). I have no proof and yet I am convinced that I am a descendant of the “lost” tribes. Too many indications do not allow me to think otherwise. I am positive that ElShaday knows my Genetic code although I was taught the opposite by “Christians”, earlier.
Shalom Shomer
The sources on Ephraimite errors are not from “Jewish parties”, but from believers in Yeshua and in the NT. There is no reason to fear Jews (in your version of “aliya”) but God. It was the God of Israel who gave Israel (including Ephraim & Manasseh) the prohibition against idolatry, against following a false prophet or prophets, and following the gods
The sources on Ephraimite errors are not from “Jewish parties”, but from believers in Yeshua and in the NT. There is no reason to fear Jews (in your version of “aliya”) but God. It was the God of Israel who gave Israel (including Ephraim & Manasseh) the prohibition against idolatry, against following a false prophet or prophets, and following the “gods of the nations” or those not known by the fathers. As you should know, the greatest rebellion against God was by “Ephraim & Manasseh” and so their arrogance needs to be decreased though sincere humility, they need to do the greatest amount of “apologizing”, and the “10 tribes” will require the greatest amount of change to their “belief system” (more than just rejecting a small part of “pagan Jesus” as you believe you have). You need to do a whole lot of work yet to follow Tanakh. Because “Ephraim & Manasseh” assisted in their sister Judah’s suffering as servants of the One God and they were & are the Israel that has delayed the Moshiach because of their stubbornness and lack of merit.
Shomer
Why do you rely on the Tanach? after all it is the spiritual leadership of the Jewish people who canonized the book.
@yourphariseefriend
Today, I collect Jewish information and the Tenach is one of it. You see, I was brought up in the “New Testament” and I need to sort out what can be and what can’t be from this book. I know that Jews are sorting out Tenach likewise and that some of them sort it out with the Talmud, Halacha, Mishna or whatever in their minds. It resembles the Christian way of approaching the “Old Testament” with a Christian mind set and calling the Torah “invalid” because the Christian “New Testament” states this occasionally. The Tenach is just a help to me in order to approach YHVH ECHAD. Without the Tanach I would not know to the very day that Adonai is not triune.
Shabbat Shalom
Mourning about Zion excludes faith in Yeshua! Either you know about your Hebrew roots – and then you go forward in the Tenach or you believe in a pagan Jesus derived from the ancient Babylonian divinity Thammuz. When I collect all Christian Information on Jesus, I come to the conclusion that our Jesus today was derived from a pagan Idol on a crucifix. And to call this God-son of the “holy trinity” >Yeshua< does not make him more messianic. When I sort out all information available about "Jesus" I come to the conclusion that there are two "Jesusses": One is a pagan divinity and the other one is a Jewish Rabbi; one was pre-existent and the other was born on Pessach nearby Bethlehem.
"Shma Yisrael; YHVH our ELOHIM, YHVH [is] one." When all is about this Adonai – I'd like to know who Jesus is (or his mistranslated, messianic counterpart Yeshua). So to say, I can see two Yeshuas – but only Adonai is ECHAD, and it is all about HIM! HE has appointed that His Shem dwells in – Zion! Everytime I hear "Rivers of Babylon" by the pop group ABBA, I could cry; It is all about YAH and Zion:
Psa 137:1-6 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. 2 We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. 3 For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. 4 How shall we sing the LORD'S song in a strange land? 5 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. 6 If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.
Shabbat Shalom
Shomer
Shomer, there is no reason to continue seeing things from “the pagan Jesus” point of view, from your “New” testament. The “rabbi Jesus” was only a man, not Yah, not God. And only one like any other rabbi in God’s “eyes”, even less so then the “fathers”.
Sorry, if you read anything of rabbi Jesus in my posts, please tell me – I don’t! If you read my postings with care you must admit that I have made a cut between a pagan Jesus and a Jewish rabbi Yeshua BarYosef. And Yeshua was 100% man and 0% God! Very true! That Jesus is a Christian semi-God (100% God & 100% man) is sad but true, too.
The only place you will find a Rabbi “Yeshua bar Yosef” is in the NT, which you reject as a fiction & yet accept as historical. There is no objective way to tell the difference between the “pagan Jesus” & the “rabbi Yeshua bar Yosef”. They are like Siamese twins. There is no historical Yeshua, if you reject minor persons barely mentioned in Josephus’s writings or unless you are thinking of one of the disciples of Yochanan ben Zakkai, a Yehoshua found in the Perkei Avot. There is no Karaite record of any Yeshua as well, if you are acquainted with Nehemia Gordon or with Rood.
A Muslim man in Egypt killed his wife because she was reading the Bible and
then buried her with their infant baby and an 8-year old daughter. The girls
were buried alive! He then reported to the police that an uncle killed the
kids. 15 days later, another family member died. When they went to bury him,
they found the 2 little girls under the sand – ALIVE! The country is
outraged over the incident, and the man will be executed.. The older girl
was asked how she had survived and she says:- ‘A man wearing shiny white
clothes, with bleeding wounds in his hands, came every day to feed us.
He woke up my mom so she could nurse my sister,’ she said. She was interviewed
on Egyptian national TV, by availed Muslim woman news anchor. She said on
public TV, ‘This was none other than Jesus, because nobody else does things
like this!’
Muslims believe Isa (Jesus) would do this, but the wounds mean
He really was crucified, and it’s clear also that He is alive! But, it’s
also clear that the child could not make up a story like this, and there is
no way these children could have survived without a true miracle.
Muslim leaders are going to have a hard time to figure out what to do with this,
and the popularity of the Passion movie doesn’t help! With Egypt at the
center of the media and education in the Middle East , you can be sure this
story will spread. Christ is still turning the world upside down!
Please let this story be shared. The Lord says, ‘I will bless the person who puts his
trust in me.’ Jeremiah 17
Please forward to all on your list to bless others!
Mark 8:38 which says, ‘Therefore whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and my Words in
this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man shall also be ashamed
of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels’.
Jesus loves and promises to save the whole world, even Muslims, and Jews too, and Americans also, and Russians….everyone!
My brief google research tells me that there is no evidence to this story:
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/egypt-murder-miracle.shtml
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/e/egyptian-miracle.htm
Silly me- How can I post anything on hoaxes without Snopes?
http://www.snopes.com/glurge/buried.asp
Thanks, Thomas. God warned us in Deut. 13 and in other places of his Torah about false prophets (satan or devils, as some call them) who rely upon people’s superstitions and fears to promote hoaxes, rumors, & lies to divide and confuse people in order to deceive them and lead them away from the One God. God knew us. He knew Israel and warned them to train and prepare for the onslaught that was to come. God gave wisdom and his Shalom.
Reblogged this on 1000 Verses – a project of Judaism Resources.
Almost everyday i see the temple mount from Har Hazophim and toward Mt. Zion, and I pray for the restoration of the Glory of God revealed in Jerusalem. In the Messianic hope, whether the Messiah is Yeshua or not, Christians and Jews are one minded toward the yearing of the Messianic age. I have a question, rabbi. Does Rabbinical Judaism consider that the passionate studying, loving, and obeying of the Torah replace the sacrifice in the temple which is not possible since the destruction of the second temple?
Gean Guk Jeon Obedience to Torah doesn’t replace the sacrifice in the sense that they are not needed – we pray for their restoration every day. What we mean is that with the absence of the sacrifices other ctivities move to the forefront in our expression of yearning for and submitting to God
1000 Verses – a project of Judaism Resources wrote: >
O.K. Now I see. I will join the prayer movement for the temple to be rebuild in Jerusalem. I hope this will not offend my fellow Jewish brothers and sisters here. I believe the temple will stand on the Mount in the near future. The thought came from my understanding of Daniel, Gospels, and Pauline and Johannine Epistles. Also, i believe the restorations of the temple because of the death and resurrection of Yeshua. He called his body “the temple.” As he predicted the destruction of his body during his ministry, his body was destroyed on the cross, and in C.E.70, the temple was destroyed. Since he predicted the resurrection of his body during his ministry, his body was resurrected and he walked on the land of Israel for 40 more days. LIkewise, will the temple be not restored in our times?
So inspiring!