Contents:
1. Rabbi Avraham Feld: Ideas for your
readers Enjoyment: Early American Zionism
2. Rabbi Avraham Feld: Reflections
on Zechariah 8:23
3. Questions from Curtis Taylor:
1. Rabbi Avraham Feld: Ideas for your
readers Enjoyment: Early American Zionism
US President Harrison was petitioned
in 1891 on the 25th of our month Adar
to aid in the re-establishment of a
Jewish State (i.e. Palestine as a sovereign
Jewish State); the letter was
signed by Cyrus McCormick, J.P. McKinley,
John D. Rockefeller, Russell
Sage, Cardinal Gibbons, and many other
important leaders.
All of this was aroused by their views
of the Bible together with sympathy
for the Jews due to vicious Russian
pogroms at the time.
This was an example of a spontaneous
expression of American sympathy for
the Jews and for the Land of Israel.
2. Rabbi Avraham Feld: Reflections on
Zechariah 8:23.
[Zechariah 8:23] THUS SAITH THE LORD
OF HOSTS; IN THOSE DAYS IT SHALL COME
TO PASS, THAT TEN MEN SHALL TAKE HOLD
OUT OF ALL LANGUAGES OF THE NATIONS,
EVEN SHALL TAKE HOLD OF THE SKIRT OF
HIM THAT IS A JEW, SAYING, WE WILL GO
WITH YOU: FOR WE HAVE HEARD THAT GOD
IS WITH YOU.
The verse says that they will go with
"him that is a Jew" because they will
have heard "that God is with you".
It does not say that they will dialogue,
debate, convince, persuade,
present their views and attempt to
create in us
a synthesis of our and their ideologies,
workout their origins, or keep
their own philosophy and merely learn
more about it.
No! They will go with us for they will
have heard that God is with us.
3. Questions from Curtis Taylor:
My Dear Sir,
It is a pleasure to read your materials.
It is a joy to find men of Judah
and Israel who seek the Hashem and
have a hunger and desire to know Hashem
and His righteousness.
May I ask you a few questions??
a. I have met with a Hassidic Rabbi
in Aspen, Colorado. He is from NY, NY.
He claims to be in tight with the Rabbi's
in Israel and Jerusalem. He
claims that there is and has not been
any interest in rebuilding the
Temple. Is this true or is his little
sect mislead. Are there eminent plans
to restore the temple??
b. This Rabbi also claims the blood
sacrifices will never be re-instituted,
to quote, "Why would anyone start up
and old and stupid practice!". Is
there any truth or denial to this??
c. Is the list of Dr. Dell Sanchez of
over 6,000 names of Sephardic Jews
have any degree of validity, it appears
he has every Latino name in history
written down??
d. Several years ago I viewed an old
map that showed the Diaspora groupings
of Israel, (House of Jacob), from the
scattering after Assyria. Have you
seen any such map, I can't seem to
relocate it??
May Hashem bless you and keep you
Curtis Taylor
Answers: First of all the questions
are slightly outside of our framework
of reference but still pertinent.
Other people also sent in questions.
Most questions are answered. Some are
not. If your question
was not answered please do not be offended.
a. There is much interest in rebuilding
the Temple BUT it is considered
impractical since certain criteria
need to be met such as finding ashes
of the red heifer, knowing the precise
location as to where the altar was,
and so on. Some say that we will have
to wait for a prophet or the messiah
to know the answers
while others say that with a little
effort we can overcome these
impediments. Some sources seem to indicate
that this latter view is the one that
may prevail and the Temple may be
rebuilt before the Messiah arrives.
No-one for the moment is holding their
breath.
b. One authority (Rabbi Kook) believed
that when the temple is rebuilt then
only vegetable offerings (such as
the flour offering, etc) would be re-instituted.
Majority opinion however
appears to be that blood sacrifices
will be re-instituted. People eat meat.
Animals are slaughtered every day
to feed us. Why should this
necessary and healthy ritual not by
part of a higher sanctification?
c. Numerous Jews in Spain and Portugal
were forced to become Catholics and
their children were kidnapped.
It is possible that over the course
of time descendants of these Jews have
received or adopted every Spanish
name known but that does not mean that
everybody with such a name is of
Jewish descent, though some are.
These people and others like them will
also return and their return is
linked in the sources with the return
of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel. In
Brit-Am terminology we refer to them
as "Captive Jews".
d. Such maps can be found in our books
"The Tribes" and "Lost Israelite
Identity". Other writers have provided
similar maps that though not the same
as ours do more or less depict the
same regions.