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By Mark Gerson

One of the infinitely great and true aspects of the Torah is the complexity of every major figure. Indeed, perhaps the mark of genuinely knowing a biblical character—from Adam to Abraham, from Rebecca to Miriam, from Jacob to Joseph, from Judah to Moses—is appreciating just how each of them is a mixture of good, bad, and changing qualities. This makes naming children challenging, as everyone in the Torah has characteristics that we definitely do not want our children to have. And it would make blessing a child—as we Jews do every Friday night, with a prayer that they be like a biblical character—similarly challenging. We solve that by blessing our girls to be like four people (Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah) and our boys to be like two (Ephraim and Manasseh). Consequently, we ask God to imbue our children with the best qualities of multiple people and thus to build up their sacred uniqueness.

Usually, the complexity of the biblical character emerges as we get to know him or her. We meet Moses when he is an infant, we are introduced to Abraham before he begins his life’s journey, and we hear about Joseph when he is born but are really introduced to him when he is a self-centered and pampered teenager. 

Their complexity will emerge along with the stories about them. There is one character, though, who stands apart. This character may be the least complex of the major figures of the Bible, in that his personality is straightforward and his actions predictable. Yet it is this character who, alone, the author of the Torah directly assesses. But the assessment is so complex that it leads us readers to appreciate the complexity in assessing any person. And this is a valuable lesson, as assessing people and situations is the function that we do most frequently and most importantly. 

Noah, we are told in Genesis 6:9, is “righteous in his generation.” This seemingly simple assessment has launched millennia of discussion and debate among the wisest Jewish commentators. The pro-Noah side maintains that the appellation of “righteous” is, especially coming from God, unambiguous praise. And Noah’s being called righteous “in his generation” amplifies the praise. Jewish teaching emphasizes that we all respond, with remarkable sensitivity, to the moral character of our surroundings. Consequently, it is important to live in a community of people who will elevate us. It is remarkable, this school maintains, of Noah to be righteous in a degenerate generation—as his ability to resist the negative influences all around him make him even greater. The primary proponent of this view was Resh Lakish, the third-century gladiator who left that profession to become a great Rabbi. Coming from a world of bad influences, Resh Lakish knew just how pernicious they can be—and judged Noah favorably. 

The other school maintains that “in his generation” is criticism. Sure, Noah was righteous in that generation—a generation so bad that God couldn’t find anyone else worth saving from the flood. In any other generation, Noah would not have been anything special. 

How should each of us assess Noah?

God tells Noah that he is going to destroy the world and instructs him to build an ark to save himself, his family, and animals. Noah dutifully complies. However, as the commentators in the second school emphasize, complying is one thing, but arguing is what genuinely righteous people do. Abraham and Moses both argue with God, and both resoundingly win—convincing the Lord. But Noah never makes the case for anyone. He can’t find one sweet child to bring before God and say, “Are you saying that she is evil and should be destroyed?” He is, commentators in this school say, a “tsaddik in fur.” A person who is cold can warm up in one of two ways: by putting on a fur coat or by lighting a fire. The fire will warm everyone, but Noah chooses the coat. 

The ark that God commands Noah to construct is, by any standard, enormous—as is befitting a ship that needs to house so many animals. Surely, in the years it took to build the ship lots of people would have stopped and asked Noah what he was doing. He either somehow avoids such conversations or engages them and fails to inspire anyone to repent or even help him build. In either case—despite having the blessing of God and a huge building project—he does not positively influence anyone. 

Years pass, and Noah finishes the lonely process of creating the ark. Noah enters the ark with “his sons, his wife and his sons’ wives with them.” The commentators take note of the order. The men enter separately from their wives, acknowledging that it would be improper to make love while the world is being destroyed. 

The world is destroyed by the flood, a year passes, and a dove indicates that the earth is dry and habitable. Still, Noah stays in the ark. God has to tell him to disembark: “Go forth from the Ark,” God instructs, “you and your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you.” God wants the husbands to join their wives. It is time for them to make love, to repopulate and to recreate the world. 

“So Noah went forth,” the Torah tells us. “And his sons, his wife and his sons’ wives with him.” 

Noah leads his party out of the ark in the wrong order! Whether he is traumatized or something else, we do not know. All we know is that he is consistent and thus predictable. He does not rush out of the ark to recreate the world when he learns it is habitable.

God does not give up on Noah; quite the contrary. God blesses him and guarantees him with the rainbow that he will never destroy the world again. God proves himself to be an exceptional therapist, but he still needs a willing patient. 

Noah responds by planting a vineyard. He gets completely drunk and “debases” himself with nakedness that his son Ham disgracefully observes and talks about. We are told that Noah lives for 350 years—leaving him plenty of time to repent, transform, and recreate. But Noah, as far as we know, does nothing. 

What do we think of Noah? It is one of the many awesome and eternal questions aroused by the Torah. Before answering, we should ask another question: What does God think of Noah? We are not told. But I have a theory. 

I think God is saying, “I am not going to blame Noah for failing to recreate the world. I blame myself. I picked the wrong guy. Noah was always a fundamentally decent man, righteous in his generation by either interpretation. But he was a passive rule-follower, not an inspiration, not a risk-taker, not a leader. He was never going to recreate the world, he was never going to deliver me to the nations. Of course, he would instead disappear into drunkenness. I should have known that goodness does not alone qualify a person for leadership, that different challenges call for different qualities and sometimes thus different people. I’ve learned, and I have a solution. I’m going to create Abraham.” 

Mark Gerson, a devoted Jew, is an entrepreneur and philanthropist who (along with his wife, Rabbi Erica Gerson) is perhaps the world’s largest individual supporter of Christian medical missions. He is the co-founder of African Mission Healthcare (AMH) and the author of a forthcoming book on the Haggadah: The Telling: How Judaism’s Essential Book Reveals the Meaning of Life.  

Website: therabbishusband.com
Twitter: @markgerson
Podcast: The Rabbi’s Husband

By Arlene Bridges Samuels 

Mistrust of the media is a modern global phenomenon. Yet on October 18, Israel’s Government Press Office (GPO) extended a warm hand of trust to Christian media organizations from across the world. Despite this summit being a virtual Zoom event due to Israel’s pandemic lockdown, the GPO still delivered—for the fourth year in a row—superb information and valuable insights from both Israeli and Christian leaders. 

In 2017, when the GPO unveiled its first Christian Media Summit (CMS), it invited 150 top-tier Christian media entities—including founders and CEOs of world-renowned Christian media outlets—to come to Israel for briefings, dialogue, and travel to faith-related locations. Worldwide, approximately 500 Christian media professionals from some 50 countries have participated in the last four years. Well over 100,000 people across the globe watched the GPO’s livestream of the event and God TV’s broadcast. 

The GPO’s highly respected Director, Nitzan Chen, opened the summit, greeting us warmly as always. He exhorted us to maintain “the good name of media,” adding that “our honesty and integrity are a jewel in the crown for all of us.” In fact, Israel’s government views Christian media as a vital professional channel of information to Christian tourists, viewers, readers, and Internet users across the globe. 

In his annual remarks to the summit, Prime Minister Netanyahu once again emphasized, “We have no better friends than Christian media around the world. You have been with us through thick and thin. You have been extraordinary champions.” In his parting comment, he encouraged us to “keep raising the torch of truth.” 

The U.S. Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, inspired us with one of his Torah readings during Israel’s Rosh Hashanah lockdown. His comments focused on Genesis 25:9, where brothers Isaac and Ishmael buried their father Abraham together. The Ambassador linked it with the recent Abraham Accord: “It’s a universal benefit for people to reconcile. When it happens, we can rejoice.”

Other leaders in Israel’s political, civic, military, cultural, and religious roles once again furthered our understanding in order to improve our ability as media professionals to promote facts about Israel. The Summit featured first-class briefings by such luminaries as Lt. Colonel Jonathan Conricus, International Spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces; Professor Shmuel Shapira, Director General of Institute for Biological Research; Jerusalem Post Editor Maayan Hoffman, Dr. Jurgen Buhler, President of International Christian Embassy Jerusalem; and Olga Deutsch, Vice President of the research institute NGO Monitor.  

Gordon Robertson, CEO of The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), discussed Israel’s national symbol, the Menorah, noting, “The Menorah is now outside the Temple, and that is Israel.” He based his remarks on Isaiah 49:6: “I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” CBN and its founder, Pat Robertson, have led the charge for nearly five decades in urging evangelical Christians to stand in support of Israel and the Jewish people. 

Today, CBN Israel gives Christians the distinct opportunity to reach millions worldwide with unbiased news and films that tell the true story of Israel while also providing humanitarian relief to Israelis in need—including aging Holocaust survivors, victims of terror, families in crisis, and new immigrants making their prophetic return to their ancestral homeland. 

With warm ties now at an all-time high, you may ask how such good will developed between Israel and evangelicals. Simply put, relationships matter. The Christian Media Summit arose out of trust-building between Jews and Christians in the United States, Israel, and among 600 million evangelicals around the world.  

This friendship-building began speeding up in 1980, when the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) planted a seed in Israeli ground. Like institutional “grandparents” of the now numerous Israel-focused Christian organizations, their work for 40 years has grown into a massive oak tree of comfort and practical help, with branches in 90 nations.

Meantime, in 1981, U.S. Pastor John Hagee held the first annual “Night to Honor Israel” in his hometown of San Antonio, Texas. He met with local Rabbi Areyeh Scheinberg to propose his idea. Their friendship and collaboration have endured for 40 years as a model for evangelicals and Jews. 

Yet, when the new millennium began in 2000, understandable caution and suspicion about Christians—based on centuries of anti-Semitism—still remained embedded in Jewish communities. 

Surprisingly, the horrific Second Intifada—which also began in 2000—became a setting where the warmth factor rose somewhat among Israelis toward evangelicals. The Second Intifada (Arabic for “uprising, rebellion, to shake off”) was a five-year nightmare of grief, agony, and trauma for Israelis. Palestinian terrorists donned suicide vests and used all kinds of violence to murder 1,137 civilians and security personnel. No location was immune to grisly terrorist violence, whether a bus, restaurant or home. The number of injuries soared, with 8,341 Israelis wounded during this prolonged terror campaign. 

Within the Jewish population—around 5–6 million at the time—almost everyone knew someone who had been murdered or injured. Tourism came to a virtual standstill. Israelis, if they could, fled the country. Yet despite the violence, one group of visitors continued traveling to Israel: evangelical Christians. 

Although many Christian—and Jewish—tours did cancel, enough came anyway to at least be noticeable. During those years, when I worked alongside Goodwill Ambassador Earl Cox, I recall the astonishment among Israelis when they saw our groups of Christians. Going to Israel during an Intifada, during a time of vicious violence, made an unspoken yet powerful statement: “You have friends.”

In the United States, several initiatives unfolded between 2005 and 2007. In 2005 the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), known as the leader in strengthening the U.S.-Israel relationship via Congress, wisely invited Christian leaders to join up with its bipartisan organization. In 2005, AIPAC—a historically Jewish institution—hired a seasoned National Outreach Director from the Jewish community to lay the groundwork. Then in 2006, Pastor John Hagee founded Christians United for Israel (CUFI), and in 2007 AIPAC hired me as its first Christian Outreach Director and continued building its non-Jewish outreach staff. 

The mostly Jewish members of AIPAC have embraced its Christian members, who in the last 15 years have developed strong relationships within AIPAC and in the U.S. Congress with both Democrats and Republicans. This has resulted in the added success of key legislation benefiting the U.S. and Israel. AIPAC’s advocacy is considered key in ensuring Israel’s security aid annually. The work of both AIPAC and CUFI has become a driving force of advocacy. 

AIPAC’s annual Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., draws 18,000 attendees. CUFI’s 9 million members fully support donations in the millions to Israeli charities. Both organizations host multiple annual tours that promote not only Israel’s spiritual richness but also geopolitical insight into Israel’s issues. Tourism in that country reached its highest numbers in 2019, with 4.5 million tourists spending $6.65 billion. More than half of these were Christians.  

With the tremendous growth of engaged pro-Israel Christians in the last 20 years, it’s not surprising that American evangelicals jumped into the last presidential election urging both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton to sign on to “Five Principles” to support Israel. Key among them: moving the U.S. Embassy to Israel’s capital, Jerusalem. 

The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem’s U.S. branch launched the presidential project, naming it American Christian Leaders for Israel. They created an active coalition of hundreds of top evangelical leaders in 2015. They first sent a Letter of Principles to both candidates. The Clinton campaign never responded. They heard from Trump’s campaign almost immediately. Now, since President Trump’s win in 2016, his policies toward Israel are legendary. 

It’s clear that Christian media and 600 million evangelicals worldwide will remain dedicated to Israel’s well-being. Not because Israel or any other nation is perfect. But because Christians serve a perfect God who offered us redemption through the Jewish people as vessels for our Bible and our precious Jewish Savior. We have every reason we need for our loyalty. 

Let’s pray that Christian support for Israel will be strengthened like never before:

• Pray that God would continue to inspire more Christians to build bridges of healing, trust, and hope with Israel and Jewish communities across the globe. 
• Pray for CBN Israel that they would continue to grow and expand their capacity to bless more and more Israeli families and communities in desperate need. 
• Pray for Chris Mitchell and the CBN News team in Jerusalem that they will continue informing the world about what is happening in Israel and the Middle East—all from a biblical and prophetic perspective. 
• Pray for author Joel Rosenberg’s success with his new media channels AllIsraelNews and AllArabNews, which will increase additional Christian and balanced media.
• Pray that CBN would continue to produce timely films and documentaries that tell the true story of Israel and the Jewish people. 
• Pray that evangelicals will do their part individually through social media and emails to pass along good news and facts about Israel.
• Pray that God will alert Christians to rising propaganda against Israel and equip Christians with courage to oppose it.

What a powerful alliance the evangelical-Israeli partnership continues to be. Let us always hold fast to this certainty: “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1).

Arlene Bridges Samuels pioneered Christian outreach for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). After she served nine years on AIPAC’s staff, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her as Outreach Director part-time for their project, American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is now an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel and has traveled to Israel 25 times. By invitation, she has attended Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summit three times. She hosts her devotionals on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

She didn’t know where to turn. Natalya’s younger son had been diagnosed with autism. She was told he’d never speak properly or develop normal social skills and would need a lifetime of care. Distraught, Natalya’s husband eventually packed up and left—and then her son began having psychotic seizures.

The boy would hurt himself so severely that Natalya had to admit him to a psychiatric hospital, which insisted she stay with him constantly. Unable to work, she lost her job as a nurse and the bills quickly piled up. Then came the last straw; when she couldn’t pay the rent, her landlord insisted that she leave. Homeless, she had to rely on the good graces of people who could give her and her boys a place to stay at night. Life was precarious, and she was desperate.

Thankfully, the head of CBN Israel’s family department learned of the single mother’s plight. He settled her debts, located an appropriate facility for her son’s condition, and found them a better place to stay, where she had no fear of walking outside in the dark. Natalya’s new peace of mind let her return to work. On top of that, she received monthly food coupons and school supplies.

Your gift can be a blessing to so many single moms, like Natalya, providing them with groceries, housing, medical care, financial aid, and job training. You can also give these moms hope and encouragement as they seek to give their children a bright future. Please join us in reaching others!

“For the sons of Israel are My servants; they are My servants whom I brought out from the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God” (Leviticus 25:55 NASB).

In the Exodus from Egypt, God freed the children of Israel. He liberated them from slavery and bondage.

Freedom. We all want to be free. Countries all over the world celebrate freedom and independence. Even within the Church, we celebrate our freedom; in fact, we make that a central theme of our appeal to others: Come to Jesus, so you can be free.

But God didn’t liberate Israel to give them independence. He liberated them from being slaves in Egypt so that they could be His servants: “For the sons of Israel are My servants.” He freed them to serve Him.

It’s like the old Bob Dylan song says: “You’re gonna have to serve somebody. Well, it may be the devil, or it may be the Lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.” Jesus said practically the same thing. In fact, Jesus did not speak about our freedom and independence when we come to Him; rather, He spoke about His followers as God’s servants.

The kingdom of God is not a democracy. God’s reign is mentioned for the first time in the Bible in connection with the Exodus from Egypt (Exodus 15:18). And, as the passage from Leviticus indicates, He freed them to be His servants. Redemption is about Him first and foremost, not us. He is the King. The Bible embraces this worldview: God is King; we are not. We are His servants, and He makes the rules. We follow them.

Such an ideology cuts against our contemporary culture of my rights, my freedoms, and my individualism. Even within the Church, our spirituality often takes on a very egocentric outlook: Salvation is what God has done for me. No, redemption is what God does. It’s about Him.

He redeems us to serve Him. We are His servants; our will is to do His will. Think about that for a minute. Do you orient your day around doing His will? Do you seek His will and think about your life in light of His will?

The reality is that we will serve somebody. Will we be found to be faithful or foolish servants?

PRAYER

Father, I submit my will to Your will; may Your will be done in everything I say and do. You are my Master and my King. Amen.

By Mark Gerson

What was Cain’s sin? Everyone who has heard his name will give the same answer: murdering his brother, Abel. Of course, that is right. But if that were Cain’s only sin, there would not have been a Torah passage about it. The Torah, as our guidebook, helps us to address eternal challenges—those that many people deal with in every generation. Just as the Torah never tells us to love our children, the Torah does not specifically warn us against killing our siblings. We love our children—and do not seek the death of our siblings—without any special guidance. Therefore, the story of Cain and Abel must arouse sins we might commit, problems that we struggle with, and issues where we need God’s guidance. 

What might these be? The answer starts with Cain’s job. His profession, we learn in Genesis 4:2, is as a “worker of the ground”—a farmer. That was his paying job. But he had another job that proved to be much more important. And it is a job that we all have: Cain was a philosopher. 

Cain, we are told in Genesis 4:3, brought an offering of fruit to God. Cain’s younger brother, Abel, emulated him and also brought an offering. Abel’s was of the “firstlings of his flock and from the fattest.” God “turned to Abel and to his offering but to Cain and to his offering he did not turn.” God offers no criticism of Cain, just praise for Abel.  

This was time for Cain to do his job as a philosopher. How would he respond? He could have burst with pride for Abel, his kid brother who followed him so faithfully that Abel’s offering earned the delight of God! Cain could have followed this pride in Abel with the most productive kind of sibling competition. Cain could have praised Abel for bringing such a good offering and thanked him for the lesson in how to express love, gratitude, and appreciation for God—and brought a better offering next time. 

But that was not Cain’s philosophical disposition. Instead, God’s reaction “annoyed Cain exceedingly, and his countenance fell.”

God had a lesson for Cain and for all of us. There is nothing theoretical, abstract, or academic about philosophy. Our performance in our job as a philosopher will determine the quality of our relationships, our decisions, and ultimately our lives. 

“Why,” God asks Cain, “are you annoyed, and why has your countenance fallen?” In other words: You did not have to respond with sadness, jealousy, and resentment. You made a choice—and now, explain it to yourself and to me, as well.

God then suggests that Cain “improve” himself. “Sin,” God says, “lies down at the door, its desire is toward you, and you can conquer it.” At the door—not in the house. In other words, Cain has not yet sinned. But his philosophy is bringing him close to sin, which is now a real threat. Cain responds by killing his brother. 

Why does Cain murder his brother? I won’t presume to be able to definitively answer this question at the heart of one of the Bible’s seminal moments. Instead, I will suggest several possibilities. 

First, God is learning about His creation. Some might object to the notion that God, who is omniscient and perfect, should have to discover truths in His world by observing what people do in it. God learns and changes throughout the Bible. In fact, we will learn in Genesis 6 that God observes “the wickedness of man,” and that this causes him to “reconsider having made man on earth.” This brings God “heartfelt sadness.” We are created in God’s image, and we would not do anything intentionally that would bring us “heartfelt sadness” later—particularly such an irredeemable sadness that would cause us to “reconsider” the whole enterprise that brought the sadness. God learns then and throughout the Torah. His learning, and changing, is part of what makes Him perfect—and a good reason why He is the source of our ultimate emulation. 

Perhaps, then, God was wrong in telling Cain that sin was only “crouching at the door.” Cain had already sinned. Having the wrong philosophy can be a sin. As ancient Jewish teaching instructs, “One mitzvah (“good deed”) leads to another mitzvah, and one sin leads to another sin; for the reward of a mitzvah is a mitzvah and the ‘reward’ of a sin is a sin.” Cain’s sin of murder follows his sin of covetousness. And covetousness is a sin: It constitutes the Tenth Commandment. 

Maybe, then, God should have been more direct with Cain and made it clear that he had already sinned. The sin, God could have clarified, was not in his offering. In fact, that was a mitzvah. The sin was in his philosophy following God’s reaction to Abel’s superior offering. Still, one should not be too hard on God here. He shows Cain that his philosophy would at least lead to sin and that should be enough. Cain could not have pleaded ignorance, nor did he. 

Indeed, one would think that such a stark warning from God—your philosophy has brought sin dangerously close—would at least give Cain pause. But Cain does not seem to have even contemplated this warning, and he certainly does not act on it. There are no grounds for believing that he was impetuous, impious, or mentally ill. The evidence is that he was just a person. And this, the Torah is showing, is typical behavior. 

How will we react when our ideas are invalidated by evidence—the closest that we’ll probably come to a direct and unambiguous challenge from God? We like to think that we will change our minds. But Leon Festinger would have disagreed. Leon Festinger was a 20th-century psychologist who studied the reactions of end-of-the-world cults when their doomsday predictions did not come true. These people did not, even in the face of irrefutable evidence, reevaluate their philosophies. Dr. Festinger concluded, “A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree, and he turns away. Show him facts and figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point.” 

A 2006 study from Emory University psychologist Drew Westen showed why. When people were placed under a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine and their philosophies were confirmed, the pleasure receptors in their brains lit up. It would have been unenjoyable and unnatural for Cain to react (as we can see from our vantage point as readers) the way he should have. 

This leads to the third lesson from this story. Are we all Cain? In the sense that we might murder our siblings if they annoy us: no. But in a deeper sense: absolutely. Each of us is a philosopher. We might be, like Cain, a farmer—or a businessperson, a parent, a teacher, a pastor, a policeman, or a plumber. But we are also philosophers. And, like Cain, our job as a philosopher is much more important—in the most practical ways—for how we live than any other occupation. 

What kind of philosophers are we? Again, Cain teaches us. It does not matter if our philosophies are the product of rigorous contemplation or thoughtlessly drawn from our environment. We are all stubborn philosophers. Even when it is obvious that we should change—even when God himself effectively tells us, even when the world doesn’t end on the date that we swore it would—we are unlikely to reconsider our philosophy.

This sounds pathetic and maybe even depressing. In a vacuum, it would be both. But God tells Cain—and in so doing, is telling us—“Sin rests at the door. Its desire is toward you, yet you can conquer it.” It might be natural for us to stick with our philosophy, regardless of any evidence. But so what? God gave us the ability to think, which means we can acknowledge our weakness, override our nature, change our philosophy, transform ourselves, avoid sin, and in so doing walk in God’s ways. 

Mark Gerson, a devoted Jew, is an entrepreneur and philanthropist who (along with his wife, Rabbi Erica Gerson) is perhaps the world’s largest individual supporter of Christian medical missions. He is the co-founder of African Mission Healthcare (AMH) and the author of a forthcoming book on the Haggadah: The Telling: How Judaism’s Essential Book Reveals the Meaning of Life.  

Website: therabbishusband.com
Twitter: @markgerson
Podcast: The Rabbi’s Husband

By Arlene Bridges Samuels

The dreaded yet familiar alarm sounds outdoors and on mobile phones. Several pedestrians sprint toward a bomb shelter at a bus stop. A dad stops his car, jumps out, and dives into the back seat to cover his children. This is not fiction. It is reality for Israeli civilians living in the 50 towns and communities along the 32-mile border with Gaza in southern Israel’s western Negev. The alarm, known as the Red Alert, warns of incoming rocket attacks—and that they have just a 15-second window to find shelter before the explosive lands.

When working for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), I staffed nine trips to Israel for Christian leaders hosted by AIPAC’s foundation. A day trip south was always important on the agenda. We talked with citizens and officials, visited bomb shelters and kindergartens. In the border town of Sderot, we saw a collection of Qassam rockets that fortunately had exploded in fields. In 2018-2019 alone, Palestinian terrorists fired more than 2,600 rockets into civilian Israeli populations near Gaza—sometimes hundreds a day. 

These attacks created a “see-saw” kind of life for Israelis living in this region. Qassam rockets are inexpensive, and although wildly inaccurate and indiscriminate, the rockets generate widespread chaos, fear, and deaths. On one of our trips, a mother shared: “If my husband is away from home, I’m afraid to take a shower. What if the Red Alert goes off? I must save my two young children.” 

The Qassam rocket barrages are terror favorites whose frequency has forced Israelis into three wars to defend their citizens, homes and businesses in 2008-2009, 2012, and 2014. Relative quiet follows afterwards for a few years when residents enjoy a somewhat normal life. In between, though, terrorists continue to “invent” more webs of trauma for Israeli parents, children, and the military. In addition to firing off rockets, terrorists have turned kites and balloon “bouquets” into weapons that can float explosives over the border. The resulting fires blacken thousands of acres of Israeli crops. Ashes replace vegetables, charred land replaces green leaves, and the color black replaces fertile golden sands. 

On another trip, a kibbutz member showed me a big, beautiful cucumber. Pointing to the fence between Gaza and his kibbutz just steps away, he said, “Right over the fence, no crops are planted. The Palestinians could be growing fertile crops for their own people, but they don’t.” His observation says a lot about the difference between the two peoples. 

While inventing airborne terrors, Palestinians ruthlessly used child labor to help dig underground tunnels into Israel. The tunnels were big enough for men to swarm through like killer bees. Thankfully, the IDF has since discovered and destroyed these tunnels. For months during 2018 and 2019, border terror exploded near the Gaza/Israel fence. Thousands of Palestinians set tires ablaze, with thick black smoke pouring over the border every Friday—just in time for the Jewish Sabbath. On one occasion, the number of protestors burning tires and throwing firebombs climbed to 20,000. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was forced to use live ammunition to fend off the attacks. 

What have Israeli civilians in the western Negev done to deserve this way of life? It is quite simple: the Jews exist.

Israel is often accused of oppressing Gaza’s 1.8 million Palestinians. In fact, not one Jew remains in the Gaza enclave. In 2005, more than 8,000 Jewish people were unilaterally forced to leave their homes and businesses in Gaza, removed by their own IDF under orders from then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Knesset. At the time, Israel’s leaders hoped that leaving behind thriving businesses like greenhouses would help employ the population. They hoped Palestinians would create a prosperous “Singapore on the Mediterranean.” Instead, Palestinians destroyed almost everything left behind—including the greenhouses—and then elected the terror organization Hamas. Members of Hamas are the “occupiers,” the true oppressors. Unfortunately, the people’s vote invited destruction—with a death knell to their own freedom and prosperity and setting Israel up for more terror attacks. 

Here are stark facts about Hamas’s dictatorship. More than 70% of Palestinian Arab Gazans are poor. Electricity is unreliable. Water is not potable. Hamas weapons are purposely stored in apartment buildings, schools, and hospitals since the terrorists know Israelis will not intentionally bomb civilians. Meanwhile, the terror leaders travel on private planes and live, for the most part, in luxurious five-star hotels located in other countries. They line their pockets with riches as they divert investments donated to bettering the lives of Palestinians in Gaza. As Saudi political analyst Abdel Rahman Al-Mulhem bluntly stated last week in the Arabic newspaper Al-Yaum: “Palestinian leaders stole the aid sent to the Palestinian people and built mansions in Washington, Paris and London, while ignoring the suffering of their people.”  

Despite these truths, the broader blame for Gazan woes is almost totally aimed at Israel, using slander and lies. Yet, even during violent border demonstrations, balloons, and rockets, Israel sends tons of humanitarian aid into Gaza. 

While the Israeli Red Alert app helps save lives by giving a 15-second warning about incoming rockets, it cannot prevent the post-traumatic stress that is rampant among Israeli families, especially in the south. The injustices and emotional distress unfortunately succeed in producing this often-debilitating condition. I personally think Israelis suffer a more intense form of PTS. I call it “Perpetual” Traumatic Stress. 

Adele Raemer has lived on Kibbutz Nirim—about a mile from Gaza—since 1975. She is a mother, grandmother, and multi-talented counselor and teacher. I asked Adele, who is a Facebook friend, to share some perspectives for this column. She moderates an important Facebook group called “Life on the Border.” Adele has become a well-known, passionate advocate for all who live next to the terror enclave. In 2019, she was the first Israeli to testify before the U.N. Security Council, and did so at the invitation of Kelly Craft, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. 

Here are her thoughts today: “Living in Israel is a blessing, but it is also very challenging. Living on the border, about a mile away from the Gaza Strip, is ‘challenging on steroids.’ When it is only yourself, that’s manageable (mad as that may sound). When you are responsible for the safety of numerous young children, or of an elderly parent on a walker, or a disabled person, that ups the stress considerably.”  

While some communities are only steps away from the Gaza border, Adele points out, “As we like to say around here, our lives are 95% heaven, 5% hell, because … although terror could happen … at any time of the day or night, most of the time we enjoy clean air, beautiful fields, and forests. We live in communities that are virtually free of worries of traffic and criminal activity.” 

Indeed, despite terror and perpetual traumatic stress, Israel’s culture of life, tenacity, and the ability to rise above the worst hatreds and evils demonstrates strength in the midst of sorrow. Israel’s example during tragedy and trauma is a valuable lesson for all of us—about choosing to live not as victims but as victors. It is inspiring. 

Israelis are experts at drawing good out of bad, which often ends up blessing the world. For example, Israel is now a world leader in traumatic stress treatment that helps heal broken bodies and spirits.  

Adele sums up her outlook for our readers: “Until the situation of their lives over there [Gaza] changes, the safety of our lives and homes remains at risk. Peace can only come to Israel’s south once Hamas allows Gazans to thrive instead of perpetually investing in terrorism. Until they have something to live for, something they will not want to lose, they will only have reasons to die for.” 

Join CBN Israel in praying for the people of Israel, especially families and communities on the frontlines of terror:

• Pray with thanks for the bravery of Israelis living adjacent to Gaza and for their general well-being. Pray especially for children who have known nothing but terror since the day they were born.  
• Pray that the many Arab nations, disgusted with Hamas and its sponsor Iran, will help change the Hamas terror reality.
• Pray for increased security measures from the Israeli government and additional bomb shelters from the private sector worldwide. 

Here is a fine Bible verse to pray all week and beyond for our Israeli friends: “Fear not, for I am with you; do not look around you in terror and be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen and harden you to difficulties, yes, I will help you; yes, I will hold you up and retain you with My right hand of rightness and justice” (Isaiah 41:10).

Arlene Bridges Samuels pioneered Christian outreach for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). After she served nine years on AIPAC’s staff, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem USA engaged her as Outreach Director part-time for their project, American Christian Leaders for Israel. Arlene is now an author at The Blogs-Times of Israel and has traveled to Israel 25 times. By invitation, she has attended Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summit twice. She hosts her devotionals on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

When Anna’s husband told her they were moving to Sderot, she panicked. They had a baby girl, and the city was a target for bombing attacks. She liked living in Ashkelon, where they had settled after immigrating to Israel from Belarus. Life had been peaceful, and though her husband didn’t share her Christian faith, they attended church together.

But her husband’s family pressured him to move near them in Sderot, and he stubbornly insisted on it. They moved into a moldy basement apartment there, with no windows or walls. For her, it was like a prison, and she fell into a deep depression.

Then her husband began studying Islam, which worried Anna. By now, she was not allowed to work, and was confined at home with their children. The constant terror attacks and fear of her husband left her feeling trapped and paralyzed. And then, Anna found help.

Friends like you provided her with free counseling at a center that partners with CBN Israel. Rina, a professional psychologist, helped pull Anna out of her deep depression and anxiety. We also supplied Anna with baby food and diapers. Soon, her husband let her attend Rina’s church, and she ventured out more with the children. Despite the sirens and rocket attacks, her fear has lifted. Anna is grateful, saying, “If it were not for Rina… I would have had a severe breakdown.”

And CBN Israel is extending God’s love and humanitarian aid to many like Anna, who face overwhelming challenges in the Holy Land. For aging Holocaust survivors, young families, and immigrants, your support can be a lifeline. You can offer them groceries, financial aid, housing, and more. Please let us hear from you today!

“By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was ready to offer us his only son, of whom it was said, ‘Through Isaac shall your descendants be named’” (Hebrews 11:17-18 RSV).

Think of what you value more than anything else in your life. Maybe a child. Your spouse. Your home. Your dream. What if God told you to sacrifice that which you treasured most? That’s what He did to Abraham.

After giving Abraham and Sarah a son, Isaac, in their old age, God told Abraham to offer up Isaac (Genesis 22). And Abraham obeyed.

Can you imagine all of the thoughts and emotions that Abraham experienced? At the end of your life, after you’ve finally received the son of promise, the God whom you’ve followed, trusted, and obeyed tells you to sacrifice him. Sadness. Confusion. Anger. It’s likely that Abraham felt all of them, and probably more. But he did what God commanded him to do. He took the thing he valued most, ready to offer it to God.

No wonder he’s identified as the “Father of faith.” How many of us would have been willing to do the same? 

When God told Abraham to “Go” (Genesis 12:1), He led him on a journey that eventually brought Abraham and Isaac to Mount Moriah. Each step of the way God called upon Abraham to go and do without providing the full picture for him.

And, each step of the way, God proved himself faithful to Abraham, even when Abraham made mistakes. God rewarded Abraham’s obedience with His faithfulness. And with each passing step, God called Abraham to trust Him deeper, to exercise greater faithfulness to God’s command.

Can we truly trust God? It can be difficult enough to trust Him in the midst of challenging circumstances, but what about when God calls you to relinquish the thing you value most, even the thing in which your hopes and dreams are wrapped up?

Isaac was not simply Abraham’s beloved son; he was the source of God’s fulfillment of His promises to Abraham. All of His promises. And yet, Abraham still chose to trust and obey God.

How different would our world look if we submitted to God in such sacrificial obedience? Abraham’s obedience provided a means for God to bless the entire world. I wonder if ours could do the same.

PRAYER

Father, obedience can be difficult. Giving up the things we desire most, even our hopes and dreams, seems overwhelming. Strengthen our faith, so that we may obey You, even as Abraham did. Amen.

By Julie Stahl

“For seven days you must present special gifts to the Lord. The eighth day is another holy day on which you present your special gifts to the Lord. This will be a solemn occasion, and no ordinary work may be done that day” (Leviticus 23:36 NLT).

On the day following the seven days of Sukkot, Simchat Torah is celebrated, which literally means, “rejoicing with the Torah.” The Bible says on that day to have another “holy convocation” on which sacrifices are offered to the Lord and no work is permitted.

“Although it focuses on the Torah (the five books of Moses), Simchat Torah is, ironically, not a holiday found in Scripture itself,” says Rabbi Levi Welton. Instead, it’s blended with Shemini Atzeret (“the eighth day of assembly”).  

Every year, synagogues read through the entire Torah in designated weekly portions. The yearly reading cycle ends with Deuteronomy and begins again in Genesis on the day of Simchat Torah. 

“We read the Torah in a continuous cycle, because the circle is both a symbol of eternity and equality. Just as God is eternal, the Torah is also eternal. Just as God created all humanity in His image, we too must treat all humanity accordingly,” Rabbi Welton says.

“There’s an ancient Jewish custom to dance for hours around the bima (“lectern”) on Simchat Torah in a circle symbolizing the eternity of the Torah and its Author,” he adds. It’s also common in Israel for many to dance in the streets.

In Israel, both Simchat Torah and Shemini Atzeret are celebrated on the same day, while outside of Israel in the Diaspora, they are celebrated as two days—first Shemini Atzeret, followed by Simchat Torah.

For Christians, this celebration is a wonderful opportunity to recommit ourselves to God and His eternal Word. It’s also an important reminder to devote ourselves to the study of Scripture and applying its message to our daily lives. 

Julie Stahl is a correspondent for CBN News in the Middle East. A Hebrew speaker, she has been covering news in Israel full-time for more than 20 years. Julie’s life as a journalist has been intertwined with CBN—first as a graduate student in Journalism at Regent University; then as a journalist with Middle East Television (METV) when it was owned by CBN from 1989-91; and now with the Middle East Bureau of CBN News in Jerusalem since 2009. She is also an integral part of CBN News’ award-winning show, Jerusalem Dateline, a weekly news program providing a biblical and prophetic perspective to what is happening in Israel and the Middle East. 

By Mark Gerson

Perhaps the most puzzling idea in moral thought is that it is okay to do something because it is natural. This idea is, and always has been, so important and prevalent that the great 20th-century Rabbi, Norman Lamm, declared in a 1974 sermon, “The whole point of [the Jewish view] of both life and death is that the natural should not have the last word.”

God, in Deuteronomy, seems to have thought so. In Deuteronomy 34:5, we learn the general vicinity of where Moses is buried: “in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-Peor.” Peor! This is the place, we learn in Numbers 25, where the Jews in the desert committed one of their two most spectacular sins. They turned the holiest place in the world, the Tabernacle, into a venue for idol worship, fornication, and (in the Rabbinic imagination) every other physical act such as defecation. Why was Moses buried opposite this place? Because, as Rabbi Shlomo Riskin writes, Peor emphasized “pure nature.” Moses is buried “opposite” it to remind us of what he and God singularly opposed.  

Every person shares the same concluding physical act: dying. But Moses, we see in Deuteronomy 34, does not merely expire. He dies at the commandment of God, showing us that we can even (or perhaps especially) die in a manner worthy or unworthy of God. It is certainly worthwhile to consider what it might mean to die in a godly way. Jacob and Moses showed us one way, as they called in those close to them to give each a final blessing that was oriented to their specific and unique qualities.  

And the author of Deuteronomy, in the description of Moses on his day of death, teaches us another way. Moses died at 120 years old when “his eyes had not dimmed, and his vigor was not diminished.” Rabbi Jonathan Sacks points out that these clauses are existentially connected. Moses’s vigor was not diminished because his eyes were undimmed. In this, Moses is teaching us not only how to die but also how to age.  

The Torah asks us to consider: When are our eyes undimmed? Well, when they are wide open—when they are taking in new things, when they are observing new things, when they are relaying new information to our brains. We naturally associate such things with youth. And that, as Moses demonstrated, is the point. He acted against nature, and the result was vigor until he was gathered to his people at 120 years of age. 

One guest on my podcast, The Rabbi’s Husband, was my friend Joe Lonsdale, a great technology entrepreneur and investor in his thirties. Joe discussed meeting the late Israeli President Shimon Peres. The elderly statesman, who had probably just left the presidency at that point at age 90, discussed with Joe his future plans in technology entrepreneurship! 

Before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Ruth Westheimer came to our home for Shabbat dinner every Friday night when she was home. That was only around half of the time, as Dr. Ruth spends roughly half of the year traveling to speak and lecture, to promote her new books and films, to go to conferences and to universities. About a year ago, another close friend of ours was over for Shabbat dinner. Dr. Ruth asked him what he did. He said he’d just retired. She gazed at him with passionate concern. “You must not retire! Instead—rewire!” Dr. Ruth turned 92 in June. 

I am the Chairman of United Hatzalah, the Israeli network of crowd-sourced first responders who are able to arrive at any trauma (from COVID-19 complications to heart attacks, from choking to sudden births) within two minutes. We had a virtual fundraising event last month that was hosted by a couple from Los Angeles, Shari and David Wiener. David was wearing a hat that identified him as a survivor of Auschwitz, where he was enslaved for many years before coming to the United States and launching a remarkable career in real estate. 

We subsequently asked David if he would host another event—this one for the children and grandchildren of United Hatzalah volunteers and supporters, providing these young people with what might be their last opportunity to learn about the Holocaust from a survivor. He immediately said that he would do so anytime—and would send each of the young adults involved a copy of the book he’d written about his experiences to read before the event. It is scheduled for November.  

I was speaking the other day with my friend Michael Oren, who just published a beautiful book of short stories, “The Night Archer.” Michael told me that his mother, Marilyn Bornstein, is coming out with her first book. Marilyn is 92.

How should we spend our ninth decade? Apparently by writing a first book, starting a new business, traveling to a new place, educating a new audience. By going against nature and keeping one’s eyes undimmed, one’s vigor remains undiminished.

Mark Gerson, a devoted Jew, is an entrepreneur and philanthropist who (along with his wife, Rabbi Erica Gerson) is perhaps the world’s largest individual supporter of Christian medical missions. He is the co-founder of African Mission Healthcare (AMH) and the author of a forthcoming book on the Haggadah: The Telling: How Judaism’s Essential Book Reveals the Meaning of Life.  

Website: therabbishusband.com
Twitter: @markgerson
Podcast: The Rabbi’s Husband