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By Mark Gerson

In the portion of the Torah (the Parsha) that we Jews will read in synagogue on Saturday, Jacob is, per Genesis 32:24, “left alone” and spends the night wrestling with a man and/or an angel. The man/angel, bested in the fight, tells Jacob to let him go. 

Jacob’s magnificent reply has become, perhaps, the animating idea of Judaism: “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” A Jew, Jacob is teaching us, insists on emerging from a struggle with a blessing. 

Where would Jacob have learned this? One might reply, sensibly, that he didn’t learn it from anyone—he just thought of it in the moment. That is possible, but most people do not do their best thinking following an all-night wrestling match where they suffer a lifelong injury. 

We are provided with a possible hint earlier when Jacob, in Genesis 32:9, refers to “God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac.” Abraham, of course, is Jacob’s grandfather—not at all a synonym or substitute for father. Then why would Jacob call Abraham his father and place him first?

For the same reason, perhaps, that we call a beloved friend “sister” or our parents’ closest friend “uncle.” Jacob looked up to and learned from Abraham like he did his biological father and that made “father” the most appropriate appellation for his grandfather. What would Jacob have internalized from Abraham so deeply that he was able to create one of the most important ideas in human thought at such a moment of physical weakness and exhaustion? 

Abraham, we are told in Genesis 24:1, was “coming with his days.” But there is a problem here. Abraham was not always the man we know him as. The tale, all too commonly told, that he smashed his father’s idols and set off on his own is certainly false. Abraham set off on his journey with his father, who died during the journey in Haran. The relationship of Abraham and his father Terah was not one of rebellion. It was the hope of every father: that the son should travel with him and continue going further than he himself was able to. 

Still, Abraham left somewhere to go on a “journey.” And journeys, in the Bible and in our life, are never merely physical. Abraham was certainly not always the righteous man he became—and he was, seemingly, at one point very different. 

Assuming Abraham spent at least some part of his life as an ordinary guy (or worse), why are we told he was “coming with his days”? The Rebbe Menachem Schneerson, as recounted by his student Rabbi YY Jacobson, gave a magnificent answer. A woman came to him and said that she, though having been born Jewish, spent many years lost to the 1960s—in far-away places, practicing idolatry. She expected the Rebbe to prescribe some long period of fasting or something like that, but he didn’t. He cited Abraham. He told her that just as Abraham was “coming with his days,” so too was she now coming with all of hers. One’s past, the Rebbe interpreted the passage, could be construed as the indispensable preparation for the holy life that one is living now—and is thus an inseparable part of it. 

Such a past, then, is not even really the past. It is the beginning—the unlikely beginning, perhaps, but the beginning nevertheless—of the process that led to the person one is today. And the past, therefore, is not something that one should obsess about in guilt and anxiety. It is an indispensable part of the journey. 

It was this notion of coming in all of our days that describes one of the most colorful people in Jewish history. Resh Lakish was a gladiator and/or a bandit—literally, probably, a killer—before he became inspired by the great Rabbi Yochanan. Resh Lakish gave up his evil ways and emerged as one of the great Rabbis of the Talmud. Yet that did not mean that he lost a hundred pounds and renounced his physical capabilities. The Jerusalem Talmud tells the story of a Rabbi Imi who was kidnapped in a dangerous area. Rabbi Yochanan said, “Wrap the dead in his shrouds.” But Resh Lakish had a different idea. “Even if I am killed or I kill someone, I will go and I will save him with strength.” Resh Lakish, as the kidnappers found, came to them with all of his days—and rescued Rabbi Imi. 

The story of Abraham coming with all of his days, which Jacob seems to have internalized, answers a question from the great 20th-century Rabbi Joseph Soloveichik. Rabbi Soloveichik noted that we are never told what Jacob and the man/angel struggled over. What could this strange absence possibly be teaching us? Perhaps only one thing: that the cause of the struggle, if there was one, doesn’t matter. The important thing is that Jacob struggled. 

Jacob, at the conclusion of the night, will have his name changed to Israel—“And you have struggled with man and with God and have prevailed.” We are the people of the struggle—the people who struggle with God, with the state of the world, and with ourselves. 

The learning here is counterintuitive. The point of a struggle is not to overcome it and move on through our journey. It is to take from that struggle a blessing, and for the struggle—or at least the blessing in the struggle—to always be a part of us. As the Rebbe described, Abraham is our great forefather precisely because he came with his days. And as the Rebbe applied, the woman who came to him might have appreciated and lived out her Judaism so profoundly because she knew what life was like without it. Without his probably regrettable early days staying with him, at least in some way, Abraham would have been a lesser man. If Resh Lakish had not maintained at least some of his earlier days, his colleague would have been murdered—and we would not have this great story of Jewish strength and pride. 

It is by extracting the blessing from the struggle and keeping that part of the struggle with us, that we can come with all our days—and get one step closer to 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

Former President Barack Obama has penned a 728-page memoir, A Promised Land, that was released on November 17 and has already amassed record-breaking sales in its first week: 1.7 million copies. Lauded for its eloquent use of language, the book nonetheless has engendered criticism regarding Israel—and I’d like to add my voice to the critics.

Delving into an extensive assortment of book reviews from Israeli and Arab writers, I am conveying my research matched with my own experiences and expertise as a professional in the pro-Israel movement. I’ve worked, studied, traveled, and written about the Middle East for 20 years. In this week’s column, I am focusing on the former president’s view on Palestinians and “settlements” and a troubling lack of context about Israel’s history and its need for defensive measures in order to survive. Also, including more context about the Palestinian leadership’s intransigence, corruption, and anti-Semitism over the decades would have provided a narrative more closely aligned to reality. Obama’s thin contexts leave behind a troubling trail of misinformation about Palestinian leadership, Gaza, and Israel, the Promised Land.  

Obama’s perspective was a political, philosophical view shaped early-on by Dr. Edward Said, Dr. Rashid Khalidi, and Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

Columbia University’s liberal professor Edward Said (1935-1993) was a highly respected Palestinian intellectual who condemned Israel and viewed it as a predatory occupier “waging a war against Palestinian civilians.” When his friend Barack Obama got involved in politics, Rashid Khalidi, another prominent Palestinian professor at Columbia and University of Chicago, observed, “Because of Obama’s family ties to Kenya and Indonesia, he would be more understanding of the Palestinian experience than typical American politicians.” Khalidi considers Israel “a callous occupying power.” 

The controversial pastor Jeremiah Wright rounds out Obama’s list of key influencers from his university days and into his early political career as a senator in the Illinois legislature. As recently as 2015, Reverend Jeremiah Wright described Israel as “an apartheid state” and declared that “Jesus was a Palestinian.” The Obamas attended his Chicago church for 20 years. Wright married the future First Couple and baptized their children. 

In early 2007, when Obama started his campaign for the U.S. President, he had built important relationships in the Jewish community. When he gave a speech at a Chicago American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) event, he commented, “Israel is our strongest ally in the region and its only established democracy. We must preserve our total commitment to our unique defense relationship with Israel by fully funding military assistance.” He later claimed, “Such advanced multi-billion-dollar systems would help Israel deter missile attacks from as far as Tehran and as close as Gaza.” Former President Obama made good on supporting Israel’s annual security aid and also approved major funding for Israel’s Iron Dome, a defensive superstar protecting Israeli civilians. He plans on writing his second memoir, and it will be useful to weigh his words in 2007 about Tehran in light of the later Iran deal which culminated in 2015. A Promised Land ends in 2011.

In 2008, AIPAC invited presidential candidate Obama to speak at its annual policy conference in Washington, D.C. His star was already shining from his speech at the 2005 Democratic National Convention. In presidential election years, it’s AIPAC’s policy to invite the two nominees, both Democrat and Republican, to speak. Thus, in 2008, John McCain also spoke at the event. 

It’s noteworthy to define AIPAC. It’s not a political action committee. It is a bipartisan organization, historically Jewish, founded in 1953. Its sole purpose is to strengthen the bond of the U.S. and Israel in a mutually beneficial relationship. AIPAC’s members include Jewish, Christian, Black, and Hispanic pro-Israel activists. The organization educates Congress—both Democrats and Republicans—focusing on legislation that assures Israel’s security, a security that rebounds to help the U.S., among multiple benefits, with intelligence-sharing about the Middle East. AIPAC’s even-handed policies, devoid of personal attacks against members of Congress, have led to essential efforts for Israel’s annual security aid and other related legislation. 

As Obama’s campaign grew, a Los Angeles Times headline read “Campaign ’08: Allies of Palestinians see a friend in Obama.” He had effectively masterminded both sides.

I am setting the record straight on just several of his incomplete renderings of history, since too many exist to include here. Obama has dealt a disservice to some key facts about Israel. 

One of the best reviews I read was written by Israeli Rabbi Dov Lipman in his November 26 article published in the Jewish News Service. It’s called “Obama’s Revisionist ‘Promised

Land.’” When I worked for AIPAC, I recruited and staffed nine trips to Israel for Christian leaders sponsored by its affiliated foundation, American Israel Education Foundation. We enjoyed Rabbi Lipman’s excellent briefing at the Knesset in 2014. Lipman was elected to the Knesset and served from 2013–2015. We all felt a kinship with him on many shared conservative issues. He was also regularly active with the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus. 

To begin with a few of Obama’s quotes in Lipman’s article, here is the 44th president’s brief description of Israel’s miraculous establishment as a modern state. “As Britain withdrew, the two sides quickly fell into war. And with Jewish militias claiming victory in 1948, the state of Israel was officially born.” 

These two sentences describing the reestablishment of Israel after 2,000 years of dispersion are a slight to biblical history. Surprisingly, his 728-page book omitted one of the most magnificent stories of a nation. On May 14, 1948, Israelis rejoiced at the founding of the modern Jewish state. The next day five Arab armies attacked. Although they were poorly equipped, the Jewish citizens came together as one, knowing that their existence as a Jewish state depended on beating back the Arab threat and achieving complete victory. God enabled their unity, grit, and determination—yet they paid a high price. Six thousand Israelis died in that war, out of a population of little more than 800,000. Their resources were scant, but God increased the loaves and fishes of creative strategies and defensive weapons and they won against all odds.  

Obama goes on to say that in 1948 “Israel would engage in a succession of conflicts with its Arab neighbors.” This bland, one-sided viewpoint omits the Arab-instigated wars designed to destroy the world’s only Jewish state. Looking at this 72 years later, we see that the list of wars is long. 

The 1948–49 War of Independence. The 1991 Gulf War, where Iraq fired Scud missiles into Israel. (Israel did not retaliate.) The 1956 Sinai Campaign. The 1982 and 2006 Lebanon wars. The 1967 Six-Day War. The 1973 Yom Kippur War, where Egypt and Syria attacked Israel on its holiest day. Plus, in 1987 and 2000, Israel quelled two violent Palestinian intifadas (uprisings) and defended Israeli civilians against Gaza’s terrorist group Hamas in Operation Cast Lead, Pillar of Defense, and Operation Protective Edge.

In another historical error, Obama imagines, “The rise of the PLO was the result of the Six-Day War.” As a matter of fact, the Palestinian Liberation Organization was founded three years earlier—in 1964. Obama’s inaccuracy with dates bolsters anti-Semites and the uninformed to lay blame on Israel for recapturing its biblical heartland in its 1967 victory in the Six-Day War. 

Obama was not a fan of the “settlements.” He demanded in 2009 that Prime Minister Netanyahu freeze the building of homes in the “settlements.” The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, had promised he would engage in direct negotiations if the building stopped. Eleven years later, Prime Minister Netanyahu is still waiting, but he wisely decided years ago to continue building those homes—realizing Abbas’s “promise” to negotiate was another bad-faith Palestinian ploy. 

One of the most glaring omissions is Obama’s failure to mention Israel’s 2005 unilateral withdrawal of 8,000 men, women, and children from their homes, businesses, and synagogues in Gaza—a departure that was excruciatingly painful to those whose lives were completely uprooted. The Israeli government had hoped that the Palestinians would then build a “Singapore by the Sea.” (Many people still wrongly think that Jews live in Gaza.) Instead, the Palestinians immediately destroyed everything the Jewish community had left behind for them. And, rather than ushering in an era of peace, the evacuation from Gaza led to Hamas’s terrorist takeover in 2007—which for the last 13 years has resulted in unrelenting rocket assaults and riots against Israeli civilians in southern Israel. A mantra from most of the world—including former U.S. Democrat and Republican Presidents—has habitually placed the burden of making peace on Israel’s shoulders.  

Journalist Amir Taheri, born in Iran, is now the neo-conservative European chairman of Gatestone Institute, an outstanding think tank. Taheri was a former executive editor-in-chief of Iran’s daily Kayhan from 1972 to 1979 and has written for publications including Asharq Al-Awsat, the prominent Arab international newspaper. In his review of Obama’s memoir, Taheri comments, “A Promised Land doesn’t make it clear to whom was America promised and ends with the killing of Osama bin Laden. The so-called ‘Arab Spring’ became a disaster. The ‘Grand Bargain’ with the mullahs of Tehran fizzled into a tragicomic number. The ‘red line’ set in Syria became pink and then disappeared altogether.”

Obama’s current 728-page musings end in 2011. Hopefully, his follow-up memoir will comport more closely with history matched with context. And given Obama’s vast influence in the U.S. and around the world, he should take extraordinary care to tamp down rising anti-Semitism by presenting both Israel’s history and her people in an accurate light.

Join CBN Israel in praying that the true history and story of Israel will prevail:

• Pray that journalists and authors will write factually about Israel.
• Pray that biblical and modern truths about Israel will continue to increase and that the propaganda will decrease. 
• Pray that reason and discernment will take precedence over the mindless acceptance of distorted and twisted narratives about Israel.
• Pray that more intensive biblical education about Israel will increase. 

Remember Proverbs 25:18: “Like a club and a sword and a sharp arrow is a man who bears false witness against his neighbor.”

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 frequently traveled to Israel. By invitation, she has attended Israel’s Government Press Office Christian Media Summit three times. She hosts her devotionals, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

Imagine walking through the desert for weeks—a long, dangerous trek, where you shed whatever weighs you down. And then arriving in a new country with nothing—all to fulfill a hope and dream. This is the plight of many Ethiopian Jews who immigrated to Israel, the land of their ancestors.

Yet their hardships continued, as they tried to adjust to modern life in another nation.

Many came from farm villages, living in mud huts. They spoke no language but their own and had no basic education. Caught between maintaining their cultural identity and adapting to new ways, they endured—hoping their children’s future would be brighter.

So when COVID-19 struck, Israel’s Ethiopian community was already battling poverty, and it hit them hard. The lockdown left many jobless, and desperate to put food on the table.

But friends like you were there for them. CBN Israel learned from a single mother we helped that Ethiopian women use an important and nutritious staple called Teaf. It’s a grain that can feed a huge family with a small amount, and can also be stored for years. We were able to buy 55-pound bags of Teaf that can each feed a family for a year—helping them survive this crisis!

And CBN Israel is also reaching out to aging Holocaust survivors, terror victims, young families, and other vulnerable Israelis who need our help.

Your support is crucial, especially during this pandemic and beyond. You can provide food, housing, financial aid, and more to those in need.

Join us in extending a lifeline to those in crisis—your gift can make a difference for so many vulnerable families and communities!

GIVE TODAY

By Marc Turnage

The book of Acts mentions Caesarea a number of times. In Caesarea, the Gospel came to the Gentiles for the first time as Peter proclaimed Jesus to the God-fearing Roman Centurion Cornelius and his family, who subsequently received the Holy Spirit as the Jews had (Acts 10).

The grandson of Herod the Great, Agrippa I, died in Caesarea, an event related in Acts and by the first century Jewish historian Josephus (Acts 12:19-23; Josephus, Antiquities 19.343-350). Paul sailed to and from Caesarea on multiple occasions (Acts 9:26-30; 18:22; 27:2). Paul also remained in Caesarea under house arrest, where he faced the Roman Procurators Felix and Festus, as well as the great-grandson of Herod the Great, Agrippa II, and his sister Bernice, before he sailed to Rome appealing to Caesar (Acts 23:23-27:2).

While Paul found himself under house arrest in Caesarea, Luke—the author of Luke and Acts— was part of Paul’s company, yet he could move freely throughout the land of Israel. It seems reasonable that while he resided in the land of Israel, he came in contact with the material he used to write his life of Jesus and the first part of the book of Acts, before he joined the story in Acts 16 (see Luke 1:1-4).

Herod the Great built up a small Phoenician port named “Strato’s Tower” into the second-largest harbor in the Mediterranean, which he named after his friend and benefactor Caesar Augustus. Around the harbor, which he called Sebastos, Augustus’s Greek name, he built a city with a palace, stadium, theater, and a temple to Augustus. The city continued to grow and expand, reaching its height in the late Roman and Byzantine eras (third through seventh centuries).

After the death of Herod in 4 B.C., the territory of Caesarea fell to his son Archelaus (Matthew 2:22). Rome, however, removed Archelaus from power in A.D. 6 at the request of his Jewish subjects. Rome annexed his territory and brought it under direct Roman rule, which took the form of Roman prefects. These provincial governors, like Pontius Pilate, resided in Caesarea as it became the headquarters and administrative center for the Roman governors.

Archaeologists uncovered a dedicatory inscription of a small temple to the Roman Emperor Tiberias by the Roman Prefect Pontius Pilate. This inscription actually provides an important window into the psychology of Pilate, who went to excessive lengths to put himself in good favor with the emperor.

The First Jewish Revolt against Rome (A.D. 66-73) broke out in Caesarea as tensions between the local Jews and Gentiles boiled over. At the conclusion of the revolt, the Roman general Titus forced 2,500 Jewish prisoners of war to fight to the death in the stadium of Caesarea as part of his victory games.

Caesarea played an important role in the history of the Church Fathers. Origen (A.D. 185-254) taught 23 years in Caesarea, where he established a library. Eusebius used the library of Caesarea to write his Ecclesiastical History.

Marc Turnage is President/CEO of Biblical Expeditions. He is an authority on ancient Judaism and Christian origins. He has published widely for both academic and popular audiences. His most recent book, Windows into the Bible, was named by Outreach Magazine as one of its top 100 Christian living resources. Marc is a widely sought-after speaker and a gifted teacher. He has been guiding groups to the lands of the Bible—Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, and Italy—for over twenty years.

Website: WITBUniversity.com  
Facebook: @witbuniversity
Podcast: Windows into the Bible Podcast

“As usual, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to Him, and unrolling the scroll, He found the place where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:16-19 HCSB).

At the outset of His ministry, Jesus framed His mission as doing the work of Isaiah 61 and 58: the proclamation of the good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight for the blind, setting at liberty the oppressed, and proclaiming the year of the Lord.

That’s how He defined His mission. And this is exactly what we see Him doing all throughout His public ministry.

When John the Baptist asked Jesus whether or not He was truly the Lord’s anointed, Jesus assured John that He was carrying out His mission: “Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind see, the lame walk, those with skin diseases are healed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are told the good news” (Matthew 11:4-5).

In other words, yes, I am the Lord’s anointed, and look at what’s happening: I’m carrying out my mission. That’s my proof.

Jesus was indeed God’s anointed. And as His followers, we are called to continue His mission here on earth. In other words, the reason He was sent is also why He sends us.

The proclamation of the Gospel did not merely address people’s eternal destiny for Jesus. It impacted all of their being, in this life and the next. Their health. Their socioeconomic status. Their position as one oppressed. All of this, for Jesus, proclaimed the year of God’s favor.

Being His disciples means that we have been likewise sent to meet people in these same ways. In doing so, we actually testify to the messiahship of Jesus before a watching world.

If we are going to be Jesus’ disciples, then our mission, activity, and focus must mirror His. He laid out the reason He was sent in the synagogue of Nazareth, and He never drifted from His mission.

Do your focus, actions, and mission align with Jesus’?

PRAYER

Father, thank you for sending Jesus. Lord, please enable us every day to align our purpose and mission with His and proclaim the year of Your favor. Amen.

By Mark Gerson

In Leviticus 10, the elder sons of Aaron (the high priest who was the older brother of Moses) bring before God a “strange fire that He had not commanded them.” This act, which seems like an ancient display of religious extremism, earns these two young men a penalty. God sends a fire that consumes them.

Aaron, of course, is extremely heartbroken. Moses tries to comfort his brother by quoting God: “I will be sanctified through those who are nearest Me, and I will be honored before the entire people.”

Aaron, we are told, “was silent.” Moses’ attempts at comforting his brother fail. From Aaron’s response, Jews derive a primary rule of mourning: Do not initiate a conversation with a mourner. The risk of one’s well-intentioned words being misunderstood, imprecisely communicated, or just not responsive to the complicated and tender feelings of the mourner is too great. A Jew must go to the home of a mourner but wait for the mourner to start the conversation. Sometimes, even often, the best service one can provide for a mourner is one’s simple presence.

Moses, being an imperfect person like each of us, made a mistake—and he learned from it. His words may have been inefficiently and inappropriately timed, but (as Rabbi Norman Lamm showed in a 1971 sermon) they were profound and brilliant. There are, he was telling his brother, two types of ways to relate to God and the institutions that serve Him. For instance, one can go to a house of prayer and have a meaningful experience in prayer and fellowship. One may leave enriched, enlightened, fulfilled, and looking forward to the next experience. But there is a deeper kind of religious experience. One can get nearer to God and in the process be sanctified. This is not an experience of enrichment. It is one of transformation. The experience becomes a part of the individual, and in so doing fundamentally makes him or her different—someone newer, deeper, and better.

The Torah, always the complete educator, provides the comprehensive example of this kind of sanctification. In Genesis 29, the Bible’s greatest love story happens when Jacob sees Rachel across a field. Rachel, we are soon told, is “beautiful of form and beautiful of appearance”—and Jacob, upon seeing her, develops superhuman strength, and upon actually meeting her, he cries. He tells Rachel’s father, Laban, that he will work for seven years in order to marry her. Laban agrees, but at the end of the term tricks Jacob into marrying his other daughter, Leah, who is less attractive and older.

Jacob loves (or at least likes) Leah, but Leah does not receive his affection that way. She is well aware that his heart is with her sister and that makes her feel “hated.” She wants to change that and resorts to a technique that will become familiar through human history: She gets pregnant. She names her son “Reuben,” declaring: “Because God has seen my humiliation, for now my husband will love me.” That doesn’t work.

So, she gets pregnant again and names her son “Simeon,” declaring: “Because God has heard that I am hated, He has given me this one also.” That doesn’t work.

So, she gets pregnant again and names her son “Levi,” declaring: “Now this time my husband will become attached to me for I have borne him three sons.” She has given up on love and is ready to settle for “attachment.” But it doesn’t work.

So, she gets pregnant again and declares: “This time I will thank God.” She names her fourth son “Judah,” a name deriving from the Hebrew word lehodot, which means “to thank.” This is the son—“to thank” even, as Rabbi Shai Held has written, when we are disappointed—that we Jews are named after and should aspire to be. This is the son from whom, the Bible tells us in many places, the Messiah will descend.

The naming of this child, in that circumstance, speaks to a religious transformation. By her fourth child, Leah realizes that she will not be able to achieve her greatest hope, which should not be too much to ask for: the love of her husband. Moreover, he won’t even become attached to her. There is no way to change that or her situation more broadly.

This realization would be enough to send anyone into despondency and depression. But not Leah. She chooses to react in a very different way. She decides to focus on the gift of her children, especially her youngest child. And she feels grateful—so grateful that she names her youngest child after her gratitude. Every parent has—or should have—a great dream for her child. Leah’s is that her baby will go through life awash in gratitude.

It is a coincidence—unless, as I believe, nothing important is—that we within the Jewish community read this Torah portion around the same time as the American Thanksgiving. As we contemplate “thanksgiving,” we can contemplate what it really means to be named after Leah’s youngest son.

Two studies in the past five years are illustrative. In 2016, the company Merci Chocolates conducted a study that concluded Americans say “thank you” five times a day, but only mean it around half the time. Two years later, a British study showed that people ask for assistance all the time—on average, every 90 seconds. English language speakers, followed closely by Italian speakers, were the most likely to express their appreciation by saying “thank you.” Other languages, the study reported, barely have a way of saying “thank you.” Does this mean people in cultures without an easy way to say “thank you” are unappreciative or don’t express it? No. It just means they do so in actions—which are, of course, ultimately the point of words.

God could have created the world in any way—He could have proverbially snapped His fingers, winked His eye, or just thought about it. Instead, He created it with words, as is evidenced in the “God saids” that are ubiquitous throughout early Genesis. Following God, we Jews educate and construct our feelings through words.

The first thing an observant Jew says in the morning is “modeh ani.” This means: “Grateful am I.” The structure “grateful am I” instead of “I am grateful” is as seemingly distorted in the Hebrew as it is in the English. But the structure is required by the meaning. We Jews acknowledge the existence of gratitude before the existence of ourselves. This sentiment defines how we experience the day, as there are a hundred regular times when a Jew must express his or her gratitude to God.

We Jews call ourselves the “Children of Israel” after our forefather (and Judah’s actual father), Jacob, whose name was changed to “Israel” following his all-night wrestling match with an angel. This is, perhaps, the seminal moment in the Jewish story. When the night concluded, the Torah reads: “the sun rose for him.” Why, Rabbi Efrem Goldberg asks, does the text say, “for him”? One would think that the text would say only, “the sun rose.” Moreover, the sun, we might presume, does not rise for one person—it rises for everyone and perhaps no one; its rising is not a personal experience. Unless, as the text is guiding us, it is. The first thing we learn from our forefather Israel is to regard the sun—and everything else in our natural world—as if it were created just for each of us. And if we did that—if we internalized the “for him”—our gratitude would, appropriately, be boundless and defining.

As we consider the holiday of Thanksgiving, the naming of Judah (and the story of his parents) just might yield a lesson. In a 1961 sermon, Rabbi Norman Lamm made a distinction between thanksgiving and thankfulness. If we “give” thanks, we are participating in a transaction. You did something for me—which, as the aforementioned studies show, happens with great frequency—and so I owe you this in return. Or we can be thankful. This, Rabbi Lamm said, “is a state of mind in which a man is so devoted to the Almighty, so dedicated to transcendent values … that he feels himself grasped by a pervasive gratefulness even when he has not received some special favor in advance, even when not bribed into an expression of gratitude.”

It is thankfulness that Leah felt when she named her son Judah, it is thankfulness that Jacob experienced when he regarded the sun as having risen for him, it is thankfulness that we express in a meaningful “modeh ani” declaration, and it is thankfulness that we are all able to deploy as our defining and guiding disposition. 

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

When Mike Pompeo stepped onto the soil of the Binyamin region in Israel’s biblical heartland last week, the importance of that event generated a dramatic course correction. Pompeo’s visit was a diplomatic earthquake. It is the first time a U.S. Secretary of State had ever visited Judea and Samaria.

The eruption that ensued comes after a bitter, decades-long tug-of-war over Palestinian claims and Israel’s rightful property. The United Nations, Palestinians, and European Union—all possessing a strong anti-Israel bias—were outraged by the visit. Most of the world calls the region the “disputed territories,” “occupied territories,” or the politically correct “West Bank,” since it lies west of the Jordan River.

To better understand the hostility—and what the dispute is about—let’s consider the history of the region. The heartland issue has been a source of relentless conflict since 1967, when Israel won the Six-Day War against Egypt, Syria and Jordan. In the aftermath, Israel reclaimed Judea and Samaria, which had been under Jordanian rule since 1948—when Arab armies seized these lands right after Prime Minister Ben Gurion declared Israel’s statehood. And in November 2019, a foreshadowing of last week’s upheaval occurred when Mike Pompeo announced the stunning reversal of U.S. policy under the Trump administration regarding the Jewish heartland (“settlements”): “The establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not perceived per se as inconsistent with international law.”

Indeed, the focus of anger is wrapped around the “two-state solution,” which has served as the holy grail of Middle East diplomacy since 1993. The two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict envisages an Independent State of Palestine alongside the State of Israel, west of the Jordan River. At that time, Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) agreed to the Oslo Accords, under which the PLO finally recognized Israel’s right to exist. The slogan of the two-state solution—“two states for two people living side by side in peace”—has echoed emptily through the decades with more failures at the Wye River meetings, the Camp David Summit, and the Saudi Peace Plan, among other exasperating, dead-end efforts.

The two-state solution, originally called the Partition Plan, was agreed upon by the United Nations on November 29, 1947. Israel accepted the plan, and the modern Jewish state became a reality on May 14, 1948. The Arabs rejected the plan outright and they are still stateless. (Inflexibility has been their hallmark over the years.) The United Nations readily joined in with one of its many wayward resolutions, in concert with its International Court of Justice, in 2004 pronouncing the “settlements” illegal. Like other nations, Israel relies on its own judiciary, which—as Secretary Pompeo noted—“confirmed the legality of certain settlement activities.” Fifteen judges—among them Arabs, Jews, and Muslims—receive appointments to Israel’s Supreme Court.

After 1967, Jews began increasing their population in their biblical heartland, where today Israeli residents number more than 600,000. The thriving Israeli towns are called “settlements” by most. If you have not been there, the word might bring up images of tents, simple homes, and a very basic lifestyle. I’m guessing that when Secretary Pompeo visited Binyamin, a town of 5,000—with its boutique wineries, bike trails, restaurants, and orchards—he came away with a very different impression. I’ve visited the so-called “settlements.” They are bustling, robust towns filled with schools, synagogues, small businesses, manufacturing, sports teams, and lovely homes with red-tiled roofs and gracious gardens. Ariel, called the “capital of Samaria,” is one of the largest towns in the Binyamin region, with a population of 20,000. Ariel University is attended by 16,000 Palestinian and Israeli students. Many of the towns sit on land populated by Jewish villages in ancient times 2,000-3,000 years ago. Samaria is geographically north of Jerusalem, and Judea lies to the south.

The modern Jewish towns of Judea and Samaria provide an attractive lifestyle. And like scattered puzzle pieces, Palestinian towns dot the biblical heartland with a population of around 2 million Arabs. Many thousands of Palestinians enjoy the advantage of having good jobs at hundreds of Jewish-owned manufacturing plants in the region. Yet the Jewish enclaves are forced to maintain a strong security presence with an ever-vigilant citizenry to prevent terror attacks and the destruction of property. On the occasions I’ve visited towns in the region, I entered through a security gate with armed citizens posted. Why? Palestinian terrorists have breached community security fences, invaded homes, and killed families.

Despite the Jews’ long presence in the Middle East—and the many modern-day benefits to those who live within its borders—anti-Israel bias is profound and seems to be nearly ubiquitous. Human Rights Watch (HRW), founded in 1978, investigates dictatorial governments oppressing their people and aids refugees and populations in crisis worldwide. The 450-member staff from 70 nations performs enormously valuable work. They have called out Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority for torture practices and for curtailing dissent against their own people. But in a contradiction both to realities on the ground in Israel and to biblical history, when it comes to Israel their position is extreme: “Israel should cease its violation of international humanitarian law by removing its citizens from the West Bank.”

Israel’s policies are not perfect, but the Palestinian adherence to hating Jews, paying terrorists’ families, and refusing direct negotiations with Israel for the last ten years makes peace in the region elusive. Israel has no partner for peace.

Removing the Jewish population from Judea and Samaria—as HRW and others demand—goes against Israel’s ancient history, the Bible, and the countrywide archaeological proof of Israel’s deed given by the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For example, the Binyamin region that Secretary Pompeo visited is of huge significance, as it is the location of ancient Shiloh—the first capital of the Israelites 3,000 years ago. Although Mr. Pompeo didn’t go to Shiloh, 120,000 pilgrims visit the historic city annually. God explicitly comments in Jeremiah 7:12, “Go now to My place that is in Shiloh, where I caused My name to rest at first…” The Ark was placed in the Tabernacle and remained there for 369 years. It was here that Eli the priest lived, Hannah prayed for a son, and Samuel served as the legendary prophet. Today, a Jewish community of 4,000 people lives in Shiloh, where they run businesses, host pilgrims at their museum and educational center, and send their children to school.

Throughout the Bible, God’s deed to the Jews is repeatedly emphasized in no uncertain terms. The Jews are Israel’s native people, living in their ancestral homeland then and now—codified in a sacred, eternal deed. In Genesis 15:18-21, God announced to Abraham: “I will assign this land to your offspring.” God outlined His plan clearly and made a permanent agreement with Abraham and his son of promise, Isaac. God also made it clear in Genesis 17:20-21 that He planned to bless Ishmael, the father of Arab peoples. God has kept His covenant with Jews and His promises to Arabs.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo agrees with the Bible. You may not be aware that he and his wife Susan are devoted followers of our Lord Jesus. His resume includes sterling qualifications for his current position, yet his spiritual resume guides his life. He encountered the Lord at West Point when two of his classmates shared Jesus’ life-changing message with Cadet Pompeo. Like many young people, he grew up going to church but had not grasped the depth of a relationship with the Lord.

Pompeo was Valedictorian in his class at West Point, then served as a U.S. Army Captain patrolling the Iron Curtain before the fall of the Berlin Wall, as his bio states. Afterwards, he earned a Harvard law degree and was editor of the Harvard Law Review. He owned several businesses, and then Kansans elected him to the U.S. House of Representatives. President Trump first named him CIA Director and then, in 2018, Secretary of State.

His representation of the Trump Administration’s policies has vaulted him into even loftier achievements. He has interacted with the North Korean leader and most recently was deeply involved in the negotiations for the Abraham Accords Peace Agreement, which has reshaped the Middle East in a miraculous way. He convened the Commission on Unalienable Rights to advise him on human rights issues. In a first, he also organized an all-day conference on religious freedom that was attended by 80 foreign dignitaries. Focusing on persecution of all religious minorities, the conference resulted in several practical remedies to address religious liberty violations.

Pompeo has drawn condemnation for his faith-based comments and his conservative principles. In speeches, he’s been forthright about his values, saying, “As a Kansan, I hold a deep reverence for the sanctity of life, the solidarity of family, and the solemnity of marriage. … I am, and always will be, pro-life and will defend life from conception to natural death. I will continue to oppose any taxpayer funding for abortion. I also fully support the traditional institution of marriage.”

For evangelicals who care about Israel and hold to conservative biblical principles, Mike Pompeo is a highly favored and respected official. His part in helping enact the U.S. Embassy move to Jerusalem, Israel’s sovereignty in the Golan Heights, the development of the Abraham Accords, and his visit to the biblical heartland amount to a treasure trove of benefits for the United States, Israel, religious minorities, the Middle East, and beyond.

Pompeo and his wife also visited the Golan Heights, which the Trump administration had recognized as being under Israeli sovereignty—not Syrian. It’s another course correction, one that’s rooted in the Bible in Deuteronomy 4:43. It’s called Golan in Bashan and is assigned to the tribe of Manasseh. In the Golan, Pompeo observed, “This is a part of Israel and central part of Israel.”

In an earlier press conference with Prime Minister Netanyahu, Pompeo heralded an additional policy. “The State Department will declare as anti-Semitic the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.” (By definition, BDS is economic warfare against Israel.) In practical terms, this course correction means that products from Judea and Samaria can now be labeled as “Made in Israel,” “Product of Israel,” or “Israel.” It’s a major change from the past since, for example, last November, the top court in the European Union ruled that they would not accept a “Made in Israel” tag. The U.S. administration’s policy will now apply to Israeli goods that are under Israeli civil and military control. Those who decry the “settlements” condemn the U.S. decision since for years they have viewed this as infringing on the rights of Palestinians.

From his faith and his comments, it is easy to believe Mike Pompeo when he remarks, “Israel is our closest friend in the Middle East. My evangelical faith shapes my work.”

Please join CBN Israel this week in fervent prayer for the Jewish State:

• Pray for an attitude change among Palestinians toward Jews.
• Pray that Palestinian Authority President Abbas will finally prohibit anti-Semitic hate speech and programming in Palestinian media and school textbooks.
• Pray for safety for the Jewish population living in Judea and Samaria.
• Pray with thanksgiving for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, his faith, and his leadership.

May we continue to remember and be encouraged by God’s promise:

“I am giving all this land, as far as you can see, to you and your descendants as a permanent possession” (Genesis 13:15).

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, The Eclectic Evangelical, on her website at ArleneBridgesSamuels.com.

She is a single mother of four young children—ages 2, 4, 5, and 7. And living in Israel, Shlomit worked hard at her job as a caretaker for the elderly… until the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

“People are very scared of the virus, so they are taking care of their aging parents themselves,” Shlomit explained. “Now I have no work, no income, and no way to put bread on the table.” She went to sleep each night in tears, praying, “Please, Lord… just help us get through the next day. Help us to survive!” And then, you provided an answer to her prayers.

A friend told Shlomit about CBN Israel, and now, we bring her groceries and essentials, including diapers for her toddler. We also provide her with her gift cards to buy other necessities. Thanks to friends like you, her little ones have plenty to eat—and she knows someone cares.

“This help means everything to me and my children,” Shlomit exclaims. “We are experiencing God’s love through you. I don’t feel like I’m alone in this anymore. In spite of everything, I have hope!” She added, “It fills my heart with joy, knowing that even in this pandemic, you didn’t forget us in Israel. All I can say is a very big thank you.”

And CBN Israel is letting so many others in the Holy Land know they are not forgotten—including lonely refugees, aging Holocaust survivors, and terror victims. We are offering them food and vital supplies, now and beyond the pandemic.

Your support can offer compassionate relief to Israel’s most vulnerable citizens—while reporting headline stories through CBN News in Jerusalem, and producing documentaries that share Israel’s stories.

Please consider joining us with a gift to help those living in this special land!

GIVE TODAY

By Marc Turnage

The biblical writers often assume their readers knew the geographic and regional dynamics of the land of Israel. Sites and locations offer more than simply places on a map; they provide the living landscape that shaped and formed the biblical stories. In addition, the authors of Scripture assume we understand the geographical and regional dynamics that played important roles within their stories. A great example of this phenomenon is the Elah Valley. This valley serves as the setting for one of the most famous stories in the Bible: the confrontation between David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17). If the story simply boils down to us as “man kills giant,” we miss the geographic tension created by the author and understood by his audience. Let me explain.

The biblical land of Israel, west of the Jordan River, looks like a loaf of French bread: flat on the sides and puffy in the middle. The puffy middle represents the Hill Country that runs north-south through the land, forming its spine. On the western side of the French loaf along the Mediterranean sits the Coastal Plain. The Philistines lived there. The Israelites lived in the Hill Country, and between these two geographic zones lay a buffer area known in the Bible as the Shephelah of Judah. Low rolling hills with broad valleys characterize the Shephelah. These valleys created west-east corridors for movement between the Coastal Plain and the Hill Country. Many places mentioned in the Bible lie in and along these valleys through the Shephelah; the Bible mentions them because of their situation in connection to these valleys and routes of travel. The Elah Valley provides one of these corridors between the Coastal Plain (and the Philistines) and the Hill Country (and the Israelites). 

Located at the western mouth of the Elah Valley as it opens into the Coastal Plain sits Gath, Goliath’s hometown. At the eastern end of this valley—in the Hill Country—lies Bethlehem, David’s hometown. Is it any wonder that Goliath of Gath and David of Bethlehem met in the Elah Valley? But there’s more. 

The author of Samuel described the Philistines’ movement into the Elah Valley from the west: “Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Sokoh in Judah” (1 Samuel 17:1 NIV). Their movement into the Elah Valley—as well as its regional dynamics, with Bethlehem situated at its eastern end—indicate that the end goal for the Philistines was Bethlehem. Acquiring Bethlehem provided entry into Judah, and it put them along the main north-south artery in the Central Hill Country. Their actions were not haphazard; they were strategic. And in the midst of these regional dynamics and the struggles between Israel and the Philistines, the author tells of the confrontation between David and Goliath. 

He assumed his audience understood the tension created by the geography of the story. The Philistines’ target: Bethlehem. Jessie and David from Bethlehem were concerned with how the battle fared. Where would David from Bethlehem and Goliath from Gath eventually meet? The author provides such a clear description of the valley, its villages, and even the brook that runs through it that one can stand in the Elah Valley identifying the lines of battle, the location of Saul’s forces and the Philistines, and the flight of the Philistines after David’s triumph. When we understand the physical settings of the land of the Bible, a depth of understanding and insight into the stories of the Bible opens before us, and we begin to read the Bible as its first readers did and its authors intended. 

Marc Turnage is President/CEO of Biblical Expeditions. He is an authority on ancient Judaism and Christian origins. He has published widely for both academic and popular audiences. His most recent book, Windows into the Bible, was named by Outreach Magazine as one of its top 100 Christian living resources. Marc is a widely sought-after speaker and a gifted teacher. He has been guiding groups to the lands of the Bible—Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, and Italy—for over twenty years.

Website: WITBUniversity.com  
Facebook: @witbuniversity
Podcast: Windows into the Bible Podcast