A Prayer For My Son ~

A Prayer For My Son
Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid; one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.
Build me a son whose wishes will not take the place of deeds; a son who will know Thee — and that to know himself is the foundation stone of knowledge.
Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge. Here let him learn to stand up in the storm; here let him learn compassion for those who fail.
Build me a son whose heart will be clear, whose goals will be high; a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men; one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past.
And after all these things are his, give him, I pray, enough of a sense of humor, so that he may always be serious, yet never take himself too seriously. Give him humility, so that he may always remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, and the meekness of true strength.
Then I, his father, will dare to whisper, “I have not lived in vain.”

This Boy I Prayed For ~

She said, "Oh, my lord! As your soul lives, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you, praying to the LORD. "For this boy I prayed, and the LORD has given me my petition which I asked of Him. "So I have also dedicated him to the LORD; as long as he lives he is dedicated to the LORD." And he worshiped the LORD there.

Fun day ~

Sweet Baby Girl ~

More Play ~

March Visit ~

Dress - Up

Your Mind ~

“When your mind wants to bolt, but your heart hangs on, it is because you don’t know with absolute certainty what the truth is. When you waste so much time on something that you want to believe is true, you begin to overthink things. Eventually, something obvious becomes twisted into something absurd, which keeps us from believing a simpler answer. Over time, you believe your own lies and fantasies to shield yourself from hurt, when following what is logical would have been the quickest way to healing. It is through your own self-imposed delusions that you lose your perspective. The world then becomes different to you when in fact you are different. Why? Because your own ego gets in the way. Everyone wants to feel special. Everyone wants to have faith in others. Everyone wants to believe in fairytales, happy endings and have all bad interactions with others explained. It is easier to sit in denial with your delusions and pray God will intervene, not realizing he has. He gave you commonsense and intuition, but you didn’t like how it made you feel. This is what true mental illness really is: Following your gut instinct through hell because you want to prove you are right, either to yourself or others. You sacrifice choosing to do right, in order to avoid pain. However, you don't realize that you have been in pain for a really long time and believed this was how happiness felt.”
― Shannon L. Alder

Jakob

Our Jakob

I’ll tell you a little story
About a little boy, I know
He has a mind at ten years old
That has a kind of glow
That says, “this boy’s intelligent”
He’s got something to say
He glows with curiosity
And learns more every day.

He has this sense of fairness
He’ll never let you down
And with his sense of humour
Each time he sees you frown
He’ll put a smile back on your face 
We love him oh, so much
This boy, he has a way with him
A kind of magic touch.

He be my one time only friend
He’s only ten years old 
And yet he has a heart so big
And made of purest gold
No matter where this boy goes to
My heart, it will go with him
I guess I’ll love my grandson Jake
Until my light grows dim.

Value Of Children

The unbelievers around us do not place a high value on children. This is well evidenced by the high abortion rate and the number of couples who either want no children or only one or two. There also seems to be a widespread mindset that regards children as a bother, as an expense, and as an obstacle that hinders their parents' success and enjoyment of life.
Now most people probably do want children, but many only in small doses. One or two is enough and they want others to take care of them, entertain them and take responsibility for them. Many people just don't want the responsibility of children! Some parents seem to only want to be grandparents. They want to enjoy the children occasionally but give them back to someone else to handle most of the care, education and deal with any problems.
But God has a different view - He calls children "blessings"! The Bible describes children as gifts from God and as rewards! Though He may choose to bless us in many different ways, one of the most prominent ones in the Scriptures is by blessing us with a large family. How many people today associate “large family” with “blessings”? Probably not many! How unreceptive many are to God's blessings! Now don't think that all of this comes just from the few verses at the first of this article. There are many passages associating children, and even many children, with God's blessing (See some following this article). There are also many scriptures where parents refer to their children as gifts from God or where God is credited with having given a particular child as a special gift and blessing. Even from the creation of Adam and Eve we find God blessing mankind with the words, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it."
HOW DO CHRISTIANS TODAY REGARD CHILDREN?
I am ashamed to say that many Christians seem to have adopted some of the world's view concerning children. Truly this world does press in on us and try to conform us to itself. And we do sometimes conform without even realizing that is what we are doing! Rather than seeing children as primarily burdens and financial obligations, we should see them as God sees them. We need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds through the word of God (Romans 12:2).
Admittedly, children are a huge responsibility and require a great deal of self-sacrifice on the part of their parents. So in this sense, there is a burden involved. But the Bible portrays the blessing of children to be so much greater than the burden of their care and upbringing. Though we know God’s Word is true when it tells us children are blessings, yet it is sometimes hard to truly view each and every child as God's blessing at all times. We can easily rationalize that that too much of a good thing can be bad and that children are only a blessing in moderation. “Moderation” we may define as only coming after we have been married a few years and then always two to three years apart, and then stopping after three or four or maybe five children. But of course that is not exactly what God's Word says or even implies. The Bible regards persons having eight or ten or even twelve children as being exceptionally blessed by God. Few people would regard twelve children as children in moderation!
But a big family can be scary even to Christians today. Most adults today grew up in fairly small families. I was an only child, most of my friends were from families with only two or three children. With no experience or good role models for how to raise a truly large family, it can be frightening! How could we ever manage? How could we support so many children? How could we have time for them all and do a good job of raising them? How could we hold up physically and mentally to the challenge?
I have had a hobby from time to time of researching our ancestors. And do you know what? A lot of everyday folks in the 1700s and 1800s had very large families by today's standards. I find lots of families with seven to ten children and some with even twelve or thirteen. Now admittedly times are very different, but it is still encouraging to note that these folks managed and many did a fine job as parents and had wonderful loving families. Could it be that we are frightened for no good reason? Perhaps we are frightened because we are seeing things through the eyes of our unbelieving, materialistic and selfish culture rather than through God's eyes. Perhaps it is due to a lack of faith, or lack of encouragement from other Christians, or lack of instruction and shared wisdom about how to wisely raise a large family.
HOW ARE THEY BLESSINGS?
It seems clear that God declares all children to be blessings from Him to us. We can take this by faith, but it may be helpful to contemplate just how children bless us. Following are few of the ways children often are, or should be, blessings to their parents.
1. Enjoyment and entertainment. When they are small, they are so cute, so fun to play with, so gratifying to watch as they grow and learn. They can provide endless hours of enjoyment if we are willing to take the time.
2. Teaching us love, self-sacrifice, discipline, self-control, gentleness, and patience. God can use children so effectively to mature us and help us to develop godly character. What better classroom does God have to teach these things than a home with children to be raised?
3. The blessing of the love and trust of a child. The love and trust of a small child is so precious and can have such an effect in softening and keeping our hearts softened.
4. Assistance with our work. Children properly taught can be a big help around the household as young as 6 or 7 years of age. And as they get older, their abilities multiply, making their help even more valuable. Older children can handle nearly all household tasks, can be a big help in caring for younger siblings and even homeschooling them, can help with animals, a garden, with a family business, even with building a house! Teaching your children to work alongside you aids greatly in their instruction and discipleship. Children should have the opportunity to become contributing members of the household, both for their sakes and yours.
5. Assistance in later life. When we are old and less capable of doing for ourselves, our children (and grandchildren) can and should be a huge help in a great many ways (just as we should also be to our parents and grandparents). Sometimes just having a grown child who sometimes visits or calls or writes makes all the difference in the life of an elderly person. When one becomes old and feeble, ones children, grandchildren and great grand children may become the primary reason for continuing to live.
6. Enlarging our impact on this world. Even as God associated being fruitful with the ability to subdue and rule over the earth (Gen 1:28), so our children, grandchildren, and later descendents extend our reach far beyond what we in ourselves could accomplish. With each child we have the priceless opportunity to teach and train that child for about 20 years. And even afterwards we can continue to influence and instruct and assist our children in some things through the rest of our lives. Even one child well raised can have a mighty impact for God. Who can estimate the possible impact of 10 or 12 children well raised for the Lord? This is probably some of what is alluded to in Psalm 127:5, "They shall not be ashamed, when they speak with their enemies in the gate." In other words, parents with many dutiful children tend to do well in confrontations with enemies. A man with many children can be (and ought to be) a man of considerable influence and might with both his community and his church. Why? Because when they are grown, he has the love and support and assistance of a significant number of other family members. As his children's families grow, so does his potential influence. This was well understood by people in earlier times (and is by people in many other cultures). Even in some of the old TV shows from the 1950s and 1960s, the value of family assisting each other was extolled (i.e. "Bonanza" in which the three Cartwright brothers were always assisting each other and their father out of difficult or dangerous situations). The more loyal children parents had, the more their power and influence.
ARE ALL CHILDREN, WHENEVER BORN, BLESSINGS?
Is every child born really a blessing? Is there a time when a child is not truly a blessing? Well the Scripture seems to make no qualification - children are a blessing from God period. But though God intends children to be blessings, the parents may not receive the child as such and may raise the child in a way that prevents the child from being much of a blessing to them or anyone else. It is the parents choice whether to accept the child as the blessing God intended or to regard the child as an unwanted burden.
Is God's timing ever truly wrong? The timing of a given child may seem hard to us or just awfully inconvenient. There might be serious situations that make us think it is an unwise time to bring a child into the world. Perhaps there are huge marital difficulties, perhaps very serious health problems, perhaps a family financial crisis, perhaps mental illness or addiction, or perhaps a war and great suffering and hardship. But even so, there are so numerous examples of how a child has been a tremendous blessing in spite of each of these circumstances. Sometimes the child can be a significant tool in God's hands in resolving marital problems. At other times, a child can become the very joy and blessing of its parents in the midst of otherwise very hard and difficult times. Which of us is wise enough to know what the future holds and to judge when is a truly good or bad time in which to have a child?
Without knowing all that a child's future holds, how can we judge the best time for a child to be born? And even if we think we can, there are problems! We may try to have a child, but there is no telling when or if a child will be conceived. And at the time of conception, we don't truly know what tomorrow holds (James 4:11) - in nine months things may be terribly different! God raised up Esther to be royalty at just the time needed to save the people of Israel from destruction at the hands of Haman. Being born into captivity and being orphaned does not seem ideal to us, but it was God’s perfect timing for the sake of all of His people! Who can say how much depends on, or how many other lives will be touched by a single child and how great the loss to us all will be if that child is not born in God's time?
JUST HOW VALUABLE IS A CHILD?
So just how valuable is a child? How can one place a specific value on another living soul born into a family? Is a child worth $100,000? $1,000,000? $10,000,000? It is impossible to accurately value a child by money! The question is whether we value children properly, as God does. Would we willingly suffer financial hardship to give life to another child? Would we even risk our lives for the sake of a baby? Moses’ parents risked theirs!
Does a child's value decrease with being the 4th or the 8th or the 14th child? Numerous examples can be given of the greatest blessing being received from a child who was born after the birth of many other siblings. Consider Joseph, the 12th child (11th son) of Jacob. Consider David, the 8th son of Jesse. Consider John and Charles Wesley (the 15th and 18th children of their parents). Indeed we have no way of knowing just how great a blessing each child will develop into. Will it be the 1st or the 4th or the 10th child that will really be there for us in our hour of need? In the fictional story of "Little Lord Fauntleroy", a rich and powerful Earl loses all three sons to death in early manhood, but finds a single grandson, born to his youngest, who changes the bitter grandfather's heart and becomes such a blessing to all the people around. Only God knows the future that lies before each of our children and the blessing they may become to us and to many others.
BUT IS IT SOMETIMES IRRESPONSIBLE TO HAVE A CHILD?
But some may ask, "But isn't it a sin to bring children into the world when you cannot provide adequately for them"? ("But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his own household, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever" 1 Tim 5:8 (NAS) )
Take a closer look at this verse in its context and think about it a little. The context is in reference to providing for your widowed mother or perhaps a widowed aunt. It is talking about being selfish and not sharing what you have with your own relatives, leaving them to be supported and cared for by the church when you are well able to do so! It is not addressing how well you are able to provide for those of your family, nor is it condeming the poor man who is struggling to meet the needs of his family. The rebuke is directed at the selfish , the greedy and those who will not work and take responsibility for their own family members. Whatever our means, we are to share with those of our own family who are in need, doing our best to provide for them.
This verse does not even hint at reducing or limiting the number of members of your household so that there will be a greater abundance! I find no place in Scripture where husbands and wives are ever encouraged to prevent conception. Consider, is it ever a sin to accept God's blessings? Or is it ever virtue to reject His blessings?
Do we really think that God will give us a child and not provide us with the essentials with which to raise up this child? Does not God promise to provide for our basic needs, food and covering (Matt 6:25-34)? We are expected by God to work for our bread, but it is He who enables us to work and provides a return to us for our labor. And we are assured by the Bible that He cares for us and knows exactly what we truly need!
Paul admonishes us to be content with food and covering (1 Tim 6:6-8). Does our contentment require houses and land and furniture and electronics and so on? Have we failed to provide for our children and sinned if we are unable to pay $20,000 per year per child for a college education? Or if we are unable to buy each child a car and provide them with the latest name brand clothes, etc.? When we fear not being able to provide materially for another child, is this not the same as being anxious for what we shall eat and drink and wear? Is this not just our fear to trust God to provide for us?
Consider the following:
1. Is it really irresponsible to allow God to bless you? Has God anywhere commanded you to take responsibility for planning the number and timing of your children? Has God anywhere criticized someone for having too many children or not spacing them well?
2. How do you know how many children you can provide well for? Can you see into the future? Have you already learned all that God would have you learn about frugality and using your resources wisely? There are plenty of examples of very large Christian families who seem to do well on very modest incomes. There are also plenty of testimonies concerning God's faithfulness to increase or supplement income as one's family grows.
3. Will God give you more children than you are able to raise well? Will He entrust His blessings to us knowing our inability to care for them adequately? If He does, it is surely part of His plan and He will use it for our benefit (Rom 8:28).
4. How many children can you raise well? How do you know? Even if you feel you are failing as a father or mother, God may still have a special purpose for that additional child. God is not limited by your shortcomings in using that child mightily for His purposes!
Be careful what you call irresponsible - when is trusting God ever irresponsible? Who can be better trusted? Who else loves us so, has the wisdom and ability to see what the future holds and really knows what is best? Or who else has the limitless resources and might with which to provide for us and protect us through every hardship or trial we may encounter in life?
Now there are scriptures indicating that there are times and situations in which it may be best not to marry. But once you are married, multiplying is part of the program - if God so blesses you! And in 1 Corinthians 7:3-5 Paul instructs husbands and wives not to abstain from marital relations (perhaps the only practical and reliable birth control available to most people at that time). Marriage is supposed to produce children, even in accord with God's command twice given in Genesis to be fruitful and multiply. God never withdrew this command or indicated any advantage or wisdom in trying to prevent our bodies from functioning as He designed.
And neither is modern birth control similar to using modern medicine to treat illnesses. It is one thing to medically treat your body when it is ill, or to surgically remove a part which is misfunctioning and harming the whole body. It is quite another to surgically alter your correctly functioning body or take medications to tamper with correct hormonal balances in order to prevent conception.
HOW MUCH MIGHT GOD BLESS US IF WE LET HIM? HOW BIG IS THE QUIVER?
Does this article scare you to death? It was a topic I was once very fearful about. If you grew up in a family of only 1-3 children (like I did) and nearly everyone you know came from similar families, it is hard to envision a much larger family and how you would cope. You may wonder, if you did trust God for your family size, how many children would He give you? I don’t know, but consider this:
1. Does it really matter? Trust God to decide! You don't need to fear - but you may need to adjust your expectations concerning what is "normal" and what constitutes an "average" verses a "large" family.
2. We can draw inferences from others who have taken this path. We can look at the rare people around us who have followed this pattern for many years. (The few I know had the following number over 20-25 years:1, 4, 5, 12, 14). We can look back in records of earlier times, when birth control methods were few and viewed by most good Christians as sinful. From studying our family’s ancestors, I find an average of about 7-8 children per family during the 1700s and 1800s. I've found a few families of 12 or 13 children, many more with 8-10 children, and a significant number with only 4-6. But it was pretty rare to find a husband and wife living to 50 years of age with only 1 or 2 children. And in the several hundred families I studied, 13 was the largest number of children.
I just recently read of President Theodore Roosevelt’s complaints about the falling American birth rate: from 1800 to 1900 the average birth rate of white women had dropped from seven children to 3.56 children. The birth rate for women in 1800 was probably minimally affected by birth control. The most remarkable record of many children I have come across is that of Susanna Wesley and her mother. Susanna was the 25th and last child of her mother and she herself had 19 children (at least 2 sets of twins among these). But only 10 of her children lived and some number of her mother’s children died early also. Yet God remarkably gifted these women to be good mothers for all their children!
We can also look at records in the Bible of people's families. Abraham & Sarah (1); Isaac & Rebekah (2); Jacob (13 - but with 4 wives); Moses (2); Jesse (8 sons); etc. There are others that are pointed out in the Bible as blessed with unusually large families or unusually large numbers of sons. In 1 Chronicles 26:4-5 we are told that Obed-edom had eight sons, with the comment that God had indeed blessed him. Similarly we see Job being very blessed with seven sons and three daughters. These are among the larger families mentioned in the Scriptures, other than those where many wives were involved. And these are people who appear to have wanted just as many children as possible! This all shows that God causes a lot of variety in terms of how many children each couple has. His plan for you may be very different from the next person.
3. We can consider what seems likely given the way God has made our bodies. (Assuming God neither withheld children nor did anything but let our bodies function in accord with His design). In theory, a woman could have about one child a year for her entire child bearing years. Assuming marriage at about age 20, a woman might be able to have children for about 30-35 years. Practicality is a bit different though, as a woman's fertility tends to decline in the last 10 years. In fact ovulation often completely ceases years before the menstrual cycles cease.
But you just don't find women now or in the historical past with anything approaching thirty to thirty five children, even when marriages as early as age 16 were common (except perhaps a few remarkable women who had multiple sets of twins or triplets, etc.). Besides the fact of near infertility for 5 or more years prior to menopause, having children as close together as one year for an extended period is somewhat unusual. When women nurse their babies fully there is usually at least a year and a half, if not two years minimum between babies. And as a woman ages there seems to be a pattern of children being spaced out more without any effort on the couples' part. The 1-2 year gap becomes 4 and then 6, etc. A number of around 12-14 children tends to be the practical limit for all but the most unusual women. (Of course you could be the next Susanna Wesley!)
CONCLUSION
All children are given by God to be blessings to their parents (even to the ungodly). A “quiver full” of children is a great blessing, but is not part of God’s plan for everyone. Some people very favored by God will not be blessed with children at all or will be blessed with very few (i.e. Abraham with Sarah; Isaac & Rebekah; Zachariah & Elizabeth). But whether or not God chooses to bless us in this way, we should learn to value children as He does and welcome each and every one.
We should not fear having a large family and we should view a large family (8, 10, 12, 14 children) as very good and desirable! And we should trust God, that if He so blesses, He will continue to provide for us all that we truly need, including the need for the means, strength and ability to raise a large family well!

My Prayer

Be merciful unto me. According to the weight of the burden that grieveth us, is the cry that comes from us. "Have pity upon us, have pity upon us!" :Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee . Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens. This is the chorus of the Psalm. Before he has quite concluded his prayer the good man interjects a verse of praise; and glorious praise too, seeing it comes from the lion's den and from amid the coals of fire. Higher than the heavens is the Most High, and so high ought our praises to rise. Above even the power of cherubim and seraphim to express it, the glory of God is revealed and is to be acknowledged by us. Let thy glory be above all the earth. As above, so below, let thy praises, O thou great Jehovah, be universally proclaimed. As the air surrounds all nature, so let thy praises gird the earth with a zone of song.

Be Merciful unto me ~

Be merciful unto me. According to the weight of the burden that grieveth us, is the cry that comes from us. How do poor condemned prisoners cry to their judges, "Have pity upon us, have pity upon us!" David, in the day of his calamities doubles his prayer for mercy: Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee - Until these calamities be overpast. It was not a single calamity, but a multitude of calamities which compassed David, and therefore he compasseth the Lord about with petitions. His spirit being up in prayer, like a bell that rings out, he strikes on both sides, Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me.

Own Treasures ~

“We must not see any person as an abstraction. Instead, we must see in every person a universe with its own secrets, with its own treasures, with its own sources of anguish, and with some measure of triumph.” ― Elie Wiesel

A Hidden Blessing ~

“I am on a train going home to God. It's a long journey, and everything that happens in my life is scenery along the way. Some of it is beautiful; I want to linger over it awhile, perhaps hold on to it or even try to take it with me. Other parts of the journey are spent grinding through a barren, ugly countryside. Either way the train moves on. And pain comes whenever I cling to the scenery, beautiful or ugly, rather than accept that all the scenery has a hidden purpose - a hidden blessing.”

Learning ~

“There is divine beauty in learning... To learn means to accept the postulate that life did not begin at my birth. Others have been here before me, and I walk in their footsteps. The books I have read were composed by generations of fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, teachers and disciples. I am the sum total of their experiences, their quests. And so are you.”

My Soul ~

'I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought: So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing...'

When Death Comes ~

“When Death Comes

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it's over, I want to say all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world”
― Mary Oliver

Jewish Soul ~

"I may have been born in the wheat fields of Oklahoma, but I was born with a Jewish soul. From the age of 13, I read about the People of Israel and the G-d who is echad (one). With all of my heart I wanted to be a Jew, but at that time I believed it was not possible. How could an Okie-White-Anglo-Saxon-Protestant change his spots? I buried that hope and became the best Christian I could be. It was all a small farm boy could imagine. Though my understanding was misguided, my heart never stopped its longing.I graduated from a Southern Baptist University and became a minister. Through the years I earned my doctorate in Religion and Society and moved to larger staff positions in the university. At the same time, questions continued to grow in my heart. My religious system was clearly not in line with the scriptures that I read. One might say I "studied" my way out of Christianity. No amount of learning and years of professional ministry could resolve the misgivings I had with the Christian tradition. It simply does not align with the Tanach. As a result, my questions increased and my search grew deeper. I stand here today to give witness to the fact that all of my searching has been fulfilled in the Torah. As Rabbi Celso Cukierkorn has taught me, my journey was not about answers, but the accumulation of more questions! My search has led to what my heart already knew - HaShem is my hope, my life, and my hope of the world to come. It is my prayer that in my remaining journey I will ever be a light to the nations."

Hannah, Germany

My longing to become Jewish started in my childhood. I don’t know whether that is because of an actual genetic disposition or because my great grandmother, my grandmother and my mother have all been fervent lovers and supporters of Israel and the Jewish people. Being German, I am very happy that my ancestors helped Jews under the Holocaust. That is a great inheritance and I can testify to the fact that how we live our lives and teach our children is of utmost importance for the generations after us. For me, converting was the logical step to take, to follow my heart, and finalize my commitment. In my life, there is no greater joy and passion than loving G-d and my fellow Jews ... "

Erkan's
paternal grandparents were Romanian Jews who, in the 1930s, fled the Nazis for safety in Turkey.  He is 28 years old and the son of a Jewish father and a Muslim mother.  In the 1960s his parents emigrated from Turkey to Germany where his father secretly practiced his Judaism in the German Muslim community.  Erkan chose Judaism as his religion while his brother decided on Islam.  Until his father's death he was unaware of the need of the conversion process because he had always identified as being Jewish.  When his father was buried in an Islamic cemetery because of his secret life as a Jew he realized that it was necessary for him to make his commitment to Judaism official and known.

Emma,
age 55, lives in the "Deep South" of the United States.  She describes her discontent with Christianity since childhood as feelings of dissatisfaction with the doctrine that one religion damned the people of other religions to "Hell" for not believing as they do.  Reading the Torah opened a new world of the "greatness and singularity of God" and she was able to realize her uncertainties about Christianity and her assurance of God through Judaism.

Craig
comes from a cattle property in the "Outback" of Queensland, Australia and from a Protestant Anglican background.  Through extensive readings and studies in theology he came to believe that it is our own experiences and values that determine our future, not those that dogma dictate that we must accept without question.  He came to know that it was Judaism that offered him what he was searching for.  With his conversion at age 27 he says, "I have found my spiritual home".

Brad,
from Texas and of a Southern Baptist upbringing, began to question his base in Christianity at approximately age 12.  Over the years he abandoned all aspects of organized religion then, feeling a spiritual void, he began to study the various religions of the world.  Through this study he came to develop his own philosophy, his definition of God, and began to establish what his relationship with God was to be.  He found that the product of his search was what Judaism is.  Brad describes his process to conversion as, "wandering in the desert for many years before determining that (his) beliefs coincided with those of Judaism".  He undertook formal conversion at age 51.

Anastasia, New York

"My experience has been great. The more that have read about the Jewish religion the more I have learned and understood about life itself. This process has been positive for me because I have been able to make my own hours for study and learning. I don’t have to leave my house to attend classes and I can make my own hours to read, and besides I believe that self-paced learning is one of the best things. Because of the self-paced learning, I was able to make deep connections between the teachings and my own life. I would recommend this process to anyone who is serious about learning Judaism and serious about making a major life change. Thank you very much Rabbi Celso Cukierkorn.""I may have been born in the wheat fields of Oklahoma, but I was born with a Jewish soul. From the age of 13, I read about the People of Israel and the G-d who is echad (one). With all of my heart I wanted to be a Jew, but at that time I believed it was not possible. How could an Okie-White-Anglo-Saxon-Protestant change his spots? I buried that hope and became the best Christian I could be. It was all a small farm boy could imagine. Though my understanding was misguided, my heart never stopped its longing.I graduated from a Southern Baptist University and became a minister. Through the years I earned my doctorate in Religion and Society and moved to larger staff positions in the university. At the same time, questions continued to grow in my heart. My religious system was clearly not in line with the scriptures that I read. One might say I "studied" my way out of Christianity. No amount of learning and years of professional ministry could resolve the misgivings I had with the Christian tradition. It simply does not align with the Tanach. As a result, my questions increased and my search grew deeper. I stand here today to give witness to the fact that all of my searching has been fulfilled in the Torah. As Rabbi Celso Cukierkorn has taught me, my journey was not about answers, but the accumulation of more questions! My search has led to what my heart already knew - HaShem is my hope, my life, and my hope of the world to come. It is my prayer that in my remaining journey I will ever be a light to the nations."

Baghdad

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities says Islamic State militants "bulldozed" the Nimrud archaeological site near the northern city of Mosul using heavy military vehicles.

The statement, posted on the ministry's Facebook page Thursday, does not elaborate on the extent of the damage, saying only that the group continues to "defy the will of the world and the feelings of humanity" with this latest act.

Nimrud is an ancient Assyrian archaeological site located just south of Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, which has been under militant control since June. The Islamic State militants have attacked other archaeological and religious sites, claiming that they promote apostasy.

Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the Iranian nuclear program is an existential threat to Israel. He is absolutely correct. Nuclear arms in the hands of mullahs who refer to Israel as vermin, who publicly call for the elimination of the Jewish state, should be prevented from developing the bomb. The question is how to stop them, and when and who should do it?]
By Richard Kemp via the Gatestone Institute
There are striking similarities between the objectives of Churchill’s speech nearly 75 years ago and Netanyahu’s today; both with no less purpose than to avert global conflagration. And, like Churchill’s in the 1930s, Netanyahu’s is the lone voice among world leaders today.
There is no doubt about Iran’s intent. It has been described as a nuclear Auschwitz. Israel is not the only target of Iranian violence. Iran has long been making good on its promises to mobilize Islamic forces against the US, as well as the UK and other American allies. Attacks directed and supported by Iran have killed an estimated 1,100 American troops in Iraq in recent years. Iran provided direct support to Al Qaeda in the 9/11 attacks.
Between 2010 and 2013, Iran either ordered or allowed at least three major terrorist plots against the US and Europe to be planned from its soil. Fortunately, all were foiled.
Iran’s ballistic missile program, inexplicably outside the scope of current P5+1 negotiations, brings Europe into Iran’s range, and future development will extend Tehran’s reach to the US.
It is not yet too late to prevent Iran from arming itself with nuclear weapons. In his 1941 speech to Congress, Churchill reminded the American people that five or six years previously it would have been easy to prevent Germany from rearming without bloodshed. But by then it was too late.
This vengeful and volatile regime must not in any circumstances be allowed to gain a nuclear weapons capability, whatever the P5+1 states might consider the short-term economic, political or strategic benefits to themselves of a deal with Tehran.
In a few days, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address the US Congress for the third time. The only other foreign leader to have had that privilege was Winston Churchill. Like Churchill when he first spoke to Congress in December 1941, Netanyahu is taking a risk.
For Churchill the risk was to his life — he had to make a hazardous transatlantic voyage aboard the battleship HMS Duke of York through stormy, U-boat infested waters. For Netanyahu the risk is to his own political life and to his country’s relationship with the United States, given the intense presidential opposition to his speech.
But like Churchill was, Netanyahu is a fighting soldier and, like Churchill, a tough political leader, unafraid to shoulder such risks when so much is at stake. And in both cases, the stakes could not be higher, greater than their own lives, political fortunes or rivalries and affecting not just their own countries and the United States, but the whole of the world.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint session of U.S. Congress on May 24, 2011. (Image source: PBS video screenshot)

There are striking similarities between the objectives of Churchill’s speech nearly 75 years ago and Netanyahu’s today: both with no less a purpose than to avert global conflagration.
Speaking days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Churchill summarized the course of the war thus far but then concluded with a dramatic appeal to the American people for Anglo-American unity to prevent conflict in the future, reminding them that “twice in a single generation, the catastrophe of world war has fallen upon us.”
“Do we not owe it to ourselves, to our children, and to mankind,” he asked, “to make sure that these catastrophes do not engulf us for the third time?”
No less profound, and no less far-reaching, will be Netanyahu’s appeal for American-Israeli unity in the face of a new danger. A danger perhaps even greater than Churchill was able to comprehend in pre-nuclear 1941. Whereas Churchill spoke of a future, as yet unknown peril, Netanyahu will focus on the clear and present threat to world peace if Iran is allowed to produce nuclear weapons.
And like Churchill in the 1930s, Netanyahu’s is a lone voice among world leaders today.
In pursuit of both uranium and plutonium tracks to a bomb, as well as the development of long-range ballistic missiles, there is no doubt about Iran’s intent. It has been described as a nuclear Auschwitz.
It is Netanyahu’s duty to sound the alarm against such a prospect. It is Israel’s survival that is at stake. It is Israel that will have to conduct military intervention if the US will not. And it is Israelis who will die in any subsequent regional conflagration.
But this is not only an existential threat to Israel — it is a danger to other states in the Middle East and to us all. Doubtful of Western resolve, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey are already investigating the development of their own nuclear capabilities.
An agreement that leaves Iran with the potential to achieve nuclear breakout will trigger a Middle East arms race that will exponentially increase the risks of global nuclear war, a risk multiplied by the vulnerability of regional governments to overthrow by extremists.
Iran’s ballistic missile program, inexplicably outside the scope of current P5+1 negotiations, brings Europe into Iran’s range, and future development will extend Tehran’s nuclear reach to the US. The world’s number one sponsor of terrorism, the regime of the ayatollahs would have no qualms about supplying their terrorist proxies with nuclear weapons.
This is the greatest threat the world faces today. Yet all the signals suggest that the P5+1, driven by President Obama’s apparent desperation for détente with Tehran, is already set on a path towards 1930s-style appeasement that will end with Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons.
The view that Cold War style containment and mutual deterrence could prevent this apocalyptic, fanatical regime from using its nuclear weapons is dangerously naïve. Yet the Western leaders who seem to be on the verge of reaching an agreement are not naïve. Lacking the moral strength to face down Iran, they see deception and appeasement as the only way out of their dilemma.
To gauge their intentions, we do not need to rely just on frequent Iranian threats, such as those of General Hossein Salami, who said recently, with negotiations still under way: “As long as the US continue to use the Islamic world as the scene for their regional policies, all the forces of the Islamic world will undoubtedly be mobilized against them.” In the same interview, he threatened Israel too: “The very existence of the Zionist entity and its collapse are of crucial importance.”
Iran’s determination to bring about the violent collapse of the “Zionist entity” is continuously manifested in its directing and funding of armed attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians at home and overseas, by proxies including Hizballah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The Gaza conflict last summer, for example, owed much to Iranian funding and weaponry.
Just a few weeks ago, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps General Mohammad Allahadi was operating with senior Hizballah commanders to set up a new front on Syrian territory in the Golan, from which to launch attacks against Israel. He was killed by an Israeli air strike while visiting his planned area of operations.
Israel is not the only target of Iranian violence. Iran has long been making good on its promises to mobilize Islamic forces against the US, as well as the UK and other American allies. Attacks directed and supplied from Tehran killed an estimated 1,100 American troops in Iraq in recent years. Strikes have been facilitated in Afghanistan, killing US, British and other Coalition soldiers.
Iran provided direct support to Al Qaeda in the 9/11 attacks and continues to harbor Al Qaeda terrorists. Between 2010 and 2013, Tehran either ordered or allowed at least three major terrorist plots against the US and Europe to be planned from its soil. Fortunately, all were foiled. Direction, support and facilitation to both Sunni and Shia terrorist groups in planning attacks against the US and its allies continues today.
This vengeful and volatile regime must not in any circumstances be allowed to gain a nuclear weapons capability, whatever the P5+1 states might consider the short-term economic, political or strategic benefits to themselves of a deal with Tehran.
Even before the world’s first experience of nuclear bombing in August 1945, Churchill and Roosevelt both understood the dangers of allowing their enemies and potential enemies to acquire such capability. When Allied intelligence identified a Nazi uranium production plant in Oranienburg in eastern Germany, 612 bombers destroyed it in a single raid in March 1945 with 1,506 tons of high explosives and 178 tons of incendiary bombs, to prevent it falling into the hands of advancing Russian troops.
Only a strong stand by the West, and rejection of an agreement that allows development of nuclear weapons, will ensure that such action does not in the future become necessary against Iran. In his 1941 speech to Congress, Churchill reminded the American people that five or six years previously it would have been easy to prevent Germany from rearming without bloodshed. But by then it was too late, and the world was engulfed in unprecedented violence.
It is not yet too late to prevent Iran from arming itself with nuclear weapons. The American people, the American government and the West as a whole must heed Netanyahu’s clear warning not to reach a deal that will allow the mendacious and malevolent Iranian regime to acquire nuclear weapons. Instead, sanctions that stand a chance of compelling Tehran to abandon its world-threatening ambitions must be maintained, and if necessary, increased.

Colonel Richard Kemp spent most his 30-year career in the British Army commanding front-line troops in fighting terrorism and insurgency in hotspots including Iraq, the Balkans, South Asia and Northern Ireland. He was Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan in 2003. From 2002 – 2006 he heading the international terrorism team at the Joint Intelligence Committee of the British Prime Minister’s Office.

Purim ~

Here is a vision of the coming "Purim haGadol," the great deliverance to come: "Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True (נֶאֱמָן וְיָשָׁר), and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a Name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the Name by which he is called is the Word of God (דְּבַר הָ...אֱלהִים). And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron. And He will tread the winepress of the fierce fury of the wrath of God, the Ruler over All (παντοκράτωρ), the LORD God Almighty (יְהוָה אֱלהֵי צְבָאוֹת). On his robe and on his thigh he has a Name written, the King of kings (מֶלֶךְ הַמְּלָכִים) and the Lord of lords (אֲדנֵי הָאֲדנִים). And with the breath of his lips He will slay the wicked" (Rev. 19:11-16). And may our Messiah come quickly, in our day!

My Heart ~

Your absence has gone through me
Like thread through a needle
Everything I do is stitched with its color.
-- W.S. Merwin

I love you so ~

Hush my Darling, don’t you cry
I’m going to sing you a lullaby
Though I’m far away it seems
I’ll be with you in your dreams.

Hush my Darling, don’t say a word
I’m going to send you a wondrous bird
When you hear her lovely trill
Know I love you and I always will.

Hush my Darling, go to sleep
All around you angels keep
In the morn and through the day
They will keep your fears at bay.

Rest now Darling, I love you
Angels watch o’er all you do
We will never be apart
For now I live within your heart.

Sleep my Darling, don’t you cry
I’m going to sing you a lullaby

My Prayer

1. For the Conductor, a psalm by David. 2. May the Lord answer you on the day of distress; may the Name of the God of Jacob fortify you. 3. May He send your help from the Sanctuary, and support you from Zion. 4. May He remember all your offerings, and always accept favorably your sacrifices. 5. May He grant you your heart's desire, and fulfill your every counsel. 6. We will rejoice in your deliverance, and raise our banners in the name of our God; may the Lord fulfill all your wishes. 7. Now I know that the Lord has delivered His anointed one, answering him from His holy heavens with the mighty saving power of His right hand. 8. Some [rely] upon chariots and some upon horses, but we [rely upon and] invoke the Name of the Lord our God. 9. They bend and fall, but we rise and stand firm. 10. Lord, deliver us; may the King answer us on the day we call.

Chapter 6

11. For the Conductor, with instrumental music for the eight-stringed harp, a psalm by David. 12. Lord, do not punish me in Your anger, nor chastise me in Your wrath. 13. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I languish away; heal me, O Lord, for my bones tremble in fear. 14. My soul is panic-stricken; and You, O Lord, how long [before You help]? 15. Relent, O Lord, deliver my soul; save me for the sake of Your kindness. 16. For there is no remembrance of You in death; who will praise You in the grave? 17. I am weary from sighing; each night I drench my bed, I melt my couch with my tears. 18. My eye has grown dim from vexation, worn out by all my oppressors. 19. Depart from me, all you evildoers, for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping. 20. The Lord has heard my supplication; the Lord accepts my prayer. 21. All my enemies will be shamed and utterly terrified; they will then repent and be shamed for a moment. 1

Chapter 9

22. For the Conductor, upon the death of Labben, a psalm by David. 23. I will thank the Lord with all my heart; I will recount all Your wonders. 24. I will rejoice and exult in You; I will sing to Your Name, O Most High. 25. When my enemies retreat, they will stumble and perish from before You. 26. You have rendered my judgement and [defended] my cause; You sat on the throne, O righteous Judge. 27. You destroyed nations, doomed the wicked, erased their name for all eternity. 28. O enemy, your ruins are gone forever, and the cities you have uprooted—their very remembrance is lost. 29. But the Lord is enthroned forever, He established His throne for judgement. 30. And He will judge the world with justice, He will render judgement to the nations with righteousness. 31. The Lord will be a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. 32. Those who know Your Name put their trust in You, for You, Lord, have not abandoned those who seek You. 33. Sing to the Lord Who dwells in Zion, recount His deeds among the nations. 34. For the Avenger of bloodshed is mindful of them; He does not forget the cry of the downtrodden. 35. Be gracious to me, O Lord; behold my affliction at the hands of my enemies, You Who raises me from the gates of death, 36. so that I may relate all Your praises in the gates of the daughter of Zion, that I may exult in Your deliverance. 37. The nations sank into the pit that they made; in the net they concealed their foot was caught. 38. The Lord became known through the judgement He executed; the wicked one is snared in the work of his own hands; reflect on this always. 39. The wicked will return to the grave, all the nations that forget God. 40. For not for eternity will the needy be forgotten, nor will the hope of the poor perish forever. 41. Arise, O Lord, let not man prevail; let the nations be judged in Your presence. 42. Set Your mastery over them, O Lord; let the nations know that they are but frail men, Selah.

Chapter 13

43. For the Conductor, a psalm by David. 44. How long, O Lord, will You forget me, forever? How long will You hide Your countenance from me? 45. How long must I seek counsel within my soul, [to escape] the grief in my heart all day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me? 46. Look! Answer me, O Lord, my God; give light to my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death. 47. Lest my enemy say, "I have overcome him," [and] my oppressors rejoice when I falter. 48. I have placed my trust in Your kindness, my heart will rejoice in Your deliverance. I will sing to the Lord, for He has dealt kindly with me.

Chapter 16

49. A michtam,2 by David. Watch over me, O God, for I have put my trust in You. 50. You, [my soul,] have said to God, "You are my Master; You are not obligated to benefit me.” 51. For the sake of the holy ones who lie in the earth, and for the mighty-all my desires are fulfilled in their merit. 52. Those who hasten after other [gods], their sorrows shall increase; I will not offer their libations of blood, nor take their names upon my lips. 53. The Lord is my allotted portion and my share; You guide my destiny. 54. Portions have fallen to me in pleasant places; indeed, a beautiful inheritance is mine. 55. I bless the Lord Who has advised me; even in the nights my intellect admonishes me.3 56. I have set the Lord before me at all times; because He is at my right hand, I shall not falter. 57. Therefore my heart rejoices and my soul exults; my flesh, too, rests secure. 58. For You will not abandon my soul to the grave, You will not allow Your pious one to see purgatory. 59. Make known to me the path of life, that I may be satiated with the joy of Your presence, with the bliss of Your right hand forever.

Chapter 17

60. A prayer by David. Hear my sincere [plea], O Lord; listen to my cry; give ear to my prayer, expressed by guileless lips. 61. Let my verdict come forth from before You; let Your eyes behold uprightness. 62. You have probed my heart, examined it in the night, tested me and found nothing; no evil thought crossed my mind; as are my words so are my thoughts. 63. So that [my] human deeds conform with the words of Your lips, I guard myself from the paths of the lawbreakers. 64. Support my steps in Your paths, so that my feet shall not falter. 65. I have called upon You, for You, O Lord, will answer me; incline Your ear to me, hear what I say. 66. Withhold Your kindness-O You who delivers with Your right hand those who put their trust in You-from those who rise up against [You]. 67. Guard me like the apple of the eye; hide me in the shadow of Your wings 68. from the wicked who despoil me, [from] my mortal enemies who surround me. 69. Their fat has closed [their hearts]; their mouths speak arrogantly. 70. They encircle our footsteps; they set their eyes to make us stray from the earth. 71. His appearance is like a lion longing to devour, like a young lion lurking in hiding. 72. Arise, O Lord! Confront him, bring him to his knees; rescue my soul from the wicked [who serves as] Your sword. 73. Let me be among those whose death is by Your hand, O Lord, among those who die of old age, whose portion is eternal life and whose innards are filled with Your concealed goodness; who are sated with sons and leave their abundance to their offspring. 74. Because of my righteousness, I shall behold Your countenance; in the time of resurrection, I will be sated by Your image.

Chapter 18

75. For the Conductor. By the servant of the Lord, by David, who chanted the words of this song to the Lord on the day the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. 76. He said, "I love You, Lord, my strength. 77. The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my rescuer. My God is my strength in Whom I take shelter, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. 78. With praises I call upon the Lord, and I am saved from my enemies. 79. For the pangs of death surrounded me, and torrents of evil people terrified me. 80. Pangs of the grave encompassed me; snares of death confronted me. 81. In my distress I called upon the Lord, I cried out to my God; and from His Sanctuary He heard my voice, and my supplication before Him reached His ears. 82. The earth trembled and quaked; the foundations of the mountains shook-they trembled when His wrath flared. 83. Smoke rose in His nostrils, devouring fire blazed from His mouth, and burning coals flamed forth from Him. 84. He inclined the heavens and descended, a thick cloud was beneath His feet. 85. He rode on a cherub and flew; He soared on the wings of the wind. 86. He made darkness His concealment, His surroundings His shelter-of the dense clouds with their dark waters. 87. Out of the brightness before Him, His clouds passed over, with hailstones and fiery coals. 88. The Lord thundered in heaven, the Most High gave forth His voice-hailstones and fiery coals. 89. He sent forth His arrows and scattered them; many lightnings, and confounded them. 90. The channels of water became visible, the foundations of the world were exposed-at Your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of Your nostrils. 91. He sent from heaven and took me; He brought me out of surging waters. 92. He rescued me from my fierce enemy, and from my foes when they had become too strong for me. 93. They confronted me on the day of my misfortune, but the Lord was my support. 94. He brought me into spaciousness; He delivered me because He desires me. 95. The Lord rewar-ded me in accordance with my righteousness; He repaid me according to the cleanliness of my hands. 96. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not transgressed against my God; 97. for all His laws are before me, I have not removed His statutes from me. 98. I was perfect with Him, and have guarded myself from sin. 99. The Lord repaid me in accordance with my righteousness, according to the cleanliness of my hands before His eyes. 100. With the kindhearted You act kindly, with the upright man You act uprightly. 101. With the pure You act purely, but with the crooked You act cun- ningly. 102. For the destitute nation You save, but haughty eyes You humble. 103. Indeed, You light my lamp; the Lord, my God, illuminates my darkness. 104. For with You I run against a troop; with my God I scale a wall. 105. The way of God is perfect; the word of the Lord is pure; He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him. 106. For who is God except the Lord, and who is a rock except our God! 107. The God Who girds me with strength, and makes my path perfect. 108. He makes my feet like deers', and stands me firmly on my high places. 109. He trains my hands for battle, my arms to bend a bow of bronze. 110. You have given me the shield of Your deliverance, Your right hand upheld me; Your humility made me great. 111. You have widened my steps beneath me, and my knees have not faltered. 112. I pursued my enemies and overtook them; I did not turn back until I destroyed them. 113. I crushed them so that they were unable to rise; they are fallen beneath my feet. 114. You have girded me with strength for battle; You have subdued my adversaries beneath me. 115. You have made my enemies turn their backs to me, and my foes I cut down. 116. They cried out, but there was none to deliver them; to the Lord, but He did not answer them. 117. I ground them as the dust before the wind, I poured them out like the mud in the streets. 118. You have rescued me from the quarrelsome ones of the people, You have made me the head of nations; a nation I did not know became subservient to me. 119. As soon as they hear of me they obey me; strangers deny to me [their disloyalty]. 120. Strangers wither away, they are terrified in their strongholds. 121. The Lord lives; blessed is my Rock; exalted is the God of my deliverance. 122. You are the God Who executes retribution for me, and subjugates nations under me. 123. Who rescues me from my enemies, Who exalts me above my adversaries, Who delivers me from the man of violence. 124. Therefore I will laud You, Lord, among the nations, and sing to Your Name. 125. He grants His king great salvations, and bestows kindness upon His anointed, to David and his descendants forever."

Purim ~

Now in the twelfth month, that is, the month of Adar,
On the thirteenth day,
The time came for the king’s command

And his decree to be executed.

On the day that the enemies of the Jews

Had hoped to overpower them,

The opposite occurred, in that

The Jews themselves overpowered

Those who hated them.

²The Jews gathered together in their cities

Throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus

To lay hands on those who sought their harm.

And no one could withstand them,

Because fear of them fell upon all people.

³And all the officials of the provinces,

The satraps,

The governors,

And all those doing the king’s work,

Helped the Jews,

Because the fear of Mordecai

Fell upon them.

⁴ For Mordecai was great in the king’s palace,

And his fame spread throughout all the provinces;

For this man Mordecai

Became increasingly prominent.

⁵ Thus the Jews defeated all their enemies

With the stroke of the sword,

With slaughter and destruction,

And did what they pleased

With those who hated them.

⁶ And in Shushan the citadel

The Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men.

⁷ Also Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha,

⁸ Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha,

⁹ Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai, and Vajezatha — 

¹⁰ the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews—

They killed;

But they did not lay a hand on the plunder.

¹¹ On that day the number of those

Who were killed in Shushan the citadel

 Was brought to the king.

¹² And the king said to Queen Esther,

“The Jews have killed and destroyed

Five hundred men in Shushan the citadel,

And the ten sons of Haman.

What have they done in the rest of the king's provinces?

Now what is your petition?

It shall be granted to you.

Or what is your further request?

It shall be done.”

¹³ Then Esther said, “If it pleases the king,

Let it be granted to the Jews who are in Shushan

To do again tomorrow according to today’s decree,

And let Haman’s ten sons

Be hanged on the gallows.”

¹⁴ So the king commanded this to be done;

The decree was issued in Shushan,

And they hanged Haman’s ten sons.

¹⁵ And the Jews who were in Shushan

Gathered together again

On the fourteenth day of the month of Adar

And killed three hundred men at Shushan;

But they did not lay a hand on the plunder.

¹⁶ The remainder of the Jews

In the king’s provinces gathered together

And protected their lives,

Had rest from their enemies,

And killed seventy-five thousand of their enemies;

But they did not lay a hand on the plunder.

¹⁷ This was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar.

And on the fourteenth of the month

They rested and made it

A day of feasting and gladness.

¹⁸ But the Jews who were at Shushan

Assembled together on the thirteenth day,

As well as on the fourteenth;

And on the fifteenth of the month they rested,

And made it a day of feasting and gladness.

¹⁹ Therefore the Jews of the villages

Who dwelt in the unwalled towns

Celebrated the fourteenth day of the month of Adar

With gladness and feasting,

As a holiday,

And for sending presents

To one another.

²⁰ And Mordecai wrote these things and sent letters

To all the Jews, near and far,

Who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus,

²¹ To establish among them that they

Should celebrate yearly the fourteenth and fifteenth days

Of the month of Adar,

²² As the days on which the Jews

Had rest from their enemies,

As the month which was turned from sorrow to joy for them,

And from mourning to a holiday;

That they should make them days

Of feasting and joy,

Of sending presents to one another

And gifts to the poor.

²³ So the Jews accepted the custom which they had begun,

As Mordecai had written to them,

²⁴ because Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite,

The enemy of all the Jews,

Had plotted against the Jews

To annihilate them,

And had cast Pur (that is, the lot),

To consume them and destroy them;

²⁵ But when Esther came before the king,

He commanded by letter

That this wicked plot

Which Haman had devised against the Jews

Should return on his own head,

And that he and his sons

Should be hanged on the gallows.

²⁶ So they called these days Purim,

After the name Pur. Therefore,

Because of all the words of this letter,

What they had seen concerning this matter,

And what had happened to them,

²⁷ The Jews established and imposed it

Upon themselves and their descendants

And all who would join them,

That without fail they should celebrate

These two days every year,

According to the written instructions

And according to the prescribed time,

²⁸ That these days should be remembered

And kept throughout every generation,

Every family,

Every province,

And every city,

That these days of Purim

Should not fail to be observed among the Jews,

And that the memory of them

Should not perish among their descendants.

²⁹ Then Queen Esther,

The daughter of Abihail,

With Mordecai the Jew,

Wrote with full authority

To confirm this second letter about Purim.

³⁰ And Mordecai sent letters to all the Jews,

To the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces

Of the kingdom of Ahasuerus,

With words of peace and truth,

³¹ To confirm these days of Purim

At their appointed time,

As Mordecai the Jew

And Queen Esther

Had prescribed for them,

And as they had decreed for themselves

And their descendants concerning matters

Of their fasting and lamenting.

³² So the decree of Esther

Confirmed these matters of Purim,

THE PRACTICE OF PURIM

Purim Celebrated
Purim will occur on the following days of the Gregorian calendar:

Jewish Year 5764: sunset March 6, 2004 - nightfall March 7, 2004

Jewish Year 5765: sunset March 24, 2005 - nightfall March 25, 2005

Jewish Year 5766: sunset March 13, 2006 - nightfall March 14, 2006

Jewish Year 5767: sunset March 3, 2007 - nightfall March 4, 2007

Jewish Year 5768: sunset March 20, 2008 - nightfall March 21, 2008

Purim Basics

On both days of the feast the modern Jews read over the Megillah, or Book of Esther, in their synagogues. The copy read must not be printed, but written on vellum in the form of a roll; and the names of the ten sons of Haman are written on it in a special manner, being ranged, they say, like so many bodies on a gibbet. The reader must pronounce all these names in one breath. Whenever Haman's name is pronounced, they make a terrible noise in the synagogue. Some drum with their feet on the floor, and the boys have mallets with which they knock and make a noise. They prepare themselves for their carnival by a previous fast, which should continue three days, in imitation of Esther’s; but they have mostly reduced it to one day (Yenning’s ‘Jewish Antiquities’.  From Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright ©1997 by Biblesoft.)

As soon as the stars appear the festival commences, candles are lighted, and all the Jews go to the synagogue, where, after the evening service, the benediction is pronounced, and the book of Esther is read by the prelector. As often as the name of Haman is mentioned in the reading, the congregation stamps on the floor, saying, “Let his name be blotted out. The name of the wicked shall rot!” while the children shake rattles. After the reading the congregation exclaims, “Cursed be Haman; blessed be Mordecai!” etc.; the benediction is said, and all go home and partake of milk and eggs. On the 14th, in the morning, the people go to the synagogue; several prayers are inserted into the regular ritual; Exodus 17:8-16 is read as the lesson from the law, and Esther, as on the previous evening. The rest of the festival is given up to rejoicing, exchanging of presents, games, etc. Rejoicing continues on the 15th, and the festival terminates on the evening of this day.  (from The New Unger's Bible Dictionary. Originally published by Moody Press of Chicago, Illinois. ©1988.)

When the stars appear at the beginning of the 14th candles are lighted in joy, and the people assemble in the synagogue. Then the megillah “roll” of Esther is read through histrionically. On Haman's name being mentioned the congregation exclaim, “let his name be blotted out!” His sons’ names are read in one enunciation to mark they were all hanged at once. At the close of reading the megallah all cry out, “cursed be Haman, blessed be Mordecai; cursed be Zeresh (Haman’s wife), blessed be Esther; cursed be all idolaters, blessed be all Israelites, and blessed be Harbonah who hanged Haman!” The repast at home is mainly milk and eggs. At morning service Exodus 17:8-16, the doom of Amalek the people of Agag (1 Samuel 15:8), Haman's ancestor (Esther 3:1), is read. Saturnalian-like drinking and acting, the men assuming women’s attire (the Purim suspending the prohibition, Deuteronomy 22:5), and offerings for the poor, characterize the feast (Esther 9:17-32). The feast began among the Jews of their own accord; Mordecai wrote confirming it, and Esther joined with him in “writing with all authority to confirm this second letter of Purlin.” (See JESUS CHRIST on “the feast of the Jews,” John 5:1, not probably Purim (which the Vaticanus and the Alexandrinus manuscripts reading, “a,” favors), but the Passover (which the Sinaiticus manuscript, “the,” indicates).)  (from Fausset's Bible Dictionary, Electronic Database ©1998 by Biblesoft.)

CELEBRATING PURIM TODAY

There are four mitzvot specific to the holiday of Purim:

  Reading the Megillah (Scroll of Esther)

Festivity and rejoicing (the Purim meal)

Sending food to friends (Mishloach Manot)

Giving gifts to the poor (Matanot La'evyonim)

The Book of Esther is read on Purim night, and again the next day. Every word must be clearly heard. We read it in the synagogue, because the larger the crowd, the greater publicity is given to the miracle of our being saved.

On Purim morning, we bustle around town visiting friends and delivering tasty treats -- Mishloach Manot. Purim is the day we reach out to embrace our fellow Jews -- irrespective of any religious or social differences. After all, Haman did not discriminate amongst us... that's why it is particularly good to give gifts to those who you may have had an argument with, or someone new in the community who needs a new friend.

On Purim, it is also a special mitzvah to give gifts of money to the poor. The Jewish people are one unit -- we can't possibly enjoy the holiday if poor people don't have enough.

Then comes the day's grand finale -- the festive meal. We eat our fill and pamper our bodies -- because it is the Jewish bodies that Haman sought to destroy...We dress up in costumes, to let our defenses down and open up to the deeper reality of ourselves and our world. All our current problems and life’s imperfections blend into good, until they become one unified expression of the Almighty's infinite perfection.

There is truly no other holiday like Purim!