The Candlestands are Lighted

Shabbat Shalom from Zavitan Street---

After an arduous process of removing many years of tarnish, polishing, and finding candles to fit, Lampstands for the Two Houses of Israel were lit last night. Using seven-day memorial candles, seemed especially fitting to remember the long burial in the death of the wilderness exile. Never forgotten, always remembered by the God of Israel, it is the appointed time of Return, Restoration, Light, Life, and Redeeming Work.

Yored Geshem

After the long months of heat and dryness, "the early rains" have arrived on a parched and hardened land. To those accustomed to plentiful year-round rains, it is perhaps hard to understand the joy of the earth, much less the joy of one farmer. In Hebrew, "yored"=coming down, and "geshem"=rain. So when the sky is dark and overcast on Zavitan Street it is good news: the rains are about to come down. And the hard ground that was broken up during the heat of the summer...then enriched with lots of organic matter---is now capable of receiving and holding the precious waters from above. But hard ground, like hard hearts, can neither absorb the rain nor benefit from it---the rains can only run off. The LORD wants His rains to sink in, not run-off useless, but for the "sinking-in" to occur, He must first break up the hard, fallow ground of our hard hearts. Praise God, the early rains are not the end of the story---there is still time for our hardness to be broken before the "final" (or latter) rains come.

Short-Circuits of Faith

A modern car is a marvel of engineering and extraordinary complexity, such that the average car-owner is unable to work on their own car, except for the most rudimentary maintenance. The average car has literally miles of electrical cable and wiring, and a break or shorting of the smallest wire can drain the battery. The result is certain: the car will not start! It can go nowhere. Totally disabled and unable to move! Recent experience with such a confounding "short"---which ate up three batteries over 18 months---suggested to me the advisability of a "check-up" of our wiring of faith. God, as our Master Mechanic, is able to run diagnostic tests of our wiring to see if there be any frayed, failing, or weak wires in our faith. Faults such a complaining, or self-will, or outright stubborn rebellion will surely short-circuit our faith and stall our progress. If we are willing...God will reveal the condition of our internal circuits. We don't want to be unable "to start" in the middle of the night, particularly if it is the most important of journeys!

Zavitan Street

A Threshing Floor in Israel...

Revelation

Heat & Fire: Trial, tribulation, and adversity reveal inner character, substance, spirit and will
War: reveal Israel. Who is an Israelite and who is not; just as the Diaspora revealed who is Jewish by faithfulness to Torah, so likewise the Ingathering in time of war will reveal the faith of both Houses in the Messiah of Israel
Famine: reveals Manna, that is God's provision for a Gathered People
Earthquake: reveals a Confident People standing firm, while the world seeks caves of the mountains in which to hide
Disease & Pestilence: reveal the "clean"---in body, soul, and spirit

Hag Sameach

A blessed and joyful Succoth to all Israel from Zavitan Street.

The National Anthem of All Israel

Time to learn haTikva, a song of hope for all Israel, especially the sons and daughters of Manasseh/Ephraim who remain largely lost in exile to this day. So here is an updated, modified version of the original---Judah's song of hope since the nineteenth century. May the return of the rest of Israel not long be delayed!