Tuesday, April 21

Yom Hashoah -- Holocaust Remembrance Day -- NEVER FORGET!!!!!

It is marked on the 27th day in the month of Nisan.

At 10:00 am on Yom HaShoah, throughout Israel, air-raid sirens are sounded for two minutes.

Israeli television airs Holocaust documentaries and Holocaust-related talk shows, and low-key songs are played on the radio. Flags on public buildings are flown at half staff.

After taking power, the Nazis gradually restricted the rights of German Jewish citizens and encouraged their followers to commit acts of violence and destruction against Jews and their property. During World War II (1939-1945), the Nazis implemented their "final solution," a plan to concentrate and annihilate all European Jews. Jews were first crammed together in ghettoes and slave-labor camps, where disease, brutality, and malnutrition ran rampant. Eventually, they were sent to death camps, where millions were murdered in special facilities designed to kill a tremendous number of people over a brief period of time. In addition to the six million Jews who died - two-thirds of the European Jewish population – the Nazis also killed millions of others, including Roma (Gypsies) and Slavs, political and religious dissidents, the handicapped, and gays and lesbians.

Today, many commemorate Yom HaShoah by lighting yellow candles in order to keep the memories of the victims alive

From Siddur Sim Shalom for Shabbat and Festivals

    Adonai, Master, Creator
    who set the round course of the world,
    birth, death, and disease -

        Creator, who caused veins, brains, and bones to grow,
        who fashioned us air that we might breath and sing

    Remember that we are incomplete
    and inconsolable, our vision clouded by ashes.

        Remember the chimneys, the ingenious habitations of death where part of
        Israel's body drifted as smoke through the air.
        Remember the mutilated music of their lives.

    We lament in fields of loneliness
    for six million of our number torn away. Remember them.

        There are some who have no memorial.
        They are perished as though they had never been.
        Forget them not.

    Remember the landscape of screams
    engraved at entrance gates to death.
    Remember the unborn dreams.

        Remember the terror of children, whose tears were burned. Remember the
        agony of parents, whose blessings were consumed.

    Remember the prayers of the dying,
    the shame and suffering of the innocent.

        Remember. We have not forgotten You
        though all this has befallen us.

    Remember the God-forsaken millions in a silent world,
    their loneliness was matched only by Yours.

        Who is like You, Adonai, among the silent,
        remaining silent through the suffering of Your children?

    Are You not God, Adonai, that we may hope in You?
    Renew the light of Your creation, which has been dimmed.

        Renew in Your creatures Your image, which has been desecrated. Restore the
        covenant, which Your people have maintained.

    Remember the hopes of the slain
    by sending redemption to Your shattered world.

        In spite of everything which strangles hope,
        help us to continue the sustaining song of their lives.

Psalms 78:1-72  A maskil of Asaf: Listen, my people, to my teaching; turn your ears to the words from my mouth.  (2)  I will speak to you in parables and explain mysteries from days of old.  (3)  The things which we have heard and known, and which our fathers told us  (4)  we will not hide from their descendants; we will tell the generation to come the praises of ADONAI and his strength, the wonders that he has performed.  (5)  He raised up a testimony in Ya'akov and established a Torah in Isra'el. He commanded our ancestors to make this known to their children,  (6)  so that the next generation would know it, the children not yet born, who would themselves arise and tell their own children,  (7)  who could then put their confidence in God, not forgetting God's deeds, but obeying his mitzvot.  (8)  Then they would not be like their ancestors, a stubborn, rebellious generation, a generation with unprepared hearts, with spirits unfaithful to God.  (9)  The people of Efrayim, though armed with bows and arrows, turned their backs on the day of battle.  (10)  They did not keep the covenant of God and refused to live by his Torah.  (11)  They forgot what he had done, his wonders which he had shown them.  (12)  He had done wonderful things in the presence of their ancestors in the land of Egypt, in the region of Tzo'an.  (13)  He split the sea and made them pass through, he made the waters stand up like a wall.  (14)  He also led them by day with a cloud and all night long with light from a fire.  (15)  He broke apart the rocks in the desert and let them drink as if from boundless depths;  (16)  yes, he brought streams out of the rock, making the water flow down like rivers.  (17)  Yet they sinned still more against him, rebelling in the wilderness against the Most High;  (18)  in their hearts they tested God by demanding food that would satisfy their cravings.  (19)  Yes, they spoke against God by asking, "Can God spread a table in the desert?  (20)  True, he struck the rock, and water gushed out, until the vadis overflowed; but what about bread? Can he give that? Can he provide meat for his people?"  (21)  Therefore, when ADONAI heard, he was angry; fire blazed up against Ya'akov; his anger mounted against Isra'el;  (22)  because they had no faith in God, no trust in his power to save.  (23)  So he commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven.  (24)  He rained down man on them as food; he gave them grain from heaven -  (25)  mortals ate the bread of angels; he provided for them to the full.  (26)  He stirred up the east wind in heaven, brought on the south wind by his power,  (27)  and rained down meat on them like dust, birds flying thick as the sand on the seashore.  (28)  He let them fall in the middle of their camp, all around their tents.  (29)  So they ate till they were satisfied; he gave them what they craved.  (30)  They were still fulfilling their craving, the food was still in their mouths,  (31)  when the anger of God rose up against them and slaughtered their strongest men, laying low the young men of Isra'el.  (32)  Still, they kept on sinning and put no faith in his wonders.  (33)  Therefore, he ended their days in futility and their years in terror.  (34)  When he brought death among them, they would seek him; they would repent and seek God eagerly,  (35)  remembering that God was their Rock, El 'Elyon their Redeemer.  (36)  But they tried to deceive him with their words, they lied to him with their tongues;  (37)  for their hearts were not right with him, and they were unfaithful to his covenant.  (38)  Yet he, because he is full of compassion, forgave their sin and did not destroy; many times he turned away his anger and didn't rouse all his wrath.  (39)  So he remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that blows past and does not return.  (40)  How often they rebelled against him in the desert and grieved him in the wastelands!  (41)  Repeatedly they challenged God and pained the Holy One of Isra'el.  (42)  They didn't remember how he used his hand on the day he redeemed them from their enemy,  (43)  how he displayed his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the region of Tzo'an.  (44)  He turned their rivers into blood, so they couldn't drink from their streams.  (45)  He sent swarms of flies, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them.  (46)  He gave their harvest to shearer-worms, the fruit of their labor to locusts.  (47)  He destroyed their vineyards with hail and their sycamore-figs with frost.  (48)  Their cattle too he gave over to the hail and their flocks to lightning bolts.  (49)  He sent over them his fierce anger, fury, indignation and trouble, with a company of destroying angels  (50)  to clear a path for his wrath. He did not spare them from death, but gave them over to the plague,  (51)  striking all the firstborn in Egypt, the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.  (52)  But his own people he led out like sheep, guiding them like a flock in the desert.  (53)  He led them safely, and they weren't afraid, even when the sea overwhelmed their foes.  (54)  He brought them to his holy land, to the hill-country won by his right hand.  (55)  He expelled nations before them, apportioned them property to inherit and made Isra'el's tribes live in their tents.  (56)  Yet they tested El 'Elyon and rebelled against him, refusing to obey his instructions.  (57)  They turned away and were faithless, like their fathers; they were unreliable, like a bow without tension.  (58)  They provoked him with their high places and made him jealous with their idols.  (59)  God heard, and he was angry; he came to detest Isra'el completely.  (60)  He abandoned the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent he had made where he could live among people.  (61)  He gave his strength into exile, his pride to the power of the foe.  (62)  He gave his people over to the sword and grew angry with his own heritage.  (63)  Fire consumed their young men, their virgins had no wedding-song,  (64)  their cohanim fell by the sword, and their widows could not weep.  (65)  Then Adonai awoke, as if from sleep, like a warrior shouting for joy from wine.  (66)  He struck his foes, driving them back and putting them to perpetual shame.  (67)  Rejecting the tents of Yosef and passing over the tribe of Efrayim,  (68)  he chose the tribe of Y'hudah, Mount Tziyon, which he loved.  (69)  He built his sanctuary like the heights; like the earth, he made it to last forever.  (70)  He chose David to be his servant, taking him from the sheep-yards;  (71)  from tending nursing ewes he brought him to shepherd Ya'akov his people, Isra'el his heritage.  (72)  With upright heart he shepherded them and guided them with skillful hands.

This Psalm re-counts the history of the nation of Isra'el. And throughout Isra'el's history HaShem (G-D) instructs His people to pass on to their children the ways of HaShem, the commandments of HaShem, the works of HaShem, so that they will obtain the knowledge of HaShem.

Deuteronomy 6:1-9  "Now this is the mitzvah, the laws and rulings which ADONAI your God ordered me to teach you for you to obey in the land you are crossing over to possess,  (2)  so that you will fear ADONAI your God and observe all his regulations and mitzvot that I am giving you - you, your child and your grandchild - as long as you live, and so that you will have long life.  (3)  Therefore listen, Isra'el, and take care to obey, so that things will go well with you, and so that you will increase greatly, as ADONAI, the God of your ancestors, promised you by giving you a land flowing with milk and honey.  (4)  "Sh'ma, Yisra'el! ADONAI Eloheinu, ADONAI echad [Hear, Isra'el! ADONAI our God, ADONAI is one];  (5)  and you are to love ADONAI your God with all your heart, all your being and all your resources.  (6)  These words, which I am ordering you today, are to be on your heart;  (7)  and you are to teach them carefully to your children. You are to talk about them when you sit at home, when you are traveling on the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  (8)  Tie them on your hand as a sign, put them at the front of a headband around your forehead,  (9)  and write them on the door-frames of your house and on your gates.

As parents, we need to instruct our children not only in what HaShem says, but let them see how He is working in our life. Let them see HaShem is real, for if you don't, you will not impact them at all. So this Psalm was not only to be sung in the temple worship, but was to be used in the home to instruct children about HaShem.

The concern here is that future generations will not be taught the things of HaShem. We are living in a time when this truth is being played out. And I think, many times, this is a result of prosperity and self-reliance. HaShem warned the children of Isra'el in Deuteronomy chapter 8, that once they entered the land, that they should not forget who brought them there and gave them these blessings.

Billy Graham wrote, "Children will invariably talk, eat, walk, think, respond, and act like their parents. Give them a target to shoot at. Give them a goal to work toward. Give them a pattern that they can see clearly, and you give them something that gold and silver cannot buy."

Good parenting is not just about teaching kids facts, it's showing them a life they can follow.

Believe HaShem
The overall lesson in this Psalm is the lesson of learning to trust in Him.
In the wilderness, the people had problems because they wouldn't trust HaShem.
In the Promised Land, the people had problems because they wouldn't trust HaShem.
How many times does HaShem have to prove Himself to you?
In one of the lessons, HaShem was trying to teach the people to trust Him:

Numbers 21:4-9  Then they traveled from Mount Hor on the road toward the Sea of Suf in order to go around the land of Edom; but the people's tempers grew short because of the detour.  (5)  The people spoke against God and against Moshe: "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt? To die in the desert? There's no real food, there's no water, and we're sick of this miserable stuff we're eating!"  (6)  In response, ADONAI sent poisonous snakes among the people; they bit the people, and many of Isra'el's people died.  (7)  The people came to Moshe and said, "We sinned by speaking against ADONAI and against you. Pray to ADONAI that he rid us of these snakes." Moshe prayed for the people,  (8)  and ADONAI answered Moshe: "Make a poisonous snake and put it on a pole. When anyone who has been bitten sees it, he will live."  (9)  Moshe made a bronze snake and put it on the pole; if a snake had bitten someone, then, when he looked toward the bronze snake, he stayed alive.

John 3:14-18  Just as Moshe lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up;  (15)  so that everyone who trusts in him may have eternal life.  (16)  "For God so loved the world that he gave his only and unique Son, so that everyone who trusts in him may have eternal life, instead of being utterly destroyed.  (17)  For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but rather so that through him, the world might be saved.  (18)  Those who trust in him are not judged; those who do not trust have been judged already, in that they have not trusted in the one who is God's only and unique Son.

Do you Trust HaShem?

Shalom

Psalms 77:1-20  For the leader. For Y'dutun. A psalm of Asaf: I cry aloud to God, aloud to God; and he hears me.  (2)  On the day of my distress I am seeking Adonai; my hands are lifted up; my tears flow all night without ceasing; my heart refuses comfort.  (3)  When remembering God, I moan; when I ponder, my spirit fails. (Selah)  (4)  You hold my eyelids [and keep me from sleeping]; I am too troubled to speak.  (5)  I think about the days of old, the years of long ago;  (6)  in the night I remember my song, I commune with myself, my spirit inquires:  (7)  "Will Adonai reject forever? will he never show his favor again?  (8)  Has his grace permanently disappeared? Is his word to all generations done away?  (9)  Has God forgotten to be compassionate? Has he in anger withheld his mercy?" (Selah)  (10)  Then I add, "That's my weakness [supposing] the Most High's right hand could change."  (11)  So I will remind myself of Yah's doings; yes, I will remember your wonders of old.  (12)  I will meditate on your work and think about what you have done.  (13)  God, your way is in holiness. What god is as great as God?  (14)  You are the God who does wonders, you revealed your strength to the peoples.  (15)  With your arm you redeemed your people, the descendants of Ya'akov and Yosef. (Selah)  (16)  The water saw you, God; the water saw you and writhed in anguish, agitated to its depths.  (17)  The clouds poured water, the skies thundered, and your arrows flashed here and there.  (18)  The sound of your thunder was in the whirlwind, the lightning flashes lit up the world, the earth trembled and shook.  (19)  Your way went through the sea, your path through the turbulent waters; but your footsteps could not be traced.  (20)  You led your people like a flock under the care of Moshe and Aharon.

He is trying to encourage himself by remembering how Adonai delivered him in the past, meditating on the good times, so he could be strengthened in the present situation.

When we are going through difficult times, it is easy to say things about Adonai that we don't really mean, that are not really true. Be careful for it is easy to continue down this path of despair.

Meditate on Adonai's work. Adonai isn't always going to bring you through a deliverance as He did with the Assyrians.  Sometimes we go through difficult times like with the Babylonians. What do we do then? Think about what Adonai has done for you.

Count Your Blessings – the hymn by Johnson Oatman Jr.
When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed, when you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, count your many blessings—name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Are you ever burdened with a load of care? Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear? Count your many blessings—ev'ry doubt will fly, and you will be singing as the days go by.

Those who would be in health do not sit still in their houses to breathe such air as may come to them, but they walk abroad and seek out rural and elevated spots that they may inhale the invigorating breezes. Thus those godly souls who would be in a vigorous spiritual state do not merely think on whatever holy doctrines might come into their minds in the ordinary course of thought, but they give time to meditation, they walk abroad in the fields of truth, and endeavor to climb the heights of gospel promises. It is said that Enoch walked with God. Here is not an idle but an active communion. The road to bodily health is said to be a footpath, and the way to spiritual health is to exercise one's self in holy contemplation.
-- Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Shalom

This is a song by our worship leader. It is called God is on our side. You can buy the cd at www.petrafel.org

What do you think?

Doesn't this look yummy? Have you ever eaten cake or cupcakes in the shape of something? If so what was the shape?

Psalms 76:1-12  For the leader. With string music. A psalm of Asaf. A song: In Y'hudah God is known; his name is great in Isra'el.  (2)  His tent is in Shalem, his place is in Tziyon.  (3)  There he broke the flashing arrows, the shield, the sword, and the weapons of war. (Selah)  (4)  You are glorious, majestic, more so than mountains of prey.  (5)  The bravest have been stripped of their spoil and now are sleeping their final sleep; not one of these courageous men finds strength to raise his hands.  (6)  At your rebuke, God of Ya'akov, riders and horses lie stunned.  (7)  You are fearsome! When once you are angry, who can stand in your presence?  (8)  You pronounce sentence from heaven; the earth grows silent with fear  (9)  when God arises to judge, to save all the humble of the earth. (Selah)  (10)  Human wrath serves only to praise you; what remains of this wrath you wear as an ornament.  (11)  Make vows to ADONAI your God, and keep them; all who are around him must bring presents to the one who should be feared.  (12)  He curbs the spirit of princes; he is fearsome to the kings of the earth.

Y'hudah (Judah) spoke of the Southern Kingdom and Isra'el spoke of the Northern Kingdom. Shalem (Salem) and Tziyon (Zion) speak of Jerusalem itself and it is here, in the Southern Kingdom of Judah, in Jerusalem, that HaShem (G-d) wiped out the powerful enemy, the Assyrians, giving king Hezekiah the victory.

One angle wiped out 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night, giving the Southern Kingdom of Judah victory without a fight.

You better believe that those living in rebellion against HaShem, the G-d of Isra'el were terrified at the power of HaShem. Man can try as hard as he wants to fight against HaShem but he will never win.

Psalms 75:1-10  For the leader. Set to "Do Not Destroy!"A psalm of Asaf. A song: We give thanks to you, God, we give thanks; your name is near, people tell of your wonders.  (2)  "At the time of my own choice, I will dispense justice fairly.  (3)  When the earth quakes, with all living on it, it is I who hold its support-pillars firm."(Selah)  (4)  To the boastful I say, "Do not boast!"and to the wicked, "Don't flaunt your strength!  (5)  Don't flaunt your strength so proudly; don't speak arrogantly, with your nose in the air!  (6)  For you will not be raised to power by those in the east, the west or the desert;  (7)  since God is the judge; and it is he who puts down one and lifts up another.  (8)  In ADONAI's hand there is a cup of wine, foaming, richly spiced; when he pours it out, all the wicked of the earth will drain it, drinking it to the dregs."  (9)  But I will always speak out, singing praises to the God of Ya'akov.  (10)  I will break down the strength of the wicked, but the strength of the righteous will be raised up.

Adonai will deliver at the right time. For the Jews living in 586 BC, it wasn't the right time.  But for those living in 722 BC, it was the right time.

Adonai is sovereign and if you desire to live in rebellion against Him, you will find no help no matter where you look.

Revelation 14:9-20  Another angel, a third one, followed them and said in a loud voice, "If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives the mark on his forehead or on his hand,  (10)  he will indeed drink the wine of God's fury poured undiluted into the cup of his rage. He will be tormented by fire and sulfur before the holy angels and before the Lamb,  (11)  and the smoke from their tormenting goes up forever and ever. They have no rest, day or night, those who worship the beast and its image and those who receive the mark of its name."  (12)  This is when perseverance is needed on the part of God's people, those who observe his commands and exercise Yeshua's faithfulness.  (13)  Next I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write: 'How blessed are the dead who die united with the Lord, from now on!' 'Yes,' says the Spirit, 'now they may rest from their efforts, for the things they have accomplished follow along with them.'"  (14)  Then I looked, and there before me was a white cloud. Sitting on the cloud was someone like a Son of Manx with a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.  (15)  Another angel came out of the Temple and shouted to the one sitting on the cloud, "Start using your sickle to reap, because the time to reap has come - the earth's harvest is ripe!"  (16)  The one sitting on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.  (17)  Another angel came out of the Temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle.  (18)  Then out from the altar went yet another angel, who was in charge of the fire; and he called in a loud voice to the one with the sharp sickle, "Use your sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of grapes from the earth's vine, because they are ripe!"  (19)  The angel swung his sickle down onto the earth, gathered the earth's grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God's fury.  (20)  The winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress as high as the horses' bridles for two hundred miles!

Shalom