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July 2002
Tamuz-Av 5762
MaozIsrael
R
“The Lord
is my Strength”
ISRAEL
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Locked Up in America
Nitzan Arnon, a young Israeli tells his story
I was born in a kibbutz in the northwest corner of Galilee. This farming community, spread
across a hill overlooking the Mediterranean Sea,
UNITED STATES is a veritable Garden of Eden. We belonged to
the kibbutz Shomer HaTsair movement, which
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meant that I received a very liberal, leftist-oriGrand Prairie, TX 75053-5788 ented education - against religion, against God.
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At our kibbutz we would eat pork on purpose on
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Yom Kippur, our most holy day when Jews
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around the world fast and pray.
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My mother had come to Israel from
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Yugoslavia at the age of five and my father came
from generations of Jews born in the Holy Land.
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My father worked in agriculture and Mother
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nursed the older citizens of the kibbutz. It was
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an idyllic existence, and I loved my life on the
80 Royal Hill
kibbutz. But I never thought about God at all.
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Looking back, I realize how unhealthy it
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really
was. On our kibbutz the children didn't
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live with their parents; we lived in children's
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homes, similiar to a boarding school. My parE-Mail:
ents divorced when I was in the seventh grade,
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not take it very hard. From the tenth grade on,
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we all drank and smoked pot freely. I was
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completely undisciplined and didn't take my
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studies seriously, but I did love music. I
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learned guitar and played all the time. I began
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to write songs, and started taking voice lessons.
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Music was my life.
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After high school, I completed my three
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years of army service and then returned to my
kibbutz. I decided to study computers and took
a two-year course of computer networking in
Haifa. But music was my love, so I started a
band with three other guys and traveled on
weekends to Tel Aviv where we played in discos.
Ari & Shira Sorko-Ram
O
I began to see that I had a talent for writing
songs. In honor of Israel's 50th birthday, an
Independence Day song contest was held. A
song I wrote called, "One Day," won over 50
other entries and I sang it at the official
Independence Day celebrations.
Before finishing my computer studies, I had
already received a good job offer and went to
work in Haifa as a computer course instructor
and network technician. It wasn’t long before I
found a better job as a data systems administrator in Haifa.
POST-ARMY PILGRIMAGE
TO THE U.S.
However, I had not yet traveled abroad, which is a tradition among Israeli youth after they finish army service. I
figured that if I did not go at this point, I would never go, so
I left my job and went to the U.S. in April, 2001.
Upon landing in New York, I took a bus to Bridgeport,
Connecticut where I had a contact with some Israelis who
had a street-cleaning business. They hired me to clean the
parking lots of malls which I did for a month. Then I
decided to work for another Israeli connection selling toys
in malls. (It is common among Israeli youth to work their
way around the U.S. or other countries.)
Soon I found myself on the way to Chicago by bus.
Upon arrival, I was able to make contact with Israelis who
immediately sent me to Madison, Wisconsin to sell toys. I
loved the college-town atmosphere, with students playing
their guitars and singing everywhere.
It was there that I had my first indication that there might
be a God interested in
me. While selling
my wares, an older
couple approached
me, bought a toy, and
asked me where I was
from. When I told
them, "Israel," they got very excited and invited me to their
home. They said, "We will pray for you, son."
I never went to their house and I didn't understand what
prayer was, but they stirred up a warm, emotional response
within me. I thought, "Why would they pray for me? A
man selling toys? Why would they pray
for me?"
After two months it was time to move
on and so I left the toy company. I
returned to Chicago and to the "Israeli
House," where Israelis hung out - smoking grass and checking out the different
job opportunities around the U.S. I decided to sell pictures
door to door which I felt would give me more money.
I was given work along with another Israeli girl in
Kansas City where I became very successful selling these
pictures. Even with my limited English, I was still able to
make up to $1000 a day. I paid $70 per picture and sold
them for $150 apiece. Once in a while the police would stop
us on the streets and give us a ticket for solicitation, but they
never really bothered us.
From Kansas we traveled to Oklahoma City, and we
worked there for a couple of weeks. During the day we
worked hard, and at night in the motels where we stayed,
we mixed with the local scene, found the drug dealers and
partied hard. I was not at all disappointed with life.
Then September 11th changed everything. We were
shocked. I gave blood for the terrorist victims. We contin-
ued to try to sell our pictures, but fewer people were buying
so we decided to move on to St. Louis. Actually, the day
before we left, I had already come to the conclusion that I
didn't want to sell pictures anymore. The police seemed to
be watching us more carefully and I thought, "It's time for
me to move on, maybe to San Francisco.” But my boss convinced me to stay on, telling me what a good salesman I was.
THE POLICE CAME TO
CHECK US OUT
One the 23rd of September, we had only worked for 15
minutes in a new neighborhood when I saw the police cruise
by and then stop. They walked up to me and handcuffed my
hands and legs. I said, "What did I do?"
"The neighbors complained. Don't worry, we're just
checking you out."
They took me to the police station, and there I saw six
other Israeli kids with whom I had been working - including
three girls who were all crying. That night we slept on the
floor and for whatever reason, they had turned up the air
conditioning so high that we lay freezing all night long.
The next day the captain came in
and said, "We are just investigating and
then we will let you go." We were so
happy. At this point, the door opened
and in came a group of men with the
word "Immigration" on their hats. When I saw that, I
thought, "Oh no! My time in the U.S. is over, and I so want
to stay!" They had long chains with which they hooked us
up one to another as a chain gang. They crowded us into a
barred van with a lot of illegals from Mexico and slammed
the door shut. We
were taken to the
immigration building
and put in a room
with 50 men and a
toilet in the middle.
The room had an
unbelievable stench. Sitting on the floor, I thought about
my laptop and several thousand dollars that I had left in my
motel room.
Again the four of us Israeli guys found ourselves in a
barred van filled to capacity which took us on a two-hour
journey to the county jail. There they filmed us, gave us uniforms - much too big - which to me looked like the uniforms
I had seen in movies of people who were on death row.
The water was either absolutely scalding or freezing, and
so we didn't shower. We were there a total of one and a half
months, and during that time we were given only a single
change of clothes.
They also gave us a blanket with an incredible number
of holes in it, and we slept on the floor. I was put in a cell
with a Vietnamese, tattooed from head to toe, who was in
jail for drug dealing. At first I was terrified of him, but he
The U.S. immigration officer
hugged me and said,
"You're my brother!"
The Israeli security officer
said, "Take the chains off of
them. Now they're ours."
was quiet and gentle and I saw him reading a Bible. After
a few days, I noticed a black American who was teaching
the Bible to other inmates. He had been a drug dealer and
had scars all over his chest from gunshots. However, he
seemed to be a preacher and the prison administrator
allowed him teach Bible groups where he spoke about being
born again and about Jesus.
I COULDN'T UNDERSTAND
ANYTHING HE WAS SAYING
I paid no attention to him at all as I was in deep depression. In fact, none of us Israelis paid him the slightest heed.
One time he was preaching quite close to me, and I heard
him say Jesus Christ and Christian a lot, but he spoke loud
and fast, and with his street accent, I couldn't understand
anything he was saying.
There was also a Palestinian prisoner in jail, and when he
threatened to kill us, we four Israelis were put in solitary
confinement for our own safety. In my windowless cell, I
thought of my family and my kibbutz. I wondered if I
would ever see them again. Suddenly I felt a presence in my
room. I didn't see anything, but I felt a powerful being next
to me. I felt like this presence was touching me - almost like
it was softly caressing my head. All the anger simply
poured out of me. I began to weep. In a way I cannot
explain, I instantly knew that something very holy was in
my room. I knew that "something" was Jesus, the person
about whom the black man had spoken. I cannot explain
how I knew, but I just simply knew.
I had always been told his name was "Yeshu" in Hebrew.
[Yeshu is the way non-believing Israelis pronounce
Yeshua's name. One can usually tell who is an Israeli
believer by his correct pronunciation of the name, "Yeshua,"
meaning "Salvation."]
This presence seemed to be saying to me, "Everything is all
right. There is nothing to worry about." Suddenly, I didn't care
NITZAN IS THIRD FROM LEFT
about my laptop or the thousands of dollars in the motel. I didn't care about anything else. I just wanted to go home.
I was in solitary for yet another week, but as soon as I
was transferred back to the main part of the prison, I found
the black man. I grabbed him and told him about my experience. I asked, "What has happened to me?" He looked at
me and said, "This is the Spirit of God!" He prayed for me
and then said, "You are now a Christian!" That was very
unnerving to me - very difficult to hear. I wanted to stay a
Jew. But I thought to myself, "There is nothing I can do
about it. I believe in Jesus."
I told my three other Israeli friends, "I believe in Yeshu!
I am now a Notsri! [The word for "Christian" in Hebrew, is
literally "Nazarene." In Israeli thinking one cannot be a
Notsri and a Jew at the same time. A Notsri, (pronounced
notes-REE) by definition, is a non-Jew.]
The other Israelis got really mad, especially one from an
Orthodox background. He said to me, "Read the Tanach
[Old Testament] first and then become a Notsri! In other
words, search in your own roots before you go off and
become an alien in another religion.
Meanwhile, the prison authorities kept lengthening our
stay. The prison was dark and depressive. Nevertheless, my
new faith only deepened. I found that I had stopped smoking. The black man gave me a Bible in English. At night
when the other Israelis were sleeping, I would pull out my
Bible and read the Lord's prayer that he had shown me.
That prayer would soothe my heart.
The day came for us to be released from jail. I had
prayed that God would let my plane arrive in Israel on
Friday and not Saturday, so I wouldn't profane the Sabbath
day. (Imagine me, who had never worried about profaning
anything in the Bible before!) The Lord answered my
prayer and we were released from prison on Thursday and
taken handcuffed onto a plane from St. Louis to New Jersey
and then straight to our own El Al Airlines.
The U.S. immigration officer who checked my hand case
went through my things and found my Bible with a New
Testament. Knowing I was Jewish, he looked at me and
said, "Why do you have a New Testament?" I told him, "I'm
a Christian now!" The man bent over and hugged me and
said, "You are my brother!" The other Israelis look on in
dismay as if to say, "What will we tell his mother?"
The immigration people escorted us to the front of the long
line waiting to get on board our
Israeli airline and brought us to
the El Al security. The head
Israeli security officer told
them, "Take the chains off of
them. Now they're ours."
Then he looked at us and said,
"You're home, boys!"
Both of my parents greeted me at the airport. At the first chance I told my sister my
story but warned her not to tell my mother that I was now a
Notsri. My sister said to me, "It's OK, Nitzan. We know
you have really been through a hard time. Maybe we can go
visit a psychiatrist. Meanwhile, I thought to myself, "How
in the world am I going to start worshiping in some cathedral here in Israel?"
After one week I left the kibbutz for Tel Aviv. Each time
that I felt down, I pulled out my English Bible and read the
Lord's prayer. I said to myself, "I've got to find a New
Testament in Hebrew." After some searching, I found a
Bible bookstore on Ben Yehuda Street. I went inside and
announced, "I'm a Notstri and I believe in Yeshu!"
The woman there looked at me in amazement. Finally,
she said, "You are not a Notstri. You are a Yehudi Meshichi
[Messianic Jew], and His name is not Yeshu but Yeshua!"
I said, "What? There are other Jewish believers?"
She gave me three addresses of Messianic congregations
and the address of Dugit Bible bookstore, where I met Avi
Mizrachi, a Messianic leader, who really discipled me.
Because I worked at night in a kiosk, I was unable to go to
his congregation which meets
in the evening. So I visited
another address I had Tiferet Yeshua Congregation.
I love all the believers but I
really know that God led me
to this congregation. I love
my new Israeli believing
friends, and I am now a part
of the praise team! Through the teaching and my home
group I am really growing in my faith. All I feel is that I
want God!
Because of the financial situation, I have not been able
to find work in my field of computers, so I clean the beaches of Tel Aviv with a tractor at night. As I clean, I pray for the
beaches, that one day they will be spiritually cleansed, and will
be filled with Israeli young people who have found Yeshua!
Note: Nitzan Arnon is one of the most on-fire Israeli
believers we have ever met. He is completely sold out to
God and is a joy and inspiration to the new and long-time
believers alike in our congregation! God has a future for
him! Ari & Shira Sorko-Ram
Meanwhile, I thought to
myself, "How in the world am
I going to start worshiping in
some cathedral here in Israel?"
A YOUNG PEOPLE’S HOME GROUP FROM OUR CONGREGATION WITH JACKIE SANTORO
(FRONT
RIGHT), ONE OF OUR LEADERSHIP TEAM. NITZAN IS ON BACK ROW WITH CAP.
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Our Tiferet Yeshua Congregation in Tel Aviv
When we began Tiferet Yeshua (the Glory of Yeshua) in
1995, we felt God directed us to found a congregation
geared to the
needs of nativeborn Israelis,
called Sabras.
The local Israelis
are the hardest
national group to
reach with the
Good News; it is
always easier to
reach
immigrants in any
land, because of
the fact that they
have been uprooted and as a result are more open to new
ideas and concepts. We thank God for the Russian-speaking Messianic congregations, the Ethiopian, and the
English-speaking congregations in the land. However,
we are convinced in our hearts that the Sabras must be
reached before there can be genuine revival in the Israel.
We now have about 100 members, over 90% are
Israelis, 50% of whom are Sabras, and a number of others
have been in Israel for many years. This number does not
Rent for our congregation facility, which is a hall in a poor
section of downtown Tel Aviv, costs $5,000 per month, plus
taxes and utilities. Our congregation generously gives tithes and offerings, but their
salaries are low, and they are able to cover
only a portion of the total costs. None of
the leadership receives any salary from the
congregation.
We also have the beginnings of a
Bible School in Tel Aviv, teaching the
basic truths of the Bible to new and older
believers alike. Asher Intrater, elder in
our congregation, is the head of our
Israeli Institute of Messianic Judaism.
LEADERSHIP RETREAT AT
THE SEA OF GALILLEE
We currently have between 30-40 students attending the
courses. We often have non-believers also taking our
courses, as many Israelis who are interested in the faith
feel they must study the Scriptures first to see if Yeshua is
truly the Messiah promised in the Bible. Maoz gave
$51,369.00 for the support of the congregation and
Messianic Institute in 2001. One of our current prayers is
that within six months we will be able to rent facilities for
a number of full-time students. We could then begin a
much more developed program for Bible School students.
FACES OF OUR CONGREGATION
include the many family members and friends who
are sympathetic to the Gospel and who come periodically.About half of the congregation is made up
of teen-agers and young people 20-35 years of age,
and we have a steady flow of local Israeli visitors
every week who are hearing the Gospel for the first
time in their lives. We have seen new Israeli believers come into our congregation in disbelief that
there are so many local Israeli believers in one
place!
July 2002
We dedicate this issue of the Maoz Israel Report to the believers in the land of Israel Messianic Jews and born-again Christians who live here.
We, we alone, know the Answer to Israel's sorrow.
I'm listening to an old Keith Green song (Keith was a Jew who found the Truth):
There is One who heals the sorrows,
There is One who makes the day….
He's the One. He's the Way.
Next door to our apartment in downtown Tel Aviv lives a couple of homosexuals. Next to
them are some girls who are searching for the truth through Jewish mysticism and drugs.
(They have been witnessed to by some in our congregation.) In the early hours of the morning
we hear young people stumbling down our street, trying to find their way home.
Israel is staggering in her sin and sorrow. The religious leaders of Israel are using the massive means available to them - as the state religion - to point Israelis back to Orthodox
Judaism. But most of Israel has rejected Orthodoxy.
These same modern day Pharisaic leaders are doing all they can to keep the truth of
Yeshua from reaching the lost sheep of Israel.
But the Messiah, Yeshua, the King of the Jews, cannot be silenced. He can go through any
wall, penetrate any heart. Keith's song simply says:
When you need to know the Savior,
You will find you can know Him.
Yeshua WILL reign as King over Israel. He is beckoning to his Bride around the world, His
very own Body, to help bring the Truth about Him to His own Jewish brethren.
On this (probably hot) summer day, will you turn your thoughts to those in Israel who have
lost their way and need someone to point them to Yeshua?
Will you, today, help us bring the Savior to Israel?
In the love of our Messiah Yeshua,
Ari & Shira Sorko-Ram
United States 1-800-856-7060
[email protected]
England 020-8692-2831
[email protected]
Canada 519-751-0035
[email protected]
Surprised at a Wedding in Jerusalem
By Shira Sorko-Ram
Emanuel Nachum is one of the most unusual young men
you will ever meet. Born in Austria, raised in Tel Aviv and
Jerusalem, he began composing classical music as a small
child, and as a teenager he was asked to play his flute before
Israel's prime ministers, presidents and Knesset members
numerous times. Presently, he is composing an opera on the
subject of Job, while at the same time he is leading the worship at his parent's congregation.
His father, Shimon, grew up in the Lord in our first congregation years ago and met his wife to be, Batya, there. Ari
performed their wedding. Now Shimon and Batya pastor a
Messianic congregation and are directors of Kingdom
Ministries in Jerusalem.
Today, Emanuel is a handsome, talented, charismatic
young man, and he loves the
Lord. Last year he met
Courtney Rebecca, the love
of his life! Being the romanticist that he is, he decided
that he was going to have a
wedding to end all weddings,
which he himself meticulously planned out.
He selected the setting for their spring wedding in an
outdoor restaurant overlooking Jerusalem on a hill called
Armon HaNatsiv. There is a beautiful walkway along the
length of the hill, and it overlooks, perhaps, the most beautiful view in all of Israel, even - in my opinion - surpassing
that from the Mount of Olives because it is higher.
Emanuel had a beautiful pavilion-covering (called a succah in Hebrew) built over the area being prepared for their
celebration. It was to give some protection from the coolness of the early spring night in Jerusalem without obstructing the gorgeous view of the old city of Jerusalem.
The only negative aspect is that this hill is isolated with
bushes and trees and there are no other immediate buildings
except for this one restaurant. It had only been a few weeks
prior that a couple strolling along this walkway had been
attacked by a terrorist and the woman was stabbed to death.
The wedding was to be at night and with all Israel's security forces doing their best, there had, nevertheless, been 60
suicide attacks over the last 18 months.
The Nahums are people of deep faith and they are also
practical: they had ordered eight professional armed guards.
Now with suicide terrorists attacking and bombing every
few days in Jerusalem, I decided I wanted to be thoroughly
prayed up before going to Armon HaNatsiv. Our policy has
been that we don't go to dangerous places unnecessarily, but
when we must, we confidently believe that God will send
his angels to protect us.
Ari was very disappointed that he was not going to be
able to attend Emanuel's wedding since he was in the U.S.
on that date. That doubled my resolve to not even entertain
the thought of missing the wedding, though I would be traveling alone to Jerusalem at night.
Meanwhile Batya called me how to ask if I would pick
up an old friend of hers in Tel Aviv and bring her to the wedding with me. She explained that this friend (I'll call her
Hannah) is not a believer and Batya very much wanted her
to be at the wedding which would have a strong emphasis
on Yeshua the Messiah.
When I called the friend to
make arrangements to pick
her up, she told me she very
much wanted to go but was
extremely frightened about
traveling to Jerusalem, and
especially
to
Armon
HaNatsiv. Everyone in Israel
knows that suicide terrorists
love to target weddings and
other celebrations where a
large number of people have gathered. And then there have
also been drive-by shootings in isolated areas….
I assured her that we would pray in the car in Yeshua's
name before starting out and I was completely confident
that the God of Israel would protect us because we were
making our request through the High Priest, Yeshua.
Hannah said okay and agreed to go with me. For sure
now, I had to exercise my faith! I had just told this lady that
God would protect us because I was coming to the God of
Israel in the name of the Messiah! Besides, a large number
of Messianic pastors and leaders would also be attending the
wedding - people who know how to pray!
Yet, on Thursday morning, the day of the wedding, I was
feeling some unrest in my spirit. I decided to cancel my
morning appointments as I wanted to know that I had
touched heaven before proceeding to this wedding. I knew
the Nahum's and all the believers who would be in attendance were praying, but I wanted the affirmation of the
Holy Spirit in my own inner being before traveling to
Armon HaNatsiv.
As I was praying, I received a call from Batya about mid
morning telling me that there had been a change in the wedding plans. A fierce wind had begun to blow early that
morning and had blown down the tent covering and all the
decorations, completely ruining them. The forecast said the
Now with suicide terrorists
attacking and bombing every
few days in Jerusalem, I decided
I wanted to be thoroughly
prayed up before going to
Armon HaNatsiv.
winds would continue throughout the day. Although the
wedding was scheduled to begin in less than 10 hours, they
would have to transfer the wedding to an inside hall in the
main auditorium complex of Jerusalem.
A great sense of relief came over me and I called Hannah
to tell her that the wedding's location had been changed.
She was overjoyed. She told me she had not slept for three
nights just thinking about going to Armon HaNatsiv. "At
least," she said, "Jerusalem's main auditorium is a far more
secure location than Armon HaNatsiv.
At 4:20 in the afternoon, the news came that
another suicide bomber had detonated himself
in downtown Jerusalem, killing three and
wounding 87. (The day before, another suicide
terrorist had killed three and wounded 60 - just
a few stores away.)
At 5:00p.m. Hannah met me and we got in
the car. Before taking off, I prayed together
with Hannah for God’s protection and drove
toward Jerusalem knowing everything was
going to be all right.
The wedding was gorgeous. The beautiful
music had been composed and recorded by
Emanuel for his bride. In my opinion, it compared with anything Hollywood could have
produced. Everyone wondered how such a
beautiful wedding with gourmet dishes (the
hand of Batya
who was born
in Austria),
with lights,
sound effects
and even fireworks (outside
the windows)
could have been fashioned in just a few short hours at the
new location. We, of course, could not forget that we were
in Jerusalem; under the purple-violet lighting were eight
armed guards, one with a ready machine gun.
As I was eating, the son of another close family friend
came by to chat. Ari and I have known him since he was
born; he is now doing his military service on the police
force in Jerusalem and has received several citations for
excellence in the line of duty.
He said to me, "You know the suicide bomber that blew
himself up this afternoon downtown?" "Yes," I replied.
"Well," he said, "We were looking for him all morning.
Arafat had arrested him after Israeli security had given the
Palestinian Authority information that he was planning a
suicide bombing in Israel. Then Arafat transferred him to a
Ramallah jail, but on the way (guess what?) the terrorist
escaped from Arafat's men." (The next day the newspapers
confirmed this story.)
My police friend continued, "We looked for him all
morning in the Talpiot residential area of Jerusalem, which
borders Armon HaNatsiv, but we couldn't find him…”
I interrupted, "Armon HaNztsiv?" You mean where the
wedding was supposed to be?" I asked the obvious, “Do
you think that the terrorist could have been hiding, waiting
to target the wedding?" "Possibly," said my undramatic
friend." "But," I questioned, "How would a terrorist have
known there was going to be a wedding at the restaurant at
Armon HaNatsiv?"
"Easy," my policeman said. The succah (covering) and
all the decorations
outside had been put
up the day before, and
the Arab village right
across the valley
would have seen
everything."
"So you think
maybe the terrorist
hid somewhere in the
bushes waiting for the
evening to come…but
then when he saw the
wind had blown down
the covering and the
decorations and no
one came to repair the
damages all afternoon, he finally
decided that the wedding had been called
off and took a bus
downtown…."
My friend said,
"We can't say for sure.
But what we do know
is that today, in mid afternoon, the terrorist boarded a bus at
the Armon HaNatsiv bus stop by the restaurant and exploded himself downtown a short time later."
The extraordinary wedding was crowned with the passion of Emanuel and his bride's very first kiss ever (at least
three minutes long)! It was electrifying as the guests looked
on in wonder and then broke into cheers.
Shimon Nachum told me later that when the wind began
to blow, some suggested - knowing he was a man of strong
faith - that he rebuke the wind and command it to stop. But
he said the Lord spoke to him in his heart and said, "There
is more than one way to stop the wind. You can also stop it
by moving the wedding to another location."
Personally? I believe Shimon's sensitive spirit heard
from God. Infact, I believe that the Lord sent the wind and
blew the succah covering down. God protects us when we
call upon Him. Either He sends His angels to keep us in the
midst of danger, or he blows down our tent and moves us to
another place of safety. After all, God has been known in
the past to use the wind.
I was feeling some unrest in my
spirit and I wanted to know that
I had touched heaven before
proceeding to this wedding.