Even The Stones Cry Out

Shalom!

Today is Elul 17, 5770. We are only 13 days from Rosh HaShanah...the Feast of Trumpets...the 4th of the 7 Moedim/Appointed Times "Feasts of the L-rd" that HaShem commanded ALL mankind EVERYWHERE...for ALL ETERNITY...to meet with HIM...sometimes when I contemplate the Jewish Roots of the Faith that I spend hours studying and trying to share with all those I meet, I wonder HOW will it ever be that the "Church World" will come to fully understand what the writings of Vayikra/Leviticus 23:23 mean for US as Christians...this passage records what G-d spoke to Moshe about this Feast of Trumpets...the entire 23rd chapter of Vayikra/Leviticus records what the Moedim/Appointed Times "Feasts of the L-rd" mean and how they are to be celebrated...honored...as HIS TIMES that HE commands US to meet with HIM...these Feasts are such a representation and fulfillment of the entire story that G-d has written in every element of His Creation...they each correspond to a particular agricultural season...a particular sacrificial system...a memorial of the Shed Blood of The Lamb Slain From The Foundation Of The World...and they are each perfectly and symmetrically shown in The Heavens by the rotations and placement of the very Universe that He Created...it is totally overwhelming...there is no answer for any of it without Him...

Tonight Bill and I were driving home just as it began to really become "dusk" and the Shabbat begin...we were sitting at a red light right next to a large Cemetery...I looked at all the graves and headstones I saw from my window and thought: what will it be like when He Comes and EVERY grave - since the foundation of the Earth - is opened and EVERYONE on the Earth and IN the SEA is resurrected to face Their Creator...The Word tells us that "Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is L-rd" - then I looked up at the sky and tried to imagine it being filled from end to end with the billions of individuals who will be watching Adonai as His Presence fills the Heavenly Temple of G-d from one end to the other...how can we even imagine what that will be like...every soul ever created from Alef to the Tav of the World crying HOLY, HOLY, HOLY to Him Who IS and Who WAS and Who HAS COME! All Glory to Him!

It's fitting that this Shabbat there is a Miracle to report from The Land He Loves and Calls The Apple of His Eye...out of the ashes of the Holocaust has come a most amazing story...while Anne Frank and her family were in hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam, a Chestnut Tree was the only sight that greeted this young woman daily...it became her sustenance until these murderers from hell killed her and her family in the crematoriums of Hitler's Hell...this tree that she memorialized in her Diary just recently fell...it was decayed and had rotted through...inside the tree trunk was a seedling of this tree that had seen the deportation of so many of Holland's Jews including Anne Frank...and here is where the miracle begins...over 65 years after the murder of over 6 million Jews, life is being reborn...allow me to write exactly what was shared with me by one of the modern day Lions and Lionesses of Judah to whom G-d has bestowed this miraculous sign...in his own words:

"My name is Nati Yeyni, and I am a history teacher at the "Ohel Shem" high school in Ramat Gan, Israel. Around the date when the intention to cut down the Anne Frank tree was made public, I was teaching in my class the subject of The Holocaust, and, as part of it, the story of Anne Frank. The subject of the Holocaust is regularly taught here every year in the 11th and 12th grade. I thought the possibility of bringing a shoot from the Chestnut Tree to Israel with the intention to emphasize, on the one hand, the Holocaust, and on the other, Zionism and the revival that may be expressed through the planting of the shoot in Israeli soil.

This was an opportunity for me to teach the subject of the Holocaust in an unusual way. The idea of integrating students into the project of bringing the tree to Israel, planting it and growing it, with all the importance and the message represented and symbolized by this tree, is an interesting, fascinating way to pass on the remembrance of the Holocaust.

I managed to include four seventeen-year old students in this undertaking: Liron Tzemach, Ofir Look, Liran Shapira and Orin Shayek (the four students enlisted in the Israeli Defense Forces during the last month). We contacted two renowned professors that were involved in this matter, Prof. Helga Fassbinder and Prof. Arnold Heertje, directly - via email and telephone; these contacts later blossomed into friendships. Thanks to their assistance, we brought the shoot to Israel. The young tree is now quarantined in Beit Dagan. We hope to plant it during a ceremony that will take place in January/February 2011.

As for the place where the tree will be planted: the chestnut tree is a tree that grows in a cold climate, and therefore cannot simply be planted in any place. We therefore chose the community of Ramot Naftali in the Galilee. Yet the central reason for this choice is the fact that Major Eitan Belachsan, who served as Commander of the Paratroopers Reconnaissance Unit of the Israeli Defense Forces, was born and raised in this community. Eitan was killed in battle with Southern Lebanon on 22 February 1999. Throughout his military career, Eitan was an example for his soldiers and required of them the same traits that he required of himself: honesty, meticulousness, reliability, attention to detail, strong self-discipline and striving for excellence. We expect our students to follow these principles and ideals. Eitan symbolizes the fundamental essence of the Israeli experience, and in his death - the ceaseless battl for the protection and existence of the State of Israel.

The connection between the Holocaust and revival, between Anne Frank and Eitan Belachsan, symbolizes most of all the story of the Zionist project. The transition between a helpless and hopeless era in history to one in which the Jewish People controls its own destiny and future, and sends the best of its children to protect its homeland. The Jewish People whose roots are planted in the land of Israel.

The connection with the Belachsan family and the choice for planting the tree was made with the assistance of Brigadier General (ret.) Gal Hirsch, who is personally acquainted with the Belachsan family. Eitan Belachsan was Hirsch's subordinate in the Israeli Defense Forces. Brigadier General (ret.) Gal Hirsch is a Senior Member of the Board of Directors of the Israeli Leadership Institute, located in Sderot. Here is a website that you can access for photos of this miraculous story: http://www.thejc.com/news/world-news/37192/anne-frank-tree-lives

So, on this Shabbat 18 Elul 5770, after all the attempts to destroy His Eternal Covenand Land and Eternal Covenant Children: AM YISRAEL CHAI!

Shabbat Shalom!