Monday, 29 February 2016
Sunday, 28 February 2016
Guns fall silent in Syria
Guns mostly fell silent in Syria and Russian air raids stopped on Saturday, the first day of a cessation of hostilities that the United Nations has described as the best hope for peace in five years of civil war.
Under the U.S.-Russian accord accepted by President Bashar al-Assad's government and many of his foes, fighting should cease so aid can reach civilians and talks can open to end a war that has killed more than 250,000 people and made 11 million homeless.
Russia, which says it intends to continue strikes against areas held by Islamist fighters that are not covered by the truce, said it would suspend all flights over Syria for the first day to ensure no wrong targets were hit by mistake.
The truce seemed largely to be holding, though rebels reported what they described as occasional government violations, and one commander warned that unchecked, the breaches could lead to the agreement's collapse.
Jaish al-Nasr, a group affiliated to the Free Syrian Army (FSA) which has backed the truce, said government forces had fired mortars, rockets and machine guns in Hama province and that warplanes had been constantly present in the sky.
"Compared to the previous days it is nothing, but we consider that they broke the truce," Mohamed Rasheed, head of the group's media office, told Reuters.
Another FSA-affiliated group, Alwiyat Seif al Sham, said two of its fighters had been killed and four more wounded when government tanks shelled them in rural areas west of Damascus.
A Syrian military source denied the army was violating the truce agreement. State media described rocket attacks near Damascus and several deadly attacks by Islamic State. But overall the level of violence was far reduced.
"Let's pray that this works because frankly this is the best opportunity we can imagine the Syrian people has had for the last five years in order to see something better and hopefully something related to peace," U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said at a midnight news conference in Geneva.
"I think that the feeling that we have today is that the situation is very different but of course every day has to be monitored," he said.
The agreement is the first of its kind to be attempted in four years and, if it holds, would be the most successful truce of the war so far.
De Mistura said he intends to restart peace talks on March 7, provided the halt in fighting largely holds.
But there are weak spots in a fragile deal which has not been directly signed by the Syrian warring parties and is less binding than a formal ceasefire.
Importantly, it does not cover powerful jihadist groups such as Islamic State and the Nusra Front, al Qaeda's branch in Syria. Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb in Hama province. Nusra has called for redoubled attacks.
Moscow and Damascus say they will continue to fight them, and other rebels say they fear this stance may be used to justify attacks against them too.
The truce is the culmination of new diplomatic efforts that reflect a battlefield dramatically changed since Russia joined the war in September with air strikes to prop up Assad. Moscow's intervention effectively destroyed the hope his enemies have maintained for five years -- encouraged by Arab and Western states -- to topple him by force.
REPORTS OF VIOLENCE
Like several other rebel figures contacted by Reuters, Fares Bayoush, head of the Fursan al-Haqq rebel group which fights under the FSA banner, said front lines were far quieter. But he added that violations were taking place and if continued could lead to the "collapse of the agreement".
In early reports of violence, a Syrian rebel group in the northwest said three of its fighters had been killed while repelling an attack from government ground forces a few hours after the plan came into effect.
Syria's state media said at least six people were killed and several wounded in two suicide bomb attacks east of Hama city, including the car bomb claimed by Islamic State. Three children were killed and 12 wounded in an unspecified Islamic State attack in Joura neighborhood in Deir al-Zor province.
Fadi Ahmad, spokesman for the FSA First Coastal Division in Latakia province said government helicopters had dropped eight "barrel bombs" on the area in the early afternoon. Assad's opponents have long accused the government of using such bombs -- oil drums packed with explosives -- to cause indiscriminate damage in rebel-held areas, which Damascus denies.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said government forces dropped five barrel bombs on the village on Najiya in Idlib province. The village is controlled by several groups including Nusra Front.
Nusra Front fighters pulled out of residential areas in several towns they run in Idlib province on Saturday to avoid being blamed by local people for civilian casualties if the areas are bombed by Russia, residents and rebel sources said.
The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said Islamic State fighters had attacked Tel Abyad, a town near the Turkish border, prompting air strikes by the U.S.-led coalition to try to drive them back.
Russia's Defence Ministry said it would suspend air strikes in a "green zone" -- defined as those parts of Syria held by groups that have accepted the cessation of hostilities -- and make no flights at all on Saturday.
"Given the entry into force of the U.N. Security Council resolution that supports the Russian-American agreements on a ceasefire, and to avoid any possible mistakes when carrying out strikes, Russian military planes, including long-range aviation, are not carrying out any flights over Syrian territory on Feb. 27," the ministry said.
Sergei Rudskoi, a lieutenant-general in the Russian air force, told a news briefing that Moscow had sent the United States a list of 6,111 fighters who had agreed to the ceasefire deal and 74 populated areas which should not be bombed.
"THERE IS CALM"
A rebel fighter said government forces briefly fired artillery at a village in Aleppo province, which he said was under the control of the Levant Front, another FSA group. But he said the frontline was quieter than before.
"There is calm. Yesterday at this time there were fierce battles. It is certainly strange, but the people are almost certain that the regime will breach the truce on the grounds of hitting Nusra. There is the sound of helicopters from the early morning," he told Reuters earlier on Saturday.
Fighting raged across much of western Syria right up until the cessation came into effect but there was calm in many parts of the country shortly after midnight, the Observatory said.
"In Damascus and its countryside ... for the first time in years, calm prevails," Observatory director Rami Abdulrahman said. "In Latakia, calm, and at the Hmeimim air base there is no plane activity," he said, referring to the Latakia base where Russia's warplanes operate.
After years in which any action by the United Nations Security Council was blocked by Moscow, Russia's intervention has opened a path for multilateral diplomacy while undermining the long-standing Western demand that Assad leave power.
The Security Council unanimously demanded late on Friday that all parties to the conflict comply with terms of the plan.
U.N.-backed peace talks, the first in two years and the first to include delegations from Damascus and the rebels, collapsed earlier this month before they began, with the rebels saying they could not negotiate while they were being bombed.
The government, backed by Russian air strikes, has dramatically advanced in recent weeks, moving close to encircling Aleppo, Syria's biggest city before the war, and threatening to seal the Turkish border that has served as the main lifeline for rebel-held areas.
(Reporting by John Davison, Mariam Karouny and Tom Perry in Beirut, Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols at the United Nations in New York, Tom Miles and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and Andrew Osborn in Moscow; Writing by Peter Graff and Gareth Jones; Editing by Ralph Boulton)
Reading from the Torah scroll using a silver yad (Torah pointer, literally, hand)
Shabbat Shalom!
Welcome to Tetzaveh (You Command), this week’s Parasha (Torah Portion).
Please read with us these portions of God’s word that will be heard in synagogues around the world during this week’s Shabbat (Saturday) service. We know you will be blessed!
TETZAVEH (You shall Command)
Exodus 27:20–30:10; Ezekiel 43:10–27; 1 Peter 2:1–25
“Command [Tetzaveh] the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning.” (Exodus 27:20)
In last week’s Torah reading, God instructed Moses and the Israelites to construct aTabernacle (Mishkan) in the wilderness.
This week, God commands them to bring pure olive oil for the lamp and to create holy garments for the priests (cohanim).
The Temple Institute has created a golden Menorah that now stands in
the Old City of Jerusalem. It is similar to the one used in ancient times in
the Holy Temple. When the Third Temple is built, this one will be
consecrated for use in the Temple.
The Role of Beauty and Splendor in Serving God
“These are the garments they are to make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a woven tunic, a turban and a sash. They are to make these sacred garments for your brother Aaron and his sons, so they may serve Me as priests.” (Exodus 28:4)
In this Parasha, sacred garments are to be made for the priests so they can serve God.
One of them is the Choshen Hamishpat (Breastplate of Judgment).
The breastplate is associated with the Urim and Thummim, objects used to divine the will of the Lord.
The priestly breastplate was made of embroidered linen sized and shaped into a square cubit. It contained four rows, each with three precious gems embedded within the plate and surrounded with gold.
Each jewel in the priest’s breastplate represented one of the twelve tribes of Israel, whose names were engraved upon the stones. God would use the individual letters of these names to spell out His judgments for Israel when the Urim was used to consult Him.
"He is to stand before Eleazar the priest, who will obtain decisions for him by inquiring of the Urim before the LORD. At his command he and the entire community of the Israelites will go out, and at his command they will come in." (Numbers 27:21)
This stained glass window depicts the
Kohen Gadol (High Priest) and the priestly
garments. (Photo by Andreas Franz Borchert)
In the Brit Chadashah (New Testament), John describes his vision of the New Jerusalem in which the foundation stones of the city walls are adorned with 12 gems. Some, if not all, of these gems are also in the breastplate.
Some of the stones’ true identities may have been lost, since the Hebrew and Greek cultures shared no definitive gem names, especially during the 1,000 years between the writing of 1 Samuel and the Book of Revelation:
“The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation stone was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst.” (Revelation 21:19–20)
There are over 30 different opinions concerning the identification of the breastplate stones in rabbinical literature and tradition. (Temple Institute)
Cutting malachite, which has been mined and smelted in Israel's Timna
Valley, where it remained for over 3,000 years.
What we see in the description of the breastplate and New Jerusalem is that God considers beauty to be glorifying as we serve Him on earth and in Heaven, where we will one day be surrounded by the brilliant splendor of streets paved with gold and divinely cut jewels embedded in foundations.
God also considers certain colors and material that are used in service to Him to be glorifying, such as the garments worn by the Kohen HaGadol (High Priest):
“You shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty."(Exodus 28:2)
The ephod, or garment underneath the breastplate, was made out of fine linen and woven out of gold, blue, purple, and scarlet threads. Although a priestly garment, it seems that King David wore it when he brought back the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem.
“Now David was clothed with a robe of fine linen with all the Levites who were carrying the ark, and the singers and Chenaniah the leader of the singing with the singers. David also wore an ephod of linen.” (1 Chronicles 15:27; see also 2 Samuel 6:14)
A fresco of King David dancing before the Ark, by Johann Baptist Wenzel
Bergl (photo by Wolfgang Sauber)
Serving God in the Beauty of Holiness
Everything God creates in His physical world helps us understand His spiritual world. The use of physical gems on the breastplate of the Kohen Gadol is no different.
Since these stones represent the 12 tribes, and the breastplate is connected with discovering the will of God, the stones represent how precious Israel is to the Lord and His desire to lead them into His will.
The precious stones embedded in the foundations of the New Jerusalem (Revelation21:19–20) also represent the 12 tribes. From this we can understand that Israel retains foundational importance in the Messianic Age.
All Believers in Yeshua play a significant role, as well. Scripture says that we are a holy priesthood and living stones, a spiritual house through Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus the Messiah):
“And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Messiah Yeshua." (1 Peter 2:4–5)
Like a precious jewel, precisely cut, shaped, and polished by a master lapidary, we each have the ability to uniquely reflect the beauty and glory of God's Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) as we serve Him.
When we fulfill that destiny, we take our place in a spiritual house, whose cornerstone — the One who holds it all together — is, of course, Yeshua HaMashiach.
“Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone, and he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.” (1 Peter 2:6)
An Orthodox Jewish man points to the remains of Robinson's Arch, a
monumental staircase built by Herod that was supported by an unusually
wide stone arch. It stood at the southwestern corner of the Temple Mount.
Haftarah Tetzaveh: A Vision of Hope
"So the altar shall be four cubits; and from the altar and upward shall be four horns." (Ezekiel 43:15)
Today's Haftarah (Prophetic) portion falls in the midst of a longer section that discusses the building of the Third Temple. Today's portion from the Book of Ezekiel begins with God's instruction to describe the coming Temple to the children of Israel who are exiled in Babylon.
The reason for this is not to build anticipation or excitement but, rather, to give them hope after expressing shame for the sins that caused the First Temple to be destroyed and the people to go into exile.
God tells Ezekiel that only when the people are embarrassed because of their sins, then He could show them the plan of His House, which reflects His holiness.
There, only 14 years into the Babylonian exile, which stretched on for more than another 50 plus years, the people received a message of hope and comfort — “the priests are to present your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar. Then I will accept you, declares the Sovereign LORD.” (Ezekiel 43:27)
At that point in their exile, they must have thought themselves totally rejected by God, but God reaches into their darkness to show them a vision of eternal redemption.
Israel obviously did repent because the Book of Ezekiel goes on to describe the Third Temple in great detail and the coming of the Messiah in the final eight chapters.
God loves Israel, and this timely message of repentance reveals that no matter what predicament God's people find themselves in, they can play a role in God's present and future plans by turning from their sin.
May each of us put on the garments of holiness and serve Him with all of our strength.
Please pray for the salvation of the Jewish People and help us bring the Good News of Yeshua to the Holy Land and the nations.
"You will again have compassion on us; You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea." (Micah 7:19)
"Hear the word of the LORD, you nations; proclaim it in distant coastlands: 'He who scattered Israel will gather them and will watch over His flock like a shepherd." (Jeremiah 31:10)
Shabbat Shalom from the Entire Bibles For Israel Family!
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