L'Shanah Tova!! May You have a Good and Sweet New Year!!

Do you not feel it in the brisk fall air? Do you not feel an anticipation that's arising? Do you not sense that there is a special significance to this time? A need to go deep within yourself and emerge better than before? I love fall! And there is so much more to it than just the beautiful, bold, vibrant colors!

For those who don't know, the Jewish world celebrates a new year twice a year! How fun is that! A new start twice a year! And today and tomorrow is the celebration of Rosh Hashanah - the high holiday celebrating the creation of the world! This is a special time that the entire world will one day celebrate when Messiah returns. It's a new time; a time of new beginnings! Even as a Gentile, this is a holiday that applies to you too.

Elul, the month preceding this high holiday, is the month when you are to reflect upon the year and determine how you can be more righteous. It's the time to prepare to make a change; to prepare to make a new and fresh start on Rosh Hashanah before the King arrives!

It is well-known in Judaism that this is the time of year that Messiah will come for His bride. All during the rest of the year, we are ushered into the King's palace to seek an audience, but during Elul, the King comes to the fields looking for His Bride. He invites and desires us to walk closer in intimacy with Him. 

Just as a bride sets aside time to prepare herself for her groom, so too it makes sense that He gives us the whole month of Elul to cleanse and purify ourselves before the Bridegroom's arrival! He will come for a pure bride and invite her to join in on His celebration and enjoyment of what He has made. So come! Walk with the King of Kings and celebrate what He has made...for us, His bride. Let's make ourselves pure for the King, our Bridegroom.

The Hebrew greeting shared during this time is: Shanah Tovah - the simple translation means, "May you have a good a sweet new year"; the deeper translation means, "May you be inscribed this year in the Book of Life!" Amen!

I love how Shorashim Shop puts it:

SHANAH TOVA UMEVORECHET

A BLESSED AND SWEET NEW YEAR

May the world be judged with sweetness and compassion.

May we sense the great potential within us to change.

May we turn inwards and upwards and achieve our great spiritual potential...because that is what Hashem, God of Mercy, expects from us.

By: Shorashim Shop

The King in the Field

 

Excerpt from the teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of righteous memory.

The Exception

For eleven months of the year, our lives alternate between the holy and the mundane -- between the material labor of life and the spiritual vision of that labor's objective. For eleven months of the year, we must, at regular intervals, cease our work and rise above it in order to glimpse its soul and purpose.

The exception to this rule is the month of Elul. For during the month of Elul, the king comes to the field.

The king is the heart and soul of the nation, the embodiment of its goals and aspirations. The king, though sequestered behind the palace walls and bureaucracy, though glimpsed, if at all, through a veil of opulence and majesty, is a very real part of the farmer's field. He is the why of his plowing, the reason for his sowing, the objective of his harvest. No farmer labors for the sake of labor. He labors to transcend the dust of which he and his field are formed, to make more of what is. He labors for his dreams. He labors for his king.

So is the king in the field an apparition out of its element? Hardly. We may not be used to seeing him here, but is not the royal heart, too, sustained by bread? His bread may be baked in the palace, its raw ingredients discreetly delivered to a back entrance; the golden tray on which it is served may in no way evoke the loamy bed from which it grew; but it is the yield of the field all the same. The king in the field is making contact with the source of his sustenance, with the underpinnings of

his sovereignty. And the field is being visited by its essence.

Shabbat is when the farmer is invited to the palace. On Shabbat, his overalls are replaced with the regulation livery, his vocabulary is polished and his manners are refined, his soul and fingernails are cleansed of the residue of material life. On Shabbat, the farmer is whisked from the hinterland to the capital and ushered into the throne room.

But Elul is when the king comes to the field.

When the farmer sees the king in his field, does he keep on plowing? Does he behave as if this were just another day in the fields? Of course not. Elul is not a month of ordinary workdays. It is a time of increased Torah study, more fervent prayer, more generosity and charity. The very air is charged with holiness. We might still be in the field, but the field has become a holier place.

On the other hand, when the farmer sees the king in his field, does he run home to wash and change? Does he rush to the capital to school himself in palace protocol? But the king has come to the field, to commune with the processors of his bread in their environment and on their terms.

In the month of Elul, the essence and objective of life become that much more accessible. No longer do the material trappings of life conceal and distort its purpose, for the king has emerged

from the concealment of his palace and is here, in the field. But unlike the holy days of the year, when we are lifted out of our workday lives, the encounter of Elul is hosted by our physical selves, within our material environment, on our working-man's terms.

What a great, awesome, yet humble God we serve!

911 Freedom Rally: Text of Speech by a Former Muslim, Michael Paul

 

911 Freedom Rally: Text of Speech by a Former Muslim, Michael Paul

I thought Atlas readers should see the full text of former Muslim and human rights activist Michael Paul's remarks.

Freedom Rally Speech 9-11-2011, Michael Paul
I am here today, not to speak against Muslims, but to talk directly to those who adamantly demand to build a mosque here at Ground Zero and name it the Cordoba mosque.
I’m going to give proof through the Quran and Sunah that their plan is ill-conceived. If they believe in these proofs they will have to stop the construction of the mosque. If they don’t believe and instead they go far away from them to some Islamic theologians’ extremist radical interpretation of the Quran as justification to build the mosque, then we will all know that they believe in the interpretation used by the terrorists who attacked on 9/11.
But before I go into that, I would like to thank the American people for their brave efforts that have liberated Arab and Muslim countries from the grip of dictatorship and tyranny. Through direct military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq. Also through diplomatic intervention, in international forums and material and logistical support as in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria. Etc.
There are already many Sunni and Shiite mosques in New York. Some have been penetrated by terrorist ideology, others washed in the tide of Islamic Iran’s Revolutionary thinking. Now, that poison is being spread from here across the United States to other mosques. The true purpose of this mosque isn’t for daily worship. Most Muslims  don’t worship on a daily basis because they are too busy working during the week. The true purpose is suspicious.
You, you who want to build the mosque, should appreciate America as a country that supports and sacrifices for the right of man to be free no matter what the sex, race, or religion. Muslims living here have the full rights given in the Constitution and American society. And those rights far exceed those given in your native country.  Why do you now try to use the same laws that have set Muslims free from slavery as a weapon against the people who created those laws? Why do you want to build a mosque on the lives and wounds of the society that liberated so many Muslims around the world? Is it necessary to build the mosque here in this spot on ground that still moans from its wounds? Do you need to renew the pain of all those who’s loved ones were killed here? The extremist ideology that killed them grew up in a mosque.
Ground Zero has seen the worst form of mass murder and crimes against humanity. The act was carried out by criminals who hate, even though they ate and drank of the best of this country, and breathed the human freedom she gave them. It is an act of shame that they attacked her and killed in the name of Islam.
It is a reminder of the ugly colonial history that is based on attacking people and trying to force a change of religious beliefs by the sword. A history that includes Spain, where the original Cordoba mosque was built over the Christian Church of Saint Vincent. Where that Christian country was occupied, men killed, and women captured and taken to Muslim’s countries as maids and servants who provided sexual pleasure for their conquerors. Many in Islam still boast about that and glory in that conquest. They consider it a symbol of their power and greatness. For them, this new Cordoba mosque will also be considered a symbol of Islamic supremacy, part of their long tradition of building structures on the holy ground of their conquered enemies.
Do you see how desiring the mosque to be named Cordoba is not just an innocent choice? It is being done because the name carries the seeds of dreams that destroy freedom and individual rights. The fruit will be the expansion of radical Islam.
I would like to refer to verse 107 of Sura Repentance in the Qur’an, which says “And there are those who put up a mosque by way of mischief and infidelity– to disunite the Believers – and in preparation for one who warred against Allah and His Messenger aforetime. They will indeed swear that their intention is nothing but good; but Allah doth declare that they are certainly liars.”
You, who want to build this mosque, know the story of Dirar. It was a mosque built at the time of Mohammad in Medina, by the tribe of Auf, on land they stole from Christian Priest Abu Amar. And you know it was stolen because of their jealousy of their cousin tribe who had already built a mosque nearby. The Christian priest told Caesar about the terrible injustice done to him by the tribe of Auf and Mohammad sent three men to burn the Dirar mosque.
As we see in the story Dirar, and through the action Mohammad took, if the construction of any mosque causes division among people it is permissible to burn it.
Most of the Muslim theologians said that the meaning of  Dirar (which in English means devastating and is what Allah named the mosque in the story) is when you do something that doesn’t even benefit yourself while it damages your neighbor.
Most Muslim theologians have gathered and agreed that no mosque should be built on dirar, and if it is, it is not permitted by Allah to be prayed in.
My question to these men and women who are demanding construction of the mosque is, how do you believe in Islam and you don’t follow what your Prophet Muhammad has said? Instead you try to make the people fear you with your determination to build the mosque here. Muhammad said, “I swear in God’s name, anyone who causes his neighbor to fear him is not a Muslim Believer.”
 
Also, the Prophet of Islam said: By Allah, the ground of all the earth has been my mosque and cleansed for me. All the earth except five places. One of those five places is the cemetery or the grave, or place of death.
A second place that it is forbidden in Islam to build a mosque is coerced land. I am sure that those who want to build here will criticize me, because they will say that they obtained  the land by the regular way. But Mohammed says that anything that you obtained the regular way from people who were bashful to give it to you is the same as coercing it from them.
You who demand to build this mosque and name it Cordoba know full well that this place is a place of death. A place where over 3,000 innocents died. It is a cemetery of their souls. To build a mosque here is forbidden by Islam. If you believe that Allah cleansed all the earth for a mosque, why must you build on this specific site? Also, you are in effect seizing the land by coercion because the majority of Americans don’t want it built here. And beyond that it doesn’t benefit you because there are already many mosques in the area, and other sites that you could build on. It doesn’t benefit you and it damages your neighbors. This is dirar.
I can’t believe that you claim the mosque and Islamic center to be built here will be a center of peace. How can it be when the Prophet of Islam said in the hadith  that was narrated in Saheeh Muslim’s book: Don’t begin to make peace with Jews and Christians. If you meet one of them along the way, make the way narrow for them.
I am sure that the people insisting to build the mosque understand the meaning of that Hadith. But I want to explain the meaning for my American audience. It means if you are among Jews and Christians there  is an obligation from Muhammad to every Muslim to not start peace with them         or even give a simple greeting like “Salam aleikom.” 
The broad interpretation of that hadith is when it speaks of “meeting Jews and Christians along the way,” it means “ meeting them in life.” It is saying when you meet Jews and Christian’s in life, make their life Hell.
Also, the Qur’an says in Surat Repentance verse (28): ‘’Ye who believe! Truly the Pagans are unclean, so let them not after this year of theirs, approach the Sacred Mosque. And if ye fear poverty, soon will Allah enrich you, if He wills, out of His bounty , For Allah is all-knowing, all wise.”
The Qur’an text clearly states here not to allow non-Muslims (Jews and Christians) to get close to the mosque because we are unclean. So why insist on the construction of the mosque in our midst? The Qur’an forbids it. I challenge you who want to build this mosque to tell me this is an untruth.
So I ask again how we can believe this mosque will be a center of peace, especially when the area where Ground Zero is located is populated mostly with Christians and Jews. America itself is about 78% Christian and 1.7% Jewish.
You who insist to build this mosque at the site of Ground Zero, if you refuse all of this conclusive evidence I have given from the Qur’an and Sunnah, and continue to make your claims, it seems that you believe in the same diabolical interpretation of the Qur'an (verse 109-110 from Surat Repentance), which the terrorists based their attack on when they struck this region in 2001. Most Arabs and Muslims heard about that through the media and internet, though most did not agree with the terrorists.
But the majority of Americans do not know that when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York they believed they were fulfilling a prophecy which is based on the Sura of Repentance verses (109-110). The verses say: “Which then is best - he that layeth his foundations on piety to Allah and His good pleasure? –  or he that layeth his foundation on an undermined sand cliff ready to crumble to pieces? And it doth crumble to pieces with him, into the fire of Hell. And Allah guideth not people that do wrong.”
I will  now clarify the prophecy the terrorists thought they were fulfilling. The Sura of Repentance is Sura number 9 in the Qur’an and it is found in part number 11 of the Qur’an. The terrorists understood that to be a date: 9-11. Then with further mathematical calculations, using the letters of the surat, they came up with the number 2001. This gave them the date 9-11-2001.  The date of the most terrible attack ever on our soil. Even the number of stories in the towers, 110, matched the number of the Sura verse I just quoted.
The terrorist were dreaming to let the prophecy be fulfilled because in the same verse 109 it speaks of building a mosque, laying the foundation on piety to Allah is better than a building built on a sand cliff.
There is a lot of this kind of demonic interpretation used by radicals and killers. Today I have told you about some of them, but there is a lot more that we haven’t heard about. Other demonic interpretations that they believe in.
Last but not least, I am an Arab citizen, but I live free in this country, and I speak freely. There is no question that there is a legal right to build the mosque here.      But what is legal is not always just. You who follow the moderate interpretation of the Qur’an, separate yourselves from the extremists. Unite and raise money not to build a mosque, but to rebuild the WTC. Extend your hand in peace. There is no excuse for these claimants to build a mosque here. Their intentions are dreadful, cynical, and suspicious, suspicious, suspicious.
And to Mayor Bloomberg and the Obama administration I plead with you and I am trustful that you will protect and defend America by using wisdom when you administer her laws and offer her freedoms to others.
My hope to all who have heard my speech and the evidence I have presented, whether Muslim or of any other religion, is that you will do everything in your power to prevent the work of evil trying to be done here at Ground Zero.
God bless America. May His will be done on earth.
Michael Paul