Why Israel is the land of Kanaan!

Why is Israel referred to as the land of Kanaan and who was Kanaan? This question has finally been explained in a physical proof discovered on a fragment photograph of The Dead Sea Scrolls found in cave #4. The opening lines of orthodox Jewish daily prayer beg the question of the verse;

Remember His covenant forever, the word which He commanded to a thousand generations; the covenant which He made with Abraham, His oath to Isaac, He established it for Jacob as a statute, for Israel as an everlasting covenant, stating “To you I shall give the land of Kanaan” -the portion of your inheritance, when you were few, very few, and strangers in it.

זִכְרוּ נִפְלְאותָיו אֲשֶׁר עָשה. מפְתָיו וּמִשְׁפְּטֵי פִיהוּ:

זֶרַע יִשרָאֵל עַבְדּו. בְּנֵי יַעֲקב בְּחִירָיו:

הוּא ה' אֱלהֵינוּ. בְּכָל הָאָרֶץ מִשְׁפָּטָיו:

זִכְרוּ לְעולָם בְּרִיתו. דָּבָר צִוָּה לְאֶלֶף דּור:

אֲשֶׁר כָּרַת אֶת אַבְרָהָם. וּשְׁבוּעָתו לְיִצְחָק:

וַיַּעֲמִידֶהָ לְיַעֲקב לְחק. לְיִשרָאֵל בְּרִית עולָם:

לֵאמר. לְךָ אֶתֵּן אֶרֶץ כְּנָעַן. חֶבֶל נַחֲלַתְכֶם:

בִּהְיותְכֶם מְתֵי מִסְפָּר. כִּמְעַט וְגָרִים בָּהּ:

What is meant by the portion of your inheritance? The strange, stylistic reference to Kanaan as the land promised to Israel is also explained by the recent Dead Sea Scrolls discovery. What was previously interpreted by mainstream theologians as the “tent of Shem” Genesis (9:27) is now proven to mean the “land of Shem” and what a huge difference it makes.

Noah had three sons Shem, Ham and Yafeth, each received an inheritence. The discovery proves that land granted to Shem included the “portion of your inheritance” specifically set aside for Israel, but occupied by Kanaan when they “were few, very few, and strangers in it”. The explanation finally resolves a logical reading of the line - “To you I shall give the land of Kanaan”.  Here “you” conclusively means Jacob-Israel.

Ham had incestuous relations with his mother, Noah's wife (Ki Teitzei 23:1, shares Haftorah with Noah), the product of that relationship Kanaan was cursed. When Noah found out he was devestated, became drunk in his tent and cursed Kanaan forever. Talmud Sanhedrin 108b states Ham copulated on the Ark against Noah's order of celibacy. Ham’s act was judged antithetical to Noah's moral law and it set the standard for permissible incest among Egyptian leaders following Ham or Khem. 

Mitzrayim (after whom Egypt was named) and his half brother Kanaan (Kanaan was Ham's son - Genesis 9:18) hated Shem, who had received Noahs blessing. In defiance, Ham desired Kanaan occupy the land of Shem, which would retrospectively justify his dastardly act. Ham bequeathed Egypt to his son Mitzrayim and they both backed Kanaan with military force to usurp the inheritence of Shem.

Abraham was Shem’s direct descendant as such he was in line to receive the continual passage of rights to Shem’s land. Further, Abraham had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. By the same legal standard Ishmael was born from a mother, a descendant of Ham who operated as surrogate for Abraham’s wife Sarah who banished them and relinquished any rights Ishmael had to ever inherit Abrahams land. This is an essential legal proof of Israel’s continuity, through Isaac on the land and its indigenous right!

 

From Noah - Dead Sea Scrolls reveal Jerusalem's Origin

In a most exciting recent discovery[1], a fragment photograph of The Dead Sea Scrolls found in cave #4 has revealed a direct record that Noah allocated the ‘land of Israel’ to his oldest son Shem. The interpretation further underpins long held opposition to the mainstream view. It confirms Shem’s land was infiltrated and occupied against Noah’s will after the text tells us he was sodomized or his wife adulterated by his son Ham.

In the Bible Shem's land becomes the ‘land of Kanaan’ because Shem, operated passively against his brother Ham, whose son Mitzrayim (the founder of Egypt) and grandson Kanaan took possession of it. Shem also known as the high priest of Shalem (Jerusalem) or Malchi-tzedek (just King) held to his priestly disposition and failed to defend his sovereign rights. Nevertheless, his rights transferred to his direct descendant Abram when Shem died.

In my thesis ‘Jerusalem's Origin’ I propose the first settlement of Jerusalem was Early Bronze I, 3300-3050 B.C.E. This new evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls directly supports the hypothesis and paves the way for the age of the carved bedrock of the upper ridge at the Gihon Spring in the City of David (Jerusalem) to have been constructed by Shem as God’s priestly sanctuary. This would confirm Shalem as the origin of Jerusalem.

Professor Elisha Qimron, the world’s preeminent expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls sent the recent fragment photograph to his assistants Hanan Ariel and Alexey Yuditsky for their review. After analysis and debate they unanimously concluded that the commonly interpreted “tent of Shem” etymologically refers to the “land of Shem” a direct connection to “Ha-Shem” – “The Name” of God and as such Shem’s land is God’s Land. This would make Shalem, the place of Gods temple.

The features on the high ridge of the Gihon Spring are unique in Israel and world archaeology. As confirmed by the Israel Antiquities Authority, never before has such a site been located. It contains an olive press, a grain press, a bedrock monument (matseva), places for sacrifice, features for small animal management and direct access to water cisterns. It is a remarkably well preserved area that will continue to be excavated over the coming years.

For a copy of Jerusalem's Origin – click here.

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[1] http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/scholars-owe-new-dead-sea-scrolls-reading-to-google.premium-1.527210

Zion and Israel are one!

Tension between Israel’s warring tribes waxed and waned, in part because the tribal boundaries bordering the nations holy temple contributed to their division. Between the time of Noah’s Shem, 4717 years ago through King David 2849 years ago, the holy temple site was known by various names; Shalem, Yira’ Shalem and YeruShalem among others. The land of the holy site was designated by a mystical understanding of the spiritual construct as the foundation stone of creation and Zion, the place of peace for the world. The monolith, known as Mount Moriah, rose from the south, on the northern boundary of the tribal land of Yehuda up to the southern boundary of the tribal land of Binyamin on whose land most of the holy temple would ultimately be built.

The proximity between the temple site and the common border between Binyamin and Yehuda presented a major point of contention for the tribe of Yosef (Ephraim) on Binyamin’s opposite, northern boundary. Unlike Yehuda’s land, Yosef’s tribal land did not adjoin Binyamin’s southern border, as such it did not share a direct boundary with the nations holy temple site. Before Torah was transcribed by Moses, Jacob was confronted by this lopsided dilemma of the ‘spiritual construct’ and Rashi, the famous literal Torah sage struggled to interpret it, uncharacteristically reverting to mysticism to explain:

When Yaakov emigrated after first spending 14 years learning mysticism and studying, but before finally departing he returned to pray at the site his forefathers had once prayed. While locating the site to pray he was stopped by a sudden sunset. There, he made camp at the site of his father Isaac’s sacrifice and he named it Beit El.  Rashi considered Yaakov was at a different Bethel north of Jerusalem, in the territory of Yosef.  As such, he had difficulty reconciling with the traditional interpretation of Beit El which is Jerusalem. Rashi explained: That night Mount Moriah, Jerusalem (which incorporates Beit El) was mysteriously transported to Bethel. Indeed there is a midrash that explains on the night Yaakov slept at Beit El, the land of Israel was folded beneath him.

The midrashim grapple with the anomaly. Why Beit El and Bethel? Why did the land fold/roll up and why did Rashi say Mount Moriah moved? Jewish mysticism provides fascinating insight: Supernal Israel faces east, placing Binyamin’s land, including Mount Moriah at its neck, Yehuda’s land, its right shoulder and Yosef’s land its left. The northern border of Yehuda runs east-west, from the Dead Sea toward the Mediterranean. In the middle it rises the Judean mountains to a pinch-point on the southern base of Mount Moriah. At the tip of the pinch-point Yehuda’s land pierces into Binyamin’s land (Israel’s neck), right on Mount Moriah where, according to Kabbalah Yehuda’s land intersects the Southeast corner of the altar of Isaac the rest of which is built on Binyamin's land.This pinch point defines the location for the permanent altar of the temple.

Beit El of Yehuda/Binyamin and Bethel of Binyamin/Yosef reflect the points at which Israels neck meets its shoulders. After King Solomon, who built the first temple on Mount Moriah the nation was immediately and once again divided. The dueling kings of Yehuda, Solomon’s son Rehavam and the king of Yosef, Yerovam fought bitterly as did their tribes. Yerovam re-introduced idol worship at Bethel and on Dan's tribal land for the ten tribes of Israel and prevented them from visiting the Jerusalem temple on Binyamin’s land. The nation’s tribes were split and never again re-united on their designated land. The temple represented a source of power, which with proper appointment became the most desired spiritual and economic prize. But, no-one fully understood the mystical construct that designated the altar and temples location in order to effect natural order and truly harness its power.

The right (south) sided orientation of the temple site is the source of Israel’s might. Many of the tribes and their leaders failed to grasp its importance and to this day it continues to weaken the emotive, intellectual and spiritual expressions of modern Jews. ‘Zionism’ is no longer associated with its spiritual root, meaning and construct, as a result it is not fully expressed. Beit El is the City of David, which is Zion^[1], regardless of past explanations, that does not qualify Bethel as the temple’s site. Collapsing Binyamin’s land or flying Mount Moriah, Israel’s most important site from Yehuda to Yosef simply illustrates the essential quality, strength and endurance of the right. It’s inherent desire is to go the ‘extra yards’ to, include and to bring peace, yet nothing can change the site of the altar, despite the left’s (north) desire to be closer to it.

Reliance on King David’s decision to construct a private altar on top of Mount Moriah, on the Temple Mount, is debatable. If the northern boundary of Yehuda had penetrated Binyamin deeper, to the top of Mount Moriah (at the Dome of the Rock) then land repatriated from Binyamin to build the first temple, which was to be replenished in Jericho, after building the third temple would have been granted to Yehuda, it was not! Folding Israel’s land to fit its spiritual construct is an inversion of the nations optimal disposition and the tradition dissuades its people from asking the very hard questions of its aboriginal root.

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[1] 1Kings, 8:1

Deception and Glory

Three things troubled King David greatly, they were the location of the altar for the temple, the incident with Uriah and the taunts of the Israelite tribes over his marriage to Batsheva. In David's eagerness to decapitate Goliath the Philistine giant, his helper Uriah the Hittite diverted David's divine ‘destiny’ by requesting and receiving a right to marry from among any of the Jewish women of Israel. This misappropriation caused King David tremendous suffering through a series of tragic events that ultimately led to the division of the Israelite nation.

Uriah used his grant to marry Batsheva and became a high ranking officer. Whilst Uriah was fighting Israel’s war, King David and Batsheva had a public and immoral, some say illicit, affair from which she conceived. To deceive the public David recalled Uriah from the war, but when Uriah refused to visit Batsheva David sent him back to the battlefront with a sealed letter instructing David’s General, Yoav, to put Uriah in harms way. In protest, Yoav leaked the letter. Uriah was killed and national confidence in the King waned as some tribes were repulsed by David's indiscretion. Batsheva bore David’s child who died after 7 days. This child was not the immaculate conception. In a way David saw the child’s death as a blessing and behaved accordingly. David had usurped God's plan by giving his marital right to Uriah who used it to marry Batsheva the one destined for the King. Though tarnished by their actions, David married Batsheva who became the mother of Solomon, King David’s ultimate heir and constructor of the nation’s first permanent temple.

Then, toward the end of King David’s life he did something very strange. Against Jewish law and the wishes of Yoav, his most loyal and senior general, the King ordered the army to take a census of the tribes in Israel's North and Yehuda in the South. The commentaries consider this lapse, a transgression of The Kings supreme providential confidence, but this time, in his old age, King David doubted the nation would continue to support him. Perhaps his insecurity developed through punishing events for his impetuous acts. It is said to have caused him to order the census, usually reserved for a holy purpose, but here it may have been to satisfy his nagging desire and to remind his restless nation of his status.

About 35 years earlier King David located the Ark of the Covenant in Jerusalem's City of David. Fragmented political circumstances made him abundantly aware he would not be the one to build the temple, that honor would be left for his son Solomon. Always on his mind King David planned every last detail and gathered materials for the temple construction. He was determined to be associated with the Ark’s final place of rest. Before David was anointed King over all the tribes he studied with Prophet Shmuel (Samuel) to discover where the Ark should be permanently located. Together they learned the book of Yehoshua, particularly the territorial boundary of Binyamin and Yehuda, the critical point that identifies the prescribed location of the altar as required for building the temple and by which the Ark obtains its relative position. He also studied with Prophet Nathan as he continued to plan the temples intricate details and he argued vehemently about its proper place with Do'eg Israel's greatest scholar. Throughout his tenure King David had been unable to deduce the Altar's place and therefore the Ark's ultimate location according to Jewish law.

As a result of the ill fated census, a series of unfortunate events presented King David the political opportunity to finalize the temple location. The nation was punished with severe drought during which the King repented for his actions and those of the nation. In order to release the nation from its desperate state Gad, the prophet and seer, advised the King to make a national choice:- Three years of famine, three months fleeing invading enemies or three days of plague? King David chose the latter and the plague ravaged 70,000 Israelites, but before the allotted time was up God stopped His angel of death as it was about to reign pestilence on the people of Jerusalem (Mount Zion and Mount Moriah - The City of David). The angel challenged God over His broken deal, in response God offered Avishai, Yoav’s brother, the King’s most loyal follower lost his life. In the moment of this national pandemonium, David begged God’s forgiveness and Gad advised the King to make an altar at the site the King had seen the angel was standing poised to destroy^[1] Jerusalem. The site belonged to the Jebusite King Ornan (Araunah) who lived in Jerusalem during David's entire reign, it was his threshing floor on the top of Mount Moriah.

Locating the altar for the temple was no simple matter. The laws are precisely established and every scholar of Israel’s tribes would have known and opined them. King David had struggled with many of the brightest scholars, including Do’eg his most vocal opponent, to determine its location. It is said David wanted to build in the middle^[2] of the mountain, but Do’eg ridiculed him for such thought. Any move by him to ‘force’ this decision would have been pounced on by the most senior tribal scholars and leaders who opposed his leadership. The end of the plague presented the sometimes apparently, impetuous King the perfect national moment to purchase the site, build an altar and make a burnt offering as a sacrifice for himself and perhaps on behalf of his confounded nation. In doing so and against the law of the day, he enabled the status of his private altar (bamah) to become communal thus establishing its location on the top of Mount Moriah.

The law of the temple altar location stipulates it as the site where Isaac was offered by Abraham as a sacrifice. No other location could bestow permanence deserving of God’s Home and indeed the first and second temples at the site Prophet Gad enabled and King David prescribed were eventually destroyed. Maimonides suggested^[3] that Moses wisely chose not to mention Jerusalem. Had he done so, the non-Jewish nations would have realized Jerusalem's singular importance to the Jewish people, and they would have fought fiercely to prevent it from falling into Israel's hands. Did King David know his alternative location would preserve the real site for the future?

King David knew of the prophecies that described and would cause the destruction of the first and second temples, did his deceptive actions follow those of Moses to defend the temples ultimate location? Perhaps they did and perhaps the altars true and permanent location will ultimately be revealed at this City of David site http://israelfact.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/a-hypothesis-for-mizbeach-of-akeida.html 

Immediately after the reign of King Solomon who completed the first temple, the nation was plunged into massive division by the southern tribes of Yehuda under Rehavam and northern tribes of Israel under Yerovam. Any view the nation held of the permanent status of that temple was challenged and eventually twice soundly defeated.

To this very day orthodox Jews around the world say the Nefilat Appayim or tahannun section of their daily prayer of repentance, which was written by King David and recorded as Psalm 25. Here Jews acknowledge their repentance for the tragedy of King David's fateful decision, some begin the prayer "and David said to Gad" from Samuel II 24:14.

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[1] http://israelfact.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/sword-over-jerusalem-sources-from.html

[2] Samuel 2 22:17,18 Yalkut Me’am Leoz

[3] Guide to the Perplexed III:45

Israel's Indigenous Independence and the Philistine Curse

After the post war miracles of 1948 and the establishment of the modern State of Israel, the remnant of three ancient deals continued to affect the nation. Today they are manifest in Gaza - the strip of land that accommodates a people who diminish Israel from its own territory and the capitulation to desire by Jewish people who succumb to other national identities. 

The indigenous rights of Israelis are established, recorded through Judaism and Jewish practices from the descendants of Abraham. No other nation possesses such a record or the rights that emanate from it, no other people can argue continuity or prove their lineage through it. The realization and recognition of Israel’s tribal heritage rights through pacts and deals that date back almost 4000 years must not be relegated by the symbolism of modern Zionism.

Three deals made by Avraham, Yitzchak and David delayed the realization of Zion as a permanent place of peace for Jewish people, of Jerusalem and the complete conquest of the land of Israel. During David’s conquest he shattered the long held inter-nation tribal deals that upheld the honor of Avraham and Yitzchak in the eyes of non Israelite tribes, but he was blinded in the process.

Avimelech - Father King of the Plishtim (Philistines), descendants of Noah's son Ham, realized his tribal future would eventually be lost to Israel, therefore he  requested a treaty that the sons of Yitzchak would not take away Plishtim land. Yitzchak cut an ammah, a strip of his donkey’s leather bridle and gave it over as his oath. The land represented by this ammah on Israel’s modern map approximates Gaza. 

In making this treaty Yitzchak reinforced an earlier pact his father Avraham entered with Avimelech who assisted Avraham to defeat the four mighty kings that conquered Sodom and Gemora. The pact was limited to 3 generations, but Yitzchak extended it.

Avraham had also made a second treaty referring specifically to Jerusalem with other Plishtim tribes. When he wanted to buy the cave of Machpela to bury his wife Sarah, the Jebusites (Yevusi) who were relatives of the Hittites objected. The Hittites demanded a condition that Avraham’s descendants would never conquer the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem. 

Rivkah (Rebecca) was repulsed by the prospect that Yaakov (Jacob) may marry from the Hittites. They sent him away to find a wife from her brother’s family. As a result, he did not enter a treaty with the Hittites partly because he left the land of Israel to establish his family and fortune and only returned toward the end of his father, Yitzchak’s life.

The Jebusites who entered the covenant eventually made two idols, one a blind man representing Yitzchak who went blind and the other a lame man representing Yaakov who limped. They placed these idols along with seven iron sheep at Jerusalem’s entrance as a reminder to Israel’s future leaders.

Following Israel's return from exile in Egypt, Yehoshua (Joshua) commenced a conquest of the land and attacked Jerusalem, also referred to as Beit El, but Yehoshua was reminded of the treaty once made by his descendants and he honored it allowing the inhabitants to continue their tenure. The same occurred, after Yehoshua’s death, by the army of the tribe of Yehuda. The Jebusite responses on each occasion was to further fortify the city against future attacks. 

Four hundred years later the tribes of Israel were bitterly divided. At the time of King Shaul (Saul - a Benjamite), the shepherd David (a Yehuda-ite) was anointed King by the popular prophet and judge Shmuel (Samuel). In response to a calling by King Shaul whilst fighting the army of the Plishtim, David rose and killed Goliath - the giant Philistine. David wanted to remove Goliath's massive armor to decapitate him, but could not find a way to do it. On the battlefield Uriah the Hittite approached David and offered to resolve the problem. Uriah, who thought David would one day be King over all Israel, requested a Jewish wife. Oblivious to the serious misappropriation, David entered a pact with the Hittite to give away any woman of Israel Uriah chose. The armies of Shaul were amazed at David’s tenacity and bravery and King Shaul’s jealousy was aroused. 

King Shaul’s armies pursued David like a dog for many years. In arguably the most tragic event, David went to Nov (the site of Shmuel and the Mishkan, north of Jerusalem) to seek refuge from the priests that lived there. Do’eg the Edomite, then loyal to Shaul, was studying at the nearby yeshiva and witnessed the high priest provide impoverished David with the Philistine sword of Goliath and 100 loaves of bread for David’s men. Do’eg reported this to Shaul as a brewing rebellion by the priests and Shaul gave permission to massacre the 85 priests killed as a result of Do’eg’s testimony.

David left the proximity of King Shaul’s army and sought refuge from a Philistine regional chief Achish who provided him immunity and land in Ziklag. When all the Philistine nations finally arose against Israel and King Shaul, Ziklag was destroyed and the families of David and his men were kidnapped. David pursued and rescued them, but Israel was defeated under King Shaul. His son Yonatan (Jonathan), David’s closest companion, and King Shaul were beheaded.

King Shaul’s descendant could not hold (Benjamite) power so the tribal elders came to King David of Yehuda in Hebron and appointed him the King and all the tribes of Israel accepted him. David immediately marched to Yevus, Jerusalem, built on the border of Yehuda and Binyamin (Benjamin) to bring the fortified city back under Israeli control. The inhabitants, living under Araunah (Ornan) the King of Yevus, taunted David’s men reminding them of the pact of the lame and the blind. David promised military leadership to the first man that conquered the city. Yoav, entered through a concealed water pipe and provided passage to the others in his party - he became David's general. They occupied the water tower and progressively took the rest of the city. They argued with the inhabitants that the ancient pact was obsolete because the Philistines had once attacked and filled in Yitzchak’s wells, but they allowed the King of Yevus to live among the new Jewish occupants including King David.

Uriah the Hittite was granted the right to marry Batsheva considered to be the most beautiful woman in the land. Uriah was dispatched along with Yoav and his army to fight against the Ammonites. All soldiers provided their wives a conditional bill of divorce in the event of their death. One afternoon David caught a glimpse of Batsheva and sent for her. David lay with her and she conceived. On receiving the news of her conception, David requested Uriah’s return from battle and encouraged him to go home to his wife, hoping he would lie with her and confuse any public identification of the morally illicit conception. Uriah refused to go to his wife and responded to the King - the Ark of the covenant lives in a tent (in the city of David); my Master Yoav and my Masters servants are encamped in open fields. Will I then come to my house and lay with my wife? In response David sent Uriah to the front lines with a sealed letter ordering Yoav to place Uriah in harms way. Yoav did not retain the confidentiality of Davids sealed letter, but carried out his orders. Yoav blamed David for the loss of lives of some of his commanding officers. Against the backdrop of David’s splendid reign, news of his indiscretion spread fast and festered among the tribes, it catalyzed a terrible decay in the kingdom.

Batsheva’s birth was cursed, David did not repent until the prophet Natan highlighted his indiscretion which caused The King to enter a state of great repentance. The baby died, David’s behavior turned (II Shmuel12:21) and he began to lose control over his fragmented nation. Batsheva’s second son was Shlomo (Solomon) who, despite great inter-family upheaval, violence and death among David’s children ultimately became the King of Israel.

The effect of David’s reign was to provide the platform for Shlomo to build the first temple and unify the fragile tribes. It was a wonderful period in the nations history fondly remembered to this day. Each time Jews close the Ark containing the Torah in temples around the world we repeat the words - “Renew us as in times of old”. But Shlomo’s reign, in context of Israel’s history was short and soon after he died the divided nation expressed itself, in all its glory, through the upheaval that resulted from the unpopular anointment of Shlomo’s son Rehavam. Yerovam the leader of the tribe of Efrayim (from Yosef) rebelled using Egypt as his base. He was appointed King over ten of Israel's twelve tribes that split from Yehuda and with it he plunged Israel into the most devastating self imposed period of enduring exile that ultimately led to their near complete banishment from the land.

2744 years passed before the nation Israel returned to their land to establish the modern state of Israel in 1948. Today 65 years on, Israel continues to struggle with its early legacy, but the indigenous rights of its Jewish people are impossible to dispute.

Land for Peace!

Consider the problem the modern segmentation of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel posed for the historical inhabitants of the land. The map below highlights this, by overlaying onto the modern map, Israel’s ancient tribal land map. The ancient map is known because the boundary markers are recorded in the 3400 year old Hebrew bible, which precedes the record of any other identifiable continuing tribal rights in the region.

Map by http://www.accordancebible.com/Shift-Select-To-Combine-Map-Layers

In the years preceding and following Israel’s war of independence in 1948 hundreds of thousands of people were displaced from land on either side of the Jordan river. Ancient rights of Jews who lived on the east bank of the Jordan river (Jordan) were presumed exchanged for the rights of Muslims living on the west bank of the Jordan river (Israel). Each of these communities were severely disrupted during the mass migration that took place as a result of war. Land rights and registration, followed from the Ottoman and British land registries, were handed to the new Jordanian and Israeli governments for management.

From the 1948 war, Jordan became the occupier of adjacent portions of land west of the Jordan river (in Israel) including a significant section of Jerusalem - commonly referred to as the West Bank. Prior to and in response to this state of war, laws were passed in Israel and Jordan in respect of future land rights. Israel offered a right of return to Jewish property owners displaced by acts of war. Jordan confiscated and cancelled rights to possess land by anyone it declared an enemy of their state - including all Jews.

In 1967 Israel, in response to an attack by Jordan and Egypt, conquered back the territory Jordan had occupied since 1948 and soon after began returning properties to Jewish families that could prove ownership prior to 1948. Jordan never returned or recognized the rights of owners of the hundreds of thousands of acres registered to Jews that were confiscated and Israel never recognized the rights of displaced Muslim landowners.

There is little point in dwelling on this much longer, but any so called land for peace arrangement must first reconcile these rights, including recognition of Israel’s ancient tribal land owners in the region. Apparently the truth is inconvenient, but it cannot be ignored by Israel or its proxies when negotiating to reduce further displacement and suffering by the people who have been most affected through violent conflict. Any ambit claims by parties with a vested interest must first be filtered by the backdrop of the ancient map of the indigenous rights of Israeli's.

The Secret of the Seder's Fifteen Steps

The Hebrew calendar is unusual because Nisan is the first month, associated with Passover or Pesach the holiday of redemption. But, its opposite end, the seventh month, Tishrei is the Jewish new year including the holiday of Sukkot. Kabbalah teaches equal in opposites, so what about Sukkot can we learn about Pesach?

There is  teaching that the lower feminine waters (of the Gihon Spring) complained to God, “We too want to be close to You!” God consoled them, saying, “There will come a time when you, too, will be close, when your waters will be poured upon the altar during Sukkot, to celebrate.” At Sukkot the Levite priests sang spiritual songs that kept Jerusalem wide-eyed till dawn as they stood upon the “fifteen steps of descent from the Israelite courtyard to the women’s courtyard, that correspond to the fifteen ‘Songs of Ascents’ composed by King David.  But, the priests descended those fifteen steps?

Rav Chisda asked “a certain rabbi” why King David composed these fifteen Songs of Ascents to begin with. The rabbi replied that when King David began excavating the foundation of the Temple’s altar, the waters of the subterranean deep rushed upwards and threatened to engulf the world. Then, King David composed fifteen Songs of Ascents, and the depths safely subsided. If so, Rav Chisda protested, why are they not called Songs of Descent, to reflect the subsiding waters.

Replied the anonymous rabbi, this is what occurred: When the deep surged upwards, King David thought to inscribe God's Name on a piece of earthenware and cast it into the waters. His teacher, Achitofel, ruled it permissible reasoning; if according to Torah, for the sake of matrimonial harmony, God commands us to write His Name on parchment and to erase it by placing it into a container of water for an alleged unfaithful wife to drink and redeem herself, then it is certainly permissible for King David to cast the divine Name into the surging waters to bring peace to the entire world!

King David immediately wrote and cast The Name into the waters, which then subsided sixteen levels. Surprised, the King realized the earth’s irrigation would be reduced, so he voiced fifteen Songs of Ascents that brought the waters back up to a safe and desirable level.

In his commentary on the Talmud, Maharsha adds that the divine Name King David wrote was with the letters Yud-Hei, which equates the numerical value fifteen. The Name is associated with the final redemption of the Jewish people. The two priests who descended these steps on the way to draw the water on Sukkot would pause on the tenth step, to divide the steps in two parts, ten and five, corresponding to the Yud (ten) and Hei (five) respectively.

Maharal quotes the verse from Isaiah 26:4, “For in God (Yud-Hei) is the strength of the worlds.” Our sages stated that all creation comes into being via these two divine “letters,” Yud and Hei. These letters comprise “form” that comes from the Yud, and “matter” that comes from the Hei. These reflect the spiritual worlds united with the material.

This, then, is the Kabbalistic secret behind the fifteen Songs of Ascents corresponding to the Temple steps that directed people to the higher world, from the more material, “feminine” women’s courtyard, toward the more spiritual, “masculine” aspect, the Israelite courtyard and ultimately the exclusive domains of the high priests. When a redeemed Israel left the entrapment of Egypt (Mitzrayim) they first journeyed through the lowest waters, the bottom of Yam Suf meaning Reed or some say Sea at the End where they cast their souls, comprising God's name, into the waters and from where they ascended as a nation.

Each year Jews the world over renew the months that will follow by ascending through 15 steps of the Pesach seder (the Passover meal). They pause after the tenth step during which they re-enact eating the pascal lamb sacrifice that saved them from disaster. Then, they continue the last of five steps with the festive meal of the seder. From the digestion of the holy Pesach meal, they are infused and elevated. Six months later they descend 15 steps at Sukkot when they unite the Lulav (Palm) and Willow branches of the lower waters. At that time meals are eaten and elevation is by the encompassing Sukkah, the natural hut Jews live in during that week each year.

Christians adjust their calendar to tie Easter to Pesach and Jews dedicate the water festival of Sukkot for all the nations. We are living in the years considered to be the millennial hour, the time of transition, at the doorstep of Moshiach (Mesiah) and Israel's final redemption. The 15 steps of the Pesach seder compliment Sukkot’s 15 holy steps of the Temple. With the realization of this inner beauty, perhaps we will live a peace that is the Jewish dream. Then those who live and celebrate in Jerusalem will no longer need to utter the Seder's redundant concluding words "next year in Jerusalem"!

Searching for the Mizbeach (altar) of Akeidat Yitzchak (Isaac)

Ancient City of David 

There is good reason to believe the area on the high ridge above the Gihon Spring (at the City of David - Jerusalem) is Luz that Yaakov (Jacob) named Beit El. To support this I include links to my research, but it starts with an attack on the conventional view of Ay or Ai, the ancient city or location first associated with Avraham (Abraham).  I propose the Beit El and Ay of Avraham (Bereishit 12:6–8) conforms to the following map of Jerusalem's holy basin (click to enlarge it) and the book of Yehoshua (Joshua);

View north, Temple Mount left of center - click to enlarge

The completed thesis can be obtained here Jerusalem Origin - The Thesis

Looking South East toward Ay - circled in the background

The other, different location for Beit-el and Ay (north of Jerusalem), made popular at the time of King Yerovam ben Nabat (Jeroboam), was a ‘deception’, a duplicate of the familiar geographical names surrounding and preceding the first temple holy basin. Yerovam established these, continuing Micah's Beit el tradition (400 years prior), to heist the northern nation of Israel into believing his priests, temple and idols were a suitable substitute to Jerusalem's. You can read support for this cornerstone including its economic incentives here - http://israelfact.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/solving-riddle-of-beit-el-and-beit-el.html

Once the remnant of Yerovam’s confusion is removed we can focus on essential issues. These include; the geophysical flow of aquifer water from the high valley of Hevron (Hebron) to the low point of Yam Ha Melach (Dead Sea) via the ridge that terminates at Har (Mount) Moriah and the E’ven Ha Shtiya (Foundation Stone) under which the aquifer flows north, u-turns then flows east. [see the Geotechnical-Hydrogeological survey http://www.gsi.gov.il/Eng/_Uploads/163Geotechnical-Hydrogeological-Concern.pdf].

Eli Shukron - room with floor marking 

Now we can review the archaeological site above (west of) the Gihon and the area of Salem, the characteristics of which are highly unusual and detailed in the image below. The most notable of these features is the matzevah (monument or pillar), which has miraculously survived more than 3500 years and is yet to be officially announced. I challenge you or anyone else to find a similar object in any site in Israel – such a perfectly preserved item built onto bedrock and still standing does not exist.

High Ridge above Gihon Spring

Matzevah - Monument Genesis 28:22

My theory, which is described broadly here http://www.scribd.com/doc/120128721/Jerusalem-s-Origin explains this is the site of the matzevah Yaakov anointed (Bereishit 35:14-15). There are many midrashic references to this site including the source of the stones Yaakov used for the matzevah – the mizbeach of Akeida Yitzchak and these can be discovered in the more detailed paper here http://www.scribd.com/doc/76553825/The-Stone-the-Builders-Rejected.

Armed with this information we can progress to the decision David Ha’Melech (King David) made to locate the temple mizbeach (altar), that became the site for the first and second temples on the top of the hill (around the Dome of the Rock). Here you can read about the process he endured to navigate Jewish law and make that very difficult decision - http://israelfact.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/sword-over-jerusalem-sources-from.html. Whilst I don’t fully expose my view in this paper, I believe he prophesied about the final temple at the end of days and as a result made a conscious, albeit very difficult decision, to obfuscate the site of Akeida Yitzchak (the altar site) from nations of the future to protect the true site, which he knew about.

When you look into the sources relating the ‘neck’ to the site of the temple, we find they point directly to the site above the Gihon and the area of Salem - http://israelfact.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/neck-and-site-of-temple.html - also see http://israelfact.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/zion-and-israel-are-one.html

Finally I present the very detailed sources from which I draw the conclusion it is possible to have the third temple at this site without disrupting existing sites on the top of the mountain. http://israelfact.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/israel-and-nations-detailed-sources_18.html

They Never Told Jacob!

I am moved by the dark secret Israel's sons hid from him for 22 years. Yet, it became the final catalyst that healed their deepest wounds and forged brothers to unify into the fledgling, insurgent nation.

It began when Joseph was kidnapped by his brothers, thrown into a pit and traded to the Ishmaelites and Middianites passing on their trade route to Egypt. There he became the country's Viceroy and was permitted by Pharaoh to marry his niece, which set the stage for Israeli nationhood. Although capable of return, he stayed away from his father Jacob, refusing to go back and reveal the crime his brothers had perpetrated. Was he thinking Jacob conspired with them? Was providence sacrosanct, more essential to him than truth? Did he fear the embarrassment he may cause his brothers? Why did he not make contact with his beloved father for 22 years?

During the series of drought driven events that brought his brothers to seek food in Egypt, Joseph imprisoned his brother Shimeon. Then, he did the same to youngest brother Benjamin, which caused brother Yehuda to confess about the collective denial to their father, about their kidnapping Joseph. Joseph realized he had been complicit in the collective deception they portrayed to their father - for 22 years! Joseph immediately became emotional, crying on the neck of innocent Benjamin who was too young during the original travesty, but was now entrapped and stunningly enjoined by the brothers collective silence, their unspoken admission and this moment of realization.

All the brothers were now bonded by their darkest truth, to send their ageing father to his grave absent of their irreconcilable behavior. In this poignant moment Joseph realized deference to the indelible bond of Yehuda and Benjamin. The tears shed by Joseph, as explained by Rashi, were for his future role in the destruction's of the first and second temple, which would occur in Benjamin and Yehuda's territory. Benjamin shed tears over the destruction of the tabernacle (Mishkan) that preceded the temples. This distortion of truth by Israel's progeny sufficiently powerful to cause great destruction and devastation.

Twenty two years later, as he lay on his deathbed, the gurgling abyss of their collective denial continued to bother Jacob. It prompted the brothers most famous rhetorical to their concerned dying father when they said to him "Hear O' Israel, The Lord is God The Lord is One!" Immediately, whilst wallowing in the concealment he (Jacob) responded; "Blessed be the name of His glorious kingdom forever". Finally Jacob could rest in the knowledge their complicit union, despite its dubious origin, would project to the end of history,  in line with Jacob's Utopian vision, that his nation Israel would ultimately be united in the truth of Jacob's House of God (Beit El) because no other edifice would ever stand the test of time.

And after they buried Jacob, the brothers retorted, selfishly asking, how will Viceroy Joseph get his retribution on us? Finally, Joseph's greatness was revealed through his forgiveness, anchoring the honor of Israel's desired union, respecting his fathers memory and establishing a trajectory toward Israel's essential truth at the end of time.

The world lives with this twisted history that probably still turns Jacob in his grave. The sacrifice of truth continues to cause Rachel to lament for her children, entrapped and exiled by distortion. And today, as more Jews return from exile, they perpetuate the paradox when from their homes in the confines of the holy city, each Passover they utter the words - "Next year in Jerusalem!" Until Israel's unrealized Utopian vision is complete the insurgent struggle of this nation continues.

Joseph and the United Nations

Reuven's brothers openly expressed their intent to murder their brother Joseph. Guilt ridden, Reuven ran to repent at the side of his father. He had once disrupted the conjugal rights of his mother Leah, which prevented the conception of Jacob's 14^th child, the one who would have replaced Joseph had his brothers carried out their threat. While paralyzed Reuven was praying, Yehuda convinced his brothers to sell Joseph to slave traders instead. Ishmaelite traders traveling toward them were carrying ‘sweet spices’ among their wares. But, first Midyanites bought Joseph and traded him with the Ishmaelites on their passage to Egypt where he and the 'sweet spices' were sold into the House of Potifar, Pharaoh's high priest and the chief of butchers. What were these ‘sweet spices’?

Years earlier, Jacob's 20 year servitude to his father in-law in Haran was over and he left with his family and entourage. Along the way he hid his only daughter Dinah from an encounter that may have exposed him to marry her to his estranged brother Esau. Jacob was first intent on reaching Beit El, the place he had erected a monument (matzevah) as a covenant to build a House of  God, but was delayed when Prince Shechem raped Dinah who bore Oesnat, the product of her rape. As a result Joseph's brothers Shimeon and Levi massacred 24000 men of Shechem. 

On finally reaching Beit El, Jacob and his 11 sons built walls in Shalem (Jerusalem) on the high ridge above the Gihon Spring, but their effort was interrupted by the death of nurse Devorah, his mother Rivkah and the his wife Rachel as she gave birth to his 12th and final son Binyamin. After returning to Hevron, the brothers wanted to kill Oesnat to eradicate the painful memory, but Jacob insisted they don't. Instead Jacob placed Oesnat in a sneh (bush) in Midyan where she was cared for by the high priest and from where a midrashic source tells us she was miraculously transported to the House of Potifar in Egypt. After staying in Hevron, the home of Jacob's father, they eventually settled around Shechem where he had left his cattle and possessions and from where the string of tragedy continued. 

Reuven had lost his birthright because of his interference in his father's affairs and Shimeon and Levi (the second and third sons) for their rebellion in Shechem; it fell to Yehuda the fourth son. The Biblical account of Joseph is interrupted by Yehuda’s encounter with Tamar because the ‘sweet spices’ allude to Oesnat. It turns out she was carried on the same caravan that collected and transported Joseph to Egypt. Many years after they arrived in Egypt, Pharaoh gave permission for Oesnat (of the House of Leah) to marry Joseph (of the House of Rachel). The marriage united both houses into the united tribes of Israel's (Jacob's) wives. From the marriage of Joseph and Oesnat the penultimate messianic root was born, the 'son of Joseph' preceded by the ultimate root, the 'son of David' from the marriage of Yehuda and Tamar. 

Now we can understand why the section of Vayeishev in which Joseph and Oesnat are unified on their carriage to the House of Potifar in Egypt, is juxtaposed with the story of Yehuda and Tamar. Because, through the latter marriage comes the re-incarnate messianic root of Moshiach (Messiah) son of David. It’s from this point where the nation of Israel is ultimately unified to lead the world. Because of the marriage of Oesnat (the house of Leah) to Joseph (the house of Rachel) Jacob finally regained his happiness - and he lived! At this point he knew his descendants would eventually return from their exile, unified to fulfill his covenant to build the final and permanent Beit El, House of God, The Temple.