In 1995  looking over all this history and talking with David Horowitz about what he remembered and we made a startling discovery using Arthur Spier’s Comprehensive Hebrew Calendar–a most useful book that has all the holydays and Torah readings between 1900-2100, correlated with the Gregorian calendar. The Torah reading that weekend, for Sabbath, January 1, 1944, was Vayiggash–Genesis 44:18-47:17, which begins the tearful but joyful tale of Joseph revealing himself to his brothers. The Torah portion begins with the phrase “Then Judah came near (vayiggash) to him,” and leads up to the scene of Joseph’s revelation of himself to his brothers.

When we told David this he was utterly astounded, as he had not remembered or realized it. That reading, Vayiggash, has indeed been a central one for UIWU and its purposes through all these years. The ancient Rabbis must have realized its implications as well since the Haftarah reading paired with it is Ezekiel 37:15-28 about the “two sticks,” Judah and Joseph, being joined as one, just following the famous vision of the valley of Dry Bones, and thus serving as its interpretation.

When we got our UIWU Torah scroll from the late Edna Dillon, of blessed memory, in August, 2003 and we first unrolled it here in Charlotte we were curious to see where it had last been read. It had been stored in a closet for at least 30 years and was touched by no one. You guessed it–the Torah was rolled to Genesis 44:18–Vayiggash! Edna said it was only used when David was able to visit the West Union, West Virginia group, so he must have read from that passage on his last visit with them–probably sometime in the early 1970s.

http://blogs.jpost.com/content/did-british-kill-orde-wingate-part-i

Here are the Huffington Post links that have both parts:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-eisenman/post_2154_b_884195.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-eisenman/post_2153_b_884193.html

UIWU Founder David Horowitz at age 98

The initial plans for forming United Israel World Union were made in Waterville, N.Y. over the weekend of December 30 and 31, 1943 and January 1, 1944 Tevet 3,4,5 in upstate New York at the home of the Burlingames. The official founders’ meeting was held on February 5, 1944.  By-laws and a simple statement of faith were drawn up. The motto of the movement was “My House Shall Be Called A House of Prayer for All Peoples.” UIWU was officially and legally incorporated on April 17, 1944 under the laws of the State of New York. A Fifth Avenue headquarters office opened in New York on May 11, 1944. We now have the 60 year archive for UIWU stored at our new editorial headquarters offices in Charlotte, NC.

Over the past few months I have been going through those early files and have been endlessly fascinated at what I have found. We have original minutes of the first meeting, an initial handwritten membership list totaling 67, counting David, and many other historic documents, including David’s hand-drawn sketch of the stationary for the organization. I think one of the most exciting things I have found was a yellowed, typewritten, one-page outline, clearly the original, that listed out the main “creed” of UIWU under five headings.  We have reproduced it here for all of you to see.  The content is as amazing as it is simple and elegant.  Sixty years later, as I write this editorial, I am deeply moved by David’s biblical and prophetic vision.

I mention these details, not as an exercise in historical trivia, but as a vital and fascinating part of the story. Some years ago I decided to look up the dates of these meetings on the Jewish calendar. As most of our readers know, each week a specific portion from the Torah and the Prophets is read in synagogues all around the world. I was just curious as to what might have been the readings during some of these founding meetings.  I had noticed over the years that many important historical events, especially involving the affairs of the Jewish people, seemed to correlate with the themes and emphases of these weekly readings. I was amazed at what I found and want to share it with our readers.

On the very weekend of that initial founding meeting, held over New Year’s weekend (1943/44), the Torah reading is called “Vayiggash” and is taken from Gen 44:18-47:27. The Hebrew word “Vayiggash” literally means “And he drew near,” and is the opening phrase of the reading for that Sabbath. It is the moving account of how Judah, one of the twelve sons of Jacob, drew near to his lost brother Joseph who had been sold into slavery as a teenager. In these very chapters Joseph reveals his identity to his brothers.

There is a hidden metaphorical meaning here that is quite profound.  Apparently the ancient Rabbis understood it, judging by the text from the Prophets that they paired with this particular Torah reading. The brother named Judah becomes the ancestor of the Jewish people. Joseph, in contrast, is the father of Ephraim and Manasseh, the largest and most representative of the “lost tribes” that were carried into captivity by the Assyrians in the 8th century B.C.E. and totally lost their identity.  In the Genesis story Joseph is completely forgotten. It is just as if he did not exist. His father Jacob gives him up for dead.

This is precisely what the Hebrew Prophets predict will happen to the northern tribes of Israel. They are to completely lose their identity as Hebrews or Israelites and after a few centuries are mixed among the nations of the world so that everyone assumes they are Gentiles. In effect, as Israelites, like Joseph of old, they are “given up for dead.” As the prophet Hosea puts it, they will become “not my people.” However, just as Joseph rose to great heights and finally made himself known to his brothers, the Prophets predict that the “lost tribes” will regain their identity as Israelites and join with their brother Judah (the Jewish people) in a spiritual renaissance that will bring redemption to the entire world. This is surely the most dominant theme of the Hebrew Prophets.[1]

The reading from the Prophets that is attached to this particular weekly Torah portion is Ezekiel 37:15-28. There the prophet Ezekiel is told to take in his hands “two sticks,” one for “Judah and his companions,” and the other for “Joseph and his companions.” Historians refer to these as the “two houses of Israel.” In other words, not all Israelites are Jews, but all Jews are Israelites.  The Jewish people mainly represent one tribe—that of Judah, with some additions. The “lost tribes” are primarily Joseph with some elements of the other tribes associated with him.

On that historic first weekend of January, 1944 it is surely significant that as David and his small band of dedicated associates gathered to actually “found” UIWU, Jews around the world were reading in their synagogues these meaningful passages from Genesis and Ezekiel that deal with Joseph and the return of the “lost tribes.” David has no idea of this correspondence at the time and when I pointed it out to him some years ago he was astounded at the association. Many times in history it seems that significant events occur in close thematic association with these Torah readings. I suppose one could conclude that these are matters of chance or strained interpretation, but in so many cases the correspondence is so striking and impressive that it seems to witness to an “unseen Hand” at work in history. This is particularly the case when it comes to key events in the history of the people of Israel. One cannot help but wonder if that weekend in January, 1944 was such a case. Zechariah warns us not to despise the “day of small things.” Often, as redemptive events unfold it is not so much the size or public notoriety that counts, as whether the ideas involved are those “whose time has come.” We believe the founding of UIWU with its unique principles 60 years ago represents one of those pioneering efforts whose full results are yet to be seen.

[1] See our Web site article “United Israel and the Coming Redemption: Four Major Themes,” which contains some of the major texts (www.unitedisrael.org).

The book of the prophet Haggai comes to us from the 2nd year of the Persian King Darius, late summer, August, 520 BCE. It is one of the most precisely dated books in the Hebrew Bible, much like its sister Zechariah, and its twin Malachi. The three go together, like peas in the pod, both coming from that crucial time of the “restoration” of Judah to the Land following the Babylonian captivity. Collectively they are our LAST WORD from Yehovah in terms of how the redemption is to unfold. It is very likely, based on Haggai 1:12, where the Prophet is called the “messenger of Yehovah,” that Haggai is in fact the author of the book we call Malachi, as this book is just named “My Messenger,” and the name of the prophet who wrote it is not given. Both Haggai and Zechariah address their contemporary situation, as one would expect, and are concerned that the Temple be rebuilt and that the constitution of the new state of Judah be ordered according to the Torah. However, if read carefully, both clearly understand that this restoration of Judah is only a preliminary, even symbolic step, to a coming GREAT restoration of Judah and ALL Israel. Even though there is a Priest (Joshua), and a Governor (Zerubbabel) of the Davidic line, there is no anointing of the BRANCH figure of whom both Isaiah and Jeremiah had spoken. One way of putting this is to say that Haggai and Zechariah are working in the tall shadow of JEREMIAH (see especially chapters 30-31), and they know, from his clear and powerful prophecies, that the final days have not come with this tiny little beachhead return of a portion of Judah to the land. But they do believe that this return of Judah is a “sign” of things to come, and a guarantee that the Plan of Yehovah, to fill the earth with justice and righteousness, through Abraham’s seed, is not to fall to the ground.

And that leads us to the curious and fascinating references to the 24th day of the 9th month–Kislev 24 in modern Jewish parlance.

Notice, reading the book of Haggai is sequential, it takes you through the last months of the year. It begins with the Rosh Chodesh of the 6th month (August), takes you through the 21st day of the 7th month (2:1), which is the last day of Sukkoth (October), and then into December–with the 24th day of the 9th month. Haggai’s third and fourth messages come on this very day. It is a short book, and if you skim it through you will see the building sequence.

Kislev 24 is mentioned FOUR times in the second chapters, verses 10, 15, 18 and 20. Twice it is emphasized that “from THIS DAY FORWARD I will bless you,” and twice Haggai gets a special Word from Yehovah, on this very day. You have to read the whole chapter to get the context, but the message is basically that Yehovah will “SHAKE the heavens and the earth and ALL NATIONS,” overthrowing their power, anoint the chosen one (symbolized in that day by Zerubbabel), and essentially make Jerusalem the new world capital. For the DETAILS you need to go back, of course, to Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah in particular, as they set forth the entire agenda to which Haggai only briefly alludes.

This message is addressed to the two “messiahs,” the Priest and the “King” or Governor, Joshua and Zerubbabel, respectively (2:4-5). They become “signifiers” of things to come. They are not the final anointed ones, and Zechariah picks this up in his visions, especially chapters 4 and 6. These symbolic figures, as well as the promised presence of the Holy Spirit (see 2:5 and Zech 4:6!), are the guarantee that Yehovah will bring about these promises.

Notice, Zechariah begins getting his visions and messages in the 8th month of that same year (Zech 1:1), or mid-November. He has EIGHT night visions, they are all quite difficult to follow, but prophetically important in forecasting the redemptive future. There is much more detail in Zechariah, but the two, Haggai and Zechariah, should be read in tandem, as one explains the other. Now, note carefully, Kislev 24 is not specifically mentioned in Zechariah, but it is alluded to in chapter 4:8-10. It is the famous “day of small things,” that one might be led to “despise,” because after all, this tiny little remnant of Judah, beginning to lay the foundation of a nondescript temple, under the mighty thumb of the Persian empire, was hardly even worthy of the name of a city-state, much less a world kingdom, and yet had HOPES and DREAMS and promises of world dominion!

Chapters 7-14 of Zechariah, which he gets two years later, are quite different. They are straightforward and fairly plain, laying out, likely in some sequential order, both the preliminary events, and the detailed climax, of the “time of the end.”

So, what about Kislev 24? It seems to have a three-fold meaning. First, in the time of Haggai and Zechariah, it was the day MARKED for the promise that the redemption would ultimately come about, not by power, nor by might, but by the Spirit of Yehovah–but “in its time.” Second, subsequently though history, this day seems to be one upon which key events take place, perhaps only a few of which have been recognized down through history. And finally, it might well turn out that on some Kislev 24 in the future, that date will serve as a “countdown marker” for the unfolding of the mysterious 1260/1290/1335/2300 days of Daniel’s visions, which interested Sir Isaac Newton so much.

During the period of the Maccabees, when Syrian ruler Antiochus IV unleashed his great persecution against the Jews of Judea/Palestine, it was on Kislev 24 that the enemy was defeated and the Temple freed from its desecration. That is why the festival of Chanukah is celebrated beginning at sundown, at the end of Kislev 24. In other words, it is NOT so much Chanukah that is important, as its marker date: Kislev 24. It seems to become a kind of banner date in history that marks any kind of “signal” of future redemption.

Fast forward to December 9, 1917. General Allenby, leading the British forces (remember Lawrence of Arabia), liberates Jerusalem for the first time in centuries from Turkish/Muslim rule. The date on the Jewish calendar–you guessed it: Kislev 24! That evening the Jewish soldiers in the British army celebrated Chanukah and went to the Wall in openness and freedom. The Torah reading that week was Mikketz (Gen 41), where JOSEPH is raised to power and saves Judah. And the Haphtorah reading, for the special Sabbath of Chanukah, as it is today, is the fascinating Zechariah 2:14-4:7! Note how it begins: “I have returned to Zion,” which seems to be the essential meaning of THIS DAY.

It is doubtful that Allenby was aware, during the heat of the battle, of even Chanukah, but certainly he knew nothing of Kislev 24.

If we begin checking in history over the past 2520 years (remember that number), there have been numerous times when Kislev 24 has played a large part, and even a smaller more symbolic part, in the unfolding of redemptive history. For example, no matter what one’s view of Yeshua might be, it seems in all likelihood that Yeshua was conceived on this day, nine months before his birth in September 3 BCE.

Some UIWU officers also noticed some years ago that the encounter David Horowitz had at the cave with his teacher Moshe Guibbory, as recounted in his autobiography, Thirty-three Candles, was on Friday night, December 16/17, 1927–and again, you guessed it, this was Kislev 24th. The Torah reading was Vayeshev, which begins the Joseph cycle, and the Haphtorah was Amos 2:6-3:8, which seems quite appropriate. Horowitz had no idea of this until over 50 years later when it was pointed out to him by others.
Now, a tiny bit on the numbers. Note, these important visions came in the year 520 BCE. The year 2000/2001 marks 2520 years since that first Kislev 24 vision of Haggai. The number 2520 is interesting, it has several mystical mathematical properties, but one most obvious one is that it is 7 x 360, or seven “prophetic years.” A prophetic year in the Bible is 360 days, thus we get in the books of Daniel and Revelation the period of 1260 days for 3.5 years. There are a number of indications, both in the Torah and Prophets, especially Ezekiel, that a kind of “day for a year” principle applies in Prophecy, and accordingly, the official “Exile” of Joseph and Judah would last 2520 years. Perhaps this is the meaning of the phrase “after two days” and “on the third day” references in Hosea 6. Now Judah was essentially “restored” in type at least, in the year 520, but the full restoration, and the union of things between Judah and Joseph is yet to come, “after two days” according to Hosea (a day is a “thousand years” in these prophetic texts). The point is, based on this chronology, we are “in” the third day, as of the year 2000. And indeed, it does appear we have begun to experience a “shaking of all things.” Whether this is the ultimate upheaval to which Haggai refers remains to be seen.

It is also worth noting, in terms of Kislev 24, that if you add 2300 days (the figure in Daniel 8) to that day, you always, on the Jewish calendar, come to the last day of Unleavened Bread, oddly something like 6.3 years later. In other words, it is sort of a strange figure. And there are then various interesting ways, too complicated to go into here, that the periods of Daniel (1260/1290/1335) fit in, taking one to Shavuot of any given sequence of years. We do know for certain that the 2300 “days” was fulfilled as a “day for a year” running from Alexander’s defeat of Darius in 334 BCE (June 7), to the day, to June 7, 1967–when Jerusalem was liberated by the Israelis in the Six Day War. The point seems to be that Alexander’s march to Jerusalem began a period of 2300 days/years of the trampling of Jerusalem. So what this seems to indicate is that there is a larger (day for a year) fulfillment of these periods, as well as a shorter “day for a day” fulfillment, once the “countdown” begins.

One might conclude then, from these indications, that on some Kislev 24, at some year “on our days and in our time” (whether past or future), people will come to recognize that Haggai’s “shaking” did indeed begin. It does not seem likely that time has quite yet come, but every year at this time one’s thoughts go to this date, given such an important designation by Haggai and Zechariah. On a personal level, it seems it can always be a date of “renewal” for any of us, and a time of new beginnings, looking to both the past and to the future.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-feiler/how-moses-created-thanksg_b_787077.html?ref=fb&src=sp

Hollywood is rediscovering the Bible.

Two rival films about Moses, both by established producers, are vying to become the next chapter of the century-long love affair between the merchants of sin in Tinsletown and the prophet of hope in Israel. But no matter how far the filmmakers stretch their story, there are unlikely to reach the least known but perhaps most influential impact of Moses today: He is the Patron Saint of Thanksgiving.

The real story of Thanksgiving has surprising biblical roots. A few years ago, I set out on a 10,000-mile journey through the hidden symbols of American life that became the basis for my book, America’s Prophet: How the Story of Moses Shaped America. My journey began on a visit to Plymouth, Mass., where I boarded a replica of The Mayflower. A re-enactor was reading from the Bible. “Exodus 14,” he explained. “The Israelites are trapped in front of the Red Sea, and the Egyptians are about to catch them. ‘Hold your peace!’ Moses says. The Lord shall fight for you.’ Our leader read us that passage during our crossing.”

I hadn’t ever associated the biblical prophet with this most American holidays, but his fingerprints are all over our turkeys. How did this happen? How did a 3,000-year-old story become the inspiration for a contemporary American national holiday?

The answer begins with the Protestant Reformation. All through the Middle Ages, Catholics were not allowed to read the Bible directly, but the Reformation, coupled with the printing press, brought vernacular Bibles into the hands of everyday believers. Many of those believers were Protestants who felt oppressed by the Church. They related to the story of the Israelites, the descendants of Abraham who were enslaved in Egypt around 1200 B.C., were set free by Moses, then set out for the Promised Land.

The Pilgrims, a band of Protestant outcasts, saw themselves as fulfilling this biblical story. In coming to the New World, they, too, had to cross a tumultuous sea, arrive in an untested wilderness and create a new “Promised Land.” As a result, when they set sail on The Mayflower in 1620, they described themselves as the chosen people fleeing their pharaoh, King James. On the Atlantic, their leader, William Bradford, proclaimed their journey to be as vital as “Moses and the Israelites when they went out of Egypt.” And when they got to Cape Cod, they thanked God for letting them pass through their fiery Red Sea.

The pilgrims were so enamored of Moses, the Bibles they brought with them were emblazoned with pictures of Moses on the title page, and they named their children biblical virtues like Fear, Patience and Wrestling, as in “Wrestling with God,” the English translation of Israel.

As Peter Gomes, the preacher of Harvard told me, “They weren’t trying to recreate the biblical narrative. They were trying to fulfill it.” Because of them, the story of Moses became the story of America.

And because of the biblical roots of this most secular of American holidays, if your gathering threatens to descend into a familiar fracas among different faiths, factions and political persuasions, Moses, precisely because he has been used by believers and non-believers alike, Republicans and Democrats, Jews, Catholics and Protestants, may be the one figure who can unite the family and allow them all to enjoy their pumpkin pie.

This entry is part of a series, “This Month in Moses,” chronicling the 400-year relationship between the United States and “America’s Prophet.” For more information, and to read the entire series, visit Bruce Feiler’s website, or follow him on Twitter.