Free Republic

Management gurus tell us, “Personnel is policy.” Southern mothers say it differently. “You can tell everything about someone from his friends.” Historians will look at the men Pope Francis promoted. They will draw interesting conclusions. Meet one of the pope’s closest aides. Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga. He faces appalling charges of financial corruption. They keep getting worse. Maradiaga’s handpicked deputy stands accused of sex abuse. Maradiaga seems to have more in common with Marxist politicians than we thought. In socialist systems from Venezuela to Soviet Russia, the oligarchs might sound like ascetics. But in fact they live like Tsars. The only...

The seal was found ten feet from where the same archaeological team had already found another one belonging to King HezekiahAn archaeological discovery near Jerusalem’s Temple Mount may be proof of the life of the biblical prophet Isaiah, according to the Biblical Archaeology Review. A broken 8th-century BCE clay seal impression – known as a “bulla”– seems to contain an inscription that reads “Belonging to Isaiah,” and a partial spelling of the word “prophet” next to it. As read in the article published by The Algemeiner, Dr. Eilat Mazar, a Hebrew University archeologist whose team discovered the seal in an...

Why do I say that I am an unashamed Palestinian Evangelical? Because there are those who would try to put shame upon me for either of these identities, whether by demeaning the word "Palestinian" or the word "Evangelical." In this article, as with others, I will attempt to examine both parts of our identity as Christian Palestinian Evangelicals. As always, I want to build bridges of understanding between my community and my brothers and sisters in other parts of the world. And spoiler alert – I am also going to invite you to join us at our upcoming Christ at...

https://youtu.be/TqQL--1Rx20

I won’t make any assumptions about how many readers noticed I took a three-month break from column writing. Nevertheless, I want to explain why. I needed the time to finish the first volume of the biggest project of my life as a writer, a commentary on the first five books of the Bible, or what are called the Torah in Hebrew. The commentary is addressed to people of every faith and, especially, to people of no faith. I have believed all my life that the primary crisis in America and the West is the abandonment of Judeo-Christian values, or, one...

I learned today "Oprah" Winfrey was born "Orpah" Winfrey. "Orpah" is a very interesting Biblical name, one up there with Hamen and Pharoah. It means, in this context "neck" and is a specific reference to turning away from G-d. Specifically, Orpah was the sister and sister-in-law of Ruth, married to Chillion. When the two brothers died, their mother-in-law (Naomi) urged the sisters to return to their people and to their "gods." Ruth refused. Orpah gladly recanted her adopted people and G-d, and went back to Moab. There she "gave" herself to so many men she was likened to a threshing...

I'm a baby-boomer. American-born Mom was the child of Polish Jews scrapping by through the Great Depression in the land of plenty. They lost everything. Nothing went to waste ever again. We barely threw a garbage bag out once a week. Her favorite times of year were the baseball and holiday seasons. She loved wintertime songs, so many written by Jewish immigrants and their firstborn. The music reminded her of good times during a rocky early life. Judy Garland's rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" captivated Mom. Carl Sigman's 1949 lyrics to "A Marshmallow World," performed by Bing Crosby, Ella...

Once we are through Thanksgiving -- one of the two truly unique American holidays – I take out my considerable collection of Christmas music and devote my listening almost exclusively to this genre. While recently listening, I spent some time thinking about what a great country I am blessed to live in -- particularly as a Jew. Many long-time readers know I wrote (during three Christmas seasons) The Jewish Joy of Christmas Music, The Jewish Joy of Christmas Lights and the Jewish Joy of Christmas Services. I highly suggest you reflect back on these columns because they will give you...

Yes Sholom Rubashkin Is FACTUALLY Innocent For my dear friends who have embraced darkness at a time of great joy, understand that your scary swan song is reminiscent of one who greets the news that a 95 year old has survived a quadruple heart attack (may Hashem protect all) with a loud “he's not worth celebrating. I remember him when he was six months old and he once spat up on his grandmother.” The only difference here is that the only vomit in this case are the lies and negativity themselves. Before jumping head first into the mud (we will,...

It was the first time Trump has used the presidential power...Sholom Rubashkin, who ran...the country's largest kosher meat-processing company...Rubashkin's longtime attorney, Guy Cook, praised the decision, saying his client "has finally received justice." "The sentence previously imposed was unfair, unjust and essential a life sentence," he said via email. "President Trump has done what is right and just. The unrelenting efforts on Rubashkin's behalf have finally paid off."

Just like during the original Christmas, Jesus' birth will not be celebrated in Nazareth this year -- though this time, it's being blamed on President Trump. Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel has caused a backlash in the region, particularly among Muslims, and the reaction's reverberated to Nazareth, where the town's mayor, Ali Salam, announced Thursday that all planned Christmas events would be canceled.

Chanukkah Candle Lighting Blessings Please note that this page contain the name of God. If you print it out, please treat it with appropriate respect. If you do not have experience reading transliteration please see the Guide to Transliteration. One candle is added to the menorah each night. The first night, you light only the shammus (the one at a different height) and one Chanukkah candle. By the eighth night, you light all of the candles. Candlelighting Procedure Candles should be added to the menorah from right to left (like Hebrew writing). See animation at right. The shammus candle is...

America in the Bible Part 2 For foundation see: America in the Bible and a great sign http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/3604458/posts America is daughter of Babylon in the Tanakh and Babylon in the New Covenant Isaiah 47 1 “Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; Sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans! For you shall no more be called Tender and delicate. 2 Take the millstones and grind meal. Remove your veil, Take off the skirt, Uncover the thigh, Pass through the rivers. 3 Your nakedness shall be uncovered, Yes, your shame will...

CM speaks with North Central Lieutenancy of Order of Holy Sepulchre CHICAGO (ChurchMilitant.com) - Members of a 900-year-old order of Catholic knights are fighting to preserve access to Christian sites in the Holy Land. Heirs to the first Crusaders, the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem is tasked with "all the activities and initiatives which are necessary to support the Christian presence in the Holy Land." On October 22, the North Central Lieutenancy (division) uanimously approved "Perpetual Preservation of Access to Christian Sites," a resolution of support for the Christian presence in Jerusalem. On Wednesday, Church Militant spoke...

No sooner had it become a national holiday than America’s Jews took to its growing repertoire of rituals with gusto. Thanksgiving was a day in which “all classes and masses participated and delivered the same Yankee Doodle with slight variations,” observed one San Francisco Jew in 1884. Much like their neighbors, America’s Jewish citizens prepared a sumptuous repast at home and saw to it that the underprivileged among them, especially those of their coreligionists in orphanages and old-age homes, were treated to a turkey with all the trimmings. [snip] Focusing on what they had in common rather than on the...

* Soros says he had been targeted by an administration "stoking anti-Muslim sentiment and employing anti-Semitic tropes reminiscent of the 1930s."* In July, Prime Minister Viktor Orban launched a nationwide television and billboard advertising campaign accusing Soros of devising Europe's refugee influx.* The Hungarian premier has often vilified Soros, whose ideals are squarely at odds with Orban's view that European culture is under an existential threat from migration and multiculturalism.Hungarian-born billionaire George Soros is denouncing a propaganda campaign waged against him by the government in his native country. Soros, whose political views are in stark contrast to Budapest's ruling Fidesz...

Hezekiah’s religious reforms sought to centralize worshipA millennia-old latrine discovered at Tel Lachish in Israel might reveal some interesting insights into Biblical history. According to Sa’ar Ganor and Igor Kreimerman, who conducted the excavations on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), the latrine could be evidence of King Hezekiah’s religious reforms enacted throughout the Kingdom of Judah in the eighth century B.C.E. The archaeologists detail their discovery in the article “Going to the Bathroom at Lachish” in the November/December 2017 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. The latrine discovered in what may be a shrine at Lachish. Photo: Courtesy of...

America in the Bible and a great sign Isaiah 46 8 “Remember this, and show yourselves men; Recall to mind, O you transgressors. 9 Remember the former things of old, For I am EL, and there is no other; I am ELoHIM, and there is none like Me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’ End אַחֲרִית ʼachărîyth, akh-ar-eeth'; from H310; the last or end, hence, the future; also posterity:—(last, latter) end (time), hinder (utter) -most, length, posterity, remnant,...

Quite a banquet will take place Thursday night in London to mark the centenary of the Balfour Declaration. That’s the letter in which Britain announced its support for the establishment in Palestine of what became the state of Israel. The letter was sent a century ago to a leader of British Jewry, Lord Rothschild, from Britain’s foreign minister, Lord Balfour. The nub: “His Majesty’s Government views with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” Its enormous impact was acknowledgment by the world’s then-mightiest empire of the legitimacy of Jewish claims to Israel. That the...

Man Versus Beast There’s really only one thing a man needs to do to gain a woman’s respect. He needs to be a man. The good news is that women want a man. The even better news is that there aren’t many to go around—which means that if you can be one, you‘re at the head of the pack. What is a man? A man is a multi-storied, burning furnace with a cooling system on the roof. A two legged, upright, impulsive, passion-driven beast with a brain that keeps him in check. If there’s no beast—well, why would a woman...