The Jewish roots of Christianity

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Bible teaching with an emphasis on Israel, prophecy and the Jewish roots of Christianity

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Episode: “To All Generations”
Discover how Bethel became a “gate[way] to heaven” (Genesis 28:17). God affirmed to Jacob the promises He made to Abraham and Isaac.
Series:Eretz Israel (The Land of Israel) (2021)”
In this eight-part television series, Dr. Jeffrey Seif takes viewers through Eretz Israel (The Land of Israel). By exploring the Bible’s accounts of the Holy Land’s past, present, and prophetic future, we discover an inextricable relationship between the people of Israel and the land of Israel. Former CBS correspondent David Dolan helps explore the modern-day struggles that accompany the re-establishment of the ancestral Jewish homeland. On-location TV footage, dramas, and Zola’s wonderful music punctuate the series.

Caption transcript for Eretz Israel (The Land of Israel) (2021): “To All Generations” (3/8)

  • 00:01 ♪♪♪
  • 00:03 David Hart: Welcome to "Our Jewish Roots," with insightful
  • 00:06 Bible teaching from Israel by Dr. Jeffrey Seif.
  • 00:09 We travel to Bethel today on "Eretz Israel,"
  • 00:13 the "Land of Israel."
  • 00:15 ♪♪♪
  • 00:25 male announcer: "Look to the north, the south,
  • 00:30 the east, the West--"
  • 00:34 ♪♪♪
  • 00:41 announcer: "--all the land which thou seest, to thee will I
  • 00:44 give it unto thy seed forever."
  • 00:50 "Indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber
  • 00:55 nor sleep."
  • 00:57 ♪♪♪
  • 01:03 announcer: "Eretz Israel."
  • 01:05 ♪♪♪
  • 01:12 David: We're so glad you've joined us today.
  • 01:13 I am David Hart.
  • 01:15 Kirsten Hart: I'm Kirsten Hart.
  • 01:16 Jeffrey Seif: I am Jeffrey Seif.
  • 01:18 You know, people that visit Israel report wonderful
  • 01:21 experiences with the Lord when they go there.
  • 01:24 Jacob had an experience too.
  • 01:26 Heaven opened up for him, didn't it?
  • 01:28 Kirsten: It did, and the vision of the ladder.
  • 01:30 Jeffrey: That's right. Kirsten: Right?
  • 01:32 That's what I think of when I think of Jacob--a stone pillow
  • 01:34 and a ladder.
  • 01:35 Jeffrey: Come out with a song.
  • 01:37 I know you're just waitin' to--
  • 01:38 ♪ We are hear climbing Jacob's ladder-- ♪♪
  • 01:40 David: We learned about it a long time ago, but there's so
  • 01:41 much more to the story that we need to hear from you today.
  • 01:44 Jeffrey: Well, it's all in the book,
  • 01:45 and we're gonna take a look.
  • 01:47 David: Yep.
  • 01:48 Dr. Seif is teaching on location today from Bethel.
  • 01:50 But, first, let's take a look at Jacob's journey.
  • 01:53 ♪♪♪
  • 01:57 announcer: And Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward
  • 02:00 Haran, and he lighted upon a certain place and tarried there
  • 02:05 all night, and he dreamed, and behold, a ladder set up on the
  • 02:11 earth, and the top of it reached to heaven.
  • 02:14 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, "I am the Lord God
  • 02:20 of Abraham, thy father, and the God of Isaac.
  • 02:24 The land where thou liest, to thee will I give it and to thy
  • 02:28 seed, and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and I
  • 02:33 will bring thee again into this land, for I will not leave thee.
  • 02:38 And Jacob rose up early and took the stone that he had put for
  • 02:42 his pillow and set it for a pillar and poured oil upon the
  • 02:46 top of it, and he called the name of the place Bethel.
  • 02:52 ♪♪♪
  • 02:57 Jeffrey: It's great to be here in the land of Israel.
  • 03:01 Glad you wanna go on the journey with me.
  • 03:04 It's not just about me and you, however.
  • 03:06 We open up our Bibles, and we learned that the likes of
  • 03:08 Avraham, Yischaq, and Yaaqob, the patriarchs,
  • 03:12 frequented this very place.
  • 03:14 Now, when I speak of "this place," in this program, we're
  • 03:17 going to a place called Bethel.
  • 03:20 Promises were made to Abraham here and to Jacob as well.
  • 03:23 Come with me. Let's check it out.
  • 03:26 ♪♪♪
  • 03:36 ♪♪♪
  • 03:46 ♪♪♪
  • 03:56 ♪♪♪
  • 04:06 ♪♪♪
  • 04:13 Jeffrey: "Like father, like son."
  • 04:14 That's what they say.
  • 04:16 And the saying is reflected well in the biblical text as well
  • 04:19 where God does the talkin'.
  • 04:21 Now, the reason why I say that--and you're going to see it
  • 04:24 as I say it--is because God has commanded particular people to
  • 04:29 have residency in a particular land given to Avraham, Yischaq,
  • 04:34 and Yaaqob, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
  • 04:37 Here you can see it.
  • 04:39 Present Israel is just a little sliver there, carved up more
  • 04:43 and more, it seems, by the month by political pressures
  • 04:47 wanting to enclose it.
  • 04:49 When I look at the biblical promise, however, we see the
  • 04:52 Lord leading Avraham and his ilk down here, wanting to expand it.
  • 04:57 Well, our story takes place today with Yaaqob, Jacob, in
  • 05:02 Be'er Sheva, and he is commanded to go northward up to Haran to
  • 05:06 marry, and on the way, he's gonna visit this place
  • 05:09 right here, Bethel.
  • 05:10 It's a place we're about to visit.
  • 05:12 And why?
  • 05:14 Because God visited him there.
  • 05:16 Let's check out the story.
  • 05:18 Come with me to Bethel and see what God might say to you as you
  • 05:22 walk in the footsteps of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
  • 05:25 here in the land of Israel.
  • 05:27 ♪♪♪
  • 05:37 Jeffrey: Followers of Yeshua, Jesus, that is, have heard
  • 05:40 the term "altar call."
  • 05:42 In fact, even those that don't follow heard the term.
  • 05:45 They haven't necessarily gone to the altar.
  • 05:47 Those that are familiar with the language aren't necessarily
  • 05:50 familiar with where the term "altar call" comes from.
  • 05:54 Comes from the Hebrew Bible.
  • 05:57 And those of us that have come to the altar, some of us have
  • 06:00 come with choir singing behind us the song "I Surrender All,"
  • 06:06 which reminds me, those who come oftentimes don't come
  • 06:11 without a fight.
  • 06:13 Police officer in another life.
  • 06:14 I've been in chases, and someone says, "Okay, I give up."
  • 06:17 Sometimes you're on the run, and we just give up, and we say,
  • 06:20 "Lord, I surrender."
  • 06:23 That reminds me of the story for today.
  • 06:25 We're looking at a fellow Yaaqob, Jacob,
  • 06:28 and he's on the run.
  • 06:30 He's not really running from God now.
  • 06:32 He's minded to run to him, and you can see God beckoning him,
  • 06:36 his way.
  • 06:37 The story, of course, as you may know, if you're familiar with
  • 06:40 it, is that Jacob has been on the outs now with his brother,
  • 06:43 Esau, who's minded to kill him.
  • 06:46 And so, Mom and Dad say, you know, this would be a good time
  • 06:48 for you to go on a journey, son.
  • 06:51 So, ostensibly, he sent off to Haran, Syria, that is, to find a
  • 06:55 wife, but, really, in so many ways, he's running for his life.
  • 06:59 He is on the run, big time, and as is the case, when people find
  • 07:03 themselves in a precarious place, at wits' ends that he is,
  • 07:08 first time in his life he's on his own.
  • 07:10 His mother's been takin' care of him for all of it.
  • 07:13 He lays down his head, and absent a mother to take care of
  • 07:16 him and a father to guide him from a distance, he lays down
  • 07:19 his head, restless, and the Lord shows up at a place called
  • 07:24 Bethel, House of God.
  • 07:27 He lays his head down, we're told, and he sees a vision of
  • 07:30 what we call Jacob's Ladder.
  • 07:33 Another song in the Christian church,
  • 07:34 "We Are Climbing Jacob's Ladder."
  • 07:36 It's been made popular.
  • 07:38 Well, one can think of a fireman going up and down a ladder.
  • 07:41 That's not accurate, however.
  • 07:43 Better, I think, is a "ziggurat," these steep pyramids
  • 07:46 found in this part of the world, a staircase going up to heaven.
  • 07:50 Well, never mind that.
  • 07:52 Jacob sees a vision of God looking to communicate with him.
  • 07:55 He's on his way out, wondering what his future will be, and the
  • 07:58 Lord shows up, and he assures him in no uncertain terms that
  • 08:01 this place--that "I will be with you," we're told in verse 13.
  • 08:06 He sees the ladder, and the Lord says, "I am the God of Avraham,
  • 08:11 Abraham, Yischaq, Isaac, and now you, Jacob."
  • 08:15 And he says, in effect, "I will give this land--" very, very,
  • 08:19 very clearly-- "the land on which you lie I will give to you
  • 08:26 and your descendants."
  • 08:29 "Eretz Israel," "The Land of Israel."
  • 08:32 "This very place, I'll give it to you."
  • 08:36 He says in verse 15, "I am with you," and then he says after
  • 08:41 that, "and I will keep you."
  • 08:43 Why is it, by the way, today, people that are religious, they
  • 08:46 claim to be Bible readers and wanna say, "God is not minded to
  • 08:49 keep the Jewish people.
  • 08:51 He's not minded to be with the Jewish people"-- that there's no
  • 08:53 relationship between Jewish people and real estate?
  • 08:57 Those that speak that way, they're just not Bible readers.
  • 09:00 They might be religious in some sense, but they've lost sight of
  • 09:03 the literature.
  • 09:04 God, in no uncertain terms, visits this fellow Jacob,
  • 09:07 Yaaqob.
  • 09:08 His name is going to be changed to "Israel," as Bible readers
  • 09:11 know full well, and there's an abiding promise with him to be
  • 09:15 with him, to keep him, and that his descendants are bound to a
  • 09:18 parcel of earth--very, very, very, clear--in response to
  • 09:23 which Jacob, with this in his mind, how awesome is this place.
  • 09:28 He recognizes it as the gateway to heaven.
  • 09:31 He is so touched spiritually, he will then refer to the place
  • 09:35 that had a name beforehand as "Bet El," "The House of God,"
  • 09:39 and there he will worship.
  • 09:43 Those that worship the Lord in the house of God today,
  • 09:46 respective churches, friends, consider the origin
  • 09:49 of the altar.
  • 09:51 Consider worship in the Hebrew Bible, and remember,
  • 09:54 we're learning from a man, we're learning from experiences that
  • 09:57 are bound up with the people, with the land, with destiny, the
  • 10:01 Jewish people here, the Eretz Israel in the land of Israel.
  • 10:09 announcer: Our offer on this program, "Whose Land Is It?"
  • 10:12 Does Israel belong to the Jews?
  • 10:14 And, if so, who says so?
  • 10:16 In this DVD and booklet, Zola Levitt offers irrefutable
  • 10:19 reasons why the Jews are the Holy Land's rightful owners.
  • 10:23 Zola also defeats key arguments that attempt to undermine
  • 10:26 God's covenants with the Jewish people.
  • 10:28 "Whose Land Is It?"
  • 10:30 will arm believer and unbeliever alike to defend Israel's right
  • 10:33 to the land.
  • 10:35 Call 1-800-WONDERS and ask for the DVD booklet or both.
  • 10:40 David: Join us right now for additional content that is only
  • 10:43 available on our social media sites, Facebook,
  • 10:45 YouTube, and Twitter.
  • 10:48 Visit our website, levitt.com, for the current and past
  • 10:51 programs, the television schedule, tour information, and
  • 10:55 our free monthly newsletter, which is full of insightful
  • 10:58 articles and news commentary.
  • 11:00 View it online, or we can ship it directly to your mailbox
  • 11:03 every month.
  • 11:05 Also on our website is the online store.
  • 11:07 There you can order this week's resource, or you can always give
  • 11:10 us a call at 1-800-WONDERS.
  • 11:14 Your donations to Our Jewish Roots, help us to support these
  • 11:18 organizations as they bless Israel.
  • 11:21 David: Please remember, we depend on tax-deductible
  • 11:23 donations from viewers like you.
  • 11:26 David: For many, a trip to the Holy Land
  • 11:28 is the dream of a lifetime.
  • 11:33 The Bible truly comes alive as you see the sites where so many
  • 11:36 biblical events happened.
  • 11:39 Come on a Zola Tour to see Israel in Petra.
  • 11:42 ♪♪♪
  • 11:44 David: See the land of the Bible for yourself.
  • 11:46 ♪♪♪
  • 11:49 David: Contact us to reserve your dream of a lifetime.
  • 11:52 ♪♪♪
  • 11:57 David: Many of the places that you see in the series,
  • 11:59 we take you on our tour to Israel two times a year.
  • 12:03 We go both in the fall and the spring.
  • 12:04 We invite you to join us.
  • 12:07 You can find all the information right here on levitt.com.
  • 12:09 Kirsten: One of the places that you filmed on this program,
  • 12:14 Bethel, or Bet El, "House of God," we don't actually
  • 12:17 go to on tour.
  • 12:19 Is it open?
  • 12:21 You got there to film.
  • 12:22 Jeffrey: Well, we'll go off the beaten path a little bit,
  • 12:24 places where visitors to the Holy Land don't always frequent.
  • 12:29 You know, tours stay in Israel proper by today's boundaries.
  • 12:34 Bethel, of course, belonged to Israel yesterday, but now it
  • 12:37 goes under Palestinian autonomy, but we sneak under the wire, and
  • 12:44 we shoot there.
  • 12:46 David: I remember driving by Bethel on tour, and these homes
  • 12:48 are built, like, five stories high, where families
  • 12:51 all live together.
  • 12:52 I kind of like that.
  • 12:54 Jeffrey: Well, I like it too, and what's interesting, to me,
  • 12:56 about that is the chasm between the rhetoric and the reality.
  • 13:00 Those homes are paid for in cash.
  • 13:05 They're built up, step by step, by Palestinian families, many of
  • 13:09 whom cried, "poverty," and the like, and I don't wanna make
  • 13:12 light of pain and suffering and poverty, but you can drive all
  • 13:16 throughout Israel, both the West Bank and Israel proper, and find
  • 13:22 Arab-Muslim communities that are thriving,
  • 13:25 and that's an example of it.
  • 13:27 People think, "Oh, those mean Jews.
  • 13:30 You're just keeping those poor Arabs under their thumbs."
  • 13:33 Well, you wouldn't know that if you look at the real estate
  • 13:36 because these houses are gorgeous, and it's paid for with
  • 13:39 Palestinians earning money from the Jewish state.
  • 13:44 Kirsten: Which is something that people need to see for
  • 13:46 themselves, and it is eye-opening to travel to Israel
  • 13:50 when the news shows one view and the truth is a totally different
  • 13:55 other view, and that's what we get to bring people
  • 13:58 when they go on tour with us.
  • 14:00 Jeffrey: Yeah, when people go there and they see it, they
  • 14:02 really sense the difference between what they hear
  • 14:05 and what really is.
  • 14:07 It's like that with political discourse in America, true,
  • 14:10 that, you know, you just get different spins on things
  • 14:13 according to political agendas.
  • 14:16 I just like to get to the land, and I hope, too, that you that
  • 14:20 watch us--of course, we're bringing Jewish views on
  • 14:24 biblical news, but I hope you would construe it as truer to
  • 14:29 what really is at play in the world and in the Word.
  • 14:33 There's lots of spinning things around, but we like to tell it
  • 14:37 the way it is, and hopefully, you find value in it.
  • 14:41 David: One of the places we do take you on our tour is the
  • 14:43 Old Jerusalem Wall, one of our favorite places to go.
  • 14:46 David Dolan is there right now with our history lesson.
  • 14:49 Let's go there right now.
  • 14:51 Jeffrey: David Dolan's backdrop this week is the old
  • 14:54 city of Jerusalem, a great vista from which to continue his
  • 14:58 remarkable saga of the modern state of Israel.
  • 15:04 David Dolan: Behind me are the walls of the old city built
  • 15:06 by Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman leader.
  • 15:11 This area was a center of World War I.
  • 15:15 The British forces in the area were led
  • 15:17 by General Edmund Allenby.
  • 15:20 During World War I, the British high commissioner in Cairo
  • 15:23 promised the Arab leader of the whole region, Sharif Hussein,
  • 15:27 down in Mecca, that, if the allies were victorious in the
  • 15:30 war, they would help establish a number of Arab states after the
  • 15:34 war, but he also said that they wanted to keep this area,
  • 15:39 Palestine, as a separate entity with the idea that the Jews
  • 15:42 would have a state here, and also, to the north,
  • 15:45 Lebanon as a separate entity where the Christians
  • 15:48 could have some autonomy.
  • 15:50 Sharif Hussein agreed to this proposal.
  • 15:52 In 1919, his son, Faisal, endorsed this proposal as well.
  • 15:58 Well, in 1917, General Allenby, right behind me here, walked by
  • 16:04 foot through Jaffa Gate after British forces captured the city
  • 16:09 of Jerusalem.
  • 16:10 He said, "I cannot ride--" even though he was a calvary leader
  • 16:13 with a great horse-- "I cannot ride where the Messiah walked."
  • 16:17 And the people cheered as he came into the city.
  • 16:20 Well, just one month before, the British government in London
  • 16:24 had promised the Jewish people a national homeland here
  • 16:28 in Palestine.
  • 16:29 It was called the Balfour Declaration.
  • 16:32 Less than one year after the Balfour Declaration was
  • 16:35 released, World War I, was over.
  • 16:39 General Allenby's forces defeated the Turks up in the
  • 16:42 Valley of Megiddo, north of Jerusalem.
  • 16:46 The allies all gathered together a couple years later at
  • 16:50 San Remo, to decide how to carve up the Ottoman Empire,
  • 16:54 who would get what, et cetera.
  • 16:56 And a mandate was given to Great Britain to establish a Jewish
  • 17:00 national home here in Palestine, and a mandate was given to the
  • 17:04 French to do the same up in Lebanon and in Syria.
  • 17:08 And indeed, states were created for the Arabs
  • 17:11 as the British had promised.
  • 17:14 Transjordan, just to the east of us was created out of what was
  • 17:18 the mandate of Palestine.
  • 17:20 The Jews weren't so thrilled about this because that meant
  • 17:22 that two-thirds of the area that they thought they could set a
  • 17:25 Jewish state up in had been cut off from Jewish settlement.
  • 17:29 But still, it was implied they could settle everywhere west of
  • 17:32 the Jordan River, which would include what is today known as
  • 17:35 the West Bank, but in 1922, Winston Churchill implied that
  • 17:40 that would not be the case, that the Jewish state
  • 17:43 would be smaller still.
  • 17:44 Jews could settle in parts of western Palestine,
  • 17:48 but not necessarily in all of it.
  • 17:50 Well, also, in 1922, the League of Nations endorsed this British
  • 17:55 mandate and the French mandate.
  • 17:57 But in 1921, before that happened, in May, the very first
  • 18:02 wide-scale Arab Resistance to the returning Jews took place.
  • 18:07 Major riots in the cities of the land, nearly 50 Jews were
  • 18:11 slaughtered down on the coast in Jaffa and in many other
  • 18:14 parts of the area.
  • 18:17 Through the 1920s, Jews kept coming back.
  • 18:20 Nearly 60,000 made aliyah in what was known as the fourth
  • 18:23 wave of aliyah.
  • 18:25 Most of them came from Russia and from Poland.
  • 18:28 They were city dwellers.
  • 18:29 Most of them settled not in the farms but down in Tel Aviv and
  • 18:33 other places.
  • 18:35 Well, it wasn't long after that, in 1929, that the Arab pogroms
  • 18:40 broke out that were the worst in the history of the Jews
  • 18:44 returning.
  • 18:45 That was led by Haj Amin Husseini,
  • 18:48 the Muslim leader of Jerusalem.
  • 18:50 Hundreds of Arabs poured out from the Temple Mount,
  • 18:53 and over 113 Jews were killed.
  • 18:56 The Jewish community of Hebron was completely slaughtered.
  • 18:59 The chief rabbi hung upside down and skinned alive.
  • 19:03 It was a terrible pogrom, and it was just a sign of the great
  • 19:06 violence that was to come in the 1930s and '40s, all of this as
  • 19:11 Jews kept coming back, that increasing in the '30s,
  • 19:14 as a man named Adolf Hitler took control of Germany.
  • 19:19 ♪♪♪
  • 19:21 Jeffrey: Critics of the modern Zionist enterprise argue
  • 19:23 that "It's thoroughly secular.
  • 19:25 Nothing spiritual happening here.
  • 19:27 These people don't even care about God, Bible,
  • 19:29 religion--nothin'."
  • 19:30 Well, if that's the case, why is it called Zionism, which harks
  • 19:33 back to Zion, Tsiyyon, a biblical place?
  • 19:37 And for that matter, why is the symbol the star of David?
  • 19:42 David is a biblical personality, now, isn't he?
  • 19:45 And why is that flag of Israel blue and white, reminiscent of a
  • 19:49 prayer shawl that Jewish people drape over themselves?
  • 19:53 There's more spirituality going on here than people credit it,
  • 19:57 seems to me, David.
  • 19:58 What says you?
  • 20:00 David: Well, I think that's right.
  • 20:01 It's true that only about 30, 35% of Israeli Jews regularly go
  • 20:06 to synagogue, but then, on Yom Kippur, it's up to, like, 70%,
  • 20:10 and most of them fast as well.
  • 20:12 And, you know, you scratch the surface of a Jew, you find
  • 20:13 somebody that has those biblical connections.
  • 20:16 Jeffrey: Right, and you scratch the surface of the Jews,
  • 20:18 you'll find some people that are traumatized from the Holocaust.
  • 20:21 "Where was God when we were suffering?"
  • 20:24 It might take some time for people to work out that pain
  • 20:27 and recover their religious equilibrium.
  • 20:30 David: Well, that's right, and, yet still, the leaders of
  • 20:32 David Ben-Gurion and the others, when they met just here in
  • 20:35 Tel Aviv at Independence Hall, to choose a name for it,
  • 20:38 the country, Ben-Gurion said, "It has to be Israel."
  • 20:41 Well, that, of course, comes from Jacob.
  • 20:43 Jacob got that name from God.
  • 20:46 So even there, he was a secular man, mostly, but he was looking
  • 20:49 into the book to get the name of the country.
  • 20:51 It's very connected.
  • 20:53 Jeffrey: Yes, and that's very telling.
  • 20:54 You can see the connections, to use your word there.
  • 20:56 The Bible says that people will be brought back initially
  • 20:58 in unbelief.
  • 21:00 So even the spiritual skepticism fulfills Bible prophecy.
  • 21:04 David: It really does, and, of course, so literally we have
  • 21:07 Israelis coming from over 100 countries from the far corners
  • 21:11 of the earth, as Isaiah 11 and other places said.
  • 21:14 You know, I've been reporting that, all the Russian Jews
  • 21:16 coming back, and I'll never forget, after the scuds fell on
  • 21:19 this city behind us in 1991, when Yitzhak Shamir, the Prime
  • 21:22 Minister, called upon the nation to go to the synagogues and give
  • 21:26 thanks to God for no casualties.
  • 21:28 That was a miracle, and the places were packed,
  • 21:30 all over the country, with people doing just that.
  • 21:33 Jeffrey: One of a number of miracles that works out
  • 21:35 in Israel.
  • 21:36 Your comment reminds me of the statement, "There's no atheists
  • 21:38 in foxholes."
  • 21:40 David: That's exactly right.
  • 21:41 Jeffrey: Pushed against the wall, people do tend to turn
  • 21:43 their hearts upward.
  • 21:45 David: Well, they do, and they are doing that more and
  • 21:47 more here.
  • 21:49 Jeffrey: Yes, there's so much happening here in the hearts and
  • 21:51 the minds of those that live here, but beyond that and beyond
  • 21:55 the own self-determination that resonates amongst the people
  • 21:58 that live here, there's God at work in the world.
  • 22:01 We see it.
  • 22:03 When we open up the Bible on the one hand and open up the
  • 22:06 newspaper on the other, we can see congruity as we're observing
  • 22:10 God watching over his word to perform it here, the Eretz
  • 22:15 Israel, in the land of Israel.
  • 22:18 ♪♪♪
  • 22:20 [singing in Hebrew]
  • 23:46 David: That was Psalm 137, sung by the beautiful
  • 23:49 Israeli actress.
  • 23:51 We really enjoy having her being a part of this program.
  • 23:54 Kirsten: Well, she played Esther for our series "For Such
  • 23:56 a Time as This."
  • 23:58 She's gorgeous, but also, Dr. Seif, that spot that you
  • 24:01 and David were just at, looking over the Mediterranean into
  • 24:05 Tel Aviv, was a gorgeous view.
  • 24:07 What a vista.
  • 24:09 Jeffrey: It's a great view, and it's the old and the new.
  • 24:11 Jaffa was originally the city, and Tel Aviv was a little
  • 24:14 suburban area, but now Tel Aviv has grown so much
  • 24:17 and continues to do so.
  • 24:19 It's a beautiful backdrop, but I'm glad to be there.
  • 24:21 Kirsten: Quick question on that.
  • 24:22 You said, "Jaffa."
  • 24:24 I've heard "Yaffa."
  • 24:25 What's the difference? People call it both.
  • 24:27 Jeffrey: Yeah, it's a "yud," the first letter in Hebrew.
  • 24:30 There isn't a "J," so it's "Yaffa" in Hebrew, "Jaffa"
  • 24:35 for an English equivalent.
  • 24:37 Kirsten: And I just have to say to all of you watching, if
  • 24:39 you want to see that vista for yourself, that's literally the
  • 24:43 first places that--we get off the plane, we get on our bus,
  • 24:47 that's the first thing we do once your feet touch Israel is
  • 24:50 take you to that very spot that you just showed us with David.
  • 24:54 Jeffrey: Yes, it's very meaningful to Jews, too,
  • 24:56 Tel Aviv.
  • 24:58 The early pictures are striking when it was just sand dunes
  • 25:01 and nothingness.
  • 25:03 And that big, modern city speaks to all kinds of development, and
  • 25:08 Jewish people will think of dint of determination.
  • 25:11 There is that, to be sure but perhaps the voice of prophecy as
  • 25:15 well, giving a voice to the fact that, one day, Israel will
  • 25:20 emerge afresh out of the ashes.
  • 25:22 Jewish people don't always process things
  • 25:24 with a religious perspective.
  • 25:26 In the wake of the Holocaust, a lot are a little skittish
  • 25:30 about religion, on the whole, based on the question
  • 25:33 of "Where was the Lord when all this happened?"
  • 25:36 Well, Israel is an emergent experience in the wake of it
  • 25:40 all, but in any case, it is beautiful, to be sure.
  • 25:44 David: So many takeaways from today's program.
  • 25:46 David Dolan mentioned--and something that just has
  • 25:48 resonated in my mind--that only 35% of Israelis
  • 25:52 attend synagogue.
  • 25:54 Jeffrey: Yeah, and that might even be ambitious to say that,
  • 25:57 and that might only be because there's a large segment of
  • 26:00 Orthodox Jews in Israel.
  • 26:03 Jewish people tend to be secular, and inasmuch as, you
  • 26:05 know, people will talk about Christmas and
  • 26:08 Easter--Christians, you know--there's Passover
  • 26:11 and Yom Kippur Jews.
  • 26:12 It's not part of social life on a weekly basis.
  • 26:17 For me, and I would commend to you, I believe in experimental
  • 26:21 religion--experiential religion, I should say, that is, you know,
  • 26:25 been touched by God.
  • 26:27 The reason why I find value in all of this is because the Lord
  • 26:30 found value in me, and I had an experiment--an experience at a
  • 26:35 moment that really brought it all alive to me, and many Jewish
  • 26:39 people haven't had that.
  • 26:40 The Jewish religion is just that, a religion, as opposed to
  • 26:44 something that's part of our experience as we make our
  • 26:47 journey through life.
  • 26:49 Kirsten: Well, I love what you mentioned about God bringing
  • 26:51 your soul and your spirit alive as he's doing Eretz Israel with
  • 26:56 the Land of Israel.
  • 26:57 We can literally see that when we land in Tel Aviv.
  • 27:00 We see that when we go to Jerusalem in every site, and
  • 27:03 that country is not only bringing people alive in their
  • 27:06 spirit, he's bringing the land alive,
  • 27:07 and that's the miracle of Israel.
  • 27:09 Jeffrey: Yes, part of the life is the love
  • 27:10 in the land as well too.
  • 27:12 Jewish people, a gracious people in Israel and warm,
  • 27:16 loving, caring, and sharing.
  • 27:17 Christians and Jews, all are welcome.
  • 27:20 Muslims are come--are welcome to come in peace
  • 27:23 and be friends as well.
  • 27:24 David: So much more to come in this series.
  • 27:26 Thank you for joining us today.
  • 27:27 We end today's program with--
  • 27:30 Jeffrey: Sha'alu Shalom Yerushalayim.
  • 27:32 Kirsten: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
  • 27:35 ♪ Oooh ♪
  • 27:39 [singing in Hebrew]
  • 28:04 ♪♪♪
  • 28:14 ♪♪♪
  • 28:24 ♪♪♪

Episodes in this series

  1. The Land Promised
  2. Promised to the Next Generation
  3. To All Generations
  4. Entering the Promised Land
  5. Fighting for the Promised Land
  6. Promised Forever
  7. Jesus and the Promised Land
  8. Israel Fulfilling Prophecy

Guest organizations and links