Don't miss this special 'It's Supernatural' episode where Sid Roth hosts Barry and Batya!


They'll be talking about the glory God is pouring out on Israel, Batya's family origins in the land, and the constant attacks coming from the nations.


The episode airs the week of the 20th of December on different networks:

Click here for stations and airing times!

Barry and Batya are interviewed by Sid Roth in the Israel Update

Barry & Batya with Sid Roth Teaser

Are you willing to bless Israel, make a difference in the lives of people, and partner with God's plan for restoration of the land of Israel?

Don't miss this special 'It's Supernatural' episode where Sid Roth hosts Barry and Batya talking about testimonies and mobile shelters.

Barry & Batya Testimonies & Shelters | Blog | Vision for Israel

Barry & Batya Talk about Shelters with Sid Roth

Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November Pogrom, was a pogrom against Jews carried out by SA paramilitary forces and civilians throughout Nazi Germany on 9–10 November 1938.

 The German authorities looked on without intervening. The name Kristallnacht ("Crystal Night") comes from the shards of broken glass that littered the streets after the windows of Jewish-owned stores, buildings and synagogues were smashed. The pretext for the attacks was the assassination of the German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan, a 17-year-old German-born Polish Jew living in Paris.

After Hitler’s seizure of power, even as Germans were being divided into “Aryans” and “non-Aryans,” the number of Jews steadily decreased through emigration to neighboring countries or overseas. This movement was promoted by the Central Office for Jewish Emigration established by Reinhard Heydrich (director of the Reich Main Security Office) in 1938.

In 1925 there were 564,378 Jews in Germany; in May 1939 the number had fallen to 213,390. The flood of emigration after the November pogrom was one of the largest ever, and by the time emigration was halted in October 1941, only 164,000 Jews were left within the Third Reich, including Austria.

The complementary ordinances to the Reich Citizenship Law, dated November 14-28, 1935, sought to define who was a Jew; it also created a basis for measures limiting the scope of Jewish occupations and the opportunities for young Jews to get an education. Following the March 1938 annexation (Anschluss) of Austria, which brought 200,000 Austrian Jews under German domination, exclusion of Jews from the economy began first through the removal of Jewish manufacturers and business chiefs and their replacement by “commissars” in charge of “Aryanization,” the expropriation of Jewish businesses.

Within a short time, from January to October 1938, the Nazis “Aryanized” 340 middle-sized and small industrial enterprises, 370 wholesale firms, and 22 private banks owned by Jews. The November pogrom was the peak of a series of events intended to expel the Jews from economic life and to force a hurried emigration.

Ernst vom Rath’s death gave the signal to the Reich propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, to unleash the pogrom against the Jews. The news of the death was received by Adolf Hitler during the traditional dinner for the “old fighters” of the Nazi movement, held in the assembly room of the Old Town Hall in Munich on the anniversary of the bloody march on the Feldherrnhalle and the unsuccessful putsch of November 9, 1923.

Desecrated Synagogues, Looted Shops, Mass Arrests

During the night of November 9-10, 1938 Jewish shops, dwellings, schools, and above all synagogues and other religious establishments symbolic of Judaism were set alight. Tens of thousands of Jews were terrorized in their homes, sometimes beaten to death, and in a few cases raped. In Cologne, a town with a rich Jewish tradition dating from the first century CE, four synagogues were desecrated and torched, shops were destroyed and looted, and male Jews were arrested and thrown into concentration camps.

At least 267 synagogues were burned down or destroyed, and in many cases, the ruins were blown up and cleared away. Approximately 7,500 Jewish businesses were plundered or laid waste. At least 177 apartment blocks or houses were destroyed by arson or otherwise.

It has rightly been said that with the November pogrom, radical violence had reached the point of murder and so had paved the road to Auschwitz.

The Times of London observed on 11 November 1938: "No foreign propagandist bent upon blackening Germany before the world could outdo the tale of burnings and beatings, of blackguardly assaults on defenseless and innocent people, which disgraced that country yesterday."

Estimates of fatalities caused by the attacks have varied. Early reports estimated that 91 Jews had been murdered. Modern analysis of German scholarly sources puts the figure much higher; when deaths from post-arrest maltreatment and subsequent suicides are included, the death toll reaches the hundreds, with Richard J. Evans estimating 638 deaths by suicide.

Historians view Kristallnacht as a prelude to the Final Solution and the murder of six million Jews during the Holocaust.

What is Kristallnacht?

What is Kristallnacht? | Vision for Israel

On November 9-10, we commemorated Kristallnacht. But what is Kristallnacht? What was its significance, and what did it foreshadow?

What is Kristallnacht? | Blog | Vision for Israel

“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse...”

The fourth reading of Sefer Devarim (The Book of Deuteronomy) is Parshat Re’eh (Deut. 11:26-16-17). The title of the Torah portion is taken from the first word of Moses’ address in the imperative: “See! (re’eh), I present before you today a blessing and a curse…”

Parshat Re’eh inaugurates a series of three consecutive Torah portions – Re’eh, Shoftim, Ki Tetzei – that contain more commandments than any other pericope in Scripture. Until now, Moses has focused on the importance of revering Hashem; the benefit and necessity of loving God with all of one’s heart, soul, and resources; and the tools they will need as a people to adapt to their new life in the Promised Land. Within the first ten chapters of the book, most of what Moses has said has come in the form of a rebuke. Yet, even his rebuke is intended to encourage and inspire the people to greatness.

This week, Moses kicks off the trilogy by putting the commands of God into perspective, explaining that the choice of the Jewish people on whether to accept the Torah and their mission is nothing short of choosing between a blessing and a curse:

The blessing: that you hearken to the commandments of the LORD, your God, that I command you today. And the curse: If you do not hearken to the commandments of the LORD, your God, and you stray from the path that I command you today, to follow gods of others, that you did not know. (Deut. 11:27-28).

At this juncture in the book, Moses’ statement represents a monumental shift in focus as he moves from the “30,000-foot overview” and gets down to the “brass tax”. In the previous parashah, Moses told the people that keeping the Torah and mitzvot is key to living a prosperous life in the Holy Land. Now, Moses begins teaching specific commandments and frames the discussion with the purview of blessings and curses. Later in the book, Moses will reframe the question by equating the blessing and the curse to a choice between life and death: “See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity (Deut. 30:15).” 

In both bookend statements, Moses fronts the prophetic ultimatum with the singular imperative “see – re’eh.” Essentially, our Torah portion and continuing to the end of the book is all about seeing i.e., perspective. The imperative beckons the reader to pause and consider the gravity of what Moses is about to say next: “STOP… THINK… CONTINUE: The blessing and the curse!”

However, what Moses commands his people to see is not merely a conjuring of visual perspective. The Hebrew word ראה (re’eh) encompasses so much more than physical perception and the content that Moses presents after delivering the imperative demonstrates his desire for the nation to see beyond themselves and to what is visible from heaven’s perspective. The dynamic application of the word ראה is evident in its diverse uses throughout the Hebrew Bible. For instance, in Ecclesiastes 1:16 the author employs the word ראה to describe the seat of human intellect – the heart – having perceived and acquired great wisdom and knowledge:

דברתי אני עם־לבי לאמר אני הנה הגדלתי והוספתי חכמה על כל־אשׁר־היה לפני על־ירושׁלם ולבי רָאָה הרבּה חכמה ודעת׃

I said to myself: “Here I have grown richer and wiser than any that ruled before me over Jerusalem, and my mind has zealously absorbed (lit. seen - ra’ah) wisdom and learning.”

Elsewhere, in I Samuel 9:9, we discover that the prophets of Israel were formerly called “seers” – a participial noun of the same root, רואה (Ro’eh). Apparently, in the generations before the Davidic dynasty, the prophets of Israel carried a title that was symbolic of their ability to “see” Godly visions. Thus, Moses’ application of the word throughout the book in lieu of its accompanying context demands the people to enter the Promised Land with clarity and understanding of the big picture. 

The fifty-two commandments that follow throughout the Torah portion all pertain to life in the Land of Israel:

These are the decrees and ordinances that you shall observe to perform in the Land that Hashem, the God of your forefathers, has given you, to possess it, all the days that you live on the Land (Deut. 12:1).

To be successful in the Land of Israel, the Jewish people must perceive the nature of their collective calling and appreciate how each individual is integral to the prosperity or failure of the mission. Ibn Ezra, one of the most distinguished Jewish biblical commentators and philosophers of the Middle Ages, comments on re’eh (Deut. 11:26) and explains that Moses simultaneously speaks to each covenant member at the individual level. The imagery can be likened to a pew sitter who processes a public address from the pulpit while all the while sensing that the preacher’s eyes are directly on them. Moses is imparting to each Jew Godly vision, understanding, and wisdom to discern blessing from curse and to choose life!

The concept of personal salvation and a personal relationship with God is not original to Christianity. Rather, the concept is rooted in Judaism by what is called in Hebrew, Ge’ulah Pratit (personal redemption). In the rabbinic commentaries, personal redemption is discernible as a class from national or corporal redemption. However, the error in Western Christian thought is the tendency to divorce the individual from communal responsibility as it pertains to a person's influence on corporal standing. Both are important concepts in Jewish thought, and Judaism teaches that a multitude of personal redemptions is added together to bring about Israel’s corporeal redemption, and ultimately a global redemption. The order is not dissimilar to Paul’s numerous statements about the priority of the gospel message - to the Jew first and then to the Gentiles (Rom 1:16; 2:9-10). 

The consequence of this understanding is that our individual actions and the decisions we make affect the merit and standing of God’s covenant community. Often, the blessings and curses described in Moses’ discourse are interpreted by Bible readers to mean that personal prosperity and blessing will come to those who are faithful to God and obedient to Torah. While it is true that there is something to be said about personal merit and how it corresponds to individual standing in the Kingdom of Heaven (Mat. 5:19; 18:4; 19:28-20:16), the blessings and curses in Deuteronomy have to do with corporeal prosperity in this life, within the confines of time and space. It is no uncertainty that there are plenty of godly individuals who live paycheck to paycheck or struggle to make ends meet. There are numerous examples and parables in the New Testament of righteous individuals struggling in the present while accumulating riches in heaven e.g., the widow who gave two pennies out of her poverty (Mk. 12:41-44) and the illustration of Lazarus who was poor in this life but merited to be welcomed by Abraham in the Kingdom of Heaven (Luke 16:19-31).

The perspective Moses is portraying pertains to national prosperity as an indicator of Israel’s success in fulfilling their covenant responsibility and achieving their national objective: Mainly, to promote righteousness and advance God-consciousness among the nations. Essentially, when the Jewish people are devout in their mission, personal redemptions are added together to accelerate the unveiling of the Master of the World and ultimately, global redemption. Thus, when Israel prospers, the world prospers. And when things are on the right track, one only needs to look to the Land of Israel and see – Blessing and prosperity among the Jewish people, rain upon the land, and abundance in the field. Yet, the message of Parshat Re’eh is that nobody should think for an instant, that they are insignificant as individuals in contributing to that vision! As Moses will explain in later chapters: 

“When such a person hears the words of this oath and they invoke a blessing on themselves thinking, ‘I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way,’ they will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry. (Deut. 29:19).’”

Thus, Parshat Re’eh is all about the opportunity that God extends to His people to receive His help and mercy so that they may elevate their collective neshamah (soul) to new heights. Re’eh is about seeing the whole of the Torah and its commandments from the proper perspective. It’s about seeing the mitzvoth with the same vision that was given to Moses with Israel coming into the Land and living according to the principles and guidelines of the Torah, which are enumerated collectively in this week’s parashah as follows:

CH. 12 | Possessing the Land and eradicating idols. Establishing God’s Sanctuary in the place that He chooses to have His name dwell. 

CH. 13 | Responding properly to false prophets and demonstrating communal cohesion when there is a threat or disruption.

CH. 14 | Contributing to the national and common welfare of the people and its leaders through the various tithes. In this way, the laborers who tend to the spiritual needs of the nation will be sustained, and when people come together to participate in the Divine Service, the Temple will be maintained and functioning. 

The motif is that every individual has something to offer to the community, whether talents, finances, or creativity, that contributes positively or negatively to the prosperity of the nation. Thus, every decision and action made on the part of the individual has the power to tilt the scales toward blessing or curse. As Moses puts it, for every covenant member, life and death come down to a choice. 

Parshat Re’eh is all about seeing the program of God and buying into it. In the 21st century, we have the luxury of looking back over the course of nearly 4,000 years of Jewish history and perceiving the moments when our people lost the vision. Even in the moments of greatest despair, we also have the benefit of seeing that in our short-sightedness, God has never abandoned us, and the opportunity He offers to recapture the vision and return to Him remains in every generation. 

Watch Batya Teaching about Parashat Re’eh.

Re'eh V5

Delve into God’s vision for the nation in Parashat Re'eh. Explore how each individual shapes collective prosperity and the importance of upholding the principles and guidelines of the Torah.

“You, Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.” 

Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, is a precious and heartwarming national holiday.

For eight days on the 25th day of Kislev (according to the Hebrew calendar), families and friends light up the candles of the Hanukkiah - a nine-branched candelabrum which is traditionally placed on the windowsill so passersby can see it, or outside of one's gate.

A popular, family-oriented activity many enjoy is walking around the old neighborhood of Jerusalem and observing the lighting of the Hanukkah candles. What a sight to see the different and creative Hanukkiahs displayed on windows and outside the doors on the street in special wind-resistant glass boxes.

Although Hanukkah is not a biblical holiday, it is still observed by religious and secular Jews and is a great cultural opportunity for parties and celebrations as it brings much joy and warmth to the country during the cold and rainy winter season.

Families and friends light the candles together, sing traditional songs, eat sufganiyot (a round, deep-fried, jelly-filled doughnut) and other oil-based foods, spin dreidels, and play games.

Hanukkah is a joyous holiday whose origin story is one of a gruesome war, a valiant and impossible victory, and the miracle of the cruse of oil.

Hanukkah commemorates the recovery of Jerusalem and the subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BCE.

With the reign of Antiochus IV, Jews were prohibited from practicing Judaism and were commanded to worship Greek gods.

When Antiochus IV invaded Jerusalem (168 BCE), killing thousands of Jews and erecting an altar for Zeus in the Holy Temple, a small group of Jews, known as Hasmoneans or Maccabees, revolted zealously to regain control of the Temple and Jerusalem.

After two years of warfare, they pushed out the Greek army - whose forces were much more powerful and well-equipped than theirs, as God almighty was on their side.

After gaining control of the holy city of Jerusalem, the Jews found the desecrated Temple ransacked and destroyed.

Bit by bit and with great care, they rededicated the Temple to the Lord, with one of the Temple's daily rituals being the Menorah which was commanded to burn continuously before the Lord always:

"Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning. In the tent of meeting, outside the curtain that shields the ark of the covenant law, Aaron and his sons are to keep the lamps burning before the Lord from evening till morning. This is to be a lasting ordinance among the Israelites for the generations to come." - Exodus 27:20-21

As the story goes, there remained only one cruse of oil which had not been defiled, containing enough oil to last only one night.

Yet, miraculously the one cruse of oil continued to provide oil lasting for eight nights, a sign of God's providence in the midst of darkness.

To this day, the Macabee's revolt is remembered by millions of Jews all over the world as an example of courage in the face of grave opposition.

The enemies of Israel were intimidating, using fear tactics to coerce them to serve other gods and forget their Jewish identity together with their calling to serve the one true God of Israel.

The Maccabees could have retreated back into the long shadows of intimidation cast by their oppressors, and yet they chose to advance upon darkness, armed with the truth, and reclaimed their rightful place in the presence of God in the Temple.

Unfortunately, the world we live in today offers us plenty of reasons to be anxious and intimidated. Wars and politics, inflation and sickness, ungodly morals plaguing the innocent, and a pandemic of the fear of men - are all looming in the background of our minds, stealing away our joy.

All this would leave us hopeless unless we put our hope and trust in God Almighty to fight our battles and give us strength to resist the enemy.

Yeshua commanded us to be a light to the world, understanding our place as sons and daughters of God, and giving us the confidence to face our daily fears head-on.

He not only commanded us to be bold for our own sake, shining forth His light but also for those who are locked in the chains of doubt:

"You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." - Matthew 5:14-16

With Him, victory is guaranteed because Yeshua sits at the right hand of the Father - King over those who oppose Him and those who surrender with a humble heart.

The Temple is a symbol of our body, mind, and soul, which often becomes contaminated by the world and its ungodly ways, and the zealousness of the Maccabees is an example of how we should fight fear and rededicate our lives to God in holiness and purity of heart.

The Hanukkah story is a great reminder of how even though fear is great, the light of God in us is much greater and can defeat the darkness.

A traditional song sung during Hanukkah is called 'Banu Hoshech Legaresh', which means: we have come to banish the darkness.

It is sung around the luminous candles of the Hanukkiah, declaring we have come to banish the darkness with light and fire and that even though each of our lights illuminates little, together, we make a great light.

The last lyrics of the song are sung even more aloud as we command the darkness to flee from us (the light), singing it twice as it grows stronger in our hearts.

So how can we combat fear and darkness in our own lives? Especially when it seems like the darkness is so much greater than us.

By carrying the light of Yeshua in our hearts, a light so great it has the authority to banish the darkness and gives us strength to encounter any enemy standing in our way:

"When Yeshua spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." - John 8:12

Not only is Yeshua the light of the world, but he gave us the privilege of being a shining beacon of hope to all those in need of courage.

As we enter into the Hanukkah season, let us remember that with each day of Hanukkah, as we add a candle to the Hanukkiah, the light grows and becomes stronger, just as we do when we rely on the Creator, who, with His words declared light into the world.

From Barry and Batya and the Vision for Israel team, we pray your hearts be illuminated with God's joy, peace, and pleasant memories with your loved ones this Hanukkah season.

Hanukkah is more than just a fun Holiday to enjoy; it is an eight-day reminder of courage against fear. Step into the true meaning of the Festival of Lights!

Hanukkah - Let Your Light Shine!  | Blog | Vision for Israel

Teachings

Barry & Batya Talk about Shelters with Sid Roth

Thursday, December 16, 2021

Are you willing to bless Israel, make a difference in the lives of people, and partner with God's plan for restoration of the land of Israel?

Recent Related Stories

What is Kristallnacht?

Friday, November 13, 2020

Parashat Re’eh: Seeing God’s Vision

Saturday, August 12, 2023

Hanukkah - Let Your Light Shine!

Friday, December 9, 2022

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