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Miracle on the Mountain
The Prophets of Baal Are Slaughtered” by Gustave Doré, 1866. Photo: Wikimedia
JNS.org – This week we had the unusual opportunity of marking the leap day of Feb. 29. But Jews, who are characteristically generous, don’t have just a leap day. We have a whole extra month.
With a full 13th month of Adar II, the Haftarah read in shul this week will be a well-known biblical story from the First Book of Kings, which is not usually read in an ordinary calendar year. It is the famous story of Elijah the prophet, and his fight against the idolatrous King Ahab and his heathen wife Queen Jezebel, who actively promoted paganism in the Holy Land and had many of the Hebrew prophets put to death.
The Israelites were wavering between the worship of Baal and the worship of the true God of Israel. Elijah decides that dramatic action is needed to bring his people back from idolatry and confusion to monotheism and faith in the one God. He challenges Ahab to a duel, not with Colt .45s, but with prayer.
The 450 prophets of the idol Baal and Elijah—the one prophet of the one God of Israel—ascended Mount Carmel. Each side was to prepare an animal offering on an altar and pray to their deity. The one whose offering would be consumed by a fire from heaven would have proven the authenticity of their God.
“Give us two bulls and let them [the prophets of Baal] choose one bull for themselves and cut it up and place it on the wood, but fire they shall not put; and I will prepare one bull, and I will put it on the wood, and fire will I not place. And you will call out in the name of your deity, and I will call out in the name of the Lord, and it shall be that the one who will answer with fire, he is the true God.” (First Kings 18:20-39)
The prophets of Baal agreed to the challenge and many thousands gathered on the mountain to watch the dramatic showdown. This would be the final faceoff to determine who was the one true God.
The prophets of Baal went first. Naturally, their prayers and entreaties went unanswered. Elijah even taunted them: “Perhaps your god is sleeping or on a journey. Pray more loudly, perhaps he doesn’t hear you.” Of course, despite all their prayers, incantations and shenanigans, there was no reply from above.
As evening approached, Elijah took center stage. He built an altar, placed the animal upon it, poured water all around the altar and offered a short but powerful prayer: “Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel. Let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant, and at Your word have I done all these things. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, and this people shall know that You are the Lord God.”
As Elijah finished his prayer, a fire descended from heaven and consumed his offering: “And all the people saw and fell on their faces, and they said, ‘The Lord is God, the Lord is God.’”
It is with these very words that, to this day, we conclude the sacred Neilah prayer at the end of every Yom Kippur.
This is a powerful, inspirational story. Just as it demonstrated to the Jews of that generation that the one God alone is worthy of our worship, so does its stirring message speak to us today.
But I am not here to marvel at God’s miracles. To God, miracles are nothing special, just an everyday routine matter. To me, the bigger and more moving miracle is how one mortal man of flesh and blood stood up to the most powerful ruler in the land. Ahab was the king and had an army at his beck and call. Elijah was one lone voice in the wilderness. He had been persecuted, was on the run and almost all his righteous compatriots had been murdered by the king and queen’s forces. Still, he spoke truth to power.
It would have been so much simpler and easier for Elijah to change his tune and go along with the popular thinking of the time. No doubt there were plenty of Jews who must have told him, “Don’t be such a fanatic. Why are you so rigid and inflexible? So what if they dabble a bit with Baal? Everyone is doing it these days. If you cooperate with the king, you may even become the chief prophet of the land!”
But Elijah remained faithful to his beliefs and stuck to his principles. In the end, his prayer was answered, the miracle happened, and he was able to inspire and turn his entire nation back to God.
So, to my mind, bigger than a fire coming down from heaven is the miracle of Elijah’s faith, fortitude, strength of character and courage of his convictions.
Today, the prophets of Baal are gone without a trace, but Elijah—Eliyahu Hanavi—has gone down in history as one of the greatest prophets of all time. He continues to be remembered at every bris and Pesach seder around the world, down through the generations. One dissenting opinion, one man of principle who took the long hard road, lives on forever.
Falsehood may be fashionable, but truth is timeless. Lies, like any fad, soon go out of fashion, but truth is eternal. Compromising principles for popularity works in the short term, but soon leaves us emptyhanded and chastened.
Elijah teaches us a lesson for every generation, including our own. No wonder we are told that Elijah will be the precursor to the ultimate Messenger of Peace who will herald the Messianic Age. He is the harbinger of Moshiach. Ultimately, principled living will bring peace much sooner than pandering to the whims of the moment, as popular as they may be.
We have seen the success of peace through strength. We also need peace through truth.
The post Miracle on the Mountain first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
The post Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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