RUTHFULLY YOURS

The Essenes were part of an internal struggle within Jewish society at the end of the Second Temple Period. Their customs and beliefs, their apocalyptic vision and rejection of accepted leadership not only created a rift between them and the rest of Jewish society; they provided elements for the beginning of a new religion.

The Last Supper which Jesus shared with his disciples was probably a Passover meal prepared with unleavened bread and wine; the Dead Sea Scrolls describe a sacred meal of bread and wine that will be eaten at the end of days with the messiah. Were Essene concepts and rituals incorporated into Christian ceremonies, like communion? The early Christian church was communistic; similarly, members of the Qumran community had to give up all private property. Both Christians and Essenes were eschatological communities — expecting the imminent transformation of the world. Although drawn from Jewish prophetic texts that spoke about the Day of Judgment, the Essenes gave it immediacy; Christianity gave it urgency. The similarity of texts is striking.

In the Gospel of Luke, an angel appears to the Virgin Mary and announces: “And now you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the Most High…the son of God.” (Luke 1:31-35) Nearly the same language appears in one of the Dead Sea scrolls: “He will be called great and he will be called Son of God, and they will call him Son of the Most High…He will judge the earth in righteousness…and every nation will bow down to him…” (4Q 246)

Both communities tended to be dualistic — dividing the world into opposing forces of good and evil, light and darkness. There are references in the New Testament (especially in Paul and John) to this distinction. For example, “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness” (John 8:12). And in the scrolls we read, “All the children of righteousness are ruled by the Prince of Light and walk in the ways of light, but all the children of falsehood are ruled by the Angel of Darkness and walk in the ways of darkness.” (Rule of the Community, 3) Even the famous beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3-12) and in the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:20-23) have striking parallels in the scrolls and apocryphal literature.

https://www.jpost.com/Jerusalem-Report

According to the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, someone called “John the Baptist” who

lived in “the wilderness” was baptizing in Bethabara, on the eastern side of the Jordan River near where it flows into the Dead Sea. When Jesus approached him, John exclaimed: “Behold the Lamb of God, which removes sin from the world… I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and it rested upon him …” (John 1: 28) This experience transformed Jesus and changed the course of history.

The event is retold in Matthew 3: 16. “When Jesus was baptized he arose from the water and the heavens opened and the Spirit of God descended upon him like a dove … and a voice from heaven uttered, ‘This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.’ ” Mark 1: 10 and Luke 3:21-22 repeat this seminal event in Jesus’ life marking the beginning of his mission to redeem the world and what became a new theology based on ideas that were common among the Essenes – but not Judaism.

Josephus described John as “a good man (who) commanded the Jews to exercise virtue and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism; for the washing with water would be acceptable to him … not in order (for) the remission of some sins, but for the purification of the body, assuming that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness.” (Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18, Chapter 5)

Although baptism today is associated with Christianity, its origin is in a traditional Jewish practice of immersion in a mikvah that is part of the monthly ritual purification for women following menstruation. Ritual immersion as a purification rite for males is commanded in Torah, but little is known about this practice during the First Temple period. Natural water sources were used, for example Jerusalem’s Gihon spring (in the Kidron Valley), but it was inconvenient. Moreover, what was done when such sources were not available?

http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/7213/full
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees hosted the first ever TEDx event in a refugee camp in early June. Halima Aden, hijab-wearing Vogue supermodel, attended; it was the first time the 20-year-old had been back to Kakuma, northern Kenya, since she was resettled in the US as a nine-year-old. Four planes and eight flights delivered around 350 dignitaries and VIPs from around the world to participate in making refugees cool again. The one-day extravaganza, which is estimated to have cost close to $400,000, raised a range of issues questioning long-held assumptions in the humanitarian sphere.

As the paradigm shift hits, the UN is looking to change a policy that after 25 years is no longer sustainable. With increased domestic pressure in donor countries to justify spending, the focus has transformed from providing cradle-to-grave aid to empowering refugees to find solutions for themselves.

TEDx, the elite media organisation that posts aspirational online talks, showed refugees as agents of positive change and valuable members of society, not simply a drain on host country resources.

At the same time the UNHCR is under fierce pressure to reduce its expenditure and is making millions of dollars of savings with staff being moved to where they are actually needed.

The UNHCR’s mandate is to protect refugees, safeguard their fundamental human rights and help to build a better future. But critics said the Kakuma event was a waste of money which could have been better spent on a new hospital or a school. Those in favour said that by raising the profile of the issue, it did incalculable good.

Former UNHCR head Antonio Guterres, now UN Secretary-General, is trying to reform a system with which he is intimately acquainted, but there doesn’t seem much reason to be positive. Refugees are big business, and subliminal pressure exists to keep the system going. That’s one reason refugees have been made into needy victims, who need supplies of tarpaulins, non-food items, sanitation, water and tents, all of which translates into money. If people are seen as capable of standing on their own feet, those contracts aren’t needed, and without victims, there’s no business. Why find a solution if it threatens livelihoods?

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12692/germany-turkish-boxing-gang

The gang, most of whose members are Turkish Germans, is said to be involved in organized criminal activity in all of Germany’s 16 federal states. It is also believed to have close ties to the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The gang, which profits from prostitution, extortion and the trafficking of weapons and drugs, operates across Europe. The group claims to have more than 3,500 members in Germany and elsewhere.

The German ban comes less than a day after Buzzfeed, an American internet media company, falsely accused Gatestone Institute of fabricating the existence of such gangs in Germany.

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has banned a Turkish boxing gang called “Osmanen Germania BC” (“Germania Ottomans”) on the grounds that it poses a serious threat to public order.

The gang, most of whose members are Turkish Germans, is said to be involved in organized criminal activity in all of Germany’s 16 federal states. It is also believed to have close ties to the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The German ban comes less than a day after Buzzfeed, an American internet media company, falsely accused Gatestone Institute of fabricating the existence of such gangs in Germany.

Seehofer said the gang “poses a serious threat to individual legal interests and for the general public.” He added:

“Once again, the federal government and the federal states have shown that they are resolutely fighting all manifestations of organized crime in Germany, including rocker-like groups such as Osmanen Germania BC, whose members commit serious crimes. Those who reject the rule of law cannot expect any kind of leniency from us.”