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Ancient Jewish ‘Migdal’: 2 Synagogues Within Just 200 Meters… (PICTURES)

Biblical Migdal (aka Magdala)

Posted by Israel Tour Blog by Nosson Shulman

By Nosson Shulman: Licensed Tour Guide of VIP Israel Tours & Authentic Virtual Tours (click here to check out his free trailer videos)

 

“For the children of Naphtali… Migdal-el, Horem, and Beth-‘anath and Beth-shemesh; nineteen cities with their villages (Joshua 19: 32-38)”

Migdal (Magdala) is beautifully situated on the Sea of Galilee.
Photo Credit: RnDmS / Shutterstock

Today, we are visiting one of Israel’s best kept secrets! Ancient Migdal (Magdala) is as beautiful as it is historic. In 2021 this sleepy town (pop. 2000) just north of Tiberias, was in the news for an exciting (and very rare) find, revolutionizing the way researchers understood an entire time period (more on that shortly). During the Second Temple period, Migdal was an important city and the unique findings we will see here more than substantiate this! Today’s Migdal, is just across the highway from ancient Migdal.

Continue reading…

From Guided Tours of Israel, here.

The Media Don’t Even Bother to Retract PROVEN LIES Anymore

Why Newspapers Refuse to Correct Errors

COMMENTARY
By J. Peder Zane

February 08, 2022

Many iconic U.S. newspapers sport slogans that seek to explain their mission – and self-image. “All the News That’s Fit to Print” has been called “the seven most famous words in American journalism.” “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was an overtly partisan call to arms. But the most telling section of a newspaper’s true values is its “Corrections” page. That’s where journalism distinguishes itself from just about every other profession, routinely and straightforwardly admitting its mistakes. Who else does that?

It is a soul-crushing enterprise. A single misspelled name is all it takes to ruin an otherwise stellar article. We reporters may forget the topic of the piece we wrote last week, while the error five years ago is seared into our memories. But it is also crucial: Reader trust is the lifeblood of journalism. If you can’t believe what you read, why bother?

And yet, we do get things wrong all the time. Despite the self-righteous claims of too many news outlets, journalists don’t print The Truth. The “first draft of history” is necessarily messy and incomplete. What journalists have long promised readers is that we will do our best to get the story right initially and then set the record straight when better information emerges. This isn’t solely a commitment to high-minded ethics. It is also transactional: Journalists can so readily acknowledge errors because readers honor and reward our honesty. They forgive us our trespasses because we acknowledge them.

Unfortunately, this glorious compact between readers and journalists is evolving in dangerous directions, as news coverage becomes corrupted by the give-no-quarter partisan divide that shapes our politics. Increasingly, readers expect their favored news sources to advance their favored narrative, the facts be damned. And many news outlets, beset by immense economic challenges, seem happy to satisfy them to stay afloat.

A notable example is the stubborn unwillingness of major news outlets to correct clear errors in their coverage of the Trump-Russia investigation.

On Nov. 24, my colleague at RealClearInvestigations, Aaron Maté, wrote a detailed article highlighting a series of stories published by the New York Times and the Washington Post that contained “false or misleading claims.” The pieces he analyzed were either part of the entry the papers submitted to win a 2018 Pulitzer Prize for their Russiagate coverage or were written by reporters who shared in that honor. Significantly, the major errors and misleading assertions identified by Maté were not based on newly discovered information, but on documents and statements long in the public domain.

Before publication, Maté sent multiple detailed requests for comment to the reporters and newspaper representatives. All but one of his queries went unanswered. As of Feb. 7, neither newspaper has appended a single correction or clarification to the articles Maté discussed. Here are two examples from the Times that reflect the problems Maté found.

Continue reading…

From Real Clear Politics, here.

The Subtle Conflict Between Anti-Zionist Activism and Jew-Hatred

Violence Against Diaspora Jews Weirdly Ineffective In Convincing Them Jews Don’t Need Israel For Safety

Activists acknowledged such treatment only accelerated the emigration of Jews.

Cairo, February 3 – Opponents of Jewish sovereignty in the ancestral Jewish homeland voiced frustration today that their ongoing efforts to demonstrate that Jews do not need that sovereignty, by means of harassing, attacking, and inciting against those Jews everywhere, has borne little practical fruit, with vanishingly few Jews remaining in those lands that spent hundreds or thousands of years treating them as second-class at best, and as fodder for extermination at worst.

Anti-Zionist activists in the Middle East, where thriving Jewish communities existed until the middle of the twentieth century amid rising persecution, expressed puzzlement and disappointment in numerous interviews and discussions this week that their main avenue of endeavor to convince Jews to trust their host cultures to protect them – in the main by confiscating Jewish property, mass-raping Jewish women, imprisoning Jews on trumped-up charges, subjecting Jews to massacres and pillage, and generally making living safely as a Jew in countries throughout the region untenable – has enjoyed precious little success. In fact, the activists acknowledged, such treatment only accelerated the migration of Jews from the lands they had inhabited for up to twenty-five centuries to the reestablished Jewish one.

“Jews don’t need to cause trouble or risk displacing Palestinian Arabs by establishing a state of their own,” argued Moroccan activist Hassan Mubruk. “That’s a point my predecessors and I have made repeatedly, but the Jews refused to listen, and now the region has seen a century of turmoil. As soon as the Zionists declared their statehood more than seventy years ago, our governments stressed that in cogent terms: we nationalized their property, looted their homes, beat them in the streets, and sent them packing with little more than the clothes on their backs – and they spat on our faces by going, by and large, to the Zionist entity, in direct contravention of everything we had worked to instill in them. The lack of appreciation for our concern for their welfare just galls.”

“We don’t have any Jews left here,” noted Yemeni activist Itbah al-Yahud. “The last handful were expelled last year. It’s a shame that after more than two thousand years here, they failed to realize how good they had it, and after 1948 left in large numbers whenever an opportunity presented itself. How could they possibly not want to stay? They had protected status, which our society understood as license to abuse, torment, oppress, and harass them. Ingrates.”

Activists also observed that their colleagues in most European countries expressed parallel puzzlement.

From PreOccupied Territory, here.

Temple Denialism by the United Nations Is All OUR FAULT

It’s All About Us

People love looking forward to something; a vacation, the Super Bowl, or the day their kids (finally) leave for sleepaway camp. Everyone has their own list… but what about the world. Yes, the world. What should the world be looking forward to?

The Midrash teaches (Midrash Rabbah, Ba’Midbar 1) that “if the nations of the world realized the value of the Bet Ha’Mikdash to all of humanity, they would surround it with their armies and guard it for the Jews!”

In the book of Yeshayahu, there is an incredible prophecy; (Chapter 56, verse 7) “My House will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” We say this passuk many times a year, before the beautiful prayer of “Shema Kolenu”. We are stating, in very clear words, that the awesome place we want rebuilt – the holy Bet Ha’Mikdash – is not only for the Jewish nation… but for the entire world as well!

This is (or should be) the #1 item on “The world’s wish list” … for the Jews to return home and build the 3rd and final Temple in Jerusalem. There’s only one problem. Not only is this not item #1, the world is doing everything they can to make sure it does not happen at all.

Let me tell you about something that happened just 2 months ago. If not for Covid, this would have been the biggest story in the news. Unfortunately, it was not reported in any major media outlet – on both sides of the political spectrum. Sorry, but we can’t just blame this on CNN or Whoopi Goldberg.

The United Nations held a special vote on December 1, 2021, and here are the results: 129 countries voted that Israel does not have any ties to the Temple Mount. Those same 129 countries affirmed that the Temple Mount is to be recognized only by its Muslim name, al-Haram al-Sharif. Obviously, those 129 countries failed history class because Islam was founded in the 7th Century – and the first Bet Ha’Mikdash was built 1,400 years before that – but, as they say, don’t confuse me with the facts.

In case you are interested; who voted against this resolution that rewrites history? 11 countries including USA, Hungary and the Czech Republic… and who abstained? 31 countries including the United Kingdom, Kenya and Ukraine. (By the way, everyone’s new best friend – and the one with the most exciting glatt kosher, mehadrin, kitniyot free Pesach program – the United Arab Emirates – voted in support of this bill. But I thought they loved us?? I’m so confused…)

Now comes the important part of this article: Who do we blame? Whose fault is it that 129 countries voted this way? Allow me to be very clear with my answer; I don’t blame any of the 129 countries. How can Bangladesh and South Africa feel that the Temple Mount is an integral part of the Jewish Nation… if most of the Jewish Nation doesn’t feel that way? 70% of American Jews have never been to Israel even once in their life and have no desire to do so… so what do we expect from Cuba and Japan?

But let’s talk about the 30% who do come to Israel. Ask them what is the #1 holiest site in Israel today and I guarantee you that 98% will say “the Kotel”. Why is that? Why won’t we admit that the “Makom Ha’Mikdash” – the place of the Temple – is the holiest, most special place for Jews… and all of mankind? Don’t misunderstand me. I am not getting into the discussion of going up to Har Ha’Bayit or not. I’m simply trying to understand why this awesome place, described in our holy books as “where Heaven kisses earth” is not on most Jew’s radar.

What happens within 24 hours of landing in Israel? You rush to the Kotel, then Café Rimon in Mamilla. After that it’s Machane Yehuda and Mea Shearim for some shopping, Aroma for coffee, back to the Kotel and then Papagaio for dinner. How many times have you stopped, looked at the desecration on the Temple Mount, and shed a tear? Do you think mourning over the destruction of the Bet Ha’Mikdash is limited just to Tisha b’Av? I have no problem with davening at the Kotel but at least feel bad that you are in the garden and not in the palace.

The 129 countries of the world want you to remain in the garden. They want to disconnect you from your most cherished and special place. They want you to forget about it and simply sing it as a song; “Next Year in Jerusalem…” Unfortunately, many of us have already done this and while we wouldn’t actively vote with Iran or Indonesia, our actions tell a different story.

Dearest friends: stop blaming the world and start realizing that it’s all about us. How do we feel about Har Ha’Bayit? How connected are we to the Makom Ha’Mikdash? How many of us can look at a drawing of the Bet Ha’Mikdash and correctly identify many of the areas? We are now reading the Torah portions that deal with the Mishkan – which is a miniature Bet Ha’Mikdash – and its vital we make those Torah portions real.

Don’t let the 129 countries of the world win. Focus on the Bet Ha’Mikdash and make sure you understand the connection between our Nation, our future, our destiny, and this great and awesome place. And most importantly of all, don’t just sing about it… make sure you live it as well!

Am Yisrael Chai!

אין מעברין את השנה… לא מפני השלג ולא מפני הצינה

נחל פרת אחרי השלג Prat River after the snow

Feb 1, 2022

נחל פרת זורם בעוצמה רבה אחרי סופת השלגים שירד בירושלים.
נחל פרת הוא אחד הנחלים שיורדים מירושלים מזרחה לבקעת הירדן.

The Prat River flows strongly after the snowstorm in Jerusalem.
Prat River is one of the streams that descend from Jerusalem, east toward the Jordan Valley

מאתר יוטיוב, כאן.