“But this is probably an emergency, and you are a doctor as well as a priest!”

“No, it’s not right. Don’t answer it.”

Whenever I talk to myself, the dialogue is always feisty.

The phone buzzed in my pocket, unanswered, three persistent times. It could wait. The prayers would be over in just a few more minutes. The phone buzzed again. I discretely looked at it, just to see what name appeared on the screen. It was Raphael. That could mean only one thing: that she was dead.

My blood turned cold, and a shiver ran down my spine. The hougan (voodoo priest) had told this perfectly healthy young woman, just a week ago, that she would not live past the “prayers of Calvary hill.” It was in her cards. She could not live past the hour of Christ’s death, unless she drank the potion he could make to save her. Now sure enough, she was dead. As the prayers of Calvary hill were coming to their conclusion, so was she coming to hers.

Her name was Marie Louise. She and her brothers and sisters were born to impoverished Haitian cane cutters in the bitter sugar fields of the Dominican Republic. The mother and father having died, the children were thrown over the border into Haiti a dozen years ago, during one of the frequent Haitian roundups by Dominican officials. They landed in Haiti where they had never lived, where they knew no one, and where they could not even speak Creole. A Haitian social worker gathered them up and delivered them to our orphanage, where we have spent many years getting to know and love, and struggling to deal with, this complex family.

Earlier Good Friday morning, while enjoying a coffee, a few of us were getting ready to start the day. I was getting ready to go to visit a friend who is facing the huge challenge of brain cancer. Good Friday was a good day for such a visit: we were commemorating an absolutely stark reality, that was nevertheless overflowing with grace; a grace as dark as it was powerful. Our chatter was interrupted by a disturbing call. Marie Louise was very sick in Kenscoff, and needed help. Off we went. Sure enough, her condition was disastrous. It was clear to me immediately that her whole nervous system was under full scale attack. I was sure she was reeling from a poison. We did our best to resuscitate and stabilize her, and when there was nothing more we could add to her treatments, I left her in the care of Raphael. I had other sick people to see, and I also needed to be on time for the prayers at 3pm at the orphanage on the mountain. I thought Marie Louise stood a chance with our treatments. I had seen these things before. Usually there is a lot of hysteria associated with them. I underestimated this time how much was terror and how much was the physiology of poison. I didn’t underestimate in terms of treatment, but in terms of prognosis. I did not expect her to die.

In shock, I uttered the final “prayer of Calvary hill”. I had no idea what to think or what to do next. But for sure, I needed to get her body. The Sisters and children of the orphanage started to pray the rosary for Marie Louise. Alfonso and I headed to Port au Prince to find a coffin, and to bring her body home.

It was a long sad drive back up the mountain. It was late at night, and we gathered to bathe her body and dress her, and place her in the coffin. As we bathed her, I thought of Joseph of Aramathea, and the sacred body he prepared for burial, freshly taken off the cross, two millennia ago that very day. Both his corpse and ours were destroyed by jealousy and hatred. And there was no lack of blood in either case. His, from many afflicted wounds, hers from massive internal bleeding that poured out her mouth and nose as we prepared her for burial. Across the span of twenty centuries, we understood the sadness and the urgency of what Joseph had done for the dead Christ- the last possible act of kindness and respect.

Joseph had to observe the Jewish command to bury Jesus before sunset. We were supposed to observe the Catholic command not to bury Marie Louise until Monday. But we could not keep this un-embalmed body, in the tropics, and full of poisons, in an orphanage, from Friday to Monday. We had no choice but to arrange a simple burial, with prayers and without a funeral mass, on Holy Saturday morning, and that is what we did.

Timid heads of hundreds of orphan children peered into her coffin. Alfonso, with wet eyes and trembling hands, placed an image of the risen Christ into her cold hands. Susana and others who spoke a last goodbye did so with quivering and broken voices. And all of us had hearts as heavy as the heaviest lead.

We struggled to understand the story, the one that Marie Louise had herself painted. She had come to see Alfonso a week before, to explain a grave problem. She was in love with a man who already had a girlfriend and a child. She also had become pregnant by him. Even though the boyfriend insisted on her ending the pregnancy a few months earlier, there was still strong jealousy on the part of the other woman, who went to see a hougan to put a death curse on her. A different hougan, whom she sought for help, wanted $300 Haitian dollars to make a potion to protect her. Marie Louise was looking for that money.

Alfonso insisted, rightly, that God’s power is absolute, that to buy into these cures and this way of thinking is like stepping into quicksand. To stay close to the God of life, and to stay away from these evil incantations and their hypnotic power, was the only way to face them. (Good Friday is the most dramatic expression of this message imaginable.) He gave Marie Louise a cross to wear around her neck, to remind her of God’s love and power. Such discussions are almost daily occurrences in Haiti, so alive are the convictions that misfortune, illness and death have their source in a personal curse.

Two days before her fateful one, Marie Louis was at the orphanage again. A lovely dress, fresh makeup, cheerful conversation, helping in the kitchen. But before she left, she asked again for $300, which was once again denied.

Desolation of desolations. After her burial, we went to Kenscoff to try to understand more fully everything that had happened. I spoke with the boyfriend, the two girls who lived with her, with neighbors. I tried to find the hougan. I spent Easter Sunday in this dreary pursuit, only to find out that Marie Louise’s life was one of prostitution and drugs, of nightlong parties in filthy bars. Desolation of desolations. Those who filled her days and nights were nowhere to be found when she needed them. We were the only ones to try to rescue her from deadly poisons, to shed tears for her, to prepare her tenderly for burial, to commend her to the earth with prayers for her soul. Desolation of desolations. In spite of all her years with us, she never centered herself in what is true about love, but sought it in the places where, as the Bible says, Satan crouches like a lion ready to devour you if you are foolish enough to come near. Desolation of desolations. Marie Louise had come to us as child out of a nightmare, only to leave us as a young woman into a nightmare again. But this I know for sure: at five years old and again at twenty years old, we were truly home for her. May she rest in that comfort now.

Religions have always played contradictory roles in society. Some aspects are liberating and life-giving. Others are enslaving and destructive. Christianity has dealt some death-blows in her long and very human history. So has Voodoo. But Christianity is a religion that lives in the public eye, with an identifiable authorities that must take responsibility for her activity in society. Voodoo lives in the shadows, ever secretive, with never anyone to hold responsible. Christianity must continually restate her purpose and goals, ever refined by public challenge. Superstitions become replaced by convincing descriptions of mystery, and the demands of mystery on us. Maybe one day Voodoo will be forced into this most necessary dynamic.

Late that night, Good Friday, after a long tragic day, I stepped outside exactly at midnight to look at the stars. There was a wonder in the sky. The southern cross, of all things, shone like a diamond in the velvet sky, beneath clouds lit up by the full easter moon. I thought of God’s promise to Noah, after the great flood. If there could ever be a rainbow at midnight, there it was.

“Desperado, won’t you come down from your fences, Put down your defenses, and open the gate. It may be raining, but there’s a rainbow above you! You better let somebody love you Before its too late.”*

*Jackson Browne

Fr. Rick Frechette
NPH Team for Excellence in Healthcare
NPH cares for orphaned and abandoned children in Latin America and the Caribbean since 1954.
www.nph.org

Fr. Rick Frechette is the Director of the Team for Excellence in Healthcare of NPH International. NPH cares for orphaned and abandoned children in Latin America and the Caribbean since 1954. Fr. Rick works every day in the slums of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

The forgers of this particular document putting words in the mouth of the great Patriarch who was mentored by the alchemist Melchizedek of the family of Jesus did not know that modern science would expose them. You can imagine how explosive it would be in the present day Islamic world to find this man speaking to them from beyond the grave. It would have been important at the time of Christ when they did this.

Abraham built an industry making babies and one can be sure he chose his partners with a view to their genetic make-up. Perhaps this is why he and the Pharaoh fought over Sarai as we are told in the Bible. It is not unlike the effort to create people like Thomas Jefferson or Frederick Douglas which I have written extensively about in books like Tuckahoe Mud. The more mundane reasons for having a baby-factory include armies and colonizing people who you know are your own kin. The corporate intrigues behind this are more than mere legend. The hierarchy demonstrated in the laws of more current day Israel including the Halakah make it clear that some people get full rights and others get to be merely Devoted Ones or sword fodder. Devoted Ones does not mean some pious people serving the church. It includes the Scarlet Women used in various sex and magical or occult rituals like L. Ron Hubbard did when he tried to bring Babalon to his beck and call.

Author of Diverse Druids
Columnist for The ES Press Magazine
Guest ‘expert’ at World-Mysteries.com

Judge John Potter ruled in favor of the victims against the church to the tune of $120 million dollars (place pinky to corner of mouth.)

On such an infamous and history making day, there was little doubt the Vatican would issue a statement. That’s why no one was particularly surprised when Pope Benedict came out using the strongest language from the Vatican in some time denouncing Potter.

Harry Potter.

OK, in his defense, the guy with the Big White Hat is rather aged. Already beat the “three score and ten” often quoted from the Psalms. Possibly he meant to denounce JOHN Potter and simply had a senior moment. Certainly the Vatican did not allow this precedent setting commentary on their policies go without comment.

I guess the “Holy See” just doesn’t “see” it. (Clever pun quota met for today.)

According to Ratzinger, reading about some four-eyed-son-of-a-witch is much more harmful than a confessional fondling by Father Nutsinhander. Surely these youngsters were asking to be fondled, what with their bambi-like eyes, impish naiveté and round buttocks, playfully hidden beneath the folds of an alter-boy dress.

What sexually repressed, hard on in a penguin suit could resist asking them to visit his Rectory?

Catholics should begin addressing the real source of the sexual abuse scandalstop reporting abuse. It worked for 50 years, it will work for 50 more.

Kevin Scott is the owner of http://www.WhoreChurch.com exposing the luncacy going on in the name of Christ. Visit now for a whole new perspective on your faith. You might get mad, but it will surely make you think.

Henry Morris, in his book Biblical Creationism, states of verse 20, “The basic laws controlling all the processes through which they interact (that is, the laws of energy and entropy” demonstrate the necessary fact of their primeval supernatural creation by God’s “eternal power.”" Later in the same paragraph, he explains the relation of space and time to demonstrate the analogy to the triune Godhead. All this is clearly perceived in the creation. Thus, young earth creationists agree that the laws of science are clearly perceived in the creation.1 Then why do they reject these laws?

Yes, the truths of creation are crystal clear to old earth creationists, but clear as mud to young earth creationists. Why do I say this? When old earth creationists examine the universe and our world, the evidence is clearly billions of years old. However, when young earth creationists examine it, they have to twist and contort the data to make it fit their model of a 6,000 year old earth. They reject the principles of Romans 1:20.

Consider radiometric dating. The scientific principles behind radiometric dating are clearly understood. Radiometric dating is accepted by all scientists as presenting reliable dates for the age of the earth. For a scientist who accepts radiometric dating, Romans 1:20 works perfectly…it is clear that a simple reading of the evidence supports billions of years. God’s creation gives an easy to read testimony to its age.

However, young earth creationists have a huge problem with radiometric dating, so much so that they created a committee to study the problem and come up with a solution. The RATE Group, or Radioisotopes and the Age of the Earth, was set up in 1998 to study how the data can be interpreted to give support to their claim that the earth is only 6,000 years old.2 Why do they need a committee (that so far has lasted for six years) to interpret the data, when God said that these things are “clearly understood?”

For the RATE Group, and young earth creationists, Romans 1:20 does not work. The verse says that the testimony to his eternal power is clearly discernable through the creation, yet the RATE Group was set up to do a multi-year study of how radiometric dates can be in error. For young earth creationism, the age of the earth is not “clearly discernable” in the creation…they have to study ways to twist the scientific facts to fit their theory of a young earth. That’s not what Romans 1:20 says!

The same thing is true of many of the issues in science. Many areas of scientific facts (facts, not theories), such as the principles of Geology, which we can see operating in today’s world, should be “clearly discernable” in the creation. Again, it is clear that these geologic processes give overwhelming evidence for an old earth. However, look at the efforts expended by young earth creationists to try and offer an alternative explanation to these processes. They take these “clear” processes and twist them until they support their view of a young earth. This violates Romans 1:20…no twisting or manipulating of the data is required to support an old earth. God said these things are clearly understood. In other words “What you see is what you get.” Yes, the earth is old! Conclusion When scientists look at the world and our universe, it is obvious to them that it is billions of years old. Using Romans 1:20, the obvious, clearly perceived facts from the creation must be the truth. The fact that young earth creationists have to form a committee for six years to argue against a scientific principle, is evidence in and of itself that the earth is old.

When Christians complain and argue that the earth is young, the world, and in particular, scientists, view us as uneducated radical extremists who twist the facts of science to their own conclusions. Scientists are not evil, anti-Christians trying to bury God…they are merely reporting what they see. According to Romans 1:20…they are right! In essence, young earth creationists have rejected the truth of Romans 1:20.

—

1 Biblical Creationism: What Each Book of the Bible Teaches About Creation and the Flood, Henry Morris. Master Books Edition, First Printing, March 2000. Page 163 2 http ://www.nwcreation.net/agedatinglinks.html#rategroup

God is portrayed as an Instructor to the host of angel in the story. The heaven is defined by God as the cut of the waters. God made two heavens/cuts of the waters. The host of angel and adam occupy these worlds. Angel told Moses this fact of God. Angel existence is with God prior to the creation of the earth. God came unto the host of angel. God acts of formations in the world of angel created the heaven and the earth. God is not alone in nothingness. Angel existed prior to the earth formation.

God fact is in the story. Like the factor of angel telling this truth to Moses. The story holding to its statement none have heard or seen God who dwell on the earth. It’s even stranger with the thought of the angel talking to Moses as the one we came to call Jesus. Jesus as God instructing Moses of the origin of adam. Jesus fulfilling his acts accredited to him by God in the Garden of Eden. Angel heaven established the condition of the creation in this story. Angel states God coming into the fact of their world. God in his world becomes active. God outside of other personal interest, in His world, took notice of the host of angel.

What are you seeing when you read the creation? How are you defining the statements of its initial formations? Is the heaven you see the one above your head with the stars?

The angel story states a heaven not seen in the world of its host. This heaven was the world of God. God exist outside the world of others. These others are the host of angel and adam in the story about God. Here in this truth is the sequence of the story statements. [First set God the waters and the host]. Better known as, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth”. The story account of God is a witness of His act by angel. As mentioned God define the heaven.

Angel as the teller of the creation account to Moses starts this story of the earth formation. The story relates the life of angel prior to the formation of the earth.The story states the earth is a thought of others by the host of angel. The host defined by the host of angel was not a fact. This host/to become created earth was without form and void.Angel tells of an imagined host.The story sequence relates the deep.This new wonder generates reactions in the world of angel. A new heaven came to be known to angel. The host called this heaven the deep. The darkness made this heaven known to angel.

The sequence of the story fact reflects the Spirit of God. The sequence comes to the one who moved on the darkness of the deep. This one among the brethren of angel had a truth. The brethren of angel denial of this one member acts took sides. The story relates this happen to this one member of angel twice. This one was rejected by the host of angel and adam. The story sequence states God spoke against those events by angel. God said, Let there be light. The act is a world with a smaller one both inside the heaven of God. Sound like three heavens to me. God act which exposed the waters and cut them into division.

God path can hold abundance or death to your existence. The angel spoke to Moses about God in the bush. The one member of the host of angel who carries the word of God to adam. The one we nailed to the cross. The story of God creation account is not a thought of simplicity. There’s so much there and missing from our realities of the existence. More there then one can comprehend about life and its existence. Good perception is lies are not in every story. The meek shall inherit the earth. Doubt cast a state in any story. The reader best bet is to rely on the teller of the event.

If, God spoken words is in behalf of the one in the host of angel? Will God speak out, after the rest of the seventh day, of this same one in the host of adam?

May we all grow in the wisdom and prosperity of God will,

Alexander Coppedge

TPAC Manager

http://www.tpacmindfood.com

Tpac is like a candy shop. Sweets are to tantalize and not rout the teeth. Weight lost by relaxation of stress and tensions through considerate thinking. God is the Creator and with this fact alone a search for its statement reality. Visit http://www.tpacmindfood.com

Mind you, I don’t go looking around in other religions for the record, but I do subscribe to the following Jewish Bible lessons that come out in time for Sabbath eve each week and enjoy them immensely as they offer greater insight into the Hebrew wording and bring that week’s scriptural passages to life, vividly relevant, like Herbert Armstrong’s Plain Truth magazine used to look at world events in the light of Bible prophecy. Those were the days.

I also enjoy the Jewish/Israel educational email services of Root and Branch Association, based in Jerusalem, whose president, Aryeh Gallin, I’ve been blessed to know and appreciate. I used to attend many of the Root and Branch lectures he offered when I sojourned in Jerusalem before being unjustly deported. Another story, another time.

As an Israelite, descended from the tribes of Joseph and Judah, recognizing the Israelite origins of the West as taught by Brit-Am Israel, I celebrate the victory of our Jewish brethren over their sworn enemies, whether past or present, and know the victory comes from our gracious God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

May the day come soon when Joseph and Judah are reunited as “One Nation Under God,” a truly “United Kingdom,” in the Promised Land of ISRAEL, delivered from our vicious enemies and out of the bloody mouth of the brute European beast soon to devour the nations and rip apart the world as we know it.

YESHIVAT HARA’AYON HAYEHUDI (Yeshiva of the Jewish Idea)

Jerusalem, Israel

HaRav Yehuda Kroizer SHLIT”A, Rosh Yeshiva (Yeshiva dean)

PARSHAT TETZAVEH (Sabbath reading)

11 Adar, 5766/10-11 March, 2006

PURIM 5766 – AND STILL GOING STRONG!

Some weeks ago the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, while denying that a Holocaust against the Jews took place during World War 2, stated that there was indeed a holocaust which took place in Iran some 2000 years ago, in which the Jews killed thousands of people, and to this day still celebrate year in and year out with singing and drinking. He was, of course, talking about the story of Purim.

Some might indeed mistakenly come to the conclusion that all killing is a bad thing. In fact, we find even among fellow liberal Jews, that the holiday of Purim can make them blush and feel uncomfortable, for here we find the Jews celebrating the downfall of their enemies after killing some 75,000 of them. Now how un-Jewish is that?

There is, then, in this world good and evil, and they are not the same – and Woe to one who mixes up the two! Take, for instance, the example during World War 2, when Germany bombed England and England bombed Germany. Both bombed, but surely, every sane person knows that one was pure evil and one was fighting for good.

Hashem has created good as well as evil in this world, and it is our job to complete creation and eliminate evil from the world. Amalek and his physical and spiritual heirs must ultimately be wiped off the face of the earth, as King David said: I hate all those who hate You (Hashem). King David himself had killed thousands, as the Book of Samuel tell us: Saul with his hundreds and David with his thousands. Still, all whom King David killed were looked upon as a sacrifice before Hashem, for David had eliminated evil from this world, thereby making it a better place.

Today we are witnessing, throughout the world and in Israel, the mercy of fools; those taking pity on the wicked – such behavior is not good, but evil. How clearer a signal could Hashem have sent us than the Hamas landslide victory? Now it is clear for all to see that there are no innocent bystanders among the Arabs living here in Israel. Clearly, the great majority of them want to see Israel destroyed, as was made clear by them in their elections. It is high time for Israel to act accordingly and stop playing around, claiming that there are innocents in the area and moderates to work with. Clearly the law must be the same for all of them.

And still, we see the nations of the world continuing to explain away the Hamas victory, even as the Arabs have learned to use the great tool of democracy to their advantage. They (the nations) too, are guilty of taking pity on the wicked, and surely this, too, will backfire on them in the end. As nation after nation invites Hamas to visit, and the European Union and the U.S. continues to pour millions of dollars in the PA, which of course will go to continuing their terror campaign.

So, it really is too bad that the beloved president Ahmadinejad of Iran does not understand the difference between one who comes to kill, and one who kills defending himself. For history repeats itself so often. And if he comes, like so many before him, against the Jewish State – he and his people will be the ones to fall. It is worth recalling the strange last words uttered by one of the leading Nazis, who was hung after Nuremberg trials: “PurimFest 1945″.

So take note, cruel and harsh world: Purim is still going strong for the Jewish people!

With love of Israel,
Levi Chazen

David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer in Ohio and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe’s Rise and Fall. With a focus on the Middle East and Jerusalem, his analytical articles help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Check out Beyond Babylon.

The contents have been arranged in chronological order:

A. Before Death Occurs

B. At the Time of Death

C. Organ Donation
D. Between Death and the Funeral

A. Before Death Occurs

1. Speak to a funeral director before the imminent death of a family member or someone for whom you are responsible. You will be better able to evaluate a funeral company’s services in a less stressful situation. The funeral director will already be acquainted with you when the death occurs and be able to help you more effectively.

2. Find out what services the funeral director’s firm provides. These services can include transportation to and from the cemetery or coffin purchase. Notice if the staff is courteous and whether the company’s prices are reasonable.

3. Include the dying person in these discussions if at all possible. Having some control over one’s own final arrangements at a time when control over life and death is fleeting is crucial.

4. Create the funeral as a life-portrait and a life-celebration, Discuss who will speak at the funeral and what they should say. Consider what the dying person is most proud of, what values they stand for, and what they want their children to remember about them.

5. Purchase a burial plot. Think about whether the plot is conveniently located and the cemetery administration is responsive to your needs.

6. Determine if the cemetery is a kosher area. That means there is an area dedicated specifically for Jewish burial.

7. Notice if the grounds of the cemetery are carefully maintained and that the environment is a pleasant, restful one. This is also important for those who will be visiting the grave site.

8. Consult with a Rabbi or funeral director about available options when both partners are not Jewish who wish to be buried together. There are usually various possibilities from which to choose.

B. At the Time of Death

9. Watch over a person who is passing from this world during the final stages of life, whether in the hospital or in the home. It shows great respect.

10. Call a local Rabbi at this time, if desired, to aid the dying person in saying a final confession, known as viddui. The funeral director can help you find a Rabbi if you do not already have one in mind.

11. Follow an ancient custom prescribing that the mirrors in the house be covered if death occurs at home. This is to discourage personal vanity.

12. Contact the funeral director or your Rabbi at the time of death. This is another time to ask the funeral director to provide you with a Rabbi if you do not have one. The funeral director is usually notified first. He then contacts the Rabbi to coordinate funeral arrangements.

13. Look to the Rabbi for help with emotional and psychological issues. Questions such as “How do I deal with guilt or sorrow?” or “What do I tell the children?” are difficult and important questions to be answered. The Rabbi can assist with this.

14. Realize there are many conflicting emotions swirling around before and after a death. These feelings are normal. It helps to express them and to validate their presence. While death is not always an enemy, as when it comes to bring an end to pain and suffering, the heart hurts when death comes to visit.

15. Write an obituary for the local newspaper soon after the death of your loved one. Include not only necessary personal information (names of close family members, time and place of funeral and shiva), but also values which were important to him/her. Ask yourself: what did s/he stand for? Your answers will become the obituary. Also include mention of charities for memorial donations.

C. Organ Donation

16. Understand that the donation of vital organs which lead to the saving of a life is a mitzvah (commandment) of the highest level. To save a life by donating an organ takes precedence over any other concern.

17. Make arrangements for donating organs ahead of time whenever possible. Permission for organ donation may be given by the family at the time of death when advance arrangements have not been made.

18. Ask one of the hospital staff to put you in touch with the local organ donation organization if it is not automatically suggested. They will guide you through the process.

D. Between Death and the Funeral

19. Be aware of traditional observance requiring that from the time of death until burial the body not be left alone but be attended by a watcher (shomer). This is a sign of respect, an understanding that the body is the repository of the soul. Even though the body has no more life, it must be respected until it is buried in the ground. A relative or friend may perform this mitzvah, known as shmira, or someone else may be hired.

20. Observe the prescribed tradition of washing the body in a specific ritual manner immediately after death. This act, known as tahara (ritual purification), must be performed by members of a Hevra Kaddisha, a Jewish Burial Society. Should you wish to obtain the services of tahara and shmira the funeral director will be honored to assist you.

21. Make final decisions about the time and place of funeral services and burial, transportation, the purchase of a coffin, and other considerations. Some of these decisions have been made in advance and now only require confirmation. Other aspects must now be determined.

22. Keep in mind that the soul must be treated with great respect until it is buried in the ground. Jewish law requires burial to take place within twenty-four hours following death. Practical considerations sometimes make that time frame difficult for the family, so as soon as possible is advisable.

23. Realize some cases in which a delayed burial is permitted. These include: when civil law requires delay; when close relatives have a long way to travel to the place of burial; if the day of burial would be Shabbat, a High Holiday or a Festival; or if the services of the funeral home or the cemetery are unavailable. In any case the burial must not be delayed any longer than absolutely necessary.

24. Recognize that the name applied to the period between death and burial is aninut (ah-nee-noot). The mourner is known during this time as an onen (onayn).

25. Understand the Jewish laws governing aninut. Aninut is a time of pain and numbing disorientation for the mourner whose memory of loss is intensely fresh. Yet during aninut the onen is required to make immediate and significant decisions concerning the funeral service and interment of the deceased.

26. Consider that it is most difficult to make these significant decisions and fulfill other mitzvot (ritual commandments) at the same time. Jewish law relieves the onen of almost all religious and social obligations. This includes the formal observances of mourning, which do not begin until after the interment. The exceptions are the observance of Shabbat and the first night of Passover.

27. Consult your Rabbi or one of the sources listed in the bibliography at the end of this booklet for other laws regarding aninut. You are certain to find answers relevant to your situation.

Rabbi Mel Glazer is a Certified Grief Recovery Specialist who can help you navigate these difficult waves of emotion. He has served pulpits in the United States and Canada, and Johannesburg, South Africa. Feel free to call upon him for guidance when making difficult decisions. He is also available to officiate at funerals for your loved ones anywhere in America. His phone number is 1.877. LECHAIM. (1.877.532.4246)

Paul calls us “co-citizens” and “joint heirs” and says we will “co-reign.” Because we are bound up with Christ, we share in His city, His inheritance, and His rule. But we also share the expectation of these future blessings with each other. Because of this, we “co-rejoice.”

Meanwhile, the struggle continues, and we “suffer together.” To endure such suffering, we “co-console” each other, and we live and die together.

But through it all, we are “co-workers.” Paul says that he and his associates are “God’s coworkers,” an amazing testimony both to the condescension of God–willing to stoop so low to work with the likes of us–and the corresponding elevation of Christians.

Paul’s letters yield for us an amazing number of men and women that Paul calls his “co-workers”: Timothy, “everyone,” the Corinthian Christians, Titus, Priscilla and Aquila, Urbanus, Epaphroditus, Clement and others, Mark and Aristarchus, Jesus Justus, Philemon, Demas and Luke. One brother Paul calls “my yoke-fellow,” a term synonymous with coworker (though it could be the man’s name).

Others Paul describes as if they are team members with him in an athletic competition–contending, striving, or struggling together. Two brothers Paul calls his “co-slaves.” Two he names as his “co-soldiers.” Because Paul considers himself a worker, a slave, a soldier, and an athlete for Christ, those who share the load with him also share these descriptions. This includes those of us who are laboring in the kingdom in modern times.

As a frequent prisoner for Christ, Paul appreciated those who ministered to him in prison, even if they themselves were free to come and go. Four he describes as “co-prisoners.” It could be that at least some of these voluntarily served Paul so constantly that their imprisonment was self-imposed.

All of these first-century Christians, as well as Christians alive today, are “partakers” or “partners” in the work of the kingdom. We share, have fellowship with, participate with, and keep company with other believers. Paul uses several compound terms to describe Christian unity. He says we must be united, of one accord, literally, “co-souls.” We are “conformed together” and “fitted together.” We cooperate and assist one another. We are “built together” and made “co-members of the same body.”

All of this togetherness, we must remember, is not a natural state–far from it! If left to ourselves, we human beings split apart at every seam, whether it is race, ethnicity, gender, or class. It is only Christ that binds us together. Only in Him can it be possible to say that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, neither barbarian or Scythian, male or female; all are one in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:28; 1 Cor. 12:13; Col. 3:11).

Paul expresses the Christian’s union with Christ using the prepositional phrase, together with Christ. He reinforces this by employing compound verbs in which sun- is added to the beginning of the verb. This occurs in several of the key passages in Paul’s writings.

In Gal. 2:20, Paul uses “co-crucified” to describe how becoming united with Christ’s death changes the believer. Compare Matt. 27:44, Mark 15:32, and John 19:32, where the same verb describes the literal crucifixion of the thieves who died with Jesus. Paul says that as a result of his union with Christ’s death, he has died to the law, in order to live to God (v. 19). In the next verse he adds that he is no longer the one living, but Christ is living in him. True, he still lives “in flesh,” but it is a life of trusting in the Son of God, who loved him and gave himself up in his behalf. Note that this happens for the individual, not just for believers as a group. Christ died, not for humanity, but for you and me and everyone else as individuals, and only as individuals can we respond to Him.

This concept of “co-crucified” recurs in Rom. 6:6. Paul says, “Having known this, that the old man was co-crucified.” Although Christ goes unmentioned, the connection is definitely between the believer and ChristHe was the one crucified.

The consequence of this death of the old man is a burial, for Paul earlier says, we were buried together with Him” through baptism into death (v. 4). As a result of this union with Christ’s crucifixion and his burial, we also share in the new life of His resurrection: “we believe that also we will live with him” (suzēsomen, v. 8). Paul uses these same verbs in the parallel passage in Colossians (co-buried and co-raised, 2:12; co-made alive, 2:13; see also 3:1).

Because we belong to Christ, we belong to each other. Our union with Him unites us with every other person who is also united with Him in a grand and eternal fellowship.

Steve Singleton has written and edited several books and numerous articles on subjects of interest to Bible students. He has taught Greek, Bible, and religious studies courses Bible college, university, and adult education programs. He has taught seminars and workshops in 11 states and the Caribbean.

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This haunting picture was posted on the Jerusalem World Review website, August 23, 2005, along with the article, Displaced Gazan Jews Struggle To Come to Grips With Surrender, by Joel Greenberg.

The communities of Gaza and the Northern Shomron have been emptied of all Israeli families. There are no more infants in carriages, or children playing in the streets. Although there is pain and many tears, fond memories and strong determination remain in the hearts of the uprooted settlers.

But, the lonely, abandoned, red baby carriage stands as a reminder that, although now empty, Jewish families will return to Ganei Tal, and indeed to all the communities of Gaza, and the Northern Shomron.

The baby carriage is red, the color of the price of redemption. Therefore, the little baby carriage represents the generation of divine deliverance and salvation for the entire Israeli nation.

Yes, even the young children were forced out of their homes by the misguided, cruel, faithless, human Israeli government decree. But there is a greater edict of blessing already promised by the L-rd G_D of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The families, including the children of those now removed, will return in absolute victory over their enemies, to live forever in Gaza and the Shomron, and Jews will dwell securely throughout all the Land of Covenant. Israeli families will build houses and plant gardens, and no one else will live in the homes they have built, or make their communities desolate, or take over their agriculture and businesses.

Psa 128:1 Blessed is every one that feareth the L_RD; that walketh in his ways.