Fast of the 17th of Tammuz – July 21, 2019. The Seventeenth of Tammuz (Hebrew: שבעה עשר בתמוז Shiv’ah Asar b’Tammuz) is a Jewish fast day commemorating the breach of the walls of Jerusalem before the destruction of the Second Temple.
This update from Tikkun came in on July 9, 2019, so the Last week is actually 2 weeks ago from today, July 20, 2019:
Last week Israel opened up the pilgrimage path in Jerusalem. This connects the City of David to the Temple Mount area. This is the path that Jewish pilgrims would have taken to bring their sacrifices to the Lord. This is no small matter, because this ancient path goes right through a Palestinian neighborhood. But the archaeology is trustworthy. On your next trip to Israel, you will be able to take this ancient path.
Israel opens Pilgrimage Road, connecting City of David to Temple By Ron Cantor
A new archaeological site was unveiled in Jerusalem on Sunday at the City of David: an ancient passageway dubbed “Pilgrims’ Road” because archeologists believe that millions of Jews ascended this path three times a year during the pilgrimage feasts to bring sacrifices to the temple. A strong testament to the ancient Jewish connection to the land of Israel and city of Jerusalem, the 350-meter section of road begins at the pool of Shiloah and extends to the Western Wall. It had been under excavation for six years.
You may notice the new look of the website on certain pages. This was not completely by our choice. WordPress changed to a Block style of the pages from the Classic style. Old pages still appear in the Classic style and can be added to in that style, but all new pages are in the Block style. In this new Block style, we are unable to alter the text colors as before (even though it is an option listed) and have changed to highlighting the background colors for emphasis. All links were originally posted as red texts, but this isn’t available in the Block style. We appreach your visit to the site and comments are welcome.
Although it’s been a while since the last Spreading the Word On-line newsletter, they have some exciting news for you. Through their sister ministry, Messianic Education Trust, they’re going to run some summer classes this year and you can join in. They’ve had several comments that folk would really like to be able to get into conversation about the Torah portion and to explore it in more depth – if this is you, then this is your opportunity.
They’re running a trial set of just six one-hour classes during July and August (one each week, starting Thursday July 11th) to see whether people would like to engage with the Torah in this way on a regular basis and join the centuries old conversation that the Jewish world has always had with the Torah.
They also know that some folk have been asking about Hebrew classes, so once again, they’re running a trial set of six one-hour classes at the same time (but on a different day) to see whether people would like to engage with a Hebrew text taken from the week’s Torah portion. They’ll be doing a literal translation, seeing how the grammar and vocabulary is reflected (or not) in the English translations and learning about the structues and literary devices that the biblical writers and tradents use to convey their message. Some knowledge of biblical Hebrew will be required!
Excited? We are! They can’t wait to begin and to be able to share with you over the summer break while the weather is hot and not much else happens in the congregation/church world.
They’ve recorded two short videos with all the details, on pages where you can register and sign-up for the classes, so if you’re interested, do pop over and have a look. They hope to welcome you into study hall.
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