We See Yahweh returning to Zion

"How beautiful on the mountains, are the feet of the messenger announcing peace, of the messenger of good news, who proclaims salvation and says to Zion, ‘Your God is king!’ The voices of your watchmen! Now they raise their voices, shouting for joy together, for with their own eyes they have seen Yahweh returning to Zion. Break into shouts together, shouts of joy, you ruins of Jerusalem; for Yahweh has consoled his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem. Yahweh has bared his holy arm for all the nations to see, and all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Go away, go away, leave that place, do not touch anything unclean. Get out of her, purify yourselves, you who carry Yahweh’s vessels!  For you are not to hurry away, you are not to leave like fugitives. No, Yahweh marches at your head and the God of Israel is your rearguard" (Isa 52:7-10: NJB).

Origins of Hanukkah

The Feast of Hanukkah is also known as the Feast of Dedication or the Feast of Lights.  Although the feast is not found in the Hebrew Bible, its origin is from Second Temple Judaism.  The sources for events surrounding the feast are found primarily in 1 and 2 Maccabees.  In 167 BCE, the Seleucid King Antiochus Epiphanes entered Jerusalem and desecrated the Jewish Temple setting up an altar to Zeus.  With the help of the Maccabees, a small group of Jews were able to win back Jerusalem and regain the Temple.  This is known as the Maccabean Revolt.  In celebration of the victory, Hanukkah was celebrated for eight days beginning on the 25^th of Kislev, which currently takes place during months of November and December.  During the next several days I will look more closely at important topics associated with the Feast of Hanukkah.

Hanukkah Menorah inside King David's Tomb in Jerusalem, Israel.

Menorah near Western Wall for Hanukkah 2019

In preparation for the Jewish Feast of Hanukkah 2019, a bronze menorah was set up near the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem this past week.  A lighting ceremony will take place every night from December 22 – December 30.  The ceremony will be live-streamed and will be available from the Western Wall Heritage Foundation.  Click here or click here for a Western Wall camera view from EarthCam.

Hanukkah menorah set up at the Western Wall On December 17, 2019.
(photo credit: WESTERN WALL HERITAGE FOUNDATION)

Jewish Prayer under Olive Tree

I happened upon news recently that a quorum of Jews were allowed to pray on the Temple Mount this past Thursday.  I was at first surprised.  The Waqf interprets the current status quo on the Mount in a way that prohibits Jewish prayer on the Mount.  However, things seem to be changing.  Is the Waqf losing control over the location?  Earlier this week, Yehuda Glick, a Temple Mount Activist and former Likud MK, visited the Temple Mount and was verbally harassed by a Waqf official.  The Waqf guard was later arrested.  Then a video appeared on the web showing the above mentioned quorum of Jews quietly praying under an olive tree.  As the camera pans you see individuals who are dressed in Israeli police uniforms nearby tacitly allowing them pray.  At one point the camera captures the Dome of the Rock in the background.

[Update] I found another video that purports to show Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount earlier this week.  Click on link below:

Jewish Prayer on the Temple Mount 

Iran, Russia, and China will start joint navel maneuvers in December.

Radio Free Europe (December 1, 2019):  The commander of Iran's navy has confirmed that his forces will participate in joint exercises with Russia and China beginning later this year.

Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi on November 30 said the maneuvers will be held in the northern Indian Ocean from December 22 to January 20.

The admiral’s statement did not give a specific location for the maneuvers, although some media reports said they would be in the Gulf of Oman, site of several recent naval incidents and where Western escort missions are active or about to start.

"The aim of those exercises is to ensure collective security and help boost the security in the northern part of the Indian Ocean, where various incidents, including pirate attacks, are taking place," Iran’s Tasnim news agency quoted the admiral as saying.

Two days earlier, Khanzadi had said the exercises would take place in the “near future” and that the joint operation would “send a message to the world,” according to Iran’s Mehr news agency.

“A joint war game between several countries, whether on land, at sea, or in the air, indicates a remarkable expansion of cooperation.”

"[The maneuvers] carry the same message to the world, that these three countries have reached a meaningful strategic point in their relations,” he added.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on October 2 said the countries were planning exercises designed to train for anti-terror and anti-piracy missions.

The joint maneuvers will come at a time of heightened tensions between the three nations and the West.

Washington and its Middle Eastern allies have blamed Iran for explosions that damaged as many as four ships outside the Strait of Hormuz in May, and then accused Tehran of using mines to attack two oil tankers in June.

Iran has since seized several international oil tankers in actions seemingly designed to assert Tehran's right to police traffic in the strait, which is a conduit for huge amounts of the region's oil exports.

Washington is leading a coalition of naval forces in the Persian Gulf region to monitor and safeguard international shipping from potential Iranian threats.

Meanwhile, France is leading a separate but similar European mission focusing on the western part of the Gulf of Oman, the eastern part of the Arabian Gulf, and the Strait of Hormuz.

The United States and European Union have imposed sanctions on Moscow for its seizure and annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula in 2014 and its support of separatist fighters in eastern Ukraine battling Kyiv’s government forces.

Meanwhile, China and the United States and its allies are embroiled in several territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

By RFE/RL
With reporting from TASS, the Daily Mail, and Tasnim

President Hassan Rouhani of Iran, Russian President Putin, and President Xi Jinping of China (Photo Credit: unknown)