I am sitting on top of Mount Scopus in the Hadassah. Actually Mount Scopus is the ancient city of Nob. The story of Nob is very interesting: “Now David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech was afraid when he met David, and said to him, "Why are you alone and no one is with you?" So David said to Ahimelech the priest, "The king has ordered me on some business, and said to me, `Do not let anyone know anything about the business on which I send you, or what I have commanded you.' And I have directed my young men to such and such a place. Now therefore, what have you on hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever can be found." And the priest answered David and said, "There is no common bread on hand; but there is holy bread, if the young men have at least kept themselves from women." Then David answered the priest, and said to him, "Truly, women have been kept from us about three days since I came out. And the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in effect common, even though it was consecrated in the vessel this day." So the priest gave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the showbread which had been taken from before the LORD, in order to put hot bread in its place on the day when it was taken away.” (1 Sam 21:1-7)

The reason that I am writing this prayer list from the top of Mount Scopus is that Marcia my wife is hospitalized in the Hadassah Hospital. She went through knee replacement surgery on last Monday. She is doing well under the circumstances and she is already up and taking a few steps, walking up and down the corridor of the Orthopedic ward of the hospital. She naturally is still in much pain, but we do hope that she will be sent home soon and be able to go through recovery process from home. We appreciate very much all your prayer and concern for Marcia. I do believe that God is answering your prayer and Marcia’s recovery is going well according to all the prognosis of the doctors.

Let me take you back to the story of Nob and King David. Every time that king David committed sin God sent a prophet to correct him, in this case at first glance it would seem that King David lied, and desecrated the table of the Lord by eating the bread prepared on the Sabbath day for the Lord’s house, and he desecrated the Sabbath day too. However, there is no prophet sent to speak correction to King David and there is no reprimand from the Word of God against this action of King David. Yeshua uses this story in the Gospel to justify His disciples picking grain on the Sabbath day when they were walking between Nazareth and Capernaum. We have the story in Matthew chapter 12 and you can read it and see how Yeshua is using this event in David’s life to justify the very Jewish rule that “Pikuah Nefesh Doche et Kol Hamitzvoth” meaning in English that Preservation of our life puts aside all the commandments. The Matthew’s text tells us that the disciples of Yeshua were hungry. The Pharisees that were criticizing Yeshua and His disciples must have been from the faction of Beit Shamai and not from the faction of Beit Hillel who were much more understanding toward human beings both Jews and none Jews. I know that some of our brothers will not know the background of the Rabbis and who Shamai is or who Hillel is, but it is good to look it up and learn a little more of the background of the New Testament.

Israel is still suffering from a prejudiced negative press in many countries in Europe and especially in Turkey. Turkey is turning closer to radical Islam and identifying with the Arab world. The geopolitical reasons for this turning are that the end of the cold war with the soviet block and with the war in Iraq the United States does not need Turkey as much as it did before and especially that now the United States has big military basis in Iraq and the ones in Turkey are much less relevant. Before the war with Iraq Turkey was the darling of the West, slowly that privileged position is slipping away from Turkey and therefore P.M. Erdwan is looking for new green pastures and the ones that are closest to his religious ideology are the more radical Arab nations and terrorist organizations like the Hamas and Hezbollah. Israel is the patsy right now and every excuse to attack and defame and falsely accuse Israel is legitimate for Turkey now and of course much of Europe has very little backbone, especially France and Spain, and they follow the pro-Islamic trend also because many of these European countries have millions of Muslims who are radical and anti-Christian and they are a part of the constituency of these European Countries. This my brothers and sisters is the scene in the Middle East right now and that is why it is widely believed in Israel that we are going to have a major, major war in the Middle East very soon. This is the reason that I am writing to you these things so that you can lift up your voices and pray to the Almighty God of Israel, the Father of our Savior, and intercede and ask for His blessing upon Israel and the Body of the Messiah in the whole Middle East. Because in a war like this Christians will suffer all over the Islamic World because you must not forget that in the Koran both Jews and Christians are called Heretics and Infidels and the prescription for Infidels and heretics in the Quran is one – death.

We are still coping with the challenges of the Supreme Court Hearing in October 2010, and we are still coping with some major changes in Kol HaYeshua Radio broadcasts, and the Soup Kitchen and the Conference in Portugal. In fact I do hope that very soon we will have the web page up for the conference in Portugal and that people from all around the world will be able to register and pay and make hotel reservations through the internet. Please, please pray for the success of these projects and for a major breakthrough for all of Israel and especially for those who believe in Yeshua as the Messiah.

Please keep praying for those who are sick and for the unemployed and for the poor of Jerusalem. The list of the sick is the same as last week, and the week before, and only Marcia’s surgery and recovery (physical therapy for the next two or three months) is a new concern.

Blessings upon all of you our brothers and sisters,

Joseph Shulam