Blinken Warns Jewish State Not to Allow Prayer By Daniel Greenfield and 2,200-Year-Old Greek Sling Lead Bullet with Magical Inscription Discovered in Yavne By David Israel and and What's My Line? - Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward; Art Linkletter [panel] (Nov 8, 1959) and Construction to Start on ‘Electricity Highway’ Connecting Israel, Cyprus and Greece By Etgar Lefkovits
Yehuda Lave is an author, journalist, psychologist, rabbi, spiritual teacher, and coach, with degrees in business, psychology and Jewish Law. He works with people from all walks of life and helps them in their search for greater happiness, meaning, business advice on saving money, and spiritual engagement.
The Three are Rabbi Yehuda Glick, famous temple mount activist, and former Israel Mk, and then Robert Weinger, the world's greatest shofar blower and seller of Shofars, and myself after we had gone to the 12 gates of the Temple Mount in 2020 to blow the shofar to ask G-d to heal the world from the Pandemic. It was a highlight to my experience in living in Israel and I put it on my blog each day to remember.
The articles that I include each day are those that I find interesting, so I feel you will find them interesting as well. I don't always agree with all the points of each article but found them interesting or important to share with you, my readers, and friends. It is cathartic for me to share my thoughts and frustrations with you about life in general and in Israel. As a Rabbi, I try to teach and share the Torah of the G-d of Israel as a modern Orthodox Rabbi. I never intend to offend anyone but sometimes people are offended and I apologize in advance for any mistakes. The most important psychological principle I have learned is that once someone's mind is made up, they don't want to be bothered with the facts, so, like Rabbi Akiva, I drip water (Torah is compared to water) on their made-up minds and hope that some of what I have share sinks in. Love Rabbi Yehuda Lave.
Blinken Warns Jewish State Not to Allow Prayer By Daniel Greenfield
Photo Credit: Dafna Gazit, Israel Antiquities Authority
The word 'Victory' on the sling bullet.
An excavation conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority in Yavne, some 20 miles south of Tel Aviv, yielded a 4.4 cm long lead sling bullet from the Hellenistic period with an inscription in Greek intended to ensure victory in battle.
A sling is a weapon used to throw a blunt projectile such as a stone, clay, or lead sling-bullet. It is also known as the shepherd's sling or slingshot. Someone who specializes in using slings is called a slinger.
The names of the gods Heracles and Hauronas on the reverse side of the sling bullet. / Dafna Gazit, Israel Antiquities Authority
The 2,200-year-old sling bullet, which bears the inscription "Victory of Heracles and Hauronas," was uncovered in excavations that were part of the Israel Lands Authority's initiative to expand the city, in cooperation with the Yavne Municipality.
"The pair of gods Hauron and Heracles were considered the divine patrons of Yavne during the Hellenistic period," explained Prof. Yulia Ustinova from Ben Gurion University of the Negev, who deciphered the inscription.
"Actually, the inscription on a sling bullet is the first archaeological evidence of the two guardians of Yavne, discovered inside Yavne itself. Until today, the pair was only known from an inscription on the Greek island of Delos," she added.
The archaeological excavations in Yavne. / Emil Aladjem, Israel Antiquities Authority
Acting as a couple, the gods Heracles and Hauron were the perfect team to bestow victory, according to Prof. Ustinova. "The announcement of the future victory of Heracles and Hauron was not a call addressed to the deity, but a threat directed toward the adversaries," she said. "Lead sling bullets are known in the ancient world beginning in the 5th century BCE, but in Israel few individual sling bullets with inscriptions have been found. The inscriptions convey a message of unifying the warriors to raise their spirits and scare the enemy, or a calling to magically energize the sling bullet itself. These inscriptions were part of psychological warfare, the main purpose of which is to terrorize the opponent."
An aerial view of the Yavne excavation. / Assaf Peretz, Israel Antiquities Authority
Pablo Betzer and Dr. Daniel Varga, the directors of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, suggest it can't be known for certain whether the sling bullet belonged to a Greek soldier, "but it may be related to the conflict between the Greeks and the Hasmoneans. In the 2nd century BCE, pagan Yavne – which was an ally of the Seleucids who ruled Eretz-Israel, was subject to attacks by the Hasmonean army. The Hasmoneans sought to subjugate the other nations and create a homogeneous state from a religious-ritualistic point of view. The tiny lead sling bullets, announcing the imminent victory of the gods of pagan Yavne, are tangible evidence of a fierce battle that took place in Yavne at that time."
