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A
The Week in Bible Prophecy, a Prophecy Watchers podcast.
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B
Hello everyone. Welcome to the podcast today. Modern Gonzalez here in studio. And I have a good friend, Adam Berkowitz, all the way from Israel, who's going to be discussing, I think, a very fascinating topic. Before I get to Adam, just want to remind everybody about a couple things that I'm actually going to be going to Israel twice next year. If you have any, yeah. Any interest in coming and joining us. I'll be there in January as well as March. So you can just go to prophecywatchers.com and go to the events page. You can get all the information there. Adam, for our audience who might not know you at all, maybe introduce yourself.
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A
Okay. I am the features article writer for Israel365 News, formerly Breaking Israel News. I've been doing that for 13 years, written well over 6,000 articles. I written four book, three books of fiction, two books of nonfiction. First one was about Red Heer and this one is about Project Qumran, about the incense. Yeah, I've been in Israel since 1991. I served as a combat medicine. I was a former classically trained French chef in New York City. Not always religious, but I'm married and four, four amazing children and I live in the Golan.
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B
Yeah, I mean this, this is awesome. For, for those of you again who, who don't know Adam, I, I certainly Recommend going to Israel365 website. I follow him along. I'm on the email list and Adam and I have talked before because we both wrote books on the red heifer and Adam was one of my main sources for sure in all this.
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A
So you, you, you did, you did very well. Okay. I, I, I, I'm not sure I deserve that accolade, but very, very well. It's good book, good book. Actually, if I can say one more thing about that. Yeah, you're one of the few, you're, you're one of the few people who got it right that there were a lot of people and still a lot of people talking about the red heifer. And there were a lot of lies out there, a lot of people and there was just like you see a lot of anti Semitic driven lies about Israel. This is religion. And there were a lot of anti Semitic people who just hate the concept of, of Torah, of Judaism, of, of Third Temple and were lying and they were saying things that were just factually untrue. And you were one of the very, very few people on the other side, on the non Jewish side, who was telling accurate fact based Truth. And I really appreciated that.
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B
Yeah, it was, that was my, I really felt the desire because there was so much confusion as you know. And of course you and I talked often about it. I was like, hey, I don't want to report something. Give me the facts here. And especially even, you know, I've talked about this as well as providing, you know, the Jewish sources, you know, the Talmud of the mission and other things and getting it, because again, for the typical Christian, they don't really know much about that. I mean, you know, and that's why I felt compelled in the sense of, you know, my undergrad was in Jewish studies, so we studied all these things. It's like, you know what, let's bridge the gap here and talk about the perspective. But this brings up, this kind of brings us to the current topic because, you know, from the Christian perspective we understand clearly that there's going to be a third Temple. You know, the New Testament discusses it, that it's going to be there in the future. So there's a prophetic element. So we, you know, for those of us, not all Christians for sure, but for those of us who read the New Testament, very straightforward and even some from the Book of Daniel, there is going to be a temple there. But so it brings up all the discussions that we've had about the third Temple movement, the Red Heifer contribution to that. But also it brings up this discussion in talking about this new book that you have and the idea of the incense people have talked about, well, don't they need the incense for the temple? So let's just assume for the moment that nobody knows anything about this figure. Vendell Jones. Some people do, but not. So let's start at the beginning. What's the name of the book that you just, you wrote and kind of introduce the whole idea of what this is about because I think archeologically and historically it's a pretty neat story.
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A
It's the story. When I first heard it as a writer of fiction, I was just like, I have to have my hands on this. It was, it's just such an unbelievable story. It has everything in it. The, the book is called the Ketoret. Ketoret is Hebrew for incense, a source based historical account of the Qumran incense discovery. And it was, it's, it's available for free download. The, the, the people who, who are running the project, their father did the, did the original, the original laboratory testing. So now I'm getting ahead of myself. So let me tell the story. It started in 1967 in 1967, Vendal Jones, who was a Texas pastor, evangelical pastor, came to Israel to learn Torah from rabbis. And he came just in time for the war, and he volunteered and had some special abilities that helped him with the idf. I was told it's because he was colorblind. He was able to see through camouflage. So he looked over the border, and he could see things that. That other people couldn't see. He also suffered hearing loss because of what he was doing. So he was an IDF spotter. And after the war, he got a very big interest in archeology, and he was very interested in an area called Qumran, which is right on the Dead Sea. The Qumran. Most people believe it was the site of the Essenes. It's very isolated and remote, and they're, they're not there. There's been a lot of discussion about what actually was going on there. That's where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. So he was very interested in the archeology there. He was able to get. In the meantime, he also became a Noahide. He, he, he left the mainstream Christianity, became a Noahide, and he spent a lot of time going around there. And he began in 1972 really doing independent excavations at Qumran. And he was working with Israeli archeologists. And in 19. Was it 19? Yes. In 1988, he discovered a small ceramic jug, a pottery jug, which he believes was the shemina farsimon, the persimmon oil. The. It's also called Shemin misha, the anointing oil, which. It's. Remains controversial to this day. There's no reason to think that it wasn't. Okay. Seems very clear, which is an amazing discovery. It's a very holy item, very connected to the temple. And he found it in Qumran, and it's now in the Israel Museum. And he kept digging in qumran. And in 1992, he. He was, he was studying the. The Copper scroll, which is one of the Dead Sea scrolls, and it's actually engraved in copper, and it's, it's sits in, in Jordan in a museum. But there's. It has to be deciphered. It's in a very special kind of Hebrew and there are hints in it. It's basically a treasure map. And archaeologists have been trying to decipher it. And Vendel had a special take on it. And he thought he found what they called the cave of the Column, the twin caves, which was where the incense was stored. And he was banging around there, and he thought he found where the place was. And pretty much by accident, they stumbled on the cave and they found it, and it was a hidden cave. And they started digging. And in 1992, they. After a lot of digging, they found what they called a silo, which was like a pit that they lined with stones, and it was full of an aromatic red dust that smelled strongly of cinnamon. And they did what they called a tongue test, which is they put it in their mouth and it dissolved in their mouth, which was because it was organic. And so he found this. This material he found. There's a bit of a dispute whether it was 300kg or 600kg. If you go online, most people will say 600kg. There's no proving that it was 300kg, but it seems to be that it was 300kg. Vendel was kind of fuzzy on details a lot of the time, so he said it was 600kg, but it probably wasn't.
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B
I mean, that's a lot of difference for Americans. Let me just say that's like over 1200 pounds. So that's a lot of.
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A
Right, but. And 300 kilograms is not quite so much. What's interesting is Professor Marvin Anselman. I'll get to him in a minute. He did the computation, and he figured out that according to the Talmud, according to Talmudic formula for making the incense, 300 kg was exactly one batch. It was exactly one batch of incense. So they found this, and they also found a coin in the dirt that was from the first Jewish Revolt, which was 67 CE, which helped them to date it. And they found it. And the problem was Vendel had on and off relations with the Antiquities Authority. And also, since it was in. So it was outside of what they call Israel pop proper. And it was in. It came under the auspices of Kogat, the civil authority in Judea and Samaria. They pretty much shut him down. And they said, we're not going to test this stuff. We're not interested in it. So he said, well, if it's dirt, I'll go use it in my garden. But of course, he didn't use it in his garden. There was a bit of a problem with the. Where it went. It went from one person to the other. No person wanted to keep it for too long because it was holy and sanctified to the temple. And it ended up with his daughter. His daughter converted to Judaism. She lived in. In. In Samaria and a small town called Maale Livona, which is interesting because Livona is one of the components, one of the elements of the. Of the temple spice. And it was stored in cardboard boxes, in plastic bags in the bomb shelter. And it was there for 34 years. And just before the war, she. She was an older woman. She. She was hiking out in the hills near her. Near her town. She fell and broke her hip and she was in a wheelchair. And when the war broke out, the town had to prepare all.
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B
Which war are we talking about?
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This. This war. The current one. We're going back not so long ago, three years ago, four years ago. Four years ago, she. They had to prepare the bomb shelters for. To be used as bomb shelters. So without her involvement, a. A crew was sent to the. To the bomb shelter, and the boxes were thrown away. 300 kg of temple incense was thrown away. I should add. And I forgot to say that in 1992, when he found it, Vendell Jones was very connected to Professor Marvin Anselman as a rabbi. And he's also. He was a brilliant, brilliant scientist. He like hundreds of patents and he. He wrote several encyclopedias that are still being used by chemists. And he analyzed it and he. He came to his conclusion. And there was also a palinologist which is like organic and identifying plants, named Terry Hutter. Love. I loved him. He was just. There's some people I just. I feel great after I interview them. He's not Jewish. And he. For amazing story that I tell in the book about how he contacted Vendel Jones really out of the blue. And Vendel was like, we've been praying for you. And he tested it. And in the book, there's an appendix where we show his report, which shows the pictures and the names of the varieties of plants that were in this material that Vendel Jones found. And it precisely matched the incense that as it's listed, there are four organic elements listed in the Torah. And there are a total of 11 organic elements enlisted in the Talmud. And there are an additional three inorganic. Well, not herbal or ingredients like cypress, wine, burrit, and what they call. Which means something that raises up smoke. And these were the inorganic elements. And by the way, he found both the organic elements stored in the silo and he found the inorganic elements stored off to the side. And he presented them both in containers to Ravavad Yosef. And he said, can I burn it? And Ravad Yosef gave his opinion, his biblical opinion, his historic opinion, because according to the Torah, if you burn it for personal reasons, you die. Yeah, you're in trouble. It was a serious question. That's another Thing I want to emphasize in this book, there's a lot of information given, and when you deal the concept of kodesh, the concept of holiness, has not been in the world for a very long time. And the return of the temple, which is happening, we've got to take in mind. We've got to keep in mind that holy items, they're not ours. In Hebrew, in Torah language, holy heckdesh means it has been acquired by God, meaning I give an offering. It's now not mine, and it's forbidden to make use of anything that's been sanctified because it doesn't belong to me. It's stealing from God. So anyone who. Who decides that, oh, I want to make the temple incense. That's not a good idea. I actually. I held some of the temple incense that I had found. I went to the bomb shelter, and underneath this air conditioning unit, this air unit was a pile of red dust that obviously didn't belong there. And we saved it. And it turns out it's almost probably temple incense. And we needed. That had spilled, and we need to get it. And there's a big. You know, I have two liters of it, and I'm like, oh, just a little bit for my oil. I'm like, what are you stupid?
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B
Don't fall to temptation. It's too tempting.
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A
Oh, my God. God. And it's a huge temptation. Like, it's holy. I want to be holy. No, that's not how you get to be holy. You get holy by serving God. Yeah. Not by taking his place. Yeah. And there's this big inclination. Oh, I want. No, it's like seeing this beautiful piece of meat in the temple that you're offering up to God and saying, you know, I'm hungry. No, it's not yours. So the last chapter of the story, Vendel Jones's daughter, Sarah Richardson, who had converted to Judaism and was over. Was watching, guarding the temple incense for over 30 years. And she was also very involved with the. With Vendel Jones's work. Last summer, she was murdered, man. And she was murdered by her own son. So I don't want to say that bad things happen to people who deal with this, but I think you should think twice if you want to treat holy things lightly. It's not yours to mess with. And she was very careful with it. God bless her. She was very careful, very respectful of it. You have to be careful. So that's how it ended. But the reason why they made this book and they made it available as a free Download is the children of Rabbi Anselman want to continue their father's work, and they want to. He said. He did a CNN interview where he said he was certain he used that word, certain it was temple incense, but it's not certain enough to convince other scientists. So he was planning on doing further testing, and they never got around to it. And now, 35 years later, the, The. The technology has made the testing much better. So they want to find additional samples of it, which do exist, and they want to do further testing. It's very expensive. Very expensive. And finding the, the. The samples and taking. It's a. It's a lot, but that's what they're planning on doing.
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B
Does the. So what has been the. You know, with this latest understanding or discovery, I guess that much of it was tossed out, you know, from after October 7th. What has been kind of the reception or the thoughts within the. The. I would say, let me say the Temple Institute or have. Did what. Did they ever have any connection with it or was. Has it been accepted or.
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The Temple Institute, the Israel Antiquities Authority. They did not have any connection to this.
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B
Did they believe it?
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I am not going to comment on that.
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Fair enough.
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I'm not going to comment on that. I don't want to throw. Throw shade on anyone.
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Sure.
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Especially not people who are doing amazing work.
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Yeah.
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And I don't want to build up a controversy or something like that where there really isn't. But. So I think. I think it was a missed opportunity. It was Hashem saying, you know, here I'm giving you what you need. And us not acknowledging or reacting, responding, taking care of it. That's my personal read on it. And I'm not gonna blame anyone in particular, but it's a missed opportunity. Big time. Big time.
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B
So. So on that note, then, so the. You said you have a couple liters of it, and then is there any other remnants anywhere that is. That'll. That still can be used and that's. That's going to be tested and stuff.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah. Vendel was very generous giving out samples. So there are. It's like every. Every week someone else comes to me, say, hey, I've got a little jar of it. A lot of those little jars, like, opened up and spilled out. But we. But you need a quantity and you also need provenance. And Perry, who was Rabbi Anelman's son, amazing man. He was doing research at Vendel Jones's Institute in America when Vendel Jones's widow Anita came up to him with a little jar and said, please take this back to its home and gave him a jar. So there is what to. There's also. There was a big sample given to Rabbi Ovad Yosef, which we don't know. I don't. We haven't really pursued that. But there is, there are samples that we can test.
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B
Now. There's, there's a, a common assumption by many just that as an example with the, the red heifer ashes, that there has to be some from the old red heifer that are combined potentially with the new ashes. If a red heifer was offered, you know, and I, I haven't found any confirmation that that has to be the case. But two things. Number one, is that true with the red heifer? And then is it also true with potential temple incense?
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Well, considering that there was only one time that they did it without the ashes of the previous heifer, and that was with Moshe. With Moshe, yep. So I don't know if it's what we call ea, meaning if you don't have it, it's not kosher. It makes it infinitely more difficult because to get a Cohen who is, who is pure is really a lot harder than finding a red Heer. That's going to be a tricky part. I don't know if Christians appreciate. We know who the kohanim are. I go around my town and I'm like, he's a Cohen. He's a Cohen. He's a Levite. Because we guard that very strongly. The, the, the, the identity as a Cohen is inscribed on gravestones. If you go to a Jewish cemetery, you'll see a gravestone. And if you don't, even if his name is not Kohen, you'll see engraved hands like this. And that's a, that means that a Cohen is buried there. They're very obvious. They can't marry divorcees or converts. They're not allowed to enter a cemetery unless it's an immediate relative. So we, we know who the kohanim are, but there are additional stringencies. For someone who will do the red heifer. They, they, they have to be born not in a synagogue, not in a hospital, because they're dead people in hospital. And they'll become ritually impure. They can't travel overseas because there's impurity. That's con. How do you say, conferred when you leave Israel, they can't go into a cemetery. Of course, even flying, they're usually. You'd be surprised. There are usually dead bodies being transported in airplanes. So it's a problem. They can't have gone to war. A lot of things.
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B
Any.
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A
Anything having to do with dead people. So finding the kohen is very difficult. That's probably even more difficult than finding a red heifer. So. And it's also like they just had a red heifer born in the Galilee. And I hate to say it, but there's no way it's kosher because it had an ear tag, and that's considered a blemish, a moon. So it's probably not going to. But we're still looking. We're still.
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B
Did. Did. Did Vendel have. Did he have any search. Was he searching for the. The red heifer ashes as well at all?
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A
He was. He was continuing his search. And one of the things he was looking for, there were several items that were mentioned in the. In the copper skull, and one of them is ashes for the red heifer. But as far as we know.
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B
Yeah, that. That's. That's kind of what I remember going back in the 90s and hearing about, you know, his work. Was there any, like, in the sense of today? You know, obviously, the Torah has the description of the incense and stuff like that and the restrictions, as we know, to keep it sanctified. Do. Like the Temple Institute. You know, I've been there many times, and of course, they have so many things that they've been working on and produced. And, you know, the golden menorah, et cetera, et cetera. Have they been working on, I mean, the incense itself, or is there some ambiguity as it relates to what those words mean today versus what they meant in ancient times?
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A
Not. Not that I'm aware of. And I have an awful lot of respect for the Temple Institute. I love them and I respect them, but not. They're not the only ones trying to bring the temple. I'm actually. One of the things I learned from Rhonda Attar is I waste a lot of time. I could be doing a lot more with my life to serve Hashem than what I've been doing. And I'm. I'm working with Josh. Wander. I don't know if you know Josh. This man, he just. He walks around all day doing stuff to bring the temple. He's unbelievable. Like, preparing stones to build the temple. He has two silver trumpets that he made himself, not with his hands, but that he had commissioned.
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B
He.
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A
He was. Since he was making the stones. He knows that in the temple they used stone utensils to eat from because they don't receive ritual impurity. So he had a kiddush cup made out of stone, this thing. It's like. It's weightlifting. But he just, you know, every time I turn around, he's doing something else to bring the temple. So we're writing a book about that, and there are a lot of people out there doing a lot of different things. People aren't aware of it. They make a big deal out of the red heifer. Yes, the red heifer, thank God. And even the incense. Yes, the incense, thank God. There's a lot more going on out there. There's a lot more going on out there. Rediscovering the tekhelet, the blue dye. Rediscovering the tolaat shani, this crimson dye. These have been done, you know. These have been done. A large part is educating the kohanim. There's a practice model, altar and mitzvah richo where they do practice runs. There's ein. So if there's so many things. Raising grapes, Grapes grown for the wine in the temple were very different than grapes raised elsewhere. It's actually. They're raised on the ground. They're not lifted up on. They're not lifted up. They're not grown off the ground. There are other requirements, so that's being done. Stuff like that. Stuff like that.
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B
Is there.
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Wave offerings, Rediscovering the bread,
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B
you know, in anticipation of that. There's a couple things, no doubt, as we know from, you know, the. The Hebrew Bible and just the. All the. The records contained within that. There are thousands, millions of animals offered up throughout the centuries in anticipation of that. Is. Is there any increase in, you know, I would say, animal husbandry for. In preparation for the needs that will come?
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A
I don't think that's a real big problem. I mean, we could solve that in one season. What I. When they built the new airport, it's huge. I don't know if you've been to the new airport. Were you ever in the old airport?
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B
Yeah, well, I mean, I was there. My first time was in 2000, and then my last time was 23, so.
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A
So I don't know if when they built the new airport, but the old airport was really like what they say in Yiddish, Hamish. It was really homey. It was like every person who came to Israel came out through the same single doorway.
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B
I know. Exactly. Talking about. Yeah.
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And you have all the families waiting and waving. You know, it's a family event. And it was very Amish. It was very family. It was very. You know, and then they built this new one, which is. It's gorgeous. And it's huge. And everyone's like, we know why they built it. You know, we know what. And they're, they're actually building a high speed train line. Israel. I love the trains in Israel. Love the trains in. I think it's the best way to get around Israel. Better than driving. When I have to go into the office, I take the train and it goes down the coast. I'm like 100 yards from the beach the whole way down. It's amazing. And the high speed train line is going to go directly. Well, they have. The train now goes directly to the airport. You get out, you take an escalator upstairs, you're in the airport. It's amazing. There's like no reason to take a car because you have to traffic and parking. You take the train.
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B
Where else would it go from? From the airport? Will it go all the way to Jerusalem?
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A
Well, first of all, yes, it goes to Jerusalem, but the question is where's it gonna go in Jerusalem? They're building a branch. They were even talking about calling it the Trump Station that would go.
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B
We're not anymore.
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A
I don't know directly. You got, you know, you gotta, gotta acknowledge the good that people do for you. Yeah, it's very, very important. And he. So there's, there's the, they're, they're planning a branch of the air, of the train that goes directly to the Temple Mount. And so that would be the big one. And they just allocated a ton of money for, for hotels and tourism. Actually it's a Judea in Samaria. But we need that more than the animals. It's, the animals are like, okay, you know, we'll get that somehow. But there's a lot of other stuff that has to be done. That's, that's definitely one of them.
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B
You know, one of the things that you wrote about recently in the last few weeks, which I thought was very important was discuss the, the new poll that came out as it relates to what you, what you wrote about that. That's a huge deal.
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A
Bombshell. People. And a lot of people didn't even believe it when it came out. There was. And that has to do with the war that there was a survey and they asked people, do you support building the third temple? 55% said yes. Before the war, it was about 13%. 13. The war. It was even more transformational for Israel than 911 was for America. We found out that even if we don't want the temple, our enemies are going to kill us just to make sure we don't build the temple because it was called the Laksa flood and it was because of the red heifers. They attacked us on October 7th. You can see this in, you know, everyone's oh, non religious. There's very, very, very few non religious Israelis. You go to the army. You. They can't. There's every, every soldier is wearing, wearing, wearing tzitzit wearing fringes because it's. They're in the army. They make sure that every unit has at least one person with tefillin so that they can put on fill in. They're very, very. There's a lot of wakening up about that. It's really amazing. People are waking up to I'm Israel. You can see it especially on the Temple Mount. Last year, despite all the restrictions that they put on us, I think we were over. Either we were close to or over 60,000 Jews went up and we're only allowed up five days a week and we're only allowed up during the day for a total of six hours. And we're praying up there. I want to go to the Temple Mount because one of the things they're doing is they're. They're prostrating. Yeah. Which that's like to bow down. To bow down. Like when we say bow down, it's not bow down like in the dojo, it's bow down, lie down full on. On the stones. The only place we can do that is on the Temple Mount. And just like the only place we can bring an offering is on the Temple Mount. So we're doing that now. There was Josh wanders is planning. They have Torah scrolls that they want to set up a synagogue on the Temple map. Yeah. Is there any update on that? It's all ready. It's just waiting for the Israeli government to come around to it. They went up on Rosh Hashanah with shofars and like little shofars that they could hide in their pocket. And like one guy came out and the police dragged him off. So then the second guy pulled it out. They did all of the shofar blasts for Rosh Hashanah on the Temple Mount. Now if you go up on Sukkot, there's always these young boys and they're settlers, God bless them. They put like a little lulav and etrog in their pants and then they hide it in the rock. So anyone who comes up and wants to wave lulav and etro can do that. It's really what's going on up there. It's like the nation wants it, the nation wants it. We're waking up to who we are and what we need to do. And God willing, God willing, we'll see it in our lifetime.
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B
You know, the help people understand and maybe you can give us some updated numbers is, you know, when you look at the, the founding of, of the state of Israel back in 1948, it was, you know, facts are facts. It was primarily founded by those that were more secular in their, in their perspectives. So what, what do you. Today, if you were to give a percentage, you know, unscientific, I guess, what's the percentage between, let's say, secular and religious people in Israel?
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A
Well, I do know that the, the polls and surveys that I've read, they lie. The question is, how would you define a religious Jew? I live, I live in, in a town which is a lot of Moroccans, a lot of Moroccan Jews, not too many of them wear, Keep us on their head, you know, and you ask them, are you religious? Like, no, no. And I'm telling you, I spoke to the mayor and he's the same way. Are you religious? No. No. Do you eat kosher? Of course I eat kosher. What am I, a goy? Do you, do you keep Shabbos? No, I don't keep Shabbos. I watch television. Do you travel? No. God forbid. So the question is, what is religious? And go try, go try to find a piece of bread on, on Pesach. You know, it's. How do you define religious? Yeah, you know, so the, the. So, so it's very. If, if I said. And they call that traditional.
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B
Okay.
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A
Which traditional is like Orthodox in America, you know, are very, very close. I think it's way more than the surveys say. I think it's like 80%. You know, I really do. And it's, you know, because it's mostly Sephardi people. People in America, when they think of Jew, they think of a Caucasian. We're not Caucasian. You know, we're mostly Jews from the Arab countries who, when God kicked us out, they didn't want to go too far, so they stayed in this area.
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B
And so explain that for the people that don't know what Sephardic or Ashkenazi or any of those. Explain that for the American who doesn't know what those terms mean.
- [37:54]
A
Sephardi is. When we were, when we went into exile, they generally went through the Arab countries. They also went through Spain and Portugal, through the Iberian Peninsula and which was also at that time Arabic and Muslim, and they were less than Caucasian and the Ashkenazim tended to go to Europe, Western Europe, Eastern Europe. And they're the white people, like me. I'm, I'm Ashkenazi. The, there's, and there's a lot of big differences. The, the, the Holocaust mostly affected the Ashkenazi. Overwhelmingly. The Sephardim, like, they, they, they maintained their Jewish identity and their Jewish heritage and their Jewish customs. They. I, I remember I was the religious guy in the army, and I was in this, they called it a base. It was like 12, 15 soldiers in a big pile of sand. And we, we were just watching the Jordanians and we were there for Pesach. And I was the only one who needed a Passover Haggadah to pray because all these guys, they knew it, you know, by heart. That's the way the, the Sephardim learn. So they, and they, they don't, they don't fall too far. The Ashkenazim, when we fall, we go really far away. But it's, it's really a matter of your, your pathway after you went into exile. So, so right now, so then of
- [39:38]
B
course, of the, of the, I guess if you want to say the makeup of Israel, if. I know, I know it's pretty broad, but what are the percentages then of Sephardim and Ashkenazim? And there.
- [39:49]
A
It's much more than half Sephardi.
- [39:52]
B
Okay.
- [39:53]
A
Okay. And everyone. It's not like there are two branches of Judaism, right? You have slightly different, slightly different traditions of prayer. But I mean, the same Torah, the same Talmud. And it's not like I, I, I mean, it's not like one keeps kosher and the other doesn't. You know, we, we definitely the, the big difference is on Passover that the Sephardim eat rice and the Ashkenazim don't. But on Passover, I'm, I'm Sephardi, I eat rice.
- [40:30]
B
So, so the, so a couple last things then. The, you and I, you know, you and I talk and, or, you know, and just communicate a bit better word, you know, various times, share with the audience kind of the feel. And you've written a lot about it, about the, you know, the, just the whole feeling that's happening there in the land. And what does that even mean?
- [40:57]
A
I've been writing for 13 years about this subject, and when I first started doing it, people were like, oh, stop it. This is always happening. You're making a big deal out of nothing. And it. Since COVID I have not heard that once. You know, we're living in times when just crazy things are happening. It's like, you know, people always talk about Goga Magog, and they're like, and. But aren't we looking at something that looks like Goga Magog? You know, and the. I mean, the biggest one is like, come on, the Jews are back in Israel. You know, a hundred years ago, they would have thought you were insane if you said that. It's just. It's. It's. It's a prophecy that's in our faces, you know, and. And Hashem is still with us. Like, 67 was a miracle. A miracle. But all the Israelis I know, the old ones, they're like, 67 was amazing. It was clearly a miracle. It was clearly Hashem looking out for us. But this one's bigger. This one's bigger. Beepers. We were attacked on seven fronts. We were attacked by ICBMs from Iran, which was no small thing. And we're okay. And here we are, and we're a tiny country, and we've got. All our young men are fighting, which is redefining Jews. It used to be, you know, you had to still, hi, can I sell you a bagel? But now I love it when people say, IDF is a. Is a. Is a brutal army. I'm like, yep, yep. We are the offspring of King David. We are the offspring of King Saul. You want to know about a war tradition? We got it, and we do it. And we are not colonial because we. For 3,000 years, we have not increased our borders. We keep the borders that God gave us. But don't you mess with us. Don't you mess with us. God commanded us to fight our enemies, and that's what we're doing. So I think. I think it's very clear since. Since COVID people are just realizing that something is happening in the world. Something is happening in the world. I look at my kids, and I'm like, I might not see it, but they're going to be living it. They're going to be living it. It's a. It's a new era in the world. And people are going off the deep end because they're. They're. They just don't want to acknowledge that God is in the world. Or they're like, okay, I know what my job is. It's like, when you do prophecy, it's like, you know what's going to happen. The question is, where do you fit in? So. And that's where Israel comes in. We're not, you know, an amazing country with amazing values. I hate when people say, it's the democracy And I don't care if it's a democracy. I don't care if we're the high tech nation. If I want to know who you are, where your heart is, just tell me where would you, what you, what you feel about Israel and I'll know everything I need to know about you. If you're against Israel, well, what you're really against is God. Because Israel is God showing himself in the world. We're not. Not because we're great or because they're for our benefit. We're the litmus test. We're the servants of the world. And we're seeing that right now. And we're seeing that people are willing to go to ridiculous lengths to make themselves look stupid, to reject every shred of reality and truth that they've ever been told just to hate on Israel. And that's because that's what we did. That's what we're here for. And we're seeing it in a way we've never seen it before. Can you, can you imagine someone in World War II saying, Germany doesn't exist? You know, Germany doesn't exist. You know, England is a terrorist nation. And that's what they're saying about Israel. It's really about who you are, where you are, where's your heart. And the amazing thing is, the amazing thing is God is testing everyone. And they can't hide because when this is all over, God is going to walk up to people and say, who were you for? Oh, I was for the Bible and God really. Let me look at your, Let me look at your Twitter feed.
- [45:43]
B
Right? Huh. There's no doubt there's a there. The line is, is been drawn over the past few years and you know, it just has. And so, you know, for, for people who are interested in the story and the archeology and you know, some of the other elements here, let them know where they can get the free download. I think that's. I didn't know it was a free download. That's awesome.
- [46:07]
A
It's totally free. They want people to read it. They're. That's why I have to do this. They're angry at me. They're like, we want, we want millions of downloads. I'm like, should be getting it. It's project kumran.org project Q M r a n.org it's a totally free download. It's a PDF. It's I think about a hundred pages. It's a little bit longer than a hundred pages, but that includes appendixes which have the Actual lab reports. It has the actual pictures of the plants that Dr. Terry Hutter did. It has interviews. It's all, it's all as much first person as we can do. It's another reason we did it is the people who were on the dig with Vendel are getting very old, so we have to get this down. And that was one of the problems was there were conflicting reports. People don't remember as well as they used to, so we had to get that all down on paper. And, and, and that's what we did. It's a fascinating story. If you want to learn Bible. This is. If I can give you one example of an amazing thing in there. We were talking about Kumran. There's. The prevailing theory until recently was that it was where the Essenes were. And it's not really clear who the Essenes were. They violated a lot of precepts in Judaism. And they said, oh, they're, they're, they're celibate, they're just men. And there's an amazing, amazing, amazing Jewish historian, secular woman, professor Rachel Elior. And she wrote also, specifically, I just got her book, I haven't had a chance to learn it about the incense, where she said, what was in Qumran? Well, there was a tradition, a, A line of priests in the temple that went all the way back to King Solomon and before. And they were connected. She learned about it in the Book of Enoch. And in the Book of Enoch, there was. There were four. The four organic elements that are listed as the ketorid in the, in the Bible, in the Torah, in the Book of Enoch, they says that Enoch, who came after the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, he was allowed to go back in and take four plants. And these were the four plants. And they were used for the ketoret. And that's why they were listed in the Torah. And it connects the temple to the creation of the world and to the Garden of Eden. And there was a line of priests who had this tradition. And that's what they did with the temple was to connect it to Anak. And, and what happened is in the, the Hashmoni, the Hashmonaim, the Hasmoneans, they were priests from a different line and they shifted the emphasis and the focus of the temple. The very center of the temple was the golden altar for the incense. There was only one time that they sprinkled blood inside. Other than that, the animal offerings and the grain offerings. The only ones that went in were the showbread. But the very center, the focus of the entire temple was the incense on the golden altar. And this was the. What they called the b'. Naitzadok. These priests and the Cheshmunaim, they changed it. They shifted it, and they put the emphasis on the oil, and it really changed the very nature of the temple service. So people who were, like, all uptight about the animal sacrifices in the temple, get over it. It was, you know, it was like hors d'. Oeuvres. It wasn't really. It wasn't really the main course. The main course was the temple incense, and that was the b'. Naitzadok. And after the hashmonayim, the b', naitzadok, they said, you know, we've got to preserve this tradition because there's no way this temple can last. It just can't last. And we've got to be ready to restore the original temple. So they did that by setting up. Setting up school, setting up camp in Qumran. It was remote enough that they weren't bothered, which is why they had a huge storage of. Of incense, which is why they had elements from the temple in Qumran, which is why they did a lot of scribal stuff. They wanted to preserve their traditions and their teach, and that's. That was the Dead Sea Scrolls and the scribal tradition of the Qumran. So Qumran was a temple in waiting. It was a restored temple in waiting. And that's her theory about Qumran. And it's an interesting theory.
- [51:34]
B
So, yeah, it helps contribute to, again, all the other things, the Copper scroll, and I find all of it so fascinating.
- [51:42]
A
I have a feeling I'm telling you about this, but you probably know a lot more about it than I do, so.
- [51:47]
B
Well. But again, you know that I appreciate the idea for people in our audience to hear about the new book, and of course, it's available, and just the story behind all of it and the whole preparation that we see coming to be right now in the whole, again, Third Temple movement. So, Adam, I appreciate your time today, and I encourage people, go to project kumran.org check out the book, share it. You know, see the stories, see all the work you've done. And then, of course, when you get. Get your next project out, you know, we'll. Let me know.
- [52:23]
A
We'll. We'll. If I could, if I can add one thing. Yeah. I had some very not so nice experiences with the Red Heifer, and I discovered that people actually prefer a lie. They prefer the lies. And I was very insistent that even if they preferred the lied. For myself, I would wanted to make sure that the truth was out there and there were not so many people out there telling the truth. And you were one of the very few people telling the truth. So people should be very careful where they get this information from, especially if they have preconceived notions about it. And you are one of the real good sources for this and I really appreciate you for that.
- [53:07]
B
Well, I appreciate all the, all the ways in which you gave me your time and you helped me to get the facts on the ground because always
- [53:14]
A
you're very good at getting the message out there.
- [53:16]
B
Yeah. Well, thank you sir. And everybody else, thanks for listening to this podcast this week and watching. And Again, go to Israel365. Check it out. Check all of Adam's work again. You can get on the email list there, which again I look forward to. Every few days I get another update. And check the check the workout@projectcouberon.org thanks for listening today and we will catch you next time.