Paintings of Israel | Gordon Frickers' Blog

Easter and Pesach have passed over

A stunningly clear morning, the mountains shown in the photo are about 100 miles away, then gales here.

A beautiful full moon rise here in an almost clear calm sky heralds the start of the Easter vacations in France.

The most immediate effect of this will be a marked decline in Internet speed as thousands of kids go online and more Gendarmerie on the roads with portable radar, neither issue helping those of us with work to do!

In general the Internet in France is patchy as is mobile phone reception, neither being as fast and reliable as in England.

Yesterday evening was also the feast of Passover, maybe best know as the last supper which was of course a Passover meal?

In those far off days as now, Jews world wide are commanded to celebrate the Passover, ideally in Jerusalem.

This powerful ancient command, probably 3,000 + years old, goes a long way to explaining the very strong attachment Jews have for Jerusalem.

An attachment which was old long before Christianity or Islam where developed.

The great majority of Jews were expelled from Israel following a 3 year war for liberty and independence with the mighty Roman Empire.

Empires have come and gone, the Jews are still with us?

They have to their credit never given up their claim to the land of Israel except they have shown a willingness, less so these days though, to give Judea, Gaza and Samaria to the Arabs.

That seems a bit odd to me, particularly Judea; Judea ?

Less well known is that even after the Roman war, there were always a few survivors living in Israel, although Rome forbade the dispersed to return because the war had cost Rome so dearly.

The Jewish lot did not improve with the coming of Christianity.

Islam was not invited into Israel, it arrived with the distinctly unfriendly slogan “believe or die” made worse with both Jews and Christian Arabs being slaughtered by the crusaders.

Nor was the Jewish lot made comfortable by the Turks.

Napoleon Bonaparte during his middle East campaign invite European Jews to return to Israel.

Of course Nelson at the battle of the Nile and Sydney Smith at the siege of Acra put a stop to Napoleon ambitions in that region.

During the 19th century, driven by persecution in Europe, the pogroms in Russia and Poland in particular, and aided by improving communications as modern Europe evolved, European Jews began to think more seriously about returning to their traditional home land even though by then most of the once bountiful promised land was desolate.

They were inclined to think, if we are going to be murdered, better to die in Israel and maybe together in the promised land we can survive.

With funds raised to buy land from corrupt Turkish officials many Jewish settlements were founded at great cost in lives in parts of Israel so desolate (then) that the Turks thought it smart to sell the waste land to the Jews; the beginnings of modern Israel.

At Passover the meal is a very traditional feast, particularly children friendly, with a religious service included and designed to encourage discussion, interaction, reflection and personal development.

Jews have always been commanded at Passover to remember the gift of freedom from oppression, the departure from 400 years of bondage and slavery in Egypt as if each today had personally been one of those present during that exodus, “and thou shalt tell thy son in that day saying: it is because of that which the Lord did for me when I came forth out of Egypt” (Exodus Xiii, 8).

The reasoning is, had the ancestors not made the Exodus, Jews today would still be slaves or their descendants in Egypt and Jewish history with all it’s incredible adventures, tragedies and achievements, would never have happened.

What might our modern world be like without the Jewish contributions, achievements in so many varied fields?

Will modern Israel survive the onslaught of Islam, a war now 100 years old?

Some say, ‘A very little people but with a big friend’ and they don’t mean the USA!

Every time the Arabs make war despite a huge advantage in numbers, they take horrendous casualties and seem to loose more land to Israel, is some one trying to tell them some thing?

Will the Western world survive the encroachment of Islam?

Is Islam such a bad thing?

You can view some of Gordon Frickers paintings of Israel, made some 25 years ago, from page

http://www.frickers.co.uk/landscape/israel.html

Passover asks profound questions and the Passover with liberty at it’s core is a good time for reflection.

The Passover service has always closed with the words “Next year in Jerusalem“.