Read this from our Israeli friend, Rabbi Tsahi Mamo:
Dear Friends,
With great pleasure, we announce the completion of the complex approval process for the construction of the Gilgal Biblical Education Center in the Jordan River Valley. For years we have been negotiating with all the proper authorities. At long last, they have now given us every necessary permission and authorization.
Many of you have been praying with us for this day. We sincerely thank you. The dream we have all shared of teaching the Bible to millions of visitors at this significant archaeological site is well on the way to becoming reality.
As you know, every SHABBAT (Saturday) we read from the Torah one PARASHA portion, so that in one year we read all the Torah books.
The very next Shabbat after we received full approval for the construction of the center, our reading happened to be the Re’eh portion, which begins with the following words in Deuteronomy 11:26-32.
See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known. And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road, toward the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oak of Moreh? For you are to cross over the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you. And when you possess it and live in it, you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the rules that I am setting before you today. (ESV)
We remember with reverence that immediately upon entering the land, after the big and impressive miracle of the crossing of the Jordan River (Joshua 3-4), the Israelites went to the Gilgal to build their camp. Then they went up to Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim for the impressive ceremony of pronouncing the blessings and the curses. (Joshua 8). Only after these actions of obedience did they begin to settle the Land of Israel.
This is also what God asks of us. Before a person sits down, sets up a home, or builds
a family, he is to know the rules of the founding of the world: do good and you will receive a blessing, do bad and you will receive a curse.
This is not cause and effect. It is the leadership principle of the world ! This is the equation!
When a person knows and understands that the world is headed this way, he does not keep the ways of the Lord with fear, he goes this way with energy and happiness.
I hope that at the beginning of next year we will start the actual construction of the visitor and education center.
We invite you to come with Father’s House Educational Foundation to visit the Gilgal site and participate financially in the mission of building this incredible teaching venue for the glory of God. We need you now more than ever.
To learn about upcoming Father’s House journeys to Israel, click here.
To register your name today as a prayer partner with this project and/or to give an online donation to the construction needs of the Gilgal Biblical Education Center, click here.
Thank you sincerely,
Rabbi Tsahi Mamo
Director and Legal Counsel
Gilgal Biblical Education Center