In May, Kelly and I had the special opportunity to spend a few days in Jerusalem.  On a brilliant Wednesday afternoon, after lunch at the Quarter Cafe in the Old City along with our small group, we slipped into the world famous Shorashim Shop where the proprietor, Orthodox Jew Moshe Kempinski, locked us in, told us to grab a stool while he put on a small headset.  He then spend about 20 minutes telling us, ‘I know who you are…’ as he acknowledged our coming to Torah and a clear understanding of who Ephraim is, etc…  I remember my eyeballs sweating a good bit as he told us how much he loved us and looked forward to our rising as a fulfillment of prophecy.

Moshe and the Shorashim Shop have had a special place in my heart ever since.

Each week the Shop sends out a newsletter with Torah notes, thoughts, adverts and a few relevant articles from around the web.  This week, one article in particular hit me as I could picture every detail of the location of a terror attack.  We stood in these very locations a few short months ago and can’t wait to be there again.

As the world is drunk with madness, we see increasing antisemitism and the global ignoring of terror in the streets of Jerusalem.  Make no mistake, as the world ignores the plight of the Jews, it will eventually inflict upon and ignore the cries of the Messianic/Hebrew roots (Jew loving) community.  We should remember to pray for them, speak out and be mentally and spiritually prepared for what lies ahead.

Here is a story detailing, though the author may not acknowledge it directly, how a bad cup of coffee may have protected he and his family from being in the epicenter of the attack or even its victims.

Fifty steps from terror

Howard Feldman

Earlier today, we were saved by a bad cup of coffee. Really bad. It was weak when I like it strong, it was milky and insipid-looking and it had no personality. What’s worse is that it was made without love. I could taste the lack. And yet it was that which distanced us from being at the scene of a brutal stabbing.
We arrived in Israel on vacation yesterday. We had made the decision to be vigilant without being paranoid and to make sure that our children were aware of the situation without it playing a dominant role for the period that we visit the country. Yesterday, we were successful; today we were not.

We spent a wonderful morning at Mamilla. We had been out for a superb breakfast where sat outside in the glorious Jerusalem winter sun and relished the moment of simply being in the city that is the centre of the Jewish world. We had taken advantage of the sales and the “2 for 1″ specials that I never seem to understand and that always cost me more and not less. And then, with kids starting to tire, we decided to walk into the Old City through the Jewish Quarter and down to the Kotel. It was undoubtedly going to be a poor parenting decision when they were already fatigued, and was another example of the triumph of optimism over experience. There were going to be complaints of sore feet but we would deal with that.

We were on our way towards the end of the Mall, where one climbs the steps to the Yafo Gate when I remembered that I needed a coffee. It had after all been around an hour or so I was well overdue. The last coffee place of the mall seemed as good a place as any and my wife ran inside to order whilst I stayed outside with the family. She came out irritated at the poor service, which was only rivaled by the poor coffee and we laughed about it as we quickly drank up ahead of our walk.

Continue at Shorashim Newsletter online