Do You Follow the Golden Rule?

We apologize for not updating the blog this past week.  It was due to the Holiday of Sukkoth, or as it is often translated the Feast of the Tabernacles.

The Holiday, originally an agricultural festivity, commemorates Gods helping hand as the Jews made their 40 year long Odyssey from Egypt through the desert to the Promised Land.
Jewish People celebrate the holiday by sitting, sleeping, and feasting in traditional huts or "Sukkot" gazing at the stars through palm tree branch ceilings.

I wonder… Were such Sukkot built during the current settlement freeze? Did Palestinians oppose them?  What was the position of the United States?… but I digress.

Lately evangelical Christians have also started celebrating this holiday because it was during the Feast of the Tabernacles that Jesus revealed his role to the disciples. On this day evangelical Christians, gather from the four corners of the world in the annual Christian Embassy "Feast of Tabernacles Congress” in Jerusalem.

We at Identity Travel attended this year's Congress, which took place this past week, and presented the visitors with our new Jesus Biographical Tour of Israel. It was heartwarming that Christians would come all the way to Jerusalem to show their love and support for the Jewish People.  As believers in both the Old Testament and the New Testament they remember the Jewish heritage of the Christ and the Jewish role as God's chosen people.

All of the major monotheistic religions believe that God has a plan, and that we all have roles to play in his vision. It is because of that role that despite all the disagreement and strife we are commanded to follow the golden rule. A law which is mentioned in the philosophies of all the empires that have ruled this land, through all religions that sprouted here and through all cultures that see Israel as a home:

Ancient Egypt: (c. 1080 – 332 BCE) papyrus: "That which you hate to be done to you, do not do to another.

Jewish: "Love your neighbour as yourself: I am the LORD."—Leviticus 19:18, the "Great Commandment"

Ancient Greece:  "Do not do to your neighbour what you would take ill from him." – Pittacus (c. 640–568 BCE)   

Jewish Talmud: "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn." —Talmud, Shabbat 31a

Islam: "Seek for mankind that of which you are desirous for yourself, that you may be a believer; treat well as a neighbour the one who lives near you, that you may be a Muslim [one who submits to God]."—Sukhanan-i-Muhammad (Teheran, 1938)

Bahá'í Faith: Blessed is he who preferreth his brother before himself. —Bahá'u'lláh

Whether you are a Palestinian, a Christian, a Muslim, a Jew or an Atheist, whether you live in Israel or elsewhere we would like to leave you with this thought; despite all the controversy and all the animosity, and regardless of your own personal, national and cultural conflicts do you observe the Golden Rule?