Today Hebron and Kiryat Arba are full of Jews who have come from all over Israel and from all over the world, to settle in the first Jewish city in history.

Sondra Oster Baras, an Orthodox Jew who has devoted her life to reaching out to Christians all over the world to bless Israel, explains the Jewish Sabbath (Shabbat) so that Christians can gain a better understanding of how Jews revere and observe this holy day.

There is a common joke among Jews that summarizes all of our Jewish holidays in one sentence: They tried to kill us, G-d saved us, let’s eat. It doesn’t quite apply to every holiday, but certainly Passover, Purim and Hanukkah fit the bill. And the statement certainly tells us a great deal about Jewish culture.

This weeks Torah portion includes the largest number of commandments of any other weekly portion. Beginning with Chapter 21 verse 10 and proceeding through Chapter 25, verse after verse is filled with situations and the rules of practice that are applicable.

These verses set forth guidelines to be followed by the kings of Israel, to ensure their righteousness and the absence of corruption in their kingdoms. Although, we no longer have kings, our political leaders would do well to follow these rules.

We are often witness to the fact that the nations of the world hold the Jewish people and the State of Israel to a higher standard. Frankly, in most cases, those nations are not really interested in placing Israel on a higher pedestal, but creating a basis for criticism against Israel.

There are many statistics that I love to remember on Israel Independence Day — that we are the only western country with a growing birth rate, that we are the only western country that has more trees today than we had 100 years ago, that we consistently rank as one of the countries with the highest happiness index, that we have one of the best air forces in the world — imagine that only 72 years after that rickety four-plane group.

That first day, everything I had ever thought about farming went right out the window. I hauled heavy irrigation tubes and I hacked at spiny weeds between the neat rows of sprouting green-tipped onions.

There is no time to lose.  Israel must annex the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria now.  We have been granted the opportunity of a lifetime.