Guy Cohen

21/01/2026

As we approach Tu Bishvat the festival of trees I felt drawn to teach about a tree that stands from generation to generation from kingdom to kingdom. Not a tree of one season or one empire but a tree that remains while borders change rulers rise and fall and cultures come and go. For those from the nations who have come to faith in the Messiah this season invites reflection not only on nature but on roots. The olive tree does not hurry to prove its worth. It simply stays rooted in the land witnessing history without trying to control it. In a world of constant change the olive tree offers a different kind of testimony continuity rather than conquest faithfulness rather than force and life that persists quietly across centuries.

The olive tree is far more than a fruit tree. It carries character. A quiet and resilient character that is not measured by speed or force but by the ability to sustain time meaning and identity. The olive tree does not impress at first glance. Its trunk is cracked its leaves are small and its fruit is bitter. Yet precisely from this modest appearance emerges one of the deepest connections between nature faith and leadership a connection that appears both in the Hebrew Scriptures and in the New Testament.

The olive tree moves at a different pace. It is often planted by hands that will never see its fruit yet it continues to yield for generations after. It is a tree of continuity. It teaches a view of life that is not measured only by personal achievement but by long term faithfulness. When a person plants an olive tree he declares that he is part of a story larger than himself.

Even when the olive tree is damaged it does not disappear. Its trunk may crack twist or even become hollow but from the root new shoots will grow. Identity is preserved even when form changes. The olive tree does not cling to the past yet it does not detach from it. It renews itself from the root not instead of it.

This quality stands at the heart of Jotham’s parable in the Book of Judges chapter 9. The trees seek to appoint a king and their first appeal is to the olive tree. Not to the thorn bush not to a useless shrub but to the one that gives oil light and benefit. Yet the olive tree refuses. It says that it will not cease producing its rich oil by which God and people are honored in order to go and rule over the trees. This refusal is profound not merely political but ethical. The olive tree does not reject leadership because it is unworthy but because it understands that true leadership is not necessarily rule.

The message is sharp. One who seeks power is not necessarily fit to lead. And one who gives life light and healing to others is not always available for struggles over authority. Jotham’s parable presents the olive tree as a model of influence that does not pursue control. It influences through purpose not through position.

That same olive tree appears again in a different yet complementary context in Romans chapter 11. Here Paul the apostle uses the olive tree as a model for understanding the relationship between Israel and the nations within faith in the Messiah. The olive tree is described as a cultivated tree with an ancient root. Some of its branches were broken off and wild olive branches were grafted in their place. Yet Paul emphasizes a principle that cannot be misunderstood. The branches do not support the root. The root supports the branches.

This is a parable that neither cancels Israel nor replaces one identity with another. On the contrary it establishes that Messianic faith is rooted in the covenants the patriarchs the Torah and the prophets. The nations do not begin a new story but are joined to an existing one. Grafting is not ownership but grace.

Paul also warns against spiritual arrogance. A grafted branch can also be cut off if it becomes disconnected from the root. Faith does not exist in a detached spiritual vacuum but within a historical story a people a language and time.

Here the depth of the olive tree as a shared symbol is revealed. In Jotham’s parable the olive tree refuses to rule because it is faithful to its purpose. In Romans 11 the olive tree refuses to be replaced. In both cases the olive tree teaches humility. It does not exalt itself does not claim ownership and does not erase the other. It simply stands gives and holds the root.

It is a tree that teaches that true leadership is not domination and true identity is not erasure. In faith as in nature there is one root yet there can be many branches. Diversity is not a threat as long as it remains connected to the source of life.

From the olive tree oil is produced and oil does not emerge without pressure. Yet this pressure is measured wise and gradual. Not violence but process. From the crushed fruit comes light. In the ancient world olive oil was light food medicine and holiness. The same substance lit a lamp healed a wound and nourished a household.

Here lies another virtue of the olive tree. The ability to transform difficulty into light. Not a blinding light but a steady one. The olive tree teaches that breaking is not necessarily destruction. Sometimes it is a stage on the way to meaning.

In the story of the flood the dove returns with an olive leaf in its beak. Not a large branch not a dramatic declaration but a small sign that life can return. The olive tree symbolizes peace that is not naive. Peace that acknowledges destruction yet does not surrender to it. Peace that is built gradually.

The olive tree connects past and future identity and renewal root and branch. It does not ask who came first but who is connected. It reminds us that faith like the tree is not tested in moments of peak experience but in quiet faithfulness over time.

In the end the olive tree does not demand attention. It simply teaches. Those who are willing to observe it discover that it is possible to live differently. To be rooted rather than loud. To influence without controlling. And to be part of a greater story without trying to replace the root from which all life flows.
Blessings
Guy Cohen

21/11/2025

When History Whispers:
What Vienna Teaches Us About New York Today

While traveling across the United States I was repeatedly asked about the new candidate for mayor of New York City. I was asked before he was elected, on the day he won, and even more afterward. It seemed that every public conversation in Jewish communities, evangelical Christian circles, and Messianic groups across the country eventually led to Zohran Mamdani. Through casual encounters at community events, conversations with Israelis in different cities, and discussions with Americans who know New York’s social landscape well, I realized how powerfully the public senses change long before it actually sees it. This is the moment when history sends a signal, and sometimes it is worth pausing to listen.

There are moments when history stands before us and holds up a mirror, and it is not always pleasant to look. Vienna at the end of the nineteenth century is precisely such a mirror. A modern, vibrant, cultured European city became a stage where populism, xenophobia, and the blaming of Jews fused into a strong political force. Karl Lueger, the charismatic mayor of the time, knew how to harness the power of the masses at the point where fear and need intersect. Emperor Franz Joseph recognized the danger and tried three times to block Lueger’s appointment, but in the end the public pushed and he was forced to accept it. History has shown how quickly rhetoric can become reality.

In this atmosphere wandered a directionless young man named Adolf Hi**er. In October 1908 he failed once again to pass the entrance exams for the Academy of Fine Arts, in part because he hardly prepared. The city was filled with antisemitic pamphlets, racist magazines, and extremist figures promoting ideas of racial superiority. Hi**er found in Lueger a role model. From him he learned something simple and dangerous: how to turn hatred into political power. From there history spiraled into some of its darkest chapters.

This story is not merely a historical account. It is a warning. It reminds us not to overlook subtle changes in tone, mood, or public conversation. These are the moments when the wheels of time begin turning in a familiar direction, as if the world repeatedly returns to patterns we have seen before.

And so we arrive at New York in 2025. A very different city and a very different era, with a new figure at the center. Zohran Mamdani, elected on a wave of social hope, speaks about justice, about confronting concentrated wealth, about repairing society. Some see this as a positive development. Others feel uncertainty, especially within the Jewish community. The problem is not criticism of Israeli policy, which is legitimate. The problem begins when such criticism becomes emotionally charged, when it mixes with rhetoric about large economic forces, and when political dialogue starts dividing the world into groups of us and them. In such moments history has already shown that Jews may find themselves in a vulnerable place even without being named directly.

This is not an abstract idea. It is a feeling that is growing. Israelis and Jews in New York describe a subtle but clear shift. Some are considering moving to other cities. Some families are seeking quieter and more secure communities. Some now say openly what was once whispered: perhaps the time has come to return to Israel. Perhaps, within this uncertainty, the word aliyah is becoming relevant again, not as fear but as recognition that the idea of home can change.

The mirror held up by Vienna in 1908 is not meant to frighten but to clarify. The patterns of populism, resentment toward wealth, and political use of identity are not new. They simply appear again in new forms. Every Jewish community has the responsibility to recognize the moment when the atmosphere begins to shift. These are the wheels of time and they do not stop turning.

This is New York in 2025. It is not Vienna in 1897. But the distance between them seems shorter than we would like to admit.

14/11/2025

Who carries whom

Recently I was asked about the large Haredi demonstration in Jerusalem and how I view the situation. The question itself reflects the growing unease within Israeli society, which is torn between deep ideological commitments and an urgent civic reality demanding answers. At the center of this debate stands an ancient question in modern form: How does a people who see themselves as bearers of a spiritual and moral mission confront a reality that requires shared responsibility, civic partnership, and participation in the national burden.

From biblical times through the voices of the prophets, the tension between religious devotion and social responsibility has been a constant challenge. The prophets warned that relying on external holiness while ignoring basic morality empties the Torah of its essence. This critique echoes in the words attributed to Jesus, who sought to bring religious life back to its moral center. He warned his contemporaries that they had come to say that one who swears by the Temple is exempt, but one who swears by the gold of the Temple is obligated. In doing so he exposed a mindset in which material value outweighed sacred meaning. He added that they clean the outside of the cup and the dish but inside they are full of injustice and excess. These statements are not a rejection of the Temple or the Torah, but a reminder that when outer form replaces inner truth, the core message is lost. It is the same moral critique voiced by Isaiah, Jeremiah and Amos.

This tension reappears today in the public debate about Haredi participation in military and national service. To understand the depth of this issue, one must recognize a worldview present in parts of the Haredi community. According to this view, the Jewish people consist of a group of Torah scholars who carry the spiritual mission of the nation, and a broader public that carries the practical reality of the state including economy, security and civic systems. In certain internal conversations the general public is described as bearing the material load so that Torah scholars may devote themselves entirely to study. For those who hold this view, it is a natural division of roles rather than a devaluation of the general public.

However, when this outlook becomes rooted in institutions and public policy, its consequences become difficult to ignore. Instead of a nation functioning as one body in which each part helps carry the burden of the other, a structure develops in which one group feels exempt from the shared responsibilities of national life while another is expected to carry most of the weight. The fear of harm to Haredi identity is understandable and legitimate, but when that fear evolves into a broad exemption from civic responsibility, something deeper shifts. What is secondary becomes primary, and what is primary begins to fade. Values such as responsibility, mutual obligation and shared destiny lose their force.

This is not a sweeping accusation against an entire community, but an attempt to situate the discussion within the wider moral tradition of the Jewish people. The prophets addressed all sectors of society with the same demand. No group can claim spiritual privilege while distancing itself from the hardships faced by the nation. Holiness demands justice. Torah study that does not lead to social responsibility loses part of its meaning. The command do not stand idly by your neighbor’s blood is not directed at one sector but at all of Israel.

This is why the argument over military service is only one expression of a much deeper question. What kind of society are we trying to build. Will holiness be understood as withdrawal from reality or as courageous engagement with it. Will the Torah remain distant from the public sphere or become a driving force for commitment and mutual responsibility. The prophetic tradition together with the critique expressed by Jesus against empty religious externalism offers a clear answer. Spiritual truth is measured by the willingness to share the weight of communal life, not by avoiding it. When responsibility, justice and shared destiny return to the center of the public conversation, the Torah does not grow weaker. It shines more brightly and offers deeper guidance to the entire Israeli society.

02/11/2024

Heavy rain in the north of Israel creating huge floods in the cities.

15/10/2024

800 meters underground: IDF forces located and raided the underground headquarters of the Radwan Force unit in southern Lebanon
From day to day we realised that Oct 7th was miracles, if Hezbulla was attacking this day ….

08/09/2024

Sources in the USA:
the northern scenario will soon be completed, in Israel they want to return the north and values ​​for an inevitable war with Iran, Syria and Lebanon at the same time Sources in the US claim that Israel will soon complete all operational preparations, Israel will simultaneously be required to operate in distant circles against Iran, which will fire from its territory not only from Iranian soil but also from other areas, Syria and Lebanon
In Israel, preparations are being made based on a limited amount of time in the vital need to shorten the duration of the campaign and to create a hierarchy of threats and the order of the ways in which shortening the duration of the campaign, which is defined in the IDF strategy as a permanent imperative for the standing army.
It also included the security system in the highest vigilance of cyber systems, covert operations and legal and psychological warfare in reaching the required achievement. Where this is possible, these methods of action will replace overt military action, in order to focus on building the force for real purposes and to optimize as much as possible the exploitation of all resources.

The IDF has intelligence, air and fire capabilities that are many times greater than those of the enemy in all circles. Israel has also developed primary systems in the world of passive and active defense, air defense for forces and disruption of the enemy's means, as well as advanced unmanned means in the air at sea and on land.

07/09/2024

This explanation from PM can help you understand the situation in Philadelphy border south Gaza.
Amazing that the word Philadelphia is meaning love .
Let’s pray the love of our Lord will come to this area, and the war and pain will end.

WATCH LIVE: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a press conference for the foreign media.Video: GPO

07/09/2024

https://www.youtube.com/live/rCWSe0UR2fM?si=Z13tpKpNG_7hG3TJ

WATCH LIVE: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a press conference for the foreign media.Video: GPO

22/08/2024

https://youtu.be/IFlcXWi_Wq4?si=nfE3FnubG5ajcDy5

So much is happening in Israel so quickly that we wanted to get this prayer update to you right away. Pray!

13/08/2024

This is the link for daily updates that I send from Israel, it’s open to everyone, you welcome to join and share with all who love and would like to stand with us in Israel the Galilee update from north.