Excerpt from Mr. Adnan Oktar's Live Talk on A9 TV dated October 18th, 2011
OKTAR BABUNA: Have a nice day dear viewers. Today we have very important guests from Israel. Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau is here with us. He has worked as the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of the Israeli state for 10 years. He is currently working as the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv. He is a very well-known, loved and respected personality among both the modern and ultra-Orthodox circles in the Jewish world. Welcome.
We also have Rabbi Avraham Haim as a guest here, in our program. In the previous years, he was one of the Rabbis affiliated with the Chief Rabbinate of Istanbul. Now he is frequently coming to Istanbul to give lectures to the Turkish-Jewish community.
Our other guest is Mr. Ezi, he will be helping us with the translation. Yes Master.
ADNAN OKTAR: Welcome, you've brought honor and grace to us with your coming. Insha'Allah this will be instrumental in attaining goodness and beauties. Yes, insha'Allah there will be an environment of beauty, peace and joy in the region. Insha'Allah together with you we will be instrumental in this. Insha'Allah we are living at the time of the King Messiah, Moschiah, at the time of Hazrat Mahdi as defined in the Torah, as defined in the hadiths insha'Allah. There will be very beautiful days insha'Allah. Insha'Allah.
Those painful days will never repeat itself insha'Allah. These Holocausts. There will be beautiful, nice days. Look. The Chief Rabbi was a very sweet and cute child back then. Zoom in the picture, zoom a little bit more, come closer, closer. Yes, look at this one here, this sweet child was the only one who survived that time, his parents were slaughtered by the Nazis, those low life creatures. Yes, they have ended their lives cruelly with torture. Yes this is a book explaining all these but let us listen to those from you, you continue please.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: First of all, I want to thank for the kind hospitality and for the invitation to come and to meet. I have heard a lot about my host. I am very happy to be here, to shake hands and to open a dialogue. We are believers. We believe in the Torah. We believe in the God, the Lord Almighty Who gave the Torah. There is a story about the first of fight between two brothers; Cain and Abel. In the book of Genesis, chapter number 4 [verse 8] and there is a very strange sentence there. "vayomer Kayin el Hevel achiv " Cain said to his brother Abel; "veyehi biheyosam besadeh" while they were in the field "veyakam Kayin el Hevel achiv vayahargehu" Cain stood up and murdered, killed his brother Abel. But the beginning was "vayomer Kayin el Hevel achiv " he said, he spoke to him. What did he [Cain] say? Nothing. Not even one word [of importance]. It means there was no dialogue. He just said a few words in order to pull him out from the home of father and mother Adam and Eve. He brought him to the field without saying any serious words. Maybe this is the reason for the first assassination of the world. Two brothers, but no dialogue. They did not speak. That is why I understand that we must always cooperate, not only to speak one to the other, also to listen one to the other. This is [the] number one [reason] why I am here.
ADNAN OKTAR: Very nice things will happen as you know. Almighty Allah gives the glad tidings of these days in length in the Torah; [Allah says that] there will be an age of peace and that weapons will be destroyed. In the Qur'an, Almighty Allah gives the glad tidings that the children of Abraham will attain beauties, welfare and goodness.
With which language you will be more comfortable; in English? [Or Hebrew] which one?
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: Both for me is almost the same.
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha'Allah.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU:Our aim is to give hands [of friendship] and not handles for instruments to destroy. This is the purpose why I am here.
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha'Allah. So that means the appearance of the King Messiah is right. That is what we have taken from the Chief Rabbi. That means it is his time, it is the time of the Mahdi. That is what we expect from Allah.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU:I would like to speak in Hebrew and you can translate to Turkish. The Rambam, known as Maimonides [which means Moses son of Maimon], our Sages teach “from Moses to Moses, there was never a teacher like Moses son of Maimon”. This is the great teacher Maimonides. He expounded thirteen principles of our faith, basic principles upon which Judaism is founded. In every Jewish Prayer Book, every morning, we go review these thirteen principles of faith of the Rambam. Every one of these princples begins "I believe with perfect faith…" The first is the God, who is absolutely One [with no partners], created the world. Not Darwinism. Not Evolution…
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha'Allah, masha'Allah.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: He alone created the world. Afterwards it is mentioned "I believe with perfect faith that all the words of the Prophets are true." Afterwards it is mentioned "I believe with perfect faith in the coming of Messiah and even if he should delay, even so, I will wait for him every day until he will come." This song was sung on the trains by Jews who were being taken to Auschwitz. This was later made into a song, by a Jew named Fastag, who took the words of the Rambam "with perfect faith I believe in the coming of Messiah". This is a foundation of the Jewish faith.
ADNAN OKTAR: Alhamdulillah, Masha'Allah. Muslims are also waiting for this for 1400 years masha'Allah.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: We have been waiting 4,000 years.
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha'Allah. Masha'Allah.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: Since Abraham [Kalil] we have been waiting 4,000 years for the Messiah to come.
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha'Allah, Masha'Allah. That is right Alhamdulillah, that is because it is mentioned in the Psalms and in the Torah as well as in the hadiths of our Prophet (saas).
Of course. In the Qur'an, Almighty Allah makes reference to the Torah and the Psalms.
I mean Allah says "look at the Torah and the Psalms, that is mentioned in there."
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: And until then there must not be bloodshed.
ADNAN OKTAR: There won't be [bloodshed] insha'Allah.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: Until then we will begin to speak, to listen, we can agree, we can disagree, but there can be no bloodshed.
ADNAN OKTAR: Look; "And He [Moschiah/Hazrat Mahdi] will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth," -that is to say he will influence the world with his words, not with weapons. Isaiah, 11:4
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: Isaiah said: "The Lord God hath given me the tongue of them that are taught," and "The Lord God hath opened mine ear" (Isaiah 50:4,5) These are two things. This teaches us that we must know how to talk and know how to listen.
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha'Allah. Masha'Allah. Masha'Allah.
There are very nice pictures in this book of Mr. Rabbi, let us show them as well. Can you please show these pictures with their explanations? Look these pictures, these and these. You show those. Especially these ones, these pictures of his childhood, his mother and father, his childhood pictures, okay? Then there are the pictures of him with other famous personalities that he has met. Show them as well.
OKTAR BABUNA: Here, we see the family of the Chief Rabbi Lau. Now that is his mother here, then his father, he is a Rabbi as well, they both are very esteemed people. And this is him in his childhood when he was one years old, this is the only picture of his at this age..
ADNAN OKTAR: Rabbi Lau is the only one who survived that holocaust from his family. Those cruel scoundrels of the time had ended the lives of his father and mother, all his family..
OKTAR BABUNA:Yes, again from his childhood, after he has been saved by the Americans from the holocaust executed by the Nazis, he comes to Israel at the age of eight. He stayed in the camps from the age of 5 till the age of 8. He is the youngest Jewish person saved from those camps, saved from the Nazi camps. Here we see his childhood pictures.
ADNAN OKTAR: Yes, now, inside the book there are pictures of him with the people he has met, you can also show them. Yes, here there are the pictures of him with the people he met. You can show these pictures.
OKTAR BABUNA: Here we see his pictures with the people he has met, with the presidents of different countries. For instance he is with Clinton here, he has a picture of his meeting with Al Gore.
ADNAN OKTAR: Slowly, slowly, show them one by one, do not haste and you have to check whether or not the pictures are seen from the camera.
OKTAR BABUNA: Yes. With Al Gore, with Bill Clinton. This is a picture of his meeting with the former President of the US Bill Clinton, his meeting with the former President Gorbachev.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: We are missing a picture with Prime Minister Erdogan, I want to take a picture for the book and also of you.
ADNAN OKTAR: That would be very nice, that would be great.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: We need a picture together.
ADNAN OKTAR: Insha'Allah that would be very good.
OKTAR BABUNA: There is the picture of his meeting with Mandela, the picture of his meeting with Fidel Castro, again a picture of his meeting with Bill Clinton, his meeting with Hosni Mubarak, the former Egyptian President, Gorbachev.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: This is [Valdan] Adamkus. This is Jacques Chirac. This is Carlos Manem.
OKTAR BABUNA: His meeting with Carlos Manem.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: Nelson Mandela.
OKTAR BABUNA: Again we see his meeting with Nelson Mandela.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: Desmond Tutu, Nobel Prize winner for peace. Cardinal Lustiger, Cardinal Schönborn from Vienna. Even the daughter of Rafsancani from Iran is here.
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha'Allah, there is no one else that he did not have a meeting with.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: We met him in Bukraish in a summit, you see in a picture there.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: Sheikh Zevzav from Cairo. Baruch Hashem.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: This is said by the Prophets. The "Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." (Zechariah 4:6). This is what the Prophet says. "Not with power, not with weapon, not with an army, but in My Spirit. This is My way."
ADNAN OKTAR:Masha'Allah. "Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore," says Isaiah, 2:2-4; Micah, 4:1-3. Look; "Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore," it reads.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: Isaiah chapter 2 and Micah chapter 4;
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha'Allah.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: [In Hebrew:] "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation". One nation will not held a weapon against the other nation. [In Hebrew:] "Neither shall they learn war any more".No war anymore, no bloodshed anymore. (Isaiah 2:4)
OKTAR BABUNA: He says the same with the sources.
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha'Allah.He knows the Torah by heart masha'Allah.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: [In Hebrew:] "They shall beat their swords into plowshares".The swords will be to develop the earth. [In Hebrew] "and their spears into pruninghooks". (Micah 4:3)
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha'Allah. Our Prophet (saas) says the same in his hadiths, Masha'Allah. The exact same masha'Allah.
Masha'Allah. We are in beautiful days. We want Israel and Turkey to be friends. We want them to be brothers, and actually we, as a nation, are of this opinion; we are as the people.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: I would be very thankful to him [Mr. Oktar], if he could succeed in arranging a meeting with the Prime Minister, Mr. Erdogan. We have so much to talk about. He knows our history. We know the history of Turkey. We have always had excellent ties, excellent over the centuries. So we need to talk again.
ADNAN OKTAR: That would be very good, that would be very good. Insha'Allah. Insha'Allah.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: Even [something as basic to our life as] water we purchase from Turkey.
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha'Allah. Masha'Allah.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: We have had excellent relations throughout the centuries. From the days of the Sultan, the days of the Amir. We had excellent relations even before this city was called Istanbul. It was called Kushta [Constantinople] then. Even to the days of Byzantine Constantinople, our friendship goes back that far.
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha'Allah, that is how it will always be. It will always be like this until the Last Day insha'Allah.
MR. EZI: His ultimate will is to make a peace talk with the Prime Minister.
ADNAN OKTAR: That would be very very good. Insha'Allah let us pass this message to them but of course it would be left to their discretion.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: I would request that he [Mr. Oktar] join us in the meeting.
ADNAN OKTAR: Thank you very much but, that would be a bit difficult actually. Insha'Allah we would want that very much in our hearts but it would be only in the future insha'Allah. But insha'Allah it is explicitly stated in the Torah and also in the hadiths of our Prophet (saas) that the beautiful days are very near insha'Allah.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: I am very happy to hear it. I must tell you that 1997, December 1997, I was asked by the president Mubarak of Egypt to come to visit him in his palace. Why? Because his Ambassador to Tel Aviv, Muhammad Basyuni, was operated in Tel Aviv hospital on his heart, cardiologic. The first one who came to the hospital to visit him was me. I was at the time the Chief Rabbi of the State of Israel and I came to visit Basyuni. Basyuni told it to Osama Al-Baas. Osama Al-Baz was the first advisor of Anwar Sadat and of Hosni Mubarak. And he said; "the chief Rabbi of Israel came to visit the Egyptian Ambassador in the hospital, I want to see him to meet him and ask him to come, invite him." I came to Mubarak. After an hour and a half with Mubarak, he said to me; "I am not religious, I am secular. But we have a spiritual leader, Sheikh Al-Azhar, Dr. Mohammed Tantawi in the university of Al-Azhar. I ask you Hakham Akbar, Chief Rabbi Lau go to meet him, he is waiting for you. " And we were there over an hour and a half, with Sheikh Zevzav, his deputy of Sheikh al Azhar, speaking about friendship, about dialogue, about understanding, not even to agree everything, sometimes to agree what we disagree is also something, to understand about what we cannot cooperate. Okay, this is also a way. And then I had to go to the Synagogue to the Jewish community in Cairo. It was sunset, I had to make my service, my prayer. This is the face and the heart to Yerushalayim.
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha'Allah. Allah will insha'Allah bring us the days in which everyone from every religion will perform their religious observances freely, in which everyone's opinions will be respected. Insha'Allah that is how the times of the Mahdi (pbuh) will be insha'Allah.
There is no compulsion in religion. In Islam there is respect for every faith, there is no compulsion in religion. But of course, according to our belief, again according to the belief of the system of the Mahdi, we believe that Islam will dominate the whole world near the Last Day insha'Allah.
I mean it will be like the time of the Prophet Abraham (pbuh) insha'Allah, it will be like the time of the Prophet Moses (pbuh), it will be like the time of the Prophet Mohammed (saas) insha'Allah.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: I can say exactly the same words. You've quoted the Qur'an. The same, Prophet Mica has said, "no war, no bloodshed" the same Mica said; All the nations will go and live everyone in the name of his religion, of his faith. We, the Jewish people, the name of the Lord Almighty forever. When the Pope John-Paul II, came to visit me in Jerusalem, I gave him the Bible and I wrote this verse from Mica, the Prophet; "Everyone, every nation will worship his Lord as he understands." We cannot assimilate, we must keep our tradition, our heritage to worship our Lord Almighty.
ADNAN OKTAR: We trust in Allah, in Almighty Allah, we abide by Him, we submit ourselves to Him. He will grant us the most auspicious, the most beautiful, the best and the most pleasant, whatever it is, insha'Allah.
Insha'Allah we will wipe out the system of the Dajjal [anti-messiah] from the face of this world, there will be no irreligiousness, there will be no Darwinism, no materialism, only the belief in Allah will prevail the world insha'Allah.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: If I may also to invite my colleague and friend, the great spiritual leader [Mr. Oktar] to visit Jerusalem, to visit Tel Aviv, to visit Israel.
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha'Allah.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: Okay? We have a date? We have a date.
ADNAN OKTAR: May be in 2014.You never know.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: 2014? We will be here in this world till then. We'll wait for you.
ADNAN OKTAR: Insha'Allah, insha'Allah.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: Three years? Why so far?
ADNAN OKTAR: Maybe, maybe earlier, Allah knows.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: The Jews have a prayer "LeShanah Haba'ah BeYerushalayim HaBanuyah": Next year in Jerusalem, we will rebuild Jerusalem, next year. Not three years later.
ADNAN OKTAR: How nice that would be, how nice it would be, 2012 is a very important date,that would be very nice. Insha'Allah let us pray insha'Allah that it would happen in the next year.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: Thank you.
ADNAN OKTAR: Insha'Allah let us walk together around the places that the Prophets have set foot on. On those lands that the Prophets wandered about.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: Amen. Messiah will come before then.
ADNAN OKTAR: Yes, let us sacrifice an animal for Allah insha'Allah. And let the smell of that sacrifice reach far until Jericho, insha'Allah. Insha'Allah. By the leave of Allah we will rebuild the Temple of the Prophet Solomon (pbuh), we will rebuild that masjeed. We will turn back to those beautiful glorious days insha'Allah, to the time of the Prophet Solomon (pbuh), to the time of the Prophet Moses (pbuh), insha'Allah. Masha'Allah.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: Be'ezrat Hashem [God willing]. Thank you.
ADNAN OKTAR: May Allah be pleased with you. We thank you. I am very pleased with your visit, insha'Allah. We would very much like to welcome you again. This is your home. Insha'Allah.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: Okay. I wait for him in Israel.
ADNAN OKTAR: Insha'Allah. Insha'Allah. Masha'Allah that would be great. I would be honored. I would be gratified. Our hearts are there anyway. Al-Quds al-Sharif has a place in our hearts.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: He is younger, I am older, so I cannot wait for 3 years.
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha'Allah, you are very hale and hearty, not so fast. We've just said Bismillah. Insha'Allah, we have time ahead.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU:I have great grand-children; I have in Israel.
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha'Allah. Masha'Allah.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: Great grand children. Two were born last week. This week two great grand children.
ADNAN OKTAR: Masha'Allah. May Allah give a long life masha'Allah.
ADNAN OKTAR: Those sweet kids, those sweeties will also be there insha'Allah in the Blessed al-Quds al-Sharif, insha'Allah we will all be together. Muslims, Christians, our Jewish brothers we will be altogether insha'Allah.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: Be'ezrat Hashem [God willing].
ADNAN OKTAR: Yes. We will see very beautiful days insha'Allah. I thank you again for coming. It was an honor. Thank you very much. May you live long insha'Allah.
RABBI YISRAEL MEIR LAU: Thank you very much.
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