Bülent SEZGİN: Good night. We are beginning the ‘Pleasant Conversations’, insha'Allah [God willing]. Tonight, we have with us two esteemed guests. First, I would like to introduce them: Rabbi Yishai Fleisher. Rabbi Fleisher is an international representative for the Jewish community in Hebron. His articles and commentary are regularly featured in the prominent newspapers of Israel as well as the international media. Rabbi Yishai Fleisher is also a well-recognized and popular radio and TV host as well as an educator. He is also a close friend of Rabbi Yehuda Glick.
Adnan OKTAR: Masha'Allah.
Bülent SEZGİN: Our other guest is Rabbi Jeffrey Seidel from Israel. He is the founder of a Jewish student center in Jerusalem, where he actively organizes education programs to strengthen the Jewish youth's bonds with their religion and past. Known for his outreach personality, Rabbi Seidel also writes weekly columns frequently featured in various Jewish newspapers and the social media. Welcome.
Adnan OKTAR: How wonderful it is that you are striving to raise a pious Jewish youth. This makes me very happy. Israel sets a great example to all the Arab countries with its piety and love towards God. Especially the high rate of piety among the Jewish youth makes quite a positive impact. We would like to hear your nice opinions. Please, go ahead.
Yishai FLEISHER: Firstly, thank you very much. It’s a fantastic pleasure to be with you here today. And it’s been a wonderful trip here to Istanbul, historical city, an ancient city, and also one that there’s a lot of Jewish history here.
Adnan OKTAR: Yes. It dates back to the Ottoman era.
Yishai FLEISHER: In 1492, the Jewish people were kicked out from Spain; and they’re invited in by Sultan Selim I here to Turkey, to Istanbul. And soon afterwards in 1517, Sultan Selim conquers the land of Israel, and he helps Jews to go to land of Israel. So from our point of view, the redemption in large measure begins with the Ottoman Empire, with Sultan Selim.
Adnan OKTAR: Yes, very nice.
Yishai FLEISHER: Now when I look out my window everyday, I look out to the most beautiful place in the world for me. And that is the old city of Jerusalem. And I’m looking at its beautiful walls, I live in the Mount of Olives but I look out to the Temple Mount and I see the walls of the old city. Who built those walls? It was Sultan Suleiman, Sultan Suleiman the Lawmaker, the Magnificent. He built the beautiful walls of Jerusalem in 1500s and they’re my art, my treasure today.
Adnan OKTAR: Very beautiful.
Yishai FLEISHER: And finally when I wanna go drink coffee in Jerusalem, my favourite place is the place called ‘The First Train Station’. And that train station was one of the stations that Sultan Abdulhamid created a train station. Now that train station was also in Tel Aviv, it went all the way to Alexandria, to Baghdad, to Istanbul. He had a vision for connecting the whole Middle East. And that vision, still the memory of that great vision is around today. And I think that by you bringing us here today, to Istanbul, you are part of that vision of connecting the peoples of the Middle East.
Adnan OKTAR: Wonderful.
Yishai FLEISHER: Finally, that great vision makes a unity, makes a lot of sense to me because I represent Hebron and that’s the city where our father Abraham is buried. He lived there and that’s where he’s buried today. Abraham has something that unites all of us. Without Abraham there wouldn’t be Judaism, Christianity or Islam. He’s the father of monotheism. And he wants to see his children unite and get along.
Adnan OKTAR: Very nice.
Yishai FLEISHER: And very finally, this is a, I brought you a gift from Jerusalem. I brought you a gift. That’s a gift of two candles. And this is made by people in Jerusalem. And this is what we light for the Sabbath. I like you to, maybe think that this is your people, is our people and we sit together for the Sabbath.
Adnan OKTAR: Wonderful. Very beautiful.
Adnan OKTAR: The thing I love the most about you is that you make Judaism loved by the youth. You help them become pious. This excites us, elates us and makes us happy. May God bless you. We pray to God that the entire Jewish youth finds piety, insha'Allah. And they are quite pious already. We hope that they become even more pious, masha'Allah.
Yishai FLEISHER: Amen.
Adnan OKTAR: Amen. Insha’Allah.
Adnan OKTAR: Piousness is on a gradual rise in Israel. This is for the good of the region as well as the entire world of Islam. Priorly, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Morocco, Algiers were all communist countries. All of them were communists. Egypt, too, was a communist country. But you set a great example and by the means of you, they, too, started to become more and more pious emulating you. God used your wonderful example to that end. Seeing someone who genuinely believes in God reinforces the love people hold in their hearts for God.
Yishai FLEISHER: I was pleased today to offer the afternoon prayers on the Bosphorus, on this great body of water. I was hoping that, together that water can mix with the Holy Land, with the water of the Holy Land and with the prayers of the Middle East will indeed raise up of new generation of God lovers and maybe a better world.
Adnan OKTAR: People do not know that Judaism is such an affectionate religion and that the Jews are such loving people. They have been terribly misunderstood. Your programs and speeches on TV, and them being shared over the Internet or featured on other media have a profoundly positive effect. People's view about the Jews has been changing for the better with each passing day. As you know as well, God promises in the Torah about how He will protect and watch over the Israelites in the End Times. That time is drawing near. Insha'Allah, we will rebuild the Masjid [Temple] of the Prophet Solomon, which you will see for yourself as we will do it together insha'Allah. We will lay the first stone of the Prayer House. And insha'Allah, we will become the students of King Moshiach, the Messiah; me, you, all of us.
Adnan OKTAR: Insha’Allah.
Yishai FLEISHER: We are tasked in this generation of being the soldiers of Moshiach. We are to be ahead of him. He’s already somewhere here. But he’s the general and he’s looking for his soldiers to push ahead. Fight bad guys and help grow a generation of young people, good guys. Let them flourish in freedom. But we have to be willing to fight for justice and truth.
Adnan OKTAR: Love of Moshiach brings blessings to both Israel and its surroundings. This is a crucial point that God strongly emphasizes in the Torah. Your devotion to Moshiach, even hearing his name from you brings relief and joy to our hearts. God is protecting Israel from all sorts of troubles. It is actually a small country with a small population. But satan wants that country to be destroyed, and its people to be annihilated. There are fiendish, evil people who madly desire this. We will never let this happen. I’ve said it before as well and it is something that the traditional Orthodox Muslims know about. And some get angry at me for saying it. I said: If anyone attempts to harm or attack Israel, we will bring down the sky upon their head. And I still stand by my words. Of course, we will do so through the power God will grant us. We will not let the armies of satan annihilate the children of Prophet Abraham (pbuh) and the children of Prophet Moses (pbuh). It is Almighty God that bestows such piety upon you in the End Times. This is due to the holiness of the Prophet Abraham (pbuh).
Yishai FLEISHER: I wanna send to you from the city of Abraham, his blessings to you, to all of your work and to all you followers.
Adnan OKTAR: Please convey my love, sincerest greetings to there.
Yishai FLEISHER: We will.
Adnan OKTAR: It is also called al-Khalīl, right?
Oktar BABUNA: Yes.
Adnan OKTAR: Yes, it is also called al-Khalīl. We love you. You are sincere Muslims. You are Jews, but for us, you are also sincere Muslims in our sight. Yes, we consider you Muslims, because you believe in the oneness of God. You see Muslims as the Bnai Noah. Such people we call Muslims.
Yishai FLEISHER: And for us, you are being the best of the nations. You’re being righteous among the nations. And that is also a prophecy for the end of times, that people will see the light of Israel and want to connect to it and to want to spread Godliness throughout the world. And this effort that you have here with these cameras and speaking to the world, it’s part of the Messianic process of trying to spread light to the world.
Adnan OKTAR: Insha'Allah, may God grant us success, fortune in all our endeavors, may He grant us beauty, a profound faith and His divine light. May He preserve our faith. May God grant us the opportunity to brothers in Heaven.
I would like you to listen to Rabbi Yehuda Glick's message. Rabbi Glick is a very sweet, very pure person with high morality. We love him dearly. He has a message. Let's watch it together.
Yehuda Glick’s video message: My dear friend, honorary Mr. Adnan Oktar. Champion of religious tolerance. Champion of love to all human beings. Champion of God in the world. All participants; Christians, Muslims, Jews who are participating this wonderful annual iftar event. From the city of Jerusalem, chosen by God to be a city of peace, allow me to wish each and everyone of you, blessings of success in bringing God’s light to all. You were participating in this wonderful event. Leaders, religious leaders, political leaders from all over the world, the Middle East; please keep within your hearts a true prayer for Jerusalem as a city of peace. We hope to bring very soon the days where the Temple Mount, which was chosen by God to rest His divine presence, shall be a House of Prayer to all Christians, Jews, Muslims people from all over the world; from America, from Europe, from Asia, from Africa, from Australia. People who connect to God and we shall see on the Temple Mount a House of prayer that unites all nations to the One and Only God. From Jerusalem allow me to wish you all Ramadan Kareem, Allah Akram, all of you, everyone of you should be blessed by God. From Jerusalem, the city of peace, city of Shalom.
Adnan OKTAR: They carried out a cowardly and treacherous attack against this innocent, this wonderful person. This is a terrible immorality and atrocity. But God has protected him again. He truly deserves love and respect. And he is a true Muslim, a true Jew. We should speed up our efforts to educate such people [who have wrong ideas].
It is astonishing that such a nice person suffers violence, what harm did he do to you? He is an utterly harmless person. He only strives to do good. This is a terrible atrocity. I have said this when this terrible attack has happened. And I bring up this [incident] again from time to time. It is crucial to keep the public informed about their impertinence.
Yishai FLEISHER: But Allah protected him.
Adnan OKTAR: Yes, masha'Allah.
Yishai FLEISHER: Now he has called Jerusalem, the city of peace. That’s one of the names. We have 70 names for the Jerusalem. But my favourite name is in Hebrew we say, Ir Ha-Netzah, the eternal city. God’s eternal truth will win. We’re in a time when God is revealing His eternal truth to the world.
Adnan OKTAR: Insha'Allah, God willing. I am sending my greetings, regards to all our friends in Israel. I wish them success in their endeavors. I pray to Almighty God that He pours His divine light on people, who practice true Islam, true Judaism on the path of God.
Adnan OKTAR: I have a request from the Israeli youth; there are beautiful prayers that you sing to usher in the coming, the appearance of Moshiach. I ask them to sing those prayers loudly . I really wish to see thousands of young people coming together and singing those prayers. There are myriad hadiths of our Prophet (pbuh) regarding the appearance of Mahdi, namely Moshiach, and all these hadiths have come true. This is a great miracle.
Yishai FLEISHER: They will be very happy to hear, also very surprised to hear that there is a teacher and followers in Turkey, [who] were good Muslims and who are calling for love of Israel and for asking the youth for pray out loud for Moshiach. This will be good, good news for them. But it’ll be also surprising.
Adnan OKTAR: Masha’Allah.
Adnan OKTAR: They pray beautifully. I love them so much. Masha'Allah. Alright, I thank you very much. You have delighted us with your visit. I would like to invite you for another visit. You are always welcome. This is your second home country. You are more than welcome. We love you dearly.
Yishai FLEISHER: Thank you so much.
Adnan OKTAR: Masha’Allah.
Bülent SEZGİN: We will continue our broadcast with short videos.
