As we look at the things that were commanded in the ancient past of the religion of Israel and compare it to what is done today, we find major differences. Whether they are acceptable or “off the derech” is up to the individual to sort out. But let me ask a few questions of you!
We are currently at the time of Passover and there are a lot of things that don’t line up when reading the passages in the Tenakh that define what was commanded to be done and what was done in the original instance.
The past few days I have been thinking about several of these things. I wrote an article about leaven, arranged a wave sheaf on the dining table as a reminder of what was required on the first day of unleavened bread. My husband gathered wild barley from an open field near us here in Israel. We will plan to wave it and break off some of the grains.
Some would say, but there is no Temple, so you can’t do this! But a close look at the passages concerning Passover show that the barley sheaf which was only to be gathered “in the land” was not connected to the temple.
The article I wrote was mainly about leaven vs fermentation (see it here). When a follower on my website, commented that there was more to look at, for example, the lamb sacrifice, I did a retake.
The lamb sacrifice was originally done in Egypt without a Temple. It was done by individual families and did not require a priest to officiate! Correct! But the excuse we have heard for years is that we don’t do any of this without a Temple. Maybe we have been wrong about this!
What would happen if families got together and sacrificed a lamb on the 14th day of Aviv (Nissan)? That is a scary thought! What does the lamb sacrifice mean anyway? Does it have anything to do with killing the abomination of the Egyptians, which is idolatry? Does it mean that we are to cleanse out all idolatry before taking part in Passover? And what is Passover anyway, other than a commemoration of the leaving of Egypt? What about the call to leave Babylon? –the galute? Or do we even consider that the Jews (Israelites) should have abandoned all these places long ago?
From my contemplation of the lamb sacrifice, what seems to appear is that its purpose was to rid ourselves of the idolatry imposed upon us by Egypt (the nations), actually bringing us to a cleansing. Why do many Jews prefer to live in other nations? Do they/we love the way the nations live? Why were so many rules about Halakha created to keep Jews as a separate and often strange people, allowing us to continue outside the land? Basically, why do the nations not respect us? Is it because we have added so much to the law of our God that we are unrecognizable as a pure and holy nation? Would we be able to continue in the diaspora if we only accepted the laws given on Sinai? Except for one thing, you can’t really follow Torah outside the land. Many of those laws aresignificant only in Israel. I mean how can you enforce the rule to not eat fruit from your trees until the fourth year when you buy fruit from a big supermarket in Europe or America? How do you know it has been harvested correctly? How do you wave the barley sheaf when it is clearly an Israeli harvest which is specified? But again, these laws and many others were for Jews in their homeland–Israel!
But back to Passover and the lamb…
What if we began to sacrifice a lamb on Passover? That is a scary thought, but with the Temple out of the picture, what prevents it as a command which should be practiced? I can’t imagine the pain it would cause me if I had to kill an innocent lamb! If people had to do this every year, would it make them think? And consider what it means to get rid of the leavening before the 7 days of the week of Unleavened Bread. Yeast is that which inflates, changes the nature (the truth) about the kernel of the grain used for bread baking. Is it possible that the yeast is what has happened to the Word of YHVH in changing it to an inflated law that requires years of Yeshiva to study and learn it? So the requirements of Passover and Unleavened Bread may be a way to get back to the real Torah of YHVH, and more than just a memorial!
Happy Peshach and Unleavened Bread!
Ezekiel 11:17: “Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord YHVH: I will gather you from the peoples, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.”
Some say the Bible has been tampered with. Lots of voices are saying this. But let me quote something from the Bible itself:
“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Psalm 11:3
This is a deep concern. I get emails from New Zealand by a couple of Noahides who are taking apart everything but the Moses Scroll (Shapira Scroll), which means that they hold none of Torah or Tenakh as valid, except, what was written by the hand of Moses. (I think I will unsubscribe). There is a book out there called “Who Wrote the Bible” which does the same thing. And it is not just these sources that are trying to rattle the foundations! Sometimes it is more subtle and has been around for a long time!
There are voices everywhere discrediting everything from the Bible. This is what is happening on one side. And among those who profess belief in the Bible, we hear rabbis stating that the only way to understand the Bible is to let them interpret it for you. Where have we heard this before?
In my relationship with my Jewish friends, I rarely find someone who has read the entire Tenakh, other than listening to Torah readers at Synagogue in Hebrew read the current Portion so quickly, they are virtually not understandable.
On another side of the religious world, Catholics (especially in Spanish-speaking countries) have told me that since the mass is done in Latin, that only the priest can be trusted to know what God wants of them. How much difference is there in what has been accepted in Judaism for thousands of years? Similarly, only a rabbi can interpret Torah. Really! And why does individual study of the Bible get so little attention?
So we have our traditions, and often the Minhagim are fine and acceptable if one is really led to be more spiritual and more connected to the Source of all things. But, that being said, the question arises by critics in religious circles, “who can trust where these things came from?”
And I will ask who can trust academics? We have seen how the colleges of today have gone down the woke path. I saw it beginning in secular colleges in the 90s. I could not believe how things had changed since I first attended college in the mid 70s. If things can change through academics in the political and educational fields, why would they not be influenced by hundreds of generations of teachers, (rabbis or preachers) who claim to know, but that were taught by others who claim to know, and so on ad infinitum, back for a couple of thousand years? Ever played telephone? Ever see how the message changes so much that when the last person receives the whispered sentence, it has nothing to do with the first person’s idea? And that is exactly how the chain of transmission has gone. There are some things that are so far from what the Torah says that you cannot recognize where they came from! So a young man goes to Yeshiva and everyone says “Wow”! And he graduates more confused than ever before. There are always arguments and debates on what the ancient Sages taught, who was right and whom does this would be “rabbi” choose to follow in his future career. Ever think of studying for one’self? Especially if you can learn Biblical Hebrew?
But perhaps as in the first instance, the most dangerous trend out there is to discredit the Bible entirely, as many have been doing in recent years! As the Psalm says, “what can the righteous do if the foundations are destroyed?” So if we have to throw out the majority of the Tenakh because parts of it were somehow rewritten, then what are we going to use to guide our lives? Is there nothing? Perhaps a somewhat tarnished instrument is better than no instrument at all!
As to the evolutionary theory, I never bought into the idea that man descended from a monkey and such chaos. Perhaps if atheists could experience a living God who created the Universe, One who works in individual lives to bless, guide and strengthen, maybe, just maybe, we would see a different trend in the world.
But then, there have always been haters of God, defiant of His leadership and law.
We have several monsters raising their heads in the religious world. Beware of following them!
I would say in conclusion, let’s not “Throw out the Baby with the Bathwater!”
The Holiday of Purim is here again, and costumes, parties and fun are sprouting everywhere. Fun is the name of the game. Is there anything wrong with that? I admit that I love to see people smile and all the children and adults dressed up and clowning around! I am not keen on kids eating a lot of candy, partly because I know the health problems that go along with too much sugar, but then that is a personal issue.
I want to examine, and I don’t claim to be right or wrong, a few things I am uncomfortable with:
I know that God’s Eternal Name, YHVH, is important in all of Tenakh, but why is he not mentioned in any form in the entire book? People tell me that it is because He had to stay hidden. That does not make sense. When is it right to hide the God whom we worship from stories that we write about our lives? If anything in a story was done by the Eternal, then why is the emphasis placed on the clever Mordecai and his beautiful niece, Esther, who found herself lined up to become queen of Persia? Why not mention that the Hand of God was involved? Why take credit for the Jews being so clever and smart and leave God completely out of it? Was this because they knew they were in the wrong place at the wrong time? Were they indeed under persecution at this time?
If they were not suffering persecution, then what else may have been the reason for hiding one’s ethnicity?
Is it possible that the story about justifying life for the Chosen People among the nations? No need for a a temple? No need for a Covenant with the Land and the God of the Land?
Why were the majority of the Jews still in Persia many years after they were commissioned to return to the Land sixty years after the decree of Cyrus the Great?
Why did Hadassah become Esther naming herself after the pagan goddess Ishtar? And why did Mordecai take that name since it is also a variation of Marduk, a pagan deity worshiped in Babylon and ancient Mesopotamia? According to Torah it is wrong to pronounce the name of a pagan god, but these went so far as to rename themselves after these idols..
Perhaps choosing these names was a political move to be able to work and live among the Persians. But the question looms large, why do they want to stay in the Galut? Is it because they are now permeated with the culture? Do they love the customs of the Gentiles more than their own?
And what else might be the motive to hide at this time before Haman had the decree to kill all the Jews signed by the king? Would Haman have declared the Jews as public enemy number one, if he had known that the queen was Jewish? The story does not say that they were being persecuted. If so, then why not move back to the land?
The entire plot of the story of Esther seems to justify working subversively to overthrow the powers that be. When is it right to clearly hide one’s identity to be able to climb the political ladder with the intent of having someone at the top? Were Jews ever commanded to do such things? There is plenty of evidence of this happening throughout history. We see Joseph shaving to appear acceptable to Pharaoh when he was brought before him, but he apparently didn’t hide his parentage, because later in the Joseph story, the Egyptians would not eat with the Hebrews. He apparently was known as a Hebrew even since Potiphar put him in jail.
Maybe there are other reasons, but to me, it seems that the Jews who stayed in Persia enjoyed the Persian lifestyle and culture and did what they did to justify living in the Galut 60 or 70 years after Cyrus opened the way for them to leave. (Note that the decree of Cyrus took place in 539 and the events in the book of Esther were between 483 and 473. (See here and here). These dates are estimates.
I don’t have answers, on this, and I have to admit that I have gone along with things many times so that I don’t make waves. What should we do about this? Is there anybody else out there who is concerned?
So “Happy Purim” and please think deeply when you drink so much you can’t discern Haman from Mordecai!
The world has been spinning out of control in mad chaos that no one really understands. Trump was inaugurated. He accomplished some encouraging things during his first hours in office. Everything sounds good. But is it really? Some of us are burned out from worrying about what comes next. Is Trump telling us the truth? Or is this propaganda?… again? Another big show to gain power and money? Is Donald Trump actually bringing about globalist control? The world was weakened under the past regime. So now, with our confidence destroyed, We embrace a leader that goes beyond the duties of a President of the United States?
No, you can’t really blame us for pondering that what we see is really not what we get! And how did we come to be this way? Those of us who ask these questions obviously took the red pill, which makes us suspicious of everything. But does God factor in somewhere? Can we believe that the Eternal, all powerful Master of the Universe is still in control? Does He really raise up kings and put down kings? (Daniel 2:21), or are the promises we have relied on in the past null and void of fulfillment?
Does Israel really have an end-time purpose in this world? Are the glorious promises in the Bible really meant for us today, or did we somehow miss the boat along the way? It’s easy to doubt, and I know it’s not right to think this way. But it’s extremely sad to see so many of our innocents killed, raped, burned, beheaded, and terrified. Even now, though some have been released, what is the chance that any of them who endured the last 16 months will be mentally ill,–that is, if they survive at all? Naturally, we are insecure, and even doubt the reasons for our faith. Sometimes wonder if we will see another tomorrow.
We try to put it out of our minds. Distraction is a game we play and it may be the only way to survive this horrendous war in any semblance of sanity. It’s difficult not to dwell on hostages half buried in dark holes beneath the grime–violated and hated. There is no certainty that any of them are still alive. As humans, we can never be satisfied with not knowing about something so precious as human life. And so we try to avoid thinking of the unthinkable! The long saga of dwelling on the evil fate of these beloved victims–living or perhaps even preferably dead in the tunnels of frozen fright, is pure hell for both them and all of us who have a soul.
So we stop thinking because we must. But let us ask ourselves: where has hope gone? Where is God at a time like this? Are there a few faithful souls who still see good beyond the tragedy of our times?
The world is being weighed in the balances, with Israel being the centerpiece. It is as if God has drawn a line in the sand. A line separating between those who love His people and those who do not.
To call evil good and good evil seems to be the theme of a world gone mad. I have to believe that Almighty God sees us now. He saw Israel when they labored in the the slime pits of Egypt. Then he called Moses to set His people free.
“And God saw the children of Israel, and God knew…” Exodus 2:25
Can we bank on that now?
Please share your thoughts. I really would like to hear from you!
People for the most part want to be comfortable. Don’t stir the water. Leave me alone to my beliefs and let me live in my comfort zone!
But sometimes the hunger for something real, suppresses the boredom of expected melancholy of a mundane life. And those who break out of their comfort zone will probably live to regret it, if they do not find something better. The problem with those who defy boundaries and disappoint people’s expectations, is that people don’t like it. Especially when it comes to religion that may have been in the family for generations!
When I left Christianity, my family was disappointed. My father, may he rest in peace, asked: “How can you reject our Savior?” I was very defensive. Clearly, I wanted to do what was right. I had lived in that world for over 50 years and for several years before I separated from the church, I began to “see” the traps that were there to keep the members “safely in the fold.” The hierarchical set-up of the church was clear. The ones at the top were not questioned and the sheep, (the ones who sat in the pews from week to week) were their bread and butter, providing their financial and leadership platform of control.
My husband and I have just finished a book by Shulem Dean, an ex Hassid, Ultra Orthodox young man who defied gravity, so to speak and found his way out of the world of Orthodoxy, but in doing so, he lost his marriage, his 5 children, his community, and nearly ended up taking his life. The book, Those who Go, do not Return, is available online for purchase and a partial copy is available here. And he has many YouTube’s, one I have watched is here.
I lived and worked in several places where I could see what was going on in the leadership of that church. I may have been naive as a child and young adult, but when I began to see things, the wheels in my head started turning. During this time, I met a man in leadership who had worked in the higher echelons of that church, someone who was chastised for telling the truth. Furthermore, he had been ordered to write a recantation to a book he had written and pull it off the market–not because it was a lie, but because he had facts that might shake up the trust of the members and the organization could begin to totter from the top down! I also met another minister who was disfellowshipped for revealing some of what had gone on to change the church into something that the Vatican could accept. (For those who do not know, Vatican II was about aligning all the protestant churches and calling them back to the fold under certain specifications of fundamental belief.) These changes, which the retired and excommunicated pastor spoke about, happened during my lifetime. I knew things were not right. It was about then that I removed my membership from the church and stood alone in the wilderness, so to speak. A few friends and some of my family actually stepped a little ways out from the organization because of my discoveries. But that is as far as they went.
Brainwashing from birth happens in most families who are religious, and I believe it has to do with false concepts of the Most High God of the Universe. Fear of hellfire or separation from God based on lies trumped-up by most, if not all, ecclesiastic movements. Free thinking is not allowed, and people who cherish the comfortable above the real refuse to challenge the system. It is too dangerous! It is not easy to go against the crowd, for a lot of reasons.
After 15 years studying alone, I joined a liberal sect of Judaism. I knew that there were problems when I heard long sermons on the merits of women having the choice for abortions, even late-term abortions.I asked myself, what this had to do with the Dvar Torah on that particular Shabbat! I saw a lot of things that didn’t line up with the Bible and thought that maybe the more conservative and orthodox sects were more acceptable. I moved to Modern Orthodox. Now 15 years later, I see errors that make me tremble. The Bible is often not even known by many devout Jews. I often quote verses of Scripture and receive blank stares when I come up against things like reincarnation and the worship of the dead. (That is what I call it, even though they will deny it.) Let me explain. There is a common practice of visiting the tombs of the Sages and Prophets here in Israel. Many rabbis and even Cohanim take their prayer books and pray at these tombs. When asked why, they say they are asking the dead to mediate with God for them. I say that is praying to the dead! Is it not? Let me assert also that because of a loophole in what they have created for the Cohanim, they have special paths built for them so that they can worship in these cemeteries.
So I am back again, studying on my own. Wishing for the appearance of the Messiah and even a small group that thinks for themselves. After all, isn’t that what it’s all about? Wasn’t that what brought Abram into favor with the Eternal. Who led Abram? Yitsac? Yacov? I don’t see anything about them raising up synagogues or churches.
The history of all organized religions seems to take the same path. We see the first congregation, that of Israel at Sinai. How long did they stay on track? When they desired for formal worship they built a golden calf, and later the cults of the Midianites and Moabites who lived in the land. Apparently, the command to go up to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem three times a year was not enough for them. Then Babylon conquered the Jewish people and for 70 years they lived there. We do not know a lot about what happened there, but when they returned to build the second Temple, nothing was the same. There was a new leadership that began to rewrite Holy Writ. Talmud, Mishna Torah, Zohar. The literal Torah was not enough, and the Word of God, although sometimes spoke through prophets, soon left the people in the hands of the leadership which has carried on until this day. There were power struggles between the Hasmoneans, Pharisees, Sadducees, etc.
Then there was the appearance of Jesus, who apparently rebuked a lot of the customs and control that was taking place during his lifetime. Not much is really known of him, since most of the New Testament was introduced by Rome. The history we do have of the Essenes and others who purportedly followed him after his death, shows that none of them believed he was a god of any type. Many believed him to be the Messiah, and many believed in his resurrection and prayed for his soon return. But this movement turned into another deception. Many lost their lives at the hands of Rome. And Rome took over the religion and used it to destroy the Jews. And the Catholic Church became one of the most controlling and outstanding pyramid schemes in the history of the world.
Among the Jews during the Second Temple period, there was always vying for supremacy, even looking to Rome, who helped to establish the Pharisaic order. There is little known about the Sadducees who objected to the writings of the Rabbinic Sages and stood for the written Torah which was given by Moses. Yet we know that the Pharisees won over the vying factions of the day and then bartered off the Temple and Jerusalem to Rome. (Link). Research the history of how we got to where we are today. It may take some time and deep digging!
All organized religion assumes control of individual thinking and research. Churches provide research books. The Jews have many many books that define their authorized beliefs. Is it possible to find a group of people who embrace the Bible while at the same time giving freedom to others to think individually as they find and follow their own path? Is it dangerous to entertain such people as friends?
An interesting phenomenon seems to be true in Israel today. There are many Jews in Israel that are unaffiliated. Many are called secular by the more religious, yet many of these same “secular” Jews, have a deep understanding of eternal things and the Bible. How did this happen? When the Jews struggled to create a nation not even a century ago, it was through blood, sweat and tears. In this struggle, they found what it meant to work alone against an unbelieving world. They believed that Israel was given to the Jews and many laid down their lives to win back this land. The children and grandchildren of these people are some of the strongest, kindest and noblest of souls that I have met anywhere. Are they Anti-God just because they refuse to cow down to religion? I don’t see it that way!
Is it possible that this is the people that the Eternal is seeking? Those who have no one above them guiding their thinking? Is it possible that these non-religious people will hear a sound of a rustling wind in the willows that announce the entrance of the Messiah. There is still a small voice that speaks of the wonders of individual faith! Can it be that the Messiah will come from among these who listen to the ancient voice that once spoke to our Father Abraham?
“Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.” (Pro 9:6)
“Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD’S vengeance; he will render unto her a recompense.” (Jer 51:6)
