Yo Searchers! Can we help you? – December 2014

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[Welcome Decemburrrrrr! As a popular song goes, “it’s the most wonderful time of the year!” And so it is, with two religious celebrations timed this month: the Jewish festival of lights—

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Hanukkah (December 16-24); and the Christian celebration of the birth of their Savior-God Jesus on December 25, though

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commercialization of the latter event begins as early as September. The un-attached—to any religious observance—simply enjoy the year-end festivities, bidding goodbye to 2014 while welcoming 2015 with a blast!

‘Live and let live,’ that’s our motto in this website but with the constant hope that the God of Israel, the God of Sinaites, the God of the nations, the True Giver of Light and the True Light of the world—YHWH–will be ultimately known amidst the multifarious celebrations.

Hereunder are the ‘search terms’ that land on our website; whether or not they were intentionally seeking us out, we offer our own articles on the topic.—Admin1]

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12/20/14 “pictures of joshua and caleb” – My servant Caleb – a different spirit

12/28/14 “how can gentiles please hashem” –

12/28/14 “judaism torah” –

Must Read – 6 – Robert Schoen/The Torah and the Law; Jewish symbols

12/28/14 “hebrew letter chai” – Here’s a link: judaism.about.com/od/judaismbasics/g/chai.htm

12/28/14 “ishmael and isaac”

12/27/14 “god of old testament was merciful or vengeful” – Awwww, whoever started this rumor ought to be sentenced to reading the Torah 100X for ‘penance’ then maybe, he’ll discover the true character of this self-revealing God on Sinai. But, since we did feature a book with a suggestive title, and a couple of posts defending the “OT God,” here are a few posts:

12/27/14 “sabbath quotes” – This searcher is most welcome to use our Sabbath liturgy; we have one for every Sabbath of the year and quite a variety of musical ‘quotables’ with one specific recommendation: “Remember the Sabbath” the music of which we borrowed from the Seventh Day Adventist Hymnody.

If this searcher is looking for images w/quotes, Google is the best resort as everyone well knows:

Sabbath Quotes – BrainyQuote
www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/sabbath.html

Sabbath Quotes from BrainyQuote, an extensive collection of quotations by famous authors, celebrities, and newsmakers.

Quotes About Sabbath (28 quotes) – Goodreads
www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/sabbath

28 quotes have been tagged as sabbath: Henry David Thoreau: ‘I was once reproved by a minister who was driving a poor beast to some meeting-house …

12/26/14 “uncircumsised lips” – Exodus/Shemoth 6-b: Do you have “uncircumcised lips”?

12/26/14 “malki-tzedek king of salem” – Genesis/Bereshith 14: ” Now Malki-Tzedek, king of Salem . . . he was priest of God Most-High, “

12/22/14 “zaphenath pa’neach” – Clueless about this search term but after googling it, we landed on the correct website, so here it is: https://www.dandb.com/businessdirectory/zaphenathpaneahinc-hawthorne-ca-21525346.html?gclid=CJr-366A2sICFRVxvAodTIkA2Q

12/20/14 “happy sabbath”/ “happy sabbath quotes” – We have Sabbath liturgy for every Sabbath the whole year round; please feel free to quote from any of our prayers, revised song lyrics; and if this searcher is looking for images with happy sabbath quotes, google offers hundreds of them; in fact that is where we pick out our images.

12/19/14 “torah judaism” – Must Read – 6 – Robert Schoen/The Torah and the Law; Jewish symbols

12/18/14 “who are the chosen people of god” – Must Read: Who are the REAL Chosen People? – by Reuven Firestone

12/18/14 “ jewish symbols” – Must Read – 6 – Robert Schoen/The Torah and the Law; Jewish symbols

12/17/14 “havilah,x” – Could this searcher have meant “havdalah” which is the conclusion of the Sabbath, bidding goodbye to the Queen of Days? If so, we have many sample concluding prayers in our Sabbath Liturgy, please feel free to borrow from any of them if that is the intent. We simply provide alternative sample prayers to our Messianic and Jewish counterparts who are Sabbath keepers and once in a while, we do feature “havdalah” from the Siddur or the Jewish Book of Prayers.

12/17/14 “genisis 3:15 correct translation” – Here are translations we use in this website:

[EF] I put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed:

they will bruise you on the head, you will bruise them in the heel.

[AST] I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will pound your head, and you will bite his heel.

[JPS] I will put enmity

Between you and the woman,

And between your offspring and hers;

They shall strike at your head,

And you shall strike at their heel.

12/14/14 ” aaron’s staff that budded” – Please scroll down to date 12/13/14 “almond tree” where the article on this was excerpted and actual post provided.

Numbers/Bamidbar 17 – ” And it will be that the rod of the man whom I will choose will bud;”

12/14/14 “in 165 bc by the maccabees after its desecration by the syrians.” – Check this out:

12/14/14 “the greeks gods” – Must Read: Reuven Firestone – 4 – Chosenness in the Ancient Near East

The Greek kings then fancied themselves as pharaohs as well, with the result that the Egyptian god Osiris, for example, was merged with the Greek God Dionysis, and the Egyptian god Thoth with the Greek god Hermes. The result was the weakening of the local religions and assimilation to a system that was closer to the religion of the conquerors.

The Greeks brought not only their gods, but also their culture. The power and popularity of Hellenic culture influenced local cultures and “hellenized” them. This resulted in the emergence of what historians call “Hellenism,” a synthesis of pure Greek (Hellenic) culture with the local Near Eastern cultures. Many locals learned the Greek language and integrated their traditional indigenous cultures with that of the Greeks. They were inevitably attracted to the Greek religious system as well. Because of the overwhelming and unifying power of Hellenism, local tribal religions began to lose some of the distinctiveness of their culture. Eventually, the independent integrity of the local Near Eastern religious systems would die out entirely to this assimilation, though that process would not be complete until the arrival of the Romans.

The assimilation process encouraged by the Greek and Roman conquerors was not successful, however, under the strident monotheism of Israel. By the time the Greeks had come to the area, the Israelites had become localized in a region called Judea and increasingly referred to themselves as Judeans, from which we get the term Jew. One of the problems that Jews faced after the Greek conquest was that they were expected, like all foreign peoples, to make offerings to the Greek gods. Because they simply and adamantly refused to do so, a compromise was eventually reached that allowed the Jews to worship in their own unique manner and make donations to their temple in Jerusalem.

12/13/14 “almond tree” – Numbers/Bamidbar 17 – ” And it will be that the rod of the man whom I will choose will bud;

Image from safeguardingtheeternal.wordpress.com

“21 Moshe spoke to the Children of Israel,
and they gave him, all the leaders, a staff per (each) one leader,
a staff per (each) one leader,
for their Fathers’ House, twelve staffs, with the staff of Aharon in the midst of their staffs.
22 Moshe laid out the staffs before the presence of YHVH,
in the Tent of the Testimony.
23 Now it was on the morrow:
when Moshe entered the Tent of the Testimony,
here: it had sprouted, the staff of Aharon, of the House of Levi!
It had put-forth a sprouting-flower, it had blossomed a blossom, it had ripened almonds!

12/13/14 “gods and goddess ,(greek)” – Must Read: Reuven Firestone – 4 – Chosenness in the Ancient Near East

12/13/14 “shabbat shalom with love” – We have a whole year of Sabbath liturgy that our web visitors may choose from; please feel free to use them for your sabbath celebrations, on whichever date —you don’t have to follow the weekly or monthly sequence. We are not copyright-conscious, love and service for God should not be a business venture. Information we have sought and found have sometimes been free, sometimes not, but what we pass on to others has no strings attached. No donations are solicited. We are grateful to YHWH that this website has been sponsored for free by our current server; may YHWH prosper the Jewish owner, friend of Sinaites —Bruce and his staff Rio and Clarice.

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12/13/14 “benmara llc florida” – The person by this name is no longer affiliated with nor featured in this website.

12/12/14 “monkey adam et eve” – Revisited: Q: ” “a 15th century rabbi claimed adam and eve had the faces of monkeys”

12/12/14 “painting-as the deer panteth” – This is a water color painting by a Sinaite who did ‘nature art’ when he was still a Christian; aside from art exhibits, he printed his artworks on cards. He has since moved from Manila, Philippines to Houston. TX, USA and both he and his wife have joined a synagogue there.

“Soul Thirst” – Art by AHV@S6K

12/11/14 “ishmael isaac” –

12/09/14 “abram believed the lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness” –

Genesis/Bereshith 15: “Now he trusted in YHWH, and he deemed it as righteous-merit on his part.”

12/08/14 sina6000 net must read robert schoenthe-and-the-law/ http://sinai6000+net+must+read+robert+schoenthe-and-the-law/ –

Must Read – 6 – Robert Schoen/The Torah and the Law; Jewish symbols

12/06/14 “шаббат шалом” — not sure about this search entry but it reads like “Shabbat shalom” and we do wish him/her back the same! Please feel free to use any of our Sabbath liturgy for any Sabbath, you don’t have to use the specific one for any specific date. We also are not copyright-obsessed, help yourself to over 800 posts on our site contents; we just want to point to the direction of YHWH to lost or transitioning Truth and God-seekers who are on the same pilgrimage as we are but are at a loss as to what pathway to take since there are many conflicting voices making the same claims as we are. One has to be discerning and use logic and reason, not ‘faith’ alone. Shabbat shalom!

12/05/14 “what does uncircumcised lips mean” – Exodus/Shemoth 6-b: Do you have “uncircumcised lips”?

12/05 “god’s creation quotes” – How can we outdo the psalmist whose inspired words in Psalm 8 were rewritten in song lyrics:

“When I gaze into the night skies

I see the work of Your fingers—

the moon and stars suspended in space.

Oh Lord YHWH,

what is man that You are mindful of him?”

And yet following their lead, our Sabbath liturgy constantly pay tribute to the Creator for the visible and invisible glaring evidences of an Intelligent Designer of our planet earth and His universe! As we keep saying, it takes more faith to be an atheist to believe that all existence is an accident of nature, that there is no First Cause for evolution, if that’s the route one chooses to take.

And so, we have expanded Psalm 8 in one of our Sabbath liturgies to this: [from A Sinaite’s Liturgy – 1st Sabbath of September]

With the first sighting of your new moon

signalling the beginning of a new month,

we are humbled at the thought

that You prepared a perfect universe

and a perfect planet designed

not only for the sustenance of all life,

but also for the enjoyment and pleasure

of the only being created in Your image,

sentient, self-conscious, self-willed—humanity.

Image from heartwhispers.weebly.com

O YHWH, Creator of all existence,

need there be any doubt in our mind

regarding Your love for us?

We marvel at this perfect environment

in which we live,

complete with everything that would nurture and sustain

the diversity of life forms that inhabit it,

but most specially the life of each human being

born into this world.

We are amazed at the capabilities of the human body,

which houses mind and heart and soul,

with its intricate workings,

its built-in protective self-healing immune system

which modern medicine can tap into

as the first line of defense against disease;

all work together to ensure

that we live out our existence in the best of health

while Your breath of life is still in us.

We are humbled as we recognize and acknowledge

that You, O YHWH, are the Creator and Designer

of everything that exists,

whether visible or invisible to the eye.

How should we respond?

How can we show our deep gratitude

for all that You have done for us?

Who are we that You should give us this much blessing

just in our natural environment alone, and within ourselves,

and so much more?

Indeed, who are we

that You are mindful of us?

You have put man in charge of all creation,

given the mandate to ‘tend the garden’ . . .

yet in this day and age

we witness the deterioration, degradation and destruction

of the only habitable planet in Your vast universe

that You have designed perfectly

out of love for us.

As we begin to approach the season

for self-examination,

for accountability to You

we ask for forgiveness,

O Creator God!

We respond in all humility,

wondering how best

could we express our love for You?

For one of many ways,

by tending Your garden in our little patch of earth,

so that our generation and future generations

might continue to survive

till the End of Days.

We resolve to do in small and big ways,

in the space we occupy

through the life we live

and the lives we are able to influence,

to respect, nurture and sustain the diversity of life in all its forms,

realizing that only from YOU comes the very breath of life,

granted every creature, big and small, simple and complex.

May we have a deep respect for life in all its manifestations

in Your magnificent ‘garden’

O YHWH,

Creator or our planet Earth, Source of all life.

There are many more similar tributes in our series: A Sinaite’s Liturgy, please check them out on our [Site Map]

12/05 “sunset over a mountain” – Our Sabbath liturgy are full of images of exactly this to signify the beginning and end of Shabbat, “sundown to sundown.” Where do we get them? Where else, old reliable google of course! You’ll get a glut of images for every conceivable specific requirement.

12/04 “what are the self descriptions of god” – Revisited – The Awesome Self-Description of God

12/04 “what was israel’s occupation, which was abominable to the egyptians?” – This is from Genesis/Bereshith 46 – “Now I can die, since I have seen your face, that you are still alive!”

34 Then say: Your servants have always been livestock men, from our youth until now, so we, so our fathers-

in order that you may settle in the region of Goshen.

For every shepherd of flocks is an abomination to the Egyptians.

12/03 “esau hunting” –

Genesis/Bereshith 36 – “That is Esav, the tribal-father of Edom.”

12/ 03 “greek gods and their powers” – The Greek gods, being non-gods, meaning non-existent, have no powers except in the imagination of humans who conceive them in the image of humanity. However, in the thinking of polytheists who do create a pantheon of gods and goddesses, just like the Greeks did, as the Romans who had counterparts did, these divine beings were assigned domains, tasks, talents, etc. Check out this post:

Must Read: Reuven Firestone – 4 – Chosenness in the Ancient Near East

12/03 “esav meets yaakov” –

12/03 “old testament saints resurrection” – This searcher got it partially correct! “Saints” who resurrected at the time of Jesus (according to the NT Gospels) would have been “Old Testament”, meaning, since Christianity and New Testament were not yet in place, who else but the generation of Jesus who believed in him would have resurrected with him. But this whole scenario gives us the idea for another article in itself, so we will tackle this another time. Meanwhile, this searcher was most likely looking for this post:

Revisited: What?! There were resurrected saints at Jesus’ resurrection?

12/03 “mace between his legs…mentioned in genesis” – The word “mace” is a bit misleading, as the word is used for food seasoning or a university president’s symbolic official staff. Except for NABRE [New American Bible Revised Edition], most translations use “scepter” or “ruler’s staff” but most likely, since the context is related to Judah, the implied meaning is that rulers on Israel’s throne will permanently emerge from the tribe of Judah, as David did, and as the Davidic Covenant cemented the divine declared intent.

Check this out, specifically verse 10:

Genesis/Bereshith 49: Jacob/Israel’s Legacy and Last Farewell

12/02/14 “the ark of the covenant is in heaven” – There are speculations as to where is the ‘original’ ark of the covenant but even the custodians of it (the Israelites/Jews today) don’t seem to know.

We do have a post that explains where it was NOT, check it out:

The Ark of the Covenant: Was it in the Holy of Holies on the day Jesus died?

Google has these entries if you’re interested in going farther but just keep one thing in mind — it appears the God of Israel allowed not only the Ark of the Covenant but the Temple itself to be taken out of the midst of Israel’s ‘Holy City’ — earthly representations have their purpose for a time and when that purpose is no longer necessary, it is taken away lest idolatrous humanity turn it into another object of worship to compete with the One to Whom all worship is due.

Where Is the Ark of the Covenant Located Today?	Why Is the Ark of Covenant Important?
What Happened to the Ark of the Covenant?	Ark of the Covenant Found
Location of the Ark of the Covenant	Ark of the Covenant in Ethiopia
Ark of the Covenant History	Ark of the Covenant Drawings

12/01/14 “bedraggled and broken” – “beaten down, bedraggled, and broken”- Could it be they are worshipping the wrong God?

Source: Exodus/Shemoth 24 – "the sight of the Glory of YHVH (was) like a consuming fire" -- We gentiles living in this 21st century are able to experience that climactic moment [God appearing on Sinai] by reading and studying this portion of the TORAH. Indeed, we see YHWH not quite as dramatically as the mixed multitude did, but perhaps even better through these accounts recorded in Exodus. There is a saying that hindsight is 20/20 vision, i.e., we begin to see and understand the question marks in our past only later in our lives, as we mature and hopefully become wiser and more introspective about the meaning or seeming meaninglessness of happenings in history, whether personal, national, or universal. Søren Kierkegaard adds a twist to this: “Only 20:20 vision is hindsight. Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” As we endeavor to understand each portion in the TORAH of YHWH, much of it will seem irrelevant to our current situation but if we see beyond the time-bound cultural and religious situations and begin to understand what truly has not change—human nature and the Great Revelator who designed the perfect blueprint for living in peace, happily and contentedly with family, community, country and the nations, the unquestionable conclusion is: TORAH is relevant to ALL humankind, not just to Israel, to this very day.

Sabbath Quotes – BrainyQuote

Quotes About Sabbath (28 quotes) – Goodreads

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