Yo searchers, need help? – June 2014

6/7 “descendants of shem ham and japheth map” – Genesis/Bereshith 10: “. . . these are the begetting of the sons of Noah. . . Sons were born to them after the Deluge.”

6/7 “which biblical figure asks, “am i my brother’s keeper?” – Am I my brother’s keeper?

An Inconvenient Truth for Cain – 2

6/7 “chronicles approach to king david” – Check this out: A Literary Approach to 1 and 2 Chronicles

6/7 “blessed sabbath images” – Google “images for weekly Sabbath” or “images for Sabbath Lights” or “Images for Sabbath Meal” and you’ll find so many images to choose from; takes lots of patience to do this but you’ll find exactly what fits your need, if you’re blogging.

6/6 “happy sabbath” – This searcher got it right with this entry, “happy sabbath” indeed! We’ve posted this week’s liturgy, enjoy your Sabbath, all!

6/6 “the jewish mystique” – Revisited: The Jewish Mystique by Ernest Van Den Haag

6/6 “a.d 381 heretics, pagans, and the dawn of the monotheistic state summary” – Must Read: A.D. 381: Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State by Charles Freeman

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

6/5 “abraham sacrifice of isaac” –

6/4 “toby.weebly.com/uploads/2/7/4/8/2748917/everett_foxxstor” – When we changed our translation of choice to Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses, the above site was still available and many of our visitors were able to download a copy; however lately, the site seems to have been taken out or has become inaccessible. We have featured the whole translation in our posts on the TORAH; please refer to TORAH STUDY or the specific book/chapter you’re interested in. We have provided commentaries as well . . . it’s like reading through a Sinaite’s notes and you’ll benefit as much as we have.

6/4 “tnk/tanach/tanakh” – “TNK” is the acronym for the 3 parts of the Hebrew Scriptures: Torah/Neviim/Ketuviim. When it is spelled out, some use “Tanach” while others “Tanakh”. There are posts by Jewish writers and Rabbis explaining the TNK. One good introduction is Torah for Dummies by Arthur Kurzweil; please browse through MUST READ Category for other books that educate newcomers on the TNK.

6/4 “the first father adam” – Revisited: Adam the First Father

6/4 “jewish response to christainity” – Actually, Jews are super-tolerant and respectful of all religions; however, when Christian missionaries or sects such as Jews for Jesus go out to specifically evangelize the Jews to convert them to Christianity, then the Jewish response is to counteract the effort by discussing why Christianity and its New Testament and its revised version of the Hebrew Scriptures –“Old” Testament—are antithetical to YHWH’s Torah. Aryeh Kaplan and anti-missionary Jewish websites don’t mince words while Rabbi Boteach and Heschel have a softer approach. Check out these posts:

6/4 “commentary on tochacha admonitions” – Sorry, we have no posts on this topic.

6/4 “hear o israel benmara website who is benmara?” – This name is associated with the website he owns; we used to feature his translation of the Tanakh but after discovering it was an unfinished work, still in progress, we decided to switch to Everett Fox who uses the Name YHWH in his The Five Books of Moses which follows a poetic format. Could we ask for more?

6/3 “sacrifice from the bible”

6/3 “sinai and heschel” – “The Moment at Sinai” — An Essay by Abraham Joshua Heschel

6/3 “exodus 6:9 david stern commentary” – David Stern’s Complete Jewish Bible is Messianic Judaism’s version of the Christian Bible; we describe it the same way we describe Messianics: “Christian in Hebrew dress.” Stern’s intention among others was to make Christians realize that the Jewish roots of the Christian savior and so he translated names of people, places and significant terms from their English equivalent to Hebrew. It is a good introduction to any reader who has not been aware of the ‘Jewishness’ of the Old Testament, as well as the Jewish roots of the New Testament. Stern has a commentary on the New Testament books; as far as we know he was still working on the commentary on the Old Testament but since it would be expectedly from a Christian perspective, we have not featured it among the commentaries on TNK/TORAH for obvious reasons.

6/3 “ebooks you take jesus i’ll take god by samuel levine pdf” – This is among our kindle ebook library but we have not had time to feature it —however here is a customer’s review from amazon.com to give you an idea of what the book is about. It follows the pattern of other Jewish writings that refute the claims and teachings of Christian missionaries who wish to convert Jews to Christianity (Jews for Jesus, Messianic Judaism). There is another similar book we did feature here which you might want to check out which is also recommended by the customer reviewer: Aryeh Kaplan –THE REAL MESSIAH? A Jewish Response to Missionaries.

Customer Review from amazon.dom

Before considering Christianity, read this book!, January 25, 2002

By “myerb”

This review is from: You Take Jesus, I’ll Take God: How to Refute Christian Missionaries (Paperback)

Levine’s book is very short and has a simple message. Its main task is to assist any ‘lost’ Jews that may be considering ‘the other side’ i.e. Christianity. The tone of the book is set early on, Levine isn’t too concerned about whether he offends the proponents of Christianity. He is quite blunt with regards to some of the points that he makes, however he assures the reader that he is not out to attack Christianity but instead is out to combat the menace of Missionary Christianity (specifically ‘Jews for Jesus’).

Levine divides his book into three main parts. The first deals with the verses that Christian Missionaries use in an attempt to convert unsuspecting Jews to the ‘truth’ of the Christian Messiah. The author analyses each pertininent verse adding personal comments and referring to other Jewish scriptural and non-scriptural sources. Some of his comments are speculative at best, for example his treatment of Josephus’ writings about Jesus. He believes that the two ‘lonely passages’ that discuss him were interpolations (as suggested by one of his sources), and hence claims that there is no true evidence of Jesus’ great ministry. Other comments he makes are more solid and are backed up by logic and evidence from scripture itself.

The second section is different from the first, in that it is pro-active in dealing with the missionary problem. It prepares the reader with some ammunition in the form of questions, that the missionary may have a few problems answering regarding Christianity. Some points he brings up include the difficulties of the trinity, faith versus works: why do we need the latter at all?, unfulfilled prophecies and the list goes on.
His final section is a collection of letters wherby he has a discussion with an actual Christian Missionary. This is an interesting approach to show the tactics used by missionaries to win converts. It is a lengthy correspondance that becomes heated at times, however it shows how pointless it is to argue with someone that has discarded logic, reason and critical thinking for blind faith.

Overall this book is a useful introduction to the very weak and unsubstantiated arguments offered by Christian Missionaries to convert unprepared Jews. Although most of his arguments are convincing, he sometimes goes to extremes with his constant reminders about early Christianity and its treatment of the Jews. Although the Spanish Inquisition, crusades and the Holocaust are horrible reminders of Christian iniquity towards the Jewish people, I believe it is possible to logically defeat Christian dogma without constantly appealing to past indiscretions. If you are looking for a good starting point into the arguments regarding Christianity, this is it. However, if you are looking for more substance check out some other books such as Aryeh Kaplan’s _Real Messiah_, _The Jesus Puzzle_ by Earl Doherty and _The Jesus Mysteries_ by Timothy Freke.

6/2 “strike moshe@gmail.com” – Exodus/Shemoth 17 – Who is the Rock? Who are the Amalekites?

6/1 “torah study concepts shavuot” – Shavuot – Anniversary of Giving of the TORAH on Sinai

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.

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