[Someone just clicked this post which made us review it and repost it. This was first posted February 28, 2013; at that time, I was not aware this anecdote was well known, so well known in fact that when I googled “images of frog and scorpion” I was sure I would not find any that had both creatures in one image that would illustrate the story. Ooops, pardon my ignorance, what do I know?

To my surprise, at the later reposting February 2, 2015, I discovered the story is so well known because it originated from Aesop’s Fables, it even inspired a book based on it and a cartoon illustration!

Image from blog.adl.org

In fact, some illustrations had human heads

for either creature and one even had

the star of David on the scorpion

and an arab’s headdress on the frog;

this one, I thought, hmmmmm,

should it not be the other way around?

Probably depends on who’s side the illustrator is on.

Image from www.cartoonmovement.com

Then there was another one

with the Islamic symbol on the scorpion

and Europe on the frog,

related no doubt to the recent slaughter of the

satirist editorial staff of the newspaper

Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

Update 2016: Applicable even more so with the current terrorist suicide bombings in Brussels, Belgium.

There are many more interesting applications of who’s who, depending on the mind of the user of Aesop’s fable; go check for yourself, you’d be surprised!

Anyway, I decided to stick to the original post unrevised except for this introduction. Read on.]

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I’m not sure if this version is correct. I got this second-hand from someone who didn’t get it right and thought it was about a scorpion and an ant . . . so with a little figuring out, we agreed it might have been a frog. So here’s a revised tale: there was a scorpion who lost his footing and fell into a pond. Not knowing how to swim, he desperately looked for help while struggling to keep afloat and spotted a frog nearby. The dialogue then goes somewhat like this:

S: “Help me, Mr. Frog, I can’t swim!”

F: “No way, Mr. Scorpion.”

S: “Why not?”

F: “Because you’re a scorpion, it’s your nature to sting and release your poison, you will kill me.”

S: “I promise I will not, just get me out of here, please, please, I will not harm you, I promise!!!”

F: “Promise?”

S: “Promise!”

F: “OK, here I come, just get on my back and I’ll get you out of the water.”

And so, the frog jumps into the water, offers his back to the scorpion who is greatly relieved that another creature not of his kind trusted him enough to come to his rescue. The frog starts swimming and just as they both were about to get to the edge of the pond, the scorpion digs his tail into the frog’s back and releases his poisonous sting.

F: “What did you just do? You stung me when you promised you wouldn’t! You’ve just lost your one and only chance to survive, now we both perish!!!”

S: “Sorry, I just can’t help it, that IS MY nature!”

So they both drown, sink into the bottom of the pond and die together, with the scorpion still clutching on to the frog.

Image from www.freerepublic.com

The original story teller, says my source, was making a point about difficult people who don’t change and never will because they simply can’t help being true to their nature, just like the scorpion whose nature as a poisonous stinger has to get its way, even if it is detrimental to his very survival. Not only that, his toxic nature becomes destructive to others around him as well so with such persons/people, the storyteller suggests it is best that we keep our distance from them.

Let’s examine the lesson being taught here.

Is being “true to one’s nature” applicable to humans just like it is to animals? Animals have no choice to be anything other than what they were designed for, to fulfill the purpose for which they were created. Animal instincts are built into their system; they are programmed to fulfill those instincts that our Creator, in His wisdom, providing such diversity in His balanced design, deemed perfect for the purpose of each creature on earth. That’s why the Creator declared them all “good” and “very good.”

We wonder why there are pests—wouldn’t our lives be better without cockroaches, flies, mosquitoes, to name three insects we never want to invade our personal space, our homes? For sure, each one wasn’t put here just to test our ability to manufacture stronger pesticides that eventually become more harmful to human health while these critters develop stronger resistance to each new product. The point? Yes, animals will act and react according to their nature. If we are not only aware of that but also respectful and careful that we do not attempt to change God’s design of each of His creatures, then we should not be surprised when pet pitbulls, dobermans, and circus lions suddenly turn against and viciously attack their masters; they are, after all, only being true to their nature.

Image from culturallogic.blogspot.com

What makes humans distinct from animals? Free will, the ability to make choices. Animals don’t have that, so they act and react according to how they are programmed to survive. But human beings, no matter what circumstances they were born in, don’t ever have to remain as they were at any stage of their development and growth. Choice allows humans to adapt and adjust and change as well as remain as they are, if they’re happy as they are. No one needs to be stuck in any phase or stage of personal development.

If you think about it, the Christian teaching that man is born helpless in inherited sin, original sin, is a program for self-defeat. The gracious God of Abraham and Israel is a God of many chances; He does not damn all generations for the one disobedience of the first ‘parents’. Each generation is given the chance to start over. Read the TORAH where His grace and mercy is openly extended to the repentant soul. It is a misunderstanding, misreading and misinterpretation of YHWH’s revelation that results in a false doctrine like ‘original sin.’ It makes the God of the Hebrew Scriptures appear like an unjust God. [Review or read Yechezqe’l 18]

Many Christian testimonies claim “Jesus changed my life” but in actuality, it is the person making a decision to change his life, he’s just giving credit where he thinks it should be due. In fact, the teaching goes farther than Jesus; after belief in him, one has to be ’empowered’ by the Holy Spirit to overcome temptation and sin. God has placed it within man to turn his life around when he so decides. Even substance abusers, alcoholics, smokers who fall into almost helpless bondage to their specific addiction are able to do a turnabout, with or without the help of the Trinitarian Godhead, when they make that crucial decision to do so.

Image from ronaldwederfoort.blogspot.com

As Christians, we used to pray for God to change a person’s heart and mind. Guess what? God will not take back the most precious gift He has ever endowed mankind, the power to make a choice for good or for evil. As far as we know, He will never invade man’s free will; each person was given that capability to change the course or direction of his life, as long as there is no external impediment to it. How? By simply making a choice and carrying it through. Humans are—to borrow a movie title about Elsa the lion— ‘born free.’ It is basic in human nature to exercise his free will whether he is conscious of it or not. . . . would that he chooses to do it responsibly. The TORAH of YHWH teaches him how to do that.

[RA] Deuteronomy/Debariym 30:15-16:

See, I have set before you today life and good and death and evil, that I charge you today to love YHWH your God, to go in His ways and to keep His commands and His statutes and His laws. And you shall live and multiply, and YHWH your God will bless you in the land into which you are coming to take hold of it.

[AST] Joshua/Yahushuwa 24:15:

If it is evil in your eyes to serve YHWH, choose today whom you will serve: the gods your forefathers served across the river, or the gods of the Amorite in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve YHWH!

At the end of an email stationery of a lady lawyer I know, is a quote I wish I could have penned :

“Try to realize,

and truly realize,

that what stands between you

and a different life

are matters of responsible choice”

— Gary Zukav

[http://seatofthesoul.com/about/gary-zukav/]

NSB@S6K

Genesis/Bereshith

Prooftext 1c – Gen. 3:15 – Who are the “seed,” “offspring”?

September 18, 2019 s1n4i600o-adm1n-d3v Leave a Comment

[First posted June 28, 2012. Read this in connection with other posts:

Q&A: “If the devil doesn’t exist, how come the snake/serpent in the story was punished by the Creator for tempting Eve?”

If you haven’t yet read the posts associated with this, please check out:

—Admin1]

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Context, we said, determines the meaning of any text. Divorced from context, any verse could be easily misinterpreted. Checking out the immediate context leading to this “prooftext” under scrutiny, God has just pronounced a curse on the serpent—

Genesis/Bereshith 3:14 YHWH, God, said to the snake:

Because you have done this,

damned be you from all the animals and from all the living-things of the field:

upon your belly shall you walk and dust shall you eat, all the days of your life.

Let us pause for a moment and address why God would curse the serpent if he is a personification of man’s inner tendency to go against Divine Will. One of the Rabbis who answered this question explained it only in terms of what the serpent was at the beginning of the story— more shrewd than all the living-things of the field—- and how he degenerates into a belly-crawling-dust-eating lowly creature whom man will from hence on shun or be hostile toward. The point? The creature with free will [man] affects all of creation adversely when he chooses to violate God’s instructions/teachings/laws. But how does this fit in the interpretation we have presented so far?

Well, look at it this way — real serpents do crawl on their bellies and bite the dust; in fact that has been presented as part of the reason for this narrative, to explain why snakes and people keep away from each other. Think as well, that God does curse the serpents of desire in ourselves which should stay where they are, not aroused to inject through an unguarded bite its poison of sinful tendencies.

Enough of the serpent, who is the serpent’s “seed”? And who is Eve’s “offspring”?

First the translator’s choice of words: is “seed” the same as “offspring”?

Why does NASB use “seed” while the Hebrew translation [ArtScroll] use “offspring”?
Are the words interchangeable, like synonyms or does the word choice deviate from the intended meaning of the verse?

We always refer to the dictionary first because it reflects the consensus among word users of what any word in English basically or literally means, so according to Webster:

“seed” – a flowering plant’s unit of reproduction, capable of developing into another such plant.
“offspring” – a person’s child or children.

One suggests ‘potential’ while the other suggests ‘result’. Seed is a botanical word, it’s something you plant and cultivate which develops into a mature plant. Offspring appears to apply to the procreation or generation of human beings. Seed has yet to develop while offspring is already on a functioning level of maturity.

Which word is more suited to the intended meaning of the verse? Actually in our interpretation of this verse, both concepts come in handy. Let us now identify who the seed/offspring are:

“Her” offspring would be — first and foremost, her firstborn Cain . . . and thereafter, Abel, Seth, and all the generations that spring from this first woman, the one with the capability to birth babies. In short, “her” offspring would be all of mankind but if you were in Eve’s place, remembering God’s words, she would think it’s Cain. And indeed, Cain is a perfect example of failure to heed God’s warning, just like his parents.
The “serpent’s” seed — notice the word we prefer to use for the serpent is seed and not offspring because the serpent’s seed has only a potential; it could be nipped in the bud and does not have to develop into “offspring,”

If we have identified the serpent as that innate part of human nature that provides alternative choice, simply because humans have free will — then the seed of the serpent is that continuing tendency in mankind to make a choice that could lead to harm for himself and others, that could alienate him from his Creator-God. The words ethical, moral, righteousness all come into the picture—there is a way to live that is right and even people who have not been exposed to Torah have innate goodness. It is a choice man is free to make.

So far, we have missed discussing one more word: “enmity” which exists between the woman and the serpent as placed there by God. This enmity/antipathy passes on to their seed/offspring. How does this work within the framework we have set up? If the innate desire for forbidden things is within human nature, humans will be aware of it, might even have a natural aversion toward it but could also succumb to it just as Eve did, just as Adam did, just as Cain did. Our awareness of this side within our human nature is something we wish we didn’t have; nobody thinks it’s a blessing, if anything it’s a potential to suffer a bad consequence. Everyone who indulges in the forbidden — whether it’s as neutral [not sinful] as fatty and junk food or smoking which they know are bad for their health — has that built-in red flag as reminder for “not good, you’ll be sorry.” That side of our nature we don’t like [enmity] but we indulge it nevertheless [choice].

The other words to contend with: the interaction between the seeds/offspring:

bruise head/bruise heel,
pound head/bite heel,
snap head/smash heel.

What’s with the head and heel, why not head to head and heel to heel? It looks like an uneven fight, but then the figures involved are not equal: man who stands tall and serpent who has no height and stays only on the level of man’s heel. In fact, this could be the very clue to what our Creator God expects from humankind. We have been given free will; we are superior, not inferior to that part of our nature that tends to go against His Divine Will: they will bruise you on the head, you will bruise them in the heel. Does that sound like we’re struggling from a point of utter defeat? On the contrary, it already sounds victorious!

Of the three translations, the ArtScroll choice of words fit best in the framework we have set up. Here are two contenders within man:

a tendency to choose good and
a tendency to choose bad or evil.

Does God say they are equal contenders? Not at all, man can pound the head of the serpent’s seed, in effect totally crush it; the serpent’s seed can only bite man’s heel, perhaps bruise is a better word to use here.

Man can dominate that innate tendency to choose bad/wrong/evil, in fact win over it. But that tendency can do the littlest harm if allowed to ‘bite one’s heel’ and could cause great harm if the poison is allowed to spread and defeat man. Man has the ability to control the situation and influence the ending.

Let’s now go to the text immediately after Gen. 3:15 and apply it all now to Eve’s offspring, firstborn son Cain. The seed of the serpent immediately raises its presence in Cain when his offering is not looked upon with favor by God. We have discussed Cain lengthily in another article so please read that because we will discuss only what is connected to the specific points raised here.

God warns Cain that sin is crouching at the door . . . but Cain can dominate it. That seed of the serpent — potential to sin has not had any advantage yet, Cain is simply feeling dejected, his face is downcast, he has not taken his negative feelings any further . . . and God warns him he doesn’t have to allow sin to enter in; keep the door closed; that serpent’s seed does not have to be given the opportunity to bite his heel and thus spread its poison.

Well, Cain does not heed Gods’ warning. The serpent’s seed gains ground on Cain and before we know it, he commits fratricide, among other sins. And yet study how God treats Cain, the first murderer . . .

To sum up: There is enmity, a natural hostility between Eve’s offspring [Cain and all mankind] and the serpent’s seed [innate tendency to go against the Divine Will and harm self and others]. Man does not like that part of his nature but whether or not he will give in to it is his choice. He cannot blame his choice on anyone else, not even his innate serpent of desire. He has the ability to tame it, he need not succumb to it, he is not helpless before it, unlike the teaching about original sin.

There are good and righteous men singled out by God in the generations after Cain, Abel and Seth, it’s all about choice, not helplessness to inherited sin!

You might be thinking . . . why belabor every little detail of this prooftext?

Because it is foundational;
because it has been misinterpreted;
because if one understands the message in this narrative in the book of beginnings, then a whole belief system is built up on the initial understanding and therefore it affects how one lives his life, how one behaves and acts according to his accepted belief system.
because a proper understanding of it ultimately leads to his knowing the One True God, Creator, Revelator on Sinai—as well as an understanding of himself, what he is capable of achieving, in service to God and fellowman.

Deuteronomy 30:

6 YHWH your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed,

to love YHWH your God with all your heart and with al your being,

in order that you may live.

19 I call-as-witness against you today the heavens and the earth:

life and death I place before you, blessing and curse;

now choose life in order that you may stay-alive, you and your seed . . .

How much simpler can it get?

Love YHWH that we may live . . .

choose life so that we will live . . .

YHWH is our life and the length of our days.

NSB@S6K

Genesis/Bereshith

Prooftext 1b – Genesis 3:15 – Who is the “serpent”?

September 18, 2019 s1n4i600o-adm1n-d3v Leave a Comment

[This is part of the 4-posts in connection with the post: Q&A: “If the devil doesn’t exist, how come the snake/serpent in the story was punished by the Creator for tempting Eve?” This was first posted June 27, 2012. —-Admin1]

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There is a whole series on the topic of no devil, no fallen angels in this website — please read those articles first so you know what to expect here: the same message that we cannot blame non-existent evil spirits for making us sin, we do a pretty good job without outside help.

So, if the “serpent” in Genesis 3 is neither the devil nor ha satan [the challenger, the adversary, who obediently carries out specific assignments from the Creator], then who is this serpent character or what does this character represent? To answer this, one has to decide how to read this narrative: literally or figuratively?

The best recourse? Read both ways, how?

It is literal in the sense that there were indeed a first man and a first woman; in Hebrew, “adam” is the word for earth or dust, meaning man made from the earth. But since we, readers in the English language, don’t know that, we accept the translators’ rendering of that first man as “Adam” and in fact, many men are named Adam. It was Adam who was given by the Creator the privilege of naming all creatures and so he names Eve— in classical Hebrew Hawwa or in modern Hebrew Khavah meaning “living one” or “source of life” and “mother all living.” What we think are names are actually descriptive words giving the essence of what identifies the person.

It is literal in that there was a reason for the first couple to have been expelled from Eden. What exactly happened? It was time for God to test man’s free will. The test takes the form of a specific prohibition — we know how that story progresses and ends.

Here’s the figurative part: think of the serpent character as simply a good literary device, a personification if you will, of the alternative choice that every person is confronted with upon learning of any commandment from God that conflicts with his desire, that is an inconvenient truth for him, that he simply does not want to do. We all can relate to that—the expression “we have our demons,” meaning we have instincts or strong urges that we allow to defeat us, could also be expressed as “we have our serpents of desire.”

Why use an animal such as a serpent? Why not use a visually attractive peacock, or innocent looking pussycat? Because if you watch Animal Kingdom or Discovery Channel which constantly feature snakes and their beastly nature, you will realize that while you can’t stand looking at snakes, upclose on TV, they are truly gorgeous creatures with an animal life that is fascinating . . . the way they move slithering on the ground, wrapping themselves up around branches; they moult or change their skin, and when provoked, protect themselves by striking back with a poisonous bite that leaves their victim condemned to die. What a perfect symbol indeed for this part of man’s nature that comes to fore only when awakened by, in Eve’s case, a prohibition she is inclined to violate.

Playwrights resort to similar devices, for example: in Shakespeare’s plays, soliloquy [an act of speaking one’s thoughts aloud when by oneself or regardless of any hearers, esp. by a character in a play] allows the audience to follow the trend of thought or struggle of a protagonist such as Hamlet’s “To be or not to be . . .” Another example — in a modern film about the Filipino national hero Dr. Jose Rizal— a scene shows Rizal writing the sequel to his first novel Noli Me Tangere [Touch Me Not]. The playwright effectively portrayed what was going on in Rizal’s mind regarding a character in his first novel named Basilio. Rizal was contemplating whether he would kill off this character or include him in the sequel. An imaginary Basilio was portrayed by another actor as circling Rizal as he wrote with quill on parchment, giving him reasons why he should be included in the sequel El Filibusterismo [The Filibuster]. It is a very effective way to depict inner struggle of characters.

Think of the interaction between Eve and the serpent in the same way: God’s one and only prohibition arouses in Eve a desire for something she knows she is not allowed to have. Free will that may not have been apparent in her consciousness before is suddenly apparent now, as she is attracted to the forbidden tree. She debates in her mental and rational faculties whether to obey God or give in to her growing desire and curiosity. That serpent character is the outward projection of Eve’s desire to violate; she could have done a soliloquy just like Hamlet but instead the literary device of a tempter in the form of a serpent is used. Plain and simple!

What will prevail, her wants or God’s? She chooses “I, me, myself” over God, and Adam chooses Eve as well as “I, me, myself” over God. Is this a universal struggle? Absolutely. Every person is confronted with the same dilemma: if I give in to my wants, I sin against God; if I give in to God’s wants, I deprive myself of something I really want. . . but there is no struggle for those who have learned to align their lives with God’s instructions and teachings and laws, that would be Torah.

Continued in Prooftext 1c: Who are the “seeds”?

NSB@S6K

Genesis/Bereshith

Prooftext 1a – Genesis 3:15 – Who is the “woman”?

September 18, 2019 s1n4i600o-adm1n-d3v Leave a Comment

[First posted in 2012. Stands as is, no update; what we concluded before, we still think today.—Admin1]

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When we read a narrative with characters interacting with one another, it makes reading sense to keep it simple by working within the confines of the text. This is a good basic rule in reading, if we are to understand the progression of plot and the underlying message of a story. It is expected that the communicator (author/narrator) expresses his message clearly to the recipient[s] i.e. the characters being addressed in the narrative, as well as the reader who is following the movement of the plot. The message must make sense first to the original audience, or else what good is it?

If the writer/author/storyteller does not adhere to basic rules in communication, he cannot expect the recipient/reader to get his point.

A good example is a typical story told to Filipino children with illustrations: “This is Pepe. This is Pilar. This is Bantay [the watchdog].” When we read the pronoun “he” we know it refers to Pepe; “she” to Pilar; “it” to Bantay. Are there any invisible characters in this simple story? Perhaps, there is the narrator telling the story, we often forget the narrator’s “point of view.” If the narrator is the author himself, he really is an invisible presence unless it is his intention to be constantly noticed. But if the narrator is a character in the story, let’s say — the friend of Pepe and Pilar who played with Bantay, who is now reminiscing his childhood days with them, then he figures in the plot. How does this example apply in the biblical text we’re dealing with surrounding Genesis 3:15?

Looking at the verses before and after, so far there has been introduced only one “woman” and that would be the first woman, mother of all mankind, ‘Eve’. If we will get to the basic message of this story, we cannot and should not fast forward like some time machine to infuse extraneous religious agenda into the text.

Who is the woman? Basic and simple reading rules would identify her as Eve. Why must it be Eve? Because it is important to connect this “prooftext” to the verses that follow about the seed/offspring of the woman and the serpent.

But unfortunately, look at what happened to the simple meaning of this text when interpreters wander outside the context in keeping with the belief in “progressive revelation.” Gen. 3:15 is interpreted in connection with Revelation 12. These are only a few samples of so many, all taken from websites that pop up when you google the verse:

The Catholic Version

Source: http://home.earthlink.net/~mysticalrose/virgin.html

Mother Church identifies Mary with the Woman of Genesis 3:15 whom God said would be the perpetual enemy of the Devil: “I will put emnity between you (the serpent) and the woman, between your seed and her seed. He shall crush your head and you shall crush his heel”.

The Latin Vulgate translation used a feminine pronoun to refer to the Seed, thus the Douay Bible (the English translation of the Vulgate) renders the third line as “she shall crush your head” (“she” referring to the seed). Some Catholics interpreted that feminine pronoun as referring to the Woman, and thus perceived Mary as the one who would crush Satan, the ancient Serpent. This is why we often see artistic portrayals of Mary trampling on a serpent.

Although that interpretation of Genesis 3:15 was not entirely accurate, the passage itself still portrays Mary as the bitter enemy of the devil (“I will put emnity [sic] between you and the woman”). Nor is it entirely wrong to depict her in art crushing the ancient Serpent, for Saint Paul writes that the entire Church will one day crush Satan underfoot with God’s help (Romans 16:30). Mary, the Image and Model of the Church, already enjoys that victory by virtue of her Immaculate Conception. By the power of Jesus Christ her Son she is the triumphant foe of Satan, never his defeated slave.

Source: http://catholicjules.net/2010/09/02/statue-of-mary-stepping-on-a-snake/

Question: I noticed a statue of Mary stepping on a snake. I asked the owner of the store to explain what this meant. She said that in Genesis 3:15 the Lord said that Mary would someday crush the serpent’s head, the serpent being the devil. I checked this in my Bible (a Catholic version that I bought at the same shop). But Genesis 3:15 doesn’t say that. It says that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head. I understand this to be Jesus Christ, not Mary. So, how can that statue of Mary with the serpent be justified?

Answer: In the Book of Genesis 3:15 God speaks to the serpent after the fall of Adam and Eve into sin, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed; He shall crush your head and you shall lie in wait for his heel.” This is a correct translation of the original Hebrew text and the traditional text of the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament. But two ancient translations, the Latin Vulgate (revised by St. Jerome) and the ancient Coptic version (Coptic is the Egyptian language used prior to the Arab Muslim invasions), read, “She shall crush your head.” But current editions of the Bible in modern languages, translations from the original languages, all follow the translation “He shall crush.”

Now, in order to understand why Our Lady is depicted crushing the serpent, you need to know that the whole of Christian tradition in any language of East or West interprets that passage as a prophecy of the coming of the Messiah or Savior, Jesus Christ, the “seed of the woman.” He is the Second or New Adam, and His Mother Mary, because she was completely free from sin, both original and actual, is the new Eve, the only woman who has a perfect enmity with the devil. This passage, sometimes referred to as the Protoevangelium (Greek = “first Gospel”) is the first announcement of the Good News of Salvation after the Bad News of Sin and Death. Many popes, including the Pope John Paul II, have repeatedly interpreted this passage in a prophetic sense, referring to Christ and Mary. Take a look, for example, at Pope John Paul II’s Marian encyclical Redemptoris Mater. The Catechism’s teaching on this passage is found in paragraphs 70, 410, and 411.

Some Scripture scholars deny that this passage refers to Jesus or Mary. They see the literal sense of this verse only as a popular folk tale, written as a way to explain why humans are afraid of snakes! (That’s a slippery interpretation if there ever was one.)

Naturally in the Latin tradition, because of the translation “she shall crush,” the passage has had a more vivid Marian meaning. That’s where the tradition of depicting Mary crushing the head of the serpent arose. But it’s a very apt and theologically precise image, nonetheless, since it’s a perfect image of her Immaculate Conception, her lifelong immunity from sin, won for her by Christ’s saving passion and death on the cross (cf. Luke 1:47). This is one reason why the new liturgy of the Roman Rite, promulgated at Vatican II, retains the reading “she will crush your head.” It is part of the antiphon (a short thematic verse) used for Mass on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. It’s part of the Church’s tradition, a witness to the Blessed Virgin Mary’s special role in her Divine Son’s plan of salvation.

The Woman is The Church

Commentators who adhere to Reform Theology and are Amillennial in their eschatology identify the woman as the Church, and the man-child she gives birth to are the saints.^[11] According to this interpretation, Revelation 12:17 describes the remnant of the seed of the woman as those who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. The offspring of the Woman, the Woman’s seed, then refers to the saints. The man child “who shall rule the nations with a rod of iron” is a symbol of the faithful members of the Church. In Revelation 2:18-29, the Church in Thyatira is promised that the faithful shall rule the nations with a rod of iron. In Revelation 19:15 the same thing is stated of Jesus. In Galatians 4:26, Paul the Apostle refers to the “New Jerusalem” as “our mother” and in Revelation 21:2 and Ephesians 5:21-32, the New Jerusalem and the Church is portrayed as the Bride of Christ.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church has traditionally identified itself as the end-time “remnant church” described in Revelation 12:17.

The Catholic Church recognizes in the ‘woman’ primarily the Church herself. However, given the similarities to Mary‘s life, The Church acknowledges what it considers an invitation in the holy verses for the reader to ponder the mysteries between The Mother of God and the Mother of the Church.^[12]

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also interprets the woman to be the Church, and the man-child to be the political kingdom that will grow out of the Church prior to or during the Second Coming of Christ.

Generic Man

Christian Scientists understand the woman in the Apocalypse to symbolize “generic man, the spiritual idea of God; she illustrates the coincidence of God and man as the divine Principle and divine idea…the spiritual idea of God’s motherhood.”^[13] The man child represents “Christ, God’s idea, [which] will eventually rule all nations and peoples – imperatively, absolutely, finally – with divine Science.” ^[14]

The Woman is The Nation of Israel

Dispensational Premillennialists, and Amillennialists who believe in multiple valid interpretations will often identify the woman as the nation of Israel. There are several reasons given to support this interpretation. The woman is said to be clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, and twelve stars. These symbols are drawn from Genesis 37:9–11, in which Joseph has a dream of the sun and moon symbolizing his father and mother, and stars representing his brothers, which bow down to him. The Old Testament’s prophets referred to Israel as a “woman” (Isaiah 54:5-6; Jeremiah 4:31; Micah 4:9-10). The woman flees into the wilderness where she is nourished for 1260 days, the equivalent of three and a half years or forty-two months (cf. Rev. 11:1-3). According to this interpretation, these terms are used prophetically in Scripture either for the first half or the last half of the “Seventieth Week of Daniel,” in Daniel 9:24-27, a prophecy specifically addressed to Daniel and his people, Israel (Dan. 9:24). In the latter part of the seventieth week, a remnant of Israel will flee into the wilderness to escape the persecution of Antichrist, who is called “the son of destruction,” “the lawless one,” and “whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan” (2 Thess. 2:1-12; cf. Rev. 12:4,9). Jesus, in the Olivet discourse, warned the people of this time which would occur just prior to His return to set up His earthly, Millennial kingdom (Matt. 24:15-22). Further, the archangel Michael is called the guardian over the sons of Israel in Dan. 12:1. And he will arise at that time of national Israel’s tribulation (Dan. 12:1; cf. Rev. 12:7).^[11]

Amillennialist belief can also interpret this passage as the nation of Israel, however this belief as expressed by Amillenialists refers, not to the modern Israel, but to the Ancient religious state of Israel(Judea) as it existed in the time of Christ. The Child is Christ, born into the then existing state of Israel, and of Israel’s linage. The Anti-christ is interpreted, often(although not always the case) not as being a specific person, but as being that which is not of Christ, often considered to be the antagonistic Political states of both Rome and Judea due to the Sea political metaphor being employed.^{[citation needed]}

The remnant or sons of Israel is, in this understanding, the followers of Christ, the followers of the true religion of Israel as it exists after the coming of the messiah. The “Seventieth Week of Daniel,” and prophecy of the Olivet discourse, in this belief, are ascribed as concerning the first coming of Christ, the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D(During which enforced emperor worship occurred in the temple of Jerusalem, which was later almost totally destroyed, and many Jews were made slaves in distant lands resulting presumably in their remaining families not knowing what happened to them or where they were), and the establishment of Christ’s Church, as it currently exists, both on earth and in heaven. Amilleniaist understanding of this interpretation points to the fact that the plot narrative of the segment containing the Birth of Christ, is a reason it is a description of either past or current religious events as opposed to future events, and point to this fact as making the Dispensational view rather untenable.^{[citation needed]}

Lutheran scholar Craig Koester, for example, says, “The woman encompasses the story of Israel, from whom the Messiah was born, as well as the story of the church, which was persecuted after Jesus’ death and resurrection… John’s visionary account of the threat against the woman and the woman’s preservation uses imagery that encompasses many moments in the story of God’s people. This allows the story to apply to people in many times and places.”^[15]

The Woman Eve

The Woman is also identified as Eve because she is part of the three-way conflict also involving her Seed and the Dragon, who is identified with the ancient serpent (the one from Eden) in Revelation 12:9 and Revelation 20:2. This mirrors the conflict in Genesis 3:15 between Eve, the serpent, and her unborn seed—which in turn is a symbol of the conflict between Mary, Satan, and Jesus.^[16]

—————————————-

Ach, enough! Leave it to the “experts” to leave us confused! To be continued in Prooftext 1b:

Prooftext 1b: Genesis 3:15 – Seed of the Woman vs. Seed of the Serpent

NSB@S6K

WORSHIP AIDS

Worship Aids – The Siddur

September 17, 2019 s1n4i600o-adm1n-d3v Leave a Comment

[First posted in 2012.

Note: This is merely a pattern,

a model that you may use

for your personal and family prayers;

in time, after you’ve learned

from the Jewish prayer expressions,

you can improvise your own prayers

more suited to your personal and family situation,

the times that you live in,

the community that you belong to,

or specific for members of your family.

We have taken the liberty of adding

gentiles into these model prayers since naturally, the Jews write for themselves

as the chosen people and the covenant people.

Main source of these prayers:

The Expanded ArtScroll SIDDUR

/Wasserman Edition/ Rabbi Nosson Scherman,

Rabbi Meir Zlotowitz, General Editors. —Admin1. ]

SIDDUR

WELCOMING THE SABBATH

Traditional Blessing for Lighting Sabbath Candles

Blessed are You, Adonai our God, King of the Universe,

Who sanctified us with Your commandments

and commanded us to kindle the lights of Sabbath.

Blessed are You, Adonai our God, King of the Universe

Who sanctified us with Your commandments

and commanded us to sanctify the Sabbath.

SHALOM ALEICHEM

[A traditional Sabbath song, welcoming the angels of the Most High

to attend our Sabbath celebration, to bring peace to us and our household,

and to enjoy the shalom of Sabbath with us.]

Peace be upon you, ministering messengers,

messengers of the Most High from the King,

the King of kings the Holy One, blessed be He!

May you come in peace,

Bless us with peace,

Depart in peace,

messengers of peace, messengers of the Most High,

from the King, the King of kings,

The Holy One, blessed be He!

[Reading any one of the following Psalms]

PSALM 92

A Psalm, a Song for the Sabbath Day

It is good to give thanks to Adonai

and to sing praises to Your Name, O Most High;

To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning

and Your faithfulness by night.

with the 10-stringed lute and with the harp,

with resounding music upon the lyre.

For You, Adonai,

have made me glad by what You’ve done;

at the works of Your hands, I will sing for joy!

How great are Your works, Adonai!

Your thoughts are very deep.

A senseless man has no knowledge

nor does a stupid man understand this,

that when the wicked sprouted up like grass,

and all who did iniquity flourished,

it was only that they might be destroyed.

PSALM 95

O come, let us sing for joy to Adonai,

Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.

Let us come before Him with thanksgiving.

Let us shout joyfully to Him with songs.

For Adonai is a great God

and a great King, above all gods,

In whose hand are the depths of the earth,

the peaks of the mountains are His also.

The sea is His, for it was He who made it,

and His hands formed the dry land.

Come, let us worship and bow down,

Let us kneel before Adonai our Maker,

for He is our God,

and we are the people of His pasture

and the sheep of His hand.

Today, if you would hear His voice,

Do not harden your hearts, as in Meribah,

as in the day of Massah in the wilderness,

when your fathers tested Me, they tried Me,

though they had seen My work.

For forty years I loathed that generation,

and said they are a people who err in their heart,

and they do not know My ways.

Therefore I swore in My anger,

Truly they will not enter into My rest.

PSALM 121

A Song of Ascents

I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;

From where shall my help come?

My help comes from Adonai,

Who made heaven and earth.

He will not allow your foot to slip;

He who keeps you will not slumber.

Behold, He will neither slumber nor sleep,

He Who keeps Israel.

Adonai is your keeper;

Adonai is your shade on your right hand.

The sun will not smite you by day,

nor the moon by night,

Adonai will protect you from all evil;

He will keep your soul!

Adonai will guard your going out

and your coming in

From this time forth and forever.

PSALM 122

A Song of Ascents, of David

I was glad when they said to me,

“Let us go to the house of Adonai.”

Our feet are standing in your gates,

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,

that is built as a city that is compact together;

to which the tribes go up, even the tribes of Yah,

an ordinance for Israel

to give thanks to the Name of Adonai,

for there thrones were set for judgment,

the thrones of the house of David.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem;

may they prosper who love you.

May peace be within your walls,

and prosperity within your palaces.

For the sake of my brothers and my friends,

I will now say “May peace be within you.”

For the sake of the house of Adonai our God,

I will seek your good.

PSALM 128

A Song of Ascents

How blessed are all who fear Adonai,

Who walk in His ways.

When you eat of the fruit of your hands,

You will be happy

and it will be well with you.

Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine

within your house,

your children like olive plants around your table.

Behold, thus shall the man be blessed

who fears Adonai.

Adonai bless you from Zion,

and may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem

all the days of your life.

Indeed, may your see your children’s children.

PSALM 146

Hallelujah! Praise Adonai, O my soul!

I will praise Adonai while I live;

I will sing praises to my God

while I have my being.

Do not trust in princes,

in mortal man in whom there is no salvation.

His spirit departs, he returns to the earth;

In that very day his thought perish.

How blessed is he

whose help is the God of Jacob,

whose hope is in Adonai his God,

Who made heaven and earth,

the sea and all that is in them;

Who keeps truth forever;

Who executes justice for the oppressed;

Who gives food for the hungry.

Adonai sets the prisoners free.

Adonai opens the eyes of the blind;

Adonai raises up

those who are bowed down;

Adonai loves the righteous;

Adonai protects the strangers;

the fatherless and the widow, He supports.

But the way of the wicked He thwarts.

Adonai will reign forever, your God, O Zion,

to all generations. Hallelujah!

BLESSINGS UPON THE FAMILY

[It is a beautiful tradition to extend blessings to family members at Erev Shabbat table. Blessings for the wife recited by the husband; the husband recited by the wife; and for the children recited by either parent. Also included is an additional blessing for single adults who may be part of the Shabbat celebration. Since Shabbat is a foretaste of eternity when God’s blessings upon His people will be eternally manifest, our desire to bless each other is a foreshadow of the world to come.]

Husband: Blessing upon the Wife

[Proverbs 31:10-31]

An excellent wife, who can find?

For her worth is far above jewels.

The heart of her husband trusts in her,

and he will have no lack of gain.

She does him good and not evil

all the days of her life.

She looks for wool and flax

and works with her hands in delight.

She is like merchant ships;

from afar she brings her food.

She rises also while it is night

and gives food to her household

and portions to her maidens.

She considers a field and buys it;

from her earnings she plants a vineyard.

She girds herself with strength

and makes her arms strong.

She senses that her gain is good;

her lamp does not go out at night.

She puts her hand to the distaff,

and her hands grasp the spindle.

She extends her hand to the poor,

and she stretches out her hands to the needy.

She is not afraid of the snow for her household,

for all her household are clothed with scarlet.

She makes coverings for herself;

fine linen and purple are her clothing.

Her husband is known in the gates,

when he sits among the elders of the land.

She makes linen garments and sells them,

and supplies belts to the tradesmen.

Strength and dignity are her clothing,

and she smiles at the future.

She opens her mouth in wisdom,

and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.

She looks well to the ways of her household,

and the bread of idleness she does not eat.

Her children rise up and bless her;

Her husband also, and he praises her;

“Many daughters have done nobly,

but you excel them all.”

Charm is deceitful and beauty is in vain,

but a woman who fears Adonai,

she shall be praised.

Give her the fruit of her hands, and

let her works praise her in the gates.

Wife: Blessing Upon the Husband

[In modern times, it has become traditional for the wife also to say a blessing over her husband. Two Psalms have been included to choose from, or one could select another portion of Scripture for the blessing.]

PSALM 1

Blessed is the man who does not walk

in the counsel of the wicked,

nor stand in the way of sinners,

nor sit in the seat of scoffers;

for his delight is in the Torah of Adonai

and in His Torah he meditates day and night.

He will be like a firmly planted tree

beside streams of water

that gives its fruit in its season

and its leaf does not wither;

and in all that he does, he prospers.

The wicked are not so,

but are like chaff which is blown by the wind.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

but the way of the wicked will perish.

PSALM 112

Hallelujah! Blessed is the man who fears Adonai,

who greatly delights in His mitzvoth.

his seed will be mighty on the earth;

the generation of the upright will be blessed.

Wealth and riches are in his house,

and his righteousness endures forever.

Light arises in the darkness for the upright;

He is gracious and compassionate and righteous.

It is well with the man who is gracious and lends;

he will maintain his cause in judgment.

For he will never be shaken;

the righteous will be remembered forever.

He will not fear evil tidings;

his heart is steadfast, trusting in Adonai.

his heart is upheld, he will not fear,

until he looks with satisfaction on his adversaries.

He has given freely to the poor,

his righteousness endures forever;

his horn will be exalted in honor.

The wicked will see it and be vexed,

he will gnash his teeth and melt away;

the desire of the wicked will perish.

Blessing for Single Adults

[When single adults are present at the Erev Shabbat table,

the host may desire to give the following blessing on their behalf.]

PSALM 84:4, 5, 11, 12

How blessed are those who dwell in Your house,

continually praising You. [selah]

How blessed is the person whose strength is in You;

the highways to Zion are in their heart.

For Adonai God is a sun and shield,

Adonai gives grace and honor.

No good thing will He withhold

from those who walk uprightly.

Adonai of Hosts–

How blessed is the person who trusts in You!

Blessing Over the Children

[The traditional blessings are said by the Father or Mother over the young children at the table, fulfilling the prophecy of Genesis 48:20. The traditional blessings incorporate the hope that the children will one day establish their own families where the worship of Israel’s God will continue. The parents may want to add their own personal prayer of blessing as well.]

Blessing over Sons

May God establish you like Ephraim and Manasseh.

[Add blessing specific to each son or grandson. Name them one by one, or in case of several families celebrating together, name their corresponding children together, as the same time with all other parents present.]

Blessing over Daughters

May God establish you

like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah.

[Add blessing specific to each daughter or granddaughter. Follow same pattern as the sons.]

Final Blessing Over ALL

Numbers 6:22-24

Adonai bless you and keep you;

Adonai cause His face to shine upon you

and be gracious unto you;

Adonai lift up his face toward you

and grant you His shalom.

SHABBAT KIDDUSH

[The Kiddush –“Sanctification”– incorporates the fruit of the vine, a symbol of joy. We set apart [sanctify] the Sabbath as a day of joy and gladness to HaShem. Everyone should have wine or grape juice for the children. In some traditions, all stand while reciting the Kiddush.]

Genesis 2:1-3

And there was evening and morning, the 6th day.

Completed were the heavens and the earth,

and all their host.

And God finished on the 7th day,

His work which He had done;

and He ceased on the 7th day from all His work

which He had done.

And God blessed the 7th day

and sanctified it because on it

He ceased from all His work of creating

which God had done.

Everyone joins in for the blessing over the wine;

Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

King of the Universe,

Creator of the fruit of the vine.

Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

King of the Universe,

Who sanctified us with Your commandments

and took pleasure in us,

and Your holy Sabbath,

in love and in pleasure,

You have bequeathed to us,

a memorial of the Creation,

a day which is the beginning of our sacred gatherings,

a memorial of Israel’s exodus from Egypt.

[and the exodus of gentiles with them]

For You chose Israel and sanctified them

from all the peoples,

and with Israel, we gentiles are honored

to be counted among Your chosen,

for we too have chosen You as our God,

and just like Israel, we have been sanctified.

Your holy Sabbath, in love and in pleasure,

You bequeathed to us.

Blessed are You, Adonai, Sanctifier of the Sabbath.

Washing Hands

[As we anticipate sharing the meal together, we recognize that it symbolizes the covenant of which we are all members. Washing hands is a symbolic reminder that as members together in YHWH’s community we are to live our lives in obedience to His Torah.]

PSALM 24:3-4

Who may ascend into the hill of Adonai?

And who may stand in His holy place?

He who has clean hands and a pure heart,

Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood

and has not sworn deceitfully.

Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

King of the Universe,

Who sanctified us with Your mitzvot

and commanded us about washing hands.

BLESSING FOR THE CHALLAH

[The Challah (Sabbath bread) —2 loaves represent the morning and evening sacrifices; they also remind us about gathering twice the manna on the 6th day so we could rest on the Sabbath. The Challah, braided together, is passed around, each breaks a piece.]

Blessed are You, Adonai our God, King of the Universe,

Who brings forth bread from the earth.

Songs [or any equivalent songs from our Revised Worship Songs]

1. This is the day for Israel

of light and joy a Shabbat of rest.

[Or: This is the day that the Lord has made]

2. Behold how good and how pleasant it is

for brethren to dwell together in unity.

3. Lover of my soul; Father of compassion.

Draw Your servant to Your will.

Your servant will run like a deer;

he will bow before Your glory.

Lover of my soul, draw me to Your will!

As a deer runs to her home,

Master, I run to Your throne.

[Or: As the deer panteth for the water . . .]

Isaiah 12:2

Behold God is my salvation;

I will trust and not be afraid

for Yah Adonai is my strength and song,

He also has become my salvation!

Psalm 121: 1-2

I lift up my eyes to the hills;

where will my help come from?

My help comes from Adonai,

Maker of heaven and earth!

Isaiah 11:9

They will not hurt or destroy

in all My holy mountain.

For the earth will be full

of the knowledge of Adonai

as the water covers the sea.

Lamentations 5:21

Cause us to return to You, Adonai,

and we will return;

renew our days as of old!

Thanksgiving after Meals:

Leader: My colleagues, let us say the blessing:

All: May the Name of Adonai be blessed

from now and forever.

Leader: May the Name of Adonai be blessed

from now and forever.

With your permission, our leaders and teachers,

let us bless Our God of Whose food we have eaten.

All: Blessed is Our God of Whose food

we have eaten and by His goodness we live.

Leader: Blessed is Our God of Whose food

we have eaten and by His goodness we live.

All: Blessed is He and blessed is His Name.

Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

King of the Universe,

Who nourishes the whole world

in His goodness, grace,

lovingkindness, and mercy.

He gives bread to all flesh

for His lovingkindness is eternal.

And in His great goodness never do we lack

and never do we lack food forever,

for His name’s sake.

Because He is God,

the nourisher and maintainer of all,

and the One Who does good to all

and prepares nourishment for all

of His creatures which He created.

Blessed are You, Adonai,

Who nourishes all.

We thank You, Adonai, our God

for giving an inheritance to Israel,

a desirable, good, and spacious Land

and for bringing them out, Adonai our God,

from their bondage in Egypt.

S6K: For gentiles like ourselves,

Adonai our God, we thank You also,

for bringing us out from our own “Egypt”

where we in our ignorance were in bondage,

ignorant of Your True Scriptures, the TNK.

We thank You Adonai, our God, for

redeeming us from our own slavery

to false doctrines and false teachings,

false beliefs, false religions, false churches;

we thank You for including us, gentiles,

who are not of ethnic Israel, but

just like those among the mixed multitude

who stood at the foot of Sinai,

to whom you gave Your covenant

through Moses, Your mouthpiece.

We thank You for Your Torah

where we have discovered

all the beautiful commandments

You originally gave for all mankind;

for the statutes and ordinances

which You made known to us,

and for life, grace, and lovingkindness

which You have granted to us

and for the food with which

You have always nourished and sustained us

everyday and at all times,

and in every hour.

[On Shabbat, add]

May it be Your will that we be strengthened

Adonai, our God, in Your commandments,

and by the commandment of the 7th day,

this great and Holy Sabbath.

Because this day is great and holy before You,

to cease on it and rest on it in love

as ordained by Your will.

And by Your will, grant us,

Adonai our God

that there be no distress or sorrow

or sighing on the day of our rest.

Show us, Adonai our God,

the consolation of Zion Your city,

and the rebuilding of Yerushalayim,

city of Your Sanctuary,

for You are the Lord of salvation

and the Lord of consolation.

All: Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

Eternal King, God of our fathers,

our King, our Mighty One, our Creator,

our Redeemer, our Maker,

our Holy One, the Holy One of Jacob,

our Shepherd, Shepherd of Israel.

The good King, who does good to all.

Everyday He has done good,

He does good, He will do good for us.

He has rewarded us, He rewards us,

He will reward us forever with grace,

lovingkindness, compassion, relief,

rescue and success, blessing and salvation,

consolation, maintenance, sustenance,

compassion and life, peace, and everything good.

And from all good things forever

He will not deprive us.

The Merciful One will reign over us forever and ever.

The Merciful One will be blessed in heaven and earth.

The Merciful One will be praised through all generations,

and be glorified in us forever throughout eternity;

and honored in us forever and for worlds without end.

The Merciful One will maintain us with honor.

The Merciful One will break our yoke from upon our necks,

causing us to walk on the heights of our Land.

The Merciful One,

may He send for us abundant blessing

upon this house, and upon this table

upon which we have eaten.

The Merciful One,

may He send us Elijah the Prophet

who is remembered for good

and who will announce for us

good tidings of salvation and consolations.

Guests recite the following:

children at the parent’s table include [parentheses]

The Merciful One, may He bless

[my father, my teacher]

the Master of this house,

and [my mother, my teacher]

Lady of this house,

them, their house and their children

and all which is theirs—

At your own table recite:

include appropriate words in [parenthesis]

The Merciful One, may He bless me,

[and my father, my mother, my wife

and my children] and all that is mine—

All continue here:

Ours and all that is ours,

just as our fathers were blessed,

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

[Mention names in your individual family]

in all things, from all things,

with all things, so may He bless us,

all of us together as one

with a complete blessing

and let us say “Amen.”

From on high may they instruct them

and us of the favorable judgment

by which to guard peace,

and may we receive blessing from Adonai

and righteousness from God

of our salvation,

and may we find grace and good favor

in the eyes of God and man.

[On Shabbat, add]

The Merciful One,

may He cause us to inherit the day

which is all Shabbat and a rest.

[On Rosh Chodesh]

The Merciful One,

may He renew upon us this month

for good and for blessing.

He who gives deliverance to His king.

[On Shabbat and Yom Tov]

He who is a tower of salvation to his King

and does lovingkindness to His anointed,

to David and his seed forever—

He who makes peace in His heights

May He make peace upon us and upon all Israel

and let us say, Amen.

Fear Adonai, you His holy ones,

because there is no lack of those who fear Him.

Young lions may feel want and hunger

but those who seek Adonai

lack nothing of all things good.

Give thanks to Adonai for He is good,

for His lovingkindness is eternal.

You open Your hand

and satisfy the desire of every living thing.

Blessed is the man

who trusts in Adonai,

and Adonai will be his security.

I was young, and I have grown old

and I have not seen

a righteous person forsaken

nor his seed begging for bread.

Adonai will give strength to His people

Adonai will bless His people with peace.

SHABBAT MORNING SERVICE

Putting on the Tallit [Prayer Shawl]

My soul, Bless Adonai!

Adonai my God, You are very great!

With beauty and splendor are You clothed;

enwrapped in light as with a garment;

You spread out the heavens like a curtain.

Hold the Tallit in readiness and wrap around yourself,

and recite the blessing:

Blessed are You, Adonai our God

King of the Universe

Who sanctified us with His commandments

and commanded us

to wrap ourselves with tzitzit.

Put the tallit over the head, wrapping it around you

completely and continue:

How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God;

even mankind, in the shadow of Your wings, takes refuge.

They drink from the abundance of Your house,

and from the river of Your delights

You give them drink.

For with You is the fountain of life;

in Your light we see light;

Continue Your lovingkindness

to those who know You,

and Your righteousness to the upright of heart.

MORNING PRAYERS

[Upon entering the place of prayer, the following verses of Scripture are recited as we approach our King and seek His Presence:]

How good are your tents, Jacob

Your dwelling places, O Israel.

As for me, in the abundance of

Your lovingkindness,

I will enter Your house,

I will prostrate myself toward

Your Holy Sanctuary in awe of You.

Adonai, I love the dwelling of Your house,

event he palace where Your glory resides.

As for me, I will prostrate myself and bow,

I will kneel before Adonai my Maker.

As for me, may my prayer to You,

Adonai, be at an acceptable time.

O God, in the abundance of Your lovingkindness,

answer me with the truth of Your salvation.

Leader: Bless Adonai Who is blessed!

All: Blessed is Adonai Who is blessed

forever and ever.

THE BLESSINGS OF THE SHEMA

Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

King of the Universe, Former of the light

and Creator of darkness,

Maker of peace and Creator of everything.

Leader: With much love You have loved us,

Adonai our God;

With great and abundant pity You have pitied us.

Our Father, our King,

for the sake of our fathers who trusted in You

and You taught them the statutes of life;

so too be gracious to us and teach us.

Our Father, compassionate Father,

Who acts with compassion;

have compassion upon us

and put into our hearts to understand

and to comprehend, to listen, learn and teach,

to guard, to perform, and fulfill

all the words of instruction in Your Torah with love.

Enlighten our eyes in Your Torah

and cause our hearts to cleave to Your commandments.

Unify our hearts to love and fear Your Name

and may we never be put to shame,

because in Your holy, great

and awesome Name have we trusted.

May we exult and rejoice in Your salvation.

Bring us in peace

from the four corners of the earth

and lead us to You in honor,

because You are God Who makes salvation

and You have chosen us from all peoples and tongues

and brought us close to Your great Name forever

IN TRUTH,

to offer You thanksgiving

and to declare Your ONENESS with love.

Blessed are You, Adonai,

Who chooses His people with love.

THE SHEMA

[It is traditional to close or cover the eyes when praying the Shema.]

Hear, O Israel,

Adonai is our God, Adonai is One!

Blessed is the Name!

The glory of His kingdom is forever and ever.

And you shall love Adonai Your God

with all your heart and with all your soul

and with all your might,

These words which I command you today

shall be on your heart.

And you shall teach them diligently

to your children and speak of them

when you sit in your house,

when you travel on the road,

and when you lie down and rise up.

Bind them for a sign

upon your hand and they shall be

for tefillin between your eyes;

and write them upon the doorposts

of your house and upon your gates.

And it shall be if you diligently obey

My commandments which

I am commanding you today,

to love Adonai Your God

and to serve Him with all your heart

and with all your soul,

that I will give rain for your Land in its proper time,

the early and late rain

that you may gather in your grain,

your wine and your oil.

And I will give grass in your field

for your cattle,

and you will eat and be satisfied.

Guard yourselves

lest your heart be swayed

and you go astray and serve other gods

and bow down to them.

Then the wrath of Adonai

will blaze against you and

He will close off the heavens

and there will be no rain

and the ground will not give forth

its produce and you will perish

quickly from the good Land

which Adonai is giving to you.

Place these words of Mine

upon your heart and upon your soul

and bind them for a sign

upon your hand and they shall be

tefillin between your eyes.

Teach them to your children

to discuss while you sit in your home

and when you travel on the road

and when you lie down and when you rise up.

You shall write them on the doorposts

of your house and on your gates,

in order to prolong your days

and the days of your children

upon the ground which

Adonai swore by oath to your fathers

to give them, like the days of

the heavens upon the earth.

And Adonai spoke to Moses saying:

Speak to the children of Israel

and say to them that they should make

for themselves tzitzit upon the

corners of their garments

throughout their generations.

And they shall put upon the tzitzit

of each corner a thread of techeilet

that it may be tzitzit for you,

that you may see it and remember

all the commandments of Adonai and do them

so that you will not turn aside

after your hears and after your eyes

which cause you to act in

unfaithfulness after them.

Therefore you will remember and do

all my commandments and

you will be holy to your God.

I am Adonai your God

Who brought you out from the land of Egypt

to be your God.

I am Adonai your God.

Leader: Adonai Your God is true–

true and firm, certain and enduring,

upright and faithful, beloved and cherished,

desired and pleasant, awesome and mighty,

correct and accepted,

good and beautiful is this world

for us for all eternity.

It is true, the God of the universe

is our King, the stronghold of Jacob

is the shield of our salvation.

Throughout all generations

He endures and His Name endures;

His throne is confirmed

and His sovereignty and His faithfulness

endure forever.

Upon the former generations

and upon the latter generations

this word is good and enduring forever.

True and faithful is this statute

and it will not pass away.

Truly You, Adonai, are our God

and the God of our fathers,

our King, the King of our fathers,

our Redeemer, Redeemer of our fathers,

our Creator, Rock of our salvation

our Liberator and Deliverer.

Your Name is from eternity,

There is no God but You.

The help of our fathers

You have been from all eternity,

a Shield and Savior for their children

after them in every generation.

The heights of the universe

is Your abode, and Your judgments

and Your righteousness reach

to the ends of the earth.

Blessed is the person who obeys

Your commandments, and Your Torah

and Your word he places on his heart.

Truly you are the Master of Your people

and a mighty King to plead their case.

Truly You are the first and You are the last

and beside You we have no king, redeemer, nor savior.

From Egypt You redeemed Your people,

Adonai our God and from the house of slavery

You freed us. All their firstborn

You slew and Your firstborn

You redeemed. The Red Sea you split

and the wicked You drowned.

The beloved ones you brought through

and the waters covered their enemies,

not one of them remained.

Because of this the loved ones praised

and exalted God,

and the beloved ones offered hymns,

songs and praises, blessings and thanksgiving

to the King, God, living and enduring,

exalted and uplifted, great and awesome.

He humbles the haughty and raises the lowly,

He brings out the captives and frees the humble,

and helps the impoverished,

and He answers His people when they cry out to Him.

Praise to the Most High God!

Blessed is He and He is blessed,

Moses and the children of Israel raised a song to You

with much joy, and all of them proclaimed:

All: “Who is like You Adonai, among the gods!

Who is like You, glorious in holiness

awesome in praises, doing wonders!”

Leader: With a new song

the redeemed praised Your Name at the seashore.

Together they all gave thanks

and affirmed Your kingship and said:

Adonai will reign forever and ever!

Rock of Israel, arise to the aid of Israel

and liberate according to Your promise

Judah and Israel.

Our Redeemer–

Adonai of Hosts is His Name,

the Holy One of Israel.

Blessed are You, Adonai,

Who redeemed Israel.

SHEMONEI ESREI

[The 18 Benedictions]

ALL STAND

Leader: Adonai, open my lips

and my mouth will declare Your praise.

1. COVENANT OF THE FATHERS

All: Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

and God of our fathers;

God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob;

The great and mighty God,

Who is awesome, God Most High

Who bestows good lovingkindness

and is Owner of everything;

He remembers lovingkindness to the fathers

and brings a Redeemer

to their children’s children

for His own Name’s sake in love.

Between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur add:

Remember us for life

King Who desires life,

for we are written in the book of life

on account of our faithfulness to

live Your Torah, O living God.

King, Helper, Savior and Shield;

Blessed are You, Adonai

Shield of Abraham.

2. GOD’S MIGHT

Individuals may offer prayers for those sick and in need,

then all pray together:

You are mighty forever, my Master,

You are mighty to save.

You make the wind blow and the rain to fall.

You sustain the living in lovingkindness,

are full of compassion;

Supporter of the fallen and Healer of the sick;

Releaser of the imprisoned

and Fulfiller of His faithfulness to those asleep in the dust.

Who is like You, Master of wonders, and Who compares to You

Lord of life, Giver of life.

Who is like You, merciful Father

Who remembers His creatures for life in mercy!

KEDUSHA [Holiness]

We will sanctify Your Name in this world

just as they sanctify it in heaven above,

as it is written by the hand of Your prophet:

“And he called one to the other and said:

Holy, Holy, Holy is Adonai of Hosts!

All the earth is full of His glory!

Blessed is the glory of Adonai, from His place.

Leader: And in Your holy words it is written:

All: Adonai will reign forever,

Your God, O Zion, in every generation.

Hallelujah!

In all generations we will declare

Your greatness and to all eternity

we will sanctify Your holiness

and Your praise, our God

Will not depart from our mouth

forever and ever.

Leader: Because you are God, the Great King,

and You are holy.

Blessed are You, Adonai,

the Almighty, the Holy One.

3. HOLINESS OF GOD’S NAME

Leader: You are holy and Your name is holy

and holy beings praise You every day, forever.

Blessed are You, Adonai, the Almighty, the Holy One.

Moses rejoiced in the gift of his portion

that You called him a faithful servant.

A crown of splendor You placed on his head

hone he stood before You on Mount Sinai.

Two stone tablets he brought down

in his hand, and written on them

was the observance of the Sabbath.

And so it is written in Your Torah:

All: And the children of Israel shall keep

the Sabbath to make the Sabbath

throughout their generations an eternal covenant

between Me and between the children of Israel;

it is a sign forever that in six days

Adonai made the heavens and the earth.,

and on the 7th day He rested and was refreshed.

Leader: Our God and God of our fathers,

may You be pleased with our rest.

Sanctify us in Your commandments

and grant our share in Your Torah;

satisfy us with Your goodness

and cause us to rejoice in Your salvation

and purify our heart to serve You in truth.

Adonai our God, cause us to inherit

in love and truth Your holy Sabbath,

and may they rest in it, all of Israel,

and we who sanctify Your Name.

Blessed are You Adonai,

Who sanctifies the Sabbath.

17. DIVINE SERVICE

Be pleased, Adonai our God

with Your people Israel and their prayers,

and return the service to the Most Holy Place

in Your abode and the fire offerings of Israel;

and accept our prayer lovingly and willingly

and may You constantly be pleased

with the service of Israel Your people.

O God and God of our fathers,

may there ascend, come, and reach,

appear, be desired, and heard,

counted and recalled our remembrance

and reckoning and the remembrance

of our fathers,

the remembrance of Yerushalayim,

the city of Your Sanctuary,

and the remembrance of all Your people,

before You, for survival, for well-being,

for grace and lovingkindness,

and compassion, for life and peace

on this day of [state the festival]

Remember us, Adonai our God

on this day for well-being

and visit us on it for a blessing.

Deliver us on it for life,

by Your word of salvation and compassion,

spare us and show us grace

and have compassion on us and save us,

for our eyes are directed to You,

because You are God,

King, Gracious and Compassionate.

And may our eyes behold

Your return to Zion in compassion.

Blessed are You, Adonai,

Who returns His Divine Presence to Zion.

18. WE ARE THANKFUL

[Individuals may share God’s blessings in their lives then all pray together:]

We are thankful to You

that You are Adonai our God,

and the God of Abraham and Moses,

for all eternity, Rock of our lives,

Shield of our salvation are You

from generation to generation.

We give thanks to You and recount Your praise

for our lives which are committed

into your hand, and for our souls

which are entrusted to You,

and for Your miracles that are with us everyday

and for Your wonders and Your goodness

at all times—- evening, morning, and afternoon.

You are good,

for Your compassion is never exhausted,

and You are compassionate

for Your lovingkindness never ceases.

Forever we have hoped in You!

And for all the foregoing

blessed and exalted by Your Name, our King,

constantly, for all eternity.

Inscribe for a good life

all who are children of Your covenant.

And all the living shall thank You

and praise Your Name in truth.

The Almighty, our salvation and our help.

Blessed are You, Adonai.

“The Beneficent” is Your Name

and to You it is fitting to give praise.

19. PEACE

Grant peace, goodness and blessing,

grace, lovingkindness and compassion

upon us and upon all Israel your people,

[and gentiles who call on Your Name].

Grant peace, goodness and blessing,

grace, lovingkindness and compassion

upon us and upon all Israel Your people,

and all Gentiles who call on Your Name.

Bless us, our Father, all of us as one

with the light of Your face

because by the light of Your face

You gave to us, Adonai our God,

a Torah of life and the love of

kindness, righteousness, blessing,

compassion, life, and peace.

So may it be good in Your eyes

to bless Your people Israel

at all times and in every hour with Your peace.

In the book of life, blessing, peace,

and abundant maintenance,

may we be remembered and written,

we and all Your people, the house of Israel,

for a good life and for peace.

Blessed are You, Adonai, Who blesses His people

Israel and gentile believers in You, with peace.

May it be Your will, Adonai our God,

that the Holy Temple be rebuilt quickly,

in our days; and grant our portion in Your Torah

and there let us serve You in reverence

as in the days of old and in earlier times.

And may it be pleasing to Adonai,

the offering of J’hudah and Yerushalayim

as in the days of old and in earlier times.

TORAH SERVICE

Reading of the Torah

There is none like You among the gods, Adonai,

and there is nothing like Your works.

Your Kingship is the kingship for all eternities,

and Your rule throughout every generation.

Adonai is King, Adonai was King,

Adonai will be King forever and ever.

Adonai will give strength to His people,

Adonai will bless His people with peace.

Father of compassion, do good,

according to Your will, to Zion.

May You rebuild the walls of Yerushalayim,

for in You alone do we trust,

King, Almighty, Exalted and Uplifted One,

Master of the worlds.

Whenever the Ark traveled, Moses would say,

Arise, Adonai and let Your enemies be scattered

and let those who hate You flee from before You.

For from Zion will go forth the Torah

and the Word of Adonai from Yerushalayim!

Blessed is He Who gave the Torah

to His people, Israel, in His holiness.

Hear O Israel, Adonai is our God,

Adonai is One! Our God is One,

Great is our Master, Holy is His Name!

Leader: Magnify Adonai with me and

let us exalt His Name together!

All: The greatness belongs to You, adonai,

and the power, the glory, the victory,

and the beauty;

everything in heaven and on earth is Yours—

Yours, Adonai, is the kingdom, and

You are sovereign over all.

Exalt Adonai our God and worship

at His footstool! Holy is He!

Exalt Adonai our God and worship

at His holy mountain,

for Holy is Adonai our God.

For from Zion will go forth the Torah,

and the word of Adonai from Yerushalahim!

Blessed is He Who gave the Torah,

for His people Israel and all mankind,

in His holiness.

THERE IS NONE LIKE OUR GOD

There is none like our God, there is none like our Lord,

there is none like our King.

Let us give thanks to our God, our Lord, our King.

You are our God, our Lord, our King.

You are the One to whom our fathers before You

offered sweet smelling incense.

[Readers are called up to the Torah]

He who blessed our fathers, Abraham,

Isaac and Jacob, may He bless ___________

who has come up to honor God and the Torah.

May the Holy bless [him/her] and [his/her]

family and send blessing and prosperity

on all he work of [his/her] hands.

[Blessing before reading the Torah]

Reader: Bless Adonai Who is blessed.

All: Blessed is Adonai Who is blessed forever.

Reader: Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

King of the universe, Who chose us

from among all peoples and gave to us

His Torah. Blessed are You Adonai,

Giver of the Torah.

All: Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

King of the universe, Who gave to us the Torah of Truth

and planted everlasting life in our midst.

Blessed are You, Adonai, Giver of the Torah.

This is the Torah which Moses placed before

the children of Israel, upon the command of Adonai,

through the hand of Moses.

It is a tree of life to all who grasp it

and those who live it are praiseworthy!

Its ways are ways of pleasantness and

all its paths lead to peace.

Long life is at its right and at its left

are riches and honor.

Adonai desired, for the sake of His righteousness,

to make the Torah great and glorious.

Blessing before reading the Haftarah:

Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

King of the universe, Who chose good prophets

and was pleased with their words

which they spoke in truth.

Blessed are You, Adonai, Who chose the Torah,

Moses His servant, Israel His people,

and the prophets of truth and righteousness.

Read the Haftarah:

Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

King of the universe, Rock of all the worlds,

Righteous in all the generations,

the Almighty, the Faithful One,

Who says and does, Who speaks and fulfills,

for all His words are true and right.

Dependable are You, Adonai our God,

and dependable are Your words,

and not one of Your words is ever

retracted or unfulfilled,

for You are the Almighty, a King

Who is dependable and merciful.

Blessed are You, Adonai, the Almighty

Who is dependable in all His words.

Leader: Have compassion on Zion,

for it is the home of Israel’s life,

and the one whose soul is humiliated,

deliver speedily in our days.

Blessed are You, Adonai,

Who causes Zion to rejoice with her children.

Cause us, gentiles, to rejoice with them,

Adonai our God, with Elijah the prophet,

and with the kingdom of the House of David,

Your anointed.

Blessed are You, Adonai, shield of David,

for the Torah, for the Divine Service,

for the prophets and for this Sabbath day

which You gave us, for holiness and for rest,

for honor and for glory.

For all this, we thank You and bless You;

blessed be Your name by the mouth

of all the living continually forever.

Blessed are You, Adonai,

Sanctifier of the Sabbath.

Return, Adonai,

to the myriad thousands of Israel.

Arise, Adonai,

to Your resting place,

You and the Ark of Your might.

Let Your priests be clothed

in righteousness and Your devout ones

will sing in joy.

For the sake of David, Your servant,

do not reject the face of Your anointed.

For I have given you good teaching,

Do not forsake My Torah.

It is a tree of life to those who grasp it,

and those who support it are blessed.

Its ways are pleasant ways and all its paths

lead to peace.

Cause us to return to You, Adonai,

and we shall return.

Renew our days as of old.

BLESSED

Fortunate are those who dwell in Your house,

May they always praise You. Selah!

Fortunate the people whose lot is thus,

Fortunate the people for whom

Adonai is their God.

A Psalm of David

I will exalt You, my God, the King,

and I will bless Your Name forever and ever.

Everyday I will bless You and extol Your Name

forever and ever.

Adonai is great and highly extolled

and His greatness is without measure.

Generation to generation will praise Your works

and Your mighty acts they will declare.

Upon the splendor of Your glorious majesty

and the words of Your wonders

I will meditate.

Of Your awesome acts they will speak.

And Your greatness I will recount.

The memory of Your great goodness

they will eagerly tell, and of Your righteousness

they will shout joyfully.

Adonai is gracious and compassionate,

slow to anger and great in lovingkindness.

Adonai is good to all

and His compassions are upon all of His works.

They will give thanks to You, Adonai,

all for Your works and Your devoted ones

will bless You.

The glory of Your kingdom they will declare

and of Your power they will speak,

to make known to the sons of men

His power and the majestic glory

of His kingdom.

Your kingdom is a kingdom for all time

and Your rule is in every generation.

Adonai supports all who fall

and straightens all who are bent down.

The eyes of all look with hope to You

and you give to them their food in due time.

You open Your hand and satisfy

the desire of all the living.

Adonai is righteous in all His ways

and kind in everything He does.

Adonai is near to all who call upon Him,

to all who call upon Him in truth.

The desire of those who fear Him

He fulfills and their cry for help He hears

and He deliver them.

Adonai guards all who love Him

but all the wicked He will destroy.

Adonai’s praise my mouth will speak

and all flesh will bless His holy Name

forever and ever.

And we will bless God from now and forever.

Hallelujah!

HALF KADDISH

[It is traditional to end a major section of the service by reciting the half kaddish.]

Leader: Exalted and sanctified be His great Name

in the world which He created according to His will,

and may He rule His kingdom in your lifetime

and your days, and in the lifetime of all the

House of Israel, quickly,

and in the near future, and say Amen.

May His great Name be blessed forever and forever.

Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted and

lifted up and honored and elevated and extolled

be the Name of the Holy One,

He is blessed above all the blessing and hymns,

praises and consolations which we say in the world

and say, Amein.

ALEINU [Alternative]

It is traditional to bow on the words “We therefore bow . . .”

We are duty-bound to praise the Master of all,

to ascribe greatness to the One Who created

from the beginning,

that He called us from the nations of the earth,

and chose Israel as His family, a treasured people,

from whom we learned about YHWH our God.

We are Your people whom You redeemed.

We therefore bow and worship and give thanks

before the King, the King of kings, the Holy One,

blessed be He! On that day,

Adonai will be One and His Name One!

ALEINU [Traditional]

We are duty bound to praise the Master of all,

to ascribe greatness to the One

Who created from the beginning,

that He did not make us as the nations

of the lands, and did not place us

as the families of the earth;

since He did not assign our portion as theirs

nor our lot like all of the masses.

We therefore bow and worship and give thanks

before the King, the King of kings, the Holy One,

blessed is He! On that day,

Adonai will be One and His Name One.

For they bow to vanity and nothingness

and pray to a god who cannot save.

LET US ADORE

Let us adore the everliving God

and render praise unto Him

Who spread out the heavens

and established the earth

and Whose glory is revealed

in the heavens above

and Whose greatness is manifest

throughout all the earth.

He is our God.

There is none else!

MOURNER’S KADDISH

Exalted and sanctified

be His great Name in the world which

He created according to His will

and may He rule His kingdom

in your lifetime and in your days,

and in the lifetime of all the house of Israel,

quickly, and in the near future,

and say, Amein.

May His great Name be blessed forever and ever.

Blessed and be praise, glorified and exalted,

and lifted up and honored and elevated and extolled

be the Name of the Holy One,

He is blessed above all the blessing and hymns,

praises and consolations which we say in the world

and say, Amein.

May there be much peace from heaven,

and good life upon us and upon all Israel,

and say Amein.

He who makes peace in His heights

may He make peace upon us and upon all Israel

and say, Amein.

AARONIC BENEDICTION

Leader: Adonai bless you and keep you,

Adonai shine His face toward you

and be gracious to you.

Adonai lift up His face toward you

and grant you peace.

All: May it be His will.

BLESSING FOR THE NEW MONTH

May it be Your will, Adonai our God,

that You renew for us this month

for good and for blessing,

and grant us long life, a life of peace,

a life of goodness, a life of blessing,

a life of sustenance, a life of physical strength,

a life in which there is fear of heaven and fear of sin,

a life in which there is no shame or disgrace,

a life of prosperity and honor,

a life in which there will be love of Torah

and fear of heaven,

a life filled with the wishes of our heart for good.

Amen. Selah.

He who did miracles for our fathers

and redeemed them from slavery to freedom,

may He redeem us soon and gather our dispersed

from the four corners of the earth;

all Israel are companions!and let us say, Amein.

This new month of _____________

which begins on _______________

may it come upon us and upon all Israel

for goodness. May He renew it,

the Holy One, blessed is He,

upon us and upon all His people,

the house of Israel, for life, peace,

happiness, and joy, for salvation and

consolation, and let us say, Amein.

HAVDALAH BLESSINGS

[Close of Sabbath]

Behold, God is my salvation;

I will trust and not be afraid

for my strength and my song is

Yah Adonai,

and He is my salvation!

You can draw water with joy

from the wellsprings of salvation.

Salvation belongs to adonai

upon Your people is your blessing. Selah.

Adonai of armies is with us,

a stronghold for us is the God of Jacob. Selah.

Adonai of Armies—

blessed is the person who trusts in You!

Adonai, save us!

The King will answer us on the day we call.

For the Jews there was light and gladness,

joy and honor, so may it be for us.

The fruit of the vine, I raise up and on the

Name of Adonai I call out:

[Blessing for the wine]

Blessed are You, Adonai, our God,

King of the Universe,

Creator of the fruit of the vine.

[Blessing for spices]

Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

King of the Unvierse,

Creator of all kinds of spices.

[Blessing for the light of the candle]

Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

King of the Universe,

Creator of the light of fire.

Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

King of the Universe

Who divides between holy and profane;

between light and dark;

between Israel and the nations;

between the 7th day and the 6 days of work.

Blessed are You, Adonai,

Who divides between holy and profane.

[After extinguishing the candle in the wine,

Sing a hymn . . . ]

A good week, a good week,

awake of peace, may gladness reign,

and joy increase.

PRAYER WHEN RETIRING AT NIGHT

Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

King of the Universe,

Who brings the fetters of sleep upon my eyes

and slumber upon my eyelids.

May it be Your will, Adonai, my God,

that I lay down in peace and rise up in peace.

May no thoughts or evil terrify me,

nor bad dreams, nor evil fancies disturb me.

And may my bed be perfect before you.

Enlighten my eyes again,

lest I sleep the sleep of death,

for You illumine the pupil of my eye.

Blessed are You, Adonai,

Who illumines the whole world

with His glory.

Almighty, faithful King—

Hear O Israel, Adonai is our God,

Adonai is One! Blessed is the Name!

The glory of His kingdom is for all eternity.

[Read the Shema]

May the friendship of Adonai our God be upon us,

and the work of our hands establish for us.

He who dwells in the shelter of the Almighty,

in the shadow of Shaddai he will abide.

I say of Adonai, He is my refuge and my fortress,

my God in Whom I trust.

For He will deliver you from the snare,

from the destructive pestilence,

with His wings He will cover you

and under His wings you will be secure.

A shield, a full shield is His truth.

You will not fear the terror at night

nor the arrow that flies by day,

the pestilence that prowls in the dark

nor the deadly pestilence that destroys at noon.

A thousand will fall at your left side,

ten thousand at your right side

but it will not come near you.

Only with your eyes will you see it

and view the punishment of the wicked.

For You, Adonai, are my refuge;

You have made the Most High your dwelling.

No evil will befall you,

nor a plague come near your tent.

For He will command His angels for you

to keep you in all your ways.

They will carry you on their hands

lest you strike your foot on a stone.

Upon lion and snake you will tread,

you will trample young lion and serpent.

For to Me he clings, so I will save him.

I will strengthen him for he knows My Name.

He will call out to Me and I will answer him;

I am with him in distress.

I will free him and honor him.

With length of days I will satisfy him,

and show him My salvation;

With length of days I will satisfy him,

and show him My salvation.

PSALM 3

Adonai, how many are my tormentors?

Many are rising up against me.

They are saying about me,

There is no deliverance for him in God.

But You, Adonai, are a shield about me,

My glory, and the One Who lifts my head.

I cried out to Adonai with my voice,

And He answered me from His holy mountain.

I lay down and slept; I awoke,

for Adonai sustains me.

I will not fear ten thousands of people

deployed against me on every side.

Arise, Adonai, save me, O my God!

For You have smitten all my enemies on the cheek;

the teeth of the wicked You have shattered.

Salvation belongs to Adonai;

upon Your people is Your blessing.

Cause us to lie down, Adonai our God,

in peace, and raise us again, our King, to life.

Spread over us the shelter of Your shalom

and establish us in the good counsel

from Your presence.

Save us for Your Name’s sake and shield us.

Remove from us enemy, pestilence,

sword, famine, and sorrow.

Remove the adversary from before us,

and from behind us, and in the shadow of Your wings

protect us, for You are the Almighty

Who guards and delivers us.

Surely You are the Almighty, King,

gracious, merciful.

Guard our going out and coming in

for life and peace, from now and forever.

Blessed is Adonai in the day;

Blessed is Adonai in the night;

Blessed is Adonai when we lie down;

Blessed is Adonai when we rise up.

For in Your hand are the souls

of the living and the dead.

“In His hand is the soul of every life

and the spirit of every human being.”

Into Your hand I commit my spirit,

You have liberated me, Adonai,

God of truth.

Our God Who is in heaven,

make Your Name one

and establish Your kingdom always

and rule over us forever and ever.

May our eyes see and our heart rejoice

and our souls exalt in Your salvation in truth,

when it will be said in Zion,

“You God reigns!”

Adonai is King, Adonai was King,

Adonai will be King forever and ever.

For the Kingdom is Yours

and to all eternity You will reign in glory,

for we have no King but You.

“The angel who redeemed me from all evil,

may He bless the lads and may they be called

by my name and the name of my fathers,

Abraham and Isaac,

and may they multiply like fish

in the midst of the Land.”

And He said, “If you will diligently heed

the voice of Adonai your God,

and do what is upright in His eyes,

and listen to His commandments,

and guard all His statutes,

then all the sickness which I put in Egypt

I will not put upon you,

for I am Adonai your Healer.

Behold, He neither slumbers nor sleeps,

the Keeper of Israel!

For Your salvation I hope, Adonai,

I hope for You salvation, Adonai,

Adonai, for Your salvation I hope!

PSALM 128

A Song of Ascents

How blessed are all who fear Adonai,

Who walk in His ways.

When you eat of the fruit of your hands,

You will be happy and it will be well with you.

Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine,

within your house, your children like olive plants

around your table.

Behold, thus shall the man be blessed

who fears Adonai.

Adonai bless you from Zion,

and may you see the prosperity of Yerushalayim

all the days of your life.

Indeed may you see your children’s children.

Peace be upon Israel!

Tremble and do not sin.

Speak to your heart while upon your bed

and be silent. Selah.

Lord of the world Who reigns supreme,

ere all creation came to be,

when by His will all things were wrought

the Name of our King was first made known.

And when this age shall cease to be,

He still shall reign in majesty.

He was, He is, He will be,

all glorious, eternally.

Incomparable, the Lord is One;

No other can His nature share;

Without beginning, without end,

to him all strength and majesty.

He is my living God Who saves

my Rock when grief or sorrow falls

my Banner and my Refuge strong,

my cup of life where’re I call,

and in His hand I place my life,

both when I sleep and when I wake.

And with my soul and body too;

God is with me, there is no fear.

THE SEVEN BLESSINGS

1. Blessed are You, Adonai our God

King of the Universe,

Creator of the fruit of the vine.

2. Blessed are You, Adonai our God

King of the Universe,

Who created everything for His glory.

3. Blessed are You, Adonai our God

King of the Universe,

Who formed mankind.

4. Blessed are You, Adonai our God

King of the Universe,

Who formed mankind in His image,

in the image of His likeness;

and formed for him from his own self,

a wife forever.

Blessed are You Adonai,

former of mankind.

5. May the barren one rejoice and exalt

in the gathering of her children

to her midst with joy.

Blessed are You, Adonai,

Who causes Zion to rejoice

with her children.

6. Give abundant joy

to these beloved companions

as You gave joy to Your creation

in the Garden of Eden of old.

Blessed are You, Adonai

Who gives rejoicing to

the groom and the bride.

7. Blessed are You, Adonai our God

King of the Universe,

Who created joy and rejoicing,

groom and bride, exultation and song,

pleasure and delight, love and companionship,

peace and friendship.

Soon, Adonai our God,

may there be heard in the cities of Y’huda

and in the streets of Yerushalyim

the sound of joy and rejoicing,

the voice of groom and bride,

the sound of grooms’ jubilation

from their chuppah

and of young men from their feasts of song!

Blessed are You, Adonai,

Who causes the groom to rejoice

with the bride.

PRAYERS AND BLESSINGS

Prayer for Travelers

May it be Your will, Adonai our God,

and God of our fathers,

that You lead us to peace,

guide our footsteps to peace,

make our way toward peace,

and bring us to our desired destination

for life, happiness, and peace.

May You rescue us from the hand

of every enemy or ambush on the way,

and from all kinds of trouble

that happen in this world.

Send blessing upon all

the work of our hands

and grant us grace, lovingkindness,

and mercy in Your eyes

and in the eyes of all who see us.

Hear the voice of our supplication,

for You are the Almighty Who hears

prayer and supplication.

Blessed are You, Adonai,

Who hears prayer.

WE THANK YOU

Blessings of Thanks before and after Meals

[Revised from First Fruits of Zion Pamphlet]

The Torah commands us to bless God after we eat.

Blessing God and thanking God for the provision of food both before and after one has eaten has long been the practice within Judaism. This is a tool to assist us in blessing the LORD before and after meals.

The traditional after-meal prayer Birkat HaMazon was created in order to fulfill the commandment of Deuteronomy 8 and to incorporate all its themes: “When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the LORD your God . . . [Deut. 8:10]. Although the complete traditional GRACE AFTER MEALS might seem unnecessarily long, it has been carefully constructed to enable us to give thanks in a biblical way and to keep the Torah’s injunctions and warnings foremost in our minds. Reciting these until they sink into our minds allows us to give thanks effortlessly to the Father for His goodness.

Added to this collection are also other ancient meal prayers from believing communities of the late 1st and early centuries.]

Blessings Before Eating

Blessed are Your, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with Your commandments and has commanded us about the washing of hands.

Blessed are You, our Father, for the life and for the knowledge that You have made known to us through Your Torah. Yours is the glory and the power forever.

Blessed are You, O LORD, our God,

King of the universe,

Who creates different kinds of nourishment.

Who brings out bread from the earth,

Who creates the fruit of the vine,

Who produces the fruit of the tree,

Who creates the fruit of the ground.

by Whose word all things have come to be.

Blessings After Eating

1. We thank You, our holy Father, for Your Holy Name

that You have caused to dwell in our hearts,

and for the knowledge, faithfulness and life that You have made known to us

through your revelation –the TORAH —

Yours be the glory forever.

2. You, O LORD of Legions, created all things for the sake of Your Name;

You gave nourishment and drink for human beings to enjoy,

in order that they would give thanks to You.

You also bestowed upon us spiritual nourishment and drink.

And for all things, we thank You, because You are powerful,

Yours is the glory forever.

3. Remember, O LORD, Your people of faith,

to rescue us from all evil and to make us complete in Your love.

May grace come and may this world pass away.

Hosannah to the God of David!

Everyone who is holy, let him come.

Everyone who is not let him repent.

Amen.

4. Blessed is our God from whom is our sustenance,

and by Whose goodness we live.

Blessed is He and blessed is His Holy Name.

5. Blessed are You, our God, King of the universe,

Who nourishes the entire world with goodness, grace, devotion, and compassion.

He gives bread to all flesh, for His devotion is eternal.

Because of His great goodness we have never lacked,

and we shall never lack nourishment forever and ever.

For the sake of His great Name, for God provides for and nourishes all,

Who does good to all and prepares nourishment

for all of His creatures which He has made.

6. We thank You our holy Father, for Your holy Name

that You have caused to dwell in our hearts, and for the knowledge,

faithfulness and the pattern for living that You have made known to us

through Your Torah. Yours is the glory forever.

Blessings on any Occasion

Host and Hostess

The Compassionate One, may He bless me

[and my husband/wife, and my offspring]

and all that is mine:

Guests: The Compassionate One, may He bless

[my father] the master of this house,

[my mother, my teacher] the lady of this house,

them [guests] and their household, their offspring,

and all that is theirs:

Us and all that is ours, just as our fathers were blessed–

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob —in everything, from everything,

with everything. So may we all be blessed together,

with a complete blessing.

Let us say: Amen.

In the heaven’s above, may their case and ours be heard,

that there may be a preservation of peace,

and may we bear blessing from the LORD,

and righteous acts from our God who saves;

may we find grace and be perceived well

in the eyes of God and man.

Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the universe,

Who crates numerous souls with their needs,

for all that You have created in order to give life to every living soul.

Blessed is the Life of the ages.

SINAI 6000

Note: This is merely a pattern, a model that you may use for your personal and family prayers;

in time, after you’ve learned from the Jewish prayerful expressions, you can improvise

your own prayers that are suited to your personal and family situation, the times

that you live in, the community that you belong to, or specific for members of your family.

SIDDUR

WELCOMING THE SABBATH

Lighting Candles on Erev Shabbat

Traditional Blessing for Lighting Sabbath Candles

Blessed are You, Adonai our God, King of the Universe,

Who sanctified us with His commandments

and commanded us to kindle the lights of Sabbath.

Alternative Blessing for Lighting Sabbath Candles

Blessed are You, Adonai our God, King of the Universe

Who sanctified us with His commandments

and commanded us to sanctify the Sabbath.

SHALOM ALEICHEM

A traditional Sabbath song, welcoming the angels of the Most High

to attend our Sabbath celebration, to bring peace to us and our household,

and to enjoy the shalom of Sabbath with us.

Peace be upon you, ministering messengers,

messengers of the Most High from the King,

the King of kings the Holy One, blessed be He!

May you come in peace,

Bless us with peace,

Depart in peace,

messengers of peace, messengers of the Most High,

from the King, the King of kings,

The Holy One, blessed be He!

[Read any one of the following Psalms]

PSALM 92

A Psalm, a Song for the Sabbath Day

It is good to give thanks to Adonai

and to sing praises to Your Name, O Most High;

To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning

and Your faithfulness by night.

with the 10-stringed lute and with the harp,

with resounding music upon the lyre.

For You, Adonai,

have made me glad by what You’ve done;

at the works of Your hands I will sing for joy!

How great are Your works, Adonai!

Your thoughts are very deep.

A senseless man has no knowledge

nor does a stupid man understand this,

that when the wicked sprouted up like grass,

and all who did iniquity flourished,

it was only that they might be destroyed.

PSALM 95

O come, let us sing for joy to Adonai,

Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.

Let us come before Him with thanksgiving.

Let us shout joyfully to Him with songs.

For Adonai is a great God

and a great King, above all gods,

In whose hand are the depths of the earth,

the peaks of the mountains are His also.

The sea is His, for it was He who made it,

and His hands formed the dry land.

Come, let us worship and bow down,

Let us kneel before Adonai our Maker,

for He is our God,

and we are the people of His pasture

and the sheep of His hand.

Today, if you would hear His voice,

Do not harden your hearts, as in Meribah,

as in the day of Massah in the wilderness,

when your fathers tested Me, they tried Me,

though they had seen My work.

For forty years I loathed that generation,

and said they are a people who err in their heart,

and they do not know My ways.

Therefore I swore in My anger,

Truly they will not enter into My rest.

PSALM 121

A Song of Ascents

I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;

From where shall my help come?

My help comes from Adonai,

Who made heaven and earth.

He will not allow your foot to slip;

He who keeps you will not slumber.

Behold, He will neither slumber nor sleep,

He Who keeps Israel.

Adonai is your keeper;

Adonai is your shade on your right hand.

The sun will not smite you by day,

nor the moon by night,

Adonai will protect you from all evil;

He will keep your soul!

Adonai will guard your going out

and your coming in

From this time forth and forever.

PSALM 122

A Song of Ascents, of David

I was glad when they said to me,

“Let us go to the house of Adonai.”

Our feet are standing in your gates,

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,

that is built as a city that is compact together;

to which the tribes go up, even the tribes of Yah,

an ordinance for Israel

to give thanks to the Name of Adonai,

for there thrones were set for judgment,

the thrones of the house of David.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem;

may they prosper who love you.

May peace be within your walls,

And prosperity within your palaces,

For the sake of my brothers and my friends,

I will now say “May peace be within you.”

For the sake of the house of Adonai our God,

I will seek your good.

PSALM 128

A Song of Ascents

How blessed are all who fear Adonai,

Who walk in His ways.

When you eat of the fruit of your hands,

You will be happy

and it will be well with you.

Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine

within your house,

your children like olive plants around your table.

Behold, thus shall the man be blessed

who fears Adonai.

Adonai bless you from Zion,

and may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem

all the days of your life.

Indeed, may you see your children’s children.

PSALM 146

Hallelujah! Praise Adonai, O my soul!

I will praise Adonai while I live;

I will sing praises to my God

while I have my being.

Do not trust in princes,

in mortal man in whom there is no salvation.

His spirit departs, he returns to the earth;

In that very day, his thought perishes.

How blessed is he

whose help is the God of Jacob,

whose hope is in Adonai his God,

Who made heaven and earth,

the sea and all that is in them;

Who keeps truth forever;

Who executes justice for the oppressed;

Who gives food for the hungry.

Adonai sets the prisoners free.

Adonai opens the eyes of the blind;

Adonai raises up

those who are bowed down;

Adonai loves the righteous;

Adonai protects the strangers;

the fatherless and the widow, He supports.

But the way of the wicked He thwarts.

Adonai will reign forever, your God, O Zion,

to all generations. Hallelujah!

BLESSINGS UPON THE FAMILY

It is a beautiful tradition to extend blessings to family members

at Erev Shabbat table. Blessings for the wife [said by the husband]

the husband [said by the wife] and for the children [by either parent.

Also included is an additional blessing for single adults

who may be part of the Shabbat celebration.

Since Shabbat is a foretaste of eternity when God’s blessings

upon His people will be eternally manifest,

our desire to bless each other is a foreshadow of the world to come.

Husband: Blessing upon the Wife

[Proverbs 31:10-31]

An excellent wife, who can find?

For her worth is far above jewels.

The heart of her husband trusts in her,

and he will have no lack of gain.

She does him good and not evil

all the days of her life.

She looks for wool and flax

and works with her hands in delight.

She is like merchant ships;

from afar she brings her food.

She rises also while it is night

and gives food to her household

and portions to her maidens.

She considers a field and buys it;

from her earnings she plants a vineyard.

She girds herself with strength

and makes her arms strong.

She senses that her gain is good;

her lamp does not go out at night.

She puts her hand to the distaff,

and her hands grasp the spindle.

She extends her hand to the poor,

and she stretches out her hands to the needy.

She is not afraid of the snow for her household,

for all her household are clothed with scarlet.

She makes coverings for herself;

fine linen and purple are her clothing.

Her husband is known in the gates,

when he sits among the elders of the land.

She makes linen garments and sells them,

and supplies belts to the tradesmen.

Strength and dignity are her clothing,

and she smiles at the future.

She opens her mouth in wisdom,

and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.

She looks well to the ways of her household,

and the bread of idleness she does not eat.

Her children rise up and bless her;

Her husband also, and he praises her;

“Many daughters have done nobly,

but you excel them all.”

Charm is deceitful and beauty is in vain,

but a woman who fears Adonai,

she shall be praised.

Give her the fruit of her hands, and

let her works praise her in the gates.

Wife: Blessing Upon the Husband

In modern times, it has become traditional

for the wife also to say a blessing over her husband.

Two Psalms have been included to choose from,

or one could select another portion of Scripture for the blessing.

PSALM 1

Blessed is the man who does not walk

in the counsel of the wicked,

nor stand in the way of sinners,

nor sit in the seat of scoffers;

for his delight is in the Torah of Adonai

and in His Torah he meditates day and night.

He will be like a firmly planted tree

beside streams of water

that gives its fruit in its season

and its leaf does not wither;

and in all that he does, he prospers.

The wicked are not so,

but are like chaff which is blown by the wind.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

but the way of the wicked will perish.

PSALM 112

Hallelujah! Blessed is the man who fears Adonai,

who greatly delights in His mitzvoth.

his seed will be mighty on the earth;

the generation of the upright will be blessed.

Wealth and riches are in his house,

and his righteousness endures forever.

Light arises in the darkness for the upright;

He is gracious and compassionate and righteous.

It is well with the man who is gracious and lends;

he will maintain his cause in judgment.

For he will never be shaken;

the righteous will be remembered forever.

He will not fear evil tidings;

his heart is steadfast, trusting in Adonai.

his heart is upheld, he will not fear,

until he looks with satisfaction on his adversaries.

He has given freely to the poor,

his righteousness endures forever;

his horn will be exalted in honor.

The wicked will see it and be vexed,

he will gnash his teeth and melt away;

the desire of the wicked will perish.

Blessing for Single Adults

When single adults are present at the Erev Shabbat table,

the host may desire to give the following blessing on their behalf.

PSALM 84:4, 5, 11, 12

How blessed are those who dwell in Your house,

continually praising You. [selah]

How blessed is the person whose strength is in You;

the highways to Zion are in their heart.

For Adonai God is a sun and shield,

Adonai gives grace and honor.

No good thing will He withhold

from those who walk uprightly.

Adonai of Hosts–

How blessed is the person who trusts in You!

Blessing Over the Children

The traditional blessings are said by the Father or Mother

over the young children at the table, fulfilling the prophecy

of Genesis 48:20. The traditional blessings incorporate

the hope that the children will one day establish their own

families where the worship of Israel’s God will continue.

The parents may want to add their own personal prayer

of blessing as well.

Blessing over Sons

May God establish you like Ephraim and Manasseh.

[Add blessing specific to each son or grandson.]

Blessing over Daughters

May God establish you

like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah.

[Add blessing specific to each daughter or granddaughter.]

Final Blessing Over ALL

Numbers 6:22-24

Adonai bless you and keep you;

Adonai cause His face to shine upon you

and be gracious unto you;

Adonai lift up his face toward you

and grant you His shalom.

SHABBAT KIDDUSH

The Kiddush [Sanctification] incorporates the fruit of the vine,

a symbol of joy. We set apart [sanctify] the Sabbath

as a day of joy and gladness to HaShem.

Everyone should have wineor grape juice

for the Kiddush, and in some traditions,

everyone stand while reciting the Kiddush.

Genesis 2:1-3

And there was evening and morning, the 6th day.

Completed were the heavens and the earth,

and all their host.

And God finished on the 7th day,

His work which He had done;

and He ceased on the 7th day from all His work

which He had done.

And God blessed the 7th day

and sanctified it because on it

He ceased from all His work of creating

which God had done.

Everyone joins in for the blessing over the wine;

Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

King of the Universe,

Creator of the fruit of the vine.

Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

King of the Universe,

Who sanctified us with His commandments

and took pleasure in us,

and His holy Sabbath,

in love and in pleasure,

He has bequeathed to us,

a memorial of the Creation,

a day which is the beginning of our sacred gatherings,

a memorial of Israel’s exodus from Egypt.

For You chose Israel and sanctified them

from all he peoples,

and with Israel, we gentiles are honored

to be counted among Your chosen,

for we too have chosen You as our God,

and just like Israel, we have been sanctified.

Your holy Sabbath, in love and in pleasure,

You bequeathed to us.

Blessed are You, Adonai, Sanctifier of the Sabbath.

Washing Hands

As we anticipate sharing the meal together,

we recognize that it symbolizes the covenant

of which we are all members.

Washing hands is a symbolic reminder

that as members together in YHWH’s community

we are to live our lives in obedience to His Torah.

PSALM 24:3-4

Who may ascend into the hill of Adonai?

And who may stand in His holy place?

He who has clean hands and a pure heart,

Who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood

and has not sworn deceitfully.

Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

King of the Universe,

Who sanctified us with His mitzvot

and commanded us about washing hands.

BLESSING FOR THE CHALLAH

The Challah (Sabbath bread) —2 loaves represent the morning

and evening sacrifices; they also remind us about gathering

twice the manna on the 6th day so we could rest on the Sabbath.

The Challah, braided together, is passed around, each breaks a piece.

Blessed are You, Adonai our God, King of the Universe,

Who brings forth bread from the earth.

Songs [or any equivalent songs from our Revised Worship Songs]

1. This is the day for Israel

of light and joy a Shabbat of rest.

[Or: This is the day that the Lord has made]

2. Behold how good and how pleasant it is

for brethren to dwell together in unity.

3. Lover of my soul; Father of compassion.

Draw Your servant to Your will.

Your servant will run like a deer;

he will bow before Your glory.

Lover of my soul, draw me to Your will!

As a deer runs to her home,

Master, I run to Your throne.

[Or: As the deer panteth for the water . . .]

Isaiah 12:2

Behold God is my salvation;

I will trust and not be afraid

for Yah Adonai is my strength and song,

He also has become my salvation!

Psalm 121: 1-2

I lift up my eyes to the hills;

where will my help come from?

My help comes from Adonai,

Maker of heaven and earth!

Isaiah 11:9

They will not hurt or destroy

in all My holy mountain.

For the earth will be full

of the knowledge of Adonai

as the water covers the sea.

Lamentations 5:21

Cause us to return to You, Adonai,

and we will return;

renew our days as of old!

Thanksgiving after Meals:

Leader: My colleagues, let us say the blessing:

All: May the Name of Adonai be blessed

from now and forever.

Leader: May the Name of Adonai be blessed

from now and forever.

With your permission, our leaders and teachers,

let us bless Our God of Whose food we have eaten.

All: Blessed is Our God of Whose food

we have eaten and by His goodness we live.

Leader: Blessed is Our God of Whose food

we have eaten and by His goodness we live.

All: Blessed is He and blessed is His Name.

Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

King of the Universe,

Who nourishes the whole world

in His goodness, grace,

lovingkindness, and mercy.

He gives bread to all flesh

for His lovingkindness is eternal.

And in His great goodness never do we lack

and never do we lack food forever,

for His name’s sake.

Because He is God,

the nourisher and maintainer of all,

and the One Who does good to all

and prepares nourishment for all

of His creatures which He created.

Blessed are You, Adonai,

Who nourishes all.

We thank You, Adonai, our God

for giving an inheritance to Israel,

a desirable, good, and spacious Land

and for bringing them out, Adonai our God,

from their bondage in Egypt.

For us, Adonai our God, we thank You also,

for bringing us out from our own “Egypt”

where we in our ignorance were in bondage,

ignorant of Your True Scriptures, the TNK.

We thank You Adonai, our God, for

redeeming us from our own slavery

to false doctrines and false teachings,

false beliefs, false religions, false churches;

we thank You for including us, gentiles,

who are not of ethnic Israel, but

just like those among the mixed multitude

who stood at the foot of Sinai,

to whom you gave Your covenant

through Moses, Your mouthpiece.

We thank You for Your Torah

where we have discovered

all the beautiful commandments

You originally gave for all mankind;

for the statutes and ordinances

which You made known to us,

and for life, grace, and lovingkindness

which You have granted to us

and for the food with which

You have always nourished and sustained us

everyday and at all times,

and in every hour.

[On Shabbat, add]

May it be Your will that we be strengthened

Adonai, our God, in Your commandments,

and by the commandment of the 7th day,

this great and Holy Sabbath.

Because this day is great and holy before You,

to cease on it and rest on it in love

as ordained by Your will.

And by Your will, grant us,

Adonai our God

that there be no distress or sorrow

or sighing on the day of our rest.

Show us, Adonai our God,

the consolation of Zion Your city,

and the rebuilding of Yerushalayim,

city of Your Sanctuary,

for You are the Lord of salvation

and the Lord of consolation.

All: Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

Eternal King, God of our fathers,

our King, our Mighty One, our Creator,

our Redeemer, our Maker,

our Holy One, the Holy One of Jacob,

our Shepherd, Shepherd of Israel.

The good King, who does good to all.

Everyday He has done good,

He does good, He will do good for us.

He has rewarded us, He rewards us,

He will reward us forever with grace,

lovingkindness, compassion, relief,

rescue and success, blessing and salvation,

consolation, maintenance, sustenance,

compassion and life, peace, and everything good.

And from all good things forever

He will not deprive us.

The Merciful One will reign over us forever and ever.

The Merciful One will be blessed in heaven and earth.

The Merciful One will be praised through all generations,

and be glorified in us forever throughout eternity;

and honored in us forever and for worlds without end.

The Merciful One will maintain us with honor.

The Merciful One

will break our yoke from upon our necks,

causing us to walk on the heights of our Land.

The Merciful One,

may He send for us abundant blessing

upon this house, and upon this table

upon which we have eaten.

The Merciful One,

may He send us Elijah the Prophet

who is remembered for good

and who will announce for us

good tidings of salvation and consolations.

Guests recite the following:

children at the parent’s table include [parentheses]

The Merciful One, may He bless

[my father, my teacher]

the Master of this house,

and [my mother, my teacher]

Lady of this house,

them, their house and their children

and all which is theirs—

At your own table recite:

include appropriate words in [parenthesis]

The Merciful One, may He bless me,

[and my father, my mother, my wife

and my children] and all that is mine—

All continue here:

Ours and all that is ours,

just as our fathers were blessed,

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

[Mention names in your individual family]

in all things, from all things,

with all things, so may He bless us,

all of us together as one

with a complete blessing

and let us say “Amen.”

From on high may they instruct them

and us of the favorable judgment

by which to guard peace,

and may we receive blessing from Adonai

and righteousness from God

of our salvation,

and may we find grace and good favor

in the eyes of God and man.

[On Shabbat, add]

The Merciful One,

may He cause us to inherit the day

which is all Shabbat and a rest

reflecting eternal life.

[On Rosh Chodesh]

The Merciful One,

may He renew upon us this month

for good and for blessing.

He who gives deliverance to His king

[On Shabbat and Yom Tov]

He who is a tower of salvation to his King

and does lovingkindness to His anointed,

to David and his seed forever—

He who makes peace in His heights

May He make peace upon us and upon all Israel

and let us say, Amen.

Fear Adonai, you His holy ones,

because there is no lack of those who fear Him.

Young lions may feel want and hunger

but those who seek Adonai

lack nothing of all things good.

Give thanks to Adonai for He is good,

for His lovingkindness is eternal.

You open Your hand

and satisfy the desire of every living thing.

Blessed is the man

who trusts in Adonai,

and Adonai will be his security.

I was young, and I have grown old

and I have not seen

a righteous person forsaken

nor his seed begging for bread.

Adonai will give strength to His people

Adonai will bless His people with peace.

SHABBAT MORNING SERVICE

Putting on the Tallit [Prayer Shawl]

My soul, Bless Adonai!

Adonai my God, You are very great!

With beauty and splendor are You clothed;

enwrapped in light as with a garment;

You spread out the heavens like a curtain.

Hold the Tallit in readiness and wrap around yourself,

and recite the blessing:

Blessed are You, Adonai our God

King of the Universe

Who sanctified us with His commandments

and commanded us

to wrap ourselves with tzitzit.

Put the tallit over the head, wrapping it around you

completely and continue:

How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God;

even mankind, in the shadow of Your wings, takes refuge.

They drink from the abundance of Your house,

and from the river of Your delights

You give them drink.

For with You is the fountain of life;

in Your light we see light;

Continue Your lovingkindness

to those who know You,

and Your righteousness to the upright of heart.

MORNING PRAYERS

Upon entering the place of prayer,

the following verses of Scripture are recited

as we approach our King and seek His Presence:

How good are your tents, Jacob

Your dwelling places, O Israel.

As for me, in the abundance of

Your lovingkindness,

I will enter Your house,

I will prostrate myself toward

Your Holy Sanctuary in awe of You.

Adonai, I love the dwelling of Your house,

event he palace where Your glory resides.

As for me, I will prostrate myself and bow,

I will kneel before Adonai my Maker.

As for me, may my prayer to You,

Adonai, be at an acceptable time.

O God, in the abundance of Your lovingkindness,

answer me with the truth of Your salvation.

Leader: Bless Adonai Who is blessed!

All: Blessed is Adonai Who is blessed

forever and ever.

THE BLESSINGS OF THE SHEMA

Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

King of the Universe, Former of the light

and Creator of darkness,

Maker of peace and Creator of everything.

Leader: With much love You have loved us,

Adonai our God;

With great and abundant pity You have pitied us.

Our Father, our King,

for the sake of our fathers who trusted in You

and You taught them the statutes of life;

so too be gracious to us and teach us.

Our Father, compassionate Father,

Who acts with compassion;

have compassion upon us

and put into our hearts to understand

and to comprehend, to listen, learn and teach,

to guard, to perform, and fulfill

all the words of instruction in Your Torah with love.

Enlighten our eyes in Your Torah

and cause our hearts to cleave to Your commandments.

Unify our hearts to love and fear Your Name

and may we never be put to shame,

because in Your holy, great

and awesome Name have we trusted.

May we exult and rejoice in Your salvation.

Bring us in peace

from the four corners of the earth

and lead us to You in honor,

because You are God Who makes salvation

and You have chosen us from all peoples and tongues

and brought us close to Your great Name forever

IN TRUTH,

to offer You thanksgiving

and to declare Your ONENESS with love.

Blessed are You, Adonai,

Who chooses His people with love.

THE SHEMA

It is traditional to close or cover the eyes

when praying the Shema.

Hear, O Israel,

Adonai is our God, Adonai is One!

Blessed is the Name!

The glory of His kingdom is forever and ever.

And you shall love Adonai Your God

with all your heart and with all your soul

and with all your might,

These words which I command you today

shall be on your heart.

And you shall teach them diligently

to your children and speak of them

when you sit in your house,

when you travel on the road,

and when you lie down and rise up.

Bind them for a sign

upon your hand and they shall be

for tefillin between your eyes;

and write them upon the doorposts

of your house and upon your gates.

And it shall be if you diligently obey

My commandments which

I am commanding you today,

to love Adonai Your God

and to serve Him with all your heart

and with all your soul,

that I will give rain for your Land in its proper time,

the early and late rain

that you may gather in your grain,

your wine and your oil.

And I will give grass in your field

for your cattle,

and you will eat and be satisfied.

Guard yourselves

lest your heart be swayed

and you go astray and serve other gods

and bow down to them.

Then the wrath of Adonai

will blaze against you and

He will close off the heavens

and there will be no rain

and the ground will not give forth

its produce and you will perish

quickly from the good Land

which Adonai is giving to you.

Place these words of Mine

upon your heart and upon your soul

and bind them for a sign

upon your hand and they shall be

tefillin between your eyes.

Teach them to your children

to discuss while you sit in your home

and when you travel on the road

and when you lie down and when you rise up.

You shall write them on the doorposts

of your house and on your gates,

in order to prolong your days

and the days of your children

upon the ground which

Adonai swore by oath to your fathers

to give them, like the days of

the heavens upon the earth.

And Adonai spoke to Moses saying:

Speak to the children of Israel

and say to them that they should make

for themselves tzitzit upon the

corners of their garments

throughout their generations.

And they shall put upon the tzitzit

of each corner a thread of techeilet

that it may be tzitzit for you,

that you may see it and remember

all the commandments of Adonai and do them

so that you will not turn aside

after your hears and after your eyes

which cause you to act in

unfaithfulness after them.

Therefore you will remember and do

all my commandments and

you will be holy to your God.

I am Adonai your God

Who brought you out from the land of Egypt

to be your God.

I am Adonai your God.

Leader: Adonai Your God is true–

true and firm, certain and enduring,

upright and faithful, beloved and cherished,

desired and pleasant, awesome and mighty,

correct and accepted,

good and beautiful is this world

for us for all eternity.

It is true, the God of the universe

is our King, the stronghold of Jacob

is the shield of our salvation.

Throughout all generations

He endures and His Name endures;

His throne is confirmed

and His sovereignty and His faithfulness

endure forever.

Upon the former generations

and upon the latter generations

this word is good and enduring forever.

True and faithful is this statute

and it will not pass away.

Truly You, Adonai, are our God

and the God of our fathers,

our King, the King of our fathers,

our Redeemer, Redeemer of our fathers,

our Creator, Rock of our salvation

our Liberator and Deliverer.

Your Name is from eternity,

There is no God but You.

The help of our fathers

You have been from all eternity,

a Shield and Savior for their children

after them in every generation.

The heights of the universe

is Your abode, and Your judgments

and Your righteousness reach

to the ends of the earth.

Blessed is the person who obeys

Your commandments, and Your Torah

and Your word he places on his heart.

Truly you are the Master of Your people

and a mighty King to plead their case.

Truly You are the first and You are the last

and beside You we have no king, redeemer,

nor savior.

From Egypt You redeemed Your people,

Adonai our God and from the house of slavery

You freed us. All their firstborn

You slew and Your firstborn

You redeemed. The Red Sea you split

and the wicked You drowned.

The beloved ones you brought through

and the waters covered their enemies,

not one of them remained.

Because of this the loved ones praised

and exalted God,

and the beloved ones offered hymns,

songs and praises, blessings and thanksgiving

to the King, God, living and enduring,

exalted and uplifted, great and awesome.

He humbles the haughty and raises the lowly,

He brings out the captives and frees the humble,

and helps the impoverished,

and He answers His people when they cry out to Him.

Praise to the Most High God!

Blessed is He and He is blessed,

Moses and the children of Israel raised a song to You

with much joy, and all of them proclaimed:

All: “Who is like You Adonai, among the gods!

Who is like You, glorious in holiness

awesome in praises, doing wonders!”

Leader: With a new song

the redeemed praised Your Name at the seashore.

Together they all gave thanks

and affirmed Your kingship and said:

Adonai will reign forever and ever!

Rock of Israel, arise to the aid of Israel

and liberate according to Your promise

Judah and Israel.

Our Redeemer–

Adonai of Hosts is His Name,

the Holy One of Israel.

Blessed are You, Adonai,

Who redeemed Israel.

SHEMONEI ESREI

[The 18 Benedictions]

ALL STAND

Leader: Adonai, open my lips

and my mouth will declare Your praise.

1. COVENANT OF THE FATHERS

All: Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

and God of our fathers;

God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob;

The great and mighty God,

Who is awesome, God Most High

Who bestows good lovingkindness

and is Owner of everything;

He remembers lovingkindness to the fathers

and brings a Redeemer

to their children’s children

for His own Name’s sake in love.

Between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur add:

Remember us for life

King Who desires life,

for we are written in the book of life

on account of our faithfulness to

live Your Torah, O living God.

King, Helper, Savior and Shield;

Blessed are You, Adonai

Shield of Abraham.

2. GOD’S MIGHT

Individuals may offer prayers for those sick and in need,

then all pray together:

You are mighty forever, my Master,

You are mighty to save.

You make the wind blow and the rain to fall.

You sustain the living in lovingkindness,

are full of compassion;

Supporter of the fallen and Healer of the sick;

Releaser of the imprisoned

and Fulfiller of His faithfulness to those asleep in the dust.

Who is like You, Master of wonders, and Who compares to You

Lord of life, Giver of life.

Who is like You, merciful Father

Who remembers His creatures for life in mercy!

KEDUSHA [Holiness]

We will sanctify Your Name in this world

just as they sanctify it in heaven above,

as it is written by the hand of Your prophet:

“And he called one to the other and said:

Holy, Holy, Holy is Adonai of Hosts!

All the earth is full of His glory!

Blessed is the glory of Adonai, from His place.

Leader: And in Your holy words it is written:

All: Adonai will reign forever,

Your God, O Zion, in every generation.

Hallelujah!

In all generations we will declare

Your greatness and to all eternity

we will sanctify Your holiness

and Your praise, our God

Will not depart from our mouth

forever and ever.

Leader: Because you are God, the Great King,

and You are holy.

Blessed are You, Adonai,

the Almighty, the Holy One.

3. HOLINESS OF GOD’S NAME

Leader: You are holy and Your name is holy

and holy beings praise You every day, forever.

Blessed are You, Adonai, the Almighty, the Holy One.

Moses rejoiced in the gift of his portion

that You called him a faithful servant.

A crown of splendor You placed on his head

hone he stood before You on Mount Sinai.

Two stone tablets he brought down

in his hand, and written on them

was the observance of the Sabbath.

And so it is written in Your Torah:

All: And the children of Israel shall keep

the Sabbath to make the Sabbath

throughout their generations an eternal covenant

between Me and between the children of Israel;

it is a sign forever that in six days

Adonai made the heavens and the earth.,

and on the 7th day He rested and was refreshed.

Leader: Our God and God of our fathers,

may You be pleased with our rest.

Sanctify us in Your commandments

and grant our share in Your Torah;

satisfy us with Your goodness

and cause us to rejoice in Your salvation

and purify our heart to serve You in truth.

Adonai our God, cause us to inherit

in love and truth Your holy Sabbath,

and may they rest in it, all of Israel,

and we who sanctify Your Name.

Blessed are You Adonai,

Who sanctifies the Sabbath.

17. DIVINE SERVICE

Be pleased, Adonai our God

with Your people Israel and their prayers,

and return the service to the Most Holy Place

in Your abode and the fire offerings of Israel;

and accept our prayer lovingly and willingly

and may You constantly be pleased

with the service of Israel Your people.

O God and God of our fathers,

may there ascend, come, and reach,

appear, be desired, and heard,

counted and recalled our remembrance

and reckoning and the remembrance

of our fathers,

the remembrance of Yerushalayim,

the city of Your Sanctuary,

and the remembrance of all Your people,

before You, for survival, for well-being,

for grace and lovingkindness,

and compassion, for life and peace

on this day of [state the festival]

Remember us, Adonai our God

on this day for well-being

and visit us on it for a blessing.

Deliver us on it for life,

by Your word of salvation and compassion,

spare us and show us grace

and have compassion on us and save us,

for our eyes are directed to You,

because You are God,

King, Gracious and Compassionate.

And may our eyes behold

Your return to Zion in compassion.

Blessed are You, Adonai,

Who returns His Divine Presence to Zion.

18. WE ARE THANKFUL

Individuals may share God’s blessings in their lives

then all pray together:

We are thankful to You

that You are Adonai our God,

and the God of Abraham and Moses,

for all eternity, Rock of our lives,

Shield of our salvation are You

from generation to generation.

We give thanks to You and recount Your praise

for our lives which are committed

into your hand, and for our souls

which are entrusted to You,

and for Your miracles that are with us everyday

and for Your wonders and Your goodness

at all times—- evening, morning, and afternoon.

You are good,

for Your compassion is never exhausted,

and You are compassionate

for Your lovingkindness never ceases.

Forever we have hoped in You!

And for all the foregoing

blessed and exalted by Your Name, our King,

constantly, for all eternity.

Inscribe for a good life

all who are children of Your covenant.

And all the living shall thank You

and praise Your Name in truth.

The Almighty, our salvation and our help.

Blessed are You, Adonai.

“The Beneficent” is Your Name

and to You it is fitting to give praise.

19. PEACE

Grant peace, goodness and blessing,

grace, lovingkindness and compassion

upon us and upon all Israel your people,

[and gentiles who call on Your Name].

Grant peace, goodness and blessing,

grace, lovingkindness and compassion

upon us and upon all Israel Your people,

and all Gentiles who call on Your Name.

Bless us, our Father, all of us as one

with the light of Your face

because by the light of Your face

You gave to us, Adonai our God,

a Torah of life and the love of

kindness, righteousness, blessing,

compassion, life, and peace.

So may it be good in Your eyes

to bless Your people Israel

at all times and in every hour with Your peace.

In the book of life, blessing, peace,

and abundant maintenance,

may we be remembered and written,

we and all Your people, the house of Israel,

for a good life and for peace.

Blessed are You, Adonai, Who blesses His people

Israel and gentile believers in You, with peace.

May it be Your will, Adonai our God,

that the Holy Temple be rebuilt quickly,

in our days; and grant our portion in Your Torah

and there let us serve You in reverence

as in the days of old and in earlier times.

And may it be pleasing to Adonai,

the offering of J’hudah and Yerushalayim

as in the days of old and in earlier times.

TORAH SERVICE

Reading of the Torah

There is none like You among the gods, Adonai,

and there is nothing like Your works.

Your Kingship is the kingship for all eternities,

and Your rule throughout every generation.

Adonai is King, Adonai was King,

Adonai will be King forever and ever.

Adonai will give strength to His people,

Adonai will bless His people with peace.

Father of compassion, do good,

according to Your will, to Zion.

May You rebuild the walls of Yerushalayim,

for in You alone do we trust,

King, Almighty, Exalted and Uplifted One,

Master of the worlds.

Whenever the Ark traveled, Moses would say,

Arise, Adonai and let Your enemies be scattered

and let those who hate You flee from before You.

For from Zion will go forth the Torah

and the Word of Adonai from Yerushalayim!

Blessed is He Who gave the Torah

to His people, Israel, in His holiness.

Hear O Israel, Adonai is our God,

Adonai is One! Our God is One,

Great is our Master, Holy is His Name!

Leader: Magnify Adonai with me and

let us exalt His Name together!

All: The greatness belongs to You, adonai,

and the power, the glory, the victory,

and the beauty;

everything in heaven and on earth is Yours—

Yours, Adonai, is the kingdom, and

You are sovereign over all.

Exalt Adonai our God and worship

at His footstool! Holy is He!

Exalt Adonai our God and worship

at His holy mountain,

for Holy is Adonai our God.

For from Zion will go forth the Torah,

and the word of Adonai from Yerushalahim!

Blessed is He Who gave the Torah,

for His people Israel and all mankind,

in His holiness.

THERE IS NONE LIKE OUR GOD

There is none like our God, there is none like our Lord,

there is none like our King.

Let us give thanks to our God, our Lord, our King.

You are our God, our Lord, our King.

You are the One to whom our fathers before You

offered sweet smelling incense.

[Readers are called up to the Torah]

He who blessed our fathers, Abraham,

Isaac and Jacob, may He bless ___________

who has come up to honor God and the Torah.

May the Holy bless [him/her] and [his/her]

family and send blessing and prosperity

on all he work of [his/her] hands.’

[Blessing before reading the Torah]

Reader: Bless Adonai Who is blessed.

All: Blessed is Adonai Who is blessed forever.

Reader: Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

King of the universe, Who chose us

from among all peoples and gave to us

His Torah. Blessed are You Adonai,

Giver of the Torah.

All: Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

King of the universe, Who gave to us the Torah of Truth

and planted everlasting life in our midst.

Blessed are You, Adonai, Giver of the Torah.

This is the Torah which Moses placed before

the children of Israel, upon the command of Adonai,

through the hand of Moses.

It is a tree of life to all who grasp it

and those who live it are praiseworthy!

Its ways are ways of pleasantness and

all its paths lead to peace.

Long life is at its right and at its left

are riches and honor.

Adonai desired, for the sake of His righteousness,

to make the Torah great and glorious.

Blessing before reading the Haftarah:

Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

King of the universe, Who chose good prophets

and was pleased with their words

which they spoke in truth.

Blessed are You, Adonai, Who chose the Torah,

Moses His servant, Israel His people,

and the prophets of truth and righteousness.

Read the Haftarah:

Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

King of the universe, Rock of all the worlds,

Righteous in all the generations,

the Almighty, the Faithful One,

Who says and does, Who speaks and fulfills,

for all His words are true and right.

Dependable are You, Adonai our God,

and dependable are Your words,

and not one of Your words is ever

retracted or unfulfilled,

for You are the Almighty, a King

Who is dependable and merciful.

Blessed are You, Adonai, the Almighty

Who is dependable in all His words.

Leader: Have compassion on Zion,

for it is the home of Israel’s life,

and the one whose soul is humiliated,

deliver speedily in our days.

Blessed are You, Adonai,

Who causes Zion to rejoice with her children.

Cause us, gentiles, to rejoice with them,

Adonai our God, with Elijah the prophet,

and with the kingdom of the House of David,

Your anointed.

Blessed are You, Adonai, shield of David,

for the Torah, for the Divine Service,

for the prophets and for this Sabbath day

which You gave us, for holiness and for rest,

for honor and for glory.

For all this, we thank You and bless You;

blessed be Your name by the mouth

of all the living continually forever.

Blessed are You, Adonai,

Sanctifier of the Sabbath.

Return, Adonai,

to the myriad thousands of Israel.

Arise, Adonai,

to Your resting place,

You and the Ark of Your might.

Let Your priests be clothed

in righteousness and Your devout ones

will sing in joy.

For the sake of David, Your servant,

do not reject the face of Your anointed.

For I have given you good teaching,

Do not forsake My Torah.

It is a tree of life to those who grasp it,

and those who support it are blessed.

Its ways are pleasant ways and all its paths

lead to peace.

Cause us to return to You, Adonai,

and we shall return.

Renew our days as of old.

BLESSED

Fortunate are those who dwell in Your house,

May they always praise You. Selah!

Fortunate the people whose lot is thus,

Fortunate the people for whom

Adonai is their God.

A Psalm of David

I will exalt You, my God, the King,

and I will bless Your Name forever and ever.

Everyday I will bless You and extol Your Name

forever and ever.

Adonai is great and highly extolled

and His greatness is without measure.

Generation to generation will praise Your works

and Your mighty acts they will declare.

Upon the splendor of Your glorious majesty

and the words of Your wonders

I will meditate.

Of Your awesome acts they will speak.

And Your greatness I will recount.

The memory of Your great goodness

they will eagerly tell, and of Your righteousness

they will shout joyfully.

Adonai is gracious and compassionate,

slow to anger and great in lovingkindness.

Adonai is good to all

and His compassions are upon all of His works.

They will give thanks to You, Adonai,

all for Your works and Your devoted ones

will bless You.

The glory of Your kingdom they will declare

and of Your power they will speak,

to make known to the sons of men

His power and the majestic glory

of His kingdom.

Your kingdom is a kingdom for all time

and Your rule is in every generation.

Adonai supports all who fall

and straightens all who are bent down.

The eyes of all look with hope to You

and you give to them their food in due time.

You open Your hand and satisfy

the desire of all the living.

Adonai is righteous in all His ways

and kind in everything He does.

Adonai is near to all who call upon Him,

to all who call upon Him in truth.

The desire of those who fear Him

He fulfills and their cry for help He hears

and He deliver them.

Adonai guards all who love Him

but all the wicked He will destroy.

Adonai’s praise my mouth will speak

and all flesh will bless His holy Name

forever and ever.

And we will bless God from now and forever.

Hallelujah!

HALF KADDISH

It is traditional to end a major section of the service

by reciting the half kaddish.

Leader: Exalted and sanctified be His great Name

in the world which He created according to His will,

and may He rule His kingdom in your lifetime

and your days, and in the lifetime of all the

House of Israel, quickly,

and in the near future, and say Amen.

May His great Name be blessed forever and forever.

Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted and

lifted up and honored and elevated and extolled

be the Name of the Holy One,

He is blessed above all the blessing and hymns,

praises and consolations which we say in the world

and say, Amein.

ALEINU [Alternative]

It is traditional to bow on the words “We therefore bow . . .”

We are duty-bound to praise the Master of all,

to ascribe greatness to the One Who created

from the beginning,

that He called us from the nations of the earth,

and chose Israel as His family, a treasured people,

from whom we learned about YHWH our God.

We are Your people whom You redeemed.

We therefore bow and worship and give thanks

before the King, the King of kings, the Holy One,

blessed be He! On that day,

Adonai will be One and His Name One!

ALEINU [Traditional]

We are duty bound to praise the Master of all,

to ascribe greatness to the One

Who created from the beginning,

that He did not make us as the nations

of the lands, and did not place us

as the families of the earth;

since He did not assign our portion as theirs

nor our lot like all of the masses.

We therefore bow and worship and give thanks

before the King, the King of kings, the Holy One,

blessed is He! On that day,

Adonai will be One and His Name One.

For they bow to vanity and nothingness

and pray to a god who cannot save.

LET US ADORE

Let us adore the everliving God

and render praise unto Him

Who spread out the heavens

and established the earth

and Whose glory is revealed

in the heavens above

and Whose greatness is manifest

throughout all the earth.

He is our God.

There is none else!

MOURNER’S KADDISH

Exalted and sanctified

be His great Name in the world which

He created according to His will

and may He rule His kingdom

in your lifetime and in your days,

and in the lifetime of all the house of Israel,

quickly, and in the near future,

and say, Amein.

May His great Name be blessed forever and ever.

Blessed and be praise, glorified and exalted,

and lifted up and honored and elevated and extolled

be the Name of the Holy One,

He is blessed above all the blessing and hymns,

praises and consolations which we say in the world

and say, Amein.

May there be much peace from heaven,

and good life upon us and upon all Israel,

and say Amein.

He who makes peace in His heights

may He make peace upon us and upon all Israel

and say, Amein.

AARONIC BENEDICTION

Leader: Adonai bless you and keep you,

Adonai shine His face toward you

and be gracious to you.

Adonai lift up His face toward you

and grant you peace.

All: May it be His will.

BLESSING FOR THE NEW MONTH

May it be Your will, Adonai our God,

that You renew for us this month

for good and for blessing,

and grant us long life, a life of peace,

a life of goodness, a life of blessing,

a life of sustenance, a life of physical strength,

a life in which there is fear of heaven and fear of sin,

a life in which there is no shame or disgrace,

a life of prosperity and honor,

a life in which there will be love of Torah

and fear of heaven,

a life filled with the wishes of our heart for good.

Amen. Selah.

He who did miracles for our fathers

and redeemed them from slavery to freedom,

may He redeem us soon and gather our dispersed

from the four corners of the earth;

all Israel are companions!and let us say, Amein.

This new month of _____________

which begins on _______________

may it come upon us and upon all Israel

for goodness. May He renew it,

the Holy One, blessed is He,

upon us and upon all His people,

the house of Israel, for life, peace,

happiness, and joy, for salvation and

consolation, and let us say, Amein.

HAVDALAH BLESSINGS

[Close of Sabbath]

Behold, God is my salvation;

I will trust and not be afraid

for my strength and my song is

Yah Adonai,

and He is my salvation!

You can draw water with joy

from the wellsprings of salvation.

Salvation belongs to adonai

upon Your people is your blessing. Selah.

Adonai of armies is with us,

a stronghold for us is the God of Jacob. Selah.

Adonai of Armies—

blessed is the person who trusts in You!

Adonai, save us!

The King will answer us on the day we call.

For the Jews there was light and gladness,

joy and honor, so may it be for us.

The fruit of the vine, I raise up and on the

Name of Adonai I call out:

[Blessing for the wine]

Blessed are You, Adonai, our God,

King of the Universe,

Creator of the fruit of the vine.

[Blessing for spices]

Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

King of the Unvierse,

Creator of all kinds of spices.

[Blessing for the light of the candle]

Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

King of the Universe,

Creator of the light of fire.

Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

King of the Universe

Who divides between holy and profane;

between light and dark;

between Israel and the nations;

between the 7th day and the 6 days of work.

Blessed are You, Adonai,

Who divides between holy and profane.

[After extinguishing the candle in the wine,

Sing a hymn . . . ]

A good week, a good week,

awake of peace, may gladness reign,

and joy increase.

PRAYER WHEN RETIRING AT NIGHT

Blessed are You, Adonai our God,

King of the Universe,

Who brings the fetters of sleep upon my eyes

and slumber upon my eyelids.

May it be Your will, Adonai, my God,

that I lay down in peace and rise up in peace.

May no thoughts or evil terrify me,

nor bad dreams, nor evil fancies disturb me.

And may my bed be perfect before you.

Enlighten my eyes again,

lest I sleep the sleep of death,

for You illumine the pupil of my eye.

Blessed are You, Adonai,

Who illumines the whole world

with His glory.

Almighty, faithful King—

Hear O Israel, Adonai is our God,

Adonai is One! Blessed is the Name!

The glory of His kingdom is for all eternity.

[Read the Shema]

May the friendship of Adonai our God be upon us,

and the work of our hands establish for us.

He who dwells in the shelter of the Almighty,

in the shadow of Shaddai he will abide.

I say of Adonai, He is my refuge and my fortress,

my God in Whom I trust.

For He will deliver you from the snare,

from the destructive pestilence,

with His wings He will cover you

and under His wings you will be secure.

A shield, a full shield is His truth.

You will not fear the terror at night

nor the arrow that flies by day,

the pestilence that prowls in the dark

nor the deadly pestilence that destroys at noon.

A thousand will fall at your left side,

ten thousand at your right side

but it will not come near you.

Only with your eyes will you see it

and view the punishment of the wicked.

For You, Adonai, are my refuge;

You have made the Most High your dwelling.

No evil will befall you,

nor a plague come near your tent.

For He will command His angels for you

to keep you in all your ways.

They will carry you on their hands

lest you strike your foot on a stone.

Upon lion and snake you will tread,

you will trample young lion and serpent.

For to Me he clings, so I will save him.

I will strengthen him for he knows My Name.

He will call out to Me and I will answer him;

I am with him in distress.

I will free him and honor him.

With length of days I will satisfy him,

and show him My salvation;

With length of days I will satisfy him,

and show him My salvation.

PSALM 3

Adonai, how many are my tormentors?

Many are rising up against me.

They are saying about me,

There is no deliverance for him in God.

But You, Adonai, are a shield about me,

My glory, and the One Who lifts my head.

I cried out to Adonai with my voice,

And He answered me from His holy mountain.

I lay down and slept; I awoke,

for Adonai sustains me.

I will not fear ten thousands of people

deployed against me on every side.

Arise, Adonai, save me, O my God!

For You have smitten all my enemies on the cheek;

the teeth of the wicked You have shattered.

Salvation belongs to Adonai;

upon Your people is Your blessing.

Cause us to lie down, Adonai our God,

in peace, and raise us again, our King, to life.

Spread over us the shelter of Your shalom

and establish us in the good counsel

from Your presence.

Save us for Your Name’s sake and shield us.

Remove from us enemy, pestilence,

sword, famine, and sorrow.

Remove the adversary from before us,

and from behind us, and in the shadow of Your wings

protect us, for You are the Almighty

Who guards and delivers us.

Surely You are the Almighty, King,

gracious, merciful.

Guard our going out and coming in

for life and peace, from now and forever.

Blessed is Adonai in the day;

Blessed is Adonai in the night;

Blessed is Adonai when we lie down;

Blessed is Adonai when we rise up.

For in Your hand are the souls

of the living and the dead.

“In His hand is the soul of every life

and the spirit of every human being.”

Into Your hand I commit my spirit,

You have liberated me, Adonai,

God of truth.

Our God Who is in heaven,

make Your Name one

and establish Your kingdom always

and rule over us forever and ever.

May our eyes see and our heart rejoice

and our souls exalt in Your salvation in truth,

when it will be said in Zion,

“You God reigns!”

Adonai is King, Adonai was King,

Adonai will be King forever and ever.

For the Kingdom is Yours

and to all eternity You will reign in glory,

for we have no King but You.

“The angel who redeemed me from all evil,

may He bless the lads and may they be called

by my name and the name of my fathers,

Abraham and Isaac,

and may they multiply like fish

in the midst of the Land.”

And He said, “If you will diligently heed

the voice of Adonai your God,

and do what is upright in His eyes,

and listen to His commandments,

and guard all His statutes,

then all the sickness which I put in Egypt

I will not put upon you,

for I am Adonai your Healer.

Behold, He neither slumbers nor sleeps,

the Keeper of Israel!

For Your salvation I hope, Adonai,

I hope for You salvation, Adonai,

Adonai, for Your salvation I hope!

PSALM 128

A Song of Ascents

How blessed are all who fear Adonai,

Who walk in His ways.

When you eat of the fruit of your hands,

You will be happy and it will be well with you.

Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine,

within your house, your children like olive plants

around your table.

Behold, thus shall the man be blessed

who fears Adonai.

Adonai bless you from Zion,

and may you see the prosperity of Yerushalayim

all the days of your life.

Indeed may you see your children’s children.

Peace be upon Israel!

Tremble and do not sin.

Speak to your heart while upon your bed

and be silent. Selah.

Lord of the world Who reigns supreme,

ere all creation came to be,

when by His will all things were wrought

the Name of our King was first made known.

And when this age shall cease to be,

He still shall reign in majesty.

He was, He is, He will be,

all glorious, eternally.

Incomparable, the Lord is One;

No other can His nature share;

Without beginning, without end,

to him all strength and majesty.

He is my living God Who saves

my Rock when grief or sorrow falls

my Banner and my Refuge strong,

my cup of life where’re I call,

and in His hand I place my life,

both when I sleep and when I wake.

And with my soul and body too;

God is with me, there is no fear.

THE SEVEN BLESSINGS

1. Blessed are You, Adonai our God

King of the Universe,

Creator of the fruit of the vine.

2. Blessed are You, Adonai our God

King of the Universe,

Who created everything for His glory.

3. Blessed are You, Adonai our God

King of the Universe,

Who formed mankind.

4. Blessed are You, Adonai our God

King of the Universe,

Who formed mankind in His image,

in the image of His likeness;

and formed for him from his own self,

a wife forever.

Blessed are You Adonai,

former of mankind.

5. May the barren one rejoice and exalt

in the gathering of her children

to her midst with joy.

Blessed are You, Adonai,

Who causes Zion to rejoice

with her children.

6. Give abundant joy

to these beloved companions

as You gave joy to Your creation

in the Garden of Eden of old.

Blessed are You, Adonai

Who gives rejoicing to

the groom and the bride.

7. Blessed are You, Adonai our God

King of the Universe,

Who created joy and rejoicing,

groom and bride, exultation and song,

pleasure and delight, love and companionship,

peace and friendship.

Soon, Adonai our God,

may there be heard in the cities of Y’huda

and in the streets of Yerushalyim

the sound of joy and rejoicing,

the voice of groom and bride,

the sound of grooms’ jubilation

from their chuppah

and of young men from their feasts of song!

Blessed are You, Adonai,

Who causes the groom to rejoice

with the bride.

PRAYERS AND BLESSINGS

Prayer for Travelers

May it be Your will, Adonai our God,

and God of our fathers,

that You lead us to peace,

guide our footsteps to peace,

make our way toward peace,

and bring us to our desired destination

for life, happiness, and peace.

May You rescue us from the hand

of every enemy or ambush on the way,

and from all kinds of trouble

that happen in this world.

Send blessing upon all

the work of our hands

and grant us grace, lovingkindness,

and mercy in Your eyes

and in the eyes of all who see us.

Hear the voice of our supplication,

for You are the Almighty Who hears

prayer and supplication.

Blessed are You, Adonai,

Who hears prayer.

WE THANK YOU

Blessings of Thanks

before and after Meals

[Revised from First Fruits of Zion Pamphlet]

The Torah commands us to bless God after we eat.

Added to this collection are also other ancient meal prayers from believing communities of the late 1st and early centuries.

Blessings Before Eating

Blessed are Your, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with Your commandments and has commanded us about the washing of hands.

Blessed are You, our Father, for the life and for the knowledge that You have made known to us through Your Torah. Yours is the glory and the power forever.

Blessed are You, O LORD, our God,

King of the universe,

Who creates different kinds of nourishment.

Who brings out bread from the earth,

Who creates the fruit of the vine,

Who produces the fruit of the tree,

Who creates the fruit of the ground.

by Whose word all things have come to be.

Blessings After Eating

1. We thank You, our holy Father, for Your Holy Name

that You have caused to dwell in our hearts,

and for the knowledge, faithfulness and life that You have made known to us

through your revelation –the TORAH —

Yours be the glory forever.

2. You, O LORD of Legions, created all things for the sake of Your Name;

You gave nourishment and drink for human beings to enjoy,

in order that they would give thanks to You.

You also bestowed upon us spiritual nourishment and drink.

And for all things, we thank You, because You are powerful,

Yours is the glory forever.

3. Remember, O LORD, Your people of faith,

to rescue us from all evil and to make us complete in Your love.

May grace come and may this world pass away.

Hosannah to the God of David!

Everyone who is holy, let him come.

Everyone who is not let him repent.

Amen.

4. Blessed is our God from whom is our sustenance,

and by Whose goodness we live.

Blessed is He and blessed is His Holy Name.

5. Blessed are You, our God, King of the universe,

Who nourishes the entire world with goodness, grace, devotion, and compassion.

He gives bread to all flesh, for His devotion is eternal.

Because of His great goodness we have never lacked,

and we shall never lack nourishment forever and ever.

For the sake of His great Name, for God provides for and nourishes all,

Who does good to all and prepares nourishment

for all of His creatures which He has made.

6. We thank You our holy Father, for Your holy Name

that You have caused to dwell in our hearts, and for the knowledge,

faithfulness and the pattern for living that You have made known to us

through Your Torah. Yours is the glory forever.

Blessings on any Occasion

Host and Hostess

The Compassionate One, may He bless me

[and my husband/wife, and my offspring]

and all that is mine:

Guests: The Compassionate One, may He bless

[my father] the master of this house,

[my mother, my teacher] the lady of this house,

them [guests] and their household, their offspring,

and all hat is theirs:

Us and all that is ours, just as our fathers were blessed–

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob —in everything, from everything,

with everything. So may we all be blessed together,

with a complete blessing.

Let us say: Amen.

In the heaven’s above, may their case and ours be heard,

that there may be a preservation of peace,

and may we bear blessing from the LORD,

and righteous acts from our God who saves;

may we find grace and be perceived well

in the eyes of God and man.

Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the universe,

Who crates numerous souls with their needs,

for all that You have created in order to give life to every living soul.

Blessed is the Life of the ages.

Q & A, NEVIIM - The Prophets

Q&A: “Israel prophecy” – “veiled in obscurity”?

September 16, 2019 s1n4i600o-adm1n-d3v Leave a Comment

Image from www.bloomsbury.com

[This was first posted in 2015; since then, it has become the most clicked post of all time. Why? We’re not sure, but read through and find out for yourself.—Admin1]

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If you’ve clicked our search-aid post titled “YO, searchers, can we help you? “ you will read the day-to-day entries of searchers which we post, including the articles that are intended to address their query. We get a lot of good search terms and a few weird ones we can’t address, perhaps accidentally landing on our website. Occasionally, a searcher keeps repeating his entry: either he keeps landing on this website and not finding the answer, or he did find the answer right here —- we just didn’t know we’ve already provided it and he’s simply coming back for more info. Such a one started like this:

3/20/14 Q: ”origins of prophecy in israel veiled in obscurity discuss” We answered this post showing a bit of annoyance because of the words “veiled in obscurity”:

A: Think about this: if you were God, YHWH the Revelator on Sinai, the Creator who gave instructions to the first couple, spoke to Cain, Noah, Abraham and others—-would you not make your instructions CLEAR as clear as can be?

What is the point of giving “prophecies” to be fulfilled in the future if the recipient or hearer at the time it was given has to guess what it means?

Why would the Self-revealing God who speaks through his human mouthpieces, the prophets of Israel, “veil in obscurity” the important declarations He would want His people to understand? No, No, NO!

Surely in communication, YHWH is perfect and wishes the recipients of His messages to understand, specially if it has to do with JUDGMENT! The purpose of sending prophet after prophet to HIS PEOPLE, was to remind them to return to Him, to His Torah, to live it individually, in community, and as a ‘chosen’ people whose lifestyle the nations who were not privy to the Torah (as yet) would envy.

He says so in Davarim or Deuteronomy, for instance 28:9-10.

YHVH will establish you

to be a people holy to him,

as he swore to you,

when you keep the commandments

of YHVH your God and walk in his ways.

Now when all the peoples of the earth see

that the name of YHVH is proclaimed over you, they will hold you in awe.

The prophecy/revelation is “obscure” only for those with eyes but cannot or refuse to see, with minds but refuse to disengage it from previous religious orientation. Why not simply read the books on the prophets of Israel with a Hebrew mindset and in the context of Israel instead of looking for justification for futuristic religions unrelated to these prophecies.

Religionists misinterpret the declarations of Israel’s prophets because of their religious agenda. Fortunately, we have posts from the literary perspective, whereby the commentators understand figurative language and stick to simple reading rules applicable to any piece of writing, including the Hebrew Scriptures. Please check these out:

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Surely that would have more than satisfied the searcher, or so we thought . . . but wrong thought, for on 3/27/14, this Q was entered again:

“what were the views that the origins of israel prophecy remains veiled in obscurity”

So, we wrote this A to that second Q:

A: Pasting a previous answer to this same query, this was posted 3/20/14 [and the whole answer was repeated.]

Don’t get us wrong, we love PERSISTENT seachers, they remind us of . . . US! We will never quit searching and studying to our dying day! We certainly can relate to them so we’ve cultivated the virtue of patience in answering the same question as many times as we need to, in other ways, specially if the previous one was not satisfactory. However, this third time around, we discovered it was one of our own sourcebooks that provided this searcher the phrase he kept entering.

And so, this was our third round:

3/28 Q: ”discuss the view that the origins of lsraelites prophecy remains veiled in obscurity” –

A. This is the third time this search phrase has come up, most likely by the same searcher. We’ve answered it on two different dates; however, it turns out that the post from which “remains veiled in obscurity” comes from is one of our sourcebooks titled: The Prophets of Israel – Christian Perspective. Ay, ‘there’s the rub’ (as Hamlet would say). What’s the ‘rub’? ”Christian Perspective.”

This is the problem with reading phrases/sentences/verses/texts in isolation, without the context or outside of the context. Guilty, as charged.

In the context where the phrase is embedded, it is understandable that Curt Kuhl the author of the recommended book explains that at his time of writing his book, his sources were limited: [highlighted and reformatted for emphasis]:

The lack of precise data for the dating of individual prophets, and still more for the dating of the many isolated utterances, has rendered our task all the more difficult. On the other hand the defective nature of what has come down to us has become all the more perceptible.

Notice:

For long periods of time, sources are lacking.
There are thus entire ages of which we have no knowledge.
The origin of Israelite prophecy remains veiled in obscurity.

All the information we possess on many a prophet (especially in the earlier monarchy) consists either in brief utterances or in narratives of a legendary nature which are insufficient to give us a true picture of the prophet and his work.

But let us not leave it at that; here’s part of his concluding statement: [highlight and bracketed comments ours]:

Yet the greatness of the prophets of Israel

and their significance for religion and spiritual life

does not lie in these prophecies

but in the lofty and exceptional knowledge of God

that the best of them possessed. [AMEN!!]

Their call and their other mysterious spiritual experiences bring them to the knowledge of God as a living powerful Person, the One whose almighty will rules in righteousness and love over the lives and destinies of nations and men. His holiness and majesty bring home to man what a vast distance separates him from God.

It is true that the prophets were unable to save their people from downfall and could not prevent its religion from degenerating into cultic religiosity and legalism [S6K: a Christian misperception resulting from their NT writers].

Yet they preserved the faith of their people during and after the Exile. Form of worship, moral action and social sensibility–the particular expression of these is not fundamental.

What is authoritative and decisive is

a new vision and knowledge of God

leading the nation and men one by one

into a new spiritual attitude to Him

which must then be expressed

in their life and their faith.

It is our understanding and reading of the Hebrew Prophetic books that there was no “new” vision and knowledge of God by the time of the Prophets—there was simply a reiteration of all that the God on Sinai had already revealed to the first generation of Israelites and gentiles mixed among them and reiterated to the 2nd generation that entered the Land. This supports the Sinaite’s conclusion that the Sinai Revelation was complete in the sense that all that humankind needed to know in relating to the One True God and to one another is there; in fact, condensed in the Decalogue. But to Israel, more instructions would be given about the Priesthood, the Tabernacle, dietary laws and Israel’s feasts, how to treat the nations, etc. as they moved forward to their historical destiny as the chosen firstborn to model YHWH’s Torah lifestyle.

What might have been “new” are the judgments that were to fall on Israel and Judah if they refused to obey . . . and worse, if they did not repent: judgments of being overtaken by gentile powers and being exiled to lands that practiced idolatry. In effect, ‘give them what they want, the gods of the nations’, but at what cost! And it is not as though these warnings were not already embedded in the five books of Moses, reiterated just before the 2nd generation born in the wilderness were about to enter and conquer the Land with Joshua and Caleb. All of this is repeated in Deuteronomy with new applications relating to living in the Land. YHWH had revealed Himself and His Way of Life to Israel and repeatedly emphasized the importance of their keeping the Covenant and obeying His Torah.

For what? To keep this way of life and the Name of their God exclusively to themselves? No, on the contrary . . . to start the Torah movement . . . a way of living, YHWH’s guidelines for Israel and the nations. But He had to start with an identifiable people—

who will be different,
be ‘other’,
be His ‘servant’,
His ‘son’,
be His model community
where individuals are ‘other’-centered instead of ‘self’-centered.

And most of all, direct all nations to the One True God, the Self-revealing God on Sinai—that is the objective and purpose of having a ‘chosen’ among vast humanity.

After their dismal track record of repeated disobedience as their own Historical-Scriptures/Kings-Chronicles attest to, Israel’s Prophets were merely sent to redirect them back to YHWH and His Torah.

Like a firstborn son, Israel was taught from the start but unfortunately learned the hard way because of disobedience resulting judgment. Eventually, to recover and retain its Covenant legacy after it had lost its Land and Temple though not its God and His Torah, the religious remnant of Israel started over with a strict religion “Judaism.” Indeed the pendulum had swung the other way, perhaps to an extreme but indeed, better safe than sorry.

Why does Christianity call a strict observance of YHWH’s Torah “legalism”? As long as one did not add to the original Torah, one is simply obeying.

Is obedience to YHWH’s Torah “legalism”? Is YHWH’s Torah a “burden,” a “load,” a “yoke” around one’s neck?

To the Christian, yes, because their NT scriptures had declared it thus. The culprit? ‘Thus saith Paul of Tarsus’ whose teachings in his epistles dominate Christian theology and in fact is virtually the ‘creator’ of a new religion that became known as ‘Christianity.’

Where can one find ‘Thus Saith the LORD YHWH?’ Back to basics, the original Sinai revelation, the TORAH.

What part of “HEAR” don’t we still get, oh Jew, oh Gentile?

Image from www.calvarychapelcartagena.org

JOURNEYS, Q & A

To a former bible student . . .

September 16, 2019 s1n4i600o-adm1n-d3v Leave a Comment

[A visitor just clicked this post which made me review it; indeed time for a repost.

First posted in 2012; it encapsulates one Sinaite’s journey from Christianity to the Sinai Revelation. The occasion for this repost is — there are a handful of Christians curious about the beginnings of Sinai 6000, specifically the Sinaite who is actively interacting with them. Here’s the original Introduction:

Since there has been so much ground covered in the 800+ (Update: 1010 as of 2017) articles here, we are reprinting selected ones that have gotten buried in the file. They bring us back to the beginning of our Sinai pilgrimage, circa 2010 and add to the explanations of why we are where we are today in terms of leaving our former Christian faith and venturing into the Hebrew Scriptures and embracing the God of the Sinai Revelation.

This was an exchange of emails between NSB@S6K and a young person to whom she was a resource person for New Testament studies; therefore, he was among the first to whom she declared her change in direction from Christ-centered beliefs. Date of email: October 2010; date when first posted: April 6,2012.

—Admin-1.]

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Q: You’ve always said that you answer only those who ask…so Im asking.

The implications of your “confession” sound serious, if Im reading this right.

The foundations of my belief, as much as I think I could stand alone, are very much rooted in what you have taught me through the years (or God through you)…so this could a bit of a test for all of us I guess. I’ll pray for you…

Answer:

So [name witheld], I finally get your attention. Yes, the implications are serious indeed; you read it right. I owe it to you and others to correct what I taught you so bear with me on this one.

How did I get to where I am now? And exactly where am I now in terms of my belief system?

The answer to ‘HOW’ is rooted in a promise in God’s Word, specially in the “Old” Testament which I will now call by its acronym “TNK”, which is replete with declarations like—

“you will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”

[Jeremiah 29:12-14]

While that was specifically directed to God’s chosen people in exile, I hold on to that declaration because I have chosen the God of the chosen people.

God promises that true seekers will find Him. He has provided the compass, His UNADULTERATED WORD. And the key word is UNadulterated.

Who are the true seekers? Those who don’t get boxed in by religion; who dare challenge doctrinal creeds; who don’t just swallow teachings and interpretations that have been passed on for generations without investigating the source of those beliefs. Not a great position to be in, right? You pit yourself against centuries of unquestioned religious authorities and accepted church tradition.

All my life as a “christian” (believer in Jesus Christ as Savior, the Way, the Truth, the Life), I read the bible and listened to preachers and teachers from different christian denominations. I didn’t feel confident enough to study on my own, and even if I did, I simply read everybody else’s interpretation. Who was I to question anything?

I did wonder why Christianity is so diversified and can’t get it together; christians don’t agree among themselves; and they all think they’re right and accuse each other of being wrong. They brand anybody “cultic or heretic” who dares to deviate from the doctrinal summary decided in the Council of Nicea (325 CE), re-stated a few centuries later in the “Apostle’s Creed”. That statement of faith includes belief in the Trinity, in Jesus as Incarnate (fully human/fully divine), the church as God’s fellowship of “saints”, etc. All catholics memorize the creed; google it as well as Council of Nicea under Emperor Constantine. You’ll see the seeds of Christian doctrinal statements. I never questioned any of the “givens” in that creed before.

Later as a dropout from catholicism, I tried to fit in other churches and small fellowships, but the teaching couldn’t satisfy my spiritual hunger. I got tired of shallow Sunday preaching and sometimes felt I knew more than the preacher and eventually just quit going to church, but continued studying on my own. I called myself a “floating christian”, a bible-believing follower of Jesus Christ.

Enter Messianic Judaism. As its name suggests, it is supposedly “Judaism” that has accepted Jesus Christ as Messiah. [What’s the word for that, oxymoron?] A strange religious mix that is not acceptable to Jews, and not understood by Christians who called it ‘legalistic’. MJs restudied their Jewish roots and in the process, came up with a theology that attempts to correct everything that’s wrong with Christianity. They returned to the Biblical Sabbath, Saturday. They say the one and only covenant God ever made with mankind through the nation/people of Israel is still in force. There’s more to this than I can explain here; let’s just say it’s a good introduction to more in-depth study of the neglected “Old Testament” part of the Christian bible.

As much as I could figure, Messianics took it upon themselves to restudy and reinterpret New Testament according to Hebrew thinking, Hebraic culture, Hebrew language, Israel’s history, etc. They restored Jesus to his Jewish roots, reminded all that the Bible is Jewish, written by Jews from OT to NT, that you have to think Jewish when you read it.

Messianics opened my eyes to “Replacement Theology” which says that Christianity developed a theology that replaced everything that the God of Israel gave to its convenant nation/people. Like what?

Well, for one, Sabbath was no longer Saturday but became Sunday (day of worshipping the sun god) but gave a “christian” explanation, because Jesus resurrected on a Sunday. They started calling it “The Lord’s Day” instead of Sabbath.
For another, supposedly the church inherited all the promises to Israel because the chosen people failed their God and crucified their Messiah; so the church became the “New Israel.”
They labeled the Hebrew Scriptures as Old to suggest it’s obsolete or “not for us”, and called their scriptures as New, meaning relevant today! They even claimed the old covenant with Israel is passe, God made a new covenant with the church, the New Israel.
They say we are under “grace” and not under “law”, so all the Laws given on Sinai are to be dismissed, including dietary prescriptions.
The church said the Feasts of Leviticus 23 are not applicable to Christians:
- They replaced Passover with “Easter”; replaced the week long Feast of Unleavened Bread with “Holy Week.”
- They replaced the Feast of Tabernacles (September) with Christmas and put the birth-date of Jesus on December 25, the feast day of the Roman sun god.
- They replaced the Feast of First Fruits with Resurrection Sunday.
- They renamed the Feast of Shavuot (Weeks) with the Greek word Pentecost and made it the day of outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Plus a lot of other replacements, hence “Replacement Theology”.
- Add to this the similar theology of Supersessionism, meaning, the church superseded Israel in everything.

With messianic teaching, I thought I finally understood the whole bible from Genesis to Revelation and felt confident enough to share it; it gave me a working understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures [TNK], relating it to everything in the New Testament where prophecies were fulfilled ‘to a T’.

I stopped short of joining the local messianic group in Baguio because I’m just not ‘churchy’ and felt it was yet another religious commitment. Instead, I continued studying on my own.

Thinking that christian history books would enhance my knowledge further, I started reading several versions of Christian history. Why read different versions? History, like a newspaper account, is not really an objective accounting of events because it is written from the point of view of a historian. There are historians who are faithful to the facts they record; there are others who inject their interpretation. If a catholic wrote it, you get the catholic twist. If protestants wrote it, it’s a bit different. And so on. Then there are secular historians, simple scholars who just record as much as they can . . . without an agenda . . they’re the ones to take more seriously. You can tell who’s who. Reading different histories of christianity taught me a lot about the roots of the faith. Pagan Rome which persecuted Jews and believers in Jesus developed into Papal Rome. Google any christian history on the web. I turned away from Catholicism, only to find out, that its creedal statement in the Council of Nicea were embraced by Protestants as well as Messianics. So what’s wrong with that, you might say, if it’s all based on Scripture anyway, specially from the New Testament? I’ll explain this part another time.

From history, I went on to reading about translations. That further opened my eyes to the fact that versions/translations, again, depend on the point of view of the translator. By the very fact that they have to choose a word equivalent to the original Hebrew or Greek, that alone colors the meaning of a verse, a word. So we end up with so many translations and updated newer and more modern versions. Some translations are colored by the theology of the translators. Catholic Bibles rearrange the 10 commandments, remove ‘no idols’ and split coveting into ‘neighbors’ wives and goods, have extra books not accepted by the Jews as divinely inspired.

Further on translations, it seems there are not only accidental mistranslations, poor translations, intentional mistranslations that influence interpretation for specific doctrinal positions; there are many verses added here there and everywhere that were not in the original texts; but all translations carry these inserted verses–some indicate they were not in the original by italicizing them or adding brackets, some do not. Poor readers hanging on to the Bible as “the very word of God” are clueless!

Study Bibles could be a great help but the notes are, again, written from a doctrinal point of view . . . and those viewpoints differ if you start comparing them. But the maps, diagrams, notes on places, etc. help a lot, if you don’t swallow the interpretation. Some study bibles give 3-4 different interpretations of one verse, take your pick. I know God is clearer than multiple choice, read the TNK!

By the time I got to reading about CANON — meaning, which books are selected to be part of the Bible and declared to be the only ones “inspired by God” and in fact are considered “the very words of God” —-I ran into more eye-opening facts particularly the New Testament canon. There were so many gospels that were written; the early church fathers (associated with the Roman Catholic Church) picked out the 4 in the final NT gospels; their authorship was unknown, so names were superimposed on them. Paul didn’t write all the epistles attributed to him, 3 of them were not really his. Peter didn’t write 1 2 Peter, James didn’t write James. Whoever wrote John’s gospel/epistles/revelation had quite a creative imagination.

The books I recommend for all to read [if you care to receive a list] were written by scholars who studied the language, style, etc. and detailed the problems they encountered in the Gospels. In short, they concluded that the Jesus of history did not say all the things attributed to him; he never claimed he was the messiah or divine; he simply taught like any other rabbi but with a deeper interpretation of the Torah. One study managed to separate his sayings and called them “Q” for quelle. Others claim that the Christ myth developed over centuries in an effort of this new religion to displace everything Jewish (antisemitism)—displace the God of Israel YHWH with the God-Man of Christianity who is more approachable, lovable, because he’s one of us. Lots more to this, very fascinating development when you read detail after detail in these books.

I started researching specific “givens” —- how did a Trinitarian God develop? If the Jesus of history is not the Christ of Christianity, how did this religion turn him into God Himself, eclipsing YHWH of the “Old” Testament . . . by the time you get to Revelation, only Jesus deserves our worship . . . whatever happened to YHWH? What about the virgin birth, the resurrection, Lazarus, crucifixion, etc.? All made up?

I suggest you start reading up yourself on the web. Check www.jewsforjudaism, click FAQ or questions and answers, gives you the Jewish perspective on this Jesus of history whom they reject as Israel’s messiah. For balance, Y-Jesus is a website that offers evidence that Jesus is indeed everything that Christianity claims him to be.

“Hear O Israel, YHWH is God, YHWH is One.”

We never could reconcile the Trinity with that basic self-declaration of YHWH in Deut. 6. When you read TNK, you get to know this wonderful God. He constantly reminds His people to repent and turn back to Him. He’s longsuffering, it takes centuries before He lets the ax fall, and not without prophet after prophet sent to warn His people. When you read Isaiah 56, it talks about how the eunuch and the foreigner can join themselves to Him. I discovered how beautiful TNK is and how well we get to know this AWESOME God through the Hebrew Scriptures. No wonder you couldn’t convince a Jew to believe in the christian version of the Jewish “messiah”, after all it originated from them!

Jesus of history might have been used by YHWH like He used Moses and the prophets. We cannot know for sure from the questionable New Testament. Josephus, the Jewish historian, devotes a few sentences to a ‘chrestus‘ who was crucified by the Romans but since ‘chrestus‘ is simply the Latinized version of the Anglicized ‘Christ’ which means ‘messiah‘, there were men claiming or presumed to be the long-awaited ‘messiah’ of the Jews so yes, that might have been the historical Jesus but who knows for sure? In fact strangely, Josephus has more notes about John (Yohanan) the baptizer and James (Yaakov) than about Jesus.

The virgin birth? Another long story there, but you can read the jewsforjudaism.org website to get an idea.

It is almost pointless to “witness” to former christian/messianic colleagues because we already know how the religious mind works, been-there-done-that. The religious mind is— well—-not open to possibilities different from their creed . . . won’t venture outside of its comfort zone . . . quite content there . . . will read only books that are produced by their own kind, considers everyone else wrong, liberal, sacrilegious to challenge long-held claims. I don’t know why my favorite writer atheist-turned-christian C.S. Lewis did not check this out. I do know Albert Schweitzer challenged it in his book, The Search for the Historical Jesus. My long-time bible teacher called the results of the Jesus Seminar “hogwash” so I didn’t read those books when I had them as early as the mid-1990s. Maybe I wasn’t ready then, but I’ve long passed that stage.

This gives you an idea of where I am at this point. I’m not Trinitarian; I’m no longer a believer in Christianity’s man-god Jesus Christ. I do believe that possibly, a historical Jesus lived, taught, was crucified. I’m not sure where he fits into the scheme of YHWH’s plan, but I no longer think he is ‘the way, the truth and the life’, or that one can only ‘get to the Father except through him‘.

YHWH does not need a cordon sanitaire; before you even seek Him, He’s already sought you! That’s the pattern we see in TNK; He seeks out Adam and Eve, Cain, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, even gentile seers like Balaam, or Cyrus the Great of Persia “My anointed one” (i.e., messiah).

The real ‘good news’ or ‘gospel’ is:

He is found by those who seek Him with all their heart and even if one seeks Him out through man-made religion after religion, the true seeker will get beyond those and find the One True God in His Sinai Revelation, recorded in the Torah portion of the Hebrew Scriptures.

When you’re ready to listen to other issues—is hell eternal or does hell even exist? Is the soul immortal? Is there a devil? What happens when we die? Specific articles address many questions and concerns in our website, there’s much to learn. But for specifics, you have to ask, OK? For now, mind-boggling as this already is, there’s enough to chew and digest or spit out.

As I say to all, you don’t have to believe in any of what I’m saying. What if I’m wrong again? Though I think I will die content and secure in this God-given knowledge. Best to check out your beliefs for yourself; I am confident that YHWH who’s been waiting for awakened seekers will lead them in in their search through all the clues He has left for those with eyes-wide-open who simply need to ‘connect the dots’.

NSB@S6K

TORAH STUDY

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life – Proverbs 11:30

September 16, 2019 s1n4i600o-adm1n-d3v Leave a Comment

Source: jewishlearningworks.org

[First posted on June 7, 2012. The Hebrew Scriptures often communicate divine truths in fictional as well as historical narratives. We read story after story about God in conversation or interacting with men from Genesis through Deuteronomy. Teachings, instructions and laws as well as examples are embedded in these stories. That is why they are so much easier to grasp and remember than theological treatises full of abstract words. Many stories follow one after the other so that sometimes, readers do not know how to distinguish what are historical narratives as well as who are historical figures as opposed to prototypes, archetypes, metaphors, parables.

Christians/Messianics tend to read the bible literally while Jews warn against doing so, teaching instead how to learn to distinguish literal from figurative, to recognize when the language switches from one to the other. Easy for Jews to do that, they read in the original biblical language of Hebrew while we read it in translation.

To 21st century readers, the Torah sometimes reads like a fairy tale told with childlike simplicity. Many find it difficult to relate to details that are not in contemporary experience. For instance, the story about Adam and Eve, the talking serpent, 2 trees. The better way to approach biblical narratives is to expect both literal and figurative within the same story, and learn to determine when you’re moving from one to the other.

We won’t try to elaborate on that rule of thumb here, but try applying it on verses that stump you. In this story of Adam and Eve, think of it as a way of explaining how the first man and woman violated a commandment which resulted in some consequences for them. That the commandment involves a forbidden tree, the name of which immediately gives us a clue that the story is figurative; we see no such tree in this world but we can relate to the temptation to go against a divine commandment and suffer consequences. The other tree mentioned in the story, we also don’t recognize among tree species; however its very name points to a quality and quantity of life if we partake of its fruit.

Here’s an interesting perspective offered by a Jewish website that teaches Torah living as well as how to read and understand Hebrew. –Admin1].

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What will give us eternity?

The tree of life appears in two aspects in the Hebrew Bible.

For me until now, as a Biblical Hebrew teacher, I was thinking only about the first one that is found in the Garden of Eden’s story. The eternity is the option to live forever, the option of immortality, the outcome of eating two fruits, the forbidden one and the one that we couldn’t reach.

When you read the story in Genesis 2-3, the tree of life is not the hero. We can find the tree of life three times in the story.

The first time is in Genesis 2:9:

“וַיַּצְמַח יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים, מִן-הָאֲדָמָה, כָּל-עֵץ נֶחְמָד לְמַרְאֶה, וְטוֹב לְמַאֲכָל–וְעֵץ הַחַיִּים, בְּתוֹךְ

הַגָּן, וְעֵץ, הַדַּעַת טוֹב וָרָע.”

“And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”

The tree of life is found between two trees, The one Adam could eat and the one that he couldn’t. The only information about this tree we can assume is its location in the garden. He is not an outsider; he is inside the garden without any doubt.

Rashi mentioned in his commentary that the tree is the middle of the garden. Ramban added that the tree of knowledge was also located there and that the tree of life has fruits that gave long life and not eternity. One of the sages of Israel said in Genesis Rabbah that the tree could live for 500 years (the long life is actually for the tree and not for the man!)

When the story ends the tree appears one more time as written in Genesis 3:22-24–

“וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים, הֵן הָאָדָם הָיָה כְּאַחַד מִמֶּנּוּ, לָדַעַת, טוֹב וָרָע; וְעַתָּה פֶּן-יִשְׁלַח יָדוֹ, וְלָקַח גַּם מֵעֵץ הַחַיִּים, וְאָכַל, וָחַי לְעֹלָם. וַיְשַׁלְּחֵהוּ יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים, מִגַּן-עֵדֶן–לַעֲבֹד, אֶת-הָאֲדָמָה, אֲשֶׁר לֻקַּח, מִשָּׁם. וַיְגָרֶשׁ, אֶת-הָאָדָם; וַיַּשְׁכֵּן מִקֶּדֶם לְגַן-עֵדֶן אֶת-הַכְּרֻבִים,

וְאֵת לַהַט הַחֶרֶב הַמִּתְהַפֶּכֶת, לִשְׁמֹר, אֶת-דֶּרֶךְ עֵץ הַחַיִּים”

“And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”

Here it states clearly that if the man would eat from the tree, he will live forever and would be as G-d and as his angels. Therefore, G-d prevents man of two things: the attendance in the garden itself and the arrival to the tree of life.

However, always the question of how can we live forever is asked.
At the same time, when Plato wrote his beautiful words and fables, sat down another wise man, according to the tradition that was Solomon, and wrote the same idea in the book of Proverbs.

In Proverbs 3:15 it is written:

“עֵץ-חַיִּים הִיא, לַמַּחֲזִיקִים בָּהּ; וְתֹמְכֶיהָ מְאֻשָּׁר”

“She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her, and happy is every one that holdest her fast”

‘She’ is the wisdom and the one who holds it is ‘a tree of life’.

From that verse, I understood that the wisdom has some kind of eternity. When you will learn Biblical Hebrew, you will see that is the difference between the definite article and the indefinite article. However, in this verse, it doesn’t matter– the eternity remains!
The same idea, by the way, appears also in Proverbs 11:30–

“פְּרִי-צַדִּיק, עֵץ חַיִּים…”

“The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life…”

When a person is wise and righteous he lives forever, even if he is not with us. His ideas, his actions and his behavior were, are and will be a model to us!

MUST READ

The Sabbath: A Tabernacle in Time

September 14, 2019 s1n4i600o-adm1n-d3v Leave a Comment

[First posted March 21, 2013, we never tire of revisiting excellent posts.—Admin1]

Image from einron.hubpages.com

Abraham Joshua Heschel called the Sabbath a “Sanctuary in Time.” This article calls it a “Tabernacle in Time.“

Sanctuary, Tabernacle, the idea is much the same, suggesting an ‘appointment’, as in a ‘date’ or a dimension of time that has been set as a permanent day to meet with the Lord of the Sabbath who first celebrated the Sabbath on creation week,, the Creator God who as Revelator and Law-Giver reiterates it as the 4th commandment on Sinai as part of His Covenant with His Chosen people Israel.

The Sabbath is the one day of the week to look forward to as though we are entering that movable, portable Sanctuary/Tabernacle in the wilderness that no longer exists in space, or the Temple in Jerusalem that likewise no longer exists in the Land; instead, as AJHeschel proposes in his book, in the Sabbath we enter a dimension of time set apart (“sanctified” or “made holy”) by the Creator Himself who “blessed” this day and made it His permanent “appointment” as in “date” with anyone who would meet with Him by obeying the 4th Commandment:

Remember the Sabbath to make it holy.

Q: How does one ‘sanctify’ or ‘make holy’ a specific time or day of the week?

The Hebrew ‘qodesh’ simply means ‘set apart’.

Here is an excellent article by Rabbi Shraga Simmons from one of our highly recommended links aish.com, who explains the Jewish understanding and strict observance of this 4th commandment. We have much to learn from the people who take this commandment seriously and plan their lives around the Sabbath.

We need not follow the details of their chosen traditional way of observing the Sabbath, we may simply enter that time dimension and make it special in our lives in our own distinctive way that works in our culture and that holds special meaning to us and the like-minded community we celebrate it with.

Realistically, we live in a Sunday system so it is difficult for those who work on Saturday to strictly observe a 24-hour “rest from our labors” but just think about it, even a slave in Egypt who could not find respite from back-breaking labor required by Pharaoh can enter the ‘Sabbath rest’ in his spirit and consciousness, worshipping the God of the Patriarchs who later, after the exodus from Egypt introduces Himself as YHWH on Sinai. We should not be surprised if indeed, the day the liberated slaves met with Him was on the appointed set apart Shabbat!

Think about it this way:

YHWH tells us to write in our appointment book that He will meet with us on the Sabbath.

We say we’re busy, we’re working, we’re not available for whatever reason, so we reset the appointment date and say we’ll just meet with Him on another day, maybe Sunday when it is convenient for us.

Well, He set the appointment date to begin with, He does not commit Himself to meet us another day except on the Sabbath.

How important is it to Him?

He makes it the 4th commandment relating to Him, while allowing us to rest from the work we do 6 days a week.

We could always take a a rest on any other day, right? But the Sabbath is the Sabbath, we may not change that dimension in time. It begins at sundown Friday (erev Shabbat ) and ends at sundown Saturday (havdalah).

If you haven’t done so, start adjusting your thinking and spiritual consciousness to entering this special time with the God of the Sabbath, and discover the blessing that comes with obedience.

NSB@S6K

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Vayakhel (Exodus 35:1-38:20)

Shabbos: Tabernacle of Time

Let’s start with a fun Torah riddle:

Some mitzvot we perform through the act of eating (e.g. matzah on Passover),
while other mitzvot we perform by thinking (e.g. Torah study).
Some mitzvot we perform by speaking (e.g. the Shema),
while others we perform by hearing (e.g. blowing the Shofar on Rosh Hashana).
But there are certain mitzvot we perform by immersing ourselves totally – i.e. where our body is completely surrounded by the mitzvah. Try to guess what they are before reading on…

Four Immersions

There are four mitzvot that involve total bodily immersion:

Sukkah – on the holiday of Sukkot, the mitzvah is to be completely enveloped by dwelling in a Sukkah.
Mikveh – at appropriate times, we completely immerse ourselves in the purifying waters of the Mikveh.
Land of Israel – it is a mitzvah to be physically located in the Land of Israel.

These three are similar in that they are all immersions in a particular place.

The fourth answer? Shabbos.

When Shabbos comes, we immerse in a new dimension, a dimension of time. In this way, Shabbos is qualitatively different. Rather than a holy place that we must travel to, Shabbos is a holiness that comes to us, once a week, every week. And while we can always walk away from a Sukkah or leave the Land of Israel, Shabbos has a stability and permanence that transcends the limitations of space. It’s an anywhere-in-the-world, expense-free vacation. No travel agent required.

Holy Substance

But what is “holiness” anyway? In Hebrew, kedusha has the connotation of separate and distinct. We make Kiddush on Friday night to distinguish between Shabbat and the weekdays. And Kiddush in, the word for marriage, is so named because the one I marry is designated for a unique status, vis-a-vis every other person in the world.

Holiness, no matter which form it takes, is a metaphysical substance which our souls can perceive. A few years ago, I had just returned to Israel from a two-month trip to America. I flew back to Israel one Wednesday, and had not been off the plane for more than a few minutes, when I saw someone pick up a pen and begin writing. Instinctively I said to myself, “Hey, we don’t write on Shabbos!” Then I realized it was Wednesday.

Puzzled, I came to comprehend that the experience of arriving back in Israel had given me a surge of holiness – and I’d intuitively associated it with the feeling of Shabbos. The form may have been different, but the substance was the same. For as Israel is holiness in space, Shabbos is holiness in time.

Shabbos and the Tabernacle

At the beginning of this week’s Parsha, Moses gathers together (“Vayakhel“) the Jewish people and tells them the following:

“You may do melacha during the six weekdays, but the seventh day shall be holy for you… Do not ignite a fire in any of your dwelling-places on the Shabbos day.” (Exodus 35:2-3)

Immediately following this, the Torah describes the tasks necessary for building the Tabernacle – the single holiest site in Judaism. In fact, the remaining 100-plus verses of our parsha are a lengthy, detailed description of the Tabernacle construction.

Why does the Torah so starkly juxtapose building the Tabernacle with the mitzvah to observe Shabbos?

Because Shabbos and the Tabernacle are one and the same. They are both links to a transcendent dimension. During the Jewish people’s 2,000 years of exile from the land following the destruction of our Holy Temple, Shabbos served as our sanctuary, the place to restore and refresh our perspective in a world often hostile to Torah values. As it is said: “As much as the Jews have kept Shabbos, Shabbos has kept the Jews.”

Microcosm of Creation

But the connection between Shabbos and the Temple is much deeper. In the verses quoted above, the Torah forbids “melacha” as a violation of Shabbos. This is puzzling because except for the reference to igniting fire, nowhere else in the Torah is there any definition of “melacha.” Imagine Moses coming down from Mount Sinai and telling the people not to do melacha – under penalty of death. The first thing I’d want to know is: What’s melacha?!

The Talmud (Shabbos 73a) explains: The Torah juxtaposes Shabbos and the Tabernacle to teach us that those activities used to construct the Tabernacle, are the very same activities that are forbidden on Shabbos. For instance, since the Tabernacle involved sewing, we don’t sew on Shabbos; since it involved cooking, we don’t cook.

Sounds arbitrary? Hardly. The kabbalists explain the connection as follows:

Since God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh, in our effort to emulate God we must likewise rest on the seventh. But in what way did God rest on the seventh? We first need to know what creative acts God did during the six days.

Here is N Betzalel, chief architect of the Tabernacle, understood the blueprint for its construction only because he understood the code of Creation. In fact, the name Betzalel means “in the shadow of God.”

Therefore as the microcosm of creation, the activities performed in constructing the Tabernacle exactly parallel those acts performed by God (so to speak) in creating the world. Since the Tabernacle involved writing, we emulate God’s rest by not writing on Shabbos.

Prohibited Shabbos activities – “melacha” – are different from a secular definition of “work.” Because on Shabbos we don’t refrain from “exertion,” we refrain from “creative acts.” For example, it may be permitted on Shabbos to carry a heavy box from the basement to the attic, but at the same time it is forbidden to strike a match. Moving the box involves no change in the creative state of the object, whereas lighting the match clearly does.

Peace and Harmony

The effect is profound. On Shabbos, as we cease to create, we no longer feel the need to compete with the world around us.

The Torah specifically chooses “igniting fire” as its lone example of melacha, because it epitomizes the divisive, combustive energies Shabbos seeks to avoid. Instead of imposing our will upon the world, we are in harmony with it. We don’t drive a car, work an animal, or even pluck a blade of grass.

On Shabbos, we are all kings. We take advantage of the extra spirituality infused in the Shabbos day to focus on our spiritual goals, which we express through prayer, learning Torah, festive meals, and time spent with family and friends. That is why our parsha is called “Vayakhel,” meaning unity. For one day each week, there is no competition. There is only flow.

Getting a Break

Besides a communal peace, Shabbos brings personal peace as well. Six days a week, modern man is locked in a cycle of cell-phone, pager, e-mail, and fax. Shabbos is our chance to step back and momentarily release ourselves from the grip.

Many years ago, I was interviewing a famous rock star at the height of his career. (Sorry, no names.) “Tell me,” I asked him, “What is the single greatest part of being a rock star? Is it the fame? The money? The world travel?”

He thought for a moment and said, “The best part about being a rock star is going on stage every night.”

Very insightful, I thought. “So tell me,” I asked, “What’s the best part about going on stage every night? Is it the adoring crowd? The thumping music and bright lights? The incredible party atmosphere?”

With all sincerity, he looked at me and said, “The best part about going on stage every night is that no one can reach me on the telephone.”

Here is a man who had everything – money, fame, honor. And all he wanted was a break.

For the Jew, Shabbos is our break. It empowers us – not to discard our workaday world – but to retain our ability to be independent from it. Shabbos gives balance and perspective to our lives and to our week. Just as a cube’s six sides receives form and substance from its solid center, so too, the six days of our week are balanced by Shabbos, the inner dime.

Bringing the Redemption

And it is Shabbos which holds the key to the Jewish future.

The Talmud (Shabbat 118b) reports: “If all Jews were to observe just two Shabbos’ properly, the final redemption would occur.”

Why is it necessary to observe two Shabbos’ properly? Why isn’t one enough?

There is a world of difference between the first Shabbos and the second. A Shabbos observed in isolation would surely be spiritually uplifting, but this is not the type of Shabbos which would lead to redemption. More than a single day, Shabbos must “spill over” into the ensuing week, elevating all our actions and thoughts.

Shabbos is not the end of our week, rather it is the midpoint and source of energy. The second Shabbos, approached after a week so influenced, is completely different. It marks a spiritual apex, not a spiritual island. This is the type of Shabbos whose observance will bring about redemption. This is the Shabbos of a week, and a world, uplifted. (see Kedushas HaLevi, Ki Sisa 31:13)

And this is the great and permanent peace for which our people yearns.

At sundown this Friday, take a minute and try the following exercise: Clench your fists tight for 60 seconds. Then let go. That, my friends, is Shabbos.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Shraga Simmons

OPINION, Exodus/Shemoth

Laws on stone, why not in heart and mind and lifestyle?

September 14, 2019 s1n4i600o-adm1n-d3v Leave a Comment

Image from www.toonpool.com

[First posted in 2015. According to biblical history, what happened once upon a time on the mountain of Sinai.? Here are some thoughts about what happened there.—Admin1.]

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Ponder this: what did the original tablets given to Moses look like?

The Creator who made this perfect universe chooses to produce one more item made from already existing material; the first time he did this was when he formed “adamah” (representative humanity) from the dust of the earth. This time He produces for Moses 2 stone tablets on which He metaphorically inscribes with His ‘handwriting’, (in Hebrew alphabet presumably), the essence of divine standards for how adamah, ‘humanity created in His image’ should live.

The connection between the two is subtle but significant and should not be lost on clueless readers, so let us spell it out:

The Creator who now appears as Revelator intended the created being made from existing dust to live according to a set of guidelines, ‘laws’ if you will, that the Law-Giver Himself determines for the only creature made in His image.

Free will and choice are intertwined in yet another test of acceptance . . . or non-acceptance, imposed no longer upon two human genders (first man and woman) but this time upon two categories of people (the ‘chosen’ that will become Israel, and non-chosen non-Israelite) in the “mixed multitude” liberated from Egyptian bondage, now assembled on Sinai, waiting for “what next?”

Let us not miss the message; the lesson (not the non-existent devil) is in the details.

Now back to the original set of tablets given to Moses, ‘ready made’. Moses had no participation in this first set. Just think: what would tablets made by YHWH Himself look like and would their appearance mean something?

What are we getting at?

Would the material of the tablets reflect the place where virtually every human being starts—rough, raw, imperfect in his earthly ways?
Or would the material represent the TORAH-transformed life, when a person’s mind and heart is seared by the very commandments of his new Master so that he willingly applies these to his conduct?
Or, would the material reflect the longings of the human heart to be perfect, a material of supreme value that demonstrates the human ideal, the highest he could aspire for?

Are we reading too much in this simple narrative? Perhaps not, literary critics of the Hebrew Scriptures point to the remarkable characteristic of the language, the narrative style, in effect — “so much meaning in so few words.” It is for the reader/listener/receiver of the message to connect the dots.

Image from ccmlbv.tumblr.com

While googling free images of the Ten Commandments, there was as usual, quite a variety to choose from, reflecting the creative imagination of bible illustrators: from rough looking rectangles with rough uneven shapes, to polished perfect tablets with the familiar rounded-top.

Now remember that this is the 1st original divine-issued tablets, not the 2nd human-hewn available desert material Moses had to reproduce later after he had broken the first pair.

Ponder these:

Why is this discussion bothering to focus on the material of the two tablets instead of on the more important Message from the Creator/Revelator/Law-Giver Who identified Himself as YHWH? Of course the message is more important but don’t overlook the peripherals, the unstated or understated message.
Just think: has any other god (albeit non-existent in reality but existent in human idolater’s minds) from antiquity issued commandments that have survived to this day as the supreme guide for ideal conduct for all humankind? Some ancient religious cultures do claim so but theirs have not reached universal acceptance and application. In fact these TEN have been widely embraced and even enshrined in important government edifices (specially in court buildings) in democratic societies.

Unbelievers and skeptics today don’t even realize the source of democratic ideals they adhere to as they live moral and ethical lives.

Perhaps the most interesting image that turned up in google is the biggest structure that landed in the Guinness World Records and which, ironically, is right in the home city of our core group of Sinai 6000:
.

A boy looks at the world's largest tablet of the ten commandments on display in Baguio City, north of Manila

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/philippines-gets-worlds-largest-ten-commandments-143349108.html

TEXT: A building-sized edifice carved with the Bible’s Ten Commandments was unveiled Wednesday in the Philippines, making it the largest tablet of its kind, according to Guinness World Records.
The tablet, a copy of the rules supposedly handed down by God to Moses on Mount Sinai, was inaugurated by city officials on a hill overlooking the northern resort city of Baguio. A local religious group, donated the imposing 152.90 square metre (1,650 square foot) tablet to the city as they were presented a certificate from Guinness World Records:

“This beautiful and divine edifice will serve to drive away the evils of spirits that time and again emerge,” said Baguio Congressman Bernardo Vergara at the inauguration. “May it drive away evils of illegal drugs, gambling, prostitution.”

The religious leader who sponsored the project, Grace Galindez-Gupana, topped her previous world record, attained in 2009 when she built a similar 65-square-metre tablet on a hill outside Manila.

The blog that followed this article and image is typical of the controversy that arises from any discussion of the 10 Commandments. Why is this so? The first reaction is usually about which version was used in the text, the Catholic version or the Protestant/Evangelical version? Nobody bothers to ask about the original version in the Hebrew Scriptures; isn’t that strange for a religion that claims its adherents are under grace and not law?

The 4th commandment is legible from the photograph, as the Sabbath, so the designers, thankfully, followed the true listing.

Image from suzannepayingattention.blogspot.com

For the local officials to presume that setting up this monument will eliminate the evils in the community without the local government itself acting is wishful thinking and selective; why not throw in corruption, bribery, cheating in elections, misuse of government funds, modern slavery, and not to forget—church-cover up of clerical pedophelia, etc.— to the obvious short list of social evils cited: ‘illegal drugs, gambling, prostitution.”

External reminders are useless when these laws are not internalized and reflected in the lives of the population. Governing leaders, legislators and enforcers of the law have to do their part to eradicate evil and ills in any society starting with being models themselves of the Torah lifestyle, basically the 10 C’s. And more importantly—enforce the laws equally and make sure justice is served.

Jeremiah 31:31 speaks of a “new covenant” which has been misunderstood and therefore misused and misapplied by Christianity to refer to the “new covenant” with them, the “new Israel” as explained all over their “new testament”. When one carefully reads the details (yes, YHWH the LawGiver is in the details), one will see who are the two parties involved in this RENEWED covenant spoken of by Jeremiah.

The parties are the same as in the first covenant on Sinai, on what became the feast of Shavuot (anniversary of the giving of the Torah and virtually the official status of Israel as a recognizable national entity in that ancient world):

YHWH the Law-Giver,
and Israel/the mixed multitude as the Law-Receiver.

What is the original covenant about?

YHWH’s guidelines for living for His people, and that would include any individual outside of Israel who embraces Him, the God of Israel, as God and Lord (gentiles in the mixed multitude who become integrated with Israelites).

What is the renewed or “new” covenant about?

It is still about His TORAH.

That covenant is reiterated in Jeremiah 31:31-34 but what is the difference if there is any?

Instead of being written on tablets of stone, the Law will be written on minds and hearts.

By whom?

Remember Who placed His signature on tablets of stone? That same One. His Signature is in every one of us. That is why every individual born on this earth has a sense of YHWH’s standard of right and wrong, without having heard of Torah, even when he is in another world religion with a different scripture worshipping a god with another name. That sense of right and wrong is inborn, as restated by the Creator-Revelator-LawGiver through His mouthpiece Jeremiah.

That is what Rabbis teach as one of two inclinations in humanity—

the inclination to do good as opposed to—
the inclination to do the opposite of good.

Choice . . . because humanity was divinely endowed with free will which they never lost; humans are not ‘helpless’ and ‘hopeless’ because of ‘original sin’; humans are born in ‘neutral’ condition with the two inclinations; otherwise what is the precious gift of free will for if it cannot be exercised? Further, what use is free will in a context where there is only one choice or none, except the one enforced by the dogmatic terrorizing two-legged religious or secular powers that rule?

The wonder of the God of Israel (the God of the Nations as well) is that He values the gift of free will in humankind so much so, that while He sets the standard of what is RIGHT, yet He allows that supreme standard to be ignored, if not violated wilfully but not without declared consequences. Divine justice works in strange ways! And yet again, the All Powerful God judges wisely and mercifully when the violation is out of ignorance of His Law: ‘unintentional’ sin.

Did you know that the purpose of “sacrifices” and “offerings” at the Sanctuary and later at the Temple were only for unintentional sin? Don’t take our word for it, review Exodus and Leviticus or read more carefully if this is your first time.
The ever gracious God of mercy and compassion even provided ‘cities of refuge’ for cases of homicide, unintentional taking of human life; such places provided for by the LawGiver Himself, where fugitives who accidentally killed could run to as sanctuaries of safety from avenging relatives or tribes. What a righteous and wise and merciful God is our Lord YHWH, indeed!

What about intentional wilful sin?

There is no sacrifice for intentional sin. The requirement for wilful sin, outright disobedience is not substitution of a sacrifice, whether animal or human, substitution for what a sinner himself should be doing for himself!

And what is that? REPENT!

Recognize wrongdoing, ask forgiveness, change heart and mind, and turn 180 degrees from the direction you have always or momentarily taken.

Something or somebody else dying for you does not get you off the hook because IT DOES NOT CHANGE YOU! Only you can make that crucial decision to turn your life around because you can, because you are not helpless to inherited sin and therefore hopeless and dependent on a ‘savior’.

But back to the reiteration of the Sinai Covenant by the prophet Jeremiah —review the text. We provide here the ArtScroll Tanach rendering (we add the Tetragrammaton Name after HASHEM):

[AST] Jeremiah/Yirmeyahu 31:31-34

30 Behold, days are coming– the word of HASHEM {YHWH}–when I will seal a new covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah:
31 not like the covenant that I sealed with their forefathers on the day that I took hold of their hand to take them out of the land of Egypt, for they abrogated My covenant, although I became their Master —the word of HASHEM {YHWH].
32 For this is the covenant that I shall seal with the House of Israel after those days —the word of HASHEM {YHWH}—I will place My Torah within them and I will write it onto their heart; I will be a God for them and they will be a people for Me.
33 They will no longer teach —each man his fellow, each man his brother — saying, ‘know HASHEM {YHWH}! For all of them will know Me, from their smallest to their greatest—the word of HASHEM {YHWH}—when I will forgive their iniquity and will no longer recall their sin.
34 Thus said HASHEM {YHWH}, Who gives the sun as a light by day and the laws of the moon and the starts as light by night; Who agitates the sea so that its waves roar; HASHEM {YHWH}, Master of Legions, is His Name:
35 If these laws could be removed from before Me–the word of HASHEM {YHWH}–so could the seed of Israel cease from being a people before Me forever.

One final point:

Was it only in Jeremiah’s time that the the Law-Giver

intended His Torah to be etched in human hearts and minds?

[EF] Deuteronomy / Davarim11: 18

18 You are to place these my words
upon your heart
and upon your being;
you are to tie them as a sign on your hand,
let them be as bands between your eyes;
19 you are to teach them to your children,
by speaking of them in your sitting in your house,
in your walking on the way,
in your lying-down, in your rising-up.
20 You are to write them upon the doorposts of your house,
and on your gates,
in order that your days may be many,
along with the days of your children
on the soil that YHWH swore to your fathers,
to give them (as long) as the days of the heavens over the earth.
22 Indeed, if you will keep,
yes, keep all this commandment that I command you to observe,
to love YHWH your God, to walk in his ways and to cling to him,
23 YHWH will dispossess all these nations from before you,
and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier (in number)
than you.

Blessed be the God of Israel,

the God of all nations,

the God we, Sinaites, acknowledge,

love and embrace

as the One True God.

Blessed be His holy Name,

YHWH,

the Name we proudly proclaim

in all reverence and awe!

Amen.

NSB@S6K