A Sinaite’s Musical Liturgy – 4th Sabbath of February

Image from judaism.about.com

Image from judaism.about.com

KINDLE

THE

SABBATH

LIGHTS 

 

Blessed are You, YHWH, our God,

Who commanded us

to cease from our strivings

and rest on Your set-apart seventh day.

 

Following the erev tradition of Your chosen people,

we kindle these lights on Your Sabbath,

and symbolically invite the light of Your Torah

into the vision of our mind,

our will

and our heart.

 

May this day of rest

be a blessing to us,

as well as to all Sabbath-keepers

all over the world,

Jew and Gentile alike.

For today we set apart

this day to honor You

by obeying Your 4th commandment,

O YHWH,  Revelator on Sinai,

Lord of our Sabbath,

Lord of the Sabbath.

 

 

 

[The God of Abraham Praise/slightly revised lyrics]

1.  The God of Abraham praise,

Who reigns enthroned above; 

Ancient of everlasting days,

and God of love;

Yahuwah, great I AM,

by earth and heav’n confessed,

I  bow to praise the Sacred Name,

be forever blest. 

 

2.  He by Himself hath sworn,

I on His oath depend;

I shall on eagle’s wings upborne

to heav’n ascend;

I shall behold His Face,

I shall His power adore,

And sing the wonders of His grace

forevermore.

Image from www.youtube.com

Image from www.youtube.com

3.  The God who reigns on high,

the great archangels sing,

And “Holy, Holy, Holy” cry,

“Almighty King!”

Who was and is the same,

and evermore shall be,

Yahuwah, Thou the great “I AM”

we worship Thee.

 

4.  The whole triumphant host

give thanks to God on high;

“Hail El Shaddai, Almighty God,

they ever cry.

Hail Abraham’s God and mine,

I join the heavenly race,

All might and majesty are Thine,

and endless praise.

Great Are the Lord’s Works

Psalm 111  Praise the Lord!

 

I will give thanks to the LORD

with my whole heart,

in the company of the upright,

in the congregation.

Great are the works of the LORD,

studied by all who delight in them.

Full of splendor and majesty is His work,

and His righteousness endures forever.

He has caused His wondrous works

to be remembered;

the LORD is gracious and merciful.

He provides food for those who fear Him;

He remembers His covenant forever.

He has shown His people the power of His works,

in giving them the inheritance of the nations.

The works of His hands are faithful and just;

all His precepts are trustworthy;

 They are established forever and ever,

to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.

He sent redemption to His people;

He has ccommanded His covenant forever.

Holy and awesome is His name!

10  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;

all those who practice it have a good understanding.

His praise endures forever!

 

 

Image from amightywind.com

Image from amightywind.com

 

[Tune:  Oh how He loves you and me/revised lyrics]

 

1.   Blessings in life come from You,

God Who is faithful and true,

We gather here on this Sabbath, Your Day,

Wine is Your blessing,

Bread is Your  blessing, 

Blessing of Rest on Your day.

 

2.  Joyful are we as we sing;

Praises are due to our King!

You’ve given us all the joy in our lives,

Beloved husbands,

wives,

sons and daughters,

Friendship that last through the years.

 

[Take a moment to quietly name your loved ones:  

parents, siblings, spouse, children, in-laws, extended family, special people]

Image from wallpapercar1.com

Image from www.jspacefood.com

Image from www.jspacefood.com

Image from www.torahstudies.com

Image from www.torahstudies.com

 

HAVDALAH

 

[Borrowed Tune:  Victory in Jesus/revised lyrics for Sinai6000]

1. I heard an old, old story

how our great, great God of glory,

descended on a mountain top on the desert of Sinai; 

He’s chosen all these mountains,

for some reason why, we wonder,

aside from Sinai there are other famous sacred mounts.

CHORUS:  O climb the highest mountain,

so many men aspire,

to conquer heights beyond the reach of common folk like me,

take courage, faint of heart,

these peaks are worth the climb,

when God calls, He enables so leave all results to Him!

 

2.  There is another story 

about another mountain,

where God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son,

unquestioning this Isaac, just followed his father,

he carried all the wood and asked

“but where’s the sacrifice?”

 CHORUS:  O climb your Mount Moriah,

dear Abraham and Isaac,

the same God who appeared on Sinai,

He appeared to you,

you’ve passed the highest testing,

you’ve reached your peak, your mountain,

Moriah is forever etched in scriptural history!

 

3.  There’s yet another mountain

where an ancient priest and king,

Melchizedek of Salem in the book of Bereshith,

this ancient place called ‘Salem’ became ‘Jerusalem,

all pilgrims journey up and sing their psalms, songs of ascent.

CHORUS:  The Temple Mount is there,

where the Glory Cloud once rested,

until it left and lingered on the Mount of Olivet;

This makes us realize,

we have our peaks to conquer,

if God is on the ‘highest mountain’,

let us start our climb!
 

Shabbat Shalom!

In behalf of

Sinai6000 Core Community

based in Baguio City, Philippines

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Вы попали на статью посвященную веб-сайту Гидра. Здесь вы получите первоначальную информацию о магазине моментальных покупок.

Если вы интересуетесь запрещенными веществами или услугами, то рекомендуем вам сохранить данную страницу к себе в браузер, чтобы иметь постоянный доступ к рабочим зеркалам, путем сочетания клавиш “Ctrl+D” вы добавите данную страницу в избранные.

Как зайти на гидру через тор

Сайт Гидра базируется в даркнете – это черный магазин запрещенных услуг и веществ, чтобы попасть на Hydra по онион ссылке, нужно установить специальный браузер: Tor browser перейдите по ссылке для того, чтобы скачать

После того как вы скачали и установили Тор, вы сможете попасть на онион ссылки гидры, такие как:

Тор браузер является безопасным браузером для произведения покупок на hydra shop. Данный специализированный браузер отлично подходит для гидры, так как он защищает как покупателей, так и продавцов не сохраняя никакого следа в сети и не записывая историю посещений. В тор браузере постоянно включен VPN, это позволяет пользователям не беспокоиться о своей конфиденциальности.


Гидра сайт для обычного браузера

Зеркала гидры также есть и для обычных браузеров, это делается для тех, кому нужно очень быстро совершить покупку и нет возможности или желания париться с установкой Тор браузера. Данный способ менее безопасен, но мы всё-также заботимся об анонимности наших посетителей и используем двухфакторное шифрование. Мы рекомендуем дополнительно использовать различные ВПН для посещения черного магазина. Для того чтобы посетить Гидру с обычного браузера используйте данные ссылки:

tor.hydra2w3b.org

Теги:гидра, гидра сайт, рабочее зеркало гидра, гидра ссылка, как зайти на гидру, гидра маркет, гидра магазин, способ обхода, обход блокировки, тор гидра, гидра анион, рабочая гидра, гидра сайт в тор браузере, гидра правильная ссылка

Гидра сайт

Магазин моментальных покупок Гидра на протяжении нескольких лет держит первенство среди подобных магазинов, благодаря своей простоте и заботы об безопасности клиентов, магазин гидра набирает обороты с каждым днем.

Гидра маркет дает вам возможность приобрести любой запрещенный товар, который вы только сможете представить, но конечно в основном это наркотики. Ассортимент на торговой площадке Гидра онион обновляется регулярно, за этим следит наш торговый сервис.

Также, на сайте действует команда по контролю качества – это очень важная составляющая гидра сайта, потому-что именно за качество наших товаров нас и любят. Служба по контролю качества, каждый месяц выбирает некоторое количество магазинов и заказывает их товар под видом обычных покупателей, затем делают его оценку, экспертизу в хим. лабораториях и выдвигают окончательный вердикт. Сравнивается качество указанное в описание и подтвержденное самим продавцом на маркетплейсе гидра, с тем что получают люди при заказе, если же есть какие-то отклонения от описания или от нормы дозировки, то решения всегда критические – магазин из торговой площадки Гидра анион удаляют. Благодаря таким мерам, мы повышаем качество товара на очень высокий уровень, количество постоянных клиентов только растет, тем самым привлекая всё больше продавцев на веб-сайт Hydra.

Теги: ublhf vfufpby, ublhf ccskrf, ublhf cfqn, ublhf jybjy, ublhf cfqn d njh ,hfeptht

Q&A: Original Sin and Psalm 51:7

[First posted in 2012. Christians are soon entering the Lenten season, a time when individual introspection is done.  This article might help in understanding the belief that because of Eve’s violation of the rule to eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, that all her progeny are damned with  “original sin” which, if you think about it, was originally Eve’s and Eve’s alone . . . so why does the God of Christianity condemn every child born since then? Isn’t each individual responsible for his/her wrongdoing? The Rabbi here explains the Jewish perspective.—Admin1]

 

 

Question:   If there is no such thing as “original sin”, then please explain this verse: Psalm 51:7 “Behold in iniquity was I fashioned and in sin did my mother conceive me.”

 

Answer:  Rabbi M. Younger/Aish.com

 

Shalom –

 

If one uses “original sin” to mean that all individuals are decreed to damnation unless they believe in the Christian “savior”, that is totally antithetical to Jewish belief. We believe that God presents challenges and that we have the capacity and responsibility – and hence the reward and punishment – to overcome these challenges.   But, if you ask me if there are certain innate drives/forces in a person that are counter-spiritual I will say yes. We are definitely made of a physical component and that part of us makes demands and is part of the challenge. One formulation of our challenge is that our goal is to make our souls master over our bodies.   And there are things that are matters of environment. One who is born in South Bronx will have challenges presented  that are on a “lower” level (e.g.whether or not to mug someone today) than one who is born into Jerusalem aristocracy. The Almighty accounts for that when given the final reward! When one seeks to repent he must minimally fulfill four criteria:   *

 

Regret. Realizing the extent of the damage and feeling sincere regret. * Cessation. Immediately stopping the harmful action. * Confession. Articulating the mistake and ask for forgiveness. * Resolution. Making a firm commitment not to repeat it in the future.   Part of cessation is to be able to identify root causes that induce one to sin. It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles. Realizing that we are formed in a way that is inimical to pure spirituality is a matter of knowing the enemy…..

 

For further study,   read “The Real Messiah” by Rabbi Aryeh  Kaplan

 

You may also want to check out:

 

http://messiahtruth.com/response.html http://www.jewsforjudaism.org/ http://drazin.com/ http://www.outreachjudaism.org/

 

The last, in particular, has a section “Let’s Get Biblical” and essays on original sin that you may find useful.

 

The latter is at http://www.outreachjudaism.org/articles/original-sin.html

 

I hope that this has been helpful.

 

With blessings from the Holyland.

A Sinaite’s Liturgy – 3rd Sabbath of February

Image from www.youtube.com

Image from www.youtube.com

KINDLE THE SABBATH LIGHTS

 

From the heart of the Creator

Who shows His love for humankind

by preparing a universe–

a perfect environment

 to sustain all forms of life;

What better message

and best proof of Divine LOVE

could humanity expect

than His Created world which,

in His Divine providence,

He designed not only as ‘good’

but ‘very good’!

 
Image from creativedesignsbyteresa.com

Image from creativedesignsbyteresa.com

The stage was set

before the the first of humanity

entered the scene.

What an all wise Creator

is our God of Love,

YHWH,

Blessed be His Holy Name!

 

With each setting of the life-nurturing

and light-giving sun,

the Master Designer of the universe

reminds us that a new day begins,

not facing another day to labor,

but winding down to a good night’s rest.

 

And at the end of our six day work-week,

rises the Queen of Days

just as His sun sinks in the horizon

from our view,

signaling it is time

to kindle the Sabbath lights!

And whether alone

or together with family or friends,

we reflect on the

Wisdom of Divine Providence

that fill the days of our lives

with messages of love

from the very heart of our great God

YHWH,

Praised be His Holy Name.

 And as if all that the Creator had prepared

for humankind were not enough,

by His grace

and because of His love for us,  

created beings He made in His image,

He did not leave us ignorant of

His Will,

His Wishes

and His Way —

designed for humanity

to live with one another,

connected always to Him

through His Tree of Life,

His Revelation in His TORAH,

which He gifted to humanity

through His chosen people,

that they might live in peace and harmony

in the Land of Promise,

where their way of life

would be visible to the nations,

so that Gentiles in all nations would be drawn

to His Way,

and to HIM

Who expressed His Will and Wishes

for all.  

Truly, our God YHWH,

has shown His great love for us,

by blessing us with His TORAH.  

Praised be His Holy Name!

 

Psalm 145

 A song of Praise, of David

[revised and combined from ESV and AST]

I will exalt You, my God the King,

and I will bless Your Name forever and ever.

Every day I will bless You 

and praise Your Name forever and ever.

Great is YHWH, and greatly to be praised,

and His greatness is unsearchable.

Each generation will praise Your deeds to the next

and of Your mighty deeds they will tell.

On the glorious splendor of Your majesty,

and on Your wondrous deeds,

I will meditate.

And of the might of Your awesome deeds

they will speak,

and Your greatness I shall relate.

They shall pour forth

the fame of Your abundant goodness

and shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.

YHWH is gracious and merciful,

slow to anger

and abounding in steadfast love.

YHWH is good to all,

and His mercies are all on His works.

All Your works shall thank You,

O YHWH,

and your devout ones will bless You!

They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom

and tell of Your power,

to make known to the children of man

Your mighty deeds,

and the glorious splendor of Your kingdom.

Your Kingdom

is an everlasting kingdom

and Your dominion endures

throughout all generations.

[YHWH is faithful in all His words

and kind in all His works.]

YHWH upholds all who are falling

and raises up all who are bowed down.

The eyes of all look to You,

and You give them their food in due season.

You open Your hand,

You satisfy the desire of every living thing.

YHWH is righteous in all His ways

and kind in all His works.

YHWH is near to all who call on Him,

to all who call on Him in Truth.

He fulfills the desire of those who fear Him;

He also hears their cry and saves them.

YHWH protects all who love Him,

but all the wicked He will destroy.

May my mouth declare

the praise of YHWH,

and may all flesh bless

His Holy Name

forever and ever.

Image from www.lotterypost.com

Image from www.lotterypost.com

All ye Gentiles of the nations, 

all Truth-seekers

and

true seekers of the One True God. . .

Come sip the wine, come taste the bread,

Come share the joy of Sabbath celebration!

We seek YHWH’s blessings upon–

our food,

our fellowship,

and our family.

Image from ovalezoval.blogspot.com

“Family is not always blood.

It’s the people in your life

who want you in theirs.

the ones who accept you for who you are.

The ones who would do anything

to see you smile

and love you no matter what.”

[Name your family members:

 parents, siblings, spouses, children, extended family.]

  May their names,

and all our names,

be written in the Book of Life!

May the breath of life

from the Source of Life

sustain and nurture our life

day by day, week by week,

from Sabbath to Sabbath,

until each of us have fulfilled  our function

on this earth, in this life.  

When we know Him,

YHWH,

as the One True God,

then we make His Name known

to those who, like us,

seek Him with all their heart

and all their mind

and all their substance.  

They will find Him,

just as we have found Him.  

Hear O Yisrael,

hear O Gentiles of the Nations:

YHWH is LORD,

YHWH is One.  

YHWH is the Creator,

the Revelator on Sinai,

the God of Israel,

the God of Sinaites,

God of the Nations!

And whether anyone acknowledges Him or not,

YHWH is GOD!

 

 

 

Sabbath Meal

Image from ilearnch.com

Image from ilearnch.com

TORAH STUDY

 
Image from www.cllnswbpgfx.com

Image from www.cllnswbpgfx.com

 

 

HAVDALAH

 [Note:  Sonnet 43  was written by  Elizabeth Barrett Browning;  

 we are borrowing her poetry to express our love for YHWH our God, 

but with revisions to suit  a Sinaite’s creed]

How Do I Love Thee? 

How do I love Thee?

Let me count the ways.

 

I love Thee

to the depth and breadth and height

my soul can reach,

when feeling out of sight,

for the ends of being and ideal grace.

 

I love Thee

to the level of every day’s most quiet need, 

by sun and candlelight.

 

I love Thee freely,

as men strive for right;  

 

I love Thee purely,

as they turn [to] praise.

 

I love Thee

with the passion put to use

in my old griefs,

and with my childhood’s faith.

 

[I love Thee

with a love I seemed to [never have lost

despite the passing of time];

 

I love Thee

with the breath, smiles, tears,

of all my life;

 

[And if Thou,

YHWH

so choose to grant me my eternal rest],

 I shall but love Thee

[even to my end in this life.]

 
Image from www.scrapsyard.com

Image from www.scrapsyard.com

 

 

 

SHABBAT SHALOM!

On behalf of —

Sinai6000 Core Community

based in Baguio City, Philippines —

Sig-4_16colors

 

 

 

 

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A Sinaite’s Musical Liturgy – 2nd Sabbath of February

[February being ‘heart month’, it is fitting to devote this 2nd Sabbath of the month to love for God and fellowman.  How  best to express it?  In song of course; and so, another musical celebration of the Queen of Days.

Since we love Christian music which we’ve been used to when we belonged to that ‘religion’, we adapt the music but revise the lyrics to suit a Sinaite’s creed. 

 If you know the tune of the songs, a capella works; if not, reciting the lyrics also works, but there’s nothing like singing the hymns; after all, that’s why we alternate our recited and musical liturgies every other Sabbath. —Admin1.]

Image from www.mairie-sainttriviersurmoignans.fr

KINDLE THE SABBATH LIGHTS

 

 Music: As the Deer – Psalm 42

 

[As the Deer is a well-known praise and worship song by Martin J. Nystrom, a native of SeattleWashington. Written in 1981, this song is based on Psalm 42:1

 Music we love, words we expand in this rewrite of the lyrics.]

 

1.  As the deer pants for flowing streams,

oh how my soul pants for You, my KING;

You alone fill my heart’s desire,

praise for You, love for You, I sing!

You alone are my strength my shield,

To You alone may my spirit yield,

YAHUWAH,

 You’re my LORD and MASTER,

on Your words, my whole life I build.

 

2.   You are One and the Only GOD,

 yes all the more You are my KING;

I love you, yes there is no other,

 love You more than most anything.

You alone fill my heart, my mind,

 in You alone does my spirit find . . .

peace of heart and true peace of mind,

 oh how I leave all my doubts behind.

 

3.  I want You more than gold or silver,

only You can satisfy.

Only You are the real Joy-Giver;

 live without You, oh how could I?

Fill my life with Your Living Word;

 oh fill my mind with Your Will,

Your Word,

Love for You shows in how

I live my life for You,

only You, my LORD.

Soul Thirst

Water color art by Sinaite Dan R., now based in Houston TX

 

Deuteronomy 10:12-19

 

Fear YHWH~

 

12 And now, Israel,

what does YHWH your God ask of you

but to fear YHWH your God,

to walk in obedience to him,

to love him, to serve YHWH your God

with all your heart and with all your soul,

13 and to observe YHWH’s

commands and decrees

that I am giving you today for your own good?

14 To YHWH your God belong the heavens,

even the highest heavens,

the earth and everything in it.

15  Yet YHWH set his affection

on your ancestors and loved them,

and he chose you, their descendants,

above all the nations—as it is today.

16 Circumcise your hearts, therefore,

and do not be stiff-necked any longer.

17 For YHWH your God

is God of gods and Lord of lords,

the great God, mighty and awesome,

who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.

18 He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow,

and loves the foreigner residing among you,

giving them food and clothing.

19 And you are to love those who are foreigners,

for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.

 

 

Deuteronomy 11:13-22

13 So if you faithfully obey the commands

I am giving you today—

to love YHWH your God

and to serve him with all your heart

and with all your soul—

14  “then I will send rain on your land in its season,

both autumn and spring rains,

so that you may gather in your grain,

new wine and olive oil.

15  I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle,

and you will eat and be satisfied.

16  Be careful,

or you will be enticed to turn away

and worship other gods and bow down to them.”

17  Then YHWH’s anger will burn against you,

and He will shut up the heavens

so that it will not rain

and the ground will yield no produce,

and you will soon perish from the good land

YHWH is giving you.

18  Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds;

tie them as symbols on your hands

and bind them on your foreheads.

19  Teach them to your children,

talking about them when you sit at home

and when you walk along the road,

when you lie down and when you get up.

20  Write them on the door-frames of your houses

and on your gates,

21  so that your days and the days of your children

may be many in the land

YHWH swore to give your ancestors,

as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.

22  If you carefully observe all these commands

I am giving you to follow—

to love YHWH your God,

to walk in obedience to him

and to hold fast to him . . . .

 

 

“I Love You Lord”/Revised Lyrics

[For an interesting background of this song ” written by Laurie Klein:  aliveworshipexperience.blogspot.com/2007/12/test_9934.html‎.]

 

Vs. 1 [Original Lyrics]

I love You LORD

and I give my own to worship You,

O my soul rejoice

Take joy, my KING in what You hear,

Let it be a sweet, sweet sound in Your ear.

 

Vs. 2  [Sinaite]

How can I show my deep love for You,

do words suffice from a heart that’s true,

must action show all of what I know,

In my lifetime will I prove my true love for You.

 

 

BLESSINGS

Image from www.bellybytes.com

Image from www.bellybytes.com

[Original music: We Gather Together to Seek the Lord’s Blessing,

Revised Lyrics]

 

1.  We bless You YAHUWAH,

 the Source of our joy

as we welcome Your Sabbath,

the Queen of all days!

This wine that we drink

and this bread we share together,

Like manna and the water

that flowed from the Rock.

 

2.  Much joy to our lives

does Your blessed Rest bring us,

We rest from our labor,

we rest from our toil;

Just as You commanded,

just as You modeled for us,

We bless Your Sabbath day,

the Queen of all days.

 

 3. We thank You dear FATHER

for blessing our family,

The husbands and wives

who are with us today,

Beloved who’ve left us,

our loved ones who are with us,

Our sons and daughters all,

wherever they be.

 

4.  How bless-ed are we

to be with one another,

Of one heart and mind,

we’re devoted to You,

We honor Your Sabbath,

You’re LORD of our Sabbath,

We bless Your Holy Name,

YAHUWAH our KING.

Image from www.topazhorizon.com

Sabbath-join-us
Image from www.wunderland.com

Image from www.wunderland.com

 

HAVDALAH

 

[ “Ceaseless Praise,” Music by Tom Fetke

Original Lyrics by Frances Ridley Havertal]

 

1.  Take my life and let it be

consecrated LORD to Thee;

Take my hands and let them move

at the impulse of Thy Love;

at the impulse of Thy Love.

2.  Take my feet and let them be

swift and beautiful for Thee;

Take my voice and let me sing

always only for my KING,

always only for my KING.

 

2.  Take my lips and let them be

filled with messages from Thee;

Take my silver and my gold,

not a mite would I withhold,

not a mite would I withhold.

3.  Take my love my God I pour

at Thy feet its treasure store,

Take myself and I will be

ever, only, all for Thee,

 Thine forevermore to be.

 

1101

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shabbat shalom!

Sig-4_16colors

 

 

 

 

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A Sinaite’s Liturgy – 1st Sabbath of February 2020

KINDLE THE SABBATH LIGHTS

As earthly time moves oisn

to the second month of the Gregorian calendar year,

we remember how the Creator instructed the Israelites to reckon time:

For the day ,

it is the visual setting and rising of the sun,

from sundown to sundown.

For the week ,

there is no visual reminder except for the Sabbath keeper

to keep track of days one to six,

so that all may know that on the seventh,

we welcome the Queen of Days:

We enter the dimension in time

of the TRUE LORD of the Sabbath,

YHWH,

a ‘timely’ memorial to the Creator and His Creation,

Who ceased from His creative work,

not because He was tired or needed rest,

but because He had completed His Creation to perfection,

which He declared not only ‘good’ but ‘very good’!

It is a Sabbath as well

for the first man and woman

–representative humanity–

a day to cease

from earthly strivings and concerns, 

from labor and toil to provide rest for body and mind;

and to remember and welcome

the Lord and His Sabbath

into one’s heart and home,

in the company of family and loved ones,

in fellowship with like-minded believers

and worshippers of —

YHWH,

Creator,

Lord of the Sabbath.

As for reckoning time according to the month,

it is the first sighting of a sliver of the silvery moon,

visible to primal humanity,

who had not yet learned how to deal with the passing of time on earth.

20180131135743_875033

[http://time.com/5126611/super-blue-blood-moon-pictures-2018/]

And as though it were not enough to take pleasure in viewing the

weekly,

monthly,

yearly

spectacles in the visible heavens

that all living creatures could take pleasure viewing on ordinary nights,

our Creator surprises us

with more naturally occurring phenomena 

such as the ‘Super Blue Blood Moon Eclipse’ 

which was visible on earth at this time in year 2018,

a rare celestial phenomenon

that had not occurred since 1982,

that was viewed, ‘free for all’, 

by young and old, rich or poor!

Interested or not,  it was there

for the ‘sighted’ who have eyes to see

and hopefully, with spiritual vision as well,

 FOR —

what is the use of being endowed

with eyes and brain,

if neither vision nor intellect 

recognize the existence of

a Designer-

Creator-

First Cause-

GOD,

Who has spoken to humanity

from Sinai,

and Who continues to speak

through His Creation—

YHWH is His Name!

 

Indeed,

what a great God is our Creator,

Who existed before the beginning of earthly time,

Who spoke the world into existence

in Genesis/Bereshith,

YHWH is His Name—

Who cared about His crown of creation,

 Humanity,

Who taught us how to live our precious lives

as measured and treasured moments

on planet earth,

 according to predictable cycles of nature,

in seasons for agricultural guidance,

as early as the culmination of creation week.

 

As we begin a new month,

may we remember to praise 

the Creator of that moon and all the heavenly bodies,

Image from endtimepilgrim.org

the Designer of the luminaries in the heavens,

the Giver of Light to our darkened  world,

the Source of light that illuminates the pathway toward Him.

 

His other ‘light’ on earth is the Torah –

the Way to Life

in the custody of His Chosen People,

His ‘light to the Gentiles.’

 

May the time come

that all humanity

will embrace His Torah

as their Guideline for living

on this planet earth, 

so that all will call upon the Name YHWH,

as the prophets of Israel prophesied 

for the end of the age.

Indeed may that time come soon,

according to His perfect timing!

Blessed be our Creator God, 

True Light of our life,

YHWH,

Blessed be His Holy Name!

 

 

Psalm 8

 

O YHWH, our Lord,

how majestic is Your Name in all the earth!

 

You have set Your glory in the heavens.

Through the praise of children and infants

You have established a stronghold

against Your enemies,

to silence the foe and the avenger.

 

When I consider Your heavens,

the work of Your fingers,

the moon and the stars, which You have set in place,

what is mankind that You are mindful of them,

human beings that you care for them?

You have made them a little lower than the angels

and crowned them with glory and honor.

You made them rulers over the works of Your hands;

You put everything under their feet:

all flocks and herds,

and the animals of the wild,

the birds in the sky,

and the fish in the sea,

all that swim the paths of the seas.

O YHWH, our Lord,

how majestic is Your name in all the earth!

 

 

 Psalm 8

—set to music by Tom Fettke and lyricist Linda Lee Johnson;

Listen to or sing along with this rendition by the UC (University of the Cordilleras) Chorale] as you read the lyrics:

When I gaze into the night skies and see the work of Your fingers;
The moon and stars suspended in space.

Oh what is man, of what is man that You are mindful of him?
You have given man a crown of glory and honor,
And have made him a little lower than the angels.
You have put him in charge of all creation:
the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, the fish of the sea.

O what is man, O what is man that You are mindful of him?

O Lord, our God the majesty and glory of Your Name
Transcends the earth and fills the heavens.
O Lord, our God; little children praise You perfectly,
And so would we, and so would we . . . .

Hallelu YAH, Hallelu YAH!

The majesty and glory of Your name;

Hallelu YAH, halleluYAH

The majesty and glory of Your name;

HalleluYAH, halleluYAH, halleluYAH, halleluYAH

HalleluYAH halleluYAH, hallelu . . . . .

hallelu YAH.

 

 

 

BLESSINGS

Image from ourmotherjerusalem.wordpress.com

Image from ourmotherjerusalem.wordpress.com

Blessed are You,

YHWH our God,

Who created the fruit of the vine,

symbolic of the joy we feel in knowing You,

and in blessing Your Name,

and the joy we derive

in celebrating Your Sabbath,

the joy of fellowship

with like-minded friends,

the joy from family,

the joy in savoring food

to nourish our body,

the joy in living each day —

for the time You have allotted

to each one of us in our lifetime.

 

For the joy of living each precious day

for You,

Who gives meaning to our very existence,

O YHWH,

our Lord and our God,

We thank You!  

To Life,

l’chaim,

mabuhay!

Image from caughtbetweenspaces.wordpress.com

Blessed are You, O YHWH our God,

Who has blessed generation after generation

in our family:

[name them]

grandparents we had the privilege of knowing,

loving parents who participated in the miracle of giving life,

siblings with whom we shared our growing up years,

spouses with whom we united in marriage,

children who are blessings to our lives,

extended members of our family:

in-laws, grandchildren, 

 and household staff who attend to our needs,

May You continue to bless all of them,

including those who are not here with us.

 

It is our desire that all of them 

will come to know You,

love You,

and worship You,

just as we have been privileged 

to experience You

in our lifetime.

 

 

And a special prayer,

 O Lord YHWH,

for the multitudes in Southeast Asia

who are threatened by yet another killer-virus

that have already taken thousands of lives in the

country of China where it originated —

we pray that this plague will be contained

by medical intervention and individual self-protective measures,

in all the areas where the disease has already spread —

we pray for protection for our families, friends, colleagues,

and for ourselves; 

for we know, Lord YHWH,

that when we have done everything on our part

within our ability and capability,

still, we leave the rest to You,

and commit ourselves and our loved ones,

into Your Hands, 

O LORD of LIFE!

Amen.

 

 

SABBATH MEAL

image from judaicafinearts.com

image from judaicafinearts.com

Image from www.haruth.com

Image from www.haruth.com

 

 

HAVDALAH

 

Today, may there be peace within:

peace of mind,

peace in  heart,

peace in hearth and home,

peace in our city,

peace in our country, 

and most importantly —

peace in the Land of Israel,

for all the mixed inhabitants who live there today.

May a true “sabbath”

a ceasing of hostility–

be observed among Israelis and non-Israelis,

and all mixed ethnic, cultural and religious groupings

who are based in the Land of Promise,

find true peace in their lives,

from now and for all time.

 

May the love of our ever gracious GOD, 

LORD and KING,

fill our hearts so fully

that it manifests in our daily life,

finding expressions

in word as well as in deed,

in sharing of ourselves and of our resources

with those in need.

 

May we make a difference

in the lives of others,

that they might see

the Source of our joy

in simply knowing—

the God of Israel,

the God of all nations,

Creator,

Lord and Master of the universe,

Lord of the Sabbath.

Chosen God of Sinaites,

YHWH is His Name!

The Name above all names,

YHWH is LORD,

YHWH is GOD,

YHWH is ONE.

Amen.

 

Image from margaretfeinberg.com

Image from margaretfeinberg.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shabbat Shalom to Sinaites  all over the world,

and to our Christian 

and Messianic friends

to all who celebrate  the True Sabbath,

on the Seventh day of the week!

Sig-4_16colors

 

 

 

 

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GOD’S DOMAIN – The UN-KNOWABLE

[Note:  This is Level 4 of  REVELATION IN A NUTSHELL where we explain the Sinaite perspective on knowledge of God. The scripture verses quoted here are from ArtScroll Tanakh (AST) and His Name Tanakh (HNT) by Benmara, hearoyisrael.net .–Admin1].

 

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GOD’s domain, HIS realm—-Man cannot ever know all that exist on this level, it is simply—

*beyond man’s limited thinking,

*alien to man’s finiteness,

*beyond human comprehension.

 

GOD is infinite, all superlatives apply to Him! 

Man cannot even begin to imagine what GOD is truly like.

 

Isaiah 40:9-31—[AST]

 Ascend upon a high mountain,

O herald of Zion;

Raise your voice with strength,

O herald of Jerusalem!  

Raise it, fear not;

say to the cities of Judah,

‘Behold  your God!’  

Behold, my Lord, [YHWH]/ELOHIM,

will come with [a] strong [arm],

and His arm will dominate for Him;

Behold, His reward is with Him

and His wage is before Him.

 [He is] like a shepherd who grazes his flock,

who gathers the lambs in his arm,

who carries them in his bosom,

who guides the nursing ewes.  

Who measured the waters in His palm,

gauged the Heavens with a span,

measured in a huge vessel the dust of the earth,

and weighed mountains with a scale and hills with a balance?  

 

Who can appraise the spirit of [YHWH],

His man of counsel who informs Him?  

From whom did He seek counsel?

[Who] gave Him insight?

[Who] explained the way of knowledge to Him?

 

Behold, all the nations are like a drop from a bucket

and are reckoned like the dust rubbing off a scale;

behold, He will cast away the islands like dust.  

The Lebanon is insufficient kindling, and its beasts are insufficient elevation-offerings.  

 

All the nations are like nothing before Him;

as nothingness and emptiness

are they reckoned by Him.  

 

To whom can you liken God,

and what likeness can you attribute to Him?  

 

The idol cast by a blacksmith,

[which] a goldsmith overlays with gold

and a silversmith with silver chains?  

The poor man [makes a] selection;

he chooses wood that will not rot,

he seeks for himself a wise woodworker to prepare an idol

that will not fall apart.  

 

Do you not realize?  Have you not heard?  

Has it not been told to you from the beginning?

 Have you not contemplated the foundations of the earth?

 

 It is He Who sits on the circumference of the earth,

with its inhabitants like grasshoppers;

Who spreads the heavens like a thin curtain,

and stretches them like a tent to dwell in.  

Who turns governors into nothingness;

Who makes judges of the land into naught —

as if they were not even planted, as if they were not even sown,

as if their stock was not even rooted in the ground;

even if He were to blow on them they would wither, 

and a storm wind would carry them away like stubble.

 

 To whom can you liken Me that I should be [his] equal?’

says the Holy One.  

 

Raise your eyes on high and see Who created these [things]! 

He brings forth their legions by number;

He calls to each of them by name;

by the abundance of His power and by vigor of His strength,

not one is missing!  

Why do you say, O Jacob, and declare, O Israel,–

-‘My way is hidden from [YHWH]

and my cause has passed by my God’?

 

 Did you not know? Did you not hear?

 [YHWH] is the eternal God, the Creator of the ends of the earth;

He does not weary, He does not tire;

there is no calculating His understanding.  

He gives strength to the weary,

and grants abundant might to the powerless.  

Youths may weary and tire and young men may constantly falter,

but those whose hope is in [YHWH] will have renewed strength;

they will grow a wing, like eagles;

they will run and not grow tired,

they will walk and not grow weary.

 

It is man’s folly to try to put GOD in a ‘religious box’—

    • to confine HIM—

Isaiah 46:5

 To Whom can you liken Me,

or consider equal,

or compare Me

that we should seem alike?

  • try to define HIM,
  • put boundaries that limit HIM,
  • and make conclusions that we have HIM figured out.

Isaiah 55:8  

For My thoughts are not your thoughts

and your ways are not My ways . . .

As high as the heavens over the earth,

so are My ways higher than your ways,

and My thoughts than your thoughts. 

 

  • Unless GOD reveals to man what is on this level, man cannot ever know.—

Job 38:1-2  

[YHWH] then responded to Job fro out of the whirlwind, and said:  

Who is this who gives murky counsel, with words without knowledge?

Gird your loins like a warrior, and I will ask you, and you will inform Me.  

Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?  

Tell, if you know understanding?

 

  • Thankfully,  GOD does indeed care that mankind would know HIM—
    • Who HE is —

Ex. 20:2-7 [AST]

 I am [YHWH], your God,

Who has taken you out of the land of Eqypt

from the house of slavery.  

You shall not recognize the gods of others

in My presence.  

 

    • What NAME HE should be known by —

Ex. 3:13-15  [HNT]

13. And Mosheh said to the ‘Elohiym: behold, when I come to the sons of Yisra’el, and will say to them: the ‘Elohiym of your fathers has sent me to you; and they will say to me, what is His name? What will I say to them?

14. And ‘Elohiym said to Mosheh: אהיה אשר אהיה ‘Ehyeh ‘Asher ‘Ehyeh [To Be As I Choose To Be]. And He said: This you will say to the sons of Yisra’el, אהיה ‘Ehyeh [I Will Be] has sent me to you.

15. And ‘Elohiym also said to Mosheh: thus you will say to the sons of Yisra’el, “יהוה, ‘Elohiym of your fathers, ‘Elohiym of ‘Abraham, ‘Elohiym of Yitschaq, and the ‘Elohiym of Ya’aqob, has sent me to you: this is My Name forever, and this is My appellation, designation and titled memorial to all generations.”

 

  • What HE’s like Exodus 34:6-7.14 [HNT]

5. And יהוה descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and called out His Name: יהוה.

6. And יהוה passed before his face, and called out: יהוה, יהוה mighty, compassionate and merciful, delayed to anger, and abundant in kindness and trustworthiness,

7. keeping kindness for thousands, lifting perversity, rebellion and disobedience and abrogating—  but not completely; visiting the perversity of the fathers upon the sons, and upon the sons of sons, on the third and the fourth.

————————————————

13. But you will break down their altars, and burst their pillars, and you will cut down their ‘Asherahiym;

14. for you will not prostrate nor bow yourself down and respect any other strength: for יהוה, Who is jealous, zealous and protective of His Name, honor, authority and character, is an ‘El that is jealous, zealous and protective!

 

  • What HE requires of the only creature HE made in HIS IMAGE—

Micah 6:8  [AST]   He has told you, O man, what is good!  

What does [YHWH] require of you

but to do justice,

to love kindness

and to walk humbly with your God?—

 

  • And endowed with free will and freedom of choice —-

Deuteronomy 30:15-16 [HNT]

15. See, I have set before you this day life and right, and death and evil;

16. in that I command you this day to love יהוה your ‘Elohiym, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His ordinances that you may live and multiply, and that יהוה your ‘Elohiym may bless you in the land where you go in to possess it.

 

  • GOD condescends and makes HIMSELF known to man—-

Isaiah 48:17 [AST] 

Thus said [YHWH] your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:

 I am [YHWH] your God,

Who instructs you for [your] benefit,

Who guides you in the way you should follow.

 

  • But only to the extent that man can comprehend—

Isaiah 28:9-10,13  [AST]  

To Whom shall one teach knowledge?  

To whom shall one explain a message?

[To] those weaned from [mother’s] milk, removed from the breasts?

For it is commandment by commandment, line by line, line by line, a bit here and a bit there. . .

The word of [YHWH] shall befall them commandment by commandment, commandment by commandment, line by line, line by line, a bit here and a bit there; so that they will go and stumble backward and be broken, and be tripped up and caught.

 

 

This “KNOW ME-Package” that GOD programmed for mankind’s education about HIMSELF is given in the Sinai Revelation: the Decalogue

*written on two tablets of stone

*by the very finger of God

*and more instructions, statutes, laws, commandments,

*teachings recorded by Moses amounting to 613.  

 

Both were placed in the Ark of the Covenant

according to the instructions of the LAWGIVER Himself.

 

 It is wrong to call them the “Mosaic Law” or “Law of Moses,”

for Moses was merely the recording human instrument of

YHWH’s TORAH. 

A Sinaite’s Musical Liturgy – 4th Sabbath of January 2020

Image from www.patheos.com

[The ‘musical Sabbath’ . . . all it means is that instead of reciting prayers, we sing!  As we’ve repeatedly explained, from our Christian roots we have learned to love ImageChristian hymnody but since the lyrics no longer express our new-found faith, we have superimposed our lyrics which are more faithful to the Sinaite’s Creed as based on the teachings of the Torah and directed to YHWH, the Name we declare as the God we worship.  If you’re not familiar with the music, the instrumental accompaniment serves as guide; just make sure you dry-run the accompaniment earlier.   And if all else fails, just recite the lyrics, it works as well.  Have a joyful celebration, dear Sabbath Keeper!—Admin1].

 

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Kindle the Sabbath Lights

 

Blessed are You, YHWH, our God,

Creator of the universe, Revelator on Sinai,

LORD of the Sabbath,

Who sanctifies us by Your commandments, 

Who has commanded us to set apart a day of rest;

Who created the Sabbath Day,

that all humanity might cease from their daily striving,

so that all might spend the time

to reflect on the wonders of Your visible and invisible world,

to ponder the magnificence, marvels and majesty

of the Maker of all that exist;

to thank You,  O YHWH, Giver of Life,

for every breath we take as we live day by day, moment by moment,

on this life-sustaining and beautiful planet Earth!

As we kindle these Sabbath lights,

may we remember to be who we are

as reflectors of Your Light,

and live the life prescribed by Your Torah,

that we might please You in every aspect of our living,

and be a blessing to others,

Amen.

 

[Medley on original music of:  “Open our eyes, Lord”;/”Open my eyes that I may see”/REVISED LYRICS]

Open our eyes, LORD,

to truth we have known not

because we’ve been blinded,

because we have sought not,

Open our ears, Lord, and help us to listen,

the sound of Your True voice

for so long we’ve heard not,

———————

1.  Open my eyes that I may see,

glimpses of Truth Thou hast for me,

place in my hands the wonderful key,

Torah Truth that shall set me free,

silently now I wait for Thee, ready my God,

Thy Will to see,

Light from Thy Truth inspires in me, all I can be.

 

2.  Open my ears that I may hear

only the Truth Thou speakest clear,

and as Thy Words just fall on my ear,

false teachings all but disappear,

all I have learned in previous years, 

gladly I leave them without tears,

so much to hear, what’s there to fear,

God’s Truth—-hold dear.

 

3.  Open my mouth that I may say 

only Thy Truth, from day to day,

open my heart and let me prepare 

words Thou hast taught me thus to share,

so many searching hearts are there,  

seeking minds we find everywhere,

to them we bring Thy MESSAGE clear, 

that they may hear.

 

——————–

[JPS] Psalm 65

Praise befits You in Zion, O God;

vows are paid to You;

all mankind comes to You,

You who hear prayer.  

When all manner of sins overwhelm me,

it is You who forgive our iniquities.  

Happy is the man You choose and bring near

to dwell in Your courts;

may we be sated with the blessings of Your house,

Your holy temple.  

Answer us with victory through awesome deeds,

O God, our deliverer,

in whom all the ends of the earth

and the distant seas

put their trust;

who by His power fixed the mountains firmly,

who is girded with might,

who stills the raging seas,

the raging waves,

and tumultuous peoples.  

Those who live at the ends of the earth are awed by Your signs;

You make the lands of sunrise and sunset about for joy.  

You take care of the earth and irrigate it;

You enrich it greatly,

with the channel of God full of water;

You provide grain for men;

for so do You prepare it.  

Saturating its furrows,

leveling its ridges,

You soften it with showers,

You bless its growth.

You crown the year with Your bounty;

fatness is distilled in Your paths;

the pasturelands distill it;

the hills are girded with joy.  

The meadows are clothed with flocks,

the valleys mantled with grain;

they raise a shout, they break into song.

Image from www.pinterest.com

Image from www.pinterest.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[“Breathe on me, Breath of God”Revised Lyrics]

 

1.  Symbol of joy, this wine,

‘joy’ from our Lord divine,

blessings in life are yours and mine,

let’s all drink  ‘to Life’ —  ‘L’chaim’!

Image from www.illustrationsof.com

Image from www.illustrationsof.com

2. This bread of life we share

nourishing daily fare,

sunshine and water, breath and air,

what more need we ask, it’s there.

3.  More than this wine, this bread,

fam’ly brings so much joy,

husbands and wives, and children dear,

wherever they are, they’re here.

 

4.  Always in mind and heart,

even though we’re apart,

loved ones are precious gifts from God,

From HIM, may they not depart.

 

 

 

 

 

pixrllittleshabbat

Image from www.cllnswbpgfx.com

Image from www.cllnswbpgfx.com

 

Havdalah

[Original Tune: Turn your eyes upon Jesus/Revised Lyrics]

 

1.  Dear seeker of God are you searching 

for truth, for more light, for THE WAY,

look back to the start of your journey,

the map that has always been there . . .

CHO:  Turn your eyes toward Sinai,

that’s where the Almighty was seen,

in the burning bush, in the flashing light

what a vision, a glorious sight!

 

2. If only the world would remember

the Words He had spoken back there,

in the wilderness, out in the desert,

the truth all humanity should hear . . .

CHO: Hear O Israel hear! [or ‘Hear, ye nations all, hear!]

YAHUWAH,  True God, He is One,

You shall love YAHUWAH with all your heart,

all your being,  and all of your might.

 

3.  His Words will not fail you—He promised,

believe and obey and be blessed,

but when there is failure, there’s pardon,

if you would but humbly repent . . .

CHO:  Turn your eyes on the TRUE ‘ONE’,

YAHUWAH the First and the Last,

No one comes before, there are not ‘two’ more,

HE was One, He’s still One, will be One!

Yes, YAHUWAH, Lord God, He’s the ONE!

Image from thejesusnamechurch.wordpress.com

Image from thejesusnamechurch.wordpress.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shabbat shalom!

 

On behalf of Sinai6000 Core Community,

 

 

NSB@S6K

logoSig-4_16colors

 

Revisit: “And just like that, he is no longer alive . . .”

Image from quotesideas.com

Image from quotesideas.com

[First posted January 23, 2016. Written by Sinaite NSB, a commemorative repost paying tribute to a co-founder of Sinai 6000. Reposting because the message is still relevant. —Admin1]

————

 

It has taken time for me to write a farewell tribute to Sinaite VAN.   On January 23, 2016, at age 87, he left our Sinai 6000 original core community to . . .(or so we imagine) . . . finally  meet YHWH our Creator, Source of Life, proclaimed ‘One True God’ by the Hebrew Scriptures which is our chosen source of Divine Revelation.

 

Sinaite LSS had wanted to write her own homage and a sufficient one it is:  Mourning Significant Others

 

So what is this follow-up about?

 

An occasion to address lingering questions about ‘end of life’ and specific concerns of Christian colleagues regarding—

  • the eternal destiny of any individual born into life
  • who does not avail of the saving grace offered by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ
  • by getting under the wide-covering salvation umbrella of Christianity
  • to avoid eternal damnation in a place called hell,
  • where the doomed company of the rebellious/fallen angels, the devil (Satan!) and his cohorts,
  • are condemned to burn together in eternal fire.

 

Alas, for ex-Christians such as we Sinaites who have left the fold, what is our lot?

 

Well, according to the author of the NT book of Hebrews 10:26:

 

[ASV]  For if we sin wilfully

after that we have received the knowledge of the truth,

there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins.

 

Add to that the expanded dire warnings in the concise commentary of Matthew Henry:

 

10:26-31 The exhortations against apostacy and to perseverance, are urged by many strong reasons. The sin here mentioned is a total and final falling away, when men, with a full and fixed will and resolution, despise and reject Christ, the only Saviour; despise and resist the Spirit, the only Sanctifier; and despise and renounce the gospel, the only way of salvation, and the words of eternal life. Of this destruction God gives some notorious sinners, while on earth, a fearful foreboding in their consciences, with despair of being able to endure or to escape it. But what punishment can be sorer than to die without mercy? We answer, to die by mercy, by the mercy and grace which they have despised. How dreadful is the case, when not only the justice of God, but his abused grace and mercy call for vengeance! All this does not in the least mean that any souls who sorrow for sin will be shut out from mercy, or that any will be refused the benefit of Christ’s sacrifice, who are willing to accept these blessings. Him that cometh unto Christ, he will in no wise cast out.

 

(Shiver).  Now before reflecting on a Sinaite’s reaction to threats quoted in no less than NT scripture which is accepted by its adherents as “the very words of God,”  let us first get back to our dearly departed Sinaites and ponder their exit from our midst, as well as imagine the reaction of our Christian colleagues to these so-called “deaths.” Because in the case of those among us who have ‘moved on’,  supposedly it is ‘too late’ . . . so where might they be now?  In our case, we still can ‘repent’ and do the 180-degree-turnabout back to our Christian roots . . . that is, get off the pathway to Sinai and get back to the fork on the road and take the one leading to Calvary.

 

Will we . . . after reaching the point of no return?  Speaking only for myself, I say “hell no!”

 

Seven years ago,  Sinai 6000 unofficially entered the constantly growing number of ‘alternative faith communities’ which do not necessarily fall under the three major world religions that trace their roots to Abraham; namely, Judaism, Christianity, Islam. Within a month of our organizing efforts as a recognizable core community with a specific creed different from all others in existence,  our oldest but newest recruit ‘Ciso’ joyfully danced his last hours celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles on to his Eternal Rest (“And He Called” 2 – Ciso’s Season of Joy).  There was insinuation from our former messianic teacher/leader that Ciso’s ‘death’ might have been  a result of Divine Judgment.  

 

 

In 2013 at the turn of the year,  Sinaite ‘Lorna’ texted her new year message to all her female friends,  a day after celebrating her 40th wedding anniversary . . . then succumbed to a stroke.  Because she was only in her 60’s, again Christian eyebrows raised in wonder why a  vibrant, very fruitful Sinaite who not only contributed many articles to this website but also taught Christian seminarians to reread and restudy their “Old Testament,” would be untimely plucked from her service dedicated to HASHEM [THE NAME, Jewish circumlocution for] YHWH,  her so-recently-rediscovered God.  She even wrote a short post correcting the use of “hallelujah” which should be “hallelu YAH.”  (God is near, do not fear . . . Friend, Sinaite, goodnight)

 

 

Now two years hence, Sinaite VAN inhaled and exhaled his last breath. He had been announcing for six years his desire to exit from this life exactly like his dear friend ‘Ciso’,  on the 7th of  “My (YHWH’s) feasts” commanded in Leviticus 23.    Rather than granting VAN’s oft-expressed wish, the LORD OF THE SABBATH not surprisingly chose a more appropriate day—His declared Day of Rest as early as Creation Week, a weekly occurrence rather than a once-a-year celebration.  Indeed, what grand finale could better signify the LORD of LIFE’s approval of a loyal servant’s finished work than a quiet private departure from this side of eternity to his well deserved Sabbath Rest ?  

 

 

Ecclesiastes 12:7

Thus the dust returns to the ground,

as it was,

and the spirit returns to God

Who gave it.

 

 

To their credit—concerned friends who are leaders/founders of a huge successful evangelical church with ever multiplying membership—attempted a well-intentioned last ditch effort to ‘rescue’ VAN and BAN from their ‘unbelief’:

 

 

From the time of our breakaway from Christ-centered faith, there have been unspoken speculations (we’re merely guessing, knowing how we used to think as former Christians) that the deaths among our very small core community are indicators of Divine Judgment upon the ‘already-saved’ who turn their backs on the Savior.

 

Now think about it:

  • would the God of Righteousness, Justice and Mercy
  • really ‘punish by death’
  • those whom He did not choose (like the Israelites),
  • but who chose Him as LORD (like Sinaites),
  • no matter how late they showed their recognition of YHWH as the One True God
  •  in their non-stop quest to ‘Know God’,
  • a pilgrimage that has taken a lifetime,
  • holding on to Divine declarations in—-
    • [EF] Deuteronomy 4:29  

But when you seek YHWH your God

from there you will find (him),

if you search for him with all your heart

and all your being.

 

  • and [AS] Jeremiah 29:14:

 “You will seek Me and you will find [Me],

if you search for Me with all your hearts;

I will make Myself available to you,

the word of HASHEM [YHWH].

 

The character of the God of Israel whom Sinaites have come to know is defined through His actions as well as His Self-declarations recorded in the Torah, His Book of Life:

 

 

6 And YHWH passed before his face

and called out:

YHWH YHWH 

God, 

showing-mercy, showing-favor,

long-suffering in anger,

abundant in loyalty and faithfulness,

7  keeping loyalty to the thousandth (generation),

bearing iniquity, rebellion and sin, 

yet not clearing, clearing (the guilty),

calling-to-account the iniquity of the fathers

upon the sons and upon sons’ sons,

to the third and fourth (generation)!

 

 

So what has YHWH (“his Lord” as our former messianic pastor referred to VAN’s God ) declared about the destiny of the likes of us or, for that matter, the life of all?

 

 

Here is the developing Sinaite’s view of ‘end of life’ lingering questions.  The reason for bringing this up now is because we have been constantly asked:  “What do Sinaites believe happens after death?”  Specifically, where does one go if he does not embrace the Christian Savior?

 

Sinaites can only go by what is on record as “the very words of God” and we do not speculate beyond what is written.  We have explained in many posts what we consider “Divine Revelation” and that is limited to the Torah which is not word-for-word attributed to the God of Israel, but a book that contains or records the words of the God of Israel. . . and His instructions for living, for Jew and Gentile.

 

Image from quotesgram.com

Image from quotesgram.com

That oft-repeated question of “what next” after “this life”?  Death is the inevitable destiny everyone alive faces, ready or not.  Some religions are quite preoccupied with the subject, particularly those that claim specific revelation about what lies beyond.  Myths and legends abound regarding ghosts and spirits that linger; some advocate that the dead believer is ‘instantly’ with their ‘Lord’ and that non-believers are  condemned for eternal suffering in the fires of hell.

 

Sinaites have struggled with explaining our view of what happens in the “afterlife.”   If we don’t believe in the devil and a place called hell where non-believers in the Christian Savior are supposedly destined to go, then where is  the non-Christian’s ‘eternal destination’?

 

Where do we think that intangible immaterial part of us —

  • we might call “soul” or “spirit”
  • that leaves our physical body
  • . . . goes . . .
  • when the inevitable separation
  • of our essence from the body it inhabits
  • happens at the crucial ‘end of life’?

 

Our simple and candid answer?  We do not know.

 

We do not ‘worry’ about that particular ‘unknown’.  Why not?

 

If the Revelator on Sinai emphasized LIFE in all of His declarations,  then who is man to speculate and imagine what happens beyond the boundaries of what is divinely revealed to venture into the unknown?  YHWH the Creator of Life is Life-focused, emphasizing what each human can do during his life span which is about the only time he can exercise his God-given free will, to choose–

  • how to live his life,
  • to do or not to do . . .
  • his will or God’s Will . . .
  • to be the ‘I’ in the Idol
  • or the ‘I’ in God’s Image.

 

The Revelator’s mouthpiece, Moses,  urges “choose life” to the second generation issuing from the original mixed multitude who were freed from bondage to Egypt 40 years before;  born in the wilderness, children of freemen, who were all still alive and breathing as they were about to enter the Land of promise.

 

What does “choose life” mean to generations who are still alive? We have articles explaining “choose life” so we won’t go into that here, please scroll through our SITEMAP for those posts.

 

Not so strangely, the Torah is silent about what happens beyond life on this earth.  Except for some phrases about how each of Israel’s patriarchs “went the way of his fathers” the generational narratives move on.

 

Why so?

 

We can only know the Mind and Will of God according to what He chooses to reveal, right?

 

So we figure that YHWH,

  • the Revelator on Sinai,
  • Creator of humanity,
  • Source of life and breath,
  • the God Who revealed Himself and His Way to Israel,
  • chooses to emphasize in His Manual for Living, His TORAH—
    • what each individual can do
    • while he has breath
    • for each moment-by-moment
    • constantly time-passing ‘present’—-the PRESENT —- which is the only real-time one has or actually possesses;  which is ever fleeting second per second,
  • to choose to do or not to do,  to act or not act,
  • in accordance with one’s own inclination
    • whether knowingly
    • or ignorantly (uneducated by Divine Revelation)
  • or in accordance with God’s revealed and known Will, all contained in the Torah.

In short, if God doesn’t say so, neither do we.  Leave that part to the Lord of Life!

 

We do know the consequence of ‘choose life’ and that is ‘blessing’.  Can we leave it at that?

 

The title of this post is the opening line of a quote from a Jewess author Aviya Kushner in the last chapter titled “Memory” of  THE GRAMMAR OF GOD:  

 

“And just like that, my grandfather is no longer alive.

I write no longer alive, 

not dead, 

not gone,

 because neither of those has really been true.”

 

 

 

    NSB@S6K

 

logo

Sig-4_16colorsP.S.  Please click the link below

and read through the liturgy

that reflects the faith of a Sinaite;

then make your own conclusions about ‘life’,

and ‘end of life’,

and the Lord of Life:

 

The Wedding of God and Israel

Image from www.christianbooks.co.za

[First posted in 2015.  Marriage is one of the metaphors used for the relationship of YHWH with Israel.  As the faithful Husband, YHWH remains loyal to His chosen people and when the latter continued to worship other gods, He referred to their unfaithfulness as ‘harlotry’.  

This is Chapter 10 of our MUST READ/MUST OWN feature Sinai and Zion  by Jon D. Levenson. We are posting only select chapters from this great resource, to encourage our readers to add it to your library.  The ebook form is downloadable from amazon.com.  Reformatting and highlights added. Admin1.]

 

———————————-

 

We have seen that the relationship of Israel to her God was conceived in the covenant theology along the lines of a contract between states and that one stipulation of such a contract was the requirement to love the Lord in covenant. At the heart of Israel’s relationship with YHWH lay a dialogue of love. There was another realm in the life of ancient Israel in which one finds a relationship of love sealed by contract, the realm of marriage.

 

In the ancient Semitic world, marriage was a matter of contractual obligation; a trace of this remains in the Jewish wedding ceremony, in which the Ketubbah, or marriage contract, is still read.  Unfortunately, no ketubbot are preserved in the Hebrew Bible. But we do have Jewish marriage contracts from late biblical times preserved in scrolls. The structure of these ketubbot is not that of the covenant formulary that applied to international contracts. Nonetheless, the two types of relationship, the international and the marital, were sufficiently similar that the language of covenant could be applied to both:

 

You ask, “Because of what?”

Because YHWH is a witness between you

and the wife of your youth,

with whom you have broken faith,

even though she is your partner

and the woman with whom you are in covenant.

(Mal 2:14)

 

Image from stonedcampbelldisciple.com

Image from stonedcampbelldisciple.com

Here, the prophet views the institution of marriage as an instance of covenant.  YHWH is the witness, and divorce is a form of treason.

In fact, so great was the overlap between the two realms that prophets often presented Israel’s relationship with YHWH as a marriage.

 

The prophet Hosea, for example, a man of the eighth century B.C.E., believed that YHWH had commanded him to marry a prostitute in order to exemplify the apostasy and promiscuity of Israel.  Gomer, the prostitute, bore Hosea children with such names as “Unloved,” to signify that God no longer loved Israel (Hos 1:6), and “Not-my-people,” a name that indicated that the bonds of covenant had been severed, “for you are not my people, and I will not be your God” (v 9). The career of Hosea testifies to a tradition in Israel to the effect that what happened on the mountain in ancient days was the consummation of a romance, a marriage in which YHWH was the groom and Israel (although a man’s name) was the bride. Thus, a book like Deuteronomy, which is saturated with the idiom of covenant, sees in the selection of Israel to be YHWH’s treasured possession, the fruit of a passionate affair (Deut 7:6-8). The special statues of Israel rests not upon her merits, her strength or numbers or intelligence or honesty, but upon something irrational, a passion, an affair of the heart, not the mind, in short a love. All the efforts to explain the special destiny of Israel in rational terms only dissolve its power.

 

For Israel is singled out by and for the love of God:

 

12  And now, what does YHWH your God demand of you?

Only this: to hold YHWH your God in awe, to walk in all his paths,

to love him, and to serve YHWH your God

with all your heart and all your soul,

13  to observe YHWH’s commandments and his laws,

which I enjoin upon you this day, for your own benefit.

14  Mark well, the heavens to their uttermost reaches

belong to YHWH your God, the earth and everything on it!

15  Yet it was only for your forefathers

that YHWH took a passion, loving them, s

o that he chose their descendants after them—you!—

from among all the peoples, as is the case today.

(Deut 10:12-15)

 

This passage makes it clear that at the core of the covenant relationship lies a twofold love, the mysterious love of YHWH for Israel and the less baffling love of Israel for YHWH, her benefactor.

 

Image from www.pinterest.com

Image from www.pinterest.com

Covenant-love is mutual; it distinguishes a relationship of reciprocity.

  • On God’s side lies an obligation to fulfill the oath he swore to the Patriarchs, to grant their descendants the promised land, to be their God.
  • Israel, for her part, is to realize her love in the form of observance of her master’s stipulations, the Mitsvot, for they are the words of the language of love, the fit medium in which to respond to the passionate advances of the divine suzerain.

It is not a question of law or love, but law conceived in love, love expressed in law. The two are a unity. To speak of one apart from the other is to produce a parody of the religion of Israel. The love of God moves Israel to embrace the norms of Sinai.

 

In the book of Hosea, the great divorce is never finalized. The impassioned groom cannot endure without his bride, although she had whored with his Canaanite competitor Baal (2:15). Unable to tolerate her being in the arms of his rival, YHWH reinitiates the romance and coaxes his wayward spouse back to the spot where their first love was consummated, the desert (2:16-25). In vv 16-19, YHWH restores his relationship with Israel to the point at which it stood when he first impressed his claim upon her with his redemption of her from Egypt, when she had not yet broken faith to chase after the god of fertility, Baal. And so, in the desert, the marriage is reinstituted (vv 21-22), only this time without mention of the word “Baal,” which also served as one of two terms for husband (v 18).

 

Now, to make things clear, only the other term will be licit. The word “know” in v 22 is, of course, a double entendre; the term is both covenantal and sexual. We have already seen the covenantal context of the verb. The vassal is to “know” (i.e., recognize) only one suzerain. But the term also indicates sexual union, as in the statement that Adam “knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived” (Gen 4:1).

 

To us, the two meanings seem distinct, but in Israel’s vocabulary, they pertain to either kind of passionate relationship, that of suzerain and vassal or that of groom and bride. The romance of God and Israel is tempered by lawfulness and animated by eros, love purified in law, law impelled by love.

 

In Hos 2:20, YHWH makes a new covenant, not one between himself and Israel, but between Israel and the beasts and birds and creeping things. In  other words, God assumes the Mosaic office of covenant mediator, in order to extend the peace and security of the covenant relationship beyond the confines of the divine-human dialogue.  Now even nature will participate.  All threats, whether from nature or from war, will vanish.  

 

Lurking behind these great promises are the blessings of the covenant formulary.  But we hear nothing of the curses, for the vision is one of redemption through covenant, and the assumption seems to be that, where God mediates and thus guarantees covenant, that stipulations will be fulfilled as a matter of course.

 

In the last stanza of Hosea’s prophecy (vv 23-25), all creation joins in the wedding ceremony. Sky responds to earth, and earth responds by bringing forth her bounty.  What happens here is that the covenant with the living God comes to account for fertility, displacing the worship of the dying-and-rising deity, Baal.  The real source of bounty lies in faithfulness and obedience to the God who redeemed Israel from Egypt.  Baal has been bested on his own soil. And thus, in accordance with this vision of cosmic renewal, the three children of Hosea—Jezreel (“God-will-sow”), Unloved, and Not-my-people—are restored together with the covenant/marriage contract whose revocation their names symbolized.

 

In Hos 2:16-25, the making of a covenant moves beyond the limits of the juridical function in which it originated and becomes the stuff and substance of a vision of cosmic renewal. The entire universe takes part in the sacred remarriage of YHWH and Israel.  

  • Covenant is not only something lived, but something hoped for, the teleological end of creation and of history.  
  • Sinai is the model of cosmic harmony, and the relationship of Israel and YHWH, the prototype of redeemed life.  
  • Redemption is not “liberation” from law; that would be, in Hosea’s eyes, relapse into licentiousness.  
  • Rather, redemption involves the gracious offer to Israel to reenter the legal/erotic relationship and the renewed willingness of Israel to do so.

gods-everlasting-covenantThe third paragraph of this passage, Hos 2:21-22, has entered the daily liturgy of Jewry. It is recited on weekday mornings as the male adult Jew finishes putting on his tefillin, the two little boxes containing scrolls of passages from the Torah, which are strapped to the arm and the head in conformity to the ordinance that these things “shall be a sign on your hand and frontlets between your eyes” (Exod 13:16). The implication is clear. By putting on tefillin, the Jew becomes engaged to God. He renews each weekday morning his fidelity to the ancient romance consummated on Mount Sinai.  In an instant, the mitzvah of tefillin takes us back to the putative etymology of the word “religion,” from the Latin verb ligare, “to bind,” “to tie.” “Religion,” from ligare, “to tie again” or “to tie back,” is to restore the bond, to tie oneself to the root that nourishes.  

 

In Judaism, the bond or band that ties man to God is a covenant. The Jew wakes each day to an old love affair beckoning to be renewed.