Yo searchers! Can we help you? – May 2014

5/31 “qodeshiym” – Qodesh/ko’desh – apartness, holiness, sacredness, separateness, applied to holiness of God, of places, of things.

5/31 “torah study pdf” – this is too general; we have posts on every chapter and topic of Torah books, as well as commentaries on Torah; please check the sitemap or updated site contents.

5/29 “litery content nehemiah 6″ – A Literary Approach to Ezra and Nehemiah

5/29 “which biblical figure asks, “am i my brother’s keeper?” – 

• Am I my brother’s keeper?
• An Inconvenient Truth for Cain – 2

“5/28  “full hd mobile joshua1:8- wallpapers” – We designed this scroll and it hangs on the foyer wall of the Sanctuary of our university:  Scroll: Joshua 1:8-9

5/28 “images of soul thirstw” – This is a watercolor painting by one of our Sinaites who has immigrated from Baguio City to Houston Texas; we are told he has sold most of his work:  “Soul Thirst” – Art by AHV@S6K

5/27  “tomb discovered -scheme -youtube -schemes -hotel -food -nutrition” – Geez, this searcher has a tall order, all in one search entry. Don’t think we can help, maybe this is one of those false landings, but if this visitor wishes to browse through our website, we hope the time he/she spends here has been worth it, even if it did not address any of the 7 categories listed; 7 is a perfect number, you know? Perhaps this was a providential ‘landing’ after all!

5/26 ““god in the details of our lives” – FINDING GOD IN THE DETAILS OF OUR LIVES

5/27  “family tree quotes and sayings” – The ‘family’ images/quotes we use in our Sinaite Sabbath liturgy are lifted from google sources, just type in “images for family” and you’ll find family trees and quotes there—and don’t forget to acknowledge source or it will disappear from your post in due time.

5/24  “what does orthonymous mean” – If you have the MUST READ/MUST OWN book titled FORGED by Christian scholar-turned-atheist Bart D. Ehrman, he defines words that would crop up in his discussions regarding forgeries that were rampant in the times when the New Testament books were being decided upon to be included in the NT canon.  Here are some tidbits to whet your appetite into getting a copy of the book for your library:

• orthonymous – (literally, “rightly named”) writing is one that really is written by the person who claims to be writing it.  There are seen letters of Paul, out of the thirteen in the New Testament that bear his name, that virtually everyone agrees are orthonymous, actually written by Paul.
• homoymous (literally, “same named”) writing is one that is written by someone who happens to have the same name as someone else.  In the ancient world, the vast majority of people did not have last names, and a lot of people had the same first names.  This was true among Christians as it was for everyone else.  Lots of people were named John, James, and Jude, for example.  If someone named John wrote the book of Revelation and simply called himself John, he wasn’t necessarily claiming to be anyone but himself.  When later Christians assumed that this John must be the disciple John, the son of Zebedee it wasn’t really the author’s fault.  He just happened to have the same name as another more famous person.  The book is not forged, then.  It is simply homonymous, assuming that John the son of Zebedee did not write it, a safe assumption for most critical scholars.  It was included in the canon because of this mistaken identity.
• anonymous – literally “having no name.”  These are books whose authors never identify themselves. That is, technically speaking, true of one-third of the New Testament books.  None of the Gospels tells us the name of its author.  Only later did Christians call them Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; and later scribes then added these names to the book titles.  Also anonymous are the book of Acts and the letters known as 1,2 and 3 John.  Technically speaking, the same is true of the book of Hebrews; the author never mentions his name, even if he wants you to assume he’s Paul.
• pseudonymous (literally, “falsely named”) is a little more slippery, and I need to explain how I will be using it.  Technically it refers to any book that appears under the name of someone other than the author, but there are two kinds of pseudonymous writings.
  • Sometimes authors simply take a pen name. When Samuel Clemens wrote Huckleberry Finn and signed it “Mark Twain” he was not trying to deceive his readers into thinking that he was someone famous; it was just a pen name to mask his own identity.  So too when Mary Ann Evans wrote Silas Marner and signed it “George Eliot.”  This use of a pen name did not happen a lot in the ancient world, but it did happen on occasion  The Greek historian Xenophon, for example, wrote his famous work the Anabasis using the pen name Themistogenes; and the Greek philosopher Iamblichus wrote his treatise On the Mysteries under the made-up name Abammon.  In these instances there does not appear to have been any real attempt to deceive readers into thinking that the author was someone famous.
  • The other kind of pseudonymous writing involves a book that is circulated under the name of someone else, usually some kind of authority figure who is presumed to be well known to the reading audience.  For this particular kind of pseudonymous writing I will be using the technical term “pseudepigraphy” (literally, “written under a false name”).  A pseudepigraphical writing, then, is one taht is claimed to be written by a famous, or authoritative person who did not in fact write it.
  • But as it turns out,there arealsotwokindsofpseudepigraphical writing:
    • Sometimes a writing was published anonymously, with no author’s name attached, for example, the Gospel of Matthew.  But later reader and copyists asserted that they knew who had written it and claimed it was by a well-known, authoritative person, in this case, the disciple Matthew.  In writings of this sort, which are wrongly attributed to a well-known person the author is not trying to deceive anyone.  He or she remained anonymous.  It is only later readers who claimed the author was someone else.  This kind of pseudepigraphy, then, involves a “false ascription”; a work is “ascribed” to someone who didn’t write it.
    • The other kind off pseudepigraphy does involve a kind of intentional deceit by an author.  This is when an author writes a work claiming to be someone else.  This is what I am here calling forgery.
• My definition of a forgery, then, is a writing that claims to be written by someone (a known figure) who did not in fact write it. . . . it is a technical term referring to one kind of pseudepigraphal writing one in which an author knowingly claims to be someone else.

5/24  “blessed sabbath, pictures” – amazingly, there’s a lot of ‘blessed Sabbath’ images available on the internet, we’ve used them week after week in our Sinaite’s Sabbath Liturgy. Just google any of the following search terms:  Images for Sabbath celebration; images for Sabbath lights; images for Sabbath Havdalah, images for Sabbath meal, etc. and you’ll find so much more than you expect.

5/24  “+what are the most significant generic literary in historical old testament writings” – Not sure what this search phrase means, but we have all the chapters of the MUST READ/MUST OWN book: ed. Dr. J.H.Hertz – MUST OWN: PENTATEUCH AND HAFTORAHS – Versions and Commentators Consulted

5/22  jesus christ superstar – Revisited: “Superstar” – Confessions of an Idolater/

5/22  “what was israel’s occupation, which was abominable to the egyptians” – The Israelites were shepherds and as such, were separated from the Egyptian population. They were assigned to occupy Goshen. Part of the Egyptian pantheon of gods is the lamb/ram; can we just imagine the requirement of YHWH on passover night when a lamb was to be slaughtered, blood splatttered at doorposts, roasted and eaten by each family? What, slaves are saughtering, cooking and eating one of Egypt’s gods?

5/22  “family” – Part of our Sabbath liturgy is the blessing of family; please check the posts under that category. 5/21  “biblical sacrifices” 

• TORAH 101: What were the animal sacrifices all about? – Jewish Perspective
• Revisited: Human Sacrifice
• Sacrificial goat, Scapegoat . . . what about the Lamb? Not on Yom Kippur.

5/20  “bamidbar 13 25-33 explained” – 

5/20  “pictures of the shema” – Signs and Symbols from the SHEMA

5/20  “jacob et esau” – Lots of posts on this first of biblical twins:

5/20  “what does uncircumcised lips mean” – Exodus/Shemoth 6-b: Do you have “uncircumcised lips”?

5/20  “which biblical figure asks, “am i my brother’s keeper?” –  This was asked again on 5/11, so we’re posting the same answer: – Am I my brother’s keeper?   Firstborn of all biblical firstborns, Kayin/Cain,  gave this in answer to the Creator’s question about his brother Abel. Kayin asked the right question and the short answer is: YES.  This will be echoed over and over throughout the Torah and Neviim and Ketuviim, about how we are to be “other-centered” and not “self-centered.”  If the whole world operates with this in mind, then Torah has been fulfilled and guess what? We are probably finally at the threshold of the messianic age, i.e. the Jewish concept of ‘messiah’, not the Christian version. The concluding statement of the post:  “Poor Cain might not have been told that he was indeed his brother’s keeper or, if he was told, he did not listen, or if he did, he did not heed.  So . . . yes Cain, to answer the question “Am I my brother’s keeper?”  Torah is much about being that to one’s kin, the neighbor, the stranger, and specially the underprivileged in society.”   

5/17  “karaites opinion of jesus christ” – 2 posts on Karaism:

5/16  “ishmael in thr bible his hand will consistently be on the neck of his brothers” – Revisited: “Call me Ishmael”

5/16  “the obscurity of israelite prophecy” – Q&A: “Israel prophecy” – “veiled in obscurity”?

5/15   “i am yosef your brother” – Genesis/Bereshith 42-43 – “and in homage they bowed low.”

5/15  “jewish ethics enlarges the notion of murder so as to include the doing of anything by which the health and well-being of a fellow man” – Exodus/Shemoth 20c – The DECALOGUE – Commandments V-X (Jewish Perspective)

5/15  “hebrew meaaning of uncircumcised lip” – Exodus/Shemoth 6-b: Do you have “uncircumcised lips”?

5/15  “gentile question and chabad answer pdf” – Not sure what this searcher is looking for, we have many Q&As, here are a few samples from the Q&A category:

5/14  “bible bere let us rejore” –  Revisited: The Creator 4: That pesky “Let US . . . ” in Genesis/Bereshith 1:26

5/14  “bart erdman” – Bart D. Ehrman – Must Read: Misquoting Jesus

5/14  “christains understanding jesus of nazareth” – Christian’s understanding of Jesus of Nazareth is in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, taught in their theology, worshipped as God the Son in their Trinitarian Godhead.  The epistles of Paul of Tarsus provide the doctrinal foundations. We have many posts on Christianity, please check out the  Updated Site Contents – May 2014.

5/13  “word graphic based on jesus’s crucifixion” – We don’t have a post on this but there are many posts about the Christian Savior Jesus, please check out:  Updated Site Contents – May 2014

5/13  “stupid galatians” – The very words of Paul of Tarsus except the English translated term from Greek is “foolish” : Paul 4 – You foolish Galatians!

5/12  “what does the tree of life look like in the garden of eden” – We’ve taught in our articles on this subject that the clue to knowing if a biblical narrative is intended to be read as “literal” or “figurative” is —a reality check.  If the garden of Eden narrative features a talking serpent and two trees the likes of which we don’t see in this world, then read the story figuratively.  The Revelator chooses to communicate universal truths using the same literary tools just like human writers, using even well-known myths and legends in the world of antiquity.  In this case, how does one imagine the ‘tree of life’ as well as the other tree of ‘the knowledge of good and evil’? It reads like Aesop’s Fables, or the Wizard of Oz.  But just like myths and legends and fairy tales, they communicate universal truths.

5/11  “which biblical figure asks, ‘am i my brother’s keeper?'” – Am I my brother’s keeper?   Firstborn of all biblical firstborns, Kayin/Cain,  gave this in answer to the Creator’s question about his brother Abel. Kayin asked the right question and the short answer is: YES.  This will be echoed over and over throughout the Torah and Neviim and Ketuviim, about how we are to be “other-centered” and not “self-centered.”  If the whole world operates with this in mind, then Torah has been fulfilled and guess what? We are probably finally at the threshold of the messianic age, i.e. the Jewish concept of ‘messiah’, not the Christian version. The concluding statement of the post:  “Poor Cain might not have been told that he was indeed his brother’s keeper or, if he was told, he did not listen, or if he did, he did not heed.  So . . . yes Cain, to answer the question “Am I my brother’s keeper?”  Torah is much about being that to one’s kin, the neighbor, the stranger, and specially the underprivileged in society.” 

5/11  “why did rachel steal laban’s household gods” – Rachel belonged to the idolatrous family left behind by Abraham and had not yet learned about monotheistic faith related to her would-be husband Isaac. At the time she did this, she was simply sought out by the servant Eliezer as the suitable wife for Isaac. Here’s the chapter that covers this incident:   Genesis/Bereshith 24: ” . . . go to my land and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son, for Yitzhak.”

5/11  “the sacrificial lamb of yom kippur” – There was no “sacrificial lamb” during the feast of ‘Yom Kippur” or the “Day of Atonement.”  This is one of the confusions of Christian teaching.  Jesus’ crucifixion is supposedly symbolic of the OT “Paschal Lamb” or the Passover Lamb roasted and eaten at the commemorative passover meal within the family context . . . and yet he is portrayed as the offering during Yom Kippur to atone for sins of humankind.  Yom Kippur instructions are about two goats—the scapegoat and the goat that is left to be offered, yet we never hear the phrase “sacrificial goat” applied to Jesus.  Such confusing mix of metaphors shows ignorance and lack of understanding of the Leviticus 23 “My feasts” or the feasts of YHWH.  Here’s a post that might clarify:

• Leviticus/Wayyiqrah’ 16 – What? They cast lots for a sacrificial goat and a scapegoat, wasn’t ‘Blood Atonement’ all about a “Sacrificial Lamb”?

5/10  “blessed sabbath” – We have a lot of posts on how blessed is the Sabbath, but if this searcher is looking for the current Sabbath Liturgy, here’s the latest, on the occasion of Mother’s Day: A Sinaite’s Liturgy – 2nd Sabbath in May

5/8  “the origins of prophecy are veiled in obscurity”  – Q&A: “Israel prophecy” – “veiled in obscurity”?

5/8  “god’s heavenly court” – Ha Satan in YHVH’s Heavenly Court?

• Ready to tackle the book of Job?

5/8  “esau” – Journey of Faith: Esau/Edom – A Second Look

• Becoming Israel – Esau and ‘Israel’

5/7  “the origins of prophecy are veiled in obscurity discuss” – Q&A: “Israel prophecy” – “veiled in obscurity”?

5/7  “i am not a vengeful god” 

Jeffrey Cranford

5/7  “judaism topic on how messiah “smells and judges” – Sorry, we have no post on this specific topic, but we have a series on the Jewish messiah:

5/7  “shabbat bride” – Here’s a good article on this: Ask the Rabbi, JewishAnswers.org » The Sabbath as a Bride:  www.jewishanswers.org › The Sabbath

5/6  “org.of the name yahshua” – This is the Hebrew for “Joshua”, meaning “God saves.”

5/6  “feminist bible version” – We have no post on this subject, sorry. 5/6  “how to offer food offering into fire?” –Numbers/Bamidbar 28-29: “My sacrifice, My food for My offerings made by fire, of a pleasing smell to Me, you will observe to offer to Me in their due season.”

5/5  “jews light of the world” – 

• Who is the “Light of the World”?
• Israel fail as YHWH’s ‘Light to the Gentiles’?

5/5  “yahuwshuwa” – This is Hebrew for Joshua; if you google it, you will find posts explaining it is the equivalent of Jesus though Messianics refer to Jesus “Yeshua.” It gets confusing —another group claims they are Yeshua YHWH believers but say Jesus is not their God, explaining that Yeshua simply means “God Saves” and so “Yeshua YHWH” is their God; except their Bible has both Testaments, Old and New, but they are not “Christ-ian.”  Go figure. Organized or manmade religion has a way of complicating the very simple Torah life required by YHWH. So back to the Q, “Yahushuwa” is Hebrew for Joshua.  Who is Joshua?

• Bemidbar/Numbers 27: “Take you Yahuwshuwa’ ben Nuwn. A man who has the Ruwach in him”
• A Literary Approach to Yahushuwa’/Joshua and Shophtiym/Judges

5/5  “silver trumpets in numbers 10-shofars?” – Bemidbar/Numbers -10- Two silver trumpets, not the Shofar . .

5/5  “aish journeyed from rameses to succoth,about sixhundred thousand men” – This is from Exodus/Shemoth 12:37 where it specifies the composition of the people that left Egypt: 37 The Children of Israel moved on from Ra’amses to Sukkot,  about six hundred thousand on foot, menfolk apart from little-ones, 38 and also a mixed multitude went up with them, along with sheep and oxen, an exceedingly heavy (amount of) livestock.

5/4  “our god is a vengeful god” – 

5/4  “eliezer gives gifts to rebekah” – Genesis/Bereshith 24: ” . . . go to my land and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son, for Yitzhak.”

5/3  “sabbath is tabernacle” – Abraham Joshua Heschel called the Sabbath “a tabernacle in time”  — MUST READ/MUST OWN: The Sabbath. Here’s the Prologue and Epilogue of the book:

• The Sabbath – Its Meaning for Modern Man – Prologue
• The Sabbath – Its Meaning for Modern Man – Epilogue

5/3  “prophecy n israel was obscure.discuss” – Q&A: “Israel prophecy” – “veiled in obscurity”?

5/3  “blessed sabbath” – Abraham Joshua Heschel

• The Sabbath – Its Meaning for Modern Man – Prologue
• The Sabbath – Its Meaning for Modern Man – Epilogue

5/3  “sabbath blessings” – We write a liturgy for our weekly Sabbath celebration and post it for others who want to use it:  A Sinaite’s Sabbath Liturgy – 4th in April

5/2  “rebekah and her pitcher” – Genesis/Bereshith 24: ” . . . go to my land and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son, for Yitzhak.”

5/1  “which biblical figure asks, ‘am i my brother’s keeper?'” – Am I my brother’s keeper?   Firstborn of all biblical firstborns, Kayin/Cain,  gave this in answer to the Creator’s question about his brother Abel. Kayin asked the right question and the short answer is: YES.  This will be echoed over and over throughout the Torah and Neviim and Ketuviim, about how we are to be “other-centered” and not “self-centered.”  If the whole world operates with this in mind, then Torah has been fulfilled and guess what? We are probably finally at the threshold of the messianic age, i.e. the Jewish concept of ‘messiah’, not the Christian version. The concluding statement of the post:  “Poor Cain might not have been told that he was indeed his brother’s keeper or, if he was told, he did not listen, or if he did, he did not heed.  So . . . yes Cain, to answer the question “Am I my brother’s keeper?”  Torah is much about being that to one’s kin, the neighbor, the stranger, and specially the underprivileged in society.”