volgadon
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Posts posted by volgadon
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I'm a socialist but loathe Marx. Honestly, he backed up a lousy personality with even lousier formulation of ideas.
This is fun
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Yet he sported a mustache in his youth. It is interesting that Brigham Young's prophetic ministry stretched between the years when beards weren't fashionable and when they became de-rigeur, yet DOM's spans much the same trend, but in reverse.
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Your looks won't give you away as an investigator. Being an unfamiliar face will though. Wards are like families, and everyone knows everyone else, so if you are new, people will notice. and when they do, you will be greeted by about 5 or 6 people asking if you need anything, whether you want to attend Sunday School, and pretty much making you feel as welcomed as possible. Looks won't matter, and if you continue to attend, they will get to know you, and by then, you are part of the family, and long hair won't matter then either. So, don't sweat it.
A word of caution. Don't get upset or offended if what bytebear describes doesn't happen. Some wards have a more introverted character than others. I've been in Utah for a year now. Of the 5 wards I've been too, only in one of them were me and my wife greeted per bytebear's scenario. Indeed, the members in another not only did not greet us, but blatantly ignored us and turned a cold shoulder when we greeted them ourselves or thanked them for their testimony. It seriously was among the worst experiences we have had in all our years of attending church. It is a good thing we are both returned missionaries with testimonies. Other wards were nicer than that, but still nothing approaching bytebear's ideal. We still don't feel anything like at home.
Why have I written this?
In case anyone runs into this kind of rudeness they won't be surprised. It can, and does happen. Doesn't mean the gospel of Jesus Christ or the Restoration are false. All it means is that people are people.
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I have a blogpost on Amos in later Jewish traditions. Calba Savua's Orchard: Amos in Later Jewish Tradition
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Here is an extract from Confrontation, a fantastic essay by Rabbi Josef Soloveychik, one of the greatest Jewish leaders of the 2nd half of the 20th century.
This was written around the time of Vatican II.
Second, the logos, the word, in which the multifarious religious experience is expressed does not lend itself to standardization or universalization. The word of faith reflects the intimate, the private, the paradoxically inexpressible cravings of the individual for and his linking up with his Maker. It reflects the numinous character and the strangeness of the act of faith of a particular community which is totally incomprehensible to the man of a different faith community. Hence, it is important that the religious or theological logos should not be employed as the medium of communication between two faith communities whose modes of expression are as unique as their apocalyptic experiences. The confrontation should occur not at a theological but at a mundane human level. There, all of us speak the universal language of modern man. As a matter of fact our common interests lie in the realm of faith, but in that of the secular orders.8 There, we all face a powerful antagonist, we all have to contend with a considerable number of matters of great concern. The relationship between two communities must be outer-directed and related to the secular orders with which men of faith come face to face. In the secular sphere, we may discuss positions to be taken, ideas to be evolved, and plans to be formulated. In these matters, religious communities may together recommend action to be developed and may seize the initiative to be implemented later by general society. However, our joint engagement in this kind of enterprise must not dull our sense of identity as a faith community. We must always remember that our singular commitment to God and our hope and indomitable will for survival are non-negotiable and non-rationalizable and are not subject to debate and argumentation. The great encounter between God and man is a wholly personal private affair incomprehensible to the outsider - even to a brother of the same faith community. The divine message is incommunicable since it defies all standardized media of information and all objective categories. If the powerful community of the many feels like remedying an embarrassing human situation or redressing an historic wrong, it should do so at the human ethical level. However, if the debate should revolve around matters of faith, then one of the confronters will be impelled to avail himself of the language of his opponent. This in itself would mean surrender of individuality and distinctiveness.
Third, we members of the community of the few should always act with tact and understanding and refrain from suggesting to the community of the many, which is both proud and prudent, changes in ritual or emendations of its texts. If the genuinely liberal dignitaries of the faith community of the many deem some changes advisable, they will act in accordance with their convictions without any prompting on our part. It is not within our purview to advise or solicit. For it would be both impertinent and unwise for an outsider to intrude upon the most private sector of the human existential experience, namely, the way in which a faith community expresses its relationship to God. Non-interference with and non-involvement in something which is totally alien to us is a conditio sine qua non for the furtherance of good will and mutual respect.
Fourth, we certainly have not been authorized by our history, sanctified by the martyrdom of millions, to even hint to another faith community that we are mentally ready to revise historical attitudes, to trade favors pertaining to fundamental matters of faith, and to reconcile "some" differences. Such a suggestion would be nothing but a betrayal of our great tradition and heritage and would, furthermore, produce no practical benefits. Let us not forget that the community of the many will not be satisfied with half measures and compromises which are only indicative of a feeling of insecurity and inner emptiness. We cannot command the respect of our confronters by displaying a servile attitude. Only a candid, frank and unequivocal policy reflecting unconditional commitment to our God, a sense of dignity, pride and inner joy in being what we are, believing with great passion in the ultimate truthfulness of our views, praying fervently for and expecting confidently the fulfillment of our eschatological vision when our faith will rise from particularity to universality, will impress the peers of the other faith community among whom we have both adversaries and friends. I hope and pray that our friends in the community of the many will sustain their liberal convictions and humanitarian ideals by articulating their position on the right of the community of the few to live, create, and worship God in its own way, in freedom and with dignity.
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Unless they are one's direct ancestors, or if permission has been received from the family.
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My sincerest commiserations.
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First part of a story I wrote: James Joyce.
Second part: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Third part: David Foster Wallace.
I was really aiming for a John Collier feel.
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I haven't heard of it but to speculate the image is both Peter and Paul, that is stretching it abit far I think.
Two separate images, well, four separate images, actually.
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Gerasim, simply put, not every prophecy made its way into the current collection of books making up the OT. God is perfectly capable of revealing a name hundreds of years prior.
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I thought they announced this last year or so.
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Then why is the Qumranian psalter different in content and organization to the Masoretic Text, Savasan Bey?
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"Besides the quotes from Isaiah and Nephi's Psalm (2 Nephi 4), there isn't much poetry in the Book of Mormon."
Sure there is. People just don't know that they even need to look, let alone what they are looking for.
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Sarna, Nahum M. “Songs of the Heart.” Bible Review, Aug 1993, 32-37, 40.The Hebrew Bible has three parts: the Law (Torah), the Prophets (Nevi’im) and the Writings (Kethuvim). The Book of Psalms is part of the Writings. In the Law and the Prophets, God reaches out to man. The initiative is his. The message is his. He communicates, we receive. Our God-given free will allows us to be receptive, to be accepting, or to turn a deaf ear, to reject. In the Psalms, human beings reach out to God. The initiative is human. The language is human. We make an effort to communicate. He receives. He chooses to respond or not, according to his inscrutable wisdom. He gives his assent or withholds it.
In the Psalms, the human soul extends itself beyond its confining, sheltering, impermanent house of clay. It strives for contact with the ultimate source of all life. It gropes for an experience of the divine presence. The biblical psalms are essentially a record of the human quest for God; hence, the variety of forms in which the ancient psalmists expressed themselves, reflective of the diverse and changing moods that possessed them. In short, the psalms constitute a revealing portrayal of the human condition. No wonder they infuse and inform the basic patterns of both Jewish and Christian worship, give character and essence to their liturgies and govern the life of prayer and spiritual activity of the individual and the congregation...
Sadly, our 20th century secularized society—to its own impoverishment—no longer relates to these vast spiritual, moral and intellectual treasures of the Psalter that our ancestors so reverently and fondly cherished. We hardly know how to pray anymore.
A Yemen Jew once told me how he celebrated his bar mitzvah. The family was desperately poor; there were no parties, no gifts, no excitement, no speeches. The boy simply went to the synagogue on the designated Sabbath morning and read the appropriate portion of the Torah with the traditional blessings before and after. But what left an indelible impression on him—the experience that continues to move him deeply even 40 years later—was staying up all the previous night with his grandfather, and their reciting together the entire Book of Psalms.
Anatoly Sharansky spent nearly nine years of deprivation and suffering as a “prisoner of Zion” in Soviet prisons and labor camps. His crime consisted of wanting to leave the hell of the “workers’ paradise,” to immigrate to the land of Israel. By his own testimony, during all his years of enforced isolation, oppressive loneliness, appalling misery, agonized suffering and unutterable anguish, it was a copy of the Hebrew Psalter that he kept with him that sustained his spirit, gave him the strength to endure his bitter fate and imparted the courage to persevere.
While he was incarcerated, his wife, Avital, accepted on his behalf an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Yeshiva University in New York. On that occasion, she told the audience, “Anatoly has been educated to his Jewishness in a lonely cell in Chistopol prison where, locked alone with the Psalms of David, he found expression for his innermost feelings in the outpourings of the king of Israel thousands of years ago.” When he finally arrived in Jerusalem still clasping in his hands his beloved Book of Psalms, he was carried to the Western Wall on the shoulders of his friends and admirers...
The psalms provide a direct, personal approach to God. There are no intermediaries, human or celestial, no being or beings who facilitate the ascension of prayer to the divine realm. Nor is there any notion of angelic intercession or influence.
The psalms reflect the unqualified conviction that prayer is heard, that the deity is approachable and responsive to the pleas of humankind, although not necessarily immediately or always favorably.
The psalmists were also acutely aware of the dangers of hypocrisy and the perils it holds for true religiosity. They warn the would-be worshiper that God probes the mind and the conscience that he discerns the contrast between profession and deed, promise and performance.
The psalms take for granted that history has meaning because the processes of history are under the sovereign control of God. It is regarded as axiomatic that his governance of the world is based upon foundations of justice and righteousness, that there is a divinely ordained moral law of universal application operative in the concatenation of events and that there are positive ethical imperatives for the violation of which human beings are held accountable. Given such a system of beliefs, the psalmists inevitably possess unshakable faith that evildoing must in the end be punished and the wicked overthrown. They inveigh against the flagrant abuses rife in the land. Their special concern is the corruption of Judicial processes. They cry out against the exploitation of the disadvantaged and vulnerable of society: the stranger, the poor and the needy, the orphan and the widow.
Despite the frequent expression in the psalms of basic human concerns, there is a complete absence of personal pleas for power or wealth. If there ever were any, they have not survived. The vagaries and dilemmas of the human condition, on the other hand, find expression in abundance. The vexing problems of life, the fearful insecurities of existence, the troubles and travails that afflict every human being—all are reflected in the psalmist’s work. Always, the psalmist, and thus the worshiper, find solace and comfort in adversity, and are sustained and strengthened by faith, thereby mustering the courage to go on with life.
Moreover, the entire community shared the joys and sorrows of the individual, for in ancient times the psalms were recited in the Temple in the presence of a congregation. Sorrows were thereby ameliorated and joys enhanced. Man was recognized as an essentially social being even if, at times, an island unto himself.
For thousands of years, the biblical psalms have nourished, sustained and elevated the spiritual and moral lives of believers of many faiths. In this age of spiritual and moral chaos they still have something to teach us.
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Lots of our apostles, seventy, RS, Primary and even the First Presidency write books. Obviously they arent doing it for free. They are making money as well as the publishers.
As an aspiring writer, I rather wish that your naive picture were true.
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As I also believe, the rejection of Christianity by current Jews, mainly is the doctrine of Trinity; which seems to overlay and wash away the pure monotheism of Judaism.
Said pure monotheism is a later trend.
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I think praying in the second person singular pronoun is very important, because it emphasises that God is familiar, not formal and distant.
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If the terms are really that interchangeable then it lessens its significance in my mind.
Like I said, the usage isn't very strict or consistent. Properly speaking, soul = body + spirit, but the term is also used to convey different ideas, such as spirit.
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[being blunt] It does...so much for man made dictionaries. It is better to receive truths at the feet of those who know [Godhead] than to listen to the fables of men. I can attest, they are no closer to the truth than those who are scholars who spend more time writing fables than asking for a direct answer.
Volgadon, one can know truths if you truly believe in the 'GODHEAD,' who will reveal it to them, which are spiritual mature enough to receive it.
Spare me the holier-than-thou attitude. I understand the principle of personal revelation, thankee. Also, I find your disparaging attitude towards any sort of scholarship amusing, considering that Joseph Smith had utterly no problems using the tools of scholarship to uncover greater truths.
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That is not case...greater truths are given when we asked in humble and meek state. Whether we believe or not, is for them who seek or have the desire to know. It is given to all men[women] who desire a greater truth.
Was that for me? If it was, i don't see how that goes against what I was saying, that the usage of soul in LDS scriptures is sloppy, imprecise. I'm talking about terminology, not about greater truths.
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Would you mind making a separate post with a sticky? That was the 2nd person in as many weeks blaming me for it.
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A soul in the Bible did mean the body and spirit together, I'll post a reference later, but in our scriptures the term is used sloppily. That is really all there is to it.
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I apologize..I am only commenting on what I read..I ought not be held accountable for deleted posts or information unavailable to me. Though I ought not be so pessimistic. That I can work on :)
You also ought to give others the benefit of the doubt.
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What happened to the increase of knowledge through discussion?
Listen to Pam. OTOH, I keep getting attacked for having a different opinion.
Orson Hyde and the Voice of the Turtledove
in LDS Gospel Discussion
Posted
The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing is come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.
-Song of Songs 2:12.
The year 5600 (1839-40) was of the deepest significance throughout the Jewish world, as the following quotes will make clear.
Quote
5600, then, was the year which would bring about the redemption of Israel. This belief was based on interpretations of the Bible and other Jewish works, such as the Zohar. Song of Songs 2:12 was particularly important for those those calculating the end times. At least since the 12th century (and probably earlier than that) this verse was seen as an allegory of salvation and redemption.
In Hebrew, turtledove is tor (תור), which is nearly identical with the numerical value of 600 (ת"ר). In the Zohar there is a passage[2] that reads, "In the six hundredth year of the sixth [millenium], springs of wisdom will open above, springs of wisdom below, and the world will prepare to enter the seventh, just like a person preparing on the sixth day, as the sun is about to set, to enter Sabbath." The six hundredth year is the year 5600, or 1839-40, and it is an "appointed time" (et-peqidah). Such an understanding was essential to the teachings on redemption of Rabbi Elijah, the Vilna Gaon (1720-1797). The Gaon was the leading figure in Lithuanian Jewry from the 18th century to this very day. An ascetic and somewhat of a recluse devoted to his studies, the Gaon possesed a photographic memory and considerable erudition in all aspects of Jewish life, even mathematics. He wrote many commentaries, redacted the Sefer Yetzirah, attempted to create a golem(!), and came up with new traditions, including a symbolic order for items on the Passover plate.
For redemption to occur, there had to be an "awaking below" (itaruta dilatata) to bring about an "awakening above" (itaruta dile'ela).In other words, doing the right actions at the right times causes a heavenly reaction. Man needs to engage in practical actions, such as emigrating to the Holy Land and building up Jerusalem. This was the stage of redemption associated with the Messiah ben Joseph.
The standard approach in Judaism of the time to taking any practical steps in order to bring about redemption was that of the "three vows." A talmudic statement interpreted as a prohibiting any hastening of the Messiah.[2] This prohibition, according to the teachings of the Gaon, did not apply during an apointed time. Under his influence, the disciples of the Vilna Gaon emigrated to Israel, settling first in Safed, and then in Jerusalem. They engaged in what could be described as messianic activism.[3]
Aryeh Morgenstern says of the ideology of the Gaon's disciples that, "'Raising the Shechinah from the dust' will not be accomplished merely by means of worshiping the Lord; keeping Torah and commandments, but by way of emigrating to and settling in the land of Israel."[4]
When Mehmet Ali captured Palestine in 1831, he abolished the humiliating poll-tax (jizya) required of all non-Muslims. Eliezer Vasila Bergman wrote that "By divine grace the commencement of redemption has arrived and soon in our day a redeemer will come to Zion."[5]
After the peasent's revolt in 1834 was suppressed by Mehmet Ali's son, Ibrahim Pasha, permission was given the Christians and Sephardic Jews to rebuild their houses of worhsip, something forbidden by the Ottoman authorities. This turned into rumours of an edict by Ibrahim Pasha to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem.
There followed various proposals to renew sacrifices on the Temple Mount, which would involve a purchase of the mount from the Muslims, and a messenger was dispatched to Arabia in search of the lost ten tribes, who, as tradition had it, preserved the right to ordain people to the sanhedrin by the laying on of hands (semicha). Any event, be it rains, cholera epidemics, or astrological phenomena, was given apocalyptic interpretations in the years leading up to 1840[6].
A feverish excitement took hold of the Prushim in 1835, when they attempted rebuilding the Hurva synagogue, which had been demolished in 1721. This was percieved as a foreshadowing of the rebuilt temple. As a result, the exile of the Shechinah was considered at an end, and liturgical and other practices were altered. The line "Shake thyself from the dust, arise," was dropped from the Sabbath prayer, and the midnight tikkun no longer included lamentations for the destruction of Jerusalem[7].
Perhaps the most enigmatic and mysterious book in Judaism since the Zohar is the "Kol Hator" or Voice of the Turtledove. It was first published by the Rivlin family in 1946, but claimed as the work of Hillel Rivlin of Shklov, their great-grandfather, a disciple and relative of the Vilna Gaon. The book claims to be a systematic exposition of the Gaon's teachings on redemption. Rafael Shuchat, in his recent work, "A World Hidden in the Dimensions of Time", devotes an entire chapter to Kol Hator, and shows that in its essentials this controversial work does reflect the teachings of the Gaon.
Whilst undoubtedly written after Hillel's death, the book likely consists of family traditions, ultimately tracing back to the teachings of the Gaon.
Due to its late date it contains the most developed traditions on the Messiah ben Joseph, a figure central to its understanding of redemption.
The war against Armilius is explained as a war against the shells of uncleanliness surrounding the truth.
The paths towards redemption are defined as follows.
The following quote brings us to Orson Hyde.5600 was the very year in which Orson Hyde felt moved upon again to go on a mission to Palestine. This occured during April of 1840.
The text of his subsequent prayer on the Mount of Olives contains most of the things the Messiah ben Joseph was to bring about, beginning in the year of the turtledove.The Jewish community in Palestine at the time was in deep despair over the percieved failure of redemption to occur. Instead of the messiah, 1840 brought the Damascus Blood Libel, and a deep dissapointment and spiritual crisis. Some though, such as Eliezer of Tiktin, saw 1840 as meaning, in retrospect, the awakening from above, which had not yet reached below[8].
I plan on expanding this in my blog, I still have many other sources I would like to quote, but I think this suffices for now. I would welcome any discussion and comments, criticism, etc.
[1]The administrative body of the Prushim community in Israel.
[2]See http://www.usc.edu/s...ern_Judaism.pdf
[3]Aryeh Morgenstern, Messianic Conceptions and the Settlement of Eretz-Israel, Cathedra 24, July 1982, pg. 53.
[4]Ibid.
[5]E. V. Bergman, Yiseu Harim Shalom, pg. 76.
[6]Aryeh Morgenstern, The Debate over the Renewal of Sacrifices and Building of the Temple in the Year 5600
[7]Aryeh Morgenstern, Messianic Conceptions and the Settlement of Eretz-Israel, Cathedra 24, July 1982.
[8]Ibid, pg. 65.