The Rabbi Loves You

[Aish HaTorah]

Shalom, my friends.  I am back after a long number of years and trials and tribulations.  Suffice it to say, some of you may remember me (for good or ill), and many of you do not know me.  One of the things that has changed since last I was among your good selves is that I have completed my training to become a rabbi.

I love you and I am happy to be among you again.  We do not always agree on things, but we can certainly discuss things in love.  As the great prophet Isaiah said,  "Come then, and let us reason together."

 

I pray the Almighty, blessed be He, grants you a day of fullness and love.  It is a great day to be alive!

 

G-d, it is true, before You there is no night, and the light is with You, and You make the whole world shine with Your light.  The mornings tell of Your mercy, and the nights tell of Your truth, and all creatures tell of Your great mercy and of great miracles.

Each day You renew Your help, O G-d!  Who can recount Your miracles?  You sit in the sky and count the days of the devout, and set the time for all Your creatures.  Your single day is a thousand years, and Your years and days are unbounded.

All that is in the world must live its life to an end, but You are there, You will always be there...

You, G-d, are pure, and pure are Your holy servants who three times ever day cry, "Holy," and sanctify You in heaven and on the earth.

You, G-d, are sanctified and praised.  The whole world is filled with Your glory for ever and ever.

Edited February 13, 2019 by Aish HaTorah

[anatess2]

Rabbi Aish!  Glad to see you back!  And quoting Isaiah too!  I'm happy to see that we got our Isaiah expert posting again.

Looking forward to your posts.

So... I only have one important question for now.  Did Tevye the dairyman finally become a rich man? 

 

Edited February 13, 2019 by anatess2

[Aish HaTorah]

4 hours ago, anatess2 said:

Rabbi Aish!  Glad to see you back!  And quoting Isaiah too!  I'm happy to see that we got our Isaiah expert posting again.

Looking forward to your posts.

So... I only have one important question for now.  Did Tevye the dairyman finally become a rich man? 

 

Thank you most kindly!  Aish actually means "fire" in Hebrew.  Aish HaTorah means Fire of Torah.

As to the Tevye bit...alas, he never did, and he is kvetching to this day!  

I have heard it said that his son (Chiam Topol) is playing Tevye on Broadway in Fiddler on the Roof, but I don't know if that is true.

[anatess2]

7 minutes ago, Aish HaTorah said:

Thank you most kindly!  Aish actually means "fire" in Hebrew.  Aish HaTorah means Fire of Torah.

As to the Tevye bit...alas, he never did, and he is kvetching to this day!  

I have heard it said that his son (Chiam Topol) is playing Tevye on Broadway in Fiddler on the Roof, but I don't know if that is true.

So Rabbi Aish means Fiery Rabbi!  Hey hey hey! 

 

[DennisTate]

5 hours ago, Aish HaTorah said:

Shalom, my friends.  I am back after a long number of years and trials and tribulations.  Suffice it to say, some of you may remember me (for good or ill), and many of you do not know me.  One of the things that has changed since last I was among your good selves is that I have completed my training to become a rabbi.

I love you and I am happy to be among you again.  We do not always agree on things, but we can certainly discuss things in love.  As the great prophet Isaiah said,  "Come then, and let us reason together."

 

I pray the Almighty, blessed be He, grants you a day of fullness and love.  It is a great day to be alive!

 

G-d, it is true, before You there is no night, and the light is with You, and You make the whole world shine with Your light.  The mornings tell of Your mercy, and the nights tell of Your truth, and all creatures tell of Your great mercy and of great miracles.

Each day You renew Your help, O G-d!  Who can recount your miracles?  You sit in the sky and count the days of the devout, and set the time for all Your creatures.  Your single day is a thousand years, and Your years and days are unbounded.

All that is in the world must live its life to an end, but You are there, You will always be there...

You, G-d, are pure, and pure are Your holy servants who three times ever day cry, "Holy," and sanctify You in heaven and on the earth.

You, G-d, are sanctified and praised.  The whole world is filled with Your glory for ever and ever.

Shalom and Greetings from Nova Scotia, Canada.  

I am a Messianic Gentile who wants to see the Jerusalem Third Temple and / or the Ezekiel forty to forty eight temple complex built.  I attended the local ward of the Latter day Saints for the third time in less than a year partly because I am kind of in awe at how many important topics we have very similar views on.  

For example:
 

 

I actually have began to have what I once would have considered to be really strange ideas on the possible metaphors 

hidden within scriptures that could turn what used to look like a really scary disastrous series of latter day events into

something for more peaceful and win - win - win - win - win for all of us.......... For example.... I am wide open to the idea that

maybe former Skeptic and near death experiencer Rabbi Alon Anava may have been burned with metaphorical Zechariah 14 style fire........

that has burned out the carnality in his eyes, mind, heart and body........

because he is now on a roll attempting to draw back lost souls to Teshuvah.........

It is as if his view of the whole world and our places in it has been transformed.

 

Edited February 13, 2019 by DennisTate
spelling

[Aish HaTorah]

21 minutes ago, DennisTate said:

Shalom and Greetings from Nova Scotia, Canada.  

I am a Messianic Gentile who wants to see the Jerusalem Third Temple and / or the Ezekiel forty to forty eight temple complex built.  I attended the local ward of the Latter day Saints for the third time in less than a year partly because I am kind of in awe at how many important topics we have very similar views on.  

For example:
 

 

I actually have began to have what I once would have considered to be really strange ideas on the possible metaphors 

hidden within scriptures that could turn what used to look like a really scary disastrous series of latter day events into

something for more peaceful and win - win - win - win - win for all of us.......... For example.... I am wide open to the idea that

maybe former Skeptic and near death experiencer Rabbi Alon Anava may have been burned with metaphorical Zechariah 14 style fire........

that has burned out the carnality in his eyes, mind, heart and body........

because he is now on a roll attempting to draw back lost souls to Teshuvah.........

It is as if his view of the whole world and our places in it has been transformed.

 

Shalom and thank you, my friend.  Hopefully you are keeping warm up there!

[Aish HaTorah]

24 minutes ago, anatess2 said:

So Rabbi Aish means Fiery Rabbi!  Hey hey hey! 

 

I can be that at times.  Mostly I suffer from a sort of droll loquaciousness.  Ask my children and they will confirm this.

They also ask me if I read the Bible to reminisce.  

[DennisTate]

8 minutes ago, Aish HaTorah said:

I can be that at times.  Mostly I suffer from a sort of droll loquaciousness.  Ask my children and they will confirm this.

They also ask me if I read the Bible to reminisce.  

They could be correct.......

one of the reasons why I am hesitant to become a Latter day Saint too quickly is because I may be a little too Jewish to fit in.........

I personally see no error in the following article?!

If my beliefs would be an embarrassment to the Latter day Saints... then it is better for all of us if I don't officially become baptized as one?!

https://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/380599/jewish/Judaism-and-Reincarnation.htm

Judaism and Reincarnation

  Beginner

By Yerachmiel Tilles

[Aish HaTorah]

9 minutes ago, DennisTate said:

They could be correct.......

one of the reasons why I am hesitant to become a Latter day Saint too quickly is because I may be a little too Jewish to fit in.........

I personally see no error in the following article?!

If my beliefs would be an embarrassment to the Latter day Saints... then it is better for all of us if I don't officially become baptized as one?!

https://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/380599/jewish/Judaism-and-Reincarnation.htm

Judaism and Reincarnation

  Beginner

By Yerachmiel Tilles

Shalom,

Thank you kindly for asking this.  I know some things about LDS theology from my time spent here previously, as well as my own personal studies, but I certainly cannot (and, indeed, would not) claim to be any sort of expert.  However, I believe it would be quite difficult to reconcile any Kabbalistic teachings with what I know of LDS dogma.

The Chabadniks are their own special breed.  I spend a number of years studying among them during my time at yeshiva to become a rabbi, but I am not a part of that movement.  They are good people, and their pursuit of Torah is quite admirable, but some of their ideas I simply cannot abide.  They are also the most "missionary" of all Jewish religious groups, but they restrict their efforts to bring secular or humanistic Jews back into Judaism.

Edited February 13, 2019 by Aish HaTorah

[DennisTate]

1 minute ago, Aish HaTorah said:

Shalom,

Thank you kindly for asking this.  I know some things about LDS theology from my time spent here previously, as well as my own personal studies, but I certainly cannot (and, indeed, would not) claim to be any sort of expert.  However, I believe it would be quite difficult to reconcile any Kabbalistic teachings with what I know of LDS dogma.

The Chabadniks are their own special breed.  I spend a number of years studying among them during my time at yeshiva to become a rabbi, but I am not a part of that movement.  They are good people, and their pursuit of Torah is quite admirable, but some of their ideas I simply cannot abide.  They are also the most "missionary" of all Jewish religious groups, but they restrict their efforts to bring secular or humanistic Jews back into Judaism.

Exactly what I somewhat suspected.......

my all time record for getting myself disfellowshipped from Christians churches is two... .in not much more than one month back in 1991..... (The Worldwide Church of God and one of its offshoots The Philadelphia Church of God, led by Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong and Mr. Gerald Flurry). 

I know from experience that it is far better that I not join a church.... than that I join a church where my beliefs..... .that are ingrained into me over decades.....

would be an embarrassment to that church.  

For the record.... I am also very, very interested in becoming Jewish..... or at least a Noahide Plus... and by Plus I mean a Noahide who attempts to observe the weekly and annual Sabbaths and may well make Aliyah to Israel?

[Aish HaTorah]

3 minutes ago, DennisTate said:

Exactly what I somewhat suspected.......

my all time record for getting myself disfellowshipped from Christians churches is two... .in not much more than one month back in 1991..... (The Worldwide Church of God and one of its offshoots The Philadelphia Church of God, led by Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong and Mr. Gerald Flurry). 

I know from experience that it is far better that I not join a church.... than that I join a church where my beliefs..... .that are ingrained into me over decades.....

would be an embarrassment to that church.  

For the record.... I am also very, very interested in becoming Jewish..... or at least a Noahide Plus... and by Plus I mean a Noahide who attempts to observe the weekly and annual Sabbaths and may well make Aliyah to Israel?

If I may ask, from where does your desire to become a part of the Jewish people come?  Is it something that you have always felt/experienced?  Have you had a conversation with any rabbis (Chasidic or Conservative or Reform?).

 

For the record myself, I am not here to persuade you are anyone to become a part of anything.  I love the LDS people, and I am mindful of what I say and do here.  I am always willing to share my beliefs out of love, and will readily do so when asked, but I do not wish to dissuade anyone from their walk with HaShem.  May the L-rd G-d of Israel bless you in your journey, my friend!

[DennisTate]

6 minutes ago, Aish HaTorah said:

If I may ask, from where does your desire to become a part of the Jewish people come?  Is it something that you have always felt/experienced?  Have you had a conversation with any rabbis (Chasidic or Conservative or Reform?).

 

For the record myself, I am not here to persuade you are anyone to become a part of anything.  I love the LDS people, and I am mindful of what I say and do here.  I am always willing to share my beliefs out of love, and will readily do so when asked, but I do not wish to dissuade anyone from their walk with HaShem.  May the L-rd G-d of Israel bless you in your journey, my friend!

 

Part of my desire may go back about forty to forty two years to the time when I read "Mila 18" by Leon Uris, (about the Warsaw Ghetto uprising). 

I cried all through the book..... .and I prayed...... and I asked G-d that if this ever happens again........ I want to be on their side with them........

against their enemies.......

I am 59 and I think I read Mila 18 and most of Leon Uris's books of historical fiction while I was a teenager.  

I've been attempting to observe the weekly Jewish Sabbath in a rather incompetent... but none the less sincere manner since I was a teenager....  and I also attempted to observe the annual Jewish Sabbaths and I really like the powerful case that can be presented for eventual universal salvation from within Judaism.  

The article "The Personality of Moshiach" on Chabad.org is a good article to begin researching that topic.  

Edited February 13, 2019 by DennisTate
add quotation marks

[Aish HaTorah]

Grateful am I in Your presence, Almighty G-d, who lives and endures,

for You have returned my soul to me with compassion.

Abundant is Your faith.

 

 

In these still, quiet moments

I am not asleep,

and not yet awake.

 

In the threshold of day and night,

with the mixture of darkness and light,

my body is once again coming to life.

I am reborn, each day,

from the womb of Your compassion.

May all of my actions

be worthy of the faith You have placed in me.

With words of thanks I’ll greet the dawn.

[Aish HaTorah]

May your day be filled with joy and rejoicing in G-d's majesty and love!

[DennisTate]

23 hours ago, Aish HaTorah said:

May your day be filled with joy and rejoicing in G-d's majesty and love!

In one of his lectures Rabbi Alon Anava stated that there are SEVENTEEN angels with DVD - IMax technology

hanging out with each and all of the eight billion infinitely precious human lives on this earth.  These angels record every

minute detail of our lives...... and those recordings are used in the Life Review that so many near death experiencers report.

Human life...... seems to be far, far, far, far, far more important to G-d....... than it is even to each of us?!

 

I will see if I can find the lecture by the Rabbi where he mentioned that intriguing detail.

Here it is.... that statement is made before the two minute mark in this video:

 

[Aish HaTorah]

1 minute ago, DennisTate said:

In one of his lectures Rabbi Alon Anava stated that there are SEVENTEEN angels with DVD - IMax technology

hanging out with each and all of the eight billion infinitely precious human lives on this earth.  These angels record every

minute detail of our lives...... and those recordings are used in the Life Review that so many near death experiencers report.

Human life...... seems to be far, far, far, far, far more important to G-d....... than it is even to each of us?!

 

I will see if I can find the lecture by the Rabbi where he mentioned that intriguing detail.

Here it is.... that statement is made before the two minute mark in this video...

 

What a beautiful parsha is Bo!  When we invite the L-rd G-d of heaven to come into our heart and our life, we feel His abiding love and shalom.  He attends us daily and nurtures within us a deeper love for Him and for all His children.

[DennisTate]

On 2/15/2019 at 10:34 AM, Aish HaTorah said:

What a beautiful parsha is Bo!  When we invite the L-rd G-d of heaven to come into our heart and our life, we feel His abiding love and shalom.  He attends us daily and nurtures within us a deeper love for Him and for all His children.

Back in 1990 I went through a time of being angry with Rabbi Yeshua - Jesus over some of the statements he had made......

I ended up literally raising my right hand in my air and asking to be taken by the right hand.......

and I did it in anger and quoted much of:

 

https://www.lds.org/scriptures/ot/isa?lang=eng

 

1 Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut;

2 I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:

3 And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.

4 For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.

5 ¶ I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:

[DennisTate]

Here is the context for my dilemma at that time:

 

Back around 1990 I went through a pretty serious theological crisis when I found out that the Soul Sleep theory was in error. I had believed in it pretty firmly since the early '70's. It sure sounded a whole lot more humane than the gospel as presented by Dr. Billy Graham..... that had inspired me to become an Atheist from around 1967 - 1973 until I began to listen to Evangelist Garner Ted Armstrong. 

Without Soul Sleep until the resurrection......
the plan of G-d as explained by Rabbi Yeshua - Jesus sounded pretty awful.

Matthew 22:14

"For many are called, but few are chosen."

Matthew 7:13

¶
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."


Matthew 5:28

"But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast itfrom thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell."

So the possible reality of this hell.... that is so scary that it would be a good idea to take an axe to our right hand....
made the Gospel / Good News..... look a whole lot less good. 

Near death experiencer Bob Jones was shown that only about two percent of people in North America can go quickly into the paradise / heaven environment after death.

http://www.thequickenedword.com/rhema/BobJonesTestimonyAugust81975DeathExperience.htm

[cathyyg]

Well, shalom! I am the friendly occasional liberal Jewish stream member here. So good to see a rabbi here! Would you be Orthodox, I suspect?

[Aish HaTorah]

So...I have returned yet again.  I should mention at this point that my absences are not out of some lack of interest in participation, but, rather, because I have a daughter who has a terminal illness.  I am sure it goes without saying that with her and her condition my heart lies and I must tend to her needs when her symptoms become severe at times.  I pray you have all been well and that the Almighty, blessed be He, has shown you His infinite mercies and tender shalom.

[Aish HaTorah]

On 5/14/2019 at 8:10 PM, cathyyg said:

Well, shalom! I am the friendly occasional liberal Jewish stream member here. So good to see a rabbi here! Would you be Orthodox, I suspect?

Orthodox, I am not.  Although I have been known to have Orthodox leanings from time to time.  I am quite conservative in my beliefs, although there is much about the Reform movement that I find extraordinarily sincere and pleasing.  I am happy to make your acquaintance.  

[DennisTate]

On 2/13/2019 at 6:02 PM, Aish HaTorah said:

Shalom,

Thank you kindly for asking this.  I know some things about LDS theology from my time spent here previously, as well as my own personal studies, but I certainly cannot (and, indeed, would not) claim to be any sort of expert.  However, I believe it would be quite difficult to reconcile any Kabbalistic teachings with what I know of LDS dogma.

The Chabadniks are their own special breed.  I spend a number of years studying among them during my time at yeshiva to become a rabbi, but I am not a part of that movement.  They are good people, and their pursuit of Torah is quite admirable, but some of their ideas I simply cannot abide.  They are also the most "missionary" of all Jewish religious groups, but they restrict their efforts to bring secular or humanistic Jews back into Judaism.

It took me about thirty years to get my head around how 

what may seem to be a contradiction on the surface......

may actually fit together perfectly but it is almost like we need to 

think of the human soul and / or spirit and / or "over soul" as one near death experiencer called it due perhaps

to a lack of a better phrase to describe it...  ... as having multiple layers that 

could perhaps fit with String Theory?!

M-Theory postulates eleven dimensions of space - time... Bosonic String Theory postulates twenty six dimensions or even more

so...... 

the most ancient part of our human soul may experience certain things that 

another part of our soul or spirit may not experience?????

So... .perhaps the dream of Jacob/ Yacob of angels going up and coming down.......

was about angels separate and unique from him or............

could those angels be part of the over - soul of Jacob - Yacob that come back again and again and again in

other forms...... in order to teach others and of course to learn greater empathy and humility?

 

I personally cannot dogmatically pronounce the research of Dr. Ian Stevenson as being false or 

from the dark side........ because I simply cannot know enough about all possible aspects of the human soul

or over soul to know for sure?????

One time when I did a search for Rabbi Nachman of Breslov I ran into an article entitled "18 Planes of Existence" on

a website for a university in Utah...... and although the article was really confusing I was truly impressed that 

Latter day Saints allows an obviously Jewish scholar to publish an article that many Christians would

find to perhaps be "heretical."

 

 

Edited October 31, 2019 by DennisTate
add comment