Tuesday, June 21, 2011

3

     The Oral Torah is the key to unlocking all the mysteries and nuances of the written Torah.  With out the key all the treasures of the Torah, it's understanding, applications are out of reach.  With out the Oral Torah one is only left to postulate.  The Torah says a man is commanded to put the Torah on his arm and between his eyes.  In Duet. 6:8.  In 6:6 Moshe said that it should be on our heart.  We see from this that there are two different commandments here.  One that seems to be spiritual, " put it on your heart".   One that is physical, a specific place, on the arm and between the eyes.  No details are given.  How do we bind the Torah on our arms?  The entire Torah, or part of the Torah?  With glue, string, or tattoo?  What arm, right or left?  What if a Man has no arms?  Where between the eyes?  Directly between the eyes?  Unless you have the oral Torah, once again you are only left with conjecture.  Christianity gives no alternative.  Christianity has either no answer or a very poor answer to the above questions.  Instead they only try to destroy the oral Torah by saying that it is the invention of men.  Their remedy for this quandary is to cast aspersion on the authenticity of the oral Torah.  There fore releasing from obligation.
     Christians agree that the written Torah is the Jew's, we own it.  It is our possession.  Given to us as a gift from above through Moses.    This why in the Torah you will find it called the Torah of the creator and the Torah of Moses.  This is telling in and of itself.  Is there two Torahs?  One of the Creator and one from Moshe?  Yes!  It is the same Torah.  The Torah of the Creator and the Torah of Moshe are the exact same Torah.  This is trying to tell us something.  On one hand it is the Torah of the Creator.  The Torah that was heard and witnessed by 600,000 Jewish men not including women and children.  The Torah that we know undeniably came from heaven.  On the other hand it was given to us by the Creator's most trust worthy servant, the most faithful in all his house, the humblest man on the face of the earth Moshe Rabeinu [our teacher].  Which is it Torah of man or Torah of the Creator or both?  It is ironic that most secular people use the same argument even to counter Christian claims.  The scriptures were made by man, not inspired by the Creator.  At some point there has to be an acknowledgement of those that are more capable.  I would not go to a mechanic to get brain surgery.  The same way I would not go to a Minister, Pastor, or Preacher to interpret the Torah.  It is most likely that he won't even speak or be able to read the language, which was my personal experience 100% of the time.
        In the next post I will show how Christianity is counter productive in their argument against the validity of the oral Torah.  Also how Christianity itself is an oral tradition.  I will show how Jesus actually kept certain aspects of the oral Torah and encouraged others to do the same.

Friday, June 17, 2011

2

     The Torah, foundation of all three religions was given to the Jews in a language that they spoke and understood.  This language is given the accolade of holy.  The holy tongue is Hebrew.  The sages teach us that this language specifically the Torah is the language of creation.  In the Torah there is a commandment that was given to the Jews on Mount Sinia.  This is the prohibition of profaning the Name of the Creator.  We are not aloud to use the name commonly or glibly.  The sin of chillul HaShem (profaning the name) is so great that we do not ever pronounce the name as it appears in the text.  Every one who reads Hebrew has seen this name countless times and can tell you that it is the name of the Creator.  The name of the Creator, is Yud, Heh, Vav, Hey.  Three different letters of the Hebrew Aleph-Beis (alpha bet).  Our Sages also tell us that really the entire Torah is one name of the Creator.  It is forbidden for a Jew to erase even one letter, or for that matter to make even the slightest defect in any of the writings of the Torah.  The Creator, Torah, and Israel are eternal never to fade, of vanish away.
      Hebrew is a language that is made up of 22 letters.  These letters have names , numerical value , and some have two forms.  Then there are vowels and marks that instruct on cadence and tone.  Through the combination of these we have the Hebrew language.  Hebrew is the garment of the wisdom of the Torah.  The letters are the vessels in which the ideas are contained.  If these vessels are broken the thought is not communicated properly.
        In the Talmud Mas. Shabbat 31a.  there is a story about a potential convert to Judaism and his exchange with the two leading Rabbis of his day.  These two Rabbi happened to be the famed Hillel and Shamia.
" Our Rabbis taught: A certain heathen once came before Shammai and asked him, "How many Torohs do you have?" "Two," he replied" 'the written Torah and the Oral Torah' I believe you with respect to the written, but not with respect to the Oral Torah; make me a proselyte on condition that you teach me the written Torah [only]. [But] he scolded and repulsed him in anger.  When he went before Hillel, he accepted him as a proselyte. On the first day,  he taught him, Alef, Beth, Gimmel, Dalet; the following day he reversed [them] to him. 'But yesterday you did not teach them to me thus, ' he protested. ' Must you then not rely upon me?  Then rely upon me with respect to the oral [Torah] too.
       This illustrates perfectly the nuance of the Oral Torah.  Just to read the Torah properly with all the right meaning takes a vast knowledge of the Oral Torah.  A Torah scroll is not written with vowel or cantilation marks.  In order to understand what the Torah says literally you must know the Oral Torah Perfectly.  The Oral Torah is the explanation of the written Torah.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Intro Judaism vs. Christianity

     There are three major religions in our times, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.  Of these three Judaism is unique and stands alone.  Judaism is unique in that it is older than the other two, and to this fact the others agree. Judaism can be considered the mother of both of the other religions.  Both Christianity and Islam defer to Judaism in that it is the oldest revelation of the Creator's will for man kind.  Both Christians and Muslims believe that Moses is a prophet.  That he spoke to the Creator.  That he was given revelation of truth contained in the books of the Torah and given and entrusted to the Jews to keep.
     So the obvious question is, "Why do they disagree"?  Basically, both Christianity and Islam believe that the Jews own the Torah.  They believe that Moses who was a Jew from the tribe of Levi, the son of Israel, wrote the Torah.  They also believe that it was written in the language of the Jews.  The main ascertainment is that, we the Jews, don't understand it.  Could you imagine, one day you write an unbelievable novel.  You spent countless hours planning.  You come up with all the story line an unbelievable plot.  You think about all the characters, their history and background.  You think of the perfect setting and time frame.  Finally, you publish it.  It opens up on New York Times best seller list as number one.  Then a thousand years later some one comes along and tells the relatives of the author that, "he wrote a good book but".  Let me tell you what he really was trying to say.  Oh and by the way did you see all the illusions in the text.  See you thought it was saying this but in all actuality he was really trying to say this.  Really!?!  In Jewish circles you might hear, "What Chutzpah".  Chutzpah is a Hebrew word that means brazenness.  I think you would probably laugh and be just a little bit offended by such pompous arrogance.
        We must take a serious look at the Torah.  We must answer the questions of who, what, where, when, why, and how.  I think any body who is humble enough to acknowledge truth will have a life changing experience if they are honest with them selves and the facts that all agree upon.  We will explore this in detail in the future.