Showing posts with label Shabbat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shabbat. Show all posts

Wednesday 15 October 2014

Why Sabbaths or Sabbath plural "shabbatot"

Martin Rozestraten had a personal chat with Uriel ben-Mordechai from Jerusalem
He is a Hebrew linguist and Bible teacher
This is his answer why there is spoken about sabbath in plurial form.

tee mee'ah tohn sabbah'tohne -- the first of the shabbatot. Why "first"? Why plural "shabbatot"? Verse 6 provides the answer. Sha'ul apparently was in Philippi for Pesach. Just after Pesach, he traveled to Troas, a journey of about 400 km. It took him less than 5 days to complete the journey. There are 7 shabbatot between Pesach and Shavu'ot, that the Torah commands us to count off, during this period. That year, Pesach probably fell on a Shabbat or Sunday. Less than 5 days later, he arrived in Troas, and on the first of those 7 Shabbatot after Pesach, he met with brothers in Troas and shared a meal with them, and later taught them until after midnight.

Thursday 28 November 2013

Anti-Semitic incidents in Australia in 2012 highest ever on record

1941 Nazi propaganda poster in the Lithuanian ...
1941 Nazi propaganda poster in the Lithuanian language, equating Stalinism with the Jews. The text reads "The Jew is our enemy forever". (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Not only europe faces a growing negative attitude towards Jews. Last year Australia recorded the highest ever anti-Semitic incidents.

657 reports of violence directed at Australian Jews were made. This is a 21-percent increase over the previous year and only accounts the registered incidents. According The Executive Council of Australian Jewry’s annual “Report on Anti-Semitism in Australia” the number of serious physical attacks was the lowest since 2005.

The authors of the report, Julie Nathan, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry’s research officer, and Jeremy Jones, director of international and community affairs at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council wrote:
“In general, it can be said that Australians neither particularly like nor dislike Jews,”
The 202-page report does not include the recent brutal assault of five religious Jews walking home from Shabbat dinner in Bondi last month, described as the worst anti-Semitic incident of its kind since records began in 1989. This will be featured in next year’s report. 

The report does, however, include the fallout sparked by explosive revelations that Israel’s “Prisoner X” was Melbourne native Ben Zygier, an alleged Mossad agent who committed suicide in his maximum-security prison cell in 2010.


“A tragedy involving a single individual was used in some media to impugn the loyalty to Australia of Australian Jews as a group,” the authors wrote. “[It] … was used as a pretext by anti-Semites to accuse Jews in Australia of disloyalty.”

In europe we have seen a negative spiral against people who are not like the mainstream, homo's, transgenders, specific Muslims not belonging to the two big denominations, but also the different Jewish people.

In Europe there are people who want to let others know that the Muslims are trying to conquer the world and that Jews are undermining the economic evolution and are hindering the lower classes to become more wealthier. Like in the 1930s many Jews are considered to be the cause of the present economic crisis.
“Although stereotypes of Jews remain part of the culture in Australia, these are not as deeply ingrained or hateful as in European and Middle Eastern cultures,” according to the authors. “Anti-Semitism remains at the fringes of Australian politics and society, and though there are exceptions, anti-Semitism is not generally part of the mainstream discourse.”
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Friday 25 January 2013

Tu B’Shvat, the holiday of the trees

If the did not celebrate it Wednesday evening and Thursday, Jews around the world will celebrate the holiday of u B’Shevat, Tu Bishvat, or Tu B’Shvat (15th of the Hebrew month of Shevat) tonight.And people wondered why we should celebrate the holiday of the tree.almond blossom

The almond trees in Israel begin to shake blossoms out along their branches.
Across the globe this month Jewish communities are celebrating the holiday of Tu B’Shvat.  Many choose to commemorate the “New Year of The Trees” by planting pine trees in Israel.  Tu B’Shvat is a day that deals directly with the social inequality of our food system.  It’s a holiday that can inspire us to think about the free Gifts Jehovah God provides for humanity and it gives us the chance to think about His blessings and how we should use those blessings. This year you perhaps could also think about building community food security.


Savyon from the land of Israel
Savyon from the land of Israel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
When we look around us we can see very beautiful things in nature, though many do not notice them any more.God has created the plants and given the task to the people to name them and to take care of them. God promised that all the plants would be for the good of people and would offer food for men and animal. And normally all of the seed bearing trees would bring forth fruits free for all people. Though people made it that humans had to pay for it.

"And Elohim said, “See, I have given you every plant that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed, to you it is for food." (Beréshith - Genesis - Book of the Beginning 1:29 The Scriptures 1998+)

Also in Europe and North America the inhabitants can look forward to the new time coming soon. In Belgium from tomorrow Saturday the temperatures will rise, but we can notice already the sap in thee shrubs begining once again to flow through it.  The trees are ready to bring out green knobs and to let the Voice of the Most High sound through their branches. If you look carefully around you you will see heralding
the New Year for trees. The melting snow shall provide moisture for the trees and the sap will bring forth fruit in the spring. It is the day to pray for a beautiful esrog. The custom for Jews is to eat fruits in order to be able to say the blessings on the fruits on this day. הדר עץ פרי, a fruit of splendor, is gematria העץ פרי ברא, [Blessed are you Hashem] who created the fruit of the tree (they both equal 659). Have in mind to ask Elohim Hashem Jehovah for a gorgeous esrog when saying this blessing.

In the Mishnah, where Tu B’Shvat is found, the purpose of the holiday is to make a single day in which our produce is taxed and given to the community. It’s based from a single line of Torah: “At the end of three years you shall bring forth all the tithe of your produce in that year, and shall lay it up inside your gates; And the Levite, because he has no part nor inheritance with you, and the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow, who are inside your gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied.“ (Debarim - Deuteronomy 14:28).

The Torah also says that "man is a tree in the field."We should come forth from good seed and bring forth good fruits.When we bring none, not enough or no good fruits we would be of no use.

God has plated the seed in Abraham to make Him a people. And God His Wishes shall always come true. So out of Aḇraham shall come forth the fruit of a blessed people because יהוה {Jehovah}appeared to him  and said, “I am the Elohim of your father Aḇraham. Do not fear, for I am with you, and shall bless you and increase your seed for My servant Aḇraham’s sake.”.(Beréshith - Genesis - Book of the Beginning 26: 23-24)
The Creator told His chosen people how He was to be called and that His Name and Works should be known all over the world. Those Works we can still see every day, because Jehovah God did not end Creating.


In the Land of Israel, several people are already happily celebrating Tu B’Shvat, the holiday of the trees. School children sing songs praising the Land of Israel and thanking Hashem for its fruits. Bus loads of students and families go on field trips throughout the country, and saplings are planted with great joy and spirit. And a festive meal of thanksgiving, highlighted by a cornucopia of fruits of the Land, will grace our tables on Shabbat.

  writes about this special day and looks at Eretz Yisrael. According to him without Israel the Torah is a shrunken, truncated, mini-version of the complete Torah of Eretz Yisrael. Two-thirds of the Mishna deals with laws that can only be performed in Israel. Without Eretz Yisrael, God Himself is reduced to a second-string diety, seemingly not strong enough to keep His Chosen People in the Land He gave them, for there is no greater desecration of the Name of God than when the Jewish People are scattered in exile amongst the goyim (Ezekiel, 36:20). Without Eretz Yisrael, there is no prophecy, no Beit HaMikdash, and the Divine Presence doesn’t appear in the world.

Kaliv Hasidim celebrating Tu B'Shvat in Jerusalem.
Kaliv Hasidim celebrating Tu B'Shvat in Jerusalem.
Photo Credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
The hunger in our cities resonates because everywhere we can see more poverty. We do not have to go far away form our own dinner-table to see the food crisis which is also a spiritual crisis. On this Tu B’Shvat, let’s reinvigorate the holiday’s original purpose, by doing our part to make hunger relief healthier, more respectful and more in line with our shared values.
Those who are fortunate to have an abundance of produce year-round could perhaps take time to think of those in need and provide for them.
Tu B’Shvat is an opportunity to more closely examine hunger and how to respond most effectively to ensure that hungry people have access to nutritious, healthy foods.

Read:

What’s the Point of Celebrating Tu B’Shvat in Exile?

Celebrate Tu B’Shevat, the New Year of the Trees

 
Fruits and vegetables
Fruits and vegetables (Photo credit: nutrilover)


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