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Please do NOT visit this
site on שַׁבָּת - Shabbat or on
the מוֹעֲדִים - Mo’a’dim - Feasts!
Re Tanakh versions:
Throughout this site I may use any of three versions of the Tanakh: 1. “Jewish
Publication Society” (JPS-1917), 2. “Mechon-Mamre.org” (MEC), and 3. “Sefaria.org” (SEF), three brilliant versions, However, the
JPS-1917 is my preferred version!
Colour coded
details of our beloved TaNaKh:
1. Torah = History & Law, 2. Nevi’im = The Prophets. 3. *Ketuvim = all other Writings.
*The Ketuvim - Includes, Poetical
books - Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the Megillot, or Scrolls - Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations of
Jeremiah, Ecclesiastes, and Esther, prophecy of Daniel, and history
of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles I & II.
Please Note: Some
alterations or (additions) have been made relating to ‘Names’ and ‘Attributes’
of אֱלֹהִים - Elohim, having been corrected like it
once was pre the “Masoretic Text”.
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Remember the following truth from our
beloved Torah!
“Ye shall NOT ADD TO THE WORD which
I command you, NEITHER SHALL YE DIMINISH FROM
IT, that ye may keep the commandments of אֱלֹהֵיכֶם יְהוָה - the LORD your Eloleichem,
which I command you”. Davarim - Deuteronomy 4:2. (JPS-1917). Yet our priests and rabbis did just that. Please
read Malachi chapter 2, verses 1 to 3.
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With Rabbi,
Dr. Reuven Ben Avraham-Goossens, PhD.
There is no doubt that in general the Hebrew,
and the general world has gone far astray! In the past I remember going to shul
and there was a large number of the members present. Sadly, these days we would
be lucky to get a מִנְיָן -
‘minion’ (10 men aged 13 and over). Sadly I know so many Hebrews, who no longer
uphold their Sabbath as is required. And believe it or not, they spend so much
time on their mobile phones, or simply do things they are no permitted
according the Mitzvoth - Law!
A minion is the minimum quorum of ten Hebrew men required to recite certain ‘public prayers’ and ‘perform specific religious obligations’. It sadly has changed Hebrew lives as well as countless Gentiles!
What this
unusual study is all about is regarding the world having changed so much that
it is destroying so many lives around the world!
What happens to
a ‘national identity’ when everything holding a nation together disintegrates
or even disappears? What happens to society when the focus of a culture is on
‘I, me and myself’ and its icon, the ‘selfie’? And what happens to morality
when the mantra is no longer ‘We’re all in this together’, but rather the
ideology these days is; ‘I’m free to be myself?’ These were some of the
questions that prompted me to undertake a study which was based
on ‘Morality’ long ago.
What emerged
from this journey into the state of our western culture is that morality
matters more than we commonly acknowledge. It is all we have left to bind us
into shared ‘responsibility’ for the ‘common good’. Morality is our oldest and
most powerful resource for turning the disconnected “I” into a collective “we”.
It is the alchemy that turns ‘selfish genes’ into ‘selfless people’, ‘egoists’
into ‘altruists’, and ‘self-interested’ striving into ‘empathy’, ‘sympathy’ and
‘compassion for others’.
It is no
accident that the word ‘demoralisation’ means what it does: a loss of
‘confidence’, ‘enthusiasm’ and ‘hope’. Without a shared morality, we are left
as ‘anxious individuals’, who tend to feel ‘lonely’, ‘vulnerable’ and
‘depressed’, ‘struggling to survive’ in a world that is sadly changing faster
than we can bear, and ‘becoming more unstable day by day’.
One symptom of
this was starkly revealed in the news, quiet some time ago that almost a
quarter of 14-year-old girls had self-harmed and tragically ended their lives
in the course of a year. This is a deeply disturbing trend, but sadly it does
not come as a surprise. A thoroughly researched study about children born in or
after 1995 was the first generation to have grown up with smart phones. There
was an author, who was one of the participants in a certain radio series. That
person told us about the discovery that rates of ‘self-ascribed life
satisfaction’ among teenagers had greatly plummeted, whilst ‘depression’ and
‘suicide’ suddenly rocketed skyward. Sadly in this case, it was girls (females)
who were the most vulnerable.
The view by a
host of experts was that social media and the smart phone addiction have
played a significant part in this pathology. Young people were spending between
seven to nine hours a day on their phones. Tragically, the result has been a
loss of ‘social skills’, ‘shortened attention spans’ and ‘sleep deprivation’,
but, above all, ‘anxiety’. Seeing their friends’ posts, they are subject to
‘Fear of Missing Out’ and constantly comparing themselves with the ‘burnished
images of their contemporaries’. iGen’ers, tend to be
“scared”, yes, even “terrified”. They are “both the physically safest
generation, yet the most mentally fragile”.
The second result,
charted by another participant in the series, a social psychologist is the
assault on free speech taking place in university campuses. He wrote, “How good
intentions and bad ideas are setting up a generation for failure”.
Thus these
so-called new ideas of “safe spaces”, “trigger warnings” and “no
plat-forming”, despite their erroneous life views and voices that fail to fit
the prevailing canons of political correctness. This is being done in the name
of the right not to be offended, a right that would have terrified George
Orwell, whose dictum, engraved on the walls of the BBC Broadcasting House,
states: “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people
what they do not want to hear”.
This is closely
related to a third phenomenon playing an ever larger part in the liberal
democracies of the west, namely in politics. There was a time, until recently,
when politics aspired to be about what is best for the nation. One of the
lasting unintended consequences of multiculturalism is that we no longer think
of the nation as a whole. Instead the electorate has been fragmented into a
series of subcultures, defined by ‘ethnicity’, ‘religion’, ‘gender’ or ‘sexual
orientation’. These can easily become competitive interest groups; less
concerned with the common good than with what is good for ‘those-like-me’.
Each group can
be encouraged, by the mood of our time, to see itself as a ‘victim’ and to
identify an ‘oppressor who can be blamed for their current predicament’. This
gives rise to a divisive and rancorous politics that divides society, like the
dualisms of old, into the children of light and the children of darkness. It
also provides a justification for the use of social media to manipulate public
opinion with fake news and “alternative facts”. When it comes to defending
against ‘oppressors’, people think that the end justifies the means. These are
dangerous ‘tendencies’ at both an ‘individual’ and ‘collective level’.
What connects
the ‘personal’ and the ‘political’ was given a name more than a century ago by
the great sociologist ‘Emile Durkheim’. He called it; ‘a state of instability’,
in societies and individuals, resulting from the breakdown of a shared set of
moral beliefs and attitudes. This would lead, sadly to a rise in ‘suicides’ as well
as a ‘loss of social cohesion’.
Sadly, I know
one particular person who is totally bound to their mobile phone. This person
never shops for food at a supermarket; it is always ordered via the mobile
phone and then delivered. And of course, doing it this way it will cost a lot
more than if you do your own shopping at the supermarket! Frankly that is
called severe stupidity. Time is spent by this person almost most of the day on
that phone, even late in the night. Sadly this person’s life and their home is
a complete mess!
Since the
Sixties, we have come to believe that you can outsource morality to the market
and the state. The market is about ‘wealth’, the state about ‘power’. The
market gives us choices and the state deals with the consequences of those choices.
Within those parameters we can do whatever we like so long as it does not
directly harm others.
We are learning
that this only works in the short term. In the long term when all that matters
is wealth and power the ‘wealthy and powerful gain’, and ‘the poor and the
powerless suffer’. That’s what has happened for at least a generation. Hence
the ‘anger’ and ‘loss of trust’, that today divides societies throughout the
West.
However, there
is an alternative. Since civilisation began, morality has been humanity’s
internal satellite navigation system as we have journeyed toward the
undiscovered country called the future. It has taken different forms, but it is
always about caring for the good of others, not just ourselves; about
‘decency’, ‘honesty’, ‘faithfulness’ and ‘self-restraint’, treating others as
we would wish to be treated. It should be a world of “we” not “I”!
While the market
and the state is all about ‘competition’, whilst ‘morality is about
co-operation’. It used to be born, and sustained ‘within families’,
‘communities’, ‘voluntary organisations’ and ‘religious congregations’.
‘Altruism’, a Mr. Viktor Frankl
taught us, is the ‘best cure for depression’.
Altruism is the unselfish concern for the well-being of others, characterized by actions and behaviours that benefit someone else, typically at a ‘personal cost’, ‘risk’, or ‘disadvantage to yourself’. It is the fundamental opposite of ‘egoism’.
‘Virtue’, as ‘Aristotle’ noted, is the basis of ‘strong
societies’. And we can each make a contribution. We should be reminded, ‘change one life for the better’ and you have
begun to change the world.
Morality is the
redemption of our solitude. With it we can face the future without fear,
knowing we are not alone!
Is it not time
that we come out of this selfish world, and become, I pray a person of faith
and return to our ‘beloved prayers, etc!’
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Below is a range
of verses from the Tanakh covering the contents of this study!
Please Note: Verses are in Ivrit (Hebrew) first,
followed by the English translation!
1. Hosea 14:2-3:
שׁוּבָה, יִשְׂרָאֵל, עַד, יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ: כִּי כָשַׁלְתָּ, בַּעֲוֺנֶךָ
קְחוּ
עִמָּכֶם
דְּבָרִים,
וְשׁוּבוּ
אֶל-יְהוָה;
אִמְרוּ
אֵלָיו,
כָּל-תִּשָּׂא
עָוֺן וְקַח-טוֹב,
וּנְשַׁלְּמָה
פָרִים,
שְׂפָתֵינוּ
2. “Return, O
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2. Isaiah 55:6:
דִּרְשׁוּ יְהוָה, בְּהִמָּצְאוֹ; קְרָאֻהוּ, בִּהְיוֹתוֹ קָרוֹב
6 “Seek ye יְהוָה - the LORD while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near”.
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3. Joel 2:12-13:
וְגַם-עַתָּה, נְאֻם-יְהוָה, שֻׁבוּ עָדַי, בְּכָל-לְבַבְכֶם; וּבְצוֹם וּבִבְכִי, וּבְמִסְפֵּד
וְקִרְעוּ לְבַבְכֶם וְאַל-בִּגְדֵיכֶם, וְשׁוּבוּ אֶל-יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם: כִּי-חַנּוּן וְרַחוּם, הוּא-אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם וְרַב-חֶסֶד, וְנִחָם עַל-הָרָעָה
12. “Yet even now, saith יְהוָה - the LORD, turn ye unto Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with lamentation; 13. And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם - the LORD your Eloheichem; for He is gracious and compassionate, long-suffering, and abundant in mercy, and repenteth Him of the evil”.
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Psalm 51:12:
לֵב טָהוֹר, בְּרָא-לִי אֱלֹהִים; וְרוּחַ נָכוֹן, חַדֵּשׁ בְּקִרְבִּי
12. “Create in me a clean heart, O אֱלֹהִים - Elohim; and renew a right spirit within me”.
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Micah 6:8:
הִגִּיד לְךָ אָדָם, מַה-טּוֹב; וּמָה-יְהוָה דּוֹרֵשׁ מִמְּךָ, כִּי אִם-עֲשׂוֹת מִשְׁפָּט וְאַהֲבַת חֶסֶד, וְהַצְנֵעַ לֶכֶת, עִם-אֱלֹהֶיךָ
8 “It hath been told thee, O man, what is good, and what יְהוָה - the LORD doth require of thee: only to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy אֱלֹהִים - Elohim”.
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Jeremiah 29:12-13:
וּקְרָאתֶם אֹתִי וַהֲלַכְתֶּם, וְהִתְפַּלַּלְתֶּם אֵלָי; וְשָׁמַעְתִּי, אֲלֵיכֶם
12. “Then shall ye call upon Me, and ye shall go and pray unto Me, and I will hearken unto you. 13. And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart”.
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Proverbs 3:5:
בְּטַח אֶל-יְהוָה, בְּכָל-לִבֶּךָ; וְאֶל-בִּינָתְךָ, אַל-תִּשָּׁעֵן
5. “Trust in יְהוָה - the LORD with all thy heart; and lean not upon thine own understanding”.
I pray with all my heart that we can return
to the beautiful truth of our scriptures, which certain priests and rabbis of
the past ‘have disgracefully altered’. For example in one Psalm alone they
removed the blessed and sacred Name of our beloved יְהוָה - the LORD and added in its place אֱלֹהִים (Elohim) in the Ivrit 7 times. And of course in the English translation,
instead of the blessed Name, they simply removed ‘the LORD’ and they replaced
it with the word ‘God’ (originally with Elohim).
Having been an archeologist in Israel, etc, I have pursued some of the oldest parchments, where in the Ivrit of the Name יְהוָה, being the most sacred Name was correct in this Psalm, yet those who are supposed to ensure our Tanakh was perfectly translated and ensured that our אֱלֹהִים’s blessed Name would always be there, but no these rabbis will be severely punished for their evil! Read this Psalm for yourself, it is Psalm 56!
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Please Note: “hebraicstudies” links are located down
the page!
This site was originally created, for those
who desired to return to our blessed and wonderful faith. Thus be wise and work
on your faith and pray at least two or three times a day (if possible) and
always seek our beloved אֱלֹהִים - Elohim’s guidance,
for His love is always with us, especially when we seek Him, blessed be He!
However this site has become very much a teaching site with hundreds of
studies!
Remember what אֱלֹהִים - Elohim, blessed be
He, said the following through a number of our prophets...
“Hebraic Studies” motto is as follows;
“The More Torah, the More Life”,
For Elohim is the One who
gave us our ... “Life!”
May the שָׁלוֹם - Shalom = Peace
of צְבָאוֹת- יְהוָה= the LORD of hosts, be with
you, and please always uphold our blessed שַׁבָּת - Shabbat, as well as
the מוֹעֲדִים - Mo’a’dim - Feasts, and continue saying your
daily תְּפִלָּה - Tefeelah’s - Prayers and
regular בְּרָכָה - Be’ra’chah’s - blessings before food
and drinks, etc!
שָׁלוֹם
עֲלֵיכֶם - Shalom
Aleichem - Peace be with you!
Enter ...