General Essays. by John D Brey
The Shelah is a consummate scholar who demonstrates mastery in every aspect of rabbinic learning,... more The Shelah is a consummate scholar who demonstrates mastery in every aspect of rabbinic learning, to wit, halakah and talmudic jurisprudence, homiletics and biblical exegesis, philosophy and ethics, and above all else the esoteric traditions known as Kabbalah. Horowitz combines an extensive knowledge of talmudichalakhic Judaism and kabbalistic lore and thereby forges a synthesis that he presents as the basic reality of Jewish religiosity.
The Shelah is a consummate scholar who demonstrates mastery in every aspect of rabbinic learning,... more The Shelah is a consummate scholar who demonstrates mastery in every aspect of rabbinic learning, to wit, halakah and talmudic jurisprudence, homiletics and biblical exegesis, philosophy and ethics, and above all else the esoteric traditions known as Kabbalah. Horowitz combines an extensive knowledge of talmudichalakhic Judaism and kabbalistic lore and thereby forges a synthesis that he presents as the basic reality of Jewish religiosity.
Death is the paradoxical agent of Life: a salvific-messianic-act with human love at the center.. ... more Death is the paradoxical agent of Life: a salvific-messianic-act with human love at the center.. . Not only can physical death help atone for sins committed on earth, but a perfect martyrdom has the singular power to repair spiritual realities in the divine realm.. . Only in this state could the soul be released from its earthly prison-whether to ascend to its source in heaven, or become a shrine for the holy Spirit.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know the forbidden fruit is semen. And the punishment for E... more It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know the forbidden fruit is semen. And the punishment for Eve's body consuming it is painful childbirth. Is there any other fruit on the planet, other than the fruit come, so to say, from the tree in the middle of Adam's garden (body) that causes the one who partakes of it to become pregnant? The result of eating the forbidden fruit in the book of Genesis is the birth of Cain and the loss of both innocence and immortality. Evolutionists tell us that like Adam and Eve, the original living organisms all started out immortal. And when did they lose this immortality? According to science, when the organisms began to experiment with sexual reproduction. 1 One of the most pervasive metaphors for sex in talmudic literature associates it with food.. . For example, wives in the talmudic texts to be discussed below describe their and their husband's sexual practice as "setting the table" and "turning it over," and the Talmud itself produces a comparison between sexuality and food-either of which one may "cook" however one pleases, provided only that it is kosher to begin with.. . the force of the metaphor and the implied equation of the woman's body to food cannot be denied.
Rabbi Jacob Neusner's rejection of Jesus appears to be a repudiation of Abrahamicfaith: the willi... more Rabbi Jacob Neusner's rejection of Jesus appears to be a repudiation of Abrahamicfaith: the willingness to go it alone in the Name of God. Rabbi Neusner says the lowest common denominator for modern Judaism is the family: there's no individual. According to Rabbi Neusner no Jew will hate their family (sacrifice them [Luke 14:26]) in the Name of God. In irony of biblical proportions, Rabbi Neusner's Judaism has sacrificed Abrahamic-faith for the sake of the children. Rabbi Neusner claims that although he accepts that Jesus was a great rabbi, he nevertheless, would not follow him, for the simple reason that Jesus sought out the individual Jew, whereas, according to Rabbi Neusner, the family is the lowest common denominator in mainstream Judaism. Jesus required the individual to leave the community and or family and follow him as an individual: sacrifice family, friend, community, in his name (Luke 14:26). This rather outrageous stance (by the most prolific rabbi alive) represents a tremendous paradox, a great irony, or both? Abraham became the father of the Jewish people when, according to scripture, he left family, and ventured out to commune with God as a singular soul. At the high point of his Abrahamic faith, the Akedah, Abraham didn't share with his wife, or any other human being, what he was about to do. He was about to do something, in the utter individuality of his soul, in the viewing of no man, but God. He was about to display his Abrahamic-faith by performing it as an individual soul standing outside of any safety-net that might be associated with family, community, ethnicity, communal law, or any other ethnic or religious predilection or protection. He was about to hate his own son, sacrifice, kill, his own son, in the name of God. Abraham was going to willingly sacrifice family in order to enter into the community of God (Luke 14:26). On the other hand, Rabbi Neusner's Judaism willingly sacrifices Abrahamic communion with God, to spare family, firstborn, and community (R. Neusner). The paradox cuts deeper into the vein than is apparent from outside the foreskene of the thorn-bush that crowns the scene. The lamb of God has his head in thorns at the very moment Abraham is about to sacrifice family and friend (firstborn) to enter into a covenant with God. As Abraham lifts his hand to sacrifice family for God, his eye catches glimpse of the lamb of God with his head surrounded by thorns.
The Gnostics, who were the contemporaries of the Jewish Tannaim of the second century believed th... more The Gnostics, who were the contemporaries of the Jewish Tannaim of the second century believed that it was necessary to distinguish between a good but hidden God who alone was worthy of being worshiped by the elect, and a Demiurge or creator of the physical universe, who they identified with the "just" God of the Old Testament. In effect they did not so much reject the Jewish Scriptures, whose account of events they conceded to be at least partly true, as they denied the superiority of the Jewish God, for whom they reserved the most pejorative terms.
Genesis 4:7 is as disturbing a passage as we're likely to find throughout the Torah (and there ar... more Genesis 4:7 is as disturbing a passage as we're likely to find throughout the Torah (and there are no small few disturbing passages). We can't deny the Torah's presentation of YHVH's "lust" (if that word is not inappropriate when speaking of YHVH) for blood. At nearly every turn He's requiring blood as something like the coin of the divine realm.-He desires the blood of Isaac, and only the "angel of the Lord" (and not YHVH Himself) stays the hand of Abraham from delivering on YHVH's demand. He tells the Israelites to kill every man, woman, child (and animal) in the various lands they conquer (spare not a single living soul). He requires blood sacrifice at the temple. Every liturgical article is to be sanitized with blood. Even the life-giving organ of the male Jew is not sanctified, or sanitized (is not fit for use), until it has been bled. Moses sprinkles the congregation with blood. .. blood here, blood there.. . blood, blood, blood. .. till we see red and it's coming out our ears.. . And yet with that said, Genesis 4:7 may take the cake.
Perhaps one of the greatest sources of suffering and exile for God's chosen clan is the enduring ... more Perhaps one of the greatest sources of suffering and exile for God's chosen clan is the enduring of the attacks, physical, verbal, and spiritual, come from Israel's many adversaries. Like Job before them, Israel, who are a central part of a divine plan, must endure persecution from peoples who in many cases have no clue concerning the redeeming suffering Israel is undergoing. Adding the ultimate Job-like insult to injury, those suffering for the redemption of the world must endure the wrong-headed attacks and misdirected evaluations of their so-called friends and self-proclaimed biblical family members. Nevertheless, Job's suffering, like Israel's, was not, is not, without cause; is not in vain. In the end, Job, who considered himself blameless (and who was in practice) realized a deeper truth necessary for his ultimate sanctification. He realized a principle that made all of his suffering not only deserved, to an extent, but necessary, for him to transcend practical-perfection and enter into the spirit of ultimate perfection that allowed him to redeem his friends, his persecutors, from their own errors. In the Job narrative there's no suggestion that Job's friends and wrong-headed persecutors would participate in Job's redemptive suffering and transcendent rebirth. It would fall to Job to redeem those who so fervently tried to correct Job's error from behind the veil of an error much larger than his own. Job's greatness allowed him to become the archetype of salvation, savior, and redeemer, the archetype of the first-born Jew. It was not part of the narrative for Job's friends to endure that painful ascent to the pinnacle of human redemption. They were incapable of surviving that horrifying holocaust in order to become redeemers themselves rather than the redeemed, who, which, the latter, are not without their own glory, so long as they accept the final distinction between themselves and the re-born Job (who they are not and cannot be). Israel, Job's latter-day corporate saints, have yet to decipher the cipher beneath the profane narrative of Job's holocaust. They've yet to see the spirit of Job's salvation, rebirth , and redemption. So they remain, like Job, subject to the incessant theological waterboarding, and far worse, come from atheists, Christians, Muslims, and everyone and thing in-between. Israel is a corporate Job. And like Job prior to his blinding enlightenment, Israel is practically perfect. Especially in comparison to those without the divine mitzvot that perfect Israel. Like Job, Israel was elected, selected, for a higher purpose than the purpose related to Job's contemporaries (Israel's contemporaries). Which is to say Job's initial, practical, perfection, was, like his later rebirth (his redemption and enlightenment required to become archetype of salvation, savior), a foregone conclusion effected from birth. His initial "practical" perfection was of God, and was real; and was practically equivalent to spiritual perfection, which is what set Job up for the fall, subjection to living death, and the blinding enlightenment of spiritual rebirth. Practical perfection, though relatively close to ultimate perfections (relatively speaking), is, in absolute terms, farther from ultimate perfection than heaven is from the earth.
In a Jewish spirit one might say the Torah is the law, the scroll is the law, such that alef-tav ... more In a Jewish spirit one might say the Torah is the law, the scroll is the law, such that alef-tav א ת , which represent the first-and-the-last (alpha and omega), the beginning and the end (the two letters sages tell us represent the entire Torah) thus fully, or reasonably, represent the nature of the Torah, and therefore the nature of the law. But what of the spirit of the law? In one of the most profound midrashim ever written (Midrash Rabbah, Numbers, Chukkath XIX, 3) God points out to the angels that they know only the outer appearance of the law of God while Adam's glance cuts deeper. .. into the very spirit of the law. As proof, God shows the angels that, knowing the very spirit of the animals, rather than their mere outer appearance, their mere nature, Adam is enabled to give the animals a name representative not of their mere outer form and appearance, but according to the spirit of the animal so named. Upping the ante God next asks Adam to name himself.-Adam points out that his name is "Adam" alef-dalet-mem א-ד ם , at which point God asks Adam to name his interlocutor, to which Adam responds "Adon" alef-dalet-nun א-ד ן. The reader of the midrash who realizes what's going on, i.e., that Adam is using the naming process to reveal his ability to see into the very spirit of things, is provided an opportunity to glance into the very spirit of God, and thus the spirit of the law of God, the law being merely the scroll, the mere nature, the outer appearance, of God's inner Spirit. For the ancient mind, a name was representative of the spirit of a thing, such that Adam's ability to name things was reflective of his insight into the spirit of the thing. Scripture is clear that this insight is unique to Adam and the "sons of Adam" (typically a term referring to circumcised Jews) such that no other creatures, to include angels, have a similar ability to see into the spirit of a thing. Moses asks God at the burning bush his name precisely to understand the spirit of the God calling Moses by name. Understanding that naming a thing is suggestive of the ability to appreciate the spirit of the thing brings the midrash in question into the light and points out its immeasurable profundity: God has Adam name himself (i.e. reveal his deeper spirit) and then asks Adam to name God (that is, reveal to all creation something of the spirit of the God who is Adam's interlocutor). Barring knowledge of some of the great philosophers of language, like Wittgenstein, Derrida, and say Walter Benjamin, Buber, etc., most modern folk don't appreciate the relationship between the spirit and the word. A word is always a name, a naming, whereby, as Wittgenstein implies, the spirit of a thing is baptized into the name (or the name baptized into the spirit) thereafter creating a union that incarnates the invisible spirit of the thing with the visible name that references the invisible spirit. The writers of the midrash in question are precursors of men like Wittgenstein and Benjamin, such that they realize something of the spirit of a thing is always hiding beneath the name of a thing.
R. Huna said in R. Joseph's name: The generation of the Flood were not blotted out from the world... more R. Huna said in R. Joseph's name: The generation of the Flood were not blotted out from the world until they composed nuptial songs 1 in honour of pederasty and bestiality. R. Simlia said: Whenever you find [this kind of] lust, an epidemic visits the world which slays both good and bad. R. Azariah and R. Judah b. R. Simon in R. Joshua's name said: The Holy One, blessed be He, is long-suffering for everything save immorality [of this kind].
One of the greatest witnesses to the veracity of the Word of God is its perceived inconsistency. ... more One of the greatest witnesses to the veracity of the Word of God is its perceived inconsistency. There's a form of lie, a form of falseness, that has no external error, inconsistency, or incorrectness. On the contrary. That's why the fool loves and lives a lie. He prefers a lie that's externally consistent, to a truth that's internally, and eternally, the foundation of the world. Those who deny the veracity of the Gospels often claim the story is contrived after the fact by authors who fabricate the story for a particular effect. In this case to affect the power of the Gospel. And yet these after-the-fact conspirators tell us the great Peter, on Jesus' very right hand, who's willing to die with Jesus, denies he even knew him three times on the night Jesus is betrayed? More importantly, what about Jesus, the apple of God's eye?. .. The Torah is clear that God could, would, never, ever, forsake a righteous man to injustice.. . And yet the central figure in the Gospel account, the man we're all supposed to be convinced, by the conspiring authors of the Gospels, is God's most righteous creation, hangs bloodied, mangled, bleeding, helpless, fatherless, Godless, on the cross of his conviction, crying out, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" The persons who should have cleaned up the Gospels of contradiction, and most importantly things that contradict the Torah, like a righteous man being betrayed by, forsaken by, God, have done nothing of the sort. On the contrary, the narrative bleeds inconsistency and contrariness in regards to the extant word of God. .. and to a degree so profound, that the honest reader of the Gospels can't help but realize he's either reading the Gospel truth upon which all other truth must be based, or else the basest, the grossest, and most perverted perversion ever concocted. One man might, in his incompetence, or his ploy, miss, or leave, grotesque contradictions, and idiotic antinomies in the text. But if it's a group conspiracy, each iteration would correct more inconsistencies. Somewhere down the line Jesus claiming to have been forsaken, as one of his final statements, would be removed, since that one statement, hanging on the cross, at the completion of his ministry, is so absurd, so anti-Biblical, so sad and revealing, that no author pro-Gospel, could in good faith leave it in the text. Jesus lives a righteous life up until the final moment, and then, with his last breath, concedes he's been forsaken by the God of righteousness, the god who, were he (Jesus) truly righteous, would have to himself (god) be put to death (perhaps there on the cross with Jesus) if he were willing to watch a righteous man, the quintessence of righteousness (so we're told), be tortured, spit on, and laughed at, by mindless worms. God truly forsook Jesus. Totally and completely. For good reason. He was no longer there to help Jesus, since the Cross is the moment of incarnation, when God was no longer out there to help Jesus since he was inside Jesus dying with him on the cross.
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of ... more Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. 54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 56 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. 58 This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.
Zion is the city of David, Bethlehem. Bethlehem is the city of unleavened bread. Zion is etymolog... more Zion is the city of David, Bethlehem. Bethlehem is the city of unleavened bread. Zion is etymologically related to a "dry" or "parched" place. Messiah is to come from Bethlehem. From a dry parched place. A place of bread of affliction, dry bread. No leavening. Poor-man's bread: matzoh. The Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 is associated with a dry place (verse 2). He will rise out of dry ground. Bethlehem is the city of David.-David and Messiah are born in Bethlehem. "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times" (Micah 5:2). David and Messiah come out of Bethlehem: The Lord loveth the gates of Zion More than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me: Behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; This man was born there. And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her: And the highest himself shall be formed in her. The Lord shall count, when he writeth up the people, That this man was born there.
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If perpetual-virginity is symbolized throughout Judaism and Christianity, and it is, since Jews r... more If perpetual-virginity is symbolized throughout Judaism and Christianity, and it is, since Jews ritually emasculate themselves as a forced, or perpetual, virginity mechanism, while Roman Catholics practice lifelong celibacy as a perpetualvirginity maker, then something about virginity-and more than that "perpetual virginity"-is as enticing to serious Jews and Christians as phallic-sex is to the agnostic Gentile world? Although the agnostic Gentile might consider the Judeo/Christian obsession with virginity comical, a serious student of the scripture knows it's no laughing matter. So then what's the source for the Judeo/Christian obsession with virginity? And what's Horeb got to do with it? Serious Jewish exegetes have noticed a deep and undeniable relationship between the Garden of Eden, and Horeb. The Zohar draws direct parallels between the two. And when it's noted (as it has been too many times to count) that Jewish sages (Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan for instance) equate circumcision with a return to prelapsarian time, i.e., the circumcised Jew is a new adam, a new prelapsarian human, it becomes evident that if the "lapse" that leads to the lapsarian expulsion from the Garden is sexual in nature, as the same sages claim it is, such that the first (or original) sin is sexual in nature, phallic-sex, then not only is circumcision a perfect analogue or ritual, for returning the circumcised Jew to prelapsarian times (since this ritual emasculation occurs prior to the first instance of phallic-sex, i.e., eight days after birth), but as ritual emasculation it makes the Jew, ritually speaking, a perpetual-virgin. Without going too deep into all the scripture and exegesis necessary to justify the foregoing (so to say), or what's going to come out after the foregoing (if you will, though most of you won't), the Judeo/Christian obsession with perpetual-virginity appears to be an obsession with humankind (or a particular kind of human) prior to the Fall, which is to say, prior to the first instance of phallic-sex, which is when all mankind, all one of them, was virgin to the core. The person bound to his phallic-birth, and his passion for the means through which that birth came about, will wonder, if he's a thinking man, why, or how, Jews and Christians could possibly ritually emasculate themselves, or practice lifelong celibacy, as though, what they (the phallus lover) love, and can't imagine giving up, is the source for not only all the ills in the world, but the greatest ill of them all, death itself? And no self-respecting Jew or Christian would want to poke fun at the simpleminded phallus-lover, i.e., the agnostic "Genitile," but would instead want to gently instruct them concerning the rhyme and reason of the utterly legitimate angst toward the phallus. Jewish and Christian scriptures speak of some sort of spiritual garment (covering) that was lost in the Fall. There's reason to assume this garment or
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General Essays. by John D Brey