Month of Miracles

Today begins the month of Nissan. Our forefathers were redeemed from Egypt and in Nissan the future will be redeemed, according to the Talmud-Book of Law. The name of the month, Nissan, is cognate to the word, Nissim/Miracles.

The first commandment to the Jewish People is to make this month, the month of Nissan to be the first of our months even though the world calculates years from the fall–Rosh HaShana/Head of the Year. The new year of the fall provides sustenance whereas the new year of the spring brings freedom.

Freedom is a miracle as witnessed by the great difficulties surrounding being free–but, what is free? The Torah says that the teachings will make you free yet the teachings involve endless laws. How do laws make you free? The laws are boundaries and within the law you can be free and spontaneous.

Animals are not free because they are restrained by their inherent nature which never changes–the most stringent boundaries; human beings are expected to go beyond their nature and spiritual laws allow a safe place for this constant transition.

The Cabala explains how Cheresh/Free is connected to Cheresh/Engraved; when the truth of our freedom is engraved inside within then our light shins into the world. The month of Nissan in the spring is the beginning to a new cycle of freedom and freedom is a miracle.

Rosh HaShana/New Year

Rosh HaShana is the Jewish New Year occurring ten days before Yom Kippur. Together, Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur are known as the Days of Awe in Hebrew.

The forty-eight hours of Rosh HaShana are considered to be one day as are the two hemispheres inside the head is considered to be one brain; actually there are three major sections of the brain, the third being the cerebellum at the back. The middle of the forehead corresponds to Yom Kippur/Day of Atonement; Rosh literally means Head–the Head of the Year.

All bodily functions begin in the head; similarly, all events for the coming year are already taking shape inside these two days that celebrate the beginning of human history on planet earth–the birth of Adom/Adam 5770 years ago. It is during these two days that the blessings of God saturate the earth.

The Jewish People commemorate this day by sounding the Shofar/Ram’s Horn; the commandment of the Shofar in the Torah is related to Avraham/Abraham who at the moment before slaying his son Yitzchok/Issac he saw a ram in the thicket and sacrificed the ram instead–3800 years later the Jewish People sound the shofar to remind God we are the children of the father and son ready to sacrifice themselves for God.

The Cabala explains the reason time is circular because “The end fits into the beginning and the beginning fits into the end;” Rosh HaShana represents the point of connection between end and beginning–each completed cycle makes a new ring in the crown of creation worn by the Creator.

It is during these ten day between Rosh HaShana and Yom Kipur that we call God Malech/King as we ask for God’s blessing.

May the world be blessed with peace.

A Time of Judgement

A United Nations report that accuses Israel of committing war crimes during its offensive against Hamas in Gaza is "dangerous" and legitimizes terrorism, Israel's deputy foreign minister said Wednesday.

It states in the Midrash-Book of Metaphor it is better to be judged on earth than in heaven because earthly judgement has room for compassion whereas heavenly judgement is strict beyond comparison; only compassion from God can mitigate the heavenly judgement. Besides God, one’s self is the most important judge.

On the eve of Rosh HaShana/New Year 1939 the German army invaded Poland resulting in the beginning of World War II and the slaughtering of six million Jews; now 70 years later on the cusp of Rosh HaShana/New Year 2009 the United Nations disputes Israel’s claim to self-protection for the over six million Jews who live in Israel. Israel has always been held to a higher standard of moral behavior which she has accepted upon herself to be an example to the nations.

The ten days between Rosh HaShana/New Year and Yom Kipur/Day of Atonement are called Yomim Norim/Days of Awe–it is during this time that God is referred to as King because the king in this world is the final arbiter in the process of judgement.

During the days just before the Rosh HaShana/New Year are recited special prayers called Slichot/Forgivenesses to enter into the holiday in a state of spiritual clarity.

The Humility of Need

Scientists in Japan have managed to grow fully functional teeth in adult mice using cells from an embryo, and they hope the same technology can be used to grow human organs in the future. "This therapy has the potential to restore the partial loss of organ function," they wrote in their paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

It asks in the Cabala, if the human being is the highest creature of creation then why are we reliant upon the animals and the plants for our lives? The answer arrived at in the Cabala is in order to raise up the world closer to the light of the Creator it is necessary for the highest to come down to the lowest–as Archimedes said ‘Give me a place to stand and with a lever I will move the whole World’; the lever most be inserted at the lowest point.

The human being has a commonality with our environment in that our bones are like stone, our hair like plants, our body and senses like animals, but our soul is human. It is only the highest which can come down the lowest thus requiring the animal, the plant and the earth to sustain life–the implicit message within the arrangement of creation is to be humble.

All things within creation have souls filled with sparks of Godliness divided into four categories according to the Name YHVH; it is known in the world that there are 92 species of plants that are psychotropic–YHVH and Adonai combined have a gematria of 92. 


The Magic Three

President Zardari of Pakistan and President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan will meet today in a three-way talks with President Obama.

It is known in the Cabala and in physics that one is a point, two a line, but three is the first time that unity is arrived at as expressed in the triangle. In Jewish Law to do something three times is likened to a vow because of the power of three.

The Ten Sefirot, the cabalistic atom is arranged in three triangles representative of the first three generations of the Jewish People and the twelve Elexzons/Diagonals represented in the twelve tribes. In the genealogy of the Torah it is notable that both Ishmael father of the Arab People and Esau father of Roman Peoples also produced twelve tribes.

The innate wisdom of our president to meet in three underscores the spiritual help that accompanies these talk to bring about world peace.

Happy New Year

Iran played down President Barack Obama's new video message to the Iranian people on Friday, saying it welcomed the overtures but warned that decades of mistrust can't easily be erased.

The President called out for understanding based on common human values, but did not remind the Muslim community who continues warring over Israel, that the Jewish New Year is also only a few weeks away. The Torah/Teaching celebrates a new year in each of the four seasons commemorating one of the four life forms. In the fall is the new year for the earth called Rosh HaShana, in the winter the new year for the trees called Tuba Shavot when the sap begins to rise—the essence of water; in the spring the new year for the human being—Passover. In the summer is celebrated the animal and fire.

The human being is commiserate with the element of air because we have the ability to articulate thoughts into coherent speech. The basis of our ability to communicate complex ideas is the foundation of freedom of choice. As God says in the Torah, I place before you life and death, blessings (Barack) and curses have I put before you—chose life so you and your children will live.

Purim

The Jewish holiday of Purim is celebrated by a concluding meal that ends in drink; so much drink until, as the law proscribes, one has attain the laudable position where the blessed and the cursed appear to be the same. The world and the news look so strange from that perspective.