Giving the Soul

A study commissioned by the National Football League reports that Alzheimer’s disease or similar memory-related diseases appear to have been diagnosed in the league’s former players vastly more often than in the national population.

There is a thing about sports more than watching the perfection of the performers; it is the competitiveness of sports which gives it its edge and those who play the sport do so with the forgone knowledge to the dangers of the sport–it is part of the sport.

In the Torah/Teaching this attribute is called by the term Maserit Nefesh/Giving Soul–relinquishing one’s own life for a higher purpose. Life is not about how long you live but how well you live, what you do in your life.

The soul is attached to the body on a mission from God like a player in a game who is asked to give more than his part–to give the soul, to give up the life. What is the reward for giving up life? There is none because the act causes closeness with God which eradicates all vestige of person or soul.

During Yom Kippur is read the story of the sons of Aaron who brought a strange sacrifice to come closer God and were consumed by the fire.

The Middle Way

NYT–As if it were not complicated enough, the debate over health care in Congress is becoming a battlefield in the fight over abortion.

People like to say that pregnancy is either you are or you are not, but that is not true–there is a middle way corroborated by both science and Torah. The law of the Torah from the very beginning of talmudic teachings is the child begins 41 days after conception and science notes a sudden change in the embryo at 41 days.

The Cabala explains how there must be a space between the soul and body in order to allow the transference of essence into form. The sun can only deliver his light by breaking the oneness of light into individual photons. Even the light from God undergoes a similar process.

The Four Letter Name of God YHVH which portrays the past, present and future as one is interrupted by the Name Elohim the basis for nature; within nature is replicated the YHVH from the four divisions in the heavens to the four elements–the human being is the final manifestation of the YHVH imbued with freedom of choice.

The forty days from conception of a child is when the woman is allowed to chose whether or not to have a child without it being an abortion.

Lions Win

The Detroit Lions were able to run onto the field in celebration of their first win in 20 games. This was the Lions' first regular-season win since Dec. 23, 2007 as they snapped a 19-game losing skid.

There is a spiritual significance in all things in their time, some are more obvious than others like the NFL Detroit Lions who averted 20 loses in a row on the eve of Yom Kippur/Day of Atonement for the Jewish People. Winning on the 20th is significant since the number 20 refers to Keter/Crown as reflected in the power of will and the power of pleasure–the two essential forces of the human soul invested in the body as a crown that surrounds.

Coming on the eve of Yom Kippur is also significant since the ten days between Rosh HaShana/New Year and Yom Kippur/Day of Atonement are days of Royalty when God is crowned by the people accepting the judgement of the King. Yom Kippur ends with the fifth and final prayer as the sun declines on the holy day called Nilia/Locking extolling the Creator as King.

After Nila we go back to calling God Ail/Kind instead of Melech/King. Lions are the symbol of kindness in the Torah and is often embroidered into the cloth covering of the Torah–two lions with crowns on their heads.

Yom Kippur

In 2009 Yom Kippur (Jewish Day of Atonement) begins at sundown on Sunday September 27 and ends at nightfall on Monday September 28.

Yom Kippur is a celebration stemming from God’s forgiveness 3500 years ago after the Jewish People built the Golden Calf at the giving of the Torah 50 days after leaving the slavery of Mitzriam/Egypt. During those fifty days the Jewish People went from eating bread from the earth to eating bread from the heavens, Mana; water ran out of a rock forming 12 rivers to quench the thirst of the 12 tribes who they travelled in a cloud.

After having spent forty days and forty nights on the mountain called Sinai/Hatred, Moshe returned for another set of forty days and nights without water or food until God agreed to forgive the Jewish People and instructed Moshe to return to the people to tell them then return to the mountain for another forty days and forty nights which ends this evening with Yom Kippur/Day of Atonement.

The prescriptions for this day includes fasting fro food and water for the purpose of approaching an angelic state; all pleasures of the flesh are denied on this day–even sleep is not permitted for those who are able.

At the end of the day the last prayer, called Nila/Locking, the doors of the Ark are opened indicating there is no separation between creation and the Creator.

Disciplining Children

American children whose parents use spanking for discipline have lower IQs than those who aren't spanked, a new study finds.

I once had two teachers, one was old and the other young; when I married and began having children I asked my teachers, what was the trick to raising children? The young one said, Don’t scream at your children because screaming does no good; sometimes if the child is really bad you might have to give a little hit, but the main thing is to love the child. When I asked my teacher who was old he said: Don’t hit your children because hitting does no good, sometimes if the child is really bad you might have to scream a little bit, but the main thing is to love the child.

God is the parent and we are the children. God does not hit us and God does not scream at us–God loves us and all of creation.

The Bal Shem Tov, Jewish mystic 250 years ago, said to a man who asked, how to love God? The Bal Shem Tov responded saying: love what God loves.

Moon Water

The molecules and hydroxyl—a molecule consisting of one oxygen atom and one hydrogen atom—were discovered across the entire surface of earth’s nearest celestial neighbor, the moon.

It is known in the Torah that the Noah’s Flood came from outside the earth’s atmosphere; called the Waters of Tohu/Chaos they are compared in the Midrash–Book of Metaphor to a wet dream which covered the earth in a veneer of water about 30 feet deep.

The Cabala explains that the water came from Mars coming to the earth over a period of centuries, watched by the inhabitants of earth arriving in the year 1666. Since this water came from the planet Mars known to the ancients as Ztia/Dry it had to pass the moon–the reason why the back side of the moon, unlike the front side, is without distinctive features. Since this water had not been commanded during the Six Days of Creation to seek depth it therefore covered with a veneer.

The recent discovery on the moon is physical proof of the flood.

The Torah is a blueprint to the methods and the design of creation because within the design of creation is the message of the Creator. God being neither physical or spiritual speaks through creation to creation.

An Articulate Leader

The United Nations Security Council, with President Obama acting as chairman, unanimously passed a resolution on Thursday morning aimed at increasing deterrents for withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. “We must demonstrate that international law is not an empty promise, and that treaties will be enforced,” he said.

The Cabala teaches that during the ten days between Rosh HaShana and Yom Kipur are built the ten levels of Malchut/Royalty; it is during this time God is referred to as Melech/King–the final judge. These ten days correspond to the Ten Sefirot, the cabalistic atom from which all things are comprised also known as the Tree of Life.

The human body is the ultimate expression of the Four Letter Name of God YHVH which is the source to the Ten Sefirot formed in three triangles melding male and female energies through intersecting lines, but the tenth is a circle, the mouth–she is woman. The attribute of woman is speech; speech is what differentiates between the human and the animal.

The last American administration brought brutal force to world politics and pushed the world to the brink; the new administration has shown the wisdom of patience, dialogue and conciliation to the world table in an articulate manner from the lips of America’s president.

During this time is read in the Torah how all the people are gathered together from ten levels from the head until those who collect the wood and bring the water–stating we are all equal before God.