.
As much as I love reading blogs. I've come to the conclusion that some are just too much bad news.
For now, I have to HAVE TO SEEK OUT good news to spread before we all (read: I) collapse on just hearing about the bad news.
Folks, let's seek out the good news, let's promote the good in us, eh?
Sunday, July 6, 2008
A Word on Psalms
.
I wish that I could say the Psalms with true and proper devotion. At times I feel as though, as I say them, King David's lips are moving along with mine adding more intensity to the Psalms and breaking barriers.
Then I get to the changing parts. At first the Psalmist begins with "Oh God, you....." or even a more distant "Oh God, He who...." but then, at some point deep into the Psalm we get to " I, God, ......" How connected that is!!! That we should read the psalms and come so close to the Holy One that at some point we are allowed to even say the words, "I". Its as if, if done with proper devotion, we have meditated and elevated and become one so to speak.
An example: In psalm 46:
He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; He burneth the chariots in the fire.
11 'Let be, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.'
12 The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our high tower. Selah {P}
At what level should we be, to be saying "I am..."???!!! What type of music would fit this crescendo?
*sigh*
I wish that I could say the Psalms with true and proper devotion. At times I feel as though, as I say them, King David's lips are moving along with mine adding more intensity to the Psalms and breaking barriers.
Then I get to the changing parts. At first the Psalmist begins with "Oh God, you....." or even a more distant "Oh God, He who...." but then, at some point deep into the Psalm we get to " I, God, ......" How connected that is!!! That we should read the psalms and come so close to the Holy One that at some point we are allowed to even say the words, "I". Its as if, if done with proper devotion, we have meditated and elevated and become one so to speak.
An example: In psalm 46:
He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; He burneth the chariots in the fire.
11 'Let be, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.'
12 The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our high tower. Selah {P}
At what level should we be, to be saying "I am..."???!!! What type of music would fit this crescendo?
*sigh*
Friday, July 4, 2008
Some Positive Words for the Weekend!
Psalms Chapter 100
1 A Psalm of thanksgiving. Shout unto the LORD, all the earth.
2 Serve the LORD with gladness; come before His presence with singing.
3 Know ye that the LORD He is God;
it is He that hath made us, and we are His, His people, and the flock of His pasture.
4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise; give thanks unto Him, and bless His name.
5 For the LORD is good; His mercy endureth for ever; and His faithfulness unto all generations.
Psalms Chapter 121
1 A Song of Ascents.
I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains: from whence shall my help come?
2 My help cometh from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved; He that keepeth thee will not slumber.
4 Behold, He that keepeth Israel doth neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD is thy keeper; the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.
6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD shall keep thee from all evil; He shall keep thy soul.
8 The LORD shall guard thy going out and thy coming in, from this time forth and for ever.
1 A Psalm of thanksgiving. Shout unto the LORD, all the earth.
2 Serve the LORD with gladness; come before His presence with singing.
3 Know ye that the LORD He is God;
it is He that hath made us, and we are His, His people, and the flock of His pasture.
4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise; give thanks unto Him, and bless His name.
5 For the LORD is good; His mercy endureth for ever; and His faithfulness unto all generations.
Psalms Chapter 121
1 A Song of Ascents.
I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains: from whence shall my help come?
2 My help cometh from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved; He that keepeth thee will not slumber.
4 Behold, He that keepeth Israel doth neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD is thy keeper; the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.
6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD shall keep thee from all evil; He shall keep thy soul.
8 The LORD shall guard thy going out and thy coming in, from this time forth and for ever.
Incoherent Thoughts...2
.
I once posted about Holy Boldness. At Pioneer Valley Women's blog, A commentor mentioned how the Taliban and Maoist Shining Path Guerrillas of Peru took it upon themselves to just "take down" all those who were violent to the women. As she put it...
This also reminded me of an old custom.
Some sages said that when someone sinned, they needed to be flogged. This was especially in the case of when a man refused to give his wife the divorce papers, so that she could go on with her life, marry another, etc.
For men like that, it was once a custom to beat them with the idea of bringing out the "good" in them. Delving into this deep, the real meaning is this:
There are two types of sinner:
(1) One who confuses wrong from right; right from wrong.
(2) One who's grown accustom to doing a wrong and not wanting to stop.
In the first case, the remedy is amulets, study of scripture, etc.
In the second case, the remedy is flogging! That is to mean, hurting the person physically or financially to the point that they realize that its not to their advantage to continue on the "wrong" path.
I still haven't had a chance to open up the Book of Proverbs, but I want to leave for the weekend on a positive note....
I once posted about Holy Boldness. At Pioneer Valley Women's blog, A commentor mentioned how the Taliban and Maoist Shining Path Guerrillas of Peru took it upon themselves to just "take down" all those who were violent to the women. As she put it...
"It seems that when the Shining Path took over a village, the abusive men in the village suddenly learned how to be non-violent with their wives. All of this without the benefit of counseling and anger management classes."
This also reminded me of an old custom.
Some sages said that when someone sinned, they needed to be flogged. This was especially in the case of when a man refused to give his wife the divorce papers, so that she could go on with her life, marry another, etc.
For men like that, it was once a custom to beat them with the idea of bringing out the "good" in them. Delving into this deep, the real meaning is this:
There are two types of sinner:
(1) One who confuses wrong from right; right from wrong.
(2) One who's grown accustom to doing a wrong and not wanting to stop.
In the first case, the remedy is amulets, study of scripture, etc.
In the second case, the remedy is flogging! That is to mean, hurting the person physically or financially to the point that they realize that its not to their advantage to continue on the "wrong" path.
I still haven't had a chance to open up the Book of Proverbs, but I want to leave for the weekend on a positive note....
Incoherent Thoughts...
My, my, my, do I like to give myself pain or what? lol
I've been reading WAOD's post about the 11 year old black girl who got gang raped by as much as 20 men and boys. And once again appalled not only at what happened, but also at the reaction by the other women in the courtroom. They couldn't see what was wrong with what happened to the young child! They even blamed her!
Then I went over to DJ Black Adam for more of the same.
Then I stopped over at Pioneer Valley Woman yet more.
(They all had different angles and was worth the read!)
Nevertheless, these things are just way too hard to read. Particularly because I don't have a solution. Yet.
At times (like now, in my devastation) I see the BC like a sunny side down egg! It still contains all the ingredients for high kedusha /holiness... but alot of things seem flipped upside down! Thus, a lot of potential holiness is just missing.
I believe that everything in the physical plane has its corresponding counterpart in the spiritual plane. Sometimes I amuse myself trying to map these things out or just reading from others who have done so already. The Divine Presence -God showing that yes, He does exist- in the world is very diminished, it seems. This is why so many can simply not believe in God -my opinion totally. However, it does exist and what is its physical counterpart?
WOMEN!!!
Women are the physical counterpart of the worldly manifestation of God. So why are they being so oppressed? Why are young girls gang raped even in the good ole U S of A?! Why do some communities care for their women, while others are ready to subject them to all kinds of atrocities --- more specifically the very sexual kinds of assaults?
For example (in a Jewish context), there are two holidays that involves empowering malchut -the Divine Presence of Godliness in the world. Passover and Succot. Passover involves restoring the D. Presence within us. By virtually eating the matzah, we are like taking a "pill" to cleanse, empower the D. Presence inside of us. (To break it down even more, Passover is like a time for faith renewal; for taking the "red pill" like in the Matrix, and recognizing that the world has purpose and a purposeful God. This, Rather than staying with the "green pill" and be in slumber or chasing only after material gains.)
Likewise Succot is also about empowering the D. Presence but around us. In this holiday, we ENTER into a built hut that we made just for the occasion. The purpose is to immerse the whole body into holiness. Also on Succot, we hold various species (lulav, etrog, willow branch, myrtle) and shake it in six directions -left, right, up, down, etc. The purpose of this is to draw empowerment into the D. Presence within us. Keep in mind that the D. Presence is considered female and the powers drawn are considered masculine!
(To break that down even more, its like drawing Godly presence around us so that He -er, in this case She and we are like one. Her Will is our will. Kinda like re-enforcing the teachings of the movie "The Secret" by binding our will with that of the D. Presence's Will).
However, in the black community -a community that I consider instinctually spiritual-
somehow this is translating into gang rape! All the masculines -not empowering, but violently imposing- themselves onto a woman. Where's the holiness there? This is warped!
At times it feels like the very same holiness and godliness that I read about and love, is so hated by some in the world particularly in the BC that they subconsciously try to find the best physical counterpart and bash it as best they can!
Women were not made like man. They were blessed to become living beings made from another living source (Adam's live rib; as opposed to dust). They are very much alive people! Like a portal from heaven, they give forth life, they -for the most part- promote life by nurturing, and many are very self sacrificing. What's not to like???!!!
However, because they represent life ...and for some who can't see another way, life sucks.. so, who else can they get at? They can't shoot an arrow to the Creator (God forbid). Creating another tower of Bavel to get to the Holy One seems not in the picture. They only have women to retaliate against. The one representation of God's Divine Presence in the world.
His Divine Presence ...the manifestation of godliness in the world, is also associated with women, the moon, emotion, the heart, kingship (malchut), the color black, King David, and understanding (not to be confused with wisdom). It is referred to in the feminine (she, her, etc).
So, I asked a rabbi, "Can the Divine Presence defend herself?"
His response: "No. she can only flee. She goes away when there is no harmony, when there is strife, etc"
Me: "But what about King David? He's connected to the D. Presence and he was pretty fierce!"
Rabbi: "Yes, but remember, when he was pursued..as when Shaul pursued him.. he fled. That was all he could do. But when he regrouped and had a group of harmonious men, God fearing, together. King David could attack..and WIN." The strong point was attacking, the weak point was defending. Even when dealing with Goliath, it was in attack form.
Well, that was an interesting conversation. Again, I don't have an answer. I"m leaning more towards saying that women need to come together respectfully despite our differences and be on the attack, but what does that mean? And what to do with the traitors from proverbs, those sad women who side with melancholy and evil?
What do I think it means? I'm not sure yet. I know that in the story of Abraham and Sarah, Sarah decided that Ishmael -who was kind of a wild guy- just could not be raised properly with Abraham who is almost 100% kindness. Abraham needed some sternness in order to deal with Ishmael properly. So, she took the initiative and made the hard stance of asking Hagar and Ishmael to leave.
Another example, Devorah the prophetess realized that her people could not constantly put up with the constant attacks by Sisera and his legions. So, instead of waiting to be on the defense, they headed a frontal attack and defeated them.
King David, his example is above.
Yael, who saw the fleeing Sisera near her neighborhood, did not defend herself. Instead she subdued him and when the opportunity was right, she knocked him upside his head w/a hammer and nail. An attack.
But what of the traitorous women who promote the values that encourage the men to violate women? For this I would need to go to the Book of Proverbs.
Just thinking out loud....
I've been reading WAOD's post about the 11 year old black girl who got gang raped by as much as 20 men and boys. And once again appalled not only at what happened, but also at the reaction by the other women in the courtroom. They couldn't see what was wrong with what happened to the young child! They even blamed her!
Then I went over to DJ Black Adam for more of the same.
Then I stopped over at Pioneer Valley Woman yet more.
(They all had different angles and was worth the read!)
Nevertheless, these things are just way too hard to read. Particularly because I don't have a solution. Yet.
At times (like now, in my devastation) I see the BC like a sunny side down egg! It still contains all the ingredients for high kedusha /holiness... but alot of things seem flipped upside down! Thus, a lot of potential holiness is just missing.
I believe that everything in the physical plane has its corresponding counterpart in the spiritual plane. Sometimes I amuse myself trying to map these things out or just reading from others who have done so already. The Divine Presence -God showing that yes, He does exist- in the world is very diminished, it seems. This is why so many can simply not believe in God -my opinion totally. However, it does exist and what is its physical counterpart?
WOMEN!!!
Women are the physical counterpart of the worldly manifestation of God. So why are they being so oppressed? Why are young girls gang raped even in the good ole U S of A?! Why do some communities care for their women, while others are ready to subject them to all kinds of atrocities --- more specifically the very sexual kinds of assaults?
For example (in a Jewish context), there are two holidays that involves empowering malchut -the Divine Presence of Godliness in the world. Passover and Succot. Passover involves restoring the D. Presence within us. By virtually eating the matzah, we are like taking a "pill" to cleanse, empower the D. Presence inside of us. (To break it down even more, Passover is like a time for faith renewal; for taking the "red pill" like in the Matrix, and recognizing that the world has purpose and a purposeful God. This, Rather than staying with the "green pill" and be in slumber or chasing only after material gains.)
Likewise Succot is also about empowering the D. Presence but around us. In this holiday, we ENTER into a built hut that we made just for the occasion. The purpose is to immerse the whole body into holiness. Also on Succot, we hold various species (lulav, etrog, willow branch, myrtle) and shake it in six directions -left, right, up, down, etc. The purpose of this is to draw empowerment into the D. Presence within us. Keep in mind that the D. Presence is considered female and the powers drawn are considered masculine!
(To break that down even more, its like drawing Godly presence around us so that He -er, in this case She and we are like one. Her Will is our will. Kinda like re-enforcing the teachings of the movie "The Secret" by binding our will with that of the D. Presence's Will).
However, in the black community -a community that I consider instinctually spiritual-
somehow this is translating into gang rape! All the masculines -not empowering, but violently imposing- themselves onto a woman. Where's the holiness there? This is warped!
At times it feels like the very same holiness and godliness that I read about and love, is so hated by some in the world particularly in the BC that they subconsciously try to find the best physical counterpart and bash it as best they can!
Women were not made like man. They were blessed to become living beings made from another living source (Adam's live rib; as opposed to dust). They are very much alive people! Like a portal from heaven, they give forth life, they -for the most part- promote life by nurturing, and many are very self sacrificing. What's not to like???!!!
However, because they represent life ...and for some who can't see another way, life sucks.. so, who else can they get at? They can't shoot an arrow to the Creator (God forbid). Creating another tower of Bavel to get to the Holy One seems not in the picture. They only have women to retaliate against. The one representation of God's Divine Presence in the world.
His Divine Presence ...the manifestation of godliness in the world, is also associated with women, the moon, emotion, the heart, kingship (malchut), the color black, King David, and understanding (not to be confused with wisdom). It is referred to in the feminine (she, her, etc).
So, I asked a rabbi, "Can the Divine Presence defend herself?"
His response: "No. she can only flee. She goes away when there is no harmony, when there is strife, etc"
Me: "But what about King David? He's connected to the D. Presence and he was pretty fierce!"
Rabbi: "Yes, but remember, when he was pursued..as when Shaul pursued him.. he fled. That was all he could do. But when he regrouped and had a group of harmonious men, God fearing, together. King David could attack..and WIN." The strong point was attacking, the weak point was defending. Even when dealing with Goliath, it was in attack form.
Well, that was an interesting conversation. Again, I don't have an answer. I"m leaning more towards saying that women need to come together respectfully despite our differences and be on the attack, but what does that mean? And what to do with the traitors from proverbs, those sad women who side with melancholy and evil?
What do I think it means? I'm not sure yet. I know that in the story of Abraham and Sarah, Sarah decided that Ishmael -who was kind of a wild guy- just could not be raised properly with Abraham who is almost 100% kindness. Abraham needed some sternness in order to deal with Ishmael properly. So, she took the initiative and made the hard stance of asking Hagar and Ishmael to leave.
Another example, Devorah the prophetess realized that her people could not constantly put up with the constant attacks by Sisera and his legions. So, instead of waiting to be on the defense, they headed a frontal attack and defeated them.
King David, his example is above.
Yael, who saw the fleeing Sisera near her neighborhood, did not defend herself. Instead she subdued him and when the opportunity was right, she knocked him upside his head w/a hammer and nail. An attack.
But what of the traitorous women who promote the values that encourage the men to violate women? For this I would need to go to the Book of Proverbs.
Just thinking out loud....
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Terrorist Bulldozer
.
A terrorist went on a rampage with a bulldozer, climbing and crushing cars and knocking down populated bus. This happened very close to the central bus station. This is a heavily populated area. I'm still in shock.
You can get the whole story Here. Picture and story from Arutz Sheva (Channel 7).
A terrorist went on a rampage with a bulldozer, climbing and crushing cars and knocking down populated bus. This happened very close to the central bus station. This is a heavily populated area. I'm still in shock.
You can get the whole story Here. Picture and story from Arutz Sheva (Channel 7).
Quotable Quotes
"As soon as we say we want something, the universe says O.K., and it's like an obstacle course gets set up for you,'' Some people get part way through it and say, 'Never mind,' but if you really want it, you've got to be willing to dig in and go through the whole course, no matter what. You have to have blind faith that you'll come out on the other side. It's especially difficult in a world where everything is fast and in your face. Kids aren't taught that if you want something, you have to work for it. If you want it to last, you're not going to get it fast. Anything you get fast is not yours to keep." - Regina Carter
(hat tip= Professor Tracey at Aunt Jemima's Revenge)
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