ONE WAY OR AN OTHER
(Stein Atle Vere ©2012. One way or an other. brakha.blogspot.com)
KEYWORDS
Tora תורה (instruction) (Judaism)
Ha'Tora התורה (“The” Tora) (Five Books of the Tora Scroll)
Talmud Bavli תלמוד בבלי (Book of the Babylonian Talmud)
Sanhedrin סנהדרין (Talmud Section of Sanhedrin)
Brit Khadasha ברית חדשה (Books of New Testament)
Matityahu מתתיהו (New Testament Book of Matthew)
Rabi רבי (Rabbi)
Rabanim רבנים (Rabbis)
Rabani (Rabbinic)
Rabi Yhoshua Ben Khananya רבי יהושע בן חנניה (Rabbi Joshua Son of Hanania)
Yhoshua Ben Yosef יהושע בן יוסף (Joshua Son of Joseph) (Historical Jesus)
Mashiakh (Anointed King) (an official representative of an ideal government of Yisrael according to Tora)
Tshuva תשובה (Return to God) (Repentance) (Returning to the way of Tora)
WITH OR WITHOUT A RETURN
The Book of the Talmud agrees with Rabi Yhoshua Ben Khananya. God will make the Days of Mashiakh happen. This is a future time when an ideal government prevails for a thousand years. One way or an other.
One way, is by Tshuva. Humans returning to God, doing Tora, optimizing compassion and justice, and trusting God to allow this effort to succeed.
An other way, is by humans veering away from God. If humans do not return, God allows their fear and lack of trust to spawn cruel governments. Eventually humans cannot survive such oppression, except by returning to God and trusting in God to press on.
But even if humans continue to veer away from God, God guarantees the Days of Mashiakh will happen. Ultimately, there is a deadline at the beginning of the seventh millennium. No matter what, God ensures the thousand years of this ideal government will happen by this time. God creates the universe in a way that makes the age inevitable.
If this optimal government begins with return, then it can start early - even today. It is possible for humans to get a headstart, to enjoy life now, with even miraculous assistance.
If this optimal government begins without return, by defaulting to the deadline at the start of the seventh millennium, then sadly, humans undergo massive suffering before that deadline. Moreover the “holy one”, the government official that accomplishes this ideal government does so under total humiliation.
Nevertheless. The thousand years of joy will happen. Either way.
Talmud, Sanhedrin 97b
(Stein Atle Vere 2012. Translation to English. brakha.blogspot.com)
(Talmud Bavli. Organization: Mechon Mamre 2002. mechon-mamre.org):
Rabi Yhoshua (Ben Khananya) said to (Rabi Eliezer):
If theres no (Yisrael) doing a return (to God),
(then) theres no being redeemed,
but the Holy (God) - that one is blessed! - makes a king stand (with hostility) to them,
that his decrees are (as) cruel as Haman.
And (thereby) Yisrael do a return (to God).
And (God) makes them revert to doing well.
...
And is it not already being said?:
(Yhoshua 49'):
God the redeemer of Yisrael said thusly:
And (with regard to) his holy one,
lifeforce is to despise (him),
a (foreign) ethnicity is to abhor (him).
(He is) to (be) the servant of (foreign) rulers.
אמר ליה רבי יהושע
אם אין עושין תשובה
אין נגאלין אלא הקב״ה מעמיד להן מלך
שגזרותיו קשות כהמן
וישראל עושין תשובה
ומחזירן למוטב
...
והלא כבר נאמר
כה אמר ה׳ גואל ישראל
וקדושו לבזה נפש למתעב גוי לעבד מושלים
According to the Talmud, God guarantees to redeem humanity.
God will ensure humans enter this thousand years of Mashiakh. Either by the difficult way of humans returning to God and doing their part in Tora. Or by the painful way of humans veering from God and defaulting to a cruel life that is with fear and without trust.
But even if humans choose the painful way, God empowers a holy leader who can withstand the predatory instinct of foreign governments and can succeed in establishing a holy government among the Kinship of Yisrael. When this government succeeds, all of the governments of humanity will ratify treaties to participate in it.
COME IN BY THE NARROW ENTRANCE
The Book of Matityahu, portrays Yhoshua Ben Yosef teaching Tora. Yhoshua evidences an early form of the understanding of the Talmud, about the arrival of the thousand years of Mashiakh.
This is a new age, when all of humanity enters an ideal government of holiness, compassion-and-justice, that persists for a thousand years.
God will accomplish it, one way or an other. If humans do Tora and optimize a difficult life of sharing, wisdom, and trusting, then humans can achieve and enter this miraculous government - even now. Early. Without tragedy.
Alternatively, if humans veer away from Tora and default to a “convenient” life of fear, shortsightedness, and predation, then humans manifest the governments of oppression and death.
Nevertheless, both of these “entrances” inevitably lead into the Kingdom of the Heavens. Ultimately. God guarantees this ideal government will happen one way or an other.
Book of Matityahu 7'13-14
(Stein Atle Vere 2012. Translations from Greek to Hebrew to English. brakha.blogspot.com)
(Novum Testamentum Graece. NA27 1998):
Come (in) by the narrow entrance.
Because broad is the entrance.
And spacious is the way leading to destruction.
And masses are the ones going (in) by it.
And narrow is the entrance.
And pressed is the way leading to lives.
And few are the ones (even) finding it.
בֹּאוּ בַּפֶּתַח הַצָּר
כִּי רָחָב הַפֶּתַח
וּמְרֻוַּחַת הַדֶּרֶךְ הַמּוֹלִיכָה לַאֲבַדּוֹן
וְרַבִּים הַהוֹלְכִים בוֹ ׃
וְצַר הַפֶּתַח
וּלְחוּצָה הַדֶּרֶךְ הַמּוֹלִיכָה לַחַיִּים
וּמְעַטִּים הַמּוֹצְאִים אוֹתוֹ ׃
εἰσέλθατε διὰ τῆς στενῆς πύλης ·
ὅτι πλατεῖα ἡ πύλη
καὶ εὐρύχωρος ἡ ὁδὸς ἡ ἀπάγουσα εἰς τὴν ἀπώλειαν ,
καὶ πολλοί εἰσιν οἱ εἰσερχόμενοι δι αὐτῆς ·
τί στενὴ ἡ πύλη
καὶ τεθλιμμένη ἡ ὁδὸς ἡ ἀπάγουσα εἰς τὴν ζωήν ,
καὶ ὀλίγοι εἰσὶν οἱ εὑρίσκοντες αὐτήν .
There are two ways for humanity to enter paradise. The difficult way or the painful way.
The way of Tora discerns useful limits, to channel the energy of selfish desires toward altruistic goals. Both compassion and justice are important. The optimal way is subtle, involving balance - even hard to recognize.
Alternatively, the painful way results in death and destruction for most of humanity.
Nevertheless, ultimately, both entrances lead into the Kingdom of the Heavens, the government of paradise.
God desires a great destiny for the human species.
One way or an other, humans will learn to avoid future errors.
Showing posts with label mishnat yhoshua. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mishnat yhoshua. Show all posts
2012-04-11
2012-03-29
The “Greatest”
(Stein Atle Vere. ©2012. The “Greatest”. brakha.blogspot.com.)
Rabi Shimon Ben Yokhai רַבִי שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן יוֹחַאי is a sage during the Roman Period, who the Talmud mentions. To him, the Medieval Rabanim (Rabbis) attribute the Zohar, the authoritative book of Kabala קַבָּלָה (Jewish spirituality). He lives about a hundred years after Yhoshua. In the disaster of the Bar Kokhba Rebellion around 135, he witnesses the massacre of Yhudim (Jews). The Roman emperor and his armies murdered hundreds of thousands of the Yhudi aborigines in Yhuda (Judea).
In the Book of Talmud Yrushalmi, Ben Yokhai teaches his students:
“The greatest of the Nonjews is a killer.”
Hyperliterally:
A good one that is among the Nonjews is a killer.
טוֹב שֶׁבַּגּוֹיִים הָרוֹג
(Kidushin 66c.)
Note: הָרוֹג , irregular plural הָרוֹגוֹת (Post-Biblical Hebrew) killer, murderer. (Klein. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language.)
In the days of Ben Yokhai, the “greatest” of the Nonjews was Caesar Hadrianus, indeed a killer.
Even before Ben Yokhai, Yhoshua (Historical Jesus) teaches this same Tora tradition:
And Yhoshua called them unto him.
He said:
You know:
As: The chiefs of the Nonjews oppress among them.
And the great ones dominate among them.
It will not be thus among you ones.
But each someone that will desire
to be great among you ones,
will be a servant that (belongs) to you ones.
וִיהוֹשֻׁעַ קָרָא אֶלָיו אֹתָם
אָמַר
אַתֶּם יֹדְעִים
כִּי שָׂרֵי הַגּוֹיִם רֹדִים בָּהֶם
וְהַגְּדוֹלִים שֹׁלְטִים בָּהֶם
לֹא כֵּן יִהְיֶה בָּכֶם
כִּי אִם כֹּל מִי אֲשֶׁר יִרְצֶה
לִהְיוֹת גָּדוֹל בָּכֶם
יִהְיֶה מְשָׁרֵת אֲשֶׁר לָכֶם
ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς προσκαλεσάμενος αὐτοὺς
εἶπεν
οἴδατε
ὅτι οἱ ἄρχοντες τῶν ἐθνῶν κατακυριεύουσιν αὐτῶν
καὶ οἱ μεγάλοι κατεξουσιάζουσιν αὐτῶν
οὐχ οὕτως ἔσται ἐν ὑμῖν
ἀλλ ὃς ἐὰν θέλῃ
ἐν ὑμῖν μέγας γενέσθαι
ἔσται ὑμῶν διάκονος
(Mt 20'25-26.)
It is an uncomfortable fact of history, the “great” empires among Nonjews - especially the Pagan Roman Empire - achieved their “greatness” by becoming brutal killers.
When Yhoshua and Ben Yokhai refer this tradition of Nonjewish oppressors, they seem to refer to four specific Nonjewish governments who oppress the Jewish Land of Yisrael, as the Tanakhi (biblical) Book of Daniel describes them.
Daniel portrays these four governments as parts of an idolatrous statue. (Daniel 2'31-45.)
• The head is gold corresponding to the Kingship of Bavel (Babylonian Empire).
• The chest and arms are silver for the Kingship of Madai and Paras (Mede and Persian Empire).
• The belly and thighs are bronze for the Kingship of Yavan (several Hellenistic governments, namely, Aleksandros the Great, Ptolemaic Egypt, and Selucid Syria).
• The shins and and feet are iron corresponding, as the Rabanim (Rabbis) understand it, to the Kingship of Rome.
The kingship of Rome also encompasses several governments: Roman, Byzantine, and other governments emerging from the Roman legal system, such as Nazi Germany.
This fourth Kingship, Rome, mixes partially with a fifth Nonjewish Kingship, because the iron intermingles with clay to form the feet. But the iron and clay fail to blend or adhere. This fifth kingship comes to correspond with the Arab Empires, and other governments that emerge from its legal system.
The iron and clay alternate their coercive control over the aboriginal Jewish Land of Yisrael.
Ultimately, God will overthrow these historically oppressive Nonjewish governments, and will empower an aboriginal Jewish government over the Land of Yisrael. Daniel visualizes this sacred ancestral government as a holy unhewn stone. The Kingship of the Heavens.
Tora (Judaism) recognizes the authority that comes from violence, but the violence has no authority in itself, and no merit. Only the Tora itself has the authority. Only those who choose to pursue the authority of Tora gain merit.
This authority that comes from love, is “the kingship of the heavens” מַלְכוּת הַשָּׁמַיִם .
Rabi Shimon Ben Yokhai רַבִי שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן יוֹחַאי is a sage during the Roman Period, who the Talmud mentions. To him, the Medieval Rabanim (Rabbis) attribute the Zohar, the authoritative book of Kabala קַבָּלָה (Jewish spirituality). He lives about a hundred years after Yhoshua. In the disaster of the Bar Kokhba Rebellion around 135, he witnesses the massacre of Yhudim (Jews). The Roman emperor and his armies murdered hundreds of thousands of the Yhudi aborigines in Yhuda (Judea).
(Stein Atle Vere. ©2012. Image: Caesar Hadrianus Augustus. brakha.blogspot.com.)
In the Book of Talmud Yrushalmi, Ben Yokhai teaches his students:
“The greatest of the Nonjews is a killer.”
Hyperliterally:
A good one that is among the Nonjews is a killer.
טוֹב שֶׁבַּגּוֹיִים הָרוֹג
(Kidushin 66c.)
Note: הָרוֹג , irregular plural הָרוֹגוֹת (Post-Biblical Hebrew) killer, murderer. (Klein. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language.)
In the days of Ben Yokhai, the “greatest” of the Nonjews was Caesar Hadrianus, indeed a killer.
Even before Ben Yokhai, Yhoshua (Historical Jesus) teaches this same Tora tradition:
And Yhoshua called them unto him.
He said:
You know:
As: The chiefs of the Nonjews oppress among them.
And the great ones dominate among them.
It will not be thus among you ones.
But each someone that will desire
to be great among you ones,
will be a servant that (belongs) to you ones.
וִיהוֹשֻׁעַ קָרָא אֶלָיו אֹתָם
אָמַר
אַתֶּם יֹדְעִים
כִּי שָׂרֵי הַגּוֹיִם רֹדִים בָּהֶם
וְהַגְּדוֹלִים שֹׁלְטִים בָּהֶם
לֹא כֵּן יִהְיֶה בָּכֶם
כִּי אִם כֹּל מִי אֲשֶׁר יִרְצֶה
לִהְיוֹת גָּדוֹל בָּכֶם
יִהְיֶה מְשָׁרֵת אֲשֶׁר לָכֶם
ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς προσκαλεσάμενος αὐτοὺς
εἶπεν
οἴδατε
ὅτι οἱ ἄρχοντες τῶν ἐθνῶν κατακυριεύουσιν αὐτῶν
καὶ οἱ μεγάλοι κατεξουσιάζουσιν αὐτῶν
οὐχ οὕτως ἔσται ἐν ὑμῖν
ἀλλ ὃς ἐὰν θέλῃ
ἐν ὑμῖν μέγας γενέσθαι
ἔσται ὑμῶν διάκονος
(Mt 20'25-26.)
It is an uncomfortable fact of history, the “great” empires among Nonjews - especially the Pagan Roman Empire - achieved their “greatness” by becoming brutal killers.
When Yhoshua and Ben Yokhai refer this tradition of Nonjewish oppressors, they seem to refer to four specific Nonjewish governments who oppress the Jewish Land of Yisrael, as the Tanakhi (biblical) Book of Daniel describes them.
Daniel portrays these four governments as parts of an idolatrous statue. (Daniel 2'31-45.)
• The head is gold corresponding to the Kingship of Bavel (Babylonian Empire).
• The chest and arms are silver for the Kingship of Madai and Paras (Mede and Persian Empire).
• The belly and thighs are bronze for the Kingship of Yavan (several Hellenistic governments, namely, Aleksandros the Great, Ptolemaic Egypt, and Selucid Syria).
• The shins and and feet are iron corresponding, as the Rabanim (Rabbis) understand it, to the Kingship of Rome.
The kingship of Rome also encompasses several governments: Roman, Byzantine, and other governments emerging from the Roman legal system, such as Nazi Germany.
This fourth Kingship, Rome, mixes partially with a fifth Nonjewish Kingship, because the iron intermingles with clay to form the feet. But the iron and clay fail to blend or adhere. This fifth kingship comes to correspond with the Arab Empires, and other governments that emerge from its legal system.
The iron and clay alternate their coercive control over the aboriginal Jewish Land of Yisrael.
Ultimately, God will overthrow these historically oppressive Nonjewish governments, and will empower an aboriginal Jewish government over the Land of Yisrael. Daniel visualizes this sacred ancestral government as a holy unhewn stone. The Kingship of the Heavens.
Tora (Judaism) recognizes the authority that comes from violence, but the violence has no authority in itself, and no merit. Only the Tora itself has the authority. Only those who choose to pursue the authority of Tora gain merit.
This authority that comes from love, is “the kingship of the heavens” מַלְכוּת הַשָּׁמַיִם .
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)