Why do we use Hebrew words

last SG · 2006-07-30T12:32:08+00:00

Then Chinese cannot call him Ye1 Su1? Koreans cannot call him Yasumin?

vince69 SG

Brey,
here is a very simple answer on why Yahwah blessed Ishamel.
Because Abraham asked Yahwah to bless Ishamel and Yahwah said YES.

Genesis 17: 17-19
17 Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, "Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?" 18 And Abraham said to God, "If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!"

19 Then God said, "Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.

Chin Eng SG

Exactly.... but our dear mod is incapable of admitting some as simple as this. Instead he goes around quoting from various pro-hebrew sources. Fact remains that Ishmael is blessed and God of Abraham, Jacob and Issac tended to him all his life.

The Rahab thing? See, there is another way to be a Jew beyond just being born to a Jewish women......conversion.

Brey has the tendency to make something very simple to something very complicating. No need for those lengthy quotation... just write from your heart!

Chin Eng SG

...and I am wondering now what these Jews are doing to make sure that such truths and records are make known to all....

and as I'd asked previously, where are the prominent Jewish evangelists who can "set things right" instead of blaming the world for getting it all wrong!

vince69 SG

hurr???

ok, lah... I am a very simple person, I only know when Yahweh says yes, He really meant it and I can trust He will be faithful to do it....

Smile

Chin Eng SG

sorry, last line was not meant for you..... Embarassed

your posts are always short and sweet. Good communicator!

breytonhartge SG

you want to cast the blame there are many more to accuse, how about the early founding fathers after the apostles who corrupted and changed the way the church operated. blame Martin luther who despised the teachings of Yahweh such that He condemned literally thousands to death.

If you do a proper search on the internet, I am sure you will find much information, the question is do you want to know? from your attitude, it seems that you have no use for such information.

breytonhartge SG

I never said otherwise. You inferred, which is a problem with you.

But conversion has to be according to Law and you have to keep the sabbath, and all the feasts of Yahweh.

Chin Eng SG

Originally posted by breytonhartge:
I never said otherwise. You inferred, which is a problem with you.

I inferred and it's a problem?

Originally posted by breytonhartge:
Please go an read the articles that I posted. There are inferences to the fact, plus you want to argue with the history of the Jewish people and their laws? It is purely stated for all to see, my wife confirms it as well, as a Jew are you saying she does not know her own culture??

You guys infer and it's OK?

Why am I not surprise about the double standardness? Laughing

Chin Eng SG

As far as I last checked, the internet only came up over the last 10+ yrs.

Again I asked, when the founding fathers after the apostles corrupted and change the way the church operated and Martin Luther despised the teachings of Yahweh... where were you guys? wallowing in self-pity?

On one side, according to you, the gospel was corrupted.... on the other side, those who is suppose to know that the gospel was corrupted DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

The internet tells me much.... one of the stuff? The Jewish world isn't exactly in harmony as to who is a Jew and how is a Jew defined.... that much is sure.

breytonhartge SG

I thought that you agreed to let this down already... still have hangups?

IF you disagree with the whole Jewish thing, then why even bother???

Chin Eng SG

I agreed to let the Yeshua thing down.

I am still following up the other other things..... and you can hardly expect me NOT to follow up thing that has yet to surfaced?

Brey... hindsight is 20/20.... we all can look back and criticised on whatever that has happened. You obviously do not agree with what has happened or what was done by the church fathers. However I don't think you have the right to do that unless you are able to prove that there were alternatives - perhaps one that was provided by any Jewish evanglist and having done that, the world rejected this "Hebraic" message.

Right now in 2006, can we look back and condemned everything that has happened? And mournfully declared that the world was Hellenised or Westernised?

Have you noticed, one thing: I have never ever said that your belief is WRONG!
I am saying: if what you believe is RIGHT, what has been done about it, or what are you guys doing about it? Other than look at others with this holier-than-thou view and declare that everyone's got it wrong.

Chin Eng SG

Concerning Ishmael....

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=277&letter=I&search=ishmael

In Rabbinical Literature:

The name of Ishmael is an allusion to God's promise to hear the complaints of Israel whenever it suffered at the hands of Ishmael (Gen. R. xlv. 11). Abraham endeavored to bring up Ishmael in righteousness; to train him in the laws of hospitality Abraham gave him the calf to prepare (Gen. R. xlviii. 14; comp. Gen. xviii. 7). But according to divine prediction Ishmael remained a savage. The ambiguous expression in Gen. xxi. 9 (see Hagar) is interpreted by some rabbis as meaning that Ishmael had been idolatrous; by others, that he had turned his bow against Isaac. According to the interpretation of Simeon b. Yoḥai, Ishmael mocked those who maintained that Isaac would be Abraham's chief heir, and said that as he (Ishmael) was the first-born son he would receive two-thirds of the inheritance (Tosef., Sotah, v. 12, vi. 6; Pirḳe R. El. xxx.; Gen. R. liii. 15). Upon seeing the danger to Isaac, Sarah, who had till then been attached to Ishmael (Josephus, "Ant." i. 12, § 3), insisted that Abraham cast out Ishmael. Abraham was obliged to put him on Hagar's shoulders, because he fell sick under the spell of the evil eye cast upon him by Sarah (Gen. R. liii. 17).

Ishmael, left under a shrub by his despairing mother, prayed to God to take his soul and not permit him to suffer the torments of a slow death (comp. Targ. pseudo-Jonathan to Gen. xxi. 15). God then commanded the angel to show Hagar the well which was created on Friday in the week of Creation, in the twilight (comp. Ab. v. 6), and which afterward accompanied the Israelites in the wilderness (Pirḳe R. El. xxx.). But this was protested against by the angels, who said: "Why should Ishmael have water, since his descendants will destroy the Israelites by thirst?" (comp. Yer. Ta'an. iv. 8; Lam. R. ii. 2). God replied: "But now he is innocent, and I judge him according to what he is now" (Pirḳe R. El. l.c.; Gen. R. l.c.; et al.). Ishmael married a Moabitess named 'Adishah or 'Aishah (variants "'Ashiyah" and "'Aifah," Arabic names; Targ. pseudo-Jonathan to Gen. xxi. 21; Pirḳe R. El. l.c.); or, according to "Sefer ha-Yashar" (Wayera), an Egyptian named Meribah or Merisah. He had four sons and one daughter. Ishmael meanwhile grew so skilful in archery that he became the master of all the bowmen (Targ. pseudo-Jonathan to Gen. xxi. 20; Gen.R. liii. 20). Afterward Abraham went to see Ishmael, and, according to his promise to Sarah, stopped at his son's tent without alighting from his camel. Ishmael was not within; his wife refused Abraham food, and beat her children and cursed her husband within Abraham's hearing. Abraham thereupon asked her to tell Ishmael when he returned that an old man had asked that he change the peg of the tent. Ishmael understood that it was his father, took the hint, and drove away his wife. He then married another woman, named Fatimah (Pekimah; Targ. pseudo-Jonathan l.c.), who, when three years later Abraham came again to see his son, received him kindly; therefore Abraham asked her to tell Ishmael that the peg was good.

Ishmael then went to Canaan and settled with his father (Pirḳe R. El. l.c.; "Sefer ha-Yashar," l.c.). This statement agrees with that of Baba Batra (16a)that Ishmael became a penitent during the lifetime of Abraham. He who sees Ishmael in a dream will have his prayer answered by God (Ber. 56a).

I am not able to verify the accuracy of the Rabbinical literature. I am also not able to edit the various symbols found in the original website.

breytonhartge SG

Scholarship: The Significance of the small silent aleph
Clifford Denton

(This article was written in April 1991 and resulted in the launch of the Journal Tishrei. The message is still relevant today.)

One of the pleasures I have each week is to turn to the last but one page of the Jerusalem Post International Edition. Just to have this weekly communication from Jerusalem seems hard to believe. Is this the same Jerusalem that I read about in the Bible?

That is not a straightforward question to answer of course, but for one, like me, who has had his eyes opened wide to the significance of the modern day Jerusalem, there is a very special time of reflection each week, as I can hold this newspaper in one hand and the Bible in the other.

However, it is on that last but one page that I wish to focus. To turn to the last but one page of most of our newspapers would be quite common for a lot of people. There is a little light relief in reading the sport's page before turning to the international news towards the front of the paper. In the Jerusalem Post International Edition it is not so. The attraction there is a half page called 'Shabbat Shalom'. This is where a meditative message is given for the Jewish Shabbat by one of the Rabbis. It is usually in the form of a message from the Torah. I have often been given some new insight on a passage of scripture which is as much a part of our Bible as it is the Torah. There is sometimes a little Jewishness to filter out, or a wider perspective to take on a passage, when it is related to the New Testament as well as the Old Testament. However, one has to confess that the Rabbis have something to teach us.

On 16th of March this year Rabbi Riskin, Dean of the Ohr Torah institutions and chief Rabbi of Efrat set me thinking again about the need for Christian scholarship in our generation through his analysis of one word in the first chapter of Leviticus.

The Rabbi quoted from the Israeli poet Nahman Bialik, who said that studying a Bible translation is like kissing a woman through a veil. He was saying that even the 'best' of translations, including the King James' version, is bound to miss the full impact of some of the words whose meaning is only conveyed by the original Hebrew.

continued...

breytonhartge SG

Scolarship part2

In the first chapter of Leviticus, an English translation records an incident as follows: 'And the Lord called unto Moses and spoke to him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying .... '. The Rabbi then goes on to say that a child reading this from the Hebrew will have greater understanding than 'even a learned but Hebrewless cardinal'. The reason is as follows.

The Hebrew word vayikra has the basic translation 'and the Lord called'. As the Rabbi states, 'the last letter of the Hebrew word vayikra, the silent aleph, is enjoined by the scribes to be written in an uncharacteristically tiny script, our tradition to this day.'

The Rabbi goes on to say, 'No matter how exquisite King James' English may be, a little aleph cannot be translated; it must be experienced. Indeed, any letter written smaller than others takes on significance, but when it is an aleph, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, its smallness looms even larger.'

continued...

breytonhartge SG

Scolarship part3

The Rabbi points out that without the aleph, the word would be 'vayikar' not 'vayikra', the word used in a different situation, when God encountered Balaam. However, through the use of a small aleph by Moses, who described his own meeting with God in this passage, the meaning conveyed is deeper than a mere encounter with a distant God. It indicates an expression of love on the part of God, a specific reaching out towards Moses. It also carries a profound indication of humility on the part of Moses.

The inclusion of this small silent aleph indicates something far more intimate than the English words convey and which could otherwise indicate a cool confrontation such as with Balaam.

Rabbi Riskin is able to make even more of this. He relates the inclusion of this small silent, easily missed aleph, to its place of occurrence in the book of Leviticus. This is the point of introduction to the laws of sacrifice for the Jewish people. The small silent aleph used by Moses, in describing his own drawing close to God, can be extended to include the attitude that every person should adopt in bringing sacrifice to God. The joy and thanksgiving of individuals saved from death would be a consequence of the attitude of humility adopted in offering the sacrifice, and the understanding of the attitude of God when a person could once again draw near to God, having given the sacrifice. The small silent aleph typifies the attitude, 'who am I to receive such a good fortune? I dont deserve it!', which is in sharp contrast to those who say, 'My power and the might of my own hand have got me this wealth.' (Deut. 8:17). As the Rabbi says, the person is 'able to look beyond his own power and might and direct his gaze toward the One orchestrating it all.' The Rabbi is then able to take the discussion further into the consideration of the atonement and how it is essential to see this in the light of repentance, but only from a position of true humility.

continued...

breytonhartge SG

Scolarship part4

Thus, in a small silent aleph, which cannot be carried into the English translations, we see a sermon on sacrifice, atonement and right attitude. We see evidence of the humility of Moses and the love of God in desiring a close fellowship with His people, born out of a love which invites intimate fellowship. The message would be quite different without that small silent aleph and we are left to guess at some of these things, if we consider them at all, by reading our translations. In the same way that the Rabbi makes a sermon out of one letter, which is not even pronounced in the Hebrew, I see a different sermon emerging from the overall message. It causes me to think of scholarship in the Church today, or should I say, the lack of it, at least from my observations. It also causes me to wonder if Christians, in general, have lost their thirst to seek the depth of truth in the scriptures. Few of us study the original languages in which the Bible is written. Fewer sermons than in previous generations contain the wonderful lightgiving expositions of one word or phrase, taken at a deep level - leave alone one small silent letter, which contains a deep truth about a whole book of the Bible and important activities among God's people. I would ask the question, are we losing the desire for these deeper expositions, or are we losing the ability to bring them to the Church? We are basing so much of our meetings on experience these days and are in danger of losing our ability for a deep study of the Word. Yet surely the example of the Rabbi's message, given above, fills the heart of any Christian with an excitement about the depth that can be discovered in the written words of the Bible. Our hope should be that this excitement will create thirst in the coming days, once more.

I would also ask the question about the scholarship that can be applied to Biblical understanding in these days. Where are the scholars today? Now I am not looking for dry theologians who kill the word rather than minister its life. I am talking about those who have the ability to help us to stand firm on deep truths which are not compromised, while ministering the life and excitement that is to be discovered in all passages of the Bible.

Summarising, I have two desires: perhaps you will share them and put the ideas into prayer, if you have noticed a turning away from deep study of the Bibles, as I have.

First, I long for a thirst to grow within the body of believers, to find deeper understanding of the Bible. A thirst that can only be satisfied through groups of Christians meeting together with Bibles on their laps as they discuss, study, meditate and pray together (perhaps preferring the kinds of messages that come out of the last but one page of the Jerusalem Post International Edition from the last but one page of the secular newspapers). Please pray for this in our fellowships.

Secondly, I also long for the leaders of church fellowships to have, among them, scholars of the nature described above, feeding the flock with good solid food and holding firm to a heritage of solid Biblical truth, while continuing to expect the full range of manifestations of the Holy Spirit in our midst. Please pray for scholarship to be deeply evident in the Church of the present generation. This may turn out to be our safeguard against the rising deception of the coming days.

Beyond that I look forward to the day when the Jewish people are brought into their heritage of salvation through Christ. If the Rabbis can bring revelation to us through a small silent aleph, when they are not yet receiving the full revelation, then how much more will we have to share together when that glorious day comes? Let's pray for this as well, and let us keep such prayers going in the days to come.

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