Hello all,

I am Ajay of Hindu and Indian origin. 


I have come across some interesting observations which depict an interesting correlation between God and light....


In Hinduism, the Vedas and Hindu scriptures considers the Shivalinga as representing a cosmic pillar of light. The Dharmic monotheistic sect the Prajapita Brahmakumaris consider God to be a point of light.


In Islam, Allah has 100 name's, and one of them is Alnoor ( the Light).

“God is light,” says 1 John 1:5, in the Bible in Christianity.

In Judaism, Psalm 76:4 says of God, “You are radiant with light.”

So this correlation between God and light, is a common denominator in these four major world religions.

Imo, the fire worship in Zoroastrianism may be illustrating this correlation between God (Ahura Mazda ) and light as well, light being emitted by the fire.

If you find any further proofs or evidences in this regard, especially in Judaism, please do share it here.

Thanking you all in advance...

Ajay.

I have a question about a Hebrew word that I'm pretty sure someone here can answer for me.
 
Can the feminine Hebrew word for "pure" (טהורה) also be spelled: טהרה
 
That's without the vav?

I was raised in a catholic family, and have lived most of my life in an LDS (Church of the false god, of the new age, self proclaimed righteous people) community.  I have tried to reach Jesus.  He makes no sense.  I have tried to reach God without Jesus (in the way), and I find much, all making perfect if not nearly perfect sense.  I have read some of both the KJV old and new testaments and have done some online research.   This is one conclusion of mine:
1. Jesus is guilty of vain speech.
http://doctrine.landmarkbiblebaptist.net/25verilies.html
 He preaches against it, and hypocrisy Matthew 6:7
But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. "And when praying, do not use needless repetitions as the Gentiles do, for they expect to be listened to because of their multitude of words.
So thus, he is not perfect, or "free of sin".
2. The name Christ is false
This is my analogy:
Yeshu -> Yeshua -> Joshua -> Jesus -> Jesus Christ -> Christ (completely false/blasphemous against the Truth, name)

Be forewarned: this thread probably has more utility than worth. Nevertheless ...

To give a Chai - Hebrew for LIFE - means to give a financial gift that is some multiple of !8 (dollars, shekels, latkes, whatever). It comes from the fact that Chai in Hebrew is חי where the yod has a numeric value of ten and the het has the numeric value of eight. It turns out that every even number with the digital root of 9 is a chai.

Huh?

Wikipedia describes digital root as follows:

Quote:The digital root (also repeated digital sum) of a non-negative integer is the (single digit) value obtained by an iterative process of summing digits, on each iteration using the result from the previous iteration to compute a digit sum. The process continues until a single-digit number is reached.

So, the reason why I--a Catholic--am curious about this question is because the Christian way of viewing the nature of the relationship between Christianity and Judaism is as that our two religions are intertwined; and I had some questions about wanting to hear more of the Jewish perspective on this because I'd heard some differing opinions from some Orthodox Jewish rabbis. From the Catholic perspective, we see Christianity as having come from Judaism--as in, without Judaism, there would be no Christianity. There is no doubt, from our perspective, that Jesus and his followers were Jewish and lived and died as Jews.

This perspective on the nature of the relationship between the two was interrupted somewhat when I read several opinions from certain Jewish scholars who insisted that Jesus and his followers were no longer Jews--that is, the moment they took on the belief in Jesus as the Messiah, they ceased to be Jewish. Now, I'm not here to get into the can of worms that is "Messianic Judaism" because that's a huge issue in itself; but I have to bring it up because they were using the rejection of Messianic Judaism as a way to look back and retroactively declare the followers of Jesus--and Jesus himself--apostates from Judaism.

I had always thought that Jesus and his followers would not have recognised themselves as Christians but rather as Jews. The Gospels are unreliable because since the time they were originally written, it is clear that they underwent some influence by anti-semitic, gentile hands--those portions of the Gospels which remain relatively uncorrupted, however, make it clear that Jesus taught his followers to obey the Pharisees--who eventually evolved into rabbinical Judaism. In spite of this, I was in some personal conversations on this topic with an Orthodox Jewish person who told me that in spite of the fact that Jesus and his followers saw themselves as Jewish, their belief in Jesus as the Messiah cancelled that out and made them race traitors, after a fashion.

In light of that, the Christian use of the Tanakh was seen as "appropriation." I was actually kinda surprised to hear this, because the Christian perspective is that Judaism is a tree, Christianity is a branch off the tree and we Gentiles are grafted onto that branch. The metaphor of being "adopted" is huge in the writings of Paul. From the Chrisitan perspective, this may be all fine and dandy, but it's not so easy from the perspective of Jews standing outside of Christianity looking in. For one thing, the Christian belief in the Trinity (which, I will insist till my dying breath that we believe in ONE G-d) has been said by some Jewish scholars to be indicative of the fact that on top of not really being related Judaism at all, we Christians don't even worship the same G-d. The Shema prayer is part of Christianity, though--in the Gospels, Jesus prays it. In Catholicism, our prayers always close with the insistence on One G-d--a belief in HaShem.

So now I wanted to get some perspectives on this. A few concepts have been thrown out to think about are: Appropriation, apostasy, race treachery, and idolatry. Is there contiguation between Christianity and Judaism or is there a hard break?

So, that's part of the discussion I wanted to hear because, again, the Christian perspective--at least from my group of Christians--had been that we were brothers or adopted brothers; but some stuff I was reading from some Jewish scholars suggested that we're not brothers--we're not even adopted brothers: we're just a group of dudes that started saying that we were brothers without any real reason to say that. So I wanted to get even more Jewish perspectives on the nature of the relationship between Judaism and Christianity.

The 23rd Annual Shabbat Across America (including Canada) will be taking place on March 1st.  My congregation is participating, and I'll be going.  Is there anyone else here who will be participating, either with your congregation or at home?

Hi, I'm a Catholic. I had some questions about Judaism so I came looking for a forum. If it's an issue that I'm here or I make you feel uncomfortable, I understand and I can leave. I'm just here because I had some questions about Judaism and was looking to learn more.

The last thing I want to do is overstay any welcome, so do let me know.

It's nice to meet you all, and I hope that you all have a wonderful day!

   

I'm trying to find out what this symbol means in Hebrew. I have heard many, many variations and continue to wonder what it stands for. t I've heard it means "withstand". I'm hoping to hear what it stands for and hope some might chime in.

How alarmed do you think European Jews should be about the rise of Anti-semitism ?
Is Israel safe to move to since there is risk of war ?

what should a European jew do ?

There's an old tradition that we are supposed to recite a special verse from the Bible that is personal to each of us, in that it begins with the first letter of our name, and ends with the last letter of our name.  Some siddurim give a list of suggested verses that correspond to various names, but I found this handy list online:
 
https://web.archive.org/web/201408032151...es/138.htm
 
I thought it might be interesting if we looked up whatever verse corresponded to our screen names here, and posted it.  I'll start with mine. Channalee begins with a ח and ends with a י (beginning and ending letters appear in the right-hand column of the text I linked above):
 
Mine is Psalm 89:2
 
The kindnesses of the Lord I shall sing forever; to generation after generation I shall make known Your faithfulness, with my mouth.        
 
What's yours?