Accountability

Hello reader!

It comes time to write another post for the new week. My last one was Friday, and while due to my line of work in protecting the public which causes me to work on Shabbos (Sabbath), I still make it a very conscious point of effort to never do anything such as needlessly writing, spending of money, and the like which are all prohibited on Shabbos. If I don't need to do it out of pure necessity at work, then I wont. So, of course, no blogging. I think I will keep the blogs on a schedule of Monday through Friday Morning.

In case you are wondering what the laws of the Sabbath are according to Judaism, please check out the following website which covers all 39 laws of the Sabbath in exhaustive detail:
http://www.ou.org/chagim/shabbat/thirtynine.htm

I wanted to add a point of clarification before we move forward with the teaching of today. Sometimes I do not convey information very well and I wanted to be sure we understand each other due to the subject of materials here and my references to the Christian Bible when doing my work. I was, and never have been a Christian, or a J for J. I want people to understand that in no point in time did I ever accept the idea of Jesus being G-d, and completely rejected alle paganistic ideas and traditions held by Christians. I merely accepted the idea of him being the person we currently call in modern language "The Messiah." who as Christians claim will have "a second coming". After committing myself to detailed studies on the Christian N.T. and The Torah, I very quickly found the whole  possibility of Jesus of Nazareth of being this special person we as Jews currently are waiting for to be an impossibility. It is exactly why we as Jews currently do, and MUST reject Jesus, and hold Christian teachings as complete false prophecy.

Now to get on track here and talk about the subject of the day: Accountability. I've included a proper funny for this:

I bring this subject up because of a series of conversations I have had recently. You will find that this is for the most part going to be the general theme of my writings. They will almost always stem from one or many conversations I have had in the recent days.

In a fairly recent conversation I had we were talking about "sour grapes", understanding generational punishments, along with being held accountable for iniquities we ourselves commit. We are going to visit Exodus 34: 7 (in the Chumash with Rashi) and see what we find concerning generational curses, and see what Rashi has to say on this subject:

Exodus 34:7 '...7 keeping mercy unto the thousandth generations, foregiving iniquity and transgressions and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty;visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and unto the fourth generation.'

So very clearly we can see that children will pay for the sins of their fathers, and fathers fathers, and so on for quite a while. But if we begin to examine the Torah further, we find apparent contradictions in this idea by simply examining Jeremiah 31, and Ezekiel 18 which is as follows.

Ezekiel 18:
"1 And the word of the L-rd came unto me, saying: 2 'What mean you, that you use this proverb in the land of Israel, saying: The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge? 3 As I live, saith the L-rd G-d, you shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel. 4 Behold, all souls are Mine, as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. 5 But if a man be just, and do that which is lawful, and right,...9 has walked in My statues, and has kept Mine ordinances, to deal truly; he is just, he shall surely live, saith the L-rd G-d."

So very clearly we can see that nobody pays for the sin of their fathers. How can we prove it? Well, actually, just further reading of Ezekiel 18 will show us this:

"14 Now, lo, if he beget a son, that see's all his  father's sins, which he has done, and considers, and does not such like....19 Yet say you, Why does not the son bear the iniquity of the father with him? When the son has done what which is lawful, and right, and has kept all My statues, and has done them, he shall surely live. 20 The south that sins, it shall die; the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father with him, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son with him; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him."

This is the word of G-d given through the Prophet Ezekiel. So what does the Prophet Jeremiah have to say on this subject? Simply visit Jeremiah 31 and we shall see:

"28 In those days they shall so no more, 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.' 29 But every one shall die for his own iniquity; every man that eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge."

I should first say that these are messianic prophecies that show and end to the falsehoods concerning this deplorable proverb. What is very interesting is that if we simply examine in a Christian Bible we are going to find something very strange, be prepared as I am going to quote a few things:

1) Galations 2:16 "...nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by the faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the laws no flesh will be justified."

2) Gelations 2:21 "I do not nullify the grace of G-d, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly."

3) Romans 8:3 "For the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, G-d did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,"

So what do we find so perplexing here? We find very quickly that according to Christian thought, we cannot truly atone for sin because since we stumble often in our commitment of the laws of Torah, that we truly cannot repent for it and get back on the path. Something completely in opposition of what our Prophets, and King David tell us in their writings, and the Psalms, and Proverbs.

So what about the generational curse we visited earlier on Exodus 34:7? I have scanned it with my magic book wand ^^

Let us examine Rashi a little closer to see what he is saying,

Rashi tells us here that G-d is telling us that He remembers sin repeated by the children who saw their parents sin, knew it was sinful and wrong but did it anyway. So where is this verse "I am HASHEM your G-d..." located? Rashi tells us that this was already stated by G-d earlier in our Torah. Well, thanks to Rashi, and Art Scroll, we simple look at the references, and it pointed us to Exodus 20:5, let us examine:

 Further Commentary as follows:

So Rashi is explaining to us that He [G-d] remembers the sin of the fathers against "b'nin maradin"/"rebellious children,"..., "For those who hate Me, when the sons continue to sin after their fathers.". So by merely examining the texts of Exodus, we see that this only means that greater punishment comes to those who see sin, know what it is and the wrongness it encapsulates, and yet while having this empirical knowledge of knowing wrong from right - You do consciously do wrong, knowing full well that it is sinful, and thus against G-d's wishes.

So we find a trap that Christianity has created for itself, and it honestly comes from the lack of Torah knowledge and honesty that the prime founder of Christianity, Paul, had. We see this time and time again in the Christian New Testament where the writers systematically shoot themselves in the foot. Even without Rashi showing us the obvious! Rashi just does the work for us when examining the texts.

Paul admits in Gelations 2:21 inadvertently that if righteousness does in fact come through the Law [of Torah] then Jesus' death was pointless. Sorry to tell you this Paul, but if you had merely examined Ezekiel, and Jeremiah, you would see that nobody could pay for us. We only pay for our own misdeeds, furthermore, if we turn away from sin, and DO good THROUGH THE LAW, then it is counted to us as righteousness.

So what about this affirmation made by Paul about the Law of Torah being a curse and not a blessing? In no place does G-d EVER call His Laws a curse. But Paul says,

Gelations 3:13, "Christ redeemed up from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us---for it is written, "CURSES IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE--".

This is a clear manipulation of our texts in an attempt to reference Deuteronomy 21:23, but if we examine Deuteronomy 21:22-23 which says,

"22 If a man will have committed sin whose judgement is death and he shall be put to death, and you shall hang him on a wooden beam, 23 His body, shall not remain for the night on the wooden beam, rather you shall surely bury him on that day, for a hanging person is an insult to G-d; and you shall not make impure your land, which HASHEM, your G-d, gives you inheritance."I

A healthy examination of this, and the verses previous to verse 22 is very clear that the body being hung is only for those who have put to death by stoning. They do not die while being hung. Hanging was never a means to capitol punishment. As our Sages write, "He shall be put to death, you shall hang him" does not mean he shall be put to death by hanging. Hanging is not one of the methods by which Jewish courts perform execution." (See Devek Tov.), Rashi and our Rabbis show us that "For a hanging person is a curse of G-d". What Rashi goes on to explain a hanging person would be an "insult to G-d", and it is because we were created in the likeness of His "image", and Israel are His sons. He goes on to give us an example of twin brothers, one becomes a King. The other who commits a sin punishable by death is then hung. The people would look at the person hanging and say, "The King is dead!", and therefore we see that since we the people of Israel, G-d's firstborn (Jeremiah 31:8), and are in a sense representative of Him, we therefore must tread carefully so as to not insult HaShem. Death by hanging was not a way to put to death those who earned the sentencing, and a body was not to be left overnight. However, why the hanging even if it is only after being dispatched with? To act as a visual warning and reminder that "Hey look everyone! This person sinned harshly against us and HaShem, and was required that He be put to death. See what happens when you do things of great evil? This is you!."  The concept is so simple.

No where here does it state that the Torah is a curse.

2 Corinthians 5:21 also tries to tell us that we needed to have someone take on sin on our behalf, and be sacrificed so that through this unfortunately person, we might be righteous. But the Torah disagrees entirely on this as seen by our previously cited texts above. Nobody needs, nor can they pay for your sins. Only you are held for your own.

Back to our subject of accountability. Who is accountable? The Torah tells us, only you are. But need we die in our own iniquity? Of course not. Pray Teshuvah. Repent with a full contrite heart, and do your best to turn away from the things you know is not befitting as a Jew, and a human being (even if you are not Jewish). Do that which is good, upright, and righteous. If you stumble, and/or fall. Put your feet back under you, and stand upon again in the light of HaShem. Righteousness is not far off from you. G-d tells us this is so. You can do it.

I hope you take this teaching to heart, and we will see each other again tomorrow.



                       Be well,