A little bit of this, a little bit of that.

                 Alright, sure, the title is not very "original" but you have to admit "Fiddler on the Roof" is an amazing movie. It is coming to the end of the night, and I figured I would post a little bit more on this first day to close with. Over time between my Torah studies, and what have you while I fully intend to share them with you, as I will tonight, I will also talk a bit more about Christianity, and why we as Jews must stay very far away from it. Why we should not even entertain ideas of even flirting with it. And Islam for that matter. While at least Islam is actually monotheistic, it has still gone off the derech in many ways. I will tell you now that my best friend, whom I would never trade for the world, is a Muslim. We are like two peas in a pod. A mutual friend of ours, who I highly regard as a very sincerely and intelligent individual is also a Muslim. With each passing day I learn a little bit more about Islam. And with each new insight I am provided, I find that between Christianity and Islam they have two very strikingly similar cores that we as Jews have to tangle with. The End Time. The Messiah.
                 For the purpose of privacy, I will name the mutual friend, Carl. Yeah, that sounds like a great name. Carl and I were talking about Messianic Prophecy. He asked me what we as Jews hold concerning Hell, and Damnation. Originally this conversation started when we were talking about Jinn (Genies) and how we as Jews have stories of Shaydim which were roughly the same thing. I would certainly think that the two words are connected. We got on the topic when talking about the new movie, "The Possession", coming out and how it is a kind of famous Jewish ghost story based on real events. Long story short we got on end times discussion when he wondered, "I wonder if the Jewish Messiah, and the Christian Messiah are actually going to turn out being the anti-christ..". I looked back at him and told him honestly, "We as Jews have no such concept."
                  To be honest I am baffled by the obsession with a mythology that Muslims holds because of Christians, and in turn even further baffled by their own obsession with this invented concept. I told Carl this and asked him very plainly, "Where in the Holy Texts of the Torah does it say we have an anti-christ?". See, the thing is we don't. No special army of darkness lead by Satan and his cohorts. No army of light to beat the devil back into Hell to be imprisoned for a time, then released to prepare for judgement of the people still alive on Earth. None of this. We simply have a few points to make concerning the Messianic Era, and what will happen. If you just explore Ezekiel 37 you will find almost all of what these times will look like. It is by no means any coincidence that there are over 100 verses purely dedicated to what the times will be like, and why only a mere handful of verses actually talk about this mysterious person who will be our King in that day. So what will happen? I've decided to build the points of Ezekiel 37 for you:

1. The Prophet Ezekiel will arrive. (As per the promise of Micah 3:23)
2. The Dead will be resurrected. They will be made whole. No "zombies".
3. All of the Jewish People will be gathered in Israel.
4. All of our Tribes will be reunited, and we will be made whole as a single People once more.
5. The whole of the Jewish people will be righteous as One once more.
6. All of our iniquities will be cleansed.
7. We will have our King, from the House of David, from the line of Solomon. And this line will reign again forever more. 
8. He, that is to say, the King, will have the fear of G-d, knowledge of the L-rd's judgement's, and statutes.
9. We will follow the Laws of the Torah once more in their entirety as a nation.
10. World Peace will commence, everlasting.
11. The Third and FINAL Temple will be rebuilt.
12. Universal knowledge of G-d will cover the world like the waters of the ocean. Forever.

If we just examine these 11 basic points from Ezekiel 37, is it not odd that something so important as maybe the following invented points are completely absent?:

1. The King (that is who we call in modern language, the messiah) will vanquish Satan's Army.
2. When the Messiah arrives you must believe in him and G-d.
3. The evil will be plunged into an eternal lake of fire.
4. The nation of Israel will be judged and deemed guilty, and be also cast into the fire.

                      Ezekiel 37 literally hits on every single main point of what will happen. The four above points do not even enter into any part of Jewish Scripture. The Prophets who talked extensively about the Messianic times did not even think to mention such things. And, by the end of the Prophets we are told that during this long diaspora prophecy will be sealed. Yet suddenly soon after Prophecy is sealed, we have a sudden deluge of "New Prophets" who after a long time were suddenly visited by a Messenger of G-d. That is okay, we are told this is going to happen. In fact even while the Messiah is here, people will still falsely prophesy! Just examine Ezekiel 13, and you will find that people will in fact attempt to prophesy in the L-rd's name, and G-d will make sure that when this happens that their writings will occur but not in the language of the House of Israel.
                      "Ezekiel 13:7-12 Have you not seen a vain vision, and have you not spoken a lying divination when you say, The L-rd said is; although  I have not spoken? Therefore, thus says the L-rd G-d; Because you have spoken vanity, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, against you, says the L-rd G-d.And my hand shall be upon the prophets who see vanity, and who divine lies; be in the council of my people, nor shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter into the land of Israel; and you shall know that I am the L-rd G-d. Because they have led my people astray, saying, Peace; and there was no peace; and if one builds a wall, these prophets daub it with whitewash; Say to those who daub it with whitewash. that it shall fall; there shall be a deluge of rain; and you, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy winds shall break out."

                      It really just goes on and on. It speaks very clearly about we the Jewish people being persecuted in G-d's name. I really encourage you to study Ezekiel if you want to know anything about what is, and will occur before the arrival of Elijah, and the person we call the messiah.

                      I have been told a number of times from my Muslim friends (whom I cherish) that over time as per the Quran, that the Torah became corrupted over time. So it did come something as a surprise to them when I told them that our texts have never changed, and that we have a very very VERY strict system to prevent changes. Why? Because of Deut 4 which tells us that we cannot add or subtract from the Word of HaShem. We are taught that if we were to remove or add even one letter that it spells the destruction of the World. Why? Why do we hold such a belief? Because it is our teaching that the Torah holds the divine blueprints of Creation. But I think there is another aspect to this thought we hold, and that is very simple. Change on thing, and it all changes.

Imagine if you will: One day you are driving down a long dark highway. No traffic, nor signs of civilization for miles. You are sleepy, and begin to doze off. You fight and fight the urge to sleep, and with each jerking awake, you find yourself further off to the side. Finally, you fall asleep. And you do not wake up until you strike a small cactus, and begin to bump about in the dark. You stop. You get out of the car, and have no idea where the road is. Even worse, you are in a part of the world where darkness lasts 6 months out of the year.

                        You see. With each slight change in the Torah, you would go off the path. Very rapidly, you will find yourself careening off the road out of control. We see that today with our Muslim brothers, and Christian sisters. They came form us, and somehow ended up very far away from what it once was. Worst still, they have no standard of their own to operate under. Hundreds of thousands of variations of the Quran and the New Testament can be had throughout the known world. But only one Torah. At least as Jews, we can agree that our Torah scrolls are the same for the all came from a pure line of Scribes that operate under a strict code and standard. Who can argue with that?


                  Well, I've ranted enough for the night. I will see you tomorrow. I hope you meditate and consider these words. On this page, I have included a video called, "A Rational approach to the Divine Origin of Judaism." in which Rabbi Lawrence Kelemen talks about religions in general, and his work at disproving all of them including Judaism, only to find how beautifully unique we truly are. Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEg_Oys4NkA

I encourage everyone to check it out. Enlighten yourselves, and broaden your spectrum of knowledge on Judaism. To become Jewish? No. To understand Judaism? Yes. Please.


                   Be well,