by Hana Levi Julian
(IsraelNN.com)

A delegation of 16 Bnai Anousim, or Jews who practice their religion in secrecy, arrived from Europe this week for a visit from Spain, Portugal, Italy and France, arranged under the auspices of the “Shavei Israel” organization.

Bnai Anousim are descended from Jews who were forced to convert to Catholicism during the Inquisition more than 500 years ago, and who are now seeking to renew their ties with the Jewish people and the State of Israel.

Delegation of 16 Bnai Anousim to Israel, August 2008
Courtesy of Shavei Israel

The delegation, which has spent the week visiting places like Jerusalem, Rachel’s Tomb, Tzefat, Tiberias, Haifa, Kibbutz Lavi and other spots, also has been taking in special classes on Jewish history, culture and religion in their native Spanish and Portuguese.

The delegates are also learning some Hebrew along the way.

Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund says that large numbers of Bnai Anousim around the world have started to openly embrace their Jewish heritage in recent years, a move he has been working hard to encourage.

“This visit to Israel by a delegation of Bnai Anousim is part of the process of forging a renewed relationship with the Jewish people and the State of Israel. I believe that we have an historic and moral obligation to reach out to the Bnai Anousim and to assist them as much as we can,” Freund said.

Shavei Israel is active in nine different countries, including India, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Russia, China and South America, working with Bnai Anousim, sometimes referred to as “Marranos” by historians, in various locations.

The positive attitude of Judaism toward sexuality stands in sharp contrast with a more negative picture that developed in early Christianity. Although Christians disagreed on the nature of Adam’s sin in the Bible, it was generally believed to be tied up with sexuality. Paul particularly emphasized this attitude. According to Elaine Pagels, a Christian scholar:

“He [Paul] often speaks of marriage in negative terms, as a sop for those too weak to do what is best: renounce sexual activity altogether. Paul admits that marriage is ‘not sin’ yet argues that it makes both partners slaves to each other’s sexual needs and desires, no longer free to devote their energies ‘to the Lord’ [1 Cor. 7:1‑35].

Admittedly, Paul was speaking to a community that believed the kingdom of God was imminent. Even after such hopes failed, however, this identification of sex with sin was further developed by the early fathers of the church, particularly Augustine, and has remained influential in Christianity to this day.”

The concept that the sin of Adam and Eve was related to sexuality is not a mainstream idea in Torah. On a number of levels, I’m not qualified to speak about the true perspective that G-d’s Torah gives us on sexuality. So I’ll leave it to one of the holiest rabbis in Jewish history:

“We the possessors of the Holy Torah believe that G-d, may He be praised, created all, as His wisdom decreed, and did not create anything ugly or shameful. For if sexual relations were repulsive, then the reproductive organs are also repulsive…If the reproductive organs are repulsive, how did the Creator fashion something blemished? If that were so, we should find that His deeds were not perfect.” (attributed to Nachmanides)

Like most other things the Torah instructs us to do or not to do, it all boils down like this: proper time, proper place, proper person.

In the Code of Jewish Law it says:

Here is, in the language of the Rambam zt”l, the basic Torah commandment of prayer, at the very opening of his Laws of Prayer:

“The Torah does not set the number of prayers [to be said each day], it does not give its formulation, it does not set fixed times for prayer… the obligation to pray is for a person to beseech and supplicate each day;

1. to [first] praise HaShem,
2. then implore and beg for what he needs,
3. and then to thank HaShem for His goodness to him,

each one the way he can. If he is fluent, he elaborates his supplications and requests; if he is not articulate, he speaks the way he can, and any time he wants.

So too, the number of prayers a day is according to each person’s capability. One will pray once a day, and another several times.

And everyone prays in the direction of the Temple, from wherever he is. This is how it was done since the time of our teacher Moses until the time of Ezra”.

This is the proper way to turn to God, for Jews as well as Gentiles. It changed for Israel at the time and Ezra, and for Gentiles it is still the same.

In the Second Temple period¹, Ezra and the Men of the Great Assembly established structured, organized, set prayers for the Jewish people. One reason for this was to ensure unity within the Jewish people, having seen the division and destruction that exile caused within the Jewish people.

However, prior to Ezra, the way of prayer for Jews was the same as it was - and is - for Gentiles today, as described above by Rambam.

Rabbi Schwartz² also implied that [Bnei Noach] saying their own [personal] prayers may be the ideal situation, but has ruled that a BN may pray all the prayers from the Jewish prayer book.

Some prayers however don’t make sense for a BN to say, so the [Oklahoma Bnai Noah] prayer book was an attempt to select the prayers and wording that would be more applicable to BN, but still parallel the Jewish prayer book. The nascent Sanhedrin supports Rabbi Schwartz rulings in these matters.³

That is to say, it seems that ideally a Noahide should pray directly from the heart, without an organized prayer book as a guide.

However, if the need arises, one can use the OKBNS prayer book, which is similar to the Jewish prayer book - only modified to be more relevant to Bnei Noach.

For advice on praying from the heart, see Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, amongst the many other ways and guides for opening up personal prayer to Hashem.

Rabbi Skobac Why Christians are turning to Judaism 1

Rabbi Skobac Why Christians are turning to Judaism 2

Rabbi Skobac Why Christians are turning to Judaism 3

Rabbi Skobac tells of a Christian becoming a Noahide

I had dinner in Borough Park with my cousin on Thursday.
In Borough Park, most of the residents look like this:

My cousin looks something like this:

Anyways, we had just arrived at my cousin’s apartment, and he was gathering some papers from the back of his car, with his car door open like this:

when an elderly couple in an old car like this:

came and rolled right into his car door, bending it like this:

and my cousin - whooping, over nearly being ran over - looked like this:

At first I was like this:

because my cousin was not hurt, unlike my father who was hit by one of these:

8 weeks ago and broke this:

and some of these:

but thank G-d everyone, including my dad and my cousin, are alive and healthy. Which is why I looked like this:

But I couldn’t tell this to my cousin while his anger was boiling over due to the damage on his car. I couldn’t tell this to my angry cousin because Rabbi Shomin ben Elazar used to say:

Do not appease your fellow in the time of his anger, nor comfort him while his dead lies before him. Do not question him in the time of his vow. Do not try to see him in the time of his disgrace.¹

Yet the anger my cousin shot at the driver and that the driver flung back at my cousin was volatile like this:

And made one of them look like this:

and the other one looked like this:

and there was a whole lot of this:

which I think is really rooted in this:

but then a young Borough Park resident at the scene who looked like this:

remarked - “It’s never good when Jews fight - no matter what the situation.”

Yet the cancer called Anger only crept further down their throats, enslaving their tongues and lips to curses and disgraces that surely left their souls crying out from Heaven.

And the evil inclination within each of us is so sly, because after all of the toxins the evil inclination enticed my cousin to spew, he then proceed to entice my cousin to feel terribly sad and somewhat depressed after the fact.

But Rebbe Nachman zt”l says that we must every day - every moment! - begin from a new! Do not despair over the past! Make amends, yes. Fix what needs to be fixed, yes. But despair? No!!

That way, G-d willing, the world will look less like this:

and more like this:

The Torah instructs us to heed the words of the Levites, Priests, and Religious Courts of our day: “Do not stray to the right or left from the word that they declare to you.” (Duet. 17:8-13)

Yet we see so many people taking Judaism and twisting it to prove or support their own version of justice and righteousness. They take a verse of Torah out of context and enslave G-d’s word under their personal and political agenda.

Both Jews and Gentiles participate in this.

Here is an example of a person who went so far left politically, that he wound up on the same end as the terrorists. Hashem yerachem - G-d have mercy.

Post-Zionist Jewish Academic Converts to Islam

(source: IsraelNN.com)

Dr. Uri Davis, who has often termed Israel an “apartheid state” and refused to serve in the IDF, converted to Islam about a week ago and married a Fatah activist in Ramallah. The conversion ceremony involved two oaths in which Davis recognized Allah and the Muslim prophet Mohammed. Davis said he plans to follow the laws of Islam, but not devoutly.

The conversion took place in a Moslem religious court in Baka el-Garbiye, an Israeli-Arab town just outside northwestern Samaria (Shomron).

Davis’s lawyer explained that the Arabs of the Palestinian Authority know him for his great sacrifices on behalf of the “Palestinian problem” and the “realization of their rights.” He noted that the consent of the Arab woman and her family to the marriage to a Jewish activist is an “admirable social development.”

Just two months ago, David (more…)

This story had me laughing and crying, and sometimes at the same time. It’s about an hour - well worth the time!

We Are Never Alone: The Unbelievable Story of a Child’s Birth

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One of the rabbi’s from my yeshiva (house of study) in Israel is Rabbi Slifkin.

His material may bee of special insect to Bnei Noach¹ since he is the world expert on Zoology and Torah!

Meet Rabbi Natan Slifkin!

Intro Video

Rav Slifkin with a beautiful male cheetah.

Everything you want to know about animals, bugs, fish, monsters, and even mythical beasts as relates to Torah can be found in Rabbi Slifkin’s books. See his website for more info, and his blog to keep up with his current safari travel.

Also, if you haven’t seen this jaw-dropping safari video yet…Hashem’s Creation is astounding!

…

Oh, and here’s a new piece on an Israeli zoo taking care of a tortoise that is handicapped:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wu8Cwqhmv3Y

A lovely post by Rabbi Lazer Brody on dietary wisdom.