I was thinking…

To paint over the color-spectrum of life with simplicity-masks of Black and White is to reject the elegance of Creation.

World renowned Zoologist, Rabbi Slifkin is lecturing in the New York area.

Jews and Bnei Noach alike will find his information fascinating.

Below is the information from his blog ZooTorah:

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Here is the schedule so far for my forthcoming lecture tour in New York:

Wednesday December 3, 8.05pm at YU, Weissburg Commons:
“The Animal Kingdom in Jewish Thought”

Thursday December 4, 8:00pm at Young Israel of Woodmere:
“The Making of a Ban”

Shabbos December 5/6, at Congregation Ohav Tzedek, Manhattan:
Topics including cosmology, evolution, as well as the above topics.

Sunday December 7th (tentative):
Torah Tour of the Bronx Zoo. $30 adults, $25 children. By reservation only.

I am still free for Sunday afternoon/ evening, and probably for Thursday morning/afternoon; please contact me if you would like to arrange a presentation for your school/ community. “Contacting me” means writing to me at zoorabbi@zootorah.com

This wonderful cartoon by Dovid Taub is brought to you by Chabad.org <-- Go there for a larger version.

“What is the way of loving [G-d] and fearing Him? When a person ponders His great and wondrous works and creations he immediately loves, praises, and extols and is filled with a great desire to know the Supreme Being . . . And when he contemplates these things he immediately is drawn back with great reverence and he realizes that he is a small, insignificant, unenlightened creature standing with a frail intellect in the presence of a Being Who is Perfect in Knowledge”
(Maimonides, Laws of the Foundations of Torah 2:2)

I admit I should have posted this 2 weeks ago, at the beginning of this month.  My apologies.  Please forgive me.

Rosh Hashanah is coming up quickly.

- The day that Hashem is declared Master over the entirety of Creation, including each and every one of us!
- The anniversary of the day homosapiens were imbued with the soul (the 6th Day of Creation), separating them from the animal kingdom!
- The day that the Creator judges the entirety of Creation!

How can you ensure a wonderful Rosh Hashanah when you stand before the King?

Just like marathon runners prepare many days in advance of their big day, so too must we prepare ourselves in advance.  In fact, we don’t even do teshuvah (repentance) on Rosh Hashanah itself - it’s all supposed to be done now, leading up to the day of judgment!

So here’s how you can get started.

1) Download and read the Rosh Hashanah Celebration guide by the Oklahoma B’nai Noach Society.
2) Don’t (just) make a “New Year’s Resolution” on Rosh Hashanah.  Instead, make and do your resolution now.
3) Take time each day to talk with Hashem.  Go over the past year.  Review your life.¹

Below is the Table of Contents from the OKBNS Rosh Hashanah Celebration guide.

This wonderful guide they have designed with Rabbinic support is not meant to establish a single obligatory standard for all Bnei Noach.  Rather, it is a guide for those who feel that such a guide will enhance there connection to and service of Hashem.  This is important to understand, lest people mistake this for a new religion.
See “About this Book” page 3.

Table of Contents

About this book………………………………………………………………………………….3
Rosh Hashanah (New Year)……………………………………………………………….5
Prayer……………………………………………………………………………………………8
Prayer Customs……………………………………………………………………………8
Pre-Prayer Meditation……………………………………………………………………9
Kindling Lights…………………………………………………………………………….10
Psalms 1……………………………………………………………………………………11
Prayer for Parents……………………………………………………………………….11
Prayer for Children………………………………………………………………………11
Prayer for Remembrance……………………………………………………………..11
Rosh Hashanah Celebration Meal ……………………………………………………..13
Kiddush………………………………………………………………………………………..14
Washing of the Hands……………………………………………………………………14
Symbolic Foods…………………………………………………………………………….15
Against Idolatry…………………………………………………………………………..15
Against Theft………………………………………………………………………………15
Establishing courts of Justice………………………………………………………..15
Against Blasphemy……………………………………………………………………..16
Against Homicide………………………………………………………………………..16
Against Elicit Behavior…………………………………………………………………16
Against Eating the Limb of a Living Animal …………………………………….16
Merits of Society…………………………………………………………………………16
Blessing for Bread…………………………………………………………………………16
Blessing for Apples………………………………………………………………………..17
Eat the Festive Meal…………………………………………………………………………17
Blessing After the Meal……………………………………………………………………..17
Blessing of the New Moon…………………………………………………………………18
Shema……………………………………………………………………………………………19
Song………………………………………………………………………………………………20

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.

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.

(Source: Nava)
The author of this post is a very holy woman who often has remarkable dreams that have led her on journeys across the world, and have impacted thousands of people.

Ever wonder why a dog barks “arf! arf!” or a large dog barks “roof! roof!”? Or a bird chirps ‘tzif tzipf”? Or a sheep says “baaaaa! baaaaa! baaaa!”? And why do cows go “moo”?

Last night in a dream, 26 Tamuz, I saw a large herd of cows loudly ‘mooooooing’. Although I thought that it was extremely funny to see a large herd of cows loudly ‘mooooing’ in the dream, I realized that it’s not funny at all and there is a strong message in their mooing. During the dream, a unique thought came to me and it suddenly dawned on me why cows say “mooooo”. In Hebrew, Mooooo is spelled מוּ and its gematria is 46. The Roshei Tevot (initial letters of the consecutive words) of Moshiach ben David is MBD - מבד and its gematria is also 46! In the dream, the cows were mooing because they too are excited that Moshiach ben David is coming to redeem us.

The sheep says ‘baaaaa!’ In Hebrew, baaaaa is בא and it means ‘coming’ - who is coming? Moshiach ben David.

It says that the animals will be spiritually elevated and stop preying upon each other when Moshiach comes. As the prophet Isaiah, zs’kl, states, “The wolf will lie down with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid goat; the calf, the young lion, and the fattened ox will flock together, and a young child will lead them… The knowledge of G-d will fill the earth as the water covers the sea.”

Animals offers us great possibilities in deepening our connections with HKB’H (the Holy One Blessed is He). So next time you hear any animal species barking, chirping, growling, yapping, bellowing, mooing, etc. know that also the animal are all anxiously yearning for Moshiach.

As a follow up to yesterday’s post on the real names for the days of the week, here’s an answer to a very common and important question for Bnei Noah.

How Do Noahides Observe the Sabbath (Shabbat / Shabbos)?

(source: WikiNoah.org)
(excerpted from “Noahide Commandments” Download PDF | View Online)

Rabbi Yoel Schwartz (Jerusalem Court for Bnei Noah)

A Noahide should not observe the Shabbat in the manner that a Jew does. Nor should he make a point of abstaining from hard physical work on the Shabbat. A Noahide should not give occasion for a Jew to break the Shabbat.

There are those who say that every Ger Toshav (a non-Jew living in Eretz Yisrael in the time of the Jewish Temple, who has formally accepted the obligation to observe the Noahide laws in front of a Jewish court) has to uphold and keep the Sabbath (Rashi, Kritot 9, Yevamot 40). There is room to suggest that the Noahides, even nowadays, by accepting to fulfill the seven commandments, are in the same category as a Ger Toshav and should, according to Rashi, be required or at least allowed to keep the Shabbat. So I (Rav Schwartz) would like to suggest that this is the way that the Noahides could celebrate the Seventh Day, a day of refraining from his vocation. On the eve of the Sabbath (Friday night), they might have a festive family dinner with special food and light candles after sundown in honor of the Seventh Day, which was given to Adam and Noah (and to make the Noahide celebration of the Shabbat distinct from the Jewish Shabbat observance). During the meal they may sing songs to strengthen their belief, including songs about the creation. They may read from the Torah. They should not call this day the Sabbath, but the Seventh Day as it is written in Genesis.

On the Seventh Day itself, if they can arrange it without difficulty, they should refrain from going to work. If possible, they should go out to the fields or a park so as to feel close to the Creator of the world. If the congregation holds a prayer session, they may recite the Psalms connected to the Sabbath and to the creation (like Psalm 104). Also they should study portions of the Torah connected to commandments of the children of Noah. They can study from the weekly portion of the Torah being read that Sabbath in the synagogues those subjects which concern all mankind and skipping those topics that concern specifically the Jews.

At the end of the Sabbath (Motzai Shabbat), the end of the Seventh Day and the beginning of the new week, they can recite the prayer for the new week (Havdalah) after having lit a havdalah candle, to thank G-d for having taught Adam how to make fire, which is the source of all energy that enabled man to make changes in this world. This Havdalah prayer, that separates the Seventh Day from the beginning of the week, can be recited as a Noahide wishes and can go something like this.

Blessed are you our G-d, King of the Universe, Who differentiates between darkness and light, between day and night, between the seventh day from the first day of the week, between the clean and the unclean, between the sacred and secular, between holy days and regular days, between Israel and the rest of the nations, who together are partners in one holy objective, to make Your Name holy in this world. AMEN.

(See more in the lengthy discussion here.)