Why did I choose this video? Why didn’t I choose one of the big Torah scholars on YouTube? Why do I feel he articulates such a beautiful message, despite the imperfections in his enunciation?

Because “Words which emanate from the heart, enter the heart.”

Shabbat Shalom!

(source: Ohr Somayach)

Dear Rabbi,

While on a plane from Boston to Philadelphia two weeks ago, I happened to look at the cover of the book the man seated next to me was reading. On the back cover of the book, the following quotation appeared: “Words written from the heart, enter the heart.” As a scholar and professor, I was very moved by the quotation and wrote it down for my own keeping. The quote was attributed to “The Sages.”

I would like to ask: Where do these words appear in the vast writings of The Sages? I would be very grateful if you could find the time to provide me with an exact reference so that I might consult the entire text and see in what context the statement was made.

Dear Dr. C.,

“Words which emanate from the heart, enter the heart” is sometimes quoted in the name of “the Sages,” meaning that it is from the Mishnah, Talmud or Midrash. But the truth is that the source for this phrase is a bit of a mystery! Although it has indeed become an accepted Jewish teaching, it does not seem to appear in any of the above mentioned sources!

…

I would like to propose that the phrase is an application of the principle taught by King Solomon in Proverbs: “As water [reflecting] the face is to the face, so a man’s heart is to [his fellow] man.” Meaning that the human heart intuits the emotions of others, and thus if one speaks with an open heart, the heart of the listener will be open as well.

In the late 1800’s Poland issued a ban against shechita (ritual slaughter of animals). It is told that Rabbi Yisrael Meyer Kagan, the Chafetz Chaim, came before the Polish officials to plead for the rescinding of this decree which would cause tremendous hardship for Poland’s Jews. The Chafetz Chaim pleaded passionately, in Yiddish. When he’d finished and the translator began translating into Polish, the official said, “Stop. You don’t need to translate.” He was so moved by the Chafetz Chaim’s words, even though he hadn’t understood them, that he agreed to do all he could to help rescind the decree.

Sources:

* Tractate Berachot 6b
* Proverbs 27:19, see Metzudot David

This is interesting.

Source: JewishWorldDigest
Thanks to my favorite Noahide Yahoo! group

In the heart of the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel is the site of the conclave where every new pope is elected. It is without doubt the holiest chapel in the Christian world, and draws more than 4 million visitors per year. Most of the world knows it best for its magnificent frescoes painted by the great Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti. What has remained a little-known secret, however, is that within this citadel of Christianity lies perhaps the greatest subversive act in the history of art.

Whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, atheist, art lover or merely the curious, almost none of the visitors who enter the Sistine realize that they are gazing upon secret messages embedded by Michelangelo in his artistic masterpiece. They would certainly be surprised to learn that, in the pope’s own chapel, Michelangelo employed these secret messages to advocate for a revolutionary change in Christianity’s relationship to Judaism, and that the code itself was rooted in the Jewish tradition.

Michelangelo became fascinated with Midrash and Kabbalah as a teenager, studying with private tutors provided by his patron, Lorenzo de’ Medici. Using his knowledge of Judaism and its mystical symbols, he later incorporated messages, via painted images, on the chapel’s walls dangerously contrary to the teachings of the Church. In this way, he criticized the corrupt spiritual leadership of the time, and condemned the Church’s failure to acknowledge its debt to Jewish origins.

Expressed 500 years before the more liberal contemporary theology of Pope John Paul II and “The Good Pope,” John XXIII, discovery of his secret code and heretical views might have cost Michelangelo his life.

When I first heard these claims from Roy Doliner, a Jewish docent and scholar of the humanities who has been leading tours of the Sistine Chapel for close to a decade, I assumed they were too incredible to be true. Only after he shared with me his diligent research (after which I performed a great deal of scholarly sleuthing on my own) did I became thoroughly convinced of their legitimacy.

I eventually co-authored a book with Roy, “The Sistine Secrets: Michelangelo’s Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican,” which was released earlier this year. To our great delight, the book is already beginning to alter the way scholars interpret the work of Michelangelo, sparking vigorous, and sometimes heated, debate.

“Just as the work of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel changed forever the world of art, so will this book change forever the way to view and, above all, to understand the work of Michelangelo,” said Enrico Bruschini, official art historian for the U.S. Embassy in Rome and a leading expert on the art of Rome and the Vatican.

A true Renaissance man, Michelangelo was at home in philosophy as well as art; in Christian theology as well as Jewish mysticism. However, those who have studied his work in the past generally have not been conversant with the wide corpus of knowledge that forged him as an artist. Most Sistine Chapel scholars were not well-versed in Judaism and Kabbalah; it was impossible for them to fully grasp the artist’s allusions. By combining the scholarship of our respective fields, Roy and I, the docent and the Orthodox rabbi, were able to uncover secrets long buried in Michelangelo’s frescos.

From the start, Michelangelo had a personal agenda different from that of his patron. In 1508, we know that Pope Julius II ordered Michelangelo to re-plaster and paint the crumbling ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, a demeaning job at that time for any great artist, and especially for Michelangelo, who detested painting and lived only to sculpt. The pope gave him a simple design, a very standard and banal layout of Jesus and Mary at the two ends of the ceiling, surrounded by the Apostles and a common design of geometric shapes in the center. The artist refused, and fought with the pope who, sick and distracted, finally let him develop his own plan.

Imagine the surprise of the pope and the viewers when the completed project was unveiled four and a half years later: Ninety-five percent of the Chapel was adorned with heroes and heroines of the Jewish Bible. The rest was filled with pagan sibyls and naked boys.

In the 12,000 square feet of the world’s largest fresco, there was not a single Christian figure to be found. The only nod to the Gospels - and one of the ways Michelangelo managed to save both his life and the painting - was a barely-noticeable series of names of the Jewish ancestors of Jesus, from Abraham to Joseph, the father of Jesus. These name panels do not even appear in chronological order. (What’s more, Michelangelo himself destroyed two of the most crucial ones when he needed their space for The Last Judgment wall fresco.)

Why did Michelangelo disobey the pope in this way?

Our research has revealed that Michelangelo had a hidden agenda: to remind the Church that its roots were grounded in the Torah given to the Jewish people. To ignore this truth was to falsify Jesus and his mission. This insight, which he inserted throughout his work, is only now beginning to receive attention in contemporary scholarship. It is also showing up in the popular media. Time magazine’s March 24 cover story, “10 Ideas That Are Changing the World,” singled out what scholars are now calling “Re-Judaizing Jesus” as the most powerful idea in the field of religion. As Time’s editors put it:

This is seismic. For centuries, the discipline of Christian ‘Hebraics’ consisted primarily of Christians cherry-picking Jewish texts to support the traditionally assumed contradiction between the Jews - whose alleged dry legalism contributed to their fumbling their ancient tribal covenant with God - and Jesus, who personally embodied God’s new covenant of love. But today seminaries across the Christian spectrum teach, as Vanderbilt University New Testament scholar Amy-Jill Levine says, that “if you get the [Jewish] context wrong, you will certainly get Jesus wrong.

Michelangelo’s frescos emphasize the universality of God and the kinship of all mankind by beginning the pictorial narrative with the Creation story of Genesis, not with the birth of Jesus. To a Church that preached exclusionism and stressed Divine love for only a limited number of His children, Michelangelo emphasized tolerance of all faiths, even the despised Jews of his time.

One fresco exemplifying this idea is the portrait of Aminadab, father of Nachshon, which appears above the elevated area where the pope sat on his throne. Hebrew scholars know that Aminadab’s Hebrew name means, “from my people, a prince.” But the Church interprets a “prince of the Jews” to refer directly to Jesus. Michelangelo positioned Aminadab, “Prince of the Jews,” as surrogate for Jesus himself.

This is one of the extremely rare figures painted by Michelangelo sitting perfectly upright, looking forward, a signal by the artist that the figure is, indeed, noteworthy. Moreover, a bright yellow circle, a ring of cloth sewn onto a garment appears on Aminadab’s upper left arm. (This detail was not revealed for modern audiences until the frescoes were restored in 2001.) This patch displays the badge of shame forced on the Jews of Europe by the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 and the Inquisition during the 15th Century. Here, directly over the head of the pope, the Vicar of Christ, Michelangelo was reminding the Church that Jesus was a Jew. He was condemning the Church for its shameful treatment of the Jews, from whom Jesus was born.

This was a courageous statement. His veiled messages were painted at a time when the Talmud and other Jewish sacred texts were being burned all over Europe, the Inquisition was operating at full strength and the Jewish people had just been expelled from Spain in 1492. Michelangelo had the courage to challenge the papal court, asking via the symbols of his painting, “Is this how you treat the very family of Our Lord?”

Michelangelo’s contempt for the Church’s treatment of Jews went further to insult the pope himself via an almost imperceptible gesture of Aminadab. Almost hidden in shadow, this surrogate for Jesus is subtly making “devil’s horns” with his fingers, which point downward toward the very spot where Pope Julius’ richly embroidered ceremonial canopy would have been, over the papal throne.

In somewhat similar manner, in another fresco placed over the original chapel portal through which Pope Julius entered, Michelangelo depicts the prophet Zechariah with the pope’s own face. Over his shoulder one can see a little angel with his fingers curled in a way to make an obscene gesture known in Italy as “giving the fig.”

In the symbolism of the Sistine Chapel frescoes, instead of shame and persecution, inclusiveness and acknowledgement of Divine Favor are the qualities Michelangelo advocates for the Church’s treatment of the Jews. As in his rendering of Aminadab, we have an even more powerful indication of Michelangelo’s philo-Semitism in his later work, “The Last Judgment,” painted on the front wall of the Chapel, above the altar.

In “The Last Judgement,” a golden-haired angel robed in red poses directly over Jesus’ head and points at two men within a group known as the “Righteous Souls,” a collection of figures who represent those privileged to spend eternity in a state of bliss with Jesus as reward for their deeds on earth. Michelangelo portrays both of these men as Jews, a potentially blasphemous act. One wears the two-pointed cap that the Church forced Jewish males to wear to reinforce the medieval prejudice that Jews, being spawned of the Devil, had horns. This figure is shown speaking to the other older Jew as he points one finger upward, indicating the One-ness of God. The other figure wears a yellow cap of shame; during the 13th century, the Church ordered Jewish men in Italy to wear such caps in public. In front of the two figures, a woman, her hair modestly covered, whispers in the ear of a nude youth before her. The youth resembles Michelangelo’s young tutor, Pico della Mirandola, who owned the largest Kabbalah library in the world at the time, and who taught the young artist secrets of Jewish mysticism as he infused within him a life-long respect for the Jewish people.

In granting Jews a place in heaven with Jesus, the 16th century Michelangelo took a then-blasphemous stand on an issue which still provokes heated debate among Christians in the 21st century. His depiction of those granted Divine Favor clearly contravened official Church doctrine, which maintained that Jews could never hope to have a Heavenly reward. Even the Jews’ greatest figures, such as Moses, Miriam, Abraham and Sarah, could look forward only to Limbo at best, according to Christian dogma, a place located on the border of Hell where souls remain that cannot enter heaven. It’s no wonder that Michelangelo chose to make his Jewish heavenly residents very small and inconspicuous.

Michelangelo was fascinated not only with Jews but with Jewish texts as well. In the famous panel, “The Fall of Adam and Eve,” Michelangelo does something no other artist in the Western world had ever done before - or probably since. The forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge had always been an apple. (In medieval Latin, the word for “apple” is malum, which in other word roots, becomes male and mala, synonymous with evil, as in the words “malicious” and “maleficent.” In modern Italian, the vowels have been reversed by way of linguistic metathesis, making mela the word for apple.)

The Jewish tradition is the one exception to this commonly-held belief that the Tree of Knowledge’s forbidden fruit was an apple. There’s a clue in the Talmud (in Tractate B’rachot, 40a), which discusses the views of Rabbis who cite a mystical principle: G-d never presents us with a difficulty unless He has already created its solution within the very problem itself. Therefore, they propose that the Tree of Knowledge was a fig tree. After all, when Adam and Eve’s transgression resulted in a shameful new awareness of their nudity, the Bible tells us their immediate recourse was to cover themselves with fig leaves - a cure for the consequence of the sin, provided from the same object that caused it.

If you look very closely in the panel depicting Original Sin, you will see that the fruits dangling from Michelangelo’s Forbidden Tree of Knowledge are all juicy green figs. Having himself studied Midrash, Michelangelo chose a rabbinical interpretation of the biblical story over the one accepted by all of his Christian contemporaries.

With the countless examples we have found - and demonstrate in our book - of Michelangelo’s philo-Semitism, and his incorporation of Kabbalistic and Midrashic themes in his work, it seems providential that his final resting place itself should offer a fitting concluding message. Because Michelangelo was first buried disrespectfully in Rome, the residents of Florence hired the services of its two best burglars, who broke into the church, stole the famous artist’s body, rolled it up with cords, disguised it as a bale of rags, brought it back to Florence and entombed their most prominent citizen inside the Basilica of Santa Croce, where his tomb can still be seen today.

But that wasn’t the end of it. As an ironic footnote, in the 1850’s, almost 300 years after Michelangelo’s burial in Florence, the Basilica of Santa Croce’s famous new fa�ade was designed by a Jewish architect, Nicol� Matas. Since Matas was told that his name would not appear on the church, he insisted that a large Star of David be placed over the front door. And that is why today the church that houses the tomb of the most famous secret supporter of Midrash, Kabbalah and the Jewish people, bears a giant Magen David.

Michelangelo defined genius as “eternal patience.” This year, the 500th anniversary of Michelangelo starting his work on the Sistine ceiling, we have finally “cracked” his “code,” and his insights, ingeniously concealed in his work, can at last be heard.

Rabbi Benjamin Blech is a Professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University and an internationally recognized educator, religious leader, author and lecturer. A recipient of the American Educator of the Year award and author of 12 highly acclaimed books, he writes regularly for major newspapers and journals and was recently ranked #16 in a listing of the 50 most influential Jews in America by Jewsweek magazine.

© 2008 World Jewish Digest

This is the second time that Israeli Arabs from eastern Jerusalem have used bulldozers from their construction sites to kill and injure Israeli civilians.

Thank G-d, this time, no one was killed.

Unlike the previous attack, this bulldozer terror attack was stopped relatively quickly.

On the other hand, just like the previous attack, this one was stopped - yet again - by a religious non-police civilian with military experience.¹

The terrorist was first shot by Yaki Asael, 56, father of eight, from the Judean settlement of Sussiya. Yaki is a company commander in the reserves.

Rabbi Brody points out the divine providence that this recent bulldozer terrorist attack happened on King David street - which is exactly where the Abomination Parade took place this year in Jerusalem (King David’s city).

Hashem have mercy on us all!

shouting…

Camera: Does anyone here know first aid?!
Man: Yes, yes, yes.
Camere: There’s someone here that’s injured!!

Someone shoots at the bulldozer.
The grey-shirted man who runs up to the bulldozer after those shots is a border police officer. The man in the white shirt next to him is Yaki Asael (see above).

Man: No, no, he’s not dead! He’s not dead!
The border officer then fires several rounds at the terrorist. (The reason Yaki did not jump back like everyone else is that Yaki is a company commander in the reserves).
CUT SCENE

Camera: You…what’s your name?
Yaki: Yaki.
Camera: Good work Yaki.
Yaki starts walking away.
Camera: Yaki, you were the first one to shoot [at the terrorist]?
Yaki: Yes
Yaki walks away, tzitzit dangling.

Guest Post by Noahide Alice Jonsson
Source: BreslovWorld.com

I’m going to go out on a limb and declare that there is an experience that unites all B’nei Noach. Regardless of age, race, socio-economic strata, gender, or nationality; Democrat, Republican, Cherokee, Israeli, former Christian, former Atheist.

It is the confused — nay, incredulous — face a person makes when hearing about B’nei Noach for the first time.

“So what religion are you?”
“Well, OK, so you know what a Jew is right?”
“Oh, so you’re Jewish.”
“No. I believe in Judaism but..”

“So you’re not a Jew.”
“Right. See Jews have to follow 613 commandments and…”
“Huh?”
“Yeah, I know, it’s a lot. And B’nei Noach follow only seven. So..”
“Banana who?”
“No. OK, so you know who Noah was, right?”

“The guy with the boat.”
“Yeah! So there are some laws from the time of Noah, and…don’t go! I’m not crazy!”

When I first became a Bat Noach these reactions bothered me. I’m not the kind of girl who appreciates being looked at like I’m a religious wacko. I like my religion Orthodox and old school. No make-it-up-as-we-go, new-fangled stuff. When someone looks at me like I’m a member of a cult, not good. Not confidence inspiring. However, as wobbly as I was, I recovered from these awkward moments quickly. Why? Because Hashem reassured me with concrete, visceral results from my prayer - custom fit for my predicament.

When I started talking to Hashem, I felt I had plugged in to a source of power that was alarming to me. Previously, I thought religious people were talking to the sky or to something in their heads and that this somehow had a therapeutic effect. I thought some of them were clearly bonkers. And that most of them were a little bonkers. What they believe in sounds like fiction, weird fiction.

But when I do what our rabbi says, even when I cannot believe it will actually work, it works so thoroughly — and often with such speed — I know this “fiction” is true, like I know my mother loves me. Example: When my husband and I were doing in vitro fertilization — I’m talking the kind that costs as much as a new car — the doctors were throwing bills at us like confetti.

“Ma’am, we’ve decided to give you an ultrasound today. That’ll be $464. Cash. Now. And that’s the discounted price so wipe that look off your face.”

We had tried for many years. This was our chance. Rabbi said to go for a walk and to tell God we need some help and that we need some money. Truthfully, this seemed really tacky to me. I mean money is dirty and God is clean and there are hungry people. Surely a lightning bolt would fry me the second I opened my mouth to ask. But I go and I explain the situation to Hashem, apologetically.

The walk was uneventful. Feeling slightly embarrassed, I closed the sliding door, at least feeling refreshed from the cool fall air, brushed the grass and the burrs off my jeans, meandered around the house for maybe ten minutes, and the phone rings. It’s the mail order pharmaceutical company the doctor recommended to acquire the giant box (literally) of drugs that I would be administering from home. The patient woman who’d been helping us decided to resubmit our drug order to the insurance company one more time, just for the heck of it.

This was a bill for an amount so large it’d pay for a few classes at an Ivy League school, for a procedure not covered in our state. Period. And guess what? Despite the fact that the insurance company had just the day before categorically refused to pay for the drugs, they had agreed to cover our request. She calculated how much money we saved on the first few items on the list and it was at two grand in a few seconds. She was laughing and bubbly and was clearly loving the moment right there with me.

Ten months later, a very chubby little boy was born. And our lives went from black and white to color.

What tickles me most about how that specific event went down was how perfectly God knows me. He knows that I can be quite shallow and that a sure-fire way to get my attention is to make money fall out of the sky so I can pay a bill. There is nothing theoretical about a bill being paid. And most importantly, there is nothing theoretical about the gorgeous toddler hanging out in our living room. It all makes awkward religious discussions about bananas and Noah feel like nothing. Knowing that Hashem will meet me right where I am, (with no pretense) and that sometimes He even likes my plans, is everything.

A Ben Noah inspires me to be a better Jew:

Is there no Hebrew in this [Oklahoma Bnai Noah Society Noahide] Prayer book?¹

I have spent many hours over the past years learning to pray in the Holy tongue and I prefer to pray the Psalms, etc. in Hebrew.

I do also practice Hitbodedut² in English (although I do not do it enough and have much growing to do in this area) and I am familiar with the teachings of R[ebbe] Nachman on this issue. I guess one could just have a Hebrew Tehillim along with this siddur…but if there is an abridged or altered form or the Amidah ³ in it, it would be nice to have that in Hebrew, as well as all the other blessings⁴.

Like I said, “i heart noahides.”

(Source: BeingJewish.com)

(Please note that if your mother was Jewish before you were born, whether observant or not, then by Jewish Law you are also Jewish, and you do not need to convert. Please contact an Orthodox Rabbi for guidance.)

So, you want to become Jewish. I applaud your goal.

Becoming Jewish is, as you realize, a significant and life-changing event. It is not a small matter by any means.

But before you start, consider a few things. When a Gentile wants to become Jewish, the Rabbis are required to try to dissuade him. Only the very sincere make it through the entire process. And the process can take a long while. It may not turn out to be easy.

Becoming Jewish means that most of what you were taught about spirituality until now will be irrelevant, and in many cases wrong. You must drop the religious beliefs taught you by whatever other religion(s) you once followed or read about. People sometimes ask me, “Can I convert to Judaism and still believe in Jesus?” The answer is no. This is not something negotiable in Judaism. Jewish doctrine about G-d is core and inviolate. Non-Jewish beliefs about G-d invalidate a conversion (and Jesus is a prime example of a non-Jewish belief about G-d, no matter what anyone tells you). So this could be a major change for anyone contemplating conversion to Judaism. If this is difficult for you, then you should not be considering conversion at all.

You must also accept the fact that it is Hashem’s Torah that defines what is right and what is wrong, what is spiritual and what is mundane, what elevates a person and what lowers him. Human beings do not make those determinations, and every such decision that a Rabbi makes is based on Torah precedent, i.e., established Jewish Law.

Your life style will also change, as well as the way you think about many things. Even the meaning of some words will change, especially if you have been Christian: words like “confession,” “heaven,” “patrilineal descent,” “Messiah,” “savior,” and others.

It also means that your relationships will change. Not all your friends will be happy that you’ve become Jewish. Worse yet, your family members might disown you, as often happens.

When your parents, your siblings, even your children, sit down to eat a meal, you will often not be allowed to join them. You won’t even be able to attend some of their joyous occasions. It is forbidden for a Jew to enter most non-Jewish places of worship. If your own baby sister gets married in a church, you will not be able to attend. If you have non-Jewish children from before you converted, you will not be allowed to attend any occasion they make in a church or any religious gathering. (If this occurs, make sure to consult with an Orthodox Rabbi before making any decision. There may be a solution.) Nor will you be allowed to celebrate Christmas or Hallowe’en, or any other religious holiday except the Jewish holidays.

And you will have to learn many rules. You will have to wear less revealing clothing all year round (which in the summer can make you feel hotter); you will have to be concerned wherever you go about the food you can buy and eat; you will have to make sure that you don’t carry anything in your pockets outside your home on the Sabbath, and many other considerations. You will need two sets of dishes, two sets of pots and pans (and at least one more set for Passover), and you will have to keep different types of food separate. You will have to wait six hours after eating meat foods before eating dairy foods. Judaism will guide your steps and your thoughts every moment of your waking life.

As a convert to Judaism, you will be a Jew — a full-fledged Jew. Think about the word “Jew” for a minute. It’s a title we bear proudly, yet it’s a word that comes from many mouths as a curse and insult. Of course, that’s silly. It’s like when a little boy thinks he’s insulting a girl by calling her “girl!” Not only is it not an insult, but it should be borne proudly and openly.

When I was thirteen years old, my friend and I were riding our bicycles through the side streets of Brooklyn, New York, when some Gentile boy (a little younger than us, it seemed) yelled at us jeeringly, “Jew!” I turned around and yelled back at him, “Thanks!” My friend almost fell off his bike laughing. I couldn’t — and still can’t — understand the attitude of that kid and people like him. I dress in what is an unmistakably Jewish style. I have noticeable payos (sidelocks, as per the Torah’s Commandment in Leviticus 19:27). I’m obviously not trying to hide the fact that I’m Jewish. Did he really think I’m embarrassed to be a Jew?

The answer is probably yes. Granted he was a kid, but it is a very prevalent attitude even among some adult groups. In the minds of many people who wouldn’t consider themselves racists or bigots, being a Jew is such a lowly thing that they are sure and positive that we must feel degraded about being Jewish. It doesn’t help to explain to them that we are proud of being Jews, because they can’t see any reason we should be proud of being Jewish.

These days most people don’t say things like that out loud anymore. But racism and anti-Semitism still exist, and Jews still suffer from it — especially converts. I have a friend who almost lost his job because he was a convert. No, it’s not what you think. His boss could never have gotten away with firing him because he had converted to Judaism. What happened was a coworker of his was a born-again Christian who felt that my friend should be punished for leaving Christianity to become Jewish. So he filed an accusation of malfeasance, or some such thing, and had my friend hauled before an inquiry panel, expecting him to defend two years’ worth of financial decisions from records and memory. This is no reflection on all Christians today. But bear in mind that there are some Christian groups (mostly fundamentalist Protestant, I am told) that work very heavily on missionizing to Jews, and I imagine that they probably dislike people they consider lapsed Christians.

This story is unusual only in the particulars, I fear. There are people out there (not necessarily religious people) who do not like it when non-Jews become Jews. And some of them may be close to you.

Anti-Semitism should not be considered dead at all. It still shows up in various forms and sizes. It doesn’t take a Holocaust to harm Jews. Lately the news has been buzzing with bigotry and racial incidents. Bigoted groups are growing in America. Some even call themselves “churches” and claim non-profit status. Many of these groups target Jews in particular.

When you join the Jews, you become equally responsible, and suffer with us together. When Jews have sinned, sometimes all the Jews take part in the punishment.

So, consider this: Judaism teaches that you do not have to become Jewish to go to heaven. The righteous of all nations merit a share in the eternal World to Come. The basics of it involve keeping the Seven Laws of the Children of Noah.

After the Flood, Hashem the Creator made a covenant, an agreement, with Noah and his children, involving seven commandments, along with details of the laws pertaining to those Seven Commandments. Those who keep the Seven Commandments and their details are Righteous Gentiles according to the Torah. Since they keep the “Seven Commandments of the Children of Noah,” they call themselves “Bnei Noah,” the Children of Noah. When a Ben Noah lives in Israel, the Torah refers to him as a “Gair Toshav,” a resident alien.

You might consider joining a group of Righteous Gentiles. There is a growing movement in the United States and other countries of what is called the Noahide or the Bnai Noah Movement. They have a presence on the Internet as well. You can find out more about them by visiting one of their web sites, at: Rachav’s Bnai Noah Page [and more at this links page].

There are many advantages to this approach. As a member of the Bnai Noah (a man would be a “ben Noah”; a woman would be a “bas[/bat] Noah”), you can be righteous and still eat pork. You can drive your car to the movies on the Sabbath; you can dress any way you want, and you won’t need two sets of pots, pans, and dishes. If you do any of this after you have become Jewish, you have sinned. And once you have become Jewish, the Torah says you are always Jewish, even if you stop believing.

…

The rest of the article is relevant only if you are still interested in conversion. iHeartNoahides.com is not qualified to encourage conversion. However, if you are so inclined, you can read the rest of the article here.

For more information on Noahides / Bnei Noach, see our Links section.

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Guest post by Reb Ari

I recently verified this story from the grandson of the couple involved.

My friend’s elderly grandmother, Miriam, remarried a number of years ago to R’ Shalom. They live in Jerusalem. R’ Shalom is now in his mid nineties and in his youth he studied in yeshiva in Mir in Poland and had the opportunity to spend a week at the home of the Chofetz Chaim (R’ Yisroel Meir Hacohen Kagan, zs’kl). A few nights ago, in the middle of the night he woke and told his wife that the Chofetz Chaim had appeared to him in a dream and simply said that Moshiach will be here soon. The Chofetz Chaim said that it is time to get ready and to spread the message. My friend’s father (Miriam’s son) asked his rav, Rav Asher Weiss if this is something to take seriously. His response was that we are clearly standing right before Moshiach, and it certainly should be taken seriously and we should undertake to do Teshuva.

The second story I heard directly from the people involved.

There is a young girl about eight years old who needs a refuah (אביבא מלכה בת לאה) - she is currently in the hospital with loss of vision. Please pray for her. She has been in and out of the hospital for chemotherapy, and she has had multiple complications. A few months ago she had been in a coma for an extended period of time. When she finally came out of the coma, one of the first things she said was, “Did I miss the weddings? Did I miss Moshiach coming?” Her two older sisters were not engaged yet (I don’t even know if Aviva knew they were dating), but both became engaged and were married over the following few months. I was at the sheva brachos (post-wedding celebration).

May Hashem heal Aviva Malka bat Leah along with all the ill people of Israel with the coming of Moshiach, Amen.

—————————————————————-
Reb Ari wrote a beautiful inspiring song about the coming of Moshiach: To listen, click here

Lyrics of “Finally Here”
As he walked home from yeshiva,
a sound reached his ears
clear and majestic, unmistakably near
Joy filled his heart
HE’S FINALLY HERE!!! Moshiach’s finally here!!!
He ran all the way home
said to his dad,
“Did you hear it - the shofar
or am I going mad?”
“Not now, my son,
can it wait ’til later, when the business news is done.”

CHORUS:
Where is our hope, our faith, our pride?
Where’s the desire, the love deep inside?
When we say we want Ben Dovid to come
We can’t fool ourselves or the Holy One.

She heard it, at first faintly
a note long and clear
steadily the sound grew
’til it was all she could hear
Joy filled her heart
HE’S FINALLY HERE!!! Moshiach’s finally here!!!
She rushed to the kitchen,
got on the phone.
“Sister, can you hear it
or is it me alone?”
“Can you call back tonight?
I’m facebooking now, so I hope it’s alright…”
CHORUS

When we finally hear the shofar
After all these many years
Our emotions can run deeply
moving us to tears
Joy will fill our hearts
WHEN HE’S FINALLY HERE!!! When Moshiach’s finally here!!!

We must strengthen our hope, our faith, our pride.
We can find the desire, the love deep inside.
When we say we want Moshiach to come
We can reconnect to the Holy One.

A new poll is up!

New Noahide Poll - Will Mashiach Arrive in Our Lifetime?

Can’t wait to see the results.
The poll will remain open so new readers can still vote weeks from now.

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The Torah demands different things from Jews and Bnei Noach.

I recently read that according to the Zohar, when a non-Jew learns Torah in the same manner and depth that a Jews is obligated to learn Torah, great destruction is wrought - both on the Ben/Bat Noach’s soul and on the World as a whole.

Just as there are natural boundaries in the physical world, there are natural boundaries in the spiritual world.

We cannot be subjective and say, “That doesn’t jive with me - I won’t listen to that.” That’s like saying, “Gravity doesn’t jive with me” and then jumping off a bridge.

Or as one of my friends said in an essay on avodah zarah (idol worship):

[A fence] keeps people on the outside from what they are trying to obtain on the inside. But on the other hand, a fence can be used to allow one to go further, allowing one to get as close to the edge as possible without falling over.

I will try my best to continue posting within the bounds of my current understanding of which type of Torah material will not damage the souls of Bnei Noach. There is virtually no limit to what can be learned and studied from within these bounds of Torah - this is G-d’s Torah!

But I do not want to be a stumbling block for the Bnei Noah who strive to live according to G-d’s Will and Wisdom — that is to say, according to Hashem’s Torah.

Excerpt from “The Path of the Righteous Gentile” (p. 41-42). The parts in square brackets [ ] are insertions for additional clarification:
(source: AskNoah.org).  The following are forbidden:¹

c. Studying those parts [and branches] of the Torah [specifically parts of the Oral Torah] that do not apply to [or enhance] the Noahides’ service of [and belief in] G-d.

(Note: A prime purpose of the Seven Universal Laws is to teach the Children of Noah about the Oneness of G-d, and therefore those parts of Torah that pertain to this knowledge [including many Chassidic teachings] are permissible for him to study. This includes the entirety of the twenty-four books of the Hebrew Scriptures. Also, the study of any part of the Torah that brings one to greater knowledge concerning the performance of the Seven Noahide Commandments is permissible. But Talmudic [study], or [in-depth] Halakhic [i.e. Torah law] study of subjects that pertain exclusively to the Jew’s service of G-d is forbidden [for Noahides].)

[In Mishneh Torah, Laws of Kings, Chap. 10, Maimonides (the "Rambam") states that a Gentile is in general forbidden to be "osek ba'Torah" - which means to delve and strive into Torah learning in the manner that a Jew is commanded. A Gentile is however allowed to be "osek ba'Torah" in matters which relate to the Seven Noahide Commandments, but he is not commanded to do so.

Therefore it is very important to have competent Rabbinic guidance in choosing what to study, if one goes beyond the permissible text of the 24 Books of the Hebrew Bible and their basic traditional commentaries/explanations.]

Much blessings to everyone,

Daniel

Guest Post by Noahide Alice Jonsson
Source: BreslovWorld.com

In case you haven’t noticed there aren’t many Bnei Noach in the world. I joke that there are more pandas living in the wild than Bnei Noach. Yes, the numbers are growing.

Yes, we have many reasons to be optimistic. And yes, it’s quite rewarding despite the challenges associated with being part of such a, well, select group of individuals.

That being said, there are times when it’s great to be around like-minded people.

Noahide Nations — an organization for Torah centered Bnei Noach — has a unique opportunity for community building, Torah learning, and of course some schmoozing this [past -ihn] June in lovely Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. There they will be hosting their first Noahide Nations World Conference. I spoke with Noahide Nations founder Ray Pettersen about their upcoming conference on the eve of their move to their new headquarters in Dallas, Texas.

BRESLOV WORLD: Can you tell us a little bit about Noahide Nations?

PETTERSEN: Noahide Nations is an organization founded for Torah-centered Noahides and for those who are curious about the Torah – to let them know that they don’t need to convert for God to love us.

Our website (noahidenations.com) is really a melting pot of information and dialogue about Torah. There’s a forum section; a Torah learning center where people can log in and receive instruction from rabbis, Jewish women, educated Noahides — scholarly individuals.

BRESLOV WORLD: What’s the idea behind this international conference?

PETTERSEN: Well, it’s from June 26^th to June 29^th, 2008 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. [For more information see noahidenations.com.] The idea behind the conference is two-fold and it’s pretty ambitious. One is to begin a serious unification process of the Noahide movement worldwide. In other words we need people who consider themselves leaders in England, Netherlands, Puerto Rico — all over the world — that will come to this conference. And we can begin to start this unification because right now we are just spread out pretty much all over the internet. That’s how we meet each other, and that’s all well and good. If it weren’t for the internet we wouldn’t be where we are right now.

I have people that are involved with Noahide Nations from all over the world, and that’s what we need to begin to do. And in doing that then the Noahide movement can begin to realize and manifest its destiny to become Righteous Gentiles and to spread Hashem’s truth to the nations. Yes, we are supposed to still learn and study under the rabbis. But certainly that doesn’t mean that Noahides aren’t able to learn that knowledge and to become teachers as well. So that’s part of it, to bring that unification process to a head to really make it happen.

BRESLOV WORLD: Can you talk about some of the community building aspects of the conference?

PETTERSEN: Yes, the other part — it’s a community type thing — is that the Jewish people — often times you can talk to a Jewish person and tell them you are a Noahide and they don’t know what the heck you are talking about. What’s a Noahide? There are many people out there who don’t truly understand what a Righteous Gentile is. Because of this, the reason I wanted to have it in the Ft. Lauderdale area is a town called Hollywood, which has a very large Jewish community.

I wanted to extend a hand, and receive a hand back — which I think I already have — from the Jewish community. Because you know what? We’re on the same team! Our roles are different, but we are on the same team. So rather than this idea that Jews are somehow better than Gentiles — and some Noahides being adamant towards the Jewish community — we need to eliminate all of that and bring forth a true understanding of what a Noahide is, what we are to Hashem, what we are to the Jewish people and what we are in the redemption.

And vice versa. Jewish people need to know who we are. The only way that will happen is by direct involvement by both parties. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to get as highly recognized rabbis to speak at the conference as possible so that a good many people from the Jewish community would make the decision to come, even if it’s just for one day.

BRESLOV WORLD: What else will be happening at the conference Bnei Noach need to hear about?

PETTERSEN: There’ll be an announcement about a Noahide home school association. Also, an International Noahide Torah Fellowship that we’re getting going. There’s going to be an ordination program where people can actually be trained by rabbis and by Noahides who are currently community leaders. Because we need to start sprouting Noahide communities all over the world.

As Sir Edmund Burke said so beautifully, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing.” What we are doing is something. Now it’s really a matter of who wants to join on, who wants to get on board.

BRESLOV WORLD: Didn’t I see something about a siddur being unveiled at the conference?

PETTERSEN: Yes, a siddur for Noahides will be published and made available at the conference.

BRESLOV WORLD: I think many Bnei Noach are loners, sort of by default. What do you think?

PETTERSEN: Do something about the isolation. It’s really about this: once you know the truth, what are you doing with the truth? That’s what Hashem asks us. What does it mean to be a servant? Well, it means many things, but one of the things it means is to spread His truth. We have to be that vehicle that gets Hashem’s word out to the masses. To a large degree Hashem puts us through these experiences for this destiny.