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  1. John D. Brey

    The Suffering Servant in Jewish Kabbalah.

    What Maimonides chooses to label his "mysterious arrival," is actually his miraculous birth. Maimonides next quotes Zechariah 6:12 pointing out that Messiah's name is "Zemach," which speaks of a "shoot," which even the Hebrew word, "zemach" (צמח), relates to a basal-shoot, which is an asexual...
  2. John D. Brey

    The Metabolic Function of Political Parties.

    To place your statements into the context of the opening message, I would say that forcing President Joe Biden out of the race, and then lining up behind Vice President Kamala Harris without any kind of democratic vetting process could be read to be a continuation of the accusation that the...
  3. John D. Brey

    The Metabolic Function of Political Parties.

    You say the metaphor breaks down with a very basic examination of the real world impact of the policies of the two parties over the past few decades. But then you seem to assume everyone knows and agrees with the real world impact you don't even bother to mention? I put it in the Science and...
  4. John D. Brey

    The Metabolic Function of Political Parties.

    Democrats are akin to catabolism. Republicans are like anabolism. Since testosterone is associated with anabolism, it's fitting that the Republican party is, generally speaking, the party of men (to some degree), while the Democratic party is the party of women (again, to some degree)...
  5. John D. Brey

    Indeterminate Decrees from God.

    In my opinion, you've accurately zeroed in on the fundamental difference between Jewish and Christian thought. The "greater tolerance for difference" you speak of is indeed baked into the very genesis and nature of Jewish thought when God gives Israel "decrees" (chukim חקים) they're told they...
  6. John D. Brey

    Cain's Sacrifice.

    A large problem with discussing this topic "intelligently," is the fact that the Hebrew text has been already chewed and digested for us by the Masoretes. What the English text makes us believe is going on is horribly distorted by the fact that our English "Old Testament" is really just a...
  7. John D. Brey

    Cain's Sacrifice.

    . . . Why do you ask? John?
  8. John D. Brey

    Cain's Sacrifice.

    Most of this is an amalgamation of Jewish and Christian thought. Some of it will be familiar to Jews, and some to Christians, but the unification isn't likely to be familiar, nor appeal to, Jews or Christians. That's pretty much been borne out in this forum over the years. John
  9. John D. Brey

    The Suffering Servant in Jewish Kabbalah.

    Maimonides states that no one will be able to authenticate Messiah's pedigree as Messiah until after he arrives. His arrival is a decree, or chok חק, whose prophetic signifier can only be evaluated retrospectively, ala the chukkim חקים, or decrees, the meaning of which are hidden, unrevealed...
  10. John D. Brey

    Cain's Sacrifice.

    Excellent point. Which segues into the nature of Adam and Eve's need for redemption? Their redemption is required because of the original sin, which is the conception of Cain. Since Cain is the first born-sinner (i.e., his conception is the original sin), he's the first of the "nephilim" נפלים...
  11. John D. Brey

    Cain's Sacrifice.

    Yes. There would have to be perfect symmetry throughout the scripture. I think there is. Can you think of a place that would cause a problem? John
  12. John D. Brey

    Cain's Sacrifice.

    Absolutely. That is, until we look at the Hebrew text and find out that the Masoretic Text is a textbook case of a Jewish prejudice being used, literally overlaid, over the sacred (unpointed Hebrew text) in order to interpret in a manner that's consistent with the same Jewish interpretation that...
  13. John D. Brey

    The Suffering Servant in Jewish Kabbalah.

    In Maimonides day, report came from Yemen of a false-messiah (Samawal al-Maghribi) who was confusing Jews by claiming he was Messiah. Maimonides penned a long, heart-felt, and important letter to Yemen (which is now a book), to convince the Jews in Yemen that Samawal al-Maghribi was a heretic...
  14. John D. Brey

    Cain's Sacrifice.

    I think we agree for the most part. We here (this forum) did some exegesis on these things quite a while ago in a thread called Cain's Sanctification (which was edited into an essay). This current thread is based on some of the exegesis done there, which showed that in the Hebrew text, Cain's...
  15. John D. Brey

    Cain's Sacrifice.

    One of the primary ideas in the thread is that Cain's offering to God wasn't actually agricultural but was in fact child-sacrifice. In that sense, Cain was offering his offspring in the hope that it would appease God in some way for the nature of his own sinful conception and birth. When that...
  16. John D. Brey

    The Suffering Servant in Jewish Kabbalah.

    . . . Comparing the back and forth found in the Talmud with the back and forth found in Supreme Court deliberations, and then declaring a given opinion in the Talmud (say Sanhedrin 98b) to be similar to a minority opinion from the Supreme Court, courts the question of what, and where, we might...
  17. John D. Brey

    Mansplaining the Metaphysics of Masculinity.

    There's a slight but meaningful difference between Freudian slips versus "sublimation." John
  18. John D. Brey

    Mansplaining the Metaphysics of Masculinity.

    . . . It is clear that the zoharic authorship, consistent with standard medieval views, reflecting in turn ancient Greco-Roman as well as Near Eastern cultural assumptions, identified the writing instrument (pen or chisel) with the phallus, on one hand, and the tablet or page with the female on...
  19. John D. Brey

    Mansplaining the Metaphysics of Masculinity.

    Where everything that necessarily intrudes between breast-feeding and the wedding night is considered a sublimation, so far as the groom is concerned (i.e., every act is in some sense directed toward his lips once again, post-adolescence, returning to the cornucopia of Eden), it's not difficult...
  20. John D. Brey

    Mansplaining the Metaphysics of Masculinity.

    . . . Fwiw, you would have a very simple time convincing me there are other points of view. In fact, there would be no need to even attempt to convince me of that since engaging other points of view is my primary intention. Imo, that's kinda the most useful purpose of forums like this, and...
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