• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Search results

  1. John D. Brey

    If you think heaven is real, why are you still here?

    In my experience, when we're young, we . . . particularly those of us who believe in God as mere youths . . . are much more willing to let the cardboard box get destroyed without fear. We are (in our early time in this veil of tears) not completely brainwashed by the nature of our time in this...
  2. John D. Brey

    Language, Thought, World.

    The final statement in Roger Penrose's recent book, The Road to Reality, reads like a homage to Benjamin Whorf: It is quite likely that the 21st century will reveal even more wonderful insights than those that we have been blessed with in the 20th. But for this to happen, we shall need powerful...
  3. John D. Brey

    Language, Thought, World.

    Whorf realized even in his day (the 1930's), that because of the nature of the biases ingrained in language and culture, unfortunately even "scientific thought" can be contaminated by imprecision and illogical premises that are part and parcel of the evolution of the culture and language that...
  4. John D. Brey

    Language, Thought, World.

    . . . The comments above are from the recent thread Abrahamic Time-Asymmetry. The title of that thread never took form in the original thread such that it's being continued here under a more fitting title. John
  5. John D. Brey

    The Great Lie.

    . . . Could we say you're suffering the consequences of your accident?:cool: John
  6. John D. Brey

    Revelation 22:4.

    The quotations above show that not only does Rabbi Hirsch perceive the menorah as a symbol of a divine-Messiah, but that the concept is explicit in both testaments of the Bible. Although the KJV of Psalms 132:17 speaks of the horn of David "budding," the Hebrew word (צמח) has a number of nuanced...
  7. John D. Brey

    Revelation 22:4.

    And there shall come forth a rod (חוטר) out of the stem (גזע) of Jesse. Isaiah 11:1. The image of Rabbi Hirsch's menorah/cross uses Isaiah's "stem" (גזע) as the foundation that the rod (חוטר) grows out of (see image above). Isaiah goes on to say the "spirit" (רוח) of the Lord shall rest upon...
  8. John D. Brey

    Revelation 22:4.

    In this light, and almost beyond belief, we have a pictogram designed by the great Rabbi Samson R. Hirsch depicting in no uncertain terms, and with his explicit commentary, what the head tefillin covers up: There I will make the horn of David shine forth: I've ordained my Messiah as a lamp...
  9. John D. Brey

    Revelation 22:4.

    3. I.e., he removed the mark of circumcision. Footnote in Rabbi Dr. I. Epstein's translation of the Babylonian Talmud. The footnote above is in response to Sanhedrin 38b: Rab Judah also said in Rab's name: Adam was a Min, for it is written, And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him...
  10. John D. Brey

    Revelation 22:4.

    The statement in Psalms 132:18 lends itself to numerous important points. In the context of Revelation 22:4, which speaks of the clothing/ornament (or mark/name) worn by the worshipers of the Lamb, Psalms 132:18 would be speaking of the antithesis of the "name" worn by the Lamb worshipers; it's...
  11. John D. Brey

    Revelation 22:4.

    Revelation 22:4-5 directs the thoughtful exegete to a passage of scripture that situates the two head markings (the χαραγμα and or σφραγίς) in the most antithetical manner. Immediately after pointing out that the worshipers of the Lamb will wear his name in their forehead, verse 5 then states...
  12. John D. Brey

    Revelation 22:4.

    The shin is composed of three vavs . . . rising from a common base-point. Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, The Alef-Beit, p. 313. The head tefillin (shel rosh) is engraved with a large shin on both sides. The importance of this in the context of Revelation 22:4 is that Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh tells...
  13. John D. Brey

    Revelation 22:4.

    The word of God is alive and powerful. John
  14. John D. Brey

    Revelation 22:4.

    This verse is used at ritual circumcisions. It implies, as interpreted, salvation through sacrificial blood (in the case of the Jewish bris, the blood-sacrifice associated with the removal of the foreskin). I assume you're reading/interpreting the blood as a pollutant? Nevertheless, even if it...
  15. John D. Brey

    Revelation 22:4.

    Kittel says: As regards the sign of the beast, all three passages seem fairly clearly to refer to the tephillin, since both forehead and hand are mentioned. If this is so, it would support a certain anti-Jewish trend in Rev., and the meaning of Rev. 13:16 is that he who does not bear the...
  16. John D. Brey

    Revelation 22:4.

    I didn't really miss it so much as you're reading ahead, i.e., the messages that haven't yet been posted. . . . (btw, love the song from The Magnetic Fields. Sounds Leonard Cohenesque). :blush: John
  17. John D. Brey

    Revelation 22:4.

    Rabbi Michael L. Munk explains that the final Hebrew letter, i.e., the tav, " . . . denotes the mark of man's final destination" (The Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet). He points to the events of Ezekiel chapter 9 where the tav is being used to "mark" out certain people for salvation from the...
  18. John D. Brey

    Revelation 22:4.

    On the same topic and found in the same dictionary explanation (Kittel's) concerning the "forehead" (μέτωπον) that's being marked (Revelation 22:4), i.e., the place where the "name" is found etched or stamped (χαραγμα and or σφραγίς)---we read: This metaphor, which brings out sharply the...
  19. John D. Brey

    Revelation 22:4.

    Another recent thread here mentioned Revelation 22:4 in the context of the "knowers and the chosen" who've seen God's face. Since I don't know the context for "knowers and chosen," and since I don't want to weigh down that thread with too much jargon, I'm starting this thread on the primary...
  20. John D. Brey

    "Judaism Has Been Hijacked."

    In this sense, the question rises, what, in God's name, does it mean when Rabbi Neusner says, "Judaism has been Hijacked"? Who or what has "hijacked" Judaism? And is Rabbi Neusner situating himself to some degree within the polar, or binary, antithesis of Judaism/AI and the latter's tendency to...
Top