An evening of storytelling around the fire turns into an exciting adventure for Mahana, a young girl who lives on the island of Ua Huka, when she hears a voice calling her name. The voice leads her to the beach, where she falls asleep in a boat. Mahana loves to dream about travelling to new places, and she deeply desires to visit Shehakim (heaven), so when the boat breaks loose and she wakes up to find herself drifting out to sea, she decides to sail towards a star that points to heaven. Along the way, she meets Tarila, a young dolphin who became separated from her pod when a shark attacked. Tarila is caught in some loose fishing net, so Mahana frees her and together they continue on the adventure, encountering storms, hunger, and fatigue. Mahana eventually falls asleep and dreams of visiting her grandparents in Shehakim, which surprisingly looks a lot like Ua Huka! After several days of drifting, they discover Tarila's pod. Now reunited with her family, Tarila and the pod help Mahana find her way home, but not before a repeat encounter with the shark! Young readers will delight in this tale of courage, friendship, and ocean life. As Mahana discovers, we don’t have to wait to know the happiness that heaven holds, because the secret is appreciating what we have today with our family and friends.
Explores the paradoxical symmetry between the divine and demonic in early Jewish mystical texts. Divine Scapegoats is a wide-ranging exploration of the parallels between the heavenly and the demonic in early Jewish apocalyptical accounts. In these materials, antagonists often mirror features of angelic figures, and even those of the Deity himself, an inverse correspondence that implies a belief that the demonic realm is maintained by imitating divine reality. Andrei A. Orlov examines the sacerdotal, messianic, and creational aspects of this mimetic imagery, focusing primarily on two texts from the Slavonic pseudepigrapha: 2 Enoch and the Apocalypse of Abraham. These two works are part of a very special cluster of Jewish apocalyptic texts that exhibit features not only of the apocalyptic worldview but also of the symbolic universe of early Jewish mysticism. The Yom Kippur ritual in the Apocalypse of Abraham, the divine light and darkness of 2 Enoch, and the similarity of mimetic motifs to later developments in the Zohar are of particular importance in Orlovs consideration.
It has been asserted that monotheism, in the Jewish tradition, has long been understood both exoterically and esoterically. In the exoteric Scripture-based rabbinic tradition, monotheism is the belief in a one and only God, a belief which goes hand in hand with the affirmation of distinct individual and divine existences, so that there is a dualism between humanity and God. In the esoteric or mystic tradition, this dualism is overcome by a conception of monotheism in which God is One, not only in his ‘Lordship’ but also in his universal reality. That is, God is the only reality, so that everything which exists is in essence an aspect of divinity. Jewish mysticism has both a devotional or practical and an intellectual or speculative side. On its devotional side it emphasizes those aspects of the biblical precepts which serve to promote direct communion between the worshipper and God. On its speculative side it is especially concerned with outlining and bringing into relief the link or links between God and man, or more generally between the Creator and the universe. The focus of this study is on the questions of how and why Jewish mysticism arose and underwent a variegated evolution throughout much of the history of the Jewish people from remote antiquity to the present day.
The ABBA Tradition is the spiritual and mystical tradition that lies deep within and behind western religions and modern cultures. It is the worldview that is the source, substance, and infrastructure of Judaism and Christianity. It is the one great tradition behind the Hebrew and Greek languages, the Old and New Testaments, ancient religions, and modern science. Whether you call it Kabbalah, the Four World Tradition or something else, it transcends the separation between the historic faiths and, more importantly, teaches a way of reconciliation and reunion. This book helps Christians discover the profound Jewish tradition that Jesus of Nazareth lived and taught, and also highlights one of the greatest Jews of all time: Joshua be Miriam of Nazareth, who first brought the Gentile nations to the holy one of Israel. Heal the wounds that separate us one from another, Jew from Christian, brother from sister – and discover the interrelated worlds of physicality, psychality, spirituality, and divinity with the wisdom in this book.
In the same illustrated format as the best-selling Total Feng Shui, here is a highly accessible guide to the practice ofKabbalah, the once-hidden tradition of Jewish mysticism. Total Kabbalah systematically describes each school of kabbalistic thought, including Jewish, Christian, Magical, Toledano, Lurianic, and Hasidic varieties. Straightforward text and easy-to-read diagrams, charts, and bulleted lists outline the facts, traditions, legends, and formulae behind each doctrineand also address the rumors and misunderstandings that surround this mystical practice. From divine principles and guidance on reading the Bible to practical techniques for prayer and meditation, Total Kabbalah makes it easy to draw on this ancient wisdom today.
Tom Woolberson was oblivious to the fact that his impending doom was circling overhead. When he awoke and found himself in a mysterious place that was unlike anywhere on Earth, he assumed the unthinkable had happened – that he had died (unfortunately… he was right). Standing at the foot of an unimaginably tall tower, his destiny laid before him, he was greeted by a terrifying spectre known simply as ‘the Headmaster’, the Angel of Death (or at least ‘the spectre formally known as the Angel of Death’). What Tom would find at St Michael’s, along with friendship, adventure and blossoming young love, were the answers to the questions that had plagued him since the death of his brother. But little did he know, what he would find there would change his existence forever…
Several fragments of the Ascension of Moses have survived to the present, however, most of the work is likely lost forever. The Ascension of Moses is almost certainly the precursor to the Revelation of Metatron, in which Rabbi Ishmael was taken up to the sky by Metatron, the supreme archangel. In the Ascension of Moses, it was Moses who was taken up to the sky, and Metatron played a smaller role, although, clearly the same role in the Long Aramaic Revelation of Moses, which is the closest to Revelation of Metatron. In both the Long Aramaic Revelation of Moses and the Revelation of Metatron, Metatron identifies himself as Enoch, Moses' ancestor, which connects this clearly heretical Jewish work with the older Enochian literature. In the other surviving fragments, the connection is less clear, as is the cosmography of the seven skies, and it is, therefore, possible that there were several stages of textual development before the version that was redacted into the Revelation of Metatron. In the Revelation of Metatron, the role of Moses has been replaced by Rabbi Ishmael, a rabbi who lived in Palestine in the late-1st-century and early-2nd-century AD, however, his name was attached to most of the Merkabah literature in that circulated in Babylonia during between 400 and 1000 AD, and is universally considered to have been used to replace an earlier name. Chapter 15B of the Revelation of Metatron is itself an excerpt from the Ascension of Moses, which, if nothing else, proves that the Ascension has been viewed as an earlier copy of the Revelation since at least the 1000 AD, the latest the Revelation was likely to have been edited significantly. It is not clear when Metatron first appeared within Judaism, however, he was present before he became associated with Enoch, as the story of Samyaza and Azazel demonstrate, which is set in the era of Enoch's ancestor Enosh. In the story of Samyaza and Azazel, Metatron already existed as the messenger of the Lord, meaning, he existed as an angel within some form of archaic Judaism before he became Enoch incarnate in the Ascension of Moses. The claim that Enoch, a man, could become an angel, or archangel, or Prince of all the Princes, is itself heretical within Rabbinical Judaism, where angels are viewed as a separate form of life, based on fire, or ice, or electricity, or some combination of 'elements' but not flesh made of 'dust.' Therefore this was likely part of the heresy of Rabbi Elisha and does appear to be missing from the oldest fragment, the Short Aramaic Revelation of Moses. The story of Samyaza and Azazel, which like the Yiddish Ascension of Moses is a Yiddish story found among the Chronicles of Jarahmeel, also appears to be a very ancient story bordering about as close as a Jew could get to polytheism without actually crossing that imaginary line. It is included as an appendix as is seems relevant to the question of Metatron's origin within Judaism, however, it is its treatment of Astarah that reveals its true age. The name is a variation of Asherah, who is mentioned many times in the Hebrew Bible, generally in association with Ba'al. Her worship was banned by King Josiah in the Hebrew Book of Kings when he banned the worship of Ba'al and the armies of the sky (hosts of heaven). Archaeological evidence has proven that Jews (or possibly Essenes) continued to worship Asherah until the 6th century BC, during the early Persians era, which is missing from the Talmud's records.
All sixty-three of the original volumes are included in a nine volumes set. There are two linked indexes in this volume, a main index at the front of this volume that will take you to the beginning each of the books of the bible and another index at the beginning of each book there is a linked scripture index leading to the particular subject. Lange’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments, translated, revised, edited and enlarged from the German editions of John Peter Lange and many contributors, and edited by Philip Schaff. Lange’s Commentary on the entire Bible has remained one of the most useful and valuable work of its kind. It is conservative in theology and universal in hermeneutics. Delmarva Publications is proud to make it available in digital format. The original work was completed in 63 volumes, but we have made it available in 9 volumes they are: Volume 1 - Genesis to Ruth Volume 2 -1 Samuel to Esther Volume 3 - Job to Ecclesiastes Volume 4 - Song of Songs to Lamentations Volume 5 - Ezekiel to Malachi Volume 6 - Matthew to John Volume 7 - Acts to 2 Corinthians Volume 8 - Galatians to 2 Timothy Volume 9 -Titus to Revelation
Judaism has always had adherents that, driven by both awe and love of God, strove to penetrate the mystery of divine wisdom and grasp what the philosopher deemed to be beyond the reach of man's rational faculty, as well as to explore other mysteries that seem to leap out from the pages of Scripture. These metarational leaps of intellect and imagination generally fit into the categories of the exoteric and the esoteric, referring to teachings traditionally considered suitable for public instruction and those deemed inappropriate for such purpose. The exoteric includes those attempts at intellectually and spiritually bridging the gap between God and man, that one finds strewn throughout the pages of the classical literature of Judaism. The esoteric includes those speculations and practices that have been more or less systematized and formulated and presented as mystical doctrines, that have been characterized since the Middle Ages as Kabbalah. The opening chapters of Aspects of Jewish Metarational Thought consider the question of the relationship between finite man and the unknowable God, and how the divine-human communication essential to that relationship takes place. Other chapters consider the purpose behind human existence and the critical aspects of the biblical account of the creation, issues relating to the idea of a visionary ascent to the celestial realm, the influence of metarational considerations on normative Jewish religious practice, and the special attributes believed to inhere in the Hebrew language and the role that these have played in metarational biblical interpretation from antiquity to the present.
