Four Species Six Directions – (more than explanation, the actual doing of the mitzvah)! Truly worth 10 minutes of your day.
We prayed for rain, food, and fertility in our harvest celebratory movements (in the ANE), we now pray for peace and oneness among the “human” species in our harvest celebratory movements (in the present CE)!
It’s hard not to get overly excited and emotionally choked up over this Festival of Booths! May this video bless all who watch it through these seven days, and through the ritual year. Dance, Yisrael!
For those who want the full Romemu experience – https://youtu.be/H_2445WgxQE
Sukkot free Hasidism style
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I would argue that no scientist has changed our understanding of this universe like Albert Einstein. We owe our modern technological-based reality to his gifted intuitions. BUT,…
I also know, like Albert Einstein (whom I will *not* compare myself too!), that he was seriously well preceded by earlier Jews in such wisdom and insight into the workings of the universe. Like me, Einstein loved him some ברוך שפינוזה Baruch Spinoza – who is of the same Jewish intermediate heritage as I, one of Portuguese Sephardi origin.
We are talking 17th century CE, in regards to the Jew who got what René Descartes could not get, because René got things backwards: Correctly it is – “I am, therefore I think!” The extreme rationalist Albert Einstein, who gave us the Theory of General Relativity, was very clear that he embraced Baruch Spinoza’s understanding of “God,” and no other version.
Where did Spinoza get his non-transcendant but, rather, generative perception of “God”? From Sephardi Jewish esoteric writings of the time – think “Ein Sof.” And extreme rationalist Spinoza’s version of “God” reminds us of the BCE ANE Cosmologist who wrote the first creation story that we find in the scroll of Genesis, the mythical Six Days of Creation.
Don’t worry, this will *all* make sense in a bit. For Jews tend to have to *explain* things, a lot. And, sometimes we need to get a bit windy, to do so.
Baruch Spinoza himself said, “Whatever is [aka, this universe and all within it] is in God, and nothing can exist or be conceived without God.” So says a 17th century Jewish philosopher before the development of modern physics, which Albert Einstein was able confirm with his theory of General Relativity.
Did I go too fast? “Did I do a fly-by,” my bad! Let’s back up to an ANE priestly writer trying to explain to us Jews how the universe came to be. We don’t know his or her name, but we preserved his/her myth of universal origins. And his/her understanding of “God” is captured at the very beginning of his/her myth, within the long-winded three verse first sentence.
The first chapter of the scroll of Bereishit – aka, Genesis – tells a myth about the Seven Days of Creation. Six days of work and a day of rest, equalling to one week. It’s an origin story about the purpose of and need for הפסקה “pausing.” For without the deliberate creation of “rest” from work, there is no balance in life with endless creative activity.
This myth specifically says that “at the beginning” of creation, the earth existed within Elohim (“God”) in a formless and abysmal state. But, by Elohim creating “light’ within this “darkness” and separating this divine creation from the darkness, Elohim (“God”) could then form human recognizable order out of the already existing worldly abyss. And the rest is Torah legend!
Yes, even Baruch Spinoza and Albert Einstein were not the first Jews to touch upon the Big Bang theory! And though Albert Einstein had his doubts about Quantum Physics – which does *indeed* also prove true experientially – somewhere *before* the 6th century BCE, a Jewish myth-writing ANE Cosmologist already *knew* what present modern science knows. He or she just didn’t know how to say it outside of the “God” language of present cultural words and norms.
Modern CE religions have been trying to cover up what is obvious in, literally, our Jewish written preserved text – for as long as “flat-earth” believing Christian folk, needing to retain their theology of personal eternal redemption, have been upon this planet! Many Jews have fallen for the Hellenized perspective on our ANE inherited texts, as well. But, in every generation, some of us continue to *question*, *explore*, and be *reminded*.
To learn more about Albert Einstein’s love affair with Baruch Espinoza, ….
No God But Spinoza’s: Jewish Spiritual and Philosophical Influences on Albert Einstein’s Thoughts
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The idea of a transcendant personal “God” is a problematic concept for most Jews. If this idea is believed to be a reality, it is an immature understanding of “God” – and, thus, rightfully turns the observant into an atheist.
Jewish sages have been teaching, through esoteric texts, for a thousand years now that “God” and the “universe” are one and the same. Meaning, that “God” does not favor any one cell – animal, person, planet, etc. – of Its ever-changing body, anymore than a human favors one particular cell or group of cells over all the others in his or her ever-changing body.
We all, no matter who or what, share the same exact fates in life – with none being special – claims the Hellenistic writer of the scroll of Ecclesiastes. The ANE cosmologist that wrote the myth of the Six Days of Creation, him/herself, claimed that to reveal the earth within the body of “God” and to shape order to this, “God” first had to create a bang of light in the darkness.
In the Jewish mindset, questions are valued. And it is through questioning, *everything*, that more “God”-like purpose and ethics are achieved among humans. Hence, the Talmudic tale that teaches that the right to decide on how to implement “God’s” laws resides solely in the lives of humans.
Albert Einstein, Carl Sagan, and other Jewish scientists and doctors are not liberalizing their ethno-religious beliefs by engaging in their scientific and medical professions. Rather, they most piously embrace the ethno-religious heart of Judaism. For Jews, science and religion go hand-in-hand as methods to aquiring a fuller understanding of “God/”the universe.”
This is why Jews do not fear death – actively avoid, death, yes(!); but fear, no. For every text in our inherited literatures (our “Hebrew Bible,” as its called in the West) tells us the same exact thing: Death is a final sleep, and the dead do not remember anymore than “God” remembers the dead. We *humans* remember the dead and, thus, extend life! And, we celebrate the ever spiraling cycles of “Life” – hence, our yearly סוכות “booths” celebration!
And, ze kol tov – this is all good, as it naturally is! Because, we are but a bit of “God’s” body/”the universe’s” body within time. We are always alive within this allotted time that we’ve experienced – and, thus, we are never truly forgotten. (Nor dead?) For we are all a part of the whole of “God” – the good and the bad. And,…
Our opportunity in this present form is to choose to grow, understand, and create. To do our part in creating a world worthy of remembering, so that we are remembered ourselves in this world. Remember, energy is never lost, in any of its every-changing manifesting forms! We don’t need to embrace the world of absolutes, it’s just what some of us *humans* do.
Why focus here on the subject of שְׁאוֹל she’ol “death, the underworld” during סֻּכּוֹת Sukkot “the festival of booths” with our lulav and etrog waving fervently – of all times – even if just for one day? Because, Olam ha-Ba “the world to come” is represented in the celebration of Sukkot. Here me out, please!
The myths of our ANE ancestors taught us about Gan Eyden, a world before the intrusion of fateful reality. The reality that we all end up in sheol together, no matter who or what we are! And the eschatological myths of our near-CE BCE ancestors taught us about the festival of Sukkot in the world to come – a time of peace upon the land and, in our mythical apocalyptic literatures, a resurrection to life for the loyal to Ha’Shem – to live life in this “Messianic” age.
זכריה יד:טז וְהָיָה כָּל הַנּוֹתָר מִכָּל הַגּוֹיִם הַבָּאִים עַל יְרוּשָׁלִָם וְעָלוּ מִדֵּי שָׁנָה בְשָׁנָה לְהִשְׁתַּחֲוֹת לְמֶלֶךְ יְ־הוָה צְבָאוֹת וְלָחֹג אֶת חַג הַסֻּכּוֹת.
Zech 14:16 All who survive [death and destruction] of all those nations that came up against Jerusalem shall make a pilgrimage year by year to bow low to the King YHWH of Hosts and to observe the Feast of Booths.
On Sukkot, we wave the lulav and etrog in celebration of survival as an ethno-religious people, and in the deeply reverent need and hope for peace and justice among all humans upon this planet!
https://www.thetorah.com/article/no-heaven-or-hell-only-sheol
No Heaven or Hell, Only Sheʾol
Sheʾol and its synonyms, בּוֹר “pit,” שַׁחַת “chasm,” and אֲבַדּוֹן “oblivion,” was the fate of all people upon death. The wicked were sent there early, while the righteous were rewarded with a long life. During the Second Temple period, the negative attitude about death and sheʾol develops into a concept of post-mortem punishment and eventually hell. 1 Enoch’s four chambers for the dead is the first step in that direction.
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“something special: a fragrant, long-lasting, inedible, and beautiful fruit, used to sweeten the breath and protect one’s health,” longlasting and travel resistant, a rarety among the varieties of. … Yes, waving the lulav and etrog (four species and citron) in the six directions every day of Sukkot IS a very big deal! It represents continued life of an ethno-religious people, and the hope for peace and justice upon the land.
חג סוכות שמח!
https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-etrog-celebrating-sukkot-with-a-persian-apple
The Etrog: Celebrating Sukkot With a Persian Apple
A luxury Persian import, famous for its medicinal qualities and lovely smell, the citron became Sukkot’s פְּרִי עֵץ הָדָר “fruit of a splendid tree” in the first century C.E.
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Jewish coins in Judea, from the 1st and 2nd centuries CE (A.D.), during the guerilla warfare rebellions against the Roman occupation of what these colonizers would soon call Syria Palaestina (historic Palestine).
The Hebrew on the these coins says לחרות ירושלם “for the freedom of Jerusalem”! On the coins are the lulav species and the etrog. We Jews have been longing and, even, fighting for self-sovereignty on a portion of our ancestral lands for 2,300 years now. Jews have always been living in the land.
When will Islam and Christianity choose peace with the indigenous inheritors of their religious empires’ obssessions? When will the hope of Zechariah 14 come about? We Jews do not need nor want to be proselytized, conquested/colonized, nor to have our ethno-religious culture usurped by the religious empires of this modern historical age.
ישעיה ב:ב וְהָיָה בְּאַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים נָכוֹן יִהְיֶה הַר בֵּית יְ־הוָה בְּרֹאשׁ הֶהָרִים וְנִשָּׂא מִגְּבָעוֹת וְנָהֲרוּ אֵלָיו כָּל הַגּוֹיִם. ב:ג וְהָלְכוּ עַמִּים רַבִּים וְאָמְרוּ לְכוּ וְנַעֲלֶה אֶל הַר יְ־הוָה אֶל בֵּית אֱלֹהֵי יַעֲקֹב וְיֹרֵנוּ מִדְּרָכָיו וְנֵלְכָה בְּאֹרְחֹתָיו.
Isa 2:2 In the days to come, the Mount of YHWH’s House shall stand firm above the mountains and tower above the hills; and all the nations shall gaze on it with joy. 2:3 And the many peoples shall go and say: “Come, Let us go up to the Mount of YHWH, to the House of the God of Jacob; that He may instruct us in His ways, and that we may walk in His paths.”
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As a יְהוּדִי “Jew” and as a kūloko o Hawaiʻi “local of Hawai’i,” I know that we indigenous peoples must stand with each other for our ethno-religious survival as a people. As well, for the preservation of our history, our language, and our uniquely cultural rituals.
No matter where we Jews presently find ourselves in this world, we find that we are among kindred voices who have been colonized, as we Jewish people have been repeatedly conquested and colonized. We, the indigenous of lands, will survive together, somehow and someway! First Nations of so-called “America,” Kurds and Jews of the Middle East, Hawaiians and Māoris of the Pacific islands, …. This is what our native Sukkot ritual is *all* about, as Jews!
The two religious empires of this modern world – meaning, the CE (A.D.) period – will not assimilate our ancestral ways into them. Thus, causing us to *replace* ancestral beliefs with usurping Christian and Islamic images. We are who we are, and we will survive to עולם הבא Olam ha’Ba – the age of recognition and justice upon the lands!
I will end this סוכות Sukkot with recognition to both minority peoples that have raised me in awareness of *our* reason and purpose for *being* in this world. We speak and act in love for all humanity, and with a deep *need* and *conviction* for survival!
Listen to braddah Kimo Alana Keaulana – go 9 minutes 30 seconds in to 14 minutes and 22 seconds in – an no mattah you no watch da rest! Seriously, like Jews, Hawaiians only want to tell a story. Even when we know some aspects of our stories to be myths, we still want to share our ancestors’ words. Because, life inspiring truth is between fact and fiction! The idea of *absolutes* is truly *foreign* to us.
(Nevermind that this Jew can confirm seeing “nā huakaʻi o ka pō” in da islands, when most least expected. But, understand, I am an extreme rational mind like Baruch Spinoza (meaning, there is *always* an explanation for everything that some say could *not* possibly be!). But, never think that I don’t take a native’s word *seriously*, being a product of Levantine stories, myself! 🙂 )
There are always levels of reality that we *humans* do not understand. This, too, is kol tov! We don’t have to understand everything, but we strive for it – just like we strive to do מִצְווֹת mitzvot “good deeds” in life!
Aloha v’Shalom v’Chag Sukkot Sameach!
https://fb.watch/8bOeHU7qJM/
The Lili’u Project – Yes, it’s also “Hawaiian History Month”
Recognize the music. It’s not Hawaiian, it’s not Jewish – it’s Colonizer music! Must this be the *only* way for us to get our voices heard in this world? Must our voices be either just touristy pleasures or a source of appropriation in nature? … There is hope, still, listen beyond the introduction to this documentary.
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