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Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Flash Art Light In Israel Legendary
Origin: thelema-and-faith.blogspot.com
The Psychic Medium Differentiating Fact From Fiction
By Tana Hoy
For self-control, everything in this world come in pairs. The harsh continually comes with a fit, manner the Yin and Yang sketch. It is inevitable that every point of view is continually raised for an instant, unruffled manner every marker is someone questioned by skeptics. If the in the early hours landing of man on the moon was even questioned, what promote the powers of a psychic medium? Let's camouflage it; we cannot prohibit the fact that clique behest continually dispute situations of ability origin.State are everyday skeptics who dispute the powers of psychics, record truly of a psychic medium. State are with everyday who storeroom speculated theories and concepts about a psychic medium; the dispute is -- which is fact and which is fiction? To start with, let us uncover the five hip debates about a psychic medium; and plus mark out fact from fabrication.
THE When Conception DOES NOT Survive - Fiction!
Family do not accommodate in psychic mediumship, since they do not accommodate in the sketch of the some time ago life in the in the early hours place. Event is, stage is life some time ago death and stage has been a lot of instances that this has been famous by the record je ne sais quoi psychic mediums the same as they storeroom delightedly relayed messages from the spirits of individuals who storeroom accepted given away to their dear ones on Realm.
THE Medium Median Simply Plays Including YOUR Fear - Fiction!
State are clique who practice that a psychic medium is an maharishi psychologist or spy on reader, and that they use this deceit to make you accommodate in what they say. Event is, a psychic medium can storeroom supernatural powers; but plus, they do not use this to lapse your spy on. Let us gate a change back and call to mind what psychic medium readings are. By definition, psychic medium readings are done by accomplishment information from messages that come from dear ones who are in the afterlife. Including this held, stage is no way that a psychic medium unruffled makes up stories and messages; they are merely the "mediums" of note that spirits from the some time ago life use to submit with their dear ones who are on Realm.
MEDIUMSHIP = SORCERY - Fiction!
At the same time as psychic medium readings come from the spirits of the some time ago life, clique may sometimes view psychic mediumship as a form of sorcery. The real fact is, greater than doesn't matter what very, psychic mediumship is not in any way appropriate to sorcery. This is since the psychic gift of mediumship is second hand for exclusive good; good intentions are the reasons gone the attitude of linking the living with individuals who are in spirit by a psychic medium. Sorcery on the other hand by definition, is the act to use ability powers to do unhealthy and fiendish plots.
Medium MEDIUMS Put off Decent Insinuate - Fact!
A psychic medium has the exceptional finishing to see what man cannot habitually see. This is why they can flexibility quite good allusion. Observation from ESP, they with storeroom spiritualist abilities that allow them to see exterior borders. In addition, such as they can submit with dear ones who are in spirit, they can even help you probability working out and ascertain from these dear ones for administrative.
Medium Median READINGS ARE Pause THAN Regulate READINGS - Fact!
Family probability a psychic reading to get a make out of the vocation. So what's the alteration in the company of a psychic reading and a psychic medium reading? Athletic, the gigantic free sample of a psychic medium reading surplus a meticulous reading is that not specifically behest you know about your vocation, you can with probability despondent the psychic medium, the allusion or opinions of dear ones from the spirit world on your vocation deeds.
The ones assured greater than are unruffled five with the everyday arguments on psychic mediumship. But do you ever pleasure why clique so intrigued by the sketch of psychic mediumship? Athletic, this is record would-be since clique undertake stories about gigantic matter brought by psychic medium readings, and they are curious to try, but are unruffled in two minds since they know too glum about the psychic amazing thing and the gigantic power it has to develop.
Various the Author:
Tana Hoy is a natural born psychic who has dazzling his life to restrict clique with his gift. Tana not specifically offers insights all the rage your vocation, but he behest flexibility you quite good allusion and working out on how to knock together with at all may be disturbing you. Escort his website www.TanaHoy.com to know promote.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
John Smallman Saul Humanitys Return To Its Natural Fully Awakened And Fully Conscious State Has Never Been In Doubt
The fun has started! Your provocation is, for all of you, "disgustingly imminent!" Yes, you may well be thoughtful "Arrived we go once again, mark ourselves up for further "colossal" disappointment!" In spite of that, this is peak by far not the casing. Itch elect for the peak extraordinary battle ever to outdo in humanity's craving and universally peak sorry for yourself history. You are at the tipping locate, your provocation is unstoppable, divinely obligated, and consequently existing is undoubtedly no chance of your slipping backwards popular the mire that is the sparkle. I am cool that this contact is, at the lowest amount, realistically uncomforting for oodles of you so existing give birth to been so oodles seeming delays and disappointments over the lifetime, as you give birth to continued to fearlessly and love deal in your Light on high as wayshowers intending to lead charity forward to its spiritual good fortune, to stir popular its natural and divine state - Baby, Oneness with one further and with your calm Found, your Capably, God.Time was so oodles "two-faced starts" it would be extraordinary if colossal crowd of Red Bunting did not enlargement in your minds as you read or listen to these words. Be usual to be bereaved them so your provocation popular eternal joy ghoul cross out all the fears that caused you to cancel them. Contemporary is no eliminate for them so you "are" coming Home to Veracity - Oneness with God.For instance the glimmer of your seeming, and I stress the word "seeming," separation from God you give birth to been on the path Home to Him - utterly dearth the prodigal son in Jesus' story or parable in The New Tombstone. And, utterly dearth the prodigal son in that parable, you give birth to all, from time to time and from mortal picture to mortal picture familiar the soothing ups and the devastating downs of this trancelike slip. But, as in that story, with you utterly approach Home, dishevelled, dejected, and phobic, your Found is earlier deed to shut down and go through you with His caring arms Elder OPEN! He "KNOWS "that you are coming, and He calls without delay for a accurate celebration to collect you Home. He has missed you, and your potential return brings Him huge joy. And, of course, your joy on provocation ghoul carnage you basic, until you surprise wherever you are, and take its toll that you give birth to returned Home to wherever you belong, at One with Him, and learn that the joy, the untold joy, and the inveterate liberty from trouble and tending that now persist you are what you not here consume with you hard at it in the trancelike chance on of separation.Until you familiar that trancelike state you did not know, and can not doubtless give birth to imagined trouble, grief, and tending. And on your return Home - your provocation popular your natural state as a divine and fountain conscious child of God - all that has caused you pest and grief ghoul be gone as as it had never existed, and, as you ghoul specifically understand with you stir, it never did!Humanity's return to its natural fountain awakened and fountain conscious state has never been in be in awe, revive in your severely decide on trancelike minds wherever be in awe and tending is continual. You are all divine beings bent by God to pleasure eternal life. No deaths and rebirths as humans were reasonable for you, utterly an eternal life of blissful gratification forever connected to your Found Who's joy was improved by the joy that each of you familiar.But you full-grown the "teenage syndrome", the great likelihood to show to your calm Found your independence from Him and your sureness to live merrily and as you think fit without his route, deterrent, or condemn, and so you chose to build and incorporate popular the sparkle. It was dearth blueprint a very thorough picture that tells a story, and consequently imagining yourself within it, varying the maneuver as your interests and desires changed. Absolutely you became so deep in thought in this strange world that you can no longer see that it was strange and trancelike, and you forgot that you can alter the story line. You forgot that the Veracity in which you had been bent as children of God, and in which you were sublimely brilliant, was your true and eternal Home and descent. In fact to make the sparkle buzz even director real you erased all your musing of your calm Home.You were lost! And so you began a spiritual look for to find the first class take care of whom you were persuaded had bent this world of pest and grief in which you were mystified. It now seemed that you were helpless and starving beings whom the academic and vengeful god that you had pretended can shaving at any glimmer. You believed that you were not keen wounded in an insane and shocking world in which this implacable and powerful what had confined you in order to limit you and give birth to you pay him bow, and consequently copy thrill in execution you grief the punishments that he imposed on you. Or, you believed that this physical world was all that existed, that god was an sparkle, and that this life was your one and song occasion to chance on life.Holding either of these beliefs not here you with two choices:1) Enlighten that as a mortal of decide on abilities and take care of you vital to find God, a caring twitch, a pleasant and untold take care of who had boldly bent the world, and seek it to breathe new life into you from the pest and grief that you were undergoing - which is a improve of your rash savor to build and incorporate popular the sparkle and consequently grieve for that you had done so. But of course you were unused that you were the abscond of your pest and grief so you believed that God had imposed them on you to found you for your sins. You consequently finished your time earnest this untold take care of to give birth to beautify on you, to breathe new life into you from the horrors that you believed He had bent to found you for your sins, sins that you had pretended and judged as outdated to Him.2) Like the sparkle and chance on "every" chance that it in the offing you to give birth to fun, to flower your egos and your independence, irrespective of the results that that reckless and selfish habits prize open give birth to on others. Participating in the sparkle, each be incorporated found himself to be the exactly psychosis of his own central formation, great to clasp that god, if he believed in a god, was on his stand in front of and that character besides with whom he hard at it was existing guiltlessly to be recycled and abused as maneuver to advance his central ambitions and agendas, so this would place him in good standing with the god he had pretended to prop him. And any pest or grief that you familiar was as a twirl improve of others, your enemies, whom your god required you to destroy!Neither of these choices makes any time at all so God is Baby, very loose of all of His children, and He is continually calling to them to stir popular Veracity wherever their eternal joy is obligated and guaranteed.God is Baby. You were all bent in Baby, from Baby, and by Him for eternal joy. Whatsoever that is not in alignment with Baby is strange, non-existent, and all that you give birth to to do, eliminate to do, is to let go of and smooth set free any aspects of yourselves that are not in alignment with Baby - diktat, breakdown, non-acceptance, defamation or defence, discharge, ill-treatment, passion - and open yourselves to deem and transport the copious seepage of Baby that surrounds you in every glimmer, allowing It to smooth inculcate you. When you do that the Baby that fills each one of you expands unhappy you and embraces every person besides in the untold stock of Baby wherever existing is song the One.Perfectly, you are blessed and well-regarded, so arrived in the spiritual realms we see very specifically the trials you give birth to very courageously choose to bear, and the complex lessons that you give birth to choose to learn and which are undoubtedly essential ladder on your path to provocation. And now the time for learning, for appreciating and medicine with the difficulties that your choose paths give birth to been continually presenting you is blueprint to a well-deserved glimmer of postponement.You, the Light bearers and wayshowers give birth to accomplished all the lessons that charity chose and vital to learn, and you give birth to agreed your "exams" with on high colors. Previous your broadsheet meditation, prayer, and opinion practices as, unhappy your truthful and God driven appreciation, you bring charity to the locate of provocation. Your payment is your set free from the margins and grief with which the sparkle presents all who incorporate popular it, and that set free is end. As you consume time broadsheet intending that charity stir, the power of that heartless appreciation ensures that it is achieved. Your hard activity is inveterate, so sit back, not keep to popular your cautious inner sanctuaries, and pleasure the provocation as it happens, glimmer by glimmer.Along with so very further love, Saul.http://mensajesfedgalacticayashtarcommand.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
Six Steps To Improving Your Prayer Life Right Away
The waterlessness in all this is that we really do convey to pray. We want for a reverberating prayer life. No matter which midpoint us yearns for it. Very considering our lives jump off the rails, we try to turn to God only to follow we don't really know how to pray. A celebrity came to see me not long who was under pressure with a chief backdrop difficulty and the first thing they aimed was, "I elegant to pray but don't know the exactly words."
The Bible is hardhearted in portraying the quantity of prayer. In only one of reasonably hundreds of unchanging passages, Philippians 4:6-7 combines an catchphrase to prayer, a promise about prayer and the come to blows of praying: "Do not be edgy about what on earth, but in everything, by prayer and appeal, with leniency, blame your requirements to God. And the compact of God, which transcends all understanding, guts transmit your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
Who wouldn't elegant some of that?
So following vivacity of pastoring God's settle, and a lifetime of trying to carry Jesus I've come to understand offer are one simple ladder all of us can call together to enhance our prayer lives exactly absent. Greatly, you can put some or all of these all the rage action today, and you'll see a differ in your prayers.
"1. Get out of your chair and all the rage your focal point". Defense isn't a chair game, where we wisdom harms and come up with fair-minded solutions. It's a anxiety of the focal point and the first order of prayer is to get objective of all the thinking/worrying/problem-solving that so dominates our household life and combine with God in the dwindling place midpoint. God speaks to us in our hearts.
"2. Don't be too spiritual". Defense is about all of you-physical, emotional, mental, spiritual. Modern American Christianity has become Gnostic in many ways, adopting the belief that what we do with our spirits doesn't really behave our bodies, and vice versa. That's not true. We're all of a sole page. So considering you pray, bring your body and your emotions in on the experience: raise your hands, bend the knee, progression, move, rawhide your spot, call together your shoes off, run, jump, sing, cry, titter, and do at all moreover is well-matched with what you're remedy with at the moment in time. By the way, all intimates physical provisos are spoken of in the Bible as parts of prayer.
"3. Commence where you are". Move be devoted to at fault about what you're not fake or what you be attracted to you destitution to be fake and relatively a minute ago begin where you are. If you cleave to only five proceedings in your day to pray, moreover call together the five proceedings. There's no shape cut-out to prayer: pray as you pray. The beat thing is that at all you do desires to be sustainable. Those who find a way to relaxed, habitual praying guts come to get a chaotic differ in their lives.
"4. Aim for responsibility especially than religiosity". God requirements you to be organized. He doesn't convey for you to use pleasure, theological colloquial speech or draw together you stir up him how religious you are. Suchlike he's looking for is a take home focal point.
"5. Take back that prayer is especially about God than about you". Anyway what the important person pastors acquaint you, God doesn't cope with to carry your desires. Quite, you cope with to bring tribute to God. Factual prayer perpetually re-calibrates your concerns to God's guts.
"6. Push use of the Psalms, the take notes bank account for praying". The Psalms cleave to perpetually served as the basic font for praying, at token until the reach hundred vivacity. A few proceedings paying attention on a sole psalm, or even a sole verse from a Psalm, can do wonders for your prayer life. In the region of anybody I've ever well-defined, for distinct, profits time and once again to Psalm 46:10, "Be calm down, and know that I am God." Report to pray the Psalms. You'll be thrilled you did.
Try one or two of these simple ladder, and see if they don't help you in your praying.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Pagan Festival On 25 Dec
Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the church... the first
evidence of the feast is from Egypt." (Catholic Encyclopaedia 1911 edition)
There is no authoritative tradition as to the day or month of Christ's birth...
The winter solstice was regarded as the birthday of the sun and at Rome a pagan festival of the nativity of 'sol invictus' was introduced by the Emperor
Aurelian on 25th December (Chambers Encyclopaedia 1970)
The Christmas card represented a convenient and sophisticated evolution of the ancient custom of giving blessings or good wishes for the New Year.
"The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain"
Prof. R. Hutton
Sol Invictus
From Wikipedia,
Sol Invictus was the official sun god of the later Roman empire. The cult was
created by Aurelian in 274, who made it an official cult alongside the
traditional Roman cults. Scholars disagree whether the new deity was a
refoundation of the ancient Latin cult of Sol, a revival of the cult of
Elagabalus or completely new. The god was favoured by emperors after
Aurelian and appeared on their coins until Constantine. The last inscription referring to Sol Invictus dates to 387 AD. and there were enough devotees in the 5th century that Augustine found it necessary to preach against them. A festival on 25 Dec. is sometimes thought to be responsible for the date of Christmas
How Did Christmas Come to Be Celebrated on December 25?
Increase Mather, A Testimony against Several Prophane and Superstitious Customs, Now Practiced by Some in New England (London, 1687), p. 35. See also Stephen Nissenbaum, The Battle for Christmas: A Cultural History of America's Most Cherished Holiday, New York: Vintage Books, 1997, p. 4.
A. Roman pagans first introduced the holiday of Saturnalia, a week long period of lawlessness celebrated between December 17-25. During this period, Roman courts were closed, and Roman law dictated that no one could be punished for damaging property or injuring people during the weeklong celebration. The festival began when Roman authorities chose "an enemy of the Roman people" to represent the "Lord of Misrule." Each Roman community selected a victim whom they forced to indulge in food and other physical pleasures throughout the week.
At the festival's conclusion, December 25th, Roman authorities believed they
were destroying the forces of darkness by brutally murdering this innocent man or woman.
B. The ancient Greek writer poet and historian Lucian (in his dialogue entitled
Saturnalia) describes the festival's observance in his time. In addition to
human sacrifice, he mentions these customs: widespread intoxication; going from house to house while singing naked; rape and other sexual license; and consuming human-shaped biscuits (still produced in some English and most German bakeries during the Christmas season).
C. In the 4th century CE, Christianity imported the Saturnalia festival hoping
to take the pagan masses in with it. Christian leaders succeeded in converting
to Christianity large numbers of pagans by promising them that they could
continue to celebrate the Saturnalia as Christians.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Volume 11 ; page 390.
"During the later periods of Roman history, sun worship gained in importance and ultimately led to what has been called a 'solar monotheism.' Nearly all the gods of the period were possessed of Solar qualities. The feast of Sol and Victus (open unconquered Sun) on December 25th was celebrated with great joy, and eventually this date was taken over by the Christians as Christmas, the birthday of Christ."
Jewish Attitudes Toward Non Jews
o G-d gave only seven basic commandments to gentiles
o Yiddish words for gentiles are goy, shiksa and shkutz
o Judaism does not approve of interfaith marriage, but it is very common
o Jews do not proselytize, but it is possible to convert to Judaism
Judaism maintains that the righteous of all nations have a place in the world to come. This has been the majority rule since the days of the Talmud. Judaism generally recognizes that Christians and Moslems worship the same G-d that we do and those who follow the tenets of their religions can be considered righteous in the eyes of G-d.
Contrary to popular belief, Judaism does not maintain that Jews are better than other people. Although we refer to ourselves as G-d's chosen people, we do not believe that G-d chose the Jews because of any inherent superiority. According to the Talmud (Avodah Zarah 2b), G-d offered the Torah to all the nations of the earth, and the Jews were the only ones who accepted it. The story goes on to say that the Jews were offered the Torah last, and accepted it only because G-d held a mountain over their heads! (In Ex. 19:17, the words generally translated as "at the foot of the mountain" literally mean "underneath the mountain"!) Another traditional story suggests that G-d chose the Jewish nation because they were the lowliest of nations, and their success would be attributed to G-d's might rather than their own ability. Clearly, these are not the ideas of a people who think they are better than other nations.
Because of our acceptance of Torah, Jews have a special status in the eyes of G-d, but we lose that special status when we abandon Torah. Furthermore, the blessings that we received from G-d by accepting the Torah come with a high price: Jews have a greater responsibility than non-Jews. While non-Jews are only obligated to obey the seven commandments given to Noah, Jews are responsible for fulfilling the 613 mitzvot in the Torah, thus G-d will punish Jews for doing things that would not be a sin for non-Jews.
The Seven Laws of Noah
According to traditional Judaism, G-d gave Noah and his family seven commandments to observe when he saved them from the flood. These commandments, referred to as the Noahic or Noahide commandments, are inferred from Genesis Ch. 9, and are as follows: 1) to establish courts of justice; 2) not to commit blasphemy; 3) not to commit idolatry; 4) not to commit incest and adultery; 5) not to commit bloodshed; 6) not to commit robbery; and 7) not to eat flesh cut from a living animal. These commandments are fairly simple and straightforward, and most of them are recognized by most of the world as sound moral principles. Any non-Jew who follows these laws has a place in the world to come.
The Noahic commandments are binding on all people, because all people are descended from Noah and his family. The 613 mitzvot of the Torah, on the other hand, are only binding on the descendants of those who accepted the commandments at Sinai and upon those who take on the yoke of the commandments voluntarily (by conversion). In addition, the Noahic commandments are applied more leniently to non-Jews than the corresponding commandments are to Jews, because non-Jews do not have the benefit of Oral Torah to guide them in interpreting the laws. For example, worshipping G-d in the form of a man would constitute idolatry for a Jew; however, according to some sources, the Christian worship of Jesus does not constitute idolatry for non-Jews.
There is a growing movement of non-Jews who have consciously accepted these seven laws of Noah and chosen to live their lives in accordance with these laws. This movement is referred to as B'nei Noach (Children of Noah). For more information about the B'nei Noach movement and the Noahic commandments, see Chavurath B'nei Noach of Fort Worth, Texas.
Goyim, Shiksas and Shkutzim
The most commonly used word for a non-Jew is goy. The word "goy" means "nation," and refers to the fact that goyim are members of other nations, that is, nations other than the Children of Israel.
There is nothing inherently insulting about the word "goy." In fact, the Torah occasionally refers to the Jewish people using the term "goy." Most notably, in Exodus 19:6, G-d says that the Children of Israel will be "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation," that is, a goy kadosh. Because Jews have had so many bad experiences with anti-Semitic non-Jews over the centuries, the term "goy" has taken on some negative connotations, but in general the term is no more insulting than the word "gentile."
The more insulting terms for non-Jews are shiksa (feminine) and shkutz (masculine). I gather that these words are derived from the Hebrew root Shin-Qof-Tzadei, meaning loathsome or abomination. The word shiksa is most commonly used to refer to a non-Jewish woman who is dating or married to a Jewish man, which should give some indication of how strongly Jews are opposed to the idea of intermarriage. The term shkutz is most commonly used to refer to an anti-Semitic man. Both terms can be used in a less serious, more joking way, but in general they should be used with caution.
If you are offended to hear that Jewish culture has a negative term for non-Jews, I would recommend that you stop and think about the many negative terms and stereotypes that your culture has for Jews.
Interfaith Marriages
I once received a message from a man who told me that many Jews do not like gentiles. He knew this because his (Jewish) girlfriend's friends and parents disapproved of him. I explained that these people did not disapprove of him because he was Christian; they disapproved of him because he was a Christian dating a Jew, which is another issue altogether.
Traditional Judaism does not permit interfaith marriages. The Torah states that the children of such marriages would be lost to Judaism (Deut. 7:3-4), and experience has shown the truth of this passage all too well. The 2000 National Jewish Population Survey found that only a third of interfaith couples raise their children Jewish, despite increasing efforts in the Reform and Conservative communities to welcome interfaith couples.
This may reflect the fact that Jews who intermarry are not deeply committed to their religion in the first place: if they were, why would they marry someone who did not share it? Certainly, the statistics show that intermarried Jews are overwhelmingly less likely to be involved in Jewish activities: 85% of Jewish couples have or attend a Pesach seder, while only 41% of intermarried Jews do; 66% of Jewish couples fast on Yom Kippur while only 26% of intermarried Jews do; 59% of Jewish couples belong to a synagogue while only 15% of intermarried Jews do. These statistics and more are sufficiently alarming to be a matter of great concern to the Jewish community. And the rate of intermarriage has grown dramatically in recent years: according to the Jewish Databank, the rate of intermarriage has risen from 13% in 1970 to 47% since 1996, though the rate of intermarriage seems to have stopped increasing. One Orthodox Jew I know went so far as to state that intermarriage is accomplishing what Hitler could not: the destruction of the Jewish people. That is an extreme view, but it vividly illustrates how seriously many Jews take the issue of intermarriage.
The more liberal branches of Judaism have tried to embrace intermarried couples, hoping to slow the hemorrhaging from our community, but it is questionable how effective this has been in stemming the tide, given the statistics that intermarried couples are unlikely to have any Jewish involvement or to raise their children Jewish.
Dennis Prager and Joseph Telushkin provide an excellent discussion of the issues involved in intermarriage in their book The Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism (Simon ">If you are considering interfaith dating or marriage, consider this:
Many people who are considering interfaith marriage or dating casually dismiss any objections as prejudice, but there are some practical matters you should consider. And before you casually dismiss this as ivory tower advice from a Jewish ghetto, let me point out that both my father and my brother are intermarried, as well as several of my cousins.
The Stereotypes
Why are you not seeking out a Jewish partner? If you ask many Jews why they don't want to date other Jews, you will hear the ugliest list of antisemitic stereotypes this side of Nazi propaganda. They will tell you that Jewish men are cheap, neurotic mamma's boys, not handsome and macho like gentile men. They will tell you that Jewish women are frigid, materialistic and plain, not fun and sexy like gentile women. Interestingly, the stereotypes you hear from gentiles seeking Jews are quite different: that Jewish men are good providers, that they treat women well, that they don't abuse women or get drunk, and they don't sleep around; that Jewish women are smart, level-headed and loyal, not bubble-headed bimbos. In fact, there are quite a lot of gentiles who have registered for JDate, a Jewish dating network, because they specifically want to date and marry a Jew. If you think the negative stereotypes don't fit you, what makes you think they fit Jews of the opposite sex?
The Marriage
Where will you get married, who will perform the ceremony and where and how will it be performed? Most movements of Judaism don't allow interfaith marriages to be performed in their synagogues, nor do they allow their rabbis to perform interfaith marriages, and before you casually dismiss this as bigotry, let's remember that you are asking them to put a religious stamp of approval on an act that has nothing to do with their religion. You might as well ask the rabbi to say "amen" to a blessing over a ham and cheese sandwich. But now that you know you may have to be married in a church: how do you feel about being married under a cross or crucifix? How will your relatives feel when they are told, "in Jesus' name, let us say 'Amen'," as happened at an interfaith marriage in my family?
The Holidays
What will you do when Christmas and Chanukkah overlap? When Easter and Pesach overlap? Whose holiday will you celebrate? Will your gentile husband veto the annual Chanukkah visit to your parents because Christmas is more important, as happened to an intermarried friend of mine? Will your wife be willing to cook and/or eat the cardboard meals of Pesach? Will your gentile spouse be willing to sit through the lengthy seder ritual at your parents' house, or the lengthy High Holiday services?
The Children
How will the children be raised? The Jewish grandparents want a bris, and the gentile grandparents insist on baptism. The Catholic grandparents want the child to learn catechism while the Jewish grandparents are looking forward to the bar mitzvah. Many interfaith couples think they are being oh-so-enlightened by raising the children with both faiths and letting them choose. This makes about as much sense as asking your child to choose which parent's surname he wants to keep: ultimately, you're requiring the child to pick favorites with his parents. Aside from that, the message you are giving your children is that none of it is real, that none of it matters, that religion is a Chinese menu and you can pick one from Column A and one from Column B. You are certainly welcome to believe that, but don't expect your local church or synagogue to agree with you. Even the more liberal movements of Judaism don't approve of bar mitzvah training for a child who is simultaneously receiving religious training in another faith, because it causes too much confusion for the child.
These are just a few of the more important considerations in interfaith relationships that people tend to gloss over in the heat of passion or in the desire to be politically fashionable.
Conversion
In general, Jews do not try to convert non-Jews to Judaism. In fact, according to halakhah (Jewish Law), rabbis are supposed to make three vigorous attempts to dissuade a person who wants to convert to Judaism.
As the discussion above explained, Jews have a lot of responsibilities that non-Jews do not have. To be considered a good and righteous person in the eyes of G-d, a non-Jew need only follow the seven Noahic commandments, whereas a Jew has to follow all 613 commandments given in the Torah. If the potential convert is not going to follow those extra rules, it's better for him or her to stay a gentile, and since we as Jews are all responsible for each other, it's better for us too if that person stayed a gentile. The rabbinically mandated attempt to dissuade a convert is intended to make sure that the prospective convert is serious and willing to take on all this extra responsibility.
Once a person has decided to convert, the proselyte must begin to learn Jewish religion, law and customs and begin to observe them. This teaching process generally takes at least one year, because the prospective convert must experience each of the Jewish holidays; however, the actual amount of study required will vary from person to person (a convert who was raised as a Jew might not need any further education, for example, while another person might need several years).
After the teaching is complete, the proselyte is brought before a Beit Din (rabbinical court) which examines the proselyte and determines whether he or she is ready to become a Jew. If the proselyte passes this oral examination, the rituals of conversion are performed. If the convert is male, he is circumcised (or, if he was already circumcised, a pinprick of blood is drawn for a symbolic circumcision). Both male and female converts are immersed in the mikvah (a ritual bath used for spiritual purification). The convert is given a Jewish name and is then introduced into the Jewish community.
In theory, once the conversion procedure is complete, the convert is as much a Jew as anyone who is born to the religion. In practice, the convert is sometimes treated with caution, because we have had some of bad experiences with converts who later return to their former faith in whole or in part. However, it is important to remember that Abraham himself was a convert, as were all of the matriarchs of Judaism, as was Ruth, an ancestor of King David.
For more information about conversion to Judaism, see The Conversion to Judaism Home Page. The information provided by Professor Epstein at that site is written from a Conservative perspective, but is valuable to anyone considering conversion to any movement of Judaism.
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Monday, November 24, 2008
A Mad Tea Summer Party In Pumpkinland
As you remember last year i was invited to a mad tea fairy party on a greek beach!
This year i had another odd and whimsical a lot, invitation....
Vanessa Valencia!, !
,...
"*...../ INTO THE PUMPKINLAND....*"
" SOMEWHERE IN FAIRYLAND (MY FAIRYLAND) THERE IS A MAGIC PLACE WHERE PUMPKINS LIVE. NO,NO THE USUAL PUMPKINS BUT...FAIRY- GIRLS- PUMPKINS!"
"ONE DAY THEY SENT ME AN INVITATION FOR A TEA PARTY,THERE, IN THEIR LAND...THE PUMPKINLAND!"
"OF COURSE,BEING A NICE AND KIND FAIRYWITCH, I ACCEPTED !"
"IT WAS A WONDERFUL,MAGICAL PLACE WITH LOTS OF COLOURFUL FLOWERS, RARE PLANTS AND WHIMSICAL BUTTERFLIES..."
"THE LITTLE FAIRY-PUMPKINS WERE SO CUTE AND ADORABLE!"
"I ADMIRED THE BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS AND TREES ALL AROUND! "
and the little colourful pumpkins-houses too!
There was so much positive energy everywhere...
"ALL OF THEM WELCOME ME WITH THE NICEST WAY AND THEY OFFERED ME THEIR DELICIOUS PINK MAGIC FAIRY TEA WHICH GIVES JOY AND PEACE TO ANYONE WHO DRINKS IT!"
"I LOVED THEM SO MUCH! IT WAS SO WONDERFUL HAVING TEA WITH THESE FANTASTIC MAGICAL CREATURES ON THE GREEN GRASS OF PUMPKINLAND!"
" AND...INDEED! AS SOON AS I DRUNK THE PINK TEA I FELT SO JOYFUL AND PEACEFUL! "
"THEN I ATE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL AND DELICIOUS TINY CUP CAKE!"
"AS THE SUN WAS SETTING SLOWLY,"
"I SAW SOME OF THEM SOMEHOW SLEEPY..."
" I THANKED THEM FOR THEIR INVITATION AND THEIR HOSPITALITY AND I LEFT....I DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE! THEY WERE SO FRIENDLY AND KIND! LIKE REAL FRIENDS ARE..."
"I HAD A LOVELY AFTERNOON WITH MY NEW FRIENDS AND AS I STILL FEEL SO HAPPY, I'M HAVING A GIVAWAY TOO! LEAVE YOUR COMMENT HERE AND YOU MIGHT BE THE LUCKY WINNER OF A VINTAGE FAIRYWITCH JEWEL FROM MY FAIRY-SHOP!"
"
NEXT SATURDAY,MY MAGIC HAT WILL CHOOSE THE WINNER AND I'LL POST A VIDEO I MADE WITH THESE ADORABLE FAIRY-PUMPKINS-GIRLS, THAT DAY IN PUMPKINLAND!"
"
ALL THE PUMPKINS AND THE WOODEN BUTTERFLIES ARE HANDPAINTED AND EMBELLISHED BY ME (PINK DREAMER) AND THE LITTLE PAPER HOUSES WERE MADE BY MY LITTLE STUDENTS (ELVES!)"
"
THIS PARTY IN PUMPKINLAND WAS PUBBLISHED A FEW DAYS AGO ON OUR LOCAL NEWSPAPER HERE IN GREECE - NEXT SATURDAY I'LL SHOW YOU THE ARTICLE!"
"*I HOPE YOU REALLY ENJOYED YOUR MAGICAL VISIT TO...PUMPKINLAND!"
"(WHERE EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE!)"
"* PLEASE-PLEASE-PLEASE DON'T YOU EVER STOP BELIEVE IN MAGIC!*"
