Shocking Secret of Life

Posted on May 21, 2013 by YEG3BA

One of the great delights of sharing life with my wife is her voracious reading appetite.  She tells me about some books, she summarizes others and occasionally recommends one for me to read.  This she did recently with Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley in the early 19th century.

In her introduction, Shelley contemplates the ‘nature of the principle of life’ and suggests that ‘galvanism’ might reanimate a corpse.  About 30 years before Frankenstein was published, Luigi Galvani had discovered that electricity stimulated a muscle to contract.  In chapter five, Frankenstein “…collected the instruments of life…” so that he might infuse “…a spark of being into the lifeless thing…”  In Boris Karloff’s 1931 movie classic, a bolt of lightning animated the creature.

While the Torah conceals the nature of the ‘breath of life’ that God breathed into Adam (Genesis 2:7), today we understand that our bodies function by means of electrical currents traveling through cellular protein ion channels.  The beating of our hearts; the warm sunlight we feel upon our arms; our ability to see; all this and everything else functions because of tiny electrical currents coursing through our bodies.

Walk across a carpet then touch a metal doorknob.  The resulting crackle and spark prove our body’s ability to convey electricity.

The Hebrew word used today to mean electricity is CHaSH-MaL found in Ezekiel 1:4, and 1:27 which ancient Jewish wisdom explains as a powerful force that God put into the world that can be activated or switched off.  Electricity’s power began to be understood in the mid-18th century with the invention of the Leyden Jar, a glass jar lined inside and out with tin foil. An electrical charge can be built up on the inside foil which eventually jumps to the outer foil with a crackle and a spark.

If you know that both gold and tin foil are excellent conductors of energy and that wood and glass are not, the Leyden jar sounds very much like this:

They shall make an ark of acacia wood…coat it with pure gold, inside and outside…
(Exodus 25:10-11)

In this Thought Tool I am not going to discuss why God wanted the Ark of the Covenant to possess these electrical properties. I do want to explain that electricity was not invented while God’s attention was distracted.  Electricity is part of God’s blueprint of creation and His plan for life.

Indeed, electricity can restore life.  In the medical emergency of a person’s heart ceasing to function effectively, a small electrical shock is administered by a defibrillator to stimulate the heart back to regular rhythm.

Scripture records two parallel events of a prophet restoring the dead son of his landlady back to life. In I Kings 17:21, Elijah prayed then stretched himself out over the boy three times, and Elisha prayed then lay upon the boy in II Kings 4:34.

The Bible conceals the miracles’ details and I am not claiming that the prophets’ bodies emulated the paddles of a portable defibrillator but I am emphasizing that the enormous wonders of human life depend upon a tiny invisible force called electricity that God put into His creation.

Similarly, the amazing structures of our families and of systems that allow us to earn a living all depend on many tiny and invisible spiritual forces.  Just like electricity, these small spiritual forces need to be generated appropriately, conducted down correct channels and insulated from others.  They include forces like gratitude, faith, discipline, vision and communication.  Just like electricity they have disproportionate consequence.

God counted upon us to create textbooks and manuals teaching safe operation of electricity.  He gave us blueprints and directives for the safe operation of spiritual forces.  Our mission is to make them available to you as part of ancient Jewish wisdom. Abuse of power and contempt for in-utero life are found in Genesis along with guidance for dealing with those issues and transmitting correct values to children. We’d be honored and happy if you decided to listen to our 2 audio CD program, The Gathering Storm: Decoding the Secrets of Noah. Both download and mail formats of this mind-blowing and amazingly up-to-date resource are bargain-priced this week and, unlike Frankenstein, this information is true!

This week’s Susan’s Musings: America: The Board Game

For a while, one of my daughters was an avid RISK player. For those of you unfamiliar with that classic game, the goal is world domination, achieved through a combination of skill and luck.

America is not a board game. I am getting quite tired of hearing the IRS or Benghazi scandals…READ MORE

Ask the Rabbi

Hope you are doing well. I am so in awe of you and your ministry and am so grateful that I came to hear about you. Your resources are truly amazing and I have acquired quite a lot over the past months. Thank you so very much for the impact you have on so many lives.

I wonder if you can help, please.  Our Church is in desperate need of growth. The Pastor expects skilled people to come, assist, and bring the church vision to fruition. This includes major projects like implementing media ministry, outreaches… The expectation is that people give up substantial amounts of hours/days to implement this in the church…all for free. He is adamant that volunteers should build the ministry and that churches do not need to have core permanent staff to accomplish their vision.

Would you be able to comment please?

Many thanks,

Douline

Read Rabbi Daniel and Susan Lapin’s ANSWER HERE

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Posted on May 16, 2013 by YEG3BA

Fair is one of those words that in reality means very little.  When a child protests a punishment saying, “That’s not fair,” most of us try to explain why it really is fair.  A better response would be, “Hippopotami mostly eat grass.”  “What’s that got to do with anything?” the baffled offspring might ask. “Precisely!” you’d triumphantly exclaim.

Another word with little meaning is manipulative. When I once recommended an obvious course of action to a henpecked husband, he reared up to his full height and self-righteously announced, “Oh, I would never do that, it would be manipulative.”  Note: He’s still henpecked but not as bothered because he’s become used to it.

My point is that opening a faucet is being manipulative.  Asking for a raise in the most effective manner is as manipulative as dissipating your toddler’s temper tantrum by distracting him.  So what?  Fair doesn’t automatically mean good and manipulative doesn’t always mean bad.

I tell you all that in order to tell you this:  In every interchange between two parties, at any given moment, one is more powerful than the other.  For instance, when a customer walks into a shoe store, she is more powerful than the eager proprietor.  When it turns out that she absolutely must have that pair of shoes, the balance begins to switch.

When a man attempts to get a date with the object of his desire, she holds the power.  Once she’s foolishly allowed the dating to continue for three years in the hope of marriage, the power has clearly switched to him. Successful negotiation at both work and home demands a crystal clear awareness at all times of what the power dynamic looks like.

The Israelites beseech their new king to lower taxes.  He responds by instructing them to depart for three days and then return.

And he (Rehoboam) said to them: “Go away for three, days then return to me…”
(I Kings 12:5)

Clearly, he had no intention of lightening the yoke.  When they return three days later, he tells them that he is going to increase their burden significantly.

Since he already knew what he would say, why did he send them away for three days, rather than immediately giving them the bad news?

Ancient Jewish wisdom explains that King Rehoboam recognized that the Israelite delegation was presenting an ultimatum.  They approached him as potential rebels.  The recipient of an ultimatum is automatically at a disadvantage.  Instinctively desiring to regain the power initiative, he commanded them to leave and return.

This was for only one reason: When they returned three days later, they came as supplicants obeying his command.  The king was now in charge.  The balance had shifted, conferring an advantage upon him.

Try to make yourself conscious of what the power balance looks like in each moment of every interaction. Your goal should always be for both parties to thrive, but don’t think “fair.”  That only confuses. When your toddler doesn’t have a meltdown or your boss retains a valuable, motivated employee, everyone is better off.

Know how to arm and prepare yourself for encounters whenever possible.  If you’re out of ammunition, don’t point your gun.  Conversely, if you do hold the cards, be aware of it.  That’s not evilly manipulative.  It is making sure that you’re not merely a tennis ball floating down the gutter of life.  Sometimes, like the shoe shopper earlier, not disclosing your urgent need for something lets you bargain more successfully. Other times, if you are the one with more power, you can exhibit graciousness allowing the relationship to continue smoothly.

Susan and I love discussing ideas like this one on our daily TV show on TCT. We are able to go deeper into the topic than a short Thought Tool allows as well as to expand on how it relates to your finances, friendships, family and faith. We are delighted that Volume 2 of the Ancient Jewish Wisdom TV Show is now available on DVD with four more of your favorite episodes (save money by getting volume 1 at the same time). These shows are great for launching valuable conversations with your spouse, children and friends – even with yourself.

This week’s Susan’s Musings: Of Parents and Predators

When I heard that, after being taken into custody for kidnapping and raping three girls in Ohio, Ariel Castro was not able to raise $8 million dollars in bail, my first reaction was, “He should be facing a lynch mob, not a bail possibility.” Admittedly, lynch mobs have their problems…READ MORE

Ask the Rabbi

Is there any significance to the order in the creation account of the ‘evening and the morning’ were the first day, etc? Does the evening begin a new day rather than our view of morning being the start of a new day?

Charles J.

Read Rabbi Daniel and Susan Lapin’s ANSWER HERE

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We Interrupt This Ceremony

Posted on May 8, 2013 by YEG3BA

Next week, our offices and store will be closed from sunset
Tuesday night PT through an hour after sunset Thursday night
in obedience to God’s command to not work
on the festival days of Shavuot (Pentecost).  We are scheduling
Thought Tools to go out early Friday morning.
We appreciate your patience.

Have you ever attended a company’s annual shareholder meeting?  A couple’s fortieth wedding anniversary?  A school graduation?  A president’s inauguration?  These occasions share pomp, ceremony, and ceremonial structure that go way beyond their utilitarian function.  The music, the way people are dressed and the formal proceedings all help to conjure an atmosphere of unforgettable significance.  We can use this principle to add meaning to our lives.

Deuteronomy 31 opens with Moses telling Israel that he’s 120 years-old and Joshua will soon take over.  “Be strong and of good courage,” he says, and assures the nation that God will never forsake them.  (Deuteronomy 31:1-6)

The next two verses describe Moses charging Joshua with the task of leadership. (Deuteronomy 31:7-8)

Here’s what should come next:

And God said to Moses, now your days approach death, call Joshua and present yourselves in the Tent of Meeting that I may command him…
(Deuteronomy 31:14)

But this verse follows only after five intervening verses interrupt the flow. These verses explain that Moses wrote down the Torah, entrusted it to the priests and instituted a massive convention every seven years at which the Torah would be read before the entire nation — men, women, and children. (Deuteronomy 31:9-13)

Why does this instruction for a once-every-seven-years-Torah-reading-convention interrupt the story of the succession of leadership?

The clue lies in Moses’ use of the first word in verse 12, the verb “gather” or in Hebrew, HaKHeL.

This word is spelled exactly the same way as one of the Hebrew words for, “the congregation,” HaKaHaL. Hebrew in the Torah is written without vowels, so two words that have different pronunciations and meanings are sometimes spelled identically. In a way that is unique to God’s language, this similarity between words tells us to look at those words together.  When we encounter the word made up of the consonants HKHL we are reminded that we saw it used twice earlier in Deuteronomy describing the revelatory encounter at Sinai.

The day when you stood before the Lord your God in Horeb (Sinai), when the Lord said to me, gather (HKHL) the people…
(Deuteronomy 4:10)

and

And the Lord gave me two tablets of stone written with the finger of God;
and on them were written all the words which the Lord spoke with you…
on the day of the gathering (HKHL)
(Deuteronomy 9:10)

Interrupting the story of Joshua’s succession with news of a once in seven years special national Torah shareholders meeting tells us the most important thing about any future leader of Israel. Leadership must always be subservient to the nation’s constitution—the Torah.

At this dramatic reminder of the Sinai experience, shofars (ram horns) will be blown and the king of Israel will sit on a large platform reading the whole Torah aloud to the nation.  Being told about this powerful ceremony at this crucial point near Moses’ death, places the transfer of power to Joshua in context.  Leaders can change as long as allegiance to the Torah doesn’t.

Like the ceremonies that surround this gathering, like the pomp of a graduation, the way we dress for work or family functions is an important tool for establishing the importance of those events.  Sitting at a table and eating off attractive plates, rather than grabbing food on the fly, transforms eating from an animal-like to an exclusively human activity. Writing your daily journal with a fountain pen filled with green ink in a finely bound notebook rather than scrawling it with a free give-away promotional ball point pen on a scrap of old dog-eared paper, reflects the weight you put on your writing.

I appreciate how many of you took time to respond to the online survey we emailed you on Monday. I’m sorry that the scheduling of the survey caused suspicion that it might be a hacking attempt. Meanwhile, we have another piece of exciting news. The feedback to our Ancient Jewish Wisdom television show DVD was so enthusiastic that we are introducing Volume 2 (also available with Volume 1 in the Ancient Jewish Wisdom TV Show Set). It includes four more of your favorite shows during which Susan and I reveal practical insights that flow from the Bible and the Hebrew language.

P.S. Order a library pack right now and get Ancient Jewish Wisdom Television Show Volume 2 free before the updated price goes into effect.

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This week’s Susan’s Musings: What’s My Price?

There are parts of my job that I avoid. They are the tasks that make me feel a passionate longing to run and get the mail or find some other reason to bolt from my chair. These tasks set me squirming and gratefully answering a telemarketer’s phone call.

Every job has these elements. A friend of mine…READ MORE

Ask the Rabbi

A number of years ago when I was a teenager I stole $60 from my employer.

It was not until a few years later that I felt guilty about what I had done. I still feel guilty to this day even though it was 20 years ago. I feel like what I did interferes with my relationship with God. Should I seek out my former employer confess, and offer them restitution? Does God require this of me?

I am not sure what to do.

Lili

Read Rabbi Daniel and Susan Lapin’s ANSWER HERE

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Don’t Go Bananas!

Posted on April 30, 2013 by YEG3BA

Our bodies need potassium to help maintain normal blood pressure and heart function.  The good news is that a banana supplies about 10% of the potassium we need each day.  The bad news: potassium is toxic.  Potassium poisoning is called hyperkalemia, not a pleasant condition.  Before throwing out all your bananas, read on.

Tenure made it possible for university professors to teach without fear of being fired regardless of prevailing politics.  Making it impossible to terminate a teacher seemed a good idea.  Yet, one wonders, do all tenured academics really pay their way? Or do they get sloppy about teaching, seeing no need to engage with their material or students?

Unions once served a vital need. However, a caller to my radio show recently told of gaining a union manufacturing job where he was sternly warned by fellow workers and union bosses to slow down his productivity.

Slow is the operative word.  Have you noticed how slowly some post office clerks saunter to serve you?  How about Department of Motor Vehicles workers? In Washington DC the only people rushing are on their way to lunch.  In fact, few government workers exhibit the slightest urgency about their work.

If you’re trying to obtain a job, a promotion or a raise, never meander. Stride purposefully even if you’re going to the washroom.  Few behaviors irritate the person paying your salary more than seeing you amble around as if on a seaside promenade.

Always act as if there is a shortage of time.  You know why? Because there really is a shortage of time.  Here’s a bonus: acting with urgency brings professional advancement.  As the wise King Solomon put it:

See a man urgent about his work—he will stand among kings.
(Proverbs 22:29)

It is bad enough that dawdling makes you look listless and lethargic to others.  Far worse, that is also how you begin to appear to yourself. Drifting through your day makes you feel complacent and fills you with an illusion of security.  Few of us do our best work while feeling overly secure.

When your boss says, “I want you to feel at home here,” he doesn’t mean he wants to see you draped lazily over a couch for the afternoon.

For best results, even in our homes we shouldn’t feel too much at home! Taking the most important relationships in our lives for granted is a recipe for disaster.

God’s wisdom ensures that even on your own land in Israel, you shouldn’t feel too laid-back and over-secure. You thought it was your own land? Well, guess what! You can’t sell it completely.

The land shall not be sold in perpetuity for the land is mine and
you shall be strangers and temporary residents with me.
(Leviticus 25:23)

God wants us always to feel like strangers?  Right! He doesn’t want us ever to feel too secure because excessive security destroys drive, annihilates ambition, and kills creativity.  Being a stranger means not feeling at home and thus it means putting your best foot forward, and doing so swiftly not slowly. Tenure? Unions that make it impossible for anyone to lose their job regardless of malfeasance?  Well, when they create a sense of excessive security, they are not so good. Not for the people who can’t be fired and not for the people who depend on their work.

A little security allows us to sleep at night; too much security encourages us to sleep during the day.  A little potassium — just what the doctor ordered.  Too much — danger. And those bananas?  Yes, eating about 10,000 in half an hour could be perilous.

What is not perilous is learning the practical applications of Scriptural principles.  These can significantly reroute your destiny by changing how you think, who you become and how you perform. Knowing that many of you are pressed for time, we work hard to reveal one life-altering lesson from ancient Jewish wisdom in each Thought Tool. Have a collection at your fingertips, with our Thought Tools Set, on sale this week. Take full advantage of these priceless nuggets and share them with those you love.

P.S. Available individually on Kindle at a new, low price.

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This week’s Susan’s Musings: Opting for Optimism

Looking up from my computer screen, I see blue sky, green bushes and pink flowering trees. In the northwest, we don’t take that scene for granted. Coupled with the serenity of the library where I am working, all seems well with the world.

That is an illusion, of course. I came to this spot…READ MORE

Ask the Rabbi

I recently celebrated my 32nd birthday. Every year at this time, I feel as though I have wandered aimlessly through the wilderness with no particular target. Does God have a plan for my life, or am I supposed to plan my own path and ask Him to bless it?

Christopher J.

Read Rabbi Daniel and Susan Lapin’s ANSWER HERE

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Bible Codes – Real or Rubbish?

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Rabbi Daniel Lapin

Hidden codes embedded in Scripture!  Bible codes predict terrorist attacks!  Sensationalistic headlines like these have been seen for years.  Melodramatic books with extravagant claims appeared in the mid-1990s often written by authors with little Hebrew knowledge.

So frequently am I asked about this that I’m devoting this Thought Tool to the topic.  While in yeshiva, my teachers often showed me cryptic references to codes in the Five Books of Moses.  These are alluded to in the pre-WWII works of Rabbi Chaim Michel Dov Weissmandl, the volumes of Rabbeinu Bachya (c. 1300) and many others.

How do they work?  Look at the color study guide found in each of our four Genesis Journeys sets.  (We have posted it here as well.)You see the 27 letters of the Hebrew alphabet laid out in 3 rows of 9 letters each.  Each letter possesses a specific numeric value, so the rows can be viewed as 1-9, 10-90, and 100-900.  Furthermore, columns have meaning as well.  For example, 500 is an elevated, more intense form of 50, which, in turn, intensifies 5, which always suggests the FIVE books of Moses.

The first line of William Shakespeare’s play, King Henry VI, reads, “Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night.”  Imagine discovering that the 50th letter counting from the first ‘S’ in ‘heavens’ yields an ‘H’. Counting a further 50 letters we come across an ‘A’. Continuing, we discover that Shakespeare encoded his name into the opening of all his plays in this fashion.  He didn’t.  But if he did, it would eliminate all controversy about who really wrote those plays.

Well, counting by 50 from the first instance of the first letter of the Hebrew word for Torah in the first two and last two of the Five Books of Moses yields the entire word TORAH. (The middle book, Leviticus, reveals a different word, for reasons we don’t have space to explore here.)

There are hundreds of similar examples throughout the Torah, which defy mathematical odds. An amazing sequence is found in Genesis 38. This chapter introduces the strange circumstances leading to the birth of Peretz, the 9th level grandfather of King David.  In Genesis 38:11-28, using the counts of 50, we find embedded the names, Ruth, Boaz, Oved, Yishai (Jesse), and David in that chronological order. These, of course, are King David’s father, grandfather, and great-grandparents. Statistical calculations show that the odds of this happening by chance are well over a million to one.

Why did God put the codes in the Torah?  Perhaps, so that in future years, when people would become scientifically advanced and secularized and come to doubt that the Torah is God’s message to mankind, they would encounter the codes, known to Torah-knowledgeable Jews but otherwise discoverable only with computers. They will be thrown into consternation and doubt. They will ask, “Is it possible that the Torah really is the word of God?”

In the early 80s I was in regular touch with some of the first Israeli computer scientists exploring the codes, like distinguished mathematicians Eliyahu Rips and Doron Witztum.  They were searching for the patterns hinted at in early Hebrew writings and requested my help in securing computing equipment. Back then, computers were big and expensive but my California congregation willingly participated in purchasing several computers that we dispatched to our researcher friends in Israel.  In return, we asked to be kept informed of all progress, gaining early data on code research.

Are the codes authentic?  Those passed down since Sinai certainly are. However, since the codes became a media event, some people have attempted to sensationalize them. For this reason, there is both valid and not valid information about codes to be found.

Codes are only one of the astonishing surprises embedded in the Hebrew Torah. With current events unfolding as they are, understanding prophecies and material about Islam is vital to productively living our lives. I encourage you to explore Clash of Destiny: Decoding the Secrets of Israel and Islam, at a reduced price this week. Our Income Abundance Set also remains on sale for a short while longer, providing practical guidance to flourishing financially even in these uncertain times.

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Read the most recent Ask the Rabbi question and answer here

Is it right for married couples to study the bible separately as in a women’s only bible study?

Thank You,

Kathy

Read Rabbi Daniel and Susan Lapin’s ANSWER HERE

This week’s Susan’s Musings: Right Wing (Fill in the Blank)

Actually, I’ll fill it in for you. The answer is, “extremist.” If you say the words, “great, green, greasy” to my children, they will shout out, “Limpopo River”, based on Rudyard Kipling stories that my husband told them while they were growing up. If you then said that you were thinking of an avocado burger or an emerald suntan lotion, that information wouldn’t dislodge the association with “Limpopo River” from their minds. For my children, the words “great, green and greasy” lead to one and only one conclusion.

Sadly, language has been manipulated to form an equation between the benign word ‘right’…READ MORE

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