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

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

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 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

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

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 50^th 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 9^th 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

In 2012 Johnson received fifty million dollars to sign on as the CEO of 111 year-old J.C.Penney.  Seventeen months later, the giant retailer was in ruins and Ron Johnson was fired.

Attempting to make his new employer as “cool” as his former one, he replaced coupons, clearance racks, and sales with designer boutiques.  He fired many key employees, shuttered famous Penney brands and began airing commercials that mocked J.C. Penney customers as stodgy.  Within a year, sales were down a jaw-dropping 30% and the company was out of cash.

How did such a brilliantly successful retailer make such fatal errors?  Well, he was no longer selling highly desirable products available nowhere else and he no longer had an unlimited budget or Steve Jobs as mentor and manager.  He dismissed critics often telling employees that there were ‘believers’ and ‘skeptics,’ leaving little doubt as to the probable fate of the skeptics.

If someone with Johnson’s impeccable credentials, degrees from Stanford and Harvard along with his success at Target and Apple can stumble so badly, each of us in our own lives, whether in our families or in our work, can easily do the same.  What is the antidote?

Do you remember that Isaac and Rebecca had two sons?  Rather than parenting as a unified couple, unfortunately, Isaac had a special relationship with one while Rebecca enjoyed a special relationship with the other.

For instance, after Esau married two Hittite women, Rebecca made no secret about how she felt towards her daughters-in-law.

Rebecca said to Isaac, I am disgusted with my life on account
of the daughters of the Hittites…
(Genesis 27:46)

Nonetheless, Esau ignored his mother’s displeasure.  He only reacted once he learned that his father also despised the Hittites.

Then Esau realized that the daughters of Canaan were evil in the eyes of Isaac,
his father.  So Esau went to Yishmael and took
Machalat the daughter of Yishmael…as a wife for himself.
(Genesis 28:8-9)

Even then, unlike his brother Jacob who sought a wife from his mother’s family, Esau spurned Rebecca’s family and turned to his father’s side.

When Isaac died, Esau is named ahead of Jacob in the burial service on account of his devotion to his father.

…his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
(Genesis 35:29)

Yet, when Rebecca died while Jacob was working for Lavan far away, ancient Jewish wisdom notes that Esau played no role in her burial.

Jacob, with guidance from both Isaac and Rebecca, becomes the father of Israel while Esau, disdaining a relationship with his mother, becomes the father of Edom and Amalek, eternal enemies of Israel.

God created a world where a physical contribution from both male and female produces children. The physical world provides a window into the spiritual one. Children do best when receiving guidance from two adults who are committed to each other and to the child, but who come from two strongly different vantage points – as different as male is from female.

Heed, my son, the command of your father,
and do not forsake the teaching of your mother.
(Proverbs 6:20)

Esau missed out on the benefit of the guidance and constructive criticism that suited Rebecca’s background and personality more than Isaac’s.   Some of us are blessed enough to have received input from two wise parents. All of us, especially those who didn’t, need to seek input, advice and yes, even criticism, from diverse people worthy of giving it. If Ron Johnson had been better at doing so, he might still today be doing for J.C. Penney what he did for Target and Apple.

Exposing ourselves to deserving differing views is a valuable asset in both the family and business worlds. Our Income Abundance Set contains many such transformational teachings. With emptier pockets after tax day, we hope you take advantage of this week’s sale to gain practical wisdom and abundantly fill them again.

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Read the most recent Ask the Rabbi question and answer here

What is the lesson God wants us to learn from the book of Ruth?

Sheila C.

Read Rabbi Daniel and Susan Lapin’s ANSWER HERE

This week’s Susan’s Musings: Kumbayah, You’re Dead

It is ever so much easier to do evil than it is to do good. Add up the mental and physical effort necessary to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Add the hours used for practice, the complex planning needed to free up the day and get to the location, along with the money raised for charity by sponsoring runners. Don’t forget the thousands of details that go into organizing an event of this magnitude. Then take one or more people with evil intent…READ MORE

Have you ever…

(i)     caught yourself speaking or acting just the way your parents did?

(ii)    experienced hostile emotions or expressed negativity about a parent?

(iii)    been slightly embarrassed to catch yourself imitating an expression or gesture of a celebrity?

Your ‘Yes!’ reminds us of the mysterious power our parents exert upon our souls and the extent to which influential people we encounter impact our inner natures.

Our susceptibility to being influenced in this fashion can harm our lives because few of the occasions to which we need to respond grant us the luxury of lengthy contemplation.

Whether in professional, social, or family settings, our instinctive reaction to challenging circumstances is unlikely to be the most productive one.

We regularly react to events more because of how we’ve been shaped rather than by carefully analyzing them. How do we overcome this?

As usual, I seek guidance in a verse from Scripture:

Obadiah feared God greatly.  And Ahab summoned Obadiah
who was in charge of the household.

Or wait, is it this verse?

Ahab summoned Obadiah who was in charge of the household;
and Obadiah feared God greatly.

Which version do you think is the real one?  (I told you there were four questions.)  Shouldn’t the verse first introduce Obadiah as God-fearing before relating how his boss summoned him?

Yet, it is my second version that is true. (I Kings 18:3) This leaves us wondering why we’re told Obadiah feared God only after Ahab summoned him.

Ancient Jewish wisdom fills in the missing pieces.  In response to King Ahab and Queen Jezebel’s wickedness, God inflicted famine upon their land.  Ahab called Obadiah and said to him, “Even the wicked Laban was blessed by having God-fearing Jacob in his home.”  Laban actually announces his recognition of this reality.

…I have discovered through divination that God has blessed me because of you.
(Genesis 30:27)

King Ahab continues, “Evidently you are not righteous because God is clearly not blessing me because of you.”

Therefore, the verse concludes:

…and Obadia feared God greatly.

God withheld blessing from Ahab because of his own shortcomings, not because of Obadiah’s.

Ancient Jewish wisdom contrasts righteous Obadiah with wicked Esau.  Esau, raised by his saintly parents, Isaac and Rebecca, nonetheless became wicked. Meanwhile Obadiah abandoned the pagan Edomites who raised him, converted to Judaism, found himself serving the loathsome Ahab and Jezebel, yet remained righteous.

Our backgrounds influence us one way or the other. Either we rebel against them determined to be nothing like, say, our parents or we subconsciously emulate them.  Esau rebelled against the virtue in which he was raised.  Obadiah was immune to the early influences in his life.

An important difference is hinted at in their names.  Esau in Hebrew means ‘ready-made.’  His name reflects his tendency to act instinctively and do his own thing.  Acting instinctively of course is just another way of saying acting entirely subserviently or rebelliously to earlier influences.

Obadiah’s name in Hebrew means serving God.  This reflects his tendency to evaluate his choices according to a Divine matrix and explains his rescuing a hundred prophets from Jezebel and saving their lives. (I Kings 18:4)

The key is that each time we act according to the Divine matrix rather than responding to our instinctive feelings, we increase our future ability to respond to coming circumstances correctly.

Developing quick but accurate reactions is enormously valuable in our business lives and often spells the difference between financial success and stagnation.  Our best-selling book, Thou Shall Prosper-The Ten Commandments for Making Money has helped bring financial abundance to so many precisely because it teaches you how to change not only what you do but what you are.  In ten powerfully transforming chapters this book crystalizes the tips and tools of ancient Jewish wisdom helping people of every background, whether employed, seeking employment, or entrepreneur, to generate more income sooner rather than later. We are offering it at a special price this week in the hopes that you will gladly pay more taxes next year due to greater income (rather than higher confiscatory rates).

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Read the most recent Ask the Rabbi question and answer here

My husband’s father recently died. Because of his mother’s health/physical impairments, she needs assistance going to bed and getting up in the morning. She wants to stay in Michigan half a year and go to Georgia with her daughters for the other half of the year (where she is currently until spring). When she is in Michigan, my husband has to stay overnight with her. This was the situation from June – November, and frankly, it didn’t make me (his wife) a happy camper. We finally compromised and he got 2 nights home with me, and 5 nights with his mom.

I understand it was difficult for her to lose her husband, but she didn’t seem to care that essentially I was losing my husband as well. Due to her physical limitations, she cannot move in with us. Even though we have a few more months before she wants to come back, what are his/our obligations in light of the Bible to her? My selfish side wants to say, stay in Georgia. But it is his Mom.

Patty

Read Rabbi Daniel and Susan Lapin’s ANSWER HERE

This week’s Susan’s Musings: Supporting A Christian Family on Holocaust Remembrance Day

‘Coincidentally,’ I became aware of the plight of the Romeike family on Holocaust Remembrance Day. In 2008, the Romeike family fled to the United States because their desire to homeschool their children ran counter to the law in their native Germany. Threatened with escalating fines and the probable removal of their children from their home…READ MORE

One section of the Torah, filled with horrifying descriptions of misery, begins with these words:

…if you do not listen to the voice of the Lord your God…
(Deuteronomy 28:15)

The following 52 verses describe how badly life deteriorates when God’s blueprint for social organization, as laid out in the rest of the Bible, is ignored. God’s system regulates both our relationship with Him and with other people. When individual property rights are not protected, poverty ensues.  When the legal system fails to treat both wealthy achievers as well as the destitute fairly, social cohesion collapses.  When concupiscent degeneracy displaces family life, vulgarity overwhelms the culture.

As people turn away from a Heaven-centric vision of life, growing numbers become takers rather than makers. Ordinary citizens lose both the will and the ability to defend themselves against internal predators and external enemies. Within only a few generations, once strong, successful and vibrant societies decline to geopolitical insignificance. Their people suffer in anguish never quite understanding what happened.

The frightening section ends:

God will return you to Egypt in ships…and there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as slaves and maids but there will be no buyer.
(Deuteronomy 28:68)

Why would the final consequence of living a life of secular decadence be finding ourselves transported back into Egypt by ships?

The Hebrew word for ship, ANiYaH contains the first person pronoun “I” (In Hebrew-ANi). It always implies a journey of significance, either positive or negative.

As common figures of speech like “my voyage of discovery” indicate, crossing an ocean is a natural metaphor for any significant journey.  The most significant ocean crossing in Israel’s history was crossing the Red Sea.  They didn’t have to use boats.  God split the ocean enabling them to walk across on dry land.

We now have enough information to understand Deuteronomy 28:68.

General decadence, decline, and decay are all consequences for a society that abandons God’s blueprint.  The final blow is that people lose the joy of being unique creative individuals voluntarily seeking out their Egypt.  As usual, God leads them along the road of their choice.

Scripture’s Egypt is not just a country from which God took the Israelites during the Exodus.  The Hebrew word for Egypt, M-TZ-R-IM also means narrow, confined, and restricted. Sadly, humans who have abandoned their Godly side often crave that very lack of freedom. They willingly relinquish their God-given destiny in exchange for a (false) promise of assured sustenance and safety even though doing so will forever constrain the limitless potential they once enjoyed.

The final blow is discovering that nobody wants them.  Having sunk into self-indulgent depravity, they have so little value that even as slaves they can find no buyers.

Passover reminds us that partnering with God grants us limitless creativity. We need to continually avoid and escape from whatever is confining us and preventing us from achieving our ultimate purpose.

The need to escape our Egypts, whether they are addictions, lack of education, family difficulties, poverty or something else has never been more urgent. Our personal Egypt is anything that limits us using our God-given talents. I have published a powerful, practical, and effective audio program entitled Let My People Me Go-How to Overcome Life’s Challenges and Escape Your Own Egypt. It provides motivation as well as tools and techniques for escaping your Egypt.  At a reduced price right now, it is a priceless portal to success and happiness for you, your family, and friends and is a great way to kickstart the second quarter of 2013.

(Last 24 hours for our special Passover sale on library packs.)

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Read the most recent Ask the Rabbi question and answer here

I watched you and Susan on TCT talk about Yom Kippur and you said the word afflict is the Hebrew word ve-eenitem  and it also means to answer. Your teaching is wonderful but when I look in Strong’s Concordance the Hebrew word used in Numbers and Leviticus is 6031, anah (sorry I can’t punctuate or write Hebrew).

Help me understand.

Shalom, Shalom

Rich

Read Rabbi Daniel and Susan Lapin’s ANSWER HERE

This week’s Susan’s Musings: Home Libraries

What a world! Just as we begin changing the look of our house, the décor that has characterized us since we got married comes into fashion! According to recent reports, home libraries are booming.  This puts an entirely different slant on the thousands of books we have lying around. Instead of following our recently instituted policy…READ MORE

We appreciate your patience.
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Please remember that emails purporting to be from me offering goods, services, or deals other than on the ancient Jewish wisdom resources that we publish are nothing but illegal spam and should be deleted.
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Our family and millions of people around the world are in the midst of the Passover holyday, recalling Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. Amazingly, one incident came close to jeopardizing the whole enterprise.

Just before Moses and Aaron confront Pharaoh, God threatens Moses for neglecting to circumcise his son.  Had Moses’ wife, Tziporah, not intervened, God would have terminated Moses’ career.  (Exodus 4:24-26) What is going on?

We get a clue from the language used in and around this event:

…the Lord met him (Moses)
(Exodus 4:24)

… (Aaron) go into the desert to meet Moses…
(Exodus 4:27)

While there are a number of Hebrew words throughout the Bible that translate in English as, “meet,” the specific root word used here is P-G-SH. One of the tools for understanding Scripture is to note when a Hebrew word is rarely used. In those cases, we should look for similarities in the unusual appearances. P-G-SH appears only four times in the Five Books of Moses.  We see it twice in our instance in Exodus and twice while Jacob is on his way to meet his brother Esau.

…when Esau my brother meets you…
(Genesis 32:18)

…what did you intend by that whole camp that I met…
(Genesis 33:8)

Thus the word P-G-SH (meet) appears in only two stories in the Torah, both of which involve a man (Jacob/Moses) on a mission, traveling with his entire family, leaving his father-in-law (Lavan/Yitro).  In the midst of the journey, each man encounters a Divine being who presents a mortal threat. (In Jacob’s case, he meets the angel with whom he wrestles, Genesis 32:25-33)

Ancient Jewish wisdom tells us that Jacob did not leave Lavan’s house as promptly as he should have, to some degree from fear at confronting the terrifying Esau.  Similarly, Moses, on his way to confront a frightening Pharaoh, made an unnecessary stop at a hotel. (Exodus 4:24) Even though God had promised His protection, both men delayed approaching their destiny partially out of fear of a scary personality.  In each case, they end up in a life-threatening situation. The lesson to us is clear: Despite our fears, avoiding our life purpose and destiny is more dangerous than meeting it head on.

You or I may not be on the level of Jacob or Moses. God may speak to us more subtly and our missions may be on a smaller scale. Yet each and every one of us has a purpose in life, the reason for which God put us on this earth. Invariably, we face formidable challenges on our road to accomplishment. Intimidating people often stand in our way, telling us we are foolish for following our path or even threatening us if we continue to move forward.  The instances with Jacob and Moses remind us that when we have a mission to do, we should unhesitatingly race past all obstacles to do it. Like all else in Scripture, the details of the stories and the specific words used serve as blueprints for enhancing our lives, encouraging us to courageously meet our own destinies.

We strive to transmit these and dozens of other powerful and effective principles for improving your life in our audio CDs, DVD and books. Our goal is to provide access to ancient Jewish wisdom to enrich your faith, family and fortune. During this Passover week, we are offering both our Complete Library Pack and our Complete Library Pack Plus for an additional 10% off the already deeply discounted prices.  Now, as we end the first quarter of 2013, is a really good time to equip yourself and those you love with this priceless wisdom.

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Read the most recent Ask the Rabbi question and answer here

Why are we all made so uneven? Some are born into affluence and some into poverty. Some are born into health some into misery. Some are born in America, with all its advantages, some into primitive tribes.

Well you get the idea. Some people believe this unevenness can be blamed on some evil thing the infant does. This doesn’t seem right to me. Some believe this can be blamed on what some ancestor did. This doesn’t seem right either. How can all this be the result of a benevolent and omnipotent Creator?

William D.

Read Rabbi Daniel and Susan Lapin’s ANSWER HERE

This week’s Susan’s Musings: Lark Rise

Over the past few months, I’ve been watching a BBC series called Lark Rise to Candleford.  I admit to being a sucker for the British accents, the clothing and the setting, a pastoral part of northern England in pre-World War I days.

Two of the recurring characters are cousins; women who made different life choices. One, the postmistress, is an outspoken spinster…READ MORE

Please be aware that someone is sending emails, pretending to be from me,  trying to sell disreputable products and services.  We do not allow our email list to be used for anything but the ancient Jewish wisdom and Biblical resources that we ourselves publish.  Any email offering you anything else is spam and not from us.  We are now blessed with aggressive, competent legal and technical support that is working on identifying and prosecuting the perpetrators. Meanwhile, please delete any emails claiming to be from me or Thought Tools that promote non-Biblical products or services that are not found on our web store at https://www.rabbidaniellapin.com/store.php This has been an immensely aggravating episode for us and if you have received any of these illegal emails, I am truly sorry for the inconvenience you’ve endured.

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A friend’s new assistant didn’t arrive at the office until 11am and began packing up to leave at 2pm!  “Didn’t we agree you’d work all day today?” he asked.  “Yes,” she replied,  “but I have to think of me.”  She seemed surprised to be fired.  This wasn’t the first story of its kind that I’d heard.  Why are so many people clueless about a job?

We have all become so obsessed with freedom, rights, and choice that we’ve forgotten how much of our success and happiness is owed to restraint, duties, and rules.  Learning to place ourselves under authority is one message of Passover. Today’s educational system largely fails to teach this important skill so necessary for obtaining and keeping a job.  By contrast, the military does a splendid job teaching that the only way to get to give orders is to learn first to accept them.  The road to promotion leads through obedience.

Many mistakenly believe that Passover celebrates liberation.  But Moses never told Pharaoh, “Let my people go.”  God’s message really was, “Let my people go so that they may worship me in the desert.”  God did not free the Jews from being servants; he just freed them from being servants to Egypt.  Henceforth they were to be servants to Him.

Being enslaved by a man or a government makes less of us.  However choosing to be a servant of God transforms us into free and independent champions. Passover celebrates accepting God’s rules rather than rejecting the idea of having a boss.

Passover is an annual inoculation against a false idea. We could think that people would thrive if left to their own devices, without any external system of rules. Like the small child who yells, “You’re not the boss of me,” too many adults think that freedom means indulging every personal desire.

Being enslaved by Pharaoh served a vital function.  It taught the embryonic Jewish people how to take orders.  Thus, Passover celebrates the years of Jewish slavery as much as it does the exodus from Egypt. While the Egyptians were certainly responsible for their cruel behavior, Jews from then on recognize that the experience was a valuable one. The slavery had a purpose, teaching that all people are enslaved.  One’s only choice is whether to be enslaved to God’s rules or to a variety of bizarre human ideologies.

On this Monday night, we’ll celebrate the Passover Seder.  We will pore over a lengthy and detailed account of the Exodus, taste tear inducing bitter herbs with matzoh and solemnly drink four cups of wine to commemorate both slavery and redemption.

Paradoxically, true independence comes not through the abolition of all rules but through the acceptance of Divine rules.  Moses did urge Pharaoh to let the people go.  Not to free them from all authority, but to allow them to serve the One Authentic Authority.  This way, by bringing rules and structure into their lives they would gain real freedoms and choices.  What marvelous training for a job as well as for all of life itself.

This idea, like so many other valuable ones, flows directly from Hebrew. Our book, Buried Treasure: Secrets for Living from the Lord’s Language, explores more than twenty-five words that hold wisdom for your life, even if you can’t read one letter of Hebrew. Get it on sale right now. You’ll be amazed at what a difference a word can make.

Also available on Kindle and Nook!

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Read the most recent Ask the Rabbi question and answer here

Dear Rabbi,

Why is Wisdom referred to as female in gender in the book of Proverbs?

Yolanda

Read Rabbi Daniel and Susan Lapin’s ANSWER HERE

This week’s Susan’s Musings: Cleaning and Loving It

I have a friend who gets little pleasure from cooking. It is a reality of life for her rather than a tactile, sensual experience. That is, unless she is cooking for the Sabbath. When she does that, the activity is infused with meaning and importance and changes from an annoying necessity into a higher calling.

I feel somewhat the same about cleaning…READ MORE