One in Messiah Congregation ÷ÌÈäÈì àÆçÈã áÌÀîÌÈùÑÄéçÇ
Part of the Congregation of Israel òÂãÇú éÄùÒÀøÈàÅì
All welcome
Shabbat Shalom
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Let’s pray
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God has His own calendar
We are now in the 1st month Nisan / ha Aviv, 12th day
Today we use the Gregorian calendar from Pope Gregory, from the 1500’s
April 16, 2011
April - The traditional etymology is from the Latin aperire, "to open," in allusion to its being the season when trees and flowers begin to "open," which is supported by comparison with the modern Greek use of ἁνοιξις (opening) for spring.
Since some of the Roman months were named in honor of divinities, and as April was sacred to Venus, the Festum Veneris et Fortunae Virilis being held on the first day, it has been suggested that Aprilis was originally her month Aphrilis, from her Greek name Aphrodite (Aphros), or from the Etruscan name Apru.
Jacob Grimm suggests the name of a hypothetical god or hero, Aper or Aprus.
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My ministry is a teaching ministry to bring up topics in the Bible that have never been discussed or mentioned in your life.
They have been deleted from your knowledge. You haven’t a clue they are missing. I will undelete them.
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For your convenience, all my studies may be viewed at these websites below:
Read, Hear, Watch – Please Do them!
You can read them on my site at http://oneinmessiah.net/subjects.htm
You can hear them on my site at http://oneinmessiah.net/av.htm
You can watch them on my site at http://oneinmessiah.net/videoFiles.htm
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I would love to come and give a talk at your congregation, school or home on the Hebrew roots of your faith from the Scriptures, not Judaism.
Click here: http://oneinmessiah.net/ScheduleMe.htm
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Before we start, first a short review of the dates of Spring Feasts and Holy Days again:
It seems I can never review these days early enough for you, this is the 7th time.
Here are the dates for 2011:
**Remember, all 2011 dates I give you start in the *evening before*
Passover
will be on Monday April 18th, then the First day of the Feast of
Unleavened Bread will be Tuesday, April 19th,
a Sabbath
Monday, the 25th of April, will be the last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a Sabbath
The Feast of Weeks (a Sabbath) will be Sunday June 12th
--------------------------------
Well, I hope you
survived tax day yesterday
Yeshua said:
Mark.12
[13] … certain of
the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch
him in his words,
[14] And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that
thou art true, and carest for no man:
for thou regardest
not the person of men, but teachest the way of
God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?
[15] Shall we give, or shall we not give? But he, knowing their
hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? bring
me a penny, that I may see it.
[16] And they brought it. And he saith unto them, Whose
is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar's.
[17] And Jesus answering said unto them, Render
to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.
And they marvelled
at him.
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Today's Topic - Beware
of Mother Goddess Worship
Easter
=
Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, "The Queen of Heaven’’ is
found on Assyrian monuments as ‘‘Ishtar’’
Goddess of spring
Fertile rabbits and colored Easter
eggs
Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians
The great goddess Diana
Sabbath Queen Doctrine in Judaism
I have a Catholic Bible and they call
Mary the Queen of Heaven
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All this below is a cover-up of the Feasts of Yehovah
Let’s begin:
Easter – fertility, goddesses
The pagan worship of Easter (another form
of the Queen of Heaven)
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Let’s look
back at 2008
The
Gregorian calendar is the most widely used calendar
in the world today.
It is a
reform of the Julian calendar, first
proposed by the Calabrian
doctor Aloysius Lilius,
and decreed by Pope Gregory XIII, for
whom it was named, on 24 February 1582 by papal bull
Inter gravissimas.
This is what
happens, every few years, in the Gregorian calendar,
made-up in the 1500's, the calendar we use each day of
our lives.
"Check
your Gregorian calendar for 2008"
March
23 -
2008 - Easter (pagan name) - or resurrection day - should be "First Fruits"
April
20 -
2008 - Passover, when the Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) dies
I hope you
see this Gregorian calendar has Messiah "rising from the dead" almost "a month before He dies".
Think that over…
-------------
Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians
- "goddesses"
1Kgs. 11
[1]
But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of
Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites,
Zidonians,
and Hittites;
[2] Of the nations concerning which Yehovah
said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall
they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their
gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.
[3]
And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his
wives turned away his heart.
[4]
For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives
turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not
perfect with Yehovah his God, as was the heart of
David his father.
[5]
For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the
abomination of the Ammonites.
[6]
And Solomon did evil in the sight of Yehovah, and went
not fully after Yehovah, as did David his father.
[7] Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the
abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech,
the abomination of the children of Ammon.
[8]
And likewise did he for all his
strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods.
[9] And Yehovah was angry
with Solomon, because his heart was turned from Yehovah
God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice,
[10] And had
commanded him concerning this thing, that he
should not go after other gods: but he kept not that which Yehovah
commanded.
[11] Wherefore Yehovah said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as
this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes, which
I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give
it to thy servant.
[12]
Notwithstanding in thy days I will not do it for David thy father's sake: but I
will rend it out of the hand of thy son.
[13] Howbeit I will not rend away all the kingdom; but
will give one tribe to thy son for David my servant's sake, and for Jerusalem's
sake which I have chosen.
[14] And Yehovah
stirred up an adversary unto Solomon, Hadad the Edomite:
he was of the king's seed in Edom.
[15] For it came to pass, when David was in Edom, and Joab
the captain of the host was gone up to bury the slain, after he had smitten
every male in Edom;
[16] (For six months did Joab remain there
with all Israel, until he had cut off every male in Edom:)
[17] That Hadad
fled, he
and certain Edomites of his father's servants with
him, to go into Egypt; Hadad being yet a
little child.
[18] And they arose out of Midian, and came to Paran:
and they took men with them out of Paran, and they came
to Egypt, unto Pharaoh king of Egypt; which gave him an house, and appointed
him victuals, and gave him land.
[19] And Hadad
found great favour in the sight of Pharaoh, so that
he gave him to wife the sister of his own wife, the sister of Tahpenes
the queen.
[20] And the sister of Tahpenes bare him Genubath
his son, whom Tahpenes weaned in Pharaoh's house: and
Genubath
was in Pharaoh's household among the sons of Pharaoh.
[21] And when Hadad heard in Egypt that David slept
with his fathers, and that Joab the captain of
the host was dead, Hadad said to
Pharaoh, Let me depart, that I may go to mine own country.
[22] Then Pharaoh said unto him, But what hast thou
lacked with me, that, behold, thou seekest to go to thine
own country? And he answered, Nothing: howbeit let
me go in any wise.
[23] And God stirred him up another adversary, Rezon
the son of Eliadah,
which fled from his lord Hadadezer king of Zobah:
[24] And he gathered men unto him, and became captain over a band, when David
slew them of Zobah: and they went to Damascus, and
dwelt therein, and reigned in Damascus.
[25] And he was an adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon, beside the
mischief that Hadad did: and he abhorred Israel, and
reigned over Syria.
[26] And Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephrathite
of Zereda,
Solomon's servant, whose mother's name was Zeruah,
a widow woman,
even he lifted up his hand against the king.
[27] And this was the cause that he lifted up his hand against the king:
Solomon built Millo, and repaired the breaches of the
city of David his father.
[28] And the man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valour:
and Solomon seeing the young man that he was industrious, he made him ruler
over all the charge of the house of Joseph.
[29] And it came to pass at that time when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that
the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite
found him in the way; and he had clad himself with a new garment; and they two
were alone in the field:
[30] And Ahijah
caught the new garment that was on him, and rent it in twelve pieces:
[31] And he said to Jeroboam, Take thee ten pieces: for
thus saith
Yehovah,
the God of Israel, Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon,
and will give ten tribes to thee:
[32] (But he shall have one tribe for my servant David's sake, and for
Jerusalem's sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel:)
[33] Because that they have forsaken me, and have
worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh
the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of
the children of Ammon, and have not walked in my
ways, to do that which is right in mine eyes, and to keep my statutes and my
judgments, as did David his father.
[34] Howbeit I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand: but I will make
him prince all the days of his life for David my servant's sake, whom
I chose, because he kept my commandments and my statutes:
[35] But I will take the kingdom out of his son's hand, and will give it unto
thee, even ten tribes.
[36] And unto his son will I give one tribe, that David my servant may have a
light alway
before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen me to put my name there.
[37] And I will take thee, and thou shalt reign
according to all that thy soul desireth, and shalt
be king over Israel.
[38] And it shall be, if thou wilt hearken unto all that I command thee, and
wilt walk in my ways, and do that is right in my sight, to keep my statutes and
my commandments, as David my servant did; that I will be with thee, and build
thee a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel unto thee.
[39] And I will for this afflict the seed of David, but not for ever.
[40] Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam. And Jeroboam arose, and fled
into Egypt, unto Shishak king of Egypt, and was in Egypt
until the death of Solomon.
[41] And the rest of the acts of Solomon, and all that he did, and his wisdom,
are they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon?
[42] And the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty
years.
[43] And Solomon slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David
his father: and Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead.
---------------
Acts 19
The
great goddess Diana
[21]
After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed
through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been
there, I must also see Rome.
[22] So
he sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him, Timotheus
and Erastus; but he himself stayed in Asia for a season.
[23] And
the same time there arose no small stir about that way.
[24] For
a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which
made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the
craftsmen;
[25] Whom he called together with the workmen of like occupation, and
said, Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth.
[26]
Moreover ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all
Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be
no gods, which are made with hands:
[27] So that
not only this
our craft is in danger to be set at nought;
but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should
be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the
world worshippeth.
[28] And
when they heard these sayings, they were full of wrath, and cried out, saying, Great is Diana
of the Ephesians.
[29] And
the whole city was filled with confusion: and having caught Gaius and
Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel, they rushed with
one accord into the theatre.
[30] And
when Paul would have entered in unto the people, the disciples suffered him not.
[31] And
certain of the chief of Asia, which were his friends, sent unto him, desiring
him that he would not adventure himself into the theatre.
[32]
Some therefore cried one thing, and some another: for the assembly was
confused; and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together.
[33] And
they drew Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. And
Alexander beckoned with the hand, and would have made his defence
unto the people.
[34] But
when they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about the space of two
hours cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.
[35] And
when the townclerk
had appeased the people, he said, Ye men of Ephesus,
what man is there that knoweth not how that
the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the
great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter?
[36]
Seeing then that these things cannot be spoken against, ye ought to be quiet,
and to do nothing rashly.
[37] For
ye have brought hither these men, which are neither robbers of churches, nor
yet blasphemers of your goddess.
[38]
Wherefore if Demetrius, and the craftsmen which are with him, have a matter
against any man, the law is open, and there are deputies: let them implead
one another.
[39] But
if ye inquire any thing concerning other matters, it
shall be determined in a lawful assembly.
[40] For
we are in danger to be called in question for this day's uproar, there being no
cause whereby we may give an account of this concourse.
[41] And
when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly.
---------------
"The queen of heaven"
Jer.
7 [18] The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle
the fire, and the women knead their dough,
to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and
to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.
Jer.
44 [17] But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth
forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the
queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we
have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of
Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and
were well, and saw no evil.
[18] But
since we left off to burn incense to the queen of
heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all
things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.
[19] And
when we burned incense to the queen of heaven,
and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her,
and pour out drink offerings unto her, without our men?
[25]
Thus saith
Yehovah
of hosts, the God of Israel, saying; Ye and your wives have both spoken with
your mouths, and fulfilled with your hand, saying, We will surely perform our
vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to the
queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her: ye will
surely accomplish your vows, and surely perform your vows.
-------------
Ashtaroth
Josh.
9 [10] And all that he did to the two kings of the
Amorites, that were beyond Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon,
and to Og
king of Bashan, which was at Ashtaroth.
Josh.
12 [4] And the coast of Og
king of Bashan, which was of the remnant of the giants, that dwelt at Ashtaroth and at Edrei,
Josh.
13 [12] All the kingdom of Og
in Bashan, which reigned in Ashtaroth
and in Edrei,
who remained of the remnant of the giants: for these did Moses smite, and cast
them out.
[31] And
half Gilead, and Ashtaroth,
and Edrei,
cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan, were
pertaining unto the children of Machir the son of
Manasseh, even to the one half of the children of Machir
by their families.
Judg.
2 [13] And they forsook Yehovah,
and served Baal and Ashtaroth.
Judg.
10[6] And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of Yehovah,
and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth,
and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods
of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods
of the Philistines, and forsook Yehovah, and served
not him.
1Sam.
7 [3] And Samuel spake unto all the
house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto Yehovah
with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods
and Ashtaroth
from among you, and prepare your hearts unto Yehovah,
and serve him only: and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.
[4] Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim
and Ashtaroth, and served Yehovah
only.
1Sam.
12 [10] And they cried unto Yehovah,
and said, We have sinned, because we have forsaken Yehovah,
and have served Baalim
and Ashtaroth:
but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve thee.
1Sam.
31 [10] And they put his armour
in the house of Ashtaroth:
and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan.
1Chr.
6 [71] Unto the sons of Gershom
were given out of the family of the half tribe of Manasseh, Golan in Bashan
with her suburbs, and Ashtaroth
with her suburbs:
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Let’s talk a little about the word
Easter
The English
word Easter is derived from the names
"Eostre"
- "Eastre"
- "Astarte" or Ashtaroth.
Astarte was introduced into the British Isles by the Druids and is just another
name for Beltis
or Ishtar of the Chaldeans and Babylonians.
The book of
Judges records that "the children of Israel did evil ...in the sight of Yehovah,
and served Baalim,
and Ashtaroth,
...and forsook Yehovah, and served
not Him."
Easter is just
another name for Ashtaroth
"The Queen of
Heaven." Easter was not
considered a "Christian" festival until the fourth century.
Early Christians celebrated Passover on
the 14th day of the first month and a study of the dates on which Easter is
celebrated will reveal that the celebration of Easter is not observed in
accordance with the prescribed time for the observance of Passover.
After much
debate, the Nicaean council of 325 A.D. decreed
that "Easter" should be celebrated on the first Sunday, after the
full moon, on or after the vernal equinox. Why was so much debate necessary if
"Easter" was a tradition passed down from the Apostles? The answer is
that it was not an Apostolic institution, but, an invention
of man! They had to make up some rules.
History records
that spring festivals in honor of the pagan fertility goddesses and the events associated with them were
celebrated at the same time as "Easter". (Ex. eggs, rabbits)
In the year 399
A.D. the Theodosian
Code attempted to remove the pagan connotation from those events and banned
their observance.
The pagan
festival of Easter originated as the worship of the sun goddess, the Babylonian Queen of Heaven who was later worshipped under many names
including Ishtar, Cybele, Idaea Mater (the
Great Mother), or Astarte for whom the celebration of Easter is named.
Easter is not
another name for the Passover or Firstfruits and is
not celebrated at the Biblically prescribed time.
In the KJV, Acts 12:4, cross out the word Easter and replace it with Passover
Backup
THE
PAGAN WORSHIP OF EASTER
Reading from Compton’s Pictured Encyclopedia, 1948,
Volume 4, page 140, we find that Easter
is the Greatest Festival of the Christian Church, which commemorates the
resurrection of Jesus the Messiah __ which festival was named after the ancient Anglo Saxon Goddess of Spring!
EASTER:
The
greatest festival of the Christian church commemorates the Resurrection of
Jesus the Messiah. It is a movable feast, that is, it is not always
held on the same date. The church council of Nicea
(A.D. 325) decided that Easter should be celebrated on the first Sunday after
the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox (March 21). Easter can come
as early as March 22 or as late as April 25.
The name
Easter comes from the ancient Anglo-Saxon goddess
of spring, Eostre
or Ostara,
in whose honor an annual spring festival was held.
It is a fully
documented historical fact that the day which was chosen by the so-called Christian Church to
celebrate this resurrection, was a day which had been celebrated by pagans from
antiquity!
Yes, the only
difference between these two celebrations is the fact that its name was changed
to veneer it with Christian Respectability!
It is simply
no secret that EASTER originated with the WORSHIP OF A
PAGAN GODDESS!
This fact is
presented almost every time one researches the word Easter.
Compton’s
Encyclopedia, 1956, Volume 4, says this about Easter:
‘‘Many Easter
customs come from the Old World...colored eggs and rabbits have come from pagan
antiquity as symbols of new life...our name ‘Easter’ comes from ‘Eostre’,
an ancient Anglo Saxon goddess,
originally of the dawn. In pagan times an annual spring festival was held in
her honor. Some Easter customs have come from this and other pre-christian
spring festivals.’’
Reading about
this Pre-Christian spring festival from Funk &
Wagnall’s Standard Reference Encyclopedia, 1962, Volume 8, page 2940, we learn:
Although Easter
is a Christian festival, it embodies traditions of an ancient time antedating
the rise of Christianity. The origin of its name is lost in the dim past; some
scholars believe it probably is derived from Eastre,
Anglo-Saxon name of a Teutonic goddess of spring
and fertility, to whom was dedicated Eastre monath,
corresponding to April. Her festival was celebrated on the day of the vernal
equinox, and traditions associated with the festival survive in the familiar Easter
bunny, symbol of the fertile rabbit, and in the equally familiar colored Easter
eggs originally painted with gay hues to represent the sunlight of spring.
Such festivals,
and the myths and legends which explain their origin, abounded in ancient
religions. The Greek myth of the return of the earth-goddess Demeter from the underworld to the light of day,
symbolizing the resurrection of life in the spring after the long hibernation
of winter, had its counterpart, among many others, in the Latin legend of Ceres
and Persephone.
The Phrygians
believed that their all-powerful deity went to sleep at the time of the winter
solstice, and they performed ceremonies at the spring equinox to awaken him
with music and dancing. The universality of such festivals and myths among
ancient peoples has led some scholars to interpret the resurrection of Messiah
as a mystical and exalted variant of fertility myths. (sad)
The
Dictionary of Mythology, Folklore, and Symbols, Part 1, page 487 tells us more
about this Spring Festival:
‘‘It
incorporates some of the ancient Spring Equinox ceremonies of sun worship in
which there were phallic rites and spring fires, and in which the deity or
offering to the deity was eaten...The festival is symbolized by an ascension
Lily...a chick breaking its shell, the colors white and green, the egg, spring
flowers, and the Rabbit. The name is related to Astarte, Ashtoreth, Eostre
and Ishtar, goddess who visited and rose
from the underworld. Easter yields ‘Enduring Eos’... ‘Enduring Dawn’.’’
Part of this
spring festival centered around Phallic Rites.
Collier’s
Encyclopedia, 1980, Volume 9, page 622, tells us of the Babylonian Ishtar Festival
Phallic Rites:
The Ishtar
Festivals were symbolical of Ishtar as the goddess
of love or generation. As the daughter of Sin, the moon god, she was the Mother Goddess who presided over child birth; and
women, in her honor, sacrificed their virginity on the feast day or became
temple prostitutes, their earnings being a source of revenue for the temple
priests and servants.
We learn
about these Temple Prostitutes from the
Interpreter’s Dictionary of The Bible, Volume 3, pages
933-934:
a. The roll
of the sacred prostitute in the fertility cult. The prostitute who was
an official of the cult in ancient Israel and nearby lands of biblical times
exercised an important function. This religion was predicated upon the belief
that the processes of nature were controlled by the relations between gods and goddess. Projecting their understanding of their
own sexual activities, the worshipers of these deities, through the use of
imitative magic, engaged in sexual intercourse with devotees of the shrine, in
the belief that this would encourage the gods and goddesses
to do likewise. Only by sexual relations among the deities could man’s desire
for increase in herds and fields, as well as in his own family, be realized. In
Israel the gods Baal and Asherah were
especially prominent (see BAAL; ASHERAH; FERTILITY CULTS). These competed with Yehovah
the God of Israel and, in some cases, may have produced hybrid Yahweh-Baal
cults. Attached to the shrines of these cults were priests as well as prostitutes,
both male and female. Their chief service was sexual in nature__the
offering of their bodies for ritual purposes.
Sexual
relations for ritual purposes was the ceremony for
the Fertility Cults. The Interpreter’s Dictionary,
Volume 2, page 265 says:
FERTILITY CULTS. The oldest common
feature of the religions of the ancient Near East was the worship of a great mother-goddess,
the personification of fertility. Associated with her, usually as a consort,
was a young god who died and came to life again, like the vegetation which
quickly withers but blooms again. The manner of the young god’s demise was
variously conceived in the myths: he was slain by another god, by wild animals,
by reapers, by self-emasculation, by burning, by drowning. In some variations
of the theme, he simply absconded. His absence produced infertility of the
earth, of man, and of beast. His consort mourned and searched for him. His
return brought renewed fertility and rejoicing.
In Mesopotamia
the divine couple
appear as Ishtar and Tammuz, in Egypt as Isis and Osiris.
Later in Asia Minor, the Magna Mater is Cybele and her young lover is Attis.
In Syria in the second millennium b.c.,
as seen in the Ugaritic myths, the dying and rising
god is Baal-Hadad, who is slain by Mot (Death) and
mourned and avenged by his sister/consort, the violent virgin Anath.
In the Ugaritic
myths there is some confusion in the roles of the goddesses.
The great mother-goddess Asherah,
the wife of the senescent chief god El, seems on the way to becoming the
consort of the rising young god Baal, with whom we find her associated in the
O.T. Ashtarte
also appears in the Ugaritic myths, but
she has a minor and undistinguished role.
The TaNaK
furnishes abundant evidence as to the character of the religion of the land
into which the Israelites came. Fertility rites
were practiced at the numerous shrines which dotted the land, as well as at the
major sanctuaries. The Israelites absorbed the Canaanite ways and learned to
identify their god with Baal, whose rains brought fertility to the land. A
characteristic feature of the fertility cult was sacral sexual intercourse by
priests and priestesses and other specially consecrated persons, sacred prostitutes
of both sexes, intended to emulate and stimulate the deities who bestowed
fertility. The agricultural cult stressed the sacrifice or common meal in which
the gods, priests, and people partook. Wine was consumed in great quantity in
thanksgiving to Baal for the fertility of the vineyards. The wine also helped
induce ecstatic frenzy, which was climaxed by self-laceration, and sometimes
even by self-emasculation. Child-sacrifice was also a feature of the rites. It
was not simply a cult of wine, women, and song, but a matter of life and death
in which the dearest things of life, and life itself, were offered to ensure
the ongoing of life.
Reading on page 103 of The Two Babylons,
by Alexander Hislop, 1959, we find that
Easter and Ishtar are the same:
Then look at
Easter. What means the term Easter itself? It bears its Chaldean origin on its
very forehead. Easter is nothing else than ‘‘Astarte’’, one of the titles of Beltis,
‘‘The Queen of Heaven’’ whose name, as ‘‘pronounced’’ by the people of Nineveh,
was evidently identical with that now in common use in this country. That
‘name’, as found by Layard on the Assyrian monuments, is ‘‘Ishtar’’.
The
Two Babylons
by Alexander Hislop tells us of the doctrines of Semiramis:
‘‘She (Semiramis)
taught that he (Nimrod the Babe) was a god-child; that he was Nimrod, their
leader reborn; that she and her child were divine. This story was widely known
in ancient Babylon and developed into a well established worship__The
Worship of The Mother and Child!
Numerous
monuments of Babylon show the goddess
Mother Semiramis
with her child Tammuz in her arms.’’
ISHTAR
(pronounced EASTER) of Assyria was worshiped in Pagan Antiquity during her
spring festival!
Collier’s
Encyclopedia, 1980, Volume 15, page 748, gives us this information:
Ishtar, goddess of love and war, is the most important goddess of the Sumero-Akkadian
pantheon. Her name in Sumerian is Inanna (lady of
heaven). She was sister of the sun god Shamash and daughter of the moon god
Sin. Ishtar was equated with the planet Venus. Her symbol was a star inscribed
in a circle. As goddess of war, she was
often represented sitting upon a lion. As goddess
of physical love, she was patron of the temple prostitutes. She was also
considered the merciful mother who intercedes with the gods on behalf of her
worshipers. Throughout Mesopotamian history she was worshiped under various
names in many cities; one of the chief centers of her cult was Uruk.
Astarte of
Phoenicia was the offshoot of Ishtar of Assyria. To the Hebrews, this abomination
was known as Ashtoreth__Ashtoroth.
From Collier’s Encyclopedia, Volume 3, page 13, we
read:
ASHTAROTH - the plural of the Hebrew
‘Ashto-reth,
the Phoenician-Canaanite goddess Astarte,
deity of fertility, reproduction, and war . The use of the
plural form probably indicates a general designation for the collective female
deities of the Canaanites, just as the plural Baalim
refer to the male deities.
Watson’s
Biblical and Archaeological Dictionary, 1833, tells us more about this mother goddess, Ashtaroth:
ASHTAROTH,
or ASTARTE, a goddess of the Zidonians. The word Ashtaroth
properly signifies flocks of sheep, or goats; and sometimes the groves, or
woods, because she was goddess of woods, and groves were her temples. In groves
consecrated to her, such lasciviousness was committed as rendered her worship
infamous. She was also called the queen of heaven; and sometimes her worship is
said to be that of ‘‘the host of heaven.’’ She was certainly represented in the
same manner as Isis, with cow’s horns on her head, to denote the increase and
decrease of the moon. Cicero calls her the fourth Venus of the Syrians. She is
almost always joined with Baal, and is called a god, the scriptures having no
particular word to express a goddess.
It is believed
that the moon was adored in this idol. Her temples generally accompanied those
of the sun; and while bloody sacrifices or human victims were offered to Baal,
bread, liquors, and perfumes were presented to Astarte. For her, tables were
prepared upon the flat terrace-roofs of houses, near gates, in porches, and at
crossways, on the first day of every month; and this was called by the Greeks,
Hecate’s supper. Solomon, seduced by his foreign wives, introduced the worship
of Ashtaroth
into Israel; but Jezebel, daughter of the king of Tyre,
and wife to Ahab, principally established her worship. She caused altars to be
erected to this idol in every part of Israel; and at one time four hundred
priests attended the worship of Ashtaroth, I Kings
18:7.
The
Interpreter’s Dictionary, Volume 3, page 975, tells us of Ishtar’s role as The
Queen of Heaven:
Ishtar, the goddess of love and
fertility, who was identified with the Venus Star and is
actually entitled ‘‘Mistress of Heaven’’ in the Amarna
tablets.
The difficulty is that the Venus Star was regarded in Israel as a male deity (see
DAY STAR), though the cult of the goddess
Ishtar may have been introduced from Mesopotamia under Manasseh. It is possible
that Astarte, or ASHTORETH, the Canaanite fertility-goddess,
whose cult was well established in Israel, had preserved more traces of her
astral character as the female counterpart of Athtar
than the evidence of the O.T. or the Ras Shamra
texts indicates. The title ‘‘Queen of Heaven’’ is applied in an Egyptian inscription
from the Nineteenth Dynasty at Beth-shan to ‘‘Antit,’’
the Canaanite fertility-goddess Anat,
who is termed ‘‘Queen of Heaven and Mistress of the Gods.’’ This is the most
active goddess in the Ras
Shamra
Texts, but in Israel her functions seem to have been taken over largely by
Ashtoreth.
We find this
information about Ashtoreth from The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, 1979, Volume 1,
pages 319-320:
ASHTORETH ash’te-reth [Heb. ‘astoret. pl. ‘astarôt; Gk. Astarte].
A goddess
of Canaan and Phoenicia whose name and cult were derived from Babylonia, where
Ishtar represented the evening and morning stars and was accordingly
androgynous in origin. Under Semitic influence, however,
she became solely female, although retaining a trace of her original character
by standing on equal footing with the male divinities. From Babylonia the
worship of the goddess was carried to the
Semites of the West, and in most instances the feminine suffix was attached to
her name; where this was not the case the deity was regarded as a male. On the
Moabite Stone, for example, ‘Ashtar is identified
with Chemosh,
and in the inscriptions of southern Arabia ‘Athtar
is a god. On the other hand, in the name Atargatis (2 Macc.
12:26), ‘Atar,
without the feminine suffix, is identified with the goddess
‘Athah
or ‘Athi
(Gk. Gatis).
The cult of the Greek Aphrodite in Cyprus was borrowed from that of Ashtoreth;
that the Greek name also is a modification of Ashtoreth is doubtful. It is
maintained, however, that the vowels of Heb. ‘astoret
were borrowed from boset
(‘‘shame’’) in order to indicate the abhorrence the Hebrew scribes felt toward
paganism and idolatry.
In Babylonia
and Assyria Ishtar was the goddess of
love and war. An old Babylonian legend relates how the descent of Ishtar into
Hades in search of her dead husband Tammuz was followed by the cessation of
marriage and birth in both earth and heaven; and the temples of the goddess at Nineveh and Arbela, around which the
two cities afterward grew, were dedicated to her as the goddess of war. As such she appeared to one of
Ashurbanipal’s seers and encouraged the Assyrian king to march against Elam.
The other goddesses of Babylonia, who
were little more than reflections of a god, tended to merge into Ishtar, who
thus became a type of the female divinity, a personification of the productive
principle in nature, and more especially the mother and creatress
of mankind.
In Babylonia
Ishtar was identified with Venus. Like Venus, Ishtar was the goddess of erotic love and fertility. Her chief
seat of worship was Uruk (Erech),
where prostitution was practiced in her name and she was served with immoral
rites by bands of men and women. In Assyria, where the warlike side of the goddess was predominant, no such rites seem to have
been practiced, and instead prophetesses to whom she delivered oracles were
attached to her temples.
From various
Egyptian sources it appears that Astarte or Ashtoreth was highly regarded in
the Late Bronze Age.
Reading on
pages 412-413 of
Unger’s Bible Dictionary, we find this information about
Ashtoreth-Astarte:
Ash'toreth (ash’to-reth),
Astarte, a Canaanite goddess. In south
Arabic the name is found as ‘Athtar (apparently
from ‘athara,
to be fertile, to irrigate), a god identified with the planet Venus. The
name is cognate with Babylonian Ishtar, the goddess
of sensual love, maternity and fertility. Licentious worship was conducted in
honor of her. As Asherah and Anat
of Ras
Shamra
she was the patroness of war as well as sex and is sometimes identified with
these goddesses. The Amarna
Letters present Ashtoreth as Ashtartu. In the Ras
Shamra
Tablets are found both the masculine form ‘Athtar
and the feminine ‘Athtart. Ashtoreth worship was early
entrenched at Sidon (I Kings 11:5, 33; II Kings 23:13). Her polluting cult even
presented a danger to early Israel (Judg. 2:13; 10:6). Solomon succumbed to her
voluptuous worship (I Kings 11:5; II Kings 23:13). The peculiar vocalization
Ashtoreth instead of the more primitive Ashtaroth is
evidently a deliberate alteration by the Hebrews to express their abhorrence
for her cult by giving her the vowels of their word for ‘‘shame’’ (bosheth).
M. F. U.
The
Interpreter’s Dictionary, Volume 1, page 252 says:
The antipathy
toward the Asherah
on the part of the Hebrew leaders was due to the fact that the goddess and the cult object of the same name were
associated with the fertility religion of a foreign people and as such involved
a mythology and a cultus which were obnoxious to the
champions of Yahweh.
Unger’s
Bible Dictionary, page 412, gives us this information about Asherah:
Asherah (a-she’ra),
plural, Asherim,
a pagan goddess, who is found in the Ras
Shamra
epic religious texts discovered at Ugarit in North Syria (1929-1937), as Asherat,
‘‘Lady of the Sea’’ and consort of El. She was the chief goddess of Tyre in the 15th
century b.c. with the
appellation Qudshu, ‘‘holiness.’’ In the Old
Testament Asherah
appears as a goddess by the side of Baal,
whose consort she evidently came to be, at least among the Canaanites of the
South. However, most Biblical references to the name point clearly to some cult
object of wood, which might be worshiped or cut down and burned, and which was
certainly the goddess’ image (I Kings
15:13; II Kings 21:7). Her prophets are mentioned (I Kings l8:19) and the
vessels used in her service referred to (II Kings 23:4). Her cult object,
whatever it was, was utterly detestable to faithful worshipers of Yahweh (I
Kings 15:13) and was set up on the high places beside the ‘‘altars of incense’’
(hammanim)
and the stone pillars (masseboth).
Indeed, the stone pillars seem to have represented the male god Baal (cf. Judg.
6:28), while the cult object of Ashera, probably a
tree or pole, constituted a symbol of this goddess
(See W. L. Reed’s The Asherah in the Old
Testament, Texas Christian University Press). But Asherah
was only one manifestation of a chief goddess
of Western Asia, regarded now as the wife, now as the sister of the principal
Canaanite god El. Other names of this deity were Ashtoreth (Astarte) and Anath.
Frequently represented as a nude woman bestride a lion with a lily in one hand
and a serpent in the other, and styled Qudshu ‘‘the
Holiness,’’ that is, ‘‘the Holy One’’ in a perverted moral sense, she was a
divine courtesan. In the same sense the male prostitutes consecrated to the
cult of the Qudshu and prostituting themselves
to her honor were styled qedishim,
‘‘sodomites’’ (Deut. 23:18; 1 Kings 14:24; 15:12; 22:46). Characteristically
Canaanite the lily symbolizes grace and sex appeal and the serpent fecundity
(W. F. Albright, Archaeology and the Religion of Israel, Baltimore, John
Hopkins Press, 1942, pages 68-94). At Byblos (Biblical Gebal)
on the Mediterranean, north of Sidon, a center dedicated to this goddess has been excavated. She and her colleagues
specialized in sex and war and her shrines were temples of legalized vice. Her
degraded cult offered a perpetual danger of pollution to Israel and must have
sunk to sordid depths as lust and murder were glamorized in Canaanite religion.
On
page 413 of Unger’s Bible Dictionary,
we have found that Astarte is the Greek
name for the Hebrew Ashtoreth. From Collier’s Encyclopedia, Volume 3,
page 97, we find that Astarte-Ashtaroth is merely
the Semitic Ishtar__which we have
already learned is pronounced Easter:
ASTARTE [aesta’rti], the
Phoenician goddess of fertility and
erotic love. The Greek name, ‘‘Astarte’’ was derived from Semitic,
‘‘Ishtar,’’ ‘‘Ashtoreth.’’ Astarte was regarded in Classical antiquity as a
moon goddess, perhaps in confusion with
some other Semitic deity. In accordance with the literary traditions of the
Greco-Romans, Astarte was identified with Selene and Artemis, and more often
with Aphrodite. Among the Canaanites, Astarte, like her peer Anath,
performed a major function as goddess of
fertility.
Egyptian
iconography, however, portrayed Astarte in her role as a warlike goddess massacring mankind, young and old. She is
represented on plaques (dated 1700-1100 b.c.) as naked, in
striking contrast to the modestly garbed Egyptian goddesses.
Edward J. Jurji
In Ephesus from
primitive times, this MOTHER goddess had
been called DIANA, who was worshiped as the goddess
of Virginity and Motherhood. She was said to represent the generative powers of
nature, and so was pictured with many breasts. A tower shaped crown,
symbolizing the Tower of Babylon, adorned her head:
Reading from Bible
Manners And
Customs, by James M. Freeman, 1972, page 451, we learn these facts about
the Mother of all things:
‘‘The circle round
her head denotes the nimbus (sin circle) of her glory, the griffins inside of
which express its brilliancy. In her breasts are the twelve signs of the
zodiac, of which those seen in front are the ram, bull, twins, crab, and lion;
they are divided by the hours. Her necklace is composed of acorns, the primeval
food of man. Lions are on her arms to denote her power, and her hands are
stretched out to show that she is ready to receive all who come to her. Her
body is covered with various breasts and monsters, as sirens, sphinxes, and
griffins, to show that she is the source of nature, the mother of all things.
Her head, hands, and feet are of bronze while the rest of the statue is of
alabaster to denote the ever-varying light and shade of the moon’s figure...
Like Rhea, she was crowned with turrets, to denote her dominion over
terrestrial objects.’’
The English
word Easter is derived from the names "Eostre"
- "Eastre"
- "Astarte" or Ashtaroth. Astarte
was introduced into the British Isles by the Druids and is just another name
for Beltis
or Ishtar of the Chaldeans and Babylonians
ENOUGH
SAID
-----------------------
Now a surprise in Judaism
The Sabbath Queen doctrine
Beware
of made up doctrines like the Queen of Heaven, the Shechinah,
the female
counterpart of God or the Sabbath Queen doctrine.
Below
are some examples of how evil they are.
The word Shechinah is 176 times in the manmade Talmud.
-------
Scripture says:
Jer.7[
18] The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the
women knead
their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink
offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.
Jer.44[ 17] But we will
certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of
our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out
drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and
our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then
had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. [ 18]
But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to
pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been
consumed by the sword and by the famine. [19 ] And when we
burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink offerings
unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings
unto her, without our men?
[25]
Thus saith
Yehovah
of hosts, the God of Israel, saying; Ye and your wives have both spoken with
your mouths, and fulfilled with your hand, saying, We will surely perform our
vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to
pour out drink offerings unto her: ye will surely accomplish your vows, and
surely perform your vows.
---------
Question
During Friday
night prayer services, doors are opened to welcome the Sabbath Queen. What
does the Sabbath Queen represent in Judaism?
Answer
Shabbat is
compared esoterically to a bride given to us by God, whom we long for her
arrival - (source: Talmud Shabbat 119a).
Though some do
open the door, the common custom is just turn around toward the door - (source:
"Igrot
Moshe" by R' M. Feinstein, O.C. III 45; V 16). With blessings from
Jerusalem,
Rabbi Shraga
Simmons
http://judaism.about.com/library/3_askrabbi_o/bl_simmons_shabbatqueen.htm
The Liturgy treats the Sabbath
as a bride and queen, or, as we see in the Mishneh
Torah, a king.
------------------------------------------
Shabbat Table: Challah, Wine and Candles"
Shabbat
The Nature
of Shabbat
The Sabbath (or
Shabbat, as it is called in Hebrew) is one of the best known and least
understood of all Jewish observances. People who do not observe Shabbat think
of it as a day filled with stifling restrictions, or as
a day of prayer like the Christian Sabbath. But to those who observe Shabbat,
it is a precious gift,
a day of great joy eagerly awaited throughout the week,
a time when we can set aside all of our weekday concerns and devote ourselves
to higher pursuits. In Jewish literature, poetry and music, Shabbat is
described as a bride or queen, as in the popular Shabbat hymn Lecha
Dodi
Likrat
Kallah
(come, my beloved, to meet the [Sabbath] bride).
It is said "more than Israel has kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept
Israel."
http://www.jewfaq.org/shabbat.htm
Talmud Mas. Shabbath 119a
I made it a
festive day for the scholars. Raba said: May I be rewarded for that when a
disciple came before me in a lawsuit, I did not lay my head upon my pillow
before I had sought [points in] his favour.1 Mar son of R. Ashi
said: I am unfit to judge in a scholar's lawsuit. What is the reason? He is as
dear to me as myself, and a man cannot see [anything] to his own disadvantage.
R. Hanina
robed himself and stood at sunset of Sabbath eve [and] exclaimed, "Come and let us go forth to welcome the queen Sabbath."
2 R. Jannai
donned his robes, on Sabbath eve and exclaimed, "Come, O bride, Come, O bride!"
Rabbah son of R. Huna visited the home of Rabbah son of R. Nahman, [and] was offered three se'ahs of oiled cakes. "Did you know that I was coming?" asked he. Are you then more important to us than it [the Sabbath]? replied he.
Talmud - Mas. Baba Kama 32b
"Come, let us go forth to meet the bride, the queen!" Some [explicitly] read:". . . to meet Sabbath, the bride, the queen." R. Jannai, [however,] while dressed in his Sabbath attire used to remain standing and say: "Come thou, O queen, come thou, O queen!"
------------------
Ode to the Sabbath Queen
Drew Family Weekend 1999
Akiva D. Roth, Ed.M.
Assistant Chaplain/Hillel Director
As the sun begins
to set on our campus Drew
It is time to gather and bid you Adieu
We take the time to acknowledge the role you play
On this our special holy day
Whether one
attends prayer services in an auditorium
Or
takes a nice stroll in the arboretum
Each of us recognizes the uniqueness of the Sabbath day
In his or her own special way
Your presence
graces us each and every week
It
is your company and inspiration we seek
You permit us to depart from our daily grind
And allow us to nurture the mind
The rest of the
week we spend entrenched in technology
But on Shabbat we engage in spirituality
Through changing seasons and times you do remain
From our weekly visit you do not abstain
Each week you usher in our "island in time"
And with us every Friday night you dine
We welcome you
into our life
On the Sabbath day we set aside our strife
Your
presence is our weekly gift
That gives us that spiritual lift
We all observe Shabbat in a different manner
But to you that is no matter
The time has
come to end our sojourn
From
our "Shabbat oasis" we must adjourn
We have now finished our piece
Now it is time to say: "I bid you peace."
--------------------------------------------------------
Sabbath Queen, Author Jerusalem Fohner
Question :
What
does it mean when we ask the Sabbath Bride to come?
Answer:
Throughout
Jewish liturgy, G-d is referred to in two aspects; male and female. Where the Sabbath is
concerned, it is often likened to the time when the Shechinah,
the female aspect of the Light
force of the Creator, is betrothed to the male aspect
of the Light force.
In the Shabbat hymn "Lecha Dodi",
we are inviting the Shabbat Queen to come to her
wedding canopy. When the two aspects of the Lightforce
are united, the entire universe is in harmony, allowing for the tremendous
Light of Shabbat to be revealed in our world.
-----------------------------------------
TROUBADOUR LADY OF LOVE
In the Medieval Jewish Kabbalah
The Jewish
mystical "Book Bahir"
(Brilliance) appeared ca. 1176 in Provence (Languedoc) in Southern France, that
is, in the exact time and geographical location of some of the most intense
troubadour activity.
The Bahir
is one of the books of the early Jewish mystical "Tradition" called the
"Kabbalah."
Like the songs of sections 130-132 of the "Bahir"
are modelled
on the troubadour's pursuit of the courtly lady
-- here especially as regards the pursuit of the mystery of love as symbolic of
the pursuit of Divine Wisdom. Translators have also rooted these passages in
Christian Gnosticism.
The following
excerpt from THE EARLY KABBALAH, edited and introduced by Joseph Dan, Preface
by Moshe Idel,
translated by Ronald C. Kiener (NY: Paulist
Press, 1986).
130
And what is THE WHOLE EARTH IS FULL OF HIS GLORY? It is all that land which was
created in the first day, which is above, corresponding to the Land of Israel,
full of the divine Glory. And what is it? Wisdom (Chokmah),
as it is written: "Honor (kavod, Glory) of the
wise will inherit." And it is said: "Blessed be
the Glory of God from Its Place."
131
And what is this divine Glory? This can be explained by a parable: A king had a
great lady in his room. She was loved by all his knights, and she had sons. They
all came every day to see the face of the king, and they blessed him. They
asked him: "Our mother, where is she?" He said to them, "You
cannot see her now." They said; "Blessed is she wherever she
is."
132
What is the meaning of that which is written FROM ITS PLACE? Because no one
knows Its
place. This is like a king's daughter who came from afar, and nobody knew where
she came from. When they saw that she was a fine lady, beautiful and just in
all that she did, they said: "She undoubtedly was taken from the side of
the light, for her deeds give light to the world." They then asked her:
"Where are you from?" She answered: "From my place." They
said: "If so, the people of your place must be great! Blessed are you and
blessed is your place!
------------------
LITURGICAL
MUSIC: THE SABBATH QUEEN
The
Sabbath Queen,
Psalm 29 on
CD titled "Water & Baptism" by Venance
Fortunat
(mixed vocal ensemble), directed by Anne-Marie Deschamps.
l'empreiente digitale/Harmonia
Mundi ED13060, 1996.
From the CD liner
notes:
"[This]
Recitation of Psalm 29 [is] the musical version belonging to the Greek Jews
whose ancestors had been driven out of Spain. The chant is very similar to
others found in oriental Sephardic communities. It was transcribed early this
century [20th] by the famous musicologist Abraham Tsvi
Idelsohn
(in the THESAURUS OF JEWISH MUSIC). It is one of a group of chants sung to
welcome the Sabbath; following the 16th c. kabbalist
movement, the Sabbath is compared to a queen whom
one goes to meet at sunset every Friday evening."
Anyone reading
a non-Hebrew text of Psalm 29 will wonder why it was chosen to celebrate
a "Sabbath Queen." Yet if read
in Hebrew it is evident that the entire purpose of the psalm is to lead to and
rejoice in a final resting place/time -- "YHWH on the flood sits and sits
YHVH king forever." In Jewish mysticism the repetition of "sits and
sits" (yashab ve-yesheb)
deepens and stretches out this sense of completion. In addition YHVH is here
named as "king" and therefore the king's "resting forever"
is interpreted as His partner and queen.
In the Kabbalist
book called ZOHAR (The Book of Enlightenment), which was first distributed in
Spain in the late 13th century, there is a hymn called "The Secret of
Sabbath" which helps to further identify the
Sabbath rest as goddess and queen (see ZOHAR, translation and
introduction by Daniel Chanan Matt, Paulist
Press, 1983)
------------
THE SECRET
OF SABBATH
The Secret of
Sabbath:
She is Sabbath!
United in the secret of One
to draw down upon Her
the secret of One.
The prayer for
the entrance of Sabbath:
The holy Throne of Glory is united in the secret of One,
prepared for the High Holy King to rest upon Her.
When Sabbath enters She is alone,
separated from the Other Side,
all judgments removed from Her.
Basking in the oneness of holy light,
She
is crowned over and over to face the Holy King.
All powers of wrath and masters of judgment
flee from Her.
Her face shines with a light from beyond;
She
is crowned below by the holy people,
and all of them are crowned with new souls.
Then the beginning of prayer
to bless Her with joy and beaming faces:
Barekbu
ET YHVH* ha-Mevorakh ,
"Bless ET YHVH, the-Blessed One,"
ET YHVH, blessing Her first.
(*ET-YHVH is
another name for 'Shekinah'
(the feminine Divine Presence). In the Kabbalah,
ET stands for Aleph to Tav, like our Alpha
to Omega, or A to Z. Here ET refers to the song itself as the ultimate speech,
hymn or prayer. According to the notes of Daniel Chanan
Matt's translation, this passage from the ZOHAR is recited in the Sephardic
liturgy on Sabbath Eve.)
Illustrations:
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1652): Detail of JUDITH and WOMAN PLAYING A LUTE
-------------------
Queen Sabbath and its Relationship to Orthodox Women:
Orthodox Jews often refer to the Sabbath as a woman, calling it "Queen Sabbath."
This terminology is used to express the great amount of anticipation that leads up to this day of rest. The use of the word Queen then has a dual significance. The Sabbath is sometimes also portrayed as a bride.
This image
is especially important to Orthodox women, who for the most part find their
primary role in the Jewish community through their position as wife and mother.
The Sabbath is primarily focused on finding rest and renewal while spending
time with family and friends. The prayers are centered around
blessings for the family. This makes the day a time where the primary roles of
the women are recognized and praised. In the Reform and Conservative traditions
women have a variety of roles through which they can express their religiosity,
so the Sabbath becomes less significant in these branches in terms of
heightening the role of women.
Blu Greenberg points out
that lighting the candles on the Sabbath is one of three mitzvot that women are
specifically commanded to perform. (Made up)
Greenberg looks to education and an appreciation for the role that women already do have in Orthodox Judaism as the place to begin before looking for new ways to further the role of women.
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http://www.kabbalah.com/k/index.php/p=life/holidays
The Beauty and Power of Shavuot
In order to
connect to the awesome Light of Shavuot we need to understand and
appreciate the great opportunity available to us on this day. Many of us know
that the Torah was revealed on this day but we do not realize that there was
actually much more happening.
The Zohar
reveals that the existence of the world was standing in the balance. If the
Israelites had not accepted the Torah then the world would have not existed
anymore. Why is this? Why would a nation acceptance or rejection of a book of
wisdom have such ramifications? Was the destruction of the world a punishment
from the Creator for us mortals not accepting his beloved Torah?
The answer lies
in a truer understanding of the Torah. Yes, the Torah is made up of letters
words and literal meanings, but, more important than all of that is the essence
of the Torah. The essence of the Torah is the Light of the Creator the source
of all goodness.
The Torah is a
living awesome force. It holds within it the power that sustains us
individually and the entire world. Amazingly it also holds within it the
ability to stave off death entirely. In giving the Torah the Creator was in
essence injecting the world with his true essence. Furthermore he was giving
all of us the ability to control our lives by connecting through the Torah to his
Light, the stronger our connection the greater the blessings and Light that we
draw. Up until that time the world’s ability to connect to His Light and
control their lives was limited.
With this
understanding we can begin to appreciate the great opportunity of this day. We
can reconnect with the Creators essence, which can bestow to us and to the
world, abundant Light, blessings and Life.
Also we can
begin to understand the amazing statement made in the Zohar.
The Zohar
explains on a deeper level that what happens on
Shavuot can be understood as matrimony.
The Kabbalists
explain that there are two main spiritual sources named The
Holy One blessed be He, and his female counterpart the Shechinah. They connect or
separate depending on our spiritual actions when we do positive spiritual
actions they unite, and that union draws Light from the supernal worlds, which
then flows down to us. If we do negative actions we cause them to separate,
this reduces the amount of Light we receive. On Shavuot the amount of Light
that is revealed is tremendous, this is described as the marriage and union of The
Holy One blessed be He and the Shechinah.
This is very beautiful and powerful time.
One of the best
ways to connect to this Light is by staying up the entire night of Shavuot and
reading from the Torah. This reveals great Light in the world more specifically
through the reading we are preparing and beautifying
the Shechinah
the Bride for the supernal wedding. Rabbi Shimon in the Zohar
says: "Sit beloved, sit and lets prepare the
bride on this night, for everybody who connects to her on this night, will be
protected for the entire year above and below, and he will complete his year in
peace."
This is a
beautiful and revelatory statement. Rabbi Shimon is proclaiming here that if we
connect to Shavuot we are guaranteeing ourselves a peaceful and blessed life
for the entire year. What an amazing gift! And as is true in all spiritual
things the greater our understanding and joy of this amazing gift the greater
the Light, which we draw from it, is.
Can you believe this?
Beware!
Stay far away from all male and female
pagan gods and their feasts
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Shabbat Shalom