putting the pieces together

Obama intimidating political rivals with law inforcement-

touch faith

the Tacoma you don't know.

More messiah colored glass from the NY Times.

With Obama slipping in the poles NY Times columnist David Brooks is trying hard to convince us that its because he is so far beyond our capacity to understand him. Like Jesus and Abraham he is a "sojourner". He rose up through our lowly institutions (prestigious colleges on both coasts, Harvard Law School, State legislator and US Senate.). Using messianic terms Brooks writes "he was in law school, but not of it... but he was in the Legislature, not of it". In fact, while he was a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, although he was so intelligent and enlightened "...he never committed those ideas to paper by publishing a piece of scholarship". Like Jesus he appeals to all peoples because "people on almost all sides of any issue can see parts of themselves reflected in Obama’s eyes". But because of our lowly and fallen natures we cannot not fully comprehend his blinding light.
As the campaign heats up the candidates are forced to be more candid. The more Obama is off the teleprompter the more like a bumbling politician he sounds. In fact he is the complete opposite of George Bush. George Bush sounds like a bumbling idiot when he is talking with prewritten speeches but he is very clear when talking off-the-cuff. The country is beginning to see through the messiah colored glasses that the media has been so desperately trying to slip on us.

how 'bout some self defense

Lamech the First

The ideal marriage in the scriptures is between one man and one women as it says in Bereshit 2:24- "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh". Note the אשה(singular) not the plural form אשת. Its interesting to note that the first redefinition of marriage comes in 4:19,ff. when Lamech takes two wives. What seems to follow is a complete degradation of society that has to be destroyed in the flood.

gay marriage

With all the talk about gay marriage and polygamist compounds, many are asking the question, "What is the definition of marriage?" Is Marriage a union of any two or more people who love each other? If marriage is boiled down to any two (or more) consenting adults that want to enter into a contractual relationship then there is no reason not to allow gay marriage, polygamy or even sibling(or any other incestuous relationships) marriage. And why stop there, why not human and animal? Obviously society has always put boundaries on what they will accept as marriage. Even in ancient Greece where homosexuality was open, there was an understanding that a marriage was between a male and female and not two people of the same sex. If our society(citizens) wish to expand the definition of marriage it should be up to that society to do so. It should not be decided by a few unelected judges.

Election mania !

כּל העוֹלם כּלוֹ גשר צר מאד והעקר לא לפחד כּלל

All the world is a very narrow bridge.
But the main thing to recall is to have no fear at all

-Rav Nachman of Bratslav-

"What could I do but send him away? This is where men, even the trustiest, fail us. Their heart is never so wholly given to any matter but that some trifle of a meal, or a drink, or a sleep, or a joke, or a girl, may come in between them and it (even if you are a queen) you'll get no more good out of them till they've had their way."


-Orual- Till We Have Faces, C.S. Lewis

arlo

Lamech's hope

Lamech Calls his son Noach because “this one will bring us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands, from the ground which HaSHEM has cursed.” Here we have the first messianic figure in the Bible. Was Lamech correct in his hope that his son would somehow free them from the curse that Adam and Chava had ushered into the world or was this just wishful thinking on the part of a hopeful parent?
According to jewish tradition Noach was the one who first invented farming tools. Now this may very well be true but I think that there is another answer to this question at the end of the flood narrative when Noach and his family leave the Teva and HaSHEM lays out the seven noachide laws:

1.Do not murder.
2.Do not steal.
3.Do not worship false gods.
4.Do not be sexually immoral.
5.Do not eat a limb removed from a live animal.
6.Do not curse God.
7.Set up courts and bring offenders to justice.

In the middle of this (Bereishit 9:3) HaSHEM says, “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; like the green herbage I have given you everything.” The curse was broken by HaSHEM allowing Noach and his descendents to eat meat and not have to depend entirely on vegetation.

"Words... words Bernardo. There was a time when I believed in words."

-Brother Son Sister Moon- movie