BAMBINO (BRIT-AM BIBLICAL ISRAEL NEWS ONLINE)
Discussion of the Bible, Biblical History, Lost Israelite Tribes Identity in the Light of the Bible and other matters relating to Scripture.
No. 22
4 Tammuz 5769, 26 June 2009
Contents:
1.
Lilith
and Nocturnal Ejaculations
2. The Blue Thread. What was it?
3. Rabbinical Chronology and Brit-Am
1.
Lilith
and Nocturnal Ejaculations
Question
Manuel Ortiz wrote:
re
BAMBINO-21
#3. Question on Lilit and other fanciful beings
http://britam.org/BAMBINO/Bambino21.html#Question
I'm really bless by the knowledge of Hashem:
That's what i love from you all people...make it simple. That's was a good
approach and answer. In my case, i'm gratefull for your explaination. Is
true, i check different approach and at the end...get loose.
Seriouslly, what is your data respect to the forklore of lilith or nahemah and
what according of midrash?? I prefer honest data ...than misinformation and i
take your studies as a matter of fact, not as gossip. Thanks again for your
honesty and your love from Chashem, i bless you as my people, Manny.
Manuel Ortiz
================================================
================================================
Brit-Am Reply:
Lilith was said to have been the wife of Adam before Eve was created.
She is a ghost like figure.
Every man has his own "Lilith".
The concept of Lilith belongs to Jewish mysticism on the one hand that in the
past only a few occupied themselves with
or on the other hand the common superstitious unlearned men and women invented
wild tales about her.
Learned respectable Jews did not usually occupy themselves with such subjects in
the past.
I myself do not study these kind of subjects but I can give you a rough answer
according to my own understanding.
Lilith is the personification of seminal emissions.
A male reaches puberty and then adulthood. Some pass through this stage quite
easily. Others have problems.
It happens that men (especially young men) have nocturnal emissions ("wet
dreams") or masturbate
or ejaculate both due to induced stimulation or against their will.
[Or they engage in various types of illicit intercourse.]
Sometimes this develops into a compulsion that later causes serious complexes.
Psychologsts and child counsellors etc still do not know how to deal with such
problems.
Usually the male simply grows out of it, gets married and carries on his life as
if nothing ever happened.
Nevertheless a certain negative impression remains either at the conscious level
or the subconscious one.
"Lilith" represents the negative forces that have been created.
She is the "demon" like entity created by the past that threatens to destroy the
male chance of success and happiness.
It is as if the "lifeforces" that went out are liable to return and "jinx" the
offender.
In other words "Lilith" is not real and was never meant to be understood as
such.
She is a personification of what we created against our will or against our
better judgement, the waste
we may have caused.
Lilith can therefore be overcome by living in purity, being true to one's
spouse. keeping the laws,
giving charity. learning Torah. etc.
================================================
================================================
Remark by Questioner:
From: Manuel Ortiz
Re: Subscriber , Thanks, but ???
I respecfully...knew it:
I knew it that you high understand it will teach me right. I?m really bless
with your opinion, specially with the detail of maintain pure for Chashem...purity
always restrain or submitted the yetzer harah. More will or power of doing
right...more success over own demons. I'm really thank's for your help and your
love for the true.
2. The Blue Thread. What was it?
The Bible speaks of the duty of the Israelites to place fringes on the
four corners of every cornered garment.
The fringes were to include a blue thread.
This thread had to be dyed with a special dye the secrets of whose production
were lost.
The URL referred to below discusses this isssue.
[Numbers 15:37] AND THE LORD SPAKE UNTO MOSES, SAYING,
[Numbers 15:38] SPEAK UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, AND BID THEM THAT THEY MAKE
THEM FRINGES IN THE BORDERS OF THEIR GARMENTS THROUGHOUT THEIR GENERATIONS, AND
THAT THEY PUT UPON THE FRINGE OF THE BORDERS A RIBBAND OF
BLUE:
[Numbers 15:39] AND IT SHALL BE UNTO YOU FOR A FRINGE, THAT YE MAY LOOK UPON IT,
AND REMEMBER ALL THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE LORD, AND DO THEM; AND THAT YE SEEK
NOT AFTER YOUR OWN HEART AND YOUR OWN EYES, AFTER WHICH YE USE TO GO A
WHORING:
[Numbers 15:40] THAT YE MAY REMEMBER, AND DO ALL MY COMMANDMENTS, AND BE HOLY
UNTO YOUR GOD.
[Numbers 15:41] I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD, WHICH BROUGHT YOU OUT OF THE LAND OF
EGYPT, TO BE YOUR GOD: I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD.
http://www.breslev.co.il/articles/judaism/concepts_in_judaism/in_search_of_biblical_blue.aspx?id=12019&language=english
3. Rabbinical Chronology and Brit-Am
Amnon wrote:
Your commentary on Psalm 137 gave the date of Nebuchadnezzar's
destruction of the first Temple as 586 BCE. This is a date derived by hostile
Bible Critics from the unreliable records of the reigns of the Medio-Persian
kings, and by Christian historians attempting to read the year of the
Nazarene's advent into the prophecies of our Tenach!
But the Gemara, Seder Hadoros, Rashi, Tosafos, Rabbeinu Chananel, Rosh, and
the Maharsha all state categorically that the First Temple lasted 410 years,
being destroyed in 3338 AM (422 BCE), followed by the 70 years of the
Babylonian Exile, and the Second Temple which stood for 420 years. The
difference between 586 and 422 BCE is 164 years: no small amount, and
equivalent to saying that Napoleon died in 1657 instead of 1821!
Advocates for each date claim that the other is wrong, but after years of
daring theories attempting to reconcile the two dates, Rav Shimon Schwab ztz"l
wrote ("Selected Speeches" 1991 p.285):"I fall back into the ranks of all the
shlomei emunei Yisroel. And to me l'briyas ha'olam means what it meant to our
fathers. It is as simple as that".
Few Orthodox and Haredi Jews would go against a clear date from Chazal, even
if seemingly problematic.
What is Britam's opinion?
Brit-Am
Reply:
I do not think you have the right to decide what "Orthodox and
Haredi Jews" would do.
My impression is that most would do as we do and perhaps with much less
compunction.
Chronology is in the same category as all other opinions of the Sages concerning
non-legal matters.
For example,
The Sages gave many medical and scientific observations and suggestions.
Quite a few of these have been proven to be soundly based, well in advance of
their time,
and applicable in our era as you well know.
Nevertheless ALL the great Rabbis of our age (Chazon Ish etc) forbade us to put
the medical and other
suggestions into practice. You are as aware of this even more than I am
and you could give
quite a few examples of your own.
Jews are ONLY obligated to obey the Sages in so far as they gave us directions
concerning the day-to-day
keeping of the Torah. Anything else enters a different category.
To say otherwise may even be encroaching on the prohibition of "Lo TOSIFU"
(Deuteronomy 4:2).
[Deuteronomy 4:2] YE SHALL NOT ADD [Hebrew: "Lo TOSIFU"] UNTO THE WORD WHICH I
COMMAND YOU, NEITHER SHALL YE DIMINISH OUGHT FROM IT, THAT YE MAY KEEP THE
COMMANDMENTS OF THE LORD YOUR GOD WHICH I COMMAND YOU.
Concerning Chronology:
The Rabbis had a different Chronological understanding of history than we now
have.
I myself personally am convinced that the modern chronological understanding of
ancient history is mistaken and will have to be revised.
I read literature on the subject and subscribe to two different email discussion
groups at an academic level about it.
It may well be that in the end the historians will come round to agreeing with
the system the Sages subscribed to.
In the meantime they have not.
We have the right and our own justification in discussing historical events with
the general public to use the dates
that are conventionally accepted even if future research is liable to prove
these dates mistaken.
You ask concerning differences between conventional dating and that usually used
in traditional Rabbinical Literature.
The Rabbis usually used the Midrash Seder Olam (ca. 100s CE) which is an early
source.
Another work often referred to is Sefer Ha-Kabbalah (also adapted and known as "Sefer
HaDorot"?).
This disagrees with Seder Olam.
http://www.tzemach.org/articles/y2kproph.htm
http://torahideals.wordpress.com/2008/08/01/what-is-the-definition-of-objective-history/
http://philologos.org/bpr/files/misc_studies/ms067.htm
SEDER OLAM, Encyclopedia Judaica records:
Yose
b. Halafta,
the presumed author of Seder Olam
Rabbah,
probably had access to old traditions that also underlay the chronological
computations of the Jewish Hellenistic chronographer Demetrius (third century
B.C.E.).
The most significant confusion in
Yose's
calculation is the compression of the Persian period, from the rebuilding of the
Temple by Zerubbabel
in 516 B.C.E.
to the conquest of Persia by Alexander (331
B.C.E.)
to no more than 34 years.
A classic example of this situation is the
Sefer
ha-Kabbalah
by Abraham ibn
Daud.
Until recent times, this work served as a standard textbook on Jewish history.
Today, however, the work is recognized as virtually worthless as a source of
information on the biblical,
talmudic, and
geonic
periods. Its value lies mainly in the picture the author gives of the spirit of
his day and of Spanish Jewry. It is quite clear from
Ibn
Daud's
methods and chronological conclusions that he had neither the Seder
Olam
Rabbah
or its Zuta
at his disposal.
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