RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:JEWISH SPIRITUALITY:JOY:JAMES VON BRUNN:HOLOCAUST SHOOTING

  RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:JEWISH SPIRITUALITY:JOY:JAMES VON BRUNN:HOLOCAUST SHOOTING

Jewish Spiritual Renewal:Shabbat 6/20/09 Torah,Tanak.Talmud:Spiritual+Ethical :

 

Shalom my beloved Talmidim v' Chaverim:

 

I will keep MY class short today, because I received a d'var Torah, a spiritual lesson if you will, from one of our fellow international students, who recently converted to Judaism, and who was accepted to immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return.

 

It is a poignant and stirring letter, and he asks for what to him is major life saving help, and for us, a class of now 115, would be little, if ten of us pitched in $100, or twenty of us $50, and so forth.

 

Some Torah: Deut. 10:19: ''Love the convert.''

Some more Torah: Lev.  19:34: ''The convert  who resides among you in your land shall be for you like a native, and you shall love him just as you love yourself."   Our fellow Talmid and Chaver is giving us an opportunity to put our Torah learning into action, into active Mitzvoth.

 

I would like to say one thing about the murder at the USA Holocaust Memorial Museum, besides my heartfelt prayers for the family of the murdered guard. And it is about Talmud.

 

White Supremacist and Holocaust denier James Von Brunn, who allegedly  shot and killed a security guard in an attack on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum today, titled his anti-Semitic manifesto "Tob Shebbe Goyim Harog – Kill the Best Gentiles." He states the quote comes from Talmud Bavli Tractate Sanhedrin 59B. Von Brunn's citation is a close (the correct text is on 57A), but he takes the quote out of context and makes it say the opposite it of what the rabbis were teaching.

 

The quote is  from a midrash about the Exodus, in which the only Egyptians said to have survived the plagues and thus able to give chase to the Jews in their final escape from Pharaoh were those who were God fearing. Yet even those Egyptians proved themselves to be a threat to the Jews, and so, Rabbi Shimon Ben Yochai concludes in the Mechilta Midrash  Sofrim 15:10 , quoted on Talmud Sanhedrin 57A,  in a time of war when Jewish lives are threatened, "Kill even the best of the Gentiles."

 

Let us look at the full text of the Mechilta Midrash: Exodus 14:5-7 "It was told to the king of Egypt that the people had fled; and the heart of Pharaoh and his servants became transformed regarding the people, and they said, 'What is this that we have done that we have sent away Israel from serving us?' He harnessed his chariot and attracted his people with him.] He took six hundred elite chariots [and all the chariots of Egypt, with officers on them all."]

From whom were the animals that drove the chariots? If you say they were from Egypt, doesn't it say (Exodus 9:6) "and all the livestock of Egypt died [from the fifth plague]"? If you say they were from Pharaoh, doesn't it say (Exodus 9:3) "[Moses said to Pharaoh]: Behold, the hand of God is on your livestock that are in the field"? If you say they were from the Jews, doesn't it say (Exodus 10:26) "And our livestock, as well, will go with us- not a hoof will be left"? Rather from whom were they, from the Egyptians who feared God [and were not affected by the plagues]. We now see that the livestock of the God-fearers that escaped the plague caused great hardship for the Jews [by being used for chariots to pursue them]. From here R. Shimon [ben Yochai] said: Kill [even] the good among the gentiles.''

The quote used by Von Brunn is so taken out of context that we forget that during World War One Jews of England and France in the trenches were killing Jews of Germany, and vice versa. In war, the Talmud teaches, even if your opponent was the most righteous man in peacetime, if he is aiming at you with his rifle, shoot first.

And now, the d'var and personal plea from Michael Ben Avraham. When you read if, think how many of us take our Judaism for granted, and see it, first hand, from a modern day "Ruth," wanting to be with his people, in Israel.

''This  message  was   submitted  by  michiyke20041@YAHOO.COM to  the SPIRITUALRENEWAL  list at  SHAMASH.ORG.

Shalom Fellow Jews,

My grammar is not perfect but please feel free to read my words. My thoughts may help you to gain happiness tomorrow as Jews.

 Before I start, I am not that perfect to teach but I pray that my words of teaching will help you. My name is Michael Ikechukwu Nwobu. I hail from Aguleri in Anambra state Nigeria. I was born in the year I987. I was recently converted to Judaism after studying for years with Rabbi Arthur Segal. My conversion Name is Michael Ben Avraham.

The State of Israel has accepted my conversion by Rabbi Arthur Segal and his Semikah-ordination by their chief Rabbi's office. I have been accepted to immigrate there under the Law of Return to live and attend Synagogue in Israel as a Jew.

 
My doctrine of reasoning taught me that he who listens to the words of the spirit is liable to live longer than his expectation and will always have a joyous day. Bluntly speaking, I prefer to live by the teaching of
Torah than to live in the midst of riches where righteousness is not displayed because the consequences of an unrighteous act can lead to sudden death.

 

The Torah is a microcosm to facilitate our ways of life in such a way that it will interest people around us. With the knowledge of Torah you will be impelled to do righteous act and when you do the righteous act you
shall then expect to receive a divine favor from God. The Torah is the words of the spirit and the spirit is of two types, the bad and the good spirit and Torah symbolize the good words of Ha Shem.

 
Sometimes when we found ourselves in a predicament we blame God for being the causes. Some religions even blame Adam and Eve as the causes of our suffering because of the disrespectful act they displayed before God. One certain time ago when I was a student, my non-Jewish religious teacher stated that Adam and Eve where very stupid to disobey the words of God and that was the reason
why we are suffering but in the actually sense I know that all men can equally do exactly what Adam and Eve did.

 I went inside the market and I bought a little fine box and I decorated the box with beautiful flowers, I wrote a paper and I put the paper inside the box and I sealed the box with a tick gum, I use paint to write "PERFECT GIFT INSIDE THE BOX" I paste  this paper on top of the box and I gave the box to our teacher as a gift.

 I told her that I want her to keep the box on top of her office table and she promised to do so. I shake the
box and she heard a sound of something inside the box and I gave it to her. I told her that truly this is a gift for you but I want you to keep this box safe for me, I don't want you to open this box because if you do the beauty of the box will be destroyed.

 She promised to do as I said. She took the box and shakes it and she heard the sound of a paper. I left her office.

 As the class prefect I use to come inside her office everyday to pick the class register book and
whenever I come inside her office I will take a look at the box to know if she has tampered it.

 

About 4 days later the teacher came to the class, she asked me to stand up which I did and she read a note which stated "No body in this world is perfect to live according to man's will let alone God's will". She asked me what I meant by that and I told her that since she blamed Adam and Eve to be
''stupid in disobeying God'' then what is she to go contrary against her promises.

 
You see, no man is perfect to live according to man's will let alone living according to God's will. We must learn to stop blaming people to be the cause of our problem let alone blaming God as the causes of our
troubles. What ever that happened to us we must learnt to consider it as Gam Zu L'tovah just as Rabbi Nachum Ish Gamzu and Rabbi Akiva. We must learn to take any situation you found yourself as Gam Zu L'tovah.

 

One thing we need to know is that we have the (Gevurah) power to (chesbon ha nefesh) a moral inventory of our souls. We must practice righteous act. When we blame people for anything, we are trying to cause hatred among ourselves and that is called evil tongue (Lashon Ha ra).

 

Remember that Rabbi Luria say there are seventy two bridges of (chesed) love. The right side represent attributes of chakmah, chesed, and Nezah while the left side represents binah, din and hod. These are things we must know about moral life.

The problems we have today are unfortunately what we brought upon ourselves. The evil we do to our fellows is a trouble to our souls and the troubles of our souls is a problem to us. We suppose to examine our troubles and then think for the reasons why it came.

Let those who have, help those who do not have, and those who live by pranking forsake it because pranking people is another stage of troubles to your soul which will bring a greater disaster to us. 

We know what is good and what is bad and whosoever that wronged God and say to him God please forgive me because I do not know what I am doing is a liar and that person is even committing more sins before God. In us we have two spirits, inclinations, that tell us what is Good and what is bad, the bad we do we do it because we feel like to do it and ignore the Good.

 
We must learnt to build Shechinah inside our souls to help us defeat the bad one in us, though the spirit of Ha Shem is in the Synagogues but going to Synagogues every Shabbat will not save us. The most important thing God want from us is to build and alter inside our souls where his Shechinah will dwell. God need a dwelling place and we must welcome him inside our souls.

 
Judaism is not only a religion but a (Keter) divine crown to people who believe in Ha Shem. As a Jew, we wake up today in (tiferet) beauty and tomorrow we wake up in (yesod) strong foundation and the next day we will wake up in (hod) glory and we think all this is by our own hands? No, it is the divine crown God has given to his children and if we build a perfect altar for him in your soul he will do more for you. 

 
The (gedullah) greatness of our soul comes from God. Give our (Neshemot) soul to God so that we will have a happy life. Don't say we have tried but he do not answer me, call God, come to him, Build an altar for
him inside our souls, live a righteous life , demand for anything you need from him and believe me you shall see changes. But remember that he who demands from God must have patience. The gift of God lasts eternal. Those who dwell in the Ha Shem will always have peace of mind.

 I will stop here today and I will get back to you with more teachings.

 

I need your help to acquire one way plane fare from Nigeria to Israel, and bus fare from my town to Lagos, Nigeria. The reason why I need all this support is because the state of Israel accepted my conversion and my immigration, but they stated that I should  fund the process for the traveling expenses, which I cannot.

 
Please if you feel like to help me just a little bit as you can afford please contact Rabbi Arthur Segal because the whole thing should cost not more than USA $1000. And I do not want cash, I just need a plane ticket waiting for me at Lagos Airport to Israel and a bus ticket at my bus depot.

 
Please I do not write this moral lesson because I need your help but I wrote it because I need to give out my experience about God omnipotent to us.

 I want to use this great opportunity to thank Rabbi Arthur Segal by helping to build me up in a spiritual Jewish life. Feel free to ask question through my mail contact or his.

 
Thank You All

Michael Ben Avraham.

Michiyke20041@yahoo.com''

__

For those with skepticism,  I have worked with Michael tri or bi weekly for almost two years. This is not a Nigerian scam. The State of Israel investigated him, his conversion process and my semikah. He is real and needs our aid. As you can see, he has a true Jewish Neshimah. I was cc'ed on all of the papers from Israel.

If your heart will allow you to donate, and I have a tax deductible # so what you send I can send you a tax deduction charitable receipt, email me for my snail mail address. RabbiASegal@aol.com. The sad thing is, if Michael were living in the USA or the UK or Australia, Nefesh b'Nefesh, would fly him, and all his belongings (if he had any), to Israel for free. Because he is in Nigeria, [and how many Nigerian Jews are there making alliyah to Israel?], he doesn't qualify.

If you have outrage over the anti-Semitic attack in DC, here is a chance to show that we Jews are not a race, but a people bound together by common beliefs and history, which Michael ben Abraham has sworn to stay with, during our peoples' good times and bad times.

A d'var Torah on this week's parasha is below.

Shabbat Shalom:

Rabbi Arthur Segal
Via Shamash Org on-line class service
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Spiritual Renewal
Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

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A Short Snap Shot of Rabbi Arthur Segal

Rabbi Arthur Segal

United States

I am available for Shabbatons, and can speak on various aspects of Jewish history, (from the ancient past to modern day, and can be area specific, if a group wishes), Spirituality, developing a Personal Relationship with God, on the Jews of India and other 'exotic' communities, and on Talmud, Torah and other great texts. We have visited these exotic Jewish communities first hand. I adhere to the Mishna's edict of not using the Torah as a ''spade'', and do not ask for honorariums for my services. I am post-denominational and renewal and spiritually centered.

 I am available to perform Jewish weddings,  and other life cycle events, ONLY IF, it is  a destination wedding and the local full time pulpit rabbi is unavailable, or if there is no local full time pulpit rabbi,  or it is in my local area and all of the full time pulpit rabbis are unavailable.

 My post-doc in Psych from Penn helps tremendously when I do Rabbinic counseling. My phone number and address will be made available once I am sure of one's sincerity in working with me.

Rabbi Segal is the author of three books and many articles on Torah, Talmud and TaNaK and Jewish history. His books are : The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal: A Path of Transformation for the Modern Jew, A Spiritual and Ethical Compendium to the Torah and Talmud, and  Spiritual Wisdom of our Talmudic Sages. The first two are published by Amazon through their publishing house, BookSurge.

For information on how to purchase these, please contact RabbiSegal@JewishSpiritualRenewal.net and visit WWW.JewishSpiritualRenewal.Net.  OR CLICK ON THE IMAGES BELOW. 

 Todah Rabah and Shalom v' Beracoth. Rabbi Arthur Segal ,( Dr. Arthur Segal )RabbiASegal@aol.com . 

 

Click to Order	THE HANDBOOK TO JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL: A Path of Transformation for the Modern Jew Rabbi Dr. Arthur Segal distills millennia of sage advice into a step-by-step process to reclaim your Judaism and your spirituality in a concise easy-to-read and easy-to-follow manner. If you find yourself wishing for the strength to sustain you through the ups and downs of life; if you want to learn how to live life to its fullest without angst, worry, low self-esteem or fear; or if you wish that your relationships with family, friends and co-workers were based on love and service and free of ego, arguments, resentments and feelings of being unloved...this book is for you. Price: $19.99 254 Pages Published by: Amazon's BookSurge
Click to Order	A SPIRITUAL AND ETHICAL COMPENDIUM TO THE TORAH AND TALMUD Rabbi Dr. Arthur Segal dissects each of the Torah's weekly sections (parashot) using the Talmud and other rabbinic texts to show the true Jewish take on what the Torah is trying to teach us. This companion to The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal: A Path of Transformation for the Modern Jew brings the Torah alive with daily relevance to the Modern Jew. All of the Torah can be summed up in one word: Chesed. It means kindness. The Talmud teaches that the Torah is about loving our fellow man and that we are to go and study. The rest is commentary. This compendium clarifies the commentary and allows one to study Torah and Talmud to learn the Judaic ideals of love, forgiveness, kindness, mercy and peace. A must read for all Jews and deserves a place in every Jewish home. Price: $24.99 494 Pages Published by: Amazon's BookSurge

Welcome to Rabbi Arthur Segal's Jewish Spiritual Renewal bookstore. We invite you to create an account with us if you like, or shop as a guest. Either way, your shopping cart will be active until you leave the store.

You can purchase each book individually, but if you purchase them together as a set with the Tzadakkah Bundle, I will donate a portion of the sales price in your name to a tzadakkah of your choice, such as your synagogue.

Simply provide the donation information in the "Special Instructions" box during checkout. When doing so, please include the following:

• Name of Organization
• Contact Name and eMail Address
• Organization Mailing Address
• Organization Phone Number

Thank you for visiting.

(001) The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal

In The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal: A Path of Transformation for the Modern Jew, Rabbi Dr. Arthur Segal distills millennia of sage advice to reclaim your Judaism and your spirituality.

• Price : $19.99

(002) A Spiritual and Ethical Compendium to the Torah and Talmud

A Spiritual and Ethical Compendium to the Torah and Talmud dissects each of the Torah's weekly sections (parashot) using the Talmud and other rabbinic texts to show the true Jewish take on what the Torah is trying to teach us.

• Price : $24.99

(003) Tzadakkah Bundle

The Handbook to Jewish Spiritual Renewal and A Spiritual and Ethical Compendium to the Torah and Talmud. Purchase both books as a set, and I will donate a portion of the sales price in your name to the tzadakkah of your choice. -- Rabbi Segal

• Price : $44.98

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