In this post we read end-time scenarios, as prophesized by Malachi (Chapter 3). Enhanced audio is linked, as of March 2025.
Following the audio is two YouTube podcasts (first is a newer one, with enhanced audio), and then the text (Hebrew/English), available for download as a PDF file:
On the general concept of “Roof” in the Hebrew Bible, and what does it really signify:
The deeper meaning and implications of the biblical Hebrew Shamayim (Sky; A post of same title may be found here ):
What does “Truth” stand on? How do we tell truth from falsehood?
The Hebrew Alphabet conveys to us the essential ingredients of truth.
We denote these:
The Three Pillars of Truth.
What are they?
(Related post: Shorty*: What Do We Know of God? )
The detailed answer, based on the Jewish Hebrew Bible (Torah, the prophets), on in-dept analysis of biblical Hebrew words and traditional Jewish interpreters — may surprise you:
Link to podcast-audio:
“Kavod – the most peculiar word in biblical Hebrew” (Podcast-audio)
Kavod in modern Hebrew means honor, respect or glory. A person may show Kavod to his fellow human being, and a military medal of honor, bestowed unto a military service person, is a medal of Kavod (Ot Kavod).
The word appears in the Jewish Bible no less than 199 times. Numerous times it appears therein in the same sense as in modern spoken Hebrew. Examples:
Yet, this is only one sense with which Kavod appears in the Bible and it is not the most frequent one. A more frequent usage does not relate at all to the created giving glory to the Creator. Rather, it relates to Kavod as intrinsically linked to the Divine. And here we encounter the impossible combination of words:
Jehovah’s Kavod.
What does that mean?
Jewish bible interpreters have attempted, throughout the ages, to impart plausible meaning to this bizarre idiom; however, they have always relied on the traditional sense of “honor” or “respect” or “glory”. In most Bible translations (from biblical Hebrew), “Jehovah’s Kavod” translates into “Jehovah’s glory”.
As we shall soon realize, all those interpretations fall short of satisfactorily explaining most usages of this combination of words in the Jewish Hebrew Bible.
Thus, we are left helpless figuring out and imparting any sensible meaning to this bizarre expression; That is, until we scrutinize instances where it appears, and try to integrate these with scientific knowledge we currently possess about the universe. Once we do that, stunning amazement and deep appreciation for Jehovah’s Kavod follows.
Let us start with a few examples:
How can we settle the first example with the last, while they seem so much at odds and unrelated to one another?
In the first example, Moses obviously requests to learn how the Divine is leading His world. While the response Moses gets is unsatisfactory (“I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious”), the Divine response affirms that what Moses really desired in his request (“Show me your Kavod”) is to learn the ways by which God is leading His world. No reference whatsoever to God’s glory, as the latter is seemingly implied by the last example!!
Jewish tradition makes a reasonable distinction between two types of Divine leadership of the universe: By Law-of-Nature and by Divine Intervention (often explicitly expressed on a personal level as Divine Providence, or Hashgachah Pratit).
The former, Law-of-Nature, relates to the Ten Divine “sayings” of Genesis Creation narrative (Genesis 1). Later, after Noah’s flood, God re-assures humankind that Law-of-Nature exists and that it is ever-lasting: “While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night would not cease” (Genesis 8:22).
The latter, Divine Intervention, relates to divine intervention in the world to exercise a system of justice: “..Would not the Judge of all the earth do Justice?” (Gen. 18:25). However, this Divine intervention is mitigated by Divine graciousness and mercy, as the former quote of God’s response to Moses has shown. Furthermore, leadership by Divine intervention is not restricted to the confines of Law-of-Nature; Occasionally, it operates contrary to Law-of-Nature, as the Ten plagues of Egypt (Exodus 7:20-12:30) testify.
Let us assume that indeed Jehovah’s Kavod is an overall term for the two basic Divine leaderships of the universe: By Law-of-Nature and by Divine intervention.
Is there indication for Law-of-Nature in Jehovah’s Kavod?
Is there indication for Divine intervention (or Divine moral code) in Jehovah’s Kavod?
Expressed differently: Can one find evidence, within the term itself, that Jehovah’s Kavod indeed represents the double-faceted Divine leadership of the world?
Surprisingly, the answer is a resounding YES.
Let us address the former first. As quoted earlier, prophet Isaiah describes his vision of Seraphim crying to each other, saying: “the whole Eretz is full of his Kavod.” (Isaiah 6:3). However, as addressed in my book (Section 14.1, p. 201), Eretz (earth in biblical Hebrew) implies either “world” or “Earth”. Given current scientific knowledge, we may therefore re-translate Isaiah thus: “..Holy , Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole universe is permeated with his Kavod.” (Isaiah 6:3).
Is there any hint in Jehovah’s Kavod for Law-of-Nature, something that, by modern science, permeates the whole universe?
We can think of one answer only:
The gravitation force!! (in modern spoken Hebrew, force of Kevidah).
By Einstein’s general theory of relativity, the gravitation field, generated by any celestial mass (like galaxies and stars), determines the most fundamental properties of the four-dimensional space-time, as we experience it in daily life and as we observe throughout the universe via astronomy, aided by scientific theory (Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, with succeeding derivatives up to the present Super-string theory). There is indeed nothing else that we can state permeates the whole universe.
And how do we, mere Earth-bound mortals, experience gravitation force?
By feeling that every physical object, large and small, is heavy, carries weight. We nowadays are aware that this sensation of physical articles being heavy is due to gravitation force. That is how we experience it in our every-day life. Additionally, by modern science, we have learned that the gravitation force (indeed gravitational field) determines the fundamental properties of the four-dimensional space-time continuum, in which we live, and the gravitational field indeed permeates the whole universe.
So:
Given all that, does Jehovah’s Kavod in any way points to the gravitational force???
Amazingly, Biblical Hebrew makes the impossible and implausible link between two utterly non-related concepts: Jehovah’s presence in the world via Law-of-Nature, and the most basic force of the universe, the most influential on observed Law-of-Nature, only known by modern science— the gravitation force.
Heavy, in biblical Hebrew, is Kaved (same root as Kavod, implausible as this may sound). Examples (altogether 41 instances of Kaved in the Bible imply heavy):
“Behold, tomorrow about this time I will rain heavy hail, the like of which has not been in Egypt since its foundation until now” (Exodus 9:18,24);
“And now my father had burdened you with a heavy yoke and I will add to your yoke..” (1 Kings 12:11).
We finally address the second question, put forward earlier:
Is Jehovah’s Kavod also indicative of Jehovah’s leadership via Divine intervention, imposing the set of moral Divine commandments via a system of justice operating within the confines of free-will?
The answer is similar to that for the previous question: As Jehovah’s Kavod indicates a major Law-of-Nature (Gravitation Law), so it hints at a major Divine commandment, the fifth commandment, which starts with Kabed (meaning honor):
“Kabed thy father and thy mother” (Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16).
We summarize:
Personal confession: Mind boggling…
Comments:
Comment [1] (added April 28, 2019): The three-letter Hebrew root of Kavod (and related words) is “כ.ב.ד” (K.B.D). The gematria value of this root is the same as Jehovah (26). This is perhaps further evidence that Kavod in biblical Hebrew is indeed a general term for all modes by which the Divine manifests its presence in the world.
Comment [2] (added June, 17, 2020): The Coronavirus pandemic, denoted by WHO (World Health Organiztion) — COVID-19 (COronaVIrus Disease-2019), is indicative of, sounds like — Kavod (a stunning insight by Avinoam Ben-Mordechai); Read a separate post about the pandemic here.
Comment [3] (added June, 19, 2020): In the most prominent biblical demonstration of Divine intervention in the affairs of humankind (Divine leadership, Kavod), the Ten Plagues of Egypt, the word Kavod, with variations, appears Ten Times (within only three chapters!). Five times the word describes, as adjective, four of the plagues (“natural” disasters), stating that they were “heavy”; the other five times, Kavod describes Pharaoh’s “heavy” heart, refusing “Let My People Go”. Here is the list in Exodus (Chapter: Verse):
{ (8:11), (8:20), (8:28), (9:3), (9:7), (9:18), (9:24), (9:34), (10:1), (10:14) }.
The essence of being human is exercising free will. This is the act by which we continuously create ourselves and form our personality and character.
The Divine has created mankind (“So God created mankind in his own image…”, Genesis 1:27); but He has also formed it (“And the Lord God formed mankind of the dust of the ground…”, Genesis 2:7). We, human beings, whether we wish it or not, are doomed throughout our lives to repeat, via exercising free will, the two acts of creating (establishing a solid link between soul and body, while we grow) and forming.
What is the needed environment for human beings to be able to exercise their free-will?
There are two conditions (necessary and sufficient):
[1] Existence of “Good” and “Bad” mixed together (as in “The Tree of Knowledge, good and bad”, Genesis 2:9);
[2] Hidden-ness of God and the concealment of God’s hidden-ness.
Prophet Isaiah delivers succinct and stunning expression to the existence of the first condition:
“That men may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides me— I am Jehovah and there is no one else; Forming light and creating darkness, making peace and creating the bad, I Jehovah am doing all these” (Isaiah 45:6-7).
Note that creating (“something from nothing”) precedes forming ((“imprinting form on the created”), just as forming precedes making. Yet prophet Isaiah sets absence of light (darkness) and the bad (the harmful, the evil) at a level higher than that of light— the former were created, the latter was “just” formed.
Existence of the second condition, a daily human experience revealed in countless debates on whether God exists, is evidenced both by biblical Hebrew and by the Bible. In biblical Hebrew, “World” (Olam) derives from same root as all Hebrew words pointing to concealment. Examples: Ta’aluma (Mystery); He’almut (disappearance); Ne’elam (unknown (noun), as in an algebraic equation); Alum (secret, adj.). In other words, the whole world is testimony to the hidden-ness of God. Prophet Isaiah repeats same motive:
“Indeed, thou are a God who hides thyself, O God of Israel, savior” (Isaiah 45:15).
Concealment of God, however, is itself concealed (“Does God exist?”):
“And I will surely hide my face on that day…” (Haster Astir; Deuteronomy 31:18).
The repeat of same root twice (in two consecutive words) is traditionally interpreted by Jewish scholars as implying concealment of the concealment, an integrated fact of life that we all have probably experienced at one time or another throughout our lives (“Does God exist?”).
Having studied the two conditions for the existence of free-will, the next question to ask is:
What are the limitations to exercising free-will and what does the latter entail?
We continuously live in two worlds, intermingled and most often inseparable and indistinguishable from one another: “World of Law-of-Nature” and “World of Randomness”. We can exercise free-will only in an environment that allows choice, namely, in the “World of Randomness”. Unlike in the “World of Law-of-Nature”, where external constraints force us to behave in certain ways (and not others, namely, no free choice is available), in the “World of Randomness”, where randomness prevails, we are free to exercise whatever our heart desires. It is only then, in the “World of randomness”, that we become an agent of our own free will.
What exercising free-will is comprised of? It comprises two actions:
– Separating;
– Choosing.
We need to separate “Good” from “Bad”, before choosing. Most often in our daily lives, the good and the bad are intermingled to a degree that the two can rarely be told apart; Therefore, we need to separate before choosing. God created darkness (per prophet Isaiah), thereby allowing the good and the bad in our world to co-exist, mixed. Consider the biblical Hebrew word for “evening” (as in “…and there was evening and there was morning…”; Genesis 1:5, for example). The Hebrew word derives from same Hebrew root used for mixing (as in “mixture”). The “Tree of Knowledge good and bad” also implies mixed together. In biblical terms, one may allegorically assert that we all have eaten of “The Tree of Knowledge, good and bad”, where “Good” and “Bad” are mixed together in the same fruit. And since then, “Good” and “Bad” have become intermingled in our body and soul, delivering us our mission in life to grow and mature and create ourselves and form our personality and character, all via the process of separating (“Good” from “Bad”) and then choosing.
The act of separating (good from bad) is two-folded and it is expressed differently in the two worlds we inhabit:
Once we understand the act of separation in the two worlds, and grasp the role of science in assisting us separating in the “World of Law-of-Nature”, how do we separate and choose right in the “World of Randomness”?
Moses, speaking to the Children of Israel on behalf of the Divine, set to them clear separation and clear choice:
* Separation: “Behold, I have given thee this day life and the good, and death and the bad” (Deuteronomy 30:15);
* Choosing: “I call upon heaven and earth to witness this day against you that I have set before thee life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore, choose life that both thou and thy seed may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19).
Is free-will an endowment of the human species, granted to it for eternity?
Not according to Scripture. The free-will act bestowed on humankind, that of separating and choosing, has a limited life-span. It is not eternal. Time will come when God will reveal Himself and then free-will, by definition, will be no more:
“For then I will convert the peoples to a non-confounded language that they all call upon the name of Jehovah to serve him shoulder to shoulder” (Zephaniah 3:9);
“And Jehovah will be king over all the earth; on that day Jehovah will be one and his name One” (Zechariah 14:7).
Furthermore, not only the task of separating and choosing no longer be in the hands of mankind; At End-Times, the Divine will conduct a process of separation of His own; However, the separation process will not be between “Good” and “Evil” (as the latter exists in the “World of Randomness”), but rather between the righteous and the evil (who exist amidst humankind):
“I will also turn my hand against thee, and will purge away your dross as with lye and remove all thy alloy” (Isaiah 1:25);
“Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will smelt them and try them…” (Jeremiah 9:6);
“As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall you be melted in the midst of it…” (Ezekiel 22:22);
“I will bring the third part through the fire, and refine them as one refines silver and test them as one tests gold…” (Zechariah 13:9);
“But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like the washers’ soap; and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver…” (Malachi 3:2);
“Many will be purged, and purified and refined…” (Daniel 12:10).
A possible linkage between biblical Hebrew and physical reality is discussed in this new video, based on lecture delivered by Professor Haim Shore at Bar-Ilan University, November 2015, now with English captions:
Biblical Hebrew Linkage to Physical Reality -Prof. Haim Shore (Hebrew with English captions)
Below are links to three videos, produced by Avi Ben-Mordechai, following our three-hour talk during the meeting that took place at the office of the university:
Episode 1: https://youtu.be/BnNpyurCTq4
Episode 2: https://youtu.be/25-qKaLqLzk
Episode 3: https://youtu.be/GprBVEYNEsw
Episode 1 maintains a certain line-of-thought conveyed to the viewer from beginning to end. The other two comprise short excerpts from our talk about various subjects that came up during the conversation.
No pre-publication review of the produced videos had been done on my part.
I am indebted to Avi Ben-Mordechai for kindly allowing me to post these videos in public on my YouTube personal channel.
Response Modeling Methodology (RMM) is now on Wikipedia!! RMM is a general platform for modeling monotone convex relationships, which I have been developing over the last fifteen years (as of May, 2017), applying it to various scientific and engineering disciplines.
A new entry about Response Modeling Methodology (RMM) has now been added to Wikipedia, with a comprehensive literature review::
Response Modeling Methodology – Haim Shore (Wikipedia).
This post outlines the five general principles at the core of The Ten Commandments.
The Ten Commandments are a wakeup call unto the ego to acknowledge the existence of “the other” and develop appropriate (moral) relationships with “non-ego” others:
The Five Principles of the Ten Commandments_Nov 2016
Comment: Since this post first appeared, I was asked what “Non-ego other” means (see first principle). To understand the concept, it is perhaps best to define the opposite. An “Ego other” is a human being whom one considers an extension of his/her own ego. The epitome for an “Ego other” is a slave. However, “Ego other” may appear in more obscure forms, where the potential exists, like a personal assistant, a subordinate (at work), one’s own child or a spouse. All forms of “Ego other” are morally wrong.
(Related podcast: The Three Pillars of Truth (Lessons from the Hebrew Alphabet; Podcast-audio)
Truth is a sublime concept. But what does it stand on? What are the required ingredients for something to be “Truth”? The Hebrew Alphabet delivers us three pillars to tell truth from falsehood.
Observing the two words Emeth (Truth) and Sheker (Falsehood/lie), as their letters appear in an orderly sequence of the Hebrew Alphabet, teaches us powerful lessons on what constitute “Truth”.
Emeth is written in Hebrew: אמת
Sheker is written in Hebrew: שקר
The letters of these words appear emphasized in the sequence of orderly Hebrew Alphabet below (read from right to left; letters in parentheses are “final letters”, appearing only as last letters of words):
Emeth:
א ב ג ד ה ו ז ח ט י כ(ך) ל מ(ם) נ(ן) ס ע פ(ף) צ(ץ) ק ר ש ת
Sheker:
א ב ג ד ה ו ז ח ט י כ(ך) ל מ(ם) נ(ן) ס ע פ(ף) צ(ץ) ק ר ש ת
Based on these two sequences, three observations are called for that define the three pillars of “Truth”:
Pillar 1: Completeness
The letters of Emeth (Truth) “scan” the whole spectrum, from first to last of the Hebrew Alphabet, with the middle letter appearing exactly as a middle term in the sequence. By contrast, the Hebrew letters for “Falsehood” are concentrated together in a small segment of the sequence, conveying an impression of “Half-truth”, of an incomplete picture.
The tendency to make judgements or general assertions based on partial truths produces the worst form of falsehood. Partial truths contain seeds of truth, thus conveying an impression of truth when such is non-existent. This renders it difficult, at times impossible, to tell truth from non-truth. We judge a person based on a single wrong deed or utterance, ignoring a lifetime of righteous and fruitful deeds. We take part of a sentence, or paragraph, to slander someone ignoring the context and the true meaning of the complete pronouncement.
The book of Psalms regards “Completeness” as main feature of truth, which we have to account for observing and attempting to understand Divine righteous intervention in the world:
“Judgments of Jehovah are true (Emeth), they are righteous altogether” (Psalms 19:10).
Only in its totality may one appreciate Divine judgement as righteous. Components of that judgment, on their own, do not constitute righteousness; and only when taken altogether may these components be regarded as Emeth.
Pillar 2: Correct Order
The letters of Sheker appear in a perverted order in the sequence above, unlike the correct order of appearance of Emeth.
Falsehood is often generated, and truth violated, by placing “things” not in their correct order. Violating correct order can appear in all forms and shapes. When two warring parties are engaged in war, and we ignore the correct order of events that have “rolled” the parties into a state of war, or at times portraying real events, however in a perverted order of occurrence – we create falsehood (lie). Interchanging cause and effect, calling cause effect and calling effect cause, displaying thereby an incorrect cause-effect relationship, also obscure truth and generate falsehood. When a person blames his business partner for a certain adverse reaction to his own conduct, portraying his own conduct as reacting to that reaction (rather than as a trigger for the latter), he is engaged in creating falsehood. Preserving correct order is an essential ingredient for preserving truth.
Pillar 3: Supportive Evidence
Observing the two sets of Hebrew letters that constitute Emeth and Sheker, one discerns a major characteristic that tell them apart: The letters of Emeth look stable, well rooted in the ground (as shown by two “legs” or by a horizontal base, as in the middle letter). Conversely, all letters of Sheker seem shaky, not well rooted in the ground, two standing on one leg and a third (the first letter) “prone” to swing from one side to the other. Observing these letters an impression is conveyed of instability, as though the letters do not really have anything to support them. One is led to the conclusion that lack of evidence, grounded in reality, is main feature that distinguishes “truth” from “falsehood”, Emeth from lack thereof.
In conclusion: The Hebrew Alphabet teaches us that to tell truth from falsehood one needs only examine and confirm to what degree do the three essential ingredients of truth prevail; to what degree do Completeness, Correct order and Evidence permeate given descriptions of world affairs.
**********************************************
This post may also be downloaded:
haim-shore-the-three-pillars-of-truth_nov-2016
This presentation addresses the key question of whether biblical Hebrew is intrinsically linked to physical reality. Delivered at Bar-Ilan University, I explain in this lecture the methodology employed and demonstrate with some statistical results.
:”הרצאה בעברית שניתנה באוניברסיטת בר-אילן במסגרת יום עיון של ארגון “המטרה אמת
Is There Association Between Biblical Hebrew and Physical Reality? (Hebrew)
With English captions:
PowerPoint file used in the lecture (and some more) is linked below:
קובץ PP שנעשה בו שימוש בהרצאה (וקצת יותר) בקישורית שלהלן:
Prof Haim Shore Presentation at Bar-Ilan Univ_Hebrew-English_Nov 2015
בפוסט זה אני מראה כי ניתן לחשב אורך חודש ירח ממוצע על פי שני מושגים ידועים ביהדות מקדמת דנא: בהר”ד ו-וי”ד (מופיעים, למשל, בכתבי רמב”ם ועוד).
החישוב נעשה על ידי הצבת משוואה אלגברית פשוטה ופתרונה על סמך המידע שמספקים שני המושגים שהזכרתי (ואלה בלבד!).
השוואת הפתרון לערך שנמסר באתר של סוכנות החלל האמריקאית (NASA) מראה סטייה של:
0.000005 ימים.
פרופ שור_משך ירח הלבנה הממוצע על פי בהרד ו-ויד_המהפך 4_הרב זמיר כהן_הידברות_2014
המאמר המקושר נתרם לספרו של הרב זמיר כהן מארגון הידברות: “המהפך 4” (2015).
פוסט נפרד מציג אותו חישוב, אם כי בצורה מקוצרת מעט, באנגלית (In English)
Genesis Creation vs. modern cosmology— are their timelines compatible? (accounting for their different time-scales). Statistical analysis is employed in this post to examine this question.
Below are links to two new video clips (English/Hebrew), produced by Mr. Oren Evron. Each lasts about ten minutes and both aim to answer the following question:
Are Genesis Creation timeline and that of modern cosmology compatible, after all?
The findings shown are evidence-based, namely, results of data-based statistical analysis, which is addressed in detail (mostly in non-technical terms).
English version:
Genesis Creation vs. Modern Cosmology – New Scientific Findings (English)
Hebrew version (גירסה עברית):
Genesis Creation vs. Modern Cosmology – New Scientific Findings (Hebrew)
Spanish version:
Genesis Creation vs. Modern Cosmology – New Scientific Findings (Brazilian Portuguese)
Refer also to the videos page on this blog:
Videos (Hebrew, English, Brazilian Portuguese)
In this post I show that at present-day and age we witness a replay of the biblical sin of Adam and Eve.
We, as humans, entertain free will. This is made possible since our submission to the Law-of-Nature is not total. There are isolated islands in our lives where randomness prevails, allowing us to do whatever our heart desires, with apparently no moral consequences and no penalty due to violating some punishable law.
For example, we cannot decide to jump out of the window of a fifteenth floor of a high-rise because penalty would be immediate and ultimately catastrophic to our very survival. No free will here. Conversely, we may decide whether we wish (or wish not) to join a certain group of people for a shared activity with seemingly no devastating consequence, irrespective of which course of action we may have decided to pursue.
In summary, without ever so defined, our lives comprise two worlds intermingled with one another and generally indistinguishable from one another: The world of the “Law of Nature” and the world of “Randomness”. Our ability to exercise free will is conditioned on the existence of the latter; however we are prevented from exercising free will within the confines of the former.
Let us rephrase this assertion in biblical terms. The two seemingly unrelated and independent worlds, that of “Randomness” and that of “Law of Nature”, both originate in one source, which the Bible relates to as “Jehovah-Elohim”. Jehovah is source of the law of morality that prevails in the world of randomness. Elohim is source of physical creation and of Law-of-nature, within whose confines creation conducts itself since the beginning of time, at the Big Bang.
From its inception, humankind has aspired to be like God. But in what sense?
As the sin of Adam and Eve is described in the third chapter of Genesis, the serpent seduces Eve, explaining to her why it would have been beneficial to eat of the “Fruit of Knowledge”:
“For Elohim knows that on the day that you eat of it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be like Elohim, knowing good and bad” (Genesis 3:5).
In other words: Gaining knowledge, by eating of the Fruit-of-Knowledge, aims at becoming like Elohim, knowing the Law-of-Nature that would grant us knowhow of that which is beneficial to us (“Good”) and that which is not (“Bad”). The burning desire is dominance over nature (including dominance over other human beings), but not the study of Law-of-Morality, which prevails in the “World of Randomness”, concealed from us so that we may exercise free will.
For that sin, the sin of wishing to know Elohim (source of Law-of-Nature), and not Jehovah-Elohim (the complete and all-encompassing manifestation of God’s leadership of his world, which is also the only name for God used by the “objective” narrator), Adam and Eve are subject to expulsion from the Garden-of-Eden.
Knowing Elohim with the objective of being Elohim-like implies knowing Law-of-Nature and gaining dominance over nature and people. Murdering another human being is the ultimate expression of dominance over nature as a result of the desire to be as powerful (and as “Great”) as Elohim.
An individual calling “Allahu Akbar” (“Allah is greatest”), while taking someone else’s life in an act of murder, commits the exact same sin as that of Adam and Eve, only taken to the extreme:
“I know Elohim (since I know Law-of-Nature)” → “Therefore I have gained dominance over nature” → “Therefore I am Elohim-like” → “Therefore I have Elohim’s privilege to take your life away”.
All wrong!! And on many counts.
The privilege to take away one’s life does not belong to Elohim but to Jehovah Elohim. Alone.
And no amount of knowledge of Elohim, supposedly leading to a state of being God-like, provides complete knowledge unless complemented by the knowledge of Jehovah and his law:
“And now, Israel, what does Jehovah, your Elohim, requires of you but to fear Jehovah, your Elohim, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve Jehovah, your Elohim, with all thy heart and with all thy soul” (Deuteronomy 10:12).
The history of the human race is marked by committing, over and over again, the exact same sin of Adam and Eve: Gaining knowledge about Law-of-Nature, originating in Elohim, with utter lack of interest in knowing Law-of-Morality, originating in Jehovah.
The stated mission, indeed the role, of the Jewish nation in the world is to declare in the public square:
“The free will that you experience in the “World of Randomness” is an illusion. As there is Law-of-Nature there is also Law-of-Morality. These are not two separate worlds, one governed by Law-of-nature and another governed by.. nothing.”
And days are coming, when all will know, and aspire to know, not only Elohim but also Jehovah:
“Behold, days are coming, says Jehovah, when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Yehudah”,…, “and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, know Jehovah; for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says Jehovah” (Jeremiah 31:30-33).
“Allahu Akbar”, followed by murder, is present-day ultimate replay of the ancient sin of Adam and Eve. The latter have produced first human attempt at separating Elohim from Jehovah, learning the ways of the former (leading by Law-of-Nature), while ignoring, and neglecting to learn, the ways of the latter (leading by Law-of-Morality).
Days are coming, prophesizes prophet Jeremiah, when this artificial separation of the two worlds will be no more.
**********************************************************
This post may also be read at Times-of-Israel:
Present-day Replay of the Sin of Adam and Eve
Two new video clips (Hebrew/English), each about ten minutes long, have recently been produced by Mr. Oren Evron. In these I explain, in plain language, the basic principles underlying my research on the Jewish Hebrew Bible and on biblical Hebrew. Below is the English version:
Two other videos (English/Hebrew) focus on Genesis creation narrative:
English:
Hebrew :
In this post I address Equality, an originally Jewish value that has lately returned in the form of a sacred cow, which tends to distort observed reality.
“Equality”, an ancient Jewish value that has of late been “imported” back to the Jewish state in a distorted, largely reformed and deformed form, has since wreaked havoc on our ability to view reality as it is and to arrive at balanced and educated decisions.
In this post, I deliver three examples and address their implications.
A link to The Blogs on The Times of Israel:
Haim Shore_“Equality – the Sacred Cow”_The Times of Israel_August 14 2015
A PDF file of this post is attached:
Haim Shore_Equality-The Sacred Cow_Post in The Times of Israel_August 14 2015
A most intriguing finding, addressed in Oren Evron’s movie, is the nearly perfect correlation found for the trio of words, {moon, Earth, sun}, between the Hebrew gematria and the English Agrippa-Key gematria.
Although a table of Agrippa-Key may be easily reached via the Internet, we comply herewith with a request made by a viewer of this blog and present the Agrippa Key in the table below:
What do we mean by “Two books of the Divine” and their “Scientific Linkage”? In this post, I discuss the significance of my research about the Jewish Hebrew Bible and biblical Hebrew.
Since my research findings were first published in a book (Shore, 2007) and later, when these findings had become more widely spread due to Oren Evron’s movie (Evron, 2014, 2015), I have received mixed responses, extending from complete apathy, to attempts to explain away the findings by attributing them to ancient Earthly civilizations that somehow possessed modern scientific knowledge, up to sincere and true appreciation of the implications of the findings as alluding to the divine origin of biblical Hebrew and the Hebrew Torah.
In all these responses, one element seems to have been missing, and that is the inevitable conclusion emerging from the new discoveries:
The two books of the Divine are scientifically linked.
What do we mean by “the two books”?
Since its primary inception at the historic event of receiving the Ten Commandments by Moses at Mount Sinai, Judaism has consistently emphasized the two aspects of the Divine, as experienced by humans: God as creator of the cosmos and Law of Nature (Genesis 1:14, 8:22), and God as source of morality and its dictates.
Those two percepts of the Divine correspond to our own personal experience as concurrently living in two worlds:
* “The World of Law of Nature”, where free will is not feasible since violating law of nature results in immediate, apparent and non-miraculous penalty;
* “The World of Randomness”, where apparently no law exists with adverse consequence for its violation, wherefore we are free to act as we please.
Example for the first world (“Law of Nature”) is jumping from the 100th floor of a high-rise, where ignoring (“violating”) gravity results in immediate unambiguous “penalty”; An example for the second world (“Randomness”) is responding to a beggar’s plea for money, where we exercise free will on how to react, with seemingly no apparent consequence and no implication to our own personal destiny (irrespective of how we have responded).
The Ten Commandments, relevant only to the “World of Randomness”, where free will can be exercised, convey to us the “news”:
By word of the Creator, you are not completely free to act as you please.
Our own personal experience of the world as allowing free will, however only to a confined degree, namely, only in “The world of randomness”, this personal experience is expressed in biblical Hebrew in two concepts of the Divine, as creator and as source of morality. These concepts are epitomized in two names for the Divine, which repeatedly appear throughout the Hebrew Jewish Bible:
Elohim and Jehovah
(Please relate to my talk with Avi Ben-Morechai, accessible on this blog).
Prophet Isiah explicitly reference these two names and what they stand for:
“For thus says Jehovah that created the heavens, Elohim himself that formed Earth and made it, he has established it, not a wasteland created He it .. I am Jehovah and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:18).
The two books of the Divine, corresponding to these two names, are the physical cosmos, subject of investigation by modern physics, and Hebrew Torah. These two books have heretofore been perceived as unrelated to one another (at least not scientifically). For example: To this day, well known physical constants, like the speed of light or the electromagnetic charge of an electron, are accepted by modern physics as given. Furthermore, it is accepted that there is no scientifically established theory to determine these constants, apart from stating that if these constants were minutely changed the cosmos as we know it would not have been in existence (see lengthy discussion of this issue, for example, in Wikipedia, entry “Fine-tuned Universe” and references therein).
Obviously, no one ever linked these physical constants to biblical Hebrew.
The scientific new discoveries have changed this perception. They lead unavoidably to the conclusion that numerical values of biblical Hebrew words represent quantitative values of major physical properties of objects that the words stand for. For example, Eretz (Earth in Hebrew) represents Earth’s geometrical properties (like diameter and surface area) but also Earth’s mass, all of which are major physical properties of Earth. The scientifically unexplainable nature of the physical constants, alluded to earlier, become explainable in light of the new scientifically established discoveries: The speed of light (a physical constant) is what it is because light in Hebrew is Or, with a numerical value of 207 (which, by proper change of scale, converts into the physical speed of light).
By establishing the deep significance of the numerical values of Hebrew words, namely, their relationships to actual physical properties observed in the cosmos, the two worlds experienced in our lives, the “World of Law of Nature” and the “World of Randomness” (where apparently no law prevails unless one regards the Ten Commandments and their derivatives), these two worlds are scientifically unified and experienced as originating in one source. At the same time, the two books of the Divine, “Law of Nature” and “Law of Morality”, Elohim and Jehovah, respectively, no longer are experienced as separate “entities”: One subject to scientific enquiry; the other existing as a controvertible article of faith.
Rather, physical reality and morality are experienced as stemming from a single source.
With this, an ancient prophecy starts to begin to have its imprint on the annals of human history:
“..On that day Jehovah will be one and his name One” (Zechariah 14:9).
********************************************
Comment: Above post may be downloaded as a PDF file:
THE TWO BOOKS OF THE DIVINE_Haim Shore_April 2015
Pursuant to recent introduction of Oren Evron’s English-version movie: “The Torah – Math Unveils the Truth”, a document of questions and answers (Q&A) is linked herewith:
Q&A with Prof Haim Shore (English)_Movie_The Torah-Math Unveils the Truth_Feb 2015
Link to the movie:
Oren Evron’s Movie: “Torah – Math Unveils the Truth”
A while ago I was approached by Mr. Oren Evron, who had suggested to produce a movie based on findings from my research on the Bible and on biblical Hebrew (as these are described in my book).
I happily accepted but clarified that my input to the production of the movie will be restricted to ensuring that my research findings are appropriately presented (from the scientific and the statistical perspectives).
The result is a fabulous high-quality movie, which presents, in a straightforward and easy-to-understand fashion, the findings and their profound significance.
A link to the channel, where the movie is posted, is given below:
“The Torah – Math Unveils the Truth” (English)_by Oren Evron_Feb 2015
A link to the movie with built-in Hebrew subtitles is given below:
הסרט עם תרגום מובנה לעברית:
“The Torah – Math Unveils the Truth” (English-Hebrew)_by Oren Evron_Feb 2015
How is “Killing the Messenger” associated with antisemitism?
On October 1892, Asher Tzvi Ginzberg (1856-1927), also known by his pseudonym Achad-Haam, published an article in the Hebrew periodical Hamelitz. The title of the article was: “Half a Comfort” (Chatzi Nechamah). The article was published half a century after the Damascus blood libel, and in it Achad Haam tries to extract a useful lesson from the anti-Semitic blood libel (if one can be extracted at all). He denotes this lesson: Chatzi Nechamah. Achad Haam hoped that his Chatzi Nechamah would help Jews worldwide to cope with the devastating psychological effects of constant vilification of the Jews as part of the acceptable Anti-Semitic “General Agreement” (in his words; today’s “General Consensus”).
In the article, linked below, I offer an additional “Half a Comfort”, to complement that of Achad Haam:
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/anti-semitism-and-killing-the-messenger/
This article may also be downloaded as a PDF file:
Haim Shore_Antisemitism and Killing the Messenger_Oct 2014
The Hebrew letter Samech often occurs in names of enemies of the Jewish Nation, in the Bible and else. Is this a coincidence?
Samech, the fifteenth in the Hebrew alphabet, seems to be one of the most peculiar (and significant) letters in the Hebrew Bible and in Jewish history, past and present. Here is why:
On February 4th, 2013, I was interviewed, together with Rav Zamir Cohen of the Hidabroot not-for-profit organization, on the significance of my research results both from the scientific and the Jewish perspectives.
A link to this interview, posted on Hidabroot web site, is given below:
“Torah and Mada” – An Interview with Rav Zamir Cohen and Prof. Haim Shore (Hebrew)
In a workshop about recent advances in the application of statistical methods to quality engineering and management, conducted in March of 2013 by the Open University of Israel, I have delivered a presentation (Hebrew) about SPC-based modeling and monitoring of ecological processes. The lecture was based on my recently published article:
Shore, H. (2013), Modeling and Monitoring Ecological Systems—A Statistical Process Control Approach. Qual. Reliab. Engng. Int.. doi: 10.1002/qre.1544
A link to the presentation is given below:
Haim Shore_SPC monitoring of ecological processes_Open University_March 2013
This post delivers an in-depth analysis of the significance of the statistical term Significance Level (in response to an article in Significance Journal).
In a focus article that has appeared in Significance magazine (October, 2013), the author Mark Kelly delivers an excellent review of what “luminaries have to say” regarding the proper significance level to use in statistical hypothesis testing. The author thence concludes:
“No one therefore has come up with an objective statistically based reasoning behind choosing the now ubiquitous 5% level, although there are objective reasons for levels above and below it. And no one is forcing us to choose 5% either.”
In a response article, sent to the editor of Significance, Julian Champkin, I have made the point that, unlike the claim made in the original article, there is an obvious method to determine objectively the optimal statistical significance level. While the editor accepted my article, he declined to include the detailed numerical example therein since “Your illustration, though, is a little too technical for some of our readers – we have many who are not statisticians, and we try to keep heavy maths to a minimum in the magazine.”
In a further (unanswered) e-mail to the editor, I have suggested a solution to the editor’s concern and stated that “Personally I feel that there are many practitioners out there who could benefit from this simple practical example and get aware that engineering considerations are part and parcel of hypothesis testing in an engineering environment. I often feel that these engineers are somewhat neglected in the statistics literature in favor of pure science.”
Based on my own experience of over thirty years of academic teaching to industrial engineering undergraduates, I feel that it is important that individuals working in an engineering environment understand that the view point expressed in Kelly’s article in the Significance magazine, which is quite prevalent, is not accurate in all circumstances.
With this in mind, the originally submitted article, titled:
“What is the significance of the significance level?” “It’s the error costs, stupid!”
is linked below:
Haim Shore_What is the significance of the significance level_Response to Significance_March 2014
This book was self-published back in 1992 (2nd edition in 1995). A unique feature of the book is that each page is structured as a separate slide, which may be integrated into a presentation. Related theoretical material is deferred to the appendices.
The book had gained popularity in Israel in institutions, academic and otherwise, where courses, or workshops, in quality engineering had been taught.
It may now be downloaded free here (with bookmarks that allow easy access to each chapter):
Shore_Total Quality, Quality Control and Q by Design_1995
Haim Shore Blog