The Noahide Accord

 I have lived in plenty of apartment buildings in my life time and worked at some jobs that required  to be around a lot of other employees. It's so easy to get caught up in who is doing what and even  saying negative things about other people. Gossip. That is what it is and it is UGLY! We have all done it! It's easy to fall into that! Who doesn't like to hear "juicy stories"? I have a hunch that's how soap opera shows started on television. Everybody loves to ridicule others! In Judaism, this is called lashon hara. It goes deeper then gossiping behind someone's back. Slander isn't pretty and even is recognized in many countries such as America, one can sue another  for slander. It is recognized (so I have been taught) in Judaism, what we say and do affects the whole world! What we say about another person is very damaging and never can be taken back. The  damage has already been done. Learn about lashon hara and how you can help the world to be a more...

We all understand that our bodies need to be looked after with what we put into it. The food we eat, the fluids we drink, and exercise. God gave us these wonderful "machines" to take care of and what do we do? Well, I must admit, I am guilty of not giving my body quality care like I should! Oh, that piece of cake or those cookies!  The Coronavirus 2019 (SARS COV2) hasn't been a big help, that's for sure! It kind of threw us through a loop and caused a lot of us to gain weight because we were in lockdown for a long time. Many of us need to let go of the junk food and get back to feeding our bodies good nutrition, especially these days with the virus still lurking. Fruits, vegetables, meat (if you eat meat), beans/lentils, some carbohydrates, and of course keep it light on sugars and salt.  But, how about our soul? Do we need soul health guidance? As we say in the upper  Midwest, "you betcha"!  Most of us do our daily activities whether it be working, chores, ...

I have heard many gentiles say that they thought Kosher meant blessings from Rabbis.   That  Rabbis go into stores and bless the food. I may have thought this as well many years ago. I  don't know where this belief started but pretty sure it has been spread  like a rumor.  I have to joke because I imagine a Rabbi going around the store blessing certain food like,  "bless those little E.L.F. fudge cookies"!  The word Kosher is used quite loosely for several things like behavior or a certain thing like a job for instance. Someone might say, "well, that job isn't Kosher", or they might say, "that  isn't Kosher", when talking about someone's behavior. But, when we talk about food that  we eat, what does Kosher mean?  Kosher is a general term to mean how food is sold, prepared and what kind of food that is  eaten  according to Halacha (Jewish Law).  What is fit to eat? Kashrut.  Kosher slaughter refers to animals bein...

Whatever your background, I expect that you have attempted to pray to the Higher Being or Creator. Right? For whatever reason, you tried to connect to God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (if Jewish), or Allah (if Muslim), or Jesus (if Christian), or one or several of the gods (if Hindu), or perhaps Buddha (if Buddhist). Very sorry if I left out others.  Prayer is personal. Most of us go into seclusion to pray unless of course we are with family or  a group of people to pray about someone or something. Maybe you have felt so down and  things have been going so badly or maybe your heart aches for another, maybe that person is very ill or you are very ill. It's not unusual for people to ask for prayer for themselves or for others.  Does God only hear from Jews or Noahides? Of course not! All people from where ever they are, who ever they are, are children of God. He knows us better then we know ourselves! He will not turn His back on you because you are this religion or th...

During the years online, I have come across some very disturbing website pages that  are so vile in the portrayal of Kabbalah. Calling the practice of Kabbalah of satan and evil. Some sites will show all kinds of symbolic nonsense while they explain that it's all about magic and other cultish things.  Naturally, the people that make these websites are clueless about Judaism, clueless about  Torah, clueless about Oral Law, and so forth. They know very little Hebrew if any at all. They do not understand Judaism and they do not understand the Jewish Sages that handed  down the the teachings and understandings of Kabbalah.  I am not going to get in depth here but I will share some basics. I am NOT a Rabbi, I am not  an expert in Kabbalah. Beware that there are some websites that are not of the down to earth, old school Kabbalah and are "new age" Kabbalah. My first contact with Kabbalah was with listening to HaRav Ariel Bar Tzadok in 2002. You can find him on Yo...

Have you found yourself wishing to do everything Jewish? Have you been seriously  considering conversion to Judaism? Have you pondered whether or not to eat Kosher? Are you wondering about celebrating the Jewish Holidays? I can truly empathize! I absolutely fell in love with G-d's Truth, the Torah! I fell in love with everything Jewish. I do recall an assistant to the Rabbi I was working with during my  conversion said to me that I don't have to read everything Jewish! It was okay to read  other kinds of books. At that time, I was still in the "I want to know everything" stage.  After five years of studying, reading everything I could, I still was digging into the  Jewish writings, commentaries, and so forth. In 2002, I was intrigued in listening to an expert in Kabbalah. A whole new world had opened up to me in so many ways and my thirst  for this knowledge was not quenched! The more I read and studied, the more questions that I had needed to be answered. ...

A Yiddish saying, "man plans, God laughs".  I find this to be a very interesting statement and I find that when I planned certain things, these things didn't go as I was thinking they would! It has also been said that for everything there is a reason and I should add this as well what  has  been  said, "that everything is for the good".  I could go on with clichés but it is proper to say that "hind sight is 20-20"! (I could not resist)!  I had wondered 22 years ago if this was just a fad. I was seeing more and more people coming out of idolatress religions and searching for God's Truth, deeper meanings, and finding Judaism to be the answer!  Let me start here with my story. Perhaps you can relate in some way. I was adopted when I was 3 years old. My adopted parents never hid that fact. As a teen I wondered who my "real" parents were. Finally, when I was about 27 years old, I found them. I had called up the town library in which I was born...

 Who exactly should follow the 7 laws of Noah? Are they meant only for Jews to follow? Do gentiles  observe them, too? Where did these laws come from?  As I mentioned in an earlier post, we have to pause and think about how Adam and Eve knew about  what was acceptable to God and what was not. They knew that murder was wrong and so did Cain when he killed his brother Abel. Things radically changed when they ate from the Tree of  Good and Evil. This world changed at that very instant and all human souls that come to this  "reality" must try to repair what went wrong. This is called tikkun, to repair. We begin by repairing  ourselves. Whatever needs adjusting in ourselves like an angry temper, jealousy, and so forth. We also repair the world by giving charity and in how we treat each other. We become active in helping others. The 7 Laws of Noah are to be observed by everyone, Jew and Gentile. These laws were given to  humans during the time of Noah a...