Metaphors in the Torah: “Ki Tavo” (Deuteronomy 26.1 – 29.8)

Thanks Offering of First Fruits to the Lord

This week, when reading the Torah commentary by Eli Kaufman in the Jerusalem Post, I found myself double checking the word “alef – bet—dalet”  which usually means: “a worker”, but can also mean: “a slave”. The reason was that Mr. Kaufman, who is described as a student of Near East Languages in his bio, reported that, traditionally, rabbis translate this word as: “wander” and indeed the Torah I usually use which is supplied by: “Mechon Mamre” also gives this definition. Of course, worker and slave are not the only definitions of these letters and the other one is: “lost”

Because the Hebrew word for wander is: “noon-dalet-dalet” it seemed to me that the rabbis concluded that a person who is lost probably wanders around trying to find his way.

Nevertheless, because I know that names are very important in the Torah I looked up the meaning of the name “Aram” and found that it meant: “exalted”.

Before going on, I would just like to point out two things about Mr. Kaufman’s article:

1)      He clearly stated that the some rabbis deliberately distorted the text of the Torah by trying to make it appear that it was saying: “Laban tried to destroy Jacob”, since the same letters for “lost” can also be found in “destruction”

2)      Mr. Kaufman based his entire article on three Hebrew words which were taken totally out of context and are usually translated as: “A wandering Aramean was my father”

First of all, there is the issue of: who is the passage talking about?  Abram?  Or: Jacob?

My impression is the subject is: Jacob.

Regardless, the point is the line should be translated: “My father was an exalted person who was lost”.

It then goes on to speak about his “descent” into Egypt and concludes by saying that the Israelites would be “impoverished” before they are restored to the land promised to their fathers.

This is very, very important, because it is the same word used to describe what we must do on Yom Kippur and, it is my personal opinion, that the rabbis once again, just as Mr. Kaufman pointed out, deliberately distorted  the meanings of the text in the Torah. The reason I believe this is that there is absolutely no mention of the Hebrew word for “fasting” in the commandments surrounding Yom Kippur. In fact, there is no mention of: “saying we are sorry” or: “asking for forgiveness”. What the text says is that one must “impoverish one’s soul”.

Therefore, the previously mentioned “Aramean”, in my opinion, should be translated as: “the haughty one” and that it is this “haughty soul” or “self exalted soul” which is lost…

Let us remember that Jacob’s 12 sons were not the nicest people God has ever placed on the earth. They plotted to murder their brother, they eventually sold him into slavery, they deceived their father , etc, etc, etc…

This then motivated me to look up the name “Abraham” and I was shocked to discover that what the rabbis say the name means is, in fact, not what the name means….not even close.

And I would just like to stop here for a moment and point out that the people who are deliberately distorting the Torah are the exact same people who are sending tens of thousands of Jews to Cyprus in order to be married by Christian judges or mayors…many times without being able to share this important occasion  with their family or friends….

As I am sure “everyone” has heard some place or another, the name Abraham is traditionally translated as: “The father of the nations”.

Unfortunately, this is not the meaning: The prefix “abra” means “wings”, not: “father”. The suffix: “Ham” is also translated in correctly and is closer to "they" or their". Therefore the correct translation of the name: "Abraham" should be: "their wings". 

Thus, the fact that Abraham is both associated with: "wings" and bringing ideas to the spiritually ignorant is extremely significant, because the Hebrew words for: “sky” and: “heaven” are the same and the Hebrew words for: “land” and “earth” are the same. In short: man lives on earth and God lives in heaven, hence "any winged creature" then becomes "an intermediary between heaven and earth” and this is one of the reasons the wife of Moses, who was described as: “the daughter of a priest”, was named "Zipporah" which means: " a female bird" . Another example is: “Deborah” whose name means: “bee”. Hence a bee also travels between heaven and earth and a bee produces honey which is a metaphor for easy to accept religious teachings.

Therefore, people like Rabbi Shlomo Riskin who exalt themselves by publicly declaring they are: “God’s partner” and “God’s co creator” are, in reality, nothing but: “lost souls”.

Their religious knowledge is based on their work studying the ideas of men and is the result of their own efforts, not divine revelations. Accordingly the words for “worker” “slave” and “lost” all share the same root.

Even in modern times we use phrases like: “a wealth of knowledge” or: “a rich vocabulary”. Hence, the purpose of Yom Kippur is NOT to say "we are sorry for past evils". Put another way: If the multi million dollar embezzler Burney Madoff says he is sorry on Yom Kippur, is all forgiven?

“Saying you’re sorry in order to remove sins” is a Christian concept, not a Jewish one. BUT since the rabbis and Paul of Tarsus both base their knowledge on the teachings of Hillel School of thought, it should come as no surprise that the core beliefs of the Roman Catholics and the rabbis are so similar. Hence both the rabbis and the Roman Catholic hierarchy insist it is impossible to understand the scriptures without their help. In reality, however, it is only impossible to understand their perverted and distorted interpretations of the scriptures without their help.... 

In addition, another very famous religious group in Israel has very close connections to a quite famous group of Christians in the United States. In fact, if an Israeli walked into a supermarket and saw the picture of one of the members of this American sect, he might think the man was Jewish when he is not. And, when I was a boy at the New York’s World Fair in 1965, I made the very same mistake.

I was on a subway and I saw a family who, I was sure, were Quakers from Pennsylvania.  It was only later that I realized they were: “Haredim”. The irony here is that the English name: “Quaker” and the Hebrew name: “Haredi” means the same thing: “to shake” and in fact both words are used in their respective languages to describe: “an earthquake”.

So: these “orthodox” Jews have the same name as a Christian sect, they dress exactly like the people in this Christian sect and they share the same educational roots as this Christian sect….(i.e. the Hillel School).

The ONLY difference between these two groups is that Quakers from Pennsylvania don’t force Jews to go to Cyprus to be married by gentiles….

Regardless, on Yom Kippur we are commanded to impoverish our souls of the wealth of religious knowledge, based on the ideas of men, which keeps us from hearing the word of God….

Ideas that make certain people think that they are God’s partners and that the Talmud is equal to the Torah….

You know: “sick and perverted ideas”……