24 Tevet 5782 | כ"ד טבת ה"תשפ"ב
Blogger's note: First of all, I should warn my gentle readers (and my not-so-gentle ones too😉) that what follows may seem, or even be, what I'm terming "religiously politically incorrect" for some of you. Nevertheless, I write with the hope that we all seek the truth, whether it be PC or not.
I do not imagine that only Jews read this blog. Perhaps most readers are, but not all.
And away we go...
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According to a well-known law, or principle of Scripture, the Law of First Mention, one must find the first place where the question is answered. It will be the "simplest, most understandable reference from which the others build." (source)
The answer to our title question is in our previous parasha, Shemoth (the beginning of the book of Exodus), 4:22.
The context of this verse is a chapter where the Lord is commanding Moshe Rabbenu (Moses our Teacher) to go to Par'oh and speak with him about the matter of freeing the nation of Israel to go and worship Him in the midbar (wilderness. The specific detail of the celebration of G-d in the wilderness occurs in 5:1.).
A breakdown of the translation of the last three words in the Hebrew: The noun "b'chori" means "my firstborn," which is masculine, referring to "b'ni, "my son." "Is" is understood, and Israel is the object of the noun phrase, which in English is rendered "my firstborn son."
Does this mean that Jacob, who attained the name Israel in Bereshith (Genesis) 32:25-30, is G-d's firstborn son?
No. The first thing we learn from the principle of the firstborn son of HQB"H is that it refers to a nation and not to a particular person from within that nation (or a person from within any other nation, for that matter).
I repeat: Israel, as presented in the context of the ending of Egyptian slavery, does not refer to Ya'aqov (Jacob), but to his progeny, the nation of Yisrael.
There are no two ways about it, and no other way to interpret it. Israel — the Jewish People — is named by G-d as His firstborn son.
My search for the law of first mention brought only Christian sites. I know that Chabad teaches this too (my mom went to Chabad events for quite some time, and she taught it to me); and I imagine that this is common-sense enough that others would do the same as well, and have come up with it on their own. This would especially apply to those who believe in the infallibility of the Word of G-d in its original language.
(Anyone who can clarify this for me, please feel free to use the comment section. Thanks in advance!)
The main point to remember here is that we do not deviate from what is learned in the first mention. We may learn more details and elaborations on it, but we may not turn away from what it essentially means and make it something else.
Those who seek to use this tool properly need to be sure it does not lead in a direction that may not be warranted. It would probably be best to use more than one Scriptural reference, to make sure there is no conflict. I am about to present one here, that Christians bring upon themselves because, for them, all roads lead to Otoh haIsh (Yoshke/the J man).The source above, which I'm linking again here, gives an example in the first mention of blood, Hevel's (Abel's) blood at the hands of Kayin (Cain) in Bereshith (Genesis) 4:10, and ends up with the one we call Otoh haIsh (Yoshke/J). The path they took completely missed the verse we're discussing here, thus coming to conflicting conclusions, creating more questions than answers.
This constitutes a violation of the law of first mention because it basically wipes out a whole lot of Scripture that explains the concept of the son of G-d, as explained above and, I'm sure, elsewhere. Not to mention that their whole understanding of sacrifice is skewed, and the unmistakably human sacrifice of Yoshke "for the sins of the world" is expressly forbidden.
As my rabbi from the States told me many years ago, long before I made aliyah: It took haShem close to 2,000 years to wipe out the human sacrifice of ancient times, and Xianity brought it back.
Who knew?
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R' Shimon Kessin firmly believes that both Christianity and Islam are above us today because we are still in violation of our obligation to love our fellow Jews. Listen here to the one on Christianity:
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Official Israel proved this once again regarding a recent event in Dubai. A Jerusalem pavilion was created there, separate from the Israel pavilion — which presented Israel as a nondescript country, nothing particularly special — and labeled as belonging to "Palestine." Meaning, that Islam basically owns Jerusalem.
Did our Ministry of Foreign Affairs do or say anything about it? The big question I have is...
Is this an accident, or is it a secret policy of our government to allow our ownership and responsibility for Jerusalem, our ancient capital, to be disavowed?
This question needs to be answered openly, publicly and honestly. We need to know the state of our governance, whether the system we live under can still serve us or not, on many levels and many issues besides this one. Basically, we cannot allow this desecration of our name and reputation to continue. Not only that, but we must be sure that we are ruled by those who have our best interest as a nation at heart.
Will we serve G-d or not?
We must do teshuva.
Avi Abelow introduced the following video:
Israel’s Foreign Ministry paid over $20 million to have a pavilion at the global expo in Dubai that is expecting 25 million visitors from around the world. Yet, instead of inspiring and exciting expo visitors with what makes the Jewish state of Israel unique and enticing to all of humanity, Israel’s foreign experts dropped the ball, big time.What bothers me more than the missed opportunity is the missing appreciation for their own heritage and homeland, that actually is what so many people around the world are so starving to experience on a visit to Israel.
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More...
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