Envy and Jealousy: What's the difference? Part 4

20 Tevet 5785 | כ' טבת ה'תשפ"ה

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

 

💖Welcome home, Romi, Emily and Doron! Refuah shlemah to all of you, and all the others...💖

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A Prime Example

 

A lot of things have been going on, as the vast majority of people know; so, A BIG THANK YOU SO MUCH for bearing with me until now. I hope these posts will help us all think more clearly about what we're witnessing and going through as God responds openly, finally.

As it turns out, US president-elect Donald Trump really meant something quite different when he first said: 

 

"If those hostages aren't back — I don't want to hurt your negotiation — if they're not back by the time I get into office, all hell will break out in the Middle East. And it will not be good for Hamas, and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone, all hell will break out..."  

(emphasis mine, HDG)

 

For the rest of the quote and more, see this video from Tomer Devorah on how this statement is being fulfilled — in the USA.

 

What that emphasized phrase means on our side of the earth, it turns out, is that WE, the Jews of Israel, are "getting the shaft" after all. It is intended that we are to release hundreds of murderous Arab prisoners from our jails as we get only 33 of our hostages, not all of whom are alive. I'm finishing up this post as three of our living hostages were released today (Sunday, 19 January 2025) and rescued the body of a dead soldier ourselves with God's help (which should not be added to the tally, if there was any decency in this whole thing they call "a deal"...). Otherwise, we have no idea which ones are dead or alive, only estimates as of this writing. The families of the hostages who were not chosen are screaming bloody murder at our government, and I can't blame them. 

 

In fact, I must say that I favor the holy, son-after-son scion of King David-run Kingdom of Israel to the "demock-racy" of Israel. It's just proof that, with democracy, all a country has to do is get the populace to believe that evil is good, and — voila! — a decent country has been slowly, then quickly, made into an evil country — by law, no less!

The "democracy" called the State of Israel favored a smaller portion of the population  over all the others — until October 7th, which was Simchat Torah back in 2023. Then, it was their turn to be "sacrifices for the sake of the State." Meaning, that they would be mutilated and murdered by surprise. Unfortunately, the religious Zionists (the real term is datí le'umí, national religious) were eager to get into the battlefield, as usual...and we are losing many more soldiers, most of them datí le'umí, than the massacre itself and the hostages...combined.

 

A Jewish kingdom, designed according to Divine command, will then be able to say NO!!! to the nations, and mean it. That would be just the beginning. Until then...

 

It's time for Jews to say, 'Sorry, not sorry.' Frankly, we have to stop being envious of the nations, which leads to appeasing them, because we think they have more freedoms in this life than we do.

 

One of the greatest things we should not be sorry for is claiming our Biblical right to live in THE LAND OF ISRAEL; and not only that, but to live here as HaShem wants us to.  

 

Israel is synonymous with Jacob (Ya'acov יעקב), the forefather of all the Jewish People; it is the name the angel gave Jacob after he won the overnight battle with it. ON THE LAND.

Rabbi Levi Diamond of Chabad Rechavia presented the case for the Jews' Right to our Land at the beginning of the current war (immediately below).

(...you can see that I started writing this series much earlier from this video.)

 

 

| A word, to the wise, is sufficient. |

 

Forgive me if you've heard this admonishment too many times. I haven't heard it in many years, and wonder whether people's sensitivity to events has been affected by its absence. I added what I think are essential commas to the statement because I didn't understand it when I first heard it as a child. 

 

And here's one more: If there is no hope for the Jewish People to win Mashiah through prayer, and to overcome their enemies in this horrible war, then there is no hope for any other nation, either, no matter how strong they are, to win anything.

 

Seriously, it would be wiser to quit trying to appropriate the Land that God gave to the Jews, than to continue on a path to an end you will never enjoy without the presence of the inheritors of it. We have a Jealous GOD and trust that HE will judge those who have hindered us from enjoying our inheritance from Him. Everyone on Earth should be getting ready to meet Him up close and personal, whether they like the prospects or not. 

 

People who say they believe in God and read their bibles should naturally understand what it clearly states. 

 

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I have a thought, or at least the draft of one, of a real explanation of why God has been treating my people with such exactness that others think He hates us, compared to how He treats them. It has to do with the difference, and the interplay, between envy and jealousy, and how the Hebrew of the Bible treats these words and the concepts they represent. It certainly doesn't have to do with anything leading outsiders to believe that He has given up on us, or has abandoned us for them.

 

 If you read the Torah (Five Books of Moses, but especially the books of Exodus and Numbers) carefully, you will see, even in translation, how the descendants of Israel (Jacob) have doubts about whether they should have left Egypt (Mitzrayim means constraints and refers to their slavery there. I note that its current name, Misr مصر, in Arabic, is basically the same.). 

 

Risk-taking, especially if one were accustomed to being forced to depend on a "master" for the most meager need for generations — the fulfillment of which depended on the degree of compliance with "his" demands — is the last thing a freshly-freed slave would be able to accomplish. Yet, that is exactly what God expected us to do — to trust Him and His servant, Moshe (to whose name we now append Rabbenu, since he taught us how to behave as a free people and interceded on our behalf with God when we slipped up...which was often...) to follow them and do what they said. In today's vernacular, we would say that we were infantilized emotionally and mentally, not to mention spiritually...and now we had to grow up and take responsibility for ourselves, with His help. 

 

My guess is that it's why our ancestors back in the day complained so much and didn't think to ask nicely for what they needed. This thought led me to ask haShem for permission to return home to Israel, rather than just barging in. It took two years for it to be fulfilled, and now we're well within our 18th year here, thank God.

The last thought I want to leave you with is that jealousy has a very positive aspect, which I personally have discovered over the past 2 years and change. When a couple is very much in love, the last thing they want is to lose each other. They become jealous over each other with a desire to protect each other and the relationship. 

 

I'm not sure if this is within the bounds of correct English, but the phrase jealous over seems to suggest to me the picture of a large, beautiful umbrella over the couple involved. And it definitely fits what I experience as God's watching over me.

Envy does not have this quality at all.

 

*** 

 My very last thought on this, for now, is that I still have a lot to learn: how even words like vast, enormous, huge, gigantic (and relatively newly widespread synonyms derived from the last three, "ginormous" and "humongous") don't even begin to touch any description regarding HaShem, God. It may be why the Breslevers among the Jews quote Rebbe Nachman of Breslev, saying that we don't know anything. 

 

Which is why ge'ulá shlemáh will be a big surprise...for the vast majority of the peoples of the earth.

 

I wish all my readers a healthy winter and a better year to those both inside and outside of Israel.

***

More Reading: The second coming of Donald Trump | Jerusalem Post should have titled this post: Is the Bibas family still alive? |  Kfar Saba: Reservists' group sets up display with 'Arabs' on a pickup truck. Next time, guys, PUT SIGNS AROUND THE DUMMIES' NECKS. You'll know what to write on them. | Min. of Communications Shlomo Karhi calls on PM & DM to bring back 3 senior officers who dared to think differently. | Rebel News: Davos locals (who even knew they existed?) protest the WEF Thank you, guys! | Jewish Press: Police compelled to reveal complete list of administrative bans from the Temple Mount | Jewish Press #2: Israel to repeal old Jordanian ban on land sales to Jews | Shiur.com: The Advice of the Wicked | Gerald A. Honigman: What should a measured response to Arab butchers look like? | Myrtle Rising: A chain of obvious parallels — but not sure exactly how it all fits together; It gets worse and worse and worse...and then...salvation arrives; The redemption of today's captives [30 Jan 2025 - HDG] as expressed in the mussaf prayer of Rosh Chodesh | New data shows majority of Israelis support annexation of Judea, Samaria and Jordan Valley |

 

Video: Tomer Devorah: January 2025 ! You have been warned!! |

 

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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Envy and Jealousy: What's the difference? Part 3

 7 Tevet 5785 | ז' טבת ה'תשפ"ה

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 4

 

(Pulse of Israel) The Expanding Land of Israel is Happening

 

I have been living with the following idea for the past two years or so: The jealousy of the Living God is a good and desirable thing!

 

How am I supposed to understand this? It seems that a jealous being wouldn't be so desirable (Much less God, being this way). It could also, or instead, be the misuse of jealousy in some way.

 

...What is it?

 

Having been a native English speaker for well over 60 years, I can attest to the change in the understanding of the relationship between the words jealousy and envy in my first language. They were once very distinguishable, and now, it seems, they are not, according to dictionary definitions and the majority of people, which is as likely as not to have engendered the decision to change the definition, particularly of jealousy. 

 

I believe it must have started when I was a teenager. My husband, only 8 years older than I, clearly believes in the classic definition, and passed it on to me relatively recently (like, a couple of years ago at this writing).

 

The words we are discussing in the Biblical Hebrew (known as Lashon haQodesh לשון הקודש in the original) are as follows (the polite way):

 

• HaShem Kanáh (קאל קנא) = God is jealous  
  
• Lo Tahmód (לא תחמוד) = Do not covet [and I also translate as a synonym, do not envy.  - HDG]
  

 

As you can see from the Hebrew words themselves, there is no commandment that says, do not be jealous. But it does say, do not covet (or, envy) — twice, for good measure — and it goes further later in the sentence and spells out what you should not desire for yourself which belongs, or is in relationship to, another. 

Coveting and envying, if left to fester, both end in stealing and worse. We might want to take a tip from the Hebrew words, which have not even a single letter in common.

As I wrote above (in part 1), modern Hebrew shares our confusion. The Hebrew Language Academy (HLA) hasn't accepted the translation above of tahmod...yet. So, the conflating of these words has the effect of putting God in a bad light, even in translations between Hebrew and English.

 

It seems to me that He is accused of coveting, the prohibition of which is the last of the 10 Commandments! 

 

How do I think that come about (or is this even an original thought)?

When jealousy and envy are interchangeable, it means that the subject of either of these words is coveting the object. A person covets their own spouse or their neighbor's car. It makes no difference. It means that there are no boundaries on either side. This is why we must keep these words apart, as they used to be, and still are in the Biblical Hebrew that is mostly studied by Jews (and Noahides, within their own boundaries). 

 

One of the outcomes of the confusion of these terms is the translation of the modern Hebrew term קנאי (ka-na-EE) in modern English dictionaries as both jealous and envious (from my 17-year-old Oxford Hebrew-English dictionary. Google Translate on my phone translates envious as מקנה m'ka-NEH. Same root, different form. Only the emphasis changes.) 

 

To the Hebrew Language Academy, I would suggest the verb lahmód לחמוד for to envy, as well as to covet, to which it already translates. It would have the proper emphasis on the person wanting to possess what is not his/hers, which was the original English meaning, as well as the Hebrew.

 

 

It's important to note that the person finding him- or herself jealous has the relationship (most appropriately, the marriage), the work contract, owns the home, the land, etc., so there are boundaries around what s/he has and must protect. The envious person, on the other hand, has potentially no boundaries about what s/he will do to appropriate (i.e., steal) the property or person of another, and has no valid relationship or ownership with the object of their coveting. The same feelings apply, but the relationships between the jealous and the covetous/envious people and their object(s) are opposites. 

 

To clarify, I'm not saying that everyone who envies another is stealing the object of their envy actively. But at the very least, they wish they could, if they're honest with themselves. Most, if not all, of us have tendencies in this direction at some time or another. And, yes, I include myself as well, at one time or another.

I might assume that these feelings and traits are more associated with men, but I didn't want to exclude women! We have these struggles too.

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We have a short review of a few of the top definitions cited online.

 

 "Jealousy" vs. "Envy": Can You Feel The Difference? Dictionary.com 

 I think this site is very confused as to the difference. It's not a matter of what it feels like, but whether the writer can clearly distinguish them.

 

Key Difference Between Jealousy and Envy - YourDictionary

This site is much less confused about the definition, with the exception that at the bottom of the page, it considers Christians to be the "owner" of  the Jealous God (the quote from that site is "In the Bible, you can find reference to a jealous God in Exodus 20:4-5. In this context jealousy is used to mean worshiping only the one true Christian God and not other Gods.") 

 

Comment from me:

Par-don-Me!?! Jews — particularly those who have actually read and studied them — are jealous over our understanding of God and the texts He gave us. Considering that the reference is in Exodus (as linked to above), a clearly Jewish text that we call SH'MOT שמות in Hebrew, after its first key word, with a plainly Jewish context ("the Exodus from Egypt") that people who know it don't deny, I find it outrageous. It only adds to the confusion, this exclusion of Jews from their prerogative of JEALOUSY OVER THE LAND (that Jared Kushner recently claimed we were "eating up" in the context of the USA's "2-state solution" plan) as well as over who GOD is. 

 

No, we don't own HIM. HE made the original covenant with US, the Jews.  

 

He doesn't change His mind! His perspective is FOREVER! Our government would not be successful at gaining any part of the Land He promised us, from around us, if He were not involved. They don't even desire to do so; they are doing some of the job because of the request referred to in the above video, and under threat at the same time.

 

It's not a matter of political correctness, either, dear reader, in case you're wondering. It's a matter of the fact that there were neither Christians nor Muslims around during the times of the Israelite emancipation from the slavery of the Egyptians. But there were Ishmaelites, as well as other desert-dwellers. The Ishmaelites drove caravans, along with other nations, to Egypt quite frequently. And between them and the Midianites, they carried Joseph to Mitzrayim (its Hebrew name) when he was sold some 200 years prior.

 

Consider what I wrote 5 years ago, here and here. I also commented here (R' Sprecher's "Pharaoh — The Original Anti-Semite!").

 

It seems to me that both Islam and Christianity need to appropriate the "Jealous God" from the Jews because they just can't let go of the "Old Testament"...just try to imagine either of them without the Five Books of Moses, the Writings and the Prophets, even as they ignore and disdain them.

Back to the definitions...

 

6 Main Differences between Jealousy and Envy also is very clear, and doesn't carry the religious baggage. 

 

More links in this SEARCH Decide for yourself whether other sites are clear or confused on this issue. From the clear definitions comes the opinion that envy and jealousy deal with a lot of the same stories and scenarios, but differ regarding the point of view. This is important when considering Whom we are discussing.

TO SUM UP: 

 

Jealousy is generally about something you possess or own — a quality or an item — or a relationship you actually have, being appropriated or stolen by someone else. A close synonym is zeal.

 

Envy is about wanting to possess or own — or have a relationship with — something that, or someone who, is not yours to relate to, have or own. 

 

Covet, and its various forms, the word in English used to denote the subject of the Tenth Commandment, is associated with the latter.

While many people — and even dictionaries in English — consider jealousy and envy synonymous nowadays, when it comes to certain issues...studying Torah in its original ancient language comes to mind, and bringing it to modern minds has been the next step...it is important to separate out the differences.  

 

Only the desire to be as precise as I can possibly be, along with "life" itself, has delayed me. And, I still think I may have failed. It is, as I wrote in the beginning, a difficult subject. More than anything else, I would like to see people thinking about it. 

 

Maybe you have a better way of expressing it?

 

One of the outcomes of the confusion of these terms is the translation of the modern Hebrew term קנאי (ka-na-EE) in modern English dictionaries as both jealous and envious (from my 17-year-old Oxford Hebrew-English dictionary. Google Translate on my phone translates envious as מקנה m'ka-NEH. Same root, different form. Only the emphasis changes.) 

 

To the Hebrew Language Academy, I would suggest the verb lah-MODE לחמוד for to envy, as well as to covet, to which it already translates. It would have the proper emphasis on the person wanting to possess what is not his/hers, which was the original English meaning, as well as the Hebrew. 

The Tenth Commandment agrees; or rather, I agree with it: Lo tahmod לא תחמוד.

 

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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 4