Wordless Wednesday: Sister Despina of Rizokarpaso

Music Monday: Byzantine chant

It was Orthodoxy Sunday yesterday, and I was looking forward to church, after skipping a couple of weeks. As a result, I was not chuffed when my son woke up early with a fever, put his grump on, and proceeded to sleep most of the day away on the sofa with little but water and juice inside him. The reversal of plans, combined with worry about him, didn’t make me a particularly happy camper either.

He perked up later in the day, though he still didn’t eat much, and was well enough today to go to school, so I get a bit of quiet meditative time with protopsaltis George Lambropoulos in a live recording from this time last year. (Anyone knows which church?) There are a couple of choppy editing moments, but the spirit just pours across, regardless.

Wordless Wednesday: Madonnina

Roberto Ferruzzi, circa 1897

Yoga and Hinduism: One and the Same?

Last month I came across an article in ‘The Chicago Sun Times’ which talked about yoga and Hinduism. It was written by Rupa Shenoy, and entitled ‘More Than Just a Pose.’

An American of Indian heritage, Rupa voiced his disapproval of the general way in which yoga is being presented in America and pointed out the obvious disconnect of yoga in the West from its Hindu roots.

Around that same time, I received an email from a man who referred to himself as a swami, asserting that ‘You and your swami “obviously” do not really know what Yoga is. Yoga is the Hindu religion’ — full stop!

Though I’ve never met this person, he continued to write me with more dispariging words, demanding that yoga and hinduism are one and the same. Clearly he has strong feelings about this issue, even though I felt his hasty judgements about me and my guru were misguided.

In addition to these things, I noticed a buzz in the media over the past few weeks about a group of parents who were up in arms against yoga classes being offered at a school in Massena, New York, claiming that their children would be subtly indoctrinated in principles of the Hindu religion.

Evidently, this was a subject that I was being prodded to address.

Read the rest of this article HERE!

Being There

My father always told me that, not until I understood what motivated some Japanese during WWII to slice open their stomachs in order to protect their pictures of Emperor Hirohito, would I understand what it means to relate to God as king.

I tasted the experience in the Hermitage museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. Only royalty could see the art. There is a hallway one must enter as he approaches the main throne room that serves, even now, to intimidate anyone who passes through it walls. The sound of your footsteps echoes and bounces around you, increasing in volume as you approach the throne room. The armor displays are intimidating. And then, one enters the throne room. The floor and the ceiling match to teach that the Czars power on earth matches God’s Power in Heaven, and that his reign is Divinely granted and blessed. The room, the rhyme and design, were my first true taste of the greatness of a king.

When Moshe taught Betzalel how to build the Altar, he did it by describing the Altar in Heaven. Moshe explained exactly what happened on the Altar – the Mizbei’ach – in the Heavenly Temple as Betzalel and his workers listened intently, mesmerized, hypnotized. Moshe brought the angel Gavriel to life as he told his story. “I know,” he said. “I saw it. I was there.”

The people who lovingly built, passionately shaped, and devotedly layered the Mizbei’ach, were not only building an altar, they were building the Heavenly Altar so powerfully described by Moshe to them.

This is what the Midrashim and Zohars mean when they speak of God observing the Mitzvot of the Torah, or of God studying Torah with us. The Sages want us to give Tzedaka the way they give Tzedaka in Heaven. They want us to not simply open a book and study Torah, they want us to picture the Almighty sitting in the Yeshiva in Gan Eden, studying Torah, and then to desire to study with the same passion and clarity.

The Sages want us to imagine what Shabbat is like in Heaven and to then, not simply observe the Shabbat, but to make a Shabbat table that is just like God’s Table in Heaven. To sing as the angels sing at the heavenly Shabbat Table. To discuss important ideas as they do at the table at which God is sitting at the head. Ours is not just Shabbat, it can be the replica of God’s Shabbat shared with His angels.

About the Author
Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies.

The author invites you to visit: http://thefoundationstone.org

Hail to the King!

I once watched a drunken man running down the street in the rain, weaving from one side to the other. When I asked him what he was doing, he responded, “I’m running through the raindrops!”

I’m not drunk. I’m not even running. I can walk, even stand between the hailstones. They just won’t fall on me.

It all began yesterday. Egyptians were running around warning each other that another plague was on its way, and that Moses promised that whoever was inside, and all animals that were brought inside, would be safe. Pharaoh’s Royal Guards are trying to stop anyone from bringing their animals inside. “Anyone who brings his animals inside will be prosecuted for treason!” They have large chariots with megaphones passing up and down every street warning the Egyptians not to hide their animals.

My next-door neighbor is terrified. He doesn’t know whether to ignore Pharaoh’s troops, who have been decimated by the plagues, and to acknowledge God’s power and hide his animals, or to remain loyal to Pharaoh.

There is a civil war brewing. They hate each other now as much as they hated us. My neighbor went with God. He was too scared to ignore the warning. He doesn’t have any faith in Pharaoh’s ability to protect or even hurt him. Some diehards painted “Traitor!” all over his house.

We woke up to a perfectly quiet morning. When I went to the local Starbucks I saw that there was a cloud of hail over each Egyptian, his home and animals, while the sky was perfectly clear for me.

The hail was incredible: there were actually flames burning inside each hailstone! The Egyptians were running around like that drunken man, but their clouds followed them wherever they went.

They are all covering their ears because they hear a constant terrifying thunder. Interesting, because I don’t hear anything.

They are standing at their windows yelling out to us; “Forgive us! Please!” Rumor has it that even Pharaoh has acknowledged his sins and declared that God is righteous.

It won’t be long before this is all over. Their crops are destroyed. Most of their flocks have been decimated. The BNN reported that Egypt will have to import food for the first time in centuries. The food basket of the world, developed by Joseph, whom they chose to “forget,” has become a basket case.

I still don’t understand why God is waiting for Pharaoh to let us go. If He is so powerful, why does He need Pharaoh’s permission? If He keeps all this up, even those of us who want to stay in Egypt, won’t be welcome. The Egyptians will force all of us to leave.

Do you think that’s why God is dragging this out?

There is Moses walking outside the city. He’s stretching out his hands to God, The thunder stopped. The hailstones are not moving and just floating in the air. It’s perfectly still. Nothing is moving. It’s as if God is telling us that nothing has changed.

Is He waiting for us?

One minute; Moshe’s representatives are running through the streets announcing a gathering of all the Jews. I’ll let you know what he says. You’ll have to wait till after Shabbat.

From Diary of a Former Slave, by Rabbi Simcha

About the Author
Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

The author invites you to visit: http://the.foundationstone.org

Time Compacted

We had been waiting for six months while God dealt with the Egyptians. Now things were happening quickly; big things, major changes. It took God months to humble Egypt, and He wanted to transform us into new people in just a matter of two weeks.

It was as if Moshe knew exactly what we were feeling and thinking: “This Pesach is one day and night. In the future it will be a seven day holiday. God is compacting the full holiday into one day and night.”

We couldn’t fully understand what Moshe was saying. “Look,’ he said, “You will eat your offering dressed in your travel clothes, your packed bags at your side. You must finish your meal before midnight.”

“Will we be leaving at midnight? We don’t want to leave when everything is dark, as if we are sneaking out.”

“No, you won’t leave at midnight. You will leave the next day, but so much will happen that you have to understand that you will feel that you are speeding through time. Your former masters will bang at your doors begging you to leave right away. But I want you all to demand all their treasures, the ones you discovered during the plague of darkness. They will have to pay you to leave. They will actually be paying you for your work. They will have nothing left because they are nothing without you. Everything will change, and it will happen quickly.”

“I still don’t understand why we have to eat ready to travel if we won’t travel until the next morning,” a man shouted.

A man who looked like a Chassidic Rebbe, I think his name was Weinberg of Slonim, stood up and explained, “Because our journey actually begins when we eat the offering. We are not dressed for the trip out of Egypt. We are dressed for an entirely new journey through life.”

From The Diary of a Former Slave, by Rabbi Simcha

About the Author
Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

The author invites you to visit: http://thefoundationstone.org