Idol or G-d: Is truth discernible?

One man's God is the next man's idol! How profound. Just say that and put the next evangelist that tries to save you in a pickle. It reminds me of a comical skit from The State. Old fashioned man proclaims [license taken], “I believe in the one true G-d,” dramatic pause “And his name is Zoro and he is living in that lake,” which is followed by the old fashioned man humorously whistling at the end of the short clip.

watch the skit here:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpiw-ng5wkQ

I have never heard apologetics from any religion that address this maddening issue, which is that once we establish that there is a G-d, we fall flat on our faces in details, not minor details, but MAJOR DETAILS!, such as what the name of G-d is, but the where, the when, the why, and the how, so I will tell it: The details are up to Gd Himself, not me. However, I have a function too. As a faithful follower of Hashem, my role is to be as His instrument in order that His will may be done. He doesn’t need me to be His instrument, but through His unfathomable ways he has chosen to work through humankind.

Want to know how I came to faith? When I was an atheist at Rutgers, G-d spoke to me and instantaneously I believed. G-d said, "I AM punishing you." There was nothing not to believe about that Voice, and it caused me great joy because I never knew Gd could be capable of retribution, and not only that but that He also cared enough about me enough to speak with me. In my opinion, Hashem chose to speak to me when I was at my lowest because I felt like I had nothing to lose. I would try anything. Had he spoken to me in less dire circumstances, I may have brushed it off without changing. That is how I feel about folks when I tell them about G-d and they roll their eyes or deny that He has spoken with me. Like me in the good times, I expect that they wouldn’t change a thing.

Premarital Sex Equals Marriage

From the email “Today’s Mitzvah” at chabad.org - "When a man takes a wife and is intimate with her"—Deuteronomy 24:1

Below, please find “Kiddushin is accomplished through one of three methods - c) Through a man being intimate with her.”

Premarital sex is a lie.  If pop culture considered intimacy to result in a marital bond as it is understood in Torah, then the world would be a better place.  There would not be as many broken hearts, or unwanted pregnancies if we put an end to this lie.  Let’s get away from the “premarital” sex idea, and claim that there is no such thing as premarital sex.

The theoretical existence of premarital sex is a great lie propagated by media and corporations that use sex in advertisements in order to sell products.

I am not encouraging more sex among people that cannot afford marriages.  Teenage sex often results in unwanted pregnancies where there is not enough pressure for protective commitment.  Commitment of all of society is necessary to protect young ladies.  Yes, the pressure is to protect young ladies to a greater extent because young women have the most to lose from unwanted pregnancy!  This is something many young ladies fail to understand, probably a consequence of unrealistic idealism.

Part of the email itself:

Positive Commandment 213
Marriage

"When a man takes a wife and is intimate with her"—Deuteronomy 24:1

It is a mitzvah for a man to marry a woman through kiddushin. Kiddushin is accomplished through one of three methods: a) The man giving the women an object of value [for the purpose of marriage]. b) The man giving the woman a marriage contract [a document upon which is written, "With this document I am marrying you"]. c) Through the man being intimate with the woman.

For The Love of Justice, Prepare a Temple for Hashem

In Exodus, G-d presents Himself through Moses as one who has come to bring judgment to the Egyptians.  The Haggadah recounts the joy of the Jews; as with each successive plague that is unleashed on the Egyptians the Jews become closer to freedom.

Hashem came to us in Egypt as a Savior, but the converse of that is that it was the time for the judgment of Egypt.  The day of the Lord had come, fire and brimstone style for the Egyptian people, as it comes today for those who dare oppress the His people.

While we look to Gd as a redeemer, without that idea of a just and wrathful G-d, Judaism could never be; our hearts would not have been prepared to receive Him in His glory.

G-d listens for the cry of the oppressed, and the oppressed are redeemed to prosperity through harkening to His voice like Sheparded sheep.  These are the people, His sheep who are regarded for the slaughter today, and those are His people whom need to build a receptacle, a Temple, for Him in Israel.  Our Temple is to be our receptacle for Him, prepared for Him in order to tip the scales of justice in favor of those gone astray, but long to be His.

May no righteous person ever need to cry again the words of David, “My G-d, why have you forsaken me?”  So, may we gather the nations? - including all of those who want to help prevent the slaughter of Gd’s people.

On My Experience: Hearing the Voice of G-d

Exodus 20:19. "...Moses would speak and God would answer him with a voice." I literally heard the amazingly resonant voice of the Lord G-d say, "I AM punishing you," meaning me in particular, ~2,000 CE.

My response was similar to that of David in Psalm 22:2 "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?..." but I asked it in a different way. I said, "Why are you punishing me?" to the Almighty G-d.

Why was I so audacious before the Lord? Because I was as low as a worm! I couldn't remember to eat and bathe. If I was any lower, I would have been dead.

When the Lord spoke to me it was unlike anything I had ever heard before. Upon hearing the speech of the Lord, I instantaneously changed from atheist to believer. I oriented my entire life to give praise to G-d.

To seek out G-d, I transferred from Rutgers to Gordon College, a Protestant school, but I found myself trying to hide my actual beliefs, which are not Christian, but what Judaism teaches.

Should Pain and Suffering Be Stumbling Blocks for the Faithful?

While suffering exists in this age, we must believe Gd is omnipotent.  Why then does Gd allow horrid things if He can stop any disease like magic?

To allow disease is not a sign of Gd’s impotence, even if it is a condition that is chronic and/or causing excruciating pain.  Just as a rich man may lose everything in seconds, so to can any creature suffer disease.  Similarly, as any man may gain a fortune in seconds, so to can we receive speedy recovery from any and every chronic disease. 

Hashem desires for us to do His will; that we wrestle to understand His ways. He longs for us to choose Him through hearkening to His call. He desires for us to love Him, all of us, from the most pious king to the lowliest worm, but only of our own accord. While we don’t know why some may suffer; we know justice must prevail, either divine reward or divine punishment, according to our deeds. We can’t have faith and believe in the possibility of the incurable. Maimonides taught that to deny Moshiach’s coming, and subsequently the arrival of a world without suffering, is equivalent to denial of Torah in its entirety. Thus, we are able to derive that in the age of Moshiach, pain and suffering will cease because of our own doing, as then we will be completely occupied with our relationship with G-d; that is when G-d gets His way, and if we love G-d, then His way is our ideal.

Rather, than stumbling blocks, the existence of pain and suffering should be motivators for us to help Gd achieve His ultimate goal; peace on earth.

Being Careful with the G-d's Name on The Computer - A Question for the Rabbi

How do Jews treat hard drive ROM if it contains permanently stored sacred information?  Should it ever be deleted?  Should a name of Gd be saved if it is encoded in data?  We are careful with languages other than Hebrew.  Why would the readable language a computer processes be any different?  Some software is more powerful than other software when it comes to file deletion, which opens up a similar question: If the computer code for a word such as “Gd” enters a computer, is it okay to delete any of its sacred contents at all?  Perhaps, computers should be made more sacred by programming them to remember every key stroke, or use picture recognition to save words such as Gd, such that Gd never ends up deleted.  Even images of words in the refresh rate of a monitor could be saved.  Why not?

Sales of Decadent Sugary Foods Aren't Sustainable

Recently, I encountered the stats that within a generation’s time 1 in 3 Americans will have diabetes, and that consequently life expectancy will likely plummet.  This diabetes threat is real.  It could happen, especially given the prevalence of foods with added sugar at the average American grocery store.  

Greedy capitalists have placed faith in idols.  They have no fear, for as Judaism puts it, “They say God does not avenge.”  They are fearlessly profiting by getting us hooked on added sugar, where sugar should be regarded as a dangerous drug.

We don’t want to sustain capitalism's greed.  It is flawed and outdated, and it must pass.  Transition to the new system probably won’t be easy.  This will likely present difficult times at first, which may be likened to birthing pains, where the end result will be an awesome and wonderful creation.