hocus pocus
i was just reading that getting ashes put on your forehead on ash wednesday is wildly popular and that people that are in the workplace, public eye, proudly wear it a whole day. whereas any real observance of lent in the form of repentance, prayer, fasting is virtually nonexistent. sound familiar? forgoing the obvious explanation that one is easier than the other i'd rather stipulate the appeal of the bizarre ritual over the logical, comprehensible, emotional-thinking aspects of worship. one of the big religious arguments is that you see how many people still cling to it so it must be central and fundamental and a sign of our spiritual essence. what they don't investigate is what that essence is. how primitive it might be. they would like us to think it is this sophisticated desire for unity with the godhead vs. the urge to sacrifice virgins and children. what people want is some form of magic. shake a palm branch, put on boxes, wear strings - if they're dyed with the blood of a mollusk all the better. circumcise, blood, burn the chometz, fire, drink the wine, smash the plate, step on the glass, dance in circles but don't admit how much you like it because the main thing is your faith and trust in god. bullshit. we're just cavemen with blackberries so we invented a method to our madness.
Judaism.com
February 6th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
shitalphin:
can u please elaborate as to exactly how the ashes need to be placed.
is it done tonight after tzetz ha kochuvim or do i wait till aloys ha shachar?
what type of animal do i use to get the ashes?
do i put it on my forehead before putting on the tefillin shel rosh or after?
are they worn simultaneously or sequentially?
also , when may the ashes be removed?
what must be done to such holy ashes after its use?
if someone forgets or is unable to obtain this ayfer ha kodesh during the yom tov , is there an ash wednesday sheini, or does he place it the following day?
what brucheh does one make beshas placing the ashes?
As you can readily see, there are many shaylos about this, and i haven’t found adequate guidance in the kitzur for it.
February 6th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
I thin its in Rambam Yad Hachazakah
February 6th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Ahhh…..This seems to have been extended to the general populace:
וכשהחתן נושא, לוקח אפר מוקלה ונותן בראשו מקום הנחת תפילין. וכל אלו הדברים, כדי לזכור ירושלים, שנאמר “אם אשכחך, ירושלים–תשכח ימיני. תדבק לשוני, לחיכי–אם לא אזכרכי: אם לא אעלה, את ירושלים–על, ראש שמחתי” (תהילים קלז,ה-ו).
But at least, I now know where the ash is placed.
Question remains as to the exact time.
Help me out here.
February 6th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
הלכות תענייות פרק ד
א בכל יום ויום משבע תענייות האחרונות של מטר, מתפללין על סדר זה: מוציאין את התיבה לרחובה של עיר, וכל העם מתקבצים ומתכסים בשקים; ונותנין אפר מוקלה על גבי התיבה, ועל גבי ספר תורה, כדי להרגיל את הבכייה, ולהכניע ליבם.
ואחד מן העם נוטל מן האפר, ונותן בראש הנשיא ובראש אב בית דין, במקום הנחת תפילין, כדי שייכלמו וישובו; וכל אחד ואחד, נוטל ונותן בראשו.
So the timing of placing the ash would of course depend on how these taaniyot work. It would seem lichoyreh that one doesnt begin this the night before.
But what if I hadn’t done it earlier, and its after the shkiah? Can I still be yoytzeh?
February 6th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Nu, Ash Wednesday is almost over.
So can I do it after the shkiah or not?
February 6th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
the ash mitzad taanis can be done anytime but mitzad ash wednesday is avade too late. but maybe the ash of ash wednesday is just the ash of taanis. let us pray for the return of our lord and savior to bring the answer.
February 6th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Ash Wednesday is itself a taanis. So there may be a heter to do it later?
While waiting for the return of our Lord, we should recite Kapitel 51. and Vidui
“In most liturgies for Ash Wednesday, the Penitential psalms are read; Psalm 51 is especially associated with this day.[4] The service also often includes a corporate confession rite.”
For those others who forgot to layg ashes shel rosh, heres Kapitel Nun-Aleph:
תהילים פרק נא
א לַמְנַצֵּחַ, מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד.
ב בְּבוֹא-אֵלָיו, נָתָן הַנָּבִיא– כַּאֲשֶׁר-בָּא, אֶל-בַּת-שָׁבַע.
ג חָנֵּנִי אֱלֹהִים כְּחַסְדֶּךָ; כְּרֹב רַחֲמֶיךָ, מְחֵה פְשָׁעָי.
ד הרבה (הֶרֶב), כַּבְּסֵנִי מֵעֲוֹנִי; וּמֵחַטָּאתִי טַהֲרֵנִי.
ה כִּי-פְשָׁעַי, אֲנִי אֵדָע; וְחַטָּאתִי נֶגְדִּי תָמִיד.
ו לְךָ לְבַדְּךָ, חָטָאתִי, וְהָרַע בְּעֵינֶיךָ, עָשִׂיתִי:
לְמַעַן, תִּצְדַּק בְּדָבְרֶךָ– תִּזְכֶּה בְשָׁפְטֶךָ.
ז הֵן-בְּעָווֹן חוֹלָלְתִּי; וּבְחֵטְא, יֶחֱמַתְנִי אִמִּי.
ח הֵן-אֱמֶת, חָפַצְתָּ בַטֻּחוֹת; וּבְסָתֻם, חָכְמָה תוֹדִיעֵנִי.
ט תְּחַטְּאֵנִי בְאֵזוֹב וְאֶטְהָר; תְּכַבְּסֵנִי, וּמִשֶּׁלֶג אַלְבִּין.
י תַּשְׁמִיעֵנִי, שָׂשׂוֹן וְשִׂמְחָה; תָּגֵלְנָה, עֲצָמוֹת דִּכִּיתָ.
יא הַסְתֵּר פָּנֶיךָ, מֵחֲטָאָי; וְכָל-עֲוֹנֹתַי מְחֵה.
יב לֵב טָהוֹר, בְּרָא-לִי אֱלֹהִים; וְרוּחַ נָכוֹן, חַדֵּשׁ בְּקִרְבִּי.
יג אַל-תַּשְׁלִיכֵנִי מִלְּפָנֶיךָ; וְרוּחַ קָדְשְׁךָ, אַל-תִּקַּח מִמֶּנִּי.
יד הָשִׁיבָה לִּי, שְׂשׂוֹן יִשְׁעֶךָ; וְרוּחַ נְדִיבָה תִסְמְכֵנִי.
טו אֲלַמְּדָה פֹשְׁעִים דְּרָכֶיךָ; וְחַטָּאִים, אֵלֶיךָ יָשׁוּבוּ.
טז הַצִּילֵנִי מִדָּמִים, אֱלֹהִים– אֱלֹהֵי תְּשׁוּעָתִי:
תְּרַנֵּן לְשׁוֹנִי, צִדְקָתֶךָ.
יז אֲדֹנָי, שְׂפָתַי תִּפְתָּח; וּפִי, יַגִּיד תְּהִלָּתֶךָ.
יח כִּי, לֹא-תַחְפֹּץ זֶבַח וְאֶתֵּנָה; עוֹלָה, לֹא תִרְצֶה.
יט זִבְחֵי אֱלֹהִים, רוּחַ נִשְׁבָּרָה:
לֵב-נִשְׁבָּר וְנִדְכֶּה– אֱלֹהִים, לֹא תִבְזֶה.
כ הֵיטִיבָה בִרְצוֹנְךָ, אֶת-צִיּוֹן; תִּבְנֶה, חוֹמוֹת יְרוּשָׁלִָם.
כא אָז תַּחְפֹּץ זִבְחֵי-צֶדֶק, עוֹלָה וְכָלִיל;
אָז יַעֲלוּ עַל-מִזְבַּחֲךָ פָרִים.
February 7th, 2008 at 3:42 am
do the primitive indulgences help?
February 7th, 2008 at 4:41 am
I have the urge to put out my cigarette on a random person’s forehead.
February 7th, 2008 at 5:52 am
yoseph leib wrote:
“do the primitive indulgences help?”
I think they do, in a limited way though.
Not sure how or why.
February 7th, 2008 at 6:00 am
“That Christ is the foreword which is nonsense and that is before the fruit. He came
thereafter to show the wisdom to which one must depart, and he himself would have led a
great thing out into the world if he had not betrayed his mission; if he had not gone
among the Pharisees to give instruction, he would have done well.”(j/f),,,,,,,,love,,,,,,,yesod
February 7th, 2008 at 6:29 am
Yesod:
By Christ “being the forword” are you referring to John 1:1
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”
Not sure I’m following.
February 7th, 2008 at 6:57 am
yes,frank was refering to it,,it is from the dicta,as is this,that follows the above,,, “You fell to the left. It is certain that the left is a great and very precious thing. But
the left is two-fold; one is before the fruit, the other is good.”(/f),,,,,,,love,,,,,,,,yesod
February 7th, 2008 at 7:11 am
Thank you.
May I know where the text you have in quotation is from? Sounds intriguing.
February 7th, 2008 at 7:21 am
http://www.languages.utah.edu/kabbalah/protected/dicta_frank_lenowitz.pdf the above are #729,730
February 7th, 2008 at 9:56 am
there might be two levels. the primitive and irrational that only magical ritual speaks to and the more modern feelings of loneliness and alienation that a personal god speaks to. i went to an evangelical church that had no ritual yet attracts ten thousand people every sunday. mix and match makes great sense. maybe islam is so abstract they need to kill people to connect.
February 7th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Come on Islam is not that bad.
February 7th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Yesod, cool link
February 7th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Yesod:
Thanks for that link. I read those two dicta 729, 730. There’s an annotation 929 referencing John 1:1.
Would you kindly explain “before the fruit” in 729?
It’s too vague to me.
–yashekoyach
February 7th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
“O daughter of my people, gird on sackcloth, roll in the ashes” (Jer 6:26).
I know very little of the history of ash wednesday but a very well known fairy tale comes to mind. One that i read to my daughter all the time, “Cinder-rella”. Could this female be symbolic of the Shekinah that rolls in the soot/ashes/cinder of the world. Maybe placing ashes on ones forehead could be an act of “magic”, if one brings into oneself the power of raising the holy out of the ash/soot/cinder’s of this world. Cinder-rella is a very “imaginative” story.
February 7th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Huh Cinder = Ashes, COOL!
February 8th, 2008 at 7:38 am
the fruit is the christos ministry(not the man jesus,rather that wich spoke thru him,the supernal),comming from on high,to be an example,as to what to do,and what not to do,but above all else,to teach men to draw to and cleave to IT,,apply this also to dicta 730,and think of ketter,,,,,,,love,,,,,,,yesod
February 8th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Yesod:
Do you mean that the fruit refers to the manifestation of Christ–or the Logos- in a specific person? And that the error referred to in the dicta was confusing the man with what is being manifested.
The dicta quoted above are somewhat terse and unclear, so I was wondering how one could make better sense of them.
February 9th, 2008 at 7:40 am
bac,Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own,,,,,,,love,,,,,,,yesod
February 9th, 2008 at 7:42 am
understanding
February 9th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
We need a Jewish Jesus!
February 9th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
“I will restore Jesus to holiness and to his people.” — Sabbatai Zevi
February 9th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
“I will restore Jesus to holiness and to his people.” — Sabbatai Zevi
So the bottom line is that Sabbatai Zevi will restore the MAN Jesus to his people, the Jews, a people who already HAVE and have ALWAYS had the Christ in the 6th Sefirah, “Ze’ir Anpin.”
February 9th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Jesus = Ze’ir Anpin???
February 9th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
no. read what i said. christ = ze’ir anpin. you’re making the same fucking mistake the goyim make — conflating jesus the MAN with Christ the DIVINE. they were totally separate. just as the bottle is not the wine and the bird cage is not the bird, Jesus was not the Christ, even though it was awakened in him.
“Jesus said, it is not I who say and do these things, but the Father dwelling in me.” (Gospel of John)
yalhak
February 9th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
ABOUT THE “CHRIST” FROM http://www.donmeh-west.com/index.shtml:
“The goal of participating in the Continuing Incarnation of God (as C. G. Jung described it in his magnum opus, Answer to Job, and we of Donmeh West teach and practice it in our “Yalhakian” Neo-Sabbatian Kabbalah) is not to become God, but to assist God in His struggle towards reunification with Himself by becoming, like the Biblical Job, an Eved HaShem, or ‘Servant of the Lord.’
“This means that I — as a portal through which God returns to Himself — am no more the God passing through me on His way to wholeness than the light bulb is the electricity passing through it on its way to the darkness.
“Like the light bulb, however, we cannot help but be changed in some subtle way by that “electricity”; but in the final analysis when the switch is turned off, the energy stops and we remain no more than what we were at the start — a light bulb — modified at some level by the experience of having been illuminated for a time, but only a light bulb, nonetheless, to be discarded for the next one that will come to replace it.
“This is as true of Sabbatai Zevi (the 17th century Jewish avatar on whom our Kabbalah of the Continuing Incarnation is based) as it was of Jesus, Buddha, Ramakrishna, Jacob Frank, Meher Baba, and all the other Avatars and near-Avatars of history — past, present and future.
“God never was, is not, and never will be a man; but man can, should and will become a vessel for the Liberation of God. However, even then, even having become such a vessel of holiness, “The enlightened person remains what he is, and is never more than his own limited ego before the One who dwells within him, whose form has no knowable boundaries, who encompases him on all sides, fathomless as the abysms of the earth and vast as the sky.” (C. G. Jung, Answer to Job, par. 758)”
February 9th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
and finally (I promise) in what may be the futile hope that THIS will communicate what we’re trying to say:
“The indwelling of the Holy Ghost [= Ze’ir Anpin], the third divine person in man, brings about a Christification of many.” — C. G. Jung, “Answer to Job”
Yalhak
February 9th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Thank you REBBI YALHAK!!! I love your answer, it is very enlightening.
February 10th, 2008 at 8:08 am
jesus for misnagdim = torah, for chasidim = rebbe
February 10th, 2008 at 9:09 am
Shachar X
Yalhak
February 11th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Yalhak
Can you please list all those massiahs in our history.
You once posted it a comment.
Thanx
February 12th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
shachar X,
Sure. Here is a list according to Prof. Harris Lenowitz, from his book “The Jewish Messiahs: From the Galilee to Crown Heights” (Cambridge University Press, 1998)
Jesus of Nazareth
Shim’on bar Kosiba
Abu Isa
Yudghan
David Alroy
David Reubeni
Shlomo Molkho
Isaac Luria
Hayim Vital
Shabtai Zvi
Yakov Leib Frank
The Ba’al Shem Tov
Rabbi Nahman of Breslov
Israel of Ruzin
The Komarno Rebbe, Eizikel
Menachem Mendel Schneerson
All of these, of course, would be considered Moshiach ben Yosef and not Moshiach ben Dovid.
Yalhak
February 13th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
cool thanx yalhak