Where did it all start....Here?
This passage of the Siddur comes from Deuteronomy 11: 13-21.
In quite direct translation, it says:
"If you hear, yes hear (shamoa tishma'u) the commandments/ connections (mitzvot) that today I command you/ connect you to, to love YHWH your God and to work for Him [sic] with all your heart and all your breath/spirit/soul, then I will rain upon the earth in its right-time, autumn-rain and spring-rain, and you will gather in your grain, your wine, and your olive oil. I will give grass in your fields for your cattle. And you will eat and be satisfied.
"Take care lest you twist your heart turn aside, and work for other gods, bowing down to them. Then the Face of YHWH will blaze with anger toward you, He will close up the Heavens, there will be no more rain, and earth will not give forth its fullness. Speedily you will vanish from the good earth that YHWH gives toward you.
"So place these words/deeds upon your heart and upon your breath/soul/ spirit, and bind them as a sign upon your hands, and they will be reminders between your eyes. Teach them to your children, to say them over, when you sit in your houses, when you walk on your roads, when you lie down and when you rise up. Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your city-gates.
http://www.shalomctr.org/node/219
| 8/20/2007 | Thomas Hussein | |
| Q: Hey Thomas:The Bible in
Genisis says we are made in Gods image,1 thessalonians 5:23 says"May
God ... A: --HEY ROD, --I am sure you know what I believe as to the soul, it is me, as a breather! I die it ...what do Jehovah"s Witnesses claim. Hebrews 4:12 says"The word of God is living and active sharper then any dual edge sword its even able to divid between the soul and spirt". --I am sure you know what I believe as to the soul, it is me, as a
breather! I die it dies/it lives I live! |
||
The Claim at this website is:
The Soul isnt the "Life force" and its not what
Jehovah breathed into Adams nostrils, that is Spirit, nepesh or something, the
addition of the life force or spirit to the flesh, is what cause it to become a
living soul.
The society say soul literally means life as a breather.
This cannot be its absolute meaning though as in the book of Leviticus, when
Jehovah is giving the law, Jehovah himself says that they must obey this law so
that "My Soul will not abhor you", so there is Jehovah saying he has a
soul, so it cannot just mean life as a breather, and it also cannot be the Devil
believing Soul of Christendom.
It must represent you yourself, not some floating thing that wonders off to live
forever when your body dies.
Gibson gives a good illustration.
When your flesh dies and the nepesh that
gave it life goes back to God, you are no more, but people such as
your Children will remember the Soul you where, the individual you where.
Jehovah remembers also, to the extend that all your DNA and your memories
"are down in writing", ready for him to create, from new materials and
spirit, but the presice Soul that you where, the very same person.
He alone though, also has the ability and responsibility to decide he doesn't
want to recreate that particular soul. and can then destroy that soul as easily
as you can erase a programmed on your hard drive, or rub out a message in a
book.
So man can kill the current body, but only Jehovah can erase even the memory of
the person.
Also dont forget.
Animals are-souls According
to these people
(Best to pull faces and try and make the brother on the platform laugh when he
has to say that.)
My Conclusion?
Lots of choices out there in the real world, choose wisely.
My programming as a Jehovah's Witness taught me that they controlled the mind and the body but my heart was looking for Truth and Wisdom But Thru JW I Found Pain, Guilt And Slavery.
I too was a watchtower slave.
With JW's I found lies and a twisting of the truth,
For one "Truth" I was taught that the nepesh or soul was a breather :-)
That's a very interesting spin by Jw's.
Matthew 10
28 And do not become fearful of those who
kill the body but cannot kill the soul; but rather be in fear of him that can
destroy both soul and body in Ge·henīna.
Nephesh
http://www.geocities.com/tsiktsikcd/nephesh.html
Nephesh is the ancient Hebrew (Jewish) concept of man. In a purposely simplified formula,
Nephesh means the body of a human being is the soul of a human being. That is:
... the body is an organic mortal soul. Man is a conceptualizing animal; his biological distinction is his rational faculty. The mind is but one characteristic of an evolutionary advanced and sophisticated organic body. The death of the body is the death of the soul.
The Hebrew Scriptures, i.e., the so-called "Old Testament": most of its original meaning is lost in the translation of languages -- from ancient Hebrew to modern English. To discover the ancient Hebrew world view one must investigate the meaning of the words used by the ancient Hebrews. By far the biggest discrepancy between "Old" and "New Testaments" is that the early Hebrews never entertained the idea of a body and soul duality, but saw man as a living soul -- that is, in essence, body = soul. Hebrew thought only came to include the body and soul duality when they came into contact with the Persians and the Greeks, some time after Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, sent the Jews into exile circa 600 BC. When one returns their original view of man back into the "Old Testament" it becomes a very different collection of scriptures and a very unique religion: it becomes wholly earth-focused.
The concept of man is what counts most in any philosophy, be it religious or secular. It is man that we are, and it is man we must deal with. Let man find his nature. Let the earth become man's home again -- his paradise, his heaven.
We will explore that the next time I log in.