The goal of this page is to present the whole spectrum of the Divine Wisdom from Torah. Only concise set of quotes is chosen to present God’s view in His own words on the most important and at the same time the most misinterpreted topics of the Covenant. This set, as a “mini-Torah”, is intended to clear widespread confusions arising from wrong interpretations and wrong ideas. In no way can this compendium be considered to represent whole of Torah as it is impossible for any human being to reduce Torah without loosing parts of the Divine Wisdom.
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Table of Contents:
1. The Ultimate Goal Of Life, Spirituality, and Religion
2. Researching the Science of Creation
3. Understanding the Principle of Oneness of God
4. On Idol Worship
5. Understanding the Source of Good and Evil – God is the Creator of Both, But People Choose Evil
6. Hidden Source of Jewish Power – the Blessings and Power of God
7. On Israel – As a Chosen Nation, Set Apart From Others
8. The Converted Proselytes Have Equal Rights With Native Israelite
9. On Relation Between Man and Man
10. Giving the Law Tied to the Promised Land
11. Everything is Property of God – The Land of Israel and People of Israel
12. On Foundation of Judgment, Justice in Society
13. On Fighting Evil Within Israel
14. Commandments on Jewish Warfare
15. Is Torah Only One, Given Through Moshe? Or …
16. God’s View on Rabbinical Opinion Stating That No Man is Capable To Understand Torah Without Commentaries of Tradition
17. The Warning On Jewish Religion Going Astray From God, Being Replaced With Worshiping the Rituals
18. The Goal for Each Man is to Establish Personal Relations with God
19. One Explicitly Suggested Method of Meditation – Meditation on the Text of Torah
The Ultimate Goal of Life, Spirituality and Religion:
Then you will begin to seek God your Lord, and if you pursue Him with all your heart and soul, you will eventually find Him. (Deuteronomy, 4:29)
And you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength (Deuteronomy 6:5)
Remain in awe of God, serve Him, cling to Him. (Deuteronomy, 10:20)
And the Lord your God will give to you and to your seed a circumcision of the heart, so that, loving him with all your heart and all your soul, you may have life. (Deuteronomy, 30:16)
(You should choose) to love Hashem your God, to listen to His voice and to attach yourself to Him because that is your life and the length of your days to dwell in the Land ( Deuteronomy 30:20)
Let those who wish to glory, glory in knowing and understanding Me. (Jeremiah 9:23)
I was searching for the Lord, and he gave ear to my voice, and made me free from all my fears. (Psalms 34:4)
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Researching the Science of Creation:
Consider the days of old, the years of the many generations. (Deuteronomy, 32:7)
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Understanding the Principle of Oneness of God:
Listen Israel, God is our Lord, God is One. (Deuteronomy, 6:4)
That you will know that God is the Supreme Being and there is none besides Him. (Deuteronomy 4:35)
God your Lord is the God of gods and the Master of masters. (Deuteronomy, 10:17)
But now see – it is I! I am the only One! There are no (other) gods with me! (Deuteronomy 32:39)
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On Idol Worship:
And it is certain that if ever you turn away from the Lord your God, and go after other gods, to serve them and to worship them, I bear witness to you today that destruction will overtake you. (Deuteronomy 8:19)
He will say, Where are their gods, The rock in which they took refuge which ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink-offering? Let them rise up and help you! Let them be your protection! (Deuteronomy 32:37-38)
But now see – it is I! I am the only One! There are no (other) gods with me! (Deuteronomy 32:39)
For an eye-opener on idol worshiping today, see Idol Worship.
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Understanding the Source of Good and Evil – God is a Creator of Both, But People Choose Evil:
Warning of punishments for going astray. Each punishment has a reason, explicitly warned and predicted. This contradicts often repeated misconception that “we don’t know God’s ways …”. The ultimate distortion of Torah is when applying this ignorance to the most gruesome moments of the Jewish history. Yet, to let us know His ways is the very reason why we were given Torah and the Book is very specific about it :
If you follow my Laws and listen to my commands, I will provide you with … (list of blessings follows, Leviticus 26:3) … I will grant peace in the Land so that you will sleep without fear. I will rid the land from dangerous animals and the sword will not pass through the Land. You will chase away your enemies and they will fall before your sword. Five of you will be able to chase away a hundred and a hundred of you will defeat ten thousand, as your enemy fall before your sword. (follows 26:6-8)
But if you do not listen to Me and do not keep my commandments … I will then do the same to you … I will bring upon you feeling of anxiety with depression and excitement, destroying your outlook and making life miserable. ( Leviticus, 26:16) I will scatter you among the nations and keep the sword drawn against you (26:33) You will then be destroyed among the nations. The land of your enemies will consume you. (26:38)
See, I have put before you today, life and good, and death and evil. (Deuteronomy, 30:15)
I have put before you life and death, a blessing and a curse: so choose life for yourselves and for your descendants. (Deuteronomy, 30:19)
The work of the Mighty One is perfect because all His ways are just, a God of Faith without wrong doing, He is righteous and moral. Corruption is theirs, not His, the fault is His children’s – a perverse and crooked generation. (Deuteronomy 32:4-5)
If you do not obey God your Lord and do not carefully keep all His commandments and decrees as I am prescribing for you today, then all these curses to bear on you … (following goes a list of curses and punishments, edit.) (Deuteronomy 28:15)
and you will be uprooted from the land which you are about to take as your heritage. And the Lord will send you wandering among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other: there you will be servants to other gods, of wood and stone, gods of which you and your fathers had no knowledge. (Deuteronomy 28:63-64)
On that day I will utterly hide My face because of all the evil that they have done in turning to alien gods (or masters) (Deuteronomy 31:18 and 32:20-21)
For they are all greedy for profit, from smallest to the greatest, from prophet to priest. They all act falsely. They attempt to heal My people’s wounds without efforts, saying “Peace, Peace” but there is no peace. (Jeremiah 6:13-14 repeated again in 8:11)
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Hidden Source of Jewish Power – the Blessings and Power of God:
This also rejects often repeated Rabbinical misconception that anti-Semitism is a part of human world since the Creation. It is not. :
“Observe therefore and do them (commandments), for this is your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the nations, that, when they hear all these statutes, shall say:’ Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people’“. (Deuteronomy, 4:6)
The Lord your God, he will go over before you; he will send destruction on all those nations, and you will take their land as your heritage. (Deuteronomy 31:3)
Be strong and take heart, and have no fear of them: for it is the Lord your God who is going with you; he will not take away his help from you. (Deuteronomy 31:6)
All people will give way before you: for the Lord your God will put the fear of you on all the land through which you go, as he has said. (Deuteronomy 11:25)
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On Israel – As a Chosen Nation, Set Apart From Others:
God said to Abram … “I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you great. You shall become a blessing. I will bless those who bless you I will curse those who curse you. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis, 12:2-3)
God said to Jacob … All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. I am with you. I will protect you wherever you go and bring you back to this soil. I will not turn aside from you until I have fully kept this promise to you. (Genesis, 28:14)
I am the Lord your God who have separated you from all other nations. (Leviticus, 20:24)
And you are to be holy to me; for I the Lord am holy and I have separated you from the nations to be Mine. (Leviticus, 20:26)
And if your brother becomes poor and gives himself to you for money, do not make use of him like a slave who is your property; But let him be with you as a servant working for payment, till the year of Jubilee; Then let him go free, he and his children with him, and go back to his family and to the property of his fathers… Do not dominate (your brother) to break his spirit, since you must fear your God. On another hand you may get slaves as property from among the nations around you; from them you may take men and women slaves. And in addition, you may get, for money, slaves from among the children of other nations who are living with you, and from their families which have come to birth in your land; and these will be your property. And they will be your children’s heritage after you, to keep as their property; they will be your servants for ever; but you may not be hard masters to your brothers, the children of Israel. (Leviticus, 25:39-46)
and Hashem has declared you this day to be a people for his own possession, as he has promised you, and that you should keep all his commandments (Deuteronomy 26:1)
and to make you high above all nations that he has made, in praise, and in name, and in honor; and that you may be a holy people to Hashem your God, as he has spoken. (Deuteronomy 26:19)
You are a nation consecrated to God your Lord. God your Lord chose you to be His special people among all the nations on the face of the earth. (Deuteronomy, 7:8)
The heaven, the heaven of heavens, the earth and everything in it, all belong to God. Still, it was only with your ancestors that God developed a closeness. He loved them and therefore chose you, their descendants from among all the nations (Deuteronomy, 10:14-15)
He setup borders of nations to parallel the number of Israel’s descendants. But God’s portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. (Deuteronomy 32:8-9)
Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he has taken for his heritage. (Psalms 33:12)
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The Converted Proselytes Have Equal Rights With Native Israelite:
And if a man from another country is living with you, and has a desire to keep the Passover to the Lord, let all the males of his family undergo circumcision, and then let him come near and keep it; for he will then be as one of your people; but no one without circumcision may keep it. (Exodus, 12:48)
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On Relation Between Man and Man:
( These are between men living by God’s laws within the Land of Israel, they are called “your brother” or “your neighbor”. There are many who confuse this with relations between Israel and other nations. Those relations discussed in quite different language in different situations throughout all of Torah)
Do not get equal with one who has done you wrong, or keep hard feelings against the children of your people, but have love for your neighbor as for yourself: I am the Lord. (Leviticus, 19:18)
And if a man from another country is living in your land with you, do not make life hard for him; Let him be to you as one of your countrymen and have love for him as for yourself; for you were living in a strange land, in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus, 19:33-34)
And if your brother becomes poor and is not able to make a living, then you are to help him to survive, helping him and also a proselyte from foreign land who is living among you. (Leviticus, 25:35)
Take no interest from your brother, in money or in goods, but have the fear of your God before you, and let your brother make a living among you. (Leviticus, 25:36)
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Giving the Law Tied to the Promised Land:
God commanded me to teach you rules and laws so that you will keep them in the Land which you are crossing to occupy. (Deuteronomy, 4:14)
A land cared for by the Lord your God: the eyes of the Lord your God are on it at all times from one end of the year to the other. (Deuteronomy 11:12)
He will bless you in the Land that He, God your Lord, is giving you. (Deuteronomy 28:8)
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Everything is Property of God – The Land of Israel and People of Israel:
No land should be sold forever, for the Land is Mine, and you are My permanent residents, living with Me for a time. (Leviticus, 25:23)
For they are My slaves whom I took out from the land of Egypt; they may not become the property of another. (Leviticus, 25:42)
For the children of Israel are slaves to Me; they are My slaves whom I took out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus, 25:55)
But His own nation remains God’s property; Jacob is the lot of His heritage. (Deuteronomy 32:9)
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On Foundation of Judgment, Justice in Society:
Judgment belongs to God. (Deuteronomy, 1:17)
And Avimelech said to Avraham: “What did you see that you did this thing ? And Avraham said: Because as I said, there is no fear of God in this place…” (Bareishit, 20:10-11, – King wants to know why Avraham decided to hide that Sarah is his wife, bringing a danger of committing sin by King taking her as his wife. Or, in other words, what prompted him to start preventive measures before anything bad actually happened to him. The answer from Avraham is self-evident)
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On Fighting Evil Within Israel,
opposing the widespread Rabbinical opinion that Jewish Unity (even with wicked Jews) overrides all other laws:
So you shall remove the evil from the midst of you. (Deuteronomy, repeated in 13:5, 17:7, 17:12, 19:19, 21:21, 22:21, 22:22,22:24, 24:7 )
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Commandments on Jewish Warfare:
The Lord will give them up into your hands, and you are to do to them as I have given you orders. (Deuteronomy 31:5)
When you come to a town, before attacking it, make an offer of peace. And if it gives you back an answer of peace, opening its doors to you, then all the people in it may be put to forced work as your servants. If however it will not make peace with you, but war, then let it be shut in on all sides. And when the Lord your God has given it into your hands, let every male in it be put to death without mercy. But the women and the children and the cattle and everything in the town and all its wealth, you may take for yourselves: the wealth of your haters, which the Lord your God has given you, will be your food. So you are to do to all the towns far away, which are not the towns of these nations.
But in the towns of these peoples whose land the Lord your God is giving you for your heritage, let no living thing be kept alive. (Deuteronomy 20:10-16)
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Is Torah Only One, Given Through Moshe? Or …
Or are there two: Written and Oral Torah, written down later? – God’s answer:
God said to Moses, “Write these words down for yourself, because it is through these words from my mouth that I have made a covenant with you and with Israel” (Exodus, 34:27, Covenant is to be recorded by Moshe because … it is the Covenant)
Everything which I command you, that shall you observe to do: you shall not add to it, nor shall you remove from it. (Deuteronomy 13:1, Moshe warned against any amendments to this spelled out and recorded Covenant )
… and you will listen to the voice of Hashem and you will carry out all His commandments which I command you today. (Deuteronomy 30:8, Moshe spelled out to people all the commandments of God and wrote them down, see next)
if you shall obey the voice of Hashem your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of Torah; if you turn to Hashem your God with all your heart, and with all your soul. (Deuteronomy 30:10, no comments needed)
When all Israel come to appear before the face of Hashem your God in the place which He will choose, you shall read this Torah in the presence of all Israel into their ears. (Deuteronomy 31:11, another reason why the Covenant – this Torah – was written)
So that they will learn and they will fear Hashem your God and they will be careful to carry out all the words of this Torah. (Deuteronomy, 31:12, which Moshe is spelling out to all of Israel in his last speech)
And it was when Moshe finished writing down the words of this Torah on a parchment scroll until he had completed them, Moshe commanded Leviim the bearers of Ark of the Covenant of Hashem saying: “Take this Book of Torah and put it at the side of Ark of the Covenant of Hashem your God and it shall remain there as a witness against you” (Deuteronomy 31:24-26, a written Torah becomes a witness to Jewish faithfulness to God )
Give your full attention to all the words by which I testify to you today so that you will command your children about them to keep and do all the words of this Torah. (Deuteronomy 32:46, words of the Testament were spelled out and recorded by Moshe)
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God’s View On Rabbinical Opinion Stating That No Man Is Capable to Understand Torah Without Commentaries of Tradition:
Such Rabbinical opinion is mentally degrading God-given abilities in every man, it incapacitates the individual human to understand Scripture which God intended for everyone. Torah points that rejecting the intellectual capacity of individual to understand Torah is the same as rejecting the God’s Image in man. The task of comprehending the Divine Message should not be delegated to another person “who will go up to heaven and bring it to us” but must be studied and comprehended by each individual because “it is in your heart and in your mouth“.
God said, “Let us make a man with our image and resemblance.” (Genesis, 1:26)
God thus created man with His Image. In the Image of God He created him, male and female He created them. (Genesis, 1:27)
This mandate that I am prescribing you today is not mysterious or far away from you. It is not in the heaven as if to say “Who shall go up to heaven and bring it to us so that we can hear it and keep it? It is not across the sea as if to say: “Who will cross the sea and get it for us, so that we will be able to hear it and keep it?” It is something that is very close to you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can keep it. ( Deuteronomy 30:11-14)
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The Warning on Jewish Religion Going Astray From God, Being Replaced With Worshiping the Rituals:
God rejects rituals – made into a replacement of the following God’s laws in daily life:
It is the fruit of their own plans, for they did not listen to My word and they rejected My teachings. Why do I need frankincense that comes from Sheba or fragrant cane from distant countries? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable and your sacrifices are not pleasing to Me. (Jeremiah 6:19-20, although those rituals mentioned are part of the worship as per God’s commandment, yet, if not leading to the Divine purpose, if those rituals where turned into the purpose themselves, God rejected them)
I did not speak to your ancestors or command them about burnt offerings and sacrifices when I took them out of the land of Egypt. Rather, I commanded them: Obey Me and I will be your God and you will be My people. Carefully follow the path I commanded you, so things go well for you. (Jeremiah 7:22-23, following God’s path in all the tests and choices of real life – is more important than to mindlessly follow the rituals of worship)
How can you say: ” We are wise and God’s teaching is with us”? Indeed, the pen has labored in vain and scribes labor in vain. (Jeremiah 8:8)
And Samuel said, has the LORD as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices (rituals), as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected you from being king. (1st Samuel 15:22-23, again the following God’s direction in mundane trials is more important than ritualistic worship)
It is not an empty words for you. It is your life… (Deuteronomy 32:47, worship in the form of rituals, detouched from daily life is not what the Covenant is about. Covenant is an instruction manual for daily life)
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The Goal For Each Man Is To Establish Personal Relations With God:
Live 2-way communication with Him, listen to Him and seek His response in any ways. The method? – Jewish Meditation:
If you follow my laws and listen to my commands, and do them, I will give … (then follows the listing of many blessings, Leviticus, 26:3)
If you will not listen to me … (follows list of punishments, Leviticus, 26:14)
Be in awe, and sin not: Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still . Selah ( quiet your body and mind, then meditate. Predates the rise of Raja Yoga and Buddhism and all the new age spirituality of today, Psalms 4:4)
One thing have I desired of the LORD, that I will seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to contemplate/meditate on the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple. (Psalms 27:4)
When I remember You upon my bed, and meditate on You in the night watches. (Psalms 63:6)
Blessed are they that keep His testimonies, and that seek Him with the whole heart. (Psalms 119:2)
Make me to understand the way of Your precepts: so shall I talk of Your wondrous works. (Psalms 119:27)
I remember the days of old, I meditate on all Your works; I meditate on the work of Your hands. (Realize the presence of the Creator in His Creation. One of the methods of Yoga and Buddhism, Psalms 143:5)
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One Explicitly Suggested Method of Meditation – Meditation on the Text of Torah:
Let this book of the law be ever on your lips and in your thoughts day and night, so that you may keep with care everything in it; then a blessing will be on all your way, and you will do well. (Joshua 1:8)
