#god – @aph-japan on Tumblr

Our prayers are rarely petitionary. We don’t so much ask for things that we don’t have as give thanks for what we have received.” “I don’t understand.” The rabbi smiled. “It’s something like this. You Christians say, ‘Our Father who art in Heaven, give us this day our daily bread.’ Our comparable prayer is, ‘Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who bringest forth bread from the earth.’ That’s rather over-simplified, but in general our prayers tend to be prayers of thanksgiving for what has been given to us.

Harry Kemelman

aph-japan reblogged

council-of-beetroot

Ever remember that G-D is canon in Hetalia and doesn't like Prussia

#hetalia #hetalia: fandom #hetalia: humor #hetalia god #hashem #god #hetalia prussia #hws gilbert #yes #yes i remember #yes and im still {extremely!!} peeved very few but me and certain others remember these details were canonTM!!!#hetalia: web events #kitayume #(pretty much)#(especially during the Events)#nations #what is a nation #personifications #(Ive negl been really Curious how Himaruya is interpreting the LoreTM and all now that we have World Stars Gangsta)#(If the Nations dont ~~materialize out of thin air~~ here {WSG} does that mean Gd has no {potential}{!!} hand in their CreationTM???)#(did Gd even *have* any hand in their CreationTM to Begin With???)#(and so on and so on!!!)#on our old group we had a hetalia god rper come in and psuedotroll all the Nations a few times and lets just say that was Amusing #then Gd often got trolled back #(back when I rped Japan more actively I often had Kiku be kind of IgnoringTM a lot because Japan Does Japans Own Thing and so On)#({then Kiku would often Attract random occasional Spirits+Yokai or such&would be playing along like 'I definitely Dont Know Youre Dead'})#({I also sometimes got approached by rpers from like Okami and such} {'Amaterasu'} aka Ammy{s} tagged me a few times)#(ok but it is seriously a point of the loreTM that bothers me a Lot when discussing it with the wider fandom&I wish I could articulate Why)#monotheism vs polytheism

aph-japan reblogged

koushirouizumi

spale-vosver

Since I'm fascinated about the convergence of science and religion, I wanted to pose a question to Jumblr (if you reblog, put your branch/denomination/movement in the tags or comments!)

aph-japan reblogged

lastoneout

See I understand and recognize that the pokemon company has confirmed “arceus” is supposed to be pronounced like “arc-e-us” especially because in the new game your phone is an “arc” phone, a name that only works as a shortened version of arceus if you pronounce it the way they want you to.

HOWEVER, that pronunciation is stupid as hell and I am going to continue to defy god and pronounce it “ar-sea-us” and no one can stop me.

#lastoneout #pokemon #pkmn: fandom #pkmn: commentary #pkmn: legends arceus #pkmn legends arceus: commentary #same #hard same #god #gd #pkmn: legends series

aph-japan reblogged

koushirouizumi

sorrymyrabbisaidno

Gotta love when people think we "trick" Hashem. Babes, Hashem can't be tricked. In the words of someone else on here (who's name escapes me rn) it's not loopholes, it's lacework.

The process of debate is holy. The process of people interpreting laws is holy. Keeping our faith and culture alive by reinterpreting things is holy.

aph-japan reblogged

koushirouizumi

the-catboy-minyan

dir7eater asked:

hey good faith question- do you mind elaborating on judaism’s belief of g-d not being the ‘one true g-d’ and just the ‘g-d of the hebrews?

the-catboy-minyan answered:

sure, but keep in mind that I wasn’t raised in a religious house, so I’m not an expert and this could be inaccurate, you could wait to see if other people would elaborate in reblogs or replies.

a lot of religions have the belief that they worship the true g-d(s) and everyone else is wrong and are worshipping (a) false g-d(s). I believe Christianity works like that.

in the Tanach, there is no claim that other religions’ g-ds don’t exist, in fact, there are instances were miracles from other g-ds happen, but the jewish g-d is described as unique and stronger than others.

for example, in the story of The Exodus (is that how יציאת מצרים is called in english), when Moses comes to the Pharaoh for the first time to ask to release the Hebrews, he showcases Hashem’s (the Jewish g-d) strength by turning his staff into a snake, the Pharaoh’s magicians(?) then proceed to also turn their staffs into snakes, but Moses’s snake eats theirs. the story doesn’t show their g-ds as non-existent, they gave the magicians the same powers as Hashem, but the power of Hashem was stronger and thus Moses’s snake won over the other snakes.

foreign worship is banned in Judaism, not because the foreign g-ds are false, but because they’re not Hashem, I don’t know how to explain it but that’s how it works.

biglawbear

This is, I think, my understanding as well I’m also not an expert, so grain of salt.

I’ve studied some Torah portions recently and, yeah, other gods exist, but Hashem is uniquely “powerful” and the Jews are His chosen people.

The Egyptian gods are described as existing in Exodus, but as small or petty.

Genesis describes the “sons of god” and Nephilim having relations with “daughters of man.” Whether these are children of other gods or children of Seth or fallen angels is up to debate, but they could be a reference to “other” gods.

cephalopodvictorious

Essentially we have a contract with Him and it has an exclusivity clause.

Also in the Maggid it says that he passed judgement upon their gods, implying that 1) they are real, and 2) He has the power to Do That

gay-jewish-bucky

Early Judaism was monolatrous and not monotheist, even today many Jews lean toward monolatry.

Also, non-Jews aren’t called to follow the mitzvot, those laws only apply to Jews; the people who have been chosen to take on the covenant.

prismatic-bell

Okay, this is a memey answer, but for “let’s give you an idea and then we can start This Discussion 101” purposes, it’ll work:

This is our G-d. There are many like Him, but this One is ours.

the-haiku-bot

This is our G-d.

There are many like Him, but

this One is ours.

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

aph-japan reblogged

yidspiration

“It is hard to find places in Torah or the religious traditions that grew out of it that distinguish gender from physical sex the way transgender people do and the way communities must in order to understand and accept us. But the opening chapters of Genesis tell us that humanity was created before gender, and that the gender binary was created not by G-d, but by Adam. As we examine the genesis of gender, we find that the biblical account of the creation of humanity invites even traditionally religious readers to separate human ideas about binary gender from G-d’s conception of what it means to be human.”

— The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah from a Transgender Perspective, by Joy Ladin

aph-japan reblogged

yidquotes

In the Mishnah, Rabbi Yosi makes the radical statement: “androgynos bria bifnei atzma hu / the androgynos he is a created being of her own.” This Hebrew phrase blends male and female pronouns to poetically express the complexity of the androgynos’ identity. The term bri’a b’ifnei atzmah is a classical Jewish legal term for exceptionality. This term is an acknowledgement that not all of creation can be understood within binary categories. It recognizes the possibility that uniqueness can burst through the walls that demarcate our society. The Hebrew word bria (created being) explicitly refers to divine formation; hence this term also reminds us that all bodies are created in the image of God. People can’t always be easily defined; they can only be seen and respected, and their lives made holy. This Jewish approach allows for genders beyond male and female. It opens up space in society for every body. And it protects those who live in the places in between.

Rabbi Elliot Rose Kukla and Reuben Zellman

aph-japan reblogged

yidquotes

I’m a rabbi, and so I’m particularly saddened whenever religious arguments are brought in to defend social prejudices — as they often are in the discussion about transgender rights. In fact, the Hebrew Bible, when read in its original language, offers a highly elastic view of gender. And I do mean highly elastic: In Genesis 3:12, Eve is referred to as “he.” In Genesis 9:21, after the flood, Noah repairs to “her” tent. Genesis 24:16 refers to Rebecca as a “young man.” And Genesis 1:27 refers to Adam as “them.”

Surprising, I know. And there are many other, even more vivid examples: In Esther 2:7, Mordecai is pictured as nursing his niece Esther. In a similar way, in Isaiah 49:23, the future kings of Israel are prophesied to be “nursing kings.”

Why would the Bible do this? These aren’t typos. In the ancient world, well-expressed gender fluidity was the mark of a civilized person. Such a person was considered more “godlike.” In Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, the gods were thought of as gender-fluid, and human beings were considered reflections of the gods. The Israelite ideal of the “nursing king” seems to have been based on a real person: a woman by the name of Hatshepsut who, after the death of her husband, Thutmose II, donned a false beard and ascended the throne to become one of Egypt’s greatest pharaohs.

The Israelites took the transgender trope from their surrounding cultures and wove it into their own sacred scripture. The four-Hebrew-letter name of God, which scholars refer to as the Tetragrammaton, YHWH, was probably not pronounced “Jehovah” or “Yahweh,” as some have guessed. The Israelite priests would have read the letters in reverse as Hu/Hi — in other words, the hidden name of God was Hebrew for “He/She.” Counter to everything we grew up believing, the God of Israel — the God of the three monotheistic, Abrahamic religions to which fully half the people on the planet today belong — was understood by its earliest worshipers to be a dual-gendered deity. - Rabbi Mark Sameth

#jewish #jewish views #jewish commentary #judaism #judaism positivity #rabbi quotes #gender #queerness #queer community #hashem #god #queer #pronouns #judaism is not xtianity #tanakh #tanakh is not the same as the old testament #stop saying your religion when you mean xtianity #*GOYIM DO NOT DERAIL #*GOYIM DO NOT RB TO DISCOURSE OR I BLOCK #*Prefer Goyim do not reblog #(Likes and saving for reference OK)#*Reblogging for Archival #(I Am Extremely Pissed Off Right Now)#(RBng to Make Points)#(Please Understand I am rbng this for the references and to Inform)#stop using the tanakh to defend your shitty homophobic transphobic and queerphobic views because you are wrong #(This one was really interesting especially when considering its commentary by Rabbis)#(There was light clarification in the comments but even then)#('the הוא 'he' with a . indicating a 'she' is quite common')#('and Im wondering if its actually intended to be nonbinary' mte though More On This Coming Later)

aph-japan reblogged

koushirouizumi

yidquotes

There’s a great Yiddish expression that says, “If I knew God, I’d be God.” In fact, I think that claiming that you “know God’s will” is an act of incredible hubris. Instead, what we say about God has much more to say about us than about God. There are, in fact, a whole range of different theologies within Judaism (you can find some of them in the terrific books “Finding God“ and “The God Upgrade,” both of which describe a whole range of differing, and sometimes even conflicting, theologies.) And while I can only speak personally here, to me, “God” isn’t really a noun at all — it’s a verb. Here’s why. The most common name that God gives Godself in the Torah is “YHVH,” a name that is sometimes thought to be so holy that no one was allowed to pronounce it. But that’s not exactly right — it’s not that “YHVH” was not allowed to be pronounced, it’s that it is literally unpronounceable, since it consists of four Hebrew vowels (yod, hay, vav and hay). By the way, that’s also why some people incorrectly call this name “Yahweh,” since (as Rabbi Lawrence Kushner once said), if you tried to pronounce a name that was all vowels, you’d risk serious respiratory injury. But even more importantly, the name YHVH is actually a conflation of all the tenses of the Hebrew verb “to be.” God’s name could be seen as “was-is-will be,” so God isn’t something you can’t capture or name — God is only something you can experience. And indeed, when Moses is at the burning bush, having just been told by God that he will be leading the Israelites out of Egypt, he says, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God responds that God’s name is “Ehyeh asher ehyeh,” which is often translated as “I am what I am.” But it could also be translated as, “I am what I will be.” So God is whatever God will be — we simply have no idea. Indeed, for my own theology, I believe that God is found in the “becoming,” transforming “what will be” into “what is.”

Rabbi Geoffrey A. Mitelman

#jewish tag #jewish #jewish informative #jewish history #jewish quotes #rabbi quotes #judaism #judaism informative #judaism resources #hashem #god #judaism is not judeo christian #judaism is not xtianity #*Reblogging to Inform #(DISCLAIMER This OP used to post a bunch of genuinely good Jewish and rabbi quotes but since went completely off the deep end)#(and basically was considering Terf views)#(and got called out for it)#(Please DO NOT reblog the more recent posts on their blog)#(I'm only reblogging this here now because this blog is half dead and I'm trying to Explain the Issue to my Standoms)#(because this is the best explanation I've seen and the quote hasnt been reposted on one of the newer quotes blogs since)#(If it is I'll delete this one and reblog any newer post)#(OP has been inactive for months since so I can only HOPE they changed their mind especially when you consider the former posts that blatant #(*Blatantly contradicted their sudden new ''''Opinions'''')#(Judaism has always had intracommunity debate and thats nothing new but)#(Look the fact is The Facts Will Always Win Out and Thats Just That TM)#*GOYIM DO NOT reblog to argue or debate Or I WILL BLOCK #*Goyim Please Do Not Add Commentary #*Goyim I'd rather you save this one for self reference

aph-japan reblogged

koushirouizumi

jewish-education

PSA to non-Jews, no one Jewish I have ever met calls G-d “Y*w*h” so don’t do it about our G-d. Talking to non-Christians too because I’ve seen it in news articles and the like upon occasion. Realistically, I can’t police how Christian (or any) folks refer to G-d in their own settings, but if everyone would stop using it about Judaism or as Christians trying to be closer to Judaism then I’d be happy enough. The pronunciation of the sacred name of G-d you’re basing it off has been lost so likely your guess is just making a fool out of yourselves, but if you’ve stumbled upon the pronunciation, using it in these contexts is disrespectful. I honestly feel uncomfortable writing it out on the off-chance that you’re all right because just it would be really, really disrespectful if it is. Please stop using it. Please. It’s not more authentic, it’s just rude.

#jewish education #jewish tag #jewish #jewish informative #jewish history #jewish issues #hashem #god #antisemitism #leftist antisemitism #antisemitism on the left #true name of god #*GOYIM DO NOT reblog to argue or debate Or I WILL BLOCK #*Goyim can Boost in support WITHOUT derailing commentary or random questions #(OK so this is the other flip side of That Issue)#(WE DO NOT KNOW the Actual ~~True Name~~ TM Of G-d)#(THATS why we avoid typing it out)#(Everyone else will insist to us what the ~~True Name~~ actually ''''Is'''' and try and talk down to us about it)#(BUT THE FACT IS WE AND YOU DO NOT KNOW ACTUALLY)#(SO STOP @NG US ABT IT AlrEADY)#*Reblogging for the Commentary #(And no we do NOT want to hear your ~~Theorizing~~ TM about ~What the True Name TM Is~)#judaism is not judeo christian #judaism is not xtianity #(Or your ~~Deep research~~ either to use a term someone else in my Standoms TM is apparently prone to using)

aph-japan reblogged

izzyizumi

just-shower-thoughts

Jewish people who type the word “god” as “g-d”: Do you think you can fool the big man upstairs with a technical work around? When he goes through your emails/texts/facebook posts after you die, you don’t think he’s gonna see that dash and think “this sneaky fuck here, enjoy h-ll.”

allacharade

this thought comes from someone who has no idea how Judaism works, but okay. People avoid writing out God’s name, because you aren’t ever allowed to destroy or desecrate something with God’s name on it - you have to bury it instead. That’s what a genizah is. The most well known is probably the Cairo Genizah. It’s a box where Jews can put anything with God’s name on it to ensure that it gets buried. So obviously Jews do write out God’s name. In fact, it used to be traditional to mark the top of pages with God’s name as a kind of blessing or mark of honesty. That’s why there are so many miscellaneous texts in genizahs. Judaism reads “do not use my name in vain” pretty literally as a command to revere and respect the Y-H-V-H name of God. Most rabbis agree that this commandment only holds for the hebrew, so not typing out God is more something people do out of respect or as a nod to this tradition. Some people use G-d because they want to parallel the fact that the tradition was put in place for people who would be speaking and writing in hebrew or a very near identical language like Aramaic.

It’s a matter of respect, not a matter of “don’t do this or you will be punished.” Besides, Judaism deals almost exclusively with punishment in life and Judaism very explicitly doesn’t have a clear and codified notion of עולם הבא (the world to come). And there is certainly no notion of hell. Also, Judaism is not nearly that harsh in response to small mistakes. We have a holiday every year explicitly devoted to the idea that we all fuck up and that we need to ask forgiveness from each other and God (and during which God does all the judging - God doesn’t wait until after we die. It’s an active thing that can be constantly adjusted). Maybe world religions is not the best topic of contemplation during your shower.

#jewish tag #jewish #jewish issues #jewish psa #jewish informative #jewish views #jewish history #hashem #god #g-d #judaism #judaism informative #judaism is not xtianity #judaism is not judeo christian #self censoring #jewish culture #jewish tradition #goyim issues #*Goyim Do Not Derail #*Goyim can Boost in Support WITHOUT Derailing commentary or random questions #(I say it in full a lot still when I'm Extremely Pissed Off bc thats how you KNOW I AM Pissed off when im ACTUALLY USING IT)#(When I self censor it on my own I typically use 'HaShem' nowadays because if I use plain 'G-d' not everyone typically realizes WHY)#(I'm also seeing a lot of Not Great posts from ~~notable~~ BNF wider fandom bloggers TM abt how self censorship in some instances is)#(''''Always a Sign Of'''' ''''Immaturity'''' or ALWAYS ''''Purity culture'''' Except Its Not Sometimes We DO Have reasons)#(And You Need To Effing rEPESCT THESE FACTS)#(Because we're not going to change how we talk for YOU)#(And the BNF Stans will just have to f*CKING DEAL WITH IT)#(A lot of Jewish informative posts quote directly passages in which G-ds name is NOTABLY censored like that BECAUSE THATS HOW IT WAS SAID)#(No we're NOT changing the contexts of such commentaries just for Goyim who can't stand to learn even SIMPLE THINGS abt Judaism)#(Im not editing entire posts on Jewish commentary on Torah and Tanakh because some Goyim are ~uncomfortable~ that we censor G-d sometimes!!)