There is going to be a SUPER LUNAR ECLIPSE this coming December 10, 2011. There are many ideas that spring from stories about it. Here is one that seems to have bearing on the lives of people who believe in YHWH like myself. The sun, moon, and stars were not created for their light alone. Eclipses - the absence of the light of these luminary bodies - serve an important function, as well. In fact, this function is listed in the passuk before their responsibility to provide light to the world: "And Hashem said, 'Let their be luminaries in the heavens...and they will serve as signs,'" which, as Rashi explains, refers to eclipses which are seen as a bad sign for the world, "...and they shall be luminaries in the heaven," understood by Rashi as referring to the light which they provide.
Rashi writes "When you perform the will of the Al-mighty, you need not worry from disaster [during the eclipses]." Hazal have taught us specifically regarding what we need to be careful: "Because of four things eclipses occur - false tale-bearers, false witnesses, those who raise small cattle [and allow the sheep to destroy other people's property], and those who cut down good trees [meaning, fruit-bearing trees, an act which demonstrates his lack of appreciation to Hashem]..." What is the common denominator of these four violations? Each of them, in its own way, constitutes an "eclipse" of its own, a transformation of light into darkness. There is no greater eclipse of light than by darkening one's reputation through false rumors, allegations, and testimonies. Similarly, sending one's sheep into the property of another, ruining his trees for some immediate need, chopping down a tree and showing disrespect for the great kindness of our Creator - all these activities serve to eclipse our value system. When an actual, astronomical eclipse occurs, there opens, as it were, room for the prosecutor to bring us to task for these moral eclipses...
The continuing battles being fought through mass media, words transmitted verbally and electronically - who can possibly begin to imagine the amount of degradation, humiliation, scorn and contempt which is continually passed through these means of communication? False rumors, created from thin air, substantiated by false testimonies with no sense of common decency and concern for others - and all this captures the attention of a more-than-eager readership!
Perhaps the eclipse thus arrives at the perfect time, to turn our attention to the moral eclipses which occur in our lives on a daily basis.
Source: http://www.shemayisrael.co.il
Jerusalem, Israel
972-2-532-4191
Saturday, December 3, 2011
LUNAR ECLIPSE
There is going to be a SUPER LUNAR ECLIPSE this coming December 10, 2011. There are many ideas that spring from stories about it. Here is one that seems to have bearing on the lives of people who believe in YHWH like myself. The sun, moon, and stars were not created for their light alone. Eclipses - the absence of the light of these luminary bodies - serve an important function, as well. In fact, this function is listed in the passuk before their responsibility to provide light to the world: "And Hashem said, 'Let their be luminaries in the heavens...and they will serve as signs,'" which, as Rashi explains, refers to eclipses which are seen as a bad sign for the world, "...and they shall be luminaries in the heaven," understood by Rashi as referring to the light which they provide.
Rashi writes "When you perform the will of the Al-mighty, you need not worry from disaster [during the eclipses]." Hazal have taught us specifically regarding what we need to be careful: "Because of four things eclipses occur - false tale-bearers, false witnesses, those who raise small cattle [and allow the sheep to destroy other people's property], and those who cut down good trees [meaning, fruit-bearing trees, an act which demonstrates his lack of appreciation to Hashem]..." What is the common denominator of these four violations? Each of them, in its own way, constitutes an "eclipse" of its own, a transformation of light into darkness. There is no greater eclipse of light than by darkening one's reputation through false rumors, allegations, and testimonies. Similarly, sending one's sheep into the property of another, ruining his trees for some immediate need, chopping down a tree and showing disrespect for the great kindness of our Creator - all these activities serve to eclipse our value system. When an actual, astronomical eclipse occurs, there opens, as it were, room for the prosecutor to bring us to task for these moral eclipses...
The continuing battles being fought through mass media, words transmitted verbally and electronically - who can possibly begin to imagine the amount of degradation, humiliation, scorn and contempt which is continually passed through these means of communication? False rumors, created from thin air, substantiated by false testimonies with no sense of common decency and concern for others - and all this captures the attention of a more-than-eager readership!
Perhaps the eclipse thus arrives at the perfect time, to turn our attention to the moral eclipses which occur in our lives on a daily basis.
Source: http://www.shemayisrael.co.il
Jerusalem, Israel
972-2-532-4191
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