Yesterday’s song of the day came from Ben-Hur so it only seems appropriate that today’s song of the day should come from Elmer Bernstein’s classic score of 1956’s The Ten Commandments.
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Through the Shattered Lens 
Given the profound theological distortions and centuries of bloodshed carried out in the name of the “resurrected Christ”—especially the horrors committed during Easter and Holy Week—How should a Jew respond to Happy Easter from a Goy, especially the bloody history of blood libels, pogroms, taxation without representation, forced ghetto imprisonment for 3 Centuries, and forced expulsions from virtually all Xtian nations of Europe – the mother of Xtianity?
As an atheist – praise HaShem, I do not believe in your new God Jesus the Son of God, trinity belief system. It seems to me that all religious rhetoric belief systems stand upon theology and Creeds, and possess absolutely no wisdom what so ever. Hence both Xtianity and Islam forced to import ancient Greek wisdom of logic because their personal belief in this, that, or those Gods – failed to prioritize wisdom. The Torah by contrast teaches according to the kabbalah of rabbi Akiva’s פרדס inductive logic format – the wisdom of Oral Torah common law.
The Torah does not require belief in any god, the way Christianity or Islam does. It requires allegiance to our oath brit contractual obligations, fidelity to justice, and the pursuit of chochmah (wisdom) through structured interpretation and judicial legal discernment. That’s a completely different paradigm. As an atheist—praise HaShem, a very Talmudic turn of phrase, almost like saying: “I reject your idol, and in doing so I uphold the Name.” Torah has space for this kind of irony. “The Name” (HaShem) – a spirit and not a word metaphor or Rubic’s cube puzzle. The revelation of the Name in the first commandment at Sinai, shares absolutely zero common ground with an theological/creed based idolatry “belief object”—Torah a legal common law judicial legal system of law, defined by the sworn oath brit terms, Like a living-blood-sealed treaty carved into stone, by the Avot: Avraham, Yitzak, and Yaacov.
Henceforth known as the brit (alliance). The Torah simply not a metaphysical abstraction as the Nicene Creed or Muslim Universal conversion by simply declaring belief in Allah and Mumammad as the Final prophet, any more than the prophet of the Church of the Latter Day Saints and their Holy Book substitute theology, in any way shape or form resembles the revelation at Sinai and Horev. This common thread links the attempts made by the new testament, koran and book of Mormon to supplant all earlier, specifically T’NaCH scriptures. The latter targets, like the rear and front sights of a sniper rifle, only the tiny Jewish audience. Whereas the fraudulent old testament/new testament bible, koran and morman holy books make an appeal to all Mankind. The Talmud teaches in mesechta avoda zarah that all Mankind other than the Chosen Cohen People reject to this day the revelation of the Torah at Sinai and Horev.
Herein, this response represents the classic standard Jewish response to “Happy Easter”, based upon Jewish inter-actions with the European church abomination. Unlike the peoples who reject the revelation of the Torah at Sinai, the Talmud understands the 2nd Sinai commandment: Not to worship other Gods, with the interpretation of: A – Do not assimilate nor embrace the cultures and customs of any people or society which rejects the revelation of the Torah at Sinai. For example when king Shlomo built his first Temple, because he based this vision upon non Jewish cultures and customs, like the Catholic church, for example, builds great Cathedrals which took generations to complete those huge static dinosaur fossilized beastly constructions.
Rather than establish Sanhedrin lateral common law Federal courtrooms, Shlomo judged the Capital Crimes Case of the two prostitutes before his private Paro like, Monarch dominated and controlled vertical courtroom, where the State pays the salaries of the Judges and Prosecuting Attorney. Hence the First Temple in Jerusalem defines the Xtian translation of the 2nd Sinai commandment – “idolatry”. B. Do not intermarry with these foreign alien people who reject the revelation of the Torah oath brit remembrance cut at Sinai and Horev. Again king Shlomo serves as the objective model for this negative interpretation of the meaning of the 2nd Sinai commandment. The Book of Ezra serve as a support to the mussar rebuke taught in the Prophetic Book of Kings. Comparable to how the Gemara functions as a commentary to the Mishna.
This wisdom stands as the eternal foundation of everything: Torah simply not a religion—rather its serves, directly comparable to the 1789 US constitution, a judicial covenant sworn by the Avot and ratified at Sinai and Horev which established the first Commonwealth of the Israelite Republic. Its פרדס logic – contractual, not mystical. Its sacredness lies not in “what one believes,” but in how one lives in fidelity to a sworn brit—a legal-political alliance sealed with mutual oath allliance(s) – something like the NATO alliance established after WWII. How do Jews dedicate their “world to come” behavior with our wives, family, neighbors, and people in the future as the definition of our t’shuva to honor the oath brit alliance faith throughout all generations the Jewish people live on this Earth. The metaphor “World to Come” does not refer to life after death, but how a man contracts to marry a woman with the obligation to instruct his future born children to honor the oath alliance faith\contract commitments.
Unlike Christianity (which demands acceptance of the Nicene Creed) or Islam (which requires the Shahada), Torah demands: the righteous pursuit of judicial justice which honestly dedicates – like a korban on the altar – to restore fair compensation of damages inflicted by Party A upon Party B among the chosen Cohen people throughout the generations. “As an atheist – praise HaShem”, this phrase encapsules Talmudic inductive reasoning. It echoes Moshe breaking the tablets—not out of disbelief, but out of fidelity to the brit terms violated when the “mixed multitudes” (assimilated and inter-married Jews) attempted to make the Golden Calf a substitute for Moshe Rabbeinu. Chag Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) utterly rejects all substitute theologies, like as encorporated in the theologyies of Xtianity, Islam, and Mormonism. On Yom Kippur, HaShem sanctified t’shuva rather than “repentance”. HaShem annulled the vow, to make of Moshe the chosen Cohen people which would have profaned the oath sworn with the Avot, specifically the oath first sworn to Avram at the brit cut between the pieces.
I do not subscribe to your new gods or universalizing metaphysics. My allegiance only to the brit sworn at Sinai—to the Name לשמה. This foundation of all Av tohor time oriented commandment k’vanna, simply not a belief, and specifically belief in any cult of personality or object. The spirit of justice breathing in the hearts of a chosen people bound to the terms of the oath brit contractual alliance.
Impossible for the Johnny Come Lately replacement Holy Books, which prioritize Xtian creedal salvation or Islam’s conversion formula; these foreign theologies share no common ground with the oath brit alliance which applies strictly and only to the Jewish people and how we behave and interact among ourselves, throughout the generations we independently rule and govern the oath promised land. Obedience to the oath alliance contracts has nothing to do with DNA or racial Race theories, so popular during the 20th Century and post Shoah shallow reactionary racist morons.
HaShem simply NOT a theological idea – and neither Jesus nor Muhammad has the power or authority to change this simple fact; any more than the two legs of a right triangle – any one of them longer than the length of the hypotenuse leg of that right triangle; any more than anything observed in the Seas, Heavens, or Earth comparable to HaShem – the God of Israel alone. This Name lives within the Yatriz HaTov within the bnai-brit Cohen peoples’ hearts, not in some heavenly throne room or philosophical abstraction. Creedal theologies turn “God” into a thing you believe in, a noun. The Torah presents HaShem as a verb—a living oath alliance contract which judges the hearts of the chosen Cohen people in all generations – equally.
The Talmud, not a theology book. Rather it reflects as record of legal case/rule argument precedents, a debate between the prosecutor and defense attorneys before the 3rd judge of a Torts Court, inductive dialectic of logic, and interpretation of the intent of the Framers of both the T’NaCH and Talmud visions of Mitzvot and Halacha.
Talmud teaches in tractate Avodah Zarah that the nations of the world rejected the brit at Sinai. Hence the universalizing books—the New Testament, Koran, Book of Mormon—must create substitute theologies aimed at global appeal, because they lack brit-based legitimacy. These texts override, supplant, and erase the specificity of the original brit by asserting new revelations—all of which are detached from oath law and legal testimony. All of which violate the Torah negative commandment not to Add or Subtract from this Torah.
Every one of these super-sessionist texts seeks universality, which the Torah totally rejects without any question or doubt. The Torah oath brit cut with Israel, (the chosen Cohen people) and not mankind. The nations were offered Torah, but they rejected it—as per midrash and tractate Avodah Zarah. Therefore, these later texts construct a counter-Torah. The New Testament: salvation by blood of a Roman-executed man/son of God. The Koran: denies Jewish oath brit contract cut with all future born children of Avraham, Yitzak and Yaacov. Both the Church fathers and Muslim shieks call Jews accursed, hated by either God the Father or Allah in Heaven. Book of Mormon: absurd American-based fantasy of divine destiny, with fabricated Semitic claims. Each of these attempts not only fail to uphold the brit—they declare war on it. Therefore all three foreign counterfeit religions define the intent of the 2nd Sinai commandment – Not to worship other Gods.
Herein, this response represents a standard Jewish response to “Happy Easter”. Unlike the peoples who reject the revelation of the Torah at Sinai, the Talmud understands the 2nd Sinai commandment: Not to worship other Gods, with the interpretation of: A – Do not assimilate nor embrace the cultures and customs of any people or society which rejects the revelation of the Torah at Sinai. For example when king Shlomo built his first Temple, because he based this vision upon non Jewish cultures and customs, the Catholic church builds great Cathedrals which took generations to complete on structure, rather than establish Sanhedrin lateral common law Federal courtrooms! Hence the First Temple in Jerusalem qualifies as “idolatry”. B. Do not intermarry with these alien people who reject the revelation of the Torah oath brit remembrance cut at Sinai and Horev. Again king Shlomo serves as the model of this negative interpretation of the meaning of the 2nd Sinai commandment.
This is the foundation of everything: Torah is not a religion—it is a national constitution, a judicial covenant sworn by the Avot and ratified at Sinai and Horev. Its logic is contractual, not mystical. Its sacredness lies not in “what one believes,” but in how one lives in fidelity to a sworn brit—a legal-political alliance sealed with mutual oath allliance(s) – something like the NATO alliance established after WWII.
Unlike Christianity (which demands acceptance of the Nicene Creed) or Islam (which requires the Shahada), Torah demands: the righteous pursuit of judicial justice which honestly restores fair compensation of damages inflicted by Party A upon Party B among the chosen Cohen people throughout the generations. “As an atheist – praise HaShem”, this phrase encapsules Talmudic inductive reasoning. It echoes Moshe breaking the tablets—not out of disbelief, but out of fidelity to the brit violated when the “mixed multitudes” (assimilated and inter-married Jews) attempted to make the Golden Calf a substitute for Moshe Rabbeinu. Chag Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) rejects substitute theology. HaShem made t’shuva and annulled the vow to make of Moshe the chosen Cohen people which would have profaned the oath sworn with the Avot, specifically the oath first sworn to Avram at the brit cut between the pieces.
I do not subscribe to your new gods or universalizing metaphysics. My allegiance is to the brit sworn at Sinai—to the Name, which is not a belief object but the spirit of justice breathing in the hearts of a chosen people bound to the terms of the oath brit contractual alliance. Impossible as the Johnny Come Lately replacement Holy Books which prioritize creedal salvation or Islam’s conversion formula. These foreign theologies share no common ground with the oath brit alliance which applies strictly and only to the Jewish people and how we behave and interact among ourselves. Obedience to the oath alliance contracts has nothing to do with DNA or racial Race theories.
HaShem simply NOT a theological idea – any more than anything observed in the Seas, Heavens, or Earth comparable to HaShem – the God of Israel alone. This Name lives within the Yatriz HaTov within the bnai-brit Cohen peoples’ hearts, not in some heavenly throne room or philosophical abstraction. Creedal theologies turn “God” into a thing you believe in, a noun. The Torah presents HaShem as a verb—a living oath alliance contract which judges the hearts of the chosen Cohen people in all generations – equally.
The Talmud, not a theology book. Rather it reflects as record of legal case/rule argument precedents, a debate between the prosecutor and defense attorneys before the 3rd judge of a Torts Court, inductive dialectic of logic, and interpretation of the intent of the Framers of both the T’NaCH and Talmud visions of Mitzvot and Halacha.
Talmud teaches in tractate Avodah Zarah that the nations of the world rejected the brit at Sinai. Hence the universalizing books—the New Testament, Koran, Book of Mormon—must create substitute theologies aimed at global appeal, because they lack brit-based legitimacy. These texts override, supplant, and erase the specificity of the original brit by asserting new revelations—all of which are detached from oath law and legal testimony. All of which violate the Torah negative commandment not to Add or Subtract from this Torah.
Every one of these super-sessionist texts preaches universality, which the Torah totally rejects without any question or doubt. The Torah oath brit cut with Israel, (the chosen Cohen people) and not mankind. The nations, offered the Torah, but they rejected it—as per midrash and tractate Avodah Zarah. Therefore, these ‘later day saints’ texts construct a counter-Torah. The New Testament: salvation by blood of a Roman-executed Hercules son of God. The Koran: denies Jewish oath brit contract cut with all future born children of Avraham, Yitzak and Yaacov. Both the Church fathers and Muslim Sheiks call Jews accursed, hated by either God the Father or Allah in Heaven. Book of Mormon: that utterly absurd American-based fantasy of divine destiny, with fabricated Semitic claims, comparable to the Chicago Black Hebrews Xtians who came to Israel in the 1960s. Each of these attempts, not only fail to uphold the brit—they declare war on it. Therefore all three foreign counterfeit religions define the intent of the 2nd Sinai commandment – Not to worship other Gods.
“As an atheist, praise HaShem”—captures that paradoxical brilliance found in Talmudic reasoning: not belief, but allegiance; not metaphysics, but brit; not salvation, but justice. The Jewish people never received justice: not from the courts of Par’o, nor any court of Europe including the ICC or ICJ, nor any court in Islamic lands – ever. Goyim religions of avoda zarah prioritize belief over judicial wisdom. Only after the vertical Star Courts of the British Crown legalized impressment of American sailors on the High Seas, did the Founding Fathers institutionalize a lateral Jury system of law. Torah stands as the only non-theological, non-creedal path—a national legal-political constitution built not on universal abstractions focused upon cults of personality and God mythologies, but upon concrete obligations to a specific people through an oath alliance with the purpose to rule the Promised land with trust and shalom among the chosen Cohen people. Torah common law simply does not compare to foreign fiction stories like Harry Potter or Nancy Drew. The purpose of judicial justice, simply simple to understand: to restore a broke trust among our People within the oath sworn Promised land.
Xtianity, Islam, and Mormonism, not simply “different religions,” but reactionary projects—constructed precisely because the nations rejected the brit and had to manufacture alternate paths to the Torah Constitutional Republic within the borders of the Promised Land. The lip service these foreign religions give to respect the “Holy Land”, proven by the simple fact that no Xtian, Arab, Turkish Muslim ever established a Palestinian independent State ever in human history. Only the Jewish people ever built an independent Jewish state on multiple occasion within the borders of the Promised Land. Avoda zara, its Av tuma attempts to pervert Jewish just rulership of the Promised land unto mythical and esoteric religions as their disguised camouflage which conceals their lack of wisdom.
The 2nd commandment, this national anti-assimilation clause—rather than a metaphysical prohibition—both halakhic and historically grounded. Shlomo’s First Temple interpreted as another prime example of idolatry, on par with the sin of the Golden Calf. This perhaps radical interpretation yet easily supportable view based upon similar Torah common law precedents, especially in contrast to the later obsession with architectural grandeur (e.g., Catholic cathedrals) over legal restoration (e.g., Sanhedrin courtrooms). Combined with his gross opulance of accumulated vast wealth and foreign wives – both direct Torah violations!
Torah = national brit by mutual sworn oath, not belief. Xtianity = creedal faith, with a long history of hoarding fabulous wealth inequalities. Islam = universal conversion, more of the same; Islam stuck in a Feudal model of Lord/peasant relationships to this very day. Mormonism = a mythological Harry Potter substitute of fiction, comparable to the Church of Scientology. The famous “Do not add or subtract” command in Devarim becomes a polemic weapon here—one that slices through any claim to new testaments, final prophets, or American scriptures. NATO as a legal-political metaphor for the brit alliance—it’s not about who “believes in democracy,” but about binding treaties and mutual obligations, and shared National and Inter-national strategic objectives.
Framing the Torah as a brit-based constitutional legal system—rather than a metaphysical religion—re-centers the Jewish people not as just another but far smaller religious “faith community,” but as a sovereign legal-political nation with a judiciary-bound ethic, a contractually governed land, and inter-generational obligations among Cohanim, Zera Yisrael, and converts who accept the terms of the brit as law, rather than religious theology.
The 2nd commandment as a national prohibition against assimilation and intermarriage, especially when held up against the rabbinic midrashim on Parashat Yitro and the Gemara in Avodah Zarah. It flips the script on “universalism” and reframes the conversation entirely: instead of Judaism being “narrow,” it is specific—rooted in oath law and Sanhedrin courts common law; especially when held up against the rabbinic midrashim on Parashat Yitro and the Gemara in Avodah Zarah. The 2nd Sinai commandment flips the script on “universalism” and reframes the conversation entirely: the chosen Cohen people, who alone accept the revelation of the Torah at Sinai and the Oral Torah at Horev 40 days after the Sin of the Golden Calf.
Consider the halachic mitzvot of Shabbat and Kashrut as specific examples of the contractual oath alliance terms of the “brit treaty”. Perhaps comparable to the Balfour Declaration of 1917 which serves as the foundation of modern Zionism today; meaning Jews equal rights to achieve self-determination in the Middle East. Shabbat fundamentally requires that the chosen Cohen people discern the fundamental distinctions with separates work from work: מלאכה from עבודה. The Rabbeinu Tam tefillen remembers the oath sworn by Yehoshua and Israel when entering Canaan to conquer the kingdoms of the land. At Sh’Cem the chosen Cohen people commit to honor the contract, not to interpret Torah law — other than viewed through the lenses of Horev Oral Torah middot logic methodologies. The rabbinic mitzva of lighting the lights of Hanukah likewise expresses this exact intent.
Mapping Torah onto a constitutional model that’s grounded in oath-bound specificity, not metaphysical abstractions or cults of personality nonsense. In this light, “religion” as a category becomes utterly irrelevant—Torah does not exist nor functions as a religious spiritual experience, nor as an explosion of intense private feeling as if it compared to a sexual orgasm or Xtian “passion”, rather the Torah serves as the Constitution of the national Republic. Just that simple and nothing more.
The specific examples of Shabbat and Kashrut used to gage the depth of treaty stipulations—they’re not “rituals”, as latter-day statute halachic fossilized codes which emphasize religious piety, but legal-demonstrative affirmations of national identity and brit fidelity. Same with Rabbeinu Tam tefillin—not about mysticism, but about loyal testimony to the oath sworn at Shechem which reaffirms the oath brit sworn at Horev. Every mitzvah in the Torah, functions as an act of juridical allegiance, not belief-based, static bound fossilized devotion devotion to halachic ritual observances. The metaphor to the he Balfour Declaration—it attempts to parallel how modern Zionism mirrors ancient brit logic: political self-determination based on sworn obligations, not belief systems. In both cases, it’s about territory, contract, and national law—not ideology. The Churchill and Chamberlain White Papers by stark contrast prioritized British imperial strategic interests lie the Church and Mosque place religion upon a pedestal and worship it.
Every mitzvah becomes an act of juridical allegiance, not belief-based devotion. Torah stands not as a metaphysical religion but as the foundational constitutional document of a legal-political nation bound by public law, mutual obligation, and historical mussar remembered oaths. All generations of Jews have a Torah mitzva obligation to remember the oaths sworn by both the Avot and our forefathers. The act of remembering the specific details of these sworn oaths, this act of remembrance defines the k’vanna of all Torah time oriented tohor Av commandments. This Torah wisdom permits all toldot positive and negative commandments from the Torah and hall halachot from the Talmud to make the regal aliyah and transform into Av tohor time oriented commandments which possess the power תמיד מעשה בראשית to turn curses into blessings and make a new creation, comparable to the Jewish state in 1948 and again in 1967.
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