{"id":112924,"date":"2017-02-26T07:35:38","date_gmt":"2017-02-26T15:35:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=112924"},"modified":"2023-06-01T17:44:44","modified_gmt":"2023-06-02T01:44:44","slug":"alt-right-torah-talk-parasha-terumah-exodus-251-2719","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=112924","title":{"rendered":"Torah Talk: Parasha Terumah (Exodus 25:1\u201327:19)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This week&#8217;s Torah portion is <A HREF=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Terumah_(parsha)\">Terumah<\/a> (gifts).<\/p>\n<p><script>!function(r,u,m,b,l,e){r._Rumble=b,r[b]||(r[b]=function(){(r[b]._=r[b]._||[]).push(arguments);if(r[b]._.length==1){l=u.createElement(m),e=u.getElementsByTagName(m)[0],l.async=1,l.src=\"https:\/\/rumble.com\/embedJS\/uajap1\"+(arguments[1].video?'.'+arguments[1].video:'')+\"\/?url=\"+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+\"&args=\"+encodeURIComponent(JSON.stringify([].slice.apply(arguments))),e.parentNode.insertBefore(l,e)}})}(window, document, \"script\", \"Rumble\");<\/script><\/p>\n<div id=\"rumble_v2or567\"><\/div>\n<p><script>\nRumble(\"play\", {\"video\":\"v2or567\",\"div\":\"rumble_v2or567\"});<\/script><\/p>\n<p><A HREF=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/luke-ford-666431593\/alt-right-torah-talk-parasha-terumah-exodus-2512719\">MP3.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>* Is President Trump doing enough to combat anti-Semitism? <A HREF=\"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=63983\">Are Jews doing enough to combat anti-Gentilism<\/a>? <\/p>\n<p>* This week&#8217;s Torah portion is not immediately compelling but it helps to believe that God wrote it if you want inspiration to study it. Imagine you have created a Torah state wherein citizens study the weekly Torah portion. Would non-Jews have much interest in this Torah portion? In a Torah state, non-Jewish residents would be a weakness. Anyone who didn&#8217;t study the Torah portion would be a weakness. Cohesion and strength require unity. <\/p>\n<p>* The parasha starts with God saying let people give from their heart to build the sanctuary. There aren&#8217;t many instances in Torah where you just give from your heart. Normally, a donation is required whether your heart is in it or not.<\/p>\n<p>* The key verse to me is 25.8: &#8220;The shall build a sanctuary for me so that I might dwell among them.&#8221; What do we build in our own lives so that God can dwell among us? There&#8217;s a different feeling when you walk by a church or a synagogue than when you walk by a liquor shop. Have you ever stepped foot in a Catholic church? It&#8217;s far more ornate, typically, than a Protestant church or synagogue. When one thinks of religious art, one thinks of Catholicism. Protestantism is all heart. Judaism and Catholicism are much more physical.  <\/p>\n<p>* When you step on to a Seventh-Day Adventist campus, you can feel a sense of God. There are many ways to create holiness. If you&#8217;ve done kundalini yoga, you&#8217;ve probably felt yourself touch the divine. <\/p>\n<p>* Sacred space. You don&#8217;t feel the presence of God as easily at a bar as you do at a church or synagogue. When you walk into a home filled with holiness, you feel it. When you walk into a secular home, you feel that. If I walk into your home or office, am I going to feel the presence of God? If I talk to you, am I going to feel the presence of God? <\/p>\n<p>* There are degrees of holiness in the Sanctuary as you approach the kadosh kadoshim (Holy of Holies). Not everything is equally holy. The Hebrew word for holy, kadosh, means separate. You can only maintain holiness with separation. Every people who wants to develop holiness needs to create separation from others, it needs to create sacred space, which is not easy when you live in a country like America that forbids freedom of association. <\/p>\n<p>* The invisible God frees the mind.<\/p>\n<p>* The concepts of &#8220;sin&#8221; and &#8220;atonement&#8221; are not popular topics today. <\/p>\n<p>* Casey: Well since this chapter is about the Holy of Holies, let&#8217;s talk a bit about &#8220;authority&#8221; and how it is established and recognized&#8230; I&#8217;ll read something from Kenneth Minogue. A defense of elitism &#8212; toward a defense of tyranny. High priest as benevolent dictator. What problems does that solve?&#8211;what new problems does it create? The essential hiddenness of the basis for authority. Its inaccessibility to the plebs.<\/p>\n<p>* Paul: A co-founder of Black Lives Matter makes the case that \u201cMelanin enables black skin to capture light and hold it in its memory mode which reveals that blackness converts light into knowledge. Melanin directly communicates with cosmic energy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So that&#8217;s why I&#8217;m so tired these days. I have white skin?<\/p>\n<p>* What Steve Bannon want? <A HREF=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/02\/25\/opinion\/what-does-steve-bannon-want.html?_r=0\">Christopher Caldwell writes in the NYT<\/a>: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>On Thursday, at this year\u2019s Conservative Political Action Conference, he described the \u201ccenter core\u201d of Trump administration philosophy as the belief that the United States is more than an economic unit in a borderless word. It is \u201ca nation with a culture\u201d and \u201ca reason for being.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>* I am reading, <A HREF=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B00BAXFBI2\/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&#038;btkr=1\">Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America<\/a>: &#8220;Hiring dedicated Nazis was without precedent, entirely unprincipled, and inherently dangerous&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>* THE WRATH OF THE AWAKENED SAXON<br \/>\nby Rudyard Kipling<\/p>\n<p>It was not part of their blood,<br \/>\nIt came to them very late,<br \/>\nWith long arrears to make good,<br \/>\nWhen the Saxon began to hate.<\/p>\n<p>They were not easily moved,<br \/>\nThey were icy &#8212; willing to wait<br \/>\nTill every count should be proved,<br \/>\nEre the Saxon began to hate.<\/p>\n<p>Their voices were even and low.<br \/>\nTheir eyes were level and straight.<br \/>\nThere was neither sign nor show<br \/>\nWhen the Saxon began to hate.<\/p>\n<p>It was not preached to the crowd.<br \/>\nIt was not taught by the state.<br \/>\nNo man spoke it aloud<br \/>\nWhen the Saxon began to hate.<\/p>\n<p>It was not suddenly bred.<br \/>\nIt will not swiftly abate.<br \/>\nThrough the chilled years ahead,<br \/>\nWhen Time shall count from the date<br \/>\nThat the Saxon began to hate.<\/p>\n<p>* <A HREF=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Tragedy_of_Great_Power_Politics\">On the penultimate page of Tragedy, Mearsheimer warns<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>Neither Wilhelmine Germany, nor imperial Japan, nor Nazi Germany, nor the Soviet Union had nearly as much latent power as the United States had during their confrontations \u2026 But if China were to become a giant Hong Kong, it would probably have somewhere on the order of four times as much latent power as the United States does, allowing China to gain a decisive military advantage over the United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week&#8217;s Torah portion is Terumah (gifts). MP3. * Is President Trump doing enough to combat anti-Semitism? Are Jews doing enough to combat anti-Gentilism? * This week&#8217;s Torah portion is not immediately compelling but it helps to believe that God &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=112924\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[590],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-torah"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=112924"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148495,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112924\/revisions\/148495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=112924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=112924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=112924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}