To Interpret or Not to Interpret
Reader comment on article: The Vatican Confronts Islam
in response to reader comment: "...their own mortal intellectual opinions and interpetations."

Submitted by Linda (Canada), Jul 24, 2006 at 00:13

So as to avoid 'misinterpreting' what you say, I have brought your words to this page and will merely insert responses to your statements and the quote you posted below your comments.

Submitted by orange yonason, Jul 23, 2006 at 05:04

BS"D

You are misinterpreting what I said. If you read what I wrote (and more importantly what was on the reference I gave), you will see there is no room for our opinions or interpretations unless they agree with the Torah. We are often falsely accused of "misinterpreting" Torah by those who think their feelings are more accurate than adherence to G-d's instruction.

The Scriptures have been 'interpreted' by both Jew and Christian, and by virtue of the fact that it is the mortal mind of 'intellect' doing the interpreting, much of it is 'misinterpretation'.

We received not only the Written Torah from G-d at Sinai, but also the Oral Torah which expounds on and explains the Written portion. We do NOT rely exclusively on human interpretation, because we don't have to. What we do rely on (and the G-d requires of us) is using our intellect to learn G-d's explaination of Torah concepts as transmitted to us by our Rabbis for the purpose of making our behaviour conform to the standards of human conduct set by G-d, which is what life in this world is all about. And if you say that we aren't perfect, I will tell you that is why we need the Torah; because we can't do it by ourselves.

The 'oral expounding' to which you refer is, once again, mere mortal intellectual interpetation of the Torah, which most of today's Jewry adheres to more than they study the Torah. Do you acknowledge this? As the Pharisees 'intepreted' the Torah in Jesus' day, so the Rabbis do today, only they are two thousand years further away from the day when the Lord gave the Torah to Moses by His Holy Spirit. The words in the Torah are G-d inspired whereas the words in the Mishna are Rabbinical interpretations and opinions.

Above you admit: "What we do rely on (and the G-d requires of us) is using our intellect to learn G-d's explaination of Torah ..." I say again, only G-d can give revelation concerning His Word; He does not speak revelation to the 'intellect', which is as fallible as human emotions, which you admit below are unreliable. Neither the intellect nor emotion are reliable or adequate or suitable for receiving revelation from G-d. Both intellect and emotion are exposed all our life to the error and bents of a corrupt world and are themselves corrupt and susceptible to satanic influence.

And we certainly don't rely on our feelings, because until they have been refined by our adherence to Torah they can lead us astray, since they are from the animal side of human nature and hence much less reliable than intellect.

G-d is a Spirit and if we are to worship Him, we must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. The Lord conveys the wisdom of His Word through the Aughor of His Word, G-d, the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit spoken of in Genesis, Who acted upon the Word spoken to create our earth and universe. G-d has always communicated by His Spirit to the human spirit. He has not changed, though modern interpretations suggest that either G-d has changed or we mortals have erred by claiming that He now wants us, with our modern and much more sophisticated intelligence, to 'interpret' His Word with our 'intellect' rather than learn to listen to the Voice of His Spirit.

Are the following familiar to you?

Genesis 1:2 "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."

Psalm 51:11 "Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me."

Isaiah 63:10 "But they rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, [and] he fought against them."

Isaiah 63:11 "Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, [and] his people, [saying], Where [is] he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? where [is] he that put his Holy Spirit within him?"

Isaiah 55:8 "For My thoughts [are] not your thoughts, neither [are] your ways My ways, saith the LORD."

'Thought' is an exercise of the human intellect, and it is clear from the above Scritpure that the Lord is saying we do not 'think' as He 'thinks'. Therefore, what we 'think' He says in Scripture is alien to what He says and that means that what we 'think' cannot be trusted. However, religions have been built upon intellectual thought and its interpretation of the Word of God. Judaism and Christianity have made that same mistake and both have grieved His Holy Spirit Who has yearned to teach us Spirit to spirit what the Lord says and means in His Word and in Life.

The 'intellect' obviously did the Israelites no good when the Lord brought them out of slavery in Egypt by the hand of Moses. Their 'intellect' saw all of the awesome miracles and wonders the Lord performed for them before they even left Egypt, and yet after only a few days journey, their 'intellect' was telling them that Moses only brought them out of Egypt to die in the wilderness, and that they should return to Egypt because they had garlic and onions there.

After their 'intellect' witnessed the power of the Lord in a pillar of fire and a pillar of smoke and how He parted the Red Sea for them and they walked across on dry land, and on and on, their 'intellect' told them they ought to melt down the gold they had and make a molten calf and declared it to be the god that brought them out of Egypt.

There are many more examples in the Torah of just how the 'intellect' of man is at enmity with the Spirit of G-d. But what the Lord discloses as the real problem with the Israelites is encapsulated in the following passage of Scripture:

"Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, [and] as [in] the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved with [this] generation, and said, It [is] a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest. " Psalm 95:8-11

'Intellectually', the children of Israel were the ONLY people on earth who had been shown and taught the Lord's ways! How is it then that they did not KNOW His ways? The 'intellect' sloughed the Lord's ways off in preference for its own thoughts and opinions. Regardless of how much their 'intellect' had been exposed to the Lord and His ways, they refused to let G-d's ways enter theirhard hearts.

Only the Spirit of G-d KNOWS the mind of G-d and He works to impart the KNOWLEDGE of G-d to the spirit/heart of man, not his intellect. If the hearts of the Israelites had been 'soft' (receptive and responsive) to the Spirit of G-d, He would have communed His mind/thoughts to their hearts and they would have undergone transformation. But their hearts were closed and hard and their 'intellect' produced all the anti-G-d thoughts that led them to rebel against Him time and time again.

There is a difference between 'thinking' and 'knowing'. For the most part, most Jews and Christians only 'think' they know and their 'intellect' is the feeble foundation of their religion. Christians have a Scripture that spells the Lord's will out very clearly when it comes to what Teacher we are to submit to. It is:

I John 2:27 "But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him."

Note that the Word says "ye need not that any man teach you", but the bulk of Judaism and Christianity is comprised of intellects taught by other mortal intellects, not intellects that have been illumined by revelation transmitted from the Holy Spirit (the 'anointing') through their spirit. G-d has a process for teaching mortals and it is not through the 'intellect', no matte how sincerely it is applied to learning 'spiritual truth'.

The same Spirit of G-d Who strove and still strives to reach and teach the heart of the Jew, likewise strives to teach the heart of the Christian. In the case of Israel, He found a remnant of souls who actually submitted to Him for such teaching. Likewise, He has found a remnant among Christians throughout their generations, who have been willing to submit whole-heartedly to Him; who relinquish the 'throne' of their hearts and lives to Him to rule over every aspect of their being as the King of kings and Lord of lords. This is what He desires and seeks from us ALL.

Something important to keep in mind, and help one keep one's sanity as what we call the "end of days" approaches, is this thought from Chabad.org, entitled "UnApocalypse" ...

"This world was not created for some apocalyptic finale; its magnificence was not formed to dissipate into ionized gas. Each thing was formed for the glory of its Maker who stands forever.

Only the darkness must wind itself to its end, and it must be robbed of the treasures it holds. For the most precious things of this world are held in darkness.

A Daily Dose of Wisdom from the Rebbe
-words and condensation by Tzvi Freeman
Tammuz 15, 5766 * July 11, 2006 "

And when darkness has run it's course, it and only it will cease to exist. And as darkness' end approaches, the world can see with ever increasing clarity what is darkness and what is light.

Yes, time IS running out: for evil. May that day be today!

According to both the Judeo and Christian Scriptures, it is the Lord Who brings the darkness to an end. The corruption upon the earth will indeed be burned up in the last day, not by fire as we know it, but the sheer purity and power of the Presence of the holiness and glory of the Living G-d will have that purifying effect on sin, which cannot endure His Presence.

The quotes you provide are lovely for religious poetry, but there is no Spirit of Truth emanating from them. They are an example of the product of 'intellect', lofty as they may be, but are not based on the Word of G-d, nor are they inspired by the Spirit of G-d. The Spirit of G-d is always in agreement with His Own Word. It has not escaped my notice that the Rebbe does not provide any Scripture from which this
Dose of Wisdom was 'prescribed'.

Some Scriptures indicating that it is the Lord Who has set a time to end 'the darkness' upon the earth are:

"And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also [is] flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years." Genesis 6:3 This the Lord spoke as a warning before sending the flood in Noah's day. The Lord ended that period of 'darkness'. He didn't let it run itself out.

"He setteth an end to darkness, and searcheth out all perfection: the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death." Job 28:3 Just as the Lord set a boundary for the night and for the day, so has He determined a set time to end the moral darkness brought to earth by man.

"Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it." Isaiah 13:9 Still nothing to indicate the Lord is just going to let 'darkness' run itself out.

"Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for [it is] nigh at hand;" Joel 2:1

"The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come. " Joel 2:31

Lest anyone suggest the 'day of Lord' refers to some major catastrophe that the planet and life on it will survive and go on as they have after every other disaster,

" And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp [is] very great: for [he is] strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD [is] great and very terrible; and who can abide it? " Joel 2:11

We have not seen this 'great and terrible day of the Lord', but that there is a 'day' of the Lord for the earth, time and all of us who inhabit them, and that it is an 'end' that the Lord has set, refutes the notion that darkness is just going to gradually fade away in the brilliance emanating from the light of mortal 'intellect'. The intellect is corrupt. The evidence of that is all around us and even in our own thoghts. But one of the effects of corruption is that the corrupt intellect doesn't 'think' it is corrupt, just as it is true that what makes deception so effective is that a deceived mind doesn't know it is deceive because it is deceived.

The mind that is being renewed by the Spirit of G-d KNOWS it's own intellect is corrupt and will not trust it, but seeks the Light from the Sprit of G-d to divide Truth from error, Spirit from 'intellect'.

David was great because the Lord made him great, but the reason the Lord was able to make David so great was because of David's heart, (not his intellect), toward G-d. Read what David said:

"Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. " Psalm 51:10

"But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for [the LORD seeth] not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart." I Samuel 16:7

Look, my objective is not to get entangled in vain arguments. The Only One Who is able to convince anyone of the Truth is the Lord Himself. It is to Him that I refer anyone, regardless of whether they agree or disagree with what I say. None of us can afford to rely on our 'intellect' in so serious a matter as our relationship with G-d. What the Lord wants from all of us is to lay our will at His feet and admit with a sincere heart that 'we' are nothing, 'we' know nothing, and are as dead men unless He takes up our lives, gives us a new heart that can at least learn to hear His Voice. We must be resolute that we will not accept anything less or other than His Will.

Shalom

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