Bøger af Steven Rosner

Very, very few people truly understand God. And thus for the almost six thousand years, that this universe has been in existence, the vast majority of His creatures have treated Him hardly in accordance with His Eminence. Not realizing or caring that He is the Source of their life, God has been abused, disparaged, mocked, ridiculed, derided, defied, disregarded, defamed, scorned-pick a verb-in short, treated with contempt! Or arguably, worse than the above, God has been totally ignored!As a result, God has suffered throughout the Millenia-exponentially greater and far longer than any human being-despite billions of people of various religions, sects, and modalities who pray to Him-some on a daily basis-without truly understanding what they are doing-nor why they are doing so. As a result, it is fair to state God is basically alone-although forlorn and isolated are better descriptors. This book, therefore, is written first and foremost for God; to assure Him there are, at least, some who understand His nature, and appreciate His efforts in our behalf; that is, the food we receive, the shelter He provides, the ability to live a fairly long life with its pleasures and blessings, and His greatest gift of all: Free-Will. Do you know Who He is, what He wants, what He needs, what is important to Him, how much He suffers, and, especially, how we can help Him, and engage Him real-time? Are we here to do God's Will? Or is it possible God wishes to do our Will? Indeed, if you read this book, you may not believe your eyes and ears. You will discover we know more about God than we do about our own spouse, parents, children, and friends, because God hides nothing from us, but reveals everything about Himself throughout Scripture!For thus says the Lord-Who created the Heavens; "I am the Lord, and there is no other.I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness. I did not say 'Seek Me out in a wasteland', But I, the Lord, announced beforehand what was to come." (Isaiah 45:18.)The major purpose, then, of this book is to inform readers of God's basic nature, His inner life, His thoughts and feelings, His desires, and how He relates to the creatures He created, to the end that those who wish a relationship with Him can have one. "God has a stake in our behavior. Thus, He cries when we fail and rejoices when we succeed. He weeps when we ignore widows, exploit orphans, and abuse strangers. When we violate the norms He has taken pains to communicate to us, He angrily sends prophets to chastise and warn us. What all this means is that God is filled with feeling; with pathos. That is the essence of Biblical religion and of the Judaism that arose from it."Abraham Joshua Heschel In conformity with the above, again and again, dozens-nay hundreds-of times in every book of the Old Testament, we are struck by God's total involvement in His Creation; in the human condition, and the effect His creatures-have upon Him! Scripture could not be more explicit! God is not remote from any human who wishes to know Him. Nor is it necessary to allow others to interpret God's Laws for us. We are all capable of doing so if we truly desire to, and thus have an individual relationship with God!

Everyone loves a good story, but inside is a great story. It is the story of the Talmud's survival, despite its countless trials and tribulations in every century since the Babylonian exile.For without "hope," an individual or a nation goes into despair and after a short time, depending on one's strength of character, the will to live no longer exists, and death usually comes quickly; whether by suicide, or more slowly by refusing to eat, drink, or take care of oneself. But as long as the Jewish people had the Talmud, at least some would retain hope for better times, during which they could practice their religion in peace. But as those times were all too few and far between, it took great courage and self-sacrifice to keep the Talmud viable for future generations.So before a single section of the Talmud had been written down, its persecutions began, from the Greek Seleucids to the Roman Empire, from the Roman Catholic Church to Islam, from pagans to Jewish heretical sects, from the Russian Czars to Hitler, from individuals to nations, the persecutions of its enemies was never-ending, and we go into enough detail, so the reader, can appreciate the incredible saga of the Talmud's survival.We describe how when the Babylonian Talmud been completed, Justinian, the Roman Emperor (527-565), decreed practically its death--capital punishment to anyone who was immersed in its study.Next, the Karaites, in the 7th century, seriously threatened its existence. Time and time again, they were a stone's throw from making an end of the Talmud, and to its expositors. In the 8th and 9th centuries, Islam turned into the enemy of the Jews, and massacres, blood and fire, burnings, and exile were visited upon the adherents of the Talmud, who were deemed infidels. Assailed by the Roman Catholic church, from the time of Pope Innocent III, the Talmud was burned at the stake in virtually every century from the 12th to the 17th, in Italy, France, Germany, and Spain, to mention a few, while in the 18th century it was assailed by the Frankists, when copies in Poland were dragged through the streets of its cities, tied to horses' tails, and delivered to the executioner to be burned. Yet what has been the result? The Talmud exists to-day, and not one letter in it is missing! No modern persecutions can seriously endanger its existence any longer; the Talmud will survive them and continue as long as the sky spans the earth.In Part I, we briefly review the history of the Jews as reported in the Old Testament, until the first century CE.Part II is devoted to the structure of the Talmud; its major divisions called Orders, and subdivisions, called Tractates, each devoted to a particular area of Jewish law.In Part III, we discuss the sages-most having the title of rabbi-that put the Talmud together, and explained it, so it might be more easily understood by the average Jew. In Part IV, we tell the story of the persecutions of the Talmud and its adherents, including public burnings, confiscations, laws prohibiting Jews from studying, or forcing Jews to dispute its contents before royalty or the Roman Catholic Church-almost always with a former apostate. In the final analysis, the title, "The Indestructible Talmud," could not have been more apropos.

"On the Rocks," was originally a phrase used for ships which ran aground and broke apart. But nothing could be a better metaphor to describe God's relationship with man-hence the title of this book. For God created us with love and gave us His heart and soul:And God created Man in His Own Likeness;In God's image created He him; both male and female.Alas, ever since Cain slew Abel, our relationship with God has been on the rocks. Throughout the Millennia, we have totally failed to act in accordance with His relatively few requirements. At best, we have ignored Him, but mostly mocked, disparaged, and treated Him with disdain. We have abrogated our responsibility, whether as an individual or nation, have engaged non-stop in the worst evil imaginable, causing Him untold suffering. (Part III presents multiple examples of the incredible evil of our species, detailing particularly monstrous religious and secular conflicts from 3000 BCE to the present.) Is it any wonder then, why God is estranged from us; why there is unrelenting havoc in our lives; why the world is falling apart; why suffering is prevalent at every level? In truth, no individual, no nation is immune! Isn't it time we re-evaluated our behavior and altered it-to repair our relationship with God and gain His many blessings. But to understand how, we need to know something about God, something about ourselves, something about religion, and something about history.This book provides that understanding: It covers Scripture and science, God and His attributes, and Man-including his Free Will, Soul, Body and Mind. It addresses Good and Evil, the nature of each, and the role Satan plays in our lives. It reviews six major religions, and shows that at their core they are virtually identical.We will learn that God desires very little of us-regardless of our culture, religion, or ethnicity. In simple terms, He wants us to be righteous, do justice, and love compassion. He also longs for a relat