Tribe.net. Local Connections scott http://jewsandmuslims.tribe.net/thread/eddea8f9-57fa-4d5d-939a-4d10eeb90f46#05be6071-dd09-4aff-984f-2d891c6ed9de 2009-06-14T22:49:16Z 2009-06-14T22:49:16Z

I hope I am not acting to stiff with regard to Islam--showing my intentions. Put it this way, Moshe ben Maimon (our Rambam) wrote much of what was handed down to us in Arabic characters. HIS name Maimon is just as the Arabic what Muslims I am told are likely to call themselves: Mumin--faithful. I am glad this word is in this way--the way I have learned of its crossing cultural necessities. Further, our communities mutually arise must co-exist and I for one and enamored with Islam's rightful source for humankind's wisdom.

scott 2009-06-14T22:49:16Z scott http://jewsandmuslims.tribe.net/thread/eddea8f9-57fa-4d5d-939a-4d10eeb90f46#c447b3ed-e1f0-42ed-88d0-a2e0152bf12e 2009-06-14T22:41:36Z 2009-06-14T22:41:36Z

The words halakhah & kehilla on the Hebrew side I had gotten confused with halal & ulema--for the Arabic. Usually, the dynamic is a way to assert Jewish ideas so that reflecting on an inordinary bridge to dialogue about, mainly, Abraham, has a brighter light shone on our scope in Jewish thought. Anyway, Rambam has something to say about how other monotheists & for that matter the somewhat obscure predeceased religions. either spoke about our prophets or merely had intercessors that brought G-d into human intentions. Have you heard of Rabbi Moshe Chayyim Luzzato? I believe he was an Italian rabbi, from the 1800s--as such from the oldest of European Jewry bce some time. I am reading about Messianic Consciousness, and it seems to have a conventional definition, that anticipation is leaving folks in a no-win, no-where dissolution. According to Talmud (Rabbi Zera), we should never speculate on the arrival of a messianic age. The allegory I see discussed here is just as we are to consider Bereshit--that creation's beginning is not some time in the distant past, but is before us--as on-going a narrative as life evolves and is creative. So, messianic consciousness is found when we jettison everything in order to be fully present. I see your midrashic tendencies as the same reprise of old world as we saw our background deliver us unto, as an equal attempt. The remote sense that you and I take certain ideals as definite and the other as indefinite, has only to do with integration to which we imagine only our own minds acceding... You are there with me in moments when you may not surmise the truth as evident, and likewise I am with you when I don't know I concord with this ecclesia...the Jewish halakhah. Study leads to precision (zhiruth) - precision leads to watchfulness - watchfulness leads to cleanliness - cleanliness leads to restraint - restraint leads to purity - purity leads to saintliness - saintliness leads to humility - humility leads to fear of sin - fear of sin leads to holiness - holiness leads to prophesy - holy spirit (prophesy) leads to life eternal: As told by Rabbi Phineas ben Jair. Then in response the author Rabbi David A. Cooper says, learning leads to respect, respect leads to generosity, generosity leads to acts of loving-kindness **chasidut**, chasidut/ seferdic pronounciation/ leads to moderation in living, moderation in living leads to purity in thought, purity of thought leads to joy, joy leads to selflessness, selflessness leads to awe, awe leads to equanimity, equanimity leads to extraordinary mind-states, extraordinary mind states leads to life eternal = G-d Consciousness.

scott 2009-06-14T22:41:36Z