The Jewish People are the Light of World!
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
The impoverished mind cannot see beyond the mundane and in the context of reading the Bible this type of person will only perceive its literal narrative as the absolute “correct” form of reading. Unfortunately this is NOT the correct way of reading the Biblical text (note: none of the earliest Jewish commentaries on the Bible from the early C.E. to the B.C.E. eras are literal) as the Biblical text was written as a ‘mashal’ (allegory) of the spiritual life of man. The Torah states that Israel was chosen to receive the Torah (the meaning of ‘being chosen’) and was to be “Ohr laGoyim”- Light to the Nations. Being a “Light” is embedded in the Hebrew text in a unique way.
Consider that Jews today are descended (physically or via conversion) from the Tribe of Judah which in the Wilderness was camped eastward “mizracha” of the Tabernacle (mikdash) which is in the direction of the rising sun. The word “mizracha” (eastward) comes from the root-word “zoraych” which means to “give light.” In other words, Judah was designated to bring “Light”” into the world and the analogy of the rising eastwardly sun which dispels the darkness of night and illuminates the earth was used to emphasize this in the Torah. Another interesting allegory in the Torah is in the census of Judah in Bamidbar (Numbers) 2:9 which totals the number of the tribe of Judah (light-bringer) at 186,400. In an amazing demonstration of Judah’s association with Light the number 186,400 is the exact speed of Light (miles per second).
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