Posted on 11/25/2018 5:45:17 PM PST by Ezekiel
Regarding the midrash about Osnat's pendant/locket [that identified her to Joseph as a daughter of Jacob], it reminded me of the classic locket shape of a heart. Here is one with Hebrew "love" spelled on it, ahava:
אהבה
I had further considered that there is only so much information that can be written on a piece of jewelry, so perhaps a pendant with the Hebrew word "love" further represented a statement for Joseph to decode*; e.g. ahava as an acronym for "my husband is the lord of dreams" ("ishi hu ba'al ha-chalomot", which was what Joseph's brothers had derisively called him). Anyone could come up with a reverse acronym to make a meaning, but what if the pendant were shaped or designed in such a way as to provide additional clues to Joseph that he had the correct interpretation... e.g. with the sun, moon, and 11 stars engraved on it, representing a new constellation with the dreamer as its brightest, central star (α Israel).
*Gen 41:45. And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnath-Paaneah [cipher-decipherer]; and he gave him to wife Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On; And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt:
The image of the heavens would have represented the dream that marked the last straw, when the brothers had had enough of the infuriating dreamer. If Osnat had been walking around with Hebrew LOVE (a Jewish heart) carved into her small pendant, along with the dream that had occurred *after* Osnat had been hidden in the bush and adopted by Potipher, she would be the one, no question about it. Leave it to his mother Rachel to think of this stuff waay ahead of time, right after Dinah was born.
The terrible situation with Shechem occurred because Dinah went to visit the "daughters of the land", which is the same description as Esav's wives Yehudit and Bashemath, who were a royal PITA to Isaac and Rebecca. Talk about stereotypes. Who knows what a materialistic, entitled Aunt Judy might have encouraged Dinah to think and do. A real 'writing on the wall' type scenario. On the positive side, Amalak did not descend from Yehudit.
The concept of the matching heart expands further if Joseph and Osnat had been unknowingly wearing coordinating jewelry, as the "Jewish heart" is two lameds face-to-face as twins, soulmates:
All sorts of his/her heart-matching pendants out there, such as
In the case of a two halves reading together (across) as ahava, the right side [from the reader's perspective] would have the letters alef and hei (אה), and the other bet and hei (בה). Logically, to Osnat would belong the side with the alef and hei (ishi hu, "My husband is.."), while to Joseph would belong the side reading bet hei (ba'al ha-chalomot, "lord of dreams").
This works way better than some of the pieces out there saying, "LOVE" but split down the middle, neither half making sense on its own (I suppose that *is* the idea). Hebrew can do better than that, making absolute sense out of separate "nonsense." "Hebrew" is the embodiment of going beyond, transcending business as usual, and who it is who does that. Joseph is the foundation of the nation, and his essence (bones) is his dreams. Dreams are not of this world.
To continue,
Alef hei on its own is simply "ah", or "eh" - a sigh, perhaps out of resignation or defeat from a broken heart. Fits the theme of the divided heart.
Bet hei, however, is the word "with her", so instantly now there is hope. Fits the theme of the united hearts..
Together = ahava, love. Delightful in its simplicity.
Furthermore, each of these halves are acronyms: alef "hei and bet" hei.
Alef hei (א"ה): Eliyahu haNavi (Elijah the Prophet) because it is written by Malachi "my messenger" [angel], who got "the last word" of the Prophets:
22. Remember the Torah of Moses my servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments:
23. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord:
24. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a curse:
[These are also the last words of the Hebrew Bible as compiled in the Christian order of books, so they are joined to Matthew 1:1-2.]
And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a curse:
The book of the generation [genesis, origin] of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren;
The acronym bet hei (ב"ה):
Why Write BH or BSD at Head of a Letter, and What Does It Mean?
Although not a requirement, there is indeed an old Jewish custom to write BH or BSD, or to be more accurate, their Hebrew equivalents ב״ה or בס״ד, at the beginning of a letter.
What does it mean?
BH (ב"ה) is an acronym for the Hebrew words baruch Hashem (blessed is G-d) or bezrat Hashem (with the help of G-d). Others opt for BSD (בס"ד), which is an acronym for the Aramaic phrase bsyata dshmaya (with the help of heaven).
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Reason and Origin of the Custom
This old Jewish custom has in fact led to all sorts of wild speculation about Christopher Columbus. Apparently, in almost all of his letters to his son, he included at the top left-hand corner what appears to be the Hebrew letters בה, written in the Sephardic script of that era.
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The idea behind this custom is that even when we go about our mundane daily tasks, G-d should always be on our minds, our tongues and our pens. This is in line with the verse in Psalms I have placed the L-rd before me constantly; because [He is] at my right hand, I will not falter,1 and the verse in Proverbs Know Him in all your ways, and He will direct your paths.2
The habit of peppering our ordinary conversation with thankful mentions of G-d was even displayed by our forefather Jacob. According to the Midrash, when he masqueraded as his unruly brother as a ruse to have his father, Isaac, bless him, Jacob almost blew his cover by repeatedly mentioning G-d in his conversation with his blind father.3
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The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, had the custom of starting off his letters with ב"ה, as can be seen in his thousands of published letters, and he encouraged others to start off their letters acknowledging G-d in a similar fashion.8
In this way, not only are we more aware of G-d in our daily lives, but whomever we come in contact with also gains an awareness of G-d in his or her personal life, leading to the day when the entire world will recognize that G-d is one and His name is one.9
The image at the above link:
Looks like someone mailed a package of seeds. The roots of the tree being the Medina (מדינה), meaning it came "from DiNAh" (mDNA).
Ahava: א"ה ב"ה :
Elijahu Hanavi, Baruch Hashem
Elijahu Hanavi, B'ezrat Hashem
Joseph loved his brothers. There's a big difference between clever meaning conniving, and clever meaning ingenious.
A free man dreams of being the best that he can be, without interference. A bondman dreams of license for all sorts of mischief, hatred, and payback.
The key to leaving bondage was the carrying up of Joseph's bones, his essence. They were buried *in Shechem*, known in the common world by the Roman name of NablUS: Neapolis, the "new city".
Shechem gets a very bad rap, as if he had violated Dinah by non-consensual assault. But what did he know, being a man in the world, save that he "loved the damsel", spoke kindly (from the heart) to her, and craved her as his wife. Perhaps the real trouble began with the influence of Aunt Judy.
First comes love
Then comes marriage
Then comes the baby
In the baby carriage.
When the process is out of order, it's necessary to restore the proper way. An entire village was slaughtered because of the reaction to a couple of lovebirds.
Elijah comes bringing change - back to the natural order, or else. Case in point:
And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a curse [cherem, חרם].
Cherem, restored to the correct order, as it's the last word of the prophets is
רחם
rechem, (womb), which is based upon racham, mercy. (Readers miss a lot when they skip these informative little links.)
In the Jewish book order, Malachi - my messenger - closes out the section of the Prophets and is joined to the Writings by Psalm 1:
Remember the Torah of Moses my servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments:
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord:
And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a curse:
Happy is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scorners:
But whose delight is in the Torah of the Lord; and in his Torah he meditates day and night:
The Torah ends with the words "all Israel". The sum is 591, the same as Joseph's natural profession as the master of dreams, "ba'al hachalomot".
"We shall see what will become of his dreams"
"All Israel... in the beginning" (connecting the last words of the Torah to the first)
The sounds of the letters r and l are frequently muddled and confused across languages and dialects, such that there is a "language" called Engrish.
Meaning that the word "he cursed", charam (חרם), could end up as chalam: "he dreamed" (חלם).
This would be especially true of a Chinese speaker. The pun on Chinese ( סיני) is that it is spelled the same as Sinai ( סיני), which is rooted in the word sneh, bush (סנה) and is also a word play on sinah, hatred (שנאה).
All a big misunderstanding.
Gen 37
9. And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brothers, and said, Behold, I have again dreamed a dream; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me:
10. And he told it to his father, and to his brothers; and his father rebuked him, and said to him, What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow down ourselves to you to the earth:
11. And his brothers envied him; but his father kept the matter in mind:
12. And his brothers went to feed their father's flock in Shechem:
13. And Israel said to Joseph, Are not your brothers feeding the flock in Shechem? Come, and I will send you to them; And he said to him, Here am I:
They should have sensed the love (האהבה), because when ha-ahava is spelled out in full:
hei = 6
alef = 111
hei = 6
bet = 412
hei = 6
= 541 = Israel
(α Israel)
Yosef recognized the writing in the locket. It read "Whoever marries *this girl* should know that his children will be descendants of Yaakov."
Israel: the Medina from Dinah. The one with the Jewish heart. The one with a Jewish mother, mDNA.
What will become of his dreams, we shall see.
Hello. You have spent a great deal of time on this, which I appreciate very much. You are far better than I am at connections, but I have tried to follow along. One thing I can say with complete certainty: Dinah was raped. That trauma history is not easily ignored. Didn’t she spend the rest of her days alone, Brother?
I forget what I write, but I figure if I can retain a small % of my infinite blather, I'm still ahead. It'll be somewhere in my mind [for having written it down], so it might be triggered at a later date when needed. That happens all of the time. I just roll with it. Like right now:)
I need to reread when I have time to focus, because at my initial glance it connects with what I have been studying at this every moment.
The topic of the thread is an example of concepts I walk through because it's not the existence of a literal locket, but in how the ideas and metaphors link up, especially to regular, real life.
The tradition and assumption is that Shechem raped Dinah. While that may have been true (it sure looks that way), it's not explicitally indicated in the text. The brothers were enraged, but that doesn't say the same thing. There's a lot missing here, unlike the account of Tamar and Amnon. He was plainly plotting to violate his own sister, and had no intention of marrying her.
I can really irritate by picking over these sorts of things, but the metholodogy rewards me beyond measure. :)
It's sort of like the situation with Zaccheaus the wealthy tax collector. "Obviously" he must have been a crook.
Luke 19
8 And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.
9 And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham.
10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save (restore, make whole) that which was lost.
President Trump is guilty of a whole host of crimes "by false accusation". With that in mind, how about all that stuff Zaccheaus ripped off? Same criminalty that is nonexistent? Yet he nonetheless made the restitutions.
It reminds me when wealthy, deep-pocket people or corporations are targeted by shakedown artists. The victims pay simply to get on with life, but then the payoff looks like an admission of guilt.
Therefore, I keep an open mind about Zacchaeus, that he may have been as "guilty" as President Trump. It means he will have everything eventually restored to him through proper justice -- an accurate settling of accounts by the true rule of law.
Hopefully I can get back to you with an actual reply about Joseph's dreams and/or other specifics of the thread subject.
No thanks! You answered my question.
Is it possible that this ping was meant for norsky?
Regards,
Norski
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