Lucifer Judaism's God? A Jewish Response
April 8, 2010
Dear Mr. Makow,I was troubled by the claims raised by Mr Newman in his article entitled "Is Lucifer the God of Judaism?"
I immediately forwarded it to a respected and authoritative Jewish researcher.
I am including his refutation to Mr. Newman's assertions below as I feel they offer all believers in Yeshua/Jesus a defense against erroneous claims as Newman's.
Though I agree with Newman that Kabbalists as a whole do promote a destructive and immoral lifestyle both in Hollywood and Washington Politics especially, thankfully this is not the norm for the devout Jewish community in my experience.
Daryl
Dear Daryl,
I hope that you are well.
I do not agree with the case, the arguments nor the conclusions of
this
author. In fact, I find his main points to be quite erroneous. I don't
know what
kind of Jewish people this person has gotten to know, but they are not
mainstream Jewish people. What he writes about does not represent
anything that
is taught in Jewish yeshiva (religious schools) nor in our synagogues
nor
educational systems. Maybe he got to know someone who was a devil
worshipper,
but that would be one person, not my entire people. He is taking perhaps
1
person and drawing sweeping and rather bombastic conclusions from that
one case.
Let me debunk some of the myths that he writes about:
"The Jewish and Masonic religions both
worship the
same god." Daryl, with all due respect, this is an utterly ridiculous
statement.
Now, I have no doubt that masons worship Lucifer. But my relatives who
go to
synagogue do not worship Lucifer. The percentage of the worldwide
Jewish
population that are masons is minuscule. So I think Newman is making a
very
prejudicial and rather wild, unprovable statement.
In all of my years in Israel, I never met one Mason. Not one. The number of Masons in the only Jewish state is even tinier than minuscule. I know a number of rabbis in Israel, and not one is a mason. There is no mention of any such thing in any synagogue that I have ever been to, not in the USA and not in Israel. Are there Jews who are masons? Sure, but they do not, nor ever have, represented more than a tiny fraction of our people.
In all of my years in Israel, I never met one Mason. Not one. The number of Masons in the only Jewish state is even tinier than minuscule. I know a number of rabbis in Israel, and not one is a mason. There is no mention of any such thing in any synagogue that I have ever been to, not in the USA and not in Israel. Are there Jews who are masons? Sure, but they do not, nor ever have, represented more than a tiny fraction of our people.
"In
most Jewish synagogues, a bright
burning flame represents their god." Again, Newman's statement is simply
wrong.
The flame is called the 'ner tamid'. It is symbolic of the menorah light
that
once shined 24/7 in the Temple in Jerusalem. Every synagogue has one in
memory
of that menorah that shined in the western plaza of the Temple. That's
all it
is. I have never heard or read of the explanation that Newman gives. He
is
simply believing an error.
"The Hebrew word for Lucifer
is "Hillel" (Strong's
Concordance #H1966) meaning "bright light."--Not really. The Hebrew
word
for lucifer is 'shahar ben hillel', not 'hillel' by itself. And it is
the Jewish
people who instead of using such a name, were the first to refer to our
enemy as
'satan' (literally 'our opposition'). 'Hillel' does not mean 'light'. It
means
'to praise'. It is the word used in the scriptures many times over to
mean 'to
praise God'. The psalms used this word. Unless King David worshipped
satan, it
is the word that David used to described what he gave to God--'praise'
[Hillel].
If anything, the combination name that Isaiah used to describe satan
[shahar ben
hillel] was a name that shows us what lucifer was like--"one who was
once
bright, but wanted praise."
"The Jews subtly suggest they know god's
name
and that it is secret knowledge that can only be had if you take up the
Cabala.
Masonry also uses this ploy to entice." Again, Mr Newman is propagating
an
untruth. No typical Jewish thought today claims to know God's real name.
It has
been lost throughout the ages. In fact, only the High Priest and his
family ever
knew God's name, and only ever said it once during the year, at Yom
Kippur (Day
of Atonement, cf. Leviticus 23). The Jewish world today does NOT claim,
as
Newman asserts, that God's name is secret knowledge that can be learned
by
kabbalistic study. Maybe 1 or 2 religious leaders today are teaching
this. But
again this does not represent 99.9% of Jewish religious belief or
practice. It
truly makes me wonder who in the world are 'these Jews' who Newman
refers to?
Another point: when the bible says that Israel was to proclaim God's name, watch out for thinking this meant that God's name had to be said aloud. There is no historical record that this was ever the interpretation given to this commandment (cf. Numbers 6.24ff). In fact, history and philological study show us that the word for 'name' in Hebrew ('shem') also means 'reputation'. It still does in modern Hebrew, as well. Meaning: God may have been telling the people that if they walk in His ways and shine His light to the world, that this is how to proclaim His (name or reptuation). A man's name IS his reputation in the ancient world. Newman seems to have little concern for how history helps us understand how the biblical commands were interpreted by ancient Israel. That leads to poor biblical interpretation, which is what he seems to be propagating, in my opinion.
Another point: when the bible says that Israel was to proclaim God's name, watch out for thinking this meant that God's name had to be said aloud. There is no historical record that this was ever the interpretation given to this commandment (cf. Numbers 6.24ff). In fact, history and philological study show us that the word for 'name' in Hebrew ('shem') also means 'reputation'. It still does in modern Hebrew, as well. Meaning: God may have been telling the people that if they walk in His ways and shine His light to the world, that this is how to proclaim His (name or reptuation). A man's name IS his reputation in the ancient world. Newman seems to have little concern for how history helps us understand how the biblical commands were interpreted by ancient Israel. That leads to poor biblical interpretation, which is what he seems to be propagating, in my opinion.
"Jewish
prayers are conducted in
Yiddish, a composite language far from the intended pronunciation of the
original Hebrew (A.C. Hitchcock, "The Synagogue of Satan," 1).
The
prayers in modern synagogues are nothing more than disguised demonic
invocations. They are hypnotic spells, similar to the Enochian language
of the
Church of Satan. Jews are invoking demons named adonai, elohim, el
shaddai, et
al in their rituals."--After this statement of Newman's, there is no
need to go
any further into his essay. It is utterly false to say that Jewish
prayers are
in Yiddish. They are 85% in Hebrew! And 15% in Aramaic, the language of
the
Jewish people from the Persian Empire (Daniel, Nehemiah and Ezra's
language of
prayer, as witnessed by parts of their biblical books being written in
Aramaic).
I am very fluent in the Jewish prayer book, the Siddur. I challenge Mr Newman to find one Yiddish prayer in it (outside of a very short one called 'The God of Abraham', which is uttered once weekly, only by women, and hardly has anything in it that is dangerous). There is not one prayer in the prayer book that is invoking any demons. That is so 'far out' as an accusation that I can only term this charge as anti-Semitic. No one with any hands-on knowledge of Jewish prayer would ever say this. In addition, el shaddai is the name that God told Abraham to call Him!! It could hardly be demonic, then.
I am very fluent in the Jewish prayer book, the Siddur. I challenge Mr Newman to find one Yiddish prayer in it (outside of a very short one called 'The God of Abraham', which is uttered once weekly, only by women, and hardly has anything in it that is dangerous). There is not one prayer in the prayer book that is invoking any demons. That is so 'far out' as an accusation that I can only term this charge as anti-Semitic. No one with any hands-on knowledge of Jewish prayer would ever say this. In addition, el shaddai is the name that God told Abraham to call Him!! It could hardly be demonic, then.
"The
true god AHAYAH"--I have no idea
what Mr Newman is referring to here. With my PhD in Jewish history and
my BA in
Theology, I have never come across this name. Not in Christian writings,
not in
Jewish writings, either. This is not God's name by any historical texts
that
exist.
"While
not all Jews actively practice
Cabala, they all accept the highest Cabalistic name as their god--Yahweh
(Jehovah.)" The first half of his sentence contains a half-truth: it is
true,
most Jews do not practice kabbalah. Let me qualify this even more--maybe
10% of
the Jewish world has ever even read the kabbalah. Of that per centage,
maybe 5%
ever use anything in those writings in their life. Daryl, kabbalistic
study does
not engage the great, overwhelming majority of the Jewish world. So
Newman's
assertion is simply not founded in reality.
The most famous American Jewish professor of Religious Studies in the past 75 years, Saul Liebermann of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York never allowed his many students to study the kabbala, saying that 'it's nonsense'. Like Rabbi Liebermann, most Jewish people believe the kabbala to indeed be nonsense. And you can't judge and make sweeping statements, like Newman does, judging and damning the other 95% of the Jewish people, because 5% believe something else. It would be like saying that all Christians are going to hell because of the beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses. A small splinter group is no reason to judge the larger group. And yet this is exactly what Newman does, enforcing stereotypes about Jewish people from the Middle Ages that have led in history to things like the Crusades and many pogroms. I could give a long history lesson about that, but I trust you understand my gist.
The most famous American Jewish professor of Religious Studies in the past 75 years, Saul Liebermann of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York never allowed his many students to study the kabbala, saying that 'it's nonsense'. Like Rabbi Liebermann, most Jewish people believe the kabbala to indeed be nonsense. And you can't judge and make sweeping statements, like Newman does, judging and damning the other 95% of the Jewish people, because 5% believe something else. It would be like saying that all Christians are going to hell because of the beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses. A small splinter group is no reason to judge the larger group. And yet this is exactly what Newman does, enforcing stereotypes about Jewish people from the Middle Ages that have led in history to things like the Crusades and many pogroms. I could give a long history lesson about that, but I trust you understand my gist.
Daryl, one last thing: Henry Ford was
a blatant anti-Semite. And I
totally disagree with his point. The Christian world needs to see the
scriptures
through Jewish lenses. After all, it is through the Jewish people that
salvation
has come to the world (do not the scriptures teach such?) Do not the
scriptures
also teach to love and respect the Jewish people, and to bless them?
(cf. Psalm
122.6, Genesis 12.1-3, Zechariah 2.8, Romans 9-11). This is hardly what
Newman
is encouraging.
Newman also blasts 'Talmudism'.
My question to him would be: what is Talmudism? Is it studying the
Talmud?
If so (and I truly don't know what Mr Newman is referring to by this),
contrast
his statement with that of Dr Shmuel Safrai, the former head of the
Talmud
Department at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, who stated: "One
cannot
understand what Yeshua was teaching if one has no background in very
basic
Talmudic studies". Dr Safrai, who was a humble Jewish scholar who liked
Christians, is telling us that the Talmud is a valuable collection of
writings,
if for nothing else, to better understand the world that Yeshua came
from and
some of his teachings. I'm happy to give you some examples of this if
you'd like
in a follow up e-mail. Throughout my 39 years of being a believer in
Yeshua, I
have found the Talmud to be a valuable source of historic and homiletic
keys to
understanding our Messiah. So I deeply disagree with Mr Newman, who
probably has
never even opened a volume of the Talmud [?]
Feel free to correspond with me about the above.
Dan said (April 10, 2010):
I'm glad someone who knows what they're talking about weighed in to correct Newman's lazy scholarship.
There was so much half baked internet 'urban legend' in "Is Lucifer the God of Judaism?" that I didn't bother commenting on it. For instance, wrote:
"The Jewish name for god is represented by the tetragrammaton יהוה (YHVH) can be pronounced Yahweh or Jehovah....When dissected in the Hebrew, the true definition of Jehovah (Yah-Hovah) is revealed. "Yah" (#H3050) means "god". "Hovah" (#H1942) translates to "eagerly coveting, falling, desire, ruin, calamity, iniquity, mischief, naughtiness, noisome, perverse, very wickedness. Jehovah is synonymous with Baal:"
"Jehovah" is an incorrect pronunciation of YHVH by Masorete scribes who salvaged Hebrew from the status a dead language during the Middle Ages. Hebrew was the language of the temple priesthood, not the every day language of the people.
Intoning the Tetragrammaton was forbidden so Only the high priest could intone the name alone in the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur. The full name was passed by oral tradition and presumably was lost when the entire Kohem priesthood was massacred by the Romans during the destruction of Herod's Temple in 70AD.
"Yahweh" was like intoning an anacronym - not the name of G-d. As I just explained "Jehovah" isn't even a correct pronunciation of the anacronym, but this error was picked up by Christian translators from the 7th - 11th century Masoretes texts.
Pike on the Freemasonic twist of Yahweh:
"The true name of Satan, the Kabalists say, is Yahweh REVERSED; for Satan is not a black god, but a negation of God. " - Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma, p. 102