Junks or Jewels...

So, it's like food....

Is having a healthy sexual life bland and tasteless??

Just like healthy eating brings vitality, power, and strength to the body, so will a healthy
sexual life...

Healthy is what gives life.

Unhealthy is what takes away life; like the junks

like porn, like masturbation, like sex outside of marriage, like spilling seed, like insensivity towards
ones spouse,

In every nook and corner, you'll read how it is good and helpful to release tension by pleasuring oneself, exploring oneself or what have you. This is what everyone says.

But the Torah says otherwise.

Hey, why you trying to control my life???

Is G-d trying to control your life? That's the great fear. But actually, far from it. In His love, G-d provides advice so that we can CHOOSE the jewels and stay far away from the junks that lead to spiritual nail fungus, diabetes, and cancer...

Get the picture?

And. well, golly do Jews have sex?? Do Noahides??

Listen, G-d doesn't tell a person not to eat b/c it's part of our makeup. We need to eat. And He's not telling us not to have sex. The Torah actually stresses the importance of marriage. In Genesis (2:18 ) it's written ,"it is not good that man be alone." When men and women are unmarried, they are more prone to fall into nasty habits like masturbation and spilling seed.  The seeds implanted in wo/man have a divine source, like everything in the world.

And is not meant to be thrown away for fleeting pleasure.

So, then what?? Are we doomed to hush our flaming passions into the somber chambers of a religious institution and watch forlornly as all our sexuality and spirit are squeezed out of us,  turning us into bland and dull-eyed monks??

Wouldn't you like to think so?

But if the question is never asked of what we SHOULD be doing, then yes, it will seem like it.

Just like how healthy eating at first seems like a cruel death for our taste buds!!

But it's not really death is it?? It's actually life. 

And it can taste good.

First, we need a healthy dose of curiousity to hear what G-d has to say about sexuality in the Torah....

G-d bless!!!

Noah's Ark...and Ours.

The work 'ark' is translated as 'teiva' in our holy Torah.

The Baal Shem Tov teaches us that the 'teivah' also means WORD.

So when Hashem/G-d says, "bo el hateiva'-"come with Me into the ‘teivah’ it's like he says ” enter with Me into the words of ‘our’ prayers.

Although considered righteous, Noah is criticized for not really helping his fellow men in his generation to repent. Hashem says over and over again that He is going to destroy the world.

I always remember the words of one of my teachers, Rabbi Edward Hoffman, that tzaddikim show us where the dead ends are, so we don't make the same mistakes.

Noah was a tzaddik, and he 'allows' his story to be told so that we can learn from it.

It is our responsibility to use our 'teivot'/words pray for each other and the entire world. Certainly we will pray for our own needs, and even that should be done in truth.

If something hurts, tell Hashem, "it hurts!"

He wants us to be real.

He also wants our gratitude and acts of loving kindness. We can thank G-d for the big things and also for the 'little' things. And learning from Noah's story, let us remember to not just gape at others we deem as wayward, etc. Instead, we can raise our teivot/our words and sincerely pray for the world.

There's LOTS to pray for...

G-d bless!

The Seven Noahide Laws

G-d loves each and every one of us. He created us and desires us to elevate ourselves and His world. Through the laws He has bestowed upon us, we can accomplish this mission. Hence bringing us closer to Him.
To the Jews, He gave the Mizvoth and to the non-Jews, He gave the Seven Noahide Laws, which are:

Prohibition of Idolatry
Prohibition of Murder
Prohibition of Theft
Prohibition of Sexual immorality
Prohibition of Blasphemy
Prohibition of eating flesh taken from an animal while it is still alive
Establishment of law courts

G-d bless!!!

Check it out:
http://www.noahide.org/

http://www.mechon-mamre.org/index.htm