Spirituality Tips Guides

According to Jewish law (Halacha), there are two segments to a Jewish marriage. The first being the engagement ceremony (Kiddushin) which changes the couple’s status and announces they are preparing for the second part of marriage, known as nissu’in, which is the legal portion of the marriage, or the actual wedding.

Teachings of the process of finding a spouse, the wedding ceremony, and the importance of the marital relationship are available in the Talmud, which is the oral interpretation of the Torah. The Torah is the first five books of the Bible and contains the entire body of Jewish teachings.

When a couple decides to marry, the families usually announce the upcoming wedding with a small reception (vort). Traditionally, a contract (tenaim) is signed which gives the conditions and obligations of the couple and families regarding the marriage. This contract is sometimes signed previously, or at the wedding reception an hour or so before the marriage. After the signing, light snacks and some hard liquor is usually served for the traditional salute or toast (lechaims).

The groom, his Father, his Father-in-law, and the male members go to the room where the bride is receiving her guests. The groom does the veiling (bedekin). The bride sits, like a queen, on a throne-like chair surrounded by her family and friends. The groom, who has not seen her for a week covers her face with her veil. This ceremony is mainly for the legal purpose of the groom identifying the bride before the wedding.

A canopy (chuppah), which is a decorated piece of cloth, symbols the home of the new couple. The canopy is usually outside, under the open sky, as a sign of the blessing given by G-d. The parents of the groom accompany him to the chuppah. He usually wears a white robe (kittel), to symbolize the bride and groom are starting a new life, with a clean white slate, without past sins. In fact, the bride and groom usually fast on the day of the wedding. While the bride comes to the chuppah with her parents, a cantor sings a selection from the Song of Songs, and the groom prays that his unmarried friends find their true partners in life.

When the bride arrives at the chuppah she circles the groom seven times with her mother and future mother-in-law, while the groom continues to pray. This symbolizes the woman is the protective, surrounding light of the household and illuminates it with understanding and love, to protect it from harm from the outside. The number seven parallels the seven days of creation, and symbolizes the fact that the bride and groom are about to create their own “new world” together.

Under the chuppah, the Rabbi or a family member recites a blessing over wine, and a blessing that praises and thanks G-d for giving us laws of sanctity and morality to preserve the sanctity of family life and of the Jewish people. The bride and groom then drink the wine. The blessings are recited over wine, since wine is symbolic of life: it begins as grape-juice, goes through fermentation, during which it is sour, but in the end turns into a superior product that brings joy, and has a wonderful taste.

Marriage is a holy institution in Judaism. An unmarried person is considered half a person, the wedding day is seen to be the beginning of a new life as a complete soul for both the bride (Kallah) and groom (Choson).

Eternal Jewish Family (http://www.eternaljewishfamily.org) serves to support those looking to have a proper Jewish marriage and raise a Jewish family in accordance with halacha. Art Gib is a freelance writer.

A young college woman sits down at her desk on the first day of a course on comparative religion. She thinks it’s a good deal. She gets college credit for a casual review of her own Christian faith and gets to learn about other world religions.

The professor enters the room fashionably late. He’s casually dressed in frumpy clothes and his hair is in a thin gray ponytail.

What follows in that first class and throughout the rest of the semester is a battle for the souls of the students in the class.

The professor’s secular, atheistic, materialist bias is revealed from the first time he opens his mouth. He nevertheless gives all religions a modicum of respect except for traditional Christianity for which he reveals unvarnished disdain.

The professor, when dealing with the Christian faith, attacks it in a manner commonly used in comparative religion classes in college.

His bright shining lie is the claim that in the early centuries of Christian history there were several vastly different sects of Christianity each with their own sacred texts, competing with each other on a more or less equal basis to become the dominant mainstream branch.

Incidentally, the murder mystery thriller, “The Da Vinci Code,” promoted the view that a feminist Gnostic sect had the greater claim to be the true Christian faith. The truth is far different.

The truth is that traditional apostolic Christianity, which is the Christianity of the New Testament, was the mainstream form of Christianity from the very earliest days of the church.

The Gnostic sects are very different from traditional Christianity and are by no means on an equal scholarly footing with the traditional Christian faith. The gnostic texts were written centuries after the New Testament.

Nevertheless, this “60’s geek” professor with his persuasive words is able to shake the faith of some young Christian students. A careful student who takes some time to do some research will see through the “strawman” the professor has set up.

The “strawman” tactic is commonly used in debates and lectures. It consists of distorting Christianity into a strawman of inaccuracies and contradictions and then attacking the strawman and giving the impression that Christianity has been disproven.

Let me give a thumbnail sketch of early church history. The religion of the ancient Greeks was Olympianism which had some points in common with the Hinduism of present day India. The Romans essentially adopted Olympianism but referred to the various gods by Latin instead of Greek names.

Hindus believe that the material world is “Maya” which means illusion. The Hindus essentially believe that material objects don’t really exist. The ancient Greek Olympians similarly had a disdain for the material world.

Anything physical or material was lower than the realm of spirit and was corrupt. This is why many people of the ancient world had a hard time accepting the Christian doctrine of the incarnation.

The incarnation is the Christian doctrine that Jesus, Himself being divine, was born as a baby and grew to manhood. In other words God took on human flesh and dwelt among us.

The Olympian, Hindu-like religion dominated the thinking of the Pagans of the ancient world. It is from this soil that Gnosticism grew. Gnosticism was a syncretism (mixture) of Christianity and Olympianism.

Full blown Gnosticism didn’t appear until the second or third centuries AD. The sacred texts of Gnosticism were written about that time which removes them a long way from the historical events of the life of Jesus and the apostles.

Traditional Christianity and its sacred texts which comprise the New Testament were mainstream and generally accepted from the earliest days of church history long before gnosticism reached full flower.

The best scholarship shows that the books of the New Testament were written in the first century, were universally accepted by the early Christians and were later formally codified as the New Testament.

The Gnostic writings attempt to connect Christ to a Greek philosophical and religious worldview. The Gnostic writings make little mention of real events of real history.

The traditional gospels and epistles of the New Testament rightfully connect Christ to the Hebrew worldview and make many references to real events that occurred in real history.

The New Testament shows that Jesus was the promised Messiah of Israel who came in fulfillment of over 300 Old Testament prophecies. No other faith, including Gnosticism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism and Jainism has anything to compare with the Old and New Testament record of prophecy and fulfillment of prophecy.

Most sacred writings of other faiths contain no prophecies at all. I have often said that the many hundreds of Bible prophecies and their fulfillments are like God’s signature on His holy book and prove that God inspired the writing of the Bible.

The professor in that comparative religion class would do well to look into the matter of prophecy and fulfillment of prophecy. If he does he will find that traditional biblical Christianity is beyond compare!

Bill Nugent has written many articles on Christianity, philosophy and science. He has also written books that give Bible based teaching on sanctification and that caution against the error of legalism. His books are available at his website www.gracelawandsonship.com.

You don’t have to be a scientist or a physicist or even understand the complex concepts of Quantum Physics or The Law Of Attraction. All you need to know is that everything is energy, which you can transform by the power of your mind. Since energy is constantly moving, then it can be in turn re-directed. You no longer have to stand there and wait for something positive to happen in your life. Now you can actually make it happen! Once you take hold of the energy and you utilize it you will begin to see how your life moves towards a more positive force rather than a negative force. You can achieve anything you want, by trading out your old negative bad attitude cynical self, for a new positive, good attitude self. And once you do this, you will see that suddenly you start attracting a different type of energy. Better things will start happening to you. This is the Law Of Attraction at work!

When I first found out about the secret and the law of attraction I wasn’t cynical at all. Then again this is probably because I was at the end of my so-called rope, grasping at whatever straws I could. And here I found this video, on YouTube of all places, about the secret and law of attraction, and I thought hm, well it can’t hurt. I mean we have all been down in the dumps at one point in our life, but sadly some more than others. And when you reach the bottom of the barrel, after denial, after blame, after hurt, comes a sort of freedom. You toss all your beliefs to the side all your rules, all your thoughts, and you decide at that point that nothing has worked for you thus far, so you may as well try this or that out. You don’t have anything to lose. So, I watched the video, and I was hooked right then and there. I think at that point I was just so down trodden that when I heard I could fix all of it, I was instantly terrified and excited all at the same time!

That movie changed my life, it gave me the stepping stones I needed, the push, the shove, the change I needed. And it can change your life as well. You don’t need to be rich or poor, young or old, positive or negative, man or woman. The Law isn’t biased, as long as you follow The Law, you can really become your own genie. It’s amazing, incredible, absolutely entrancing! If you want to change your life now? Do something about it. That right there is the very first step! Change your life, you can do it, you can make the money you want, you can live in the house you want, you can go on vacations, you can buy that new car you have been eying. Anything you want, it’s yours! So? What are you waiting for, get with it!

This author is a HUGE fan of “The Secret” to your life. Visit www.envisionfreedom.net to see where the Secret Left off.

You live in a world of unlimited possibilities. If you can imagine it, you have within you the capability of bringing it into your reality.

The secret is to keep your attention on what you want to create and to not focus on the lack of your desire. This becomes a little tricky because it is a natural human tendency to focus on a problem and try to fix it. Your attention on the problem activates the Law of Attraction to bring you more what you are focusing on, the lack of your desire.

A celebration journal is a simple tool that you can use to become a conscious creator and keep your attention on your desires while getting the Law of Attraction working on your behalf. A celebration journal is a special place where you record the positive evidences that show you that your wants and desires are on their way. You can use your computer, a notebook, journal or anything else that you feel good using.

In essence, you write down proof that will be helping you create a new belief system. Remember, that you can have what ever you desire. It will also help you create new, more self-affirming thoughts.

The only thing holding you back from manifesting your desires is your beliefs.

A belief is simply a thought that you think over and over again. These repetitive thoughts create specific neuropathways in your brain that keep the same thought patterns active until you consciously decide to change them.

For example, let’s say that you are 30 pounds overweight but you feel that losing it will be just too hard. After all, your entire family is overweight so it must be genetic. And you love sweets and find exercising to be a miserable experience. Until you decide that you can experience something new, basically create a new belief system, you will go on being over weight.

Then your sister suffers from a major heart attack. You decide that you want to lose your extra weight because you want to do all you can to prevent that from happening to you.

You set a goal to lose one pound each week.

Use your celebration journal to support your weight loss journey. On your first day you decide not to have a cookie after lunch. Write that down in your journal. Describe how easy it was to say yes to a healthier body.

Later that day you parked in the farthest parking spot you could find at the mall. Write in your journal how much you enjoyed the little walk that you took after work. Record how energized and slim you felt while walking and that you know your health is improving daily.

Get the idea?

Set an intention to write in your celebration journal several times each day. This helps you stay focused on what is working in your life and will keep you open to and focused on all the wonderful opportunities that are available.

Becky Kimes is a master energy worker and life coach who teaches people how to consciously create their ideal lives. Visit her at http://www.thrivingonpurposenow.com and receive several free resources designed specifically to help you become the Divine Creator that you are.

A deep sense of fear and loss is upon the human experience. It’s called the economic crisis. But the economic crisis is just the symptom of a deeper dis-ease.

The disease is your projection. You, the collective called humanity, are projecting your own experience of fear and separation onto the world screen. You have created a theatre of the absurd; an outward projection of your inward experience.

The economic crisis you see is not real! I know it looks, smells, tastes, sounds and feels real. The numbers on your balance sheet are ticking down at a dizzying rate. But it’s not real. It’s only a projection. After all, they are only numbers on a sheet of paper or in a computer network.

The illusion of an up economy, personal or global, is that you have all you need. The illusion of a down economy, personal or global, is that you are losing all you have.

Thank God for a rapid transition from up to down! It thrust the illusions right in your face. Somehow from up to down catches your attention much more than a transition from down to up. Down to up engenders self aggrandizement. Up to down solicits pain and suffering.

You can close your eyes and suffer the pain of loss. Or, you can open your eyes to the illusions. Your choice will determine your prosperity. But it will determine much more than your monetary prosperity. After all, money is only numbers on a piece of paper, the ultimate illusion. As such, it is transitory. You can watch it appear and disappear right in front of your eyes. See it happening right now? If you get the absurdity of the theatre it becomes entertaining to watch the numbers fluctuate as if it means something.

Prosperity is a successful, flourishing, or thriving condition. You confuse the location of the condition. That is the illusion. The illusion is that a successful, flourishing or thriving condition is measured by numbers on a piece of paper.

But prosperity is measured by your internal experience. It is the experience of inner peace with whatever is and the consciousness to manifest from desire at will. You are your only resource. Always have been; always will be. Thank God!

The resourceful “YOU” is not the fearful you. It is the real YOU, not the you that you consider yourself to be. Accessing the real YOU is humanity’s biggest challenge.

Consider the economic crisis. How you respond can transform your life forever. It can only be a distraction disturbing you from discovering YOU. Or, it can be an opportunity for you to discover YOU. Thank God for the opportunity.

That’s where stillness comes to the rescue. Stillness is that way of being that gives you YOU. Eliminate the disturbance in the body and mind. Then you have the space to discover YOU. And YOU can manifest anything . . . anytime . . . anywhere!

Discover Stillness and you will discover YOU. That’s why we developed the Discover Stillness Home Course.

Michael Mead is co-developer of the Technology of Stillness which opens your body and quiets your mind to recalibrate your system to stillness. Claim your complimentary audio experience, “Introduction to Stillness,” at http://www.DiscoverStillness.com.

There are many reasons to praise the good that religion has done for the world throughout history, but in a world where, for some, religion is no longer a necessity, this article takes a look at just a few of the reasons why Atheism should replace religious faith.

Science
The greatest attribute an atheist possesses is the ability for reason. Provide an atheist with evidence and proof and facts and they will take on board what has been said and accept the evidence. Provide proof and facts to a religious body and it is dismissed out of hand instantly. I suppose we should thank our lucky stars we’re not living a couple hundred years ago else we’d be burnt for heresy.

Jesus
Very little, if any, actual proof exists that Jesus existed. And then think about it: if a man came up to you in the street today claiming to be the son of the great creator, what exactly would you say to him? Exactly - it cannot be printed because children may be reading. Has everybody forgotten about David Icke?

Still, good ol’ Jesus. He had his finger on the pulse of society. Though were he to turn up today and ‘rebel’ against the authorities as he supposedly did in his day, George W. would have him shipped off to Guantanamo Bay as a terrorist quicker than he could say a Hail Mary.

War
The history of the past couple of thousand years has been littered with war. How many have been based on religious beliefs? Let’s just mention a few: the Crusades, Reconquista, various Muslim jihad’s, the troubles of Northern Island, Thirty Years War, Muslim Conquests, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, etc., etc. How many conflicts have been the sole purpose of atheists? Answers on a postcard.

The Big Bang
Creationism is, quite frankly, the most absurd idea in the history of mankind. So much so that it is difficult to find somewhere to begin, since science has discredited the theory so comprehensively it seems folly to even discuss it. Instead I shall attempt to put my point across with a little story:

It was coming up to 8pm and little Johnny was being tucked into bed by his father. “Can I have a story, daddy?” asked Johnny.

“Ok,” his father responded. “This story happened long, long ago. Everything around us wasn’t here and then a man with a big white beard…”

“What, Santa?” interrupted Johnny.

“No, not Santa, he’s not real.” Johnny’s face dropped. “The man I’m talking about is God. Anyway, he decided to spend six days creating everything we see today, before taking a day off on what is now Sunday.”

“Six days?” said Johnny. “That couldn’t happen.”

“Well, it did,” replied his father. “He created everything we have.”

“Including dinosaurs?”

“No, not dinosaurs. They never existed. Forget all about them.”

“Of course they existed, daddy. There’s loads of proof. What about all the remains?”

“No. You’re wrong. God did everything - and only 10,000 years ago. Therefore dinosaurs couldn’t have existed.”

“Daddy, don’t be silly. 10,000 years isn’t very long. The earth is four billion years old, at least. Scientists have proof. ”

“Nope. They’re all liars.”

“Liars. So you’re telling me everything was done by God.”

“Yep.”

“Then who made God?”

“Er…”

“Daddy, none of what you’re saying makes sense. I know it’s a story but it should at least be believable,” said Johnny uneasily before going to sleep. “Have you been drinking again?”

Struggling to respond, his father agitatedly says: “Look Johnny, you’re six years old now. Aren’t you getting too old for stories.”

“I was going to ask you the same thing,” said Johnny.

Max Clarke is a copywriter for holiday services company, Holiday Extras, currently writing about Gatwick airport parking,Manchester airport hotels and Heathrow airport parking.