25 October, 2024 08:32

Another Torah related thought… I guess Fridays are good for writing…

I mentioned before [recently] that all endings are beginnings, and all beginnings are endings. So, should anyone be surprised at the Haftorahs we read over Sukkot / Shmeni Atzeret?

Sukkot we read about the end of days… [and when is this end, and is it 1 day, or is it several days [plural]? And if one spends time reading the Naviim, they see there are many different ideas expressed and sometimes seemingly by the same Navi!, but anyway, End of Days is kind of a BIG deal in Judaism [and of course the offspring religions of Catholics / Protestants, and Shiiat / Sunni]

And I won’t go into their End of Days ideas, but what is a good way to scare the heck out of people other than talking about The End of Times. Maybe, most of my eye rolling almost heretical thoughts about it are due to the extensive Sunday morning preachers of the other [mainly Protestant] preachers ….

So, back to "our" End. Why stick a prophecy about the End of Times during…what is called Tzman Simchatanu???? !!!

Now there many [I mean duh, we're talking Judaism here] many explanations.

Here are a few … off the cuff so to speak…

We finish the harvest season and that is an "ending"… , we finish the Torah readings, and that is an "ending", the summer ends [in Israe], and that is an "ending"

So okay, hazal was like…ya know what Navuah would be a nice fit? One of the many about the End of Days. Since there are many [seriously there are many different Naviim who got slightly different "End of Days" messages. But Hazal selected this one…

Why this specific End of Days message? I do not know.

But we all know that an ending is just a pause for a new beginning.

And thus on Shemni Hazeret we read about the new leader and our entrance to the Land.

And thus all endings are beginnings, and Beginnings are endings.