My Response To "The Ghosts Of My Grandmothers"

My Response To "The Ghosts Of My Grandmothers"

Perhaps the Malach Hamavet spared Helen Rose in memory of her savtot. As Tanakh states, "the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward", since Savtot Devorah v'Vered are awaiting HaTechiyat HaMetim.

Incidentally, the names Helen, Rose, Mark, and Anna (and variants thereof) are all in my paternal family. An example:

One of my own great-great-grandmothers, Anna Amalia Munková Trudnyaková, either was named for her deceased sister or took her name and claimed her baptism date as her own birthdate at some point*, presumably to honor her. She had daughters named Elizabeth Helen and Anna Margaret, and her parents were Sh'mu'el and Rosalia Korschová Munka.

At least one of her descendants is named Mark, meanwhile; and in full disclosure, one of them is my cousin Mark, whom is sadly deciding to brand himself as the shanda fur die goyim known as "Legit Viva"—for which we clearly did not become Anusim, and part of why (I assume) some of us remain Anusim.

*Anna Amalia Munková Trudnyaková was not baptized. The only baptism record which reconciles any and all dates that she gave as her birthdate is that of her sister. I assume that, by the way, her parents were not risking getting another daughter baptized, since two, Paulina and the first Anna Amalia, had died previously.

Update (September 25, 2016 and Elul 24, 5776), re "Please Stop Telling Me I'm Not 'Really' Jewish" (The context is that some people are being extremely hostile toward the author re any possibility that her daughter may choose to be Catholic.):

If you learn take nothing else from what I say, at least take this away from it: Jews—including Jewish Catholics like Sts. Teresa de Avila and Edith "Teresa Benedicta" Stein (z"l), Aaron "Cardinal Jean-Marie" Lustiger my dad's paternal grandma (a sister of Elizabeth Helen and Anna Margaret)—have believed in a Jewish man named Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, and quite a few other Jews agreed to disagree with the Jewish Christians—see, for example, in the New Testament when it talks about Gamaliel: while, despite legends, he did not become a Christian, he tolerated the Jewish Christians of his time. As Gamaliel's granddad said—and as my dad's paternal grandma (z"l) albe-imperfectly lived—"The sum of Torah is this: don't do to others what you don't want them to you. The rest is commentary—go and learn it."

To "The Berean Call" and Others (e.g., Others Whom Oppose Christian Psychology and Psychiatry)

With all due respect, is The "Berean Call" really "Berean"? Based on what I have read, I do not believe so. For example, you push the following lie:
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​"The fundamental problem is that although we know a lot about the biomedical etiology of neurological disorders, we still fathom embarrassingly little about the biology of the major mental illnesses. And even the burgeoning understanding of genetic and metabolic risk factors has not translated into clinically useful tests or cures. Modern technology has not produced a single blood test or brain scan that can be routinely used to diagnose depression, bipolar disease, schizophrenia or other common mental illnesses."
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​What makes it a lie is that it is information that is presented as if it still current. Scripture says to not bear false witness. Speaking of false witness, The "Berean Call" also does quite a job of twisting Exodus 20:4-5. The context is as follows:
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​"3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anythingthat is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments."
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​(From Exodus 20, NKJV. Also see Exodus 34:17.)
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​The context is in making images to worship. Again (with emphasis): 
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​"3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anythingthat is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments."
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​When images, etc. were destroyed, they were images (e.g., Asherim) used to worship false gods. Otherwise, making images as commanded by God would be contradictory. For example: 
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​"“You shall make a veil woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen. It shall be woven with an artistic design of cherubim." (From Exodus 26)
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​Another example:
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​"20 The two pillars, one Sea, the twelve bronze bulls which were under it, and the carts, which King Solomon had made for the house of the Lord—the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure. 
21 Now concerning the pillars: the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, a measuring line of twelve cubits could measure its circumference, and its thickness was four fingers; it was hollow. 
22 A capital of bronze was on it; and the height of one capital was five cubits, with a network and pomegranates all around the capital, all of bronze. The second pillar, with pomegranates was the same. 
23 There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; all the pomegranates, all around on the network,were one hundred." 
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​(From Jeremiah 52)
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​As far as psychology and psychiatry, understand that:
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1. ​We are called to love our neighbors as ourselves. If we can't love even ourselves, how can we love our neighbors?
2. "Lo titzrach." "Thou shalt not murder." People have committed suicide and murder because of mental illnesses, etc..
3. When Galatians 5 talks about drugs, it is talking about drugs used explicitly for occultic and other evil purposes. It uses the word "φαρμακεία" as opposed to "φαρμακο" (Hebrew "רפואה").
4. God created everything, and certainly everything good (cf. Genesis 1, Psalm 24:1).
5. God calls us to "[h]eal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give." (Matthew 10:8)

I could go on, although I hope that you get my point by now. By the way, I, as a Jew who has benefited from Christian psychology (psychos-logos, "ψυχή" and "λογος"), find a shame that you would decontextualize my Lord's Word for your gain. BTW, Deuteronomy 6:5 says to "love Yehovah your God with all your heart, and your soul, and all your might [e.g., your psyche]."

Just A Pause...

I was looking at a photo which was posted in a Jewish group for those of us who have roots in Poland. Then I came across the picture...the picture that was captioned that he attended his first bar- and bat-mitzvah ceremony, and that he enjoyed attending....and I knew that, that could've been him.

The bar-mitzvah. Not that he isn't or wouldn't be; it's just the family is so assimilated. The rest of the caption read that his mother was asking herself where the time has gone. I wonder why she didn't say something like, "The funny thing is that, that could've been him." Maybe she was thinking it behind the computer screen, though I doubt it. 

Then when I went to type her name into the search bar again, I came across another cousin with the same first name. The pictures were there, too. The kids look Jewish! 

They can't escape who they are, even if they don't know now—the younger kids couldn't know now, anyway (Could they? I doubt it. They wouldn't be told at least at their age—and they're triplets—and I don't think that their mother—who I should clarify is an in-law cousin—would let them use iPads, etc. at their age.). The older kids might not know (although the older one maybe attended the seder shel b'nai-mitzvah because he knows and wanted to see his heritage firsthand), and the adults are either ignorant and/or naive or just in plain denial.

The younger kids look Jewish because they look like their dad (I see his paternal grandmother, his kids' and my great-grandmother, in him.). They may also look Jewish because of their mom (I suspect that she may be Jewish. If she is Jewish, what a shanda that she's of a younger generation and feels like she has to hide it—after all, one of the younger generations is coming out with it. "Choose ye this day..." and "relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise elsewhere...." Why be afraid to stand with our people?)

The older kid can't escape that he's Jewish either way (As I recall, his great-great-granddad was also Andrew Rusnak—and he is certainly a descendant of him either way; that much I know. If my memory is correct, then we are third cousins and right in the same generation.). In any case, you can trace our lines right back to the Anusi Gyorgy "György Kvetkovits" Rusznák HaLevi of Kassa, Ausztria Magyarország (and he and his bashert Erzesbet Molnarová became Anusuim and moved to Aranyida once Szlovakia became a part of Ausztria. Keep in mind that the 1700s-1900s were one of the biggest time periods in which Ashkenazi Jews became Anusim. Even in supposedly-religiously-free Czech Austria, Fritz Kohn became Frederick Kerry, 63 years after the Hungarian Revolution and after Hungary was co-opted by Austria.). 

The adults like me can either be naive or in denial (and I was still a kid when I found out that we are Jewish; since, Biblically speaking, the bar-mitzvah and bat-mitzvah age is 20 years. I was 18 years, six months, and two days old when I posted a copy of Great-Great-Granddad Czarnecki's death certificate on Ancestry.com—I was almost one-and-a-half years short of being a bat-mitzvah, and I was able to confirm that I'm Jewish by seeking, enlisting, and finding)—and I know that those who were b'nai mitzvah before me could've known and been honest about it.

After all, the non-Photoshopped pictures don't lie. The draw toward our heritage does not lie. As Samuel told Saul according to one of the recently-read haftarot, "[G-d] is not a man, that He should repent." 

The records also do not lie, at least as far as the records that had honest information givers and honest transcribers. "Acquitted [to marry]", for example, is a damning thing to read on a marriage dispensation record, especially for apparently such good Slovakian and Czechoslovakian Catholics (which we weren't. We were Jews in Hungary and Austria Hungary.). Also, again, the non-Photoshopped pictures don't lie—just as the younger kids look like their dad's family, those Rusznaks of Kassa looked like the apparently-Czechoslovakian Andrew Rusnak (and as I've said in the past, that's when the "Relatives asked for money" lid got blown off the story—and I figured out that help was needed by Rusznaks instead of money by Foskos).

Those reminders and pauses will, by the way, somehow show up for the rest of my life or my time here in this age. I at least can say, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel," and "[T]here is nothing secret that will not be revealed". After all, I was led and I chose to say, "I'm a Jew. I'm a bat Anusim. They chose to persecute me in the Name of my Messiah, but they could not take my heritage away from me." I wonder how many of my family can and will be able to say that instead of offer up even excuses such as "That was then; this is now" and "Jewishness is religious, not ethnic" (which is the real meaning behind "Judaism is a religion, not a [race, nationality, etc.]"—as if the Judeans were never an ethnic or even ethnoreligious group). 

They, like me, can either choose to be like Esther and Paul (and Paul especially, for that he was Jewish was obvious and not obscurable as it was for Esther) or choose to be like forefathers such as Andrew Rusnak (and despite that rebringing up a matter will separate close friends, that the inquity will be felt down to the third and fourth generations remains).

"Stand With Israel, Not Netanyahu"

Even I, a staunch Zionist who was already mad enough at Netanyahu and his Haredi Judaism which he attempts to disguise as Yahadut Chilonit, took a few steps back and thought:

If Netanyahu was largely passive while Arab citizens were being assaulted, he led the demonization campaign against the 47,000 African refugees and asylum seekers who entered Israel without permits. Despite reducing the number of refugees entering Israel to practically zero, thanks to the Sinai fence, he continues to lock up thousands of these desperate people – who, like our own Jewish ancestors, sought to escape persecution and poverty. Netanyahu’s policies flout Jewish values, and have been overturned multiple times by the High Court as immoral and unjustified. But they play well to his xenophobic base. 

Good points and reminders. In fact, I wager that some of the Sudanese and other refugees may even be Falasha and Lemba Jews who are making aliyah in what many would call an illegal way—and if any "illegal" olim are among the Sudanese refugees, the Government of Israel has no right to deny those olim ("eleh Kushim!") their taglit. Also, think about this: what if some illegal immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, etc. are Anusim who'd make aliyah if Netanyahu and his yadidim let them? After all, they're not considered Yehudim al pi HaHoq Shivut. They otherwise have to be under the auspices of nasty people such as Dr. Michael Freund. (Just like Netanyahu, Dr. Freund can fool people. That's even part of why I save most of my e-mails in my backup folders—that is, so I do not ever lose the proof of when I run into mitchazim like Dr. Freund. That's why I still have the link to the 2012 conversation.).

 Likud-led fear and hatemongering hardly stops with our non-Jewish minorities. Progressives, civil rights activists, leftists, the judiciary and anyone who criticizes the occupation have all been accused of being enemies of the state. So much for Jewish solidarity or democratic discourse. 

Indeed. I've experienced this myself. I even have a Facebook friend who called Senator Diane Feinstein (with whom I myelf hardly ever agree) a "witch" for standing against Netanyahu, and I've seen others harp on the fact that Senator Feinstein comes from a Jewish Catholic family (which I did not know until they harped on her for it. As I learned, the Feinsteins and the Rosenburgs were and are Russian Byzantine Catholics.).

From a family of Roman Catholic Anusim and b'nei Anusim, I know that feeling ("You're not Jewish!"; "Your family betrayed their people!"; "They're meshumadim!"; "They're bogadim!"; "Oh; no wonder your Hebrew's not good: your family didn't tell you that they're Jewish!")

Perhaps, by the way, maybe the Anusi and "meshumad" minds are among the ones which are quickest to pick up on trouble. Our ancestors knew when trouble was coming and/or already came, and at least two of us (Senator Feinstein and me, though I suspect that there are more who) knew that Netanyahu and the Haredim were trouble (By the way, I'll have some kavod for Taylor Swift if she goes to Israel and dedicates her famous song to Netanyahu.).

Anyway:

This week’s Netanyahu drumbeat claims that the Iranian threat trumps all traditional diplomatic considerations. But those who, like me, believe that Iran is an existential threat to Israel, and fear that the agreement currently being negotiated will be too forgiving and trusting of Iran need to acknowledge that Netanyahu has blown it. 

His anti-Obama tirades, his support for West Bank settlements over all other considerations, his efforts to undermine the Palestinian Authority, his expropriation of 988 acres of Palestinian land at the end of the Gaza War not only wasted the new diplomatic opportunities he promised toward the war’s end, but alienated and antagonized the very European leaders who, along with U.S. President Barack Obama, are the partners necessary to stop Iran’s nuclear program. 

Excellent reminder and point as well. For being such a Zionist, Netanyahu isn't taking the higher road. He also is not trusting יהוה. For example, bulldozing the houses of innocent Bedouins does not help—and deliberately failing to distinguish between the innocent and the guilty is a chillul יהוה.

Bulldozing the houses of terrorists and their accomplices is fine. Destroying terrorists and their accomplices is fine. Stereotyping all Arabs as terrorists and bulldozing their houses is not fine.

As for (and back to the point about) taking the higher road, to stoop down to the level of an enemy or even lower is a chillul יהוה (cf. Tehillim 25:21-22 and Mishlei 26:4). The applicable mitzvot, after all, say to love your neighbor as yourself (not be like him or her in doing evil), treat the stranger well (not do as he or she has done to you), and let יהוה avenge you. Netanyahu is doing the exact opposite when he has the IDF go beyond proactive counterproliferation, preemption, and deterrence.

By the way, counterproliferation, preemption, and deterrence are obviously mitzvot and acts of kiddush יהוה.

Netanyahu plays the statesman abroad, but back home he is known for his paranoia, his self-aggrandizement, and his lashing out against the courts, the universities and the media. Netanyahu aspires to be Israel’s Churchill, but in nurturing a nation divided against itself he has become our Nixon. 

I and others who follow news from and about 'Eretz Yisra'el keep trying to say that, though nobody believes us. Hopefully, Director Futterman (despite that he's looking at the situation from a leftist perspective) can affect you to get that through your head.

The Talmud Confirms HaB'rit Chadashah, And Not How You Think

Forget the argument about the cord in the Temple not turning white. That argument is as hackneyed as how Yeshayahu 53 talks about Mashiach. If I'm going to argue for the Talmud confirming HaB'rit Chadashah, I could at least look at Yeshayahu 53 from a different angle, and I could use that to talk about how other Talmud passages confirm HaB'rit Chadashah.

As such, this is how I was able to do it recently (Some of these arguments, such as the "On the Eve of Passover" argument, have been used before. If they haven't, then הכבוד של יהוה, לא לי.): 

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          tieman  N. Mara Czarnecki • 2 days ago

          Are you a believing Jew?
          If so I have a respectful question about your religion.

           

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            N. Mara Czarnecki  tieman • a day ago

            Absolutely.

             

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              tieman  N. Mara Czarnecki • a day ago

              Ma'am, who will the Messiah be?
              God incarnate?
              An angel?
              Or does God have a Son waiting to be robed in flesh?
              Or a man approved by God?
              I'm assuming you believe in one God.
              Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.

               

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                N. Mara Czarnecki  tieman • a day ago

                1, 2, and 4. Keep in mind that "echad" means "united" or "unity", whereas "yachid" is "sole", etc.. This is why Maimonides added "yachid" in "Yigdal"—to get around "echad".

                "It is one of many poetical renderings of Maimonides’ 13 Principles, popular because of the clarity of its language and its easy rhythm and rhyme." (Rabbi Raymond Apple)

                Also look at Tehillim 112:1-4. Only Adonai's righteousness endures forever. As well, Adonai is the only Moshiach (Savior, Redeemer) per Yeshayahu 45:22-25.

                 

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                  tieman  N. Mara Czarnecki • a day ago

                  So then....God is the Spirit and the body of flesh, the Son? But not two Gods

                   

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                    N. Mara Czarnecki  tieman • a day ago

                    Yes, in the Manifestation of the Son. Eloheinu Echad is Ha'Av (The Father), Ha'Ru'ach HaKodesh (the Spirit), and HaBen (the Son. cf. Tehillim 112:1-4 and Yeshayahu 53. e.g. per Yeshayahu, "He was despised, and forsaken of men, a man of pains, and acquainted with disease, and as one from whom men hide their face: he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely our diseases he did bear, and our pains he carried; whereas we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted". With Yeshayahu 53:4, this hearkens back to Yeshayahu 45:22-25. e.g., "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else. 23 By Myself have I sworn, the word is gone forth from My mouth in righteousness, and shall not come back, that unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. 24 Only in the LORD, shall one say of Me, is victory and strength; even to Him shall men come in confusion, all they that were incensed against Him. 25 In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.")

                    In the Talmud, there is proof that the Son "was despised, and we esteemed him not" and "we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted". In Gittin 57a,

                    "He then went and raised by incantations the sinners of Israel.3 "

                    (http://halakhah.com/gittin/git...

                    As if we didn't despise Yeshua enough by calling Him one among "the sinners of Israel", we indeed "esteem Him stricken", etc. in the worst of ways:

                    "AND A HERALD PRECEDES HIM etc. This implies, only immediately before [the execution], but not previous thereto.33 [In contradiction to this] it was taught: On the eve of the Passover Yeshu34 was hanged. For forty days before the execution took place, a herald went forth and cried, 'He is going forth to be stoned because he has practised sorcery and enticed Israel to apostacy. Any one who can say anything in his favour, let him come forward and plead on his behalf.' But since nothing was brought forward in his favour he was hanged on the eve of the Passover!35 — Ulla retorted: 'Do you suppose that he was one for whom a defence could be made? Was he not a Mesith [enticer], concerning whom Scripture says, Neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him?36 With Yeshu however it was different, for he was connected with the government [or royalty, i.e., influential].'

                    "Our Rabbis taught: Yeshu had five disciples, Matthai, Nakai, Nezer, Buni and Todah. When Matthai was brought [before the court] he said to them [the judges], Shall Matthai be executed? Is it not written, Matthai [when] shall I come and appear before God?37 Thereupon they retorted; Yes, Matthai shall be executed, since it is written, When Matthai [when] shall [he] die and his name perish.38 "

                    (http://halakhah.com/sanhedrin/...

                    This confirms that the accusations of driving out demons by Ba'alzevuv were made, that Yeshua's crucifixion did take place on Erev Pesach, and that He had a talmid named Matityahu.

                    The problem isn't that we misunderstood D'varim 13 and applied to Yeshua; the problem is that there were and are those of us who willfully continued to apply D'varim 13 to Yeshua after the fact.

                    "24 Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub,[f] the ruler of the demons.”

                    25 But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. 26 If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?27 And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. 28 But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. 29 Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house. 30 He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.

                    The Unpardonable Sin

                    31 “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. 32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come."

                    (https://www.biblegateway.com/p...

                     

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                      tieman  N. Mara Czarnecki • a day ago

                      Thanks for your attention.
                      God bless you Ma'am.

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One can't just use one argument and then "Bam!".

On another note, I will (עי'ה) be doing a contrasting video on YouTube—"White Bread Christianity"—in the morning or the afternoon (We'll see with Reilly and all.).

חול המועד סוכות ולילה טוב.

PS Powerpoint 2003 is a great little tool for graphics.