If I'm brutally honest with myself I can cut it down to about six concepts I want to write about the most, none of which really have fully developed plots, at least, not ones that don't suddenly decide to fly all over the place. And a couple of them I already wrote some of before I discovered NaNo. Previously written prose is a big no-no so I'll have to restart from scracth... T.T

So, yeah, vague outlines... so far I haven't titled any of the stories and I just refer to them by
the names of the main characters. P.S. Homophobes turn back now.

Song and Gabriel – Which is from Song's perspective as a vampire, dealing with all the problems that come with that alone, while balancing school, teenhood, family and making sure not the break The Pledge, the law to keep the general public unsuspecting of Magic's presence. Combined with the fact she's hormonal, naturally a trouble maker and her best friend, Gabriel, is a gay Angel with what they... fondly refer to as selective tourrettes, it's a lot harder than it should be.

Juno, Star, Giac, Marco, Noah, Benny and Matt – It focuses mainly on Juno and Star, two of the newbie students at a typically anally-retentive English boarding school and their inadvertent tendencies for accidental pranks over the course of their first year. Giac and Marco are Juno's twin older brothers with their best friend Noah bent on alternately making things both bearable and hell and Benny and Matt are two girls who befriend Juno and Star somewhere along the way. Their only eleven so it won't show up for a while but I'm planning on them ending up together eventually and yeah, they're both boys. Juno's well read and a writer with a dark sense of humor and Star... well, nicely put, he's completely off his rocker.

Yaz, Finch, Simon and Monroe – This is a possibly Steampunk story about an alternative radio station that thirteen year old Yaz sets up with her best friend, Finch, his boyfriend, Simon and their flamboyantly hedonistic roommate, Monroe (she's not a slut so much as a engimatic cross between a female Captain Jack Harkness and Rhonda from Muriel's Wedding). If I do make it Steampunk it'll be about their fight against the Cyberpunk society infiltrating and destroying their way of life and brainwashing their people.

Hunter and Caleb – Hunter and Caleb live in a Post-Apocolyptic world where everywhere is a disaster zone. They fight and steal for survival, making games out of it with a vague hope that one day everything will end up fine again. May possibly a couple, haven't decided yet, I might just make them really, really good friends, but if they don't end up together the won't end up with anyone else.

Kir, Sol, Luque and Xavier – Luque is a fundamentally evil character, doing good deeds. Not that there's nothing in it for him of course, I'm not sure of his exact motives yet but he sure as hell isn't doing it out of the goodness of his heart. He's challenging a corrupt dynasty, leading a rebellion and possibly abolishing slavery on the way. He has an obsession with killing bugs, moths especially and usually traps them in a glass for his own amusement. His faithful servants, and dabblers in magic, Kir, a Fkin (a wolf/fire-fox/humanoid), Sol a human are always by his side along with Xavier the financial advisor who should probably be terrified of him.

Inoke and Affie – Inoke is a Grimoire, a sort of magical diary adopted by Sorcerers and Wiccas and such. They are rather like a familiar and a Book of Shadows all rolled into the shape of a human. As Grimoires are empaths their masters imprint their emotions and thoughts into them via a connection. When Inoke's master dies, the connection breaks and he is open to all emotion and is unable to block it out. Normally this would drive a Grimoire insane or to death, but Inoke, though slightly unhinged, managed to maintain his sanity until he was adopted by the infamously notourius Crime-Lord Angel Face. This resulted in a psychologically abusive relationship between the two, though Affie really did love Inoke. With help from rookie-cop, Cray, Inoke escaped Affie's grasp and is living in a secluded area out in the country but three years later Cray needs Affie's help and wants Inoke to call him up. But Affie's help always comes a price.

I'm probably leaning towards Inoke and Affie since writing that synopsis meant a title slapped me upside the head and because Inoke is currently my baby. But I've been itching to write Juno, Star & Co. for ages, ditto to Song and Gabriel and Hunter and Caleb. Yaz, Finch, Simon and Monroe are great fun with their wit and I practially had a premonition of Yaz at one point - though I may be mixing her up with this other character I have called "Yena" (^.^;), As for Luque and his gang, he's a new fresh character I've been dying to work with, mostly due to his evilness.

I'll keep you posted!

Faith and reason are both sources of authority upon which beliefs can rest. Reason generally is understood as the principles for a methodological inquiry, whether intellectual, moral, aesthetic, or religious. Faith, on the other hand, involves a stance toward some claim that is not, at least presently, demonstrable by reason. Thus faith is a kind of attitude of trust or assent. As such, it is ordinarily understood to involve an act of will or a commitment on the part of the believer. Religious faith involves a belief that makes some kind of either an implicit or explicit reference to a transcendent source. The basis for a person's faith usually is understood to come from the authority of revelation. Revelation is either direct, through some kind of direct infusion, or indirect, usually from the testimony of an other. The religious beliefs that are the objects of faith can thus be divided into those what are in fact strictly demonstrable (scienta) and those that inform a believer's virtuous practices (sapientia).

Religious faith is of two kinds: evidence-sensitive and evidence-insensitive. The former views faith as closely coordinated with demonstrable truths; the latter more strictly as an act of the will of the religious believer alone. The former includes evidence garnered from the testimony and works of other believers. It is, however, possible to hold a religious belief simply on the basis either of faith alone or of reason alone. The basic impetus for the problem of faith and reason comes from the fact that the revelation or set of revelations on which most religions are based is usually described and interpreted in sacred pronouncements, either in an oral tradition or canonical writings, backed by some kind of divine authority. These writings or oral traditions are usually presented in the literary forms of narrative, parable, or discourse. The key philosophical issue regarding the problem of faith and reason is to work out how the authority of faith and the authority of reason interrelate in the process by which a religious belief is justified or established as true or justified.

Is it not far better to begin with faith? Once one knows God in an experiential way, then one never needs an philosophical argument as a crutch to sustain faith. Experiencing the presence of a personal and loving God has far more substance than any intellectual argument. Christian disciples should never hesitate to "make a defence," but they should always do so with gentleness and reverence. The faith of the believer, as manifest through the community of faith as an outcropping of the kingdom of God, is simply more attractive than any philosophical or scientific argument designed to prove that God is real and that Jesus lives. As C.S. Lewis learned in a very public and humiliating way, those whose faith in Christ depends on apologetics can lose it with the apologetics of the world. In the same way, those who wish to prove the existence of God with philosophical argument are doomed to fail in the attempt.

Ford, Opel und BMW stoppen ihre Produktion, VW verwirft Pläne zum Bau neuer Fabriken - und auch bei Porsche bricht der Absatz weg. Die erfolgsverwöhnten Autohersteller taumeln in die Krise. Quelle: sueddeutsche

Mein Mitgefühl hält sich definitiv in Grenzen. Anstatt ihre Produkte den dramatisch veränderten Rahmenbedingungen der Umwelt und an die exorbitant steigenden Energiekosten anzupassen, hält man ignorant und beratungsresistent am Bau von spritfressenden Luxuskarossen eines längst vergangenen Zeitalters fest. Es geht mittlerweile um weitaus mehr, als wie auf dem türkischen Basar um CO2-Grenzwerte zu schachern... - Finanzkrise, Klimakatastrophe, Wirtschaftskatastrophe, Hungerkatastrophe - glaubt da wirklich noch jemand, man könne so weitermachen wie bisher?

Offensichtlich schon! Denn rückwärts fahren auch Merkel und Gabriel:

Ist es beim Klima wie auf den Finanzmärkten? Regine Günther vom WWF sieht eine "beunruhigende Analogie". In beiden Fällen wisse man, was droht, handele aber nicht. Sie wirft Umweltminister Gabriel und Kanzlerin Merkel vor, ihren Kredit als internationale Klimaschützer im Streit um das EU-Klimapaket "zu verspielen". [...] Quelle: tagesspiegel

Abby had barely survived the treacherous drive to Kaitlyn’s house through an ice storm. Then, forced to break in when she couldn’t find the key, she was immediately grabbed by someone in the dark. She gave her assailant the fight of his life…until his accusation that she was a
burglar told her a mistake had been made. Now, facing her opponent, she was overwhelmed by an electric attraction more intense than any she’d ever felt.

Gabriel was impressed by this fascinating spitfire. He also felt the most intense desire of his life–a relentless need so powerful it tore him apart. He understood immediately that Abby was the one–the female destined as his mate for life. But Abby wasn’t like the other females he’d been with. For one thing, she was human. Gabriel didn’t trust humans one bit. But the realization hit him–if he was to win Abby, he would have to win her trust…and Abby wasn’t going to make it easy.

Oooo, I'm very much looking forward to this one coming out November 1st!! And then one month later, Scions: Revelation is due out on December 1st.

I haven't really planned any games or anything. Little boys usually just get a kick out of throwing things in the fire and watching them burn. Come to think of it, I get a kick out of doing that too. The boys will probably get tired of that around 10pm so that means I get to sit at the fire and watch it for awhile until they go to sleep. There's something very relaxing about sitting next to a campfire. It's a great summertime activity but in some ways it might be more enjoyable at this time of year. The heat actually helps and there are no bugs crawling all over you.

So that's the plan. A bunch of 7 year olds after a birthday party go to sleep at 10pm and sleep straight through the night. Then I go to bed an hour or so later in perfect peace and quiet. Or maybe that's wishful thinking. If so, I could be sitting at the fire all night.

Ah, muito obrigada pelos comentários! O Biel está melhorando, quase não está mancando e, o melhor, já não chora quando vai para o chão. Meu neguinho não gosta de colo, gosta mesmo é de bagunça, de correr para lá e para cá, de tirar fininho da quina da mesa e das paredes...rs. Colo com choro é só em caso de doença mesmo. O que estava realmente "pegando" é que o Gabriel pesando 12 kg somado a uma barriga "arriada" e enorme eram demais para minha coluna...rs. Mas, graças a Deus, ontem mesmo ele topou brincar comigo no tapetão, depois brincamos na cadeira de amamentação, fizemos poses para muuuuitas fotos. O neguinho estava tão "a mil" que só se entregou à morfeu depois do jogo de futebol...rsrsrs.    

Danielle, que bom saber que vc operou no VV Hospital. Sobre o Dr. Akel, ele é unanimidade, né? Minha mãe é fã dele! Ele que tratou do pé do Renatinho e fez um milagre ali (meu irmão adotivo...bem, para quem não sabe da história, o que ficamos sabendo no orfanato foi que numa crise de abstinência, a mãe biológica qebrou o pé dele. Ele era RN e ninguém tratou. Daí quando saiu a adoção, ele já estava as portas de completar 1 ano, com o pé completamente virado para dentro. Ele operou, usou botinhas e hoje é absolutamente normal, anda, corre, faz tudo). O Dr. Sipolatti indicou o Dr. Francisley, o Akel e o Alexandre Ciríaco (os três atendem na mesma clínica), o único que tinha horário era o Francisley, mas, como já escrevi, o Biel já está medicado, respondendo direitinho.

Alek, menina de Deus, se vc não me fala eu estava frita! Ontem mesmo liguei para a babá e expliquei a ela sobre ela ser menor. Ela ainda tentou me convecer, mas, por experiência própria, esse pessoal sabe demais os direitos deles...rs. Ontem mesmo conseguimos uma outra menina (18 anos, ô carma, as adolescentes me adoram...rs), que chegou hoje cedo. O Biel, safado como ele é, já está "intimo" da Adriúla (gentem, é AdriÚla, mesmo, mas, para facilitar, a gente chama de Drica...rs), já tomou banho (hahaha, o Jú trocou o chuveiro ontem mesmo), já mostrou os carrinhos e agora está brincando no tapetão com ela. Ô, amiga, muuuuuuuito obrigada mesmo!!

Lali e Tati, já decidimos, o Biel vai pra creche no início do próximo ano. A Larissa fica com a babá e o Biel vai para creche. Tem uma na mesma rua da loja, bem pertinho mesmo, que eu já visitei e adorei (tem tantas atividades no horário integral: de culinária a capoeira...rsrsr). Super bacana, bem limpinha e com boas referências (a dona a agência de turismo ao lado da minha loja matriculou a filha, que tem a mesma idade do Biel, lá e só tem elogios). Como eu vou ficar de "licença" durante as férias do Júnior (em novembro) e em dezembro a creche entra em recesso, a matrícula vai ficar para janeiro mesmo. O Biel vai e volta comigo...rs. Vai entrar na creche as 9h e sair as 18h.      

Alexandra, então vc deve imaginar o medão que me deu. Quando eu vi o Gabriel completamente torto (ele estava com o lado esquerdo mais "pra baixo", com a bacia bem pra frente e as costas desequilibrando para trás) eu me desesperei, pq foi o que o médico falou: na sinovite tudo é muito rápido. Você está andando direitinho e daqui há pouco vc pára de andar, assim como vc também volta a andar rapidamente. Aí já viu: me veio a imagem do Vini mancando e me veio a imagem do Sebastian, da Vanessa tbm (uma vez ela escreveu no blog que estava saíndo do MacDonald quando reparou que o Sebastian estava completamente torto, andando com dificuldade)...eu juro, quando coloquei o Biel para dormir, eu chorei muito. E como eu rezei, rezei para que não fosse nada, para que eu não passasse por tudo outra vez, na reta final de uma gravidez, rezei pelo meu menino que eu amo tanto, rezei pelo Vini, para ele ajudar o irmãozinho...mas passou, graças a Deus. 

Karina, o médico fez a medida das perninhas dele e usou uma aparelhinho para ver a altura dos quadris. Deu tudo ok. Para chegar na sinovite, eles vão por eliminação, então descartaram a possibilidade dele ter uma perninha mais curta que a outra, o quadril fora do ângulo e uma possível luxação.

Natalice, seu braço melhorou? Olha, sobre tombo é até difícil falar que sim ou que não, mas a babá não fica sozinha em casa com ele. Ela fica na minha mãe e com a empregada da minha mâe, que é a maior pitbull...rsrs e ainda tem a Mariana e o Renatinho de olho...rsrs. Ele caiu sim com a Ana Paula uma vez, inclusive ficou com um galo enorme na testa, mas isso deve ter uns 2 meses e ele voou de testa no chão. Na época eu fiquei fula da vida pq a minha mãe não me falou nada, daí cheguei lá e vi o Biel com a testa roxa, choroso, amoado e perguntei para ela o que tinha acontecido. Aí ela falou o que aconteceu, inclusive que tinha corrido com ele para o médico pq ele ficou sonolento, mas que não me ligou que era para eu não me preocupar...imagina como eu fiquei, né? 

O dever me chama...rs. Um beijão.

Rê

I find this passage to be rather unique.  In the instances where a person delivered a message from God (whether from an angel or directly from God), it seems that the usual response is disbelief or fear. 

Even earlier in this same chapter, Zachariah has a visit from the very same angel that visited Mary just a little while later.  When he is told that his wife will conceive, his response is "Do you expect me to believe this?  I'm an old man and my wife is an old woman."  I'm sure the prospect of being a father was wonderful, but yet disbelief overwhelmed him!

Mary, on the other hand, has a very different response when Gabriel tells her that she will conceive.  She asks one question: "But how?  I've never slept with a man."  It wasn't a statement of disbelief - it was a simple question of biology.  The angel basically tells Mary that God will cause it to be.  Then the angel proceeds to tell her the good news of Elizabeth's pregnancy (Zachariah's wife).  Mary responds, "Yes, I see it all now:  I'm the Lord's maid, ready to serve.  Let it be with me just as you say."

Simple faith and trust.  Profound obedience!

Sólo porque alguien no te ame como tú quieres, no significa que no te ame con todo su ser.

"HOT" COUTURE:

[caption id="attachment_587" align="alignnone" width="224" caption="Nicole Kidman, in a gorgeous green dress & salmon heels. My favorite part, however, is the stylish over-sized clutch!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_581" align="alignnone" width="224" caption="Anne Hathaway, stunning as usual.  Check out the foxy shoes! "][/caption] [caption id="attachment_582" align="alignnone" width="224" caption="Halle Berry.  The dress is a bit unusual, and not doing amazing things for her post-Nahla tummy.  That being said, it's a beautiful silhouette, something the red carpet hasn't seen, and - of course - she's pulling it off."][/caption]

NOT COUTURE:

[caption id="attachment_583" align="alignnone" width="224" caption="TThis dress is sooooooo boring, shapeless, unflattering, and unfashionable.  Also, I'm sort of just sick of Eva Mendes' FACE."][/caption]

Mohinder Suresh and Maya Herrara

Mohinder is keeping a record of his mutation: “There are a few adverse reactions.” He mentions getting a rash. He then hears the neighbours having a marital dispute and goes and beats the husband. I think he’s becoming a “beast.”

Later on Maya complains that his lab is a mess and she wants to go for a walk in the park. Mohinder gets upset at her because he’s trying to work and then tries to apologize like he’s some abusive boyfriend stereotype.

“The formula is transforming me.” Mohinder tells his tape that he cannot remove abilities. That angry husband then shows up and hits Mohinder, but Mohinder fights back and maybe kills him (they don’t show the rest).

Nathan Petrelli and Tracy Strauss

Linderman is still in Nathan’s head so to speak, trying to tell him which desk to pick. Linderman wants Nathan to become President.

We find Tracy still talking to Dr. Zimmerman. She and he identical sisters had their DNA manipulated. He mentions trying to give the babies speed and strength (He totally says Bobba, but I'm sure he means Barbara). She asks him who he worked for and Dr. Zimmerman tells her there’s a company, but they took his memory. She then gets angry at him and she almost freezes him.

Later Tracy tries to confess to the murder of the reporter (c’mon it was an accident really), but she gets emotional and freezes the phone (lol). Tracy then goes to Nathan and resigns. Linderman tells Nathan to help her. Good thing he did because she tries to commit suicide by jumping off a building. Of course, Nathan catches. Tracy talks to Nathan about his power and shows him hers. She then starts making out with him. Four years in the future Nathan is President and is married to Tracy!

Peter Petrelli and Peter Petrelli

Future Peter takes present Peter four years into the future. Everyone has powers (Flying is a popular one). Peter tells Peter: “They think I’m an extremist, a villain” and that they must stop everyone from getting powers (by stopping the formula from being used). Peter then tells Peter that “Not all of us were born with abilities, some of us were made.” (I assumed he means people like Niki, not the new people with powers) They have taken sides and now are fighting some secret (-ish) war. Then future Claire shows up and shoots future Peter, but doesn’t get present Peter. They take him to a facility where we find out that Daphne is working with Claire and so is Knox? They want to find Present(Past?) Peter to stop him from enacting future Peter’s plans. To find him they’re going to use Molly, (who I assume will be played by another actress). Parkman still has Molly and a new baby. Daphne’s baby?! She’s married to Parkman?! He initially refuses to let Molly find Peter, but eventually gives in. (Molly is played by the same actress, so she hasn’t grown very much in 4 years... maybe she has a secondary power to stay a little girl...) Daphne tells Claire that Peter is in Casa Verde (Claire used to live there). Knox senses that Claire is scared of Peter.

The after fleeing from the future Claire, Peter finds Mohinder (still in his same apartment...) in the future so that he can find Sylar. Mohinder’s skin is monster-like and he refuses to tell Peter, while he mumbles about getting the super power formula wrong. Peter reads his mind to get the Sylar info and teleports to the Casa Verde. With blue fire ready he enters Sylar’s house and a boy greets him like he knows him. Turns out Sylar is making waffles and has a son! His name is Noah! Sylar hugs peter like they’re friends. Later Sylar tells him that they’re brothers and now goes Gabriel! For some reason Peter thinks he needs Sylar’s ability to “understand the variables.” Gabriel initially refuses, but after painting the future decides to help. Gabriel starts training Peter to use his (initial) power and Peter eventually gets it (now he can fix any watch!) Then Claire, Daphne and Knox show up with Gabrielle’s son as a hostage. Peter knocks out Claire and the rest start fighting. Little Noah dies as collateral after a blow from Knox hits Gabriel into him! (wouldn’t have happened if Noah was scared...) With the death of his son, Sylar starts going radiation super-nova and nukes them all.

Later Future Claire has present Peter back at the facility (future Peter is still unconscious). 200 000 people died in Costa Verde and she’s upset. She begins torturing Peter for it. President Nathan shows up. He tells Claire to leave. Nathan releases Peter and lets him read his mind to try and convince him. Peter then tries to understand Nathan and gets sort of crazy. He starts going all Sylar on him with the head cutting, but stops before he kills him and goes back to the present day Level 5. He attacks Sylar and wants to understand his hunger. (So, the guy who can read minds and absorb powers for some reason feels the need to look at their brains)

Matt Parkman

He eats some drug paste and then listens to some music and his eyes go white. During his vision he apparently feels like he is in the future (but he doesn’t actually control anything). The vision of the future starts off with him and Molly watching the Costa Verde disaster. Daphne returns. She says that she “wasn’t fast enough” and we see that her back is all fleshy from the disaster (just like the African guy’s painting). Back in the present, Parkman decides that he is going to find the girl named Daphne (if he can catch her), but the African guy (his name is Usutu if your wondering) says Parkman needs to finish his spirit quest and to do so he must find a totem to act as his spirit guide. Clearly his spirit guide is the turtle (ironic since Daphne is his future wife)

Hiro and Ando

They are stuck in Level 5. Hiro thinks he can escape through the vent (seriously?...). Ando gets upset and they have a fight because that’s all they do now. Eventually Ando manages to open the vent without Hiro’s help, but then helps Hiro get up to the vent while Hiro apologizes to him. The Haitian then shows up as Hiro makes it to the top. (I'm sure the Haitian was just outside anyways since Hiro probably tried teleporting first...)

Later, Angela confronts Hiro and Ando about the formula that can give anyone powers (oh so this is what causes the horrible horrible semi-utopia of the future). She convinces Hiro to dig up Adam. Hiro and Ando do it and as they open the coffin Adam grabs him: “Hiro you son of a bitc---.”

End Credits

(no voice over! And no Noah Bennet or present day Claire storylines! Weird... but so unexpectedly nice)

The International Jewish Liberation School is grateful and delighted to offer a training course in Liberation (Deveikut, God-Merging) based on the principles and practices of Hebrew Wisdom.

Our school is a reactivation of this great and lost Hebrew Liberation wisdom.  This school is dedicated to sharing the great mission of Hebrew wisdom; the Democratization of Enlightenment (which is called in Hebrew wisdom sources Deveikut or He’arah).  In this teaching Deveikut (Self-Liberation) is not the province of the great masters, but a genuine option for every person.  The potential for realizing one’s true nature is the birthright of every human being.  Every human being has the potential and possibility to realize their true nature as part of the God field and to act – compassionately and courageously - from the integrity of that realization.

Because realization is the potential and possibility of every human being it is not merely an option but it is the very purpose and invitation of our lives.  In line with the four-thousand year lineage of Hebrew wisdom masters, we use the Torah as a guidebook to liberation.  Once we understand the Torah as a handbook for the Liberation of every human being, we realize that the intention of the Biblical ideal, of “Kingdom of Priests”- is no less then what we have called, The Democratization of Enlightenment.

Why is this so overwhelmingly important to us?  Because we subscribe to the hidden corollary of Hebrew Liberation teaching…that all ethical failure is ultimately rooted in a failure of realization.

A core practice of Hebrew wisdom is called Mitzvah.  Although Mitzvah is usually translated as commandment, the Hebrew mystics also read it as being related to the word Tzavtah, meaning intimacy.  Mitzvah is the path of intimacy in which the skin-encapsulated ego expands to include all that exists.  At the level of Liberation, Mitzvah acts as a channel to draw down the light (shefa) and activate the divine flow of life.

Particularly, we see Shabbat as a day spiritual renewal and Liberation in which the primary mitzvah is creating a quiet mind to receive the higher energies of Liberation. In this context Shabbat is integral to the teachings of Jewish Liberation.  In the Jewish liberation tradition, the words of the divine to Abraham, “Lech Lecha,” are literally translated to mean, “Go to Your Self. Realize that your Divine self is “literally part of God.”  Once the human beings solves the perpetual identity crisis by realizing his identity with Divine, he or she is able to act with courage, compassion, wisdom, responsibility and holy audacity.  It is this courage and audacity of human action, which supports the activation of the indwelling Shekhinah energy that opens us to the experiential awareness of Deveikut.  It is this awareness, which naturally manifests the most evolved vision of Tikkun Olam (the healing and transformation of the world).

The International Jewish Liberation School’s course honors, receives, and transmits the four thousand year-old Hebrew lineage of Liberation. Beginning with Abraham Isaac Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah; continuing to Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, Samuel, David and Solomon; transmitted to the communities of elders, prophets, priests and sages, there has been an energetic transmission of deveikut (liberation).  The lineage transmission includes some of the most wondrous illuminated beings to walk the earth, including Akiva, Judah the Prince, Abulafia, Maimonides, Cordovero, Yitzchak Luria, Chaim Luzatto, Meir Ibn Gabbai, the Gaon of Vilna, the Baal Shem Tov, Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, Mordechai Laine of Izbica, Rav Shalom Sharabi, Rav Yehuda Fatima, Ben Ish Hai, Menachem Mendel of Schneerson and Rav Kaduri in modern times.

A remarkable and powerful teaching of this tradition and modern times is that none of these people were perfect.  Perfection and absolute piety is a tyrannical ideal that ultimately separates us from the divine.  Toxic shame undermines the deveikut (Liberation) process. All of these liberated figures were flawed, some dramatically so, at different times in their lives. In the words of the ancient teaching, “The Tzadik falls seven times and rises, the wicked falls and does not rise.”  The ability to rise like a Phoenix from the fire and to transform human failing into human greatness is core to the shadow work of Hebrew Liberation technology.  As the schools of Kutzk and Izbica taught, one’s unique flaw is transmuted into one’s unique gift and gorgeousness.  We are all unique flames emerging from the same fire. It is in the realization of one’s authentic unique self that the human being merges with the God field. If one tries to round out the curves of a puzzle piece it cannot fit into the great puzzle of the Kosmos. It is only by highlighting the unique curvature of your self that your merge with the larger divine Self.

Who

The International Jewish Liberation School is co-led by Rebbe Gabriel Cousens, M.D and Rebbe Marc Gafni, Ph.D.

When

Opening Week

The opening week of the Jewish Liberation School will be six nights, seven days, between Dec. 24-30, 2008. This week will be our first annual  “open for all” study/ practice/ meditation intensive focused on touching into the eternal joy and internal glimpse of Jewish Liberation.

Annual Summer Course

The annual IJLS One-Year Course will start every summer, approximately in the middle two weeks of August.  The length will be 13 nights and 14 days, and continue throughout the year via live video telecasts. In 2009 it will be August 9-23.

For registration and information, please contact the Tree of Life at 520-394-2520 x201.

In 1983 on the fortieth day of a fast, while spending the last 3 days on little or no water and meditating 9 hours or more a day, Gabriel dissolved into the nothing in deep deveikut; about ready to leave the physical body as one can only stay in this state of inner dissolvement for 72 hours without leaving more permanently, a chasmal voice strongly spoke out that Gabriel was to return to his roots and serve Am Israel. Somewhat surprised at this assignment, yet surrendered to it, Gabriel began the deep journey into mystical Judaism. Raised as a reform Jew and as one who attended the North Shore Congregation of Israel in Glenco, Illinois from kindergarten through 10th grade and scoring the highest graduating grades out of 300 people, there was a strong feeling that he knew nothing about Judaism. But had a deep feeling for it, which was supported by the local conservative Rabbi Lippis, who had pushed Gabriel hard from the age of 11 to become a rabbi. The truth at the time was that, although drawn to what he strongly suggested, Gabriel was more interested in playing football than studying Hebrew, as football spiritually turned him on and he had known he would become a doctor since the age of four.

A major boost in his spiritual life happened at the age of 16 his older brother, with whom he was extremely close, was killed in an auto accident. Although many rabbis came to console his family, no one could speak to the meaning of death. Gabriel realized, at that time, that a sign that he had found his spiritual teacher was that that association would have to give him a direct apperception of the answer to this question. For the next two years he spent many long hours in his brother’s room contemplating and meditating while he symbolically reconstructed life by building a heart lung machine, which ended up winning the state science fair in 1959. After Amherst College, where he played out his football karma as the captain of an undefeated Amherst football team and was picked as all-new England guard and middle line backer and was elected into the National Football hall of fame as one of 11 All-American Scholar Athletes, he went on to Columbia Medical School to begin his doctor dharma. He did vaguely connect with Abraham Joshua Heschel at JTS, but missed the rest of the New York Jewish experience. He could not seem to find a place in the Jewish world and became interested in the Essenes, the Kabbalah, and Kundalini. In 1975, at the age of 33 when he received Shaktipat (the equivalent of Smicha l’Shefa, or Haniha) from the liberated being Swami Muktananda and received a direct knowledge of the answer to his question about death, he and gave up everything in the outer world to become an intense yogi meditating 6 hours per day, chanting 4.5 hours, and servings as a holistic physician for the thousands of yogis traveling with Sw. Muktananda, living in primarily in India, South Fallsburg, Oakland, and Santa Monica for seven years. The last 3.5 years were spent daily with Sw. Muktananda, without any break. In addition he took on a close “guru uncle” relationship with Sw. Prakashananda, the first person acknowledged by Sw. Muktananda as liberated in 1969.

At the end of the seven-years, at the age of 40, he was declared liberated by Sw. Prakashananda three times: once in front of a group of his devotees; once in front of his 12 year old son in Praskashananda’s ashram. These first two times Gabriel thought Prakashananda simply was testing; but the third time he made it intensely clear that it was the truth. He then spent a day in private instructing Gabriel about the meaning of Liberation and the dharma of it; making it clear that although Gabriel was the only liberated Western person in his lineage as a successor, his path may be in his original spiritual roots. A few weeks later Gabriel was acknowledged as liberated by Sw. Muktananda, who also empowered him to be a vehicle of grace for Shaktipat.  A few days later, Sw. Muktananda left his body. It was a dramatic and beautiful end to a most intense and profound cycle. The next year, in 1983 Gabriel began the forty day fast that had the surprise redirection back into Judaism by what appeared to be a Divine, but not sought after, command.

Attempting to move into Judaism at best was strange. He became Bar Mitzvah’ed at the age of 44 under the direction of Rabbi Hanan Sills and the training of Irv Newman.  Reuven and Yehudit Goldfarb attended the ceremony in Petaluma California. Irv, who was in his late 70’s, cried for the first time ever at a Bar Mitzvah as he was so touched by what he thought was the most profound one he had ever attended.

After that, Gabriel tried to explain Kundalini, Liberation, Shaktipat, and non-dual awareness to five of his Rabbi friends, and no one had a clue what he was talking about. Finally he got referred to Rabbi Gershon Winkler, who also did not know what Gabriel was talking about, but felt open enough to try and find a language in Hebrew to translate these yogic terms and experiences into Hebrew. Over time Gershon became Gabriel’s rabbinic mentor, and over the past eleven years has guided him in preparation to become a Rabbi. Although he first met Shlomo Carlebach in 1979, after 1983 Gabriel also became one of Rebbe Shlomo Carlebach’s physicians and spent many wonderful personal hours with him and was greatly inspired by his profundity He was a great soul.

In 1993 Gabriel founded the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Patagonia, AZ, and also the Tree of Life Foundation, a religious 501c3.  In 1996, after a 21-day water fast, on the 21st day, Gabriel was initiated with the hagiya of the Tetragrammatron in which these letters became burning symbols that permeated every aspect of Gabriel’s being. It was after this that he began speaking in the third person to more formally acknowledge that although he traveled in the body-mind complex, it was not who he was. This, he later found out, was similar to Reb Zusha and Reb Meir of Premishlan, who both also spoke in the third person. Gabriel also began to study Shamanic Judaism with Gershon, and after one joint Native American-Jewish conference with Gershon, Gabriel became a 4-year sundancer and was adapted into the Lakota Tribe as a clan chief, for bravery as he was the only one to go without any food or water for the three years of Sundance in the hot Nevada desert and stand attached to the Tree for four days from sunrise to sunset. Later Gabriel became head of the Spirit Dance, which is a universal dance for world peace, which we now do at the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center and Foundation (a non-profit religious corporation in Patagonia, AZ, and in Israel through our Tree of Light Foundation. In 2001, Gershon ordained Gabriel as a pastoral rabbi, which is one who is empowered to do all the ceremonies and holidays, but not one who was ready to interpret the Halachah.  Inspired by Gershon and other Kabbalistic masters Gabriel deepened his studies of the Kabbalah, which he actually lightly began in 1970’s and more seriously began in 1983. He also began living a modern orthodox lifestyle and has been Shomer Shabbat for about 12 years. Somewhere in this process Gabriel was directed to Aliyah in Israel and is now an Israeli citizen and has been teaching, creating Shamanic Shabbats, running spiritual fasting retreats, and teaching live foods in Israel since 2004.

It was during a big Israeli retreat, Lev Tahor, where he co-led a Shabbat with Rabbi Mordechai Gafni, that they met and became instant brothers. Mordechai was the first Rabbi who deeply understood the Jewish Liberation Theology that Gabriel was talking about. Their bond of mutual understanding and commitment was to awaken the ancient teaching and lineage of Jewish Liberation that began with Avraham Avinu, with “Lech Lecha,” as the first liberated Jew; followed by Yitzchak as the second liberated Jew in the lineage. Over time Marc and Gabriel began serious dialogue of their individual and eventually joint vision to create a Jewish Liberation School, which is now manifesting. Gabriel deeply appreciates Mark’s deep Jewish mystical wisdom and philosophical knowledge (the philosophical Kabbalah), which is sparked, inspired and powered by his active Ruach HaKodesh. What Gabriel brings to the teachings are his 27 years as a liberated Shaktipat master; his experiential knowledge of the how to help people build a foundation for the total whole person liberation and the ethical process of Jewish Liberation (almost continuous deveikut) to manifest. Although the author of ten books on nutrition, peace, and spirituality, his book Spiritual Nutrition: Six Foundations for Spiritual Life gives the best synthesis of his yogic revelations into the Jewish-Kabbalistic experience. It is clear to Gabriel that he had to go into the realm of Yogic Liberation in order to see the Torah as a manual for Jewish Liberation. Presently he is writing a book on the Torah as a manual for Jewish Liberation, interpreting each parasha from that perspective. Though he enjoys the three levels of Kabbalah and will be teaching some of the fundamentals of Jewish healing and to the Ma’aseh Bereshit (magical-practical Kabbalah) as well as of the Ma’aseh Merkava Kabbalah (mystical Kabbalah), his deep love is the Torah, which is the practical foundation for Jewish Liberation from his point of view. He is strongly inspired by Rabbi Akiba and the Baal Shem Tov, whom he considers great Jewish liberated beings. Mordechai and Gabriel are deeply inspired and committed to reactive this most profound aspect and lineage of the great Jewish Way of Deveikut. We joyously invite you to join us in this incredible unfolding and undertaking.

Shalom,
Gabriel

Why is Rabbi Marc Gafni, Ph.D., Co-Creating the International Jewish Liberation School, and Marc’s Bio

To answer this question on would have to enquire of Marc’s background from an intellectual, emotional, spiritual, psychological, karmic, physical, social, familial and biographical perspective. Each would require its own essay and only an integration of the entire essay would yield some glimmering of an answer to this question.  One answer, which transcends all of the above, is the Hebrew word. Kachah: Meaning: Just Because.  The word Kachah in Hebrew is made of Hebrew letters which the Baal Shem Tov teaches are the acronym for Keter Kol Ha-ketarim. The crown of all crowns.  Crown is the luminous divine essence or divine story called in Hebrew Keter, which is the highest reason, the highest will, the highest mystery on the border of the infinite.   Just Because.

If however this does not fully satisfy you, then Marc will share you a personal reason; a reason that is personal and transpersonal in the sense that the latter transcends and includes the former. Marc feels that to consistently hold a deep and profound recognition of the true nature of the self and the true nature of reality one must at least taste liberated consciousness.   This taste of liberated consciousness must then be integrated with intense shadow work, ethical practice, physical practice, eating practice, and social and spiritual artistry.  Each of these is a separate track of service which we will address unpack and unfold in the International Jewish Liberation School.  In Marc’s understanding this is the core teaching of Hebrew wisdom. Hebrew wisdom at its core is an enlightenment teaching; a Liberation teaching designed to gift the experience of enlightened and liberated consciousness to the largest amount of people with the greatest possible depth.  This is what Marc has referred to as the Democratization of Enlightenment.  This was a core theme in Marc’s teaching and his writing on Mordechai Lainer of Izbica.  It is a teaching which reflects the idea of evolutionary enlightenment core the teachings of the Kabbalah of Luria which receive pristine formulation in the Torah and Dharma of Avraham Isaac HaKohen Kuk.  It is this teaching on the evolutionary edge- the teaching that Liberation is both a potential, a promise and the birthright of every individual that lies at the core of Marc’s teaching.

Marc discussed this idea in depth with Moshe Idel and Ken Wilber in two dialogues in 2005 and 2006. At around the same time Marc and Gabriel met and led a sabot at a retreat in Israel. There was a deep and profound mutual recognition and love born on that Shabbat. Marc recognized the depth of Gabriel’s practice and liberated core. Marc also recognized the areas of spiritual practice that Gabriel had developed in this incarnation, which had not been available to Marc, and Gabriel did the same with Marc.  Gabriel and Marc then lost contact as Marc went through his painful trial by fire.  Gabriel and Marc reconnected and did a process of deep internal work around Marc’s trial by fire. Marc also joined Gershon in becoming a mentor, studying with Gabriel to prepare him for the next stage in the Rabbinate even as Gabriel became Marc’s mentor in psychological and healing work which helped Marc move through the pain towards a place of transmutation and transformation. In this cauldron of non-dual reality, where earth and heaven kisses, where the relative and the absolute revealed their oneness, the vision of the Liberation school was born in love. This is the personal / transpersonal story.

A deeper glimpse at Rabbi Kuk and his teaching of Evolutionary Kabbalah as a ground to our intention in the International Jewish Liberation School brings us to R. Kuk's principle of Evolutionary Enlightenment [the phrase "Evolutionary Enlightenment" is a precise translation of R. Kuk's phrase in his works Lights of Holiness].  Thirty years ago I became seriously interested in the writing of Abraham Kuk.  Kuk was a great Kabbalist and revolutionary thinker who lived a paradoxically and often beautifully conservative lifestyle. In my recent work on Mordechai Lainer of Izbica, who is in many ways my teacher, I began to realize that a number of the key ideas expressed in the Izbica lineage had direct and clear influence on Kuk.  One of the most important of such ideas is what R. Kuk calls explicitly in the Hebrew “evolutionary enlightenment”. As I studied more over the years I realized two things.  First, the Evolutionary motif was core to Kuk’s entire experience as well as to his conceptual vision of the ultimate nature of reality.  Second, I realized that this idea was far from limited to Kuk. In fact it is the single most important idea in Isaac Luria’s Kabbalah. And finally I have– together with students friends and study partners, traced this idea backwards to the very foundational sources of the Kabbalah. Kabbalah is the opposite of Adavaita. Kabbalah is evolutionary spirituality.

What does it all mean? It is very simple.  One view of reality suggests that the way to perfection is what the philosopher Lovejoy called the ascending path. One needs to leave the world of flux and change and enter into the world of eternal and unchanging form, which ultimately gives way to unchanging formlessness. . It is there and only there that redemption can be achieved. It is only by leaving behind the fluidity and instability of reality in all of its expression of chaos and uncertainty that we may achieve any measure of stability safety and ultimately realize bliss and perfection.  A second view of reality makes an almost diametrically opposed claim. This school champions what Lovejoy called the descending path. This is a very different way indeed.  In this understanding redemption is to be found in the constantly changing and transforming nature of concrete reality which in its ever-dynamic dance sings the praise of spirit in motion.

Monotheistic religion is usually identified with the first view. More pagan orientations in both their ancient and moderns expression are more readily identified with the second view.
Kabbalah forges a more integral view by embracing the primal intuition of spirit held in each of these experiences and conceptions of world.  One expression of divinity is the splendid order of eternal forms, which transcend the mad confusion of samsara: the world of truth which transcends the world of lies.

And yet the eternal divine, which is one, incarnates and manifests in the world of plurality.  Moreover this manifestation and incarnation of the one in the many, of the infinite in the finite, is not merely an expression of divinity; it is the divine invitation to its own great unfolding.  For Luria, reality is spirit. Spirit is absolute eternal and unchanging.  And yet –as all of us have experienced in our own mystical initiation, reality—which is spirit—is evolving no less then it is absolute. God – reality – ultimate spirit is both ever-present and already always the ground of all being even as spirit evolves through her incarnation in form. This, for the Kabbalist, is the evolutionary meaning of Nagargun’s reading of the Heart Sutra’s: Emptiness is Form and Form is Emptiness. All is one; God is one—meaning, explain the Kabbalists, God will be One.  Reality will be integrated and unified in an obvious tapestry of gorgeous interconnectivity and wholeness when we –baby faced divine incarnation of the godhead realizes God’s evolution.  In the words of Nikos Kazanzakis, cited by at least on Luria Scholar to explain the essence of Lurianic Kabbalah, “We are the saviors of God”.

What is Evolutionary Kabbalah?  Evolutionary Kabbalah deploys the most advanced wisdom available in the world today from all of the great traditions as well as from the hard and soft sciences, in order to understand, evolve and apply the principles of Kabbalah to contemporary life.

Marc Gafni Bio

Marc Gafni is a cutting edge, gentle and provocative spiritual teacher, as well as an author and television personality, a mediator, an iconoclast, a lover of people, troublemaker, and corporate consultant.  Marc is the author of seven books including the National Best Seller Soul Prints which won the prestigious Napra award for best spirituality book of 2001. It was a main selection of the One Spirit Book Club, and the Amazon.com best book in the Jewish thought category in 2001. This book was also made into a National PBS special and an audio series by Sounds True recordings. Soul Prints is published by Simon and Schuster.  Marc's second major English language book, also published by Simon and Schuster is The Mystery of Love. Beautifully written, it unpacks an esoteric Kabbalistic tradition, which teaches of the profound relationship between the sexual, the erotic and the sacred. Mystery of Love was met with much critical acclaim and was also made an audio series called The Erotic and the Holy, published by Sounds True.

Marc has been successfully involved in manifesting and leading spiritual context, including seminars, learning communities, training programs and spiritual movements since he was in his early twenties. He has struggled his whole life between his ability and desire to teach conventional spiritual wisdom and in conventional spiritual contexts, and his post-conventional styles of teaching and being.  This tension has created the gorgeousness of much of his work and has caused some significant dissonance over the years.  His commitment for the future is to be fully present and committed in the post conventional contexts in which he manifests and teaches.  Marc is currently the director of a private foundation dedicated to producing a great library of teaching on the human spirit with real implications for creating a better world for all of the children and grandchildren on our planet.

There are several stages in the unfolding study and teaching path of Marc Gafni.  In the first stage of his career, he was an Orthodox progressive Rabbi teaching Talmud Kabbalah and Biblical thought deep within the Orthodox fundamentalist world in Israel and in the United States. In the United States, Marc taught at Yeshiva University, serving congregations both as scholar in residence and Rabbi. He founded an outreach movement in the New York and Long Island Public schools. Eventually, Marc moved to Israel where he served as a Rabbi and taught classical Hebrew wisdom in the form of Talmud, Kabbalah and Biblical psychology. In this stage, he wrote two Hebrew books. The first, A Certain Spirit, re-defines the idea of faith from the old notion of the "dogma is true" to a more radical and profound idea that "I am true". In his second book during this period, An Uncertain Spirit, Marc challenged the age old idea that spirit could provide certainty or explain suffering, and he taught the spiritual path of dancing with the uncertainty as the realization of highest human potential. In this stage, he also began to explore the spiritual path of laughter and tears.  He also began to read bible through the prism of what he called biblical myth or the biblical archetypes. This work became the basis for the National Television shows that Marc created, wrote, and hosted for several years on National Israeli Television.

In the second stage of his study and teaching, Marc shifted much of his focus to the teaching of Hassidism and particularly, to a little known Kabbalistic lineage, which taught the idea of what Marc, has termed the Unique Self. This idea has been incorporated into the Integral Seminars of Ken Wilber and the Big Mind Process of Genpo Roshi and the teaching of many other spiritual teachers who were exposed to Marc's teaching through the Integral Institute. The Unique Self is an important foil and paradoxical complement to the classic Buddhist teaching of No Self. Marc's teaching seeks the integration of these two seemingly disparate moments of realization.  Emerging from the Hassidic teaching on Unique Self is the bestseller, Soul Prints, which was released in many languages. He also wrote a two volume 1200-page work on Non Dual Humanism, and it's expression as Unique Self. A small part of this work was submitted as a doctoral dissertation to Oxford University. These two volumes are now being prepared for publication as a project of the Foundation.

In the third stage of work, Marc turned his heart and attention to the Nature of the Erotic. In particular he taught of the interrelationship between the erotic, the sexual, and the sacred. Marc's basic teaching was to unpack the four faces of Eros that underlie all evolved reality.  He then moved to unpack the deep nature of the sexual as the model of living in Eros in all of the non-sexual dimensions of living. The first book to emerge from this study was the book:  Mystery of Love and the Sounds True Audio series on The Erotic and the Holy. Marc is currently preparing for publication and more extended treatment of this topic to be released on the title The Erotic and the Holy.

In the fourth stage of inquiry, Marc shifted his focus to the psychological and spiritual "Shadow teachings" which he saw as being an esoteric strain within the Hebrew wisdom tradition. In this work, Marc sought to evolve the understanding of Shadow beyond Jung's conception and to connect Shadow-work with the non-dual teachings of Kabbalah as well as with the Unique Self teaching. In this teaching Marc identified three distinct primary forms of shadow, which included not only one's hidden dark side, but also one's distorted Unique Self and Unrealized divinity. A book of these teachings is currently under preparation.

Next, in the fifth stage, Marc focused his attention and love on the nature of enlightenment. In some groundbreaking dialogues with Ken Wilber, Moshe Idel, Andrew Cohen, Jean Houston, the Dalai Llama, and Byron Katie.  Marc introduced the radical hermeneutic that all of Hebrew wisdom maybe be properly understood as an enlightenment tradition. Moreover, he showed that the most important single Kabbalistic idea which lies at the heart of Luria's Kabbalah is what Abraham Kuk called Evolutionary Enlightenment. The goal of the tradition in Gafni's understanding was to achieve maximal depth for maximal span- that is enlightenment is not just for the elite but seeks the democratization of enlightenment. Marc Gafni and a number of other leading spiritual teachers are now preparing a series of books called The Spiritually Incorrect Series on on Postmodern Enlightenment Teachings. In this work, they will also address the enlightened relationship of the masculine and the feminine in the postmodern world.  In this fifth phase Marc engaged in a series of recorded dialogues with World Thought leaders including his Holiness the Dali Lama, Ram Dass Ken Wilber, Andrew Cohen, Michael Beckwith, Bill Ury, Don Beck, Father Thomas Keating and Jean Houston. During this phase, emerging out of some fifteen dialogues with Ken Wilber, Marc presented two lecture series entitled Integral Judaism and Integral Kabbalah which now being prepared as two separate books.

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The course has four components:

1. The actual two-week course, whose content is described below.

2. Ten video yihiduts during the year after the summer course. Each will be on a different topic which will be open to participants and graduates of the Liberation School.

3. Creation of small sub communities formed for study, practice and support.

4. 2008 Winter Opening Kick-Off Week
In 2009 and onward, the Winter Program will be a gathering, a time to get re-inspired, and to continue to deepen, for graduates of the International Jewish Liberation School.   Graduates will be invited to attend the winter retreat and to re-attend summer intensive annually.

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Annual Winter Week Intensive:

The annual winter week intensive will weave together ecstatic study in the method of the ancient study hall, cleansing, mitzvah and Shabbat practice, meditation, chanting, prayer, dance, and sacred community. Texts studied and deployed will include, Mystical, Kabbalistic, Hassidic, Talmudic and Torah.

Topic for Year One: The Liberation of the Masculine and the Feminine

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Annual Summer Two-Week Liberation Course:

Jewish Liberation is Whole Person Liberation. The summer Liberation Course is therefore designed around what we have called the Seven Levels of Shalom {Peace} through which one becomes Shalem; A Whole Human Being. It includes: Peace with the Body, Peace with the Mind, Peace with the Family, Peace with the Community, Peace with all Cultures, Peace with the Earth, Peace with God.

In the ancient Hebrew tradition of Spiritual Fasting, the first week includes a seven day green juice fast, haniha meditation, prayer, some Ophanim and yoga, and Liberation studies and philosophy, and kabbalat Shabbat.

The second week includes: Principles and practices of Hebrew Liberation: Jewish Liberation Philosophy, Inspired Sacred Text Study, Meditation, Prayer, Service, Kabbalat Shabbat, Spiritual Nutrition for Powerful and Effective Prayer and Meditation, Ophanim (the yoga and energetics of the Aleph-Bet of the Hebrew Letters Hebrew Song and dance, Kabbalah Study, and development of midot by exploring psycho-spiritual development including:  Unique Self and levels of Shadow, and the Liberation understanding that the “Personality Is A Case Of Mistaken Identity”.

The International Jewish Liberation School is sponsored by the Tree of Life Foundation, a 501(c)3 not-for-profit foundation, under the Division of the Human School of Living Arts (HSLA).  The International Jewish Liberation School is currently confirming its accreditation applicable to a 2-year Master’s Degree in Jewish Liberation

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Masters Academic Degree:

The International Jewish Libeation School is currently confirming its accreditation applicable to a two-year master's degree in Jewish Liberation.

Those participating in the Liberation School who wish to receive a master's degree are required to come to attend two consecutive December programs, the Summer Jewish Liberation School, the ten monthly sichot (teaching sessions), and write a master thesis supervised by Rebbe Cousens and Rebbe Gafni.

Those who do not want to pursue the master track are not required to come to the second winter intensive or to write a masters thesis.

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Registration and Price

To register for the IJLS programs, please book your limited space at 1-520-394-2520 x. 201.

There are numerous crimes of gang rape, murders, and robberies occurring every minute in the country of my birth, South Africa. We as a society have become somewhat deadened to crimes experienced by our fellow neighbours. Information is so readily available to most people and the accounts of injustice are reported but we unconcerned. I am angry...and it makes me sick to think of such a place exists today. Here are some headlines: There are thousands to choose from but I have selected only a few from the period of August to early September...Please don't just scan through them but read it, and feel their grief.

• Rape victim fears she is HIV positive
  A young women who claims she had been raped by alleged serial rapist Tsediso Letsoenya has told of her worst fear.
• Brothers held for child rape
  A man and his brother have been arrested for allegedly raping a 10-year-old girl.
• ICD probes holding cell rape
  The Independent Complaints Directorate is investigating a case in which a Kimberley woman told how she "screamed and screamed" while being raped repeatedly after police officers put her in a holding cell with four men.
• Young, armed and dangerous
  At some point this year, 3 478 children were being detained across the country for various crimes - including murder and rape.
• Woman gang-raped after companion is killed
  A young woman enduring a horrific six-hour ordeal had to watch her friend being murdered before being gang-raped and dumped in the vicinity of Macassar in the Western Cape.
• Husband recounts wife's rape ordeal
  A father of two battled tears in the Cape High Court as he told how he watched alleged serial rapist Tsediso Letsoenya rape his wife.
• Death, rape in horror hijacking A Cape Town man has been shot dead and his girlfriend raped, after they were hijacked outside a magistrate's court.
• Man killed, girlfriend raped in Mfuleni
  A man was shot dead and his girlfriend raped by hijackers at Mfuleni, Cape Town, at the weekend.
• Man held for rape of four-year-old girl
  A teacher at the child's crèche had reportedly noticed that something was wrong with the child.
• Woman raped in front of child
  Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour is fuming after a prisoner on parole and another wanted criminal raped a prison employee in front of her young daughter.

It is alright to worry about the environment and making poverty history. But when fundamental human rights are violated, why do we not speak out for those who can't...The answer is simple...it is not our problem!

Do come for the 2010 world cup in South Africa, it may then be your problem?

Fiecare baiat a trebuit sa ofere 5 trandafiri... fetele care au minim 3 trandafiri sunt PROTEJATE.

Mihai - 1) Georgiana 2) Roxana 3) Valentina 4) Alina 5) Violeta
Gabriel - 1) Georgiana 2) Oana 3) Violeta 4) Laura 5) Valentina
Alexandru - 1) Violeta 2) Alina 3) Georgiana 4) Valentina 5) Oana
Stefan - 1) Roxana 2) Laura 3) Georgiana 4) Alina 5) Violeta
Bogdan - 1) Valentina 2) Oana 3) Alina 4) Roxana 5) Laura

Georgiana a primit 4 trandafiri... la fel si: Valentina, Alina, Violeta
Roxana a primit 3 trandafiri... la fel si: Oana, Laura

Astfel, ele sunt cele 7 fete protejate.

Nominalizari

D-na. Stela a numit-o pentru nominalizari pe Mihaela... la fel si D-na. Ildiko.

Mama saptamanii - Stela [62,5%]
Mireasa saptamanii - Roxana [41,5%]

Mihaela a fost protejata de votul telespectatorilor (locul 2 cu un procent de 24,4%)

NICI O FATA NU A PARASIT COMPETITIA IN ACEASTA SEARA.

Let's hope there will be time for each one.  Let's start with The Little Guy.  Sophia had a Baby Calendar on which I recorded every important moment in her little life.  Things like, "Sophia's First Hangnail" were blissfully written onto the date they happened.  Vivian's calendar was prioritized to her "First Tooth," and maybe "First Solids."  Poor Gabriel.  No calendar.  Good thing we have a birth certificate, otherwise his birthday might be dubious.   

This week, He slept through the night FOUR TIMES.  This is a big deal.  I know he's nine months old, but I am not focusing on that.  I'm focusing on the fact that we are making PROGRESS.  Glen has taken over the night time wakings and it's worked beautifully.  He can now soothe himself much better and can go to sleep without being rocked.  I will not record the nights spent sitting on my hands while he cried.  Nor will I tell about the dramatic "discussion" Glen and I had to get us to this point.  Gabriel is on his way to sleeping through the night and I am reclaiming my status as a conscious human being.

Gabriel has eight teeth.  He doesn't quite crawl yet...just scoots about on his bottom and occasionally does this commando thing on his belly.  He can say, "Dada, Mama, VuhVuh," and numerous incantations for Sophia.  He loves the cats and calls them "Ct."  The other day he tried to say, "Papa."  That made my day and confirmed my suspicion that Skype is a gift from God. 

Just two hours ago, our house was filled with giggles as the girls pushed Gabriel around inside the empty laundry basket.  It was all good fun until someone forgot to hold on and he leaned his way into a face plant on the carpet.  He is adored and resented alternately by his sisters.  Sophia mostly adores him and Vivian gives him a good balance of adoration and scorn.  He thinks they both hang the moon.  The first time he said "VuhVuh" for Vivi was when she'd left the bedroom and he wanted her back.  She informed Sophia, though, that he wasn't invited to her birthday party because "all he does is ride around on Mommy's hip."

Lilo and Stitch has ended and vivian wants to discuss how it is "sad, and happy and scary all at once."  Off I go....

He did bark at something this morning and run down the front yard, but Mom hollered out the door and reminded him the flags were down there. I'm not exactly sure what he was barking at, but I did see something about the size of a rabbit, only it wasn't a rabbit, run across the driveway. So I'm thinking maybe it was a cat?

The little stuffed animal in the picture is a little puppy dog that I gave him. He was so excited that I actually gave it to him! It's one of his favorite toys now!

My new comforter set for my bed came today! Mom had ordered me one since the old one I had was way too small for my bed (I think it was a twin size or something like that!) and it really looks wonderful! It's yellow and light blue to match my room, and Mom has matching border she wants to put in my room.. She likes border, she has some up in her room, but we have to re-paint my bedroom first, she says, since it only has one coat. The comforter is going to be nice and cozy, because it's really thick! I can't hardly wait for bedtime tonight. :)

The little guinea girl that hurt her leg flying off the chicken pen is slowly getting better. She was walking a bit better today, though still hopping somewhat. I've been keeping her penned up while I let the others out all day.

Puffy Buffy (who's actually not Puffy Buffy.. she was Puffy Buffy's sister!), Dove, Tiny, and The-Little-Hurt-Guinea-Girl (I need to find her a good name...) now occupy the Rooster Pen during the daytime. Yesterday I noticed Dovie getting attacked by one of the Princesses (spotted hens), so during the day she can stay with the rest of the invalids! I'm just going to have to start putting all of them in the turkey house brooder building, and call it the Nursing Home!

The picture on the right here is of the little guineas pecking my shoe. That's Sammy's big head unfocused right there. I never can seem to get him to stand still long enough to get a focused picture of him!! Jesse is in the top left corner.

I was looking through my folder of wallpapers that I've downloaded in the past, and saw this real nice looking fall one. I showed it to Mom and asked her what was the first Scripture verse that came to mind when she saw it.. and, well, here it is!

And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

The Problem

Non-Christians almost always raise the question: If God is good and God is great (all-powerful) then how can there be evil in the world? Since there is evil, there must be no God. Or if there is a God, he must not be good or he must not be all-powerful.

Two-Kinds of Evil

First, it is important to point out that there are two broad types of evil that we are discussing: moral evil and natural evil. Moral evil is that which results from the actions of free creatures. Murder, theft, rape and war are examples. Natural evil is that which results from natural process such as earthquakes and floods. There are sometimes the two are intermingled, such as when flooding results in loss of human life due to poor planning or shoddy construction of buildings.

Two aspects of the problem of evil.

Just as there are two kinds of evil, there are also two aspects to the problem of evil: the philosophical/apologetic problem, and the religious/personal problem of evil. The philosophical/apologetic problem stems from the challenges of the skeptic who questions the possibility or probability of there existing a God who would allow such suffering. The religious/personal problem, on the other hand, stems from the test of faith which the believer experiences who is suffering. In meeting this challenge we must appeal to the truth revealed by God in Scripture.

The logical problem of evil

For many years, the problem of evil was seen as a way to show that Christianity was logically inconsistent. If Christianity could be seen to be logically contradictory, then it had to be false.

The logical problem defined

The logical problem of evil asserts that it is irrational and hence impossible to believe in the existence of a good and powerful God on the basis of the existence of evil in the world. It is usually posed in the form of a deductive reasoning such as:

A good God would want to destroy evil.
An all-powerful God would be able to destroy evil.
However, evil is not destroyed.
Therefore, such a good and all-powerful God cannot possibly exist.

The logical challenge contends that it is impossible to believe both in the existence of evil and of a good and powerful God. If such a God exists, evil would not exist. But if evil exists (and it does), such a God cannot possibly exist, for He would certainly destroy such evil. David Hume stated the logical problem when He inquired about God: Is He willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then He is impotent. Is He able, but not willing? Then He is malevolent. Is He both able and willing? Whence then is evil?

Key to the logical problem

The key to the resolution of this logical problem is to recognise that when we say that God is "all-powerful" we are not saying that He can do anything whatsoever. True, Scripture does say, "with God all things are possible" (Mt. 19:26). But it also tells us there are some things God cannot do. For example, God cannot lie (Tit. 1:2). He cannot "deny Himself" or fail to keep his word (II Tim. 2:13). Neither can God even be tempted to sin, nor tempt others to sin (James 1:13). So, there are obvious exceptions to be understood when we say that God is "all-powerful" or able to do all things. He obviously cannot do anything out of character for a righteous God. We can also say that it is impossible for God to do anything that is out of character for a rational Being, for God certainly is rational. God cannot "undo the past," or create a square circle, or make what is false true. He cannot do what is irrational or absurd. This leads us to a consideration of the free will defence.

The free will defence

It is on the basis of what is said above that we conclude that, although God certainly is capable of destroying evil, it is impossible for Him to do so without rendering it impossible for Him to accomplish purposes that are important to Him. This is specifically true of his purpose to create beings in his own image, which possess free will. But creatures that possess freedom are free not only to love God but also to hate or ignore Him. Yet without free will we would be incapable of entering into a personal relationship with Him. Human freedom is essential to sustaining a personal relationship with God.

The problem of natural evil

It is clear that it is impossible to destroy moral evil without destroying human freedom. But what about natural evil? Here it is important to realise first that we live in a fallen world, corrupted by sin, and that we are subject to natural disasters and diseases that would not have occurred had we not rebelled against God (Rom. 8:20). Second, we must recognise that the natural order is also subject to the actions of fallen angelic beings to some degree (cf. Job 1, book of Revelation). These two facts make natural evil a product of moral evil. But beyond this, it is difficult to imagine our existing as free beings in a world much different than our own, in which natural processes allow us to predict with some certainty the consequences of our actions.

Theodicies

Theists have constructed a variety of theodicies (i.e. attempts to reconcile the presence of suffering in our world with the existence of a God) in response to the problem of evil.  These typically attack premise three in the above argument.  The free will defence contends that evil is due to the immoral actions of free agents, but that the world is better with free, morally responsible persons in it than with robots who lack moral responsibility altogether.  The greater goods defence asserts that evils are necessary for the existence of greater or "second-order" goods such as courage, forgiveness, sympathy, moral urgency, etc., and that the world is better with these greater goods (and the evils that they necessitate) than without them.

Irenaean style "soul-making" theodicies combine the free will and greater goods defences insofar as humankind is portrayed as imperfect and unfinished, and it is asserted that God offers a hedonically challenging reality so that people can freely choose to improve their souls within a world that provides obstructions, pitfalls, dangers, temptations and so on.  In one way or another, all these theodicies suggest that an omni-benevolent God need not oppose the existence of any and all causes of human suffering.  Instead, it is suggested that a perfectly good God will create the best of all possible worlds, and that this best of all possible worlds necessarily involves the existence of various types of evil as in eliminable prerequisites or consequences of higher or countervailing goods (e.g. free will, opportunities for self-perfection, experience of moral urgency, etc.).  These goods warrant the evils that they necessitate.  Hence, upon careful analysis, we find that there is no inconsistency between the existence of the God and the presence of human suffering because human suffering serves a central purpose in the best of all possible worlds.

Personal Reflections

The common assumption that God created the world specifically to bring about the best state possible for man. All the talk about man's greater good, the value of freedom, or whatever, points to this as the underlying assumption. However, if one makes this the starting point of his theodicy, he will never answer the problem of evil in a way that accords with Scripture. For, he will be trying to do what cannot be done -- justifying God on the assumption that His chief purpose in creating the world is for the good pleasure of man.  Scripture, however, does not proceed on this assumption, and neither should the Biblical theist. He needs to adopt a new perspective. His theodicy must rest on the presupposition that God's purpose in creating this world is to most fully manifest His glory and that the world He created accomplishes this purpose. God's glory is manifested through His various attributes.

Scripture repeatedly speaks of four attributes, which bear crucially on the problem of evil -- righteousness, justice, mercy, and grace.[1] It is hard to see how these attributes could be fully displayed except in a world in which man wilfully fell from primordial goodness into sin, brought evil on himself, and God redeemed him from sin by grace alone. An omniscient and omnipotent God could have ordained that mankind would faithfully keep the divine law. The righteousness and justice of God would have been displayed as He rewarded Adam and his posterity for their faithfulness. Even His mercy and grace may have become known, for Adam and his descendants could have been taught that their preservation in righteousness was due to the sustaining power of God and not their own strength. Nevertheless, righteousness and justice are more fully displayed when not only is good rewarded but evil punished. Mercy and grace are more perfectly manifested when the recipients are utterly unworthy. This is precisely what happens when God manifests His mercy and grace to the lost sinner by saving him for the sake of Christ. A righteous Adam may have had an abstract understanding of the ideas of grace and mercy. The unrighteous sinner who is drawn to Christ experiences God's grace and mercy in a much more profound fashion: "He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the objects of His mercy" (Rom. 9:23). Grace and mercy are also more wondrously displayed in a world in which man's fall resulted in spiritual death, not partial impairment. A spiritually sick person might claim a hand in restoring himself to God's favour. Only a once-dead person who has been restored to divine favour will see the extent of God's mercy.

Conclusion and summary

In Ephesians 2:4-5 we read: "But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved)." Grace and mercy, to be perfectly displayed, require man's redemption from a spiritually helpless position. We may go further. It is hard to see how the relevant attributes could be adequately displayed in a world in which all were elected to salvation. Justice, for example, requires punishment for sin as well as reward for righteousness. Some argue that eternal punishment is inappropriate for finite sin. However, what I find unclear is the view that sin committed against the highest majesty of God, though done by finite creatures, deserves finite punishment. One can easily argue that sin committed against the eternal commands of the infinite and majestic God requires proportionate, that is, infinite and eternal punishment. Nor does it seem possible that mercy and grace could have been fully displayed in a world in which God elected all men to salvation. If all men were saved in Christ, then, although not strictly of works, salvation would be a matter of birthright and not grace.

He always looks out the narrow window of his small “village” with his mind blocked with the conditionings and judgments of his upbringing outside the big cities from his childhood until the early years of his adolescence.

If you look at his label, he is a “great man”! His label conditions the people to think that he is knowledgeable about many different things! However in fact, he lives in his world with what he learned in his village and what he memorized at school!

He is even unaware of being a “labeled villager”!

Is it a shame? Is it a sin? Is it forbidden?

No, not at all!

It is just that he cannot exceed himself because he is not conscious of his situation; he wastes away his life and he depletes himself with worthless values! In addition, he unintentionally leads the people like himself down the wrong paths!

He may have come to the highest places in physics, medicine, chemistry and astronomy, but he still is in his” village”! He approaches life, events and people with the judgments of “the village in which he grew up”!

He learned “the religion” from the classes still in his village. There, a foundation was laid to his brain with the information given to him and so were his opinions shaped. Since his brain was blocked with the judgments that were formed according to the insufficient data acquired in that period, he cannot go beyond these thoughts of the past even if he becomes the professor in the subject!..

Since he was educated with a system based on memorization, he shies away from interrogating, researching, synthesizing the knowledge he obtained and finding out new results as if he moves away from fire!

He does not either come near these subjects:

“What is the place of Earth next to the universal realities?”

“How much of the millions upon millions of activities in our bodies do we know?”

“What is our brain and what is it like?”

“What is the being that we call I?”

He is afraid of these subjects!

He repeats, or else, what he memorized: “Everything is God, we are a part of God and I’m that God!”

And so what?

What are the benefits of memorizing this for you?

What does this knowledge add to your life?

Which luxuries does such awareness bring to you?

If the result of this awareness is irresponsibility and living a corporal freedom, all animals already unknowingly live these! What are your privileges and benefits that arise from this awareness? Which doors of secrets were opened to you because of knowing this about yourself, what did it allow you to comprehend? And which additional values did you add to your life in accordance with those secrets?

What kind of a “God” are you that you do not know “SunnatAllah”, the system and order that operates in the universe, you are not even aware of what it may be!

The bill of deceiving one’s self is the most expensive bill to pay in one’s life!

The Koran was taught (instructed)!

Why?

How?

It is fine, well, you say “I am That”, “I am the “ONE”, but do you know the “KORAN”?

Do not dare to say “It’s a holy book that God sent to the prophet!”…

Look at what is written in the book to be READ!

“1. Alrrahmanu 2. Aallama alqur-ana 3. Khalaqa al-insana 4. Aallamahu albayana” (Surah Rahman, 55: Verses 1/4)

“The Rahman has taught the Koran, created mankind, taught them speech (expression, intelligence, how to distinguish)!”

How was the mankind created? After which stage?

To whom or to what was the “KORAN” taught BEFORE the mankind had been created?

What does the word “teach” (allama) aim to describe here?

Why does Koran tell us all these?

In reaction to Darwin’s theory which says that the mankind descended from the apes, the concept of “INTELLIGENT DESIGN” has recently begun