Thought for the day ...

Hi All,

In respect of   'Orthodox & observant enough'.

Discuss.

Why?

A BIG *SIGH* here. 

I wondered how long it would take for some religious zealot to explain why the 3 Israeli Yeshivah students were kidnapped by terrorists; yup it is 'divine punishment'. Yep! It is either because Israel recently passed a draft for Haredi OR because Israel has been passing 'anti-religious (read chipping away at Haredi dominance of the Israeli Rabbincate) & is willing to provide land for peace ! Why not go ahead and blame gays, women's education & tzniut ?!?

Well, I'm not the best scholar in the world, nor am I the worst. But this I do know: the age of Jewish Prophets is over (which is why, incidentally, Jews rejected Mo, but that's a different story). So no-one has the right to claim the G-d is punishing Israel for whatever reason  and I believe that is well within Halakhah to give up land for peace. Furthermore I would argue that the ultimate Mitzvot, save the exceptional circumstances when we must Yehareg ve'al ya'avor,is -Pikuach Nefesh, the preservation of life. A peace treaty with the Arabs is essential in the long term, but it is a matter of timing and context that will determine this, though. I'm not G-d, so I'm not even going to give any possible spiritual answer as to why these things happen. In the same respect, when people ask me about the Shoah. I'll be honest. I don't have any words, any glibness, no hidden spiritual insight. As a famous Sephardi Rabbi [Judah ha-Levi] once said "If I understood Him, I would be Him". What I do know is that we can do our upmost to Daven[pray] for the return of these boys, alongside the practical actions that the IDF and others are doing . Furthermore, what needs to happen now is to put in place practical ways which will prevent further kidnappings. 

As for the reasons given  -

Well studying Torah academically is good, but if you really grasp it you'd realise that there is a life outside it and that is the real thrust of Judaism, besides which, ah you've heard me enough to know my views on this one, but I will turn to it in greater depth in another post ... & I can't see exactly what is damaging about the various issues mention in the article about the current Israeli government being 'anti-religious', e.g. the change to the conversion process, I will write about this at greater length another time, but I think there does need to be more leniency here.I read an article a couple of months back about how a famous Israeli actress wanted to convert- she had a Jewish father, not a mother- and stuck to all of the modesty rules, dietary rules and they apparently ended the conversion process because she was an actress, doh !!!

So if you are a self-righteous nutter or follower of a conclave of Mullah type Rabbis, who think they can interpret the divine will, turn this into a disgraceful political statement to suite your own needs, then go ahead. No-one else wants to know,  we are too busy praying and being practical in our efforts to bring back our boys. 

Thank you.

'Amidst everything we do, we say Hashem, please help our soldiers bring our boys back home.'

UPDATE (1 hour later) - I have the privilege of reading through my sister's notes for her book. She passionately expresses in her notes much of my feelings, so I will not need to discuss further the issues I said I would above.

The house of one, reducing all to none?

Hi All, 

A  fellow co-conspirator picked this one up for me. Via the BBC, Berlin is to build a place for worship, a single building for a Synagogue, a Mosque and a Church (see article HERE)  : 

'An architecture competition has been held and the winner chosen. The striking design is for a brick building with a tall, square central tower. Off the courtyard below will be the houses of worship for the three faiths - the synagogue, the church and the mosque. It is to occupy a prominent site - Petriplatz - in the heart of Berlin.

The location is highly significant, according to one of the three religious leaders involved, Rabbi Tovia Ben Chorin. "From my Jewish point of view the city where Jewish suffering was planned is now the city where a centre is being built by the three monotheistic religions which shaped European culture," he told the BBC. 

Can they get on? "We can. That there are people within each group who can't is our problem but you have to start somewhere and that's what we are doing."'

This person asked me what I thought about this, so I decided to make it into a post, as it chimed with a few things I've been thinking about recently. In one debate I had with someone online,  a couple of years back, I got this thrown at me : 

"show some respect for your religion and all the Jews who have suffered in the past and stop pretending it is OK in Judaism to be a dyke and to try out Christianity because it is not. It is a slap in the face to every one of them who went to the ovens!"

So with the above context  in mind (perhaps people get why I have no desire to share too much personal stuff with those of you whom I don't know)  what are my thoughts?  I think I will ignore the practicalities of getting 3 different faiths to agree to run a building and I appreciate there are 3 different sections to this building, but it still seems strange to think you can worship 3 different Gods in the same house of prayer.  I will also ignore the fact that within these 3 faiths, there are people who simply cannot agree with each other( Haredi/Reform, Catholic/Protestant, Sunni/Shia), although it is a point worth making, for if people in a religion cannot reconcile, what are the people between religions doing to their own beliefs to make this happen? (that isn't rhetorical btw).

Sooooooooo, I'm all in favour of being ecumenical. I have Christian relatives & good Christian friends, for that matter my best friend & housemate is an atheist, thankfully unlike the atheist troll we get he here, he is not a loony militant one, though, just a person who simply doesn't believe in any gods, but wants to live a decent ethical life, a non Jew who likes to take part in our Shabbat meals  and who enjoys the Bible as his favourite 'fictional book' & is also very pro-Israeli and likes us Jews. It is also true that at university, I got heavily involved in Christianity of various stripes (the strangest being the 'Charismatics', but that is a story- and is a story- for another day!). But the line is drawn somewhere and I think that would be it. It is about being honest, besides which, what is  the point of being a Jew, if it didn't matter which God a Jew followed? 

I think I'd have to echo my brothers sentiments a couple of weeks back about The Pope's ecumenical prayer summit. For me, I would add that we need to have respect for each other and not persecute or kill each other, but that does not mean to say we worship the same deity. I've looked at this myself (more Christianity, than Islam) and I don't feel confident to say I worship Jesus, let alone Allah. I can appreciate Christians of some stripes saying we worship Jesus, but don't know it or that we worship 'God the Father' and that some Muslims could claim we worship the same God, but follow a different path as Jews corrupted the Torah, until Mo came along and set us all right. I dunno, but to me I just can't buy this idea. Not because I wish to use this as a vehicle to hate Christians or Muslims, far from it, but because of the question asked above, what is the point of being a Jew, if it didn't matter which God a Jew followed? 

I  have no time for those conspiracy theorists who think we are heading toward 'one world government', which is manifest in the creation of 'one world religion' which signifies 'the end times' as per the book of Revelation (what else?).  This to me is too far fetched and fitting only of the wacky conspiracy theorist mindset and requires no further discussion here.  A slightly more plausible alternative is that this could be the popular manifestation of the idea that we all really worship the same God and that the blood letting in the middle east is a result of those who are on the more orthodox end of the 3 respective faiths. Or something like that. Except that there is a slight difference in telling someone of another faith you're destined for hell and helping them on their way.  FWIW - as repeated before here-I believe that non-Jews will also have 'a portion in the world to come'- and that differences can and should be discussed/debated, without the need to violence or in fact to build a building of religious worship for 3 religions in one, however much that may appeal in the face of militant fundamentalism. There seems to be merit in this, as noticeably the the bit the middle the 'central meeting place', looks to me to be distinctly bigger : 

Those are my brief thoughts, what do readers think? Is it OK for us all to worship in one building, separately? Or is there something wrong about this because none of us worship the same deity? And what of the conflict within faiths? Shouldn't Jews be more interested in trying to met fences between themselves and Muslims and Christians likewise? Isn't this just an attempt to reduce all of our faiths into one mushy compromise, because people fear we'll all end up in conflict otherwise?  What do you think? 

Bring back our boys : A song

Hi All, 

Another song for us to sing at present, as shared with us by a fellow commentator in the thread below. 

A father hopes, a mother trusts, a nation unites

Our day has turned to night

A cell phone rings, panic strikes, tell me what are we to do

Hashem, our only hope is you.

Esa Einai, El He'arim, El He'arim (I lift my eyes up to the heights) 

Mei'ayin Yavo Ezri, Ezri Me'im Hashem (From where comes my help? My Help is from G-d) 

We call to you, we pray out loud in a strong voice.

Please Hashem- Bring Back our Boys.

We all hear, we all read, we can't believe

Our day has turned to night.

How insane! We feel the pain, tell us what to do?

Hashem our only hope is you.

Esa Einai, El He'arim, El He'arim

Mei'ayin Yavo Ezri, Ezri Me'im Hashem 

We call to you, we pray out loud in a strong voice.

Please Hashem- Bring Back our Boys. X3

New Planet, old conversation

Hi All, 

Much to my delight, via the BBC, a new planet has been discovered :

"There is a new class of planet out there that astronomers are calling the "mega-Earth".It is an object with a hard surface like our own world but much, much bigger.The necessity for the new designation follows the discovery of a planet which has a mass some 17 times that of Earth.Known as Kepler-10c, it orbits a star about 560 light-years away."

What is fascinating about this discovery is that this is a planet (see picture below) which is twice the diameter of the earth, which makes it the size of a mini gas giant, but because of its mass, means it is more likely to be  a rocky planet like earth, than a gas giant like Jupiter or Neptune (technically you could call Neptune an 'ice giant'). And if the planet is earth like, then there may be life there. Of course with a strong gravity on the planet, life would be very different to that which we are used to on earth, but it could be life nonetheless. Whilst we as Orthodox Jews believe that "This, The Torah of Moses, shall not be abrogated, nor shall there be any other Torah from G-d save it", we are also comfortable with science,except some of our more strident Haredi, who aren't really the only authentic voice of Orthodoxy, but a new brand of Judaism dating back only 200 years ago. Indeed Moses Maimonides went so far in the preface to his book  'Guide for the Perplexed' : "Knowledge of the Divine cannot be attained except through knowledge of the natural sciences."  

One question

Hi All,

One of the purposes of this blog is to ask questions in a secure way, without being fearful of the consequences (i.e Internet anonymity) , be that  on any subject, but I guess religion in particular. So, what is on your heart today? If  you met G-d and could ask him anything, but it could only be one question, what would it be and why ?

I'll start off  with mine. Why did my mum and dad have to pass away? And the reason I ask this question : being an orphan I never got to know them and they me. It breaks me up, always, never being able to have that experience. Which is why, despite the bricks I have thrown at me for 'twisting the word of G-d to suit my sexuality' etc, I am a strong advocate of the family, my community and G-d . Incidentally, we sang this the Psalm -121-  on Tuesday night at the start of Shavous, which has always meant a lot to me, whenever I've needed some form of spiritual uplifting :

"Esa einai el heharim, 

me'ayin me'ayin yavo ezri

Esa einai el heharim, 

me'ayin me'ayin yavo ezri

Ezri me'im Hashem, 

Oseh shamayim va'aretz

Ezri me'im Hashem, 

Oseh shamayim va'aretz"

"I will lift up my eyes to the mountains.

From where does my help come? 

I will lift up my eyes to the mountains.

From where does my help come?

My help comes from the L-rd, 

who made heaven and earth.

My help comes from the L-rd, 

who made heaven and earth."

Over to you guys now, 

Love, H :)

Thank you all : some heart, some theology

Hi all,

I've updated, edited and redrafted some of this  post, which I wrote in haste last night...

Me and my housemates  & other friends are just having a summer BBQ , with Kosher Sausages and Beef burgers.  I just wanted to say on behalf of me and my girlfriend Sarah, THANK YOU for being so lovely and kind to us as we have admitted our feeling for each other & made our relationship public; yes it is an intimate and close one and that is all we want to say about that. Neither of us can tell you what it means to have this support and this love. I've been, for a couple of years,  in a deep black hole for a while, a depressive, suicidal, horrible place where I've struggled with my religion, observance, belief  & sexuality: I've flipped and I've flopped, I've been uncertain, inconsistent, unsure, I've tried to tow the party line & above all I've been afraid of my true feelings and needs.

Should I be a Jew? Or a Christian ? Does Hashem love me? Am I allowed to express my love? Have a companion? A soulmate?

And the answer is, after 10 years of difficulty,  yes ! yes and yes! I am a Jew, proud of my heritage, loving every Jew, every Synagogue, loving our homeland of Israel with a passion that I cannot express. Loving & loyal, but not necessarily, understanding of our G-d and  the Torah. But yet,  I am LOVED by Hashem; as child of the G-d of   Abraham Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah, as child of Israel, made in his image, created by him.

I've known great joy, but great sadness and a deep, deep, longing to be loved by someone and to love in return. But, bit, by bit I've been able to understand these issues, thank Hashem. But thanks to YOU guys, my FAMILY AND MY FRIENDS, who have always been there for me, who have loved me and supported me through all the pain and all the difficulties. 

I love you all lots,  THANK YOU !! XXXXXXX

I also know that not everyone is happy at present, that people do struggle, strive and don't get everything about religion and sexuality, or just life :  the pain, the love, the tears, the difficulties, the cultural pressures & how one has to deal with fundamentalist attitudes as the bee all and end all of Orthodoxy. Well, we are here for you .As is G-d. G-d loves all of humanity. You don't need to be a Jew to know him and to love him or to walk in his ways. You don't need to dress up or wear a black hat to worship him, you just need to hear his voice. He LOVES you and all of humanity. 

This is my personal view and passions. But how does this stack up against Judaism and current Rabbinical thought?

Letter to G-d

Dear G-d, 

I hope that you are well. I appreciate that as creator and master of the universe, people might think you probably might not have the time to check this little letter to you, although I understand that you are our  Avinu Malkeinu; our Father and our King.

You know I love you loads,even though I went through a long period of not believing you existed, that I didn't want to bother with you&  you know that I sometimes want to ask you difficult questions, like why did you give us such wonderful stuff in your Torah, only for people to use it badly? Why do people insist that why you gave us your creation and your science, one is told you have to pick you or science? 

You know I've screamed at you before, very loudly, and asked you why me and Rachel never got a chance to meet my mum and dad. Why was life was being taken as it was being given? I know that they are at the Shabbat table in Gan Eden, the place of peace which is like the feeling after sex or the warmth of a sunny day. But I still would like to know stuff.  What do they think of me? My life? My choices? My relationships ? Do they mind if I'm gay? Do they like my beloved, Sarah?  Do they love me? Are they proud of me? What about my brother's  first wife, his son and my sister's daughter?I have mourned their passing, so, so greatly. You know I grieved the loss of dear uncle Hashy, who raised me in difficult circumstances; is he still smoking his pipe? Is he still grumpy and stubborn? Is he with auntie Eleanor? I know that you love all nations of this world and that he followed you all the days of his life. You know that.

You know I'm not the best Jew or the most observant one, I try and meet you through living, the attempts to be kind, to not let my 'inner bitch' come out too much, trying to do and not to do... & friends and family. I enjoy the Shabbat you gave us. We light candles, break bread and drink wine over prayers, sing , eat discuss the Torah, debate & reflect over the week together,often till the early hours of the morning (especially as one of my brothers is now living with us!). You know that, though, because you are with us there. 

You know I've struggled a lot in trying to meet with you; being an atheist, then looking into Christianity, now returned to the Jewish fold. .My brother David says to me what is more important is how we all act in the world, rather than what we say we believe.I know you  understand all of this because I just have that sense of shalom, peace completeness and wholeness . You know that for the first time in a very long time I'm beginning to feel happy. I don't know if that will last, because life is life. Good and bad. But YOUR love,G-d, is eternal as you've said via King David (Psalm 136), it never ceases or ends.

That's what I like about you G-d

Hashem, ani ohev otra

God, I love you loads xxx

Jurassic Judaism!

Via the BBC -

"Fossilised bones of a dinosaur believed to be the largest creature ever to walk the Earth have been unearthed in Argentina, palaeontologists say.
Based on its huge thigh bones, it was 40m (130ft) long and 20m (65ft) tall.
Weighing in at 77 tonnes, it was as heavy as 14 African elephants, and seven tonnes heavier than the previous record holder, Argentinosaurus."

But of course, this doesn't stop people from denying that dinosaurs ever existed; in 0.31 google seconds I came up with 1,220,000 internet articles about 'dinosaurs didn't exist'. More interesting than this  was that some sites suggesting that they are a conspiracy theory to 'prove' evolution. OK, I guess if people wish not to believe in facts  & even though, as the picture shows below it is pretty conclusive that dinosaurs did exist that is up to them.

                                                                   Pause .Oy vey !

For us Orthodox Jews and for the thinking person of any faith, I'd suggest the Judaism & religious belief  has always been compatible, if not comfortable,  with science. Our great Rabbi Maimonides  noted that  seeming conflicts between science and the Bible arise from either a lack of scientific knowledge or a misunderstanding of the Bible; furthermore that  science is one of the primary paths to knowing God which is the reason why the Bible commences with a description of creation . Indeed Chazal of the Talmud always viewed Torah knowledge in light of prevailing scientific theory.

Secondly there is possible reference in the Torah  dinosaurs, as it says: "And God created the giant Tanin" (Genesis 1:21). What is a Tanin? In Exodus 7:10, when Moses throws down his staff before Pharaoh, it turns into a "Tanin," translated as a "snake." Thus a Tanin is in the reptile family. They are also the only creatures in the creation account referred to as "giant," and indeed, dinosaurs were the largest creatures ever to walk the earth. What happened to them? The Talmud (Baba Batra 74b) says that God caused the extinction of the giant Tanin soon after their creation, because had the Tanin been fruitful and multiplied, the world would not have been able to endure before them. And as we know the dinosaurs became extinct, although there are various theories (asteroid, climate change etc) as to why this occurred. 

Huge, fearsome & magnificent creatures that they were, dinosaurs can't possibly be a threat to the religious Jew. As G-d's creations, they are another example of His wondrous might. There's nothing to be afraid of in acknowledging the fact of dinosaurs or learning about them.

No fear only Shalom

Hi All,

I had to do write this.  it has been eating me up for a long, long time, but having read about others coming out that they were gay & in a relationship, I'm taking the plunge. I've spoken to my immediate friends and family. I hope people will be as understanding as they have been to me this morning 

( : 

My face is tears like rain

because being able to tell you

something special

has taken away my pain

my feeling of inadequacy, 

my fear, my feelings, 

my potential hypocrisy 

I feel no fear, only shalom

I've got a girl friend

Well more than just a friend

a companion, a soul mate, a lover

I'm no longer having to pretend

I can't help my feelings of whom I love

I feel no fear, only shalom

 

I thank my family and friends for understanding

for being loving and kind always

I know some of you don't understand,

 but love me as a sister

& for wanting to provide a loving welcome

 to my friend

I  feel no fear, only shalom

God created me in his image

He knit me together in my mother's womb,

knows my innermost thoughts

I am one of his children

He does not put a stumbling block before the blind

He restores the years the the locusts have eaten

The Merciful One, blessed be his name,

overlooks what is out of a person’s control

I feel no fear, only shalom

I can't live my life out without companionship and love

God knows this, I hope the rest of you do

Do not judge another person until you have been in their place

Don't judge me by what I am, but what I do

I feel no fear, only shalom

What is more important, the quantity of observance or the quality?

Rather than query what happens in bedrooms 

Praise what's going on in the living rooms 

welcoming guests, keeping Kosher, loving the stranger, 

not bitching, honouring people, 

being part of Torah centred families & values

I feel no fear, only shalom ...

 ...for I shall leave judgement to the Almighty. 

In the meantime we have a life to live and live it to the full. 

Hannah ...... & my girlfriend  Sarah 

Shalom Hashem Aleikhem!

Bendigamos!

Hi All, 

This is a song which is traditionally sung, by Sephardi Jews, after meals. Whilst I personally only do so during Shabbat, it is a lovely song to sing & I am determined to maintain as much of the tradition of the Sepharadim as possible (our family survived Iraqi ethnic cleansing, so it is something worth preserving). Find it being sung on this link here .

Below is the Ladino and then the  English translation : 

Bendigamos

Bendigamos al Altísimo,
Al Señor que nos crió,
Démosle agradecimiento
Por los bienes que nos dió.

Alabado sea su Santo Nombre,
Porque siempre nos apiadó.
Load al Señor que es bueno,
Que para siempre su merced.

Bendigamos al Altísimo,
Por su Ley primeramente,
Que liga a nuestra raza
Con el cielo continuamente,

Alabado sea su Santo Nombre,
Porque siempre nos apiadó.
Load al Senor que es bueno,
Que para siempre su merced.

Bendigamos al Altísimo,
Por el pan segundamente,
Y también por los manjares
Que comimos juntamente.

Pues comimos y bebimos alegremente
Su merced nunca nos faltó.
Load al Señor que es bueno,
Que para siempre su merced.

Bendita sea la casa esta,
El hogar de su presencia,
Donde guardamos su fiesta,
Con alegría y permanencia.

Alabado sea su Santo Nombre,
Porque siempre nos apiadó.
Load al Señor que es bueno,
Que para siempre su merced.
.הוֹדוּ לַיָי כִּי־טוֹב. כּי לְעוֹלָם חַסְדּוֹ

Let us bless

Let us bless the Most High

The Lord who raised us,
Let us give him thanks
For the good things which he has given us.
Praised be his Holy Name,
Because he always took pity on us.
Praise the Lord, for he is good,
For his mercy is everlasting.

Let us bless the Most High
First for his Torah,
Which binds our nation
With heaven continually,

Praised be his Holy Name,
Because he always took pity on us.
Praise the Lord, for he is good,
For his mercy is everlasting.

Let us bless the Most High,
Secondly for the bread
And also for the foods
Which we have eaten together.

For we have eaten and drunk happily
His mercy has never failed us.
Praise the Lord, for he is good,
For his mercy is everlasting.

Blessed be this house,
The home of his presence,
Where we keep his feast,
With happiness and permanence.

Praised be his Holy Name,
Because he always took pity on us.
Praise the Lord, for he is good,
For his mercy is everlasting.
Give thanks to the L-rd, for He is good. His love is eternal 

 .

Psalm 8 -Angel in blue marble

Hi All, 

The picture below  is -of course -one of our own planet earth,  as taken during the Apollo 17 space missions. For me I often call the earth an 'angel in blue marble, as a stunning example of the creation of the Almighty. 

When I see pictures like this, I cannot help but think of one of David's songs,  Psalm 8 , which is my response to those who remain sceptical about G/d or his role in cosmology -

To the conductor, on the gittith, a song of David.		א. לַמְנַצֵּחַ עַל הַגִּתִּית מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד:
O Adonai, our Master, how mighty is Your name in all the earth, for which You should bestow Your majesty upon the heavens.		ב. יְהֹוָה אֲדֹנֵינוּ מָה אַדִּיר שִׁמְךָ בְּכָל הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר תְּנָה הוֹדְךָ עַל הַשָּׁמָיִם:
Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings You have established strength because of Your adversaries, in order to put an end to enemy and avenger.		ג. מִפִּי עוֹלְלִים | וְיֹנְקִים יִסַּדְתָּ עֹז לְמַעַן צוֹרְרֶיךָ לְהַשְׁבִּית אוֹיֵב וּמִתְנַקֵּם:
When I see Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and stars that You have established,		ד. כִּי אֶרְאֶה שָׁמֶיךָ מַעֲשֵׂה אֶצְבְּעֹתֶיךָ יָרֵחַ וְכוֹכָבִים אֲשֶׁר כּוֹנָנְתָּה:
what is man that You should remember him, and the son of man that You should be mindful of him?		ה. מָה אֱנוֹשׁ כִּי תִזְכְּרֶנּוּ וּבֶן אָדָם כִּי תִפְקְדֶנּוּ:
Yet You have made him slightly less than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and majesty.		ו. וַתְּחַסְּרֵהוּ מְעַט מֵאֱלֹהִים וְכָבוֹד וְהָדָר תְּעַטְּרֵהוּ:
You give him dominion over the work of Your hands; You have placed everything beneath his feet.		ז. תַּמְשִׁילֵהוּ בְּמַעֲשֵׂי יָדֶיךָ כֹּל שַׁתָּה תַחַת רַגְלָיו:
Flocks and cattle, all of them, and also the beasts of the field;		ח. צֹנֶה וַאֲלָפִים כֻּלָּם וְגַם בַּהֲמוֹת שָׂדָי:
the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea, he traverses the ways of the seas.		ט. צִפּוֹר שָׁמַיִם וּדְגֵי הַיָּם עֹבֵר אָרְחוֹת יַמִּים:
O Adonai, our Master, how mighty is Your name in all the earth!		י. יְהֹוָה אֲדֹנֵינוּ מָה אַדִּיר שִׁמְךָ בְּכָל הָאָרֶץ:

I've never known a God like Hashem before ..

I've
never known a God
like Hashem before
Now just like in
a Psalm from days of yore

Even though I'm a Lesbian Jew,
Astrophysicist I should know
God doesn't exist at all
But still God Came a knockin
knockin on
my door
true Torah Jew and all

And I've never
met a God like him before
In a day of listening to Torah
I wanted more
And I praise him
with or without a prayer shawl

Cos now I'm doing
teshuva on the floor
And I've never
known a God like him before
The way God loves me
He doesn't hate my sexuality

I ‘m not talking metaphorically
No way that im talking analogically!
Know that I'm
talkin bout the way I feel
And I'm gonna praise God at the
Shabbat meal

And I've never
know a God like him before
Show fundies the door
Because Torah says love
your brothers and sisters
Some more

Adapted from -

A D'var Torah -Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh

This is a traditional Jewish song which we the Kav household sing after our Friday night Shabbat meal, whose title is taken from Exodus Chapter 3  vs14.  When Moses asked the Almighty who he should say had sent him to liberate the Jewish nation from slavery in Egypt, he replied 'Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh' (Exodus 3,14). This is commonly translated into English as 'I am that I am', but a more literal translation is 'I shall be that I shall be' or 'Who was , Who is'.

Maimonides, in his guide for the perplexed,  provides an explanation for this  difficult to understand description as follows: 

"When God appeared to our Teacher Moses, and commanded him to address the people and to bring them the message, Moses replied that he might first be asked to prove the existence of God in the Universe, and that only after doing so he would be able to announce to them that God had sent him. For all men, with few exceptions, were ignorant of the existence of God; their highest thoughts did not extend beyond the heavenly sphere, its forms or its influences. They could not yet emancipate themselves from sensation, and had not yet attained to any intellectual perfection. Then God taught Moses how to teach them, and how to establish amongst them the belief in the existence of Himself, namely, by saying Ehyeh asher Ehyeh, a name derived from the verb hayah in the sense of "existing," for the verb hayah denotes "to be," and in Hebrew no difference is made between the verbs "to be" and "to exist." The principal point in this phrase is that the same word which denotes "existence," is repeated as an attribute. The word asher, "that," corresponds to the Arabic illadi and illati, and is an incomplete noun that must be completed by another noun; it may be considered as the subject of the predicate which follows. The first noun which is to be described is ehyeh; the second, by which the first is described, is likewise ehyeh, the identical word, as if to show that the object which is to be described and the attribute by which it is described are in this case necessarily identical. This is, therefore, the expression of the idea that God exists, but not in the ordinary sense of the term; or, in other words, He is "the existing Being which is the existing Being," that is to say, the Being whose existence is absolute. The proof which he was to give consisted in demonstrating that there is a Being of absolute existence, that has never been and never will be without existence." 

The song's English lyrics  can be translated as  follows :

'WHO WAS and WHO IS, desire Your people, listen to my prayer from your holy abode 

Chorus: Behold I yearn for Your Temple, to see the greatness of Your strength, splendor, and glory (2x) Have mercy, my Only One, Who spares those who oppose you, shorten my exile, for I lean on You 

Chorus: Behold I yearn for Your Temple, to see the greatness of Your strength, splendor, and glory (2x)

WHO WAS and WHO IS, desire Your people, listen to my prayer from your holy abode 

Chorus: Behold I yearn for Your Temple, to see the greatness of Your strength, splendor, and glory (2x) Have mercy, my Only One, Who spares those who oppose you, shorten my exile, for I lean on You Chorus: Behold I yearn for Your Temple, to see the greatness of Your strength, splendor, and glory (2x)'

This version is lead by the late and great Ofra Haza, a well know Israeli-Yemenite Jewish singer

Younger viewerss will have to excuse the '70's fashion!

This version is helpful because it has English sub-titles  :