Mahdi And Messiah Alone Will Not Cool A Hot Shot Planet

abracad, May 3, 2023 · Categories: externally authored, science and spirituality, spiritual politics

Rabbi Allen S. Maller

The week of Passover was celebrated during the month of Ramadan again this year, so Jews and Muslims should concentrate on the challenges facing our world.

March 2023 was Earth's second-warmest March in 174 years.

Both Judaism and Islam teach their followers to take care of the earth. Muslims and Jews also believe that humans should act as guardians and trustees (stewardship and khalifah) four our planet, and that they will be held accountable by God for their actions. So what will a half degree Celsius of warming do to our planet?

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God's 5000+ Signs Of Exoplanet Life

abracad, May 3, 2023 · Categories: externally authored, science and spirituality

Rabbi Allen S. Maller

In the 20 years before NASA launched the Kepler Space Telescope in 2009, about 325 exoplanets were discovered. Kepler was a full-time planet hunter that revolutionized astronomers’ understanding of exoplanets. It was particularly interested in finding Earth-sized planets orbiting sun-like stars at a distance where water on the surface could be stable in liquid form — the so-called habitable zone.

In the 14 years since 2009 almost 5000 confirmed exoplanets have beeb found and we now know that there could be more planets than stars in the Milky Way. Many of them are in multiple-planet systems like our solar system, and a large share of the exoplanets appear to be super-Earths — a class that’s bigger than our planet but smaller than Neptune.

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Who Out There Has The Truth?

abracad, February 25, 2023 · Categories: externally authored, religion

By Rabbi Allen S. Maller

Twelve years ago the U.N. General Assembly proclaimed the first week of February as Interfaith Harmony Week for all religions; with a resolution that recognized “the imperative need for dialogue among faiths and religions in enhancing mutual understanding, harmony, and cooperation among people.”

So this Reform Rabbi offers to the religious public this article about religious TRUTH in the Qur’an.

All wise religions praise modesty; and modesty requires that religious believers do not claim that they or their religious beliefs are the one and only TRUTH. This is why the Qur’an states: “To each of you We (God) proscribed a law and a method. Had Allah so willed, He would have made you a single people, but (God’s plan is) to test you in what He has given you: so compete in all virtues as in a race. The goal of you all is to (please) Allah who will show you (on judgment day) the truth of the matters in which you dispute.” (Qur’an 5:48)

“O Children of Adam! Indeed, We have bestowed upon you from on high [knowledge of making] garments to cover your nakedness, and [clothing] as a thing of beauty; but the garment of God-consciousness [modesty] is the best of all. Herein lies a message from God, so that man might take it to heart. (Qur’an 7:26) (more…)

Spirituality and Hope In A Time Of Oppression

abracad, December 29, 2022 · Categories: externally authored, spiritual politics

by Rabbi Allen S. Maller

The Gospel of John reports that Jesus came to Jerusalem for the Festival of Dedication — Hanukah: “The Festival of Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in Solomon’s portico” (John 10:22-23). What was Jesus celebrating during that eight day period that Jews world wide still celebrate?

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Pioneer Jews of the West

abracad, November 20, 2022 · Categories: externally authored, religion

By William T. Hathaway

Amazing but true: The first European settlers in what is now the USA weren’t English Puritans or French fur trappers but Sephardic Jews. Before the Mayflower sailed to America, Jews had fled the Spanish Inquisition and settled in what is now Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Although they were eventually absorbed into the mainstream culture, they built a real Jewish life here.

Who were these first pioneers? What happened that forced them to flee? What did they encounter in this far land? These questions fascinate me, and as I read what little we know about them and imagine their lives, a story emerges: (more…)

When The End Time Starts Will It End Positively?

abracad, September 6, 2022 · Categories: externally authored, religion

Rabbi Allen S. Maller

A decade ago (May 2, 2012) a Reuters Poll reported that “nearly 15 percent of people worldwide believe the world will end during their lifetime. “Whether they think it will come to an end through the hands of God, or a natural disaster or a political event, whatever the reason, one in seven thinks the end of the world is coming,” said Keren Gottfried, research manager at Ipsos Global Public Affairs which conducted the poll for Reuters. Among Evangelical Christians three out of four felt we are living in the End Times of Gog and Magog; Ya’juj and Ma’juj End Times (AKHIR AL-ZAMAN) for Muslims.

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Escaping the Military: Healing the Virus of Violence

abracad, July 19, 2022 · Categories: externally authored, meditation, spirituality

From the book RADICAL PEACE: People Refusing War

By William T. Hathaway

RADICAL PEACE presents the experiences of war resisters, deserters, and peace activists who are working to change our warrior culture. A young Buddhist novice contributed this account, which we then revised together. To protect the people who have protected him, he prefers to be nameless.

Back in high school I'd been good at languages but couldn't afford to go to college, so I joined the navy for the language training. They have a program where if you pass an aptitude test, they'll send you to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, for an intensive course that's worth almost a year of college credit. Plus they have an active-duty education program that offers college courses. I figured after my discharge I could finish my education on the GI Bill, and with my language skills, I could get a job in international business.

The other military branches offer programs like this too, but the navy seemed the best way to stay out of the fighting. I was hoping for a major language like Chinese, Russian, or Spanish, but they assigned me to Pashto, which is spoken in Afghanistan and Pakistan. After training, I'd be stationed on a ship in the Arabian Sea monitoring phone calls and radio broadcasts, listening for key words that might give a clue about where the Taliban were, so the planes from the aircraft carriers could bomb them. I didn't think about this last part, though. I was focused on my future. (more…)

Jesus's Wife? Scholar Announces Existence of a New Early Christian Gospel from Egypt

abracad, January 12, 2022 · Categories: externally authored, jesus

Rabbi Allen S. Maller

Four words written in Coptic, a language of ancient Egyptian Christians, appear on a fragment of about one and a half inches by three inches. and translate to, "Jesus said to them, my wife...". This is the first evidence that some early Christians believed Jesus was married Harvard Divinity School Professor Karen King told the 10th International Congress of Coptic Studies hosted in 2012 by the Vatican's Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum in Rome.

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Was Jesus a Prophet, a Rabbi, or the Son of God

abracad, December 24, 2021 · Categories: externally authored, jesus

Rabbi Allen S. Maller

Jews believe that Jesus, a young rabbi/teacher, was falsely accused by the Roman rulers of the Land of Israel, of claiming he was 'The King of the Jews' (Mark 15:2 & 18, Matthew 27:11, Luke 23:3, and John 18:33 & 19:21). At the same time Rabbi Jesus was being proclaimed by some of his followers to be 'The Son of God'.

Jews and Muslims are frequently asked by Christians why they do not believe that Jesus was The Son of God. It is true that Rabbi Jesus often did refer metaphorically to God as his father. He did this in accord with the metaphorical style of the Torah. He never expected that any Jew who heard him speak about God as his father would take his words literally.

As the Qur'an states: “It is not (possible) for any human being to whom Allah had given Scripture, wisdom and prophethood, that he should afterwards have said to mankind: Be slaves of me instead of Allah; but (Jesus said): Be ye faithful servants of the Lord by virtue of your constant teaching of Scripture and your constant study of it.” (Quran 3:79)

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Religious Leadership and Covid-19

abracad, May 1, 2021 · Categories: externally authored, religion

by Rabbi Allen S. Maller

Tens of thousands of Hindu devotees gathered by the Ganges River for special prayers during the Kumbh Mela sacred pilgrimage most of them flouting social distancing practices as the coronavirus spreads in India with record speed. The Kumbh Mela is one of the most sacred pilgrimages in Hinduism. The faithful come to enter into the waters of the Ganges river, which they believe will absolve them of their sins and deliver them from the cycle of birth and death.

The Kumbh Mela comes during India’s worst surge in new infections since the pandemic began. On Friday April 23 India recorded 332,730 coronavirus cases, the highest one-day tally anywhere in the world for the second day in a row. Daily deaths from Covid-19 rose by a record 2,263 in the previous 24 hours.

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