Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the 'Alter Rebbe', who was the founder of Chabad Chassidus used to say, "One must live with the time." It was explained that this meant that one should live with the section of the Torah being learned that week and even on that day. The Torah, five books of Moses, are divided into one seciton per week of the year. Each weekly section is divided into seven daily sections which are each learned on a different day of the week. We are instructed to not only learn the daily section, but to live with it.

I will try to discuss the daily section, even if only briefly and then bring down some meaning from it to today's reality.

Mikeitz is the name of this weeks section and it starts at Genesis, chapter 41.

Sunday of this week we learned of Pharaoh's two dreams. One about the seven fat cows being eaten by the seven skinny cows. The other about the seven fat ears of corn being devoured by the seven bad ears of corn. Pharaoh asks everyone how to interpret the dream but no one can help him.

Monday, today, Pharaoh is told about Joseph, who is in prison, who has a good reputation for interpreting dreams. Joseph tells Pharaoh that the dreams are the same and the meaning is that there will be seven years of plenty (bull market) followed by seven years of famine (bear market) and the famine will be so bad that the seven years of plenty will be forgotton. Joseph then instructs Pharaoh to prepare for the famine during the seven years of plenty. (This is the establishment of the feed (pun intended) to help everyone not realize they are in a famine)

Anyone else have some interesting insights. I will bring more out if there is discussion.

A used to attend a Bible study group in which we studied a passage of the Bible each week and did just what you suggest ---- live it and learn it all week long.

It was uncanny how things happenned that seemed to correlate well with the passage for the week. Nothing dramatic just little things.

We studied the New Testamant but I've read the Old Testament a couple of times and a similar group study would work well with the OT as well.

I think that many christians ignore the Old Testament today which is a shame. Many of them prefer to think of God and some kind of marshmellow who will forgive and forgive no matter how many times you mess up.

After awhile whats the difference how you live because God will always be there to forgive and forget anyway ?

I look at it a little differently Dogboy. All has been forgiven. The price has been paid. Hardly anyone knows that now and understands what it means. That is the gospel that should be preached today. It is that fact that turns the hearts of sinners. Fear of retribution is not how He rehabilitates us. Right behavior is a fruit of an inner work, not the work itself. JMO.

In many places, it says that G-d, Hashem (the name), wants us to love Him and fear Him. The fear means more of an awe of his greatness than shake in the boots scared.

So Genesis 41 is the first record of technical & cycle analysis, with Joseph as the first analyst.

well, we have to consider the first seven days as some kind of cycle.

then there was the seven generations of protection for Cain

then there was the 40 days and 40 nights...

I just reread Genesis 41 and one particular verse caught my attention: (v.32) And the dream was repeated to Pharaoh twice because the thing is established by God and God will shortly bring it to pass.

I guess the significance of the double top/bottom can be derived from such an experience.

Today, Tuesday, we learn how Joseph is put in charge of everything in Egypt except for Pharaoh.

Joseph gathers and stores all of the grain during the years of plenty, getting ready for the years of famine.

Hoover took Pharaoh's role and the Fed took Joseph's role. Hoover signed the federal reserve act and regretted it because the country was now in the hands of the fed. ( i got that from another thread on this site, maybe from hypertiger)

Oh yeah, Joseph had two children, Ephraim and Menasheh. They come into play later.

Also from this we learn not to have children during a famine, when the extra mouth to feed will cause distress or worse.

All of this was for a much higher purpose, but Joseph will explain this to us soon enough.

Of course Joseph was called upon to interpret the dream after having been forgotten in prison 2 years by the servent. There are so many lessons in the life of Joseph, but one of the majors is his steadfatness to be ready to be used at the time and place G-d had arranged.

Most moderns would have spent the two years in bitterness and dismay at the lack of attention and doubted that they ever were the carrier of the promise in the first place. Despite the major disasters in Joseph's life he was satisfied that G-d was with him (and that was apparently enough). Not that he was happy about it all, I believe there is a psalm that references a trail of tears down to Egypt. Joseph's life is a wonderful illustration of G-d's steadfastness to us inspite of circumstance and the ways unfortunate circumstance are ultimately used to forge the intent of His will.

I forgot the real twist.

he marries the daughter of the lady the had him sent to prison in the first place.

nice mother-in-law

Did you know that Abraham Lincoln was Jewish?

Yes! He was shot in the Temple.

Man that joke quacked. Actually I almost believed you. His name was Abraham after all. A long dead memory of when I was a child saying to my father, did he know that Kennedy was the first Jewish president? Catholic, my boy. What's the difference?

A little known passage in the Bible requires that the Hebrews celebrate a "Jubilee Year" every 50th year. At that time, all debts are forgiven. Do you think they knew something about the big cycles?

every seventh year is shmittah year and after 7 of those an extra jubilee year.

lunar calendar with leap months to keep the seasons within the yearly calendar.

lots and lots of cycles.

calculated the lunar months exactly without telescopes.

today, wednesday the pressure starts. the famine is in full swing and joseph's stored up grain is feeding the people.

meanwhile Jacob sends his sons to Egypt to buy food before they run out. The brothers decide to find Joseph and free him if they can.

Joseph, who the brothers do not recognize, accuses them of being spys to test their resolve towards find Joseph. he throws them in jail for a few nights.

one of Joseph's dreams about his brothers bowing down to him comes true now.

well the jam job in the pm could not close it up so the famine is keeping everyone from getting back to the years of plenty. now that all of the food has been stored, they got the puts, this pos market can go down.

i am starting to stretch it. the real lessons are in the repentance of the brothers and their resolve to to the right thing now. tomorrows portion will describe their test.

QUOTE (torah man @ Dec 4 2002, 12:46 PM)

I forgot the real twist. he marries the daughter of the lady the had him sent to prison in the first place. nice mother-in-law

I beg to differ, tm. My New King James Version wrote: And to Joseph were born two sons... whom Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On (Genesis 41:50).

Compare this to Genesis 39:1, ...And Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard...

I think it would be stretching the bow of interpretation a bit too far to infer that the Priest of On moonlights as Pharaoh's captain of the guard. Admittedly, their names were pretty similar. Perhaps the original Hebrew of the verses can shed further enlightenment.

QUOTE (Takachi @ Dec 3 2002, 11:42 PM)

Of  course Joseph was called upon to interpret the dream after having been forgotten in prison 2 years by the servent.  There are so many lessons in the life of Joseph, but one of the majors is his steadfatness to be ready to be used at the time and place G-d had arranged.

Beautiful.

Sometimes, we are in Pharoah's position, unaware or unwilling to acknowledge the power of G-d. We may reluctantly have to turn to the discredited for guidance, and wonder why our own concepts have failed. Then we must make the choice, to use the wealth of knowledge which springs from the G-d fearing men like Joseph and acknowledge G-d's might, or use it cynically, not allowing it to transform our hearts.

rr

QUOTE (torah man @ Dec 4 2002, 11:31 PM)

well the jam job in the pm could not close it up so the famine is keeping everyone from getting back to the years of plenty. now that all of the food has been stored, they got the puts, this pos market can go down.

I don't know that its a stretch at all. Pharoh ended up owning all the land in Egypt except what belonged to the priests. Sounds pretty much like the objective of the banks and the Fed.

What was that Jefferson said about giving the banks the ability to create money?

Joseph named his first son 'Manasseh', because he prefers to forget all the bad stuffs that happened to him (Genesis 41:51). It seems that the famine ensures he does not forget anything. Genesis 42:8-9, So Joseph recognized his brothers.... Then Joseph remembered the dreams....

Perhaps we also prefer to forget the stupid trades that caused us big losses, but it is more edifying if we remember those mistakes so we don't repeat them again.

America and the entire world are in a period of judgement from God.

But as a Catholic christian I beleive that all judgements can be lessoned by prayer, repentance and good works.

It's time for Americans to set aside silly things like new cars and trips to the Mouse Park and think of family and God.

Whether they will do that or just stubbornly insist on all their luxuries (just as they've always had) I don't know.

I do know that if I see a real "air" of repentance and change in Americans than I'll cut back on my PUTs and Gold Calls.

Until then I'll GO SHORT on the Pharoah to the max.

Pharoah is in some deep trouble and he doesn't even realize it yet.

Prayer, repentance and good works are the answer to America'a problems and the world's. And that includes Muslim terrorists.

It's hard for non-beleivers to understand but God can stop terrorists cold faster and more effectively than an man or gubmint.

My message to my fellow Americans is to stop stealing from widows and orphans, stop abortions, pray daily, and don't conentrate anymore on accumulating "things".

And I beleive that God is sometimes about punishment and judgment. Too many people don't beleive in that today but they are soon to learn the truth.

Forgiveness, especially for a person or nation that is hardened in "sin" is not a given. If it were so trivial it would be worthless and one thing God is not is worthless.

Ultimately all sin has to be paid for. While it's true that christians beleive that Jesus provided a "solution" to sin (and other religions have their own "solution") it is not without any pay back.

The Roman Catholic faith teaches that ALL sin has to be paid for whether in this world or in the hereafter (purgatory). You sit in purgatory and suffer and are punished daily for EVERY single sin you EVER committed.

One saint of he church (I forgot which one) said that War is a punishment for sin. The suffering that people undergo in war is added to one side of the scale and offsets the sins of the world.

You have to PAY for every single bad thing you ever do. You don't get off just because you said "I accept Jesus as my personal saviour".

Anything else doesn't even make sense to me. You can't just say "I accept Jesus" and it's like you never did anything wrong. That's just a start.

Besides War all suffering can be offered up to God to pay back sins (yours or others). And it can be something as small as having to wait in a long line or being cut off in traffic. It all goes towards the world's sin-debt.

We all talk about the huge financial debts today but the "sin-debt" is the one to worry about. Not anough people pray or offer their sufferings up.

It could be that a devastaing War will be required to balance the "sin-debt" ot the world.

And when you just think for a moment of all the things that go on daily that deeply offend God (that's what sin is after all) you gotta beleive that the War that's comingwill be a doozy.

But with prayers and offerings (of sufferings) the War can be lessoned.

Jesus said himself that "that time (of trouble or of "the time of jacob's trouble" as it is know by many theologians) will have to be shortend lest there be noone left on the earth".

I beleive that we are at that time that Jesus spoke of.

Pray that it be lessened.

The times that are coming will resemble the punishments of Israel in the Old testament except that this time it will be the nations of the world that will be punished for there MANY mis-deeds. If your a stoolie I don't need to enumerate them, your fully aware of these things.

Israel will re-emerge as a "light unto the natons", a moral and just "religous" state. That is absolutely for sure.

The current secular state of Israel does not qualify however. It will either cease to exist for a time or be replaced by a religous state.

People today need to be very careful about blaming Jews (or Arabs for that matter) about the problems happenning there.

It is the corruption of the New World Order and the evil men that lead it that cause the poor state of affairs between Israelis and Arabs.

And people need to realize that the current secular state of Israel does not represent all Jews by no means and that many (maybe most?) Jews vehemently disagree with how things are happennig over there.

So in my opinion it's entirely wrong to use the term "jews" at all when talking about the secular state of Israel or its problems.

And also these problems in the ME are a punishment from God and ultimately the people responsible are the abortionists, stock market analysts, and others who commit sins and don't ask God to firgive them and do something to pay for them them.

And in the end that's all of us. Every single person on the earth is responsible for the horrible things happenning in the middle east.

In any case the current troubles will pass fairly quickly (a couple of years or so) and things will be ALOT better soon.

While that means the Bear Market will be over sooner than most expect we've got a very small time frame here to make tons of $$$ and (hopefully) use the money to benefit our family and others.

My love and prayers,

The DogBoy.

QUOTE (sheet4brain @ Dec 4 2002, 11:57 PM)

QUOTE (torah man @ Dec 4 2002, 12:46 PM) I forgot the real twist. he marries the daughter of the lady the had him sent to prison in the first place. nice mother-in-law I beg to differ, tm. My New King James Version wrote: And to Joseph were born two sons... whom Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On (Genesis 41:50). Compare this to Genesis 39:1, ...And Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard... I think it would be stretching the bow of interpretation a bit too far to infer that the Priest of On moonlights as Pharaoh's captain of the guard. Admittedly, their names were pretty similar. Perhaps the original Hebrew of the verses can shed further enlightenment.

Rashi is the first level of interpretation on the Torah. It is included with every Torah if any commentary is.

Rashi says on the name PotiPhera, "He is Potiphar and was now called Poti Phera as a reslult of becoming castrated because he had lusted to sodomize Joseph."

I will start a different thread on the way the Torah is interpreted and where all of this stuff comes from.

here it is:
http://www.capitalstool.com/forums/index.p...ct=ST&f=8&t=123

today, thursday starts with Joseph keeping only one brother and letting the others go back with the food. But Joseph warns the brothers not to return without their youngest brother, Benyamin. The brothers do not know that Joseph can understand Hebrew so they talk freely about how bad they fell now about what they did to Joseph. Joseph has to turn away becasue he starts to cry.

the brothers travel back to Jacob (Yaakov) and along the way they discover that their money has been put into their grain sacks along with the grain. they think they are being set up.

when the get back, Yaakov will not let them take Benyamin right away. it isn't until they are nearly out of food that yaakov gives in and lets the brothers retrn to Egypt, but first instructs them which gifts to take to this man in charge.

QUOTE (torah man @ Dec 5 2002, 09:49 PM)

QUOTE (sheet4brain @ Dec 4 2002, 11:57 PM) QUOTE (torah man @ Dec 4 2002, 12:46 PM) I forgot the real twist. he marries the daughter of the lady the had him sent to prison in the first place. nice mother-in-law I beg to differ, tm. My New King James Version wrote: And to Joseph were born two sons... whom Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On (Genesis 41:50). Compare this to Genesis 39:1, ...And Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard... I think it would be stretching the bow of interpretation a bit too far to infer that the Priest of On moonlights as Pharaoh's captain of the guard. Admittedly, their names were pretty similar. Perhaps the original Hebrew of the verses can shed further enlightenment. Rashi is the first level of interpretation on the Torah. It is included with every Torah if any commentary is. Rashi says on the name PotiPhera, "He is Potiphar and was now called Poti Phera as a reslult of becoming castrated because he had lusted to sodomize Joseph." I will start a different thread on the way the Torah is interpreted and where all of this stuff comes from.

the twist is even deeper than previously mentioned.

Asenath is really Joseph's neice. She is Dina's daughter from Shechem. Yaakov sent this daughter away to protect her and she was adopted by Potiphar and his wife.

She had a necklace identifying her as the grand-daughter of Yaakov. When Joseph was parading through the streets after being made viceroy, all of the woman threw their jewelry at him to try to get him to marry them. Joseph saw the necklace and knew he could marry Asenath.

There are 70 facets to the Torah.

Thanks for the extra bits of info, tm. Us Christians only have what is written in the OT to go by. I appreciate the insights into the ol' familiar OT stories.

can you add phonetic-like spelling of the hebrew-greek words presented in english? 'tis ok if you can't.

QUOTE (anoscope @ Dec 6 2002, 01:51 AM)

can you add phonetic-like spelling of the hebrew-greek words presented in english? 'tis ok if you can't.

which words?? I was not aware that I was using any greek words.

sorry that friday and saturday posts are after the fact. sundown friday caught up to me.

friday: when the brothers get to Joseph's house, they are invited to lunch and they sense a trap, as no other buyers are invited. when Joseph sees Binyamin he asks him of his family and missing brother. Binyamin answers that he as ten sons and that they are all named for some aspect of his missing brother Joseph.

Shabbos (saturday): Joseph is so overwhelmed by Binyamin's love for his missing brother, that he again is overcome with emotion and has to leave the room.

Joseph then returns to the bothers to eat with them and arranges their seating by mother and by age which thoroughly impresses the brothers. He has Binyamin sit with him.

after the meal, Joseph orders his son to place all of the money back in the sacks with thet grain again and in addition, to place his silver goblet into Binyamin's sack.

the brothers leave in the morning. after a short while, Joseph sends after the brothers and accuses them of stealing his goblet. they indignately deny it and the search reveals it in Binyamin's sack. They all return to Joseph.

The brothers know that they are guiltless in this but accept G-d's judgement as punishment for their previous sins concerning Joseph being sold.

Joseph closes this weeks portion by announcing that Binyamin must stay with him and the others are free to go.

just lika all good serials, to be cintinued next week, which is today.