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(A JEWISH FOLK TRADITION)
In Jewish historical folklore,
the divining of the future potential of a person is based upon those things held as SACRED to Jews, as well as upon the methods
common to the local folk-culture; i. e. such as the reading of tea leaves, coffee grounds, birds in the sky, or the way cards
of a tarot deck came up in one's hand.
The Torah is considered the most sacred single object within Judaism, and as
such, is seen to have within it the power and ability to fore-tell future events, even of individuals not yet born, based
upon the day they become born on (the First Aliyah equaits to Sunday, the First Day, etc.), and in which Torah reading
of the week (Parashah) they are born in.
Rabbi Gershon Winkler, the Jewish Shaman-Rebbe writes:
"Here are the
portions of the Torah that were read by the Jewish people around the planet on the day that you were born. In these readings
lie a myriad of meanings and life clues to your process, so go and meditate on these texts and see what comes up."
It
has long been believed that the Torah parashah of the day of one's birth contains within it hints of the direction one's life
will take. This is also the case with the day of one's other life-cycle events.
If you'd like to know what your Torah
parashah is and what verses apply to your personal life, contact the EcoRebbe (Rabbi Gershon Caudill) with the date and time
of your birth, or other event; i. e. a wedding date will tell the nature of a marriage, and he will send you the Torah parashah
and the verses of your specific "aliyah" that affect the event in question.
The Torah is divided into 54 Torah parashiot (divisions).
On
the Sabbath after the autumn festival of Sukkot, we begin reading from the Torah book of Genesis (Bereshit), starting the
reading cycle for the year. The cycle of reading the entire Torah is completed on the festival of Simchat Torah, when we read
the very last parashah of the Torah (Ve'Zot HaBerakhah) plus the first three verses of the first parashah of the Torah (Bereshit).
Each Shabbat, we read seven divisions (siddarim) of the weekly parashah for the PAST week, which began on Saturday
afternoon (Mincha). Thus, it is as though each sidrah represents a day of the week previous. The first sidrah (aliyah) would
equal Sunday; the second, Monday; the third, Tuesday; the fourth, Wednesday; the fifth, Thursday; the sixth, Friday; and the
seventh reading equals SHABBAT, Saturday, until 2:00 PM. From 2:00 PM until sundown, add the first three verses from the next
parashah. Jewish calendar days begin at sundown on the previous Christian calendar day. This is why you need to know the time
of birth. If after sundown, it is counted as the NEXT day in the Hebrew calendar.
Because the Hebrew Torah readings
are also based upon the Hebrew calendar, (and not on the calendars of the Diaspora), which have special Torah readings for
festivals that fall on the Sabbath, the reading of the week of a person's birthdate may differ from that of a person born
on the very same day a year later, or even a year earlier.
As Jews, we do not read the Torah as a book of "Once upon
a Time" happenings. Every reading of the Torah is as though it is happening at this very moment in our lives. Therefore, the
day upon which we were born, or married, etc., is affected by the reading of the Torah sidrah for that day. In fact, TODAY
is affected by what is written in the Torah parashah for this week and for TODAY'S READING.
We can gain an understanding
of world happenings and events from seeing what is written in today's Torah parashah.
PARDES - פרדס
The Hebrew word - PARDES (פרדס) means PARADISE or Orchard, and often refers to the abode of human souls
both prior to birth and after death, and as that is called "The Garden of Eden."
PARDES also refers to the acronym-mnemonic
which describes the four methods of reading sacred text.
The PEH (פ) refers
to the Hebrew word PESHAT, which means "plain" and refers to reading the text just as it is understood from what is says on
the page.
The RESH (ר) refers to the REMEZ, which means
"allusion" and refers to veiled references in the texts that can be ferreted out through gematriyah or by using the three
letter root of a single word to mean three seperate words (notarikon).
The DALET (ד) refers to DERASH which means "expound" and refers to the use of homiletical interpretation through
parables and stories to show the true meaning within a text.
The SAMEKH (ס)
refers to SOD which means "secret" and suggests the use of mystical interpretation to arrive at a yet higher meaning.
When one is studying the texts of their TORAHSCOPE; the Torah text, the Haftorah text and the particular Psalm for
the week and day of their birth, one should first read the Torah text and see if that text speaks in some way to some characteristic
of that persons personality. The person should also read the particular Torah verses of his or her day of birth within the
week in connection with the entire parashah (Wednesday would equal the fourth aliyah). Then, they should read the Haftorah
text from the ancient Hebrew Prophets to see if they can yet see further meaning there. Then, they should read the Psalm of
their birth week to see what message it has for the person. That Psalm contains within it a verse that the person should make
into a chant at times when they need to meditate upon things spiritual.
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