Goring begins with ‘horns of re’eim’ among untribed Apache

EDITOR’S NOTE: Rabbis have long held that the Christian interpretation of the “re’eim” as a “unicorn” is impossible and have opted for the “wild ox associated with Joseph.” In the American Southwest and particularly the Sacred Four Corners area where Joseph-East M’nashe has settled and remained in covenant, this animal is unquestionably the buffalo.

LITTLE DIPPER — Shells of buffalo horns fit like sleeves over the points of skulls. The shells pour water over glowing stones called grandfathers and in the process “gore.” (Photo by Don Cryingeale)

Buffalo horns instrument of covenant

between Native, non-Native ‘Joes’

at East Gate of Sacred Four Corners

WALSENBURG, COLORADO – Starman and Lioneagle lift two buffalo skulls overhead, offer sacred tobacco and pray to Grandfather in the six directions of the Apache star. A shell from one of these buffalo horns will use the hand of Cryingeagle to dip into water, which will pour onto glowing grandfather stones in the darkness of inipi (purification lodge). Thus, untribed Apache descended from still-covenanted East M’nashe are used of Creator and His Creation to begin to “gore” the “thousands of M’nashe and the myriads of thousands of Ephraim” together with the “horns of the re’eim” (Deut 33:17).

Still under the influence of Shabbat Torah study the previous day, Starman and Lioneagle choose a large, 80-pound, five-sided grandfather to represent the Books of Moses. Offering more sacred tobacco – the Apache equivalent of the p’tum ha-ketoret (or incense used in the Jerusalem Temple) the two raise this grandfather in a sacred manner also turning it to the same six directions to which Orthodox Jews wave their Feast of Tabernacles bundles. All present mimic this diligent search for Creator turning toward each direction while praying with sacred tobacco.

‘Rock of Torah,’ Judea-Samaria highlight ‘grandfather council’

The “Rock of Torah” is placed on a cradle of larger diameter cottonwood branches. The elevated cradle, which forms a floor for fire to burn from below and through to heat the grandfathers, is arranged in a sacred manner inside a deep, stepped and circular fire pit.

The 50th grandfather laid atop the rock pile with the Rock at its base, is oddly shaped, Starman notes. Its porous, volcanic and raised 3D contours resemble the outline of the mountains of Judea-Samaria! That is appropriate as well for this inipi (sometimes irreverently called a “sweat lodge).” Rockets fired by Hamas from the Gaza have been striking southern Israel the previous week. Israel is responding with surgical attacks but there have been civilian casualties. It appears that the Middle East is about to explode. The Birthright territories of Joseph are again in the news and blogs. Smiles is half Palestinian. Lioneagle has a son whose Jewish mother lives in southern Israel. A third member of the community has friends in Egypt. And the Torah study the day before taught about the separate and incompatible “le’um” of Jacob with the people Obadiah wrote would be occupying Jacob’s possessions when Jacob would be returned to them: The House of Esau.

The grandfathers are prepared to hold their fiery pre-inipi council within a tipi covered with a skin of thick, peeled cottonwood bark over piles of more kindling and under layers of split cottonwood slabs.

‘I am the re’eim who gores nations together’ – ministering Buffalo spirit

Meanwhile, Cryingeagle positions the buffalo skulls on an altar made of a small mound of earth midway between the fire pit and entrance of the inipi. Shells of the horns fit like sleeves over the two points of each skull. Sage bundles, which have a way of spontaneously igniting depending on the direction of spiritual winds, are stuffed into mouth, nose and ear openings of the skulls. All remember the lodge poured the Sunday after Simhat Torah (the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles), by Running Buffalo when those nostrils did flare with fire: “I am the re’eim who gores the nations together,” the ministering Buffalo spirit explained in inipi, that day.

Between the horns of the buffalo, no longer silent about his identity and role as the “re’eim,” Cryingeagle lays the community’s holy channupah. After the inipi, the Apache community will draw smoke (but not inhale it) from this sacred pipe, wash with it and blow it in the six directions.

A golden eagle named ‘Aaron’ awaits arrival of Condor

Cradling the channupah between the horns of the re’eim is the wing of a golden eagle known before it flew into the World To Come as the priestly, “Aaron.” The wing will later be passed inside the inipi circle allowing all to momentarily take symbolic shelter beneath. “Aaron” will administer buffalo, bear and eagle medicines and as an interceding “tzaddik,” (with one wing in this world and the other in the World To Come), will petition on behalf of Lion relatives and other beasts of the field growing restless in the current drought. Aaron’s wing will wash the two-legged in the lodge with the smoke of sage, cedar and braided sweetgrass. Because these Apache reside at the eastern gateway of the Sacred Four Corners, there is also a special connection the Eagle, Aaron, makes with the Condor commemorated weekly with the smoke of the Azteca medicine from the copal root. And when the heat is especially intense, Aaron will “fly” around the inipi and hear cries of mercy while his wing stirs up the heat and adds to the suffering.

Tenrivers realizes fruit of labors

Jimmy Tenrivers, the first sundancer among these untribed Apache, who started this very inipi in his back yard some 15 years ago, fittingly arrives on this day Torah is honored. The fruit of this spiritual elder crippled in first a car and then a motorcycle accident more than 25 years ago, includes most everyone in the lodge. He was also the first Native American spiritual leader given a sample by an emissary from Jerusalem of the more than 600 pounds of a substance identified as containing 11 of the 14 ingredients that comprise the ancient pitu’um ha-ketoret (incense used in the Jerusalem Temple).  The “incense,” was found under 37 feet of fill and stored in pits carved out of bedrock  in a cave excavated north of Qumran.

Eighty-year-old Uncle Shorty, a Navy veteran, arrives to take out the grandfathers used the last inipi and clean and sweep the inipi firepit assisted by Cryingeagle’s young son.

‘Unseen Hand’ lends fiery council first spark

Hollowbone, one of the first to attend and promote the Shabbat Torah study at Eldersgate American Indian Council, arrives with others from the community who live near the Sundance site located some 26 miles away and a few thousand feet higher into the Rockies. Finally other drummers and sundancers including Tenrivers‘ son arrive. All watch as an Unseen Hand uses Cryingeagle to lend the fiery council its first spark.

Almost immediately, the flames jump through the carefully prepared tipi … a very good sign. While the grandfathers begin their council of fire, the warrior-society elders, sundancers, singers and drummers and their women and children gather around a father drum left in the care of Cryingeagle by a fellow sundancer.

Drummers sing, chant permutations of Divine Name

The drummers and singers offer sacred tobacco on the drum, painted with the face of a bear. Starman flips his Native Pride cap so the bill faces back of his ears and begins pounding the drum. Soon, a dozen drumsticks, most padded with bear hair, join in a steady beat directed by the Starman’s vertical chops with his free hand. Seven songs are sung. All contain chants permuting Y, H and W consonants with various vowels. Since “remembering” in Torah that this is the Divine Name reflecting Creator’s attribute of Justice tempered with Mercy, these Apache are living evidence of the Covenant of Mercy with Hashem (Grandfather). This day is yet another reminder since of the 50 grandfathers, one will remain in the fire so that 49 “elders,” the number of judgment tempered with mercy, are the fiery teachers today.

Migration research locates East M’nashe at Four Corners

Recent migration research links especially the Navajo and the five nations of the Apache among 38 Athap(b)ascan Language Group nations to the warriors and assimilated Gershonite priests of Israelite East M’nashe. (See reprint of Ancient American magazine article, “Israelite East M’nashe traced to Four Corners,” at www.torah-voice.org/AAcovermarch2011.htm.) If so, East M’nashe was never removed from its covenant . These frontier warrior-priests were exiled 17-23 years before the “House of Israel” residing west of the Jordan River entered their prophesied exile.

The King of the Northern Tribes also paid a tribute to the King of Assyria so that Assyria would not invade west of the Jordan at that time. So the terms of Yizra’el, Lo-ruhamah and Lo-ami, — a scattered seed without mercy disowned by God — in Hosea 1 severing the covenant with the northern House of Israel, apply not at all to East M’nashe as they apply not at all to the Southern Kingdom, the House of Judah. It is possible that the 7,000 from the Northern “House of Israel,” who did not bow their knees to the ba’alim, (pagan gods of wood and stone) about whom Elijah was told, came from his own country and stomping ground: The Gershonite priests of Gilead and warriors of East M’nashe. These Apache evidence they are part of the “preserved of Israel” of Isaiah 49:6-8. Consequently, the spiritual work is one of “restoration” to Torah and “remembrance” of mercies, and not a “new” covenant.

Sundance draws out independent, untribed Apache

Among the House of Joseph, East M’nashe was the most separated and among East M’nashe, the most separated “nation” appears to be untribed Apache who obeyed their prophet, Geronimo. They did not surrender and go onto reservations. Instead these descendants of Geronimo and his chief Membreno warrior, Victorio, fled into the Rockies and eventually mixed with the mountain people. The regathering started when the Sundance was brought to southern Colorado about 12 years ago. The dance has drawn out these independent-minded but unaffiliated and untribed Apache who have reassembled as a people, just as Geronimo prophesied.

Under the banner, “Iglesia de Aztlan,” (assembling of Aztlan), the sundance is also attracting Aztec from the South country. Hopi medicine man Emory Holmes, who gave his blessing to Tenrivers and Lioneagle for the work of hosting elders, said the Aztec are a Hopi clan who instead of returning to their homeland in the north set up another civilization in Mexico and Central America. However, the Aztec literature, songs and dramas are about returning to the promised Aztlan, the Aztec homeland somewhere in the Four Corners area. Coupled with the promise to the Hopi connected with their migrations across Turtle Island, “America” became the promised homeland of the Latino descendants of the Hopi long before anything “American” existed.

Many believe this will be the arrival of the Condor to unite with the Eagle, an ancient Native prophecy. Another Oglalah Sioux prophecy states “just before great fires will sweep the Plains, that a place will be prepared in the mountains (Rockies) for elders to come from which to steward the healing of the land.”  Wilson, a sort of renegade Oglalah medicine man who rode a Harley, spent his life seeking Grandfather about this place for the elders. The “Buffaloman” as he was known to his friends before his death in 2007 wound up living near Walsenburg, Co., the eastern gateway of the Sacred Four Corners. Traditionally, elders meet in eastern precincts, explaining why the revelation of the horns of the re’eim may have been given to these particular Eastern Gate Apache. Many of them also know they are being prepared to host elders.

Covenant between Creation, humanity under way in Native inipi

The judgment of the Ten Tribes (sans East M’nashe) written in Hosea 1 is in part remedied with the covenant outlined in Hosea 2:18-20. This covenant with “the beasts of the field, the birds of the air and the creeping things on the earth and to end the sword, bow and violence in the earth,” is weekly celebrated/accommodated in the Native American inipi. It is “evidenced” with the suffering that comes when the horns of the re’eim “gore” or dip into water and pour onto the glowing grandfathers. This and the preparation of the fire are the only human hands in this sacred ceremony – given to a people whose stream of Israeli-priesthood was never cut off and which predates Orthodox Judaism by more than 200 years!

Otherwise, Creation speaks directly through the suffering and inner-reflection that occurs in inipi (which means to look “inside” or “within” one’s spirit). In a pitch-black, steaming womb of Earth framed by 16 sacred willows, the natural and basic elements of fire, water, wind and stone combine to “covenant with” and “humble” human beings. Just what the Good Doctor ordered for Ephraim.

All bow low to the ground before entering inipi and declare, “Hoa (pronounced as a Hebrew furtive patah, “Ah-ho”) mitakuye oyasin,” or “To all of my relations.” This includes the four-legged, winged and other aspects of Creation, free to speak in Native inipi through human beings, the insights communicated from and while suffering.

Judah needs Joseph and Joseph needs a humble Ephraim

Especially in need of humility are the “myriads of thousands of Ephraim,” infamous in the words of the prophet Hosea for their pride and arrogance. It appears that Grandfather has decreed the only family of Joseph never removed from covenant – the descendants of shibboleth-speaking M’nashe who lay claim to the n’zirei Yisrael  (preserved of Israel of Isaiah 49:6-8) — to “gore” together Ephraim with sibboleth, M’nassah. Or perhaps the goring is to reconcile Ephraim with (East) M’nashe. If the latter, this covenant would reconcile groups who could loosely be called, “Cowboys” and “Indians.” Regardless, the House of Joseph must get its house together before it can think of reconciling with the House of Judah as per Ezekiel 37 “on the mountains of Israel.”

The House of Judah would do well to recognize and expedite this reconciliation since those mountains (Judea-Samaria), comprise a large part of the Palestinian state proposed according to the pre-1967 borders and usurp the biblical Birthright. And as it all plays out, until that biblical curse is remedied, the economy of the entire world suffers. Sages have long written that to deal with the House of Esau, Judah needs Joseph. It seems now that the world needs Joseph.

Priestly authority indicated with heavy incidence of extra Y in males

Also, in the Four Corners area the incidence of the extra-Y chromosome occurring in indigenous males is 20 to 24 times greater than anywhere else in the world including among population samples that are totally Jewish., although similar large concentrations have recently been located in Africa. This may also be due to the early assimilation of Gershonite priests with East M’nashe warriors. A priestly sect mixed with Joseph and never removed from its covenant should have some spiritual authority and voice in the disposition of the Birthright of Joseph and is certainly deserving of Levitical tithes.

In this inipi, Torah is honored and seeds of prayer are sown and sung with suffering while permuting the Divine Name with the awareness of covenant mercies associated with the Divine Name. From a people never removed from Covenant, but being “restored” to its understanding, this is powerful medicine.

Apache lodge follows Lakota tradition, OK’d by Lakota elder

The prescribed Lakota songs — the lodge is poured by sundancers who follow the Lakota traditions — like Hebrew songs are prayers to these Apache, who will sometimes ad-lib with their ancient Apache lodge songs.   These are being revived as Tenrivers, Cryingeagle and Cryingeagle’s daughter — a rising vocalist — learn and teach them to the people.  But every lodge opens with the traditional Lakota songs calling to the six directions for Wakhan Tanka (the Sacred Spirit) drummed on bear and elk hides stretched over hollow cottonwood frames.  The lodge also has been visited, scrutinized and embraced by a Lakota sundance intercessor who pours his own lodge for Native American Air Force personnel stationed in nearby Colorado Springs.

One of the pipe-loading songs — and the sundance piercing song which Uncle Shorty always adds to his prayers — begin with a series of Yah’s and Hey’s, which invoke the Wah.  Hebrew sages have called the Wah, “the ruach ha-Kodesh”  (or the Sacred Spirit) in the Divine Name.

Suffering intensifies for community’s prayer

During the third round, when the suffering is probably the most intense, the entire community prays one at a time in order … and silently prays that no one is too long-winded. After each audible prayer the re’eim gores and upwards of 130 degree steam from the grandfathers momentarily kisses all the sufferers, who usually pray for needs of others ahead of themselves.  In addition to prescribed Four Directions, Spirit Calling, Prayer and Exit Songs, each round usually includes other songs, each of the four rounds.  Each song is short but is sung four times, the suffering growing with each repetition.

Tenrivers prays for the Condor and Eagle to unite and blesses the Torah study and work of Eldersgate. Cryingeagle testifies to the Divine Name and its entitlement to Covenant mercy. Starman petitions for the humility through which blessings can flow. Lioneagle prays for food for his mountain lion brothers who have been spotted foraging in the alleys of Walsenburg. And all give a hearty “Hoa (Ah-ho)” when petition is made for a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the future role these Apache may play as Creator’s hand to “gore” together even the Israeli and Palestinian nations. See “Israelis, Palestinians and Apache, Oh My,” at www.torah-voice.org/blog.

Cryingeagle judges from the moans and cries and intensity of prayer the moment when all declare “Aho mitakuyasi” (All my relations) and the flap of the inipi is thrown open.  All inside are offered an exit, but none leave. All are offered water, women first, but some refuse.  Between rounds the sufferers recline on Unci Makha (Mama Earth), who true to the FEMININE Hebrew noun – adamah – used to describe her, believe Mama to be alive.  At the same time these Apache were given the revelation about the re’eim’s identity as the “buffalo,” they learned “the Song of Moses.”  There, Mama is one of the two witnesses who carry out the Judgment for not obeying the Torah; the Heavens being the other.  But for now, Mama is a refuge between rounds onto Whom the sufferers recline and find temporary relief getting to know Her “intimately.”

‘Hot kisses’ from the Rock of Torah at final goring

Finally the last round when almost all of the strength of the inipi community is drained, all find it in them somehow to sit up as the last grandfathers enters.  Starman has saved for the last, the Rock of Torah, which fittingly takes two firemen working together in unison to maneuver on pitchforks into the inipi. The entrance is closed shutting out all light except the glowing grandfathers. It’s five-sided smile is unmistakeable as are its hot kisses as the re’eim gores away at the Sitra Achra (Opposing Side) dividing Joes and Joes and Joes and Jews.

Maggid ben Yoseif

Join our LInkedIn Group discussion at “Eldersgate American Indian Council” on the spiritual, environmental and theological ramifications of the realization of Native American spiritual sovereignty in connection with covenant identity with Israelite East M’nashe.

See also “The Heavenly Sign for Which the World Awaits,” at www.torah-voice.org/pleiadesstarcluster.htm which parallels the “horns of the re’eim” with a recorded change at the time of the flood of Noach, in the star-cluster, “Pleiades” that could right itself and form a Cocav David (Star of David). If this should occur, the cluster forming the six-pointed star would have a blue hue in the night sky. Did Jesus of Nazareth refer to this as “the sign of the coming of the son of man … as in the days of Noach?” Is this the awaited Hopi “blue star” to end the Hopi religion?

Also, the exact words of this prophecy are closely guarded but the “Constellation of the White Buffalo” draws a White Buffalo comprising a shoulder (which pivots the horns) ALSO from the Pleiades, a backbone from Orion’s belt and the tail from Sirius.

Finally, if any spiritual elders, medicine people, chieftains — or spiritual elders of Ephraim would like to visit our Torah study and/or inipi, please contact Eldersgate AIC at the contact information above.

Sandbox Humanity (the way Elijah teaches it)

When my son Aharon Mateho “ben ben” Yoseif was almost 3 years old – and already knew “sand-box” Hebrew, he and I decided it was time to begin his formal education in the world of the mystics.

 “Ben-ben” got just as excited about the meaning behind the Hebrew letters as he had “counting numbers” on Hebrew license plates from the time he rode in a pack on his Abba’s back all over Jerusalem and Israel.  By that, I don’t just mean reciting the numbers in Hebrew, but using a simple gematria I taught him to add them together until they make up one number! So close to my ears,  I finally had to ask him to count “silently” – unless he found a ”9.”   This is because he and I, were “secretly” on the lookout for the “666” who is an 18 who is a 9.  Maybe this is not a mental discipline for all pre-schoolers, but it helped my son, now 21, later master 10 orchestra instruments, Classical guitar, jazz piano and two years of microbiology and helped me fine-tune my spiritual senses to spot the real 666s, when they slither across my path).

 GOvernMEnt Loans spells G-O-M-E-L

 But some discriminations run deep and alas, no scholarship for my son. So like many of our post-Boomer generations today, he must be on the “government DoLe,” and dependant on “GOvernMEnt Loans” (at least until the  economy improves so these young men and women can FIND summer jobs).  Note that student loans are spelled “G-O-M-E-L,” represented by the “Gimel” and those dependent on them are spelled “D-L,” represented by the “Dalet.”  Gimel and Dalet are the third and fourth letters of the Hebrew aleph-bet and the prophet Elijah teaches that they have an inter-relationship.

 I have been engaged in five inipi over the past two weeks – sundancers are starting their annual four-day vision quests and have to be purified before we “inscribe” them in a seven foot diameter circle in remote mountain locations and “washed down” when they return to this world.  So I have been out of touch with the news … until today.

  ‘Triple A’ shuns Beth-El ‘Cookies’

  I see that  “Triple A,” my new pet name for “Arwillus Armittus Armillus” (who is channeling former Mass. Gov. Willard Mitt Romney) revealed more of his Satanic agenda to steal the Birthright of Joseph.    Open-mic moments have revealed that “Triple A” has shunned “Beth-El” (House of God) Cookies!  Beth-El is the border city between Ephraim and Benjamin.  All of the Birthright of Joseph (the head and crown in the partzuf at www.torah-voice.org) pivots on this Luz bone that together with Jerusalem, define the neck.  For those looking for such esoteric clues, it signals a clear attack against the Becorah (Birthright).  Also,  some rabbonim in Israel believe that the place Jacob had his experience with the ladder descending from Heaven indicates an End-Times roll for Beth-El THAT MAY DIRECTLY CONTRADICT THE MORMON BELIEF THAT A NEW JERUSALEM WILL DESCEND AT INDEPENDENCE, MO.  So I can understand the logic of ha-Satan’s attack on “our” Cookies, which are symbolic of the Birthright.

 And now it appears that AAA wants to take aim at my son’s student loan AND MY FOOD STAMPS!  (I live and minister in the poorest county in Colorado by intention and live and minister among the poorest by intention to help  them remember the Torah understanding of their Covenant, to suffer with them for the reconciliation  and to learn from my brothers and sisters and fellow elders!)   With help coming from nowhere, we share among ourselves.

 Together we can eat tuna fish salad.

 I was shocked this morning to hear a recording of the Right Wing Propagandist who poses as a news columnist, Shawn Hannerty who condescendingly and with no SHAME at all, relegated the poor to a pot of “beans and rice.”  To compound his sin, he promotes the idea that the resources stolen from the poor should go into the pockets of the already rich in the form of lower taxes.  I grew up in a small North Louisiana town on beans and rice and polk salad and turnip greens and corn bread (and before I knew any better) pond catfish.  In a family of seven, it was a treat once a week to have chicken or roast beef.   Some days the best meal we had was the school lunch program.   I believe I understand poverty, going to bed hungry and how it affects one’s mental processes.

 After our most recent night inipi (purification lodge), the elders and grandmothers and sundancers returning from the Other World, congregated to eat tuna fish salad.  Some brought apples, some pickle relish, others cans of tuna, others onion, others mayo, others bread and others drinks. (I brought some cream horseradish and matzot left over from Passover).  Some could only bring bottles filled with water.  BUT EVERYONE BROUGHT SOMETHING.  But by having this community meal we violated the “law.”

 The Bread of Shame

 While we were munching on our tuna salad and sandwiches sometime around 11 p.m., we came to the realization that in our choice to suffer for the reconciliation between the families of Joseph, we were 66 percent unemployed and 90 percent underemployed and 100 percent dependant on Food Stamps for the meal we were eating!  “law” (lowercase is mine) forbids poor people to share their food with anyone if it is purchased with food stamps.

 This “law” violates THE LAW (Torah), which demands that when one is given a gift, (such as food stamps) that one is obligated to SHARE part or all of that gift with someone else who was not a party to it, else they accumulate the BREAD OF SHAME.  This LAW inbred in Native communities is also inbred in the soul of a Hebrew mystic and relates to the story told by the prophet Elijah of the meaning and order of the first five letters of the Hebrew aleph-bet, the inter-relationship between the Gomel (the Benefactor) and the Dahl (the Poor Man).  It also applies to the “fabric of Creation” and betrays how out of touch “law” is with “LAW.”

 The ‘work ethic’ that divides Ephraim and M’nashe

 Land ownership is a relatively new concept to Natives and most indigenous peoples (meaning non-settlers).  In our hearts we cannot “own” our Mother, from whom our elements come.  So we still think of our role as stewards to PROTECT her.    Neither does the “White Anglo-Saxon Protestant work ethic,” some would force on us, have much value and may not be altogether a healthy ethic.  The incidence of high blood pressure, heart disease, strokes and “high-end” drug addiction have all been linked to out-of-balance ambition and overachievement, working too long and even, Grandfather forbid, working on Shabbat.  This equates to pride and ego for which Ephraim is biblically infamous but which is a black road.  Without the spiritual balance offered by M’nashe, Eprhaim would be Hell-bent on using its technological genius to find some way to profit from all of the resources of our Earth Mother. Without that balance, there would be no concept of thinking through these Get Rich Quick technologies without thinking through the effects on Seven Generations.  These are black roads.

 The Bible is clear that the poor always will be here.  The question to ask is “Why?”

Remembering the G’yana Shagowa – the cost of doing business on Turtle Island

“Triple A”  would say the poor are good for nothing but to work to make the elite more elite, snubbing even our cookies!   This attitude will eventually prompt class wars that hopefully can remain ideological in bringing about reforms toward balance.  Both the sages of Torah and the long Whitehairs say the same thing, “Balance,” in all things.  That would include the disparity of wealth in this nation.  The elite should be reminded that in any other nation they may not “own” that wealth and should make the same “thanksgiving offering” percentage-wise as the “less elite.”

And all Americans should be reminded of something else.  Before the settlers arrived to these shores, the G’yana Shagowa (“Great Law”) existed.  That law, which was the model for the U.S. Constitution and its Two-House system, had as its preamble, “NO POOR, no orphans, no jails.”  That means provision was made for the poor, to take-in orphans and to employ criminals productively to bring about their reform before the Iroquois 6 Nation Confederacy looked to any kind of economic prosperity.  Indeed, the treatment of the poor and orphans and less fortunate was a barometer of its blessings!  You might say it should be the “cost of doing business” on Turtle Island and therefore ALL should know that America (Turtle Island) is not TOTALLY the land of the FREE.  Living on this land, entails caring for and ministering to “the least of these my brothers.”

A snake chasing its tail

 With the goal of helping to reform the “elite,”(because when the time comes, I probably will not be alive), I offer you Eliyahu’s explanation of “Why?” there are poor as told in the story of the first five letters of the Hebrew aleph-bet.

 “A snake chasing its tail,” the eldest grandmother remarked about the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant work ethic, provoking laughs and yawns as we departed for our lower-class houses, RVs, trailers and Tee-pees.  And so I began my ascent into my dreams after inipi with thoughts of an emerging class warfare, the less than $50 a week I receive in food stamps that keeps me alive and that image … of a snake chasing its tail.  This grandmother did not know that this was the very analogy that was taught to me by the Holy Spirit, when I first learned the Hebrew aleph-bet.

 A “snake chasing its tail,” represents or is idiomatic of a “story.”  One thing that attracted me to the Hopi culture was the common theme of a snake chasing its tail on their pottery and even their ceremonial father drums.  I would later see it again on the Father Drum of Jimmy Tenrivers.  It makes you ask the question awaited by any “maggid” (story-teller at least in Native culture), “Why?”

 The song that does not end

 The “story” of the Hebrew aleph-bet is analogized to a snake chasing its tail, all the way from Aleph, the first letter, to Tav, the last, and circling again to Aleph, or thus, a snake chasing its tail.   Another snake chasing its tail is “The Song That Does Not End,” which “Ben-ben” learned from a Kid’s Channel puppet:  “This is the song that does not end.  Yes it goes on and on my friend.  Some people started singing it not knowing what it was.  And they’ll continue singing it forever just because.  This is the song that does not end …”  You get the idea.

 The teaching of Elijah

 The story begins, (Paraphrasing Eliyahu), “The Aleph is the Aluf who is the MASTER of Creation.  His Bet is his HOUSE OF ISRAEL who must be the Gimel (Gomel or BENEFACTOR) to the D(ah)l (or POOR) represented by the Dalet WHO LOOK TO HASHEM (Heh).”

 This lesson is deep. Beyond teaching my son the order and meaning of the first five letters of the Hebrew aleph-bet, it teaches Israel the very attribute Grandfather manifests toward Israel as told in (the mystical version at least) of the Passover Seder.  Any time Israel is oppressed, they cry in repentance to the Master of Creation (look to Grandfather) and He will be their Gomel.

 In a spiritual sense, it teaches spiritually rich Israel to share with the spiritually poor goyim (Gentiles) these deep understandings such as the fabric of creation being “sharing.”

 Why Creator Created

 Sandbox Humanity is therefore also School of the Mystics 101 and Philosophy of Creation 101 all combined.  At the end of this brief lesson, one should also be able to answer the question, “Why does Grandfather allow the rich to keep getting richer?”

 Grandfather (my personal choice to refer to Creator), all-knowing and Omnipotent had no need for His Creation.  His existence would have gone on quite fine without It.  So philosophically speaking WHY would he Create Creation?  Elijah says, “To share.”

 Sharing – The fabric of Creation

 “This means SHARING is the fabric of Creation.”  As a young boy I was shown that the stars in the sky shine whether my eyes see them or not and the same was true of the flowers that bloom in the field.  So I concluded that these things were not there solely for my pleasure.  The same is true of the winged and four-legged in the forest and the waters running in the streams, the grass and the ferns and the trees and from the springs all SHARE and not always for the eyes and ears or enjoyment of humans, but always to THEIR Creator.  Voice and rational language are unique to humanity and its concept of intelligence.  But Creator eternally enjoys an orchestra that causes the “trees in the field to clap their hands.”

 Only one part of Creation – the race of Adam – would not have this fabric innate or within.  Mankind would need prompting, urging, teaching, exampling, to become a SHARING creature.  Yet all of Creation emanates of this simple message of “sharing.”

 Wealth, status, position, ego die in inipi

 Even the Song of Moses which he sings to all of Israel before passing over the reign of leadership to Y’hoshuah, validates … and warns that the Heavens and the Earth (all of Creation) will bear witness against humanity if they fail to learn and SHARE.

 This is the harmony with “our Earth Mother” that appears to soak like osmosis into the skin of those who visit her spiritual womb (the inipi).  All the riches, the wealth, status, position, and EGO die in inipi. We (all winged, four-legged, even, grass, trees, rocks and insects with all colors of humanity) are all related.  Humankind is “Earth” brought to life, just like the rest of Creation.  We all come from our Earth mother.   We may not eat the insects, but the insects eat us or we eat animals who do eat insects.

A rip in the fabric of Creation

The first five letters of the Hebrew aleph-bet relate Grandfather’s example that the Gomel should share with the D(ah)l,” else humankind “rip” the fabric of Creation.

 And so the Good Master is a Gomel (Benefactor) to the Dahl (Poor) who look to Grandfather.  The Masorites placed “taggin” or tiny crowns on the top of seven letters of the Hebrew aleph-bet.  These include the Gimel, which has three such taggin and the Dalet, which has one.  The Gimel faces the Dalet and the Dalet is not looking toward the Gimel, but rather toward the Heh, which represents Hashem (Grandfather).  Therefore the obligation of the Benefactor toward the Poor who look to Grandfather.

 Spoiled and selfish progeny result from failure to Remedy the Bread of Shame

 Failure to remedy this shame is a sure formula for spoiled and selfish children who will eventually turn against the parents who doted on them and gave them everything they wanted without inbreeding in them the need to share.  Grandfather consequently has in place a system of tithes and offerings to help with this problem and at the same time assure that the needs of the poor – and the Levites who may not hold secular jobs – are met.

 There is also a more global application of this Remedy.  Israel – and only Israel – was given two gifts, which obligate them to be shared with the nations:  Torah and the Land of Israel.  Both are called “Moreshah” or “an heirloom.”  One does not part with heirlooms but there is still an obligation to share.  So how does Israel remedy the Bread of Shame associated with the Torah and Eretz Yisrael?

 Exile helps remedy Bread of Shame of Israel

 As prophesied by Noah, part of Israel would be exiled and dwell with Yaphet (through the family of Gomer), “in the tents of Shem.”  The exile of the Northern House of Israel, once renewed to their covenant, represent a part of Israel that has assimilated into the Nations, sharing their Torah.  A remnant of that body will make a physical return to Eretz Yisrael, including “all families of the Earth” in the remedy of the Bread of Shame.  It is like a loaf of bread with 13 slices and the slices marked Ephraim, M’nashe and Benjamin are shared with the Gentiles.  Judah, on the other hand, to remain true to its covenant, is forbidden to assimilate among the Nations.

 The wealthy as Jesus declared have a slim chance of making it into the World to Come. It is easier to pass a rope (Ara. Gamal) through the eye of a needle.  Here is a curious parallel between the Hebrew Gomel and the Aramaic Gamal, both referring to the wealthy or potential benefactors.

 Wealth of the rich belongs to the poor!

 The sages of Torah also did not cut the wealthy any slack when it comes to sharing.  They write that the wealth of the rich “actually belongs to the poor” obligating the wealthy to share.  The rich are only stewards of this wealth. IT DOES NOT BELONG TO THEM.

 If the wealthy elite would meet this obligation, there would be no poor, no need for student loans or any social programs.  But Triple A and his ilk trample upon this divine law and oppress the poor and needy.   The so-called “Christian” community is caught up with tithing to churches and various ministries – an aberration of Torah which commands that one’s tithe go first to the Levites – set aside for a spiritual work – and the poor.  Offerings, collected after this tithe is paid may be allowed for churches and non-Levitical spiritual works and ministries … BUT NEVER TITHES.

 Government programs necessary when spiritual laws are not obeyed

 Because these spiritual laws are not obeyed, the only hope for the less fortunate – and those set aside for spiritual work, such as these sundancers — is government programs.  “To steal from those who benefit from these programs and require them for the resources to live, to kill these programs and to destroy the hope of the poor is Satan’s agenda and reflects the snobbish, elite, uncaring, hard-heart  of Triple A.   And – I am sad to say – the Religious Right who is in bed with Triple A …  because of Obama hatred.

 So why does Grandfather allow the rich to keep getting richer?  In the World to Come, He will owe them NOTHING.

 Maggid ben Yoseif