Fred Coulter’s Passover (Id)
Draft Id
Chapter 6 -7
“At sunset, or ba erev,” according to Fred Coulter, “is a very short period of time. It begins when the sun appears to touch the horizon, and ends when the sun drops below the horizon. The total duration of its setting is no more than 3-5 minutes.” He added further. “The Hebrew phrase ba erev, or “at sunset,” designates the end of one day and the beginning of the next day.” (Chapter 4).
For the length of time for ben ha arbayim, he says, it varies depending on the season of the year. In the winter, ben ha arbayim is approximately 30-40 minutes. In the spring or fall, ben ha arbayim lasts from approximately one hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes.
According to Fred, “there can be no doubt whatsoever that ben ha arbayim comes after ba erev, or sunset.”
And he kept on repeating his conviction. He emphasized, “we have found irrefutable proof that ben ha arbayim— “between the two evenings,” or “between the setting-times”—begins immediately after the day has ended at sunset, or ba erev.”
If this is the case two lamb would be needed to be killed for the Passover, one for Exodus 12:6 ben ha arbayim and the other Exodus 12:18 ba erev.
But four days earlier, Israelites were asked to choose only one Lamb. Now they have to sacrifice two. It’s a slight of hand to sacrifice another lamb which they were unprepared for. It’s a touch of Simon Magus! The Samaritans, together with most of today’s Churches of God (CoGs) communities, also believe the same magic. It’s no surprise they came from the same homeland. They may consider themselves as virgins, but they are described as “wretched” and “naked.”
Now on the subject of the true timing of when the quail arrived in the evening, the Rabbanic understanding is that the quail arrived in the afternoon, anytime when the sun moved passed its zenith until sunset, which is the first phase of erev or this same period could be described as ben ha arbayim— “between the two evenings.” During this period of time, it is daytime and the Israelites could catch the quail, killed them, cleaned them, cook them and have them for food. There would be no problem at all about keeping the Sabbath when it arrived a few hours later.
Besides violating the Rabbinic understanding of evening (erev) , Fred Coulter analysis also redefines morning (bôqer) in Genesis 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening (erev) and the morning (bôqer) were the first (24-hours) day. As the evening (erev) were a full 12-hour period, so does the morning (bôqer) a 12-hour period, from midnight to noon to totalled a full 24-hour day.
Up to Chapter 6 of Fred Coulter’s the Christian Passover, we see Fred had quoted a lot from Everett Fox’s translation. So who is Everett Fox?
Everett Fox spent years at Brandeis University as a college student, majoring in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies. A husband of Jewish educator, Rabbi Cherie Koller-Fox (a Jewish feminist), he was described, at best, as a conservative Jewish scholar. Although he studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) of America in New York for only one and a half years at the Seminary, the influence from the reform-minded Seminary had a deep impact on him, as evidence showed in his translation of the Bible, published by Schocken Books. And they all teamed up to publish the Schocken Bible, from which Fred Coulter quoted extensively.
The JTS seminary was started by Rabbi Zecharias Frankel (1801–1875) who was a leading figure in mid-19th Century German Jew. Known both for his traditionalist views and the esteem he held for scientific study of Judaism. Frankel was, ironically, at first considered a conservative within the nascent Reform Movement.
The Reform Movement advocates that Jewish law is not static, but rather has always developed in response to changing conditions. In his endeavour, Frankel amassed scholarly support which showed one must be open to a changing environment and developing Judaism in the same evolving fashion that the law should be interpreted.
Although the Jewish Theological Seminary of America was alleged to be a product of the Reform Movement, it claimed to be “a new rabbinical school” in New York City. There were power struggles between the two, but eventually the Reformed Movement gained ground as the Seminary developed a new movement known as Conservative Judaism. Conservatism may not sound conservative: traditionalist, orthodox, conventional but their Reform Movement were just only taking a slower pace. Nevertheless the Jewish Theological Seminary became the primary educational and religious center of Conservative Judaism.
The central theme for the Conservative Movement is that Jewish Law shouldn’t be regarded as static, that Rabbinic Judaism be regarded as non-binding and that individual Jew should be regarded as autonomous, and that our perception of Judaism should incorporate openness to external influences and progressive values as the years unfold.
So from the beginning in the 1970s, the topic of women’s ordination was regularly discussed at JTS. A special commission (which consisted of 11 men and three women) was established by the chancellor of the Seminary to study the issue of ordaining women as rabbis.After years of discussion, the JTS faculty voted to ordain women as rabbis and as cantors in 1983. The first female rabbi to graduate from the school (and the first female Conservative Jewish rabbi in the world) was Amy Eilberg, who graduated and was ordained as a rabbi in 1985. The first class of female rabbis that was admitted to JTS in 1984 included Rabbi Naomi Levy, who later became a best-selling author and Nina Beth Cardin, who became an author and environmental activist. Erica Lippitz and Marla Rosenfeld Barugel were the first women ordained as cantors by JTS (and the first female Conservative Jewish cantors in the world.) They were both ordained in 1987.
Since March 2007, JTS has accepted openly gay, lesbian, and bisexual students into their rabbinical and cantorial programs. This is to uphold the Seminary’s non-discrimination policies for their new founded admission policy, without taking a stance on same-sex unions. JTS marked the first anniversary of the change with a special program. Since then, special programs were established to recognize the pluralism in the student body. In April 2011, JTS held a Yom Iyyun, or day of learning, about LGBTQ issues, and their intersection with Judaism. Joy Ladin, a transgender woman who teaches English at Yeshiva University, gave a talk about her life. Other programs included creating welcoming communities, and inclusive prayer, among others. It was sponsored by other Jewish social action groups to ensure that all other queer individuals are included in all sectors of Jewish life.
Ladin has described her girlhood intuiting at a young age, viewing her assigned male identity as “false” as a child. At age eight, she began calling herself a “pacifist” in order to avoid combative play and athletics.
She received her PhD from Princeton University in 2000, her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1995 and her BA from Sarah Lawrence College in 1982. In 2007, Ladin received tenure at Yeshiva University, and thereafter announced her gender transition. In consternation, the Yeshiva could only place her on 18 month paid leave, but with the aid of lawyers from Lambda Legal, Ladin returned to work at Yeshiva University in 2008.
Since its birth, Reformed Judaism had given themselves a new challenge. In an effort to avoid what they perceived as “bondage to Judaism” the Bible has to be reinterpreted in a different way from what the Rabbinic Jews believe. Thus the Hebrew term ben ha arbayim is reinterpreted as between the setting-times and erev as dusk. And bôqer, which Rabbinic Jews defined broadly as the time after midnight to noon, is redefined and restricted to daybreak or sunrise. So Passover and the Exodus was redefined to capture the Samaritan spirit.
In Isaiah 30:1 it says, “Woe to the rebellious children,” saith the Lord, “that take counsel, but not of Me, and that cover with a covering, but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin . . . 9 that this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord.
In Exodus 32:9 And the Lord said unto Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiffnecked people.10 Now therefore let Me alone, that My wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them.”
Could the wrath of the same Lord return in our modern era?
The Mystery of Ephraim 