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A Hebrew Teacher Looks At Stargates, Time Travel, and Alternate Universes: Biblical Word Studies With Chaim Bentorah
Hebrew scholar, Chaim Bentorah explores the original language of the Bible. He has traced words to their Semitic origins and searched out ancient Jewish literature to determine if the renderings in this book are within the range of plausibility. Then he stepped out of the box and drew from the science of modern physics and his Ph.D. studies in biblical archaeology to reach the conclusions presented in this book.
He believes it is important to study the Word of God in its original languages and to be wholly dependent upon the Holy Spirit to guide students into their knowledge of God. The nature of the Hebrew language is open to a wide scope of interpretation and not all traditional interpretations should be trusted as exclusively accurate.
The ideas explored in this book are not presented as fact, but as possibility, well within the parameters of the original language and context. If you believe in God and Jesus Christ His Son who came to earth, lived, died, and rose again to atone for your sins and that you believe you will spend eternity with God in a place called heaven, then the possibilities of His reality are endless, and the original languages of His Word do not contradict the possibilities presented in this book.
You never know, Bigfoot may be a heavenly creature who steps in and out of a portal now and then to say “Hi there!”
“De omnibus est dubitandum” “Everything should be questioned.” Descartes
He believes it is important to study the Word of God in its original languages and to be wholly dependent upon the Holy Spirit to guide students into their knowledge of God. The nature of the Hebrew language is open to a wide scope of interpretation and not all traditional interpretations should be trusted as exclusively accurate.
The ideas explored in this book are not presented as fact, but as possibility, well within the parameters of the original language and context. If you believe in God and Jesus Christ His Son who came to earth, lived, died, and rose again to atone for your sins and that you believe you will spend eternity with God in a place called heaven, then the possibilities of His reality are endless, and the original languages of His Word do not contradict the possibilities presented in this book.
You never know, Bigfoot may be a heavenly creature who steps in and out of a portal now and then to say “Hi there!”
“De omnibus est dubitandum” “Everything should be questioned.” Descartes
156 pages, Paperback
Published July 6, 2021
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September 11, 2021
I bought this book because I've been thinking so much about "time" recently. Actually, I've always thought a lot about time but I wasn't always conscious of it. I think it was when I read The Narnia Code: C. S. Lewis and the Secret of the Seven Heavens that I became aware that my own writing had an underlying obsession with the question, "What is a day?" My fantasy novels might not have that question front and centre but it lurks not too far below the surface. Relativistic time is absolutely integral to every aspect of the plot in Many-Coloured Realm and the subtitle of Daystar: The Days Are Numbered is a dead giveaway.
For the past 17 years, I've been working on the sequel to Merlin's Wood: Battle of the Trees 1. It's been sporadic and a huge wrestle because I find myself struggling to understand the images I’m concocting. They “feel right” but they seem to be a confused mixture of symbols. It's been a tangle of half-formed ideas about trees and time travel and the nature of power that’s been bogged down because I can’t work out what it’s spiritually all about. I have to be able to understand that at least a little bit to have the book make sense.
Enter STARGATES, TIME TRAVEL AND ALTERNATE UNIVERSES. It was a revelation! As soon as I started to read about the meaning of “ets” (tree), I could see that what I thought was a messy tangle in what I was trying to write was actually several threads being woven together. I was deeply encouraged by STARGATES. More than that, I want to thank the author for daring to put his off-the-wall ideas on paper.
The book itself is full of speculative ideas that stretch the limits of our understanding about the world around us, the nature of the universe, creation itself. The author is a bit too self-deprecating as he puts his way-out “thought experiments in the Hebrew language” (he doesn’t call them that but I was reminded of Einstein’s “thought experiments” from time to time) out in the public arena. The best of science shows itself in beautiful, elegant equations and I found myself sensing the same exquisite formulations of language behind the author’s explanations. On the surface, the ideas of stargates, portals, time travel and alternative universes might seem wild and wacky, but the possibility that these ideas have been right in front of us, since ancient times, staring out from the Hebrew text is very real.
A few notes:
"He was wounded for our transgressions" (Isaiah 53:5) is more accurately "He was wounded from our transgressions" and in rabbinical thought refers to Israel being afflicted from the iniquities of the nations. (p 7)
Christian Hebrew scholars teach that the word yiredu for dominion comes from the root radah which means to exert control over or overpower. However rabbinic teachers suggest it comes from yarad, to descend, to lower oneself and show respect. Scripture teaches respect for creation not control of it. (p 16)
"Adam" is more correctly "human" than "man". Once God had created a woman, He used the terms "ish" and "ishah". (p 17)
Story of a rabbi asked to give up his place in the afterlife. (p 70)
Did Saul want the witch of Endor to call up the prophet Samuel or alternatively samuel, "the desire of God's heart"? (p 84ff)
When the disciples saw Jesus walking on the water, they thought they were seeing a ghost. This is suggestive of the thought they believed in spirits of the wandering dead. They may have thought they were about to be lured by a demon like a siren of Poseidon/Dagon with a song that would take them to their deaths. (p 94)
Jesus fulfilled the tradition about Moses and Elijah coming together to identify the Messiah. (Succoth 5a in Talmud; Deuteronomy Midrash Rabbah 3. 239b (p 95)
Teleportation (p 99)
Difference between portals and stargates (p 103)
The word for whirlwind, salal, that took Elijah to heaven is used for highway in Isaiah 35. (p 103) The meaning of salal (a circle within a circle) is probably a raised place that connects two points. Thus may be a portal. (p104) Elisha possibly saw Elijah going through the portal (the condition of the double blessing) and it may be that only the pure in heart can see such portals (p 105) since the salal is a way of holiness (p 106). When Elisha died, Joash may have seen the portal too and the exclamation, "My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and his horsemen" may also mean, "My father, my father, the messiah receives you with open arms." (p 106)
Legendary creatures (p 111)
Enoch and portal (p 113)
When Aaron died, the Cloud of Glory left and the king of Arad was emboldened to attack the Israelites. (p 116)
For the past 17 years, I've been working on the sequel to Merlin's Wood: Battle of the Trees 1. It's been sporadic and a huge wrestle because I find myself struggling to understand the images I’m concocting. They “feel right” but they seem to be a confused mixture of symbols. It's been a tangle of half-formed ideas about trees and time travel and the nature of power that’s been bogged down because I can’t work out what it’s spiritually all about. I have to be able to understand that at least a little bit to have the book make sense.
Enter STARGATES, TIME TRAVEL AND ALTERNATE UNIVERSES. It was a revelation! As soon as I started to read about the meaning of “ets” (tree), I could see that what I thought was a messy tangle in what I was trying to write was actually several threads being woven together. I was deeply encouraged by STARGATES. More than that, I want to thank the author for daring to put his off-the-wall ideas on paper.
The book itself is full of speculative ideas that stretch the limits of our understanding about the world around us, the nature of the universe, creation itself. The author is a bit too self-deprecating as he puts his way-out “thought experiments in the Hebrew language” (he doesn’t call them that but I was reminded of Einstein’s “thought experiments” from time to time) out in the public arena. The best of science shows itself in beautiful, elegant equations and I found myself sensing the same exquisite formulations of language behind the author’s explanations. On the surface, the ideas of stargates, portals, time travel and alternative universes might seem wild and wacky, but the possibility that these ideas have been right in front of us, since ancient times, staring out from the Hebrew text is very real.
A few notes:
"He was wounded for our transgressions" (Isaiah 53:5) is more accurately "He was wounded from our transgressions" and in rabbinical thought refers to Israel being afflicted from the iniquities of the nations. (p 7)
Christian Hebrew scholars teach that the word yiredu for dominion comes from the root radah which means to exert control over or overpower. However rabbinic teachers suggest it comes from yarad, to descend, to lower oneself and show respect. Scripture teaches respect for creation not control of it. (p 16)
"Adam" is more correctly "human" than "man". Once God had created a woman, He used the terms "ish" and "ishah". (p 17)
Story of a rabbi asked to give up his place in the afterlife. (p 70)
Did Saul want the witch of Endor to call up the prophet Samuel or alternatively samuel, "the desire of God's heart"? (p 84ff)
When the disciples saw Jesus walking on the water, they thought they were seeing a ghost. This is suggestive of the thought they believed in spirits of the wandering dead. They may have thought they were about to be lured by a demon like a siren of Poseidon/Dagon with a song that would take them to their deaths. (p 94)
Jesus fulfilled the tradition about Moses and Elijah coming together to identify the Messiah. (Succoth 5a in Talmud; Deuteronomy Midrash Rabbah 3. 239b (p 95)
Teleportation (p 99)
Difference between portals and stargates (p 103)
The word for whirlwind, salal, that took Elijah to heaven is used for highway in Isaiah 35. (p 103) The meaning of salal (a circle within a circle) is probably a raised place that connects two points. Thus may be a portal. (p104) Elisha possibly saw Elijah going through the portal (the condition of the double blessing) and it may be that only the pure in heart can see such portals (p 105) since the salal is a way of holiness (p 106). When Elisha died, Joash may have seen the portal too and the exclamation, "My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and his horsemen" may also mean, "My father, my father, the messiah receives you with open arms." (p 106)
Legendary creatures (p 111)
Enoch and portal (p 113)
When Aaron died, the Cloud of Glory left and the king of Arad was emboldened to attack the Israelites. (p 116)
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