On matters of the Heart Part I

     MB a friend of Jewish faith suggests that following one's heart deceives us
into making the wrong choice.

The bible warns us against following our hearts!

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MB I give a scenerio below and you may see if this is a Christian, 
he will worship him. If a Jew, he will kill him.

The Torah tells us that if a great seer / miracle maker arises -- and add to 
that that this man's deeds are righteous, his love of humanity is sincere and 
overflowing, his words of Torah are profound and his personality is 
powerfully compelling.

He becomes a leading rabbi of the generation. At some point in his career,
 he begins to inform the Jewish world that he has dreamed a dream 
(or if this scenario would occur in the days of prophecy, that he has been 
sent a prophetic vision).

In the dream, HaShem came to him and said that the mitzvah of tefillin
 is no longer binding upon men. It doesn't matter that the Torah tells us 
to do it -- this man says that G-d says "don't do it any longer." Should we
 listen to this man?

After all, he performed miracles! After all, he is holy! To convince us 
 skeptical Jews, the man says he will make an amazing miracle to prove 
to us that "G-d told him" and that we should listen to him.

The man says he will cause the earth to stop rotating, make it snow in 
Miami and make a huge lake in the Mohave Desert. He will bring peace 
 between Jews and Arabs. . . (Hey, I can fantasize, can't I?) And guess
 what? He does every single one of the miracles. What exactly would the 
 Torah say about this most remarkable figure?
MB You guessed it: Kill him! He is a navi sheker, a false prophet, as 
discussed by the Torah in this parsha/Deuteronomy:

"If there should stand up in your midst a prophet or a dreamer of a dream, 
 and he will produce to you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder 
comes about of which he spoke to you, saying, 'Let us follow gods of others 
that you did not know and we shall worship them!'--do not hearken to the 
words of that prophet or to that dreamer of a dream...And that prophet and
 that dreamer of a dream shall be put to death, for he had spoken perversion 
against Hashem, your G-d." (13: 2-4, 6; Artscroll Chumash.)

It doesn't matter if the Christians, Muslims, Buddhists (fill in the blank) 
perform miracles.

Their claims to divine truth or heavenly communication were still proven 
false once they challenged any portion of the Torah, or--even more so--
declared that the entire Torah had been supplanted.

In fact, our own acceptance of Moshe Rabbeinu (Moses) as the authentic 
 teacher of G-d Torah to the Jewish people is not, in any way, based on 
 the miracles he performed!

As Rambam explains in Chapter of 8 of Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah, Moshe
 performed certain miracles in the desert --splitting the Red Sea, bringing 
water forth from the rock, etc.--because we needed them -- not to impress 
anyone. Those actions were not done to offer proof of his unique prophetic
status!


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Don Tan Interestingly, in the two years of ministry Yeshua preached 
in Judea and Samaria. They, so called holders of the Torah were too 
chicken, too put him to death themselves. After all, repeatedly, 
those hypocrites called him Rabbi. Seemingly, trying to entrap him 
at every corner. Leaving Pilate to do the dirty work for them. Doesn't
it seem kind of fishy, so called, righteous types leaving others, to do 
the dirty work for them. Why? If he was indeed a false prophet. Why
couldn't they just stone him themselves for being one ?

13. I saw in the visions of the night, and behold with the clouds 
of the heaven, one like a man was coming, and he came up to the
Ancient of Days and was brought before Him.
 יג. חָזֵה הֲוֵית בְּחֶזְוֵי לֵילְיָא וַאֲרוּ עִם עֲנָנֵי שְׁמַיָּא כְּבַר
 אֱנָשׁ אָתֵה הֲוָא וְעַד עַתִּיק יוֹמַיָּא מְטָה וּקְדָמוֹהִי הַקְרְבוּהִי: 14. 
And He gave him dominion and glory and a kingdom, and all
peoples, nations, and tongues shall serve him; his dominion is an 
eternal dominion, which will not be removed, and his kingdom is 
one which will not be destroyed.
יד. וְלֵהּ יְהִב שָׁלְטָן וִיקָר וּמַלְכוּ וְכֹל עַמְמַיָּא 
אֻמַּיָּא וְלִשָּׁנַיָּא לֵהּ יִפְלְחוּן שָׁלְטָנֵהּ שָׁלְטַן עָלַם דִּי לָא יֶעְדֵּה וּמַלְכוּתֵהּ דִּי לָא תִתְחַבַּל: 

~ Daniel 7