Talking With God

Is Prayer Futile?

October 21st, 2010

After reading Talking With God, a relative of mine, Kim recently asked,

“If contact with the Divine requires the laws of purity—”clean,” “unclean”—and Kashrus (observance of Jewish dietary laws), then is it an exercise in futility to pray now that the purity laws are non-observed and Kashrus only by the Orthodox (in reality). Why should we even attempt it according to your theory?”

Extending that question a bit, one might ask, since Jews can no longer follow the body of laws surrounding the use of the Ark of the Testimony as a communications device, i.e., sacrifice, use of items such as blood, incense, oil, special clothing, etc., for protection of the priests, what good is to be derived from prayer today? To that I have two separate answers, one directly from the book. There I say, read more

Tags: Ark of the Testimony, Bible, Faith, God, Old Testament, Spirituality, Theology

The Impact on Faith

October 19th, 2010

Question: As a scholar, were you ever concerned about how the public would receive your ideas? The impact on faith?

RDI: First and foremost I am interested in truth. I know my ideas will be controversial, and that’s just fine. But for that controversy to be substantive it has to rest on debate surrounding facts. This work doesn’t in any way argue one’s faith. One’s faith, or lack of it, is very subjective. What I have done is to attempt to clarify a subject that may or may not impact on one’s faith depending on how receptive, open-minded, the reader is. read more

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Traditional Prayer

October 17th, 2010

Question: Your book revolutionizes our thinking about how the Old Testament patriarchs actually talked to God. If these ancient technological devices were truly used, does that mean we’ve been deluding ourselves with the spiritual belief that we can talk to God via traditional prayer and meditation?

RDI: It’s interesting that the word translated prayed or pray (pawlal) is found twice in Genesis and twice in Numbers in all of the Four Books. It is found twice in the fifth book, Deuteronomy, and that book was produced much later. It is not found at all in Exodus and Leviticus, books much more important to my thesis. Pawlal involved Abraham and Abimelech, king of Gerar in one story and Moses and the rebellious Israelites in another. But it is generally acknowledged that the actual meaning of pawlal is to intercede, not to pray in the traditionally accepted form. (To be exact, pray is used in one of the two times in the accepted way in the Abraham/Abimelech story, but that was in a dream by the king.) read more

Tags: Ark of the Testimony, Bible, Faith, prayer

Writing “Talking With God”

October 15th, 2010

Question: In the book you mention that your father, a hematologist and researcher, launched your study. From the discussions with your father to the publishing of your book, how many years did the journey take? How did your father’s ideas evolve, and how did you fine tune them?

RDI: In the early 1950’s my father was deeply involved with his hematological research at a leading Chicago medical center, as well as his practice. At the same time my late partner and I were rapidly expanding our young public relations company, and my wife and I were building a family. It was during this period that my father, a true scientist and biblical scholar, and I began to have conversations about a thought he had concerning the possibility that the Ark of the Testimony (also called the Ark of the Covenant) could have been an electrical apparatus that was used to communicate with God. Then, in spite of our heavy schedules, we began to plumb the Bible for any evidence to substantiate this thought. read more

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