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Why can't Noahides eat this Korean dish? Usually the complex dietary laws regard Jewish observance, but there are also dietary laws in Noahide observance , even though their keeping is much easier and rarely comes to mention. One of the Seven Laws of Noah , which God have to Noah for all of his descendants (i.e. all humans) to keep, is: Do NOT eat flesh from an animal still living. This looks like a pretty easy commandment to keep, and it is, but you should be aware that in some cuisines consuming living animals does existing. Such is the case with Korean cuisine. In traditional Korean cuisine exists a dish called san-nakji  (or sannakji ) which consists of two main types: The first and more common one is raw chopped octopus; The second one, which we are concerned with, is a living octopus supposed to be eaten while still alive and moving. Two people eating living san-nakji. While the living variant of san-nakji is rarely served nowadays, it still does appear here and there...

Should religious people avoid doing yoga? Whether it is appropriate for religious people to practice yoga or not has been a question many people commented on in order to find the answer. Here in this article we will try to provide an answer to this same question. Yet, in order to do so, we first need to explain the origins of yoga, which are the most problematic part of the entire topic. Origins of yoga Yoga originated as a Hindu spiritual practice, strictly intertwined with the worship of differet Hindu dieties/idols. As we know, people who believe in the Lord, our God, the only true God, are not supposed to engage in pagan worship in any form. The Lord, our God, has commanded that not only to Jews (see Exodus 20:3) but to all of humanity (see the Seven Laws of Noah ). Therefore we should all be careful not to engage in idol worship of any kind. Hindu yogis (yoga practitioners) during a Hindu ceremony. Modern yoga Yet, the kind of yoga most people practice today is not reall...

What are the ShUM cities? You may have heard the term ShUM before, but what does it actually mean? The word ShUM (in Hebrew: שו"ם) is a Hebrew abbreviation for Shpayer, Wormeyza, Maintz . These are the traditional Jewish names of the cities known in English as Speyer, Worms, and Mainz, all located in Western parts of Germany. These three cities played a crucial role in the history of Ashkenazi Jews. In fact, their role is so important, it is not possible to put everything in just one article, therefore there will more articles about them in the future. All of the three cities are on the shores of the river Rhine, and more specifically in the province of Rhineland-Pfalz. They are all located along the ancient border between the Roman Empire and the polities of the various Germanic tribes who inhabited the region in Antiquity. The region on the Roman side of this border was the exact region where the Romans deported the ancestors of the Ashkenazi Jews after expelling them fr...

Adam Names all Animals (Genesis 2:18-20) In the follwing verses from the Book of Genesis (Bereshit) we will see the origins of all animals' names. Genesis 2 18. the Eternal God said, "It is not good for Adam to be alone; I will make a fitting counterpart for him." 19. And the Eternal God formed out of the earth all the wild beasts and all the birds of the sky, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them; and whatever Adam called each living creature, that would be its name. 20. And Adam gave names to all the cattle and to the birds of the sky and to all the wild beasts; but no fitting counterpart for a human being was found. This is how the names of different animals came to be, and they are still preserved as Adam gave them in the Hebrew language.

God Speaks to Adam (Genesis 2:15-17) Here in this part of the Book of Genesis (Bereshit) we will see what the Lord, our God, spoke to Adam before the creation of the first woman. Genesis 2 15. The Eternal God settled Adam in the garden of Eden, to till it and tend it. 16. And the Eternal God commanded Adam, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you are free to eat; 17. but as for the tree of knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat of it; for as soon as you eat of it, you shall die." This is what the Lord spoke to Adam, the first human, while he was still the only human being on the world.

The Four Rivers Flowing from the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:10-14) In the following verses of the Book of Genesis (Bereshit) we do see what are the four rivers flowing from the Garden of Eden. Genesis 2 10. A river issues from Eden to water the garden, and it then divides and becomes four branches. 11. The name of the first is Pishon, the one that winds through the whole land of Havilah, where the gold is. 12. The gold of that land is good; bdellium is there, and lapis lazuli. 13. The name of the second river is Gihon, the one that winds through the whole land of Cush. 14. The name of the third river is Tigris, the one that flows east of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. These are the verses about the four rivers which the Lord, our God, created and made to flow from the Garden of Eden into other parts of the world.

The Creation of Adam and of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:5-15) Here you will see the verses of the Book of Genesis (Bereshit) which cover the creation of Adam and the creation of the Garden of Eden. Genesis 2 5. when no shrub of the field was yet on earth and no grasses of the field had yet sprouted, because the Eternal God had not sent rain upon the earth and there were no human beings to till the soil. 6. but a flow would well up from the ground and water the whole surface of the earth - 7. the Eternal God formed a Human* from the soil's humus,** blowing into his nostrils the breath of life: the Human became a living being. 8. The Eternal God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and placed there the Human who had been fashioned. 9. And from the ground the Eternal God caused to grow every tree that was pleasing to the sight and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and bad. 10. A river issues from Eden to wat...