what is on a prayer shawl or talith?

[Henaynei]

Ps 68:5 - Show Context A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.

Ps 89:26 - Show Context He shall cry unto me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.

Ps 103:13 - Show Context Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.

Isa 9:6 - Show Context For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Isa 63:16 - Show Context Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O LORD, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting.

Isa 64:8 - Show Context But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.

Jer 3:19 - Show Context But I said, How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not turn away from me.

Jer 31:9 - Show Context They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.


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But that's ok - few of the people who follow the "NT" don't relate to him as a Righteous Judge and Awful Conquering Warrior either (unless it is to smash their enemies )

 

[Hadassah]

HadassahSukkot, I don't know how to put this very well but I know that God is the same G-d but in the Old Testament most people didn't relate to G-d as the Heavenly Father. Some did but most people then didn't. In fact, on Mt. Sinai, they ran from Him and wanted Moses to go talk to him instead. I meant relating to G-d as Father, not that He is a different G-d to different people in the New Testament. Then that middle wall was broken and now people can come to Him but alot of people still don' know him as Heavenly Father. Lulav, sorry didn't mean to sound disrespectful. I just didn't know how to spell "tallit" but thanks for posting.

We've always gone to the Father through our mediator...

So much is lost in translation and dogma...

Remember before we speak ill of our forefathers in the faith:

1 Corinthians 10 1 I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground. 2 In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses. 3 All of them ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Messiah. 5 Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
6 These things happened as a warning to us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did, 7 or worship idols as some of them did. As the Scriptures say, “The people celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry.” 8 And we must not engage in sexual immorality as some of them did, causing 23,000 of them to die in one day.
9 Nor should we put Messiah to the test, as some of them did and then died from snakebites. 10 And don’t grumble as some of them did, and then were destroyed by the angel of death. 11 These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age.
12 If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. 13 The temptations in your life are no different from what the others experienced. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.

 

[ChavaK]

boys wear that thing at bar mitvahs, don't they?

There are variations in communities as to who wears a tallis.
In Sephardic communities, it is generally worn by males
after they are bar mitzvah. In Ashkenazic communities, it
is generally only worn by married males after they are
bar mitzvah.

It is common that any one on the bima, or those who are
performing a public religious function (leading prayer,
doing hagbah, getting an aliyah, etc) wear a tallis.

They are worn only during the daytime except for the
chazzan who always wears one. The other exception
is that they are worn during kol nidre.

Again, custom does vary by community.