Hi everyone. Here is the introduction I promised to post.
I actually feel like I kind of know many of you, because I have been reading and following along on the forum (and on the previous forum) for over two years, I think from around October of 2009 (except that I stayed away during the time when random advertising would constantly pop up when trying to open a discussion topic for viewing).
I have learned a lot, and decided to ask for forum membership for two reasons: to let you all know that I am here, following along with the forum topics, and to be able to ask questions from time to time.
I am 56, married with 3 children. Our oldest is our only daughter, and she is married. Our two sons still live at home. I was born in California, grew up in Oklahoma among the Cherokee Indians, and now live in Ohio.
I do understand the forum rules, so I have been reluctant to join, because I am a Christian. If it matters at all, I am Mennonite (Dutch), a tradition which is neither Catholic nor Protestant. In fact, many Mennonites were arrested and killed by both of these groups during the early to mid 1600’s. all of my great-grandparents came to the USA as refugees from the Russian Empire (between 1873 & 1890), having lived in the Ukraine for around a hundred years. (My people had previously been forced out of their own country of Holland, and then spent 100 or so years in what is now Poland, then a German state known as Prussia. I said 'their own country', but we are almost certainly not true Dutch, as many of us are dark skinned and dark-haired - it is believed that they had earlier come from Spain or Portugal, during the Inquisition, or during the time in which Spain controlled the Netherlands.)
My interest in Torah studies from a Jewish perspective has grown over the years, especially as I saw serious inadequacies in commentaries written by Christian authors. In fact, the only one which I found of value was one written in the 1600’s. The author (John Gill) often quoted the targums, so it lent it some credence. (I hope that I am using this term correctly, and not just showing my ignorance.) I grew up in a family that highly valued study of the Scripture, and also studied it extensively in the Bible college where I attended after high school. I then trained in linguistics to do Scripture translation, and worked in this capacity in Brazil, translating for a small Amazonian tribal group.
I began reading on various Jewish forums after an American Jewish man began posting on a Mennonite forum where I was active. (It has since closed down.) He pointed us to Chabad.org, and my search for other forums brought me to AISH.com and Torah.org.
Neto
(By way of explanation, the forum name I chose is a nick name based on 'Eneto', the name given to me by the tribal people with whom we lived in Brazil for 17 years. 'Eneto' is in turn based on the Portuguese name Ernesto. My legal name is Ernest. So I answer to any of these names.)