The jingle

In English speaking world, there have been different opinions about the jingle in my preface. Some people still talk about it once in a while.

In China and India, even in Brazil, Russia, Mexico or most countries in Africa and developing areas, I believe only a few people have heard about this jingle. To most people in China or India, Jesus is for Christians and Catholics only, hence, this jingle would look like a common nursery rhyme to them if they read it. I hope this book could change their views of it.

The first J is leading the biggest religion group of the world and the second J is a group of richest people in the whole world. This fact makes that jingle a very worthy topic to study in the twenty-first century.

However, most species of roses are five-petals of pink or a kind of white color and only a few red, yellow, orange or purple roses so that a jingle is just a jingle. A jingle is not like a proverb or a piece of law which people can rely on for understanding the current world, or for hoping a better future.

Nevertheless, this jingle is really telling something beyond the words. Let me start from what I found out in this jingle, put them in the chapter one. Then I will talk about time.

There is a video game named "Rose and time" which is about "time travel". A girl named Rose tried to find the time crystal so that she might understand "time travel" and rescue her parents who were trapped in a time loop.

I certainly appreciate that God allows people to imagine, but I will try to show you that everything in the past is gone forever. It's too wild to think about going back into history.

1-1. Roses are red

I like red roses, especially "Mr. Lincoln".

Mr. Lincoln is a very well-known hybrid tea. The flower has long pointed buds open into large, well-formed, long stemmed, fully double 4" cup-shape blooms. It has more than 24 velvety petals, in deep red. Someone said "The velvety texture of the bloom is almost unbelievable." I suggest you to look at it in cold day when the red is turning black and the velvety is still there.

Mr. Lincoln has outstandingly strong fragrance like the fruit litchi that seduces the senses. You will love it, I guarantee; so long as you are not allergic to fragrance.

1-2. Violets are bluish

1 know some bluish flowers and fruits but violets always carry some hint of purple color. It is not like some hydrangea flowers, all blue.

The color of violets is more like it of lavenders.

There are some fruit named "blue" so that it is blue, like blue berries.

Some fruit is blue but does not have the word "blue" in its name like honey berries. The color is real dark blue, isn't it?

1-3. If it weren't for Jesus

To Christians, Jesus is forever. Among all human religions and believing, Jesus' teaching is the only one stand high on top of the moral mountain.

If the highest white rose on next page represents God then Jesus is the bud besides God and the Spirit is the other bud close to them. They constitute the Trinity of Christianity.

Below the Trinity, we could find Laozi and Buddha talking to each other in the middle. Most of other moral teachers are one more step down with the closest white rose. That big rose is close to people and it is to represent their main mental mentors. Such a mentor guides the direction of an individual's life.

1-3-1. Buddha

If Buddha was like the middle white rose then Laozi was the bud close to Buddha. Laozi said "It's hard to do but people should return good to evil." Buddha smiled and said "You did not include that norm in your list of three treasures, but when people realize the emptiness of power, fame and wealth they would be merciful then they follow your norm naturally. The Nirvana theory does support your idea."

1-3-2. Confucius

I have not experienced the status of Nirvana but I do know that if you are not a Christian then you may assume the closest and biggest white rose is your master. To more than 50% of Chinese people, the master is Confucius; to Hindus, there are many masters; to most other people, I believe that the following terse formula provided by a Palestinian sage, Hillel, is a very good teaching.

1-3-3. Hillel the Elder

He said

"That which is hurtful to thee do not to thy neighbor.

That is the whole doctrine. The rest is commentary. Now go forth and learn."

1-4. We'd all be Jewish!

This conclusion is the intention of that jingle. How you understand the word "Jewish" decides how you feel about that jingle.

• What makes a Jewish person?

There are two ways to move in and out of Jewish group. The voluntary one of moving in is to convert to Judaism and of moving out is to convert to heathens. The involuntary one is born by a Jewish mother (or father in the Levite tribe). So simple, right?

1-4-1. Jewish by birth

Actually, in the involuntary way, Israel law and some denominations allow children with Jewish father to join Jewish group; if they learn Jewish theology, rituals, history, culture and customs, and to begin incorporating Jewish practices into their lives.

• Jews

All involuntary Jewish people could be named Jews. The definition of Jew and Jewish, even Judaism are very complicated. That is why the Law of Return, 7/5/1950, was unable to clear cut the non-Jews from the Jews.

1-4-2. Jewish by conversion

In the voluntary way, the Rabbinical Court of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism requires an average of a year of study to become conversant in Jewish life and tradition. Following this, converts are required to immerse in a ritual bath, be circumcised if the conversant is male, and accept the commandments before the rabbinical court.

That means to join Jewish group voluntarily is a lifelong decision for a non-Jew person to be Jewish. Even most denominations of Judaism are open to sincere converts, a conversion "in accordance with the process of a denomination" is not a guarantee of recognition by another denomination.

• Free to leave

Can a Jewish person leave the Jewish group? Any time, there is no legal binding nor religious binding to tie a person's rest of life with Judaism but once convert out, only the involuntary Jewish can go back to Jewish group free of question. A converted Jewish person, like a non-Jew immigrant of Israel, has no reason to quit the Jewish status, at least logically speaking.

1-4-3. Judaism

However, if I am not a Jewish person but I do believe in God or Gods, then how do I decide if I will like to become a Jewish person?

• Jesus in Judaism

First of all, I need to know what is "Judaism" so I study it. In Judaism, Jesus is not the son of God and definitely not the God; he is a great man, a gifted and exalted teacher but not even the Messiah. Maimonides paid tribute to Jesus as "One who prepared the way for the Messianic King."

• Six hundred and thirteen commandments

The hardest but very solid way to understand Judaism is to go through all Moses' six hundred and thirteen commandments then think about if 1 will like to obey all of that, in terms of, after proper modification to fit into current environments. And, the most important thing is to ask myself seriously "Do I really believe in one, and only one, God?"

• Rabbis

Because finding out true meanings in hundreds of commandments is hard to do and, honestly, very boring to do; so that in the Jewish group there are selected proper people assigned to do the job. They are rabbis.

The actual content of Jewish theology in a Jew's mind normally starts from how his/her rabbi understands the commandments and how the subgroup of Jewish people, who go to that rabbi's synagogue, enrich the rabbi's mind. To the believers in such a subgroup of Judaism, leading by a rabbi, their beliefs will grow with the interactions between them and their rabbi, along their journeys of life.

• Torah

Yes, all rabbis have different ideas about Judaism but all rabbis work on Moses' commandments (or Torah) and they all believe in only one God.

Since Moses' commandments are not going to fit perfectly into current environment, rabbis are always busy; but beside the changing explanations there are a few practical terse formula for Jewish people to follow. For example, in the Psalms XV David reduced commandments into five groups of about eleven commandments, in the Isaiah XXXIII: 15 Isaiah made them into six commandments and finally in Habakkuk 11:4, it was reduced into one commandment

"The righteous will live by their faithfulness."

1-4-4. Love & wealth

Now, I know the Jewish theology can be flexible however, it looks like being a Jewish person is not only believing in only one God but also learning rituals, history, culture and customs. I must also corporate Jewish practices into my life.

That's a lot to do for a Chinese like me. Hmm, what does this sentence, "If it weren't for Jesus, we'd all be Jewish.", mean to a Chinese?

I think, that sentence includes two most desirable things of human: love and wealth.

People like to perform a great love and Jesus did the best sample.

People like to earn a large fortune and Jewish people did the best sample.

However, money is not easy to deal with. The 5th group of commandments in Psalm XV states a righteous is "who lends money to the poor without interest; who does not accept a bribe against the innocent," and the 3rd and 4th commandments of Isaiah XXXIII: 15 states a righteous the same way "who reject gain from extortion and keep their hands from accepting bribes,". Both of David and Isaiah all had concern about the problem of bribing and lending money at usury. In their commandments, they warned people, money could be dangerous.

• A practical order

An Italian Professor of the History of Economic. Thought, Cosimo Perrotta, said "The Rabbis saw no virtue in poverty." I think that is the main reason Jewish people are so successful in earning money. You see, if their leaders do not allow them to be poor then they do have to obey the practical order, don't they?

In ancient China, people said "Wealth and honors are as short-lived as dewdrops on the tips of grass." They even believed and said that "Rich people have black heart, while the poor have black hands." However, the rich Jews believe that all heathens or heretics will go to heaven so long as they obey the seven commandments established by ancient rabbis as a binding on all mankind. It is much easier than for Jews be allowed going to heaven, so we know most Jews have red hearts.

The Chinese have reversed their opinion on wealth in recent thirty years. As I know, time has also changed Hindus, gradually.

Time has changed many things, almost everything was under its influence.

Time

I believe that time would change things but nothing could change time, neither speed nor gravity.

Once an event goes into the past, there is no way to change that event. People might not know that particular event at all, but what happened was not going to change, even if nobody knew it. Now let me explain my idea.

2-1. Length contraction

The starting point of the new concept about time travel was related to the hypothesis of "length contraction". The hypothesis stated "A moving vehicle and everything in it will shorten by dividing a Lorentz factor along the moving direction." A man in a fast moving space shuttle, his head will shrink only at the moving direction. If face ahead, the width of ears will shrink but the width of his mouth will remain the same. Sounds a little bit strange right?

If the man in a fast moving space shuttle turns his head 90 degree, then would the shrinking direction change from shrinking the width of ears to shrinking the width of mouth, while the width of his ears would go back to normal at the same time? It is very weird to me.

Before Mr. Lorentz published his idea he did two things to tease people:

2-1-1. Let contraction be complicated

Mr. Lorentz thought if he let the road contracted for the bus and the universe contracted for the spaceship then he might be able to create something new from the Galilean Transformation (GT). So, he let his "hypothesis of contraction" apply to GT to get the spatial equations of Lorentz Transformation (LT) and inverse LT. However he forgot to put the equation of GT back to its original format, before applying his Lorentz factor, γ.

I will explain this minor mistake in the section B-l of appendixes. Let me tell you what Mr. Lorentz did to his two spatial equations of Lorentz Transformation (LT) and inverse LT, first.

2-1-2. Let time be complicated

The time equation of GT is simply t' = t.

Mr. Galilei assumed that there could be observers everywhere in S and also observers everywhere in S', who moved with S', so that for a given event Eg located at point Pg, when event Eg happened at a time tEg, the observer in S at Pg would record event time t=tEg and the observer in S' at Pg would also record event time t'=tEg so that people should always have the result [t'=t.

• Only one choice

When Mr. Lorentz got two modified spatial equations he wanted to find the time equations for LT and inverse LT eagerly. How could he create them from nowhere?

He looked at the GT and decided the equation f = t was too easy for people. As a matter of fact, no observer could wait in the air for such an event as a bullet hitting a flying bird. However Mr. Lorentz did not have many choices.

Actually he had only one choice, which is to combine the spatial equations of LT and inverse LT. He did it and the new equation of time was born.

Yes, the time equation was troublesome and it was so ugly that the relation of time t' and t depended on the location of an event. Mr. Lorentz knew that scientists would have an endless nightmare so long as his LT survived. He was right, the LT has lasted for more than 100 years and scientists are still arguing on the definition of time.

2-2. Time dilation

Mr. Einstein tried to prove LT mathematically. He tried twice but both his proofs of LT had logical errors. Please refer to section B-3 of appendixes for details.

2-2-1. A smart move

Now, we have come to the historical point of how, where and when Special Relativity (SR) was born; without the name SR.

• The difficulty of LT

Even if LT is mathematically true the time equation of LT is too complicated to apply in scientific experiments, because the relation of t' and t unexpectedly depends on the location of an observed event.

• The very smart move

Einstein was very smart. He asked himself "What if I let an observer Ob stay at origin point O of S and another observer Ob' at origin point O' of S' then let both of Ob and Ob' observe events happen at O' only? The x' will be always zero, isn't it?"

2-2-2. A beautiful result

The events happen at O' could be the observer Ob' sits down, logs on computer, connects internet, types a letter, stands up or just smiles. Under that condition, x' = 0, the time equation of LT will simply represent the time relation without location variables.

It also means, we will have the time relation between the watches in S and S'; or the watches of observers Ob and Ob'.

Yes, the result is very beautiful. The formula t'= t / 7 states "the speed of time within a vehicle is slower, when the vehicle moves faster." That formula of SR only depends on the relative speed of O and O', or you may say, of two observers Ob and Ob'. That wonderful result makes SR very attractive to scientists.

• t' = t / γ

2-3. Combining equations

Mr. Lorentz let the length of bus contract when the observer is on the side walk and he let the length of side walk contract when the observer is on the bus. He did not claim if it is a measured result or it is real.

2-3-1. Is the time dilation a measured result?

In year 1905, Mr. Einstein let the clock on the bus run slower when the observer is on the side walk and he let the clock on the side walk run slower when the observer is on the bus. Did Mr. Einstein claim the effect is real?

2-3-2. Mr. Einstein meant "SR is real."

On his paper published 6/30/1905 Einstein talked about a scientific experiment which could verify the formula of SR. He suggested to put two same kind of clock at heights of same gravity potential, one at North pole and the other one at equator. He expected the clock at the equator would run slower than the other one.

More than 100 years past and our technology is still not good enough to carry out Einstein's proposal of scientific experiment.