What Is 13Petals?
Over the past few decades, with greater frequency, the phenomenon of gentiles turning toward Torah has been increasing. Unfortunately, due to centuries of separation from kosher Torah instruction, these people have been lost in a maze of baseless opinions, led by ‘messianic’ and ‘Hebrew Roots’ teachers, many of whom until recently had been teaching or leading at a church.
Despite this confusion, the general shift in attitudes and specific interest in learning Torah on the part of gentiles, has been noticed by some rabbis and others in the Jewish community, and is seen as a ‘sign of the times.’ This is prompting a movement on the part of the latter to ‘reach back to Esau,’ to help them learn Torah – not in some limited “Noachide” fashion, but on a fuller scale. (See here for an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIKGTyGVl9w)
13 Petals does NOT promote any Christian doctrines or interpretations of the Bible, nor support any “Hebrew Roots” or “Messianic” organizations. We completely reject all heretical concepts such as the ‘trinity’ and man-god (‘deity of Jesus’) ideas, or that those not accepting such doctrines face ‘eternal punishment in hell,’ etc. These concepts are all avodah zarah (foreign/false worship).
This website is primarily to help non-Jews get closer to G-d and His plan for them according to Torah-Judaism. Jews should remain in, or return to, Judaism and kosher Torah teachings and living, and avoid/leave all Christian, ‘messianic’ or ‘Hebrew Roots’ groups that promote the above-mentioned concepts.
The Web Site
13 Petals provides perspectives on Torah-related issues. The website functions in coordination with various Facebook groups, Zoom conferences, and other efforts.
Unique to this website is its view that the original teachings of the “New Testament” fall within a framework of Jewish Torah spirituality. We present several studies on this.
The Name
The name “13 Petals” comes from the opening paragraph of the Zohar and is associated with G-d’s relationship to Israel and the thirteen categories of mercy mentioned in the Torah.
Zohar 1:1 – Rabbi Hizkiah opened his discourse with the text: As a rose among thorns, etc. (Song of Songs 2:2). ‘What’, he said, ‘does the rose symbolise? It symbolises the Community of Israel. As the rose among thorns is tinged with red and white, so the Community of Israel is visited now with justice and now with mercy; as the rose possesses thirteen leaves, so the Community of Israel is vouchsafed thirteen categories of mercy which surround it on every side. For this reason, the term Elohim mentioned here (in the first verse of Genesis) is separated by thirteen words from the next mention of Elohim, symbolising the thirteen categories of mercy which surround the Community of Israel to protect it. The second mention of Elohim is separated from the third by five words, representing the five strong leaves that surround the rose, symbolic of the five ways of salvation which are the “five gates”. This is alluded to in the verse “I will lift up the cup of salvation” (Psalms 116:13). This is the “cup of benediction,” which has to be raised by five fingers and no more, after the model of the rose, which rests on five strong leaves in the shape of five fingers. Thus the rose is a symbol of the cup of benediction. Immediately after the third mention of Elohim appears the light which, so soon as created, was treasured up and enclosed in that b’rith (covenant) which entered the rose and fructified it, and this is what is called “ tree bearing fruit wherein is the seed thereof”: and this seed is preserved in the very sign of the covenant. And as the ideal covenant was formed through forty-two copulations, so the engraven ineffable name is formed of the forty-two letters of the work of creation.’