The Kentucky Keystone

Transcription

1 The Kentucky Keystone A Publication of the Grand Chapter of Kentucky Royal Arch Masons Volume 30 Number 1 October 2018 I would first of all like to thank the craft for the opportunity to serve them for the ensuing Capitular year. My pledge to you is that I will endeavor to grow our numbers and communicate our message to our Blue Lodge bretheren who are not currently members of our bodies. I am asking that each Chapter grow their membership by 15% this year. There are several tools available to help us achieve this goal. We have a downloadable presentation available on our website which can be used in Lodge talks along with several brochures available from our Grand Secretary's office. Jim and Noel have done a great job of updating these pamphlets and making them more attractive for our use. Another goal for this year is to increase our individual giving to Royal Arch Research Assistance. Our giving has gone up a great deal in the past few years due mainly to the generosity of Kosair Charities, but our individual giving is down. I am asking each Companion to put aside a quarter each week for one year. Over this year, this will amount to thirteen dollars per person and put individual giving to over thirty thousand dollars without putting an undue burden on us. I would also like to welcome our newest member of the Grand Line, Companion Wilson Wilder, PGM, as Grand Captain of the Host. I am sure that his proven leadership abilities will be a tremendous asset to our craft. Your Grand Line officers are here to help the body as much as possible, so please reach out to us for assistance. GRAND OFFICERS RECEPTION Saturday, October 20, 2018 at 5:00 PM A Reception Dinner in Honor of Ronald Ledford, MEGHP Grand Chapter of Kentucky, RAM Charles Durham, MIGM Grand Council of Kentucky, R&SM J. William Riggs, REGC Grand Commandery of Kentucky, KT Our Newly Elected Grand Presiding Officers The event will be held at 2405 Lebanon Road Danville, Kentucky Cost $20 per Person Tickets are available from several of the Grand Officers or you can contact Ron, Charles, or Billy and they will hold a ticket for you at the door. This is the same location as the RARA Dinner has been held the past couple of years. Fraternally thine, Ronald M. Ledford

2 MEET OUR YORK RITE LEADERS Ronald Ledford Grand High Priest Charles Durham Grand Master J. William Riggs Grand Commander Ronald M Ledford, ME Grand High Priest, was raised a Master Mason in 1985 in Maysville Lodge #52, and is currently a member of Lancaster #104 and Franklin #28. He has served as Master in all three lodges and served as District Deputy in Joining the York Rite in 2008, he served as High Priest of W. R. Selby, Sr. No 4 in 2012, Illustrious Master of Earl F. Ransdell No. 3 in 2010, and Commander of Ryan Commandery #17 in He is a Past Governor of Blue Grass York Rite College #104 where he has been awarded the Order of the Purple Cross. Elected to the Grand Line in 2015, Ron travelled extensively before his election and has continued to do so throughout the ensuing years. He is a skilled ritualist and can frequently be found assisting in degree work across the state. He is perhaps best known for his irreverent sense of humor. Ron and Judy live in Paint Lick, Kentucky. Charles Durham, MI Grand Master. Charles and Wanda live in Greenville, Kentucky, where Charles began his Masonic journey at Pond River Lodge No. 244 in 1980 and where he is a Past Master. He belongs to Madisonville Chapter #123 where he was served as High Priest in 2013, A.E. Orton Council #93 where he has served as Treasurer for a number of years, and served as Illustrious Master in 2011, and Madisonville Commandery #27, where he served as Commander in Charles has traveled extensively during the past three years, and is frequently accompanied by Companions Bruce Outlaw and Robert Scarborough. He is an excellent ritualist and if there is a Council meeting anywhere in the state, or work is being done, Charles is likely to show up. A retired coal miner, Charles spent his working career in the coal fields of western Kentucky, helping keep the lights on. J. William Riggs, RE Grand Commander. Name a Masonic body, and Billy Riggs is probably a member, probably a past presiding officer, and probably still serving in some capacity. He is perhaps best known for his ritualistic skills in the Royal Arch, where he served as Grand High Priest in Billy is, however an active ritualist in all the organizations where he holds membership, as indicated by the Master Ritualist award he holds from the Grand Lodge of Kentucky. He was raised a Master Mason in 1982 at Duvall Lodge #6 in Bardstown, Kentucky, where he and Willetta still reside. He served as Master in 1987 and has been Secretary since He began his York Rite journey in Rowan Chapter #31 in 1982, completing his degrees and orders in Lebanon Council #56 and Marion Commandery #24. In addition to several secretarial positions he holds in a number of York Rite and appendant bodies, he also holds the office of Chancellor General of the Sovereign College of North America, and is a Board Member and Secretary for the RARA Board of Directors.

3 The following is excerpted from Mackey s Encyclopedia of Freemasonry. The entire entry may be found here: but contains several errors, particularly in converting the Hebrew characters. A scanned copy may be read here: _A_G_Mackey/page/n384 - Editor JEHOVAH Jehovah is, of all the significant words of Freemasonry, by far the most important. Reghellini very properly calls it "the basis of our dogma and of our mysteries." In Hebrew it consists of four letters, and hence is called the Tetragrammaton, or Four-lettered Name; and because it was forbidden to a Jew, as it is to a Freemason, to pronounce it, it is also called the Ineffable or Unpronounceable Name. For its history we must refer to the sixth chapter of Exodus, verses 2, 3. When Moses returned discouraged from his first visit to Pharaoh, and complained to the Lord that the only result of his mission had been to incense the Egyptian King, and to excite him to the exaction of greater burdens from the oppressed Israelites, God encouraged the Patriarch by the promise of the great wonders which He would perform in behalf of His people, and confirmed the promise by imparting to him that sublime name by which He had not hitherto been known: "And God," says the sacred writer, "spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am Jehovah: and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob as El Shaddai, but by my name Jehovah was I not known unto them." This Ineffable Name is derived from the substantive verb hayah, meaning to be; and combining, as it does, in its formation the present, past, and future significations of the verb, it is considered as designating God in His immutable and eternal existence. This idea is carried by the Rabbis to such an extent, that Menasseh Ben Israel says that its four letters may be so arranged by permutations as to form twelve words, every one of which is a modification of the verb to be, and hence it is called the nomen substantiae vel essentiae, the name of his substance or existence. The first thing that attracts our attention in the investigation of this name is the ancient regulation, still existing, by which it was made unlawful to pronounce it. This, perhaps, originally arose from a wish to conceal it from the surrounding heathen nations, so that they might not desecrate it by applying it to their idols. Whatever may have been the reason, the rule was imperative among the Jews. The Talmud, in one of its treatises, the Sanhedram, which treats of the question, Who of the Israelites shall have future life and who shall not? says: "Even he who thinks the name of God with its true letters forfeits his future life." Abraham Ben David Halevi, when discussing the names of God, says: "But the name we are not allowed to pronounce. In its original meaning it is conferred upon no other being, and therefore we abstain from giving any explanation of it." We learn from Jerome, Origen, and Eusebius that in their time the Jews wrote the name in their copies of the Bible in Samaritan instead of Hebrew letters, in order to veil it from the inspection of the profane. Capellus says that the rule that the holy name was not to be pronounced was derived from a tradition, based on a passage in Leviticus, xxiv, 16, which says that he who blasphemeth the name of Jehovah shall be put to death; and he translates this passage, "whosoever shall pronounce the name Jehovah shall suffer death," because the word nokeb, here translated to blaspheme, means also to pronounce distinctly, to call by name. Maimonides tells us that the knowledge of this word was confined to the hachamin or wise men who communicated its true pronunciation and the mysteries connected with it only on the Sabbath day, to

4 such of their disciples as were found worthy; but how it was to be sounded, or with what vocal sounds its four letters were to be uttered, was utterly unknown to the people. Once a year, namely, on the Day of Atonement, the holy name was pronounced with the sound of its letters and with the utmost veneration by the High Priest in the Sanctuary. The last priest who pronounced it, says Rabbi Bechai, was Simeon the Just, and his successors used in blessing only the twelve-lettered name. After the destruction of the city and Temple by Vespasian, the pronunciation of it ceased, for it was not lawful to pronounce it anywhere except in the Temple at Jerusalem, and thus the true and genuine pronunciation of the name was entirely lost to the Jewish people. The Jews of old believed that this holy name, which they held in the highest veneration, was possessed of unbounded powers. "He who pronounces it," said they, "shakes heaven and earth, and inspires the very angels with astonishment and terror. There is a sovereign authority in this name: it governs the world by its power. The other names and surnames of the Deity are ranged about it like officers and soldiers about their sovereigns and generals: from this King-Name they receive their orders, and obey." It was called the Shem hamphorash, the explanatory or declaratory name, because it alone, of all the Divine names, distinctly explains or declares what is the true essence of the Deity. Among the Essenes, this sacred name, which was never uttered aloud, but always in a whisper, was one of the mysteries of their initiation, which candidates were bound by a solemn oath never to divulge. It is reported to have been, under a modified form, a password in the Egyptian mysteries, and none, says Schiller, dare enter the temple of Serapis who did not bear on his breast or forehead the name Jao or Je-ha-ho; a name almost equivalent in sound to that of Jehovah, and probably of identical import; and no name was uttered in Egypt with more reverence. The Rabbis asserted that it was engraved on the rod of Moses, and enabled him to perform all his miracles. Indeed, the Talmud says that it was by the utterance of this awful name, and not by a club, that he slew the Egyptian; although it fails to tell us how he got at that time his knowledge of it. And now as to the grammatical signification of this important word. Gesenius (Thesaurus ii, page 577), thinks and many modern scholars agree with him that the word is the future form of the Hiphil conjugation of the verb to be, pronounced Yavah, and therefore that it denotes "He who made to exist, called into existence." that is, the Creator. The more generally accepted definition of the name is, that it expresses the eternal and unchangeable existence of God in respect to the past, the present, and the future. The word is derived from the substantive verb hayah, meaning to be, and in its four letters combines those of the past, present and future of the verb. The letter in the beginning, says Buxtorf (de Nomine v), is a characteristic of the future; the middle, of the participle or present time; and that at the end, of the past. Thus, we get - He was, He is; and He will be. Hence, among other titles it received that of nomen essential, because it shows the essential nature of God's eternal existence. The other names of God define His power, wisdom, goodness, and other qualities; but this alone defines His existence. In Freemasonry the Holy Name is the representative of the Word, which is itself the symbol of the nature of God. To know the Word is to know the true nature and essence of the Grand Architect.

5 From the Editor s Desk Greetings, Companions! It is with some trepidation that I embark upon this new adventure of serving as Editor of your state publication. Companion Mike Grigsby has done an admirable job for a number of years, and has decided to pass the torch. For better or worse, our Most Excellent Grand High Priest tossed that torch my way, and I agreed to give it a go. Our thanks to Mike for his efforts. Ron and I have discussed a couple of ideas that we hope to implement over the next few months to improve the publication and make it more useful to the craft. Let us know how we are doing! Feedback is vital to making any product better. We may also be contacting you for permission to print photos that appear on Facebook. Many of our members won t see those posts, and we d like to give them a better idea of some of the good things going on in Kentucky York Rite Masonry. Since we are so late in getting this edition out I was appointed a couple of days ago we re going to limit the size and get it out. Hopefully, next month will contain more material. Fraternally, Randall Partin Published by: The Grand Chapter of Kentucky, Royal Arch Masons James H. King, PGHP, Secretary 400 North 4 th Street Danville, KY Phone: grandrecorderky@yahoo.com Contributions to the Kentucky Keystone ARTICLES Send articles in electronic format to the Editor at r_partin@att.net. We reserve the right to determine suitability for publication, to exclude content at the discretion of the Editor, and to perform reasonable edits to any article submitted to better suit the purposes of the Kentucky Keystone. Published articles and letters do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the Grand Chapter of Kentucky, the Kentucky Keystone, or the Editor. PHOTOGRAPHS We will publish submitted photographs as deemed appropriate by the Editor. We reserve the right to crop and/or digitally enhance such photographs as we deem necessary. Digital images (JPEG) are preferred. Submitted print photographs may be published, if in the sole opinion of the Editor, the scanned image is of suitable quality. If you would like your print photographs returned, please include a self-addressed envelope containing sufficient postage with submitted photographs. Submitted photos will be credited to the submitter. If taken by someone else, please provide proper credit. MAILING LIST We do not sell, rent or otherwise disclose our mailing list to any third party. Past editions of the Keystone can be found at the Kentucky Keystone Archive The Grand York Rite Bodies of Kentucky Webpage - Editor Randall Partin 2275 Tackett Creek Rd Williamsburg, KY (606) r_partin@att.net