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Prayer Request (for site updates, see below)
I was laid off from my full-time job awhile ago. After a lot of prayer, soul searching, and discussions with my wife, we have decided to operate this ministry entirely by faith in God's provision through the love and kindness of His people. I am not paid for doing this work, and therefore I ask you to consider supporting us. If you can help, please offer a donation or purchase some of the Hebrew study materials offered here. Encouraging other web sites to link here also helps us become more visible on the web. Above all, agree with us for the Lord's will to be done in our lives. Todah, chaverim.
    
Note: My wife and I have have two young children (Josiah and Judah). The LORD has graciously provided for us as Adonai Yireh (יְהוָה יִרְאֶה), "the One who sees [our need]." We are living one day at a time by the grace and mercy of God, and I want to publicly praise Yeshua and acknowledge His faithful love in caring for my family -- despite the trials during this time. The LORD God of Israel is faithful and true! And for those of you who have sent us a word of encouragement or donation during this difficult time, please accept our heartfelt appreciation! Your chesed and prayers truly help sustain us.
יְהִי שֵׁם יְהוָה מְברָךְ - "Blessed be the Name of the Lord."
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Jewish Holiday Calendar
Note: For site updates, please scroll past this entry....
The spring holidays of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits are a portrait of the death, burial, and resurrection of the Messiah: Yeshua was crucified on erev Pesach, buried on Chag Hamotzi, and was resurrected on Yom Habikkurim (Firstfruits). Shavu'ot (i.e., the feast of Pentecost) was the day the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) fell on believers in fulfillment of the promise given by our Lord. See the links below for more information.
The Spring Holidays:
Note that in accordance with Jewish tradition, all holiday dates begin at sundown:
- Month of Nisan (begins Monday, March 11th, 2013)
- Rosh Chodashim - The Biblical New Year; Month of Redemption
- Four Sabbaths: Vayikra, Tzav, Passover, Shemini
- Vernal Equinox - Wednesday, March 20th (9th Nisan)
- Shabbat HaGadol - Friday, March 22 at sundown
- Fast of the Firstborn - Monday, March 25th at sunrise
- Bedikat Chametz - Sunday, March 24th after sundown
- Passover - Monday March 25th at sundown (First Seder)
- Unleavened Bread - Monday, March 25th through April 2nd (Nisan 15-22)
- Counting the Omer - Tuesday, March 26th - May 13th (Nisan 16 - Sivan 5)
- Firstfruits - Wednesday, March 27th at sundown (Nisan 17)
- Yom HaShoah - Sunday April 7th at sundown (postponed one day)
- Month of Iyyar (begins Tuesday, April 9th, 2013)
- Month of Sivan (begins Thursday, May 9th, 2013)
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Passover 2013:
Free Seder Guide
May 2013 Site Updates
Mirrors of the Heart...
05.24.13 (Sivan 15, 5773) We may see folly in others but not in ourselves. The sages note that the faults of others often reflect our own failures of character. As it says, "evil comes to those who seek for it" (Prov. 11:27). The seeker the LORD (וְדרְשֵׁי יְהוָה), on the other hand, "lacks no good thing," because they discover the good always enough to meet their needs. Seeking the LORD is its own reward, since it leads us to the great gift of contentment.
כְּפִירִים רָשׁוּ וְרָעֵבוּ
וְדרְשֵׁי יְהוָה לא־יַחְסְרוּ כָל־טוֹב
ke·fi·rim · ra·shu · ve·ra·ei·vu
ve·do·re·shei · Adonai · lo · yach·se·ru · khol · tov
"Young lions suffer want and hunger;
but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing."
(Psalm 34:10)
At any given moment, in the inwardness of our hearts, we can turn to God and appeal to the Divine Presence that gives life and sustains all of creation in His love... We just need to wake up and snap out of the trance that captivates the world...
Shekhinah of Humility...
05.23.13 (Sivan 14, 5773) "Let your tongue acquire the habit of saying, 'I do not know,' so that you are not led to lie" (Berachot 4a). We have to learn that we don't always know the answer, and that often enough we don't even know the meaning of the question being asked... Accepting our limitations enables us to humbly ask God for help as we walk by faith. "The Spirit helps us in our weaknesses. For we do not know (οὐκ οἴδαμεν) what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words" (Rom. 8:26). We groan in hope... It is a blessedness to be free from the need to be seen, to be approved by others, to feel like we always have to be "right," to manage appearances, and so on. God opposes the proud, but his Spirit (רוּחַ) rests upon the lowly, the humble of heart. Therefore humility (עֲנָוָה) is considered one of the greatest of middot ha-lev (heart qualities). As it is written, the high and lifted up One dwells with the broken and lowly of spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the crushed:
כִּי כה אָמַר רָם וְנִשָּׂא שׁכֵן עַד וְקָדוֹשׁ שְׁמוֹ
מָרוֹם וְקָדוֹשׁ אֶשְׁכּוֹן וְאֶת־דַּכָּא וּשְׁפַל־רוּחַ
לְהַחֲיוֹת רוּחַ שְׁפָלִים וּלְהַחֲיוֹת לֵב נִדְכָּאִים
ki · kho · a·mar · ram · ve·nis·sa · sho·khen · ad · ve·ka·dosh · she·mo,
ma·rom · ve·ka·dosh · esh·kon · ve·et · dak·ka · ush·fal · ru·ach
le·ha·cha·yot · ru·ach · she·fa·lim · u·le·ha·cha·lot · lev · nid·ka·im
"For this is what the high and lifted up One says, the One who abides forever,
whose Name is Holy: "I dwell in a high and holy place, but also with the broken
and lowly of spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the crushed."
(Isa. 57:15)
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God reveals Himself to the "lowly in spirit" (שְׁפַל־רוּחַ), that is, to those who understand their own nothingness and complete dependence on Him.... Notice that the word dakka (דַּכָּא) refers to being crushed to the very dust, the very same word used to describe how Yeshua was crushed for our iniquities (Isa. 53:10). William James called this deep work of the spiritual life Zerrissenheit, a term that can be translated as "torn-to-pieces-hood," or a state of being utterly broken and in disarray... From the point of view of our dependence on God for salvation, dakka refers to humility and contrition we express in light of God's unmerited favor and love for our souls... We identify with the death of Messiah offered on our behalf; we find healing and acceptance in the Presence of the One who was torn to pieces and made dust for our merit. Humility is essential to awareness of God in the truth.
Personal Note: I earnestly ask for your prayers for my health, friends. I have been dealing with painful asthma, heart pain, and some other things recently. Thank you very much...
The Power of God - גְּבוּרַת אֱלהִים
[ In this age of apostasy, it is imperative to get the message of the gospel right... ]
05.23.13 (Sivan 14, 5773) People confuse morality with religion all the time, saying things like, "if I do good, the rest will take care of itself," but Yeshua did not come to simply teach (or reinforce) moral truth, but to die for our sins and to transform our nature. The message of the cross is not that we should become good or do good works but rather that our old nature must die and be replaced with something far greater... When King David cried out to the Lord, "Create in me a clean heart, O God," he did not use the Hebrew word yatzar (יָצַר), which means to "fashion" or "form" something from pre-existing material (Gen. 2:7), but he instead used the word bara (בָּרָא), a verb exclusively used in the Torah to refer to God's direct creation of the cosmos (Gen 1:1). In other words, King David understood that no amount of reformation of his character would be enough, and therefore he appealed to that very power of God that alone could create yesh me'ayin, or "out of nothing." Such was the nature of the remedy required that was fulfilled in the cross of Messiah....
Being saved by God is first of all ontological - it is about your being, identity, reality, and so on. You are briah chadasha - a new creation. The realm of conscience, law, morality, etc., while valid, is not the ultimate goal of your redemption. Sinai was always meant to lead to Zion, which means that salvation ultimately is about who you are as a beloved child of God more than what you do as a moral or nice religious person...
Note: Reb Shmeke of Nikolsburg once said: "When I was young, I wanted to change the world. I tried, but the world didn't change. So I decided to change my town, but my town didn't change. Then I resolved to change my family, but my family didn't change. Then I realized that I first had to change myself." I would add, "but then I realized that I couldn't change even myself, so I cried to the LORD for a new heart (lev chadash) and He answered my plea..." Yes, and may it please the LORD to deliver us -- from ourselves!
The Upside Down Way...
05.23.13 (Sivan 14, 5773) We must be vigilant lest we become seduced by worldly forms of spirituality that flatter and coddle the ego... "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." Following the Messiah is inherently personal, calling for the passion of the individual heart. It is known in the crucible of inner decision, not through being assimilated into a large crowd or by finding identity in external labels, gnostic visions, accolades, and so on. God is unimpressed with men's religions and their supposed revelations and prophecies... Kierkegaard admonishes: "Everything that needs numbers in order to become significant is by that very fact insignificant. Everything that can be arranged, executed, completed only with the help of numbers, the sum of which startles people in amazement, as if this were something important - precisely this is unimportant. The truly important is inversely related, needs a progressively smaller and smaller number to implement its completion. And for the most important of all, that which sets heaven and earth in motion, only one person is needed. And what is most important of all? What interests angels and demons most is that a person is actually involved with God - for this one single human being is enough."
In order to say, "thy kingdom come, thy will be done" you must let go of your own agenda; your ego must be deposed from its petty little kingdom... Likewise, you can't say, "Come, Lord Jesus" by putting your fear first, or by otherwise demanding that your life should center on your own personal "advent." No, you must consciously choose to live in exile to this world (Gal. 6:14). How can we ever expect the LORD to live out His life through us if we do not genuinely offer our lives to Him? And yet this is exactly the problem of the ego...
A principle of spiritual life is that we descend in order to ascend, or the "the way up is the way down." As Jesus said, "Whoever would be first among you must be slave of all" (Mark 10:44). Becoming nothing (i.e., ayin) in this world is the condition for seeing something in the world to come. But we become nothing by trusting in the miracle, not by trying to efface ourselves... This is not another venture of the ego. Life in the Spirit means trusting that God will do within you what you cannot do for yourself... We can only take hold of what God has done for us by "letting go" of our own devices (Phil. 2:13). When we really let go and trust, we will become nothing, carried by the Torah of the Spirit of life. The way is not trying but trusting; not struggling but resting; not of clinging to life, but of letting go...
"So-called pious people are unfree. They too lack the authentic certitude of inwardness. That is why they are so pious! And the world is surely justified in laughing at them. If, for example, a bowlegged man wants to be a dancing master but is not able to execute a single step, he is comical. So it is also with the multitudes who are so religious. Often you can hear the pious beating time, as it were, exactly like one who cannot dance but nevertheless knows enough to beat time, yet who are never fortunate enough to get in step. In order to reassure themselves, the pious seize upon grandiose ideas that the world hates. They battle ideas, but not with their lives. Such is the life of those who lack inwardness." - Kierkegaard (Journals)
Come just as you are...
05.22.13 (Sivan 13, 5773) Since God knows the number of hairs on our heads, he also knows those character defects that we do not see in ourselves... Nevertheless we must come to God "just as we are," since what we are is ultimately unknowable by us. This implies that we can't wait to turn to God until we have already confessed our sins, since we often do not know what they are. "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick" (Mark 2:17), which means that we come in a state of unknowing blindness to find healing. We don't see so we can turn; we turn so we can see. Confession turns to see God's remedy for our sin, and true teshuvah must begin with hope, with the vision that the LORD is our Helper and the Healer of our souls.
אֶשָּׂא עֵינַי אֶל־הֶהָרִים מֵאַיִן יָבא עֶזְרִי
עֶזְרִי מֵעִם יְהוָה עשֵׂה שָׁמַיִם וָאָרֶץ
es·sa · ei·nai · el · he·ha·rim · me·a·yin · ya·vo · ez·ri
e·zri · me·im · Adonai · o·seh · sha·ma·yim · va·a·retz
"I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth."
(Psalm 121:1-2)
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Just as King David prayed, שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי, "who can understand his errors; cleanse me from nistarot chata'ot, secret sins" (Psalm 19:12), so we likewise ask that God's remedy for our sin will heal even that which is hidden from our own awareness... In this connection Dallas Willard wrote:
"Real spiritual need and change is on the inside, in the hidden area of life that God sees and that we cannot even see in ourselves without his help. Indeed, in the early stages of spiritual development we could not endure seeing our inner life as it really is. The possibility of denial and self-deception is something God has made accessible to us, in part to protect us until we begin to seek Him." Renovation of the Heart
God has to help us come to terms with ourselves in ways that will not cause us to destroy ourselves or to lose hope... He touches us in our sinful condition and slowly begins the process of both revealing to us what we really are and how we have been really healed.
Light of the Servant...
[ The Torah reading for this week is parashat Beha'alotekha. Please read the Torah portion to "find your place" here... ]
05.21.13 (Sivan 12, 5773) Our Torah portion this week begins with the LORD instructing Aaron to kindle the seven lamps of the menorah (מְנוֹרָה) so that the light from each would be "turned" toward its central shaft (Exod. 25:37; Num. 8:4). The entire menorah was formed mikshah (מִקְשָׁה), that is, beaten from a single piece of pure gold (זָהָב טָהוֹר), and its base, shaft, branches, cups, fruits, and flowers were all "one" with its substance (Exod. 25:31). The central shaft upheld the light of the shamash (servant or helper lamp) which also served as the trunk for the other branches. The radiance of the menorah symbolized the Divine light (shamash can also be read shemesh, "sun"), which is the radiance of Yeshua, the Tree of Light and the great Servant of the LORD (John 8:12; 1 John 1:5). Yeshua is the light that gives light to every person created in the image of God (John 1:9). Our spiritual life stems from our connection with Him, since he provides us with support, sustenance, and illumination from the oil of the Holy Spirit (John 15:1-5)..
Yeshua is the Light of the LORD (אוֹר יי). As it is written, "God is our light and our yeshuah, our salvation" (Psalm 27:1; 1 John 1:5). He alone is the Light of the world (אוֹר הָעוֹלָם), the Shamash (שַׁמָּשׁ) who descends to ignite the "light of life" (אוֹר הַחַיִּים) within all who will believe. Our Savior is the Radiance (זוֹהַר) of the glory of God (Heb. 1:3), the Fire of God's holy countenance. The one who has the Son has life, but the one who refuses this life is spiritually dead. May we all walk in the Light of His countenance; "O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD" (Isa. 2:5).
בֵּית יַעֲקב לְכוּ וְנֵלְכָה בְּאוֹר יְהוָה
bet · Ya·a·kov · le·khu · ve·nel·khah · be·or · Adonai
"O house of Jacob, come, let us walk
in the light of the LORD"
(Isa. 2:5)
Note: For more on the mystery of the menorah, see "The Menorah and the Tree of Life."
Keeping Hope Alive...
05.21.13 (Sivan 12, 5773) The fact that God knows the number of hairs on your head means that he knows you better than you know yourself... Your heavenly Father "sees in secret," and that also means that he can and will save you from whatever is hidden within you that still resists his love and touch... We have to trust in God's power to heal us, even when it seems that healing is not forthcoming, even when we still find ourselves divided, troubled, and anxious. We have to believe that God's help is always present. "Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who hope for the LORD."
חִזְקוּ וְיַאֲמֵץ לְבַבְכֶם
כָּל־הַמְיַחֲלִים לַיהוָה
chiz·ku · ve·ya·a·metz · le·vav·khem
kol · ham·ya·cha·lim · la·do·nai
"Be strong, and let your heart take courage,
all you who hope for the LORD!"
(Psalm 31:24)
God sees what He does within us, His "it-is-finished" work, the effect of His great salvation within our heart, even if at this present moment that effect may be hidden from our eyes... There is appearance, and there is reality; and only God sees what is ultimately real. We have to trust in His promise to be transformed into the divine nature, even if today we find ourselves sinful, needy, and in disrepair...
By God's grace we are what we are (χάριτι δὲ θεοῦ εἰμι ὅ εἰμι). So don't give up. We are saved by hope (ἐλπίδι ἐσώθημεν, Rom. 8:24), and that hope is for you today.
רְפָאֵנִי יְהוָה וְאֵרָפֵא
הוֹשִׁיעֵנִי וְאִוָּשֵׁעָה כִּי תְהִלָּתִי אָתָּה
re·fa·ei·ni · Adonai · ve·ei·ra·fei
ho·shi·ei·ni · ve·iv·va·shei·ah, · ki · te·hil·la·ti · at·tah
"Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed;
save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise."
(Jer. 17:14)
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Receptivity of Heart...
05.20.13 (Sivan 11, 5773) Undoubtedly Yeshua often taught in parables because they simultaneously conceal and reveal the truth. A parable obscures the truth to those who don't sincerely want it, just as it reveals the truth to those who do (Luke 8:9-10). Since Yeshua's whole life was a parable of sorts - a "disguise" that led to the victory of our deliverance (Phil. 2:7) - it is not surprising that he regularly used "figures of speech" to provoke people to examine their own heart attitude and faith... In this connection note that Yeshua never explained the "mysteries of the kingdom of God" directly to the crowds, nor did He ever pander to the crowd's clamor or interests. His message is always meant for the individual soul who was willing to follow Him -- to the one who had "ears to hear."
In the famous parable of the sower (Matt. 13:3-9), God is likened to a farmer who scatters seed upon the "soil" of human hearts. The seed that fell by the "way side" was unheeded, ignored, and therefore snatched away; the seed that fell in "stony places" found no depth or rootedness, and soon withered away; the seed that fell "among thorns" found no room to grow... The "good soil," on the other hand, received the seed and allowed it take root so that it could bear fruit. Note that in each case the same seed is sown, but what determines the yield of the seed is the receptivity of heart...
The parables help us take inventory of our lives. If we are honest with ourselves, we will see our own hardness, shallowness, and selfishness in contrast to the fruitfulness marked by the good soil, and this may prompt us to do teshuvah... Only the new heart (lev chadash) created by power of God's Spirit can yield the fruit of the Spirit. Yeshua therefore warns us: "Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away" (Luke 8:18).
It is comforting to remember that fruit does not immediately crop up but requires time and its own season... The process of spiritual growth is ultimately mysterious and the result of divine grace: "The Kingdom of God is like someone who spreads seed on the ground. He goes to sleep and gets up, night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. By itself (αὐτομάτη, "automatically") the soil produces a crop, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. And when the grain is ripe, he comes in with his sickle because the harvest has come" (Mark 4:26-29). With God all things are possible, and the life of God is a miracle that comes from God's own source of Life. It is the fruit of the Spirit, after all, and not the result of human effort or moral reformation...
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Where it is written, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I didn't know it," we must look to the place of the heart, for the kingdom of heaven is found there, whereas the places of this world are merely occasions leading to that greater place.... "Take off your shoes, for the place you are standing is holy ground" refers to every place, for the whole world is filled with God's glory (Psalm 139:7; Isa. 6:3; Luke 17:21).
Parashat Beha'alotekha - בהעלתך
[ The Torah reading for this week is parashat Beha'alotekha. Please read the Torah portion to "find your place" here... ]
05.19.13 (Sivan 10, 5773) Last week's Torah portion (Naso) concluded with the Israelite camp arranged around the completed Mishkan (Tabernacle), furnished and supplied by donations from each of the twelve tribes. Moses was inside the Mishkan, listening to the Voice of the LORD "speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim" (Num. 7:89).
In this week's Torah reading, the LORD first gives instructions about how Aaron was to light the lamps of the menorah within the sanctuary (inner chamber) of the Tabernacle. Each day Aaron was to clean each of the seven lamps and to refill them with the very purest olive oil. The wicks were then to be bent or positioned so that the six outer lamps projected their lights toward the seventh (and central) shaft. The lamps of the menorah were to be lit daily, "from evening until morning," in a specific sequence - starting from the central lamp (the shamash) and then moving right to left (Exod. 27:21). A further description of the menorah was also given, stating that it was formed according to the pattern that God showed Moses upon the mountain.
The word beha'alotekha (בְּהַעֲלתְךָ) literally means "when you raise up" (from alah: עָלָה, "to ascend"), and in this context refers to the kindled flames of the menorah. The sages say that the Torah uses this Hebrew word to imply that the daily lighting and tending of the menorah was an act of sacrificial worship (like an olah offering). The midrash states that Aaron was completely humble in his office as the first Kohen Gadol (High Priest) of Israel and the daily task of lighting the lamps never became routine for him, but he remained entirely focused and reverent every time he performed this avodah.
Moses then gathered the Levites together to consecrate them for their service at the Tabernacle. In a ceremony that signified a sort of "rebirth," the Levites were first sprinkled with water mixed with the ashes of the red heifer (i.e., the "water of purification"). Then they shaved off all their hair and were immersed in a mikveh (a ritual bath containing flowing water). The congregation of Israel was then called to the gate of the Tabernacle and the firstborn among them performed "semikhah" by laying their hands on the heads of the Levites. Aaron then lifted each of them up as an "wave offering" before the LORD. Finally, the Levites laid their hands on the head of two bulls that Aaron slaughtered as a sin offering and a whole burnt offering given on their behalf. After all this, the Levites were ready to serve as mediators for the people.
The Israelites had been at Sinai for nearly a year before God commanded them to begin their journey through the desert back to the Promised Land. It was at Sinai that Moses had first set up the Tabernacle, dedicated the priesthood, and taught the people the commandments of the Torah. In the "second year, in the second month, on the 20th day of the month" (i.e., Iyyar 20), the cloud lifted from over the Tabernacle and Moses dispatched the Ark of the Covenant to follow after it into the desert (Num. 10:33-36). Moses then directed the people to set out "by stages" toward the desert of Paran (in the Negev).
After three days into their journey the people began to complain about their hardship, and God became angry and caused a fire to burn in the outskirts of the camp. In addition, the 70 elders of Israel were killed, and the fires raged until Moses interceded on behalf of the nation. This station of the journey was thereafter named "Taberah" (burning).
Some time after this, the "mixed multitude" began to lust after meat, and the Israelites began weeping for the cuisine they had enjoyed back in Egypt. Moses despaired for his life and told God the burden of the people was too much for him. God then instructed him to appoint 70 new elders that would be filled with the Holy Spirit so they could help bear the burden of leadership, and as for the people's complaints about the lack of meat and the boring taste of "manna," God promised to send so much meat that it would "come out of their nostrils." God then caused an enormous flock of quails to begin falling from the sky around the camp, which the people began to gather and cook. However, while "the meat was yet between their teeth" the quail became a plague and many Israelites died. This station of the journey was thereafter named "the graves of craving" (Kivrot ha-ta'avah).
After this, the Israelites set out to a place they called Chazerot ("enclosures"), where Aaron and Miriam privately slandered Moses and his leadership. Miriam not only questioned Moses' decision to leave his wife, but also questioned his unique role as the mediator of the covenant at Sinai. God then instructed Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to come to the Tabernacle, where He descended in a pillar of cloud. The LORD then called Aaron and Miriam forward and warned them that Moses was uniquely chosen to be the leader of Israel, since God spoke to him plainly and only Moses was permitted to behold the likeness (temunah) of the LORD Himself. When the pillar of cloud ascended, Miriam was left with tzara'at ("leprosy"), the punishment for lashon hara (evil speech). Despite Moses' and Aaron's intercession for her, however, the LORD banished Miriam from the camp for seven days, after which time she was brought back and the LORD directed the people further into the desert of Paran.
Note: You can download the Shabbat Table talk for this week's Torah here:
Beha'alotekha - "Sefer Kvetch"
[ A central commandment our Torah reading this week is "Thou Shalt Not Kvetch" (or, to put it positively, "Thou Shalt be Grateful"). Please read the portion to "find your place" here. ]
05.19.13 (Sivan 10, 5773) Some of the sages have called this week's Torah portion "Sefer Kvetch," the Book of Complaint, since the first stage of the journey back to the promised land was marked with murmuring, ingratitude, and fantasies about the "good old days" when the people ate "free fish" in Egypt, and so on. The repeated episodes of complaining really were a form of rebellion against God's leadership, as the people blasphemously charged the LORD with folly, incompetence, or even malice ("Why did God take us out of Egypt - to kill us all in the desert?"). Indeed, the spiritual condition of the people was so bad that they were all doomed to die in the desert. The New Testament later identifies the unbelief of the people as a picture of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit (Heb. 3:7-4:6).
Often the Israelites appeared to behave like spoiled children, demanding "real food" and fussing over the miraculous supply of bread that literally came from heaven... It would be funny were it not so tragic: Despite all the miracles the people had directly experienced during the great Exodus - including the tremendous revelation at Sinai - in a little over a year the memory of Egypt had become positively euphoric, and the people "forgot" how degrading their lives were as slaves... They romanticized the way things were, rationalizing that it wasn't "that bad," and so on.
Again, a central commandment of this Torah portion is "Thou Shalt Not Kvetch" (or, put positively, "Thou Shalt be Grateful"). "The deeds of the fathers are signs for the children," and therefore we are sternly warned not to follow the example of those who were redeemed by God's outstretched hand but who later drew back in fear and unbelief: "I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter my rest.' Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Messiah if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is written, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion" (Heb. 3:11-16).
Note: The narrative of Torah was supposed to have ended after the Exodus generation left Sinai to enter the Promised Land with the completed Tabernacle... Unfortunately, things did not work out that way, and "sefer kvetch" begins with Numbers chapter 11. According to the Talmud, the scribes marked this "unhappy ending" by putting an "inverted Nun" before and after Numbers 10:35-36 to mark a break in the (ideal) narrative. What should have been written (beginning with chapter 11) was the "happy ending," namely, that the redeemed Israelites successfully entered the land because they kept faith in the LORD's promises. In other words, the account of the sin of the spies, the apostasy at Kadesh Barnea, the exile of the Exodus generation, etc., should never have happened. The sages said that marking the text this way affirms that what should have been written (as the happy ending) will one day be so written, after the Messiah comes to finally deliver the Jewish people. For more on this subject, see the article, "The Seven Books of Moses."
Reciting Breath Prayers...
05.17.13 (Sivan 8, 5773) In times of severe testing people do not need further teaching, but rather "endurance," or what the New Testament calls hupomone (ὑπομονή), a word that means "remaining [μένω] by [ὑπο]" the Divine Presence while being tested. Suffering people do not need moral platitudes from others, but only the will to believe, to stay constant, and to breathe out simple prayers for help and to focus the heart upon the Lord's Presence: "God have mercy..." "Help me, O God..." "I need Thee, O Lord..." When we receive grace to faithfully suffer, we hear the Spirit whispering back to us: "Be not afraid..." "Live in me..." "Walk in the light..." "I am with you always..." "You are loved..."
רְפָאֵנִי יְהוָה וְאֵרָפֵא
הוֹשִׁיעֵנִי וְאִוָּשֵׁעָה כִּי תְהִלָּתִי אָתָּה
re·fa·ei·ni · Adonai · ve·ei·ra·fei
ho·shi·ei·ni · ve·iv·va·shei·ah, · ki · te·hil·la·ti · at·tah
"Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed;
save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise."
(Jer. 17:14)
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Moses and the Messiah...
[ The following is related to this week's Torah reading, parashat Naso ("lift up!"). Please read the Torah portion to "find your place" here. ]
05.17.13 (Sivan 8, 5773) Our Torah portion this week ends, "And when Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with the LORD, he heard the Voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat (i.e., kapporet: כַּפּרֶת) that was on the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim; and it spoke to him" (Num. 7:89).
Now Moses was truly an extraordinary and wonderful person -- Israel's first great prophet, priest, and king. His life can be divided into three great distinct periods of 40 years each. First, he was raised as an Egyptian and lived as a prince of Egypt (the Egyptian period); second, he fled to the land of Midian where he became a shepherd and encountered God in the desert (the Midianite period); and third, after the great deliverance from Egypt, Moses led the people back to Sinai where he 1) became the mediator (priest) of the covenant between God and Israel, 2) legislated the various laws of the Torah, and 3) received the prophetic vision of the Tabernacle, the future exile, and the ultimate glory of Zion.
Notice, however, that Moses was extraordinary especially because he foreshadowed and foretold the coming of King Messiah (Deut. 18:15-19; John 5:46). In what ways did he do this, you might ask? Well, first, as Israel's great legislator, Moses stood outside of the law, serving as its mediator and voice of authority. Second, Moses instituted various sacrificial rites before the laws of sacrifice were legally enacted. For example, he instituted the Passover sacrifice in Egypt (Exod. 12:1-11), and when the people later reached Sinai, he offered sacrifices to ratify the covenant (Exod. 24:8). Moreover, he ascended the mountain and received the prophetic vision of the Sanctuary before the priesthood had been instituted in Israel (Exod. 25:8-9). And even after the laws of the priests were enacted and the Tabernacle was erected, Moses was allowed to go before the very Holy of Holies to hear the Voice of the LORD (Num. 7:89), even though technically speaking this was forbidden, since Moses was not a kohen (i.e., descendant of Aaron). Indeed, just as Moses himself was "outside" the law but was commissioned by God Himself (Exod. 3:4), so also with Yeshua (Heb. 10:5-9), who instituted the sacrifice of His blood as the Lamb of God and who went directly before God's Throne to intercede on our behalf.
Like Moses, Yeshua stood outside the law as its mediator and voice of authority (Matt. 5-7); He came into this world to offer himself as a sacrifice to save mankind (Heb. 10); he entered into the holy place of the Temple and stopped the Levitical sacrifices (Mark 11:15-16); he went to the cross - the Substance of the shadows of the sacrificial system, and there interceded on our behalf, establishing the new covenant based on better promises (Heb. 8). Yeshua surpasses the glory of Moses like the builder of a house surpasses the glory of the house iteslf (Heb. 3:3). Indeed Yeshua is the true King of the Jews, the great High Priest after the order of Malki-Tzedek, and the real tzaddik and prophet of God.
Note: For more on this subject, see "Moses' Prophecy of the Messiah."
The Kingdom Within You...
[ We are celebrating the great holiday of Shavuot, the climax of Passover... ]
05.16.13 (Sivan 7, 5773) Shavuot is the culmination of Passover in another sense. Passover represents "God with us" (עִמָּנוּ אֵל), as the Word made flesh, and "God for us" (אֱלהִים לָנוּ), as the sacrificial Lamb of God, but Shavuot adds another dimension by representing "God within us" (אֱלהִים בְּתוֹכֵנוּ), the indwelling Presence, the "breath of God" that forever abides in our hearts. Yeshua was eager for us to partake of this miracle: "I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper (i.e., ὁ παράκλητος, one "called alongside to help) will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you" (John 16:7). As it is written, "By this we know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit" (1 John 4:13). Or don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you (רוּחַ הַקּדֶשׁ בְּתוֹכֵנוּ), whom you have from God? "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God" (Rom. 8:14).
The Sword of the Spirit...
05.16.13 (Sivan 7, 5773) We are told not to fear men, who are only able to kill the body, but not the soul (Matt. 10:28). However, there is still the grave danger that the soul itself can be destroyed by means of its own apathy. In the physical realm, we can be killed by the hand of another, but in a spiritual sense, we can only be killed if we willingly destroy ourselves. Therefore my prayer is often, "LORD, save us from ourselves - from our own despair, from our own self-destructive urges. Help us to love you and turn away from all doubt; help us to affirm your promise of life given to us every day. Amen."
"We have met the enemy, and he is us," but if that is so, how are we able to overcome the deceptiveness of our own hearts? How do we defeat our own inner evil, the yetzer hara, our own subconscious "death wish"? How can we transcend the lusts of the flesh and our own natural, all-too-human desires? Yeshua gives us the answer: "Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth" (John 17:17). We are able to overcome our natural tendency to deceive ourselves by staying grounded in the Word of truth, kitvei Hakodesh, the Holy Scriptures (2 Tim. 2:15). "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope" (Rom. 15:4). God's promises give us life (Psalm 119:50). It is the Scriptures that "are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Yeshua the Messiah" (2 Tim. 3:15). Of course, the Scriptures themselves are the means to the end of encountering God Himself and partaking of the power of the Holy Spirit, but they are foundational to all experience, and all spiritual experience must be grounded in their truth (Isa. 8:20).
In Paul's description of the "armor of God," the Scriptures are called the "sword of the Spirit," which is the Word of God (Eph. 6:10-18). "For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart" (Heb. 4:12). Studying God's truth is the divinely appointed means of obtaining discernment and perseverance for the spiritual warfare of this world. Note the connection between the Word and the Spirit in these verses... The way of the righteous, derekh tzaddikim (דֶּרֶךְ צַדִּיקִים), is marked by fruit of the Spirit. Therefore the beloved Book of Psalms begins, "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his desire is the Torah of the LORD, and in His Torah he meditates day and night" (Psalm 1:1-2).
אַשְׁרֵי־הָאִישׁ אֲשֶׁר לא הָלַךְ בַּעֲצַת רְשָׁעִים
וּבְדֶרֶךְ חַטָּאִים לא עָמָד
וּבְמוֹשַׁב לֵצִים לא יָשָׁב
כִּי אִם בְּתוֹרַת יְהוָה חֶפְצוֹ
וּבְתוֹרָתוֹ יֶהְגֶּה יוֹמָם וָלָיְלָה
ash·rei · ha-ish · a·sher · lo · ha·lakh · ba·a·tzat · re·sha·im
uv·de·rekh · cha·ta·im · lo · a·mad
uv·mo·shav · lei·tzim · lo · ya·shav
ki · im · be·to·rat · Adonai · chef·tzo
uv·to·ra·to · ye·he·geh · yo·mam · va·lai·lah
"Happy is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is the Torah of the LORD,
and in His Torah he meditates day and night"
(Psalm 1:1-2)
Brief Audio Commentary
Hebrew Study Card
This man is "blessed" because the one who desires the truth of the LORD has found great treasure, and all that he puts his hand to do shall prosper (Psalm 1:3). Notice that the word "desire" (i.e., chafetz: חָפֵץ) expresses the innermost wish of the heart or soul (Matt. 15:19; Luke 6:45). Strong desire – passion – is vital to the apprehension of the truth, and it is a great gift from God to be free from the slavery of habit and unreflective, visceral bondage to worldly lusts. As David said, "my soul is consumed with longing for Your decrees at all times" (Psalm 119:20). Hunger for God, strong desire for Him, is a sign that He is indeed calling you to walk in His ways, since you would never truly seek Him unless He first called out to you (John 6:44). The word "Torah" here refers to God's wisdom, His will, His way – not exclusively to the laws (mishpatim, chukkim, etc.) written in the Bible.
Where it is written, "you shall meditate upon it day and night" (Josh 1:8), R' Yochanan said: this is no command or obligation, but a blessing, since the words of Torah - like the Tree of Life that brings forth its fruit in its season (Psalm 1:2-3) - brings prosperity and good success to those who delight in it.
The person who "reflects" or meditates on God's way will let the truth empower his decisions in this world. The word yehegeh (יֶהְגֶּה) means that the righteous person is so filled with the truth of the Scriptures that words leave his mouth as if on their own. This person will behold and take hold of the Tree of Life (Psalm 1:3). If you find studying and living the truth of Scripture joyless, be careful that you don't drift into spiritual exile! Beware of apathy and be vigilant of the great danger of destroying yourself... God says that those who delight in the study of His word please Him, but others He allows to perish.
The one who genuinely desires God's truth and meditates upon it "day and night" will be saved from the judgment that will befall the ungodly (Psalm 1:5-6). Studying and living God's truth is therefore the means of your preservation and perseverance in this world. Living the truth of Scripture produces assurance that God knows you and will take you through the corridor of this world unharmed by the coming judgment (John13:17).
"Many are my heart's distresses; let me know Your Ways, Eternal One; teach me Your paths" (Psalm 25:4,17). "Upon you I have leaned from before my birth; you are He who took me from my mother's womb. My praise is continually of you. You have made me see much trouble and hardship, but You will revive me again and raise me up from the depths of the earth" (Psalm 71:6,20). Baruch atah HaShem, ha-noten la'ya'eif ko'ach - "Praised are You, LORD, who gives strength to the bowed down."
Note: For more on this subject, please see article, "The Way of the Righteous."
Ruth and the Redeemer...
05.16.13 (Sivan 7, 5773) During Shavuot we read the Book of Ruth, which tells the story about redeeming love and the advent of King David. Recall that King David was a direct descendant of Ruth, who as a Moabitess was an outsider and "stranger" to the promises of God (Ruth 4:17; Eph. 2:12). Despite being part of an despised and rejected group of people (see Deut. 23:3), Ruth overcame the law's demand by believing in the love and acceptance of a redeemer of Israel (Ruth 3:9). Ruth's great grandson was named David (דָוִד), meaning "beloved," which has the same numerical value as the word "hand" (יָד). It is no wonder that the LORD chose David to represent God's extended hand of love for the stranger, for the convert, for the outsider, the leper, and the lost, since his descendant Yeshua the Messiah came to love and redeem the entire world by means of His outstretched hands.
Note: While the narrative of the Book of Ruth is straightforward, to fully understand its spiritual implications we need to be familiar with several laws from the Torah, including the laws of redemption (Lev. 25:32-55), the laws of Shemittah and Jubilee years (Lev. 25:4, 10, 23), the laws of family inheritance (Num. 27:8-11), the laws of yibbum or "levirate marriage" (Deut. 25:5-10), and various farming laws regarding leaving food for the poor and the stranger (Lev. 19:9-10; 23:22; Deut. 24:19). In addition, we need to understand the laws of warfare for taking possession of the land, and God's repeatedly stated commandment that Israel must be holy and not assimilate with surrounding cultures (Exod. 34:12; Deut. 7:1-6; 14:2, etc.). This restriction applied not only to the seven Canaanite nations (Deut. 7:1; 20:17-18), but also to the descendants of Lot (i.e., Amnonites and the Moabites), since they showed enmity to Israel when they first came to the land (Deut. 23:4-6). Indirectly, then, the story of Ruth provides a strong message to Christians: to follow the story of redemption, you must understand the Torah and its commandments!
Related Topic:
The Faith of Ruth...
[ During the holiday season of Shavuot it is customary to read the Book of Ruth... ]
05.16.13 (Sivan 7, 5773) Like Ruth, we have to "go to the threshing floor" as a forbidden outsider to lay claim to the redeeming love of God. We have to courageously answer the question, "Who are you?" by expressing our need for redemption and our faith in the compassion of God... "I am your servant, spread your garment over me, for you are my redeemer" (Ruth 3:9). We have to push past the enmity required by the Torah with its commandments and ordinances to receive our healing - and to find our place within the family of God. When we do, we will hear the words of the Spirit saying: "Great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire" (Matt. 15:28).
וַיּאמֶר מִי־אָתּ
וַתּאמֶר אָנכִי רוּת אֲמָתֶךָ
וּפָרַשְׂתָּ כְנָפֶךָ עַל־אֲמָתְךָ
כִּי גאֵל אָתָּה
vai·yo·mer · mi · at?
va·to·mer · a·no·khi · Rut · a·ma·te·kha
u·fa·ra·sta · khe·na·fe·kha · al · a·ma·te·kha
ki · go·el · at·tah
"He said, "Who are you?"
And she answered, "I am Ruth, your servant.
Spread your garment over your servant,
for you are a redeemer."
(Ruth 3:9)
Note that in the verse above, the word kanafayim (כנפיים), sometimes translated as "wings," can refer to a garment (used as a blanket), but metaphorically it can refer to a wedding canopy – a chuppah – symbolizing the covering and protection of covenantal love... Ruth asked Boaz to take her under his protection, to love her, to marry her.
The story of Ruth reveals that God has a great compassion for the outsider, for the lost, and for those who are without inheritance in this world. Just as we are commanded va'ahavta le'reakha kamokha (וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ), to love our neighbor as ourselves (Lev. 19:18), so we are commanded ve'ahavta lo kamokha (וְאָהַבְתָּ לוֹ כָּמוֹךָ), to love the stranger as ourselves (Lev. 19:34), and that means opening our hearts toward others to make them feel welcome in our presence. May the LORD our God help each of us to extend love, compassion, and acceptance to everyone we encounter today.
Related Topic:
The Breath of Life....
[ Today we celebrate the holiday of Shavuot, the climax of Passover... Praise the Living God who Breathes out Life to us in Yeshua! ]
05.15.13 (Sivan 6, 5773) Torah without Spirit is like a body without soul... As I've mentioned elsewhere on this site, the Name YHVH (יְהוָה) is connected with life-giving Spirit. Before man first came alive, the LORD breathed into him nishmat chayim (נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים), the "breath of life" (Gen. 2:7; Job 12:10). Later, Moses called the LORD Elohei ha-ruchot lekhol basar (אֱלהֵי הָרוּחת לְכָל־בָּשָׂר), which can be translated "the God of the breath of all flesh" (Num. 16:22). Indeed, the name YHVH is unutterable apart from breath, from ruach (רוּח), since each letter represents a vowel or breathing sound. Yeshua breathes out to his followers and says, "Receive the Holy Spirit" (John 20:22). It is the breath of God that breathes into us to make us truly alive. When we open our hearts to receive the life-giving Spirit, we find comfort and help. God's spirit breathes out prayers within us (Rom. 8:26), reveals the truth about Yeshua (John 15:26), transforms our inner character (Gal. 5:22-23), imparts spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12), and gives us the life from heaven (John 3:8). Bo ru'ach Yeshua (בּא רוּח ישׁוּע), "Come, spirit of Yeshua!"
Before his death, Moses prayed: "Let the LORD (יהוה), "the God of the spirits of all flesh" (אֱלהֵי הָרוּחת לְכָל־בָּשָׂר), appoint a man over the congregation ... who shall lead them out and bring them in, so that the congregation of the LORD may not be as sheep that have no shepherd." So the LORD said to Moses, "Take Joshua the son of Nun (יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בִּן־נוּן, lit. "son of life"), a man in whom is the Spirit (רוּח), and lay your hand on him" (Num. 27:16-18). The Talmud notes that the word Nun (נוּן) means "fish," a symbol of activity and life. Joshua, the chosen one who succeeded Moses and led the people into the Promised Land, was the "Son of Life" - a clear picture of Yeshua our Messiah, the "spirit-filled good Shepherd" who would lay down His life for the sheep (John 10:11).
The LORD is indeed the "God of the breath of all flesh." When Yeshua cried out, "It is finished" and breathed his last breath as He died for our sins upon the cross, the greatest exhalation of the Spirit occurred, the greatest sigh, the greatest utterance was ever declared. The sacrificial death of Yeshua for our deliverance was God's final word of love breathed out to those who would put their trust in Him...
Note: During Shavuot we remember the revelation of the giving of the Torah. The very first commandment given at Sinai was "I AM the LORD thy God," which means that we first must receive God's word of love spoken personally to us. When the Spirit of God later descended upon the disciples during the first Pentecost in Jerusalem after the resurrection of Messiah, Torah was written within the heart, in fulfillment God's promise (Jer. 31:33-34).
The Spirit of Adoption....
[ Today we celebrate the holiday of Shavuot, the climax of Passover... Happy Holidays! ]
05.15.13 (Sivan 6, 5773) Shavuot (or "Pentecost") signifies the coming of the Spirit of Yeshua into the world (John 14:16-18). Just as the parochet (veil) of the Temple was rent asunder from top to bottom, opening up access to the Holy One for all, so the Spirit of Truth (רוּחַ הָאֱמֶת) now freely moves within the hearts of all who will believe. Each person who receives the Spirit of Yeshua no longer is an orphan, but is helped, empowered, and guided by the very hand of God. Therefore we cry out, Abba, Father! (Rom. 8:15)
Yeshua said, "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." (John 14:16-18)
Love's Ends and Means...
05.15.13 (Sivan 6, 5773) We can't justify an end - no matter how seemingly right - without practicing the means of God's love... As we share our heart with others, we have to be willing to "refrain from eating meat offered to idols" (in deference to the conscience of another), even if we clearly understand that we may indeed do so, since idols are really nothing (1 Cor. 8:1-13). This is a matter of spiritual maturity, and the principle works both ways. For those convinced that God wants us to observe some aspect of Torah, we extend grace; and for those who disagree, we also extend grace. Our first duty is to walk in the Spirit of God's love, which is what Shavuot is all about...
Note: When Paul admonished us not to eat meat offered to idols if doing so would offend our brother or sister, he was espousing the principle of charity... Apparently some people actually believed there were spirits that could become "attached" to sacrifices made to idols, and eating such meat would be tantamount to "communing" with such false gods. The apostle reminded the "weaker brothers" that ein od milvado (אֵין עוֹד מִלְבַדּו), that there is no real power apart from God (Deut. 4:28; Isa. 44:9-20; etc), and contrasted animistic polytheism with the truth: "But for us there is One God, One LORD..." This agrees with the great Shema: "Hear O Israel, YHVH is Elohim; YHVH is One" (Deut. 6:4; 1 Cor. 8:6). Paul was not endorsing categorical tolerance for idolatrous culture, since idolatry is vain, empty, samsara, unreal, and ultimately will be blown away like chaff in the driving wind. So, while on the one hand Paul urged us to be tolerant of each other's weaknesses, he would never say we should be tolerant of "false gospels," the idea that law-keeping makes us right with God (legalism), or the idea that being under the Torah of love makes us free to sin... Paul has very strong language about these things in Galatians, Romans, etc.
Happy Shavuot, chaverim....
[ Today begins the holiday of Shavuot, the climax of the Passover Season. Happy Holidays! ]
05.14.13 (Sivan 6, 5773) Just as Jewish tradition says that every Jew was present at Sinai as a mystical unity, so also with the cross of our Mashiach. I was there, and so were you... "Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me the voice of a great earthquake: 'Blessed be the glory of the LORD from this place!'"
וַתִּשָּׂאֵנִי רוּחַ
וָאֶשְׁמַע אַחֲרַי קוֹל רַעַשׁ גָּדוֹל
בָּרוּךְ כְּבוֹד־יְהוָה מִמְּקוֹמוֹ
va·tis·sa·ei·ni · ru·ach
va·esh·ma · a·cha·rai · kol · ra·ash · ga·dol
ba·rukh · ke·vod · Adonai · mi·me·ko·mo
"Then the Spirit lifted me up,
and I heard behind me the voice of a great earthquake:
"Blessed be the glory of the LORD from this place!""
(Ezek. 3:12)
Chag Sameach and happy Shavuot to each of you! Just as it is said that the giving of the Torah happened at one specified time, but the receiving of it happens all the time, "in every generation," the same may be said regarding the ruach, the spirit of God's love: every day we must open our hearts to receive the Divine Presence: "I need Thee every hour." I wish you a renewed sense of God's love and presence in your life, and may the Spirit of God help you to walk in the power and love of the LORD God of Israel.
What You Really Need...
05.14.13 (Sivan 5, 5773) We don't pray to attempt to change God's mind, but rather to change our own: "Your Father knows what you need before you ask him" (Matt. 6:8). Prayer is not a means of getting your Father's attention, but rather of getting your attention fixed on reality. It is a confession of your great need to find out who you really are. And while it is indeed true that "God knows everything," He does not know anything apart from his love. God does not "know" you in some "abstract" sense, like a computer that stores data and information, but rather as a parent who loves and cares for you (Psalm 103:13). Your heavenly Father knows the number of hairs on your head; he knows the word on your tongue before you utter it, and he perfectly sees your beginning and end. He has intimate understanding of who you are and what you really need.
Beware the Camel Swallowers...
05.14.13 (Sivan 5, 5773) Shema! The two great commandments center on loving God and loving others as ourselves. The problem, however, isn't that we don't understand this, but rather that we are unwilling to obey. So we invent all manner of "religious" excuses; we pretend that other matters are more important, very important, even essential, such as doctrinal positions, creeds, rituals, orthodoxy, and so on. God forbid that we might get the date wrong for Passover, the resurrection, or Pentecost! So, in the spirit of "humbly desiring the truth," we despise our brothers and sisters, and forsake what is nearest to God's own heart… Hypocrites! If you have trouble keeping the very first and greatest commandment, no amount of religious games will do you any good.
I mention this for those who might risk missing the point of it all - for those who somehow "forget" that the heart is incurably sick, desperately wicked, and who therefore forget that they too are in need of miraculous deliverance and divine intervention. If religion could save us, the cross of Messiah would not have been necessary.... It's that simple.
During the Holocaust, Jews at the death camps who wanted to observe the Passover Seder faced a dilemma. The Torah clearly stated that no chametz (leaven) was to be eaten during the days of Passover, but the only food available to the prisoners contained the forbidden leaven. The prisoners were forced to either use chametz as their "matzah" (and water as their "wine") or else to fast for the eight-day holiday, thereby endangering their lives. The rabbis rightly quoted the verse "you shall live by My commandments" (Lev. 18:5) to mean that the commandments were ultimately given to lead us to life... Because of this, they recited the motzi matzah blessing while eating chametz at that time...
And does not such reasoning likewise apply to those who seek to follow the Son of God, the One who came to heal the leper, the sick, and to bind up the broken of heart? The one who bore our sins on the cross? The one who was forsaken, beaten, and despised of men - a man of sorows, acquainted with grief? What if one of the "little ones who believe" in Him were to celebrate the birth of baby Jesus on Christmas day, or to thankfully eat ham on "easter" because grandma made it specially for that holy day? Do you really think the God of Love would spurn such a little heart of faith? Or do you think God would be pleased by the "holier-than-thou" attitude of some who fool themselves into believing that they "know better" than to have such a foolish heart of trusting love?
Nothing is more shameful and absurd than affecting pride over spiritual matters. "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know; but if anyone loves God, he is known by God" (1 Cor. 8:1-3). Those who are "puffed up" understand nothing and have an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and so on (1 Tim. 6:4). "Let no one seduce himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise... For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself" (1 Cor. 3:18; Gal. 6:3).
"Camel swallowers" relish correcting other people about various non-essential doctrines (e.g., the timing of the resurrection, the date for Pentecost, the time of the "new moon," etc.), but if they are reminded that our first duty is to simply trust and love Yeshua, they often go on the defensive, thereby proving their motives are not pure...
The Seal of God is Truth...
05.14.13 (Sivan 5, 5773) The sages state "the seal of God is truth," by which they mean that truth bears its own witness to reality. Spiritual truth is ultimately personal, since it is "lived truth," and therefore it is part of the inner will of the person. A true person's life will agree with his or her words; the inner and the outer will correspond and align. The apostle Paul wrote that God's firm foundation (i.e., yesod: יְסוֹד) bears this distinctive seal: on one side is imprinted, "The LORD knows those who are his" (יוֹדֵעַ יְהוָה אֵת אֲשֶׁר־לוֹ) and on the other side is imprinted, "Let everyone who names the Name of the LORD depart from iniquity" (כּל־הַקּוֹרֵא בְּשֵׁם יְהוָה יָסוּר מֵעָוֶל, 2 Tim. 2:19). People can say one thing and believe another, but ultimately no one can "fake" the truth: God bears witness to what is real, as it says, "All are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account" (Heb. 4:13). The LORD knows who are really his own, and who are impostors. As Yeshua said: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them (וַאֲנִי יוֹדֵעַ אתָן), and they follow me" (John 10:27).
We can test whether our faith is genuine by first asking whether we are trusting Yeshua to be our only means of salvation (and sanctification) -- believing that he alone is our means of finding the righteousness of God (צִדְקַת אֱלהִים), -- and then honestly examining our actions to see whether we evidence the love of God (John 14:1; 15:9-10; 1 John 4:7-8). "Whoever says he lives in Him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked" (1 John 2:6). May the LORD help each of us to evidence in the power the "seal of truth..."
The Hebrew word for truth is emet (אֱמֶת), a word that consists of the first, middle, and last letter of the Hebrew Aleph-bet, indicating that truth encompasses all things and endures from the beginning (א) to the end (ת). But notice that if we remove the letter Aleph from the word, we are left with מֵת, (dead), the opposite of חַיִּים (life). The letter Aleph is the ineffable letter that represents oneness and God's preeminent glory. Therefore, if we attempt to ignore or suppress God in our understanding of truth, we end up with death...
Yeshua our Messiah is called the Aleph and the Tav (הָאָלֶף וְהַתָּו), "the first and the last" (הָרִאשׁוֹן וְהָאַחֲרוֹן). These are divine titles that belong exclusively to YHVH (Isa. 41:4, 44:6, 48:12; Rev. 1:1,17-18; 22:13). Pilate's famous question, "What is truth?" is a category mistake, since truth is not about "what" but about "Who." That is, truth is not something objective and static, a thing to be known and studied from a distance. No. Truth is up-close and personal.... You don't judge the truth, but the truth will reveal what is within you...
Note: For more on this subject, see the article, "What is Truth?"
I Need Thee Every Hour...
[ The following is related to the holiday of Shavuot, which begins at sundown, May 14th... ]
05.13.13 (Sivan 4, 5773) "The counting from Passover to Shavuot is carried out as one who waits for the coming of the human being he loves best, counting the days and hours" (Maimonides). If the Passover redemption is incomplete without the the giving of the Torah at Sinai, how much more is redemption given by Messiah, the true Lamb of God, incomplete without the advent of the Spirit? The cross leads to the revelation of "deeper Torah," imbued by the inward power of the Holy Spirit that quickens our hearts to long for the coming of our Beloved Savior and the establishment of his kingdom over all the earth...
Just as the giving of the Torah happened at one specified time, but the receiving of it happens all the time, "in every generation," the same may be said regarding the ruach, the Spirit: every day we must open our hearts to the Divine Presence... "I need Thee every hour." The study of Torah never ends, since we are never without need for the Teacher.
Preparing for Revelation...
[ The following is related to the holiday of Shavuot, which begins May 14th this year... ]
05.13.13 (Sivan 4, 5773) Tuesday, May 14th (at sundown) marks the end of the 49 days of counting and the beginning of the "Jubilee" of Shavuot (i.e., "Weeks" or "Pentecost"). Recall that the Torah instructed (Lev. 23:15-16) that we count from the day following Passover (i.e., Nisan 16) for exactly seven weeks, until Sivan 5 (i.e., from March 26th until May 13th this year). On the 50th day (i.e., Sivan 6), a special celebration was to be observed. This annual "countdown period" recalls both the time from the Passover until the revelation at Sinai, and the advent of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) among Yeshua's disciples in Jerusalem (Acts 2:1-4).
According to the sages, Shavuot marks the culmination of the experience of redemption, sometimes called Atzaret Pesach, the "conclusion" of Passover. Since the Exodus from Egypt led to the revelation given at Sinai, the goal of Passover was the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people. In other words, the LORD took the Jews out of Egypt so that they would be His own treasured people, holy and separated from the pagan cultures around them. Indeed, all of the mo'edim (holidays) of the biblical calendar are connected with this event, including the fall festivals of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot.
It is an old custom to attend services during erev Shavuot and to stay the entire night listening to poems and reading selections from the Torah and from the Talmud (this custom is called tikkun leil shavu'ot: תִּקּוּן לֵיל שָׁבוּעוֹת, "rectification for Shavuot night"). This custom is observed to "repair" the night of Shavuot from the error of sleeping so soundly before the Torah was revealed at Sinai that God had to awaken the Jews with piercing shofar blasts, thunder, and lightning the following morning. After this all-night vigil, morning prayers are recited thanking God for the revelation at Sinai.
Jewish tradition teaches be'chol dor vador - that in every generation each person should consider him or herself as having personally received the Torah at Sinai. The climax of the Shavuot morning service is the recitation of the famous Akdamut poem followed by the reading of the Ten Commandments, when all the congregation stands to "relive" the experience at Sinai. A second Torah scroll is then taken out of the ark and the portion is read (Num. 28:26-31) that describes the sacrificial offerings made at the Temple during Shavuot, and the Haftarah (Ezek. 1:1-28; 3:12) concerns the amazing revelation of God in the form of the Throne/Chariot.
The holiday of Shavuot is one of the shelosh regalim (three major "pilgrimage festivals") commanded in the Torah (Exod. 23:14-17; Deut. 16:16) and therefore it reveals profound spiritual truth for followers of Yeshua (Luke 24:44; 2 Tim. 3:16). God did not want us to miss the significance of this holiday, since it expresses the freedom and truth of the New Covenant of Zion. From my family to you: Shavuot Sameach - "Happy Shavuot!" May this be a time of renewal and great joy in your lives....
Note: I am aware that some people insist that Shavuot must occur on a Sunday, following the Sadducee's interpretation that "the day after the Sabbath" (Lev. 23:15) refers to the first day of the week, rather than to the day following the Sabbath of Passover. This has been the historical position of most "mainline" Christian churches... Everyone can (and should) follow their own earnest conviction on this subject (Rom. 14:5). I follow the traditional Jewish interpretation to identify with the worldwide Jewish community, whereas others might begin the omer count starting on the first Sunday after Passover. I would urge everyone to exercise humility here, because there are genuine differences of opinion among people of good will on this subject. As it is written: "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know; but if anyone loves God, he is known by God" (1 Cor. 8:1-3).
The Eye of the LORD...
05.13.13 (Sivan 4, 5773) The metaphor of the "eye of the LORD" (עֵין יְהוָה) depicts God's omniscience, or his intimate and perfect knowledge of all things. God's understanding is ein mispar (אֵין מִסְפָּר), "beyond reckoning," and is therefore incalculably great (Psalm 147:5; Isa. 40:28; Rom. 11:33). For instance, God both created the universe yesh me'ayin, "out of nothing" but also sustains the entire cosmos at every instant (Heb. 11:3; Rom. 1:20; Col. 1:16-17). Moreover, the LORD (יהוה) transcends all distinctions of space and time so that he comprehends everything with absolute clarity. Poetically, the Scriptures state that God calls all the stars of heaven by name (Psalm 147:4); that he knows the number of hairs upon your head (Matt. 10:30), that he sees in secret (Matt. 6:4), and that he knows the beginning from the end, including every word uttered from your lips as they are spoken (Psalm 139:4). So the LORD God, the Spirit of Truth, eternally knows everything in all possible worlds....
This idea that God is "omniscient," however, may suggest that the Divine Presence is remote and abstract - as if God were an enormous computer "mind," or a repository of all facts and counterfactual conditions of the universe. This is not the Torah's viewpoint, however, since the LORD is absolutely personal, intentional, loving, just, holy, and so on. Moreover, God directly sustains and interacts with creation, upholding his purposes and divine decrees. Therefore while it is true that God comprehends all the providential affairs of the cosmos in general, there is a deeper sense in which God "sees" the soul, a personal way of seeing based on spiritual intimacy, compassion and grace. The "eye of the LORD" is directed with special attention toward those who fear him and trust in his love (chesed). Therefore ayin Adonai is connected with the idea of blessing, the eye of divine love: "May the LORD bless you and keep you; may the LORD make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; may the LORD lift up His countenance upon you and give you his peace" (Num. 6:24-26).
הִנֵּה עֵין יְהוָה אֶל־יְרֵאָיו
לַמְיַחֲלִים לְחַסְדּוֹ
לְהַצִּיל מִמָּוֶת נַפְשָׁם
וּלְחַיּוֹתָם בָּרָעָב
hin·neh · ein · Adonai · el · ye·re·av
lam·ya·cha·lim · le·chas·do
le·hatz·il · mi·ma·vet · naf·sham
ul·chai·yo·tam · ba·ra·av
"Behold, the eye of the LORD is toward those who fear Him,
toward those who hope in his love;
to save from death their souls,
and to keep them alive in famine."
(Psalm 33:18-19)
There is a mutual sense of "seeing" implied in this verse. We are to behold (or see) that God sees those who fear Him, that is, those who reverence the Divine Presence and who hope in his love. This is further implied by the etymological connection between ra'ah (רָאָה), "seeing" and yirah (יִרְאָה), "fearing." We can only behold God by means of reverence...
There are many references of God's intimate understanding of the choices we make in our lives: "He who planted the ear, shall He not hear? He who formed the eye, shall He not see? (Psalm 94:9). "The eyes of the LORD (עֵינֵי יְהוָה) are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good" (Prov. 15:3). "The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men; from the place of His dwelling He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works" (Psalm 33:13-15). If you fear the LORD and hope in His love demonstrated in Yeshua, you have great comfort: "The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry" (Psalm 34:15; 1 Pet. 3:12).
Note: For a brief audio commentary on this verse, click here.
Parashat Naso - נשא
[ The following is related to this week's Torah reading, parashat Naso ("lift up!"). Please read the Torah portion to "find your place" here. ]
05.12.13 (Sivan 3, 5773) Our Torah portion this week (Naso) includes the famous blessing that Aaron and his sons (i.e., the priests) were instructed to recite over the people of Israel. The text of the blessing (Num. 6:24-26) is in three parts and is therefore called "the three in one blessing." Notice that the words are spoken in the grammatical singular rather than plural because they are meant to have personal application, not to be a general benediction over a crowd of people. The anthropomorphic phrase, "The LORD lift up His face toward you..." (יִשָּׂא יְהוָה פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ) pictures the beaming face of a parent as he lifts up his beloved child in joy... Undoubtedly Yeshua recited a variant of "priestly blessing" over his disciples when he ascended back to heaven, though of course He would have spoken it in the first person: "I bless you and keep you; I shine upon you and am gracious to you; I lift up my countenance upon you, and give you my peace" (Luke 24:50-51).
יְבָרֶכְךָ יְהוָה וְיִשְׁמְרֶךָ
יָאֵר יְהוָה פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ וִיחֻנֶּךָּ
יִשָּׂא יְהוָה פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ וְיָשֵׂם לְךָ שָׁלוֹם
ye·va·re·khe·kha · Adonai · ve·yish·me·re·kha
ya·eir · Adonai · pa·nav · e·ley·kha · vi·chun·ne·ka
yis·sa · Adonai · pa·nav · e·ley·kha · ve·ya·sem · le·kha · sha·lom
"The LORD bless you and guard you;
The LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
The LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace."
(Num. 6:24-26)
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Note: To learn more about this wonderful blessing, click here (you can also listen to it chanted by clicking here).
The sages ask why the Omniscient One required a census for the people, and answered that such was intended to teach them that every soul counts and has eternal significance. Each person - from the greatest to the least - is counted once, no more, no less. So if you seem to be of little account in this world, remember that simple goodness is far better than so-called greatness. Don't be deceived by the world and its vain drama. "For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God."
Agreeing with Reality...
05.10.13 (Sivan 1, 5773) The moment you sense pride or fear taking hold of your heart, stop and turn to God. Even if you must turn 70 x 7 times, there is hope, since even the desire of "being willing to do God's will" refines the heart. It is far better to be repeatedly turning to God in brokenness than it is to live under the pretense that you have no need for ongoing deliverance. It has been wisely said that "you cannot widen the narrow way of surrender." Religious people are perhaps most at risk here, since often enough they fool themselves into believing that passionate commitment requires they know everything about God, or that they are walking in joy and victory, when the truth is that they are often lonely, hurting, and sometimes unsure of themselves... God surely understands your need, and He wants all your heart, not just the parts you might think he wants.
יְהוָה עֻזִּי וּמָגִנִּי בּוֹ בָטַח לִבִּי
וְנֶעֱזָרְתִּי וַיַּעֲלז לִבִּי וּמִשִּׁירִי אֲהוֹדֶנּוּ
Adonai · uz·zi · u·ma·gin·ni · bo · va·tach · lib·bi
ve·ne·e·zar·ti · vai·ya·a·loz · lib·bi · u·mi·shir·i · a·ho·dei·nu
"The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts,
I am helped and my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him."
(Psalm 28:7)
"By the grace of God I am what I am" (χάριτι δὲ θεοῦ εἰμι ὅ εἰμι). "Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are" (Kierkegaard). And only until you can hear, "Never change! I love you just the way you are," will you be free to face who you are. "Now, with God's help, I shall become myself." The miracle belongs to God...
Shabbat Shalom and love to you all... And please keep this ministry in your prayers, too! We really need your help. Baruch Hashem yom yom!
Keeping hope during exile...
[ Today is Rosh Chodesh, the start of the month of Sivan. Chodesh Tov, chaverim.... ]
05.10.13 (Sivan 1, 5773) "The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever" (Isa. 40:8). This verse sets up a great contrast between olam ha-zeh and olam haba – between this present world and the heavenly realm. King David states, "Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you (וְחֶלְדִּי כְאַיִן נֶגְדֶּךָ). Surely all mankind stands as a mere vanity" (Psalm 39:5). Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God, the Eternal, the abiding, and true: "Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you" (Psalm 73:25). To the extent that we regard this world as our "home" we will find the transience of life to be tragic; but when we regard ourselves as strangers here, transience becomes a passageway to the heavenly places.
יָבֵשׁ חָצִיר נָבֵל צִיץ
וּדְבַר־אֱלהֵינוּ יָקוּם לְעוֹלָם
ya·vesh · cha·tzir · na·vel · tzitz
u·de·var · E·lo·hei·nu · ya·kum · le·o·lam
"The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever."
(Isa. 40:8)
Hebrew Study Card
The carnal mind instinctively is afraid of change, since it implies death and dissolution, and therefore it reasons from a continuous state of dread (whether conscious or not). Hence the "besetting sin" of the flesh is to "absolutize" the moment and to otherwise regard the finite as an end in itself. But God is our "Rock," a metaphor that implies that He is the immovable foundation and cornerstone of all reality. The LORD is our strong refuge in the stormy changes we all face in this world; the Divine Presence both grounds us and sustains our way. Therefore the LORD is called El Ne'eman (אֵל נֶאֱמָן), "the faithful God." His very Name means certainty, reliability, strength, truth, reality, presence, being, life, and so on...
Whenever I read the news I am reminded that we are living in a "withered and fading world" -- nearing the prophesied "End of Days" (אַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים). But Baruch Hashem, our place (מָקוֹם) is grounded in truth that stands (i.e., יָקוּם, lit. "is raised up") forever! Yeshua is our life; he is the Word of our God that is raised up forever! So press on faith. Believing is seeing, not the other way around. "Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah that leads to eternal life" (Jude 1:21).
Note: For more on this topic, see "Our Everlasting Consolation."
The Center of our Journey...
[ The following is related to our Torah reading for this week, parashat Bamidbar... ]
05.10.13 (Sivan 1, 5773) Just as the Jews encamped in the desert around the holy Ark of the Covenant, the throne of the Word of God that was sprinkled with sacrificial blood for atonement, so we sojourn our days focused on the Living Word of God, who offered up his own blood upon the heavenly kapporet for our eternal atonement. "For by a single offering (קָרְבָּן אֶחָד) he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified" (Heb. 10:14). The sacrificial love of God is the center most truth of reality: "For I decided to know nothing among you except Yeshua the Messiah and him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2).
Seeking What is Above...
05.09.13 (Iyyar 29, 5773) "If then you have been raised with Messiah, seek the things that are above, where the Messiah is seated at the right hand of God (לִימִין הָאֱלהִים); focus your thoughts on the things above - not on things here on earth - for you have died, and your life has been hidden with Messiah in God" (Col. 3:1-3). Note that the verb translated "you have died" (ἀπεθάνετε) indicates that your death is a spiritual reality you must accept by faith. You don't "try to die" to the flesh, since that is the fool's errand of man's "religion." No, you trust that God has killed the power of sin and death on your behalf and imparted to you a new kind of life power (John 1:12; Eph 2:5). Because you partake of an entirely greater dimension of reality, namely, the spiritual reality hidden from the vanity of this age, your life is likewise hidden from this world (Col. 3:4). Therefore we are instructed to consciously focus our thoughts (φρονέω) on the hidden reality of God rather than on the superficial and temporal world that is passing away: "For we are looking not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient (i.e., "just for a season," καιρός), but the things that are unseen are eternal" (2 Cor. 4:18).
Just as you must trust and accept that Yeshua was crucified for you, identifying with you, taking your place in judgment, exchanging his life for your own, so you must trust and accept that you have been crucified with him, and that your old life was taken away and replaced with a new, indestructible nature. In other words, a union is created where his "for me" is answered by my "with him." Χριστῷ συνεσταύρωμαι– "I already have been crucified in Messiah" (Gal. 2:20). Indeed the two go together: to trust in the finished work of Messiah for you is to trust in his finished work within you... When he died on the cross for you, which sins didn't he bear on your behalf? which remedy did he leave unfulfilled?
Note: I am not suggesting "perfectibilty" of the flesh, of course (that's just more religion, after all) but rather perfectibilty of our relationship with God because of the merit of the only true Tzaddik of God, Yeshua our Savior. What God has done will stand forever; his seed is indestructible, and what he calls us to be and to do will therefore never ultimately fail... We overcome because of his perfect love, not by means of our own strength.
Numbering our Days...
05.09.13 (Iyyar 29, 5773) Time seems short, and the days and weeks pass so quickly now... LORD, help us to see what is most worthwhile, to focus on what has eternal significance. Keep us from distraction, from failing to make time to listen for your voice or from recognizing your presence. As Moses prayed, "Teach us to number our days that we might get a heart of wisdom..."
It is said, "Repent one day before you die." But who knows the day of one's death in advance? Therefore let us live each day as if it were to be our last, and let us live with reverent joy and fearful hope.... It's only when we understand we have a limited time on earth, and that "no man knoweth the day or the hour" when their time is up, that we begin to live each day as if it were the only one we really have... For every man the "end of this world" is the day of his death, the Day of Judgment. Therefore, again, as Moses prayed, "teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom..."
לִמְנוֹת יָמֵינוּ כֵּן הוֹדַע
וְנָבִא לְבַב חָכְמָה
lim·not · ya·me·nu · ken · ho·da
ve·na·vi · le·vav · chokh·mah
"Teach us to number our days
that we may get a heart of wisdom."
(Psalm 90:12)
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Moses' petition surely is not the request that we are enabled to literally count the remaining days of our lives (as if that would help us, anyway), since God does not disclose the day of one's death (though he can teach us how to die well). On the contrary, to "number our days" means first of all to account them in relation to Eternity and to esteem them as both infinitely vain and infinitely precious. In other words, Moses asked that the LORD God would teach us how to make our days count for eternity, to have a weight of glory that will shine forth in the world to come. Living in the awareness of both the frailty of life as well as its eternally enduring significance is to acquire a heart of wisdom, since fleeting moments - and what we choose to do with them - are the very means by which we prepare ourselves for the world to come and our future with the LORD. Indeed, this explains why Moses ends his appeal by asking the LORD: "Let the splendor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!"
Despite the frailty and tenuous brevity of our days, may it please the LORD God to shine the power of His radiance upon us, and to establish our works for His praise. May He help us to "number our days" so that we may obtain levav chokhmah (לְבַב חָכְמָה) - a heart of wisdom to live according to His will (James 1:5). Above all else, may the "God of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, the Father of Glory (אֲבִי הַכָּבוֹד), impart to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him (רוּחַ הַחָכְמָה וְהֶחָזוֹן לָדַעַת אתוֹ), having the "eyes of your hearts" (ὀφθαλμοὺς τῆς καρδίας) enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you" (Eph. 1:17-18). May you be strong, resolute, and fully focused on our LORD, and may God make this real for us: Amen.
Resurrection and the Life...
05.08.13 (Iyyar 28, 5773) Despite this shadowy world of constant change, decay, heartache, and physical death, Yeshua our Master speaks in compassion: "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"
אֲנִי הַתְּחִיָּה וְהַחַיִּים
הַמַּאֲמִין בִּי יִחְיֶה גַּם אִם יָמוּת
וְכָל מִי שֶׁחַי וּמַאֲמִין בִּי לא־יָמוּת לְעוֹלָם
הַאִם מַאֲמִינָה אַתְּ בָּזֶה
a·ni · ha'te·chi·yah · ve'ha·chai·yim
ha·ma·a·mim · bi · yich·yeh · gam · im · ya·mut
ve'khol · mi · she'chai · u·ma·a·min · bi · lo · ya·mut · le'olam
ha·im · ma·a·mi·nah · at · ba·zeh?
"I am the resurrection and the life.
Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
Do you believe this?" (John 11:25-26)
This, of course, is the ultimate question - who (or what) are you trusting for life - even in the face of physical death... You do understand that you will live forever, right? But perpetuity of conscious existence does not mean chayei olam, or everlasting life, since that is only found in relationship with the Eternal, with the Person of God... So, what are you hoping for when your hour comes? Are you looking to your own merit to secure favor in heaven? Are you hoping for a good verdict on the day of judgment? Are you looking to Moses or some other prophet to mediate on your behalf? Who are you trusting to be there for you on the other side of the veil? Who do you say that Jesus is? (Luke 9:20)?
I am amazed that people risk the possibility of eternal life because they are afraid of venturing out in faith... But such fear is costly indeed, since to deny God is to deny yourself as a spiritual being, and the denial of the reality of the Spirit is the abandonment of your own inner life... I would rather become a fool for the hope of love than to find some cold satisfaction that love itself is nothing more than a fantasy. Better to be wrong in love than right apart from love -- for even if I am wrong in my hope, love itself needs no further vindication... Indeed every person alive makes the choice and in the end their choice will be manifest. What choice? Whether to believe the miracle of the divine love, to believe that God's power is manifest not only in the high and lofty, but in the lowly and broken, and to choose to receive God's eternal remedy given through the "foolishness" of the cross....
Happy Jerusalem Day!
[ Yom Yerushalayim, or Jerusalem Day, is observed May 7th and 8th this year.... ]
05.08.13 (Iyyar 28, 5773) In Psalm 122:6 it is written, sha'alu shelom Yerushalayim - "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem," a phrase that reveals prophetic truth about our Savior and Messiah. The word sha'alu (שַׁאֲלוּ) means "you ask" (as in ask a sheilah, a question), shalom (שׁלוֹם) is the name of Yeshua, the Prince of Peace (i.e., Sar Shalom: שַׂר־שָׁלוֹם), and Jerusalem means "the teaching of peace" (Jeru- comes from the same root as the word Torah [ירה], which means "teaching"). The phrase sha'alu shelom Yerushalayim can therefore be construed, "ask about the Prince of Peace and His Teaching." Yeshua is indeed the rightful King of Jerusalem who is coming soon to reign over all the earth.
שַׁאֲלוּ שְׁלוֹם יְרוּשָׁלָםִ
יִשְׁלָיוּ אהֲבָיִךְ
sha·a·lu · she·lom · ye·ru·sha·la·yim
yish·la·yu · o·ha·va·yikh
"Ask for the well-being of Jerusalem;
May those who love you be at peace" (Psalm 122:6).
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The word "Zion" (צִיּוֹן) is mentioned over 160 times in the Scriptures. That's more than the words faith, hope, love, and countless other key words... And since Zion is a poetic form of the word Jerusalem (יְרוּשָׁלַםִ), the number of occurrences swells to nearly 1,000! Since it's the most frequently occurring place name in all the Scriptures, it's no overstatement to say that God Himself is a Zionist.... "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth" (Psalm 50:2). "The LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are said of you, O City of God" (Psalm 87:2-3).
Note: Yeshua called Jerusalem the "City of the great King" (Psalm 48:2; Matt 5:35). It is the place where He was crucified, buried, resurrected, and from whence He ascended to heaven. It is also the birthplace of kehilat Mashiach (i.e., the "church") and the focal point of humanity's eschatological future. Click here for 25 reasons why Jerusalem matters....
God's Overmastering Power...
05.07.13 (Iyyar 27, 5773) Though it might sometimes seem that evil has the upper hand in this fallen world, we must remember that the LORD God Almighty is in complete control and works all things together for our good - even overturning the schemes of the wicked for our ultimate benefit. The devil thought he had won a great victory when Yeshua died upon the cross, but God utterly vanquished his evil intent by raising Messiah from the dead and exalting Him as the matchless Ruler over all principalities, powers, and kings of earth (Rev 1:5). Ein od milvado (אֵין עוֹד מִלְבַדּו) - there is no power apart from God. Everything is in His hands, and He alone is the keyholder of hell and death (Rev. 1:18). "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty One, reigns." Therefore the LORD asks your anxious heart: "Behold, I AM the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too difficult for me?"
הִנֵּה אֲנִי יְהוָה אֱלהֵי כָּל־בָּשָׂר
הֲמִמֶּנִּי יִפָּלֵא כָּל־דָּבָר
hin·neh · a·ni · Adonai · E·lo·hei · kol · ba·sar
ha·mi·ne·ni · yip·pa·lei · kol · da·var
"Behold, I AM the God of all flesh
is there anything too difficult (or wonderful) for me?"
(Jer. 32:27)
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As it is written in the psalms: "For the LORD Most High (יְהוָה עֶלְיוֹן, lit., "the ascended LORD") is to be feared; for He is the great king over all the earth" (Psalm 47:2).
Slowing Down to See...
05.06.13 (Iyyar 26, 5773) Why are we always in such a hurry? Why the mad rush? Where are we hoping to go, after all? R' Mendel noted: "As long as there were no roads, you had to interrupt a journey at nightfall. Then you had all the time in the world to recite psalms at the inn, to open a book, to have a good talk with someone. But nowadays you can ride these roads day and night and there is no time anymore." In our haste to get to where we think we want to be, we can lose sight of where we are, and what matters most....
Choosing to Go Forward...
[ The following continues the warning against self-deception I was writing about recently. May the LORD our God help us be doers and not just hearers of the truth (James 1:22)... ]
05.06.13 (Iyyar 26, 5773) How much energy is wasted going backward, returning to the same empty places? Yet we are creatures of habit; we tend to be lazy and we avoid examining our convictions and underlying assumptions; we are apt to ignore or explain way evidence that might challenge us, or - if we can no longer avoid the truth - we procrastinate and later "forget" the resolve to turn our heart to God in the truth. This way we can "hear" a commandment and yet postpone our action until later; we can agree to follow Messiah, but only in our own terms. Like Augustine, we pray: "Grant me chastity and continence -- only not yet..." And so we are turned back to emptiness because we refuse to go forward.
"We like to continue to believe what we have been accustomed to accept as true, and the resentment aroused when doubt is cast upon any of our assumptions leads us to seek every manner of excuse for clinging to them. The result is that most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already do." - James Harvey Robinson (1863-1936)
Between slavery and the promised land lies the desert - a transitional place where we learn to depend on God's sustenance alone to bring us through... The "desert experience" can help liberate the soul from its past slavery, or it can reveal that the soul really does not want to be free. Hardship and testing reveal to us what we really believe, after all. It's one thing to be set free from what has once enslaved you, but it is quite another thing to live as a free person, conscious of your own liberty and dignity as a beloved child of God. And yet we are warned that if we don't turn away from what has enslaved us in the first place, if we don't learn to truly see ourselves as a new creation (בְּרִיאָה חֲדָשָׁה), it is likely we will be led back to a place of slavery once again.
Be encouraged, friends. If you feel lost in the desert, remember that it was there that God revealed himself to broken Moses... As it is written, "Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God" (Isa. 50:10). Yeshua is our Good Shepherd who promises to guide our way to the high country of Zion (Psalm 23; John 10:14-16).
Parashat Bamidbar - במדבר
[ Our Torah reading for this week is parashat Bamidbar ("in the desert"). Please read the Torah portion to "find your place" here. ]
05.05.13 (Iyyar 25, 5773) The Book of Numbers begins precisely where the Book of Exodus left off, with the glory of the LORD hovering over the Mishkan (Tabernacle) as the Israelites were camped at Sinai. On the first day of the thirteenth month following the Exodus from Egypt – exactly thirty days after the Tabernacle was first consecrated – God commanded Moses to take a census of all Israelite males over 20 years of age who would bear arms. Moses and the heads of each tribe recorded the results, with 603,550 men in all. This number did not include the Levites, however, since they were designated to take care of the Tabernacle and its furnishings during the journeys.
God then gave instructions about how the Israelite camp was to be arranged. The Tabernacle would occupy the central location, with three clans of the Levites surrounding it on the north, south, and west (Moses and Aaron's tents were placed before the entrance on the east). The twelve other tribes were divided into four groups of three, each of which had its own flag and tribal leader's tent. All of the tents of the Israelites were to face the Tabernacle on every side. This camp formation was to be strictly maintained while traveling throughout the desert.
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Each tribe had its own prince (nassi) and its own unique flag (degel), and each tribe's flag color corresponded with the color of its respective stone in Aaron's breastplate (Exod. 28:15-21). For example, Judah's stone was a sky-blue carbuncle and therefore the color of his flag was like the color of the sky with a "fiery lion" embroidered upon it (Gen. 49:9).
Led by the Shekhinah (שְׁכִינָה) cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, at first the Israelites were en route to the Promised Land - the land of Canaan - which the LORD swore to give to Abraham and his descendants forever. However, the people rebelled (i.e., their complicity in the "Sin of the Spies") and were therefore condemned to wander for 40 years in the desert. This 40 year period is often thought of as a time of punishment, though it was also a time of refinement for the nation, and it was during this time that God demonstrated great love for Israel by feeding the people with manna, giving them water from rock (i.e., the so-called Well of Miriam), protecting them with the Clouds of Glory, instructing them through the teaching of Moses, and so on. God loves his people -- even when they are faithless -- and his punishments are ultimately healing and redemptive.
The word midbar ("desert") shares the same root as davar (דּבר) which means "word." We often need to be alone to hear God speaking kol demamah dakkah (קוֹל דְּמָמָה דַקָּה) - "the sound of a low whisper" (1 Kings. 19:12), and the journey into the desert (as opposed to the direct route to the Promised Land) was God's way of separating His people to speak with them "privately," so to speak. But to hear the word we must humble ourselves, and the desert (i.e., "word") of Sinai is therefore first of all the word of humility (עֲנָוָה). When God spoke Torah to Israel it was from a nondescript mountain - a place of emptiness, brokenness and need. Indeed, another word for Sinai is Chorev (חרֵב), a word that refers to the dryness and desolation. That is the starting point -- not the lush places of a future paradise. We receive Torah "bamidbar" because we can only hear God's davar in a place of lowliness and inner quiet. God brings us to an arid place -- inhospitable, and dangerous -- to reveal our need for Him. The way to Sinai is a necessary excursion to prepare us to look for the greater hope of Zion.
The giving of the moral lawcode was meant to offer gracious discipline until the Messiah would come to fulfill the law's true intent (Gal. 3:19, 24-25). Yeshua is the Greater Hope, the One who delivers us from the curse of Sinai to bring us to Zion (Gal. 3:10). We enter into the realm of promise when we personally put our trust in God's love for us -- not by redoubling our efforts to obtain favor through adherence the terms given at Sinai (Heb. 8:13). "For the Torah made nothing perfect; but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, and that is how we draw near to God" (Heb. 7:19).
Note: Shabbat "Table Talk" for Bamidbar (PDF download)
The Month of Sivan...
[ The Hebrew month of Sivan begins Thursday, May 9th, after sundown this year... ]
05.05.13 (Iyyar 25, 5773) The third month of the Jewish lunar calendar (reckoned from Nisan) is called Sivan (סִיוָן), which usually begins sometime during May or June. In the Torah this month is simply called "the third month" (i.e., chodesh ha-shlishi: חדֶשׁ הַשְּׁלִישִׁי), though some time after the Babylonian Captivity it assumed its present name. Sivan is mentioned only once in the Jewish Scriptures, in post-Exillic Book of Esther (Esther 8:9).
Since Sivan always has 30 full days, Rosh Chodesh Sivan (i.e., the celebration of the new month) is observed for only one day. The rabbis call the second day of Sivan is called "yom hameyuchat" (the "day of distinction"), since on this day the people agreed to accept the Torah, and upon thier ratification Moses instructed the people to prepare themselves to become "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exod. 19:6-8). In some circles this "day of distinction" is celebrated as a minor festival. On the third day of month the LORD instructed Moses to "set a boundary" (hagbalah) for the people around the mountain in preparation for the coming revelation to be given "three days later" (Exod. 19:9-15). These three days are called the "Three Days of Separation" (i.e., Sheloshet Yemei Hagbalah: שְׁלשֶׁת יְמֵי הַגְּבָּלָה) to prepare for the revelation on Sivan 6th: "Make yourselves ready by the third day" (Exod. 19:11,15). The Talmud comments: "Blessed be our God who has given a threefold Torah (Torah, Prophets, Writings) to a threefold nation (Kohanim, Levites, and Israelites) through one who was third (Moses, the third child after Aaron and Miriam) in the third month."
The first five days of the month of Sivan anticipate the day that the Torah was revealed to Israel at Sinai, namely, on the sixth of Sivan, a date which the rabbis later associated with the holiday of Shavuot ("Weeks" or "Pentecost"), which occured exactly seven weeks after the Exodus from Egypt. As mentioned above, on the night before Shavuot itself it is customary to read selections from the entire Torah throughout until sunrise. This custom is called tikkun leil shavu'ot: תִּקּוּן לֵיל שָׁבוּעוֹת, "Rectification for Shavuot Night," and was instituted as a "remedy" for Israel's failure to be awake on the morning of the revelation (the midrash scolds the Jewish people for sleeping the night before they received the Torah, and that is why God had to sound a shofar blast and bring thunder and lightning to wake them up). Spiritually speaking, then, the month of Sivan represents the giving of the Torah to Israel (i.e., z'man mattan Toratenu: זְמַן מַתַּן תּוֹרָתֵינוּ), when the drama which began with the Exodus from Egypt culminated with the giving of the Torah. For Messianic believers, the month of Sivan also commemorates the giving of the Ruach Ha-Kodesh (Holy Spirit) to the followers of Yeshua after His ascension into heaven.
The commandment to sanctify the new moon of Sivan reveals that it is our responsibility to sanctify (i.e., observe) Biblical time in general. In other words, when we observe the month in which the Torah was revealed to Israel, we are acknowledging that time itself is rooted in the Biblical calendar with its divinely inspired cycle of festivals (i.e., the moedim). Since Rosh Chodesh Sivan historically marks the beginning of a month of great revelation, we humbly ask the LORD to help us prepare for the coming season of Shavuot:
יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְּפָנֵיךָ יהוה אֱלהֵינוּ וֵאלהֵי אֲבוֹתֵינוּ
שֶׁתְּחַדֵּשׁ עָלֵינוּ חדֶשׁ טוֹב בַּאֲדנֵינוּ יֵשׁוּעַ הַמָּשִׁיחַ אָמֵן
ye·hi · ra·tzon · mil·fa·ne·kha · Adonai · E·lo·hei·nu · ve·lo·hei · a·vo·tei·nu
she·te·cha·desh · a·lei·nu · cho·desh · tov · ba'a·do·nei·nu · Ye·shu·a · ha·ma·shi·ach · A·men
"May it be Your will, LORD our God and God of our fathers,
that you renew for us a good month in our Lord Yeshua the Messiah.
Amen."
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Moving Heaven and Earth...
05.03.13 (Iyyar 23, 5773) Act as if your choices have eternal significance; they do; pray as if your life depends on it; it does. Praying in accordance with the will of God - namely, for you to know God, to walk in the light of love, joy, peace; to be filled with wisdom, patience, kindness, and so on, will assuredly move heaven and earth (1 John 5:14). God is forever faithful and always hears those who call out to him with sincerity of heart: "The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth."
קָרוֹב יְהוָה לְכָל־קרְאָיו
לְכל אֲשֶׁר יִקְרָאֻהוּ בֶאֱמֶת
ka·rov · Adonai · le·khol · ko·re·av
le·khol · a·sher · yik·ra·u·hu · ve·e·met
"The LORD is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth."
(Psalm 145:18)
The LORD listens when you pray... earnestly think about that for a moment. Again -- act as if your choices have eternal significance; they really do; pray as if your life depends on it; it really does. Wake up; come alive! Let's boldly draw near to the throne of Grace to find help in our present hour of need (Heb. 4:16); let's cry out to God Most High (לֵאלהִים עֶלְיוֹן), to the very One who will fulfill his purpose for us (Psalm 57:2).
Shabbat shalom and may God's love and truth fill your hearts, chaverim...
Choosing to See...
05.02.13 (Iyyar 22, 5773) The Scriptures declare that we are to be "doers" of the word and not hearers only, since faith apart from works is "dead" and leads to self-deception (lit., "reasoning around" the truth, i.e., παραλογίζομαι, from παρά, "around, beside" and λογίζομαι, "to reason"). A common technique of self-deception is to use "selective listening" to otherwise ignore, minimize, or explain away those things we find contrary to our own prejudice. We tend to see what we want and not to see what we don't want... Understanding, then, becomes a servant of the will, and the mind is then engaged to justify the desire of the heart (Matt. 11:19). For instance, many Christians take verses out of context and overlook other verses that would challenge their preferred interpretations. Was Abraham justified by faith or by works (Rom. 4:3; James 2:21)? Is the truth of the Torah relevant for us today? What is the yoke of heaven for those who claim to be followers of the LORD? Yeshua said, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." We can procrastinate and refuse to act, but that also is a decision. We must be careful not to allow the "tradition of men" to overrule the call to follow the way of Messiah (1 John 2:6).
"Nowadays we can become or live as Christians in the most pleasant way and without ever risking the slightest possibility of offence. All we have to do is start with the status quo and observe good virtues (good-better-best). We can continue to make ourselves comfortable by scraping together the world's goods, as long as we stir into the pot what is Christian as a seasoning, an ingredient that almost serves to refine our enjoyment of life. This kind of Christianity is but a religious variation of the world's unbelief, a movement without budging from the spot. That is to say, it is a simulated motion." - Soren Kierkegaard (Journals and Papers)
We can defend ourselves against the temptation to fool ourselves by offering heartfelt prayer to the LORD. As King David petitioned, "Teach me to do what you desire, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me into upright ground":
לַמְּדֵנִי לַעֲשׂוֹת רְצוֹנֶךָ כִּי־אַתָּה אֱלוֹהָי
רוּחֲךָ טוֹבָה תַּנְחֵנִי בְּאֶרֶץ מִישׁוֹר
la·me·dei·ni · la·a·sot · re·tzo·ne·kha · ki · at·tah · E·lo·hai
ru·cha·kha · to·vah · tan·chei·ni · be·e·retz · mi·shor
"Teach me to do what you desire, for you are my God,
May your good Spirit lead me into upright ground."
(Psalm 143:10)
King David appealed to the LORD to be made yashar (יָשַׁר), or "upright" in heart. He sought to live in accordance with his high calling, despite being in oppressive circumstances... Discerning God's will when the soul is in trouble is indeed difficult, and even a man "after God's own heart" may be overwhelmed with ungodly impulses, ambivalence, and the urge to rationalize and take matters into his own hands. David asked, therefore, to have his priorities settled and his heart unified in divine purpose – to be moved by God's Spirit of goodness. The phrase, "your good spirit" may refer to the repair of this inner breach, and David was asking for a renewed and awakened attitude – the willingness to do God's will... Being led into "upright" (or level) ground pictures living with integrity and honor in our dealing with others, even among those who regard themselves as our enemies.
Pride and Fallenness...
05.02.13 (Iyyar 22, 5773) Pride blinds the heart. As Abraham Heschel said, "In a controversy, the instant we feel anger, we have already ceased striving for truth and have begun striving for ourselves." The truth needs no defense. If we find ourselves getting defensive or hostile, we need to take a step back and ask ourselves what we really believe, since we always act out what we believe... If we seek to use truth as a weapon, or as a means to rationalize our self-will, then we are not "in the truth," even if our facts in the matter may be correct. We must be careful not to find ourselves using the truth for our own agenda. Yeshua's words haunt the heart: "Without me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).
Kierkegaard notes: "The proud person always wants to do the right thing, the great thing. But because he wants to do it in his own strength, he is fighting not with man, but with God." Indeed, how many people seek visions, dreams, and private prophecies while they forsake the Spirit as it broods over the hearts of those around him or her? How many seek to "know God" as a matter of the pride of heart?
לִפְנֵי־שֶׁבֶר גָּאוֹן
וְלִפְנֵי כִשָּׁלוֹן גּבַהּ רוּחַ
lif·nei · she·ver · ga'on
ve·lif·nei · khi·sha·lon · go·vah · ru·ach
"Before destruction there is pride;
and before stumbling there is a haughty spirit."
(Prov. 16:18)
Hebrew Study Card
The Koretzer Rebbe was asked for instruction how to avoid sin. He replied, "Were you able to avoid offences, I fear you would fall into a still greater sin - that of pride" (Hasidic). The antidote to pride is the "fall of the soul," that is, those besetting sins and painful failures that bring us back to reality - namely, to the place of brokenness and our need for divine intervention... When we get "sick of our sickness" we enter into holy despair, and then the cry of the heart for lasting deliverance can be truly offered.
The Courage to Confess...
05.01.13 (Iyyar 21, 5773) We are told: "Test yourselves to see whether you are in the faith" (2 Cor. 13:5). We are to courageously look at our lives and ask some tough questions. Do you really believe the truth, or are there other motives at work? Is it possible to think that you really believe when in fact you don't? For example, is it possible to think that you are a spiritual person who serves God, but you are mistaken? Tragically it seems that we can "talk ourselves into" believing that we are moral, honest, full of faith, and so on, but our self image does not agree with reality... This is more serious problem than hypocrisy (not believing what we say), since in this case we really do believe that we are something we are not – we are "true believers" in a distorted view of ourselves! This happens all the time. Most people think they are "above average" and have a high opinion of themselves. Self esteem is important, of course, but it must be grounded in reality: "For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself" (Gal. 6:3). Jesus warned, "On that day many (πολλοὶ) will profess to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I profess to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness'" (Matt. 7:22-23). How is such a dreadful outcome possible unless truly religious people can indeed truly fool themselves? By itself, sincerity is no measure of truth, since we can truly sincere, and yet sincerely wrong...
This is a sobering message, friends. We are not to live in fear, though we are indeed to regularly engage in cheshbon hanefesh, to account for the state of our souls (1 Cor. 11:31). We are often people of "little faith" (Matt. 8:26), and sometimes the only honest thing is to plainly confess, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24). As it is written: "The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth" (Psalm 145:18). We find strength by trusting in love and kindness of God for our eternal good. It is written: "This is the confidence (παρρησία) that we have with Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, he hears us. And if we know that He is hearing us, we also know that He will fulfill the petition of our heart" (1 John 5:14-15). What does God want for you but to know his love? He wants you to walk in the truth, full of love, joy, peace, patience, having a sound mind, free of anxiety, and free of interference from the demonic. We can confidently ask Him for these things because such are assuredly His will for our lives.
Note: Some examples of self-deception include: thinking you are truly humble; regarding yourself as honest or "real"; saying you will pray for someone but "forgetting to do so"; sharing a "prayer concern" for another as a pretext to gossip; thinking you have courage but shrinking away from truth that threatens your self-esteem; thinking you always have to be right or have all the answers; claiming that you are "hearing from God" or that you speak on behalf of the LORD God Almighty (when its clear that you don't); evading responsibility for the needs of other people (including your enemies); blaming others for your problems; pretending that you are thinking for yourself when you are parroting other people's thoughts; flattering yourself that you and God are "buddies" and that He will defend your sinful attitudes, false prophecies, etc. May God help us turn to Him in the truth...
Truth in the Inward Parts
05.01.13 (Iyyar 21, 5773) "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he." We often see what we want to see more than what is really there. That's called wishful thinking. We overlook much, and we often ignore what might challenge our own preferred interpretations. For example, we may think that we are trusting God for our lives, but we worry, we attempt to control others, we get angry, and so on. We have a blind spot regarding the question whether we really trust God, perhaps because seriously investigating what we really believe seems too threatening (John 16:31-32). After all, what if we don't really believe? What if we struggle to believe? What does that say about who we are? So we ignore the real problem (namely, lack of trust in God) and continue to think we are something we are not. We fool ourselves and trade a sense of "satisfaction" at the expense of truth. This is a common failing of human nature. During the Nazi years, many ordinary Germans refused to investigate reports of atrocities at the death camps because it was too costly to discover the truth (the same might be said about any patriotic citizens who rationalize the actions of their government regardless of the moral issues involved). By willfully hiding from the facts, we pretend we are not responsible, and therefore we justify passivity in the face of injustice and evil.
Yeshua warned that the time would come when those who kill others will delude themselves into thinking they are doing God a big favor (John 16:2). Think of how massively self-deceived such a thing is as that -- to murder someone as a service to God! Many of the biggest enemies of the truth are often those who think they are doing God such favors.
הֵן־אֱמֶת חָפַצְתָּ בַטֻּחוֹת
וּבְסָתֻם חָכְמָה תוֹדִיעֵנִי
hen · e·met · cha·fatz·ta · va·tu·chot
uv·sa·tum · chokh·mah · to·di·ei·ni
"Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you will teach me wisdom in the secret heart"
(Psalm 51:6)
Often, however, the truth "of the inward being" must come at the expense of heartache, for surely the heart must ache, tremble, and despair before it comes to accept the truth about its condition. This sort of truth is "existential," meaning that it is known only through the process of living life itself. As Kierkegaard said, "There are many people who reach their conclusions about life like schoolboys: they cheat their master by copying the answer out of a book without having worked the sum out for themselves." Yes, and they cheat themselves, too, since they somehow believe that "knowing the answer" given by another is the same thing as "knowing the answer" of their own inward being... Kierkegaard continues this thought: "The truth is lived before it is understood. It must be fought for, tested, and appropriated. Truth is the way... you must be tried, do battle, and suffer if you are to acquire truth for yourself. It is a sheer illusion to think that in relation to truth there is an abridgment, a short cut that dispenses with the necessity of struggling for it."
Note that the "inward parts" (טֻחוֹת) refers to the "kidneys" which were thought to be "the reins" or the concealed (i.e., te'ach: טִיחַ) source of the will within the person. Interestingly, the word for "inward parts" comes from the verb tachah (טָחָה) that means to "shoot with a bow," alluding to the idea of inner Torah as a directive power. God wants purity of the heart – passion, singleheartedness, and earnestness – as we live and practice the truth. God wants "the inner parts," the concealed parts of the soul, to be filled with his Torah, and therefore David asks God to make him to know wisdom there - in the "secret heart" - so that he might apprehend God's truth and do teshuvah that purifies the heart.
April 2013 Site Updates
Shavuot and Revelation...
[ The following is related to the holiday of Shavuot, which begins May 14th this year... ]
04.30.13 (Iyyar 20, 5773) During the holiday of Shavuot ("Weeks") we remember how the LORD graciously condescended to meet with the Jewish people at Sinai, and how all the people heard the Voice of God (קוֹל אֱלהִים) speaking from the midst of the fire (Deut. 4:33). This awesome event foreshadowed the great advent of the King and Lawgiver Himself, when the Eternal Word (דְבַר־יְהוָה) became flesh to dwell with us (Phil. 2:6-7; John 1:1,14), and it further foreshadowed the advent of the Spirit of Truth given to the disciples of Messiah (Acts 2:1-4). Any theology that regards God as entirely transcendent will have a problem with divine immanence, since the highness, holiness, and perfection of God will make him seem distant, outside of us, far away, and even unknown... Incarnational theology, on the other hand, manifests the nearness of God to disclose the divine empathy. Indeed, the LORD became Immanuel (עִמָּנוּ אֵל), "one with us," to share our mortal condition, to know our pain, and to experience what it means to be wounded by sin, to be abandoned, alienated, forsaken. The "Eternal made flesh" bridges the gap between the realm of Ein Sof (אין סוף), the Infinitely transcendent One, and the finite world of people lost within their sinful frailty. Of course we believe Adonai Echad (יְהוָה אֶחָד) - that the "LORD is One" - both in the sense of being exalted over all things but also in the sense of being compassionately involved in all things (Rom. 11:36). During Shavuot we celebrate the giving of the Torah both at Sinai, at Bethlehem (בֵּית לֶחֶם), and within our hearts. We celebrate that God is indeed the King and Ruler over all, but we further affirm that God's authority and rule extends to all possible worlds - including the realm of finitude, sickness, and even death itself.
A verse for Shavuot comes from the prophet Isaiah. Note the allusion to hashilush HaKodesh (הַשִּׁלּוּשׁ הַקָּדוֹשׁ), the three references of the Name of the LORD (יהוה):
כִּי יְהוָה שׁפְטֵנוּ יְהוָה מְחקְקֵנוּ
יְהוָה מַלְכֵּנוּ הוּא יוֹשִׁיעֵנוּ
ki · Adonai · sho·fe·tei·nu · Adonai · me·cho·ke·kei·nu
Adonai · mal·kei·nu · hu · yo·shi·ei·nu
"For the LORD is our judge; the LORD is our lawgiver;
the LORD is our king; He will save us."
(Isa. 33:22)
Hebrew Study Card
As I've mentioned elsewhere, the climax of the Torah given at Sinai was the revelation of the Sanctuary (i.e., the Mishkan), where the daily sacrifice of a defect-free lamb (i.e., korban tamid: קָרְבַּן תָּמִיד) was to be offered upon the altar with matzah and wine (Num. 28:1-8), clearly alluding to the great "Passover Lamb of God" who was to come... The two tablets of the law, summarizing the Ten Commandments, were stored inside the Ark of the Covenant (אֲרוֹן בְּרִית־יְהוָה), the innermost place of the Tabernacle, a sacred "three-in-one" box. As such, the ark served as a symbol of kisei ha-kavod (כִּסֵּא הַכָּבוֹד), the Throne of Glory. It stood entirely apart as the only furnishing placed in the Holy of Holies (קדֶשׁ הַקֳּדָשִׁים). Upon the cover of the Ark (i.e., the kapporet) were fashioned two cherubim (i.e., angel-like figures) that faced one another (Exod. 25:17-18). According to the Talmud (Succah 5b), each cherub had the face of a child - one boy and one girl - and their wings spread heavenward as their eyes gazed upon the cover (Exod. 25:20). God's voice would be heard only in the midst of innocence, humility, purity, and hope... Each year during the Yom Kippur avodah, sacrificial blood was sprinkled seven times over the cover of the Ark to symbolize the covering of the law's demand and the atonement of sin secured through Messiah.
Near the Brokenhearted...
04.30.13 (Iyyar 20, 5773) Of the Messiah it is written, "A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench" (Isa. 42:3)... People conscious of their feebleness and who have been crushed because of it are likened to "bruised reeds," and he [the Messiah, the Savior] shall bring no injury to them... As it is written, "The LORD is near to the brokenhearted (נִשְׁבְּרֵי־לֵב) and saves the crushed in spirit." Indeed, the LORD binds up the broken of heart and gives liberty to those in captivity (Isa. 61:1). "A smoking flax shall he not quench" -- neither will the LORD snuff out an unsteady flame ready to expire, but will tend to it with special oil to cause it to burn more brightly.
קָרוֹב יְהוָה לְנִשְׁבְּרֵי־לֵב
וְאֶת־דַּכְּאֵי־רוּחַ יוֹשִׁיעַ
ka·rov · Adonai · le·nish·be·rei · lev
ve·et · dak·kei · ru·ach · yo·shi·a
"The LORD is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit"
(Psalm 34:18)
Hebrew Study Card
Spirituality often enough involves a sense of irremediable brokenness, a feeling that you are not whole, that you are a mess, and that your need for God's healing is constant and relentless... Contrary to the ideals of proud humanism, spirituality is a state of "blessed neediness," of being "poor in spirit," that aches with inner desperation for God's power of healing. Those who humbly cry out to the LORD understand their great need for deliverance, "Woe is me, for I am ruined..." (Isa. 6:5). As Yeshua said, "Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 18:14).
Our Lord Yeshua testified: "The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost" (Luke 19:10), and therefore He is found in the midst of the leper colonies of the hurting, the forgotten, and the rejected. As the "Man of Sorrows" (i.e., ish makhovot: אִישׁ מַכְאבוֹת) he understands the language of our pain (Isa. 53:3).
"For God so loved the world" that he became entirely unesteemed -- "despised and rejected of men, a man of pains, acquainted with sickness" – so that he could taste rejection, sorrow, pain, and death for every man (John 3:16; Heb. 2:9). "For our sake God made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor. 5:21). It was the love of God that put Yeshua on the Cross, and because of Yeshua, God forever exchanges our inner hell and abandonment with His everlasting love and acceptance. It is finished, and may His great Name be praised in all the earth...
Torah that Cuts to the Bone...
04.29.13 (Iyyar 19, 5773) The message of the cross scandalizes human pride because it unconditionally declares there is nothing we can do to justify ourselves before God apart from the work of the Messiah rendered on our behalf. Human pride naturally wants to add something to the mix - by esteeming our will or our obedience to be determinative, but the Scriptures attest that we are declared righteous by trusting in the sacrifice of God for our souls, and not because of any merit of our own (Gal. 3:11). In other words, salvation is "of the LORD," and we are entirely hopeless apart the direct intervention of God for healing.... The Lord saves us, not because of works of righteousness (מַעֲשֵׂי הַצְּדָקָה) we might do, but solely on account of His mercy offered to us in Messiah our Savior (Titus 3:5).
In general, human pride has no quarrel with the theology of a transcendent, all-powerful, and holy God to whom we all owe obedience, and therefore religious systems based on "karma" are invariably amenable to human pride... A "First Cause" or a Source of Moral Law may present a religious demand upon the soul, but it presents no scandal to human reason. After all, the law of religion is simply "do what is good and you will be rewarded; do what is evil and you will be punished," and karma-based religions aim to effect a favorable "disposition" in the eyes of heaven. What is scandalous, however, and what is therefore entirely paradoxical to human reason, is that the Infinite One Himself became Finite and embodied as a human being, and that the infinitely transcendent One is also the entirely immanent One, pervading every possible world and every realm of creation -- including the "fallen" realm of humanity -- to become manifest in visage of Yeshua of Nazareth....
Again, it is relatively easy for human reason to concede awareness of a transcendental power that created the universe and who is the Source of Moral reality, but it cannot fathom how such Supreme Power could be made manifest in a state of weakness, identifying with what is most broken, most perverse, and most sick in the human soul and condition. The cross of Messiah is a scandal because human pride wants to deny the reality that humanity is incurably wounded, sick and without hope apart from divine intervention. Religious pride imagines that mankind is able to ascend the heights of heaven in its own strength, but the message of the cross is that God's love is so great that He is willing to descend - to willingly empty Himself to undergo shame, disgrace, condemnation - and indeed the horror of execution by crucifixion - all for the sake of our everlasting healing and salvation.
Do you want Torah that cuts to the bone? Do you want the raw, unvarnished truth? Then look to the cross of Messiah, the hallowed place (הַמָּקוֹם) where the transcendent, the all-powerful, and the holy are surrendered to become an object of horror, grief, and despair; where God's own glorious holiness and righteousness are exchanged for our sin... We must turn away from the urge to deny reality, by pretending that the salvation could be gained by some sort of self-improvement project, or by assuming that there exists some form of repentance that can take the place of the awful divine remedy given in our place. Turn to the cross and receive the death benefits of Messiah! "For I decided to know nothing among you except Yeshua the Messiah and him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2).
Some people are reluctant to accept the truth of God's unconditional love because they fearfully imagine that doing so will lead to "lawlessness," or to a lax attitude that tolerates or even justifies sin. "Why not do evil that good may come?" they reason (Rom. 3:8). Such thinking grievously misunderstands the purpose of Torah, however, and fails to see that the "deeper Torah" allows us to walk in the light of God's truth. The goal (or "end") of the Torah is love - the divine love revealed in Messiah - and if we really love God, we will not seek an excuse to gratify our lower nature at the expense of our relationship with Him.
The scandal of the cross goes both ways, however... If human pride is offended at the truth about its hopeless condition, then God is offended when people deny or minimize the need for the cross of the Savior. When Peter sought to find an alternative cure for the fatal disease we all share, Yeshua said to him: "Out of my sight, Satan! You are a stumbling block (i.e., scandal: σκάνδαλόν) to me; for you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men" (Matt. 16:21-24). Do you want to know what outrages the Spirit of God? The denial of the cross and its eternal significance; the delusion that we can effect our own righteousness apart from God's grace. The "scandal of the cross" ultimately is a problem for human pride, and certainly not to the LORD God our Savior, who uses the cross to demonstrate the wisdom and power of God (1 Cor. 1:18). Those who deny the need for the cross, however, are left without remedy for their eternal condition (Heb. 10:26-31).
A scandal is a disgrace, a shame, an offence, even an outrage. The cross is scandalous because it represents the "death of God," that is, the sacrifice of God's transcendence, power, and holiness to become entirely identified with the fallenness of mankind. This is the shock the disciples had to face when they witnessed Yeshua die... The cross reveals that we are powerless to heal ourselves, and that the remedy is only found in the life given in our exchange. The exchange works both ways: We must deny ourselves - our pretenses, our supposed dignity, our inflated sense of self-importance - to receive what Yeshua has done by becoming our substitute. We must impute our sin to Him as our Sin-Bearer and impute His love to us as our Healer. We are crucified with Him, we are made part of that great exchange, by trusting in His work of salvation performed for us. We must be careful not to mock God. We don't give lip-service to what Yeshua has done and then revert to a pretense of righteousness based on self-determination or so-called "Torah observance."
We renounce our efforts to please God and surrender ourselves to His love and care. We trust in the work of Yeshua for our righteousness, not our own meritorious works. Salvation is "of the LORD" (לַיהוָה הַיְשׁוּעָה). Again, we are not saved "by works of righteousness (מַעֲשֵׂי הַצְּדָקָה) that we have done, but solely on account of God's mercy given to us in Messiah our Savior (Titus 3:5). Grace excludes all boasting (Eph. 2:9). We believe that God justifies the ungodly by trusting in his heart of compassion (Rom. 4:1-8). God loves us with "an everlasting love" (i.e., ahavat olam: אַהֲבַת עוֹלָם) and draws us in chesed (חֶסֶד, i.e., His faithful love and kindness). As it is written: אַהֲבַת עוֹלָם אֲהַבְתִּיךְ עַל־כֵּן מְשַׁכְתִּיךְ חָסֶד / "I love you with an everlasting love; therefore in chesed I draw you to me" (Jer. 31:3). Note that the word translated "I draw you" comes from the Hebrew word mashakh (מָשַׁךְ), meaning to "seize" or "drag away" (the ancient Greek translation used the verb helko (ἕλκω) to express the same idea). As Yeshua said, "No one is able to come to me unless he is "dragged away" (ἑλκύσῃ) by the Father (John 6:44). God's chesed seizes us, scandalizes us, takes us captive, and leads us to the Savior... Spiritual rebirth is a divine act, "not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:13). In everything - including human reason itself - the LORD God Almighty is preeminent.
Jerusalem Day 2013...
[ This year Jerusalem Day is observed Tuesday, May 7th at sundown... ]
04.28.13 (Iyyar 18, 5773) In Israel, "Jerusalem Day" (יום ירושלים) commemorates the re-unification of old city of Jerusalem on June 7th, 1967 during the Six Day War. In 1968 the Chief Rabbinate of Israel declared Iyyar 28 to be a minor holiday to thank God for answering the 2,000-year-old prayer of "Next Year in Jerusalem" (לְשָׁנָה הַבָּאַה בִּירוּשָׁלָיִם). On March 23, 1998, the Knesset passed the Jerusalem Day Law, making it an official Israeli holiday. This year, Iyyar 28 runs from Tuesday, May 7th (after sundown) through Wednesday, May 8th (until sundown). May God help us to always cherish the vision of Zion: "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning."
אִם־אֶשְׁכָּחֵךְ יְרוּשָׁלָםִ
תִּשְׁכַּח יְמִינִי
im · esh·ka·chek · ye·ru·sha·la·yim
tish·kach · ye·mi·ni
"If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget [its skill]"
(Psalm 137:5)
Hebrew Study Card
Some have said this verse should be read, "If I forget you, O Jerusalem, forget my right hand!" meaning that whatever good we might have (as symbolized by the right hand) should be lost apart from God Himself and the great vision of Zion. As King David had said, "I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved" (Psalm 16:8), so the loss of the right hand means the loss of the Divine Presence.
The vision of Zion is central to the Jewish heart. When religious Jews pray three times a day, they always face toward Jerusalem, and during each major holiday, we always wish to celebrate "next year in Jerusalem." In Jewish tradition, remembering the destruction of Zion is a commandment (i.e., zecher le'chorban: זֶכֵר לְחֻרְבָּן) and certain customs have developed, such as leaving a part of the eastern wall of the house unpainted, etc. As it is written, "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth" (Psalm 50:2).
Note: Click here to learn 25 reasons why Jerusalem matters...
Mem B'Omer - The Ascension of Messiah
[ Saturday, May 4th after sundown marks Mem B'Omer, the 40th day of the Omer Count... ]
04.28.13 (Iyyar 18, 5773) We are in the midst of Sefirat Ha-Omer (the "Counting of the Omer"), a 49 day countdown that runs from Nisan 16 through Sivan 5. The first day of the omer count begins on the second night of Passover, and the last day occurs the day before the great jubilee of Shavuot ("Pentecost"). On our Gregorian calendars, these dates run from March 26th until May 13th this year. This is a "countdown period" leading to the giving of the Torah at Sinai and the giving of the Holy Spirit to Yeshua's disciples...
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Saturday, May 4th after sundown (Iyyar 25) marks the 40th day of the Omer Count (i.e., Mem B'Omer), the time associated with the ascension of Yeshua back to the heavenly realm (Luke 24:44-53; Acts 1:9-11; Eph. 4:8). A thousand years before the birth of our Moshiah (מוֹשִׁיעַ), David prophesied of the ascension when he announced the Lord's enthronement at the right hand of God (Psalm 110:1; Matt. 22:41-46; 26:64). Recall that Yeshua told His followers that it was good that he would leave them, so that the Holy Spirit (רוּחַ הַקּדֶשׁ), the "Comforter" or "Advocate" (παράκλητος), would be given to them. "But I tell you the truth, it is for your advantage that I am going away. For if I do not go away, the Advocate (ὁ παράκλητος) will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you" (John 16:7). Notice that the word translated as "advantage" here is the Greek word συμφέρω (from σύν, "with" and φέρω, "to carry"), which suggests that we would be given power that "carries us" with the Lord during the trials of this life... Bo, Ruach Elohim: "Come, Holy Spirit..."
Parashat Behar-Bechukotai
04.28.13 (Iyyar 18, 5773) This week we will read the final two portions of the Book of Leviticus (i.e., Vayikra), namely, parashat Behar and Bechukotai (בהר־בחקתי). Like a father pities his children, so the LORD pities those who fear Him. Chazak, chazak, v'nitchazek - "Be strong, be strong, and may we be strengthened!"
Why is it, the sages asked, that God bypassed all of the world's great and lofty mountains and chose to give His Torah on the obscure mountain of Sinai? Because God's Spirit (רוח) rests with the lowly, the humble of heart. Therefore humility (ענוה) is considered one of the greatest of middot ha-lev (heart qualities).
God reveals Himself to the contrite (i.e., dakka: דַּכָּא) and the lowly of spirit (רוּחַ שְׁפָלִים), that is, to those who understand their own nothingness and live in utter dependence on Him.... Notice that the word dakka refers to being crushed to the very dust, as Yeshua was verily crushed for our iniquities (Isa. 53:10). From the point of view of our dependence on God for salvation, dakka refers to our contrition as we turn to God in genuine teshuvah... Pride, arrogance, and self-righteousness are antithetical to the awareness of God in the truth.
Eschatology and Shavuot
[ The following is related to the holiday of Shavuot, which begins May 14th this year... ]
04.26.13 (Iyyar 16, 5773) Some people believe that the ultimate fulfillment of the holiday of Shavuot is found in the mysterious catching away (ἁρπάζω, harpazo) of believers before the time of the "Great Tribulation" and the Great Day of the LORD (1 Thess. 4:17; John 14:3; 1 Cor. 15:51-52). They reason that since Shavuot marked the day of dramatic revelation, with signs of fire and the sounds of a heavenly shofar blast, an appointed time that marks the jubilee fulfillment of Passover, it can therefore be seen as the rapturous end of redemption for those who believe, symbolic of a wedding day, when God betrothed Israel as His own people, separate from all others. Both Jew and Gentile will be "waved" before the LORD (as symbolized by shtei ha-lechem, the two loaves), representing the "one new man" of kallat Mashiach, the "bride of Messiah," or the assembly of those called out from every tribe and tongue to be a part of God's heavenly kingdom.
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Though no one knows the day or hour of the return of Yeshua our Messiah (see Matt. 24:36; Acts 1:7), there are clues given in Scripture about the conditions of the world before His return, and Yeshua himself gave us parables admonishing us to actively be looking (Matt. 24:2-14; 25:1-13). The Apostle Paul said that followers of the Lord can know the "season" of Messiah's return, and warned that He will come "as a thief in the night" - not in great power and glory at the end of the age (1 Thess. 5:2-6). Moreover, Paul forewarned of the rise of worldwide godlessness (2 Tim. 3:1-7) and even of the apostasy of the "institutionalized" church (1 Tim. 4:1-3). Other Scriptures foretell of the coming One World Government, the rise of the Messiah of evil (Antichrist) whose "god" will be the "security state" (Dan. 11:38), the persecution of the national Israel (a nation miraculously restored to the promised land), the rebuilding of the Temple, the coming Great Tribulation, and so on. "When these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near" (Luke 21:28).
Regarding the "world system," however, we have quite a different vision... The LORD God Almighty has vowed to break the pride of the "kings of the earth" with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel, and the shattering will be so ruthless that among its fragments not a shard will be found with which to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern (Psalm 2:9; Isa. 30:14). For from His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty (Rev. 19:15). Nebuchadnezzar's great dream will soon be fulfilled: "As you looked, a Stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, breaking them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth" (Dan. 2:34-35). "And the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed ... and it shall stand forever" (Dan. 2:44). One day the edifice of man's godless pride will come crashing down, and there will be no trace left of its rubble... Even so, come quickly, Lord!
Note: Our tradition does not require us to accept everything at face value, though it does expect us to study, to wrestle, to seek truth. Each of us must "go to Peniel" to wrestle with the Angel; each of us must be renamed from Ya'akov ("a supplanter") to Israel ("a prince with God"). When the Spirit of Truth asks, "What is your name," may the LORD God grant you the courage to refuse to "let go" until you receive the divine blessing of love and acceptance. Shabbat Shalom and love to all of you captives of hope.
Passion and Truth....
04.25.13 (Iyyar 15, 5773) Revelation is sealed apart from passion... It is common enough to draw near to God with lips while the heart is far away from Him (Isa. 29:13). God doesn't care about your "religion" if your heart is withheld, nor is He impressed that you are a member of a particular denomination (i.e., the commandments of men). Spiritually speaking, the place of utmost danger is indifference toward God, and this danger constitutes the burden of a true prophet of God. "To listen (shema) is better than sacrifice... I desire love (chesed) and the knowledge of God (da'at Elohim) more than burnt offerings" (1 Sam. 15:22, Hos. 6:6). During the End of Days people will have a "form" (μόρφωσιν) of godliness but will deny its power, since their hearts will be obstinately turned away from the truth. "And because lawlessness (i.e., ἀνομία, lit. a=without; nomos=Torah) will be increased, the love of many will grow cold (Matt. 24:12). In this connection we note that the Hebrew word for "falsehood" (or "lie") is sheker (שֶׁקֶר), which can also be read as she-kar (שֶׁקַר), meaning "that which" (-שׁ) makes you cold (קַר). The truth of God can't be known apart from passion. What sort of a lover is he who is feckless or half-hearted in his devotion? Can you know the truth about true love without yearning, longing, and desire?
The Hebrew word for sin (חֵטְא) means "missing the mark," though that essentially means missing the revelation of God's glory because lesser fears consume the heart and obscure passion of the truth... When we really see life as it is, we will be filled with wonder and awe over the glory of it all. "Fearing" (יִרְאָה) and "seeing" (רָאָה) will be linked and unified.
"There is much to drag us back, O Lord: empty pursuits, trivial pleasures, unworthy cares. There is much to frighten us away: pride that makes us reluctant to accept help; cowardice that recoils from sharing your suffering; anguish at the prospect of confessing our sins. But You are stronger than all these forces. We call you our Redeemer and Savior because you redeem us from our empty, trivial existence, you save us from our foolish fears. This is your work which you have completed and will continue to complete in us every moment." - Kierkegaard
Above All Seek Wisdom...
04.25.13 (Iyyar 15, 5773) Seek wisdom, which is reishit (רֵאשִׁית), the very first thing: "Acquire wisdom; acquire insight; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth" (Prov. 4:5). Remember and do not forget what is most important... Learn to listen and listen to learn. "What is the first business of one who desires wisdom? To get rid of self-conceit, for it is impossible for anyone to learn that which he thinks he already knows." We need humility to learn the truth; we need to quiet ourselves to shema (שָׁמַע), to listen and hear. As William James admonished, "A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices."
רֵאשִׁית חָכְמָה קְנֵה חָכְמָה
וּבְכָל־קִנְיָנְךָ קְנֵה בִינָה
rei·shit · chokh·mah · ke·neh · chokh·mah
u·ve·khol · kin·ya·ne·kha · ke·neh · vi·nah
"Wisdom is the very first thing: so acquire wisdom,
and whatever you acquire, get insight"
(Prov. 4:7)
Hebrew Study Card
You always Speak Twice...
[ The following is related to our Torah reading for this week, Parashat Emor.... ]
04.25.13 (Iyyar 15, 5773) Our Torah portion this week begins, "And the LORD said to Moses, "Speak (אמר) to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say (וְאָמַרְתָּ) to them..." (Lev. 21:1). Rashi noted that the repeated verb emor (אמר) has a softer tone than the verb dibber (i.e., "speak," as in a command), suggesting almost a pleading quality: "Speak softly again and again..." The repetition suggests that the priests (i.e., teachers who would serve as examples to Israel) shouldn't simply tell people what to do/believe, but rather they should both tell and gently demonstrate Torah truth in their daily lives. When teaching, we are always speaking twice: once to explain and a second time to ignite a passion.... Likewise we study the "Living Torah" by first learning from Yeshua (Matt. 23:8) and only afterward are we commissioned to go "to all the nations and teach" (Matt. 28:19). Such education for eternity impels us to make fellow-learners (disciples), not simply by imparting intellectual doctrine, but by kiddush HaShem -- by sanctifying the LORD in our lives. In this way we are made a "living letter" that is sent into the world that shares the living message of the gospel (2 Cor. 3:2-3). But we must first learn the meaning of what we say before we say it...
Note: For more on this subject, see Parashat Emor: Speaking Twice.
Education of the Heart...
04.24.13 (Iyyar 14, 5773) Yeshua embodies the Torah of Love (הַתּוֹרָה שֶׁל אַהֲבָה), and his commandment is for us to love as he loved (John 13:34; 15:12). Walking with God isn't just a matter of "head education," but rather of "heart education," and these two must always go together as do Spirit and Truth (John 4:23). Head education seeks knowledge primarily as a means of defining "faith" as a creed or set of doctrines to believe. As such, it aims to allay intellectual doubt and to help us better understand the truth of Reality. Heart education, on the other hand, centers on fear, or rather, on overcoming our fear by inwardly surrendering to God's love and healing grace. When we learn the heart of God - when we accept that we are truly accepted despite ourselves - then we are delivered from the need to defend or justify ourselves. We can let go, quit denying who we are, and count on God's ongoing care for our lives. We can even learn to love our enemies because we have inner peace, and that means we no longer are enemies to either ourselves or to others...
Loving Your Enemies...
04.24.13 (Iyyar 14, 5773) The central commandment - and the only one that ultimately has any eternal significance - is to love others, and that includes the "other" who is your enemy. That we can love our enemy is presupposed by the Master who reveals that acceptance of God's love (ἀγάπη) is the miraculous means to unconditionally value and sanctity all of human life (Matt. 5:44-ff). Loving your enemy, then, is really no different than loving your neighbor, since it is neither based on the principle of reciprocity nor on the worthiness of the recipient of love, but is instead grounded in God's unconditional kindness and acceptance for your soul. In practice, loving your enemy means "putting off the old" nature by refusing to be an enemy yourself, that is, by consciously choosing to believe in the miracle of God's love. You quit the blame game; you give up the desire for retaliation; you drop your demand for an apology, and you will overcome evil with good (Rom. 12:21). Turning away from anger means learning to be free of bitterness, resentment, and the fear that brings pain to our lives. It means consciously choosing not to play the part of the enemy to others who have wounded you in the past.. Loving your enemy means loving yourself, accepting your own imperfections, and experiencing God's healing grace.
אֶהֱבוּ אֶת־איְבֵיכֶם
וְהִתְפַּלְלוּ בְּעַד רדְפֵיכֶם
לְמַעַן תִּהְיוּ בָנִים לַאֲבִיכֶם שֶׁבַּשָׁמָיִם
e·he·vu · et · oy·vei·khem
ve·hit·pal·le·lu · be·ad · rod·fei·khem
le·ma·an · ti·he·yu · va·nim · la·a·vi·khem · she·ba·sha·ma·yim
"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven."
(Matt. 5:44-45)
We must practice compassion for other people and use ayin tovah - the "good eye" (Matt. 6:22). If you know the truth, or think you know the truth, try to share it with others in simplicity, with good will toward them. Otherwise, you run the terrible risk of disqualifying whatever truth you think you possess by means of untruthful actions, and this undermines the soul and brings pain to the heart.
"It is a mistake to think that there are times when you can safely address a person without love. You can work with objects without love - cutting wood, baking bricks, making iron - but you cannot work with people without love. In the same way as you cannot work with bees without being cautious, you cannot work with people without being mindful of their humanity. It is the quality people as it is of bees: if you are not very cautious with them, then you harm both yourself and them. It cannot be otherwise, because mutual love is the law of our existence." - G. Ephraim Lessing
Of course offences will come (Luke 17:1). "Try to understand and remember that a person always tries to do what is best for himself. And if he is right when he does what is best for himself, it is good; but if he is mistaken, it is bad, because suffering will following after such mistakes. If you remember this, then you will never be upset with anybody, you will never reproach anybody, and you will never be an enemy to anybody" (Epictetus). As it is written, "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1 Cor. 13:7).
Ultimately we've go no place left to go but into the arms of God's love, and that means we lay it all down. This beautiful prayer is attributed to Francis of Assisi:
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
Note: Though "the works of love" are most important, they must issue from the Source of God's love for our souls - otherwise they will be based in self-interest and of no real spiritual value (see 1 Cor. 13:3). They are the works of His love... In this connection it is vital for us not to lose faith that we can change, even if we presently find our heart calloused or numb or even unable to love. We must not lose hope; as it is written, "the LORD bestows favor and honor: No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly" (Psalm 84:11). In your struggle to love, you will find strength by trusting that God is your ally, your helper, and the healer of the broken heart. If you ask him for bread, he will not give you a stone; if you ask him for the miracle of a new heart, he will surely hear your prayer (1 John 5:14).
Right Uses of Despair...
04.23.13 (Iyyar 13, 5773) Can despair be curative? Yes, if it expresses the loss of our idolatrous ideals, visions, and dreams... It is hard to let go of old expectations, to give up cherished fantasies, and to find ourselves in a place of emptiness, but we must go through the desert before we can live the promise. We can only grow spiritually when we let go of our romance with the world, abandoning its vain idols, and awakening to the reality of the Divine Presence. We then can turn to God and learn to live in the moment, trusting him to help us through the temptations of the day. We all must walk through the "valley of the shadow of death" to find hope on its other side, and it is only by passing that way can we know the Name of God as the "I-AM-with-you-always" One.
God was the Word...
04.23.13 (Iyyar 13, 5773) The Messiah is called the Word of God (ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ), which means that He is the manifest expression of God's substance - the reason, logic, purpose, and the Message of creation (Col. 1:15-17; Heb. 1:3). The Logos (ὁ Λόγος) represents the "logic" or inner significance of reality itself. Whenever we think about anything, the "Torah of logic" (תּוֹרָה הַהִגָּיוֹן) enables us to identify our subject (a=a), make distinctions about it (~[a and ~a]), detect relationships and connections (if a>b; and b>c, then a>c), and to otherwise be coherent and intelligible.... This is part of what it means to say we are created be'tzelem Elohim (בְּצֶלֶם אֱלהִים), "in the image of God" -- a phrase that suggests that we are like an outline (i.e., tzel: צֵל) that corresponds to its originating Source. God reveals to us the divine light of truth and imparts the inner voice of reason to enable us to apprehend reality, to distinguish temporal and spatial connections, make inferences, to discern cause and effect, and so on. You simply cannot deny the laws of logic without desecrating the image of God, and indeed, you cannot not use logic to argue that there is no need for logic itself. In other words, we have intuitive, self-evident, and axiomatic awareness that the Word of God is the ground for all our inner thoughts and words. The truth that God is the "ground" of all our thinking makes Him close indeed - as close as your next breath, your next thought, your next heartbeat, and so on.
בְּרֵאשִׁית הָיָה הַדָּבָר
וְהַדָּבָר הָיָה אֵת הָאֱלהִים
וֵאלהִים הָיָה הַדָּבָר
be·re·shit · ha·yah · ha·da·var
ve·ha·da·var · ha·yah · et · ha·e·lo·him
ve·lo·him · ha·yah · ha·da·var
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God
and God was the Word"
(John 1:1)
Hebrew Study Card
As an academic note, let me add that there is scholarly discussion about the grammar of the clause, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος ("and God was the Word"). Some say that the word theos (without the article) should be translated as if the article was present because it precedes the copula "was" thereby making the predicate noun definite (i.e., Colwell's Rule): "The Word was God..." Another way to translate this clause, however, is to see theos as a qualifier, that is, a predicate adjective expressing identity of being: "What the Word was God was," and vice-versa. In light of the numerous other places in Scripture that clearly attest that Yeshua is indeed the LORD, the latter approach is preferable: The Word perfectly expresses the very radiance of God (Col. 1:15-17; Heb. 1:3).
The very first letter of the Hebrew alphabet pictures the Word of God, the Holy Beginning. The letter Aleph (א) is "three-in-one," constructed from two Yods (representing "hands") joined by a diagonal Vav (representing a man). One Yod (י) reaches upward while the other reaches downward, and both extend from the "fallen" Vav (ו) that pictures a "wounded Man" or Mediator (1 Tim. 2:5). In the Hebrew numbering system, Yod = 10 and Vav = 6, so adding up the three parts of Aleph yields 26, the same value as the Name of the LORD, YHVH (יהוה). All of this linked together, chaverim. The very first letter of the alphabet, the "king of the letters," pictures the loving Word of God who mediates heaven and earth so that we can experience and know the meaning of His great love.
Note: Some have said that the idea of the Logos comes from the notion of the Memra (Word) mentioned in various Aramaic targums (1st century BCE), but the Logos concept is far older than these Aramaic translations of the Hebrew, and indeed extend back to the ancient philosopher Heraclitus (6th century BCE). Moreover, the Greek term logos was later used by the translators of the ancient Greek version of the Torah (i.e., the Septuagint, or LXX) to render the Hebrew word devar and its cognates.
Anticipating Shavuot ("Pentecost")
[ The following is related to the holiday of Shavuot, which begins May 14th this year... ]
04.22.13 (Iyyar 12, 5773) A week is called shavu'a (שָׁבוּעַ) in Hebrew, from a root word sheva (שֶׁבַע) that means seven. Seven is the number of holiness and completion, and the first verse of Torah has seven words (בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ). In six days God created the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and set it apart as sacred (Gen. 2:3). The holiday of Shavuot (שָׁבוּעוֹת), or "weeks," marks the "Jubilee of Passover," which occurs after we count 7x7 (49) days from the day following Passover until we reach Sivan 6 (which this year begins Tuesday, May 14th at sundown). Since Shavuot occurs on the 50th day after Passover, the Greek translators of the Torah called it "Pentecost" (πεντηκοστή). Shavuot marks the goal or climax of Passover season, commemorating both the anniversary of the giving of the Torah at Sinai as well as the giving of the Holy Spirit to the followers of Messiah (Acts 1:8; 2:1-4).
The holiday of Shavuot is one of the shelosh regalim (three pilgrimage festivals) given in the Torah (Exod. 23:14-17; Deut. 16:16) and therefore reveals profound spiritual truth for followers of Yeshua (Luke 24:44; 2 Tim. 3:16). God did not want us to miss the significance of this holiday, since it expresses the freedom and truth of the New Covenant of Zion.
Note: For a bit more to help you "attune" yourself to the holiday of Shavuot, see the articles "Preparing for Shavuot" and "The Law of Liberty."
Surrender to Peace...
04.22.13 (Iyyar 12, 5773) "Be still and know that I am God." This is something you must do; you must quiet your heart to cultivate inner peace. Turn a deaf ear to those anxious thoughts that weigh in upon you, creating pressure and "dis-ease." Being still enables you to hear the holy whisper in the midst of the storm saying, "It is I; be not afraid."
הַרְפּוּ וּדְעוּ כִּי־אָנכִי אֱלהִים
אָרוּם בַּגּוֹיִם אָרוּם בָּאָרֶץ
har·pu · u·de·u · ki · a·no·khi · E·lo·him
a·rum · ba·go·yim · a·rum · ba·a·retz
"Be still (i.e., let go, surrender) and know that I am God,
I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth"
(Psalm 46:10)
Hebrew Study Card
Note that the verb "be still" (i.e., rapha: רָפָה) means to "let go," "stop striving," to "relinquish control," and to surrender your life and the fate of the world to the care of God... "Being still" means finding serenity and inner peace in the midst of God's providential plans for good... We find peace as we trust God's will for our the outcome of our lives, without "taking thought" for tomorrow and its concerns (Matt. 6:34). The past is gone, after all, and the future is God's business: all we have is the present moment to call upon the Name of the LORD. Be faithful in the present hour, then, asking God for the grace and strength you need to endure the task at hand. In this way we may experience the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding (Phil. 4:7).
Parashat Emor - אמור
[ The following is related to our Torah reading for this week, Parashat Emor.... ]
04.21.13 (Iyyar 11, 5773) Our Torah portion this week (parashat Emor) lists the eight main holidays revealed in the Jewish Scriptures. In the Torah, these "holidays" are called "appointed times" (i.e., mo'edim: מוֹעֲדִים), a word which comes from a root meaning witness (עֵד). Other words formed from this root include edah (עֵדָה), a congregation, edut (עֵדוּת), a testimony, and so on. The related verb ya'ad (יָעַד) means to meet, assemble, or even to betroth. The significance of the holy days, then, is for the covenant people of the LORD to bear witness to God's love and faithfulness. As it is written:
כָּל־אָרְחוֹת יְהוָה חֶסֶד וֶאֱמֶת
לְנצְרֵי בְרִיתוֹ וְעֵדתָיו
kol · or·chot · Adonai · che·sed · ve·e·met
le·no·tze·rei · ve·ri·to · ve·e·do·tav
"All the paths of the LORD are love and truth
to the ones guarding His covenant and His testimonies."
(Psalm 25:10)
Hebrew Study Card
Metaphorically the paths of the Lord (orechot Adonai) are likened to ruts or grooves created by the wheels of a caravan (ארְחָה) passing repeatedly over the same ground. These paths signify the Divine Presence journeying with God's children in this world. In temporal terms, we are able to discern the path by means of the divine calendar. God's love and faithfulness attend to His covenant (brit) and to the commemorations of the yearly "appointed times" which testify to God's love and faithfulness. Keeping God's testimonies, then, means that we will be careful to observe the holidays in order to witness to God's truth...
"Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, 'These are the appointed times of the LORD (מוֹעֲדֵי יְהוָה) that you shall proclaim as holy convocations (מִקְרָאֵי קדֶשׁ); they are My appointed times'" (Lev. 23:2). Note that these hallowed times - the very first of which is the weekly Sabbath - are "of the LORD," and that means they should be regarded as appointments given by God Himself to help draw us closer to Him, to reveal His prophetic truth, and to remind ourselves of His great plan for our lives.
Note: Please keep this ministry in your prayers... Every day I come under attack from the powers of darkness who seek to discourage me from continuing this work. If you are helped by this ministry, please pray for Hebrew for Christians. Thank you.
Countdown to the Harvest...
04.21.13 (Iyyar 11, 5773) We are in the midst of Sefirat Ha-Omer (the "Counting of the Omer"), a 49 day countdown that runs from Nisan 16 through Sivan 5 on the Biblical calendar system (see Lev. 23:15-16). The first day of the omer count begins on the second night of Passover, and the last day occurs the day before the great jubilee of Shavuot ("Pentecost"). On our Gregorian calendars, these dates run from March 26th until May 13th this year. This is a "countdown period" leading to the giving of the Torah at Sinai and the giving of the Holy Spirit to Yeshua's disciples...
About "Lag B'Omer..."
After sundown this coming Sabbath (i.e., April 27th) begins the 33rd day of the omer count, called Lag B'Omer (ל״ג בעומר), which later became a mystical holiday that commemorates the teaching of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai (i.e, Rashbi: רשב"י), the purported author of the Zohar, a fundamental text of Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism). According to tradition, on the day of his death, Rabbi Shimon revealed the deepest secrets of the Kabbalah to his followers and insisted that they would thereafter celebrate the anniversary of his death (Yahrzeit) with joy. His followers then associated his death on Iyyar 18 with the anniversary of the revelation of Kabbalah (Torat Ha-Nistar) to Israel. Among Kabbalists, Lag B'Omer celebrates the giving of the "mystical Torah" to Israel just as the holiday of Shavuot celebrates the giving of the written Torah. Today special Lag B'Omer "bonfire" celebrations are held in the village of Meron (near Safed, Israel) where the Rashbi is buried to mystically recall the "sparks that fly upward," back to God...
According to tradition, Lag B'Omer also commemorates the reprieve of a plague that caused the death of thousands of Rabbi Akiva's students during the last of the Jewish-Roman wars (called the Bar Kochba Revolt (מרד בר כוכבא), c.132-135 AD). Since Jewish tradition assumed that the Messiah would be a military leader who would deliver the Jews and usher in world peace, Rabbi Akiva (incorrectly) surmised that Shimon bar Kochba, the leader of the Jewish resistance, was the Jewish Messiah -- based on an esoteric reading of Numbers 24:17: כּוֹכָב מִיַּעֲקב - "A star shall come out of Jacob" ("Bar Kokhba" means "son of a star" in Aramaic). His tragic endorsement led to death of countless Jews and further alienated the Messianic Jewish community from Israel. The eventual defeat of the Jews by Emperor Hadrian marked the sure beginning of the Jewish Diaspora from the Promised Land. The province of Judaea was then renamed "Palestine" and Jerusalem was called Aelia Capitolina.
According to later Jewish tradition, all of Akiva's students died during the time of the Omer Count, but Akiva "started over" with a new batch of just five students. Of these, his most famous student was Shimon bar Yochai. The Talmud (Yevamot 62b) recalls the tragedy of Bar Kochba and commemorates it as a "Scholar's Festival," in honor of Rabbi Akiva.
It should be evident that Lag B'Omer is NOT a Christian/Messianic Jewish holiday, but on the contrary celebrates occultic speculations that further separate many Jewish people from the liberating truth of Yeshua the Messiah. During this time of "countdown," chaverim, let us pray that the eyes of many Jews will soon be opened to see that Yeshua is indeed the Messiah and Savior of Israel.
Loving the Stranger...
[ The following is related to our Torah reading this week, parashat Acharei Mot-Kedoshim... ]
04.19.13 (Iyyar 9, 5773) "You shall love the stranger as yourself" (Lev. 19:34). This mitzvah applies not only to someone whom we regard as an "outsider," but more radically to the "stranger within ourselves," that is, to those aspects of ourselves we censor, deny, or reject. Like the prodigal son, we have to "come to ourselves" to return home (Luke 15:17), yet we won't know that we are unconditionally loved until we venture complete disclosure. That is the great risk of trusting in God's love for your soul: You must accept that you are accepted despite your own unacceptability... Those parts of ourselves that we "hide" need to be brought to the light, atoned for, healed, and reconciled. If we don't love and accept ourselves, then how can we hope to love and accept others?
The Goal of Holiness...
[ The following is related to our Torah reading this week, parashat Acharei Mot-Kedoshim... ]
04.19.13 (Iyyar 9, 5773) "Be holy as I am holy" (Lev. 19:2). This doesn't mean wrapping yourself up in some protective cloak of religious rituals as much as it means accepting your own atonement: reconciling who you are with your past, finding healing and love, and walking in genuine hope... Holiness isn't as much "separation" from the profane as it is "consecration" to the sacred, and in that sense it is a kind of teshuvah, a turning of the heart back to reality.... Negatively put, "being holy" is turning away from fear, despair, and anger; positively put, it is embracing the worth and value of life, respecting the Divine Presence, and walking in the radiance of God's love.
Respect Precedes Torah...
04.19.13 (Iyyar 9, 5773) It is said, "respect precedes Torah," which means that we must esteem ourselves and others properly as image bearers of God. This is basic to all else. But we must first care; we must be willing to give up our sickness; we must want to be healed. This also means that we are willing to give up blaming others and confess the truth about how we have brought pain to our lives. After we learn to forgive ourselves, we can let go of the pain, the weary anger, and forgive others of their missteps, too. It is impossible to be joyful apart from such humility. Therefore each of us must rebuff demonic impulses and turn to God for healing. And we must beseech the Lord to help us stay awake and to resist being lulled back into the unconsciousness of the world and its delusions.
Alongside the Fleeting...
04.19.13 (Iyyar 9, 5773) God's people are always "strangers" in this world; they are literally "e-stranged" -- living here, yet not here. We are outsiders and pilgrims, not at home in this world, and our faith therefore is both a type of "protest" against any interpretation of reality that excludes, suppresses, denies, or minimizes the Divine Presence as well as a longing for the place where we truly belong.... If you feel crazy in an insane situation, then you are really quite sane... The world will feel oppressive and strange once you have been awakened from its madness and refuse to be moved by the delusions of the crowd... Life in olam hazeh (this world) is a place of passing that leads to the world to come. Our faith affirms that underlying the surface appearance of life is a deeper reality that is ultimately real and abiding. It "sees what is invisible" (2 Cor. 4:18) and understands (i.e., accepts) that the "present form of this world is passing away" (1 Cor. 7:31).
כִּי־גֵרִים אֲנַחְנוּ לְפָנֶיךָ
וְתוֹשָׁבִים כְּכָל־אֲבתֵינוּ
כַּצֵּל יָמֵינוּ עַל־הָאָרֶץ וְאֵין מִקְוֶה
ki ge·rim a·nach·nu le·fa·ne·kha,
ve·to·sha·vim ke·khol a·vo·tei·nu,
katz·tzel ya·mei·nu al ha·a·retz · ve·ein mik·veh
"For we are strangers before you
and sojourners, as all our fathers were.
As a shadow are our days on the earth, and there is nothing that abides"
(1 Chron. 29:15)
The Apostle Paul taught that we to be "conformed" (σύμμορφος) to the Messiah (Rom. 8:29), but not "conformed" (συσχηματίζω) to the pattern of this fallen world (Rom. 12:2). The former word means to resemble or be made similar in form (μορφή), whereas the latter means to accept the world's scheme (σχῆμα) of understanding things, to passively go along with the world's lies, wishful thinking, fearmongering, propaganda, etc. Of course we need God's help to escape the "programming" of our age, and therefore the Holy Spirit helps us to become transfigured – "changed from the inside out" - by the renewal of our minds, enabling us to see things in light of the reality of our identity in the Messiah. So refuse to let the world system get you down, but focus on God and His great glory. Take heart, friends: being exiled by the world is an indication that you belong to the Kingdom of God...
Seeking Things Above...
04.18.13 (Iyyar 8, 5773) "If then you have been raised with Messiah, seek the things that are above (τὰ ἄνω ζητεῖτε), where the Messiah is seated at the right hand of God (לִימִין אֱלהִים). Focus your thoughts on the things above, not on things here on earth. For you have died, and your life has been hidden with Messiah in God. Then when the Messiah, who is your life, appears, you too will appear with him in glory" (Col. 3:1-4).
All of this turns on our faith... If we are spiritually identified with Yeshua, we are "dead" to this age (olam hazeh), and therefore we are awakened to a realm that transcends the appeals of carnal flesh (olam habah). We no longer live chayei sha'ah (חַיֵּי שָׁעָה, "fleeting life") but chayei olam (חַיֵּי עוֹלָם, "eternal life"). The arorist verb "you have died" indicates "you have died once for all," that is, this is a condition granted by the power and agency of God on your behalf. You don't "try to die" to the flesh; you accept what God has done by killing its power over you through Yeshua... You are dead to this world; you are dead to sin's power; you are no longer enslaved to the deception of the worldly matrix, etc. Now you are made alive to an entirely greater and more powerful order and dimension of reality, namely, the spiritual reality that is not disclosed to the vanity of this age. Therefore we are to consciously focus our thoughts (φρονέω) on the hidden reality of God rather than on the temporal world that is passing away: "For we are looking not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient (i.e., "just for a season," καιρός), but the things that are unseen are eternal" (2 Cor. 4:18).
We share the visibility of the Messiah in this age... Since He is presently hidden from view, "the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not" (1 John 3:1); on the other hand, when He is revealed from heaven, so we will appear with him in glory... Therefore "being dead" is an inversely reciprocal relationship: being dead to this world is to be alive in the other world, and vice-versa.... We have "hidden life" in the Messiah, as it is written: "your life has been hidden (i.e., κρύπτω, "concealed," "disguised") with the Messiah in God." By faith you are made dead to one order of reality so that you would be made alive to another order of reality, to the reality of God that transcends the shadows and decay of this world. Your life has been hidden - like a "hidden treasure" - with the Messiah, who holds its store for you and will reveal its glory in the coming age. Because Yeshua knows you by name, calls you to follow Him, and is your Sin-Bearer, Priest, Advocate, and Savior before the throne of God, your life is indeed "hidden with Him," and you are made secure through His all-powerful providential care... Praise His Name forever.
Salvation is forever a matter of life and death. We esteem earthly doctors because they are healers of the body, but how much more do people need true healers of the soul? "Be not deceived" about your own hope for eternity; "God is not mocked" (μυκτηρίζω). He knows your inner motivations with perfect clarity (Gal. 6:7; Heb. 4:12). To "serve" God in the truth means being willing to face ongoing self-examination, to own up to the truth about yourself, to be real, to be honest. We are here to share the message of God's love and to help bring others to eternal life. Yeshua's fiercest words of condemnation were reserved for those who played games with "religion" - for those who forgot that people were literally dying without God's love... May God help us remember what is closest to His heart, friends...
The Secret Door...
04.18.13 (Iyyar 8, 5773) There is a "secret door" that you can enter at any time... This door leads to the realm of the Divine Presence, as David said: shiviti (שִׁוִּיתִי) - "I have set the LORD always before me - because He is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken" (Psalm 16:8). But how did King David "set the LORD" before Him if he did not "enter the door" of faith, trusting that God would indeed be near to him? The great commandment is Shema, listen... Therefore the Spirit invites you to come: "Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known" (Jer. 33:3).
קְרָא אֵלַי וְאֶעֱנֶךָּ וְאַגִּידָה לְּךָ
גְּדלוֹת וּבְצֻרוֹת לא יְדַעְתָּם
ke·ra · e·lai · ve·e·e·ne·ka · ve·a·gi·dah · le·kha
ge·do·lot · u·ve·tzu·rot · lo · ye·da'·tam
"Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you
great and hidden things that you have not known."
(Jer. 33:3)
At any given moment of our day, regardless of our circumstances, we can attune ourselves to the reality of the Divine Presence and come "boldly before the Throne of Grace" (Heb. 4:16). The world knows nothing of this realm and is enslaved by appearances and the delusions of this realm, olam hazeh. As Yeshua said, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given" (Matt. 13:11). The Spirit always says, "Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you" (Isa. 26:20). In the secret places of our heart - our "prayer closet" - we appeal to the Hidden Presence to be manifest in the midst of every circumstance of our lives...
Sensing the Sacred...
[ The following is related to our Torah reading this week, parashat Acharei Mot-Kedoshim... ]
04.17.13 (Iyyar 7, 5773) The Torah records God's first act of creation with the imperative utterance: "Let there be light" (i.e., yehi or: יְהִי אוֹר), and then goes on to say that "God separated (וַיַּבְדֵּל) the light from the darkness (Gen. 1:3-4). It is this "separation," or distinction, that is foundational to the concept of kedushah (קְדֻשָּׁה), or "holiness." Holiness is also expressed in the distinction between ordinary and sacred time: "God blessed the seventh day and made it holy" (יְקַדֵּשׁ) because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation" (Gen. 2:3). Therefore we are repeatedly told to "distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean" (Lev. 10:10). Note that the word translated "distinguish" (וּלֲהַבְדִּיל) comes from the same verb used to describe how God separated the light from the darkness. In order to do this, we need understanding (i.e., binah: בִּינָה), or the ability to distinguish between (בֵּין) realms of reality. As it is written, "You shall be holy to me, for I the LORD am holy and I have separated you (וָאַבְדִּל) from other people that you should be mine" (Lev. 20:26).
וִהְיִיתֶם לִי קְדשִׁים כִּי קָדוֹשׁ אֲנִי יְהוָה
וָאַבְדִּל אֶתְכֶם מִן־הָעַמִּים לִהְיוֹת לִי
vi·yi·tem · li · ke·do·shim · ki · ka·dosh · a·ni · Adonai
va·av·dil · et·khem · min-ha·a·mim · li·he·yot · li
"You shall be holy to me, for I the LORD am holy
and I have separated you from the peoples to be mine"
(Lev. 20:26)
There is no other way to approach the Holy One apart from consciousness of His infinite glory and unsurpassable worth. "I will lift up my eyes to the hills" (Psalm 121:1). As the Holy One (i.e., ha-kadosh: הַקָּדוֹשׁ), the LORD (יהוה) is utterly unique, distinct, sacred, and set apart as the only One of its kind. He alone is worthy of true worship and adoration, since He alone is utterly peerless, without rival, and stands in relation to the world as Creator, Redeemer, and Lord. To affirm the LORD is holy is to be conscious that He is utterly sacred.
Note: Being "holy" does not mean being sanctimonious or having a sour face about the world and its carnal pleasures. It has nothing at all to do with affected spirituality, angry pride, or the fear of becoming unclean... Indeed, some of the most holy moments are those of love, joy, peace, as well as times of struggle, sorrow, affliction, and fiery temptation. Holiness is ultimately "ontological," which means it has to do with reality... A person can be holy and yet sinful; he can be holy and yet feel lost or abandoned. On the other hand, a person can be seemingly sinless, morally upright, and yet be completely unholy.
Love and Holiness...
[ The following is related to our Torah reading this week, parashat Acharei Mot-Kedoshim... ]
04.17.13 (Iyyar 7, 5773) This week we have another "double portion" of Torah: Acharei Mot and Kedoshim, both of which focus on holiness. In response to the recent death of Aaron's sons for offering "strange fire" in the Tabernacle, Acharei Mot ("after the death") explains the holiness code for the kohanim (priests) of Israel -- and in particular gives the laws for the Yom Kippur service. Parashat Kedoshim, on the other hand, concerns the holiness code for the entire congregation of Israel.
In Hebrew, the word "holiness" is kedushah (קְדֻשָׁה), from a root (קדשׁ) that means sanctity or "set-apartness." Other Hebrew words that use this root include kadosh (קָדוֹשׁ, 'holy'), kiddush (קִדּוּש, sanctifying the wine), kaddish (קַדִּישׁ, sanctifying the Name), kiddushin (the ring ceremony at a marriage), mikdash (מִקְדָּש, sanctuary), and so on. Kadosh connotes the sphere of the sacred that is radically separate from all that is sinful and profane. As such, it is lofty and elevated (Isa. 57:15), beyond all comparison and utterly unique (Isa. 40:25), entirely righteous (Isa. 5:16), glorious and awesome (Psalm 99:3), full of light and power (Isa. 10:7), and is chosen and favored as God's own (Ezek. 22:26). Indeed, holiness is a synonym for the LORD Himself (HaKadosh barukh hu - The Holy One, blessed be He).
The focal point and the very heart of what practical holiness means is stated as as the duty: ve'ahavta l're'akha kamokha (וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ) - "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev. 19:18). Note that the direct object of the verb (i.e., ahav - to love) is your "neighbor" (רֵעַ). But who, exactly, is my neighbor? Some have claimed that the word re'a (neighbor) refers only to one's fellow Jew or friend, and not to others at large in the world. However this is obviously false, since the "stranger" (ger) is explicitly identified to be an object of our love (see Lev. 19:34). And note that when Yeshua was asked this very question, he turning it around. Instead of attempting to find someone worthy of neighborly love, we are asked to be worthy and loving neighbors ourselves (Luke 10:29-37).
וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ אֲנִי יְהוָה
ve·a·hav·ta · le·re·a·kha · ka·mo·kha · a·ni · Adonai
"You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD."
(Lev. 19:18)
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In this connection, it is interesting to note that the gematria for the Hebrew commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (i.e., וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹך) equals 820, the same value as the word yekidashti (וְקִדַּשְׁתִּי), "And I [the LORD] will sanctify" (Exod. 29:44). When God commands us to "love your neighbor as yourself," he graciously includes the addendum: "I am the LORD," which the sages understood to mean, "I will help you to do this," or (in this case) "I will sanctify you through your acts of lovingkindness."
Love is the central idea of all true Torah. Though there are some slight language differences between the Exodus and Deuteronomy versions of the Ten Commandments, both begin with "I AM" (אָנכִי) and both end with "[for] your neighbor" (לְרֵעֶךָ). Joining these together says "I am your neighbor," indicating that the LORD Himself is found in your neighbor. When we love our neighbor as ourselves (אָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ), we are in effect demonstrating our love for the LORD. We must learn to disregard the claims of our ego and cling to the idea of chesed. So who is your neighbor? You are -- to every other soul you may encounter this day.
Though most sages say that the greatest principle of Torah is to love your neighbor as yourself, Ben Azzai said that even greater is believing that God created human beings in His likeness (בִּדְמוּת), since then one cannot say, "Since I despise myself I can despise another as well; since I curse myself, let the other be accursed as well." Being made in God's likeness implies that how we regard ourselves and others is the same measure we regard God Himself (1 John 4:20). Therefore the first commandment is always, "I am the LORD thy God..." (Exod. 20:2), since apart from faith, there is no Torah of any kind.
Note: For more on this subject, see "Love and Holiness."
Love and Reproof...
[ The following is related to our Torah reading this week, parashat Acharei Mot-Kedoshim... ]
04.17.13 (Iyyar 7, 5773) In our Torah portion this week there is a wonderful verse (Lev. 16:16) which states that the LORD "dwells with them in the midst of their contamination" (הַשּׁכֵן אִתָּם בְּתוֹךְ טֻמְאתָם). Even though the people were unclean (i.e., defiled by sin and tumah), the Divine Presence was not removed and the means for reconciliation were provided... Aren't you glad that the love of God doesn't "stop there" (i.e., with a verdict about our sinful condition) but goes beyond the offense to provide remedy and hope?
Yeshua said, "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I AM in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20). This is expressed by the Hebrew word for love (i.e., ahavah: אהבה), the gematria of which is thirteen, but when shared with another is multiplied: 13 x 2 = 26 -- the same value for the name of the LORD (יהוה). The commandment, "you shall love your neighbor as yourself" (וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ) thus awakens in the other the same kind of love for you -- and the result will be a "double love" -- or the love of God (אַהֲבַת הָאֱלהִים). Of course this isn't easy, but immediately after giving the commandment, God declares: "I AM the LORD" (אֲנִי יְהוָה), which the sages traditionally interpret to mean, "I, the LORD, will help you fulfill this commandment if you sincerely wish to do so."
For more on this topic, see the Torah article "Love and Reproof."
Footsteps of the Messiah...
04.17.13 (Iyyar 7, 5773) Yeshua forewarned of the alienation and moral sickness that would pervade mankind just before the time of his return: "Because lawlessness (i.e., ἀνομία, from -α ('not') + νομος, 'torah') will be increased," he said, "the love of many will grow cold (i.e., ψύχομαι, 'be extinguished')" (Matt. 24:12). Note the link between Torah and love: true love requires respect for God's authority, for without that the divine image is disfigured and desecrated. Likewise the Apostle Paul foresaw that the "End of Days" (אַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים) would be a time of peril (καιροὶ χαλεποί) because people would become increasingly narcissistic, self-absorbed, infatuated with their own sense of self-importance, abusive toward others, disrespectful to elders, ungrateful, heartless, unforgiving, without self-control, brutal, treacherous, and so on (2 Tim. 3:1-4). Therefore, in light of the spiritual war that rages all around us, it is vital that we remain firmly rooted in what is real by taking hold of our identity and provision as children of God. "God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power (גְּבוּרָה / δύναμις) and of love (ἀγάπη), and of a "sound mind" (σωφρονισμός), i.e., a "delivered" mind, "healed" from fragmentation (2 Tim. 1:7). The name of the LORD (יהוה) means "Presence," and in Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). He is as close as our heart and our very breath (Rom. 10:8). We are not to be troubled like the world that lives in terror of man, nor are we to crave security from the vain devices of mere men. No - we must look to God Almighty, the Master of the Universe. He alone is our Refuge and Defence, the One who gives us steadfast love in the midst of these storms.
Ikvot HaMashiach - עִקְּבוֹת הַמָּשִׁיחַ
According to Jewish tradition, the period of time immediately before the Messiah's arrival is sometimes called ikvot meshicha (עִקְּבוֹת מְשִׁיחַ), the time when the "footsteps of the Messiah" can be heard. Some of the "signs" of this period include the rise of various false prophets, numerous wars and "rumors of wars" (including the rise of Magog), famines, earthquakes, worldwide apostasy from the faith, persecution, and a globalized sort of godlessness that is revealed in unbridled selfishness, greed, chutzpah (audacity), shamelessness, and a general lack of hakarat ha-tov (gratitude). The greatest sign, however, will be that Israel will exist once again as a sovereign nation, despite the prophesied exile among the nations (Deut. 4:27-31; Jer. 30:1-3). According to some of the sages, the 9th century work Pirkei d'Rabbi Eliezer foretells that just before the coming of Messiah, "Ishmael" will rise in power to terrorize the world. According to Yalkut Shimoni, the king of Persia (Iran) is going to "have a weapon that is going to terrorize the world." A coming "Messiah of evil" (code name Armilus) will soon appear on the world stage to offer a peace treaty for Israel and the Middle East, "but when they shall say, 'peace and security' (confirmed covenant) then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman (time of Jacob's Trouble), and they will not escape (1 Thess. 5:3).
Note: For more on this subect, see the article "Birthpangs of Messiah" and its related links.
Finding Your Focal Point...
04.16.13 (Iyyar 6, 5773) Your faith must mean something to you if it is to mean anything before God... As Abraham Heschel once wisely remarked, "God is of no importance unless He is of supreme importance." Likewise King David said, echat sha'alti me'et Adonai, otah avakesh: "One thing I ask of the Lord; that is what I will seek." David asked for one thing – not many things. He did not come with a litany of requests. He was not double minded. As Kierkegaard said, "purity of the heart is to will one thing." David sought the best he could find. He wanted the "pearl of great price."
The most important thing in life is to decide what is the most important thing in life - and then to act accordingly. Time is short for all of us, and it is more vital than ever to find healing for our woundedness. We have to quit pretending to be what we aren't and learn to be honest and vulnerable. Spirituality without honesty and humility is a sham. If you don't know how to begin, then begin there - by knowing your confusion, your need for the miracle of God's help and direction... For instance, if you don't know how to really love, then confess your heart's condition and pray for the miracle you need. As it is written, "God has compassion for the lowly and broken, and saves the souls of the bankrupt ones."
יָחס עַל־דַּל וְאֶבְיוֹן
וְנַפְשׁוֹת אֶבְיוֹנִים יוֹשִׁיעַ
ya·chos · al-dal · ve·ev·yon
ve·naf·shot · ev·yo·nim · yo·shi·a
"He has compassion for the lowly and broken,
and saves the souls of the bankrupt ones"
(Psalm 72:13)
When God said, "Let there be light, and there was light" (Gen. 1:3), He seemed to put on light as a robe of the Divine Majesty and Kingship: He wrapped Himself with radiance as a tallit gadol... Da lifnei mi attah omed (דַּע לִפְנֵי מִי אַתָּה עוֹמֵד) – "Know before whom you stand." The whole earth is lit up with God's glory, and every bush of the field is aflame before us -- if we have eyes to see (Isa. 6:3). May it please the LORD to open our spiritual eyes so that we can behold more of His glory and majesty in this hour... Amen.
Prophetic Significance of Israel
[ The following is related to Yom HaAtzma'ut (יוֹם הָעַצְמָאוּת) - Israel's Independence Day - which begins April 15th at sundown this year. Happy 65th Birthday, Israel! ]
04.15.13 (Iyyar 5, 5773) Can a case be made that we among the "terminal generation" before the return of Yeshua? The Torah predicted that the "end of days" would occur sometime after the return of the Jewish people from their worldwide dispersion back to the land of Israel (Deut. 30:1-3), and indeed the theme of exile and return is repeated in the prophets (Jer. 23:3; 32:37-38; Ezek. 37:21, etc.). Therefore it is surely extraordinary that Israel was reborn as a nation in their ancient homeland on May 14, 1948 (Iyyar 5, 5708), after nearly 2,000 years of exile... The existence of the modern State of Israel is entirely consonant with New Testament prophecies regarding the advent of the Messiah, since Yeshua taught that the Jewish people would be in the land of Israel at the time of his second coming, and that the city of Jerusalem would be surrounded by enemies of the Jewish state (see Matt. 24-25; Mark 13, Luke 21). Furthermore, if we understand a "generation" to mean 70-80 years in duration (as stated in Psalm 90:10), then when Yeshua said, "this generation (ἡ γενεὰ αὕτη) shall not pass until all these things take place" (Matt. 24:34), he was referring to the generation that would originate with the restoration of the modern State of Israel, which further implies that Daniel's 70th Week (i.e., the Great Tribulation) could begin very soon, perhaps within as few as 5-15 years (add 19 years if you begin counting with the annex of Jerusalem in June 7th, 1967). And while it is true that "no one knows the day or hour" of Yom Adonai haGadol (יוֹם־יְהוָה הַגָּדוֹל), the "great day of the LORD," Yeshua faulted the Pharisees for failing to discern "the signs of the times" (Matt. 16:3) and for missing the "time of their visitation" (Luke 19:44).
מִי־שָׁמַע כָּזאת
מִי רָאָה כָּאֵלֶּה
הֲיוּחַל אֶרֶץ בְּיוֹם אֶחָד
אִם־יִוָּלֵד גּוֹי פַּעַם אֶחָת
mi · sha·ma · ka'zot
mi · ra'ah · ka'e·leh
hai·yu·chal · e·retz · be·yom · e·chad
im · yiv·va·led · goy · pa·am · e·chat
"Who has heard such a thing?
Who has seen such things?
Shall a land be born in one day?
Shall a nation be brought forth in one moment?"
(Isa. 66:8)
Like many other prophetic statements found in the Jewish Scriptures, this verse from the prophet Isaiah is "dual aspect," since it was both partially fulfilled when the Jewish people reestablished the State of Israel, but it will be entirely fulfilled at the outset of the Millennial Kingdom after the return of Messiah (see Isa. 66:7-16; Rom. 11:26). Meanwhile we behold the restoration of the "Fig Tree," and understand that the great harvest draws near, friends... May God help each one of us be awake, ready, with hearts full of steadfast faith (1 John 3:2-3; Titus 2:11-14; Matt. 24:32).
Note: "Preterism" is an eschatological interpretative scheme that believes all the great prophecies of the New Testament, such as Armageddon and the destruction of Jerusalem, the coming of the Messiah of Evil (Antichrist), the birth pangs of Messiah, the Great Tribulation, and especially Yom Adonai (יוֹם־יְהוָה הַגָּדוֹל) - the Great Day of the LORD - were all fulfilled in AD 70 when the Romans destroyed the Holy Temple. In other words, a full-fledged preterist believes that there is no "prophetic future" left to be fulfilled, since the "end of the world" has already come! The "Second Coming" occurred during the first Pentecost after the resurrection, etc. etc... More damningly, preterists assert that Yeshua's various prophetic statements about the "end of the age" were restricted to the culture of his day and therefore his words should not be taken seriously by us today. As I hope you can see, this viewpoint is inherently anti-Israel, since it abhors the theocratic vision of Zion and denies the prophecies of the kingdom to come in Jerusalem.
It is interesting that ultra-Orthodox Jews who study the Hebrew prophets understand the vision of Zion and the coming Kingdom of Messiah. Only those who radically allegorize the plain meaning of the Scriptures would dare deny Israel's place in God's providential plan for the ages. In the end, preterism appears to be little more than the theological justification for "supersessionism," or the idea that the "church" supersedes (i.e., replaces) Israel as the true covenant people of God. It is time for so-called Christians who suppose they are the "Israel of God" to honestly deal with Jeremiah 31:31-37 -- the only place in the entire "old Testament" where the New Covenant (בְּרִית חֲדָשָׁה) is explicitly mentioned.
Regardless of how you may regard the prophetic events that herald the "end of the world," however, know this: Today might be your last in this world - your very own Rosh Hashanah when you will appear before the Judge and Creator of your life... Therefore should we live each day as if it were our last and pray that God will help us to serve Him in the truth.
Happy Birthday, Israel!
[ Yom Huledet Same'ach, Israel! Happy 65th Birthday to the miraculous people of the miraculous promised land! May God make your numbers like the stars in heaven! ]
04.14.13 (Iyyar 4, 5773) Tomorrow at sundown we celebrate Israel's Independence Day, called Yom Ha'atzma'ut (יוֹם הָעַצְמָאוּת). The word atzma'ut (independence) comes from atzmi - "my bones" (i.e., etzem: עֶצֶם), so the name itself reminds us of the God's glorious promise to revive the "dry bones" (עֲצָמוֹת) of Israel by bringing the Jewish people back from their long exile (Ezek. 37:1-6). Son of man, can these bones live?
But why should Christians care about ethnic Israel? After all, many Christian denominations advocate some version of "Replacement Theology" and regard the promises God made to the Jewish people as belonging exclusively to their church... The existence of the modern State of Israel therefore evokes little thanks to God from these groups, and some of their ranks even regard Israel's revived presence on the world stage as an embarrassment to their typically "liberal" theology. Hence we see the (remarkably bad) phenomena of so-called "Christian" church denominations that express anti-Israel sentiment, even asking their followers to divest investments in Israel on behalf of the "Palestinians," etc.
Briefly, we should care about Israel because the existence of Jewish people - and of the nation of Israel in particular - demonstrates that God is faithful to the covenant promises He made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (e.g., Gen. 15:9-21). The perpetuity of the Jewish people - despite so much worldwide and satanic hatred over the millennia - is an awesome testimony of God's faithful love (Jer. 31:35-37). עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי / am Yisrael chai: "The people of Israel live!" Israel is a sign of the "sure mercies of David" (חַסְדֵי דָוִד הַנֶּאֱמָנִים) that are revealed in Yeshua, the Jewish Messiah (Isa. 55:1-6). Moreover, the New Covenant itself, as foretold by the prophet Jeremiah, explicitly promises the perpetuity of the Jewish people thoughout the ages (Jer. 31:31-37):
Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD (יהוה), when I will make a new covenant (בְּרִית חֲדָשָׁה) with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law (תּוֹרָה) within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."
Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar– the LORD of hosts is his Name: "If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the LORD, then shall the offspring of Israel (זֶרַע יִשְׂרָאֵל) cease from being a nation before me forever." Thus says the LORD: "If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I will cast off all the offspring of Israelfor all that they have done, declares the LORD. – Jer. 31:35-36
According to this theologically critical passage, if you saw the sun shine today or the stars in the night sky, you can be assured that God's promise to preserve the "offspring of Israel" -- (i.e., zera Yisrael: זֶרַע יִשְׂרָאֵל) -- is in effect. Indeed, in the world to come, heavenly Jerusalem will have the names of the twelve tribes of Israel engraved upon its gates (Rev. 21:12). Note well that this is the only occurrence in the entire Tanakh (i.e., "Old Testament") that the New Covenant (בְּרִית חֲדָשָׁה) is explicitly mentioned... It is a foundational passage of Scripture for those who claim to be followers of the Jewish Messiah.
In this connection, let me ask you a simple question. If the King of the Jews is our hope and lives inside our hearts by faith, and if the King of the Jews calls Jerusalem the "City of the Great King" (Psalm 48:2, Matt 5:35), then it only makes sense that we would heed King David's admonition to "ask for the peace of Jerusalem..."
שַׁאֲלוּ שְׁלוֹם יְרוּשָׁלָםִ יִשְׁלָיוּ אהֲבָיִךְ
sha·a·lu · she·lom · ye·ru·sha·la·yim, · yish·la·yu · o·ha·va·yikh
"Ask for the well-being of Jerusalem;
May those who love you be at peace"
(Psalm 122:6)
Download Study Card
King David was a great prophet. Note that the phrase "sha'alu shalom Yerushalayim" actually reveals truth about our Savior Yeshua the Messiah. The word sha'alu actually means "ask" (as in ask a sheilah, a question). Shalom is a Name of Yeshua, since He indeed is Sar Shalom (the Prince of Peace). The word Jerusalem means "teaching of peace" (the "Jeru" at the beginning of the word comes from the same root as the word Torah, which means teaching), so the phrase could be construed as "ask about the Prince of Peace and His Teaching." Yeshua is indeed the rightful King of Jerusalem who is coming soon to reign over all the earth. מָרַן אֲתָא יְשׁוּעַ / Maranatha Yeshua! "Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay everyone for what he has done" (Rev. 22:12).
Note: All the blessings Christians enjoy ultimately come from the root of God's covenants with Israel... Yeshua our Savior was born the King of the Jews, and plainly said salvation is "from the Jews" (Matt. 2:2; 27:11; John 4:22). The Apostle Paul clearly warned those who think the church has "replaced" Israel: "Remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you" (Rom. 11:18). This doctine is so foundational that it may be righly said that how you think about Israel will affect every other area of your theology. For more on this subject, see the article, "Is Christianity Anti-Jewish?"
Seeing God's Face...
[ The following is related to our Torah reading this week, parashat Acharei Mot-Kedoshim... ]
04.14.13 (Iyyar 4, 5773) A Roman emperor once asked Rabbi Joshua if the universe had a ruler. The sage answered, indeed, the LORD is the Creator of all things, as it is written, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." The emperor then asked, "Why is God not like the emperor of Rome, who is seen twice a year so that people may know and worship him?" Rabbi Joshua said that unlike human kings, the LORD was too powerful for people to see; as it is written in the Torah: "No person shall see Me and live." The emperor was skeptical, however, and insisted that unless he could physically see God, he would be unable to believe. Rabbi Joshua then pointed to the sun high in the sky: "Look into the sun and you will see God." The emperor tried to look into the sun, but was forced to cover his eyes to keep them from burning: "I cannot look into the sun," he said. Joshua then replied: "Listen to yourself: If you cannot look into the sun which is but one of God's creations, how can you expect to look at God?" (Sefer HaAggadah)
It is interesting to compare this story with another... Leo Tolstoy tells the parable of an old cobbler who despaired of life and yearned to finally see God. In a dream one night a heavenly voice told that he would see God's face the very next day. The cobbler began the day on the alert, hoping to catch a glimpse of God, but he was distracted when he encountered a needy family. They were cold and desperate, so he took them in and cared for them. The day passed and as he finally laid down to sleep, the cobbler realized he had completely forgotten to look for God. He apologized to God and once again asked to die... As he fell asleep he dreamed that he saw the family he had helped walking by when the heavenly voice then said, "Rest assured: you saw God today in the faces of those you helped." "Truly, as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me" (Matt. 25:40).
וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ
אֲנִי יְהוָה
ve·a·hav·ta · le·re·a·kha · ka·mo·kha
a·ni · Adonai
"You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
I am the LORD."
(Lev. 19:18)
Hebrew Study Card
"He who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen... Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever truly loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. " (1 John 4:7-8).
Parashat Acharei Mot-Kedoshim
[ This week we have another "double portion" of Torah: Acharei Mot and Kedoshim. Please read the Torah portions to find your place here... ]
04.14.13 (Iyyar 4, 5773) This week we have a "double portion" of Torah. The first portion (i.e., Acharei Mot) describes the Yom Kippur ritual to purify the Tabernacle, and the second portion (i.e., Kedoshim) provides a series of commandments concerning the practical expression of holiness in daily life: "Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy" (Lev. 19:2). You can download the Shabbat Table Talks for both these portions here:
The call to live a holy, separate life before the LORD requires that we are imbued with the truth of God. We are living in stressful times, chaverim. The Apostle Paul wrote that the time before the "End of Days" would be "perilous" (χαλεπός) and full of human depravity (2 Tim. 3:1-5). In light of the raging spiritual war going on all around us, the following needs to be restated: "The important thing is to not lose your mind..."
The mind is the "gateway" to your heart, and it is therefore essential to guard your thinking by immersing yourself in the truth... Fear is often the result of believing the lie that God is not in control or is unable/unwilling to help you... "Not losing your mind" therefore means being grounded in what is real, and it therefore means understanding your identity and provision as a child of God. "God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power (גְּבוּרָה / δύναμις) and of love (ἀγάπη), and of a "sound mind" (σωφρονισμός), lit. a "delivered" mind, "healed" from fragmentation (2 Tim. 1:7). The Greek word "sound mind" (σωφρονισμός) comes from the verb sodzo (σῴζω), meaning "to save," from saos (σάος) "safe," in the sense of being under restraining influence of the Spirit of God...
If you are afraid of man, understand that this comes not from the Spirit of God, but rather from the enemy of our souls... God is as close as your heart and mouth, and therefore we stand in His Presence, and we must live in awe of Him... We are not to be like the world that lives in terror of man, lusting after security from the vain devices of mere men. No - look to the LORD God Almighty, the Master of the Universe.... "What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matt. 10:27-28).
Time is nearly up for this world, and the hour draws near: "The nations rage, their kingdoms totter; He utters his voice, the earth melts. Adonai Tzeva'ot imanu - the LORD of hosts is with us; our fortress is the God of Jacob. Selah" (Psalm 46:6-7). If you were to die tonight, what would happen to your eternal soul? Are you certain of your acceptance before the Father, and if so, on what basis? There is a way that seems right - even for the professing Christian. We are admonished to "enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many" (Matt. 7:14).
Among other things, a life of faith is a form of protest against any reality that excludes the Divine Presence of Yeshua, God's redemptive love... Because of this, faith expresses a kind of temporal unhappiness or longing for the ultimate healing of all.... מָרַן אֲתָא - Maranatha!
Note: For more about the relationship between Passover and Yom Kippur, see the article entitled, Yom Kippur and the Gospel.
Cleansing of the Leper...
[ The following is related to our Torah reading this week, parashat Tazria-Metzora. Please read the Torah portion to find your place here... ]
04.12.13 (Iyyar 2, 5773) Although the priest needed to go "outside the camp" to examine a metzora (i.e., "leper"), the person still needed to "be brought" to the priest to meet him there, while he or she was in a state of exile (Lev. 14:2-3). In other words, the afflicted one was required to meet the priest "half-way." Like the prodigal son who returns home, God lovingly waits for us at the "edge" of the camp to meet us half-way... Hashivenu (הֲשִׁיבֵנוּ): "Return us to You, LORD, and we shall return" (Lam. 5:21).
The case of the metzora reveals that God sometimes disciplines his child with "exile" in order to awaken teshuvah within the heart. God imparted the spiritual disease of tzara'at to "remind" us of our sin and need for atonement, and the purification ritual was meant to illustrate our need for spiritual rebirth.... The gracious aim of affliction, then, is to "wake us from our slumbers" in order to reveal the way of life... As C.S. Lewis once said, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."
The love of God is so great that He reached out and touched us - becoming a "leper" for us - and even chose to die "in exile" upon the cross to eternally purify us from our sins... In that sense, Yeshua surely meets us more than "half-way," since He "emptied Himself" (κενόω) of His heavenly glory and power in order to willingly bear our sickness, shame, and even death itself on our behalf... "But [He] made himself nothing (εκενωσεν), taking the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of men; and being found in human form, he brought himself low by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Phil 2:7-8).
Shemirat Ha-Lashon - שְׁמִירַת הַלָּשׁוֹן
[ The following is related to our Torah reading this week, parashat Tazria-Metzora. Please read the Torah portion to find your place here... ]
04.11.13 (Iyyar 1, 5773) According to the sages, tzara'at ("leprosy") was a punishment for evil speech, or "lashon hara" (לָשׁוֹן הָרָה). In midrashic literature, lashon hara is regarded as equal to idol worship, sexual immorality, and murder, and the one who indulges in it defiles his mouth so that even words of Torah and prayer are corrupted. "From the same mouth come blessing and cursing; brothers, these things ought not to be so" (James 3:10). The sages even go further: "Lashon Hara is worse than murder. One who murders, murders but one; however, one who speaks lashon hara kills three: the one who speaks it, the one who hears it, and the one of whom it is spoken." Lashon hara is likened to "emotional homicide" caused by publicly shaming another. According to the Talmud, the shamed person's face is drained of blood and turns white, and therefore humiliation is called halbanat panim, "whitening the face." Therefore the sages identify the metzora (i.e., leper) with hamotzi ra, "one who brings forth evil," and they stress shemirat ha-lashon, the "guarding of the tongue," as a cardinal virtue of the righteous.
Those who think it easy to control the tongue have likely never really tried to do so. "The tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell" (James 3:5-6). Ultimately, controlling your tongue is a matter of controlling your inner thoughts, your heart, and your attitude (shemirat ha-lev). Therefore we are admonished to be "quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger," since the anger of man never works the righteousness of God (James 1:19). May the LORD our God help us always to speak with grace, "seasoned with salt" (Col. 4:6); and may we all "speak the truth in love to grow up in every way" (Eph. 4:15).
Note: For more on this important topic, click here.
Atonement and Blood...
[ The following is related to our Torah reading this week, parashat Tazria-Metzora. Please read the Torah portion to find your place here... ]
04.10.13 (Nisan 30, 5773) Though the creation of human life (i.e., birth) is regarded as one of the greatest events in the world, the Torah states that it begins in impurity (טֻמְאָה), indicating that natural life by itself is insufficient for attaining spiritual life (John 3:7). Hence we read in our Torah portion that the birth of a child results in impurity for the mother that required blood atonement (Lev. 12:2,7). A new mother is treated as a nidah (a menstruent woman) and is considered impure (i.e., tamei, טָמֵא) for 40 days (if a boy) or 80 days (if a girl). Only after making an offering of blood (e.g., a lamb, a young pigeon, or a turtledove) was she declared "clean" (טָהֵר) by the priests. This was also true of Miriam (i.e., Mary, the mother of Yeshua) who fulfilled her "days of purification" and offered the prescribed sacrifices according to the law (Luke 2:22-24).
The Torah makes it clear that blood (דָּם) is used as a means of consecration as well as a means of obtaining atonement (כַּפָּרָה) with God. Blood was used on the doorposts of the houses in Egypt to ward off judgment and was later used to ratify the covenant given at Sinai (Exod. 24:8). All the elements of Mishkan (Tabernacle) were likewise "separated" by its use: The altar, the various furnishings of the Temple, the vestments of the priests, and even the priests themselves were sanctified by blood (Exod. 29:20-21, Heb. 9:21). But ultimately blood was used to "make atonement" for the soul upon the altar. As the Torah (Lev. 17:11) plainly states: "For the life of the flesh is in the blood (כִּי נֶפֶשׁ הַבָּשָׂר בַּדָּם), and I have given it for you on the altar to atone (לְכַפֵּר) for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life (כִּי־הַדָּם הוּא בַּנֶּפֶשׁ יְכַפֵּר)." Blood is therefore connected to the holiness of life through sacrificial death...
Note: For more on this subject, see the "Atonement and Blood" article.
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