One of the most important things to know when interpreting the Bible is the rule of Circles of Context. One should never take a single verse or passage out of the book, and make an argument or interpretation based solely on those few words.

Incorporated into that rule is the idea that some things stated are literal, and others are not, but without looking at a verse within the context of the entire statement or section, you really can’t be sure which way to go.

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For instance, when we read about Ezra reading the Torah to everyone in Israel, we know really, that not every, single person in Israel was there in Jerusalem. Clearly, this was a statement to be taken metaphorically.

On the other hand, when we read about how God parted the Red Sea, that is something we know to be literally true.

There are dozens of examples in the Bible where we read words that indicate much more than they really are meant to, and we need to use discernment and always contextual confirmation that what we think is to be taken literally, really should be.

Way too often I read what people say and think, “They can’t really mean that, can they?” because they are quoting from the Bible, but taking things totally out of context, or twisting the meanings to fit their desired interpretation.

There are two rules we must always follow when reading from the Bible: Circles of Context and Hermeneutics.

Circles of Context, as I explained, means looking at a verse or passage within the context of the paragraph, within the context of the letter, and consider who was writing this, and to whom.

Hermeneutics is, simply stated, making sure that whatever we read in one part of the Bible is in accordance with what we read in another part of the Bible. For example, if we read that Moses left Egypt because his murder was known, but someone interprets something elsewhere in the Bible to indicate Moses left for a different reason, we would have to reconsider both statements because they conflict. Only one can be true, which is why it is so important to know the Bible, inside and out, so that when you read something that conflicts with what you know to be true, you will be forced to investigate and determine, for yourself, which is correct.

So, the main lesson today, which I haven’t even stated yet, is to know the Bible! Don’t just read it but study it, so that you can be prepared to verify what is truth and what is misinterpretation when you talk with people.

Let me leave you with this great example of why we need to know the Bible: in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 4 starts with HaSatan tempting Yeshua, and for each biblical reference Satan uses to fool Yeshua into doing as he says, Yeshua knows how to refute Satan by reciting from the Torah to show Satan’s misuse of the passages.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

Proverb 22:6 says this:

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

The problem I see in the world is that parents don’t want to be parents to their children, they’d rather be friends.

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Today’s parents are so concerned that they will traumatize their child if they should so much as spank them, or even tell them they did something wrong. This is one reason we see so many young people today with a sense of entitlement: whatever they want they think they deserve, and if you so much as say a word they don’t like, they become offended.

When I grew up (yeah, yeah, here it comes- the old “when I was a kid…” line, but it is true) we didn’t have soft rubber matting on the ground under our monkey bars. We didn’t have helmets when riding our bikes, and we played community games like Hide and Seek, Johnny on the Pony, and Red Light: Green Light.

And our parents didn’t hesitate for a moment to discipline us when we did something wrong. There was no consideration for our deep, emotional well-being: their concern was for us to know what was right and what was wrong so that when we grew up, we wouldn’t be in trouble or have difficulty getting along with people. They were more concerned with our future than our feelings, and I believe that was because they loved us enough to want us to be successful in life, even if it meant we may be upset or angry with them.

And they also taught us how to be respectful of others, polite to our elders, and how to cook, clean, do the wash, and generally be independent so that we could be good parents when we have kids of our own.

Not so today: these kinds of parents are few and far between.

So, nu? What does this have to do with God? I’ll tell you what it has to do with God- God wants us to be parents, not friends, and he wants us to teach our children how to be god-fearing and do as God wants because when they get older, they will be the role model that their kids fashion themselves after, whether the kids want to or not.

The greatest response any parent can give to their child when the kid is being rebellious is:

“Like it or not, you will grow up to be me!”

I recently came back from Boston, where Donna and I had a really nice long weekend visit, and in the seat behind us on the plane was a child, maybe 3-4 years old. Now, one of the disadvantages of living close to Orlando is that on every, single plane ride home, the plane is filled with young, overly excited kids chomping at the bit to get to Disney World. This child was no exception, and in truth, she was cute, saying “Minnie! Mickey!” over and over.

So, what’s wrong with that? What was wrong was that she was saying it at the top of her voice, and she never stopped talking that loud for the next 2-1/2 hours!

So where are the parents? Why are they allowing this? And to make it worse, there was a lady (not the mom) sitting next to the kid who actually encouraged it!

Now, you may be thinking that the kid is too young to know better, and you’d be right, but the parents should know better, and even if the kid won’t be able to comprehend the lesson of using her “inside voice”, the lesson will stay in her mind. We may not be able to comprehend why when we are too young to really know right from wrong, but our brains will retain the emotion of knowing Daddy or Mommy didn’t like something. It may be in the subconscious, but it will be there.

And when the kid is old enough to know better, that lesson will be brought from the back of the head to the front of it.

Please don’t get me wrong- I am not saying do not allow children to be children, but I am saying that what you allow, or what you don’t allow, whether or not they are old enough to understand why, they will understand Yes and No.

Raise your children up correctly, no matter what their age- if they can understand the language, they will learn what you tell them. There is no waiting until they are old enough to understand because by the time they reach that age, they have already formed behaviors that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

If you are a God-fearing person and have children, you need to ask yourself if you want them to be saved or damned when they die, because that decision is very much in your control. Why do you think God tells us to raise them up correctly? If you do not teach them what they need to know and how to act by providing a good role model for them, the person they become will be very much your fault.

As I conclude today’s message, I will leave you with this other godly wisdom from the Book of Proverbs:, Proverbs 13:24 and 23:14–

 13:24- He who fails to use a stick hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.
 23:14–If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol.

Thank you for being here; that’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

Way back in September of 2020 I wrote a message about rehearsing our anger, and stated that it is something I continually do, but am working at stopping it (click here if you want to read that message).

Guess who hasn’t made one inch of progress?

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When I talk about rehearsing our anger, I am referring to those times when we have an argument with someone, who isn’t there, and may not have even ever said anything to make us mad. It is one of those things we do when we review what has happened or know we will be talking with someone, and we want to prepare ourselves.

The problem is not rehearsing what we want to say, it is when we start to fill-in their side of the discussion, and in order to do that, we have to make-up what we think they might say, which is unfair to them because they may say something totally different than what we think.

When I do this, it is almost always the most negative thing they can say, and this is really wrong of me, because (believe it or not) I am actually a pretty positive person, although I do have that New Yorker cynical viewpoint.

I have discussions with my wife when she is still asleep and I have just woken up; I have discussions with people who tick me off while I am driving, even though I passed their car a mile ago; I have arguments with people who have said nasty and judgmental things to me through this ministry, even after I have blocked them.

This is all stupid! Really- there is no other word that describes wasting the emotional energy it takes to argue with yourself, pretending to be someone else. And you know what is worse? When we do this, our blood pressure reacts just the same as if we were actually doing it for real!

When we rehearse our anger we will have the same physical reaction to the anger stimulus as if it was a real argument, in person, and that is why I say doing this is so stupid, because even though it is all make-believe, the mental images (that may become memory) and physiological responses are real, even though the event is manufactured and pure fiction.

Now here is the sin of it all- when we argue with someone who isn’t there, we have to put words in their mouths to make the argument two-sided, which is the same as bearing false witness. Because when we make up what the other person says, we are saying something that isn’t true, which is, essentially, bearing false witness.

So, I am still trying to stop this, and have begun to incorporate it in my daily prayers, asking God to excise this part of my brain. I know he is willing to help me, but I heard from him, long ago, when I asked him to just take something I hated about my thoughts away, he said it doesn’t work that way- I have to work at it, and he will help me to do that, but he won’t just do it for me. The reason he won’t just take it away is that it won’t teach me about self-discipline, and that is what the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) wants to see when it works within me to make me better than I was.

God has made covenants with us, and a covenant is a “you-and-me” relationship, not a “I’ll do it all for you” type of thing. The Christian world has concentrated on telling people all the things God will do for them, but it rarely teaches that they must FIRST do what God requires.

I will continue to work on this, and I know that when I have conquered it (there’s that positive attitude) my life will be happier, my sleep will be more satisfying, and my relationships will be more loving. The sad truth is that when I argue all the time, I am like Dr. Bruce Banner in the Marvel movie “The Avengers”: in that movie, when they need Dr. Banner to turn into the Hulk, Captain America says it would be a good time to get really mad, Dr. Banner, who says:

“That’s my secret, Cap- I’m always mad.”

I don’t want to be that guy.

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That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

I would like to start by announcing that my website, which you may recall had been hacked to non-existence about a month ago, is now back up. Kudos to my Web Master, Travis, for having backups and knowing how to get things restored.

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So, we all know that idolatry is a sin. After all, it is the number two commandment in the Big Ten. And we all know that idolatry is when we worship other gods.

But is that really all it is?

I would like to suggest that idolatry is whenever we allow something to get between us and God.

For instance, do you skip going to Holy Day ceremonies because there is a semi-final game on TV?

Or maybe you eat whatever you like to eat and use the traditional Christian excuse that “Yeshua did away with the law”, even though in your heart you know that he didn’t do away with the law because then there would be no law, at all!

Or maybe you don’t even care to try to forgive someone who has hurt you, in whichever way, because you feel they don’t deserve to receive forgiveness.

Well, let me tell you something: every single one of those reasons is placing your desires before God’s desires, which is a wedge between you and God.

In other words, it is idolatry.

When we allow ourselves to let something we want to take precedence over what God says we should, or shouldn’t, do, we are idolaters. And yes, it is something that we allow! Everything you do is a choice, whether you want to believe that or not. I will tell you now the same thing I tell atheists and agnostics: just because you choose to deny something as real doesn’t mean that something isn’t real.

The point today is whether or not you have been told that all a Christian has to obey are the moral laws, and you agree that idolatry is immoral, then consider this:

God is the epitome of morality, so whatever he says is morally just and true, and that means what he told us to do (and not to do) in the Torah is completely moral. Therefore, if you refuse to obey the Torah, then you are, by definition, rejecting the moral laws, which makes you a sinner and an idolater.

Oy veys mir! No, no- that can’t be true! Oh yes- it IS true! When you refuse, for whatever reason, to do what God said to do, which is found only in the Torah, you are placing a wedge between yourself and God.

Now, you may say that you are only following what your religion says, but God has no religion, so what you are really following is someone’s idea of what (in truth) they want to do, and then teach others who are biblically ignorant, that it is what God wants them to do.

Let’s put it to you like this: when you have to face God, and we all will have to face him, and he reads to you all the times in your life you chose to reject what he said in the Torah, and you reply, “But Lord, I was only doing what they told me I should do.”, I believe God might answer you with something to this effect:

“I understand, my child, that you only did what they told you to do, but it is what I say that counts.”

Thank you for being here; that’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

How many times have you heard that the best way to get to know someone is to walk a mile in their shoes? That’s an age-old adage that really makes sense, but with all of the hatred in the world, I gotta think that no one is wearing any shoes, at all!

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Today’s message is simple: the way to learn how to hate someone is to never get to know them, and that is not just relating to a person, but to a people, a religion, a creed, race, or even sexual orientation.

I am not saying that we have to agree with any particular lifestyle choice, or belief system, but we are more likely not to hate or act in a bigoted manner against someone if we get to know them.

The worst thing we can do to our children is to bring them up in an atmosphere of bigotry, and that comes solely from ignorance: not the type of ignorance from not having an education, but the ignorance that comes from refusing to accept that other people can be different than you are.

In Israel, a constant hotspot of hatred, everyone I know who has lived there or even visited, will tell you that life there between the Arabs and the Jews is fine, and not at all like what we are told it is by the Yellow Journalistic Media. The Arabs living in Israel get along perfectly well with the Jewish population. In truth, the Arabs living in Syria, Jordon, or other surrounding countries want to go to Israel because, unlike their own country, in Israel there are jobs and they aren’t persecuted or mistreated. In fact, the Arabs who live and work in Israel are granted the same rights and pay for work that the Israelis get.

Can we here in the United States say the same thing for our (legal) immigrants?

The hatred has to stop with our children: we must not teach them our bigotries, but instead allow them to discover, on their own, what other people are like.

You may say that is a real Pollyanna attitude, since it is the parents who are the cause of the children growing up bigoted, and you are right- I really can’t see this happening.

And, as communistic as this sounds, I think the only way to stop racial hatred and religious bigotry is to get the kids away from the parents before they can be influenced; at least, for one or two generations, and raise them in a kibbutz-like environment where they are cared for by people who are not hateful. They will grow up with other children; black, white, Jewish, Arab. Christian, whatever, without any forced religious upbringing, but allowing them to have access to the religion their parents had while being able to investigate everyone else’s religion.

Yes, I know- how can I, a United States citizen and a (former) Marine Corps officer (to boot) think like a communist? Well, I don’t, not normally, but there is so much racial tension from bigotry in the USA, and so much religious hatred in the Middle East, that there is no way I can see to resolve this without drastic measures being taken.

And I can think of no more a drastic measure than to separate children from their parents, but if that is what it takes to form a society free of bigotry and hatred, well…isn’t it worth it?

The hardest thing to overcome with bigotry is that the bigots believe the people they hate are the cause of the racial or religious tensions. Whites feel blacks have created their own subculture and don’t want to be part of society, and blacks feel they have been subjugated to the point of losing their ethical and cultural identity, being forced to be absorbed into a white society.

And they’re both right, to a degree- this is a problem that exists in America for all cultures. People some time ago, for some reason, decided they didn’t want to be just plain, old Americans; no, they wanted to be something-American. They were African-American, Italian-American, Chinese-American, European-American, whatever, yet they are living in America! If you live in a country, shouldn’t you be a member of that country, and only that country?

America used to be called the Melting Pot, where all different cultures came to be a collective culture called “Americans”. Not anymore, I am sad to say, and I believe this is part of the reason for the racial and religious tensions in the US.

So, let’s bring this all together: obviously, there will never be a separation of children from parents in a free society, so we need to teach children in the schools and workplaces that everyone is the same under the skin, hoping that this will offset any bigoted attitudes they may have learned from their parents. The history of America and how things are in Israel between the Jews and the Arabs there today proves that different religions and races can work together as a society with the same goals and desires, without having to hate each other or lose their cultural identification.

It is up to each and every one of us to work towards this goal, and especially you parents out there who are hearing this message: teach your children that hatred is wrong, and that if they feel they do not like someone or a group of people, take the time to get to know them, and they will not only become better people, themselves, but will gain knowledge and new friendships.

That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!