I am taking a drug called Lyrica to relieve the very painful sciatica pain I currently have, which is from a back operation I had to relieve the sciatica pain.

I did a video, also, so click here if you want to see it: Watch the video.

As silly as that sounds, it is true: it seems that after scraping away some of the ligament that was putting pressure on the spinal cord root nerves coming from my spine (called Lumbar Spinal Stenosis), after a week or so (of blessed pain-free life) the body realizes there has been damage to an area and rushes to heal that area, causing inflammation, which ends up putting pressure on the same nerve roots that are supposed to be untouched by anything.

So I am taking the maximum dosage of Lyrica, which does help a lot, but it doesn’t take away all the pain. I am only pain free when I am sitting or lying down.

When taking Lyrica , you are relieved of pain but Lyrica also causes some small loss of cognitive ability when taking it. A pharmacist told me that it effects the same brain receptors as alcohol does, so it simulates being “tipsy”.

I can verify that he was correct: I have already had to make about 20+ corrections to my typing.

So, since I don’t want to end up like Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10), I am not even going to try to give a parashah message today. No one should come before the Lord drunk, and even though I am not really drunk, I am close enough and I respect God enough not to try to give a message in this condition.

All I will do is ask you to pray for my body to heal itself quickly so that I can stop taking Lyrica and resume a normal, pain free life.

I’ll try to be with you next week, but if I am not posting it is because of the Lyrica effect on me, so please be patient and keep your settings set to notify you when I post.

L’hitraot and Shabbat Shalom!

I am back from a week-long cruise in the Caribbean, which was restful and allowed me to catch up on  some reading.

So now, it’s back to work…

I know, I know…I am taking a risk that I might destroy the belief system founded on the idea of Original Sin by even suggesting that Eve did not really do anything wrong. 

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

But having just read (again, for the umpteenth time) the story of Eve and the serpent, I have to wonder if Eve really should have been held accountable.

Why would I think that? After all, she was told not to eat from that tree, right? That was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, right? That fruit would give her the same understanding that God has of good from evil, right?

And THAT is why I started to wonder: if the fruit of that tree gave her the knowledge of good and evil, then before she ate from the tree, she must not have known good from evil. So, that begs the question: how could she have been held accountable for doing wrong (i.e., evil) if she was incapable of knowing good from evil?

That’s when the judge said, “Hmmm…that is an interesting thought, Counselor; please, continue to make your case.”

In Judaism, we believe that children are born with the Yetzer Hara (evil intention), and it isn’t until they are (at least) 10 years old (some say 13) that they develop the Yetzer Tov, the Good Intention (Tanchume, Genesis 7). 

In other words, when we are too young to know the difference between good and evil, which I believe I can make a reasonable argument is equatable with right and wrong or righteous and sinful, we really don’t know what is what, which is which, or who is who when it comes down to what to do, what to say, who to believe or what to obey. 

The only thing we know is our innate desire to sin, the Yetzer Hara, and until we are able to understand the difference between right and wrong, is it really justice for us to be held accountable for our actions? 

When you see toddlers, maybe 5 years old or less, playing with toys, when they all go for the same toy, whichever one has it first doesn’t want to relinquish control. Do we think that is an evil child and punish him or her? No, we explain they need to learn to share, and we do so because we understand they don’t know any better. 

God clearly says in the Torah (you can find this in the first chapters of Leviticus) that even if someone sins unknowingly, that person is still guilty. Once they are made aware of the sin, they must then observe the sacrificial system requirements in order to be forgiven.

Now, if you ask me, I do not believe God is talking about young children here, but only those people who are old enough to know that what they did was wrong. 

I feel the same way about Christian baptism: when the kid is only a month or so old, do you really believe that God will send an infant to suffer in Hell for all eternity if it dies without being baptized? 

To me, during a Christian baptism, when the Godparent (by answering for the child) commits that child to a system of religious doctrine that has been created by men, not God, that is not helping the child in any way, whatsoever. 

Jews don’t baptize their infants. We do have baptism (after all, where do you think John the Baptist got the idea?), which is called a T’villah. This is not the same as a Mikvah, which is a ritual cleansing; the T’villah is a physical representation of a spiritual change, such as was done when John baptized people, when Cornelius and his family were baptized by Kefa, and when the Ethiopian was baptized by Phillip. 

And we do not do it with anyone not yet old enough to know what they are doing! 

So, going back to Eve and that nasty so-and-so, the Serpent, if Eve really had no idea of the difference between what was right and wrong, and she ate because the serpent told her it was okay to do so, then should she really have been held accountable for that action? 

Good point- God did tell them not to eat from that tree; no doubt about that! But- and, again I say, BUT- if Eve was incapable of knowing that she did something wrong, why should she be punished?  

The same goes for Adam, when Eve told him to eat, also. 

Before the lightning strikes me, I want to make it clear I am not saying God was wrong in doing what he did- heaven knows (actually, he does) I believe everything that God does, he does for the ultimate purpose of teaching us how to protect ourselves from ourselves. 

For example, what happened to Job seems totally unfair and cruel, yet the lesson we all learn from it is valuable in that we better understand who God is, and that we cannot always understand why he allows things to happen. But, when we trust in him to see us through, we will come through it. 

So, maybe, even though Eve didn’t understand right from wrong and maybe she really wasn’t responsible for disobeying God, the lesson we learn from this is that when God says to do, or not to do, something, he means it. Whether or not we understand God’s purpose, it is not important or even relevant- there is obey or reject; there is either gathering with or spreading; it comes down to is you, or isn’t you, my Baby? 

If I may, I would like to share what I do on a daily basis, which I decided to do a long time ago. 

Because God does hold those who know good from evil accountable for what we do and say, whether we mean to do wrong or not, every day I pray for forgiveness of any and all sins I have or may have committed against God. 

As I have already mentioned, in the first chapters of Leviticus, God says absolutely that whether we know we did it or not, when we sin we are guilty. Period; end of line; close the door; das ist alles!  That is why I ask for forgiveness all the time, whether I know I have done anything wrong, or not.

I recommend it for everyone.

So, nu?  After all this discussion, what is the bottom line: did Eve (and Adam) really deserve to be punished or not?  

Well, the serpent definitely deserved what he got, so we can close the book on that one. 

As for Eve, maybe my original contention that not knowing good from evil is the same as not knowing right from wrong, is wrong? If so, then she defiintely did know what she was doing, and punishment was deserved. 

If, on the other hand, I was right in thinking right from wrong and good from evil are the same thing, then maybe what God did, in a human view, wasn’t really fair or justified, but I will say this (and this statement can only be made by reason of my total and absolute faith in God): 

Whether or not I understand why, and whether or not I agree or not whether something God does is justified, I believe that if God does it or allows it, then it must be for a good purpose. 

Furthermore, I also believe that it is not wrong or sinful to question God (respectfully, of course) because God is big enough to be able to handle a few questions. 

Of course, because he is God, he doesn’t have to answwer them if he doesn’t want to, but we can always ask. 

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know. Subcribe to my website and YouTube channel, and join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” (please read and agree to the rules.) 

And while you are on the website, buy my books: if you like what you get here, you will like my books. Hey- they aren’t expensive.

One final thing- please do not ever hesitate to make comments: agree, disagree, drash it out with me…I can handle it.

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

PS: Please pray for the quick and complete recovery of my wife, who is suffering with sever pancreatitis. It hit her the day we came off our cruise, which was all last week, and she has been hospitalized and in pain for 4 days now.

We are told that whatever we ask for, in Yeshua’s name, we will receive (John 14:13).

Yet, I have heard so many people, so many times, not just ask God for what they want, they actually tell him what to do and how to do it!

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

Haven’t you heard people pray for God to help someone, and instead of asking God to heal the sickness or resolve the problem, they outline the things God should do:

“Oh Lord, take away the pain and destroy the sickness in their body.”
“Oh Lord, excise this disease and destroy the illness.”
“Oh, Lord, provide them a job that will give them financial security, with good promotability and close to home, and with vacation and sick days. Oh, yes, and don’t forget they should have a good 401-K plan!”

I have to tell you there are two things people do when they pray that I just cannot believe need to be done: first off, they go on and on…and on…and it seems they think the more they say, the better a job God will do. And I’m not alone feeling this way, because Yeshua (Jesus) says the same thing in Matthew 6:7.

Not only that, but they tell God what he should do, as I exemplified above.

I don’t know about you, but I would never profess to know what to do better than God does, and because I have faith in God, I trust him to know exactly what needs to be done. I really don’t think, if praying for healing, that anyone needs to tell God how he should go about the business of healing that person.

And, again, I am not alone in feeling this way because Moses demonstrates this same faithfulness in Numbers 12:13.

You may recall that Miriam and Aaron spoke up against Moses for taking a Cushite wife. God called them to the Tent of Meeting and chided them both for speaking against his servant. As punishment, he infected Miriam with tzara’at (leprosy). When Moses saw this, he prayed for God to heal her:

“So Moses cried out to the LORD, “Please, God, heal her!””

Just 4 words! His sister is white as death and will be forced out of the camp, yet he didn’t go through an entire treatise of how God should make her skin pure and clean, or how he should not turn her white as death, or any of the literary euphemisms that we associate with tzara’at. No, he simply asked God to heal her, knowing that God knew what he meant and what to do.

So, when you pray for someone, please don’t try to sound like some fancy-schmancy preacher at the pulpit, trying to make an appeal that is more of a political speech; but just ask God simply, and concisely, for what you want.

Believe me, whether you pray for healing, for help, for health, for joy, or whatever you need, God knows better than you do what to do, how to do it, and when is the best time to do it for you.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know to help this ministry continue to grow. Subscribe to my website and YouTube channel, join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” (please read and agree to the rules), and remember that I always welcome your comments.

I have written a book on Prayer, which is available on Amazon- there is a link to it on my website.

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

PS: Thank you for the prayers you have sent- my back surgery went very well and for the first time in almost a year I can walk and move without nerve pain down my legs.

Praise God!

We all know that God is capable of doing anything he wants to. It’s not even hard for him- he created the entire universe with a word, so making things happen in your life isn’t much more than a fleeting thought.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

But does that mean that he is the only one in control?

Or, let’s put it a different way…because God is in control, does that mean you have none? Does God’s control over events in your life make it impossible for you to have your own way?

Now we’re getting into something deep- free will vs. predestination. These have historically been considered mutually exclusive, but not for Jews.

I heard, a long time ago, that Judaism has been able to explain how predestination and free will can be mutually inclusive. This is how I remember it:

God is the captain of a ship that is going to a specific port. This trip is a long one, and there are reefs and storms and such that cause it to sometimes take a detour, but eventually it will make the desired port, exactly when the captain wants it to land.

In the meantime, it makes many stops along the way, and people can freely get on or off, as they choose.

If they get off at a certain port, because the ship is not turning back, they won’t be able to get back on. When they get on, they are expected to do their share of the work (i.e., obey the captains orders). If they constantly refuse to obey, the captain will have them placed in jail and they won’t be freed to disembark when the ship lands at the final port.

The idea is that what God wants to accomplish he will, and we have the choice to either work with him (obey his commandments) or refuse to comply and end up in jail, which we call “hell”.

What many don’t realize is that by following man-made traditions, rites, ceremonies, and holidays, none of which are the ones God told us to celebrate, they are, in reality, rejecting God’s commandments.

Christianity has taught that when you accept Yeshua (Jesus) as your Messiah you are exempt from the “Jewish” laws and commandments, but that is simply not true. Yeshua never once said anyone is exempt from obedience to the Torah- never! Those lies have been promulgated by men- men who created their own religions.

And these man-made religions have separated themselves from the Jews, both by creating their own system of worship and lifestyle.

Here’s the scary part…because God appointed the Jewish people to be his cohanim (priests) to the world (Exodus 19:5-6), when these man-made religions taught their people to reject the Jewish system of worship and lifestyle, they taught them to reject God.

You do have control over your life- you can get on the ship which has God as captain, or you can get on a ship with a different captain. I chose to get on God’s ship about 25 years ago, and have worked my way up through the ranks (I am proud to say) to the level of teacher, which God has anointed (or, since we’re using a naval metaphor, I should probably say commissioned) me with.

And today’s lesson is that you should get on the ship that has God as the captain because it is the only one that will make that far-away port. And, while on the ship, obey the captain to receive his blessings and be allowed to enter the port when we get there.

God is in total control of everything, but you are still in control of yourself, so you can choose to board the ship God is steering, or a ship someone else is steering; but remember this- whichever ship you sail on, you will be expected to obey the captain or you’ll end up in the brig.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe to both my website and YouTube channels. Also, please join my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word” (please read and agree to the rules) and buy my books.

Also, share these messages with everyone you know.

I would appreciate your prayers today as I am having back surgery done this afternoon.

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

I have been seeing more and more posts on Facebook, mostly shared by friends, that say something to the effect of ” There are riches waiting for you, so pray to receive them and you will”. 

This sort of post has the appearance of being Godly and edifying, but it is really nothing more than some form of Christian fortune cookie.

When you pray to God, your prayers should be from your heart and you should ask God for whatever you want, but not what others tell you is waiting for you.

I can’t believe that God will send you worldly riches if you pray for them because someone posted on Facebook that they are waiting for you. 

I have blocked the people that send these to me; not my friends, but the original poster. Why? Because I am certain that they are not of God but from the Enemy, and are designed to weaken our faith.

How can a Facebook post weaken my faith?

I’ll tell you how: anyone who really believes that God has told someone to post on social media that God is waiting for you to pray to him so he can give you money or blessings is gullible enough to be disappointed when those prayers aren’t answered. 

And, because this will happen every time they fall for this lie, eventually they will become untrusting and their faith will weaken. Maybe even to the point of apostatizing!  

Am I reading too much into this? Am I making a mountain out of a molehill?

Maybe…but we are told that it takes only a little chametz to spread through an entire batch of dough (Galatians 5:9), so maybe I’m not overreacting, after all. 

You can do whatever you want to do, and if you like these pseudo “prayerful” postings, then go ahead and do what they tell you to do, but please understand that it isn’t God who is behind those posts. 

It’s the people who write fortune cookies.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages to help this ministry grow. Subscribe to my website and my Youtube channel, as well, and when on the website please buy the books I have written. There’s one about prayer, which will help you to recognize proper prayer from the phony-baloney drek I am talking about today.

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

How can anyone lie and be sincere about it? After all, the definition of sincere is to be “honest, not deceitful” (Webster), and lying is, by definition, dishonest because you are hiding the truth.

So you can’t be sincere if you are dishonestly trying to fool someone… can you?

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

I believe the answer is “Yes”, you can be sincere when lying to someone; that is, when the lie you are telling is something you believe to be true.

For instance, a traditional Christian teaching, which has been taught by Seminary to the students for centuries, students who will be priests and pastors and teaching these lessons to their congregations, is that Jesus did away with the law and that the Old Covenant is just a Jewish Bible which Christians don’t need to know.

They teach that when you accept Jesus as your savior (they don’t even use the term “Messiah” because it is too “Jewish”) you don’t have to obey the kosher laws, not to observe the Saturday Shabbat, and not to celebrate any of the Holy Days God commanded to be celebrated because all that stuff is just for Jews.

And in the Yeshiva (Rabbinical school) they teach that Jesus created Christianity and that he was only a man who was considered a Rabbi; sometimes they teach he never really existed!

I am here to tell you that these are all lies- Jesus did NOT ever do away with or even suggest doing away with any of the laws his father commanded us to follow (Matthew 5:17). In fact, he followed them and said that if we loved him, we would obey him- the only way to obey him is to do as he did, which was to obey his father’s commandments. And God never said anything in the New Covenant- God tells us what he wants us to do in the Torah.

Most of the things that Christians believe are valid forms of worship are not from God or from Yeshua (let’s use his real name) but misinterpretations of instructions from Shaul (Paul) to his newly believing congregations of Gentiles. What he wrote in his Epistles aren’t commands from God but instructions from a man.

The purpose of Shaul’s letters was to help get these neophyte Believers back on the proper track as their faith and behavior was waning due to problems they were encountering with Believing Jews, their pagan communities, and their interpersonal relationships.

The people lying to us don’t know they are lying, which is why their lies are sincere- they think they are helping us when in reality they are directing us to damnation.

So, how do we tell the lies from the truth? It’s actually very easy- read the Torah. That is the only place in the entire Bible (Genesis through Revelation) where God tells us, directly, what he wants us to do so we can earn blessings.

You can never earn salvation- that is why God sent Yeshua to be our Messiah. But, you can earn blessings (read Deuteronomy 28).

The only way to recognize a lie is to first know the truth, and the truth is that God tells us in the Torah how we should worship him, how we should treat each other, what we should eat, the way we should conduct business, our system of penal laws, and which Holy Days he wants us to celebrate.

When you know what God says you should do, then when someone tells you differently you will know it is a lie, even when they are sincere.

People who you trust and who love you don’t mean to misdirect you; but, in the end, many times what they tell you is proper obedience to God is a sincere lie. When anyone tells you to ignore any of God’s commandments, even when they really think they are helping you to find salvation, unfortunately they are not helping you, at all: what they are doing is condemning you to Sheol.

For my Jewish brothers and sisters, the lies you have always heard about Jesus are not only untrue, but Jesus isn’t the Messiah that God sent- he is the creation of Constantinian Christianity. Yeshua is the Messiah, and he never told anyone to do anything other than obey Adonai, as he did (perfectly) throughout his lifetime.

I am not saying to reject everything anyone has ever told you to do, because there are many correct things being taught in every religion. What I am saying is that there are many lies, sincerely and ignorantly presented, but lies all the same, and they come from people who think they are helping you. It isn’t their desire or aim to lie to you- they are just repeating the lies they were taught.

The only way to protect yourself from sincere lies is to know what God says, and that can only be found in the Torah.

Look- you have a choice to just go on doing whatever your religious leaders, family and friends have told to do, or you can protect your salvation by knowing what God said you should do. That’s really the only way you will be able to tell the difference between the truth and the sincere lies.

PLEASE!!! Don’t be lazy about this because what you do, or don’t do, determines where you spend eternity.

Thank you for being here and please share these message with everyone you know. Subscribe to my YouTube channel and website, and while you are on the website please buy my books. If you like what you get here, you will like my books- guaranteed!

And remember that I always welcome your comments, which you can make here or on my Facebook group called “Just God’s Word.”

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

(No video today; sorry, but you’ll have to read this one)

As I write this it is the beginning of the 14th day of Nisan 5782, which is the same as the evening of April 14, 2022.

In the morning Jews all over the world will be engaged in preparing for the Seder, and Christians will be preparing for their Good Friday activities. In my house, Donna and I will also be preparing for our Seder, which will be blessed with the addition of a friend of mine from my high school days who lives close by. She is a Gentile and was happy to be invited to join us.

Donna and I have been inviting friends to join our Passover Seder for almost as many years as we have been having one, which is close to some 26 years now- maybe more- and every one who has joined us has been impressed and happy they came.

We use a Messianic Hagaddah, so our Gentile friends, many of whom aren’t “Born Again” get to see how Jesus and Passover go together.

Speaking of which, some will be celebrating Good Friday by having their own version of the Last Supper, but they will not be performing it as Yeshua did. And come Sunday, they will be celebrating his resurrection from the dead, most likely eating the ever-popular Easter Ham, which Yeshua would consider to be an abomination on his table.

Yeshua is often referred to as the Passover Lamb of God, but in truth, he wasn’t the Passover lamb, per se’, because his sacrificial death was a sin sacrifice, and the Passover lamb was not a sin sacrifice- it was a Peace, or Thanksgiving offering.

Read the first 7 chapters of Leviticus, where God gives us the rules for the different sacrifices. The only sacrifice where the person bringing the sacrifice shares in eating of it is the Thanksgiving sacrifice. A portion of the lamb that is sacrificed for Passover is taken home and eaten at the Seder, so this is not a sin or guilt or cleansing sacrifice- it is a Thanksgiving sacrifice.

And that makes sense: after all, having the Angel of Death pass over your house is certainly something to be thankful for, isn’t it?

Yeshua’s sacrifice is more akin to the Yom Kippur sacrifice.

Actually, Yeshua’s sacrifice acts as both the Thanksgiving and sin sacrifice. By means of his substitutionary sacrifice, we no longer need to bring an animal to sacrifice at the Temple, which the Torah required, in order to be forgiven of sin. And, by means of the cleansing blood of the sacrifice, we can be forgiven of our sin and, thereby, draw near to God to commune with him. That is what the Thanksgiving sacrifice was all about, and that is why we shared the meat of that sacrifice, and only that sacrifice; and, not only that, but it was to be eaten in the presence of the holy place.

When archeologists discovered shards of plates and cups all around a high place at a dig in Shiloh many years ago, when they told a Rabbi about it he danced with joy. When they asked why he was so happy, he said that they found the place where the Tent of Meeting had been. He knew that because the broken pieces of plates and cups all around the area, but not on the high ground, meant that sacrifices were eaten there, which meant that had to be the Tent of Meeting (I heard this story from the Israeli guide we had when I was in the Holy Land.)

The Torah, as I mentioned, required the people to sacrifice only where God placed his name, which he commanded in Deuteronomy 12:13-14:

“Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt-offerings in every place that thou seest; but in the place which the LORD shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt-offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee.”

That is why it was so devastating to Jews when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed- that was where God placed his name, and as such was the only place where the sacrifice to remove our sin could take place. With no temple, there was no means of having our sins removed.

That is why Yeshua is now our only means of removing sin: his sacrifice replaced the need to bring an animal to the temple.

Passover always falls on a different day because Jews use the lunar calendar, and Good Friday and Easter are also based on the moon, but in a different way. To determine when Passover begins, the new moon for the month of Nisan (it used to be called Aviv, which means “spring”) is when we start to count. The evening of the 14th day (which begins after sunset of the 13th day) is when we have the Seder, and that is also when we begin Hag HaMatzot, or Festival of Unleavened Bread, which lasts for 7 days.

For Christians, Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon, which is the first full moon on or after 21 March (a fixed approximation of the March equinox). Often Passover and Easter come very close to each other, but rarely ever fall on the same day.

The one significant difference between the Jewish Holy Day (meaning God-commanded) of Pesach and the man-made holiday of Easter is just that- Passover is a Holy Day that God created and Easter is something men created.

God tells us we must celebrate the Passover; in fact, it is one of the three pilgrimage festivals when the people had to go to the temple in Jerusalem. The other two are Shavuot (which Christians celebrate as Pentecost) and Sukkot. That is why, when you read in the Book of Acts, Chapter 2 about the giving of the Spirit to the Apostles, there were thousands of people in Jerusalem.

They weren’t Christians, they were Jews who were there for the commanded appearance for Shavuot. Often when they came for Pesach they just stayed there another 50 days to wait for Shavuot.

There are many people who have been Born Again, especially Gentiles, who have rejected Easter and all the traditional Christian holidays, and celebrate the ones God tells us to celebrate- you can find them in Leviticus 23.

There are many more Christians, Born Again or not, who say that whatever is in the Old Covenant is just for Jews. They seem to ignore the fact that Jesus was, is, and always will be a Torah-observant Jew.

It’s sad that so many people wearing that WWJD bracelet (What Would Jesus Do) have been taught by their religion to do anything BUT what Jesus would do.

I think what pleases God (which would also please Yeshua) more than anything is to do as he said we should do, so I leave it up to you to celebrate what God says to celebrate, or to reject God’s commandments and instead do what men tell you to do.

הג פסח סמח

Hag Pesach sameach! (Happy Passover)