Category: A Drash to Start the Day

Are You Used to Your Salvation?

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David wrote this heartfelt prayer in Psalm 51 (CJB):

Create in me a clean heart, God; renew in me a resolute spirit. Don’t thrust me away from your presence, don’t take your Ruach Kodesh away from me. Restore my joy in your salvation, and let a willing spirit uphold me.

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I confess that I pray this on a regular basis, for myself, and not because it is a beautiful passage (which it is) and not because it tells of my love for God (which it does), but because I have become inured to having received the Grace of God and the indwelling of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit).

I have been “saved” for nearly a quarter of a century, and didn’t come to know my Messiah until I was in my 40’s; when I decided to accept Yeshua, I still had to wait nearly three months before I received the gift of the Ruach.

And looking back, I remember the many times I would be in prayer or singing to the Lord and felt his touch, you know- that tingling sensation you get all over-and I knew it wasn’t just a chill or something earthly: I knew it was God.

I can’t remember the last time I felt that. And I know it isn’t because God has abandoned me, or withdrawn his Ruach because of all the wonderful blessings I receive from him and also because of these messages I am given, so to speak, to share with you. I can tell you right now that when I do something that is edifying, which I am happy to say I receive confirmation from people regularly that this is what I am doing, then I know that it is from God ’cause it ain’t from me, I can tell you that right now!

Trust me on this: if something good comes from me, it ain’t me. So when I get a positive reply to a Facebook posting or from one of these messages on my ministry, I accept that as confirmation that the Ruach is still at work in me.

But still, I miss that touch. I know it is my fault I don’t feel it; it is not that I have rejected God, but I have become too used to my salvation. I have worked within it for so long that I don’t really appreciate it as much as I first did. I know that is wrong, but I also know it is part of human nature to become adjusted to almost any condition we are in, once we have been there long enough (I wouldn’t want to use the word “bored”, but that is almost what it is like.)

Now don’t get me wrong: I am not saying I am bored with God- heaven forbid! I appreciate everything he does for me and my wife, and I thank him every day. I read his word daily and pray to him always, but it is that peace of mind, that wonder, that overwhelming sense of joy that I recall when I was first saved that I miss. That zealousness, that strong desire to do absolutely everything in the Torah perfectly…where did it go? Am I the victim of that old adage, “Familiarity breeds contempt?”

Again, not that I hate God- heaven forbid! (I sound like Shaul writing to the Romans, don’t I?) But there is something too familiar with my relationship with the Spirit and to God and Messiah Yeshua. It is like a life-long friendship where two people have formed such a close relationship that they don’t feel it as much consciously, but subconsciously they know they are as one.

So, nu? What do I do about this?

You know what? I don’t know. Maybe someone out there has an answer, maybe someone out there feels they are in the same boat as I am, and maybe the answer will come to me when God is ready to slap me upside my head and say, “Get back with the program!”

I trust that God is still with me, I know that he is waiting for me to come closer, his hand out there, in anticipation that sooner or later I will figure it out. It is undoubtedly some level of pridefulness on my part that is acting as a wedge between me and God, keeping me from getting closer to him.

I don’t know: I just…don’t…know.

So what I will do is continue to study his word, continue to pray, continue to do my best to live more in accordance with the instructions God gave us, and continue to trust that God will, one way or another, in his perfect timing show me what I need to do in order to come closer to him.

And, now that I think about it, that sounds like a good plan for anyone.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe and share these messages to help this ministry grow. I never ask for money because this is a teaching ministry and not a money-grabbing business (although it wouldn’t hurt if you bought some of my books.) I will never tell anyone what they must believe, only what I believe God is saying to us. All I want to do is give people what they need in order to make an informed decision about where they will spend eternity.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

PS: I was making the video for this and as I was reviewing the video, I felt God’s touch! So it seems the answer is as David said elsewhere- a broken heart and a contrite spirit, God will not turn away.

Praise God, now and always, for his love endures forever!

How Can Sinners be Allowed in Heaven?

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During the Sermon on the Mount, as recalled in the Gospel of Matthew, (5:19) Yeshua says this (CJB):

So whoever disobeys the least of these mitzvot and teaches others to do so will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But whoever obeys them and so teaches will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.

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Some versions of the Bible say the Kingdom of God, but the terms “Kingdom of God” and “Kingdom of Heaven” are considered to be the same thing, which is where those who are saved by the Messiah will be when the Tribulation is over and the new earth and new heaven are formed.

In other words, eternity.

When I read this, I have to ask myself, how can someone who not only sins but teaches others to sin be called the least in heaven? I mean, if you are a sinner teaching others to sin, how can you even be allowed into God’s presence?

As far as I can see, this is the only place where Yeshua makes this statement in all of the Gospels.

So what does it mean? As with any interpretation, we can’t just look at the sentence, but at how that sentence fits into the general lesson or thought. Just before this, Yeshua talks about how he did not come to change the law and that not one of the even smallest elements of the law, i.e. commandments in the Torah, will be changed. Later, he warns everyone that if they aren’t more righteous than the Pharisees they will never enter the kingdom of heaven. We also have to take into account the constant complaint Yeshua had about the Pharisees, which was that they taught their own man-made traditions and laws superseded the mitzvot (laws) of God, as God gave them to us in the Torah.

So, when we look at all sides of this, we can see Yeshua wasn’t saying that anyone is able to enter heaven if they sin and teach others to sin, but that those who obey and teach that man-made regulations are more important than the law, while not directly breaking that law, are going to be least in the kingdom of heaven.

Placing the importance of a man-made tradition or ritual in lieu of what God said is a form of disobedience that isn’t, by definition, a sin because you aren’t really breaking the law, you are just obeying it in a different way than God said you should.

Okay, what the heck does that mean? Let’s look at the example Yeshua gave in Matthew 15:3-6 when he replied to the Pharisees accusing him of breaking the tradition of N’tilat Yadayim (handwashing before eating):

Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?  For God said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say that if a man says to his father and mother, ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’ he is not to ‘honor his father’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition

The Pharisees said Yeshua was teaching his people to break the traditions, and by doing so were, in essence, accusing him of breaking the law. His reply indicated that they were the ones breaking the law, and not the law of men but the law of God, by teaching that the law of men was more important than the law of God.

Let’s try this again: a korban is something devoted or offered to God, such as one of the sacrifices in Leviticus 1-7, but in this case, Yeshua wasn’t talking about something that was associated with sin or guilt. And although there is no specific Torah statement that to not offer a korban is a sin, still and all, you don’t renege on that offer. For instance, Hannah prayed for a child and offered the child as a Nazir to God; after Samuel was born, if she hadn’t delivered Samuel to Eli, the Cohen HaGadol, that would have been a sin. But, if she had only asked for a child and never devoted it to God, raising Samuel herself would not have been a sin.

Now, the Pharisees taught that once you offered a korban to God you couldn’t then give it to your parents, even if they desperately needed it because that would be a sin. And what Yeshua said was if they refuse to give to their needy parents that which they offered as a korban to God, then they were violating the 5th commandment.

How can these completely opposite opinions be reconciled? I believe the korban in this example that is being offered was not already offered but was intended to be offered. I justify this interpretation because most of the offerings made were of an animal or grain, so once given it was sacrificed, burnt upon the altar, and there was no way it could be retrieved; but, if someone tells their parents they can’t have something they need because it is devoted to God (or, more accurately, because I intend to devote it to God), that is where Yeshua said they break the law.

It is not a sin to intend to devote something to God, then change your mind because there is a greater need for it elsewhere. For instance, your parents.

So, what we have here is that this passage doesn’t imply when we sin and teach others to sin, we can still get into heaven. If someone does and teaches others that you can commit adultery, fornicate to your heart’s desire, totally disregard the Shabbat, or any such obvious disobedience to the laws God gave us in the Torah, they are not going to get a free pass to eternity in God’s presence. However, if someone is trying to obey and teach others to obey the law, but they are confused and teaching traditions of men instead of God’s way, which is what God-loving Christians have been doing for millennia, then they may still get into heaven, but they won’t be given front-row seats. Instead of a mansion, they may get a shack.

That reminds me of a story….

A Catholic Cardinal dies and goes to heaven. He is told he will be led to the place reserved for him, and as he is walking he sees beautiful mansions, and in one of them was someone he knew had been a New York City taxi driver.

As he is led, the mansions become houses, the houses become condos, and he is finally told, “This is for you.” In front of him is a small shack.

He asks the angel, “Are you sure? I devoted my life to God and was a Cardinal, so why am I in a shack and some hack from the Big Apple in a mansion?”

The angel said, “When you preached, people slept, but when he drove, people prayed.”

We should do what God said we should do, the way God said we should do it, and always teach others to obey what God says in the Torah. The New Covenant writings are not commandments from God, they are commentary by human beings, referencing what God said in the Torah. What Yeshua was warning the people about in Matthew 5:19 is that you can disobey a commandment by God by following a man-made tradition that is actually designed to fulfill a commandment.

And, for the record, Yeshua never said all man-made traditions are bad- only those that are given precedence over God’s commandments.

So, nu? How can I know which is the right one to obey? The answer is you need to know which commandments are from God, and which are man-made, and the only way you will know that, for certain, is to read the Torah.

Thank you for being here and please share these messages with everyone you know, subscribe to this ministry here and also on my YouTube channel (use the link above), and remember that I always welcome your comments.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

God Doesn’t Micromanage

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How many times have you heard someone ask, “How could God allow this to happen?” It’s a good question, considering that God can do anything, is everywhere all the time, knows everything, and hears everyone’s prayers.

Well, the answer is pretty simple: being able to do everything doesn’t mean God will do anything.

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God has a plan for the human species; he has told us what that plan is, and how it will come about, and even what to expect. The only thing we haven’t been told is when it will happen.

This plan, however, doesn’t rely on what we want or when we want it. Asking God to help you, to help someone else, or to help the country is fine, and often God will intervene if it fits within his plan. But if what we ask doesn’t fit in his plan, or isn’t going to make any difference, he may decide that it isn’t going to happen. Or, in some cases, what we would never want to happen will be allowed to happen.

Terrible things people do to other people, such as war, the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Salem Witch Hunts, the Holocaust, the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, school shootings… are all acts of violence that are sinful and destructive. If God is really a loving and compassionate God, who is in charge, then how could he have allowed these things to occur? And what about all that is happening now?

Again, the answer is that he doesn’t micromanage the world. As horrible and significant as these events seem to us when they happen, in the long run, in the scheme of things over the millennia during which humankind will exist, they are just a momentary hiccup; a blip on the screen; a fart in the wind that stinks for a second, then is gone.

Our lives are nothing more than a mist (James 4:14) and what is our lifetime? Maybe 70 or 80 years? (Psalm 90:10) Even as long as Methuselah lived, when compared to eternity, his life passed quicker than the blink of an eye.

God may decide, in his perfect wisdom, to intervene for you when you pray to him. He may make something that is, even to us, relatively unimportant happen for you. For instance, many years ago I was a Salesman and was in a real slump. I prayed earnestly for God to help me get out of the slump, and asked that he show me I am doing right by helping me to make a sale. And the very next pitch resulted in a sale. Now, you may say that was a coincidence, but it wasn’t just the next pitch, it was the next three pitches. From no sales for a while to three in a row was enough for me to believe this was an answer, and I thanked God for his intervention. My need was so minor, so small a request, so insignificant in the stream of eternity, yet God did do that for me.

That isn’t micromanaging, though, because when God does intervene, it isn’t all the time. Anyone who has been a manager, a GOOD manager, knows that part of the job is to teach your people how to be managers, as well, and to help them develop their skills. Since most people do not learn by listening, you have to allow them to make their own mistakes, even when you see it coming a mile away, so that they can learn the hard way, which is (I believe) the best way. Very few people learn when told how to stay out of trouble, but when they get in trouble and suffer from it, they remember that. Oh, yeah…they remember that absolutely!

Micromanagers don’t allow that- they will never let someone make a mistake because they have to be in on everything. That’s why micromanaging denies people the opportunity to learn how to be better, and it makes them feel insignificant, unimportant, untrusted, and often results in losing good people instead of keeping them. In the long run, micromanaging is self-defeating.

I don’t want this message to go off on a tangent into management theory, but if you agree with my dislike for micromanagement, then you can also see why God will allow many things to occur, things which as a human being we can’t fathom the reason for allowing it.

We see things on a linear plane: we identify the world based on our personal experience and interpret events based on a finite understanding of the universe. We are in the flesh, stuck in here with a very limited ability to comprehend anything. God, on the other hand, is spiritual and infinite; he doesn’t work on a linear timeline. He sees the world, in fact, the entire universe, on an eternal level. We see the past and the present but God sees the past, present, and future. He knows what will happen and he will intervene as is necessary in order for his eternal plan for humanity to be fulfilled.

Being able to do everything doesn’t mean you will do anything, and God’s choice to allow us to manage ourselves is how he runs his business. As the ultimate manager, God has given us his Employees Handbook, which we call the Torah, and when we act in accordance with the corporate culture and lifestyle, we will receive bonuses (they are called blessings) and have a long and prosperous career, resulting in the best retirement plan that could ever exist, anywhere.

Oh, one other really great thing about how God manages humanity: you get to choose who you will work for! There are two Supervisors God has running the show: one is Yeshua (Jesus) and the other is Satan. We get to choose who we will work for.

Yeshua has rules and regulations that you are supposed to follow (the Torah) and he will help you overcome your failings to be a better human being. He will give you rewards on earth as you improve, but you get nominal pay and sometimes the job is very difficult, requiring great sacrifice. His retirement plan is for you to live in peace and joy, basking in the glory of God, for all eternity.

Satan, on the other hand, will allow you to do whatever you want to do. He will give you worldly power and rewards that you probably wouldn’t get working for Yeshua. However, his retirement plan places you outside the presence of God and you will suffer burning torture in hell throughout eternity.

So, nu! God has provided two different career paths for you, and although he is managing everything, he will not micromanage your life or your choices. It’s all up to you, but don’t ever forget this caveat: your choice is not set in stone until after you stop working (die), so when you choose your Boss try to remember that your retirement is going to last much longer than the job.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe (both to this website and my YouTube channel), share these messages with everyone you know to help this ministry reach more people, and I always welcome your comments.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Why I Believe the Gospel of John Isn’t.

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Isn’t what? Well, isn’t a Gospel, meaning a truthful description of who Yeshua was and of his ministry. I also don’t believe it was written by a Jew, or, at least, by a Jew who was writing to Jews.

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John has long been recognized as being very different from the other Gospels; Matthew, Mark, and Luke are written as historical narratives that relate to the events in Yeshua’s life. John, on the other hand, while mentioning events in Yeshua’s life, is written as a spiritual revelation, and instead of plain language is full of overly spiritual double-talk:

I am he, and he is me; you see me, you see him, and I know him and he knows me but you don’t know me so you don’t know him, but if you knew him you would know me, yadda-yadda-yadda…

The thing about the Book of John that really gets my goat, and yes- this is a personal peeve– is that it seems to be written by a Gentile, to Gentiles, and has many subtle anti-Semitic undertones. And, frankly, I’m not the only one who feels that way.

Only in the Gospel of John do we hear Yeshua refer to the Torah (when talking to the Pharisees in John 10:34) as “your law”. If Yeshua was the word come to life, then why would he differentiate himself from who and what he is? If Yeshua was a Jew, he would never say “your law” when referring to the Torah; he would say “the law” or “the Torah”, but not talk about it as if he had no relationship to it or that it had no meaning to him.

And in the other three gospels, the term “the Jews” is used about 16 times, total within all three, but in John, that term is used some 67 times! When you are talking about your own people, do you refer to them as “those (whatever) people”? Of course not- if you are Jewish, you say “my people” or “them”; if you are Italian and talking about other Italians, you don’t say “those Italians”, you say “them” or “us” or some other term that recognizes your attachment and solidarity with them. But we don’t see that in John- instead, we see Yeshua talking to the Pharisees and Sadducees about the people as if they are different from him.

In the other gospels, it is clear that the real enemies of Yeshua are the power elite, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, but in John, it seems that all the Judeans are against Yeshua.

One really big difference is that in the other three, Yeshua never makes the absolute claim that he is the Messiah, except to his Talmudim (Disciples), whereas in John, he says it outright to the Samaritan woman (John 4:26) and makes claim to being one with God multiple times, and also claims that he is the son of God, whereas in the other gospels he refers to himself as the Son of Man.

In my experience, John is the only gospel that is used when people try to justify that God, Yeshua, and the Ruach HaKodesh are all one-and-the-same entity.

One of the most valuable tools in biblical exegesis is called Hermeneutics, which is the idea that the Bible does not contradict itself. We all have been told, over and over, that God is the same today, yesterday, and tomorrow and many believe the Bible to be infallible, and the perfect word of God, directly from God.

For the record, I don’t buy that for a moment, but that’s a different message.

So, if the Bible is infallible and God’s word is perfect, then hermeneutically we can prove John’s gospel is not scripture because it is so different, and does contradict what we read in the other gospels. In John, Yeshua claims to be the Messiah to many people but not in any other gospel; in John, Yeshua’s ministry seems to be only one year but the other gospels make it about three years; in John, Yeshua is tried before the Pesach meal but in the other three, it is after; in John, Yeshua claims to be not just the son of God but God, himself, yet in the other gospels he calls himself the Son of Man.

John was most likely written at the end of the First Century when more Gentiles were converting to this new sect of Judaism than Jews who were accepting Yeshua as their Messiah. And when Jews did accept Yeshua as the Messiah, remember that this was not a conversion: there was no conversion of Jews to Christianity: the early “church” was a synagogue, and the Gentiles who accepted Yeshua as Messiah were learning how to live a Jewish lifestyle, just as Yeshua lived. The truth of the beginning of what we call Christianity today is that the only conversion was from paganism to Judaism, or at best, a sect of Judaism. From the turn of the first century until Constantine created modern Christianity (about 325 CE), there were Jews, those Jews and Gentiles who accepted Yeshua as the Messiah, and pagans. The Believing Gentiles were learning about the Torah and how to live as Yeshua did, although the Gentiles that were taking command of the movement began to leave Judaism and form different worship, such as changing the Shabbat to Sunday (Ignatius of Antioch in 98 CE) and misinterpreting the letter sent by the Elders (Acts 15) as meaning Gentile Believers were excluded from following Torah.

John was, in my opinion, either written by a Gentile using John’s name, or if John, a Jewish follower and Disciple of Yeshua, did write it, he wrote it so that Gentile Believers could separate themselves from Torah and worship Yeshua not just as the Messiah, but as God, as well. That opens the question of why a Disciple of Messiah would reject his own religion.

Many Christians I have known feel that John is the best Gospel, and when I was first open to learning about Yeshua, I was told to read John before any other gospel. Now, some 20 plus years after coming to accept Yeshua and knowing the entire Bible very well, I know that the Gospel of John is an anti-Semitic and separatist book designed so that Gentiles can feel comfortable rejecting the Torah and Judaism as separate from Yeshua, what he taught, and to worship Yeshua as God.

There are many out there who will find this message not just disturbing, but maybe even blasphemous, and that is too bad. I doubt many Gentile Believers who were raised Christian (any denomination) can understand how a Jewish person, Believer or not, feels reading this gospel. The other Gospels are fine because they don’t hate Jews, but the Gospel of John is full of subtle, Jew-hating terminology.

If it was up to me, I would throw the Gospel of John, along with nearly all the Epistles of Shaul (Paul) out of the New Covenant. I would keep Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts, Romans, Hebrews, James, and Revelation, and deep-six the rest, or have them in a separate volume, like the Apocrypha.

I hope that no one is offended, but I understand there might be a sense of wanting to defend this gospel because, well, you just need to! “Why?” “Because, that’s why!”

If that’s how you feel, maybe you should consider why you feel that way. I mean, really, if the Gospel of John is verifiable and hermeneutically validated as scripture, you wouldn’t need to say “because” as the reason to defend it, because “because” is not a reason. 

That’s my message for today. It is my opinion, you do not have to agree, but if you do agree, I would appreciate you letting me know with a “Like” or something similar, even a comment. And if you think I am out of my mind, please comment as well, but be nice.

In the meantime, thank you for being here; please share these messages (if you dare), and until the next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Don’t Misuse Your Memories

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Huh? What do you mean? How can I misuse memories, since my memories are what they are?

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We all remember both happy and sad times, we remember those people who we have loved but are no longer with us, and there are even things we remember that we wish we could forget.

It is especially tough at this time of the year when the world (right or wrong) celebrates the traditional holidays. We remember times past and being with family and friends, but instead of feeling cheerful, so many people suffer from seasonal depression, and at this time of the year instead of joy and goodwill, we see depression and suicides rise at an alarming rate.

And why is that? This is supposed to be one of the happiest times of the year, yet suicides and depression are at their highest!

I believe part of the reason, if not the entire reason, is that people misuse their memories by making themselves sad over what isn’t anymore, instead of giving thanks for having been able to have those experiences.

Can you imagine how much someone who has been raised in a broken home, on welfare, with no hope and nothing but bad memories would give to have even one of your family get-together memories?

What would someone raised in a third world country who has dirt floors and lives hand-to-mouth every day be willing to do just to have your memory of a holiday dinner and opening presents?

Maybe as you are reading this you might be one of those who doesn’t have these happy memories; if so, please comment on this post to let those who have had them know what they would mean to you.

We are, by nature, self-absorbed and so when we lose a loved one, the first emotion we feel is sadness. Not for them- they are beyond pain or troubles- but for ourselves, because now we won’t have that person in our life anymore. And that’s not necessarily wrong; at least, not at first. But when their memory brings sadness to us instead of appreciation and joy that dishonors them because it creates a feeling within you that they wouldn’t want you to have.

Job set the example about how to handle disaster: when all that he owned, as well as all those whom he loved, were taken away in an instant, his first reaction was to thank God for being able to have had them in his life, at all. He said, “The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away: blessed be the name of the Lord!” (Job 1:21). Notice how his first acknowledgment was that the Lord gave- that is what we need to focus on.

When we remember those who we have lost or good times that aren’t happening anymore, we need to be thankful for them and not sad that they are gone. When you really think about it, being sad about good things is silly, isn’t it? We should reflect on all the joy that God has provided for us, and even though we are sad, to a degree, that we can’t have that anymore, the fact that we allow it to ruin our day or our attitude is actually doing that memory, and all those who are part of it, a disservice.

When I die, if anyone cares and misses me, I would not want them to be sad when they think of me; rather, I would want them to be joyful and feel good because if I was alive, that is what I would want to do for them. I want to do more than just make people feel good now, while I am alive- I want the memory of my relationship with them to make them happy when I am not there. The best thing I can think of is when someone is sad, they remember me and our relationship together, and that makes them feel better.

I can’t think of a more wonderful legacy than one where the memory of being with me makes someone feel better.

So, for those of you out there who become sad at this time of the year because you remember the good times that you used to have, which (for whatever reason) you can’t have anymore, please take this advice: STOP IT!

Get your head on straight, remember the good times with joy and appreciation because you were blessed by God to have them! Just because things are different now, do not dishonor those who are missing, whether still alive or dead, by allowing your selfish and greedy feelings (which we all have) to sadden you.

How much enjoyment you get from a holiday season, of (for that matter) from life, itself, is entirely up to you. So don’t misuse your memories but appreciate them, savor them like a fine wine, and honor those who are no longer with you by letting the memory of being with them make you happy.

Life goes on, and when it comes down to it, it is better to remember than to be remembered.

Thank you for being here, please subscribe and share these messages with everyone you know to help this ministry grow. I never ask for money, but you could always buy my books. And remember that I always welcome your comments.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch haShem!

Hanukkah 2020 Message

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חג שמח! Chag Sameach!

Happy Hanukkah to all who celebrate this joyous holiday.

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The Torah parashah for this Shabbat is called Vayeshev, which relates the story of Joseph. It begins with Israel giving him the coat of many colors, how he tells his brothers of his dreams showing he will rule over them one day which leads, along with other reasons, to his brother’s plot to destroy him, to him being sold into slavery in Egypt. While a slave, he is unjustly accused by his master’s wife, thrown into jail, and while there he interprets the dreams of the Pharaoh’s Baker and Cupbearer. The parashah ends with how the Cupbearer, after being restored to his post as Joseph saw in his dream, forgets to mention Joseph to the Pharaoh.

I think, though, instead of the parashah, I would like to talk with you about Hanukkah. After all, we all know the story of Joseph, but how many really know about Hanukkah?

You won’t find the story anywhere in the Tanakh, and it’s only mentioned, briefly, in the New Covenant. The places you will find the story of Hanukkah, which is told in the Books of the Maccabees (there were originally supposed to be five books, but they have been condensed into two), is in the Talmud, Septuagint, and the Apocrypha, and the only place you will find the Apocrypha included with scripture is in a Catholic Bible.

In the first book of the Maccabees, we are told how Antiochus IV Epiphanes was continuing the program called Hellenization, which was started about 1-1/2 Centuries earlier by Alexander the Great. Hellenization is the replacement of all cultures with that of the Greeks, and so in Judea, under Antiochus, circumcision and any other Jewish ritual or worship was strictly forbidden. He sacrificed pigs on the altar in the Temple of Solomon, which is the abomination that causes desecration Daniel prophesied about.

One of the generals, in a town called Modein, was enforcing these laws and as one of the priests of the town was converting to the Greek religion, the father of the Maccabees, Mattathias, became zealous for God and killed the priest, as well as the soldiers of the king. After this act of rebellion, he and his 5 sons hid in the desert, and as word got around he gained followers who wanted to rid Judea of the Seleucid rule.

Eventually, there was a full-out rebellion, and these Jewish farmers and shepherds, with little more than pitchforks, hoes, and other farming implements, fought against what was probably the best armed and most experienced professional army the world knew at that time. Imagine a man with a sharpened stick going against an elephant wearing armor plating on its body and archers sitting on its back. That would be like you or I standing in the way of an Abrams tank!

And the real miracle of Hanukkah doesn’t have to do with a lamp but is the fact that we won!

The temple was cleansed and ritual purification was to begin, with the relighting of the Ner Tamid, the Eternal Light that was never supposed to be extinguished.

Now, here is where the story is embellished with Jewish mythology from the Babylonian Talmud: there is no mention of oil lasting 8 days anywhere in the books of the Maccabees. According to legend, there was only one day’s worth of ritually purified oil for the Ner Tamid, but it miraculously burned for 8 days, which was just the right amount of time needed to produce more ritually pure oil. This is why we light the Hanukkiah (it is not a menorah) with a new candle every night during the 8 nights of Hanukkah. The ninth candle, which is called the Shamash (leader) is used to light the other candles as we recite the prayer for the Hanukkah candles:

Bah-rookh ah-tah ah-doh-noi, eh-loh-hay-noo meh-lekh hah-oh-lahm, ah-sher ki-deh-shah-noo beh-mitz-voh-tahv, veh-tzee-vah-noo, leh-hahd-lik nayr, shel kha-noo-kah
Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments, and commanded us to kindle the Chanukah light.

The second book of the Maccabees is a continuation of the story and outlines the events after the initial rebellion, the leadership by the oldest Maccabee, Judas, and how he restored Jewish rule and freedom of worship in Judea. It also tells of the eventual plots against the Maccabees, resulting in they’re being deposed by the very people they saved.

There are also a number of atrocities outlined in these books regarding the torture of the Jews who refused to accept the Greek religion. When Antiochus heard of a rebellion, his army slaughtered some 40,000 men, women, and children, and another 40,000 were enslaved.

One story from 2 Maccabees is about a woman with 7 sons. They were told they had to eat pork but each refused, being tortured to death, one-by-one, with their mother watching. As the last son refused, it is told how the general even begged the mother to tell her son to comply so she wouldn’t have to lose all her children. Instead of telling her son to eat the pork, she told him not to eat the pork so that the death of the other sons was not for nothing.

Other stories of torture include ripping pregnant women apart, sliding men down a ramp with sharp knives along the way, whippings, cutting out of tongues, hands being cut off, and roasting people alive on a metal pan over a burning hot fire.

Ouch!

But, despite the torture, the desire by the populace to do what is right in God’s eyes, even to the point of death, is what the Greeks faced, although there were many who turned from the faith. Eventually, God came to the aid of his people when they rebelled against this evil.

There are some who refuse to celebrate Hanukkah simply because it isn’t commanded in the Tanakh, even though they recognize it is meant to glorify God. That is their choice, and I suspect they don’t celebrate Purim or Simchat Torah, either, since neither of those holidays are commanded. And, again, I don’t want to originate a discussion about whether or not you should celebrate Hanukkah or Purim or Christmas or Easter, or whatever- frankly, if it isn’t commanded to be celebrated, then it is a personal choice.

Today we see a similar sort of evil in America: not that there is a king taking away our ritual worship and torturing people, but there is a growing societal conversion from morality and righteousness to selfishness and the condoning, actually more than that, the enthusiastic supporting of sinfulness.

Have you noticed that in family-oriented commercials now there is almost always a same-sex couple? Have you heard about how already there are some states that don’t just allow abortion, but now they are able to kill the child after it has been born if the abortion failed!

Hello, Molech- welcome back!

The recent pandemic has been turned into a political weapon, and instead of helping people cope with it, many of our country’s leaders are using it to shut down businesses and cause fear, with which they can control the populace.

There is no temple in Jerusalem suffering the abomination that causes desecration, but we can see it in our society! I won’t go off on a rampage here, and I don’t want to initiate any political battles, but it is clear to anyone who knows anything about the Lord, God that our society is not all that far away from what Antiochus was trying to do some 200 or so years before the Messiah came, which was to remove all God-fearing worship and lifestyle from the society.

Hanukkah is a joyous celebration of the miraculous overthrow by God-fearing people of a corrupted and evil government, and I have to wonder: couldn’t we use a Mattathias or a Judas Maccabee, today?

Thank you for being here; please subscribe, share these messages with everyone you know, and I always welcome your comments.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Shabbat Shalom!

Always Give Thanks to God

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I am waiting for my new webcam to come and also will be busy baking dessert for this afternoon’s feast, so I am going to make this quick and easy.

With respect to everyone’s personal opinion about man-made holidays, for those who will be giving thanks to God for all he has done for you and for others, my wife and I wish you a peaceful and blessed Thanksgiving Day.

It is NEVER wrong to give thanks to God.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

How Can We Help Sinners If We Are Separated?

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That’s a good question, isn’t it? I mean, if we are to be separated from sin, and not take part in sinful activities, how can we ever reach the sinners?

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Yeshua ate and drank with sinners- all four Gospels write about that, and how it was used as an attack against him. Yet, he said it best when he replied that he came to call the sinner, not the righteous.

We are also commanded to be holy, as God is holy, but how can we be holy, which means separated, if we are in the midst of sinners?

It seems to be a complicated situation, but the answer is really quite simple: the separation we need to maintain is not a physical one, but a spiritual one, which we demonstrate in the real world through our speech, actions, and lifestyle.

In Mark 7, Yeshua said that what makes us unclean is what comes from our hearts. Now, in that case, he was talking of ceremonial uncleanliness with relation to traditionally washing the hands before eating, but I think we can safely take that teaching one step further.

Being in the company of sinners doesn’t make you a sinner, nor does it make you unclean, so long as you, yourself, maintain separation from what is in the hearts of those sinners, and by doing so, you become a symbol and example to them of righteousness.

We need to be separate but not separated- what good is a lamp if it is placed under a bowl, right? We need to let our light shine, but not in the sunlight- that is useless. We aren’t told to preach to the choir, we are told to be a light in the darkest of places.

In other words, we are to work in a fish market for hours at a time, and come out still smelling like a rose. Sounds impossible, doesn’t it? But, as Yeshua said, with God, all things are possible.

When we are told to be holy as God is holy, that is a spiritual condition. We are humans, born into and with iniquity and to think that we could ever be really holy, inside and out, is a pipe dream. God told Cain that sin is crouching at his door, and that means we cannot ignore the existence of sin within us. That is what the Enemy wants us to think because that is how he can sneak sin into our lives.

When we are always aware of the potential to sin, we will always be on the alert. There are a number of biblical parables Yeshua gave about always being prepared, and I believe that also means to always recognize the sin within ourselves, which is how we can be in the midst of sinners and stay separated from their sin.

If you want to fulfill the commandment to find new disciples, you will have to go where angels dare not go. You will have to go into the lion’s den, into the fiery furnace, and do so willingly. That doesn’t make you unclean- remember those three guys came out of the furnace without even smelling like smoke, so you, too, can be amongst sinners without getting your clothes stained.

Be the light in the darkness, and always be aware of your own weakness- that, and being guided by the Ruach HaKodesh, is how you can be surrounded by sinners and still be separated from them.

Thank you for being here and please subscribe; share these messages with everyone you know, check out my website and consider buying my books. If you like what you get here, you will like my books.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

I Got Nothing! (Again)

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Usually, I come up with messages, inspiration, whatever you want to call it when I am riding my bicycle and praying. Too often I can’t stop and add it to my calendar, and by the time I get home, I forget what it was. I don’t know if that’s because it wasn’t really what God would want me to say, or just a result of my age.

Whatever.

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In any case, I have nothing on my calendar except to make a blood donation at 1100 this morning. That, and a whole lot of complaints about the Facebook postings I see, which reminds me how easily people can be manipulated.

And why is that? Why does it seem to be so easy to manipulate thousands, if not millions of people? Josef Goebbels did it to the German people, the Creel Committee (under President Wilson) did it to Americans so we would enter WWI, and it seems that both the news and social media are now the means to get people to believe whatever propaganda the “powers that be” want them to accept.

And maybe that’s the message for today- don’t believe anyone. And you can believe me when I tell you that.

I saw a post about a secret government unit that identifies cyber-security infractions and it is being used to register and document all the voter fraud that is happening in the current US election. It has captured the use of a CIA program designed to manipulate voting results, which has been used in foreign elections but is now being used in this Presidential election.

And here’s what I found interesting: they posted a picture of what is supposedly the room where this is done, and all the computers were running Windows 8:

So I have to wonder how did anyone manage to get a picture of such a secret unit, and why is a top-of-the-line tech unit using an operating system that was replaced many years ago?

The obvious answer is something ain’t kosher about this. Maybe it’s the picture or maybe it’s the whole story, but whether or not it is legit, I am taking it as nothing more than some fertilizer someone is trying to spread to grow their story.

And you know what? It might all be true! But not for me; at least, not until it becomes public knowledge in a verifiable way.

The problem is that so many people will buy into this, immediately, because it is what they want to hear. And that is how people can be manipulated: tell them what they want to hear and they will buy into it, ASAP!

So when you listen, don’t listen with your glands but with your brains, and don’t believe anything you hear, no matter how wonderful it sounds, or (for that matter) how bad it sounds. Do your own research, realizing that if you research on the Internet, you are trying to smell a rose which is hidden in the middle of a fertilizer factory, so be careful, use discernment, and believe only that which seems to be believable.

As the old saying goes: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

One last thing for you: this system of reviewing and thinking about what you see and hear is not just something that is good to do when listening to the news or on social media, but it is really important to develop this talent because we are warned about false messiahs and how many will be turned from the true faith by them. Those will be the people who want to hear only what they like and ignore what they don’t like; they are the ones who tell you they love the Lord but will be first in line to take the mark when it is offered. And how can that happen? It will happen because they will hear what they want to believe and not use discernment.

When people do not think with their brains but, instead, believe with their emotions, they are easily led astray.

God has given you not just a brain, but through his Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit), you have the opportunity to call upon his divine discernment so PLEASE! -for your own sake, use it!

Thank you for being here and please subscribe to the website and the YouTube channel (they are different lists), check out my entire website and I always welcome discussion.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Are Different Versions of the Bible a Problem?

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If you go to a book store, to the Religion section, and look for a Bible, you will see many different versions. A quick Google search shows no less than 35 different versions of the Bible.

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Even more confusing is the fact that all these different versions have been translated into hundreds of different languages, each with its own challenge to express the proper meaning and not have it lost in translation, resulting in the situation where now we have so many different versions of the Bible in the world that it is impossible to find two different versions that match, exactly.

In fact, from what I understand about copyright laws, there is a limitation on how many verses can be written exactly the same (somewhere around 500) without written permission from the author, and they cannot be presented as an entire work.

In other words, it is illegal (at least here in the USA) to have two different versions of the Bible that are exactly the same.

So, nu? If the Complete Jewish Bible says one thing, and the New International Version says another thing, and the King James Version says something completely different, which one is correct?

I could give examples of these differences, but that would take more time than is necessary, so if you don’t believe there are significant differences, just use whichever search engine you like (Google, Bing, Mozilla, Yahoo, for example) and do a search for a few of your favorite verses, then compare the “hits” you get. I am sure you will be amazed at how different some of them are.

For me, there is one version I would never recommend, and those are the ones that call themselves extended language versions. The reason is that they are “filling in the gaps”, so to speak, of what is written that may be difficult to comprehend, or they just add a lot of words to try to make some things easier to understand. We are told, very plainly, in Deuteronomy (more than once, in fact) that we should not add to or remove any words from the book, so (in my opinion) by God’s command these extended language versions are just not the place where you want to get your information from.

So, again, who do we believe? How we can trust what we are told is “God’s Word” when the word, itself, is so different?

My belief is that we can trust what we read, no matter which version we read it from, so long as we read it trusting not in written words in a book, but in God’s Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) to give us the true understanding of what God is telling us.

And my belief is founded in what Isaiah heard God say, which was that God’s word will never return void (Isaiah 55:11)!

So, when people argue the Bible is untrustworthy because it has so many differences between different versions, or that the Zachariah mentioned in Luke is not the same Zachariah mentioned in Matthew or any other number of apparent discrepancies within the Bible and between Bibles, my reply is that human error will be found in anything humans do, but God can overcome human error.

The way God does this is through his Holy Spirit in those who have accepted it, and USE it when reading the Bible. Yes, we can have the Holy Spirit but ignore it, if we choose to, and often (too often!) I have heard people say things that aren’t from the Bible, but from their own flesh, yet they use the Bible to justify what they want.

I am sure you have run into this, as well- someone who clearly has decided what they want the Bible to mean, then pull passages and verses out of context in order to prove their point.

You usually cannot argue effectively with these people because they are the living example of the old saying “I have already made up my mind- don’t confuse me with facts.”

The most important thing about the Bible is that it tells us how to worship God and how God wants us to treat each other. God doesn’t have any religion, just his instructions to us; and when I say “us”, I don’t mean just Jews, I mean everyone. God told Moses that the Israelites would be his nation of priests (Exodus 19:6), which means priests to the world, and as such the instructions God gave to the Jewish people through Moses are meant to be taught to the world. That is why he told Abraham, long before the Torah was given, that his descendants would be a blessing to the world.

Let’s face it, salvation is the goal we all want, and every Bible ever written will have one thing that will always be understood to have the same meaning: Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. In other words, it is through faith, and faith alone, that we can be saved.

The problems start after this, usually with the confusion about faith and works, but that’s for a different message.

The Bible is not God- it is a book about God. And since it is written by humans, it will have faults. The most dependable word of God is the Torah, and I mean a Hebrew Torah because of all the painstaking steps that are employed when copying one Torah to another; for example, did you know that when the Sofer (Scribe) copies one new Torah from another, one of the tests they use to ensure accuracy is that every single letter is counted to make sure nothing is missing?

Read the Bible, read whichever version you find easiest to understand, but never read it without first praying to God to give you HIS understanding of what the words are supposed to mean. Remember that Yeshua didn’t teach just the P’shat, which means the literal meaning of the words, but he taught the Remes, which is the deeper, spiritual meaning of the words, so don’t let different words or what seem to be discrepancies confuse you.

Know what God wants you to learn from his word by praying for guidance by, and listening to, the Ruach HaKodesh, which God will help you hear when you ask him to do so.

Thank you for being here, please subscribe and check out the entire website. And don’t be shy about making comments- I always welcome discussion.

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!