Tag: parashah

Parashah Lech Lecha (walk) Genesis 12-17

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This parashah is known as the History of the Patriarchs. We read how Abram (later called Abraham) was called by God. How he went to Egypt where he gained wealth, how he took care of his deceased brother’s son, Lot. We learn of the separation between Abram and Lot due to both of them having such wealth in cattle, and we see how Abram allowed Lot to choose the best land.

Lot is captured when the 5 kings attacked Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abram and his 300 men save them. This is where we first meet Melchizedek, the righteous king of Salem and the High Priest (Cohen HaGadol), a precursor to Yeshua .

Sarai (not yet Sarah) gives birth to Ishmael through her handmaiden, and God promises Hagar that Ishmael will also be a prince of many tribes, and that he will always be at war and in conflict with his own brothers.

We end this reading with God’s promise to (now called) Abraham that he will bear a son through Sarai (now called Sarah), and they shall name him Isaac, and through Isaac God’s covenant with Abraham will be fulfilled.

The sign of this covenant is the circumcision, which Abraham performed on himself, Ishmael and all his men the very next day.

Wow! The stories alone are wonderful, and demonstrate God’s majesty and power, as well as the weaknesses of humanity. If anyone should ever doubt the truth of the bible, all they have to do is ask themselves this: if the bible is supposed to make God and all those who worship him look like powerful and saintly people, why then do they act the way they do?

Abraham pimped his wife to save his skin (twice!); Lot moved next door to the most sinful and disgusting place in the world; Sarah asks her hand-maiden to bear a child for her, then when she does Sarah throws her out into the wilderness to die, along with her son.

These are wonderful people? These are the saintly Patriarchs and Matriarchs of the Jewish people? They sound just like you and me!

That’s the reason the bible is verifiable and believable- because these people are just like you and me! That is also why these stories are so wonderful and empowering: because the people in the bible are like you and I, that means you and I can be chosen by God to do great things, just like they did.

The part of this parashah I want to discuss, and this will be brief (no, really- it will be!) is right at the very beginning: Genesis 12: 2-3, where God is talking to Abram and tells him:

I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

God made the Jewish people His vessel for blessing the world. That is what being the “Chosen People” means, to be chosen to bring God’s blessings to everyone. And the two greatest blessings of all that God gave the world through the Jewish people were the Torah, and Yeshua ha Maschiach- Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

I have written before about the blessings the world has received through the Jews, the number of Nobel prize winners who are Jewish (a percentage that is far greater than the percentage of Jews in the population), the many wonderful performers, the writers, the poets, the financiers (no stereotyping now!), and many other things.

And I have also written about how God’s promise to curse those that curse the Jews has been proven to be trustworthy: Pharaoh in the time of Moses,  The Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Philistines, Spain, the Nazi’s- all demolished or reduced to nothingness. Not even a shadow of their former glory left to them, those that are left at all.

And for those that have blessed the Jews, well, America is about the only country that has done so, but we are moving away from that and soon will be cursed and judged, just as all the other nations will be (and are being judged, even now.)

These two lines in Genesis are the beginning of the Jewish people’s influence on the world and God’s plan of salvation, and they are also the end of it. Judgement is not coming, it is here! The countries that have cursed the Jews are being cursed, the countries that have forsaken God and rejected His Torah are suffering punishment (global warming, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunami’s, war), and it is getting worse every day.

Here is the simple lesson that God is telling us in this parashah: choose sides.

On the one side, you can choose God by accepting and supporting His people (chosen to save you), accept the Messiah He sent to bring you back into communion with Him, and obey the teachings (the Torah) that He gave you to know how he wants to be worshiped and how He wants you to treat each other.

On the other side, you lose. Everything. You lose blessings while you are alive, and you lose heaven on earth and eternal peace after this life is over.

When you look at it, you have to ask yourself: what the heck is wrong with people? Why would anyone give up eternal joy for a short-lived reward of hedonistic pleasures that will never really satisfy?

Because we’re stupid, that’s why.  The definition of stupid is one who is lacking common sense. Rejecting God and His path to salvation is, well, stupid. There is no better word for it, and even Shaul (Paul) used that word in Galatians: 3:1 (some interpretations use the word “foolish”, but I believe the correct word is “stupid.”) Those who reject God, reject His Messiah, reject His Torah and refuse to support the Jewish people and Israel are just plain stupid!

And as Forrest Gump said, “Stupid is as stupid does.” So if someone out there doesn’t appreciate being called stupid, then stop acting stupid!

I am not calling you to give up your life as it is and run an underground railroad from the former Soviet Union countries to help Jews escape and make Aliyah (return to Israel)- we have organizations already doing that. Ezra International, Bridges for Peace, and others like Jacobs Hope, helping Jews when they get to Israel.

I am not asking you to convert to Judaism.

I am simply asking that you think about your choices; God has given you free will and intelligence so you can think about your choices. Think about how much better your life will be if God is blessing you, how much better your life will be when you are helping others (treating them as you would want them to treat you), how much more peaceful you will feel knowing that you are promised eternal joy.

I spent 2/3 of my life rejecting all this, and I can remember why I did. It seemed to make sense at the time, but it was, now knowing better, truly senseless. And I can tell you this, unequivocally: I am so very, very glad I came to my senses!

 

 

Parashah Chol HaMo’ed Sukkot (Intermediate Day of Tabernacles) Exodus 33:12 – 34:26

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This parashah is the one between the end and start of the Torah reading schedule. On the eighth day of Sukkot, called Sh’mini Atzeret (also called Simchat Torah, Joy of Torah) we celebrate turning the Torah back from the end of Deuteronomy to the beginning of Genesis. Today’s parashah is the intermediate parashah, and (I think) very apt for both ending and starting the Torah reading cycle because this parashah is, to me, the essence of Torah.

Moses has already broken the first tablets (with the commandments) and asked God to forgive the sins of the Golden Calf incident. He is talking with God, and asks that God remain with the people as they travel, or not send them anywhere at all. He asks to know God’s ways, meaning how he, Moses, is to rule in a way that will always be within God’s will. He asks to see God.

Moses wants to know God intimately; he wants to know God better and more fully than any human, ever, because he wants to lead the people in the way that will always please God. In this parashah we see the true nature of Moses, a man who is humble and fearless, almost demanding of God that He stay with the people, arguing that His divine presence is the only real sign to the other nations that Israel truly is God’s chosen people.

God agrees with all Moses asks, and we have in 34:6-7 the 13 Attributes of God, the Divine nature identified for all to know. Most every prayer in Judaism is based on, repeats and acknowledges God with these attributes.

God is “the Lord, the Lord”: the Talmudic “take” on this is that this repetition means that God is the same God before we sin and after we sin, defining His attribute of mercy; he is the all-mighty Lord of the Universe, Ruler of Nature and Mankind; He is merciful; He is gracious; long-suffering; abundant in goodness; abundant in truth; keeping mercy to the thousandth generation; forgiving of iniquity; forgiving of transgression; forgiving of sin; not allowing the guilty to remain unpunished; visiting the iniquity of the of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation.

The last aspect is meant to identify that although forgiveness of sin is available, it is the spiritual forgiveness that we receive: the physical consequence of sin in the real world will still be felt, down as far as the 4th generation. However, mercy will be given to the 1,000th generation.

The end of this parashah is the repetition of the Covenant God made with the children of Israel at Mt. Sinai. I would think that these conditions God identifies here must be the ones that are really important to Him, since we know there are many more laws, rules, regulations and commandments than the handful given here.

The reason I stated above that I feel this parashah is so appropriate between the end and beginning of the Torah reading cycle is because we have it all here: the proof of the Jewish people being God’s chosen people is by His presence, and that presence will be with us as long as we act as he requires. His divine attributes identify who and what God is; the requirements of the covenant are that God will do marvelous things, we are to worship only God and not the idols of the Gentile people, we are not to intermarry so as to have the pagan’s influence us to turn from God to idols, we shall keep the feasts of the Lord as He decreed us to, especially the Shabbat, and all the first born belong to God, of both animal and man. No blood is to be offered with the sacrifice and we should not do as the other nations do in how we eat (I get this from the restriction of boiling a lamb in it’s mother’s milk. I don’t think anyone really knows why this law was given, but it must be important because it is repeated three times in the Torah.)

Here we have it all: who God is, how we are to worship Him, and the promise that when we do as He says He will do wonderful and marvelous things for us. Really, isn’t that all we need to know?

God’s presence goes with His people, and who are His people? The ones who worship Him as he says they should. Throughout the Tanach we read how those sojourning with the Israelites are to be considered as natural-born Jews when they do as the Israelites do. Having the same rights as the people, they also have the same obligations, meaning to fulfill the requirements in the Torah just as the Jews do.

What I am getting at here is that everyone is a child of God physically, but only a child of God, spiritually, when they do as God says. That means if you are a Catholic, but you respect and honor the Torah, you don’t bow down to the statues in the church and you ask forgiveness from God and not the Priest, praying not to Jesus but in His name to God, then you are one of God’s chosen people.

On the other hand, if you were baptized, had your Holy Communion, answered all the questions correctly at your Confirmation, studied the Sacraments and went to church every Sunday, but you don’t honor God’s Torah and you bow to statues, pray to saints (ignoring God) and generally reject the Torah as valid, don’t expect to be welcomed with open arms when you go before the Lord.

When Jesus died for our sins He did so to make up for the fact that no matter how hard we try, we cannot live up to Torah’s standards of behavior. His death was to cover the sins we can’t stop doing, but it was not license to continue to sin. Ignoring the Torah and the requirements that God gave us to show that we are His people was not done away with when Yeshua died; in fact, they were confirmed as necessary because He was resurrected!

Read this parashah, and read it as someone who knows nothing about religion or God. Look at it fresh, anew, and ignorant of whatever you have been told by your religious leadership; allow your heart to be open to what it says and your ears to hear the Holy Spirit. It tells us who God is, it tells us what he requires, and it tells us that He is there as long as we walk with Him.

God is the leader, He knows the way, and He desperately wants us to walk with Him. In fact, God so desires that we walk with Him that He is willing to walk with us, so long as we walk correctly. God led the people through the desert, but this parashah says that He went with them: in other words, when we walk the way God wants us to walk, He will be with us. I believe we are being told that where we walk is our decision, our choice, and that we are always walking to our eternal destination. We are on the way, whether or not we want to be, and we are all walking along a path that leads to eternal joy (this is the one that God is on) or to eternal damnation.

The question to ask yourself is: which path will you choose?

Parashah Ha’azinu (Give ear) Deuteronomy 32

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As we come to the final chapters of the Torah, we find Moses finishing his service to the nation of Israel (and to God) with a song,  just as he did after crossing the Red Sea, when he was just starting.

This “Song of Moses” is both a stern chastisement and a promise of hope for the future. He recounts how God has been faithful, loving and generous, forgiving over and over the sins of the child who was given everything and has shown only rebelliousness and rejection. Moses tells of the way God has taken care of Israel, and all Israel has done, in return, is reject and rebel.  Moses further tells them what will happen in the future, how their rebellion will be punished, but ends with the hope of salvation and, eventually, the promise that God’s loving presence will return once the nation returns to God.

There’s an old song called, “We Always Hurt the Ones We Love.” I often think how many times, over the millennia, have we hurt God. When I say “we”, I don’t mean Believers, or Jews, I mean “we”- i.e., everyone. Believers, non-Believers, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, New Wavers, Skin-heads, whatever and whomever; in other words, people. Just plain people, no matter what their spiritual beliefs.

All people are God’s children, and we all hurt Him when we reject Him. Really, no one likes being hated or rejected; no one likes having those they love turn their faces away as they approach. No one likes being told, “You have no place here!”; and when you think about it, that is exactly what this nation, America, has told God. We have told Him that He has no place in our schools, no place in our courts, and no place in our work areas.

If we, as simple human beings with limited capacity to love, don’t like these things, can you imagine how much it must hurt the Lord when He is the object of derision?

To be even more direct, when it comes to rejection of God and hurting Him by not obeying His laws and commandments, which He gave us so that we will live and be happy, I should be saying how I have hurt Him. Yes, we have, but I have, too. I have disobeyed, I have done wrong in His eyes, I have rejected Him, and I can’t feign ignorance because I do know better!

Through 40 years in the desert, the children of Israel had God with them always; a cloud by day and fire by night, feeding them, watching over them, yet all the time they kept ignoring Him. They took advantage of Him, they grew (as Moses says in his song) fat and kicking (to represent an over-fed ox that won’t take the yoke) and yet God still remained with them and took care of them.

I can understand how God must have felt because I have two children (from a previous life) that I visited when they were growing up and living with their mother. I drove from Philadelphia to Queens, NY every weekend at first,when they were just 6 and 1. Then, as they got older (and I got older, too) I went every other week, then eventually my daughter rejected me and, finally, after child support was over and my son was in college, he rejected me, too. This was, of course, partially my fault, but in honesty it was mostly their mother’s hatefulness that she force-fed them their whole lives, addicting them to ADHD drugs  (they were never diagnosed by a medical professional) and filling them up with half-truths and complete lies, using them as weapons to get back at me for leaving the marriage.

Despite the cruel, disrespectful and hateful things they constantly did and said to me, I still kept going back for more. Why? Because  I’m some sort of saint? No way. Because it made me feel good to be yelled at and insulted? I don’t think so. Maybe because there was a monetary reward for it? C’mon! I used to drive an extra hour or two just to avoid tolls when I first started seeing them, and when I did have some money I spent it on movies, or archery, or breakfast, or anything to get them out of the house (the mother never took them anywhere); we went to the City (New York City, of course) and visited museums, we went to parks, we went to events, etc., all of which cost money.

Never, ever did I get so much as a “Gee, thanks Dad! That was really fun!” Not even close. In fact, usually we ended up in an argument that was created long before I ever got there- they were primed and ready for me before I even picked them up.

So, nu? Why did I keep going back? I kept going back because they are my children and I love them. Even now, all I want is to be reconciled with them.

I am not telling you this for any pity or remorse- please, that is not the point. I have God, what else could I possibly need to give peacefulness to my soul? And I have forgiven them, mother and children, because that is what we are expected to do.

No, the point is that I can understand how God feels. Anyone, any of you reading this, who have ever loved and not had that love returned, knows (at least) a little bit how God feels when His loving kindness and compassion is returned with rejection.

And when we try to tell God how He is supposed to feel, such as people who say, “Oh, that’s OK because God will forgive me” or “It isn’t that important- God didn’t really mean that”  or even worse, “I don’t really believe in God: it’s all just a made-up story”, I can only imagine how much God wants to just shake them up a little; maybe throw some lightening, drop a fireball or two, possibly split the earth under their feet. You know, just a little wake-up call to let them know, “Hey- I am here, and I AM!”

But that’s not His style, and I can say that because He has shown us His ways throughout the Tanach. Yes, He has thrown fire now and then, and He has shown His majesty and power through miraculous events, but overall He has let others, humans, perform the work in order to have His plans come to fruition.

There are so many ways we can accept that God exists, everyday miracles we see all around us, but we refuse to accept the truth of His existence, and thereby, reject Him. That is what Moshe (Moses) is telling the Israelites in his song. And he calls heaven and earth as witnesses.

God is here; He always has been here, is here this very instant, and He will be here always. Here- just within reach, always reaching out to you, always wanting to be in communion with you, always willing to forgive you when you do T’shuvah (repent), always loving you with a love that is so complete and overwhelming that you can never fully grasp the depth of it.

That is what Moses is telling the people, and that is the hope we have, each of us, every day. God is not there- He is here! He has never left, and He will always be close enough to touch.

All we have to do is reach out.

Parashah Nitzavim (standing) Deuteronomy 29:9 – 30

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Moses foretells the future, and warns the people about turning from God to idols. He tells them that they are making a covenant with God not just for themselves, but for their descendants, as well. The world will offer them opportunity to turn from God, and if they do then all the curses of the book shall come down on them. Yet, after God has justifiably thrown them out of the land and ravaged the land, if they turn back to God with all their heart and soul, God will regather them from the farthest parts of the world and resettle them in the Land. The curses that fell on them will fall on their enemies and the people shall again find favor in God’s sight.

Finally, Moses tells them that these laws and commandments, which provide life, abundance and blessing, are not far away or hard to do; they are right there, in reach, and the offer God is making is life or death: life through obedience and death through rejection.

Moses suggests they choose life.

So, Nu? How much more can I say than what Moses has said? Here we are, again, a people blessed by God that are about to receive the greatest blessing that God has for us-life in a land of prosperity. And life forever after that. So what do we do?

We screw it all up. This generation that has seen so much makes the covenant and under Joshua, for the most part, this covenant is kept. But after Joshua dies, very quickly they devolve into a rabble of sinfulness- that is in the Book of Judges. Up and down, love the Lord then love the idols, in and out of sin and rebellion for generations. God raises a Judge to save, they do well under that Judge, the Judge dies and the people fall back into sin.

Today we see the prophetic promise of returning to the land that Moses told of coming to fruition. We see Israel being regathered, and the curses coming down on the nations. America isn’t being left out of those curses, either, because we have stopped being a godly country.

Moses said the people there were making a covenant, but also the people not there- in other words, the children and their children’s children were also to be under this covenant. I think that is where things went wrong.

When I read the bible it seems that for every generation that did well, the next one did poorly. One king does what is evil, the son does what is right, then his son does what is evil. And it seems that there is always some chametz (leaven, representing sin) left over from the evil generation that survives. Either the queen mother, or the wife of the past king, or a relationship with another evil king. The Northern tribes (Israel, later called Shomron, now referred to as the West Bank) never had a righteous king, but the Southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin had a number of “good” kings, whose children weren’t always the same.

My point is that we can’t really make a covenant for someone else. The baptism rights for babies today are, to me, a waste. First of all, I cannot see God sending an infant to hell because his or her parents failed to have a clergyman pour water on their head. Baptism is an outward expression of an inner desire, a desire to be cleansed of sin and turn to God. An infant can’t make that decision, and I think the history of the Jewish people proves that a child’s parents can’t make that decision, either. Godparents standing in for the child and making oaths of servitude to God are never going to be binding on the child because God gave us all Free Will. It is up to the child to make that decision, and only after the age of decision has been reached. Until the child is old enough to make up his (or her) own mind, that child is a child of God and will not be sent to eternal damnation in the event it dies.

That is my opinion- I have nothing in the bible to quote to you to prove it true, but everything I have read and feel and know about God tells me it must be so.

The best way for us to ensure the life (eternal) of our children is to be an example to them of God’s goodness and love, as well as demonstrating the truth regarding His promise of justice. God is all about love, and all about truth, and all about trust and all about faith. That means that as faithful as God is to forgive when someone truly does T’Shuvah (turn from sin), He is just as faithful to punish those who reject Him.

The world wants what it considers to be fair: “If I choose to love and obey You, then bless me. However, if I choose to ignore and reject You, then just leave me alone.” That’s what the world wants, but that isn’t how the game is played. God is supreme, whether or not someone wants to accept that is irrelevant. God reigns supreme: you obey and live or you reject and die: that’s how it is; that’s how He is; that’s why His name is “I am.”

We can’t choose for others, but we can be an example and a light to others. That’s how the covenant we make with God can be applied to others- through our example. It is up to them to choose for themselves.

That’s a hard word to hear, but the history of mankind and the stories in the bible, I believe, prove it to be true. We all are responsible to make up our own minds, and we all will be held accountable for our decisions. If someone else tells you what to do, and you do it, it is your decision to do it. It is your responsibility. Likewise, if you are told not to do something and you don’t, it is, again, ultimately your choice.

I often say that when you go before God, and we all will, and tell Him, “But that’s what the (fill in religious leader title) said I should do”, God will look gently and lovingly upon you and say, “I understand that, My child, but it is what I say that counts. Here’s some SPF 10,000 and a bottle of cold water; take the elevator to your left going down. Next?”

Every single day, from this moment forward, we each have before us the blessings and the curses, life and death- I have chosen life.

What is your choice?

 

 

Parashah Ki Thavo (when you come in) Deuteronomy 26 – 29:8

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We start with the end of the Second Discourse of Moses when we finish Chapter 26. The First Discourse was a review of the journey, the Second Discourse a review of the laws and codes given by God, and the Third Discourse (beginning with Chapter 27) is the enforcement of those laws.

Chapter 28, one of my most favorite of all the chapters in the Torah (in the entire bible, in fact) is known as the “Blessings and Curses” chapter.

Covenants have three components: first, you tell what the conditions of the covenant are, second the rewards of complying, and third the punishment for not complying. Following this format, the Second Discourse of Moses told of the conditions of the covenant, and Chapter 28 tells us the rewards for obedience and the consequences of disobedience.

The rewards, the blessings, are wonderful, and impact every part of our lives. Going in and coming out, in the fields (our work), the fruit of our body (happy, healthy family), the fruit of our herds and flocks (financial stability) and ultimately we will be known as a people blessed and protected by God (that would make a wonderful epitaph, wouldn’t it?)

But that’s not why this is my favorite.

After we are told all the wonderful things God will do for us when we obey, we are then told what will happen to us if we disobey. And these curses are the exact opposite of the blessings, except they go way beyond one-for-one, curse for blessing. Initially, we will be cursed going in and out, barren wives, failed crops, herds dying, enemies attacking and winning, we will be the tail not the head, but then it gets worse. We will suffer all the plagues of Egypt and, well…let’s just leave it at it gets worse. Ultimately, we will be known as a people cursed and abandoned by God.

Obviously, the curses aren’t why this is my favorite chapter, either.

What makes this my favorite chapter is because it demonstrates the true nature of our God- a loving, compassionate and fair Father who wants only to do good for us.

Let’s start with the first curse- Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve screwed up royally and God cursed the Earth (not them- the earth). Down the road a-ways, in the B’rit Chadasha (New Covenant), we get told who has rule over the earth- it isn’t God. Oh, yes- God is in control of everything, all the time, but we often read how He cedes rule to others. God has ceded rule (not control) over the earth to the Enemy, the Evil One, Satan.

You don’t believe me? Read Revelations 12: 7-12; read Ephesians 2:1-2; read John 12:31; read 1 John 5:19: the New Covenant tells us that the Enemy has dominion over the Earth.

So, what it comes down to is this: the curses that we read about in Chapter 28 aren’t things that God does to us, they are things that happen because we live in a cursed world with a really nasty guy running the show. Just being alive is a curse.

God does not curse us, He protects us from the curses!

The blessings of God are a kippur, a covering, which protects us from the world we live in. It’s like a golf umbrella that covers us and even the wind won’t make it turn inside-out. It’s stronger than the weather, which is the rain (or reign, if you will) of the Evil One falling down on us.

In other words, we receive curses when we show that we are so stubbornly rebellious we don’t have enough sense to come in out of the reign (of the Evil One.)

God’s blessings are what He does for us; the curses are what happens to us (when we walk away from God’s Kippur.)

That’s why I love this chapter so much: it tells me how wonderfully compassionate God is, how much He wants to do good for us, how He doesn’t do anything bad to us and when bad things happen it’s because we have left God’s protection by disobeying Him.

The blessings are what we receive for doing what is best for us and when we don’t, God will leave us on our own because He gave us Free Will. And He gave us Free Will because He loves us so much that He wants us to love Him back by our choice to do so.

What’s really unbelievable to us humans, self-centered and hedonistic as we are, is that even when someone hates God, rejects Him, and curses Him to His face, even that person will receive a blessing now and then. Just because God still loves him (or her) and even when being hated, God will love you enough to give you an occasional blessing.

It is said He rains on both the righteous and unrighteous, which I believe demonstrates His love for all.

So, that is why I love this chapter- it shows us how much God really loves us, and His wonderfully compassionate, forgiving and accepting nature. It also shows that He honors His word and does what He says He will do, which gives me confidence in His promise of salvation.

We can’t earn salvation but we can earn blessings. That is comforting, challenging and hopeful all at the same time.

Go earn some blessings today- all you need to do is read the Word, honor the Torah (as Yeshua/Jesus did) and get blessed.

For me, I try to do one less sin every day. That doesn’t mean not do a sin today, then never do that sin again- that can’t be done, at least, I can’t do that. But what I can do is one less sin every day.

We can never be sinless, but we can always sin less.  So, do one less sin today.

I can trade a sin for a blessing? Oy! Vot a deal! 

Vote or don’t vote: that is the question

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A couple of weeks ago, when we were in the Parashah Shoftim (Judges), my Pastor made a very good argument for voting in the upcoming Presidential election. He pointed out this parashah tells us that we are told to appoint judges, in fact, we are told to appoint righteous judges, to determine justice. This was a commandment given by God to the children of Israel. This is a strong argument that we should vote in an election. Although it was plainly stated that he didn’t think much of either candidate, the argument for one over the other was, essentially, that God is in control and that he (my Pastor) believed one of the two would be more inclined to appoint “righteous judges” within the Cabinet and Judiciary than the other would.

Good argument, but I don’t buy it.

I am not voting for either of these two candidates because I do not think either of them are worthy to be President. I am not being inactive- I am actively abstaining.

I am very vocal with people who tell me I have to vote- NO, I don’t have to vote!  The right to vote is also the right to abstain.

The problem with people is that they are too lazy to think for themselves and too eager to tell others what to do.

If you take a moment to do a Google search for “abstention as a political tool” you will find a number of “hits” that demonstrate how abstaining from a vote is, in and of itself, a vote against what is being offered.

I served my country, and when someone has the nerve to tell me what to do with my vote, I ask them what branch of the service they served in (most never have.) I have risked my life for my country, and the oath I took when I joined the Marine Corps did not end when my required service time on active duty was up (I also served an additional year in the Reserves). I have served my country, and have never stopped being obligated to the oath I took- I have earned the right to not vote.

I don’t want to have anything to do with having put either Mr. Trump or Mrs. Clinton in the White House. It’s just that simple, and unlike my Pastor (who I respect and have listened to in the past, when there was someone I could vote for), I don’t trust either of these two to appoint anyone except someone like them. As the expressions goes, “Birds of a feather flock together” and as President, both of them will need as many friends in positions of authority as they can get.

My opinion follows: elect Hillary and we put Bill back in the White House; elect Donald and we’ll have a President who will (effectively) be a lame duck from the moment he takes the oath because neither Congress not the Senate will work with him.

But, this isn’t about what I believe, or what you believe, for that matter- this is about doing what is right in God’s eyes. I believe the passage Pastor referred to (Deuteronomy 16:18) is telling us, literally, to appoint righteous judges, meaning we shouldn’t settle for less. If there are no righteous judges, then we are like those people we read of in the Book of Judges, where there was no King so men just did what seemed right to them.

In other words, there was anarchy. And that is what we can expect as the End Times come upon us: anarchy, unrighteousness flourishing, and the stage being set for the Evil One to take over. They say that the “stuff” flows downhill, and the White House is at the top of the Hill.

See my point?

I am not voting simply because my non-vote, my abstention, is a statement that I do not want either of these candidates. Voting for someone who has no chance of winning, just to say “I voted”, seems to me to be a waste of the right to vote.

I want to do what is right in God’s eyes, and God is very clear about who should lead us. I’ll give you three guesses who that is, and the first two guesses don’t count. Yes, very good- Yeshua is our King on Earth and God is the King of kings. Until Yeshua is running the show, we have to settle for earthly leaders, who we should respect and obey (1 Peter 2:17).

However, we are to have no part, whatsoever, in unrighteousness:

Chronicles 19:7– Now then let the fear of the LORD be upon you; be very careful what you do, for the LORD our God will have no part in unrighteousness or partiality or the taking of a bribe.”

2 Corinthians 6:14- Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?

Ephesians 5:11– Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

The bible is clear that we must respect those in authority over us because God is in charge, and if they are there it is because He allows it. But He also tells us to have nothing to do with unrighteousness, so that means, to me, that if there is no righteous judge to appoint, then leave what happens up to God and have nothing to do with unrighteousness. It’s His show, it’s His call, and I want to play the game on His turf, so I should vote for those that represent righteousness and abstain (as a vehicle used to show a negative vote) from voting for anyone that I believe to be unrighteous.

You have the right to vote, and the right to abstain. No one, and I mean NO ONE!… has the right to tell you what to do with your vote.

Be a part of righteousness in all that you do, and refrain from being a part of unrighteousness: that isn’t from me, it’s the way God tells you to be.

 

Parashah Ki Thetze (go forth) Deuteronomy 21:10 – 25

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We know that this last book of the Torah is a recap of the entire Torah, reaffirming the laws, regulations and commandments that God gave to everyone (Jew and Gentile, alike) through Moses. This parashah covers many of the civil laws, i.e. the way we are to treat each other.

Some of the topics covered are marriage and divorce, restoration of lost property, fair treatment of slaves, other people, even animals; adultery, disobedient children, holiness of the camp, vows, and not to use excessive punishment.

Throughout the bible, from Genesis through Revelations, we are told, over and over and over and….over: obey God, treat each other with kindness and respect and all will go well with us. That’s really all there is to it. Just like Yeshua said, which was said before Him and after Him: love God and love each other and everything else falls into place.

Yet we don’t. The bible tells us (and shows us) that faith in God is paramount and the most important thing to believe in, but the world tells us to have faith in ourselves. From my experience, I can tell you that I screw up a lot, and will most likely continue to. I have screwed up less and less thanks only to God’s Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) that I am still (after almost 20 years) learning to listen to.  If there is anything I can have faith in myself about, it is that I will screw things up.

And I am no different than you, or him, or them- we are all human.

In fact, God, Himself, doesn’t have faith in humanity. Really! If He did, then He would not have sent Yeshua (Jesus) to be a Messiah. Truth is, God knew from the very moment He made Himself known to Abraham that He would have to provide the means for us to have salvation because we can’t save ourselves.

We need to let go of what the world tells us is alright and stick to what God says. For instance, in this parashah it is said men and women should dress according to their gender, but do we? Heck- we don’t even know which bathroom to use anymore! And it also says to treat each other fairly; have you been listening to the political candidates?

Look- it’s simple: do as you’re told by God and not as you’re told by people. You will be against the world, but given what the world is like, that’s a good place to be.

If I was asked by someone what is the most important book to read in the entire bible, I would have to go with D’varim (Deuteronomy) because it spells it all out, very simply. There aren’t any really splendorous events (like at Mt. Horeb when God appeared to all the people) and there are no wonderful stories of miraculous happenings (like Sodom and Gomorrah, or the Red Sea parting), but what there is is the simple and understandable set of rules for living a life that is designed to keep you walking on the path to salvation.

Put no faith in people or things- save it all for God. Let go of the control you think you have, because you really have no control over anything.

God is in control, and you aren’t. Never were , never will be, so let the Big Guy handle it because He is the only one there is who can make whatever He wants to happen, happen.

God has a specific plan for you -yes, you, the person reading this right now- and He knows where you need to be going, so please let Him drive.

 

Parashah Shoftim (Judges) Deuteronomy 16:18 – 21:9

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“Justice, Justice shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”

These are the words found in this Shabbat Parashah (16:20) and the rest of this parashah discusses how that justice is to be rendered. Not only to men, but to women, children, widows, orphans, even to the trees.

When we are told not to respect anyone, that means not to give special treatment. Don’t overly accommodate the rich and don’t be extra merciful to the poor. Everyone is equal in the eyes of justice, that is, in God’s justice.

The trees, oh yes, the trees: in Chapter 20, verses 19-20 we are told not to destroy fruit trees when besieging a city because those trees provide food. Trees that do not provide food for anyone can be cut down. I guess if you were an olive tree you’d find that commandment extremely just, right?

There are other rules about fair treatment of people, and some of these rules seem totally unfair, such as completely destroying the 6 nations mentioned in 20:17. With regards to those people, everything that breathed, to include animals, was to be totally destroyed. The reason for this harsh genocide is because those nations had refused to accept peace and conversion. Their religious and social culture was an abomination: sodomy, human sacrifice, incest, prostitution, idolatry,…you name it, they did it! Their perversions were so much a part of their daily lives that there is no way having them in the presence of the people of Israel would not influence and pervert the people from God’s pure ways.

Look at it this way: if you work in a fish market, walking among the fish, working with the fish, handling them, being in the midst of fish all day long- what do you think you will smell like when you get home?

Yet, even with these abominable nations which defiled themselves and the land, the rule was still to be just and fair with them. Every single nation, town, city and village that the Israelites were to conquer was first given the option of making peace. The Chumash tells us that even these nations that were ordered to be totally destroyed were first offered peace, the difference being that the nations far away were offered peace and allowed to continue their lives as tributaries to Israel, whereas these 6 nations were required not just to accepted subjugation, but they had to convert from their religious and social practices to those of the Israelites. Their regular lives had to be completely left behind so that none of their abominable practices would be able to infest Israel. These nations were offered peace, but (obviously) they chose to make war, instead.

Bad choice on their part.

Throughout history we see that nations are formed not by finding open and unoccupied lands which they settle, but by finding settled lands that are desirable, then overcoming and destroying the people there. The ones who are able to stay are the ones that are stronger than the surrounding peoples. In other words, the strongest get to live where they want to, and the weaker get to be slaves or dead. That doesn’t sound very fair at all, except maybe to the ones who are the strongest.

The situation we have in America today which I see as being against God’s idea of “just” is this: God says to treat everyone the same, whether poor or rich, even whether Israelite or foreigner. Yet, in America- a land founded on Godly principles- we have abandoned the idea of justice for what we consider to be merciful and sympathetic treatment of the “less fortunate.”

I don’t really have to list any examples, do I? Don’t we all know of law cases that have been unfair to the large corporations (not that I am all for what large corporations do) simply because they “have the money to pay?” The best known case, I think, is the one about the lady who burned herself opening hot coffee in her lap while in the car. Do you think the settlement for that lady was a just and fair judgment? The civil court awarded her nearly $3 Million dollars; it finally settled in an appeal out of court for less than $600,000. Figure this being  a torts case, the lawyers got at least 1/3 of the settlement (standard personal injury settlement fee), plus whatever additional fees they may have charged, including everything from phone calls to making copies (at dollars per copy, although it costs them cents), which really adds up when a law case can go on for months or even years.

Bottom line: we do not dispense justice the way God says to dispense it. If this case came before a Judge in ancient Israel, he would have thrown it out for being frivolous and unsubstantiated because the lady spilled her coffee on herself. The cup didn’t fail to hold the coffee, the coffee was as hot as any other place would sell it; the reason she burned herself was because she placed it right in her lap instead of somewhere safer. The dashboard, the floor, since the car wasn’t moving at the time she could have gotten out and placed it on the roof- anyplace other than her lap would have been more reasonable.

I don’t really want to get in a discussion about this case, but I do want to point out that justice is supposed to be equally dispensed, and America has lost sight of that. The old adage that the squeaky wheel gets all the grease is more like the rule of thumb in our justice system, today. We are all victims, it is “their” fault that this happened, and I deserve to be compensated way beyond reasonable limits because “they” have the money to pay for it.

In the Torah we are told that the compensation for theft and destruction of someone’s ox is to be 5 oxen, whereas stealing and killing someone’s sheep was to be repaid back with 4 sheep (Ex. 22:1); in cases of robbery the least amount to be restored was the value of the property plus 1/5 more (Lev. 6:2-5). These are God’s commands for justice and His standards. Applying that to the case discussed above, the settlement to the lady should have been around $25,000 to cover expenses ($20,000 plus 1/5). The real money came from punitive damages which were based on MacDonald’s having been negligent, which reinforces what I said about people being victims- she opened the hot coffee in her lap but the resulting burn was MacDonald’s fault.

Maybe part of the reason is that the lawyers need to make sure they get their money’s worth out of it, and that’s fair, really- the worker deserves his wages (Luke 10:7; 1 Timothy 5:18) so they have to figure that in when they are asking for a settlement, but , well….I am going on and on about something that is taking us away from the real message.

We need to dispense justice, God’s justice, to everyone; we shouldn’t be overly sympathetic or overly accommodating just because someone is rich or poor. We are to treat all people with justice based on God’s word, ask for and award fair compensation, and to offer peaceful solution to conflicts of interest.

Ya know what? Maybe the reason Lady Justice is wearing that blindfold is because she doesn’t want to see how we have perverted it?

Everything about God’s way is simple, fair and righteous. We may not understand everything He asks us to do, but since He is God there really shouldn’t be any concern about why. Like I said- He’s God, so when He says “do this”, we need to do that; and, when he says “don’t do this”, we better not do that.

We all grew up with our parents saying, in one way or another, “So long as you live under my roof you will do as I say” and we didn’t always like it, but we understood what it meant. It’s like that with God, only with a small twist:

“So long as you live under my sky you will do as I say.”

Until you can find some sky you can call your own, you best do as Father says.

Parashah Ekev (because) Deuteronomy 7:12 – 11:25

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This parashah has Moses delivering the same message to the Israelites repeated three times; essentially, Moses is telling them that “God has your back!”

He retells about the 40 years in the desert, the way God handled the Egyptians (and will be able to handle the Canaanites, just the same way), about how God gave the tablets to Moses, about how God fed them in the desert (in 8:3 Moses tells us we do not live by bread alone) and provided water from the rocks. He reminds them how God punished them for their rebellions, but only to test them and make their faith stronger. Moses reminds them of the sin of the Golden Calf, and how he often had to beg God not to destroy the people.

This message- God protected you, God fed you, God brought you to this land, yet you have constantly rebelled against Him, causing you to suffer. And, despite all this, God has always forgiven you and as long as you obey Him He will continue to watch over you, as He has for the past 40 years- is repeated three times throughout this parashah. But do you think they remembered?

Moses also warns them not to fall into worshiping the idols of the people they are to soon conquer or they will be forsaken by God and ejected from the land.

Moses also tells them, in no uncertain way, to never get so comfortable with the wonderful things they will have when they are settled in the land that they start to think they actually deserve it- not so. They are to remember that they are there only because God loved their fathers and keeps His promises.

Throughout this book Moses pounds into their skulls, over and over and over, that God will take care of them so long as they obey Him. Over, and over, and over….and over!

It didn’t seem to do any good, did it?

And have we learned from this? Every bible-based religion that has come after the Jewish people, from Catholicism to Protestantism to Methodism to whatever: every single one of these religions that profess to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob have not only made all the same mistakes that the Israelites made, but have made worse ones, yet! They have not just ignored the Torah, they have taught that the very living Torah, Jesus (Yeshua) told them to ignore it! They teach that the Torah is only for Jews, and they only need the blood of Christ to give them freedom from sin.

Yo, Bro- hate to tell ‘ya, but that blood was shed so that you could be free from sin; it wasn’t shed so you could be free from Torah. Yeshua taught from, of, and about the essence of Torah, and His Talmudim (Disciples) after Him did nothing but confirm Torah. The only difference is that the Gentile converts to Judaism (that is what you were in the First Century when you accepted Yeshua as your Messiah) ) were not held as strictly accountable to every law in Torah AT FIRST when they accepted Messiah Yeshua. AT FIRST– that means they were given 4 restrictions (Acts 15:19-21) only as a start to learn all the laws in Torah. It is clear in the bible that the Elders expected these converts to Judaism to pick up the rest as they heard the Torah preached and taught in the temple.

We have heard from God, we have seen His wonders, we have known His punishment and we have received His love and forgiveness. Everything that we ever needed, need now or ever will need, God has taken care of for us. Yet, we still rebel, we still forget, we still do wrong.

OY! Was Mashuganas!

It’s all really simple- God gave the Torah to the children of the Patriarchs so that they could learn from it how to live, and as such, be an example to the rest of the world. When that didn’t work, He gave up His only son to provide the ultimate Get Out of Jail card for us, but that did NOT overrule Torah. It simply provided another means of salvation that the Torah couldn’t- not because Torah is unable to do so, but because we are unable to follow Torah.

This parashah holds the same message for us that it held for the children of Israel before they entered the land God promised them- do what is right in God’s eyes, remember how He cares for you, remember how unworthy you are of that care, be grateful and show your gratefulness through obedience.

God’s got our back and we should be humbly grateful to Him. Our gratitude should be demonstrated every minute of every day by following, as best as we can, the instructions He gave us about how to worship Him and treat each other.

Sounds easy enough, doesn’t it? So, then, why can’t we do it?

Parashah Va-Ethchanan (I besought) Deuteronomy 3:23 – 7:11

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Moses completes his First Discourse, going into detail about how God has separated the Jewish people from the other nations by his laws, ordinances and (more than anything else) His continual presence and the miraculous works He has performed for His people. These all show the world who God is and who He has chosen as His inheritance.

Moses then assigns the cities of refuge and starting in Chapter 5, verse 1 Moses goes through the 10 Commandments, recites the Shema and the V’Ahavtah: the Shema being the watchword of the faith, the statement of monotheism which separated the Jewish people from the rest of the pagan world. The V’Ahavtah (‘and you shall love’) follows the Shema, and is the way we follow the Shema- to love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might. Yeshua told us that to love God (from this passage) and to love each other (Lev. 19:18) are the two most important commandments of all.

Moses also tells us, throughout this parashah and (indeed) throughout the entire book of Deuteronomy, that we are not to make a graven image of anything; nothing in the sky, nothing on earth and nothing in the sea. Maybe someone should tell that religion with all the statues in their churches about this commandment.

Chapter 5 also starts the Second Discourse of Moses, which is all about the foundations of the Covenant.

Well, all we have here today to talk about are the two most important prayers in Judaism and how important it is to follow God’s commandments in order to secure our future. Let’s see- maybe we can cover this completely in, oh say, …a LIFETIME!! We have been studying these things since we received them, some 3500 years ago. Oy!

I am going to keep this simple. The bottom line, the acid test question to be answered (“How does this affect my salvation?”) is that we are to remember to follow God’s lead. That’s it, really. Here’s salvation in a nutshell: do as God says.

Of course, since we can’t do that because of our sinful nature, God has provided Yeshua the Messiah to get us over that “hump”, but that hasn’t happened yet for these people.

God has given us the Torah- not “us” meaning just the Jewish people, but “us” meaning everyone.  The Jewish people are the chosen people (sorry to tell you, Replacement Theologists, but you are so wrong you aren’t even in the same universe where what is right is found), but chosen only to be the custodians of the Torah. We are to be teachers, Levites (priests) to the nations; by learning and following the Torah, we are to present to the world the example of how we all should act.

All nations will be blessed by Abraham’s seed- that is the promise God made to Abraham (Genesis 22:18) and we have seen that happen throughout history. Just as a small example, here is an excerpt from Wikipedia regarding the contribution Jews have made to the world resulting in being awarded the Nobel Prize:

 Nobel Prizes have been awarded to over 850 individuals, of whom at least 20% were Jewish or people of Jewish descent, although Jews comprise less than 0.2% of the world’s population (or 1 in every 500 people). Overall, Jews or people of Jewish descent have won a total of 41% of all the Nobel Prizes in economics, 28% of medicine, 26% of physics, 19% of chemistry, 13% of literature and 9% of all peace awards.

Less than 0.2% of all people have contributed over 20% of the most beneficial discoveries and contributions to society that have occurred in the modern world. I would call that a good example of blessing the world, wouldn’t you?

Moses tells the people (over and over) how God chose them, saved them, protected them, and will continue to do so, as long as they continue to worship Him and obey His Torah. It’s really that simple- do as He says, live in peace and comfort, the end; close the door on your way out.

That is today’s message: do as God says, not as we do.

Of course, you will counter with, “But, I can’t obey the Torah fully- there is no temple for the sacrifice, and besides that, (now comes the string of excuses that religion has taught you), and that’s why I can’t follow Torah. Oh, yeah- I am not under the Law but under the Blood of Christ!”

Religion is not something God created- mankind created religion. God has no religion. So, what religion has taught you may or may not be correct in God’s eyes. The Torah, on the other hand, is correct in God’s eyes. I mean, well, He gave it to us- how much more correct can it get than that? The only logical and sensible thing to do is try to follow the Torah to the best of our abilities.

Being under the Blood of Christ is a very good thing- a VERY good thing- but it is not license to ignore God’s commandments that are in the Torah. Being under the blood is being born again and having Yeshua (Jesus) as your intercessor: your unrighteousness before God is covered by His blood, which washes clean the stain of your sin. Being “under the blood” is how you are able to be saved from yourself at Judgement Day, but if you haven’t really done T’shuvah (turning from sin), if you use the suffering and sacrifice Yeshua underwent to save you as an excuse to continue sinning (on purpose), then there will be no blood shed for you! God and Yeshua want you to be saved from yourself, even to the point where Yeshua gave up His divinity to take on a mantle of flesh and die so that you can be welcomed into heaven.

BUT– neither God nor Yeshua are stupid. If your heart is not truly repentant, if you don’t truly try to sin less every day, if you have’t really done T’shuvah, then you aren’t fooling anyone. You may think you are under the blood, but you are, in fact, under a curse.

The whole Torah comes down to this, as I have said before, am saying now, and will continue to say: just do what God says to the best of your ability, and what He says in in the Torah. It’s not what the Rabbi, Priest or Minister tells you (although they are trying to help guide you), and it’s not what I tell you (Oy! Who, me? I am just like you!): it’s what God tells you! God is the Boss, the Big Kahuna, the Macher, the Holy One of Israel, the Lord of lords and King of kings. God is all there is, ever was, or ever shall be.

The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the One and Only God, and that is all there is to it. His business is salvation, His CEO is Yeshua, His office is in heaven, and if you want to want to work for Him you need to follow His business practices.

And the Employee Handbook is called…..Torah.