Tag: Torah

Faith vs. Legalism

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As a Messianic Jew I am not liked by anyone. My Jewish brothers and sisters tell me that because I believe “in Jesus” (almost none of them really understand what that means) I am no longer Jewish; on the other side, because I follow Torah (as best as I can) and maintain a “Jewish” worship and lifestyle, my brothers and sisters in Messiah tell me I am legalistic and not really saved because I am “under the law” and not “under the blood.”

Both are just so very, very wrong.

Shaul (AKA Paul, that nice Jewish tent maker from Tarsus) tells us in Romans, Chapter 4 all about legalism and faith. He begins at the beginning, with Abraham, and identifies how the Tanakh confirms that Abraham was considered righteous because he believed what God told him would happen. That faithfulness, demonstrated by Abraham believing in what hadn’t yet happened, was why God credited him with righteousness. There was no task he accomplished, or behavior he performed, other than believing.

But that wasn’t all: Abraham did more than just believe. He did all the things that God told him to do, without hesitation or complaint. He left his father’s house, he left his neighbors, his home…everything he knew and was comfortable with, and took everyone and everything he owned to…he had no idea where.

When God told him to cut up animals and lay them out, he did that and remained out in the heat of the day, shooing away the birds.

When God said to circumcise himself and everyone else, he did it that day.

When God said to take Isaac and sacrifice him, he left early the very next morning.

Whatever God said to do, he did.

So, even though Abraham’s righteousness came from trusting faithfulness in what God said, he also spent his life doing what God told him to do.  We call that obedience.

Going back to Romans 4, Shaul points out that circumcision had nothing to do with Abraham’s righteousness because the righteousness was credited before he was circumcised; because of that, Gentiles who are not circumcised can be saved without undergoing the procedure, but if one chooses to do so, as an act of obedience, it doesn’t mean that person is being legalistic.

The difference between legalism and faith is simply the reason for performing the act: if I do what is in the Torah because I want to obey God, that is not legalism. If I do what is in the Torah to make me righteous, I am being legalistic. Of course, if I can obey Torah perfectly, I will be made righteous by doing so; the problem with that scenario is that no one can obey Torah perfectly. Therefore, there has to be a better way. We call that way “Grace”, God’s forgiveness for our sins, which is possible through believing in Yeshua, whose sacrifice replaced the need to bring a sacrifice to the temple in Jerusalem to have our sins forgiven.

This is why Yeshua had to die: because the temple wasn’t going to exist, which means the sacrificial system God created for us in the Torah would no longer be available, Yeshua’s sacrifice replaced needing the temple to receive forgiveness of sin.

If I live my life trying to obey the Torah because it is what God said I should do, and I do it to please God and out of respect for Him, then I am not being legalistic: I am being obedient. Just as Abraham was obedient. Do any of you doubt, even for a nano-second, that if God had given the Torah to Abraham back then, that Abraham would not have tried to be 100% in compliance with everything in the Torah? Of course he would have. And not to be considered righteous, but simply because God told him it is what he should do.

The Torah is NOT just for Jews- it was given to the Jews, who God said are His nation of priests to the world, to live it as best they can in order to be an example to the rest of the world how they should live. If you don’t want to worship the God that is in the Old Covenant writings, then ignore the Torah. But if you choose to ignore God’s commands, for whatever reason, I don’t think we will be playing Cribbage in the Acharit Hayamin (End Days) together.

It all comes down to what is in your heart: believing Yeshua is the Messiah and being faithfully obedient to Torah as a “labor of love” will result in receiving His Grace; obeying Torah just to earn your way into heaven is a direct route to somewhere, but not where you will want to be.

Is “Science” the False Prophet?

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According to Revelations, the False Prophet is one of the deadly trio of demonic creatures that will rise up and rule in the end days. The false prophet will start off being rather lowly and unassuming, then will show great power and do miraculous things, leading people to worship the Beast. Essentially, it will perform miracles that had been associated with God and assign them to the power of the Anti-Christ.

We assume that the false prophet is a man, or some creature, but why can’t it be science?

For instance, take the Theory of Evolution: it is still only a theory. Yet, when we listen to the Discovery channel or read anything about animals in scientific publications, it talks about how they have evolved to adapt to their environment. Not that there have been changes to the species, but that it has evolved– using evolutionary terminology as if it is a fact and not a theory.

If you were to ask someone today, just an ordinary person you meet on the street, if evolution is a fact, I’ll bet they would say, “Yes.” And if you ask why they think that, their answer will be something long the lines of, “Because everyone knows it is.”

With humans, if you tell them something often enough, they will believe it. Even if they have never read about it, or studied about it, if they are told it is true often enough, they will accept it.

I am not here to discuss global warming, or evolution, or cloning, or stem-cell research: that is not the issue here. The issue is whether or not science is becoming a new religion.

I think the answer is an undeniable….YES!!

Because we have advanced our understanding of how the natural world works to the point where we can explain how and why some events in the world (and space) happen, we think that they are no longer miraculous. Because we have cloned animals we think we now can create test-tube life, but we fail to remember that cloning is impossible without an egg. So, where does the egg come from?

It’s like the story of scientists who told God mankind doesn’t need Him anymore because we completely understand the human genome and can fix any deformation or sickness. God asked if the scientists could create a man from a lump of clay, and they said they could. God said, “Show me.” The scientists went out and found a lump of clay with the molecular consistency they needed, and when they brought it into the laboratory, God said, “That’s my clay- you have to make your own.”

Technology is also a form of science, so think about this: Yeshua tells us in Matthew 7:24 about how the man who built his house on sand suffered a great destruction when the house was subjected to wind and rain. Today, the world is run by computers; computers are run by their CPU; the CPU is a chip made of silicon. And what is silicon? Silicon is sand.

Science has created a false sense of comfort and control, which is leading people to accept teachings that undermine the bible and in many ways reject the existence of God.  It is, as the false prophet is going to do, forcing us to worship something other than God. How this turn from God will result in turning to the Anti-Christ, I do not know. But because I know what is happening, I can keep an eye out for where it is taking me.

Being able to do miraculous things is NOT the true sign of God or Messiah, or (for that matter) the False Prophet or even the Beast. Doing miraculous things may entail nothing more than good sleight of hand. We need to be aware and alert to distinguish what is truth that brings us closer to God, and what is truth that is misleading. And please don’t ever forget this one absolute truth- the most convincing lie is one that has a foundation of truth to it.  Truth can be the start of a lie. The false prophet will start off without a lot of power or even seem to be a threat. Science started off that way, didn’t it? At first it was the most educated men trying to explain the natural world with simple things, such as gravity, heat, electricity and diseases. Today we are talking about wormholes that twist time and space, quarks and mesons that are smaller than atoms, strong and weak forces, and the study of physics has (pardon the term) evolved to the point where we have proven things that we can’t even see using mathematical and gravitational calculations as evidence of their existence.

Yacov (James) tells us what faith is in Hebrews 11:1:

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

When we talk about faith in God or Messiah (although we haven’t seen either of them) we confidently hope for the resurrection, made possible through Messiah’s sacrifice. Honestly, we have no real proof of Yeshua’s resurrection, although we have plenty of evidence for it. The evidence of this is from the eyewitness accounts of His Disciples in the B’rit Chadasha (New Covenant writings), in our sensing of the Ruach Ha Kodesh (Holy Spirit) when we pray and worship, and the events in our life that, if we wish to accept it, have been and are being controlled by God. Science also faithfully hopes that the evidence they see, such as celestial bodies being affected by some force causing them to change elliptical pathways, or small points on a piece of treated paper to indicate mesons and quarks are hitting it when atoms are smashed, is proof that these things exist. It is a form of faith: not in God, but in science.

Science does work with facts, and can prove events in the natural world exist. Here’s where the problem starts, because once it has established itself as viable and trustworthy with these small facts, it can then grow in power from that beginning. It starts with something small and believable, then it takes a foothold and gets a finger-grip on humanity’s trust, and from there it takes humanity for a ride.

As I said at the start, the biggest lie has some element of the truth: start with enough truth to build a level of credibility, then upon that you can build the lie.

Look at how far afield from Judaism Christianity has gone, even though it professes to worship the same God that Jews worship. We all agree God is the same today as yesterday, and will be the same tomorrow. If our God it is the same God, and He is unchanging, then how can there be so many different ways to worship Him? If our God never changes, when He told us how to worship Him in the Torah, then that would never change, either.  Yet, look at all the different ways He is being worshiped.  Someone, somewhere, isn’t telling the truth, because all Abrahamic religions start at the same exact place. So how can we be so different?

Religion was created by man so that man could have power over other men. Science was created by man, also. It is a study of the natural world, but it was created by man. If mankind had not started to wonder about and investigate why things are the way they are, science would not exist. The lack of faith and trust in God to control things is how science came to be, and just as different religions question the validity of what God has said in order to fulfill their own desires, science has rejected God in order to fulfill our need to be in control of the world. Isn’t that really what science is all about today? It is more than just the desire to know how the world works- it is, ultimately, the desire to know how it works so we can exercise control over it!  

I love knowing how things work, but I trust God to make it happen. And even if I can explain how something happens, that doesn’t make it any less of a miracle. If I knew that the Red Sea split open because of a natural event upstream that blocked the waters, so what? That doesn’t mean God didn’t split the Red Sea, it means God caused the event that split the Red Sea. It’s still a miracle of God.

Science is trying to take the place of God- don’t let it.

Parashah B’midbar (In the Wilderness) Numbers 1 – 4:20

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In last week’s Parashah ( for 5/20/17, which was a double) we finished the book of Leviticus. That book was mostly legislative in nature, and now we start the book of Numbers, which is more historical. Throughout this book we will learn of the events that occurred while the Children of Israel spent 38 years wandering in the desert.

Numbers takes up where Exodus left off, which is the first day of the second month of the second year after leaving Egypt, when the Tabernacle of the Lord has been completed and is now in service. This parashah starts with a census God orders Moses to take, which identifies the numbers from each tribe of those over 20 and fit for military service. We see this type of census taken, with God’s approval (unlike the one David took in  1 Chronicles, 21) whenever the people needed to be prepared for war. The census did not include the Levites, who were counted separately, as their duties were not for war but service to God by being in charge of the Tabernacle. God also tells Moses which of the Levitical clans will be responsible for which parts of the Tabernacle, as well as the formation of the camp.

Here is a picture of how the encampment was configured:

 

This parashah doesn’t appear to have any really deep and spiritual messages, does it? I mean, all we are told is how many of each tribe there are, where they camp and how they are to march. We are also told which clan of Levi is responsible for which parts of the Tabernacle when on the march. There just doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of “meat” to this parashah.

Then, again, let’s look a little deeper and cheat a bit, by knowing what is to happen later.

Did you notice that the Kohathites were encamped next to, and marched alongside of, the Reubenites? Do you remember how Reuben had not received the rights of the Firstborn due to his sleeping with one of Israel’s concubines (Genesis 39:3-4), and that Korah also felt slighted because the Kohathites were not to perform the duties of the High Priest. So although we don’t see anything of particular importance in this parashah, by looking back to it later on we can see that the seeds of collusion and rebellion were planted when the tribes of Kohath and Reuben were made neighbors. Perhaps if they had been at opposite ends of the camp, they would not have come together in rebellion?

Certainly God would have known that this placement, which He decreed, would have resulted in the collusion between these men. And, that being a given, we would have to ask, “Why would God have done that?”

Good question. I think I have an answer, which is the same answer God gave to Job: we won’t always understand God’s plans or why He does what He does.

In the case of Job, God allowed all that suffering to show Satan that Job’s faith is greater than Satan’s attacks. Now, from Job’s viewpoint (as well as his friends) there could be no reason why these terrible things were happening, but in the end we learn that the real issue was between God and Satan, not between God and Job. God used Job to show Satan that strong faith in God is more powerful than anything Satan could do.

Perhaps the positioning of Korah and Dathan so close to each other was to test their faith, and if they failed that test (which they did), then to allow Moses and Aaron to be glorified and honored in the sight of all Israel, which is what happened. God used the evil these men intended against His servants to glorify Himself and show Moses and Aaron to be His chosen leaders (Numbers 17:5):

 The staff belonging to the man I choose will sprout, and I will rid myself of this constant grumbling against you by the Israelites.”

The bible is one complete book, and even though we might not see what message there is for us in one part of it, when we look at it in its entirety, study it well enough to know what will happen and what has happened, then we can see that there is something for us to learn in every part of the book. Such as in this parashah, which on the surface seems to be a collection of names and numbers, but when looked at knowing the events that will later occur, we can see how God is setting the stage now to glorify Himself later.

This understanding of how God works should fortify our faith in God, and give us comfort during times of trials. Just because we may not see, here and now, what God has planned we can always know that He does have something planned. It just may not be time for whatever he has planned to happen, that’s all.

Take comfort in knowing that everything God does, He does with a plan to glorify His name and to establish His rule. When we accept that and work within it, we will be blessed and supported by God, just as Moses and Aaron were; when we work against what God decrees, we will suffer as Korah and his followers did.

We all follow someone, so take the lesson from today’s parashah when you choose whom to follow, that lesson being: look passed the obvious and ask the Ruach Ha Kodesh for insight so you can see not only what seeds are being sown, but what will grow from them.

Parashah Behar (Mount) Leviticus 25-26:2

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Even though the English title is “Mount”, the translated Hebrew text is ,”And the Lord spoke to Moses IN Mount Sinai, saying:…”. I just wanted to point this out because I think it is interesting that from Moses’s view (since he wrote this) he wasn’t on the mountain, but inside it. Perhaps there was a cave or a sheltered area God provided for Moses? After all, he was there for 40 days and nights, and to provide a sheltered area for him to sleep and be comfortable in would have been the least God could have done, right?.

This parashah is all about Sabbath for the land and Jubilee Year. Just as we rest from our work every 7th day, the land rests every 7th year. And every 7th year of years (in other words, the beginning of every 50th year) there is a Jubilee Year. In that year all people and property revert to their God-given owners.

I say “God-given owners” because Joshua divvied-up the land among the 9 1/2 Tribes (remember that Gad, Reuben, and the 1/2 tribe of Manasseh settled on east side of the Jordan) after they had conquered Canaan. Because the land was divided among the tribe by lot, meaning God ordered who got what, clearly it was “God-given.”

In the 50th year, on the 10th day of Tishri, which God declared as the Day of Trumpets (known today as Rosh Hashannah) the Jubilee Year begins, although it isn’t officially announced until Yom Kippur.  In the Jubilee Year all property reverts to the original owner, and all slaves are set free. There are also rules regarding how to pro-rate the value of the lands and slavery work results so that when Jubilee Year comes the people who were buying back or selling back would receive a fair value.

Let’s start with the Sabbath year for the land. The law about leaving the land untouched for an entire year means that in the 6th year you would need to have enough produce to be able to sustain your family and all your possessions (animals and slaves) for three years: the 7th year you wouldn’t be farming or planting, you would be living off what was done from the 6th year harvest. Then, in the the 8th year,  you would have to plant, and you wouldn’t see that harvest until the 9th year.  So the 6th, 7th and 8th years you are living off the 6th year harvest. Now, God promises that He will provide enough for 3 years in the 6th year, so obeying His 7th year Sabbath commandment is the same test of faith He gave us in the desert. Back then, we were to gather one day’s worth of manna for 5 days, and on the 6th day we were to gather enough to last through the Sabbath, because no manna came down on the 7th day. If you gathered more than you were supposed to, the manna turned bad overnight, but what was gathered on the 6th day stayed good for 2 days. This miracle from God, which He had provided to His people for 40 years in the desert, would be applied to the Jews living in the Land, as well.

From what we read in the Tanakh, though, it appears the commandment regarding the Sabbath yer for the land was rarely obeyed. Ezekiel mentions it as one of the reasons for the upcoming destruction, and in the next Parashah (Leviticus 26:32-35), where God tells us all the punishments He will bring upon us for disobedience, He warns us about what will happen if we disobey giving the land it’s Sabbath year:

I myself will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who live there will be appalled.  I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins.  Then the land will enjoy its sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate and you are in the country of your enemies; then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths.  All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not have during the sabbaths you lived in it.

The letter Jeremiah wrote to the Israelites in captivity in Babylon (Jeremiah 29) he says that the captivity will last 70 years, which would indicate that the land had not had it’s Sabbath rest for nearly 490 years prior to the Babylonian exile.

We have been given free will to choose what we will do, and when it comes to our relationship with God, that free will allows us to find peace and joy forever, or to turn from God, disobey and ruin our eternity. God will help and direct us to make the right decision, but He will not force us to accept it. The people had seen His provision for 40 years in the desert, and also the miraculous salvation from enemies He provided throughout the times of the Judges; even after we sinned by asking for a king, God still provided for those kings that were righteous before Him. All this provision, all these miraculous events, have been passed down in the oral history (the Tanakh was not completed until, at the earliest, 450 BCE, although it may have not been until much later, around 140-116 BCE- scholars can’t agree) and was known by all the people living in the Land, well before Jeremiah’s time.  And today we have even more evidence of God’s provision, most importantly the evidence of Messiah, Yeshua.

Yet, we still disobey, we still ignore, we still reject (as a people) God and His commandments. Oy! And worse, still: many, if not most, are not even repentant! They make excuses and give justification (from a human viewpoint) for their disobedience. When we make excuses instead of asking for forgiveness, we are not repentant. And lack of repentance means that the forgiveness we ask for will not be given. God is wonderfully merciful, but He isn’t stupid: if you don’t really feel sorry and rueful for the sin you commit, I believe you can ask all you want, call on Yeshua, jump up and down and recite the Torah backwards, but it won’t help.

God doesn’t care about what we do to be forgiven, He cares about how we feel when we ask for forgiveness:

1 Samuel 15:22– Samuel said, “Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.

Psalm 51:17– The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.

God wants us to repent of our sins, not just go through the motions of asking for forgiveness without truly being repentant.

To pull it all together, we need to be aware that God will provide for us when we obey, and when we reject Him and His good laws, He will make sure that what He wants done will be done, from anything as simple as withholding blessings, as to complete desolation of our land.

God’s will WILL be done, one way or another; I don’t want to speak for you, but as for me, well, I want to be in God’s will as much as possible. Being outside His will is not a good place to be.

What Makes a Jew a Jew?

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This is the eternal question: is a Jew someone who was born of Jewish parents? Is a Jew someone who follows the traditions and practices of the Jewish religion? Is a Jew anyone from Israel? Is a Jew….well, you get the idea.

One of the websites I use for information I can depend on regarding Judaism is the (Orthodox) Judaism 101 website, and this is their definition of a Jew:

A Jew is any person whose mother was a Jew or any person who has gone through the formal process of conversion to Judaism. It is important to note that being a Jew has nothing to do with what you believe or what you do. A person born to non-Jewish parents who has not undergone the formal process of conversion but who believes everything that Orthodox Jews believe and observes every law and custom of Judaism is still a non-Jew, even in the eyes of the most liberal movements of Judaism, and a person born to a Jewish mother who is an atheist and never practices the Jewish religion is still a Jew, even in the eyes of the ultra-Orthodox. In this sense, Judaism is more like a nationality than like other religions, and being Jewish is like a citizenship

So, a Jew would be anyone born of Jewish parents, without any regard to what they believe. Supposedly.

Now for my real-life experience: I have been told, more than once, by Conservative, Reconstructionist and Orthodox Jews, that because I believe Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah, I am a Christian and no longer a Jew. Period!

My mother and father were Jewish, our family history is that my mothers Zaydeh (Grandfather) was a Cantor at some synagogue in Kiev (her father came over here just before the Pogroms made it to their town.) So, according to the Jewish 101 site (and most of what I have heard growing up Jewish, in my Reform synagogue) I am a Jew, and no matter what I believe or how I worship, my Jewish heritage cannot be taken away from me.

The really ironic part is that since I accepted Yeshua as my Messiah (disqualifying me as a Jew), I have been more “Jewish” than I ever was growing up! I worship the festivals of the Lord (Leviticus 23) and I celebrate Shabbat every Friday night and Saturday (although I am not as strict about the Talmudic regulations regarding travel and spending money); I also have been very active in my place of worship, whether it was a messianic synagogue or my current place, which is a Hebraic Roots church. I was on the Council at Temple Beth Emanuel in Philadelphia, acting as Rabbi for about 18 months while we were looking for a new Rabbi, and I am currently an officer on the Council for my church, the Zionist Revival Center (that is the name of our website: it is a dot ORG.) I have only worshiped in two places for the past 20 years- when I find a place that I feel is correct, I stay. I don’t play the field, as many Christians do.

I also have taken correspondence classes and have a Certificate of Messianic Studies (equivalent to an Associate degree); have written and published two books on God’s word and Prayer, and I teach, help lead liturgy and give the message when the Senior Pastor is unavailable.

I am not telling you all this to brag, but simply as a resume, so to speak, to demonstrate that I have been living a very, very Jewish lifestyle. In fact, for over 15 years Donna and I have hosted a Passover Seder for people who have never been to one, to introduce them to the Last Supper as it really happened.

Yet, despite all this, when I was talking with a woman who is an Israeli, an Orthodox Jew and a Director with a Christian based organization that supports Jews living in the heartland of Israel, when I asked if Israel might ever open it’s doors to Messianic Jews (we are not welcomed there), her answer was not what I was hoping for. I expected a compassionate, “I don’t think they are ready for that yet”, or a simple, “Probably not for a while”, or even a “I doubt it.” What I got was an immediate and definitive, “NO!”  Not only that, but she went on to tell me that I was a Christian, not a Jew. I told her she cannot say that, but she asked if I believed Jesus is the son of God (an immediate disqualification for any Jew, because Judaism totally rejects the Trinity) and that if I believe in Jesus (another term for which Jews really have no idea what it means) then I am a Christian! Period!! End of job; bye-bye; don’t let the door hit your tuchas on the way out.

You see, for a Messianic Jew, it is like being between a rock and a hard place: Christians tell us we can’t be saved if we are still obedient to Torah (because that means we are legalistic), and Jews tell us we aren’t Jewish if we believe in Jesus (no matter what our birthright or how we worship.)

Why is this? The answer is simple: bigotry fostered through ignorance.

Christians are taught the Torah is for Jews, and to justify not having to obey Torah they have decided that obedience is legalism, which disqualifies someone from really having “the Spirit” and being Born Again- to most Christians, being Born Again means not having to worry about rules, and if you have decided that the Torah is God’s commandments for everyone, you aren’t really “saved.”

On the Jewish side of the fence, Jesus is a traitor to Judaism and anyone who follows Him is a traitor, also. The Gentiles worship Jesus as God and they worship the Holy Spirit, so they are not obedient to the Shema (one God). That is immediate disqualification for being Jewish. Another is bowing to idols (check out any Catholic church), and ignoring Torah (as stated above), so they don’t care who your parents were and what lifestyle you live: to Jews, believing in Jesus is the definitive definition of a Non-Jew.

I wonder if that means that everyone who rejects Jesus is a Jew? I mean, if accepting Jesus means I am not a Jew, no matter what, then rejecting Jesus should, at least, allow me to be considered a non-Gentile, which is pretty much not-every other religion, so I would then be, by default, a Jew, right?

Wrong. Jews are Jews by birthright. The way one worships God, if at all, is an indicator of how “good” a Jew that person is, but if you are born from Jewish parents, you are a Jew: now and always.

It will be a very unpleasant surprise when these bigoted people (on both sides) learn the truth at Judgment Day. Actually, having believed as they do for 2/3 of my life, I feel bad for them. They’ve been poisoned since the moment they were a child. We see the horrible way the Palestinians, ISIS and other Mideast terrorist organizations indoctrinate their children with hatred, and not only authorize, but encourage, murdering Jews, and they start this as early as when they are still in kindergarten. It’s disgusting to us.

Yet, we do the same thing between Christianity and Judaism: Jews teach their young that Christians worship Jesus (and they have good reason to say that, too) and hate Jews, and that Jesus was a Jew but that He created and converted to Christianity. Totally wrong, but what does a 5 year old know about it? And their parents, grandparents, friends, and Rabbi all tell them the same thing. And from the Gentile religions, it is the same thing for their kids; they teach Jews killed their Lord, Jews have Torah as their salvation and not Christ, and in some cases they teach God has rejected Jews and they aren’t the Chosen people anymore, but they Christians are.

Both of these teachings are lies from the pit of Sheol.

So what do we do about this? The only thing we can do: suffer through, persevere, try to preach and show the truth in how we live that all are one in Messiah, that the “Jesus” most Jews think they know is not the real Yeshua, and that the Torah is valid and necessary for all people, Jew and Gentile, because God has no religion and the commandments He gave the Jews are really for everyone.

The last thing to add is: good luck to us! We will need it.

Parashah Emor (Speak) Leviticus 21-24

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This parashah continues to teach the relationship between the Priests and the holy things, as well as rules regarding cleanliness when approaching, and appropriate condition of sacrificial animals for, the Altar.

Chapter 23 is the chapter that defines the Festivals of the Lord. These are the only Holy Days, as I define them, in all of Judaism or (frankly) any religion that professes to worship the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. All other days of celebration are holidays- meaning they are man-made, not God declared. That is my personal way of identifying the difference between, say, Yom Kippur and Hanukkah: the former is a Holy Day, the latter is a holiday.

What I want to talk about today is not the obvious “juicy” topic- Chapter 23-but one of the last lines in this parashah. The final verses recount a non-Israelite cursing God and being stoned to death for it, and God giving us the following commandment regarding how we are to administer justice in Leviticus 24:22:

“Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for the home-born; for I am the Lord your God” 

If you were to ask me what is the one, defining difference between Christianity and Judaism, with respect to the bible, I would answer with this verse. That’s because, as a general rule, Christianity has rejected their need to obey the Torah, citing the forgiveness given by Yeshua (Jesus) as over-riding the Torah.

There is a truthfulness to the statement that Yeshua is the means of our salvation; it is by forgiveness of our sins, which His sacrifice made possible.

But that doesn’t mean Torah is not important, valid or necessary anymore. Yeshua, Himself, confirmed Torah observance throughout His ministry and after every healing, and His Talmudim (Apostles and Disciples) that followed Him also confirmed Torah in their teachings. It has been the misinterpretations and wrongful teachings over the past 20 centuries that have caused such a rift between Christianity and Judaism with regard to the ways in which we are to worship God.

One rule for everyone, one law administered justly to everyone, whether a natural Jew, or a convert, or a non-Believer, or an agnostic, or a Satanist: all people are God’s children, and under God’s authority, and as such are to be treated the same with regards to the administration of God’s justice, which He defined and outlined in the Torah. And why should everyone be treated the same way?  Because “I am the Lord, your God“, meaning that there is one God, and what He says is right for someone, is right for everyone.

Obey the Torah, or not obey the Torah?: that is the question. The answer is: both. Huh? Both? מה עשה אתה אומר? (What did you say?)

Both, because we are all commanded to obey the Torah, but none of us can (completely) obey the Torah. As hard as we may try, still, we fail. That is when we sin (when we fail to obey, whether by attempting and failing, or by simply not even trying), and that is when the forgiveness for sinning (assuming you are repentant) is made available. It is available because God loves us all enough to want to forgive us, and Yeshua’s sacrifice made it possible to be forgiven without having to obey one part of the Torah; specifically speaking, the laws involving bringing our sacrifice to the Temple, which doesn’t exist anymore.

Yeshua told us that those who sin and teach others to sin would be better off if they threw a millstone around their necks and jumped in the river. I am sorry to say that teaching others to sin is exactly what “The Church” (meaning most of Christianity) has been doing since Constantine’s day. The prominent teaching that “Torah is for Jews and Christians have the Blood of Christ” is, essentially, teaching people to ignore the Torah. And the next step is to be unrepentant about ignoring the Torah.

Now, it’s bad enough to ignore God’s commandments, which is a sin, but to go as far as to teach to sin and not concern yourself about it?;  that it is OK to ignore God’s commands?; that you are going to heaven no matter what the Torah says? Well…woe be to you, Church Fathers, for you have sinned and caused others to sin. And when we sin and don’t care that we sinned, isn’t that is being unrepentant? And if you are unrepentant, do you really think you will be forgiven?

This is a scary thought for me, and I try to obey Torah. If you are reading this and have been taught to ignore Torah, then this thought should give you reason to change your underwear!

I am not saying everyone has to get circumcised, or start to eat according to Kashrut (Kosher) laws, or wear Tzit-tzit (although none of that would hurt anyone), but I am saying that we should realize God has told us how we all are supposed to live and worship Him, and that even if we do not follow all His commandments, we should try to. Eating ham will not send you to hell and refusing to eat ham will not guarantee heaven, whether you have accepted Yeshua or not. As I have said many times, Yeshua’s sacrifice has made forgiveness possible, but we have to be repentant, we have to perform T’shuvah, and for our repentance to mean anything we have to demonstrate it’s legitimacy through our good works. Obeying Torah as best we can is as good a “good work” as you can perform.

It boils down to this: one God with one set of laws for everyone; one Messiah providing the only means of salvation for everyone; and what you will do is your choice.

Just don’t forget that God will hold you, alone, responsible for your choices- “just following orders” will not count for anything come Judgment Day.

Yeshua’s Death on a Stake: Was it Murder or Suicide?

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I had a radical thought the other day- since Yeshua knew that going to Jerusalem on that fateful Passover would result in His death, was He actually murdered or, because He allowed Himself to be killed without protecting or defending Himself in any way, did He really commit suicide?

I thought this was an interesting question, especially when we consider that most Judeo-Christian religious beliefs state that suicide is a sin.

So, nu? What do you think?

Yeshua did say that there is no greater love than that one give up his life for a friend (John 15:13), and the shepherd will give his (or her) life to protect the flock (John 10:11), so if we do something to save others, something that we know might cause our own death, is that heroics or suicide? What about military actions that are called “suicide missions”, which offer little or no chance of the participant’s survival but are necessary to help the overall victory? If you volunteer for that mission and die, is that suicide?

The answer is: I’m not sure I know. If it is considered suicide, and suicide is a sin, then Yeshua sinned! Oy! But he couldn’t have sinned, otherwise He would not have been an acceptable sacrifice, right? Isn’t that what we have always been told? Yet, He took on the sin of the world, so if He was taking on the sin of the world, every sin that everyone did and ever will do, then really? what’s one more sin going to matter?

You know, now that I am discussing it with you, I may have an answer. My answer is the difference between sinful suicide and doing something that will result in your death is the reason why you are doing it: are you taking your life or giving it away?

If I do something that I know will lead to my death, and I do it in a state of emotional depression or to avoid facing the consequences of something I have done, that suicide is sinful. It is trying to escape from something that is part of living. However, if I do something that I know may result in my death, but the reason is to save someone else’s life or to accomplish a greater good for others, then I am giving up my life for the benefit of someone else.

For example: if I shoot myself, I have taken my life, but if I am helping someone to escape a firefight, get shot and die, I have given my life for another. The former is sinful, the latter is sacrificial and godly.

Therefore, given this difference between sinful and righteous ways to lose one’s life, it is clear that Yeshua did not commit a sinful suicide: He sacrificed His life so that giving up His life could save everyone else’s life.

We can give our life without losing it, by sacrificing our time, finances, possessions and energy in ways that will honor God’s Word (Torah), and to teach others how to do so through our example. And maybe, as the End of Days gets closer and the enemy rules the world, we will have to sacrifice our very life. Maybe, maybe not, but if we do, at least that will be a godly sacrifice.

Here’s a godly sacrifice you can do that won’t cost you your life: die to self so that there is more room for the Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit) to live within you. Then you can be filled with God’s power and righteousness.

Parashot Acharey / Kedoshim (after the death / holy) Leviticus 16-20

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This double Parashah deals with the rules regarding Yom Kippur, then gives us regulations and commandments regarding appropriate inter-personal relationships, such as moral standards against incest, adultery, and homosexuality (to name a few.)

Of all the laws and commandments, rules and regulations within these chapters of the Torah, the most important (and maybe best known) is Leviticus 19:18:

” Thou shalt not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of the people, but shall love thy neighbor as thyself: I am the Lord”

This one statement is the foundation for three of the most important teachings of Yeshua:

  1. To not take vengeance is in accordance with Yeshua’s teaching that we should turn the other cheek;
  2. To not bear a grudge is what Yeshua taught us when He said to leave our sacrifice at the alter and first make things right with our brother if there is any animosity between us;
  3. To love they neighbor as thyself is, clearly, the Golden Rule.

Here we have the basis for nearly every moral law and action we need in order to become Kadosh, holy, as God is holy.

I have read articles and seen TV shows that try to degrade the value of these moral and ethical laws, saying they weren’t originally from God because they existed in other, older civilizations. Maybe they did, maybe they didn’t- it would seem likely they were already being practiced by others, to some degree, because they are so basic to civilized living. But no where else had there been a written set of laws that were so humane regarding how people should treat each other, whether in inter-personal relationships or under a penal code.

Today some of these laws are questioned, even rejected, by society. We are told some are misogynistic, some are racist, some are hateful (this is usually used against the laws against homosexuality) and some are outdated.

Outdated? Since when did morality and ethical treatment of each other become outdated? Well, you know, maybe they’re right: when I read the papers or hear the news, whether local or international, it seems that society’s morality and ethics are being defined by those that have none. The way God wants us to act towards each other isn’t the way the world wants us to act.

Despite the many good laws still on the books, how many loopholes are there now that allow lawbreakers to go free, or barely suffer for their crimes? And when they do go to jail, instead of being given a chance to repent, they are just receiving a higher education in criminality. A person may go to jail as a beginner, but he or she can come out with a PhD in crime, learning from the experienced criminals that are already there.

Yeshua told us how to be holy: love God and love each other. That isn’t always easy; in fact, sometimes it seems darn near impossible! But we can get better at doing this as we keep trying.  Maybe that is what makes us holy? trying to do what God wants instead of not even caring what He wants.  Being holy isn’t having an aura around you, or a halo over your head- it simply means being separated. The world doesn’t care what God wants, so if we care, and demonstrate that care through our words and actions, then (by definition) we are holy. And the more we do, the better we get at it, and the holier we become.

That’s the ticket- care about what God wants, and care more for what He wants than for what the world, or even you, want. If we can do that, all these morale and ethical rules and regulations will automatically fall into place for us.

That’s what Yeshua meant in the second part of His teaching: love God and each other, for on that pivots all the Prophets and the Writings.

When We Give God Permission To Do Something

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That sounds backwards, doesn’t it? We give God permission? Isn’t it the other way around? 

For most things, it is the other way around. God is the Boss, the Almighty, the One and Only. He tells us what to do, and we do it: that is how it is.

Usually.

However, there is (at least) one exception that I know of, and that is found in the Gospels. Let’s look at its appearance in Mattitayu (Matthew), Chapter 6, verse 12:

“…and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.”

This is usually thought of as us asking God for forgiveness, but that is not really what we are doing. What we are doing, in truth, is telling God what He should do- we are giving God permission to treat us exactly as we treat others. We are not asking for forgiveness, we are authorizing God to overcome His mercy, to ignore His desire to forgive us as He wants to, and to only forgive us as we have forgiven others. 

Think about that for a minute, and let it sink in. It should be frightening to you; I can tell you this- it scares the ‘H-E-double hockey sticks’  out of me!

Throughout the Tanakh and New Covenant writings (B’rit Chadashah) we are told of God’s mercy, His desire and willingness to forgive, and His unfailing love for us. All of that, of course, is true and (on top of that) is the (usual) Christian teaching that once under the blood of Christ, you are OK, forever. No problems, no worries, no obedience other than to just be a “good person” and you are set for eternity. 

That isn’t the way it is, Folks! I can say that because Yeshua (Jesus) is the one who tells us how it is, and that isn’t what He says. 

To see what Yeshua says, let’s look a little further down the line, at verses 14 and 15:

“If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

OUCH!! So, not only am I asking God to treat me the way I treat others, but Yeshua is telling me that, whether I ask to be treated this way or not, I WILL be treated the same way I treat others! Like it or not, that is what Messiah is telling us about how God will treat us- if we are unforgiving of others, we will not be forgiven. And, to top it off, if we pray as Yeshua told us to pray (Lord’s Prayer, remember?) then we are also giving God our permission to treat us this way. It’s a double-edge sword that has both edges against us….IF we are unforgiving. 

On the other hand, if we ARE forgiving, then we are forgiven anything when we ask for it, in Yeshua’s name (of course.) So, here the double-edged sword is cutting a path for us to eternal joy, instead of cutting against us in both directions. 

Now can you see why I say we give God permission to do something? 

If you have been struggling with forgiveness, another thing to remember that might help you be more forgiving, is that the forgiveness you give has nothing to do with the other person- it is all about you and God. The other person has to make himself (or herself) right with God- you can’t do that!  Your forgiveness makes YOU right with God, and it also is the only way for the pain to go away. That’s also important for you to remember. 

So, nu? got it now? When you pray as Yeshua said you should, you are telling God to forgive you, not as He would want to do, but as you do to others.  

If that isn’t motivation enough to forgive everyone any offence, I don’t know what is! 

Parashah Thazria / Metzora Leviticus 12 – 15

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Because leap year affects the weekly cycle of reading, some parashot are doubled, as with this weekly reading, when it is necessary to bring the Gregorian and Hebrew calendars into sync. 

These chapters deal, in quite extensive detail, with cleanliness. We are given the instructions regarding what a woman, who becomes unclean from the actions of giving birth and also from her time of Nidah (menstruation), must do (and when) in order to be considered clean again. This is more than just a physical cleansing- it is to become ceremonially clean, which would allow her to re-enter the camp and worship at the Sanctuary. We are also given the regulations regarding leprosy, in the Hebrew called  T’zaraat, whether on a person or in clothing or even in the plaster of the house. The rules we are given tell us how to identify what is  T’zaraat and what is not, what to do if decreed to be T’zaraat, and how to determine when it is cured. 

People always have to know why something is what it is. Maybe that is just part of the intelligence God gave us when He separated us from the animals. Sometimes I wonder if that was such a good idea. Why do I say that? Because we use, or maybe misuse, our intelligence to try to understand God, and in doing so we are trying to raise ourselves to His level. Remember Babel? 

There are many good, hygienic reasons for these cleanliness laws. It is credited to John Wesley to have first said, “Cleanliness is next to Godliness”, which indicates that to be holy is more than how we act, it is also what we are, physically. There are also many good reasons to avoid unclean people, mainly (the obvious one) so that you don’t catch what they have. No one can argue that is a good thing. My personal pet-peeve about questioning the reason for these laws, in fact, any of God’s laws, is that we should simply acknowledge and faithfully accept that God is God, and He wouldn’t do or command anything that is anything but good for us. We should all, like a trusting child, accept what God says as what we must do. Period. No “why”, no “It must be for this reason..”, no nuttin! You want a good reason to do what God says? Here it is: because He’s God, and you aren’t! And if that isn’t good enough for you, then you need to work on your faith. 

My concern is that I have noted (maybe you have, too) that when people understand something, they tend to reduce it’s importance, and don’t consider it as miraculous anymore. We can read the human genome, so we now think only what we can do with it, and ignore the fact that learning how to read it and understanding how it works, is a far, far way from having created it from nothing. DNA is a unbelievable miracle, yet it is just a series of small blocks on a gel-backed film to most scientists and people, today. 

I am often asked why I keep Kosher (I don’t keep Kosher according to the Rabbinical laws in Talmud, only according to Leviticus 11) and I say, simply, because that is what God told me to do. I am not some wonderfully faithful holy man, I am far from that, but I do appreciate God’s love and I respect His authority. I also trust God to know what is best for me, much better than I would ever know for myself, and as such I obey as much of the Torah as I can.  This is all the reason I need to want to obey- God says to do it, so I do it; it comes from respect for who and what He is, trust in His desire to do good for me, and as a love-response for all He has already done for me. 

If you need more than that, I respectfully suggest you work more on your faithful trusting in, and respect for, God. And, while you’re at it, turn down the volume on your Ego.

We don’t need to understand to be obedient. 

In Deuteronomy 28 God tells us when we obey His Torah we receive blessings, and when we disobey, we receive curses. I believe that because we live in a cursed world, the curses are already here, so God is not actively cursing us; His blessings are what protects us from the cursed world; therefore, when we don’t receive blessings, we are exposed to the curses. God’s blessings protect us from the world we are in, and when we obey God we receive those blessings.

So, if you absolutely, positively need to have some reason for obeying Torah, this is it:  obey God’s commands so that you can constantly receive blessings.