Category: Podcasts

Shavuah Tov podcasts on the weekly Torah reading

Parashat Balak Podcast….

John J Parsons

Our Torah portion for this week (i.e., parashat Balak) is named after a fretful Moabite king (בָּלָק) who sought to curse the Jewish people by hiring the services of a wicked Midianite “prophet” named Balaam (i.e., bil’am: בִּלְעָם). King Balak’s plan was to employ Balaam’s sorcery (i.e., kashafut: כַּשָׁפוּת) against the Israelites to prevent them from entering the Promised Land. Similar to the delicious irony that befell the villain Haman in the Book of Esther, however, King Balak’s scheme was upended, and the curse he sought to put on the Jewish people was repeatedly pronounced as a blessing by Balaam instead. After several foiled attempts, Balak fretfully dismissed the prophet, but before departing from the dejected king, Balaam ironically prophesied the destruction of the Moabites and the victorious establishment of Israel. The shameful story of Balaam reveals that “there is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel” (Num. 23:23). Ein od milvado (אֵין עוֹד מִלְבַדּו) – no weapon or scheme devised against God will ever prosper (Isa. 54:15-17).

 

Balak Podcast:

 

Parashat Chukat Podcast…

John J Parsons1 Comment

Our Torah portion this week (i.e., parashat Chukat) begins, zot chukat ha-Torah (זאת חֻקַּת הַתּוֹרָה), “this is the decree of Torah” (Num. 19:2). The language here is both striking and unique, suggesting that what follows, namely, the ritual of the parah adumah (פרה אדומה) or “red heifer,” is nothing less than “the seminal decree” of the entire Torah… If we think about the meaning of the mysterious decree of the red heifer, however, we will realize that its ashes were used to create the “waters of separation” (i.e., mei niddah: מֵי נִדָּה) to cleanse people from contact with death (i.e., separation). To fulfill God’s vital decree, however, required sacrificial love, since the priest who offered this service would become defiled (separated) for the sake of the healing of others… The Hebrew word for love is ahavah (אַהֲבָה), from a root verb (יָהַב) that means “to give.” Love means giving of yourself to benefit another person (John 15:13). The central decree of Torah, then, beyond our ability to rationally understand, is that God’s love is so great that it is willing to become dust and ashes on our behalf so that we might find blessing and life.

This Shavuah Tov broadcast also provides detailed discussion about the mitzvot (commandments) of the written Torah, including the subcategories of chukkim (decrees), mishpatim (rules or judgments), eidot (testimonials, holidays) with a discussion of the oral tradition’s corresponding categories of halakhah (oral law) and its subcategories of gezeirot (“fences”), takkanot (case laws), and minhagim (customs). Throughout special attention is given to how Yeshua the Messiah is the Substance and Inner Meaning of all true Torah, and how sacrificial love is the idea of the Red Heifer itself.

 

Chukat Podcast:

 

Note:  For Part Two, click here.

Parashat Korach Audio Podcast…

John J Parsons

Last week’s Torah portion (Shelach Lekha) told the tragic story about the “sin of the spies” and the divine decree that the generation rescued from Egypt was sentenced to die in the exile of the desert. In this week’s portion (Korach), the hard truth of their condition began to sink in, and the people bemoaned their fate and rebelled further by attempting to overthrow God’s designated leadership and return to Egypt. This rebellion was instigated and organized by Moses’ cousin Korach, who – along with a band of co-conspirators – was swiftly judged and put to death, thereby vindicating the Aaronic priesthood and Moses’ leadership of Israel.

In this Shavuah Tov broadcast, I survey the grand narrative of the Torah and discuss the issue of faith and why it is essential to believe the truth as our duty before God…

 

Korach Podcast:

 

 

Parashat Bamidbar Podcast…

John J Parsons

Our Torah portion for this week, parashat Bamidbar (בְּמִדְבַּר), begins the Book of Numbers, where the narrative begins precisely where the Book of Exodus left off, with the glory of the LORD hovering over the Mishkan (Tabernacle) as the Israelites were stationed at Sinai. On the first day of the thirteenth month following the Exodus from Egypt – exactly thirty days after the Tabernacle was first consecrated – God commanded Moses to take a census of all Israelite males over 20 years of age who would bear arms. Moses and the heads of each tribe recorded the results, with 603,550 men in all. This number did not include the Levites, however, since they were designated to take care of the Tabernacle and its furnishings during the journeys.

In addition to an overview of the Book of Numbers, this audio discusses the holiday of Shavuot (“Pentecost”) and our journey of faith through the desert of this world…

 

Bamidbar Podcast:

 

Behar-Buchukotai podcast….

John J Parsons

Shavuah Tov, chaverim! The next two weeks we will read the last two portions of the great Book of Leviticus (ספר ויקרא), namely, parashat Behar and Bechukotai (בהר־בחקתי). May God our Heavenly Father help us draw near and take hold… Like a father has compassion for his children, so the LORD is compassionate toward those who revere Him (כְּרַחֵם אָב עַל־בָּנִים רִחַם יְהוָה עַל־יְרֵאָיו, Psalm 103:13). Chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek – “Be strong, be strong, and may we be strengthened!”

In addition to the two Torah portions, I discuss the holidays of Mem B’Omer (ascension of Messiah) and Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day) and what these mean to followers of Yeshua the Messiah. I hope you will find it helpful.

Read more “Behar-Buchukotai podcast….”

Parashat Emor Podcast…

John J Parsons

Our Torah portion for this week (parashat Emor) lists the eight main holidays revealed in the Jewish Scriptures. In the Torah, these “holidays” are called “appointed times” (i.e., mo’edim: מוֹעֲדִים), a word which comes from the Hebrew root meaning “witness” (עֵד). Other words from this root include edah (עֵדָה), a “congregation,” edut (עֵדוּת), a “testimony,” and so on. The related verb ya’ad (יָעַד) means “to meet,” “to assemble,” or even “to betroth.” The significance of the holy days, then, is for the covenant people of the LORD to bear witness to God’s love and faithfulness.

 

Emor Podcast:

 

Podcast for Yom Kippur (Acharei Mot)

John J Parsons

In this special “High Holiday” audio presentation, I discuss Yom Kippur and its themes, particularly in reference to the atonement given in the Messiah Yeshua, as well as parashat Ha’azinu, the Torah portion we always read between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.  This audio is also applicable for those studying Acharei Mot Torah portion.

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Audio Podcast:

 

Parashat Kedoshim Podcast…

John J Parsons

Our Torah reading for this week, parashat Kedoshim, begins with the call for us to be “holy” or “set apart” on account of our relationship with LORD God: “Be ye holy, for I the LORD your God am holy” (Lev. 19:2). Holiness is perhaps best understood as a sense of the awe and sacredness inherent in the apprehension of Reality and Grace. The portion then goes on to define the expression of holiness in our relationship God and with others.

For example, though it is inevitable (and psychologically necessary) that we make judgments about other people, the Torah states, be’tzedek tishpot amitekha, “in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor” (see also John 7:24), which implies that we must use the “good eye” (ayin tovah) when we think of other people. Indeed, the focal point and the very heart of what practical holiness represents is stated as ve’ahavta le’re’akha kamokha – “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Note that the direct object of the verb (ahav – to love) is your neighbor.

But who, exactly, is my neighbor? Some have claimed that the word rea (neighbor) refers only to one’s fellow Jew – not to others at large in the world. However this is obviously false, since the “stranger” (ger) is explicitly identified to be an object of our love (Lev 19:34). And note that Yeshua the Messiah answered this question by turning it around. Instead of attempting to find someone worthy of neighborly love, I am asked to be a worthy and loving neighbor myself (Luke 10:29-37).

 

Kedoshim Podcast:

 

 

Hebrew Lesson:

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Yom HaShoah Audio Podcast…

John J Parsons1 Comment

In my audio podcast for Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) I discuss some of the philosophical influences that led to the atrocities of the attempted genocide of the Jewish people, including the rise of the Idealism of G.W. Hegel and the pragmatic concept of the “dialectic” that was used to negate the value of the individual in preference to the collective…. Hegel directly influenced Karl Marx and his godless materialism and social revolutionary theories, and in general it may be said that German idealism led both to the nihilism of Friedrich Nietzsche and to barbarity of Adolf Hitler’s national socialism.

Listen to the podcast:

 

Philosophy and the Holocaust…

John J Parsons

The Holocaust did not happen in a vacuum but was theoretically justified by appeals to pragmatism and the denial of transcendental spiritual reality…

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It’s been said that modern politics operates on the basis of the so-called “Hegelian Dialectic,” a method of social engineering based on a rather dismal theory about how precious little people can actually know (or be allowed to know). This theory can be easily traced to the “critical philosophy” of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), who taught that the human mind cannot transcend itself in order to apprehend ultimate reality. There are limits or boundaries to the mind’s ability to discover “things in themselves,” and at best we are left with methods (or paradigms) we devise (and imitate mimetically) by which we “manage appearances.” Even hard sciences, such as physics, can only deal with the phenomenal realm of life. The inner working of reality — the “noumenal” — is sealed off as essentially unknowable. We are left only with postulates, hypothetical constructs, models, etc., but knowledge is essentially constrained by fundamental structures of consciousness (e.g., the categories of space and time) from which we interpret any possible experience.

 

 

Instead of accepting the limits of the human mind that Kant outlined (the “antinomies of reason”), however, G.W. Hegel (1770-1831) went on to claim that the mind itself is its own endpoint, and therefore the interplay of ideas is itself ultimate reality. In other words, Hegel was an “idealist,” by which is meant that ideas (mental constructs) are the substrata of reality. The phenomenal realm is the product of the mind, after all, and therefore it is the very thing Kant said could not be known — i.e., the noumenal.

 

 

The Hegelian Dialectic is what I call “the devil’s logic,” based as it is on compromise, calling evil good and good evil, hissing out a seductive appeal to a supposed “higher synethesis” of esoteric knowledge, claiming superiority to the commonsense truth claims of experience, justifying human atrocities, barbarity, callous pragmatism, and even cold-blooded murder for the sake of power and control. From Hegel sprang Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), and from Nietzsche sprang Hitler and modern fascism. Propagandists and disinformation specialists are masters at the “Problem → Reaction → Solution” technique for coercing social change. It’s the prevailing dogma of the princes of this world, and it is regularly at work in the halls of power today.

 

 

 

Audio Podcast: