Category: Hebrew Reading Lesson

Reading Hebrew exercises and practice verses

Parashat Bo (podcast)…

John J Parsons

Our Torah reading for this week, called parashat Bo, begins with God commanding Moses “to go” (i.e., bo: בּא) before the Pharaoh to announce further apocalyptic judgments upon Egypt. The purpose of this power encounter was to vindicate God’s justice and redemptive love for his people, that is, his deliverance or salvation, by overthrowing the tyranny of unjust human oppression. Pharaoh’s nightmare of “one little lamb” outweighing all the firstborn of Egypt was about to be fulfilled….

 

 

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Parashat Va’era Podcast…

John J Parsons

In our Torah for this week (i.e., parashat Va’era), the LORD told Moses that He was about to fulfill His promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by giving the Israelites the land of Canaan, and that he had heard the “groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians held as slaves” (Exod. 6:5). The LORD (יהוה) was now coming down to earth to fight and save his people! Israel would now know that He alone is their Savior and God.  The “showdown” between the LORD (יהוה) and the so-called “gods” of Egypt was imminent, and God therefore encouraged the people with precious promises: “I AM the LORD (אֲנִי יְהוָה) and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgment; and I will take you to me for a people and I will be to you a God” (these are the “four expressions of redemption” we recite during the Passover Seder every year).

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Despite these wonderful promises, however, the people were unable to listen because of their “shortness of breath” (מִקּצֶר רוּחַ) on account of their harsh slavery. The LORD then told Moses: “Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his land,” and the great showdown between the LORD and the gods of Egypt began. However, even after repeatedly witnessing the series of miraculous plagues issued in the Name of the LORD, the despot remained proud and unmoved, thereby setting the stage for the final devastating plagues upon the land of Egypt and the great Passover redemption of Israel.

 

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Parashat Va’era Podcast:

Parashat Miketz…

John J Parsons

In our Torah portion for Chanukah week, parashat Miketz (i.e., Gen. 41:1-44:17) we will read how imprisoned Joseph successfully interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams and suddenly rose to power in Egypt. Because of a famine in the land of Canaan, however, his brothers (who had earlier betrayed him) came to Egypt in search of food. A disguised Joseph then tested his brothers to see whether they were the same people who had callously sold him into slavery, or whether they had undergone teshuvah (repentance).

The eventual revelation of Joseph and his reconciliation with his brothers is a prophetic picture of acharit ha-yamim (the “End of Days”) when Israel, in Great Tribulation, will come to accept Yeshua as Israel’s true deliverer. Presently, the veil is still over the eyes of the Jewish people and they collectively regard Yeshua as an “Egyptian” of sorts. In this connection, I list some of the ways that Joseph is a “type” or foreshadowing of the coming Yeshua as the Suffering Servant (see “Mashiach ben Yosef”).
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Miketz Podcast:

 

 

The Word Made Flesh (podcast)

John J Parsons

At Sinai we heard the voice of God (קוֹל אֱלהִים) speaking from the midst of the Fire (Deut. 4:33), an event that foreshadowed the great advent of the King and Lawgiver Himself, when the Eternal Word (דְבַר־יְהוָה) became flesh and dwelt with us (Phil. 2:6-7; John 1:1,14). Any theology that regards God as entirely transcendent (i.e., God is beyond any analogy with the finite) will have a problem with divine immanence (i.e., God is inherent and involved within the finite), since the highness, holiness, and perfection of God will make Him seem distant, outside of us, far away, and unknown…

Incarnational theology, on the other hand, manifests the magnificent humility and nearness of God to disclose the divine empathy. Indeed, the LORD became Immanuel (עִמָּנוּ אֵל), “God with us,” to share our mortal condition, to know our pain, and to experience what it means to be wounded by sin, to be abandoned, alienated, forsaken.

 

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Knowing what is Real…

John J Parsons

Though we believe that God is everywhere and that “in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28), God is not experienced through objective observation but must be experienced inwardly, by means of the heart. This is true for two basic reasons. First, God literally cannot be experienced as an “object” both because we are unable to see him in his essence, and also because as the “Ground of Being” he is necessarily beyond the domain of objective measurement or “definite description.” Secondly, God is a spirit who “dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see,” which again makes his infinite existence on a different plane altogether, beyond the horizon of human understanding. Therefore Scripture calls God “the King of eternity, immortal, invisible, and full of glory” (1 Tim. 1:17).

Now while we cannot directly see God, we can rationally discern or infer his existence though the effects of nature itself. “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1); “the invisible things of God are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead” (Rom. 1:20; Rev. 4:11). Furthermore, God has “set eternity” within each human heart (Eccl. 3:11; Gen. 1:27) which provides inner witness to his reality as the Creator and Judge of all the world (Rom. 2:15).

This “general revelation,” as it has come to be called, has been expressed in various logical arguments for God’s existence over the years, including the “cosmological” argument (the universe exists because God is its first cause); the “teleological” argument (the universe displays purpose and intelligent design); the “ontological” argument (God is known intuitively by reflecting on the nature of existence itself); the “moral” argument (moral and aesthetic values indicate that right and wrong are grounded in God as the Lawgiver); the argument from religious experience (people encounter “transcendental” and spiritual meaning in life that points to God), and so on. In this present age, however, we see through “a glass darkly,” which means we see indirectly by means of analogy or “riddles,” and our language about God will therefore be analogical and incomplete. Faith is the “substance of hope” and the “conviction of the unseen” (Heb. 11:1) and the person of faith “sees the One who is invisible” (Heb. 11:27). It confesses that “we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5:1).
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Parashat Vayishlach Podcast…

John J Parsons

Before he could return from his exile, Jacob had to face his fears and wrestle with God. The outcome of the struggle was a blessing, as signified by a new name, “Israel” (יִשְׂרָאֵל), meaning one who who perseveres (שָׂרָה) with God (אֵל). Jacob finally prevailed with God when the power of his faith overcame the pain of his past… Jacob’s story teaches that before we can return from our place of exile, we have to face our fears and wrestle over who we really are.­

 

 

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Vayishlach Shavuah Tov Podcast:

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Thanking God for life…

John J Parsons

Gratitude is essential to the life of faith… We read in the Torah: “And you shall bless the LORD your God for the good” (Deut. 8:10). Whenever we derive benefit or enjoyment from something we are to bless (i.e., thank) God for his goodness. Indeed the Hebrew term for gratitude is “hakarat tovah” (הַכָּרַת טוֹבָה), a phrase that means “recognizing the good.” The heart looks through the eye, and therefore how we see is ultimately a spiritual decision: “If your eye is “single” (i.e., ἁπλοῦς, sincere, focused),” Yeshua said, “your whole body will be filled with light” (Matt. 6:22). When we see rightly, we are awakened to God’s Presence in the little things of life, those small miracles and “signs and wonders” that constantly surround us. The good eye of faith sees hundreds of reasons to bless God for the precious gift of life (1 Cor. 10:31).

“Give thanks to the LORD for He is good; his love endures forever” (Psalm 136:1); “Give thanks to the LORD always” (Col. 3:17; Eph. 5:20; 1 Thess. 5:18)… Gratitude is foundational to our lives as followers of Yeshua. Indeed there are really only two prayers we ever offer to God, namely “Help, LORD!” and “Thank you, LORD.” Meister Eckhart once remarked that if the only prayer you said in your entire life was, “thank you,” that would suffice… Genuine prayer ultimately resolves to an expression of thanks. We are to “praise the Bridge that carries us over” into the Presence and Love of God, and that Bridge is Yeshua our Lord.

The “thank offering” mentioned in the Torah (i.e., zevach ha-todah: זֶבַח הַתּוֹדָד) is also mentioned in the New Testament. In the Book of Hebrews were are instructed to “continually offer up a sacrifice of thanks (זֶבַח תּוֹדָה) to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his Name” (Heb. 13:15). It is interesting to note that the Greek verb used to “offer up” (i.e., ἀναφέρω) is used to translate the Hebrew verb “to draw near” (karov) in Leviticus. In other words, the “offering up of thanks” for the sacrifice of Yeshua functions as “korban” and draws us near to God. Thanking God for personal deliverance constitutes “right sacrifices” (זִבְחֵי־צֶדֶק) as we draw near to God in the hope of His love (Psalm 4:5; Heb. 7:19).
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Parashat Vayera Podcast…

John J Parsons

Our Torah reading for this week, parashat Vayera (פרשת וירא),is very dramatic and extraordinarily prophetic. Among other things (including the miraculous birth of Isaac, the fiery judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah, the fate of Hagar’s son Ishamel, and so on), the reading includes what I have called the “Gospel according to Moses,” that is, Moses’ account of how the patriarch Abraham was tested by God to offer his “only begotten son” (בֵּן יָחִיד) Isaac as a whole-burnt offering sacrifice on Mount Moriah — the place of the future Temple. This astonishing story is referred to as the Akedah (עֲקֵדָה), or Akedat Yitzchak (עֲקֵידָת יִצְחָק) – the “binding of Isaac” (Gen. 22:1-18). As Abraham lifted up his knife to slay his beloved son, at the very last moment, the Angel of the LORD (מַלְאַךְ יהוה) stopped him from going through with the sacrifice, and a ram “caught in a thicket” was offered as the vicarious substitute. Upon offering the sacrifice Abraham named the sacred location Adonai-Yireh (יהוה יִרְאֶה), “the LORD will provide/see” (from the 3ms imperfect of ra’ah (רָאָה), “to see”).

The binding of Isaac perfectly illustrates both the principle of sacrificial love and the principle that we must first unreservedly believe in that love in order to understand the ways of the LORD. Those who believe in Yeshua further understand the Akedah as a foreshadowing of the ultimate sacrifice the heavenly Father would give on our behalf. Unlike Abraham, God the Father actually offered His only begotten Son (בֵּן יָחִיד) at Moriah in order to make salvation available for all who will believe (John 3:16-18; 1 John 4:9). As Abraham himself confessed: אֱלהִים יִרְאֶה־לּוֹ הַשֶּׂה / Elohim yireh-lo haseh (“God will provide for himself the lamb”). Later Yeshua told the leaders of Israel that Abraham had “seen His day” and understood the deeper meaning of the Akedah sacrifice (John 8:56).

 

 

 

As I’ve mentioned over the years, the very first occurrence of the word love in the Scriptures (i.e., ahavah: אַהֲבָה) refers to Abraham’s love for his “only” son who was to be sacrificed as a burnt offering on Moriah (the very place of the crucifixion of Yeshua), a clear reference to the gospel message (Gen. 22:2; John 3:16). Some scholars have noted that the word ahavah comes from a two-letter root (הב) with Aleph (א) as a modifier. The root means “to give” and the Aleph indicates agency: “I” give (i.e., “the Father gives”). Love is essentially an act of sacrificial giving… The quintessential passage of Scripture regarding love (αγαπη) in the life of a Christian is found 1 Corinthians 13: “Love seeks not its own…”

Whereas Akedat Yitzchak foreshadowed God’s provision for the coming Temple, Akedat Yeshua (i.e., the crucifixion of Yeshua at Moriah) was the altar where the justice and chesed (love) of the Father fully met (Psalm 85:10). For more on this incredibly rich subject, please see the articles, “The Passion of Isaac” and “The Sacrificed Seed.”

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..Vayera Podcast:

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Parashat Noach Podcast…

John J Parsons

Last week’s Torah portion (Bereshit) showed how the mutiny of Adam and Eve caused humanity to plunge into idolatrous chaos. The subsequent generations lost sight of the LORD and became progressively steeped in moral anarchy and bloodlust, so that “every intention of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5). After just nine generations, the LORD had grown so weary of humanity that he “regretted” (i.e., yinchem: יִּנָּחֶם) creating man and “his heart was grieved” (Gen. 6:6). However, God recognized Noach (from the godly line of Seth) as a tzaddik (צַדִּיק), a righteous man of faith, and graciously made provision to save him from the wrath to come….
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Parashat Noach Podcast:

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Parashat Bereshit Podcast…

John J Parsons

THE VERY FIRST PROPHECY OF THE TORAH concerns the promise of the coming “seed of the woman” who would vanquish the serpent (nachash) that had originally tempted and deceived Eve (Gen. 3:15). This prophecy is sometimes called the proto-euangelion (“first gospel”), since it is the starting point of all subsequent prophecy and redemptive history revealed in the Scriptures. Indeed, since the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God is foreshadowed here, this prophecy is linked to the original woman, Eve. Just as Eve became a carrier of the corruption of human nature by heeding the voice of the tempter, so she would be the carrier of God Himself for the deliverance of mankind through the advent of the Redeemer. In the tragic aftermath of the transgression of the first man and woman, then, God first announced His unfailing redemptive love for the human race that would culminate in the birth, sacrifice, and resurrection of Yeshua our Savior and Deliverer – “born of a woman, born under the law” (Gal. 4:4).

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