Our Torah reading for this week (i.e., parashat Re’eh) concludes with the commandment to make three “pilgrimage festivals” (i.e., shelosh regalim) each year: Passover, Shavuot (Pentecost), and Sukkot (Tabernacles). In the Torah, these “holidays” are called “appointed times” (i.e., mo’edim: מוֹעֲדִים), a word which comes from a root meaning witness (עֵד). Other words formed from this root include edah (עֵדָה), a congregation, edut (עֵדוּת), a testimony, and so on. The related verb ya’ad (יָעַד) means to meet, 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 by revisiting our history and by looking forward to their ultimate fulfillment, when we no longer pass through this world but abide in the heavenly reality. Meanwhile we trust in God’s prophetic plan as revealed in the holy calendar, and observe the seasons as he has commanded. As it says, “All the paths of the LORD are love and truth to to those keeping his covenant and his testimonies” (Psalm 25:10).

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This week’s Torah portion (i.e., parashat Re’eh) is about seeing. We are commanded to see clearly the choices that lie before us and to choose the way of life and blessing. Note, however, that the Hebrew word for seeing (ראה) and the word for fearing (ירא) share the same root, suggesting that we cannot truly see apart from the reverence of God…

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From our Torah this week (parashat Re’eh) we read: “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing (הַבְּרָכָה), if you obey (שָׁמַע) the commandments of the LORD your God… and the curse (הַקְּלָלָה), if you turn aside (סוּר, “withdraw,” “draw back”) from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known” (Deut. 11:26-28).

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From our Torah this week (Re’eh) we read: “Know within your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you” (Deut. 8:5). This verse expresses the idea of “musar” (מוסר), or moral education intended to develop godly character within us. “My son, despise not the chastening (i.e., musar) of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction (i.e., tokhechah). For whom the Lord loves he corrects; even as a father the son in whom he delights” (Prov. 3:11; see also Heb. 12:5-6). In light of Torah we infer that God disciplines us because we are his children, for the sake of our growth and maturity, and not for vindictive reasons. God’s correction indicates that he feels responsible for our character development, as a good father feels responsible for the character development of his child. Correction from the Lord is ultimately “soul-building,” since it enables us to be partakers of His holiness — and is grounded in His love and concern for us as our Heavenly Father (see Heb. 12:5-11). Hang in there, friend. “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Heb. 12:11). May God help us in our “education for eternity.”

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Our Torah for this week (i.e., parashat Eikev) appeals to our need to forgive: “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer hardened” (Deut. 10:16). The metaphor of a “circumcised heart” (ברית מילה של הלב) symbolizes cutting away the outer covering of the heart so that it is “opened up” to feel once again. God wants us to let go of “hard feelings” so we can experience compassion (i.e., com+passion: “feeling-with”) and sympathy for other people… Heart circumcision represents a radical turning away from the insular realm of the self toward the emotional realm of others and God. When our hearts are open, we are able to receive the flow of the Spirit of God and obey the “law of the Messiah” (תּוֹרַת הַמָּשִׁיחַ) to bear one another’s burdens (Gal. 6:2).

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Our Torah portion this week (Eikev) includes the remarkable commandment: “And you shall eat and be satisfied” (Deut. 8:10), which means that God desires for us to receive the goodness of life itself. “Taste and see that the LORD is good.” Addictions, cravings, lusts, etc., arise from a refusal to be satisfied, by hungering for more than the blessing of the present moment. “My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jer. 2:13). The living waters are present for us, but we will only find them if we open our hearts to the wonder of God in this moment. We can “break the spell” of continual dissatisfaction, of the power of greed, ambition, and so on, when we discover that our constant hunger is really a cry for God and His blessing. This is the blessed “hunger and thirst” given by the Spirit (Matt. 5:6). Our sense of inner emptiness is an invitation to come to the waters and drink life. So come to God’s table and ask the Lord Yeshua to give you the water that will satisfy your heart’s true thirst for life…

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Learn Psalm 47:2 in Hebrew:

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Don’t let the godless despair of this fallen world define your reality, friends… The LORD God is on the throne and all things will eternally answer to Him (Heb. 4:13). He works all things together for your good and for His glory. Amen.

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Today is the 15th of Av (i.e., Tu B’Av), the “holiday of love.” Just as Yom Kippur originally celebrated the reconciliation of Israel to the LORD after the sin of the Golden Calf, so Tu B’Av originally celebrated the reconciliation of Israel for the Sin of the Spies. Therefore both the fifteenth of Av and Yom Kippur became joyous times celebrating forgiveness and restoration to the LORD. The Babylonian Talmud (Ta’anit 31a) quotes Shimon ben Gamliel as saying, “Israel had no holidays as joyous as the fifteenth of Av and the Day of Atonement, when the maidens of Israel would go out and dance in the vineyards… What were they saying: Young man, consider whom you choose to be your wife…”

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