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Prayer Request (for site updates, see below)
I was laid off from my full-time job several years ago when -- after a lot of prayer, soul searching and discussion with my wife -- we decided to operate the Hebrew for Christians ministry entirely by faith in God's provision through the love and kindness of His people. I am not paid for doing this work, and therefore I ask you to consider supporting us. If you can help, please offer a donation or purchase some of the Hebrew study materials offered here. Encouraging other web sites to link here also helps us become more visible on the web. Above all, agree with us for the Lord's will to be done in our lives. Todah, chaverim.
    
Note: My wife and I have have three young children (Josiah, Judah, and Emanuel David ). The LORD has graciously provided for us as Adonai Yireh (יְהוָה יִרְאֶה), "the One who sees [our need]." We are living one day at a time by the grace and mercy of God, and I want to publicly praise Yeshua and acknowledge His faithful love in caring for my family -- despite the trials during this time. The LORD God of Israel is faithful and true! And to those of you who have sent us a word of encouragement or donation during this difficult time, please accept our heartfelt appreciation! Your chesed truly helps sustain us.
יהי שׁם יהוה מברך - "May the Name of the Lord be blessed."
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Jewish Holiday Calendar
Note: For site updates, please scroll past this entry....
The Torah divides the calendar into two symmetrical halves: the Spring and the Fall, indicating the two advents of Messiah. The Biblical year officially begins during the month of the Passover from Egypt (called Rosh Chodashim, see Exod. 12:2), and the spring holidays of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits both recall our deliverance from Egypt and also our greater deliverance given by means of the death, burial, and resurrection of the Messiah, the great Passover Lamb of God. The holiday of Shavuot (i.e., "Pentecost") both commemorates the revelation of the Torah at Sinai as well as the revelation of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) at Zion, in fulfillment of the promise given by our Lord....
The intermediate months of summer end with the advent of the sixth month of the calendar, the month of Elul, which recalls the time Moses interceded on behalf of Israel after the sin of the Golden Calf. To commemorate this time of our history, we likewise focus on teshuvah (repentance) in anticipation of Rosh Hashanah and especially in anticipation of Yom Kippur, the great "Day of Atonement." In Jewish tradition the 30 days of Elul are combined with the first ten days of the seventh month (called the "Days of Awe") to set apart "Forty Days of Teshuvah" leading up to the Day of Forgiveness for Israel. Immediately following Yom Kippur, the mood changes as we begin preparing for a joyous week-long celebration called Sukkot (i.e., "Tabernacles") that concludes with the holiday of Simchat Torah.
In the summer there occurs a three week period of mourning that begins with the Fast of Tammuz and ends with Tishah B'Av. The last nine days of this three week period (i.e., from Av 1 until Av 9th) are days of increased mourning. However, after this somber time, the romantic holiday of Tu B'Av, the 15th of Av occurs. Summer ends with the 30 days of the month of Elul, a yearly season of teshuvah (repentance) that anticipates Rosh Hashanah and the fall holidays. The 30 days of Elul are combined with the first 10 days of the month of Tishri to create the "Forty Days of Teshuvah" that culminate with Yom Kippur.
Because they occur between the spring and fall holidays, the summer holidays help us prepare for the second coming of the Messiah:
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The Summer Holidays:
Note that in accordance with tradition, holiday dates begin at sundown. Moreover, some holidays may be postponed one day if they happen to fall on the weekly Sabbath:
- Month of Tammuz (Sun. June 14th [eve] - Tues. July 14th [day])
- Month of Av (Tues. July 14th [eve] - Wed. Aug. 12th [day])
- Month of Elul (Wed. Aug. 12th [eve] - Fri. Sept. 11th [day])
- Month of Tishri (Fri. Sept. 11th [eve] - Sat. Oct. 10th [day])
Note: For more about the dates of these holidays see the Calendar pages....
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June 2026 Site Updates
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Overruling the Wicked...
06.22.26 (Tammuz 7, 5786) As mentioned below, this week we have a "double portion" of Torah, and our second reading for this week, called 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 (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 to curse the Israelites, Balak finally dismissed the prophet from his service, but before departing from the dejected king, Balaam ironically prophesied the destruction of the Moabites and the 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). Amen.
But who was this mysterious prophet named Balaam? According to Jewish tradition, Jacob's wicked uncle Laban had a son named Be'or (בְּעוֹר), who became the father of Balaam. In other words, the "cursing prophet" Balaam was none other than the grandson of Laban:
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Note that the name "Beor" first appears in connection with a king of Edom (Gen. 36:32), which suggests that Balaam might have once been a king of the Edomites (i.e., the descendants of Esau). Further note the phonetic similarity to Peor. If Beor and Peor are the same, then Balaam was actually a prophet of Baal Peor, a local Semitic god.
Balaam was regarded as a great seer, magician and an adept in the occult. He had an "evil eye" and drew the spirit of demons to anything he gazed upon (Avot 5:22). His notoriety made him famous, and powerful people asked him to invoke curses on their enemies. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 106a) states that Balaam became so famous as a magician that he later became a chief advisor to Pharaoh. It was Balaam who advised the new Pharaoh to enslave the Israelites and to afflict them with brutal taskmasters (Exod. 1:8-11). For more information about the identity of Balaam, see the entry entitled, "The Curses of Balaam."
Mystery of the Red Heifer...
06.21.26 (Tammuz 6, 5786) Shavuah tov, friends. This week we have a "double portion" of Torah and will read both parashat Chukat and Balak... In the first portion (i.e., Chukat), the LORD gives the "law of the red heifer," a special whole-burnt offering whose ashes were used to purify someone contaminated by contact with a dead body. The red heifer had to be a perfect specimen that was completely red, "without blemish, in which there is no defect." The sages interpreted "without blemish" to refer to the cow's color, that is, it was to be without a single white or black hair. This is the only sacrifice in the Torah where the color of the animal is explicitly required. Moreover, the cow was never to have had a yoke upon it, meaning that it must never have been used for any profane purposes.
Unlike other sacrifices offered at the altar at the Tabernacle, the red heifer was taken outside the camp to be slaughtered before the priest, who then took some of its blood and sprinkled it seven times before the Tabernacle. Then the heifer would be burned in its entirety: its hide, flesh, blood, and even dung were to be burned (unlike other sacrifices). Also unlike other offerings, the blood of the sacrifice was to be completely burned in the fire.
Hyssop, scarlet yarn, and a cedar stick would then be thrown upon the burning heifer, which were the same items used to cleanse from tzara'at (skin disease). These items, along with the blood of the red heifer, were therefore assimilated into the ashes of the sacrifice, which were gathered and mixed with living water to create what was called the "waters of separation" for the community. Anyone that came into contact with death (i.e., a corpse) was required to be cleansed using these waters. The purification procedure took a full seven days, using three stalks of hyssop dipped into the water and shaken over the defiled person on the third day and then again on the seventh day. After the second sprinkling, the person was immersed in a mikvah and was declared "clean" the following evening.
The Red Heifer ritual is considered "chok" within the tradition, meaning that it defies rational sense. In fact, the Talmud states that of all the taryag mitzvot (613 commandments), this is the only one that wise King Solomon could not fathom. The mystery of the red heifer sacrifice suggests profound truth about the sacrificial death of Yeshua our Savior, however. The kohen (priest) who sprinkled the ashes of the red heifer became tamei (unclean) himself, even though the defiled person became tahor (pure). The picture of the priest here is one of sacrificial love - the giving up of one's own spiritual purity so that another person can regain his purity... "Sprinkle me with hyssop, and I will be clean" (Psalm 51:7). Just so, Yeshua willingly became unclean on our behalf - through our contact with sin and death - so that we could become clean (Isa. 53:4, 2 Cor. 5:21, Gal. 3:3, Eph. 5:2, Titus 2:14). Because of Yeshua, the impure become pure, even though He became impure through His offering. Because of Him, we have been cleansed from our sins "by a better sprinkling" than that which the Tabernacle of Moses could afford (Matt. 26:28, Heb. 9:14, 12:24, Eph. 1:7, 1 Pet. 1:2,18-19, Rom. 5:9; Col. 1:14, 1 John 1:7, etc.).
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Choosing to Believe...
06.19.26 (Tammuz 4, 5786) Since everything is under God's supervision (הַשׁגָחָה) and providence, it is forbidden to regard actions and outcomes as the result of accident, chance, "luck," or happenstance... Those are all pagan ideas, based in ignorance and superstition. Faith in the LORD God Almighty is grounded in unqualified trust that He is also Adonai Ro'i, the LORD your Shepherd, the one who restores your soul, and that conviction provides the framework for apprehending the truth of Torah. A lost faith regards the events of life as random, based on "fortune" and blind chance; it no longer sees God's hand in the affairs of daily life, but consigns the Divine Presence to a place of functional exile. For this the "like for like" judgment is given: those who regard life to be the product of random forces will be unable to discern God's hand in their daily life.
We trust that "all things work together for good" (Rom. 8:28) and therefore we bless God for perceived evil as well as for perceived good, since all circumstances of life come from the providential hand of the LORD our God. We believe in an all-powerful, supreme LORD who has not abandoned the world, but who actively sustains and upholds it with benevolent intent (Col. 1:16-17). When difficult things happen to the righteous, we trust in God's personal care for their ultimate good, despite their present troubles. "Though he slay me, I will trust in Him" (Job 13:15). What is perhaps most heroic about Job is that he never turned away from hope, despite the crucifixion of his world. As Soren Kierkegaard noted, "the moment the LORD took everything away, he did not say, 'The LORD took away,' but first of all he said, 'The LORD gave..." (Upbuilding Discourses). This is the heart and meaning behind the Kaddish (קדיש), the mourner's prayer, that expresses thankful acceptance of God's world, despite bereavement, pain, sorrow, loss, and so on.
Therefore may God "teach us to number our days aright that we may get a heart of wisdom" (Psalm 90:12). The sages say on the day of death, one considers one's life as if it had been a single day... Life goes by so quickly, and we never know when our personal "Rosh Hashanah" will come. "No one knows the day or hour..." That's why it is so vital to be healed and to turn to God while there is still time. So turn to him today and bacharta ba'chayim – "choose life!" "For this commandment (of turning to God in faith) is not hidden from you, and it is not far away. It is not in heaven... nor across the sea.... Rather, the matter is very near you – in your mouth and your heart – to do it" (Deut. 30:11-14; Rom. 10:8-13).
Hebrew Lesson
Psalm 90:12 reading (click):
Gathering your Treasures...
06.19.26 (Tammuz 4, 5786) In the parable of the "rich fool" (Luke 12:15-21), Yeshua tells the story of a certain man who had acquired such worldly prosperity that he decided to store it all up so that he could retire in luxury and comfort. However, after he made his preparations God said to him: "You fool! This very night your soul will be collected from you. The things you have prepared, whose will they be?' Yeshua then warned: "This is how it will be for anyone who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich toward God."
We have to be on guard not to insulate ourselves with foolish faith that says we can provide for ourselves or create a hedge against future trouble. This is why Yeshua told his disciples to let go of their possessions, to give away their wealth, for then they would be rich toward God. "For where your treasure is, there will be your heart also" (Luke 12:34).
To live otherwise is to be a fool, that is, someone who misses the point of life. In this passage, the Greek word for "fool" is ἄφρων, which refers to an unthinking or thoughtless person -- someone who does not reflect on the purpose and end of life. In Hebrew the word for such a fool is "kesil" (כְּסִיל), from a root that means to be obtuse and indifferent to matters of spirituality (Prov. 1:22; 17:16). The fool despises words of wisdom (Prov. 23:9) and has no real objective in life other than that which is found in the immediacy of the moment (Prov. 17:24; 21:20, etc.).
Note that a fool is not a person of low or deficient intelligence but rather someone who is decidedly indifferent to spiritual reality. The fool says in his heart that God doesn't matter and that the goal of life is to gain carnal pleasures. He is egocentric, hedonistic, and blind to the real significance of life. He focuses on this passing world and its vanities and not on the world to come. עֵינֵי כְסִיל בִּקְצֵה־אָרֶץ - "The eyes of a fool are in the ends of the earth" (Prov. 17:24). He is someone who "stores up treasure for himself but is not rich toward God."
On the other hand, as the late Jim Elliot said, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." That's gathering treasure toward God. The Hebrew word for love, "ahavah" (אַהֲבָה), means to give (הב) in sacrificial kindness or compassion. And indeed this is the heart of God revealed in the sacrificial life of Yeshua. When we reciprocate by giving of ourselves to God, we are made rich in the blessing of his love.
Clinging to worldly "riches" is dangerous because it creates a false sense of security that robs us of a close relationship with the Lord. Being rich toward this world makes you a fool before God. As Yeshua taught us, "Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matt. 16:25-26). "What is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God" (Luke 16:15). "Until you have given up yourself to Him, you will not have a real self" (C. S. Lewis). Indeed worldly power and prosperity are no indicators of spiritual success...
Unlike the rich fool who sought his security by storing his "treasures" into larger barns, Yeshua told us not to be anxious and to trust in God alone for our security. He pointed to the birds of the air that "neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns." God provides and cares for them; won't he also therefore take care of you? (Luke 12:24). And he continued by asking "which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?" The Greek word for "anxious" in this verse is μεριμνάω, from μερίζω, meaning to be inwardly divided or "double-minded." We are not to be "cross-eyed" in the way we look at things. Keep your mind set on the Lord and his care (Psalm 16:8). As Yeshua said to Peter after he sank in the waters, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" (i.e., διστάζω, lit., "think twice").
When we worry about things beyond our control we are acting like the rich fool who falsely assumed that he was in control of his life and that his security was to be found in his own resources... We build our lives upon the sand rather than the rock of God's truth; we focus on this world more than in the presence and promises of God.
Being "rich toward God" means partaking in the heavenly treasures of eternal life now, and investing the worldly treasures of temporal life for our everlasting blessing and the glory of God. It is a reversal of the "wisdom of the rich fool" because it values what God values over ourselves.... "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness" (Matt. 6:3). True life is not to be found in the comforts and vanities of this world, but in earnest relationship with the Living God who is the Source and End of all enduring meaning, life, and happiness. Our treasure, our "riches toward God," is Yeshua, and that is where we will find our hearts.
Hebrew Lesson
Psalm 31:19 reading (click for audio):
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Lessons of Rebellion...
The following is related to our Torah reading for this week, parashat Korach...
06.19.26 (Tammuz 4, 5786) Is there anything we can learn from rebellion? Is there anything redeemable about protesting the status quo, objecting to the state of the world, refusing to accept reality, even if that has theological implications? In Dostoevsky's great novel the Brothers Karamazov, a character named Ivan takes issue with his devout brother Alyosha's unquestioning faith in God. Even though Ivan would like to believe that this is the "best of all possible worlds," and that God indeed works "all things together for good," he stumbles over the ongoing presence of moral evil in the world. For instance, Ivan insists that nothing could possibly justify the torture of a five year old girl who was chained to an outhouse and left to die in the Russian winter. He objects that somehow this awful suffering may be part of God's great plan for the ages. The same sort of objection may be expressed regarding the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Holocaust and other obvious cases of grotesque moral evil in our world. A person like Ivan cannot "accept such a universe," even if it is true that one day God will wipe away every tear from the eyes of everyone.
But is there anything to learn here? Can the rebel teach us anything or impart to us any wisdom? Well, for one thing, we observe that the rebel lacks patience and refuses faith in the idea that God is ultimately good. He sees the cup as "half-empty" rather than "half-full." His lack of trust, however, serves as a warning for us. Doubt cries out, "Let's put truth to the test," though the truth eventually swallows up doubt and brings to silence the rebel's protest. This was the solution given in the Book of Job, after all, when God overwhelmed Job from the midst of the whirlwind. As Kierkegaard wrote: "Speak, raise your voice, cry out. God can speak even louder: all the thunder is at His disposal. And thunder is the answer, it is the explanation: firm, trustworthy, primordial. God's answer, even if it smashes man to pieces, is superior to all the chattering of human wisdom."
In my own darkest moments of despair and doubt, I have been jarred back to reality after personally encountering radical evil - either that which arose from within my own heart or that which was committed by others in this world. After all, how can we explain the inexplicable cruelty and madness of human beings - war, murder, assault, abortion, genocide, the breakup of families over selfish desires, and so on - without invoking the category of real moral evil? Yet evil, by itself, is entirely senseless apart from real moral truth and goodness, and therefore the rebel's cry is really the call for transcendental justice... Nonetheless the rebel can't have it both ways; he can't consistently object to the existence of moral evil in the universe apart from appealing to God's righteousness and the existence of moral truth. It's been said that while the man of faith must must wrestle with the "problem of evil," the faithless man must wrestle with the "problem of goodness."
Often a disease must "declare itself" to be identified, treated, and hopefully cured. Likewise with our struggle with sinful impulses and the disease of our own divided hearts. Sin "forces the hand" of truth by revealing our own ambivalence, our own inner darkness, our own fears, doubts, lusts, and so on. The rise of sinful impulses and rebellious desire serve as warning signals... Indignation, disgust, and even shame are the voice of protest from our intuitive love of the ideal, appealing to the greater truth that we are God's children, called to walk with God, to mirror His character, and to exist on a different level. We see this in the case of Korach, whose rebellion ultimately revealed God's truth, and whose name was later surprisingly associated with twelve great Psalms in the Scriptures. In one of these Psalms we read how the sons of Korah learned the meaning of the gospel itself by considering God's love despite the sins and failures of the past: "Steadfast love and truth have met; righteousness and peace have kissed" (Psalm 85:10).
חסד־ואמת נפגשׁו
צדק ושׁלום נשׁקו
"Love and truth have met,
justice and peace have kissed."
So again, can any good comes from rebellion? Only to serve as a warning, and sometimes we need to be warned (1 Cor. 10:6-12; 2 Pet. 2:2-26). The fire pans of the rebels who followed Korah and died in the fire were hammered and made into part of the altar of sacrifice. God took the very means of their rebellion (the fire pans) to serve His purposes. Moreover, the "blessed fault" of our sin and rebellion helps us to profoundly understand our great (and ongoing) need for God's grace and forgiveness. Only the rebel who turns to God in teshuvah can understand the deepest expression of God's love (Luke 7:47).
Korach serves as a warning to us all. He took the hard road, and his followers learned the hard way... He was a "taker," and being a taker means that he was a slave, in bondage to the yetzer hara (evil impulse). Takers see the world as something "out there" to be exploited, consumed, and used. To deal with the "Korah within" each of us - the rebel, the complaining child, the cynical one, etc., - we must first confess the truth about the damage we've done by our own "taking," that is, by making our own selfish demands on others, and so on. To be healed, we have to revisit the depths of our hell to acknowledge and confess the impulse of our own "inner rebel." In the end, only the LORD our God can deliver us from evil.
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Endurance and Hope...
"Being a good steward of your pain involves being alive to your life, keeping in touch with the pain as well as the joy of what happens because at no time more than at a painful time do we live out of the depths of who we are instead of out of the shallows."- Frederick Buechner
06.19.26 (Tammuz 4, 5786) Though we are optimistic about the purpose and end of reality, and though we believe that God providentially"works all things together for good" (Rom. 8:28), we are not "monistic idealists," that is, those who say that "God is One" essentially means that evil is not real or that it is actually a "part of God." Reductionistic answers are always too simplistic, whether they come from science, theology, or philosophy...
The Spirit of God says: "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!" (Isa. 5:20-21).
It is woeful to confound the moral truth of God with sophistical categories of human arrogance: "language games" intended to subvert and pervert all the great principles of truth, wisdom, and of righteousness... And it is woeful to "sanctify crimes with the names of virtues," to pillage the truth of language for illicit or perverse gain. And yet again it is woeful to abuse the mind by confounding the role of conscience, to disparage intuitions of moral reality, to impugn logical reasoning, and therefore to make a "pretend form" of knowledge.
The Holy Spirit states that the difference between good and evil, and of sin and righteousness, is as evident as the difference between the most obvious of contrary qualities discovered by the senses, such as the benefit of light over darkness and of seeing over being blind.... Throughout the Scriptures, "darkness" symbolizes ignorance, error, deception, and crime, whereas "light" connotes truth, knowledge, and heartfelt piety. Likewise bitterness is associated with evil and sin: "Your own wickedness will correct you, and your backslidings will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that it is evil and bitter (רַע וָמָר) that you have forsaken the LORD your God, and that the fear of Me is not in you (וְלֹא פַחְדָּתִי אֵלַיִךְ)," declares the Lord GOD of hosts" (Jer. 2:19; see also Jer. 4:18), just as sweetness is associated with goodness and righteousness: "How sweet are Your words to my taste! Sweeter than honey to my mouth" (Psalm 119:103); "Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the person who trusts in Him" (Psalm 34:8). The commandments of God are more to be desired than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb; moreover by them is thy servant warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward" (Psalm 19:10-11).
Alas, the majority of people in every generation love darkness more than light, as our Lord attested: "This is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, but people love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. For every one that does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, so that his deeds would be exposed. But the person who does truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they done by God's power" (John 3:19-21). In this connection Charles Elliot wrote: "Deliberate perversion is in all ages the ultimate outcome of the spirit that knows not God, and therefore neither fears nor loves Him, whether it shows itself in the license of profligacy, or the diplomacy of Machiavellian statesmen, or the speculations of the worshipers of mammon."
We are given "exceedingly great and precious promises," yet in this world we suffer and experience real pain, heartache, and troubles. Yeshua said "in this world you will have tribulation," though that is not the end of the story, of course, for there is the cheer of God's' victory, even if we must repeatedly ask God for grace to endure our troubles without murmuring or kvetching (John 16:33; Heb. 4:16). I realize that is often difficult, and some of you might be within the fiery furnace even now. You might be asking, "Where are you, Lord, in all of this? Why don't you bring me out of these troubles?" In such testing you need endurance (ὑπομονή) to hold on to hope, believing that God uses affliction to refine you for good. As Paul said, "We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces refined character, and refined character produces hope" (Rom. 5:3-4). Each of us is still upon the "Potter's wheel," and God's hand continues to shape us into vessels that one day will reveal his glory and honor. "The LORD will give strength to his people; the LORD will bless his people with peace" (Psalm 29:11).
Hebrew Lesson
Psalm 29:11 reading (click):
Let's keep holding on, friends, and never give up. Though these are indeed perilous times, the Lord our God is faithful and true. He will never leave nor forsake us, whatever may come. The Lord gives us acharit ve'tikvah (אַחֲרִית וְתִקְוָה), "a future and a hope" (Jer. 29:11).
The Breath of His Life...
The greatest blessing you've been given is the gift of existence, partaking in the image of God and being endowed with the breath of his life...
06.19.26 (Tammuz 4, 5786) A verse from this week's Torah (i.e., Korach) reveals another great Hebrew name for God: Elohei ha'ruchot lekhol basar (אֱלהֵי הָרוּחת לְכָל־בָּשָׂר), which can be translated "the God of the breath (or spirit) of all flesh" (Num. 16:22). The LORD is the Source of your breath, the One who exhales to you nishmat chayim (נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים), the "breath of life" that enables you to live (Job 12:10).
The sages used the analogy of a glassblower who creates a glass vessel. Just as the glassblower blows into a tube to form a vessel from molten glass, so the breath (i.e., neshamah: נְשָׁמָה) that comes from the LORD functions as spirit (i.e., ruach: רוּחַ) that forms and fills the human soul (i.e., nefesh: נֶפֶשׁ). Note that the Name YHVH (יהוה) first appears in this connection (Gen. 2:7), a Name that means "God is Present" (Exod. 3:14) and "God is Mercy" (Exod. 34:6-7). Note also that each letter of the Name YHVH represents a vowel sound (i.e., breath), suggesting that God's Spirit is as close as your very next breath. Like the wind that cannot be seen, so is the spirit the essential part of your identity. Yeshua breathed on his followers and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit" (John 20:22).
The special Name Elohei ha-ruchot lekhol basar appears only one other place in the Torah. After accepting the fact that he would soon die and therefore be unable to finally lead the people into the promised land, Moses prayed: "Let the LORD (יהוה), 'the God of the spirits of all flesh' (אֱלהֵי הָרוּחת לְכָל־בָּשָׂר), appoint a man over the congregation who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the LORD may not be as sheep that have no shepherd." So the LORD said to Moses, "Take Joshua the son of Nun (יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בִּן־נוּן, lit. "son of life"), a man in whom is the Spirit (רוּח), and lay your hand on him" (Num. 27:16-18).
The Talmud notes that the word Nun (נוּן) means "fish," a symbol of activity and life. Joshua, the chosen one who succeeded Moses and led the people into the Promised Land, was the "Son of Life" - a clear picture of Yeshua our Messiah, the "spirit-filled good Shepherd" who would lay down His life for the sheep (John 10:11). Amen. The LORD is indeed the "God of the breath of all flesh." When Yeshua cried out, "It is finished" and breathed his last breath as He died for our sins upon the cross, the greatest exhalation of the Spirit occurred, the greatest sigh, the greatest utterance was ever declared. The sacrificial death of Yeshua for our deliverance was God's final word of love breathed out to those who are trusting in Him.
Hebrew Lesson
Job 12:10 reading (click):
Wounded Healers...
"Contradictions can bring us into touch with a deeper longing, for the fulfillment of a desire that lives beneath all desires and that only God can satisfy." - Henri Nouwen
06.18.26 (Tammuz 3, 5786) Someone once said, "Pray that you may never have to endure all that you can learn to bear." Yes, though we must also remember that God "will not let us be tested beyond what we are able to bear, but with the test will also provide the way of escape so that we may be able to endure it" (1 Cor. 10:13). Indeed, in light of providential suffering what we really need is perseverance, or what the New Testament calls hupomone (ὑπομονή), a word that means "remaining [μένω] under [ὑπο]" the Divine Presence while being tested (the English word "suffer" comes from the Latin word sufferre, from sub- (under) + ferre, to carry, and therefore denotes "bearing under" difficulty).
Suffering people do not need moral platitudes or correction from others, but rather the will to believe, the strength to stay constant, and the rise of hope that gives life to simple prayers that focus the heart upon the Lord's Presence: "God have mercy..." "Help me, O God..." "I need Thee, O Lord..." When we receive grace to faithfully suffer, we hear the Spirit whispering back to us: "Be not afraid..." "Live in me..." "Walk in the light..." "I am with you always..." "You are loved..."
We learn to walk with God this way - through the valley of the shadow of death. "The more God gives, the more he makes us desire, until he leaves us empty that he may fill us with his blessings." (St. John of the Cross). God weans us from life until we learn that nothing ultimately belongs to us... We must make peace with our sorrows and disappointments, to let go of them and to accept that this day, despite its frailty and trouble, is a precious gift from above. "My peace I give to you" (שלי שלום אני אתן לך), said Yeshua, "not as the world gives, I give to you" (John 14:27). Not as the world gives... When we let go, when we put everything in God's hands, we acknowledge that all we have is a gift from God.
Living before God makes us into what psychologist Henri Nouwen called "wounded healers," as God lets us experience suffering in order to comfort and heal others. After all, this is what our Savior has done for us, emptying himself to taste the horrors of death so that we may be healed (Isa. 53:5). In our case, however, we do not have to be "perfect" before we can likewise become a healer, for God's grace comes not only from His strength but from our weakness and frailties (2 Cor. 12:10; Phil. 4:13). Indeed it from God's wounded healers that come the witness of divine hope and healing...
We are "jars of clay," ordinary and flawed people, but we nonetheless are vessels that the partake of the surpassing glory and power of God. Therefore even though we are earthly vessels, troubled and at times vexed by suffering, we are able to stretch out our hands to others and say "be healed" in God's name. It may seem a paradox that the sick can be used by God to heal the sick, but in spite of trouble we can bring life and hope to others. I've spent time with dying and hurting friends, listening to their hope of soon being with Jesus, and from their weakness beheld great strength...
Soren Kierkegaard wrote in his journals about incurable sorrow he carried from the time he was a small child. He wrote: "The majority of men, if they find that from their earliest years to be their lot to bear one suffering or another, begin by hoping, or as they say, believing that things will go better, that God will make all things all right, etc., and then at length, when no change occurs, come little by little to rely upon the help of eternity, i.e., they resign themselves and find strength by contenting themselves with the eternal... The deeper nature, or he whom God has fashioned on a more eternal plan begins at once by understanding that this is a thing he must bear as long as he lives, and he dares not require of God such an extraordinary and paradoxical help. But God is perfect love just the same, and nothing is more certain to him. So he is resigned and inasmuch as the eternal lies close to him he thus finds repose, blessedly assured all the while that God is love."
Kierkegaard went on to say that over the course of time, after he had become more and more involved in life as a temporal being, he found it difficult to live only with the reflection of the eternal, and the question arose whether he would believe by virtue of "the absurd" (i.e., beyond logic) that God would nevertheless help him temporally. Faith no longer was a reflective consolation but an urgent matter the heart's passion and need for God's Presence, and consciously living in this tension and dependency is to become a wounded healer...
Hebrew Lesson
Psalm 34:19 Hebrew reading (click):
The Sophistry of Korah..
The following entry concerns this week's Torah reading, parashat Korach...
06.18.26 (Tammuz 3, 5786) This week we read the dramatic story of Moses' cousin Korah who led a rebellion against Moses after the Israelites were turned away from the promised land and sentenced to wander forty years in the desert of Sinai. God quickly judged Korah's rebellion and vindicated the laws of the priesthood and Moses' leadership of Israel.
This story is a sober one that raises several provocative questions about our responsibility to submit to God's authority. On the one hand, the example of Korah teaches that we should obey God's direction for our lives and accept his will, lest we too should incur divine judgment. As it is written in the Scriptures: "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry" (1 Sam. 15:23). The essence of rebellion is pride...
When Korah questioned Moses' role as the divinely appointed leader of Israel, he was actually doubting God's plan of the redemption itself. Apparently Korah thought there was nothing special about his cousin, and indeed any Jew could be a leader. He asked: "Who is Moses? All of the people are holy!" (Num. 16:3). Now Moses likely didn't blame Korah for his wonder. After all, he knew he was a lowly and broken man whom God called during his exile in the land of Midian. God chose him to be his mediator, however, precisely because of this powerlessness and humility. Recall how Moses protested at the vision of the burning bush, reminding God that he was not worthy to lead Israel out of their slavery in Egypt. He even begged the Lord to send someone other than him to be his ambassador to Pharaoh (see Exod. 3:1-4:17).
Moses repented of his fear and submitted to be God's ambassador to the people, though he wrestled with his own inadequacies. Later, after the Exodus, he remained broken and surrendered as he interceded on behalf of the people and proclaimed God's will, both at Sinai - where he was given the Torah and the pattern of the Tabernacle - and later as he communed with God and faithfully directed the journey of the people to the promised land. So it should be clear that Korah's problem with Moses wasn't really about Moses after all. No, it was a problem he had with God. Like the faithless spies, Korah had trouble trusting God. Despite everything he had seen with his own eyes - the miracles of Moses and Aaron, the wonders of the Exodus from Egypt, the deliverance of the people as they crossed the sea, the manna that fell from heaven, the fiery glory at Mount Sinai and the audible witness of God from the midst of the Cloud - despite all this, Korah still questioned: "Is the LORD among us or not?" (Exod. 17:7).
It seems almost incomprehensible that Korah failed to trust in God after all he had seen, which again teaches us that seeing isn't believing, but the other way around. But perhaps he was suffering from post traumatic stress. Maybe many were in shock after all they had been through. The sudden displacement and loss of their homeland in Goshen; the suffering they witnessed during the judgments of the plagues, the terror of the Passover judgment, the frenetic activity to flee from the land of Egypt, and the insanity they must have felt as they saw the dead bodies of Pharaoh's army silently floating in the very waters that they had walked across during their nighttime flight to freedom... Perhaps Korah had trouble accepting Moses' leadership because he was unable to understand all that had happened...
Nevertheless, as difficult as it is to fathom Korah's mindset and lack of faith, it is clear that he wrestled with a desire to control things and to be a "man of power." The Torah introduces us to him by succinctly saying "Korah took..." suggesting the essential character of the man. The Midrash Rabbah notes that Korah was quite wealthy in Egypt, a nobleman accustomed to being respected among his people. The Exodus completely uprooted and changed his life, and perhaps he was anxious that he was no longer a man of worldly prominence. He no longer understood himself or his place in the new world order. Korah's envy was dangerous not because he honestly wanted to serve the Lord and his people, but because he wanted recognition as leader who would significantly contribute to the direction and destiny of the people of Israel....
Eventually Korah appealed to others who likewise felt dejected and displaced. He protested the social order, saying it was unjust and oppressive. He gained the audience of the disaffected crowd and others who fellt marginalized. Eventually Korah and his sympathizers decided it was time to take action and to openly revolt. "Then they united themselves against Moses and Aaron and said to them, 'You take too much upon you, for all the congregation is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the congregation of the LORD?" (Num. 16:3). Moses' reaction revealed his surrendered character: "When he heard this, Moses fell on his face" in intercession before the Lord.
The madness of Korah led him to play the part of a "social justice warrior" who wanted to "deconstruct" the status quo that was governed by Moses and to give the "power to the people." Korah became a political opportunist who sought to "democratize" God's will by giving each person the right to vote on matters of the community. His apparent assumption was that the people have the collective wisdom to guide themselves, and that God's voice is disclosed by the will of the people. "Vox populi vox populi," the voice of the people is the voice of God...
The problem with Korah's political philosophy or theory, however, was that "democracy" often reduces to a matter of "majority rule" that leads to "might makes right" decisions... Minorities are often its victims. In many cultures today slavery is still considered "right" by the majority. Prejudice and intolerance for those regarded as "different" has often led to violence, persecution, and even genocide. This is sometimes called the "tyranny of the majority."
The error of thinking that the "majority" can define (or legislate) what is true should be obvious enough. Truth is not something decided by consensus or a popular vote. It is not a construct of social convention but a matter of what is ultimately real. Often it takes a good deal of effort to discern what is true, but the crowd is often lazy and wants quick answers to complex questions. Moreover the crowd can be manipulated by shrewd students of human nature who understand people's weaknesses, for instance, their self-serving interests, their fears, their susceptibility to flattery (the "Barnum Effect"), their willingness to deny or ignore unpleasant facts, and so on. Moreover the crowd is often influenced and controlled by social pressure, by propaganda, by the need to belong ("groupthink"), by misdirection and disinformation, and by other strategies used to cajole and entice them to accept statements without evaluating them.
The logical fallacy known as "argumentum ad populum," or the appeal to popularity, occurs when a something is claimed to be true or good simply because so many people believe it to be so (e.g., "McDonalds has sold billions of hamburgers, so they must be good!"). Common sense realism, however, regards truth as objective and independent of whatever the majority believes. In the Middle Ages, for example, the majority believed the earth was flat and that the sun revolved around it, but neither of these things were true. It was also once thought by that blood "humors" affected people's moods, that personality types were determined by the shape of the skull (or the color of one's skin), that people got sick from cold air, and so on. It was "common knowledge" that that the five elements of earth, fire, water, air and space made up the elements of entire universe. Alchemy, astrology, and magic potions were regarded as valid science, and so on. What's right isn't always popular, what's popular isn't always right.
I don't want to belabor the point, but saying that truth is a matter of majority rule would imply that the report of the faithless spies that the people could not inherit the promised land was "reality," and that Joshua and Caleb's minority report was therefore illusory and false... But again truth is not decided by consensus or popularity, particularly regarding matters of morality, theology and spirituality. For example saying "everybody's doing it" -- taking mind-altering drugs, fornicating, lying, stealing, etc., says nothing about the moral truth of the matter. The Lord is not a "presiding officer" over the consensus of the people but the King before whom every knee shall bow and every soul shall give account. Korah's "idealism" was a form of godless humanism, elevating the interests and desires of the people above that of God himself, and therefore his challenge was met with God's direct intervention and judgment.
The story of Korah raises some other things to consider, however, particularly regarding the question of God's seeking direction for our individual lives. In this connection note that the Torah says that the earth opened up and swallowed Korah and his followers, and that their fire pans were then beaten into "coverings for the altar." There is a hint of redemption here - not simply retributive justice - first because of the connection with the altar, and second because Korah was honored in Jewish tradition by having his name associated with several psalms in the Scriptures (e.g., Psalms 42-48, Psalms 84-88). And though Korah and his co-conspirators were swallowed up by the earth in judgment, in Numbers 26:11 we read that "the line of Korah, however, did not die out," and indeed the teshuvah of his children was later celebrated in Israel.
Some of the sages have said that Korah was honored because of the passion of his conviction. Instead of privately complaining about Israel's plight, he wanted to bring his questions out in the open to be settled. Korah wanted an answer regarding God's right to rule. Rather than letting his doubts fester, he sought to put the question to the test. Does God really "pick favorites" or establish an aristocratic caste system in Israel? If all the people are indeed holy, then why can't anyone offer incense before God's altar? Why were the priests only allowed to do so? Is not every Jew a priest in the eyes of heaven (see Exod. 19:6) ? In this way Korah perhaps sought for a resolution to what he regarded as an offense against egalitarian ideals of justice...
It is difficult to surrender to God's will when we are fearful people. Some people hide their fear by suppressing their questions and doubts, but then their "surrender" to God is not authentic. Doubt, however, is an inherent aspect of faith, since faith involves trusting what is presently not manifest (Rom. 8:24). We believe in the promise of unseen good; we walk in hope that fear will not ultimately destroy us. "Bad faith" refuses to engage doubt and answer its challenge. An honest faith overcomes doubt not by suppressing it but by wrestling its underlying concern.
There is a place for respectfully questioning God's apparent will. After all, did not our father Abraham intercede before the Lord, asking "Would you also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Gen. 18:23-25). And did not Job lament his afflicted estate and make his case before God? "Lo, even if he slays me, I will hope for him; yet I will appeal my ways before him" (Job 13:15). To his "godly" comforters woebegone Job said: "God forbid that I should say you are right; until I die I will not put away my integrity from me" (Job 27:5).
There is also place for lamentation, for anger, and even for reverential protest before God, though we must be careful here, for there is an invisible line that can be crossed that can lead to outright blasphemy. At "Meribah" the people provoked God by asking "Is the Lord with us or not?" They "hardened their hearts," a Hebrew phrase that means they became "kashah" (קָשָׁה) or "difficult." Therefore the psalmist speaks for God saying: "Harden not your heart, as in the provocation (מְֽרִיבָה), and as in the day of provocation (וֹם מַסָּה) in the desert: When your fathers tempted me and challenged me, though they saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, 'It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways. So I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest'" (Psalm 95:8-11).
In our mourning and in our lament, we appeal to God for solace and consolation; in our questions about God's justice in the face of evil, we return to his essential goodness. But if we fail to make our way back to trust we may accuse God of evil and harden our hearts. This is a real risk, a perilous movement into bitter darkness and sorrow. We do not need to defend or make excuses for God's sometimes inscrutable will, though we must make our way back to knowing the truth of his love and tender mercies. "For I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for blessing and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope" (Jer. 29:11).
So the moral of the story of Korah is a bit more complex than then the warning not to defy God's will (though of course that is one application). No, the drama compels us to better define and understand God's righteous authority and will for our lives. But again we must be careful. Our fears and desires drive our convictions; we can fall into self-deception by believing that we are infallibly "in the right"; we can lose sight of God's care and blessing for our lives. The essence of Torah, after all, is mercy, which is to say that God's truth is grounded in his love (Psalm 86:11; Hos. 6:6; Matt. 23:23). The fire pans of zeal must be melted down into coverings for sacrifice...
"Korah took..." These are the opening words of the parasha, but there is no grammatical object given, no mention of what he took. His was an undefined "taking," a greed of the will that did not know what it wanted or really needed. Because of this, his radical questioning and discontent was intolerable and "unlivewithable" - a sort of suffering from which he needed healing. Korah was driven by fear that he was missing something though he didn't know what it was...
Part of teshuvah is realizing how our fears are destructive to both ourselves and to other people. Recall that after the earth swallowed up Korah and his co-conspirators into the pit of "Sheol" (a word that means "to ask or question," from לִשְׁאוֹל), the people complained and God sent a plague that was only remedied when the High Priest stood between the dead and the living, representing God's intervention and care for his people. "And he stood between the dead and the living (וַיַּעֲמֹד בֵּין־הַמֵּתִים וּבֵין הַחַיִּים); and so the plague was stopped" (Num. 16:48).
As a final test to vindicate God's will, each of the twelve tribal heads of Israel, as well as Aaron himself, were instructed to bring their staffs to Moses. Moses then inscribed their tribal names on each staff and brought them into the sanctuary before the Ark of the testimony to leave overnight. "And the staff of the man whom I choose shall sprout. Thus I will make to cease from me the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against you" (Num. 17:5).
The following day Moses went into the Mishkan ("Tabernacle") and "behold, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds and produced blossoms, and it bore ripe almonds." He then brought out all the staffs and gave them back to each of the tribal leaders. The LORD then told Moses to return Aaron's staff to the Mishkan as a memorial and testimony for the generations to come.
"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such there is no law" (Gal. 5:22-23). Aaron and Moses learned to walk before the Lord. Unlike Korah, they did not seek to take power for themselves but instead humbled themselves before God saying, "Thy will be done," and their surrender was revealed by the marvel and beauty of their fruits. The blessing we find in the story of Korah is that the final test of godly power is whether it is truly life-giving and healing. The power of the Holy Spirit blossoms and brings forth fruit that reveals the sacredness of true life. Amen.
Hebrew Lesson
Zechariah 4:6b reading (click):
On Life and Death...
"And now brothers, I will ask you a terrible question, and God knows I ask it also of myself. Is the truth beyond all truths, beyond the stars, just this: that to live without him is the real death, that to die with him the only life?" - Buechner
06.17.26 (Tammuz 2, 5786) We read in our Torah portion for this week (i.e., Korach) the terrible fate of Korah and his co-conspirators: "And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up" (Num. 16:32), which the sages say metaphorically refers to being consumed by this world, its desires, and its end...
Life is a serious business, an irrepeatable opportunity. Many trifle their way to the grave, fully unprepared for the shock of the world to come... How few make it the great business of life to prepare themselves "until their change comes" (Job 14:14); how few consciously number their days to obtain a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90:12)? We mustn't fool ourselves by thinking we have a long road ahead before we face who we are at the time of our death (Luke 12:19-21). "No one knows the day or hour," yet it is certain to come, and wisdom bids us be prepared. All must die; there is no escape (Heb. 9:27). "No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death. There is no discharge from this war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given over to it" (Eccl. 8:8).
In light of this somber truth, do you reflect on its significance? Have you taken time to consider how it will be for you at your death? Allow such thoughts to awaken you from your careless and unwatchful state. Lay up treasure in heaven (Matt. 6:20). You are not saved by doing ma'asei tovim (good works) but they evidence genuine faith (Eph. 2:10). Good works validates the presence of faith, and its absence is a sign of "Laodicean" apostasy (Rev. 3:14-22). Considering the vastness of eternity, human life is likened to a mere vapor that quickly passes away (Psalm 103:15-16). It is madness to put off that which is of ultimate concern until the last moment. Therefore "repent one day before you die." Live each day as if it might be your last before your judgment (Heb. 9:27), and may our blessed God help you to "seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near" (Isa. 55:6).
כי־ידעתי מות תשׁיבני
ובית מועד לכל־חי
"For I know that you will bring me to death,
and to the meeting place for all the living."
(Job 30:23)
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Of course dying "in the LORD" assumes that you are really "in Him," that is, that you are a person whose heart is known by Him (1 Cor. 8:3). You can't die in him if you have never lived in him. In this world we learn to die, and as we die in Him, so we will live in him. Resolve this within your heart: אַשְׁרֵי הַמֵּתִים אֲשֶׁר מֵתִים בָּאָדוֹן - "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord," כִּי מַעֲשֵׂיהֶם הוֹלְכִים אַחֲרֵיהֶם - "for their works follow them (Rev. 14:13).
Concerning the prospect of death we are full of great confidence because Yeshua has overcome death for us and secured our place in heaven (John 11:25; Heb. 2:9-10). "We must all die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. But God will not take away life, and he devises means so that the banished one will not remain an outcast" (2 Sam. 14:14). Though physical life inevitably returns us to dust (Heb. 9:27), death does not have the final word, since God wonderfully "devises the means by which the banished are brought back home." If you belong to the Lord, your death is the day of precious homecoming to be with your beloved Savior: "For me to live is Messiah, and to die is gain" (Phil. 1:21). As it is written, "just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven" (1 Cor. 15:49). Amen.
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Humility and Healing...
"In a controversy, the instant we feel anger, we have already ceased striving for truth and have begun striving for ourselves." - Abraham Heschel
06.17.26 (Tammuz 2, 5786) When Korah asked, "Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD," Moses "heard it and fell on his face" (Num. 16:4). Moses' first thought was that perhaps Korah was sent by God to deliver a rebuke - that Moses was indeed guilty of pride – and therefore he immediately fell on his face and began searching his own heart... In the face of criticism, Moses did not seek to defend or justify himself but instead looked within himself to ensure that his heart and his way was right before the LORD...
How do you react when you are criticized or rebuked? Do you seek to defend yourself or blame the other person for the same failure? The moment you sense pride taking hold of your heart, stop and turn to God. Even if you must turn 70 x 7 times, there is hope, since even the desire of "being willing to do God's will" refines the heart. It is far better to be repeatedly turning to God in brokenness than it is to live under the pretense that you have no need for ongoing deliverance. It has been wisely said that "you cannot widen the narrow way of surrender." Religious leaders are perhaps most at risk here, since often enough they fool themselves into believing that passionate commitment requires they know everything about God, or that they are walking in joy and victory, when the truth is that they are often lonely, hurting, and sometimes unsure of themselves...
I wonder why people are afraid to admit they don't know something, or that they are confused, or sad, or troubled, etc. Any religion that demands its adherents to always be "up" and is simply untrue to the human condition. Reread the Psalms or consider the dark walk of faith that many of our forefathers and foremothers underwent. God wants all our hearts, chaverim, not just the parts we think he wants.... "By the grace of God I am what I am" (χάριτι δὲ θεοῦ εἰμι ὅ εἰμι). "Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are" (Kierkegaard).
"O LORD our God, grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change; the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference..." Amen.
Hebrew Lesson
Proverbs 14:30 reading (click):
Awake to His Presence...
"Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away." - Yeshua
06.16.26 (Tammuz 1, 5786) Some people regard spirituality in religious terms, as a matter of tradition, reciting accepted prayers or creeds, singing traditional hymns, listening to sermons, performing prescribed rituals, and so on. And while none of these things are bad in themselves, without an existential sense of urgency, a passion of "inwardness" wherein the weight of eternity is felt within the heart, they are merely an outward show or even a facade that can distract and suppress the inner need of the soul.
"Find God or die" is the cry of earnestness, whereas the superficialities and conventions of religion can sometimes seem alienating and even absurd. Kierkegaard regarded much of the synchronized pageantry of religious practice to conceal despair, not in the sense of a "mood" of sadness or hopelessness, but in the sense of a "misrelation" of the self to what is real, that is, a matter of confusing religiosity with authentic engagement with God.
A person may be productive, respected, and outwardly happy yet still be in despair if they lack the radical consciousness of their utter dependency on God for life. Emotional states are subject to fluctuation, but the urgency of faith as the soul's ultimate concern is found in a sense of existential desperation for God's healing. Personal prayer, the inner groan of the heart, is the essence, because it is the true confession of our need for God.
Prayerlessness, on the other hand, may indicate an illusory sense of autonomy, either that of defiance or of hopelessness, but more commonly that of self-assurance where the truth of life's urgency is suppressed. When prayer is considered "optional" or unnecessary, we are in danger, for spiritually speaking there is no greater danger than to "forget" your need for God.
When we forget how much we need God, when we forget our heart's desperate condition, we become two-souled and fragmented. We become a "divided house" that cannot stand because we forget that the ground of our existence is found in our relationship with God.
The core issue is the desire to "control" or to be in charge of our lives. We are not tempted to control the world at large, nor even the closest friends and people in our families, but we reserve the "right" to decide what we want for ourselves. This is part of the reason why many people are tempted to measure themselves in worldly terms, and why one of the more dangerous things in life is to "successful," capable, and self-sufficient while being in a state of spiritual exile. The devil is happy to give you "good success" in worldly matters (including matters of worldly expressions of Christianity), in exchange for your soul...
Someone might ask, how do we stop being "double-minded"? This is the essence of the problem, isn't it? How do we stop being of "two minds," experiencing that ambivalence of both wanting and not wanting something? In other words, how do we repent - both in the sense of "changing our minds" (metanoia) and in the sense of practically turning to God (teshuvah)? How do we find that purity of heart that wills one thing?
The antidote for having a "double-mind" is given in the Scriptures: "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you (ἐγγίσατε τῷ θεῷ καὶ ἐγγιεῖ ὑμῖν), cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded" (James 4:8). Note that the verb used in this verse ("draw near!") means to come close enough to touch someone or something. Understood in this light, we are encouraged to come so close to God that we are able to "touch" Him -- and to be touched by Him as well. Drawing near to God is God's way of drawing near to you; as you draw near to God, so He will draw near and touch you.
Simply pray and earnestly cry out to God for help. Prayer aligns the soul before God in absolute dependence. "Lord I believe; help Thou my unbelief" (Mark 9:24). The LORD is not indifferent to our suffering and has promised to give us the Holy Spirit to help us. But genuine prayer requires honesty and confession (ὁμολογία), which means agreeing with the truth about your condition. This means, among other things, identifying the ways you have withdrawn from your relationship with God. Indeed, the word homologeo (ὁμολογέω) literally means "saying the same thing" - from ὁμός (same) and λόγος (word). There's little use trying to pretend before God or to rationalize your own double-mindedness before Him. God knows the number of hairs on your head; He surely knows the condition of your heart!
We must challenge ideas that attempt to seduce us away from the truth and thereby divide our affections. We must learn to take "every thought captive" to Messiah and be on guard for subtle appeals to compromise (2 Cor. 10:5). If you find yourself in a state of recurring temptation, examine the underlying assumptions at work in your thinking. If you dig deeper, you are likely to discover that you doubt that God cares for you, or you are fearful that God will not meet your needs. We must therefore counter such assumptions with God's revealed truth, and that means regularly studying the Scriptures to remind ourselves about what is real rather than what is illusory. We then can learn to look at life as it really is - a spiritual world, a "valley of decision," a corridor that irresistibly leads to the world to come. Each soul is on a journey to meet with God for judgment... God does not leave us comfortless. He has promised to never leave nor forsake those who trust in Him. We can set the LORD "always before us" (Psalm 16:8) and walk with Him during our sojourn here in this temporal world.
On a spiritual level what ultimately changes the heart is God's power of salvation, of course. "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is of no avail" (John 6:63). This salvation is not simply freedom from the penalty of sin but freedom from its power. Often, however, we are slow to realize this, and God allows us to revisit the various "waste places" of our own lusts until we have become sick of ourselves -- "to the bones." We have to be willing "to give up our sickness." Usually that means that we must experience repeated failures until we have "learned from the heart" that the LORD - and the LORD alone - is our Healer and Deliverer. Heartache and despair can lead to "godly grief (λύπη) that leads to genuine repentance in our lives (2 Cor. 7:10).
"Salvation is from the Lord," and brokenness of our spirit is God's gift to us... "Blessed are the poor (πτωχός) in spirit." This word pictures someone crouching as a helpless beggar, totally dependent on God for help. If you are struggling, ask God to help you surrender your "heart sickness" to Him.... It's HIS work, not your own, that saves... God alone truly changes the heart. Repentance is a miracle from heaven given to you, personally...
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Healing of the Self...
06.16.26 (Tammuz 1, 5786) "Wherever you go, there you are..." You can't escape from yourself; you can't run away from who you are, and therefore your relationship with yourself is as inescapably eternal as your relationship with God. Indeed how you relate to yourself expresses your relationship with God (Luke 15:17).
If you are self-abusive, if your life is a "living hell," you must first of all face yourself and quit denying the condition of your heart. The LORD delivers through the wound; he does not offer you "Nirvana" to extinguish who you really are... If you have a critical spirit, if you cast eyes of suspicion upon others, then understand this reveals your own self-rejection and leads to the hell of never accepting yourself... "From him who has not, even what he has will be taken away" (Matt. 25:29). If you bury your life -- if you don't face, among other things, your pain -- your life shrinks. It is in a way diminished. It is in a way taken away" (Frederick Buechner).
Perhaps you learned to reject yourself through your earliest experiences, or from your family's secret pain, but regardless you must be delivered from the fear of who you are, and only God in his mercy can heal you from that wound...
Only when we are rightly related to God in the truth are we able to become a healed self; only by God's power can we know the truth of God's redeeming love.
Hebrew Lesson
Psalm 51:10 reading (click):
Seeing with Heart...
06.16.26 (Tammuz 1, 5786) "We walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Cor. 5:7). This is true for all people, since every soul lives by faith of some kind or another. The Torah mentions the heart first and then the eyes to indicate that the eyes follow the heart. We see as we believe with our heart: "According to your faith be it done unto you." When the spies said, "We are not able to go up (לא נוּכל לעלות)... for they are stronger than us" (Num. 13:31), they revealed their unwillingness to believe in God's promise, or, to put it another way, they revealed their faith in God's inability to deliver on his word.... Indeed, the Hebrew word for "than us" (i.e, ממנו) can also mean "than Him," suggesting that the spies believed that even God would be unable to uproot the Canaanites! According to their faith, so it was done; by believing that it was impossible, they lost the possibility of God's promise...
Faith sees what is possible and refuses to yield to the artificiality of mere appearance. Indeed, appearances are often a test of our courage. We may never know how often a test was given and - just before victory was manifest - the heart grew faint and was lost to fear. "According to your faith" (על פי אמונתך) is a spiritual principle that applies to everyone. In that sense, it is not that we have faith that matters (since we all do), but whether our faith is grounded in the promises and power of the LORD God of Israel, or something else....
Hebrew Lesson
Psalm 16:2 reading (click for audio):
Trust in Dark Hours...
06.16.26 (Tammuz 1, 5786) The Spirit of God encourages the downcast: "Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the Name of the LORD (יִבְטַח בְּשֵׁם יְהוָה) and lean upon on his God" (Isa. 50:10). Spiritual darkness is permitted by God for his own sovereign purposes, perhaps as a means to teach us to abandon ourselves to his care. Trusting in God (i.e., bittachon - בִּטָּחוֹן) does not mean that we are obligated to affirm that this is "the best of all possible worlds," though it does mean we believe that eventually God will wipe away every tear and make all things right.
Bittachon is a word for this world, which says, "Though he slay me, I will trust in him..." We do not need to trust for what is seen in this world but for an unseen good (Rom. 8:24). Those who call upon the LORD can trust not only in concealed good behind ambiguous appearances ("all things work together for good") but also in a future, real, substantive good that will one day be clearly manifest for us all... We fight the "good fight" of faith, which is a worthy struggle that eventually is realized for blessing. Meanwhile, we pray to God to be kept from such depth of sorrow that leads to sickness, darkness and despair.
Hebrew Lesson
Isaiah 50:10 reading (click for audio):
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If you ask for bread, your heavenly Father will not give you a stone... Only God can deliver us from our "disordered loves" to take hold of what is truly essential. All we can do is ask, and keep on asking - even as we struggle on, despite ourselves, despite our losses... And we often revisit our sins over and over until we become "sick of our sickness," that is, until we begin to understand what our heart really needs. It's as if we are constantly being asked, "Is this what you want?" and our choices confess the truth... Only God does the miracle of real change within the human heart - only God can give life from the dead!
Marks of False Teachers...
The following entry concerns this week's Torah reading, parashat Korach...
06.15.26 (Sivan 30, 5786) In this week's Torah portion we encounter Moses' cousin "Korach" who agitated the people to reject the Torah in favor of a more "populist" approach. The reading begins with Korach and a group of leaders of Israel confronting Moses and Aaron saying: "You have gone too far! (רַב־לָכֶם, lit., "(too) much for you!"). All the community are holy, all of them, and the LORD is in their midst. Why then do you raise yourselves above the LORD's congregation?" (Num. 16:3). Korach made an appeal to the crowd, in effect saying that everyone could make up their own mind regarding the meaning of God's law. Now this was matter that required careful discernment and revelation. Was Korach teaching the truth when he said that following God was a matter of personal opinion and preference?
False teachers (מורי שקר) tend to be "people pleasers." They seek the applause of the crowd, the praises of men, and therefore appeal to the murmurings of the unregenerate heart: "Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits" (Isa. 30:10). They flatter people by "tickling their ears"; they offer either platitudes or "new revelation" based on their own imagination. Consequently, they tend to be grandiose and quick to disparage God's faithful servants. Thus Korach accused Moses of wanting to exalt himself when this only disclosed the evil lurking within his own heart (Num. 16:3).
The Scriptures warn that false teachers speak in their "own name" and presume to be something when they are nothing (Gal. 6:3). "The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not... they are prophesying to you a lying vision, the deceit of their own minds" (Jer. 14:14). They secretly deny that Yeshua is LORD (יהוה), though they offer "lip service" about his importance (2 Pet. 2:1). Instead of focusing on the central message of the gospel and the greatness of salvation found in Messiah, they "major in minors," passing over the weightier matters for the sake of divisive doctrines (Matt. 23:23). They crave to be teachers of the law, but they have no idea what they are talking about (see 1 Tim. 1:7). Often such deceivers have natural charisma, charm, "good hair," and an ability to bewitch people through buttery oratory or clever presentation (Col. 2:4,8). Many focus on their supposed special revelation rather than the truth of the heart, and they often are more concerned with being vindicated than with calling others to repentance annd receive the grace of God. Finally, they tend to exploit people to promote their own self-serving agenda (1 Pet. 2:1-3). They make "merchandise" out of the gullible, regarding them as the means to support their "ministry" rather than as souls in need of God's love and care...
False teachers inevitably "twist the Scriptures" by unsound interpretations contrary to the ruach, or spirit of the Hebrew prophets, and by evading the commandment to "rightly divide" the word of Truth according to basic logic and the rudiments of clear thinking (2 Tim. 2:15; 2 Pet. 1:20-21; 3:16). In Christian circles, they often come in the name of the law (legalism) or in the name of grace (licentiousness), but rarely do they take the trouble to carefully (and equitably) work through the paradoxical tensions. False teachers are uncomfortable humbly confessing they don't know or understand something, and therefore they are quick to style themselves as an infallible prophet or source of authoritative wisdom...
There is no substitute for taking the time and energy to humbly study Torah, friends, and we should be suspicious of those who claim special insight when it is evident that they have not really labored working through the Scriptures... All disciples of Yeshua are called "students," or talmidim (תַּלְמִידִים), a word that comes from lamad (לָמַד) meaning "to learn" (the study of Scripture is called talmud Torah (תַלְמוּד תּוֹרָה) from the same root). Among other things, then, following Yeshua means becoming a student of the Jewish Scriptures that he both loved and perfectly fulfilled (Matt. 5:17-18; Luke 24:44-45). Only after learning the truth of the Scriptures will you be equipped to "go to all the nations and teach" others (Matt. 28:19). This is accomplished not merely by explaining (propositional) doctrine but by kiddush HaShem -- sanctifying the LORD in our lives (1 Pet. 1:15-16). "Know them by their fruits."
Yeshua brings the kingdom of God "at hand," that is, into the realm of this fallen world. False teachers are emissaries of evil, commissioned by the devil to seduce, deceive, and ensnare souls; they disguise themselves as an "angel of light" (2 Cor. 11:14). God allows false teachers to justify the desires of the unregenerated heart, for such teachers find their audience among those who want to be deceived (Matt. 13:24-30; 15:14). "For there must also be false teachers among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you" (1 Cor. 11:19) .This implies that there can be no false teachers apart from false believers who go along with the ruse. In light of this possibility, we should be careful to honestly examine our hearts. What are your motives for faith? What draws you to Yeshua? Do you accept the message of the gospel or are you trusting in something else? Are you really one of his "sheep"? Do you hear his voice, or are you heeding something contrary to the truth of the Holy Spirit?
Just as the easiest way to spot a counterfeit bill is to know the various details of the original, so our best defence against false teaching is to know the details of doctrine and to use discernment as the LORD helps us "test the spirits" (1 John 4:1). This implies that we "build ourselves up in the most holy faith" by carefully (i.e., humbly) studying the word of God - especially the Torah, since the Torah is the foundation of all that follows (Jude 1:20). In this way we will be able to accurately wield the Sword of the Spirit (2 Tim. 2:15-16, 2 Pet. 1:19-20).
In order to grow, we must have "good soil" for the seed of the word to take root. We "get rooted by knowing the roots" of our faith! Studying the Scriptures and praying in the Spirit of Truth keeps us securely in the love of God as we wait for the mercy of Yeshua who gives us eternal life (Jude 1:21).
Hebrew Lesson
Psalm 138:6 reading (click):
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Testing in desert places:
The Rebellion of Korah...
06.14.26 (Sivan 29, 5786) Shavuah tov, chaverim. Last week's Torah portion (Shelach Lekha) told the tragic story about the "sin of the spies" (חטא המרגלים) 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 (parashat 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.
Korach was the cousin of Moses and a Kohathite who was honored to be one of the carriers of the Holy Ark (ארון הברית). He was a wealthy man of influence - a nassi (prince) of the people. Despite all this privilege, however, Korach rationalized that he should be the head of the Kohathite clan (instead of his cousin Elzaphan), since he was the firstborn of Kohath's second son, whereas Elzaphan was not even a firstborn son. Indeed, because he felt slighted by Moses' choice, Korach went even further and brazenly questioned whether the office of the High Priest should not have been given to him – rather than to Aaron.
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Korach's co-conspirators were two brothers named Dathan and Abiram from the tribe of Reuben, Israel's firstborn son. Together, they put together a force of 250 men to confront Moses and to challenge his exclusive claim to leadership: "You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?" (Num. 16:3).
In response to their challenge, Moses proposed that Korach and his followers bring firepans to offer incense at the Tabernacle to determine whether they were indeed chosen to serve as priests. The following morning, when Korach and his 250 followers assembled at the gate of the Tabernacle to offer incense, God threatened to destroy them all instantly. Moses begged God not to destroy all the people, but only the rebels. He then warned the congregation to stand clear of the dwellings of Korach, Dathan, and Abiram. The earth then opened up and swallowed them alive, and a fire consumed the 250 men who illegitimately offered the incense...
Korach's rebellion introduced outright mutiny and chaos within the leadership of the camp that brought swift and terrible rebuke from the LORD. Nevertheless, the very next day the entire congregation of Israel audaciously began to accuse Moses and Aaron, saying: "You have killed the people of the Lord." When the people looked toward the Tabernacle, however, the Glory of the LORD appeared, where God descended to tell Moses and Aaron that he was going to destroy the Israelites for their treason. Despite Moses and Aaron's fervent intercession, however, a deadly plague broke out among the people. Moses then instructed Aaron to take his firepan with incense and to bring it in the midst of the congregation to make atonement for them. Aaron did so, "and he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed." The Torah tells us that 14,700 Israelites died because of the plague, not including the deaths of those involved in the rebellion of Korach.
As a final test to vindicate Aaron as God's chosen priest, each of the twelve tribal heads of Israel, as well as Aaron himself, were instructed to bring their staffs to Moses. Moses then inscribed their names on each staff and brought them into the sanctuary before the ark of the testimony. "And the staff of the man whom I choose shall sprout. Thus I will make to cease from me the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against you." The following day Moses went into the Tabernacle and "behold, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds and produced blossoms, and it bore ripe almonds." He then brought out all the staffs and gave them back to each of the tribal leaders. God then told Moses to return Aaron's staff to the Tabernacle as a testimony for generations to come.
Faith's Projection...
06.12.26 (Sivan 27, 5786) In our Torah reading for this week (i.e., Shelach-Lekha) we read the account of the men who were commissioned to scout out the promised land and report back to Moses. When they returned, the men described the land as a beautiful and fruitful, flowing with "milk and honey," but they openly expressed doubt that the Israelites would be able to conquer the land. They justified their fear by saying that the inhabitants were formidable, their cities were well fortified, and that there were giants living in there. "We were in our eyes as grasshoppers (וַנְּהִי בְעֵינֵינוּ כַּחֲגָבִים), and so we were in their eyes" (Num. 13:33). Here the sages note the subtle - yet profound - connection between how we see ourselves and how we suppose that others see us... "We were in our eyes as we were in their eyes..." This sort of "projection" is common enough in everyday life. However, while it may be valid for you to sometimes feel small, inadequate, and even "grasshoppery," it is not valid to claim that this is how others see you or that this is how you really are. After all, how do you know how you appear to others? And, moreover, what difference does that make in light of who God says you are? Remember David and Goliaith?
Who or what defines you? Do you need the approval of man to exist, or the approval of God? Worrying about how others see you, seeking your self worth among the fickle passions of men, is cowardly, carnal and self-centered. When the spies said that "the land devours it inhabitants" (Num. 13:32), they projected their own hidden fears. Instead of seeing God at work, preparing the way for the Israelites to more easily conquer the land, the spies saw only themselves, and that led to the irreparable sin of unbelief... Here we see that faith is self-authenticating: "according to your faith be it done unto you" (Matt. 9:29).
For every reaction there is a counter reaction. As the Kotzker Rebbe wisely said, "If I am I because I am I, and you are you because you are you, then I am I and you are you; but if I am I because you are you and you are you because I am I, then I am not I and you are not you." The Kotzer's saying reminds me of a story I once heard. A man went to a rabbi and said, "I know I am a fool, rabbi, but I don't know what to do about it. Can you help me? The rabbi replied in a complimentary way, "Ah my son, if you know you're a fool, then surely you are no fool!" "Then why does everybody say I am fool?" complained the man. The rabbi regarded him thoughtfully for a moment and then said, "If you don't understand that you are a fool, but only listen to what other people say, then you surely are a fool!"
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Rabbi Hillel once said: "If I am not for myself then who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?" (Avot 1:14b). Hillel notes that the language of "I am" (אָנִי) and "for me" (לִי) reveals that our relationship with ourselves must be sanctified and ordered before God. As Soren Kierkegaard once cryptically wrote: "The self is a relation which relates itself to its own self, or it is that in the relation that the relation relates itself to its own self; the self is not the relation but that the relation relates itself to its own self." In other words, the "self" - your inner life - is revealed as an inner dialog or conversation with yourself... An "authentic" self must relate itself to God as the Ground of existence, otherwise irremediable despair will result, that is, lethal sickness of soul...
The remedy for anxious confusion of heart is to turn to God and to find your value in God's love and blessing. "By the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Cor. 15:10), that is, I am made a person. As we come to believe that we are accepted and loved despite our many imperfections, inadequacies, and character defects, we find courage to accept ourselves, to "let go" and relax. As Yeshua said, "whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall not enter it" (Luke 18:17).
We lose sight of what is real because we want the blessing on our own terms, apart from the miracle... The legalist is actually enslaved to the idea of God's conditional acceptance: "If you obey, then you belong." There is still some faith that the right religious scruples, the affirmation of a particular creed, and the practice of certain rituals will gain us access to His heart. The message of the cross scandalizes the religious because it boldly states, "if you believe, then you belong." As Kierkegaard rightly observed, "And this is the simple truth - that to live is to feel oneself lost. He who accepts it has already begun to find himself, to be on firm ground. Instinctively, as do the shipwrecked, he will look around for something to which to cling, and that tragic, ruthless glance, absolutely sincere, because it is a question of his salvation, will cause him to bring order into the chaos of his life. These are the only genuine ideas; the ideas of the shipwrecked. All the rest is rhetoric, posturing, farce."
Religious rituals devoid of a sense of crisis within the heart are little more than a sham. Anthony de Mello wrote: "I think of the times I tried to use him to make my life secure, and undisturbed, and painless. Also the times I was enslaved by fear of him, and by the need to protect myself against him through rites and circumstances." Ritualistic behavior is a poor substitute for trusting that His heart is forever present for you.
Hebrew Lesson
Psalm 18:25-26 reading (click for audio):
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Prayer for this hour...
06.12.26 (Sivan 27, 5786) Many of us are hurting, Lord, and often we feel alone in our struggle... This world seems so senseless, so brutal, and so evil at times; we feel powerless, overwhelmed, and even sick inside... We look to You, O God, and for your mercy and your power. Help us to accept what we cannot change and to completely trust in Your great healing to come -- despite the depravity of the world around us (and within us). Remind us that though we cannot change the world (or even ourselves), we are given grace to sustain our trust in You, our glorious and merciful Healer. And may we never be ashamed; may we never grow bitter; may our sorrows lead us from strength to strength. And may this time of testing lead us to greater wisdom, to deeper compassion, and finally back to You. Amen.
It is prophetically written in our Scriptures: "The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day" (Prov. 4:18). From the first glimmer of heaven-sent faith we detect the divine light, "the light of dawn," which continues to grow more and more until it becomes as radiant as the midday, an image of the full light of the World to Come. Amen. Praise God that more light is coming to you who are trusting in the LORD, even in your present darkness, for it is written: "He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Yeshua our Messiah" (Phil. 1:6).
Hebrew Lesson
Proverbs 4:18 reading (click for audio):
The Will to Believe...
"When you have to make a choice and don't make it, that is in itself a choice." - William James
06.12.26 (Sivan 27, 5786) The central issue of your spiritual life is the willingness to do God's will, or the willingness to believe, since these amount to the same thing.... Believe what? That God is real, that He has (personally) called you by name, that he has particularly redeemed you by Yeshua's own blood poured out for your sins, and that therefore that your identity and life are bound up with his mercy and truth... Perhaps this message seems too good to be true, and yet it is the heart's duty to take hold of hope and to refuse to yield to despair, as it is written: "Let not love and truth forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart" (Prov. 3:3).
The spiritual danger here is being "pulled apart" in opposite directions, dissipating the soul so that it will not be unified, focused and directed. Both loving and hating the good is a state of painful inner conflict, ambivalence, and self-contradiction. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? there is not one" (Job 14:4), yet this is our starting point: "I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand" (Rom. 7:21). We are often willing and unwilling, or neither willing nor unwilling, and this makes us inwardly divided, weak, fragmented, anxious, and "soulless." An honest faith that "wills one thing" binds the soul into a unity, or an authentic "self." As King David said, "One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple" (Psalm 27:4).
The way to be healed of a divided heart is to earnestly make a decision: "Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you" (James 4:8). There are no conditions given here -- other than your raw need to connect with God for help. "Purify your hearts, you double-minded ones" (δίψυχοι, lit. "two-souled ones"); make up your mind and be unified within your heart: "How long will you go limping between two different opinions?" (1 Kings 18:21). You are invited to come; God has made the way; your place at the table has been set and prepared...
Our Heavenly Father "sees in secret.." As William James once said: "The deepest thing in our nature is this region of heart in which we dwell alone with our willingnesses and our unwillingnesses, our faiths and our fears" (James: Is Life Worth Living, 1896). Or as Albert Camus later wrote, "There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy" (Myth of Sisyphus, 1942).
It is there, in the secret place of the heart, that the sound of the "knock" is either heard or disregarded (Rev 3:20); the stakes are nothing less than everything. May the Lord give us the willingness to do His will and the courage to believe in His love. And may God deliver us from doubt and from every other fear. May we all be strong in faith, not staggering over the promises, but giving glory to God for the miracle of Yeshua our LORD. May we all be rooted and grounded in love so that we are empowered to apprehend the very "breadth and length and height and depth" of the love of God given to us in Messiah, so that we shall all be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:14-19). Amen.
Hebrew Lesson
Proverbs 3:3 reading (click):
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The Sigh of Faith...
06.11.26 (Sivan 26, 5786) "We groan inwardly as we eagerly await our redemption..." (Rom. 8:23). We sigh deeply because we are suspended between two worlds, living in the ambiguity of an already-not-yet expectation, enduring ourselves as imperfect vessels longing for perfection, trapped between what is and what will be, seeing the unseen, yearning for healing, believing that we shall never die, even as we die (John 11:26).
We are restless for our eternal home and long for God's presence as we walk through shadowy vales, facing various temptations, whispering our prayers in the dark. And though we must learn endurance and trust in God's sovereign purposes, our faith nevertheless compels us to cry out, "How long, O Lord?" and "Come, Lord Yeshua" (Rev. 22:20). Our challenge is to keep a positive attitude despite the struggles we face, and therefore we inwardly pray: "Renew within me ruach nachon (רוּחַ נָכוֹן) - "a spirit that says 'Yes' (Psalm 51:10).
Surrender means accepting God's will for our lives -- saying "yes" to his promise of love, even if we presently feel empty inside and may wonder how long we can hang in there... Saying "yes" implies saying "no" to other things - no to fear, anger and doubt, for example. Tragically there are people who have given up hope for bitterness and despair. Asking the Lord to give us a spirit of "yes" is really a prayer for focus, direction, and the willingness to keep pressing on to our heavenly destiny, especially when the way seems dark and hope seems distant.
Though life is a struggle, we do not lose heart or faint, since even though the outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed (i.e., ἀνακαινόω, "raised up") day by day. "For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, that is, substance and reality..." (2 Cor. 4:16-5:3). Meanwhile we must endure ourselves, deal with our resistance to mortification, and ask God for the great blessing of keeping us from evil so that we are not consumed by grief....
Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory... Or as the Boethius wrote from his prison cell: "The now that passes produces time; the now that remains produces eternity" (Consolations).
Hebrew Lesson
1 Chronicles 4:10 reading:
"Spying Eyes" of the Flesh...
"In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't." - Blaise Pascal
06.10.26 (Sivan 25, 5786) Which will you choose to believe - the "spying eyes" of the flesh, or the Word and promise of the LORD God Almighty? The "eyes of the flesh" focus on this world and its possibilities (חַיֵּי שָׁעָה) and are therefore unable to discern beyond mere surface appearances. They are easily seduced by superficialities and glitter of this world and its vanities (עוֹלָם הַשֶּׁקֶר). The eyes of faith, on the other hand, "look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal" (2 Cor. 4:18). Faith sees the realm of the invisible (חַיֵּי עוֹלָם): For we "walk by faith, not by sight." We are "saved by hope," but hope that is seen is not hope (Rom. 8:24-25). Faith is the foundation (ὑπόστασις) of things hoped for, the conviction (ἔλεγχος) of things (πρᾶγμα) not seen" (Heb. 11:1).
It had only been 13 months since the Israelites had witnessed the awesome power of God deliver them from Egypt. Surely the people vividly remembered how God sent ten great plagues upon Egypt, forcing the wicked Pharaoh to finally relent and let them go; surely they recalled how the Sea of Reeds was miraculously split in two as they walked across on dry land. Were they not overjoyed when they sang about how God had decisively vanquished the power of Egypt as the waters returned over the pursuing armies? And when their food ran out, had not God sent them ha-motzi min ha-shamayim - "the bread from heaven"? When there was no water to be found, had not God provided them with "living water"? Did not the Pillar of Cloud and Fire lead them to Sinai, where they felt the tremor of the great revelation from heaven - the fire, earthquakes, and blasts from the heavenly shofar? Did they not hear the very Voice of the LORD speaking to them from the thick darkness? Did not the 70 elders of Israel eat the covenant ratification meal and behold the glory of God? Wasn't it just a few months later, after Moses explained to the people the laws of the Torah and assembled the Tabernacle in their midst, that the people saw the Shekhinah Glory of God descend from the summit of Sinai to dwell over the sanctuary? Did they not fall on their faces as the fire of the LORD consumed the sacrifices on the altar?
And yet, in a sense, these displays of divine power - these "signs and wonders" - were something of a distraction for the eye of faith, since faith does not confuse the means for the end. For example, the manna that fell was meant to keep people alive, but that life was to be lived in trusting relationship with the Living God.
Recall that the Israelites had camped near Mount Sinai for nearly a year before God commanded them to begin their journey through the desert back to the Promised Land. It was at Sinai that Moses had first set up the Mishkan (i.e., Tabernacle), dedicated the priesthood, and taught the people the commandments of the Torah. In the "second year, in the second month, on the 20th day of the month" (i.e., Iyyar 20), the cloud lifted from over the Tabernacle and Moses dispatched the Ark of the Covenant to follow after it into the desert (Num. 10:33-6). Moses then directed the people to set out "by stages" toward the desert of Paran (in the Negev). First the eastern camp led by Judah set out, which was followed by the Levites who moved the Tabernacle. Then the southern camp of Reuben set out, followed by the Kohathites who carried the Tabernacle's sacred furnishings (e.g., the menorah, the altar of incense, etc.). Then the western camp of Ephraim set out, followed by the northern camp of Dan which served as a "rear guard."
In our Torah portion, the Israelites had trekked across the desert of Paran for several days, with their camps ordered in military precision. The Ark of the Covenant was in their midst and the Shekhinah Glory filled the desert skies. Now the people were at Kadesh Barnea (קָדֵשׁ בַּרְנֵעַ), about 11 days out from Sinai and about three days to the Promised Land, at the very edge of the conquest.... Zion was within reach!
But then a dark misgiving arose within the heart of the people... fear ... the old whisper of the enemy was heard in the desert wind: "has God really said...?" (Gen. 3:1). The enemy's voice always solicits and plays on our fears.... Satan is a liar who seeks to take our heart away. He is a bully who first seeks to intimidate us and then attempts to damn us for accepting his lies... Nonetheless, despite his temptation in the wilderness, the people's lack of trust in God's provision is altogether remarkable, and very nearly incomprehensible. The people had seen so much evidence of God's care for them, and yet they seemed to be driven by the vexation of fear. We learn later that it was the people's desire - based on their fear - to send out the spies, and surely not the result of God's command (Deut. 1:21-33). Indeed, shelach lekha (שְׁלַח־לְךָ) means "send for your own sake," that is, send them based on your request - certainly not because I command this thing... Was there a secret wound at work here? Did the people somehow suspect that God's discipline was a sign of His disfavor? Was the old accusation that Moses had led the people into the desert to die still inwardly being harbored (Exod. 14:11-12, cp. Num. 14:3)? Perhaps the idea of being in relationship with a Holy God proved to be more than what was bargained for... Salvation and provision are fine, but the fiery judgments proved there was something far more was required... After all, it is one thing to dabble in religion, but it is quite another to encounter the Reality of the Divine and entirely Holy Presence, and indeed, to become infinitely accountable to Him.
The mistrust of the people reminds us that miracles are always insufficient to sustain our faith. "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign." Seeing isn't believing, but rather the other way around.... Yeshua made this point in His parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). Even if a person should encounter someone literally risen from the dead it wouldn't suffice to impart true faith (Luke 16:31). The great sin that so angered God to say, "I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest..." was not that of the Golden Calf, as dreadful as that was, but rather the sin of unbelief.... "So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Let us, therefore, fear lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it" (Heb. 3:7-4:2).
The report given by the spies was a function of their faith: "According to your faith, be it done unto you." "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." Faith sees what is possible and refuses to yield to the artificiality of mere appearance. When Moses told the twelve spies to "Go up into the Negev and go up into the hill country, and see what the land is, and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad" (Num. 13:18-19), he certainly did not need the opinion of the spies regarding the land and its qualities. After all, God Himself had told him the land was very good, a "land flowing with milk and honey." In a sense, Moses - and God through him - was testing the spies, to see if they had faith to see beyond mere appearances. "Even if the land seems bad in your eyes, declare that it is good... Do not rely on your initial impressions, since in order to see the promise, you must look beyond what is immediately visible."
All the spies saw the same physical phenomena: They saw the land "that devours its inhabitants," they beheld the heavy fortifications, they shrank back before the "giants" that dwelled there, and so on. The "majority" view was that the land was unassailable and that danger awaited the people... However, Joshua and Caleb exercised genuine faith and refused to regard themselves as "grasshoppers" before the enemy. Despite seeing the same obstacles, they beheld the future promise of the LORD and understood their stature as God's beloved children... The test of faith turned on the identity of the spies themselves. Were they "grasshoppers" or were they ambassadors of the Living God?
Some of the sages have said that the LORD allowed this shelach lekha - this "test of faith" - in order to judge the perfidy of the Exodus generation. In the aftermath of their failure, the LORD said, "But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD, none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it" (Num. 14:21-23). The midrash rabbah likens their fate to the story of a royal prince who reached marriageable age. His father then arranged a suitable match and chose a young lady of royal pedigree who was intelligent, beautiful, and charming. The son, however, insisted on first meeting the prospective mate. The father, of course, was deeply hurt by his son's lack of trust in him, and therefore reasoned: "If I refuse to allow them to meet, my son will be convinced that his doubts were justified. I will therefore allow them to meet to vindicate my choice. However, since he didn't trust me, I will not allow him to marry her." When the Israelites of that generation questioned God's word, God allowed them to send spies, to see with their own eyes that the land was good. However, since the people doubted His word, they would not be allowed to inhabit it.
As the Book of Hebrews makes clear, the theme of this week's Torah portion concerns the essential nature of salvation itself, which comes exclusively through trusting in God's love and grace as given in Yeshua - χάριτί ἐστε σεσῳσμένοι διὰ πίστεως (Eph. 2:8). The essence of the Torah has always been: הַצַּדִּיק בֶּאֱמוּנָתוֹ יִחְיֶה / "the righteous shall live by his faith" (Hab. 2:4; Heb. 10:38). Believing in the manifestation of the miraculous is insufficient for faith, and indeed, in the end of the age there will arise one who through lying signs and wonders will induce "strong delusion" to deceive the people of this world (2 Thess. 2:9-12). Regarding the case of the Israelites, what has struck some commentators is not so much the signs and wonders that the LORD performed on their behalf, but rather their persistent inability or unwillingness to believe... After all, truly loving the LORD with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength is a miracle of a greater kind than that of splitting the Sea of Reeds. The heart of faith does not seek the miraculous, but is transformed by God's miraculous power into a testimony of His faithful love.
Hebrew Lesson
Jeremiah 29:13 Hebrew reading (click):
Persevering Faith (היה איתן)
06.09.26 (Sivan 24, 5786) When Israel believed the report of the faithless spies, Moses commented: "You were not willing to ascend (וְלא אֲבִיתֶם לַעֲלת), but became embittered (מָרָה) against the Word of the LORD your God" (Deut. 1:26). Moses' rebuke was not that the people were afraid to conquer the land as much as that they had lost heart and no longer desired to take hold of God's promise. The people gave up their dream; they forsook their hope; and they had lost the "devotion of their youth, their love as a bride, how they followed the LORD in the desert, into a land not sown" (Jer. 2:2).
The people's failure was on two levels: First they lapsed in faith by abdicating trust in God's word, and second, they had lost the passion of their first love. In light of this, the sages say that the greater problem was that of losing heart, since the heart directs the will to believe in the miracle of God, or not...
Moses' rebuke of the people's heart condition recalls the sober warning Yeshua gave to the Ephesian believers: "I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your menorah from its place, unless you repent" (Rev. 2:2-5). Likewise the author of the Book of Hebrews commented: "And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief" (Heb. 3:17-19). The question of our faith is essential: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb. 10:31).
What we fear says a lot about what we really believe, and therefore what we are thinking. True fear is awareness of the sanctity of life - the "fear of the Lord" (יראת יהוה) which is the beginning of wisdom (Prov. 9:10). True fear is true because it corresponds to reality by discerning that God is the source of all that is worthy and good. False fear, on the other hand, reveals disordered thinking, by both believing that some finite good is utmost and that losing that good is an existential threat. False fear is grounded in worldly concern and pleasures that immerse the soul in the moment, devoid of consciousness of any deeper connection with the future. "Time and busyness think that eternity is very far away" and this becomes the temptation that your life and eternity are unrelated.
The Scriptures warn us to "pay more careful attention to what we have heard so that we do not drift away" (Heb. 2:1). We must be anchored to the truth lest we become shipwrecked in our faith. Drifting occurs slowly and almost imperceptibly, though the end result is as deadly as openly turning away from God in outright apostasy. As C.S. Lewis once wrote, "The safest road to hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts." The devil seeks to lull you to sleep...
Hebrew Lesson
Psalm 119:10 Hebrew reading:
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Justification by Faith...
06.09.26 (Sivan 24, 5786) Since our Torah portion this week (Shelach-lekha) tells the tragic story of how the Exodus generation lost their inheritance by believing the faithless report of the spies, I thought it would be helpful to review the nature of faith so that we might guard ourselves from stumbling in a similar way. After all, concerning the tragic decree of God regarding the fate of Israelites in the desert (see Num. 14:21-35), the New Testament admonishes Messianic pilgrims, "Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it" (Heb. 3:7-4:2).
The Hebrew word emunah (אֱמוּנָה), often rendered as "faith" in many English translations, comes from the root word aman (אָמַן), which means to rest securely or rely upon (and from which we get the word "amen"). The root word occurs for the first time in the Torah in connection with Abraham: "And he believed (וְהֶאֱמִן) the LORD, and He counted it to him as righteousness" (Gen. 15:6). But what was the nature of Abraham's faith that caused God to regard it as tzedakah (צְדָקָה) or "righteousness"? What was the "object" or "content" of his faith? Was it not that Abraham knew the character and will of God so intimately that he unconditionally put his trust in Him? Abraham was declared tzaddik (righteous) because he believed and understood that the LORD would fulfill His promise to him, despite his advanced age and the seeming impossibility of becoming the father of a multitude of nations (for more on this, click here). Abraham affirmed God's promise by saying the first "amen."
Now while emunah has an intellectual aspect that understands God's attributes and character, it certainly goes beyond intellectual apprehension and assent (i.e., the idea of believing certain ideas and doctrines), since the "object" of faith is the Person of the Living God Himself. Therefore it is not inaccurate to say that emunah is more "belief in" than "belief that." The root word (aman) later appears when the Torah describes how Moses' arms were "steadied" by Aaron and Chur during the battle against Amalek (Exod. 17:12). Genuine faith is a settled intellectual conviction (ἔλεγχος) that what God has promised will indeed come to pass (Heb. 11:1). It accepts that God's verbal promise of our future good is reliable and sure. Abraham believed in a future state of affairs (a future-tense proposition) as expressed in his present faith in the Person and Promise of God. He foresaw the redemption of the world (the Messiah) and understood God's promise of salvation (John 8:56).
Hebrew Lesson
Genesis 15:6 reading (click):
If emunah describes the cognitive dimension of faith, the word "bittachon" (בִּטָּחוֹן) describes its emotional dimension. The word bittachon (בִּטָּחוֹן) comes from a root word (בָּטָח) that means to trust, to feel safe and secure. Bittachon describes emotional acceptance of the goodness of the LORD. Some of the sages have said that while emunah represents a state of understanding (בִּינָה) that God is intimately involved in all the events of the universe, bittachon means personally trusting in God in every situation for your good.... It is an intuitive awareness of the personal love of God for your life, coupled with complete trust that He cares for you (Rom. 8:28). It is an expectation that the lovingkindness (חֶסֶד) of God is for you, too. The ancient Greek translation of the Torah (i.e., the Septuagint) never translates words derived from this root in terms of merely "believing in God" (i.e., intellectual assent), but in terms of hoping or relying upon God's faithful love as the only true Source of hope. As the Psalms repeatedly state, the confidence that comes from relying upon God is valid only because of God's chesed (his loyalty or covenantal faithfulness). "On what do you rest this trust of yours (מָה הַבִּטָּחוֹן הַזֶּה אֲשֶׁר בָּטָחְתָּ)?" In other words, what is the source of your confidence?
Surely it is possible for a person to have emunah but not bittachon. This is the case of the mere "professor" of faith who does not know the LORD existentially within his or her heart. Theologians can "understand" that God exists, they can "assent" that He (alone) is the Creator of the universe who acts in justice, they can even claim that the Scriptures are true, and yet they can be in a state of profound spiritual darkness (James 2:19). Even the devil knows how to quote Scripture... On the other hand, it is also possible to have bittachon without emunah. This is the case of a gullible soul that is willing to accept any "wind of doctrine" even if it clearly contradicts the truth of the Scriptures. For example, people who stress the "sweetness and light" of God are often offended at the prospect of God's judgment for sin.... To be balanced, we need both emunah and bittachon - we need doctrine with heart, "spirit and truth" (John 4:23-24). We need to understand the attributes and character of the LORD (i.e., his Holy Name, his redeeming acts, etc.) as revealed in the propositional Scriptures, but we also need to let this truth of His Spirit penetrate our hearts so that we live genuinely in a state of peace, forgiveness, and love.
The head and the heart must work together. While emunah may be somewhat "conceptual" or "theoretical," bittachon is the practice of emunah into everyday life. It is "where we live," in the everyday world of temptation, struggles, heartache, and hope. Sometimes "intellectual" people need to make a radical break from the paradigms they have relied on to understand true spirituality. For example, the "problem of evil" can be regarded as an "academic question" until someone experiences great personal suffering... Indeed, the "head" can actually become a "defense" against the duty of heart to sympathize with others, to share in the pain and sorrow that is a ubiquitous aspect of life in this fallen world. It is one thing to think that you love other people, but it's quite another to actually do so, "down in the trenches," so to speak... It is all too easy to become self-deceived (Gal. 6:3). As the Apostle John admonished, "Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth" (1 John 3:17-18).
Thomas Aquinas' most significant work was his Summa theologiae or 'Summary of Theology,' a massive book that attempted to "systematize" all of Christian theology. He worked on it for many years, but when he was nearly finished he underwent a spiritual experience that, as he himself explained, made everything he had written "seem like straw." He thereafter gave up writing about "theology" after he encountered the Reality itself. Aquinas apparently moved from the realm of theoretical emunah to the realm of heartfelt bittachon. Similarly, toward the end of his life and career someone asked the prolific theologian Karl Barth if he could sum up all that he had learned and written. Barth thought a bit and replied, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so."
The Scriptures are "propositional" in their truth claims and therefore faith must be expressed in terms of emunah (i.e., as "theology"). However, the content of faith is not a static creed but calls for personal trust (bittachon) in the Living God who makes promises to those in existential need... All of this needs to be put in balance. Emunah must logically come first in the process, since we must first know about the true God before we can put our trust in Him... We must understand that "there is no other Name" for salvation given to us (Acts 4:12). After this, we begin learning to personally trust God in our daily lives. Yeshua gave us the proper order, "If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them" (John 13:17).
So do not yield to despair. Though our Torah portion this week warns us about the terrible sin of unbelief, "God is able to make all grace overflow (περισσεύω) to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may overflow (περισσεύω) in every good work" (2 Cor. 9:8). "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32). May we all "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our LORD and Savior, Yeshua the Messiah." Let us press on in faith, chaverim!
Hebrew Lesson
Psalm 9:10 reading (click):
Joshua and Yeshua...
06.08.26 (Sivan 23, 5786) In our Torah reading for this week, parashat Shelach-lekha, we read that before he sent out the leaders of the tribes to spy out the land of Canaan, Moses renamed his trusted servant Hoshea (הוֹשֵׁעַ) to Yehoshua (יְהוֹשֻׁעַ), appending the letter Yod (י) to make his name begin with a divine prefixive (יָהּ־). The Talmud (Sotah 34b) states that Moses did this because he foresaw the treachery and faithlessness of the spies and he therefore appended the Yod to remind Hoshea that YHVH (יהוה) must come first.
The renaming of Hoshea, however, was certainly prophetic, since Yehoshua was chosen to be the successor of Moses who would finally lead the people into the promised land (Josh. 3:1-4:24). Notice that both the name Yehoshua (i.e., Joshua) and Yeshua (i.e., Jesus) come from the same root (i.e., yasha: ישׁע) meaning "salvation" (in the Greek LXX, Joshua is spelled Ιησους, the same spelling for Jesus in the Greek New Testament). In the Book of Nehemiah, Yehoshua is explicitly called Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) also transliterated as "Jesus" (Neh. 8:17).
There are a number of similarities between Joshua and Jesus given in the Torah. For example, Joshua was a descendant of Joseph from Ephraim (lit., "double fruit"), and Yeshua came as Messiah ben Yosef, the "son of Joseph" who would come from Bethlehem of Ephrata (אֶפְרָתָה), a term that also means "fruitfulness."
Joshua was Moses' faithful companion at Sinai (Exod. 24:13) and overseer of the "Tent of Meeting" (אהל מועד), taking every opportunity to be near God's presence (Exod. 33:11). He was a capable commander of the armies of Israel who regularly routed the enemy in battle (Exod. 17:9, etc.). Joshua was humble and of impeccable moral character, a true servant of Israel filled with Holy Spirit of God (Num. 27:18). Therefore we see several correspondences: both Joshua and Yeshua loved God's house (Exod. 33:11; Luke 2:49), both were faithful leaders of Israel (Deut. 1:37-38; Matt. 2:6); and both were directly ordained by God.
But there are further similarities. Joshua was tested and found steadfast in his faith (Num. 32:12); he was willing to be "despised and rejected of men" rather than appease the mob, just as was Yeshua. Both Joshua and Yeshua appointed twelve men (Josh. 4:4; Mark 3:16-19); both led the people of God to the Promised Land and engaged in warfare for the Kingdom of Heaven; both performed various miracles; both allotted the inheritance of the LORD to God's people (Deut. 1:38, 3:28), both circumcised the people (Joshua at Gilgal; Yeshua in the Spirit); both married Gentile brides (Joshua married Rahab, Yeshua married the faithful of the nations), both signified salvation by means of the "scarlet cord," and so on. Moses was the "lawgiver" of Israel who was unable to give rest (salvation) to Israel; that honor was given to Joshua, who brought the people into the land after Moses had died on Mount Nebo (Rom. 7:1-4).
Joshua's full name was "Joshua the son of Nun" (יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בִּן־נוּן). The Talmud notes that the word Nun (נוּן) means "fish," a symbol of activity and life. The first mention of the word is found in Exodus 33:11 in reference to Yehoshua. One application here is to note that Yehoshua, the one who succeeded Moses and was able to enter the Promised Land, was the "Son of Life" - a clear picture of Yeshua our Messiah, blessed be He...
A midrash says that when Yehoshua was born, no one took note, but when he died, all of Israel took note. Nonetheless, the Israelites did not mourn for him properly. One was busy with his vineyard, the other with his field, yet another with his coal. "The Holy One, Blessed be He, therefore sought to make the whole world quake" (Midrash Shmuel 23:7). This is also an apt description of Yeshua as Mashiach ben Yosef, the Suffering Servant, whose birth went unnoticed, but His death and resurrection indeed shook the world!
Hebrew Lesson
Isaiah 9:6 reading (click):
Small in our Eyes...
06.07.26 (Sivan 22, 5786) Our Torah portion this week (Shelach Lekha) is a "heavy one" since it includes the infamous "Sin of the Spies" and the failure of the people to believe that God would care for them. The people's lack of bittachon in God is the most serious sin recorded in all the Torah, even more serious than the sin of the Golden Calf. This is confirmed by the testimony of the New Testament, which presents the fate of the Exodus generation as the dire warning of apostasy for those who claim to follow the Messiah (Heb. 3:7-4:2).
In order to trust God you must believe that you are valuable to Him and that He genuinely desires a relationship with you. God redeemed you so you could know and love Him. In this connection it is important to notice that the spies said, "we were in our eyes like grasshoppers" (Num. 13:33). They felt small because they had forgotten the reason for their redemption - they had forgotten their identity as God's sons. Their lack of self-respect made them feel unworthy of the inheritance. The sin of the spies was not just that they doubted they could overcome the "giants in the land," but rather that they were worthy people in God's eyes... Sadly the spies view of themselves was more real to them than God's view of them, and that is why they added, "and so we were (like grasshoppers) in their eyes." From a spiritual point of view, this was profoundly tragic...
One lesson we can learn from the unbelief of the spies is that we must be careful to esteem ourselves properly. We are created b'tzelem Elohim (in the image of God), and that is the starting point for everything else revealed in the Torah. This foundational idea may be expressed as "respect precedes Torah." Self-esteem and self-worth are very important characteristics because they enable the soul to receive the Word of God. This isn't a selfish, narcissistic type of love, of course. If you have no self-worth, then it is likely you will believe the promises of Scripture are for other people, but not for you. You will regard yourself as an "outsider" or "alien" who is without promise of inheritance. So we have to begin there, with the fact that God created you in His image and therefore you are of infinite value. You matter to God - and therefore you must respect yourself.
Sometimes we need to be humbled and to remember that we are but dust; at other times we need to remember that for our sake God created the very worlds... In this connection recall the old chassidic tale says that every person should walk through life with two notes, one in each pocket. On one note should be the words bishvili nivra ha'olam (בִּשְׁבִילִי נִבְרָא הָעוֹלָם) -- "For my sake was this world created," and on the other note the words, anokhi afar ve'efer (אָנכִי עָפָר וָאֵפֶר) -- "I am but dust and ashes."
Regarding your relationship with God, it is no mark of holiness to shame or belittle yourself - notwithstanding your sinful nature - since you have a duty to honor yourself as one of God's created children. Dishonoring yourself violates the central ethical commandment of the Torah: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev. 19:18). How can you respect others if you don't respect yourself? You will regard yourself as "insect like" and will tend to view others as "gigantic" threats; you will act defensively and walk in fear of other people.... This is the path of a person living in a prison of fear, and it is a type of living hell. Trusting in God's personal love for you presupposes that you are worthy to be loved and that there is a divine inheritance for you. This gives you the courage required to go and take possession of the land as its rightful heir. Trusting in God means regarding God's view of you as more real than your own. It means allowing yourself to be elevated to honor so that you can be in a genuine love relationship with your Heavenly Father. "From now on, therefore, we regard no one (including ourselves) according to the flesh..." (2 Cor. 5:16).
We "walk by faith, not by sight," which means we must take hold of the promise of God, even in a world that "devours its inhabitants" and that is filled of seemingly invincible giants... Faith believes the possible, even in moments of testing and struggle. As Yeshua said, "All things are possible for the one who believes" (Mark 9:23).
"Lord, I believe: help thou my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24). "God is able to make all grace overflow to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may overflow in every good work" (2 Cor. 9:8). May it please God our Heavenly Father to help us esteem ourselves properly so that we can receive, abide in, and walk in the reality and presence of His overflowing love. And may the LORD keep us all from the terrible sin of unbelief by always remembering that we infinitely matter to Him. Amen.
Hebrew Lesson
Proverbs 3:5-6 Hebrew reading (click):
Related Audio Podcasts:
Shelach-Lekha:
The Sin of the Spies...
06.07.26 (Sivan 22, 5786) Shalom friends. Our Torah this week, called "Shelach Lekha," recounts how Moses sent twelve spies from the desert region of Kadesh (קָדֵשׁ) into the land of Canaan to search it out and give a report of its condition. The spies returned 40 days later extolling the land, saying that was indeed fruitful and zevat chalav u'devash (זבת חלב ודבשׁ), "flowing with milk and honey." However, ten of the spies also gave a discouraging report, expressing their fear that the people could not conquer the land. Only Joshua (יהושע) and Caleb (כלב) kept faith in God's promise....
Upon hearing the report of the ten spies, however, the people rebelled and cried out to return to Egypt. Angered by their lack of faith, God sought to destroy the people, but Moses interceded on their behalf. The LORD then decreed to lengthen the Israelites' wandering in the desert to 40 years -- one year for each day the spies were in the land -- until all of the faithless over the age of 20 would die in the desert, except for Joshua and Caleb, the two spies who kept faith with the LORD. After hearing the judgment of God, a group of remorseful Israelites decided to "repent" by taking matters into their own hands. Without either the "Ark of the Covenant of the LORD" or Moses' leadership, they presumptuously decided to storm a mountain on the border of land but were decisively routed by the Amalekites and Canaanites.
If last week's Torah might be called "sefer kvetch" (the book of complaint), this week's Torah reveals the fateful outcome... The people's lapse of faith in God's power serves as a profound and very sober warning, and indeed is a primary warning regarding the dreadful sin of unbelief in the New Testament (see Heb. 3:7-4:11). Indeed, Jewish tradition states that the decree that "none of the men who had seen my glorious Presence and my signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert will see the land that I swore to give to their fathers" (Num. 14:22-23) was given on the Ninth of Av (i.e., Tishah B'Av), which was prophetic of the destruction of the Temple and the worldwide exile of the people from the Promised Land. The sin of unbelief may rightly be regarded as the "unpardonable sin" of the Torah (as well as the New Testament).
The tragedy of the sin at Kadesh ultimately has a happy resolution, however, since the LORD is never thwarted by man's sin and weaknesses. After the 38 years of exile were complete, Moses' faithful successor Joshua sent a second spying expedition to the promised land, though this time God led the spies to a prostitute named Rahab (רחב), a direct ancestor of Yeshua the Messiah, who later identified her faith in the LORD's victory by displaying the scarlet cord (i.e., chut ha'sheni: חוט השׁני) during the fall of Jericho (Joshua 2). Rahab was the (grand)mother of Boaz, who later married Ruth, the great grandmother of King David. May God likewise give us courage to walk in the power of His promises, even if our present circumstances seem daunting. May the LORD clothe each of us with the "spirit of David" to stand before all the giants of the land who defy the LORD and His power.
Visions of the Far Country...
06.05.26 (Sivan 20, 5786) "Grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever" (Isa. 40:8). This is a great word of hope. Despite experiencing exile and living in oppression, the Lord speaks words of everlasting consolation: Nachamu, nachamu ammi: "Comfort, comfort my people..." (Isa. 40:1). These were God's words of encouragement to the Jewish exiles that were carried away into Babylonian captivity. Despite the appearance of ruin, God promised to establish Zion as the praise of the earth. There is a glorious future ahead, even if present circumstances seem overwhelming and your heart's cry is stifled.
The LORD God is the only enduring Reality in a constantly changing world, and He has designed it this way to cause our hearts to search for him. "All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field" -- such is the condition of this ephemeral world with its flux and fortunes. The flesh fades because the breath of the LORD blows upon it (Isa. 40:7). God Himself has ordained human life to be a vapor...
Nonetheless we are told not to fear, because there is good news for Zion: the LORD is coming with might to reward those who are waiting for him. "He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather his lambs and carry them close to his heart" (Isa. 40:11). As the apostle Peter said, this good news is the eternal life given through the imperishable "Seed" - the Word of God that rises forever in Yeshua (1 Pet. 1:23-25).
The nations of this world are reckoned as less than nothing; their glory is "tohu" (תהוּ) - confusion and unreality - and their princes are regarded as utter vanity (Isa. 40:23). "Scarcely are they planted and have taken root when He blows upon them and they wither to become dust carried off by the storming winds" (Isa. 40:24). The nations of the earth are dried grasses; the kings of the earth are withered flowers.
But the LORD God is incomparably great and will faithfully fulfill his promises to Israel: "The word of our God will stand forever." He created the heavens and calls each star by name. He is invincible in power and no one can overrule His will.
This world is not our home; we are "strangers" here. It is an affliction to wait for the LORD, a "homesickness" of heart... The apostle Paul says our loneliness and alienation prepare for us an "eternal weight of glory" beyond all comparison, because we are not looking at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen. "For what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal" (2 Cor. 4:17-18). Just as the "two-souled" man is unstable in all his ways, so the process of being "educated for eternity" means learning to focus our heart's passion and hope on the glory of heaven. "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
Those who wait for the LORD inwardly groan to be clothed with immortality and eternal life, and their consolation is great indeed. Yeshua is "preparing a place for you," an everlasting place of refuge whose builder and maker is God (Heb. 11:10). Faith sees beyond the shadows of this world to behold your true home with your Heavenly Father. Amen. Believing is seeing, not the other way around. "Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah that leads to eternal life." (Jude 1:21)
Hebrew Lesson
Isaiah 40:8 reading (click for audio):
Through His Strength...
"Perhaps you think that a preacher of repentance is like a rushing violent wind that terrifies physically. No, the true preacher of repentance, like God's voice, also comes in a gentle breeze – yet it is not soft but rigorous, as rigorous as the earnestness of eternity." - Kierkegaard
06.04.26 (Sivan 19, 5786) There are moments – dark, gnawing, raw – when you may lose sight of hope, when you might even fear that you have lost your faith – not in God or his promises – but rather in yourself, in your own strength to continue, to stay focused, to keep pressing on "hope against hope..." The remedy here is always the same: to remember that within you – that is, in your flesh - "there is no good thing" and that the miracle of salvation is made secure by God's passion for you, not your own power or desire. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the LORD of Hosts."
We don't trust in ourselves nor in the strength of our inner resolve, but solely in the power of God to make the way (John 1:13). We must turn away from ourselves to regain the message of God's unfailing love; only when we lose sight of ourselves do we find ourselves. God redeems you from your lost estate and touches you in your uncleanness; He clothes himself in your pain so that you may be clothed in his love. That never changes, despite dark moments, and to that we must always return...
Hebrew Lesson
Psalm 29:11 reading (click):
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Where we read, "I can do all things through Messiah who strengthens me" (Phil 4:13), that includes overcoming the inner pain of your life: your failures, your shame, the ache of rejection, abandonment, and so on. It means being set free from disillusionment, despair, and the oppression of relentless fear. "I can do all things through Messiah" means no longer accepting messages of self-hatred and hopelessness, no longer heeding the malicious whispers that say: "I am of no value," "I am unlovable," "my life is hopeless." No, "I can do all things through Messiah" means learning to be accepted, honored, and esteemed by God; it means opening your heart to God's love and blessing for your life; it means allowing your heart to be made right, to have inner peace... After all, Yeshua's great prayer was that we would know the truth of God's love for us (John 17), and this is the central need our lives.
Come unto the Savior...
"Jesus didn't come to merely speak words that were true, He is the Word that makes us true." - Frederick Buechner
06.04.26 (Sivan 19, 5786) "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to babes.... Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matt. 11:25, 28-30).
"Come unto me..." (בּוֹא אֵלַי). These are timeless words from our Savior who opens his heart to receive the "babes," that is, those who are simple at heart and cry out in their urgent need for God's help. "Come." This is his invitation to your heart, his personal call that beckons you to draw near to him in your trouble. In the midst of a confusing world and the babble of voices, the Savior cries out, "Come to me!" Turn away from the religionists and the so-called wise of the world, because the Father (את אבא), the Lord of heaven and earth (יהוה שמים וארץ) has hidden the truth of salvation from the proud of heart. God calls out to the humble, the lowly, and the broken; he looks to the poor and contrite of heart.
"Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden." This includes you of doubting heart, weighed down by your anxieties and cares. You have gathered the sheaves and found little flax; you have toiled in the heat of day for little gain. "Come, you who are weary" of the news of the day, the sorrows of loss, the cruelly of the proud. "Come unto me" all who are weary of life, who ache in heart and dismay over the vain repetition of wickedness and sin. "Come unto me" all who feel like giving up, all who feel like they are dying inside...
"Come unto me," this is a message to your heart from the One who calls you, the heart behind the call, the Lord who reaches out to you in revelation and compassion, saying, "Come to me in your heaviness of heart, the utter depths of your sigh, in your weariness, your sorrows, and in your mourning, and I will give you rest, I will comfort you, I will heal your grief and give to the strong consolation of God's tender mercies and love.
"Take my yoke upon you. This is my yoke, my burden, and my passion - that you may enter my rest, know my peace, and draw strength from my love for you. Take hold and embrace my life given for you, to free you from the burden of suffering for your sins. This is the yoke of My love; this is the depths of spiritual rebirth, to know yourself as beloved because of the yoke of My love for you." This yoke "joins you" to his love. His yoke is for your heart, and you respond by taking up that yoke and sharing in what it means.
"Learn from me." This is the yoke of the disciple - to come under the tutelage of the love of God, and to know him in all your ways. "I am meek and lowly in heart," that is, he is mild, patient, kind, and gracious to you - and by responding to his acceptance and affirmation you will find "rest for your soul," you will be unburdened by the fears and distress of the ego, you will be set free from bondage to yourself.
"My yoke is easy." The Greek word translated "easy" means "full of grace," gentle and agreeable, and in Hebrew the word (נָעִים) is translated as "pleasant" and "joyful." Being in relationship with Yeshua is a matter of grace and communion. "My burden is light." The Hebrew word for "light" is "kal" (קל), meaning light, swift of foot, easily managed. Kal can also mean "simple" or essential. Indeed the burden of the Lord is weighty in earnestness but is carried by the grace of God's joy.
Paradoxically, this beautiful passage of Scripture distills the message of teshuvah with poignant simplicity and grace. "Come to me" is the essence of teshuvah, that is, turning to God for life. It is not about religious practices or liturgies; it is not even about morality or spiritual curiosity. It is about a radically new kind of life that is only known in a trusting relationship with Yeshua. He is the "way and the truth and the life" (John 14:6). No one can find eternal life apart from him. When we come to him and learn (i.e., receive) his love, we become new creations, reborn as beloved children, and heirs of all the promises of God. Teshuvah is the means to the greater end of knowing the heart of God. This is the essence of salvation itself, for there is no turning to God apart from Yeshua, who alone is the Savior and is the only one who brings us back to God...
Hebrew Lesson
Isaiah 43:11 reading (click for audio):
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Trusting God for your Life...
"The whole world is a very narrow bridge and the main thing is to have no fear at all."
06.03.26 (Sivan 18, 5786) "And now abide faith, hope, love: these three" (1 Cor. 13:13). The opposite of faith is fear; of hope, despair; and of love, indifference. Fear is the "default mode" of the soul that dwells in darkness. This is because the "fallen" soul regards the empirical world and its flux as ultimately real -- and therefore "sees in order to believe." The life of faith, on the other hand, looks beyond the realm of transient appearance to behold an abiding glory -- and therefore "believes in order to see." How we choose to see is ultimately a spiritual decision for which we are each responsible....
It isn't always easy to be courageous, and the temptation to yield to fear often seems compelling. The test of our faith is of more value to the LORD than our material or emotional comfort, however, and therefore we will all experience tribulation of various kinds.
Remember that the most frequently occurring commandment in Scripture is simply al tirah (אַל־תִּירָא), "don't be afraid." If living without fear were easy, it would be of little spiritual worth, but since it requires all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, it is therefore considered precious. It requires, in short, an infinite (and divinely given) passion. And it is part of God's plan for us to be "in but not of" the world system, to be alienated, to be misunderstood, to be persecuted... We are called to "take up the cross" and to die daily. Following Yeshua means denying ourselves along the way.
Ultimately fear distills to the fear of death, or rather, of "the one who has the power of death, namely the devil" (Heb. 2:14-15). If we come to peace with our own finitude, our own mortality, and our eventual blessed estate in the Messiah, death has no more power over us. Perhaps this is part of the reason why the Christian faith is so hated in communist and in other places of "absolutist" secular ideologies (including "deconstructed" America or Shiite Muslim autocracies). If you are free from the greatest threat that man can menace over you, if you are free of the fear of man, then you are free to be a voice crying in the wilderness, a bold and courageous witness of truth....
Fear is the antithesis of faith, though living without fear is certainly not easy. After all, how do we naturally choose to be unafraid of what we in fact fear? Is this power within our conscious control? Only by a miracle are we set free from fear... Indeed, true faith working within the heart is one of the greatest miracles of God. May it please God to impart to each us real courage that comes from Heaven itself. Amen.
Hebrew Lesson:
John 4:18 reading (click):
The Central Light...
"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." - C.S. Lewis (God in the Dock)
06.03.26 (Sivan 18, 5786) Our Torah portion this week (i.e., Beha'alotekha) begins with the LORD instructing Aaron to kindle the seven lamps of the Menorah (מְנוֹרָה) so that the light from each would be "turned" toward its central shaft (Exod. 25:37; Num. 8:4). The entire Menorah was formed mik'shah (מִקְשָׁה), that is, beaten from a single piece of pure gold (זָהָב טָהוֹר), and its base, shaft, branches, cups, fruits, and flowers were all "one" with its substance (Exod. 25:31). The central shaft upheld the light of the Shamash (servant or helper lamp) which also served as the trunk for the other branches.
The radiance of the Menorah symbolized the Divine light (the word "shamash" can also be read as shemesh, "sun"), which is the radiance of Yeshua, the Tree of Light and the great Servant of the LORD (John 8:12; 1 John 1:5; Prov. 3:18). Yeshua is the light that gives light to every person created in the image of God (John 1:9). Our spiritual life stems from our connection with Him, since he provides us with support, sustenance, and illumination from the oil of the Holy Spirit (John 15:1-5).
Amen. Yeshua is the Light of the LORD (אוֹר יי). As it is written, "God is our light and our yeshuah (יְהוָה אוֹרִי וְיִשְׁעִי), our salvation" (Psalm 27:1; 1 John 1:5). He alone is the Light of the world (אוֹר הָעוֹלָם), the Shamash (שַׁמָּשׁ) who descends to ignite the "light of life" (אוֹר הַחַיִּים) within all who will believe. Our Savior is the Radiance (זוֹהַר) of the glory of God (Heb. 1:3), the Fire of God's holy countenance. The person who has the Son has life, but the one who refuses this life is spiritually dead. May we all walk in the Light of His countenance; "O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD" (Isa. 2:5).
The essential question is whether you are willing to believe in the light of God's love. Will you choose to receive his promise? Yeshua said that He is the light of the world, and that those who follow him will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (John 8:12). So, do you have ohr ha-chayim (אוֹר הַחַיִּים), "the light of Life," shining within your heart? The light radiantly beckons: "Wake up, open your eyes, and believe! Darkness and despair will not prevail; your mourning will find comfort, your grief its solace. Your heart's deepest longing shines brightly, even now, if you will but believe...
Let us press on in our confession, chaverim; let us take courage and affirm the promise of our faith: "The LORD is my light and my salvation (i.e., my Yeshua); whom shall I fear? The LORD is the refuge of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" Amen, it is in God's light that we see light...
Hebrew Lesson
Psalm 36:9 reading (click):
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Note: For more on this topic, see "The Menorah and the Tree of Life."
Faith in the Unseen Good...
"How can we turn our knowledge about God into knowledge of God? The rule for doing this is simple but demanding. It is that we turn each Truth that we learn about God into matter for meditation before God, leading to prayer and praise to God." - J.I. Packer
06.02.26 (Sivan 17, 5786) From our Torah portion this week (i.e., Beha'alotekha) we read: "At the command of the LORD they camped, and at the command of the LORD they set out" (Num. 9:23). This teaches us that God's Name is to be heeded every step of the way.
Whenever we journey someplace, near or far, say, "With God's help (i.e., be'ezrat ha'shem: בעזרת השם) I am going to this place, and I will stay for so long, if it pleases God (i.e., im yirtzei ha'shem: אם ירצה השם)." As James reminds us, "You do not know what tomorrow will bring. For what is your life? You are a mere mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes (James 4:14-15). Likewise Tehillim affirms: "Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow" (Psalm 144:4).
We share exile with the LORD in this age, as strangers and sojourners with Him; indeed, our lives are "hidden with Him," waiting to be revealed (Col. 3:1-4; Psalm 17:15). "The present form (τὸ σχῆμα) of this world is passing away" (1 Cor. 7:31), and the heart of faith looks for a city whose designer and builder is God Himself (Heb. 11:10). "So we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away... For the things that are seen are turning to dust, but the things that are unseen shall endure forever" (2 Cor. 4:16-18).
Hebrew Lesson:
Proverbs 3:6 reading (click):
"In all your ways know Him," that is, in all that you put your hand to do respect the Lord and ask for divine guidance (1 Cor. 10:31). As King David stated, Shiviti: "I have set the Lord always before me, because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved" (Psalm 16:8). "Do do be wise in your own eyes, fear the LORD and turn away from evil" (Prov. 3:7).
Finding Right Desire...
"He who has a desire desires what is not at hand and not present, what he does not have, and what he is not, and that of which he is in need; for such are the objects of desire and love." - Socrates (Symposium)
06.02.26 (Sivan 17, 5786) Our Torah portion this week (i.e., Beha'alotekha) recounts the rebellion of the people during the desert sojourn... Instead of joyfully anticipating the promise of their inheritance, the people grew dissatisfied and bored. The Sefat Emet noted that just after we read how the people complained bitterly to the LORD, they had a "strong craving" (הִתְאַוּוּ תַּאֲוָה), which in Hebrew literally means they "craved a craving."
Moses could tolerate the people's desire for food and water, but when they began to actively cultivate their cravings, lusting after the imaginary "free fish" they enjoyed in Egypt, he began to realize that the problem was deeper, a matter of the heart (Deut. 9:22)... Moses understood that what the people really wanted was impossible, since it involved denying who they were as God's redeemed people.
The issue was not about wanting to eat "meat," after all, but rather hungering after the forbidden, desiring to desire, etc. Creating desires, fomenting a sense of deprivation, and choosing to see yourself as a victim, is a lethal sickness of spirit, a disease of the soul. It is a "burning" (i.e., taberah: תַּבְעֵרָה) that destroys inner peace. It is the spirit behind all sorts of addictions. May God help us understand and seek what truly matters; may he deliver us from self-destruction; and may he help us to be satisfied with the manna he provides! Amen.
Hebrew Lesson
Psalm 37:4 reading (click for audio):
The Divine Light...
"The light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it." (John 1:5)
06.01.26 (Sivan 16, 5786) "If I say, surely darkness covers me ... the night shines as the day; nothing hides from your radiance" (Psalm 139:11-12). We have to trust that God is in our darkness, in the silence, in the unknown... We come out of the shadows when we admit that we act just like other people, that we are human, in need of reconciliation ourselves...
Above all we need God. We need help. We need a miracle to help us to truly love. We may find excuses for many things, but we cannot escape the "wretched man that I am" reality that is grounded in our fears. God sees in the darkness and is present there, too. When you feel alone, like an unbridgeable gulf lay between you and all that is good; when you feel like you want to scream but are afraid that even then no one would hear, may the LORD shine His light upon you... Amen, may His light shine upon you.
גַּם־חשֶׁךְ לא־יַחְשִׁיךְ מִמֶּךָ
וְלַיְלָה כַּיּוֹם יָאִיר
כַּחֲשֵׁיכָה כָּאוֹרָה
gam-cho'·shekh · lo-yach·shikh · mee·me'·kah
ve·lai'·lah · kai·yom · ya·eer
ka·cha·shei·khah · ka·o'·rah
"The darkness is not made dark to you;
but the night shines as the day:
as the darkness so is the light...
(Psalm 139:12)
"For you will light my lamp; the LORD my God outshines my darkness" (Psalm 18:28). There is "depression," and there is the dark night of the soul, and these are different matters, though they may overlap... "Hope deferred makes the heart sick." The dark night of the soul calls us to walk by faith, not by sight. Faith enables us to walk through the darkness with God and to learn from him even there, as it is written: "Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of his Servant, who walks in darkness and has no light in him? Let him trust in the Name of the LORD and lean upon his God" (Isa. 50:10).
Hebrew Lesson
Psalm 18:28 reading with comments (click):
Parashat Beha'alotekha - בהעלתך
"We can't see light itself. We can see only what light lights up, like the little circle of night where the candle flickers." - Buechner
06.01.26 (Sivan 16, 5786) Our Torah for this week, called "Beha'alotekha" (i.e., Num. 8:1-12:16), begins with God giving instructions about how Aaron was to attend to the lamps of the Menorah within the Holy Place of the Tabernacle (Num. 8:1-4). Each day Aaron was to clean each of the seven lamps and to refill them with the very purest olive oil. The wicks were then to be bent so that the six outer lamps shined toward the seventh (and central) shaft. The lamps were to be lit daily, "from evening until morning," in a specific sequence - starting from the central lamp (the shamash) and then moving right to left (Exod. 27:21). In this connection consider that we cannot directly see the light, but by the light we are able to see...
According to the Talmud (Shabbat 22b), while all the lamps received the same amount of olive oil, the central lamp miraculously never ran out of oil, even though it was kindled first in the sequence. This miracle is also reported to have occurred during the Temple period, though it abruptly ended about 40 years before the destruction of the Second Temple (c. 30 AD), after the death of Yeshua the Messiah, the true Servant and Branch of the LORD. As attested in the Talmud: "Our Rabbis taught: During the last forty years before the destruction of the Temple the lot ['For the Lord'] did not come up in the right hand; nor did the crimson-colored strap become white; nor did the centermost light shine" (Yoma 39a).
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The portion then describes how the Levites were to be set apart for service at the Tabernacle (Num. 8:5-12). In a ritual ceremony that signified a sort of "rebirth," the Levites were first sprinkled with mei chachatat (מי חטאת), literally, "the waters of sin" (Num. 8:7), that is, holy water mixed with the ashes of the red heifer sacrifice that was used to purify from contamination with death (Num. 19:13). Next they shaved off all their hair and were completely immersed in a mikveh (i.e., a bath containing flowing or "living" water). Notice that the steps of being sprinkled with purifying water, shaving off of all the hair, and being completely immersed in a mikveh were similar to the ritual for the cleansing of the metzora, or "leper" (Lev. 14:2-32), suggesting that a qualified priest was a "healed leper" of sorts.
The medieval commentator Rashi notes that each member of the community was required to place their hands on the Levites' heads, just as the hands were placed on the head of a sacrificial animal as it was slaughtered before the altar (Num. 8:10; Lev. 1:4, 3:2). The "waving" of the Levites by the High Priest likewise simulated the ritual of "tenufah" (תנופה), that is, the waving of the guilt sacrifice (asham) that was offered by a leper after his or her cleansing (Lev. 14:12). Finally, the Levites themselves laid their hands on the sin and whole burnt offerings for atonement before the LORD (Num. 8:12).
The portion continues with a restatement of law of Passover (Num. 9:1-14), followed by a description of the Cloud of the LORD (i.e., anan Adonai: עֲנַן יְהוָה) that covered the Tabernacle by day and appeared as a pillar of fire (עַמּוּד אֵשׁ) by night. When the Cloud lifted the people would break camp and go to their next location en route to the promised land; when the Cloud settled the people would stop and encamp again (Lev. 9:15-23).
God commanded that two silver trumpets (i.e., chatzortzrot kesef: חֲצוֹצְרֹת כֶּסֶף) were to be made for various purposes, including signaling the people to break camp, assembling the elders of Israel, to signal the arrival of appointed times, as alarms for battle, and so on.
The Cloud of the LORD (ענן יהוה) lifted and the people of Israel then decamped from Sinai on the 20th day of the second second month of the second year after the Exodus from Egypt (Num. 10:11-35). The Ark of the Covenant went out first to scout a location followed by a specific camp order and formation.
Soon after many began to complain of the hardship of the journey, and the Fire of the LORD (אֵשׁ יְהוָה) broke forth and consumed people on the outer parts of the camp. The name of the place was subsequently commemorated as "Taberah" (תַּבְעֵרָה)- "the burning."
Despite the judgment of the LORD, some time later the eirev rav (mixed multitude) craved for Egyptian food and the people of Israel joined them by recalling the "free fish" they ate in Egypt. The people also complained of the monotony of the manna that fell like dew from heaven to feed the people during their journey (Num. 11:1-15). Moses then lamented to the Lord about how hard it was to lead the people, and God then instructed him to appoint 70 elders of Israel to help him lead the people (Num. 11:16-17). As for the people's complaint over the divine menu, the LORD sent an enormous swarm of quail that brought a plague upon the people. Because so many died from the plague, the place was called Kibroth-hattaavah (קִבְרוֹת הַתַּאֲוָה), or the "Graves of Craving" (Num. 11:18-33).
The portion ends with the mutiny of Miram and Aaron regarding Moses' role as the exclusively chosen leader of the people of Israel. They secretly consulted and asked: "Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?" The LORD heard their secret conversation and intervened by calling them to appear with Moses before the Tent of Meeting. There the LORD vindicated Moses as the sole leader of Israel because only he speaks "mouth-to-mouth" with God. Miriam was then stricken with tzaarat ("leprosy") and exiled from the camp. Moses prayed for his sister to be healed (אֵל נָא רְפָא נָא לָהּ) but God delayed healing to correct her and to be an object lesson to Israel.
Parashah Themes...
Some themes for this week's reading include the symbolism of the Menorah and the Divine Light; the ongoing need for purification from sin; the role being a priest to one another; the call for holiness in the divine service; the Shekhinah Glory and Presence of God; the direction and leading of God; the tests we face as we journey through desert places; the problem of our complaining hearts; the requirement to live by "daily bread"; the importance of respecting elders; tzaarat and exile from the camp, among others.
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Trusting God's Providence...
"God saw that it was better to bring good out of evil than to suffer no evil to exist." - Augustine
05.31.26 (Sivan 15, 5786) The Scriptures teach us that creation is "teleological," which means that it is "going someplace," and that there is order and purpose to our existence. Your life is not adrift in a random universe that is destined to ultimately fade away but is grounded in the Divine Mind and Will that personally supervises and pervades all things.
A lack of emunah (faith) has been likened to a passenger flying on an airplane who doesn't believe there is a pilot in the cockpit... Faith in the LORD believes that a single supreme, all-knowing, all-powerful and benevolent spiritual Power directs all things, and that God is the beginning, middle, and end of all meaning, truth, and substance, as it is written: "For from him and through him and to him are all things" (Rom. 11:36).
The life of faith in the truth imparts the blessing of shalom (inner peace) and assures the heart that all shall be made well by the love of God. It is certain that everything that the LORD does is for the very best, and there absolutely are no exceptions to this truth (Rom. 8:28).
Trusting that everything God does is "for the best" is not some bland rationalization that denies or minimizes the suffering we encounter in life, but is an affirmation that there is an unseen (though knowable) good at work that ultimately will heal us and comfort our shattered hearts... The phrase gam zu l'tovah (גַּם זוּ לְטוֹבָה) is an affirmation that "this too is for good," and that this "this" includes the various challenges and struggles we face during our days of sojourn here on this earth. Every "down" in life prepares us for an "up," with the ultimate end being beatitude and everlasting joy. Challenges draw us closer to God, igniting our hearts to cry out for his Presence and blessing. Even death itself is a passageway to eternal life (Psalm 16:10; 49:15; 1 Cor. 15:12-58). בַּעֲצָתְךָ תַנְחֵנִי וְאַחַר כָּבוֹד תִּקָּחֵנִי - "You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory" (Psalm 73:24).
By faith "we know that if the 'tent' that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Cor. 5:1). God is our good Shepherd who leads us along the byways of the desert of this world (Psalm 23:4). In His presence is absolute joy; at his right hand are pleasures forever (Psalm 16:11). As it is written in the sacred testimony of the prophets: "No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him" (Isa. 64:4; 1 Cor. 2:9).
The LORD "will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away" (Rev. 21:4, Isa. 25:8). God foresees your way and prepares a place for you (John 14:1-3); he has ready a precious white stone with your "hidden" name inscribed (Rev. 2:17); the table is being set and your place has been reserved...
You do not need to struggle alone – bitter and afraid that you might be swallowed up in your infirmities... God knows the groan of your struggle and invites you to find solace and strength in Him. "It is enough to open your heart the smallest amount - even the width of a pin - to repent, so that you feel a stab within your heart, like a piercing sting in living tissue, not like a needle thrust into dead flesh" (Menachem Mendel of Kotzk).
Bittachon (בִּטָּחוֹן) is a Hebrew word that means trust in God... Those who have bittachon do not worry about the future because their faith fully permeates their heart and mind, enabling them to surrender their cares and burdens to the Lord. "The Lord is our light and salvation, whom shall we fear? The Lord is the strength of our lives, of whom shall we be afraid?
Hebrew Lesson
Psalm 27:1 reading (click for audio):
Our Good Samaritan...
"I saw a great oneing between Christ and us, because when He was in pain, we were in pain..." - Julian of Norwich
05.31.26 (Sivan 15, 5786) The Gospel records an incident where a certain "lawyer" (i.e., νομικός or "Torah sage") stood up and aggressively challenged (ἐκπειράζων) Yeshua to explain what people must do to inherit eternal life (Luke 10:25-28). Yeshua first responded by asking the man a question of his own: How do you read the Torah? Like most good teachers, Yeshua shifted the question back to the person who was asking it. The way you read (i.e., interpret) is the result of other, more basic, presuppositions you are making.
This Torah scholar was certainly well-studied in Scripture. He did not provide a litany of 613 commandments to perform, nor did he focus on the Ten Commandments. Instead he replied by citing the Ve'ahavta portion of the Shema ("You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind") and added the obligation to "love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev. 19:18). The man's answer was correct, of course, though it is likely he was simply repeating what Yeshua had been teaching the crowds about the meaning of Torah all along. At any rate there wasn't a hint of irony in Yeshua's reply: "You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live" (Luke 10:28).
The problem, however, is that most people - even intensely religious people - don't actually "do this," though they may claim otherwise. After all, truly loving God with all your heart and genuinely loving your neighbor as yourself are surely the most difficult of all the commandments, and indeed, all the other ethical language of Scripture amounts to little else but commentary to this fundamental truth (Matt. 22:40). If people could keep these two commandments, then there would be no need for a Savior. The cross would then be regarded as "foolishness" and the entire mission of Yeshua would be absurd.
Salvation means (negatively) being set free from "the law of sin and death" and (positively) being "reborn" so that we can truly love God and others. It is not a question of "willpower" or the "zeal" of man; it is not a question of what I can do but rather what God can do (John 1:13). The assumption that human actions are sufficient to merit eternal life (i.e., through performing loving acts) is therefore part of the problem of sin itself! The "law of sin and death" (תּוֹרַת הַחֵטְא וְהַמָּוֶת) operates on this very principle: As long as you think you can merit eternal life by means of your own efforts, you are relating to God as Judge (אֱלהִים) rather than as Savior (יהוה). You have yet to experience inner brokenness and therefore believe you can "justify yourself." The cross of Yeshua is the negation of this principle and represents the "end of the law for righteousness to all who believe."
Yeshua, however, surely knew that people could not save themselves, despite their supposed best efforts. Our Torah sage intellectually knew what God's requirements were, but he was powerless to live them out in his life. Knowing the truth is not the same thing as living it. A zeal for truth is wonderful if it is lived out in real life, but it is self-deception to "draw near to God with the lips" while having a dead heart (Isa. 29:13). Truly loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength is simply impossible for the unregenerated heart. By nature people are "spiritually dead" and self-absorbed. Yeshua knew that it is precisely because we are unable to love that we need Him. He understood that it required his passion and sacrificial death to impart life to those who were spiritually dead.... "We love Him because He first loved us" (1 John 4:9).
Unsatisfied with Yeshua's response, the zealous sage then "wanted to justify himself" (θέλων δικαιῶσαι ἑαυτὸν) by attempting to qualify the definition of "neighbor." He therefore asked Yeshua, "Who is my neighbor?" (Luke 10:29). Some background to this question might help. Jewish tradition tended to regard the concept of "neighbor" (i.e., rea: רֵעַ) as referring only to one's fellow Jew, and therefore the obligation to love "others" outside the community did not apply. In response to the man's question (and addressing his underlying assumption), Yeshua told the story of a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho who "fell among thieves" (Luke 10:30-36). This story illustrates various types of people as they "walk the road" of life and how they respond to the suffering of others. Soren Kierkegaard comments:
The first man was a peaceful traveler who walked along the road from Jericho to Jerusalem, along a lawful road. The second man was a robber who "walked along the same road" – and yet on an unlawful road. Then a priest came "along the same road"; he saw the poor unfortunate man who had been assaulted by the robber. Perhaps he was momentarily moved but went right on by. He walked the road of indifference. Next a Levite came "along the same road." He saw the poor unfortunate man; he too walked past unmoved, continuing his road. The Levite walked "along the same road" but was walking his way, the way of selfishness and callousness. Finally a Samaritan came "along the same road." He found the poor unfortunate man on the road of mercy. He showed by example how to walk the road of mercy; he demonstrated that the road, spiritually speaking, is precisely this; how one walks. This is why the Gospel says, "Go and do likewise." Yes, there were five travelers who walked "along the same road," and yet each one walked his own road.
Yeshua then asked, "Which of these three (i.e., priest, Levite, or Samaritan), do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the thieves?" When the Torah sage answered, "the one who showed mercy," Yeshua said, "do this, and you will live."
Notice again that Yeshua responded to the original question by means of redirection: "How do you read the Scriptures?" "Which of these was a neighbor?" "What do you think?" Like all good teachers, Yeshua was reluctant to simply give a direct answer. No, he expected people to work out the problem for themselves. After all, each of us is responsible for how we choose to "walk" the road of life. We all have desire and passion, but the question is how is that energy directed? What direction does it take down the road of life? Reason is often the slave of our passions. As Yeshua said, "Wisdom is justified by her children."
Instead of attempting to qualify someone as worthy of our love, Yeshua wants us to be in earnest relationship with the heart of God. That's what is absolutely essential. And we can only be in a heart relationship with God by means of the miracle of God. Naturally speaking, we are at enmity with God; we are devoid of life and powerless to love and be loved. When by a miracle God reveals his great love for us -- personally, deep within our "heart of hearts" -- a love for us that is unconditional, grounded in the gift of the Lover of our souls than in the supposed merit we attain to be worthy recipients of God's love -- then, and only then, are we are transformed. Are you offended by the lack of love shown toward you? Then act as a true lover by showing compassion. Go and "do this" (Luke 10:29-37).
Recall that the Torah sage had initially asked: "Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" and Yeshua pointed to having a heart-relationship with God. "Love God; love your neighbor; do this and you shall live." And yet this is the very problem with us: we cannot love God or our neighbor; indeed, we cannot properly love ourselves. Reciting the Shema and doing good deeds is not enough. We may delight in the Torah yet still be captive to the law of sin and death that binds us to our wretched estate.
Each of us is on the road of life, wounded and left to die. Religion does not help us when the soul is utterly abandoned and powerless to find remedy. We need a savior, someone who will care enough to intervene, who does not pass us by, who will take pity on us. Like the Samaritan in the parable, Yeshua makes bandages for our wounds by rending his own garments; he lifts us up, binds our wounds with the salve of his compassion, and takes us to a place of refuge for our healing. Yeshua is our "Good Samaritan" who rescues the powerless in their distress and delivers them from death.
We are saved by God's love, and we experience that love by faith in God's compassion for our lives. If we are deficient in compassion, it is likely we have not deeply experienced the love of God in our hearts. As John Calvin once wrote: "Faith alone justifies, yet faith is never alone. It is never without love; if love is lacking, neither is there faith..."
Love God; love your neighbor; love yourself... and yet this is impossible apart from divine intervention, apart from the power of life that prevails over the power of death. "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" If the remedy were up to us, if eternal life is attained by loving God with all our being and doing Samaritan-like acts of compassion, there would be no hope for us. "But God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Yeshua died for us." Yeshua is our "Good Samaritan" who sees us in our wounded condition and lovingly saves us. He is the healer of the brokenhearted who binds up our wounds...
Hebrew Lesson
Psalm 147:3 Hebrew reading (click):
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Words We Live By...
"If language is to be a means of communication there must be agreement not only in definitions but also (odd as this may sound) in judgments." - Wittgenstein (Investigations)
05.29.26 (Sivan 13, 5786) The Hebrew noun "davar" (דבר) means "a thing, a word, or an object," and the root of the word refers to speaking. According to the sages the spoken word has great power, as the Torah reveals that God spoke the world into being, and man who is made in the image of God likewise uses words to "create and experience the world. Naming something "clothes" it from the psychological realm of thought into the physical world.
Words serve as a "medium" that connects the spiritual and the physical realms, and in a sense they serve as a form of "prayer" or confession to God. King David said, "May what I prayed for happen to me," literally, tefillati al-cheki tashuv - "may it return upon my own breast" (Psalm 35:13). Some of our prayers are conscious words spoken to God, whereas others are unconscious expressions of our inner heart attitude. Therefore be careful how you think! It is sobering to realize that our thoughts are essentially prayers being offered up to God... When we will the good of others we find God's favor, healing and life. Yeshua spoke of "good and evil treasures of the heart" that produce actions that are expressed in our words (Luke 6:45). A midrash states that if someone speaks well of another, the angels above will then speak well of him before the Holy One.
Jewish tradition discusses "lashon ha'ra" (לשון הרע), or harmful speech. It is written in our Scriptures: "It is the glory of a man to pass over a transgression" (Prov. 19:11), which means refraining from gossip or faultfinding a person for a negative trait would be "concealed" and left unexpressed. On the other hand, when the good of a person is affirmed, their positive traits are evoked, and this invites further good to be expressed in the world... This idea is likewise attested by the Torah's commandment not to curse the deaf or to speak ill of the dead (Lev. 19:14). A deaf person cannot hear the curse, but it is heard by the Almighty who regards it as an act of violence.
Our words have an effect when they are spoken, and therefore it behooves us to exercise caution whenever we open our mouths to say something. But since words are formed by thinking, all the more does it matter that we learn to think clearly and with godly integrity. The apostle Paul admonished that we "think on these things," using the verb "logizomai" (λογίζομαι) that means to seriously consider and to carefully reckon what words (λόγοι) are worthy and true, for this would keep us from thoughtless and impulsive speech and that would help us change in how we speak, act, and live (Phil. 4:8).
The Torah of "speaking truth," that is, being honest and upright (i.e., yashar: ישר) with ourselves and others, is called "dibbur emet" (דיבוּר אמת) in Hebrew. In Jewish tradition speaking truth is an obligation we have to use our words and speech with integrity and justice: "These are the things you are to do: speak truth (דַּבְּרוּ אֱמֶת) to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace" (Zech. 8:16; Lev. 19:11; Eph. 4:25, Col. 3:9). Note that dibbur emet also forbids spreading gossip, sharing worthless news reports, expressing contempt, mockery, or outrage over the viewpoints of others, and so on. The fool has said in his heart, "there is no God" (Psalm 14:1).
An honest person doesn't play games with words but understands that communication is a sacred trust. Our words are to be regarded as consecreated as an expression of truth. God has made us inviolable promises, and just as His word is sacred, so should we strive to be sacred in our speech as well (Matt. 5:37). This is why the apostle enjoins us to "think on these things," namely matters of truth, justice, purity, beauty, and so on (Phil. 4:8). When we choose to see the goodness of God we dispel the negativity and despair of the world...
We must endeavor to see with charity, that is, by using a "good eye" (עין טובה), especially because worldly culture promotes a "hermeneutic of suspicion," or an "evil eye (עין הרע) that supposes that people's words are often not as they seem but conceal a "deeper subtext" that is inherently manipulative, exploitative, and self-serving. This cynical view that all language is subjective, biased, and selfish, however, is certainly not true, for the view that categorically all language is subjective leads to "solipsism" and the idea of "private language" wherein meanings are fixed solely by the speaker -- and this destroys any objective standard necessary for meaningful communication. If the meaning of something is defined solely by a speaker's private experiences, there is no way to distinguish correct from incorrect use of the definition, and communication itself collapses.
The idea of truth is central since it carries its own "weightiness" or gravity - an intuitive conviction that things "matter" and are to be respected and even venerated. The Hebrew word for truth (i.e., emet: אֶמֶת) comes from a verb (aman) that means to "support" or "make firm." There are a number of derived nouns that connote the sense of reliability or assurance (e.g., pillars of support) that make up the "ground of being." In this connection note that the ancient Greek word for "truth" is "aletheia" (ἀλήθεια), a compound word formed from an alpha prefix (α-) meaning "not," and lethei (λήθη), meaning "forgetfulness," which in effect says that truth is veridical because it has its own inherent witness to what is.
Philosophers have long believed that ascertaining truth is both possible and that truth bespeaks reality. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle defined truth this way: "To say of what is that it is not, or of what is not that it is, is false, while to say of what is that it is, and of what is not that it is not, is true" (Metaphysics). Genuine knowledge (γνῶσις), as opposed to illusion, depends on truth, since knowledge constitutes true belief, whereas illusion (and opinion) does not. The Greek word aletheia means being awake to the revelation of being. The Hebrew word emet likewise implies the idea of fidelity or correspondence with reality. In Hebrew, truth (emet) apart from God who is Alef (א) leads to being dead (i.e., met: מת).
The Lord is called the "God of Truth" (יהוה אֵל אֱמֶת) and the "Faithful God" (הָאֵל הַנֶּאֱמָן) linking truth with his majesty and worship. From truth comes honesty, which is an attribute of humility, and a sense of wonder over the gratuitous beauty of existence itself. "Love suffers long and is kind" (1 Cor. 13:4), but where does this patience arise except through "thinking truth" and opening our hearts to God's Spirit that empowers us?
Our words truly matter because they carry meaning, and we cannot conceive of a word without an interpretation that supplies its context and usage in our thoughts. Linguistically, a "word" is a conventional unit of language that serves as a "bridge" between a physical sound or symbol (the signifier) and an object, concept, or idea (the signified). Words are tokens that "refer" or point to things experienced in the knowing subject. The object (or referent) may not be fully understood (or defined) yet the word is still meaningful relative to its usage and context. A dictionary is a cultural repository of accepted meanings for words that is derived from a network of usage and applications among various subsets of culture.
Conscious human life is, among other things, a matter of definition - defining our terms to interpret what is real, ascribing meaning to what we choose to believe. Traditional logic, or the study of reasoning, discovered principles used to distinguish valid and invalid inferences. Fundamental to logic, however, is the idea of a "proposition" or a declarative statement that "predicates" or assigns a quality or property to a subject (for example "the sky is blue"). Some propositions are based on empirical observation ("it is raining") while others restate or explicate the meaning of a subject in other terms (e.g., "a square is a polygon with four equal sides and four equal angles"). This is the everyday, "common sense" view of logic, though it should be mentioned that there are further questions that can be raised about what a subject or predicate really is, and so on.
The philosopher Aristotle "discovered" or developed the "logic of common sense" that has been foundational for thousands of years and is still assumed by the taxonomy of everyday language to this day. He defined a "subject" as "that which underlies" what a proposition is about, and a "predicate" as that which is being affirmed or denied about the subject. The connection here has to do with inclusion (or exclusion) from classes or qualities of being. For example, "Socrates is mortal" assigns the subject "Socrates" within the larger class of mortal things, and "cats are mammals" designates the subject "cats" within the larger class of mammals. Note that for Aristotle a predicate has to represent a "universal" or shared quality because it expresses what the subject (i.e., "species") is in relation to the larger class of which it is a part (its "genus"), and a definition is discerned when the difference between the two (i.e., "differentia") is explicated. A definition therefore shows the difference between the species and its genus (i.e., species = genus + differentia). Therefore we can understand Aristotle's classic definition of a "human being" (species) to be an "animal" (genus) that is capable of "rational thought" (differentiating humans from other members of the genus). In other words, what makes a human essentially human is its difference from other animals by means of its rationality. Other sorts of definitions are restatements of the subject in equivalent terms, for example, "A triangle (subject) is a three-sided polygon (predicate that is coextensive with the subject), or "2 + 2 = 4" where the number 4 is defined as 2 + 2.
There is an ethical aspect regarding knowing the truth and rejecting what is untrue. In the Torah it is written that we are to "keep from a false matter" (מִדְּבַר־שֶׁקֶר תִּרְחָק) which implies that it is our duty to seek the truth (מְבַקֵּשׁ אֱמוּנָה) and to renounce lying (Exod. 23:7; Jer. 5:1; Prov. 19:9). This implies that we are responsible for how we define things and interpret their significance. This is a matter of "intentionality" or focus. God endowed people with a conscience that provides the intuition of what is good and what is evil (Rom. 1:19-20; Psalm 14:1). If we "harden our heart" by disregarding or suppressing our intuitions of moral truth, however, we will be held to account for our indifference (Rom. 2:15; Eccl. 12:13-14).
Knowledge of any kind is based on faith as a precondition and indeed has been defined as "justified true belief." Regarding matters of faith, we "name" things and interact with our assumptions based on our convictions about what is believed to be true and that corresponds with reality. In the Christian faith truth is discerned by the revelation from the Holy Spirit who is called the "Spirit of Truth." God created man as a "talking being" and one of the first things Adam was asked to do was to name the animals (Gen. 2:19). As mentioned above, this ability to use language is the divine image, and it is a mysterious wonder that we are able to communicate both with one another and especially with God through prayer.
The Torah teaches that man was made in two distinct stages. First the LORD "formed" (יָצַר) his body (גוּף) from the "dust of the earth" (עָפָר מִן־הָאֲדָמָה), and then the LORD "breathed" (נָפַח) into this body a living "soul" (נֶפֶשׁ ,נְשָׁמָה), that is, the consciousness that represents the self or the "I" that inhabits the body (1 Cor. 15:10). This is sometimes called the "image of God" (צלם אלוהים), the "I am" of self-consciousness, the ability to reason and to make decisions, to discern intuitions of logic, to apprehend moral and aesthetic reality, to wonder and glory over the beauty and greatness of the Divine Presence, and so on. The image of God means that man reflects (analogically) God's very attributes and characteristics.
Though it is a wonder, it is also a great responsibility to be God's language bearers, and because we can use our words to both bless and curse (Prov. 18:21), it is a mandate given to us to speak the truth of the blessing of God in righteousness and love (Matt. 12:36-37; Eph. 4:15). Yeshua is called the "Word of God" and the "Alef-Tav," the First and the Last, which indicates that he is the "direct object" (את) of all of Creation (Rev. 22:13). All our language begins and ends with Him.
The godly use of speech means interpreting in the light of the grace given to us, and therefore it is our responsibility to use our words in God-glorifying ways, confessing the sanctity of the life that God has breathed into us. However we are still "double minded" and we struggle with "taming our tongue." As it is written: "But no one can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so" (James 3:8-10).
Our words reflect our inner spiritual state, the condition of our hearts, and if we are habitually fearful, angry, murmuring, cursing, and so on, our souls are in serious jeopardy. Yet this is our true condition, for "no one can tame the tongue" at least without a miraculous intervention that brings supernatural peace and self-control. Only God is able to help us yield our hearts to speak in true praise. "Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips" (Psalm 141:3).
"In the beginning was the Word... in Him was life, and the life is the light of men" (John 1:1,4). The Word of God, Yeshua, is the inner life and light of our hearts. Therefore the Spirit of God directs the surrendered soul: "Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good for edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers" (Eph. 4:29).
It is written: "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit" (Prov. 18:21). This hearkens to the Tree of Life (עץ החיים) in the midst of the garden where Adam and Eve sinned. I've mentioned before that the "eye sees through the heart" and it rationalizes what it wants to see. Yeshua said, "according to your faith it will be done unto you" which means the choice is ours to believe. If we turn away from God's light, we inherit a darkened heart, full of prejudice and fearful suspicion, but if we return to the light, as He is in the light, we find healing and behold the beautiful mystery of the gift of life.
Our use of words reveals much about us, and if we are honest with ourselves, we should be concerned that our thoughts often turn negative and we become fearful or angry. What naturally comes out of your mouth when you gratuitously stub your toe? The Hebrew word "hitlamdut" (הִתְלַמּדוּת) can mean "self-awareness" (from the verb lamad in the reflective sense), and part of this means knowing that we are created in God's image to reflect our deepest identity as a child of our Heavenly Father.
I've mentioned before that we cannot know the words of Torah without knowing its letters, and each letter is essential to the meaning of each word. The sages have said that where it is written "naso et rosh"- נָשֹׂא אֶת־רֹאשׁ (Num. 4:22), we can read "lift up Alef-Tav" that is, elevate the 22 letters of Torah, but more importantly, lift up the direct object and goal of Torah which is Yeshua who embodies God's letters and words to humanity. The "right use" of language is to "combine God's letters" into praise and thanks for the blessing of life.
Language is the medium by which we live, move, and have our being. In this present age, however, language is approximate and partial for we "see through a glass darkly," meaning that we must resort to analogies and metaphors of faith that serve as a prelude to seeing God face to face in the world to come. Nevertheless there is enough "traction" between our experiences in this world and the world to come to have true analogical awareness of the significance of our decisions, and God himself will judge how we have chosen to speak about the meaning of life at the time of our judgment (Matt. 12:36-37).
Our thoughts and words are connected with our consciousness, so instead of passively allowing dark thoughts to becloud our minds and lead us into sin, we must repent and esteem ourselves as manifestations of God's mercy and grace in the world. This is the deepest sense of our identity wherein we humbly honor and respect all things as being from God.
I began this essay by saying that life is a matter of definition, an ongoing process of interpreting what is meaningful and real. The words we use animate and form our thinking and consciousness. It is vital, then, to use reverence as we think and speak, and to affirm the honor and glory of the life we have been entrusted by God.
May it please the Lord to let the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in his sight, and may he impart to us the grace to speak the truth in love. Amen.
Hebrew Lesson
Psalm 19:14 Hebrew reading (with comments):
Loving the Stranger...
"The true meaning of love one's neighbor is not that it is a command from God which we are to fulfill, but that through it and in it we meet God." - Martin Buber
05.29.26 (Sivan 13, 5786) In our Torah portion for this week (Naso) we read that after taking a census of the clans of the Levites who would help the priests perform their duties at the Mishkan (Tabernacle), Moses instructed the Israelites to remove anyone who was ritually unclean from the camp. He then instructed that anyone who had wronged another to confess their sin, make restitution for the full amount (plus one-fifth), and offer an guilt offering for atonement. Notice, however, that this law of restitution applied not only to one's fellow Jew, but also to "strangers" (i.e., gerim: גֵּרִים) as is indicated by the immediately following verse: "But if the man has no next of kin to whom restitution may be made for the wrong, the restitution shall go to the LORD..." (Num. 5:8). The sages ask, "Is there anyone in Israel who has no next of kin - no brother, no nephew, no distant relation going back to Jacob? This can only refer, therefore, to a stranger, since he has no heirs" (Sifrei). If for some reason the stranger cannot be compensated for his loss, restitution must be made to the LORD, which implies that stealing from the stranger is to steal from God Himself.
Recall that the "mixed multitude" (i.e., erev rav: עֶרֶב רַב) were those Gentiles who tagged along with Israelites during the Exodus from Egypt. Like the Jewish people, they had left everything behind them in the hope of finding a new life of freedom. When the Israelites were camped at Sinai and the tribes were brought into formation, however, there seemed to be no provision made for these people. Indeed, these "strangers" were social outcasts from the camp of Israel who were ineligible to serve in the army or to partake in the services of the Tabernacle. There is no mention of their location among the camps of Israel, nor is there any census recorded of their numbers. We can only surmise that they lived a hardscrabble existence as they wandered with the camp of Israel in the desert...
The midrash sees a direct connection between the expulsion of the unclean among the camp of Israel and the law of restitution as applied to the stranger: "For them that honor Me, I will honor, and them that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed" (1 Sam. 2:30). Who were those who honored God? The proselytes... Who were those who despised God? Those who worshipped the Golden Calf. How did God repay them? He smote them with leprosy and venereal disease and expelled them from the camp. How did God honor the proselytes in return? He inserted the section warning us to look after them immediately following the section dealing with expelling the lepers from the camp. From this we learn that God repels the sinners of Israel while befriending the proselytes who seek Him. They are protected by the same law as the Israelite, and whoever takes from them by violence is dealt with just as if he had taken from an Israelite" (Bamidbar Rabbah 8:3).
So even at the very beginning of Israel's national history we see God's care for the "stranger" who dwelt among his people. Regarding the law of Passover, the LORD stated, "There shall be one law (תּוֹרָה אַחַת) for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you" (Exod. 12:49). "You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself" (Lev. 19:34).
The sages ask, why does God love the stranger? Because they have no hereditary or family title. If someone truly wants to become a righteous person, God honors them as if they were the very priests of Israel. Proselytes are what they are simply out of love for God, just as Ruth was made a mother of the Messiah by means of her love for God alone. As it is written, "The LORD loves the righteous; He protects the stranger" (Psalm 146:8).
Concerning the obligation to love the stranger and treat him with righteousness, Rabbi Jeremiah said: "How can you know that the Gentile that practices the law is equal to the high priest of Israel? Because it is said, "which, if a man do, he shall live through them" (Lev. 18:5). And it says, "This is the Torah of man" (2 Sam. 7:19). It does not say, "the law of the priests, Levites, Israelites," but "This is the law of man (תּוֹרַת הָאָדָם), O Lord God." And it does not say, "Open the gates and let the priests and Levites and Israel enter," but it says: "Open the gates that the righteous may enter" (Isa. 26:2). And it says, "This is the gate of the Lord, the righteous shall enter it." It does not say, "The priests and the Levites and Israel shall enter it" (Psalm 118:20). And it does not say, "Rejoice you, priests, Levites, and Israelites," but it says,"Rejoice you righteous" (Psalm 33:1). And it does not say, "Do good, O Lord, to the priests and the Levites and the Israelites," but it says "Do good, O Lord, to the good" (Psalm 125:4). So even a Gentile, if he practices the Torah, is to regarded as equal to the high priest of Israel (Sifra 86b; Baba Kamma 38a).
Regarding the "law of the stranger," there are two applications. First, we should remember that "outsiders" are beloved by God and often present a challenge to our supposed identity as God's favored children. The "caste system" within ancient Judaism was intended to humbly serve the greater community, just as Yeshua likewise taught us to love one another, and "if anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all" (Mark 9:35). After all, the primary role of a "priest" was to enable others to draw near to the Divine Presence, not to exclude them from it, and those who serve God in the truth will always seek to heal the sense of "estrangement" from God.
Secondly, those who were not raised with the benefit of Jewish heritage but who have genuinely laid hold of Yeshua as their Mashiach and Savior "have a place at the table" in God's Kingdom. "Remember that you were at that time separated from the Messiah, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers (gerim) to the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Yeshua the Messiah you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Messiah. For he himself is our shalom, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall (mechitzah) of hostility, by destroying in his own body the enmity required by the Torah with its commandments and ordinances. He did this in order to create in union with himself from the two groups a single new humanity and thus make shalom, in order to reconcile to God both in a single body that was executed upon the cross by killing that enmity. For through the Messiah we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God" (Eph. 2:12-20).
In general a "stranger" is anyone from whom we would withhold respect and love. As Martin Buber once wrote, it is only through the "thou" a person becomes "I." In other words, we are incomplete people if we live in fear of others and deny their essential dignity and worth before our Heavenly Father. We can't regard someone else as a stranger without becoming a stranger ourselves... The message of our hope is "God so loved the world," but that world includes the habitation of many who are strangers to the grace and kindness of God. God has commissioned us to be emissaries of his grace and love to the world of the stranger... May we heed the call welcome all who are thirsty to come and drink from the waters of life.
Hebrew Lesson
Lev. 19:34a reading (click):
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Vanity and Reality...
"Whether evil or good events betide, let it be the same to you, since you are a stranger and sojourner on this earth. Why have anxiety over a world that is not yours?" - Sassover
05.28.26 (Sivan 12, 5786) Sometimes we seem to forget that we are not home yet... The ancient thinker Socrates argued that philosophy, when done correctly, was "practice for death," since the passing shadows of this world pointed to an unchanging good, our true end. Likewise Yeshua our Messiah taught us to take up the cross and die daily (Luke 9:23). We are to "set our affections on things above, not on things on the earth," for we have died and our life is hidden with Messiah in God (Col. 3:2-3).
It is difficult for us to die, to let go, however, because we are deeply attached to this world, and we often abide under the worldly illusion that we will live forever, that tomorrow will resemble today, and that heaven can wait... History is littered with crumbling monuments offered to the idols of this world. The Scriptures are clear, however: "The present form (τὸ σχῆμα) of this world is passing away" (1 Cor. 7:31), and the heart of faith seeks a city whose Designer and Builder is God Himself (Heb. 11:10). "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day... For the things that are seen are turning to dust, but the things that are unseen endure forever (2 Cor. 4:16-18). Because of our sin, creation was made "subject to vanity," though God has overcome the dust of death by giving us an unshakable hope (Rom. 8:20).
The metaphysical truth that "ha'kol oveir" (הַכּל עוֹבֵר), "everything passes" like a shadow, should help us keep our perspective regarding the various moments of testing we all face in this life. As Nachman of Breslov once said, "The whole earth is a very narrow bridge, and the important thing is never to be afraid" (כָּל־הָעוֹלָם כֻּלּוֹ גֶּשֶׁר צַר מְאד וְהָעִקָּר לא לְפַחֵד כְּלָל). Yeshua is the Bridge to the Father, the narrow way of passage that leads to life. He has overcome the meretricious world and its vanities. He calls out to us in the storm saying, "Take heart. It is I; be not afraid" (Matt. 14:27). When Peter answered the call and attempted to walk across the stormy waters, he lost courage and began to sink, but Yeshua immediately took hold of him, saying, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt (lit., think twice)?" Resist the false assumptions that surround common worldly consciousness: May God help us keep focused on the reality of Yeshua and the way he reveals...
Hebrew Lesson:
Psalm 144:4 reading (click):
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The Divine Presence...
"When I trust deeply that God is truly with me and holds me safe in divine embrace, guiding every one of my steps, I can let go of my anxious need to know how tomorrow will look." - Houwen
05.28.26 (Sivan 12, 5786) God told Moses that his Name means that He is Present (הֹוֶה) in every moment - past, present, and future (הָיָה וְהוֶה וְיָבוֹא). The Name YHVH (יהוה) is "shorthand" for "I AM with you always" (אָנכִי אֶהְיֶה עִמָּכֶם). There is no moment in time, just as there is no place, where God is not "there" for you. This includes times of testing, darkness, and even death itself (Psalm 23:4).
The LORD our God does not abandon us, even when He may seem hidden, powerless, or unwilling to intervene. Faith trusts that He is present just then - in moments when we are vulnerable, weak, afraid, and seemingly all alone, and yet affirms that somehow all things are bound up in his love and good will toward us. As Augustine said, "by faithfulness we are collected and wound up into unity within ourselves, whereas we had been scattered abroad in multiplicity." Faith receives God as near to us in our struggles, the loving One who is always with us, and the substance of all our hope for true healing and eternal life.
Hebrew Lesson
Psalm 23:4 reading (click for audio):
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The Paradox of Moses...
05.27.26 (Sivan 11, 5786) Our Torah portion for this week (i.e., parashat Naso) ends with these amazing words: "And when Moses went into the Tent of Meeting (i.e., the Mishkan) to commune with the LORD, he heard the Voice (הַקּוֹל) speaking to him from above the mercy seat (i.e., kapporet: כַּפּרֶת) that was upon the Ark of the Testimony, from between the two cherubim; and there the LORD spoke to him" (Num. 7:89).
Now Moses was truly an extraordinary and wonderful person -- Israel's first great prophet, priest, and king. His life can be divided into three great distinct periods of 40 years each. First, he was raised as an Egyptian and lived as a prince of Egypt (the Egyptian period); second, he fled to the land of Midian where he became a shepherd and encountered God in the desert (the Midianite period); and third, after the great deliverance from Egypt, Moses led the people back to Sinai where he 1) became the mediator (priest) of the covenant between God and Israel, 2) legislated the various laws of the Torah, and 3) received the prophetic vision of the Tabernacle, the future exile, and the ultimate glory of Zion.
Notice, however, that Moses was extraordinary in the sense that he transcended the entire system of religion that was later established as "Judaism." First, as the great legislator, Moses stood outside of the law, serving as its voice of authority. Second, as the high priest of Israel, Moses instituted various sacrificial rites before the laws of sacrifice were enacted. For example, he instituted the Passover sacrifice in Egypt (Exod. 12:1-11), and when the people later reached Sinai, he offered blood sacrifices to ratify the terms of the covenant (Exod. 24:8). Moreover, he ascended the mountain and received the prophetic vision of the Sanctuary before the priesthood had been instituted in Israel (Exod. 25:8-9). And even after the laws of the priests were enacted and the Tabernacle was erected, Moses was allowed to go before the very Holy of Holies to hear the Voice of the LORD, even though technically speaking this was forbidden, since Moses was not a kohen (i.e., descendant of Aaron).
I mention this because some Jewish people stumble over the fact that Yeshua, who was from the tribe of Judah, served as Israel's High Priest of the New Covenant. Of course this issue is addressed in the Book of Hebrews, where the role of the Malki-Tzedek priesthood is ascribed to King Yeshua (Heb. 5:6-11; 7:1-19), but it is important to realize that Moses himself foresaw the coming of the Messiah as Israel's great prophet, priest and King (Deut. 18:15-19; John 5:36). Indeed, just as Moses himself was "outside" the law by serving as Israel's priest but nevertheless was commissioned by God Himself, so also with Yeshua, who instituted the sacrifice of His blood as the Lamb of God and who went directly before God's Throne to intercede on our behalf.
Like the patriarch Joseph before him, Moses was a "picture" of Yeshua in various significant ways. Though he was a Jew from the tribe of Levi, he appeared as a "prince of Egypt" to his own people and was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians (Acts 7:22). And though he was God's chosen deliverer, Moses was initially rejected by the Israelites and then turned to the Gentiles, taking a "foreign" bride. After being severely tested in the desert, he was empowered by God's Spirit to become Israel's deliverer for their hour of great tribulation. Indeed, both Moses and Yeshua were "sent from a mountain of God" to free Israel; both revealed the meaning of God's Name; both spoke with God "face to face." Moses was sent from (physical) Mount Sinai in Midian; Yeshua was sent from a spiritual "Mount Zion" in Heaven (Heb. 12:22). The New Testament relates that Moses and Elijah later met with Yeshua to discuss His "departure," literally, "His Exodus" (τὴν ἔξοδον αὐτοῦ) that he would accomplish at Jerusalem to redeem the entire world (Luke 9:30-31).
Hebrew Lesson
Deut. 18:15 reading (click):
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Words and Healing...
05.26.26 (Sivan 10, 5786) Just as the body can become sick with illness, so can the soul: "I said, 'O LORD, have mercy on me; heal my soul (רְפָאָה נַפְשִׁי), for I have sinned against you'" (Psalm 41:4). Likewise we understand that fear profoundly affects the way the brain processes images and messages. Fear colors the way we see and hear things. And since the mind and body are intricately interconnected, fear is often the root cause of many physiological problems such as heart disease, high blood pressure, clinical depression, and other ailments. Left unchecked, fear can be deadly...
The targum Onkelos states that God breathed into Adam the ability to think and to speak. In other words, thought and speech are two primary characteristics of the image (tzelem) and likeness (demut) of God. Since our use of words is directly linked to the "breath of God" within us, lashon hara (לָשׁוֹן הָרָה) defaces God's image within us.... Using words to inflict pain therefore perverts the image of God, since God created man to use language to "build up" others in love. This is part of the reason the metzora (i.e., one afflicted with tzara'at) was regarded as "dead" and in need of rebirth.
Lashon hara is really a symptom of the "evil eye" (ayin hara). "Evil comes to one who searches (דָּרַשׁ) for it" (Prov. 11:27). We must train ourselves to use the "good eye" (ayin tovah) and extend kaf zechut - the "hand of merit" to others. Genuine faith is optimistic and involves hakarat tovah, that is, recognizing the good in others and in life's circumstances. Gam zu l'tovah: "This too is for the good" (Rom. 8:28). The Midrash states that God afflicted houses with tzara'at so that treasure hidden within the walls would be discovered. The good eye finds "hidden treasure" in every person and experience.
King David said (Psalm 35:13): "May what I prayed for happen to me!" (literally, tefillati al-cheki tashuv - "may it return upon my own breast"). Some of our prayers are conscious words spoken to God, whereas others are unconscious expressions of our inner heart attitudes. When we harbor indifference, ill will, or unforgiveness toward others, we are only hurting ourselves. It is very sobering to realize that our thoughts are essentially prayers being offered up to God... When we seek the good of others we find God's favor, healing and life. Yeshua spoke of "good and evil treasures of the heart" that produce actions that are expressed in our words (Luke 6:45). A midrash states that if someone speaks well of another, the angels above will then speak well of him before the Holy One.
In light of the enigma of "spiritual impurity" (i.e., tumah) and its ultimate expression revealed in the corruption of death, it is all the more telling that we should heed the cry of the Spirit: "Choose Life!" (Deut. 30:19). Sin is a type of "spiritual suicide" that seduces us to exchange eternal good for the petty and trivial. The nachash (serpent) in the garden of Eden was the first to speak lashon hara. He slandered God and lied to Eve about how to discern between good and evil. He is a murderer and the father of lies. Resist his wiles with the truth of God.
May it please the LORD to help each of us be entirely mindful of the power and sanctity of our words... May it please Him to help us use our words for the purpose of strengthening and upbuilding (οἰκοδομὴν) one another (Eph. 4:29). May God help us take every thought "captive" to the obedience of the Messiah, thereby enabling us to always behold and express the truth of God's unfailing love.
Hebrew Lesson
Psalm 41:4 reading and commentary:
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Believing who you are...
"Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the Beloved..." - Henri Nouwen
05.26.26 (Sivan 10, 5786) One of the greatest mistakes is to forget who you really are and your beloved status before the LORD... "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine" (Isa. 43:1). Forgetting who you are leads to forgetting who the LORD is, just as forgetting who the LORD is leads to forgetting who you are...
"You are children of the LORD your God (בָּנִים אַתֶּם לַיהוָה אֱלהֵיכֶם). You shall not cut yourselves for the dead" (Deut. 14:1). Here Moses reminds the people that they are children of the Eternal (יהוה) and therefore they were not to mourn for the dead like those without hope of life beyond the grave... Our God, the Father of Israel, is the Source of Life, and even if our earthly fathers die, we will never be orphans, because the LORD, the Everlasting God who is the "God of the spirits of all flesh" (אֱלהֵי הָרוּחת לְכָל־בָּשָׂר), always watches over us: "He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber" (Psalm 121:3).
If we forget who we are, if we lose sight of our place in the Heavenly Father's heart, then we are likely to fall into a state of excessive and self-destructive mourning over the losses we experience in this world. In the most tragic cases, this can lead to the darkness of unremedied despair, "living among the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones" (Mark 5:5). On the other hand, if remember our place at the Father's table as his children, if we take hold that we are beloved of God - his very own "treasured people" - then we will regard the difficulties we encounter in this world as a test of faith intended for our good (Deut. 8:3,16, Jer. 29:11).
God regards us as his beloved children, and therefore we trust him as a child trusts his father. We may not always understand all that our father does, but we have complete faith in his good will toward us, even in the face of death itself. We do not engage in self-destructive mourning, then, because we are treasured by God and we trust in God's promises for eternal life (John 11:25). Because of this, Jewish halachah (legal custom) puts limits to grieving practices. Excessive mourning, interminable gloom, self-destructive anger, or the refusal to let go of our fear may indicate a lack of faith in God's care as our Father.
Remember where it says "God works all things together for good," for that includes even physical death... Let us therefore "hope to the LORD (קַוֵּה אֶל־יְהוָה); be strong and strengthen our heart; and (again) let us hope to the LORD" (Psalm 27:14). He is calling your name...
Hebrew Lesson
Isaiah 43:1b reading (click):
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Sin and Sanity...
"Sin is whatever you do, or fail to do, that pushes others away, that widens the gap between you and them and also the gaps within your self." - Frederick Buechner
05.26.26 (Sivan 10, 5786) From our Torah reading this week (i.e., parashat Naso) we read, "If anyone... goes astray and breaks faith..." (Num. 5:12). The sages comment that the Hebrew word for "goes astray" (i.e., tisteh: תִשְׂטֶה) is written so it may also be read as "goes insane" (i.e., tishteh: תִשְׁטֶה), and concludes that sin is a form of insanity, that is, a denial of what is real, and therefore a state of delusion.
As a matter of experiential faith in the truth of Scripture as attested by the Holy Spirit, we understand that God is knowable (Rom. 1:19-20), that we are always in God's presence (Prov. 15:3; Psalm 94:9; 139), and that He is all-knowing or omniscient (Psalm 147:5), and therefore nothing can be hidden from Him (Isa. 40:28; Jer. 23:24; Heb. 4:13). When we sin, however, we "break from" this reality and deny the divine Presence by a perverse act of self-exaltation.
Whenever we imagine that we are unseen by God or whenever we "forget" that we live, move, and have our being in His presence, we are denying reality (Psalm 14:1). Our sin causes us lose sight of what's real: we forget who God is; we forget who we are; and we exile ourselves from the Source of life... Surely sin is a form of insanity, and therefore we have a moral and spiritual obligation to think clearly and to value truth.
As Rabbi Judah would say, "Contemplate three things, and you will not come to the hands of transgression: Know what is above from you: a seeing eye, a listening ear, and all your deeds being inscribed in a book" (Pirke Avot 2:1). Therefore "fear God and keep his commandments, because this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil" (Eccl. 12:13-14).
Hebrew Lesson
Psalm 16:8 reading (click):
Finding the Path of Life...
"If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world." - C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
05.25.26 (Sivan 9, 5786) Consciously or not, every day billions of people all over the world are seeking that which will satisfy their heart's deepest longings for unending life, unbounded joy, and abiding pleasure. As philosopher C.S. Lewis pointed out, however, this ultimate longing for life is a "message" from another world.
Some believe that life consists of a series of sensual pleasures – eating, drinking, romance, sexual relations, etc., while others attempt to "lose themselves" in various kinds of entertainment. However, such fleeting moments of pleasure invariably cause an inward fragmentation of the soul, thereby weakening the will and inducing a state of forgetfulness regarding the deepest needs of life.
Others seek to find life by creating a "legacy" for themselves. To earn respect, to experience fame, or to be heroically remembered is considered the goal of the good life. However, as Shakespeare poignantly reminds us, human history is at best a "tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." "Vanity of vanities," says Kohelet, "all is vanity."
Still others hope to find life through performing various religious rituals and practices. In Orthodox Judaism, for example, the "Orach Chayim" is a handbook that meticulously provides a set of rules and regulations regarding sleeping, waking, wearing clothes, reciting blessings, observing Sabbath and the holidays, and so on. The path of life, according to the religionist, is the performance of various ritual acts in order to attain God's approval and blessing.
In Psalm 16:11 we read: "You will show me the path of life; in your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." The verb translated "you will show me" is a hiphil (causative) form of yada' (to know) and could better be translated "you will cause me to know," indicating that God is active in the knowing process. Here King David, despite the anxiety he felt regarding death, voiced his trust that God's love would personally intervene to deliver him from the prospect of physical corruption in the grave (Psalm 16:10).
From the New Testament, we know that this verse ultimately refers not to King David (who eventually died), but to Yeshua the Messiah, the greater Son of David (Mark 12:35-6, Psalm 110:1). Peter cited this verse in his Pentecost sermon (Acts 2:25-28), as did Paul at Antioch (Acts 13:35-37). Despite the grisly prospect of the crucifixion, Yeshua trusted that God, by raising him from the dead, would not allow him to suffer corruption (Matt. 16:21).
Interestingly, the Hebrew word netzach ("forevermore") denotes both "victory" and "eternity," and reveals that Yeshua's resurrection provides the everlasting victory over the sting of death itself. Yeshua is forever enthroned at the very side of the Majesty on High as the "Key Holder" to life and death (Rev. 1:18).
The ultimate longing we have in our hearts is a powerful message from God – to come to Him to have our deepest needs met. The true "orach chayim" is only found in a personal, trusting relationship with the resurrected Savior - Yeshua the Messiah (John 14:6). When we receive the message of His gracious love, our heart's deepest longings will be truly satisfied. We will experience fullness of joy in God's loving presence, and we will enjoy abiding pleasures in our communion with God. Amen.
Hebrew Lesson:
Psalm 16:11 reading (click):
His Life Within You...
"I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you..." - John 14:18
05.25.26 (Sivan 9, 5786) "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, namely, the Spirit of truth (רוּחַ הָאֱמֶת), whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you..." (John 14:16-18). Note that Yeshua asks the Father for the parakletos (i.e., the one "called alongside"), whom he calls the "Spirit of Truth," to "dwell within" the hearts of his followers so they will be fortified in their mission, and he furthermore identifies himself with the Spirit by saying that he would not leave us as orphans but would come to come to be with us...
I recently mentioned that the holiday of Shavuot is called "Atzaret Pesach" (עצרת פסח) or the "culmination of Passover." Just as the Passover reveals "God with us" (עִמָּנוּ אֵל), as the Word made flesh, and "God for us" (אֱלהִים לָנוּ), as the sacrificial Lamb of God, Shavuot adds yet another dimension by revealing "God within us" (אֱלהִים בְּתוֹכֵנוּ), as the indwelling Presence, the "breath of God" and Word of Truth that forever abides in our hearts. Yeshua was eager for us to partake of this miracle: "I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper (i.e., ὁ παράκλητος, one "called alongside to help) will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you" (John 16:7).
As it is written, "By this we know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit" (1 John 4:13). Or don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you (רוּחַ הַקּדֶשׁ בְּתוֹכֵנוּ), whom you have from God? "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God" (Rom. 8:14). Thank God for the help we attain through the Spirit's heartfelt ministrations: "For the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered" (Rom. 8:26).
Amen, thank you Lord Yeshua for the gift of the Holy Spirit within our hearts...
Hebrew Lesson:
Hosea 2:23 reading (click):
This week's Torah:
Parashat Naso (פָּרָשַׁת נָשׂא)
05.24.26 (Sivan 8, 5786) Shavuah tov, chaverim. Among other things, our Torah portion for this week, parashat Naso ("lift up!"), includes the cornerstone blessing that Aaron and his sons (i.e., the priests) were instructed to declare over the people of Israel: "May the LORD bless you and keep you; may the LORD shine his face upon you and be gracious to you; may the LORD lift up his face upon you and give you his peace" (Num. 6:24-26).
Notice that the Hebrew text of the blessing (see below) begins with three words, is comprised of three parts, invokes the divine Name three times, and is therefore appropriately called "the three-in-one blessing" (שלוש בברכה אחת). Notice also that the words are spoken in the grammatical singular rather than plural because they are meant to have personal application, not to be a general benediction over a crowd of people. The phrase, "May the LORD lift up his face upon you..." (ישא יהוה פניו אליך) pictures the beaming face of a parent lifting up his beloved child in joy...
The repetitive construction of God "lifting up His face" (יהוה פניו אליך) indicates that he gazes upon you in love and in blessing. Undoubtedly Yeshua recited this very blessing over his disciples when he ascended back to heaven on Mem B'Omer, though He would have spoken it in the grammatical first person: "I will bless you and keep you (אני אברך אותך ואשמור לך); I will shine upon you and will be full of grace toward you; I will lift up my face toward you and give you my shalom" (see Luke 24:50-51).
יברכך יהוה וישמרך
יאר יהוה פניו אליך ויחנך
ישא יהוה פניו אליך וישם לך שׁלום
"May the LORD bless you and keep you;
May the LORD shine his face upon you and be gracious to you;
May the LORD lift up his face upon you and give you his peace."
(Num. 6:24-26)
Nesiat Kapayim (Raising of the hands)
Note: The verbs in this blessing are all "jussive," which means they express a wish, desire, or a command, though understood in context (i.e., as part of the blessing recited by the kohanim during ceremonial occasions), the verbs should be regarded as declarative or oracular. To learn more about this blessing, click here.
Parashat Naso Links:
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