Author: Steven R. Bruck

Where Paul Went Wrong

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First off, let me state that I deeply respect Shaul of Tarsus (Paul) and what he did, all he suffered through, and his knowledge and understanding of the Word of God.

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That being said, I also think that none of the Epistles he wrote should be considered scripture or included in the Bible because although he often quotes from and refers to the Tanakh, his letters are written in order to micro-manage his congregations.

They are not missionary- they are managerial.

When he said he would go to the Gentiles from now on (Acts 18:6), he was talking to the people in that town, and only in that town. Shaul always went to the synagogues, bringing the Good News of the Messiah to the Jews first, then to the Gentiles; in other words, only after the Jews in a town rejected him did he then go to the Gentiles in that town.

He never stopped preaching to Jews. Ever.

What happened later was that his letters became a source of confusion because each one was written to a congregation that had specific problems, and Shaul dealt with each congregation differently. And when he wrote to a congregation, he “tweaked” the message about obedience to the Torah to meet their specific situation. This led to his letters being misused and misinterpreted to the point where modern-day Christianity is based almost exclusively on what he wrote instead of what God said, in the Torah.

Let’s not forget that Shaul was a Pharisee trained by Gamaliel, one of the greatest Jewish Torah scholars of all time, so, nu? … how could he have allowed this to happen? Where did he go wrong?

He tells us, himself, where he went wrong, and it’s here in 1 Corinthians 9: 19-22…

For although I am a free man, not bound to do anyone’s bidding, I have made myself a slave to all in order to win as many people as possible.  That is, with Jews, what I did was put myself in the position of a Jew, in order to win Jews. With people in subjection to a legalistic perversion of the Torah, I put myself in the position of someone under such legalism, in order to win those under this legalism, even though I myself am not in subjection to a legalistic perversion of the Torah.  With those who live outside the framework of Torah, I put myself in the position of someone outside the Torah in order to win those outside the Torah — although I myself am not outside the framework of God’s Torah but within the framework of Torah as upheld by the Messiah.  With the “weak” I became “weak,” in order to win the “weak.” With all kinds of people I have become all kinds of things, so that in all kinds of circumstances I might save at least some of them.

What Shaul is telling us is that he adjusted his message in order to meet the needs of his audience, instead of giving the exact same message to all the people. Now we know that God is never changing, and his word is never changing, but what Shaul did was to change Gods’ words in order to make them appealing to whomever he was talking to.

Add to that the fact that he talked using Jewish Logic and it becomes obvious why there is so much misunderstanding of what he wrote.

“Jewish Logic” is how Jews express their thoughts. Being Jewish, I know that a Jew will tell you everything that something isn’t before they tell you what it is. When you read Romans, you see a perfect example of what I am saying: Shaul goes through listing all the reasons that the Torah would be considered invalid, then comes back with “Heaven Forbid!” when he proposes that what he just said is true. That is why Romans has been used as a polemic against the Torah when it is, in fact, an apologetic FOR the Torah!

Shaul did what he considered the right thing to do in order to get the message about the Messiah out to as many people as possible. And, in fact, he did a great job of that. The problems came later when the letters he wrote to these different congregations, to help them manage themselves and stay on track, emphasized what each group needed to hear instead of sending the same exact message to everyone.

And that is where Shaul went wrong. Since then, his letters have been more of a stumbling block to the proper obedience to God, meaning worshiping and living the way God said we should, than almost anything else, other than (maybe) Constantine’s creation of modern-day Christianity.

Since we can’t get rid of these letters, when you read them please remember that Shaul was a Torah-observant Jewish man who was trying to do whatever he could to get both Jews and Gentiles to accept Yeshua as their Messiah. He said he wanted to get the message to as many people as possible in the hopes that some might be saved.

I think he assumed, as James did (in Acts 15:21) that all his new converts to Messiah would become more Torah observant as they grew spiritually.

Unfortunately, after Shaul’s death, the new leadership of these Gentile Believers decided they should break away from Judaism; that, however, is another story.

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That’s it for today, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Parashot Vayakhel-Pekudey 2021 ( And he assembled / These are the accounts) Exodus 35 – 40

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These last chapters complete not just the detailed narrative of the building of the Tabernacle, but the book of Exodus, as well. And, as you may have noticed, this Shabbat we have a double parashah.

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The details of the Tabernacle,. from the itemization of the articles to the size and breadth of the coverings, to the number of support beams, is exacting. We are told about every single item in such detail that it is almost easy to picture them in our minds.

Moses asks the people to voluntarily give the materials needed, and they give so willingly that he later has to tell them to stop because they gave so much more than was needed. The workers were also volunteers, and God gave divine wisdom to them in order that they could perform all the work required.
Once everything was done and put in place, Moses saw that the people had done everything, just as God said, and he blessed them.

The book ends with the Tabernacle completely put together, and God’s shekinah so filling the tent that Moses could not even enter it.

And when we come to the end of a Torah book, we say:

הזק חזק ונת חזק

(Be strong, be strong, and let us be strengthened)

Every time I read these last chapters of Exodus, and drag myself (sorry, but that’s the truth) through every, single, exacting detail of the Tabernacle, I always wonder why such a detailed listing? Why do we need to know exactly how many beams, how many footings for the beams, how many rings in the curtains, etc.? Will knowing this help me to become saved? Will knowing the exact number of pomegranates that were attached to the Cohan Gadol’s robe secure my place in heaven?

Obviously, not. So why do we have to know this? And while we’re at it, why do we have to know such exacting details in Ezekiel and Revelation when the temple is measured?

If you think that now I will give you the answer, well…you’re wrong. I don’t have an answer: that’s why I keep wondering about it. DUH!

But I do know one thing, and that is this: it is there for a reason.

Just because I don’t know what that reason is, doesn’t mean there isn’t one, and my acceptance of this condition, i.e. I have no idea why but I know it is for a reason, is what we call faith.

Maybe one day, who knows? I might read this and find some divine revelation in the numbers that are there. Now don’t get me wrong- I do not believe that Numerology is a legitimate form of biblical exegesis, but I do recognize that God often plays around with words and numbers, so there can be a meaningful message somewhere in all these details. I just don’t see it, yet.

And the reason I said I don’t see it, yet, is because I will not allow my not understanding today to interfere with trusting that one day I will understand. It may not be until I am dead and resurrected, at which time it probably won’t matter to me, but in any event, I will know. Someday.

And until then, I will keep reading it, no matter how boring or tedious it feels at the time. And yes, I confess, there are things in the Bible I find a little tedious to get through, but I read them, anyway. It comes back to that faith thing, trusting that one day God will reveal to me whatever message he has in there because he wouldn’t have put it there if it didn’t mean something.

And that is all we need to know.

That which is referred to as The Word of God– the Bible- is not entirely the words God said. In fact, the places where God actually speaks directly to the people are mainly in Exodus and Leviticus. Throughout these books we read at the beginning of almost every new chapter the words, “And God spoke to Moses, saying…”, indicating that what Moses then relates to the people are the exact words from God. We also read God’s direct words in the books of the prophets, where he tells the prophet exactly what to say to the people. Almost everywhere else we read where people relate that which God has said in the Torah. The New Covenant has absolutely no direct instructions from God, other than in Matthew 17 when he speaks at the transformation on the mountain and tells the Apostles with Yeshua to listen to him. That’s it!

Everything else in the New Covenant, especially the Epistles from Shaul to his congregations of newly converting Gentiles, is a person relating what God said in the Tanakh, but it is not God speaking.

Faithful trusting is demonstrated by accepting that you won’t understand everything in the Bible, not now and maybe never, but knowing what is in there, especially where God himself is talking, is important.

So, nu… if you have been raised as a Christian and found your biblical training mainly within the New Covenant, you really need to consider giving the “New” a rest and getting into the “Old” for a while because that is not just the word of God, but the only place you will find the very words FROM God!

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That’s it for this week; l’hitraot and Shabbat Shalom!

Sorry to Disagree, But the Flesh is Strong

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We read in the Gospels, such as in Matthew 26:40-42, that after their Passover Seder together, which is called the Last Supper, Yeshua asked some of his Talmudim to stay awake and pray with him in the garden, but each time they kept falling asleep.

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Yeshua commented that the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, meaning that although they wanted to, they weren’t as strong as their desire to obey him and so they fell asleep.

I am the last person on earth to want to argue with Yeshua, but in this case, I have to say I disagree with him: the flesh isn’t weak, it is strong.

The “flesh” is our humanity, our iniquity (the innate desire to sin), and our egocentric personality. Egocentric doesn’t mean we think we are better than anyone else, it means we see ourselves as the center of the universe, not caring that much for anyone else but concentrating only our our own needs and feelings.

For example, I know some people who seem to be so nice, offering their help and offering to give things to others but after a while, I can see that they are doing this not from a legitimate desire to be of service but to generate compliments for themselves and to hear people tell them how wonderful they are. The conversations they are involved in always seem to come around back to them, what they have done, what they know, etc. This doesn’t make them “bad” people, just egocentric.

In all fairness to the Disciples who were in the garden with Yeshua, they just finished a large meal with a lot of wine. Anyone who has been to a Seder knows there are 4 glasses of wine each person drinks during the meal; not only that but between reading the Hagaddah and eating in the middle of the narrative, these meals can take a few hours. So, naturally, full of lamb and wine, staying awake while sitting in a dark garden would be a real challenge to anyone.

With their flesh just dying to sleep, even though their spirit desired to pray along with Yeshua, their flesh was stronger.

If the flesh was truly weak, then we would be able to overcome it, wouldn’t we? Sin would be an easy thing to control and do away with, yet the facts of life show us, conclusively, that this is NOT the case. The flesh, the Yetzer Hara (evil inclination), the desire to do that which is pleasurable and easy is obviously stronger; otherwise, we wouldn’t really need the Messiah, would we? No, if the flesh was weak, we would be able to overcome our sinful desires and allow the Ruach (spirit) to control what we do and say.

But, as I have already pointed out, that isn’t how it is in real life. Why do you think Yeshua says the road less travelled and the narrow gate is the pathway to salvation?

So, all I am saying is it seems to me that the flesh is not really weak, but strong enough that we find great difficulty in overcoming it.

Again, far be it for me to argue with the Messiah, but in this case, I would change that statement in Matthew to read “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is strong and difficult for people to overcome.” Then I might follow that up with a statement Yeshua made earlier to his Talmudim (Matthew 19:26), where he says: “…With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

So if you want your spirit to be stronger than your flesh, you need to strengthen it with spiritual exercise. The way to do that is to pray, read the Bible, and obey the instructions God gave us in the Torah, which is the ONLY place where God tells us how he wants us to act.

And like any good exercise program, you must do this on a regular basis.

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That’s it for now, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Faith Has To Be A Little Stubborn

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Hebrews 11:1 says the following:

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

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I was having a discussion with someone yesterday about faith. He asked questions about what is in the Bible and I would answer that this is what God told us. He kept pushing his point, “How do you know that?” My answer was that this is what we are told in the Bible, to which he replied, “The Bible was written by people, wasn’t it?”

This was not an argument, mind you, but a respectful exchange of Q & A, with him offering up the “Q” and me supplying the “A”. I know I didn’t change his mind, at all, which is fine since it isn’t my place to tell anyone what they should choose to believe in.

And that is the operative word: choose. Faith is not something that we can prove because, as we are told, it is something we choose to accept as truth. Faith is not just a feeling, it is a choice; and, because it is unproven, we need to be able to hold onto our faith in the face of arguments and persecution.

That is why faith has to be stubborn. Stubbornness is not changing your mind easily, or (in most cases) not ever changing it, and to maintain our faith we need to have that stubborn attitude that says, “I don’t care what you say, I believe what I believe.”

The problem is what about when we see someone whose faith is misguided? Like the many Jews and Gentiles who are being led into damnation by their leaders, who are repeating what they were told, from all the way back to the end of the First Century when Christianity separated itself from Judaism and the “mainstream” Jews refused to accept Yeshua as their Messiah.

How many “faithful” Roman Catholics do you know who bow down to statues (the Bible calls them graven images) and pray to them? How can someone maintain their choice to do this when the Bible clearly says not to? Even Yeshua, himself, said he was the only way to God (John 14:6) so why pray to saints to intercede with Yeshua?

I mean, from a strictly Jewish viewpoint, why buy retail when you can get it wholesale? In other words, why ask some saint to ask Yeshua to ask God, when you can go straight to God by simply dropping Yeshua’s name?

I am not necessarily picking on the RC’s, although they do make it really easy to do so, but on Christianity, in general. And I’m not “picking on them” as much as trying to show the incorrect interpretation and sinful (meaning anti-Biblical) teachings that have misdirected faithful people into performing lawlessness.

Not that my Jewish brothers and sisters who still reject Yeshua are any better off. They are the ones who should be the saddest because the Torah says we have no forgiveness unless we sacrifice where God has placed his name, which was the temple in Jerusalem, which doesn’t exist anymore!

Faith is what we choose to have. Even though we can’t prove what we believe in, we do have a foundation for our faith, which is (or, at least, should be) the Bible. First, we choose to believe there is a God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; next, we choose to believe what we read in the Bible is accurate and true. Finally, we choose to believe that Yeshua is the Messiah he promised to send.

We choose to believe that what we read in the Bible is factual. We can’t ever prove it because “proof” is the antithesis of faith, and it is only through faith that we can be saved.

In other words, we have to believe in God because we choose to, and not for any other reason. Not because we are told we have to (which is what both Judaism and Christianity force their kids to do) and not because we are promised riches or blessings if we do, but because we choose to.

And it doesn’t matter why we chose to, so long as once we make our choice, we stick by it through hell and high water.

(No, I am not going to tell the joke about the town being flooded and the Rabbi with the rowboat, the truck, and the helicopter.)

The idea that faith is nothing more than a choice is very hard for worldly people to understand. The world says, “Prove it!” and God says, “Believe it.” These are in complete opposition to each other, and I have found that those who ask for proof are generally unsure of everything.

It is sad, but in my experience, faithless people are afraid of everything, and can only see the worst case scenarios. They trust no one, especially themselves, and have a very sad future since they figure this life is all there is.

When you have nothing to look forward to except this life, then you try to fill this life with as much “fun” as you can, which usually translates into sinfulness. It is a sad paradox that the ones who do not believe in an afterlife are guaranteeing theirs to be terrible.

I have a very stubborn faith, but I still am open to hearing other people tell me about what they believe the Bible says. And when I hear someone tell me what I know to be worldly teaching, it only strengthens my faith in what I believe- no, in what I KNOW– to be the way God says it should be.

I rarely read extra-biblical books, although I do now and then (for instance, the ones I have written I can highly recommend to you) because the Bible is all I really need to know. I won’t read the Quran or the Apocrypha’s or the Books of Jasper, Judas, etc. because they are not scripture. I also don’t read or study the Talmud or the Septuagint, although I will check out things that are in there as subject matter for my messages.

Why won’t I read those? Simply because they do not have anything I need- all I need is the Bible. And I stubbornly, or should I say faithfully, reject anything else.

Look, faith is stubborn and needs to be stubborn in order to be maintained. I suggest you don’t keep an “open mind”, but that you ensure your faithfulness has a strong foundation from the Bible. And not from what people tell you is in the Bible or what your religious leaders tell you the Bible says, but what you read in there yourself.

In Matthew 15:14, Yeshua said when the blind lead the blind, they both fall into a hole, so don’t be led by the blind: chose your own path and stick to it no matter what. The world has nothing of value for you and the spiritual people you meet may only tend to confuse you, so choose what you will believe and hold onto it as if your very soul depends on it… because it does!

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That’s it for now, so l’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

Parashah Ki Tissah 2021 (When you take) Exodus 30:11 – 34

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Moses is still on the mountain, Mount Horeb (also called Sinai) and God continues to give Moses instructions regarding the Tent of Meeting. He instructs him about the laver, the spices to be used, and that Bezalel and Oholiab will be in charge of the workers because of the skills God has given them.

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The people below, wondering what has happened to Moses, begin to lose faith and revert to their Egyptian ways. They command Aaron to make a golden calf for them, and after he does they revel in sinful and sexually perverted activities, acting as pagans do.

God tells Moses about this and that he will do away with them, but Moses intercedes for the people, arguing with God (nicely, of course) that if God destroys them now, the surrounding nations will think God did that because he wasn’t able to keep his promise to bring them to Canaan. God relents, but when Moses sees the revelry, he becomes so angry that he breaks the tablets God had given him and grinds the calf into dust, places it in water, and makes the people drink the water.

Aaron gives Moses some lame excuse that he didn’t really make the calf, it just sort of came out of the fire. Personally, I don’t think Moses believed that not even for a second.

Moses calls on whoever is for the Lord to gird on their swords and kill the sinners, and the tribe of Levi immediately comes to Moses’ call and slew some three thousand of the people.

Moses went back up the mountain to plead with God, who said he would not travel with the people. When Moses related that to the people, they all felt shame and repented by removing their ornaments.

Moses convinces God that he needs to travel with the people, and then asks God to show him (Moses) God’s glory, to which God agrees to show his back, but no man can see God’s face and live.

As God covers Moses’ face with his hand, he passes by and proclaims himself, which we call the 13 Attributes of God.

Finally, Moses goes back up on the mountain for another 40 days and nights. God inscribes the 10 Words on a new set of tablets, and when Moses comes off the mountain to relate God’s commands, his face is shining. From this point on, Moses would wear a veil in the camp, but remove it when he met with God.

The sin of the Golden Calf is one of those Bible stories that is never told enough times, the lesson being so important, but I am not going to talk about that today.

What I want to talk about is Exodus 34:5 – 7 (CJB):

Adonai descended in the cloud, stood with him there and pronounced the name of Adonai. Adonai passed before him and proclaimed: “YUD-HEH-VAV-HEH!!! Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh [Adonai] is God, merciful and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in grace and truth;  showing grace to the thousandth generation, forgiving offenses, crimes and sins; yet not exonerating the guilty, but causing the negative effects of the parents’ offenses to be experienced by their children and grandchildren, and even by the third and fourth generations.”

These are called the 13 Attributes of God, and this is what God told Moses about himself when Moses asked to see his glory, meaning who he is.

I have a clear and simple message for us today based on this proclamation, and that message is that we don’t need to know anything more about God then what he told Moses about himself.

Yeshua told us to come to him as little children (Matthew 19:14), and most of the people I have read or heard agree that this means to be faithful. Little children accept what they are told, and even though (if you’re a parent, you know this well) they ask “why” continuously, they never ask, “How can I be sure you’re right about that?” They trust that what you tell them is what it is.

I have been studying about God for over 25 years, and the one thing I have learned that I believe is most important is that I don’t have to know anything more about God than what he says I need to know. These attributes of God are included in the Torah so that we know what to expect from God, and that is what God wants us to know. I am sure there is much more to God than what he told Moses, but since these are all he said, these are all we need to know.

Humans are a curious animal, and I am sure that God, being our creator, isn’t surprised about this. But as I learned in the military, despite how important something may be, there is not just access to the information (which would be your security clearance) but there is also a need to know, meaning you may have a Top Secret clearance, but that doesn’t mean you can look at anything that is rated Top Secret. If it isn’t something that you are directly involved in, you don’t need to know about it.

How does this fit in with today’s message?

I am sure, in my own mind, that there is a lot more to God than just these 13 aspects of his personality. But because I want to come to God with the childlike faith that Yeshua was talking about, I am not going to interrogate God or study his word to try to understand him or why he does what he does. To me, this is a problem with many people who zealously want to know all about God: there is a difference between studying God’s word to know him better and studying God’s word to understand him and why he does what he does. Again, for ME, there is a fine line between unquestioning acceptance and the need for “proof” through understanding why.

Why can’t we eat pork? Why is there a showbread that no one eats until it is a week old and inedible? Why can’t we have two threads together? Why? Why? Why?

Don’t get me wrong- I am not saying we should never ask God why or study the Bible, but what is wrong, in my opinion (for whatever that means to anyone) is when we try to figure it out so that we can understand why. I read a long time ago that any God who can be understood by the mind of Man is not worthy of the worship of Man. I believe that makes a lot of sense because to be on the same “level” as God, wouldn’t we have to be a god? And, therefore, trying to be on his level is a form of blasphemy, isn’t it? Saying that any one of us could be the same as God?

I will never stop reading the Bible, and each time I read it I get a better sense of God. I have seen “between the lines” and had revelations of the deeper meaning, the Remes, of what God says in the Bible. I believe this understanding is from God, given to me through the indwelling Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit) and which I would never have understood before. In fact, there have been passages I have read dozens of times, but then suddenly reading it one more time, I see something in there I never saw before that makes my understanding of God even deeper.

But I never ask God to prove why we should do what he says we should, and that is the important difference between wanting to know God better, and wanting to know what God knows.

Even though it may seem fine to some to try to figure out why God gave us his commandments, I think that it is no different than asking God to prove to us why we should do as he says to do. A child asks why, and then accepts the answer without asking to prove it to be so, and when God tells us this is what we should do, if we begin to try to understand why he says that, to me, it is no different than saying, “Convince me why I should!”

God is above everything we could ever know or understand, and as such, if we can’t be faithfully trusting that what he says is what we should do without asking for proof, then I believe we are being disrespectful.

And that is not the childlike faith Yeshua said we need to have.

Thank you for being here, please subscribe, share these messages and I always welcome your comments.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and Shabbat Shalom!