Author: Steven R. Bruck
Stress Management 101
The world is quite stressed-out right now.
(There won’t be any video today. )
Whether you believe Covid-19 is a deadly disease and we all should be in isolation wearing a mask, or you believe we should all live like always because the Covid-19 isn’t any worse than any other flu, maybe just more contagious, everyone is stressed-out by this pandemic.
Whether orchestrated by China, encouraged by politics, both or neither, the economy is suffering, people are scared, the media is doing their usual fear-mongering, and the numbers we depend on have proven, to any reasonable person, that they are totally undependable.
So, nu? What to do?
My suggestion is that we all take a ride in Mr. Peabody’s Wayback Machine.
Go back to the last time we had a serious scare from a disease, such as H1N1, or the Asian Flu, but don’t go back so far that medical technology was non-existent, or (at least) much less developed than it is today. Let’s go back as far as, say, Legionnaires Disease. We survived all those diseases, and there were thousands upon thousands who died. And we did it without shutting the country down.
We survived the ridiculous gas prices in the 70s that caused so much stress; we survived the Cuban Missle Crisis, although to be fair, most of us didn’t know what was happening until it was nearly over. We survived the credit crunch of the early 80s.
And we will survive this.
The riots and lootings are, in my opinion, less a result of racism (although it is a catalyst) than it is of the stress that the country is under. When stressed out and frustrated, we get angry, and when we cannot contain our anger, we lash out. Unfortunately, racism is a very real and sinful part of America, and when you take that constant burning ember and throw the fuel of frightened people, misleading reports, lost jobs, lost income, forced isolation, and loss of personal rights, well…you get what is happening today.
So here’s the reason we went back in time: we need to remember that this is all the same stuff, different day, and we WILL get through it so long as we don’t give in to it.
For those who believe in God: keep the faith, Baby! God is in control, even when everything else is out of control, and what we are going through may be nothing more than God sitting back and saying to himself, “OK. Let’s see what they have learned.”
Look to God for the strength to maintain your faith and be faithfully patient for this to all blow over. Sooner or later the people will be tired of being lied to and controlled- Americans today may be weak and gullible, much more so than when I was a kid, but we are still full of attitude. Sooner or later, Americans- yes, even the ones that are easily fooled- will open their eyes, and then they will be really mad, but this time at the right people.
It IS frustrating to have vacations and family events canceled because of a political agenda, but think about what it was like for the first century Judeans under Roman rule, or even further back- the exiles living in Babylon. Think of the Jews in Sushan when Haman declared they are all to be killed. They were scared and frustrated, but they maintained their faith and God brought them through it.
He will do the same for those who believe in him. It may be the Acharit HaYamim, the End Days, are upon us. If that is the case, then all this mishigas is just the start, and it will get much worse. If that’s the way it is, then that’s the way it is, and so long as we maintain faith, we will be OK. Maybe not in this plane of existence, but this life isn’t what’s important- the next life is what we need to plan for.
Keep your eyes on the prize, don’t be turned from the pathway to salvation, and gird yourself for trouble. You will be going through hell, but you won’t be stopping there, and the other side is where God is waiting for you.
Thank you for being here and please remember to subscribe and share these messages. I also always welcome your comments.
Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
Parashah D’Varim 2020 (the Words) Deuteronomy 1 – 3:22
We have now come to the last book of the Torah.
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It is the 11th month of the 40th year since the Israelites came out of Egypt, and Moses knows he will not be crossing over with the people, so he gathers them together and reviews the past 40 years with them. This is, in essence, his last teaching, his good-bye speech, and he wants to make sure he doesn’t leave anything out with this final warning to the people.
In this first section, he reviews their travels and events, starting with leaving Mount Horeb (Sinai) and taking them to the recent victory over the two kings, Sihon and Og, whose conquered lands he gave to the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
This book is a recap of the travels, experiences, and teachings that the Israelites have undergone for the past 40 years. Moses states that the old generation, the ones that rebelled when they first came to the Promised Land, have all died in the desert, as God said they would, and now Joshua is to lead this generation into the Promised Land, and do so without fear because God will be going ahead of them and will protect them.
As we go through this book, there are some things I think we should be most aware of.
In Deut. 5, Moses restates “The Ten Words”, the Ten Commandments God gave us.
He also tells the people (Deut. 9) not to become proud and think they are in the Land because they deserve to be (when I read this I automatically think of Romans 11:18); no, they are there because God has kept his promise to their faithful and obedient Fathers (the Patriarchs), but the ones Moses is talking to now are rebellious, stiff-necked children. Moses reminds them of the many ways they have disobeyed and complained against the Lord for the past 40 years.
In a number of places, Moses warns the people against apostatizing and serving other gods, telling them that when (notice he doesn’t say “if”) they do, God will eject them from the land just as he did the people before them.
One of the most important chapters, in my opinion, of the entire Torah, is Chapter 28, The Blessings and Curses, where Moses tells the people exactly what blessings they receive for obedience and the curses they will suffer for disobedience.
Finally, God gives Moses and song for the people to learn (Deut. 32) and pass down throughout their generations as a testimony against them so that when they reject God and are dispersed, they will remember this song and know that what happened was their own fault.
This is Moses’ last chance to warn the people against disobedience, which is why he reviews the entire Torah, all the laws God has given, and all the times the people rebelled against them. He reminds them of how God has protected them when they were obedient and punished them when they disobeyed and emphasizes often that as long as they do what God has told them, they will live a long and peaceful existence in the land they are about to enter.
What you must realize is that the constant admonition from Moses to obey God’s instructions is valid for everyone, not just the Israelites that lived back then. Remember: God told Moses in Exodus 19:6 that the Israelites were to be his (God’s) nation of priests, and that means these lessons that were to be learned, everything Moses reviews in this book of Deuteronomy, is just as valid for both Jews and Christians today as it was for the Israelites back then.
In fact, these instructions are for everyone in the entire world.
If you want to know what God wants from you, all you have to do is read this book, Deuteronomy.
The last thing I want to talk about today is this:
Deuteronomy 29:28: “Things which are hidden belong to Adonai our God. But the things that have been revealed belong to us and our children, forever, so that we can observe all the words of this Torah.
Too many people want to know every single tidbit and iota of information about every single aspect of God and the Bible. Now, it is never wrong to want to know God better, and the best way to do that is to study his word, but when the need to know gets in the way of the ability to accept faithfully that all God wants us to know we have been told, then (in my opinion) it becomes a sin. God hasn’t just told us that all we need to know we have been told, but that anything else is above our pay grade, and only for him to know.
Just remember that the next time someone wants to argue about details that aren’t specifically in the Bible because reading between the lines can be a two-edged sword.
Thank you for being here and please subscribe, share these messages to help this ministry grow; I never ask for money, I just want to give people the right information so they can make an informed decision about where they will spend eternity.
Until next time, L’hitraot and Shabbat Shalom!
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Literal or Figurative?
When you read the Bible, do you believe that every, single reference to every single thing is meant to be taken literally?
When God said he created the entire universe in 6 days, is that literal?
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When we are told that the original 10 Commandments were written with the finger of God, did he really use his finger? Does a spiritual being even have fingers?
When Yeshua told Kefa (Peter) to feed his flock, did he really mean that Kefa was to give food to every, single Believer following Yeshua?
And what about Revelation? Is everything in there going to happen exactly the way John saw it?
The Bible is, first and foremost, subject to the personal knowledge and biases of the interpreter, and no matter how hard they try to make their interpretation as accurate and honest as they can, it is always subject to their abilities and knowledge.
Try this experiment next time you are at a party or gathering (assuming after this Coronavirus mishigas, we will be able to have parties again): tell a joke, a simple one, and let it circulate through the guests. Later, ask someone who didn’t hear you tell the joke to tell it to you, and I’ll bet you will be amazed at how much it has changed.
And let’s not forget that there are dozens of different versions of the Bible, each one must, by copyright law, be significantly different from all other versions.
Many things in the Bible are, obviously, to be taken literally, such as “Do not lie” or “Do not murder.” And then there are the obvious metaphors, although whereas they seem obvious to many, to others they aren’t. Such as the “lights in the sky” God created, as stated in Genesis.
Believe it or not, I have read postings from intelligent people who, in their desire to accept every word of the Bible as the absolute truth, state that the moon creates its own light and is, in fact, transparent. They also say the earth is flat. Their reasons for this? Well, that’s the way they interpret what the Bible says. And when shown scientific proof against that belief, they say that the proof is fabricated.
There is the story in Acts 10 about the sheet lowered three times onto the roof, and Kefa is told to eat unclean foods. He refuses each time, and each time God says not to call unclean that which he makes clean. This has historically been misinterpreted to mean the laws of Kashrut (Kosher) are no longer valid, but, in fact, it was never meant to be taken literally because it was a metaphor. God wasn’t talking about food, he was talking about the three Roman visitors (who Jews considered to be unclean) who came to bring Kefa to the house of Cornelius. It was all about giving the Holy Spirit (a spiritual cleaning) to the unclean Gentiles, and nothing to do with food or Kashrut.
Here is another example in Jeremiah 1:11-12:
And the word of the Lord came to me, asking, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” “I see the branch of an almond tree”, I replied. “You have observed correctly,” said the LORD, “for I am watching over my word to accomplish it.”…
In the Hebrew, Jeremiah replies using the word “shaked”, meaning almond tree, but when God answers him, he uses “shoked”, meaning watching. So, although Jeremiah sees an almond tree branch, God’s meaning is that he is watching his word to make sure it is accomplished and had nothing to do with trees or branches.
We see this also in Amos, Chapter 8 where Amos sees a basket with summer fruit (in Hebrew, kayitz) but God says the end (ketz) has come for his people.
Just as with Jeremiah, God is using a play on words, shaked vs. shoked and kayitz vs. ketz, which proves that not everything we read in the Bible is to be taken literally.
Visions are almost always a form of metaphor or figurative and are not to be taken literally.
The hard question for all of us is: “When it is literal and when is it figurative?”
The only answer I can give is that we have to consider a few different things when trying to answer that question. One thing to consider is does it make sense, both within the physical world and hermeneutically? We next ask whether or not this is a vision or dream, or is it happening in the “real” world?
And finally, we should ask God to guide our understanding through his Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit, to show us what he wants us to know.
The Bible is the word of God, at least, that is what I have heard it called all my life. Probably because that is what people have called it since it was first given to us by God. And it IS his word, but for the most part, it is his word translated or interpreted by people with personal bias, limited understanding, and (all too often) a personal agenda.
And let me add, as for the Talmud, also known as The Oral Law, well…if you did the experiment I suggested above, imagine that not just being done by a handful of people at a party, but by many people over thousands of years.
Read the Bible and trust in what God says, but also realize that what you are reading is not always exactly what God said. You must not just accept anything and everything in the Bible literally: you need to use ein bisschen seykhl (a little common sense) when you study the Bible, as well as becoming familiar and comfortable using Bible study tools, such as hermeneutics, Circles of Context, a concordance, the Interlinear Bible, a Hebrew version of the Tanakh, and a good Hebrew-English dictionary (unless you happen to be fluent in Hebrew).
Don’t take anything at face value, even within the Bible, and always question everything.
Let me finish with this last piece of advice: asking God to give you the understanding he wants you to have is the best way to make sure that when you read God’s word, you will understand what God meant.
Thank you for being here and please subscribe, share these messages with others, and if you aren’t familiar with the Bible study tools I mentioned, please comment to let me know and I will tell you what and where to get them.
Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
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Are Christians Better than Jews?
I know you’re thinking, “What a silly question! What Christian would consider themselves better than a Jewish person?”
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And you would be right in thinking that, but as a Jewish man who is also a Messianic Jew, I have been exposed to both Jews and Christians my entire life, and have experienced from both sides subtle, and not so subtle, prejudice.
To a “mainstream” Jew, I have to be a Christian because I “believe in Jesus Christ” and to many Christians, because I never rejected Judaism, I am not really “saved” because I still do all that Jewish stuff that Jesus did away with; they say because I try to obey the Torah, I am under the law and not under Grace.
The truth is that Jews have no idea who the real Messiah is because they only know the Constantinian form of Christianity which was supposedly created by that blonde-haired, blue-eyed European called Jesus. And the Christians? Most of them have no idea who Yeshua is or how their “Savior” really lived and worshiped, knowing (just as the Jews) nothing more than the Constantinian form of Christianity.
And what is one of the foundational teachings of Constantinian Christianity? It is that the Jews rejected Jesus and so those Gentiles who accepted him are not just saved, but because they recognized and accepted Yeshua as the Messiah, they are better than the Jews. Some take that to an extreme, which is called Replacement Theology. Replacement Theology states that the Jews, having rejected Jesus, are now rejected by God and that Christians are now God’s chosen people. Yeah, right. There will be a big surprise (and it won’t be pleasant) when they come before God and try to tell him they are his chosen people.
If you were brought up in one of those rare, yes rare, Christian churches that understand who Yeshua was and is, and do not accept that the Torah and all that “Jewish stuff” was done away with, then you probably will find what I am saying either hard to believe or maybe even a little insulting. If you are one of these (please believe me when I say) rare Christians, this next statement and the object of this message is not about you.
For the rest of the Christians, those who have been taught and believe that the Torah doesn’t apply to you and that Jesus did away with the law, let me remind you of what Shaul (Paul) said to the newly “saved” Gentiles in Romans 11:17-21 (CJB):
But if some of the branches were broken off, and you — a wild olive — were grafted in among them and have become equal sharers in the rich root of the olive tree, then don’t boast as if you were better than the branches! However, if you do boast, remember that you are not supporting the root, the root is supporting you. So you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” True, but so what? They were broken off because of their lack of trust. However, you keep your place only because of your trust. So don’t be arrogant; on the contrary, be terrified! For if God did not spare the natural branches, he certainly won’t spare you!
Too often Christians have been taught that they are better than the Jews because they accepted Jesus. Maybe not in those words, but in their attitude towards the Torah and Jews, in general. That is why, I believe, they have no problem rejecting God’s word in the Torah- it’s because that “better than thou” attitude has been conditioned through the subtle prejudice and anti-semitic teachings that have infiltrated Christianity since the first century. How else could one justify the historic hatred Christianity has shown towards the Jews?
What hatred, you ask? Ever hear of the Crusades? What about the Inquisition? Heck, even the Nazi’s had “Gott mit uns” (God is with us) imprinted on their belt buckles. And if you want to excuse them as not really Christians, to a Jew any non-Jew is a Gentile (the Hebrew word Goyim means “nations”, i.e. everyone else) and Gentiles have always killed Jews.
The sad truth is that Christians feel, whether they recognize it or not, that they are better than Jews, and even those that I deal with daily through discussion groups have demonstrated this by insisting on rejecting, and even decrying, traditional Judaic thought and actions, even when they are not in any way in opposition to God’s word. Things such as rejecting the standard Jewish calendar, or insisting on constantly using God’s Holy Name, even though Jews don’t use it simply out of respect. Too many Christians, mostly the “Holy Namers”, not only insist on pronouncing the Tetragrammaton, but insult and deride anyone who doesn’t. They say substituting “Adonai” (Lord) or “HaShem” (the name) for the Holy name (Y-H-V-H) is tantamount to praying to Ba’al! Ridiculous!
There is only one word that describes that attitude: disrespect. And disrespect is a form of boasting because you don’t disrespect those who you don’t feel superior to.
The really silly thing is that not only is this feeling within Christianity that they are better than the Jews, but within Christianity, they feel superior to each other, as well! Imagine: I am a grafted in branch, and I am better than those other grafted in branches who are newer to the tree than I am. Not only that, but now that I am grafted onto the tree, the tree now lives off of me.
Traditional Christianity teaches that the branch has replaced the root.
No one is any better than anyone else in God’s eyes, except maybe those who live their lives trying to please God by doing what he said we should. I am not proclaiming that strict adherence to the Torah is the only way to be saved, but I am saying that trying to do as God said is what God expects of us, and those who do more of what God says will receive more of God’s blessings. He told us that’s how it works in Deuteronomy 28.
Yeshua said a house built on sand will fall and one built on a rock will stand. The foundational tenets of Judaism are what our rock, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Y-H-V-H, gave us through Moses. That is the foundation God said to build upon. Modern Christianity has rejected, for the most part, what God said and instead built their house on sand, the sand that Constantine gave them in the third century, and the sand that the early Christian fathers taught by misinterpreting what Shaul wrote.
How can anyone obey what men say over what God says and think they are right?
Most Jews did reject Yeshua, and they still do, for the same stupid reason that so many Christians think they are better than Jews: ignorance. Both Judaism and Christianity have, for centuries, been based on the idea they are superior because that is what religion is: a system designed to give some people power over other people. God’s instructions are not a religion, they are a way of life designed not to make anyone superior to anyone else, but simply to please God and, thereby, receive blessings and eternal life.
Religion teaches us that some are superior to others, and God teaches us that the proud will fall and the humble will be raised up, so you need to decide which you would rather be: superior in your own mind or raised up by God?
Thank you for being here. Please subscribe to this ministry and share these messages with others. And remember that I always welcome your comments.
Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
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Taking Some Time Off
I want to take this moment to thank all of you who have subscribed, and by continually viewing and commenting on my messages help support this teaching ministry.
I didn’t post anything Tuesday and although I do have something for today, I am taking some time off. I won’t be doing my usual parashah message tomorrow, either.
Everyone needs to take some time to rest from what they do, even when they enjoy doing it, if for no other reason than to keep it from becoming stale.
Have a wonderful and restful Shabbat this weekend and I will be back online with you next week.
God willing!
Until then, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
Parashot Chukkat / Balak 2020 (Statutes / Balak) Numbers 19-25:9
There is so much here that I have to just give the highlights.
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We start with the regulations regarding the Red Heifer and the purification procedures involved with it. Next, we read of the death of Miriam, and the water coming from the rock after Moses struck it. But in his anger, Moses did not give credit to God so God tells Moses that he will not be allowed to enter the Promised Land.
They come to Mount Hor, where Aaron dies and Eliazar takes his place as Cohen HaGadol (High Priest).
The people are still wandering around the desert, and as they are now nearing the end of the punishment God decreed for them, they again complain about no meat generally kvetch about their lives, so God sends snakes against them as punishment. After repenting and asking forgiveness, God tells Moses to make a brass serpent and place it on a pole as a symbol so that when someone is bitten, if they look at the serpent they will not die.
This first parashah end with the defeat of both Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan.
The next parashah we will read for this double-parashot Shabbat is Balak, the story of how Balak, the king of Moab hired Balaam to curse the Jews. Balaam tells the messengers from Balak he refuses to go, as per God’s instructions, but Balak sends more important men with greater promises of reward and Balaam agrees to go. God sends an angel to block Balaam, and even though Balaam doesn’t see the angel, his ass does and three times avoids the angel. The third time Balaam begins to beat the ass for her disobedience, but God allows the ass to talk to Balaam, and then God opens Balaam’s eyes to see the angel, with drawn sword and ready to kill.
Balaam asks forgiveness and says he will return, yet God says to keep going but say only what God will tell him to say. Balak takes Balaam on a high hill to see the multitude of God’s people, and instead of cursing them, Balaam blesses them. Balak tries to get Balaam to curse the people three times, but all he does is bless them. Finally, enraged, Balak sends Balaam back home.
This parashah ends with the sin at Ba’al-Peor when the men of Israel began to associate with the Midianite women, sinning and worshiping their gods with them (we learn later, in Numbers 31, that this was Balaam’s idea). As Moses is telling them to stop, one of the princes of the tribe of Simeon is with a Midianite woman, and mocking Moses in full view of all the people; meanwhile, God has sent a plague as punishment for this terrible sin. Phineas, the son of Eleazar, is so enraged at the Simeonite prince that he thrusts a lance through both the prince and the woman with him, and this act of zealousness for God stays the plague, and that is where this second parashah ends.
As I said at the start, there is so much here.
Chukkat are the laws that God gave to us for which we can’t understand their meaning. The laws regarding the Shew Bread on the table, for instance, and this law about the Red Heifer, in which everything associated with preparing the heifer makes one unclean, but that which has made you unclean is then used to cleanse you.
The snake in the desert is so important for two reasons: first, the snake represented God’s salvation for those who would die, which has the spiritual message that when we look to, i.e. call upon God, we will be saved from death. Second, the snake is mentioned by Yeshua (John 3:14) as a foretelling of his form of death, as well as a prophecy about the distant future when he is held up and worshiped as God, just as the snake was later called Nehushtan and turned into an idol (2 Kings 18).
And finally, the lands that were taken from the two kings, Sihon and Og, are later given to Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, which ended up separating them from the protection of their brothers and their eventual destruction and dispersion throughout the world by the Assyrians, well before the Northern Tribes suffered the same fate.
Oy! Where to start, how much to say, and how can I stop once I start (which is always a problem)?
I am going to make this a simple lesson because as I reviewed these chapters, one thing stuck out in my mind: in my Chumash, the commentary on the Red Heifer gave a story about Rabbi Yochanon Ben Zakkai telling his talmudim (students) “…but the law concerning the Red Heifer is a decree of the All-holy, whose reasons for issuing that decree it behooves not mortals to question.”
This is pretty much what God told Moses later, which we read in Deuteronomy 29:29:
The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.
Too often I hear people asking questions about the secret things, such as the pronunciation of God’s name, are he and Yeshua the same or separate beings, when does a certain holy day on the calendar really begin, and other such Gnostic-like questions. They want to know every little detail about every single line of the Torah and use the excuse that they are trying to be obedient as their reasoning.
God told us everything we need to know, and beyond that, he told us to mind our own business. God doesn’t care if we understand why he said what he said, or why he wants us to do something, he only cares that we do it. The Torah is the first time people were told they don’t have the need to know. To me, the willingness to accept that because God said something, that is all the justification we need is a demonstration not just of obedience, but of our respect, trust, and faithfulness.
So today’s message is this: if you don’t understand why God wants you to do something, it’s OK to ask God to explain it to you; but, if he doesn’t give you an answer, accept that his silence means it isn’t necessary for you to understand, it’s just necessary for you to obey.
The ultimate demonstration of our faith in God is to come to him like little children (sound familiar?), meaning we don’t question why we have to do something, we just do it.
You don’t get on God’s good side by trying to understand him, you get on God’s good side by trusting that he knows what is best for you and faithfully obeying him.
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Until next time, L’hitraot and Shabbat Shalom!