Author: Steven R. Bruck
Parashot Veyakhel / Pekudey 2020 (He assembled / Accounts) Exodus 35 – 40
Because we are in a Leap Year, in order to have the annual reading cycle of the Torah comply with the Gregorian calendar, there are some Shabbat readings where we will read two parashah instead of one. This Shabbat is one of those times, and it also takes us to the end of Sefer Sh’mot, the Book of Exodus.
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In these last chapters, we are told of the generosity of the people in giving all the materials needed for constructing the Tabernacle; in fact, Moses had to order them to stop bringing materials because they had contributed too much. We are told how the construction and materials were made, and these chapters are almost a word-for-word repetition of the instructions God gave Moses earlier. The style of the last chapters of Exodus regarding the Tabernacle is like reading “Here is what you are to do”, in minute detail, then we read “This is what they did”, in minute detail, ending with “And this is what was done”, in minute detail.
The last chapters tell us that Moses blesses the people for their work (which is likely when he wrote Psalm 90), which they did exactly as God commanded, and we end this book with God’s presence filling the Tabernacle.
And we end this book of the Torah with the statement we use at the end of each book:
Chazak! Chazak! V’nit Chazek!
(Be strong! Be strong! And let us be strengthened)
Regarding the building of the Tabernacle, we are given so many minute details of every aspect of this task. We are told how many loops, how many posts and bearings, what is made of which material, how many pomegranates, the dimensions of each section of the tent, and the weights of the materials used.
Would you like to know why there is so much detail regarding the building of the Tabernacle?
So would I. And you know what else? I don’t think we will ever know.
The same sort of minute detailing is given when Ezekiel measured the Temple, which we can read about in Ezekiel 40-43. It seems that there must be some reason, and maybe that reason is simply so that when we do rebuild the Temple, we will already know what we need to have and how to do it.
Who knows? Let’s move on…
What I found interesting in these readings is that Moses did not ask for God’s guidance or pray for success when they started to build the Tabernacle, and he did not bless the people for their work until after the entire task was completed correctly. I have always thought that when we start a project or begin a task, we should ask God for guidance and bless the people performing the task.
But the Chumash explains Moses held back his blessing until after the project was completed because it is an easy thing to start something difficult, but very hard and rare to complete it exactly as it was supposed to be done.
My take on this is that a blessing is not given but earned.
That also jibes with what we read in the Bible, as God’s blessings were given after something was done and not before. We should ask for God’s guidance and help, but a blessing is not to be given until the task is completed.
The same holds true with obedience. God has many blessings, so many that if you put them into a bottomless pit they would spill out over the top, but we will not receive even one blessing if we do not do something worthy of one.
Yes, there are times when God will bless someone even though they don’t deserve one, and we know that he rains on the just and the unjust, alike, so there will be times a blessing is given that has not been earned, but that is God’s choice to do. After all, these are his blessings to give, and if he wants to give one for no reason that we can discern, then he can give it. And really… who in their right mind would ever refuse a blessing?
The lesson for us from all this is that when we do as God says we should, we will receive a blessing. We will not get anything for not doing anything, and that means when you have a need and ask God to help you, he is willing and able to help but he will not do it for you.
Too many people sit around complaining about their life and asking for prayer from others. Yet, when they are given advice on how to get out of their slump or how to meet their needs, they always seem to have some excuse why that won’t work. Or they will say they have tied it and it didn’t work. I often wonder when someone says nothing works if they really tried hard enough to make it work. How many times have you tried to open a jar and found it too hard, but then you get angry at the jar and you can open it? Is it the anger, the adrenaline, or just simply that you finally put the effort needed into the task?
When you are in a slump or have a need, it is right and a good idea to ask God for help, but he won’t do anything until you walk in faith (as Abraham did) by getting off your kvetching tuchas and do what you would do as if you already had what you asked for. Yeshua tells us this is what we should do in Mark 11:24 when he said:
Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, trust that you are receiving it, and it will be yours.
Figure out what you want, determine how to get it, ask God for help and then get started. Don’t wait for the answer and don’t wait for a sign, for no sign shall be given. Just walk in faith trusting that what you asked for will be given to you. But keep your eyes open and your ears clear so that you can see where God leads you once you start walking; you never know, you may start in the wrong direction and God will have to redirect you.
God’s blessings are here for the asking, but they are not given until the work is done.
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I welcome your comments and until next time, L’hitraot and Shabbat Shalom.
Video for Parashot Veyakhel / Pekudey 2020
Too Early to Know
I was reading Dear Abby this morning and a 16-year-old girl wrote in how she and another boy, one year older than her, like each other but the boy wasn’t ready for a relationship. This, of course, is driving the girl crazy.
Here’s what drove me a little crazy about this issue: she says the boy is a transgender boy.
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He is only 17 years old!! She wasn’t female long enough to even know what being a female is all about, and yet the parents, as well as the legal system, has allowed this child to sexually mutilate herself into himself and take mind-altering, as well as physiological altering, drugs just because she “thinks” she should be a he before she or he has even finished puberty!!
Now wait a minute…before anyone who is a member of the LGBTQ community jumps down my throat, this is NOT a judgment on your lifestyle or sexual/gender identification, or your rights. That is not the issue here.
The issue is that a child of 16 or 17, and certainly one much younger, is not mature enough, either physically, emotionally or socially, to make a life-changing decision such as changing their gender. Even with psychological counseling, they are just too damn young and (life) inexperienced to make such a drastic decision.
We don’t let them drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes until they are 21, and they can’t even vote until they are 18. So if these simple decisions that are reversible during their lifetime are considered too difficult a decision for them to make until they are of legal age, why can pre-pubescent children be allowed to alter their gender?
I believe the parents who allow this should be charged with child abuse and the doctors should have their licenses revoked and charged with malpractice. No child of 16 or 17 is able to make a sound, mature and experienced decision about which gender they identify with.
And anyone who disagrees is, in my opinion, saying that only as a defense mechanism, without a care at all for the child’s welfare. They disagree only because they want to support an agenda that is not really being questioned here.
This country allows drag queens to read to toddlers in public libraries- libraries that receive their funding from the community. These innocent children are too young to even know what morals are, let alone have enough life experience to know what a drag queen really is. To them, these men are no different than a circus clown all dressed up. But there is a BIG difference- those men dressed as women are not clowning around.
I know gay people and have family members who are gay and have never once judged them, even though I know what God says and don’t agree at all with their lifestyle. But right or wrong, sinful or not, a sex change operation is such a drastic event that it must be prohibited until such time as the person requesting it is of legal age and has shown enough life experience and emotional maturity for a panel of experts to determine that this person is making an informed decision.
God has been removed from our courts and schools and replaced with politically correct sinfulness, moral depreciation, and fear of being labeled as someone not tolerant or compassionate. I know prayer is a powerful weapon, but even in the Bible we read how both the Northern, and later the Southern Kingdoms had committed such horrible sins, and for so long, that God was past hearing their prayers and was on his throne of judgment.
I believe that America is in the same place that Shomrom was in after King Ahab, which a few hundred years later Judea was in after King Manasseh.
We have been sinning too much and too long for prayer to wash us clean, and the only thing left to us now is judgment.
God made us the way we are and if someone wants to change what God did, then they will have to deal with God on their own. And whether or not you believe in transgender sex operations, no one should be able to do that to themselves until they are at least of legal age, as well as having shown enough maturity, experience, and understanding of the consequences of their actions to demonstrate they really know what they are doing.
And no teenager can do that.
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The Sin Yeshua Refused to Forgive
Do you recall the story about the adulteress brought before Yeshua? You can find it in John 8:3-11 (CJB):
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The Torah-teachers and the P’rushim brought in a woman who had been caught committing adultery and made her stand in the center of the group. Then they said to him, “Rabbi, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in our Torah, Moshe commanded that such a woman be stoned to death. What do you say about it?” They said this to trap him, so that they might have ground for bringing charges against him; but Yeshua bent down and began writing in the dust with his finger. When they kept questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “The one of you who is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then he bent down and wrote in the dust again. On hearing this, they began to leave, one by one, the older ones first, until he was left alone, with the woman still there. Standing up, Yeshua said to her, “Where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, sir.” Yeshua said, “Neither do I condemn you. Now go, and don’t sin any more.”
When I last read this it occurred to me that there was no forgiveness given for the sin the woman was supposed to have committed. No one should be surprised that this situation was a set-up to disgrace and trap Yeshua; in fact, the Bible story tells us that is exactly what was being done. And the fact that the woman was caught in the act of adultery but the other party to that sin was not there is a clear indication that the whole thing was somewhat shady.
Of course, Yeshua didn’t fall for this trap. We know from what we read in the Gospel accounts that by reason of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) Yeshua knew what people were thinking, and although we will never know what he wrote in the sand, his actions were designed to show the accusers that he knew exactly what was going on.
I believe the woman was actually committing the sin of adultery, if for no other reason than the fact that it was the Pharisees who brought her before Yeshua. You see, to accuse someone of a crime that was not committed is a violation of the 9th Commandment about not bearing false witness. So, even though their intention was to trap Yeshua, I don’t think that a Pharisee would have violated one of the Big Ten just to trap Yeshua.
For the moment, let’s look past the actions of Yeshua and the men who brought her, and look to the woman. When Yeshua asked her who was there to condemn her, she said no one, but nothing else. She did not confess her sin, she did not ask for forgiveness, neither did she say one word about being falsely accused. If I was brought before someone and falsely accused, the first thing I would have said was that this was a frame-up. But this woman said nothing, and I believe her silence spoke volumes.
When Yeshua said he would not condemn her, he was obeying the Torah. In Deuteronomy 19:15 it says this (JPS Tanakh):
A single witness may not validate against a person any guilt for any offense that may be committed; a case can be valid only on the testimony of two witnesses or more.
Once everyone left, and Yeshua was alone with the woman, no accusation could legally be made against her, so Yeshua obeyed the law and told her to go.
But – and here’s the important part- he never said she was forgiven. In fact, he told her not to sin anymore. That statement (to me) clearly shows that she did sin, he knew she sinned, but since she never confessed her sin or asked for forgiveness, he didn’t give it. In my opinion, I think the woman had no intention of stopping her adulteress ways, which is why Yeshua warned her not to sin anymore.
In other words, she got off on a legal technicality and the judge told her she might not be so lucky the next time.
You might be thinking, “OK, so this is interesting, but what does it have to do with me?”
Everything! The lesson we learn from this story is that even though forgiveness is available to us, we must confess our sin and ask for that forgiveness. And if the confession is not a truly repentant one, God will not be fooled because he knows your heart and what is in your mind.
If you have been taught that because Yeshua died for your sins they are automatically forgiven, you have been taught a lie. No sin is automatically forgiven. Ever. We must first and foremost feel repentance: if you really aren’t sorry for the sin you committed, there is no chance of being forgiven. Next, your repentant attitude should cause you to confess your sin before God, which will then put you in a position to ask for forgiveness, which now, since the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, can only be given by means of the sacrifice which Yeshua made on our part.
Even though Yeshua did forgive some people’s sins when he was performing his ministry, he is the Messiah, the Intercessor for all of us, and after his sacrifice, it is now only God who can forgive sin. Yeshua provided the means for forgiveness, but he is not the one who forgives anymore. Only after we accept Yeshua as our Messiah, repent, confess and ask God for forgiveness in Yeshua’s name, will we be able to receive forgiveness of sin.
And we need to repent, confess and ask forgiveness for each and every time we sin.
The “Once saved, always saved” policy is something some person created, and it is not a policy that God recognizes.
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Until next time, L’hitraot, Baruch HaShem…and don’t forget to wash your hands!
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Parashah Ki Tissa 2020 (When you take) Exodus 30:2 – 34
In today’s Torah reading we are told about the 1/2 shekel that every male of fighting age had to pay in order to ransom their souls. God then gives instructions regarding the laver (Mikvah), preparing the incense, and assigning Bezalel and Oholiab over the manufacturing of all the articles needed for the Tabernacle. He also instructs Moses about the Shabbat and gives some of the Kashrut (Kosher) laws.
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The Sin of the Golden Calf happens in this parashah, as well as God describing his very nature to Moses, which in Judaism we call the 13 Attributes of God.
The parashah ends with God forgiving the sin of the people (thanks to Moses’ intervention) and Moses receiving the second set of tablets.
When I started to read this parashah, I knew immediately that what I should talk about today was not the really big topics, meaning the Golden Calf sin or God’s nature, but the very first thing I read about- the ransom.
Many people are confused over the fact that God says we should not kill, yet he orders us to entirely destroy men, women, and children, whole societies. How can a God that hates killing order genocide?
The Torah is more than just a list of commandments. One of the things it does is to establish a penal code, and there is one penalty for murder and another one for accidental homicide. For a murder, meaning a premeditated and purposeful act of killing someone, the penalty is death. However, if someone commits an accidental homicide, they are allowed to pay a ransom for their life.
As an example, if I wait in hiding for you and when you come, I attack you and kill you, I am a murderer and the penalty is death. However, if I lend you a bull that is known to gore people and it kills you, then I have committed the sin of causing someone to die and my penalty is death. However, because this death was unintentional I am able to pay a ransom for my soul and stay alive.
Of course, I may have to deal with the blood avenger at some point, but that’s not relevant to today’s message.
As I mentioned, the very first lines of this parashah say that everyone who is older than 20 years of age must pay a half-shekel ransom for their souls. The reason for this payment is because God IS against people killing other people, which always is a sin. However, when a soldier kills while in battle, God does not consider that the same as intentionally murdering someone. As such, a ransom is able to save their soul from the penalty of sinning.
We read in other places how the soldiers, upon returning from a battle, would dedicate some or all of the spoils to the Sanctuary. This was their ransom payment, which they gave in order to avoid the penalty for having taken a life.
God hates anyone dying, and we read in Ezekiel 18 that he doesn’t want anyone to die, and wants only that those who sin would turn from their sin so they may live. The ransom for one’s soul is how God allows for killing while still maintaining his overall commandment about not killing. The sin of killing is still a sin, but when done under orders by God or unintentionally, there is a means to avoid the immediate penalty (death), and that will also allow for forgiveness of the sin on a spiritual plane.
Ultimately, when we sin on earth we must suffer the consequences of that sin, even if we repent and are forgiven because forgiveness of sin is a spiritual event and secures our place in eternity. It does not let us avoid the consequences of that sin while we are still alive. The ransom for one’s soul when the killing is unintentional or a result of being in a war, is a “legal device” which will countermand the penalty.
There is a story in the Babylonian Talmud about how the angels, upon seeing the Egyptians drowning in the Red Sea, sang praises of joy for the salvation of the Israelites, but God rebuked them, saying, ‘The works of My hands are drowning in the sea, and you would utter song in My presence!”
The point is that God hates it when someone kills another person, but as a fair and perfect judge, he will take into consideration the cause and motivations behind the action. When killing is done by God’s command, we are not really going out on our own volition and killing someone, we are acting as God’s executioners. The slaughter of the people we read about in the Bible was not genocide, as much as it was punishment for the sins they had committed. Considering the thousands of innocent people, of all ages and gender, who were sacrificed to the pagan Gods, these people were all guilty of murder and when God sent the Israelites to destroy those cities, he was not murdering innocent people but was actually using the Israelites as his means of executing criminals. But even though they were killing under orders, so to speak, the people doing what God commanded still had to pay the penalty for taking a life.
God hates murder and hates the act of taking a life, but he is also a fair and righteous judge who knows and accounts for the motivation behind our actions. That is good news for those who try to do right but fail and repent, and bad news for those who think they can go through the motions of being worshipful, righteous and repenting, but whose hearts and minds are really ruled by sin.
You can’t fool God.
Amen!
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Video for Parashah Ki Thissa 2020
Changed My Mind
I just spent about an hour writing a message about fear and how it can be used to control us.
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When I couldn’t think of how to conclude the message I realized that I couldn’t stop writing because all I was doing was rambling on and on and on.
So here I am starting over, and trying to stay on topic, which is about the fear currently controlling the world, a fear which I haven’t seen this bad since McCarthyism, the A-Bomb Scare, or Legionnaire’s Disease.
(OK, I wasn’t old enough to go through the McCarthy era, but I certainly remember the others.)
I’m not going to discuss my feelings about the coronavirus phobia, which is what happened in my first draft and why I had to delete it, but will simply state that fear will abide and grow where there is no faith in God.
What I think is really terrible (maybe you agree?) is that now even houses of worship are closing their doors to their own congregants!
When there is a worldwide panic, as we are seeing today, the one place you would expect people to go is to their house of worship, where they can collectively pray for God’s help and protection. Yet, what are these houses of God doing?
They are shutting the people out!
Now, you tell me…is this something that serves God or helps the Devil?
Ah, now you see where I am going with this message: worldwide fear is a tool of the enemy of God, and the more we allow it to propagate, the more people will be controlled by Satan.
That may sound a bit far-fetched, but I do not believe so. Satan will not walk up to you and say, “Yo! Satan’s the name, and eternal damnation is my game. Ya wanna play?”
No, that won’t be the way he does it. What Satan will do is generate distrust and fear among the people, then present himself as a savior, overcoming the problem that caused the fear.
As an example, let’s use the current phobia over coronavirus: maybe someone will come up with a cure and in order to receive it free, you have to qualify, and when you do you will receive a chip in your hand you can use at a clinic to receive the shot.
Or maybe it will be a financial crisis, or maybe it will be some other world-shattering event. No one can know for sure what it will be, but I am certain that this is the process he will use.
So stop being afraid of the virus; after all, the medical fact is that it isn’t very deadly, and almost 99% of the people infected recover within a few days, I’ll bet many have already had it and thought it was just the flu. But do be aware of the effect that this event is having on the world’s population, which has already reached the point where countries are shutting themselves off from the world.
Do you remember what Yeshua said when he was accused of working for Satan? He said a house divided against itself cannot stand, and what do we see in the world today? Countries separating themselves from the world, events banning people from attending, schools closing and churches and synagogues refusing to open their doors.
We are being torn apart from the inside, and if you don’t think that is something that Satan can use to gain power, then you are blind.
Wash your hands and cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze. Really- we should all do that anyway. Didn’t your Mommy teach you that when you were a child? And shake hands with people, hug them and go through life as you always have, just be more aware of touching your face or wiping your nose. Keep one of those hand sanitizing spray bottles in your pocket- that’s fine. Being concerned and careful is not wrong, but being frightened to the point where you shut yourself off from others is wrong.
One last point…remember that Yeshua said whenever two or three are gathered in his name, there he will be; that can’t happen if no one is getting together with anyone else.
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Until next time, don’t be afraid, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!