Many of us have memories of places we have been, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, but I believe that as bad as some of these places were, pretty much everyone has one place that they feel is the worst place they have ever been.

But I’m telling you that no matter what your experience has been, there is one place that is ultimately the worst place anyone can be…

But first! A word from our sponsor…
(If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.)

The worst place anyone can be, especially if we are talking about your spiritual condition, is…

Locked into your comfort zone.

Now, I am not saying you should go out and ride rollercoasters, or bungee jump off the Golden Gate Bridge, or even just tell your wife that those pants make her look fat.

No. Neither should you give up being comfortable nor forego those things that make you feel safe and secure.

When I say the worst place to be is locked into your comfort zone, what I mean is when you are so comfortable that you no longer want to learn anything new, or do anything different, or even order something other than Chicken Parmigiana every single time you go to an Italian restaurant.

And this is especially true of being so comfortable with what you have been taught regarding God or Yeshua (Jesus) or salvation that you will not even be open to hearing anything that someone has to say which is different than what you already think you know.

I am very secure in my beliefs, but I confess that I have had to change my mind at times. And when I say you should be open to listening, that means to investigate and verify anything you are told about anything, especially if it is different from what you already believe.

One more thing: if you haven’t/don’t read the Bible regularly, from front (that is, Genesis) all the way through to the end of Revelation, then you are already in trouble because whatever you think you know, you are probably wrong.

And if you are stubbornly comfortable with your golf game, or your favorite chair, or with whatever books you have already read, and no matter what anyone says, you don’t want to order something different at your favorite restaurant, the only thing that mindset will effect is how interesting you are and how exciting your life will be.

BUT…if you stay locked into your comfort zone regarding your spiritual condition, meaning that you don’t want to hear or know anything other than what you have been told, then you are risking your eternal soul!

What things am I talking about? How about once you’re saved, you are always saved (that’s a lie!); or all you have to do is call on the name of the Lord and you are saved (that won’t be enough!); or howzabout the one where they say if you love each other you get to go to heaven (again, that’s not enough, and for the record? -no one goes to heaven).

When it comes to God, Yeshua, and the truth about obedience to God, which can only be done by being obedient to God’s instructions for righteousness in the Torah, these are things that we should NEVER be comfortable with. You must always verify whatever you hear, whenever you hear something different from what you have (hopefully) already verified to be true, and do so with an open mind. Make sure people aren’t making up what they want the Bible to say, then taking verses and passages out of context to create the illusion that what they are saying is truly in the Bible.

Yeah, all the parts of what they say are in the Bible, but they have taken bits and pieces, here and there, to make it seem that is what the Bible means. But that isn’t always true.

I have written a teaching series on how to properly interpret the Bible, and here is a link to it: Bible interpretation.

So, my friends, please always stretch yourself beyond what is comfortable, and the way to know that you need to stretch is when you are so comfy-cozy that you do not ever want to change. Read a new book, talk to people who disagree with you (nicely, of course) to get an idea why they feel that way, and then spend some quality time verifying their opinion, or being able to (nicely, of course) rebut it.

But do something different, now and then! Your life may be comfortable, but your life is temporary, and eternity is….well, it’s eternal!

If you aren’t willing to spend the time to expand your understanding of God, Messiah, the Bible and salvation, then you are risking your eternal soul.

Are you really that lazy?

Thank you for being here, and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, especially non-believers. Hey! You never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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

Have often have your heard people say that Jesus died for our sins?

And he did, but it isn’t his death that saves us.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

The sacrificial system has 5 steps:

1. You have to sin (no sin, no need for forgiveness, right?)
2. You have to recognize and confess that you sinned
3. You have to repent of that sin (turning from sin is called T’shuvah)
4. You have to shed innocent blood for that sin to be forgiven: blood that should be yours
5. You have to ask to be forgiven.

When Yeshua sacrificed himself, he did not to do away with any of these steps, or the sacrificial system, itself. He replaced step 4, the need to sacrifice an animal (shed innocent blood) at the temple in Jerusalem, which was the only place that any sacrifice to Adonai would be accepted (Deut. 4). Through Yeshua’s sacrifice, we can now ask for forgiveness any time, any where, whenever we need to.

Which, in my case, is too darn often!

Yet, it isn’t by reason of his death that we can be saved; there is more to it than just that.

First, he lived a life that was in 100% accordance with the Torah, 100% of the time. That is something that no human before him, or since, has been able to do, so when he died, he was truly the innocent lamb that the sacrificial system required. And because he was supernaturally born to be the Messiah, his human life and death had a much greater effect on humanity.

Second, his resurrection proved that his sacrifice was accepted, which is the second most important step in being saved. But, as I said, it isn’t how we are saved.

We are saved not by his life, or by his death, or even by his resurrection, although they are all part of the process….

We are saved by being forgiven.

Only God can forgive sins, and even though Yeshua said that he had the authority to forgive sins ( Matthew 9:6; Luke 5:24), he was very specific to say that he had that authority “on earth”, meaning (as I understand it) only while he was ministering to people, and only to prove that he is the Messiah God promised to send.

What we are told about him after he was raised into heaven is that he now sits at the right hand of God, where he intercedes for us.

From the very beginning of creation, and throughout time even to this very moment, it is only God who can forgive sins. Not a priest, not a Minister, not a Rabbi- only God. And the only way we can be forgiven is through confession, repentance, and accepting that Yeshua is the Messiah, whose sacrificial death was accepted as the sin sacrifice we must make according to the Torah.

Oh, yes, and one more thing…you must ask to be forgiven.

That’s right! Even with all that Yeshua did, if you do not ask to be forgiven, you will not be forgiven. There is no such thing as OSAS (Once Saved, Always Saved); that is a lie from the pit of Sheol, originated by Satan in order to fool people into remaining stained with their sins, even while they believe they are forgiven.

I hate to burst bubbles, but if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

It is not Yeshua’s life, or death, or even resurrection through which we are saved; his part in all this was to provide the means of forgiveness (especially after the temple was destroyed) so that we can ask for God to forgive us.

When we are forgiven, THEN we are saved. That is, up until the next time we sin, which (again, for me) doesn’t usually take too long until I have to ask.

Especially when I am driving in traffic.

So, that is the real way we are saved- not by Yeshua’s death (although that is part of it), or by calling on God’s name (which is also part of it), or by the fact of Yeshua’s Torah observant life (which made it all possible)…no!

The only way we are saved is by asking God to forgive us.

In the end, after all that Yeshua did, after faithfully accepting him as Messiah, heartfelt confession, repentance, t’shuvah (demonstrated through Torah observance), it still comes down to this- the only way we are saved is to ask to be forgiven of our sins, and only God can do that.

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even those who do not believe. After all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot, and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

There are hundreds of versions of the Bible, over 450 in English, alone, not to mention that today it has been translated into some 756 different languages!

There’s gotta be a whole lotta different interpretations of the same verse(s), what with all those different interpreters, differences that happen when one language is translated into another, and even copyright laws, which state there have to be (literally) hundreds of words different from someone else’s version of the Bible.

If you prefer to watcha video, click on this link: Watch the video.

To properly interpret the Bible, we need to be historians, linguists, and also have a spiritual maturity that allows us to be guided by God’s Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) in order to realize what he meant when he told Moses what to write, when he told the prophets what to say (which, for all we know, may have been different from what they heard, but being essentially the same message), and what the Apostles wrote, especially Shaul (Paul), which is not God-breathed scripture, such as what we have from Moses, or the Prophets, or from David’s psalms.

No, what is included in the New Covenant are the Gospels, which are a historical narrative of the life and teachings of Yeshua (which were all based on the Torah), and the letters that were written by the apostles designed to keep the Jews and Gentiles, who accepted Yeshua as the Messiah, to reverting from the faith-based obedience they were taught to obedience as a means of attaining salvation (which we call “Legalism”).

Reading the Bible with an open mind is very hard to do if you have been raised already knowing what it means. I have often heard people defend the meaning of a biblical verse, but instead of demonstrating a knowledge of the Bible, they simply go on parroting what they have been told in religious school or from what they have heard.

(“Parroting” means repeating what you hear without understanding what it means,
like a parrot.)

So, let’s get to the point of today’s lesson: do not automatically accept what anyone says the Bible means (yes, including me), until you have thoroughly investigated it for yourself. And, what is even more important, when you think you understand what the Bible means, do not trust your own interpretation, but investigate it as you would if you were hearing it from a stranger.

In the event that you are not sure how to investigate, I have written an entire teaching series on how to properly interpret the Bible, which I believe can help. Here is a link to it: Interpreting the Bible.

And don’t think that just because someone has a couple of letters after their name that they really know what they’re talking about; remember that religious schools (like a Seminary or a Yeshivah) are only teaching what their religion has been saying for centuries.

For example, there is in Jewish history two greatly respected rabbis of old, Hillel and Shammai. They both lived during the transitionary period from BCE to CE, right around the same time Yeshua was teaching. Their interpretations of the Torah were very different, and there was a competition- we could even call it a war- between these two houses of wisdom. So, if two great scholars could have such different interpretations from the same Bible, which was in the same language (Hebrew), then how can we trust what we hear today, with all these different versions?

That is why when you read the Bible, whichever version you prefer, always remember that you must first pray to God for guidance to properly understand what the Bible says, and if you suddenly have a revelation of the “true” meaning of something you have read and reread, hundreds of times, check it out against the rest of the Bible, using the interpretive tools I teach in that teaching series I mention above.

Studying the language, using the proper references resources, and having access to different versions of the Bible (in order to get a rounded understanding), not to mention learning the historical usage of the terminology, is a great advantage in being able to really understand what God is saying to us.

At the very least, you must read the Bible every day, which is essential to becoming familiar enough with it to recognize false teachings, and be able to (respectfully) correct the one teaching because- to be fair- the teacher may not realize they are wrong!

Too often people just repeat whatever sounds good to them, and that is how misunderstandings and wrongful teachings occur. And when it comes to the Bible, you have to realize that you may not just misdirect someone… you may send them straight to hell!

Thank you for being here, and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. After all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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

We know that sin is a violation of the law, but if there is no law then there can be no sin, and if there is no sin, there is no need for forgiveness, so…we don’t need Yeshua anymore.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

The statement above is just so silly and wrong it is almost comical, but that’s the problem: there are millions who can’t understand why it is so silly and wrong.

The Torah is for everyone who professes to worship God. Yeshua never taught against the Torah, but only from it. Why his teachings were thought to be so different was because he didn’t teach the way the Pharisees taught, dealing only with the letter of the law, called the P’shat. Yeshua taught the Remes, the deeper, spiritual meaning of the law.

The law said do not murder, Yeshua taught do not even hate in your heart; the law said do not commit adultery, Yeshua taught do not even lust with your eyes. Can’t you see? He taught us the “heart” of the law, and was very clear he wasn’t here to change anything (Matthew 5:17). , And when that verse is interpreted as “I came to fulfill the law”, the thing he “fulfilled” was the new covenant stated in Jeremiah 31:31, when God said he would write his Torah on our hearts.

Yeshua taught the heart of the law so that we could have it written on our hearts.

But Christianity hasn’t allowed that correct understanding to be taught- no! Christianity has spent it’s time and effort to separate itself from its Jewish roots, and to pretend that after being grafted onto a tree, that tree now is fed by the branch, and the roots are no longer necessary.

I used to teach how silly this idea is by referring to the old Bugs Bunny cartoon, the one where Elmer Fudd chases Bugs out onto the end of a branch of a tree. Then Elmer, sitting on that branch holding onto the trunk, starts to saw the branch off.

I’ve got you now, you silly wabbit!

When the branch is sawn off, instead of Bugs falling to the ground, the tree (with Elmer on it) falls, while the branch miraculously remains suspended in mid air.

Yeshua did accomplish his role as the Messiah when he lived a perfectly innocent life, which was only because he was 100% obedient to the Torah. The Torah is not some set of random rules, it is God’s User Manual for righteousness! If we could, as human beings, actually be obedient to the Torah, all the time (as Yeshua was), then we wouldn’t need Yeshua’s sacrifice because we would already be sinless.

The problem is that no human being can be totally obedient- that is why God created the sacrificial system. DUH!

People! Being stained with sin is what separates us from God’s presence- we can’t enter into his presence if we have the stench of sin on us. Only after we have been cleansed of sin, which can only be done by the shedding of innocent blood (Leviticus 17:11), can we then be able to enter into God’s presence. That is how we are saved: not by faith, and not by works, but by being forgiven.

Of course, that forgiveness can only come through faithfully believing Yeshua is the Messiah God promised to send, and that faith being demonstrated through obedience to the way God said we should live, and not what some religion says. When we have faith in Yeshua, and are as obedient to the Torah (as we can be), then we can ask God to forgive us, which is the final step bringing us to salvation.

When Shaul (Paul) said, in Colossians 2:14, that Yeshua nailed our sins to the cross, the traditional Christian teaching has been that he also did away with the need for the Torah. Now, I cannot understand how anyone, if they actually thought about it for a moment, would agree that a sin sacrifice meant there was no more sin. The idea that we are automatically forgiven simply because we “believe in Jesus” (whatever the heck that is supposed to mean) is just plain ignorant.

If Yeshua did away with the law, then there is no law! That cannot be argued against- either there is law, or there isn’t law, there is no in-between. And if there is no law, then there is lawlessness. And if we want to see what Yeshua, himself, says about lawlessness, we can go to Matthew 7:23, where we read that many will say how they exorcised demons, prophesied and performed miracles in his name (all things which the “church” has done), but he will reply:

Then I will tell them to their faces, ‘I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness!

And if you want to say there are still some laws, the “moral” ones we all have to obey, I will remind you: either there is law or there is no law. And, for the record, there is not one, single law that is given by God anywhere in the entire New Covenant- everything Yeshua says in the Gospels, everything Shaul says in his letters, and everything the other writers of the other letters say is all based on the Torah. There is nothing “new” in the New Covenant- it is founded solely on the Torah!

There is just so much wrong with this ridiculous teaching that Yeshua did away with the law: how could the obedient son of God reject his father’s laws?

How could the obedient son of God teach that his father’s Holy Days are not to be celebrated?

How could the obedient son of God tell people that he is God and to worship him instead of his father?

How could the obedient son of God …well, you get the idea, right?

Everything the Christian church has taught over the past two millennia has been to represent Yeshua as replacing his father: they teach that he is God, that his followers are to reject the laws his father gave them, and that they should ignore those God-honoring Holy Days in the Torah and instead celebrate man-made holidays that completely ignore God and celebrate Yeshua, instead.

They have turned Yeshua from an Isaac, the son obedient to his father even unto death, to an Absalom, the rebellious son who wanted to steal his father’s kingdom.

So, nu! The next time someone tells you that Yeshua did away with the law, you tell them if that is so, then we are all doomed.

Thank you for being here, and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, believer or not. After all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

Just to let you know, I am not going to post anything else until next year.

The Torah is more than a book of laws and regulations, it is a historical narrative of the Jewish people (not to mention how the Universe was created). Inside the Torah there is a set of business ethics as well as a penal code, it acts as both a Ketuba (marriage certificate) between God and people and as a national Constitution, and it is the ultimate spiritual guide to attaining righteousness in God’s eyes, leading to being able to spend eternity in the presence of God, forever joyful.

In other words, it is God’s User Manual for attaining salvation.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

Yeshua was the only human being ever to live in perfect accord with the Torah, and he also is the only one who ever will. His resurrection proves that if we can live in perfect accord with the Torah, we will be saved, so yes- as hard as it is for Christians to accept (because of the training they have been given), the Torah IS the path to salvation; Yeshua proved that, but (again) he is the only one who can do it.

That is why God gave us the sacrificial system, of which Yeshua’s resurrection is now part, replacing the need to bring an animal to the temple in Jerusalem, which was the only place any sacrifice could be accepted, according to the Torah.

The Torah is composed of the first five books of the Bible, but you really don’t need to read all five to be observant. In fact, if you read and study Deuteronomy, that is all you really have to know.

Deuteronomy 1:3 says (CJB),

“On the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year,
Moshe spoke to the people of Isra’el, reviewing everything Adonai had ordered him to tell them.”

Moses is talking to the children of the rebellious parents who refused to enter the land the first time they came to it (Numbers 13 and 14). The people Moses is speaking to now are between the ages of 38 and 58 (except for Moses, Joshua, and Caleb).

If you are wondering how I came to those ages, during the 40 years in the desert, the first two were spent getting to the land of Cana’an. When they rebelled and refused to enter, God’s punishment was that they would be in the desert for as many years as they had been in the land: their recon mission lasted 40 days, so they would spend 40 years in the desert. They had already been in the desert for two years getting there, so they would be in the desert for another 38. And in Numbers 14:29-30, Moses explains that the ones who will die are those who were in the census of everyone over the age of 20. So, that is why the ages of the people would be between 38 (for those born at that moment) to 58, those who were 20 or younger at the first revolt.

Wow, it seems I have gotten a little sidetracked, so let’s get back to the main point…

In Deuteronomy, as we are told, Moses reviews pretty much everything that happened over the past 40 years, giving a “Reader’s Digest” version of the events, which includes the Big 10, the rules for worship and sacrifice, and the laws regarding interpersonal relationships. If you were to read only the Book of Deuteronomy, you would have enough understanding of what God wants from you in order to live a righteous life, which leads to salvation.

Yeshua’s ministry was not to change or deny the Torah (Matthew 5:17), but rather to teach us the Remes, which is the deeper, spiritual understanding of the Torah. The traditional Christian teaching that Yeshua did away with the Torah is just plain wrong, and goes against what Yeshua said.

The truth is what God said, and what Yeshua confirmed: the Torah is the only word of God, which means it is the only word from God: the only place in the entire Bible where God, himself, tells us exactly what to do in order to be righteous is in the Torah- nowhere else!

That means all the drek you have been taught regarding how the letters Shaul (Paul) wrote indicating faith in Jesus is all you need to be saved, well… that won’t do it. You need faith, sure, but your faith is demonstrated by your obedience.

Obedience to what, you ask? Obedience to Yeshua’s teachings? Yeah, that’s OK, that will work- but remember that he taught exclusively from the Torah!

I am sorry, all you Gentiles who have been told the Torah is just for Jews so you don’t need to know it, that’s not right. You need to get real! Faith and obedience to God, which means following the Torah, are two sides of the same coin; faith motivates obedience, and obedience demonstrates the strength and genuineness of your faith.

And you can’t have just one side of a coin.

So, if this makes sense to you, and you feel that you really should get better aquatinted with the Torah, but you don’t have a lot of time to read all 5 books, just read Deuteronomy.

Or, better yet, get to know the entire Bible easily and quickly by reading my latest book, “Not the Holy Bible” (just click the link on the website, or go to Amazon).

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, believer or not. After all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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

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Most people, even non-believers, have heard the story of the woman accused of adultery who was brought before Yeshua.

Without saying anything, he bent down and began to write something on the ground; getting up, he said that the one who was without sin was to throw the first stone. He wrote some more on the ground, and then the accusers just walked away.

So…what did he write that caused the accusers to leave?

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

First off, whether or not anyone had sinned was irrelevant because the Torah states the adulterer is being tried, not the accuser. What Yeshua said reminds us that no one is without sin, but still and all, it wasn’t really relevant to the situation.

I’m sorry, I have to take a moment because I just remembered an old joke:

The adulteress is brought before Yeshua, and after writing in the sand, he gets up and says, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.”
The men all look around at each other, then suddenly from the midst of the crowd a stone is flung, hitting the woman in the head and knocking her down.
Yeshua looks around, and as the crowd opens up to reveal the one who threw the stone,
Yeshua says, “Aw, gee, Ma- I’m trying to work here!“

Alright, let’s get serious, again.

The Torah is strongly against adultery: first and foremost, it is a violation of the 7th Commandment. That identifies it as a sin, but does not tell us the what the punishment is for that crime. That comes later, in both Lev. 20:10, and again in Deut. 22:22.

Here’s an important fact: the Torah calls for both the woman AND the man to be stoned to death.

OK, so here’s the first sign Yeshua had that he was being set-up: they only brought the woman, saying she was caught in the very act of adultery, but where was the man? It seems if she was caught in the act, red-handed (so to speak), then the man was certainly present at the scene of the crime.

But they only brought her.

So, I believe that what Yeshua wrote the first time was the 9th Commandment, which states no one should bear false witness. If these men brought only one of the guilty parties, they neglected to act correctly and it is sort of like accusing someone of murder, but not having the dead person’s body to prove a murder was committed.

Because there was no partner to a crime that requires a partner, the charges being brought are similar to bearing false witness. One person cannot commit adultery, and without both parties there, it is a baseless charge. A false witness.

Reminding them of that sin, it seems to me that might start them thinking, “Hey, wait a minute here! Are we sinning by doing this?”

Next, Yeshua continued to write and after that, they all began to leave. So, what else did he write?

I think the next thing he wrote was the punishment for bearing false witness, which is defined in Deut.19:15–21. Essentially, it says that someone who brings false charges against another person is to receive the same punishment the accused was to receive.

That had to get some of them thinking, “Oy veys mir! If we are guilty of bearing false witness because we all know this is a set-up, then we’re gonna get stoned to death!”

Of course, if this is what happened, it is not surprising that they all began to leave. I’m surprised they only wandered off, and didn’t run for their lives.

Finally, why did Yeshua let the woman go with just a warning?

Again, it is because the laws in the Torah regarding capital punishment state that no one is to be punished solely on the witness of a single person, and that especially in the case of a capital crime (which adultery was), there must be at least two or three witnesses. When all the accusers left, there were no witnesses, so Yeshua- being 100% Torah observant, 100% of the time- had to let her go.

Well, that’s what I think happened, especially considering that Yeshua wrote something twice, with just a little bit of time in between for the accusers to think about what they were doing.

Again, I really don’t think saying that the one without sin should throw the first stone had any significance here, because (as I said before) the Torah doesn’t require a sinless person to make a charge.

I think he said that to let the accusers know that he was on to them.

I really believe I have been given an insight as to what happened, answering a question that people have asked for centuries. I think it makes total sense, being both in accordance with the Torah and showing Yeshua’s ability to know what the men were thinking.

So, nu? What do you think?

Thank you for being here, and please don’t forget to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. After all, you can never tell how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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

Today, being the 12th day of December, means that there are only 13 days left for those who accuse Christmas of being a pagan holiday to kvetch over it.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

I want to mention, first and foremost, that I am Jewish and never celebrated Christmas, Easter, or any of the traditional Christian holidays, so I am not defending anything. In fact, I am attacking- I am attacking ignorance, I am attacking misinformation, and I am attacking zeal that is definitely misplaced.

Over many years, I have heard people who have rejected much of the traditional Christian teachings because they have come to realize that to truly follow Yeshua (Jesus), they must turn from Christian teachings that reject the Torah, and become more Torah observant, which is the way Yeshua lived.

But in some cases, they go from one end of the spectrum to the other, from loving to celebrate Christian holidays to hating them, calling then pagan.

You know what? I have heard that term, pagan, thrown around like a hot potato, and I really wonder if anyone actually knows what it means. So I went to the Webster Dictionary, and there were two different definitions that I think are apt:

This one had a warning it might be offensive and was old-fashioned:
a person who is not religious or whose religion is not Judaism, Islam, or especially Christianity.

There was another definition, this one categorized as being literary:
one who has little or no religion and who delights in sensual pleasures and material goods : a non-religious hedonistic person.

I asked Google (our friend) how do I recognize something as pagan, and some of the ways it said were:

1. anything other than Jewish, Christian, or Muslim;
2. there is worship of gods and goddesses (polytheism);
3. events tied to seasonal changes;
4. magical practices; and
5. focuses on nature
   

So, there are definitely some elements of Christmas that we could say are similar to pagan practices, such as a Christmas tree being a focus on nature (but it isn’t the same thing Jeremiah talked about), and there is a lot of talk about Christmas miracles (like in my favorite Christmas movie, “Miracle on 34th Street”) and it is seasonal, in that we celebrate it on a winter solstice.

But what about polytheism? Other than the argument about the Trinity (three gods in one is still three gods, which is polytheistic by definition), Christmas is really all about Yeshua, one person, and his father, Adonai, one and only one God.

Pagan things are not in the Jewish, Christian, or Muslim religions, so Christmas must be OK. After all, Christians created it!.

Just because something isn’t in the Bible or is celebrated at the same time ancient peoples celebrated a pagan event, doesn’t mean that holiday is pagan.

What is pagan is something that celebrates paganism! DUH!

So when we celebrate the birth of the Jewish Messiah, is that pagan? NO!

When we celebrate the resurrection of the Jewish Messiah, is that pagan? NO!

When we reject and accuse Christian made holidays celebrating and giving thanks to the one and only, true God- the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob- for sending his son to save us, is that pagan?

No, it is just misplaced zeal and misplaced hatred of having been lied to.

That’s right- I believe much of the zeal against Christmas (and Easter, for that matter) is misdirected hatred for having been lied to for so long, by so many, including religious leaders, friends, and family.

Really, how can giving thanks to God be wrong?

Honestly, how can celebrating the existence of the Messiah be a bad thing?

In fact, if we reject the holiday that celebrates the birth of our Messiah, isn’t that the same as rejecting the Messiah?

Yeshua said if we reject him, we reject the one who sent him (Luke 10:16), so if we reject the holiday created specifically to celebrate his birth, then aren’t we also rejecting the event of his birth? And if we reject celebrating the birth of the Messiah, isn’t that the same as rejecting the Messiah?

Think about this: if we wanted to, we could proclaim some Holy Days, those commanded by God (in the Torah) as pagan because they are definitely seasonal: Shavuot is based on the wheat harvest, and Sukkot on the barely harvest, and Passover is always in the springtime.

I know, what I just said sounds ridiculous, but really not any more ridiculous than saying Christmas is pagan because it is on the same day Saturnalia occurred.

Look, it’s like I said at the start, I am not defending Christmas or any Christian holiday. What I am defending is the right of those who celebrate Christmas not to be insulted as being paganistic, or to insult God and Yeshua by saying events created to celebrate them are pagan just because they happen to fall on the same day an ancient pagan event was celebrated. And because a holiday may have some of the same characteristics of a pagan celebration, that doesn’t make it pagan.

Celebrating the Messiah and giving thanks to God can never be a bad thing, but denying others the right to do so just might be.

Thank you for being here and please don’t forget to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. After all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!

I was going through the Book of Leviticus, and came upon some interesting rules I had seen before, but this time I paid closer attention, and this is what I found out: you are not always guilty when you sin.

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In Leviticus 4 (I always quote from the CJB), God starts off by explaining what must be done when anyone sins inadvertently against the mitzvot (laws) of Adonai. Now, isn’t this interesting? God doesn’t say when someone sins, but when they do so inadvertently, i.e., by accident.

It seems to me that God expects us to want to obey him, and when we don’t, it must be by accident.

God goes on to say that if the community sins, but is unaware of it, they are still guilty. It is when their sin becomes known that they are expected to perform the sacrifices to be cleansed, and forgiven. The same rule applies to a community leader.

Now, what is again interesting is when we get to Chapter 5, and it talks about when a person is unclean but unaware of it. If they become unclean by an unclean animal, they are guilty right away, but if it is an unclean human, they are not guilty until they learn that the person was unclean. This makes sense to me- you know which animals are unclean (Lev. 11) and that we aren’t to touch dead animal carcasses, etc., so when you do, you have to know what you did.

But who can tell if a person is unclean or not, unless they tell you?

Also, if someone says something sinful but doesn’t remember doing it, he is not guilty until he is made aware of what he said.

Here is something you may not know: the male members of an Orthodox Jewish sect are sometimes accused of being misogynistic because they refuse to shake hands with a woman, or to give her change from a dollar, or anything that involves touching. The truth is that they never know when a woman might be unclean due to her time of Niddah (menstruation). Since woman today don’t go around proclaiming in a loud voice, “Unclean! Unclean!”, a person who is obedient to the Torah really shouldn’t shake hands or touch a woman, or anything she touches.

And, if a woman offered her hand to an Orthodox Jew, I think it goes without saying that he won’t ask her, “By the way, are you menstruating?”

The Torah goes on to say that when someone is made aware of these “not guilty yet” sins, then they are considered guilty, must confess their sins and perform the cleansing activities.

I see these conditions of guilty immediately, or not until made aware, like the difference between committing a federal offence or a local misdemeanor. You are guilty of doing it, but God knows that you may not be aware and, as such, waits until you are made aware, after which you will then be considered guilty and must do what needs to be done to be forgiven.

Ultimately, we are always guilty when we sin, no matter which sin it is, and whether we know it or not, but (for lack of a better term) with the lesser sins, we have some leeway, in that we aren’t considered guilty until we know what we did.

Ignorance is not freedom from the law, but it does give us a chance to do what is right when we learn of it. The important thing, I believe, is to know what is a sin and what is not, and the only way to know that is to become very familiar with God’s Torah.

If I may share what I do, every morning when I pray, I ask God to forgive me of whatever sins I may have committed that I am not aware of. I do this as my system of CYT (Cover Your Tuchas), and ask not only that God forgive me, but also that he strengthen me through his Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) to sin less in the future.

I am not sharing this with you to appear holy or anything like that, but because I think it is a really good idea, and that everyone should do it.

Finally, I just want to remind you all how compassionate and understanding God is, in that he knows we are weak and that we might do something wrong, without really meaning to or even knowing that we did. When he says, in Ezekiel 18:23, that he doesn’t want to see anyone die, but rather do t’shuvah (turn from their sins), and live, he made that possible through these rules, way back at Mt. Sinai.

One last point… when we sin against the mitzvot, i.e., the major commandments which incorporate the Big 10, the ones specified in Leviticus 11 and 23, as well as most every other law regarding how to worship God and how to treat each other, we are guilty immediately. I suppose that should resonate with those who sin, knowing they are sinning, and are still unrepentant.

And if your religion teaches you that you don’t have to obey the Torah, that is a sin, and not an inadvertent sin. The Torah came from God, and was given to the Jews as his nation of priests (Ex. 19:6) to teach to the world, so if your man-made religion (which, in case you didn’t know, is every Christian denomination that exists today) tells you it is OK to ignore God’s laws, then you are guilty.

Not down the road, not until someone tells you that you are, but right NOW!

Thank you for being here, and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. After all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

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