Tag: jew

What Constitutes Using God’s Name in Vain?

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

 

Just about everyone who knows anything about God has heard it said that we must not use the name of the Lord in vain. This is the 3rd commandment given by God on Mount Sinai.

But what does it really mean, to not take the name of the Lord in vain?

I have looked through “Strong’s Concordance”, the “JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh”, my Soncino edition of the Chumash, and the “Complete Jewish Bible” to find an answer. What I found were, from these different sources, all different versions. And when this commandment is repeated later in Deuteronomy the Hebrew is identical but the English interpretation was a little bit different.

I “Googled” the term “in vain” and this is what I got:

Vain is from Latin vanus “empty,” and in English it originally meant “lacking value or effect, futile”; we still say “a vain attempt” using that sense, and the phrase “in vain” means “without success.” Normally, though, vain means “conceited, too proud of oneself.”

There is an additional part of this commandment which (apparently) doesn’t get as much attention; God further states that he will not hold anyone taking his name in vain guiltless. Clearly, God doesn’t take this lightly.

Lightly….that is the way the JPS Tanakh interpreted the commandment. In other words, don’t just throw God’s name around like it doesn’t mean anything. Don’t use it in an oath, don’t use it as a way to demonstrate importance and don;t use it flippantly.

The Chumash states that this commandment deals with oaths and vows, in that we shouldn’t use God’s name for vanity or falsehood. His name must not be used to testify to anything that is untrue or empty or in a manner that renders it useless by joining it with anything that is insincere or unimportant.

The rabbinical tradition states the name of the Lord is not to be used or uttered unnecessarily in common conversation. The only valid use of God’s name is when taking an oath in a court of law.

God’s name is the Tetragrammaton, the four letters that are printed in the Torah that God first gave to Moses. Those letters are Y-H-V-H (Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh) and Jews pronounce it as Adonai, which means “Lord.” There are no vowels in Hebrew so we don’t know how it was originally pronounced, but that is God’s Holy Name, his “first name” (if you will) and the one that definitely is the one he means when he gave the third commandment.

We use the term God, but that isn’t really a name- it is a descriptive label. Lord, HaShem, Adonai, Father, Creator…all these “names” for God are really labels, in a way- they are what he is and what he does, but they aren’t his name. If we use any of those in a false oath or a lie, we are still violating the third commandment.

I see all too often God’s Holy Name, the 4-letters, being used left and right, being plastered on someone’s Face Book page, and being pronounced in (at least) 5 different ways, each person adamant that they are saying it correctly. Not to sound bigoted, but the ones using God’s name are, overwhelmingly, Gentiles. And in my opinion people who constantly use God’s name are being disrespectful to God. No Jewish person would think of using the Tetragrammaton as a Face Book avatar, or in a banner for a discussion group, or in conversation.

I understand that Gentiles have grown up using God’s name and calling on Jesus constantly, in everything they do, in their prayers, as an expletive, and as a means of getting someone’s attention in a conversation. Since most of the Torah is ignored by the Christian world, this commandment is often known but not obeyed. I understand that is how they were brought up, but that doesn’t make it acceptable. Not to God.

The name of the Lord is to be respected and used only when absolutely necessary, as in making a sincere oath or when swearing to a truth in a court of law. That is what Jews have done since God told us not to use it vainly.

Let’s not forget that using something vainly also infers a conceited attitude. I have seen, way too often, arguments by people who are using God’s holy name as a means of showing off how much they know. They argue that their years of study justify their pronunciation and they flagrantly announce God’s name every chance they get. They are using God’s name to show how much they know, with no respect for the name or who’s name it is. That is the ultimate “use in vain” as far as I’m concerned.

One of the great methods for preventing sin that the Rabbis have created is called placing fences around the law. To prevent trespassing (violating) the law they put a “fence” around it. For instance, to make sure we do not to boil a calf in its mother’s milk (Lev. 11) we will not boil any calf in milk at all (first fence.) But that may not be enough, so let’s not have meat and dairy together (second fence.) A fence around the fence around the fence around the law. It is a good way to prevent accidentally violating the commandments, but the downside is that it is also a snowball rolling downhill, and the good idea became a terrible burden on the people, which is the argument Yeshua had when he talked against the traditions of the Pharisees. Traditions are not bad, but the ones that add to God’s laws so much they become an additional burden, are.

To those that are thinking about Joel 2:32, or Romans 10:13, or 1 Cor.1:2, or whatever other verse you find that tells us we should “call on the name of the Lord” it doesn’t mean we are commanded to use the Tetragrammaton. To “call on the name of the Lord” does NOT mean that we are to use his actual name, the Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh: it means to ask him for something, to open our hearts to him and approach him with a humble and contrite spirit in repentance. It is more of a metaphor than a commandment, and it is not justification for using the holy name of God.

I will never try to pronounce the Tetragrammaton. I respect the Lord too much to try to get on a “first name” basis with him. The tradition not to use the holy name of God that Jews have followed for millennia is, for me, a really good one. It is not burdensome and is (in fact) an excellent way to avoid accidentally violating the Third Commandment. I think that if you also do not ever write, use or pronounce God’s holy name you will be blessed.

Try it- what could it hoit?

Parashah B’Midbar 2018 (In the Wilderness) Numbers 1:1 – 4:20

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I am still not ready to do a video due to my cough left over from a bad cold. Hopefully next time I will be able to get through without hacking.

As we begin this parashah, which also begins the 4th book of the Torah, God commands that a census be taken. All the tribes, except the tribe of Levi, are counted (only the men) and based on this, to some degree, the arrangement of the camp was given which outlined where each tribe will pitch their tents and the marching order. The tabernacle is placed in the middle of the camp, surrounded by the Levites .

A separate census is taken of the Levites and God (again) states that the Levites are the tribe chosen to be his representatives performing the duties of the Tabernacle. God assigns the different Levitical families their tasks with regards to moving of the Tabernacle and worship. God also chooses the Levites to be substitution for the first-born of all the other Israelites, as God had previously told Moses that all the first-born of Israel belong to him as a ransom for the first-born of Egypt that God had put to death (Exodus 13:15.) 

The relationship of the Levites to the other tribes is so important for us to understand, as it represents the relationship between Man and God, Yeshua and Man and Yeshua and God.

God is always the ultimate and only spirit we worship. He is, he was and he always shall be God, the Father, the Judge, the Executioner, the Savior and the Creator. He is also the Destroyer. He is everything to everyone at every moment; he is the Holiest of all Holies.

The Levites were God’s representatives on earth to the Israelites. They were to help the individuals find atonement through the sacrificial system that God provided so that the people could be saved from their iniquity and sins. The Levites were to be a living example of Torah and were to teach the Torah to the Israelites.

The Jewish people were God’s representatives to the Gentiles: a nation of priests (Exodus 19:6) living in accordance with the Torah in order to show the rest of the world how to worship God, how to treat each other and how to atone for their iniquity and sins to become holy.

Yeshua is God’s ultimate and final representative to all humanity, acting for our benefit by providing through his work on earth the opportunity for every single human being to be saved from their own iniquity and sins.

Can you see how this progression of salvation works? It is like a pyramid, which is the most stable of all shapes: the Jewish people are the base of this pyramid, the Gentiles are built upon the Jewish people and Yeshua is the capstone.

The Torah is the foundation upon which this pyramid of salvation is supported. Because Christianity has separated itself from the Torah (for the most part) they are trying to be a separate level that has no foundation. As such, it cannot support any type of roof- Christianity has made itself into a tree with no roots and no canopy.

Didn’t Shaul (Paul) tell the Gentiles converting to Judaism (because that is what was happening in the First Century when a Pagan chose to worship Yeshua) in Romans 11:11 that they are being grafted onto a tree? How can a branch survive if it is grafted onto a tree but refuses to accept the nourishment from the roots of that tree?  When you graft a wild olive branch onto a cultured tree, does the whole tree become wild? Of course not- the wild branch becomes cultured.

God has established his plan of salvation and told us all about it in the Tanakh. He has set the rules and the parameters for atonement on an eternal basis. The New Covenant (B’rit Chadashah) is built upon the Tanakh and gives us the final “steps” of God’s plan. The Torah tells us how to live, the rest of the Tanakh shows us when we fail to keep God’s commands we are punished, and when we repent we are forgiven. It provides for us the hope in a Messiah, which we read about and finally see coming in the B’rit Chadashah.

God to the Jews; Jews to the Gentiles; Yeshua to the Jews and the Gentiles; and ultimately Jews and Gentiles through Yeshua back to God.

That is the Circle of Life- eternal life- that God has provided for us and we see it beginning right here in this parashah.

 

What Makes a Jew a Jew?

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This is the eternal question: is a Jew someone who was born of Jewish parents? Is a Jew someone who follows the traditions and practices of the Jewish religion? Is a Jew anyone from Israel? Is a Jew….well, you get the idea.

One of the websites I use for information I can depend on regarding Judaism is the (Orthodox) Judaism 101 website, and this is their definition of a Jew:

A Jew is any person whose mother was a Jew or any person who has gone through the formal process of conversion to Judaism. It is important to note that being a Jew has nothing to do with what you believe or what you do. A person born to non-Jewish parents who has not undergone the formal process of conversion but who believes everything that Orthodox Jews believe and observes every law and custom of Judaism is still a non-Jew, even in the eyes of the most liberal movements of Judaism, and a person born to a Jewish mother who is an atheist and never practices the Jewish religion is still a Jew, even in the eyes of the ultra-Orthodox. In this sense, Judaism is more like a nationality than like other religions, and being Jewish is like a citizenship

So, a Jew would be anyone born of Jewish parents, without any regard to what they believe. Supposedly.

Now for my real-life experience: I have been told, more than once, by Conservative, Reconstructionist and Orthodox Jews, that because I believe Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah, I am a Christian and no longer a Jew. Period!

My mother and father were Jewish, our family history is that my mothers Zaydeh (Grandfather) was a Cantor at some synagogue in Kiev (her father came over here just before the Pogroms made it to their town.) So, according to the Jewish 101 site (and most of what I have heard growing up Jewish, in my Reform synagogue) I am a Jew, and no matter what I believe or how I worship, my Jewish heritage cannot be taken away from me.

The really ironic part is that since I accepted Yeshua as my Messiah (disqualifying me as a Jew), I have been more “Jewish” than I ever was growing up! I worship the festivals of the Lord (Leviticus 23) and I celebrate Shabbat every Friday night and Saturday (although I am not as strict about the Talmudic regulations regarding travel and spending money); I also have been very active in my place of worship, whether it was a messianic synagogue or my current place, which is a Hebraic Roots church. I was on the Council at Temple Beth Emanuel in Philadelphia, acting as Rabbi for about 18 months while we were looking for a new Rabbi, and I am currently an officer on the Council for my church, the Zionist Revival Center (that is the name of our website: it is a dot ORG.) I have only worshiped in two places for the past 20 years- when I find a place that I feel is correct, I stay. I don’t play the field, as many Christians do.

I also have taken correspondence classes and have a Certificate of Messianic Studies (equivalent to an Associate degree); have written and published two books on God’s word and Prayer, and I teach, help lead liturgy and give the message when the Senior Pastor is unavailable.

I am not telling you all this to brag, but simply as a resume, so to speak, to demonstrate that I have been living a very, very Jewish lifestyle. In fact, for over 15 years Donna and I have hosted a Passover Seder for people who have never been to one, to introduce them to the Last Supper as it really happened.

Yet, despite all this, when I was talking with a woman who is an Israeli, an Orthodox Jew and a Director with a Christian based organization that supports Jews living in the heartland of Israel, when I asked if Israel might ever open it’s doors to Messianic Jews (we are not welcomed there), her answer was not what I was hoping for. I expected a compassionate, “I don’t think they are ready for that yet”, or a simple, “Probably not for a while”, or even a “I doubt it.” What I got was an immediate and definitive, “NO!”  Not only that, but she went on to tell me that I was a Christian, not a Jew. I told her she cannot say that, but she asked if I believed Jesus is the son of God (an immediate disqualification for any Jew, because Judaism totally rejects the Trinity) and that if I believe in Jesus (another term for which Jews really have no idea what it means) then I am a Christian! Period!! End of job; bye-bye; don’t let the door hit your tuchas on the way out.

You see, for a Messianic Jew, it is like being between a rock and a hard place: Christians tell us we can’t be saved if we are still obedient to Torah (because that means we are legalistic), and Jews tell us we aren’t Jewish if we believe in Jesus (no matter what our birthright or how we worship.)

Why is this? The answer is simple: bigotry fostered through ignorance.

Christians are taught the Torah is for Jews, and to justify not having to obey Torah they have decided that obedience is legalism, which disqualifies someone from really having “the Spirit” and being Born Again- to most Christians, being Born Again means not having to worry about rules, and if you have decided that the Torah is God’s commandments for everyone, you aren’t really “saved.”

On the Jewish side of the fence, Jesus is a traitor to Judaism and anyone who follows Him is a traitor, also. The Gentiles worship Jesus as God and they worship the Holy Spirit, so they are not obedient to the Shema (one God). That is immediate disqualification for being Jewish. Another is bowing to idols (check out any Catholic church), and ignoring Torah (as stated above), so they don’t care who your parents were and what lifestyle you live: to Jews, believing in Jesus is the definitive definition of a Non-Jew.

I wonder if that means that everyone who rejects Jesus is a Jew? I mean, if accepting Jesus means I am not a Jew, no matter what, then rejecting Jesus should, at least, allow me to be considered a non-Gentile, which is pretty much not-every other religion, so I would then be, by default, a Jew, right?

Wrong. Jews are Jews by birthright. The way one worships God, if at all, is an indicator of how “good” a Jew that person is, but if you are born from Jewish parents, you are a Jew: now and always.

It will be a very unpleasant surprise when these bigoted people (on both sides) learn the truth at Judgment Day. Actually, having believed as they do for 2/3 of my life, I feel bad for them. They’ve been poisoned since the moment they were a child. We see the horrible way the Palestinians, ISIS and other Mideast terrorist organizations indoctrinate their children with hatred, and not only authorize, but encourage, murdering Jews, and they start this as early as when they are still in kindergarten. It’s disgusting to us.

Yet, we do the same thing between Christianity and Judaism: Jews teach their young that Christians worship Jesus (and they have good reason to say that, too) and hate Jews, and that Jesus was a Jew but that He created and converted to Christianity. Totally wrong, but what does a 5 year old know about it? And their parents, grandparents, friends, and Rabbi all tell them the same thing. And from the Gentile religions, it is the same thing for their kids; they teach Jews killed their Lord, Jews have Torah as their salvation and not Christ, and in some cases they teach God has rejected Jews and they aren’t the Chosen people anymore, but they Christians are.

Both of these teachings are lies from the pit of Sheol.

So what do we do about this? The only thing we can do: suffer through, persevere, try to preach and show the truth in how we live that all are one in Messiah, that the “Jesus” most Jews think they know is not the real Yeshua, and that the Torah is valid and necessary for all people, Jew and Gentile, because God has no religion and the commandments He gave the Jews are really for everyone.

The last thing to add is: good luck to us! We will need it.

It’s Not Only About Love

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I have been on this streak lately about how being a Believer in Jesus is not all about love. It’s not that love isn’t part of salvation, or one of the most (if not THE most ) important aspect of accepting Messiah, but I am concerned with the teaching that so many people receive which implies that love is all there is. 

Yes, God loves you; yes, Jesus loves you; but people who don’t even know me say they love me?  C’mon, really? Love is too important a word to use like “Hello” or “How ya doin?” 

The reason for my concern is that being a Believer is not only about love. It is about dedication, it is about faith, it is about self-control, it is very much about suffering, and it is about time we started to tell people the truth and leave all this “fluff” out of it. Take off the rose-colored glasses, my friends, because following God and Yeshua is not easy.

Yeshua, Himself, told us that we would suffer for His name, and that if we wanted to follow Him we have to pick up our own execution stake. Look at what happened to all the Apostles, to Shaul (Paul), to Stephen, and everyone who has been martyred since Yeshua walked the earth. Even before Yeshua appeared to us, Elijah suffered, Jeremiah was the Crying Prophet (for good reason), Gideon was betrayed and his children were all killed; not one person in the bible who did God’s will had it easy. 

In other words, this ain’t no hay ride!  

Too many people accept Yeshua as their Messiah because they just want to be unconditionally loved, just as they are, and always no matter what they are. They are entranced and lured into accepting Yeshua because they are told that as a result of God loving them so much, once they ask His forgiveness His love will always save them. Now, don’t get me wrong- all of that is true, but the problem is that people think that is all there is. The fact that God will still punish sin, even after you have been “saved”, is omitted, as well as the fact that while we are alive the consequences of our sins will always come back on our heads. What is worse, our sins affect innocent people who are part of our life, too. Not to mention that accepting God and Yeshua means having to live by His laws and commandments. How many of you out there have either been told, or heard about, people being taught that the Torah is only for Jews so Christians don’t have to do anything because “we” are under the Blood of Christ, and are already forgiven everything?   Really? That teaching, when you strip away the obvious allure of it, is really saying that Grace is not license from sin, but license to sin. I don’t think anyone who knows anything about God will agree that He is OK with us sinning. 

God’s love is so great that is it unfathomable, but it will not keep us from apostatizing; God’s love will not stop our desire to sin, although His Ruach haKodesh, Holy Spirit, can help guide us away from sin when we listen to it; and most important to this message is that God’s love will not keep us from suffering for His name’s sake. In fact, being for God is being against the world, so His love is there always as our security blanket and as a balm for our shattered and damaged feelings, but it is not going to stop us from suffering, being attacked, and being rejected by people we love. 

If we don’t let new Believers know what they are in for, we have failed them, and it is like sending them blindly into a pack of hungry wolves with lamb’s blood all over their bodies. 

So, what is really important about God’s love? For me, it’s that by knowing His love for me I should show what His love is like in how I treat others, especially those who come against me. 

Love is not all there is, and it does NOT conquer all, but it wins enough battles so that those who do love will end up on the winning side. 

HOW GOD ANSWERS PRAYER

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This is a spiritually mature topic, and without years of study in the Word, and even then only with the guidance of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit), many still may not be able to understand the answer, so please don’t be upset if what you read below is confusing.

The answer to the question, “How does God answer prayer?” is this:

It’ll be either “Yes” or “No.”

Actually, that isn’t all that hard to understand, after all… is it? What is hard to accept is that when all is said and done, God always does what is best for us, even though we may not agree with Him at the time.

If you get a “No”, that’s the easier of the two to handle, because it’s final. With God, “No” is “No”- even Yeshua (Jesus) knew that, and told His disciples that is what they should do, in Mattitayu (Matthew) 5:37 when He said:

 But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.

So if you get a “No” from God, accept it, and move on.

It’s when God tells you “Yes” that you will have hard work ahead of you.  Why? Because when God answers you with a “Yes”, that means He has a plan for you with regard to what you asked.

If you are one of the rare exceptions where God answers you with what you asked for, and when you asked for it, WOW!  That is really a rarity, and you should get on your face and thank Him.

Most likely it will not happen that way, and His answer will come to you in three phases.

Phase One: When God says yes to a prayer request, it is almost always because what you asked for is in His will for you, and He will have something that you must do. After you have received His answer, if you fail to recognize or act on it, you will have rejected God’s command- that is never a good thing to do. Just ask Jonah. So, if you get a “Yes”, you’d better get ready for the other shoe to drop.

Phase Two: The prayer you presented to God is going to be answered, but what you asked for may not be exactly what you get. We don’t always know what is best for us; in fact, we rarely know what is best for us, and almost always know what is the worst thing we can do to ourselves, which is almost always exactly what we do. It’s remarkable that we live long enough to realize how foolish we are! God’s plan is not always your plan (there is an old adage” If you want to make God laugh, tell Him what your plans are.”), and what He wants to be done is what will, eventually, be done. Since the answer to your prayer may not be what you were expecting, you need to remember that an answer is coming and constantly be watching for it.

Which brings us to Phase Three.

Phase Three: You never know when the answer is going to come. You may want such-and-such, and want it now, but you will more likely get so-and-so, and whenever God knows is the right time to receive it.  God’s plans and His timing are perfect, and our plans and timing stink; God will give you His answer exactly when you need it, which is rarely when you expect it to come.

So there you have it: if you ask for something from God in prayer, always (of course) invoking the name of Yeshua Ha Maschiach, He will answer you, which will be either “Yes” or “No“.   If you get a “No”, you get off easy.

If you get a “Yes”, better be prepared to follow up: be alert for the answer and steel yourself to accept His answer and act on it.

Otherwise, you’re better off not asking for anything, at all.

Paul never converted

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I really can’t stand it when I am reading Acts 9 and the paragraph title is something like this: Paul’s Conversion on the Road to Damascus”

First of all, his name wasn’t Paul- it was Shaul. and second of all, he NEVER converted.

Historically, there was only one other religion at that time for him to convert to in that area of the world, and that would be the pagan Roman religion. I think everyone can agree Shaul didn’t convert to that.

During the First Century C.E. in Israel there were Jews and Romans- that was it. Among the Jews some accepted Yeshua as the Messiah and followed Him as such, and others (the majority) did not. But they all followed Judaism. There were also some Romans who accepted Yeshua as a Messiah and they converted- to Judaism!

The name “Paul” was used for him when the written accounts (some becoming scripture) were translated into Greek.

Shaul never converted. He was a Pharisee, he was a real “Jew’s Jew”, and his entire life was spent practicing Judaism.

In Acts 18:18 Shaul proves his Judaism by taking a Nazarite vow and sponsoring others to do so. It is clear from the writings in Acts and from his own letters that Shaul never, ever, not-even-once said anything about not being Jewish. He never said to disobey or ignore the Torah, he never said he converted, he never said that Gentiles should not follow the Torah.

Throughout the book of Romans Shaul is writing an apologetic for Torah- he is saying that following Yeshua is not ignoring Torah. And that Torah is still valid- a very Jewish viewpoint.

In 1 Peter 4, the word “Christian” is used. I do not believe that the other two times, both in Acts, that the word “Christian” is what the original writing had. The people who followed Yeshua in the First and Second Century were the first Messianic Jews, and the word “Christian” was used (most likely) by scribes copying the written accounts down in Codex A and Codex B much later, when the term Christian was widely used. They just (naturally) used it when copying and condensing the texts. The word that was most likely used originally would have been “Christiano’s”, which in Greek has no real meaning. The scribes “knew” that these people were Christians because that is what they were called then, so they just wrote “Christians.”

There was no “church” in the First and Second Century, either- you can thank King James for using that term, despite being told it was incorrect. I guess when you are the King you can even re-write the bible any way you want to; like they say, “It’s nice to be the King!”

The use of the word “Christian” in 1 Peter was, in fact, used as a derogatory term. Shaul said he would accept it because he knew what following Yeshua really meant.

If you are Christian, or Jewish, or thinking about accepting Yeshua, please do not be fooled by the subtle (or sometimes not-so-subtle) anti-Jewish bias of most New Covenant interpretations. The people who followed Yeshua in the 1st and 2nd Century C.E. were Messianic Jews (composed of Jews and pagans who were in the process of converting to Judaism.)

Let’s look at Acts 15:19-21:

19 “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. 20 Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. 21 For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”

I purposely bold printed verse 21 because that sentence is proof that the only conversion that occurred was from Gentile to Jew. When James told the Council of Elders (all Jews, by the way) to have only those 4 restrictions, that wasn’t the end-all of it. That was just the beginning, because (as he said) they (the Gentiles converting to Judaism) will be learning the law of Moses every Shabbat. “…read in the synagogue on every Sabbath.” clearly indicates that the Jewish religion and the Jewish lifestyle is what was expected from the Gentiles who accepted Yeshua.

Shaul was never called “Paul”; Yeshua was never called “Jesus”; Jews and Romans who followed Yeshua were not called Christians until many years after He was resurrected, and only then as a derogatory term. It wasn’t until Constantine and the Council of Nicene that Christianity, as we know it today, began. Before then it was Jews, Jews and Gentiles who accepted Yeshua (Messianic Jews), and Pagans.

Shaul was, always remained, and still is a Jew.  Just like Yeshua.

Parashah Ki Thetze (go forth) Deuteronomy 21:10 – 25

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We know that this last book of the Torah is a recap of the entire Torah, reaffirming the laws, regulations and commandments that God gave to everyone (Jew and Gentile, alike) through Moses. This parashah covers many of the civil laws, i.e. the way we are to treat each other.

Some of the topics covered are marriage and divorce, restoration of lost property, fair treatment of slaves, other people, even animals; adultery, disobedient children, holiness of the camp, vows, and not to use excessive punishment.

Throughout the bible, from Genesis through Revelations, we are told, over and over and over and….over: obey God, treat each other with kindness and respect and all will go well with us. That’s really all there is to it. Just like Yeshua said, which was said before Him and after Him: love God and love each other and everything else falls into place.

Yet we don’t. The bible tells us (and shows us) that faith in God is paramount and the most important thing to believe in, but the world tells us to have faith in ourselves. From my experience, I can tell you that I screw up a lot, and will most likely continue to. I have screwed up less and less thanks only to God’s Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) that I am still (after almost 20 years) learning to listen to.  If there is anything I can have faith in myself about, it is that I will screw things up.

And I am no different than you, or him, or them- we are all human.

In fact, God, Himself, doesn’t have faith in humanity. Really! If He did, then He would not have sent Yeshua (Jesus) to be a Messiah. Truth is, God knew from the very moment He made Himself known to Abraham that He would have to provide the means for us to have salvation because we can’t save ourselves.

We need to let go of what the world tells us is alright and stick to what God says. For instance, in this parashah it is said men and women should dress according to their gender, but do we? Heck- we don’t even know which bathroom to use anymore! And it also says to treat each other fairly; have you been listening to the political candidates?

Look- it’s simple: do as you’re told by God and not as you’re told by people. You will be against the world, but given what the world is like, that’s a good place to be.

If I was asked by someone what is the most important book to read in the entire bible, I would have to go with D’varim (Deuteronomy) because it spells it all out, very simply. There aren’t any really splendorous events (like at Mt. Horeb when God appeared to all the people) and there are no wonderful stories of miraculous happenings (like Sodom and Gomorrah, or the Red Sea parting), but what there is is the simple and understandable set of rules for living a life that is designed to keep you walking on the path to salvation.

Put no faith in people or things- save it all for God. Let go of the control you think you have, because you really have no control over anything.

God is in control, and you aren’t. Never were , never will be, so let the Big Guy handle it because He is the only one there is who can make whatever He wants to happen, happen.

God has a specific plan for you -yes, you, the person reading this right now- and He knows where you need to be going, so please let Him drive.

 

God is not tolerant

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Here comes another “Dear Amy” (you’re off the hook today, Abby) letter that represents how misunderstood God-fearing people are in the world today.

In short, a child of Atheists is upset because her friend, a child of Christians, told her they can’t be friends because the Christian parents believe the Atheist girl will be a bad influence. Amy is very sympathetic to the Atheist child and complimentary to the parents (who wrote the letter) saying this is a great opportunity to teach their daughter about tolerance and intolerance.

And you know what? Amy is right. The Christian’s are intolerant. In fact, God is intolerant. God says so, more than once:

Ezekiel 44:23– “They are to teach my people the difference between the holy and the common and show them how to distinguish between the unclean and the clean.”

Leviticus 19:19– “Keep my decrees. “Do not mate different kinds of animals. Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed. Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material.”

2 Corinthians 6:14– “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?”

These are repeated, in one way or another, throughout the Tanakh and New Covenant writings. God wants His people to be holy, which means, literally, separated. You can’t be separated from the unholy when you are playing with and living with and (yes, even this) working with the unholy.

When Bilam was unable to curse the Israelites (Numbers, Chapter 22) he got around that by suggesting to the Moabite king to have the women get “friendly” with the Israelite men, and by doing so they will influence them to begin to worship the Semitic gods of the Moabites.

And it worked.

Tolerance in today’s world is more than tolerance- it is passive acceptance. According to Dictionary.com (if you want to get a worldly opinion, go to the Internet, right?) tolerance is:

a fair, objective, and permissive (bold added by me) attitude toward those whose opinions,beliefs, practices, racial or ethnic origins, etc., differ from one’s own; freedom from bigotry

There is a much more ancient definition, one I found using an historic, out-dated form of research called “looking it up in the Webster’s dictionary”:

to put up with; to recognize and respect the opinions and rights of others; to endure

There is a difference between tolerating something and accepting something as “right.” If someone living next to me is loud and un-neighborly, I think that is a very wrong way to act but I can tolerate them. But, if they are selling drugs I cannot tolerate that and must report them to the police. There is a level where tolerance becomes intolerance, meaning (simply) that I will not accept that behavior and will do what I can to either change it or get away from it.

Intolerance doesn’t mean bigotry, but today these two words are treated as synonyms.

God is intolerant of non-Believers. God says we are to be separated and holy, kept from that which is unclean and sinful. Yet, we are to be a light to the nations and Yeshua says no one lights a lamp and places it under a basket. So what does that mean? Are we to be tolerant? Should we intermix with sinners? Is God saying to stay to ourselves, become communal hermits from the world? If we do that, if we remain separated from the world, how can we be a light to the world?

We must be intermingling with the unholy, we must bring light to the darkness, we must be in the midst of the unclean to bring the cleanliness of God’s deliverance to them.

What we must be careful not to do is become influenced by the world.  We are commanded to be holy, for God is holy, and we are commanded to make Disciples. How can we make Disciples or show our light to the world if we are separated and apart from the world?

It is a conundrum, to be sure.

God tests our faith- we see that throughout the Bible. Abraham and Isaac, Jonah, Gideon, Kefa (Peter) walking on the water to Yeshua…all of these are tests of faith that God performed not to find out for Himself but to show us, ourselves, the level of our own faithfulness. Testing of faith is something we do for our benefit and the benefit of those watching us, and don’t think for an instant you aren’t being watched by the non-Believers! They are watching us like a hawk looking for a rabbit, and that predator-prey relationship is exactly what it is like. Non-Believers look for any excuse to show that God-fearing people are intolerant (as the world describes it, meaning bigoted and racist) in order to discredit God.

They do not understand what it means to be holy, and (frankly) they don’t care- they don’t want to be holy, and when you don’t want to be something you make that something look as unwanted and undesirable as you can.

We are to be intolerant of sin, but we are also to love the sinner. Love the sinner, hate the sin, and we can do both. To a Believer, tolerance should be accepting that others are different and they have that God-given right to be. God gave us all free will so we can choose to love Him from our desire to do so. Consequently, we also have the right and freedom to reject Him. That is all part of what God has given each and every one of us, and as people of God we should respect and honor what God has done and not condemn it.

Basically, we are to be holy and show the world what that means. We need to get dirty, we need to soil ourselves with fleshly exposure and we need to walk into the midst of Hell to see what souls we can save: we always have the blood of Messiah to cleanse us. I am not saying we should sin, just that we should allow ourselves to be exposed to the sin of others in order to bring them out of their sin.

Truth is, you can’t work with fish all day and not come home smelling of fish.

If you think that isn’t right, then ask yourself why did Yeshua strip off His righteousness and give up His divine spiritual being to become a flesh and blood human? He took off His divinity and put on the mantle of disgusting, earthly flesh, with all it’s stench and filth, and wore it while acting perfectly holy. His light shone through His flesh and taught us all that it is possible to be light, to be holy and to be God-fearing while in the world.

Both Yochanan and Shaul (John and Paul) tell us that although we are in the world, we are not part of it. We are separated, but we are also present: we are separated from the world spiritually but we are still in the world physically, so we need to show those in the flesh the way to join us in the spirit.

You can’t do that by being physically apart from the others.

I think the Christian family is doing what they think is right, but they are wrong. They should trust in God, and if the faith of their children is strong enough, then the Christian child should be allowed to play with the Atheist child as a means to deliver the light into the darkness.  In fact, the Atheist child should be invited into their home and welcomed to show what the love of God means in the real world.

We are the messengers of God, and the symbols of His kingdom; you can’t deliver a message to someone unless you talk to them.

 

Shalom, Yisrael

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Well, we have had a wonderful tour. The tour guide was wonderful, the driver actually was able to overcome the laws of momentum, physics and gravity by driving in such as way as the large, cumbersome bus was able to do things I couldn’t do in a Volkswagon Beetle.

One thing that was a problem, which is why I am writing this blog at 0125 in the morning, is that at 2200 (that’s 11 at night to you civilian types) I received a notification that our El Al flight leaving at 0840 was rescheduled to 1400 (2:00 PM) and would be on a Spanish airline. That means we would all miss our connecting flights back to Florida (and other places for some people) by the time we got to JFK airport in New York. So, we cancelled the 0400 wake-up call for everyone, called the rooms to let them know they could sleep in (hello, wake up, go back to sleep) and the Pastor who put this all together and I checked out alternatives. As we were thinking it through, El Al called me and we found out that we could take an earlier flight to Frankfurt (yes, the Frankfurt in Germany), then switch to Lufthansa and take that to JFK and arrive around 1335 in NY, which was about the same time we expected to land originally.

Well, that was good news and the El Al guy said there were plenty of seats (we needed to change flight plans for 14 people) and to call back if we wanted to do this, then he was gone. We called everyone, woke them up (again) and told them that the 0400 wake-up call would now be 0200 so we can be on the bus at 0300 so we can be at the airport in time to catch the 0610 flight to Germany.

Then we called El Al to confirm that we wanted to change everyone, but they couldn’t do that for me without the reservation /confirmation number for everyone, or their passport number. So, once again we had to wake everyone up, but this time we needed their passports; some of the others (since they were now up) went to the rooms and knocked on the doors: “Wake up, give me your passport, go back to sleep.”

I managed to get all 14 tickets changed, and El Al was nice enough to send all the change confirmations to my email. Well, almost all- I am listening to their MUZAK waiting to ask someone to send me two more changes I need to make sure I have confirmation of all the ticket changes.

Needless to say, I will be sleeping on the plane.

This last day we went to the Mount of Olives, Garden Tomb and Gethsemane. My poor little SD camera card gave up the ghost and I lost about 40% of the pictures I took today, but it was mostly just the garden tomb and that is OK. I have plenty of other pics and once I get home (assuming I do, that is) I will try to add a media page so you can look at the pics, too. If you want to , of course.

One of the most remarkable things about this tour is how well it has worked out (all except tonight, that is) but even with the flight screw-up, we will (probably) be OK . There are a number of people with me who have been Believers a long time, and have not had the chance to be really exposed to the Jewish thinking about Christianity, which our guide provided for us very well. I try to let people know how Christians need to “deal” with Jews, and this group was very open to the fact that Christianity has been, historically, Anti-Semitic. It can be very uncomfortable for a person who has a heart for Israel and the Jewish people, as all my traveling companions do, to hear the truth about why there is such a rift between Judaism and Christianity, when the only thing that makes sense is that we should all be working together. We are branches on the same tree- some natural, some grafted in, but we all feed off the same root and should be nourished the same way. Unfortunately, when the enemy lost the fight for dominance by reason of Yeshua’s resurrection, he made a very effective counter-attack. The general he used was Constantine, and the battle has raged since then, with the enemy gaining back a lot of ground.

Praise God that recently the rift is becoming thinner and thinner, as more and more Christians begin to understand how they need to work with Jews and to get back to the roots of their religion, which is God’s Word from Genesis through Revelations.

(I just got through the MUZAK and the El Al person came on. I gave her my name and reservation number and before I could explain what we have done she said, “Oh- you’re the one with the 14 tickets!” OMG- El Al knows me! She confirmed that the missing confirmations were in the queue and I would receive the tickets. I’m a celebrity!)

If you haven’t been to Israel, you really should come here. I am very impressed with all the history, everywhere, as well as the modern buildings and remarkable growth. The prophets all said the people would be regathered and the desert would become a garden- well, that prophecy isn’t a prophecy any more- it is now history.

(On my second cup of “room” coffee and the wake-up call just came in. So far, so good.)

I haven’t felt that change of life feeling that everyone I have heard tells me I should have. I wanted to come, I have come, and I have seen (no Romanized pun intended) and I am impressed. But, I have to admit, I have not felt some tugging of my spirit to make Aliyah (move here permanently) and I am almost a little defensive when my Christian travel companions have asked me, “Aren’t you going to make Aliyah?”

No- I am not. I am Jew and I am a Believer, and I love Israel and it is MY land, but it is not my country. I am an American by birth, I took an oath to protect America when I was commissioned into the Marine Corps, and just because I am no longer on active duty that doesn’t mean, for me, that the oath is no longer valid. Just because I am a Jew doesn’t mean I have to make Aliyah to be a “good” Jew. I almost feel that the question is close to racist, in that there is that assumption that all Jews want to make Aliyah. No- they don’t.

This isn’t like the 1920’s Jews that were invited to come here by both Britain and (believe it or not) Jordan, who stayed in Germany and Europe (and the US, too) because it was comfortable and they were assimilated. At that time God was calling us back (just for the record, I wasn’t born then) and we refused to go. The result was that they were there when Hitler took over. There is a passage in the bible (more than one, actually) that tells us what will happen when we want to join the world and no longer separate ourselves for God. According to our guide, Yosi, the Holocaust was the result of that refusal to return in order to assimilate. I think I will have to agree.

On the other hand, he also pointed out that without the Holocaust there would be no state of Israel. Zionism had already been around since the early part of the 20th Century, but after the Holocaust Jews had no where to go but Israel. So, God caused us to return, but we had to do it the hard way.

One way or another, God’s plan will be completed.

Will I ever make Aliyah? Probably not in this life, but there is land for me, somewhere, in Israel. I will see it when the resurrection is completed.

Would I like to make Aliyah? The answer is the same- probably. But I don’t see that as a possibility in the foreseeable future. I guess if God really wants me in Israel, He will make a path for me. Until then, although I believe in walking in faith instead of sitting around and waiting for it, I will continue to live my life as it is. Hopefully, Donna and I will be able to come back here on our own one day and if Donna wants to live here, we might. It isn’t all that easy since I have to prove my Judaism and all I have is my Bar Mitzvah certificate, and Donna (being a Gentile) may be allowed to join me but that will be harder to get done.

Look at the clock!  I have to get ready. I will (hopefully) recover enough by Sunday to work on getting the pictures uploaded to the blog site for you, so to those who are already following this site you will get a notice, and to anyone who is just reading this, maybe you would like to become a follower of the blog? Just look for the “Follow” button and add your email to the list. I would appreciate it, and if you like what you read, please buy my book (I also have a link to some sites where you  can get it) and get on board the “God has no religion” train.

I am soooo looking forward to holding my wife in my arms again. We both have already agreed that this is the last, absolutely last, separate vacation we will ever take.

Shalom.