[This was first posted in 2012. Reposting on the celebration of Shavuot which falls this year on May 20,2018.—Admin1].

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On Shabbat May 26, [2012]. we devoted our Torah Study time to SHAVUOS ROADMAP, issued by Torah Mates: Exploring Judaism Together.

If Jews today identify with the Israelites of that generation who left Egypt and gathered on Sinai, we Sinaites likewise identify with the non-Israelites in the mixed multitude who witnessed the giving of the Torah by the God who identified Himself as Creator, and who gave His Name as YHWH.

That generation of Israelites and non-Israelites gave their assent in one voice:

“Everything that HASHEM has spoken we shall do!”

We made this pledge on September 2010 when we realized Torah applied to Gentiles like us. We agreed among ourselves that we should celebrate Shavuot along with Israel, albeit in a different manner — by reading and discussing the Torah portions relating to the Sinai event and ascertain its continuing significance in the life of a believer in the self-revealing God on Sinai–YHWH. [We have VAN@S6K to thank for sharing this roadmap which had been in his study file since 2010.]

Some excerpts which add more information to what was published in the earlier article titled: TORAH and Pentecost.

Since this was written by a Jew for Jews, whenever you read the word “Jew” — include us Gentiles as well, for YHWH is the God of the whole universe full of people, both Jew and gentile.

Israel does not have an exclusive claim on YHWH, but we thank Israel for preserving the Torah in their Hebrew Scriptures so that we gentiles could discover the One True God Who chose them to be His “light to the gentiles.”

Shavuos is the day to accept the Torah, just like the mixed multitude on Mount Sinai.

I. The Facts

The period between Passover and Shavuos is called the Omer. It marks the seven weeks between the receiving of the Torah on Mount Sinai (which is the event that Shavuos celebrates). The 49 days of the Omer are verbally counted, and the 50th day of the Omer is Shavuos. The word Shavuos means “weeks,” which refers to the counting of the seven weeks.
Shavuos is also called: Shavuos is mentioned in the Torah (the Five Books of Moses) as one of the three pilgrimage festivals, when the Jews gathered at the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. These include Sukkos and Pesach as well. The Torah (Numbers 28:26-31) instructs the Jewish people,

“Also in the day of the first fruits, when you bring a new meal-offering to the G-d in your Feast of Weeks, you shall have a holy assembly. You shall not do any type of productive work.”

“Atzeres,” which means the cessation or conclusion. This is the name by which Shavuos is called in the Talmud. Some commentators explain that Shavuos is actually the end of a festive period that begins with Pesach. Another explanation is that all productive work (besides certain food preparation) is prohibited. Thus “Atzeres” refers to the cessation of work.
Yom HaBikurim: The Day of the First Fruits Shavuos was the time when the first fruits of the Seven Species were brought to the Holy Temple to be given to the Kohen (priest).
Chag HaKatzir: The harvest festival
In addition, the prayers on Shavuos refer to the holiday as Z’man Mattan Toraseinu: the time of the giving of our Torah.
Unlike the other festivals, Shavuos is not designated by date in the Torah. Instead, the Torah instructs us to count 49 days from “the day after Shabbos.” The Talmud explains this to mean the second day of Passover, which follows the first day of Passover, referred to as Shabbos. These 49 days are designated as the Counting of the Omer, which, we discuss in our Pesach booklet. The Torah commands us to verbally count these days one by one, according to a special formulation that keeps track of the days and weeks.
This seven-week period is a time that is specially primed for spiritual growth and striving, since it is during this period that the Jews lifted themselves out of their slave mentality and prepared to become G-d’s “nation of priests.” This is a reason why Shavuos, the Festival of the Giving of the Torah, was designated to follow the period of the Omer, rather than be fixed by calendar date.

II. The Story of the Giving of the Torah

The Torah relates in minute detail the astounding events of G-d’s revelation of the Torah. This momentous occasion, singular in all of the history of the world, was witnessed by at least 3 million men, women and children. It seared a permanent imprint into their souls, which became the Jewish people’s “spiritual DNA” for all generations. Parent to child, teacher to student, this knowledge has come down through the ages in a traceable chain. Only approximately 100 intergenerational transmissions need be counted to get from Mount Sinai to your own family.

But the Jew’s magnetic attraction to the truth found in the Torah is not just a product of teaching: in reality, every Jew was present at its giving. Our Sages teach us that every Jewish soul that ever existed or will exist in the future was present at Mount Sinai. The Torah we learn in our lifetimes resounds so strongly within us because we are not really learning new, foreign concepts. Rather, we are merely reawakening something already embedded in our essence. To a Jew, Torah has the sweet taste of home. Below are some of the details of this world-altering event that brought moral structure to the entire world.

The Jews had been traveling from Egypt for almost two months. They encamped in the wilderness of Sinai, opposite the mountain.
G-d proposed a covenant to Moses:

“You have seen what I did to Egypt, and that I have borne you on the wings of eagles and brought you to Me. And now, if you listen well to Me and observe My covenant, you shall be to Me the most beloved treasure of all people. You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

Moses relayed G-d’s message to the elders, and without asking for any further clarification of what the covenant would demand of them, they agreed to accept it.
G-d explained that he would appear in a thick cloud and speak so that all could hear His voice, thus reaffirming the people’s faith in Moses and his power of prophecy. He described a three-day purification process that the people would have to undergo in order to be prepared to stand in such close proximity to G-d’s presence. He also established the boundaries where they would be permitted to stand.

“On the third day when it was morning, there was thunder and lightning and a heavy cloud on the mountain, and the sound of the shofar was very powerful and the entire people that was in the camp shuddered. Moses brought the people forth from the camp toward G-d, and they stood at the bottom of the mountain. All of Mount Sinai was smoking because G-d had descended upon it in the fire; its smoke ascended like the smoke of the furnace and the entire mountain shuddered exceedingly. The sound of the shofar grew continually much stronger; Moses would speak and G-d would respond to him with a voice” (Exodus 19:16-19)

“Moses went up to the mountain, but G-d told him to descend again and warn the priests and the people not to trespass over the boundaries that had been set, “lest Hashem burst forth against them.” (Exodus 19:22)

God issued the Ten Commandments in the hearing of all those assembled. The experience was so intense that the people begged Moses to act as an intermediary for them.

“You speak to us and we shall hear; let G-d not speak to us lest we die.” (Exodus 20:16)

G-d then taught the Torah to Moses, a process which took 40 days. This included the laws transmitted orally and expounded upon in the Talmud.

The Famiy Legacy

The Torah is called “Morasha Kehillas Yaakov – the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob,” which in simple English means the inheritance of the Jewish people. Given in public to the entire nation, it has never been the exclusive property of the learned or the elite of our people. It belongs to every Jew, and the Torah itself ensures that it will remain so with this commandment transmitted from Moses to the people of Israel:

“Only beware for yourself and greatly beware for your soul, lest you forget the things that your eyes have beheld. Do not remove this memory from your heart all the days of your life. Teach your children and your children’s children about the day that you stood before the Lord your G-d at Chorev (Sinai) . . .” (Deuteronomy 4:9-13)

The Torah can be learned at any level. The smallest children and the most phenomenal geniuses have all found themselves at home in Torah study.

III. The First Fruits

The First Bite

Little is as tantalizing as the first bite of a tasty delicacy. For a farmer, the ripest and choicest of his fruits are enticing indeed. He has labored hard for an entire year, plowing, planting, pruning, tending and harvesting, and his natural tendency would be literally enjoy the fruits of his labors.

The Torah teaches, however, that in the midst of one’s experiencing the sense of satisfaction over a job well done, a person must shake himself awake. He must instill in his heart the immense gratitude due to G-d for giving him his success. For a farmer, especially, it should be clear that all the plowing, planting and pruning in the world cannot guarantee a crop. Weather, insects and dozens of other variables can easily render his efforts useless.

The same is true for every person trying to make a livelihood in this world. The best business deal can go sour, the most talented professional can lose a job. Effort comes from people, but success comes from Above.

This is the lesson of the First Fruits, an awe-inspiring and festive ritual that coincides with Shavuos. It was a colorful, magnificent outpouring of thankfulness to G-d which took place at the Holy Temple. Below is a description of how the First Fruits, known as Bikurim, were brought to Jerusalem each year.

Our “Thanksgiving Parade”

The process began when the farmer entered his fields and saw that his produce was beginning to ripen. Bikurim were taken from the seven species that are designated specifically as blessings of the Land of Israel: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates. When the farmer noticed the first fruit from these species ripening, he tied a string or ribbon around it and declared, “This is for Bikurim.” Once thy were reeds, but the wealthy landowners brought theirs in baskets of silver or gold.

When the time to travel to Jerusalem arrived, those leaving from each location would gather together and set out in the morning in a festive procession accompanied by music. The group was preceded by a bull whose horns were decorated with gold and whose head was adorned with a wreath.

When they approached Jerusalem, they sent messengers into the city to announce their arrival. The city’s dignitaries would come to greet them, and even hired workers were permitted to interrupt their tasks to welcome them. Everyone paid homage to those involved in this joyous mitzvah.

As they proceeded to the Temple Mount, they were accompanied by the music of a flute. On arrival at he Temple Mount, each person would hoist his own basket onto his shoulder. Even those wealthy men whose offerings had been carried by servants up to that point would now bear their own basket to the Temple court. Each person would bring his basket to the Kohen (priest) in the Temple, and recite a declaration of gratitude to G-d for redeeming the Jewish people from slavery and giving us the Land of Israel. The statement concludes: “He brought us to this place. He gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And now, behold I have brought the first fruits of the land that Thou O L-rd hast given me.”

The person would then leave his basket and bow before G-d.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

Imagine you were there — standing beneath the towering peak of Mount Sinai, the sky thick with clouds and pierced by bolts of lightning. A shofar blast grows louder and louder, and the very ground beneath your feet trembles with awe. A voice resounds, striking so deeply within you that you feel your soul depart.

“I am the L-rd, your G-d,”

it pronounces, and you know in your very bones that this is the ultimate truth.

It may be a far cry from standing in your neighborhood synagogue listening to your cantor chant the holy words that were spoken to the Jewish people on the first Shavuos. However, with a little mental focus, a little vision and an open heart, you, too, can feel the receiving of the Torah on Shavuos. After all, your soul was present at Mount Sinai.

Here is a brief summary of the concepts included in the Ten Commandments:

I am the L-rd your G-d . . . ” (recognizing G-d)
Prohibition against idol worship
Prohibition against using G-d’s name in vain – especially in an oath
Remembering Shabbos and keeping it holy
Honoring parents
Prohibition against murder
Prohibition against adultery
Prohibition against stealing or kidnapping
Prohibition against testifying falsely
Prohibition against coveting other people’s family or property

It is worthwhile to note that while most congregations stand while the Ten Commandments are being chanted, the great sage, Maimonides objected to this custom. That is because the Torah actually contains 613 commandments, and the Jewish people are required to keep them all with equal vigilance. He feared that by standing for the reading of these ten particular commandments, people would conclude that they are the most important ones and all others are secondary. In truth, however, there are no “minor” commandments.

First, Derech Eretz

There were seven weeks between the Jews’ departure from Egypt and their arrival at Mount Sinai. Our Sages teach us that giving the Jews the Torah was the real object of taking them out of slavery. G-d did not want to simply set us free to become a nation like all others; He wanted us to be His agents on earth, helping to nudge the world toward its ultimate state of G-dly perfection. You might wonder then, if receiving the Torah was the goal, why the delay? Why did G-d not give it to us as soon as we reached safety?

One answer comes from the words “Derech eretz before Torah,” from Pirkey Avos (3:17)., a compilation of our Sages’ ethical teachings. Derech eretz is a term that literally means “the way of the land.” It is usually understood to mean good character –consideration, responsibility, honesty and so forth. The Sages tell us that a person has to develop these traits in order to properly learn, absorb, and live by the Torah. Torah is not merely a philosophy a person can study on an intellectual plane; it is meant to be a way of life.

Do First, Ask Questions Later

When G-d created the physical world we see all around us, He also created a spiritual world filled with mysterious forces and powers that execute G-d’s will. The English word “angels” is used to identify some of these forces, but these are not the type of “angels” popular culture depicts as cherubs with wings and harps. In Hebrew, angels are called malachim, which means “messengers.” They are messengers of G-d’s will, and therefore, they have no will of their own.

This sharply distinguishes them from man, who was given his own will and spends most of his lifetime trying to rein it in and direct it properly. Though his level of devotion to G-d’s will is usually much lower than that of an angel, his distinction is that he himself achieves this level. There was, however, one time in Jewish history when our people rose to the level of the malachim, and that was at the giving of the Torah.

When G-d offered the Torah to the Jewish people, Moses transmitted His offer to the elders of Israel and they responded with the words, “na’aseh v’nishma,” which means “we will do and we will hear.” In other words, they made the commitment to accept the Torah, to learn and abide by G-d’s will, before they even heard what the Torah actually contained. They had become, at least for this time, like the angels, desiring only to be an instrument of G-d’s plan.

This flash of spiritual loftiness has remained the paradigm for Jews ever since. Although we are obligated to inquire into, learn, study and understand our religious laws and ethics, we are also always aware that a complete understanding of G-d’s ways is beyond human intelligence. Our first commitment is to do and then to seek understanding of what we do. The Sages teach us that each word — “na’seh” and “nishma” — is a crown upon the head of every Jew–two crowns of honor, which the Jewish people wear with pride as they bear the Torah’s message throughout the ages.

Tailor Made

King Solomon taught in Proverbs, “Teach each child according to his way . . .” A good teacher knows that different children learn differently. This is, in fact, G-d’s own teaching technique which has been passed down through the ages. The Sages teach that when the Jewish people heard the Ten Commandments, each heard G-d’s word according to his own level of understanding. The message that imprinted itself upon each person was the same message, but it was transmitted in a way that exactly suited each person’s learning style and level of understanding. To this day, G-d’s method sets the paradigm for how Torah should be taught. If the student hasn’t learned, then the teacher hasn’t taught.

One Man, One Heart

The Torah relates that when the Jews arrived in the Sinai wilderness, they set up camp. The word used for encamping, however, is in the singular form, rather than the plural form that would normally be used for a group of people. Rashi explains that the singular form conveys a message — that the Jewish people were in a state of complete unity. They were “as one man with one heart,” united in their desire to receive G-d’s Torah.

The unity of the Jewish people is a force of immense power. The times in our history when we were united have always brought us Divine favor and protection. Times of fragmentation and strife have always brought disaster. Most notably, the destruction of the Second Temple and the exile in which we remain are traced to the lack of unity that prevailed in that period and which, unfortunately, continues today.

Obviously, however, people are all very different from each other and the tendency to see “different’ as “wrong” is a very strong human inclination. But as the Jews at Sinai proved, when everyone’s eyes are lifted toward Heaven, their hearts are in the right place as well.

Dairy Delights

The dietary laws themselves are a perfect example of the Jewish people’s willingness to act in accordance with the words na’aseh v’nishma” (see Do First, Ask Questions Later). Attempts to explain the laws as health measures (i.e., Jews have been spared certain diseases carried by pork and shellfish) may illustrate some benefits of keeping kosher, but they are far from conclusive reasons.

On a deeper level, kosher laws cause a person to think before he eats. Kosher slaughtering provides the most painless death possible to the animal. Keeping dairy separate from meat forces us to recognize the distinction between life and death, even of a lower creature. By avoiding eating predatory animals, we distance ourselves from cruelty. Culturally, the dietary laws ensure that the Jewish people cannot completely meld into the society around them, thereby losing their identity and abandoning their G-d-given role in the world.

Yet none of these benefits fully explains the dietary laws. They are simply G-d’s prescription for the health and well-being of the Jewish soul

SINAI 6000, Exodus/Shemoth

Shavuot – Anniversary of Giving of the TORAH on Sinai

May 19, 2018 s1n4i600o-adm1n-d3v Leave a Comment

[Resurrecting an article from 2013, by Sinaite VAN (In Memoriam), on the occasion of the universal celebration of Shavuot/Pentecost which is not for Jews only, but for Gentiles as well. As we keep reiterating, LAW or the Torah is not obsolete nor passe; in fact, contrary to some teaching that we are no longer under law but under grace, we Sinaites insist that LAW IS GRACE! By the Grace of Divine Providence, YHWH the Law-Giver, the Revelator on Sinai gave humankind laws to apply how to live with one another and how to relate to Him. Law IS grace indeed!—Admin1]

The Scriptural support for the feast of Shavuot is found in Vayikra (Leviticus) 23:15-16,21).

15 Now you are to number for yourselves, from the morrow of the Sabbath, from the day that you bring the elevated sheaf,

seven Sabbaths-of-days,

whole (weeks) are they to be;
16 until the morrow of the seventh Sabbath you are to number-fifty days,

then you are to bring-near a grain-gift of new-crops to YHVH.

17 From your settlements you are to bring bread as an elevation-offering,

two (loaves of) two tenth-measures of flour are they to be,

leavened you are to bake them,

as firstfruits to YHVH.

18 And you are to bring-near along with the bread seven sheep, wholly-sound, a year old,

and one bull, a young of the herd, and rams, two,

they shall be an offering-up for YHVH,

with their grain-gift and their poured-offerings,

a fire-offering of soothing savor to YHVH.
19 And you are to perform-as-sacrifice: one hairy goat for a hattat,

and two sheep, a year old, for a slaughter-offering of shalom.

20 The priest is to elevate them, together with the bread of the firstfruits

as an elevation-offering before the presence of YHVH,

together with the two sheep;

they shall be a holy-portion for YHVH, for the priest.

21 And you are to make-proclamation on that same day,

a proclamation of holiness shall there be for you,

any-kind of servile work you are not to do-

a law for the ages, throughout your settlements, into your generations.
22 Now when you harvest the harvest of your land,

you are not to finish-off the edge of your field when you harvest (it),

the full-gleaning of your harvest you are not to glean;

for the afflicted and for the sojourner you are to leave them,

I am YHVH your God!

Shavuot, the Festival of Weeks, is the second of the three major festivals: the other two are:

Passover and
Sukkot.

It commemorates—

the time when the first fruits were harvested and brought to the Temple
and is called the Festival of First Fruits
or Hag Bikkurim.

We count each day,

from the 2nd day of Passover to the 49 days
or 7 full weeks,
hence the name Festival of Weeks.

The counting of the days is also called the Counting of the Omer.

Shavuot falls on the 50th day which commemorates the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. Shavuot falls on the 50th day.

Shavuot is sometimes known as “Pentecost”; Shavuot is the only biblical festival between the Spring and the Fall festivals that has no obvious “symbols” of the day — i.e., no shofar blowing, no Sukkah, no waving of palms.
Pentecost is a Greek word meaning “the holiday of 50 days”.

(Shavuot, however, has no connection to the Christian holiday). The focus is purely on the reading and the study of the Torah. It is however treated as a Sabbath.
On the same day, as part of the traditional Jewish celebration, the Book of Ruth is read. Now, why the Book of Ruth on Shavuot, the holiday when we celebrate the giving of the Torah? Shavuot commemorates the acceptance of the Torah, not only by the Israelites but also the non-Israelites

(Shemoth/Exodus 12:38):

“And a mixed multitude also went up with them . . . ”

—hence the significance of this book.

It is a reminder for all that the Torah is for everyone who accepts it — Israelite or non-Israelite, Jew or non-Jew. And Ruth is an example of a true Torah seeker, a model of a proper Torah acceptance.
It signifies one who sincerely is seeking for the truth.
This is the real significance of Shavuot — the act of Torah acceptance, the act of Divine service.

[For this year 2017, Shavuot is celebrated May 30-June 01.]

Receiving the Torah is the assurance of redemption from IDOLATRY.

VAN@S6K

TORAH STUDY

Shavuot – What it means to Jews and Gentiles

May 19, 2018 s1n4i600o-adm1n-d3v Leave a Comment

[First posted in 2013; contributed by BAN@S6K. Translation is EF/Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses. For two other excellent articles, please go to this links:

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation
ARTICLE: Israel’s Wedding – Thoughts on Shavuot from Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks
- Covenant & Conversation 5770: Emor – A Double Celebration

—Admin1.]

Image from Chabad of South Orlando

On May 20, 2018, Torah believers will be celebrating Shavuot, a biblical feast, the name of which is almost unknown to most, since the feast of Shavuot is more widely known throughout Christendom as the ‘feast of Pentecost.” Christians celebrate it 50 days after Easter because for them, it commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the 12 disciples of Yeshua/Jesus and multitudes gathered with them; on this occasion, the Holy Spirit is said to empower them so that they could spread the gospel that is proclaimed in the New Testament (read Acts 2:1-31). Pentecost commemorates for Christians, the birth of the Christian church. But what originally and biblically is the “feast of Shavuot”?

The Torah calls Shavuot the “Festival of Weeks” (Numbers 28:26). The very word “Shavuot“ is Hebrew for “weeks,” referring to the seven weeks counted from the second day of Passover, when the Omer (barley) offering is brought each day until the feast of Shavuot. It is one of the three biblical feasts (the other two being Pesach and Sukkot), when every man in the land of Israel was commanded to come up to celebrate the festival when the Temple still stood in Jerusalem.

What is most significant about Shavuot is — it commemorates the single important event in the Torah as well as in Jewish history—the receiving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. For more then 3,300 years ago, the Israelites directly experienced divine revelation (Deuteronomy/Davarim 4:12-13).

The giving of the Torah was an event of awesome proportions which indelibly stamped the people and nation of Israel with a unique character, faith and destiny. And in the 3,300 years since then, the Torah’s ideals of monotheism, justice, responsibility have become the moral basis for Western civilization.

If you ask people: “To whom did God give the Torah at Mount Sinai?” Most will reply, “God gave it to Moses”. But what does the biblical account say? That a mixed multitude that left Egypt during the Exodus heard God speak on Mount Sinai, that all of them experienced national revelation. God did not just appear to Moses privately, He appeared to everyone—some 3 million people. The Torah mentions this many times:

Moses told the Israelites:

Deuteronomy/Davarim 4:9-13

9 Only : take you care, take exceeding care for your self, lest you forget the things that your eyes saw,  lest you turn-aside in your heart all the days of your life; make-them-known to your children, and to your children’s children:
10 The day that you stood before the presence of YHVH your God at Horev,  when YHVH said to me:  Assemble the people to me, that I may have them hear my words  that they may learn to hold me in awe all the days that they are alive on the soil,  -and their children, they are to teach!-
11 you came-near, you stood beneath the mountain: now the mountain was burning with fire,  up to the (very) heart of the heavens,  (in) darkness, cloud and fog.
12 And YHVH spoke to you from the midst of the fire:  a voice of words you heard, a form you did not see,  only a voice!
13 He announced to you his covenant which he commanded you to observe, the Ten Words,  and he wrote them down on two tablets of stone.

4:32-36

32 For inquire, pray, of past days, which were before you: from the day that God created humankind on the earth, and from one edge of the heavens to the (other) edge of the heavens:  has there ever been such a great thing, or anything heard like it?
33 Has a people ever heard the voice of a god speaking from the midst of the fire as you have heard, yourself, and remained-alive?
34 Or has a god ever essayed to come and take himself a nation from within a nation, with trials, signs, portents and deeds-of-war,  with a strong hand and an outstretched arm  and with great awe-inspiring (acts), according as all that YHVH your God did in Egypt before your eyes?
35 You yourself have been made-to-see, to know that YHVH-he is God,  there is none else beside him!
36 From the heavens he had you hear his voice, to discipline you; on earth he had you see his great fire,  and his words you heard from the midst of the fire.

5:1-4

1 Moshe called all of Israel (together) and said to them:

Hearken, O Israel,

to the laws and the regulations

that I am speaking in your ears today!

You are to learn them,

you are to take-care to observe them!
2 YHVH our God cut with us a covenant at Horev.
3 Not with our fathers did YHVH cut this covenant,

but with us, yes, us, those here today,

all of us (that are) alive!
4 Face to face did YHVH speak with you on the mountain,

from the midst of the fire.

The Torah claims that the entire Jewish nation heard God speak at Sinai, an assertion that has been accepted as part of their nation’s history for over 3,300 years. Shavuot is the birthdate of Torah believers, Jews and Gentiles alike, their acceptance and commitment to follow God’s directive on how life has to be lived. No leap of faith was taken, their faith was based on revelation that was experienced by all of them, at the same time, at the same place. Furthermore, the author of the Torah predicts that there will never be another claim of national revelation throughout history.

4:32-33

32 For inquire, pray, of past days, which were before you:

from the day that God created humankind on the earth, and from one edge of the heavens to the (other) edge of the heavens:

has there ever been such a great thing,

or anything heard like it?
33 Has a people ever heard the voice of a god speaking from the midst of the fire

as you have heard, yourself,

and remained-alive?

This Jewish claim of the revelation at Mount Sinai is a fact. No other nation has ever claimed such similar national revelation. It is a one time event because God decreed it to be so. History has validated it. This is what is so remarkable about the feast of Shavuot.

Let us take a look at how world religions came to be, thousands of religions have been started by individuals who claimed to have received a personal communication from God. All religions based on some type of personal revelation share the same beginning. A holy person goes into solitude, suddenly gets communication from God, goes back to his people, announcing that he had received a personal revelation from his God and was appointed as a prophet by his God.

To give two examples;

this was how Islam was born, when Mohammed claimed that he received a personal revelation from God, was appointed a prophet by his God,giving birth to the religion of Islam.
The apostle Paul had the same experience, had a vision of Christ, stayed for 14 years in the desert to study and emerged as the foremost theologian of Christianity.

All one has to do is study how all the world religions had emerged and the common thread will be a personal revelation from God, of all the founders. Is the claim credible? Maybe yes, maybe no. The claim is unverifiable.

Personal revelation is an extremely weak basis for a religion since we can never know if it is indeed true, even if the individual claiming personal revelations, performs miracles. Miracles do not prove anything.. All it shows, assuming the miracles are genuine, is the person has certain powers It has nothing to do with his claim of prophecy.

Maimonides writes:

“Israel did not believe in Moses, on account of the miracles he performed. For when one’s faith is based on miracles, doubt remains in the mind that these miracles may have been done through the occult and witchcraft… What then were the grounds of believing him? The revelation on Sinai which we saw with our own eyes, and heard with our own ears, not having to depend on the testimony of others.

What about us Gentiles? What does Shavuot mean to us? Shavuot is the holiday on which the nation of Israel celebrates the giving of the Torah to them. We, Gentiles, as Torah believers can commemorate this feast too as a celebration of our acceptance and commitment to the Torah. It is a day upon which we recommit ourselves once again to accept the Torah and treat it, through study, with honor and dignity that this precious gift deserves. This acceptance each year carries with it ramifications for spiritual growth.

On each Shabbat, we read and study a portion of the Torah. We start each yearly cycle on the Shabbat following the feast of Simchas Torah, with the first portion, that of Genesis. However during the feasts, there are special portions of the Torah read. These portions deviate from the yearly cycle. Instead, the subject of the portion read relates to the particular feast.

Rabbi Moshe Chayim Luzzato explains further the concept of reading the Torah. He writes—

“. . . the reason for the reading of the Torah is that the Torah consists of something that was given to us by God to read. It was furthermore designated so that His holy light should be transmitted to us through such reading . . . .

On certain special days, it is also appropriate that special portions be read, relating to the concepts of those days, In this way, the special holy light of these days is strengthened through the power of the Torah, which is the strongest power that we have.”

The Torah was given to us to read, to study and to explore. So that we maximize our spiritual benefit from this reading, it was ordained that we read the Torah every week and on special days. On these special days, our spiritual benefit is increased, we receive not only the holiness that comes from the reading of the Torah but also that from the holiday itself.

By reading the passages concerning the giving of the Torah, with a spirit of devotion, it is as if we ourselves stood at Sinai and accepted the Torah. On Shavuot, we are presented with an unparalleled opportunity to achieve spiritual greatness. The devotional reading of the Torah bestows upon us spiritual benefit. We read the Torah with appreciation.

Without the Torah,

we would not know how to function .
We would not know the best way to serve our Creator.
We would not have the tools to distinguish between reality and illusion, between light and darkness.
We would not have moral clarity.
We would not have a guidebook for living.
We would not know how to confront the greatest challenges of life or answer life’s difficult questions.

We would still be wondering in the desert of spirituality.

Shavuot is a time to appreciate, to say thank you, to imagine the void of a life without Torah and to experience it as if, for the first time, how it lights up our lives and lifts up our souls. In the midst of our daily lives, our chores and our struggles, we may end up obeying commandments routinely, taking our Torah values and lifestyles for granted.

Shavuot is an opportunity to see the values of Torah with new insights, to look with wonder and awe to our ALMIGHTY’S wisdom and generosity. Torah is HIS gift to us so that we can keep HIS LAWS.

May Shavuot remind us always what a magnanimous GOD we have, that HE has given us the Torah, what a privilege it is and how we should cherish it.

BAN@S6K

ISRAEL, MUST READ

Must Read – 6 – Robert Shoen/The Torah and the Law; Jewish symbols

May 17, 2018 s1n4i600o-adm1n-d3v Leave a Comment

Image from amazon.com

[First posted in 2014, this article is the most frequently clicked of our over 1000+ reading list. It is the last in the series from the book authored by Robert Schoen.

Earlier posts include:

For the rest of the book chapters, you will have to get a copy for your library; that is why we do feature these MUST READ/MUST HAVE favorites in our library, to promote books you might otherwise not know about but could learn a lot from and would learn a lot more if you owned a copy. It’s downloadable as an ebook or kindle book from amazon.com, worth the price! This is a timely repost on the anniversary of the giving of the Torah, the biblical feast called “Shavuot”. The designated date for year 2018 is May 20.—Admin1.]

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Image from www.hebroots.com

THE TORAH AND THE LAW

If you have ever been to a synagogue service or seen parts of a service on television or in a movie, you know that Jews read from a scroll. This scroll is the Torah. . In this day of sophisticated word processing and print technology, a highly trained scribe (sofer in Hebrew) still produces each scroll by hand. The sofer writes on parchment using a quill and special ink in the same way and to the same exacting standards as has been done for centuries.

Specifically, the Torah refers to the Five Books of Moses (the Pentateuch). Sometimes, however, people may use the word Torah in a general sense to refer to the entire Bible or to all the religious texts of the Jewish people.

The phrase “the Jewish Bible” refers to three distinct groups of Jewish writings.

First is the Torah (the Pentateuch). These are the Five Books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), recorded on the Torah scroll as described previously. Portions are read each week during synagogue services.

The second section is known as the Prophets (in Hebrew Nevi’im) and includes the Books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel I and II, Kings I and II, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve minor prophets, which count as one book (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi).

The third section is variously known as the Writings, the Hagiographa, or Ketuvim, a Hebrew word. This section includes the books of Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah (these count as one book), and Chronicles I and II.

Using the first letters of the Torah and the Hebrew words for the other two books (Nevi’im and Ketuvim), you arrive at the acronym TNK, which is pronounced “Tanakh”and is what Jewish people call the Bible (the Holy Scriptures) in Hebrew.

Many of the laws, passages, and directives in the Torah are not fully explained, are confusing, or may seem contradictory. Over the centuries, law based upon study and analysis of the Torah was passed down by word of mouth. This oral law, which provided explanations and amplifications of the written law, was finally organized and written down by the earliest rabbinic scholars in the first through third centuries CE and is known as the Mishnah (Hebrew for “recapitulation”).

The Mishnah deals with temple rituals, holiday observances, agricultural issues, and family life, but it also contains many proverbs and philosophical observations.

As scholars studied the Mishnah, they wrote down their commentaries and discussions about it.

These commentaries, called the Gemara (Aramaic for “study”), are interspersed into each paragraph or section of the Mishnah and give insight into historical, spiritual, ethical, and legal issues.

The combination of the Mishnah and the Gemara is called the Talmud. In case you’re not already confused, there are two versions of the Talmud:

the Jerusalem (or Palestinian) Talmud and
the Babylonian Talmud.

These days, when we refer to the Talmud, we refer to the Babylonian Talmud, which was completed about 500 CE. Talmudic study, while quite difficult, opens a world of spiritual wisdom, humor and anecdote, and rabbinical arguments and puzzles.

As a matter of fact, the Talmud is a storehouse of advice, recommending that we always begin a lecture with a funny story, that we should never have more than twenty-five students in a classroom, and that we should always give a person the benefit of the doubt. It also gives practical advice for otherwise arguable situations.

For example, when is Shabbat over? The answer is at the end of the day, when it is dark. How dark must it be for the day to be ended? The Talmud tells us that a person must be able to see three stars in the sky. But what if it is a rainy or overcast night? Consult the Talmud for the solution.

Throughout the ages, many illustrious and renowned Jewish scholars have contributed to the oral tradition, the Mishnah and the Talmud, and the Midrash, a collection of rabbinical questions and commentaries on the Bible (for example, “Why did God appear to Moses as a burning bush and not a tree?”).

Midrash is a Hebrew word meaning “investigation,” and passages in the Midrash often take the form of a story about whatever issue is being discussed or explained.

It is not unusual to refer to this group of rabbinical scholars as a source of information or authority when describing a particular law or practice in Judaism.

Some people believe that the first rabbis were the Pharisees, a Jewish group that lived in the Holy Land at the time of Jesus. Their interpretation of the Torah was liberal for that day, and they introduced new ideas and concepts that were contrary to much of what was believed at the time.
For the next thousand years, these scholars, teachers, and philosophers—collectively referred to as “the Rabbis” or “the Sages” —worked on the religious books and documents that form the core of Jewish religious writings.

The entire body of Jewish law is known as Halachah, and it is this law that guides observant Jews through life, indicating what should be done at any given time or in a given situation as well as what should not be done and what is not acceptable.

In other words, Halachah indicates patterns for behavior and for life in general. the root of the word Halachah means “to go” or “to walk,” and Halachah can be thought of as a person’s “path through life.”

Halachah, therefore, is a set of codes based on the Talmud that regulates family relationships, legal matters, education, diet, and personal and religious observances.

During the many years when Jews were self-governed in their own communities, these codes provided a legal system, which was a guide to what was acceptable and what was punishable as a crime. After Jews were no longer subject to the discipline of their own community, the law of the land in which they lived took precedence, but the Halachah lived on as a guide to personal behavior.

Modern Jews continue to seek spiritual guidance as well as practical advice from their rabbis and scholars, just as people of other religious groups seek help and advice from their pastors, ministers, and priests. While the Jewish tradition of law and commentaries on the Torah may not always be followed to the letter, these sources, spanning thousands of years and written and collected by the great minds of the ages, provide a wealth of guidance and wisdom from the past to be used in the present.

Issues covered by these writings vary in depth and importance, from marriage to divorce, from kosher kitchen practices to experimental scientific research, and from smoking in or near the synagogue to the introduction of female rabbis and cantors in congregations. Whatever the question or issue, Jewish tradition, wisdom, and scholarship can often help solve contemporary problems. While members of the different branches of Judaism follow these sources to different degrees (or not at all), they can be spiritual (as well as secular) guides if we wish them to be.

Image from www.chabad.org

Prayers and Blessings

Any Jew can pray on his own. However, to say certain prayers or to have what is considered a full worship service, there must be at least ten adults present. This group is called a minyan. The requirements for being a member of a minyan vary among different congregations.

Orthodox congregations require that the minyan comprise ten Jewish men over age thirteen.
Most Conservative congregations include women in the ten-person minyan.
Reform congregations generally do not require a minyan for group prayers.

It is considered somewhat of an honor to be the tenth person to join the group, since then the group can get to the business at hand. I remember occasions when someone had to go hustle up a tenth member, often calling someone on the phone or snatching a person from his office.

The number ten appears quite a few times in Judaism:

ten commandments,
ten plagues,
Abraham’s ten tests of faith,
the ten righteous in Sodom and Gomorrah, and so forth.

The congregation of “ten” comes from the Book of Numbers: ten of Moses’ spies, returning from the Land of Canaan, had distorted the truth, whereupon God proclaims, “How long shall this wicked congregation complain against me?” (Numbers 14:27).

In services where we read from the Torah, it is customary that when the Torah “stands” (is held or raised), the congregants stand; when the Torah sits (is placed on the reading lectern or returned to the ark), the congregants sit. Whenever the ark containing the Torah scrolls is open or when the scrolls are being carried, the congregants stand. There are some exceptions, but those are the general rules. Your physical abilities and health take precedence over these rules.

Traditional Orthodox Jews pray in the morning, in the afternoon, and again in the evening (although the afternoon and evening prayers are often said in succession). Depending on how observant they are, other Jews may pray once a day, once a month, once a year, or only when they feel the need to express happiness, grief, or some other emotion.

I was always under the impression that a person “faces east” when praying. In actuality, a person faces toward Jerusalem, specifically toward the site where the temple once stood. Thus, if you are in Turkey, you look at your compass and face south.

There are several prayers that are common to most services. The first (from Deuteronomy 6:4) is the Shema, an affirmation that announces, “Hear O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one.”

Liberal Jewish congregations now translate prayers so that they are gender-sensitive. Here is such a version of the same :

Hear, O Israel, the Eternal One is our God, the Eternal God alone! Blessed is God’s glorious majesty for ever and ever!

A second prayer basic to the service is the Amidah, generally recited silently while standing. In this prayer we ask God to give us peace and help us solve many of the personal problems and difficulties we all face.

The Aleinu is a prayer that looks to the future as one of hope and peace while reminding us that it is incumbent upon us to give praise to God.

The Kaddish prayer, extolling God’s majesty and kingdom, is recited several times during a service. Although having nothing to do with death, the Kaddish is traditionally recited while remembering the departed. As I get older, I hear (and recite) this prayer more and more as friends and relatives die.

As you might expect, there are blessings for everyday routines, such as waking, eating, traveling, and retiring for the day. Most common is the Grace before Meals, known as the Motzi or HaMatzi This prayer gives thanks for the “bread of the earth,” bread being symbolic of food in general:

We praise You, Eternal God, Sovereign of the universe,

for You cause bread to come forth from the Earth.

Another standard blessing is the blessing over wine, the Kiddush, giving thanks for “the fruit of the vine:

We praise You, Eternal God, Sovereign of the universe,

Creator of the fruit of the vine.

There is also a prayer of Grace after Meals as well as one that is recited before lighting the Shabbat candles.

After thousands of years, you can imagine that special prayers have developed to respond to special needs. Some may be considered bizarre and some unnecessary. Others may actually seem inappropriate or objectionable in this day and age (“Thank you, God, for not having created me a woman” [see “Women and Judaism”]).

Do all Jews recite all of these prayers? Hardly. As I’ve said before, it all depends on a person’s level of religious observance. Someone may use prayer time to offer up personal messages to God or to create his or her own individual devotions. However, the list of available prayers in Judaism is extensive.

Special prayers can be created for special needs. One special prayer thanks God for the creation of the rainbows. Or, remember the scene in Fiddler on the Roof when the townspeople ask the rabbi if there is a blessing for the czar? After a moment of reflection, the rabbi replies, “May the Lord bless and keep the czar . . . far away from us!”

Anyone who plays a reed instrument—clarinet, saxophone, oboe, or bassoon—knows the constant frustration of dealing with the fickle reeds. I once asked a rabbi if there could possibly be a blessing made over a saxophone reed or if this was a sacrilegious request. “Nonsense,” he replied, and offered me a prayer using the Hebrew word for reeds, zufim, which is the word used to describe the Reed Sea. I use the blessing now and am always happy to share it with my fellow musicians. Reeds still drive me crazy, but the prayer thanks God for creating and giving us the reed, the bread, the fruit of the earth, the rainbow, or whatever. The quality of the gift is not the primary issue.

Symbols—The Mezuzah and the Star of David

Image from micdsgashman.wikispaces.com

When you visit the homes of many Jews, you will find a small metal, wooden, glass, or ceramic case several inches in height called a mezuzah (literally, “doorpost”) fastened to the right doorpost of the front door. Inside the mezuzah is a tiny handwritten parchment scroll (called a klaf) containing two paragraphs from the Torah (Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and 11:13-21) as well as three Hebrew letters that spell one of the names used for God.

The Bible instructs us to “write them [God’s Words] on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:9). As far back as two thousand years ago, Jews have chosen to follow this instruction using the mezuzah.

It is not uncommon for a person to kiss his or her fingertips and transfer the kiss to the mezuzah by touching it as he or she passes in and out of the home; others touch the mezuzah first and then kiss their fingers. Many Jews have only one mezuzah in their home, but some have them affixed to the doorway of each bedroom or living area in the house. Many people wear a small mezuzah on a chain around the neck as jewelry.

Like many customs, the fixing of the mezuzah is surrounded by tradition, mysticism, and a pinch of superstition. Some say the letters on the scroll make up an acronym that gives protection to the home. I know of a distinguished symphony conductor who delayed the move into his new house until the local rabbi could come to the home, certify that the scroll inside the mezuzah was proper, accurate, and legitimate, and conduct a formal ceremony at which the mezuzah was applied to the doorpost. Many people take these things very seriously.

Another symbol often seen in pieces of jewelry is the chai, made up of two Hebrew letters. The word chai means “life,” just as the phrase (and song title), “L’Chaim!” (often used as a toast) means “to life.” In addition, the two letters making up the word chai have a numerical equivalent of eighteen, giving this number a special significance to Jews. Multiples of eighteen dollars are often given as gifts or donations.

Image from www.fotolibra.com

The six-pointed star, often called the Star of David, is commonly associated with Jews and Judaism. In Hebrew, it is known as the Magen David, which means “the shield of David.” Ironically, this symbol has been associated throughout the centuries not only with Jews, but with Muslims, Christians, and other groups. However, as it came to be used more and more in the design of synagogues built in Europe over three hundred years ago, it became identified as a Jewish symbol. It was so closely identified with Judaism that Nazis forced Jews to wear a yellow Star of David during the years of persecution and incarceration.

Now, the Star of David not only decorates jewelry, gifts, and other Judaica but also adorns the flag of the State of Israel. Jews around the world consider the Star of David a proud symbol of Judaism.

Exodus/Shemoth

Exodus/Shemoth 23 – The God of Grace and Law

May 17, 2018 s1n4i600o-adm1n-d3v Leave a Comment

Image from Life, Hope & Truth

[First posted in 2014, part of our series of commentaries on Torah, specifically the book of Exodus.

When we were Christians, we were taught that Christians are under “grace, not “law” because of what the Christian Savior — God Himself as Son-Man, Jesus the Christ — had accomplished on earth.

What accomplishment is that? Obeying the Old Testament Law perfectly which, Christians are told, nobody can perfectly obey, or even if we could, we still have “original sin” in our system that prevents us from approaching God at all!! And since the Christian Savior had done that, all are exempted from “bondage” to the ‘Law’ and hence live by ‘Grace’. So Christians live liberated from obedience to the Law . . . which was presented as a “yoke” around our neck!

At that time, it just never hit us that we still lived the 10 commandments anyway. Beyond the 10 though, we are supposedly exempt from all other OT requirements, like what? For one, the Leviticus 11 diet –as though pigs and shellfish and unclean animals changed their nature under New Testament times. For another, we didn’t have to observe the Leviticus 23 “MY FEASTS” because that was for the Jew and not the Gentile. And so on and so forth, we have other posts explaining the Sinaite’s understanding of “Old Testament” laws, please refer to those. —Admin1]

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Continuing the listing of do’s and don’ts of behavior toward God’s creation — man, beast and land — take notice of specific instructions regarding —

giving the land time to replenish itself (vs. 11),
and the beasts of burden rest from their labors (vs. 12)
and the special regard for classes of people who are usually neglected—the poor and the ‘sojourner among you’.

The very fact that these are stressed in YHWH’s guidelines for living is evidence enough that then as it is now, there is the tendency to neglect or ignore the universal and practical value of ‘sabbaticals’ as well as the equal status of all individuals in the eyes of their Creator.

The New Testament teaches that the ” OT Law” is no longer operative because after Jesus’s sacrifice, it has been done away with and NT is all about ‘GRACE.’ It calls obedience to Torah as “legalism”, casting negative implications to obedience to law, and specifically God’s Law, and more specifically Law as given on Sinai in the retitled “Old” testament which was originally the TNK. What is the word for a situation where nobody minds the law because it is obsolete. . . “lawlessness”? Is that the right way to live?

Think about this as you continue reading through the 613 (the number of do’s and don’ts in Torah)— what is it in these rules that say they are anything but the GRACE of YHWH the Law-Giver? Is not YHWH full of GRACE, making sure that humans in community learn to treat each other graciously, with mutual respect, with regard for the other’s dignity whatever his stature is in life? He does not require this at the cost of selflessness or giving up one’s own rights to make room for the other; it is ultimately all about what is JUST, as well as what is RIGHT for all parties. Is that not GRACE?

Why would Christian teaching say we are under GRACE and not LAW? By the grace of Divine Providence, He gave laws to regulate every aspect of human life; without Torah encapsulated in the 10 Declarations, look at Torah-ignorant or Torah-disobedient humanity and its dismal behavioral track record!

What would have worked in the wilderness community should work in every society, then as now. These are universal and timeless teachings about interrelationships, a result of YHWH’s GRACE, who in His providence and wisdom, carefully and explicitly instructs all of humanity—- through this mixed multitude within Israel— what works best to the benefit of all.

Other-centeredness, that’s the greatest Torah instruction that every human should learn and apply. That’s grace and law! Instead of claiming “we are under grace, not law”, Christians should praise the God of Grace and Law, YHWH, for instructing all humanity how best to live with one another in His world.

YHWH’s TORAH is GRACE and LAW!

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[Translation: EF/Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses. Commentary are by S6K and from AST/ArtScroll Tanach.—Admin1]

Image from The Grace Life Blog

Exodus/Shemoth 23

1 You are not to take up an empty rumor.

Do not put your hand (in) with a guilty person, to become a witness for wrongdoing.

2 You are not to go after many (people) to do evil.

And you are not to testify in a quarrel so as to turn aside toward many-(and thus) turn away.

3 Even a poor-man you are not to respect as regards his quarrel. [AST: Do not glorify a destitute person in his grievance.]

4 (Now) when you encounter your enemy’s ox or his donkey straying, return it, return it to him.

5 (And) when you see the donkey of one who hates you crouching under its burden, restrain from abandoning it to him-

unbind, yes, unbind it together with him.

6 You are not to turn aside the rights of your needy as regards his quarrel.
7 From a false matter, you are to keep far!

And (one) clear and innocent, do not kill,

for I do not acquit a guilty-person.

[AST: Distance yourself from a false word; do not execute the innocent or the righteous, for I shall not exonerate the wicked.]

8 A bribe you are not to take,

for a bribe blinds the open-eyed,

and twists the words of the righteous.
9 A sojourner, you are not to oppress:

you yourselves know (well) the feelings of the sojourner,

for sojourners were you in the land of Egypt.
10 For six years you are to sow your land and to gather in its produce,
11 but in the seventh, you are to let it go and to let it be,

that the needy of your people may eat,

and what they (allow to) remain, the wildlife of the field may eat.

Do thus with your vineyard, with your olive-grove.
12 For six days you are to make your labor,

but on the seventh day, you are to cease,

in order that your ox and your donkey may rest

and the son of your handmaid and the sojourner may pause-for-breath.
13 In all that I say to you, take care!

The name of other gods, you are not to mention,

it is not to be heard in your mouth.
14 Three times you are to hold pilgrimage for me, every year.
15 The Pilgrimage-Festival of matzot you are to keep:

for seven days you are to eat matzot, as I commanded you,

at the appointed-time of the New-moon of Ripe-grain-

for in it you went out of Egypt,

and no one is to be seen before my presence empty-handed;
16 and the Pilgrimage-festival of the Cutting, of the firstlings of your labor, of what you sow in the field;

and the Pilgrimage-festival of Ingathering, at the going-out of the year,

when you gather in your labor’s (harvest) from the field.
17 At three points in the year

are all your males to be seen

before the presence of the Lord, YHVH.
18 You are not to slaughter my blood offering with anything fermented.

The fat of my festive-offering is not to remain overnight, until morning.

19 The choicest firstlings of your soil, you are to bring to the house of YHVH your God.

You are not to boil a kid in the milk of its mother.

AST Notes:

The commandment of the first fruits applies to the seven species for which the Land of Israel is known: wheat, barley, figs, grapes, pomegranates, olives, and dates. Because bikkurim symbolize the Jew’s devotion of the first fruits of his labors to the service of God, the trip to Jerusalem was celebrated in every town along the way with music and parades.
The prohibition against cooking meat and milk applies to all ages and species of sheep (and cattle); Rabbinic law extended it to all kosher meat and fowl. the Torah mentions this prohibition three times, from which the Sages derive that there are three elements of the prohibition. It is forbidden to cook the mixture, to eat it, and even to benefit from it (Rashi).
The concepts symbolized by these festivals—freedom, the seasons, and prosperity—are at the root of human existence and happiness. By celebrating them in Jerusalem at the resting place of God’s Presence and by bringing offerings to mark the occasions, we acknowledge Him as the Lord Who controls all aspects of life.

S6K: A new reader of TORAH once wrote us, exasperated with all these rules he could not understand: “what has this not boiling of a kid in its mother’s milk got to do with us today?”

Frankly, we’re clueless ourselves, except to connect it with compassion for a young animal being prepared for human food, to at least respect the mother of the kid by not using her milk. Still, it doesn’t make sense since neither the kid nor the mother goat is conscious of that artificial compassion, since the kid would be eaten after being cooked!

Vegans, vegetarians claim that aside from the health benefits of eating no meat, there is that conscious respect for life that we can never replicate, that only the Creator can give, including animal life; why indeed should an animal be slaughtered to satisfy human appetite for meat?

20 Here, I am sending a messenger before you

to care for you on the way,

to bring you to the place that I have prepared.
21 Take-you-care in his presence,

and hearken to his voice,

do not be rebellious against him,

for he is not able to bear your transgressing,

for my name is with him.

AST: Behold! I send an angel before you to protect you on the way, and to bring you to the place that I have made ready. Beware of him—hearken to his voice, do not rebel against him, for he will not forgive your willful sin—for My Name is within him.

22 So then, hearken, hearken to his voice,

and do all that I speak,

and I will be-an-enemy to your enemies,

and I will be-an-adversary to your adversaries.
23 When my messenger goes before you a

nd brings you

to the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, and the Canaanite, the Hivvite and the Yevusite,

and I cause them to perish:
24 you are not to bow down to their gods, you are not to serve them,

you are not to do according to what they do,

but: you are to tear, yes, tear them down,

and are to smash, yes, smash their standing-stones.

S6K: “mal’ak” for “angel” or “messenger”, those created spirit beings who carry out divine errands; that would include the ‘adversary’ or ‘ha satan’ who, as we have repeatedly explained, is an obedient mal’ak carrying out his assigned adversarial role in connection with humankind. Notice the instructions to listen to the voice of this mal’ak, why? . . for My Name is in him..

25 You are to serve YHVH your God!

and he will give-blessing to your food and your water;

I will remove sickness from amongst you,
26 there will be no miscarrier or barren-one in your land,

(and) the number of your days I will make full.
27 My terror I will send on before you,

I will panic all the peoples among whom you come,

I will give all your enemies to you by the neck.
28 I will send Despair on before you

so that it drives out the Hivvite, the Canaanite and the Hittite from before you.
29 I will not drive them out from before you in one year,

lest the land become desolate

and the wildlife of the field become-many against you.
30 Little by little will I drive them out from before you,

until you have borne-fruit and possessed the land.
31 And I will make your territory

from the Sea of Reeds to the Sea of the Philistines,

from the Wilderness to the River.

For I give into your hand the settled-folk of the land, that you may drive them
out from before you.
32 You are not to cut with them or with their gods any covenant,
33 they are not to stay in your land, lest they cause you to sin against me,

indeed, you would serve their gods-

indeed, that would be a snare to you.

SINAI 6000

What does the God of Israel require of Gentiles?

May 16, 2018 s1n4i600o-adm1n-d3v Leave a Comment

Image from www.myjewishlearning.com

[First posted in 2014; —Admin1]

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Sinaites were invited to a gathering of Jewish men (and their partners) who have formed a local Jewish club in our city of residence. The occasion for the gathering was to meet a young Jewish rabbi . . . he looked like the stereotype you see in movies: black hat, black suit, white shirt, beard.

We were introduced, and since the president of the Jewish Club was still under the impression we were ‘Jew-wannabe’, he added “they are interested in joining Judaism.”

I immediately corrected ‘no, we’re not interested in joining; we have done our homework on Judaism, it is not for us.’

The Rabbi asked, ‘so what are you then?’

And that’s always the opening for us to get a foot in the door, so to speak, of anyone even vaguely interested in what we stand for: “We refer to ourselves as Sinaites.”

R: “And what is a Sinaite.?”

In a nutshell, we explained: “We are gentiles who live the Torah. We don’t aspire to become Jewish or join Judaism; we recognize that the God of Israel has already delineated the lines between Israel and the rest of the world, the nations, Gentiles. We know which laws and commandments apply to us from the Torah; we have isolated these from the ones specific for Israel and Israel only.”

We related our surprise upon discovering that the masses of slaves that left Egypt during the Exodus were a ‘mixed multitude’ of Jacob’s descendants and slaves from other nations, Gentiles.

No visible reaction.

R: “So what have you concluded as applicable to you?”

S6K: “Briefly:

the 10 commandments,
the dietary laws of Leviticus 11, and
3 out of the 7 feasts of Leviticus 23.”

R: “Which feasts?”

S6K:

1)The weekly Sabbath,

2) Shavuot which is the anniversary of the giving of the Torah, and

3) Yom Kippur since all men, whether Jew or Gentile sin against God and fellow-humans and need to repent of their sins.

This time he nodded, then asked further: “And how did you arrive at all this?”

We said, ” by studying what is uniquely for Israel and what is universal for all humankind.”

He thought for a while, then said, “This is an interesting perspective, I have not heard of it. I was exposed to the teaching of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson” and he gave us a calling card.

On one side of the card is a picture of Rabbi Schneerson with the text:

“The Rebbe calls You. The seven Universal Noahide Laws that G-d gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai apply to all mankind. The leader and prophet of our time, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, calls on us to unite around these precepts, for they are the secure foundation upon which to build society and a happier life for everyone.”

Moschiach is on his way. Our part is to greet him by adding acts of goodness and kindness.” — The Rebbe, CNN 1991

Long live our master, teacher, and Rebbe. King Moschiach, forever!”

www.7for70.com

On the other side of the card is this: THE SEVEN UNIVERSAL LAWS The Way to True Peace

1. Believe in One G-d:

Reject any form of idol worship.

2. Honor G-d:

Do not blaspheme.

3. Preserve Human Life:

Do not murder.

4. Respect Family Relationships:

Do not commit adultery, incest, homosexuality, etc.

5. Respect Property:

Do not steal.

6. Respect G-d’s Creatures:

Do not eat the flesh of an animal that is still alive.

7. Establish honest Courts.

And a Just Legal System.

What was on the card struck us as strange, coming from a Rabbi, this one in front of us and the Rabbi Schneerson whose writings we have read in our Jewish resources.

Our discussion was cut short because the social gathering had ended, so we did not have time to express our view on the Universal Laws that apply to gentiles, embraced by the Noahide Movement.

We would have wanted to comment that we never read in the Torah text that such laws were given on Sinai, unless Rabbis made an out-of-context determination which they do in their books.

It makes sense since, in the NT Book of Acts, the Jerusalem Council made a resolution about gentiles coming to the synagogue (we have a post about this) and what should they be required to obey since they’re not Jews? (Acts 15). We were taught by our Christian bible teachers that actually those requirements fall under Noahide laws, that’s the first time we heard of Noahide.

To move on: the Sinaite position is expounded in the articles under the category SINAI6000 but briefly: In the progressive revelation of our Lord YHWH’s Will for humanity, we learn gradually through His interaction with handpicked figures or people groupings He communicated with in the Torah books:

He had specific commands given to the first couple for testing their free will to obey or disobey His instructions, with specific consequences for the latter;
Then as early as Cain we learn God’s position on the principle on which Torah living is based: “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
With Noah, we learn of His wrath toward evil caused by sinful humanity, but also we see His mercy and get a glimpse of His being a covenant-making Deity who makes promises He keeps and who uses visual signs in nature, such as the rainbow, to serve as a perpetual reminder to humankind (or those paying attention and believing that the flood account was real).

In general, that is as much as one can glean from the narratives starting with the Creation to the Flood. If the Creator/God who interacted with these figures stopped there, then that is all we are privileged and limited to know, but since He didn’t stop there and in fact went on with more teaching points in the tower of Babel, the call of Abraham, the specific line that issued from Abraham and Sarah that led to the formation of the distinct people who would carry the name of the third patriarch Yaakov/Yisrael—-well, then it is only reasonable and logical to conclude that with more light and more revelation, we go as far as the Self-Revealing God allows us to go. And that would lead us to Sinai where the Torah was given, simultaneous with the birth of the chosen nation.

We could have joined Noahides, remembering them from our Christian bible study; in fact we checked them out and considered the possibility of affiliating ourselves with them . . . but after much research and discussion and deliberation, we concluded the Sinai revelation superseded the Seven Universal Laws determined by Noahides (or Rabbis) for Gentiles. In fact, admittedly we were puzzled to read on the Rabbi’s card about Noahides because as far as we understand, the TORAH is for all humanity, Jew and Gentile; that is why the multitude that left Egypt and stood before the REVELATOR on Sinai was, according to Exodus, a MIXED multitude, not just Israelites. The message is clear: Torah is to be modeled by Israel for the Gentiles/Nations to witness that the Torah life focusing on other-centeredness is the ideal for life in community. What are commandments 5-10 for when one lives alone?

Perhaps now that one Rabbi has heard and understood our position, who knows, Sinai 6000 might be added to his calling card, to distribute to Gentiles who might consider Sinaite-ism instead of Noachide-ism as the alternative to Judaism.

You think!?

NSB@S6K

AIbEiAIAAABDCNPkvrXuucmdeSILdmNhcmRfcGhvdG8qKGJkZTc0YTk3NmUxMGM4OTAzZjk5MDhkMjdkZDI2ODQ3OTliYmQ2MDkwAe5UdNp0lvYvCf8bjAFEJOY_fdsj

MUST READ

No Religion is an Island – Conclusion – “Revelation to Israel continues as a revelation through Israel.”

May 15, 2018 s1n4i600o-adm1n-d3v Leave a Comment

[This is a revisit; first posted 2012; part of a series from No Religion is an Island by Abraham Joshua Heschel (AJH). Related posts are:

Our most recent acquisition by AJH is Man is not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion. We will feature excerpts from that book soon.

Meanwhile, here’s the original INTRODUCTION in 2012:

Image from www.quotessays.com

Words of great men preserved for posterity continue to teach later generations even when the speakers/writers have finished their appointed time on earth. We are grateful to Susanah Heschel for the publication of the collection of essays and speeches of her father, Abraham Joshua Heschel, whose writings in Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity have greatly inspired us to expand our thinking beyond the religious boundaries we finally overstepped and moved on from. This concludes random excerpts from the speech delivered by AJH in 1965 to a congregation of Christian theologians. It is our hope that as we continue featuring the mind of this great Jewish philosopher through his words, readers will be curious to read more and purchase personal copies of his books. Reformatting and highlighting and chosen illustrations added. —Admin1.]

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Image from ironline.american.edu

A major factor in our religious predicament is due to self-righteousness and to the assumption that faith is found only in him who has arrived, while it is absent in him who is on the way. Religion is often inherently guilty of the sin of pride and presumption. To paraphrase a prophet’s words, the exultant religion dwelt secure and said in her heart: “I am, and there is no one besides me.”

Humility and contrition seem to be absent where most required—in theology. But humility is the beginning and end of religious thinking, the secret test of faith. There is no truth without humility, no certainty without contrition.

Ezra the Scribe, the great renovator of Judaism, of whom the rabbis said that he was worthy of receiving the Torah had it not been already given through Moses, confessed his lack of perfect faith. He tells us that after he had received a royal firman from King Artaxerxes granting him permission to lead a group of exiles from Babylonia:

I proclaimed a fast there at the river Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of Him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all substance. For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way: because we had spoken unto the king, saying, “The hand of God is upon all them for good that seek Him” (8:21-220).

Human faith is never final, never an arrival, but rather an endless pilgrimage, a being on the way. We have no answers to all problems. Even some of our sacred answers are both emphatic and qualified, final and tentative; final within our own position in history, tentative because we can speak only in the tentative language of man.

Heresy is often a roundabout expression of faith, and sojourning in the wilderness is a preparation for entering the Promised Land.

Is the failure, the impotence of all religions, due exclusively to human transgression? Or perhaps to the mystery of God’s withholding His grace, of His concealing even while revealing? Disclosing the fulness of His glory would be an impact that would surpass the power of human endurance.

His thoughts are not our thoughts. Whatever is revealed is abundance compared with our soul and a pittance compared with His treasures. No word is God’s last word, no word is God’s ultimate word.

Following the revelation at Sinai, the people said to Moses:

You speak to us, and we will hear; let not God speak to us, lest we die (Exodus 20:19).

The Torah as given to Moses, an ancient rabbi maintains, is but an unripened fruit of the heavenly tree of wisdom. At the end of days, much that is concealed will be revealed.

The mission to the Jews is a call to the individual Jew to betray the fellowship, the dignity, the sacred history of his people. Very few Christians seem to comprehend what is morally and spiritually involved in supporting such activities. We are Jews as we are men. The alternative to our existence as Jews is spiritual suicide, extinction. It is not a change into something else. Judaism has allies but no substitutes.”

The wonder of Israel, the marvel of Jewish existence, the survival of holiness in the history of the Jews is a continuous verification of the marvel of the Bible. Revelation to Israel continues as a revelation through Israel.

The Protestant pastor Christian Furchtegott Gellert was asked by Frederick the Great, “Herr Professor, give me proof of the Bible, but briefly, for I have little time.” Gellert answered, “Your Majesty, the Jews.”

Indeed, is not the existence of the Jews a witness to the God of Abraham? Is not our loyalty to the Law of Moses a light that continues to illumine the lives of those who observe it as well as the lives of those who are aware of it.

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None of us pretends to be God’s accountant, and His design for history and redemption remains a mystery before which we must stand in awe. It is as arrogant to maintain that the Jews’ refusal to accept Jesus as the Messiah is due to their stubbornness or blindness as it would be presumptuous for Jews not to acknowledge the glory and holiness in the lives of countless Christians.

The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth (Psalm 145:18).

. . . The ancient rabbis proclaimed:

“Pious men of all nations have a share in the life to come.” . . .

Holiness is not the monopoly of any particular religion or tradition. Wherever a deed is done in accord with the will of God, wherever a thought of man is directed toward Him, there is the holy.

The Jews do not maintain that the way of the Torah is the only way of serving God.

Let all the peoples walk each one in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever (Micah 4:5).

. . . Conversion to Judaism is no prerequisite for sanctity. In His Code Maimonides asserts:

“Not only is the tribe of Levi (God’s portion) sanctified in the highest degree, but any man among the dwellers on earth whose heart prompts him and whose mind instructs him to dedicate himself to the services of God and to walk uprightly as God intended him to and who disencumbers himself of the load of the many pursuits which men invent for themselves. . . God asks for the heart, everything depends upon the intention of the heart . . . all men have a share in eternal life if they attain according to their ability knowledge of the Creator and have ennobled themselves by noble qualities. There is no doubt that he who has thus trained himself morally and intellectually to acquire faith in the Creator will certainly have a share in the life to come. This is why our rabbis taught: A Gentile who studies the Torah of Moses is (spiritually) equal to the High Priest at the Temple in Jerusalem.”

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Image from www.brandeis.edu

Christianity and Islam, far from being accidents of history or purely human phenomena, are regarded as part of God’s design for the redemption of all men. Christianity is accorded ultimate significance by acknowledging that

“all these matters relating to Jesus of Nazareth and [Mohammed] . . . served to clear the way for King Messiah.”

In addition to the role of these religions in the plan of redemption, their achievements within history are explicitly affirmed. Through them

“the messianic hope, the Torah, and the commandments have become familiar topics . . . (among the inhabitants) of the far isles and many peoples.”

Elsewhere Maimonides acknowledges that

“the Christians believe and profess that the Torah is God’s revelation (torah min ha-shamayim) and given to Moses in the form in which it has been preserved; they have it completely written down, though they frequently interpret it differently.”

.[Rabbi Jacob Emden]

” . . they have emerged out of Judaism and accepted “the fundamentals of our divine religion . . . to make known God among the nations . . . to proclaim that there is a Master in heaven and earth, divine providence, reward and punishment . . . Who bestows the gift of prophecy . . . and communicates through the prophets laws and statutes to live by . . . This is why their community endures . . . . Since their intention is for the sake of heaven, reward will not be withheld from them.”

He also praises many Christian scholars who have come to the rescue of Jews and their literature.

What, then, is the purpose of interreligious cooperation?

It is neither to flatter nor to refute one another, but to help one another; to share insight and learning, to cooperate in academic ventures on the highest scholarly level and, what is even more important, to search in the wilderness for wellsprings of devotion, for treasures of stillness, for the power of love and care for man. What is urgently needed are ways of helping one another in the terrible predicament of here and now by the courage to believe that the word of the Lord endures forever as well as here and now; to cooperate in trying to bring about a resurrection of sensitivity, a revival of conscience; to keep alive the divine sparks in our souls, to nurture openness to the spirit of the Psalms, reverence for the words of the prophets, and faithfulness to the Living God.

MUST READ

The Ever-Renewed Covenant

May 15, 2018 s1n4i600o-adm1n-d3v Leave a Comment

Image from www.christianbooks.co.za

[First posted 2015. The “new”covenant claimed by Christianity as God’s covenant with the Church is found nowhere in the Hebrew Scriptures, even as Jeremiah 31:30-33 is cited as the ‘Old Testament’ prooftext. When you read those verses carefully and closely, you will discover that the same parties that cut a covenant at Sinai are named as covenant-partners: YHWH, and Israel. When you read further what the covenant is about, you will find out it is about the same “law” or Torah given on Sinai.

What is different is clearly stated, instead of the Law or Torah being written on tablets of stone, this is what the God of Israel says:

I will place My Torah within them

and I will write it onto their heart;

I will be a God for them

and they will be a people for Me.

They will no longer teach —

each man his fellow, each man his brother

—saying ‘Know YHWH!”

For all of them will know Me,

from their smallest to their greatest

—the word of YHWH —

when I will forgive their iniquity

and will no longer recall their sin.

Who is being referred to by ‘they’, ‘their’ and ‘them’? Vs 30:

‘when I will seal a new covenant

with the House of Israel and

with the House of Judah.

When?

‘Behold, the days are coming” and

‘For this is the covenant that I shall seal

with the House of Israel after those days’.

Who are YHWH’s ‘covenant people’?

The same chosen people with whom

the Covenant on Sinai was made and

renewed in the prophet Jeremiah’s time.

How long will this covenant between YHWH and Israel about His Torah last? Are His Laws to be done away with, replaced by ‘grace’?

vs. 35 If these laws could be removed

from before Me –the word of YHWH —

so could the seed of Israel cease

from being a people before me forever.

This is chapter 11 of Jon D. Levenson’s Sinai and Zion, our MUST READ/MUST OWN feature. It is downloadable as ebook from amazon.com for those who have gotten curious enough to want to read the whole book! It is worth not only the expense but more importantly the time spent on reading from beginning to end. Additional posts from this same source are:

Reformatting and highlights ours.—Admin1.]

Image from www.cswisdom.com

The renewal of covenant was a central aspect of Israel’s worship in biblical times. Psalm 81, chanted today on Thursday mornings, seems to have related the Sinaitic experience in some kind of regular liturgical celebration, also in its original setting. Although much of this psalm is obscure, v 4 would seem to locate its context in the celebration of the first day of the lunar month, on analogy with the celebration of New Year’s Day (Rosh HaShanah) so well known from later tradition, and comparable festivities for the day of the full moon, two weeks later.

What is most pertinent to us is that the liturgy for these holy days seems to have stressed the Decalogue. Vv 10-11 are a transparent restatement of the Second and First Commandments, according to the Jewish enumeration. Vv 6b-8, in which YHWH becomes the speaker, perhaps through the mouth of a priest or prophet, and v 17 restate the historical prologue, with its emphasis upon all that the suzerain, in his graciousness, has done for his vassal. The curses of covenant can be heard in vv 12-13, in which YHWH disowns a disobedient people, but in vv 14-16, the blessings balance this with their promise of victory if only Israel walks YHWH’s path. In short, Psalm 81 evidences a regular liturgical occasion in which the Sinaitic covenant and the great choice it entails were represented to the Israelite congregation.

In the case of the book of Deuteronomy, the book of covenant par excellence, this insistence upon the relevance of the covenant of Sinai (“Horeb” in Deuteronomy) to the present generation reaches a pitch of intensity:

1 Moses called together all Israel and said to them:

Hear, Israel,

the laws and ordinances which I am proclaiming to you personally today.

Study them,

observe them,

put them into practice.

2 YHWH our God made a covenant with us on Horeb.

3 It was not with our fathers that YHWH made this covenant,

but with us—us!—those who are there today, all of us, the living.

4 Face to face YHWH spoke with you on the mountain, from the midst of the fire.

(Deut 5:1-4)

The concern in this passage is that Israel may come to think of themselves as obliged in a distant way by the covenant of Sinai/Horeb, but not as direct partners in it. Lest the freshness of the experience be lost, v 3 hammers home the theme of contemporaneity in staccato fashion, with no fewer than six separate expressions:

“with us”—

“us!”—

“those who are here”—

“today”—

“all of us”—

“the living.”

The goal of this speech, as of the covenant renewal ceremony in which it probably originated, is to induce Israel to step into the position of the generation of Sinai, in other words, to actualize the past so that this new generation will become the Israel of the classic covenant relationship (cf. Deut 30:19-20). Thus, life in covenant is not something merely granted, but something won anew, rekindled and reconsecrated in the heart of each Israelite in every generation.

Covenant is not only imposed,

but also accepted.

It calls with both the stern voice of duty and the tender accents of the lover, with both stick (curse, death) and carrot (blessing, life) in hand. But it biases the choice in favor of life (Deut 30:19).

It is conventional to trace the influence of the covenant renewal ceremony and the formulary until the time of the disappearance of the Dead Sea community (first century C.E.) and no further. The tacit assumption is that these institutions did not survive into the next phase of Jewish history, the rabbinic era. In this, there is a certain truth. The idea of covenant does not seem to have had in rabbinic religion the centrality it had held since at least the promulgation of Deuteronomy in the seventh century B.C.E., although its importance for the rabbis must not be minimized. There is no rabbinic ceremony in which the Jews are said explicitly to be renewing their partnership in the Sinaitic covenant, as the eight day old boy is said, for example, to be entering the covenant of Abraham (Gen. 17:1-14) during his circumcision. There is, however, a text which is central to the rabbinic liturgy, in fact arguably the central text of the rabbinic liturgy, which is composed of three Pentateuchal passages (Deut 6:4-9; 11:13-21; Num 15:37-41) expressive of the classical covenant theology.

The prayer is known as the Shma, after its first word. The first verse of the Shma is correctly rendered,

“Listen, Israel:

YHWH is our God,

YHWH alone”

(Deut 6:4).

Image from www.shemayisrael.net

It is manifestly an echo of the requirement of the old suzerainty treaties to recognize one lord alone. Since in the biblical case the lord is divine, the verse is a classic statement of covenantal monotheism, i.e., the prohibition upon the service of other suzerains.

In fact, we sense apprehension about the possibility of just such defection in each of the three paragraphs.

In the second one, we hear of the danger of seduction, in language that recalls the career of Hosea (Deut 11:16-17), and in the last paragraph, such defection is termed “whoring” (Num 15:39). It is the passage from Numbers which establishes the ground of obedience to YHWH precisely where we expect it, in the redemption from Egypt (v 41). This verse, like the First Commandment of the Decalogue (Exod 20:2), is a condensation of the historical prologue.

The central stipulation of the Shma is one familiar to any student of Near Eastern covenants,

the obligation to love YHWH,

which is inextricable from the requirement

to carry out all his commandments.

As we shall see, the rabbis, like the more ancient architects of covenant, saw in the acclamation of divine lordship and the love commandment of the first paragraph the basis for the acceptance of all other commandments.

The second paragraph, which stresses performance of the stipulations, derives mostly from the blessings and curses of the covenant formulary.

Fidelity to YHWH

and the exclusive service of him

will bring abundance;

defection will result

in drought, famine, and death.

Finally, we should note that the insistence that the “words” be—

constantly recited,
bound to one’s body,
written upon one’s house,
and the commandments symbolized in one’s clothes,

—is also a reflex of part of the covenant formulary, the deposition of the text and the requirement for its periodic reading. In short, the idiom and the theology of covenant permeate the Shma.

What is interesting in light of the putative disappearance of the covenant renewal ceremony is that the rabbis selected these three texts to make up one prayer, for the three are not contiguous in the Torah, and the first of them there, Num 15:37-41, appears last here. What links the three paragraphs is that they constitute the basic affirmation of covenant. They confront us with the underpinnings of the entire Sinaitic dimension of the religion of Israel. The link between them is theological, and it is that theology that the rabbis considered basic to their own appropriation and adaptation of the biblical heritage. For they made the Shma a staple in the liturgy they wove for Jewry.

In the requirement to “recite them…when you lie down and when you get up,” they saw a mitzvah to recite the Shma twice daily, in the morning and evening every day of the year. The Shma thus became one of the pillars around which those two services developed.

What, precisely, did the rabbis think happened when one recites the Shma? We find an answer in the reply of the Tannaitic master Rabbi Joshua ben Korhah to the question of why Deut 6:4-9 is positioned before 11:13-21:

so that one might accept upon himself the yoke of the kingdom of heaven first;
afterwards, he accepts upon himself the yoke of the commandments.

“Heaven” in Talmudic language is usually a more delicate way of saying “God.” Rabbi Joshua sees the Shma, therefore, as the acclamation of God’s kingship. Only in light of such an acclamation do the mitsvot make sense. In light of the biblical ideas, we can say that one must first accept the suzerainty of the great king, the fact of covenant; only then can he embrace the particulars which the new lord enjoins upon him, the stipulations. If God is suzerain, his orders stand. But his suzerainty is not something irrational and threatening. It follows from his gracious character:

I am the Lord Thy God.

Why were the Ten Commandments not said at the beginning of the Torah? They give a parable. To what may this be compared? To the following:

A king who entered a province said to the people: May I be your king? But the people said to him: Have you done anything good for us that you should rule over us? What did he do then? He built the city wall for them, he brought in the water supply for them, and he fought their battles. Then when he said to them: May I be your king? They said to him: Yes, Yes. Likewise, God…

His past grace grounds his present demand. To respond wholeheartedly to that demand, to accept the yoke of the kingdom of heaven, is to make a radical change, a change at the roots of one’s being. To undertake to live according to Halakhah is not a question of merely raising one’s moral aspirations or of affirming “Jewish values,” whatever that means.

To recite the Shma and mean it is to enter a supra-mundane sovereignty, to become a citizen of the kingdom of God, not simply in the messianic future to which that term also refers (e.g., Dan 2:44), but also in the historical present. Thus, one can understand the horror a rabbinic Jew would have of failing to say the Shma, as exemplified in this story: There was a law that a bridegroom was exempt from the commandment to recite the Shma, probably because he was in no mental condition to give the prayer the concentration it required. But concerning one early rabbi, we read this exchange in the Mishnah:

It happened that Rabban Gamaliel got married and recited the Shma on the first night. His students said to him, “Our master, have you not taught us that a bridegroom is exempt from the recitation of the Shma on the first night?” He said to them, “I am not going to listen to you and annul the kingdom of Heaven from myself for even a moment!”

In other words, one who neglects the Shma when its recitation is due is rebelling against the sovereignty/suzerainty of God. Or, to put it positively, the Shma is the rabbinic way of actualizing the moment at Sinai when Israel answered the divine offer of covenant with the words—

“All that YHWH has spoken we will do” (Exod 19:8).

In short, the recitation of the Shma is the rabbinic covenantal renewal ceremony. It is the portal to continuing life in covenant.

There is, therefore, no voice more central to Judaism than the voice heard on Mount Sinai. Sinai confronts anyone who would live as a Jew with an awesome choice, which, once encountered, cannot be evaded—the choice of whether to obey God or to stray from him, of whether to observe the commandments or to let them lapse.

Ultimately, the issue is whether God is or is not king, for there is no king without subjects, no suzerain without vassals. In short,

Sinai demands that

the Torah be taken

with radical seriousness.

But alongside the burden of choice lies a balm that soothes the pain of decision.

The balm is the history of redemption, which grounds the commandments and insures that this would-be king is a gracious and loving lord and that to choose to obey him is not a leap into the absurd.
The balm is the surprising love of YHWH for Israel, of a passionate groom for his bride, a love ever fresh and never dulled by the frustrations of a stormy courtship.

Mount Sinai is the intersection of —

love and law,
of gift and demand,
the link between a past together and a future together.

Image by Edward Lear, from www.wikigallery.org

ISRAEL

Israel: The Only Nation with a Distinctive National Identity

May 14, 2018 s1n4i600o-adm1n-d3v Leave a Comment

[First posted in 2012; written by Sinaite “ELZ” who has since passed on to Spiritual Sinai to finally meet the God she had loved and sought all her life:

For the short time she was a Sinaite, she contributed many articles to this website, many of which were chapters from her doctoral dissertation on the book of Exodus:

ELZ also encouraged her students at the Christian seminary where she taught, to contribute articles:

Lord, how we miss ELZ and our other elder Sinaite VAN, two valuable original organizers of our Sinai 6000 core community whose names, for certain, are written in Your Book of Life!—Admin 1.]

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National identity is defined as the unique character that binds a body of people in their national life. It features a distinctive inheritance and common experiences of meaningful events. Israel’s nationalism is seen through the eye of faith of those who carried on their ancestral promises and encountering struggles to witness their realization.

The spiritual values of God’s promises and man’s commitment directed Israel to a faith and worship that define their identity as a peculiar people, a holy nation that is separated from the world system. The Sabbath, circumcision, and Passover are kept as reminders of God’s faithfulness to his promises. The moral and ethical imperatives that govern the people of God account for the distinctiveness and identity of the nation. Firmly stipulated is the theocratic rule, God as the standard of goodness, and prohibition of idolatry. God’s demand in the law has for its consequence an ethical life that is pleasing to God.

The Hebrews were naturally influenced by all the great civilizations with which they had cultural relationships, including those ofMesopotamia,Egypt,Phoenicia,Persia, andGreece. Hebrew religion, an ethical monotheism with high social ideals, is unique in human history. The faith and worship of the ancient patriarchs reflects three great observances: circumcision, sacrifices, and the Sabbath. The rite of circumcision was observed by Israel in Egypt:

Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me. So he let him go: then she said: A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision. (Exodus 4:25-26)

The proposal to celebrate a great sacrificial feast in the wilderness implies that sacrificial worship has maintained its hold upon the people:

And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land. And Moses said, It is not meet to do so; for shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God: lo shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us? We will go three days’ journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the Lord, our God, as he shall command us. And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the Lord, your God in the wilderness; only ye shall not go very far away: intreat for me (Exodus 8:25-28).

The Sabbath is marked by the direction to gather on the Friday two days provision of manna:

And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which ye will bake today, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning (Exodus 16:22-23).

The manna was to be gathered every morning and would not keep but a single day. But on the sixth day, a double quantity was to be gathered to supply the Sabbath since none fell on the seventh day. On any other day, if a surplus quantity was gathered, it spoiled but this quantity reserved for the Sabbath, kept pure and sweet.

Sabbath means rest-the term that describes the relief from whatever pointless or selfish wanderings have wearied the soul. It is the common-sense recognition of the need for periodic rest as God himself rested on the seventh day:

“Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed” (Exodus 23:12).

The introduction of the Sabbath command by the word“Remember” convey the impression of previous observance that started at Mount Sinai:

Remember the Sabbath day, keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it (Exodus 20:8-11).

There are indications that Israel’s ancestors had been under the influence of religious views that prevailed throughout the Fertile Crescent, from Mesopotamia to Egypt. Accordingly, the Exodus was not just a flight from political oppression but was a departure from the religions of the ancient world, from the myths that expressed the relationship between the social order and the divine order of reality. The religious rituals and ceremonial laws signify the religiosity of the Israelites, but they are not separated from the world. Nothing can please God which is not clearly separate from evil. Hence, the holy nation as required by a holy God should be “separated, set apart” as the Hebrew term for “holy” generally means.

The Passover is an annual religious rite which has been central to the life and history of the Hebrew people. It marks the occasion, describes the ritual, and declares the purpose of the Feast. The temptation to use Sabbath day for unworthy purposes is seen throughout Israel’s history. People could be found who were unable to confine their personal and often selfish interests and activities to six days a week.

The God of the Hebrews was different from other gods whom Israel must have seen, and some have worshipped them in Egypt. He required reverence and honor; an observance of the Sabbath; due honor toward parents. He prohibited murder, impurity, theft, lying, and covetousness. When the Israelites remove these acts from their lives, God’s demands would soon result in an ethical life that is pleasing to him who would be their God, and they would be his people-a holy nation:

Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel (Exodus 19:5-6).

Judgment fell upon Egypt, and the strange remorseful appeal of Pharaoh that the people should leave. So they passed out, and in that passing, the national life began. Mount Sinai was the birthplace of the Hebrew nation. It was there that the covenant was given to Moses. The people stayed there for a whole year to establish the permanent covenant relationship between God and Israel. The covenant laid its foundation in the moral, judicial, and ceremonial law given by God to make them a “peculiar nation.” They passed from slavery to freedom, from brutal oppression to life under advantageous authority, from disgrace, which slavery always brings, to dignity, which life under true government ensures. Israel’s nationalism regards the conviction that the gift of the land was the supreme sign of Yahweh’s benevolence toward the people.

God called Israel’s family his “chosen people.” By the time of the great exodus, Egypt had been destroyed- their crops, their wealth, and the army were gone. God dwelt with them for 40 years as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. God never did this to any other nation on earth. The oneness of the chosen people consists in their receiving God’s promises and experiencing their fulfillment. The “God of their fathers” is not the abstract, philosophical god of the ancient Near East. He is a God who acts, not just a central idea for an ethical way of life. He is a God who reveals himself, who builds upon what he has said and done before. He is known by his people, through his people, among his people.

As Exodus is interpreted by faith from Israel’s standpoint, the events are not just the ordinary rendering of wars, population movement, and cultural advance or decline. It is the disclosure of God’s activity in events, the working out of God’s purposes in the career of Israel. Israel’s sense of identity has not prevented her people from sending the repercussions of its influence far and wide into the oceans of history.

ELZ@S6K

ISRAEL, Q & A

Q&A: That recurring question about Israel’s ‘chosen-ness’…

May 14, 2018 s1n4i600o-adm1n-d3v Leave a Comment

[First posted in 2012, shortly after we started this website. When a visitor clicks old posts, it gives us the opportunity to review it and decide if it is still relevant to our ever-developing current understanding and convictions. This week, Israel is again in the news, battling it out with an old old enemy that refuses to allow it to exist. Hence, this repost.—Admin1.]

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Question:

What are we Gentiles supposed to be doing in the meantime?? That is, while we’re waiting for the the Jews to get their act together and save the world…

Answer: Sinai 6000 Perspective

For starters, let’s get a few things straight. This is how we have figured it out for our group:

Israel was not “chosen” to “save the world” but to model the lifestyle God requires for people to be able to live together in harmony and peace, with an OTHER-centeredness and GOD-centeredness. TORAH spells that out; take care of the underprivileged, the poor, the stranger among you, the widows, the children, be kind to your slaves, etc. The reason for having wealth is to be in the position to bless others; that’s how God takes care of His world.

Israel’s “chosen-ness” is spelled out as early as Deuteronomy 7 and 9, nothing about them deserves being chosen; it’s GOD’s sovereign choice, He formed them historically and genealogically; they didn’t “get it” until after they lost the land, the Temple, the kingdom during the Babylonian exile, when the only thing they did have was the Torah. And that’s when the pendulum swung the other way; they got totally Torah-focused, observant, fenced God’s commandments with their own man-made rules and traditions to avoid violating them. Eventually they did fulfill their mandate to be the ‘light to the gentiles” . . . the Hebrew Bible was attached to the “New Testament” and is there to be read by all; unfortunately, who’s REALLY reading, and if they are, who TRULY UNDERSTANDS?

With chosen-ness is grave responsibility . . . as it is with freedom is responsibility . . . Israel fails over and over, according to their own history recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures. What nation would write about their failures the way Israel has done in TNK? You’d think they’d edit that to make themselves look good, instead they look sooooooooo bad! By the time they do get it right, the persecution gets worse and guess who does the persecuting worse than anyone else, the Christians! Hitler points to Christian writers like Martin Luther, etc. to justify his agenda to annihilate the Jews

An excellent book to read on the heavy responsibility of being God’s Light-bearer to the gentiles is Jonathan Sack’s To Heal a Fractured World: The Ethics of Responsibility.

Q: So while Jews can’t get their act together what do we gentiles do?

If we’ve learned TORAH, we obey! It’s as simple as that. For every little thing you learn and do, that’s one more person doing what’s right, whether or not Jews get their act together. You become a light-bearer yourself.

Hanukkah, the Jewish festival is not one of the original 7 feasts of Leviticus but—if you truly understand its significance not only to Jews but to gentiles, this festival of lights is a good introduction to deeper truths. The hanukkiah menorah [9 stem] has that center light which is called the “servant candle” or if done with original olive oil, it’s the “servant light.” The servant [Isaiah 40-50] is Israel, God’s light-bearer. They did succeed through the preservation of God’s original revelation in Torah [5 books of Moses], and through the witness of their history and position in world current affairs, that the God on Sinai continues to work His Will through them. The re-established nation of Israel is secular, yet it is the only country that observes Shabbat — the commandment that testifies to Who is the Creator, the same self-revealing God on Sinai.

Our problem is, our exposure to Torah has been through Christian teaching, infused with New Testament theology that goes TOTALLY counter to original Torah. Christianity invented original sin, need for a savior, Satan and fallen angels, virgin birth, etc. , an EXCLUSIVE theology decided upon by councils of men.

Jesus supposedly teaches in the Gospels that if you as much as look at another woman, you’ve already committed adultery . . . not so . . . we’re always exposed to temptations around us, so thoughts and inclinations will crop up all the time but we don’t have to succumb. We are given FREE WILL and FREE CHOICE, just like Adam and Eve, Cain . . . God’s warning to Cain says it all . . . sin is crouching at your door . . . but you can dominate it . . . God didn’t say you are helpless because you inherited Adam’s sinful nature, etc. etc. {Read Ezekiel 18 that says children don’t inherit their father’s sins, each is responsible for his own].

Deuteronomy and Joshua say “choose today whom you will serve” . . . it’s always a choice. But people have to be enlightened with Torah to have a choice, and to understand it. You’ll never understand “Old Testament” as taught by Christianity, you will understand many ways to understand OT through Jewish teaching. And that’s why it’s good to start over and learn from the rabbis. Our Sinai 6000 group have gone the rounds in Jewish websites; we don’t get “confused” at all, the Jewish perspective is simply so different from the Christian. It’s time to start learning from them. But your study should not end there, with the Jews . . . we are gentiles; there are instructions specific to Jews and there are others that are universal to all nations, to gentiles. Learn which is which by reading the context of isolated passages used as prooftext. We have many articles here to help you through that process of relearning how to read the Hebrew Scriptures. Please avail of them.

NSB@S6K