GIL WRITES ABOUT THE TORAH PORTION FOR THIS WEEK: Exodus 21:1- 24:18 Shvat 22nd , 23-01-2014 Shalom everyone! I hope you are all doing great wherever you are. We hear a lot in Israel about very cold weather in several places so I hope you are all safe and warm as you are reading this post. I do not know if I mentioned it in the past but we are now in the process of building our new home and I am praying so hard that everything will be easy and guided by the direct hand of God. It was wonderful to have the Prime Minister of Canada in Israel this week and to hear all that he said in the Knesset (The Israeli Parliament). There is no doubt that he is a brave man to stand alongside the state of Israel these days! :) PARASHAT HASHAVUA (the weekly Torah reading) is PARASHAT MISHPATIM (Ordinances). This is the continuation of the story of Mt. Sinai and of all that happened after the ten commandments were given. This is, actually, the beginning of all the 613 commands that the Jewish people are instructed to keep by God. It is the beginning of The Word. As a Jew, I realise that there is much criticism towards Judaism, claiming that many of the laws we keep are man-made. That these were people (rabbis, leaders, etc.) who established all this rule- governed system, and that it is disconnected from The Word and from our obligation to love Him. I would like to say something about that and try to explain a few things. Of course, I will be very happy to read your comments in return The people of Israel were all there on Mt. Sinai when God revealed Himself in some measure to them. They were all there listening to the words of the Ten Commandments and were so afraid of hearing Gods voice directly that they asked Moshe to allow himself to be God’s mouthpiece. (But that is a topic for a separate post! ) This event has been engraved on the hearts of all the generations that followed, and has become part of our DNA up until today (whether one likes it or not). The people of Israel acknowledged Gods leadership and accepted their role to follow Him and keep His Word by saying: All that the Lord hath spoken we will DO and HEAR “ I see in many translations : we will DO and OBEY. But if we understand the Hebrew here; they were willing to DO BEFORE HEARING what it was about). Exodus 24:7 However, the people did not get all the commands from God directly. God chose to give all the commands to Moshe in order for him to teach the people. During this time, Moshe was with God for 40 days and 40 nights. Can you imagine that?! …sitting with God Himself?! What a tremendous privilege! And during this time God was teaching Moshe everything, so that he could then teach it to the people. Some of this teaching was written down. and it appears in the Torah as we read it. But, there are other parts that were not written down, and were taught by tradition from generation to generation; Moshe gave it to Yehoshua, then Yehoshua gave it to the judges, the judges gave it to the prophets, the prophets gave it to the elders, and so on and so forth all the way down until it was finally written down and edited at the end the 3rd century (without going too much into historical details). And that is, my friends, the full version of the Torah; the written version and the oral version. It is true that different communities adapted some additional CUSTOMS but these are not additional COMMANDS. These are traditional customs that they were willing to take upon themselves for the sake of some kind of unity. We should not forget that the Jewish people were living in exile for 2000 years, and faced enormous challenges. How difficult it would be for Jews in Iraq, for instance, to be able to be in sync with Jews in Germany, in a time where there was barely a proper postal service. There were Jews during that time who literally devoted their lives completely to that- to keep the Jewish flame burning all across the globe and to maintaining a unity. We find some incredible verses in our PARASHA this week. Verses that I would like to highlight: And unto Moshe He said: Come up unto the Lord… (Exodus 24,1) And Moshe alone shall come near unto the Lord… (Exodus 24,2) And Moshe came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances and all the people answered with one voice and said: All the words which the Lord hath spoken we will do. (Exodus 24,3) Then went up Moshe and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel (Exodus 24,9) And they saw the God of Israel (Exodus 24,10) And the glory of the Lord abode upon Mt. Sinai… (Exodus 24,16) I have only one word to end this: AMEN! Shabbat Shalom, Gil RUTH RESPONDS: Certainly praying for Gil and his family in the construction of their new home, that all will go forward smoothly, in the perfect will and timing of the Father. What a wonderful PARASHA this week. For me, it’s all about seeing how God calls us up higher….to come into His presence. It’s about PRESENCE, and its about RESPONDING to the Lord. I believe that He does not want us to be afraid to approach Him. Yes, amazing for Moses to sit face to face with God. We have fleeting moments of encounter, and even those moments can overwhelm us in the best possible way! I’m just imagining forty straight days of uninterrupted encounter!!..... I love what Gil says about being willing to do, (All that the Lord hath spoken we will DO and HEAR “ ) before we’ve even heard what God is about to say. That’s a place of total trust! And certainly how I want to live my life. Father, we choose to ‘come up higher’ into Your Presence this Shabbat, with a heart to obey, even before we’ve heard what you are about to say to us! Bless you all this Shabbat, and may God’s Presence be strongly felt, wherever you are. Biggest blessings, ruth PLEASE SHARE YOUR COMMENTS WITH US, AS WE CONTINUE THIS JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY TOGETHER IN GOD’S WORD.
Posted on: Fri, 24 Jan 2014 07:32:39 +0000
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