A more lovely autumn!

The colors have been amazing this fall! I feel so blessed to be able to experience nature's last hurrah before the coming winter.

I don't remember such color in the years past. As the saying goes, its not necessary to experience new landscapes, but to have new eyes. A car is also handy...

Yeshua's life verse

I am back - *finally* I've been sick and then busy. Its been an amazing week - one I will remember forever. I felt like I won the world series - just like 2004. When 11:00 hit the whole crowd at the drafthouse stood up with one giant yell of joy and relief! Amazing. When I am sick, the last thing I want sometimes is to think so I resort to my shallow pursuits -romantic comedies, John le Carre novels, and shallow tv shows. But I just started reading "the origins of totalitarianism" so I figured its time for me to continue my study once more as my brain power is back! So the kingdom of God is like...what?



first, i want to begin with Yeshua's life verse. A friend of mine back home and I were talking about a variety of spiritual and religious issues. I was telling her about my philosophy towards work and that I want to do "kingdom work" with my life - this is my standard, alluding to the passage in Luke 4:14 where Yeshua quotes Isaiah 61:1-2 saying:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."


Isn't this an amazing passage, quoting Isaiah. it outlines exactly what Yeshua does - with the exception of the year of jubilee. If anyone recalls a year of jubilee during the period his life is recorded in the gospels, let me know. To me, this passage almost reads like his Bar Mitzvah. The Bar Mitzvah (or Bat Mitzvah) is when a Jewish youth comes of age and is determined to be ready to obey God's commandments. (Bar means son, Bat means daughter.) After Yeshua returns from being tested in the wilderness, he goes to teach in the synagogue. and stands up to read. (note: in 4:16, the author (Luke) states that Yeshua went to Synagogue on Shabbat, "as was his custom." I wonder where this statement came from - if this was an original Luke statement, and is it evidence that Luke was gentile as most believe, or was it a later addition by editors? end note.)


The second part that is interesting to me is that instead of a passage from the Torah, he read a passage from the haftorah - reading of the prophets. some claim this tradition developed in the time of Antiochus IV Ephiphanes, when he banned the Israelites from reading the torah. To skirt around this ban, they would read passages from the prophets that corresponded somewhat to the appropriate Torah reading. The Isaiah passage cooresponds with Deuteronomy 26-29 torah passage, which is all about affirming the covenant, with the appropriate blessings and curses. This passage is intriguing, one of those parts of the torah where your gut reaction is to think that God is a meanie. But I am so thankful he gives us a choice - and carefully outlines the consequences so we can make an informed decision. And as Moshe says, this instruction is not baffling to us at all. "It is not in the heavens that you should say, 'Who among us can go up to the heavens and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?' Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say 'Who among us can cross to the other side of the sea and get it for us and impart it to us, that we may observe it?' No the thing is very close to you, in your mouth, and in your heart, to observe it." (30:12-14)

Then he admonishes us..."Choose life...by loving the Lord your God, heeding his commands, and holding fast to Him" (30:19). And how better to live, not simply breathing but living, than following in Yeshua's path, adopting his life verse, His purpose, as our own. Isn't that the stuff Kingdoms are made of? Kingdom work at least, indeed.

Shabbat shalom.

the 10 words

I've been intrigued by Exodus 34 for several months. Its a bit confusing of a chapter, particularly compared to Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 - the traditional "10 Commandments" chapters of the Torah.

Ex. 20 and Deut 5 have the same list of the 10 "words" The hebrew used in both books is "devarim" not "mitzvot", the traditional word for commandment. Below are the 10 we all know and love:
1. I am God
2. No idols
3. No name in vain
4. Shabbat
5. honor mom and dad
6. no murder
7. no adultery
8. no stealing
9. no false witness
10. no coveting.
There are some differences between the two but they are not huge really. Just those details I love (invoking Egypt vs. Creation etc.)!

Then you have Ex. 34. What tripped me up several months ago is that Exodus states this in vs. 10: "He said: I hereby make a covenant..." then there follows approximately 10 items:
1. tear down your idols
2. no covenant with inhabitants of the land
3. do not make molten gods
4. observe feast of unleaven bread
5. redeem firstborn
6. observe Shabbat
7. observe three feasts
8. observe Pesach
9. give God your first fruits
10. no boiling kid in mothers milk

Immediately after - the next verse (27)states "Adonai said to Moshe: Write down these commandments (using "devarim" the hebrew for words), for in accordance with these commandements, I make a covenant with you and with Israel." Then in 28, it says "he (Moshe) wrote down on the tablets the terms of the covenant, the ten commandments (devarim).

What is going on here? We are all in agreement, Christians and Jews alike that Ex. 20 and Deut.5 are the 10 commandments. Deut. 5 (19) claims that these are "the words - those and no more" Adonai spoke to your whole congregation with a "mighty voice." Now I always see Deut. as a more authoritative text. Its like Moshe found time over the course of 40 years in the desert to create a grand summary and was able to underline the major points. out of all the injunctions, the 613, God spoke 10 directly to the Israelites. I get this, looking over the 10 words, they are all important to remember. But are they then, the condititons of the convenant with God created at that time.

You all know the verse well I am sure - Exodus 24 has the Israelites saying with one voice " All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do," using again "devarim" instead of mitzvot. The covenant is then sealed in the blood Moshe dashes upon the people (6-8). This verse does not take place directly after chapter 20, but follows after a bunch of other rules.

What is going on here?

In the meantime, shabbat shalom.

every jot and tittle -seriously? Part 1

I am punchdrunk right now deleriously tired. its been warm and my building turned off the ac. since we live on a busy street, it is next to impossible to sleep with the windows open. and its impossible to sleep in the hot stuffiness. Grumpy am I and it is Waaaaayyyy past my bed time now.

But as I was brushing my teeth, I started thinking about how God is really against idolatry and this fact is one of the only clear issues in the Bible. the second part is what stimulated me to go to the Torah as the other day i was reading through Isaiah and thinking how muddled the writing is. it starts as a vision Isaiah had over the course of four kings - then switches to the story of how he was called Wierd way to begin a story - shouldn't it be reversed?How can we say the written word before me - right now its the new revised standard version - is inerrant? There are errors - counting errors, geographical errors, spacial errors, and some texts are clearly composite. Doesn't mean Abba did not inspire the spirit of the text and the writers, but its difficult to truly say that every single item in the text was written by God and without error.

Now I LOVE the details of the Bible - in fact this is my greatest analytical shortcoming. I am a person who sees the trees, examines them up close, studies the bark, the insects, the leaves and crisscrossing of the branches, forgetting i am in a forest or why I am there. I often fail to see the forest. So when I read something in the text, I often wonder why it is that way...its my rabbinic tendancies I guess! :) The rabbis believed or seemed to have believed that every word and, moreover, the absent of explanations or words all had meaning. Occasionally, they would fill in the story, or explain God's intention through alluding to another biblical verse for the answer or tying it to another Rabbi's interpretation. I'll try to find an example for most of you who have not seen this in another post.

What are your thoughts? i'd be curious to what you think about inerrancy? and the clear "truths" of the bible, aside from idolatry. And i hope to talk about this over the weekend, but doesn't it appear to be that Adonai doesn't deny the existance of other "gods" but tells his people - you shall not worship them?

Day of Atonement

Yom Kippur - many christians are probably wondering why I would celebrate Yom Kippur, aside from those who know my Jewish proclivities. The next best thing right? Here is how I see the holy day, through the eyes of scripture.

Leviticus 16 (or Vekirah - the call I think. Note: all books of the Torah (the five) are called after the first hebrew word of the book. End note) describes how Yom Kippur was carried out in the Tabernacle and in the Temple. The sacrifice rituals are carried out (note: the hub and I joked about sacrificing a squirrel, but the whole "without blemish" thing tripped us up. Not to mention it would be rather barbaric to sacrifice a squirrel...end note). Two goats serve as the sin offering - one marked for Adonai and one marked for "Azazel." First Aaron offers a bull to make "expiation" for himself and his family, and then he sacrifices the goat for the people of Israel's sins. After he does so and purges the "shrine" of impurity (symbolic impurities I think), he lays his hands over the second goat and confesses upon the goat the sins of the people. Once finished, this goat is led out to the wilderness "carry on it all their iniquities to an inaccessible region." (vs.22).

Today we do not have a temple or a tabernacle and people are scattered everywhere. But we fast, as it requires in Leviticus 16:29, we "practice self-denial." in Judaism post-temple and throughout the rabbincal period, a tradition developed to say the "kol nidre" prayers. Kol Nidre literally means "all vows." its a prayer that is said approximately half way into the service. The mazor, the cantor, begins the prayer in a whispher and gets louder the second and third time, with increasing urgency. This is a prayer where we are apologizing in advance for the vows we will break in the year to come. So not only is Yom Kippur a time to reflect on your past sins (somewhat, since you should have repented already for them in the 10 days prior), admit them outloud in public as a community, hand beating heart, but also for the sins you will commit in the year to come.

During Yom Kippur day, I went into the library near where services were to learn more about the special services and the different componets. I do not have the source, but one book i read suggested that the rabbinic community decided the kol nidre prayer wasn't appropriate and forbid it until the time of the spanish inquisition. Marrano Jews (marrano means "pig") forced to convert under Catholicism and fulfill their conversions under pain of death said many vows they could not keep. Forbidding pork or working on Shabbat could lead to their execution, so the kol nidre prayer took on a special meaning for them.

The other thing I learned is that some scholars believe Yom Kippur was more of a happy occasion than it is celebrated today. After the community confessed its sins, they would through a party and even find mates. Rosh hashanah was also more of a celebratory feast. Over time, through the years in exile, both holidays became more solemn and sober.

God says to honor Yom Kippur forever "This shall be you a law for all time..." (16:29). Good enough reason for me to celebrate it. At the very least, don't we all need a day anyway where we deny ourselves and concentrate ou our relationship with our Creator? Aside from teh fact that Sunday is not the biblical shabbat, i don't ever recall it being a true time of denying oneself. not in my life at least. The other piece for me is the sin issue. Yeshua died for our sins, so the whole Yom Kippur thing isn't necessary anymore. Well - yes and no. I don't think of Yom Kippur as the key to my salvation, but it is key to me walking humbly with my God. Our sins are an obstacle to becoming a people before Him; they block the desired and required intimacy. And I don't remember to confess them every day or even what they are. As I chat the Vidui (confession), I cast off those blockages and misteps and end with a song of praise, the aleinu. its an amazing time. Yom Kippur is a time to get right with God .