Ki Tavo- 3 Types of Gratitude

Our parsha, Ki Tavo, begins, “And it shall be, when you come into the land which Adonai your God gives you for an inheritance, and possess it, and live in it; That you shall take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which you shall bring of your land that Adonai your God gives you, and shall put it in a basket, and go to the place which Adonai your God shall choose to place his name there.”

This is describing what is known as Bikkurim, Firstfruits. It is the commandment for Israel to offer up the first fruits of their produce when they enter the land. There was a debate amongst our sages about when these offerings needed to be made, however. Sifre Devarim, a collection of halachic midrashim (legal rulings) from Talmudic times, says that they were to offer them immediately upon entering the Land. In the Talmud itself, however, the Sages ruled that it was not required until the Land was fully conquered and settled, some years later. This is possibly based on the fact that the text says “…and possess it and live in it…”

Aside from this halachic discussion, though, our Sages agree that this commandment speaks to a spiritual reality. Bikkurim teaches us about gratitude. This command is tied to Exodus. If you read later on, the person making the offering is say “My ancestor was a wandering Aramean…” Sound familiar? These words are in our Passover Haggadah. We are to be thankful for redemption and for being brought to a land flowing with milk and honey.

Our Sages have tied this to two places in our siddur (prayerbook) which speaks to two different kinds of gratitude. One can argue that our siddur is a primer on gratitude. Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, “The truth of being human is gratitude, the secret of existence is appreciation.” The siddur breaks down the ego and reorients us to what is important. Rabbi Samuel Raphael Hirsch wrote in his commentary on the siddur that we should thank God for the very fact that He makes of aware of gratitude.

The first place that it is tied to is the prayer Modeh Ani which is recited first thing in the morning before we even get out of bed. This is like the Sifre’s opinion; it is something that we do immediately. It is an instinctual response to the awareness that we have awoken alive to a new day and we are thankful. It is not based on long thorough study or steeping ourselves in prayer. We awake and thank Hashem.

The second place that it is tied to is the 6^th blessing of the Shabbat Amidah, called Hoda’ah. It starts out “Modim Anachnu lach”, We thank(or acknowledge) You. This is a different type of gratitude. It is based on steeping ourselves in prayer, reflection, and paying attention to Hashem. It comes only much later in the prayer service after we have settled in and are more focused. This is like the Talmud’s opinion of giving thanks only after conquering and settling in the Land. It’s like them only making the offering of firstfruits after they have had time to see that the Land really is flowing with milk and honey and know that God is worthy of thanks.

I would take this a step further. There is a third expression of gratitude that reflects yet a different kind of thankfulness. It is in the Aleinu, recited at the end of the service. We say “We acknowledge (modim) and bow before the Supreme King, the King of Kings, the Holy One, Blessed be He.” We express our gratitude to God that He is our Creator and King, but then the prayer moves on to pray that “all human beings will call upon Your Name, and all the wicked will be turned to You…” This is eschatological thanksgiving! We are expressing our gratitude to Hashem ahead of time for the wonders that He will do in the future!

All three of these prayers use the term Modeh/Modim which comes from the root word “yada”. It means to give thanks, acknowledge, praise, or surrender to. As Jews one of our primary vocations is to give praise and thanks to God. We are the ones to acknowledge, praise, and thank Him for his greatness and love. It is our role as priests to do so and to lead others to the same. And the Church joins us in this as they are grafted into Israel and joined to this priestly vocation.

There is a great focus on Teshuvah, repentance, during the High Holidays. As we enter these days, let us not also forget gratitude. We are to be grateful that we have a God that wants us to repent; grateful that He is eager to forgive; so eager that He sent His Son to die for us. Let us also keep in mind that these days of awe are meant to be a foretaste of the End of Days. When Messiah will return with a Great Trump, sit in judgment on the whole world and the world will be ultimately redeemed and restored. During these days let us thank Hashem in advance for bringing this to pass. May we fulfill our mission as Jews and constantly live in an awareness of gratitude, and lead others to do the same.

Shabbat Shalom.

Parshat Naso: Be a Blessing

This week's parsha contains the Birkat Kohanim, the priestly blessing. We are all familiar with this because we recite it in services every week. It asks God to bless and keep us, shine His face upon us, be gracious to us and give us peace. But I would like to focus on the verse immediately prior to the blessing where Hashem commands the priests to do this.

Da-bayr el A-ha-ron ve-el lay-mor ko, ti-va-ra-chu et-be-nay Yis-ra-ayl a-mor la-hem
Say to Aaron and his sons, Thus shall you bless the people of Israel: saying to them...

First, notice that the kohanim are commanded to bless Israel. It is not an option for them. It is their duty. We tend to think of the priests as elevated above ordinary Israelites, and indeed they are held to a higher level of holiness. But it is only to function as servants of Israel.

Second, a midrash notices that the word "amor", saying, is spelled with a vav. One could spell it as aleph-mem-resh. But here in this verse it is spelled with an extra letter; aleph-mem-vav-resh. The midrash says that this indicates that the priests were to bless Israel with all of their hearts, to the fullest extent, with great kavannah (focus). This is why when a Kohen today blesses with people in the synagogue (something sadly we never get to see because we do not have one in our congregation), they recite a barucha beforehand "Blessed are You, Adonai our God, King of the Universe, who makes us holy with the holiness of Aaron and commanded us to bless His people Israel with love". This interpretation of the extra letter vav, gives rise to "with love". The kohanim must bless Israel with great intention and love.

Third, the midrash goes on to note that the word amor is a participle. It is translated as "saying". This denotes that the priests are to continually bless Israel.

These three things points to the Economy of Mutual Blessing that we have discussed many times. The priests are separate from Israel, but only in order to bless them. Israel in turn blesses the priests by providing their livelihood. God blesses the priests as well. For He says in Genesis 12, "I will bless those who bless you". Therefore we have this state of mutual blessing between the priests and Israel.

Just as the kohanim were priests to Israel, continually blessing them with great kavannah and love, Israel is priest to the nations of the world. We are required, commanded, to bless them with great kavannah and love. As a Jew, I am aware of this every day. And I focus on being kind, patient, and generous to those around me. I have made it my personal minhag, custom, to include in more morning davenning an awareness of moving throughout my day as a priest in the world. I pray specifically for my workplace, co-workers illnesses and troubles, for peace in the workplace, and the well being of the company, and so forth.

But Israel doesn't bless the nations from afar. God brings them into the covenant of mutual blessing through His Messiah. Another midrash states that Abraham was meant to absorb people into his family, to create a new definition of what it means to be family. The Hebrew word often translated as family is "mishpacha". But it is used in a variety of ways in the Torah. It sometimes means tribe or nation, or even a guild. In Genesis it is used to denote the different species, or families, of animals that are created. It probably best to translate it as "household", meaning a grouping of people bound by either blood relation or covenant.

This is illustrated by the story of Hagar and Sarah. The only word in the Torah that shares the same root as mishpacha, is "shifcha", which means maidservant. Initially Hagar is referred to as Shifcha; she is a member of the household. But when the trouble begins with her having Ishmael and mistreating Sarah, she is thrown out of the household. There the Bible uses the term "ama" which just means slavewoman. She is no longer part of the family.

Abraham is called upon by God to create a mishpacha of humanity. Through Messiah Yeshua, Israel is expanded to include the church; those of the nations who have joined with Israel through faith. They are now mishpacha. They are not the same but bound together with us in a covenant of mutual blessing. Genesis 12 says "Through you they shall bless themselves." The nations bless themselves by choosing Hashem and adopt His Torah.

Yeshua is the ultimate Abraham. Through him the nations are adopted. He is also our Kohen Ha-Gadol who blesses both Israel and the Church. Another midrash speaks of Israel's unhappiness with being blessed by the priests, they complained that they wanted to be blessed directly by Hashem. God replies that He is actually the one doing the blessing through the priests. The midrash uses a verse from the Song of Songs where the beloved peers through a lattice at his lover as God blessing Israel through the "lattice" of the priests hands. The priests hold their hands up making the sign made famous by Leonard Nimoy as the Vulcan salute. There are 5 openings; between the middle and ring fingers of each hand, between the index finger and the thumb of each hand, and between the thumbs. Yeshua as our Great High Priest and Perfect Sacrifice lifts his hands in blessing, but his bear the marks of his sacrifice, making 7 openings in the lattice. Seven the number of perfection. He is the perfect High Priest and Sacrifice.

Just as the priests bless Israel, we bless the nations. We are their servants, commanded to continually bless them with great intention and love. I urge all of us to see ourselves in this manner. We are priests wherever we go. Let us be deliberate about this. Ask ourselves, How can we be a blessing today? In our homes, workplaces, neighborhoods, even at shul. We can also ask the opposite. "How am I not being a blessing?" So that we can change and become better priests.

There are those in our movement that are tempted to look down on the Church. We are commanded to love them, bless them, respect them. And to treat them as you would say in Yiddish, "mispocha"!

May we be the blessing that we are commanded to be.
May we do it with great intention and love.
May we raise our hands in blessing like our Perfect Kohen Ha-Gadol and allow Hashem's blessing to filter though the "lattice" of our fingers.

Shabbat Shalom.

Tetzaveh- The Story of Us

Once a year the Queen of England addresses parliament. She enters through a special door, only to be used by the reigning monarch, which leads directly into the House of Lords. She sits on her throne, turns to her steward and says “Fetch the rabble”. The steward then marches down the long corridor separating the House of Lords from the House of Commons. As the ministers of the Commons see him coming they slam the door in his face. He raps on the door three times with his large staff and shouts, “The queen demands your attendance”. At that point, they open the door and process down the corridor and listen to the queen’s address.

What caused such an unusual ritual?

Well, on January 4, 1642 King Charles I stormed the House of Commons seeking to arrest four ministers of parliament that he suspected of treason. They had fled, so he was unable to arrest them. But this intrusion eventually led to the English Civil War and ultimately Charles I being beheaded. Some years later when his son Charles II was enthroned, the ruling monarch was permanently banned from the House of Commons and this ritual evolved.

So what does this have to do with us?

This ceremony has become part of the shared story of the people of Great Britain. As Jews, we too have our shared story. The Torah is full of commands from Hashem. In recent parshiot we have commandments for the construction of the Mishkan (Tabernacle) and the sacrifices. In today’s parsha we have commandments for how to make the vestments for the cohanim (priests). But we also have human-ordained commandments. We have rabbinic commandments such as not mixing meat and dairy, and lighting Shabbat candles 18 minutes before sundown, and definitions of what actually constitutes work on Shabbat. Channukah is a holiday ordained not by God but by the rabbis. And we have the upcoming holiday of Purim, which is a biblical holiday but is not expressly commanded by God.

Some reject these human-ordained commandments because they did not come directly from God. Some even within our movement do. They do not understand that the story of Israel is not just about God, but about our partnership with God, our relationship with God. Sometimes you will hear Christians refer to history as HIStory. While I understand the sentiment, the fact is that it is not just HIStory but it is OURstory. It is the story of Israel and Hashem, with the Church grafted in through the agency of Yeshua.

These commandments, though, are in decreasing authority. The highest level commandments are those given by Hashem in the Written Torah. The next level is Halacha, Oral Torah, the decrees of the rabbis. (I was recently explaining the difference between Written and Oral Torah at a church and this one woman just couldn’t wrap her mind around it. She kept saying that if you are modifying the commandments then you really aren’t following them. I used the analogy of the Written Torah being the constitution and the Oral Torah being the case law that played out the practical aspects, but she just couldn’t deal with it!)

Next in importance are the minhagim, customs. There are universal customs such as the lighting of Yahrzeit candles. This is not a mitzvah but a custom, and why we do not recite a blessing before doing so. But each congregation also has its own local customs. A CZA Purim custom seeks to honor not only Mordechai but also Esther. So when we read the Megillah we not only yell “Yay!” for Morty, but also “You go girl!” for Esther. And we have a recently developed CZA minhag where Deb and Julie get aliyahs on the parsha that has the story of the prophetess Devorah and the scary Yael, their biblical namesakes.

We also have personal customs. Some of you know that one of my personal minhags is based on a midrash that is especially meaningful to me. It speaks of the eternal silent Aleph that radiates out from Mount Sinai calling all of humanity to Hashem. So if you watch closely during the Torah procession I always try to kiss the Torah with my tzit-tzit on the Aleph which is on the mantle.

I was talking to a friend of mine recently who told me that he was very depressed last fall and was walking in the woods while it was raining. He suddenly felt God’s presence in a powerful way and felt like God was telling him that He too was crying over the problems. This has become a part of his personal story.

But our personal stories join with our communal stories with God’s story to become OURstory. This is why we do not reject rabbinic mitzvot out of hand and honor our Sages writings such as the Talmud. They are part of our Story with God.

I would like to go a bit further, however and say that God is really in these things just in less obvious ways. God is not mentioned at all in the Purim story and yet He is behind the scenes working to accomplish His will. God is behind our customs. He is in our desire to honor heroic women as well as men. And God is in our personal stories of encountering Him in the rain. One could dismiss all of these and say that Purim was just a matter of politicking that God really wasn’t there in the rain. But faith says that He was. My first spiritual director, Byron Hosmer, of blessed memory, had a plaque hanging on the wall with a Latin inscription. It said, “Vocatus atque vocatus deus aderit”, Bidden or unbidden God is present.

As we celebrate Purim this coming week, let us reflect on this. Let us reflect on the fact that it is not only HIStory but OURstory. Let us reflect on this as we shout “You go girl!” Torah, Halacha, universal customs, local customs, and even our personal customs that come from our own experiences all make up this grand story. It is a story that started when God chose Israel. It is a story that continued as He gave us the Besorah and grafted in the Church. It is the Story of God and Us!

Shabbat Shalom.

Mishpatim- The Great Chain of Covenants

Our Sages see connections between the covenantal ceremony at the end of this week’s parsha and the Akedah (Binding of Isaac). In both stories a group of people await at the bottom of the mountain while others ascend. In our parsha, Moses says “wait here for us until we return to you.” In the Akedah, Abraham says the same to his servants. In the Akedah, Abraham rose early in the morning. Likewise, Moses rose early in the morning. In both stories an altar is built. When Moses ascended the mountain, it says “Now the sight of the glory of Adonai was like a consuming fire (aish ochelet).” In the Akedah, Abraham used a knife (ma’achelet). Both of these words come from the same root word. God tells Abraham not to raise his hand against the boy and this week’s parsha says that God did not raise His hand against the leaders of Israel.

Most importantly, however, is the fact that both events include the offering of firstborn sons. In the Akedah, Abraham offers Isaac. At Sinai, it says that Moses “sent young men of the people of Israel” to offer burnt offerings and peace offerings. Onkelos, Rashi, and Ibn Ezra all interpret these young men to be the firstborn sons from each tribe, representing Israel as a whole (This is based on an assumption that it was only later that the priests and Levites replaced the role of the firstborn in presenting offerings). In the Akedah Abraham sacrifices a ram in place of Isaac. At Sinai the firstborn of the tribes of Israel make sacrifices in their stead.

Our Sages felt that the Torah wants us to connect these two passages together. In fact, they see these as different aspects of the same covenant! One midrash says that Hashem betrothed Israel at the Akedah and married her at Sinai. The Mosaic covenant is seen as an intensification of the Abrahamic covenant, rather than merely being another covenant.

There are contrasts between the two, however. The Akedah is an event fraught with anxiety, sadness, and even terror at the prospect of killing one’s own son. The tone at Sinai is celebratory. Moses and the elders seal the covenant by eating a meal with Hashem (Ex 24:11).

As Messianic Jews we can see connections between these two events in the Tanach with two described in the Besorah. Yeshua’s death is much like the Akedah. It is a grim event, which he approaches with great dread. His disciples are thrown into confusion; they flee or outright disown him. And yet his is the offering of the firstborn son where no ram is substituted. Yeshua as the firstborn Son of God is the offering. In Revelation, we have a different scene altogether. Revelation 7 describes 144,000 representatives of Israel. (Perhaps these are the “firstborn” of Israel?) They are joined with multitudes of the nations of the earth, whose robes have been washed with the blood of the Lamb. Just like at Sinai, they are all before the throne of God and ultimately will feast with Him at the Great Messianic Banquet.

Just as Sinai was an intensification of the covenant made at the Akedah, so too, Yeshua’s death intensifies both of these covenants by dying once and for all not only for the sins of Israel, but also for the sins of the nations of the earth, bringing them into the Commonwealth of Israel. And at the end of time, Israel and the Church will feast with Hashem, finally sealing God’s covenant with the world to make us His people once and for all. Yeshua referred to this as the Wedding Feast, which we can see as a connection to the wedding at Sinai.

Today the world celebrates Love. This chain of covenants expresses Hashem’s great love for us! Rather than abrogating previous covenants, each new covenant God makes intensifies the previous ones, making them more complete. On Rosh Hashanah we recall the Akedah. On Shavuot we recall the covenant of Sinai. When we commemorate these events let us keep ever in our minds that these point forward to the Binding of Yeshua and the Great Wedding Banquet which brings all covenants to their ultimate glorious fulfillment. May we pray for this to come speedily and soon!

Beshalach- The Hidden Manna

Our parsha this week speaks of the people complaining about not having water, bread, and meat. God provides them all three; He sweetens the water and causes both manna and quail to rain down from the sky. Our Sages note that there are many connections between this story and that of Pesach (Passover). First of all, in all of the events leading to Sinai, this is the only one where a date is given. The text tells us that it was exactly a month after the first Passover. Second, God instructs them to only gather as much manna as they needed. If they tried to horde it, it spoiled. Likewise the Passover lamb was to be eaten overnight. Third, the quail arrived at twilight and the Passover lamb was to be killed at twilight. Fourth, in both these passages, Israel is referred to as not simply “B’nei Yisrael” but as “Adat B’nei Yisrael”, the Congregation of the Children of Israel. Similar wording in the Torah implies to the rabbis that there is a connection between the two passages. And finally, Aaron is visible at the Passover but then disappears from the text until the giving of manna. As the one to become the high priest, this is seen as significant and linking the two passages together.

So it is as if we have two Passovers. The first centers around the lamb, and the second manna. We can connect these two midrashically to the two appearances of the Messiah.

First, Yeshua came as the Passover Lamb. Yochannan the Immerser announces him as the Lamb of God who will take away the sins of the world. Rav Shaul explicitly calls him the Passover Lamb sacrificed for our sins. And in Yochannan’s Revelation we have the slain lamb sitting on the throne.

Second, Yeshua will come as the Manna. He said, “I am the bread of life come down from heaven”. This is clearly a reference to the manna in the wilderness. But he is not referring to his first appearance, because as we have already said that was as the lamb. He is referring to his future return when we will appear in the clouds, literally “raining” down from heaven as he comes to judge and rule the world.

A letter to one of the congregations in the Book of Revelation says that the hidden manna will be given to those who are victorious. This may be a reference to the fact that when Solomon placed the ark in the Temple, they looked inside the ark and the manna was not there. Yeshua is the manna hidden for now. He appeared but was hidden in his death and resurrection until that future time when he will appear again. Also, note that the manna was given in the wilderness to not only sustain our people but to test them. Yeshua as the Manna, will come to test and try the whole world!

We can be like the Israelites and get caught up in the worries of everyday life. We can forget that we are marching towards Sinai and that Hashem is providing for our needs. We can kvetch about water, bread, and meat. Our ancestors marched towards Mattan Torah, the Giving of the Torah. We are marching towards the Living Torah, Yeshua ha-Mashiach! And like Aaron, Yeshua is our Kohen Gadol (high priest) who has disappeared for a while but will reappear someday.

The solution is for us to partake of the hidden manna daily. Exodus 16:4-36 is called Parshat Ha-Man, the portion of scripture about manna. Our Sages say that we should read this parsha daily to remind us of Hashem’s providence. This reminds us of Yeshua’s prayer where he says, “Give us today our daily bread.” This clearly tells us to not be consumed with worry, but the Greek word translated as “daily” here is “epiousion”. This is an unusual word, only used in two places in the Besorah. It could literally mean “The Bread to Come”; a reference to the hidden manna, Yeshua the Hidden Manna to come! We sustain ourselves on his power and grace.

In our daily struggles and concerns of life, may we not lose sight of the fact that we are marching towards a destiny; the Living Torah. May we rely on Hashem to provide our daily bread. May we rely on that “epiousion” bread, the bread to come, who is the Hidden Manna, our Risen Messiah. May we keep our eyes on that day when he will indeed rain down like manna from heaven and reign as king over Israel and all the earth! Shabbat Shalom.

Vayechi- The People of the Mem

Remember how each Sesame Street episode was sponsored by a letter and/or a number? They used to say “Today’s show is sponsored by the letter X, and the number 3.” Well, today’s Dvar Torah is sponsored by the letter “Mem” (m).

Our parsha this week is the only closed parsha. In all other parshiot, there is either a line break when you reach a new parsha, or a nine character blank space. But this week’s parsha doesn’t have either. Our parsha begins with Jacob announcing that he will tell what will happen in the Last Days, but then he never does. Instead he goes on to assign roles to each of the twelve tribes. Rashi said that he was about to tell of Messiah’s coming but Hashem prevented him from doing so.

There is a midrash that speaks of the hiddenness of Messiah that involves the letter Mem. If you recall, the letter Mem has two forms; an open form that is used anywhere but at the end of a word, and a closed form, called a Mem Sofit, which is used when it is the last letter of the word. There is a passage in the Torah that uses an open Mem when it should be closed, and another passage that uses a closed Mem when it should be open.

The improperly closed Mem is in Isaiah 9 where it says “For a child is born to us, a son is given to us; dominion will rest on his shoulders, and he will be given the name Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace, in order to increase the dominion and perpetuate the peace of the throne and kingdom of David, to secure it and sustain it through justice and righteousness henceforth and forever.” The word le-mar-bay means to increase or multiply. It is written with a closed Mem instead of an opened one. The midrash says that this is because the time of the Messiah is closed, it is hidden from us.

But this is connected to another verse where the Mem is open when should be closed. It is in Nehemiah 2, “I went out by night through the Valley Gate, to the Dragon’s Well and the Dung Gate, and inspected the places where the walls of Jerusalem were broken down and where its gates had been burned down.”

Here the words for “they were broken down” in Hebrew is haym pe-ru-tzim. The final Mem of the word haym should be written with a closed mem, but it is not. The midrash says that this refers to Jerusalem being vulnerable to the nations of the world. It says, that when the Messiah is revealed (the Mem is opened) then Jerusalem’s walls will be repaired (the Mem is closed). In other words, Messiah will establish Jerusalem as the world capital again and Israel will no longer be trampled on by the nations.

As Messianic Jews, we can see this midrash in light of Messiah Yeshua. The Mem opened with his first coming, but then hidden gain when he ascended, fittingly on Mem BaOmer, the 40th day of the Omer. The Mem was then opened as the walls of Jerusalem were destroyed by the Romans. Yeshua forewarned that the Holy City would be trampled on until the Times of the Gentiles was fulfilled, after which He will come in the clouds and be revealed again.

In gematria the letter Mem has a numerical value of 40, which signifies a span of time required for the ripening process. This refers to the Times of the Gentiles. We are in the midst of the forty, the ripening of history culminating in Messiah’s return. Forty is also the number of Yom Kippur. Jewish tradition states that Israel repented for 40 days after the sin of the Golden Calf, and God established that last day as Yom Kippur, the Great Day of Atonement. To this day, we repent for the thirty days of Elul and the ten days of awe, ending in Yom Kippur; a total of forty days.

Yochannan’s revelation speaks of the final opening of Messiah’s Mem and the closing of Jerusalem’s Mem. Yeshua is revealed in glory, defeats ha-Satan, and brings judgment on the world. This is the ultimate Yom Kippur! Then a New Jerusalem descends and becomes the capital of the world.

When we stand before the Ark, about to bring the Torah scroll out, we recite, Malchutecha malchut kol olamim, u-memshaltecha ledor vador, “Your Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and your dominion endures through all generations.” The Hebrew word for kingdom is malchut, written with an open Mem The Hebrew word for dominion used here is mimshal, and is a kind of closed Mem as the first syllable ends in a double-Mem. It comes from the root word which means “to assimilate”. God’s kingdom exists, but His dominion over the entire world is yet to come. He has yet to assimilate all the nations of the world into His kingdom.

May we be the people of the Mem; praying for the opening of the Mem of Messiah, and the closing of the Mem of Jerusalem. May we pray for the revelation of Messiah and the establishment of Jerusalem and that His kingdom will also become His dominion over all the earth! Shabbat Shalom.