The Desire of Our Eyes

Our Haftorah reading today tells the story of Shimshon, Samson. An angel appears to his mother who is barren and announces to her that she will have a son. He is to be a lifelong nazir (nazirite). Her husband is doubtful and asks to see the angle who upon her prompting reappears and confirms her story.

Many times people draw connections between Samson and Yochannan the Immerser (John the Baptist). In his birth story, the angel appears to the husband, but he doubts and is struck mute. The angel tells him that while his wife has been barren she will have a son. Yochannan is born and is consecrated to God for his lifetime as a nazir.

But I don’t want to talk about that today. Instead I would like to contrast Samson with Yeshua. Samson is dedicated to God by his parents but he is impulsive and lustful. He flies into rages, goes on killing rampages, and is a womanizer. (Samson liked the shiksas!) He violates his nazirite vows. He drinks honey from the carcass of a lion and has drinking parties with his buddies.

The Talmud says that Samson was blinded because he followed his own eyes. He says to his parents that he wants a Philistine woman because “she is pleasing to my eyes”. This is, say our sages, an example of middah keneged middah, measure for measure. Samson follows the lust of his eyes and therefore loses those eyes. Perhaps a fitting and poetic punishment.

Yeshua was also born after an angelic announcement and dedicated to lifelong service of Hashem. He was intended to be a redeemer just as Samson was. Samson was to redeem Israel from the Philistines, Yeshua the whole world from its sins. In contrast to Samson, however, he kept his eyes on Hashem, not his own desires. In the John 5 he says “I tell you that the Son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; whatever the Father does, the Son does too.” And in the Garden, just before his arrest, he tells God that he desires life but will do his Father’s will.

We are to be like Yeshua, not Samson. We are to keep our eyes upon God not upon our own desires. The Torah helps us to curb these desires, to know what is holy. It places boundaries on our behavior. We live in a society today where everyone follows his or her own desires. This is good to some extent, but it leads to people applauding greed, lust, envy, and the like.

Keeping our eyes upon Hashem takes work. We have to be attentive to our own impulses and recognize them for what they are. We have to cultivate a habit of awareness of God’s presence in our daily lives. Today is Day 46 of the Counting of the Omer. Its theme is Netzach of Malchut, Endurance of Divine Presence. This speaks to the need for us to practice God’s presence throughout our lives! The mitzvoth help us towards that goal. And kavannah, inner focus and attention, is key. We cannot experience God’s presence by rushing into things, or doing the mitzvot by rote.

The Torah tells us that Samson had seven locks of hair. These are called in Hebrew, machlefot; plaits or braids. (They could have been dreadlocks, which would be really cool since I am a Reggae music fan!) We have our own braids, our own machlefot. They are not made of hair but threads. They are our tzit-tzit. They remind us of the Torah and its commandments and how we are to behave. There is a story told, most likely apocryphal, about a man who saves money and goes to the most expensive prostitute in town. As he is undressing he looks upon his tzit-tzit and realizes what he knew all along, that this was a great sin he was about to commit. He tells her that he cannot and explains why. She is so impressed that she quits her profession and converts to Judaism. This story is told by the Rabbis to remind us the importance of our tzit-tzit as reminders to keep our eyes on God. In fact, we recite in our liturgy the words of the Shema, that we will look upon them and not follow the desires of our eyes!

Let us not be like Samson, chasing after every desire of our eyes.

Let us be like Yeshua, who kept his eyes on Hashem.

May we look upon our own machlefot, our tzit-tzit, and remember that there are boundaries to our behavior, regardless of our desires.

May we pray for Yeshua to empower us to live a life of a nazir; dedicated to God.

Shabbat Shalom!

  

Parshat Baha'alotecha: The Two Miryams

In our parsha this week we have the story of the rebellion of Miryam and Aaron. They spoke out against Moses and his Cushite wife. Why was Miryam the only one afflicted with tzaraat when they both spoke out? Our rabbis say it is because she was the chief instigator, Aaron only tagged along at her prompting. It was like a thief who steals food from a garden and then hands it to someone standing outside of the garden. Only the thief is pursued.

What were they speaking out against? The standard understanding is that the Cushite woman was from Cush, south of Egypt. But another interpretation states that “Cushite” can mean simply a beautiful woman. One midrash says that Miryam spoke out against Moses (along with Aaron) because he was abstaining from relations with his beautiful (Cushite) wife, Zipporah. Her concern was that by doing so Moses was keeping her from bearing more children.

This is similar to another midrash about the birth of Moses. According to this text, since Pharaoh had commanded that the Hebrew baby boys be killed Moses’ father divorced his wife so as to not have any more children.  Miryam, a young girl at the time, reproached her father. She said, “Father, Pharaoh has eliminated half of the children, but you have killed all of the children.” For female babies could still be born but they could not because he left his wife. He heeds his daughter’s rebuke, returns to his wife, and thus Moses was born.

Miryam is thus depicted by the rabbis as being concerned with life, the life of her people.

It is fitting, therefore, that the Talmud tells us that Miryam was the source of life giving water in the parched desert of the wilderness. It says that Israel merited the Pillar of Cloud due to the righteousness of Aaron, the Manna due to the righteousness of Moses, and the Water from the Rock due to the righteousness of Miryam.  Aaron’s merit warranted the Pillar of Cloud because the Torah tells us that immediately after his death the king of Arad attacked Israel; the logic being that he did so because he saw that God’s protection (the cloud) had been withdrawn. Moses’ merit warranted the Manna, because the Torah tells us that they ate it until they reached the Promised Land, which they did immediately after Moses’ death. Miryam’s merit warranted the Water because the Torah tells us that immediately after her death they had no water.

In fact, a midrash tells us that the rock that Moses struck after the crossing of the Red Sea was the same rock as the one he was supposed to speak to but instead struck near the end of their wanderings in the desert. This Rock was referred to as Miryam’s Well, and it rolled along with Israel throughout the forty years in the desert and supplied water whenever commanded. Miryam was a prophet, a leader of our people, and a giver of life.

There was another Miryam, born centuries later. While not a prophet or a leader, she was a giver of life. She gave us, through her merit, the Source of Life, Yeshua ha-Mashiach. She gave us living water for Yeshua, himself, was The Living Water. When he was speaking with the Samaritan woman at the well, he said to her “If you know who was asking you would ask him and he would give you living water and you would never thirst again.” Later, while visiting the Temple during Sukkot, he declares plainly, “I am the Living Water, let anyone who is thirsty and come and drink!” Rav Shaul (Paul) explicitly connects Yeshua to Miryam’s Well in 1 Corinthians 10 when he says that the rock that accompanied Israel in the desert was the pre-incarnate Yeshua! It is his midrash on the midrash!

We can be like the two Miryams. We can be sources of life giving water. Living Water. In the same passage where Yeshua talks with the Samaritan woman he says “The water that I will give them [who ask for it] will become a spring of living water welling up to eternal life.” And at the Temple during Sukkot he says “Whoever believes in me will have fonts of living water gushing forth from within them.” You see, it’s not just about us receiving the living water, but us then becoming a source of the living water to those around us!

But what does “believe” mean? We are trained to think of this word as meaning intellectual assent. But its more correct meaning comes from the Hebrew word, emunah, which means faithfulness or a faithful abiding. We become wells of living water not through intellectual assent but by faithfully abiding in Yeshua and Torah! We can be like the two Miryams by living a life of regular and consistently drinking from the springs of living water and thus become life-giving springs of living water to those around us! And we do this not just for our benefit, but for the benefit of those who live around us! We drink of the sake of others!

We sang this song this morning, a song based on Psalm 36. It says, “How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.”

We drink from God’s “river of delights” (such a beautiful image!) and thus become fountains of life from the The Fountain of Life!

May we be like the two Miryams.

May we be fonts of living water; refreshing and life-giving to those around us.

May we live a life of emunah, faithfully and consistently drinking from The Well, so that we may tap into Him who is the Source of Life!

Shabbat Shalom.

Based on Acts 15 Should Christians Keep Kosher?

Your second question was should Christians keep kosher based on the decree in Acts 15?

Many people are tempted to read scripture like it is a rulebook. I don't think that this is appropriate. We need to understand the context in which scripture was written and then derive principles from it. In Acts 15, the council is dealing with gentiles coming to faith and then living in largely Jewish communities. One of the main issues here is table fellowship. If gentile believers are eating with Jewish brethren, then they need to be considerate of them and their obligation to eat kosher food. This is the crux of the ruling. They were trying to find a minimum standard that would be acceptable to all.

So given this viewpoint, we should not expect Christians to keep kosher on a regular everyday basis because most modern-day Christians don't live in predominantly Jewish communities. If, however, you were to be visiting or attending a Messianic synagogue, or visiting a friend's home then you should take care to respect their practices.

Notice that the ruling in Acts does not forbid the eating of non-kosher foods such as lobsters, birds of prey, insects, etc... It only forbids food sacrificed to idols, blood (which most likely means meat with blood in it), and meat of strangled animals. (When an animal is strangled its meat is infused with blood).

It should also be noted that this list is very similar to what Rabbinic Judaism calls the Seven Noachide Laws. These are laws that God gave to Noah and thus are incumbent upon all humanity. They consist of six prohibitions and one requirement; idolatry, murder, theft, sexual immorality, blasphemy, eating flesh torn from a living animal, and to establish courts of justice.

Clearly lists like these were circulating around in Yeshua's day. The early church is basically saying that the minimal observance for Christians to to follow the commandments incumbent upon all humans.

How Much Torah?

My email friend sent back a couple of more questions, here is the answer to the first one...

****

Hi M,

Your next question was how much of the Law are Jewish Yeshua-followers expected to keep and is there new covenant grace for Jews trying to keep Torah.

Let me answer the second part of the question first. It is important to understand first of all that the Torah was not given as a means of salvation. You did not infer that in your question but it is such a common misconception that I wanted to mention it. God, out of His grace, chose and redeemed Israel from Egypt. Once that was done, He gave them His teachings (Torah means teaching not law) on how to live as His holy people. So to use Christian theological terms, Torah is about Sanctification not Justification.

God knew that Israel, as imperfect humans, could not possibly keep the Torah. He therefore included in His Torah the means by which one could restore the relationship. This is the sacrificial system. It is by God's grace that He accepts the offering and forgives the person.

If you read the text carefully you will discover that there are only offerings for unintentional sins. There is no sacrifice for one who intentionally violates Torah. The assumption is that an Israelite is attempting to live in fidelity to Torah. This caused much concern on the part of the rabbis, for clearly people do at times deliberately sin. What to do? Their conclusion was that if a person sincerely repents of deliberate sin, God changes it to be as if it was an unintentional sin and therefore can be atoned for. A rather clever way to address the issue. Yeshua becomes the ultimate sin offering that brings forgiveness to Israel and all of humanity. So we as Messianic Jews and Christians can see that this is also covered by his atoning sacrifice.

So I guess this is a long winded answer to say that grace existed within the Torah, indeed it is one of its foundations! Grace also, of course, exists with the new covenant as well. Yeshua's offering of himself is merely an intensification and perfection of grace, as this is no longer the blood of animals, but the blood of the Son of God (see Hebrews 9). So there was grace for Jews who failed to follow Torah prior to the advent of Yeshua, and there is a more perfect grace with Yeshua.

Let me also point out, as this is another common misconception, that the sacrifices were for more than just sin. Only 2 of the 5 types of sacrifices have to do with sin. The others are voluntary offerings expression devotion and fellowship with God. And of the 2, they do not cover all sins, just ones that are considered particularly offensive to God such as vain oaths, misuse of Temple objects, etc. But this is a topic for another time.

Now to the first part of the question. This is a more complicated issue. Some folks reject the rabbis and attempt to harken back to what they call "Biblical Judaism". Their argument is that Rabbinical Judaism was largely a development after Yeshua by Jews who had "rejected" him, and therefore we should not follow their laws. There are two problems with this. First, the Torah as given assumed a society of Jews living as a theocracy. Since Israel does not exist as such a community any more how could we even do this? And are we going to start stoning people again and such? Second, as Jews we are part of all of Israel, not just the parts that we agree with. Therefore, we have to at least wrestle with and take seriously rabbinic tradition as it is an important part of our inheritance.

And the reality is that many of the laws cannot be followed even by Orthodox Jews as they have to deal with things like living in Israel and the Temple. I think that I read somewhere that the maximum number for Jews living outside of Israel is like 124 out of 613 commandments.

A group of rabbis within our movement have formed a rabbinical council and have started to define Messianic halacha (Jewish law). They have taken a sensible approach in accepting that many in our movement come from little or no Torah observance. So they have defined what they consider to be a minimum, expecting folks to start there and move their way upwards. (This is a very similar approach to Conservative Judaism). You can look at their site at www.ourrabbis.org.

So how much Torah should Messianic Jews keep? Well, certainly a starting point would be to focus on key identity markers such as keeping kosher, observing Shabbat, life cycle events, holy days, etc... Ultimately, it would be nice to have a movement that was very similar in its level of observance to that of the Modern Orthodox, but we are probably a few generations away from that developing fully.

Should Christians Keep the Torah?

I was asked in an email about this issue and here is my response. I thought that some of you might like to read it.
***

Hi M,

I would be happy to answer your question. When I am teaching about this topic I point out to people that there are two things to keep in mind when reading the New Testament. 

First, it would have never occurred to the early Jewish followers of Yeshua (Jesus) that God would expect Jews to stop obeying the Torah. Why would the God of Israel expect Israel to stop its faithfulness to the Sinai covenant? It does not make sense. In fact, we see quite the opposite. There was an expectation, or maybe assumption, that gentiles coming to faith in Yeshua would also convert to Judaism, because this was their paradigm. The radical and momentous decision made in Acts 15 is that God was doing something new with the gentiles and therefore they should not require gentiles to take on Torah observance. 

I am convinced that this was the reason for the giving of tongues. The Jewish followers needed a clear and outward sign from God that the gentiles were saved without first becoming Jews. This is why you see the repeated reaction of surprise (Acts 10:45; 11:18)

Paul, therefore, seems to argue against the Torah but what he is really arguing against is expecting gentile Yeshua-followers to take on these practices. He argues that if this is required then you are saying that the cross did not have efficacy to save; clearly in his view a great distortion of the Besorah (Good News).

Second, the traditions and rules of the Pharisees was a novelty in Yeshua's day. They had not been around for very long. They were very popular with the people, however, especially in Judea. What the Pharisees did was brought the ritual practices of the Temple to ordinary everyday Jews. Their argument was that all Jews were priests since Israel was a kingdom of priests and therefore all of life needed to be treated as holy, not just the priestly activities in the Temple. Their ideas were not held by all and there was much controversy about these practices. Consequently there is a mix of practices by first century Jews and hence among first century Jewish followers of Yeshua. Notice that Yeshua is asked why some of his followers do not wash their hands before they eat. This implies that some did, and it also implies that Yeshua did!  

Paul, therefore, seems to be arguing against Torah laws when in fact he is dealing with these issues of ritual purity in the context of a community made up of Jews from varying types of backgrounds and practices and gentiles. When he talks about clean and unclean food he is not debating whether Jewish believers should eat pork not, but whether people of these various backgrounds can come together in communal fellowship when some a very stringent in their table purity practices and others are not.

It is my contention, along with most in our movement, that Christians are not expected to take up Torah observance; in fact to require it would be against God's will. But neither are Jews free from this covenant. Christians are certainly free to take up some of the practices as long as they see that they are doing this out of freedom and desire to relate to their Jewish brethren and not out of obligation.

I hope that this brief explanation helps. If the book you are reading is by David Rudolph it is a good resource. I have not the read the book but have studied under him and he is very knowledgeable. Another book that I would highly recommend is "Post-Missionary Messianic Judaism" by Mark Kinzer. He lays these issues out in much more detail than I have done here.

Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Shalom,

isaac

How to Discern Bad Messianic Teaching

A friend recently asked me what I thought about a “Messianic” leader who is a very public figure. I had never heard of him but a quick search convinced me pretty quickly that he was probably a nut job. My wife called me on the carpet about being too uncharitable, and she is right. (She is going to make a great rebbetzin whether she thinks so or not!). But the reality is that there are numerous “Messianic” teachers out there who get a lot of attention from the church and they seem legit, when they really are not. These teachers prey on sincere Christians who don’t know any better. So I promised my friend that I would try to put together a list of items that are red flags for me when I encounter such folk. Hopefully this will be helpful to anyone who reads this.

 

Not all Messianic Jews would consider these to be red flags, so I am expressing views based on what I consider to be a mature Messianic viewpoint.

 

1. Teach that Christians should keep kosher, Jewish holidays, worship on Saturdays, etc…

Messianic Judaism holds that Jews who are followers of Jesus are still under the Mosaic covenant and are obligated to Torah observance. Christians are not. This was the decision in Acts 15 that Gentiles did not have to become Jews to join with Israel. Christians are certainly free to take on Jewish practices as a way of wishing to express solidarity with Israel, but they are in no way obligated to live as Jews. In fact, we applaud Christians developing their own traditions and practices that express their love of God in their own ways. Worshipping on Sundays, having Christmas trees, etc… are totally fine. Occasionally we get visitors to our synagogue who express this viewpoint and I tell them that they are thinking that they are being Jewish by holding such a position, but in fact they are the opposite. Judaism is an orthopraxic faith, and the traditions are valid if accepted and practiced by the community. Jews continue saying “mazel tov”, congrats, despite the fact that it comes from astrology (it means literally “lucky stars”). It has become an accepted phrase. Christians in like manner, should feel free to enjoy Christmas trees despite their pagan origins.

Some people of this persuasion will even tell Christians that they ARE Jews. This is categorically wrong and anti-biblical.

 

2. Dress like they live in Biblical times or just got off the boat from Eastern Europe.

There are a few, very few, Hasidic Messianic Jews. The vast majority of MJs come from Conservative, Reform, or entirely secular homes. Usually when people dress like this they are Gentiles who have become enamored with Jewish things and have no real concept of what it means to live as a Jew. (I was at a conference years ago where a guy dressed like a Hasid was eating a cheeseburger at McDonald’s!) It is because of this reality that some MJ leaders in our movement specifically do not sport beards in order to make the point. If you see someone dressed in these ways, you should be instantly suspicious.

A corollary to this is people who use Hebrew names like Nechamah or Yeshayahu. Unless they are from Israel, this should be a warning, especially if coupled with the above mentioned dress choices. Some sincere and level-headed MJs take on Hebrew names or Hebrew versions of their names. But all too often this is not the case. It is more due to a desire to sound “authentically Jewish”. This is one of the reasons that I prefer to go by “izi” instead of “Isaac”. (I am keeping my beard but am willing to modify my name!)

 

3. Excessively focused on End Times

Jews by and large are not focused on End Times. This is a signature Christian preoccupation. If a Messianic teacher is going on and on about End Times, they are either coming from their own Christian background or are catering to Christian interests. This is an immediate red flag for me.

 

4. Militantly Missionary

If a Messianic teacher is very focused on missions work, especially to Jews, this is a red flag to me. Messianic Judaism is not Jews for Jesus. The latter is a missionary organization that is focused on coverting Jews. Messianic Judaism is a congregational movement seeking to establish a home for Jewish followers of Jesus. These missionary groups are very appealing especially to evangelical Christians because of the focus on getting Jews “saved”. Much damage has been done by these groups because of their approach. MJ seeks to be an example of how to live both faithfully to Torah and to Yeshua (Jesus). Our message is that Jews can and should remain Jews as followers of Jesus. These missionary groups have little regard for the Mosaic covenant; many even teach that it is wrong. They are operating out of what we would call a “Hebrew Christian” mindset, rather than a Messianic Jewish one.

 

There may be some other ones, and I could go into more detail into each of these…

 

 

The Nine Chanukahs of Light

Today is Shabbat Chanukah. We are in the midst of a whole week of commemorating the events of the Maccabbean rebellion. We all know the story, that Mattisyahu and his sons led a war against the Syrian king, Antiochus, who had demanded that the Jews give up their faith and merge with the pagan Hellenism of the day. They were successful and recaptured the Temple. It had been desecrated with idols and the sacrifices of pigs. The Jewish soldiers cleansed the Temple, brought in the priests, and rededicated it. This is in fact where we get the name Chanukah, it means “dedication”.

There is a midrash, that says there was not just one Chanukah but actually seven.

The seven mentioned in the midrash are:

• The Chanukah of Creation
• In Genesis it says “when the heavens and earth were completed” The midrash says that “completed” refers to dedication because when Israel had completed all of the accouterments of the Tabernacle that Moses blessed them in dedication to be used in holy service. So, goes the midrash, God dedicated creation.
• The Chanukah of the Tabernacle
• As we just mentioned Moses dedicated the Temple to the service of Hashem.
• The Chanukah of the First Temple
• King David wrote a psalm for the dedication of the First Temple, which was actually performed by his son Solomon. Psalm 30 starts out, “mizmor shir chanukat habayit”, A psalm, a song, for the dedication of the temple.
• The Chanukah of the Second Temple
• In the time of Ezra when they rebuilt the temple, they dedicated it with sacrifices.
• The Chanukah of the Wall of Jerusalem
• When Nehemiah led the people to finish the wall around Jerusalem they dedicated it. In Nehemiah 12 it says, “And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, they sought all the Levites from all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem to rejoice in the dedication”
• The Chanukah of Maccabees
• This is the Chanukah that we are currently celebrating.
• The Chanukah of Olam Ha-Ba
• In Isaiah 30 it says, “The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days”. This, say our Sages, refers to the end of time, Olam Ha-Ba. When Hashem will dedicate the New Heavens and New Earth.

What I would like to propose to you is that there are in fact 9 Chanukahs, not 7; these round out the Chanukah menorah. In fact, that is my title for this sermon, “The Nine Chanukahs of Light.” The 8^th Chanukah of light is the Chanukah of Yeshua. As we will see in a moment, He is our example of total dedication to Hashem. The 9^th Chanukah of light is the Chanukah of us. Each and every one of us is called to dedicate ourselves Hashem. I would like to look at 3 specific aspects of Chanukah that Yeshua exemplifies and we are also called to.

First, Chanukah is about dedication to Torah.

Antiochus had ordered our people to give up Torah and adopt Hellenistic ways. Mattisyahu and his sons and those who fought with them refused to do this. They showed their dedication to Torah by resisting this forced enculturation and, with God’s help, defeating their enemies.

The book of Maccabees records Mattisyahu’s words to his sons as he lay on his death bed. He said:

My children, be zealous for the Law, and give your lives in behalf of the testament of our fathers. Be mindful of the deeds of our fathers, which they performed in their generations, that you may receive great glory and eternal renown. Was not Abraham found faithful in time of trial, and it was accounted to him for righteousness?... Be strong and courageous in behalf of the Law… gather about you all who observe the Law, and avenge fully the wrong done to your people.”

If it were not for their dedication to Torah, we might not even be here today. Judaism could have simply ceased to exist.

Yeshua Himself was also dedicated to Torah. Yeshua did not abrogate or cancel the Torah; instead He upheld it and gave it its fullest meaning. He said, “I did not come to abolish the Torah, but to fulfill it.”

His issue with the leaders of His day wasn’t that they obeyed the Law, but that they let ritual aspects of Torah supersede what He called the weightier aspects, namely mercy and compassion. He says to them, “You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the Torah—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.” Notice that He doesn’t tell them to not obey these lighter commandments, but that they should be practiced in addition to the weightier ones.

Yeshua showed His dedication to the Torah through His actions as well as His teachings. He consistently sent people that He healed to the priests for verification that they were in fact healed. He could have been a total rebel and told them not to mess with the priests and their rules. But instead He upholds their authority and ensures that they fulfill all of the aspects of Torah.

Chanukah calls upon us to also be dedicated to Torah. We are in an age not unlike that of the Maccabees. If you read historical accounts of Chanukah, you realize that observance was already on its way out when the edict came. Jews were already slowly being Hellenized; many had already fully assimilated into Greek culture. This is why the Sadducees were opposed to the doctrine of angels and life after death. They were priests highly assimilated into Greek culture. They felt it unsophisticated and contrary to modern philosophical thinking to believe in such things.

The reality is that it might have been for the best that Antiochus forced the issue with his edict, because it pushed the issue to the forefront. Had he not, some historians think that Judaism would have just simply slowly faded away.

Today is similar to that. We have a high rate of assimilation and inter-marriage. Torah observance is at an all time low in the United States and Israel. We must be dedicated enough to the observance of Torah that we do our part to preserve it. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch said, “One single spark, loyally treasured in but one single Jewish heart, is sufficient for God to set aflame once more the whole spirit of Judaism.” Each and every one of us is that one small vial of oil, which God can do a miracle with.

Every morning we pray in the Shacharit service:

“Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who has sanctified us with His commandments and has commanded us to engross ourselves in the words of Torah. Please, Hashem, our God, sweeten the words of your Torah in our mouth and in the mouth of Your people, the family of Israel.”

The root word of Chanukah is Chanach, Chet-Nun-Chaf, which means “to train”. We are to train ourselves in Torah. Train like athletes do for a major competition.

The rabbis say that Chanukah marks a shift from Torah being transmitted by the prophets and the priests, to each individual Jew. When the Jews of that day were confronted with either apostasy or death, they were forced to internalize the Torah themselves and no longer just follow what their leaders said. After the Maccabean rebellion, the Torah is always quoted in the name of individuals. In the Mishnah we see references to the Torah of Rav so-and-so. We are called to make the Torah our Torah. We need to learn the Torah of Larry, and Julie, and Abby.

Chanukah calls us to be dedicated to God’s Torah, to teach it to our children, teach it to one another, and thereby preserve it.

Chanukah is also about being dedicated to shedding the light of Torah to the world.

We do this mostly by living out the precepts of Torah, in particular by doing gemilut hassidim, deeds of lovingkindness.

As the 8^th candle, Yeshua is our example par excellence in this area. We see Him consistently being drawn to and reaching out to the down and out, the unappreciated, the rejected, and the ignored. He eats with tax collectors and prostitutes. He touches lepers and pays attention to cripples and the blind. These are people whom society in this day as well as in His day tends to just overlook and cast aside. Yeshua loves them, lives with them, and grants them dignity.

As the 9^th candle, we too are called to live a life of chesed, of lovingkindness. The schools of Hillel and Shammai had a disagreement, as they often did, on how Hannukah menorahs should be lit. Shammai said that you should light all of the candles the first night and light one less each night. But Hillel said that you should light one candle the first night and one more each successive night because in matters of holiness we should be growing, not diminishing in them. This is the practice that our tradition has adopted. Chanukah is a call on us to be dedicated to growing ever more in our acts of hesed. In our own way, we can comfort the afflicted, give sight to the blind, heal the sick, and raise up those who are bowed down.

I have been reading lately Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ book titled “To Heal a Fractured World.” This is an excellent book that I highly recommend. His basic premise is that what the Torah has given the world is this sense of being accountable for our fellow human beings. He says, there is divine justice, but God calls for human justice. He calls for us to act to stop injustices and to reach out to people who are in need. This is exemplified in God’s call upon Abraham to “walk before me and be perfect”. The rabbis interpret this to mean “Don’t wait for me to command you to do good. See the need and do it.” The Torah calls us to be people of lovingkindness.

As one Jewish mystic put it, “Another person’s physical needs are my spiritual obligation.”

We had an example this past week of one who lived this principle of taking care of others. Some of us were at the funeral of Allen and Larry’s father, Sam Singer. At the funeral we heard about how Sam was always there for people in his community, helping them out when they were in need. Allen talked about trying to fill his father’s shoes when his father had surgery some years ago. He was running about helping neighbors and widows with all kinds of things, wondering how his father did it all. This is a man who lived a life of chesed, a life dedicated to lovingkindness. Rabbi Dobrusin even connected it to Chanukah in his words at the funeral. He said, “Sam was a simple candle, but a candle that showed a light to all of those around him.” His life is an example to us all.

Yeshua said, “let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

Maimonides said, “If a person is scrupulous in his conduct, gentle in his conversation, pleasant towards his fellow creatures, affable in manner when receiving them, not retorting even when affronted, but showing courtesy to all, even to those who treat him with disdain, conducting his commercial affairs with integrity… such a person has sanctified God’s name.”

Each and everyone one of us are a Chanukah of light. We can shed our light upon others around us through dedication to good deeds.

Finally, Chanukah is about being dedicated to the mission that God has given us in life.

The Jews in the days of the rebellion against Antiochus did not so much find God’s mission as it found them. The very circumstances that they were thrust into begged for them to stand up for Torah and the Jewish way of life and fight against tyranny.

Yeshua knew God’s mission for Him because it was revealed to Him by the Father. He dedicated Himself to fulfilling the office of Mashiach because it was God’s will for him.

Some of us will be like those in the days of the first Chanukah and discover what God wants us to do by the circumstances we find ourselves in. Some of will be like Yeshua had have God tell us what He wants. Whichever way we discover it, we need to seek out His mission for us and dedicate ourselves to its fulfillment.

We have been talking about mission. We are all called to the mission of observing and encouraging observance of the Torah. We are all called to do good deeds. Collectively, we as Jews are called to be a light to the nations, a holy priesthood. But each of us has are particular role, our sub-mission if you will in accomplishing this task.

Martin Buber said, “Every person born into this world represents something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique. Every person’s foremost task is the actualization of his unique, unprecedented and never recurring potentialities.”

Chanukah calls us to be dedicated to finding our particular mission in life and work towards its fulfillment.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would just like to say that we should not be dismayed by the breadth and depth of these calls upon us. They indeed can be daunting. If you read a history of Chanukah, you will realize that the temple was dedicated before the war was over. Judah Maccabee sent soldiers to continue the fight with the city garrison while others began to clean up the temple. So we too can dedicate ourselves to these great tasks even though the battle isn’t over for us either.

Yeshua is the eighth Chanukah of light, our example of what it means to be dedicated to Torah, to the love of others, and to fulfilling our mission in life. He perfectly executed all of these.

As the ninth Chanukah of light, each of us are called to dedicate ourselves to Torah, to loving others and good deeds, and to fulfilling our mission in life. This Chanukah season, may each of us reflect on these and strive to fulfill them.

Proverbs says that each person’s soul is a lamp of Hashem. May we become a light that truly sheds light on all of those around us and may we all merit seeing that final Chanukah in the world to come. Amen.