Torah Parashah D’varim Aug 2, 2014
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Sh’ma
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2 Aug 2014 ~ 6 Av 5774
(The 9th of Av is Monday night- Tues.)
Torah Parashah #44 D’varim (Words) - D’varim 1:1-3:22 cjb p 196
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I want to start with part of a brief article ....
ISRAEL, WAR AND TISHA B’AV
by Amy Joy Hess
Israel put a Gaza power plant out of commission on Tuesday, while the UNRWA announced it found a rocket cache in a third school in Gaza. The Hebrew month of Av began Sunday night, and as rockets continued to shoot at Israel, the Jews will mourn through the final nine days that began with the Fast of Tammuz and end with Tisha b’Av—the day commemorating the destruction of the Jewish Temple.
All public transportation will be silenced, all restaurants will remain closed in Jerusalem the evening of August 4th as the sun sets. The Hebrew day of great tragedies, Tisha b’Av, will begin at sundown. In remembrance of the destruction of both the First and Second Temple on the 9th of Av hundreds of years apart, tens of thousands of Jews will gather at the Western Wall to pray and petition the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. Jewish hearts around the world will long in unison for the future Temple, the one to be established when the Messiah comes.
Then an air raid siren will likely blare out and force everybody to hustle to safely.
As thousands of missiles shoot at Israel from Gaza and children have to hide in bomb shelters, the Jews gaze at the Temple Mount with even more longing than normal. The Iron Dome protective shield had successfully shot down most of the rockets raining on Israel, but there is always the fear some will slip through. Los Angeles resident Edmon J. Rodman wrote recently, “[W]atching the news one night and seeing a video of an Iron Dome missile intercepting a Gaza rocket, I found myself saying, ‘God, don’t let it miss.’ Then I thought that Jews around the world were probably saying that simple prayer, too. I began to get some insight into why we mourn on the Ninth of Av.”
This year, the Three Weeks of Mourning have been particularly meaningful to the Israelis as they hear air raid sirens and flee to underground hiding places. They read from Lamentations, the traditional book used to prepare their hearts for Tish B’Av:
— Eikhah /Lamentations 1:1 cjb p 1061
“How lonely lies the city that once thronged with people! Once great among the nations, now she is like a widow! Once princes among provinces, she has become a vassal.”
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I am appalled at what the “regular media” is saying about this war in Isra’el.
I am shocked and in utter dismay over the ridiculous support for hamas...
How blind people are!!
I read a quote yesterday - it went something like...
“As the world moves further from the truth.... it hates those who carry the Truth even more.”
You do what YHWH leads you to do for Tish B’Av... fast or not. ... but please please pray for Yisra’el!!
I could talk for a long time about this war.... but ....
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Let’s switch gears and go to the Torah parashah for today....
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Torah parashah - D’varim (Deuteronomy) 1:1-3:22 cjb p 196
I want to start this parashah teaching with a story of one of my experiences...
Many years ago - long before i got the download about the Jew and the Gentile being the bride of the Messiah.... and before i even knew what “Torah observant” meant....
- i went to a teaching - It was Dr Tom Hawkins teaching on how to work with persons with DID.
As one might guess, there was only a small group.
Throughout this class - there was an elderly man behind me who I was really drawn to. This man was a pastor... and what is more... the things he asked and the answers he gave... oh my.... I knew this man knew the Word like nobody i had met at that point in my life.
I invited myself to have lunch with this pastor and his friend.... The friend became my Papa Lew....
At lunch i asked this pastor where he went to seminary.
He asked me why i would ask him that.
To which i responded... “I have wanted to go to seminary for years but i can’t seem to find one whose graduates look like the pastor i am supposed to be.”
With tears that pastor told me - he had the same experience... so he taught himself to read the Word in Hebrew.
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Now that is a GREAT story... but I told you that story to give you an example of what D’varim is about....
You see - if we just look at that story... especially - that story - and imagine me at the time i lived it....
....There i was very much in awe that someone else couldn’t go to seminary b/c of the way the pastors turned out... and there he was saying... “I taught myself to read the Word in Hebrew...” - Well that is amazing....
But lets back up and look at the BIGGER PICTURE.
Let’s remember a couple other things....
That when i was eight - i told my mother i wanted a “real bible”. ... And she was angry with me (because, i think, she and Dad had just given me a KJ version in leather.) I said - “No, a Hebrew Bible.”
And then put that with the story of prophesying to that seminary president.... and what he said....
You start to get a pattern ... from a distance - one can see better what YHWH is doing with this part of my life and all of my life!!
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You all can do that in your life too. Take one story and then back up and look at the bigger picture and you can see better what YHWH is doing.
But if all you ever consider is what is going on at the moment and not the bigger picture... then you miss a whole bunch...
Here we are in D’varim and YHWH is having Moshe back up and talk about the big picture!
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Dr Fisher writes...
“The name in Hebrew, Devarim, means “words”.
The common English name for the book,- Deuteronomy, - comes from the Septuagint’s Greek translation of the Hebrew title, Devarim, as “Second” (deutero-) “Law” (-nomos),....
..... but to consider this book a mere reiteration of everything that has happened to the Jewish people sells it short.
It is also definitely not a recitation of all the ‘rules’ in Leviticus.”
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So let’s look at the BIGGER PICTURE of D’varim.
According to Dr Fisher we need to consider these things:
What should we be looking for as we read through Devarim this time?
- “The key verbs: hear, listen, and obey. Obedience to YHWH—or the lack thereof—creates the backbone of this book. Serving God is the key in dozens of verses here. An important aspect of Hebrew verbs is their emphasis on actual, concrete action, not just philosophical thought, - remember “DOING”.
- Another key verb: to fear YHWH (18x), to have respectful awe and reverence for him. This will lead us to love him, and if we love him we are happy to serve him.
3. Israel is called “the possession of YHWH” 57 times in Deuteronomy.
- YHWH is presented as a warrior: He is present in battle, fights on behalf of his people, and cuts off their enemies.
{ Items 3) and 4) are incredibly important to remember during the current battles in Israel!!}
5. The term love appears more times in this book of “the law” than in any other book in the Tanakh (17x).
- Remember to remember: To forget someone or something in Biblical terms does not mean that someone did not jog your memory or that your memory failed, as in “Wow, I coulda had a V-8!” To forget here means “to fail to act for, to abandon, to forsake.”
Conversely, to remember means to act on behalf of someone; for example, “God remembered Hannah,” and acted for good on her behalf by sending Samuel.
Remembrance and its inverse concept, to forget, are invoked almost 30 times in Deuteronomy.
- During Yahshua’s temptation by haSatan before he formally began his ministry (Mt. 4; Lk. 4), he was asked to do three specific acts to prove himself as the son of God. In each of the three cases Yahshua answered haSatan by quoting verses from Deuteronomy.
This may give us an inkling into how important Yahshuah believed this book was!!”
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Now let’s look at one other point about this book of D’varim.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes...about leadership and D’varim.
“Simon Sinek says that the transformative leaders are those who 'Start with Why.' More poetically, Antoine de Saint- Exupery said, "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."
In Devarim, Moses gave the people their Why. They are God's people, the nation on whom He has set his love, the people He rescued from slavery and gave, in the form of the commandments, the constitution of liberty. They may be small but they are unique. They are the people who, in themselves, testify to something beyond themselves. They are the people whose fate will defy the normal laws of history. Other nations, says Moses, will recognize the miraculous nature of the Jewish story - and so, from Blaise Pascal to Nikolai Berdyaev and beyond, they did.
In the last month of his life Moses ceased to be the liberator, the miracle-worker and redeemer, and became instead Moshe Rabbenu, "Moses, our teacher."
He was the first instance in history of a leadership type in which Jews have excelled: the leader-as-teacher.
Moshe surely knew that some of his greatest achievements would not last forever. The people he had rescued would one day suffer exile and persecution again. The next time, though, they would not have a Moshe to do miracles.
.....So he planted a vision in their minds, hope in their hearts, a discipline in their deeds and a strength in their souls that would never fade.
When leaders become educators they change lives.”
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Now let’s look at a specific part of this parashah - D’varim.
D’varim 1: 19-36 cjb p 197
Rabbi David Fohrman shared an interesting teaching about this and i want to share it with you....
Rabbi said.... Isra’el’s lack of TRUST -Faith - Emunah
- is based on not listening to 2 guys who reconnoitered the land...
Emunah - TRUST - Faith - not just about belief that YHWH exists.
The belief that YHWH exists is the basic - simple - little league part of Emunah....
.. but the journey that is past the belief that YHWH exists... the big league part of the journey ... of emunah - is all things after that.
It is actually living it out.
What do i mean...
Well Emunah is used regarding Moshe’s arms being held up against Amalech -
And when they were held up - Torah says - they were
“steadfast arms”...
STEADFAST is a quality of my unflinching willingness to trust YHWH...
The Hebrews were afraid of not being able to conquer .. the land = the giants...
He says... look at your experience in
D’varim 1:30-32
Emunah - faith doesn’t come from nothing...
It comes from observing things about your beloved that makes Him trustworthy....
A famous Rabbi - Isaac Loewy (?) of Prague... identified 3 milestones and correlates them with the 3 times the word emunah first appears in the Torah...
in the Exodus...
The Hebrew people experienced 3 things that gave them a rational ground for faith.....
- When Moshe came to the elders...
Sh’mot (Exodus) 4:31 cjb p 64
“The people believed (Emunah): when they heard that yHWH had remembered the people of Isra’el and seen how they were oppressed, they bowed their heads and worshiped.”
What did we say - to not remember means? = “to fail to act, to abandon, to forsake”
And the opposite of not remember/ to forget is...
To remember = “to act on behalf of someone”.
In this story in Sh’mot the Hebrews understood that YHWH saw their suffering
this is....love, empathy , care and seeing my suffering!
How many of us don’t want to be loved and cared for and have our suffering acknowledged!!
- The splitting of the sea in
Sh’mot /Exodus 14:31 cjb p 75
“When Isra’el saw the mighty deed that YHWH had performed against the Egyptians, the people feared YHWH, and they believed (Emunah) in YHWH and in his servant Moshe.”
It is not enough for just love and empathy - you also must have the power to help me - if i am going to trust / have faith / emunah in you...
= power.
and the 3rd is...
- understanding -
Sh’mot /Exodus 19:9 cjb p 81
“YHWH said to Moshe, ‘See, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, so tat the people will be able to hear when i speak with you and also to trust (emunah) in you forever.’ Moshe had told YHWH that the people had said;...”
You see --- If i know you care for me even have empathy for me, and love me....
and even if you have the power to help me....
.... i still can not place myself in your hands (faith - emunah - trust)...
But when YHWH actually communicated with Moshe - When it was clear to the people that YHWH understood Moshe and Moshe understood YHWH..
..... if i know you really “get” what i need - then i know i can emunah / TRUST you....
My faith then, is still a product of an act of will - on my part...
I still have to confront my fears and take that leap... it will always be a challenge ... because it is always a CHOICE....
....- to steadfastly place your self in the arms of your beloved....trusting he will take care of you in the scariest places of life... is always a choice....
When you trust someone that much - you achieve and intimacy with them...
and that intimacy - even though it is rewarding, is also scary...
In many ways...it is a leaving of yourself behind...
You are no longer just you....
but it is a merging with another...
giving up control... losing yourself ...
giving up control (oh did i say that already?)
And if you are Isra’el in the desert - it is easier to just shrink back and say.. “i am going back... at least i knew what to expect there. I have no idea out here....”
D’varim /Deut 1:27 cjb p 197
“And in your tents you complained, ‘It’s because YHWH hated us that he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, only to hand us over to the Emori to destroy us.”
You see.....they don’t just say they can’t do this..... that they failed and wanted to go home... that trust - EMUNAH was way way way too hard...
They say that it was because of YHWH’s hatred of them that He took them out of Egypt !!
- This is insanity!! - and that is exactly what lack of EMUNAH - TRUST/faith will do to you...
IF i have grounds to place my faith in you...then...
- i know you understand me,
2. i know you have the power to help me
- and i know you love me ....
and i balk at my willingness to give you control - to really TRUST - to have EMUNAH....
Then - i have to explain that failure to myself...
Well, to be honest - I have to explain that failure to have TRUST -
because... the reality is -- i just didn’t have the courage to place myself in your hands...
...or will i lie to myself and to you, and compromise one of those pillars...
in the case of Isra’el... they compromised the pillar of love - and said He doesn’t love them!!...
and this is why the challenge of EMUNAH - TRUST is such a challenge...
...b/c when our experience gives us reasons to extend ourselves and and take that leap and trust ...
when we can just let go and let our beloved lead us through...
... when we reach that point - our relationship will never be the same...
If we do it - if we decide - choose to walk in TRUST - EMUNAH....it will be amazing.. .
May we rise to this challenge - to trust ... TO WALK IN EMUNAH...
so that we have a truly intimate relationship with YHWH.... and let Him lead.
AMEIN.
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