Another article related to my post Jewish Resurrected Messiah Text Causing Buzz can be found on the Biblical Archaeology website here:

http://www.bib-arch.org/bar/article.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=34&Issue=5&ArticleID=14

I don’t have a lot of time to post, but I wanted to share a quick thought…

In this week’s parasha (Re’eh) we find the following:

You shall not do like everything we do here today, every man what is proper in his eyes. For you will not yet have come to the resting place or to the heritage that Hashem, your G-d gives you (Devarim 12:8-9)

According to a midrashic approach to this passage, when we are all approaching the Scriptures and living out Torah through our own interpretations and traditions, we are not entering into the resting place of Hashem, nor the heritage that Hashem wants to give us. Not only are we causing confusion and anarchy among our family and brethren, we are being “wise in our own eyes.”

My family is constantly working to make slow, calculated steps towards greater observance of the mitzvot as spelled out by greater Judaism in order to do exactly this. No, we are not swallowing anything blindly, but neither are we presumptuously trying to reinvent the wheel in areas that have long been defined within historic Judaism. Please keep in mind that steps such as these have to be done with great humility and showing of grace to others. This is not a message of condemnation to those who are outside of this paradigm. I would love to see the greater Messianic community one day reach the place of becoming somewhat homogeneous in our approach to living out Torah, b’ezrat Hashem (with the help of Hashem). However, we must be gracious to those who are not on this particular fork of the road on which we are traveling. We must all work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Just as Boaz shared this past weekend at the The Commandment to Bless seminar, we have to set a high personal standard for our families, while at the same time being gracious to others as they progress in their journey. There is no room for elitism or intolerance. Let’s raise the bar as well as help people to get over it, rather than beating them with it.

Let us seek to enter into the resting place of Hashem, and into the heritage that He wants to give us.

Simchat Torah of Arkansas will be hosting a very special weekend with Boaz Michael, Founder and President of First Fruits of Zion on August 23-24. It will be a great time to meet messianic believers from all over the state of Arkansas as we come together to fellowship, to worship the 
Lord and to experience The Commandment to Bless seminar.

Community-wide Shabbat Service

Our weekend will begin Shabbat, August 23 at 9:30 am with a community-wide Shabbat service, hosted by Simchat Torah of Arkansas. Our Shabbat schedule will be as follows:

• 9:30 am - Shacharit (liturgical prayers, reading of Torah, Haftarah & Apostolic Writings)
• 12:00 pm - Potluck lunch (see www.joyoftorah.com/food for food guidelines)
• 1:00 pm - Music & Singing
• 1:30 pm - Drash (Teaching) by Boaz Michael and B’nei Torah Class (for children)

The Commandment to Bless seminar

The Commandment to Bless seminar will be held the following day, Sunday, August 24 at 3:00 pm. There will be three sessions lasting approximately 45 minutes each, with breaks between the sessions. We will close out the day with finger foods and fellowship after the seminar during which time we invite you to participate in the experience of blessing according to the commandment, as well as getting to know other fellow believers. Please spread the word to friends and family so we can make this event a success!

The New York Times published an article today that already has sparks flying on the internet. It is entitled, “Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection.” It is a follow-up on an earlier article posted a year ago last April by Haaretz, called “In three days, you shall live.”

The basic premise is that of a Jewish tradition, predating Christianity which has the Messiah dying and resurrecting after three days, as a necessity of his messiahship. Israel Knohl, a professor from the Hebrew University, has been the main voice in this, because it appears to validate what he had already discovered in his studies of the Dead Sea Scroll manuscripts. In 2002, he published a book of his findings called, “The Messiah before Jesus: The Suffering Servant of the Dead Sea Scrolls” which explains his findings (and if anyone wants to get me a copy, I won’t complain).

Knohl takes the references of a Suffering (or Slain) Messiah (Mashiach ben Yosef) found in the Talmud (starting in Sukkah 52a), along with the DSS manuscripts to build a case for a first century expectation for a resurrected messiah. However, with the find of the Gabriel Tablet (the main focus of the two previous articles), Knohl has a very substantial text from the period just prior to the time of Yeshua to back his theory.

Be sure to read both articles, and pick up the book if you have a chance. This is some very interesting information that could prove very valuable in the near future.

“While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:26-28, NIV).

Many who are in the process of doubting the validity of Yeshua as Mashiach have pointed to this passage and condemned it as a pagan rite, foreign to Judaism, recalling the Torah’s prohibition against eating unclean meats and consuming blood. My question is this: Is Yeshua telling us to literally partake of his flesh and blood? My answer is an adamant “no” (no matter what the Roman church says about transubstantiation). Yeshua is not cutting himself or doing any kind of bloodletting ceremony in which his disciples will actually participate in some form of cannibalism. If this is not the case, then it would be good to search for any similar language in Torah that might help us to better understand his intent for these expressions. We have such an expression in parashat Shelach.

“Only do not rebel against the LORD, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them.” (Numbers 14:9, NKJV)

In this passage, the New King James (as well as the KJV) preserve the idiom for us by saying “for they are our bread.” The Hebrew attests to this with the phrase כִּי לַחְמֵנוּ הֵם (literally, “for your bread are they”).

How is this passage intended to be understood? The NIV renders it as “we will swallow them up.” The NASB says, “they will be our prey.” These hit on the basic meaning of this phrase. Just as this phrase is not to be understood literally, neither are the words of the Master. When he tells his disciples to “eat his fleash” and “drink his blood,” he is telling them that they must “consume” him—that he must become their all. He is their connection to the Father. He has become their spiritual sustenance by which they receive their spiritual nourishment. Modern chasidism is replete with correlations to this concept, for which there is too little time to spend explaining here. However, if you would like to understand more about this concept, check out this excellent audio teaching by R’ Manis Friedman for an incredible insight into the relationship between a rebbe and his chasid, and think about your relationship to your rebbe - The Rebbe, Yeshua HaMashiach.

Shalom,
-darren

I have intended on posting this for several days, but haven’t been able to find the time…

A little over a month ago I posted a note about my eldest son (age seven) who has been suffering for the last two years with breathing difficulties. I had rejoiced that he had actually made it through one night without having to use his inhaler (although he ended up having to use it the next morning). After that he fell back into the same pattern of having to use it at least once a night and sometimes during the day. We were finally able to get into the allergy / asthma clinic and he was finally able to get some relief.

He appears to have severe asthma, complicated by severe allergies. They did a prick test (where they put all of the different allergens on your back) and out of the 45 items for which he was tested, he was allergic to 33 of them. They prescribed 5 different medications in an attempt to get his breathing and bronchial inflammation/spasms under control and want to see him again next month (at which time he will also see a respiratory therapist). We have been giving him only three of the prescriptions, and only half the dosage of the main one (an inhaled steroid - yuk).

This past Monday night marked one full week that he has been able to go without his inhaler. Not during the night, not after playing hard out in the yard, not at all. It has been a night and day experience, for which we are very thankful to our Heavenly Father. Although we are not excited about the medications he is taking, we are very thankful for the results. We will be looking into alternative methods of keeping this under control long term, but for now, this is a quick fix that is working amazingly well.

Thank you, again, for your prayers! I can’t wait until we reach the one month mark, rather than just the one week mark! Please continue to keep him in your prayers for complete healing, and us for wisdom. Baruch Hashem for His blessings, and for friends like you.

-Darren

Today is my fourteenth wedding anniversary to the most wonderful woman on the face of Hashem’s earth. Thank you, Sweetheart, for being such a wonderful wife and an incredible mother to our four children. You are Hashem’s best gift to me ever. I love you and want all the world to know it! Happy Anniversary!