Today (July 30, 2009) is the 9th of Av on the Hebrew calendar. On this date many things happened according to both history and tradition.
- The spies came back from spying out the land of Canaan. 10 of the spies gave a bad report and the believed them.
- Both Temples were destroyed on this day.
- The Jews were expelled from England 1290
- The Jews were expelled from Spain 1492
- Hitler signed the “Final Solution”
- An only four years ago the Jews were expelled from the Gaza Strip.
So what does the 9th of Av have to do with us Christians? It goes back to the reason for the Temple destruction and the teachings of Jesus. According to the Talmud the Temple was destroyed because of “baseless hatred”. People were speaking evil against each other. People were not caring for each other. And we see this reflected n the teachings of Jesus.
In the book of Luke Jesus tells a story of a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell on some robbers. A priest who must serve in the Temple comes by but knows if he touches the man he will be unclean and cannot engage in his Temple services. The Levite the same. What is wrong with this? The Temple services were VERY important? Yes! But not above human need and suffering. That is the kind of baseless hatred that existed in the days of the Second Temple.
The Temple was destroyed because of the actions of the people. So, today is a day of mourning and grief, fasting and prayer. But, it is also a day of self examination and repentance. How might we be missing the needs of the injured and bleeding among us? How might we be speaking evil of others? How might we correct the errors of our ways so God can once again dwell in our midst?
This day is like a mini Lent, and it is aptly timed. Many of us are in the summer months when we are relaxing and vacationing and faith takes a back seat. This is out midsummer chance to jump start our faith. May you be blessed on this day as you examine your life to see how God wants you to grow. Who will you be a neighbor to?
The family is hoping for people to contact their congressman and senators about this issue. Here is a link to the web page blog where you can read more. You can also get information on what to say to your Representatives. I have written mine twice already.
This is my favorite scene from the movie “Facing the Giants.” It is a great reminder to me that all too often I can give up when I know I have more in me. Over the years I have watched people leave the Torah behind the minute things got a little hard. I have also watch people leave the faith all together when they got to the 50 when they could have gone all the way. (Watch the clip).
Anyway, I thought I would share this as a reminder that the journey of faith can be difficult, but we have to keep pushing, keep driving, and keep our eyes on Yeshua/Jesus. In the end the rewards with benefit not only us, but the people of God.
“Rabbi Elazar of Modin said, one who desecrates sacred objects, one who disgraces the festivals, one who shames his fellow in public, one who annuls the covenant of our forefather Abraham, or one who interprets the Torah not according to Jewish law — even if he has Torah [study] and good deeds, he has no share in the World to Come.” Pirkei Avot 3:15
I have always loved watching this video. Not just because of the humor. But, if you watch closely at time code 0.25 Annie Potts finds herself in a dilema. Shelly Winters has obviously forgotten working with Annie Potts in a movie. Ms. Potts is trying very hard not to embarrass Ms. Winters, but eventually is given permission to help her remember. What a difference this is from our culture!
It seems that we strive in our culture to embarass people at every possible juncture. But, this is wrong, not only according to the Ethics of the Father quoted above, but by the prinicples of God. Each human is made in the image of God and so as we act and react to each other we should act and react as if we were in the presence of God. When we dishonor or shame our fellow we are showing who we really are as the people of God.
Let us remember to strive to build each other up and not tear each other down in embarassment.
I have had this video in my favorites for a long time. It often reminds me that sometimes no matter how good we explain things people just might not get it.
As we live and teach the Torah in our lives some people are just not going to get it. We have to continue to be patient and strive to help them understand. Remember as we live our lives HaShem is working in the hearts and minds of others. We may have no idea what our part is, but HaShem is working.
Never stop being patient. Never stop trying to help people see that the Torah, both living and written is alive.
This week is the beginning of the new Torah cycle for the Hebrew year 5769. We begin reading with the story of creation. It is a good time for me to return to blogging.
To those who had not heard…about six weeks ago I was hit by a truck while crossing a street in our town. My leg and pelvis were broken, but did not require any surgery. However, my left arm was in need of some repair and thanks to titanium I now have a new elbow. I am healing well.
Also, First Fruits of Zion has launched a new web site called Torah portions. You can access it by clicking here. It is a great site to not only keep track of what we are reading each week, but it will also have festival readings. You can also listen to the parasha for those of you who are auditory learners.
As I have mentioned before this is the month of Elul in the Hebrew calendar. And the month of Elul is to be a month of self examination and introspection. It seems as if this is not without its biblical presendence…
2Co 13:5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you–unless indeed you fail the test?
As I sat back and began to think about how I was going to examine myself I soon realized that was going to be next to impossible. You see, I am a sinful creature. I am a self centered human being. If I were indeed to sit down with myself and examine my life and my faith can you guess what I would say about myself? You are right! “I am doing just fine!” ” I am a great guy!” “God really loves me and all that I do.” “Everyone else is sooooo messed up, if they could all just be more like me.” OY! What a mess sin makes of our lives in so many ways.
So how can I go about doing a true self evaluation of who I am? How can I examine myself and my faith to find areas where I need to correct error or strengthen that which remains and is about to die. (Rev. 3:2) I have found two things that really help me in the area of self examination.
1. I ask God to search me and reveal to me areas where I am falling short. Psalm 26:2 reads, “Examine me, O LORD, and try me; Test my mind and my heart.” I ask God to find ways to illumintate my mind and my heart to areas of improvement. Many time HaShem has placed in front of me scriptures where characteristics of my life that need improving are reflected in the lives of others in the scriptures. It is a clear sign that I need to work on this or that.
2. (And only attempt this one is you are brave and truley ready to hear what people have to say) I go to the people around me that I trust and I ask them if they have noticed in me areas where I need to improve my life and my faith. I also ask if I have wronged them in anyway and ask their forgivenss. Also, I will often do this with my enemies. People who I have been in serious conflict with and often times it has brought reconciliation and better friendship.
Sometimes it really helps to go to people that you have had confliict with (i.e. the enemy) and ask them to give you some suggestions on how you can improve yourself. When I do this kind of exercise I will often have to fight the yetzer hara in me that wants to argue with their conslusions. But, I limit myself to simply saying “Thank you” and that then frees me up to step back and see if indeed they are correct.
This can be a difficult process and it can be very hard to hear the things that people have to say about us. But, it is important since our view of ourselves is skewed by our own sinfullness. But, it can indeed be very beneficial and indeed a great way to bring about the time of repentence and Atonement coming up on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
As I consider my Elul-lian* journey I am beginning to look at the areas of my life that I would like to change. One of those areas is getting better at the set time of prayer. I once heard a statistic that pastor’s on average spend less than three minutes a day in prayer. I certainly do not want to be average…never have – never will!
One of the things that I have come to admire and respect of my study into Judaism is the set times of daily prayer. These set times coincide with the sacrfices in the Temple and some even think they coincide with the death and burial of Jesus. There is evidence to show from scripture that even in the days of Yeshua the disciples were following a set time of prayer in their lives. Being as they were Jewish we can assume that it was the tradition of morning, afternoon and evening prayers.
To this day, people around the world gather at the break of day (Shacarit), in the middle of the day (Mincha), and at the beginning of the evening (Maariv) for set prayers. These times are traditional to the Jewish culture. One of the things that I found humbling and fascinating about this is that as people all over the world are engaging in prayer at these times and with the time zone changes all over the world, there is never a moment on this planet where one is not engaged in prayer in this tradtion. It is hard to feel alone when you know that somewhere in the world someone is with you in prayer.
So, one of the things that I am going to continue working on is setting aside the set time each day (3 times) to meet with G-d. What a wonderful gift. What a great means of accountability. For more on the set times of prayer click here.
Shalom,
Bill
* Do you like the new word I made up? This is the Hebrew month of Elul. Traditionally this is a time of repentance and self examination as we approach the fall festivals of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Being very similar to the tradition of Lent in the Church we can see Elul as a journey as well. Our destination? The Day of Atonement!
I was checking out all that WordPress has to offer and I came across this picture. I really liked it for several reasons.
1. It has trees in it. Since my blog is entitled “Notzerim Reaching Out” and Jesus (Yeshua’s) early disciples were called “notzerim” or “branchses”. I thought this picture was appropriate.
2. I really liked the bridge. Often times I think that the ministry G-d gave me to bring the Torah to the Church is in a sense a chance to build a bridge from our past that we have long since lost. It will give us a chance to see us restore our lives of faith to what God had originally intended for the redeemed community.
3. I liked the fog in the distance. Since the dawn of time people have been telling us they know exactly how the future is going to work out. The Master will return on THIS date or THAT date. He will do exactly this and that and if you don’t beleive me then you are not a true believer. Often times I have seen those dates come and go and with it people’s faith since Yeshua did not do what people said he would do. The truth is that none of us can truley know the future. That priviledge belongs only to the all knowing, all seeing G-d. We have more than enough work do to in the here and now – preparing ourselves and others for his return without drawing people farther and farther away from his word with unkept promises of his return. He will return some day…but he said that none of us can know the day. Maybe it is time to trust him on that!?
4. I also liked the water. It is a reminder of the mikvah and the command to immerse all people in the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
So, with all that symbolism I chose this as my new picture. During this season of repentance it is a time to think anew, so a new picture is in order.
