Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Moses a Descendant of Hagar?


...she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar (16:1)

הגר or Hagar: The word contains the Hebrew word גר for stranger. In this weeks Parasha, God tells Abram that his descendants, the Children of Israel, will be גרים or strangers for 400 years in a foreign land.

Rashi comments that Hagar was actually Pharaohs daughter, for it says ולה שפחה מצרית or she had an Egyptian maid, for she was a servant only to Sarah.

When Pharaoh saw the miracles that God performed for Abram and Sarah, he said to his daughter, Better that my daughter should be a maid in this house than the mistress of her own house.

It is interesting to attempt to understand why God organized Abram to marry Hagar and to have descendants through the daughter of Pharaoh.

One Scholar attempts to make a connection: It is important in Jewish history to understand that Hagar was indeed Pharaohs daughter because later on in Exodus, when the children of Israel are slaves in the land of Egypt, Pharaohs daughter went down to bathe by the river and her maidens walked along the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and she sent her maidservant and she took it. She opened it and saw him, the child, and behold! a youth was crying. She took pity on him and said, this is one of the Hebrew boys (Exodus 2:5-2:6)

The Hebrew boy who Pharaohs daughter scooped out of the river, will be Moses, who will go on to lead the exodus out of Egypt. Perhaps Pharaohs daughter who saved Moses from the river, is a descendent from Hagar and Abram.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Monday, October 15, 2012

Begin to Learn to Live


The Beginning



October 15, 2012

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” — Genesis 1:1

The Torah portion for this week, B’reisheet, is from Genesis 1:1–6:8 and Isaiah 42:5–43:10.

In the beginning” is a fitting title for this week’s Torah portion, which is about the story of the creation of the world. But these words are not just the opening words of this portion, they are also the words that begin the entire Bible. The Sages were bothered by this and they asked, “Why?”

Why not? It seems to make perfect sense to begin any book at “the beginning.” Would it make more sense to start in the middle or at the end?

The answer depends on what kind of book you are writing. A history book should start at the beginning of history. A storybook should start at the beginning of the story. But the Sages understood that the Bible is neither. It was not given to teach us history or to entertain us with a nice story. The Torah is an instruction manual for living. Anything it contains is there to teach us about God and how to live our lives.

Since that’s the case, the Sages felt that it would have been more appropriate to start with the first commandment given to man or a story with a moral. But instead, the Torah begins with a description of Creation. The Sages ask, “What does this have to do with the way that we should live?”

Open your heart and hear the answer. It was given thousands of years ago, but is remains relevant today.

The Sages say that one day, the nations of the world are going to come to the Jewish people and say “You are robbers! You stole the land that you live on!” And they will try to take the land away from the Jews and give it to someone else.

Is this not an accurate description of what is happening in the land of Israel today? Many in the world are working very hard to take Jerusalem from the Jews and the Jews from Judea.

The Sages explain that God begins the Bible with Creation so that we would know that He created the world and has all authority over the universe. The land on this earth is His to give and His to take away. Only He has the right to do so. He states very clearly in the Bible that He gave the land of Israel, a small portion of the entire earth, to the children of Israel. No one, not even the United Nations, has the right to take that land away.

God begins the Bible with a message for the critical moments at the end of time. He wants us to be strong and unwavering in our support of Israel. No matter what the world may say, the only voice that matters to us is the Word of God. So stand proud with Israel. It is the very first message from God and our top priority. HLM

Friday, October 12, 2012

THE IMAGE OF GOD

The Uniqueness of Mankind
Bereishit (Genesis 1:1-6:8)

"And the Almighty said, 'Let us make Man in Our image, as our likeness...' " (Genesis 1:26)

This is one of the stranger verses in the Torah. How can we say that a human being is in the image of a formless Being? God is infinite, without any semblance of a form. We have bones, flesh, veins and internal organs. This is our physical self. Does God have physicality? No.

So what does this verse possibly mean?

Another verse may shed some light:

"And the Infinite, Almighty, formed the man as dust from the ground, and He blew into his nostrils a living soul, and the man was life for a spirit." (Genesis 2:7)

Human beings are a combination of a physical self (dust from the ground) and a spiritual self (a soul). The physical self was created from the ground, matter that God had already put into the universe. Our soul, though, was "blown in" by God Himself. In other words, the soul is a bit of God, a piece of the Infinite, so to speak.
Rabbi Max Weiman
Now think of the Holy Ghost that dwells within the Apostolic believer.
Again here is a little bit of God. A dowry. We will know God fully when we shed this mortal body. Dirt is just not very spiritual. Our souls long to be with God.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

"LET THERE BE LIGHT"

(GENESIS 1:3)

Rashi explains that the intention of the Torah was not necessarily to present events in chronological order. (For example, the creation of water, among other things, is not mentioned at all.) Rather the meaning is, "In the beginning of the creation of Heaven and Earth, God said let there be light." When the Sages were ordered to translate the Bible into Greek for the Egyptian king Ptolemy (known as the Septuagint) they changed the opening verse to read "God created in the beginning," shifting the emphasis to the actual creation. To the believer it is obvious that the world was created.

A Small Analogy: Let's say the first man on the moon finds a box of Kellogg's corn flakes with English letters. He immediately assumes that someone beat him there, rather than looking for theories how the box may have spontaneously randomly evolved. Next he finds a plastic model of a heart, with red dye and a battery causing it to continuously beat. That certainly didn't "evolve"; he sees the obvious planning and design involved in its manufacture. Finally he comes across a real human heart with muscles and blood. Imagine him saying: "Oh, that's no problem. It randomly evolved!"
Rabbi Avi Geller

Monday, October 1, 2012

This World Is Only A Temporary Stop

Mr. Jack finally arrived in the village of Radin, Poland. After a five-hour train ride from Warsaw, and a two-hour horse and buggy excursion, Jack concluded the last leg of his trip by foot. Upon arriving in the village, he immediately inquired as to the whereabouts of its most famous resident, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagen, author of "Chafetz Chaim" (on the laws against gossip) and "Mishneh Brura" (on laws of daily observance).

With trepidation, Jack knocked on the door and it was opened by an old, bent-over man who asked him to please enter. Mr. Jack explained that he was visiting from America and strongly desired to meet the world famous authority. Looking around, Jack noticed that the house was bare of furniture as if it had been hit by a hurricane. There was just one table, two chairs, a bookcase and a bed.

"Rabbi, may I ask a question?"

"Certainly, my son."

"I don't notice any furniture in your home. Where is all your furniture?"

The rabbi, unaffected by the guest's chutzpah, asked in turn, "And may I ask you a question, young man?"

"Certainly," came the reply.

"Where is all your furniture?"

Taken aback by the response, Jack cried out, "I have a custom kitchen, oak dining room set, and beautiful bedroom set - all at my house in New York. Do tourists generally take such possessions along in a moving van? I'm only passing through!"

To which the rabbi replied, "And I also am only passing through."

This world is only a temporary stop. A person on a journey must consider his priorities - the true destination - and not only his comfort during the short trip.

Sukkot I (First day) Readings

Sukkot I (First day): סוכות יום א
Torah : Leviticus 22:26-23:44 & Numbers 29:12-29:16
Haftarah : Zechariah 14:1-21
Maftir: Numbers 29:12-16

If Any Man Thirst


         Hebrew Perspectives We can now in some measure realize the event recorded in John 7:37. The festivities of the Week of Tabernacles were drawing to a close. ‘It was the last day, that great day of the feast.’ It obtained this name, although it was not one of ‘holy convocation,’ partly because it closed the feast, and partly from the circumstances which procured it in Rabbinical writings the designations of ‘Day of the Great Hosannah,’ on account of the sevenfold circuit of the altar with ‘Hosannah’; and ‘Day of Willows,’ and ‘Day of Beating the Branches,’ because all the leaves were shaken off the willow boughs, and the palm branches beaten in pieces by the side of the altar. It was on that day, after the priest had returned from Siloam with his golden pitcher, and for the last time poured its contents to the base of the altar; after the ‘Hallel’ had been sung to the sound of the flute, the people responding and worshipping as the priests three times drew the threefold blasts from their silver trumpets—just when the interest of the people had been raised to its highest pitch, that, from amidst the mass of worshippers, who were waving towards the altar quite a forest of leafy branches as the last words of Psalm 118 were chanted—a voice was raised which resounded through the temple, startled the multitude, and carried fear and hatred to the hearts of their leaders. It was Jesus, who ‘stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink.’ Then by faith in Him should each one truly become like the Pool of Siloam, and from his inmost being ‘rivers of living waters flow’ (John 7:38). ‘This spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive.’ Thus the significance of the rite, in which they had just taken part, was not only fully explained, but the mode of its fulfillment pointed out. The effect was instantaneous. It could not but be, that in that vast assembly, so suddenly roused by being brought face to face with Him in whom every type and prophecy is fulfilled, there would be many who, ‘when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is the Prophet. Others said, This is the Christ.’ Even the Temple-guard, whose duty it would have been in such circumstances to arrest one who had so interrupted the services of the day, and presented himself to the people in such a light, owned the spell of His words, and dared not to lay hands on Him. ‘Never man spake like this man,’ was the only account they could give of their unusual weakness, in answer to the reproaches of the chief priests and Pharisees. The rebuke of the Jewish authorities, which followed, is too characteristic to require comment. One only of their number had been deeply moved by the scene just witnessed in the Temple. Yet, timid as usually, Nicodemus only laid hold of this one point, that the Pharisees had traced the popular confession of Jesus to their ignorance of the law, to which he replied, in the genuine Rabbinical manner of arguing, without meeting one’s opponent face to face: ‘Doth our law judge any man before it hear him, and know what he doeth?"
Edersheim