Parashat Re’eh: Teachings by Joseph Shulam

The Covenant Of Our God (2023)

This Torah portion is one of the most fascinating for me personally. The reading from the Torah is from Deuteronomy 11:26 – 16:17, and from the Haftarah (the reading from the Prophets) is from Isaiah 54:11 – 55:5, and from the New Testament from John 6:35-51.

Always the question is what the connection is between these texts. There is no formula that we know about these choices. We know from the New Testament that Yeshua’s ministry started officially probably on his birthday week, and He was honored to read the Haftarah from Isaiah chapter 61. From tradition we know that the reading of Isaiah 61 is connected to the Torah reading from Deuteronomy 29:9 -31:30. We also know that today this reading normally comes around the month of September on the Gregorian calendar.

The month of September is the month of the High Holidays in Judaism. It is true that it might be that in the first century in the Galilee they could have had a different system of reading the Torah and the prophets; a system that was a three yearly reading cycle.

My point is that this tradition of reading the Torah in the Synagogue every Shabbat was a very ancient tradition. It is also mentioned in the New Testament in the book of Acts chapter 15:19-21, and the Apostles and the leaders of the community in Jerusalem recommended strongly for the Gentiles who have joined the community to go to synagogue on Shabbat and hear the Torah read.

This was simply because people didn’t have Bibles in their possession. This was the only way that our Gentile brothers could hear and study the Word of God.

This Shabbat of August 11, 2023, the text from Deuteronomy has some pearls of great price that we ought to collect into our minds and souls and take very seriously. First of all, I like the first words of the reading Moses starts with; the word “Re’eh” — commanding the children of Israel, “SEE”! I like this because I was blind with my left eye for 70 years. Last year I was crazy and accepted the offer of an eye doctor from the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem to operate and try to restore my eye sight. I was crazy enough to try this crazy adventure. The doctor said to me, “why not – you have nothing to lose! You are blind now and the worst that could happen is that you will remain blind. The best that would happen is that you will see something.”

This command of Moses, to the Children of Israel in the wilderness, is significant; “SEE” – in order to see anything the procedure is not so simple. Our eye is a camera, but the eye is not the main tool for seeing something. The brain has to process the picture that your eye sees and pass the picture to the front lobe of your brain for interpretation of the picture and then to other parts of the brain that directs us to make decisions what to do with the information that our eyes have seen!

Here is the first thing that Moses and God wanted for the children of Israel to SEE, or in the King James language “Behold!”

““Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you today; and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.” (Deuteronomy 11:26–28 NKJV).

What did God want the children to see toward the end of their 40 years of wondering in the Sinai Wilderness for 40 years? God wanted them to see that the Torah that they received 38 years earlier at the foot of Mount Sinai, is not just apple pie and vanilla ice-cream, but like every contract and agreement the Torah that God gave Israel has blessings and curses.

In fact, every law and every situation that has the potential to gain and win also has the potential to lose and be punished.

Our relationship with God is like any contract that all of us have ever signed. If you have ever rented an apartment you had to write a contract or sign a contract. You must have seen that there are paragraphs that are a big blessing, and immediately after the wonderful paragraphs that give you the right to live in the said apartment and enjoy the wonderful features of the apartment or the house. You could use the garden and the Weber Grill to barbecue and entertainment for your friends and family. You have a two-car garage to part your cars.

You have a lake view and can, in the late afternoon, take your wife and children for a walk… After the good things and opportunities that you received in the contract, come the limitations and obligations and guarantees to take care of the property and pay the rent.

Let us take a short review of the blessings that Moses lists and asks the children of Israel to open their eyes and see these blessings:

1. You, as a nation, will have the privilege to clean up your land from idolatry and build an altar to the Lord on top of Mount Abel.
2. You will have a clear vision and knowledge of what is a curse and what is a blessing for you and for all the nation of Israel.
3. Knowing with a clear mind what it is you ought to do to “remodel your new home and make it clear from any dirt and impurity” is a blessing. It is always a very good thing to clear and clean the junk and dangerous things left in the apartment that the previous dwellers left behind.

The second thing that God commands the children of Israel is to build a good, a pure and holy place, an altar that is dedicated to God. A place to worship God, the Creator of the Universe, that is pure and well organized and suitable for worship and showing gratitude to the Lord.

This altar still exists, although it is not in as good a shape as it was 20 years ago, because Palestinians worked hard to destroy it, but they didn’t succeed to do the destruction totally.

Here is a picture of the altar that you read about in our Torah portion, commanded by Moses, and you can read in the book of Joshua that the tribes of Israel built it. If you read the command to build this altar, you will see immediately that this altar is first of all very very big and unusual and it is Israelite (There are not stairs that lead to the top of the altar but an incline…).

In the picture on the left side, you see from the top of Mount Abel down to the valley, where the city of Shechem is. Across the valley you see also Mount Gerizim where the other half of the nation was perched on top of Mount Gerizim. They read the blessing that God promised to the children of Israel. The Levites were down in the middle of the Valley and all the people of Israel said “Amen” and agreed to this covenant to possess the Land that God gave Israel to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their decedents.

The next big thing in our reading of the Torah this next Shabbat, is teaching us is that we, the chosen people of God, must be different from the local idolatrous culture and evil practices of the local pagan populations. This is from Deuteronomy 18:9 – 14, teaching the children of Israel and also us, in the 21st Century, that we are not to follow the bad culture of the people who don’t know God and worship idols.

We, the Jews and the non-Jews, who have died with Yeshua in Baptism and have received a new life and have been filled with the Holy Spirit, must have a different matrix and life style from the pagans around us. We are to be witnesses of goodness and righteousness and justice and be the head and not the tail of society. (Please read the text).

In 1968, in Nashville, the conclave on the campus of Vanderbilt University, I heard the editor of Play Boy magazine say this: “The Church is supposed to be the head lights and leader of our culture and society. But instead, the church is the back lights of this vehicle called culture in our times!” Although this man had an abominable place of work, what he said is true. We the disciples of Yeshua our Rabbi, Savior and Redeemer, the Son of God and the One seating on the right Hand of the almighty Father of all Creation, must be different and proud of the difference. We need to influence the world around us and not be dragged behind the evil and dirty culture that creates victims of the culture and not victors of heaven.

We, the disciples of Yeshua, Jews and non-Jews, are born to live a life that leads and changes the evil and corrupt culture and practices that lead our youth and the world into a deep abyss and abandonment of the good life into chaos.

Dear brothers, you might say, that Joseph Shulam is dreaming of the impossible! But, dear brothers, “God’s Israel” has been fighting this fight against idolatry and injustice and for equality and righteousness, for over 2000 years. Yes, you are right, there are no little criminals and Jewish people who are even leaders of the worst abominations possible.

Yes, we have Jews like Harvey Weinstein, and Jeffry Epstein, Jewish Mafiosos like Meyer Lansky, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, and several more. And Jews have not been a pure and clean Linen cloth the way God expected them to be, and God made sure that we pay for our disobedience and departure from His instructions. We should have been much better because we have had the Torah, the Law of God, for the longest period of history.

But, now both Jews and Christians ought to take our mission and task and gather under the guidance of our Messiah and the Holy Spirit of God and change and refocus the right power of God’s truth.

We really must stop following the idolatrous culture of our society and remember what God commanded and the task that God has given us from the very beginning: when He chose Abraham and His seed to be a blessing in the whole world. Let us reassess ourselves, and our own families, of how we can start with small steps to be the light and be the salt of this world.

Please remember that Netivyah depends on the love and charity of disciples of the Messiah who believe in God’s Word and believe that Yeshua will return and gather His sheep and pass them through the judgement, each according to his deeds and according to the charity that he shared for the needy and hungry and the servants of the Kingdom!

Please feel free to react to my Jerusalem Prayer List and ask questions if you need to comment. Use the Netivyah web page to comment or ask questions.

Just a word about Isaiah 54:11 – 55:5 reading from the Prophets. These are wonderful and comforting words of God, through the prophet Isaiah, after the demands and condemnation of Israel’s sinfulness and departure of God’s word:

“For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but My kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has mercy on you. “O you afflicted one, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, Behold, I will lay your stones with colorful gems, and lay your foundations with sapphires. I will make your pinnacles of rubies, your gates of crystal, and all your walls of precious stones. All your children shall be taught by the LORD, and great shall be the peace of your children. In righteousness you shall be established; You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; And from terror, for it shall not come near you. Indeed, they shall surely assemble, but not because of Me. Whoever assembles against you shall fall for your sake.”

Is there another nation or church or tribe in the world that has such promises from the Creator of the World Himself? No! There is not any group of people in the world who have such harsh judgement as Israel, in history, and at the same time such wonderful and magnificent promises of goodness and greatness of God’s grace like Israel. This is why the gentiles who have given their lives to God through Yeshua our Messiah and King of the Jews, have entered in the covenants of Israel through Yeshua’s death burial and resurrection and have become inheritors of the covenants and promises of God to Israel.

Choose Life (2022)

The Torah reading for this Shabbat is from the portion called Re’eh (“look here”) — Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17. From the prophets the reading is from Isaiah 54:11-55:5, and from the New Testament the reading is from 1 John 4:1-6.

What we have in this Torah portion from the very beginning is one of the most important paradigms of the book of Deuteronomy. In the book of Deuteronomy, more than in other books of the Bible, there is the giving of choice to the people of Israel.

Our Torah Portion starts with there following words:

“Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse:” — Deuteronomy 11:26

This unique privilege that God gives us, His children, to make choices and choose, is best described in the following verse in the book of Deuteronomy:

“I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you, life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore, choose life, that both you and your descendants may live…” — Deuteronomy 30:19

The event that is described in our Torah portion is one that I would have loved to participate in. I can imagine standing on Mount Abel or Mount Gerizim, and the priests are in the valley between the two mountains, and there is silence. And suddenly the tribes that are on Mount Gerizim proclaim the blessings, and the tribes that are on Mount Abel proclaim the curses. And all the people, including women and children, affirm God’s word with a loud voice.

These mountains are high, and they have a distance between them. There were no microphones or amplifiers to use in order for all the people and the Levites and priests in the valley below to hear. There must have been a great number of people there on these two mountains to scream together the blessings and affirm them, and the cruses and affirm them.

What an event the Book of Deuteronomy is describing here. In the book of Joshua, we have the following description how it actually happened:

“Now Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses: ‘an altar of whole stones over which no man has wielded an iron tool.’ And they offered on it burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings. And there, in the presence of the children of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written. Then all Israel, with their elders and officers and judges, stood on either side of the ark before the priests, the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, the stranger as well as he who was born among them. Half of them were in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel. And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law. There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, with the women, the little ones, and the strangers who were living among them.” — Joshua 8:30-35

The amazing thing is that today on top of Mount Abal the remains of the altar that Joshua built there are still visible. They were much more visible until a few years ago, but the Arab terrorists attempted to destroy and remove that altar. They were not able to do it because the Israeli military has a base not far from that altar.

The altar atop Mount Abal today.

This text from the book of Deuteronomy and from Joshua, the archaeological finds, and the great big altar that can still be seen through its ruins are tangible and monumental witnesses of God’s faithfulness and the historicity of the biblical narrative. This is nothing less than a miracle and a living witness that for me personally only builds my faith and helps me make the choice and choose life!

Brad TV Video Teaching – Re'eh (2022)

Transcript of a video teaching by Joseph Shulam.

Shalom, my name is Joseph Shulam, and in partnership with Brad TV, we are continuing to do the weekly portion of reading from the Law of Moses, and from the prophets, and from the New Testament, and this week, the reading in all the synagogues in the world will be from Deuteronomy chapter 11, verse 26 to chapter 16, verse 17, and the portion from the prophets is Isaiah 54, verse 11 to 55, verse 5, and from the New Testament, it’s Acts chapter 13, verses 13 to verse 52.

I really personally think that this is one of the most important portions of the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation, because it does something that the rest of the scriptures rarely do. Yeshua did it in the sermon on the mountain, building on what is written here in Deuteronomy.

But let me get right into the text from Deuteronomy chapter 11, verse 26. The text starts with the Hebrew word, re’eh, and that’s the Hebrew name of the Torah portion, Re’eh, which means look, behold. The King James has it, “Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse.” Let me stop here in verse 26 of Deuteronomy 11, the first verse of our Torah reading. Very important for us to analyze this very short and very important word.

God says to the children of Israel, and through the children of Israel to all of His children in the world, look, today, now, every day, not only one day, not only today, every day. That’s the meaning of the text. “I’m giving you a choice. You could either be blessed or you could be cursed.” I get goosebumps just thinking about it.

I wake up in the morning, I am 76 years old, my head hurts, my bones hurt, my back hurts, my leg hurts. They say in Yiddish, in the German Jewish language, they say that if you’re past 70 years old, and you wake up in the morning and nothing hurts you, and you don’t have a pain, it’s a sign of only one thing: you’re dead. Well, I’m not dead. I wake up every morning with pain here, pain there, my back, my leg, my head, problems to solve every day. And every day, I need to remember that this day that I wake up, I’m getting out of bed, taking a shower, brushing my teeth, getting dressed, this day could be a blessing, or it could be a curse for me.

Now, one thing that Christians don’t realize, that we have more than one chapter in the Bible that has lists of curses, lists! Cursed is the man who raises his hand against his father or his mother. Cursed is the man who cheats on the boundary of the fields that he owns in his favor. Cursed is the son that curses his father or his mother. Cursed is the man who sleeps with his mother-in-law. Lists of curses! There are chapters that are lists of curses.

The most famous chapter is from Numbers chapter 24, and Leviticus chapter 26 starts with 11 verses of blessings, 33 verses of curses. If we go against God, if we’re stubborn, and we reject, and we embarrass, and we defile, and we worship idols, knowing that we’re doing wrong, we do it, you know, with intent, then terrible things will happen to us. And they did happen. They did happen to the Jewish nation. More than one chapter of our history is marred because of our sin with terrible things that happened to us.

But in this case, in this portion of the week, God says, “Wake up, behold, look, look, you have, this day, an option to be blessed or to be cursed.” Verse 27 of the same portion: “The blessing will come to you if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today,” the command that you have for today, not for tomorrow or for yesterday. Whatever you have to do today according to God’s will, that’s what you’re responsible for, and if you do it, oh, wow, you will be blessed. Today, you will be blessed.

But the next verse: “If you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God but turn aside from the way which I command you today. to go after other gods which you have not known, you will be cursed.” Yeshua, Jesus, took this paradigm and broke it into a very concentrated picture. He said there are two roads. There is one road that is narrow, uphill, difficult to walk up, that leads to life. It’s a road of obedience, of faith, of love, of hope. It’s a road of doing God’s will, following Jesus.

The other road is easy, downhill. Not only is it downhill, there is grease on it to make you slide faster down the hill to hell, to deprivation, to misery. Yes, you do the will of God, oh, there’s so many verses in the psalms, in the prophets, in the Law of Moses, if you do right with what God gave you, if you use the talents that God gave you, and use them wisely, you’ll be blessed, you’ll get more. You’ll be getting God’s blessing to increase you down here on earth, and bless your family and your children. They will be like plants planted by the river with plenty of water and sun to grow and to flourish.

But if not, according to Jeremiah 17, if you go against God and you trust in other men and not in God, then you will be like a tree planted in the desert where there’s no water, and your leaves will wither, and you will have no fruit, and you will be cursed. This choice is the ultimate doctrine of prosperity, not what you hear on Christian television. The ultimate doctrine of prosperity is not how much money you give to the pastor, or to the church, or to the ministry. The ultimate doctrine of prosperity is how much are you going to walk with God and with Jesus, hand in hand, in the narrow, and difficult, and challenging road that leads to eternal life? That’s the question.

And this is how this portion starts. Like I said, there are several chapters in the Bible that have lists and lists of curses, and we need to realize this: If we, as disciples of Jesus Christ, as priests in His kingdom, have a right to bless, to really bless people: every week we bless our congregation, the children of our congregation, with the Aaronic Blessing: “The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make His face to shine up upon you.” Every week we bless. But if we have the power to bless, given to us by God, we also have the power to curse, given to us by God. We shouldn’t curse, we shouldn’t use that power, but the people that do us evil, we don’t even have to curse them. They bring the curse on themself, the unrighteous, the ungodly, they bring the curses to themself.

In this same chapter, in this portion called Behold, Re’eh, we also have this monumental event. The children of Israel cross the Jordan river, they conquer the hill country of Ephraim, and the hill country of Judea, and God tells Joshua to set the Levites in Shechem, the old town of Shechem, where Jacob and his sons had the affair with Dinah, his daughter that was raped by Hamor, the son of the king of Shechem. That town is in the valley. On one side is Mount Gerizim, it’s mount of the blessing, on the other side is Mount Ebal, the sound of the curses. Why is it so? It’s so, geographically, dear brothers. It didn’t just happen that God chose this place, because when the clouds come from the west, from the Mediterranean Sea, and they climb the mountain, they drop all the rain on the first range, and then the mountain on the other side, looking toward the Jordan River, doesn’t get the rain, so it’s desolate.

God said to Moses, “Put the people, half of the tribes, on the Mount Gerizim, which is the mount of blessing, and the other half on Mount Ebal. And on Mount Ebal, build an altar, a huge altar.” Joshua builds the altar. Very specific architectural design was given to Joshua in order to build that altar. That altar still stands. 15 years ago, it stood more than it does now, because the Palestinians have worked hard to dismantle it, but they were stopped in time before they dismantled the whole thing. But that same altar, in the same place from the days of Joshua, with archeological evidence, you can Google it, Joshua’s altar on Mount Ebal. You’ll see pictures, maybe even videos.

So, God tells Moses there will be one mountain that will be the curses, and one mountain that will be the blessings. Mount Gerizim, on the west side of Shechem, will be the mountain of blessing. Mount Ebal, on the east side of the mountain, will be the mountain of curses. The Levites will be in the middle, and they will proclaim blessings, and the people will say, “Amen.” They will offer sacrifices on mount of blessing, Mount Gerizim, and also on Mount of Ebal, on the east side of Shechem, and it will be a big event.

It will be a big event, mount of blessing and mount of curses, and everybody will hear the blessings and say “Amen, we receive them.” Amen is an acrostic of the words: God is a faithful king. That’s the meaning of amen. Yah, God is a faithful king. Whatever He says and He promises, He keeps. Both the blessings and the curses, He keeps.

And so, this event, monumental event, takes place in Samaria, above Shechem, the Levites in the middle, children of Israel divided between six tribes here, and six tribes there, and they accept this covenant of blessings and the covenant of curses. What does it mean, they accept it? They understand that if they do what’s right, and they do what’s prescribed by God as good, like honor your father and your mother so that your days may be lengthened, like keep the Sabbath day, rest on it, enjoy time with your family and with God, with meditating about high things and not low things, you’ll be blessed. It’s good for you. I know, you know, the Jewish people still keep the Sabbath. In fact, the majority, even the secular Israeli Jews, don’t work on the Sabbath. Almost everything is closed. They’re at home with their family. They may go take a walk, they may take a drive in the spring to see the beautiful flowers in the northern Negev Desert, but they don’t go to their job.

Or if you go against God in disobedience, with design, not by mistake, on purpose, not by accident, disobeying God, you will incur the wrath of God. That’s what this portion of the Torah is centrally teaching us. Let me read to you from chapter 12. There are all kinds of commandments, not to eat blood, and not to kill, and to do what’s right, but let me read you from chapter 12 of our portion, verse 25: “You shall not eat,” it’s talking about blood, “You shall not eat it that it may go well with you and your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.”

You should not eat blood. Do Christians have to keep this command? Not because it’s written in the Book of Deuteronomy, but because this command is written in the New Testament, that the apostles, in Acts 15, gathered together, Paul was there, Barnabas was there, Jacob was there, James in English, and Peter was there, and the elders of the church in Jerusalem were there, discussing, “What should we do with our Gentile brothers?”

The majority of the church was Jewish, but more and more Gentiles around the Mediterranean Sea were accepting the Lord, and accepting the gospel, and giving their life to God, so there was a discussion, “Shall we circumcise them, convert them to Judaism, or not?” The decision was not to convert them to Judaism. Why? Because we have wonderful promises in the prophets, in Isaiah chapter 66 and Amos chapter 9, and we have it in Zechariah, and we have it in Jeremiah, that the Gentiles come in as Gentiles, they don’t have to become Jews. God is the God of all flesh. So, yes, the apostles decide to command our Gentile brothers to keep four commandments that are a part of the commandments that were already commanded on all humanity in Genesis chapter 9, in the first verses of Genesis chapter 9.

The rabbis started with three commands, expanded them to seven commands by interpreting the three commands, breaking it up in smaller pieces so that it’d be clearer what they have to keep. The apostles started with three commands, expanded it to four commands. Why? Because the word blood can mean two things, okay? So, they broke it up to blood as bloodshed, and to eating meat that is strangled, that is not properly slaughtered and bled from its blood of the animal, because eating blood was forbidden.

So, in the Book of Acts, they were commanding the Gentiles to abstain from idolatry or anything that smells, or looks, or is suspected of idolatry. That’s really what it means. The second thing that they were commanded is they abstain from everything that is sexually immoral. Pornography comes from the same word in Greek, which means prostitution, sexual immorality.

In short, abstain from meat strangled, in other words, the throat of the animal is not cut, and his blood doesn’t come out, his heart keeps pumping his blood. If they cut the right vein in the throat, then the blood will come out of the body and the body will be halal for the Arabs, or kosher for the Jews, and also for the Gentiles.
And the fourth one is “abstain from blood” which is bloodshed, killing people, you know, murdering people. Abstain from taking other people’s life. But that command is broken up by the rabbis into smaller portions. Among them is destroying a person’s character by falsely accusing him, by gossiping behind his back, by killing him with your mouth, killing his business, killing his reputation. So that last command is, blood means killing in every way possible; physically, spiritually, emotionally, financially, or any other way.

That’s all based on this portion of the Torah, portion that is called Behold, Re’eh. Ah, there’s so much more that we could talk about it, but our time is up, and God bless you all with this.

I just want to say something about the portion from Isaiah. I’m going to go to Isaiah chapter 54 and just give you an interesting outlook. Isaiah the prophet is addressing Israel in a time of great difficulty. Babylon is at the gates. Israel is losing the battle. They’re going to go to exile. They are in exile already. So, the prophet, in the name of God says,

“‘Sing, O barren one; you who have not borne children. Break into singing, cry out, you who have not labored with a child, for more are the children of the desolate of Israel than the children of married women,’ says the Lord. ‘Enlarge your tents, let them stretch out. Spread the curtains of the tents of your dwelling. Do not spare, lengthen the cords, make space…’”

Because the gentiles are going to come in, that’s the context, folks, and you, brothers in Asia, in Korea, in Singapore, in Japan, in China, are a fulfillment of this prophecy that God gave to Israel.

“Don’t get despaired,” God says to Israel. You may feel desolate right now, small and weak, but there’s going to be a great army of humanity that is going to join you, and the implication is join you through the Son of God, through the Messiah, through the one that is from the seed of David and the seed of Abraham, Yeshua, our Lord. God bless you all.

From Ashes to Riches (2021)

This Shabbat all synagogues around the world read from Deuteronomy 11:26 - 16:17. The name of this Torah portion is Re’eh (“see” or “behold”).

I think that the very first word of this Shabbat’s reading is of great significance for me. Just a week ago I had my second major eye surgery on my left eye. I was blind in my left eye for 70 years. A childhood accident blinded me when I was 5 years old. I had a second surgery on my left (blind) eye. This time the surgery replaced my cornea and now my left eye has everything new, except the ball of the eye and the retina.

Now this Shabbat’s reading starts with the words:

“Behold [see], I set before you today a blessing and a curse…” – Deuteronomy 11:26

The reading from the prophets is from Isaiah 54:11 - 55:5. Here too the element of healing is very strong, and it has national, geographical, and personal healing and allusions to the new Jerusalem.

The prophet Isaiah is addressing Jerusalem and through Jerusalem, all of Israel. The address is with the following words:

“O you afflicted one, Tossed with tempest, and not comforted, Behold, I will lay your stones with colorful gems, And lay your foundations with sapphires.” – Isaiah 54:11 [NKJV]

This is such a wonderful passage of scriptures for Jerusalem and for Israel as a nation, but also for all those who are suffering from affliction, illness, and suffering from abuse, or even from a weak faith and unstable lives. The possibility of the Lord being involved for our restoration, and even much more, just restoration of our past afflicted condition, from ashes to riches, from afflicted and tempest, tossed, to be decked with precious stones, gems, sapphires.

I don’t think that the prophet Isaiah was talking only of the physical aspects of precious stones and sapphires. I believe that Isaiah was talking about something much bigger and more precious than the physical jewels.
Notice the next verses of Isaiah 54:13-17:

“‘All your children shall be taught by the Lord, And great shall be the peace of your children. In righteousness you shall be established; You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; And from terror, for it shall not come near you. Indeed they shall surely assemble, but not because of Me. Whoever assembles against you shall fall for your sake. Behold, I have created the blacksmith Who blows the coals in the fire, Who brings forth an instrument for his work; And I have created the spoiler to destroy. No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, And their righteousness is from Me,’ Says the Lord.” – Isaiah 54:13-17 [NKJV]

The promises of God through Isaiah’s words of prophecy is that our children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the Shalom of our children. I am a student of history and I know more or less the history of Israel from the 8th Century B.C.E. until our own day. There has never been a chapter of our history in which these words of Isaiah the prophet were a reality.

If this is really the case, it means that we must still wait and look for the fulfillment of God’s promises in our history, fulfilled in every detail with us, the afflicted nation of Israel, that continues to be afflicted, hated, persecuted, attacked, threatened by enemies that are over 100 times more numerous breathing hate and destruction against Jerusalem and Israel.

Zechariah the prophet describes the situation with the following words:

“And the Lord said to Satan, ‘The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?’” – Zechariah 3:2 [NKJV]

Yes, dear brothers, Jerusalem, the capital of the State of Israel is in fact still a brand plucked from the fire. From the fires of the crematoriums of the Nazi concentration camps.

Israel and Jerusalem are still a brand plucked from the fire, although we have a wonderful Israeli army with wonderful soldiers of native born Israelis raised in Israel, as well as immigrants from Africa, and Jewish gauchos from Argentina, and Jewish cowboys from New York, and California, and Texas. We have an army that has Jews, Druze, Muslims, Christians, black, and white, and Chinese Jews, Russian immigrants whose children are winning gold medals at the Olympic stadium in Tokyo.

Yes, and the only power that is secure and whose promises are sure and standing on the Rock, are the promises given by the Almighty God of Israel through the prophets.

We, the disciples of Yeshua the Messiah in this land have only one anchor to depend on. We as followers of Yeshua, our Savior and the Savior of the world, have only one wall of defense to depend on. The only dependable promises that are dependable and secure are those that God gave to our prophets.

We are living as a nation and as a state and following the very map drawn by the words of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, and the rest of the prophets that God blessed this nation with. So, yes, dear brothers and sisters, our afflicted nation, is afflicted from outside by a vast array of enemies, and afflicted from within our own ranks with some leaders who have no faith in God and no trust for the word of God spoken by our prophets, but all together we are the recipients of these words of God that Isaiah has written and spoken so long ago.

Some of you are going to see the fulfillment of all that was spoken by Isaiah. You will see Jerusalem flourish and grow and bedecked with the youth, who will be guided and taught by the Lord Himself. Some of you, young generation leaders, will have the privilege of not only waiting for the Lord’s return to Jerusalem, but to see Yeshua coming down with an entourage of millions of angels to land on top of the Mount of Olives.

The continuation of the reading of the Torah portion Re’eh has another major important teaching for us! The blessings and the curses.

The setting for this great show was in Samaria between two mountains – on the east side, Mount Abel, and on the west side of the valley, Mount Gerizim. The tribes of Israel were divided between these two mountains. The Levites and Priest were in the valley between these two mountains.

There was a proclamation of the blessings and the curses from the people of Israel on each side, from each of the two mountains. For me these chapters and words of the Torah and the prophets have such a great meaning for us today:

1. We, the Jewish Disciples of Yeshua in this land have been given only one side of God’s nature and character, love, grace, and joy, and everything is good and Amen! However, in this Torah portion we find out that the grace of God is alive and well and functioning in full capacity for those who are walking and living in the will of the Almighty and do His will by hearing and obeying His blessed commands.
2. We don’t get enough of the second side that came from the east side from Mount Ebal, the side of the curses that were proclaimed, and to them also the nation agreed and said Amen! We must not forget that our relationship with the almighty God of Israel, the Father of our Lord Yeshua and the Father of all mankind has two sides to it, a side of great blessings and a side of great curses and damage to those who are rebellious and unfaithful.

It is of great importance to see the correlation between the text of Deuteronomy and Isaiah.

“You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes— for as yet you have not come to the rest and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you.” – Deuteronomy 12:8,9 [NKJV]

“Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you— The sure mercies of David. Indeed I have given him as a witness to the people, A leader and commander for the people. Surely you shall call a nation you do not know, And nations who do not know you shall run to you, Because of the Lord your God, And the Holy One of Israel; For He has glorified you. Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.” – Isaiah 55:3-6 [NKJV]

The Torah portion Re’eh starts with “look, behold, see”, and this text from the prophets is calling on us all to “hear”, to “incline your ears,” give life to your souls and secure the mercies of David.

This last statement that I bring to you from Isaiah the prophet is of great importance, because King David was actually one of the biggest sinners in the whole Bible. King David broke most of the Ten Commandments, and God loved him and forgave him with great mercies.

The word that Isaiah adds in this statement is small but of great importance to us: “The sure mercies of David!” Yes, dear brothers and sisters, do we have a real trust and security that our sins are forgiven by the sure mercies of the Lord, for us, for each of us?

I sure hope that each one of you will read the Torah portion from Deuteronomy 11:26 - 16:17, and the Haftarah from Isaiah 54:11 - 55:5, and from John’s gospel 7:37-52. Just a word from John chapter 7:

“Nicodemus (he who came to Jesus by night, being one of them) said to them…” – John 7:50 [NKJV]

This is the same Nicodemus that John mentioned in chapter 3, a member of the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, one of the richest men in Jerusalem. A man of integrity and care for the citizens of the city of Jerusalem. A disciple of Yeshua that did great things for the citizens of Jerusalem.

David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first Prime Minister changed his name from David Green to David Ben-Gurion. Ben-Gurion was Nicodemus’s full name. Ben-Gurion identified with Nicodemus and was also a kind of disciple of Yeshua.

He admired Yeshua and learned Greek to be able to read the New Testament in Greek. He did read it every day and he did believe in Yeshua as the Messiah. His Greek New Testament is in Kibbutz Sde Boker in the Negev, right on his desk.

The Cost of Ignoring God’s Instructions (2020)

The Torah reading this Shabbat is called “Re’eh” – Deuteronomy 11:26 – 16:17. This reading is one of my favorite texts in the Torah. I love choices and the first verse of the Torah reading gives us, and all humanity, the most important choice in a person’s life:

“Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today; and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.” – Deuteronomy 11:26–28 [NKJV]

Now who in his right mind would chose the curse over the blessings? Well, the fact is that most people on God’s good earth have chosen the curse and not the blessing. The principle that is set down here by the creator of the universe is not so complicated.

When you buy any mechanical or electronic device you get a handbook or today you get an electronic file with instructions on what to do and how to use your new “toy.” If you are intelligent and smart you will first read the instructions and learn from the book how, what, and when.

If you are like many people you will try to wing it and to figure it out the hard and solitary way. To ignore the instructions for an electronic device is not smart, but the damage would probably be just breaking the new gadget and possible financial loss.

To ignore the instructions that God gave us in His instruction book, the Bible, could cost you much more and even an eternity where God is not near you. The Lord is good and gracious and long-suffering, full of grace and truth.

He made the world and all that is in it and He wants His children, the human race, to fulfill the very purpose of our existence. The blessing is if we obey the commandments of our Lord God.

Now as disciples of Yeshua the Messiah, can we find any contradiction between what the Torah says and what Yeshua taught His disciples? I will not make this a long and drawn out prayer list – but I will give you one example from the very end of Yeshua’s ministry here on Earth.

What did Yeshua command His disciples before He ascended to Heaven and returned to the Father to sit at His right hand? Yeshua’s last words to His disciples are:

“‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ Amen.” – Matthew 28:18-20 [NKJV]

I find it very strange that Yeshua in His last instructions to His apostles commands them to make disciples of all the nations and this is all that the majority of Christians in the world note, only taking into consideration the beginning of Yeshua’s statement:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…”

The second half of Yeshua’s statement is completely ignored by ninety-eight percent of those who call themselves “Christians” – followers of the Christ (Messiah).

I have been a disciple of Yeshua the Messiah since 1962, and there has not been one weekend that I have missed having fellowship with brothers and sisters who follow Yeshua and are members of churches and are active disciples of Yeshua, and many were or are missionaries.

The Great Commission. This is what this text of Matthew 28:18-20 is called. I would not be exaggerating if I were to say that since 1962 I have heard at least 1000 sermons by some of the famous television “evangelists” promoting this text from Matthew 28.

Every one of these preachers, pastors, and evangelists stopped the quotation of Matthew 28:18-20 at the end of verse 19. Verse 20 was completely ignored. It is ignored because the average Christian leader does not know what to do with this text.

The responses that I have heard from preachers of name to this question are too many to list here, but let me share at least a few of the answers that church leaders gave me:

Did Jesus give us commandments that we must obey today? Why do we need to keep the commandments Jesus delivered to us in the Gospels?

Another explanation is that these words of Jesus before the resurrection are a part of God’s revelation to Moses and the children of Israel and the revelation of the Lord through the prophets of the Old Testament. If Jesus is teaching or contradicting the revelation of the Lord to Moses and the Prophets, He is contradicting His own commitment and teachings in the Gospels.

The apostle Paul himself kept all the Torah and commandments by his own confession:

“…though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.” – Philippians 3:4-7 [NKJV]

(See also Acts 25:8, 28:17, Romans 3:29-31.)

Another answer: “We are saved by Grace and not by works!” Commandments that we need to keep have never had the power to save us, but not keeping them has the power to damn us for not being faithful and hearing and obeying the will of our father in Heaven.

Our faithfulness to God is measured by our doing the will of our father in Heaven, hearing His voice, and doing His will is the basis of God’s grace. Here is what Jeremiah the prophet said to Israel nearly 2,750 years ago:

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat. For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, “Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.”’” – Jeremiah 7:21–23 [NKJV]

Read the letter of James (Jacob) and 1 John, the words of Jesus in the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5 - 7 and see that this is the teaching not only of Moses, but also of the New Testament.

Faith is essential, and grace is the help that God has given us to be able to do His will and obey Him. He is not the God of lawlessness or of anarchy or chaos.

He is not the God of “each man does what is right in his own eyes.” Just follow this phrase in the Bible and you will discover how angry God gets when this happens and His reaction to the generation where each man does what is right in his own eyes.

Dear brothers, please read this week’s portion there are so many important principles that you will gain from seeing how God has dealt with the children of Israel. Remember that God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. God is the constant and we humans, are the variables.

It is Never Too Late to Make a Wise Choice (2019)

This week’s Torah reading is from Deuteronomy 11:26 – 16:17, from the prophets Isaiah 66:1-24, and from the New Testament John 7:37-52. As you have been following the “Jerusalem Prayer List”, you may have noticed that most of the time, when I read the Torah portion, I write about one thing that just catches my eye. Sometimes it is something that interests me, and sometimes it is about something that bothers me and disturbs me, or something I don’t understand, and sometimes I write about something that is unusual.

The reason that I do this is because these readings are all rich with information that is very important, and if I would try to write about everything that is in these portions of the Torah and the Prophets, and the New Testament, I would have to write a book every week, and next year I would have to repeat the same book. This way, I pick one thing and expose it to keep your interest in the Torah, and show how important it is for everyone, Jews and non-Jews in the kingdom of God, to dig deep into the greatest revelation from the Creator of the universe for us humans.

“Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today; and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known. Now it shall be, when the Lord your God has brought you into the land which you go to possess, that you shall put the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.” - Deuteronomy 11:26–29 [NKJV]

The above text from Deuteronomy 11:26-29 is one of the most important and simple propositions that God has ever given to humans. This text starts with the word “Behold”, or simply “See.” Don’t be blind. Open your eyes! Be awake! You have two options in life.

This is really so simple and it is like a test in school or a test in life. Either you do your homework and prepare for the test, or you are going to fail the test and not graduate from the school of life.

The first choice that God put in front of us is “blessing”. It is the good choice, a choice that will bring you joy, health, success, prosperity, and eternal life. You don’t have to be a quantum physicist to understand that to choose the blessings is the right and the wise choice.

If you want to invest your life into something you, like most people, would choose to invest your life in something that will give you happiness and success, and the ability to have a life of honor and prosperity, both in the material and visible world and in the non-material world. The world of honor, respect, contribution to your world and society, and above all investment in your life, is a way that, when your life ends physically, your family and children will enjoy your good name and have the assurance that after they die, if they have learned from your good choices, they will join you in the good place, and not in the bad place where there is darkness, shame, and fire.

If you think that this is only an Old Testament concept and it is only for Jews, you need to open your eyes. Here is what Yeshua (Jesus) was teaching:

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” - Matthew 7:13,14 [NKJV]

Yeshua is teaching the very same thing here in what is called, “The Sermon on the Mount”. He only uses a different paradigm. Yeshua is giving His disciples the choice between the way that leads to life, and the broad way that leads to destruction.

Walking in the way of blessings and joy and prosperity, both physical and spiritual, is narrow. It is hard, and it demands faith, obedience, and hard work, and there are only a few people who are going to make that choice, to take that road that demands constant climbing.

I am preaching to myself here, dear brothers and sisters. I don’t like to climb mountains, and I don’t like the narrow road, and I don’t like to restrain myself when I am shopping. I like it easy and simple and beautiful and rich, I like sweet and good food, and nice clothing, and, and, and!

But, dear brothers and sisters, I have to think wisely and calculate my finances, and make a schedule to accomplish the work that the Lord has put before me. I am not a free man! I am bound by laws, and rules and regulations, every moment of my days, and there are days and months that I would rather be somewhere else and do something else, and eating different foods.

But, I also want to escape the curses and the plagues, and the punishment for breaking the laws of the land and, even more important, to be a God-fearing man. In the words of Janice Joplin,

“Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose, nothin’, don't mean nothin’ hon’…”

Yes, our modern culture, the culture of Sodom and Gomorrah, is that freedom, equality, and prosperity, and the highest human values, and everything else like honor, and cleanliness, and rules and regulations, are all garbage. Yes, freedom is the highest value if it is tuned to God’s music, and it is the freedom to do what is good for us and for our fellow man.

Freedom is the highest value if it is freedom to choose what is holy and righteous and beneficial for us, and for those around us. Because, if we choose freedom that is based on short-sightedness and disbelief in God and in life after death, and life after the resurrection from death, then in one moment, in the ocean of time, we will find ourselves miserable, suffering, without honor and respect from our fellow man, and even from our families.

Yes, God is giving us the simplest and the best and the most favorable proposition in life in this portion of the Torah and in two weeks again:

“I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live…” - Deuteronomy 30:19 [NKJV]

Let us all reexamine our choices, and when and if necessary, make new choices that will lead us to life and blessings.

It is never too late to make a wise choice. It is always the right time to change our choices, when we see that they lead to destruction and unhappiness. God is good to us, and He is not a despot or a tyrant – He gives us the freedom to make a choice, and the wisdom to make the right choice. To choose life and blessings involves faith, obedience, and love, and produces hope.