Torah Focus

V’ahavta / וְאָהַבְתָּ

Deuteronomy 6:4-9   4 ¶ “Hear, O Israel! The L-RD is our G-d, the L-RD is one!  5 “You shall love the L-RD your G-d with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  6 “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.  7 You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.  8 “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.  9 “You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

We have studied the 613 mitzvot for that past 13 weeks. 

In this lesson we have come to the conclusion of our classes on the Commandments for the present.  What summary can we find in having studied the 613 mitzvot?

Exodus 19:17   And Moshe brought the people out of the camp to meet with G-d, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.

The English version of this text says that the B’nai Yisrael stood at the “foot of the mountain.”  The Hebrew text literally reads that they stood beneath the mountain.  The question should be why did HaShem hold the mountain over the heads of B’nai Yisrael?  Some sources suggest the idea that had Yisrael not accepted the Torah it would have been dropped on them as a means of destruction.  Other sources suggest that the Ma’amad Har Sinai was actually the betrothal of Yisrael as HaShem’s bride.   This imagery will be the focus of this lesson and post.

נטילת ידים

Netilat Yadayim

Ritual washings include the entire body in a mikveh.  The נטילת ידים (Netilat Yadayim) is limited to the hands.  Likewise, נטילת ידים is offered at various times throughout the day.  However the prayer I would like to address as a hanhagot is the morning  נטילת ידים .

It is suggested that “One should not walk more than four cubits from his bed before washing his hands upon arising in the morning.”

This prayer is associated with the Priests who worked in the Beit HaMikdash.   The Priests could not enter into service without first washing their hands.

By saying the נטילת ידים should be a conscious effort to commit to HaShem’s service throughout the day.

Practice נטילת ידים and saying the appropriate prayer as a means of commiting to HaShem’s service for the day.     

Transliteration: Boruch A-toh Ado-noi E-lo-hei-nu Me-lech Ho-olom A-sher Ki-de-sha-nu Be-mitz-vo-tov Vi-tzi-vo-nu Al Ne-Ti-Lat Ya-Dayim.

Translation: Blessed are You, L-rd our G-d, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments, and commanded us concerning the washing of the hands.

Shalom

The Torah and Freedom

It will not take long while reviewing Torah Focus (torahfocus.com) and the teachings presented here to realize that we take a pro-Torah approach to interpreting the Scriptures. Obviously, this approach creates several interpretive problems. For the most part the worldview of the contemporary Church leans towards antinomian (against the Torah) interpretations of the Biblical text. We have dealt with this superficially in past posts and pages. See Torah Focus, Shaul and the 613 and the New Englanders & the 613.

First, let us interject that we are not trying to make an apologetic for this stance. We are presenting truth to those who desire to learn what it was like to live under the teachings of Yeshua and Shaul.

Therefore, the question at hand is how we can take this approach when men like Shaul talk about freedom from the Torah? (more…)

The early New Englanders and the 613
Early American Theocracy

When the settlers landed on American soil they immediately set out to establish a society that would be beneficial for all who chose this “New England” as a place of residence. The fledgling community had no established law or code by which to live. It did not take the early society to realize that they needed a code to live by. The originally decided to establish a structure based on Biblical models.

These facts are relatively well known to most people. However, just how far were the early settlers willing to reach into the Biblical text for a model to build their new world on?

Thus, the New Haven Colony records show that the law of G-d, without any sense of innovation, was made the law of the Colony:

March 2, J641/2: And according to the fundamental agreem(en)t, made and published by full and gen(e)r(a)ll consent, when the plantation began and government was settled, that the judiciall law of God given by Moses and expounded in other parts of scripture, so far as itt is a hedg and a fence to the moral law, and neither ceremoniall nor typical nor had any reference to Canaan, hath an everlasting equity in itt, and should be the rule of their proceedings..

April 3, 1644: Itt was ordered thatt the judiciall lawes of God, as they were delivered by Moses … be a rule to all the courts in this jurisdiction in their proceeding against offenders. . . .

It is a modern heresy that holds that the Torah of G-d has neither meaning nor any binding force for man today. It is an aspect of the influence of humanistic and evolutionary thought on the church, and it posits an evolving, developing god. The immutability of G-d is established in the Biblical text as well as Christian doctrine. How is it that we have G-d a mind of vacillation that changes each time the wind blows?

The founders of America were convinced that the only “Law” worth having was that of the Bible dictated to Moshe by G-d Himself. Contemporary society and church leaders have adopted an antinomian theology. (there is an oxymoron for you) How can we be antinomian and have a theology all in the same breath. The plain simple truth is that we cannot. We have opted for humanistic institutions rather than theocratic mores.

(more…)