Matthew 5: 25, 26

25 Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him; lest suddenly the adversary deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and you are cast into prison.

26 In truth I say to you, You shall by no means come out from there, till you have paid the last cent.

It can be said that this teaching has reference, most likely, to the Roman court and occupation. Saying this enables us to see a prophetic significance by extension. If it is a condition of the Roman occupation then there is an application for all Israel in respect to the whole Roman Captivity. And, like Jeremiah facing Babylon, Yehoshua is saying (in principle), as it were to Jacob, accept this chastisement from the Hand of HaShem and go down into Egypt/Rome from where you will be redeemed with great riches. But if you resist, the captivity will be counted literally as 400 years instead of 210 years (with the remaining years having already been served from the birth of Isaac). This is like the teaching of the rabbis that if Israel is worthy the redemption will come sooner but if she is not worthy then it will come later. Worthiness, according to this principle, is to accept the chastisement: i.e., for Jacob to honor Leah by not rebelling against Laban's (the old nature's treachery), but rather praising HaShem for His goodness, and likewise accepting the sale of Joseph into Egypt. Worthiness, according to this principle is also that Joseph must remain the ruler of Egypt even when it is revealed that he is alive - and Jacob must, even then, go all the way down into Egypt so that the correction of Israel can be fully received.

This is the revelation that when Mashiach comes he will not immediately bring the rule of the Jews over the nations but that both the Jews and the nations will continue to need to be ruled over by Mashiach himself for a period for the correction of Israel to be fully received and then at the end the adversary will even be released for a short time to come against Jerusalem and the whole court of the Mashiach in all the world, (the Pharaoh that did not know Joseph), to try the creature of God in one final trial of correction and then the true end will come and this is the compete re-creation of the world, where mortality puts on immortality and corruption puts on incorruptibility. Then in the eternal world the Jews, being taught to a higher level of Torah education than the gentiles will begin to teach all nations, each at their level, in that eternal academy where the atmosphere is only love and love is only satisfied in ever learning to know the Blessed Holy One better and better.

I would add to this one thing. Matthew 5:25 and 26 can also be read according to the principle of "if the shoe fits, wear it." That is, the reference to the judge can also be to the rabbinic judge where the rabbinic judge is in some way in collusion with the Roman authorities. Now such collusion would not be just on the outer political level but would also be on the deepest spiritual levels, where it is not even realized. If we are understanding the adversary that can deliver us to the judge as being our old nature, agreeing with it can be understood as agreeing that God has created beauty, face to face, to help engender our fruitfulness, etc. But - looking at the adversary as our old nature - here, we do not need to immediately see the judge as being HaShem but can initially see the judge to which the old nature turns us over as being the Torah judges. And the Torah judges, so long as they do not defer to Mashiach defer to the Roman authorities. This deference to the Roman authorities takes the form of the ruling principle that the old nature causes the majority of people to be not be liberal from the heart in their business dealings with others. This causes stringent Torah court rulings, or sometimes reactive lenient rulings, from which there can be no redemption for Israel without paying the last cent. However, even under captivity to the Roman authorities, Rabbi Akiva shows in Bava Basra 71b a way to rule according to the Messianic spirit. See there.

May Yehoshua's peace fill your home.

Corporate Repentance

“‘Whoever labels his fellow ‘wicked’ will himself go down to Gehinam...’ Zohar 2:122a. Since the Torah views each human being as having been created ‘in the image of G-d,’ i.e. with infinite potential, we must be very careful to distinguish between who/what a person is, and what he or she has done/is doing.” Rabbi Avraham Sutton

Matthew 5
21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.
22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother without cause will be liable to judgment; whoever insults the intelligence of his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, You complete fool! will be liable to the fire of Gehinam.
23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you,
24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.
26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.


After the responsibility for leading the way in knowing and honoring the Creator, corporate responsibility has primarily to do with maintaining the knowledge of right and wrong. Corporate repentance, therefore, on this level has primarily to do first with acknowledgement of failure to maintain the knowledge of right and wrong and then with a corporate turning to the way wherein knowledge of the clear difference between right and wrong can be restored and maintained.

Judging others with spiritual or religious prejudice is a primary corporate sin. Even though it is the leaders of the nation who are most responsible for corporate righteousness, every individual also has a role to play in the life and health of the nation, and, indeed, while every public sin will have a corrupting influence upon the whole body of society, sins of judging others with false measures are the most corrupting sins of all. It is these sins which actually tear down the knowledge of the difference between right and wrong.

While Christianity among the nations has been able to emphasis the need for individual repentance and faith, it has only been able to highlight the possibility of individual repentance. Until there is a clear realization of the need for corporate repentance in the world the redemption of the world cannot be fully realized. And corporate responsibility for maintaining the knowledge of what is right and what is wrong can only be fully known and understood where the law, or way of life, of a nation is not created by fallible human beings but is entirely given directly from God. This law, this way of life, is the Torah, and the nation to whom God gave it is Israel. Therefore, the corporate repentance that must come for the complete redemption of the world can only come through the corporate repentance of Israel.

However, Bible students among the nations can help prepare for this corporate world repentance coming about by learning and understanding what corporate responsibility is and preparing their own lives and influencing their communities, especially in judging with righteous judgement in the fear of God and not with a false judgement that speaks out of hidden anger and stereotypes and labels others.

Direct, person to person dispute resolution can greatly contribute to this process of rectifying public ‘bad conscience’ in the corporate responsibility for maintaining knowledge and understanding of right and wrong. The principle of settling disputes ‘on the way to court’ is the same principle of settling disputes that would never be taken to court because they are to small but can still fester away between people. This spirit and practice of making partners of adversaries in the process of resolving disputes provides some measure of remedy for our inclination of thinking and speaking evil of others simply due to the impact that their actions have upon us. In this way, it can be seen as an example of the work of social rectification that is needed to help prepare the way for the corporate repentance in the world that must come about for the world’s complete redemption from rebellion against its Creator.

The Nature of The Flesh and The Evil Inclination

When Paul speaks of the flesh the concept is closely related to but not identical with the concept of the evil inclination. These two concepts and their relationship are very important to understand for the work of making talmidim to the Good News of Israel and her Messiah among all nations.

The evil inclination is an aspect of all human nature from the beginning of creation. It is augmented and empowered by the fall of Adam and by every sin. It is therefore a key element in the concept of what Paul calls the flesh, which is to say the flesh nature. The concept of the evil inclination is not, however, one that is set in the context of regeneration and the new creation, which is precisely the context in which the concept of the flesh is set. This context of regeneration and inclusion in the new, resurrected humanity of Mashiach is the key distinction between the concept of the flesh and the concept of the evil inclination.

Face Your Journey. Take Possession of The Land of Death and Resurrection: a poetic commentary

Turn around and face the journey that you must take, your jouney into the land of death and resurrection. Take possession of that land where you must undergo your journey. The land that was the place of the Amorites and their neighbors, even as theirs are the ways of false intimacy, the idolatry of the desolate heart, which you, like Adam, have also known and by which you have comforted yourself through the use of degenerate imagination and self-deception. Take possession of that land which lies before you and around you and in your soul, all the way from the south to Lebanon and to the great river, Euphrates, to remind you where your soul was incubated and from where it also has descended. For once your soul walked in Adam with God in the Garden of God as if in His Temple. And how can you return there except through your journey in the land of death and resurrection? For the land that God, your Lord, has given you is the land of death and resurrection for the whole world.

Deuteronomy 1:8 "See! I have given before you the land; come take possession of the land that HaShem swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their children after them."

TORAH TO THE NATIONS

THE GOOD NEWS CAN BE UNDERSTOOD AS THE GIVING OF THE BLESSING OF THE TORAH OF ISRAEL THROUGH THE GRACE OF MASHIACH TO THE NATIONS. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

"God came from Sinai, He shone to us from Sei’ir, He appeared from Mount Paran …”

The Zohar elaborates, “… He shone to us from what the children of Sei’ir said – that they are unwilling to accept the Torah …”

Did God redeem Edom from Egypt that He went first to offer Edom the first commandment? No. Rather, this is to say that Adam did not desire to abide in the commandment and Edom also loved the way of rebellion. But as to Israel, he followed the way of his fathers who walked with Hashem.

It has said that God could only offer the Torah to the nations on their purely physical level and that it was when they all rejected it on this level that God offered it to Israel on Israel's more exalted spiritual level but also on the physical level of the nations. It is necessary to understand the concepts of spiritual and physical correctly as they are used here.

So long as we are clear that we are speaking of the covenant of God with Abraham as that which defines Israel as spiritual and the nations as physical or non-spiritual, we can potentially proceed with the correct understanding of what is being taught.

It is not simply that the Torah was not given to the nations because they rejected it, but also that God did not purpose to give the nations the Torah and therefore He hardened them in their rebellion the way He hardened Pharaoh in his personal rebellion against the redemption of Israel and the giving of the Torah to Israel at Sinai.

The Torah is given to the covenant nation because it is the covenant nation. Just as a husband would not give his ring to one who was not his engaged wife and would not give the secret of his plan for life to another than his engaged wife, so God would never have given his Torah to another than to Israel. Nevertheless, by offering the Torah to the nations on their limited level, He demonstrated that His question to them whether they desired His Torah could only be rhetorical. Just as it was a forgone fact that Pharaoh would not desire to obey God and release his slaves to serve God, so it was a forgone fact that the nations would not desire to serve God. But in both of these cases it was beneficial that this should be demonstrated.

And what is most revealing is not the distinction of Israel, but the distinction of God as revealed by Himself from the notions of God as presented by the natural human interest and understanding. Truth and salvation exist only in the word of God being spoken in the voice of God and heard as God would have His word heard.

And Then The End Will Come

For many years before the final exile of Judah to Babylon we know that the Jewish government was already subject to the Empire of Babylon. Israel had become a province of the gentile empire. We have a reversal of that timeline today ( we are not moving toward captivity but toward the end of captivity), but we have never yet seen a reversal of the imperial situation.

The fact that the government of Israel today cannot simply do what it wants is the fact that would stand out in a history book. What "imperial" power is actually in control in the land of Israel today from the point of view of a future historical perspective looking back on this period? How would the present day situation read if it were written in a book of the Prophets?

The gentile world empire is split today between east and west, or rather, north and south, but it is no less still one empire, or as our governments are fond of calling it, one "civilization", which began in "Mesopotamia". We see that at the time of Mashiach's days on earth Israel was "managed" by the Romans, the fourth beast spoken of in the book of Daniel.

Whether it is with a Temple or without a Temple, since the days of Nebuchadnezzar, Israel has never been out from under the hand of gentile domination. The times of the gentiles did not start with the destruction of the second Temple. Nor have they yet ended.



Today the center of gentile power that "manages" Israel is the US. It is that simple. This is so whether we are looking at the people of the Jewish nation, G-d's nation, Israel, who live in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or New York or Buenos Aries.

But the gentile power is a house divided against itself. We should look at what divided it.

Historically speaking, when was it divided? The division began with the death of Alexander the Great, when the Greek Empire failed to establish a singular and settled control over Jerusalem and the Land of Israel. This is when the "prince" of Egypt and the "prince" of Persia (then centered on Syria) saw opportunity to ascend in power through the necessity of one or the other establishing clear dominance in the land of Israel.

We remember that Alexander himself had a vision of the High Priest of G-d who then met him on his way to conquering Jerusalem, which he then did not conquer out of fear of the word of G-d. However, this resulted in the Roman ascendancy to power over the Greeks, not the immediate ascendancy of Israel to power over the Greeks. For such was the purpose and plan of G-d.

But while the Romans ascended to power their empire did not heal the underlying spiritual division between the north and the south for control over Jerusalem and the Land of Israel. The first manifestation of this division between the Ptolemies of the south and the Seleucids of the north seemed to be obscured by the Hasmoneans. But the Hasmonean failure to messianically exploit the fear of HaShem instilled by prophetic power into Alexander resulted in their becoming merely a bridge to the Romans.



It could not have been otherwise. For it was the purpose of G-d that Mashiach should come and suffer for Israel's redemption, allowing for the ascendancy of an Edomite empire, the unG-dly kingdom of Rome.

It was no accident that the king of Judah at the time of Yehoshua HaMashiach was a prince of Edom, representing a prince of the south. Nor was it any accident that both Titus and Hadrian were representing the prince of the north. While the southern rule would always be a more sympathetic, pulling, force toward the Jews, the northern rule would always be a more anti-Semitic, pushing, force against the Jews.

The Hasmoneans seemed to obscure the struggle between the northern power and the southern power to control Jerusalem and the Land of Israel. Once the Romans took control they also took over the mantle of obscurity covering over this struggle from the eyes of the world. It appeared that Rome was one and that Jerusalem and the Land of Israel was now being 'managed' by one gentile power. This illusion was shattered when the Roman Empire was itself divided into two forces. In fact the division had always been there. It had been inherited from the Greeks and was simply manifesting itself again.

But why instead of being divided into a division of north and south was the Roman Empire divided into a division of east and west? To the eyes of the world this suggested that the division was based on new conflicts, merely gentile concerns, and not the old division between the Ptolemies and the Seleucids, which centered on the Land of Israel. But to Biblical eyes it was and is clear that nothing had changed.

Edom/Rome took on the responsibility of ruling the world at the time when Israel and her Messiah ought to have been prepared to do this. But HaShem no longer had the same interest in sustaining this world that He had previously, in preparing for the coming of Mashiach to Israel.

HaShem was now interested in sustaining this world only for one purpose: bringing about the repentance of Jerusalem in order that she would receive her Messiah. After that there would be a new interest in sustaining this world for a time. For all these ages, from the time of Adam, were only for the purpose of preparing the world for re-creation, for cosmic redemption, for bringing a knowledge of HaShem that transcended sin and death.

Edom/Rome took on the responsibility of ruling the world and it was a responsibility that it did not merit or deserve and, despite its roads for commerce and military technique could not uphold. When Diocletian briefly reunited the splintering empire he did so by purely military force. It was as if the western Roman Empire was no longer needed as a united political entity by Divine Providence for the purposes of the captivity and purification of Israel and would not be needed as such again until the very end days.

The eastern Roman Empire, which came to be called the Byzantine Empire, but which was still the Roman Empire, was sufficient as a political entity for control of Jerusalem and the Land of Israel until modern times. Whether this power was "Christian" or Ottoman Muslim should not be allowed to confuse us. Only when Britain and then the US took over the management of the Land of Israel from the Turks did the balance of power shift back to the heirs of the west and the Holy Roman Empire.



The secret of how the east and west of the Roman Empire is actually north and south can only be understood when it is understood that the division of the Roman Empire into east and west always included a division into north and south. While the trouble for Rome and for the Empire was always coming from the north, while Diocletian labored to harness this power, pushing up the Danube, his main challenge, like every ruler of the fourth beast before and after him was to try to resolve the power struggle over the Land of Israel between the forces from Egypt and the forces from Persia. Nevertheless, the foundation of Rome's power is the division between north and south and it will never heal this division without destroying itself, although it must make every effort to do so in order to sustain itself.

We must understand that when Roman Diocletian or Gallerius would fight against the Egyptian powers they represented the spiritual prince of the north. When they turned around and fought against the Persian powers they represented the spiritual prince of the south. Ultimately, this effort to unify these forces and bring into one and bring "global peace" took form in a political manifestation of Christianity. Just how nearly this incurable division between north and south over the Land of Israel seemed to be healed by this political Christianity, after the invention of this system by Constantine, can be seen by consideration of the story of two sister-in-laws, Aelia Eudocia Augusta, Theodosius the Second's wife, and Pulchria, Theodosius's older sister.

Pulchria was a devout Constantinian Christian. While the anti-Semitic, (at that time German) forces of the north supported and filled Pulchria, so that she influenced her brother to exile the Jews and burn their synagogues, Eudocia used her influence at court to protect the Jews. That this was not merely a result of Eudocia's own non-Christian upbringing can be seen from the fact that she moved to Jerusalem to compose literary works and later died there, having paraphrased the first eight books of the Tanach, as well as Daniel and Zechariah. Thus we see a spirit of Byzantine (Roman) Christianity that seeks to be "Hebraic" and inviting and protective toward the Jews and a spirit of Byzantine (Roman) Christianity that seeks to destroy the Jews utterly and entirely. And these forces that united and divided Eudocia and Pulchria are the forces that moved the western empire out of Rome to Milan and produced the Holy Roman Empire and that carried the Byzantine Roman Empire to modern times, once it became disguised as the Moslem Empire.

We should not think then, that the military power that passed from Germany to Britain and the US is simply the power of the king of the north and that the Arab power is simply the power of the king of the south. Rather, we should recognize that whatever power is controlling Egypt is the king of the south and whatever power is controlling Persia is the king of the north, even if, as in the case of Diocletian, it is the same earthly power, simply being used as a pawn by one and then the other spiritual power. When the US controlled Persia it was in the position of the king of the north. When Russia controlled Egypt, it was in the position of king of the south.

What we need to understand is that these two forces are the forces of the captivity of Israel working in the heart of the Jewish person whether they live in Jerusalem, New York or La Paz. This is not about Christendom or Islam. There can be no true liberation of the people of Israel or of the Land of Israel until Israel as the only nation of G-d accepts fully her responsibility to take back from Edom the challenge of ruling the earth, from Adam to beast, from the grasses to the angels, Israel must rule all by rightly interpreting the Torah of G-d. And this will not happen by building settlements on the west bank. This will come only by the Good News of Israel and Her Messiah being made known unto the ends of the earth and by the ingathering of the gentiles through the conversion of their very messianic religion itself to the faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the faith of Yehoshua the Messiah. Then, and only then, will the end of the captivity come.

Commandments, Pride and Fear

All Eternal Fruitfulness of The Torah Is Based on Grace

Neither pride nor fear of condemnation can produce repentance. Yet the commandments of G-d are given only to produce repentance in Adam.

Preparing for Messianic Torah Dialogues

In consideration of relationships between Jews and non-Jews pride and fear of condemnation both often arise and contaminate the air.

To clear the air of these elements of pride and fear we may begin with some clarifications about what is required for a standing of righteousness before G-d.

Israel did not choose Mashiach but Mashiach chose Israel. When this is clearly understood it is also understood that first G-d chose Israel, only then did Israel chose G-d. If it is said that G-d chose Israel because Israel chose to accept the Torah, this is true only in that sense that G-d attributes merit to those whom He justifies by His grace.

There Is Only One Nation Justified By G-d's Grace

Although, in the end, G-d justifies many non-Jews as well as Jews by His grace and attributes to them the merit of the works that their soul produces as it is restored through His redemptive Spirit, Israel is the only nation that G-d ever justifies corporately as a nation.

G-d began this justification of Israel when He called Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to Himself, promising this justification to Abraham and to his seed, and then when He redeemed Israel out of Egypt and claimed her as His own and gave to Israel His Torah because He had claimed her as His own. And He completed and sealed the justification of Israel for all eternity in the death and resurrection of the Messiah of Israel.

Correcting The Natural Mind's Ideas About Salvation

At the same time, the idea of a salvation that salvation is only from the legal consequences of sin is a meaningless idea of salvation. The idea that the judgement of G-d consists only in a legal justification, as if all that was important and necessary were a court decision where wrong is made right, without any regard for the damages done to the soul and to the world and the need for the healing and rectification of those damages is an idea that could appeal only to to the natural mind's desire to get away with its crimes without having to face the real consequences of the actions for which it is responsible.

There Is a Need For Repairing and Rebuilding The Broken Soul

Again, the limited concept of a salvation of the soul that does not consist in the restoration of the soul and of the world and of all relationships of the soul to a condition of perfect health and righteousness, is a meaningless concept. The need for the healing and rectification of the damaged soul applies both to the soul of the individual and to the soul of Israel, which is the soul of Adam.

Therefore G-d first imputes righteousness to the soul. Even though it is contaminated and corrupted, He declares it righteous and innocent, as when He first conceived and created it. For only as having such value is it worthy of being restored. In doing this, He judges the will and work to attain righteousness, which He cultivates within the soul by His Holy Spirit, as being responsible for this righteousness, which He imputes to the soul by uniting it with Mashiach. This is His act as Creator and Father, the Redeemer. For He calls that which is not as though it were and so it is.

Reframing Judaism and Christianity In Complimentary Opposition

Judaism has emphasized the restoration of the soul. Christianity, because it has been molded by the desperate situation of gentiles, has emphasized justification. If these aspects of salvation are kept apart they should each generate animosity toward the position of the other. Only if they are kept together do they and should they compliment one another. And so we see that this is acted out in history. We must bring these together. We must clear the air, for the sake of the repentance of all Adam.

First Christianity must be reframed right from its point of conception. Then, when it no longer speaks against the salvation of the corporate soul, it can begin to learn from the emphasis of Judaism upon the restoration of the soul. And in the course of learning this lesson it can then show the necessity of its own emphasis upon the justification of the soul as the completion of the foundation of salvation for Israel and for the world.

What Is The True Nature of Obedience?

We read in this way in Davarim (Deuteronomy) 28:1,2:

1. And it shall come to pass if hearing you hear by the voice of the Hashem your God for {receiving the ability of} guarding {the word given to you} for {the purpose of} doing the very thing, his commandments, which I have commanded you {as the light of} the day, then I will give you, Hashem your God, {as a c}over upon all nations of the earth.

2. And will come over you all the blessings, these {which shall be expressed} and {they will pursue and} overtake you because you heard the voice of Hashem your God. {Because you heard the ruach HaMashiach.}

-- The voice of Hashem your God -- this is the ruach HaMashiach.

We Must Be Careful About How We Use Our Intelligence

Our intelligence was given to us in order to assist us in listening to G-d. We use it in this world instead of listening to G-d.

We understand that the calling of Adam was in the beginning to hear the commandment given in the Garden of Eden, not through their own voice of thier own understanding but through the voice of the spirit of Mashiach. What is this spirit? It is the true spirit of the Oral Torah. What is this saying?

It is saying that from the very beginning, when G-d first gave a commandment to Adam, He gave with it a principle of interpretation and that this principle came as a spirit to enlighten the intelligence, to overcome the evil inclination and to give victory over temptation.

When this is understood it can also be understood that the day of death for disobedient Adam was a day of grace in which Adam was called by that same spirit of Mashiach to repentance, even though they were already in their graves in the sight of G-d, their Creator, Blessed be He.

Here we are at the source of all understanding of the The Great Commission.

For we are charged not with a new message, but with the message that was from the foundation of the world, to hear the Torah of the God of Israel through the spirit of Mashiach.

Is this another Oral Torah than that received through the Pharisees and the rabbis of Israel? May Israel's G-d forbid the thought! Rather, it is the eternal light of this tradition. For all the Oral Torah of Israel shall be made to shine with this light, the light of the voice of Mashiach, and shall radiate through this light forever.

Now how will this great unification take place between the spirit of Mashiach and the full body of the Oral Torah, which has had to speak to the most imperfect conditions of this world and has therefore not ever reached the level of perfection which Adam lost, the level where once the the commandment might have been received perfectly in the spirit of Mashiach? The answer to this is that which is to be given in the revelation of the mystery of G-d, which revelation is spoken of in Revelation chapter 10. For more on this see Hearing Seven Thunders.

How We Can Obey The God of Israel - Part Two

See part one of this posting here:

How We Can Obey The God of Israel - (part one)

Any and all Christian theology that has understood Paul to be teaching that the death and resurrection of Israel's Messiah resulted in an end having come to the Torah as God's instructions for the life and conduct of Israel have misread him. The grace of God is not an instruction for Israel on how to live life corporately, communally or personally, as is the Torah. The only fundamental question Paul discusses is the question about how we can obey God. Secondarily, he discusses a question about how gentiles can obey God in distinction from how Israel and Jews can obey God. Once this is clear, a great deal of confused Christian theology is put into perspective.

The death and resurrection of Israel's Messiah of his nation reveals once and for all that it is not possible for Israel to obey the Torah as it was commanded to, as a nation, perfectly and completely, without doing so with God's Spirit. Did Israel then, from the time of Moses not possess God's Spirit? She did, though not in the measure at all times that she needed to be truly obedient, which one must be in order to actually fulfill the commandments.

It is possible to do many things that God commands without doing so as an act of obedience to God. It is possible to do so as an obedience to one's own will, as an act only of one's own deliberation and decision and not as an act of obedience to the commandment as given by God. For example, one could obstain from murder simply because one chose to and then not obstain from murder if one chose to commit murder. Not committing murder because of following one's own decision is a different thing from not committing murder because of obeying the commandment of God not to commit murder.

It is not vain or useless to do those things that are also commanded in the Torah to Israel because one choses and answers only to one's own self. The problem with this is that if one does this, eventually they will begin to fail and will slowly become more and more corrupt. Not only this, the attitude itself is always a violation of the relationship with one's Creator. It is essentially an attitude of idolatry, of sin.

Israel was not only given the Torah. With the Torah Israel was given the promise of God to bring about the blessing of life. In this promise of God Israel was given God's Spirit. To say that the Spirit of God was given to Israel through the form of a promise is to say that the Spirit of God was not yet given to Israel in full measure. It was because of this that the Torah, as Paul put it, was weak through the flesh, through human nature, and was not able yet to provide the power to Israel to enable Israel to coporately perfectly and completely obey God in every commandment, (rather than leaning to her own undertanding in some ways).

This then is the Good News, that the blessing of God for Avraham and his offspring, Israel, is now being given in full measure and no longer just by promise.

The World At The Edge of Time

Here we are in this sharpened steel scissor toothed world of predatory wealth, and right now everyone is scurrying like prey, worried and protecting houses built on moral sand, scrambling to care for soulless chariots which burn oils of long dead remains from before the Great Flood. We are not altogether obsessed with wealth though, despite its haughty seductive dress. We all know somewhere within that magnificent wealth is a predator and in some part of us we want some true taste of messianic world justice, at least some taste.

Yet the experts tell us that each real change takes a century and we should be patient like the generations that have died before us. One day the centuries all have to jam up together, both for good and evil, and all their changes have to fall out at once, as if from a great crash of time, like a giant wave crashing on the shore. For God is long suffering, not willing that the world should be ruled by the mind of sin forever, but instead that the whole globe should come to a day and true moment of repentance as one.

The witness of Israel has been conveyed to me by the Spirit of Israel's Messiah, the witness that a day of judgment has been appointed for the Earth and will not be delayed. Yet my own actions say that I don't quite believe this yet with my whole heart. I live too much of my life as though I doubted it just a little. Or I might say that my little doubts have the power to run a disproportionate portion of my life. It is time I took a further step away from these doubts, indeed, a decisive step to walk away from them.

I look at our tough and angry world, the world I was born and raised in, the world that is ruled by death but still, like a defiant child, never stops fighting back in order to build its dreams, even though its dreams are always crushed in the end, over and over again, one era and one civilization after another. I know there is a temptation to excitement in the fear of death, and there is temptation to vain pride in fighting against the inevitable, the temptation to the pleasure of self-consolation which leads eventually to any and every moral license. But I have heard the Torah tongue of the Spirit of the Messianic Redeemer of Israel saying, "Today I have put before you life and death. Choose life!" A simple choice, but it seems as hard as moving the mountain of the world off of one's own grave.

I see the beauty of this world that entices to self-consolation. But what beauty is like the beauty of life? What pleasure is like the pleasure of holiness? What success is like the success of obeying with perfect obedience a single commandment of God? I know the attractiveness of the salvation that would offer escape from the consequences of sin, but what salvation is like the salvation of repentance? I know the passion of temptation to find belonging with brothers and sisters in a fraternity of denial that there is a day of justice and judgment coming against all the world. But oh that the God of Israel might give me a way of repentance that I might turn my back on all these temptations once and for all and walk unwavering toward Him, to find my need for belonging met through belonging to Him and to His people forever.

ROSH CHODESH SHEVAT

On Sunday January 25, 2009, 12:35, Max Kirk wrote on the Azamra website:

"The numerical value of “prophecy” (נְבוּאָה ) is also equal to the value of the three holy Names that refer to the essence of the Almighty:
,י-הוה, א-היה, א-הוה whose numerical values are: 26, 21, 17, respectively. These three Names are composed solely of the Hebrew vowel letters, אהוי , and correspond, respectively to the three sefirot: wisdom (chochmah), understanding (binah), and knowledge (da’at). Altogether, these three holy Names have 12 letters, alluding again to the prophecy of Moshe. Also, each of these holy Names' letters can be permuted in exactly 12 different ways (though each has four letters, the letter hei repeats twice in each, producing a total of 4!/2 unique permutations). Thus, one should meditate on how a permutation of each of these three holy Names enlightens each of the 12 months of the year, in context with the special sense and tribal qualities that correspond to each month.

In the coming year, we should seek to fasten our consciousness on prophecy as it is revealed at its highest level and specifically with the unique hue of prophecy that will shine in each particular month."
--> http://www.inner.org/newyearblessing/5768_blessing.php

As the twelve months form a circle - and we know that every circle orbits itself - and understand from this the mystery of pi and of the dimensions of Solomon's brass sea of Israel's purification - so also from this we may contemplate the glory and joy of the unity of the twelve tribes of Israel, through which is revealed the unity of the name of the Blessed Holy One.

Perfect Torah Righteousness Is Only The Starting Place

Luke 17

5  And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.
6  And the Master said, If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might say unto this sycamore tree, Be plucked up by the root, and be planted in the sea; and it would obey you.
7  But think!  Which of you, if you had a slave plowing or feeding cattle, would say unto him after this work, when he had come in from the field, Go and sit down to eat?
8  And would not rather say unto him, Prepare now my meal that I may dine.  Dress yourself and serve me, till I have eaten and my thirst is satisfied; afterward you shall eat and drink?
9  Does the master thank that slave because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not.
10 So likewise you, when you shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.

What is that which the students of the Master Yehoshua were commanded to do?  The commandments they received were the 613 commandments of the Torah.  What did the Master teach them about this that would increase their faith, as they asked of him?  That if they were to attain the perfect righteousness of Torah observance they would only be living as Adam and cHavah were living on the day they were created - the righteousness in which they would have continued, had they not fallen from the grace of the Torah which was written in their members.  For what purpose, then, was the perfectly Torah righteous Adam created, the man and the woman?  For what purpose were they created with their every limb perfect in the righteousness of the 613 commandments?  They were created to till the soil of the Garden of Eden with their Torah perfect limbs and thereby to prepare a banquet wherein they might serve their Creator.  And until they had done so, although they were Torah perfect they were unprofitable servants.

From this we learn that anyone who has need of their faith being increased should not think that they will be rewarded for a desire of only obeying the commandments of the Torah.  Rather, they should look for the reward of a faith that can command the trees of the Garden of God with a word only when their heart is set on correcting the unprofitability of Adam, not only the unprofitability of Adam as an unrighteous sinner but also the unprofitability of Adam as a tzaddik and tzaddikah who never completed in their righteousness their service to their Creator.