1st day: Genesis 21; Numbers 29:1-6; 1 Samuel 1:1-2:10
- Sarah and Hannah
2nd day: Genesis 22; Numbers 29:1-6; Jeremia 31:1-19
- Abraham and Isaac, Gen.: “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you” - Jer.: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love … again I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt, O virgin of Israel! You shall again be adorned with your tambourines, and shall go forth in the dances of those who rejoice … arise, and let us go up to Zion, to the LORD our God.” read more…

Deuteronomy 29:10 (9) – 30:20; Haftarah, Isaiah 61:10-63:9
By Michael Schneider, israel today, Jerusalem

Commentary:
It is common to read the weekly Torah portions ‘Nitzavim’ and ‘VaYelech’ together on one Shabbat - except for a leapyear like this year 5768.
We approaching Moses’ farewell speech before the leaders of the tribes. In our reading we find a confirmation of validity and eternity in the promises to Moses, the humble servant of God as in verses 14 and 15: “Now not with you alone am I making this covenant and this oath… but both with those who stand here with us today in the presence of the LORD our God and with those who are not with us here today.” A eternal covenant!“then the LORD your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you.” (30:3) read more…

Deuteronomy 26:1 till 29:8; Isaiah 60:1 till 22
By Michael Schneider, israel today, Jerusalem

Commentary:
The backdrop of this week’s Shabbat reading is the giving of the “first fruit” of the ground “when you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance…” (Deuteronomy 26:1-2). As we can see, it is a commandment that relies on being physically located in the Land of Israel. Every time a person brought this sacrifice to the LORD, he emphasized his gratefulness for and connection to the land and people of Israel. read more…

Deuteronomy 21:10 till 25:19; Haftarah: Isaiah 54:1 till 10

Complete haftarah:
Sing, O barren, you who have not borne! Break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you who have not labored with child! For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman,” says the LORD. “Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; do not spare; lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes. For you shall expand to the right and to the left, and your descendants will inherit the nations, and make the desolate cities inhabited. read more…

Can it be that this absolute core statement of the Christian faith
(further first verse from John 20: „The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre,…“)
leave any doubt, when the last, also is the seventh day of the week? read more…

Studying the Spiegel-Online Interview with Rabbi Prof. Walter Homolka „The Catholic Church does not have its anti-Semitic tendencies under control“ again, one can not avoid, to expand that raised blame to all Churches. So to say to distribute it proportionally. For no matter in which Church the Pope would have grown up – in the Evangelic Church, the New Apostolic Church, an Evangelic Free Church, the Free Evangelic Church and in an Pentecostal Church anyway – in each Christian Church, no matter which, could have developed into a anti-Semite. But there he could have also heard God‘s „personal WORD“ for every person out of all non-Jewish people (Gojim) and „personally“ converted to the God of the Bible. He did not do it! Will you? For that you need as a Christian only the heart, to recognize, that Jesus is a Jew! That is lesson one. Lesson two is, to discern the time. Lesson three is, when the two main lessons have been understood, in comparison a piece of cake, promised! read more…

„Schoftim“: Deuteronomy 16:18 till 21:9; Isaiah 51:12 till 52:12

Shoftim, Shof’tim, or Shofetim (hebrew for “judges,” the first word in the parshah) is the 48th weekly Torah portion (parshah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the fifth in the book of Deuteronomy. It constitutes Deuteronomy 16:18–21:9. Jews in the Diaspora generally read it in August or September. (see Wikipedia)