Abstract of the Commentary byMichael Schneider, Jerusalem:
In our Torah portion, ‘Va‘Yeshev,’ last year, we discussed Joseph as a prototype of the Messiah. We saw the parallels between Messiah Ben-Joseph and the Joseph’s life. Through Joseph’s brother’s rejection, he was sent to Egypt where he attained status of being second to Pharaoh and regarded as a deity. The Egyptians also used the concept of the trinity with three Pharaoh’s. He became a stranger to his brothers because he was now ‘Egyptian’ and they could not recognize him.

Hanukkah Sameach

David, like Joseph has a similar story. Both were shepherds and despised by their brothers. Samuel anointed David as king at 17, but it wasn’t until age 30 when he reigned over Israel. Joseph’s life in Egypt began at 17, but he didn’t sit ‘at the right hand’ of Pharaoh until 30. Both, Joseph and David, were sons from another mother, which Jewish scholars claim was the reason for David’s ‘red’ look and why “Israel (Jacob) loved Joseph more than any of his other sons…”

Chapter 38 interrupts with a different story: the deceitful affair between Judah and Tamar, his daughter-in-law. Judah, in the chapter before intervenes and saves his brother’s life (37:26-27). One interpretation says it’s the reason his descendants are of the royal line in the kingdom of Israel. Judah (where the word ‘Jew – yehudi’ comes from) desired for his sons to produce offspring so they could continue his forefather’s blessing.

When Judah’s oldest son, Er, passed away, his wife Tamar was given to Onan. “Lie with your brother’s wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to produce offspring for your brother” (38:8). But, after Onan died, Judah told Tamar to go back to her father’s home until the third son Shela grew up.

Many years passed and the agreement was forgotten. But, when Tamar saw her father-in-law she sought revenge. She took off her widow’s clothes (38:14), which were a sign she was waiting for Judah to fulfill his promise, and covered her face so he couldn’t recognize her. Once protected from evil she was now covered with the mask of sin and deceit. Out of rage and revenge she dressed like a prostitute and Judah fell into ‘her snare’ (Proverbs 7).

Once her sin was made known, Judah confessed, “She is right, I am to blame.” Tamar went on to give birth to – again – twins, Peretz and Zerach (38:25 – 26). Again, the younger (Peretz) struggled to be born first, like with Esau and Jacob.

Another similarity we find is that Tamar shows Judah his three belongings: his ring, cord and staff. She says, “Recognize please…” (Hebrew haker-na; 38:25), which reminds us of the same words used in the chapter before as Judah himself deceived his father with Joseph’s coat and said: “Recognize please…” (37:32). What Judah did to his father through deceit Tamar did to him.

We can ask ourselves why the LORD allowed the marriage to be ‘legitimate’ even though it was incest and allow the heirs to be a part of the Messianic line of David? God allowed it to happen! Tamar even became one of the four ‘non-Jewish’ mothers along with Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba.

Hag Hanukkah Sameach (Hanukkah →Erev Hanukkah is 2011, December 20)

Abstract of the Commentary
by Michael Schneider, israel today, Jerusalem:
The Shabbat before Passover is called “The Great Shabbat” because we end our Torah Portion with Malachi 4:5, which says, “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great (gadol) and dreadful (nora) day of the LORD comes.”

In this passage, which is the last prophecy in the Bible, we are shown a glimpse of the greater Passover redemption – expectation of the Messiah.

The messenger (forerunner) to the Messiah was Elijah. As a
symbol of this prophecy, we pour an additional cup of wine during our
Passover Seder (on the 18th April eve).

The prophet Malachi, whose name means angel or messenger, prophesy’s of Israel’s final redemption at the end of time. During the end of days the cycle of God’s salvation plan for Israel draws to a close. It began with Israel’s exodus from Egypt and ends with Israel recognizing her Messiah in the final redemption.

The Jewish sages said just like the first redemption occurred during the Jewish month of Nissan so the final redemption will happen during
Nissan!

Further, there is a belief that as the message of the redemption was
given on the Sabbath before Passover / Exodus, likewise on a Sabbath before the final end-time redemption comes THE message will be heard!

Hag Sameach / Happy Passover and Shabbat Shalom!

see also >> Archetype Exodus >>

Commentary:
Since the late Middle Ages it was often at all in many places not allowed for Jews on Niddel Nacht (from lat. “Naftali domini”, Christmas Eve, December 24) to stay in the public or even to move there. Accordingly the rabbis have forbidden the study of Torah altogether to prevent the visit of the schoolhouse, and thus avoid the risk of being exposed to the violence of the street. Thus, the in Hasidic circles partly still maintained custom among the Jews of Europe was developed, to use the imprisonment of the unwanted Christmas Eve, the Nittel Nacht (also Nittelnacht) by driving with mundane things like playing cards. Then there are for instance additionally the Hanukkah games, as the Nittel Nacht often falls near the eight-days of →Hanukkah, the “Dedication of the Temple” in Jerusalem, which is – somehow miraculously – foreign to the Christians, although their Roman prescribed Messiah also kept this festival. In Eastern Europe the Nittel Nacht was also called “night blind” because the night was blind to the Torah, since one does not even look at the Torah (Hebrew instruction – Five Books of Moses). In reality this move away from the Torah, however, had been the greatest gift in honor of the Torah, almost a Torahlove, because the Jews resisted the worship of the spirit of the Christian-Roman Redeemer, in which name the Christians were doing immense suffering and oppression to the Jews – reasoned with the Torah, an ung-dly theological expropriation of Judaism as it lasts on till today.

How many parallels can be opened to us this Shabbat between our current Parashah (weekly reading) and the Nittel Nacht – and when it has been ever before that the beginning of Shabbat Shemot (names) just falls to the beginning of the Nittel Nacht? We begin our reading of the Book of Exodus, the “exodus ” from Egypt / Mizrayim. Right at the beginning the description of the generation is eye-catching where (Exodus 1:8) “Joseph is no longer knew.” The Hebrew word for “knew” can also be translated as “loved”. We love the Torah in the Nittel Nacht today when we do not dishonor it by the impurities of the Roman-Christian gods, yes, by not even taking the Torah at hand! As the closest parallel we have in chapter 1 the reason why we in the Nittel Nacht not even go on the road … because of the pursuit [fear of Goyim from the One G-d]. At that time there were all male births, which should be killed on the orders of the king of Egypt. The Levitical Baby Moses, the later is a true savior, will be in a sealed cage suspended on the Nile, so that it can survive.

In a video commentary on Shabbat Shemot (watch below) by Rabbi Chaim Richman, The Temple Insitute Jerusalem, comes out the closest parallel, as he first of all describes the circumstances that led to the need of salvation thru HaShem:
„The exile is upon us. It’s a dark time coming. [2:23] In the process of this many times it happened that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of their work, and they cried out; and their outcries because of the work went up to G-d. G-d heard their groaning, and G-d remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. G-d saw the children of Israel, and G-d knew”:

In chapter three we learn about the great promise, about Moses and the great promise of his job: »And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.”
So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, G-d called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.” Moreover He said, “I am the G-d of your father – the G-d of Abraham, the G-d of Isaac, and the G-d of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon G-d. And the Lord said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them.«

That was the beginning of the first deliverance through the Lord, G-d, the Only One – the reason why the first commandment is the First Commandment. Then as now, the environment of the children of Israel believed in many gods. HaShem (TheName), blessed be He, then sent his Savior (4:15): “Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do. So he shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as G-d. And you shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do the signs.”

The signs of the real Messiah will then be, that (Joshua 21:44): “The Lord gave them rest all around, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers. And not a man of all their enemies stood against them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass.” (Goyim: Realize the difference between the Messiah of the Almighty and the Messiah of the church / Rome!)
And the signs of His People are – today and forever – that they bring His Light, the Light of the Torah, to the goyim, the real Hanukkah.

Shabbat Shalom

Presujet © Diliff / Creative Commons / Retuched by God’s Sabbath International

You may have noticed that the actual HAFTAROT (the weekly readings from the Prophets, which are parallel to the weekly TORAH-readings from Deuteronomy) are taken from Isaiah – without any exception. BEHOLD! This initial word suddenly struck me, more than in all the previous years. Or rather I felt like in a sudden warm shower of rain in bright sunshine. And I expected a rainbow to appear very soon. And it did. Was this opening not identical with God’s address to the Goyim (= gentile peoples), where he first presented to all non-Jews HIS SERVANT exclusively chosen for them? And was this passage not found in Isaiah as well?

Driven by this expectation I opened the bible (Isaiah 42:1-9) with my heart beating and enjoyed every single word. Perfect beauty! Join me in the first verse:
BEHOLD MY Servant Whom I uphold, My elect in Whom my soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon him. He will bring justice and right and reveal truth to the nations.
Up to then the Nations had never had any rights before God. Vice versa they did not know His rights. So they could not obey them. Neither had they walked through the desert for forty years nor were they purified to be His people. So they could not be thankful to their God, who had freed them from imprisonment, who had given them Shabbat as – if I may say so –personal consulting hours for 25 hours, every single week. To these ignorant peoples he announced to send His servant he had elected in order to bring the same rights. Without any merits of themselves! What a wonderful, what a merciful God!
I had similar experiences when having read two further readings form Isaiah, when I was still a pagan myself. His servant – who was Jesus as I should learn later – kept every single word. So I began to celebrate God’s Shabbat, because Jesus did so as well. In these 25 hours I approached God more and more on a personal level. My heart was filled with thankfulness (for I, too, had walked through desert spiritually, actually almost for 40 years). Jesus’ very task as His servant was to save me from my personal desert, take me to the Father, and to reconcile me with HIM. Arrived there – finally – I fully understood. Jesus left. And I could let him go, him God’s SERVANT. Without him, without making up in my soul for my childhood and the history of my Jewish brothers and sisters, and of course for repentance for my sins I would never have grown adult, adult enough to meet God in perfect truth. Becoming adult is extremely important or we will never feel precious, full of values.

God’s Shabbath International always tries to bring out what is common between Jews and Christians. Still all this is the personal opinion of the author.
The SERVANT in Isaiah: 42:1-9 / 50:4-9 / 52:13 – 53:12
The MESSIAH in Isaiah: Chpt. 7 / 9:1-6 / Chpt. 11 / 28:16 ff

We will try a similar approach with the readings about the MESSIAH beginning with 7, 14:
Therefore the LORD Himself shall give you a sign: BEHOLD, the young woman who is unmarried and a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name IMMANUEL (= God with us).

In the German Wikipedia, the “stories about Jesus’ birth” are regarded mainly as legends with the aim to announce Jesus as MESSIAH (who has to be born in Bethlehem like King David). “Historian rather assume that Jesus was born and educated in the same place as his father, in Nazareth.”

In the Website “Religious Tolerance” we read that Bethlehem was devastated at the assumed time of Jesus’ birth. Further, on a medical perspective, a pregnant woman, shortly before birth, would loose her baby when riding a donkey for such a long distance.
Bethlehem, a myth invented, in order to fulfil (for the church) a godly promise? And what about Maria’s virgin conception? Today no problem (e.g. by in vitro fertilisation)!
We should accept such critical questions. So we can find God again and can distinguish, can “choose life”. That is all God wants us to do. Two more examples:
1) In 1976 the UN transposed GOD’s seventh day, which is holy, and made Monday the first day of the week, so despising GOD’s given order.
2) Catholics worship Maria seeing in her the female side of God, which they miss. But God has no sex (or both sexes in his character), as the Bible tells us. So the church misuses authority.
Shabbat is female, by the way. She is the queen of hearts, the bride, whom every creature is eager to meet on Friday evening. Magnificent! For this is true love based on GOD’s order.

I see a crucial difference between Jews and (a majority of) Christians in the ability to distinguish. Only things HE determined to be holy are really holy – man can never do so. Jews do accept that in their hearts and distinguish according to God’s decision.

Christians can learn that, too, in their hearts, having become adult and longing for meeting the only GOD, Abba, their father. Compromising (be it about Maria or about Eretz Israel) is necessary in human and political affairs, but not with God.

Once the relation to God is freed from all interests of the church, Jesus could appear in the “spirit God has laid upon him” to the nations in radiant light and fulfil his commission, which is “taking righteousness to the nations”, to you especially, because GOD created you in HIS image, magnificent and of pure beauty.

In our times, the nations should rather take back their robbery than claim anything from the Jews, as they have no rights whatsoever before God. Personally speaking (everybody has to check that for himself) to you who are a gentile: Would you admit God’s rights and keep them? Would you give up your own rights and idols, serve only HIM and stand before HIM as an adult who is responsible for his deeds? Would you not be thankful for ever to GOD’s servant that he brought GOD’s rights to you? Could you leave him thereafter, as he had kept his promise considering you once were a gentile? For now you are in the presence of the Father! You had really longed for that, for being accepted by God the Almighty – praise to him? I did experience that. Everybody from the nations is given that privilege. So choose life.

Then, by the grace of the One God, full of ardent desire and united with your elder brothers and sisters you will be able to wait for the Messiah’s coming, announced by Isaiah (of Jesse promised fruit). May-be, before saying farewell, you will ask HIS SERVANT, your redeemer
to teach you how to pray. And he will answer:
“When you pray, pray as follows: Father, hollowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come; give us our bread needed daily; and forgive us our sins, as we ourselves will forgive to each who is deeply indebted to us; and do not lead us into temptation.” The full version of this prayer is called Kaddish which is one of the most important prayers of the Jews – for about 3500 years. Distinguishing is beauty, beauty is love. He, who forgets about Israel, forgets about love.
GOD’s love be with all of you.

Shabbat Shalom
Eric C. Martienssen (English translation by Peter Nold)

The Kaddisch is one of the most important prayers of the Jews. “Our Father” sums up the most important thoughts of the Kaddish – here, for all of us – sung by Ofra Haza:

Just mentioning a few verses out of this weeks Haftorah (here Isaiah 52) but what a blessing, what a future:
“Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean… For thus saith the Lord GOD, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause… How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion… The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God… For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward.”

But now listen to this words of Reuben Ebrahimoff in the video commentary by “Haftorahman”, telling of the coming Messiah:

Shabbat Shalom

You may have noticed that the actual HAFTAROT (the weekly readings from the Prophets, which are parallel to the weekly TORAH-readings from Deuteronomy) are taken from Isaiah – without any exception. BEHOLD! This initial word suddenly struck me, more than in all the previous years. Or rather I felt like in a sudden warm shower of rain in bright sunshine. And I expected a rainbow to appear very soon. And it did. Was this opening not identical with God’s address to the Goyim (= gentile peoples), where he first presented to all non-Jews HIS SERVANT exclusively chosen for them? And was this passage not found in Isaiah as well?

Driven by this expectation I opened the bible (Isaiah 42:1-9) with my heart beating and enjoyed every single word. Perfect beauty! Join me in the first verse:
BEHOLD MY Servant Whom I uphold, My elect in Whom my soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon him. He will bring justice and right and reveal truth to the nations.
Up to then the Nations had never had any rights before God. Vice versa they did not know His rights. So they could not obey them. Neither had they walked through the desert for forty years nor were they purified to be His people. So they could not be thankful to their God, who had freed them from imprisonment, who had given them Shabbat as – if I may say so –personal consulting hours for 25 hours, every single week. To these ignorant peoples he announced to send His servant he had elected in order to bring the same rights. Without any merits of themselves! What a wonderful, what a merciful God!
I had similar experiences when having read two further readings form Isaiah, when I was still a pagan myself. His servant – who was Jesus as I should learn later – kept every single word. So I began to celebrate God’s Shabbat, because Jesus did so as well. In these 25 hours I approached God more and more on a personal level. My heart was filled with thankfulness (for I, too, had walked through desert spiritually, actually almost for 40 years). Jesus’ very task as His servant was to save me from my personal desert, take me to the Father, and to reconcile me with HIM. Arrived there – finally – I fully understood. Jesus left. And I could let him go, him God’s SERVANT. Without him, without making up in my soul for my childhood and the history of my Jewish brothers and sisters, and of course for repentance for my sins I would never have grown adult, adult enough to meet God in perfect truth. Becoming adult is extremely important or we will never feel precious, full of values.

God’s Shabbath International always tries to bring out what is common between Jews and Christians. Still all this is the personal opinion of the author.
The SERVANT in Isaiah: 42:1-9 / 50:4-9 / 52:13 – 53:12
The MESSIAH in Isaiah: Chpt. 7 / 9:1-6 / Chpt. 11 / 28:16 ff

We will try a similar approach with the readings about the MESSIAH beginning with 7, 14:
Therefore the LORD Himself shall give you a sign: BEHOLD, the young woman who is unmarried and a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name IMMANUEL (= God with us).

In the German Wikipedia, the “stories about Jesus’ birth” are regarded mainly as legends with the aim to announce Jesus as MESSIAH (who has to be born in Bethlehem like King David). “Historian rather assume that Jesus was born and educated in the same place as his father, in Nazareth.”

In the Website “Religious Tolerance” we read that Bethlehem was devastated at the assumed time of Jesus’ birth. Further, on a medical perspective, a pregnant woman, shortly before birth, would loose her baby when riding a donkey for such a long distance.
Bethlehem, a myth invented, in order to fulfil (for the church) a godly promise? And what about Maria’s virgin conception? Today no problem (e.g. by in vitro fertilisation)!
We should accept such critical questions. So we can find God again and can distinguish, can “choose life”. That is all God wants us to do. Two more examples:
1) In 1976 the UN transposed GOD’s seventh day, which is holy, and made Monday the first day of the week, so despising GOD’s given order.
2) Catholics worship Maria seeing in her the female side of God, which they miss. But God has no sex (or both sexes in his character), as the Bible tells us. So the church misuses authority.
Shabbat is female, by the way. She is the queen of hearts, the bride, whom every creature is eager to meet on Friday evening. Magnificent! For this is true love based on GOD’s order.

I see a crucial difference between Jews and (a majority of) Christians in the ability to distinguish. Only things HE determined to be holy are really holy – man can never do so. Jews do accept that in their hearts and distinguish according to God’s decision.

Christians can learn that, too, in their hearts, having become adult and longing for meeting the only GOD, Abba, their father. Compromising (be it about Maria or about Eretz Israel) is necessary in human and political affairs, but not with God.

Once the relation to God is freed from all interests of the church, Jesus could appear in the “spirit God has laid upon him” to the nations in radiant light and fulfil his commission, which is “taking righteousness to the nations”, to you especially, because GOD created you in HIS image, magnificent and of pure beauty.

In our times, the nations should rather take back their robbery than claim anything from the Jews, as they have no rights whatsoever before God. Personally speaking (everybody has to check that for himself) to you who are a gentile: Would you admit God’s rights and keep them? Would you give up your own rights and idols, serve only HIM and stand before HIM as an adult who is responsible for his deeds? Would you not be thankful for ever to GOD’s servant that he brought GOD’s rights to you? Could you leave him thereafter, as he had kept his promise considering you once were a gentile? For now you are in the presence of the Father! You had really longed for that, for being accepted by God the Almighty – praise to him? I did experience that. Everybody from the nations is given that privilege. So choose life.

Then, by the grace of the One God, full of ardent desire and united with your elder brothers and sisters you will be able to wait for the Messiah’s coming, announced by Isaiah (of Jesse promised fruit). May-be, before saying farewell, you will ask HIS SERVANT, your redeemer
to teach you how to pray. And he will answer:
“When you pray, pray as follows: Father, hollowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come; give us our bread needed daily; and forgive us our sins, as we ourselves will forgive to each who is deeply indebted to us; and do not lead us into temptation.” The full version of this prayer is called Kaddish which is one of the most important prayers of the Jews – for about 3500 years. Distinguishing is beauty, beauty is love. He, who forgets about Israel, forgets about love.
GOD’s love be with all of you.

Shabbat Shalom
Eric C. Martienssen (English translation by Peter Nold)

The Kaddisch is one of the most important prayers of the Jews. “Our Father” sums up the most important thoughts of the Kaddish – here, for all of us – sung by Ofra Haza:

Numbers 19:1 – 22:1; Judges 11:1-33
by Michael Schneider, Israel today, Jerusalem

(The Sabbath starts with Shalom Aleichem – a Sabbath Song prior to Kiddush)

Commentary:
This week’s Torah portion contains further “ordinances” (Hebrew: hukkim). First, we read about the “water of cleansing,” an atonement mechanism made from ashes of the sacrifice of a red heifer. The ashes are kept (Numbers 19:19) for the cleansing of a person who came into contact with a dead body or became unclean even by touching a grave.

Not much is known about the red heifer, but Jewish sages say nine red cows have been sacrificed since the giving of the Torah. According to Rambam, sacrificing the tenth red cow is reserved for the Messiah himself. Moses and the high priest Eleazar sacrificed the first red cow, slaughtered and burned outside of the sanctuary in the desert. The “cleansing ashes” of the cow were kept and used for many years.

Scientists are currently conducting tests and experiments on farms in Israel to try to isolate the genes of a red cow – not a single black or white hair is allowed.

Chapter 20 goes on to talk about Miriam’s death and burial in Kadesh.

And then, when water became scarce once again, the grumbling of the people also picked up. “Why did you take us out of Egypt to die in the desert?” (20:5). From a human perspective, the people had a good reason to grumble in the blistering heat. Believe me, many of us would do the same! But Moses took his rod and said: “Hear now, you rebels; must we bring you water out of this rock?” (20:10). Angrily, Moses struck it twice instead of just speaking to the rock as God had commanded. This was happening while he was still coping with the death of his beloved sister who had saved him when he was a child.

As God’s representative, Moses did not act as the Almighty had commanded. The punishment was harsh: Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised Land. But even though God punished Moses and Aaron, He provided water, the so-called bitter waters, but water in abundance, enough for more than 1 million people – another miracle!

When Aaron died, the people mourned for 30 days and Eleazar, his son, became High Priest. Chapter 21 talks about the victory over the Canaanites from Arad.

When the people complained again about a lack of water and food, the Lord sent poisonous snakes among them and many died. A serpent of bronze was erected on a pole and became salvation and healing for all who saw it. The serpent on a pole later became the symbol of modern medicine. Again, the punishment for the repeated grumbling ended in healing.

This event holds deep spiritual meaning: The fall of mankind occurred because of a serpent that infected all of mankind with its devilish poison.

* God provided also in the New Testament the cure: His son Yeshua. Everyone who looks up to the One on the cross and repents will gain eternal life. “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert [on a pole], so must the Son of Man be lifted up [on the cross], in order that everyone who believes in Him may not perish, but have eternal life and live forever!” (John 3:14-15).

Shabbat Shalom

Here another Commentary from a Rabbi:

*) God’s Sabbath International tries at passages marked with star to observe common and sometimes even connecting doings between Jews and Christians