Rabbi’s Reflections – Thursday, October 24, 2019 

Shalom,

A N N O U N C E M E N T

The “mitzvah” of Sukkot is not yet complete.  

Go ahead, ask me.  “Really Rabbi, what do you mean?”

Rabbi Trail:  A “mitzvah” is a good deed or positive commandment.  Any time we are a blessing, we are said to have done a mitzvah.  Think of a mitzvah as a jewel in your crown.  End RT.

The mitzvah of Sukkot is to build a sukkah, dwell in the sukkah and then take down the sukkah.  A “Sukkah” by definition is a temporary dwelling, hut, or booth.  Unless we take it apart, it’s not temporary.  This Sunday at 3pm we will undecorate (or is the word “de-decorate”) the Sukkah and then dismantle it.  We will carefully store all the decorations, lights, and parts of the Sukkah so it will be ready for the next use.  Please come to the synagogue at 3pm on Sunday to participate in this blessing.  We’ll probably be done in an hour, two at the most.  Thank you.   

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The reading was so good today that I have two “questions of the day” today.  

First question of the day:  What is Paul talking about when he says… 2 Corinthians 5:4a For we groan while we are in this tent—

Answer:  A long time ago I called a friend who was replacing joints and suffering the ill effects of aging when he quipped, “These earthen vessels are a terrible nuisance from time to time.”  

That is a refreshing thought, our physical bodies are but a tent, some temporary accommodation for our magnetic personalities.  A physical body may only be a “tent,” but we can’t live without one.

But wait, oh yes we can.  2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Messiah, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

That “new creation” is life from the dead.  Part of the good news is we don’t have to die physically to enjoy that life.  When we come up – out of the waters of baptism, our new life in Messiah Yeshua begins.  This leads us to the devotional at the bottom of this page.

Week 43
Memory Verse: 1 Corinthians 15:3 For I also passed on to you first of all what I also received— that Messiah died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

211   10/21    Monday:         1 Corinthians 15-16

212   10/22    Tuesday:        2 Corinthians 1-2

213   10/23    Wednesday:  2 Corinthians 3-4

* 214 10/24    Thursday:      2 Corinthians 5-6

215   10/25    Friday:           2 Corinthians 7-8

Second question of the day:  Why did I pick these two verses from the end of 2 Corinthians 6?

Answer:  First, let’s read the two verses… 2 Corinthians 6:17 Therefore, come out from among them, and be separate, says Adonai. Touch no unclean thing. Then I will take you in. 18 I will be a father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says Adonai-Tzva’ot.”

“Come out… and be separate” means to be holy or sanctified.  Way back in Exodus we read about this future calling… Exodus 19:5 Now then, if you listen closely to My voice, and keep My covenant, then you will be My own treasure from among all people, for all the earth is Mine. 6 So as for you, you will be to Me a kingdom of kohanim and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you are to speak to Bnei-Yisrael.”

Read the context, this was spoken just before the giving of the 10 Commandments.  A “kingdom of kohanim” is a kingdom of priests.  This is the Messianic kingdom (where Yeshua is the King of the Jews).  How do we know?  Yeshua alone is both King and Priest.  

He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Revelation 5:5) and a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek (read Hebrews 7).  That “mantle” of Yeshua has now come upon the people of God.

1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the One who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. 10 Once you were “not a people,” but now you are “God’s people.” You were shown “no mercy,” but now you have been shown “mercy.”

Back to our original verses, “2 Corinthians 6:17b …then I will take you in.  Here, God promises not to leave us in those tents we wrote about earlier.  Yeshua said, John 14:3 If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to Myself, so that where I am you may also be.

That’s a destiny worthy of our love for God.  Be loved, beloved