Rabbi’s Reflections – Wednesday, April 3, 2024
Shalom,
Rabbi Leopold Cohn from Hungary (1862-1937) was one of the first modern Messianic Jews. Here is an overview of his story. https://www.jewishtestimonies.com/en/leopold-cohn-the-quest-of-a-young-rabbi/ If you would like to know more or share his story with a Jewish friend, here is a link to purchase his biography… https://store.chosenpeople.com/to-an-ancient-people-cohn/
Psalm 4:5(4) – Part 6
The Psalms
Psalm 4:5(4) Tremble, but do not sin! Search your heart while on your bed, and be silent. Selah
What is the depth of meaning found in this verse? The ESV translates the first part of the verse, “Be angry, and do not sin.” How does that work? Where is the fine line we are not to cross? Is it a moving line? At what point are we crossing over from whatever this is (Ragaz in Hebrew) into sin?
Rabbi Trail: The New American Standard Bible offers the following translations for this Hebrew word which appears 41 times in the Hebrew Scriptures: come trembling (1), deeply moved (1), disturbed (2), enraged (1), excited (1), moved (1), provoke (1), quake (1), quaked (2), quakes (2), quarrel (1), rages (1), raging (4), shakes (1), stirred (1), tremble (11), trembled (3), trembling (3), troubled (2), turmoil (1). Almost half of these are a version of “tremble.”
In modern Hebrew, the same word is used in these ways (which are similar): anger, wrath, disquiet, worry, trembling, irritable, excitement, provoke, fear, perturbed, enraged. The Hebrew New Testament uses the this exact word as this verse is quoted by Paul to the Ephesians. Ephesians 4:26 “Be angry, yet do not sin.” Do not let the sun go down on your anger. End RT.
I’m going into so much detail in an effort to understand what this word really means. Is there really an anger that does not cross over into sin? Let me offer a thought (one of my favorite sayings), “It’s a heart thang.” There are things that should cause us to quake, things that deeply move us, things that provoke us. Okay then, here is the key. In all those reactions and responses, we must remain love motivated.
When Yeshua turned over the tables of the money changers, He was not in sin. (And He was not giving every idiot who feels like acting out a license to sin.) Yeshua was love motivated. He wanted to demonstrate that they/we should not do business with God. Matthew 21:13 And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of thieves’!”
Here is a parting thought. What was on Yeshua’s mind as He turned over the tables of the money changers? While we don’t know the details, we can be sure it was for the good of the people for whom he was soon to die.
Psalm 122:6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem—“May those who love you be at peace! 7 May there be shalom within your walls—quietness within your palaces.” 8 For the sake of my brothers and friends, I now say: “Shalom be within you.” 9 For the sake of the House of Adonai our God, I will seek your good. May we all join with Yeshua and see the “good shalom” of Jerusalem.
Daily Bread, reading plan by Lars Enarson (https://www.thewatchman.org/)
24 Adar II Wednesday 3-Apr-24
Leviticus 10:12-15 Isaiah 22 Proverbs 6 Acts 23 Revelations 17