Rabbi’s Reflections – Friday, May 14, 2021
(Early) Shabbat Shalom,
Counting the Omer – Day 41
Here is the proper blessing to be said each day. This is how Jewish people fulfill the command to count.
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָֽׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו, וְצִוָּֽנוּ עַל סְפִירַת הָעֹֽמֶר
Baruch Atah Adonai Elohenu Melech Ha-Olam, Asher Kid’shanu B’mitzvotav, Vitzivanu Al Sefirat Ha-Omer.
Blessed are You O Lord our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us by his commandments and commanded us about counting the counting of the Omer. Today is five weeks and six days of the counting of the Omer.
Are you familiar with the Pauli Exclusion Principle? Most likely you answered in the negative. So did I until I tried to research what it means for God to be eternal. Please continue reading. I promise to make a spiritual point here. I’m going to relate this to the first word of the Hebrew Bible, B’Reisheet.
Back to our original question, “What is the Pauli Exclusion Principle? It was put forth by Austrian Physicist Wolfgang Pauli in 1925. The Pauli exclusion principle is the quantum mechanical principle which states that two or more identical fermions (particles with half-integer spin) cannot occupy the same quantum state within a quantum system simultaneously. When Pauli developed this quantum mechanical principle, it was not news to God. God invented it. Pauli discovered it.
How could that possibly relate to “in the beginning?” God has no beginning (and no end). God is not subject to the laws of physics. The word “simultaneously” requires an understanding of time to be relevant. God is not time constrained. God is not made up of fermions or anything else. The Bible doesn’t say, “In the beginning, nothing.” Rather, it says, “In the beginning, God…”
God was in the beginning. When all things started, God had a past. All this to say the silliest college degree is a doctorate in theology (Th.D.). I say this at great risk because my rabbi, Dan Juster, has a Th.D. A doctorate in Theology means accomplishing a groundbreaking level of understanding in the field of knowing God. But, how can we ever really know God? A doctor of theology thinks he is accomplishing a groundbreaking level of knowing God, but from God’s perspective, he has not started kindergarten.
God created everything, but He, Himself, was not created in any way, at any time by anybody, out of any thing. This alone has to fill us with awestruck wonder. God truly is more than amazing. What a might God we serve. Psalm 150:2 Praise Him for His acts of power. Praise Him for His enormous greatness.
Daily Bread, reading plan by Lars Enarson (https://www.thewatchman.org/)
Fri 14 May-2021 3rd of Sivan, 5781
Nu 3:40-51 Jer 16 Job 36 (Mk 4) Ro 16
There is a very well known prophesy in Jeremiah 16. It was not quite 7 weeks ago that we celebrated Passover, but these verses indicate an even greater miracle than Passover will take place in the last days.
Jeremiah 16:14 “Therefore, the days are quickly coming,” declares Adonai, “when it will no longer be said. ‘As Adonai lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.’ 15 Rather, ‘As Adonai lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had banished them.’ So I will bring them back into their land that I gave to their fathers.
As it relates to Yeshua, there is deliverance (the Exodus from Egypt) like the first coming, and then there even a greater second coming. God says, “I will bring them back,” which sound like a second coming. There was the first entry into the land (led by Joshua), and the most modern return (led by Ben Gurion among others).
The next verse prophesies both fishers and hunters. Jeremiah 16:16 “Behold, I will send for many fishers,” says Adonai, “and they will fish for them. After that, I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down from every mountain and from every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks.” Fishers, (like Theodore Herzl) who made Jewish people want to “bite the hook” and want to make Aliyah. And there were hunters (like Adolph Hitler), who so threatened the Jewish people as to make them fearful and want to run away to make Aliyah.
God prophesies such a great homecoming (made up of both those fished and hunted) that it will dwarf the great Exodus from Egypt. This exodus is (it’s still going on) from all over the world. And today we can see it. More Jews are living in Israel today than in the rest of the world combined. Jewish Israel is easily the greatest miracle of our modern era.
God is bringing back His people to their original land. God revived the Hebrew language. Now, the last part of the great miracle hָas already started among the remnant of Messianic Jews. Hebrews 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Adonai. I will put My Torah into their mind, and upon their hearts I will write it. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 And no more will they teach, each one his fellow citizen and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know Adonai,’ because all will know Me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and their sins I will remember no more.”
This is prophesied at the end of Revelation. Revelation 21:3 I also heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the dwelling of God is among men, and He shall tabernacle among them. They shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them and be their God. Wait for it. Watch for it. Yeshua is coming.
Week 20
Memory Verse: Proverbs 3:5 Trust in Adonai with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.
96 5/14 Monday: Proverbs 1-2
97 5/15 Tuesday: Proverbs 3-4
98 5/16 Wednesday: Proverbs 16-18
99 5/17 Thursday: Proverbs 31
* 100 5/18 Friday: 1 Kings 11-12
Question of the day: Oy-vey!!! Why do we need the Savior?
Answer: 1 Kings 11:6 So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of Adonai and did not fully follow after Adonai, unlike his father David.
Fill in the blank. They all (the vast majority) “did what was evil in the sight of Adonai.” Certainly the Scripture is correct. Romans 3:10 As it is written, “There is no one righteous—no, not one. 11 There is no one who understands, no one who seeks after God.
It’s not only us who needed a savior, God needed a Savior for us. Ezekiel 22:30 I searched for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand in the breach before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one. So… Galatians 4:4 But when the fullness of time came, God sent out His Son, born of a woman and born under law— 5 to free those under law, so we might receive adoption as sons. 6 Now because you are sons, God sent the Ruach of His Son into our hearts, who cries out, “Abba! Father!” How wonderful, from oy-vey to hooray!!!