Rabbi’s Reflections – Friday, July 23, 2019
(Early) Shabbat Shalom,
A N N O U N C E M E N T S
Happy birthday to my sister, Rhonda (July 23rd), who lives in Falls Church, VA, near Washington, D.C. We love you and pray the Lord’s blessings on you, for today, for a good year and for the rest of your life. In Hebrew we say, “Kol Tuv,” meaning “all the best.”
This Shabbat (July 24th) I am brining a message that will tie Malachi 3 to the Shema from Deuteronomy 6. I haven’t written it yet, but it has been percolating all week. I’m full of anticipation.
Next Shabbat (Friday, July 30th and Saturday, July 31st) is special. July 31st is the 5th Saturday in July (there is one 5th Saturday per quarter). Because of that, we will celebrate Shabbat as a community at a special service on Friday night (dinner at 6, service at 7). Please bring something to share at dinner. Then, on Saturday, July 31st, there will be no service at all. The building will be locked up tight. Once a quarter, the building gets a Shabbat, and so does your alarm clock.
The following week, August 6th & 7th, we will also have a Friday service (dinner at 6 [bring something to share], service at 7) but this time, on August 7th, we will also have our regular Shabbat morning service. Cantor Moishe Bear is returning for a Shabbaton (extended teaching) on the Amidah (the standing devotional, the most holy prayer in Jewish liturgy). He is my childhood friend and a professionally trained cantor, serving in a conservative synagogue in Brooklyn, and not yet a follower of Yeshua, but he has much to impart to us. He is one of very few non-believers I have invited to address the congregation. We are excited about his second visit to Shomair.
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Psalm 81 – part 6: Psalm 81:12 But My people did not listen to My voice. Israel was not willing to be Mine. 13 So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart, to walk in their own counsels. 14 Oh that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways!
How fitting that we are studying this on the Shabbat on which we read the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:4-9. “Shema” means to “take heed.” This requires both listening (hearing) and responding (in obedience). In these verses of Psalm 81, God is lamenting over the rebellion of His people. The first followers of Yeshua were called “followers of the way.”
Rabbi Trail: There was a TV show titled “Father Knows Best.” It actually began as a radio show in 1949, then aired on TV for 6 seasons beginning in 1954. The original episodes can still be seen online. Hollywood would never make such a series today in light of their woke agenda. Too bad. Fathers are needed today more than ever. And even more, we need our Heavenly Father. End RT.
All of life is about choices. The best options are to choose God’s way, which is known as the “high way of holiness.” Any other way is difficult, troubling and the way to destruction. On God’s “high way” things flow, the road is smooth, the stumps have been removed and the potholes have been repaired. Every other road leads to destruction.
So what’s it going to be, the way to victory or the way to defeat? The choice is always yours, but choose wisely. God invites you to “Tish’ma Oto,” meaning “listen to and obey Him.”
Daily Bread, reading plan by Lars Enarson (https://www.thewatchman.org/)
Fri 23 July-2021 14th of Av, 5781
De 5:19-6:3Ez 361 Ch 15(Jn 4:31-54)2 Th 2
Week 30
Memory Verse: Colossians 1:19 For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him 20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, making peace through the blood of His cross— whether things on earth or things in heaven!
146 7/19 Monday: Nehemiah 13
147 7/20 Tuesday: Malachi 1
148 7/21 Wednesday: Malachi 2
149 7/22 Thursday: Malachi 3
150 7/23 Friday: Malachi 4
Note: The Jewish Bible does not have a 4th chapter of Malachi. There are 6 verses in Malachi, chapter 4 in the Christian Bible. Those 6 verses are appended to the end of Chapter 3 in the TLV and other Bibles that follow the Jewish numbering system. Since the Jewish Bible came first, it’s the other way around. Those 6 verses were broken off of chapter 3 to make the Christian chapter 4. End Note.