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January 2 - January 6, 2018
his father “sat shiva,” meaning that he observed the seven days of mourning at a person’s death.
Because both the priestly garments and the tabernacle weavings were a combination of wool and linen, it was prohibited for laypersons to dress in the same way.
The Israelites were fresh from a polytheistic world and strongly tempted to set up private, do-it-yourself shrines to offer a few sacrifices on the side, so they were barred from dressing like priests or duplicating certain items used in worship.
all together they are one person.
On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, when Jews pray for forgiveness for their sins, the focus is on the Akedah, the “Binding of Isaac,” the Genesis 22 account of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac at God’s request.
You can’t quit the kingdom without quitting the King.
The awareness of grandeur and the sublime is all but gone from the modern mind.
Western Christians spend a lot of time on theological speculation and find it surprising that Jewish thought does not.
The common theology of the polytheistic ancient Near East was that humans were created to be the slaves of gods.
Each of the plagues was, in fact, a theological statement. Each was an assault on one of the terrifying gods of Egypt, showing the deity’s impotence compared to that of Israel’s God.
For example, when you hear thunder, you say, “Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe, whose strength and power fill the world.”
According to Nahum Sarna, the idea that humanity is precious to God was actually a prominent, startling theme in the Torah to its original audience in Moses’ time.
life. Unlike anywhere else, in Israel, murder was seen as an offense against God himself.
Humanity is precious to God, but human life is not so supreme that even justice cannot demand it.
Torah study was a remarkable feature in Jewish life at the time of the Second Temple and during the period following it. It was not restricted to the formal setting of schools and synagogue, nor to sages only, but became an integral part of ordinary Jewish life. The Torah was studied at all possible times, even if only a little at a time. . . . The sound of Torah learning issuing from houses at night was a common phenomenon. When people assembled for a joyous occasion such as a circumcision or a wedding, a group might withdraw to engage in study of the Law.
“When three eat at one table and words of Torah are not spoken there, it is as if they ate at the altars of the dead . . . but when three eat at one table and bring up words of Torah, it is as if they ate from the table of God!”
This technique was called gezerah shava (geh-zer-AH sha-VAH), “a comparison of equals.”
The church does not know who she is, because she does not know who she was.
even secular Israeli calendars mark off the weeks of the year by the names of the parashah that will be read that week.
they read the last word of Deuteronomy followed immediately by
the first words of Genesis.
Turn it, and turn it, for everything is in it. Reflect on it and grow old and gray with it. Don’t turn from it, for nothing is better than it.2
Because the prophetic passage was chosen that would point forward to some promise of God’s future redemption.
Christians should be fascinated by the fact that the dominant theme of the earliest synagogue lectionaries was God’s coming redemption.
The Galilee was a center of sophisticated religious scholarship, and several of the best rabbis in Jewish literature came from there.
Outside of Israel, the Scriptures were often read in a Greek translation called the Septuagint, but Hebrew was always read in Galilean synagogues.
Evidence suggests that the Torah was being read as if Israel’s prophets were its commentators,
Any passage that was quoted in the New Testament as being about Jesus as the Christ was intentionally avoided in synagogue readings.
See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
The one who suffers was often called the “Messiah ben [son of] Joseph,” and the one who reigns was called the “Messiah ben David.” It looks like the “Messiah ben Joseph” came from reading Isaiah 52–53 in light of this story.
Noah built an ark, a tevah, to save his family from the flood, and Moses’ mother placed her son in a tevah on the water to save him from death. The word tevah is only used in those two narratives.
The “wind” of God blew over the waters and created the world again.
The prophets’ main concern was to respond to the matters of their own time.
we find him making indirect claims by referring to himself in light of well-known messianic passages from the Scriptures. He was addressing his Jewish audience in a very sophisticated way, drawing continually upon the Scriptures they knew intimately.
in the ancient world, the imagery of divine sonship was commonly associated with kings.
In Jewish thought, “Son of Man” was one of the most exalted messianic references known.
to our great relief, his first exercise of his vast power was to forgive.
He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.
Assuredly, I will give him the many as his portion, He shall receive the multitude as his spoil.
It’s actually because of Christ’s suffering that he is given his kingdom!
Because of his suffering, God’s Servant is being granted a kingdom, just like the Son of Man in Daniel 7 and the royal Son of Psalm 2.
Hebrew meanings can be helpful even when reading the New Testament, because often the Greek reflects the Hebraic “accent” of its Jewish authors.
