Rabbi's Drash

Bamidbar

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5769

Numbers 1:1-4:20
 

There is a method of Biblical interpretation in Judaism called PaRDeS which is an acrostic. The P stands for P'shat which is the direct, literal meaning of the text. The R stands of Remez which is a hint or an idea. D is Drash, the application of the Word of G-d for our daily lives and S is the Sod, the mystical, a higher level, kabbalistic of understanding. The book of Chazon or Revelation is totally Sod. Today I would like to talk about the Drash of this parashah. At a recent talk which I gave, I met a fellowship of Goyim Tzaddikim, Righteous Gentiles who called themselves Messianic Gentiles. There was not one Jew in the group and they had come to the conclusion on their own from studying Scripture that they needed to be Shomer Torah, observers of Torah. In these last days, the acharit ha yamim, there is something happening. My people believe that the Holocaust was a mistake, a horrible event yet if we look into Scripture, we can see that it was part of G-'s prophesy, the way to bring us back to G-d. Jeremiah, Zechariah, Ezekiel 36-37 all speak of G-d bringing us out of destruction, out of our tombs, out of the valley of dry bones to being a living, breathing entity called Israel once again. On May 14 1948, the 5th of Iyar, 5708, a great miracle took place and in one day a nation was formed as was prophesied (Isa 66:8). Israel fought for their permanent place and will never again be defeated or cease to exist (Jeremiah 31:35-37). It won't be easy but in the end we will see G-d's divine intervention. In 1967, students of prophecy rejoiced as they saw the fulfillment of Jerusalem coming back into the hands of the Jewish people. This was foretold by Yeshua our Messiah (Matt 24:21; Luke 21:24); and Rabbi Shaul (Apostle Paul, Rom 11:11-32). The times of the Gentiles were over, from my understanding in 1967 and we began to watch the slow disintegration of the organization of the church. The revival of the Jews in the Diaspora began with the hippy movement of the 60's. The "Jesus Movement" touched a lot of young Jews who had totally abandoned their Jewish identity and were living as hippies. G-d was bringing them back to Him. This was the beginning of the modern day Messianic Movement which began as Hebrew Christians who were Jews who had converted to Christianity. These hippy Jews never went to church and they want to go back to the Jewish identity of their fathers. They no longer wanted foreign gods. It became our responsibility to lead our people and the others to the truth of Torah, to the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Every time G-d moves to bring His people back to Him, ha Satan, the champion imitator steps in adulterates the truth. He watered down the Word of G-d and began the attack on the new movement by confusion, infiltration and destruction from within. Using the art of confusion, he posed questions such as "are you under the law or not?" If you are, then you are heretic was the response of some groups to the new believers. "You don't believe in communion?" The new groups were under constant pressure to fight back, to accept the status quo and to deal with their own doubts. Descartes, the scientist and philosopher t taught a well known syllogism concerning doubt. "If I doubt, than I exist." How easy it is for anyone who is called by G-d to be inundated with doubt. Is the doubt from G-d or Satan? Doubt is wonderful; it keeps us alive and forces us to trust in G-d and not in ourselves. The Messianic movement today is almost destroyed. It has lost it true identity to "wanna-be Jews". Many have passed as Messianic Jews and there is nothing we can do about it according to Yeshua. He spoke about the wheat and the tares and that the final harvest would identify the true believer. In the 70's we saw that first revival as the harvest of the 60s. The 80's brought another revival when in 1989 glasnost, Gorbachev and the fall of the "evil" empire in one day. Jews left the former Soviet Union (USSR) in droves and immigrated to Israel. They were ethnic Jews only having no religious background after 70 years of communism. They were not closed to the message of Messiah and had no prejudice about Jesus. This second revival of Russian Jews is being followed by a 3rd revival among the sabras in Israel. After the last war in Lebanon many young Jewish believers in Yeshua fought in the army. They had a love for Israel, they were faithful to G-d and they had integrity. The other kids who fought beside them saw that they had better morals and high integrity and this led them to compare them with the religious kids. I believe at the same time we are seeing a revival today among the Goyim Tsaddikim which seems to be the fulfillment of Zechariah 8:23 "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'In those days ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment "tsitsit" of a Jew, saying, "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."'" How does all this relate to the portion Bamidbar? At the beginning we see the counting of the census of the 12 tribes plus the Levites who were the descendants of Aharon only. There is no mention of the sons of Moses? How can this be when Moshe was so close to G-d and Aaron had failed so dismally with sin of the golden calf? Our sages say that blessing and position comes through the merits of our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This statement can be taken as truth if we understand it as meaning that the merit belongs to G-d since our forefathers were chosen by G-d in spite of their imperfection. What Bamidbar clearly points out to us is that G-d is the one who does the choosing. G-d chose the line of Priests to come through Aaron who did nothing to deserve it while the best friend of G-d, Moshe did not get chosen. Moshe would have seemed to us to be the likely candidate to have his children chosen for the important line of Priesthood. Thus we cannot give the merit to Moshe; instead the Glory is given to G-d. We are not chosen by G-d because of any particular giftedness that we may have or our being better than others. This should humble us to our core instead of being a matter of pride. G-d chose us simply because He wanted to in spite of who we are. Bamidbar speaks about the counting of the people. Are you being counted? Has G-d chosen you? In which position are you chosen to serve Him? G-d puts what He wants to you do directly in your path. There was a very old movie called "A wonderful Life" with James Stewart. He complained about why he was ever born and an angel appeared to show him what would have happened in his town if he had never been there. He saw that his life was a blessing to many and he was never aware of it. There is a beautiful prayer by St Francis of Assisi:   Lord, make me an instrument of your peace, Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy; O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Each of us is important in G-d's sight. He does not make a mistake. Our existence is a blessing to others. If we are called, we suffer if we allow ourselves to be the center of our universe; that universe will surely crumble however if we put G-d first, He will give us the desires of our hearts. Examine yourself. Are you selfish? Do you need a change of heart? Are you being counted for G-d? Are you clear about how G-d is using you? My prayer is that you will be counted and that G-d will show us what He wants us to do for Him.    May G-d add blessings to His Word!      Rabbi Percy Johnson      Netanel ben Yochanan      [nxy [b lantn      © 2008 Use by Permission      Kehilat She’ar Yashuv

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