Thursday, July 26, 2012

A Message for Tisha B'Av from Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

Can we do תפילות prayers for:

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin and Ohr Torah Stone?

So that through them The האור Light, רפואה The Healing and The ואהבה Love of ישועת יהוה Yeshuath YHWH may come back to הארץ The Land of Israel?

What is the real significance of our Tisha B'Av mourning?

What really caused the Temple's destruction?

The Haftorah which is read immediately before the ninth of Av provides deep insight into why the Temple was destroyed. Isaiah mercilessly berates the Jewish people: "Hear the word of the Lord, rulers of Sodom, give ear to the Torah of our God, you people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifice to me? I'm sated with the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of sated beasts... Bring no more vain offerings, incense of abomination they are to me. As for the New Moons, the Sabbaths and the Festivals, I cannot bear iniquity along with your solemn convocations. Your hands are full of blood... Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes; cease to do evil. Learn to do well; seek justice; relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow..." (Isaiah 1:10-17)

I have quoted at length because these verses capture the essence of prophetic sensibility. The prophets raged against the sins of people, especially when the sins took on a veneer of religious respectability which only served to hide the rot within. The hypocrisy of the Israelite callousness towards the oppressed coupled with concern about punctilious religious performance made a mockery out of ritual and an abomination out of the Temple.

Sacrificial offerings ought to bring us closer to the G-d of "compassion and freely-given love, patience, loving-kindness and truth." If the aftermath of the sacrifice is not a more sensitive human being, then the offering becomes a bribe and the offerer a hypocritical scoundrel attempting to manipulate G-d to serve his selfish and nefarious purposes. The purpose of ritual is not merely to bring us closer to G-d; its purpose is also to help us understand that our G-d is a G-d of love and compassion who wants us to act lovingly and compassionately towards every human being!

Of course, we need ritual in every aspect of our lives. The nuances of ritual are the grammatical rules of the language with which man communicates with God. Rituals give a people its identity in the world, its colors and sounds and haunting melodies. Rituals give people an ethnic identity, without it, the Jews would blend into the overall landscape of humanity and disappear as an identifiable people. But the purpose of Jewish, separate ethnic identity is not merely to be separate; it is rather to be a holy nation and a kingdom of priest-teachers who will communicate the will of a G-d of ethics and morality, love and peace, to the entire world.

When the Second Temple was built, the question arose whether to continue keeping fast days that were instituted after the destruction of the first Temple or whether to abandon them. We hear God's answer in the words of the prophet: "...When you fasted and mourned, in the fifth month and the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for Me you fasted?' After all, when you ate and when you drank, it was you who did the eating and you who did the drinking... This is what the Lord G-d of Hosts declares: True judgments shall you judge, loving-kindness and compassion shall you do to your sibling humans. Do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the stranger and the indigent..." (Zehariah 7: 5-10)

God doesn't need our fast days, nor does He need our sacrifices. Ritual is a means to the end of developing a more sensitive and compassionate human being. When the ritual - or Temple - didn't do its job - or, even worse, became an impediment to the goal, served as a cover-up for iniquity - then the Temple had to be destroyed.

Hence, what must be done to bring back the Holy Temple? Demonstrations, petitions, tanks? Isaiah makes no bones about it. The Haftorah ends with the verse: "Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and those that return to her with righteousness" (1:27). Yes, "The fast days ... will be turned into days of gladness and rejoicing, but only when you learn to love truth and peace." (Zechariah 7).

A post-script:

Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev tells of two townsmen, one the scholarly son-in-law of the wealthiest man in Berditchev and the other a poor, ignorant porter. They were of the same age - but the one had nothing to do with the other. They were literally worlds apart. There was however one daily interchange between the two. The porter had to rush his prayers at the earliest prayer service each morning in order to be one of the first at his post near the train station; the scholar, who studied late into the night, went to the second, later service. As the porter was hurrying out of shul, and the scholar was entering shul, their eyes would meet as they brushed past each other. The porter's eyes were filled with humble yearning, and even apologetic embarrassment; how much he would have liked some time for leisurely prayer and even elementary Torah study. 'The scholar's eyes were filled with a condescending, supercilious sneer; how grateful and even superior he felt to have the privilege to spend his days in Divine Service.'

Both men died on the same day. When the porter was judged before the heavenly throne, his sins were placed on one side of the scale (he had often missed the afternoon prayers and he sometimes slept through the Sabbath morning prayers due to physical exhaustion) and his daily humble and yearning glance was placed on the other side of the scale; the glance outweighed the sins, and he was escorted to heaven. Then, the scholar's good deeds were placed on one side of a scale (and they were quite numerous), with his daily sneer placed on the second side. The sneer out-weighed the good deeds, and he was taken straight down to hell...

With all my best wishes for a meaningful fast,

Shlomo Riskin

Please Say Yes to Abba Yahweh and His Laws.

Please read the Mitzvoth go to: Positive Commandments and the Negative Commandments), easy to read. It is very important to know them. For, the understanding of the rest of The Scriptures.

Hab 2:3 For the chazon (vision) is yet for a mo’ed (an appointed time); it speaks of HaKetz (the End), and does not lie; though it tarry, wait for him

Moshiach— see: Sanhedrin 97b, ‘It has been taught; R. Nathan said: This verse pierces and descends to the very abyss:11 For the Vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though he tarry, wait for him (Moshiach); because it will surely come, it will not tarry.12]; because he (Moshiach) will surely come, and will not tarry.

(11) Just as the bottom of an abyss cannot be reached, so is it impossible to grasp the full purport of this verse (Rashi).
(12) Hab. II, 3.

Believe…..

Hab 2:4 Hinei (behold), his nashamah (soul) which is puffed up is not upright in him; but the tzaddik (righteous) shall live by his emunah (believe).

Through Moshiach, Yeshuah from Yahweh who give you emunah (believe)…..

Gen 15:6 And he believed in Yahweh; and He credited emunah (faith)] to him as tzedakah (righteousness).

Please read the whole book of HaNavi Habakuk?

The Koran teaches us that you have to die…….

But, please Yudah (Jews) and Ephraim (most Christians) Listen to His Voice:

Hab 1:12 Art thou not mikedem

(‘everlasting’ also said of Moshiach, indicating Moshiach’s eternal divine nature: Dan 7:14 And there was given Him (Moshiach) dominion, and honor, and sovereignty, that all people, Goyim, tongues, should pey-lammed-chet. [1] (worship as deity) (see Dan 3:12, serve, reverence as deity Him (Moshiach). His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His (Messianic) Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.] see Michah 5:1[2];)

Yahweh Elohai (my Elohim) Kedoshi (my Holy One)? We shall not die. Yahweh, Thou hast appointed them (these Chaldean) for mishpat (ordinance); O Tzur, Thou hast ordained them (these Chaldean) for reproof.

Please take it serious what Abba Yahweh is telling us in:

Deu 18:15 Yahweh Eloheicha (your Elohim) will raise up unto thee a Navi (prophet) from among thee, of thy achim (bretheren), kamoni (like me.....

Exo 32:30 The next day Moshe said to the people, "You have committed a terrible sin. Now I will go up to Yahweh; maybe I will be able to atone for your sin."); unto him ye must listen;

Deu 18:16 According to all that thou desired of Yahweh Eloheicha (your Elohimin) Chorev (to be burnt dried up, ruined, wasted) in the Yom HaKahal (day of the congregation), saying, Let me not hear again the voice of Yahweh Elohav (your Elohim), neither let me see this eish hagedolah (‘great fire’) any more, that I die not.

Deu 18:17 And Yahweh said unto me, They have well-spoken that which they have spoken.

Deu 18:18 I will raise them up a Navi (prophet) from among their achim (brethren), like unto thee, and will put My words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.

Joh 10:18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have samchut (authority) to lay it down, and I have samchut to receive it again. This mitzvah I received from HaAv (the Father).

Deu 18:19 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not listen unto My words which he shall speak Bishmi (in My Name), I will require it of him.

Joh 8:28 Therefore, Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach said to them, When you perform the hagbah (lifting up) of the Ben HaAdam, you will have da'as (knowledge) that Ani Hu [YESHAYAH 41:4; SHEMOT 3:14-16], and from myself I do nothing, but as HaAv (the Father) of me taught me, these things I speak.

Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiah Yeshuah – is Yeshuah Yahweh. Like it is said in:

Gen_49:18 I have waited for Thy Yeshuah (Salvation), Yahweh.

Exo_15:2 Yahweh is my oz and zimrah (song of praise), and He is become to me Yeshuah (salvation); He is Eli (my Elohim), and I will praise Him; Elohei Avi (the Elohim of my Father), and I will exalt Him.

And not a half-god, or another mighty-one who came between HaShem and us! (Not, ‘It Suph’!) I believe many of us (Jews and Ephraimites!) have to learn that!

[1] Dictionary of the Talmud. M. Jastrow p. 1178 פלח