Link to study on Mashiach's relationship to Israel being our salvation

Yehoshua asked, When the Scriptures call you elohim, why are you offended when I say that I am the Son of Elohim?

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Prophecy and Wisdom

R' Avdimi from Chaifah said: From the day that the (first) Temple was destroyed, prophecy was taken from the prophets and given to sages. BT Bava Basra 12a

R' Yochanan said: From the day that the Holy Temple was destroyed, prophecy was taken from the prophets an given to deranged people and to children. BT Bava Basra 12b

Mar bar Rav Ashi heard a deranged person in the market saying that the head of the academy who was now being appointed in the city of Mechasya signed his name, Tavyumi, (Good Days). Although Mar bar Rav Ashi was not in position to be appointed head of the academy, he said to himself, "I sign my name, Tavymi, (Good Days)! From hearing this prophecy from the lips of a deranged person in the market Mar bar Rav Ashi then took confidence to initiate steps that did indeed lead to his becoming the head of the academy in the city of Mechasya at that time. (Ibid. See full account of this incident there.)

"At that time Yehoshua answered and said, I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hid these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them unto children." Matthew 11:25

Since the wisdom of G-d is hidden from the rebel world and must be revealed by prophecy to begin with, it is evident that it is not truly a step backwards for prophecy to cease and wisdom to be revealed only at the extremes of society, either to the most esoteric tzaddikim or to the deranged and to children. For once the wisdom of G-d is revealed to the rebel world by prophecy, when it is then removed it becomes clearly evident that it is the nature of wisdom in the rebel world to be concealed. And if prophetic insight only remains available to those at the extremes of society, to each extreme end according to its nature, then it is all the more evident that wisdom is by nature concealed from the normal rebel society of the world.

This is a step forward for the world in general and for the world receiving understanding and for the reconciliation of the world, specifically. For if wisdom is concealed from the world but this fact is utterly concealed itself, how great is that concealment? But if wisdom is concealed from the world and this fact itself begins to be revealed, then hope has come into the world.

Proverbs 14:34

"Charity exalts a nation but kindness is sin for peoples."

In BT Bava Basra 10b we read that Rabban Yochanan be Zakkai asked his students what this verse means. Why is kindness called a sin? What is the reason for the contrast between a singular nation and plural nations or peoples?

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Rabbi Eliezer answered that the singular nation is Israel alone. And while kindness may sometimes be shown by gentiles, when they discover that they do not receive the reward for it that motivated them they may regret the act.

It becomes clear that King Solomon is saying that, without the redeeming word of G-d, given as covenant to Israel alone, human beings are still under the sentence of death and even should they do acts of kindness all their acts are still judged as sin, for they are acts done by enemies of their Creator and by rebels against the true G-d.

Inverted World

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Rav Yosef the son of Rabbi Yehoshua took ill and slipped into a coma.

When he revived, his father asked him, "What did you see?"

He answered him, "I saw an inverted world. The uppermost are below and the lowly are above."

His father said, "You have seen a well-ordered world."
(BT Bava Basra 10b)

"For the first shall be last and the last shall be first." (Luke 13:30)

Commentary on The First Commandments

“I am G-d, your G-d, who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods beside me.” (Exodus 20: 2-3)

"For the love of Mashiach controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all were dead; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised up again." (II Corinthians 5:14-15)

This "all" who were dead in the death of Adam for whom Mashiach died is Israel. And the death of Adam in which Israel was dead was its captivity in Egypt. That is to say that all t

Israel/Egypt border Image by chingers7 via Flickr

he nations lie in the darkness of Adam's death. So long as Israel remained in Egypt, whether bodily or in spirit, (as in the making of the golden calf), Israel remained in captivity to the power of death. But now Mashiach is come and has died for Israel by the commission of the God of Israel, through which he was sent to redeem her. Therefore let us believe in Israel's new life and with the power of the spirit of everlasting life let us hear and obey the God of Israel, who in union with His Mashiach has brought Israel out of the death of Egypt for time and eternity. For as he is raised from the dead so is Israel being raised from the dead.


Let us walk no longer in the idolatry of our own sight, judging ourselves one way and our fellow human beings another way. For when we judge others by our own experience and not by the Spirit of the God of Israel, we build up in the presence of the Savior of Israel the false god of our own mind, making our own intellect a judge and an god to lead us, even as Israel built the golden calf in the presence of the One who had saved her from the death of Egypt. But He is faithful to save us if we return to Him and walk in the truth of His sacrifice for Israel.

Jewish Grace / Gentile Grace

When the Creator set Israel apart with grace the children of Israel learned to cry out to him for help to become worthy of the promise that the Holy One had created with them in creating their nation for Himself. That He set Israel apart for Himself spoke to them of hope, for they were, like all of humankind, otherwise under God’s sentence of certain death.

The grace of God in the experience of the Jewish people, the children of Israel, must be understood in the light of the issue of the distinction of Israel from the other nations. In being set apart as the only family and nation claimed by the Creator out of a world that was under the dominion of death meant that, by a miraculous grace, God had attached the blessing of hope to Israel, but to Israel alone. The other nations were left entirely at the mercy of death without this grace.

The position of a Kohen's hands when blessing Israel...

The distinction of Israel was marked, but it was marked in the form of promise. The full manifestation of that distinction was not immediate but was to come. Did the distinction mean that the children of Israel would forever alone have this blessed relationship with the Creator? Or were they set apart as the Creator’s nation as only a means toward the end of all families and nations coming in time to also be reclaimed by the Creator? God’s promise was that His blessing would be a blessing for all nations but that blessing would be found exclusively in Israel. In this sense, Israel's being set apart was both and end and a means.

The fact that God established His relationship with Israel in the manner of a promise meant that such questions would be generated. It also meant that the revelation of God’s mind and will concerning these questions would be learned through time. Fulfillment of the promise would bring answers to all questions.

Although the way in which God described His relationship with Israel, from the very first, when He called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans, was in the form of a promise, it is certain that the promises of God must be kept, that if He gives His word, even in the form of a promise that He has not fully defined, it is as though it were already done. Therefore, for a Jewish person the act of faith in crying out to God for help to become worthy of Him in actions and in understanding is an act of faith that takes God at His word, that petitions God on the basis of the certainty of God’s mercy toward Israel.


When gentiles come to Jews as Christians and speak of the grace of God that has been revealed to them, they come with a very different experience of God’s grace, not because the grace of God that they have experienced is different but because they, simply, are not Jews. They have experienced the grace of God without ever having been a part of the nation that was set apart as God’s property by God’s grace. If they fail to take this into account, gentiles coming to Jews as Christians, that is to say, as followers of the one they understand to be the Messiah of the Jews, can effectively nullify the grace of God that they have experienced simply by failing to bless the children of the promise.

Even though the secret for the Jew is to cry out to God for help and the same secret is the secret for the gentile, because they can only each come to this secret from the separate and set apart places where God has placed them, it is very hard for them to recognize and respect one other’s experience of the grace of God. Nevertheless, it is most critical for the gentile to respect and learn to understand the experience of the Jew, for without doing so it is possible for them to nullify their own experience.

Poetic Commentary on Yehoshua's Prayer

Our Father who is in heaven - Israel's Father, our Father, who is in the Heaven of heavens alone,

hollowed be your name - Re-create our heart and lips with your name.

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Read the full prayer and poetic commentary

This poetic commentary on Yehoshua's prayer, (The Lord's Prayer), brings forth the secret of the revelation of "the mystery of God," which is spoken of in Revelation chapter 10. Therefore I have posted this link to it on this site. I have posted the full commentary on my site, The Good News of Israel and Her Messiah, where I feel it is more appropriate to place it. The postings on that site are for every ear to hear, every eye to read; they are all about Israel's Joyous News itself. The postings on this site are ultimately for the ear and eye of a few who will stand in the Spirit with Yehochanan (John) and hear the seven thunders and bear the responsibility of hearing them.

V'etchanan (Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11) 2009/5769

The following is from my Seven Thunder Notes on this parsha:

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The message of the Seven Thunders in the time of the last judgment upon the present world order is the message of why God chose Israel. It is the message that God can be known by rebellious Adam only through a word that has never been heard before. This is the message of the Torah itself saying this, that God can only be known by rebellious Adam through this word that is new to Creation, that makes Creation new. The Torah has always said this. When the Torah was first given to Abraham by promise it said this. Only a word from God to come, a separate word, a word that the nations have not heard, because Adam did not hear it, nor was it spoken to him, only such a word as promised to Abraham could bring sinners into a perfect and true knowledge of God. And when the Torah was given to all Israel this is the message that it continued to give in a deeper and fuller way. Repentance was and is only possible, the Torah said to Israel, through the authorization of the commandment of God in the hope of the world to come, the new Creation. For the Torah is not given as a contradiction to the word spoken by God to Adam in the garden, the word saying, In the day you eat thereof you will certainly die. The Torah is given only as a revelation of the hope of the resurrection from the dead.

Read the full notes

Who We Are

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"I have not come to bring the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Yehoshua

Neither pride nor fear of condemnation cultivate repentance. We are the homeless, those who are spiritually disabled by sin, who do not condemn ourselves but hope for the Hand of Heaven to reach us and empower us with strength to enable us, with His Divine assistance, to restore our souls, to repair all damages and to build a holy character.

Why should we who have proven ourselves to be failures and have nothing in ourselves to justify pride have confidence to seek the path of repentance and righteousness instead of simply condemning ourselves as we rightly deserve? It is because the Most High is kind toward His unthankful and evil children and corrects with love those who are undeserving of love and who have left His home and have refused to be called His children.

What shall we say then? Shall we protest because we are they who have stolen their planet from its Maker and are rejected for dishonoring our Creator, who have destroyed the eternal potential of our lives and have made the earth itself homeless? No, we shall utter no protest. For us, the path of repentance can only be one of treating all people with the utter grace, the same grace as we desperately hope for ourselves. If we have enemies because we have abused ourselves and have become so irresponsible for our own souls that others feel burdened just to see us, or if we have enemies because we do not conceal the pitifulness of our case, then we, in following the path of repentance and correction can do only one thing.

We can only love and honor our enemies, for though their disdain for us would block us from the path of repentance if we allowed it to, our own self-defense against that disdain would only re-spark the dying embers of pride within us, which would also block us from the path of repentance. When adversity comes upon us we can only pray that it serves as a remedy to the affliction of our own evil inclination. Therefore we do not judge those who judge us but desire the same mercy that is shown to us will be shown to them. And because our path is too narrow for us to walk in and too steep for us to ascend upon, while we may have many teachers who are taught of God to help us, we can have only one shepherd to lead us, the one who came only for our sakes, only to lead sinners to repentance.

Tzohar

In Isaiah 60 we read:

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5 Then you shall see, and flow together, and your heart shall be startled and expanded; because the abundance of the west shall be converted unto you, the select of the gentiles shall come unto you.

10 The children of foreigners shall build your walls...
11 Therefore your gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that people may bring unto you the select of the nations, and that their leaders may be brought.

Now all the material wealth and all the service that those who separate out of the nations to build up the walls of the holiness of Israel and Jerusalem will bring will in the end turn out to only be bribery and flattery if it is not accompanied with prayers and blessings for Israel and for Jerusalem. But prayers that are offered without understanding of the holiness of Israel cannot be received.

Rabbi Nachman in his teaching entitled, Tzohar, states: “A person must elevate his prayer to the gate of his tribe, because if it reaches the gate of another tribe, it cannot ascend.”

Since gentiles shall labor upon the walls of the holiness of Jerusalem below they shall also elevate the walls of the holiness of Jerusalem above. And for this reason the gates of the walls shall always be open.

It is certain, therefore, that the gentiles who separate out of the nations to build up the walls of the holiness of Jerusalem shall learn the knowledge of the corporate wholeness of Israel, the knowledge of the unity of the twelve tribes, and shall learn to recognize the gate of the tribe where they should each, as various gentiles, attach their prayers of blessing. Only then when they have learned these things will their prayers be holy and received and bring true wealth into the heart of Israel.

The New Universe

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Look! Is there anyone among you who can see this? The old universe is passed away. Everything that was in it is made new. The universe was very tiny in comparison with the Torah of the Creator. The new universe stretches out to reach for the full dimensions of the Torah! The old, tiny universe expanded like a bubble whose skin grew thinner and thinner, until it could not exist anymore. Its Creator said, "Enough! Now you will die and live with me." Now the new universe expands in the eternal expansion of the glory of joy, for it is always preceded in its joy by the pathways of the Torah of the Limitless Eternal One.

Look! Before there were damages. But see! In the new universe there are no damages. The beauty of limitations remain as the inheritance of every created soul. But now the Torah burns with love in the core of every soul and no clash will ever arise again. Every ear is learning. Every eye is looking ahead on behalf of the neighboring body and soul. Every soul is watching with understanding the Torah of Israel's Lamb, and acting with humble self-control ahead of the movement where before, long ago, in the universe of good and evil, damages could have occurred. Now, where damages might have occurred before, loving mitzvot always occur. Look! See! Forever and ever, world without end, responsibility grows. For the new universe is a universe of ever growing Torah knowledge and ever growing Torah love.

Is there nothing lost? Is there nothing missed from the universe that has passed away? The righteousness of rectification is lost, for no need for rectification will ever arise again. But this form of righteousness is not missed for it is retained in songs of redemption, songs that are sung at every step and every level of Torah learning by every soul, from the least to the greatest. These are the songs of memory. These are the songs from the foundation of the world, the world now redeemed, the world now learning Torah with every breath, the stars now redeemed, the planets now redeemed, the children of Israel, adopted and natural born, and all their flocks and herds, fish and angels now redeemed and filling the heavens and the earth. There is nothing lost.

The Yoke of Yehoshua's Torah

The Messiah of Israel is himself the commandment to the nations to believe in the God of Israel.

For Israel he is the ear of obedience.

A Torah scroll in the hands of Yehoshua is the promise of justice, to the eyes of the poor.

A Torah scroll in the hands of Yehoshua is the promise to the "bent reed" that, not only will she not be broken, she will be repaired!

A Torah scroll in the hands of Yehoshua is the promise to the poorest spirit that he will be covered by Yehoshua with the Torah scroll as with a prayer shawl.

Yehoshua shall cover them with the Torah scroll and they shall know their sins are forgiven.

They will hear the commandments of the God of Israel in their broken hearts,

and His commandments shall say unto them, "Live! Rise up and walk!"

By the commandment of Israel's God the lame shall be repaired and prepared to serve at the table of His banquet; they shall carry the treasures of the Lord with grace and beauty!

For the homeless from the hedges shall come with dignity at his command, to be gathered around His table, in the hour when the seventh shofar begins to sound.

They Saw The Voices

The seven thunders

Thunder upon waters, changing darkness to light
Thunder from the Strong Hand, plucking Adam from the serpent's fang
Thunder crackling through the splendor, lifting Isaac from the altar to the chariot
Thunder like a wave leveling the northern forests and kingdoms
Thunder like rolling fire and steam, waves of plasma, balancing justice and kindness on a plume
Thunder like pillars of heat exploding with redemption in the desert
Thunder like the cry of mothers in the wilderness giving birth to worlds

From my site: Poems of Max Carl Kirk