Shema Israel…but who is listening today?
We have reached the fifth book of the Torah, Devarim also known as Deuteronomy. It was written in a more personal way where Moshe Rabeinu reminds the people of all their experiences, whereas the Creator dictated the first four books. Here, we see Moshe as being more human, and down to earth as a loving father with a huge heart for his children and wants the best for them. It is always hard for me to leave my children before going on a trip. I want to protect them from keeping bad company and warn them about the consequences as Moshe does here. He didn’t want his people to intermingle with the wrong crowd who could lead them astray. Moshe also wanted to teach this new generation about the importance of continuity.
By way of introduction, I practice Biblical Judaism, in contrast with all the other well-known brands of Judaism. This Judaism comes directly from the Written Torah, as revealed to us by Moshe who wanted us to follow it and to have a personal relationship with the Bore Olam. We are accustomed to following what others say about the Word of GOD instead of reading it for ourselves. We tend to blindly follow the rules and regulations of man-made religions.
Another great teacher, who followed in Moshe’s footsteps, was Rabbi Yeshua. His name has been muddied and his reputation destroyed by our people because we have allowed the Gentiles to describe him. Yeshua’s role was to encourage his people, the Israelites, to return to the Aseret ha Devarim, the Ten Sayings. Many theologians have tried to convince us that these sayings did not come from above but were only human wisdom. This is mainly because Moshe did not use the exact words in Devarim 5 as he wrote in Shemot 20.
In Devarim 4:1-2, Moshe says: “And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes (chukkim) and the ordinances (Mishpatim) which I teach you, to do them; that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land which the LORD, the GOD of your fathers, has given you.” Listen carefully, I emphasize that he was not speaking about the תרי׳׳ג Teryag, the 613 ordinances. He was speaking about the Ten Commandments revealed to the people of Israel at Mt. Sinai where they all witnessed the Creator manifesting Himself through His words for them. He continues… “Do not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you subtract from it, but keep the commandments of the LORD your GOD which I command you.”
What has religion done?… added whatever they wanted to it. They have added their books of human wisdom which they say are inspired by the Holy Spirit giving them precedence over the Word of GOD. Our great Rabbi Yeshua came specifically to the Israelites. This is important. Yeshua didn’t come for the Gentiles. He came for the Yehudim for one reason… to remind them that they were chosen to be Ohr L’goyim, light to the nations and that they were to spread these Ten Sayings to all the nations. He told them they had forgotten them; that they had a beautiful religion and a wonderful Temple but that they were not doing the basics of GOD had given them, that they were destroying the Words of the Creator. Many of us, whether we admit it or not, have accepted the word of man over the Word of GOD and we have been fooled. We are proud of our religion as if it identifies us. He was the one who created us and the universe. We do not have the right to replace the Creator with ourselves as human gods. We have replaced His Words of decency and morality with human indecency and immorality.
Religious leaders today are becoming wishy-washy because they are more interested in being accepted by people than by the Creator. Today it has become the fashion to see people with tattoos all over their bodies, telling us that they prefer to follow the crowd. One of our greatest mistakes is to allow others to define us. People in this congregation ask me, “Rabbi, who are we?” I remind them not to allow others to define us; rather we are to define ourselves, even if it is difficult. Psalm 139 tells us that the Creator made us in a marvellous way. Why should we lose that to be like others or allow them to tell us who we are? That is why Moshe begged the people not to add or take away anything from GOD’s Word. As Yeshua said, your human traditions have annulled the Word of GOD. (Mark 7:13)
In Deut. 4:15 -20, (this is important) Moshe continues… “Be very careful of what you do for you did not see any shape on the day that the LORD spoke to you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire; see that you do not corrupt yourself by making any image of any figure, male or female, the likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flies in the heaven, the likeness of anything that crawls on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth; and lest you lift up your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon and the stars, even all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which the LORD your GOD has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. But the LORD has taken and brought out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be unto Him a people of inheritance, as you are still this day.” The commandments are very clear yet how many religions have erected statues and have pictures of the gods that they worship even if they do not want to admit that this is what the Word of GOD says.
Hebrew is a polyvalent language, i.e., one word can have many meanings depending on the context. Native-born Hebrew speakers understand the essence. For example, the phrase in Deut. 6:4, “Shema Israel Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad” is translated as “Hear O Israel, the LORD is our GOD, the LORD is One”. The word “Echad” can mean “the only or singular”. The idea of a “compound unity” has been forced into its meaning by a certain religion to justify its doctrines. Theological ideas force the Scriptures into saying what they want it to say, to impose their own understanding into the Word of GOD instead of drawing the true meaning out of the Word.
Systematic Theology teaches us a method of interpreting the word of GOD. They use two terms, “exegesis” which describes the act of extracting the meaning from the text while “eisegesis” imposes a preconceived concept and forces it into the Word of GOD. Ninety-nine percent of what we have learned about the Scriptures, depending on the denomination to which we belong, use eisegesis to explain the Word of GOD. Whatever religion you belong to will guide you to their own understanding.
At the end of this parashah, we read in Dev.7:6: “For you are a consecrated people to the LORD your GOD who has chosen you to be His own peculiar people (am segullah) לְעַם סְגֻלָּה, out of all people who are upon the face of the earth”. He told Israel that they would be different than the rest but today Israel wants to be like the other nations. This is not new. When Israel first wanted to have a king, they chose Saul, thus throwing out the Creator. We constantly look for a man to replace the Creator.
Verse 6 continues: “The LORD set His love upon you and choose you, NOT because you were more numerous than any people–for you were the fewest of all peoples—”He did not choose us because we were more numerous, or better-looking, the richest or greater than any other nation. On the contrary, we were nobody so, we could never give ourselves credit for being chosen… all the credit belongs to the Bore Olam. Israel has the largest percentage per capita of Nobel Prizes than any other nation. Why? I would love to say it is because we are the most intelligent but if we go back to Bereshit we read that GOD told Abraham that we would be a blessing to all the nations. Israel exists for that reason and the greatest gift that we have to give to the world is the Ten Sayings.
Chapter 7:9,10 states: “Know therefore that the LORD your GOD, He is GOD; the faithful GOD, who keeps His Covenant (Brit speaks specifically about the Ten Commandments) and shows mercy to those who love Him and keep His commandments to the thousandth generation; and repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them; He will not be slow to repay those who hate Him.” How do we hate the Creator? We hate Him when we disobey His Commandments and do whatever we want. The world is flooded with that today. For example, Secular Jews want nothing to do with the Creator; then we wonder why we are in such a terrible situation today. Even religious Jews try to impose their understanding of the Word of GOD instead of following the basic Ten Commandments.
Verse 11 is so important: Moshe says, “Therefore keep the commandments (Mitzvot), and the statutes (Chukkim), and the ordinances (Mishpatim), which I command you this day, to do them.” The first three commandments are Mitzvot which depict our relationship with the Creator, the middle two are the Chukkim, the hinges, which relate to ourselves. Chukkim are regulations that have no logical explanation but we are to obey them in any case. These are to keep the Shabbat and Honor father and mother in a way that identifies us with the Creator. They are both for our good. The last five, the Mishpatim, teach us how to live with our neighbor, our fellowman. The middle two, Commandments, four and five, represent us as being the hinge between the Creator and our fellow man. The first three define our relationship with the Creator and we, in turn, can have a good relationship with our neighbor. Each of us is a hinge in our relationship with the Creator and our community. How important it is to know what religion we follow! I say, “No to religion and yes to the Creator.”
Everything that a human does to pacify man as our god, so that he does whatever we want, is called religion. It is a substitute, the employment of a tool that makes us believe that we are doing right so that we feel good about ourselves as we manipulate and pacify whatever god we have. GOD is our creator; we didn’t create Him. It is important to see that each of us is uniquely made and we each have an important role and function. That’s why GOD created us. We may not like our position and want to be accepted by everyone but we are not. The closer we walk with the Creator, the farther we are to humans. Not because we choose that. They do. They don’t want to follow GOD’s moral standards.
We need to learn to respect each other without being forced to deny the Creator in our lives. That is what is happening with humanity today. We see that in modern Israel. Many say with their power, brains and technological advances can defeat any enemy. Don’t be naïve; the Scriptures say, “…not by power nor by might but by my spirit says the LORD…”.
Many ask me who is a Jew, an Israelite? One of the main characters in our history and a follower of Moshe was Caleb or Calev, meaning either “from the heart” or “dog”, a name used mainly by the Gentiles. He became a prince of the tribe of Judah without being a native-born Israelite. Herein lies a great lesson for all those who were not native-born; you are also called by the Creator to be His “Am Segullah”. Israel is a group of people set apart and called by the Creator to keep the Commandments of the Creator, His Mitzvoth, Chukkim and Mishpatim. The Ten Sayings are the basis for our lives and our constitution for living. The rest is mere commentary.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Netanel ben Yochanan