Am Yisrael Chai

Shalom!

It is Shabbat...Tamuz 6, 5770. One week is ending...another will begin at sundown Saturday night/Tamuz 7, 5770. Shabbat settles in as the daylight fades...all across homes in Israel and around the world, the Shabbat Candles are lit...the prayers receited over wives...children...husbands...the Challah Bread is broken...salted and passed to all at the Shabbat Supper...the Age Old Blessings prayed...G-d honors and loves Shabbat...we are told that 'on the seventh day, HaShem rested from all His Creation...and He Blessed this Seventh Day and made it Kadosh/Holy because He rested from all the work of creating He had done'(B'resheet/Genesis 2:2-3)

It's time to filter out the world and clear the mind and heart of the assaults they have borne the past 6 days...and to ask Him to 'wash us with Hyssop so that we might be clean'...many will visit the Mikvah and do a ceremonial washing to symbolize the removal of the filth that has accumulated on what was created to be a spotless soul...the washing of water does give us an understanding of what is meant by the adage 'cleanliness is next to g-dliness'...

As we allow our weary minds and bodies to unwind and slow down, I think the time to begin thinking about the HaYesod of our lives has come...HaYesod is the Hebrew word for "the Foundation"...the Foundation of our lives is His Torah...let's relax and refresh ourselves as we begin to think on this Foundation...

Life from the Dead

I want to share an exact wording from the little text book I bought for this study on HaYesod..."Nineteen-forty-five. Six million dead. The forces of evil had done their best, yet the people of Israel still lived! AM YISRAEL CHAI! As the ancient prophets had predicted, the people of Israel began to return to the land of Israel in waves. In a similar way, Christians of today are returning to the Scriptures of Israel. Like refugees returning from exile, we are rediscovering our connection to Israel.

As the Jewish people emerged from the atrocity of the Nazi genocide, two seemingly unrelated events occurred. In the land of Israel, three Bedouin boys were seeking a stray goat (sound familiar?) when they discovered the mouth to a cave near the Dead Sea. In the cave they found several clay jars containing ancient scrolls.

On November 29, 1947, a Jewish scholar purchased the scrolls. He unrolled one to see what he had acquired and was thrilled to find that he was reading the Hebrew words of an ancient copy of the scroll of Yesha'Yahu/Isaiah. The scroll had been hidden in that cave since the days of the Talmidim and the beginning of the Jewish exile from Israel.

November 29, 1947 is also the day the United Nations voted to allow the Jewish State of Israel to form...an event which had been prophesied in this very scroll of Yesha'Yahu/Isaiah.

On the same day, the ancient prophecies of Yesha'Yahu and the ancient Land of Israel were returned to Jewish hands. These two seemingly unrelated events have launched a revolution in the way we understand our faith...and the way we understand the Bible.

The Christian Jewish Roots Movement

The restoration of the Jewish people in the land of Israel has, in a roundabout way, led to the restoration of Christianity. The Holocaust, the formation of the State of Israel, and the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls all combined to spark a complete renaissance in the way early Christianity is studied and understood.

After these events, theologians began to rethink G-d's plan for Israel. They began to wipe the anti-Semitism from their eyes, ask difficult questions about the Bible, and study Jewish sources! Thanks to the work of these Jewish Roots Scholars, we are now able to read and understand the Gospel in its' context for the first time since the days of Yeshua!

The results are not just academic head knowledge! Lives are being transformed, and faith is being rejuvenated. HaYesod makes sense out of our Christian religion; and makes believers of skeptics!

Our HaYesod is solid! All we need to do is to uncover those ancient stones and build on them! Then we will be like the house that was built on the rock...though the rains fell, floods rose, and winds blew, we will stand strong so long as we are founded upon the sure HaYesod/Foundation!"

Be Blessed this Shabbat! Let Him refresh your weary body, mind and soul! Drink richly from His Word! The renewal you need is there!

Lesson One in our HaYesod/Jewish Roots of the Faith will begin tomorrow evening!

Shabbat Shalom!