Shmini Atzeret (the 8th day of assembly) and Simchat Torah
“For seven days present food offerings to the LORD, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present a food offering to the LORD. It is the closing special assembly; do no regular work.” (Lev.23:36)
Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah are celebrated as one day in Israel but outside the Land they are separated into two days. The first day is reserved for the joy of the Festival and for the prayers for rain, while the second day is reserved for the celebrating the conclusion of the cycle of reading from the Torah.
In the synagogues, the Torah scrolls, with the silver crowns (ketarim) are removed from the Parchment Scrolls. The silver crowns are so called from the month of Tishri represented by the seventh letter in the Hebrew alphabet, the zayin shaped like a letter vav with a crown on top. This reminds us that the Torah is God’s Word which we live our lives by and surrender them to Yeshua the King of Kings.
At Simchat Torah we rejoice in the completion of the annual cycle of weekly Torah readings and commence the second cycle of readings with the Book of Beresheet. The Hebrew word Torah comes from the roots ‘yarah’, which means to shoot, aim, or point to, and ‘morah’, meaning teacher. The Torah points us to the Holy Spirit who guides us in all truth.
Parasha B’reisheet. (In the Beginning) by Raphael ben Levi
(Rabbi Jonathan Sacks)
“The story of the first sin in the Garden of Eden is all about appearances, shame, vision, and the eye. The serpent says to the woman, “God knows that on the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (B’reisheet 3:5). It was the appearance of the tree that the Torah emphasises: “The woman saw that the tree was good to eat and desirable to the eyes, and that the tree was attractive as a means to gain intelligence” (3:6). The key emotion in the story is shame. Before eating the fruit, the couple were “naked… but unashamed” (2:25). After eating it they felt shame and sought to hide. The sin of the first humans in the Garden of Eden was that they followed their eyes, not their ears. Their actions were determined by what they saw, the beauty of the tree, not by what they heard, namely the word of God commanding them not to eat from it.
Judaism is a religion of listening, not seeing. Listening is the sacred task. The most famous command in Judaism is Shema Yisrael, “Listen, Israel.” What made Avraham, Moshe, and all the prophets different from their contemporaries was that they heard the Voice that to others was inaudible. In one of the great dramatic scenes of the Bible, God taught Elijah that He was not to be found in the whirlwind, the earthquake, or the fire, but in the “still, small voice” (1Kings.9:12). It takes training, focus, and the ability to create silence in the soul to learn how to listen, whether to God or to a fellow human being. Seeing shows us the beauty of the created world, but listening connects us to the soul of another, and sometimes to God as He speaks to us, calls to us, summoning us to our task in the world.”
Here’s is an example in Jn.3 of a person who learned how to listen well:
“Now there was a man, a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jewish people. He came to Yeshua at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that You, a teacher, have come from God. For no one can perform these signs which You do unless God is with Him!” Yeshua answered, “Amen, amen I tell you, unless one is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus said to Him. “He cannot enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born, can he?” (Jn.3:1-4)
Nicodemus wrestled to understand God’s greatest miracle of being “born again” although this concept was entirely Jewish:
1. When a Gentile converted to Judaism and was baptised, the baptismal water (Mikva) was referred to as “the womb of the world”, and as a convert came out of the water it was considered a new birth separating him from the pagan world. As he came out of the waters he was referred to as “a little child just born” or “a child of one day.” (Yeb. 22a; 48b; 97b)
2. The coronation of a king.
3. When a Jewish boy celebrated his Bar Mitzvah.
4. When a person married.
5. When someone became a rabbi.
6. When a person became the head of a rabbinical school or Yeshiva.
7. When a person was elected onto the Sanhedrin. In the times of the Jewish kings, members of the Sanhedrin were chosen by the king. In later times, the nasi, in consultation with the rest of the court, would fill vacancies as they arose.
These things would have been familiar to Nicodemus, but he came to Yeshua during the night to seek answers to something that was above and beyond. As someone who had strived to fulfil the requirements of the Torah with precision throughout his life, he knew he still lacked something vital in life. How could everything he had cultivated in his relationship with God, carefully crafted which had taken a lifetime to achieve, now appear to be lacking?
As an elderly person would there be sufficient time left for him to start all over again, to be “born again” in a different realm from which he had understood throughout his entire life? Yeshua responded with words most familiar and loved in the NT: “For God so [greatly] loved and dearly prized the world, that He [even] gave His [One and] only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Saviour] shall not perish, but have eternal life. Whoever believes and has decided to trust in Him [as personal Saviour and Lord] is not judged [for this one, there is no judgment, no rejection, no condemnation];” (Jn.3:16;18)
Nicodemus became a follower of Yeshua: “born again,” with new beginnings. (Jn. 19:39) He finally understood Yeshua’s words that one can only be changed from the inside-out and is the sole pathway to salvation. It had been an issue puzzling Nicodemus that disturbed him sufficiently to arrange a secret liaison with Yeshua at night – one that led to a radical change. He recognised that faith without works is dead but so too are works without faith. Now, he had acquired both!
With respect to these things, I would like to share about new beginnings and the perfect way is from the book of Genesis, (B’resheet) the theme of this week’s parasha.
The opening words from Gen.1:1 are “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” What came before we can only speculate about and none of us know the finer details although there are many theories. (Deut 29:29) What we as believers do know is that God is the infinite first cause and originator who alone sustains the universe which He himself created and spoke into existence. The origins of all things are embedded in Him, the Creator God of new beginnings. Scripture describes the best example being humanity’s redemption through the blood shed for us at Calvary by Yeshua made available for the whosoever, 2Cor.5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life]. ”
There is constant creativity and energy that injects our lives as believers with newness into everything touched by God, which overflows with beauty, wholesomeness and abundance. This is what God does: “I have come that you might have life in abundance…” (Jn. 10:10) When He speaks, His words are life and nothing remains the same. We are renewed and transformed as He begins to put all the pieces together. It commences when we are saved and continues throughout our lives in waves of glory combined with the agony of being moulded into His image!
Life is full of choices and in this respect we have the choice to allow God to transform us – all He needs is our permission. Yeshua warned in Matt. 5 that “We are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has lost its taste (purpose), how can it be made salty? It is no longer good for anything, but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” Yeshua was referring to something everyone understood— the hill of salt at the corner of the Dead Sea. This type of salt contained an outer layer of impurities due to chemical changes that caused it to lose its flavour and was discarded as useless. People used salt as a preservative and flavouring so it was symbolic of something that preserved and improved taste. The Romans used it as a form of currency. There are many analogies one could draw from this but let me share about the “Salt Covenant.” This was a covenant of friendship in biblical times between two people established over a meal. At one point they would pour out a pouch of salt and intermingle them into one pile stating: “If anyone can separate each grain of salt and return them to the correct owner, so too will our friendship cease to be.” Therefore, it represented an ancient symbol of unbreakable friendship preserved at any cost and everlasting. Yeshua told His disciples in Jn.15:15, “There is no greater love than this—that a man should lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I tell you to do.” Our friendship with Him is more important than anything else in life and something that we cultivate.
With this in mind let’s return to the opening words of Gen.1 which makes a simple but powerful statement: “In the beginning [B’resheet] God [Elohim] created [bara] the heavens and the earth.” Contained in these words is one of the most important declarations in the Bible.
Scholars may disagree how exactly the universe was created and when, but Scripture is clear that God is the source and first cause who literally spoke the universe into being. Ps.33 states that “…by the word [davar] of the LORD the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of His mouth.” (v.6)
When God speaks, the whole of creation must bow the knee to the Creator. The 2nd word in the opening sentence in Genesis is, ELOHIM, the name of God in plural form that describes His tri-unity, that’s followed, by the 3rd word, ‘bara’ in the singular (created) which emphasises that God is One not many ‘gods’.
And then the 4th word in the Hebrew text is one (following B’resheet Elohim Bara) composed of two letters, an aleph and a taph which are the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This word has puzzled rabbis yet for believers we see how it perfectly describes Yeshua, the ‘aleph and the Taph’ the beginning and the end.
And so, we have the completeness of a statement which is the hallmark that flows throughout the pages of the Bible mirroring the God who is the source of all life. How can we ever fully grasp this – a God who demonstrated His love for us that while we were sinners, Yeshua died for us? As flesh and blood we are limited to finite explanations. Yet, in the spirit we can apprehend the fullness in a manner that is ill-defined in human terms. How wonderful that the Creator God made it possible through Yeshua to transform us into new creations through His precious blood shed for us!
“He is the exact living image of the unseen God [the visible representation of the invisible], the firstborn [the originator] of all creation. For by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, [things] visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities; all things were created and exist through Him and for Him. And He Himself existed and is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. [His is the controlling, cohesive force of the universe.” Colos.1:15-17,
The Creator spoke forth His creation and everything within but with Adam it was different. He formed him with His hands, fashioned him in His likeness and breathed His ‘Neshimah’ (breath) into his nostrils. Adam was created out of the dust of the earth (adamah) the crown of God’s creation: Man and woman. Humanity was afforded the highest status above everything, created in the very image of God in form and given the responsibility to rule over it “to work (or serve) it and protect it”.
Things went badly with Adam and Eve due to Lucifer’s enticements but when they sinned God’s eternal plans continued to unfold uninterrupted. Satan may appear to win some battles but God always wins the war! And we should take encouragement in this knowing that with God ALL things work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes! (Rom.8:28)
As we read earlier in Gen 2:7: “…the LORD God formed man [Adam] of the dust of the ground [adamah], and breathed into his nostrils the breath (neshimah) of life; and man became a living soul.” Within the name of ‘adam’ is contained the word ‘adamah’ (dust) but also the Hebrew word dam (דָם blood) because life is in the blood (Gen 9:4; Deut 12:23; Lev 17:11) revealing that redemption was on God’s mind from the very beginning.
In Gen.4 we read how Cain and Abel presented offerings before God. Abel offered a blood sacrifice that was accepted because it mirrored the essence of who he was, ‘adam’ because life is in the blood. Abel’s offering was a substitutionary offering, a life for a life, which mirrored a future redemption prophetically through the shed blood of Yeshua. Cain, however, scorned the grace of God and made an offering based solely upon human effort which was why it could never be accepted.
God’s response to Cain was amazing. In the English text we read: “If you are doing what is good, shouldn’t you hold your head up high? If you don’t do what is good, sin is crouching at the door—it wants you but you can rule over it.” Gen. 4:11 (If you don’t do what is good, then face the full consequences without hope.”) The Hebrew word for sin used here is (‘Chata-ah’) the same word found in the Lev.6:17 for a sin offering which when translated provides us with a very different meaning. What God told Cain was: “If you don’t do what is good, a sin offering is crouching at the door (i.e., is within ready reach).”
In His love and compassion, God was giving Cain a second chance, a new beginning, with the opportunity to present the same type of offering his brother had presented. Instead, Cain refused, which led to the first murder and he became a vagabond for the rest of his life, the mark of Cain, (someone who prefers banishment from the presence of God even with the shame, humiliation and unresolved conflicts). Cain bore the hallmarks of the pride of life, the “mark of Cain”, the path of the unredeemed which countless others sadly follow.
When we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God He will in due time exalt us. But, when we exalt ourselves we play directly into the hands of the Devil. Humility is when we relinquish every thing that takes precedence over God: our time, abilities, energies, material possessions, even our ministries and our families – all these things we lay before the feet of Yeshua. To be humble is to recognise who we are in God through Yeshua – no more or less which defines the overcomer.
Yeshua said that when we hate another person, as did Cain, we have committed murder in our hearts and 1Jn.3:15 goes one step further: “…no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” God provides us with a choice: the narrow path of new beginnings or the broad road that leads to death.
Murder comes in many different packages. And we see how within just a few generations following creation, things quickly plummeted as one of the saddest statements in the Bible can be found in Gen.6:7-8 where God observed the wickedness of humanity and said, “…’I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.’”
It is amazing that only one person stood between God and humanity’s annihilation whose name was Noah, “…a just man, perfect in his generations, and walked with God.” – Gen. 6:9 He was both righteous and pure, in an evil world where “…all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.” (Gen.6:11)
Noah could have compromised and conformed to the standards of the world which he rejected and together with his family was saved in an ark which took him 120 years to build. Throughout this period, he attracted much ridicule for building a ship for until then there had not ever been rainfall.
Trusting God may sometimes appear absurd to others. Yet Noah became a hero of faith because he placed his full trust in God: “By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.” (Heb.11:7)
Yeshua described the end times as being like the ‘Days of Noah’. And He said something which can be easily overlooked. In Matt 24 He warned that before the Flood people, “… went on eating and drinking, taking wives and becoming wives, right up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they didn’t know what was happening until the Flood came and swept them all away. It will be just like that when the Son of Man comes………”
Yeshua was warning us to be well prepared, “…for the Son of Man will come suddenly when you are not expecting him.” (vs’s 37-44) God has equipped us to stand for Him as we learn to engage the enemy, clothed in the spiritual armoury that He has provided us with.
Let me close with a story from the Babylonian Talmud, (Tractate Shabbath 153a) that is relevant here for the times we live in:
Rabbi Eliezer said: “Repent one day before your death.” His disciples asked him: “Does one know on what day he will die?” He replied: “Then all the more reason that he repent today, lest he die tomorrow, and thus his whole life is spent in repentance.”
Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai explained it with a parable:
There was once a king who summoned his servants to a banquet without appointing a time. The wise ones adorned themselves and sat at the door of the palace enquiring: “Is anything lacking in a royal palace?”
The fools went about their work, saying: “Can there be a banquet without preparations?”
Suddenly the king desired the presence of his servants. The wise entered adorned, while the fools entered soiled. The king rejoiced at the wise but was wroth with the fools saying: “Those who adorned themselves for the banquet, let them sit, eat and drink. But those who did not adorn themselves, let them stand and watch. Does not Scripture say: ‘Therefore, thus saith the Lord God: ‘Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry; behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty; behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed; behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart.’” (Isa.65:13ff).
The righteous were commended by the king because they had prepared themselves well with garments undefiled, single-minded, living righteous and pure lives as they eagerly awaited the fulfilment of the king’s promise with patience and expectancy. They echoed the sentiment of the psalmist who, in his desire to live a righteous life, declared. “I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.” (Ps.84) However, the fools soiled their garments by pursuing their own self-interests and agendas convinced there would be sufficient advance warning to prepare themselves when it was time. They were wrong…
Here is the rub. The amazing love of God is demonstrated in a Divine reversal as Yeshua now stands at the door of our ‘palace’ seeking to make good the deficit in our lives so He might make His dwelling in us! (Rev.3:20)
