Light In Torah

Good morning! Commercial:  Toldot/Generations: Jacob & Esau, Living the power and decisiveness of Esau with the heart of Jacob. NOTE: In this study, I applied the wrong term to 'despised'. I used the word connected to worship/hallal instead of batza. My mind was too fast and my fingers too slow. Thanks Kiersten for being a Berean (Acts 17:11). The Jacob and Esau story can leave us scratching our heads. Who is who? Do clothes make the man? Sometimes it’s hard to figure people out. How do we authentically live authentically for real? Authenticity, as I shared with a friend yesterday, goes against every fear, worry, and anxiety of our social compulsions for acceptance, and our ego’s constant fear of being exposed and demolished...that's really scary! It usually takes a few years of seasoning in this world before we come to grips with not allowing society to determine our course of direction. If you're in that boat already then the following thoughts will be a review of...

Good morning! The national holiday of Thanksgiving is over, but giving thanks is always in season 365 days a year; for a full belly(Deut. 8:10), during stressful times (Phil.4:6; Psa. 34:1), in our relationships (Eph. 5:20), in life and death (Job 1:21), in my praise (Heb. 13:15); and in all that I do (Col. 3:17). Commercial: Studies, audios and videos in one place: https://allmylinks.com/lightintorah  This morning, let's never forget where we've been...Where did he go (Gen. 22:5, 19)? Abraham said that he and Isaac will go and worship together and they will come back together (Gen. 22:5). Yet, in the narrative of the 'Akeidah' only Abraham comes back (Gen. 22:19). Where did Isaac go? Why doesn't he show again until after the 'servant' finds a bride for the son (Gen. 24:62-67)? Chapter 23 has Abraham mourning the death of Sarah in Hebron; while teaching us incredible life lessons about 'burying our dead' and 'our dead we should bury' (Gen.23:...

Good morning! Hanukkah is a month away. Here in America, Thanksgiving is today. Yesterday, many of you enquired about a statement that I made about Rebecca marrying at the age of 3. Of course, that's impossible and not realistic. Where would a comment like that come from? According to the 'timeline' on the day when Isaac was laid on the altar until the time when Rebecca was taken as Isaac's wife, it was 3 years. It is a picture, though Rebecca was not there, of her conversion and period of maturation. Similarly, as we were not there when the Heavenly Father offered the Son, but from our conversion to the time of selecting the bride will be a time period of maturation and determining whether we are a good tree or a bad tree. Huh? Another riddle? From our previous studies, we have learned that men, in Scripture are compared to trees (Deut. 20:19,20; Psa. 1:1-4; Mk. 8:24; Matt. 3:10; 7:15-20; Lk. 13:7-9; Jn. 15:2-8; Judg. 9; etc.) and Leviticus 19 emphasizes that it takes ...

Good morning! I was sharing in a Q&A Monday evening how the Midrash/opinions from the studious students of Scripture, weaves its interpretations, enriching the written word with oral elaboration, and brings focus into the text; but not always with 'factual' statements. Huh? Often, to the untutored ear, speaking of my own ear, Midrash sounds fanciful, far removed from the plain sense of the verse. For instance, in last week's Torah portion, Chayei Sarah/the life of Sarah, one Midrash expresses that Rebecca was 3 years old when she married Isaac. Huh? How could that be? None of her activities at the well or beyond could be done by a 3 year old! But, if we realize that it was 3 years earlier that Isaac was offered on Mt. Moriah, and take into consideration the 3 years of determining a good tree (Lev. 19), then the Midrash makes sense. Once we have learned the language and sensibility of Midrash, we begin to realize how deep are its spiritual and moral insights. I hope that...

Good morning! When any event takes place, people will see different things based on who they are, how they are positioned, the environment they are in, their current mindset, the amount of light and even how they are trained to view things in life. What they will see is true to them. Individuals see the event from their own perspective. There are multiple factors that influence how we see anything and everything. And there are influences that can actually affect our memory on how we saw that particular event…the way that we see things can be very tricky. The most varying characteristic of any event is the amount of light that is shed on the event. Commercial: Last Night's Zoom Call: Persistence In Prayer. Sometimes, the answers we get are not exactly what we planned for and why we need 'Esau' in our lives (Gen. 25:19-28) Many of you who follow the Torah cycle have gone through the book of Genesis/Bereishit; a book I reference just about every day. Each story reveals to us i...

Good Morning! Thanksgiving holiday is just a few days away. Hanukkah is just a month away and 2025 will be here before you know it and with each celebration comes the hope of the best days to come. This morning I want to encourage you to undo what has been done by retelling an often neglected truth about Isaac and his father's wells that were stopped up with dust/afar from the enemy while connecting it to Jacob's wrestling match and the serpent's diet (was that a runon sentence? :-). Since the time of mankind expulsion from the garden, the serpent has been feeding on the dust/afar of the earth as his caloric RDA (recommended daily allowance); the same substance man is made from (Gen. 2:7; Gen. 3:14). The Apostle Peter warns us to maintain a sober mind because our adversary, the devil, is AS a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet. 5:8).   Without the Spirit of God, God's breath moving through us, we are nothing more than dust/afar. But when God breathes His bre...

Good morning! Let's start this morning with a question: When do you think the first time love is mentioned between a married couple in Scripture? Surprising to say, it's not until you get to Isaac and Rebecca (Gen.24:67). And Isaac took Rebecca, she became his wife, and he loved her. In the beginning see man leaving father and mother and clinging to his wife, but that implies physical obligation, not the emotional bond of love (Gen. 2:24). Therefore man should leave his father and mother and cleave/v'davak to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Though Abraham and Sarah are the father and mother of our faith, though they blazed a new trail, though they heeded God's word, overcame perilous times as a couple and conflict within their own marriage, we don't have any mention of 'love'.   There must have been something significant with Isaac and Rebecca where this statement is never repeated in the Torah. We know that Jacob loves Rachel (Gen. 29:18). But th...

Good morning!  Shabbat Shalom! Commercial: Last night's zoom call:  Bury Your Dead: a life lesson on how to live life to the fullest while confronting the distractions, the uncomfortable, the fear, the shame, and the pain to find my real life inside (Gen. 23) I don’t like corrections.  My almost immediate reaction to correction is defensive. Let me rephrase that. My immediate reaction to correction is always to be defensive. I don’t want to be wrong.  My observation is that we are a society that has a very hard time with admission of failure or error.  But without correction, it’s nearly impossible to learn. When I first started learning French in H.S. my teacher, Ms. Bailey, would gently tell us that we could learn any language if we were willing to make enough mistakes. She told us, once our egos get in the way of admitting errors, learning stops. I think this is true in every area of life. What do you think? This principle is absolutely true when it comes to ...

Good morning! Happy Preparation Day! When I was a child, I was taught to say thank you. And if I did something wrong, I was told to say, 'I'm sorry'.  Which begs to ask the question: "why are there so many poorly trained adults? Why do so many adults find it hard to say I’m sorry? or even thank you enough? Enquiring minds want to know! Recently, a research project was released from Carnegie Mellon University that answers the question. Let me summarize the findings. The paper introduces a framework to explain what is called the responsibility exchange theory. It is used to explain why giving thanks and apologizing, as well as bragging and blaming others matters so much, and why we have such a hard time exchanging the right words at the right time. Here’s the conundrum, while thank you and I’m sorry, makes the speaker appear caring or generous, and I’d add not raised in a barn by barbarians, they fear it is at the cost of seeming incompetent or weak.  Then there is the o...

Good morning! We live in a fast-paced world and our lives are filled with every type of distraction imaginable. Years ago, there was an acronym that became popular: YOLO (You Only Live Once). This philosophy of the last day's generation, which has been very 'self-driven',  has a true counterpart throughout Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, as well as each of our Lekh Lekha journeys. Much of the time they (as well as too many of us) live the YOLO philosophy "It's all about me and teamwork and togetherness, for a common goal, is only significant if it benefits my personal agenda. The Apostle Paul was right when he said in the last days perilous times would come. Men would be proud, boasters, arrogant, truce breakers, incontinent, fierce, lovers of self more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying the power...stay away from these types of people. (2 Tim. 3:1-5) Kind of scary how accurate he was. Yeshua gave us the antidote to this negative real...

Good morning! Lekh Lekha requires growth and growth requires change. Change is uncomfortable and scary for most people. We tend to crave what is familiar; what’s safe, stable, and known; aka reverting back to our default settings. Too often, people even fear change that would clearly improve their situation in life or standard of living. Examples might include people who stay in abusive relationships, ex-convicts who commit crimes simply to return to the familiar and “comfortable” walls of prison, and people who stay in jobs they detest for years on end, constantly dreading Mondays. Change is obviously going to happen all around us regardless of whether we welcome it or not, so why do we resist it? Because we have a fear of the unknown. Hence, as we've seen in our studies over the years, the children of Israel constantly desired to go back to Egypt (Ex. 16:3; 17:3; Num. 11:20; 14:2-4; etc.) after their liberation (Ex. 13:14; 16:6; 18:1; 20:2; Lev. 22:33; etc.). Zig Ziglar, of bless...

 Good morning! Have you ever had one of those roller coaster days? Highs. Lows. Drops. Dips. Twists. Adventure. Screams. Laughter. Yep, that was the day yesterday. What a Lekh Lekha journey we are on! Yahweh is soooo good! Commercial: Last night's zoom call: Chayei Sarah/the Life of Sarah (Gen. 23:1, 2; SoS 4:6-8) Coming down from the pagan world and living life like it's your last day, yet living forever . Let's go back in time and connect a couple of prophetic thoughts from the earlier chapters of Genesis/Breishit and let's consider a very spiritual picture of being married to two people. One beautiful, the trophy wife, and one the procreator wife. Huh? Stay with me... Lamech is the first one to break the pattern of one wife (Gen. 4:19). Instead of going to himself/Lekh Lekha, Lamech 'took/lakh to himself' two wives. Adah/ornament, something beautiful and Tzillah/his shadow; inferring that both women were not treated equally. Tradition has it, that one was for...

Good morning! Lekh Lekha continues for Abraham, as well as for each of us. Every day we should be rising up to new heights. Two times in Scripture God uses the term Lekh Lekha/go to yourself. Both times it is in the life of Abraham (Gen. 12:1; 22:2). Ironically, but not surprisingly, the first time we find the root of this word (halakh/to walk), we are taken back to the Rivers that surround the garden of Eden (Gen. 2:14) and the Lord God walking in the cool of the day (Gen. 3:8). When a child leaves his father's house, he or she must walk/halakh out with a personal faith. This includes all the rewards of faith and the tests of the heart. While in Haran, Abram and Sarai were making a huge impact with their hospitality, making/asah 318 disciples (Gen. 14:11; Matt. 28:18-20) and training them for war (Gen. 14:11; Ex. 15:3; Eph. 6:10-16). Haran was a barren place for them, but this wasn't the final destination. The Genesis account has as many missing pieces as it does visible infor...

Good morning! Sabbath morning zoom call: 2 Kings 4, Two Miracles: From Empty & Barren to Fruitful. The sooner you live under authority, the faster you'll have the opportunity to lead in authority . In yesterday’s study, we talked about Abraham and Sarah coming with their days and the process that they went through to become the rock and the quarry of our faith (Isaiah 51:1–4; Galatians 3:29). One practical question for all of us is how do we navigate through life’s challenges? How do we deal with great difficulty, particularly during your crisis? Especially when, one, you don’t know if it’ll end or when it will end. Or, secondly, what will life be like after it ever ends? I want to share with you a story about admiral Jim Stockdale. Stockdale was the highest ranking US military officer in the Hanoi Hilton prisoner of war camp. The setting is during the Vietnam war. It is told of his POW imprisonment that Stockdale was tortured over 20 times during his eight years. Stockdale liv...

Good morning! What a week! Yahweh's provision was over the top spiritually, emotionally, physically, relationally and financially. Too many things to share, but the praise was going up early this morning heading into the Sabbath day (Gen. 2:1-3; 1 Thess. 5:18). Commercial: Last night's zoom on vayeira/and he appeared:  Life Lessons on How God appears Today: How He does answer prayer, not as we always think, and how to live each day to the fullest, salty life possible In Genesis 18:11, the Torah relates in this week's portion, Vayeira: וְאַבְרָהָם וְשָׂרָה זְקֵנִים בָּאִים בַּיָּמִים חָדַל Now Abraham and Sarah were old, coming on or with days/baim bayamim. They weren't just growing old/zakein (Gen. 18:11), they were literally 'coming on in/with days'; a title given to only 2 others, Joshua (Josh. 13:1; 23:1) and David (1 Kg. 1:1). Hmmm. What's up with this? Enquiring minds want to know. What the verse is saying is that they showed up with each of their days....

Good morning! It's the opening day of deer season here in Michigan.  It's the beginning of man's judgment day for the deer. The schools are closed and I'll be wearing orange! Thousands of hunters will be out early, all day, and this evening trying to get their winter meat. I'm glad I'm not a deer! Then again, in one sense we are like a deer (Psa. 42:1), hunted by the enemy 365 days a year (1 Pet. 5:8; Job 1:7; 2:2; Lk. 22:31; Eze. 22:25). This week, I've focused on Sodom and Gomorrah and the judgment/mishpat coming. Over in Jeremiah 10, we have another picture of Yahweh bringing judgment, but different than we might expect...it's not for our destruction, but for our deliverance (Jer. 10:24). Huh? What comes to mind when you hear the phrase 'judgment of God'?  Do you think of fire and brimstone like the judgment on Sodom (Gen. 19:24)?  Do you imagine the fiery lake reserved for the devil (Matt. 25:41)?  With those images in mind, it’s impossible t...