8.22.25 ~ Quit Cutting

Good morning!

Happy preparation day and 27th day of counting towards the first fruit of the oil :-)

Yah-willing, I'll be driving back to Michigan this afternoon. I'm going to do some more work with a buddy in a couple hours, then drive back through the FBS (Flat Bottom Syndrome) drive :-)

Have you ever noticed how often we get into fights with people over idealistic reasons? Figuratively, but emotionally and spiritually, We "slaughter" people with our words or actions, and we feel that we are acting on behalf of an angel. We feel quite spiritual about our actions.

Be wary, says the Torah! If you are going to cut someone off from your life, you want to hear it from God Himself. If not, let it go.

Now you might be thinking where in this week's Torah portion is this idea? Enquiring minds want to know :-)

"You are the children of the Lord your God: you shall not cut yourselves/gadad (lit. scraping off your skin), nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead." (Duet. 14:1)

Now you really might be scratching your head, wondering if I've lost my mind in making this comparison?? I've seen it too many times that in the name of "holy" reasons, parents stop speaking with children, or children cut off their parents, and complete families get shattered in the fighting. It is an absolute and painful disaster, one that the people might regret for decades to come. And once that 'flesh' has been cut, the mourning process is painfully long. Do you know what I mean? Can you identify?

On the flipside, sometimes we need healthy boundaries between ourselves and others to protect our sanity and life-energy. But before you are about to "slaughter" a fellow member of the body, through words, actions, or even a comment, make sure you are 100 percent sure this is what God wants from you. Make sure you are aligned with your deepest Divine, regulated core, before you make the next move.

If we go back and examine the origin of this commandment, we would find that the custom of many pagans was to cut themselves in demonstration of grief over the death of a loved one. To vent their agony, they would make incisions in their flesh, pull out their hair, and flay their skin. And to this, God says, No, because you're children of God, there must be limits to your grief.

Okay, okay, I see that the Torah prohibits us from cutting our skin as a sign of bereavement. Our bodies are sacred (1 Cor. 3:16,17; 6:19,20); our organism is integrated with everyone else in the body (Eph. 4; Rom. 12; 1 Cor. 12), each individual, collectively makes up an entity that is precious and holy; we must never harm it! We must not separate even a bit of skin from our flesh. Even difficult moments of grief don't allow us to give up on our life and on the sacredness and beauty of our bodies.

But that is exactly what we are doing when we allow people within our lives to become splintered., scraped off from 'the body'. According to Scripture from Genesis to Revelation, there is only one covenant body; one organism (Eph. 2:16; 4:4; Col. 3:15).  We may not match the numbers of all the nations...yes, we come from different walks of life, profess extremely different opinions, and behave in opposite ways, but we are essentially like one "super organism" that is to be a light to the nations (Isa. 42:6; 51:4) When I cut off a certain part of the body from my life, when I cut myself off from a certain community, I am in truth cutting off part of my own flesh.

The fall feasts are coming. Unity and community are essential themes. As you prepare for these days, may we stop mourning like the nations do and treat the body with love and respect.

Shabbat shalom!
Alan

Ahead of time, thanks for praying for my journey back to Michigan. The KC, MO trip has been productive and truly enjoyable seeing friends again and putting in a little 'sweat equity' in the work world :-)