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Inside the Fortress at Yehi'am National Park, Western Galilee
The 18th century fortress was built at the site of a 12th century crusader castle
Photo Noam Chen |
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Nugget 204: First Things First
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This week's Torah portion contains the Sh'ma - the most important prayer of the Jewish people being recited twice daily (morning and evening) by orthodox Jews. However Jesus also quoted the Sh'ma in the New Testament. Read why it's importance is timeless!
Shabbat Shalom,
Jacki Powell, Light for Israel
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Torah Portion 45
Parashat -
Va'etchanan
(וָאֶתְחַנַּן) - "and I pleaded"
Reference: Deut. 3:23-7:11
Haftarah: Isaiah 40:1-26
Download
the Torah Portion reading Schedule.
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"
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."
- Deut. 6:4-6
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First Things First
This week's Torah portion contains the most foundational prayer to the Jewish people, the sh'ma, so named because the first word of the prayer is the Hebrew word שְׁמַ֖ע (sh'ma) meaning 'hear' - Strong's #8085. The prayer is found in Deut. 6:4-5: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."
שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָד׃
וְאָהַבְתָּ אֵת יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ בְּכָל־
לְבָבְךָ וּבְכָל־נַפְשְׁךָ וּבְכָל־מְאֹדֶךָ
This word occurs 351 times in the Hebrew text and is translated as 'hear' 321 times. The other times it is translated with such words as 'hearken', 'report', etc.
The Theological Workbook of the Old Testament (TWOT) defines sh'ma as listening in order to obey. After all, we really have not heard unless we obey what we hear!
The New Testament and the T'nakh intersect with each other at thousands of points like a giant puzzle with interconnecting pieces. In the New Testament gospel of Mark, a scribe asked Jesus a very important question. I will quote the complete interchange here for it's importance to our study:
And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:28-31)
Because the scribe would have been very familiar with the law from years of copying it, perhaps he was thinking of the 613 laws in the Law of Moses and wanted to ask Jesus which of those was the greatest. Jesus quoted to him the Sh'ma from Deuteronomy 6 and also added the natural corollary from Leviticus 19:18, "...thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD." This same interchange is also recorded in Matthew 22 and Luke 10 - three of the four Gospels! So Jesus thought the Sh'ma was very important.
Jesus was most concerned about the heart that motivated human actions.
Actions are important! But only if they stem from a correct motive. In the Sermon on the Mount, recorded in Matthew 5-7, Jesus took many of the Ten Commandments and drilled down to show His listeners (and today's readers) that if we don't do them with the right attitude, we have really disobeyed them.
Back to the Sh'ma in Deuteronomy 6. On the second line of Hebrew text, note the word לְבָבְ - le-vav (Strong's #3824 - meaning 'heart') which occurs 47 times in the book of Deuteronomy - more than any other book of the T'nakh! Remember that, in Deuteronomy, Moses is reiterating the Law, but his emphasis now is on the heart. Moses was trying to teach the children of Israel that the motives of the heart that underlies our actions are the most important.
The last time the word 'heart' is used in the book of Deuteronomy is in Deut. 32:46, "Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day." Moses parting words to the children of Israel is also a good reminder for us today. To fully love God (and our neighbor) as we should, we must set our heart upon God's Word! We all need times of heart searching. Now I do not mean when I search my own heart. That does no more good than if I proofread my own paper or grade my own test. I will not find all the mistakes! No, I need to let the teacher do the correcting! David said that we need to let God search our heart. Only He can show us our true motives: "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. " - Psalm 139:23-24
Only as we let God and His Word have the place of preeminence in our life can we hear God's voice and allow Him to search our heart. By His grace and mercy He can effect real change in our character that will filter down into our actions.
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The Hebrew Letter Shin
The first letter in the word
שְׁמַע (sh'ma) is the letter shin.
Note that the dot on the right of the letter causes it to have the 'sh' sound while a dot on the left causes the sibilant 'sss' sound. The letter shin is always on a Mezuzah because it is the first letter of the name of God, שדי (Shaddai). Also, inside of the Mezuzah is a copy of the Sh'ma - which also begins with the letter shin.
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The Olympics and Medicine in Ancient Israel
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Ancient cupping device was excavated at Masada, Israel. |
The Olympic Games
have a rich history
, and so does
an ancient medicinal treatment
that seems to be resurfacing at this summer's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. You may have noticed
small circles
on American gold-medalist swimmer Michael Phelps's skin as he competed. The marks on his skin are the result of cupping, a medicinal treatment that has been around for millennia.
Vessels like this small, hollow, bell-shaped cup from Israel (pictured at right) were used for the medical treatment of cupping. The earliest records of the practice of cupping-placing heated cups on the skin to improve blood flow-were found in the Ebers Papyrus, an Egyptian medical document dating to 1500 B.C.E., and the Greek physician Hippocrates's corpus of medical texts in 400 B.C.E. Archaeologists have also uncovered cupping vessels in China from 1000 B.C.E. Vessels used for cupping were made from a variety of materials, including bronze, horn, pottery and bamboo, and were typically shaped as balls or bells with diameters of 1 to 3 inches.
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Museum of the Bible's Sound Cloud
The Bible and the Olympics
The Museum of the Bible produces a unique one-minute podcasts that features unusual stories and interesting facts about the Bible.
The Olympics end on Sunday. I saw a church sign this week that said, "Olympic glory is fleeting, but eternal glory is, well, eternal." The world's greatest Olympic althlete ever was Bryan Clay. Listen to his testimony about how the Bible and his mother's prayers turned him from a bully to a believer.
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Resources For Hebrew Students
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The Hebrew Tanakh (Masoretic Text) in HTML format with sound files
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Study the Hebrew Bible
Live from Jerusalem
with Eli Dahan - BiblEli
Thursday at 8pm Eastern. Studying the Life of David.
BiblEli
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Light for Israel Core Values
Dedicated to the distribution of free and accurate copies of the Hebrew Scriptures to Jewish people while standing in solidarity with Israel. (Since 2001)
Partner with LFI
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"The entrance of thy words giveth light." - Psalm 119:130
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Contact Details:
Jacki Powell
| (843) - 452 - 2693
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