Saturday, April 24, 2010

The Holy One Loves US

The following are quotes from the "Rabbi's son" Torah teachings on the Parsha Acharei Mot Leviticus 16:1 - 18:30. I trust you will be blessed by the teachers words of widsom.

The Holy One knows us intimately and loves us passionately One-on-one, of course. He pursues us gently and woos us lovingly and redeems us powerfully as individuals.

He took special care to create each and every one of us to be unique and special and to relate to Him in a way no other human being could ever do.

Each of us is therefore truly His "favorite" in some way.

Each of us is designed to be a "private garden" for Him, uniquely qualified to enjoy a rich full, intimate one-on-one relationship with Him at a level no one else can experience.

As amazing as that is, however, we are discovering that His love for us as individuals is by no means the end of the story.

Behold -- there is an even greater mystery.

He also sees us all as something more than individuals. He also sees us as part of a potentially great - indeed world changing -- collective entity.

Thus while He knows, watches over, protects, blesses, and trains as a son [or daughter] each and every one of us individually, He also sees all who are in covenant with Him - be we natural or en-grafted branches -- as part of a very special am [i.e., people-group], mamleket [i.e., kingdom] and goy [i.e., a nation].

He sees us collectively as the mysterious "offspring" of Avraham to which He mysteriously alluded in Genesis 12:7."

"and you must not live like they do in the land of Kena'an, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices [either]." Leviticus 18:3b




The Holy One thus makes it clear He does not want His Beloved Bride to conform to the baseness of any society on earth.

We are to be noticeably different from all other people-groups in the world.

We are from another kingdom altogether.

We are not to think, speak, dress, or spend time or money or energy like the Egyptians or the Kena'ani - or any other culture we encounter.

Torah is to be our passion, our lifestyle, our Constitution, our entertainment, our recreation, and our reason to live. It is to define what we think about, what we talk about, what we eat, what we wear, what we drink, how we educate our children, how we make a living, how we develop our self-esteem, how we interact with our families, when and why we get together with person outside our families, and even where we live.

We are, therefore, not to imitate - act and talk like - the people we see on television, in movies, or in music videos, in fashion shows.

We are not to be "wanna-bees" of any other culture."


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