PART A: EVENING: JOSEPH—THE BRIDGE March 15, 2023. Just yesterday, my Jewish brother David Nekrutman shared with me from Berachot in the Talmud that dreams are one-sixtieth of prophecy. We then discussed the dreams of Joseph as being the first in the Torah that were shared with others....
FI Y4 WK 8 VA’YISH’LACH (he sent) Genesis 32:4-36:43 CONFLICT ON THE ROAD TO YOUR DESTINY
PART A Evening. TWO WORLDS IN ONE WORD. The opening sentence of parashah Va’Yish’Lach (he sent) is: VA’YISH’LACH YA’COV MAL’A’CHIM LE’FA’NAIV Jacob sent angels (or, “human messengers”) before his face EL’EI’SAV A’CHIV AR’TZAH SEI’IR SE’DEI E’DOM to Esau his brother, to the land of Seir, the field of Edom...
FI Y4 WK 7 PARASHAH VAYEITZEI (he went out) Genesis 28:10-32:3
PART A Evening. “THE PLACE” OF REVELATION—THE SPOT WHERE JACOB ENCOUNTERED GOD ON THE WAY TO HARAN (MOUNT MORIAH, per Stone Tanakh). THE COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM AND ISAAC IS RATIFIED ALSO WITH JACOB. Genesis 28:10-15, the Covenant Ratified with Jacob. Jacob left the Well of the Oath^ (Beer...
FI Y4 WK 6 Parashah TOLDOT (Generations) Genesis 25:19-28:9 PART A: CONTRADICTION (An Evening Devotion for this day)
It is ironic that the previous Parashah CHAYEI SARAH (23:1-25:18) began with the end of the life of Sarah. The parashah is named CHAYEI SARAH because of the first sentence in 23:1, “Sarah’s lifetime was one hundred years, twenty years, and seven years; the years of Sarah’s life.^” But the...
FI Y4 WK 5 Parashah CHAYEI SARAH (the life of Sarah) Genesis 23:1-25:18
A DEVOTIONAL SUMMARY OF THE LIFE OF SARAI / SARAH WITH ABRA(HA)M (Genesis 11-23) [STONE translations], followed by a Commentary: THE MYSTICAL ASPECT OF OUR LIVES. Genesis 11:31, 32, THE EXODUS FROM UR: “Terah took his son Abram, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and his daughter-in-law...
FI Y4 WK 4 Parashah VA’YEI’RA (he appeared) Genesis 18:1-22:24.
GOD MANIFEST IN TIME VA’YEI’RA EI’LAI’V YHVH The LORD appeared to him YHVH APPEARED…in time…to Abraham (in the plains of Mamre)… while he was sitting… In transcendence God dwells in an unapproachable light. (1 Timothy 6:16) But in manifestation, God makes himself relatable to finite and mortal...
FI Y4 WK 3 Parashah LECH LECHA (“Go out”: lit., “Go for yourself” or “Go to yourself,” that is, “to the self you will become”) Genesis 12:1-17:27
ABRAHAM: THE BEGINNING OF MONOTHEISM AND THE COVENANTS OF REDEMPTION; ABRAHAM AND SARAH: THE EXPONENTIAL POWER OF TWO RIGHTEOUS HUMAN BEINGS WORKING TOGETHER IN LIFE Biblical salvation for mankind begins with Abraham and the Patriarchs. It includes their spouses, the Matriarchs of the Covenants of Redemption. There were foreshadows...
FI Y4 WK 2 Parashah NOACH (Noah) Genesis 6:9-11:32
THE POWER OF ONE RIGHTEOUS AND OBEDIENT HUMAN BEING The prophet Ezekiel who received his visions and prophetic oracles in Babylon during the first great exile of Israel from their land,u recorded this utterance from God in chapter 14:13-14 of his book: “Son of man, when the land...
FI Y4 WK 1 Parashah BE’REI’SHEET (“In the beginning”): After creation, the beginning of humanity.
HOW HUMANITY BEGAN ON THE GLORIOUS STAGE OF THE WORLD From high and cold Mount Hermon in the north near Lebanon, to Eilat near Egypt and eastern Africa in the hot Negev desert in the south, from the flooding Nile River running south to north starting in Uganda and...
FI Y5 WK 52 P. VAYEILECH (He went (lit., “walked”) THE LORD WITH US AND FOR US
Deuteronomy 31:3-6 YHVH ELO’HEI’CHA HU O’VEYR LE’FA’NEI’CHA The LORD your God, he will cross over before you (lit., before your face) HU YASH’MID ET-HA’GOIIM HA’EI’LEH MIL’FA’NEI’CHA He will destroy these nations from before you (lit., from before your face) VE’RISH’TAM and you shall possess them YE’HO’SHUA HU O’VEYR LI’FA’NEI’CHA Joshua,...