coming up on the High Holy days

Torah · #1 21st August 2008, 02:27 PM

We are coming up on the High Holy days [40 days from Rosh Hashanah] and I thought this is a good study to think on. I know this is long but I believe it is very good.

Holy Spirit like a dove
He sent forth a dove from him.
u,tn vbuhv ,t jkahu

In the Beginning the Ruach Elohim Hovered Over the Waters
2The earth was unformed and void, darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God (Ruach Elohim) hovered over the surface of the water…(Gen 1:2)
3Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. 4God saw that the light was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. 5God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. So there was evening, and there was morning, the first day. (Gen 1:3-5)

6After forty days Noach opened the window of the ark which he had built; 7and he sent out a raven, which flew back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. 8Then he sent out a dove, to see if the water had gone from the surface of the ground. 9But the dove found no place for her feet to rest, so she returned to him in the ark,
because the water still covered the whole earth. He put out his hand, took her and brought her in to him in the ark. 10He waited another seven days and again sent the dove out from the ark. 11The dove came in to him in the evening, and there in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf, so Noach knew that the water had cleared from the earth. 12He waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, and she didn't return to him any more. (Gen.8:6-12)

8Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground. (Vv. 8, KJV)

In the beginning, we are told, the Ruach Elohim, hovered over the waters (the waters of creation)
but it did not land anywhere. the earth was unformed and void. Evidently, the first step in a new creation is being immersed in water. Similarly we humans, after conception, are immersed in the waters of our mother’s womb.

Creation needed an immersion, that is, a mikvah. The very next thing created is light (Or, Hebrew), and “the light was good.” The light is then divided (separated) from the darkness as one on the very first acts of creationon the very first day of creation. We also needed a mikvah to separate the light of Messiah in our hearts fromthe former darkness of our lives before we came to Messiah.

Immersion (mikvah) in Yeshua’s day was not a Christian sacrament. It was a Jewish purity ritual, a symbolic cleansing regularly practiced by all observant Jews. It was accomplished by a full body immersion into “mayim chayim” (living waters).

Mayim chayim was regarded as naturally flowing water that had not been artificially drawn from a well or cistern or manipulated through plumbing. The immersion into living water was performed by descending into a naturally fed pool or natural gathering of water (such as a lake, a river, the sea, or the pool
at Siloam in the City of David) and submerging oneself completely below the surface.

The Hebrew word for such a gathering of water is, vuen, mikvah (literally, a natural pool of flowing water).

The immersion accomplished the “washing away” of uncleanness based on principles found in Vayikra in the Torah. The symbolism is clearly one of death and rebirth.

The refreshing days of the autumn season are almost upon us. According to Wikipedia: “Before the 16th century, harvestwas the term usually used to refer to the autumn season.

However as more people gradually moved from working the land to living in
towns (especially those who could read and write, the only people whose use of language we now know), the word harvest lost its reference to the time of year and came to refer only to the actual activity of reaping, and fall and autumn began toreplace it as a reference to the season.” We are in the refreshing days of the harvest season and it is time to reap!

About the time of Succot, nearly two thousand years go, “…the word of God came to Yochanan Ben-Z'kharyah in the desert” and immediately he began immersing the people in Y’hudah and surrounding areas (see Luke 3:2
and Matt. 3)

But people began to wonder if perhaps the long-awaited Messiah had now come in the person of Yochanan. We are told:

“15The people were in a state of great expectancy, and everyone was wondering whether perhaps Yochanan himself might be the Messiah; 16 so Yochanan answered them all, "I am immersing you in water, but he who is coming is more powerful than I -- I'm not worthy to untie his sandals! He will immerse you in the Ruach HaKodesh and in fire. 17He has with him his winnowing fork to clear out his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the straw with unquenchable fire!"” This is the staging when then Messiah Yeshua enters the scene,

a mikvah service after the days of Succot in the Yarden. As His first step in public ministry, he undergoes a mikvah. Once again the first step in establishing the newly established “Kingdom of Heaven” is being immersed in water “Yeshua was about thirty years old when he began his public ministry…” (Luke 3:23) Yeshua was about thirty years old immediately before or immediately after His birthday, that is, during the season of Succot, the festival of the ‘Joy in the Harvest.’

In Parashat Noach, we see that when it comes time to leave the ark (after 40 days, on the 10th day of the 11th month, i.e., Shevat) we see that Noach sends forth a dove (Hebrew, yonah) from him (Hebrew, meOto) {perhaps from his bosom?} “But the dove found no place for her feet to rest.” On the 17th of Shevat he sends her out again, this time returning with a freshly plucked olive leaf! On the 24th of Shevat, he sends her out again, and this time “she didn't return to him any more.” In our mind we can see the stark and graceful image of Noach’s
dove circling over a world covered with water, hovering over the waters, circling and returning.

**The Spirit of Adonai hovered over the waters of creation in Genesis 1:2. And so we see that Elohim had washed the world clean to remake it with Noach’s offspring. to remake it into a new creation. And thus, we see once again a
symbol of the Spirit of Adonai hovering over the waters of the new creation. What a beautiful Torah picture?
What ever happened to Noach’s yonah (dove)?

Kefa Shimon ben Yonah (ben Yonah? Must be a coincidence) Apparently saw this revelation as well. Kefa wrote: “This also prefigures what delivers us now, the water of immersion, which is not the removal of dirt from the body, but one's pledge to keep a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah.” (1 Peter 3:21) Kefa makes a connection between the waters of immersion and Messiah’s resurrection.

Torah · #2 21st August 2008, 02:28 PM

The Forerunner (Eliyahu) is on the Scene
1 It was during those days that Yochanan the Immerser arrived in the desert of Y’hudah and began proclaiming the message, 2 "Turn from your sins to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near!" 3This is the man Yesha’yahu was talking about when he said, "The voice of someone crying out: ‘In the desert prepare the way of ADONAI! Make straight paths for him!’" (Matt. 3:1-3)

Yochanan the Immerser is none other than Yochanan ben Z’kharyah, the one whose miraculous birth precedes the birth of Yeshua some thirty years earlier.

Yochanan and Yeshua were nearly the same age (six months
apart) and related by blood (family) as it is written:

13But the angel said to him, "Don't be afraid, Z’kharyah; because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elisheva will bear you a son, and you are to name him Yochanan. 14He will be a joy and a delight to you, and many people
will rejoice when he is born, 15for he will be great in the sight of ADONAI. He is never to drink wine or other liquor, and he will be filled with the Ruach HaKodesh even from his mother's womb. 16He will turn many of the people of Isra’el to ADONAI their God. 17He will go out ahead of ADONAI in the spirit and power of Eliyahu to turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready for ADONAI a people prepared… 36You have a relative, Elisheva, who is an old woman; and everyone says she is
barren. But she has conceived a son and is six months pregnant! 37For with God, nothing is impossible." (Luke1:13-17; 36-37)

The angel Gabriel told Z’kharyah that in his son Malachi 4:5-6 (“5Behold, I will send you Eliyahu the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of ADONAI: 6And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”) would be fulfilled.

Yochanan was to be filled with Ruach HaKodesh from his mother's womb (while immersed in her body) and he would walk in the Spirit and Power of Eliyahu. Thus, the forerunner, after approximately 30 years of relative anonymity, walks on the scene. After king Herod died, his kingdom was divided into three heirs, so there was no king over Jerusalem while Yeshua was in Netzeret. As a cohen, Yochanan was entitled to serve in the Temple and to perform priestly functions.

But we do not see him emerging in the Temple, he emerges from the wilderness
of Y’hudah. His message.T’shuvah (Repent)! His theme song.“I hear a sound coming from the mountain, and it says ‘Prepare Ye the Way.’”

Yochanan the Immerser is the Eliyahu mentioned in the Gospels. Yeshua himself said: “Indeed, if you are willing to accept it, he is Eliyahu, whose coming was predicted.” (Matt. 11:14) His call to repentance was a call toright behavior.

In Luke 3, he urges people to;
(1) share with the needy,
(2) conduct business fairly,
(3) to treatpeople equitably,
(4) to avoid the misuse of authority, and
(5) to be satisfied with your wages.

Let us hear Elyahu the forerunner’s words and see for ourselves:

10The crowds asked Yochanan, "So then, what should we do?" 11He answered, "Whoever has two coats should share with somebody who has none, and whoever has food should do the same." 12Tax-collectors also came to be immersed; and they asked him, "Rabbi, what should we do?" 13"Collect no more than the government assesses," he told them. 14Some soldiers asked him, "What about us? What should we do?" To them he said, "Don't intimidate anyone, don't accuse people falsely, and be satisfied with your pay."
(Luke 3”10-14)

To Yochanan (and to every Jewish author of Scripture), repentance is way more that intellectual assent to a creed of beliefs (the Greek mindset).
it demanded fruit (“If you have really turned from your sins, produce fruit that
will prove it! And don't start saying to yourselves, ‘Avraham is our father’! For I tell you that God can raise up for Avraham sons from these stones!” (Luke 3:8)

The fruit of repentance is a life of good deeds, righteous lives of Torah
and Mitzvot practiced as justice toward men and devotion toward Adonai. Repentance is a call to return to Torah.

This is the mission expressed in Malachi 4:4-5 “"Remember the Torah of Moshe my servant, which I enjoined on him at Horev, laws and rulings for all Isra’el. Look, I will send to you Eliyahu the prophet before the coming of the great
and terrible Day of ADONAI"” His message was nothing short of a call for Israel to honor the provisions of the Covenant. In this way Yochanan was no different from Yechezk’el, Eliyahu, Yesha’yahu, Yermayahu,
Z’kharyah or any of the prophets before him.

Torah · #3 21st August 2008, 02:28 PM

The Anointing of the King – the Proclamation
When was Yeshua anointed? Sha’ul and David were anointed by the prophet Shmu’el. In other occasions it was accomplished by the cohen. Yochanan is both a prophet and a cohen! Further, the Anointed One of Israel (the Mashiac) is also to be a king. His anointing is to be accompanied with a vestment of the Spirit of Elohim.

In both Shmu’el and David, this was the case. But this is no earthly king, this is THE KING of kings and the LORD of lords. While the anointing of Yeshua was not done with oil, it was an anointing nonetheless, for here comes the Ruach Elohim, the yonah (dove) sent out from the bosom of our Abba (our Noach, so to speak,) to find a resting place upon the earth, after thousands of years of wandering, after finding the source of human anointing, the olive tree, lands in the shoulders of the Root of the Olive Tree people, Messiah Yeshua. And to
leave no stone unturned, Abba speaks and says:

This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased Like in Exodus 19, our people did not see Adonai (Abba), they only hear Him speak in what was described as a thunderous and exceedingly frightening voice. When the Father spoke, VERY IMPORTANT THINGS WERE GIVEN TO US.

We received the Torah and we said “Na’aseh V’Nishma.” In a similar manner we are now being spoken to by the Father as He gives us HATORAH (THE TORAH), the living Word, Yeshua HaMashiac, Immanuel. The Father throws His ring in the hat and tells us Himself, in an audible voice, that Yeshua is
His Anointed Son. Furthermore, He is well-pleased with Him (which gives approval to Yeshua’s 30 years of living in the earth with mankind.)

The Yonah (Dove) of G-d, the Ruach Elohim, has found His resting place.
Remember that Noah sent two birds out of the ark. The yonah (dove) was a clean bird whereas the orev (raven) was an unclean bird. The Talmud observes regarding the raven, “After forty days Noah... sent out a raven” whereas with the dove the Torah says, “he sent forth a dove from him.” Regarding the unclean bird it only says Noach dispatched it out of the ark. Regarding the dove it says that he sent it forth from him.

The dove came from Noach. The raven did not. The dove returned. The raven did not. The dove was a clean bird. The raven was not. The Talmud goes on to make a whimsical midrash on the incident explaining that Noach exiled the
raven and in the process called it “Evil One” because it had sinned in the ark, whereas the dove was sent forth from the Ark on a reconnaissance mission.

If we accept Ben Zoma’s midrash symbolically linking Noach’s yonah (dove) and the Ruach Elohim, it is a small step to make a similar connection between the raven and Satan (may his name be blotted out) the Adversary.

Like the raven, the enemy was exiled from heaven. Like the raven he spends his time going to and fro (cf.Job 1:7) circling and returning through the earth.
The first time Noach sent out the dove it could find no place to rest. There was no place to set its feet.

The Zohar Chadash compared this to G-d’s Dwelling Presence finding no righteous man on whom to rest. The second time he sent out the dove, however, it returned with an olive leaf. The dove had found an olive tree, a place to rest her feet. The olive tree is the Biblical representation of our Jewish people in the Book of Romans.

In the same way, the Holy Spirit of G-d found Yeshua, the Righteous Branch, and rested upon Him. How appropriate that the dove found an olive tree! The olive tree is compared to the people of Israel, of whom he was but a single leaf.

More than that, however, the olive is the source of the oil with which the kings of Israel were anointed. It is the source of anointing. So it follows that at His anointing, the Holy Spirit came upon Yeshua in the form of a dove, like Noach’s dove, to find a place to rest her feet. He is the Righteous Man on Whom the Dwelling Presence came to rest.

And so the Spirit of Adonai, in the form of a dove finally finds its Shabbat rest in the shoulders of the Messiah (in the shoulders of the Beloved Son, Yeshua,) by the mikvah waters of the Yarden. Thus we see a great connection between beginnings, mikvah, al p’nei hamayim, the olive leaf returning to the Branch, the Spirit of Adonai, and the voice of Abba.

In Conclusion – the sign of the Prophet Jonah
Earlier in the teaching I mentioned that Kefa makes a connection between the waters of immersion and Messiah’s resurrection. Yeshua makes this connection clear when: “39He replied, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign?

No! None will be given to it but the sign of the prophet Yonah. 40 For just as Yonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea-monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the depths of the earth. 41The people of Ninveh will stand up at the Judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they turned from their sins to God when Yonah preached, but what is here now is greater than Yonah.” (Matt. 12:39-41)

“29 As the people crowded around him, Yeshua went on to say, “This generation is a wicked generation! It asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it - except the sign of Yonah. 30For just as Yonah became a sign to the people of Ninveh, so will the Son of Man be for this generation. 31The Queen of the South will appear at the Judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Shlomo, and what is here now is greater than Shlomo. 32The people of Ninveh will stand up at the Judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they turned to God from their sins when Yonah preached, and what is here now is greater than Yonah.” (Luke 11:29-32)

The signthat was given to that generation (and is given to ours) is from the prophet Yonah (dove). The dove (Yonah)spoke then, and is speaking now. Our generation also asks for signs, but we were already given the sign, that is,
the resurrection. “1Then some P’rushim and Tz’dukim came to trap Yeshua by asking him to show them a miraculous sign from Heaven. 2But his response was, “When it is evening, you say, ‘Fair weather ahead,’ because the sky is red;
3and in the morning you say, ‘Storm today!’ because the sky is red and overcast. You know how to read the appearance of the sky, but you can't read the signs of the times! 4A wicked and adulterous generation is asking for a sign? It will certainly not be given a sign - except the sign of Yonah!” With that he left them and went off.” (Matt. 16:1-4)

According to Rabbi Sha’ul the resurrection is a key aspect of our faith:
“12But if it has been proclaimed that the Messiah has been raised from the dead, how is it that some of you are saying there is no such thing as a resurrection of the dead? 13If there is no resurrection of the dead, then the Messiah has not been raised; 14and if the Messiah has not been raised, then what we have proclaimed is in vain; also your trust is in vain; 15furthermore, we are shown up as false witnesses for God in having testified that God raised up the Messiah, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16For if the dead are not raised, then the Messiah has not been raised either; 17and if the Messiah has not been raised, your trust is useless, and you are still in your sins. 18Also, if this is the case, those who died in union with the Messiah are lost. 19If it is only for this life that we have put our hope in the Messiah, we are more pitiable than anyone. 20But the fact is that the Messiah has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have died. 21For since death came through a man, also the resurrection of the dead has come through a man. 22For just as in connection with Adam all die, so in connection with the Messiah all will be made alive. 23But each in his own order: the Messiah is the firstfruits; then those who belong to the Messiah, at the time of his coming.” (1 Cor. 15:12-23)

“After breakfast, Yeshua said to Shim’on Kefa, "Shim’on Bar-Yonah, do you love me more than these?...A second time he said to him, "Shim’on Bar-Yonah, do you love me?... The third time he said to him, "Shim’on Bar-Yonah, are you
my friend? ...” (John 21:15-17)

Similarly today Yeshua is asking you and I these questions: Do you love me more than other people? Do you love me? Are you my friend? What will our response be this year? L-rd, you knoweverything! L-rd, You know we love you and we are your friend forever…

Based loosely on Parashat Noach, Torah Club Volume IV, ©First Fruits of Zion, Colorado Springs, CO. 2002

http://www.kolsimcha.org/messages/2007/101307M.pdf

Tishri1 · #4 21st August 2008, 02:52 PM

Excellent teaching Torah , thanks for sharing it...What part stood out to you the most?