Can you help me to understand how to read the Torah portions? I am new to this and would like to create a rhythm!
Does one read this particular portion on Saturday (Aug 29)? And then what do we do the rest of the week? Or do the readings get spread out over the week? Curious to know the takes on how others do their readings. Thank you!
So you would start following Shabbat and read the one for the following Shabbat. So today you could start to read Nitzavim-Vayelech. On Friday I will publish my lesson on it and you can learn more about it having already read it. I would also write down any insights you have as your reading it. It can end up making a beautiful yearly Bible study notebook!
Faithfully handing down a confession, a practice, or a tradition is vital to spiritual coherence. My own tradition (in conflict with then specific corrupt church traditions) declared "only Scripture." That was a declaration designed to resolve a 16th century problem. Tradition helps keep all of us "fiddlers" balanced on the roof. That is why I keep drawing water from the deep wells of the faith.
I'm here at 9pm thinkng about this post after reading it x3. The weekly practice caught me unaware of the one thing I received this year that I didn't reinterpret, reinvent, but valued it as it was, and passed it on. This is disturbing for me. Did I receive anything of value that requires no re-creation? Something I feel so essential that it's value is in itself that requires nothing but entering into it because of it's complete value. All I come up with is things I felt additions would improve except The Gospel. The Scriptures. Yet is interpretation an addition? You uncovered, or help me uncover a deeply hidden flaw in myself.
Yet I fill like I'm being emptied of something that needs to go, a burden released so I can so Enter that Reality that needs no additions, that gives me the compulsion to make sure it doesn't end with me.
Also the sixty eight curses in Deuteronomy 28 is a revelation of Divine responses to certain things. Generational curses. How does one be pulled from the brink of the darkest despair after reading about a life resemembling those things mentioned, with the Divine being the orchestrater of these lives that seem to have little or no hope for the near future? I've read Deuteronomy chapter 28 many times. But in this post, I wonder why the curses seem to be so penetrating. Maybe because I can remember my life in some places, looking like them.
Thanks Diane, for the challenge you gave me in this post!
A wonderful article! We are always entering into a "new"! Or about to enter. Thanks for taking us along the journey of entering, remembering, and seeing the blessing that's part of the whole story. It will take some time for me to digest all you have said, so I don't miss anything. At 73, it's worth the effort!.
I love this portion. I love it because it gives me confidence in the consistency and integrity of what I have received. When outsiders throw rocks of doubt and drill questions as holes into the reliability of the Christian faith, I can rest in this, in the way it was received and passed along. I love that it includes liturgical readings of history as truth. I love that it assigns us what to say without any instruction to bring personal expression or spontaneous modern impressions of faith. No, our faith has the weight of earth, the legs of escape, and the light that has come. Mmmm. This is what I am charged with. I must receive the weight of the past from the one before me, and turn to the next person in line and hand it over to them.
Paul opens 1 Corinthians 15 with a word pair built for formal transmission.
“Now I make known to you, brothers and sisters, the Good News which I proclaimed to you. You also received it, and you took your stand on it... For I also passed on to you first of all what I also received—that Messiah died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” 1 Corinthians 15:1, 3 (TLV) Later rabbinic Hebrew expresses this pattern with qibbel and masar, receive and transmit, as in the opening line of Pirkei Avot: Moses received the Torah at Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua.
Paul’s point is that this message was received and faithfully handed on, not invented on the spot. I did not make this up, he’s saying. This was given to me, and I am giving it to you intact.
Put that next to a farmer standing at an altar reciting words he didn’t invent either, my father was a wandering Aramean, words older than his own memory, retelling a story that isn’t only his. Same instinct.
Some truths are too important to leave to spontaneous personal expression. You receive them intact. You pass them on intact. Ki Tavo.
It's interesting what I see while being introduced to the Torah portions for the first time. When I met the Messiah, I was in a liturgical church with assigned weekly portions. So, this is comfortable to me. But what I saw in this portion was very different from what you describe. We each have our perspective.
What stood out to me in the Torah portion was a simple verse—29:4, "But to this day Adonai has not given you a heart to know, or eyes to see, or ears to hear."
It struck me that this early, as they are just getting ready to enter the Promised land, the Father told them about their need for the New Covenant. We didn't get a heart to know until the Father removed the heart of stone, replacing it with a heart of flesh. And then giving us His Ruach within to enable us to live it all out.
Isaiah 60 is part of the great crescendo at the end of his book talking about not only the Millennial reign, but also about the new creation. It's amazing how much the Lord showed Isaiah.
Verse 11, "Your gates will always be open,
they will not be shut by day or by night,
so that people can bring you the wealth of nations,
with their kings led in procession."
This is talking about the New Jerusalem. It's referenced in Revelation 21.
Then verse 19, "The sun will no longer be your light by day,
and the brightness of the moon will not shine on you.
The Lord will be your everlasting light,
and your God will be your splendor."
This is talking about the time when we will know as we are known, living in the New Jerusalem with the Father in our midst providing the light. It's referenced in Revelation 22.
We are living in a time where immense portions of prophecy are being fulfilled, daily. How we are blessed to see what we are seeing.
Yes people can take different perspectives on the portions. There are many aspects to draw a lesson from. I even see rabbis I know cover different things in the same portion.
What's such a delight is that I can talk about things like this and not get shut down. Sergio's things about the gatekeepers was dead accurate. The denominations keep conversations shut down, because they can't control the results. It's why they pushed the Holy Spirit out of church. It's why they pushed out the Jews because the Torah has a Truth they cannot control also.
There are going to be many hugely surprised people who are forced to live through Daniel's final week of years. I still see somewhere between 2-5% of the institutional churches are actually true believers. It's going to be horrendous.
It's specifically referring to an idolatrous image, like one that represents a god. There are lots of times God commands an image be made (like the cherubim). The issue is what it is made for.
Can you help me to understand how to read the Torah portions? I am new to this and would like to create a rhythm!
Does one read this particular portion on Saturday (Aug 29)? And then what do we do the rest of the week? Or do the readings get spread out over the week? Curious to know the takes on how others do their readings. Thank you!
Oh and I should have mentioned there is a calendar here on my other site that will give you the readings for each week. https://www.worthbeyondrubies.com/messianic-torah-portion-calendar/
Oh fantastic! That saves me a trip to the google 😉 thank you!!
So you would start following Shabbat and read the one for the following Shabbat. So today you could start to read Nitzavim-Vayelech. On Friday I will publish my lesson on it and you can learn more about it having already read it. I would also write down any insights you have as your reading it. It can end up making a beautiful yearly Bible study notebook!
Ah this makes sense! So, this portion was last weeks.
I will look up and start the Nitzavim-Vayelech 🙂
This was such an interesting and informative read. Thank you Diane ! Great teaching !
Thank you!
Faithfully handing down a confession, a practice, or a tradition is vital to spiritual coherence. My own tradition (in conflict with then specific corrupt church traditions) declared "only Scripture." That was a declaration designed to resolve a 16th century problem. Tradition helps keep all of us "fiddlers" balanced on the roof. That is why I keep drawing water from the deep wells of the faith.
I'm here at 9pm thinkng about this post after reading it x3. The weekly practice caught me unaware of the one thing I received this year that I didn't reinterpret, reinvent, but valued it as it was, and passed it on. This is disturbing for me. Did I receive anything of value that requires no re-creation? Something I feel so essential that it's value is in itself that requires nothing but entering into it because of it's complete value. All I come up with is things I felt additions would improve except The Gospel. The Scriptures. Yet is interpretation an addition? You uncovered, or help me uncover a deeply hidden flaw in myself.
Yet I fill like I'm being emptied of something that needs to go, a burden released so I can so Enter that Reality that needs no additions, that gives me the compulsion to make sure it doesn't end with me.
Also the sixty eight curses in Deuteronomy 28 is a revelation of Divine responses to certain things. Generational curses. How does one be pulled from the brink of the darkest despair after reading about a life resemembling those things mentioned, with the Divine being the orchestrater of these lives that seem to have little or no hope for the near future? I've read Deuteronomy chapter 28 many times. But in this post, I wonder why the curses seem to be so penetrating. Maybe because I can remember my life in some places, looking like them.
Thanks Diane, for the challenge you gave me in this post!
“We remember ourselves into the story” until we become part of it. Ritual is entering in to a story.
A wonderful article! We are always entering into a "new"! Or about to enter. Thanks for taking us along the journey of entering, remembering, and seeing the blessing that's part of the whole story. It will take some time for me to digest all you have said, so I don't miss anything. At 73, it's worth the effort!.
Thank you! She's So Scripture!!!
I love this portion. I love it because it gives me confidence in the consistency and integrity of what I have received. When outsiders throw rocks of doubt and drill questions as holes into the reliability of the Christian faith, I can rest in this, in the way it was received and passed along. I love that it includes liturgical readings of history as truth. I love that it assigns us what to say without any instruction to bring personal expression or spontaneous modern impressions of faith. No, our faith has the weight of earth, the legs of escape, and the light that has come. Mmmm. This is what I am charged with. I must receive the weight of the past from the one before me, and turn to the next person in line and hand it over to them.
Paul opens 1 Corinthians 15 with a word pair built for formal transmission.
“Now I make known to you, brothers and sisters, the Good News which I proclaimed to you. You also received it, and you took your stand on it... For I also passed on to you first of all what I also received—that Messiah died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” 1 Corinthians 15:1, 3 (TLV) Later rabbinic Hebrew expresses this pattern with qibbel and masar, receive and transmit, as in the opening line of Pirkei Avot: Moses received the Torah at Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua.
Paul’s point is that this message was received and faithfully handed on, not invented on the spot. I did not make this up, he’s saying. This was given to me, and I am giving it to you intact.
Put that next to a farmer standing at an altar reciting words he didn’t invent either, my father was a wandering Aramean, words older than his own memory, retelling a story that isn’t only his. Same instinct.
Some truths are too important to leave to spontaneous personal expression. You receive them intact. You pass them on intact. Ki Tavo.
This is amazing…thank you
It's interesting what I see while being introduced to the Torah portions for the first time. When I met the Messiah, I was in a liturgical church with assigned weekly portions. So, this is comfortable to me. But what I saw in this portion was very different from what you describe. We each have our perspective.
What stood out to me in the Torah portion was a simple verse—29:4, "But to this day Adonai has not given you a heart to know, or eyes to see, or ears to hear."
It struck me that this early, as they are just getting ready to enter the Promised land, the Father told them about their need for the New Covenant. We didn't get a heart to know until the Father removed the heart of stone, replacing it with a heart of flesh. And then giving us His Ruach within to enable us to live it all out.
Isaiah 60 is part of the great crescendo at the end of his book talking about not only the Millennial reign, but also about the new creation. It's amazing how much the Lord showed Isaiah.
Verse 11, "Your gates will always be open,
they will not be shut by day or by night,
so that people can bring you the wealth of nations,
with their kings led in procession."
This is talking about the New Jerusalem. It's referenced in Revelation 21.
Then verse 19, "The sun will no longer be your light by day,
and the brightness of the moon will not shine on you.
The Lord will be your everlasting light,
and your God will be your splendor."
This is talking about the time when we will know as we are known, living in the New Jerusalem with the Father in our midst providing the light. It's referenced in Revelation 22.
We are living in a time where immense portions of prophecy are being fulfilled, daily. How we are blessed to see what we are seeing.
The depth of the scriptures is such a delight.
Yes people can take different perspectives on the portions. There are many aspects to draw a lesson from. I even see rabbis I know cover different things in the same portion.
What's such a delight is that I can talk about things like this and not get shut down. Sergio's things about the gatekeepers was dead accurate. The denominations keep conversations shut down, because they can't control the results. It's why they pushed the Holy Spirit out of church. It's why they pushed out the Jews because the Torah has a Truth they cannot control also.
There are going to be many hugely surprised people who are forced to live through Daniel's final week of years. I still see somewhere between 2-5% of the institutional churches are actually true believers. It's going to be horrendous.
Yes the gatekeepers thing is sadly quite true. I am glad you feel free to talk about things like this.
I've been shut down by the church for over 50 years now. It's such a joy.
"“‘Cursed is the one who makes a carved or molten image—an abomination to Adonai, the work of a craftsman’s hands—and sets it up in secret.’ "
Does this mean for the purpose of worship or any carved or molten image for any reason?
It's specifically referring to an idolatrous image, like one that represents a god. There are lots of times God commands an image be made (like the cherubim). The issue is what it is made for.