Musing – Do Jews really have a prayer for everything?

Hebraic Musing – Do Jews really have a prayer for everything?

Yes, they even have a prayer for your frequent daily activity, visiting the toilet.  I’d seen it in Siddurs, Jewish prayer books, and found this exceptional explanation from a Jew, Dr. Kenneth M.Prager, M.D:

“When I was an elementary school student in yeshiva (Jewish parochial school) … I used to find amusing a sign that was posted just outside the bathroom. It was an ancient Jewish blessing, commonly referred to as the Asher Yatzar benediction, to be recited after one relieved oneself. For grade school children, there could be nothing more strange or ridiculous than to link to acts of micturition and defecation with holy words that mentioned God's name.  Blessings were reserved for prayers, for holy days, or for thanking God for food or for some act of deliverance, but surely not for a bodily function that evoked smirks and giggles.

“It took me several decades to realize the wisdom that lay behind this blessing that was composed by Abayei, a fourth-century Babylonian rabbi. … Abayei said, when one comes out of a privy he should say:

“Blessed is He who has formed man in wisdom and created in him many orifices and many cavities. It is obvious and known before Your throne of glory that if one of them were to be ruptured or one of them blocked, it would be impossible for a man to survive and stand before You. Blessed are You that heals all flesh and does wonders.”

… “It was not until my second year of medical school that I first began to understand the appropriateness of this short prayer. Pathophysiology brought home to me the terrible consequences of even minor aberrations in the structure and function of the human body.  … I began to no longer take for granted the normalcy of my trips to the bathroom. Instead, I started to realize how many things had to operate just right for these minor interruptions of my daily routine to run smoothly. …  after seeing patients whose lives revolved around their dialysis machines and others with colostomies and urinary catheters, I realized how wise the rabbi had been.  …  Over the years, reciting the Asher Yatzarhas become for me and opportunity to offer thanks not just for the proper functioning of my excretory organs, but for my overall good health. … Could Abayei … have foreseen that "blockage" of the "cavity," or lumen, of the coronary artery would lead to the commonest cause of death in industrialized countries …

“There was one unforgettable patient whose story reinforced the truth and beauty of the Asher Yatzar for me forever.  Josh was a 20-year-old student who sustained an unstable fracture of his third and fourth cervical vertebrae in a motor vehicle crash. He nearly died from his injury and required emergency intubation and ventilatory support. He was initially totally quadriplegic but for weak flexion of his right biceps.

“A long and difficult period of stabilization and rehabilitation followed. There were promising signs of neurological recovery over the first few months that came suddenly and unexpectedly: movement of a finger here, flexion of a toe there, return of sensation here, adduction of a muscle group there. With incredible courage, hard work, and an excellent physical therapist, Josh improved day by day. In time, …  he was able to walk slowly with a leg brace and a cane. But Josh continued to require intermittent catheterization. I know only too well the problems and perils this young man would face for the rest of his life because of a neurogenic bladder. The urologists were very pessimistic about his chances for not requiring catheterization. They had not seen this occur after a spinal cord injury of this severity.

“Then the impossible happened. I was there the day Josh no longer required a urinary catheter. I thought of Abayei's Asher Yatzar  prayer. Pointing out that I could not imagine a more meaningful scenario for its recitation, I suggested to Josh, who was also a yeshiva graduate, that he say the prayer. He agreed. As he recited the ancient bracha, tears welled in my eyes.  …    Josh is my son.”

Thank you Dr. Kenneth M. Prager for sharing.

Point to ponder

Do you yearn for some way to express gratitude for your good health?

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                                                 December 30, 2014
Books author “Hebraic Insights”; “Biblical Marriage”; “Musings v.1 – A Victorious Life”
Weekly e-mails “Hebraic Musings”
Yosef1@cox.net   or   www.InsightsByYosef.com
Source:  http://www.torah.org/features/firstperson/everythingablessing.html

Musing – A closer look at Luke’s classic Christmas gospel!

Hebraic Musing – A closer look at Luke’s classic Christmas gospel!

The classic Gospel message describing the forthcoming birth of Jesus is in Luke 2:8-18:
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, ….  An angel of the Lord appeared to them, …, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.  This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in (swaddling) cloths and lying in a manger." …  When the angels had left them and … the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."  So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.  When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child,  and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.  NIV (excerpted here for brevity)

Here are the words or phrases that jumped off the page at me:

“shepherds living out in the fields” – Christmas as we know it is celebrated in the Winter, however in December in Israel the shepherds have already taken their flocks into shelter.  So the timing of the birth of Yeshua is more likely to have been during the Feast of Sukkot, a.k.a. Tabernacles or Booths. Two reasons – (1) The taxing by the Romans would have been scheduled for a time when the Israelites had to be gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate one of the three required pilgrimage feasts, see Dt.16:16, and (2) The Feast of Tabernacles is a foreshadowing of the coming of the Messiah, Our Savior, coming to tabernacle or dwell with us.

“all the people” -  The angels did say His coming is for “all”, meaning Jew and Gentile.

“town of David” Even the Shepherds knew that meant “Bethlehem”.  Reference to David’s city is implying the Messianic King would come from David’s lineage, thus Bethlehem.  And did you know that the Hebrew for Bethlehem is Bet Lechem?  Bet, the second letter in the Hebrew Aleph-Bet symbolizes a house or tent; and Lechem is Hebrew for Bread.  Yeshua later called himself the “Bread of Life” and His birthplace was “the house of bread”, Bet Lechem.

“Wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger”  To be told that Jesus will be found wrapped in swaddling cloths is a unique sign.  There are many interpretations of  the significance of “swaddling cloths” but all signify specialness.  On the other hand, He is found in a manger, animal’s feeding trough!

“they spread the word” – Sounds to me that the lowly shepherds were the first evangelists!  They understood the significance of the moment and the angelic announcement, so they wanted to spread the Word, the “good news”, or Gospel.

Points to Ponder

Let’s follow the example of the shepherds!

The best way to spread Christmas cheer
is to sing LOUD so all can hear.

We wish y’all a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, 
      & L’Shanah Tovah (Happy New Year)

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                                                 December 23, 2014

Musing – Gen. & Rev. - “In the Beginning” and “in the End”

Hebraic Musing – Gen. & Rev. - “In the Beginning” and “in the End”

Part 2 of 2.  Last week, Johanna portrayed references to the Torah she found in the Book of Revelation.  Similarly, in an “Hebraic Insight” published about four years ago, I listed 22 examples of how God “finalized” in the Book of Revelation what He created or started in the book of Genesis.  You might call this overview “Creation and De-creation” or “The Relationship between Genesis and Revelation.” This is just another example of why we cannot fully understand the New Testament unless we understand it as fulfillment of the Old Testament. What God creates in Genesis, the beginning of time, He wraps up in Revelation, the end of time. Examples:[1]

Genesis 1:1               In the beginning God created …
Revelation 22:13      I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

Genesis 1:3               God said “Let there be light”…
Revelation 21:23      The city does not need the sun … glory of God gives it light …

Genesis 1:6               God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.”
Revelation 8:10–11  The third angel sounded his trumpet, and … A third of the waters turned bitter …

Genesis 1:8               God called the expanse “sky.”
Revelation 20:11      Then … Earth and sky fled from his presence … no place for them.

Genesis 1:11             Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees …”
Revelation 8:7          The first angel … earth was burned up, a third of the trees … all the green grass …

Genesis 1:14             God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from night ”
Revelation8:12         The fourth angel … a third of the sun … of the moon … of the stars … turned dark.

Genesis 1:20             God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth …”
Revelation 8:8–9      The second angel sounded … and … a third of the living creatures in the sea died …

Genesis 1:26             God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness …”
Revelation 9:15        And the four angels … ready … were released to kill a third of mankind.

Genesis 1:27             God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him …
Revelation 21:3        Now the dwelling of God is with men …God himself will be with them… be their God.

Genesis 2:1–2           Thus the heavens and the earth were completed… God had finished … he rested …
Revelation 21:5–6    He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” … “It is done.”

Have you see the pattern?  Everything that God started in Genesis, He tied off or finished in the Revelation:

a)    Sin is introduced in Genesis 3.     Sin is done away with in Revelation 20:3: He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations …

b)    The curse is pronounced in Genesis 3.    The curse is destroyed in Revelation 21.

c)    Death enters in Genesis 3.      There is no more death after Revelation 21.

d)    Man is banished from Eden in Gen. 3.    Man’s presence is welcome in the Garden of Eden. Rev. 22.

e)    The Tree of Life is guarded in Genesis 3.   The right to the Tree of Life is available in Revelation 22.

f)    Sorrow & suffering introduced in Genesis 3.    There is no more sorrow or suffering after Rev. 22.

g)    Nimrod founds Babylon in Genesis 10.      Babylon finally falls in Revelation 18:21: Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, and said: “With such violence the great city of Babylon will be thrown down, never to be found again.”

h)    God uses a flood to destroy sinful men in Genesis 6–9.    Satan tries to destroy the elect in Rev. 12.

i)     God signs His covenant with a rainbow in Genesis 9.     Then He seals it in Revelation 10:1: Then I saw another mighty angel … robed in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head; his face was like the sun …

j)     Sodom and Egypt are introduced as signs of evil and corruption in Genesis 13.      Sodom and Egypt become the two witnesses in Jerusalem in Revelation 11:8: Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.

k)    A bride is chosen for Abraham’s son in Genesis 24.     In Rev.19 & 21 Abe’s seed becomes the bride

l)     The marriage of the first Adam takes place in Genesis 2.     The last Adam is married in Revelation 19.

m)   Satan’s dominion is established in Genesis.     Christ’s dominion is established in Revelation.

So we see that what God created in Genesis at the beginning of time, He wraps up in Revelation, at the end of time.

Point to Ponder

Can you really understand and fully appreciate the New Testament
without studying the Old Testament, especially the Torah?

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                                                 December 16, 2014

Books author “Hebraic Insights”; “Biblical Marriage”; “Musings v.1 – A Victorious Life”
Weekly e-mails “Hebraic Musings”
Yosef1@cox.net   or  www.InsightsByYosef.com

---

[1] All Bible references are from NIV

Musing – Gen. & Rev. – “God finishes what He started in Torah”

Hebraic Musing – Gen. & Rev. – “God finishes what He started in Torah”

Part 1 of 2. After reading the Book of Revelation, my friend Johanna Hocker was amazed at the references to Torah. (Next week I’ll follow-up by showing what God created in Genesis, He de-creates in Revelation) Following are Johanna’s own words – references are from the Book of Revelation:  

1:12-18. Yeshua is described in the midst of the Menorah of the tabernacle.

3:8. The Assembly at Philadelphia is praised for keeping the Torah and for not denying the Name.

Throughout the book there are multiple references to white garments or linen garments, which were the garments of the priests of the tabernacle and temple.

4:6-7. The beasts surrounding the throne are the same as the standards of the four groups of tribes surrounding the tabernacle, from Numbers 2:3-35:
            Lion on the east, made up of Judah, Issachar and Zebulon.
            Ox on the west with Ephraim, Manasseh and Benjamin. 
            Man on the south with Reuben, Simeon and Gad.
            Eagle on the north with Dan, Asher and Naphtali. 

5:5. Describes Yeshua as the Lamb Slain, a reference to the Passover Lamb in Exodus 12:21 and John's reference to Yeshua when he proclaimed, "Behold the lamb of Elohim” in John 1:36

5:9. The incense represents the prayers of the saints and in Ex 30:1-7 the incense altar was where incense was burned morning and evening because we are to be praying always.

6:9. Souls of those slain for the Torah of Yehovah and for testimony of Yeshua {the covenant}.

10:8-10. Eat little scroll (Torah); whereas Ez. 3:1, eat scroll (OT, admittedly not the Torah)

11:1-2. Measure Temple, not courtyard (Gentiles).  Temple symbolizes of Yehovah.  The courtyard is where the person seeking a relationship with Yehovah is as they bring a pleasing fellowship offering to Yehovah. Exodus 25:9

11:19. Temple in heaven with Ark of Covenant.  The covenant is still in effect, Exodus 37 & 40

15:5. John saw the Temple doors open and he saw the Ark of Covenant!

16:17. The throne is in the temple, which makes sense as the Temple is the dwelling place of Yehovah.

17:17. Torah of Yehovah fulfilled referencing Isaiah 47:1-15 (OT, admittedly not the Torah)

19:8-16. Marriage supper of Lamb, the true Torah of Yehovah.  Yeshua's name called, "the Torah of Yehovah".  His name on his tallit (Num.15:38) and thigh King of Kings and Master of all. 

21:3. Behold the Tabernacle of Yehovah ... Ex. 29:45, Lev. 26:12, Jer. 31:1, Ez. 37:27

22:12-20 (excerpted) “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to his works.  I am the Aleph and Tav, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.  Blessed are those who keep His commandments, so that they may have the right to the tree of life (Gen. 2), and may enter by the gates into the city… v.18  I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, Yehovah will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; If anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, Yehovah will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.  He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” So be it."   This admonition is also in Deut. 4:2  “Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.”   And again in Deut. 12:32  “See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it.”

It is such a joy to realize that the Bible is one unified book from Genesis to Revelation.  The same Covenant is presented throughout, creation is a repeated topic throughout the Bible, and Yeshua as the Savior is referenced throughout the Bible.  Any theology that dismisses any portion of the Bible cannot be true.  We cannot disregard a passage of scripture just because it does not line up with our theology. 

Thank you Sister Johanna.  Next week I’ll share parallels in Genesis and Revelation.

Point to ponder

If the Torah is the foundation for the book of Revelation,
maybe we need to study the foundation?

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                                                 December 9, 2014

Books author “Hebraic Insights”; “Biblical Marriage”; “Musings v.1 – A Victorious Life”
Weekly e-mails “Hebraic Musings”
Yosef1@cox.net   or  www.InsightsByYosef.com