Shabbat Shalom - Parsha Ki Tavo - When You Enter !!!
Last week, in Parsha Ki Tetze, God gave to the Israelites 74 of the 613 commandments found in the Torah
- far more than any other Torah portion. These laws mostly seem to be concerned with protecting the weaker
members of society and include the laws of the beautiful captive, paying workers in a timely fashion, and leaving
a portion of the harvest in the field for the widow, the fatherless and the stranger. This week, in Parsha Ki Tavo
(When You Enter), God instructs Israel to bring the first-ripened fruits (bikkurim) to the Temple in Jerusalem
once the Israelites have finally entered the Land He promised to them.
Previously posted ...
RESIGNATION Assignment - IS - January 1st 2015 !!!
http://conpats.blogspot.com/
BREAKING NEWS FROM ISRAEL
Minute by minute updates here ...
http://www.kolbonews.com/
http://www.ynetnews.com/home/
http://www.jewishworldreview.
http://www.israpundit.org/
http://pamelageller.com/
Excellent biblical analysis desseminating events leading to the rapture
9-12-14 Hummingbird027's Updates on End-Time and Prophetic News (19:54)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://hummingbird027.com/
♥†♥ ♥†♥ ♥†♥
Summer snow blankets Rockies from Canada to Colorado
http://news.yahoo.com/summer-
Spectacular Hailstorm Triggers Flash Flood in Spain
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/
The Ark Passes Over the Jordan by James Tissot, 1896
http://fineartamerica.com/
When you have entered [ki tavo] the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance ... take some of the firstfruits of all
that you produce from the soil of the land the Lord your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the
Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for His name.
Deuteronomy 26:1,2
With the New Year nearly upon us, here is Kokosh to enjoy ...
http://www.chabad.org/
29 Elul - Erev Rosh Hashanah - 9/24/14
What's Better Than Babka? Meet Kokosh
Rachel Tepper - Associate Food Editor, Sep 9, 2014
What to do when a babushka-clad bubbe snatches the last babka out from under your nose?
Consider kokosh, the babka-like Jewish pastry that deserves to be more than simply a second choice.
https://www.yahoo.com/food/
Lilly’s Bakery Shop - http://lillysbakeryshop.com/
Thanks - Ave Victoria
A beautiful vid for you and your beloveds ...
Sol A'Kokosh Mahr sung By Yeshurin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/user/
http://wn.com/sol_o_kokosh
Shabbat Shalom - Parsha Ki Tavo - When You Enter !!!
To protect the precious handwritten text of the Torah scroll, a yad
(Torah pointer) is used to follow along in the reading.
Shabbat Shalom !
Welcome to Ki Tavo
(When You Enter),
this week’s Parsha (Torah Portion).
this week’s Parsha (Torah Portion).
This Torah portion will be read in synagogues around the
world during the Shabbat (Saturday) morning service. Please
read along with us and discover how precious you are to the
Lord.
Ki Tavo (When You
Enter)
Deuteronomy 26:1–29:9 (8); Isaiah 60:1–22; Luke
23:26–56
“When you have entered [ki
tavo] the land the Lord your God is giving you as an
inheritance ... take some of the firstfruits of all that
you produce from the soil of the land the Lord your God is
giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place
the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for His name.”
(Deuteronomy 26:1–2)
An Israeli girl with an offering basket. (GPO)
Last week, in Parsha Ki Tetze, God gave to the
Israelites 74 of the 613 commandments found in the Torah—far
more than any other Torah portion.
These laws mostly seem to be concerned with protecting
the weaker members of society and include the laws of the
beautiful captive, paying workers in a timely fashion, and
leaving a portion of the harvest in the field for the widow,
the fatherless and the stranger.
This week, in Parsha Ki
Tavo (When You Enter), God instructs
Israel to bring the first-ripened
fruits (bikkurim) to the Temple in
Jerusalem once the Israelites have finally entered the Land
He promised to them.
Baskets of fruit harvested in Israel (Photo: Go Israel)
It must have been a relief for the children of
Israel to hear that their prolonged, 40-year journey
through the terrible wilderness would finally be coming to
an end. They were about to cross over into the
Promised Land.
In fact, the word in Hebrew for a Hebrew, Ivri,
comes from the root
I-V-R, which means to cross over. In a
spiritual sense, anyone who has crossed over into the
Kingdom of God is an Ivri.
For that reason, perhaps, Paul said that being a Jew is
a matter of having a circumcised heart more than circumcised
flesh. He wasn’t
negating circumcision by any means; he was emphasizing
that to cross over into the Kingdom of God, there must
be an inward change. Those who worship
God, worship Him in Spirit and in truth.
“But he is a Jew who is
one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the
heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is
not from men, but from God.” (Romans 2:29)
The wilderness experience was so challenging and
defining that future rabbinic texts consider any physical or
spiritual desert as an enemy to be overcome. Our challenge
is to walk through the times of wilderness in our lives and
be transformed so that we can enter the Promised Land.
The Ark Passes Over the Jordan, by James Tissot
Ki Tavo opens with the promise that obedience
to God will be rewarded. These rewards include
Divine protection, prosperity and blessings on families and
future generations.
Disobedience and rebellion against God, however, result
in punishment, and the Word of God lists 98 chilling
admonitions that take up half of the Parsha. These include
diseases and plagues, poverty and famine, slavery, and
defeat by enemies.
For this reason, Parsha Ki Tavo has been called “the
warning chapter,” and the Torah reader, who traditionally
chants the Torah portion according to a sing-song pattern,
instead rushes through
the recital of dreaded curses in a hushed, fearful tone.
We don’t need to look far to see that the Jewish people
have been blessed by the Almighty God as He promised; but
they have also done more than their fair share of suffering
over the centuries due to the curses of the law that come
into play because of sin (Deuteronomy 28:15–68).
Teviah, the father in the movie Fiddler on the Roof,
expressed this sentiment so humorously when talking to God
after his horse became lame just before the Sabbath: “God, I
know that we are Your chosen people, but … couldn’t You
choose someone else for a change?”
There are some who follow Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus the
Messiah), but believe that it is our lot in life to suffer
from these curses along with the rest of the world; however,
the Word of God tells us differently.
As covenant children of God, we are to enjoy His
blessings on our lives if we are walking in obedience to His
commandments.
"But Messiah has rescued
us from the curse pronounced by the law. When He was hung
on the cross, He took upon Himself the curse for our
wrongdoing." (Galatians 3:13)
Torah scroll and yad
Being a Blessing
One of the first acts of obedience that the
Lord asks of His people is to remove the firstfruits of
our increase, our tithe, the sacred portion—and
to give it to those who serve the Lord, as well as to the
poor.
“Then say to the LORD your God: ‘I have removed from My
house the sacred portion and have given it to the Levite,
the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, according to all You
commanded.’” (Deuteronomy
26:13)
If we are not obeying this command, then we have little
Biblical basis on which to expect God’s blessings on our
finances.
God promises
that if we obey Him in giving our tithe, He will rebuke
the devourer for our sakes and bless our finances.
"Then
I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not
destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in
the field cast its grapes, says the LORD of hosts.” (Malachi
3:10)
"Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your
produce." (Proverbs 3:9)
But the reverse holds true as well: if we fail to give
to God the “hallowed portion” of our income, then we are
breaking covenant by “robbing God.” When we fail to tithe,
we come under a curse and give the devourer free rein to
work havoc and destroy our finances.
While Yeshua has
removed from us the curse of the law, He has not removed
from us the obligation to follow His example by living a
holy life. When we understand that we are walking in
sin in some area, we are to repent and return to Him.
By giving our tithe—the holy (kadosh) portion of our
income—removing it from our possession, we return to God in
so many ways and He returns to us.
“Return
to Me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty.
“But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’ Will a mere mortal
rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, ‘How are we
robbing you?’ In tithes and offerings. You are under a
curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing Me.” (Malachi
3:7–9)
A homeless man in Israel prays at the Western
(Wailing) Wall in Jerusalem.
In Judaism, the giving of tzedakah
(charity) is considered such an important
mitzvah (commandment)
that if someone does not fulfill this law, their lineage
actually becomes suspect.
Giving to the poor is an obligation in Judaism,
a duty that cannot be forsaken even by those who
themselves are in need. Some sages have said
that tzedakah is the highest of all commandments, equal to
all of them combined and that a person who does not perform
tzedakah is equivalent to an idol worshiper.
This principle is
affirmed also in the Brit Chadashah (New Testament),
which emphasizes that if we don’t give when we see a
brother in material need, it is doubtful that the love
of God truly dwells within us.
“If anyone has material
possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity
on him, how can the love of God be in him?” (1 John
3:17)
Of course, the Lord rewards compassion and generosity.
He promises that when we give to the poor and needy, the
widows and orphans, He will pay us back for what we have
given.
“Whoever is generous to
the poor lends to the LORD, and He will repay him for his
deed.” (Proverbs 19:17)
A homeless man begs on the street in Israel.
A Treasured
Possession
“And the LORD has declared
this day that you are His people, His treasured
possession as He promised, and that you are to
keep all His commands. He has declared that He will set
you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations
He has made and that you will be a people holy to the LORD
your God, as He promised.” (Deuteronomy 26:18–19)
The Lord promises Israel in this Parsha that if
they keep His commandments, they will be "His treasured
possession.” This promise is also found in
Exodus:
“Now
if you obey Me fully and keep My covenant, then out of
all nations you will be My treasured possession.
Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for Me a kingdom of priests and a holy
nation [mamlechet cohanim v’am kadosh].”
(Exodus 19:5–6)
And although they have experienced many curses over
the generations, in the Haftarah (Prophetic Portion), the
prophet Isaiah tells
Israel that God in His favor and mercy will one day
exalt them even in the midst of much persecution and
hatred against them:
“Whereas you have been
forsaken and hated, with no one passing through, I will
make you majestic forever, a joy from age to age.” (Isaiah
60:15)
Safed, Israel (Photo credit: Go Israel / Itamar Grinberg)
In the Brit Chadashah, all followers of Yeshua
are called God’s special people. Because of our
covenant with the Almighty God through the blood of Yeshua,
both Jew and Gentile together can know that they are God’s
most treasured possession.
“But
you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people for God’s own possession, so that you may
proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of
darkness into His marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9)
In Hebrew, the word for special
treasure is segulah
(סגולה). The color purple in Hebrew is
sagol (סגול),
a word that comes from the same root letters. Why? Purple
is the color of royalty!
As the Lord’s
segulah, we are clothed in sagol—the color of royalty.
We are children of the King and He is our Father. He
values and treasures us. There is no need to search for
external or superficial qualifications. This is simply our
identity in the Messiah!
Israeli girls befriend a fruit vendor (Photo: Go Israel)
We might look at ourselves and say, I don’t
look much like a treasure; I’m too short or too tall, too
fat or too thin, not pretty or smart enough to be a
treasure.
We might check in with our emotions and say, I don’t
feel that I qualify to be called a treasure of God; I have
so many faults and weaknesses—I need to work on keeping my
temper; I’m not yet disciplined enough; I don’t witness
enough—whatever we perceive to be our weakness.
But as the apostle Paul says, we are to put no confidence
in the attributes of our flesh (Philippians
3:3). Certainly, if anyone could have qualified as a
treasure by the certificates on his wall and trophies on his
desk, it would have been the apostle Paul, who described
himself in this way:
“…
circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of
the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to
the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church;
as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.” (Philippians
3:5–6)
He considered himself without fault in the flesh and in
his keeping of the Torah, and yet he put no value on all of
these external qualifications. Instead, he put his trust in
the person of the Messiah:
“But
whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake
of Messiah. What is more, I consider everything a loss
because of the surpassing worth of knowing Messiah Yeshua
Adonai (my Lord), for whose sake I have lost all things …
“I
consider them garbage, that I may gain Messiah and be
found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that
comes from the law, but that which is through faith in
Messiah—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis
of faith.” (Philippians 3:7–9)
An Orthodox Jewish man prays at the Western
(Wailing) Wall with his tallit (prayer shawl) over
his head.
Although Paul continued to keep the law
perfectly, he understood that his faultless performance
was not to be compared to the righteousness that comes
from God on the basis of faith.
And while our own performance may not be as flawless as
Paul’s, we must accept by faith that if we are empowered to
walk in His ways by His Spirit, and are obedient, then we
are in truth, His special treasure.
Despite our
faults, weaknesses and imperfections, the Lord loves and
values us, and we can say, “I am royalty—a child of the
King of Kings—the segulah of the Lord—a precious
treasure!”
He values us because we are His covenant children and
are each created in His image and likeness. A spark of His
divine Shechinah glory is within us.
If we have a $100 bill and it accidentally drops on the
ground, getting soiled, stepped on, crumpled and bent—is it
worth any less than $100? No, it retains its value.
So too is it with us. Many of us, however, do not
understand our value.
An observant Jewish family (Photo: Go Israel / Noam Chen)
Some of us have not always been treated like a
treasure. Perhaps parents, schoolmates, spouses,
or fellow Believers have not treated us with honor and
respect. We may have even been abused or mistreated
terribly by people, as if we are someone inconsequential.
But God does not
see us this way. Even if we have been broken; even if
our heart has been torn in two or our whole life
shattered, we are still a beautiful treasure to the Lord—“a crown of beauty and a royal
diadem in the hand of our God.” (Isaiah 62:3)
How do we treat treasures? We put them in special
places and guard them jealously, keeping them in a safe,
secure place. Can we even fathom the grief and wrath that
God feels when someone messes with His segulah?
We need to leave these injustices and hurts in the hands
of the Lord who says He will vindicate us. Our only choice
is to forgive those who have hurt and mistreated us.
The Jaffa Port (Photo: Go Israel / Dana Friedlander)
If we don’t see ourselves as valuable and
worthy of respect, then we will project this to others and
they will often treat us as such. Or our
perception of how others treat us can prevent us from moving
forward in God's promises. For instance, when the
Israelites saw themselves as grasshoppers, they thought that
the giants in Canaan did as well!
But when we begin to value and respect ourselves, (in a
balanced and Godly way), we will find more and more that the
people in our lives also begin to value and esteem us as
well.
Part of our healing and recovery is the transformation
in the way we see ourselves—knowing our identity in the
Messiah as righteous, whole, precious, valuable. We receive
these precious attributes only through His Divine Covenant.
Let us enter into
everything that God has for us—our freedom from
condemnation, the freedom from the curses, the joy
unspeakable, and the peace that passes all
understanding.
All these and more have been given to us through the New
Covenant, bought with the precious blood of the sinless Lamb
of God, Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus the Messiah)!
The vast majority of the Jewish People today do not
yet know Yeshua or that what comes through Him is freedom
from the curse and the peace that passes all
understanding.
Time is short, but you can make a difference!
Please pray for the salvation of the Jewish People and
help Bibles For Israel bring the Good News of Yeshua to
the Holy Land.
"You will again
have compassion on us; You will tread our sins
underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths
of the sea." (Micah 7:19)
"Hear the word of the
LORD, you nations; proclaim it in distant coastlands:
'He who scattered Israel will gather them and will
watch over His flock like a shepherd.'" (Jeremiah
31:10)
Shabbat Shalom from the
Entire Bibles For Israel Staff !
The Messianic Prophecy Bible
http://messianicbible.com/
Entire Bibles For Israel Staff !
The Messianic Prophecy Bible
http://messianicbible.com/
“‘Bring the
whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food
in My house. Test Me in this,' says the Lord Almighty,
'and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of
heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not
be room enough to store it.’” (Malachi 3:10)
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