Rosh Chodesh Shevat

Rosh Chodesh literally means "head of the month." Rosh Chodesh is also callled "New Moon" because the moon wanes to a point where it is no longer visible and on the 1st or 2nd of the month, a tiny sliver appears. It's kind of like the moon is "reborn" each month. So today at sunset Rosh Chodesh begins as we usher in the month of Shevat, the 11th month in the Jewish calendar.

It was on Shevat 1, 2488 that Moses, inspired by God, began reciting the Book of Deuteronomy (Devarim) to the Jewish people. Moses died 37 days later.

Deuteronomy 1-3 "These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel in the desert east of the Jordan—that is, in the Arabah—opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab. (It takes eleven days to go from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea by the Mount Seir road.) In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses proclaimed to the Israelites all that the LORD had commanded him concerning them" (NIV).

Devarim means "words" and is the final book of the Torah; the fifth book of the Bible. In this book Moses basically recounts where the Israelites have been these past 40 years, what they've encounterned, what God has brought them through, and what He commands and promises. Devarim also contains the most definitive statement of Jewish identity: the Shema.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 "'Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates'" (NIV).

Chodesh Tov! / Good Month!

Last night, I prayed for Danny Bonaduce

So I was in the falling asleep stage last night but began to reawaken before sleep took over and I overheard my mind trying to decide which show Danny Bonaduce was on: the Brady Bunch or the Partridge Family. So while Bobby and Danny were both saying, "I am the real Danny Bonaduce," I regained consciousness and wondered why in the world Danny Bonaduce had popped into my brain. I never liked the Patridge Family and I haven't seen his face on TV or even seen his name in a while. So I did what I should always do when in doubt: pray. I prayed for Danny Bonaduce. Nothing in particular, nothing long and drawn out. Just a simple prayer that Danny would know that God loves him.

So I don't know why I thought of Danny, but in relation to this, our rabbi asked a question last week that has gotten my husband and me praying for people who not only wouldn't we have thought to pray for, but people we might have thought: "they don't even deserve prayer." How unbelievably ignorant, elitest, un-God-like of us. So since then we've prayed for Rod Stewart, Fergie, Will I Am of the Black-eyed Peas, Mike Tyson . . . and now I will include Danny Bonaduce and whoever pops into my mind regardless of my state of consciousness. Whether I know them doesn't matter. Whether I think they are talented doesn't matter. Whether I dislike their style of music or acting ability doesn't matter. Whether I think they are "good people" doesn't matter. What they "deserve" according to anyone's standards doesn't matter. What matters is that God loves them no less than the "pious do-gooders" who may even think they are doing God a favor by praying for those "less fortunate" than they.

Holocaust museum

Last week, I visited the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg, embarrassed to say it was my first visit to a Holocaust museum. It was moving, horrific, sobering, informative, and of course, profoundly disturbing.

The picture to the right (from the Florida Holocaust Museum) is an actual boxcar (#1130695-5), which transported 100 or more Jews (and other prisoners) at a time to Auschwitz, Dachau, or Treblinka to face death. Those squeezed and stacked into these cars remained there for hours and even days. There was little air, no light, and no sanitation. Many died in this car and other cars like this one before even getting to the death camp.

The poem below was on a wall in the hallway of the museum. James E. Tokley Sr. wrote and presented it in 1997 during the dedication of the boxcar at the museum.

The Box Car, James E. Tokley Sr.

Aboard a train of no deliverance
Winding through the bitter cold
Shivering masses...hopeless waiting
Savage words that freeze the soul.

A Nazi train, apocalyptic
Bound for an unholy land
Where smokestacks belch their strange emetic.
Clouds of death rain human sand.

Inside a boxcar cut for cattle
Slave ship timber, all the same.
An alphabet of Jewish letters
Fingernailed into the grain.

You question why we should remember
Such a monumental sin.
And we reply,
To seek forever
That it happens never again.

Parashat Va’eira (“and I appeared”)

Torah Reading for January 5, 2007 /
Tevet 27, 5768

Parashat Va’eira (“and I appeared”)

Va’eira


Ex. 6:2-9:35
Ezek 28:25-29:21
Rom 9:14-33

the holy land

Today I went to the holy land...in Orlando, Florida. Tacky? Surprisingly not. The attractions, shows, and replications are really well-done, interesting, and informative. They do a fairly good job at weaving Judaism with Christianity.

Photos from today's visit

The Holy Land Experience

The Forgotten People, The Chosen People

This video is shocking, important, chilling, sobering, eerie. The most frightening part is: it could happen again...about halfway through the video a German pastor (translated into English) is speaking about the holocaust in April 2007 at the March of Life.

Song: "The Forgotten People," Ted Pearce


More about "For Zion's Sake, I Will Not be Silent"
More about Ted Pearce

Song: "I Will not be Silent," Ted Pearce - March of Life

Drowning out God

We live in an active world where we have to struggle to block out man-made distraction in order to see and hear God's creation.

Think about it: lights, especially in cities, dim the stars. On a clear night where I live I am amazed at the number of stars. But I know that in the middle of nowhere the number of stars that can be seen is shocking. They literally dot the sky.

Buildings block the natural landscape, the rising and setting of the sun; hilly terrain is flattened to allow for "expansion;" billboards trim roads and highways, even buildings; rivers are moved and lakes are dug and filled with water to "beautify" the earth...

How about sounds? The cacophony of engines and other man-made noises distorts or at times silences natural melodies: the birds' chirping, water splashing, insects buzzing, feet crunching on gravel and sticks, leaves flapping against each other in the wind. Sure we hear all those sounds to some degree but other times, the sounds that were intended to fill the world are deadened. God created a world full of music; we've made it a world of noise.

Not only do we miss a lot of the creation that God gave us to marvel at and enjoy, but in nature we can actually see God and and it is one way that we can know that He is:

Romans 1:20 - "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse" (NIV).

And because of all these distractions, it can be hard to see or hear God. God doesn't usually shout at us--if I He does, watch out! But God speaks in a whisper:

1 Kings19:11-12 ~ "Then He said, 'Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD.' And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice" (NKJV).

One way to really hear creation is to simply remember that God created it. And if you are inclined, worship Him in it. Psalm 8 is a great reminder of the Creator's creation:

Psalm 8: God's Creation (NIV)
1 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.

2 From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise ^[b] because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.

3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

4 what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?

5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings ^[c] and crowned him with glory and honor.

6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet:

7 all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field,

8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.

9 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

God of Wonders, Third Day

More about the song