Weekly Parasha: Parasha Vayigash & Sermons

Shalom and Blessings;

I continue to battle with whatever is going on in my lungs. This week I will be visiting my oncologist and next week I have an appointment with the pulmonary doctor. I am following all protocols both medical and un-conventional but the outcome is of the Lord and we continue to walk in faith and in His strength. Thank you for keeping Ellen and I in prayer.

Akiva and Hannah arrived tired but safely in Orlando. They have a few days to recuperate from the arduous trip from Kenya before the IAMCS Rabbi's conference starts and hopefully they will get to see some of the sites in and around Orlando. Please pray for them to have wisdom, understanding and that they will find favor with everyone they meet. We anticipate their coming home filled with the power and glory of the Lord, as well as with a great report.

Last week the chief of staff of the IDF, Lt. Gen. Aviv, gave his first public news conference. What he had to say was encouraging but also sobering. He is anticipating a major war which may be launched against us from several fronts. He warned that this war will not be like any of other wars we have fought. He cautioned the public to prepare themselves mentally for major attacks against the home front causing much damage and loss of life. He assured us that even though the IDF has always taken the position of protecting civilian casualties when retaliating against our enemies, this time, he said, the enemy will not be safe no matter who they hide behind.

Some Messianic teacher and leaders have taken to teaching the authority of the oral law. Nowhere in scriptures both in the Torah, Tanach, and Brit Chadasha is there mention of an oral law. Plus there is no evidence that the oral law being studied today, which was put to writing in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th centuries A.D, has any relationship to what may have been transmitted orally by Moses centuries before. The Mishnah derived from the early 3rd, 4th or 5th centuries A.D. have to be read as testimonies to the prevailing viewpoints of those centuries and not as evidence of earlier teachings. In fact Scripture, both the Torah and the Brit Chadasha give evidence against equating the oral law (traditions of the elders) with the divinely inspired written Word of God.

Deuteronomy 31:9-11 "Then Moses wrote down this Torah and gave it to the priests, the descendants of Levi who carried the ark with the covenant of the Lord, and to all the leaders of Israel. Moshe gave them these orders: "At the end of every seven years, during the festival of Sukkot in the year of release, when all Israel have come to appear in the presence of the Lord at the place he will choose, you are to read this Torah before all Israel, so that they can hear it."

Colossians 2:8 "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."

Furthermore, we see in the teaching of Yeshua (Matthew 15:1-9; Mark 7:1-9) that He held the written Torah as having final authority by which the oral law was to be judged.

Why would anyone need the teachings of unsaved men (chazal), who wrote the oral law, who were not divinely inspired; men who hated Messianic Judaism and rejected the Messiah, to interpret the Bible for them? Theirs is the wisdom of man and not God. God gave us the Holy Spirit for the purpose of understanding and interpreting His Word, (John15:1-15). Listening to the sages (chazal) is like the fox teaching the chicken how to lock the coop. If you need chazal to interpret the Bible for you then what you need is less knowledge of man and more wisdom from the Holy Spirit. Start praying for the wisdom of God and stop listening to the wisdom of unsaved men. I do not agree with the use of chazal's teachings to educate Believers in the Word of God. It can only result in leading believing Jews into half-truths conceived by Satan and cause non-Jewish Believers to become enamored with Judaism, which is something the apostle Paul, taught against.

I have attached this week's commentary as well as part 3 & 4 audios of the Joseph Sermons.

Do not forget to checkout our Blog and pass on the teachings: https://weeklyparasha02.blogspot.com/

Yours in Messiah Yeshua, our Lord, our God, our soon coming King.

Happy New Year

Rabbi Jack & Ellen