Resources: • Adventist Mission Website: http://wjafc.globalmissioncenters.org/
This website is the new resource provided by the Office of Adventist Mission of the General Conference of the Seventh-day
• Website: www.jewishadventist.org
We pray every week for the leaders of the Jewish Ministry,
Shabbat Shalom Newsletter
733
3 June 2017 9 Sivan 5777
Professional Urban Development: The WJAFC provides:
Shalom Adventure Magazine online: www.ShalomAdventure.com
If you would like to read articles, watch videos, learn things about Judaism and Israel, this website is just for you.
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WJAFC: If you would like to share with people, this forum on facebook is a good place for that.
• Photos: https://get.google.com/albumarchive/1131446298409925652
- Professional Urban training for Jewish Ministry
91?source=pwa We have posted a lot of pictures on Internet during the last years. Don’t hesitate
- Teaching for theological students
• Russian Website: http://www.boruh.info/ This website is in Russian, many articles
- Help to plant new congregations. - Support for AdventistJewish dialogue with scholars and rabbis
WJAFC Paris
A weekly Journal of information and training published by the World Jewish Adventist Friendship Center Under the umbrella of the General Conference —Office of Adventist Mission
English Edition: Richard-Amram Elofer Russian Edition: Alexandra Obrevko French Edition: Sabine Baris Spanish Edition: Jael Wells Cuellar Portuguese Edition: Carlos Muniz Dutch Edition: Hubert Paulleta
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Weekly Jewish-Adventist Journal of Information
and the parasha are posted on it every week.
Carlos Muniz
Hubert Paulleta
News 1 Parasha’s comments 2-4 Haftarah 4-5 Apostolic Writings 5 Stories & Traditions 6 Inspirational Corner 6, 7
to look at them.
Journal of Information and Training — Issue 733— 3 June 2017 / 9 Sivan 5777
Richard Amram Elofer
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This issue
A must website. To subscribe to our newsletter. To download some resources (Hebrew Sabbath School, and other documents). To order the book “Comfort, Comfort my people…” and many other things. •
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Emails: English: richard@elofer.com Russian: sashok_l@mail.ru French: sabinebaris@gmail.com Spanish: jael_wells@hotmail.com Portuguese: cdmuniz@gmail.com Dutch: hpauletta@hotmail.com
Credit photos: Richard Elofer, Alexandra Obrevko, Jael Wells Cuellar Hubert Paulleta, Laurent Baris and Advent Digital Media
for more information: contact us at www.jewishadventist.org
Alexandra Obrevko
Sabine Baris
We pray every week for the Jewish Friendship Ministry. I suggest our partners to pray from June 4 to 10 for John & Catherine DuBort who are lay people who lead the Jewish Adventist Friendship ministry in Alberta, Canada, Let’s pray for their ministry and their family.
News
Booth at the North France Conference Session vLast week was marked by the Session
of the North-France Conference. Since the World Jewish Adventist Friendship Center is located since 2012 in Paris, which belongs to the North France Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist, the leaders of the Center in Paris, Richard Elofer, and Joseph du Mesgnil d’Engente, have held a booth in the exhibition hall of that session. The session was located in the beautiful city of Vittel, many have drunk French water of Vittel. This city is famous for its water but also for all kind of water treatments (SPA and balneotherapy). The Session was held from May 24 through 27. It was a great occasion to meet many Division, Union and Conference’s leaders, but also leaders of local churches to whom the Jewish Friendship ministry in Paris was presented. Hundreds of brochures were distributed during this session. 5 brochures were prepared: two of them to introduce the Friendship center and its worldwide work and three brochures written specially for the Jewish people. These three brochures were translated from English texts we received. The first one is on health called “Healthy is Kosher”, a second one on Shabbat, called “Shabbat Shalom,” both of them written by Roger and Jennifer Lang. The third one on the 70 weeks
of Daniel 9, written by Richard Elofer, and called “A Prophetic Good News for Israel.” During the distribution of these brochures, we gave a strategy, saying we have to give these brochures in a progressive way, first, the health brochure, because there is nothing offending for Jews in this one. Second, the next one, is about the Shabbat, and then when the contact is really established, when trust and friendship is built with our Jewish friends we can go further and give the brochure on the 70 weeks of Daniel 9 which give the exact date of the coming of the Messiah.
Parasha Overview:
Parasha for this Week
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he Torah assigns the exact Mishkan-related tasks to be performed by the families of Gershon, Kehat, and Merari, the sons of Levi. A census reveals that over 8,000 men are ready for such service. All those ritually impure are to be sent out of the encampments. If a person, after having sworn in court to the contrary, confesses that he wrongfully retained his neighbors property, he has to pay an additional fifth of the baseprice of the object and bring a guilt offering as atonement. If the claimant has already passed away without heirs, the payments are made to a kohen. In certain circumstances, a husband who suspects that his wife had been unfaithful brings her to the Temple. A kohen prepares a drink of water mixed with dust from the Temple floor and a special ink that was used for inscribing G-d’s Name on a piece of parchment. If she is innocent, the potion does not harm her; rather it brings a blessing of
“All the days of his vow of separation, no razor shall touch his head. Until the time is completed for which he separates himself to the LORD, he shall be holy. He shall let the locks of hair of his head grow long. … All the days of his separation he is holy to the LORD” (Numbers 6:5,8)
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Numbers 4:21 - 7:89 Lender and Borrower
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he Torah states: “Speak to the people of Israel, When a man or woman commits any of the sins that people commit by breaking faith with the LORD, and that person realizes his guilt, he shall confess his sin that he has committed. And he shall make full restitution for his wrong, adding a fifth to it and giving it to him to whom he did the wrong.” (Numbers 5:6–7). This text is interesting, because the translation does not use the correct pronoun of the Hebrew verbs. In fact, the correct translation of the verse 7 is in plural not singular: “they shall confess their sins that they have committed. And they shall make full restitution for their wrong, adding a fifth to it and giving it to him to whom they did the wrong.” At the beginning of the text, it is clear that it is one person (man or woman) who has committed the sin, but the verse 7 is in plural. To understand this change of the pronoun from singular to plural it is important to understand the context, if we don’t understand it, we commit this wrong translation as it is done here in English. The
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context of these verses is that someone (a man or a woman) borrowed some money from his fellow, but when it is time to refund his loan, he denies it, swearing falsely that he owes nothing. If the lender can produce some witnesses, the borrower is unable to deny it and has to refund the money. The Jewish tradition is clear on this point, according to the Gemara (Baba Metzia 75b) a lender should accept to give a loan only in the presence of witnesses in order to avoid breaking the Torah law, “You shall not… put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the LORD.” (Leviticus 19:14), if a lender doesn’t present any witness, it is a case which can be assimilated to “put a stumbling block before the blind” because in fact without any witness the borrower can deny his loan and say I did not borrow anything. In this case both of them, the borrower who denies the loan and the lender who did not produce any witness, sinned. Both of them had some obligations, and they should respect their obligations in order to avoid anyone from the parties to sin. Therefore the Parasha says
Vayitvadu “they shall both confess,” both of them, the lender and the borrower have sinned and therefore both of them should confess their sin, that is why the verse 7 is in plural and not in singular as the English translators have put it. They shall confess, and resolve not to repeat their sin in the future.
Confess & Repent
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he great message or the Good news of the Hebrew Bible and the Brit Hachadasha (Apostolic Writings) is the message of a God who loves human beings, and wants to save them from their sinful conditions. That is why the message of repentance is forever and still for today. Repentance, means to come back to G-d, we realize that we have been far from G-d, his will and the mitzvoth, and we decide to come back. This repentance is called in Hebrew Teshuvah, from the Hebrew verb Shuv (return). In Judaism anyone who was far from G-d and returns to G-d to practice the Torah is called Baal Teshuvah, which means “master of Repentance.” However, the Torah says that we have to confess our sins to G-d: “he shall
confess his sin that he has committed.” (Numbers 5:7), Rambam (Maimonides) affirms “The commandment to confess one’s sins is the cornerstone of the mitzvah of repentance” It is impossible to ask forgiveness to G-d, without confessing our sins. It is the message of Yeshua “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 3:2; 4:17; Mark 1:15; 6;12), and it was the message of the talmidim of Yeshua after his ascension to heaven: ““Repent and be immersed every one of you in the name of Yeshua Hamashiach for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Ruach Hakodesh.” (Acts 2:38), and we can be sure that whatever could be our sin, G-d is able to forgive us and to help us to start a new life with him: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9).
Selfishness in Marriage
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he Torah affirms: “And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel, If any man’s [Ish, Ish]
wife goes astray and breaks faith with him,” (Numbers 5:11–12), but as it is underlined in this verse, the Torah used two times the word “Ish” for man, why? A regular translator would conclude very quickly saying “that is a mistake from a copyist.” However, a sofer or scribe who is in charge of copying the Torah, will say that is not possible, because from millennium, the Torah has been transmitted from a generation to another generation by these scribes, who are very careful in their work, and as many know, after the writings of a Torah, the scribe should count all the letters and words of the Torah which should fit with the count of the other scribes who have copied the Torah before him. That is why, we should consider that there is always a way to read the Torah saying “there is no mistake in the Bible.” This verse is about man and woman who are married together, from the very beginning G-d has marked the marriage as a holy union, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24),
which should be indissoluble and enduring. G-d’s blessing upon marriage is clear, “God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it,” (Genesis 1:28), Man and woman become a complete entity at their wedding. And if we want a marriage to last long, to be happy all our life long, it is important to recognize other’s rights and be respectful for each other. But if a man considers that his rights are more important than the rights of his wife, if he is autocratic, demanding, and pushing only for his decisions, it is obviously selfish, and is concerned only by his wellbeing, his “ego” in this condition, the marriage could fail. Thus the Torah warns us that the behavior of Ish (a man) who is Ish (totally concerned with himself) will destroy his family life, and ultimately is in danger to destroy his own life, and annihilate his eternal life. Thus, the two words Ish are necessary in the text.
The Nazirite
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he text of this parasha is also presenting the laws of Nazirite, these people who decide to dedicate
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children. If she is guilty, she suffers a supernatural death. A nazir is one who vows to dedicate himself to G-d for a specific period of time. He must abstain from all grape products, grow his hair and avoid contact with corpses. At the end of this period he shaves his head and brings special offerings. The kohanim are commanded to bless the people. The Mishkan is completed and dedicated on the first day of Nisan in the second year after the Exodus. The prince of each tribe makes a communal gift to help transport the Mishkan, as well as donating identical individual gifts of gold, silver, animal and meal offerings.
“May God bless you and keep watch over you. May God make His presence enlighten you and grant you grace. May God direct His providence toward you and grant you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
Haftarah Overview Judges 13:2 - 13:25
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n our text of the parasha, we have a long description of the Nazir: “The L-RD spoke to Moses, saying: …When either men or women make a special vow, the vow of a nazirite, to separate themselves to the L-RD, they shall separate themselves from wine and strong drink; they shall drink no wine vinegar or other vinegar, and shall not drink any grape juice or eat grapes, fresh or dried. … All the days of their nazirite vow no razor shall come upon the head; until the time is completed for which they separate themselves to the L-RD, they shall be holy…” (Num. 6:2,3,6). Our Haftara gives an example of a Nazir, who did not decide to be a Nazir but who has been chosen by G-d to be a Nazir. It is the story of Samson. The text of the Haftara is about the announcement of his birth. “the angel of the L-RD appeared to the woman and said to her, “Although you are barren, having borne no children, you shall conceive and bear a son. Now be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, or to eat anything unclean, for you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor is to come on his head, for the boy
their life or part of their life to G-d. The Torah says: “And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When either a man or a woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the LORD, he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink. He shall drink no vinegar made from wine or strong drink and shall not drink any juice of grapes or eat grapes, fresh or dried. All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, not even the seeds or the skins.” (Numbers 6:1–4). These people should separate themselves from anything which come from grapes not only alcoholic wine, but also from grape juice, the main reason for this is that in the time of Moses and even the time of Biblical Israel, they did not know how to preserve grape juice without fermentation and becoming alcoholic beverage. Thus, to avoid drinking alcoholic drinks thinking that they are just drinking grape juice G-d has forbidden Nazirite people everything from grape even eating simple grapes. This law is a personal law for a man or a woman who decide to make a special wow and dedicate him/herself to the L-rd. But in the famous story of Shimshon (Samson), who will be dedicated to the
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L-rd for all his life, from birth to death, G-d asked also his mother to avoid these products from grapes. Speaking to Manoach’s wife the angel of the Lord said: “Behold, … you shall conceive and bear a son. Therefore, be careful and drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son.” (Judges 13:3–5). These instructions from the angel are interesting and give us great lessons for our life and in our kids’ education. First of all, today scientific discoveries show that it is important for a mother to be careful with what she eats and what she drinks when she is pregnant. Unclean food and alcoholic beverages can intoxicate their foetus. Second, there are some parents who have great expectation for their kids, they would like their kids to live with high standards but failed themselves to live according to these same standards. The story of Manoach and his wife teaches us that parents must conduct themselves the way they want their kids live and behave. The Angel of the Lord gave an important lesson to Manoach’s wife and mother of Shimshon, not only avoiding to intoxicate her baby, but in raising children, parents should accept for themselves the same restrictions they want to impose to their chil-
dren. Shimshon is destined to be a Nazir, in order for him to properly observe his restrictions, it was necessary that she, too, take on the restrictions of a Nazirite, and thus be a living example for him.
Priestly Blessing
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e all of us know the blessings G-d gave to the Kohanim (priests) in order to bless the people of Israel. “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24–26). However, before the Kohanim pronounced this priestly blessing, they recited the prayer: “Blessed are you Adonai, our Lord, king of the universe, who has sanctified us with his commandments and commended us to bless His nation of Israel with love” and only then they were able to bless G-d’s people with the priestly blessing. The lesson here is that although the Kohanim are blessing the entire congregation, which is composed of many people, the blessing is in the singular, Yevarechecha, to indicate that G-d desires to bless his people with the unity that results when love prevails. That is why the first priestly prayer is ending by “with love.”
Apostolic Writings — John 8:3-4 In the text of the parasha we have the instructions given by God to Moses for the people of Israel about a woman accused of adultery by her husband. In every society, we can encounter men or women who are very jealous. This jealousy could be a sickness if it disturbs too much. The first proof of love is trust, if we are unable to trust our partner in family, in business or even in life, it will be very difficult to live in peace with others. In the Besorah (gospel) written by Yochanan (John) one of the talmidim (disciples) of Yeshua, we have the story of an adulterous woman who is presented to Yeshua to check his reaction. Yeshua has been tested many times by the scribes and the Pharisees asking him questions about the resurrection, clean and unclean, my neighbor, the greatest commandment, eternal life, etc. Now Yeshua is tested by “The scribes and the Pharisees” (John 8:3), they test Yeshua about adultery, “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery’” (John 8:3-4). This text is already strange, the leaders, say that this lady was caught in adultery, “caught”, why they did not “caught” the man. Where is the man? As far as I know when there is adultery two people are involved, a man and a woman, but here we only have a woman. In the
Torah, it is written “If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife — with the wife of his neighbor — both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.” (Leviticus 20:10). It is clear that both of them, man and woman must be put to death. But in the text of Yochanan, we only have the woman, why not the man? There are two solutions: 1. The adulterer was among the accusers, or 2. The adultery was not so clear. Yeshua knew it, that is why he understood that it was a test. What Yeshua would say about the mitsvot of the Torah. The Torah is clear “In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” (5), Jesus would agree to stone the lady, but not alone, where is the man adulterer? Maybe around? Thus, Yeshua started to write on the ground, what did he write? The Pharisees wanted to know, “Curiosity led them to draw near, and read what was written on the ground. There they saw their own sins plainly stated, — sins of a far more aggravated character than that into which she had been betrayed; for her accusers had induced her to sin, that they might lay a snare for Yeshua” (EGW). If they were really convinced about her sin of adultery, they would not need to ask anything to Yeshua, they had the Torah, they know exactly what to do in this case. The scribes and pharisees were living in a soci-
ety where men had all the right but not women, this situation put in a great difficulty all women, because a man had the right to divorce, Moses gave some rules about the divorce, but some men were not happy with just divorce, because they could be asked by the judge to pay some appropriation in order to sustain the divorced wife. A divorce could be very expensive at that time, because nobody was ready to marry a divorced woman, she was therefore destined to stay alone for all her life. A judge can accept the pronunciation of a divorce between a husband and his wife, but request from the husband to take care of her by paying an amount of money every month to be able to eat. Some man would not want to pay all their life for a divorced woman, thus they would prefer to accuse her of adultery, in this way, being guilty, the husband had no obligation to pay anything. Men are the same everywhere, when it is a matter of defending their wallet and avoiding to pay, they would do anything not to. However, even though Moses gave permission to divorce a woman, he gave also some rules for her protection. But in this story they were not interested to follow the rules of the Torah, just to trap Yeshua, Is this man faithful to the Torah or not, of course it was their own interpretation of the Torah accepting what they wanted and rejecting what they did not want to follow.
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shall be a nazirite to G-d from birth” (Judges 13:35). A beautiful story, because in fact it is not one of the angels of the L-rd who appeared to Samson’s mother, but the angel of the L-rd, that means THE very special angel who is very close to the L-rd. This angel appeared to Abraham before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and in the text he is called in Hebrew “Adonai” (Genesis 18:13). This special angel was also the protector of Israel in the wilderness and had the power to forgive their sins (Exodus 23:20-22). This angel is called in the book of Daniel, Michael (Daniel 12:1) in Hebrew Mi-Ka-EL means the one “who (Mi) is like (Ka) G-d (EL)” and many theologians have seen in this angel the appearance of the Mashiach, the one who protects and saves Israel. “At that time Michael, the great prince, the protector of your people, shall arise… at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. (Dan. 12:1,2).
Stories and Traditions
Spiritual Values
Inspirational Corner v There are many
who try to blend these two systems, using the texts that speak of the ceremonial law to prove that the moral law has been abolished; but this is a perversion of the Scriptures. The distinction between the two systems is broad and clear. The ceremonial system was made up of symbols pointing to Messiah, to His sacrifice and His priesthood. This ritual law, with its sacrifices and ordinances, was to be performed by the Hebrews until type met antitype in the death of Messiah, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. (PP 365).
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he Gemara (Tamid 32a) relates that Alexander the Great put ten questions to Jewish elders. One of the questions was, “Were the heavens created first or the earth?” They replied, “Heaven was created first, as the Torah states, ‘In the beginning of G-d’s creating the heaven and the earth’ “ (Bereishit/Genesis 1:1). Why did Alexander the Great want to know the order of creation? As a great philosopher and student of Aristotle, Alexander was understandably interested in the Jewish perspective of creation. However, the intent of his question here was much more profound. Alexander was the most powerful king of his times, and his goal of conquering the entire world was almost realized. Heaven represents spirituality and earth represents material pursuits. He was uncertain whether to pursue the physical acquisition of the world or to spiritually uplift the part of the world already under his control. Unable to decide, he turned to our sages for counsel. They responded that when G-d created the world, He created heaven first, indicating that spiritual values are preeminent.
Great Families
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hen Rabbi DovBer of Mezritch was a young boy of 5 or 6 years, he once came home
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from cheider (school) and saw his house burning down and his mother crying bitterly. To comfort her he said, “Mommy, please don’t cry, Hashem will give us a bigger, nicer home.” His mother replied, “Berele, I am not crying because of our home, but because of our document of ancestry, which describes our beautiful family tree. Now, because of the fire, we no longer have it.” Upon hearing this, young Berele said, “Even this is not a reason to cry: if our old yichus (genealogy) letter was destroyed, with G-d’s help, a new yichus will start with me.” While yichus is something that we should cherish and be proud of, we must not simply live off the “royalties” of yichus, but add new greatness to our families.
Two Sons
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man’s biological son and his foster son became ill, and the doctor prescribed bitter medicines for both children. The father forced his biological son to swallow the medicine and he immediately felt better. The foster son, however, was not forced to take the medicine, and the illness lingered on. Later, the foster son asked his father why he had not also forced him to take the medicine. The father answered, “Once before when you were sick and the doctor gave you sweet medicine, I forced you to drink it. Since you spat it out then, I assumed that any attempt to force you to drink bitter
medicine would have been in vain.”
The Almighty and Shabbat
Kids Parasha Nasso
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Inspirational Corner
v Those who claim
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he Midrash Rabbah relates that a heretic asked Rabbi Akiva, if on Shabbat it is forbidden to transfer something from one domain to another, why does Hashem desecrate the Shabbat and bring rain from heaven to earth?” Rabbi Akiva responded, “The entire world belongs to Hashem, and thus, the concept of different domains does not apply to Him.”
Our Possession
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n nineteenth century England there lived the famous Jewish philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore. Queen Victoria once asked him, “What is the extent of your wealth? How much do you own?” Sir Moses told her it would take him a few days to do some accounting, then, he would reply. When Sir Moses told her his wealth she became upset saying, “This is offensive: Everyone knows that you have far greater wealth.” Sir Moses explained that he considered his true wealth to be whatever money he had given to tzedakah (charity). Anything else that he possessed was only temporary and could be confiscated or lost. the Torah is emphasizing that people should always consider their monetary wealth as temporary.
http://www.bnai-tikkun.org.nz7
that Messiah came to abrogate the law of God and to do away with the Old Testament, speak of the Jewish age as one of darkness, and represent the religion of the Hebrews as consisting of mere forms and ceremonies. But this is an error. All through the pages of sacred history, where the dealings of God with His chosen people are recorded, there are burning traces of the great I AM. Never has He given to the sons of men more open manifestations of His power and glory than when He alone was acknowledged as Israel’s ruler, and gave the law to His people. Here was a scepter swayed by no human hand; and the stately goings forth of Israel’s invisible King were unspeakably grand and awful. (PP 365)