Blessing for the Torah:
Bar’chu et YHVH
ha-m’vorach, Baruch YHVH ha-m’vorach l’O’lam va-ed! Baruch ata YHVH Eloheinu
melech ha-olam. Asher bachar banu m’kol ha-amim, v’na-tan lanu
eht Torah-to. Baruch atah YHVH, noteyn ha-Torah. Ameyn.”
(Bless YHVH the blessed
One; Blessed is YHVH, the blessed One for all eternity. Blessed are you, YHVH,
our Elohim, King of the Universe, you have selected us from among all the
peoples and have given us your Torah.)
Pirkei Avot – The Ethics of the Fathers chapter 5 says ''with 10 utterances the
world was created''.
This week we once again
consider the 10 sayings Moshe received from YHVH on Mount Sinai. The first time these 10 sayings appear,
they are found in parashat Yitro – Shemot 20.
These 10 sayings are repeated by Moshe in this parasha – “Ve et chanan.”
Almost 40 years separated
the first and second record of these 10 sayings. The second time, the 10
sayings were given just before Yisrael entered into the Promised Land.
The 10 sayings are and
always will be Yisrael’s “Freedom Charter.”
A “charter” is defined as
a “written grant by the
sovereign or legislative power of a country, in order to establish a people or
an organization. This written document contains the principles on which such a
people or organization will be established and maintain their freedom and
existence.”
Man has never been able
to produce a “Freedom Charter” that has provided peace and prosperity for all its
people.
YHVH has given us a
“Freedom Charter” that will bring those whom He has chosen into freedom. The
very first and foundational principle of YHVH’s “Freedom Charter” is found in Dev/Deut
5:6 ‘I am יהוה your Elohim who brought you out of the land of Mitsrayim, out
of the house of bondage.”
Deu 5:1 And Mosheh called all Yisra’ĕl,
and said to them, “Hear, O Yisra’ĕl, the laws and right-rulings which I speak
in your hearing today. And you shall learn them, and guard to do them. (Here is
an enlarged ayin and daleth)
Deu
5:2 “יהוה our Elohim made a covenant with us in Ḥorĕḇ.
Deu 5:3 “יהוה did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those
who are here today, all of us who are alive. (In the last days this covenant
will be renewed – Jer 31:31)
Deu 5:4 “יהוה spoke with you face to face on the
mountain from the midst of the fire.
Deu 5:5 “I stood
between יהוה and you at that time, to declare to you
the Word of יהוה – for you were
afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up the mountain – saying:
Deu 5:6 ‘I am יהוה your Elohim who brought you out of the
land of Mitsrayim, out of the house of bondage.
“Anochi” “I and only I alone” –
Isa 43:10
…..Before Me there was no Ěl formed, nor after Me there is none.
Isa 43:11 “I, I am יהוה, and besides
Me there is no saviour. (Heb moshiah)
Isa 45:5 ‘I am יהוה, and there is
none else – there is no Elohim besides Me.
Act 4:12 “And there is no deliverance in anyone else,
for there is no other Name under the heaven given among men by which we need to
be saved.”
The Gk word “soteria” is often translated “salvation” but
means “deliverance or safety.”