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. Blessed are you,
YHVH, giver of the Torah. Ameyn.)
Joh 13:34 “A renewed command I give to you, that
you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one
another.
Joh 13:35 “By this shall all know that you are My
taught ones, if you have love for one another.”
This was
really the essence the ‘’re eh” of all of Torah. If the hearing and guarding
and doing of Torah does not produce an awe- inspiring community of believers
transforming all that lives and exists – then the Torah has not been heard and
guarded and done.
1Co 5:7 Therefore cleanse out the old leaven, so
that you are a new lump, as you are unleavened. For also Messiah our Pěsaḥ was
slaughtered for us.
1Co 5:8 So then let us celebrate the festival, not
with old leaven, nor with the leaven of evil and wickedness, but with the
unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Our Torah
portion begins:
Deu 15:7 “When there is a poor man with you, one of
your brothers, within any of the gates in your land which יהוה your Elohim is
giving you, do not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother,
The sages teach us that when a
community guards the Torah, there should be prosperity for all its members. Any
breach of Torah would manifest itself in poverty or in sickness. For this
reason it was incumbent on each member of the Torah community to constantly
examine themselves as to whether or not they are in one accord with each other
and with YHVH’s Torah.
We see the implications of this principle illustrated in
the Nazarene Talmud (Apostolic writings) –
Mat 18:15 “And if your brother sins against you, go and
reprove him, between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your
brother.
Mat 18:16 “But if he does not hear, take with you one
or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word might be
established.’
Mat 18:17 “And if he refuses to hear them, say it to
the assembly. And if he refuses even to hear the assembly, let him be to you
like a gentile and a tax collector.