Bar’chu et
YHVH ha-m’vorach, Baruch YHVH ha-m’vorach l’O’lam va-ed! Baruch ata YHVH Elohim
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 YHVH our Elohim – Giver of the Torah – Amein.’)
The Choice of Life
and Death
Deu 30:11 “For this command which I am commanding
you today, it is not too hard for you, nor is it far off.
Deu 30:12 “It is not in the heavens, to say, ‘Who
shall ascend into the heavens for us, and bring it to us, and cause us to hear
it, so that we do it?’
Deu 30:13 “Nor is it beyond the sea, to say, ‘Who
shall go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, and cause us to hear it, so
that we do it?’ (Baruch 3:29-30)
Deu 30:14 “For the Word is very near you, in your
mouth and in your heart – to do it.
See Rom 10:1-21 – Cranfield –
“’But, if our understanding of Paul’s view of the law is right, he did not
think of Messiah and the law as two altogether unrelated entities; on the
contrary, he saw the closest inner connection between them. Messiah is the
goal, the essential meaning, the real substance of the law. It is therefore
only as one sets one’s eyes on Messiah, that one can see both the full
significance of that graciousness of the law which comes to expression in the
Deuteronomy passage and also the full seriousness of its imperatives’’ Paul
also applies this text as having to do with those who pridefully think their
knowledge or mystical experience has set them apart from the rest in attaining
an understanding of Torah, and thus have secured to themselves the rewards of
its blessings. Paul understands the point of the Torah text to be that the
blessings of the covenant are given to those who, in humble submission of
faith, receive from the hand of the Mighty One that which He desires to give to
His righteous ones. Therefore, if Israel could not point to her achievements
(ascending to the heavens, or descending to the depths) in securing the Torah,
she would have to receive it as a gift, and on the basis of faith. The Messiah,
to Whom the Torah points, is exactly the same way. The Messiah would come, not
as a conquering warrior or even as a dazzling ‘’chacham’’ (wise man) but as a
common man. Not “heavenly” nor of the “mystical darkness,” but as the son of
Mariyam, Himself a craftsman, Who walked the pure life of Torah obedience and
demonstrated His wisdom in the everyday course of life.
Deu 30:15 “See, I have set before you today life
and good, and death and evil,
Deu 30:16 in that I am commanding you today to love
יהוה
your Elohim, to walk in His ways, and to guard His commands, and His laws, and
His right-rulings. And you shall live and increase, and יהוה your Elohim shall bless you in the land
which you go to possess.
Deu 30:17 “But if your heart turns away, and you do
not obey, and shall be drawn away, and shall bow down to other mighty ones and
serve them,
Deu 30:18 “I have declared to you today that you
shall certainly perish, you shall not prolong your days in the land which you
are passing over the Yarděn to enter and possess.
Deu 30:19 “I have called the heavens and the earth
as witnesses today against you: I have set before you life and death, the
blessing and the curse. Therefore you shall choose life, so that you live, both
you and your seed,