Torah Club

Shabbat Shalom!

Yesterday was a long and glorious day.  Visited the Northeast area of Atlanta. Twyla explains why on her blog.

We left about a half hour before sunrise, and didn't return until about 17:50.  Moxie spent the day outside, guarding the farm and was, predictably on the little bed on the front porch when we arrived home.  So happy to see us she couldn't help but yelp with delight and dance around us for a solid ten minutes.

We pretty much got all the furniture in place, and so now it looks even more beautiful.  We managed to get all the chores done and some food warming up.  My bread dough had spent it's obligatory 24 hours in the fridge and was now rising well.  We set up for  the Qabbalat Shabbat service on the dining room table.  I blew the Shofar, to which Moxie now seems not so much frightened as curious about.  We said the prayers and lit the candles according to our siddur.  It was the most glorious welcoming of Shabbat that we have had so far.  We ate and relaxed and reveled in the beauty and what had been accomplished this week.

Shabbat Table before we re-decorated

The great thing is that our Torah Club IV materials had arrived Thursday, just in time to put them to use ha-yom (today) on Shabbat.  Twyla brought the first audio CD with us on the trip to Barrow County and we listened to the whole thing.  Great stuff.  It is the Gospels of the B'rit Hadashah or "New Testament" but with the insight of understanding from the Jewish perspective of the first century. The way it ought to be understood.  If you think that's a strange statement, you should stop to consider that Yeshua (Jesus) kept referring back to Torah and the Prophets and the Psalms to prove his identity and authority. He was respectfully called Rabbi by the Pharisees and considered sinless because He never violated the Torah (Law of Moses) and I think it would be pretty silly to argue that the Tanakh ("Old Testament") is anything less than a thoroughly Jewish thing. Peter, Paul, Luke, James, and John wrote the vast majority of the New Testament to the synagogues of the first century with the understanding that their readers understood Torah and the oral traditions and midrashes that would later become the Talmud.  But since the destruction of the second Temple in 70 A.D. with the further scattering of the Jews and the believers in Yeshua,  and the corruption of the "church" of the Roman Empire, much has been lost and confused.

But there is an amazing thing happening at this time in history.  Not only is Israel ("Ha'aretz Yisrael") blooming and fruiting like a beautiful fig tree, but many Jews are beginning to wonder about this Yeshua character and wonder if the ostensibly "christian" view of who he is,  isn't really correct.  Not only that, but lots of true believing Christians are waking up to the fact that a lot of traditional church doctrine just doesn't jibe with the overall understanding of Scripture.

We believe that Adonai is going to send the people who need to be here and study with us. It is in the works for the people who the Lord is calling to move here.  We have seen the Almighty bring about things that we never would have thought possible or would have expected.  As we strive to study and obey, even though imperfectly, He will be faithful to bring us together with others who seek Him in truth.

Shabbat Shalom!  Baruch habah b'Shem Adonai.  (Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord)