Priority #1 - My Elohim: Fresh Ideas

From Faith, Grace & Torah

At the conclusion of Yom Kippur this year, I came away with the feeling that I should get back to my old way of blogging.  I actually had a fairly successful blog on yahoo.360 back in the early 2000s.  Since that ended, I had been sort of flailing in the blogging department, with the exception of my Day Book, which my children think I publish just for them.  I do, but I don't like them to think about that.  LOL  My system for blogging before was to take one priority and just write about it for 15 minutes, whatever was on the top of my head about the subject.  It sounds crazy, but it actually worked for at least a couple of years.  It won't be PUBLISHED daily.  Actually, it was always published about every 5 days, but writing for 15 minutes a day gave me plenty of material.

So in today's blog (I've got 10 minutes left), I want to talk a little about what WE do on Yom Kippur.  Another Hebrew title for Yom Kippur is Yom HaKippurim.  That means the Day of Coverings.  Do you remember what Adam and Eve did in the garden?  They attempted to cover themselves.  I like to think of Yom HaKippurim as the day of UNCOVERINGS.

As I mentioned in my Day Book, on Yom Kippur, we went through the self-examination questions from T'Shuva Ministries.  This year, I only wrote down 1 or 2 from each of the Ten Commandments that I would like to work on.  I may go through it again before the spring feasts and do the same thing.  

2 Corinthians 13:5 ISR98 - "Examine yourselves to see whether you are living the life of trust. Test yourselves. Don’t you realize that Yeshua the Messiah is in you? — unless you fail to pass the test."

Although last year I took notes, this year I found myself writing less.  The reason is that we can  become so overwhelmed looking at our own inadequacies.  We can't possibly fix everything that needs to be fixed right away.  Sanctification is a process.  The self-examination questions are designed to show us where we cover ourselves and act as if it doesn't even matter.  

This year, my note focused on what I felt was the most significant area of each of the commandments that I needed to focus on.  One of the things that I thought about doing is to regularly write the 10 Commandments down to remind myself of what it is that I am supposed to be focusing on.  The Scripture is full of admonishment not to forget the commandments.  

Numbers 15:38 ISR98 - “Speak to the children of Yisra’el, and you shall say to them to make tzitziyot on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue cord in the tzitzit of the corners."  

I will admit, I am not all the way there on this one.  When I do decide to wear them, they need to be discreet and feminine since they have not traditionally been worn by women and in my heart, there needs to be a clear distinction.  Also, I know that some people wear them for "identification" so that someone else who is Torah observant can pick them out in a crowd.  If that's a by-product, great!  But that is not what their purpose is.  They need to be a visible reminder to the wearer.  

Deuteronomy 17:18 ISR98 - “And it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his reign, that he shall write for himself a copy of this Torah in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites."  

I figure, if the king has to write the entire Torah, the least I can do is write the 10 Commandments in my own hand.  

Also, a favorite passage in the book of James 1:21-25 that reminds us not to forget what it is that we have seen in the word.  

"Therefore put away all filthiness and overflow of evil, and receive with meekness the implanted Word,1 which is able to save your lives.  And become doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.  Because if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror, for he looks at himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what he was like.  But he that looked into the perfect Torah, that of freedom, and continues in it, not becoming a hearer that forgets, but a doer of work, this one shall be blessed in his doing of the Torah." 

This chart illustrates the differences in how the commandments are delineated.

Hebrew4Christians

This is how it is written in the Complete Jewish Bible (Exodus 20:2-17)

א 2 “I am Adonai your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the abode of slavery.
ב 3 “You are to have no other gods before me. 4 You are not to make for yourselves a carved image or any kind of representation of anything in heaven above, on the earth beneath or in the water below the shoreline.5 You are not to bow down to them or serve them; for I, Adonai your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sins of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but displaying grace to the thousandth generation of those who love me and obey my mitzvot.

ג 7 “You are not to use lightly the name of Adonai your God, because Adonaiwill not leave unpunished someone who uses his name lightly.

ד 8 “Remember the day, Shabbat, to set it apart for God. 9 You have six days to labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Shabbat for Adonaiyour God. On it, you are not to do any kind of work — not you, your son or your daughter, not your male or female slave, not your livestock, and not the foreigner staying with you inside the gates to your property. 11 For in six days, Adonai made heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. This is why Adonai blessed the day, Shabbat, and separated it for himself.

ה 12 “Honor your father and mother, so that you may live long in the land which Adonai your God is giving you.

ו 13 “Do not murder.

ז (14) “Do not commit adultery.

ח (15) “Do not steal.

ט (16) “Do not give false evidence against your neighbor.

י 14 (17) “Do not covet your neighbor’s house; do not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female slave, his ox, his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

Blessings!

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