Friday, January 27, 2012

The Temple Institute: Let My People Go

Can we do תפילות prayers for:

The Temple Institute?

So that through them The האור Light, רפואה The Healing and The ואהבה Love of ישועת יהוה Yeshuath YHWH may come back to הארץ The Land of Israel?

"Let My people go, and they will worship Me."
(Exodus 10:3)
Shvat 2, 5772/January 26, 2012

Our sages teach us that the ten plagues which preceded Israel's exodus from Egypt will be duly repeated before the great and final redemption of Israel and all mankind. Suppose they will: Will we take notice? Pharaoh was truly despicable, but he did stand up and take notice when his nation was laid low by plague after devastating plague. He did not "know" (Exodus 5:2) the G-d of the Hebrews, but he did develop a grudging respect for the awesome power of the deity in whose name Moshe spoke. His wise men and sorcerers were as cynical and corrupt as they come, but they did acknowledge the "finger of G-d" (ibid 8:15) that was wreaking havoc on Egypt.

Today the world is witnessing cataclysmic, earth-shaking events. Natural disasters and man-made catastrophes have been wracking the earth with uncanny frequency in recent years. But today's leaders, both the democratically elected variety and the dictatorial are not the same as Pharaoh. Nor are today's wise men - the pundits and scientists and scholars - the same as the wise men and magicians of Pharaoh's day. The last thing that any of today's cultured classes want to admit of is evidence of the "finger of G-d" behind all the turmoil. Natural disasters have their sources in cold scientific fact, and when those facts are stretched to the breaking point then the finger is pointed at man as the source of nature's breakdown: Pollution and overpopulation and abuse of the planet's natural resources have set the very immutable laws of nature awry. Political and social upheaval? They are the result of past and present colonialism and economic injustice. Our greatest minds tell us so.

Nobody can deny that there is some substance to all these explanations. After all, even Pharaoh's necromancers were able to turn the Nile to blood. Like today's soothsayers, Pharaoh also wanted to believe that all phenomena, no matter how powerfully devastating and directed, are basically explainable and explicable. If whisperers of enchantments can recreate the plagues of Egypt, no matter how self destructive that recreation may be, then this is a great comfort. If we can explain what is happening all around us via our intellect then we don't need to search for a greater or more searing answer. Then we don't need to search our hearts. And when all else fails, when science and reason cannot explain the unexplainable, then we, the ever-clever thinking human beings can always find comfort in that last great refuge: the conspiracy theory. Equipped with its own self-serving circular logic and the usual array of guilty parties, the conspiracy theory will weather even our greatest fleeting moments of true doubt and contrition. No doubt it was the power of the conspiracy theory that enabled Pharaoh to bounce back after each and every plague and dig in his feet once again and deny that there is a G-d in the world.

But it's not just today's Pharaohs and wise men who may be missing the story. While G-d was raining destruction down upon Egypt, He was simultaneously communicating with His people, giving them instruction. He told them to be ready to relate the wonders He was working to their children and their children's children for all time. (Exodus 10:2) He told them to take note of the new moon and to use it to take control of time and thereby take control of their own destiny. (ibid 12:2) He told each household to acquire a lamb and to be ready to slaughter and eat it, in what would be the most extreme and outrageously politically incorrect act of their day - the "P" word - the korban Pesach, (Passover offering). (ibid 12:3) He told them to take the blood from the Pesach lamb and to paint their doorposts red, so that they would no longer see themselves as being just like everyone else, but as being special and in possession of a G-d given mission. (ibid 12:7) And the most miraculous thing happened, in fact the only miraculous thing: They listened. They saw through the poll takers and pundits and politicians who preached caution and compromise. They turned a deaf ear to the scientists and economists and environmentalists and all the other professional naysayers. They threw in their lot with G-d's Divine plan, come what may. And because they did, the ten plagues could no longer be seen by Pharaoh or by anyone else with eyes in their head as natural disasters or as achievable by man or even in the realm of the explainable. Because Israel took up G-d's great challenge to team up with Him and change the world forever, His efforts were not in vain, and His presence was revealed in the world and acknowledged by all mankind.

Today the world is witnessing cataclysmic, earth-shaking events. And until Israel and all those who believe in the G-d of Israel throw in their lot with Him, then our power brokers and pundits and conspiracy theory aficionados will be able to write it all off - all of it. It is up to us to make certain that this will not happen. Our challenge today, to the world and to ourselves is unchanged: "Let My people go, and they will worship Me." (ibid 10:3) Freedom to worship G-d as He chooses is still the underlying issue, the thin line that divides exile from redemption, slavery from freedom, a world run by Pharaoh from a world run by G-d. The Pesach offering and the place where it is intended to be offered - Mount Moriah in Jerusalem - is still the core issue, that which will determine who writes history and whether G-d and Israel will be written into that history. What awesome power we possess - if we but decide to throw in our lot with G-d's Divine plan, come what may!

Tune in to this week's Temple Talk, as Rabbi Chaim Richman and Yitzchak Reuven get ready to bring on the month of Shvat! It is time for all Israel to crawl out from our winter hideaway and get in line for a shot of Divine cosmic love and redemption on Tu B'Shvat, the 15th of Shvat, the new year for trees and man. Meanwhile, back on the banks of the Nile, here in Parashat Bo, G-d is ramping up the plagues He is raining down upon Egypt, (Black Soot and Boils: Can't Get No Relief), while at the very same time welcoming Israel into the world of eternal commandments and commitments: The new moon, (Marking Our Time With G-d), the Pesach offering and total redemption.

Are the ten plagues a thing of the past? Or are they happening again today, as foretold, before our very yes?

The Month of Shvat: Rebirth, Torah, and the Holy Temple: Each Hebrew month conveys its own unique message. The theme of this month of Shvat is the concept of renewal and rebirth. To learn more about the regenerative month of Shvat, please click here.

This week's all-new Return of Prophecy teaching by Rabbi Avraham Sutton, is entitled, "Day Three: Light So Strong: Creation is a matter of G-d hiding away all but the smallest, dimmest spark of His superal light, so that creation and man can exist. And where does G-d hide His light? In the fabric of creation itself!" Click here to view.

Plague after devastating plague, G-d wreaks unspeakable havoc upon Egypt, leaving no stone unturned as He shows Pharaoh who's the boss. In the midst of this unravelling of the warp and woof of creation, why does G-d give to Israel the sighting of the new moon as the first commandment for them to perform? Click here to view Rabbi Richman's teaching on parashat Bo (Exodus 10:1-13:16).