The Jerusalem Prayer List – April 19th, 2024

The Jerusalem Prayer List – April 19, 2024

The 28th weekly portions of scriptures

The Torah Metzora (מצורע) - Leper Lev. 14:1-15:33

The Haftarah the Prophets: Mal. 3:4-24(4:6)

The New Testament reading: Lk. 1:5-25

Joe and Marcia arrived home safely after a very very long trip from Nashville TN via Miami International to Tel Aviv airport to Jerusalem. I’ve spoken daily with mom and dad since they have returned home and dad is not feeling too well. He says its jet lag which I am sure makes the 8 hour difference in time, heavy on the eyelids. We spoke and I offered to take care of this week's JPL.

As John Denver's song Back Home Again says Hey, it’s good to be back home again.

I posted the guitar chords to this chorus for the following reason.

A B7 E E7

Hey, it's good to be back home again

A B7 E A

Sometimes, this old farm, feels like a long lost friend,

B7 E

yes, and hey it's good to be back home again

We had a record of John Denver at home and it was one of the albums my mother liked to listen to. It was also the album I was able to learn to play a guitar with and figure out the chords.

As An Israeli kid listening to songs about West Virginia (I’d never been in West Virginia, nor did I grow up on a farm). However, I still connected with the message. The feeling of being home, the feeling of it being Good. In Nafplio in Greece, I got to meet John Denver. Mom and dad were eating at the port at a restaurant with the fresh open air tables and boats all docked with families and other vacationers enjoying the sunny day and smells of grilling souvlaki permeating the sky. As a 6 year old, I was more than curious and fearless. I walked off from the table and onto the gangway of a yacht docked in the port in front of our table and started a conversation with a person on the deck. Well my charm was enough that John Denver was very gracious and returned me to my parents and a short conversation ensued on how cute and charming I was. Never would I have imagined that John Denver would have resulted in an entry in this week's JPL. That's life.

A single event or study of the Bible can result years later in an implementation of a principle you studied. I call that the Holy Spirit working out in your life.

Are You like me and find it foreign to read about purification processes and methods that the high priest is tasked to perform?

Leviticus 14:1 And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, 2 This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: he shall be brought unto the priest: 3 and the priest shall go forth out of the camp; and the priest shall look; and, behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper, 4 then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two living clean birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop

Two Birds, Cedar Wood, Scarlet and Hyssop, the detail of the processes of blood, water, sprinkling etc. is something that is far removed from our clean efficient world of getting things packaged from Amazon and our grocery stores.

However, I think you can all relate to the idea of coming home. The idea of returning into the family is something we all can relate to. My first grade school in Jerusalem was named Henrietta Szold Elementary school. She was the founder of the Hadassah organization. I lived a 3 minute walk from our apartment to school. At the time I didn't know that if I walked further past the school 3 more minutes I would come across the Hanson House. It was located behind a row of trees. The Hanson house was created in 1885 as the Jesus Hilfe (Jesus Help) asylum for sufferers of Hansen’s disease, also called leprosy.

BANDAGING ROOM, 1910.(photo credit: EMMAUS ARCHIVE)

In our lifetime a disease that we all can relate to similar to leprosy is COVID. Families were kept away from loved ones, segregated in hospital wings. The same idea of being purified and certified as clean physically and spiritually still holds today. When applying for a travel visa to some countries, they want to know you have no symptoms at the time of travel.

We learn that the Priest who was the spiritual authority also had physical duties he had to perform in observing and qualifying a person or a physical structure as being clean (Pure). We learn that a person can be physically unclean as well as spiritually which will result in separation from God. A home in the same condition of physical uncleanliness can be defiled and in the worse case must be destroyed. The Priest pronounced a Clean house with the ritual of sprinkling the house seven times with the blood.

51 and he shall take the cedar wood, and the hyssop, and the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird, and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times: 52 and he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, and with the running water

Sprinkling the house seven times reminds me of placing the blood on the doors in Egypt for a sign and protection.

These are public rituals. The public nature of these rituals is part of what makes them important. It's part of restoring a person into his community. It's a recognition.

This recognition is something Yeshua knew about and demonstrated in Luke 17.

Luke 17:11 And it came to pass, 4as they were on the way to Jerusalem, that he was passing along the borders of Samaria and Galilee. 12 And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, who stood afar off: 13 and they lifted up their voices, saying, Jesus, Master, Have mercy on us. 14 And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go and show yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, as they went, they were cleansed. 15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, with a loud voice glorifying God; 16 and he fell upon his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. 17 And Jesus answering said, Were not the ten cleansed? But where are the nine? 18 6Were there none found that returned to give glory to God, save this 7stranger? 19 And he said unto him, Arise, and go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.

The first thing out of Yeshua’s mouth was to direct the healed to their Priest. Yeshua respected the duties and responsibilities of the Priests.The same ritual processes that we read about here was necessary for these 10 men to perform for their sake, and the community's sake. The single person who was restored was able to approach Jesus. His Faith made him Whole. I find it interesting that it was mentioned that He was a Samaritan. This implies that some of the other nine were not, after all they were in a village that straddled the border of Galilee and Samaria.

When we find ourselves with those outside of the community and those inside we all have the same Grace and opportunity to purify ourselves through the blood of Yeshua from our sins and restore to one another to become Whole.

God Bless

Barry Shulam

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