The Jerusalem Prayer List – 20 December, 2024
By Joseph Shulam // Jerusalem Israel
As we approach the Western year's end on the calendar, the feasts of Hannukah and Christmas are already knocking on our doors. We in Israel are looking at this very small blue dot in the middle of an ocean of red from the hate and blood of Arab nations around us. Now, we are witnessing the roots and the dynamic fulfillment of the worst of human characteristics in the family of our patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Even hundreds and thousands of years later, roots can sprout and grow again. In one way, it is so sad that the Arab nations surrounding Israel hate us, the Jews, and Israel as a state with such strength that they still want to massacre, kill, rape, burn, destroy, and delete our ancient nation of Israel. And always in my mind, the question is why? What have the Jews done to harm or damage the Arabs? When did this hate start, and how is it that, for thousands of years, this irrational hate has spread from the Middle East to the whole world? Christians also are deeply infected by this hate from hell, by antisemitism. However, this name is not right from the beginning. Because Jews are descendants of Noah's son Shem, and the Arabs are also descended from Noah's son Shem. But, when people reference today's "antisemitism," they don't include the Arabs at all; they refer strictly to Jews. In fact, in our days, the most prominent and most irrational and evil antisemites are the Arab nations surrounding this small little country called Israel. In a war that is more than 100 years old between Jews and Arabs in the Middle East, the hellfires are not extinguished. On the contrary, they are fanned, and the fires are hotter than ever.
This week, our Torah reading, the reading from the prophets, and the reading from the New Testament are from the Torah portion of Vayeshev.
Genesis 37:1-40:23 starts with the Hebrew word Vayeshev, which simply means "he dwelt," – "He settled," – "He lived"! Here is the verse from the NKJV:
"Now Jacob dwelt in the land where his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan." (Genesis 37:1 NKJV).
Remember that Jacob dwelled about 30 years old in Mesopotamia, Syria, working with Laban, his uncle and brother of his mother, Rebecca. The portion from the prophet Hosea of the last Shabbat brings harsh criticism against Jacob two times in the same reading:
• Hosea 12:2-4 (ESV):
"The Lord has an indictment against Judah and will punish Jacob according to his ways; he will repay him according to his deeds. In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his manhood he strove with God. He strove with the angel and prevailed; he wept and sought his favor."
• Hosea 12:12-13 (ESV):
"Jacob fled to the land of Aram; there Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he guarded sheep. By a prophet the Lord brought Israel up from Egypt, and by a prophet he was guarded."
Between Jacob and the prophet Hosea, approximately 1100 years had passed. The prophet Hosea reflects on the scandals in the family of Abraham as a long-lasting family problem, like a problem of eternal hemorrhoid pain. It is a sleeping scandal in the family of Abraham that is still alive and still painful in the seat of both Jacob's [Israel's] descendants and Ishmael and Esau's descendants. Here lie the roots of the wars, conflicts, and hate that are firing the current-day wars and antisemitism around the globe.
There is nothing more difficult and horrible than a family scandal, hate between brothers, or a malignant feeling of pain that has festered for hundreds and thousands of years.
Our Torah portion gives us a scratchy picture of the very roots, as irrational as they might be, of the still-breathing hate and enmity of the 21st Century.
Our reading portion from the prophets on this Shabbat comes from Amos 2:6 – 3:8.
In this reading of the Haftarah – the reading portion from the prophet Amos (a "non-prophet" prophet like Hosea) brings condemnation against Jacob:
"Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away its punishment, Because they sell the righteous for silver, And the poor for a pair of sandals. They pant after the dust of the earth which is on the head of the poor, And pervert the way of the humble." (Amos 2:6-7 NKJV)
I don't understand why tradition has us reading the genealogy of Yeshua from Matthew chapter 1:18 – 25 with this parashah. I suppose it must remind us that Yeshua's genealogy is just like our own: some good people, some great people, and some scoundrels. None of our families are sinless saints because such does not exist among us homo-sapiens. Whoever chose this text from Matthew's gospel as a companion reading for our Torah was trying to show that there are also some scoundrels and a few sinful women in the genealogy of Yeshua. All I have to say is thank you for the reminder.
Back to our Torah portion. Our reading starts with Jacob returning to the land that God gave to Abraham and his descendants as an everlasting inheritance, i.e., the land of Israel or Ancient Canaan. (With their special morbid sense of humor, the British named Palestine after the ancient Romans called Palestine.)
Genesis 37:2-3 identifies the root cause of Jacob's family's problems and big scandal.
"This is the history of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father. 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age. Also, he made him a tunic of many colors."
These two verses are the root of most of our problems, even now in the Middle East. It all started and is still running on the same red-hot coals lit in the days of our ancestors, Isaac and Jacob. We can learn many wise and essential things from the Bible for our families, children, businesses, and communities.
For me, the Bible is not a religious book at all; I don't find religion as a positive element in the Bible. Faith, love, and hope are the positive elements the Bible teaches and proves through the lives of people like our patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and all down the line until Yeshua. We learn from these fathers of our faith in One God about the good, the bad, and the ugly of our human nature but also about the holy, pure, loving, strong, faithful, divine nature that was programmed and built into us. Our challenge is to learn from God's Word and the history of humanity to make a healthy cocktail with these powerful ingredients and walk with God and Yeshua, not with Johnny the Walker and his friends.
With this Torah portion, Vayeshev, we are entering a new phase of our human race's divine comedy and tragedy. The good, the bad, and the ugly of humanity are displayed without masks and make-up in its naked, simmering cauldron of everything evil, and one wouldn't want to get as gifts under the Christmas trees.
We all hold to the Bible as a Holy Book and the most important book for those who want to live a good, clean, healthy, prosperous, and holy existence. It teaches us how to be close to God the Creator and Yeshua, our savior's life, and how to inherit eternal life in God's presence and with our beloved family ( and where maybe we can hear King David play the guitar and Miriam the sister of Moses can teach us how to dance. Or King Solomon can do riddles and stand-up comedy with the Queen of Sheba dancing and eternally imitating Michel Jackson.)
I hope you read this Torah portion, which starts in Genesis 37:1 and ends in Genesis 40:23. There is so much drama and intrigue, hate and love, and rags-to-riches literary motifs that even Hollywood has tried but failed to capture the full scope and deep meaning that is food for our very souls.
You should read the text of the Bible slowly and stop at any point that raises questions in your mind, meditate, try to understand the big picture, and then zoom in on the small details. At the end, pray for God with his Holy Spirit to descend, and if not during the day, then through a dream at night to clarify and inspire you with His wisdom and understanding. How vital and corrective are the words in this book shorter than Lev Tolstoy's War and Peace? The Bible is the ultimate book about war and peace. It has instructions on how to cure the war and peace that is inside of ourselves, and then the war and peace with our brothers ( hopefully, those Homosapiens = The original humans "Homo sapiens" who have learned that it is not wise to urinate against the wind.) 1
The Word of God is the best guide to teach you to be a Homosapian, the wisest animal in the divine garden created in the very image of the Father and the Son and with the Holy Spirit.
[1] Homosapiens = The original humans = intelligent humans dated originally 200,000 years ago. The famous quotation “Homo sapiens non urinat in ventum” is a modern Latin inscription in Amsterdam, offering humorous yet practical advice about avoiding actions that are likely to backfire.
Nothing can replace reading God's Word with an openness in your heart to receive wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of the reason for your existence in this blue ball called Earth, created by the Almighty, as our training grounds to prepare us for eternity. God loves us, which is why He gives us the choice to choose eternal life in a cool place like the Swiss Alps or a hot and salty place next to Sodom in the Dead Sea. "I hate choices! But I have no other choice but to choose!" You, too, are in the same spot! Choose Now!
I encourage you to pray for everyone on the prayer list by name—take the time! If you pray for other people, brothers and sisters will pray for you when you need God's hand to touch and heal you or bless you!
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