Welcome to Voices from Zion, Robbie and the Rabbi. a podcast where ancient truth beats today's hunger for God.
So welcome to the dialogue. Welcome to the wrestle. Welcome to Voices from Zion. Robbie and the Rabbi. Oh, I can't tell you the joy that I have with this experience of Rabbi.
I mean, Robbie and the Rabbi, the voices from Zion. And these voices from Zion for me are just as... a wonderful peek every week into you know what what the the larger story right what god's doing Um really in the whole world, but he's showing it through the Holy Land. And as we rejoice in what God is doing there, right? We're actually fulfilling prophecy on our own, right, Rep?
Absolutely. I can only resonate with your excitement because this is really a high point in my week to be able to have this fellowship together with you, and I really look forward to it eagerly. All week long, and I'm really grateful to you that we can continue on this note. And 100%. I think I mentioned last time.
History is his story. We know that. And maybe the most palpable way in which we experience God. Is By taking in this wider angle lens. on history.
And Of course. In the end, We should be able to see God's hand. and all the nitty-gritty as well. But Sometimes in the nitty-gritty We can get distracted and lose our focus, but when you consider, Oh my god, where did we come from? What's going on?
Like these. major streams Rivers That are so overwhelming. They're taking place. in history, especially in our time. I don't know to what extent.
This was such a recipe for being able to feel. With intimacy, God's presence in all bygone eras, but it certainly is today. When we see God is on the move. Things are happening. The world is transforming before our eyes, and it's not because we're doing it.
It's not our initiative, it's his initiative, it's his story. It is, this is the day the Lord has made. We exult and rejoice in it. Yes, we do. Yes, we do.
And as soon as you mentioned streams, You know, right from the very beginning in Genesis, the streams are huge. Right. And that's exactly. Um What I see going on. Even when, you know, when I was in Israel.
I guess now a couple months ago. And I'll never, ever, ever, one of my favorite things was walking through. What they called the I think they called it the wet gate. It was Hezekiah's Tunnel. Yeah.
Yes. And when I realized that the spring that fed. The pool of Salom, I guess, would be the way you pronounce that. It's the Gihon.
Well, the Gihon is one of those streams that's mentioned in Genesis. And that just blows my mind that... There has to be a connection with all that, I would suppose. I'm interested in your take on that. I like all together, yeah, we know in The portrayal of Renew Jerusalem of the future as Ezekiel.
Describes it to us. We've noted that you were a very, very important tourist when you were here, but I think the most important tourist who ever came here came here in the visions of a God. Ezekiel and his It all starts in Ezekiel Chapter 40 when Ezekiel is describing to us what he's seeing In The visions of the Lord. He's brought to the land of Israel. And He's sit down.
upon an exceedingly lofty Mounted. And of course, it's an exceedingly lofty mountain because We realize He's referring to What Isaiah describes Yeah. Chapter 2 of Isaiah and Micah in the fourth chapter of Micah. That in the end of days. The mountain of the Lord's house will be set to have mountains, so it's this exceedingly wealthy mountain.
far loftier than he remembered it when he was exiled from there. But the part the part that is of course most directly germane for our purposes. Is he? gives us this Description. the waters that are gushing forth.
From God's house And description It's in Ezekiel Chapter 47. The the uh the quantity of the water that I wasn't able to pass through it. Because The waters were gushing. And He goes on to describe How These waters Or Going Toward The Eastern Sea. We saw that agency.
The Dead Sea. And they'll heal the waters.
Now the Dead Sea won't be dead anymore. And every manner of living thing That Breaths When the The water is Come there. Um There will be A uh a huge Quantity of fish. and the waters will be healed and everything will be living again. And of course One thing I should note You know, there actually are.
Fish. Not in the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is more brackish than any water on Earth. It's nothing that could possibly live in the Dead Sea. Yet.
But You know, there are Freshwater Pools that have been developing around the sea? Is it amazing? Yes. So you talk about the streets, and you have this whole.
So ultimately, of course, if we're talking about. A stream that's coming forth. From the house of the Lord. The Gihon is the spring that gushes up and gives water to Jerusalem. And You're right, it's one it's Whether it is identical with or tributary of or derivative of this river that flows forth from Eden.
I think the most important message If I can express it in my own words, that I get out of the description of. the river that goes forth from the garden and becomes these four major Waterheads. That Go forth in the world. You see all of These chains of being all around the world. And If you look at them superficially, you could think, well, they're all disconnected.
Didn't have anything to do with anything else. And you might even think that This is The Chance development of life that happens just somehow, poof. And then you contemplate what it means to talk about All the rivers Have their source In the Garden of Eden. The all In Our tradition with respect to the description of the garden. are flowing forth from beneath the tree of life.
That's where life comes from. doesn't come on its own. It comes from the tree of life. It comes from this extraordinary Design. that is ordained By the designer.
And you know, of course, we don't claim that we can make this into some kind of proof. Because I always like to note this, and I realize this may ruffle some feathers, but I think it's important for us to recognize. our own limitations in what we can or cannot really fathom. Can we ever prove design? What does design mean?
Design means Pattern.
Well How can you definitively establish? that a pattern exists. I always like to pose this A thought experiment. to students. Uh If I give you A string of numbers.
Obviously a finite string of numbers. How can you establish definitively whether the numbers are ordered? or random. And of course it's a trick question. Because the real answer is you can never establish it definitively.
You can never establish it definitively because, on the one hand, Of course, to establish whether the numbers are ordered or not, you'll look for a pattern. But The pattern Might be So elusive. And the student may just not be creative enough. to be able to find it. There may be a pattern, he just didn't find it.
And not only that. The opposite is also possible. If it's a definite string of numbers, They may actually be random. But the student might be so creative, he comes up with a pattern that actually works because for the number of elements in the set. It fits.
But the numbers really were randomly generated. You can never prove. But there's a pattern. You can never prove that this order.
Okay, right, you can't prove it, but... You look out of the world. Do you really think? It just Came poof. by chance into existence That proof.
But the critical point to appreciate here is. If you believe that there is order. You are compelled. to admit that there must be an orderer. Because it does not arise by itself, and then you know, this is something I um I always stress this point because it's I think it's such a straightforward point.
But people don't adequately appreciate it. Yep. Mm-hmm. My training. in university is in sciences.
My degree is in biophysics. And You got a lot of scientists out there. Who Think They can explain everything. By appealing to Mother Nature. Mother and nature.
Savor those words. As if it's some great big mama out there. Who's responsible for everything? I mean, of course, this is just some New Age paganism, but. But why do they invoke Mother Nature?
Because A scientist, certainly a great scientist. Sees what he's doing. As meaningful. Meaning. I'm striving to uncover an order That's there.
Einstein described what he was doing as Tracing the lines that flow from God. I think any great scientist On some level resonates with that. You can have mediocre scientists who just think they're playing games. You know, you have whatever, some kind of Mathematical puzzle, and you're just solving the puzzle, and it doesn't mean anything beyond the puzzle. If you're mediocre, that may work.
If you're a great scientist, You're operating out of a conviction that the order is real. Yeah. At some point in the formulation of general relativity. Before he had even completed all the equations. He knew it had to be true.
Because it was just too magnificent to imagine. That it was just some cul-de-sac.
Some Dead end that wasn't leading anywhere. But that comes from a religious conviction. Even though He wasn't what we would describe as Religious, but you know, he came. From uh a completely atheistic background and he found God through science. Yeah, so many do.
Jump in here with because you go, you go, you cover so much miles of material. in such a short period of time. You said something that I never heard, and it triggered something amazing in me. Um that the waters that the that flew that flowed out of Eden came from the tree of life. And again, that really resonates with me, although I know it's not in scripture, but the fact that you said that.
In that The water My understanding and you're Tradition, and certainly in my study, I see it to be that water is. connected to Torah In so many different ways. And so, if that's the case, that the water is flowing, you know, it's like the word of God is then flowing out of the tree of life. is a beautiful picture. Uh Um As you study Torah, it brings life.
I can't agree more a hundred percent, absolutely. That is, we do have this metaphor that The Taurus is the life-giving waters. And of course, inevitably, I don't recall if we mentioned this before, but I can't help but not mention it now. Proverbs chapter 3, verse 18.
Well, we know about the tree of life from the Garden of Eden, but we encounter the Tree of Life again. And it's in a passage.
So one thing we already Note about Proverbs is formerly the passage is talking about wisdom. That is, when we read in verse 13, Fortunate is the man who found wisdom. And The person who can bring forth sagacity, understanding. But in our tradition, when it's talking about wisdom, it means Torah. That that's teaching.
You know, I I always have this gripe against all the translations that render Torah as law, which is such a woeful mistranslation because it's so It's so constricting, it's so cheapening. We have a lot of words in Hebrew that mean law, but Torah isn't one of them. Torah is a much more expansive term that means instruction, means teaching, means showing the way. And Of course, it's precisely in this vein. That we read In verses Seventeen and eighteen, its ways are ways of pleasantness, and all its paths.
Our shalom, our peace. It is a tree of life. to those who hold fast to it, and all who support it. or happy.
So That's the tree of life. That it's God's word, God's word.
So Where's the one coming from? It's all coming from God's word. But then I have to share with you that What does that mean then? That means That It's all About Realizing In this Insoluble conundrum of establishing whether there is order. or not.
Whether it's real or not. We can't prove it. We admit no proof. And everyone is left. To Kind of decide for him or herself.
Does The sense that, let's face it, we all have. That is something meaningful in life. Does it come from a delusion? Or is it there because We were put here. And God planted that conviction within us.
And that's That's really that's the axis around which everything is revolving. That is Everyone has to decide Again, for him or herself. If Someone is Going to come to me and say, Nah, I'm convinced. Any sense that I have in my heart, I know I have it in my heart, that there's meaning, is all delusion. I can't Prove him wrong.
It's his heart. I'm just kidding the maybe Sleep with them. Do you really believe that? Does it really work for you? And you know, I have to just Throw in here.
I hope not too digressive, but You know, The seeds. contemporary Atheism. which maybe could be described More aptly as pantheism. equating the universe with God. The seeds were sewn Over two millennia ago.
perhaps more than anyone else by Aristotle.
Now Aristotle Compared with the paganism that preceded him. had a very lofty worldview. And he had a concept of a deity. Just the day they didn't actually do anything. Today he was the first cause in a completely abstracted sense of the term.
But as cause That meant Those who are familiar. With Aristotelian philosophy. Um that um the deity is the formal cause, the efficient cause, and the final cause of the universe.
So, formal cause means that this is the essential organizing principle of the universe. Efficient cause because, on some level, again, the deity, even without consciously giving rise to it, is the cause of the universe being as it is. But also final cause. I don't want to go on a Digression into Aristotelian philosophy, which would really take us too far afield. But final cause means In one word.
Telos There's a goal. There's a design. that is oriented toward that goal.
So why did Aristotle invoke Telos? I think it's because he didn't have a choice. Because he realized. Yeah. Totally blind.
Far blinder than a bat. To disregard There being order in the universe. And I have to note here. Um Classic. Jewish philosophy.
The Classic philosophers. I'm going back to the medieval period here. Rabbi Judah Halebi, Rabbi Moses Maimonides. They Take Aristotle to task. Not because they can prove that tell us is real.
But of course, if you believe that tell us is real. You've got to believe. If this design is the designer. There's no one without the other. And I think that's just such a profound message for us today.
Especially when we encounter people who certainly regard themselves as leading scientists. And They think that um Religion is The butt of all their jokes. But you know ultimately He who laughs last laughs best. You know, a lot of steam lines. Um There was a series put out by Focus on the Family called the Truth Project.
And in it, they were talking about Darwinian theory. and how Darwin himself hated to see a peacock. It drove him nuts. Because There would be no reason for its tails to look like a bunch of eyes that unless it was, you know, there would be no way for it to evolve that way, that those things would match that. Um Which is, I, you know, just in terms of completely digressed, but hey, we're here anyway.
At one time, I was trying to envision Ezekiel's wheels being the Christian car guy that I am, and noting the color and those kind of things, and they're covered in eyes. I thought, my goodness, if you took two peacock tails. And put them that man, here you see something covered in eyes. And that is that remarkable color of blue. Um that that just i find more than marvelous and again the the you know the The joy of again the Torah is meditating on it, thinking on it, and realizing that.
Oh I I am so thankful for For God giving us This To give us faith, to give us some. Idea, like you say, of the path of the things, but also just to fall more in love with him, because the more you study it, the more you realize how marvelous, how much love. You know, all those things that we miss out on without it. And maybe if I could just amplify what you're saying. That part of that love So granted, I think we've noted that One of the greatest gifts that God gives us.
Is human responsibility. That is, he puts us in this world. And Yeah. The choice. To choose well or not.
And instead of cuddling us, Like a bunch of lifelong infants, he treats us as responsible adults who need to make the right choices. But It's not like he just dumps us. Kerplunk Uh darkened room in which we can't See anything or have any clue. where we're going, where we're heading. And if I can again.
Re-invoke. Einstein's line about tracing the lines that flow from God. On the most elementary plane, that means when we see all these lines in the world. We can trace them back to God. That is, we'll get to a singularity beyond which Of course.
We're completely beyond their ken. But We recognize that all those lines are converging on something. That takes us Beyond all of the fractured multiplicity of this world. And that's a A profound message. And again, I think it really connects with the the central theme being able to feel God's imminence.
Not out there, in here. If I can share with you As somewhat, I don't know, this is maybe pushing the envelope a little bit, but. In our tradition, A question. A glaring question. When we think about the story of Samson and Delilah.
Hmm. You know Delilah was pestering Samson, To give her his secret. over and over and over and over again. And he kept lying to her. Until finally he said it's his hair.
And the Bible relates. immediately afterwards that she knew. That He had told Her, all of his heart. She was the truth. And The obvious question.
She's heard so many lies. How does she know this isn't a lie? And this is a question that actually is discussed in our tradition. This isn't in the Bible itself. But there's a hero.
Answer to this question. in a pithy three words. In the Hebrew, it's Nikarim divre emet, which translates to. words of truth. are recognizable.
Mm. And Well, you could just take that as A local answer to Uh trivial question about the Lila. Wow. That's really profound. Words of truth are recognizable.
And hey, if they were recognizable. to a gal like Delilah, who was not exactly a paragon of righteousness. Yeah. That would be recognizable to everyone else. And that means On the one hand, It's A message that imposes responsibility.
but it's a phenomenal consolation. It imposes responsibility because that means that Hey, if I'm not. Finding The truth. that God has laid out to me. It's not The truth's fault, and it's not God's fault, it's my fault.
Because words of truth are recognizable. But it's also profoundly consoling because The implication then is If I really do want to get to the truth. I will. We mentioned in the past. Jeremiah chapter 10 verse 10.
God the Lord is truth. And you can recognize the truth if you want to. Which means If you want to, There will be nothing standing in your way. in recognizing God. in coming to God.
It's in your hands. Doesn't matter what kind of spiritual barren wilderness you think you're in. God endows you with the wherewithal to find the truth. Go for it. It's a summons.
And it's a consoling summons because You can do this. It's within your hands. Yeah, and in a way it gets back to which is so. Gigantic. You shared it.
early on in our conversations that in the first Psalm Um when the Torah becomes the desire, right? What it is that you want. That that desire Um makes God available. That's right. Mm-hmm.
The challenge Yeah. Yes, as you are probably perhaps well schooled in how aware you are, but is getting my desire aligned with that. Yeah, hey, we all got our desires. Ha ha ha ha. Oh man, let me tell you.
Um To know it is not necessarily to apply it. And um And therein lies the opportunity for all of us, right?
Well, you know, that's of course that one one crucial straightforward message that Moses gives us In Deuteronomy chapter four, wi which so happens actually we uh We read in synagogues across the world just yesterday that. When Moses. basically summarizes The the course coming to God, coming to the truth. in Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 39. You will know this day and restore it to your heart.
That God is the Lord in the heavens above and the earth beneath, there is none other.
So it's always a challenge because There are things that we No. Remember very dear. Christian friend wants told me that His coming to support Israel. was an 18 inch journey. Yeah.
You heard this last?
So he said, I don't understand what he meant. He said, it was the journey from my brain to my heart. Mm-hmm. And I quoted Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 39 there because I felt it was just so apropos. And this is really the challenge for us all.
That is the There is so much that we can know cognitively, but We solve and restore it to our heart. And it's a process. There's no Sidestepping that process. There's no Pretending that it's trivial, it's a a mission and it's a lifelong mission. you know that eight it that 18 inch journey is our lives.
We've got a lot to do in learning what to put in the brain, also, but. But the lifelong journey It is to take all of that and transplant it to our hearts.
Well, you know, it's it's fascinating you mentioned that is that I heard a Let's Uh rabbi on Chabad. talking about how The word pharaoh. Have to do with the neck. Uh inversion of the letters that is. Right.
And what he was like, you know, and when I saw this, I pictured this. Let my people go. In other words, you got these thoughts that are in your head and you're trying to get them in your heart. And Pharaoh's down here and you're saying, let my people go. Like these thoughts that here's this constriction.
Um And I love that concept. That that there is this force. Right? It No doubt. Part of it's inside of me.
Part of it is like. You know, like they say, that part of it's certainly the pressures of the world, and part of it is the Yitzha Hera. You know, all these things are involved. I don't know how it all fits together, but obviously, we talked about that before, and we digress further as we're Running short on time, but I'm interested in your take on that because you understand it so much better than I. I don't know whatever, but um No, so I I wouldn't I wouldn't make too much of the etymology because it is an inversion of the letters, but still, on some homiletical level, Um the um The word would not refer to The neck, so much as The back of the neck.
And why do I emphasize that? Because when you talk about someone being stiff-necked in Hebrew, Stiff neck is quichet au ref. That's the back of the neck. Those are the same letters. Inverted.
of Pharaoh. In other words, The problem isn't that we have a neck. The problems will become stiff-necked. That is The neck, after all. can and undoubtedly should be.
And open can't do it. Between Head and heart. And there should be communication.
So that We should always be engaging in that process of, you shall know it this day and restore it to your heart. But then um we get a stiff neck. I can't. The the flow is getting Constricted. Because We've closed ourselves.
To Receiving the message. And we have to unstiffen the neck. And That's something The head On the one hand Of course. A process that we as you noted Don't entirely control. But on some level we also do.
And in that vein. I think what mu what most comes to my mind an interesting tension. Between two verses in Deuteronomy. that seem to conflict with one another. On the one hand, We read in Deuteronomy chapter 10 verse 16.
You shall circumcise. the foreskin of your hearts. And Yeah Back of the neck. You shall stiffen no more. Exactly the same word that we were just talking about.
Or if Yeah. You shall circumcise the foreskin of your heart. and not stiffen your neck anymore. And that's an injunction. A command or a summons for us.
Yeah, but Then In Deuteronomy, Chapter 30. Verse six. We read. God your Lord. will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed.
To love God your Lord with all of your heart and with all of your soul, that you might live.
So your question is Yeah, so Who does this open heart operation? Yeah. Yeah. Do we do it to ourselves or does God do it to us?
So it sounds like a conflict. Considering these two alternatives. Do we do it to ourselves? Does God do it to us? What's inevitably going to be the answer?
Yeah. Yeah. And of course, on the one hand, you know, this gets back to What I think we keep on revolving around because it's just such a. fundamental essential message in the Bible That the greatest gift that God gives us is He summons us to be His junior partners.
So, of course, inevitably. The the Summons You circumcise. Your hearts. Even though God is ultimately the circumciser of the heart. And I think we could also say is a process unfolding.
That is You get the ball rolling. I'll take it from there. But you have to start.
So we have a saying in our tradition. This isn't Uh A verse in the Bible, it's a midrash on a verse in the Bible. that um You open For me. An opening. as big as the eye of a needle.
Mm. open for you. The The the do the doors of the banquet hall. That wagons will go through. We can't take that first step.
And even that first step. I'm helping you. I'm taking you by the hand. I'm endowing you with spirit. that will recognize the truth if you want to see it.
And I'm giving you all of these. Pointers. Like again. Get getting back. Koinkfun circle for the rivers.
The rivers that f that flow from Eden. Right? That is again, you see. all of these phenomena in this world. That you might think are disjointed.
But no, they all have One source One divine source. If you trace them all back, you'll get to Eden. them back ultimately. you'll get to that singularity that impinges upon The ineffable God.
So, you have this world with all of its multiplicity, but it's really not all the multiplicity because. If you want to, you'll see. It brings you the God. The only condition was You gotta want to. And the harder you want You're right.
Really, really jump off into a cavern, which. I feel compelled to do, even though we're way out of time. But I think anybody watching this would certainly be. Fascinated. Especially, I don't know if you're familiar with this giant struggle within.
evangelicalism that's going on for hundreds of years. Between a word called Calvinism And Armeniumism. Armeniumism. And again, I'm not the world's leading expert on these two subjects, but I do have the overall grasp of it. To some extent, again, a lot of people say, Robbie, you don't, you know, you're going to simplify it.
Yes, I am going to simplify it because it's simplified down to what you just said. Have you ever heard the terms?
Well, Calvinism, certainly. The second term. Armadiumism. And fundamentally, here's the idea: did God choose me, or did I choose God? Oh.
Okay, so you know the Calvinist fundamental down there, get to the bottom of it, God chose me, right? And predestination and things like this come out of that concept of Calvinism. And Armenianism came out of Right. you know john uh excuse me the um The method is Fine. I can't remember all the names right the second, but nonetheless, there were people that they were saying, no, we truly are making that eye of the needle, and God comes in and again.
You know, I'm just going to simplify and I'm going to go, yes. Yeah, uh yeah. Um Those things Can end up being distractions trying to delineate it. The good news is: if you have any desire and you begin to open up that needle, then go for it. I mean, God's in there, and you're in there, and here we go.
Like That's it. that you are chosen because you've done what you needed to do to be chosen. Right. And it's just a complete Yeah, I have to share with you. you can agree disagree but i i um i have a dear Evangelical theologian friend in the Netherlands, where I know he's considered to be the leading evangelical theologian.
And um I recall him him saying to me, and I think one occasion. These folks who say works don't matter. They don't know where they're coming from. Because Either works Or the means through which You're chosen. or they demonstrate that you are chosen.
But to say I can just sit sit like a bump on a log and not do anything because I'm elect. That doesn't come from the Bible. God wants us to act. He definitely doesn't want us to be a bump on a log. And again, the book of James and our, you know, in our Bible is going to speak to that and I couldn't agree with him more, but it makes it it's a point that I would love to make.
I would love to make this point. that Christians totally misunderstand. the idea of the 613 commandments. For the most part, I'm not saying there aren't people out there that understand it, but one of the richest things that I have learned through my study of Of Torah and coming alongside of rabbis and stuff is understanding the concept of mitzvah and the idea of the relationship that happens through obedience. And the way I'll describe this, and I'll let you.
Wax eloquent right after I say it, but the way I came to understand it. Is that while you're in the midst? Of a commandment while you're in the midst of doing something you know God wants you to do, that there is a relationship building that's happening between you, and the joy of that and fulfilling a mitzvah is something that is. It's gigantic. And here's the picture.
So, my wife. Um She loves pizza. She loves pizza. I don't care for pizza all that much, but I know my wife loves pizza, okay, and so. This is my idea of a mitzvah to some extent with my wife.
Like, if I'm sitting there going, you know, I would really love to make my wife happy. I know that she loves pizza.
So on my way home. I'm gonna stop and get a pizza. When I get that pizza in the car, I'm going to smell the pizza. And as I'm thinking about the pizza, I'm thinking, man, I can see the smile on Tammy's face when I come home with this pizza. It's going to be wonderful.
Well, if I know God wants me to do good for the poor. And I'm out there doing that. And while I'm doing that, I'm experiencing God's love. And I'm experiencing, like, man, God, you know, it's like. You know, I can experience his pleasure while I'm doing these things that it's.
That is so much more than a bunch of people doing something out of a legalistic perspective of I've got to do this in order to make my way to heaven or whatever it might be. Right? Absolutely. Absolutely. And of course, we see this.
I think maybe more than anywhere else. Throughout the Psalms. Because King David is talking about this all the time. That is When one considers Maybe as um Uh uh And a particularly notable case in point. In Psalm 19, So I'm like, okay, so fascinating because There's a progression in the psalm.
It starts out. By talking about the natural world. The heavens Relate. The glory of the Lord and his handiwork is retold by the firmament. And there's a description in particular of They Brightness of the sun, because after all, from our perspective, in the natural world, the sun.
is the preeminent luminary. And That description of the sun takes us through verse seven. And then in verse 8. The Torah, the teaching of God, is perfect. It restores the soul.
The testimony of God. is faithful. It wisens the fool. They Commands of God. Or Upright.
They gladden the heart. The commandments of God. are clear They illuminate the eyes. The reverence of God is pure. It stands for ever.
The judgments of God are truth They are altogether righteous. And There's a message here. Obviously This pertains to the totality of the Torah. Exactly how to understand The six particular subdivisions that King David establishes is something we could talk about for hours. This is something that First and foremost.
Who stores the soul? It vivifies. Yeah. It invests our lives with meaning and significance. If I can Just illustrate this actually with something that's very much in Current events here in Israel.
As Many people are aware There Our social tensions with respect to everyone participating in. The universal conscription that we have. in Israel because we need an army to survive. But you know, part of the The contention here is That People say Serving in the Army Isn't an obligation, it's a mitzvah. And You know, people don't understand the parlance may not get it.
What's exactly the difference between An obligation and a commandment, that's exactly the point. That is, a mitzvah isn't something that you do because you're obligated. It's something you do because your life revolves around it. It's something that you do because this is precisely what makes life meaningful. It's something that you do because it exalts and uplifts us.
And of course Um there'll be the count, the reckoning of 613 commandments, which by tradition corresponds to the number of limbs and sinews in the human body, it's something that resonates with the totality of error. existence for our lives. It resonates with us. We resonate with it. It's transformative.
So, of course, again, it all comes back to the same idea because. This is also part of the Experiential dimension that takes The truths from you will know it this day restoring it to your heart. And also That other thing that we've been talking about. Today Um It provides you What's the roadmap? Become the god.
So you're not shuffling along feeling your way in a pitch dark room. Cut says This is the way, folks. Please come home. Yeah, it's beautiful. Absolutely.
What a place to finish. It's such shalom. If that could happen, right? We could come home, which is Jerusalem, right? It's also Shuvah.
Teshuva, we've noted, Shuvah means coming home. Brian. That is uh if I don't know if we've discussed this in the podcast, but uh I know we've talked about it outside that um We get A really clear definition of teshuvah, which is usually translated as repentance. From The first book of Samuel, the end of chapter seven. Where the prophet Samuel is described as a circuit judge.
Going from place to place, judging Israel.
So Yeah, we we read the circuit. in the next last verse of the chapter. In um verse sixteen. Uh he would go year by year and Do the circuit to Bethel and the Gilgal and the Mitzvah and judge Israel in all these places. And the next verse.
and his tichuvas was to Ramah 'Cause that's where his home was. Simple, straightforward definitions. This is an observation of one of the great Bible scholars of the last generation, Rabbi Joseph B. Salovajik. Chuva really means going home.
And we come home. You know God is there. with his hands outstretched, waiting for you. That's a beautiful, beautiful picture. Again.
But It couldn't be more exciting. Again, it's kind of available to us, just as you say. Whenever you begin to meditate on the word and study the word and even Oh. You know, A deep conversation. Pardon me?
And live live the word. And live the word. Right, right, right. It's available that. Amazing piece.
Thank you once again, Raymond. It's an amazing time. If you wouldn't be trying to get us out of it, it wouldn't be coming.
So, yeah, I can't. I'm just so grateful for this dialogue and and We don't check. And god God bless everyone out there for who's participating in this podcast. This is such a blessing for me to be able to be part of it with you. Yes, thank you.
God bless. Shalom from Jerusalem. God's City. We are so honored that you would join us today on Voices from Zion, Robbie, and the Rabbi. For more information about Rabbi Haim, Go to his website, zionbible studies.org.
That's zionbible studies.org. or visit me, Robbie Dillmore. at the Christian Car Guy website. That's ChristianCarGuy.com. Once again, Shalom from Jerusalem, the Holy City, God's City.
