This is the Truth Network. It will get there. Oh, what a joy we have again today. From my standpoint, it's an amazing time to be with Rabbi Chaim Eisen in Voices. from Zion.
Um We are still in the prophecies more. contemporary Than the newspapers, no doubt, and we are certainly living in these times. Are we excited today to journey to a new place into Jeremiah? 33, promises, promises, right? Amazing promises.
And something. for all of us to revel in. And so, rabbi? Here we go. God bless you, Pastor Robbie.
Thank you so very much for this blessing to be able to come together. And of course we're still in our progression of The prophecies that are more current in today's newspapers. Pertaining to the building of Jerusalem and the rebuilding of Jerusalem. And Well we discussed last time. Jeremiah chapter 32.
Big B the consternation, the the dismay. of Jeremiah. Doug, what are you doing? You're telling me to buy this field? and the city is falling into the hands of the Chaldeans.
That initiates this progression. of consolation. And In many ways it comes to a culmination. in Jeremiah chapter thirty three. I'm going to read From verse six.
Behold. I will bring it. and it in context. unambiguously is Jerusalem. Healing and cure.
And I will cure them. The people of Jerusalem. And I will reveal unto them The abundance of peace and truth. And I will cause the captivity of Judah. and the captivity of Israel to return.
and we'll build them. as at the first. Is this before Judah has gone into exile, of course. the kingdom of northern Israel, which is the reference to the captivity of Israel. The kingdom of northern j Israel has already been sent into exile by the Assyrians.
Indeed. Previous sweep. across the land of Israel by the Assyrian Empire. And now it's going to be the turn of Judah. But God's promise.
I will cause them to return. And God continues. I will cleanse them from all their iniquity in which they have sinned against me. and will pardon Mm. their iniquities.
in which they have sinned against me. and in which they have transgressed against me. And by consequence of That bestowed. Of God's forgiveness. And this city shall be to me for a name of joy.
for praise and for glory. before all the nations of the earth who shall hear All the good that I do unto them and shall fear and quake. For all the good and for all the peace. that I do unto it. And Perhaps the culmination of this.
Begins in verse 10. Thus says the LORD Yet again there shall be heard in this place whereof you say, It is waste. Without man, without beast, even in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate without man and without inhabitants and without beast. Remember what The wayfarers, Mark Twain and the others, Jerusalem, even up until the middle of the 19th century. There shall yet again be heard in this place.
In verse 11, the voice of joy. and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. the voice of them that say, Give thanks to the Lord of hosts, For the Lord is good. For his kindness endures forever. Even of them that bring offerings of thanksgiving unto the house of the Lord.
for I will cause the captivity of the land to return. as at the first. Says the Lord. And this is what exemplifies the restoration. The voice of joy and the voice of gladness.
The voice of the bridegroom. and the voice of the bride. And moreover. The voice of them that say, Give thanks unto the Lord of hosts. For the Lord is good, for his kindness endures forever.
So Can I jump in? Because this takes me to something I was. Uh I was in the 118th Psalm. Actually yesterday. And I saw this.
And it blew my mind. It still blows my mind. And this statement is very much related to. You know what it says. That his mercy endures forever.
That most people would know the first verse of the 118th Psalm, you know. Four verses will have that as the refrain. Although I must quibble. As though is his kindness. Yes, yes, I agree with you.
I totally agree with you. Yes. It is. I love that. This is something that's not earned.
This is something that God bestows as His gift. Hebrew. completely outside of the bounds of what can be Regarded as Do. Sat do. It's It is a pro I have a problem in translating here.
I I I'm with you that I that you know, a lot of times that word is is translated mercy. But if you listen to most you know Christian hymns you know they'll sing it Give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His love endures forever. Right, and and again, uh w we've talked about it many times, looking through the lens. That we have looked through English language, etc., etc.
There is no way you can understand. The implications of this, but that's what I want to do: take off the lens for a second and go into the word forever, because here's what blew my mind. Oh, okay.
Okay. That when you look at forever I had never thought about this, but there is a Lamad. Mm that is a prefix in this case to the word ever. which is actually saying almost like the purpose of ever.
So when you take, and it makes sense, like for, like, for is a word that describes a purpose. Of ever. Like, oh. There's a purpose to this duration. And when I separated it, I went, oh my goodness.
He's He's actually used this prefix. of this Lamid which we would never you know people that think of in english as forever it's just a duration of time But wait a minute, what's the four for? Right? And and then and And when you think about that, God has actual purpose for this duration. And it has to do with acid.
Am I missing something? Or would you. And certainly, on the most basic point, I'll say. God's kindness. And yeah, the the reason that I by the way I stress the problem in translations here is that what characterizes Chesed more than anything else.
is the way we'll express it in the Hebrew His chesed is the level of Lifnim Mishugat Hadin. How do you translate Lifnim Mishratadin into simple English? That is The way it is. expression conventionally translated into English is going beyond the letter vlog. The problem of course with that is Lifnim means within, not beyond.
Um that is um From a brake perspective, Going beyond the letter of the law means going out of bounds. There's nothing good about that. No, it's going within the letter of the law. The way I'd like to describe it is It's reading between the lines. You have this hypersensitivity.
to what the Torah is teaching. That you understand the message of Chesed. The message of Chesrid is something that is so all-encompassing, so powerful. That It's not merely the lines of the Torah. Uh It's Between the lines.
All right. Yeah, it uh The thing about that word for me, and I know I look at this a little differently than you do, and I love it that we look at it differently. But you just take the three letters of the word. which are a hat An Isamic. and a dollar.
Just three letters. That middle letter. That's comic. that's in there. That letter is Scared King David to the point.
When you look in the 119th Psalm in the Psalmic section, he says, that I tremble. You know, for fear of you, Lord. In other words, there's a big idea there in the middle of that. of something that is so big Because the Somic has to do with upholding you, and it has to do. with so many things that I could support it.
Supporting and upholding, and all these things, but whatever it was, had David's attention to say, This is huge. This is huge. And there's no doubt in my mind that in the middle of that letter of Hesed is something absolutely huge. I mean in the middle of the word, it is something absolutely huge. Uh and And then at the end of that letter that dollar You know, shows A lot that has to do with a door.
The the That The word itself is worth spending a lot of time. But I love what you just shared because to me it is. It's almost like. Not just reading between the lines, but almost getting the total intention of God's heart, which is within the law. Right.
Absolutely. No, that def that definitely is the case. I guess to use a very loose analogy. If only The notes of music. Are known.
Then you just look at a score and you see, okay, well Here's an A, here's a B, here's a C, a D, whatever. You know, don't read me. Uh But when you hear the music You hear how it all comes together. There's something that is truly. ineffable.
You see the notes on the page. And in and of themselves They're inanimate. But when you hear the music Oh my god, it's a completely different plane. Yeah, I've heard it said this way too. It's which is just taking the same thought and And but it fits back to the taste.
And see that the Lord is good. If you take a mouthful of flour, not very good, you add a little sugar, whatever, and eggs, whatever. When we we you know, you just don't Take all those, but when you mix them together with a person that actually knows how to cook and make a cake, and all of a sudden you're tasting something that's absolutely beautiful, and again, sometimes. You know, that just looks like plain flour to us, or it may look like, you know, salt. But mixed together with what God has for us, taste and see.
Like, man, this is really, really, really amazingly good, Ryan.
Well, you know, I guess we have to have to get back to. We do, we do. And I was just going to. But since you mentioned this verse. From Psalm 34.
About taste. And you'll see that God is good, which of course is. Since Psalm thirty four is an acrostic. It is the letter Tet. Right.
You can't help but ask. Is What in the world is it going to taste? Excuse me, we're not taking a bite out of God. What does it mean? And um And I think that's something Precisely along the lines of you are intimating by quoting that verse.
that is so front and center in considering its implications. that is when we consider our senses. you can see stars that are light years away. You can hear loud noises. that are miles away.
You can smell a pungent odor anywhere in the room. You can touch something at arm's length. To taste something you have to put it inside you. There's something that is exquisitely and acutely. subjective and personal.
Internalized. First you have to taste. If you don't taste. You won't see. And of course, sight, if anything, the most remote of our senses, is also the most precise.
That's why So much of our learning. Is based upon sight. We read. But you're not gonna be able to see. If you haven't first tasted.
You don't get to that Precision. without having the intimate bonding of the subjective experience. Oh, I I could Yeah. 'Cause I I You know, I've never discussed this with you, but it's just something I do that I I ask God every year, at the beginning of the year, To give me a word. You know, through spirit, I'm listening.
Give me a word that you want us to work together on today, this year. What is a theme for this year? And three years ago, my word was vision. He wanted me to work on the word vision. And I was trying all year to try to get a vision.
Like, what does this mean? I was just studying and thinking. And no matter where I was, I knew that God had given me that theme for the year. And I was honing in on it. And in October All of a sudden, he hit me square between the eyes.
with Psalm 34. You wanna see? You have to taste. And exactly what you just described, you take in the word of God, you eat it like a scroll. Like you take it in.
And all of a sudden you can see things like what we're describing in the word peset or or describing a thing and you taste them. Like the love that's been poured out to me since the accident, you see my neck in a brace, and the rabbi's been praying for my family. Like, by my wife's name, I have tasted. I've tasted and I have seen. And I've taken it in.
And my family's taken it in. And uh bits The ramifications of what God is saying, that his love endures forever here in this verse. Uh as In a way, to get back to Jeremiah 33. Yeah. That here I'm in the United States of America.
A Christian pastor, whatever you want to say, yet. There is no way I could explain to anybody the blessing that I have as a result of being connected to Jerusalem, by being to Jerusalem, having met Rabbi Haim. In other words, all these things. or exactly More current than the newspapers, because this is stuff that is happening to me. this month in May 2026.
What's happening to me too? That is the blessing that you came to Jerusalem and we. had this this bun that instantly Right form between us.
Well, this is the day the Lord has made. You mentioned Psalm 118. This is the day the Lord has made me. Rejoice and exult in it.
So now getting back to Cheset, because really, of course, when you talked about Cheset before, What came into my mind was Psalm eighty nine. And In particular, I must admit there is a major Question With respect? To How to understand The words of verse three. For I have said Olam Chesed. I banner.
How do we parse that up? The the major problem here is Problem. Question mark. The question mark that doesn't have one single answer. is We know As Hester Robbie, as you mentioned, Earlier that Olam means ever or maybe Forever You said it rigorously, ever.
In other words, the totality of all time. In Biblical Hebrew, We know that's the meaning. of Olam. But in the first stratum of post-Biblical Hebrew, We encounter an additional layer of meaning. Not that the forever aspect has disappeared, it's still there.
There is an additional dimension. of world. world in the sense of the Totality of the universe. And the question And this is again a question that Doesn't have a single simple answer. Is whether that second stratum is only post-biblical or is also the Bible?
There are those who will translate. Olam chesed gi bane. as The world is built by kindness. And simultaneously, if we presume that no, alum. in the Bible only means forever.
Then it means That Kindness. is built Forever. Which is it? Is it the first or is it the second? Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. And I would point out for those people who are trying to follow the rabbi in the King James Version of the Bible, that is Psalms 89, verse 2. Oh, okay.
For us. Which is fine. I just, you know, I don't want people to be confused if they're looking at that verse. The title of the Psalm is verse 1 in the Masoretic text. Right, right, right, right.
And but nonetheless Right, something else for us to all go spend some time with because Oh my goodness But it certainly highlights what you know with respect to this connection between Olam. And Chesed, And that Really, as you point out, we need to relate to Li'olam. As Either for ever, for the sake of ever, toward ever. Co so this recurrent expression which is over and over and over again manifest in the Bible. I'm not sure.
It's an expression that we encounter, of course, not just in Jeremiah chapter 33, we encounter it really all over the place. in the Psalms. Uh you have of course those opening Four verses. of Psalm 118. That all end with this expression, kilo lam chasda.
For His Kindness is Four. Ever, but um You also have, as a case in point, Psalm 136. Where do you have every single verse. every single verse. Concluding.
with that expression.
So since this this recurrent theme throughout the Bible and just soak that in. Again, the simple Translation would be God's kindness. is forever. But then You say, Pastor Rob A. God's kindness is For the sake of forever.
That is If I may take it in the direction of You might have thought That God's kindness is something that's like just point-wise, a particular circumstance in which we need this. extraordinary infusion of divine kindness.
So, first of all, no, it's not an extraordinary infusion, it's all the time. And second It's not for the moment. It's four for Forever. that God's kindness is something that is so foundational. You consider the totality of existence.
Lit hold on. forever in the most expansive sense. And God's kindness. It's toward that. For that, for its sake.
And again, maybe in that vein, returning to Psalm 89. Kindness. is built up, it's established. in this realm of forever. Because that's the very nature of kindness.
And of course, in Psalm 89, it's that's basically your kindness. God's kindness. It's this attribute of kindness. And when you consider kindness in this expansive sense that which again Is not the letter It's reading between the lines. It is being imbued with something that can't be quantified.
It's not just looking at a musical score, it's hearing the symphony. Right? That's everything. Even the 23rd Psalm, it ends that way. Right?
Surely. Goodness and Hesid, which a lot of people think is mercy, will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord. When? For Ever.
So, I need to make two observations with respect to the translation, if you don't mind. First of all, Not follow me. Chase me. Pursue me. Oh yeah, that's right.
That's absolutely right. That makes such a big difference. I I Kindness and goodness are pursuing me. And um And additionally It's not Olam there. It is the Orech Yamim.
For The length of days. Which is Expensive. And one could argue that, well, Where do you get to the real length of days if not in the realm of forever? But forever isn't used. Implying that David is saying there This is something that I'm grounding Really even in the here and now.
the prolonging of the here and now. And my greatest yearning is Share the um the comment that was made one one of the the great Rabbis of the earlier part of the 20th century. Rabbi Israel Mayer of Radin. Um Everyone is Pursued by something in life. Everyone feels Something that's Breathing down his color.
We pray that we should always be pursued by opportunities to do kindness and goodness. Wow. And of course sometimes it gets inconvenient because Oh, keep it very clear. No, no, no, no. Everyone is pursued by something.
May this be what pursues us everywhere. opportunity to do kindness and goodness. And they'll be able to do that. prolonging my life every day. For long days.
Long days, days that are filled with opportunities. to bestow kindness and goodness. And this dynamism of kindness then is just... back and forth everywhere. And which is connects.
Wow, and so yeah, it it and and and what Jeremiah obviously is sharing again. is It's going to be in a hot pursuit. of all of us as we enter into this time of seeing what God is doing with Jerusalem. And so Absolutely. I I I I You know, and I guess I feel compelled a little bit to say, you know.
That's in The story of the Good Samaritan for us that. You know, the the Samaritan You know, he was being pursued by kindness and goodness when he saw this guy broken off on the side of the road. And he went over there and, you know, paid for the guy's healing and all that stuff. Or there are so many stories like that. and that that relate to all of us um Especially You know, if people that know me, it's a Christian car guy.
You know, I see somebody on the side of the road. Or I get these calls all the time, Robbie, what do I do? My car is right. And often it's quite inconvenient, as you described. Like, man, I'm right in the middle of something.
I understand your car's broken. Um But But yeah. When you said that immediately, I'm like, oh, yeah, I am pursued by these opportunities. And boy, I need to really see that. Oh, what a, what a.
What a way to interpret that verse. Um That is amazing. That is absolutely spectacular. You know, and I don't know if you've ever read the book. There's a book.
on the 23rd Psalm written from a shepherd's perspective. And And he took that verse. And it's a beautiful book because when he talks about being anointed by oil, that they would anoint the sheep. And he goes into all sorts of things that you would not understand if you didn't understand sheep. But the thing he talks about in that verse.
Is it like a sheepdog? That that These the the goodness and mercy are pursuing you like, you know, a dog just Is constantly pursuing. It doesn't quit. It just keeps on coming after, you know, whatever the sheep is, whatever. And I, and, but again, as I think about that, um, That is a beautiful insight.
It's just, um, Yeah, yeah. Man, I hope Everybody gets out of that what I just got. Yeah. Uh That is really spectacular.
So. I guess we've gone 30 minutes. I can't believe it. Um Yeah. Could it just happen?
Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. Please. There's so of course before we continue in In Jeremiah chapter 23, and I'd like to at least Tack on a couple of additional verses, but I also wanted to share. That um In Our traditional wedding ceremony.
The culmination of the ceremony. the final part of the ceremony. Seven blessings. Uh The wedding canopy. And The seventh and last blessing.
It's a blessing of thanksgiving, and it's also a blessing of supplication and prayer. And it's based Entirely. On But We just saw in Jeremiah chapter 33. Blessed are you. We always turn to God for second person directly.
God. King of the universe. who created joy and happiness. Groom and bride. Exultation, song, pleasure, delight, love, brotherhood, peace, and companionship, all these expressions of.
Coming together. You created them all. And then The supplication. speedily God, our Lord. May there be heard in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem the sound of joy and the sound of happiness, the sound of the groom, the sound of the bride, the sound of the joke.
of the jubilation of grooms from their wedding canopies and of youths from their feasts of song. Um that's ready. Card and book. Makes it happen.
So Of course, we appreciate this is really the culmination. Of restoration. Because There is no happiness greater. Then the happy the happiness. of uniting groom with bride.
Why isn't it happiness is greater? Because Well We go back after all. to Genesis chapter 2 and we recognize that Male and female began together. Um That wasn't good. And God separates.
Man for woman. And the whole process of life is coming back together again. And there's no greater joy. Then restoration.
So this is the restoration of Jerusalem. Which on some level is the restoration of God's presence to Jerusalem. the restoration of God's children. Israel to Jerusalem. And simultaneously the restoration of to brighten grow.
That is. Oh, I should. Yeah. And if I would add. Beautifully to me.
I've told people for years we need to say yes to the dress. that we are the bride of Christ. We are the bride of God. We're the bride of the father, or however you want to put it, that hey. This is what...
You were betrothed at Mount Sinai? If if Right? And so the idea of the bride and the bride, at the point in time we join with God through Jerusalem, like To me, that joy is in and of itself one of the more spectacular joys that you could possibly ever imagine. Because That's the real thing that got broken. Yeah.
you know, that we want to get reconciled. You know that's the way we read the Song of Songs. Salmon Song. Yeah. There is Hey.
Beloved and Right. And and there's the period of Separation and even Estrangement. and ultimately the reconciliation of coming together as the climax. of the song.
So we see that we see this precisely in terms of our relationship with God. That the The song, of course, has its If you will, its literal meaning. But it's also to be understood as an allegory. Oh yeah. I couldn't agree more.
It's actually my favorite book in the Bible. A lot of people that know me You know, it one point in my life I had it totally memorized and and I and i I can just tell you that Um that book Um Because of that. I realized That when she describes her lover as coming after her, jumping over the mountains, all those things that she describes, is that. He's pursuing. He is pursuing her.
He is gazing through the lattice, right? He's trying to get a look at us. And uh Uh, and which again, Jeremiah 33 and the idea of this blessing in a marriage ceremony. is spectacular to me. Um not just because Obviously, if you're in Jerusalem and you get to take part in one of those weddings, it's got to be absolutely amazing.
because you're exactly right, but also like, oh my goodness. Uh like The idea was in Jerusalem. What now? Your wedding was. Mm-hmm.
And that joint. I I I I get it. I remember mine too. It was not in Jerusalem. Yeah, but um That is that is spectacular.
Well, I hate again, we But if and if I could just note here. Yeah, please. It is. It is Almost universal in traditional wedding invitations. To Site.
Cruise. Words. of Jeremiah chapter 33. Verse 11 in the context of A kind of modification of verse 10. That Yet will be heard in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the voice of The bridegroom the voice of the bride.
And of course for nearly two millennia. It was left there leaving out. But we should Producing ball. In verse 10, at the beginning Yet again there shall be heard in this place. Because for all those years of exile It wasn't in their place.
And the restoration that It's in this place now. It's back to him. where it's supposed to be. It's the actual fulfillment of these words. What a mind-blowing prophecy.
when you consider that for so many centuries, for nearly two millennia. Most of us We're reciting this verse. But deleting the part about in this place goes it wasn't in this place. there was still the yearning. It was still precisely expressed in terms of In the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem.
But in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem was kind of like Excuse me, like Never, never land. Out there. No yeah. And to be living in a world in which It's right here. I look out my window and I see the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem.
Well Isn't that amazing? It is. It is true. Isn't that precisely. Oh no, his kindness.
is forever. Forever in every sense of the term. lasts forever, it builds toward forever. It is with us constantly. It is an ongoing presence.
And builds a credibility that the rest of the promises that are yet to come are coming. Faithfulness. Absolutely. Speedily and in our days, right? Yes.
Oh god. I love it. I love it. Well, Shalom, my friend, this is spectacular. Shalom, shalom.
God bless you. God bless everyone who's participating in our study. Blessings from Jerusalem. One of the things that I'm going to do is I'm going to go to the next one.
