From This Week's Torah Portion:
“And YHWH said to Avram, ‘Get yourself out of your land, from your relatives and from your father’s house, to a land which I show you. And I shall make you a great nation, and bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing! And I shall bless those who bless you, and curse him who curses you. And in you all the clans of the earth shall be blessed.’ So Avram left, as YHWH had commanded him, and Lot went with him. And Avram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Charan. And Avram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the beings whom they had acquired in Charan, and they set out for the land of Kena’an. And they came to the land of Kena’an. And Avram passed through the land to the place of Shekem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. At that time the Kena’anites were in the land. And YHWH appeared to Avram and said, ‘To your seed I give this land.’”
“YHWH said to Avram, ‘Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land which you see I shall give to you and your seed forever. And I shall make your seed as the dust of the earth, so that, if a man could count the dust of the earth, then your seed also could be counted. Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.’”
“And I shall establish My covenant between Me and you and your seed after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be Elohim to you and your seed after you. And I shall give to you and your seed after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Kena’an, as an everlasting possession. And I shall be their Elohim.”
Tomorrow will be one year since the attack on Israel by Hamas. Since thence have witnessed extreme turmoil in that part of the world. 1 Peter 5:8, “Be sober-minded and alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Probably good advice for us this week…
When people hear that the savior‘s name is not Jesus, they quickly react instead of thinking about it. And the response is almost always “Jesus is His English name, and we speak English so we call Him, Jesus.“ No more to say about it and definitely no more to think about it.
This sort of thinking ignores the long history of how Christianity has taught us to be treating the name of Jesus. We were taught all along that this name itself is holy and powerful and good, and salvation and healing are found in no other name than Jesus… But when we found out, it was not the right Name then we, were expected to forget everything we’ve been saying about it so far and just decide that it is not as important as we have been saying all along.
But perhaps worse, is the fact that our Christians preachers say that it’s not really about the actual word itself, but the idea behind it or the authority in it or something of the sort, and then proceed to and expect us to keep treating the name, Jesus, as if it were still that all-powerful moniker applied to Him all along.
And feeling justified that Jesus is just an English version of the Hebrew Name, Yeshua, they stick with the fake name instead.
But language does not work this way.
Words from one language do transform from culture to culture and language to language, yes, but not in that way.
Someone named Peter may be referred to by a Spanish-speaking person as Pedro or vice versa but Peter is Peter and not Pedro in actuality. And contrary wise, if he was named Pedro and someone called him, Peter while the connection is understandable, and not necessarily incorrect, it is still not true to say that Pedro is actually Peter. The name may be the one that is appropriately applicable by corresponding connection, but not directly. Because while words can move from one language to another by adoption and pronunciation, we do not change when being addressed by each language and culture. A Spanish-speaking person may see someone named Peter and think of them as Pedro, but they don’t become Pedro even if they are referred to as Pedro , not naturally so. The same is true of Yeshua. He is not Yeshua in Hebrew, and then becomes Jesus in English. On the contrary, if we are calling him, Jesus, we are applying to him our own understanding, culture, and language .
And while He obviously understands all languages and cultures that doesn’t mean whatever language and culture we want to apply to Him is true of Him.
What it does mean is that we have a deep need to make Him more like us, so we give Him a new name and new characteristics reflective of our own ideals.

If we call him, Jesus, as a colloquialism or a nickname or some other sort of grammatically acceptable reference, a title perhaps, that’s not necessarily so bad.
But if meaning it as His true Name or as if His Name shapeshifts to fit our desires or as if His Name doesn’t really matter, then we are being even more intellectually dishonest, because we are not making a one for one transliteration such as from Peter to Pedro. But instead, we are adopting as the actual name of our savior, the version of a version of another version of yet another version and calling what’s leftover at the end the actuality.
A one for one translation would be Joshua if we truly needed to anglosize with an existing English name. Joshua is already an existing name straight from Hebrew, Yehoshua; the Y hardened to J and the rest shortened with the O instead of the E. Though according to the rules of transliteration technically Yeshua is itself a perfectly good English word aswell as Hebrew, since we have the exact letters and sounds in our language to replicate the original and no grammatical rules requiring our altering the sound.
So why are we so attached to this alternative version (of a version of another version of yet another version)? And why are we taught to overlook our own innate hypocrisy in insisting upon it when Joshua would be a more accurate English version than Jesus and fit with the claim we’ve declared?
And if we are going to try to be more accurate and intellectually honest in calling Him, Joshua, why not go all the way to calling Him by His actual Name of Yeshua?
It’s well worth asking the questions of ourselves?
Question Everything
templecrier.com
What is your opinion on the extra Biblical books? Some of my friends in Yeshua accept these books while others don't. My current opinion is that these extra books should not be counted as Scripture, but it may have interesting historical information. I do not yet currently own them yet.
You can get a complete Bible from Halleluyah Scriptures:
https://www.halleluyahscriptur....es.com/halleluyah-sc
Or purchase them separtely or in one book:
https://www.halleluyahscriptur....es.com/five-new-book
Let me know what you think of these extra biblical books.
Rosh Chodesh
The new crescent moon was sighted from Israel on the evening of 10/4/2024, making the first day of the 8th scriptural month 10/5/2024.
The Rosh Chodesh was sighted from the Zevulun Valley at 6:42pm by Yoel Halevi and his wife, and by two other people also in northern Israel.
Rosh Chodesh Sameach!
For those of you who are celebrating this new moon as the 7th scriptural month according to the mainstream Rabbinical calendar, which has “Rosh Hashanah” on 10/2/2024 as the first day of the month, you may want to hold your horses and maybe celebrate a couple more days. The Torah says in no uncertain terms that this festival must be on the first day of the month – the new moon. There was no way, anywhere on earth, that a new moon was sighted on 10/2/2024. In fact, no new moon could have even been sighted in Israel on 10/3/2024. It is not possible.
Three criteria which absolutely establish whether the moon can be seen are:
1. Fraction of illumination – the disc of the moon must be illuminated by at least 1%
2. Lag Time – the distance between sunset and moonset must be at least 27 minutes
3. Geocentric Elongation – the subtended angle between sun, moon, and earth must be at least 10%
It takes roughly 29.5 days for a complete lunation, meaning no new moon can be seen prior to day 29. On 10/2/2024 it was only the 28thday since the last new moon. On the evening of 10/3/2024, the following criteria were established:
1. Fraction of illumination – 0.7%
2. Lag Time – 17 minutes
3. Geocentric Elongation – 9.3%
A failure to meet any one of the above absolute established minimums will result in a new moon not being seen. As you can see, even on 10/3/2024, not one of those were met. Those who celebrated their festival on either of those days, celebrated them in the wrong month. No new moon was sighted until 10/4/2024.