Tiferet of Gevurah

Not just love but compassion has to drive discipline. Love comes from recognizing one's merits and positive qualities (discipline channels and directs those strengths and weeds out the negative). Compassion is unconditional love. It is love just for the sake of love, not considering the others position. Tiferet is a result of total selflessness in the eyes of G‑d. You love for no reason; you love because you are a reflection of G‑d.

Does my discipline have this element of compassion?

Exercise for the day: Be compassionate to someone you have reproached.

"Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him."

Ps 2

Thought for Today: Tuesday April 18:

May abundant grace and profound peace be multiplied to you in every way. May countless blessings chase and overtake you and may you notice when they do. May YHVH heal your heart, soul, mind and body and may you approach life with eternity in mind. May you know the wholeness Elohiym always intended for you and may your faith be renewed. Look for Adonai YHVH expectantly today!

SERIES M --- PROPHESIES AND MIRACLES --- LESSON 14

ELISHA’S MINISTRY

KING JEHORAM OF JUDAH

From 2 Kings 8:1-6, 16-22; 2 Chronicles 21

After King Jehoshaphat of Judah died, his son Jehoram, who had ruled with him for a few years, became the sole king of Judah. Jehoram was the oldest of Jehoshaphat’s sons and so he became king, while his brothers received gifts of silver, gold and other valuable things as their inheritance. As soon as Jehoram was established as king, he killed his brothers and many other leading men of Judah. He was thirty-two years old when he became king and he ruled in Jerusalem for eight years. He was an evil king, much like King Ahab of Israel. He had in fact, married Ahab’s daughter, Athaliah. Although Jehoram sinned against Adonai, Adonai was not willing to cut him off for he was one of David’s descendants and Adonai had promised David that He would keep one of his descendants on his throne forever. While Jehoram was king, the Edomites, who had been under Judah’s control, revolted and chose their own king. Then Jehoram went to Zair with his captains and his chariots and attacked the Edomites by night. While this attack was successful, Jehoram was never able to put down completely the Edomite revolt. Libnah also revolted, for Jehoram had turned away from Adonai. He built high places in the hill country of Judah, turning the people of Jerusalem and Judah away from Adonai. One day a strange message came to Jehoram from the prophet Elijah, the one who earlier had been taken to heaven in a whirlwind. [Adonai says that you have not followed your ancestors Jehoshaphat and Asa in pleasing Him,] Elijah warned. [Instead, you have followed the ways of the evil kings of Israel, turning Judah and Jerusalem away from Adonai and causing them to worship idols as Ahab did. Also, because you killed your brothers, who were better men than you, Adonai will punish your nation. You and your wives and children will become very sick with a disease which will cause your intestines to rot and fall out,] This happened to King Jehoram later, resulting in his death. Meanwhile, to add to his troubles, Adonai stirred the Philistines and the Arabs who lived near the Ethiopians to march against Judah. They crossed the border, attacked Jerusalem and took away all the valuables that were in the palace, including Jehoram’s wives and children. Only his youngest son Jehoahaz, also known as Ahaziah, escaped. On one occasion, when famine was about to break out in Israel, Elisha warned the Shunammite woman whose son he had brought back to life. [You and your family should move to another country, for Adonai is sending a famine on Israel for the next seven years,] he told her. The woman listened to the prophet’s warning and moved her family to the land of the Philistines for the seven years of the famine. When the famine ended, she returned and came before the king of Israel to claim the house and land she had left behind. As she came in to see the king, Elisha’s servant Gehazi was telling the king about some of the prophet’s miracles. [Tell me more of the great things Elisha has done,] the king asked Gehazi. So Gehazi told the king about the time when Elisha brought the woman’s son to life again. At this very moment, the woman came in with her son to present her claim. [Look!] said Gehazi. [Here is the boy, the one Elisha brought back to life and his mother.] The king asked the woman about the incident and she told him all that had happened. The king then gave orders to an official to see that the woman’s house and land be given back to her, along with the value of the crops that had been harvested from her fields while she was away.

COMMENTARY

HUNGER AND FAMINE

Hunger was no stranger in Bible times. Families worked in the fields all year just to provide enough for the household. If their farms did not produce well, a year of scarcity was almost certain. Several things could cause a critical shortage of food. Drought was the most common; without enough rain, crops died. Swarms of insects could destroy crops before they were ripe. Attacking armies destroyed their enemies’ fields. More often their attack coincided with the harvest season and they fed their armies with the harvest, leaving entire villages without food. Many Israelite customs and Laws dealt with hunger. It was considered a duty and a privilege to welcome strangers for a meal. The Law of Moses instructed farmers to allow the poor to glean in their fields, picking fruit and stray stalks of grain missed in the first reaping. Among farmers an unwritten understanding allowed travellers to pick enough grain to ease their hunger as they passed by a field, providing they did not take any with them. Hunger was well known, and Israelites tried to relieve it when they could. They made up for living with scarcity during festivities and holidays, for such times were always times of feasting. A feast was the mark of rejoicing and an abundance of food and drink was always cause for celebration.

If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.
#proverbs 24:10

God doesn't give us peaceful times as a vacation. They are for seeking out challenges and for building strength and capacity that will be needed in adversity. If you give out as soon as hard times come, it means you wasted the easy times.

Find the Torah Portion reading for this week on our app and website now. Check it out!

You can now buy printed books directly on Homeschooling Torah! Yay! Check out all our courses here:
https://homeschoolingtorah.com..../what-membership-inc

 

homeschoolingtorah.com

YouTube

(I really with Bible translators had a better term than "unclean". The concept has nothing to do with being dirty. It's more about association with death.)

"Blood of purifying" in #leviticus 12:4 uses the Hebrew word for ritually clean, so the blood removes or covers something that is tamei (ritually unclean). Does the blood of circumcision partly atone for the uncleanness of birth? A woman remains in tamei longer if she has a girl (80 days) than if she has a boy (40 days). Perhaps this isn't because girls are more "unclean" or anything like that, but because the circumcision of the boy allows that period of separation to be shortened.

There are two or three blood atonements required by Leviticus 12 after the birth of a child, depending on whether it is male or female:
1) Mother's blood
2) Circumcision (male only)
3) Sacrifice