READINGS FOR OMER COUNT – DAY 38

Behold, I am about to fulfill the affirmative precept of the counting of the Omer, as it is written in the Torah:

“And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Shabbath, from the day that ye brought the Omer of the wave-offering, seven complete weeks they shall be; until the morrow of the seventh Shabbath shall ye number fifty days.”

Blessed art Thou YHWH, our Elohym, King of the universe, who hast set us apart by Thy commandments and hast given us command concerning the counting of the Omer.

This is the thirty-eighth day, making five weeks and three days of the Omer.

May the All Merciful restore the service of the Temple to its place. May it be Thy will, YHWH our Elohym and Elohym of our fathers, that the Temple be speedily rebuilt in our days, and grant our portion in Thy Torah. And there we will serve Thee with awe, as in the days of old and as in ancient years.

May Elohym be favorable unto us and bless us. That Thy way may be known upon the earth, Thy salvation among all nations. Let the peoples give thanks unto Thee, Elohym; let all the peoples give thanks unto Thee. Let the nations rejoice and exult: for Thou wilt judge the peoples with equity and lead the nations upon the earth. Let the peoples give thanks unto Thee, Elohym; let all the peoples give thanks unto Thee. The earth hath yielded her increase: Elohym, even our Elohym, shall bless us. Elohym shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him.

READINGS: TEHILLAH 105

Give thanks to YHWH! Call upon His Name, Make known His deeds among the peoples.

Sing to Him, sing praise to Him; Speak of all His wonders.

Make your boast in His set-apart Name; Let the hearts rejoice of those seeking YHWH.

Seek YHWH and His strength; Seek His face always.

Remember His wonders which He has done, His miracles, and the judgments of His mouth, O seed of Aḇraham His servant, Children of Ya‛aqoḇ, His chosen ones!

He is YHWH our Elohim; His judgments are in all the earth.

He has remembered His covenant forever, The Word He commanded, for a thousand generations, The covenant He made with Aḇraham, And His oath to Yitsḥaq, And established it to Ya‛aqoḇ for a law, To Yisra’ěl – an everlasting covenant, Saying, “To you I give the land of Kena‛an, The portion of your inheritance.”

When they were few in number, Few indeed, and sojourners in it, And they went about from one nation to another, From one kingdom to another people, He allowed no one to oppress them, And He reproved kings for their sakes, Saying, “Do not touch My anointed ones, And do My prophets no evil.”

And He called for a scarcity of food in the land; He cut off all the supply of bread.

He sent ahead of them a man, Yosěph, sold as a slave.

They afflicted his feet with shackles, His neck was put in irons.

Until the time that His Word came, The Word of YHWH tried him.

The king sent and released him, The ruler of the people let him loose.

He made him master of his house, And ruler over all his possessions, To bind his chiefs at his pleasure, And to teach his elders wisdom.

Then Yisra’ěl came to Mitsrayim, And Ya‛aqoḇ sojourned in the land of Ḥam.

And He increased His people greatly, And made them stronger than their enemies.

He turned their heart to hate His people, To conspire against His servants.

He sent Mosheh His servant, Aharon whom He had chosen.

They set among them the matters of His signs, And wonders in the land of Ḥam.

He sent darkness, and made it dark; And they did not rebel against His word.

He turned their waters into blood, And killed their fish.

Their land teemed with frogs, In the rooms of their kings.

He spoke, and swarms of flies came, Gnats in all their borders.

He gave them hail for rain, A flaming fire in their land.

And He struck their vines and their fig trees, And broke the trees of their borders.

He spoke, and locusts came, And larvae, innumerable, And they devoured all the plants in their land, And they devoured the fruit of their ground.

Then He struck all the first-born in their land, The first-fruit of all their strength, And brought them out with silver and gold, And among His tribes no one faltered.

Mitsrayim was glad when they left, For the fear of them had fallen upon them.

He spread a cloud for a covering, And fire to give light in the night.

They asked, and He brought quail, And satisfied them with the bread of heaven.

He opened the rock, and water gushed out; It ran in the dry places, a river.

For He remembered His set-apart word, To Aḇraham His servant.

So He brought out His people with joy, His chosen ones with singing.

And He gave to them the lands of the nations, And they inherited the labor of peoples, In order that they might guard His laws, And watch over His Torot. Praise Yah!

READINGS: MISHLE 23:19-35

Hear, my son, and be wise, And guide your heart in the way.

Be not among heavy drinkers of wine Or with gluttonous eaters of meat; For the drunkard and the glutton become poor, And slumber puts rags on a man.

Listen to your father who brought you forth, And do not despise your mother when she is old.

Buy the truth and do not sell it – Wisdom and discipline and understanding.

The father of the righteous greatly rejoices, And he who brings forth a wise one delights in him.

Let your father and your mother rejoice, And let her who bore you exult.

My son, give me your heart, And let your eyes watch my ways.

For a whore is a deep pit, And a strange woman is a narrow well.

She too lies in wait as for a prey, And increases the treacherous among men.

Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who feels hurt without cause? Who has redness of eyes?

Those staying long at the wine, Those going in to search out mixed wine.

Do not look on the wine when it is red, When it gives its colour in the cup, As it flows smoothly; In the end it bites like a snake, And stings like an adder – Your eyes look on strange women, And your heart speaks perversities.

And you shall be as one Lying down in the midst of the sea, And as one lying at the top of the mast, saying, “They struck me, I was not sick! They beat me, I did not know! When shall I wake up? Let me seek it again!”

READINGS: AVOTH 4:28-29

Rabbi Elazar Haqappar said, envy, desire and ambition drive a man out of the world.

He used to say, they that are born are destined to die. and the dead to be brought to life again, and the living to be judged; to know, to make known, and to be made conscious that He is El, He the Maker, He the Creator, He the Discerner, He the Judge, He the Witness, He the Complainant; He it is that will in future judge, blessed be He, with whom there is no unrighteousness, nor forgetfulness, nor respect of persons, nor taking of bribes. Know also that everything is according to the reckoning; and let not thy imagination give thee hope that the grave will be a place of refuge for thee; for perforce thou wast formed, and perforce thou wast born, and thou livest perforce, and perforce thou wilt die, and perforce thou wilt in the future have to give account and reckoning before the Supreme King of kings, Haqadosh, blessed be He.

Rabbi Chanan’ya ben Aqash’ya said, Haqadosh, blessed be He, was pleased to make Yisrael worthy; wherefore He gave them a copious Torah and many commandments; as it is said, it pleased YHWH for His righteousness’ sake to magnify the Torah and make it honorable.

READINGS FOR OMER COUNT – DAY 37

Behold, I am about to fulfill the affirmative precept of the counting of the Omer, as it is written in the Torah:

“And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Shabbath, from the day that ye brought the Omer of the wave-offering, seven complete weeks they shall be; until the morrow of the seventh Shabbath shall ye number fifty days.”

Blessed art Thou YHWH, our Elohym, King of the universe, who hast set us apart by Thy commandments and hast given us command concerning the counting of the Omer.

This is the thirty-seventh day, making five weeks and Two days of the Omer.

May the All Merciful restore the service of the Temple to its place. May it be Thy will, YHWH our Elohym and Elohym of our fathers, that the Temple be speedily rebuilt in our days, and grant our portion in Thy Torah. And there we will serve Thee with awe, as in the days of old and as in ancient years.

May Elohym be favorable unto us and bless us. That Thy way may be known upon the earth, Thy salvation among all nations. Let the peoples give thanks unto Thee, Elohym; let all the peoples give thanks unto Thee. Let the nations rejoice and exult: for Thou wilt judge the peoples with equity and lead the nations upon the earth. Let the peoples give thanks unto Thee, Elohym; let all the peoples give thanks unto Thee. The earth hath yielded her increase: Elohym, even our Elohym, shall bless us. Elohym shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him.

READINGS: TEHILLAH 103

Bless YHWH, O my being, And all that is within me, Bless His set-apart Name!

Bless YHWH, O my being, And do not forget all His dealings, Who forgives all your crookednesses, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with mercy and compassion, Who satisfies your desire with excellence, Your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

YHWH is doing righteousness And judgment for all the oppressed.

He made known His ways to Mosheh, His acts to the children of Yisra’ěl.

YHWH is compassionate and showing favor, Patient, and great in mercy.

He does not always strive, nor maintain it forever.

He has not done to us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our crookednesses.

For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; As far as east is from west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

As a father has compassion for his children, So YHWH has compassion for those who fear Him.

For He knows how we are made; He remembers that we are dust.

A man’s days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.

For the wind blows over it, and it is no more, And its place no longer remembers it.

But the mercy of YHWH Is from everlasting to everlasting Upon those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children’s children, To those who guard His covenant, And to those who remember His orders to do them.

YHWH has established His throne in the heavens, And His kingdom shall rule over all.

Bless YHWH, you His messengers, Mighty in power, who do His Word, Listening to the voice of His Word.

Bless YHWH, all you His hosts, You His servants, who do His pleasure.

Bless YHWH, all His works, In all places of His rule. Bless YHWH, O my being!

READINGS: TEHILLAH 104

Bless YHWH, O my being! O YHWH my Elohim, You have been very great: You have put on excellency and splendor, Covering Yourself with light as with a garment, Stretching out the heavens like a curtain, Who is laying the beams of His upper rooms in the waters, Who is making thick clouds His chariot, Who is walking on the wings of the wind, Making His messengers the winds, His servants a flame of fire.

He established the earth on its foundations, So that it would not totter forever, You covered it with the deep as with a garment; The waters stood above the mountains.

At Your rebuke they flee; At the voice of Your thunder they hurry away.

They go up the mountains; They go down the valleys, To the place which You founded for them.

You did set a boundary, they do not pass over, They do not return to cover the earth.

Who is sending the springs into the valleys, They flow among the hills.

They give drink to every beast of the field; Wild donkeys break their thirst.

The birds of the heavens dwell beside them; They sing from between the branches.

Watering the hills from His upper rooms; The earth is satisfied with the fruit of Your works.

Causing the grass to grow for the cattle, And plants for the service of mankind, To bring forth food from the earth, And wine that makes glad the heart of man, Oil to make the face shine, And bread which sustains man’s heart.

The trees of YHWH are satisfied, The cedars of Leḇanon which He planted, Where the birds do make nests; The stork has her home in the fir trees.

The high hills are for wild goats; Rocks a refuge for rock badgers.

He made the moon for appointed times; The sun knows its going down.

You put darkness, and it is night, In it all the beasts of the forest creep.

The young lions are roaring for prey, And seeking their food from Ěl.

The sun arises – they withdraw And lie down in their dens.

Man goes out to his work, And to his labor, till evening.

O YHWH, how many have been Your works! You have made all of them in wisdom. The earth is filled with Your possessions.

There is the sea, great and wide, In which are innumerable swarms, Living creatures, small with great.

There do ships go; That Liwiathan which You made, to play there.

All of them wait for You, To give their food in due season.

You give to them, they gather in; You open Your hand, they are satisfied with excellence.

You hide Your face, they are alarmed; You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust; You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; And You renew the face of the earth.

The esteem of YHWH is forever, YHWH rejoices in His works, Who looks on the earth, and it trembles; He touches the mountains, and they smoke.

I sing to YHWH as long as I live, I sing praise to my Elohim while I exist.

My meditation on Him is sweet; I rejoice in YHWH.

Let sinners be consumed from the earth, And let the wrong be no more. Bless YHWH, O my being! Praise Yah!

READINGS: MISHLE 23:1-18

When you sit down to eat with a ruler, Look well what is before you; And put a knife to your throat If you are a man given to appetite.

Do not desire his delicacies, For that food is deceptive.

Do not labor to be rich. Cease from your own understanding!

Do you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; They fly away like an eagle to the heavens.

Do not eat the bread of one having an evil eye, Nor desire his delicacies; For as he reckons in his life, so is he. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, But his heart is not with you.

You vomit the piece you have eaten, And lose your sweet words.

Do not speak in the ears of a fool, For he treads on the wisdom of your words.

Do not move the ancient boundary, And do not enter the fields of the fatherless; For their Redeemer is strong; He shall plead their cause against you.

Bring your heart to discipline, And your ears to words of knowledge.

Do not withhold discipline from a child; If you strike him with a rod, he does not die.

Strike him with a rod And deliver his being from She’ol.

My son, if your heart shall be wise, My heart rejoices, even I, And my kidneys exult When your lips speak what is straight.

Do not let your heart envy sinners, But be in the fear of YHWH all day long; For certain, there is a hereafter, And let your expectancy not be cut off.

READINGS: AVOTH 4:26-27

Rabbi Yosey ben Yehudah of K'phar Habav'ly said, he who learns from the young, to what is he like? To one who eats unripe grapes, or drinks wine from the vat. And he who learns from the old, to what is he like? To one who eats ripe grapes, or drinks old wine.

Rabbi Me’iyr said, look not at the flask, but at what it contains; there may be a new flask full of old wine, and an old flask that has not even new wine in it.

Check out the Torah Portion reading for this week!

Today is day 37 of 50 days to Shavu'ot Countdown!

From this week’s Torah portion – Naso:
And YHWH spoke to Moshe, saying, Speak to Aharon and his sons, saying, This is how you bless the children of Yisra’el. Say to them:
YHWH bless you and guard you;
YHWH make His face shine upon you, and show grace to you;
YHWH lift up His face upon you, and give you shalom.
Thus they shall put my name on the children of Yisra’el, and I myself shall bless them.
This is the blessing to be performed over the children of Yisrael by the kohanym (priests). Do you think that this blessing is to be performed by anyone else? Interesting question, yes? But it is the most lovely of blessings!

Veterans of the Invisible War.

Are you in the trenches with Messiah?

Here's a list of New Testament passages I recommend studying alongside #torah portion #bamidbar ("In the wilderness" #numbers 1:1-4:20), along with links to related commentary... https://www.americantorah.com/....2022/04/12/parsha-ba

Isaiah 55:7, “Evil people should stop being evil. They should stop thinking bad thoughts. They should return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them. They should come to our God, because he will freely forgive them.”After something you may consider bad has happened, have you ever caught yourself thinking about revenge or doing something you know you shouldn’t do? I will confess I still do that sometimes and then I remember I need to practice what I preach and find the place in the Bible where it is written how to handle the problem and then do what is written.

How often are the arguments made that say “Scripture Supports This.” Or “The Bible Backs This Up.”!

There are a near infinite number of arguments of this sort too each as opposing to the other as the next.

Even among the more proper people and within the less messy crowd this nonsense persists.

It sounds biblical sure because it’s usually using the Bible. But it is HOW this approach uses the Bible that makes it so baleful.

“Here’s my doctrine…and here’s where Scripture says I’m right.”

Yikes.

If we employ this approach, we take all of Scripture and boil it down to a backup-singer for our own solo performance.

The Holy Bible doesn’t need our hollow beliefs to hold It up. If it did need our supprt then we wouldnt need it. If it needed us it would be useless to appeal to. And if we need it for our support it’s just a thousandfoot krutch keeping us hobbling instead of healing and properly walking the Path.

Scripture is rather our foundation and our benchmark. It itself is the thing we are to be proclaiming not our dogma.

The Bible needs no help from us, and if our doctrines need to appeal to the Bible then those traditions need to go; and we need to only proclaim the Bible.

Scripture doesn’t need your creed.

It doesn’t respect your authority.

It doesnt mean what you want it to say.

Keep using it to prop up your pet doctrines at your peril, for it and not your tradition shall be the Standard by which we each will be tried in the judgment to come.

All our tradituin will testify either for or against us, whether it came from Scripture or was otherwise neutral to it. How we use the Bible now will be how we are charged at the last.

Did we hold it most precious and preach it true and rightly in accordance with its own grammar, history, culture and context? Or did we take the Book and use it as a shim to straighten a short leg on our wobbly doctrine?

#questioneverything
#getbiblical

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