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Faith of our fathers

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In this page, I would like to take the opportunity to discuss the understanding of our faith and how our fathers expressed their faith to us. The most important factor in our spirituality is having the knowledge of whom we worship, how and why. Interestingly, I have heard people say that If you cannot explain who G-d is, then he isn't real. I have also heard people say, "you can only explain what you know about G-d in a form of circular logic because you cannot give any factual evidence of his existence."

Although these questions have a condescending tone to them, and we do expect mockery from non-believers these questions however do provide a rather interesting topic for us to disect. The just shall live by faith, and we can enjoy a good intellectual argument from time to time. So let's begin.

Our faith is not blind faith as many people say sarcasticly, perhaps this is true of some people but others know exactly what they believe and this should be [your] understanding as well. Those with faith must have the understanding in knowing whom and what they believe in. I am talking about a faith that is rooted in both a physical and a spiritual consciousness.

Evidence of both elements are found in the Torah and both go hand-in-hand with our relationship to the source echad hakodesh baruch hu "the holy one blessed be He". You cannot seperate one from the other because we are undoubtably physical beings worshiping an unseen G-d and we can infact understand this corellation within the simplicity of this explanation.

Avraham our father is our father in faith and is recognized as such in the Torah, why? I'll explain the why in a minute but hold on a little while longer to get this question answered because I would like to take you on a journey thru time when the children of Israel were inslaved in Egypt.

The children of Israel, who were liberated from Egypts exile didn't have to explain G-d’s existence, Why not? They did not have to ask each other, "Do you know G-d", or, “Do you want to know G-d", why not?

Wouldn't it be because they saw the wondrous deeds that G-d performed right before their eyes? They all witnessed the parting of the sea, manna falling from heaven, pillar of cloud to cover them by day and a pillar of fire to guide them by night, they heard the thunderings and saw the lightnings and the sounds of the shofars when G-d gave us the Torah at Mt.Sinai and without question the most extreme and direct contact with G-d was his voice heard by all b'nei Yisroel. It was such an awe inspiring event that the children of Israel were all afraid of G-d's voice and pleaded with Moses to be G-d's intermediate, so they would not die as a result of it.

So, now you should ask yourself that it is within reason & logic to claim that seeing is believing and no one would argue with that at all but how about us, the descendents of those who came later and never went thru those experiances?. We certainly have not seen with our own eyes the things they saw. How are we to believe? Can we believe? The most obvious question I suppose, should we believe? What are we to bennefit from believing, will we miss out on anything if we don't, will not knowing G-d or the way to G-d have any effect on my life? The simple and short answer to all of these questions is yes, on many levels.

There is a story about a person who was extremely wealthy but didn't know about it because his wealth was actually hidden in an attic. Although this person was potentially wealthy he was actually extremely poor because his wealth was concealed from him in that attic. It wasn't untill he went to his attic and found his treasure that he was able to become aware of it and put his treasure to good use.

This is the way of all those who do not ocupy themselves in searching for G-d or knowing his path. They are spiritually malnurished and in spiritual poverty. They are like a person who after recieving a sum of money desides to hide it instead of investing to increase it's portion.

One must consider Yeshua's responce to one of his disciples named Thomas, he said: " Thomas because you have seen me you believe. Blessed are they who have not seen yet believe".

Now, although one may argue that it is a blessing for us to see with our own eyes those things which they saw, here we find a very curious expression and a lesson from the Messiah, stating that we who have not seen are considered blessed for accepting the things we didn't see. It almost seems illogical to conceive that we take the blessing instead of those who actually experianced it for themselves but there is a logic to it, which I will explain.

It takes much more of our inner strength in the way of reasoning to believe, accept and understand those things which they saw that for us today seems out of the norm in natures rhelm. For them it was easier to accept because they saw it for themselves but for us to get to their level of emuna "faith" takes much more of an effort.

Avraham acheived to be called the father of faith because it was for the reason of obeying G-d in all that he had commanded which also demonstrated his belief of which also exhonorated him to the level of a Tzaddik "righteouse person". The faith that Avraham demonstrated is the obedience which he heard from the source of all life. When G-d told him to do something, he did it, simple as that. Does anyone remember the saying: "Faith without works is dead"?

The physical applications of our heavenly Father’s command was Avraham’s test to his belief in G-d. Here’s an example of a command given to a specific people. One group is correct in their observance of the command while the other is not and if the one group is incorrect to follow that command how should they be considered?

In Exodus 12:43-50, G-d commanded that no uncircumcised man should sit at the Passover table. Today, many Christians, self-described teachers & those who call themselves pastors overlook this scripture, although most Jews know it.

These teachers believe that they are honoring G-d in their observance of this Jewish practice but they are not! When they gather their congregation for a "holy communion" as they call it and pass to each a piece of cracker or bread, with a sip of wine or grape juice. It doesn’t seem to occur to them for starters that the bread or cracker contains leaven, forbidden at Passover.

There are many other examples of this kind of ignorance in churches that stem from a lack of understanding the scriptures and a short sightedness that these things are only intended for the house of Israel.

One justification they will give to you is, that this verse in Exodus refers to the uncircumcised heart. In other words, that those who are uncircumcised in heart cannot partake of the Passover meal. In this manner of speaking, it would now appear that this text may be referring to them for their implication of the observance but what has really happened here now is a complete alteration of the truth in it's intended context.

The justification is nothing more nor less than an alteration of scripture, which is evil! Those who believe this are all misled, albeit unintentionally perhaps but mislead nontheless! This is what half truths do, they mislead people because the scripture is only half understood or half accepted. One should ponder on this a minute to understand it's reasoning.

The truth is, that Exodus does refer to an uncircumcised heart because G-d does desires the heart of mankind to be circumcised,” which means a heart that desires to obey him, but it's implication refers to the children of Israel that are circumcised in the foreskin of their flesh, a demonstration of the blood covenant established between G-d and Avraham's posterity. The passage, therefore addresses the Jews alone and within the skope of observances of Israel towards G-d the person not observing it would be considered uncircumsised in heart.

So what is the answer to the age-old question: is Passover for Jews alone? The answer is yes, according to Exodus 12: 43-50.

Once you understand the correlation between the physical and the spiritual, and how does being circumcised and uncircumcised in heart or foresking relates to the path of the covenant, the answer becomes clear.

So what is the logic behind being circumcised and uncircumcised in the heart?

When G-d told the children of Israel that they needed to place the lamb’s blood on the lentils or door posts of their houses, those who chose to obey showed their heart to be circumcised. If they had not obeyed, they would have demonstrated an uncircumcised heart. So what would have been the penalty for disobedience? If the the children of Israel had not obeyed G-d, they would have suffered the death of the firstborn by the angel of death, the penalty that was levied against the Egyptians.

The same applies to Avraham aveinu. When G-d told Avraham aveinu to circumsise himself in the flesh, by obeying G-d he demonstrated a circumcised heart. Had he not obeyed, neither I nor any other Jew would be here today to tell you so. So, according to Exodus 12:43-50, if a man who is not circumcised in his flesh, a non-Jew, is invited to the Passover table by a Jew, both the Jew and the non-Jew transgress the law of G-d, demonstrating either ignorance of scripture or an uncircumcised heart. If however, the non-Jew understands scripture and declines the invitation he/she is demonstrating his or her knowledge and fear of the L-rd, as well as a circumcised heart.

When the non-Jew declines the invitation, the non-Jew actually helps the Jew in his observance towards G-d’s commandments and this {in my view} is a rightouse act of a gentile. Another demonstration of an uncircumcised heart is the famous story of the pharaoh in Egypt. When he repeatedly disregarded G-d’s will for the children Israel. Moses repeatedly pled with pharaoh, saying, “Let my people go,” so that they could offer sacrifices unto G-d in the wilderness. Pharaoh resisted Moishe over and over again. Some may say that he hardened his heart against Moses, not G-d, but we must remember what G-d told Moses at the burning bush. In Exodus 4:21,22, G-d said that he would cause pharaoh’s heart to be hardened.

So an uncircumcised heart is another way of saying a person who disobeys G-d, and a circumcised heart is one which desires to be obedient to G-d.

Now looking ahead to the last Pesach Seder of Yeshua Hamoshiach, which is in the days of unleavened bread or "Passover", how do Christians, who are not Jews and are not circumcised in the flesh, come to terms with the scripture about Passover? They believe that the last supper was meant for them to observe. Certainly everyone should remember him on that occasion, but if you are going to correctly follow G-d's commandment the command was not given to the non-Jews but to Jews alone or someone please tell me is their any mention of a non-Jew at the table in Yeshua's last seder?

My hope is that I have challenged Jews and non-Jews alike to always look deeper into scripture and refrain from altering the intended context. If we find the Bible to be filled with technicalities, it means that G-d is teaching us his standards, and his standards are a pathway, a road which is not to be made crooked but straight. G-d has provided the blueprint, the path to follow but by not following the path laid out by G-d the source of life, we attract negativity. G-d forbid! We must remember to take care to walk on the middle path, neither looking to the right nor to the left.

So, after all that I have written on this page does it seem to any of you that I have been side tracked from the original topic of understanding our faith? It is the belief in G-d and in the undestanding of how G-d is pleased or displeased that faith takes on a form. The mere expressive nature of any topic within the boundaries of the Torah which is presented here for everyones learning & focus, creates a spiritual growth to the person[s] who actually listens to the soft voice of reasoning. Remember this quote: " Faith comes as the result of hearing the word of G-d" and the belief in G-d is a doorway to his wealth of knowledge which he alone poseses and shares with us.