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B'reisheet - Genesis
Started by LovingNeighbor at 05-28-2006 10:50 AM. Topic has 2 replies.
  
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 05-28-2006, 10:50 AM
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LovingNeighbor
 
Joined on 02-10-2006
Washington
Posts 397
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Vayechi Parasha Thoughts, Studies, and Comments
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The goal of this section is to get everybody's studies, thoughts, and opinions on anything in the weeks parasha. This includes, word studies, thoughts on verses, history, related subjects, and anything that may help us to understand this Torah Portion. Even if it's just an observation on the smallest part, it can help others who may not have seen it that way. The goal is then as we visit the parasha (Torah Portion) each year we will create a collection of studies and thoughts on this portion and everyone will benefit by having a broader view of the portion. Shalom!
A disciple should diligently search for the truth and humbly deny and reconsider it's possession.
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05-28-2006, 11:01 AM
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LovingNeighbor
Joined on 02-10-2006
Washington
Posts 397
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Vayechi Parasha Jan 14th 2006 Message Lovingneighbor
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Passing on a Blessing
For Parasha Vayechi By Lovingneighbor 1-14-06
In this weeks parasha we see a lot of similar themes, about birthrights, blessings, and passing on. In our modern times we may largely overlook the importance of birthrights. Usually they came with lands, which in the time along with the flocks was their wealth. How would such a custom apply to us today? What birthright do we have to pass on to our children and what birthright was passed on to us if any?
Death is a tough subject to handle, but it is a part of life. When the Father took the children of Israel out of Egypt he took them from all they knew but also gave them an inheritance. That was their birthright from their father Avraham. Avraham was told he will be a Father of many nations. He wasn’t called the ruler or starter, or even king of many nations, but the father. Isaiah 56 clearly shows there will be other people that are drawn to YHWH and given names better than sons and daughters. Avraham was to be a father to more then just his children. And in doing so he would pass on a birthright and an inheritance to all those who would take hold of the Covenant, not pollute the Sabbath, and do things that please the Father.
His obedience gave him a birthright with the Father. And so our obedience to the Father will give us an inheritance through the promises made to Avraham. This promise of the blessing is what many people hold on to and hope in today. The Jews hold to this promise. Many times I’ve heard it been said the Jews are God’s chosen
people, the people of his covenant. But this is a misunderstanding. They are people taking hold of the covenant made with Avraham as are all 12 tribes and any stranger that wants to take hold of it. Through obeying the Torah we can all receive an inheritance.
Just as our natural father’s will die, so too have many Torah observant fathers died. The difference for many of us who may be first generation Torah keepers in our families is that we will have an inheritance and a blessing to pass on to our children that we never got from our natural fathers. Our Heavenly Father has welcomed us in to his family Like Ya’akov does with Efrayim and Menasheh. Not regarding just the natural born but also bringing in the fruitful (meaning of the name Efrayim), and those who were forgotten (meaning of Menesheh) by their natural fathers. The great gift our Father in Heaven gives us is the chance to be his sons through obedience to his authority. This is manifest by obedience to his Torah (instruction).
From this we are commanded to keep his commandments and to diligently teach them to our children. This is our chance to pass on a blessing to our children through living and teaching them the Torah. We must do better than our fathers. Giving a large inheritance to our children. Teaching them from our testing, our life and our learning.
Pure religion is defined in the new testament as helping the fatherless and the widow. These are people who in a spiritual sense may not have an inheritance. They don’t know their Father in heaven. They have no husband (Messiah). We are to visit them in their time of affliction. Let us all thank YHWH for the greatest blessing he has given us. The right to be called his sons and daughters. Not everyone realizes the blessing and inheritance they could have. We should be thankful and generous in the gift that has been given to us. Thank you Father for your Torah. And My children thank you for giving me an inheritance to give to them before I pass on.
Shalom!
A disciple should diligently search for the truth and humbly deny and reconsider it's possession.
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12-22-2007, 2:38 PM
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LovingNeighbor
Joined on 02-10-2006
Washington
Posts 397
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Vayechi Parasha 2007-8 Message Lovingneighbor
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Left Behind
For Parasha Vayechi
By Lovingneighbor 12-24-2007
This weeks Parasha is in the book of Genesis also called B'reisheet, and is called Vayechi which means 'And he lived'. In this weeks parasha:
- Ya'akov's time to die drew near and he asked Yosef to promise to not bury him in Egypt but with his fathers
- Yosef is told his father is sick and goes to him and Ya'akov recounts the promises of Elohim
- Ya'akov tells Yosef that Efrayim and Menasheh shall be like sons to him
- Yisra'el tells Yosef he didn't think he would even see Yosef's face and now he has seen his seed also
- Yosef presented his sons to Yisra'el to be blessed with Menasheh on right hand and Efrayim on the left but Yisra'el switched them
- Yosef tried to correct his father but Yisra'el told him that Efrayim would be greater than Manesheh
- Yisra'el tells Yosef he is going to die but Elohim will bring Yosef back to the land of his fathers
- Ya'akov calls his sons to tell them what will happen to them in the last days
- Re'uven the firstborn will not excel because he went up to his fathers bed
- Shim'on and Levi are cruel and violent and will be divided and scattered
- Yahudah your brothers bow and praise you and your hand will be upon your enemies
- Zevulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea
- Yissakhar is a strong donkey laying between two burdens he shall become a servant of tribute
- Dan shall judge his people and shall be a serpent by the way
- Gad shall have a troop overcome him but he shall overcome in the end
- Asher, his bread is fat and he shall give the king pleasure
- Naftali is a female deer set free, he has goodly words
- Yosef is a fruitful son, by a well and his daughters run over the wall, he shall be blessed
- Benyamin shall tear into pieces like a wolf, eating his prey in the morning and dividing his spoil at night
- Ya'akov finished speaking and asked if they would bury him where his fathers were buried
- Ya'akov died and Yosef had him embalmed
- After he finished mourning Yosef asked Pharaoh if he could go and bury his father and he said yes
- Yosef and a great multitude went to bury his father and Yosef mourned for 7 days
- Yosef's brothers fearing him sent a messenger to tell Yosef their father wanted him to forgive them
- Yosef cared for his brothers and told them Elohim will surely visit you and bring you out of Egypt and he died at 110 years old
- David gave his final advice to Shlomo before he died and Shlomo was king
In this weeks parasha we have a common theme of being left behind. Now it may not be what you think of being left behind. A popular book series called left behind has taught people to not want to be left behind. But I am going to give another interpretation of how the concept of left behind applies to the Bible. In this weeks parasha We start with the news of Ya'akov drawing near to death. As the most basic understanding of death we can see that he is going away. A common theme in Biblical life is that before fathers die the pass on a blessing to their children. This seems odd and begs the question of whether these blessings are validated by Elohim. Can you give a blessing that is not yours to give. Certainly you can leave a portion of your goods and land to your sons, but can you bless who Elohim has not blessed and is He required to honor it? This has always been a question to me. I wonder if it is given by the father or like in this situation he says he will tell them what will befall them in the last days. This sounds more like a prophecy to me than a blessing. But lets look at the concept of leaving behind a blessing on your children.
It starts with inheritance. This is what is left behind when a father dies. This is his wealth and substance that he worked for all his life and leaves behind to his children after he is gone. There is an old saying that you can't take it with you. I believe this is true but more important than what you can't take with you is the issue of what you leave behind you. Your life comes to an end and the big question is what impact did your life have in the world and what impact will you continue to have on the world when your gone. We come into contact with a multitude of people in our lives and we have an affect on them even if it's a subtle one. We then become part of their experience and thus part of them and who they are. This can never be taken away. And however it impacts them they will impact others. This can be large or small and continues on like genes in dna. Who knows how profound an impact your life can have on uncountable lives whether it was something inappropriate you said or rudeness that justified another's rudeness, or good that encouraged another and taught then to be strong in tough times. The greatest example of this kind of perpetual impact is found in our Mashiach. How many hundreds of thousands of people has he directly impacted over thousands of years from a life he lived almost 2000 years ago. He left behind an impact of words and actions that are still shaping life today.
The word of Elohim was passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years to millions of people. So the question is whether you have kids or not what kind of footprint have you left on the Earth so far in your life. Just reading the scriptures causes them to be inserted in the world through you and allows the word of Elohim to continue t have an impact in the world. It is specifically said by Ya'akov that he didn't know he would see Yosef's face again, let alone his seeds. This lets Ya'akov have a direct impact on even Yosef's sons. So if Ya'akov did his job and Yosef becomes like his father, then even though Ya'akov dies his son continues on his authority and life in the world. This can totally change the way that you look at your life and your family. You are bringing something into the world every day and the question is, is it good or evil? You may work your whole life to learn how to add good into the world and then if you fail to teach it to your children then you will leave them with nothing. Maybe they will have to start over or maybe they can be better than you. In my opinion we should all be striving to be more like Elohim and then teach our children and when we die our life teachings will be taken over by our sons who can advance our righteousness and then hand it off to their children. How many generations will it take to be like Mashiach? If you don't teach your children even if your righteous, or if you yourself are not righteous because you didn't work and study then you have nothing to give your children, they will start from scratch and have no inheritance. An inheritance should be a family project and a bloodline project than spans multiple generations but for many they have nothing and no direction.There is an inheritance given and taught by the world and if you learn from it you will also be building the inheritance of the world which is destruction and evil. You can see that in the generations that have been coming up. They are more wicked than the ones before them. So we can see like th parable of the wheat and tares that in the beginning they were very different as different as light and darkness and then in the middle they will be like each other as they are mixing and then in the end the righteous will become more righteous and the the wicked more wicked until they can no longer dwell together and this is the great war that is coming. We can even see this in our own country where the mixing or political correctness had everyone embracing everything and then now we see America is getting more and more partisan and divided. I think this is the natural course as it is hard to dwell together the deeper the differences.
So what does this have to do with this weeks parasha? Well we see in the blessings of Efrayim and Menasheh that Ya'akov will take them as his sons. Now I wonder if this has anything to do with the concept of Yosef being loved by his father because he acted most like him. Was he a good builder of his father's name and house. If this was the case and if he knew he would teach this also to his children, then we could see that maybe Yosef and his children were so like their father, even more than his other children that they were adopted to the level of sons. This is just one theory and either way we see that they both received a blessing and the blessing went out of order. A repeating pattern that the younger will be greater than the older. This was also symbolic of Ya'akov's story where he was greater than Esav. I think it also implies that the meaning of their names will have different weights. Such as, the fruitfullness will be greater than them being forgotten. Which also shows that the end of them will be great though the beginning was troubled.
So what is it that is left behind when biblical men die. If they taught their children the ways of Elohim they eave behind a blessing. And when men die they leave behind an impact on the world and their memory is in their children who continue the work of their father in the world. We can see this in Mashiach. unlike the popular series that want to be taken away, the parable of the wheat and tares says the evil ones are taken away and it is the children of Elohim that are left behind. His word endures forever and so will his name or authority which lives in the children of the men who follow him. When they die they leave behind children who will also do even greater things to build the name of YHWH. When a tree dies like a man they leave behind seed that brings new life and multiplies in the Earth. Hopefully they don't leave behind death and wickedness, but life and righteousness. A blessing to the Earth and a name builds the house of the Most High Elohim. We see this in the request to be put with their fathers. Not left in another man's house but in the house of their father. Hopefully deserving a good rest from the good work they have done in the world. Yosef tells his brothers before he dies Elohim will bring them out of Egypt. This goes back to the concept that I said earlier that a time will come when they will be too different to dwell with Egypt and they will be separated. This may even be like a man who as it says in the scripture, the day of a man's death is greater than the day of his birth. Maybe this is because at the time of his death hopefully he has become so righteous that his spirit cannot dwell with the flesh any more.
Bottom line is we are leaving behind a footprint in the Earth and in others and what is it. One of righteousness towards Elohim or wickedness. I hope this puts in perspective that we don't want to get whisked away from the world, we want to take away the sin from the world. We want to leave behind righteousness and righteous children so that righteousness multiplies in the world. We have a responsibility for our lives of what we do and say and our individual impact. I tend to think that if we could see the impact on the whole world by our life and the world without us we would be shocked. Let's guard the gated of every idle word and every action, and let's spend the extra time teaching our wives and children. We are an example as Mashiach said:
Joh 13:15 For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.
Let's build ourselves in the image of Elohim and build our house to be a clean habitation for Elohim. Let our son's and daughters take over this good work and let our bloodline be one of life and love towards Elohim so that righteousness is left behind in the Earth when we are gone. Shalom!
A disciple should diligently search for the truth and humbly deny and reconsider it's possession.
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