These 105 podcast episodes represent the complete 54 Parashat HaShavua (Weekly Torah Portions) as produced by myself, Torah Teacher Ariel. Visit my home site at TetzeTorah.com for more Messianic resources. While you are there, we invite you to fill in your name and email address to subscribe to Ariel’s Weekly Messianic Newsletter to receive the written commentaries delivered to you by email, and as a bonus, you will also receive the email-exclusive written commentary to the Haftarah portion!
The Signature of God “In the beginning God….” I can remember growing up, listening to rabbis’ and preachers’ sermons using the first four words of our parashah for this Shabbat, B’resheet. There is quite a bit to contemplate within that first verse, they always told me. In fact, some say, the opening phrase pretty much sums up the foundation and purpose for our existence. In this first of two…
Spiritual Power The word translated as “hovered”, in verse two of chapter one, is “m’rachefet." The root word is “rachaf," and conveys the sense of “shaking,” “moving,” or “fluttering,”[1] as when a bird softly relaxes its flight to alight upon its young. It adequately describes the actions of the Ruach (Spirit) as he lovingly and closely watches over the created substance. How so? Well, this…
Noach walked the invisible road of faith, just like everyone else, who names the name of ADONAI, is expected to walk! He wasn’t some super-human faith hero, endowed with abnormal amounts of trust! He was, in fact, singled out to receive a prophetic word about the impending judgment that was to befall all of mankind. Yet, once he received the instructions to begin building the ark, the word was…
In the fourth century, when the organized Church decided to divorce herself from her spiritual mother, Judaism, she unwittingly planted the seeds of anti-Judaism. Anti-Judaism is not to be confused with Anti-Semitism. The former is the dislike or disinterest of Jewishness and Judaism specifically; the latter is the dislike or disinterest in the Semitic race altogether. By the way, both fall into…
May I suggest (under the guidance of the Apostolic Scriptures) that the Memra of YHVH appeared to Avram in such a way as to allow Avram to address him as a servant would address his earthly master in respect? Did Avram see a man? Did he see the LORD? I can't be dogmatic either way. But one thing is sure: Avram believed the unbelievable, but it was to the Word of the LORD, the Memra, that he…
To neglect circumcision (b’rit milah) is to neglect the chosen sign of the covenant, and consequently, it is rejection of the covenant itself. It was to become a unique marker, outwardly identifying those males of the offspring of Avraham, as inheritors of the magnificent promises that HaShem was making with this man. It does not serve to secure those promises through personal effort. What is…
In essence, “works of the law” refer to those “group requirements” as outlined and delegated by each individual group functioning under the prevailing Judaisms of Paul’s day. Rav Sha’ul (Apostle Paul), missionary to the Gentiles, had to defend the correct Torah viewpoint in his letters addressed to the Churches at Galatia (specifically chapter 5), as well as to the one in Ephesus. Circumcision, a…
The portion contains some rather somber notes, as it records the deaths of Sarah, Avraham, and Yishma’el. Sarah lived to be 127 years old, the Torah tells us. In all of this time, we hear of only one semi-direct revelation to her from HaShem, and that is when she overheard the conversation between her husband and God, about Yitz’chak, and laughed. Other than that, we don’t have any recorded…
The Torah has quite a bit to teach us about history and offspring. To be sure, it has been aptly noted that “a person that knows not from whence he came, will be ill-equipped to properly deal with where he is going to.” Our current portion gives us the beginning of the fast-paced story of two brothers, ‘Esav (Esau, also called Edom), and Ya’akov (Jacob), and their ongoing struggle to become the…
It is the desire of HaShem that we should indeed inherit the blessings intended for us! He told Avraham of the future inheritance and blessings of his offspring (Genesis 17:1-8), Yitz’chak of the future inheritance and blessings of his offspring (26:3-5), and later (in the next parashah), we will once again read about HaShem reminding the young man Ya’akov, about the future inheritance and…