Torah Talk

On the evening of November 1st, we entered the Hebrew month of Marcheshvan. This month is when the worldwide flood occurred. Ecclesiastes 3:15 tells us that things that happened will happen again –– recycled news! All around us, we are seeing hurricanes and flooding. The original flood was delivered by God Himself, to destroy the wickedness in the earth. Genesis 6 tells us what the wickedness was –– that the sons of God (angels) mated with the daughters of men, and birthed hybrid giants, the the N’filim. Satan was trying to infiltrate the human genome, to create his own creation, so he could be like God. The first commandment given to mankind was to “be fruitful and multiply” –– but genetically modified humans cannot reproduce. This goes completely against God’s plan for His creation. It was wickedness in God’s eyes, so He made plans to destroy it.

God told Noah to build an ark for his family, and they would be safe during the time of worldwide destruction. It took them decades to build the ark, so God was gracious –– this gave mankind a long time to repent for its wickedness. but they didn’t. When it was time for the flood to begin, Noah and his family had to “prep” for it –– they were told exactly what to bring into the ark –– animals and seeds to continue life after the flood. When the worldwide destruction was over, Noah’s family came out of the ark, safe and sound, to a brand new, cleansed earth.

Corruption and wickedness began again, as we see in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Homosexuality and gluttony (excess fulfillment of fleshy desires) was rampant in the city. This time, complete destruction was limited to Sodom and Gomorrah, where the wickedness was occurring.

In Matthew 24, Yeshua was asked when he would return to earth. He said, “as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the time of the coming of the Son of Man.” What happened with Noah? What’s happening today?

With Noah, the world was filled with hybrid beings. Today, we have women having their breasts cut off, and men having their penises cut off, and manipulating their bodies with hormones to change who they are –– they are making their own creation, one that cannot reproduce.

Likewise, scientists are creating genetically modified seeds which cannot reproduce. They cannot sustain life, so those of us who eat genetically modified foods are getting the calories without the nutrients. Scientists have created “artificial brains” that offer us artificial intelligence –– they might be able to “think logically”, but they can’t hear from God. Food tastes are being created in a laboratory, testing these chemicals with the fetuses of aborted children. Aborted children! Death, not life! This is totally against the original commandment to be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.

Our world looks a lot like Noah’s did. Wickedness abounds. And we have just entered the month of the Flood. Is it a coincidence that Noah’s ark was discovered on the side of Mount Ararat, IN OUR LIFETIME? The ark is buried under mud, yet it’s shape can be clearly seen, and the dimensions exactly match the description in the Bible. Archaeologists have been studying the ark for decades –– which has given mankind a grace period to repent of its wickedness. How long will that grace period last? Is the discovery of the ark a wake-up call for this generation?

We’re seeing flooding in so many places right now. And we’re in the month of Marchesvan! If we are counted among the righteous, like Noah was, we know that our Father will protect us from the calamities, ONLY IF WE OBEY HIS ORDERS, and prepare for the destruction. In Noah’s day, when the rains came, it was too late for the wicked, and they were swept away. The righteous listened to God’s orders, prepared ahead of time, and they were safe.

Are we listening to God’s orders? Or are we ignoring the signs all around us? Have we stored up some essentials –– food, water, bandaids, cleaning supplies, toilet paper, flashlights, batteries, blankets, anti-bacterial wipes, etc., to supply for our families during the coming days. Remember, during the Flood, it rained forty days and nights. Then, when the rain stopped, it took another year before Noah’s family could come out of the ark and into a brand new world. PLEASE seek God while He may be found. He will be faithful to protect the righteous, those who listen to His voice and follow His commandments. He is only one cry away. Cry out to Him for mercy and protection. Soon enough, the door of the ark will be closed, and the wicked will be swept away. Be sure you are in the ark!

Yes and no.

Yeshua was a Galilean. It was the custom in the Galilee for firstborn males to have a special celebration to remember that they were saved from the 10th plague in Egypt –– death to the firstborn males who did not have the blood of the lamb painted on their doorposts. This celebration took place on Nisan 13, the day before the official Passover (which began on Nisan 14). The firstborn males fasted on Nisan 14 until they sat down for the official Passover meal on Nisan 15. Since they were going to fast after their celebration, the meal before the fast was called the “Last Supper.” 

In the biblical accounts of the Last Supper, Yeshua broke bread (leavened bread, not matzah) with his disciples. If he was eating a Passover meal, it was required to eat matzah, not leavened bread. The biblical account also does not mention any lamb at his meal –– and having roasted lamb was a requirement for the Passover meal. 

So Yeshua’s last meal was indeed a “last supper” before the “Fast of the Firstborn,” a practice which is still followed today. It was a Passover celebration before the official Passover meal. 

The official date to slaughter the lambs for the Passover meal was Nisan 14. Yeshua was on the cross on Nisan 14 –– HE was the Passover lamb! 

On Nisan 10, Moses instructed the Hebrews to select a lamb, bring it into their homes, and inspect it for blemishes (see Exodus 12). On Nisan 14, they would be slaughtering the lamb, and applying the blood on the doorposts of their homes. The blood would mark their homes, so the Angel of Death would pass over their homes during the 10th plague that was coming upon Egypt (death to the firstborn males). They were going to have to escape Egypt in a hurry, without time for their bread dough to rise. So the next year, when they were commemorating their exodus from Egypt, they were told to eat only unleavened bread (unrisen, without yeast). They also went through their homes to clean all the leaven out of their homes. 

Centuries later, the 10th of Nisan was the day that Yeshua came to Jerusalem riding on a donkey. He was the lamb being inspected. He went to the Temple and overturned the tables of the moneychangers. Why? Whenever the Jews came into the Temple, they could not use Roman money for an offering, so they had to exchange their money from Roman coins to Temple shekels –– but the moneychangers charged an excessive exchange rate to do so. Yeshua overturned their tables to ” clean the leaven” (sin) out of the Temple, just in time for the upcoming Passover feast. 

Several Torah scholars, Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes met Yeshua in the Temple that day and began throwing multiple theological questions at him, to see if they could trip him up. However, he answered every question, and they found no fault in his answers. He was the lamb being inspected.

During Yeshua’s trial by night, he was taken to Pilate, then to Herod, and back to Pilate, and they asked him questions. They decided that he was an innocent man. He was the lamb being inspected for blemishes! d 

We are currently in this season between Nisan 10 and Nisan 14 when the lamb was selected and inspected. Let us remember that Yeshua passed every test to be the perfect Lamb of God. 

We have to remember to apply the blood of the Lamb to our lives, and we, too, will be saved from the Angel of Death! 

This is what we will commemorate during our upcoming Passover seder. Chag Sameach! 

by Dr. Donna Beccia Carick

April 7, 2023

Yeshua spent 100% of his time going from village to village, teaching the Torah and the Prophets, healing people from their diseases, and delivering them from demonic strongholds. The public loved him. The Sanhedrin didn’t. Several Pharisees were angry because Yeshua had raised Lazarus from the dead. Such a crime! They were worried that he was gaining a whole lot of followers, way too fast, and the Roman government might come against the Jewish people because a Jewish man was leading an insurrection. That was their claim, anyway.

Some members of the Sanhedrin got together to discuss their vindictive plan. They bribed Judas with silver, so he would testify against Yeshua. Judas directed an army of 600 Roman soldiers to “capture” him while he was praying in the Mount of Olives, just after he had celebrated the “Last Supper” before the “Fast of the Firstborn,” in preparation for Passover.

Peter was a viable witness who could testify that Yeshua was innocent. He lost it when he saw the massive number of Roman soldiers, and he cut off one soldier’s ear. Yeshua told Peter to calm down, and then healed the soldier’s ear. Peter later crumbled under fear and denied he ever knew Yeshua.
By Torah Law, a person being accused of a crime punishable by death must have a proper trial, during the daytime, in a proper court. There must be two or three witnesses who testify against the criminal. After the trial, if the person was convicted, there had to be a “cooling off” period to allow the person to gather additional witnesses on their behalf.

The Torah laws were not followed. The JUDGES were the accusers––that’s illegal. They had decided Yeshua’s fate of death before they hauled him in for questioning––that’s illegal. They took Yeshua to Caiaphas’ home in the middle of the night––that’s illegal. They used Judas’ testimony against Yeshua––but Torah law said that a bribed person could not testify. They dragged people from off the streets to make up testimonies against Yeshua––that’s illegal. Their only possible credible witness was Peter, who knew Yeshua personally, but he was a liar––he had denied knowing him. They took their trumped up charges to Pilate––that Yeshua claimed he was the Son of God––but Pilate didn’t care because the Emperor Caesar considered himself to be a god. Pilate said Yeshua was innocent, so they tried another approach––they called him an insurrectionist against Rome. They eventually got their way, and Yeshua was crucified––because he did not protest or defend himself. HE DIED WILLINGLY, laying down his life for you and me.

Will we lay down our life for him?

Yeshua was slaughtered at the exact time and manner that the Passover lambs were being slaughtered for the Passover meal. They had to be skinned, hung, and roasted––Yeshua’s skin was ripped off his back from flogging, he was hung on a cross, dehydrated from extreme loss of blood and excessive thirst, roasting under the hot afternoon sun.

Man earned spiritual death by eating from the forbidden tree. Yeshua gave us spiritual life by hanging from a tree.

by Dr. Donna Beccia Carick

April 9, 2023

Today, across the world, people are celebrating the resurrection of Yeshua HaMashiach (in Hebrew), that is, Jesus the Christ. During his ministry, he had many followers and many who opposed him––no different than today.

The Judean leaders challenged him with a question (see John 20:18-20): “What sign do You show us, since You are doing these things?” Yeshua replied: “Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” He was talking about the temple of His body. So, after He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He was talking about this. Then they believed the Scripture and the word that Yeshua had spoken.

Some time later, Yeshua was informed that his dear friend, Lazarus was extremely ill. Before Yeshua arrived at his home, Lazarus had already died. Yeshua reassured Martha, the sister of Lazarus (see John 11): “I am the resurrection and the life! Whoever believes in Me, even if he dies, shall live.” In front of many witnesses, Yeshua called Lazarus to come out of his tomb. Lazarus came alive again, and with his body bound in burial wrappings, he hobbled out of his tomb.

Before the resurrection of Lazarus, Yeshua had already been gaining followers, but now the number of his followers was increasing exponentially. His ministry was perceived as quite a threat to some of the religious leaders.

John 11:47-48 says:

So the ruling kohanim and Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. “What are we doing?” they asked. “This Man is performing many signs! If we let Him go on like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our holy place and our nation.”

John 11:53 says, “So from that day on, they plotted to kill Him.”

John 12:10-11 says, “So the ruling kohanim made plans to kill Lazarus also, because on account of him many of the Jewish people were going and putting their trust in Yeshua.”

Ironically, it was the resurrection of Lazarus that brought the death of Yeshua, and his subsequent resurrection. According to the first-century historian, Josephus, many eyewitnesses saw Yeshua alive again three days after his crucifixion (the books of Josephus have been published widely). Pontius Pilate said the same thing in a letter he wrote shortly after the resurrection (his letter is contained in the British Museum).

The resurrection of Lazarus was the evidence that Yeshua’s teachings were true. The resurrection of Yeshua was the absolute proof of his words, “I am the resurrection and the life! Whoever believes in Me, even if he dies, shall live.” If that wasn’t enough proof, right after Yeshua’s resurrection, many others woke up from death and came out of their tombs, and were seen by many eyewitnesses (Matthew 27:52-53). Then Yeshua appeared, in his resurrected body, “to over five hundred people at one time” (1 Corinthians 15:6).

Yeshua, in his resurrected body, visited with his disciples and many others for forty days. One of those appearances included Sha’ul (Paul), a Pharisee (the strictest sect of Judaism, and the strongest proponents of a belief in the resurrection and an afterlife). Sha’ul was a very public threat to Yeshua’s followers. One day, Sha’ul was on his way to capturing followers of Yeshua, to “bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem” (Acts 9:2), and suddenly, in the middle of the road stood Yeshua, in his resurrected body (1 Corinthians 15:8). Imagine this! Sha’ul was facing Yeshua, whose teachings he deeply opposed, and Yeshua was proving him right, that there really is a resurrection!

The resurrection of Yeshua is what sets him apart from any other religious leader. Buddha did not resurrect. Mohammad did not resurrect. Joseph Smith did not resurrect. Yeshua DID. And after forty days of appearances in his resurrected body, Yeshua ascended into the clouds as hundreds watched him depart. He promised them he would return, at the end of the age, to gather together his followers to live eternally with him.

Yeshua claimed to be the Messiah. One day, he asked his disciples the question (Luke 9:20-21), “who do you that say I am?” Peter answered, “The Messiah of God.” How do WE answer that question? What does his resurrection mean to you or me?  

Yeshua’s life was so central that calendars were reset to “BC”, “Before Christ”, and “AD”, meaning, “after the Lord.” Yeshua’s life changed the world. Question is, does it change MY world, or YOUR world? What we believe determines how we live, how we die, and whether we will live again.

John 14:6 –– Yeshua said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life! No one comes to the Father except through Me. Did Yeshua give us enough proof?   Can we trust his words?