Curse Reverser – Psalm 133:3
Adam’s sin brought God’s curse and death into this world (Genesis 3:17-19). After all, God created a good world (Genesis 1:31). It was all built on God’s command (Psalm 148:5). Every facet of creation was following God’s command, and obedience to God is blessing and life. When Adam introduced disobedience with his violation of God’s command, he set up an illusion. Adam did an action that seeks goodness and blessing apart from God’s direct command. This created an illusion in people’s mind that God’s command doesn’t necessarily reign supreme.
Then God commanded Israel to build a Tabernacle. Every detail of the Tabernacle was built according to God’s direct instruction. Every detail of the service of the priests followed clear commandments from God through Moses. The Tabernacle and subsequently the Temple declared the supremacy of God’s command. Every facet of these holy structures affirmed: “as God commanded Moses.”
This created a realm which is directly opposed to the effects of Adam’s sin. In the Temple man comes face to face with the recognition that God’s command is everything and everything is God’s command. In the Temple we reconnect with the true source of life and blessing.
When we pray three times a day we put our minds and our hearts in the Temple. We bring ourselves into the realm in which every molecule was fashioned in obedience to God’s explicit command. We break through the illusion of this dark world which seeks pleasure and goodness in violation of God’s command and we stand fast in the reality which sees God’s commandment as the foundation of existence. And it is from there that we draw blessing and life and the courage to remain loyal to God.
Zion is the meeting place of God and His firstborn son. It is the place where God leaned down toward us with commandments and with the spirit to implement them. And it is the place where we yearn upward with the desire to connect to His light and His truth in total submission to His command. And it is the place where God commanded life and blessing forevermore.
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Thank You
Yisroel C. Blumenthal
1000 Verses - a project of Judaism Resources 
Beautiful, thanks very much for this. Why do we need to serve God and seek to do what He wants? He deserves it. And it heals our ability to see reality as well… So that when the reason of what He deserves seems vague and abstract to our hearts, entering the realm of unselfish obedience will itself make things clear. I never thought of it like that, but it’s true.
Torah makes it clear that free will to obey God was not taken away after the fall. Human beings could still choose to have faith in God and be righteous, and He held them responsible to choose obedience. The illusion of “knowing good and evil” is like bondage to our souls because there is the temptation to choose evil. But this never took away humans’ ability to choose obedience…it increased our God-given ability to choose, to truly choose between conflicting desires where we can still choose God as King over them all, in love. This means no matter how low we have fallen and what our knowledge and habits tempt us with, we can count it as a mountain of love to climb and to offer to Him, in coming back to wisdom and life. With His help.
This is so clear and true- “We break through the illusion of this dark world which seeks pleasure and goodness in violation of God’s command and we stand fast in the reality which sees God’s commandment as the foundation of existence. And it is from there that we draw blessing and life and the courage to remain loyal to God.” Thanks.
…there is a lot of evil in the world, suffering, disintegration, confusion. So a person could ask how we even know He loves us personally in a way that cares what we feel, or cares if we gain clarity about existence belonging to Him, or desires things to be orderly or obedient to Him. In other words, we know He deserves our obedience, but how can we truly know (beyond our feelings) what He wants from us at all, including worship and morality? And knowing if He loves us makes a difference in turning our service of God into love and trust.
This article helps to answer that a bit, because it points out how in certain attitudes- specifically, the desire to be moral- the world becomes clearer and we remember our Maker. I don’t think that experience can be considered circular…it is a real light of clarity, built into the foundational system of our hearts…it’s hard to explain that relationship.
I suppose that the very idea of moral choice and responsibility…free will…implies that our Creator calls us to yearn for His will and submit to Him; desires our obedience, loves the righteous, and wants to bless all creatures with His goodness through obedience. There can be no concept of moral choice aside from that, because our ability to truly choose has to be a gift of creation.
A much better way to understand the fall of Adam and Eve than the false doctrine of original sin. Thank you!
Dina, maybe ‘original temptation’ is a truer way to see it?
Though I struggle with the verse “they have become like us, knowing good and evil.” If God is speaking to the heavenly court…and anyway He is speaking about the hukan awareness of evil and temptation…how could He compare His knowledge to ours? Dina…how do you read it?
*human
The way in which we are similar to God is that we possess the knowledge of good and evil and have the free will to act on that knowledge. God and the angels know good and evil and also possess free will. Does that make sense?
Yes, good one, Annelise!
And of course this action of praying three times a day and pretending to be in the temple is written by Moses in the Torah in the book of………..?
Or the proper real version of history is stated in;
Isaiah ch6 v8-13
Matthew ch13 v10-18 ch 24.
Paul- if the Temple represented obedience to the details of God’s command- then even in times when a person can’t be physically inside it, the message it embodies should be built inside the heart and remembered. It is good of the Jews to do so.
Also, there are other commandments alongside the details of the Tabernacle… Through many mitzvot the same message is built into the hearts of Jews in our world every day, so that the commandments are on their heart, and their hearts become a sanctuary for offering obedience, sacrifice, and love within.
That doesn’t render the Temple and offerings unimportant in Jewish theology, but there are passages where God promised to forgive those who turn to Him in exile (absence from the Temple). That promise is clear and people hold to it. Ideas of how He does it, on the other hand, are only speculation and not at all foundational to Torah.
The love that draws people to remember His commandments in their hearts, though- THAT is foundational, and not at all added as you suggest.
PS Paul, this link is another good example of how the Temple is important and not replaced, but it is good for the children of Israel to integrate the lesson in their hearts even now…
https://yourphariseefriend.wordpress.com/2013/03/07/sabbath-and-the-tabernacle-exodus-351/
And see Psalm 133 😉
To build a Sanctuary (Temple) Ex. 25:8. To say the Shema twice daily Deut. 6:7. To serve the Almighty with prayer daily Ex. 23:25. To repent and confess wrongdoings Num. 5:7. To wear tefillin on the head and bind tefillin on the arm Deut. 6:8. To have tzitzit on four-cornered garments Num. 15:38. To bless G-d after eating Deut. 8:10. The Kohanim must bless the Jewish nation daily Num. 6:23. Shall I continue?
Hi Paul.
You might be surprised to learn that the tradition of praying three times a day facing Jerusalem (where the Temple used to be) was so important that it is recorded in Scripture and precedes Jesus by many centuries.
Daniel 6:11: “He had windows in his upper story FACING JERUSALEM, and THREE TIMES A DAY he fell to his knees and prayed and gave thanks before his God, EXACTLY AS HE USED TO DO BEFORE THIS.”
How about that, eh, Paul?
Regarding “the proper real version of history is stated in; Isaiah ch6 v8-13,” how about the rest of Isaiah? How about chapters 40 through 66?
Yes of course then. But so important then. But not today. Until Messiah returns viaour repentance your prayers and supplicatipns are dead works.
Its not a a conspiracy from Christians that you have no temple. Its a direct result of your hardness of heart towards Adonai.
Yes, Paul, we know that. We never said it’s a Christian conspiracy and we freely admit that our sins are keeping us in exile without a Temple.
Where in Hebrew scripture do you get the notion that our prayers and repentance (when emanating from a sincere heart) are “dead works”? And why were those effective before Jesus but not after?
Hi
Yes I see it written in Dan ch 6. But keeping the subject in context.
1. Does the Law of Moses state a decree?
2. Was Daniel making a point about who he worshipped in opposition to the decree which he opposed. According to Ezekeil the presence of the Lord had left the temple because of the constant idolatry, so Daniel was kneeling BEFORE God not facing westwards towards God.
3. Praying 3 times aday THAT DAY. Custom or Law?
Paul:
Why are you obsessing over whether or not the Law of Moses states a decree? The fact is, Jews were doing this as an established tradition many centuries before Jesus came along, and not just any Jews, either! No less a personage than Daniel. You ask if it’s custom or law; well, how would you know? You refuse to acknowledge that we have an oral tradition that explains the written law (despite this little bit of evidence in Daniel–and there is even evidence in Christian scripture that Jesus abided by it).
Why did you write “THAT DAY” when the verse clearly states “exactly as he used to do before this”?
Why don’t you set aside your agenda and examine the Jewish scriptures with an open mind?
Hello again.
Im only trying to establish what people do as a tradition or by a commandmant. The difference is massive!
Why?? Because tradition is generaly by mans standard not Gods requirme
nts.
I think you are confused
with Scripture Law
and Jewish non scripture ethnictradition.
These points that
Sorry this phone is not good.
Tradition can be either good or bad. It all depends on how it used. postitive or negative. If written scripture is overshadowedby tradition then it is negative. The Actions of Daniel were by his own merit for the difficult postition he was in.
Traditionally you reject Christ because of your fathers tradition. Scripturally Jesus is Messiah of the Jews. But because you neither know the Father or scripture you follow the masses and follow tradition.
Paul, traditionally Jews reject Jesus because of Scripture. Scripturally, Jesus is NOT the Messiah. We follow Scripture. I suggest you read it.
Best,
Dina
Paul, isn’t odd that the prophets predicted that the gentiles will come to the Jews to learn the truth and not the other way around? Silly prophets, huh? Didn’t they know that Dina would need to go to Paul S. for the truth?
Psalm 55 “Incline Your ear, O God, to my prayer and do not disregard my supplication. . .I shall call to G-d, and the L-rd will save me. Evening, morning, and noontime, I speak and moan, and He hearkened to my voice.” Prayer. Three times a day. King David. http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16276#showrashi=true
Solomon’s dedication speech for the first Temple: “And You (G-d) shall turn toward Your servant’s prayer and to his supplication, O L-rd my G-d: to hearken to the song and to the prayer that Your servant is praying before You today. . . to listen to the prayer that Your servant will pray toward this place. You shall listen to the supplication of Your servant and of Your people Israel that they will pray toward this place; and You shall hear in heaven, Your abode, and You shall hear and forgive. . . . .When Your people Israel are struck down before the enemy, because they sin against You, and shall turn again to You, and praise Your name, and pray and make supplication to You in this house. . .And You shall hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You gave to their fathers . . .46. If they sin against You, for (there is) no man who does not sin, and You will be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, and their captors will carry them away captive to the land of the enemy, far or near. . . .47. And they shall bethink themselves in the land where they were carried captive, and repent, and make supplication to You in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness.’ . . . Solomon’s dedication speech for the Temple. 1 Kings chapter 8.
Hi Everyone,
The Temple not being restored in almost 2,000 years stopped the sacrifices for sin for Israel before God. You would need to ask God why He had allowed the distruction of the Temple and also dispersed the Jewish people all over the world. The timing of the dispersion is also Very significant.
If one prays 3x’s a day facing the Temple, washes before eating or does Mitzvot that will not change the ‘heart’ of that man! Jeremiah 31:31 and Ezekiel 36 explains what came into existence almost 2,000 years ago and has been rejected by the leaders of my people. Individuals have entered into the New Covenant and received a new heart with the Law written on it – a heart of flesh and not of stone. Israel as a nation will experience the NC and we see the result of their reaction seeing Who It Was all along who atoned for them as a nation in Zechariah 12:10 … I pray and weep for my people and her leaders.
The Blood atonement of Yeshua, Psalm 22, Isaiah 53 is the ‘way’ to God the Father. One needs to see through the eyes of God, not the interpretation or teaching of men … one needs to have a personal encounter with the Living God, The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We need the eyes of our understanding opened by The Holy One to see Yeshua/Jesus as King of the Jews and God’s son (Psalm 2).
With Hope In God,
June Volk
Maybe you can ask the observant Jews here whether praying and doing mitzvot changes their hearts.
The inability to make offerings without the Temple does raise questions, but you are assuming that yours is the right answer.
Hi Annelise,
The answer is not found in asking man if his heart is changed! The answer comes by asking God! It is written in God’s Holy Word, in The Book of Leviticus and The Book of Hebrews, what is required for a ‘sin’ offering. A sin offering before God always required blood. Even in the Covenant with Abraham … Blood was a sign of the Abrahamic Covenant, which was passed down to Isaac and Jacob …
I have an unceasing burdenand grief in my heart for my people whom I love, especially the Jewish observant leaders.
June
June- I don’t need to ask people if praying and keeping God’s commandments changes their hearts because it a central teaching of their Torah and prophets. Alongside the teaching that the nation whose hearts are changed in THIS way should share their testimony to the nations, human as they are. If you haven’t seen these two things in Tanach then that’s absurd, it is a very core message and as clear as morning throughout.
You missed my meaning regarding that second point.
David, I’ve met June and she and her husband are very friendly, devoted people.
PS about the second point, I will expand on it. Torah prescribes offerings, including blood, fat, meat (all from specific animals), flour, incense. At this time they can’t be given. Observant Jews respond to this crisis by continuing to ask God for forgiveness and giving their lives to Him, while yearning and asking for the Temple to be restored. And Christians respond by saying the system is replaced by a different death.
The question is, which of these responses to the crisis is more in line with Torah? Note that neither group is offering the required animals or other things now. Also note that Torah addresses the situation of separation from the Temple in exile, and doesn’t say a word about forgiveness being impossible unless people speculate so as to replace the commanded means of atonement with the remembrance of a human’s death. Not a single reason is given to worry about that, but the real answer is given: turn as a nation to God and the mitzvot given through Moshe, and God will restore the real Temple system.
Also June…writing to you while it’s Shabbos in the US doesn’t mean I don’t see you as Jewish, of course, or think it isn’t important. I just feel that you can control your own observance and it isn’t good if I try to.
Blessings.
June, please listen.
You wrote: “A sin offering before God always required blood.”
This is what it says in Leviticus 5:11: “But if his means are insufficient for two turtle doves or for two young doves, then he shall bring, as his guilt offering for that which he sinned, a tenth-ephah of fine flour for a sin-offering.”
Ezekiel Chapters 18 and 33 reassure us that turning away from evil together with prayer and repentance are enough to atone for our sins.
Do you still stand by your words that “a sin offering before God always required blood?”
June, will you listen to reason? You have thrown away your soul and abandoned God and Torah through a decision that is based on emotion, not reason.
I pray that you come to your senses and return to God and your people.
Peace and blessings,
Dina
There are some times when animals did need to be offered. But what if I speculate that the Yom Kippur offerings of years passed atoned for the people in years of exile too? How is that not as good or better a speculation compared to the idea that instead of the biblical offerings there should be a human’s death?
This idea of asking God if J is really the answer is a bit empty, because when Jews pray each day they are already asking God to lead them…not all onedience is dead works…and anyway, Torah tells where to hear the voice of God.
Hi Annelise.
You wrote: “There are some times when animals did need to be offered.” I was responding to June’s contention that “A sin offering before God ALWAYS required blood.” I here emphasize the word “always” so you can see what I was responding to.
Since sometimes flour could be offered for a sin sacrifice instead of animals in some cases, June’s statement that it ALWAYS required blood is false.
I agree with everything else you wrote and I like your point that speculating that past offerings could atone for future sin makes no sense.
animals were killed for reasons which had NOTHING to do with sin. was jesus a peace and gratitude offering? was jesus KILLED because there is GOOD in human nature? gratitude comes from the heart, right?
There have always been many ways to atone for sin (repentance, prayer, etc.). The “sin” (חַטָּאת / chatat) sacrifice never atoned for major sins — it was only for unintentional sin through carelessness — a “missing of the mark.” Read Vayikra / Leviticus 4! It speaks of inadvertent sin. Not intentional sins, only UNINTENTIONAL sins can you bring a qorban (sacrifice).
Where in a sin sacrifice is all the blood for INTENTIONAL sins? Things like murder, adultery, etc? There isn’t any. There never was!
Most sacrifices had nothing to do with sin — they had to do with giving thanks to G-d. FYI, Hebrews LIED about what the Torah says about sin and sin sacrifice. You don’t need blood to atone for sins (as Hebrews says) — it is just ONE way to atone for sins. Without a Temple we are forbidden from bringing qorban. They are “suspended” during times when there is no Temple standing in Jerusalem [Hosea 3:4-5, 14:2-3]. However, these will be “reinstated” for all the occasions noted in the Torah when the promised Jewish messiah builds the Third Temple in Jerusalem [Ezekiel describes all this in the last nine chapters of his book].
There is atonement through: ‘
repentance (II Samuel 12:13-14, Jonah 3:10, Lev. 26:40-42, Ezek. 18:21-32, 33:11-16)
kindness (Prov. 16:6, Daniel 4:24)
prayer (Hos. 14:2-3,I Kings 8:46-50, Daniel 9:19)
removal of idolatry (Is. 27:9)
punishment (Is. 40:1, Lam. 4:22),
death (Is. 22:14)
flour offerings (Lev. 5:11-13)
money (Ex. 30:15)
jewelry (Num. 31:50)
and incense (Num. 17:11-12).
There have always been many methods of atonement including prayer. Prayer is not a “replacement” or “substitution”.
For those sins that required sacrifices, the fact is that WITHOUT prayer, charity, fasting, etc.., there was no atonement – due to lack of obedience.
Even in bringing a sacrifice there were many things that added up in the atonement process. Sacrifice without obedience was useless. Obedience without sacrifice when sacrifice was required and possible, was useless. Obedience without sacrifice when sacrifice was never required or when sacrifice wasn’t possible – was and is sufficient in and of itself, since it’s all that G-d requires when sacrifices cannot be offered (see Hosea 14:2-3, Ezekiel 18/33).
1Kings 8-33 “When your people Israel have been defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you, and when they turn back to you and confess your name, praying and making supplication to you in this temple, 34 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them back to the land you gave to their fathers.”
June Did God hear Daniels prayer? He certainly did…Did he speak to Daniel He certainly did. Was the word God spoke to him confirmed? Yes. Tell me how could God do this without a blood atonement? Yet he did. It seems God has a different teaching on atonement than you do. All the years in Babylon God dealt with us and he even said in Ezekiel that he would be OUR SANCTUARY. You speak about Jews following traditions of men. I see us following the word of God. You obviously are following traditions of Christian men that are not in line with Our bible.
Hi June,
You are an inspiration. I just googled your name and saw a 10 minute video of an interview with your testimony. June, if you get this message, please pray for me.
Thank you,
David
Hi David,
My husband, Shelly, and I will pray for you.
God bless you and answer the prayer of your heart.
With Blessings In Him,
June
June, my prayer for you and your husband and David and me is that God lead us in the light of His truth.
“If one prays 3x’s a day facing the Temple, washes before eating or does Mitzvot that will not change the ‘heart’ of that man! ”
out of gods mind came rituals/laws. what came out of gods MIND/brain/knowledge DIDN’T help. so god DECIDED to do his rituals by creating blood and flesh for himself to save you from what came out of his own MIND? funny isn’t it?
June,
God already told us in Deuteronomy 28 and 30 why we would be exiled from our land and what we can do to get it back.
“But it will be that if you do not hearken to the voice of Hashem, your God, to observe, to perform all His commandments and all His decrees that I command you today, then all these curses will come upon you and overtake you…Hashem will scatter you among all the peoples, from the end of the earth to the end of the earth…It will be that when all these things come upon you–the blessing and the curse that I have presented before you–then you will take it to your heart among all the nations where Hashem, your God has dispersed you; and you will return unto Hashem, your God, and listen to His voice, according to everything that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and all your soul. Then Hashem, your God will bring back your captivity, and He will have mercy upon you, and He will gather you in…Hashem will bring you to the Land that your forefathers possessed…”
This is what God said. Are you listening?
“The Blood atonement of Yeshua……”
quote:
His Glory and Perfection cannot be measured, nor equaled, even if everything in the universe is sacrificed. He can create an infinite number of universes, each one infinitely greater than ours, yet all combined will still be ashamed to stand in front of Him except as He wills. and it is necessary that He use blood for that.
*IS NOT
“The Blood atonement of Yeshua……”
God doesn’t need the blood of yeshua , even if millions of yeshua’s were sacrificed, god doesn’t need them.
quote:
His Glory and Perfection cannot be measured, nor equaled, even if everything in the universe is sacrificed. He can create an infinite number of universes, each one infinitely greater than ours, yet all combined will still be ashamed to stand in front of Him except as He wills. and it is not necessary that He use blood for that.
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