1000 Verses – a project of Judaism Resources

All or Nothing? – The Case of Aviyah (Abijah)

The book of Judges describes how Israel strayed from obedience to God (Judges 2:11 – 23). Before the monarchy was established in Israel we find that the Jewish people swayed back and forth from serving idols to serving God. With the emergence of Samuel the people turned back to God (1Samuel 7:2). This period of loyalty to God lasted throughout the times of Samuel, the reign of Saul and David as well as Solomon. But under Rechav’am (Rehoboam) the son of Solomon the people of Judah went back to do worse than all of the evils that were done before then (1Kings 14:22). This trend continued into the reign of Aviyam (or Aviyah – Abijah) as the prophet records (1Kings 15:3). This was the most sinful generation of Jews up until that time.

Now let us turn to the book of Chronicles. We find Aviyah facing off in battle against the Israelite army of the Northern kingdom. Although outnumbered Aviyah is confident that his Judean army will prevail. The Scriptures tell us how Aviyah stood on a mountain and lectured to the Israelite army about his own loyalty to God and the loyalty of his kingdom. Aviyah speaks of the service in the Temple that is being kept up by the people of Judah and he speaks of the fact that his people have not abandoned the watch of the Lord (2Chronicles 13:4 – 12).

Aviyah and the Judeans were indeed victorious over their Israelite opponents because they relied on the God of their fathers (2Chronicles 13:18).

Let us step back a minute. Didn’t the prophet teach us that this was a sinful generation? Where do we see Aviyah’s humility before God? How can we reconcile the dismal portrait of Aviyah as presented by the prophetic author of the book of Kings with his own assessment of himself as recorded in the book of Chronicles?

This is not the only such contradiction in the Scriptures. The righteous King David says about himself: “For my sins have gone over my head as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me” (Psalm 38:5). Yet the same David declares: “All of His judgments are before me and I have not turned away from His statutes” (Psalm 18:23). So was David a person drowning in sin or was he someone who was loyal to God?

We find the same contradiction concerning the nation of Israel as a whole in their exiled state. In Psalm 44 Israel declares to God:  “All this is come upon us but we have not forgotten You nor have we been false to Your covenant” (Psalm 44:18). And the same Israel declares: “We have sinned with our fathers we have done wrong and acted wickedly” (Psalm 106:6).

Through the prophet Jeremiah we learn how God was never pleased with the deeds of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 32:31). Yet God refers to the original state of the city as the “faithful city” (Isaiah 1:21). So which is it?

Hezekiah pleads to God to spare him on account of his own righteousness (2Kings 20:3). But didn’t the prophets teach us that no one is completely righteous (Job 15:16)?

The answer is that there are different levels of God’s judgment. On the one hand no one is justified before God’s absolute justice (Psalm 143:2; Job 9:30,31). On the other hand God is merciful and He factors our humanity into His judgment (Psalm 78:39; 103:14). We need to recognize that even if we were to obey God perfectly He would still owe us nothing because we have given Him only that which he already possesses (Job 35:7). On the other hand we must appreciate the blessing of obedience that God granted us in whichever limited sense we were blessed. God rewards even imperfect obedience; not because He owes anyone anything, but because in His mercy He counts our obedience for us as righteousness.

Both are true. We are sinful and we are loyal to God. The limited loyalty that we were granted directs us to yearn and to strive for greater closeness to God and deeper obedience. And our loyalty to God also directs us to stand tall in our obedience as the righteous Yehoshafat (Jehoshaphat) did before us (2Chronicles 17:6) and thank God for that blessing in our present state.

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Yisroel C. Blumenthal

Freedom

“There is no free man but one who busies himself with the study of Torah” (Avot 6:2)

Freedom means not being tied down by the boundaries and limitations that tend to limit us. There are different types of freedom. An acrobat is someone who has developed and cultivated a certain freedom of his or her physical body. A skilled acrobat is not limited by the forces that limit the rest of us. A musician is another person who cultivated freedom. An accomplished musician can express themselves with an instrument in ways that the rest of us cannot. The same applies to a race-car driver, a stunt pilot, and to so many other skills that people develop.

Each of these people develops a specific freedom. And in order to develop any freedom one needs to limit themselves. The skilled acrobat, musician, and mathematician all need to spend many long hours, days weeks, months and years cultivating and developing the particular skill in order to be able to obtain that specific freedom that they seek.

But is there any one freedom that we can point to and say that this is the freedom? Can we say about any specific type of freedom that this particular breaking of boundaries is the true freedom?

The question we must first address is who are we? The Scriptures teach that we were all created in the image of God. This means that deep inside of all of us is the yearning to be kind as God is kind, the desire for truth as God is true and the desire for fairness, justice and mercy. That is who we are.

The true freedom is when our sensitivity to truth, our humility and our gratitude are mature, developed and unencumbered by the limitations that would stand in our way. True freedom is when our practice of kindness soars to heights that we may otherwise not have reached. We can only say that our inner selves have obtained freedom when our consideration for others breaks boundaries and exceeds limits.

Let me illustrate with a small but true story. This took place in an elementary school. A group of eighth grade girls were going to get up on stage to sing for the rest of the school as part of the annual color war contest. The team’s colors were maroon and black so each of the girls was dressed in a black outfit trimmed with a large maroon bow. One of the girls lost her bow. She only realized that her bow was gone as she was about to go up on stage. She panicked. How embarrassing! Please get me a bow! But there were no extra bows around. Another girl immediately took off her own bow and tied it around her friend and that is how the group went on stage.

Do you think that the girl who lost her bow was not a considerate girl? I am sure that she is a nice and fine girl but her quality of consideration was hampered and limited by the wall of embarrassment. The girl who so readily and unhesitatingly gave away her own bow was not limited by the same wall of embarrassment that tied down her friend. Her consideration of others was more free and unlimited than that of her friend.

This is a miniature story but one that sheds light on so much more. It could be consideration versus embarrassment; it could be gratitude versus pride; it could be kindness versus greed and it could be holiness versus self-centeredness. In each of these situations we need to break barriers and find freedom and the range is endless.

How do we develop this true freedom? What are the exercises that develop our sensitivity to kindness and break the petty walls that tie us down?

This is the Torah. Studying the words of the Torah and following the precepts of the Torah with a heart that is humbled before the One who so lovingly granted us the Torah is the way we develop true freedom.  The way we cultivate the freedom of the image of God in which we were all created is by imbibing the holiness, the beauty and the truth of the Law of the Creator of heaven and earth.

There is no free man but one who busies himself with the study of Torah

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Yisroel C. Blumenthal

Acts and Faith

In the third and fourth chapters of the Book of Romans Paul sets down one of the cornerstones of Christian theology. Paul argues that no man can be justified by works as described in the Law of Moses because such justification would be a justification of debt and not of grace. Only through faith, argues Paul, is the justification a justification of grace.

Paul is saying that if God rewards good works it would be as if God is paying off a debt to the doer of these works. But when God rewards faith then God’s mercy and grace are revealed.

In order to support this theology Paul points to Genesis 15:6 where God reckoned Abraham’s faith for righteousness. The conclusion Paul arrives at is that only faith and not works can count for righteousness.

This Christian doctrine is the very antithesis of the Jewish Scriptures.

First of all, if God were to reward works it would NOT be an issue of paying a debt. God owes nothing to any of His creations. Whatever works are done by God’s creations give nothing to God that He did not already possess. If God chooses to reward works it is an expression of grace and mercy because our works belong to God before we gave them to Him. Just as God counted Abraham’s faith as righteousness so did He count Phineas’ works for righteousness (Psalm 106:31) and so does He count our works as righteousness (Deuteronomy 6:25). Whatever it is that God counts as righteousness it is never a debt that He owes. It is always an expression of His grace and mercy.

But, protests the Christian, can works not be a product of hypocritical self-righteousness and an expression of self-absorption?

The answer is that of-course works can be empty and hypocritical but these are not the works that the Law of Moses talks of. The works described by the Law of Moses are works of obedience, works of hearkening to God’s voice, works that emerge from a heart that is completely submitted to God. It is only to the degree that the person is submitted to God in heart and in deed that we can consider the works as “hearkening to God’s voice”.

But as much as Christians are confused about works it seems to me that there is a deeper confusion about faith. I am not even referring to the fact that the faith of the Christian in Jesus has nothing to do with the faith of Abraham in the One Creator of heaven and earth. I am talking about the delusion that the path of faith is somehow free of self-righteousness and hypocrisy.

Christians seem to believe that their faith can justify them. But what is faith in God? Faith in God means recognizing that God is the only true power. If someone feels more secure because he or she has a steady job then their heart is leaning on a power other than God. If a person feels any better because the doctor reported that they are in good health then again the heart is not complete with God. If someone doesn’t feel as safe and secure in a lonely forest as they do in a civilized city then again the heart is relying on the power of men and not so much on the power of God.

Full faith in God means freedom from self-centeredness. If you feel just as happy when your friend acquires some goal in worldly or in spiritual matters as you do when you yourself reach that goal then you can say that you are free from self-centeredness.

Faith in God means freedom from pride. If you feel the same way when someone insults you as when someone compliments you then you can say that you are free of pride.

Does this mean that faith in God is impossible? No! Not at all. But it won’t happen without God’s help. You need to pray to God so that he can fill your heart with true faith in Him. You need to recognize that just as you cannot produce works that are pleasing to Him without complete and utter humility before God so will you not produce faith without complete humility before God.

You need to follow the path that God set for us so that we can walk in His faith. This path is the path of works. By doing justice and loving kindness we can learn to walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8). Not that we see these (the practice of justice and kindness) as a means to “earn” a walk with God. Because God will never owe us anything. Instead we see the practice of justice and kindness as opportunities to imbibe in God’s goodness and to humble ourselves before Him.

No one can say that their heart is entirely pure (Proverbs 20:9). All we can do is yearn and look forward to the day when God will intervene and cleanse us Himself (Deuteronomy 30:6). To yearn means to walk the path that God mapped out for us with as much obedience as God grants us each and every day.

But what happens until then? What happens before our hearts and deeds are completely subject to God? The Jewish Scriptures make it clear that God doesn’t expect perfection from His creations (Psalm 103:14). The Scriptures are replete with examples of God looking favorably upon the hearts and deeds of men even though we know that these men and women were not perfect in heart or in deed simply because they were human.

To think that we have “arrived” is arrogance. To believe that we are nowhere is spurning God’s goodness. We need to recognize our blessings at the same time that we need to recognize our utter dependence on God.

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Yisroel C. Blumenthal

The Jewish people stand in a covenantal relationship with God. Not only as individuals, but also and primarily as a national entity. The nation that consists of individual Jews from all geographical locations and from all generations stands together as one party of a covenant in which the other partner is the Creator of heaven and earth. Members of this covenant nation recognize that this relationship with God requires a certain commitment. Our commitment to the covenant requires that we obey those precepts that our nation accepted as our part of the deal between God and ourselves. Our commitment to the covenant also requires that we cultivate appreciation of the covenant in our own hearts and in the hearts of our fellow members of this covenant.

The concept of a covenant implies that there are or that there will be factors that threaten the relationship between the two parties. A covenant is the solemn promise that both parties in a relationship pledge towards each other that they will maintain their loyalty to the relationship despite the various factors that might otherwise work to weaken or to break the relationship. God promises the Jewish people that no matter how much they sin and stray from His truth, He will maintain His side of the covenantal relationship (Jeremiah 31:36). The people of Israel face many forces that attempt to break their standing as a covenant nation before God. The human proclivity to self-centered pleasure seeking and desire for power threatens to create a barrier between themselves and their Divine partner. Those who wish to maintain their covenantal relationship with God encourage themselves and their fellow Jews to keep sight of this holy relationship and overcome the temptation to get lost in the sea of self-centered materialism.

The most direct assault on Israel’s relationship with God is the sin of idolatry. The Jewish Bible compares idolatry to spiritual adultery. The prophets saw Israel’s relationship with God as a marriage. There is an ideal marriage in which both partners think of nothing but of their love to each other and of their responsibilities towards each other. A marriage in which one of the partners moves into the realm of self-centeredness and forgets their responsibility towards his or her partner is certainly less than ideal, but the marriage has not been violated. It is when one of the partners enters into a marriage-like relationship with someone other than their spouse that the marriage has been directly violated. When a Jew forgets his or her covenantal responsibilities, the relationship between themselves and God has moved away from the ideal, but it has not been directly violated. It is when the Jew enters into a relationship with an entity other than God that the covenant with God has been broken.

In light of their standing as a covenant nation before God, the Jewish people as a community have resisted the Church’s missionary campaign that would have them direct their hearts towards Jesus. The Jewish community views devotion to Jesus as idolatrous; the most direct violation of their covenant relationship with God, and Israel views its own resistance to the Church message as an expression of loyalty to the covenant it shares with God. In the eyes of the Jewish community, being a Jew means at the bare minimum, not entering into a devotional relationship with Jesus (or with any other idol).

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Yisroel C. Blumenthal

Brown is in his lecturing mode again. He sets forth some of the “key teachings and principles” of the Sabbath as “revealed” by Jesus. These are presented as original teachings of Jesus that are unknown in Rabbinical Judaism. (Brown describes these principles as a “clear contrast” to the Rabbinical understanding of the Sabbath.)

Brown tells us that the Sabbath was meant to be a day of liberation from bondage. Brown points to the Sabbath healings of Jesus as an example of the Sabbath liberation, because they provided deliverance for people who were in critical need. He contrasts these healings with the complex and rigid observance of the Sabbath that is found in Rabbinic Judaism. The impression that the authors of the Christians Scriptures give us of the Rabbinic Sabbath is one in which the pressing needs of individuals, specifically the weakest in society, are not met. Brown echoes this slanted description.

Let us turn the camera to the Rabbinic Sabbath so maligned and denigrated by the followers of Jesus. We will begin with the matter of healing the sick.

A child growing up observing the Sabbath in a Rabbinical community will know that the Sabbath means so much to his or her parents and teachers. All work is set aside, no business is transacted, no matter what financial loss might be incurred. Stories abound about Jews who made great sacrifices in order to be able to keep God’s Sabbath. The atmosphere is one in which it is unthinkable to answer a telephone, to use an electronic device, or to drive a car. Imagine a child who grew up with this concept of Sabbath as a part of the very fabric of his or her life. This child is now in the synagogue where everyone is silently and solemnly listening to the reading of the Torah. Suddenly a telephone rings. One of the honored members of the congregation answers the phone as he quickly makes his way to the door. He hops into his car and zooms off, siren blaring. What happened! Someone’s life was in danger – and this volunteer medic was responding to the emergency.

Could you think of a better way to inculcate a child with the value of a human life? Is it a coincidence that it is precisely the communities of Rabbinic Jews who form their own volunteer ambulance teams because they find the response time of the general ambulance squads to be inadequate in light of their understanding of the value of the human life?

As much as we value the Sabbath, and we value it tremendously, we still recognize that human life is greater. When a religious Christian community goes further than the Rabbinic community to instill in their children a value for human life, we will be ready to hear a lecture from Jesus and from Brown on this subject.

In the sense of tending to the needs of the weakest in society, the Rabbinic Sabbath is a shining light. As a general rule, the officers of Rabbinical communities, be they synagogue administrators, community volunteers or religious leaders, make it their business to ensure that every Jew has a place to eat for the Sabbath. Many families will consider their Sabbath table incomplete if there is no guest present with whom to share their home. This goes much further than providing an indigent individual or a stranger with some food. By participating in a family meal, the outsider is given the opportunity to share their heart with those present at the table. It is through the Rabbinical observance of the Sabbath that the Jewish Community learns of the concerns of her most needy. Not in official bureaucratic reports. But in heart to heart talks that involve every member of the community including the little children. It is not merely a matter of discovering the concerns of these people, but that these people become a participating part of the community at the level of the community’s most important unit; the family.

For Brown to echo the slander of the Christian Scriptures in accusing the Rabbinic community of disregarding those in critical need in the context of observance of the Sabbath, is to ignore 2000 years of the history of the Jewish community.

Let us also address the issue of “liberation from bondage”. Brown declares that the Sabbath that Jesus offers his followers liberates from bondage in “clear contrast” to the Sabbath observed by the Rabbinical community.

Those who observe God’s Sabbath in the context of Rabbinic Judaism will have a hard time identifying with Brown’s sentiment. Could there be a greater liberation from bondage than a day in which the work-week is not allowed to intrude? No telephone, no computer, no mail, no boss, no business, no store, no employees, no buying, no selling, no radio or television –  a complete disengagement from anything and everything that pulls one away from the true purpose of life. The Sabbath is a day for interacting with God, with His holy Torah, and with His chosen people. The sense of freedom generated by the observance of the Sabbath touches and envelopes every member of the community, from the small child, to the laborer, to the merchant, to the down-and-out and to the homemaker. Pontificating about the Sabbath is one thing. Living it is quite another.

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Yisroel C. Blumenthal