Weekly Torah Commentaries UMJC - Union Of Messianic Jewish Congregations

On exhibit in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem are artifacts from the
excavation of a burial plot from the end of the First Temple period. Among
the exhibit is a small thin silver plaque the size of a thumb. Inscribed on
it in Hebrew is the Birkat Kohanim, the priestly blessing we still recite
today.

One moment I was preparing a lesson on living a life filled with the hope
we have in Messiah and the promises of blessings that are ours. The next
moment the messengers were delivering their news.

Have you ever wished that you could start over? That you could be, as in
the words of Dylan’s immortal song, “forever young”—going back to your
earliest years of life, able to erase all your mistakes, cancel all your
debts, and undo all your sins?

It’s not so much a matter of contrast between conservation and contagion;
we need both. The stability and separation of a healthy religious community
provides a platform for influencing the surrounding culture.

Once we choose to live in the universe of power in actions, do we have the
discipline to constantly push ourselves to raise the bar? Will we have what
it takes to engage in regular self-reflection and contemplation, and live
with the consistency that holiness requires?

Spiritual discipline through the repetitive action—the “walking” out—of the
mitzvot builds within us emotional muscle memory. Given that we are largely
driven by our emotions, any repetitive action binds itself to our
personhood, our heart, our mind, and that same action builds within us an
emotional response.