Feast Days - Minor Festivals - The Harvest Torah Teacher Ariel ben-Lyman HaNaviy

• Through the efficacious ministry of the Messiah Yeshua, Gentile believers are covenant-bound to ‘Father Abraham’s Olive Tree’—Isra'el—thereby making them fellow citizens and full-participants with the Commonwealth of Isra'el (Eph. 2), thus granting them the divine privilege of following the whole of the Torah. • We believe that YHVH has written this very same Torah upon the hearts of those, Jews and Gentiles, who have placed their trusting faithfulness in Yeshua (Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 8:7-12). • We believe that this same Torah is a foundational revelation of the righteousness of HaShem and serves as a description (along with the rest of the Scriptures) of the lifestyle of the Redeemed Community (James 1:16-27). • Furthermore, ‘grafted in’ bespeaks of our affirmation to our true identity as a people—Jew and Gentile—that is securely rooted in the Finished Work of Yeshua HaMashiach.

Chanukkah is about holiness. It has been stated that holiness is not metaphysical; our concept of holiness does not define what is holy. Only the Holy One himself can fully define—as well as embody holiness. To be sure, the phrase ‘I am ADONAI,’ or its equivalent ‘I am ADONAI your God’ appears sixteen times in Leviticus chapter nineteen alone! Chapter twenty sees another four uses of these phrases. The lesson is obvious: ADONAI alone defines holiness among men; only he has the power and authority to set the standard of holiness—for he alone is the fullness of holiness—for he alone is ADONAI! So what happens when humanity meets holiness? HaShem is intimately interested in our redemption. Likewise, he is our deliverer from the unholy. That is why he masterfully planned for one man to become the perfect embodiment and display of his holiness. Only this man would be able to showcase the fullness of the holiness of God to such a degree that to look at this man was to look at God! Only this man would be able to perfectly imitate God—for only this man was and is perfectly God. Yeshua is his name! And he sets the standard!

What can be done to undo some of the damage, and help repair the split between Avram’s offspring and the Church? Since most of my readership is likely composed of Christians and Messianic Jews, I will focus my energies in those camps. More information than I can post in this limited format is available to anyone who is serious in answering this timely and important question. I’m sure you will agree the following suggestions are a start in the right direction (from Christian to non-Messianic Jew): • Begin to pray about getting actively involved in the current move of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit), to bring about a genuine, heartfelt love for Avram’s offspring, oriented from the Church and flowing outwards. • Ask HaShem to reveal to you your heart, and to forgive you if you have unknowingly harbored these types of thoughts towards Avram’s offspring. God is still in the business of forgiveness! What my brothers according to the flesh (traditional Judaism, unsaved Jews, non-Messianic Jews, secular Jews, etc) need is to experience the mercy of HaShem, displayed through our honest concern and support! • Ask HaShem to begin to reveal to you your spiritual heritage traced through faithful Avram and continuing through to his offspring, the Jewish People. You will find that according to Romans chapter 11 (just to name a good starting point), you also have some obligations to the “root that supports you.” Even after this genuine call for restoration, some people will yet refuse to change their conventional ways of thinking. To be sure, I don’t expect Gentiles to begin flooding my e-mail with letters asking me to forgive them for “lightly esteeming the Jews”. No, this type of heartfelt change is not accomplished overnight, and it can only make a difference if the Ruach HaKodesh is genuinely involved. As a Torah Teacher, I expect that it will take some time for human nature to readjust its mindset, and line up with what HaShem wants us to be. To be sure, the change must start with this author. After all, which one of us is perfect? Only the man Yeshua from Natzeret was. Please feel free to drop me a line, in care of this web site, if you still have questions or comments in this area. You may also e-mail me personally. My address is provided at the end of this teaching.

The events surrounding the Purim story have long since been attributed to divine intervention—and rightfully so. For even though the name of God is not mentioned anywhere within the book, surely it is his mighty hand which delivers the Jews from the evil plot of Haman. Consider these four “coincidences:” 1. If Amalak hadn’t aligned themselves against God’s chosen people, the bitter ongoing war with them would not have produced a people who would forever be identified as the “enemies of the Jews” (read Exodus 17:8-15). 2. If king Sha’ul had destroyed all of the Amalakites (whom the sages teach was completely assembled together that day) as HaShem had ordered him to (read 1 Samuel chapter 15), then there would not have even been born a Haman, descendant of that wicked King Agag (see Ester 3:1,where we learn that Haman is a descendant of Agag). 3. If Ester had not have been in the right place at the right time, the demise of the Jews might have been certain (read Mordekhai’s statement in Ester 4:12-14). 4. If Mordekhai had not been in the right place at the right time, the Jews’ demise might have been certain (read Ester 2:21-23; 6:1-13). So we see that even though God is not specifically mentioned—surely he was with his people! For, the God we serve does not leave circumstances to chance! He is always leading, guiding, instructing and protecting those who are his own—even in the midst of disobedience (remember that Y’hudah was exiled for her gross idolatry; reference the entire book of Jeremiah)! But Haman the Jew-hater could have learned a thing or two from reading the Torah of Moshe! If he had read, he would have learned that to align himself against God’s chosen people is to align himself against God! Indeed every single wicked nation that has plotted to destroy the Jews has met with the wrath of HaShem, and has consequently all but been wiped from the face of the earth. Bible prophecy tells us of 8 famous, wicked kingdoms. Here is a summary of those kingdoms; it’s ruler or main leader, and the Bible reference: 1. Egypt: the Pharaoh (Exodus 1:8-16; 5:2) 2. Assyria: Shalman’eser (2 Kings 17:1-6) 3. Babylon: N’vukhadretzar (Jeremiah 25:9; 39:1) 4. Medo-Persia: Haman (Ester 1:1-3; 3:10-13) 5. Greece: Antiochus Epiphanes (Daniel 8:11; 23-25) 6. Rome: Herod (Matthew 2:1-16) Now these above-mentioned six are recorded for us in the Bible so that we might know that the word mentioned to Avraham (read Genesis 12:1-3) is true. The Bible also alluded to the seventh—and even soon to come eighth evil empire, which both sought and will seek to destroy the Jews. In Revelation 17:10 and 11 we are given a glimpse of the past, present, and future of the evil anti-Christ and his wicked kingdoms. Verse 10 states, concerning his wicked kingdoms, that five have fallen, which correspond to 1-5 above; one is (that is, yet exists in John’s day), which corresponds to #6 above; and that one is yet to come. I believe that, by using the criteria mentioned in Rev. 17:10b, that the seventh wicked kingdom very well might have been Nazi Germany and it’s wicked ruler Adolph Hitler. Certainly this kingdom (like the previous six) persecuted the Jews! Certainly this ruler (like the previous six) hated the Jews, and aligned himself against them! Even though Hitler himself boasted that his Third Reich would last for 1000 years, this kingdom only lasted a “short space (KJV)”—a scant 12 years. Thanks be unto God that the holocaust only lasted that long!