by Rabbi Russ Resnik

Parasha for conclusion of Passover: Exodus 13:17-15:26

Imagine living through the original night of Passover in Egypt. In obedience to Moses' instructions, you chose a perfect, unblemished lamb from the flock, guarded it for four days, and then took it aside to slit its throat, catching the blood in a basin. You smeared some of the blood as a mark on your doorway and roasted the lamb whole over a fire. That evening, the whole family gathered in your hut with instructions not to go outside for any reason, until the word was given. You all ate the roasted lamb with bitter herbs and unleavened bread, an unusual meal, made even stranger because you ate it hurriedly, dressed for a long journey, and ready to get going at a moment's notice. But the notice did not come for quite a while. As the evening wore on, you began to hear cries and screaming in the distance, from the direction of the Egyptian city nearby. You felt dread and awe and a sense of hope at the same time, throughout the long night.

By J. Michael Terrett
Spiritual Leader B'nai Chayim / Children of Life Fellowship (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) www.bnaichayim.com

In a world where all and any spiritual understandings about the origin and the purpose of reality have been undermined and relegated to the whimsical realm of myth and make believe, we can see that for most people, the morality which derives from a faith understanding of life has also suffered a similar fate. Not only has the biblically based religious worldview of the western world effectively succumbed to the ravages of evolutionary materialism and humanistic relativism, but so have many of the traditional moral and ethical values which derive from our theistic perspective.

by Rabbi Russ Resnik 

In honor of Passover, I'd like to share a message I wrote a few years back.

Moses begins his Torah not in Sinai, but in Egypt. The sons of Israel receive the first of the revealed teachings while they are still in bondage to Pharaoh. Most of these initial instructions cover the regulations of Passover that continue to provide the framework for our seder to this day, even though the Passover lamb itself has not been sacrificed for nearly two millennia.

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Torah or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill."

Yeshua's saying in Matthew 5:17 is foundational to our Messianic Jewish vision. Here Messiah upholds the continuing validity of the Hebrew Scriptures and places himself at the heart of Jewish messianic expectations as the one who fulfills Torah. He goes on to teach this fulfilled Torah in detail through the rest of what we call the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7).

by Rabbi Stuart Dauermann, PhD

In this week's haftarah, as so often, the Word of G-d comes to correct those who have a name for knowing but know not. The Bible is far too penetrating to simply correct our opinions: a newspaper column can do that. Scripture goes beyond that to exposing and correcting the thoughts and intents of the heart, as in this week's passage where Hashem reminds Israel that "It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came." Reflexively self-centered, our default assumption is that G-d's acts of redemption are triggered by his love for us, but this is not always nor sufficiently the case. Although he loves us, his saving acts are not about us, but about G-d vindicating his great name which has been tarnished through the well-deserved but tarnished and imperiled state of the Jewish people. In this chapter, as elsewhere in the wider context, we are reminded that it is not about us: it is about Him, his purposes, his power, his honor, and his glory.

by Rabbi Russ Resnik

"All the king's courtiers in the palace gate knelt and bowed low to Haman, for such was the king's order concerning him; but Mordecai would not kneel or bow low." (Esther 3:2)

As we celebrate Purim we inevitably begin thinking about Passover, which is just one month away. The old definition of a Jewish holiday applies to both: Our enemies tried to kill us; God delivered us; let's eat!

In the January 18, 2006 edition of industryweek.com an interesting article entitled Continental Drifter -- The Arrogance Of Ignorance, A new generation of the serenely clueless is ready, willing and able to destroy your company, Mark Gottlieb warns of an emerging threat to companies from confident but ignorant employees: "The threat you face derives not from any external factors that may affect your company. Instead, it comes from your own employees. The deadliest business hazard of our time is the result of a sea change in the American approach to education that occurred early in the 1970s. Across the United States, conventional educational standards were tossed out the window, replaced with feel-good theories like "whole-language learning" that emphasized personal fulfillment over the accumulation of hard knowledge. As a result, we now have two generations of men and women who expect gold stars not for succeeding, but simply for trying; and, sometimes, merely for showing up." Within our Messianic community we can experience this threat of ignorant arrogance as too many people often are more familiar with the words of popular religious music or even religious traditions than the clear understanding of Scripture. Ignorant arrogance is not bliss! God has given clear instructions which bring blessing when studied and applied His way!