15 HASHEM said to Moses, “Why do you cry out to me? Speak to the CHILDREN of Israel and let them journey forth! 16 And you – lift up your staff and stretch out your arm over the sea and split it; and the Children of Israel shall come into the midst of the sea on dry land.

Every breathing moment is an opportunity to connect with Torah. The question was raised, “Why was Torah given in the desert?” The good question was answered, “So that no one can claim that they are removed from it.”

Today, alive and breathing, live over 1.5 billion christians. Maybe, and no more than, twenty million Jews exist. That number is based on the identifying identity of the Jew. Not that someone goes door to door asking, “Is this a Jewish home and if so, how many are there of you?” Within Judaism, one is counted a Jew if ones mother is a Jew. Continue. My mother and father are both Jewish, they are also secular. You guessed it, I too was raised secular.

It is known that if you are born a Jew you remain a Jew regardless if you are observant are not. Now if you go off and follow the masses to Sunday worship, need I say more? The mourners kaddish is recited on your behalf. Let us swing around here and take a look from the other side. If you are a Gentile and were raised as a Christian and one day decided to follow the way of the observant Jew, maybe your family didn’t recite the mourners kaddish, but they certainly believe you have left your salvation at the door.

Today is Shavuot, known as the day Torah was given. We are commanded from the second day of Passover to count the Omer for seven complete weeks until the morrow of the fiftieth day. Many Jews throughout the world will attend synagogue this evening, rather they are reformed, conservative or orthodox. As a child living in New York, I knew nothing of this. I was however familiar with Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, mainly in part because our schools would close during those times. For the past 10 years I reside in Texas where they do not close their schools, furthermore, many here have never met a Jew. Perhaps I should begin some kind of tour.

Where am I, how did I get this place?

There has been in all of history, one and only one national revelation. You guessed it, the Jewish one. Christianity on the other hand did not receive one and yet there are over 1.5 billion followers. Mormons, the very same thing. Christians must ask  themselves a very important question, Why is this so? When it comes to locking your car and removing any valuables from sight, this you are careful to do. When at the check out counter you monitor the check out screen so not to be over billed, “How much was I charged for those apples? How about the mechanic, you want references and the best deal. Don’t you?

You really did know where I was going with this.

Forget the following. The virgin birth, replacement theology, new testament, second coming, blood atonement, suffering servant, replaced Torah (Heaven forbid), Peter, Paul and Mary.

Let us examine ourselves for a moment, that means stop texting and stop counting how many friends you have on face book.

Where did G-d inform us of a new way? Where did He instruct us to follow a false prophet or false doctrine? Today we can google any information we require. Two-thousand years ago there was no wifi or public library. Our sages and Rabbis, those who were fortunate for the time to have received a Jewish education, knew the Torah and the prophets forwards and backwards. Is it no wonder they rejected the way of jesus (if he existed) and later the teachings of Paul?

Who actually witnessed the resurrection? Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? They couldn’t agree on most things! What about Paul? Was he even a Jew? So as you have it, twelve (really just four) uneducated Jews along with Paul (Much later) somehow convinced (Mostly Gentiles) to accept jesus as their savior!

Torah, I would say is the foundation of the WORLD. Judaism the mechanics, the operation. What is the body without the mind?

Torah is complex to the outsider, but doable to the insider. Christianity is doable to the insider, but questionable to the outsider. Putting it simply. The church pastor preaches, “Approach the altar and give your life to jesus, leave a new person.” That simple. In your mind without being rational, you accept it. It makes you feel good inside. The world is off your shoulders. Blue skies have returned.

Torah on the other hand, teaches that we are responsible for our deeds. Torah teaches that we have a marriage covenant with HASHEM and that certain things are expected of us. Torah tells us that we may not add or subtract from it. Is it any clearer why so many deny the Torah, or even exchange it for another.

Please I beg each of you, don’t give up without a fight. Spend time daily to consider what you have walked away from (Fellow Jews) and/or what you have denied (Gentile/Christian) all along.

It is with great sadness that I come to you. Not a week goes by in which I don’t hear of a fellow Jew who hasn’t converted to Christianity. In the most recent case it is a family. Our people are being led away. Why do so many of our people find it easy to be anything but a Jew. Is it because G-d expects His beloved to live up to their part of the covenant? Perhaps it started with one family member not wanting to be pushed aside in this American society, and found it easier to go along and adopt to those around him or her. Assimilation continues to kill more Jews.

Maybe you’re thinking that KILL is a heavy word, you’re  right it is. This morning I received a response from someone responding to my comment I had left on You Tube. It was a debate between a Jewish Christian and a Rabbi. You guessed it, a debate rather Jesus is the messiah.

In this response I received, I was told to read the scripture with an open heart. I was also told that my heart has been hardened and until the scripture is fulfilled it would continue to be that way. To ass insult to injury, the individual goes on to tell me that I shouldn’t let others interpret the scriptures for me. Now correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that exactly what messianic Jewish christians as well as christians do all day long?

If you were to read my home page, you would see that I was once a messianic Jew. Yes I was in error of just following misinterpretations right out of the starting gate. For two and a half years I attended a messianic congregation every Shabbat morning. Prior to that I attended a Christian church for two years. I was raised as a secular Jew. We had no knowledge of the Tanakh, Torah, the Holy days… Nothing. One day I started, I mean I really started to read for myself. In my research I found other Jews like myself who had wandered off the path of Judaism. One of the letters I read was from an individual who was raised with a Jewish education. Thank G-d they all came back.

Why do you suppose it is that christians and messianic Jews assume that Torah observant Jews don’t have a mind of their own. All too often our Rabbis are getting verbally offended. If I may I would like to tell you what I feel. This animosity, the bad taste in the mouth of the accusers didn’t happen just over night, but through the centuries. The very thing they accuse me and other Jews of, they are guilty of. Never have I gotten a straight answer when I asked for straight up proof of jesus in the Jewish scriptures. Why? Because he doesn’t have a place in it.

Throughout the Torah and the Tanakh we can read Gd’s dislike for our disobedience. Over and over again we punished through war, plague and the destruction of our two Temples. All along what is it that our Prophets had asked of us? Open our eyes and heart, stop being stiff-necked. For nearly fourteen hundred years the message was repeated, “Return to G-d and He will return to you.” There was no need for all the blood sacrifices, repentance was and still is the highest form for atonement. Yet christians will tell us that G-d changed His program for another. All the punishment we endured, the loss of the Temple and life. Was that all for nothing? No.

G-d did not change His plan for His beloved. Everyone should have a copy of the Torah and Tanakh for themselves. Read from page one, study the prophets and find out for yourself. The church comes along and they want to cut and paste as well as ad lib with our Holy writings. Who has the right to walk into someone elses home and tell them what is and what isn’t? Long before the first christian came along, Judaism existed. Long before eating of his body and drinking of his blood, G-d warned against such abominations.

Wake up people!

Did G-d not warn us? He most certainly did. God tells us to stone the false prophets. God also told us that we would be tested. The moment you are warned is the moment before you will be tested. God orders a prophet to head towards so and so place, “Do not stop and go off the path in which I have sent you. Be careful to do it.” The prophet is walking along when a man approaches and says, “I too am a prophet come along with me and we shall eat.” At this point the first prophet who was directed by G-d Himself should have noticed and recalled what he had been told. He should have questioned G-d and ignored the stranger. He did not and was slain by G-d.

Wake up people!

Often I hear, “If we’re not to accept jesus then why are so many people who are christians, successful and living a plentiful life?” Stop and ask yourself a question. What is successful and plentiful to you may not have the same meaning to G-d. There are many who are alive today that have no relationship with G-d, Jew or Gentile. There is a great deal of wealth in this world being consumed by all makes and models. There are those who deny G-d and there are those who acknowledge G-d.

I acknowledge G-d.

The following is something I wrote in September of 2000 long before I officially knocked on Heavens door.

Our covenant with G-d has stood the test of time, not only because G-d promised us so, but because it is a marriage between the Creator and the creation. In order for this marriage to endure both sides must come know the other. We fall in love, we get engaged and then we come together.

Many marriages never make it out of the banquet hall. Expectations are often to high, leaving one or the other dissatisfied. We know from our troubled history that we too have broken the heart of our Creator. All to often a marriage comes to an end when the road gets bumpy. One falls out of love, this one grows in another direction, and before long one or the other is found sleeping on the sofa.

Throughout the year we celebrate birthdays, this day and the other. No one day is as important as your wedding anniversary.

We are directed by G-d to observe the Exodus from Egypt throughout all our generations. If we read on, we can also see that we are directed to explain this observance to our children and our children’s children.

So how does this relate to you and your spouse? Each and every day that you spend with your spouse should be as though it is the first as well as the last. Do you recall that first day you spent together? How about the time you spent working on the wedding plans? Most people can recall the happiness and the thrill during those early years. Well then, what has happened since then?

You have heard that we must choose our battles, because G-d knows there isn’t enough time in the day to argue or debate over all things.

The Tanakh is a guide-book for living. We are to study letter for letter and not just have it read to us. The Tanakh however is not up for debate. Christians more often than not like to reference it as a way to point out our Jewish people as a failure to G-d. Perhaps I should just let it go. But why should I?

Christianity stands upon a shaky foundation. Its followers are taught to have ‘faith’ which of course is truly blind. Our father Abraham had faith [Knowledge and experience] not blind faith. Our Sinai experience was not to one, but to all who departed Egypt. In other words it was a national revelation. Unlike other religions, Judaism is concrete. Judaism has last the test of time. Judaism will not perish. Judaism was not born of another.

Judaism teaches that we are responsible for our own actions, w are rewarded or punished accordingly. This I view as a good thing. No amount of sacrifice can replace repentance. Only through our very own actions can we achieve closeness with G-d and one another.

For nearly two-thousand years Gentiles have been taught that blood is needed in order to be [cleansed] of sin [wrong doing]. That is the furthest from the truth. In Temple times animals were brought for atonement, however if you read the book of Leviticus, you will find that those with little or no means may bring [fine flower]. The last time I checked, one cannot draw blood from flower.

Why are Christians consumed with blood. Millions of Jews have been killed throughout the generations and much of their blood has soaked the earth. It is time that Christians ask themselves, Why do we believe this theology? Is it possible that someone can die for my sins? I’m I not responsible for my own actions? Let us all keep in mind that when sin sacrifices were brought to the Temple, it was for the present time and iniquity. Not for the future but for the here and now. Also, sacrifices were brought for [unintentional] sins, not intentional. When we do something wrong and we know that it is wrong, how can we atone for it. Repentance is the only form of action.

I cry because of the loss
I weep for the masses,
The many who have gone astray.

My family
my friends,
So so many faces.

Many have come, many have passed
many have fought while many deny,
Nothing is richer then a Jewish Soul
nothing makes me weep more.

Return home my brother, sister, father and mother,
return home those who wonder,
return to the Temple, the home of your soul.

As a Jew I had a secular upbringing. No Jewish education what so ever. Unfortunately this is the sad truth for many of our people.

Three years ago at the age of forty-one I took it upon myself to become that Jew. A jew not only by birth, but by the way of Torah and the great ones who came before me.

Two months before my fathers passing, may his name never be forgotten, I learnt that my great grandfather was a Kohen. For me this
was exciting news as you could imagine. This too makes me a Kohen, a direct descendant of
Aaron.

God awaits us to be that voice once again as we were at Sinai, crying out in prayer not one of us unacounted for.

Life as you know is what one makes of it. Each of us is a universe with the ability to build up and tear down. G-d has infused in you and I the ability to create through words. When one speaks a great thing happens, life takes form. This is why one must be careful in his or her action. Words create beautiful things, however they can also destroy.

Mastering your time. If Lawrence was the master of time (his existence and life) if he lacked permissable interference, think of the achievement.

The fault is not that of G-d, but of man. We enter the world and the moment we are announced, the challenges of life begin.