TCv3 on Nitzavim-Vayelech and Rosh Hashanah 5771

Rosh Hashanah 5771

Guess what? I writing now on a Rosh HaShanah evening and listening non-stop to the shofar blowing from all parts of the world through the internet via youtube videos especially from Israel. I don’t have a shofar myself but listening to religious Jews blowing their shofars out loud donning their tallits and tzitzits and tefillins is a joy to watch and hear. This week we have lots of commentary to study especially this week we have double-portion reading for Parshah Nitzavim / Vayelech. Anyway, Shanah Tovah to my parents, my wife and all my family members. Shanah Tovah to all my friends and colleagues. Shanah Tovah to all my Jewish brothers and sisters in Israel and in all parts of the world whether they believe in Yeshua (Jesus) or not. May HaShem bless Israel and all the Jewish people another sweet and blessed new year of 5771 in the gracious Name of Yeshua haMashiach Rabbeinu. Amein.

In the seventh month on the first of the month you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. (Leviticus 23:24)

On the first day of the seventh month is this festival the Torah simply calls a “reminder by blowing of trumpets.” This is the festival we call the “Feast of Trumpets,” the day of trumpet blowing. The Torah tells us to celebrate the Feast of Trumpets by blowing a ram’s horn or shofar in Hebrew. The Feast of Trumpets is a festival that is meant to prepare us for the Holy Day of Atonement that comes ten days later. The festival is called Rosh HaShanah (the head of the year).

This is the Hebrew way of saying New Year’s Day. The Torah commands us to blow the shofar on the Rosh Hashanah as a memorial, but it does not tell us what the blowing of the shofar memorializes. The Sages offered various attempts to explain the festival. They searched through the Scriptures for references to shofars and trumpet blasts and derived a plethora of different remembrances. The early medieval sage Rav Saadiah Gaon codified these various explanations of the Feast of Trumpets and listed them. According to Rav Saadiah Gaon, there are ten primary remembrances for which the shofar is blown on the Festival of Trumpets.

Each of these remembrances highlights a unique aspect of the festival:

1.  The Coronation of the King

2.  The Call to Repentance

3.  The Giving of the Torah at Sinai

4.  Warning of Impending Judgment

5.  The Destruction and Future Rebuilding of the Temple

6.  The Binding of Isaac

7.  Fear of God

8.  The Day of Judgment (Yom Kippur)

9.  The Ingathering of Israel

10. The Resurrection of the Dead

Even as we wait to hear the trumpet blast of the king, the great shofar of our returning Redeemer, we celebrate the appointed time of the Rosh Hashanah. The annual blast of the shofar during the Feast of Trumpets foreshadows that day when the heavens will be rent by the blast of Messiah’s trumpet. For disciples of the Messiah, Rosh Hashanah is a reminder of that appointed time yet to come when the Master “will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.” (Matthew 24:31)

The Haftarah for Shabbat Nitzavim is the last in a series of seven successive Haftarah readings that follow the Fast of Av and the anniversary of the destruction of Jerusalem. The Seven Consolations, each drawn from Isaiah’s Book of Consolations (Isaiah 40-66), offer words of comfort to Zion and promises of future redemption. Each one prophesies the return from exile, Zion’s restoration, and, ultimately, the Messianic Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

Haftarah Nitzavim, the seventh of the Seven Consolations, begins in Isaiah 61:10, but for purposes of Torah Club Volume 3 study, FFOZ recommend a Messianic reading that begins in 61:1. The commentary includes those first nine verses of the chapter in which the Servant of the LORD declares that the LORD has anointed Him with His Spirit to proclaim the good news of redemption to the afflicted of Israel and to announce the day of vengeance. He comes to comfort the mourners and to replace their sorrow with gladness. Then Israel will rebuild and resettle her land. Under a new everlasting covenant, they will possess a double portion, and the nations will recognize them as blessed by the LORD.

The Haftarah proper begins in 61:10 with the Servant of the LORD exalting and rejoicing over the promises of redemption which will sprout up like seeds planted in a garden. God announces that He will no longer remain silent, but will actively involve Himself in bringing about the redemption of Zion. He will give Zion a new name. Jerusalem will be called “My delight is in her,” and the land of Israel will be called “Married.” Watchmen on Jerusalem’s walls will keep her in remembrance before the LORD forever. The LORD vows never to allow foreigners to oppress His people again. In preparation for this redemption, the way to Zion must be cleared. Then the nations will call Israel “The Holy People” and they will call Jerusalem “Sought Out.” In the day of vengeance, the LORD will crush Edom and His enemies as a man treads out grapes. Their blood bespatters his garments. The Haftarah concludes with a statement about God’s goodness and mercy to His people. He is faithful to save them from their distress. He will carry them in the future just as He carried them in days of old.

Haftarah Nitzavim begins in Isaiah 61:10. The first nine verses of the chapter do not occur in the annual Haftarah cycle, but our Master read them as a Haftarah. Luke describes Yeshua participating in the scripture reading service in the synagogue in Nazareth. The Gospel of Luke says, “As was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read” (Luke 4:16). This means that it was the Master’s custom to attend synagogue on the Sabbath and participate in the public reading of the Torah. Luke tells us that Yeshua “stood up to read.” From a non-Jewish perspective one would understand that phrase as a lead-in to the verse that follows, that is to say that He stood up to read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. From a Jewish perspective, however, the words “He stood up to read” imply that He stood to read from the Torah scroll. After reading from the Torah, He then goes on to read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. In modern practice, eight successive readers read from the Torah on Sabbath. The last Torah reading is called the maftir. The maftir consists of a repetition of the last three verses of the weekly Torah portion. After the eighth reader concludes those last three verses of the Torah portion, the Torah Scroll is displayed to the congregation and then set aside. A scroll of the prophets is handed to the maftir reader. He says the blessings for the reading from the prophets and proceeds to read from the scroll. If modern practice reflects Sabbath services from the first century this may indicate that Yeshua was the last reader called to read Torah that Sabbath in Nazareth.

After concluding His allotted Torah portion, He rolled the scroll of Isaiah to the place where it says, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me … ” We do not know if this was the assigned Haftarah reading for that Sabbath or if, at that time, synagogue custom allowed the reader to make his own selection for a Haftarah reading. Luke only quotes the most pertinent verses from the Master’s reading that day but we may be certain that Yeshua read a much larger portion of Isaiah. The synagogue rule required a minimum of twenty-one verses for the Haftarah.

Now this Haftarah study has been another huge pages for me to study only second to the Ki Tetze study which have 24 pages long. This one have 16 pages to digest. I will not be blogging about the Vayelech study for this round. Ok, since the previous 6 Haftarah studies are basically more or less the same pertaining to Zion’s restoration and the comfort of the afflicted Israelites from God and so forth. God love Israel and the Jewish people a great deal no matter how He deals with them. He chastise them because He love the Jewish people very much just like a good father do not spare a rod on his children because he love them very much. And whoever mistreat the Jewish people, surely the Most High God will punish them severely with no mercy. May HaShem saves Israel and all the Jewish people who inhabited within. For His Son’s sake we pray. Amein.

Shalom and Shanah Tovah!

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