Keep

The L-RD appeared to Yitzhak and said, "Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Avraham, your father. I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed, because Avraham obeyed My voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws." ~ Genesis 26:5

Which of G-d's commandments, statutes and laws did Avraham keep?

Ha Achor

In the previous post, Ha Ayin ("the eye"), we looked at a few of the amazing events in the lives of Avraham and Yakov. These were life-changing (and name changing) encounters with G-d. As we've seen, the text is clear that these instances are not like Enoch "walking" with G-d, Adam hearing the "voice of G-d walking", or G-d appearing as a pillar of cloud. Rather these are physical, tangible manifestations of Adonai where He ate, spoke plainly, and even wrestled - all without smoke, fire, lightning, sounds of rushing water, or wheels within wheels - as everyday as hanging out with the Creator of time-space can be. We, therefore, have every reason to believe that G-d is able to manifest Himself any way that he likes and, in times past, on multiple occasions, He chose to appear in bodily form. But don't take my word for it.

In today's post, Ha Achor ("the back"), we'll explore a few passages from the incredible life of Moshe. G-d seems to have genuinely enjoyed astounding Moshe with His amazing power. The miracles G-d wrought before Moshe's eyes are well-worn territory and fairly common knowledge, even among non-believers. But, with all that is commonly known and has been discussed for centuries concerning Moshe's life, it's surprising to still hear claims that G-d is completely incorporeal. As we'll see, this couldn't be further from the truth.

Ha Ayin

As I offered in yesterday's post, Ha Yamin ("the right hand"), G-d longs to be with us. He chose to fulfill that desire (and His plan for our redemption) by manifesting Himself physically, in our dimension and in our form. Today, I'd like to expand on that idea and show that His appearing in the form of a man in the Brit Chadasha, was not an isolated instance. There are a great many who are unable to accept the idea of G-d taking the form of a man, namely Yeshua of Nazareth, because of their understanding that G-d is simply unable to do so. Can you blame them? G-d has no body, right?  Even if He did, in Exodus 33:20, G-d tells Moshe that he couldn't see Him and live. What's going on here exactly? Let's look at some occurrences of G-d revealing Himself to men in the Tanakh and see what we find. I don't intend this to be exhaustive, but there are just a few passages I'd like to point out. We'll start with Avraham, as his seems a fitting beginning, only here, he is still Avram for a moment.