THE SCARLET CORD OF HOPE

I ended a recent blog post regarding pregnancy and the struggles over "chosing life" with a reference to the spiritual significance of the umbilical cord. A friend asked me to say what I had in mind. Here it is. 

When we look closely at life in the womb, we see detailed, measurable processes, not random events. The umbilical cord, stem‑cell‑rich blood, the early heartbeat, and the steady count of weeks all show order and timing. 

The Bible gives language and images that match what we see: tikvah (Hebrew תִּקְוָה), rechem (Hebrew רֶחֶם), and numbers like 6, 7, 22, and 40. Here I am simply putting my observations from biology next to the words and patterns from Scripture.

The Umbilical Cord As A Sign of Hope

By the end of the first week, a connection is formed between the fetus and it's source of life that will become the umbilical cord. As the days and weeks pass, it develops into a thick, rope‑like cord carrying life giving blood between mother and baby.

Umbilical cord blood contains a rich and abundant supply of stem cells. Even after birth, these amazing cells from the umbilical cord have life giving, healing and forming potential. 

Joshua 2:18-19—unless, when we come into the land, you bind this line of scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you bring your father, your mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household to your own home. So it shall be that whoever goes outside the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we will be guiltless. 

The Hebrew word for hope is tikvah (תִּקְוָה). This same word also means a cord or rope. The first time this word appears in the bible is in the story of Rahab’s scarlet cord in the Book of Joshua. The tikvah, a scarlet cord, is a visible line of hope. The umbilical cord is another tikvah: a literal cord that keeps a hidden child alive by joining it to a source of strength it cannot see as it waits to be let down.

By the way, "HaTikvah" (The Hope) is the title of the national anthem of Israel. 

The Womb as Compassion

The Hebrew word for womb is rechem (רֶחֶם). From this word come rachamim (רַחֲמִים, compassion/mercies) and rachum (רַחוּם, compassionate). The womb is the first picture of this: a protected place where a tiny life is sheltered, fed, and given time to grow.

Week after week, the child is woven together by God’s design. Sadly, not every pregnancy reaches 40 weeks. Many early losses are associated with major chromosomal or developmental problems that make survival impossible. The same system that usually protects life sometimes brings it to an early end when it truly is the compassionate thing to do. Medically this is called miscarriage.

Life in the Blood and the Sixth Week

The mother’s blood is the source of life for the baby. Oxygen and nutrients cross from her blood into the baby’s blood in the placenta. Waste and carbon dioxide cross back the other way. The two blood supplies are separate but exchange what is needed.

In the sixth week, the baby’s own heart is beating. A simple heart tube is already contracting and pushing the baby’s own blood through its body. In the Bible, the number six is linked with humanity and work that is not yet at rest: humans made on day six, six days of creation before the seventh‑day Sabbath when God rests. In the sixth week this tiny human heart starts its work. The mother’s heart still supplies everything, but the baby now has its own beating center. It is a dependent, but already distinct life, full of potential.

Forty Sevens

A full‑term pregnancy is about 40 weeks. In the Bible, the number 40 marks set periods of testing and preparation. 40 years in the wilderness. The child’s time in the womb is another 40: a period of hidden preparation before entry into a new world.

We count those 40 weeks in units of seven days. The weekly cycle itself comes from Genesis: six days of work and the seventh day, the Sabbath, set apart. The number seven becomes a number for completion. A baby’s development is tracked week by week. The forming of a human is measured in the Bible’s pattern of sevens as until is counts 40 Shavuot שבועות (weeks) in Hebrew.

Twenty‑two and the “Alphabet” of Life

There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Jewish mystics speak of the world being created with the 22 letters.  Traditional counting also speaks of 22 books in the Hebrew Scriptures. 

All 22 pairs of autosomes (plus the sex‑chromosome pair) are present from the moment of conception. The fetus has a design from the moment it is created. 

There are 22 bones in the adult skull where our brain has the free will to continue creating. 

It is at least notable that the same number that marks the alphabet of Scripture also appears in the “alphabet” of our physical design.

Crossing Over and Separation

The destroyer has been kept away. The new baby is ready to come forth. The blood is on the doorposts and it is time to come out. 

The tikvah (תִּקְוָה) has done its job. The compassion of the rechem (רֶחֶם) has carried the child through its 40 weeks.  

At birth, someone cuts the umbilical cord. The bodly seperation is made. The baby now must breathe on it's own. Within seconds, the baby takes it's first breath. The lungs fill, blood flow reroutes, and the cord is no longer needed. The first cry is truly the sound of life. 

Now God provides in another amazing way. God is written in every drop of milk. 

Hebrew Words Matter More

Here is another way to look at the "Umbilical Cord" that follows the etymology of the words more precisely.

In Hebrew, the ordinary phrase for “umbilical cord” is chevel tabur (חֶבֶל טַבּוּר) – literally “the cord of the navel” or “the rope of the center.” חֶבֶל (chevel) is a cord or rope, but it also speaks of birth pangs and the measuring line that marks out a person’s allotted portion. טַבּוּר (tabur) is both “navel” and “center,” the point where a person is “plugged in” to their origin. Put together, chevel tabur names the line of dependence that ties a child to its source of life, the pain through which that life comes, and the center that defines where it belongs.

Ezekiel 16 turns that ordinary, healthy picture on its head. Jerusalem is a newborn whose umbilical cord is not cut, left unwashed, unsalted, and unswaddled in an open field – a child with a cord, but no care; a birth, but no welcome; a center, but no one to guard it. Read against the richness of chevel tabur, the indictment is sharp: Israel has a life‑cord but despises the One who should be its center and portion. When God steps in and says “Live,” He effectively claims the abandoned infant, takes over the care that should have followed the birth, and becomes the true source, center, and hope of the child’s life. The same cord that once only proved her helplessness becomes, in His hands, a line of tikva – a rope of hope binding her future to His compassion.

THE AMAZING PART OF JESUS'S CRUCIFIXION

We are so caught up in our own lives that we don't stop to really think and meditate on things that make a difference. That is why I write.

In my last blog post, "You Had Me At Blood," as I was studying the amazing qualities of blood and the effects of blood loss, I gained a greater appreciation and wonder in the fact that Jesus could deliver "Seven Last Words" from the cross.

I believe it is one of the most remarkable human achievements ever recorded. Jesus's "Seven Last Words" from the cross is a mind blowing physical, mental and spiritual feat. 

First I want to paint a picture. 

You know the scene. After brutaly beating him, Jesus is scouraged beyond recognition. According to evidence on the burial shroud, he recieved 135 scourging lashes. It is claimed that 39 is enough to kill a man. 

After that, a crown made of 2" Jerusalem thorns that are like nails, is pounded into his scalp creating 50 puncture wounds extending from the mid‑forehead to the low back of his neck. 

Then Jesus had to carry his patibulum (crossbeam) weighing approximately 100 pounds on his severely bruised and open back and shoulders uphill for about ⅓ of mile until he has fallen on his face and Simon of Cyrene was compelled to help him.  

The crucifixion begins with rough iron spikes being driven through the highly sensitive median nerves in his wrists. This is one the most painful acts of torture a person could experience. Then his left foot is placed over his right and another long spike was driven diagonally through both his heels/instep area into the upright beam (stipes). 

Then the cross with Jesus nailed to it is hoisted up in the air and dropped it into a socket, causing a violent jolt through his nailed wrists and feet. 

Jesus will hang up there with dislocated shoulders for six hours, from roughly 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on that Friday in the hot sun without any water. 

Every single breath requires agonizing effort to push up on his nailed feet and pull against nailed wrists. This motion sends pain searing through torn wrists, shoulders, back, and nailed feet each time. Jesus has to fight to breath while enduring agonizing pain for six hours! 

It's been scientifically determined that Jesus lost over 40% of his blood. This much blood loss causes the body to go into hypovolemic (low‑blood‑volume) shock. That condition is a fatal if not immediately treated. 

In hypovolemic shock, mental function progressively breaks down because the brain is not getting enough oxygenated blood; people move from anxiety and agitation to confusion, slowed thinking, and even loss of consciousness. 

Keep in mind the state of pain Jesus is in. His suffering plausibly sits at the very top of the human pain experience—what clinicians would call “10/10,” compounded by many overlapping sources of agony. 

Extreme pain doesn’t just hurt the body; it disrupts the mind, producing anxiety, fear, agitation, difficulty thinking clearly, emotional overload.

The fact that Jesus is even conscious is phenomenal. In that state of extreme blood loss and dehydration, Jesus’ tongue would tend to stick to the roof of his mouth and jaws. 

Psalm 22:15—My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.

You've got the picture. Now for the amazing part.

As Jesus is suffering unimaginable pain and humiliation, while the blood in his body is literally pouring out, Jesus still manages to have the presence of mind to say "Seven Last Words" that are incredibly rich spiritually. 

The profound meaning and the order of Jesus's statements demonstrates that Jesus is completely aware and fully in control of his ministry. 

Personally, I believe the delivery of the Seven Last Words to be miraculous. Knowing the price Jesus paid in order to speak them, I wrote this blog so I could meditate on the meaning of each one. 

First of all, I believe Jesus planned practically everything that happened from day 1. In it fair to say that he even orchestrated events.  The crucifixion is the culmination of it all. 

Every word he spoke has an important meaning which corresponds perfectly to the purpose of his ministry. Yeshua's "Seven Words" are recorded in all four Gospels. They capture moments of suffering, forgiveness and entrustment. 

Here they are:

1. "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).
2. "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43).
3. "Woman, behold your son. Behold your mother" (John 19:26-27).
4. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34).
5. "I thirst" (John 19:28). 
6. "It is finished" (John 19:30).
7. "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit" (Luke 23:46).

Now I will expand on each of them. 

Volumes have been written about how deeply profound, prophetic and rich each of these short and seemingly simple "Seven Words" are:

1. The first word, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," is Jesus interceding for His executioners and enemies even as they are in the act of killing Him, revealing the merciful heart of God and fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy that the Servant would “make intercession for the transgressors.”
2. The 2nd word "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise" is Jesus assuring a repentant criminal that, purely by faith, he will enter immediate, conscious fellowship with him after death in the blessed presence of God. 
3. The 3rd word "Woman, behold your son. Behold your mother" is Jesus creating a new family at the foot of the cross, tenderly providing for Mary through John and, symbolically, forming a community in which His followers care for one another as true family. 
4. The 4th word, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Points us all to Psalm 22 and thus declares the prophetic nature of this moment. 
5. The 5th word, echoes Psalm 69:21 as He receives sour wine, just before declaring “It is finished,” so this thirst marks the closing moments of the atoning work. Jesus is also pointing us to Exodus 6:6–7; the "fourth cup" which is tied to “I will take you for my people, and I will be your God.” It is commonly called the Cup of Praise, Cup of Hope, Cup of Acceptance, or Cup of the Kingdom, and is associated with the Passover and the reciting of the Hallel psalms (Psalms 115–118, sometimes 136).  In many seders, it is also linked symbolically with Elijah’s cup and the awaited final redemption. 
6. The 6th word "It is finished" is Jesus triumphantly declaring that His saving work is completely accomplished and the debt of sin is fully paid, so that nothing remains to be added. John records the single Greek word tetelestai, a perfect‑tense verb used in commerce for “paid in full,” signaling that the debt is settled and the task brought to completion with abiding results
7. Jesus' 7th and final word, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit," directly quotes Psalm 31:5 to express total trust and voluntary surrender to God. His final act of submission functionally parallels Genesis 22 by demonstrating total submission of a son to the Father. 

Why 7 instead of 6? Because 8 comes after 7!

REACTION VIDEO

Today it is very common for social media creators to do a "reaction video." The Gospels have their version. They show a Roman centurion who was in charge of the crucifixion. He is our witness. He moves from routine brutality and mockery to terror, awe, and eventually makes a stunning confession. 

At first, the soldiers treat Jesus like a criminally condemned man: they scourge Him, then drape a rough, mock‑royal robe over His shoulders so the fabric drags across the raw open wounds as and they press a crown of thorns into His head and they mock him. They gamble for His clothes in a hard‑hearted behavior for executioners used to blood and death. John explicitly adds, “This happened so that the Scripture might be fulfilled:

Psalm 22:18: “They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” 

But as the crucifixion unfolds—with Jesus’ unusual composure, His words of forgiveness, the darkness, the earthquake, and the way Jesus dies—the centurion and his men “became very frightened” and “terrified,” experiencing a level of fear they were not used to even as battle‑hardened soldiers. 

Theologians and writers who reflect on the reactions of the Roman soldiers emphasize that this is not a naïve bystander but a professional executioner who has seen many men die; his reaction is a shocked recognition that this death and this man are unlike any other.The centurion proclaims:

“Truly this was the Son of God!” Matthew 27:54; cf. Mark 15:39

Believe whatever you wish. But so far as the pain and suffering of Yeshua are concerned, every single detail, from the beating, the scourging, the crown of thorns, carrying the cross beam and falling on His face, the crucifixion and ultimately His death when Yeshua would have given up his spirit, are all recorded on the burial linen clothes left in the tomb Yeshua walked out of. Even his rising out of those clothes is recorded on the Shroud of Turin. 

If you would like to know more about the Shroud, click here: A Love Letter From Yeshua.

HE HAD ME AT "BLOOD"

Leviticus 17:11 ESV — For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.

Blood holds deep spiritual significance as a medium of sacrifice, atonement, and divine life. 

Blood is life-sustaining. Considering the amazing qualities of blood, it is not surprising that the blood has such a significant role in the bible. Blood is miraculous evidence of a Creator.  

The human body contains a vast network of blood vessels (arteries, veins, capillaries) whose total length is commonly quoted as about 60,000 miles (Approx. 3x the distance around the earth). Blood travels that distance in our body every day to nourish and cleanse trillions of cells without conscious effort. 

In about a minute—just dozens of heartbeats—your heart has pushed your entire blood supply all the way around your body and back again.  It acts as a continuous river of life—carrying oxygen, nutrients, and waste.

Blood's complexity is difficult for even today's science to fully replicate or understand, making it a natural wonder

Blood cells are indeed incredible. Scientists have been mystified for years by the human red blood cell membrane skeleton. Red blood cells (RBCs) carry oxygen using flexible, hemoglobin-packed structures, while white blood cells (WBCs) act as immune defenders, and platelets enable clotting. 

The body produces about 2 million red blood cells (RBC) every second to replace old ones, to as high as 17 million per second during high demand. There are tens of trillions of RBC in the full bloodstream. 

The average lifespan of a RBC is about 120 days in the circulation. During this time, it travels through the body roughly 120,000 times.  The normal limit on blood pressure is 120/80. 

Deuteronomy 34:7—Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated. 

Heaven knows the Moses life was one of constant pressure once he answered God’s calling. 

According to Exodus 7.7, Moses was 80 years old when he spoke to Pharaoh. The Hebrew letter Pey, which looks like a mouth, has a value of 80. (120-80=40). In the Bible, 40 years generally symbolizes a period of testing, trial, probation, or transition.

RBCs have a unique, flexible, mesh-like protein skeleton that allows them to bend and squeeze through capillaries narrower than their own diameter.  Each human red blood cell membrane skeleton is a network of roughly 33,000 protein hexagons (like a bee hive honeycomb) that looks like a microscopic geodesic dome.

2 Chronicles 35:7—Then Josiah contributed to the lay people, as Passover offerings for all who were present, lambs and young goats from the flock to the number of 30,000, and 3,000 bulls; these were from the king's possessions.

The mesh-like protein skeleton gives a healthy human red blood cell both its rubbery ability to stretch without breaking, and a potential mechanism to facilitate diffusion of oxygen across its membrane.

White blood cells can move like amoebas, actively searching for bacteria and pathogens, sometimes destroying invaders 100 times their size. White blood cells can even exit blood vessels to fight infections in tissues. These cells are essential, as they work constantly to keep the body safe from infections and ensure tissues receive oxygen. 

Your white blood cells in your bloodstream can actually travel through blood vessel walls and tissues to locate the site of an infection.

The documented methods that white blood cells use to destroy enemies in our body is incredible. They are like an army.  

There are five types of white blood cells:

1. Neutrophils: Help protect your body from infections by killing bacteria, fungi and foreign debris.
2. Lymphocytes: Consist of T cells, natural killer cells and B cells to protect against viral infections and produce proteins to help you fight infection (antibodies).
3. Eosinophils: Identify and destroy parasites, cancer cells and assists basophils with your allergic response.
4. Basophils: Produce an allergic response like coughing, sneezing or a runny nose.
5. Monocytes: Defend against infection by cleaning up damaged cells.

A healthy person produces nearly 100 billion white blood cells each day. To appreciate how small these warriors are, consider that there are between 4,000 and 11,000 white blood cells in a microliter. A micrometer is one-millionth of a liter. There are hundreds of billions of white blood cells in the overall blood stream.

Wait, There Is A Lot More:

White blood cells are a tiny fraction of total blood volume, about 1%. Together with Red blood cells (RBCs) they make up about 45% of our blood.  The largest portion of our blood is Plasma.

Plasma makes up about 55% of blood volume. It acts as a vital transport medium and protective fluid. Its "amazing" functions include carrying nutrients, hormones, and proteins throughout the body, maintaining blood pressure, balancing pH regulating temperature, and, most crucially, carrying antibodies to fight infections and clotting factors (like fibrinogen) that are essential for healing wounds and stopping bleeding.

God Wanted Us To Know

It is truly amazing what is in the blood, and God wanted us to know that! It is understandable that ancient people were fascinated by blood. Many pagan religious rituals practiced human sacrifice. The Hebrew sacrificial system was based on the blood of animals. How did the Hebrews know that animal and human blood where essentially alike, and sacraficing animals is far more humane? God showed us in Genesis 15. 

In The Covenant of the Pieces (Hebrew: Brit Bein HaBetarim), detailed in Genesis 15, God made an unconditional covenant (a promise) to Abraham: land (Canaan) and numerous descendants. It involved a unique ceremony where, while Abraham slept, a smoking oven and flaming torch—representing God—passed between divided bloody animal parts, signifying God alone guaranteed the promise.

The Covenant of the Pieces set the stage for Yeshua. Christianity was a radical change, but it still involves the blood. In Christian theology, the "pouring out" of Jesus's blood symbolizes a voluntary sacrifice, fulfilling Old Testament requirements where blood was necessary for the remission of sins. However unlike the pagan and Hebrew systems, Jesus laid down his life. His voluntary action was foreshadowed in Genesis 22 when Issac followed the will of his father. Jesus went to the cross at the will of his Father.

In the Gospels during the Last Supper, Jesus identifies wine as his blood "poured out for many." Jesus described his blood as the "blood of the covenant," signifying a new relationship between God and all of humanity.

Just as the blood of a Passover lamb was used to protect the Israelites, Jesus is viewed as the "Lamb of God" whose shed blood offers eternal forgiveness.

From a medical and physiological perspective, Jesus' death is tied the loss of his blood. Estimates suggest Jesus likely lost over 40% of his blood, putting him in severe hypovolemic shock before death. (In a trauma scenario, losing 40% or more of total blood volume is typically fatal.) Jesus's excessive blood loss was the result of a torturous scourging (whipping), the crown of thorns which pierced his head and the crucifixion wounds. 

Most crucified human beings on the cross die of exhaustion and afficiation from struggling to breath. Jesus' blood loss greatly compounded his condition. 

Here is a truly amazing aspect of Jesus's death. As he is suffering unimaginable pain and humiliation, while the blood in his body is literally pouring out, Jesus still manages to have the presence of mind to say "Seven Last Words." 

Yeshua's seven distinct, final phrases recorded in the four Gospels while he was on the cross, represented moments of suffering, forgiveness, and entrustment. These phrases are often used for meditation during Lent and Good Friday. 

The Seven Last Words of Jesus:

1. "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).
2. "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43).
3. "Woman, behold your son. Behold your mother" (John 19:26-27).
4. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34).
5. "I thirst" (John 19:28). 
6. "It is finished" (John 19:30).
7. "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit" (Luke 23:46).

Volumes have been written about how deeply profound, prophetic and rich each of these short and seemingly simple each of these "Seven Words" are.  The fact that Jesus mustered up the strength and breath, and had the presence of mind to speak these specific exact 7 messages in their specific order is incredible. He knew his life's purpose was fulfilled on the 7th message. Amazing. 

Jesus' 7th and final words in Luke 23:46, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit," directly quote Psalm 31:5 to express total trust and voluntary surrender to God. However, his final act of submission functionally parallels Genesis 22 by demonstrating total submission of a son to the Father. 

What is also amazing is that Jesus recorded the entire crucifixion with his blood on His own burial "Linen Clothes" and the "facecloth" that He left in the tomb for Mary, John and Peter, in that order, to find them and understand that He had risen.

In conclusion, now you can see why I titled this blog post, "He Had Me At Blood."

Sources:

White Blood Cells: Types, Function & Normal Ranges 

Scientists Discover Secret Behind Human Red Blood Cell's Amazing Flexibility 

White Blood Cells: Structure, Functions, and Importance 

What Is Plasma in Blood? 

Epilogue:

I wanted to write about the incredible umbilical cord which is formed by week 7 in the mother's womb. It is like a "rope" -- a crimson cord. The blog was just too long already.

Laws to Keep?

There is so much talk in among Christians about the Israelites not being able keep the law. We are criticized for disobedience and we are also criticized for enforcing the law.  Which is it? 

Christians say they are free from the law. But they also are not free to go on sinning by breaking God’s laws.  Which is it? 

There is so much talk in the Christian community about "the law." By the same token, I wonder if there shouldn't be more appreciation for the value of the laws in the Torah. There are a lot of very sound principles that make sense even 3500 years after they were passed down through Moses. 

Hopefully everyone is familiar with the 10 Commandment. Are there any debates about those?  

I'm sure most people would agree with how the Torah commands us to treats animals. There is a prohibition against unequally yoking animals in the Tenach (Old Testament) found in Deuteronomy 22 which states: "Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together". This law prevents placing animals of different sizes, strengths, or species under one yoke, which would cause pain and inefficiency.  There are other laws against cruelty or causing pain to animals. There's even law to feed them. 

There are civil and criminal mitzvot in the Torah which form a tightly connected system around property, harm, money, labor, and judicial process, aimed at preserving life, dignity, and social order. Some examples include:

• The law explicitly condemns encroaching on another’s boundary marker, reflecting the integrity of private space and the protection of family holdings.
• If a person harms another, he must make monetary restitution rather than face incarceration, covering direct damage, pain, medical expenses, loss of income, and humiliation. Damage to property—by an ox, pit, fire, or negligence—likewise requires compensation, with distinctions between foreseeable and unforeseeable harm and between full and half damages.
• Deuteronomy 23 has laws about taking a pledge (collateral) for the debtor’s basic tools or clothing, forbidding a creditor from seizing items essential to survival or dignity. 

Do you think those laws sound reasonable? 

Torah has laws about how to do business. It explicitly commands timely, fair payment of workers and prohibits oppression of hired laborers, especially the poor and resident alien. Verses such as “On that very day shall you pay him his wages” and “Do not allow the wages to rest overnight with you” are treated as both a positive command and a negative prohibition.

Torah's “personal” laws center on marriage, forbidden unions, sexual ethics, and family status, treating the household as a covenantal unit rather than just a private arrangement. Halakhah treats marital intimacy as a mitzvah and grounds it in a framework of consent, modesty, and mutual obligation. 

It Isn't Easy to be Righteous

Of the 613 Commandments, there are things Jews are supposed to do, like keeping the day of rest and honoring your parents. There are things we are not supposed to do, like commit adultery and stealing. The traditional rabbinic breakdown of the 613 mitzvot is that there are 248 “do’s” (positive commandments) and 365 “don’ts” (negative commandments).

It is true that there are a LOT of mitzvot, commandments, in the Torah. They do get complicated which is why they often require interpretation and clarity when applying them. Times change and much of what made sense in the wilderness or applied 2000 year ago, is "debatable" today.  That's were the priests, rabbis, judges and sages came into play, even still.  

There are also practical limits on observance. For example, many agricultural mitzvot, as well as some about inheritance and land return, are only fully in force when one is in Yisrael. All korbanot, ritual purity laws tied to the Mikdash, and many kohanic/Levitical duties are currently in abeyance. 

Kashrut dietary about what is "fit" or "proper" to eat gets a lot attention.  The thought of not eating pork is as unthinkable for many Christians as eating pork is for many Jews. The truth is, keeping Kosher is a big stumbling block  There are a lot of Jews enjoying "seafood towers" with shellfish on them. I am guilty as charged. About 17% of American Jews keep Kosher to some degree.

LET'S BE FAIR ABOUT "THE LAW."

Without shared laws and moral standards, human community collapses.  If the Israelites in the wilderness didn't have the law, I question whether Jews would have survived as a "nation." Plus, 2000 years ago when the Romans ruled ancient Israel, if the Jews didn't keep "the Law," we'd be called Romans or Greeks. 

I think it is fair to say that the Torah's Mitzvot are less onerous than the many thousands of local, state, Federal and IRS laws that an American must comply with.

The Torah consistently presents mitzvot as what stands between covenant order and social chaos—think of the contrast between the judges’ period (“everyone did what was right in his own eyes”) and the ideal of a people living by God’s statutes. 

Civil and ethical commandments about honesty, justice, and care for the vulnerable are not “extra”; they are the framework that prevents oppression and violent breakdown. Many rabbinic discussions of the rebellious child or the disrespectful son treat the case as a warning picture of what happens if boundaries, discipline, and moral teaching are abandoned.

Christians and Jews both stress the importance of the home and how we raise our children. Parents are commanded to be the primary transmitters of that law to their children. Deuteronomy 6 grounds this directly in parental responsibility: “You shall teach them diligently to your children… when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise.” Those words are on the doorposts of practically every Jew's home. It is not enough to just nail the Shema to our doorposts. 

The Talmud famously adds that parents must also teach a trade and even “teach them to swim,” capturing the idea that safeguarding a child’s future and survival is part of moral education. 

Christians are right though. It is rare indeed for anyone to be able to keep all the laws. Impossible even. Most people give up trying. All people fall short of perfection. This is true of Christians, Jews, gentiles etc.  Jews and Christians agree, we all need to make atonement.  We all need redemption.   

Good Jews and Christians have much more in common than we have different. That's why America is a Judeo-Christian nation. That's why Christians study the entire Tenach. Pastors stress the need to read the all the scriptures, not simply the "New Testament." Yeshua (Jesus) himself said he did not come to abolish the law. 

Chances are when a Christian refers to "sinning," it relates to an action that the Torah prohibits and rabbis would advise against. Although Jews certainly have commandments which do not apply to non-Jews, such as circumcision, removing unleavened bread from the home, and not mixing wool and linen fibers (sha'atnez found in Leviticus 19:19), I highly doubt Christians have the uniquely Jewish mitzvot in mind when they speak of sinning!   

As I see it, the deviation between Jews and Christians centers on forgiveness. The key is what happened at the cross. Yeshua was not crucified for the miracles he performed and for healing people.  

The crucifixion is not just a tragic death of a would‑be messiah; it is the fundamental question of whether it was a God‑ordained act that deals with sin and reconfigures how Jews and Gentiles relate to God. If Christ had not risen, then Christian preaching is empty and Christian faith is useless. Even the Jewish disciples didn't understand this before the ressurection. 

As I understand the Gospels, Yeshua came to deliver a message about forgiveness. He came to solve a problem that goes back to the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the Garden.  The death and ressurection is the "Good News" that we have of door to forgiveness and a way back to the immortality we lost when the first man, Adam, ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil. 

The message is much better delivered by a talented pastor or priest such as Johnny Zacchio. He delivered that message last Sunday at Calvary Church in Poughkeepsie. Here's a link. His sermon starts about 40 minutes into the video.

A LOOK AT - IYAR

Today is the 2nd day of the 2nd month, Iyar. Beginning of Temple Construction: In some traditions, it is noted that King Solomon began building the First Temple (Beit HaMikdash) in the month of Iyar, with 2 Iyar often associated with the initiation of this process.

Mandate Recognition (1920): The Supreme Council of the Peace Conference officially recognized the Balfour Declaration and proclaimed Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel) a mandated territory under British administration.

Belsen Liberation (1945): The British army liberated the Belsen concentration camp

The Ancient of Days created the heavens and established the earth. He is the creator of time.  He was the first to "count time." The sun is used to count the days and the moon is used to count the months. The laws of the Universe are true and they are mathematical. 

I decided to start a new blog series on the Months. 

God doesn't name the months in the Torah. The months are numbered, like the days are numbered. The Hebrew calendar months were adopted during the babylonian exile.  

Genesis 1:14-16 The Fourth Day—Sun, Moon, and Stars

14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the sky. These lights will separate the days from the nights. They will be used for signs to show when special meetings begin and to show the days and years. 15 They will be in the sky to shine light on the earth.” And it happened. 

16 So God made the two large lights. He made the larger light to rule during the day and the smaller light to rule during the night. He also made the stars.

Genesis 1:19 There was evening, and then there was morning. This was the fourth day.

The Hebrew calendar month of Iyar began at sundown on April 16, with Rosh Chodesh (the new month) observed on both April 17 and April 18. As the second month of the religious calendar, Iyar follows the month of Nisan and is historically known as a time of transitions and counting. 

Iyar (Hebrew: אִייָר) is the second month of the Hebrew religious calendar and the eighth of the civil year, usually falling in April–May. It is known as the "month of radiance" or "healing" (related to the acronym for Ani Adonai Rofecha—"I am G-d your Healer"). 

Iyar is called the "Month of Radiance" (Chodesh Ziv) because it is a spring month characterized by bright blossoms and increasing light. It is known as a month of "healing" because of the spiritual rectification (Tikkun) following Passover and the specific healing of the "bitter waters" at Marah, often seen as a time for both physical and spiritual restoration. I imagine many Christians can relate to these concepts. 

The Israelites departed Succoth in the first month of the Hebrew calendar, which is called Nisan (also known as Abib). The Shekinah Glory (pillar of cloud/fire) moved on from Mount Sinai on the 20th day of the 2nd month of the second year after the Exodus [Numbers 10:11].  (222) This marks a significant change in how the israelites will be relating to God. 

Key Hebrew associations:

Healing & Growth: Iyar is associated with physical and emotional healing, considered a spiritually opportune time to ask for healing.

Significant Days: Includes Pesach Sheni (14th), Lag BaOmer (18th), and modern Israeli holidays Yom HaZikaron (4th) and Yom HaAtzma'ut (5th).

Mystical Symbolism: In Chassidic thought, Iyar is associated with the constellation Taurus (the bull), symbolizing the taming and harnessing of the animal soul. 

BASHERT VERSUS ABORTION

Bashert at the Integra Dinner: Hearing Two Women, Hearing God

Tonight I attended the annual Integra Pregnancy Services fund raising dinner. Two women gave testimony about the struggles with deciding how to handle their unplanned pregnancy.  As I listened to them a Yiddish word from another world began to echo in my mind. The word was "bashert."

Bashert (pronounced buh-SHARET) is a Yiddish word. In Jewish vernacular it means: "destiny," "fate," "meant to be" or "given." It specifically refers to a divinely destined soulmate or a profoundly "meant to be" occurrence. It represents the idea that God orchestrates crucial life matches and circumstances, though it often requires personal effort to realize. 

“For sure” and the ache for certainty:

One woman told her story of discovering she was pregnant and facing the real possibility of abortion. She didn’t sanitize the struggle. She spoke about fear, pressure, and uncertainty. She ached to know “for sure” that her baby was meant to be. Both women yearned to believe the baby growing in them was not just an accident or a mistake. 

That little phrase, “for sure,” carried more than logic. It carried the ache for assurance: the desire to know that her pregnancy would somehow be inside God’s purposes and not outside of them.

As I listened, I realized: this is the emotional terrain where "bashert" usually lives. In colloquial Jewish speech, calling something bashert is basically saying, “This is from God,” that the invisible Hand was intimately involved in its coming about. The woman never used that word, but everything in her testimony was circling that same yearning: Is God in this moment, and in this decision, or am I alone with a random event and an impossible choice?

The sense that God is “in” the decision:

We often talk about God’s will as if it were only a plan written in heaven—some hidden blueprint we are supposed to discover. What struck me in this testimony was something different: a sense that God was not just over the situation, but in the moment itself.

She described a growing awareness that God was present in her wrestling, not just in the outcome. “Meant to be” for her did not sound like fatalism—as if she had no real choice—but something deeper: that her choice mattered precisely because God was there, listening, accompanying, and caring about both her and the child.  

That, to me, is the heart of bashert at its best: not a denial of human responsibility, but the awesome awareness that my life is taking shape inside a larger, loving Providence. It is the sense that God is not absent while I decide, but mysteriously present in the very act of deciding.

Sonograms and being known in the womb:

I’ve heard more than once that when a mother first sees her unborn child on a sonogram, something shifts. The abstract becomes particular. A “pregnancy” becomes a "child."  And with that recognition often comes a powerful sense: this child is meant to be.

That moment of seeing is more than biology. It’s an unveiling. It is as if the curtain lifts and the mother steps into a knowing that, biblically speaking, God has had all along. Reflection on Scripture regularly points to verses that describe God’s knowing and calling of a person even in the womb, emphasizing that the unborn are not anonymous to Him. One of the clearest examples is Jeremiah 1:5:

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,  and before you were born I consecrated you;  I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Here, God does the knowing first. Before anyone else sees the child, before any ultrasound, before any mother feels a kick, God says: "I knew you. I formed you. I set you apart." The verb “knew” implies a profound, intimate personal knowledge and intention, not bare awareness.

So when a mother looks at that grainy image on the screen and suddenly realizes, “This is my child; this one is meant to be,” she is, in a small and creaturely way, entering into God’s own prior knowing. Her recognition is catching up to God’s recognition. That is a kind of maternal bashert: the child as given, bestowed, not just statistically possible but personally intended.

Like God, who knows us in the womb:

This is where my observation from the Integra Dinner crystallized.

We, who are made in God’s image, are allowed to share in God’s way of seeing. God sees the hidden person in the womb; we see the fuzzy outline on the screen. God knows the full story from before the first cell divides; we only glimpse the smallest beginning. Yet in that moment, our seeing aligns with His. We begin to know the child as God has always known the child—personally, not abstractly.

So the sonogram becomes a sacrament of sorts. It acts as a visible sign of an inward, divine grace and spiritual reality. It does not create the child’s worth, but it awakens our awareness of it. Seeing one's baby growing in the womb lets us feel that bashert‑ness in our bones.

The primary Hebrew word for womb is rechum (רֶחֶם). The root is racham, which relates to compassion, mercy, and tender love, highlighting the womb as a place of protection. The womb also has the compassion to know when the fetus is not viable. Who are we to decide? Wow!

Holding together destiny and responsibility:

Of course, language like “meant to be” can be dangerous if it slips into fatalism. It can be used to excuse our choices rather than to dignify them. Bashert, at its worst, can sound like: “I had no choice; it was destined.” Some Jewish thinkers and teachers explicitly warn against using bashert that way, insisting that divine providence must not erase human freedom and moral responsibility.

The woman’s testimony at the Integra Dinner refused that shortcut. She did not pretend the decision was automatic. She agonized. She weighed. She feared. And then she chose life. Her sense that the baby was “meant to be” did not obliterate her responsibility; it intensified it. If this child is truly given by God, then my response to that gift is morally and spiritually significant.

That, I think, is where a more mature understanding of bashert belongs: not in cancelling human agency, but in framing it. I am not a puppet. But I am not abandoned, either. My choices are real, and they unfold before a God who knows me, knows this child, and holds both of us in a providence deeper than my understanding.

A word to women and men in this place:

If you find yourself where those Integra testimonies began—staring at a positive test, or a sonogram, or a complicated relationship—and you are asking whether this is “for sure,” whether this is “meant to be,” I want to speak gently to both women and men.

First, you are not crazy for wanting more than biology or statistics. The desire to know whether this child is “meant to be” is really a desire to know whether you are still held in the hands of a God who knows you, who has not lost track of you, who is not indifferent to what you choose. 

For women, that may mean hearing that you are not just a “situation” to be managed. You are a person known by God, carrying a person known by God. Your fears, limits, and questions matter to Him as much as the tiny unseen one within you. The God who forms children in the womb also promises to be near to the brokenhearted and to supply wisdom when we lack it.

For men, it means you are not a spectator or a ghost in the story. You, too, are called to look at this life—at mother and child together—with something of God’s own way of seeing. You are invited away from disappearance, blame, or passivity and into a costly, faithful presence that says, “If this child is given, then I will stand here as one given as well—given to protect, provide, and love.”

I won’t tell you, in a neat slogan, “Everything happens for a reason,” because in the middle of crisis, those words can feel cheap. What I will say is this: you are not standing in a godless void. The God who knew Jeremiah in the womb, who knits together every unseen life, is also present—right here, right now—as you wrestle. Your decision is real. And you do not make it alone.

I encourage you to support a woman who is scared and unsure by supporting Integra Pregnancy Services. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE TRUTH

“They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’  when there is no peace.”   — Jeremiah 6:14  

A Truth Social Tweet of an AI Image Caused a Firestorm of Judgment. Righfully so! 

My observations can be summed up with this statement: The Pope is at war with the wrong enemy. Vatican moralism is shielding Islamist violence and undermining the West.

The Image That Forced the Issue

When President Donald Trump posted a single AI‑generated image on Truth Social, he acted with a clear instinct: this picture would say more about the current pope than any policy paper or polite homily ever could. He understood that an image, shared to millions in an instant, could cut through the fog of deference surrounding the papacy and expose contradictions insiders tiptoe around.  

Far from being a careless stunt, Trump’s post was a calculated act of truth‑telling in the language of our age: one shocking image to say out loud what bishops, diplomats, and Catholic intellectuals have been whispering for years.

Precision Against the West, Vagueness About Islamism

The firestorm that followed was officially about “respect for the papacy” and “fake images.” In reality, it was about something far more serious. Trump’s meme forced into the open what many already knew but feared to say: this pope speaks with striking precision against Western leaders who resist Islamist aggression, while retreating into vague generalities about the Islamist regimes and movements that drive it.  

When pressed about Iran, Hezbollah, or Hamas, he issues sweeping condemnations of “war,” “escalation,” and “idolatry of money and power”—but rarely a sustained, concrete naming of the ayatollahs’ regime, the IRGC’s terror apparatus, and the decades‑long strategy of surrounding Israel with rockets and proxies.  

Yet when he turns to the United States and Israel, his language suddenly sharpens. The Iran war is “unjust” and “atrocious.” Western leaders are scolded in direct terms. Any resort to force is framed as morally illegitimate, no matter how many missiles and terror campaigns Tehran and its clients unleash.  

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that, in his rhetoric, the problem is not the long, calculated march of Islamist violence, but the fact that anyone dares to resist it with something more than words.

Migration Without Reckoning

On migration, the imbalance is just as stark.  

The pope has become a tireless champion of large‑scale migration into the West, especially from crisis regions shaped by Islamist ideology. He speaks almost exclusively of migrants’ rights, dignity, and “global solidarity,” insisting that they are “not a danger, but in danger,” and condemning “mass and indiscriminate deportations” as incompatible with Christian faith.  

He urges expanded legal pathways, castigates “nativism,” and portrays border enforcement as a symptom of fear and selfishness. Yet he says virtually nothing about the social, cultural, and security fractures unleashed by these flows: overwhelmed systems, enclaves of radicalism, imported hatreds against Jews, and increased vulnerability to terrorism and crime.  

Speaking from within a walled city, which guards it's security along with it's secrets, the pope is explicit and detailed when condemning Trump‑style border walls, travel bans, and deportation policies as “inhuman” and “built on force.” He is almost silent about the Islamist barbarities that drive people from their homes in the first place—jihadist campaigns in Nigeria, Iraq, Syria, Gaza, and beyond that deliberately target Christians and Jews.  

In practice, he urges Europe and America to absorb the human fallout of regimes and movements he will not clearly name, let alone decisively oppose. He promotes policies that entrench the consequences of Islamist violence while condemning those who seek to confront its causes.

The Historical Echo

The pattern grows darker when set against history.  

During the Holocaust years, the Vatican spoke movingly about “war,” “persecution,” and “racial hatred,” yet largely refrained from a sustained public assault on Hitler and Nazism even as Jewish communities were rounded up and extermination camps devoured the innocent.  

Archives now show that Pius XII had detailed information about the ongoing slaughter. He chose to address it in generalities, fearing a more direct confrontation would trigger even bloodier reprisals.  

Today’s papacy risks the same moral failure under a different banner. Once again Rome laments “atrocious war” and “suffering peoples” in high moral language, but hesitates to identify and denounce by name the Islamist regimes and ideologies that have systematized terror against Christians and Jews.  

Once again the Church finds its voice most fully when condemning the collateral damage of evil and loses its nerve when called to expose the engine that creates that damage. The circumstances differ, but the structure of the failure is chillingly familiar.

Walls, Wealth, and Credibility

The credibility problem is magnified by a pattern of hypocrisy that ordinary people see instantly.  

This pope thunders against border walls, warning that those who build them will become “prisoners of the walls they construct,” while residing in a walled city guarded by armed men, with strict controls on who may enter. He scolds nations for wanting secure frontiers even as the Vatican enforces secure perimeters and enjoys well‑armed security services.  

He denounces corporate greed, the “economy that kills,” and the hoarding of wealth, while his cardinals process through gilded basilicas, under gold‑lined ceilings, past altars and art worth more than many nations’ annual health budgets. Defenders counter that Vatican walls are historical, its treasures are non‑liquid patrimony, and the Church is also one of the world’s largest charitable providers.  

All true—and yet the optics remain brutal: “bridges, not walls” preached from behind stone ramparts; prophetic poverty proclaimed from within opulence. It looks like a hierarchy far more eager to condemn other people’s defenses and wealth than to examine its own.

The Silence About Christian Suffering

Meanwhile, Islamist horrors against Christians and Jews continue with little papal scrutiny at the level of causes.  

The pope is quick to condemn “genocide,” “collective punishment,” or “occupation” when speaking of Israeli or Western actions. He is far quieter about the decades of indoctrination, clerical incitement, and state‑sponsored terror that have formed populations to hate Christians and Jews and to glorify martyrdom through murder.  

Persecuted Christians in places like Nigeria, Pakistan, and the Middle East are acknowledged as generic “victims of extremism.” But Islamic doctrine, Islamist preaching, and Iranian funding are rarely named as the deliberate machinery behind their suffering.  

The result is a moral inversion: the West is lectured in concrete terms about its sins, while Islamist regimes are addressed in abstractions about “dialogue” and “misused religion.” Once again, the danger is that history will record a Church that spoke often and movingly about victims, but refused to clearly identify the persecutors.

The Meme That Broke the Silence

Into this confusion strides President Trump, who—with a single AI‑generated image and the tweet that launched it—deliberately forced into the open a debate almost everyone else has been too timid to touch.  

He was not stumbling into controversy; he was aiming straight at the Vatican’s double standard, knowing the image would highlight, in one glance, what pages of argument have failed to make stick.  

By mocking the pope’s posture in a way that could not be ignored, he drew a bright red circle around Rome’s softness toward Islamist regimes and its ferocity toward those who resist them, and around its habit of preaching “no walls” and “no wealth” from behind walls and in the midst of wealth.  

That it took a brash American president and a provocative meme to expose these contradictions says less about Trump than about the culture of deference surrounding the papacy. Bishops, diplomats, and Catholic intellectuals have known these tensions for years, but lacked the courage to say so plainly. Trump saw the truth, trusted that an image could reveal it, and pulled the trigger—putting the pope’s failures at the center of the conversation where, for the sake of both the Church and the world, they can finally be judged.

The Burden of the Office

The papacy is not just an office; it is a unique claim to moral authority in a world drowning in lies and cowardice. That authority does not cling automatically to the man who wears the white cassock. It must be earned, and it can be squandered.  

When a pope refuses to name evil plainly, when he softens his words toward regimes that traffic in terror while lashing out at those who resist them, when he preaches open borders from behind walls and rails against greed from within splendor, he discredits not only himself but the moral weight of the role he holds.  

In the language of Jeremiah, he risks “healing the wound of the people lightly, saying ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace”—offering a false peace to the aggressor and a false guilt to those who resist.  

The world has a right to expect the successor of Peter to speak the truth without fear or favor. When he will not, others—however unlikely, and however blunt their methods—step in to say aloud what he was entrusted, and failed, to say.

The pope issuued a bold statement that "he does not fear president Trump. That may be so, because what he really fears is the truth!