Shabbat Shalom

Candace Long: I'm Candace Long, host and producer of Shabbat Shalom. Welcome to our final hour. Before Rabbi Michael Washer comes to teach us the multilayered lessons found in the Tabernacle, I want to make a few comments about Exodus 25:8, which reads, "Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst." It was called the Mishkan, which means Tabernacle, and was constructed from whatever the people contributed willingly.

When God wants to show up someplace, He looks at who is willing to sacrifice part of themselves so others can meet with Him there. The Torah contains very specific protocols and guidelines in how to prepare a place that you want to consecrate as worthy of God's presence. As many of you know, Dr. Elizabeth Hairston, known as God's Ambassador for Worship Arts, mentored me for many years, and I learned a lot watching how diligently she and her team prepared for the women's conferences.

They were typically held in hotel ballrooms, and she treated those rooms as a sanctuary space to meet with God. From her, I learned the Levitical protocols to be done before each conference began. The days started at 6:00 in the morning with at least an hour of intercession in that ballroom, and I always looked forward to this Levitical preparation because, let's face it, Black women know how to pray.

The room was filled with women deep in prayer, some of them singing, some on the floor prostrate before the Lord, others walking up and down the rows of chairs, anointing each one and praying for whoever was going to sit there. Some were engaged in warfare, casting out the unclean spirits they encountered that needed to leave. The more we pressed in and prayed, the more we could sense the atmosphere change in the room. This is the service of worship of today's Levites, and I miss those times.

Today's danger is found in online sanctuaries, where listeners flit in and out from one web address to another without making any personal sacrifice to the teachers they are learning from. I don't mean to put a guilt trip on anyone, but to instruct. This practice violates the Torah in many ways and deeply grieves the Lord. You may not know this, but those called as Levites do not have a share in the kingdom. Their inheritance is the Lord.

Because of their sacrifice, the Lord set up the protocol whereby those who benefit from that Levite's service should give part of what they have to that Levite. He then promises to bless the Levite, bless the giver, and both of their sacrifices are recorded in the heavenly books. One practice that I have developed over the years to help me honor this principle is setting up a separate tithe checking account.

Everything that comes into me as income, I take my tithe portion from it and transfer it to that tithe account. Even when I had lost everything and had pennies to my name, I still tithed whatever I had, and God has always been faithful. The tithe account is 100 percent the Lord's money, and it is from this account that I contribute to each minister who feeds me spiritually and any other needs that the Lord impresses me to give. I never spend time listening to an online teaching without contributing something. This is godly protocol, Torah-approved, and God is pleased.

As we begin this hour of instruction, allow me to recite one of the prayers we say before studying the Torah: Baruch atah Adonai, hamlamed Torah l'amo Yisrael. Venatan lanu Torato bivsar Yeshua HaMashiach, l'amo Yisrael. Blessed are You, Lord, teacher of Torah to His people Israel, and who gave the Torah in flesh, Yeshua the Messiah, to His people Israel. Join me in welcoming Rabbi Michael Washer.

Rabbi Michael Washer: Shabbat Shalom, chaverim, friends. This is Rabbi Michael Washer. I'm going to begin my talk this Shabbat with a story. Many years ago, a woman came to services at the congregation my wife Eileen and I attend. She was wearing a funky-looking shawl. It had pretty ribbons of dark blue across its length and hanging from it. I could tell from her body language that she wanted me and my wife Eileen to ask her about it.

I asked, "What's that thing?" She told me that the Lord had spoken to her to make a "prayer shawl" and wear it when she prayed. I told her, "Well, that's cool you wanted to make one, but all the details of what you've made are not right. That's not what a prayer shawl or tallit looks like." "But God spoke to me to make it," she answered a little defensively. "No doubt, but He probably wanted you to study it to find out what He wanted you to see and understand. He didn't explain it to you and describe every detail to you, did He?" "No, He didn't." "Did you ask Him for more details?" "No, I didn't," she said.

Now we were getting somewhere, and I began to explain as much of the details as I could about what a prayer shawl, as she called it, was. Why we wear them, what the fringes or tzitzit look like, how to tie the fringes and the symbolism behind the knots and the windings on the fringes, and why they hang from the four corners of the garment. What the blue should look like, where the blue comes from, and some other things I just can't remember. The reason she had ribbons on the garment is because she had obviously read or heard the passage about the tzitzit from the King James Version, which uses the ridiculous word ribbons at the end of Numbers 15.

This sort of thing has been going on all around me since 1979. Hebrew Roots, Messianic Judaism, Hebrew Christianity, Torah-observant Christians—every move toward anything Jewish has always proceeded just fine until it comes up against what they call Rabbinic Judaism. But here's the problem with that: all the details of the tzitzit reside with them. In fact, all the details of everything we read about in the Torah reside with the sages and the rabbis, and they explained everything.

Instead of reading the amazing revelations that the rabbis got from colors and materials and animals and plants and gems and food and wax and fire and water, believers for the most part avoid this beautiful body of writings, calling it Rabbinic Judaism and legalism, both of which are made-up phony terms. Well, this week we come to some 20 Torah portions in a row that are all centered on the Tabernacle.

Its materials, its construction, its use and function, and the function of the priests and the people of Israel within it. And all of it—every detail of it mentioned and unmentioned in Torah—is the shadow cast by Yeshua. And that shadow has a mouth that speaks loud enough for us as humans to hear. Now, the central theme of the Tabernacle is by far the biggest block of information found in the Torah. Understanding everything else in the Bible is founded on our ability to understand the four basic subjects of the Tabernacle.

What are those? Number one: the Tabernacle's four layers of tents and the curtains forming the courtyard around it. Number two: the four vessels or furniture inside the Mishkan and one outside of the Mishkan—the Ark of the Covenant, the Menorah, the Table of Bread, and the Altar of Incense—and then outside in the court, the Bronze Altar. Number three: the High Priest's garments and garments of the regular priests. Number four: the five kinds of offerings—bread and wine, burnt offering, sin offering, guilt offering, and the peace offering.

There are multiplied thousands of details involved in every one of these things, and many believers skip over them because they cannot picture them in their minds and because the information is all physical; it doesn't sound spiritual. For those who want to at least try to understand them, those multiplied thousands of details do not appear in the Torah. Only the main item does, and perhaps a related item or two. For instance, the Menorah. It also mentions the snuffers and dishes and oil vessels, but no details about those either.

The real information and the details about them are found only in the Mishnah and the Talmud, the words of the sages and rabbis, and as I said, they describe everything. If we cannot picture what things were like, as I will show you in a bit, we cannot possibly understand the spiritual world, nor can we understand Yeshua. Why? Because these things—all of these things and all of their details—are, as I will show you, a shadow cast by Yeshua.

For instance, the bread offering is part of the shadow cast by Yeshua. Do you know what the bread in a bread offering looks like? Is it like a big round sourdough loaf? Is it like a French baguette? Is it like a bagel or like a braided challah, or just a pile of grain or flour? Or how about the horns on the altar that appear later in the Torah? What shape are they? Do they look like a bullhorn, a shofar, a circle, a cube? How big are they?

This detail also forms part of the shadow cast by Messiah Yeshua, and if the physical is wrong in our minds, the shadow is bent, it's crooked, it's too tall, too short, too wide, too fat, too skinny, etc. What does that mean? That means we don't see Yeshua's shadow properly; we see some other shadow. Now, assuming you even care enough to search for what the Tabernacle and its vessels look like, you may think that nowadays all you have to do is search on the internet and you'll get a good mental picture of what it was like.

Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Though there is better information available than before the internet, it is only because Judaism has spread more efficiently and gained a wider audience because of the internet. But still, easily 85 percent of what you find on the internet is just plain wrong. It does not comport with the words and descriptions of the sages.

So, coming up with the wrong picture or model or even mental picture of one of the elements of the Tabernacle redefines the shadow of Yeshua. This is also true of any part of Judaism as God showed it to Moses. This is why I corrected our friend about her prayer shawl. She did not go to the Jewish people to discover for herself what the real thing looks like so that she could examine it, listen to that part of the shadow cast by Yeshua speak to her personally. A shadow that speaks? Yes, this shadow, Judaism, has a mouth.

The wrong spiritual thing is communicated by the wrong physical thing, and that is the entire foundation of this Torah portion, Terumah. It begins to show us the physical Jewish world, the Tabernacle, and its furniture. Exodus 25: "Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, 'Tell the sons of Israel to take for me a terumah, a lifted-up offering. From everyone whose heart moves him, you shall take my terumah. This is the terumah which you are to take from them: gold, silver, bronze, sky blue, purple, and scarlet.'" Some translations have beaver, sealskin, dugong, fine leather, acacia wood, oil for lighting, oil for the anointing and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones, and setting stones for the ephod and for the breastpiece.

And then in verses 8 through 9, God tells us two incredibly important things. Number one: what His intent is in gathering the terumah, and then number two: His ultimate rationale for having Israel create the Mishkan from that terumah. Here's the first part, verse 8. It says, "And make for me a sanctuary, so that I may dwell among them." Well, in Hebrew it says, V'asu li mikdash v'shachanti b'tocham. B'tocham literally means within them or inside them, not just around where they are or in their midst.

This phrase is repeated four more times beginning then in the first year after leaving Egypt and then repeated throughout the Tanakh all the way up to the Messianic kingdom prophesied in the last chapters of Ezekiel. Exodus 29:44 through 45: "I will dwell in the sons of Israel and will be their God." V'shachanti b'toch b'nei Yisrael. Leviticus 26:11 through 12: "And I will give my dwelling in them." Natati mishkani b'tochechem. "I will also walk in you and be your God, and you will be my people." 1 Kings 6:12 through 13: "If you keep all my mitzvot, then I will carry out my word. I will dwell in the sons of Israel and will not forsake." V'shachanti b'toch b'nei Yisrael.

Ezekiel 43:7: "Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, that is where I will dwell in the sons of Israel forever." Asher eshkan sham b'toch b'nei Yisrael. This promise that God would dwell inside the Jewish people was continuous throughout all of Jewish biblical history, and it is also a promise that God would dwell inside the Jewish people forever.

I'm sure no one has ever told you this. It goes against everything that normative Christianity teaches about the "New Israel," the "spiritual Jew," the "church," as those who have God dwelling inside of them. But as I have consistently shown, this belief system is the invention of Hellenism and Roman Christianity. So it does bear thinking about: God dwelt inside the Jewish people, continued to live inside Israel, and promised to dwell inside the Jews forever.

And how did this promise begin? "Make for me a sanctuary." And now the second part of Exodus 25:8 through 9, verse 9. It says, "According to all that I'm going to show you as the pattern, tavnit, of the Tabernacle and the tavnit of all its furniture, just so shall you make it." This concept changed my life. In fact, it's the very foundation of my life and has been my focus since 1984.

It is the first verse I saw that showed me that Judaism—in this case the Tabernacle, all of its vessels, the priests, the sacrifices—they're all pictures or blueprints or molds or patterns. They're not just things in and of themselves. They are pictures of something else, just as a shadow is not the thing in and of itself. It is a simplified version of something else, the thing casting the shadow. I call this truth, this understanding, this way to view Judaism, tavniot, which means pictures and is the plural of the word found in Exodus 25:9 and other verses usually translated pattern.

Just like the last two weeks, again this week I will mention a book I have written about this. It's the very first book I wrote. It is called *Pictures: Judaism as Metaphors of All Heavenly Things*, and it's available on Amazon and it's also available on my website, michaelwasherart.wixsite.com/michaelwasherart on the page called "My Writings." Tavnit is singular, tavniot is plural, and Moses was not commanded any of it. Rather, he was shown all of the pictures by God, as it says, in the mountain.

He saw the materials, the production, the way to make each thing, what it would look like and smell like and feel like when completed. He was given the pattern or template so that anything compared to it would instantly be judged to be right or wrong, that is, a right picture or a wrong picture. This is what makes Judaism different. It is the original template against which to test every other thing.

This passage in Exodus 25 is not the only one that shows us that the Mishkan and everything created for it was a picture shown to Moses. God showed Moses the Menorah. Exodus 25:31 and verse 40: "The Menorah, or lampstand, shall be made from a talent of pure gold with all its utensils. See that you make them after the pattern or tavnit for them, which was shown to you in the mountain."

In the next chapter, in Exodus 26:30, God calls the picture a mishpat or judgment. Why? Because as I've said, the Mishkan is the pattern or judgment, the rule or template of all physical Jewish things. "You shall erect the Tabernacle according to its judgment, which you have been shown in the mountain." Then in the book of Numbers 8:4, God repeats what He said about the Menorah, only this time He calls it a vision. "The work of the Menorah, hammered-out gold, according to the vision that the Lord showed Moses, so he made the Menorah."

And there are several other verses that use the word tavnit or a synonym. But why? Yes, it's so that Israel would have the Mishkan with their entire culture swirling around it. And yes, it was so that doing the mitzvot in and around the Mishkan, God could dwell inside of the Jewish people as they experience this newly created culture of Judaism. All of this is amazing, but it is also to build the shadow cast by Messiah, so we could look at it and understand Him.

And strange but true, this shadow, unlike the shadow of other living things, has a mouth. Colossians 2:16 through 17 tells us about how the entire culture of Judaism forms this talking shadow. Unfortunately, the translators have changed the words in this beautiful passage, flipping it on its head and weaponizing it to be used against the Jewish people and against the culture that God created and gave to us.

This passage is fully developed and explained in the *Pictures* book, so I will just quote the relevant part of the passage. Shaul, or Paul, makes clear in verse 13 that his audience are Gentile believers. "When you were dead in your wrongdoings and the uncircumcision of your flesh, having canceled the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us, and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."

This is referring to the curse of the law or the dat in Hebrew, not the Torah. And then it says this amazing statement: "Therefore, Gentiles, don't allow anyone to act as your judge in regard to food and drink," that's the kosher laws, "or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day, things which are a shadow of what is to come, but the body belongs to Messiah."

Shaul wrote to Gentiles and told them not to allow anyone to judge them in regard to the new moon. Well, if those Gentiles were like the most Christians in our day, they didn't even know what the new moon was, so how could they be judged in respect to it? Well, they were not like the Hellenized Christians of the last 1,800 years. They knew and did Judaism.

Remember, Acts 15 tells us that the Gentile believers went to synagogue every Shabbat to learn the Torah. And Ephesians 2 tells us that Yeshua provided entry for the Gentiles into the Jewish world where they would come to know God. Shaul's audience knew what the new moon is. It is a festival at the beginning of every single month, by the way, because they did the new moon. If they didn't, the letter would have made absolutely no sense to them. They did the kosher laws, food and drink. They did the festivals, and they did the Shabbat.

It is unfortunate that the word "mere" or "only" was added in many translations to the verse, making it read as: "things which are a mere or only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ." As if Judaism is a thin colorless shadow in comparison to the beautiful reality of Christ. This word was added with the intention of denigrating Judaism. These things listed being the basics of Judaism.

It's not a mere shadow; it is the shadow. And in describing the shadow made out of Judaism as being cast by Yeshua, it twists it yet again. It has been translated: "the substance is of Christ." Well, the word translated as substance is body. Now, my understanding of Greek is awful, but even I was able to look this up in a concordance. It is body, and that makes perfect sense, but it only makes perfect sense if it's a body casting the shadow.

Otherwise the sentence makes no sense. And that's the truth. Messiah casts a shadow. His shadow tells us everything about Him and what He's doing at any given time. And if we follow the shadow, we will see Yeshua. And the shadow cast by Him is not Christianity; it is Judaism. The culture or lifestyle of the Jews: the kosher laws, the Shabbat, the new moon, the festivals, are the basics of Judaism.

And this is all there is on Earth that shows us Yeshua, because this is all there is that make up His shadow. I know it sounds backwards to most people, but the only way to truly understand Yeshua is to do and listen to Judaism, the mitzvot, the acts of the Torah. Viewing any details of Judaism as a picture elevates that detail to being a communicator. That detail then speaks to us, and this amazing aspect of the Mishkan is seen throughout the Torah by calling it Mishkan HaEdut, meaning Tabernacle of Witness or Tabernacle of Testimony.

Well, what's a witness or a testimony? It's a visual or verbal record of what it has seen or heard. The Mishkan speaks to us about another world, the spiritual world. The Mishkan is a big part of the shadow cast by Yeshua, and it has a mouth. Consider these verses. Exodus 38:21: "This is the number of the things for the Tabernacle, the Tabernacle of the Testimony," Mishkan HaEdut.

Numbers 1:50 and 53: "And you shall appoint the Levites over the Tabernacle of the Testimony and over all its furnishings and over everything that belongs to it. But the Levites shall camp around the Mishkan HaEdut, Tabernacle of Testimony." Numbers 9:15: "Now, on the day that the Tabernacle was erected, the cloud covered the Mishkan, the Mishkan HaEdut."

Numbers 10:11: "Now in the second year, in the second month, on the 20th of the month, the cloud was lifted from above the Mishkan HaEdut, Tabernacle of Testimony." And then in the book of Acts, this same title is used. In Acts 7:44: "Our fathers had the Mishkan HaEdut in the wilderness, just as He who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern or the tavnit which he had seen."

Why was Moses directed to make everything according to what he was shown? So it would speak properly. And the community of Israel that lived with it would receive revelation, that is, spiritual information from the physical things that they experienced as they did Judaism. The shadow would speak. The same is true to this very day. Even though there is no Temple, every detail of Judaism was designed by God and gifted to the Jewish people as a set of witnesses, things giving testimony of the spiritual world, of heaven and Messiah and God.

It is all a shadow cast by Yeshua. Get rid of His shadow, and there is literally nothing in this world to teach us about Yeshua. Can you see why this concept changed my life? Can you see why it is so important to understand? As I said last week, when we do the mitzvot, and yes, I mean do Judaism, all of the Jewish acts that we can do, those acts will speak to us. We will learn about spiritual things by doing the Jewish acts.

And remember, they're pictures. They are not, nor were they ever, commandments. There is nothing to obey. And when we made our covenant with God, our words to establish that covenant were Na'aseh v'nishma: we will do, and then we will listen. Listen to the acts themselves. The physical acts of Judaism speak God's voice to us, but only if we listen to those witnesses give their testimony about the spiritual world.

I've invested more than 40 years in seeing Judaism as tavniot, pictures, and it's as fresh and vivid and alive and exciting today as when I first began. In fact, more so because it always feels a step or two ahead of me, impelling me to get up and move and do and study the Torah and the words of the sages. And every day is a new revelation as I hear the shadow, Judaism, speak to me about the spiritual world, and it never misses. It's always right on point. If you let the shadow use its mouth as a witness giving testimony, teaching and preaching to your heart, I can guarantee that you will hear God's voice. Now, hopefully you can see why I end every teaching asking you to join me, Rabbi Michael Washer, again next week to learn more pictures of Messiah. Next, Shabbat Shalom.

Candace Long: You can hear Rabbi Michael teach more pictures to prepare us for the kingdom every Saturday morning from 8:00 to 8:30. And don't forget, if you have questions for him, please go to our main page and click on the button that says "Email the show." We will be answering your questions on his new segment, "Ask the Rabbi," that begins our second hour. I'm Candace Long, your host for Shabbat Shalom. I'm ending today's program with part two of my Jewish roots series called "The Most Misunderstood Word in the Bible." This episode really hits at the core of those things that Gentiles misunderstand most about Judaism. We're going to go deep, so if you want to connect to your Jewish roots, this is for you. Here are seven things you're going to learn:

Number one: what this misunderstood word is and how the mistranslation has disconnected Gentile believers from the Lord's divine curriculum. Number two: the two schools of thought in Judaism. Number three: why Jesus taught in parables. Number four: the relationship between Jesus and Moses. Number five: the first and greatest commandment and why. Number six: what believers do that would make them be considered least in the kingdom. And number seven: how to recognize tavniot, which are the Torah's pictures, and dig out their deep spiritual lessons. Be instructed.

I'm Candace Long with *Lessons in the Latter Days*, offering biblical commentary to make sense of the times that we're living in. In the last episode, we began a topical series called "Jewish Roots," dealing with concepts, terminologies, and lessons that we must learn from our Jewish forefathers to prepare us for the kingdom. Today's topic is the most misunderstood word in the Bible. The word I'll be talking about today is the word commandments.

I will show you in this episode that this misunderstanding, an actual mistranslation from the original Hebrew word, has kept us as Gentile believers from the true place that God always meant for us to have. And if we don't correct it, it can affect our standing in the kingdom, to which I believe we're headed very soon. Before I begin, I want to make three disclaimers.

Number one: this episode may challenge your traditional belief system. That's okay; God is sifting all of us right now and putting everything under a divine microscope. What do we hold on to, and what has slipped in that we need to let go of? Number two: it's okay to disagree with me. I am teaching what I've been learning over many years. The Lord took me away from a traditional church setting years ago when I was convicted to begin to honor the Sabbath.

So what I am teaching is what I have learned during years of spending time alone with Him. Number three: disclaimer for those things that may be difficult for you, I simply ask that you listen and bring them before the Lord. He is your teacher, your counselor, who promised to lead you into all truth. In the second episode, "How Close Are We to the Kingdom?", we touched on one of Judaism's most important concepts.

It's the word tavniot, which is unfamiliar to most Christians. Tavniot is a plural noun meaning pictures, but it's a much stronger word than a type or shadow of something. The Bible is actually filled with tavniot, which communicate in magnificent layers of truth earthly pictures about God and His kingdom. I want to take you back to the basics, and let's look first at the two schools of thought in Judaism.

Number one: the first school of thought is Halacha. It comes from the Hebrew word that means to walk. The Halachic perspective is the how-to, the what of Judaism. It tells us what to do, what not to do, when and when not. It is the tradition, the letter of the law, the unbreakable commands, and it is not concerned with meaning or motive.

The second school of thought is Agada, meaning to tell a story. It is the meaning of the things done in Judaism, the why. It is the parable or picture contained in the act. Whereas Halacha is the head, Agada is the heart of Judaism. Now, when Jesus taught, He used parables, stories that illustrate multiple layers of meaning. This is right-brain thinking. We have stories with plots and characters and motives.

You see, Jesus was restoring the importance of Agada, because in His day, the Jewish leaders were primarily concerned with Halacha. It's very much like today with so much emphasis on the facts and the data and the science and bottom line. These are what today's leaders value, just like back then. But one of Jesus' missions on Earth was to communicate the heart of the Father to those consumed by legalism and religion and an overvaluation of left-brain thinking.

Let me ask you a question. What one word would you use to describe what God wants most from His children? One word. What would it be? If you said obedience, you would be 100 percent wrong. But this is the answer that most Jews and Christians would give, because most see Judaism as a bunch of rules and God demands strict obedience to them according to the letter of the law.

I want to show you that that picture, that tavnit, is not our God. That's what's called the curse of the law. God has a whole other agenda when He designed His curriculum called Judaism. He designed it as a set of pictures or tavniot for His people to act out and do over and over every year so that through the doing of them, we learn deep truths about God and about His kingdom and letting these tavniot speak to us or teach us.

This is a whole different concept of learning, and it's life-changing. When the scribes and the Pharisees were questioning Jesus to trip him up, they asked him in Mark 12, "Which commandment is the first of all? The most important commandment." Now, a commandment is something to be obeyed; it's something to do, right? Now, they were coming from a mindset of Halacha, trying to catch Him in anything that wasn't absolute exact in the wording of the law.

So how did Jesus answer them? He said, "The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.'" This answer tells us volumes. In Hebrew, these words are: Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad. "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one." This comes from Deuteronomy 6:4. And from the Jewish perspective, it means that the Lord is our God, the Lord is the one and only.

Because remember, there were gods being worshipped all around them. And in this podcast series, we've talked a lot about the Nephilim and their coming to Earth to be worshipped. So in Deuteronomy, Moses was instructed by the Almighty to establish as a verbal declaration that the one they worship is the true God. This verse is called the Shema and is the centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewish prayers.

I pray this every day because my desire is to be grafted more and more into the Jewish root of my forefathers. The word Shema comes from the Hebrew word shama, which means to hear intelligently and attentively. This is God's watchword for Israel, the primary verb and responsibility that God gave His children. It wasn't something to do and obey blindly; it was to stop and listen to the meaning of the picture or tavnit of what is being done.

Let me give you an example. Let's apply this concept of learning from a tavnit by using a phrase most Christians are very familiar with: the expression "Body of Christ." Now, with any tavnit, we have to first look at what it is in the natural and then let that speak to us and teach us. So for a few minutes, we are going to literally examine the Body of Christ.

Now, the word of God says that we are the Body of Christ, so I want you to picture an x-ray of a body in your mind. We read in Ephesians 5 that Jesus is the head. So let me ask you this: if Jesus is the head of the Body of Christ, what is the spine? In the natural, a spine was designed by our Creator to be the grand central station, enabling the brain, or the head, to communicate to every part of the body. God designed the spine to be straight and strong so that we will walk uprightly in good health.

Here are six things that God intended for the body to experience when the spine is straight: Number one: the head is fully supported, providing good nerve and blood flow to the brain. Number two: the discs or joints in the spinal column are surrounded by healthy cartilage, which protects and cushions the spine. Number three: the spinal column itself is made up of 33 bones. Interestingly, the age of Jesus' life, and these 33 bones are called vertebrae. They house the spinal cord, which contains bundles of nerve fibers.

Number four: when the spine is straight, those nerve fibers can freely transmit impulses or they can communicate to every part of the body. Number five: the brain is able to direct the function of all body parts. And number six: the person's body is balanced and healthy. Now, let's say something happens. We develop scoliosis or a curvature, or we have an accident and the spine is thrown out of alignment. What happens in the natural?

This is something I know a lot about because I suffer from scoliosis or curvature of the spine. I know all too well that if the spine is out of alignment, it gives off warning signals, pain being one of them. And if this condition goes unattended, those body parts where the nerves used to talk to freely begin to deteriorate. So let me go back to the question: if Jesus is the head of the Body of Christ, what is the spine?

God's chosen foundation for the metaphorical spine is what most people call God's commandments. It is straight and narrow. It is pure, it is just, it is holy. It consists of 248 positive precepts, or what to do, and 365 prohibitions, what not to do. So Jews everywhere know that God gave His people 613 laws, precepts, ordinances, warnings, and all that put together are referred to as commandments.

Now, I don't use the word commandments because this is the word that has been so mistranslated and misunderstood. Now, we'll get to the real meaning of the word in a minute, but the Hebrew word that is normally translated as commandments is the word mitzvot. M-I-T-Z-V-O-T. Mitzvot. And mitzvot basically includes everything that God set up to govern, protect, and care for His people so that we could live well under a theocracy.

Now, you can think of God as this tyrant that commands His people do this, don't do that, and expects us to be robots and say, "Yes, sir." But the concept of commands and tyranny is not the picture or tavnit that a loving Father desired to communicate to His children. Rather, He set up an entire structure of instructions and promised that if we lived by them, we would live long on the earth and enjoy protection that other godless nations did not receive from their gods.

So the mitzvot are all of the 613 things that God spoke and established as a sort of divine constitution. The sages teach that the 248 positive precepts, "thou shalt," correspond to the 248 limbs of our body, and the 365 prohibitions, or "thou shalt nots," pairs up with the 365 sinews. We read in Isaiah 45 where God said, "It is I who made the earth and created man upon it." Now, the sages point out that the numerical value of the Hebrew word for created is 613.

The well-known Rabbi Yosef Schneersohn wrote that the very purpose for which God made the earth and created man is to fulfill His 613 commandments. We read in Proverbs 3: "Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing for your flesh and marrow for your bones." God desires His word, His living word, to function as the spiritual spine to help us to walk uprightly according to His ways.

So if our spine in the natural consists of vertebrae and nerve fibers and such, what does God's spine consist of? And here's where we dig and we learn from the tavnit. First, let's look at the word mitzvot, which is normally mistranslated as commandments. Where does the word itself come from? The word mitzvot comes from the Hebrew word tzavah, which means to set in order or establish. It has nothing to do with obeying a to-do list.

No, the 613 mitzvot are the building blocks for all of the divine laws, appointed charges, and instructions that the Father set in place and established for His children so we could live under a theocracy and be guaranteed His protection. Now, one of the implications and lessons we need to see here is that when we dismiss the Old Testament as insignificant, relegated to the past or completely irrelevant today, this puts us in danger.

It's as if we have opened our bodies up to a surgeon and said, "Remove my spine." Now, if we did this, both literally and figuratively, we would not be able to stand straight and walk out the destiny that the Father assigned each one of us. Now, these 613 mitzvot contain three important Hebrew words and concepts that make up its spine or the metaphorical vertebrae, so to speak. First, the mitzvot contains statutes.

The Hebrew word is chukkim. And these are the appointed customs, the set times, the ordinances and decrees. Some examples of statutes are the Sabbath, the new moon, Passover, the feasts, and the festivals. All of these appointed times are pictures that teach us about God, the Messiah, and His kingdom. If we dismiss them as unimportant, we are missing a huge body of instruction in God's curriculum, which prepares us for the kingdom.

The second thing that God's spine contains are judgments, called mishpatim. This is the entire judiciary record of divine law, the formal recorded decrees and verdicts that God has made over the course of raising up His people. They contain incredible wisdom and perspective in how to make decisions according to the ways of the Lord, and we really need the understanding of mishpatim today.

The third element that the spine contains is the law, which is translated Torah. The first five books of Moses, which instruct us in how to walk in the ways of the Lord through the wilderness of this life and arrive safely to the kingdom without self-destructing. Now, you may be asking, so what do I do with all this? Surely the Lord does not expect me to become Jewish, does He? My role here is to connect you deeper to your Jewish roots. So let me share a few passages for you to think about.

Hebrews 3 discusses the relationship between Moses and Jesus. "Yet Jesus has been counted worthy of as much more glory than Moses as the builder of a house has more honor than the house." Now, we're talking about God's house. Jesus is clearly the builder, according to Hebrews 3, but who is the house itself? It is Moses, whose name is synonymous with all of the 613 mitzvot that God entrusted him to write. That's the house, the structure.

In Deuteronomy 18, Moses wrote, "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall heed." Now, he was speaking of the Messiah. So Jesus was the fulfillment of everything that Moses wrote and taught. I believe that's why Moses was with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. So to sum up what we learn in the tavnit of the Body of Christ: Jesus is the head, and Moses, or referred to biblically as the law of Moses, is the spine.

Now, what's sad is that the Jews are missing the head and most Christians are missing the spine. Jesus said in Matthew 5, "Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I've not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." Now, what law is He talking about? All of the regulations in Moses, the 613 mitzvot. In the same passage, our Lord says, "Whoever then breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven."

What does it mean to break one of the mitzvot? The word break means to loose oneself from or to put it off or dismiss it, and that's what's happened when Christians were disconnected from Judaism in 365 AD. This was never the Lord's intention. We took all of that "Jewish stuff"—the Sabbath, the festivals, all of it—and we dismissed it as unimportant. The word "least" means the very smallest or least in dignity.

And what Jesus meant by the word commandments is all of the authoritative charges and precepts of God, everything included in the 613 mitzvot contained in God's house. The implications of this passage was very convicting to me. I realized that though true Christians will make it into the kingdom because we have accepted Jesus as the Messiah, we will be considered least if we did not walk in God's ways with the spine that God gave Moses at Mount Sinai.

When I realized the importance of what I'm teaching you today, it took me a while to figure out how to incorporate this understanding. The reality is that most Christians have been misinformed or Hellenized or infected by subtle forms of anti-Semitism. But step one is always a time of awakening, and that's what God is looking for: your heart. Has this episode turned you off, and you don't want to hear anymore about Judaism? Or has something stirred inside of you that maybe, just maybe, this hits at the core of why you have been longing for something deeper?

Just tell Him that you're confused, that you want to know the truth, that if some wrong belief is standing in your way, ask Him to clear it up for you. Listen to the episode again; you'll find it on my website at candacelong.com. Write down the scripture verses and bring them before the Lord. My desire is for you to experience all that God has for you. I do not want you to be relegated as least in the kingdom.

In the next episode, I will share my own story of how I began to reconnect with my Jewish roots and the difference that has made in my life. But please don't put pressure on yourself thinking you have to completely change your life overnight. These changes take time, and the Lord is very patient. I want to thank you for spending this time with me.

If you'd like to know more, I invite you to subscribe to my website at candacelong.com. When you do subscribe, I'll send you links to my books, my articles, online courses, and individual webinars that will help you understand the signs of these times and how to find what God would have you do while it's all unfolding. To listen to more of my teaching, go anytime to candacelong.com/podcasts.

If you'd like to make a donation and help support this ministry, you'll find a "Donate" button in the description notes to any episode. I hope you join me again for *Lessons in the Latter Days*. Thank you for being with us today. I want to close our time together the way our Jewish forefathers close every service: with the Aaronic Benediction that has been chanted the same way for thousands of years. To get the most out of this blessing, if you're listening with family or friends, pull them close to you and spread a shawl or a scarf over your heads all together. Rabbi Michael will close our time today, first in Hebrew, followed by the English translation.

Rabbi Michael Washer: Yevarechecha Adonai v'yishmerecha. Ya'er Adonai panav elecha vichuneka. Yissa Adonai panav elecha v'yasem lecha shalom. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His face to you and give you peace.

Candace Long: Thank you so much for being with us today. We are all part of a very real awakening where people all over the world are being led to return to Torah study and prepare for the Messianic kingdom. If you missed an episode or you want to listen to something again, you'll find all of our programs archived by date, teacher, and topic at the bottom of our main page. On behalf of our team of teachers, I invite you to study the Torah with us next Saturday morning from 6:00 to 9:00 on WEZE Radio 590, our media partner for shabbatshalomradio.com.