Everything is connected to everything else. Perpetrator and victim, good and evil, even within the same person. Light and darkness and light in the darkness. Harmony and peace with chaos and war, so close together. Health and sickness and the fragility of a human being. Well-meaning believers who must search for a piece of Amalek within themselves. Harvests on earth and the blessing of the Eternal in heaven.
Is the Eternal connected to people? Also to transgressors of His commandments? Yes, there too the rule applies that everything is connected to everything else. For the transgressors, He sends the Messiah, who gives His life. Prosperity in the wealthy West causes poverty in the Third World.
This concept of interconnectedness also applies to the celebration of Passover: “In every generation a person is obliged to regard himself as if he had personally departed from Egypt,” and see also Exodus 13:8. The blows of the Eternal can be judgment, but also loving corrections, like a father with his son, see Hebrews 12:6-7.
Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, shares those same connections. The gift of the Torah is commemorated and celebrated at that festival. The emphasis that the entire Bible places on observing the commandments is a sign of those connections, such as showing your love for the Messiah.
The same goes for the three autumn festivals: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot. The Eternal seems to point out to us that we should not only look and think on a small scale. Caring for nature and participating in Tikkun Olam, the restoration of the world, all contribute to everything. The sound of the shofar reminds us of Adonai’s arrival from heaven on Mount Sinai and of the return of the Eternal with all the saints; see Zechariah 14:5 and 1 Thessalonians 4:16.
The sobriety of Yom Kippur brings us back to the meaning of our lives and all causes and effects. The Day of Atonement is the restoration of relationships with Adonai, which will not succeed with everyone on earth. If oppressive behavior from a loved one (parent, family) has forced you to bow down and given you a negative self-image, use Yom Kippur to liberate your soul and reconcile with your Father in heaven, until you begin to shine.
In your sukkah, or overhanging leafy branch on a balcony, you can see yourself just as your soul does in your fragile body, your earthly tent. “I know that my Redeemer lives. He will stand on the earth on the last day” (Job 19:25). Eventually, you exchange that tent for the structure of Adonai, see 2 Corinthians 5:1. And until that time, we try to see the whole picture with its connections as much as possible.
Shanah tovah umetukah, a good and sweet New Year!
Lion Erwteman
Will all those beautiful biblical promises really come true?
Faith and prayer: what do we expect from them? Depending on that answer, your faith can lead you to higher spiritual insight, but also to great disappointment and disbelief. Depending on what we have heard claimed about answers from heaven, we can remain level-headed and wait-and-see in difficult times, or conversely, expect the most beautiful answers. Think of saving a relationship, healing from a serious illness, getting a job, or protecting yourself against the danger of attackers or a dangerous virus.
In a welfare state like the Netherlands, we are so protected that we might not realize that some matters succeed due to prosperity rather than divine intervention. Go live in a poor country, and suddenly all kinds of certainties disappear. Then you are truly at the mercy of divine intervention. A hospital hundreds of kilometers away where staff steal medicines and equipment. A police force that is corrupt, for example by demanding bribes. A government that enriches itself at the expense of the population.
So let us be level-headed and distinguish between what is truly the Lord’s intervention and what centuries-old justice and political protection offer. May we expect the Eternal One to heal and turn misery into success? Consider David’s Psalm 34:20, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the One delivers him from them all.” And consider Psalm 103:3, where David muses on the Eternal One, “who forgives all your iniquities and heals all your diseases.”
Spiritual leaders who thoughtlessly explain that as: always success, always a prize, deceive their listeners with impunity. And with that joyful expectation, you can lose your faith. Your fault, says that spiritual leader, “not enough faith.” But what then? We will have to get used to the fact that if you were to lose all luxury (working refrigerators, for example) and financial security (state pension, pension accrual), a completely different picture emerges. In which you will be able to clearly see when the Eternal One is doing something and when He is not.
And we will discover why the Eternal One still makes the beautiful promises as in Psalm 34 and 103, without lying. Somewhat comparable to the situation with Job, from whom all certainties were taken away, through the actions of a satan*, in cooperation with the Eternal One Himself, see Job 1:6-12. Are we saved from all disasters? No. Are we healed of all diseases? No. Is the text correct? Yes, if you allow that answer not to be limited solely to the planet Earth. View the earth as an unsafe transit station for our soul. You can temporarily disguise this insecurity with luxury.
* In addition to the legal Hebrew term ha-tovea ha-kelali for an attorney general or general prosecutor, the Hebrew biblical term ha-satan stands for: (public) prosecutor. In Job’s situation, this satan is more like a guardian of faith.
You will find a realistic answer in Psalm 63. I was recently advised to read it. Here is my version, inspired by the Arts Scroll Tanach Series
Psalm 63,
1 A song of David, when he was in the Desert of Judea.
2 O Lord, You are my G-d, I seek You. My soul thirsts for You, my body longs for You. In a dry land, troubled and without water.
3 In that state I observed You in the Sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory.
4 Your love is better than life (here on earth). My mouth will praise You.
5 There I will bless You all my life. Before You I will lift up my hands.
6 As with the fat of a sacrificial animal and with abundance, so shall my soul be satisfied. And with joyful speech shall my mouth utter praise;
7 when I remember You thus on my couch, meditating on You while awake at night.
8 For You have been my helper. In the shadow of Your wings I will sing joyfully.
9 My soul clings to You. Your arm offered me support.
10 But those who focus on the destruction of my soul, they shall enter the lowest depths of the earth.
11 The Eternal One will drag them away by their sword. They shall be the dinner of foxes.
12 But the king shall be pleased with the Eternal One. Glorified is everyone who swears by Him.For the mouth of people who bear false witness shall be silenced.
David has learned to look beyond the boundaries of earthly temporary life. All promises that the Eternal One makes will be fulfilled. But do not count on this happening during our life on earth. What we experience of death as a hard boundary is for the Eternal One a transition. You, that is to say, your soul, enter the Door of Hope, see Hosea 2 verse 14 (in Hebrew verse 17), where time and decay, sickness and disintegration do not exist.
Our existence as described in Genesis 1 takes over again from our Genesis 2 existence in our body, our earthly tent. Not a popular message with which some become rich, because they focus all biblical promises solely on the earthly environment. We will have to learn to focus on heaven, meditate on it at night, rejoice over it; and endure earthly situations patiently. Whoever can do that will emerge spiritually richer through undeserved earthly misery than hoping for falsely colored promises.
The difference between heaven and earth becomes greater. And your longing for your heavenly future will grow through it. Become a better person through your misery than you were before. And learn to take shelter in the shadow of God’s wings.
Wishing you much comfort and perseverance in your circumstances,
Lion Erwteman
El Al, climbing up
On the second day of Passover, we are expected to start counting. Forty-nine days. The following day is then 6 Sivan, which falls on May 22 this year, beginning on the evening of May 21 with Erev Shavuot. By counting, you have fulfilled the commandment in the Torah; see Leviticus 23:15-16, “15 You must count from the day after the Sabbath (that is Passover), from the day that you brought the sheaf (Hebrew: Omer) of the wave offering. It must be seven full weeks. 16 On the day after the seventh week, you will have counted fifty days. On that day, you must offer a new grain offering to the Eternal.”
The number fifty plays an important role. It relates to the night on which Israel departed from Egypt. The lambs that were to be slaughtered were kept until the evening of departure; see Exodus 12:6, “You must keep the lamb until the fourteenth day of this month” (Nisahan). The entire assembled community of Israel must slaughter it at nightfall.”
What happened fifty days after Israel’s departure from the land of Egypt? Read Exodus 19:1, “In the third month, on the same day that the Israelites had left the land of Egypt, they came into the Sinai Desert.” And when you count fifty days from Passover day 2, you arrive at Mount Sinai on the same day—this year that is early Friday morning, 6 Sivan, May 22. Sivan is indeed the third month, counting from Nisan as the first month!
Fifty has become a symbol of the liberation process that Israel has gone through. You see that same number when you read the original text of the New Testament; see Acts 2:1, “When the fiftieth day (Pentecost, from Greek: pentecoste) arrived, all the Jewish followers of Yeshua were united in one place.” They celebrated the annual festival of the liberation of Israel. Beginning with Passover Night, the night in which Israel was protected by the unique means of the blood of Passover lambs.
And as a provisional (!) conclusion, the Feast of Weeks, after they had counted seven weeks plus one day; Shavuot, with the unique heavenly visit of the G-d of Israel on Mount Sinai. With the goal: the delivery of the Torah. With the means: ascending, El Al, to honor the heavenly visitor and receive the Torah. Whoever has never celebrated Pentecost as the Feast of the Delivery of the Torah has never celebrated the biblical Pentecost. Do it, and you will suddenly stand much more clearly within the circle of G-d’s will.
You will hear what the Tent of Meeting, Joshua, Psalm 145, and the Jubilee Year have to do with this special number 50 in the study on Shavuot. How G-d’s Spirit is involved in this festival will also be discussed. Keep an eye on the line from Passover to Shavuot (Feast of Weeks)!
Happy Yom Tov! Happy Holiday!
Lion Erwteman
March and April 2026: Letting go of your baggage
Purim—now behind us—and Passover cast their shadow ahead. Both are, along with Hanukkah, our liberation festivals of the past. Passover stands out from this, because only at this festival are we commanded to view ourselves in every generation as if we had personally left Egypt, a text found in the Misiah and the Talmud, Pesachim 10:5.
Purim is the festival with the biblical hint to use your fate (in Hebrew: Pur) to your own advantage. Central to it is the casting of dice that determine the timing of the fate awaiting Israel. That fate at the time was: extermination, also known as genocide. That is the word shouted over Israel today, as a reversal of the facts.
At the time, in what was then Persia, Israel was given the opportunity not to simply await this destructive fate vulnerable, paralyzed, and powerless. Israel was allowed to fight back against the population and the police. Many Persians, nearly 76,000 in number, perished in the process, without Israel being accused of genocide. This was self-protection, caused by the deadly aggression of enemies with blind hatred. Thus, the Jewish national soul could grow by utilizing its own misery to grow in the will to survive and closer to Eternal life.
The liberation we celebrate annually with Passover also follows this principle. In this way, a strong hint has been placed in the Bible to detach oneself from the general mental influence of the human species, which is: equality for everyone, with the exclusion of Israel.
The liberation from Egypt goes much further than redemption, liberation, and receiving one’s own land. The human species has an ingrained mentality of wanting to rule over others. It is a compulsive need for control that comes at the expense of seeing everyone as an equal. This negative tendency wants to see everyone who despises the G’d of Israel and His commandments as an equal.
Everyone has the right to self-defense, except Israel. And the same applies to the right to one’s own land, one’s own religion, one’s own sports and music champions, etc. The Passover commandment is to be liberated from the earthly negativity and tendency toward domination that we all possess. We were created as spiritual beings with earthly baggage.
Letting go of that baggage is a challenge. The act of briefly bouncing up on our toes during our morning prayer, while uttering the words: Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh (Isaiah 6), is an illustration of that process of letting go. The fact that we ultimately do not float up, but return to the ground, illustrates the necessity of persevering in our liberation process!
Celebrating Purim and Passover as festivals of liberation is not a lamentable dwelling onthe past. It is an acknowledgment of fixed patterns of behavior found in every human being. They are difficult to combat. But being blind to them will certainly not help. Moreover, the annual repetition of these festivals contributes to being able to put into perspective the still existing hostility towards Israel.
And our soul grows a little more each year during the ritual of the four wine cups during the Seder, which accompany with every sip a reception of G-d’s liberation: I am the Eternal. I will lead you (1) out of the forced labor of Egypt. I will rescue you (2) from that slavery and deliver you (3) with an outstretched arm and by severe executions. I will accept you (4) as My people. All this as your G-d! (Exodus 6:5-6).
Chag sameach, Happy Passover!
Lion Erwteman
January and February 2026: The meaning of Remnant
Throughout history, many people have become interested in Judaism. They were drawn by its focus on life, purity, good morals and values, respect for women, and defense rather than offense. These people didn’t want to change things like Bible verses that “no longer apply to us.” They behaved as respectful guests who became confidants and kindred spirits.
Things are different for people who ended up in a loan religion. Such a religious system originated in Judaism and then borrowed certain elements into the “new” system. The blessings addressed to Israel were “actually meant for us.” Think of being chosen; and thus, of being redeemed. Terms like grace in Hebrew were altered by theology and translations, only to be left in the New Testament. The Prodigal Son was not Jewish, but represented: the church.
Tens of thousands of Jews, counted in Acts 21 as new believers in Yeshua, are reduced to thousands. Or the founder of another loan religion wanted to become the leader of the Jews of his time; not a respectful guest, in other words. When the Jews refused, the fighter became our enemy. Until now. And anyone from his religion who opened up to the Jewish or Christian faith was murdered. Until now.
The Jewish Yeshua, who never taught anything other than that His followers should follow the Torah in faith and deed, is being put into the mouth of the Jews, thus de-Jewishing Him. This is all to ensure that His followers no longer have to keep the commandments. He is said to have fulfilled the Law, as if the Law permitted only one person to do so. See Paul in love with the Torah (Law), in Romans 3:31 and 7:12 and 14. Not only de-Judaized, but also confused, because Yeshua wants the smallest commandments to be fulfilled by His followers, see Matthew 5:19.
Theories have been devised to relegate Jews to second place. Simple replacement theology does this by placing its adherents in the place of Israel. The more cunning replacement theology claims that Christians are redeemed by grace and Jews by their observance of the Torah. A kind of Cinderella story. And Jews who love and practice the Torah, in addition to their faith in Yeshua, are reprimanded for ceasing to be Jews and becoming Christians. It’s a rebuke delivered by the Christian replacement. Intended to strengthen friendship with the “true Jews” (also the “soul-footed ones,” as that’s how the replacement sees them).
Dispensationalism is a variant of this theology, in which Jews do indeed get their chance, but at the end of all previous dispensations; a kind of era for which no biblical support can be found. In the current era, the Eternal is said to have rejected Israel, while Paul vehemently denies this, see Romans 11:1 (“By no means!”). Another vicious push against Judaism is Christian theology, which, whenever possible, sees only a “remnant” of Judaism redeemed.
While that theology is inherently broad and gracious, it leaves a minimalist loophole for the Jews to crawl through. This pernicious idea is supposedly based on a statement from Isaiah 10:22, repeated by Paul in Romans 9:27. A word study would provide insight into the word “remnant” for those who need insight! And moreover, two chapters later, you see Paul saying that all Israel will be redeemed (Romans 11:26). He borrowed this from Ezekiel 37:12-14. “Yes, but that means the church,” I’ve often heard as an explanation.
Does the jealousy of people from loan religions go so far that they steal and try to defile their root, their nest, their origin, their source? Paul strongly warns against this kind of religious arrogance. Like a skilled gardener, he compares it to an olive tree, where the original branches share their nourishing root (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) and trunk (Judaism in all its forms) with those other branches, see Romans 11. And arrogance is negatively rewarded.
May the year 2026 bring beautiful and constructive things,
Lion Erwteman
Our blog for November and December: Untouchable and eternal light
Chanukah is a celebration of liberation and miracle. It falls in December, and you sometimes hear it referred to as a kind of Jewish Christmas. Years ago, Mrs. Else Vlug (from Peter Vlug Sr., director of a Dutch magazine called Opwekking at the time) asked me to write an article about Chanukah for their magazine. But it had to show the connection between Chanukah and Christmas. It didn’t help that I told her the two had completely different meanings. After all, they were both festivals of light, Else Vlug replied.
That, despite all the differences, was the only similarity. Chanukah celebrates Israel’s victory over an army of terrorists from Syria. Chanukah commemorates the liberation of the Jewish people from oppression by Syrian troops in 165 BCE. The holiday also allows us to reflect on the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.
Each day of the eight, candles or oil lamps are lit on a Chanukia, a special eight-branched candelabra. During the holidays, you eat dishes fried in oil, among other things. People also play with a dreidel, a special spinning top with Hebrew letters on its four sides, which form the initials of the phrase: “A great miracle took place there” (Nes Gadol Haya Sham). In Israel, the fourth letter is not a Shin, but a Peh, which stands for “Here!”
The holiday symbolizes the preservation of Jewish identity and freedom of religion. It is mentioned in the Bible in John 10:22, “Then came the Feast of the Renewal of the Temple in Jerusalem; it was winter.” After the victory, the Temple in Jerusalem was freed from Greek idols and all defilement and rededicated. A single cruse of pure oil, intended for one day, proved sufficient to keep the lampstand in the Temple burning for eight days. This provided the time needed to produce fresh, new holy oil.
Christmas is not mentioned in the Bible. Yeshua could not have been born during that time. It was probably sometime in April or September. The light of that holiday comes from the Christmas trees, which were brought into the church from pagan celebrations starting in the 15th century. The prophet Jeremiah already mentions it in 10:3-4, “The customs of those nations are foolish: for it is like a tree cut from the forest, worked with the axe. They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with nails and hammers, so that it will not move.”
Ultimately, the sacred Temple lampstand was stolen by the Romans and taken to their den of thieves. A Roman triumphal arch still depicts the theft, dedicated to the then Emperor Titus. Throughout history, enemies of Israel have tried to destroy the light of the Jewish people. They failed to realize that the light burns within and that all external objects have the sole purpose of pointing to that inner light.
The inner light is the sum total of every Jewish heart and the hearts of our soulmates. It sometimes flickers, especially in difficult times with the heavy loss of loved ones. But it burns always, untouchable and eternal. Lit by the Light that illuminated the world as long as He was in the world (John 9:5). Now we may fulfill that task, as long as we are still here.
Enjoy the Light,
Lion Erwteman
Our blog for September and October: the challenge of the five biblical Feasts
The miracle of Passover was the liberation that Israel experienced. Away from the covetous Egyptian slave traders. It happened 3,500 years ago, but its lesson remains timelessly valid: remember your origins, realize G-d’s intervention, recognize the Angel of G-d’s Face. After fifty days, the next miracle occurred, G-d’s visit to Israel, on Sinai, in the middle of the desert. The liberated people received a manual for making the most of their existence on earth: how do I prepare for the life that smiles upon me after I close the earthly door behind me?
Only three and a half months later does the next miraculous feast arrive. The long interval recalls Moses’ long absence from Mount Sinai for his unique encounter with Adonai, the G-d of Israel. And the absence of the Angel of G-d’s Face, Yeshua, before the trumpet sounds for the return of our Messiah. That first feast after months of silence is the Feast of Trumpets. The wonder of this feast is that the final heavenly redemption will take place after a long period of preparation. Every year we are prepared for this anew.
This holiday is also called Rosh Hashanah, one of the four New Year’s festivals. Rosh Hashanah is once again the date of the fiftieth year, the Jubilee Year, the “acceptable year” spoken of in Isaiah 61:1-6. This text was read by Yeshua in a synagogue in Natzeret (Nazareth); see Luke 4:18-19. That miracle will occur on Rosh Hashanah, complete with trumpets. The New Testament, written by Jews, also exults in it; see 1 Corinthians 15:51-52: “I tell you a mystery: We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a little while, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. You know that the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable.”
And also read 1 Thessalonians 4:16: “The Eternal One himself will come down from heaven with a loud shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the blast of the Lord.” The bodies of the deceased, who are connected to the Messiah, will then be the first to rise from the dead. See also Revelation 11:15. Fortunately, Rosh Hashanah is also the Feast of Judgment, a wondrous occasion, when judgments are ultimately pronounced on the executioners of the death cult and on government leaders and mayors. Those who have not experienced justice in this life after the worst crimes that people can commit will experience justice!
The two festivals that follow shortly after are Yom Kippur and Sukkot. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the Great Day on which we annually review our reconciliation with the Eternal. The initiative comes from Him, a miracle in itself. We respond to it by examining our relationship with Him, acknowledging our shortcomings and transforming them into amends. Knowing the Eternal, He will only be satisfied with this if we also take charge of ourselves in our relationships with our fellow human beings.
Of the commandments in the entire Bible, most of these kinds of character corrections are found in the New Testament with its 1060 commandments. We can pay attention to our white robes and the correct prayers. But reconciliation of relationships is what it’s all about, being written in the Book of Life. The last of the five High Feasts is Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles. Remembering the Exodus, where the second city and stopping place was called Sukkot, we relive the entire festival package. The Sukkah is a reminder of the wondrous Paradise, where peace, security, and sustenance ensure our well-being.
All relationships are perfected there, prepared for the five magnificent High Feasts. During those days, remember Kefa (Peter), who suggested the building of tabernacles when He miraculously saw Yeshua speaking with Moses and Elijah (see Matthew 17). He was absolutely right, for that is how the Feast of Tabernacles will ultimately be celebrated (Zechariah 14:17-18), in the illustrious company of our fathers and mothers; and of the Passover Lamb who miraculously made all this possible.
!שנה טובה ומתוקה Shanah tovah umetukah!
Lion Erwteman
Our blog for July and August: Take good care of who you are!
The period between the spring and fall feasts has arrived. The time between Pesach and the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) is a good month and a half. The time between Rosh Hashanah and the Day of Atonement is only ten days and after five days the Feast of Tabernacles begins. But after the Feast of Weeks, four months pass before another feast begins. A kind of illustration of Moses who stayed away from his people for forty days, when he had his summit with the Eternal on Mount Sinai in a heavenly meeting.
And also an illustration of the much longer time it takes before the Messiah Ben David, the bringer of peace, lands on the Mount of Olives. In the meantime, we have the manual to prepare ourselves for that glorious return, the Torah. How happy should you be with the Torah? Are we free, or bound? You want to do the commandments well, because Moses, Joshua and Yeshua ask for it, read Leviticus 18:5, Joshua 1:8 and Matthew 5:19. But how good; and how good is good? You can read about resurrection from the dead and eternal life in the Torah, prophets, psalms and the New Testament; but how good do you have to be as a person to be able to claim that?
We are G-d’s creatures and we belong to His creation. G-d is perfect, so isn’t His creation also perfect? Then you should automatically be good as a human being. But we know that this is not the case. The question is: what is perfect in G-d’s eyes. We may not describe perfection as in the time of cruel oppressors, who see everything that is sick, different, less adapted and different in appearance as imperfect. The Eternal knows how fragile, mortal, susceptible to illness, emotionally unstable and easily distracted man is.
And He has provided a timeless tool for this: the Messiah who brings peace and restores our relationships with each other and with the Eternal; through His sacrifice that has been made since creation. Paul describes how he is caught in the law of doing forbidden acts and not doing those that should be done, “For what I do is not in my hand. For what I would, I do not do; but what I hate, I do” (Romans 7:15; see also verse 19). In 8:1 he says that there will be no condemnation for this.
With that he says that he does not come out of the prison of that law. Rabbis like Shimon ben Pazzi (3rd century CE) speak in the same way. Are we lost as believers? On the contrary, because the Eternal has made a – in His eyes – perfect product. With a free will and a heart of stone. That will of ours is slowly bending in His direction. And our heart of stone will only be replaced by a heart of flesh when the Eternal makes that intervention (Ezekiel 11:19).
What to do with commandments, where the content of them is not indicated (such as keeping Shabbat)? And with commandments and other texts in the Torah and other places, when they can be interpreted in several ways; how can you trust that you are doing it right? Here too, it applies that the Eternal deliberately gives these kinds of commands. We must find the details and the content ourselves, through mutual agreements, human work and teamwork that is stimulated in this way from heaven.
We can ask: does the Eternal look at our behavior or not. Look at His name, when Moses asks about it, “I am, who I am” (Exodus 3:14). So not: I am because of what I achieve. In the eyes of the Eternal we are valued by who we are. It is like the bouquet of wild flowers that I used to pick for my mother and with which I came home, when the flowers had already withered. How happy she was with it! Not because of the performance, but because of who I was. Take good care of who you are. G-d is good! He loves us.
Happy with the Torah of our G-d!
Lion Erwteman
Our blog for May and June: experience the next stage of renewal in your life
The Feast of Weeks is exciting because its bonus is mysterious compared to Passover. With Passover you flee Egypt, you plough through desert sand for 40 years and then rest under your fig tree in your own country. But with the Feast of Weeks you wait at the foot of Mount Sinai until Moses sees fit to finally descend the mountain after 40 days with the Torah tablets under his arm.
It was less fun to have to wait and toil in slavery for a few hundred years before the Passover liberation arrived. With the Feast of Weeks you only have to count 50 days to celebrate. But what kind of celebration? Passover was the physical training and development to unlearn all arrogance and crommunication. That takes a lot of time. The Feast of Weeks is climbing until you really come into contact with your Papa in heaven.
Moses set the example. That is why Passover is a horizontally oriented celebration, which takes us from Alef to Better. The Feast of Weeks moves us vertically, with heavenly power to match the earthly pull. The Feast of Weeks, Shavuot in Hebrew, celebrates the receiving of the Torah. That is how it came to be. It follows the deliverance from Egypt, which continued to have a strange kind of pull.
It also follows the elimination of the pursuing enemy, after very frightening and life-threatening moments. Soon the Roman and Byzantine religious competitors changed the date and content of this provocative festival in their own version of the Jewish original. Allergic as they are to the commandments, the provocative festival became a Pentecost festival. G-d had not given the Torah, but the Spirit, as they knew and know to tell.
They did not realize that the presence of G-d’s Spirit is necessary at every festival, in order not to get bogged down in appearance and in unfaithfulness to G-d’s word. They do not realize that keeping commandments is showing your love to your Creator. The Torah is the handbook for refugees who seek the shelter of Adonai. The book is a course for stormers of heaven, complete with diet (kosher food) and physical training (“With G-d I jump over a wall”).
Supplemented with meditation exercises (“Meditate on the commandments” (Joshua 1:8) and speaking to your own soul (“Why are you cast down, O my soul”, Psalm 42:5). The incentive of the Feast of Weeks is the annual escape from the earthly pull. The number 50 expresses that. The earthly time count is in sevens, weeks of seven days. For example, you count seven times seven in the Omer time, and then add a day to it.
Think of the seven days plus one day on which circumcision takes place. Number 8 and number 50 is: next station reached. It is the Messiah, Yeshua, who brings renewal and commands that His followers renew themselves daily. He has come to us from the perfect unearthly world, to show us the way. With this, Yeshua repeats the call of our prophets to renewal.
Escape from the old, to become new. In heaven they do not like second-hand and worn-out. “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the old things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind” (Isaiah 65:17).
Experience the next stage of renewal in your life on Shavuot!
Lion Erwteman
Our blog for January and February 2025:
Continued curiosity to meeting the Lord
The new year 2025 has almost started. We use that era, in addition to the Jewish era, which indicates that we live in the year 5785. The days we go through don’t care about that. Every day has its sunrise and sunset. Longer or shorter light, depending on where you live on the planet. An era is a choice based on the calculation of the sun and/or moon phases. That is why this short study focuses on one of the weekly texts in the Torah, namely Shemot.
It is the Torah portion that covers, among other things, the birth and calling of our Teacher and Rabbi Moshee. A very painful decision was made by his parents to give up their child to the water. At that time, Jewish parents were not allowed to have children, especially boys. The Pharaoh at that time was terrified of the increasing number of Jewish inhabitants in Egypt. He tried to control demographics by drowning newly born Jewish boys in the Nile River. That’s called genocide or infanticide.
Moshee’s parents made the painful decision to give up their child, as parents often do in wars. They entrusted him to the water. Pharaoh’s daughter knew in her heart that her father had made the wrong decision. And she made the courageous decision to risk her life by adopting that Jewish boy she found bathing in the Nile waters. She saved a Jewish life. The G-d of Israel had arranged for those times to coincide. Fell towards each other. You call that a coincidence.
Moses grew up at the court as an Egyptian. And that went well, until it went wrong. Moses had to flee. Later, in another country, the Eternal continued His calling of Moses, who had now become a shepherd. This was accompanied by a wildfire. A thorn forest was on fire, see the photo above. That caught Moses’ attention, because it was clearly visible that the fire did not destroy anything. It was a heavenly intervention in nature. Moshee would experience that often.
He was called, he became the leader and earthly savior of Israel and he became the author of the Torah. He has been to heaven from Mount Sinai and has seen and spoken to the Eternal like no one else on earth. Find out in your own life what your calling is. Consider at what level you want to perceive the Eternal. Realize that knowledge does not help you in this, but the desire for these growth points does. Remain curious about encountering, observing and touching the Eternal One. Whoever touched the Tent of Meeting and the objects within it became holy (see Exodus 30:29). How much more the Eternal!
Have fun and grow in the new year!
Lion Erwteman
Our blog for November and December: the light conquers
Hanukkah is the next festival after the Feast of Tabernacles. It is cheerful, lights, fun, good food. It is also a celebration of an important victory in Israel’s existence. This festival also comes after much suffering and bloodshed, with victory. The first Temple, built by King Solomon, was destroyed around 586 BCE. This happened through the conquest of Jerusalem by the Babylonian Empire. Nebuchadnezzar II was in power. That also meant the end of Jewish religious life in Jerusalem. That Temple had served for about 500 years.
The second Temple was built by Ezra, who had received permission from the king under whom he was employed, living like so many Jews, abroad. The king’s name was Cyrus II. He defeated the Babylonian forces in 539 BCE. and founded the Persian Empire. It was He who gave permission to the Jews in Babylonian exile to return and take back the Temple equipment. The Second Temple was built by Zerubabel and dedicated in 515 BCE. About 70 years later, Nechemyah (Nehemiah) hears about the Temple, and life in Jerusalem.
Nehemyah was a wine taster and cupbearer at the Persian court of King Artaxerxes I, four kings after Cyrus II. Holding this position meant that he was a confidant of the king. Nehemyah lived in Susa, one of the capitals of the Persian empire. Nehemyah was a Persian governor. He goes to Israel and helps build the ruined wall. That Second Temple is decorated by King Herod. This Temple existed for 585 years, from 515 BC. until 70 CE, when the Roman military defeated Israel in a battle for its existence.
There was an earlier attempt to capture Jerusalem by Greek troops. In 180 BCE Antiochus IV ascends the Seleucid-Greek throne. Under his reign, in 168 BC. the Temple plundered. Jews are being murdered en masse and Judaism is being declared illegal. A year later he orders that a shrine in honor of the Greek Zeus be erected in the Temple. Mattathias and his five sons Yochanan, Shimon, Elazar, Jonathan and Judah lead a rebellion against Antiochus. Judah HaMaccabi, the Hammer, becomes the leader.
The Jewish kingdom of the Hasmoneans (Hashmonaim) begins, until 63 BCE. The Jewish revolt against the Seleucid monarchy is successful in 165 BCE. The Temple is liberated and rededicated. All the oil is gone except for a jar for one day. The oil is miraculously replenished for up to eight days. This is the basis of the later festival Hanukkah. Feast of Light and Temple Dedication! These were all attempts to steal the Light. Battle, wounded, fatalities, armed defence. Sometimes becoming indifferent in your faith. Darkness keeps us on our toes. The Light conquers.
Lots of light in the dark days!
Lion Erwteman
Our blog of September and October 2024: thorough searching our wrestling
Israel has four New Year’s festivals, namely the animals on 1 Elul (in connection with tithes to the Temple), the trees on 15 Shevat (also for the Temple), the annual count on 1 Niesan of the reign of kings. And on Tishri 1, we reflect on the fact that every person is involved in a heavenly lawsuit.
The latter is not about something threatening, but about a detailed investigation into our struggle. We make statements, make decisions and commit actions, good and bad. Wrong actions and statements must not only be stopped, but their recurrence must be prevented.
The investigation by the Public Prosecutor is not so much aimed at completely eliminating wrong statements, actions and decisions, because eliminating them is not possible. Paul’s honest outpouring in his letter to the believers in Rome testifies to that impossibility, see Romans 7:21-26, in which he does mention the Eternal and Yeshua in verse 25, but only in a short praise. There is no question of removing his wrong tendencies. He remains in that prison, mentioned in verse 23 and only workable by means of no conviction, see Romans 8:1.
Yeshua’s parable about the wrong weeds gives the same picture, see Matthew 13 from verse 24. There is an offer to completely remove the bad nature, see verse 28. Yeshua does not allow it, because then nothing of people will be left. On earth, good and evil are intertwined until we are freed from that evil.
Who will be freed from that? People who realize that there is evil within themselves, who do not accept it and who fight weeds in a lifelong struggle. And annually, on Rosh Hashanah, we are reminded of our trial, and of our hope for deliverance, which makes it possible to be inscribed in the Book of Life (Ex.32:32; Ps.69:28; Rev.21:27).
Ten days later is Yom Kippur, the day of fasting. This is necessary to prevent us from feeling too good after Rosh Hashanah to continue our struggle. When Yom Kippur falls on a Shabbat, a contradictory situation arises. Because on Shabbat, Torah faithful should rejoice and that includes good food.
A valid reason to fast on Shabbat is if you have not been able to buy or grow food yourself. The only other valid reason to fast on Shabbat is if Yom Kippur falls on the same day. So important is this symbol for our necessary struggle that we may fast on Shabbat.
King David sings, with harp, The eye of the Eternal is upon those who fear Him and hope in His mercy, to deliver their souls from death, and to preserve them alive in times of famine (Ps.33 :18-19).
!שנה טובה ומתוקה
Shana tova umtukah!
Have a good and sweet New Year!
Lion Erwteman
Our blog for July and August: Is the Eternal One really the G-d of love?
The goodness of the G-d of Israel is an important point in the Bible. But there is something dramatic about that. First about His love for Israel. It knows no boundaries. Of the more than 300 times the word occurs in the Bible, about 100 times in the New Testament (agape) and about 200 in the Hebrew texts (ahavah, chesed, etc.). In both basic languages these are words that have to do with goodness and grace.
The Eternal expresses His love for the patriarchs of Israel, as can be read in Deuteronomy 4:37, “Because He loved your fathers and chose their descendants, He Himself brought you out of Egypt with His great power.” And He expresses His love for all Israel, “I have loved you, says the LORD” (Malachi 1:2).
Israel is G-d’s precious possession, see Deuteronomy 32:8-9, “8 When the Most High divided the inheritance among the Gentiles, when He separated the children of Adam, He appointed the territories of the Gentiles according to the number of the children of Israel. 9 For Adonai’s portion is His people, and Jacob is His possession. 10 He found him in a desert country, in a waste, howling wilderness. He surrounded him, He taught him, He protected him as the apple of His eye.”
That sensitive part of the body, the apple of the eye, you see again in Zechariah 2:8 (verse 12 in Hebrew), “For this is what the Eternal Almighty says: After My glory in heaven He sent Me to the nations that destroyed you (Israel). ) to rob. For whoever touches you touches the apple of His eye.”
In this verse the Eternal speaks and He says that He is being sent (“sent Me”). This becomes even clearer in verse 11 (verse 15 in Hebrew), where it is stated that it is the Eternal Almighty who sends the one sent (the Eternal from verse 8) to the nations. The plurality, the Two-Unity of Elohim, is mentioned there in passing.
So much for G-d’s love for Israel. But it is dramatic what has taken place in the history of Israel despite that divine love. A dramatic example from Israel’s early history – not to get too close – is the infanticide of newborn Jewish boys in Egypt, see Exodus 1:16 and 22.
What will be our image of the G-d of Israel, given this kind of cruelty? Is He omnipotent? Then He is co-responsible. By His power, prayer has meaning, but no benefit. If He has suspended His power on earth, we are at the mercy of the wicked. There is no point in praying then; and no use. A world war against Israel will come in the end times, see Zech.14:12 and Matthew 24:7-12. So how do we deal with this baby murder?
Moses was saved from the water and later also the boys where the midwives supposedly arrived too late, see Exodus 1:17-19. But so many other Jewish families were then damaged by the cruel Pharaoh. Where was G-d then? and at all those other times, when the most unthinkable atrocities were committed against Jews. Is that a G-d worthy of being worshiped by you and me? Credible?
What about? Omnipotent? Or on holiday? Love as a trademark, but delivery hitches? Is this how we treat the apple of our eye? Do not listen to the explanation of some that Israel does not deserve G-d’s love and would strike away His outstretched hand. History is peppered with the most heinous acts against Jews, Muslims and…
Protestants. In 1095, Pope Urban II called for a crusade against “the infidel Muslims”. Four years later, on July 15, 1099, Godfrey of Bouillon conquered Jerusalem, with his entourage of up to forty thousand Christian fighters possessed by religious madness, sunstroke and, above all, primitive bloodlust. And according to historians, 30,000 Huguenots died across France, while an even greater number fled the country or converted to Catholicism to save their lives.
Nevertheless, Adonai’s love for Israel is visible enough to someone like Napoleon that he could say, “If you need proof of the existence of G-d, look to the Jew. G-d has miraculously preserved them through the ages. Thus Napoleon”
But no suffering spared! That will be the meaning of Psalm 23 verse 4: “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For You are with me. Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” To that valley of death Adonai came from Zechariah 2:10-11: “10 Sing and be glad, daughter of Zion. Because I am coming. I will dwell among you, says the Eternal. 11 Many nations will be joined to the LORD on that day. They will be My people. I will dwell among you. Then you will know that the Eternal Almighty has sent Me to you.” The heavenly tour de force.
Earth is a dangerous place, in terms of climate and human nature. The Eternal does what He can and human nature consistently goes against that. He sends the Eternal in human flesh into our midst. He experiences for himself what kind of place this is and counts on wickedness and betrayal as a means to bring His sacrifice. He offers His life force to those who despair and desperately wonder whether help will come from heaven. And it comes from the one who loves Israel and soulmates.
May we enjoy a summer old style!
Lion Erwteman
Our May-June blog: The Pillars of Pentecost
On the 6th of Sivan, this year on the evening of June 11, the biblical Feast of Weeks, Shavuot, begins after 49 days of counting the Omer. If anyone asks you how we see Pentecost (the Christian name for the Festival of Weeks), just say that we see it as a mountain festival. The G-d of Israel deemed it important to meet His people plus those who loved covenants and civil rights, on a mountaintop. Somewhere in a desert.
That does not make our G-d a nature god; but it makes Him the Eternal One who likes simple things. And who likes to share His most precious treasures with us. It was Mount Sinai, where Adonai from heaven and Moses from the foot of the mountain met at Piszgat Sinai, the top of the mountain. They celebrated the first Pentecost together, more accurately called the Feast of Weeks.
Moses received a unique, precious gift from the Eternal: the Ten Words. Plus 40 days of education in a heavenly Wellness environment. That is the origin of Pentecost, Feast of Weeks (Hebrew: Shavuot). Moses had spiritual cataracts, like everyone who does not yet use G-d’s Spirit as reading glasses. Paul talks about it: “Now we look through a glass darkly” (I Corinthians 13:12).
The Eternal One gave him new eye lenses and Moses suddenly saw what he had not been able to read before. And all Israel received this cataract operation, just as they also received a heart transplant, to exchange the heart of stone for a heart of flesh, see Deuteronomy 30:6, “The Lord your G-d will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants”.
One of the readings at the Feast of Weeks is the book of Ruth. According to the Talmud Baba Batra 14b, this was written by the prophet Samuel. The book shows how someone who is not Jewish will do well if he or she follows the religion and the actions that go with it in a Torah-abiding Jewish environment.
After all, Boaz carefully adheres to the Torah by applying the commandment of brother-in-law marriage. And Ruth declares that Noomi’s G-d is also her G-d and that Noomi’s people are also hers. Ruth doesn’t become Jewish, she joins. This way she is also compensated for the loss of her husband with whom she had no children. In Ruth 2:10 she calls herself a nochria, a stranger from another land.
She indicates that she has now become a handmaiden (2:13). And a little later she calls herself an ama (3:9), a direct helper. At the end of the scroll, Boaz calls her his wife, isha (4:10). And the writer names King David as her descendant (4:17). A remarkable growth for someone who joins. Why the megilat Rut, the role of Rut, at this festival?
The story takes place at the same time of year during the harvest in late spring. According to tradition, Ruth died during the Feast of Weeks. The fact that she completely accepted the Jewish faith, the Torah and the people, corresponds to the heavenly gift in the desert of the Torah to all peoples.
Ruth’s conviction, her dedication and faithfulness, her perseverance under difficult circumstances, her service, her dedication on a personal (mother-in-law) and national (people of Israel) level, her acceptance of the G-d of Israel, her love for the Torah, all this testifies of the Spirit of the Eternal in Ruth.
She did not prophesy or speak in tongues, as a “sign of the Holy Spirit” according to some. It was her noble behavior that proved G-d’s indwelling. If we celebrate Pentecost like this, or better said: Feast of Weeks, it is good! The Torah was given to Israel on the first Pentecost, Shavuot (Feast of Weeks), over 3500 years ago, and to the representatives of the nations who fled with it and were present.
The Torah has been compared to milk because of its fat and nourishing effect. Only milk, say Paul (I Corinthians 3:2) and the writer of the letter to the Hebrews (5:12). For them, the holy and righteous Torah (Romans 7:12 and 14) is only the beginning of your spiritual journey. The higher stages are likened to solid food, as a baby grows in food intake. Hence the milk and cheese products we eat on that day. It is as if we asked the Eternal how we could best immortalize the Feast of Weeks. To which the Eternal answered: Say cheese!
Chag sameach, Happy Feast.
Lion Erwteman,
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Our November-December blog: light has victory over darkness
The month of December has a festival of lights called Hanukkah. Over the course of eight days, 43 lights are lit. A new light every day. This means that one light is lit on the first day and one more light is lit on each of the remaining days thereafter. The holiday commemorates a brutal and bloody war.
And just like with any war, you commemorate your loved ones and fellow citizens who have been murdered. You also celebrate the moment the war stopped. With mixed feelings of sadness and joy; and of uncertainty whether something like this would never happen again.
A brutal warlord, Antiochus IV, attacked Israel in 168 BCE. Thousands of people were murdered. Antiochus then issued a series of harsh decrees against the people. There was only one refuge left and that was the hills of Judea with their caves. Remember Zechariah 14. But even there the Syrians pursued the faithful people, and many were martyred.
Mattithiah knew that Antiochus would be furious when he heard what had happened. He would certainly send an expedition to punish him and his followers. Mattityahu therefore left his village of Modiin and fled to the hills of Judea with his sons and friends. The famous story of Hannah and her seven sons took place at that time.
After his death, Judah the Strong One, a follower, became his successor and general of this army. He was called Makkabi, a word composed of the initial letters of the four Hebrew words Mi Kamocha Ba’elim Adonai, “Who is like You, O G-d.” The Maccabees won the war and traveled to Jerusalem to liberate it.
They entered the Temple and cleared it of the idols placed there by the Syrian vandals. Judah and his followers built a new altar, which he dedicated on Kislev 25, 164 BC. When they went to light the candlestick, a replacement for the stolen gold menorah, they found only a small jar of pure olive oil with the seal of the high priest Jochanan, sufficient for only one day.
By a miracle from G-d it continued to burn for eight days. That miracle proved that G-d had once again taken His people under His protection. In memory of this, our sages established these eight days for annual thanksgiving and for the lighting of lights.
We like to follow our sages, especially in these times! Festival of Lights, but with death on our heels. The Eternal intervenes and ensures His victory.
Chag sameach!
Lion Erwteman
Go to: https://is.gd/Qp7FPV for the longer version.
Our September-October 2023 Blog
The month of September is richly filled with the feasts of the Eternal. These are Rosh Hashanah (Feast of Trumpets), Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), and the beginning of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles). The entire Bible focuses on the relationship between the Eternal and human beings. And that initiative comes from the Eternal. From the beginning there is a disturbed relationship. It was created by a crisis between Adam the man and his wife, Adam the woman, the Chava. Both are Adam: men and women (Genesis 1:27). They were going to blame someone else for a mistake they made themselves.
That is still a common trick that drives people apart. Even the Eternal Himself was reproached for failing the Chava, the partner Adonai had given to the Adam man. But mutual misunderstandings are also a cause of disturbed listening, which can lead to disturbed contact. If we don’t have a perfect system of communication between humans, how can we trust that we can hear Adonai’s voice properly and undisturbed? The shofar, trumpet, on Rosh Hashanah is intended, among other things, to blow our ears clean. The noise is also meant to throw you off balance. Spiritual growth can only take place when the status quo is disrupted.
When you clean your mouth and teeth by brushing your teeth, you are actually disrupting the bacteria that were just comfortably settling in and multiplying. That has to be done regularly. For example, we often need to be disturbed in our peaceful comfort, physically and mentally, to avoid sour muscles and ingrained religious beliefs. The endangered relationship between people and between people and their Creator regularly stalls, fades, loses its liveliness and inspiration. Anyone who does not see this happening is at great risk. And how can we be helped to keep our eyes open for it? By going through the Day of Atonement.
We’ve grown apart. We love and like each other less. We need reconciliation. After that unpleasant refresher, complete with not eating food and not drinking water and other liquids, we’re somewhat sobered up. Fasting is also intended to provide a fresh break in our digestive system. That disruption is necessary to experience on that physical level that we have to detach ourselves from the earth. So does the mikveh. Also detach from our own stupidities. And then we look for the tabernacle, as we lived in the camp of Sukkot, when we had just fled from Egypt. Experience the exodus again. But now with new insights and freshly disrupted certainties. Then we can grow together again. Good and sweet.
Rosh Hashanah: Celebration of your creation!
!שנה טובה ומתוקה
Shana tova umetukah!
A good and sweet year for 5784!
Lion Erwteman
Our Summer Blog: filling holes!
Vacation time! The word vacation has to do with the words vacuum and vacancy, which leads to this short study! Vacuum: an air and material empty space. That seems ideal, because a sterile room seems like a clean room. But a vacuum is constantly looking for filling.
Looks a bit like the water level in the Netherlands. Constantly pumping has to be done in the lower parts to ensure that no water flows over our land. That never ends. Something similar happens in a person who wants to get rid of his or her old way of life and old nature and behaviour. You focus on removing your old habits. This creates a vacuum that threatens to fill up.
If we don’t very consciously fill every day with new behavior and new ways of reacting, then that vacuum will fill up with something else, which is often the old familiar. Anyone who realizes that a new attitude to life awaits us tries to abolish the old nature. But what’s new? We should put up some kind of advertisement, a vacancy, with a detailed description of exactly what we are looking for in terms of news.
We humans are the descendants of the first Adam, the first humans on earth. We are part of that line. Therefore the Hebrew name for a man is ben adam: in the line of Adam. The numerical value of the Hebrew word Adam is: 45. That number expresses that we are a being, moving from the sphere of 40 to the sphere of 50. We are on our way, hopefully.
The number 40, together with 4 and 400, is an expression of the earthly: the four wind directions (“corners”), the 40 years on the road from Egypt to the Land of Israel and 400 years of living in Egypt. Man is in that line of 40, from the earth. On the Feast of Weeks, which we reach after seven weeks, 49 days, the 50 dawns. Moses, who skillfully guided Israel away from the world of 40, must soon step down from his leadership.
Just before Israel enters the Promised Land, a new leader fills the vacancy. His name is: Joshua (Yehoshua), whose full name is: Yehoshua Ben Nun. That literally means: Joshua In The Line Of The 50. Because the Hebrew letter nun has numerical value 50. And “Ben” is more than son. The elaboration of the Feast of Weeks, 50 days after Pesach, has come within reach through Moshe.
But Moses, the ben adam of the 45 and of the world of 40, saw his task come to an end. The Eternal ended it. Moses had to make way. His successor was Yehoshua Ben Nun, the man in the line of 50. Both men deserve our great respect and our great thanks. Moses showed what a high level of spiritual insight and action he had. He heard the Eternal and he saw Him, he contradicted Him and accepted Gd’s answer. Moses was able to bend nature to his will, such as with his staff turning into a tannin, a snake, or perhaps a crocodile. And as with the ten blows (plagues) which were real miracles.
Joshua was a capable general and spiritual leader, having a unique upbringing (see Exodus 33:11). Under his leadership, Israel grew spiritually. As a result, the spies in the city of Jericho were able to bring spiritual insight to the later great-grandmother of the Messiah, Rachav. Namely, that the G-d of Israel is not only G-d in heaven, but also on earth (see Joshua 2:11). We exchange, with great respect for both leaders, the Ben Adam (Moshe, 40) for the Ben Nun (Joshua, 50). Whereby we realize that 50 is the product of 7 x 7 + 1, as 8 is the product of 7 + 1. Seven as the number of the earthly time measurement of 7 days and eight – and also 50 – the number of extra-terrestrial, heavenly.
Back to the vacuum. If you begin to discover in your soul an empty space, a missing relationship with your creator, not only for the first time, but after your faith has begun to sag, look for the voice and presence of the Eternal. He is not only in heaven, but also on earth. He can give that emptiness, that vacuum, the filling you really need. He wants us to change: from being Ben Adam to Ben Nun. He can fill your vacuum and quench your thirst with the water of life, evaporating that thirst and unrest and unfulfilment. You have been busy in your life with various kinds of interpretation.
But hopefully your earthly, mortal mind and consciousness, bounded by the 4, 40, and 400, is beginning to crave spiritual fulfilment. You become a Ben Nun, a man or woman in the line of 50. And you begin to drink of the water of life. As Yeshua puts it: Whoever drinks of the water that I give him will never be thirsty again. For the water I give becomes a spring of water producing eternal life. Then your search is over. Then you possess the weekly desired peace. Then you come home.
Enjoy the summer!
Lion Erwteman
Our May 2023 blog
Around the sunset of May 25, at 9:25 PM, Erev Shavuot, the beginning of the Feast of Weeks, begins. We are then counted out, after 49 days of counting Omer. Counted seven weeks, Pesach started on the second day, so Pesach and Feast of Weeks are connected. It seems that we can appreciate and spiritually appreciate the Torah even better after going through the misery and suffering of our Passover exodus in a profound way.
Not suffering through your own wrong choices, but above all undeserved suffering. Because the Bible was written from there. Each author in it has contributed from his or her experience, in times of tension, persecution and self-inflicted suffering. Perhaps the Counting of the Omer is, among other things, dedicated in that light in Leviticus 23, verses 15 and 16. Namely: facing a different aspect of pain, bitterness and disappointment every day and trying to let that go.
The time between Pesach and the Feast of Weeks can be compared to a rocket that is going to make a space trip and must first try to free itself from the earth’s gravity. Israel was then a people who lived in slavery. That will stick to you and strangely difficult to untie. Celebrating Passover is working out your own disconnection and liberation, learning to see through your own grip and excuses. Such as turning perpetrator and victim around, or listing physical complaints.
Liberation is then: no longer turning the blame around and no longer coming up with your medical story or something like that. Passover is the festival when Israel moved horizontally to flee the realm of bondage and attraction. Shavuot, the Festival of Weeks, is the festival of vertical movement. Gathering treasures in heaven, against gravity, prepared therein by Pesach.
The more you know how to let go, the higher you rise with Shavuot. Israel was so capable of that. Everyone said in unison, i.e. the same words at the same time: He [Moses] took the scroll of the covenant and read it to the audience. And they said, All that Adonai hath spoken we will do, and to it we will hearken (Exodus 24:7).
In the same unanimous manner as just before, see Ex.19:8. That unanimity was possible because Israel was detaching herself from the earthly pull and thus from all the tricks that had become second nature. On the evening of May 25, we counted 49 days. Like the countdown on a rocket launch. Are you ready to start your space journey?
!נסיעה טובה וחג שבועות שמח
Have a safe journey and happy Feast of Weeks,
Lion Erwteman
Our April 2023 blog
The month of April of this year 2023, also 5783, has two special events. One is the Pesach Seder, on the night when Nisan 14 turns into Nisan 15. This year it is on April 5. The second is the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the State of Israel, on Iyar 5, Yom HaAtzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, on April 26.
Israel’s 75th anniversary is a direct confirmation of the Pesach Seder. The deliverance from Egypt was not an isolated act directed by Adonai. This included the calling of Moses, the preparations at the Egyptian court invisible to us, the willingness of the people to travel along and not to drop out along the way.
Also the choice of landing place for Adonai on Mount Sinai to meet Moses and the taking and displaying of all Temple tools. This included the growth in ingenuity of Israel to recreate the unique meeting of Adonai and Israel through the services in the Tent and the Temples; and, after the destruction of the Second Temple, in the synagogues.
For the latter, the once scattered altar religion had to be centralized in the Temples. And from the year 70 of the common era spread and decentralized again. Because that is how Israel could hold her services anywhere in the world, including Beth Yeshua Amsterdam. And 75 years ago, Israel was able to celebrate her precious Independence.
Everything depended and still depends on the involvement and persistence of the participants in all these eras. So from around 3500 BC until now! The call to be there yourself also relates to this: “when I went out of Egypt” (Exodus 13:8). It is not only about the cozy and liberating experience of a Seder, but also about giving your involvement a new impulse.
It is not only about that liberation from the past, but also about your own liberation now. And it is not only about your own liberation, but also about that of your brothers and sisters in your congregation, your fellow believers. Pesach gives you insight into the causes of lingering in your personal old affairs for far too long.
And gives you insight into the experience of the then leaders in training who celebrated Pesach together with Yeshua, in order to share that experience. You come to know your own rebelliousness and your resistance to face the facts, just as Israel learned at the time. Again, Israel’s 75th anniversary is a direct confirmation of the Passover Seder.
חג פסח כשר ושמח!
Happy and Kosher Pesach!
Lion Erwteman
Our March 2023 blog
Purim is the celebration of Jewish victory over a mass terrorist extermination attempt. This drama took place in Persia, during the reign of Achashverosh (Ahasuerus, that is, King Xerxes) and his Jewish wife Hasdassa who called herself Esther to hide her Jewish identity. The events we encounter in the Scroll of Esther took place between the years 483 and 473 BCE. After the Babylonian exile in 539 B.C.E. permission was given to Ezra by the then king of Persia, Cyrus or Cyrus, to travel to Jerusalem and restore the Temple and the city.
But a significant number of Jews continued to live in Persia for more than a hundred years, including Mordecai and Esther. Why we still celebrate this is partly because of the biblical command to do so. In the Scroll of Esther it says: “Mordecai wrote these events. He has sent letters to all the Jews, near and far, in all the regions of the empire of the Persian king Achashverosh. In it he obliges them to observe annually both the fourteenth and the fifteenth of the month of Adar, because these were the days when the Jews were given rest from their enemies; and because this was the month which turned for them from sorrow into joy, and from mourning into a festival day” (Esther 9:20-22).
It was decreed that this should be remembered and celebrated literally every year: “The Jews have decreed and made a statute for themselves and for their descendants and for all who should join them, that they, without ever omitting these two days, should celebrate annually, as it was written to them” (verse 27). That attack is not an isolated incident, given the fact that this type of terrorism is still taking place. Young children are taught early on in being combative, for example read this article: https://is.gd/vRo8OJ.
The topic is current. At that time in Persia, a high-ranking minister named Haman gave this order. Haman was a descendant of King Agag, then king of the Amalekites, see 1 Samuel 15:20, 33. Haman had a religious vocation to destroy Israel; his name could in fact be a priestly title. Haman’s opponent was Mordecai, family of Esther. He was of the tribe of Benjamin. Hadassah, later Esther, was the daughter of Mordecai’s uncle.
Mordecai gathered secret intelligence, which enabled him to learn what Haman, who deceived the king, really intended. Among other things, what Mordecai discovered was the date on which the mass attack on the Jews would take place. It was determined by lot, in Hebrew: pur, plural: purim. That was the way Haman worked. Thus the battle became a spiritual war between the god or gods of Haman and the G-d of Israel of Mordecai and Esther.
Hence Mordecai’s remark to Esther: “For if you remain silent at this time, salvation and deliverance will come to the Jews from another side. But you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows if you have not obtained the royal dignity precisely in view of this time” (Esther 4:14). Compare the ruthless casting of lots by cruel Haman with the fragile and noble method of Mordecai, who has an eye for the hand of the Eternal who uses times and opportunities.
King Achashverosh gained insight into the wickedness of Haman and his assassination plans just in time. He could not stop those plans, because Haman had issued a law of the Medes and Persians. They couldn’t be canceled. But the king gave the Jews the opportunity to defend themselves. A total of at least seventy-five thousand men charged at the Jewish population. And just like the Ukrainian population that in our time knows how to defend itself valiantly against the power-hungry Vladimir Putin and his rival Yevgeni Prigozhin, the Jewish population has defended itself.
Result: seventy-five thousand anti-Semites lost their lives in old Persia, with help from the “other side” also being called for. Just like the unexpected help from the Western countries for the Russians, which Putin had calculated would keep them divided and aloof. The royal family of Achashverosh (Xerxes I) and Esther had a son. They gave him the name of his grandfather, Darius; thus became Darius II, a king with a Jewish mother.
And we, what do we learn from this history, after we’ve been partying again? That we also learn to get an eye for the other side. That we keep our eyes open for religions that have achieved their goals with weapons and crusades. And that we will understand Hadassa who, fearing dictatorships that would ignore vulnerable minorities, had effectively adapted her name to her environment by calling herself Esther. Even the Eternal had hidden himself in this dramatic story. Concealed and invisible, but actively involved.
Lion Erwteman
