Hebrew Nation Online | Weekly Torah Portion Reading

Custom Mary I wish I had a dollar for every time I've heard someone say, "It's just man's tradition. It's just a custom." At its worst misunderstanding, the tradition or custom is seen adversarial to Torah obedience and as evil. As a simply uninformed understanding, it's a lack of research or direction into how Yeshua taught and lived customs and traditions...of men.   For instance, the letter of the Torah does not say to go to a synagogue every Shabbat. But how should one "hear" the Word, which is a commandment? Synagogues were an answer to that question. The Torah was...

Join Mark Call of Shabbat Shalom Mesa fellowship for a two-part look at parsha “Toldot,” Genesis 25:19-28:9)…

The Erev Shabbat reading – and thus the title of the parsha – begins with “These are to ‘toldot’, or generations, of Isaac…”
…but it is really the beginning of the story of Yakov, or Jacob, and the father of the nations, Israel:

Mark’s Sabbath Day midrash is a deeper look at what has been called “enigmatic.” There are certainly elements, of this story in particular, that have been regarded as “problemati...

Continuation from "The Second Story and the Third Heaven Part A"

Join Mark Call of Shabbat Shalom Mesa fellowship for a two-part look at parsha “Chayei Sarah,” Genesis 23:1-25:18)…

The Erev Shabbat parsha reading begins with two of the most important precedent stories of original principles that form the very backbone of English Common Law. First, Abraham buys the first plot of land recorded for all time in human history, and outlines the elements of ‘Contract.’ And immediately after that, Scripture show not only what “agency” is, or what it really means to “come in the Name of” a Master, but even what a “good and faithful servant” looks like:

The Second Story and the Third Heaven This week I'd like to visit the architecture of resurrection. Yes, such a thing is possible! Scripture gives us several examples from literal buildings. Last week's newsletter gave a hint with the resurrection patterns in the homes of the women who extended hospitality to Elijah and Elisha. There are even more examples than that.   Just to review, the last several newsletters have investigated the Torah's ancient call to hospitality, not just a a nice thing to do, but as a vital preparation to inherit the Kingdom. Our hospitality study trail through the Torah, P...

Join Mark Call of Shabbat Shalom Mesa fellowship for a two-part look at parsha “Vayera,” Genesis chapters 18 through 22) and the central part of the story of the first Patriarch, Abraham, from his storied ‘dickering’ with YHVH Himself concerning the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, to the ‘binding of Isaac,’ known as ‘the Akieda,’ that prefigures another parallel act on that very same spot, many centuries later.

It is perhaps THE “Biblical-level” Act of Faith.

First, the Erev Shabbat reading:

The Sabbath Day Midrash is about not only th...

Better Homes and Garden The last several newsletters have investigated the Torah's ancient call to hospitality, not just a a nice thing to do, but as a vital preparation to inherit the Kingdom. Our hospitality study trail through the Torah, Prophets, Writings, and New Covenant started with Song of Songs 5:1, a restoration of the Bride and Bridegroom to the Garden of Eden: "I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh along with my balsam.I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; I have drunk my wine and my milk. Eat, friends; drink...

Join Mark Call of Shabbat Shalom Mesa fellowship for a two-part look at parsha “Lech Lecha,” Genesis 12:1-17:27) — which might be considered the original “come out” teaching in Scripture — where the first Patriarch, Abram (later Abraham) is told to “get thee OUT” of your country, leave what you have known, and “go to the land that I will show you.”

It’s a historic, literally “Biblical-level” Act of Faith.

But that is where the story of the life of one of the most important men in Scripture, and the ‘Father of our Faith,” only begins. Here’s the Erev Shabbat readin...

Parsha “Noach” (Genesis 6:9-11:32) is actually the second, and concluding part of the story of the “days of Noah,” and is the reading that contains the most well-known (and also sometimes LEAST known!) elements of the story of The Flood. But there’s more, too, because it also includes the “Tower of Babel,” and the intro to the first of the Patriarchs.

Mark begins the Sabbath midrash with the observation that the ‘days of Noah’ spanned not only the time prior to the Flood when “the thoughts of men’s hearts was...

Parsha “Bereshiet” (Genesis 1, through 6:8) is the first reading in the new cycle of the Torah, from “in the Beginning” to the first part of the “days of Noah.”

And as Mark Call, of Shabbat Shalom Mesa fellowship, noted last week, it’s just too much to try and cover responsibly in just one week. And since the interesting of reading from the last parsha, at the end of Deuteronomy straight through into the first Book, since we never really finish our study of His Instruction, means we read and studied into the first few chapters of Genesis/Bereshiet last...

Parsha “V’zot HaBerakhah” (Deuteronomy (chapter 33 through the End of the Book, and the entire Torah) is the final reading in this cycle, and the life of Moses.

The Erev Shabbat reading begins there:

This Sabbath Day midrash comes during the week of Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles — not only the actual time of the birth of the Messiah, but the heart of the yet-to-be-fulfilled prophecies of the Greater Exodus, the Revelation, and the Wedding Feast. It’s also when the annual Torah cycle readings c...

Parsha “Ha’azinu” (Deuteronomy (chapter 32) is the second-to-last reading in the Torah, and the life of Moses. It is, specifically, the second “Song of Moses,” that he sings, as a “witness against” them, and us, immediately prior to his death.

It’s also a warning that hits as close to home now as it ever has.

The Erev Shabbat reading begins there:

This Sabbath Day midrash comes just after the ‘most holy’ day of the year, Yom Kippur, and right before the final, climactic week of th...