What Is The Fast That God Demands Of Us All?

The Prophetic Reading for the Fast of Yom Kippur

Isaiah 57:14-58:14
[Slightly midrashic translation, with commentary below, after the text]
Translated by Rabbi Arthur O. Waskow

And God said:
Open up, open up, Clear a path!
Clear away all obstacles
From the path of My People!
For so says the One
Who high aloft forever dwells,
Whose Name is Holy:

I dwell on high, in holiness,
And therefore with the lowly and humiliated,
To breathe new breath into the humble,
To give new heart to the broken-hearted.

For your sin of greed
I grew angry and smashed you,
I even hid My face.

Yet I will not do battle against you forever,
I will not be angry with you forever.
For from Me comes the breath that floats out to make all worlds.

‘God is a fraud’

Parashat Beha’alotecha (Numbers 8:1-12:16)

BY RABBI PAUL KIPNES

In this week’s parasha, Beha’alotecha, Moses faces the fragility of life as he watches his sister, Miriam, struggle with tzara’at, a dangerous skin disease. Overcome with anguish, Moses cries out to God. His five-word prayer, the shortest recorded in the Torah, beseeches the Holy One: El na r’fa na la (O God, please heal her). God hears, and miraculously Miriam is healed (Numbers 12:1-16). For some, this parasha provides comfort that, indeed, our prayers for healing work. And then there are people like Sarah.

Sarah walked into my office, sat in a chair and confessed, “My mother doesn’t know me anymore.” Tears began streaming down her face. I recognized that a while had passed since I had seen her around the synagogue. She continued, “My mother sits in the convalescent home, weeks now after her fall. Her hip is on the mend, but her mind continues to deteriorate. I tell her, ‘Ma, it’s me. Your daughter.’ Sometimes she looks confused. Sometimes she smiles. Then … then it is as if she’s gone. She just doesn’t remember me.”

Buried Treasure

"The LORD said to Moses, 'Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.'" — Exodus 34:1
The Torah portion for this week, Ki Tisa, is from Exodus 30:11–34:35 and 1 Kings 18:1–39.

There is an old Hasidic tale about a poor God-fearing Jew who lived in the city of Prague. One night, the man had a dream that he traveled to Vienna, and there, at the base of a bridge leading to the king's palace, he found a buried treasure. At first the man dismissed the dream as nonsense, but as the dream persisted, the man began to believe that perhaps its message was true.

Eventually, the man set out for Vienna and found the bridge that led to the king's palace. The problem was that the bridge was heavily guarded by armed men. The man paced back and forth near the bridge for days not knowing what to do. Finally, one of the guards demanded to know what he was up to. The poor man was frightened and told the guard all about his dream and his buried treasure.

Is It Biblical to Believe for Healing?

The foundation for our belief in divine healing begins with the study of salvation. Our salvation through Christ Jesus is sufficient to redeem us from both the nature and curse of sin (Romans 5:12; Galatians 3:13-14; Deuteronomy 28:15-68).

The Scriptures reveal that we have been given a great salvation (Hebrews 2:3-4). C.I. Scofield gave this Biblical definition of salvation. “The Hebrew and Greek words for salvation imply the ideas of deliverance, safety, preservation, healing, and soundness. Salvation is the great inclusive word of the gospel, gathering into itself all the redemptive acts and processes: as justification, redemption, grace, propitiation, imputation, forgiveness, sanctification, and glorification.”

Gloria Copeland has taught about the connection between the Greek word for salvation soteria and the Hebrew wordshalom or “peace.” The word shalom means “completeness, wholeness, peace, health, welfare, safety, soundness, tranquility, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony, absence of agitation or discord, to be complete, perfect and full.”

This covenant of salvation and peace that we have received through Christ Jesus provides complete wholeness with “nothing missing, nothing broken.” Isaiah 53:5 said the chastisement necessary to bring us this wholeness was laid upon Jesus. His peace encompasses every area of life—including physical healing.

One of the most compelling arguments for divine healing is the fact that Jesus administered healing throughout His earthly ministry. And according to the Scriptures Jesus fulfilled the will of His Father when He healed people (John 4:34; 17:4). The fact that healing is God’s will should not be surprising when we note that God has always wanted His people well (Exodus 15:26).

Healing was a fundamental component of the ministry of Jesus. Matthew 8:16-17 says, “They brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.” These verses make it particularly clear that the sicknesses and infirmities that Jesus healed were not only spiritual, but also physical. And that physical healing was part of a true fulfillment of Isaiah 53:5 which says, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” (Also see Luke 4:18-19; I Peter 2:24).

Jesus indicated that miracle healing power was available for all who would believe on Him. In John 14:11-12 Jesus said, “Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”

When Jesus sent out His disciples to minister in His name He told them to, “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.” (Matthew 10:8) We find no indication that the disciples were ever under the impression that healing should cease. Instead, we find them ministering healing to the multitudes (Acts 5:12-16).

Healing is an essential part of the Great Commission given to us by Jesus Christ Himself. “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover” (Mark 16:15-18). The healing power of the gospel is as viable today as it was in the early church.

kcm.org.au