John 3:10-21

Our Torah portion begins with the law of the Red Heifer (Cow). The Sages of old have said that this law is beyond understanding. This chapter which begins our Parasha deals with contamination and purification. It focuses on the paradox of the law of the Red Cow, in that its ashes purify people who had been contaminated; yet those who engage in its preparation become contaminated themselves. Yeshua who is our High Priest, took on our contamination so that we could become purified. He, who knew no sin, took upon Himself our sin so that we could become clean.

King Solomon said, ”I have tested all this wisdom, I resolved I will be wise, but it was beyond me.”

Proverbs 9:10 tell us, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." Further in Romans 11:33,"Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God!"

John tells that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with G-d and the Word was G-d. He also states that all things were created through G-d, and this includes the words. In the bible there are a number of places that speak of words.

Numbers chapter 20, the Word tells us of the people once again assembling against Moses because there was no water to be found. In verse 8 G-d tells Moses to take the staff and speak to the rock to yield its water. However Moses, with Aaron by his side, instead of speaking to the rock got angry with the people and hit the rock. With this, G-d spoke to both Aaron and Moses telling them that they will not enter the Promised Land.

Words are very important as we read these passages: In the beginning G-d created...; In the beginning was the Word...; All things were made and came into existence through Him.…

In Romans 1:16, the good news, (word, Gospel) is G-d’s power of working out salvation (deliverance from eternal death).

In Proverbs 25:11 we are told "A word fitly spoken and in due season is like apples of gold in settings of silver. Proverbs 15:23 says a man finds joy in giving an apt reply, and how good is a timely word.

Proverbs also tells us that, "The Spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear? Ha Satan, our adversary, has a purpose, which is to steal our joy. He is pleased to see the people of G-d lose their joy when they become burdened with depression or sickness. Getting into trouble by allowing their flesh to take over, as we see Moses did when he hit the rock with anger and going against G-d's will by not speaking to the rock, opens the door for the enemy/flesh/world to rule us. Sometimes we also lose it with people and get angry and speak harshly to people instead of speaking with a word in due season like the apples of gold.

We hear people in many places that lose their composure or are mean spirited and want to hurt someone by cursing them, or putting them down, or tearing them down with unfit words. Words can hurt and even can bring death to you or to someone else. We need to always remember that our Father in heaven wants to heal the broken hearted, and bind up our wounds (Psalm 147:3).

Do not lose your temper. Instead of putting curses on the person you get angry or annoyed with, control yourself. See that the person you are cursing is also one who was made in the image of G-d. G-d wants each person to receive life and not death. Remember words can and do hurt people. Lets start speaking life and not death.

SHAVUA TOV

Rabbi Z.

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