TORAH: Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17
HAFTARAH: Isaiah 54:11-55:5 (Shabbat Rosh Chodesh: Isaiah 66:1 – 66:24)
GOSPEL: John 6:35-51
Portion Summary
You shall not hesitate to give, nor murmur when you do give; because you shall know who is the good repayer of the hire. You shall not turn away from him that is in want, but you shall share all things with your brother, and shall not say that they are your own; for if you are partakers in that which is immortal, how much more in things which are mortal? (Didache 4:7-8)
Torah
Deuteronomy 12:1 | Pagan Shrines to Be Destroyed
Deuteronomy 12:13 | A Prescribed Place of Worship
Deuteronomy 12:29 | Warning against Idolatry
Deuteronomy 14:1 | Pagan Practices Forbidden
Deuteronomy 14:3 | Clean and Unclean Foods
Deuteronomy 14:22 | Regulations concerning Tithes
Deuteronomy 15:1 | Laws concerning the Sabbatical Year
Deuteronomy 15:19 | The Firstborn of Livestock
Deuteronomy 16:1 | The Passover Reviewed
Deuteronomy 16:9 | The Festival of Weeks Reviewed
Deuteronomy 16:13 | The Festival of Booths Reviewed
Prophets
Isaiah 54:1 | The Eternal Covenant of Peace
Isaiah 55:1 | An Invitation to Abundant Life
Portion Commentary:
Twinkling of an Eye
Don’t blink! You might miss it. When the redemption comes, things will change in the blink of an eye.
When Israel left Egypt, they left in haste. The Torah explains the ritual of eating unleavened bread at Passover as a result of the abrupt departure from Egypt. Their bread dough did not have time to rise before they baked it.
You shall not eat leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), so that you may remember all the days of your life the day when you came out of the land of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 16:3)
A collection of midrash on Exodus titled Mechilta says that God hastened their departure because, when the appointed time for redemption comes, the Almighty does not hold matters back for even “the twinkling of an eye.” The idiomatic term “twinkling of an eye,” i.e., the blink of an eye, appears frequently in rabbinic literature to describe something that happens instantaneously. For example, another collection of rabbinic material called Pesikta Rabbati says that repentance takes effect “as in the twinkling of an eye.”
How long does it take to repent? According to the sages, it takes only the twinkling of an eye, the same amount of time it took for Israel to leave Egypt once the time appointed for redemption arrived. Just as Israel went from bondage to freedom in the blink of an eye, repentance and faith in Messiah transfers us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light instantaneously. When a person confesses Yeshua and trusts in Him for the forgiveness of sins, he is immediately forgiven and set free from bondage to the adversary. In the blink of an eye, he becomes a free man.
Likewise, in the time to come, the great messianic redemption will also happen instantaneously, in the blink of an eye: “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:52).
Read complete commentary at First Fruits of Zion.
