Mark Call – Parsha “V’zot HaBerakah” teaching from Shabbat Shalom Mesa

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This week, because of the Fall Holy Days, and as we near the conclusion of the Torah cycle, Mark Call of Shabbat Shalom Mesa fellowship elected to take a look at the final parsha in the Torah, where Moses wraps up his final address to ‘kol Israel’ with blessings of the tribes, and is then allowed to see the promised Land from Mount Nebo just before he dies.

And there is here at least one tradition that seems to make a wonderful point, even if this portion will be read a bit before most of those on the more ‘rabbinic’ calendar do: When we reach the end of the Torah at the end of the Book of Deuteronomy,we continue right back into Bereshiet/Genesia 1:1, since the intent is to show that the study of His Word is a continuing cycle.

The Erev Shabbat reading:

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The Sabbath Day midrash examines a contrast: Moses addressed a people who were about to get a new leader, and finally enter and then begin the battle for their long-promised land.

We currently have no leader, and are evidently closer to losing a land than entering it, although there are certainly battles ahead, one way or another. But, as the Bible shows, the reasons for judgment are the very same.

And this is where the paths, on every level, and the stories, too — diverge. Call it a “fork in the road,” and a fork in the Word.

We continue into Genesis/Bereshiet because ALL of His Word is built upon ‘the Rock,’ that He was there, “in the Beginning,” and “knew the end from the beginning,” “changes NOT,” and Wrote for us what we needed to know, and do.

But the ‘mixed multitude,’ under the leadership of Joshua/Yoshua, both the Namesake, and ‘type and shadow,’ of that prophet Who was “like unto Moses,” proceeded to enter the land, and begin those battles. And that story continues in the Book of Joshua.

Both roads apply.

V’zot HaBerakah: “The Fork in the Road”

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The combined two-part teaching is here: