Paul on Aggadah—Part 5 of the Paul and Hebrew Roots Series

Let us quickly recall from Part 4 of this series that Aggadah is that unseen/invisible aspect of our lives that prompts or influences or even controls our behavior; in particular,that inward motivation, zeal, commitment or love that causes us to walk out our Faith in a certain way. In short, aggadah is really more about matters of the heart than anything else.

Conversely, the walk (the behavior) that results from aggadah is that visible/seen aspect of our lives that others can see if they so desire.

The Hebrew Root Word For Aggadah is Agricultural in Nature

Let’s briefly look at the Hebrew Root word for aggadah as it may shed some clarifying light on the wider meaning of the term. The root word from which aggadah derives is Aleph–Gimmel–Dalet–Hey.

As with so many things in our Hebrew Roots Faith, this root form of aggadah has an agricultural meaning attached to it. The root word means something that is ripened and comes to its intended form. Thus when applied to one’s life of Faith, the root form of aggadah has to do with a nascent fruit (maybe best seen as a seed or bud) that ripens and ultimately matures into a ripe fruit.

Another way to look at this thing is that the fruit is the halakhah; the seed is the aggadah.

Aggadah From a Practical Perspective

Practically speaking, aggadah is that thing—be it inspiration; uncompromising love and reverence for the Creator; whatever–that moves us to live righteous, obedient lives. When the heart ain’t feeling right about the Faith, it’s a fair bet that our walk isn’t going to be right either. One will likely live a less than righteous life and be less likely to properly keep the Creator’s instructions as He intended them to be kept. It’s just human nature.

Recall that old, but sage saying: “Home is where the heart is.” I used to think that saying was just about the love of family and home by someone who was for whatever reason separated from their folks. But when we apply this saying to aggadah, then this wise saying adds a whole new dimension to this essential concept.

Aggadah–It’s a Heart Thing

If our hearts desire after that which is not of God—that is, anything that may be carnal, then we invariably will make our homes in that carnal realm, metaphorically speaking. It is only natural for one to behave in accordance to the leading of one’s heart. If our hearts are tuned to holy, pure and righteous things, our behavior will follow suit such that we will be holy, pure and righteous in our behavior.

 

 

If our hearts are tuned to carnality—lust; hatred; idolatry;; adultery; fornication; anger; envy; foolishness and strife just to name a few, our behavior will naturally fall in line with such things. That is, we will behave carnally. Paul described these carnal behaviors as “works of the flesh” (Gal. 5).

If one’s heart is overwhelmingly carnal yet claim he or she claims to be a Torah Observant Believer in Yeshua Messiah, does that mean he or she is incapable of keeping most aspects of Torah (ie., halakhah)? Oh dear God no. We saw this brilliantly exampled by the Pharisees and Scribes of Paul’s day. These individuals went out of their way to keep every rote nuance of the Law (both the written and their oral traditions). Yet, like their wilderness wandering fathers of old, they went through the motions of keeping Torah, but used their Talmud and other ancient writings to get around the spirit of Torah.

Yeshua acknowledged the steadfast obedience of the Pharisees and Scribes to Torah and their traditions in one of His many rebukes of them:

“Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye pay tithe of mint and anise (ie., a medicinal plant) and cumin and all manner of herbs…ye strain at a gnat…ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter…” (Mat. 23:23-26; KJV).

So even Master recognized their discipline to Law-keeping—that is, their halakhah.

Yet Master clearly recognized the inward functioning of their walk in Judaism and he exposed them for what they truly were as men of faith. That is, Master exposed the true nature of their aggadah:

“…Ye have omitted the weightier matters of , judgment, mercy and faith: these ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone. Although you strain at a gnat, ye swallow a camel…within the cups and platters ye clean so well, they are full of extortion and excess…”(Mat. 23:23-26; KJV)

Yeshua likened the Pharisees and Scribes of His day to “whited sepulchres” (ie., whitewashed tombs) which He went on to describe as:

“You look beautiful on the outside but inside you are full of the bones of the dead and of everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you look righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Mat. 23:27,28; NET).

One of the things that the wilderness Hebrews of old lacked in their journey, that caused them continued run-ins with the Creator and Moses, was heart. In describing their great meeting-up with their Deliverer Yehovah at Mount Sinai where they agreed to His proposed covenant in sincerity and reverence (Exo. 19), Father desired for them to possess the same heart they possessed back at Sinai.

“Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear Me and keep all My commandments always, that it may be well with them and with their sons forever” (Deu. 5:29; NASB)!

Seems that our wilderness wandering Hebrew forefathers had a proper heart at one time during their journey. Something, somewhere along the way, happened, and their hearts became sullied and turned away from their Deliverer.

Can the Heart Be Tamed and Cultured

Can this inward element—the heart—be cultured or trained to love? Revere? To thirst after righteousness? To purpose to live righteously? To live a life worthy to be called a child of the Most High? To desire to be like our Master Yahoshua Messiah in every conceivable way? Can such a heart be cultured or grown or developed.

I think so. Absolutely. But I think more so that there must be a seed within the disciple of Yeshua that purposes to maintain such an inward, insatiable desire for the “weightier matters of the Torah such as justice, mercy, and trust” (Mat. 23:23). There must be a willingness to give one’s self over to the leading of the Holy Spirit (ie., the Ruach HaKodesh) in order to tame and culture his or her heart. There must be that initial resolve to give one’s heart over to God. And from there, I believe, the Spirit of the Living God and the Spirit of Messiah germinates that nascent seed within us that causes us to desire to be and do all that our God requires of us.

Did not our Father promise to write His Torah upon the fleshly tablets of our hearts; so that no one who truly sought to serve Him would be enslaved to sin; such that our hearts and our spirits would be totally in-sync with Yehovah/Yahuah/Yahweh, our Elohim; such that we would not be as the Pharisees adn Scribes described previously.

“But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith YHVH, I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jer. 31:33; KJV).

“And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh” (Eze. 11:19; KJV).

“Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Messiah, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart” (2 Cor. 3:3; KJV).

Some will contend that these verses—the foundation of the Renewed Covenant–applies only to the Jews in the End Times of the World to Come. But I fully believe this absolutely applies to those of us today who are disciples of Yeshua Messiah. Paul likened our particular situation as “wild olive tree branches” that have been “graffed in” to the cultivated olive tree of Israel. As wild olive branches that have been engrafted into that cultivated olive tree which is Israel, we become part of that cultivated tree. We receive all the benefits received by the original branches. This comes as a result of the goodness and kindness of our Heavenly Father (Rom. 11:17; 22; KJV).

Aggadah Is Also About Relationship

For as much as aggadah is about one’s heart in relationship to one’s walk, aggadah is also about relationship. THE relationship. The most important relationship that a human being could ever have on this planet.

 

 

One of the handful of missions our Master fulfilled through His earthly ministry was to re-establish the broken relationship that has existed between the Creator and mankind since the fall.

I said it before, and I’ll say it again: our Hebrew forefathers generally knew of Yehovah/Yahuah/Yahweh, but they did NOT know Yehovah/Yahuah/Yahweh.

It’s one thing to know about a person, but it’s an entirely whole other level and thing to actually know a person. How can one truly be in-sync with the Creator of the Universe if one only knows of their Creator. Only knowing of the Creator leads one to stumble through their life, never truly knowing whether or not they have pleased their God.

After 34-years of marriage and prior to that, a 2-year courtship, I’m still getting to know my wife Hilary. At the beginning of our relationship, I made a ton of mistakes, thinking I knew all I needed to know about her. Truth be told, early on, I knew a lot about her, but I didn’t really know her. I would go out of my way to do things I thought she would appreciate, only to find out later that she really didn’t care for what I did. It wasn’t that she was impossible to please. It was that I was trying to appeal to the woman—the person—that I thought she was in my efforts to please her. Thus I made up in my mind and purposed in my heart to please her in relation to what I knew, or thought I knew, about her. Needless to say, my efforts at pleasing her was often hit and miss. And in those times that I missed pleasing her, I became extremely disappointed and frankly hurt. I often thought that she was just a hard person to please. Truth be told, however, Hilary was not hard to please per se. I had not invested enough effort, energy and time in getting to know her. Thus, when trying to please her, I was more times than not, operating in the dark; operating according to my understanding and conceptions of her.

It wasn’t until a few years ago after blowing it with one of my efforts to please her that I asked her why she was not pleased with my efforts. She told me that she appreciated my efforts to please her, but I failed to to fully understand and learn what things truly pleased her.

Brad Scott makes mention of halakhah and aggadah in relation to the marriage relationship in his teaching on Paul. Scott notes:

One can suggest things to express a man’s love for his wife; but no one can teach a man to love his wife.

Case in point: I knew that Hilary desired that we have frequent times together—sort of like dates. So, I would arrange for us to go to a movie or some type of show. After a while, I noticed that Hilary was not really into these shows and movies. I ultimately learned that she preferred to go for walks together in lovely, natural settings, than to go to a movie. Talk about a lot of wasted, unproductive together time, huh?

I would never learn the truth of what pleases Hilary until I really began to know her, as opposed to knowing about her. Without getting to know her better, as opposed to knowing about her, I would invariably make the same mistakes of not pleasing her, conceivably, for the remainder of our married life together. And frankly, that situation would not bode well for either Hilary or me.

The same thing applies to our relationship with Father and us as individuals. We saw beautifully expressed in the lives of our Hebrew forefathers, both those wandering the Sinai wilderness and those occupying the Land of Promise, how they failed to please the Father in great part because their hearts were not in alignment with the things of Yah, and they never invested the time, energy and effort to personally know the Creator. These knew of Yah, but they did not know Yah.

Yeshua knew Yah better than any Person to have graced this planet; Moses knew Yah on a level described as a friendship (Deu. 34:10); Joshua knew Yah; David knew Yah; the prophets of old knew Yah; the apostles knew Yah. Thus, it was the deep, abiding relationship that existed between each of these great people of God that led to them to successfully and brilliantly walk in the Creator’s ways and perform unbelievable acts through the power and might of Yah’s Spirit operating on and in each of them (aggadah).

The great thing about our Bible is that it gives us example after example of how we are to live out our lives and the relationship that one must have with the Creator if we are to walk in a way that is wholly pleasing to Yehovah/Yahuah/Yahweh. That relationship has and continues to be based entirely upon love. That love in turn causes the would-be disciple of Yeshua Messiah to honor and obey their God with their whole heart, mind and soul (Deu. 6:4; Mat. 22:37). This is halakhah in its truest and purest form.

Aggahdically, the heart of the disciple belongs exclusively to Yehovah/Yahuah/Yahweh; it could never be shared with or owned by the powers of darkness. In fact, disciples of Yeshua reject and turn away from that which is evil and ungodly. From there, an intense and personal relationship develops between the disciple and Yehovah, which leads to the disciple leading a life beyond the norm of all human existence. It’s beyond simply keeping the weekly Sabbaths and the Feasts and not eating port or shellfish. It’s walking out one’s Faith everyday in a way that is pleasing and wholly acceptable to Yehovah/Yahweh/Yahuah.

Paul wrote to the Roman Assembly of Believers in Yeshua Messiah:

“So brothers and sisters, because of God’s mercies, I encourage you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice that is holy and pleasing to God. This is your appropriate priestly service” (Rom. 12:1; CEB).

Notice that Paul wasn’t focusing his instruction on demanding that his Roman disciples to keep Torah commands a certain way (ie., halakhah). No. Paul’s focus here was on the newness of life that every disciple of Yeshua Messiah has been called to live out. Continuing on to verse 2 of this same chapter in Romans, Paul states:

“Don’t be conformed to the patterns of this world (halakhah), but be transformed by the renewing of your minds (aggadah) so that you can figure out what God’s will is—what is good and pleasing and mature” (Rom. 12:2; CEB).

When we commit ourselves to being disciples of Yeshua Messiah and we give over our hearts to Yah, and we then fall in love with Yah, our minds are renewed. We see things the way Father sees them. We begin to understand things Father understands. We begin to desire the things Father desires; love the things Father loves; hate and despise the things Father hates and despises; and so much more. We became one with the Father and Yeshua because we have a relationship with the Creator of the Universe. Thus our day to day walk (ie., halakhah) in Messiah has to be positively impacted and influenced.

This is what Paul was trying to get across to both the Jews and the Greeks in his evangelical work; much to the chagrin and rejection of the Judaizers in the midst of the various assemblies he oversaw.

Over Focusing on Halakhah—Diminished Focus on Aggadah

Over the years I’ve seen many people stumble into our Faith Community—our Faith Movement as some would call it—and at the very start of their walk, they are so fixated on the nuts and bolts of Hebrew Roots/Messianic Judaism. And one of the very first question lead-offs they always ask: “How do I?” How do I keep the Shabbat? How do I celebrate the Feasts? Somehow, our Faith community/movement has put forth this image that the only thing that matters is doing. The Faith Movement/Community has become known only for its keeping of the LAW. Nothing else. Nothing more. I recall when I was member of my high school’s Christian club, we used to sing a popular 70’s Christian Folk song with the resounding refrain: “And they’ll know we are Christians by our love.” Yes, during those days, Christianity was really big on love, unity, joy and peace. And this was the environment in which I began my Christian journey, so to speak.

 

 

Roughly three-decades later I’m introduced to the so-called Hebrew Roots of the Christian Faith, and the very first things I’m told are a must is that I have to start keeping the Sabbath; got to start keeping the Feasts; that I have to obey the food laws. Not once, did I come across any teaching that even remotely suggested that I establish a relationship with the Creator of the Universe; to seek after Him in all my ways; to love Him even more than I love myself or my spouse or my children. It was never suggested that if I failed to establish a relationship with the Almighty at the beginning of my Faith journey, I could hit some really difficult times throughout the course of my walk with Messiah. For it is that relationship, as I mentioned earlier, that brings one’s heart, mind and soul in sync with the Almighty (aggadah) which then leads to a proper walk with Yeshua Messiah (halakhah).

Before one starts out in Faith, there should be a desire to know the ways of the Almighty. Far too many converts to Hebrew Roots/Messianic Judaism, desire instead, to know learn and follow the traditions of Judaism and the Jewish sages. These marry the Faith instead of marrying the Almighty. These fall in love with the Faith instead of falling in love with the Almighty. These obey the Faith and the Faith’s leaders instead of obeying the Almighty. And all too often, these same ones want to tell everyone else how to live and walk out their Faith in accordance to what they end up believing how things are supposed to be. In their zealous quest to lead and teach others the way they believe they should go, these same ones more times than not neglect to convey to their followers the teachings and example of Yeshua Messiah.

Then there are others in our Faith Community whose focus is only Torah—Torah—Torah, sprinkled with the traditions of the sages. These worship Torah as opposed to worshiping the God who gave Torah. Again, you will hardly ever hear mention of Yeshua in their many rants and power-trips aimed at capturing the hearts and minds of the less knowledgeable.

Do these individuals possess aggadah? Are their hearts driving their chosen life’s walk? I believe they do possess aggadah. The difference, I believe, is that their hearts are intricately linked to their religion as opposed to the Creator. They know of the Creator as opposed to knowing the Creator. And this is the sad tragedy of much of our Faith Community. There are way too many of us who know a whole lot about Yehovah/Yahuah/Yahweh, but we don’t know Yehovah/Yahuah/Yahweh.

So you may be asking yourself: Rod, what does any of this have to do with the teachings and writings of the Apostle Paul? Well, all that I’ve been discussing thus far regarding aggadah, has a great deal to do with the teachings and writings of Paul. And it is all that we’ve been discussing that has the Apostle Paul (aka, Shaul), wrongly accused.

Wrongly accused of perpetrating the grace perversion that under-girds much of evangelical and charismatic Christianity today.

Wrongly accused of perpetrating a “lawless” gospel of the kingdom that so many of us in Hebrew Roots and Messianic Judaism struggle to understand and explain.

Wrongly accused of being a liar.

Wrongly accused of not being a true apostle of Yahoshua Messiah.

One of the essential things that we as Torah Observant Believers in Yeshua Messiah must first understand about Paul and his writings and teachings, is Paul’s exceptional understanding and application of the critical balance that must exist between halakhah and aggadah in every believer’s life. Knowing, loving, revering Yah must precede walking in Yah’s ways—walking in Yah’s Torah. If the heart is not properly placed in one’s relationship with the Creator (the aggadhik), then one’s walk (the halakhic) will be compromised.

The walk then becomes all about us instead of becoming all about Him; how it makes us feel; how we appear to others; what we may get out of the deal by walking in such a manner. There is no love of Messiah in this walk; there is no accepting of direction from the Holy Spirit, especially when those directions contradict the direction we desire to go in; there is no true understanding of Truth that comes only from the pages of our Bible and the revelation of the Holy Spirit operating in our lives.

If anyone understood the importance of a proper aggahdic and halahkic life, Paul did. The best example of how not to live out one’s Faith was clearly seen demonstrated in the lives of the Pharisees, Sadducees and Scribes. And who were the very ones who gave Paul the most problems throughout all the assemblies he oversaw during his ministry? Yes, the Pharisees. The Judaizers. To these, it was all about being ultra orthodox; keeping the traditions of the sages; even if you were a Gentile convert.

Their negative influence over the various Messianic Assemblies Paul oversaw was so great, that much of Paul’s teachings and writings were devoted to reversing their religious influences on the Body. It wasn’t by any stretch of the imagination that Paul is erroneously and famously seen as being anti-Torah by Evangelical and Charismatic Christianity. The fact of the matter was that Paul was desperately trying to get members of the various assemblies he oversaw to understand that they belonged to Yeshua Messiah. Their example had to be first and foremost Yahoshua Messiah. And if that was too much of a stretch for them to comprehend, Paul encouraged the members to simply imitate him, as he—Paul—was imitating Messiah in every aspect of his life. But before imitation of Messiah could properly take place, there had to first be a renewal of one’s mind and heart; a relationship had to be established between Yah and the disciple. This was the gist of what Paul was trying to convey in much of his teachings and writings.

Examples of Aggadah and Halakhah

I believe I’ve beaten aggadah to death enough for us to now take a step back and look at these two Hebrew concepts from a practical standpoint as we prepare to look at Paul’s teachings and writings in the succeeding installments of this series.

Aggadah and Halakhah: A Dual Concept

We will see illustrated over and over throughout Paul’s teachings and writings that aggadah and halakhah go hand-in-hand. Both halakah and aggadah are important to be practiced together. Unless practiced together, there is an imbalance that can come to bear upon the life of the believer. These are designed to be one! I described this as a dual concept.

Grace and Love

True grace and love are the purest forms of aggadah. When activated in the disciple of Yeshua Messiah, good works result, which is halakah in its purest form. Both halakhah and aggadah in their purest forms come from Yah.

The Apostle John defines who and what a True disciple of Yeshua Messiah is: “One that keeps the commandments of God (halakhah) and who has the witness of Yeshua Messiah (aggadah)” (Rev. 12:17). It’s not choosing Torah over grace: it’s choosing grace first and foremost, and then keeping and walking out Torah.

According to Brad Scott, Grace serves a purpose as does Torah serve a purpose in Father’s grand Plan of Redemption for mankind. No truer words related to this subject has ever been spoken.

The Letter Versus the Spirit of Torah

The letter of the Torah is halakhah. It was first written on stone tablets. Torah is printed today on the pages of our Bibles. Many who come to adopt the Hebrew Roots of the True Faith focus exclusively on the Torah of the printed pages of the Bible. They fear not keeping certain Torah commandments and instructions properly. And this is a real fear among many new converts. This fear has the potential of making or breaking some of those converts.

The spirit of Torah is aggadah—that is, the worship of Yah in Spirit and Truth. It’s the keeping of Torah, not blindly through rote, mechanical obedience to every Torah command and instruction, but keeping Torah in the spirit in which Father intended it be kept.

However, for many, the Greek side of us chooses to keep the letter of Torah as opposed to the spirit of Torah. We must ask ourselves, however, what are we seeking to accomplish in our keeping of Torah? That which is on our heart is seen in the things we do.

On Sabbath, do we simply not work; read our weekly Torah Portions; maybe watch a video or two in order to substitute or replace a holy convocation? Or do we rejoice and worship the God that gave us the Sabbath with our whole being? Do we seek to do something that shows our love for Yah and for our fellow disciples? Instead of watching that video or reading that Torah Portion without fail every Sabbath, do we seek out and establish fellowship with other like-minded believers in Yeshua Messiah so that we share our witness and bless one another, whereby glorifying our Father which is in heaven? I’m not saying one way or the other. I’m simply asking about the Spirit of Keeping the Sabbath Commandment. What does keeping the Sabbath mean to you?

When Yeshua walked and ministered on this earth, He redefined what it meant to keep the Sabbath by healing, fellowshipping and teaching Truth to His disciples on the Sabbath. Yet, the Jewish religious leaders vehemently claimed that He broke the Sabbath commandment. We know that Master did not break the Sabbath at all. In fact, Master showed us how to keep Sabbath to its fullest. Indeed, Master Yeshua kept the Spirit of Torah in respect to the weekly Sabbath.

Paul looks at this thing from the perspective of the one going before the other: the spirit of Torah (aggadah) drives you to the things we can see (halakhah).

I’m going to just put this out there and ask you to think a little on it. Could one of the reasons mainstream Christianity is so hostile towards those of us in Hebrew Roots and Messianic Judaism be that we place almost all our focus on halakhah—that is Torah keeping—while ignoring almost entirely aggadah—that is the heart and relational aspects of our Faith? Think about it: mainstream Christianity sees what it sees of us; that we care only about keeping the Sabbath, the feast days and the food laws. Yet mainstream Christianity fails to see the love we must have for Yehovah/Yahuah/Yahweh and for one another and the fact that we keep Torah because we love our Yah and that we desire to please Him and that it is also the right thing to do.

Another way to view this dual concept, from a Torah perspective, is that love for Yah is aggahdic in nature while love for one’s neighbor is haggahdic in nature.

And here’s the thing that blew me away about this dual concept that I did not consider early one: one concept came before the other. Do you know which came first?

Aggadah came first. Father’s love for His creation preceded His giving of Torah. And that same principle applies to us today. It’s not one or the other. Consider this, the first 4-commandments are aggahdic and the remaining 6 are halahkic. When we do all 10-commandments, we then possess true love.

Brad Scott yet again states that halakhah is the form (the actual walking out of Torah) while aggadah is the function (the inward aspect of our walk that involves the heart and our relationship with the Almighty) of true Torah living. First the function then the form. The form must match the function. Unfortunately, today we are more drawn to the form than the function. Both must be one.

Paul and the Holy Spirit convinced James and the Jerusalem Council that it was important that the Gentile converts first establish a relationship with Yehovah (Acts 15). Thus the Council instructed that only a few rules would be imposed upon the Gentile converts so that they would spend their early time and attention in the Faith on developing a relationship with the Creator. Later on, more instruction would be given to those converts after the relationship had been fully established.

Why have we not adopted this same understanding and practice in our Faith today? Have we not worn down a great many converts to Hebrew Roots by beating into their heads Torah-Torah-Torah at the expense of neglecting the converts’ relationship with their Creator? Just saying.

Brad Scott brilliantly explains the importance of relationship versus the walk through the example of raising children. Scott contends as brand new parents, we develop a relationship with the baby at the beginning of their lives and then once the child gets to an age of understanding, we train and instruct the child on how to live. My friends, the very same principle applies to the newbies of our Faith Community. And this is what Paul so ardently pressed the assembly members and leaders to pay attention to and set aside the overbearing demands of the Judaizers: let’s educate the Gentile converts on the essential elements of Grace and the new life they’ve embarked upon. Then, as the convert matures, train the convert on walking out their Faith consistent with the Spirit of Torah.

Personal Insights Related to Halakhah and Aggadah

Hearkening back to my days as a Coroner administrator who managed roughly 2-dozen death investigators (not at all seeking to blow myself up as we all have interesting and important jobs and careers), when it came to training new investigators, it was easy to introduce and indoctrinate them into the various established investigative techniques, procedures and policies of the craft. It was an entirely different thing to instill into those same recruits an investigator’s mindset and persona: teaching them to be nosy; to know the right questions to ask at the right time; to be suspicious; to know where to look for clues; to have compassion for the people they are serving; to be dedicated to their work and not seek after shortcuts for the sake of getting through their shifts quicker. These are all internal things that must come first and that ultimately drives the recruit to perform those established investigative techniques, procedures and policies of the craft well.

Closing Thoughts and Call to Action

And this is where we’ll conclude our preparatory discussion of the pre-conversion Paul.

Now, we’ve talked extensively about halakhah (the walk; that element of our Faith that is readily seen by others—the actual doing of good works and obedience to the instructions and commands of the Almighty) and aggadah (the inward piece; that element of our Faith that is not seen by others and that drives and moderates our walk—it’s the state of our heart and our relationship with the Almighty).

We’ve seen that it is impossible to properly halakhah—walk out—this Faith of ours the way Father always intended it to be, unless our heart and our relationship with Father is right. The two work together and the way Paul seems to approach this dual concept in most of his teachings and writings is to encourage aggadah be firmly established before the halakhah.

So my call to action for this installment is pretty simple: that we take an honest and complete assessment of ourselves and the health of our Faith in Messiah. Let us ask ourselves with as much honesty and purpose that we can muster: is my heart right with God? Do I actually have a true and healthy—substantive relationship with the Creator of the Universe? And if our assessment turns out to be lacking in one or both these areas, let us get down on our knees and earnestly seek the Face and will of our God.

Forget for the moment whether or not we are keeping Torah perfectly or if we know every nuance of Torah there is to know. Forget what the sages of old and our modern day Torah teachers are instructing or telling us to do in order to be perfect Hebrew Rooters. For the moment, let us stop worrying about how we are going to sort out the relationships we currently have with family, friends and our church affiliations. There will be more than enough time to deal with these issues in the days ahead for Father will graciously order our steps in all areas of our lives.

Instead, let us focus on loving our God; praising and worshiping our God; confessing and repenting from our sins; turning over to our God every aspect of our lives that we have yet to turn over to Him. Let us purpose in our hearts, minds and souls to seek first the kingdom of Yehovah/Yahweh/Yahuah our Elohim. In so doing, Master promised that if we do this first—the aggadah first—then all the remaining stuff will be fulfilled in our lives in the grandest fashion.

Halleluyah!? Halleluyah!

Hey look: I know that some of this stuff that I’ve been talking about to you this morning may not fully resonate with you. Or for that matter, maybe it does resonate with you, but you have questions or concerns that may be hindering your walk with Messiah. That’s okay my beloved friend. It’s more than okay.

Email me your concerns or questions at perceptionwp@gmail.com and let’s work this thing out. Let’s reason together and figure this thing out. For nothing else in life truly matters. Nothing. Yes, keeping Torah is important, but in the end, the only thing that matters is our Father and the relationship we have with Him. Period.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: It’s all about Him; not about us.

And I think we are now ready to actually get into the teachings and writings of Paul, beginning with Part 6 of this installment. I’m not entirely sure where we’ll actually begin in our journey, but I’m looking so forward to it.

A little warning beforehand. We are going to really dig deep into Paul’s teachings and writings. Much of what we will examine are from the inspired text, as well as we will tap extra-biblical resources to get a feel of what may have actually been going on behind the scenes to prompt the Pauline writings in questions.

I’ve stated on more than one occasion on this program that I am not a bible scholar. I don’t have letters before nor after my name. I’m just a Torah Observant Believer in Yeshua Messiah, like most of you, seeking Truth and I’m not afraid to go to the highest heights and deepest valleys to find it. We deserve to know the Truth and not be snookered into denominational and religious gibberish turned doctrine turned bible truth. This has gone on long enough. We live in a world today where information—even Truth—is right at our fingertips if we so choose to grab hold to it. Why not seek Truth now while we still can. Father’s Spirit will provide and lead the way. Just saying.

May I ask you to pray for me as I prepare for these upcoming discussions? I can tell you: it’s not going to be easy and I’m certain I’ll experience some spiritual warfare along the way in my preparations. I truly covet your prayers and your continued support.

So, until next time, may you be most blessed Fellow Saint of the Most High Elohim. Warmest shalom to you and your family. Take care.