If you have any questions whatsoever: be it about the biblical calendar (i.e., Yahovah’s reckoning of time), or the counting of the omer or the Feasts of FirstFruits or Shavuot/Pentecost/Weeks/Harvest, don’t hesitate to communicate with us by using any of the aforementioned methods that I gave at this episode’s opening remarks. We’ll get you up to speed and once you understand the significance and placement of these Feasts of the LORD, your life will forever be changed. If you are old-hat this, let us rejoice and make the most out of the Spring Feasts of the LORD: this is our heritage and commonwealth. Our coming into this Faith was not something of petty happenstance or a religious fad that so many of our Churchianity cousins have said about and thrown at us—that we have fallen from grace and such. Indeed, our coming into the true Faith once delivered was actually—or should I say, was in direct accord with Shaul’s (aka the Apostle Paul’s) teaching that is recorded in Romans 11. Shaul wrote to the Roman Assembly of believers:

“For I speak to you other people (most translations deem other people as “gentiles,” but here the Cepher uses “other people” to denote those who are not “Jews”)—continuing—inasmuch as I am the apostle of the other people, I magnify my office. If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh and might save some of them. For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead? For if the firstfruit be holy (Shaul here is speaking of the original Hebrews—true Hebrews)—For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root be holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches be broken off and you , being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them (that is, you as a Gentile coming into this Faith are grandfathered in as a Hebrew-a crossed over-one)—as a wild olive tree you were grafted in among them and with them partake of the root and fatness of the olive tree, boast not against the branches, but if you boast, you bear not the root but the root you” and so on (Romans 11:13-18, Cepher)

Now the fullness of Shaul’s teachings is made more apparent when we attach his teaching that he wrote to the Assembly in Ephesus which goes:

“For we are His workmanship, created in Yahusha HaMashiach (don’t get hung up in the name of our Master being different from the name that I refer to Him here on this show—I’m using the Cepher bible rendering of this text)—created in Yahusha HaMashiach unto good works which Yahuah has before ordained that we should walk in them. Wherefore remember that ye being in time past the other people (remember “other people is rendered as Gentile in most other translations)—in time past ye being other people in the flesh who are called “Uncircumcision” by that which is called the “Circumcision” in the flesh made by hands that at that time ye were without Mashiach (that is, without Messiah); being aliens from the Devariym of Yisra’el (that is, you were aliens from the “commonwealth of Israel” and that is the crux of what we must keep in mind here—that we were once outside of the true Faith once delivered and all the benefits and accompanying expectations)—continuing—being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and—(get this folks)—without Yahuah in the world. But now in Yahusha HaMashiach ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of HaMashiach. For He is our peace who has made both one (that is, He—Messiah has made both Hebrew and Gentile one)—continuing—and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the regulation of commandments contained in dogma; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace. And that He might reconcile both unto Yahuah in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby and came and preached peace to you which were afar off and to them that were nigh. For through Him we both have access by one Ruach unto the Father. Now therefore you ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the qodeshiym (that is the “saints”)—but fellowcitizens with the saints and of the household of Yahuah and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Yahusha HaMashiach Himself being the chief cornerstone in whom all the building fitly framed together grows unto a holy Templein Yahuah in whom ye also are built together for a habitation of Yah through the Ruach. (Ephesians 2:10-22, Cepher)

So we have been afforded all the benefits of being a true Hebrew and in assuming this role in Yah’s creation, there are expectations that we must fulfill and those expectations are found in Father’s Torah and in the teachings and example of Yeshua HaMashiach. We have been released from the Law ONLY in the sense of the penalty that comes from violating the Torah. Instead of blindly obeying Torah, as new creatures (2 Colossians 5:17 and Galatians 6:15), we begin the evolution from that of being fleshly creatures to that of being spirit-based creatures. Thus Yahovah’s Spirit—His Ruach—slowly but surely replaces our fleshly self, beginning from the inside working out (ultimately to be physically translated into a full spirit being)—but beginning from the inside working out, we seek to please Father and establish a true and eternal relationship with Him that is unlike any relationship known to man. That relationship, like all relationships, has rules. The rules for that eternal relationship with Father is found in Torah. Thus, we observe and honor Torah, not because we are forced through fear to blindly obey Torah, but because we love and honor and want to please our Father. And that is the foundation of why we observe the Feasts of Yahovah and we adjust our lives to Father’s reckoning of time and His appointed times—His moedim.

     Zachary Bauer recently recorded a YouTube Video, the topic being the two most important things the Hebrew Roots community is lacking or are in need of today. Zachary’s response to this inquiry is that our community is in desperate need of “midwives” and “mohels.” Zachary went on to explain: Midwives are needed to provide birthing services to our community’s mothers so that they may give birth to their children independent and apart from the world’s established medical system. Certainly it should come as no surprise to anyone in our community—at least I would think it would be of no surprise—that our current medical system advocates pharmakia to treat illness and the use of c-section procedures to facility birth which is dangerous to the overall health of newborns and mothers alike. In the case of “mohels,” they are typically Jewish men who are trained and dedicated to the administration of the Brit Milah (Askenazi) or Bris (Yiddish). Both practices are essentially the same and is simply the keeping of some semblance of the “circumcision covenant” as provided in Torah—first in Genesis 17:9-14, followed by Leviticus 12:1-3—and these passages read as follows:

     In our modern western society, circumcisions are generally performed in hospitals and various out-patient facilities by medical doctors. But for centuries, circumcisions have been performed within the tight confines of Jewish societies throughout the world by a select group of men known as “mohels.” Mohels have remained loyal to the clear provisions of the circumcision covenant from the very beginning and it is custom even today for every Jewish infant male to be circumcised on the 8th day of his life. Clearly, circumcision was a provision of Torah that Yahovah gave to our forefathers to serve as a sign of the covenant between Him and every Hebrew male.

     So my take on circumcision for us Hebrew Rooters today is that, under the renewed covenant, our circumcision must be of the heart first and foremost. I would go over to Shaul’s letter to the Roman Assembly where he wrote the following:

     So from this key passage of Shaul, coupled with the Torah passages of Deuteronomy 10:16 (”Circumcise then your heart and stiffen your neck no more.” NAS) and 30:6 (”And Yahuah Elohayka will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed, to love Yahuah Elohaykawith all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.” Cepher)and with the Ezekiel 44 passage, Father was more focused upon each of us having circumcised hearts before Him such that we may walk in His ways without restraint, hesitation, malice, ignorance, fear or whatever; and that we would have a true relationship with Him. Physical circumcision was simply a fleshly formality that never ever guaranteed that the one circumcised would be a true Child of the King. Even the Jerusalem Council, led by the flesh and blood brother of Yeshua our Messiah, ruled in response to Peter’s and Shaul’s testimony not to place the full Jewish burden of laws and statutes and ordinances upon the newly converted Gentiles. James stated: “Wherefore my sentence is that we trouble not them which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: But that we write unto them that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.” (Acts 15:19,20, NAS) These four rules that were given by James to the attendees of the Jerusalem Counsel addressing the issue of the Gentile converts were basic Torah principles that had always been required of every proselyte to Judaism. In other words, it is my belief that this edict of James did NOT nullify the Torah mitzvah of circumcision, but it put the covenant of circumcision in its proper perspective. It essentially directed the convert to focus on those weightier matters of Torah first. The other matters of Torah could and would come later and I believe that this must be our mindset in Hebrew Roots today—circumcision of the heart must come first—adherence to Yahovah’s Feasts and Sabbath and Food Laws come next; and then all the rest must be a subject to be worked out between each individual and Yahovah. I do believe that every male disciple of Yeshua should be circumcised. If Hilary and I were still having children today, I would certainly lean towards having my boys circumcised on the 8th day instructed in Torah. But if an adult male were to cross over into our Faith, I would first counsel him to seeking after that true relationship with Father first through obedience to His Torah and the teachings of Yeshua Messiah. When the time comes—and he will most definitely know when that time arrives—then physical circumcision may be considered. You see, simply running out to be circumcised without first establishing that crucial relationship with Father and becoming a true disciple of Yeshua Messiah, will only lead to a focus upon fleshly obedience to Torah. Circumcision of the heart, I believe, must precede physical circumcision.

     I would further submit that Shaul never once, in all his teachings and admonishments to the assemblies he oversaw, that any Gentile male and or their male children be circumcised. And yes, I absolutely get it: we don’t follow every word and commandment that proceeds from the mouth and pen of Shaul—it is Yeshua that we Shema and Yahovah that we obey. But it would stand to reason that if circumcision was the end all to be all of our beloved Faith, then Shaul would have insisted that we be circumcised. But Shaul did not teach that we be circumcised—those of us coming into the Faith who were not Jews. Instead, he actually spoke against the practice such that one might focus too much upon the fleshly act and miss the spiritual necessities of our Faith which is Faith in Yeshua Messiah and love. Let’s take a quick look at Shaul’s teachings and his position on this subject of circumcision: