Newsletter 1

Well, the website is almost done. There is still a problem with the "subscribe" page, but the hosting site is working to fix the problem.

I am going to back up a bit this week and look at something from Parashah Tetzaveh "You Shall Command" that was read in the Synagogue on March 11th. I guess the main thing that stood out to me in this portion was the "Urim and Tumin". It is mentioned in Exodus 28:30 and easily read right over. It only directly mentioned 4 times in the Torah, here and in Leviticus 8:8 and once in Ezra and once in Nehemiah. It is mentioned indirectly a few more times, but not by name, only in "consulting" it.

So what is this "Urim and Tumin"? According to the Talmud (the Oral Torah in written form), it is the 72 letter Name of G-d that was written down by Moses. It was put into the Breastplate that the High Priests wore. Only Moses was spiritually close enough to G-d at this time, to write this name. The Breastplate was set with 12 Stones, one for each Tribe of Israel. Each Stone was inscribed with the Name of one of the 12 Tribes. In order to make them have the same amount of letters inscribed on each stone, the letters that were not used from the Hebrew Alphabet were added also.

The High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies and would ask questions of G-d for Israel. It is written that the "Urim and Tumin" would, by the "Power of G-d" light letters on the Stones of the Breastplate. Those letters that were lit would form the answer that Israel needed.

The Hebrew Scholars look at every aspect of the Torah. There are letters in The Torah that are larger than others, there are some characters that have extra "marks" on them. They look to every minute detail of The Word of G-d to find meaning. One way that they examine The Word is by the numerical values of the characters. What they add up to and what else has that same "value" ( this "value" is called gematria ) and then they look for a connection.

"Urim and Tumin" have 2 different gematria. The first is equivalent to the value of "The Divine Name of Seventy Two Letters", the second is equivalent to "The Light of Israel".

So here we see a picture of The Awesome Power of G-d! How incredible it is to think that He gave the Israelites a method of directly asking Him questions, and the method to recieve them! How AWESOME it is to see His Power in action. We dont often get to glimpse G-d working on this level. I would warrant a guess that a lot of you have never heard any of this before. This is the kind of thing that New Song Ministries wants to share.

Israel had "The Light of Israel" to guide them in times of trouble, isnt it AWESOME and WONDERFUL that we have "The Light of The World" to guide us!!

¹² "Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life"

Newsletter 1

Issue Number 03/12/06: