Well, Shabbat Shalom, everybody. It's good to
be back with you all. We had, Sue and I had one
fantastic trip. We were on a cruise to Alaska,
and how many of you have ever been on a cruise?
Oh, a bunch of you, okay. Well, I was on another
one a while ago, and I'll tell you the truth,
it was a short cruise, and I didn't like it.
I'll tell you why. I felt like... I was in a
shopping mall and I couldn't escape. Water to
the left of me, water to the right of me. But
this one was absolutely fabulous. And if I'm
allowed to make a recommendation of a cruise
company, let me tell you, Holland America. Wow.
Wow. There's so many... pleasant things about
it, but I'm going to focus on just some insights
and lessons that occurred to me through the trip.
And hopefully this will be meaningful to you.
What we're talking about is the life well lived.
That's the subject I want to raise. Or we can
frame it as a question, what is the life well
lived? Big subject, but some lessons. did arise
as I reflected on this wonderful experience.
So let me share some things with you. Well, of
course, it was our 50th anniversary trip. 50
years, where did that go? Whoa! Actually, that
was last May, but it took a while to get ready
for this, so our 50th anniversary was this May
21st, but you rounded off to the nearest... So
it was really just absolutely wonderful. But
I want to share a few things which struck me
as I'm on the trip. And one was as follows. As
I considered who was on the trip, it was 1 ,900
people on this boat. That's a big boat. On top
of that, 800 staff people. The most wonderful
staff people. I mean, people principally from
the Philippines, from Indonesia, and some from
Malaysia and other places. The most polite, cheerful,
helpful, competent people. But that's another
story. What I did notice was that it was almost
entirely people our age. Yeah. And this insight
came to me, and I like to think it was from Hashem.
that I was filled with a sense of admiration
for all these people that we encountered, not
encountered by talking to many, but just by being
with them throughout the trip. And here's what
I mean by that. The average age, again, I'm guessing,
didn't take a poll, was between 60 and 80, right?
And mostly, I noticed, husbands and wives sometimes...
they seem to have come as a group from one place.
You know, you just sensed they'd be sitting at
a table together and they all knew each other
well. But these are people who, through life,
had chosen to stick together. Undoubtedly, because
this is the way life is for us and everybody
to one extent or another, there are moments that
are tough. I'd have to say, actually, between
Sue and me, there have been very few of those,
almost none, thank God. But, you know, life is
life. and things happen, and yet my sense is
that these are people, you could feel their rapport.
They had husbands and wives. They liked being
with each other. I even sensed that they weren't
that thrilled with sitting with other strangers
and striking up conversations. I think for many,
and including us, this was a chance to just detach
from the usual rhythms of life and endless Conversations
with everybody who you know, I mean all good
stuff don't get me wrong but I sense from the
group that these couples just like being together
and Just enjoyed that aspect these people had
raised their kids their kids were not with them
and They obviously had built careers allowing
them an occasional delightful experience like
a cruise and the net result is that I came away
with a profound sense of gratitude, or not gratitude,
it's not the right word, there is that too, gratitude
to God for the whole experience, but it wasn't
gratitude principally, it was a sense of honor
and appreciation for people who paid their dues
in life, and at least to some extent can be said
to have discovered what a life well lived looks
like. It's not a spiritual insight particularly,
but I want to conclude with this later on within
a larger framework of our Messianic Jewish experience.
So that was the first thing. A sense of appreciation
and honor for people who had lived into their
60s, 70s, and 80s and had paid a lot of dues,
and here they were enjoying the fruits of a life
at least... relatively well -lived. I don't know
individual stories. It's just a broad generalization
that I sense. Now, I want to tell you that a
second reflection comes from a very special Jewish
service we were at. This was not exactly a Jewish
crowd. How do you know? You just know. And yet,
not to take away anything from the sense of honor
and respect that I came away with, but we learned
that there was actually going to be a Jewish
service on Friday night. Ah, okay, great. So
we went, and we didn't know, you know, were we
going to be the only ones there? Not quite. There
was another couple in our age bracket, a Jewish
family who lived in Florida. I won't say anything
more specific about that, but, you know, our
age. And they attended, it turns out, a conservative
synagogue, and they were, and they saw us, and
it was like in the Frisco Kid, "Luntzman" if you
know the Kid, "Luntzman". And then, of course, the inevitable
question came up. Oh, where are you from? Boston.
What shul do you go to? Congregation Ruach Israel.
It is a Messianic Jewish synagogue. We... are
Jewish people who believe that Jesus is the Messiah
of Israel. Listen, I'm not going to hide who
I am under any circumstances. It was a delight
to just tell him. But you can sense, particularly
from the wife, oh. Right? But you've got to give
Holland America credit. They had challah. They
had wine. And sidurim, gates of prayer, reform,
sidur, and all. So there we were in this special
moment of praying l 'chadudi and praying elements
of the evening service. And the guy had a good
voice, and I can sing, and all through he sang.
Wow, that was great. I mean, I don't know exactly
what he meant by that. The experience he was
having and the fact that we knew the liturgy
quite well, and he would say, well, can you suggest
a song for such and such? No problem. And they
knew the song, too. And there was this wonderful
kesher. Kesher means connection. This sense of
here we are, 1 ,900 people, minus four, everyone
else is... You know, in the lounge with a piano
player learning a wonderful thing on another
night. We would have enjoyed it. But singing
60 songs and recapturing the songs of their youth.
Again, think about the age group, you know. Carly
Simon and this and that. And that's what they
were doing. But here we were praising the God
of Israel together with the traditional liturgy.
And you could just... We just had this magnificent
experience of Jewish joy together. And, you know,
what reminded me, now, tomorrow night, right,
Sunday night, we're going to, Rabbi Nathan will
be leading a study in Acts chapter 2. I'll be
doing the Ruth study. By all means, come tomorrow
night. It's going to be a great evening, and
we're going to just enjoy Shavuot. But there's
a passage that struck me. Again, as I reflected
while on the trip on this magnificent experience
of sitting with these people, and we made kiddish
together and everything, and then we just said
goodbye to each other. And I wonder what it's
like for services for them in their own synagogue
last night. How was the trip? It was great. We
had a great time. We actually had a wild experience.
We were some Messianic Jews. I want to tell you,
we were wrong about them. They're legit. I could
just hear the conversation right now, right?
And who knows? So a little bit of speculation
on my part, but I wouldn't be surprised. I think
that stereotypes were affected, and not because
we were trying to do anything to prove anything
to anybody. We were just... worshiping, and of
course through Yeshua, although we didn't have
Jewish liturgy, or rather messianic elements
in the liturgy that we were doing, but in our
hearts and minds, you know, this is where we're
at. We believe in him, and that's all there is
to it. Anyhow, this passage. So tomorrow night,
when Rabbi Nathan leaves us, I don't know if
he'll spend a lot of time on this, but I just
wanted to read a couple of the verses that suggest
something about the experience I'm sharing. This
is from Acts chapter 2, when the Spirit the Ruach
fell on the Shechem, the apostles. And all of
a sudden, they spoke in or were heard in, it's
a little difficult to tell from the text, which
was, it's miraculous one way or the other, they
were heard in all these languages from disparate
Jewish communities all over the Mediterranean
area. And so it goes like this. First, a question
was asked. Utterly amazed, they asked, Aren't
all these who are speaking Galileans, country
bumpkins, you know? And then how is it that each
of us hears them in our native language? Parthians,
Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia all
the way to the east, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus,
Asia, like Turkey. Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt
in the west, and the parts of Libya near Cyrene.
Visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts, Jews
by choice who became Jews. And there were some
non -Jews there too, Cretans and Arabs. We hear
them declaring the wonders of God in our own
languages. And I thought, what a picture of a
disparate group of Yids. from all over coming
together and hearing the word of Yeshua and having
this unique experience. Well, for me, it was
evocative of this time on this tour with this
other couple and how delightful it was and just
wonderful. So let's move on to number three,
the next insight. So that's number one. And now
the next one. This is, again, just reflections
while on a trip. They just occurred to me then,
and I've been thinking about them and feeling
it worthy to share with you about the life well
lived. So I want to tell you a salmon story.
I want to tell you about salmon. Do you like
salmon? Oh, my gosh, so yummy. I love salmon.
Okay. So we visited. You're on the ship, and
then they take you. It's the southeastern part
of Alaska, and they take you from the bottom,
and they take you through a waterway up toward
different areas. We ended in Juneau, but one
of the first places we visited was Ketchikan
in Alaska. And Ketchikan is reputed to be the
first... city of the state of Alaska. Let me
just tell you, Alaska, their biggest city is
Anchorage. We started there, actually. And let
me tell you, to them, it's a big city to us.
You know what I mean? If you can find a McDonald's,
don't say anything. If there's anyone in YouTube
land from Ketchikan or from Alaska, no offense
intended, but it's, you know, There aren't that
many people there. Okay, so Kachikan is considered
the salmon capital of the world. And we learned
a lot about salmon. And I want to tell you about
the life journey of an Atlantic salmon. And it's
very, very interesting. So where do salmon get
born? They get born in... They're born in fresh
water. And rivers, in rivers, their moms would,
it would be the, their eggs would be there, and
they would be born in fresh water. And then,
after they grow up a little bit, there are physiological
chemical changes in their bodies. which gradually
prepare them for their journey to the sea, to
salt water. This is an amazing thing. They go
from fresh water to salt water. And so then they
continue living in salt water in time for them,
after they've grown to adulthood, to swim back
to the actual river they were born, though it
might be hundreds of miles away. And there are
speculations as to what allows this to occur.
Some have said that it has something to do with
the magnetic aspects of the magnetic nature of
the magnetic field surrounding the Earth, and
perhaps they somehow tune into that. Others suggest
there's something, some subtlety in the environment
in which they were born, that they were able
to somehow navigate their way. But don't you
find that miraculous? Not the strict sense miraculous
as part of the physical world, but don't you
find that amazing? And I want to tell you about
the journey. You see, they can travel back up
to a thousand kilometers. I imagine kilometers,
five -eighths of a mile. So anyhow, hundreds
and hundreds of miles. And somehow they're able
to, from the ocean, find their way back to the
place that they... were born. And salmon have
special muscles adapted for this kind of journey,
muscles that give them the ability for short,
explosive action, like quick twitch muscles we
talk about that people have. And they're able
to jump 10 feet in the air from swimming, jump
because they have to go up waterfalls many times.
They can jump out of the water as high as 10
feet, and waiting at the top, we saw pictures
of this. We didn't see actual bears there, but
there's pictures of bears right at the top of
the waterfall, standing on rocks with their mouths
open. What do you think they're doing? Come here,
little fishies, right? And so jumping right into
the mouths of all these bears, in other words,
it's a very treacherous journey, as you can imagine,
but ultimately they arrive back and they have
become so depleted of their fat sources and their
energy that they spawn their young and they die.
Right? All the effort given to do this one thing
of seeing to it that the next generation continues.
All right. Now, what does this have to do with
Messianic Jewish anything? Well, let me tell
you. Quiz question. I wonder if anyone knows
this. What is the Hebrew word for fish? Does
anyone know? Dog. That's right. All right, smarties.
What is the Aramaic word? Does anyone know? I
know, I bet Rabbi Nathan knows, but I'm not going
to ask him. It's noon. Noon. Okay? In Aramaic,
fish is noon. Well, what's very interesting is
that there are a few sections of the Torah which
have something called, some people call it upside
-down noons, others call it reversing noons.
Now, when noon looks like this, let me see if
I can give it from... your angle. Okay, I'm going
to just do this. It goes like this and like that.
That's all. Almost looks like a bracket, okay?
And the reversing noon, the way it works in this
passage is that the noons face outward rather
than facing inward toward each other, and there's
a rabbinic midrashic understanding of that. I
won't get into that particular one. I'll share
it with you at Simchat Torah. I will share it
with you. But there's something about it I wanted
to stress with you. We're talking about the journey
and the reversing or upside -down noons. And
here is a passage in the Torah which prominently
displays the reversing noons. That is, they're
not in the Hebrew text the way you'd normally
expect. And tell me if this is familiar to you.
We stand when the Torah is returned to the Ark,
and what do we say? Right from the Torah. And
whenever the Ark set out, Moses said, Arise,
O Lord, and let your enemies be scattered, and
let those who hate you flee from before you.
And when it rested, he would say, Return, O Lord,
to the ten thousands of Israel. Sound familiar?
Yeah, like a few minutes ago. That's exactly
what we intoned. Now... This passage of the Torah
is glorious. God, you're going before us. We're
returning the Torah to the ark as we did in ancient
days. The Torah led us forward in victory. But
what's interesting is that immediately following
this passage in the Torah are chapter after chapter
of all the struggles we face getting to Eretz
Yisrael. I mean, right afterwards, all the accounts
of us complaining and Moses being mad at us and
God threatening to wipe us out and all those
kind of things. In other words, the whole thing,
after this triumphant beginning, the rest of
it is struggle, struggle, struggle, struggle.
And so a rabbinic commentary is, well, the Jews
are like a noon, Aramaic for fish. The Jewish
experience is one. of really having to give yourself
to it for a higher purpose, like the salmon,
who gives us all, and that is the nature of the
Jewish, and it would include the Messianic Jewish
experience, filled with glorious things, tough
at times, too. The nature of it, okay. Now, all
of this, I think, is helpful to us in thinking
about the life well lived. The life well lived.
is the life of a committed life. And I feel badly,
and I say this with compassion, I say this with,
you know, if you've had experiences in life which
prevent you from keep being intimate and connected
with people, prevent you from committing to other
people in love, a community in love, then it's
a sad thing. But the good news is, with God's
help, you can work counter to those impulses
and you can find the best kind of life to live
in connection with others. And again, the example
here from our trip is just all these salmon,
for the highest purpose of spawning their young
and seeing to it that there's another generation,
they give it their all, they do it together,
and... you have the rabbinic insight. Okay. Now,
we're getting close to the end here. I would
like to share with you the conclusion. Where
are we going with all this? As we celebrate Shavuot
tomorrow night, and then Monday morning too,
gang, and we need you here for a minyan, so very
important. I encourage everyone to think about
The idea, again, of the life well lived. And
what this can mean to you on your journey. And
I'd like to read to you a passage, and I believe
I have it here. I should have. Let me just summarize.
It's Yeshua. He epitomizes... what in the natural
world is the salmon's journey of absolute self
-sacrifice for the sake of others, that is, the
future generations. And I'd like us just to think
for a moment, I won't quote it now, but you know
the passage, of Yeshua in the garden at Gethsemane.
You'll recall that after the Pesach Seder, and
they sang the Hallel, you know, they did the
stuff, the basic liturgy of the Pesach, and they
went to this garden. In Jerusalem, the Garden
of Oil presses, the literal meaning, and there
Yeshua told his followers, wait here, I'm going
to go pray. And while he's praying, he says,
says is not the word, he pleads, God, if it's
possible, take this cup from me. Nevertheless,
not my will, but your will be done. Now what
he was thinking about was the inevitability of
his own crucifixion, which is one of the most
psychologically and physically horrific ways
to die you can possibly imagine. We've talked
about that at other times. And he reflecting
because he was not just an expression of God's
very reality, a real, he was God's son in the
most profound sense, but he was also a person,
a regular guy. And in this moment where the natural
human desire for self -preservation and to avoid
pain was facing the inevitability of what he
knew he had to do to make Kippurah for Israel.
And it is to me, in the world of Salmon, it's
a vague intimation, but yet nonetheless, I think
is hardwired into the... the fabric of God's
revelation to humanity of what the good life,
the best life is. It includes, it doesn't necessarily
include horrific things, but it includes things
that are tough that you transcend and you do
for higher purposes. And every one of you and
me, we've all got our stories, but God is saying,
I think to us this morning, Be thinking about
the highest life being one of reward for a job
well done, but also the willingness to do the
tough thing, because that's Messiah's example
to us. And then how does it all end? I conclude
with a few thoughts about, or a few verses about,
Abraham Avinu. Abraham lived 125 years, and Abraham
breathed his last. and died at a good old age.
An old man and full of years, and he was gathered
to his people. And his son Isaac and Ishmael
buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre,
in the field of Ephron's son of Zohar the Hittite.
The field Abraham had bought from the Hittites.
There Abraham was buried with his wife Sarah.
After Abraham's death, God blessed his son Isaac,
who then lived near Bir... And so as we celebrate
tomorrow night and Monday morning, as we celebrate
Shavuot, I just want to encourage you to think
about what a life well lived looks like, what
it's supposed to look like, what it can look
like, and may we all, in little ways and big
ways, make decisions to live that life. which
at the end we look back and go, you know, that
was good. Shabbat shalom, everyone. Stay for
Messiah. Stay.