ONE THING HAVE I DESIRED
INTRODUCTION
(continued from ABOUT)
Jews refer to this Person as “ha Mashiach” (the Messiah), and most of them do not know Who He is because they do not believe that He has already come into the world. They are looking for Messiah’s first coming
while Christians are looking for His return. Most Christians call this person “Jesus Christ” or “the Messiah” but most Messianics call Him “Yeshua” (yeh-SHU-ah) which means “He will save His people from their sins.” This
name is spelled and pronounced in a variety of ways, but we use “Yeshua” exclusively. If that is not correct we will find out soon enough. When we are resurrected we will all know what He wants us to call Him.
The same is true for His Father’s name. There are several ways to spell and pronounce the tetragrammaton “YHWH” but we prefer “Yehovah” (yeh-ho-VAH), although we have used “Yahweh” (YAW-way) for years. We use “YHWH” (instead of “Yehovah”) throughout the curriculum whenever we refer to the Father so that everyone can “hear” what they want.
Because there is often strong disagreement amongst believers about whether the Being referred to in a Scripture passage is the Father or is the Son, and it cannot be proven or disproven one way or the other as far as we know, we often use “Elohim” even if we would prefer to use “YHWH.” This disagreement could arise because both Father and Son are involved, like at the creation, and definitely arises because we do not understand our Bible. Sometimes it is not necessary to specify one individual Being in the particular context. Notice that the word “elohim” is actually plural but is often used as if it were singular—like the royal “we.” This may have started because some believe the Father and Son are actually one person. We do not intend to argue that here. The main purpose of this curriculum is to focus your attention on the Resurrection, not issues (important as they are) such as names. We are simply attempting to standardize our use of names
in this curriculum to make it easier for you to follow along. Yeshua is always the Son, YHWH is always the Father, and Elohim is either or both depending on the context.
Occasionally we use some other name (like “El Shaddai”) if we are quoting a passage where that is explicitly stated, or “Almighty Father” or “the Most High,” which always refers to the Father. We even sometimes use “God” or “Lord” if we want to bring to mind some Scripture that you’ve probably memorized. The context will explain why we are using the specific name.
There is considerable disagreement about whether or not the Father and Son are separate Beings or is one Being manifested in different ways. We believe that the frequent separate mentions in Scripture (and the content thereof) prove the Father and the Son are separate Beings, although of course they are in complete unity of mind and purpose! The Father (YHWH) brought forth the Son (Yeshua) before anything else was created, which makes Yeshua the “firstborn of all creation” (Colossians 1:15) and a Being separate from His Father. There are two of them, a Father and His firstborn Son. Both are, always were, and always will be divine Beings—otherwise known as “Elohim,” which is discussed in a few lessons. Yeshua took the form of a man to do His special work on the earth and returned to heaven to continue the work as our High Priest there, but He has always retained His “Elohim” status—even though He was “a little lower than the angels” while He was here.
Scripture often refers to “the holy spirit” (which we would argue should not be capitalized because it is not the name of a person). Most Christians and Messianics believe this is a phrase that refers to a third person of a trinity, which is their way of referring to the godhead. We do not take this view and never use the phrase “Holy Spirit” because it automatically evokes the idea of trinity, which is not a biblical concept.
The word “holy” means “set apart, dedicated to a specific purpose.” This word is usually used in the context of God, but could also be used of things we save for special occasions—like the suit you only wear to weddings. We don’t usually call our suits “holy suits” because that would seem irreverent, and perhaps the word “holy” should be kept holy unto God. We say all this only to point out that the word “holy” has a useful, real meaning and is not intended to be some magical trigger for getting into a spiritual mood.
The word “spirit” means “the prevailing or typical quality, mood, or attitude of a person, group, or period of time” and also “the non-physical part of a person which is the seat of emotions and character; the soul.” (Notice the word “soul” tucked in here. One could spend their entire life trying to figure out the difference between soul and spirit but this curriculum does not intend to get into it. Hebrews 4:12 says “For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even as far as the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrows, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”) A favourite teacher says the holy spirit is the means by which Elohim does things. Another teacher says that the moment you are born your spirit starts collecting information.
We could distil all of that down to “the essential essence of a being, which Elohim wants to be dedicated to His purposes.” He wants your spirit to be set apart to Him. If you can think of your own spirit as your essential
essence, then you can think of the Father’s spirit as His essential essence. The author likes to say it this way: “Elohim’s spirit in Him is like my spirit in me, and we communicate spirit to spirit.” No third person of a trinity is necessary for this. Anything that you are accustomed to thinking comes from “the Holy Spirit” (prophecy, tongues, words of knowledge, etc.) comes from YHWH or Yeshua; His spirit within Him (like your spirit in you) communicating it to you spirit to spirit. This does not require another being.
Your essential essence—your inner person, the accumulation of your character and knowledge and attitudes and skills and memories, the spirit or soul that is who you have become by the time you die—is what you will
be for eternity; and it will be housed in a perfect non-destructible amazing version of your body. Godly spirits get to live with Elohim forever; ungodly spirits do not. This is why it is so important to focus on the Resurrection!
Most Jews and Messianics study the Scriptures weekly in a format called “parashah” or “Torah portions” whereby the five books of Moses (the Torah, aka the Pentateuch) are broken up into 54 specific segments. (Not 52. For reasons we will not go into here their yearly calendar is variable and sometimes they do two parashah at the same time so as to keep on track with the Gregorian calendar. If you want to keep track with them you should pay attention to when your favourite teacher or speaker mentions it so you can schedule your lessons accordingly. It is not necessary to do the lessons for each parashah whenever the Jews and Messianics are focussed on those, but it is nice to be in sync.) In this way they can study the entire Torah over the space of a year (although some do it over three years). We have chosen to divide this curriculum into the same textual divisions and provide information gleaned from over 20 years of Torah study wherever it fits best. We cannot include everything that could be learned from each parashah because there just isn’t room, so we focus on those elements that support our main theme—that being the Resurrection.
When this curriculum is complete we will have also prepared lessons for the biblical feasts and days of remembrance so there will be an additional 10 segments, which are not parashahs. Some will have only one lesson each because they are one-day feasts (Shavuot, Yom Teruah, Yom Kippur) and some will have more (8 lessons for Pesach/Unleavened Bread and 8 lessons for Sukkot/Shemini Atzeret) because they are weeklong
feasts with an additional added day. Shabbat is a one day weekly feast but we will have added a second lesson in that segment so that we can discuss the concept of High Shabbats. The segment on Days of Remembrance + Intercalary Days will contain 4 lessons, and the segment on First Fruit Memorials will have 5 lessons. A couple of feasts will be included that are not strictly biblical, but are commonly celebrated among the Jews and Messianics (8 lessons for Chanukkah and 3 lessons for Purim). The longer segments may include unrelated topics for which no better spots could be found. You are encouraged to do the lessons for these 10 additional segments at their appropriate times (i.e. do the Pesach lesson when it is Passover) but you could choose to take a couple of months to study biblical feasts if you want to take a break from the parashah lessons.
Please notice the Hebrew words used as the title for each parashah,“Noach” for example. Everyone knows this passage is about Noah, the one who survived the flood in an ark. We would have preferred to call the
parashah “Noah” but instead used “Noach” because that spelling is what is most often used in the Torah portion lists we have seen. That would be because the “ch” is pronounced at the back of the throat as it is in
“Johannes Sebastian Bach.” When you read “Noach” you should hear in your head the “ch” being pronounced like you do in “Bach.” You do not need to be concerned about the various spellings of the parashah titles
because they are merely transliterations provided for non-Hebrew readers, and people spell those sounds differently. There is no “ch” as in “church” sound in Hebrew, so some people who transliterate for us use a “k” and some use a “q” to help you avoid the temptation to say that. For example, Parashah Miketz is sometimes spelled Miqqetz.
The Jews were, at least once, forcibly prevented from studying the Torah so they devised a method of circumventing that problem. They were still permitted to study from the other books of the Old Testament so they cleverly came up with a system of “haftorah” whereby they would appear to be studying some passage but in reality be reminding themselves of the Torah portion to which it was matched. In other words, they assigned to each Torah portion a matching passage from the prophetic books or the books of writings. In some cases there apparently could not be found a matching passage, so something else suitable was chosen —and we have also taken that liberty. Today Jews study the Torah portion plus the matching haftorah passage.
A great number of Christians embraced Torah and called themselves Messianics (though there are variations on that theme as well). Since they were studying the Torah portions on a weekly basis, another matching
passage—this time from the New Testament—was added to the study schedule. These are called “brit chadashah” passages. Sometimes these consist of just a couple of verses and sometimes of whole chapters. We have on occasion substituted a better passage to provide an opportunity to cover a topic in more depth or to explore something related to it.
Because this is a curriculum and most people “do school” five days a week, we have divided each parashah into five lessons to give us the most space possible to make our point. The basis of the study is the Torah portion itself which is chockfull of very important foundational information so we devote three days to that, dividing up the information so that each day’s lesson has its own set of themes according to whatever’s going on in the particular chapter(s) and verses. Then we devote one day to the haftorah portion and one day to the brit chadashah portion. All five lessons are naturally related. Because the overall theme of this curriculum is the Resurrection, we have focussed on that through the lens of someone or something mentioned in the Scripture passage studied in each lesson.
One could spend many, many pages on some themes (e.g. creation) but we have chosen to limit ourselves to just two pages (a front and its back) for each lesson (in the PDF version). This means the text is tight and each concept that is mentioned is there because it must be. The result is that each lesson really is a summary of what we believe to be the essence of the Scriptures. We apologize for the font size (10) there. If you find it difficult to read, just zoom your browser to a more comfortable size. We like 125 to 150%.
Most of the information presented is in the Bible part of each lesson, but since this is a curriculum we have added a section each for Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science. We have also begun each lesson with an
Introduction, which is essentially a summary of what will be discussed. Do at least read through each of these sections even if you do not wish to treat this product as a curriculum, because often more information is included there that did not fit into the Bible part. There is also a section at the top of each lesson that lists a set of keywords or vocabulary words that are used in the lesson. You are free to use this section or not. At the end of this introduction we have provided a resource of ideas for studying vocabulary words in case you wish to do so, but feel free to use your own ideas. Notice that we do not prompt you in each lesson about studying vocabulary words (or about memorizing Scripture verses). Please feel free to do so anytime!
Speaking of prompts, there is an occasional prompt to begin or open a notebook or file for a specific ongoing purpose. You might prefer to open a document on your computer, use a series of bound notebooks, fill a binder with loose-leaf paper, or use index cards or whatever system works best for you. What the purpose is and how to use it will be explained the first time such a notebook or file is recommended. After that, you must usually remember on your own to add to it. For example, in lesson 1 of Parashah Noach you are encouraged to open a notebook in which to list the words “clean” and “unclean” and their biblical definitions because we assume you do not know those. We have no way of knowing whether or not you know the biblical definitions of “altar” and “tithe” (or any other words), so we do not mention in lesson 1 of Parashah Lech Lecha that you could add the words “altar” and “tithe” to this file.
We have chosen not to provide you with recommendations as to authors, books, and websites, etc., one reason being that doing so would greatly increase the length of this publication! A better reason is that we do not agree with anyone 100% and feel that giving explanations about this or that disagreement might be confusing, and would also increase the length of this publication. Our hope is that you will use some of the keywords/vocabulary words as a starting point for doing your own research and then compare your findings with the curriculum and with your Bible, of course.
At the top of each lesson (in the PDF version) there is a coloured heading designed to label it with the current date, in the terms you are used to (Gregorian calendar) and in biblical terms (month and day names, week-day name, and if it’s a feast day its name). It also has a space where you could mention a specific item or two that you have prayed about (enquired in His temple) or are looking for specific information about. This curriculum does not have to be printed off since it has no workbook-type exercises to complete, but if you choose to do so you might want to complete this top section so as to get familiar and comfortable with reckoning time biblically. Otherwise, you could open a notebook and print in it at the beginning of each day the relevant information as a heading for the day’s notes. For instance, you could print April 2, 2024, Feast Day/Passover, and note that it is Aviv 14 (or Month #1, day 14 on the Zadok calendar) and Tuesday, the 3rd day of the week. (Notice that the Bible refers to days of the week by numbers, not names, so it mentions “the 1st day of the week” several times but never “Sunday.”) Below this heading you could print a short comment about your daily prayer. (Note: The Lord’s Prayer that Yeshua taught His disciples is an amazing way to begin and end your day, especially if you allow Elohim to guide you in expanding your thoughts about each phrase! Observe, by the way, that Yeshua taught His disciples to pray to the Father, not to Himself. You will find the Lord’s Prayer at the end of this introduction.)
You do not have to treat this publication as a curriculum; you could use this as a devotional tool or as a reference tool. We have included in the PDF version of this introductory section several indexes that can serve in this regard. One index lists all the parashahs, another lists the Scripture passages that are studied within the 5 lessons of each parashah, another lists the inspirational verses that are printed out on the parashah title pages (you might want to memorize these), and another lists the resources (one for each parashah, printed on the back of the title page). We will also include an index of the feasts and remembrance days (10 segments) in the volume covering lessons for the biblical feasts--once they are written.
You might find it useful to print off the title page and the resource for each parashah even if you do not print off the rest of the curriculum. It could serve as a divider for your notes and assignments if you keep them in a 3-ring binder, for instance. And the combination of them could serve as a summary of lessons for the biblical book (e.g. Genesis) and for all of the books and feasts when you have collected them all.
Each title page contains a header giving its title and the included Scripture passages. The page’s purpose is to summarize the contents of the parashah’s lessons and to potentially serve as a check off place. Study is
divided into 7 parts—one for each day of the week. Part A, to be done on the first day of the week (Sunday), is an introductory reading assignment of all passages and you are encouraged to write down any questions that come to mind. Parts B to F each list the passage(s) for the five lessons, and Part G is a summary/review of all passages to be done on the seventh day (Saturday, Shabbat). Here you are encouraged to write down anything that you plan to change in your life. You can skip the first and seventh parts if you wish.
Just above this parashah breakdown the title verse is given in italics. This verse is usually the first one in the Scripture passage for the parashah, and is from whence the parashah title is derived. You might choose to memorize each one of these verses so as to connect it to the parashah title in your mind.
The backside (in the PDF version) of each title page contains a resource that relates in some way to its parashah and may be useful for following ones. For example, the resource for B’reisheet is a list of the Hebrew Alephbet letters which was included to introduce the concept of Elohim’s house in the first lesson and is useful for studying the word “Melchizedek” in the fifth lesson of Parashah Lech Lecha.
We have included within the pages of this curriculum a number of topics that are often considered contro-versial. Do not be put off when you encounter such material—give yourself the opportunity to explore something you did not previously know. This is a great opportunity for prayer and research. Even the author had to deal with this during the writing process, the end result being that she chose to state things as fact which she truly believes can be supported by Scripture while also stating as opinion things which she leans toward or that are strongly held beliefs by other people that could potentially be supported by Scripture if we understood it better. She has excluded everything that she considers untrue even though popular, mostly for lack of space. You should not assume, however, that everything that is not included is considered untrue—we simply do not have space to cover everything! You are free to make up your own mind about all topics and issues, but if you embrace controversial matters as potential spiritual food you will find the Bible will make a whole lot more sense to you than it ever did before.
We believe that the 66 book canon of the Holy Bible is the publication to which every doctrine must be com-pared because it was inspired and preserved by the Creator, Who provided it because He wants all people to repent and qualify for the Resurrection. However we believe that there are additional books that Elohim intended to be included, and which were in fact included until very recently in our history and which are included in the canons of various other nations! Someone made decisions at various times to exclude certain books from the canon. We must question what they were trying to hide from us!
In this curriculum we occasionally state an opinion that is supported by an apocryphal book because it explains in more detail something that we consider an important element of the whole story. (So why was it removed? Did someone not want us to understand what’s going on?) It is important for you to know that we take this liberty only if that information cannot be disproven by the 66 book Bible we are familiar with.
For example, the information given about the Nephilim is not clearly explained in the 66 book canon of the Bible but is found in 1 Enoch. All we are given is a few verses in Genesis 6 about the sons of God taking wives for themselves from among the daughters of men, and we are left to wonder what that was all about and to make up silly doctrines. Torah teachers almost always skip over that passage because it is a hot potato! But we believe it is foundational to understanding what is wrong with the world, at least in part, so we dare to pick up our ten-foot poles and poke around a bit. Another apocryphal book that most Torah teachers will not touch is the Book of Jubilees, which brings up the calendar issue—a very divisive topic! In this curriculum we attempt to speak of these sensitive issues in a way that allows everyone to have his/her own opinion yet encourages them to be open to more light whenever it is provided. At the time of this writing, in fact, the author herself considered and made a change of position on the calendar issue—which is significant considering the fact that she herself almost threw in the towel years ago because of all the confusion and contention surrounding the topic.
Remember, although we often misunderstand it, Scripture has the final word!
Many religious publications provide what is usually called a “doctrinal statement” or a “statement of faith.” We have chosen not to do that because this curriculum is our statement of faith, and this introduction
especially so.
During the course of your studies you will arrive at conclusions that will sometimes vary from ours but most often, it is hoped, agree with ours. You will have considered how you, yourself, can make this statement your own:
“One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple.” (Psalm 27:4)
In the PDF version of this curriculum there is a list of suggestions for studying vocabulary or key words included here. They are:
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1. Learn the definitions of the words
2. Learn to spell the words
3. Speak the words out loud and spell them out loud
4. Write the words in sentences
5. Speak the words in sentences that show you understand their definitions
6. Write paragraphs or essays using the words singularly or in combination
7. Alphabetize the words for a lesson
8. Alphabetize the words for all the lessons in a parashah
9. Write out all the tense forms of each verb
10. Write out the plural (or the singular) form of each noun
11. Write out all the adjectives (or nouns, or verbs)
12. If possible, locate each word in the lesson’s Scripture passage
13. Select five words and use them when speaking with others for a week
14. Select five words and forbid yourself from using them with others all week
15. Create a list of variations for each word (e.g. word, worded, words, wordy, wordless, wording, etc.)
Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done—on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory—forever and ever. Amein!