Un-Sentenced For Life: Summary of New Testament From a Jewish Point of View Class

Moses’s Shining Face

It seems like our time together each Monday just gets more and more fun! Jo Ann, Dan, Odette, Karen, Dave, Jenny, and Merrill attended. At the very end of our time Norky joined us. We missed Robin and David who both had conflicts that morning.

We studied 2 Corinthians chapters two and three.

Before we began when we got to visit with one another from 9:30 to 9:45 am, we learned that almost everyone in the group has a lot of “stuff” going on in their lives, so after we sang our traditional opening song at 9;45 of “Give Me That Old Time Religion,” we decided we’d sing and do the Misheberach prayer, the Jewish prayer for healing, after we studied and discussed Chapter 2.

Somehow Chapter 2 of 2nd Corinthians brought up Facebook relationships since it seemed that Paul was writing about forgiveness and getting along. There was perhaps some shunning going on…..Dan mentioned that Unfriending or blocking on Facebook really hurts. Jo Ann shared about a friend that “unfriended” her on Facebook since Jo Ann did not like her posts often enough! Karen talked about people she forgives but may not interact temporarily for her own emotional well being.

After we took a short break and sang the Jewish prayer for healing (which Odette pointed out can not only be for physical healing but for emotional and even healing of relationships), we went on to Chapter 2. Jo Ann shared about how she constantly played the Misheberach prayer in her husband Dan’s ICU hospital room when Dan was near death in September of 2005. Merrill, who has had so many near death and health issues, believes our Misheberach prayers have worked! His doctor says he is a true miracle! Jo Ann also shared how much she likes the song from The Prince of Egypt that says “There Can Be Miracles When You Believe.”

Merrill read the beginning of chapter 3 and then we spent quite a bit of time discussing Moses’ radiant and shining face since Paul talked about that. Jenny read the grey box that talked about Moses’s radiant face. The word “Midrashically” came up, so we talked about what the Midrash is. The Midrash is like additions to Torah stories that add and explain. Jo Ann pulled out two of her Little Midrash Says volumes and read an example of why Rebekah encouraged Jacob to pretend he was Esau to fool Isaac into blessing him instead of Isaac. She also read the section about Moses covering his radiant face. The Midrash says Moses wore a mask for the rest of his life since the people were not supposed to see God’s radiance unless he spoke to the people, thus there was a veil-mask keeping them from totally interacting with God.

We also learned that the Pentateuch are the five books of the Torah which are read in order each Shabbat. Paul talked about that the reading of the “Old Covenant,” the Torah only, was like keeping this veil-mask over the eyes of those who do not accept Christ.

At the very end of our time together, when Norky joined us, we got to visit with her and get to know her a bit. She, like many of us in the group, agree there is one God and creator and learning about the multiple ways to follow God and learn about God is so important.

Below is a link to a blog post I wrote about the song “There Can Be Miracles When You Believe.” I’ve also posted the YouTube video of the song below.