Kehilat Hamashiah

Back to Basics: Abram's Amen, Pt 1
The active nature of "Trust toward Adonai" results necessarily in an inward posture of trust and an outward life of obedience. This message we will go on a side quest to examine the relationship between Righteousness (Hebrews 5:13) and Trust/Faith (Hebrews 6:1) by first seeing how Torah understands Righteousness (Tzedakah) and how 2nd Temple Judaism reimagined it.

As humans we are hardwired to be scared of death. It is a biological necessity. Adonai's Infinite Holiness is an existential threat to we finite beings. So we fear death, yet the Fear of Death is not the Fear of Adonai.
Adonai originally intended for us to be a "Kingdom of Priests," but because we are afraid of His presence, He set up the temporary Levitical system. This system lasted until Messiah overcame death, allowing us to safely return to Adonai's presence and fulfill our original purpose: to be a Holy People.
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The 10th Statement of the Decalogue is a diagnostic tool. It reveals the Yetzer Hara (the Evil Inclination) not as some external temptation, but as that restless, "I want more" instinct that drives so much of what we do. But here’s the thing: you can’t just stop desiring things. Nature abhors a vacuum. So how do we fight against the War for More? The simple answer is: Gratitude. Gratitude is the spiritual fence that protects the heart from the chaos of covetousness; we do not abstain from desire by willpower alone, but by displacing the hunger for "more" with the theological recognition of "enough" (Dayenu).

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