This past week, that question stopped being theoretical for our family.

At three o’clock in the morning, I received a call that my granddaughter had been grazed by multiple bullets at a party. Her boyfriend was shot in the head and murdered, and one other killed, and five others are in critical condition, and four were injured.

In the middle of that kind of pain, Rabbi Goldstein’s question suddenly becomes very real: What are your values actually worth?

When death walks that close to your family, you stop asking what you say you believe. You look at what you’ve actually been living for. You look at where your time, your money, and your heart have really gone.

Because in the end, values are proven in moments like this — not in comfortable conversations, but in the choices we made long before the phone rang at 3 a.m.

The Receipts- Not Just Words

“Ashrei adam oz lo bach, mesilot bilvavam” — Happy is the person whose strength is in You, in whose heart are the highways to You. (Tehillim 84:6)

Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein asks: What are your values truly worth? When we claim “family, honesty, integrity,” are we willing to sacrifice time, money, comfort, or ego — or are they just nice-sounding opinions?

This brings us back to the Garden, and to the very first test Hashem gave us after leaving Egypt.

The Mean God Of The Bible

Many Christians say the God of the Old Testament is mean and angry. But look at the facts. Pharaoh was cruel. He called us lazy, stopped giving us straw, yet still demanded the exact same number of bricks from every person. The strong gathered more straw, the weak gathered less, but the quota never changed. Those who fell short were beaten.

Hashem’s very first test after the Exodus was the manna — and it was literally impossible to fail. If you gathered more than an omer, it still measured exactly one omer. You could not gather less than an Omer because it still came out to one Omer. If you tried to keep some overnight, it turned into worms.

If you went out on Shabbat, there was no manna at all — but you had received a double portion the day before, so you could rest. Every single person received exactly what they needed. No beatings, no impossible demands. Just perfect fairness and built-in rest. Hashem was proving to us: “I am not Pharaoh. I am a loving Father who provides for everyone equally.”

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Parsha Emor Not By Your Hands

In this week’s parsha, right in the middle of the holidays, the Torah places the Omer offering. Rabbi David Fohrman shows us a beautiful intertextual triangle. The Omer in Emor connects to the manna in the desert and to the moment in Joshua 5 when the people first ate from the produce of the Land — the day the manna stopped forever.

The Omer is Hashem’s bridge. It reminds us that even when we plant, harvest, and bake with our own hands, Hashem is still the One who provides. The land is simply a new form of the wilderness. The moment we forget that, our values drift away from their Source.

That’s why the laws of pe’ah and leket — leaving the corners and gleanings for the poor — come right after the Omer. Just as no one could hoard the manna, we are not allowed to hoard our harvest. God still retains a stake in what we produce.

Today, many Jews say the Third Temple will simply descend from heaven when Mashiach comes. But Rabbi Fohrman’s lesson echoes the words of the prophet Haggai: we cannot sit and wait for some philosophical ideal.

Our Heavenly Partner

We must begin the work with our own hands, exactly as our ancestors did when they entered the Land. The Omer teaches us that Hashem partners with human effort. He fed us with manna, and now He feeds us through the work of our hands — but only if we remember Who is really providing.

Nathaniel Jeanson’s book Traced proves with DNA that we are literally one human family. We all descend from Noah’s three sons. If we are one family, we need one Father’s house rule—the Ten Commandments.

Rabbi Fohrman shows that Hashem at Sinai deliberately echoes Rebecca’s words to Yaakov in Genesis 27: “Listen to my voice.” The family story is redeemed. The Ten Sayings become the constitution for one united human family.

עץ (tree) equals 160 in gematria — the same as צלם (image). Only by holding onto the Etz Chaim, the Tree of Life, do we truly live up to being created in God’s image.

The Table Is Set

Pirkei Avot makes it clear:

“Let your house be a meeting place for the Sages, sit in the dust of their feet, and drink their words thirstily.”¹

One who learns even a single letter must honor his teacher.²

“Let the honor of your student be as dear to you as your own… and reverence for your teacher like reverence for Heaven.”³

“If there is no Torah, there is no derech eretz; if there is no derech eretz, there is no Torah.”⁴

This Shabbos in Emor, as we count the Omer, ask yourself honestly: Do I truly study the word of Hashem, or do I just say I love Him? Do my actions — my fruit — show that I remember Who feeds me every day?

The pathways to Him are always on our hearts. We cannot wait for the Temple to fall from heaven. Like our ancestors, like the generation of Haggai, we must begin the work with our own hands — remembering the manna, living the values, and repairing this one human family together.

Shabbat Shalom. Chazak ve’ematz.

Footnotes ¹ Pirkei Avot 1:4

² Pirkei Avot 6:3

³ Pirkei Avot 4:12

⁴ Pirkei Avot 3:17

Ashrei adam oz lo bach, mesilot bilvavam” — Happy is the person whose strength is in You, in whose heart are the highways to You. (Tehillim 84:6)

Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein asks in his Emor shiur: What are your values really worth? In the market, worth is only what someone will pay. So when we claim “family, honesty, integrity,” are we willing to sacrifice time, money, comfort, or ego — or are they just cheap opinions?

This question takes us back to the Garden. Hashem commanded Adam: “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat” (Bereishit 2:16) — including the Tree of Life in the center. The plan was slow and relational: start at the edges, taste new fruits, come back to Hashem with every experience, and let Him teach good and evil from His perspective. The pathways to Him were meant to be walked in constant conversation.

Every Child Should Know Good and Evil

But the Tree of Knowledge stood there too. As Rabbi Fohrman teaches, eating from it first meant seizing the power to define morality yourself instead of receiving it from the Creator. Relationship with Hashem — the Tree of Life — had to come first.

Rabbi Manis Friedman flips the story beautifully: Eve wasn’t weak. She understood the deeper plan. Staying immortal in perfect Eden would leave their children with no mission, no challenges, no growth. She chose mortality and a broken world so her descendants could do real tikkun and reach heights angels cannot. That’s why she’s called Chava — mother of all life.

During these Omer weeks of Parshat Emor, we count seven perfect weeks from Pesach to Shavuot because the whole point of leaving Egypt was to receive the Torah — the Etz Chaim, the Tree of Life we sing about every Shabbos.

The Torah itself proves this isn’t just opinion — it’s woven into the text. In Rabbi Fohrman’s A Book Like No Other series on Shavuot, he shows that when Hashem gives the Ten Commandments, He deliberately echoes Rebecca’s words to Yaakov in Genesis 27: “And now, my son, listen to my voice — ve’atah b’ni shema b’koli — to what I command you.”

Genesis 27

At Sinai, Hashem says, “And now, if you will listen to My voice — ve’atah im shamoa tishma’u b’koli — and keep My covenant.” The exact phrasing, the exact order, even referencing Yaakov’s name — it’s all there. The family story of deception and blessing is redeemed and becomes the foundation for the Jewish people to become one family under the Ten Sayings.

Nathaniel Jeanson’s book Traced proves we’re literally one family. Using Y-chromosome DNA passed from father to son, he built a global family tree. Every man alive traces back to the same small group of ancestors — matching the biblical line from Noah’s three sons. Modern genetics confirms what Torah always taught: we are all brothers and sisters.

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If we’re truly one human family, we need one Father’s house rules. That’s the Ten Commandments — the Aseret HaDibrot, the Ten Sayings. Without them, brothers fight, families fracture, and nations collapse. Only by keeping “I am Hashem your God,” “Honor your father and mother,” “Do not murder, do not steal,” can we live as one united family.

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Stone Tablets With The Ten Commandments Of God In Hebrew. Vector Illustration. EPS 10. Royalty Free SVG, Cliparts, Vectors, and Stock Illustrations. Image 214159662.

Pirkei Avot makes the foundation clear:

Yosei ben Yoezer taught: “Let your house be a meeting place for the Sages, sit in the dust of their feet, and drink their words thirstily.”¹

One who learns even a single letter must honor his teacher, just as David honored Achitophel.²

The Tree of Life and Adam and Eve

Rabbi Elazar ben Shammua said: “Let the honor of your student be as dear to you as your own, the honor of your colleague like reverence for your teacher, and reverence for your teacher like reverence for Heaven.”³

And directly: “If there is no Torah, there is no derech eretz; if there is no derech eretz, there is no Torah.”⁴ Without Hashem’s word, proper conduct has no root.

Professor Haim Shore and Baal HaTurim reveal the math: עץ (tree) equals 160, same as צלם (image). Man is created in the tzelem Elohim — only by connecting to the Etz, the Tree of Life, do we truly live up to that image.

Here’s the Hebrew letter values chart:

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And this is the living Etz Chaim we sing about every Shabbos:

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Where do you derive your values? When culture shifts, do you shift — or do you turn first to Hashem’s word? Are you willing to pay the price?

Adam and Eve chose the harder path so we could have this mission. The kohanim in Emor keep themselves holy to bring Hashem’s sanctity into the world. We are called to do the same — to root our values in Torah, walk the highways always on our hearts, and live as one family under the Ten Sayings.

Shabbat Shalom. Chazak ve’ematz.

Hazan Gavriel ben David

Footnotes ¹ Pirkei Avot 1:4 ² Pirkei Avot 6:3 ³ Pirkei Avot 4:12 ⁴ Pirkei Avot 3:17

I grew up Christian. At five years old, God was my best friend — I spoke to Him every day with no intermediary. At seven, a priest looked me in the eye and said, “You cannot know God without Jesus.” Something deep in my soul immediately put up a wall.

Years later, I discovered I was Jewish through my mother’s Halevi line. My uncles tested as Kohanim. Our family connects directly to Bennett Greenspan, founder of FamilyTreeDNA. Today, at sixty, I weep with joy watching priests prepare offerings again for the first time in nearly two thousand years.

I didn’t leave Christianity out of anger. I left because I started asking the same rigorous questions Jay Smith uses to examine Islam — and the answers destroyed the foundation I had been taught.

Jay Smith’s Method: The Man, the Place, and the Book — Applied Without Favoritism

Jay Smith’s approach is relentless and fair. He demands contemporary evidence from the exact time and place claimed. In his recent lectures, he states:

“Between 624 and 660 AD — that’s the entire period of the so-called Islamic conquests — we have zero Islamic coins. Nothing. The coins we do have from that time still carry crosses or Zoroastrian fire altars. The name ‘Muhammad’ and the full Shahada only appear decades later, around 690–692 AD on coins and the Dome of the Rock inscription.”

He documents a 100-year silence. No contemporary Arab, Roman, or Persian records mention Muhammad preaching in Mecca. No archaeology supports the grand trade-center narrative. The story appears to have been constructed later and projected backward.

When I applied the exact same method to Christianity, the pattern repeated itself with devastating clarity.

Christianity Through the Same Historical Lens

Where are the contemporary Roman or Jewish records of Jesus’ trial before Pilate, the Temple cleansing that caused a riot, public miracles that triggered darkness over the whole land, an earthquake, or saints rising and walking Jerusalem’s streets (Matthew 27)? None exists. The first non-Christian mentions — Josephus (~93 AD) and Tacitus (~116 AD) — come 60+ years later. The key Testimonium Flavianum in Josephus is widely regarded by scholars as at least partially interpolated by later Christians.

The entire New Testament was composed in Greek — the language of pagan philosophers and Roman occupiers. Torah-observant Jews did not write sacred revelation in a foreign tongue. Why would Jews invent a new religion centered on a man dying for the sins of others when Torah states explicitly, “Fathers shall not die for children, nor children for fathers; every man shall die for his own sin” (Deuteronomy 24:16)?

The Gospels are anonymous in the earliest manuscripts. Titles were added later. The canon itself was not fixed until the late 4th century under political pressure from Roman emperors. Early Christianity was wildly diverse — Ebionites kept the Torah and rejected claims of divinity; Gnostics and Marcionites, who rejected the Old Testament entirely. One stream won politically and retrojected its version onto the 1st century.

Fr. Josiah Trenham, an Orthodox priest representing the second-largest Christian denomination, openly admits the filter:

“We don’t follow the Old Testament at all. The Old Testament is our root… But Christians read the Old Testament through the New Testament because everything in the Old Testament was about Jesus Christ… We understand the Old Testament to be… a childish age… So it would make no sense at all for us to follow the Old Testament.”

Rabbi Tovia Singer correctly identifies the problem: there is no guardrail. Once you read Tanakh through the New Testament lens, nothing in the Hebrew Bible can correct the theology. This is exactly the later-construction pattern Jay Smith exposes in Islam.

The Torah Passes Every Test — Mathematical Proof of Divine Origin

While both Christianity and Islam show signs of later development, borrowing, and retrojection, the Torah stands alone as the original Blueprint, proven by objective mathematics.

In his documentary Math Unveils the Truth – Torah is of Divine Origin, Professor Haim Shore demonstrates that Hebrew words in the Torah encode modern scientific data with statistically impossible precision. Each Hebrew letter has a numeric value (gematria). Professor Shore compares these values (HNV) to NASA measurements using linear regression and computer simulations.

Celestial Bodies: Moon, Earth, Sun

The Hebrew word for moon (yareach) has HNV 218. Earth (eretz) = 291. Sun (shemesh) = 640.

When plotted against the natural log of their diameters (standard scientific scaling), the three points form a nearly perfect straight line with a linear correlation of 0.999. Professor Shore states:

“The three points yareach, eretz, shemesh are aligned almost exactly on a straight line with a linear correlation of 0.999… The probability of obtaining by chance only the finding related to moon, earth, sun is 0.2%.”

That is 99.8% confidence that this is not a coincidence. The same words also match mass, surface area, and volume. Changing even one letter destroys the alignment. These words appear in the Torah exactly as written over 3,300 years ago.

Time Cycles: Day, Month, Year

Yom (day) = 56 Yareach (month) = 218 Shanah (year) = 355

Plotted against their frequencies in Hertz, they show a correlation of 0.9992 (a 0.5% chance of occurring by chance).

All Planets in the Solar System

Hebrew names for the nine planets align with log mass (correlation 0.9776), diameter (0.9825), and orbital angular momentum (0.9812). Professor Shore’s simulations show probabilities as low as 0.00003%.

Colors, Elements, Water Phases, Speeds

Color names match light wave frequencies (0.9981). Metals and compounds match atomic weights. Water’s three phases (kerach, mayim, kitor) match specific heat capacities (0.9995). Speeds of light (or), sound (kol), and stillness (demamah) align perfectly.

Big Bang and Genesis Timeline

Using reliable events (light, sun, moon, man), Shore derives an equation linking Genesis “days” to billions of years. Correlation 0.9998 (probability 0.01%). Day in Genesis ≈ 3.007 billion years. Creation begins ~2.94 billion years before the Big Bang — consistent with “darkness on the face of the deep” before “Let there be light.”

Professor Shore summarizes:

“The probability of obtaining by chance… is extremely small… virtually non-existent.”

Rabbi Ephraim Palvanov and Torah as Chemistry

Palvanov shows that the first 92 unique root words in Genesis correspond to the 92 naturally occurring elements. In his “Judaism vs. Zoroastrianism – Fire” lectures, fire symbolizes divine light and wisdom, yet the Torah rejects dualism in favor of absolute monotheism (Isaiah 45:7).

Dr. Nathaniel Jeanson’s genetics traces humanity to three primary fathers and mothers — matching Noah and Genesis 10. Matthew LaCroix documents the Tree of Life symbol across ancient civilizations dating back ~40,000 years.

My Life as Living Evidence of the Returning Blueprint

I am that Blueprint waking up. A proven Kohen with ancient DNA who lived as a Christian, studied with Hebrew Roots teachers (Brad Scott, Bill Cloud, Michael Rood), met Rabbi Chaim Richman in Israel in 2002, and returned fully to Torah. Today I weep over the offerings being prepared again. This is Isaiah 56:6 — lost Jews returning, not random gentiles. Zechariah 12:8 promises that the weakest will be like David. I was the weakest one.

Current Events and the Spiritual War

Tensions in the Straits of Hormuz (named after Ahura Mazda) carry spiritual weight, as Palvanov explains. Political violence against influential leaders like President Trump echoes historical patterns of violence against those challenging imperial systems (McKinley, Lincoln). Yet the Torah remains the eternal guardrail.

The Family Is Being Called Home

We are counting the Omer, preparing once more for Sinai. Genesis opens with a family conflict needing reconciliation. Our generation must heal Abraham’s family — Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau — and return to the original Tree of Life.

Christianity’s “Old Testament through New Testament eyes” and Islam’s late narrative both fail Jay Smith’s evidence test. Only the Torah — proven by mathematics, chemistry, genetics, archaeology, and prophecy — stands as the unchanging Blueprint given by the Supreme Being.

Deuteronomy 4:39 declares: “Know therefore this day, and take it to heart, that the Lord, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is none else.”

The receipts are overwhelming. The probability of all Professor Shore’s findings occurring by chance is effectively zero. This is objective proof.

The Tree of Life was never lost. The hidden hands of empires and replacement theologies cannot erase it. The family of Adam is awakening. Return to Har HaBayit. Prostrate. Pray. Perform teshuvah. As Isaiah 58 teaches, when Jacob repents, redemption comes.

The Torah is incredible. The Blueprint is returning — right now, in our generation.

Footnotes

1. Professor Haim Shore, Math Unveils the Truth documentary transcript, sections on moon/earth/sun diameters and probabilities.
2. Rabbi Ephraim Palvanov, “Judaism vs. Zoroastrianism Part 2: Fire” lecture.
3. Deuteronomy 24:16; Isaiah 45:7; Isaiah 56:6; Zechariah 12:8; Isaiah 58.
4. Jay Smith lectures on early Islamic coins and the 100-year silence.
5. Fr. Josiah Trenham’s statement was analyzed by Rabbi Tovia Singer.
6. Dr. Nathaniel Jeanson’s genetic research; Matthew LaCroix Tree of Life symbols.

The Stranger: Isaiah 56:6

I didn’t discover I was Jewish until I was thirty-five years old. That single fact still sounds strange when I say it out loud. For the first thirty-five years of my life, I lived completely unaware of who I really was. I had no connection to my heritage, no understanding of the Torah, and no idea that an ancient blueprint for reality was sitting there waiting for me.

On 911 everything changed. You’re Jewish, my mother told me. My mother was not religious; she just said things that did not sound like Catholic sayings, like “when the black people rise to take over the world, then you know the end has come”. I can say black because I am 24 % black.

I immediately started learning what it meant to be Jewish. Rabbi Chiam Ricman was on God’s Learning Channel with one of my teachers, Sam Peak of blessed memory. I learned everything from them in the beginning, for about three years, from Passover Sedars to Sukkot the Jewish way.

Along the way, I met a group of Messianic Jewish movements in 2002. The perspective of other Jews, such as Messianic Jews or the Hebrew Roots movement. From the very best, Brad Scott, Bill Cloud, Monte Judah, Eddie Chumney, Rico Cortes, Michael Rood, FFOZ, and Tony Robinson. Scholars like Avi Ben Mordechai. Boaz Michael and Thomas D Lancaster, Dr. Michael Brown.

I knew from the age of seven years old that the religion the Priest told was wrong, and I have always had that in the back of my mind. Then one day I opened the Torah with new eyes, and the first question that hit me was so obvious I couldn’t believe I’d never asked it before.

If the Torah is primarily a book of laws, why does it begin with stories instead of commandments?

The first sixty-six chapters — all of Genesis plus the first eleven chapters of Exodus — contain zero laws. No “thou shalt not.” No legal code at all. Just one story after another: Creation, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah and the Flood, the Tower of Babel, and the Patriarchs. Why would God structure His eternal blueprint this way?

Rabbi David Fohrman, at Aleph Beta, in his series A Book Like No Other, pointed out something that took me months to put together. The Garden was the message Hashem was trying to convey. Like in life, it is the props that make the movie or video game. His answer was simple but profound. He said:

“The Torah is actually telling a story in the setting… the trees, the garden, and its layout carry hidden meaning.”

He taught me that sometimes the most obvious questions in the Biblical text are the ones everyone skips over — the “elephant in the room” questions. As Rabbi Fohrman explained:

“Sometimes there are these basic questions, very obvious questions, in every Biblical story… the ‘elephant in the room’ questions.”

That conversation changed everything for me. It was the moment I realized the Torah wasn’t just a rule book dropped from heaven. It was a carefully designed blueprint, and the stories were there to define reality itself.

Stories create reality. Chief Rabbi Golstien, in his lecture on Tzav

Quote from Chief Rabbi Goldstein:

“Today what I want to talk to you about is the power of words and what we say. Because on the one hand, it’s quite tempting to think that actions are the most important thing and that words really don’t count. In a way, that is part of what it is all about — it says many times that it is action rather than words.

But there is something about the power of words that can be more transformative, actually, than action itself. Words have power. And if we can try and understand what the power of words is to actually change reality, then we can tap into something that can completely change our lives.”

God did not legislate the universe into existence. He spoke it into existence. “Let there be light… Let there be a firmament… Let the earth bring forth…” Those first words in Genesis are the original operating system of creation — the Tree of Life Blueprint.

Rabbi Fohrman showed how the two trees in the Garden are not random details. He pointed out the parallel structure between the creation of man and the creation of the trees, and then connected it to Deuteronomy 30. The Torah itself tells us that the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge are linked to choosing life and good over death and evil. The entire setting of Eden is teaching us how to live as soul-body beings in this world.

Adam wasn’t just the first human. He was the human being closest to God who has ever lived. He was created perfect, with intelligence, language, and a direct connection to his Creator that we can barely imagine today. Every generation since has moved farther from that original perfection.

Yet modern culture tells us Adam was primitive — basically an ape who slowly figured things out over millions of years. That’s the elephant in the room.

Dr. Rob Carter, in his discussion on human genetics, put it this way:

“We’ve all heard that human and chimpanzee DNA only differs by about 1%. But there’s new research that says that number might be closer to 15%… The numbers do not work in favor of evolution.”

He laid out four critical questions that must be answered before anyone can claim common ancestry, and the data simply doesn’t support the evolutionary timeline. Life is too complex, too integrated, too finely tuned for random mutation and natural selection to explain in the short time evolution allows.

Dr. Nathaniel Jeanson, a Harvard-trained geneticist, has taken this even further. In his books Replacing Darwin, Traced, and They Had Names, he shows how modern genetics actually confirms the biblical timeline. He explains:

“The creation science model is working very well… It keeps making predictions that work and you can’t ask for anything better according to the courts and really according to the nature of science itself.”

Jeanson’s research on the Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA shows population growth patterns that match a recent origin from a single family, exactly as the Torah describes after Noah. His predictions keep being confirmed while evolutionary models struggle.

So if Adam was created perfect, why does the scientific story insist that humans evolved slowly from simpler life forms over millions of years? Why does it treat our ancient ancestors as ignorant cave-dwellers when the Torah presents Adam as the pinnacle of creation?

The Torah doesn’t begin with laws because laws only make sense once you understand the blueprint. The stories come first because they define reality itself.

And those stories are mathematical.

Professor Haim Shore discovered something that should stop every skeptic in their tracks. He took the numerical values of simple Hebrew words in the Torah (gematria) and compared them directly with modern scientific measurements. As the transcript records:

“Could there possibly be an unequivocal mathematical proof that the Torah was given by a supreme being? A scientific proof… The answer is yes.”

He showed that Shemesh (Sun) = 640, Eretz (Earth) = 291, and Yareach (Moon) = 218 correlate with actual astronomical measurements at 0.999 accuracy. Time cycles, speeds of light and sound, planetary properties, color frequencies, and even the specific heat capacities of water’s three phases all match with extraordinarily high statistical probability. Professor Shore’s conclusion is unmistakable:

“If you change even one single letter in any of these Hebrew words, the entire mathematical system collapses… There is zero probability of getting all these results by chance.”

This isn’t ancient guesswork. This is a deliberate, precise code embedded in the Hebrew language from the very beginning.

So here’s the real question: If the Torah contains this level of mathematical precision, why does the modern world treat it as primitive mythology?

Because someone has been rewriting the story.

The same culture that tells us Adam was primitive also tells us the ancients couldn’t possibly have known the things they clearly knew. They tell us the pyramids were built by slaves with ropes and ramps, even though we still can’t replicate them. They tell us ancient civilizations were superstitious, even though their writings contain knowledge we’re only now rediscovering.

The Torah never rewrote itself.

It has always presented Adam as the first fully formed, highly intelligent human being. The blueprint was given in its entirety. The code was never random. It was intentional.

And that brings us to the heart of this chapter.

If stories create reality, then the story we tell about human origins determines what we believe is possible. The evolutionary story says we’re accidental, slowly improving apes. The Torah story says we started perfect and have been declining ever since.

Only one of those stories matches the mathematical code embedded in the language itself — and the genetic data that is now confirming a recent, designed origin for humanity.

The elephant in the room is no longer hiding.

The Torah began with stories because stories are the original code. The blueprint comes before the rules. Adam was the first blueprint. And that blueprint was never primitive — it was perfect.

Everything else in the Torah flows from that original design.

The Star Of Jacob

For thousands of years, people have walked straight through the middle of biblical prophecy without recognizing it.

The Israelites witnessed ten devastating plagues, walked through the parted sea on dry ground, and still complained days later that they wanted to go back to Egypt. Jeremiah warned the people of Judah for over forty years about the coming destruction, yet they mocked him and threw him into a pit. Even the prophets themselves often did not fully grasp the timing or complete meaning of the words Hashem gave them to speak.

This exact same blindness is happening again — right now, in our generation.

We are living in the days described in Ezekiel 38 and 39. Persia (Iran) has been directly struck. Damascus has become a heap of ruins. Nations are aligning against Israel exactly as the prophets foretold. Yet the vast majority of people — Jews and Christians alike — do not see it. Why? Because everyone is holding tightly to their own pre-written script of how the “end times” are supposed to unfold, instead of simply reading the Torah as the actual blueprint.

The Unspoken Christian Endgame

Many sincere Christian Zionists love and support Israel. They donate generously, publicly stand with us, and cheer every victory. But behind much of this support lies a quiet theological belief that is rarely voiced aloud: one day, the Jewish people will “look upon Him whom they have pierced” (Zechariah 12:10), realize that Jesus is the Messiah, mourn, and convert. In that scenario, Judaism as we know it comes to an end.

The Hebrew text tells a different story.

The phrase “et asher dakaru” uses a plural verb — “those who were pierced.” It is not speaking about one individual being crucified. The verse describes the people of Israel mourning their own fallen in a future war, with the intensity of mourning for a firstborn son. Afterward, the nation turns back to Hashem. There is no demand that Jews accept Jesus as Messiah. That interpretation only appears when the original Hebrew is altered or ignored.

This is the elephant in the room. Jewish voices and organizations that receive significant Christian support — including figures like Yishai Fleischer and platforms like Jewish Voice — cannot openly correct this misunderstanding. Their work depends on that support. So the full truth remains unspoken on both sides.

DNA and Archaeology Prove Who the Covenantal Heirs Are

The Torah is unambiguous: the everlasting covenant was given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — a physical, generational covenant passed through blood and seed.

Modern science confirms exactly who carries that line.

The Cohen Modal Haplotype, a specific Y-chromosome marker linked to the priestly line of Aaron, appears in approximately 96% of Ashkenazi Cohanim and 62% of Cohanim overall. My own grandfather carries this ancient lineage — a Kohen whose documented family line reaches back to 500 BCE. This same genetic marker is shared with many Arab populations, consistent with Ishmael being a son of Abraham. Ancient DNA from Canaanite remains further shows that modern Jews share significant Bronze Age ancestry with the land.

Christians carry no trace of this Abrahamic Y-DNA. Their connection is presented as purely spiritual. Yet the Torah speaks repeatedly of a physical, generational covenant. The genetic and archaeological evidence aligns with the Torah, not with replacement theology.

The Fingerprints of Hashem – Rabbi Jonathan Rietti’s “Fingerprints of Divinity”

If the Torah were written by ordinary men, it would be filled with errors, outdated science, and contradictions. Instead, it contains knowledge that was impossible for any human in Moses’ time to possess.

In his powerful three-part audio series “Fingerprints of Divinity,” Rabbi Jonathan Rietti lays this out clearly and accessibly:

• In Part 1, he highlights the kosher laws in Leviticus 11. The Torah lists exactly four animals that possess only one of the two required kosher signs: the camel (chews cud, no split hoof), the hyrax (chews cud, no split hoof), the hare (chews cud, no split hoof), and the pig (split hoof, no cud). Modern zoology confirms these are the only four mammals on the entire planet that fit this description. No fifth animal has ever been discovered — not in Africa, Asia, the Americas, or even the isolated Galapagos Islands, which have no native land mammals at all. How did a shepherd in Midian know the complete global list 3,300 years ago?
• The series continues with the precise order of creation in Genesis, which aligns with the scientific sequence discovered millennia later, and with historical patterns that recur over time — from Haman in the Book of Esther to Hitler, both linked by the number ten and the date of Purim.

These are not coincidences. They are clear fingerprints of divine authorship.

We Are Living Ezekiel 38–39 Right Now

The prophets described Persia (Iran) joining a coalition that comes against Israel in the latter days. In February 2026, that process accelerated dramatically. Israel and the United States struck Iran directly. The regime was shaken. Missiles were launched in response. The players named in Ezekiel are actively moving into position.

This is not speculation. This is current events.

Yet large segments of Christianity continue waiting for a future seven-year tribulation, a pre-tribulation rapture, or an Antichrist who will desecrate a rebuilt Third Temple. While they wait for their script, the actual prophetic events described in the Tanakh are unfolding in plain sight.

The Torah never speaks of a dying Messiah who atones for the world’s sins. It speaks of national repentance, return to the Land, and God sanctifying His Name through the Jewish people. That is precisely what we are witnessing.

The Real Battle Has Always Been About the Jewish People

Behind the politics, the military moves, and the headlines, the West continues to wrestle with the ancient question: “What do we do with the Jews?”

This spirit of Amalek has existed since the moment God chose the Jewish people at Sinai. It manifested as Haman, as the Spanish Inquisition (led by a converso, Torquemada), as Hitler, and now moves through Iran and its global proxies. The Talmud warned about “Germamia” (Germany) long ago. History proved the warning correct. The same force is active today.

The difference in our time? The Jewish people have returned to their ancestral land, exactly as the prophets foretold. God promised He would gather us “from the furthest corners of the earth” — and He has done it. My own life stands as living proof: born to a Black father and a Levite mother whose father was a Kohen from ancient times.

Closing: Prophecy Is Quiet — But It Is Here

The strongest evidence that we are living in the days of prophecy is that most people still do not recognize it.

Just as in Egypt, just as in Babylon, just as in the time of the prophets — daily life continues. People argue, support causes, criticize, donate, and wait for their preferred version of the story.

But the Torah continues its perfect, unbroken record. The DNA matches. The science matches. The historical patterns match. And the events on the ground continue to match.

The Star of Jacob has risen. The long silence has been broken.

Now is the time to open our eyes.

Hazan Gavriel ben David

(Insights from Chief Rabbi Goldstein’s Teachings on the Divine Spark Within Us)

In his profound exploration of Jewish wisdom, Chief Rabbi Goldstein illuminates a fundamental human tension: the deep, natural love we have for ourselves versus the Torah’s insistent call to love our neighbor as ourselves. The Torah also calls us to give selflessly and to connect with the Divine through acts of kindness. This is not a contradiction but an invitation to growth.

As Rabbi Goldstein explains around the 17:17–19:20 mark of his lecture, self-love is baked into our very essence—“Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18) acknowledges that loving the self is the baseline, the core from which all other love flows. Yet this same self-awareness can tip into selfishness. This happens if our definition of “I” remains narrow.

The real struggle, he teaches, is learning to expand that “I” until it encompasses not just our body or even our soul. It must also include family, community, the Jewish people, all of humanity, and ultimately our unbreakable bond with God.

Expand I Unto The Whole World

This struggle is beautifully framed in Pirkei Avot 1:14, where Hillel declares:

“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?”

Rabbi Goldstein draws on the commentary of the great Talmudic scholar Rabbeinu Yonah (often referred to in the tradition as illuminating this Mishna) to show that the answer lies in how we define “self.” A person at the lowest level sees “I” as merely the body.

A slightly higher soul understands “I” as body and neshama—the divine soul. But the truly great soul expands further: “I” includes spouse, children, parents, community, and ultimately every human being created in God’s image. As Rabbi Goldstein notes around the 20:34–21:59 timestamp:

“The greater the person, the greater the expanded definition of the ‘I.’ … God placed within us the love of ‘I,’ the awareness of self. The greater the human being, the more they expand that sense of ‘I’ to make space for all of the other human beings. And that is the journey of growth.”

Please Hashem and Please Man

This expansion is the antidote to prejudice, racism, and division. It echoes another key teaching from Pirkei Avot 3:14, where Rabbi Akiva states:

“Beloved is man for he was created in the image [of God]. It is a sign of even greater love that it was made known to him that he was created in the image.”

And Pirkei Avot 3:10 reinforces the unity: one who pleases his fellow human beings pleases God Himself, because the soul of every person is a direct, intimate breath from the Divine—the same spirit God blew into the first human being, Adam.

Here is where reincarnation—gilgul neshamot, the cycling of souls—enters as the profound mechanism that allows this journey to continue beyond a single lifetime. Reincarnation is the only way to fully experience the soul’s never-ending life. The soul is eternal, a divine spark that cannot be extinguished.

Yet one short lifetime is rarely enough to complete its mission of tikkun (rectification), self-mastery, and the full expansion of the “I” to embrace all of creation. This is why some souls, upon understanding the reality of gilgul, find the courage to save another person’s life. Sometimes they do this even at great personal cost.

Save Your Life First

The classic desert scenario in the Talmud (where two travelers have only enough water for one) illustrates the tension: Torah law says “your life comes first.” But when a soul grasps reincarnation, the calculation shifts. Knowing that this life is but one chapter in an eternal story frees one from the narrowest form of self-preservation.

Saving the other becomes an act of expanding the “I” across lifetimes—because that other soul is part of the greater self, part of the collective Adamic blueprint. In this way, reincarnation transforms the struggle. It gives the soul multiple opportunities to choose generosity over selfishness, to love the neighbor as the self, and to fulfill the mitzvot that bind us to God and to one another.

This truth is hinted at in the powerful verses of Job 33:26-30 (especially 29-30):

“He prays to God, and He is favorable to him; he sees His face with joy, and He restores to man His righteousness. He looks upon men, and says, ‘I have sinned, and perverted what was right, and it profited me not.’ He has redeemed my soul from going into the pit, and my life shall see the light.” “Behold, God does all these things, twice, three times with a man, to bring back his soul from the pit, that he may be enlightened with the light of the living.”

To Learn The Light Of Life

Jewish mystical tradition, from the Zohar to the Arizal’s Sha’ar HaGilgulim, has long read these verses as a direct allusion to gilgul: God gives the soul two, three—or more—chances to return, to be pulled back from spiritual destruction, and to bask once more in the light of life. Each incarnation offers another opportunity to expand the self. It also gives a chance to repair what was left unfinished, and to live out the vision Rabbi Goldstein describes: seeing the godly soul in every person we meet.

For those writing on Adam as the Blueprint, Rabbi Goldstein’s teaching offers rich material. Adam HaRishon was not merely the first man; he was the primordial container of all souls. When God breathed the neshama into him with that intimate act of “blowing,”

He embedded the divine spark into the very prototype of humanity. Every subsequent soul carries a fragment of that original blueprint. Reincarnation allows these sparks to reunite, to heal, and to expand collectively across generations—turning the individual “I” into the cosmic “We.”

And for reflections on the Tree of Life, consider how the Torah itself is called the Tree of Life (Proverbs 3:18). The “details” of mitzvot—Shabbat, prayer, acts of kindness—that Rabbi Goldstein calls “the commentary” on the core vision of the godly soul are the branches and leaves that sustain eternal life. Reincarnation is the soul’s ascent up that Tree: lifetime after lifetime, climbing toward full rectification until every soul can declare, with Job, that it has been redeemed from the pit and now sees the light.

In the end, Rabbi Goldstein’s message is one of profound hope. The struggle between self and other is not a flaw—it is the very path to greatness. By expanding our “I,” recognizing the divine spark in every human being, and embracing the soul’s eternal journey through reincarnation, we tap into a transformative power. This can change not only our own lives but also the entire world. As Hillel taught: if not now—when?

May these words, drawn from Rabbi Goldstein’s wisdom and the eternal teachings of Torah, inspire us all to live with a greater, more inclusive sense of self—today, and across every lifetime our souls are granted.

Hazan Gavriel ben David

A Historical, Linguistic, and Prophetic Case for Re-examining the Hebrew Bible

Bart Ehrman is one of the most influential biblical scholars in America today. Through his books, lectures, and paid online courses, he has guided hundreds of thousands of former believers to the conclusion that the Christian Bible is unreliable — a human document full of contradictions and later edits. Many who started with strong faith walked away as agnostics or atheists.

I wrote my book, The Ten Sayings, specifically for that audience.

Before you conclude that the Bible is not factual, I invite you to examine the original Hebrew Tanakh through the lens the Jewish people have used for over 3,000 years — not as ancient literature, but as a precise, multi-layered code containing the blueprint of creation.

A Secular Historian’s Astonishing Discovery

Francisco Gil-White, a secular anthropologist and historian with a PhD from UCLA, made a striking observation while studying the history of the ordinary world. A tiny, seemingly insignificant people appeared in the ancient Near East, and their ideas — monotheism, justice, human dignity, and moral compassion — ultimately reshaped Western civilization. Gil-White calls the Jewish people “the most successful system ever created for changing humanity.”

This is not a religious claim. It is a historian’s evidence-based conclusion.

The Unique Power of the Hebrew Language

At the foundation of this system lies the Hebrew language. Jewish children begin their education with the Aleph-Bet. In Hebrew, the word דָּבָר (davar) means both “word” and “physical thing.” The sages understood this to mean God’s spoken words are the actual building blocks of reality — functioning like chemical elements.

How Traditional Jewish Scholars Read the Torah

We do not read the Torah like a novel or a collection of moral stories. We study it as a precise code in which every letter, spelling variation, dot, and numerical value carries intentional meaning.

The Baal HaTurim: Reading the Code

Rabbi Jacob ben Asher (Baal HaTurim, 1269–1343) was a master of this approach. Here are three examples:

1. Genesis 1:1 – בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ The verse contains exactly 28 letters. The word כֹּחַ (koach – strength) has a gematria value of 28. The Baal HaTurim teaches that God created the universe with His full creative strength.
2. Genesis 33:4 – וַיִּשָּׁקֵהוּ (vayishakehu – “and he kissed him”). This word has 11 unusual dots above every letter. The Baal HaTurim explains that the dots reveal Esau’s kiss was insincere — his descendants would wage an eternal ideological war against Jacob’s descendants.
3. Exodus 32:6 – The word “to play” (לְצַחֵק – l’tzachek) is spelled with an extra י (yud) only in the golden calf story. That single added letter transforms the meaning from innocent play to immorality and corruption.

Professor Chaim Shore: Hebrew as Scientific Blueprint

Professor Chaim Shore, an Israeli engineer, used statistical analysis on Hebrew gematria. He showed that the numerical values of Eretz (Earth = 291), Yareach (Moon = 218), and Shemesh (Sun = 640) align almost perfectly with their actual physical diameters. The probability of this occurring by chance is extremely low. He has documented dozens of similar patterns.

Ten Specific Prophecies Fulfilled in History

The Tanakh made detailed, testable predictions about the Jewish people that have unfolded with remarkable precision:

1. Scattered among all nations (Deut. 28:64)
2. Persecuted and few in number
3. Preserved as a distinct people for millennia
4. Hated without a rational cause
5. Regathered from the four corners of the earth in the last days
6. The land of Israel was left desolate while they were in exile
7. Jerusalem was trampled by Gentiles until their time was fulfilled
8. The Torah going forth from Zion again
9. Every empire that tried to destroy them collapsed
10. A final return greater than the Exodus from Egypt (Jeremiah 16:14-15)

The Ongoing Conflict Between Esau and Jacob

Efraim Palvanov’s five-part series “Understanding Edom” traces how Esau’s descendants became Rome and later shaped aspects of Christianity. This may explain why Glenn Beck recently said Western Christianity is falling apart and he doesn’t understand why. The Torah gave the reason long ago through the dotted letters above Esau’s kiss.

My Personal Journey

My grandfather, Luz Ramirez Diaz, passed away in December 1988. I was very young and knew nothing about being Jewish. As he was dying, he told my mother he must be buried within 24 hours. She asked me, “Junior, what does he mean?” I had no answer.

I barely knew my uncle, Joseph Diaz. From age 18, he walked the streets for the Baptist church, devoting his life to bringing people to Jesus. He was a dedicated Christian who knew Jesus deeply — but he never knew he was Jewish, and he never knew he carried Aaron’s DNA.

Eight years ago, my uncle Joseph took the Big Y DNA test through FamilyTreeDNA. The results showed that he carries the Cohen Modal Haplotype — the genetic marker indicating direct descent from Aaron, the High Priest.

Only then did the pieces begin to come together.

A Final Invitation to Truth-Seekers

If you are someone who once believed in the Bible but lost faith after encountering modern academic criticism, I urge you to give the original Hebrew Tanakh a fresh look. Study it not as ancient literature, but as the living code it has always been.

You may discover that what you thought was an unreliable myth is actually the most sophisticated operating system humanity has ever received.

The Ten Sayings was written for exactly this purpose.

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Footnotes

[1] Francisco Gil-White, writings on The Management of Reality (managementofreality.com) [2] Based on classical rabbinic interpretation of the word davar. [3] Baal HaTurim commentary on the respective verses. [4] Baal HaTurim on Genesis 33:4. [5] Professor Chaim Shore, Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew.

We often ask: If the Torah is primarily a book of laws, why didn’t Hashem begin the Torah with the laws? Moreover, why did He begin it with stories — with the story of Creation, Adam and Eve, Noah, and the Patriarchs?

Rabbi Warren Goldstein gives a beautiful answer to this question.

He explains that the Torah begins with stories because stories are how God creates. In the beginning of Genesis, God doesn’t legislate the world into existence — He speaks it into existence. “Let there be light… Let there be a firmament…” The entire creation is brought into being through the power of speech and story.

This teaches us something fundamental:

Stories create reality.

Just as God used stories (the Ten Utterances) to create the physical world, we use stories to create our relationships. Additionally, we use them to build our families, our communities, and even our own identities.

The laws of the Torah only make sense once you understand the story — who we are, where we came from, and what kind of world we are meant to build.

That is why the Torah doesn’t begin with “Thou shalt not…” It begins with “In the beginning, God created…”

Because before you can teach someone how to live, you must first tell them who they are.

Pirkei Avot – “The world was created with ten statements” (ba’asara ma’amarot nifrah ha’olam). It then immediately connects this teaching to the beginning of Genesis.

He says something very close to this:

“It’s taking us back to the beginning of the book of Genesis where God creates the world and He says ‘Vayehi Or – Let there be light.’ And all the way that God brings the world and the universe into existence is through the power of speech… God created the universe with the power of words… And what we learn from here is that words create worlds.”

The Real Work That Matters: Prayer, Family, and the Tree of Life

Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein’s latest teaching on Parshat Tzav cuts straight to the heart: “Love work.” Not just “do work” — love it. Pirkei Avot doesn’t tell us to tolerate our responsibilities; it commands us to love them.

And what is the greatest work we will ever do?

It’s not our careers. It’s not our side projects. It’s the daily, often invisible labor of prayer, marriage, and raising children.

In the Garden of Eden, Hashem gave Adam one clear instruction: “You may eat from every tree in the garden.” That included the Tree of Life. But to eat from that tree means accepting the full package — life, growth, joy… and also pain, loss, and death. The Tree of Life doesn’t shield us from difficulty. It teaches us that real life requires us to do the hard, holy work.

This is exactly what you did for the last five years. Every week you drove to see your mother, even when she no longer knew who you were. Many family members said, “It’s too hard.” You showed up anyway. That was avodah — sacred service. That was loving the work.

Today the world screams the opposite message. We hand our children phones and car keys instead of our time. We scroll instead of speaking. We outsource the raising of our kids to screens while wondering why they feel empty.

The Torah’s answer is simple and ancient.

The greatest work you will ever do is sitting down and reading your child the story of Adam and Eve, the blueprint of creation, and the Tree of Life that stands in the center of the Garden. That single act — turning off the phones, closing the laptop, and opening the book — carries more eternal weight than almost anything else you will do in your lifetime.

Prayer, marriage, and parenting are not side activities. They are the main thing. They demand our greatest attention, our greatest effort, and our greatest love.

This is what the Kohanim taught us when they cleaned the ashes off the altar every single morning. It was dirty, repetitive, menial work — yet the Torah calls it holy service. Because the dignity of work doesn’t come from how glamorous the task is. It comes from the purpose behind it.

When you change a diaper, comfort a crying child, or sit with your spouse after a long day — you are doing holy work. When you teach your children the story of the Tree of Life, you are planting eternity inside them.

Turn off the phones. Stop buying them distractions. Sit down and read them the story.

Because the Tree of Life is still in the center of the garden, and it is still calling us to do the real work — the work that actually matters.

Hazan Gavriel ben David