The Ushav-toom Mayim is a celebration song that is commonly sung today at Jewish weddings. There is a dance. In fact, to do an Internet search on Ushavtem Mayim, it is difficult to turn up many results without the word "karaoke" somewhere in the text. It’s appropriate, that we open our Sabbath worship as a wedding celebration: this time of worship is to remind us of our coming Messiah as the Bride Groom who is coming to claim His bride. 

The Ma Tovu is a prime example of why the Hebrew language is such a vital element of our worship. When we read the Ma Tovu in English, we see a camp ground: tents and dwelling places; but the words carefully chosen by Adonai, spoken through His enemy, Balaam in Numbers 24:5 mean much more.

Ma Tovu means "how lovely" or "how good". The Hebrew "Tov" is the word for good. It is the opposite of evil, being first used in the Garden to describe the tree of knowledge of good and evil: the tree of knowledge of tov and rah. 

Many are familiar with the Hebrew term "ow-lawm" which is most often translated "forever" or "eternal". The showchain-owd is different. Ow-lawm gives the idea of the span of distance: way over there, so far. The showchain-owd speaks more of encompassing: the ever-presence of Adonai. It is the showchain-owd that is described for us in Psalm 139.

The Showchain-owd prayer is derived from Isaiah 57:15. It is the humble in spirit that gets His attention. This is paradoxical to our thinking. The righteous are the ones who are worthy to give Him praise. So we begin to understand how finite and limited is our concept of this great eternal One who desires our company.

The Yeeshta Backh is a loud declaration of praise: a whoop and a holler. To offer Him praises "la’odd" is to offer them continually, without interruption. In the second line we see the phrase "la’odd ow-lahm" which would be continually and without interruption into eternity. The traditional synagogue service is one continuous song with breaks of silence only to add to the sense of reverence and holiness. Even the reading of the Torah portions are sang.

The Hebrews have always been renown for their psaltery and the beauty and holiness of their worship. It is prayer, in prayer’s most intimate context. It has been said, that the written words in prose express the thoughts of the mind, that poetry is an expression of the emotions in the heart; but music is spiritual and is designed as the vehicle for entering into the courts of the Almighty. "The Lord inhabits the praises of His people, Israel." (Psalm 22:3)

The Barchoo carries the idea of bowing down before, paying tribute or homage to Him who is greater than we. Blessed is the Blessed One. He is bowed before, He is the only One who is truly blessed and supremely worthy of all our blessing. When we bow to anyone as a sign of respect of dignitary, it is only secondarily bowing to the Blessed One who is worthy of all our respect and allegiance. 

The Barchoo is a call to worship: to stand and respectively bow to the Blessed One. This is singularly the purpose for our meeting on the Shabbat: to bless the Blessed One. The congregation responds that this is our intent. "We are here to reverence the Blessed One, the One who is of all eternity."

And the Children of Israel shall keep the Shabbat…" The children of Israel… This is a powerful argument of the Christian Church that Sabbath worship is an ethnic anomaly. It is, for the Jew, a unique identification to which gentiles are not invited. The V’shamroo seems to reinforce the exclusiveness of Sabbath worship: "it is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever…." The idea of gentiles meeting together on Sabbath for a Jewish style of worship is an offense to many both from the Jewish and Christian perspective. Why is it offensive? It is because the Shabbat is a sign, an "owth" (in Hebrew) which means a monument or beacon: that which identifies the Children of Israel as the covenant people of Adonai. For gentiles to invade the Shabbat, by some, is seen as an attempt to usurp the covenant from Jacob and say, "We are, too, the people of God." For others, it is seen as discrediting over 1800 years of Christian Sunday tradition. Either way, the Messianic perspective of faith is very unpopular in the most basic elements of our practice: when and how we choose to worship.

There are two elements of our faith that immediately distinguish Messianic Judaism from others who will identify themselves as being Jewish. The first is that Messianic many Messianic believers invite gentiles to participate fully in this faith without qualification. There is no initiation process nor rite of passage to bring someone into the Messianic faith as there is in other forms of Judaism. But, then again, maybe there is…

The second element that distinguishes the Messianic Jew from any other Jew is that he recognizes Yeshua ben Joseph ben David, the carpenter’s son, the One crucified by the Romans as King of the Jews, to be King of all kings and Lord of all lords, and the firstborn of the resurrection of the dead. He is the Messiah: the Promised One whom Adonai has sent to reconcile all men to Himself.

"Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one God…" This is the central of all Jewish prayer, to call the people Israel back to her heritage from Abraham, to be the chosen people, living in obedience and love. Yet, there is an amazing perplexity for these words, this appeal to the people of God, to be uttered from the mouths of gentiles. "Hear, O Israel, your God is also my God. He is One in the Same." 

Each time we utter the Sh’ma we, as gentiles, are speaking the fulfillment of prophecy.

They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. (Deu 32:21 KJV)

The analogy of Adonai being a shield to His people is a familiar theme. In Genesis 15:1, He says to Abraham, "I am your shield and your exceedingly great reward." In Deuteronomy 33:29 it is written, "Happy are you, O Israel, a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your help…." In 2nd Samuel 22:2-3, David declares, "The Lord is my Rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; the God of my rock; in Him will I trust: He is my shield, and the horn of my salvation…." And while He is referred to at least 16 times in the Psalms as the Shield of His people, it is in the Proverbs, that we see the peculiar nature of His protection. 

Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. (Pro 30:5 KJV)

Possibly the oldest hymn of Jewish antiquity, the Me Kamokha tells the story of deliverance from the Egyptian bondage… forever. We find the text in Exodus 15:11. It is a song that rises from the lips of Moses and the men of Israel as they see the bodies of the Egyptian armies washing up onto the shore.
 
The words that we sing in the Me Kamokha are not quite the same as what is found in the Bible. "Me Kamokha ba-alim Adonai" is "Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods?" But, Exodus 15:11 reads "Me Kamokha aleh Adonai…" The "baal-im" are, specifically the deities of the Phoenicians, yet expands in Hebrew vocabulary to include all pagan idolatry. It is not an inaccurate statement, nor does the hymn pretend to be a direct quote of the Scripture. 

The "aleh" is best and easiest described as "the mighty". "Who is like You, O Lord, among the mighty ones" is an accurate understanding and rendition of the text of Scripture; but the originator of the Me Kamokha wanted us to see more than that. When looking upon the shores of the Red Sea and seeing the mightiest armies utterly destroyed, I could say, "Me Kamoka aleh Adonai" and simply mean these soggy lifeless bodies. Yet, in whom did these men place their trust? Adonai is mightier than the baalim, the deities of these armies. It is in the tone of the Me Kamokha that David wrote Psalm 27:

"The Lord is my Light and my Salvation; whom shall I fear?" 

The Hebrew word "ow-lahm" is translated forever. Immediately, our minds form out speculations reaching into the vastness of space and time: way out there. There should be no question that the power and influence of Adonai reaches from and into the farthest reaches, beyond our imagination. Yet, in our intimate prayers, it is not there that we are proclaiming His infinite mercy. The word picture that represents the word "ow-lahm" is the horizon of a hill. Ow-lahm represents that which is just over: out of sight, beyond our reach, the unknown. This is an important understanding because it doesn’t tend to be the things that lie way out in the vastness of space that tend to frighten us. It is the thing that we fear waits for us, just over the horizon of the next hill. We can give thanks to the Lord for He IS good… not will be, someday. His mercy endures forever, beginning now and stretching on over the horizons that threaten us.

The Ahvot is the first prayer of the Amidah, or Standing Prayers. It sets precedent , establishes relationship: not based upon who I am or what I have done; by because of who is Adonai and because of the promises that He has established already. It’s a good thing, too. Adonai says to us in Malachi 3:6, "I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." We stand on that promise today, "Not by works of righteousness that we have done; but according to His mercy hath He saved us…." (Titus 3:5). I come before Adonai, not based upon my merit; but based upon His mercy. 
The context of the Ahvote is remembering the deliverance of Israel from the bondage of the Egyptians.

"And when we cried unto the LORD God of our fathers, the LORD heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labor, and our oppression…"
(Deu 26:7 KJV)
The deliverance from bondage occurred over five hundred years from the time Adonai set His covenant with Abraham, over four hundred years since Israel was recorded as a people committed to Him. Yet, His promise remains with Abraham, even after Abraham has passed into death.

The Hebrew word Gibor means "mighty". The Gibor Adonai, as a prayer, answers for us the question, "How mighty is Adonai?" He is mighty to the falling to save them. He is mighty to the sick to heal them. He is mighty to the dead to raise them. 
Tragically, Judaism has been drifting steadily away from the supernatural reality of Adonai. Even within the orthodoxy and the spiritism of Kaballah, emphasis is placed upon the contextual relevance of daily issues, rather than the power and person of Adonai. The Gibor Adonai is a prayer of hope that transcends our understanding of hope: that declares victory even after defeat has been realized. 

When we pray the Gibor Adonai, we are testifying that God’s goodness is beyond our scope of understanding. We acknowledge that we may not see victory over the things that burden us in the way that we may hope to expect it. Yet, we trust in Adonai that His victory is sure, and as His servants we will ultimately prevail. 

Nowhere will we find the Hebrew language more dynamic, nor the Hebrew understanding more elusive than in the word "kadosh". It means holy or sanctified, dedicated or sacred. Yet, these definitions, even collectively, do not grab onto the meaning of kadosh. This is partially because the allusiveness is not simply a cultural struggle. Jewish sages and rabbis have burdened over the idea of holiness to give it justice and to grasp an intellectual understanding of it. Simply put, the only true example that we have of holiness is the manifest example of Adonai Himself.

Lots of folks, particularly from a Protestant Christian background, find little value in the liturgical prayers. They find them rote and confining. They’ve enjoyed the freedom to pray their own hearts, to share their own thoughts and feelings. The purpose of the liturgical prayers is not to share with Adonai who we are; but to step into His presence and catch a glimpse of who is the Holy One.

Holiness is unnatural to me. It is not something that I can conjure up at will, nor even pretend to demonstrate before my peers. It is completely foreign to my substance. It is the sum result of having set aside my agendas, my pride, my anxiety, my sinfulness and given the space of the day for Adonai to fill.

The Sabbath day is not about expressing ourselves to God: it is about giving ourselves to Him. It is freeing our minds from our own stuff so that He might have the day to enjoy our fellowship with Him. It is not a talent show for us to display ourselves for other believers, nor is it a day of intellectual stimulation. Those things have their place and are valuable in our experience of worship; but they are not the purpose of our Sabbath rest, nor do they lend toward obeying the commandment of the Sabbath day. It is not about us… it’s about Him.

The understanding of the Hebrew word "ah-main" is largely lost in the Christian prayer. When asking a child, "What does ‘Amen’ mean?" The response is typically something, "It means you can open your eyes now, that we’re done praying." The power of this word cannot be lost in the repeating of the Kadeesh, the Jewish mourner’s prayer.

It is called the mourner’s prayer because it speaks to the heart of one who is broken in hopelessness, to the one who maybe feels that Adonia has forsaken them, to the one who is consumed with grief and helplessness. The word "a-main" is repeated three times. It means "faithfulness." It speaks of encouragement and support and nurturance. The visual image of the word "a-main" is the nurse, swaddling the baby who is utterly dependant upon her for protection.

The Ayn Kamokha answers the question, "Who is like Adonai who is Almighty and everlasting?"  asked in the Mee Khamokha.  The kingdom which stretches to everlasting (owlam) as easily means the kingdom that spans the entire universe. Not only is there no time for any other deities to compare to Adonai, there is no space for one. His reign is eternal: expressed as that which was, which is and which is to come. He is Adonai, the Lord eternal.

This introduces a concern about His credibility by the very prayer. If He was and is, why is it that He will give strength to His people. Why has not it always been the case? If His power is everlasting, why has not His blessing rested on His people from everlasting?

The answer lies in the question of the Mi Kamokha: "Who is like You, Adonai, among the gods?" The answer is none. Any god in legend or mythology can sustain what always has been. In Hebrew, there is a legendary phrase that describes His unique quality: yesh mi’ayin, something from nothing. The beauty of Adonai in His power lies in His ability to create something from nothing.

In the traditional synagogue, there is an ornate cabinet that sits above and behind the bema (podium) where those who read the Scriptures will stand. This cabinet is called "the ark" which houses the Torah scroll. The ark is opened and Torah scroll is lifted up high over our heads so that everyone can see. Then, as we sing the Vaysee Beensoah Ha’Arone, the Torah scroll is paraded around and amongst us, up and down the aisles as people reach out and touch the scroll with the corners of their tallit (prayer shawl) or with the binding of their prayer books which they have kissed.

If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul. For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. 
(Deuteronomy 30:10-14)

The power of the Word and the presence of His Spirit is not far away nor for someone else. It is not untouchable nor beyond the reach of any child. Not only is each one of us welcome to come near; but by His love and through His commandments He reaches out to us. 

Moses declares that the words he has spoken are the commandments of Adonai Elohim (the Lord God) and not his own (Deuteronomy 4:2). As such, none can be diminished from nor added to, even by Moses, nor even by Messiah Yeshua (John 8:28), nor even by Paul (Acts 24:14). The Torah stands immovable as the in-errant word of God that stands forever (Isaiah 40:8).

The V’Zote haTorah is a declaration that these words that we share together are not words from a man, even a man so great and honorable as Moses; but it is the Word of Adonai, given through Moses’ hand. As such, it applies to us, every one for life and righteousness.

Messiah said, "Man (not Jew, but man) shall not live by bread alone; but according to every word that proceeds forth from the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:4). If we claim to be followers of Messiah, then Torah is for us because it is declared to be God’s Word without question and without exception. If we cannot rest on this simple truth of the V’zote haTorah, then we have no solid foundation at all.

It is surprising for many to learn that the Tree of Life described in Judaism is not really referring to a tree at all. It is a pattern or diagram which describes God according to His attributes and the courses that intersect them. 

The Hebrew word "dehrekh" means "paths" and refers to the intersecting links between the attributes of God. Dehrekh is not simply a method of getting from point "A" to point "B". It is that which is familiar, well traveled and well known. Getting to know God is not simply an introduction and we don’t enter into familiarity with Him by looking at Him from a distance. Messiah brings us to the Loving Father through His sacrifice at Calvary; but tragically, so many people see that access to the Father as the end of the journey. They come to the gates of eternity and are welcomed by our Father and King; but spend their entire journey transfixed upon the door through which they passed to get there.

The tree of life defines the essence of creation, beginning with Light. It is, in a sense, an attempt to return to the purest communion that Adonai shared with the first man. Knowing our sinful condition, we know that in this lifetime it is impossible; but by gaining and growing in our understanding of the Etz Chayim, when we finally get there, it will not be unfamiliar to us. He will not be a stranger.

I’ve noticed a sense of conflict in the Christian portrayal of God. He is God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; yet we can only speak of Him in terms of one of those at a time. It is hard for us to imagine God the Father as He whose hands were pierced in the house of His friends, as we are told in Zechariah 13:6. It’s difficult for us to imagine that it was the Holy Spirit who purchased us with His own blood, as we are reminded by Paul in Acts 20:28. The Ain Keloheinu reminds us, very powerfully and with absolute consistency that it is one God whom we serve and worship and obey. The four terms that are used repeatedly are descriptors of the One, not unique identities: eloheinu, adonainu, malkaynu and moshieynu have a ring of familiarity as words by which we acknowledge Him: God, Lord, King and Deliverer (or Messiah); but they are speaking of Him, not of four different fellows.

The same conflict appears in the Ain Keloheinu for the Jew; though many have come so familiar with the song that they forget it. He who is God, King and Lord is also the Messiah. If we are waiting for the appearing of the Messiah, we are waiting for the appearance of God. This is the seeming paradox of Isaiah 9:6, that the child who is born shall be called "Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father." Yet, this is decidedly the greatest barrier to the Jewish heart accepting Yeshua as Messiah. 

The word "aleinu" means, "it is our duty," or "it is incumbent upon us." The prayer continues on to declare why this is so. The Aleinu is said to have been written by Yehoshua ben Noon, the Joshua who led the people of Israel into the Promised Land. He declared to all the people who stood before him, "We are not here by chance." Likewise, we stand together to praise the Master of all creation, because it is He who reached down to us, not we who exalted ourselves to His presence. Understanding that our Messiah, together with His disciples, likely prayed the Aleinu three times every day, a powerful connection is made with His statement:

Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. 
(John 15:16)

The Aleinu that is prayed during the Sabbath service (in most Messianic and Reformed Sephardic Synagogues) is only half of the prayer. It continues to declare that Adonai will reclaim the earth to worship Him in harmony.