Shin

I've been regretting that I neglected to learn Hebrew in my youth.  For probably 2500 years (since Ezra, I'd suppose), very smart rabbis have been playing around with the words and letters of the Torah, finding real and merely clever subtleties of which the goyim must remain ignorant.  I of course am not among the goyim, the nations -- Christians are children of Abraham, through faith.  Thus, I'd suppose, brothers by adoption of Isaac (who was to be sacrificed) -- and uncles to Jacob.  That's pretty interesting -- Israel, my little nephew.   

Almost randomly, I found a talk by Rabbi Michael Skobac which is worthwhile.  We learn that Hebrew letters have a number of meanings in themselves, beyond mere phonics.  It's an extremely deep study -- vertiginous.  Thus, each of the 22 letters resonate to rabbis as the initial letter of a set of important words. Reb Skobac's ministry seems in part about Jews remaining talmudic Jews, rather than, oh, say messianic Jews.  And on that point, he has a story to tell (at 13:15), transcribed by me: 

There was once an apostate Jew who came to the great Elijah of Vilna, one of the greatest sages of rabbinic Judaism, lived about 300 years ago.  And he said to this great rabbi, "I'm going to prove to you the truth of Christianity from the very first word of the bible."  And he says to the rabbi, "Look at the first word in the Hebrew bible.  The word beresheet [be-r-a-sh-ee-t, בְּרֵאשִׁית‎].  The first three letters, bet resh alef [בְּרֵא], "Ben, Ruach, Ab" -- "Son, Spirit, Father".  The first three letters.  So the rabbi immediately said to him, "You know, you didn't read the rest of the word.  The rest of the word says, shin yud tov [שִׁית] -- spells out "torah Yeshu sheker" -- "the teachings of Jesus are falsehood".  

Well.  That seems disappointing.  Score one for the opposing team?  But being me, I had to check it out.  It would be that pesky shin, "falsehood."  Indeed, the "letter shin also represents the word שֶׁקֶר (sheker) lie, falsehood."  So it's true.  But, that "also" -- what else?  And there it is: "We all know that the first letter of the word שָׁלוֹם (shalom) peace is shin. The ש is also the first letter of the word שַׁדַי (shadai) which is one of the names of G-d."

So Rabbi Skobac didn't tell the rest of the story -- maybe he didn't know it.  In the rest of the story, the apostate Jew … but let's not call him that -- seems dismissive.  "And the faithful Jew immediately said to the rabbi, 'You read it backwards in the same way you have the meaning backwards.  The rest of the word says, shin yud tov [שִׁית] -- spells out "shalom Yeshu torah" -- "redemption is Jesus' law"'."

(For, "shalam is translated as 'make it good', 'shall surely pay', 'make full restitution' or to 'restore'. The ancient Hebrew meaning of shalam was 'to make something whole'.")

So.  Beresheet, the first word in the Hebrew bible, holds a talmudic rabbinical Jewish teaching of, Son, Spirit, Father: redemption is Jesus' law.

Thank you, Rabbi Elijah of Vilna.  And, Rabbi Skobac -- may I have another? 

J