By Joseph Shulam
Joseph Shulam’s Torah study this week brings a timely call to “to reaffirm the need and the necessity to get back to the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation and affirm that the Bible is our only guide and our only ultimate authority for walking and living in God’s truth!”
Our reading on this Shabbat is called Parashat Vaetchanan Translated to English this word means “I pleaded”! Every year when we come to this Torah portion tears well up in my eyes. I deeply identify with Moses in this circumstance that he is facing. Moses is pleading with God to be allowed to enter the land of promise – the land of Canaan – the land that God promised to Abraham as an inheritance for his seed. The land that Abrahams’s children were born is the land in which Abraham bought the cave of Machpela in Hebron as a grave for Sarah, his wife, and for himself too. Now after 40 years of wandering in the Sinai Desert standing on the eastern shores of the Jordan river and all of Israel is there with Moses their leader out of slavery and into freedom is pleading from God to just let him cross the river, Jordan. The river Jordan in some countries wouldn’t even be called a river, it would be called a creek in the southern states of the USA.
The lord has used me from my youth to start a congregation of Jewish disciples of Yeshua our Messiah with six Jews a true Jewish mix – three Orthodox Jews, two of them survivors of the Nazi Holocaust. One dear wonderful sister from Finland who brought in the 1950’s a group of volunteers from Finland by bus that spread in the Kibbutzim (collective farm communities) around Jerusalem and protected the future of the Jewish country to have Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Israel in fulfillment of the promises of God to Israel’s prophets in the Bible. Those six Jews are the root and the start of what today is called Netivyah Fellowship and Charity. It was called Netivyah Bible Instruction Ministry until recently, but we had to change the name in order to receive the tax-exempt status as a non-profit organization. This status gives people who contribute to Netivyah in Israel the same status that contributors in the USA have to get tax credit for their contributions. The beginning of Netivyah as a congregation of disciples of Yeshua was in 1972 the first fellowships were in the Shulam apartment. We had peaceful meetings for about five weeks and then the persecution started. Everything from attempted arson while we were sleeping in our beds, and property damage and car damage and all night long the phone ringing for weeks. We pleaded not like Moses in our Torah portion, but we pleaded to the police and they tried to help us, but they couldn’t because the organization that was doing this was heavily supported with their parliament members in the Israeli Parliament (The Knesset). So, God is living and watching and giving his seed even better friends in higher parliaments: Mike Adams was a debate partner in David Lipscomb College in Nashville and he was also the congressional aid to senator Howard Baker, and He shared our problem with the senator and the senator shared our problem with the president of the USA, and one phone call from the White House to the Israeli embassy in Washington stopped the persecution cold! We pleaded and the answer came! Moses pleaded and the answer that God gave him was “NO MOSES” – you are not going to cross the Jordan!
Our Torah reading on this next Shabbat is called “Vaetchanan” – Moses wrote that he pleaded but God’s answer to the pleading of Moses with a big fat “NO!” What can I learn from this reading of the Torah? First I must say that Moses tried everything pleading God to allow his crossing of the Jordan River. He shared his accomplishments with the children of Israel. He begged God, “Vaetchanan!” Moses gives a short reminder of all of his great accomplishments with this stif necked nation that he led out of Egypt and crossed the Red Sea with them on dry ground because God intervened and opened the Red Sea and allowed the children of Israel to cross on dry ground but drowned the Egyptian army in the sea. This scene that we read in the Torah is also the end scene of the book of Revelation where the satan and all his angels end their career in the sea of fire. But our Torah reading on this Shabbat of July 25, 2026, has many more rich and wonderful texts that are deeply ingrained into the heart and soul of every disciple and follower of Yeshua our Messiah.
Moses, in the Torah portion Vaetchanan (“I Pleaded”) but our reading also contains the Shema, the declaration of faith and a central text in Jewish prayer. “Torah: Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11”. Here you have the times and circumstances in which Yeshua himself and others recited the Shema, (Hear O’ Israel prayer in the New Testament.)
The Shema is the central declaration of faith in Judaism, taking its name from the first Hebrew word of the prayer, which means “Hear” or “Listen”.
When looking at the entire Bible, the complete traditional prayer is drawn from three places in the Old Testament, and its core verses are directly quoted or recited three times in the New Testament.
Here are the specific locations and references for where the Shema is found and recited.
The Old Testament
The full Shema prayer that is traditionally recited daily is not just one verse, but is composed of three distinct passages from the Torah:
- Deuteronomy 6:4–9: This is the most famous part and the primary core of the Shema. It begins with the iconic declaration, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one,” and continues with the command to “love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might”.
- Deuteronomy 11:13–21: This second section focuses on the promises and consequences of obedience. It reminds the people that if they follow God, they will be rewarded, but if they rebel, they will face discipline.
- Numbers 15:37–41: The final section instructs the Israelites to wear fringes (tzitzit) on the corners of their garments as a physical, visual reminder to remember and fulfill God’s commandments.
In the Gospels we have the Core of the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:4-5, recited three times, always highlighted as the greatest and most important commandment:
- Mark 12:28–30: This is the most complete New Testament recitation. When a scribe asks Jesus which commandment is the most important of all, Jesus quotes the Shema directly:
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’”
- Matthew 22:35–37: Here, Jesus is asked a similar question by a lawyer. He recites the command to love God, though the opening phrase (“Hear, O Israel”) is omitted in this specific Gospel account:
“Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’”
- Luke 10:25–27: In this account, the recitation comes from someone else. A lawyer stands up to test Jesus and asks what he must do to inherit eternal life. When Jesus asks him what is written in the Law, the lawyer recites the Shema:
“He answered, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
In summary, you will find the structural roots of the Shema in Deuteronomy and Numbers, and you will find its direct recitations in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
Now my question is this! Why do my Christian brothers and sisters ignore this teaching of our Lord and replace it with something strange that was developed well into the 3rd Century AD created by the so-called “church fathers”, antisemites Jew haters and persecutors of the Jewish brothers and sisters of Jesus and the apostles? WHY?
I Joseph Shulam still believe with all my heart and soul that it is God’s will and desire before the return of Yeshua our Messiah for the so-called Church (whatever it is called today with the hundred of splinter denominations that use the Bible but don’t have any intention to be wise like the man who built his house on the Rocks on top of the Mountain and when the storm came His house was still standing. My dear brothers and sisters around the world, the reverberating question is still WHY! My personal answer to this WHY? Is simple much = Most of the so-called Christianity has forgotten the Cain Ridge!
Here is the answer to my question from Gimini!
The events at Cane Ridge, Kentucky, in August 1801 stand as a defining moment in American religious history, sparking what is known as the Second Great Awakening.
Here is a summary of the context, the revival itself, and the profound decisions made by the pastors who led it.
The Context
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the American frontier was experiencing a period of intense spiritual and moral decline. Churches struggled to keep up with the rapid westward expansion, and there was a severe lack of trained ministers. Desperate to reawaken their communities, local ministers began organizing days of prayer and fasting. This set the stage for the frontier “camp meeting”—large, outdoor gatherings where isolated settlers would travel for days of continuous preaching and communion.
The Gathering at Cane Ridge
The Cane Ridge Revival began on August 6, 1801, as a traditional Scottish Presbyterian communion service organized by Barton W. Stone, the local Presbyterian minister. However, it quickly exploded into a massive, interdenominational phenomenon, drawing an estimated 10,000 to 25,000 people—a staggering number considering the entire population of nearby Lexington was only about 6,000.
Because of the sheer size of the crowd, the pastors set aside their theological differences to preach simultaneously from wagons and tree stumps across the sprawling camp. The event was marked by intense emotional and physical reactions; attendees wept, shouted, danced, and collapsed to the ground in religious ecstasy.
Several key pastors from different denominations led the massive crowds:
- Presbyterians: Barton W. Stone, Matthew Houston, Richard McNemar, John Dunlavy, Robert Marshall, and John Thompson.
- Methodists: William Burke and Benjamin Lakin.
- Baptists: Several Baptist preachers were present, though their participation was more limited due to their differing views on communion.
The Final Outcome and Decision
While the Methodist and Baptist churches embraced the camp meeting model and grew immensely in the aftermath, the wild emotionalism at Cane Ridge offended traditional Presbyterian leadership. The regional Presbyterian Synod condemned the revival’s lack of order and moved to discipline the pro-revival ministers.
In response, Barton W. Stone and four other Presbyterian ministers (Richard McNemar, John Dunlavy, Robert Marshall, and John Thompson) withdrew from the Presbyterian Synod in 1803. Together, they formed their own independent body called the Springfield Presbytery.
However, their most historic decision came just a few months later. By June 1804, these pastors realized that by creating a new governing presbytery, they were simply establishing another restrictive denomination. On June 28, 1804, the pastors signed a famous and highly unusual document titled the “Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery.”
In this document, the pastors made the final decision to:
- Dissolve their organization entirely so their body would “die, be dissolved, and sink into union with the Body of Christ at large”.
- Abandon all denominational labels, choosing to be known simply as “Christians”.
- Reject formal church creeds and rulebooks, declaring that they would take the Bible alone as their only guide for faith and practice.
This bold decision by the pastors at Cane Ridge became a foundational moment for the Restoration Movement. Their desire to abandon denominational divisions and unite simply around the Bible eventually gave rise to the Christian Church, the Churches of Christ, and the Disciples of Christ, leaving a legacy that permanently reshaped American Christianity.
Netivyah Ministries from Jerusalem Israel is calling for all those who call themselves Christians to return to the simple and true biblical faith that the Apostles and their followers embraced based only on the Word of God, from Genesis to Revelation! These men that gathered in the woods of Cane Ridge Kentucky in the early 1800’s when they realized that what each of them was doing is nothing more than the import of man-made organizations that built their houses on the sand and continued to ignore the words of the Bible from Genesis all the way to Revelation! Today if the followers of Christ, the Christians in all their doctrines and decisions and enmity toward each other will find themselves facing Mecca in their prayers on the little Persian carpets on their knees and worshiping Islam! The signs and signals are as bright as the golden dome on top of the Mount where the temple of Solomon stood.
These words that I am writing in this prayer list are not something that I am happy to write and share with you my dear brothers and sisters. They are truth and, in our Torah, reading this Shabbat, when Moses pleaded before God, it makes me cry, because as a leader and a founder of something that was at first rejected by the denominational missionaries in Israel. Missionaries who for the most part lived like kings and didn’t even bring one Jew or Arab to the knowledge of God and father of all mankind, the God of Abraham and Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses and King David and Mary and Joseph who raised Yeshua.
It is time my dear brothers and sisters to reaffirm the need and the necessity to get back to the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation and affirm that the Bible is our only guide and our only ultimate authority for walking and living in God’s truth!
I realize that this is a radical Jerusalem Prayer List, but like Moses I am pleading that we stop the deterioration of our faith and return back to the only true revelation that we have from God, the God who created this world and so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son, Yeshua, so that every one who walks on two feet can know for sure that He is doing God’s will and living according to God’s instructions and having a good clean and Godly life on this earth that God created for us!
I am committed with all of Netivyah to work on the unity of the Body of Christ like those early pioneers in the very early 1800’s in Cane Ridge Kentucky. Moses didn’t get what he begged God to give him, that is a simple crossing of the Jordan River! But, the text of the books of the Torah and especially this second Torah portion in the book of Deuteronomy and all the rest of this last book of the five books attributed to Moses in the Torah and in the prophets and also in the New Testament.
Restoration – Reformation is not good enough – Returning to the authority, the only authority that God has given us is the only way to get back to the blueprints of God’s revelation for all humanity The Bible. Let us read it and study it and come together to see how we can practice it and bring back to this world the pure milk of human integrity.
I believe in the return of Yeshua the Messiah back to Jerusalem. I believe in the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel through the prophets and the revelation that God has give us from Genesis to Revelation. If you too believe the same, please write a note and become wise like the servant who built his house on the Rock, and not on the sands of the desert that is so close to us all!