Teaching Team

HaYesod: Digging the Foundation Again

By Toby Janicki  | Comments (5) | Posted on December 18, 2007

In the past week here in Missouri we have survived an ice storm, as well as our first winter snow. Yet it still seems like yesterday that we were filming some of the new HaYesod:The Foundation in the middle of an Israeli heat wave.

We didn’t find out until later that the temperature reached 105+ degrees. It was so hot that we often had difficulty even sitting down for shots on archaeological stone or rocks. Ouch! We never seemed to have enough water, and the best food was ice cream bars… at least that was my perspective. It was an exciting experience, so I’d like to explain to you some of our plans that will—God willing—make the new HaYesod:The Foundation a wonderful way to introduce people to Torah.

Besides the obvious need to upgrade to DVD, there are many changes we’d like to make. First Fruits of Zion, with Boaz at the helm, has been going for 15 years and we have grown a lot. And ever since we originally released the HaYesod program back in 2000 we have learned a lot. For one thing, all of us have become much more comfortable with the camera. Boaz often describes the original footage as a ping-pong match of single head shots. First this angle, then the other. We hope, with a little help from our audio and video man Joel Powell, that we can make the shots more engaging.

Certainly the footage from Israel will aid in this. What could be more exciting than talking about Torah from the place from which it is destined to go forth in the Messianic Era? These shots will be interspersed throughout the studio work. We felt it was not only important to break up the monotony, but also to give viewers a real sense of connection to the land of Israel. It is critical that people being brought into Torah get this understanding. Sadly, we have seen many people in the Torah movement who are divorced from the land of Israel, as well as its people. We intend to cement this connection in their minds right off the bat.

Over the years we have also experienced firsthand much of the craziness in the Torah movement. In the new HaYesod program, HaYesod:The Foundation, we hope to head off many of these issues in order to prevent new people from getting consumed in the confusion. For example, in the third session Daniel Lancaster will teach a whole segment on Yeshua’s name and will clarify the false assumptions that “Jesus” derives from “son of Zeus.” In some ways you can say that we will be more on the offense than the defense. We’ve seen and experienced much damage caused by these pitfalls, and it is not profitable.

We also plan to cut the fourteen weeks down to ten, with an Israel Night to introduce people to the program and get them interested in participating. Here’s an overview:

Israel Night
Lesson 1: Introduction to Torah
Lesson 2: New Creation Theology
Lesson 3: Covenant (Hebrews)
Lesson 4: Yeshua & Torah
Lesson 5: Discipleship
Lesson 6: Paul & Torah
Lesson 7: Paul’s Letters
Lesson 8: Biblical Calendar
Lesson 9: Torah Life #1 (Overview)
Lesson 10: Torah Life #2 (Approach)

We believe a slightly shorter program might be more attractive to people and easier to commit to, but I assure you we have not cut short on any vital content.

One last area that we actually got much feedback from the first HaYesod program was the need for practical application. Not only will we have the last three lessons of HaYesod:The Foundation dedicated to living out Torah, but interspersed in each lesson will be a section called “Mitzvah Moment” where we will attempt to demonstrate how to put the words of Torah into action. This will allow the viewer at the end of the program to feel they have some direction for what to do next.

Each day that I work on this project I get more and more excited to see the new HaYesod:The Foundation come to fruition. Don’t get me wrong, we still have a lot of hard work ahead of us. Besides all the writing and designing we still need to do, we will be returning to Israel in late February for three more weeks of filming. Boaz is currently engaged in a intensive two-week review and update on the program, holed away and focused with limited distractions.

I hope I have given all of you a glimpse as to what to expect from this new program and whetted your appetite for the final product. Probably more than anything else First Fruits of Zion produces, HaYesod:The Foundation will be pivotal in taking Torah to the Nations. We ask for your prayers as we continue the production process. Please consider making an end-of-year donation to help bring this important project to completion,God willing,by Fall 2008.

Toby Janicki
9th Tevet 5768

About the Author: Toby Janicki is a teacher, writer and speaker for FFOZ. He is also a writer for messiah magazine and the author of the Restoration Workbook and a new book on the Mezuzah.

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