Founder’s Blog

HaYesod Field Update #7

By Boaz Michael  | Comments (5) | Posted on February 28, 2008

3AM, Jerusalem—I am in the lobby of our hotel all by myself. Despite our incredible work load and the fatigue of the schedule, I am not sleeping well. As I glanced across the room, I see a picture on the wall of David Ben Gurion sitting at the same exact table and chair that I was working at. It is pretty amazing to connect with history like that.

The intent of the original HaYesod program was to connect believers to their biblical roots by encouraging them in their relationship with the Land, the People, and the Scriptures of Israel. That original work was the gateway to Torah for thousands of people. Looking back now, I feel like we did a good job connecting people to the Scriptures of Israel, but really did not do well in linking believers to this Land or to greater Israel.

I wish that I had time to communicate what I mean by this failure. But it has been through that failure that I have seen the divisiveness and fruitlessness of Torah life when it is removed from its proper culture and misapplied outside the context of its historical development.

The video segments of the first program were shot in a hotel room in Denver, Colorado. Our set consisted of some fake trees; our backdrop was cheesy wallpaper; and the first HaYesod images were pen and ink illustrations. At the time I thought everything was perfect—and it was for where we were at the time. But things have changed, we have matured, and the Father is giving us a greater level of responsibility with this message. He is allowing us to be in Israel, with our people, sharing His Torah.

Sitting in this chair gives me a sense of connectedness that I pray we are able to capture in this revision. It is reminiscent of how it felt yesterday to teach on the covenant of David while standing on the inside of his palace, in the very rooms where he slept, walked and wrote.

With this said,we all still really need your prayers. I am looking at my remaining shots, our schedule and realizing my fatigue and it looks daunting. I know that it is critical that I am as excited as the young man that was our escort through the palace of David—when, with such passion and conviction—he stated the importance of this place as he said with purity, “…this place is really special, it really makes the Tehillim(Psalms) come alive when you understand them from the perspective that you have while standing here…”

He shared one example, “From the Temple mount area, you don’t get the sense of, ‘as the mountains surround Jerusalem…the Lord surrounds His people…’.” At that moment as I was deep in the valley of the city of David, in the King’s palace, away from the touristic site, and looking up at the surrounding mountains. I realized the uniqueness of that special moment—and, the need to be able to communicate that. Please pray for our team that we can all share with joy, purity, and passion.

Teaching in this environment is not easy.There are times when I wish to be back in that old hotel room with the lovely plastic trees and quiet backdrop. It is much different than that here. It is noisy, crowded and a bit distracting. Yesterday we shot a very, very, stressful take at a falafel shop in a busy corridor of the Old City. Toby was the teacher, so without a doubt most of the pressure was on him. He did such a great job and really captured a nice segment for the HaYesod lesson on Paul. Daniel had a stellar night teaching on God’s faithfulness to His people drawing from this text in Jeremiah,

Thus says the LORD, “If My covenant for day and night stand not, and the fixed patterns of heaven and earth I have not established, then I would reject the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, not taking from his descendants rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy on them.” (Jeremiah 33:25–26)

Perhaps that verse is an appropriate place to end this post. God is faithful to His people and we are (by His mercy) a part of His people; we have an inheritance in the Land; and, we have been given access to the Torah.

Shabbat Shalom. May the Lord be blessed with our rest.

About the Author: Boaz Michael is the president and founder of First Fruits of Zion.

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