Roots of Faith

In this week’s class, Ross covers the Greatest Sermon of Moses. In these chapters, Moses sets forth a pattern through a repetition of four words that show up again and again, that if followed have the ability to open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf. Listen, Learn, Guard and Do! Deuteronomy contains over 80 occurrences of various forms of the Hebrew Verb Shema – Hear! This week’s Torah lesson contains 24! But what else must we do aside from “hearing”? We can not be mere hearers of the word. This class shows what else one must do. We encourage you to listen to this class and share it with others.

 Listen, Learn, Guard and Do!: Play in Popup | Download

In this week’s class, Ross teaches his introductory lesson on Deuteronomy. He shows in this class that within Deuteronomy there is a Road Map to Redemption that runs through these texts. Keying off of a phrase that occurs only 10 times in the entire Hebrew Bible (9 times in Deuteronomy and once in Jeremiah), Ross shows what we should be working on. The recurring phrase is “with all your heart and with all your soul”. Working through these texts we can learn what it is that we must “do” in order to find our way home. Ross shows in this lesson that we are to “hear and do”. You will not want to miss this teaching.

Image courtesy of FreeBibleIllustrations.com

 Hear and Do - The Road map to Redemption: Play in Popup | Download

In this week’s class we conclude the book of Numbers (BeMidbar). We are also in a period known in Hebrew as Bein HaMetzarim (between the straights). It is a 3 week period that falls between the 17th of the 4th month and the 9th of the 5th months (also known as the 9th of Av). These three weeks are traditionally held to be a time of mourning. In this week’s class, Ross speaks on the topic of sin and particularly the sins that led to the tragic events of the 9th of Av – the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. He points out that the sins of the fathers require our confession and shows this from the Scriptures. You will not want to miss this class.

 The Three Weeks: Play in Popup | Download

I wanted to take some time today to publish an update on all that is going on with Roots of Faith and the Synagogue Without Walls as well as to request your financial support.

It seems that there is a growing interest in what we are doing and I am pleased that we appear to be meeting a need in the lives of so many people who are seeking truth from the Scriptures.

When I received the keys to the historic Temple Sinai Synagogue in December of 2005, I had no idea what was in store! At that time there were no members, no regular services. All I had was a vision of what could be if I pursued the passion that I believe God placed within me.  Now, we have a growing and thriving global community of people who believe in the One God of Israel and seek to live according to the principles of the Hebrew Bible. We have members from literally all over the world! Some are scholars, some are educated laity, some are Christian / Messianic, some are Orthodox Jews. There are Karaites, Bnai Noach and some who choose not to go by any standard label. Many told me that this would never work; that such a diverse group of people could not come together, but I knew differently. You have proven that we can dialogue when we focus on the things that unite us. While it is clear that there are differences, and some of these differences are on major theological points, the underlying connection is obvious. There is a desire to unite around the core Biblical Message – God, Torah and Israel.

We are now into our fifth year – a year of bearing fruit, and I am excited about what the future has in store for all of us! It is amazing at what we have been able to do with the help of Heaven up this point.

Thus far we have been allowed full use of the Historic Synagogue at no charge. My small local congregation takes care of the building and in exchange, the city allows us to meet there every Saturday morning for the class that has been such a blessing to all of you. We have two computers that have been loaned to us from generous friends at no charge. We were able some time back to purchase a small camera that we use to stream our services live via the web to members every week. We are also blessed to have a creative technical man on our team who has made the most of our current equipment and somehow ties all of the mix-matched pieces and parts into a working studio. Another good friend has kindly offered storage for our websites, and assistance in technical issues, never asking for payment and rarely receiving any for all of his time and effort. We have been very good stewards, making full use of the blessings that have come our way. Up to this point, the bulk of the work has been the burden of a handful of people who have a common vision and goal to provide our teachings to all who desire them at no charge. This is not changing. Our regular costs up to this point have been our Internet bill (approximately $65 per month), a bill due to the city for sewer and water service at the synagogue (approximately $60 per month), and a bill for maintenance of our Synagogue Without Walls site ($25 per month). No one on staff receives any compensation.

As our outreach has grown, so have our needs. The company that hosts our Synagogue Without Walls site has announced new payment schedules for their services. Based upon the information that I have seen, it appears that this will nearly double by the end of the month to $50. We upgraded to the Premium channel for the live stream video of our weekly services in order to respond to your requests to get rid of the ads. This alone costs us $350 per month.

We are in need of some new equipment; a couple of new microphones for better audio quality, a new camera and better lights are really needed for improved video, and ideally a new computer would be very much appreciated. We have been informed that at some point in the near future we will need to vacate the Synagogue as funds have been collected for the restoration of this historic building. We are hopeful that we will be allowed to return to services here once the restoration is complete, but we are not sure at this point if this will be the case, when this move will need to take place, or for how long we will need to meet in another location. Our goal during this time will be to find a modest place to meet and to broadcast our services to our dedicated members around the world with no interruption.

I am also praying about hiring someone on staff, and want to begin regularly paying for the web server and technical support that is currently being provided at no charge, but is becoming a heavy burden for our faithful, patient and talented webmaster.

Obviously we will only expand and improve as funds are made available. The immediate need is to pay the rising bills of the Synagogue Without Walls website ($50 per month) and the monthly bill for our live streaming video services ($350 per month), and to begin paying for the services of our webmaster. I pray that we are able to meet these needs easily and be in a position very soon to buy some new equipment and then to hire someone on staff.

As we look forward to all that is in front of us, one might feel a bit overwhelmed, but I merely have to look back at how all of this has been taken care of in the past to know that somehow the needs will be met. I maintain that we will always do our part to provide our teachings at no charge for all who want them. Every week, we post our classes on the web as podcasts for download free from iTunes or directly from our site. Several have requested CD’s and or DVD’s of our classes. These will be packaged professionally and will sell for fair prices, making them excellent gifts to distribute to those that you think might be interested in learning from our teaching. We are currently investigating ways to make this a reality and I hope to announce something on this in the coming weeks.

I am also working with my own Hebrew Teacher, Johnny Powell, on a new weekly program for those that are interested in learning Hebrew via the web. I am very excited about this and look forward to announcing the details of this class very soon.

So with all of this I will close by simply asking for your generous support in our time of need. We have rarely asked for your financial help, always believing that God will supply our needs. We still believe that God will provide, but want to make sure that we let all of you know of the challenges in front of us so that those who can help would be given a clear picture of what is needed. I always stress that I never want anyone to feel guilty or pressured to give. Too many religious institutions do that already. Our monthly expenses are indeed climbing, but I believe that we are bearing fruit for our labors. One only has to tune in to the weekly service and participate in the chat to read of all those who are benefiting from Roots of Faith. My belief is that if people will give what they can we can more than meet the challenges in front of us. No gift is too small. I can tell you that all that we have done so far is because a few people have regularly supported us with contributions as they are able. I am humbled that people contribute to Roots of Faith and as always, I promise to use these gifts to further spread Torah Faith across the globe.

There are several ways that you can contribute to Roots of Faith. You can mail a check or money order to our Post Office Box (Roots of Faith, P.O. Box 695, Saint Francisville, La. 70775), or donate through PayPal on the web. You can use the donate links on our websites placed there for your convenience, or you can go to PayPal and send in your contribution using our direct email address for receiving donations (paypal@rootsoffaith.org).

I can say that for my part, I will continue to teach the Bible to the best of my ability. Your help with the financial burden that has presented itself will allow me to do so to more people. Please consider supporting Roots of Faith and the Synagogue Without Walls on a regular basis and thanks for your continued interest in what we have felt tasked to do!

Blessings to you and yours – Ross