ARAMAIC WORD STUDY – SHEPHERD OF FAITH – RAAYA MEHEIMNA

רעיא מהימנא Resh Ayin Yod Aleph Mem Hei Yod Mem Nun Aleph

Exodus 14:31: “And Israel saw that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD, and his servant Moses.”

I read something very interesting in the Zohar regarding Exodus 14:31. Why does Scripture say that the people feared God and believed in Him and his servant Moses? The Hebrew syntax implies that they feared God but they believed both God and Moses. The word believe in Hebrew is ‘amen which is a word for faith. It also means to depend, to rely upon to trust, believe and have faith. Thus, the people came to depend upon, believe and have faith in Moses. Is that right? Should they not have their complete faith in God? Are we not commanded to only have faith in God and not man?

The Zohar explains this. People did not trust in Moses, they looked to Moses’s faith and drew strength and faith from Moses. They ultimately trusted in God but Moses was there to help build their faith. Moses is referred to in the Zohar in the Aramaic as the raaya meheimna or shepherd of faith. This implies that he was a faith builder.

He was a source and conduit of Israel’s faith in God. Moses met God in a burning bush, he had a very personal experience with God. He experienced first-hand miracles. His faith was pretty solid, but the people were still growing in their faith and they drew from the faith and confidence Moses had in God. Moses was building their faith.

There is a true story told that during the Holocaust in World War II an elderly rabbi and a young Jewish agnostic were in a concentration camp. They struck up a friendship and spent long hours discussing God. The young agnostic said that he wished he could have the rabbis faith, but he had just seen too much and could not believe in a God who could allow such cruelty as he had witnessed against their people. The rabbi, however, remained very firm and resolute in his faith and kept encouraging the young man to believe in God and have faith. That was a very tall order in the midst of a concentration camp.

One morning about 2:00 AM the guards entered the barracks firing their automatic weapons commanding everyone to get out of bed and run outside. Once outside they were commanded to keep running to the edge of the camp where they came to a long trench. They all knew what that trench was for. The commandant walked up and announced that only those who could work could live. The test as to whether they were capable of working was to jump across the trench. If they made it, they would be allowed to live and continue to work. If they did not…rat tat tat tat. The commandant made the sound of a machine gun.

The young man looked at the trench and turned to the rabbi and said; “We have been in this camp too long, too starved, too overworked, and too sick. You rabbi, you cannot possibly make it across at your age and I, will I just do not have the will to try and even if I did, I am too weak to make it across. Let’s just fall into that trench and end all this misery. The rabbi replied: “If God wants us to live, we will live. Then turning to the young man the rabbi said: “My young friend, please promise me that you will try.” The young man said: “Ok, rabbi, for you I will try.” As their turn came, the rabbi leaned forward and said: “We will jump now.”

They both jumped and both landed on the other side. The young man shouted, “Rabbi, we made it, we made it. But how could we, that was impossible? And you, rabbi, at your age and weaken condition how did you make it?” The rabbi simply replied: “The Lord carried me across.” Then the rabbi looked at the young man and asked: “But you, my young friend, how did you manage to get across.” The young agnostic bowed his head a bit ashamed and said: “I was hanging on to you.” Both men survived the concentration camp, living to tell of this miracle.

This rabbi was a raaya meheimna a shepherd of faith, a faith builder. You know the latest Pew Research tells us that only 22% to 37% of the 75% of the population in the United States who call themselves a Christian actually attend church, compared to 67% of those 75% twenty years ago. Many have left the church to attend online churches or small home group churches. Their reason is that they feel they are not being “feed” in the church. They hear the same sermons over and over. They feel there is no depth, that it is good for the new Christians, but feel that as mature believers, their longing and desire for the real meat of the Word of God is not being met. So they leave and surf the internet for their meat. Yet, these young believers in the church need a raaya meheimna a shepherd of faith, a faith builder to look up to, to cling to when their faith is faltering.

Chaim Bentorah Ministries exist, not to compete with the church, but to supplement the church. To allow the church to give priority to these new believers, to help them grow. Christians come to Chaim Bentorah Ministries, not to find a substitute for the church, but to meet a need that local pastors, who rightly, do not have the time to meet.

If you are searching for the meat of the Word, don’t leave your church. Be a faith builder. There is plenty online to give you the depth you long for. Stay in that church and be a raaya meheimna shepherd of faith, a faith builder to the young believers. Let those young believers cling to your faith when theirs begin to fail.