Aramaic Word Study – Imitate – Dama – Daleth Mem Aleph 

Matthew 22:37: “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  (38) This is the first and great commandment. (39) And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”

The Aramaic is quite curious in its choice of words. The words “the second is like unto it” is a little rabbinaic trick to raise a statement to the level or importance of a prior statement. Hence the number one commandment is to love the Lord God with all your heart, soul and mind.  Then the “second is like unto it” that is the second is of equal importance to the first.  But the Aramaic uses a word for “like unto” which gives us a much deeper understanding and truth. The word is dama’ which means to imitate or resemble.

That is really cool, loving your neighbor as yourself is imitating your love for God.  But that word dama’ carries a lot more punch to it. It comes from the root word damam which is the word for blood or the life giving or life flowing force. In other words, Jesus is saying that our love for God flows into our love for others, but that flow goes both ways.  Just as our heart pumps or blood to flow throughout our body and back to its original source, our heart.  Our love for others will cause us to love God all that more. If we love God we will love our neighbor if we love our neighbor we will love God. 

I have sat in prayer meetings where people say; “Oh, pray for me that I may love God more.” Well, Bunkie, God is not just going to zap you with love. No one is going to pray: “Lord help Bunkie love you more” and then poof! When you raise your head you are loving God more.  Jesus explained it here in Matthew.  When you love others your love for God will increase.  Go visit that elderly neighbor to do a wellness check or just to visit.  Many, as they get elderly, find it very hard to leave their home or apartment as they just don’t have the strength to walk down the block to a local Walgreens.  Volunteer to help them shop, or drive them somewhere where they need to go. 

Help a child understand the love of God.  I know you may not like the one who made the quote famous, but it is true; “It takes a village to raise a child.”  Help neighborhood parents struggling to balance their time for their children and their care.  Visit someone in the hospital who may be longing for someone to come and pray with them.  Matthew 25:40: “And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” 

I believe a little story I read while reading miracles of the Holocaust would explain this very well. A Nazi death squad came into a small village and separated all the Jews from the Christians. They then forced the Jews to dig a trench and when they finished the soldiers lined them up by the edge of trench and machine gunners opened fired on them.  As the Jews were hit with the bullets they fell into the trench. However, just as they opened fire the uncle of a young child grabbed his nephew and held him in front of him and miraculously the child was not struck by any bullets. After the Nazis left, the young child crawled out from under his family, relatives and friends. He climbed out of the trench covered in the blood of his family. Naked and all alone he walked into the Christian section of town and began to knock on doors begging for help.

When people saw the child they refused to open their doors for they knew that helping a Jewish child would sentence them to death by the Nazis.  The child approach one house knocked on the door. When the woman answered she immediately realized who and what the child was and was just closing the door when the child remembered something his father told him.

His father told him that if he ever found himself in a situation where he needed a Christian to help him he should say certain words. The word did not make that much sense to the child but it made a lot of sense to this Christian woman. So much so that she took the child into her home, cared for him and protected him throughout the rest of the war. This Jewish child survived the war because he remember certain words which would strike the heart of a true Christian: “But, I’m the Jesus that you love.” 

Antisemitism in this country has suddenly raised its ugly head. Now is a time to take a stand. Hamas has openly declared that they intend to wipe the Jewish people from the face of this earth. Isn’t it time we take a stand. Dennis Prager an orthodox Jewish talk show host in seeking a million non-Jews who will put a mezuzah on their door post to declare their solidarity with the Jewish people of Israel. Do you even have the courage to put a small box with Scripture verses on your door post for your neighbors to see that God lives in your home and that you support the Jewish people and Israel?  Or are you afraid that the persecution will spill over onto you? 

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