Joined To HaShem Ministries

My high school study hall was where we boys played games shooting spit balls and rubber bands at the girls, and, when daring, at the teacher-monitor who kept his head buried in a book, regardless. Study? Nah!

But as an adult, I came to realize that reading, studying and learning were more fun than spit balls. As I matured spiritually, I came to realize that reading, studying and learning allowed me to grow into a more intimate acquaintance with HaShem. As I became more interested in my Hebraic and true scriptural roots, I came to realize that I must dig truths out for myself, that no worship service, pastor, evangelist, teacher or friend could satisfy my hunger and thirst for a deeper experience.

Study of Scripture is the highest form of worship of our Creator. To quote John Garr,

" . . . intensive study of the Word of God is the most reliable way in which God can speak to us and cause us to understand his will and his ways. Even the most intense and profound subjective experiences must be judged by the written Word of God (II Peter 1:16-19). Study of the Word of God, then, with a view toward doing the Word, is an act of submission to the divine will, the essence of true worship. When we pray, we speak with God; when we study, God speaks to us.

"For many centuries study has been at the very heart of the Jewish experience, so much so that much of Judaism has considered study as the highest form of worship. Humbly submitting oneself to the wisdom of God revealed in the Tenach (Hebrew Scriptures) was viewed as worship, which literally meant to "prostrate oneself" before the Eternal. The Hebrew word for worship, dg"s] (segad), means to "bow down or do obeisance to," and it has the connotation of total submission to a superior (as the king). The Greek translation of this word, proskunevw (proskunéo), is even more graphic, meaning to "kiss as a dog licking its master’s hand."

"The decision to study God’s Word in order to do His Word is a meaningful act of submission and reverence–in short, it is worship. Study carried out with this motive is the very essence of Jewish learning. This is not study in order to understand; it is study in order to do. Abraham Joshua Heschel encapsulated this Jewish approach to study by saying that the Greeks study in order to understand while the Hebrews study in order to revere. God’s Word and ways are ineffable: only by doing them does one understand them.

"Study of God’s Word in order to mold one’s lifestyle to that Word is also worship in the truest sense of the English word worship, which means to "ascribe worth to." When we fully submit our lives to God’s Word, when we study what he has said with complete devotion and intensity, we do, indeed, ascribe worth to him: we worship him.

Joined To HaShem Ministries provides this Study Hall to you to assist in your worship of HaShem.

Please email any suggestions for improvement of Study Hall.

May your walk with HaShem be ever closer as you study His Word.