Parsha “Ha’azinu” (Deuteronomy (chapter 32) is the second-to-last reading in the Torah, and the life of Moses. It is, specifically, the second “Song of Moses,” that he sings, as a “witness against” them, and us, immediately prior to his death.

It’s also a warning that hits as close to home now as it ever has.

The Erev Shabbat reading begins there:

This Sabbath Day midrash comes just after the ‘most holy’ day of the year, Yom Kippur, and right before the final, climactic week of the Fall Feasts, the time of Sukkot, aka the Feast of Tabernacles, or booths, or even ‘mangers.’ Mark Call of Shabbat Shalom Mesa notes that the confluence of this reading, and the Song of Moses, at this time at the heart of the Fall Feasts should suggest two major admonitions from Scripture: “Know the times and the seasons,” and that, furthermore, “NOW is the time!”

Sukkot is almost certainly the time when the Messiah, Yahushuah, was actually born. But how many of us have heard, “I don’t care – I love Xmas anyway,” and similar excuses for accepting what we “know or should know” is a lie. Is this the year to stand on Truth?

We also know, or should, that the word “jesus” never even existed until about 16 centuries as the Messiah walked the earth after that birth. No one EVER, not once, called Him by that name. And it thus cannot be (Acts 4) the “only name” by which we can be saved. Does that matter? Most of us have again heard, “I don’t care,” or “what difference does it really make?”

So, if His birthday doesn’t really matter, nor does His real Name, what about His Doctrine? Did He “do away with the law,” or is that – as Mark strongly suggests – perhaps the Biggest Lie in all of human history?

Does His Doctrine matter? Did He change it? Did He really change His Instruction about His moedim [appointed times], His Sabbaths, food, money, marriage – and just about anything else men decided they didn’t like from His Word?

The combined two-part reading and Sabbath midrash: