Wisdoms Page

  Shalom
  to you,

Wellsprings of Torah,  www.TorahWellsprings.org
Rick Wills - Messianic Elder,  Mishareth@TorahWellsprings.org

    On this page are wisdoms. They contain dreams and notions, but in way they carry a sense of life through our feelings and their memories. Consequently, they are very much what we are when no one else is looking.

Wisdom, Chokhma

    In the story of Job (NIV, chapter 28, verse 12), Job says, "But where can wisdom be found? Where does understanding dwell?" But Job actually says...

wi-ha-khakh-moh mey-in tim-motsei wi-ei zeh miqom binoh

    And it can be interpreted, not as a question, but as a statement saying, "Yet wisdom, being from nothingness, can yet be found.  And this is where knowledge is initiated."

    From nothingness -- there isn't anything more "nothing" for us than our dreams and imaginations. And it is from our dreams that all our invention begins. That is what wisdom really is -- and even a child can possess it.

    Rick Wills

Heaven's Jewelry

    One bitter winter, the edge of a severe storm swept over us. It left snow on the ground and ice in the trees. The industries of the city stopped, and the earth began to breath quietly. The only sound we noticed was a sweeping wind that was turning under the sun... Mah yofi ha-aretz ci qorah! How beautiful the earth is because of ice!

    It is as though every tree has given us diamonds as its fruits. With so many diamonds we should be very wealthy, except the Sun likes the diamonds more than we do. He rose up early and stole as many as he could. He stayed late through the day and took even more. He seems to be the only one than can get them from the highest branches.

    The highest ones looked  like the best ones. They were like the heavens, and they should have endured like the stars. Perhaps they are the stars. The ones that are low and near the ground are more like the ground itself. They disappear in our hands as though they are only water. The Sun laughs at us as he runs ahead of the night, but I can still see a few diamonds glistening on the branches. They are sparkling in the lights of a starry sky. He had not taken them all. Only the best ones. To this I say, barukh ha-shem... Blessed is the Name.

    The Sun can steal our treasures, and the Wind can make us turn our faces away. The Night can hide them all, and ourselves from each other, but none can stop the Glory of the Name. It will always burn near my soul.

    Rick Wills

Crossing Paths

    With the aftermath of hurricane Hugo (September of 1989), as many trees lay on the ground as were standing. Worse than that, the largest trees were felled, and only the smallest remained to live. There was no place to walk within the woods, and where you found a path was where you found everything that walked. Two months later, Debra walked such a path and found herself face to face with a buck deer. Both of them were still feeling the shock of Hugo’s devastation, but in that brief moment, they walked side by side as each crossed in the only path either could travel.

Afterward, she composed this poem...

Grace and Beauty walked toward me today
Down a forest lane.
I stood in silent wonderment as
Cautiously he came.
He wore upon his head a crown
Of many-pointed horn,
As if he reigned o’er field and wood,
In peace and through the storm.

Debra Wills

    When Jacob blessed his son, Naphtali, he said, "Naphtali is a deer set free, he gives beautiful words." By this blessing he was describing how Naphtali provoked beautiful words from people like a deer does when it is startled by someone in the woods. "Set free" means "startled, as in bolting away" in the Hebrew.

    When this happens, you are just as startled as the deer, and for a brief moment your mind is clear --- you forget devastation, fatigue and depression --- and you begin to have beautiful words. For a moment, Debra had a glimpse of Naphtali, and she felt like Jacob, as God was reminding her that the earth was still his own.

    Whether we encounter storms, tragic situations or just business, we often find ourselves walking in the only place we can. This poem reminds me that we never walk alone, and that God brings peace to those that fear Him.

    Rick Wills

We are the Words

    Please consider the meter of the following poem. Naturally the last word of each line is the instrument for rhyme, but this poem flows with a staggered motion. The first line matches the third and fourth lines, and the second line pairs with the fifth. And this same grouping of five lines is repeated four times.

    The broken meter reminds me of a man walking with a burden on his back and a stick in his hand. It also makes me think the person is not sure of where they are, therefore they frequently pause to evaluate the terrain... and then stammers onward just the same.

    Of course, the words take us into the writers world, and perhaps the rhythm serves to disengage us from our own. Then, very soon, we discover ourselves -- not simply reading or observing -- but walking.

    We are the words.

The Road not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler -- long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

-- The trail through the wood --

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

-- The trail most traveled --

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

-- The trail less traveled --

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence;
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I ---
--- I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost -- 1920

    To be Messianic is to walk a "less traveled" trail, and as disturbing as it is, the Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) told his Talmidim (Disciples) that to follow him was to walk in the "less traveled" path... and with it you will find your way to the Kingdom of Elohei (God). Then Yeshua also warned that the other path will lead to destruction, and it is wide and well worn because there are many that have gone that way.

    Yet for you, knowing that "way will lead to way," the narrower path that you choose, with which you turn from the common tracks and walk with Yeshua, will make "all the difference." And it will, by its way, bring God's Splendor into your life.

    To be Messianic is to walk in a unique splendor, and although it can be like a rose garden in a storm, it is a garden that is not like any other... and you will be one of the roses.

    Rick Wills

Ecclesiastes 3:11

“Everything has been made with beauty within its moment.
And eternity has been placed within all hearts,
without which, man cannot discover
the productions of God, where he labors,
from their beginnings and throughout their ends.”

-- Hubble Photo of the M42 Orion Nebula --

Ecclesiastes 11:5

"Just as you cannot know the skill of the Spirit,
or even the bones in the womb of a mother,
neither can you know the craft of Elohim,
how he has constructed everything."

    Perhaps that is why Albert Einstein, the famous scientist and author of "Theory of Relativity", said... "We can't seem to grasp the fullness of the Universe. We are like a child entering a huge library. The walls are covered to the ceilings with books in various languages. We know that someone wrote the books, but we don't know who or how. We don't understand the languages they are written in, but there is an obvious plan with how they are arranged. A mysterious order that we can't comprehend, and can only dimly suspect."

    We don't have to know the mechanics of everything to know that everything is mechanical. We don't have to know who made the machinery to know that machines have to be made. The Universe is a huge factory of extravagant machinery. It is full of clever devices, stars are being made, and great systems are being structured.

 -- Hubble Photo of the NGC 2080 Star Forming Region --

    As we gaze at the splendor of the Universe, our own days are repeating, and our children are aging after us. All of us are resting in a vast garden that belongs to God. A garden where he is the only custodian, and our days are the pride of his work. With generosity, he has opened the skies to our view. He has let us look beyond the glare of the sun. In the night -- in the cold of a dark night -- we can sense his aloneness, and we can also see his fullness... by gazing at the array of the heavens. And a chorus of silence, echoing from myriads of stars, is singing so brilliantly and sweetly that our tranquility is filled with dreams.

    Therefore, with our peace, we approach Shabboth (Sabbath) with the following words... realizing that Shabboth is a memorial to God's craft and brilliance.

Generous are you, Adonoi our God, as you rule the Universe.
Who distinguishes us with commandments,
and instructs us to kindle the lamps of Shabboth (Sabbath).

    And in doing as he commanded -- by not kindling our lights on the Shabboth (Sabbath), but instead, kindling our lights at the sunset and close of the sixth day -- we remember that he kindled the lights of the Universe in six days as well. And the lights of myriads of stars burned throughout the seventh evening. And in their light, God is generous to us with each seventh day, and has made Shabboth different from other days. A day when he reviews our days in the same way a gardener inspects his plantings. And in the days after, the splendors of the heavens remain as our lights and quiet comfort... within every night of peace.

-- Hubble Photo of the Earth and Israel --

    From the Qadesh prayer... "May he who makes peace in the heavens, make peace for us, and for all of Yisroel (Israel)." Indeed, Yeshua the Messiah said, "May his will be done on earth, as it is done in the heavens."

    Rick Wills

Remaining

    We all have the sense of there being a place where we are supposed to be. A special place. We all feel there is a particular thing we must get done. Something that is only ours to do. Sometimes those feelings are misleading, but they are nevertheless valid. There will be a place to be, and a thing for each of us to do.

    There are quick ways to get there... by industries and methods that can slot you into the right paths, and carry you through correct doors. They award you with certificates and honors to assist your acceptance. And there are slower ways... where you might meander, living here, working there, perhaps waiting a very long time, but arriving there just the same.

    One day, we notice that we are there -- in the place, and at the time -- and we have become partners, the honored with the meanderer. But whichever you are, and however you have come, there is only one thing that is going to keep you there. Your heart. Is your heart ready for the labor that is there? If you remain, you will be the definition of... "Service to the Lord"... and you will all share that honor together, as workers with equal wages, receiving the gratitude of Adonoi.

    Rick Wills

Leadership

    Moshe said (Deu. 16:20), “Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof,” Justice justice must be pursued... it doesn’t just happen! Therefore, a righteous leader will always have two faces, and his life will be consumed with pursuing two goals. The first is seen in the Tzedek (justice) of his people, so he learns what they want to obtain. The second is seen in the Tzedek (justice) of his own labors, where he searches for the path that will obtain their needs. And by this continual pursuit, justice happens, and it is not the will of the leader -- it is the will of those who send him.

    Therefore, Yeshua Hammoshiach also said, “Whoever will be a leader of you all, will foremost -- be a servant to you all!” And he also proclaimed that he had come to do the will of Avi Bishamaim, who had sent him to be our servant -- as well as his servant.

    This is the duality of a true servant... Tzedek tzedek tirdof... he will always have both your face and his own. And for this reason Hammoshiach came to our world, to be a servant for everyone. And where he serves us, we see Avi Bishamaim. And where he serves Hashem, Hashem sees all of us. Moreover, where Yeshua is our King, and where we labor in his labors, he becomes the King of Kings.

    Rick Wills.