And from the day after the sabbath, from the day on which you bring the sheaf of the elevation offering, you shall count off seven weeks; they shall be complete. You shall count until the day after the seventh sabbath, fifty days; then you shall present an offering of new grain to the Lord. Leviticus 23:15-16

The count of days between Passover and Shavuot, which many of us are completing this week together in the UMJC prayer campaign, is designed by Jewish tradition to create a sense of spiritual expectancy. Rather than experiencing a letdown and a return to normal routine after the intensity of Passover, we turn Passover into the starting-point for another holy festival, Shavuot, which marks the giving of Torah from Sinai seven weeks after our departure from Egypt.

For the Messianic Jewish community, of course, Shavuot also marks the outpouring of the spirit seven weeks after Messiah's resurrection, as recorded in Acts 2. I believe we need to renew our sense of expectancy toward the ruach, the holy spirit, during this season, and keep that expectancy alive throughout the year. Just as the story of the Exodus is incomplete without the Mount Sinai encounter, so our Messianic Jewish story is incomplete without the ruach encounter, both past and future. Our vision of welcoming Messiah home depends on a visitation of the ruach upon the whole house of Israel.

Moses our teacher anticipated this sequence in an incident we will hear about in our regular cycle of Torah readings a couple of weeks from now. The story opens with some serious kvetching. The mixed multitude that went up from Egypt with the Israelites is craving some variety in their diet, other than the manna that has been the menu for years already. The Israelites catch their craving and start weeping for "the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. . . . Then Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, everyone at the door of his tent; and the anger of the Lord was greatly aroused; Moses also was displeased" (Num. 11:5, 10).

It is not surprising that Moses and even the Lord find this kvetching to be so annoying. It's not even surprising that Moses starts kvetching himself: "Why have you afflicted your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you have laid the burden of all these people on me? . . . Where am I to get meat to give to all these people? . . . I am not able to bear all these people alone, because the burden is too heavy for me" (Num. 11:11-15). What is surprising is that God responds positively to Moses' kvetching, even as he prepares to punish the Israelites for their kvetching. He tells Moses, "Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel . . . I will take of the spirit that is upon you and will put the same upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you may not bear it yourself alone" (Num. 11:16-17).

Israel just complains, but Moses complains with a holy kvetching. Israel complains about God and expects Moses to fix things; Moses complains to God and expects him to make things right. It's never right to complain about God, but apparently we sometimes need to complain to God. Like Moses, we in the Messianic Jewish community bear the burden of all Israel, as we long for the day when Yeshua is welcomed among us all. As we long for that day we may find ourselves complaining to God that only he can bring it to pass, and wondering why he has not done so yet. Such complaining is holy, far better than meek acceptance of the status quo.

There is a further lesson here: to relieve Moses' impossible burden, the Lord provides the ruach. To raise up people who can help bear his burden, the Lord pours out his spirit upon them. Likewise, we are not to dwell on the impossibility of our task of welcoming Messiah home, but to call out to God for more of his ruach.

The Midrash notices that God says he will take of the spirit that is upon Moses and will put the same upon them. It compares Moses to the caretaker of an orchard, who says to his master, "I cannot look after the whole of it." The master replies,

I gave you the entire orchard to watch, handing to you all the fruits resulting from your care of it, and now you say: "Bring me additional men to help me watch!" I will bring you additional men, but I will not pay them wages for watching from my own funds but they will receive their wages from the payment that I have been giving to you!"

Likewise, God says to Moses, "‘The seventy elders will receive nothing of mine, but I will take of the Spirit that is upon you' (Num. 11:17). This notwithstanding Moses lost nothing..." (Numbers Rabbah 15:25).

The Midrash points out two opposing truths-"I will take of the spirit that is upon you," and "Moses lost nothing." Moses remained fully filled with the ruach even after the ruach was divided 70 ways among the elders. Here is a tremendous clue to the nature of the spirit and spiritual ministry. We might conceive of life as a zero-sum game (more for me means less for you and vice versa). But life in the spirit is never zero-sum, and we will miss the spirit if we think it is. Moses-always our example-leads the 70 elders out to the tent of meeting, where God puts his spirit upon them so that they prophesy. But two of the elders, memorably named Eldad and Medad, remain in the camp and receive the spirit and prophesy anyway. When Joshua urges Moses to forbid them, he replies, "Are you jealous for my sake? Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them!" (11:24-29).

Moses understands that we cannot own the things of God, especially his spirit. God is sovereign; we cannot direct his spirit, but must go in the direction the spirit sets. If we want a tailwind on life's journey instead of a headwind, we have to travel in the Lord's direction, rather than expecting his wind to shift to our direction.

Seven hundred years after Moses expresses his great longing "that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them," the Lord answers: "After this, I will pour out my Spirit on all humanity. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions; and also on male and female slaves in those days I will pour out my Spirit" (Joel 3:1-2, CJB [2:28-29 in Christian Bibles]).

The Midrash expects this universal outpouring to happen only "after this," in the age to come:

The Holy One, blessed be he, said: ‘In Olam Hazeh [this age], only a few individuals have prophesied, but in Olam Haba [the age to come], all Israel will be made prophets,' as it says, And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men, etc. (Numbers Rabbah 15:25).

This universal outpouring began on a Shavuot long ago, when the resurrected and ascended Messiah "poured out this that you both see and hear" (Acts 2:33). The great mystery is that in Yeshua's resurrection the age of Messiah has already begun, and the spirit is poured out not only upon Israel as the Midrash anticipates, but upon all flesh, as Joel states, anticipating the gift of the spirit upon the Gentiles as well.

Two final points: First, the words of Joel remind us, both the younger and the older, to listen for the wind of the Ruach, to continue to dream dreams and see visions as the Lord supplies.

Second, the Ruach produces repentance. In Acts 2, the outpouring of the Spirit brings thousands back to God through faith in Messiah. Likewise today, we cannot separate our longing for the Ruach from a longing for return to God, both for ourselves and for all Israel. The gift of the Spirit is not some sort of spiritual accessory, but a transforming power in our lives. We cannot welcome Messiah home apart from a preparatory and empowering visit of the Ruach, a visit also promised in Scripture: "And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for him as one grieves for a firstborn" (Zech. 12:10).

We cannot welcome Messiah home as a people without the poured out Spirit of grace and supplication. As we celebrate Shavuot this year, may our expectancy of the Ruach remain. May we be quick to turn back to God as the Ruach moves us. And may we raise up a holy kvetching toward God to pour out his Spirit not just in a personal way, but upon Israel as a whole people.

Thank you for helping prepare the way for this great outpouring through your participation in this year's UMJC Prayer Campaign.

Hag Sameach-a joyous festival to you!

Rabbi Russ Resnik This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The reading for this coming Shabbat, which falls during Shavuot, will be Exodus 19:1-20:23, telling of the encounter at Mount Sinai and the giving of the Ten Commandments.