Buried Treasure

   I have discovered a treasure chest and am like a pirate with my hands sifting through it, reveling in its bounty. That treasure comes from the pen of Chaim Bentorah:  Hebrew Word Study: Revealing the Heart of God. Bentorah lovingly and tenderly unfolds tissued layers of meaning in the context of our daily lives.

   "If you look at a drop of water with the naked eye, you see just one drop of water. But if you put that drop of water under a microscope, you see a whole world of life within it, things  that you could never see without the magnification. So it is with the Word of God. You may see just one word, but put that word under a spiritual microscope, and you will see a whole world of life within it that you hadn't even begun to imagine. The Jewish Talmud teaches that there are 'seventy faces' to Torah. The Word of God is pictured as a gemstone taken out to the sunlight. When the light reflects off the gemstone, it displays many different colors." [Bentorah p.17]

   Today's word was Sagav, translated 'Refuge,' a place of ultimate safety. (e.g. Psalm 9:9). The term holds within it the concept not just of shelter within the storm but above it, as if one is looking down from a great height. Bentorah  reminds us of our experiences in a plane when, in response to a storm, the pilot moves us to a higher elevation from which we can sometimes even see the lightning flashing beneath us.