Daily Devotionals

You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it (Deuteronomy 4:2 NASB).

Rabbi Levi made the importance of every letter in the Scriptures clear. He noted that "even little things which are only ends of letters are actually mountains that can destroy the whole creation." For example, in the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4), it is written, "Hear O, Israel, the LORD is our God, the LORD is one" (NASB). The word for "one" is echad, which ends in the Hebrew letter dalet. If you change the dalet to a resh, by removing a small fraction of a stroke, the translation would be, "The LORD our God, the LORD is another."

Another example is the Scripture "You shall not worship any other god" (Exodus 34:14 NASB). The word for "other" ends in the Hebrew letter resh. If you substitute the Hebrew letter dalet, you get, "You shall not worship the One God."

Leviticus 22:2 states, "Be careful ...so as not to profane My holy name" (NASB). By changing the Hebrew letter chet to hey in the word "profane," the meaning will change to, "Do not praise my holy name." Finally, in Isaiah 8:17, it is written, "I will wait for the LORD" (NASB). If you change the chet (j) in "wait" to the letter hey (v), it will read, "I will smite the Lord." Thus, God is destroyed.

A change in letters changes the Scriptures. For this reason we must be careful that we do not add or detract from them. Our job is to heed and to obey.

...not add to Scripture, nor detract from it, but I will seek to understand and apply it correctly.

EK