Tzipisa li Yeshua

“Et Tzemach David avd’kah m’herah tatzmiakh,v’karno tarum biyeshuateka, ki liyeshuateka kivinu kol hayom umtzapim liyeshuah, barukh atah YHVH, matzmiakh keren Yeshua.” 

This is the 15th benediction of the 18 benedictions prayed everyday by religious Jews. It is originally the 14th Blessing for the Kingdom of the House of David. This blessing has deep mystical significance. The Artscroll Sefard translates it as:

“The offspring of Your servant David may you speedily cause to flourish, and enhance his pride through your salvation, for we hope for Your salvation all the day (and look forward to salvation). Blessed are you, HASHEM, who causes the pride of salvation to flourish” (p.115).

The phrase “umtzapim liyeshuah” is controversial. Some Jewish authorities state that the phrase should not be pronounced aloud but is an instruction to think about the salvation and the coming of the Messiah. Others believe it should be whispered. One Jewish scholar at the Hebrew University believes it was first whispered, by the secret Jewish Christians, in the synagogue, in the first centuries of the Christian era. Some versions leave it out of the Siddur.

This Blessing is the mystery of the man called Tzemakh in the Book of Zechariah. Judaism proclaims that this is the Messiah. This Tzemakh is associated in Zechariah 3:8 with Yehoshua the High Priest who with Zerrubabel is a sign of this Tzemakh who is to be the Davidic Messiah. Zechariah 2:9 refers to Tzemakh as avdi (my servant) which links him to the suffering avdi (my servant) of Isaiah 52-53. 

The use of ‘Et Tzemakh’ links him to the concept of the divine Presence who is Alef and Tav (in Greek Alpha and Omega). The word keren means ray, radiant, shine, horn, pride and power. Zechariah speaks of the four evil horns that have scattered Judah, Israel (the ten tribes) and Jerusalem but their evil work will be undone by the four righteous carpenters (craftsmen) or good horns of the Ultimate Horn and Carpenter called Tzemakh Keren Yeshua. 

As Carpenter the Tzemakh is known as Messiah son of Joseph and as Horn he is known as Messiah son of David. The four carpenters are associated as the anointed ones (messiahs) of Gilead, Manesseh, Ephraim and Judah who come in the spirit and power of the Ultimate Messiah at the end of the time of the Gentiles. 

“And the Lord showed me four carpenters. Then said I, ‘What come these to do?’ And he spoke, saying… these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn (the power and spirit of antichrist) over the land of Judah to scatter it” (Zechariah 1: 20-21). 

One Jewish source discusses these four carpenters : 

"...David came and explained: Gilead is mine (Psalm 60:9), this refers to Elijah who was one of the inhabitants of Gilead: and Manasseh is mine, this refers to the Messiah who arises from among the children of Manasseh...Ephraim also is the defence of my head, this refers to the Anointed of War who comes from Ephraim...Judah is my Scepter, this refers to the Great Redeemer who is among the Children of David" (Num.Rab.14:1).

The ‘Malkhut Beit David’ blessing also uses the phrase ‘karno tarum biyeshuateka ’ which can be read as ‘his radiant (horn) offering (tarum) in your Yeshua’. This links us to the word Terumah (elevation or lifted offering) of Exodus 25, which reveals the mystery of Tabernacle and Temple. Here we also find the word Tzipisa for those wooden vessels (keilim) that are covered with gold. 

The Ark of the covenant is itself one such object which is a symbol of the concept of Tzipisa li Yeshuah. 

"V'tzapisa oso zahav tahor me'bayit u'mchutz tizapenu v'asisa alav zer zahav saviv/Cover it with a layer of pure gold on the inside and outside and make a rim of gold all around its top." (Exodus 25:11).

 From a Hebrew Catholic perspective the gold represents the divinity of Yeshua and the wood (called gulgalta in the ark) his crucified humanity. The Messiah is also seen as the Divine Man covered in gold and his mother as the queen arrayed in gold (the gold represents the 10 attributes). 

 The phrase ‘li Yeshua’ can be linked to ‘li Terumah’. This is the mystery of the uniting of the divinity (gold) and humanity (wood) of the Messiah. 

“… ‘In the beginning Elohim created the heaven and the earth’ (Genesis 1:1). The tabernacle was made and built by this means, which is the image of the world above, and in the image of the lower world. This is what is meant by: "That they bring Me an offering (Terumah)," and "Me an offering" (li terumah) symbolises the two levels united as one mystery of the Tabernacle…” (Zohar Terumah 2: 127a). 

The word horn also links us to the horns of the altar where the offerings are made. This link of Terumah with Genesis 1 is further alluded to as if we count from the tav of Bereshit 26 letters 5 times it spells out the Hebrew word Terumah. From the same starting place if we count 50 letters 4 times it spells out the word Torah. In Genesis 1:17-19 is also found hidden in the well of the text the name Yeshua from the yod in Elohim of verse 17 we count 26 four times. Thus the terms Terumah and Torah are linked to sanctification or purification and Yeshua with salvation or redemption. 

Terumah and gold alludes to the Eucharistic Yeshua, sanctification and Divinisation and Yeshua to baptism, salvation and the Incarnation. The triangle pointing upwards on the Magen David is the lifted Offering and sanctification and the triangle pointing downwards is the Incarnation and salvation. The Messiah as the incarnated God-Man is our salvation as Victim and Suffering Messiah son of Joseph, and the Messiah is our sanctification as our Priestly King as the conquering and victorious Messiah son of David.

A Hasidic Jew Yankel Nosson writes in regard to ‘Tzipisa liYeshuah’: 

“…the root of "tzipisa" is "tzofeh", meaning "lookout". This is the root of the name Har Hatzofim, which overlooks Yerushalayim. Also Tsfat (Safed) the city on the top of a hill in the Galil. Interestingly, the Zohar says Moshiach will arrive first in Tsfat -- perhaps because Tsfat is tzofim, scouting the horizon, trying to witness Moshiach's arrival. Tsipisa l'ishua? Did you look for the redemption the way one searches the horizon from the lookout point, scouting for it from all directions?...”

Rabbi Belsky also sees Habakkuk 2 as another Scriptural source for the concept of ‘Tzipisa liYeshua’ which the Rambam associates with the coming of the Messiah. Here we see the concept of the look out as a watch tower. 

“I shall stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and I shall watch to see what he will say to me and what I shall answer when I am questioned…Write the vision…that he who reads it runs (yarutz). For there is still a vision for an appointed time and it speaks concerning the end…though he tarry, wait for him, because he will surely come and he will not delay.”

 Each day in the Mass we Hebrew Catholics say ‘Mashiakh has died, Mashiakh has risen, Mashiakh will come again’ but are these only words or do we really long for the coming of Mashiakh Yeshua in glory and for the Divine Will to reign on earth as it does in Heaven? What will we answer to the question – “Tzipisa liYeshuah?” Each day do we long for him in the Eucharist to manifest his glory?

Note: Some may have seen this article with the Catholic bits cut out on a Messianic Jewish website. I am the original author of this article and the edited version displayed by Messianic Jews does not acknowledge me as the author or its Hebrew Catholic source.