Torah commentary « MessianicMusings.com

Posts Tagged ‘Torah commentary’

My Matot-Masei Commentary

Monday, July 27th, 2009

It’s amazing to believe the children of Israel spent nearly 40 years in the desert following the Exodus and yet their clothes and shoes never wore out. Sure, it’s one of the ways the L-RD took care of His people, to be sure, but they had all ages with them! I don’t know any kid who can keep a good pair of breeches more than a few months… Anyway, here’s my Matot-Masei commentary. Or listen to it!

Shabbat Shalom.

Today we have a double portion, so our parashahs for today are Matot or “tribes,” as well as Masei or “journeys of,” and covers Numbers 30:1 through 36:13, which closes out our time in the book of Numbers. There is a lot going on in these final two portions, so I have a couple asides to cover before we get to our main topic.

First, if this was your first time through the book of Numbers, it’s possible that you may have been surprised a couple weeks ago during our study of Balaam in the portion called Balak. Surprised because if you skim the surface of the text, Balaam seems to come off like an obedient servant of the L-RD, yet we discussed how his heart was becoming hardened and how he may not have been as obedient to the L-RD as he seems on the surface of things.

Well, in this week’s parashah, as Israel is making war on Midian and Moses is receiving a report from his soldiers, any room for doubt about Balaam is taken away when we read:

Numbers 31:14-16
Moses was angry with the officers of the army–the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds–who returned from the battle. “Have you allowed all the women to live?” he asked them. “They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the L-RD in what happened at Peor, so that a plague struck the L-RD’s people.

So we learn here that even though Balaam left Balak when he was unable to curse the people of Israel, it has Balaam who came up with the idea to send the Moabite women into the camp of Israel and tempt their men into sexual and spiritual sin. So indeed, Balaam’s heart was hardened against the people of Israel and, ultimately, their God.

With this understanding of events, it becomes that much easier to see why the L-RD sent an angel to oppose Balaam along his way to see Balak; he was sending Balaam warning after warning that Balaam was not following the L-RD’s true will for him, but was heading down a path to his own destruction. And that destruction is made complete as we learn the final fate of Balaam in:

Numbers 31:6-8
Moses sent them into battle, a thousand from each tribe, along with Phinehas son of Eleazar, the priest, who took with him articles from the sanctuary and the trumpets for signaling. They fought against Midian, as the L-RD commanded Moses, and killed every man. Among their victims were Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba–the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword.

This instructs us on how unwise it can be to ignore the L-RD and go our own way. The tale of Balaam should remain a cautionary story, giving reason for each of us to pause as we seek the L-RD to ensure that – whatever we are doing in our lives – we are doing it truly seeking out His will and direction, rather than our own. The L-RD will allow us ultimately the freedom to do anything; yet only he knows which paths lead to destruction and we ignore His prompting at our own peril.

The next aside I’d like to travel down briefly concerns the daughters of Zelophehad, who we studied last week. The God of Israel granting women property rights was an important message by the L-RD that women are not property, even when surrounded by other cultures that treat them as such. So many people love to use the excuse, “Well, so-and-so was a product of their time,” as though right and wrong changes depending on time and culture. This is not so with the L-RD.

And yet, due to the patriarchal system in Israel, the ruling of the L-RD does raise other questions about the future of Zelophehad’s inheritance . We read about this in:

Numbers 36:2-4
They said, “When the L-RD commanded my lord to give the land as an inheritance to the Israelites by lot, he ordered you to give the inheritance of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters. Now suppose they marry men from other Israelite tribes; then their inheritance will be taken from our ancestral inheritance and added to that of the tribe they marry into. And so part of the inheritance allotted to us will be taken away. When the Year of Jubilee for the Israelites comes, their inheritance will be added to that of the tribe into which they marry, and their property will be taken from the tribal inheritance of our forefathers.”

One can see how this would certainly be a concern for the Israelites. God’s ruling, while just, needed further explanation to avoid the inheritance of land becoming a confusing mess in future generations as land passed from wife to husband to daughter and back again. Here is how the L-RD settled it:

Numbers 36:5-10
Then at the L-RD’s command Moses gave this order to the Israelites: “What the tribe of the descendants of Joseph is saying is right. This is what the L-RD commands for Zelophehad’s daughters: They may marry anyone they please as long as they marry within the tribal clan of their father. No inheritance in Israel is to pass from tribe to tribe, for every Israelite shall keep the tribal land inherited from his forefathers. Every daughter who inherits land in any Israelite tribe must marry someone in her father’s tribal clan, so that every Israelite will possess the inheritance of his fathers. No inheritance may pass from tribe to tribe, for each Israelite tribe is to keep the land it inherits.” So Zelophehad’s daughters did as the L-RD commanded Moses.

What does this tell us? Perhaps this: that God is a God of order and He desires to prevent sin, not permit it. Had this ruling not have been made, then as the portion points out, Zelophehad’s name would have been but a faint memory long ago. Had He not made this ruling, it’s a very real possibility that some among Israel would have sought out Zelophehad’s daughters simply to add to their own inheritance and take some of what had been given to another tribe for their own. By inviting the L-RD into our lives and decision-making, we are often protected from consequences we do not see and cannot foresee. What better reason could one come up with to allow God to take control?

Finally, the main teaching I’d like to explore today is the establishment of sanctuary cities in the promised land. These cities were to be among the cities of the Levites, with a total of six sanctuary cities in all, three on one side of the Jordan and three on the other side of the Jordan.

What are sanctuary cities? They are places where someone who has caused a death unintentionally and without malice may flee to escape the vengeance of a grieving relative who wants to take their life for the life that was taken by them.

You see, in the time of Moses, if someone became a murderer by intentionally killing someone, there had not always been a system of court trials, appeals and endless delays before justice was delivered. Instead, if a person’s guilt in a murder could be established by two or more witnesses, then a relative of the deceased could take on the role of a “blood avenger” and could take the life of that murderer at any time. We read this in:

Numbers 35:20-21
If anyone with malice aforethought shoves another or throws something at him intentionally so that he dies or if in hostility he hits him with his fist so that he dies, that person shall be put to death; he is a murderer. The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death when he meets him.

Prior to the establishment of sanctuary cities, there was nowhere for a person involved in the death of another to flee in order to escape these blood avengers. As a result, many who otherwise had not slain another person out of malice, but were simply involved in the accidental taking of lives, were themselves being unjustly put to death.

So sanctuary cities are established under the control of the priesthood, and in these cities blood avengers are not allowed to take revenge. Now, does this mean things are paradise on earth for the person who has caused an accidental death? Hardly. We read this in:

Numbers 35:22-28
“‘But if without hostility someone suddenly shoves another or throws something at him unintentionally or, without seeing him, drops a stone on him that could kill him, and he dies, then since he was not his enemy and he did not intend to harm him, the assembly must judge between him and the avenger of blood according to these regulations. The assembly must protect the one accused of murder from the avenger of blood and send him back to the city of refuge to which he fled. He must stay there until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil. But if the accused ever goes outside the limits of the city of refuge to which he has fled and the avenger of blood finds him outside the city, the avenger of blood may kill the accused without being guilty of murder. The accused must stay in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest; only after the death of the high priest may he return to his own property.

So, imagine that. Even if you are judged innocent of murder – that you had caused a death unintentionally – the grieving relative, the avenger of blood, can still take your life if you wander out of the sanctuary city and he finds you, all without ever being considered guilty of murder himself. In fact, the only way one who has caused such a death can actually leave a sanctuary city and return to his home is if the high priest who was in that position at the time of the accidental death dies himself. Considering that a high priest could live decades beyond a particular event like that, this is no small matter. An older offender who causes an accidental death near the beginning of the tenure of a younger high priest might never outlive that high priest, and therefore must remain in that sanctuary city for the rest of their lives.

So where is the mercy in this regulation on sanctuary cities? The mercy is in the alternative; if you intentionally cause the death of another person and were found to be guilty of murder, you could be put to death yourself. Spending a lifetime in a sanctuary city may not seem merciful, but compared to a death penalty, it is.

What can we draw from this? Well, as we saw in Genesis in how the L-RD dealt with Kayin, the first murderer, marking him as someone not to be murdered himself, to how he suggests here the Israelites are to deal with those who cause a death unintentionally, the L-RD is not lacking in compassion even for those guilty of the heaviest of sins. While He remains a holy God who cannot allow sin to enter into His presence, he does offer everyone any possible chance for genuine repentance, for them to turn away from their sin and live a life devoted to the L-RD and obeying his teachings.

While many who cling to replacement theology claim that the Torah is nothing but judgment and paints a picture of a God lacking in mercy, the establishment of these sanctuary cities in Israel paints a contrary portrait of the L-RD. As we are advised by Peter in this passage from:

II Peter 3:9
The L-RD is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

May this teaching on sanctuary cities remind us of the patience of the L-RD, and to pray for those who have strayed from obedience to Him, desiring to see them turn away from sin and experience His forgiveness, just as we have enjoyed the protection of our spiritual sanctuary city, the Messiah Yeshua.

Shabbat Shalom.

Tags: breeches, Masei, Matot, Matot-Masei, Torah commentary
Posted in Torah | No Comments »

My Pinchas Commentary

Monday, July 13th, 2009

Golly, I’ve been tired this past week. I had jury duty and so that made for long days, plus I went into work after hours to make sure stuff got done on time. It was a long week and only finally caught up enough today (Sunday) to finally get a good night’s sleep. Still feel drawn out, like I could use a good massage, a workout, maybe some time in the sauna and the pool, perhaps even some eye cream to make the stress fade. But the worst is over; the trial’s done and it’s back to the regular grind, praise the L-RD. Here’s my commentary on Pinchas. Or listen to it!

Shabbat Shalom.

Our parashah for today is Pinchas or “Phineas,” and covers Numbers 25:10 through 29:40. This is a very active Torah portion with many things going on in the space of only a few verses, and there are a lot of them, more than one could cover in a single commentary. So, I’ve chosen to focus in on three points of interest.

The first comes when the L-RD orders another census to be taken of the people. Initially, because some of the numbers are so similar, one could leap to the conclusion that not much time has passed; but this is not the case. The L-RD had earlier promised that not one of the generation of the Exodus aged 20 and up, except for Joshua and Caleb, would see the Promised Land because of their rebellion, and here we find out that forty years have passed and the L-RD’s promise has come to fruition.

Yet because of the L-RD’s goodness and for the sake of their righteous ancestors, the L-RD has not allowed the people of Israel to grow weak in the desert due to this passage of time and the deaths of so many. In the census taken at the beginning of the book of numbers, the number of men of military age – ages 20 and up – were 603,550. Now, forty years later after nearly that entire generation has died off, the number of men of military age is 601,730. The L-RD has kept their numbers strong so that when they enter the Promised Land, they will be ready for the battles that await them.

Of that initial generation, only two remain, as we read in:

Numbers 26:63-65
These are the ones counted by Moses and Eleazar the priest when they counted the Israelites on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho. Not one of them was among those counted by Moses and Aaron the priest when they counted the Israelites in the Desert of Sinai. For the L-RD had told those Israelites they would surely die in the desert, and not one of them was left except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

To make matters even more interesting, the number of male Levites a month old or more has actually gone up. In the census at the beginning of Numbers, the Levites who were set apart by God from military service for service in the Tent of Meeting were 22,273. Now, they number 23,000.

So, this shows that the L-RD has honored the request of Moses, who begged the L-RD not to slay the generation of the Exodus all at once and thus give Egypt a reason to curse the L-RD. Instead, the L-RD has let their numbers perish, most often by their own disobedience and foolishness, over a period of forty years. In fact, the L-RD has gone beyond that promise and has actually allowed the Israelites to thrive, despite enduring a long period of testing in the wilderness.

The L-RD also shows his goodness toward women in this week’s reading. While many Bible critics will point out that Israel was a highly patriarchal society and that its women were treated more like property than people, that reputation comes more through the actions of some people than the commands of the L-RD.

Let’s take a look at this episode, in which the L-RD grants the daughters of Zelophehad property rights. And let me point out, this was nearly unheard of during the time of Moses among the cultures surrounding Israel.

We read of this in:

Numbers 27:1ff-4
They approached the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and stood before Moses, Eleazar the priest, the leaders and the whole assembly, and said, “Our father died in the desert. He was not among Korah’s followers, who banded together against the L-RD, but he died for his own sin and left no sons. Why should our father’s name disappear from his clan because he had no son? Give us property among our father’s relatives.”

Now, the case they are making is a good one. After all, in the previous chapter, we see that Korach’s line is still counted among the Levites even though he was the point man for a rebellion against the leadership of Moses and Aaron. If the line of Korach can remain among the Levites, why should a man not part of the rebellion see his line and inheritance die out, simply because he had no sons? So Moses takes their request before the L-RD and we get this ruling in:

Numbers 27:6-11
And the L-RD said to him, “What Zelophehad’s daughters are saying is right. You must certainly give them property as an inheritance among their father’s relatives and turn their father’s inheritance over to them. “Say to the Israelites, ‘If a man dies and leaves no son, turn his inheritance over to his daughter. If he has no daughter, give his inheritance to his brothers. If he has no brothers, give his inheritance to his father’s brothers. If his father had no brothers, give his inheritance to the nearest relative in his clan, that he may possess it. This is to be a legal requirement for the Israelites, as the L-RD commanded Moses.’”

In this way, the L-RD shows that while Israel as a society is indeed patriarchal, it is not the L-RD’s will for things to be one-sided between men and women. Israel was surrounded by societies that indeed treated women was nothing more than property, and some of those societies – their descendants, anyway – still do to this day.

Yet this ruling in favor of he daughters of Zelophehad does raise this question for the people of Moses’ time: can property own property? Of course not! Through this ruling, the L-RD is offering a reminder of the sense of right-relatedness between men and women that was found in the Garden. While it remains elusive due to sin, the L-RD does remind us here, just as he did in Genesis that, “male and female, he created them.”

The world is fallen; the Adversary of the L-RD seeks to destroy all that God has created as good, and keeping men and women at odds – either through men treating women unfairly or, in other cases, women treating men unfairly – this is a goal of an Adversary bent on a mission to kill and destroy.

If God were truly as unjust toward women as His critics claim, the daughters of Zelophehad never would have had their case heard, let alone decided in their favor. That their case was both heard and decided in their favor is a testimony to Israel’s surrounding cultures that the L-RD does not look at what man looks at; man looks at the outward appearance, but the L-RD looks at the heart. He is just and is no respecter of persons, and that extends to whether someone is male or female; His justice, the prayer shawl or tallit of His protection, covers us all.

Finally, our study brings us to a sad episode in the life of Moses; he is about to be told his punishment that the L-RD has chosen for striking the rock to get water to flow forth, rather than speaking to it as the L-RD commanded. We read this in:

Numbers 27:12-14
Then the L-RD said to Moses, “Go up this mountain in the Abarim range and see the land I have given the Israelites. After you have seen it, you too will be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was, for when the community rebelled at the waters in the Desert of Zin, both of you disobeyed my command to honor me as holy before their eyes.” (These were the waters of Meribah Kadesh, in the Desert of Zin.)

Moses knows what this means; for as humble as he was – and Moses was declared by the L-RD to be the most humble man on the face of the earth – his own sins and failures catch up with him. And I think it’s interesting to note here exactly where Moses failed.

Let’s remember when we first met Moses. He sees an Egyptian guard mistreating a Hebrew slave, and he strikes the guard down, killing him. Moses comes down from the Mount after receiving the tablets written by the L-RD’s hand to see the Golden Calf, and he flies into a rage that includes grinding the false idol to dust and forcing the Israelites to drink it. And then, at Meribah Kadesh, once again frustrated with the people, he strikes the rock rather than speaking to it as the L-RD commanded him to do.

What does all this sound like to you?

That’s right; as unlikely as it may seem for a man so humble, one of the big sins Moses struggled with has been right in front of us all along; he is a man prone to anger. And while God calls Moses a friend and honors him with intimacy that may never have been matched by anyone but the L-RD’s relationship with Messiah Yeshua himself, while He has honored Moses above all others among the patriarchs, it is true that Moses’ own sin – his anger – is what undoes him and prevents him from seeing the Promised Land.

Of course, Moses was wise enough to see this coming; from at least the time when God announced that of the generation of the Exodus, only Caleb and Joshua would be living when the Israelites entered the Promised Land, he must have suspected that his own survival was in doubt. Yet Moses faces his own mortality with a maturity the young cannot understand. Perhaps better than anyone aside from Yeshua, Moses knew this life was but an illusion and the world to come, the world the L-RD told him he was about to become part of, was the reality; God’s kingdom was ready to receive him, and yet we know that Moses has much yet to complete before he draws his final breath.

As we continue through Numbers and on into Deuteronomy soon, keep in mind that Moses knows he is living on borrowed time growing ever briefer. It is a thought that could lead to much prayer, for in time, God willing, all of us will be “gathered to our people.”

When we are young, this seems like a fearful notion. For someone like Moses, who had spent so much time in the presence of the L-RD, one has to wonder if it was not something that brought joy and relief, rather than fear. We have much left to learn yet from Moses, this shadow of the Messiah. We can even learn how to face our own mortality with the joy and relief of being reunited with Messiah Yeshua.

Shabbat Shalom.

Tags: eye cream, Pinchas, Torah commentary
Posted in Torah | No Comments »

My Balak Commentary

Monday, July 13th, 2009

I get unique emails sometimes. I’m not talking about the junk email we all get and have filtered out and auto-deleted. I mean the strange stuff, like someone asking me what AED is all about. Do I know this? No, but that link should explain it all for you, OK? Now, what I really know about: Torah. Here’s my commentary on Balak. Or listen to it!

Shabbat Shalom.

Our parashah for today is Balak and covers Numbers 22:2 through 25:9. This week’s reading carries with it a contradiction. I’m not talking about the Torah contradicting itself; no, the contradiction I’m speaking of is found in the stark contrast between how much the L-RD is protecting His people Israel from dangers of which they are unaware, and yet how little appreciation the people of Israel show to the L-RD for all that he has done for them, and how the only thing bringing ruin upon these people are what they do to themselves.

But let’s start with how the L-RD is protecting Israel in ways they do not even know about. We read this in:

Numbers 22:4b-6
So Balak son of Zippor, who was king of Moab at that time, sent messengers to summon Balaam son of Beor, who was at Pethor, near the River, in his native land. Balak said: “A people has come out of Egypt; they cover the face of the land and have settled next to me. Now come and put a curse on these people, because they are too powerful for me. Perhaps then I will be able to defeat them and drive them out of the country. For I know that those you bless are blessed, and those you curse are cursed.”

So this is the threat Israel is facing, even though they as a people are unaware of it. The people of Moab fear the Israelites because they are far greater in number than are the Moabites. So what do they do? They seek the services of Balaam, who has a reputation for both blessing and cursing others. It is a reputation for which he is well-known because he is thought to be effective.

Balaam appears to be from Midian. Who else have we been introduced to who was from Midian? Jethro, the father in law of Moses, who was a priest in Midian. Now, the case of Balaam is an interesting one; in at least one point in the text, Balaam is described as deciding not to, “resort to sorcery as he did at other times,” as it says in Numbers 24:1, but instead chooses at each step along the path to say only what the L-RD says, and not to speak anything the L-RD has not commanded him to speak.

This is perplexing at first blush; if Balaam is a sorcerer, practicing any sort of witchcraft or divination, the Torah is clear that the L-RD cannot be on the side of Balaam, for all such occult practices are forbidden by the L-RD. And yet, the text also indicates that Balaam indeed has some form of communication with the Holy One of Israel, as we read in:

Numbers 22:8-12
“Spend the night here,” Balaam said to them, “and I will bring you back the answer the L-RD gives me.” So the Moabite princes stayed with him. God came to Balaam and asked, “Who are these men with you?” Balaam said to God, “Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, sent me this message: ‘A people that has come out of Egypt covers the face of the land. Now come and put a curse on them for me. Perhaps then I will be able to fight them and drive them away.’” But God said to Balaam, “Do not go with them. You must not put a curse on those people, because they are blessed.”

So it is apparent here and throughout this week’s reading that, at least at some level, Balaam has some sort of communication with the L-RD. So I decided to investigate this further.

What I found is that, according to Jewish tradition, Balaam is one of seven heathen prophets mentioned in the Tenakh. He is able to communicate with the L-RD, but this is not necessarily a sign of the L-RD’s favor resting upon Balaam. Here is what the Jewish Encyclopedia has to say about Balaam:

JewishEncyclopedia.com
At first a mere interpreter of dreams, Balaam later became a magician, until finally the spirit of prophecy descended upon him. He possessed a special gift of being able to ascertain the exact moment during which God is wroth – a gift bestowed upon no other creature. Balaam’s intention was to curse the Israelites at this moment of wrath; but God purposely restrained His anger in order to baffle the wicked prophet and save the nation from extermination.

So we can see here that there is at least a tradition about Balaam as being a heathen prophet with a genuine gifting; however, since Balaam was not someone who followed the God is Israel, he did not remain so for long. In how the L-RD deals with Balaam, we are given a hint that the L-RD is reminding Balaam that He is the giver of all spiritual gifts, and he may either give them or take them away.

In Numbers, it is clear that, at least at this point, Balaam is aware of this. Although offered riches and rewards beyond compare by the evil king Balak in exchange for pronouncing a curse on Israel, Balaam refuses to do only as Balak requests. We read this in:

Numbers 22:18-19
But Balaam answered them, “Even if Balak gave me his palace filled with silver and gold, I could not do anything great or small to go beyond the command of the L-RD my God. Now stay here tonight as the others did, and I will find out what else the L-RD will tell me.”

Now, after a second group of dignitaries from Balak visit Balaam to enlist his services, the L-RD gives Balaam permission to go with them, but tells Balaam to only speak the words the L-RD himself gives him. Now, I believe that what we are witnessing here is a hardening of Balaam’s heart. The Bible teaches we should simply let our yes be yes, and our no be no. But here, we see that Balaam has given his no twice, but does not end it there; instead, he keeps returning to the L-RD to seek His permission to go with Balak’s entourage.

One thing that is true about the L-RD is that if we keep asking him for something He has already advised us against, He will eventually allow us to pursue our own desires. This is not necessarily a sign of His blessing, however; this is often a sign that He is allowing someone to harden their heart and go their own way, rather than following Him. As it is written in:

Acts 7:42a
But God turned away and gave them over to the worship of the heavenly bodies.

What this verse communicates is that if someone is persistent in wanting what they want, God will eventually turn away and give them over to their desires; the worship of God in spirit and in truth is a choice, a willful act, and if one desires something else, God will warn those who seek Him, but if they persist, He will eventually give them what they want… but it’s not a blessing or even a good thing. The fact that it is not a good thing in the case of Balaam is underlined by what happens next. Even though Balaam has received the L-RD permission to go to Balak, he encounters an angel set to oppose him along the way, while riding his donkey. Only when the angel secures another promise from Balaam that he will only say that which the L-RD puts in his mouth does he allow Balaam to continue.

What does this mean? Possibly that Balaam, in his heart, wanted to do as Balak wished, rather than what he had promised the L-RD he would do.

Once Balaam arrives and meets with Balak, Balak is baffled by why it took Balaam so long to come. It’s clear Balak believes that pronouncing a curse upon Israel is a simple thing, easily done. Yet to Balaam’s credit, he submits his own desire to satisfy Balak to the L-RD’s will.

Now, Balaam knows enough about the L-RD to know some of the right steps to take. He has seven alters built and on them offers up seven bulls and seven rams. He follows the very steps the L-RD set down in the Torah for offerings by Aaron and his sons. Yet is it enough? Does following these instructions mean the L-RD will automatically answer anyone according to their desires? Certainly not. We read this in:

Numbers 23:5-10
The L-RD put a message in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Go back to Balak and give him this message.” So he went back to him and found him standing beside his offering, with all the princes of Moab. Then Balaam uttered his oracle: “Balak brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the eastern mountains. ‘Come,’ he said, ‘curse Jacob for me; come, denounce Israel.’ How can I curse those whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the L-RD has not denounced? From the rocky peaks I see them, from the heights I view them. I see a people who live apart and do not consider themselves one of the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and may my end be like theirs!”

Of course, this is hardly was Balak was expecting; he did not hire Balaam to bless Israel, but to curse them. So two more times – a total of three times in all – Balak asks Balaam to try again to successfully curse Israel, and whether Balaam wants to or not, he is unable to utter anything than what the
L-RD places in his mouth, which are blessings over Israel.

After the final attempt fails, Balak asks Balaam to stop blessing Israel his enemy, but even at that, Balaam is unable to even keep his mouth shut, but offers a prophecy about Israel’s future in the promised land. We read this in:

Numbers 24:17-19
“I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel. He will crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of all the sons of Sheth. Edom will be conquered; Seir, his enemy, will be conquered, but Israel will grow strong. A ruler will come out of Jacob and destroy the survivors of the city.”

Echoing the prophecy against the serpent in the Garden, Balaam’s prophecy here is a rare example of a Messianic promise over the children of Israel by a prophet who was not himself an Israelite.

The truth of Balaam’s life – whether he served the God of Israel faithfully, at least up to a point; or whether, like Pharaoh, he was used in spite of himself to accomplish the purposes of the L-RD – what is clear here is that Balak presented a threat to the safety of the Israelites and yet, due to the work of the L-RD, the one who might have been able to curse the Israelites ultimately blessed them instead. Not one Israelite died as a result of Balak’s attempt to enlist the aid of the blessing and cursing prophet, Balaam.

Here’s where the irony comes in, the contradiction I spoke of earlier. In the very next chapter, after the L-RD’s significant victory, we read this:

Numbers 25:1-3
While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate and bowed down before these gods. So Israel joined in worshiping the Baal of Peor. And the L-RD’s anger burned against them.

In the preceding chapters, disaster against the people of Israel has just been avoided as the L-RD protected His chosen people from a threat they didn’t even know was there, and now, not long after that episode, the Israelites invite disaster into their camp of their own volition. Not only do they indulge in sexual immorality, but spiritual immorality as well, worshiping the god Baal these very Moabites worship. Is it any wonder that the L-RD’s anger burns against them?

So brazen were the people of the Exodus in their sin at this point, that even as a plague was spreading among the people and God was ordering Moses to have the judges put to the sword all who were guilty of this episode of sin, one Israelite brings a Moabite woman into the camp, and into his tent, as all this is playing out. The episode ends in tragic bloodshed, as we read in:

Numbers 25:7-9
When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he left the assembly, took a spear in his hand and followed the Israelite into the tent. He drove the spear through both of them–through the Israelite and into the woman’s body. Then the plague against the Israelites was stopped; but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000.

What can we draw from all this bloodshed? One thing is how much the L-RD is a keeper of His promises, protecting us from disaster even when we are at our most rebellious. May we learn from this episode in the history of the Israelites, appreciate the L-RD for all He has done, and be granted to strength to resist the temptation to ever do likewise.

Shabbat Shalom.

Tags: AED, Balaam, Balak, Torah commentary
Posted in Torah | No Comments »

My Korach Commentary

Sunday, June 21st, 2009

Here’s my commentary on Korach. Or listen to it!

Shabbat Shalom.

Our parashah for today is Korach or “Korah” and covers Numbers chapters 16 through 18. This week’s reading covers the events surrounding an outright rebellion against the leadership of Moses and Aaron. The seeds for this rebellion were planted in last week’s portion, at the end of chapter 14, when we read the following:

Numbers 14:40-45
Early the next morning they went up toward the high hill country. “We have sinned,” they said. “We will go up to the place the L-RD promised.” But Moses said, “Why are you disobeying the L-RD’s command? This will not succeed! Do not go up, because the L-RD is not with you. You will be defeated by your enemies, for the Amalekites and Canaanites will face you there. Because you have turned away from the L-RD, he will not be with you and you will fall by the sword.” Nevertheless, in their presumption they went up toward the high hill country, though neither Moses nor the ark of the L-RD’s covenant moved from the camp. Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and attacked them and beat them down all the way to Hormah.

Now, this passage is something I think many of us can relate to in our own lives. If one has lived the life of a believer for any amount of time, we have all had experiences where we have become a bit too full of ourselves and our relationship to God, ignored wise counsel, and have done things we were told not to do.

Whether it was as a child, ignoring the advice of a parent to not take part in a risky activity, or as a single pursuing a relationship that was all wrong for us, or as an adult taking a job because of the financial compensation because we believed money was a sign of God’s favor, rather than prayerful confirmation from God being a sign of God’s favor – I think in one way or another we can all think of examples when we thought we were doing the right thing, thought we were listening to God, ignored advice to the contrary and found out, oops, we should have listened to that wise council telling us we were about to mess up.

On a basic level, we can understand that episode, but there is a deeper undercurrent at play here. These people of the generation of the Exodus are displaying an outright disregard for the advice of the L-RD through Moses, and are doing so in the self-delusion that what they are doing is correct and spiritual and blessed by the L-RD.

Now, this whole drift of the people against Moses and Aaron has come to a head as the people select a leader to oppose Moses and Aaron. His name is Korach, as we read in:

Numbers 16:1-3
Korah son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and certain Reubenites–Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth–became insolent and rose up against Moses. With them were 250 Israelite men, well-known community leaders who had been appointed members of the council. They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the L-RD is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the L-RD’s assembly?”

As we can tell from this passage, this was no small uprising of nobodies; these were leaders in the community who, caught up in their responsibilities in caring for the tent of meeting, began to view themselves as being equal with Moses in terms of their intimacy with the L-RD. While the L-RD certainly had the capacity to accept any of these leaders at that level of intimacy, by their actions we can see that Korach and the others were not communicating with the same God.

We must remember that the L-RD is not an author of confusion; He does not tell one person in a group, “Go left,” while telling another person in the same group, “Go right.” Yet that is what is evidenced here by the actions of Korach and his fellow rebels. They claim to possess the same level of holiness and to be the same sort of friends to the L-RD.

But is their claim valid? Remember, many of these are the same folks who charged into the Promised Land without the blessing of the L-RD, even though they were warned against it. Did that experience bring them back in touch with the proper humility before the L-RD? Sadly, no. They persist and persist in the idea that they know the mind of the L-RD as well as Moses, even in the face of absolutely no evidence supporting their presumptuous attitude. So they instead accuse Moses of doing exactly what they are doing; going too far and being too presumptuous.

We read this in:

Numbers 16:4-7
When Moses heard this, he fell facedown. Then he said to Korah and all his followers: “In the morning the L-RD will show who belongs to him and who is holy, and he will have that person come near him. The man he chooses he will cause to come near him. You, Korah, and all your followers are to do this: Take censers and tomorrow put fire and incense in them before the L-RD. The man the L-RD chooses will be the one who is holy. You Levites have gone too far!”

So what is going on here is that Moses basically tells Korach and his followers, “You think you’re holy? You think the L-RD is with you? Terrific! Let’s put it to the test. Let’s prove it. Let’s allow the L-RD to show who He is with and who He is not with.”

Moses challenges Korach’s dissatisfaction. You see, Korach was of the Levites and Moses points out all the blessings the L-RD has poured out on Korach and his followers. He’s set them apart from the rest of the tribes, exempted them from military service and allowed them to draw near to the L-RD by their service in the Temple. And yet, despite all of that, it’s not enough. They want and lay claim to more.

So Moses challenges them to a contest of selection, yet Korach, along with Dathan and Abiram, refuse initially. We read this in:

Numbers 16:12b-14
But they said, “We will not come! Isn’t it enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the desert? And now you also want to lord it over us? Moreover, you haven’t brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you gouge out the eyes of these men? No, we will not come!”

Now, notice how out of touch with the truth these men are at this point. All Moses has suggested is that they put fire and incense in their censers and allow the L-RD to choose a leader, yet they accuse him wanting to, what? Fix the result? No. They are so irrational, they claim Moses wants to gouge out their eyes!

So Moses repeats the challenge and this time it is accepted. When they come before the Tent of Meeting, the L-RD says He wants to destroy the entire assembly, but amazingly Moses once again prays for the L-RD to show mercy, even to those who are the enemies of Moses! We read this in:

Numbers 16:20-22
The L-RD said to Moses and Aaron, “Separate yourselves from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once.” But Moses and Aaron fell facedown and cried out, “O God, God of the spirits of all mankind, will you be angry with the entire assembly when only one man sins?”

So at this, the L-RD tells Moses to order the people who do not want to share in the fate of Korach, Dathan and Abiram to stand away from their tents… well clear, as a matter of fact. And then Moses tells the people about the judgment the L-RD is about to pass upon them.

We read this in:

Numbers 16:28-33
Then Moses said, “This is how you will know that the L-RD has sent me to do all these things and that it was not my idea: If these men die a natural death and experience only what usually happens to men, then the L-RD has not sent me. But if the L-RD brings about something totally new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them, with everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the grave, then you will know that these men have treated the L-RD with contempt.” As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, with their households and all Korah’s men and all their possessions. They went down alive into the grave, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community.

This is how Korach was brought to an end by the L-RD, but his rebellion was not over. Those who followed Korach approached Moses shortly after this and confronted him, trying to blame him personally as a murderer of Korach. Then the L-RD sends a plague out and 14,700 people die as a result – all of them among those who were eager to follow Korach back to slavery in Egypt, rather than to follow the L-RD and their chosen intermediary, Moses.

After this massive loss of life, the L-RD follows it up by offering further instructions for the Levites, so that such presumptions by the people might be less likely to arise in the future. Of course, what we can also understand here is that these 14,700 who died in the Korach rebellion were all doomed to never see the Promised Land anyway; the L-RD declared that already in last week’s portion.

So what can we draw from this episode? Perhaps this: that no matter how righteous and genuine someone may seem, no matter how well and persuasively they speak, no matter how much they speak of having the L-RD on their side, none of that is of any value. It does not indicate their true standing with the L-RD. What does? There are some questions one can ask to help discern this.

Do they pray, or just talk about praying?

When they pray, do they seek the L-RD’s will, or use it as an opportunity to promote their own ideas?

Do they seek the L-RD and His will, or their own way?

Do they listen to the L-RD, or do they harden their heart to Him in order to cling to what they want?

In all these ways, Korach fell short. He talked about the whole people of Israel being holy, but never spoke once to the L-RD. He promoted his own agenda in all he said, never humbling himself to ask the L-RD what He wanted. He sought to have things go in his favor, refused to listen to warnings about his destructive path and hardened his heart so much, he didn’t even attempt to flee his own destruction.

Most importantly, he never saw himself as in the wrong. He thought of himself as a good guy, a champion of the people. Right and wrong, for him, was all turned around. That is the path of Korath and it should serve as a warning to anyone who seeks to use religion and the L-RD to further their own agenda, rather than to serve the L-RD according to His will and agenda.

Erring in this area is not something the L-RD takes lightly, which the consequences of this week’s portion make clear. Only a few chapters ago, the Torah declared that Moses was the most humble man who had ever lived; in Korach, we see someone who is anything but humble, even while projecting an image to the contrary.

Korach led thousands to destruction, and he is only one of many shadows of the false Messiah. Far superior is the path of Moses, who is a shadow of the true Messiah, our Messiah Yeshua.

Shabbat Shalom.

Tags: Korach, Torah commentary
Posted in Torah | No Comments »

My B’ha’alotcha Commentary

Thursday, June 11th, 2009

I’ve been thinking a lot about RVs lately. Growing up, they were considered the way to travel the country in style. It was a big deal when my uncle and aunt took my Grandma Hensel to the Grand Canyon and back in a huge one. Actually, it was more of a motor home when you get right down to it. Of course, back then gas was well under a buck a gallon. I’d hate to see the gas bill these days, though I’m sure modern RVs get much better fuel efficiency … to a point. Anyway, here’s my commentary on B’ha’alotcha. Or listen to it!

Shabbat Shalom.

Our parashah for today is B’ha’alotcha or “In your setting up” and covers Numbers chapters 8 through 12. Chapter eight concerns itself with the setting up of lampstands and the preparations of the Levites. Chapter nine focuses on regulations surrounding the celebration of the Passover, allowing even those who are ceremonially unclean due to coming in contact with a dead body to take part in the feast, as well as how the Israelites moved their encampment only when the cloud over the Tent of Meeting moved, and how they stopped when it stopped.

Chapter ten concentrates on further instructions for moving the encampment, both at a time of battle and at a time of peace. Chapter eleven relates the events that happened when the people of Israel grew tired of manna and begged the L-RD to send them a wider variety of food. And finally, chapter twelve focuses on the consequences of some family troubles among Moses and his siblings, Aaron and Miriam.

So this is a rich Torah portion, ripe with topics for discussion, but the part that I kept being drawn back to was chapter twelve, because I believe what it teaches us about the L-RD is so important and, too often, overlooked by many believers today.

We read this in:

Numbers 12:1-2
Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite. “Has the L-RD spoken only through Moses?” they asked. “Hasn’t he also spoken through us?” And the L-RD heard this.

So, what do we have here? Well, we have the sister and brother of Moses complaining against him. The first fault they find here is that Moses has married a Cushite wife. The King James translates the word Cushite as “Ethiopian.” So what do we know about the wife of Moses?

Actually, we know very little about her. The first thing we know is her name, which is Zipporah. She is the daughter of Jethro, the priest of Midian, and therefore would most properly be considered a Midianite.

Zipporah’s name specifically appears in the Torah only four times. Her name appears twice in Exodus chapter two, where she is named as the daughter of Reuel (another name for Jethro) who is given by Jethro to Moses as his wife, and that she gave birth to his first-born son, Gershom.

Zipporah’s name next appears in Exodus chapter four, when she circumcises Moses’ son because he had failed to, and the L-RD was about to strike Moses down for failing to do so. The final appearance of her name in the Torah is in Exodus chapter eighteen, when we are told that Moses had sent his wife and two sons ahead of Israel to stay with Jethro during Israel’s ordeal fleeing from slavery in Egypt.

Directly from the Torah, that’s all we know about Zipporah, the wife of Moses. Of course, rabbinic tradition has attempted to fill in the blanks, but there is no basis in the Torah itself for much of what is taught about her.

What we do know is that Miriam and Aaron were complaining about Moses having a Cushite wife. Is it Zipporah’s origins in the land of Cush… or Midian, or Ethiopia… whatever you wish to call it… that matter here? No. The core of this issue is not where Zipporah IS from, but where she is NOT from; she is not an Israelite.

Now, this information was, of course, nothing new to Miriam and Aaron. Moses has been married to Zipporah for a few years at least, had two sons by her – Gershom and Eliezer – and yet it is this fact that spurs Miriam’s complaint against her brother. When she complains, “Has the L-RD spoken only to Moses? Hasn’t He also spoken through us?” she is not speaking anything untrue. In fact, the Sage Rashi suggests that Miriam never even intended harm to Moses by what she said! We read this from:

Rashi
“…and although Aharon and Miriam did not mean to hurt Moshe they were still punished; how much more so, then, will a person who wishes to hurt another be punished?”

And it is this quote from Rashi that draws up closer to the real issue at hand here, and that is a Hebrew word you may have heard used by some people at times here at Beth Yeshua, but which you may not understand. That word is lashon hora, and it means, “evil speech.” Stan taught about it last week.

Evil speech and its consequences is a theme that is repeated generally in the Torah, and especially in this week’s Torah portion. What is evil speech?

Well, it goes deeper than just malicious gossip and lies. As a matter of fact, one can be speaking things that are absolutely true about another person, and yet still be guilty of evil speech.

Think about it. Was it true that Moses had married a Cushite as opposed to a Hebrew woman? Certainly. Was it true that the L-RD had spoken to Aaron and Miriam as well as Moses? Sure it was. So, why were they punished for speaking the truth?

Because nothing that was said, although true, was meant to build up Moses. The intent was to diminish Moses, even if not exactly to harm him. The words being spoken were coming from negativity and a root of bitterness. Bitterness is often taken for granted these days; we hear of a person’s misfortune and the injustices they have suffered and, of course, we understand why a person might be bitter today. But are bitterness and envy – understandable though they may be – fruits of the Spirit or qualities that offer life and healing?

We read this in:

Acts 8:18-23
When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”

We also know what is said in:

Proverbs 14:30
A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.

These are just a couple examples; there are many. And what both of these passages point out is that bitterness and envy are not compatible with ministry or a life led by communication with God – the Holy Spirit. Because Peter recognized the bitterness and envy in Simon’s heart, he did not just refuse to lay hands on him, but actually told him, “You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God.”

And what is the fruit of bitterness and envy? It is lashon hora, evil speech! Let’s take a look at another part of this week’s portion, and see the consequences of yet another instance of evil speech. We read this in:

Numbers 11:4-6
The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost–also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”

Now, like the source of most bitterness, we can understand the complaint these people have. Manna was a wonderful, perfect food to be sure, but as most chefs will tell you, too much of anything, even a really good thing, can get monotonous. So some of the people eventually complain that it’s manna for breakfast, manna for lunch and manna for supper, and it’s easy to understand that they decide they would like some meat.

However, you see, it doesn’t end there. They let a minor dissatisfaction with the lack of variety of food grow and grow until their complaint becomes a lot more than just wishing they had a steak now and then. They let this complaint grow and fuel their dissatisfaction until they’re not just asking for a wider variety of food, but are claiming that they were better off under the yoke of slavery in Egypt. All over what? Food!

So the L-RD hears their complaint, but his response is not to their surface complaint of a lack of meat, but to the root of bitterness in their heart.

We read this in:

Numbers 11:18-20
“Tell the people: ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The L-RD heard you when you wailed, “If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!” Now the
L-RD will give you meat, and you will eat it. You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month–until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it–because you have rejected the L-RD, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”

You see, the true problem here is not meat. The Israelites did indeed have herds of cattle and flocks of sheep; if they had wanted meat, their was meat to be had. This is instead a problem of attitude and a condition of their hearts being rooted in complaints and envy and bitterness, rather than rejoicing and praise and the Spirit of the L-RD. This is not a matter of what they were given; this is a matter of desiring whatever they were not given, as we read in:

Numbers 11:31-34
Now a wind went out from the L-RD and drove quail in from the sea. It brought them down all around the camp to about three feet above the ground, as far as a day’s walk in any direction. All that day and night and all the next day the people went out and gathered quail. No one gathered less than ten homers. Then they spread them out all around the camp. But while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed, the anger of the L-RD burned against the people, and he struck them with a severe plague. Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved other food.

And that’s the key phrase. They craved “other food,” as in any food other than that provided by the L-RD. The manna was not the problem here. The L-RD could have provided them anything, be it steak, turkey, cheese pizza, popcorn, whatever! And no matter what He provided, their desire would have been for whatever was not on the menu. It was not merely about wanting something new to eat, it was about wanting something not provided by the L-RD.

You know, the traditions of the rabbis are sometimes filled with tales that add on to the Biblical text. Sometimes what they add provides insight, sometimes not. One of the traditions surrounding this episode with the quail and the manna states that those who ate the manna were compelled to follow the Torah and obey all that the L-RD commanded them in order to receive the full benefits of the manna. Whether that’s true or not, the tradition offers the insight that what the people complaining here really wanted was food that came with no strings attached, with no requirement to follow the Torah and obey all that the L-RD commanded them. So ultimately what they wanted wasn’t a twenty-ounce porterhouse on their plates, but they wanted the L-RD out of their lives.

And as a result of a minor complaint about food, thousands died there in the desert. Remember, these were a generation of people who had already said no to hearing the voice of God directly, a voice that would have allowed them to become what God desired them to be: a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. As we know, they instead chose to hear from a human mediator, rather than the L-RD. They chose to worship a golden calf, rather than wait for the return of that mediator. The L-RD had promised that not one of their generation would live to see the Promised Land, save for Caleb and Joshua, and this is one of the episodes on the way to Him fulfilling that promise.

So how does this tie in to the evil speech uttered by Miriam? Let’s take a look at the L-RD’s response in:

Number 12:4-8
At once the L-RD said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, “Come out to the Tent of Meeting, all three of you.” So the three of them came out. Then the L-RD came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the Tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them stepped forward, he said, “Listen to my words: “When a prophet of the L-RD is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the L-RD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”

When the Spirit of the L-RD departs, Miriam, who has spoken evil against her brother Moses first, was struck with leprosy. It was a death sentence and yet, because Moses interceded on her behalf, the L-RD spared her life, though she had to sit outside the camp for seven days before she was healed and declared clean once more.

What this ought to make clear is that, as far as the L-RD is concerned, the old saying, “Words can never hurt me,” is not relevant. The excuse repeated by so many, “Well, all I was saying is…” does not stand up to scrutiny. Whether it is careless talk, gossip, evil speech, or even lashon hora, what comes out of people’s mouths, their words and the intent of their hearts, matter quite a bit to the L-RD. Being careful with what one says can bring unity to a community; being careless about what one says can destroy it, as we’ll see next week. Is there a cure for lashon hora? That’s what Stan will speak about in a little bit.

Shabbat Shalom.

Tags: B'ha'alotcha, RV, Torah commentary
Posted in prayer, Torah | 1 Comment »

My Nasso Commentary

Sunday, May 31st, 2009

Not much to say today about other kinds of content. I just want to get to the portion. Here’s my commentary on Nasso. Or listen to it!

Shabbat Shalom.

Our parashah for today is Nasso or “Elevate” and covers Numbers chapter 4:21 through chapter 7. This week’s reading is rich and wide-ranging, with several topics one could explore in a Torah commentary. There is a census of all the Levites who serve in the Tent of Meeting. Chapter five concerns community rules for various types of impurity, restitution, and jealousy between husband and wife. Chapter six primarily explains the Nazirite vow. And chapter seven explains all the offerings presented at the dedication of the Tent of Meeting, by each of the twelve tribes. However, what I kept being drawn back to is an element of this week’s Torah portion that we hear every week, but which, I suspect, many of us take for granted: the Aaronic benediction.

The relevant passage comes to us in:

Numbers 6:22-27
The L-RD said to Moses, “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them: ‘The L-RD bless you and keep you; the L-RD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the L-RD turn his face toward you and give you peace.’ So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.’”

Now, many people take this little homily for granted. They consider it part of a liturgy or simply a nice thought or prayer at the end of a service. Yet there is a surprising amount we can learn from this blessing. Here at Beth Yeshua, we often hear this blessing sung in its original Hebrew language before reciting it in English. Those of you who are somewhat new here and have not heard much Hebrew before might not know what it means; if it’s your first time here, you might not even have heard it in Hebrew before, so let me share this with you now:

Yeva re-khe-kha Adonai, veyish merekha
Ya’er Adonai pa-nav elay-kha vi-chun-neka
Yi-sa Adonai Pa-nev eley-kha
Ve-yasem lekha Shalom

And, of course, this means: May the L-RD bless thee and keep thee; may the L-RD make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee; may the L-RD turn his countenance toward thee, and grant thee peace.

Now that you hear it in English, it probably sounds more familiar to you, doesn’t it? A lot of churches use a variation on this prayer in their service, with the differences depending primarily on from which translation of the Bible they are taking their reading.

While the words of this four-line blessing seem simple, there is a richness of meaning hidden beneath their surface, so what I’d like to do today is break this blessing down, phrase by phrase, and explore the deeper meaning of this blessing.

First, let’s discuss the importance of blessings. As Stan mentioned recently, there are studies that have been done which seem to indicate a higher degree of intelligence and achievement among Jewish people. Certainly, as Charles Murray has observed, there is an “over-representation, relative to their numbers, in the top ranks of the arts, sciences, law, medicine, finance, entrepreneurship and the media.”

While scholars wrestle to find genetic markers or some other scientific explanation for this sort of over-achievement, I believe the real answer is far simpler: the Jewish people pray blessings over their children regularly. It’s part of their culture to pray blessings over their children.

Of course, the motive for blessings should never be to gain earthly blessings or advantages; they are recited first, foremost, and ideally only because the L-RD has commanded us to do so.

So, what sort of blessing are Aaron and his sons commanded by the L-RD to pray over the people? Let’s start with the first phrase:

THE L-RD BLESS THEE AND KEEP THEE.

Now, some translations vary the wording on the second part of this phrase, and use “guard thee,” rather than “keep thee.” The word used for bless here is “barak” in the Hebrew. According to Strongs entry:

H1288 barak
* AV – bless 302, salute 5, curse 4, blaspheme 2, praised 2, kneel down 2, congratulate 1

The Strong’s entry for “keep” here is “shamar,” which means, according to entry:

H8104 shamar
* AV – keep 283, observe 46, heed 35, keeper 28, preserve 21, watch 7, regard 5, save 2

So, another way of phrasing this, to capture some of these additional levels of meaning, would be, “May the L-RD salute, praise and congratulate you, causing you to kneel before Him, and may He observe, keep watch over, guard, protect and save you from all the attacks of the enemy.

How have the Sages interpreted this verse? We get the following from:

Midrash Rabbah, Numbers vol. 1, p. 433
May He BLESS THEE with wealth AND GUARD THEE that you may perform good deeds with it.

This tradition follows logically with what we know of God and His good intentions toward us. Everything that we possess comes from God, and his purpose for whatever He gives us, whether it is a little or a lot, is to use those resources to pass blessings on to others, that His name may be glorified. Yet is this all? Yet another Sage takes issue with this simple interpretation and adds some insight of his own:

R. Isaac taught,
If they are blessed, are they not automatically guarded, and if guarded are they not blessed? What then is the purport of the expression: AND GUARD THEE? From the Evil Inclination, that he drive thee not out of the world.

The evil inclination mentioned here by R. Isaac is evil personified, an expression that indicates the Evil One, the Adversary of the L-RD, who does indeed desire our destruction, which is one way to “drive us out of the world,” as R. Isaac phrased it.

Let’s turn now to the next phrase in the priestly blessing:

THE L-RD MAKE HIS FACE SHINE ON THEE AND BE GRACIOUS UNTO THEE

What does this mean? How could the L-RD’s face “shine upon us?” We find that the Hebrew word from the Strongs is entry:

H215 ‘owr
* AV – light 19, shine 14, enlighten 5, break of day 1, fire 1, give 1, glorious 1, kindle 1; 43
1b) (Niphal) 1b1) to be illuminated
1c4) lighten (of the eyes, his law, etc)

While this is of some value, I actually prefer the midrashic interpretation of this phrase, as follows:

Midrash Rabbah, Numbers vol. 1, p. 434
THE L-RD MAKE HIS FACE TO SHINE UPON THEE with the light of the Torah; it implies, May He enlighten your eyes and heart in the Torah.

Certainly the Torah is the written revelation the L-RD has given us about who He is, so it would be a natural conclusion that the Torah is the light of the L-RD, because only through the Torah can we see the L-RD for who He is, rather than who we might prefer Him to be.

So what about the second half of this phrase, “And be gracious unto thee?” Well, for this, I think it’s important to keep in mind our understanding of the Torah as God’s minimum standard, a document that reveals at what point we fall short of the least we can do to keep from offending The L-RD by our actions. The purpose of the Torah is to reveal our inadequacies so that we can recognize a need for a Messiah. So this phrase in the priestly blessing balances the potential condemnation that comes from the face of the L-RD – the Torah – shining its light of the truth of our sinfulness upon us, by asking the L-RD for His gracious mercy at the same time, thus, “And be gracious unto Thee.” A similar sentiment is expressed in this passage from the:

Midrash Rabbah, Numbers vol. 1, p. 435
Another exposition of the expression AND BE GRACIOUS UNTO THEE is: May He grant you knowledge so that you may be gracious to one another and compassionate to one another.

This fits with Messiah Yeshua’s teaching, in the L-RD’s prayer, that we ought to be forgiven by the same measure that we forgive others.

In fact, it is through this graciousness phrase that the blessing alludes to the promised Messiah, as we see in this passage from the:

Midrash Rabbah, Numbers vol. 1, p. 436
Another exposition is that He will BE GRACIOUS UNTO YOU by redeeming you. This accords with the text, “O L-RD be gracious unto us; we have waited for Thee; be Thou … our salvation also in the time of trouble. (Isaiah 33:2)

Let’s take a closer look at that passage from Isaiah, because that is where we’ll trace the thread from this blessing that leads to the Messiah. Here’s the full verse from:

Isaiah 33:2
O L-RD, be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress.

Now, the Hebrew word used in this verse is Y’shua, which of course means “salvation.” So an alternate reading of this verse could easily go like this:

Isaiah 33:2
O L-RD, be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning, our Yeshua in time of distress.

Now let’s turn our attention to the final phrase of the blessing, which reads:

MAY THE L-RD LIFT UP HIS COUNTENANCE UPON YOU AND GRANT YOU PEACE.

The big word here to struggle with is, of course, “countenance.” But this is actually Strong’s H6440, panayim, which merely means “presence” or “face.” The midrashic tradition offers this insight:

Midrash Rabbah, Numbers vol. 1, p. 437
Our text states in effect, That countenance of indignation which should deservedly have been turned upon you He will turn away from you.

In light of this, it seems that this is simply a re-expression or re-affirmation of the sentiment of the previous line in the blessing. An alternative reading of this passage is “The L-RD turn his face toward you,” which is favorable, as one Sage has pointed out, to the L-RD disregarding you to the point where He would not turn His face to look at you at all, so it can be read as an expression of God’s kindness and favor, as well.

Finally, we turn our attention to the closing phrase, “And grant thee peace.” Here’s what the Sages have said in:

Midrash Rabbah, Numbers vol. 1, p. 437
Likewise in the priestly benediction, at the end of the blessings, He concludes with peace, AND GIVE THEE PEACE. This is to tell you that blessings in themselves are of no avail unless peace goes with them.
To further expound on the importance of peace, R. Eleazar Hakkappar says, “Great is peace, for the seal of the whole of the Prayer is peace and the seal of the priestly benediction is peace. Great is peace, for it was given to the meek; as it says, ‘But the humble shall inherit the land, and delight themselves in the abundance of peace. (Psalm 37:11) … Thus peace is a grand thing and quarrelsomeness is hateful.”

Certainly, anyone who is part of a community of any size, be it as small as a family, or a church, or a village, a state, or a nation, can recognize that peace is always preferable to conflict, that arguments and disagreements and evil speech tear apart while peace leads to unity in the L-RD. The value of peace is even expressed by Yeshua in the Beatitudes. We read this in:

Matthew 5:5, 9
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth … Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.

That is what we all desire as followers of Yeshua, isn’t it? To be called sons of the L-RD? If so, this blessing is an encouragement to go forth each week seeking to be at peace with everyone, rather than to be the source of conflict; to be guided by the light of God’s Torah and hold on to the promise of his Messiah. That’s the meaning of the Aaronic benediction.

Shabbat Shalom.

Tags: Nasso, Torah commentary
Posted in Torah | No Comments »

My B’midbar Commentary

Sunday, May 31st, 2009

While many good sites concentrate on health issues like appetite suppressant, here at MessianicMusings, we concentrate on searching the L-RD’s word for truth. Here’s my commentary on B’midbar. Or listen to it!

Shabbat Shalom.

Our parashah for today is B’midbar or “In the wilderness” and covers Numbers chapter 1 through verse 20 of chapter 4. This week’s reading largely concerns the taking of a census of the children of Israel. We read about this in:

Numbers 1:1-3
The L-RD spoke to Moses in the Tent of Meeting in the Desert of Sinai on the first day of the second month of the second year after the Israelites came out of Egypt. He said: “Take a census of the whole Israelite community by their clans and families, listing every man by name, one by one. You and Aaron are to number by their divisions all the men in Israel twenty years old or more who are able to serve in the army.

At its most basic level, this census seems to be a military census, since the count only includes men of military age. The results show that at this time, Israel consists of over 600,000 men of military age … 603,550, to be exact, according to verse 46. Now, one might wonder about the significance of a book that concerns the counting of the people in various ways. Why is it important?

Well, for one thing, although the numbers seem in most places to be rounded up to the nearest fifty, they generally are not the nice, round numbers that one might expect if critics of the Bible were correct and the story of the Exodus were a parable and everything in it was symbolic. Instead, the numbers found here are irregular and seem to be random, as one might expect if a large number of people were actually counted. So the very existence of this book and the record of those counted testify to the historical nature of the book. It is a book that confounds skeptics.

But certainly confounding skeptics was not foremost in the mind of the L-RD when he inspired Moses to write the book of Numbers. There must be a deeper meaning, a purpose beyond a mere historical record. And we get a hint of what that is from this tradition from the sage:

Rashi
Because God felt a deep love for Israel, He constantly counted them. When they left Egypt He counted them (Exodus 12:37); after many were punished because of the sin of the Golden Calf He counted them once again (Exodus 33:11ff); and now that He had caused His presence to dwell among them, He counted them once more.

This is an idea I can relate to. You see, when I was young, I became an enthusiastic collector of comic books. Whether it was Spider-Man, Batman, Fantastic Four, Teen Titans or the X Men, I simply enjoyed the exciting mixture of dynamic visual art and compelling storytelling. And since I was not a person who cast aside any type of book or reading material, I soon needed storage boxes and, ultimately, an inventory system.

I can still remember buying packs of hundreds of index cards, rolling them one at a time into my Smith-Corona electric typewriter, and spending hours typing out an index card for each comic I bought, being careful to note not only the series and issue number, but the story title, writer, artists, cover price and so on. I spent almost as much time inventorying and counting my collection of comic books as I did actually reading it. I continued my collection through most of my teenage years before finally selling it around the time I entered college, making just enough in the sale to help pay for a Commodore-64 computer I needed to help me write papers at college.

What explains such behavior? Well, as with any collector, whether it is stamps, rare coins, model vehicles, or, as in my case, comic books … this is an example of what one does when they develop an affection for a treasured possession. I would count and sort and preserve and store so that I could easily find and re-read any issue I wanted to find, at any time; the system helped me also make sure I hadn’t lost anything, as well as track what I had and what I needed.

The key, there, is the concept of a treasured possession. That is a phrase that pops up between the L-RD and his chosen people, as we remember from:

Exodus 19:5-6a
Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

It is easy to overlook that simple turn of phrase, “treasured possession,” and take it for granted, but it has a significant meaning. The word used here is actually:

Strong’s H5459 ceg-ul-lah
* AV – peculiar treasure 3, special 1, jewel 1
* 1a) valued property, peculiar treasure

So we can see this is a word that implies a very special relationship between the L-RD and his chosen people. They are not just a common possession – as He says, the whole earth belongs to Him – but because of his relationship to the people of Israel because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, when they hear His voice and obey his instructions, they are a people he values above all else in creation.

Is this value God places here based purely on heritage and birth? It would appear not, because this declaration is made in connection to what? To hearing the voice of the L-RD and obeying all that He commands. As Rabbi Stan has pointed out in his recent sermons, the phrase “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” does not reappear in the Bible until I Peter, when it resurfaces in light of the followers of Yeshua receiving the Holy Spirit and once again being able to hear the voice of the L-RD. If you can’t hear His voice, you can’t be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

Yet even though the Hebrew people passed up the opportunity to hear God’s voice, to speak to Him directly, they remained His treasured possession. Can we who are not by heritage Jewish share in this status? We read this in:

I Peter 2:9-10
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Other translations render verse nine as “a peculiar people,” while the NIV renders it as “a people belonging to God.” The Greek word used there comes to us from the Strong’s entry:

G4047 peripoiesis
* AV – purchased possession, obtaining, saving, peculiar
* 2) possession, one’s own property

This is nearly the same meaning, the same expression, as the Hebrew word cegulah. Although not identical, it expresses a very similar sentiment, that of a possession, even a special possession. Peter’s statement is directed to believers in Messiah Yeshua, so as long as we listen to His voice and obey all of His commands, I think it’s reasonable to draw the conclusion that we are grafted in to that statement of being a treasured possession of the L-RD, on the same basis … meaning, so long as we hear His voice and obey all that He commands.

So what kinds of love are expressed by the L-RD when He counts those He loves and who love Him? We get this clue from a tradition recorded in:

The Weekly Midrash, page 690
When they left Egypt He counted them and said Israel is my first-born son, for he loved them with the love that a father bears a son. The second form of love was that of a person to his righteous friend. Israel repented after they were punished because of the sin of the Golden Calf. Moshe and the tribe of Levi killed those who had worshipped it, and although the people numbered 600,000, no one had raised a hand against them. It is therefore obvious that they had repented. For this reason, God loved them and counted them. The third kind of love was expressed when He wished to rest His presence among them, and take Israel as His people, and so He counted them.

The counting also gives us a ballpark figure of how many the children of Israel numbered at this time. If there were 603,550 males of military age, as a starting point, you can at least double that number to account for the number of women of the same age, bringing the total to over 1.2 million at least. Then, if you add in at least another twenty-five percent for those who were younger than that – from newborns through teenagers – a reasonable estimate of the group gathered there at Sinai is about 1.5 million; it would be hard to imagine, under even the worst circumstances, that the group was less than one million, just based on the number of men age 20 and up. And that’s not even including the Levites, who were not counted since they are dedicated to God and not required to serve in the military.

Now, the Bible at times takes a dim view of census-taking. For example, in the book of II Samuel, David repents for taking a census of the people against the will of the L-RD and the judgment against him was so harsh it led to the deaths of 70,000 Israelites by plague.

In the gospel of Luke, a census of the people by a Roman governor, Caesar Augustus, is linked to the birth of Yeshua, but the census is cast in a negative light. Even Exodus contains instructions on how to avoid suffering a plague as a result of census-taking.

Yet there are differences. David’s census was inspired because, in his old age, he began trusting in his military might, rather than in the L-RD. The Roman census was linked to taxation, which included hefty taxes even on the poor.

That’s not the kind of census the L-RD is engaging in here; He is asking for a count of his people because He loves them and they are a treasured possession. Just as a collector of stamps, coins, sports cards or comic books will periodically devote time simply to sort through and count their collection, so too does the L-RD here desire to sort through and count those hearts who are devoted to Him by hearing and by obedience.

As we journey through this book of Numbers, let us keep in mind that every time the L-RD is counting His people, be it men of military age, or the number of first-borns, or whatever … it is, at its most basic, a way in which the L-RD is expressing His love for those who love, listen to, and obey Him.

Shabbat Shalom.

Tags: appetite suppressant, B'midbar, Torah commentary
Posted in ministry, Torah | No Comments »

My B’har-B’chukotai Commentary

Sunday, May 17th, 2009

I appreciate solid Kohler bathroom sinks as much as the next one, but a solid Torah commentary might be of more value in the world to come. So here’s my commentary on B’har and B’chukotai. Or listen to it!

Shabbat Shalom.

We have a double Torah portion again this week, so our parashahs for this week are “B’har,” which means, “On the Mount,” and “B’chukotai,” which means, “In my statutes.” Together, they cover Leviticus chapters 25 through 27, and close out our time this year in the book of Leviticus.

One of the most important themes that jumped out to me in this week’s portions was the teaching The L-RD gives to Moses on the seven-year cycle for the land, as well as the pattern for the Year of Jubilee. This teaching is especially important in light of the parallel that can be drawn between the Year of Jubilee, and the Counting of the Omer.

The Torah operates on a series of patterns, and these patterns repeat over and over again. One of these patterns is the significance in time of the number seven. For example, there are six days in which the L-RD created the heavens and the earth, and then He established the Shabbat on the seventh day.

This pattern repeats in God’s 7,000-year plan for creation, with there being 2,000 years of desolation, 2,000 years of Torah, 2,000 years of Messiah, and then a 1,000-year Shabbat in which all of creation will rest in the glory of God and the earthly reign of Messiah.

We can detect the presence of this pattern once again in the L-RD’s instructions to Moses for the people as they enter the land of the promise. We read this in:

Leviticus 25:3-7
For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. But in the seventh year the land is to have a Sabbath of rest, a Sabbath to the L-RD. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest. Whatever the land yields during the Sabbath year will be food for you–for yourself, your manservant and maidservant, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you, as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten.

So, in this passage we see that the L-RD desires that even the land itself should enjoy rest of its labor, and so he institutes an agricultural Shabbat in which there are six years of production, followed by a year of rest for the land, in which it can produce whatever it produces naturally, but there will be no sowing of seed, tilling of soil or other working of the land.

This was perhaps a difficult teaching for some to accept. Remember that the Israelites were a highly agriculture-oriented society at this time; to take an entire year off from the main source of food and income would be quite a challenge to the faith of some. Yet the L-RD does offer some reassurances in this respect.

We read this in:

Leviticus 25:18-22
“‘Follow my decrees and be careful to obey my laws, and you will live safely in the land. Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live there in safety. You may ask, “What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or harvest our crops?” I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years. While you plant during the eighth year, you will eat from the old crop and will continue to eat from it until the harvest of the ninth year comes in.

So, we can see here that the L-RD promised a blessing beyond reasonable expectations and natural results if they act in obedience to His commands regarding offering the Land its part in the Shabbats of the L-RD. Their harvests in the sixth year will triple to consistently provide for them until the land’s Shabbat is over, and harvests are once again gathered.

So, there should be no reason for them to worry, right? The L-RD will provide for them richly, even in the Land’s year of rest. All they need to do is trust God and obey His instructions.

In addition to the Shabbats every seven years, however, the L-RD institutes an additional Shabbat that is to follow the seventh land Shabbat – a time known as the Year of Jubilee. Here is what we read of this time in:

Leviticus 25:8-13
Count off seven Sabbaths of years–seven times seven years–so that the seven Sabbaths of years amount to a period of forty-nine years. Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan. The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields. In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to his own property.

This year of Jubilee goes beyond blessing the land, as we can see, to blessing the people as well. In the year of Jubilee, all debts are wiped out. The price of land is based on the number of years to the next Jubilee, and once a Jubilee arrives, all debts are canceled. Abuse of the Jubilee system is built into the command with a prohibition against taking unfair advantage of each other in light of it, a command that falls equally on both the seller and the buyer, the debtor and the debt-holder.

Yet whether this system of land Shabbats and Years of Jubilee was a sound financial system, whether they were ever actually observed as commanded or not, is less important to our study today than the parallel between the Year of Jubilee and the Counting of the Omer.

As Stan taught last week, the Feast of First Fruits is held on the first day of the week, the day after the first regular Shabbat following the Passover. We then see that to reach Shavuot, we count off seven regular Shabbats after the Feast of First Fruits, which is forty-nine days long, and then immediately following the seventh Shabbat comes the Feast of Shavuot.

The same pattern is followed with the Year of Jubilee; seven times seven years are counted off, forty-nine years in all, immediately followed by a Year of Jubilee in the fiftieth year. The only difference is that with the counting of the Omer, we’re dealing with days; and with the year of Jubilee, we’re dealing with years.

So, what is the connection between the Counting of the Omer and the Year of Jubilee? The unifying themes, I believe, are completion and forgiveness. The Counting of the Omer is symbolic of completion, in that it connects the first-fruits of the barley harvest to the first-fruits of the wheat harvest. In the New Covenant gospels, First-Fruits begins with the resurrection of the Messiah Yeshua, and is completed in the giving of the Holy Spirit in the second chapter of Acts. Resurrection completes the promise and sets us free from sin; the giving of the Holy Spirit empowers us to move out into our new life, led by the voice of God, rather than “following after our own eyes, after which we used to go astray.”

This pattern of sevens is reflected in Yeshua’s teachings.

Matthew 18:21-22
Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Yeshua said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”

With this command of forgiveness up to seventy times seven, we can apply our insight and understanding to this passage, knowing that this would include not only 490 years – 490 Yom Kippurs – but 10 Years of Jubilee, a time when all debts are cancelled. What that means is to forgive someone so completely that you’ll never live to see that forgiveness expire. Our forgiveness of others should last forever, just as we want the L-RD to forgive us.

Immediately following this exchange with Peter, Yeshua goes on to tell the story of the servant who owed the king more than he could ever repay, and who was forgiven his debt by the king; but when he was owed a small amount by his fellow servant, he did not forgive that debt but had the man jailed. When the king found this out, he rescinded his forgiveness of the first man’s debt. The parable concludes in:

Matthew 18:33-35
So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”

Understanding the meaning and significance of the Year of Jubilee is key to unlocking the full meaning of this parable; when practiced as commanded, the Year of Jubilee is indeed a command to ensure that no one suffers poverty without a hope for release from their debt; that no one goes through life without the hope of forgiveness from what they owe, and a fresh start.

In the same way that we count the Omer, or the Shabbats of the land leading to a Year of Jubilee, so too are we to practice forgiveness and rejoice in what we have been forgiven. Yeshua is not alone in showing the importance to God this has, because stern warnings are given to the children of Israel if they fail to keep these land Shabbats and Years of Jubilee. We read this in:

Leviticus 26:33-34, 40-42
I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins. Then the land will enjoy its Sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate and you are in the country of your enemies; then the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths … But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their fathers–their treachery against me and their hostility toward me, which made me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies–then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin, I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.

Forgiveness is the very nature of the L-RD, something He even revealed to Moses when He showed him His glory, as we studied several weeks ago. The reason the L-RD and even Messiah Yeshua speak so harshly about those who won’t obey his commands and forgive others is that without living out the forgiveness we have received, we are painting a false picture of the nature of God.

So it is this theme of forgiveness that reveals the meaning behind the Year of Jubilee and helps us to understand the nature of God better, so we can be a better reflection of Him to others in our daily lives.

Shabbat Shalom.

Tags: B'chukotai, B'har, Kohler bathroom sinks, Torah commentary
Posted in Torah | No Comments »

My Emor Commentary

Sunday, May 17th, 2009

There are many places on the Web to find tips on the best golf training aids, but how many give you so much solid Torah commentary? Here’s my commentary on Emor. Or listen to it!

Shabbat Shalom.

Our parashah for today is Emor or “Say!” and covers Leviticus 21:1 through 24:23. In this week’s portion, the L-RD outlines many of his appointed times – the times He has set aside as special, times in which He can meet with those who love Him and obey all of His instructions.

The first of these appointed times is a weekly festival we’re celebrating right now, today: Shabbat. We read this in:

NIV Leviticus 23:1
The L-RD said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of the L-RD, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies. ‘There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the L-RD.’”

So the Shabbat comes first, which emphasizes once again its importance to the L-RD. The Shabbat is that special time, once a week, where a whole day is set aside not to do any ordinary work, but to spend time with the L-RD. Thinking of the Shabbat in this way may seem a bit new to some folks, but let’s remember that our relationship with the L-RD is compared over and over again in the Torah to a marriage.

You know, in my own marriage, my wife and I have established a similar “appointed time.” Like many married couples, we set aside a few hours every week – for us, it’s usually Saturday nights – as a “date night.” Those few hours may not seem like a lot, but on the weeks we honor them, things do tend to go better for us, and on the weeks where we let that commitment slip, things aren’t as smooth.

In the same way, I think it’s not too odd to consider the Shabbat our weekly “date” with the L-RD. It’s that time where we purposely make time to spend with God; not just quality time, but quantity time as well. In fact, it has long been a custom among the Jewish people to seek to extend the Shabbat into the rest of the week by lighting the Shabbat candles before sunset, rather than at sunset; and by waiting a while after sunset before beginning the havdallah prayers and resuming the work of the rest of the week. Listen to the passage by:

Rabbi Hirsch, Horeb, Ch. 25
“It is above all your duty not to limit the influence of the Sabbath to the short period of its duration but to let its holiness overflow into the week. This means that you must in fact somewhat extend the celebration of the Sabbath beyond its prescribed period, adding to it, both before and after, a little of the working days. In this way you declare that the Sabbath does not stand isolated, as if your time was, so to speak, divided into one part in which you live for God and another in which you live for yourself alone. On the contrary, your working days, past and future, must be suffused with the spirit of the Sabbath. Thus will your workaday week itself in time become transformed, as it were, into a Sabbath, because you will be doing your work only in the Sabbath spirit; thus, its holiness must consequently sanctify you. This additional boon of the Sabbath is known as Tosafah.”

So the Shabbat is quite important, but what other festivals are outlined in this week’s portion? Well, there is the Passover, also known as the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Following the Shabbat, Passover was one of the first festivals established by the L-RD as a remembrance of the exodus from Egypt and how He delivered them from slavery there. Since we celebrated it so recently, this should be fresh in all of our minds.

That festival is followed by the feast of First Fruits, which we celebrated about a month ago. First Fruits is an agricultural celebration marking the first fruits of the wheat harvest. Symbolically, it is linked to the resurrection.

There is a small controversy over how to count out the days from First Fruits to Shavuot – a time we’re now in, known as the Counting of the Omer. Some, including many Jews, begin the counting on the day after Passover, since Passover is considered a Shabbat, but one must study the passage carefully to understand this interpretation is not correct. However, since that will be the focus of Stan’s sermon later today, I will leave that subject to him.

Yet there are more feasts commanded here. There is the feast of Rosh haShana, which is the Jewish New Year and is also known as the Feast of Trumpets. Rosh haShana falls on the first of Tishrei each year in the Hebrew calendar, and it marks the first day of time. The rabbis teach that God created the universe – the first day of creation – on the first of Tishrei, and that time will end 7,000 years after that day, on the 30th of Elul.

Not everyone realizes this, but there are only seven thousand years of time spoken of in the Bible. Here is what the Talmud teaches about this 7,000-year plan of God, as we read in:

Sanhedrin 97a-97b
The school of Eliyahu teaches: “The world exists for six thousand years – two thousand of them tohu (void); two thousand, Torah; and two thousand the era of Messiah. But because of our numerous iniquities, many of these years have been lost.”

After those six thousand years of creation, what follows is 1,000 years of Shabbat rest for creation; the earthly reign of Messiah, in which God alone shall be glorified. After that, all things return to the Father.

So what we are celebrating with Rosh haShana is not only the first day of creation, but the time in which Yeshua will return again. We read of that day in:

I Thessalonians 4:15-18
According to the L-RD’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the L-RD, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the L-RD himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Messiah will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the L-RD in the air. And so we will be with the L-RD forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.

Notice the reference to the trumpet call of God. That’s not just any trumpet call; it is the sounding of the shofar during the feast of trumpets – known as Rosh haShana. This identification is backed up by the teaching of Yeshua. We read this in:

Matthew 24:36
No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

Yeshua is speaking here of His return, and He says “no one knows the day or the hour,” and many who are unfamiliar with the Jewish roots of the faith teach that this means we can’t have a clue as to the time of His return. But on the contrary, it helps identify the time of His return as falling on Rosh haShana, because that is a festival known as “one long day.” This is because the festival coincides with a new moon, and no one can be sure when that new moon will appear during that two-day stretch, so the holiday is celebrated for a two-day period, but is referred to as “one long day.”

So, we can trust that Yeshua’s return will be on some future Rosh haShana, at sunset, just as the 30th of Elul is ending and the first of Tishrei is ushered in.

In this week’s portion, we are also given instructions for the Day of Atonement – also known as Yom Kippur, which we discussed last week. After that, we are given the instructions for the Feast of Sukkot, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths.

I like to joke that this is the day when the L-RD commands us to go camping.

We read this in:

Leviticus 23:41-43
Celebrate this as a festival to the L-RD for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come; celebrate it in the seventh month. Live in booths for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in booths so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the L-RD your God.’”

Who do we also know who dwelled in a booth in the wilderness? That’s right, the L-RD Himself! The Tent of Meeting is also known as the Sukkot of Meeting.

So that’s what we have from the portion. At this point, the children of Israel have commands to observe the weekly Shabbat, Passover, First Fruits, Shavuot, Rosh haShana, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. Those are the seven major feasts of the L-RD.

Of course, there are others.

There is Simchat Torah, which means rejoicing over the Torah, which comes at the end of Sukkot. There is Hanukkah, also known as the Feast of Dedication, which wasn’t established until the time of the Maccabees, but which we know from the Gospels Yeshua celebrated. And there is also Purim, which comes to us from the Book of Esther and was established around the time of the Babylonian captivity. And there is the monthly New Moon celebration, as well as some other, minor observances.

It is important to learn all you can about these appointed times of the L-RD, because they are basically our “date nights” with the L-RD Himself. And who could be better company on a date than the L-RD, right?

These are the times the L-RD has set aside so that we might establish intimacy with Him and get to know Him better. And of course, if you’re interested in learning more, Rabbi Stan does have a 16-CD study covering all the festivals of the L-RD, so that you can learn how to observe each of these special times with God correctly. Amen?

Shabbat Shalom.

Tags: Emor, golf training aids, Torah commentary
Posted in Torah | No Comments »

My Sh’mini Commentary

Monday, April 20th, 2009

If you’re interested in a site for an effective admin job search, that’s not what MessianicMusings.com is all about. We focus on Torah here, and the Messiah Yeshua. Here’s my commentary on Sh’mini. Or listen to it!

Shabbat Shalom.

Our parashah for today is Sh’mini or “Eighth” and covers Leviticus 9:1 through Leviticus 11:47. In this week’s reading, we learn of a very critical series of sacrifices; they’re not critical because of the sacrifices themselves, but because of what they set the stage for.

A few weeks ago, in the Torah portion known as Ki Tisa, Moses prevailed upon the L-RD to show him His glory, and was rewarded with a more direct appearance of the L-RD than anyone likely had experienced since the fall from the Garden. While that much is itself highly interesting, what happens in this week’s portion is even more interesting.

After ordering a series of sacrifices, Moses explains their particular purpose. We read this in:

Leviticus 9:6
Then Moses said, “This is what the LORD has commanded you to do, so that the glory of the LORD may appear to you.”

Let’s read that last part again… so that the glory of the L-RD may appear to you. Can this be right? Could the L-RD really be sharing with all of the people of Israel a kind of intimacy that he had, only a few weeks ago, shared only with Moses?

Yes! And, well… not quite.

As we will see as we go on, the L-RD does show his glory to all the people of Israel in this week’s reading; but is it quite as complete and revealing as the time when the L-RD revealed His glory to Moses, hiding Moses in the cleft of a rock? Probably not quite the same. After all, how do you hide millions of people in the cleft of a rock.

But the fact that the L-RD does this at all is a testimony to how complete the L-RD’s forgiveness can be. Following the incident with the golden calf, the L-RD’s anger against Israel was so great, He considered destroying them all and starting over with Moses alone. Now, He is showing these same people His glory. After Aaron performs all the sacrifices as Moses has instructed, we read this in:

Leviticus 9:23-24
Moses and Aaron then went into the Tent of Meeting. When they came out, they blessed the people; and the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people. Fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown.

What an overwhelming experience that must have been! Remember, these are the same people who turned down the L-RD’s offer to speak to them directly, choosing instead to have Moses and his successors speak to them in the L-RD’s place. Yet here they are, struck with awe and respect at the sight of even a fraction of the glory of the L-RD.

What is their response? They shout for joy! They fall facedown in worship of the L-RD! Isn’t that the kind of response we should offer the L-RD all the time? Of course it is!

But, as with all good things, something goes wrong. There’s a fly in the ointment, and not only does it ruin a wonderful time of closeness with the L-RD between the L-RD and his people, but what happens holds relevance, perhaps, for us today. Let’s take a look at:

Leviticus 10:1
Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command.

Now, the key words there are, “contrary to His command.” And what are the results of these actions? Let’s read on in:

Leviticus 10:2-3
So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. Moses then said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD spoke of when he said: “‘Among those who approach me I will show myself holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored.’” Aaron remained silent.

So, you see, what was the result of this offering of Nadab and Abihu? It cost them their lives. The L-RD Himself brought an end to them. This has to be a sobering thought.

When I first read this passage, I have to admit, I thought it seemed a bit unfair. After all, there’s no golden calf around, is there? They’re not misapplying the L-RD’s name to something else, are they? They’re not worshiping a false god, right? I mean, what did they do? They simply took their censers, put fire in them, and added incense. Even the steps seem right. So what happened? What happened that it was so serious that it cost two people their lives?

The key words are right there. It was unauthorized fire, wasn’t it? It was also an action contrary to the L-RD’s command. That’s the issue.

Now, some might say, “Come on! Their hearts were in the right place! They were simply trying to worship the L-RD in their own way! Isn’t the L-RD being just a little nitpicky here?”

Yet the very question itself is misleading. If we understand the context of what is going on here, there ought to be no room for misunderstandings. Moses had ordered Aaron, very specifically, exactly what needed to be done to invite the L-RD in to this time of close fellowship between the L-RD and Israel. Aaron had done all those things, precisely.

What Nadab and Abihu did was… what? They added to the commands of the L-RD, the very words He had given through Moses. And what does the L-RD tell us about adding to His words? Let’s remind ourselves with this from:

Deuteronomy 12:32 (13:1)
Everything I am commanding you, you are to take care to do. Do not add to it or subtract from it.
That’s why I say the question is misleading. The L-RD is sincere about his words and his commands. We are to take them as genuinely as He offers them! And part of that is not to add to or subtract from anything the L-RD commands! It’s a theme that’s repeated over and over. How many times have we read of the L-RD in both Genesis and Exodus warning various heroes of the faith to do everything He has commanded of them, veering off neither to the left or to the right?

I’ll give you a hint: plenty of times.

So it’s not like Nadab and Abihu were ignorant, right? They were there when Moses gave Aaron his instructions. And they saw that all that Aaron had done was sufficient to bring the L-RD to this place and to have Him show His glory.

So, what’s with the adding to bit here? If everything’s going as planned, why are they adding to what the L-RD had commanded? Well, there’s a hint in all this: Aaron had performed everything the L-RD had commanded through Moses… but Nadab and Abihu had not. So is this act seeming quite so innocent now? I don’t think so.

It’s beginning to look more and more like a cry for attention, like a ploy to get in on the action, perhaps even take some of the credit for what was going on to themselves. It’s ego! And in an unfortunate and ironic way, they pair got the notoriety they sought, didn’t they? But not for the right reasons. Instead of being remembered for how they served the L-RD, they are remembered for how they ignored Him to, “do their own thing, in their own way.”

I think the L-RD’s being rather clear here, isn’t He? If you want to worship the God of Israel in spirit and in truth, there’s the way He has shown us He wants to be worshipped … and then, there’s everything else.

There’s obeying all that God has commanded us to do … and then, there’s doing our own thing. What the L-RD is trying to teach us here is, He does not take worship of Him casually.

Now, the trend today is, “Hey, anything goes! Whatever you do, do it unto the L-RD as an act of worship!”
And there’s some truth to that. I believe we are to live our lives as an act of continual worship. But that’s not quite what we’re talking about here, is it? Of course not. What we’re talking about here is that God made an appointed time with Israel to make his glory known to them … and for Nadab and Abihu, that wasn’t good enough. And it cost them their lives.

Let’s read on in:

Leviticus 10:4-11
Moses summoned Mishael and Elzaphan, sons of Aaron’s uncle Uzziel, and said to them, “Come here; carry your cousins outside the camp, away from the front of the sanctuary.” So they came and carried them, still in their tunics, outside the camp, as Moses ordered. Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “Do not let your hair become unkempt, and do not tear your clothes, or you will die and the LORD will be angry with the whole community. But your relatives, all the house of Israel, may mourn for those the LORD has destroyed by fire. Do not leave the entrance to the Tent of Meeting or you will die, because the LORD’s anointing oil is on you.” So they did as Moses said. Then the LORD said to Aaron, “You and your sons are not to drink wine or other fermented drink whenever you go into the Tent of Meeting, or you will die. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean, and you must teach the Israelites all the decrees the LORD has given them through Moses.”

This can be a tough passage. Moses actually orders Eleazar and Ithamar not to mourn. That’s what is meant by not letting their hair become unkempt and not tearing their clothes. That’s what grieving people did back then, to show that they are grieving.

Why would Moses order them not to grieve? Because Eleazar and Ithamar were members of the temple priesthood. Their garments were special garments for serving in the Tent of Meeting. Their calling and their duties in the Temple had to come before their own grief, because if they entered the Temple with messy hair and torn clothes, would that be obeying all of the L-RD’s commands? Or would it be subtracting from them?

Yes, it’s just the opposite of what Nadab and Abihu did, but the penalty is still the same, right? And after a tragedy like this, Moses doesn’t want any more tragedy on top of what’s already happened, does he? Of course not.

You know, I was talking to a friend of mine this week and the topic arose of the passing of his oldest daughter. It was several years ago and she died in a car accident. The L-RD had warned her parents in a dream that they would be losing a child. And he told me that the most amazing thing was, that after it happened and for the next few days while they held the funeral and put her in the ground, as parents, they were riding a spiritual high.

It sounds just the opposite of what you’d naturally expect. But he told me they both felt the anointing oil of the L-RD was on them, carrying them through, and so through the entire experience of losing their oldest child, they were lifted above their grief and they spent every possible moment witnesses the L-RD’s goodness to those around them, preaching His word.

And now, years later, they are still being approached by people who were at that funeral – some dropping by just on an instinct or a prompting of the Ruach haKodesh – and are being told of how being at that funeral, hearing them speak, seeing how they handled their time of grief with such amazing grace, caused people to turn their lives around and rededicate themselves to the L-RD.

I was amazed when he told me this because of how much it lined up with this week’s reading, and when I shared with him this passage on how Moses asked Eleazar and Ithamar not to grieve their brothers while on duty in the Tent of Meeting, we talked about how God is the same today as He was in the time of Moses. How the L-RD can use a time of tragedy to reach people, if they are simply willing to obey Him.

You see, being on duty in the Tent of Meeting, the job of Eleazar and Ithamar was, in their duties, to focus the attention of the people on the L-RD, not themselves. If they had grieved so outwardly, the attention of the people would have been misdirected from the L-RD to them.

The lesson we can draw from this is that while we can rejoice that the L-RD does not always deal so harshly with those who add to or subtract from His commands as He was with Nadab and Abihu, we ought not take it for granted that He is pleased when we veer off course from His explicit commands, either. It goes back to that central truth: there is obeying everything the L-RD has commanded… and then, there’s everything else.

Shabbat Shalom.

Tags: admin job search, Sh'mini, Torah commentary
Posted in Torah | No Comments »

My Tzav Commentary

Monday, April 6th, 2009

Some commentaries are, quite frankly, run-of-the-mill after a while; others are like diamond rings, rare and exciting to give because you know you stumbled across something important to teach. This commentary is one of the latter. Here it is, my commentary on Tzav! Or listen to it!

Shabbat Shalom.

Our parashah for today is Tzav, or “Command!” and covers Leviticus 6:8 through 8:36 – though in Jewish Bibles, it is Leviticus 6:1 through 8:36 because of a difference in numbering. In this week’s reading, we encounter a series of sacrifices once again. This time, however, they revolve around the ordination of Aaron and his sons, at the time of the dedication of the Tent of Meeting.

By now, we are becoming familiar with the offerings this passage describes; sin offerings, guilt offerings, wave offerings, fellowship offerings and so on. Yet as I was studying through this week’s parashah, one element that stood out to me was the clear message about not eating fat.

Now, those who become exposed to the kosher concepts of clean and unclean meats usually grasp first and foremost the prohibition against the eating of blood. This is why there are procedures for “koshering” meat that including salting and soaking it to draw out the blood. However, trimming away the fat is just as important, as this week’s parashah makes clear. We read in:

Leviticus 7:22-25
The L-RD said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites: ‘Do not eat any of the fat of cattle, sheep or goats. The fat of an animal found dead or torn by wild animals may be used for any other purpose, but you must not eat it. Anyone who eats the fat of an animal from which an offering by fire may be made to the
L-RD must be cut off from his people.

This passage reflects a similar passage from last week’s reading, which I’d like to review briefly before we dive into our study. We read in:

Leviticus 3:14-17
From what he offers he is to make this offering to the L-RD by fire: all the fat that covers the inner parts or is connected to them, both kidneys with the fat on them near the loins, and the covering of the liver, which he will remove with the kidneys. The priest shall burn them on the altar as food, an offering made by fire, a pleasing aroma. All the fat is the L-RD’s. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live: You must not eat any fat or any blood.

Now, the question that occurred to me is, why would the fat of an animal be prohibited by the L-RD for human consumption? Now, the reason for the prohibition against consuming blood makes sense; on a spiritual level, we know the Torah teaches that “the life is in the blood.” Even on a human level, we know that blood is unsafe for human consumption because it is part of the body’s waste disposal system. Diseases are frequently transmitted by blood, as well. Yet why is fat targeted by the L-RD to be prohibited as food?

To answer this question, I first turned to the Torah itself, which defines the fat as a “choice part” of any sacrifice. This helps to explain why it is reserved for the L-RD; just as the L-RD reserves the first-born in the Passover for Himself, requiring them to be ransomed back; just as He asks for the first fruits of the agricultural harvests, as a sign that we acknowledge the

L-RD’s place in our priorities; so, too, does he ask for the “choice parts” of an animal sacrifice, which includes the fat.

The Jewish Encyclopedia also indicates some other levels of meaning for the fat. We read as follows:

JewishEncyclopedia.com
It is held to indicate grossness and the wickedness of disposition (Job 15:27). A heart covered with fat is a sign of irresponsiveness and indifference (Psalm 17:10; 119:70). The fat of beasts is mentioned as rich food (Deuteronomy 32:14). Figuratively, fat connotes the choicest part of anything (of oil, Numbers 18:12; of wine, Number 18:12; of wheat, Deuteronomy 32:14, Psalm 81:17, Psalm 147:14).

This helps to answer the spiritual reasons why the L-RD reserves the fat for himself and does not allow it as food for human use. On a human level, it is also understandable, since animal fat is generally thought of as being more negative than positive for human consumption by most health experts.

Now that we have dealt with the question of the fat, I’d like us to turn our attention more closely to the purpose of this week’s parashah, which is the ordination of Aaron and the priesthood, at the time of the dedication of the Tent of Meeting.

This had to be a time of great anticipation for Aaron and his sons, a time of great humility. After all, it was only a few weeks ago that we read of how Aaron bent to the pressure of the people and made for them a golden calf to worship, calling to by the L-RD’s holy name, but exchanging the worship of the true God of Israel for a graven image of a created thing, a calf.

We remember that Aaron repented of his sin and was offered restoration, and now he is about to be ordained into the service of the L-RD. Surely he must have been humbled by the task that lay ahead of him. If he had any lingering doubts about the fullness of the L-RD’s restoration of him, certainly those doubts must have been washed away with the many offerings he and his sons were required to perform as part of their ordination.

You see, these sacrifices were never themselves what offered remission of sin; the law required them to be made as an annual reminder of sin, but the sacrifices themselves were a shadow of Messiah’s sacrifice. And here, it was a reminder to Aaron and his sons of the L-RD’s forgiveness through the work of the Messiah, though in their day, Messiah had not yet come.

So do these sacrifices hold any relevance for us today? After all, they were meaningful while the Temple was standing, but the popular sentiment among believers today is that Yeshua’s sacrifice replaced all that and made all these things irrelevant. Right?

About the only way you’ll hear most believers talk about the sacrifices described in this week’s parashah is as something that will happen during the time of Jacob’s Troubles – the time of the Tribulation – and even then, they never talk about it in a positive light.

But is that the proper view of these sacrifices? Is this part of the Torah done away with? The answer, of course, is, “No.” Yeshua Himself said this in:

Matthew 5:17-18
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

Heaven and earth are still here, right? And that means nothing has disappeared from the L-RD’s Torah. So why are the sacrifices not offered anymore, if it’s not because of Yeshua’s sacrifice being greater?

It’s because the sacrifices were performed in the Temple, and the Temple is no longer standing in Jerusalem. Why? Because the Romans came in year 70 of the Common Era and destroyed it. If it were still standing, the Jewish system of sacrifices would continue to this day. They will also be conducted in the millennial kingdom because we know that everything the L-RD established here in the Torah was a reflection of His kingdom.

With the Temple destroyed, we can praise God that Yeshua is our fully sufficient sacrifice, so does the future re-establishment of the sacrificial system mean that Yeshua’s sacrifice is not sufficient? Not at all! Listen to this in:

NIV Hebrews 10:1-8
The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming–not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when Messiah came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, ‘Here I am–it is written about me in the scroll–I have come to do your will, O God.’ First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them” (although the law required them to be made).

That is why the sacrifices will start up again when the Temple is re-established; because they will serve the same purpose … to fulfill the requirements of the Law, to serve as a reminder of sin, and to be a reminder of Yeshua’s perfect sacrifice; just as it was then, so will it be in the kingdom.

So the sacrifices are as relevant for us today as they were in the time of Moses and Aaron. They mean the same thing; they themselves are not the source of our forgiveness, but they are a reminder of what is the source of our forgiveness. The only reason they are not practiced today is that the Temple no longer stands, but they will be practiced again in the world to come, and will serve to remind us of all the L-RD has done.
And all of this ties in to the ordination of Aaron and his sons. As we read in:

Leviticus 8:33-36
Do not leave the entrance to the Tent of Meeting for seven days, until the days of your ordination are completed, for your ordination will last seven days. What has been done today was commanded by the L-RD to make atonement for you. You must stay at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting day and night for seven days and do what the L-RD requires, so you will not die; for that is what I have been commanded.” So Aaron and his sons did everything the L-RD commanded through Moses.

Just as Aaron and his sons spent a full seven days in the Tent of Meeting, in the presence of the L-RD, as part of their ordination, what this week’s reading holds for us is a reminder that in order to serve the L-RD, we all need to spend time in his presence, with constant reminders of all he has done for us surrounding us at all times, so that we know from where our forgiveness comes; it comes from our fully sufficient sacrifice: the Messiah Yeshua.

Shabbat Shalom.

Tags: diamond rings, Torah commentary, Tzav
Posted in Torah | No Comments »

My T’ruma Commentary

Sunday, March 1st, 2009

Even Messianic churches and synagogues need business insurance, but there are better places to find out about that than here. Instead, I offer up my T’ruma Commentary. Or listen to it!

Shabbat Shalom.

Our parashah for today is T’ruma, or “Offering,” and covers Exodus 25:1 through 27:19. This parashah concerns itself almost exclusively with instructions for the building of the ark of the covenant and the structure surrounding it, as well as many of the accessories involved.

Just prior to the beginning of this parashah, we read how Moses ascends the mountain to meet the L-RD. These are his second and third trips up the mountain to dwell in the presence of the L-RD, and on the final trip, for six days prior to ascending the mountain, it was covered by a cloud; then, on the seventh day, God opens a path through the cloud and Moses follows it up the mountain to dwell with God. These trips up the mountain to dwell in the presence of God have a lasting effect on Moses. According to the:

Weekly Midrash, vol. 1 (410)
Moshe went up and learned the entire Torah, all 613 commandments … When Moshe went up the mountain a cloud covered it, remaining until the sixth day of Sivan, when God gave the Torah. Immediately after the Giving of the Torah he went up the mountain again, remaining there for forty days and forty nights. We are told this is to show Moses’ greatness.

So our reading this week is part of what Moses began to receive from The L-RD during this time. And it begins with a request from The L-RD for Moses to take an offering. What is the purpose of this offering? Well, the requests for what the offering should consist of give us a hint:

Exodus 25:2-7
“Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering. You are to receive the offering for me from each man whose heart prompts him to give. These are the offerings you are to receive from them: gold, silver and bronze; blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair; ram skins dyed red and hides of sea cows; acacia wood; olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece.

These are ingredients for what? For a sanctuary in which the presence of The L-RD can dwell among the people. Until this point, Moses has had to ascend the mountain to meet with the L-RD; now, the L-RD wants to draw near to His people.

While these are not quite the instructions for the building of The Temple, the ark, the curtains for the Holy of Holies and many other aspects of the instructions given here do reflect and parallel the instructions that will be given later on, in the building of the Temple.

It is instructive to note, however, that The L-RD does not ask Moses and the children of Israel to build Him a permanent structure. The sanctuary is a movable unit that the Israelites can take with them into the Promised Land. And there is significance to this, because it reflects The L-RD’s desire to be with His people wherever they go.

It is not until the time of David that the idea of building the L-RD a permanent structure in which to dwell is first proposed. In fact, it is something first suggested by King David, who feels guilty about dwelling in a castle that is better than the dwelling place built for The L-RD. This next passage in longer than I normally use, but I do think it’s essential to what we’re learning here today. We are offered this eye-opening insight into the L-RD’s mindset on a tent-like dwelling, as it is written in:

II Samuel 7:1-14
After the king was settled in his palace and the L-RD had given him rest from all his enemies around him, he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a palace of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.” Nathan replied to the king, “Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the L-RD is with you.” That night the word of the L-RD came to Nathan, saying: “Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the L-RD says: Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?” Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the L-RD Almighty says: I took you from the pasture and from following the flock to be ruler over my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men of the earth. And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies. ‘The L-RD declares to you that the L-RD himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son.

There is much to ponder and appreciate from this passage in II Samuel. For one thing, notice that at first, the prophet Nathan tells King David exactly what he wants to hear: the L-RD is with you… go ahead and build this temple to the L-RD! But then what happens? The L-RD speaks to Nathan that night and says, “Not so fast there. I never asked for this.” In fact, the L-RD seems almost offended at the idea. From the time of our parashah to the time of David, the L-RD will dwell in a tent, a movable structure, and always be with His chosen people, accompanying them wherever they go.

Then the passage moves on to go one step further as the L-RD replies to David is that He himself, not David, will establish His true temple, which will be an offspring of David, whose kingdom the L-RD will establish and whose rule will never end. This is a continuation of the Messianic promise that runs throughout the Torah, throughout the entire Tanakh, and is ultimately fulfilled in the Messiah Yeshua.

Now, some may argue that in this prophecy to Nathan, the L-RD was not speaking about Yeshua, but about David’s son, Solomon. But let’s examine that for a moment. Does that argument hold up?

Well, the person God is talking about here will appear when David’s days are over and he rests with his fathers; yet Solomon was born while David yet lived. Messiah Yeshua was born of the line of David, but hundreds of years after David rested with his fathers.

The person God is talking about here will have a kingdom that God Himself will establish; Solomon simply inherited his father David’s kingdom, while the Kingdom of Yeshua the Messiah was built and indeed is being built by God Himself.

We are told this person will be the one to build a house for the L-RD, and by building the first temple, Solomon is a partial fulfillment of that Messianic promise… but does Solomon live up to the rest, or is he only a shadow of the Messiah and not the Messiah himself?

Well, we are told that God would establish this person’s throne and kingdom forever; as we all know, the United Kingdom of Israel split into the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah shortly after Solomon passed from this life. Not only that, but the Temple he build for God lasted only until the time of the Babylonian Exile, after which the first Temple – Solomon’s Temple – was destroyed. That’s well short of forever.

Finally, to qualify as the subject of this prophecy, this person has to be called Son by The L-RD. While Solomon was considered one of the wisest kings of Israel ever to sit on its throne, the L-RD did not call him “my son.” That was fulfilled only in the Messiah Yeshua, as confirmed by the bat kol – the voice from heaven – at the baptism of Yeshua, when from heaven The L-RD spoke and said, “This is my Son, whom I love. In Him, I am well pleased.”

So you see, much of what we find in this week’s reading may seem dry on the surface, but everything about the sanctuary for the L-RD is connected to the Messiah and His kingdom. Even the sages acknowledge there is a hint of the Messiah in these instructions, specifically in verse six’s reference to olive oil for light. As we read in the:

Weekly Midrash, vol. 1 (414)
These words (olive oil for light) hint at Mashiach, who will illuminate the world as pure oil does, as it is written, I have prepared a candle for My Anointed. Why is Mashiach alluded to in the portion of T’ruma, which tells of the donations which are to be given in the Sanctuary? To teach that if Jews give charity while in their bitter exile, it will surely come to an end … The Midrash teaches us that while the Temple stood it saved us from exile. Now that it has been destroyed only charity can save us.

This fits with what Rabbi Stan has been teaching recently about the Life of Messiah. It is one thing to claim an intellectual agreement with the Torah and thereby call yourself a person of faith. It is another thing entirely to allow your life and habits and way of living to be transformed by the Torah, by the Messiah Yeshua, and have it make a real difference in how you life your life.

Those with an intellectual-agreement faith are far more likely to look at the issue of giving and fall into agreement with the teaching of a ten-percent tithe, or the rabbinic instruction of never giving more than twenty percent, lest you become destitute yourself.

Those who enter into a transformational faith – a faith demonstrated by the good deeds, the mitzvahs, the acts of charity that follow such faith – will see properly that all we have, all we are, belongs to God and therefore we must give of ourselves beyond all reason, beyond all human understanding, so that we can build up for ourselves treasures in the world to come, when we will be united with our Messiah Yeshua.

The vast riches of the sanctuary described in this week’s parashah are a reflection of the world to come. All the fine metals and rich colors described are merely symbols to express the untold riches that await us in the kingdom of God.

That makes God’s dwelling completely different from those of earthly kings; they built out of their wealth to boast of their greatness by putting their riches on display on the outside, for the word to see. God has Moses build a humble tent in which His presence shall dwell, with its riches hidden inside, for only a few to see, because His greatness is so vast that no earthly boasting is necessary.

Shabbat Shalom.

Tags: business insurance, T'ruma, Torah commentary
Posted in Torah | No Comments »

MessianicMusings.com

Posts Tagged ‘Torah commentary’

My Matot-Masei Commentary

My Pinchas Commentary

My Balak Commentary

My Korach Commentary

My B’ha’alotcha Commentary

My Nasso Commentary

My B’midbar Commentary

My B’har-B’chukotai Commentary

My Emor Commentary

My Sh’mini Commentary

My Tzav Commentary

My T’ruma Commentary

Archives

Meta

MessianicMusings.com