As we read at the beginning of this book, the first thing that God had Moses do was to take a census to determine the number of men able to go to battle. In this parashah, God has Moses count the Levites and identifies who is to carry which parts of the Tabernacle.

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God gives instructions that all lepers must be placed outside the camp, in order that the camp not become defiled because Adonai will dwell within the camp.

He also gives instructions regarding when a husband suspects a wife of adultery, restitution for sinning against a brother Israelite, laws for vow-making, and the manner in which the Cohen shall bless the people, known as the Aaronic Blessing (Numbers 6:23-26.)

This parashah ends detailing (in exacting detail) the gifts that each of the twelve tribes brought to the Tabernacle after it had been set up and anointed.

In my Chumash, the commentary states the gifts were identical because there was such harmony between the tribes that no one tribe wanted to outdo the other, therefore they all gave the same gifts.

But then it goes on to state how the gifts were representative of the history of each tribe, whereas each identical item had a different significance, relating specifically to that tribe. These different meanings were based on the tribe’s history.

For example, Numbers 7:12 tells us the first tribe to bring their gifts was Judah, presented by Nahshon, and the Midrash tells us that Nahshon was honored to be the first to present the gifts because when the Red Sea was parted and the Israelites were hesitant to enter, Nahshon boldly plunged in, trusting that God would protect them.

Another example was that the silver charger presented by Reuben’s tribe recalled to mind that Reuben’s words saved Joseph’s life, quoting Proverbs 10:20 which says “The tongue of the just is as choice silver.”

Of course, none of this is found anywhere in the Torah. These stories and comments are the fabrication of the Rabbis over the years, which is what the Talmud really is all about: it is called the Oral Law but in reality, it is rabbinical mythology that tries to explain things we read in the Torah.

Another example is that we read at the end of Genesis 17 about the circumcision of Abraham, and the very next chapter starts with the visitation of the three angels. Well, the Torah has no defined timeline between these two events, but the Talmud tells us the angels visited on the third day after Abraham’s B’rit Milah, the day when the pain is the worst, and that it was a sign of Abraham’s devotion and humility that despite his pain, he got up and served these strangers.

Total fiction, not biblically substantiated in any way, but still and all a really nice story, and probably not that far from the truth, with regards to the type of man Abraham was.

I believe the Talmud is a wonderful book, full of much wisdom from many of the most studious and scholarly Rabbis of the past couple of millennia. BUT…it is not scripture. It is a work of fiction based on scripture, not unlike Hollywood making up what seems to be a nice way to see things that happened in history, but it’s not real.

Now, having said that, we can’t say all of it wasn’t real, because the truth is we do not know the time between the visitation of the angels and Abraham’s circumcision. It could have been days or even months later- we just don’t know, so the Talmud narrative could be true. Who knows? Maybe God gave a special insight to whoever came up with that, or maybe it is just something someone thought would fit in nicely.

We’ll never know, but to read it doesn’t weaken our faith, and that is an important point to understand when confirming my belief that studying the Talmud is not a bad idea. What we read may be man-made, but it doesn’t do anything to reduce our faith, and actually is designed to increase our understanding of God and his ways, which can only strengthen our faith.

Studying the Talmud will, at the very least, give you a good “feel’ for the Jewish mindset, and it will especially help you to understand Jewish Logic, which is my term for the way Jews argue. A Jew will never tell you what something is until he first tells you everything it isn’t. When you learn to recognize this methodology, then the letters that Shaul (Paul) wrote will become much easier to understand, and you will be able to see why they have been misunderstood and misinterpreted by Christians for so many years.

The Talmud also instructs us in how we are to obey the Torah in our everyday lives, which is called Halacha (The Way to Walk), and is what the Orthodox and Chasidic Jew learns from the time they can understand right from wrong. In the more religious sects of Judaism, the study of the Talmud comes even before the study of the Torah!

Sometimes we read instructions in the Torah and we can’t understand the reasons why God gave them. Often, there seems to be something missing: for example, we read about sacrificing an animal, and the Torah states we must treat our animals humanely, but there is nothing anywhere in the Torah telling us how to kill the animal humanely. However, the Talmud describes this process, which is called the Shechitah. So, the Talmud sort of “fills in” the missing parts, and even though it is all man-made tradition, I have never seen anything in the Talmud (although I am certainly not well-versed in it) that would be detrimental to our faith in God. The underlying foundation of the Talmud is the very word of God, so it builds on this and adds to it in a manner that is designed to help us better worship and obey the Torah.

And although Yeshua certainly had trouble with some of the rabbinic regulations, which later were part of the Talmud, he wasn’t against all man-made traditions, only those which had been given precedence over the instructions from God.

So, with regard to today’s parashah reading, reading the Torah narrative seems remarkably redundant, each of the twelve tribes presenting the exact same things, so why didn’t Moses just write what was given, and end it by saying each tribe gave the same? I don’t know, but we do know that when we see things repeated in the Bible it is usually to make an impact on the importance of what we are reading. Maybe, just maybe, Moses repeated each tribe’s gifts so that later someone, like whoever wrote about this in the Talmud, could explain how each identical item represented something unique to the tribe that presented it?

That’s why the Talmud isn’t such a bad book to know: you just have to be able to separate the wheat from the tares, so to speak, when reading it. Knowing the Tanakh is the first step, so that when you read the Talmud stories you can know which is biblical and which is not.

A funny aside: when I was touring Israel in 2016, I was the only Jew in the group and our Israeli guide was an expert in relating the Bible stories to the geography we were visiting. However, he was relating Talmudic stories as well as biblical stories, so throughout the trip, I kept raising my hand and saying, “Yosi- that was from the Talmud, right?” to which he would confess it was. I don’t know if he appreciated that or not, but we are still friends on Facebook, so I guess it didn’t really bother him.

In my opinion, a student of the Bible should not ignore the Talmud but become at least a little familiar with it as a means of better rounding out one’s understanding of Judaism and the Jewish mindset.

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God gives the instructions regarding the Sabbatical year and the Year of Jubilee. He further gives the regulations regarding the redemption of one’s property, which includes slaves, when the Jubilee year arrives, as well as regulations for the proper way to price the property in relation to the expected value received between the time of sale and the Jubilee Year.

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The last parashah of Leviticus is also the end of this book. Leviticus has different sections which relate to the different aspects of one’s life: the rules for the Priesthood are the sacerdotal sections, then we have the ceremonial rules, followed by the ethical rules, and now we are in the final section, which is an admonition to the people to maintain proper worship, followed by the warning against disobedience. In this final chapter, God tells of the increasingly terrible curses that will fall on the people as they continue to disobey and reject God’s instructions.

Chazak! Chazak! V’nit Chazek!!
(Be strong, be strong, and let us be strengthened!)

Leviticus is the central book of the Torah, and the instructions we are given in this book are the foundation upon which we build proper worship of God.

I wonder how many people really know what the term “worship of God” means? From my experience with people throughout my life, whether they are spiritual or secular, I think they see the worship of God to mean going to synagogue or church each week and trying to be a “good person”, whatever that means.

For Jews, it is a little more complex: you see, we believe all the laws, statutes, and commandments in the Torah are still binding, whereas so many Christians have been taught they are exempt because they believe in the son of God. I still don’t understand how someone can say they follow the son of God, who was 100% obedient to his father, and then in the same breath say they are exempt from obeying the father, which is something the son never did! I mean, if the son says he obeys his father, and you say you follow the son, then shouldn’t you also obey the father?

In my opinion, the proper way to worship God is to live in the manner he tells us we should. We should not reject his commandments regarding what foods are to be eaten, although we can reject the Talmudic rules of Halacha (Way to Walk) because those are man-made laws. I am not saying we have to reject the entire Talmud; actually, I say we should study the Talmud because there is much wisdom and understanding in there. There is also a lot of drek (Yiddish for “rubbish”) so we need to tread carefully, separating the wheat from the tares.

So, am I “under the law” because I believe the Torah is still valid and binding on anyone who says they worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? No, I am not, and the reason I am not is that I know no one can obey the Torah perfectly, which is why we needed the Messiah. And I also know that salvation comes through faith, but having faith doesn’t mean we don’t have to try to be obedient to what God says we should do! God provided the Messiah explicitly because he knew we would fail to obey him perfectly, so to protect us from ourselves he sent Yeshua.

Yeshua was our ideal example, and when we accept him as our Messiah we should try to emulate Yeshua, just as God has always said we should emulate God: remember the statement God made often?

“Be thou holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.”

The justification Christianity gives for rejecting God’s commandments and regulations, which (like it or not) is exactly what you do when you don’t obey the Torah, comes from the misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the letters Shaul (Paul) wrote to the different congregations he formed throughout the Middle East during his missionary work. And, for the record, they were never “churches”, they were Kehillot, which is the plural form of Kehillah, which is the Hebrew word for “congregation.” Did you know that the word synagogue is not from Hebrew? It is from Greek and means a place of assembly, which is also a definition of the word ecclesia. It is only in modern times that synagogue has become associated solely with Jews, and ecclesia is considered to be the Christian church.

There is no statement anywhere in the entire Bible, from Genesis through Revelation, where anyone says “Jews must obey Torah but Christians don’t have to” or anything in any way that states God allows anyone to reject any of his laws. However, there are plenty of places where God tells us that to obey him is to live but to reject him is to die. The New Covenant tells us faith is shown through works (James 2:14), and that even though Grace trumps sin, it is not a license to sin (Romans 6:15.)

The one absolute command that is found throughout all religions is to obey. In Judaism, the Orthodox more often than not go to the Talmud before they go to the Tanakh and in Christianity, they go to the Pope or the World Council of Churches, or whichever body their religion gets its rules from, but in all these cases they are going to human beings and not to God.

It is up to each of us to decide how we will worship God, and that depends on who will we obey: we can obey our religious leaders or we can obey God.

As for me and my house, we choose the Lord. Whom do you choose?

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That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and Shabbat Shalom!

This double-parashah begins with the regulations for the Cohen HaGadol (High Priest) when observing the Holy Day of Yom Kippur.

In Chapter 17, God tells us that any sacrifice must be made at the tabernacle, otherwise, the person sacrificing will be cut off from his people.

Chapter 18 gives us the prohibitions against familial sexual relationships, clearly stating that any sexual relationship with any close relative is forbidden.

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The parashah Kedoshim deals with holiness, starting with God’s commandment that we should be holy because he is holy, i.e. we should emulate God. God reviews the laws regarding sacrifice, duties towards others, fundamental moral and ritual laws, and the most important of these is Leviticus 19:18, which is what Yeshua also repeated as one of the two most important commandments of all: to love your neighbor as yourself. The other being, of course, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength.

One commandment that is repeated in both parashot is the prohibition against sacrificing children to Molech. This is clearly an abomination to God, and he says sacrificing children is something that never even entered his mind.

Here’s an interesting bit of information for those that may not know: if you have ever seen a Jewish man praying, you will see that as he prays he is also davening, which is a rhythmic swaying front to back. I have always heard that this act goes back to the Cohen HaGadol when he is in the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur, the only time he is allowed to be in there. The robe he wears has, all along the bottom hem, pomegranates and bells, so when he davens you can hear the bells ringing. On Yom Kippur, if the sacrifices are not done correctly or the Cohen HaGadol is not properly cleansed, when he enters the Holy of Holies he will die. By swaying back and forth as he prays, the ones outside can hear the bells ringing to indicate that he is still alive. They even tied a rope to his ankle so that if he did die, they could pull him out of there without violating the sanctity of the Holy of Holies. That is why, to this very day, when a Jewish man is praying, he stands and sways back and forth.

One continuing theme we see throughout the Tanakh is that God doesn’t totally destroy the children of Israel, even when they reject his sovereignty, violate his Torah and do unspeakable abominations before him. God constantly punished their sins, and after they repented, accepted them back; but, the truth be told, he had every right, both morally and legally (under the terms of the covenants) to totally destroy them.

Every sinful and detestable thing God said we shouldn’t do in these chapters was done, and not just once or twice, but regularly and for centuries, by both the northern and southern kingdoms. So why didn’t God just get rid of these stiff-necked and rebellious children and start over?

The most likely answer I expect to hear is that God is a compassionate and loving God, slow to anger and quick to forgive. After all, that is what he told Moses in Exodus 34:6-7, isn’t it?

Well, that isn’t the reason God gave.

Reading the Haftorah portion for the parashah Kedoshim, which is Ezekiel 20, God tells us exactly why he didn’t destroy the people when they were in the desert, which I believe was the same reason he has never destroyed us, as we often deserved. He told Ezekiel that he would have destroyed us except for the fact that because he took us out of Egypt by the power of his own hand, that for his name’s sake he relented on destroying us because it would have damaged his reputation with the nations that heard of his great power and works.

This is the same argument Moses used to keep God from destroying the people after their sin with the Golden Calf.

So God, who IS compassionate, understanding, and not just able to forgive but desiring to forgive, did not destroy the people because he didn’t want to spoil his reputation with the other nations.

It sounds very self-centered, doesn’t it? He didn’t destroy those who deserved it not because he is compassionate, and not because he is forgiving, but because he didn’t want to lose his street rep!

Hey, I’m the not one saying it was for selfish reasons, He is!

It appears that by saving the children of Israel from their slavery in Egypt and claiming them as his own, he sort of stuck himself with them. Now that he is their God, he has to deal with them and can’t do anything really bad to them because it would only ruin his reputation.

But is God really selfish? What is so important that he maintain the reputation he has with the other nations when it is really all about him and his people?

I believe God’s reputation throughout the world is one of the most important things there can ever be because only by recognizing the power and might and trustworthiness and holiness and ability to save that God, alone, can provide, there is no means for the Gentiles, the nations of the world, by which they can be saved.

When God made salvation available to the Gentiles, through the actions of the Messiah Yeshua, if they didn’t already have a good knowledge of who the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was, having heard of his power and ability to save his own people, they probably wouldn’t have paid any more attention to the Apostles than if they were hearing about any other god they already knew about.

The gods of the Romans and Greeks and Semitic tribes of the Middle East were also well known, but only the God of the Jewish people, by means of his reputation, held such awe with those who knew of his great power and majesty. And the Jewish people, themselves, as sinful as they had been over the centuries, demonstrated the compassion and trustworthiness of their God. In fact, it is the continual sin of the people, followed by their repentance, which has always shown how powerfully able God is to both punish and bless those who worship him. He saved when needed, he punished when deserved, he forgave when warranted, and he blessed when obedient.

Unlike any other god that existed, Adonai, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was the one who anyone with any seykhl (Yiddish for common sense) wanted to be on your side.

So, even though God often forgave the people just to protect his reputation, which seems somewhat selfish, it wasn’t. God needed to protect his reputation in order to make salvation possible for the pagans who would, later on, be able to receive that salvation through the Messiah.

By protecting his reputation among the pagan nations, God was actually ensuring their opportunity to be saved from their sins, along with his own chosen people.

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Well, that’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and Shabbat Shalom!

This Shabbat reading is a double-parashah. These four chapters deal with the uncleanliness of birth secretions and of the skin diseases we call leprosy.

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I have absolutely no idea why God makes a woman unclean after giving birth to a girl twice as long as when giving birth to a boy, and despite the many jokes I already have popping into my head, I will demonstrate restraint and wisdom and not post even one of them.

The age-old argument for why God gave us these instructions is that they are for hygienic reasons or they are strictly Levitical (religious). There can be, of course, valid arguments for both sides.

Obviously, if someone has leprosy you do not want them in the general population for the safety of all. On the other hand, leprosy was also used as a punishment for religious disobedience, as in Numbers 12, when God struck Miriam with leprosy for speaking against Moses; as such, it may represent being spiritually cut off from the people as well as physically.

I consider these regulations as the type of instructions we call Chukim, which are commandments and laws for which we cannot understand why God gave them to us. Yes, it is easy to understand separating a person with a contagious disease, but why is a woman unclean after giving birth to a girl twice as long as for a boy? We can understand she is unclean from the secretions caused by the birth but, then again, why is someone ceremonially unclean just because they had a secretion?

I have stated often when we come across a commandment from God, one for which we have no idea why he gave it to us, that obedience doesn’t require understanding, only faith and trust. I have stated this more often than not, I think when we are going through the book of Leviticus because, well, this is where a lot of chukim appear.

But that is not what I feel is something we should review now. No, I think the message for today is simply that when we come across a commandment that deals with hygiene, it can also represent both a physical and spiritual condition. For example, witches are almost always portrayed as ugly because their spiritual essence is so evil that it affects their physical appearance, as well. Conversely, spiritually pure people are displayed as beautiful.

So what about Samantha Stevens? In the TV show “Bewitched”, she was a witch and she was absolutely gorgeous! Oh, wait a minute- she was a “good” witch, wasn’t she? (If there can be such a thing.) Of course, for decades TV and movies have been portraying evil as good in order to get us conditioned to thinking that evil is not just acceptable, but desirable. After all, Satan is called the Prince of the Air, and how is TV transmitted?

But, we’re getting off topic, so let’s get back to today’s parashot.

The lesson I believe these parashot can give us today is that one’s physical condition doesn’t necessarily indicate their spiritual condition. Many people with horrendous physical ailments or handicaps can be pure as new-fallen snow, spiritually, and there are beautiful people who are more like what Yeshua accused the Pharisees of being: white-washed sepulchers full of dead people’s bones.

So here it is, pure and simple: do not judge from the outside but try to see people as God does, from the inside. It is hard to overcome the social conditioning we all – everyone in the world- have undergone, which is that beauty is better than ugliness, but when we look at people’s fruit instead of their bodies, we will be able to judge properly what their spiritual condition is, despite their physical appearance.

And one last thing: please try to avoid discussions about why God said we must or must not do something. They may be interesting from a scholarly view, but when it comes down to what is important, knowing why God wants you to do something is not going to save you, but doing what God wants you to do is certainly not going to hurt you.

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This parashah begins with the continuing sanctification of Aaron as Cohen HaGadol, the High Priest, and his sons, Nadab and Abihu, as the cohanim to assist him. But the sons offered unauthorized fire before the Sanctuary, and as such their punishment was to be killed by fire coming from the Sanctuary. Moses tells Aaron not to grieve for his sons as he is still being sanctified, but that the people will grieve for him.

The last chapter of this parashah is the chapter outlining the Laws of Kashrut, the Kosher Laws.

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At the risk of repeating myself, I am going to talk about a theme I bring up often, but probably can’t bring up too often. And that theme is this:

Obedience doesn’t require understanding, and in fact, wanting to understand is a form of faithlessness.

There is no end to the number of reasons people come up with why God has determined some animals are clean to eat and others aren’t. From the risk of catching a disease, such as trichinosis from pork, to the fact that some animals are scavengers which eat carrion.

Let’s digress for a moment to review the three types of laws: Mitzvot, Mishpatim, and Chukim.

A mitzvah is a commandment of religious duty; mishpatim are rules that govern inter-personal relationships, and Chukim are those laws for which we have no logical explanation.

For example, it is a mitzvah that we must celebrate the Shabbat, and it is a mishpatim that we love our neighbor as ourselves. However, the requirement for the showbread in the Sanctuary, and it being replaced once a week, well…who knows why God wants us to do that? That is a Chukim law.

Back to the parashah: for me, the Kosher Laws fall under Chukim. Yes, of course, they are all commandments, but why do some animals get specified as unclean and others not? No carnivores are clean, only herbivores, and of all the herbivores, only those that are ruminants with a split hoof are clean. Why just them?

And fish must have scales and fins, otherwise, they are unclean. What is the deal with that?

I don’t know why God wants things this way, but I do know that it doesn’t matter why- he is God, I am not, so what he says, goes. And you want to know something else? I don’t even care why God decided what is clean and what isn’t! It’s not important that I understand God’s reasoning because, frankly, if I could understand everything that God says and does, then he isn’t worthy of my worship.

So today’s message is short and sweet: we don’t need to understand why God says and does what he says and does; actually, we shouldn’t even try to! God is so far above us, and so much wiser than we could ever be, that faith demands we trust whatever he says we should or shouldn’t do as being for our benefit. Understanding why is not necessary.

Just obey, as best as you can, and reap the blessings that God promises for obedience (Deuteronomy 28). The covenants God made with us are not based on him doing what he said he would, but first and foremost on us doing as he said we should. Then, after we obey, he will fulfill his side and bless us.

I don’t know about you, but as for me, I am more than happy to obey God’s instructions as best as I can, totally and blissfully ignorant of the reasons why he gave them.

In my opinion, the need to understand why God gave his commandments shows a lack of trust and might even lead to faithlessness and what might be worse… apostasy.

Didn’t Yeshua say only those who come to God as a trusting child will be saved? So what would you prefer: knowledge in hell or ignorance in heaven?

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That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and Shabbat Shalom!

The parashot readings for the festival of Passover are designated one per day for the 7 days (8 days for those in the Diaspora), each day having a specific portion of the Torah relating to the Passover.

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Today’s reading covers when the second Passover in the desert was being celebrated, and there were some who had become unclean due to their having been in contact with a dead body. As such, they were banned from the ceremony; Moses asked Adonai what to do, and Adonai said that anyone who was either unclean or out of town on the Passover could celebrate it, just as it is supposed to be celebrated, but on the 14th day of the following month, which would be Iyar.

For the record, and I don’t think even most Jews know this, Passover is not 7 days long. The Passover is just that- the time when the angel of death passed over, and it is defined in the Torah as from twilight until midnight. Beginning on the 15th day (which would be after sunset on the 14th day, after the lamb was slain) begins the 7 days of Hag HaMatzot, the Festival of Unleavened Bread. So Passover and Hag HaMatzot begin at the same time, but Passover is only for that evening.

Recently in a discussion group on Facebook, someone asked if an uncircumcised person could share in the Seder now that there is no Temple service. The rules for the Seder are very clear in Exodus 12:48, in that no one who is uncircumcised may eat the Passover meal. Now, that is somewhat disquieting for me; you see, Donna and I have shared the Seder with many Gentile friends over the years, saved or not, in order to show them the relationship between Yeshua and the Passover. Yet, we never required (or for that matter, asked) any of the men if they were circumcised.

So what is the answer? Well, the point of the question was that because there is no temple in Jerusalem, there can be no sacrifice. In fact, this is why Jews do NOT eat lamb at Passover. So, if there is no sacrificial lamb being shared, does that mean the Seder, itself, is not “officially” a Seder?

Is the Seder a reflection or proxy of the real thing, which we can’t have until the Third Temple is built and the sacrificial system is reinstated?

I don’t know, but it is an interesting point.

Let’s try something…let’s try to combine the reading for today with this issue of “If no temple, then no sacrifice; ergo, Seder rules are suspended”.

God allowed for the continuance of the Pesach rules for those who were ineligible for the Seder on the commanded date. They were still required to celebrate it but at the same time the following month. To me, this means that God is open to allowing some form of dispensation to those whose hearts want to obey, but who are physically unable to do so.

If this is true, then because the Seder is not in complete compliance, in that we are not eating a sacrificed lamb, then maybe, just maybe, God is willing to allow dispensation to those who are not circumcised physically, but who’s hearts are willing to obey, to partake in these “pseudo” Seders?

I can’t say for sure, and if anyone wanted to really say one or the other, I would have to say go with what God said, exactly. You cannot go wrong if you do just as God says to do.

God has stated he wants circumcised hearts, as early as in Deuteronomy 10:16, and Shaul repeats this with regard to grace through Yeshua in Romans 2:25 and Colossians 2:10. In Acts 15, the letter from the Elders in Jerusalem that gave only four immediate requirements for the new Gentile Believers, who were for all intents and purposes converting from paganism to Judaism, did not specify circumcision.

In Galatians, Shaul verbally castrates the “Judaizers” (who were Jewish Believers in Messiah) when they insisted that new Gentile Believers make an immediate and total conversion to Judaism, and get circumcised right away, otherwise they can not be saved.

So it seems that those who have accepted Yeshua as their Messiah and were not circumcised physically but are circumcised spiritually may be accepted as an Israelite.

Now let’s see how today’s reading ties in with what we just went over:

• God allowed those who were physically ineligible to celebrate when they were once more physically eligible;
• Under the Grace we receive through Messiah Yeshua, those who are not physically circumcised have been spiritually circumcised;
• The Seder we celebrate is not eligible to be the Seder commanded by God because there is no sacrificed lamb to eat;
• Therefore, the Seder we celebrate as a physical meal is really a spiritual celebration.

So if the Seder we celebrate is essentially a spiritual event, then doesn’t it make sense that those who are spiritually circumcised would be eligible?

I hope so.

I pray that when Donna and I share our Seder with anyone who may be uncircumcised that God grants dispensation to us if we are doing wrong if, for no other reason, because our heart’s desire is to share his Grace and the truth about his Messiah with everyone.

As for you, if you also like to share your Seder with others, it is up to you to decide if you will require all the men to “drop trow” in order to see if they qualify.

That’s not going to be something I do because I believe, since the meal we eat on Passover is a spiritual Seder, that physical circumcision is not required.

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That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and Shabbat Shalom!

These last chapters complete not just the detailed narrative of the building of the Tabernacle, but the book of Exodus, as well. And, as you may have noticed, this Shabbat we have a double parashah.

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The details of the Tabernacle,. from the itemization of the articles to the size and breadth of the coverings, to the number of support beams, is exacting. We are told about every single item in such detail that it is almost easy to picture them in our minds.

Moses asks the people to voluntarily give the materials needed, and they give so willingly that he later has to tell them to stop because they gave so much more than was needed. The workers were also volunteers, and God gave divine wisdom to them in order that they could perform all the work required.
Once everything was done and put in place, Moses saw that the people had done everything, just as God said, and he blessed them.

The book ends with the Tabernacle completely put together, and God’s shekinah so filling the tent that Moses could not even enter it.

And when we come to the end of a Torah book, we say:

הזק חזק ונת חזק

(Be strong, be strong, and let us be strengthened)

Every time I read these last chapters of Exodus, and drag myself (sorry, but that’s the truth) through every, single, exacting detail of the Tabernacle, I always wonder why such a detailed listing? Why do we need to know exactly how many beams, how many footings for the beams, how many rings in the curtains, etc.? Will knowing this help me to become saved? Will knowing the exact number of pomegranates that were attached to the Cohan Gadol’s robe secure my place in heaven?

Obviously, not. So why do we have to know this? And while we’re at it, why do we have to know such exacting details in Ezekiel and Revelation when the temple is measured?

If you think that now I will give you the answer, well…you’re wrong. I don’t have an answer: that’s why I keep wondering about it. DUH!

But I do know one thing, and that is this: it is there for a reason.

Just because I don’t know what that reason is, doesn’t mean there isn’t one, and my acceptance of this condition, i.e. I have no idea why but I know it is for a reason, is what we call faith.

Maybe one day, who knows? I might read this and find some divine revelation in the numbers that are there. Now don’t get me wrong- I do not believe that Numerology is a legitimate form of biblical exegesis, but I do recognize that God often plays around with words and numbers, so there can be a meaningful message somewhere in all these details. I just don’t see it, yet.

And the reason I said I don’t see it, yet, is because I will not allow my not understanding today to interfere with trusting that one day I will understand. It may not be until I am dead and resurrected, at which time it probably won’t matter to me, but in any event, I will know. Someday.

And until then, I will keep reading it, no matter how boring or tedious it feels at the time. And yes, I confess, there are things in the Bible I find a little tedious to get through, but I read them, anyway. It comes back to that faith thing, trusting that one day God will reveal to me whatever message he has in there because he wouldn’t have put it there if it didn’t mean something.

And that is all we need to know.

That which is referred to as The Word of God– the Bible- is not entirely the words God said. In fact, the places where God actually speaks directly to the people are mainly in Exodus and Leviticus. Throughout these books we read at the beginning of almost every new chapter the words, “And God spoke to Moses, saying…”, indicating that what Moses then relates to the people are the exact words from God. We also read God’s direct words in the books of the prophets, where he tells the prophet exactly what to say to the people. Almost everywhere else we read where people relate that which God has said in the Torah. The New Covenant has absolutely no direct instructions from God, other than in Matthew 17 when he speaks at the transformation on the mountain and tells the Apostles with Yeshua to listen to him. That’s it!

Everything else in the New Covenant, especially the Epistles from Shaul to his congregations of newly converting Gentiles, is a person relating what God said in the Tanakh, but it is not God speaking.

Faithful trusting is demonstrated by accepting that you won’t understand everything in the Bible, not now and maybe never, but knowing what is in there, especially where God himself is talking, is important.

So, nu… if you have been raised as a Christian and found your biblical training mainly within the New Covenant, you really need to consider giving the “New” a rest and getting into the “Old” for a while because that is not just the word of God, but the only place you will find the very words FROM God!

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That’s it for this week; l’hitraot and Shabbat Shalom!

Moses is still on the mountain, Mount Horeb (also called Sinai) and God continues to give Moses instructions regarding the Tent of Meeting. He instructs him about the laver, the spices to be used, and that Bezalel and Oholiab will be in charge of the workers because of the skills God has given them.

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The people below, wondering what has happened to Moses, begin to lose faith and revert to their Egyptian ways. They command Aaron to make a golden calf for them, and after he does they revel in sinful and sexually perverted activities, acting as pagans do.

God tells Moses about this and that he will do away with them, but Moses intercedes for the people, arguing with God (nicely, of course) that if God destroys them now, the surrounding nations will think God did that because he wasn’t able to keep his promise to bring them to Canaan. God relents, but when Moses sees the revelry, he becomes so angry that he breaks the tablets God had given him and grinds the calf into dust, places it in water, and makes the people drink the water.

Aaron gives Moses some lame excuse that he didn’t really make the calf, it just sort of came out of the fire. Personally, I don’t think Moses believed that not even for a second.

Moses calls on whoever is for the Lord to gird on their swords and kill the sinners, and the tribe of Levi immediately comes to Moses’ call and slew some three thousand of the people.

Moses went back up the mountain to plead with God, who said he would not travel with the people. When Moses related that to the people, they all felt shame and repented by removing their ornaments.

Moses convinces God that he needs to travel with the people, and then asks God to show him (Moses) God’s glory, to which God agrees to show his back, but no man can see God’s face and live.

As God covers Moses’ face with his hand, he passes by and proclaims himself, which we call the 13 Attributes of God.

Finally, Moses goes back up on the mountain for another 40 days and nights. God inscribes the 10 Words on a new set of tablets, and when Moses comes off the mountain to relate God’s commands, his face is shining. From this point on, Moses would wear a veil in the camp, but remove it when he met with God.

The sin of the Golden Calf is one of those Bible stories that is never told enough times, the lesson being so important, but I am not going to talk about that today.

What I want to talk about is Exodus 34:5 – 7 (CJB):

Adonai descended in the cloud, stood with him there and pronounced the name of Adonai. Adonai passed before him and proclaimed: “YUD-HEH-VAV-HEH!!! Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh [Adonai] is God, merciful and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in grace and truth;  showing grace to the thousandth generation, forgiving offenses, crimes and sins; yet not exonerating the guilty, but causing the negative effects of the parents’ offenses to be experienced by their children and grandchildren, and even by the third and fourth generations.”

These are called the 13 Attributes of God, and this is what God told Moses about himself when Moses asked to see his glory, meaning who he is.

I have a clear and simple message for us today based on this proclamation, and that message is that we don’t need to know anything more about God then what he told Moses about himself.

Yeshua told us to come to him as little children (Matthew 19:14), and most of the people I have read or heard agree that this means to be faithful. Little children accept what they are told, and even though (if you’re a parent, you know this well) they ask “why” continuously, they never ask, “How can I be sure you’re right about that?” They trust that what you tell them is what it is.

I have been studying about God for over 25 years, and the one thing I have learned that I believe is most important is that I don’t have to know anything more about God than what he says I need to know. These attributes of God are included in the Torah so that we know what to expect from God, and that is what God wants us to know. I am sure there is much more to God than what he told Moses, but since these are all he said, these are all we need to know.

Humans are a curious animal, and I am sure that God, being our creator, isn’t surprised about this. But as I learned in the military, despite how important something may be, there is not just access to the information (which would be your security clearance) but there is also a need to know, meaning you may have a Top Secret clearance, but that doesn’t mean you can look at anything that is rated Top Secret. If it isn’t something that you are directly involved in, you don’t need to know about it.

How does this fit in with today’s message?

I am sure, in my own mind, that there is a lot more to God than just these 13 aspects of his personality. But because I want to come to God with the childlike faith that Yeshua was talking about, I am not going to interrogate God or study his word to try to understand him or why he does what he does. To me, this is a problem with many people who zealously want to know all about God: there is a difference between studying God’s word to know him better and studying God’s word to understand him and why he does what he does. Again, for ME, there is a fine line between unquestioning acceptance and the need for “proof” through understanding why.

Why can’t we eat pork? Why is there a showbread that no one eats until it is a week old and inedible? Why can’t we have two threads together? Why? Why? Why?

Don’t get me wrong- I am not saying we should never ask God why or study the Bible, but what is wrong, in my opinion (for whatever that means to anyone) is when we try to figure it out so that we can understand why. I read a long time ago that any God who can be understood by the mind of Man is not worthy of the worship of Man. I believe that makes a lot of sense because to be on the same “level” as God, wouldn’t we have to be a god? And, therefore, trying to be on his level is a form of blasphemy, isn’t it? Saying that any one of us could be the same as God?

I will never stop reading the Bible, and each time I read it I get a better sense of God. I have seen “between the lines” and had revelations of the deeper meaning, the Remes, of what God says in the Bible. I believe this understanding is from God, given to me through the indwelling Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit) and which I would never have understood before. In fact, there have been passages I have read dozens of times, but then suddenly reading it one more time, I see something in there I never saw before that makes my understanding of God even deeper.

But I never ask God to prove why we should do what he says we should, and that is the important difference between wanting to know God better, and wanting to know what God knows.

Even though it may seem fine to some to try to figure out why God gave us his commandments, I think that it is no different than asking God to prove to us why we should do as he says to do. A child asks why, and then accepts the answer without asking to prove it to be so, and when God tells us this is what we should do, if we begin to try to understand why he says that, to me, it is no different than saying, “Convince me why I should!”

God is above everything we could ever know or understand, and as such, if we can’t be faithfully trusting that what he says is what we should do without asking for proof, then I believe we are being disrespectful.

And that is not the childlike faith Yeshua said we need to have.

Thank you for being here, please subscribe, share these messages and I always welcome your comments.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and Shabbat Shalom!