Tag: parashah

Parashah Behar (Mount) Leviticus 25-26:2

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Even though the English title is “Mount”, the translated Hebrew text is ,”And the Lord spoke to Moses IN Mount Sinai, saying:…”. I just wanted to point this out because I think it is interesting that from Moses’s view (since he wrote this) he wasn’t on the mountain, but inside it. Perhaps there was a cave or a sheltered area God provided for Moses? After all, he was there for 40 days and nights, and to provide a sheltered area for him to sleep and be comfortable in would have been the least God could have done, right?.

This parashah is all about Sabbath for the land and Jubilee Year. Just as we rest from our work every 7th day, the land rests every 7th year. And every 7th year of years (in other words, the beginning of every 50th year) there is a Jubilee Year. In that year all people and property revert to their God-given owners.

I say “God-given owners” because Joshua divvied-up the land among the 9 1/2 Tribes (remember that Gad, Reuben, and the 1/2 tribe of Manasseh settled on east side of the Jordan) after they had conquered Canaan. Because the land was divided among the tribe by lot, meaning God ordered who got what, clearly it was “God-given.”

In the 50th year, on the 10th day of Tishri, which God declared as the Day of Trumpets (known today as Rosh Hashannah) the Jubilee Year begins, although it isn’t officially announced until Yom Kippur.  In the Jubilee Year all property reverts to the original owner, and all slaves are set free. There are also rules regarding how to pro-rate the value of the lands and slavery work results so that when Jubilee Year comes the people who were buying back or selling back would receive a fair value.

Let’s start with the Sabbath year for the land. The law about leaving the land untouched for an entire year means that in the 6th year you would need to have enough produce to be able to sustain your family and all your possessions (animals and slaves) for three years: the 7th year you wouldn’t be farming or planting, you would be living off what was done from the 6th year harvest. Then, in the the 8th year,  you would have to plant, and you wouldn’t see that harvest until the 9th year.  So the 6th, 7th and 8th years you are living off the 6th year harvest. Now, God promises that He will provide enough for 3 years in the 6th year, so obeying His 7th year Sabbath commandment is the same test of faith He gave us in the desert. Back then, we were to gather one day’s worth of manna for 5 days, and on the 6th day we were to gather enough to last through the Sabbath, because no manna came down on the 7th day. If you gathered more than you were supposed to, the manna turned bad overnight, but what was gathered on the 6th day stayed good for 2 days. This miracle from God, which He had provided to His people for 40 years in the desert, would be applied to the Jews living in the Land, as well.

From what we read in the Tanakh, though, it appears the commandment regarding the Sabbath yer for the land was rarely obeyed. Ezekiel mentions it as one of the reasons for the upcoming destruction, and in the next Parashah (Leviticus 26:32-35), where God tells us all the punishments He will bring upon us for disobedience, He warns us about what will happen if we disobey giving the land it’s Sabbath year:

I myself will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who live there will be appalled.  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.  All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not have during the sabbaths you lived in it.

The letter Jeremiah wrote to the Israelites in captivity in Babylon (Jeremiah 29) he says that the captivity will last 70 years, which would indicate that the land had not had it’s Sabbath rest for nearly 490 years prior to the Babylonian exile.

We have been given free will to choose what we will do, and when it comes to our relationship with God, that free will allows us to find peace and joy forever, or to turn from God, disobey and ruin our eternity. God will help and direct us to make the right decision, but He will not force us to accept it. The people had seen His provision for 40 years in the desert, and also the miraculous salvation from enemies He provided throughout the times of the Judges; even after we sinned by asking for a king, God still provided for those kings that were righteous before Him. All this provision, all these miraculous events, have been passed down in the oral history (the Tanakh was not completed until, at the earliest, 450 BCE, although it may have not been until much later, around 140-116 BCE- scholars can’t agree) and was known by all the people living in the Land, well before Jeremiah’s time.  And today we have even more evidence of God’s provision, most importantly the evidence of Messiah, Yeshua.

Yet, we still disobey, we still ignore, we still reject (as a people) God and His commandments. Oy! And worse, still: many, if not most, are not even repentant! They make excuses and give justification (from a human viewpoint) for their disobedience. When we make excuses instead of asking for forgiveness, we are not repentant. And lack of repentance means that the forgiveness we ask for will not be given. God is wonderfully merciful, but He isn’t stupid: if you don’t really feel sorry and rueful for the sin you commit, I believe you can ask all you want, call on Yeshua, jump up and down and recite the Torah backwards, but it won’t help.

God doesn’t care about what we do to be forgiven, He cares about how we feel when we ask for forgiveness:

1 Samuel 15:22– Samuel said, “Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.

Psalm 51:17– The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.

God wants us to repent of our sins, not just go through the motions of asking for forgiveness without truly being repentant.

To pull it all together, we need to be aware that God will provide for us when we obey, and when we reject Him and His good laws, He will make sure that what He wants done will be done, from anything as simple as withholding blessings, as to complete desolation of our land.

God’s will WILL be done, one way or another; I don’t want to speak for you, but as for me, well, I want to be in God’s will as much as possible. Being outside His will is not a good place to be.

Parashot Acharey / Kedoshim (after the death / holy) Leviticus 16-20

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This double Parashah deals with the rules regarding Yom Kippur, then gives us regulations and commandments regarding appropriate inter-personal relationships, such as moral standards against incest, adultery, and homosexuality (to name a few.)

Of all the laws and commandments, rules and regulations within these chapters of the Torah, the most important (and maybe best known) is Leviticus 19:18:

” Thou shalt not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of the people, but shall love thy neighbor as thyself: I am the Lord”

This one statement is the foundation for three of the most important teachings of Yeshua:

  1. To not take vengeance is in accordance with Yeshua’s teaching that we should turn the other cheek;
  2. To not bear a grudge is what Yeshua taught us when He said to leave our sacrifice at the alter and first make things right with our brother if there is any animosity between us;
  3. To love they neighbor as thyself is, clearly, the Golden Rule.

Here we have the basis for nearly every moral law and action we need in order to become Kadosh, holy, as God is holy.

I have read articles and seen TV shows that try to degrade the value of these moral and ethical laws, saying they weren’t originally from God because they existed in other, older civilizations. Maybe they did, maybe they didn’t- it would seem likely they were already being practiced by others, to some degree, because they are so basic to civilized living. But no where else had there been a written set of laws that were so humane regarding how people should treat each other, whether in inter-personal relationships or under a penal code.

Today some of these laws are questioned, even rejected, by society. We are told some are misogynistic, some are racist, some are hateful (this is usually used against the laws against homosexuality) and some are outdated.

Outdated? Since when did morality and ethical treatment of each other become outdated? Well, you know, maybe they’re right: when I read the papers or hear the news, whether local or international, it seems that society’s morality and ethics are being defined by those that have none. The way God wants us to act towards each other isn’t the way the world wants us to act.

Despite the many good laws still on the books, how many loopholes are there now that allow lawbreakers to go free, or barely suffer for their crimes? And when they do go to jail, instead of being given a chance to repent, they are just receiving a higher education in criminality. A person may go to jail as a beginner, but he or she can come out with a PhD in crime, learning from the experienced criminals that are already there.

Yeshua told us how to be holy: love God and love each other. That isn’t always easy; in fact, sometimes it seems darn near impossible! But we can get better at doing this as we keep trying.  Maybe that is what makes us holy? trying to do what God wants instead of not even caring what He wants.  Being holy isn’t having an aura around you, or a halo over your head- it simply means being separated. The world doesn’t care what God wants, so if we care, and demonstrate that care through our words and actions, then (by definition) we are holy. And the more we do, the better we get at it, and the holier we become.

That’s the ticket- care about what God wants, and care more for what He wants than for what the world, or even you, want. If we can do that, all these morale and ethical rules and regulations will automatically fall into place for us.

That’s what Yeshua meant in the second part of His teaching: love God and each other, for on that pivots all the Prophets and the Writings.

Parashah Thazria / Metzora Leviticus 12 – 15

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Because leap year affects the weekly cycle of reading, some parashot are doubled, as with this weekly reading, when it is necessary to bring the Gregorian and Hebrew calendars into sync. 

These chapters deal, in quite extensive detail, with cleanliness. We are given the instructions regarding what a woman, who becomes unclean from the actions of giving birth and also from her time of Nidah (menstruation), must do (and when) in order to be considered clean again. This is more than just a physical cleansing- it is to become ceremonially clean, which would allow her to re-enter the camp and worship at the Sanctuary. We are also given the regulations regarding leprosy, in the Hebrew called  T’zaraat, whether on a person or in clothing or even in the plaster of the house. The rules we are given tell us how to identify what is  T’zaraat and what is not, what to do if decreed to be T’zaraat, and how to determine when it is cured. 

People always have to know why something is what it is. Maybe that is just part of the intelligence God gave us when He separated us from the animals. Sometimes I wonder if that was such a good idea. Why do I say that? Because we use, or maybe misuse, our intelligence to try to understand God, and in doing so we are trying to raise ourselves to His level. Remember Babel? 

There are many good, hygienic reasons for these cleanliness laws. It is credited to John Wesley to have first said, “Cleanliness is next to Godliness”, which indicates that to be holy is more than how we act, it is also what we are, physically. There are also many good reasons to avoid unclean people, mainly (the obvious one) so that you don’t catch what they have. No one can argue that is a good thing. My personal pet-peeve about questioning the reason for these laws, in fact, any of God’s laws, is that we should simply acknowledge and faithfully accept that God is God, and He wouldn’t do or command anything that is anything but good for us. We should all, like a trusting child, accept what God says as what we must do. Period. No “why”, no “It must be for this reason..”, no nuttin! You want a good reason to do what God says? Here it is: because He’s God, and you aren’t! And if that isn’t good enough for you, then you need to work on your faith. 

My concern is that I have noted (maybe you have, too) that when people understand something, they tend to reduce it’s importance, and don’t consider it as miraculous anymore. We can read the human genome, so we now think only what we can do with it, and ignore the fact that learning how to read it and understanding how it works, is a far, far way from having created it from nothing. DNA is a unbelievable miracle, yet it is just a series of small blocks on a gel-backed film to most scientists and people, today. 

I am often asked why I keep Kosher (I don’t keep Kosher according to the Rabbinical laws in Talmud, only according to Leviticus 11) and I say, simply, because that is what God told me to do. I am not some wonderfully faithful holy man, I am far from that, but I do appreciate God’s love and I respect His authority. I also trust God to know what is best for me, much better than I would ever know for myself, and as such I obey as much of the Torah as I can.  This is all the reason I need to want to obey- God says to do it, so I do it; it comes from respect for who and what He is, trust in His desire to do good for me, and as a love-response for all He has already done for me. 

If you need more than that, I respectfully suggest you work more on your faithful trusting in, and respect for, God. And, while you’re at it, turn down the volume on your Ego.

We don’t need to understand to be obedient. 

In Deuteronomy 28 God tells us when we obey His Torah we receive blessings, and when we disobey, we receive curses. I believe that because we live in a cursed world, the curses are already here, so God is not actively cursing us; His blessings are what protects us from the cursed world; therefore, when we don’t receive blessings, we are exposed to the curses. God’s blessings protect us from the world we are in, and when we obey God we receive those blessings.

So, if you absolutely, positively need to have some reason for obeying Torah, this is it:  obey God’s commands so that you can constantly receive blessings.

 

 

Parashah Shemini (Eighth Day) Leviticus 9 – 11

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We pick up from the last parashah with the Priests completing the 7 days of consecration, and today they finalize the ceremony with a sin offering, a burnt offering and a peace offering. That is the proper order: first, be cleansed of sin so you can approach God; next, show total obedience and worship of God; lastly, enter into His presence in peace and thanksgiving.

Then Aaron’s two oldest sons, Abihu and Nadab, thought they could just go ahead and offer their own fire before the Lord, ignoring the rules and (according to some Rabbinic thought) coming to the Sanctuary drunk (DUI– davening under the influence.) This sin was immediately addressed by God, who sent fire to destroy them. 

The next chapter, Chapter 11, is the chapter that outlines the laws of Kashrut: the Kosher regulations. 

I do not eat pork or shellfish, or any of the other animals mentioned as unclean, yet I will have meat and dairy together (I LOVE cheeseburgers.) I don’t keep Kosher according to the rules the Rabbi’s have stipulated in the Talmud, but I do keep kosher according to the Bible’s rules.  God tells us what He wants us to do, and we should do that. As Moses says, it isn’t too hard to do, it isn’t so far we can’t reach it, but religious leaders have historically placed a heavier yoke on us.

The Rabbi’s mean well. Their basic motivation is that we don’t want to trespass (violate) God’s word, so since we are weak and foolish, let’s put a “fence” around the law so we can’t cross over it, even by accident. Of course, being Jewish, we need to point out that maybe I can fall over the fence, so let’s put another fence around the first fence, because I can’t accidentally trespass both fences. Oh, wait- maybe my car brakes fail, and I run through the second fence, then when I get out to see the damage to my fender, in shock I fall back and stumble over the first fence…it could happen. Oy- OK, so let’s put a third fence around the second fence, which protects the first fence which is there to keep us from trespassing God’s law.

Maybe I was driving a truck? If I was driving a truck, it might be going so fast, and it’s so big, that it goes through two fences, and then….get the idea? It never stops, so today we have Kashrut laws that say we need three sets of dishes, cups and silverware, a Rabbi to observe the slaughter and preparation of commercially prepared Kosher foods, and so many other rules of Halacha (the Way to Walk) in the Talmud that the yoke is overwhelming.  

I could write an entire book on the way Kashrut is misunderstood by both Jews and Gentiles, whether “Believers” or not. The B’rit Chadasha (New Covenant) writings in Acts and the Gospel of Mark have references that have historically been used as a polemic against Kosher laws, but when taken in context (both grammatically and historically) they have nothing to do, whatsoever, with kashrut ( for a detailed explanation please buy my book, Back to Basics: God’s Word vs. Religion because there is an entire chapter devoted to this misunderstanding.)

Let me make a simple statement regarding the regulations of Kashrut stipulated in this parashah: they are still as valid today for everyone who worships the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as they were the day God first gave them to Moses. Like it or not, that is the truth. In the Torah, every law, regulation, commandment, and even the suggestions (just kidding- God never suggests, He commands) are valid for everyone in the world.

The Torah is not just for Jews: it was just given to the Jews, in order that they may live it as an example to everyone else how God wants everyone else to live.   

If we obey the Lord, we get blessed (Deuteronomy 28);  Yeshua (Jesus) did not change the law, and certainly did not give anyone permission to ignore the commandments in the Torah. If you worship God, then you are subject to Torah. If you are one of the millions upon millions over the millennia who have been taught to worship Jesus- not the real Jesus but the one Constantine created- then you are told Torah is for Jews and you are OK ’cause Jesus has got your back. Sorry to burst your bubble, but (as the song goes), it ain’t necessarily so. 

There are so many things that humans have done to make worshiping God so much more difficult than what God told us to do. Even if we give the benefit of the doubt, and assume that these regulations and rites and rituals are all designed to honor God, still and all, they just get in the way of pure worship. I find it so disheartening that the Elders in Jerusalem correctly realized that putting too much on the new converts to Judaism (colloquially called the “early church”) was not right, yet three centuries or so later, the Council of Nicene destroyed any semblance of proper worship by totally separating the (now called) Christians from their Jewish roots, and since then have created so many rituals, regulations and requirements that Christianity today isn’t even what they started with back then. What a shame. 

So, nu? What’s my point? My point is the same one I make over and over, and over- before you accept what anyone says about anything dealing with God, check it out yourself by reading the Bible and asking God to direct your understanding. Everything you do, or don’t do, is a decision that you will be held accountable for; so, whichever way you worship God, please make sure it is your choice based on your own understanding and not just what someone else told you you should do.  

Parashah V’yikra (And He called…) Leviticus 1-5:26

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We begin the second book of the Pentateuch with the regulations regarding the offering of a sacrifice for atonement of sin.

Now that the Sanctuary has been completed and is in service (end of Exodus), the use of the altar and initiation of the sacrificial system is to begin. The animals allowed to be used as sacrifice are domestic animals which are clean (which will be identified later in Chapter 11, although even in Noah’s time it was already known which were clean and unclean; see Genesis 7:2.) Wild animals were not allowed because they cost the person nothing, and unclean animals were not allowed because they were, well…unclean. Also any animal that kills other animals is unacceptable, or if the animal had killed someone, such as if a bull had gored someone to death, even if it is a “clean” animal it would now be unfit to be used as a sacrifice.

God gives Moses the instructions for the burnt offering (the entire animal is burnt to demonstrate total devotion to God), thanksgiving offering, sin offering, and guilt offering.

The sin and guilt offerings are both for having sinned against God (all sins are sins directly against God, no matter who we actually sin against in our personal relationships), but the sin sacrifice was more specifically for sins such as false witnessing, becoming impure, failing to perform an oath, or failing to do as God has prescribed. The guilt offering was for sins against any of the holy things of the Sanctuary, whether intentional or not.

In all the sacrifices God has made provision for the poor, in that they are allowed to offer an animal that is in accordance with their ability to pay, i.e. a wealthy person would be required to bring a bull, whereas a poor person would be allowed to sacrifice doves or grain.

I think the way the sacrificial system works has been one of the most misunderstood things in the bible, and that is frightening when we consider that our very salvation is rooted in this system. The sacrifice was made to cleanse us of the sin we have committed, and when we sin again, we need to confess, ask forgiveness and offer the sacrifice in order to be forgiven. Most people “get” that, with regards to the Old Covenant system, but don’t really see how it relates to Yeshua’s (Jesus) sacrifice.

Under the old system, God commanded the sacrifice had to be made at the entrance to the Sanctuary, and later at the Temple in Jerusalem. After the Temple was completely destroyed by the Romans in or around 73 AD, there was no longer the opportunity to be forgiven. Imagine how devastating that was to the Jewish community! For those who have accepted Yeshua as their Messiah (back then as now), the need to bring the sacrifice to the Temple was no longer necessary because Yeshua’s sacrifice was a once-and-for-all sacrifice.

Here’s where it gets all screwed up: many Christian religions have been teaching that Yeshua did away with the sacrificial system and that we are now made clean by His blood, which is true, but they imply that there is nothing else that needs to be done. This is not true- you still need to try not to sin, to do T’shuvah (turn) from your sinful activities, and continually ask for forgiveness because the forgiveness of sin is available, but it is not given until the sin is confessed and forgiveness requested.

The sacrificial system is a threefold process:

  1. You come before the Lord and confess your sin;
  2. You offer the sacrifice;
  3. You ask for forgiveness, and to be made clean, through the shedding of the blood that you have just presented before the Lord.

The only part of this that Yeshua completed already is the second step- the sacrifice- but we still have to recognize and confess our sins, and ask for forgiveness by means of the blood of  Yeshua.

Don’t be suckered into the teaching that because of Yeshua you are clean forever- you can be, but you aren’t: you still have to confess your sin and ask forgiveness. Forgiveness through Yeshua is available for the asking, but it is not automatically given. That is what much of Christianity teaches, that you are automatically cleansed before the Lord by means of Yeshua’s sacrifice…..WRONG!!

You are not cleansed until you confess your sin, do T’shuvah (repent), and ask to be cleansed.

The sacrificial system is still in effect, only modified by Yeshua, in that now we do not have to take our sacrifice to the Temple in Jerusalem. We still have to confess, repent and ask forgiveness.

As I said above, and I feel it is so important to remember: Yeshua made forgiveness available for all, and for all time, but it is not given automatically.

Parashot Vayak’hel/Pekudei (He gathered/Countings) Exodus 35:1 – 40:35

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In order to be in alignment with the Gregorian calendar, some Torah readings are doubled, as in the case of these last 6 chapters of Exodus. This dual parashah (hence, Parashot in the title) minutely details the finalization of the building of the Sanctuary. We are told that the people, who just committed the terrible sin of the Golden Calf, have now turned their hearts back to God. They give the necessary materials for building the Sanctuary (cloth, skins, precious gems and metals, etc.) with so much generosity and zeal that the workers have to ask Moses to command that the people stop bringing these items, as there is far too much material for the workers to use.

The manufacture of the separate parts of the Sanctuary is completed, and God decrees that it be assembled on the first day of the first month, which is the first of Aviv (now called Nissan), the spiritual New Year. After erecting the Sanctuary, Moses anoints the building, the items in it and the Priests. After doing so, God’s Shekinah glory so fills the tent that even Moses is not able to go inside. From that moment on, the cloud stays over the tent to show that God is ever-present (during the day it was cloud, and at night the cloud was filled with fire. Imagine how awesome that must have looked!), and when the cloud was withdrawn, it went ahead of the Israelites to lead them to their next destination.

In Chapter 39, verse 42 we are told that when Moses inspected all the work the people had done, he saw that they had done everything God commanded, exactly as God had commanded them to do. Then Moses blessed them.

To me this is a very important statement, that not only had the people done all that God said should be done, but they did it as God had told them to do it– not how they thought it should look, not with whatever materials they wanted to use, or with colors they preferred, but they did it all, just as they were commanded.

Are we like that today? In my opinion, we are far from that. Look at all the different ways we have created to worship God: all the different religions, rites and regulations not found anywhere in the Scriptures. Even within Judaism, we have Chasidic, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and Messianic sects. Yes, all read the Torah but all do not follow the commandments the same way. Yes, all are “Jews” but the Messianic Jews are not considered Jews by the other “mainstream” sects, and from some Chasidic viewpoints, they don’t even consider the Orthodox as real Jews because they are more relaxed in their observances.

As anyone who reads this blog knows, my message to the world is this: God has no religion! People have created religions, and each one worships differently than the other, so by definition we can’t be at the same place the Children of Israel were when the Sanctuary was built- we are not all doing what God said we should, exactly the way He said it should be done. Not one of us.

Some are closer than others, and (I am not being prejudicial here) the Jews are the closest of all, mainly because their foundation for worship is based solely on the Torah. Most Christian religions have their foundation built upon the writings of the New Covenant, and they (again, not meaning to be unfair or judgmental) for the most part ignore the Torah. Funny thing, though, is that they don’t realize there is nothing in the New Covenant that is different from the Old Covenant; in truth, everything Yeshua (Jesus) taught is solely from the Tanakh (entire Old Covenant) because that was the only Word of God that existed.

God gave the Torah, through Moses, to the Jewish people in order for them to do as God wants us all to do- they were supposed to show the world how we all are to behave. God called the nation of Israel to be a nation of Priests and, as such, examples to the rest of the world regarding how to worship Him and how to treat each other. Torah was given to the Jews, but it is for the whole world.

The Tanakh (the Old Covenant) is sort of a “Torah 101” class for the world.

A few millennia later, along comes Yeshua, the Son of God and Messiah to the world. He is sent to the Jewish people because they are God’s Chosen nation, and have already had the prerequisite class, Torah 101. Now, it is time for Yeshua to teach the advanced class, Torah 202. Since this was an advanced class, everything He taught was based on the previous teachings. He goes beyond just teaching Torah by using the entire Tanakh to demonstrate who He is and to instruct the Jewish people so they can have a more advanced understanding of Torah. The Jewish people knew the P’Shat, the written words, of the Torah but did not understand the deeper meanings; Yeshua taught the Remez and Drash of the Torah (for a detailed description of Torah exegesis, click here: Pardes), which is why He used parables and riddles.

You see, Yeshua wanted to give the people a deeper understanding of what God was saying to them, and these lessons were very advanced. By using parables and riddles, which require deep thought to find and understand the answer, He was teaching them the tools they needed to be able to more completely understand the Bible. I think that is why Yeshua was surprised that after three years with Him, His own Disciples did not understand the meaning of many of His parables. Ultimately, as with His Disciples at that first Shavuot after His resurrection (Pentecost), it is after we have the Ruach Ha Kodesh, the Holy Spirit, within us that through that Spirit we can see the deepest meanings of God’s word.

Moses blessed the people for doing what God said to do, the way God said to do it. If Moses is willing to bless for doing as God said, think how much more willing God will be to bless for doing as He says! In fact, if you read Deuteronomy 28, you will get a detailed listing of all the blessings God will shower on you for acting in accordance with the Torah. But don’t stop there- read on to learn of all the T’souris (curses) you will suffer if you refuse to obey. God won’t really do all those bad things to you because that you get just for living in the cursed world we live in. God’s blessings are protection from the world, and we have that protection when we walk under His wings, i.e. obey His word in the way He said we should.

I am not saying that anyone who is not strictly in accordance with the Torah will go to Hell- no one can live strictly in accordance with the Torah, which is why we needed the Messiah! Duh! What I am saying is that God will send more blessings to you, the more you are in obedience to His instructions. Yeshua’s sacrifice covers our sin, but only when we are truly repentant of that sin; if you think that Yeshua died for your sins so you can live your life any-old-way you want to, you are in for a very unpleasant surprise!

It’s really simple: God gave the Torah to the Jews to show the world how to be. The closer we are to observing the Torah, the more blessed we will be; it should be no surprise that the converse is true, meaning that the further away we are from Torah observance, the less blessed we will be. Ignoring the Torah entirely will result in eternal damnation.

As with everything else, you need to make up your own mind: do you want to be more blessed, or less blessed?

Parashah Ki Tesa (when you take) Exodus 30:11 – 34

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Wow! This parashah is really full of such wonderful stuff: the formula for the incense, God giving the Torah to Moshe (twice, in fact), the sin of the Golden Calf, the sacrificial attitude of Moses, refusing to allow God to make a nation from himself so that the people survive (even asking God to blot him out with the people), Moses also begging God to travel with the people or leave them where they were, and finally we are told of the Divine attributes of God (in Judaism called the Imitation of God), which God, Himself, calls out as He passes by Moses.

With all of that, what shall I talk about today? None of it. I want to talk about something that is in-between the lines, something mentioned in the Chumash commentary but not mentioned directly in the Tanach.

What I am referring to is that when Moses left to go up the mountain to meet with the Lord, he left two people in charge (Exodus 24:14): Aaron and Hur. Aaron from the tribe of Levi and Hur from the tribe of Judah, yet when the story of the Golden Calf begins we only hear about Aaron. The Chumash explains the traditional belief is that Hur resisted the people’s wishes for an idol and was put to death by them. Seeing this, Aaron decided he better build the idol.

The Chumash states that Aaron’s deeds were not correct, but the “spin” they give is that he was stalling, hoping for Moses to come back in time to stop this. Another explanation is that Aaron was a man of peace, so seeing resistance as futile and fearing division within the tribes, he acquiesced to the demands of the people.

Really? So because Aaron was a man of peace, he ignored (in truth failed to perform) his duty as the Cohen HaGadol (High Priest) and rejected the commandments God gave the people so that they wouldn’t fight among themselves? Sounds more to me like Aaron was interested in saving his own skin. Clearly, the idea of being a martyr did not appeal to him, whereas Hur became the first martyr in the bible.

Sidebar: it is usually taught that Stephan was the the first martyr mentioned in the bible , but when you consider the (Merriam-Webster) definition of the word:

A person who voluntarily suffers death as the penalty of witnessing to and refusing to renounce a religion.

when we talk about the first martyr mentioned in the bible, it seems Hur should hold that distinction.

Here is what I see- Moses, representing God’s ideal government of both religious (prophet) and civil (king) authority in one position (which is what we will have under the rule of Messiah), goes to commune with the King of kings, and leaves two people in charge. One whose authority is religious (Aaron, from the tribe of the priesthood) and one whose authority is civil (Hur, from the tribe of Judah: remember that Judah will hold the scepter until Messiah/Shiloh comes, which was the blessing that Israel gave on his deathbed in Genesis 49:10.) This is a precursor of the times at the end of the Prophets, when a king was requested who would rule separately from the Prophets (1 Samuel 10), setting the standard of separation of church and state that still exists today.

The authority of the prophets comes directly from God, and the authority of the king comes from the people. Oh, yes, we read how God told the prophets who they should anoint, but we see later that the kings set themselves up more often than a prophet did. And today the political power of nearly every single nation is from human choice, not Divine announcement.

I believe that the bible shows us (starting in this parashah) that civil authority is what the people prefer, and yet the best authority is the one God grants. Whenever we listen to humans instead of God, we reject God and fall into sin, and when the religious authority succumbs to the civil (as Aaron did), all hell breaks loose. We see this happen throughout the bible, and yet we never seem to learn. Even today we still have rejected God- He has been taken out of our courts, out of our schools, and replaced with political correctness under a one world court called the United Nations.

The ideal government God designed is the one that the enemy of God, the Son of Perdition, will establish. That is why, I believe, it will be so powerful and will only fall to the Divine intervention of God. The prophet-king government, a Theocracy, is what God wants on earth. We had it under Moses, and the first time we tried to break it up (in this parashah) we see that the government failed to function.

For you and I what this means is that we need to decide who we will follow- God or Man? Yeshua (Jesus) tells us to give unto Caesar what is his, so we pay our taxes (correctly!) and obey the laws of the country and municipality. But what we see from our religious leaders today is coming more and more under a civil dictate than what God says: in both Jewish and Gentile places of worship we see not just allowing some members to remain members even after professing they are homosexual, but support of that lifestyle as acceptable. We see churches and synagogues presenting their position for or against candidates for office. I agree we should support those politicians that are god-fearing, but we are supposed to accept that God is in charge and He will put in authority whomever He chooses- our political choices should be secret. After all, isn’t the right to a secret ballot one of the most important rights we have fought for? If we have shed blood so that we can vote for someone in secret, why then do we go around violating that secrecy by announcing who we will vote for and (even worse!) demanding to know from others who they will vote for?

We are just so wrong in everything we do, yet we continue to do wrong even in the face of history and seeing, over and over and over….and over…how when we reject God’s path we walk into a pile of manure.

OY!!

Until we have that perfect, Divine government under Messiah, we will have to work within the political system we have. Historically, every attempt at returning to the Mosaic government has failed: the leaders of these attempts are called Dictators and Despots. That’s not the government God wants. So what we have to do is remember that we are to respect the government authority, and follow our leaders as long as they are following God’s design.

One day you may have to face that ultimate challenge, which is (essentially) to take the mark of the devil or refuse it; when that day comes, we all need to be ready to give our mortal life so that we can retain our immortal soul.

Parashah Tetzaveh (thou shalt command) Exodus 28:20 – 30:10

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This reading deals with the consecration of the Priesthood. It goes into great detail about the manufacture of the robes, breastplate, and how to consecrate the clothing, the person and the altar, including the altar for incense, with the blood of the sacrifice. The priests are consecrated for 7 days, as are the other items dealing with the priesthood.

Chapter 29, verse 5 talks about how to dress Aaron, who at that time was the Cohen haGadol (High Priest), in the garments designated for that office so he can officiate as the High Priest. In the Chumash (commentary on the Torah) it states that the Talmud explains this verse as meaning, “When the priests are clothed in their garments, the priesthood is upon them; when they are not clothed in their garments, their priesthood is not upon them.”  The Chumash adds that this Rabbinic dictum is to indicate that the priests are no different than anyone else, and only while they were officiating in their garments, in the Sanctuary, were they then distinct from the rest of Israel.

I have the utmost respect for the Rabbinic wisdom often found in the Talmud, although I don’t always respect everything that the Talmud says. In this case, when I read this Talmudic explanation, my spirit screamed out to me,”The clothes don’t make the man!”

There are other requirements for the priests, beside what they wear, and these have to do with the priests family life and personal character (Leviticus 21); there are similar requirements for anyone in a position of authority within the community, whether spiritual or legal. It is true the clothes are representative of the office, but the person in the clothes must be the same person, with the same character and piety, and demonstrate that separation, or holiness, whether they are clothed or naked.

Of course, the high priest shouldn’t be streaking through the neighborhood, but you know what I mean.

As Believers, we should be demonstrating our anointing as priests by acting and speaking in ways that show we have the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit of God, indwelling and leading us. Whether we are dressed “to the Nine’s” for a special service, or lounging around in our “civvies”, our actions, words and thoughts should be as holy as if we were standing before the altar in the Sanctuary, dressed in our ephod, wearing the breastplate and leading worship. And all those who have accepted Messiah, who worship God and honor the Torah are adopted children of Abraham (Galatians 3:29), and (as such) members of the nation of priests that God separated from the rest of the world to lead all the Goyim (nations) to salvation (Genesis 22:18; Exodus 19:6.)

It is true that the clothes do not make the man (or the woman), but they can be indicators of who and what they are; in the case of a military uniform, it tells us what rank that person holds, indicating thereby his or her level of authority, just as the policeman’s or fireman’s uniform indicates their authority and function. However, our real “priestly” uniform is not visible- the indicator of our spiritual rank is not able to be seen by humans, but it is highly visible to the demons of the enemy: they can see the Mark of Messiah on our foreheads. They know who we are, but since humans can’t see that insignia, we need to demonstrate who and what we are through our actions, or as the bible would say, by our fruits.

How well are you showing the fruits of your spirit? Shaul (Paul) tells us what they are in Galatians 5:22-23:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. 

I see today’s parashah lesson as this: there are clothes that indicate our level of authority within the community, whether it be the civil or spiritual community, but the person wearing those clothes should be the same person at all times. The official clothes should only be an outward statement of the inner being; we can wear albs and talitot (prayer shawls), collars and whatever “priestly” clothing that is expected of a person in a position of religious leadership, but what really matters is that people see our spiritual clothing, and that is shown in our deeds, our words and our lifestyles, how we treat our family and friends, and (maybe even more importantly) how we treat those who abuse and sin against us.

To use the same type of metaphor Shaul used in describing the armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18), each day put on a shirt of charity (which you would give to anyone in need), pants of humility (to show your willingness to serve others), shoes of justice (to guide your steps), wrap around your shoulders the talit of holiness (to show your observance of God’s authority in the world), and top it all off with the hat of  subservience (to show your total devotion to God.)

Now there’s a wardrobe that will never go out of style.

Parashah Terumah (donation), Exodus 25 – 27:19)

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From this point on, except for Chapters 32 through 34 (the sin of the Golden Calf) the remaining chapters of this book deal with the construction of the Tabernacle and the articles in it.

The Tabernacle is where God talks to Moses. His instructions were first to built the Ark, after the Ark (which is the holiest of all the items) the rest of the construction was done from that point outwards: the Ark, then the Holy of Holies, then the articles in the area where only the priests were allowed (only the Cohen haGadol, the High Priest, was allowed in the Holy of Holies, and only once a year on Yom Kippur), then the Court, etc., all the way to the main entrance at the far end of the court.

The materials used were of dyed linens, tanned hides, acacia wood, gold, silver and bronze. The people were asked to contribute from their personal stores, much of which they received from the Egyptians when they left Egypt (Exodus 12:36); so, in a way, Egypt helped make building the Tabernacle possible. The most valuable materials were the ones closest to the Holy of Holies, with the less valuable materials being used as the Tabernacle was being built outwards.

We have all heard or used the expressions, “Closer to God” and “Farther from God”, representing, clearly enough, one’s spiritual maturity and faithful obedience to God’s commands. When I think of how the Tabernacle was built, with the purest items items being closest to the center of the Tabernacle (where God was present), I see this as representing how we need to be in our worship life: in order for us to come closer to God, we must first become purer.

Gold and silver are metals unto themselves, bronze is an alloy of copper and tin, and each one needs to go through a firing process in order to remove the dross so it can be in it’s purest state; gold is purified using temperatures in excess of 1000 degrees Celsius, silver at about 800 degrees Celsius and bronze at a temperature between 230 and 630 degrees Celsius. The purer the metal, the higher the heat used to purify it.

I see people and their relationship to God similar to the way these metals are forged: the closer we want to come to God, the hotter the fire of purification will have to be. Yeshua tells us this when He tells us that anyone who wants to be His Disciple will have to carry His execution stake to follow Him (Matthew 16:24; Luke 9:23), so we are adequately warned that getting closer to God will not be easy. Consequently, as we are further from faithful obedience and fear of the Lord, we are more like the less pure metals- we will be forged, but at a lower heat. For those who may be no more spiritual than having some recognition of God, such as type who go to services during the High Holy Days only, or at Christmas and Easter, their “spiritual purity” is still full of dross and slag.

The dross is the sin inside of us: that is why, since sin is part of our nature and formed when we are formed, it must be burned out for us to be purified, separated from the world (sin) and brought closer to God.

Oy! That is a very hard word to hear. Basically, what I am saying is that the Tabernacle represents what we need to go through, spiritually and physically, when we decide to worship God as He wants us to do. We are all built with some copper, tin, silver and gold inside of us, and as we approach God, we will have the base metals separated, and the fine metals purified. This is done through Tsouris (suffering) in our lives. It sounds unfair, but that is what is needed. You can’t get rid of the dross without going through the fire, and the reason we do this is to be closer to God.

Even after we have been purified, we will still have Tsouris in our life. But as we become more purified we will be able to abide the suffering and stay focused on the reward we are all striving to receive: eternal joy and peace in the presence of God, Almighty.

I don’t mind going through the fire because I know what is on the other side.

What metal are you? Have you accepted your level of purity? Realistically, everyone wants to be gold but very few are willing to go through the fire, so if you really, really want to be gold, then here is what you need to do:

  1. Prepare yourself for troubles
  2. Read the entire bible (Genesis through Revelations) and accept that it is all one book, one God, one way to worship Him (His way) and that all the commandments, from beginning to end, are valid
  3. Accept that Yeshua is the Messiah God promised and ask for forgiveness of sin on your own, meaning that you ask for forgiveness from your heart and not because your Priest or your parents said you had to.
  4. Prepare for even more troubles and steel yourself (gird your loins) for a lifetime of rejection, problems, harassment and persecution.

Read Matthew 5:10, 1 Peter 4:12-19 and James 1:2– all of these verses warn us that we will be persecuted in Messiah’s name, but that it is a blessing we should all strive to achieve.

Doesn’t this sound crazy? I want to have the joy and peace of spirit that worshiping God can bring, which it does, but to get that I have to suffer. Sounds like the ultimate oxymoron- suffer persecution and hatred to have peace of mind and spirit. Huh?!?

But that’s how it works, and it does work. Ask anyone who you know to be devoted to God and they will tell you of all the problems they have had to undergo, but also of all the joy they have felt and blessings they have received from God. It sounds crazy, but that which the world thinks is right is usually the exact opposite of what is acceptable to God.

It’s all up to you- do you want to be bronze or gold? Your choice, your decision, your eternal future.

Parashah Yitro (Jethro) Exodus 18-20

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This parashah starts with the reunion of Moses to his wife and children, whom he had sent away while still in Egypt to be with her father, Jethro, the Priest of Midian. Now in the desert and with Egypt no longer a threat of any kind, Jethro brings Moses’ family back to him.

The next day, while watching Moses dispense justice all day long, Jethro suggests that Moses delegate his authority so that he, alone, doesn’t have to hear every single case. Moses accepts this advice and does as Jethro suggested.

Proverbs 12:1– “Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid.”

The rest of this section of Torah takes us to the mountain of God, Sinai (also known as Horeb) and the people are told to prepare to meet the Lord, who came down to the mountain in fire and smoke and gave us the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments.

Before reading the Torah, we recite this prayer:

Blessed art thou, oh Lord, our God, king of the Universe, who has chosen us from all peoples and given to us his Torah. Blessed art thou, oh Lord, giver of the Torah. 

And after we read from the Torah, we recite this prayer:

Blessed are thou, oh Lord our God, king of the universe, who has given us the Torah of truth, and placed everlasting life in our midst. Blessed art thou, oh Lord, giver of the Torah.

Why were the Jewish people granted this wonderful election- to be given the Torah, which provides everlasting life? The answer is simple: God loved Abraham, who was a righteous and faithful servant, and since one of the 13 Attributes of God is to bless those who love him to the thousandth generation (Exodus 20:6): that is why the descendants of Abraham were chosen, and blessed with receiving and being the guardians of the Torah.

Notice I said “descendants of Abraham” and not “the Jewish people”: I did that because once someone accepts the God of Abraham as their God, that person is considered by God’s commandment to be an adopted child of Abraham (Romans 9:8 and Galatians 3:29), and as such is afforded all the rights and privileges under the Torah (as well as the obligation to obey the Torah) as any “natural born” descendant.

The Torah was given to those who are descendants of Abraham: the purpose not being for their use only, but to show the world how God wants us to worship Him and treat each other (Exodus 19:6.)

Christians are descendants of Abraham because they accept Yeshua (Jesus) as their Messiah, and so through that relationship are worshiping the same God who sent Yeshua. That means they are adopted sons and daughters of Abraham, and as such, have also been given the Torah to provide them everlasting life.

Why then do so many Christian organizations teach that the Torah is (essentially) dead, and the laws and commandments in the Torah (which God said to obey) are not binding on Christians?  It’s like they want to have their cake and eat it, too- give us the everlasting life that Torah provides, but don’t expect us to obey the Torah.

Huh? Really?

I use this analogy when teaching about the split between Christianity and Judaism:

Remember the Bugs Bunny cartoon where Elmer chases Bugs into a tree? Bugs is sitting on a branch, and Elmer is on the tree sawing the branch, laughing derisively as he knows Bugs will fall to the ground. But when the branch is cut through, it is the tree that falls to the ground while the branch remains suspended in air. That’s what Christianity thinks is possible when they teach that they can ignore the Torah.

The Torah is what God gave to the world– the Jews are nothing more than the first ones to learn the lessons. God’s commandment to the Jewish people is to follow, then teach others to follow. That is how the descendants of Abraham are to be a blessing to the world (Genesis 22:18), and why it is so important to realize that accepting Yeshua means becoming a descendant of Abraham, which carries the obligation (even the commandment) to teach the nations and the peoples of the world about the Torah, which was, and is, part of God’s plan of salvation.

To put it more succinctly: if you teach that the Torah is not necessary, you are working against God’s plan of salvation. If you think faith is all you need to be saved, you are right, but without obedience then your faith is empty; everything (EVERYTHING) Yeshua taught us to do is directly from the Torah. Everything His Talmudim (Disciples) taught the newly grafted branches onto the Tree of Life to do was directly from the Torah.

I am not saying to be a Christian you have to convert to Judaism, and because I am Born Again that doesn’t make me a Christian- I am a Jew. But everyone who accepts Yeshua (Jesus) as their Messiah and Savior becomes a descendant of Abraham and, as such, is required to obey the commandments God gave to the descendants of Abraham- the same ones we read in the Torah, starting with this parashah and the Ten Commandments.

The Ten Commandments is the “Reader’s Digest” version of the entire Tanakh, the first 5 dealing with our duties to God and the next 5 with our duties to each other. As Yeshua said, the most important commandments are to love God and love each other, and on those two commandments pivot all the writings and the Prophets (Matthew 22:36-40.) These 10 commandments teach us how to love God and each other, but neither God nor Yeshua ever meant that we should exclude all the other commandments found in the Torah. That is what Yeshua meant when He said that the writings and the Prophets pivot on, or are contained, in these two things. He wasn’t saying we can ignore the rest, He was saying that the rest will come more naturally from doing these two things.

We need to get back on line, back in the proper groove, which is to honor the Torah, which honors God, and try to obey all that God said we should do. There shouldn’t be differences in religions, in fact, there shouldn’t be different religions, at all! There should only be God and each other- that is the game plan He gave us to follow. Apparently, we didn’t like a lot of God’s rules, so we’ve made up a bunch of our own, from Talmudic laws of Halakha (Way to Walk) to Christian Canons and rites. And whom do these rules honor?  Not God, because they are man-made and their main purpose is to provide a few with power over the others.

Anything different from what God told us to do is not from God- think about that.

Salvation comes from faith, but faith without works is dead, so prove your faithfulness by your works: the works God, Himself, gave us in His Torah.