There will be no Torah study this weekend. Normal schedule will resume on April 10th.
Chag sameach Pesach!
Archive for March, 2010
No Torah Study this Weekend
Monday, March 29th, 2010Paul’s Controversy
Sunday, March 28th, 2010Galatians 5:2 Behold, I, Paul, say to you that if you are circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
Those are pretty strong words. What should we tell the hundreds of millions of American men? Sorry. You missed the boat. You now have to obey every “jot and tittle” of the Law or you’ll go to Hell. Of course not. Nobody believes that the physical condition of being circumcised equates to a rejection of salvation by grace. What most people actually believe is that if a man voluntarily becomes circumcised as a religious act of obedience to God’s command, only then has he rejected Jesus’ work on the Cross. By legalistically adhering to an outmoded command, he acts as if Jesus’ death and resurrection accomplished nothing.
That certainly sounds like a reasonable interpretation. It doesn’t condemn innocent children for things outside their control, and it emphasizes the liberty we have in Christ. It sounds good, but is it? Keeping in mind Peter’s admonition that a correct understanding of Paul’s letters requires a solid grounding in the Torah and Tanakh (2 Peter 3:15-16), perhaps we should look a little further. Although the older Scriptures have plenty to say about circumcision and salvation by grace, we need look no further than the book of Acts.
Acts 16:3-4 Paul wanted him to go with him, and taking him he circumcised him, because of the Jews who were in those places; for they all knew that his father was a Greek. (4) And as they passed through the cities, they delivered to them the commandments to keep, the ones that were ordained by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem.
There is no question that Timothy voluntarily submitted to this circumcision. He was a grown man, after all. So Paul, who said that circumcision equaled damnation, circumcised Timothy? No! Paul, who said that you cannot be saved by circumcision, circumcised Timothy! In several places in Acts, Luke writes that the great controversy that followed Paul was whether or not a person must be circumcised and keep the whole Law of Moses in order to be saved (E.g. Acts 15:1). The Torah, the Tanakh, the teachings of Yeshua…all of these things stand against such a teaching. The issue was never about whether or not circumcision is a good or bad thing. It was always about salvation. The commandments “ordained by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem” said nothing about circumcision. In fact, they were specifically given to counter the Pharisaical teaching that a man must be circumcised and keep the whole Law in order to be saved. Yet Paul, before he goes out to spread the word against circumcision, circumcises his traveling companion!
Obviously, Paul was not opposed to circumcision nor to keeping the Law of Moses. However, he was adamantly opposed to keeping the traditions of men (that still to this day are commonly referred to as the Law of Moses or the Torah) and to keeping the Law for salvation. There were two parties fighting for control of the church in Galatia. On the one hand, there were the followers of James and Paul teaching them that salvation is only through faith in the grace of God, and that obedience to God’s laws can be learned over time. On the other hand, there were the Judaizers teaching that everyone must obey the Law first and submit to the authority of the rabbis and the centuries of tradition built up on top of the Law before they could be truly considered “saved.” When Paul wrote, “if you are circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing,” he was writing within the context of this argument. He was saying, “If you join the party of the circumcision and rely on that for your salvation, then the Messiah is wasted on you.”
I am not under the Law, nor is anyone else who has put their trust in God for their eternal salvation. That does not mean that the Law no longer applies to us. It means that we are not condemned by it. We don’t have to worry and stress about getting it perfectly. We can focus on serving God in our daily lives, on loving him and sharing his love with those around us while we use his Torah to help us learn what that really means.
Tzav 5770 – For Love of God and Man
Saturday, March 27th, 2010Tony Robinson pointed out some interesting facts about the five sacrifices detailed in the first two Torah portions of Leviticus. The text seems needlessly repetitious, but there is a purpose. In Vayikra, God instructs the Israelites how to make offerings in order to draw closer to him. In Tzav, he instructs the priests on how to dispose of those offerings. But there’s more to it than just that. If you read carefully, you’ll notice that the sacrifices are listed in a slightly different order in each place. As Robinson shows, the offerings are grouped according to an inexplicit classification.
In Vayikra the first three offerings (burnt, grain, and peace) are voluntary, while the last two (sin and guilt) are not. In Tzav, the first offering is completely burned up, the next three are partly burned and partly consumed by the priest, and the final offering is partly burned, partly eaten by the priest, and mostly eaten by the offerer and his community.
Although I don’t know exactly what to make of the following correlations, I think they are correct.
Five is the number of Torah, and there are five sacrifices. The purpose of both Torah and the sacrifices is to draw us closer to YHWH. (See Vayikra 5770 – Approaching under Cover.)
- The burnt offering is something wholly given to God, and there are commandments in the Torah which are designed to bring us closer to God the Father.
- The grain, sin, and guilt offerings are partly given to God and partly to the priest. There are many mitzvot throughout the Torah that draw us closer to God while foreshadowing the ministry of the Messiah as a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. (There is something else here about Moses and the order of Melchizedek, but I’ll save it for another time.)
- The peace offering, like many mitzvot concerning how to live at peace with one’s neighbors, is designed to draw us closer to God as a community, to make us a united people under the banner of the Messiah.
I believe the order in Vayikra says something about another layer of classification that can be overlaid on the Torah, but I will save that for another day too. Vayikra 5771 perhaps.
Vayikra 5770 part 2 – No Scam Lasts Forever
Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010Leviticus 6:1-5 And YHWH spoke to Moses, saying, (2) If a soul sins, and acts unfaithfully against YHWH, and lies to his neighbor as to a deposit– or as to security, or by robbery, or has extorted his neighbor, (3) or has found that which was lost and lies concerning it and swears falsely– in any of all these that a man does, sinning in it, (4) then, it shall be, because he sinned and is guilty, he shall pay back that which he got by robbery, if he robbed; or the thing extorted which he extorted; or the deposit which had been deposited with him; or the lost thing which he had found; (5) or all that which he swore about falsely, –he shall even repay it in its principal, and the fifth part he shall add to it, to whomever it belongs. He shall give it on the day of his guilt offering.
- Taking the Tenth, Fred
- Thoughts from a Disordered Mind, Fred
- Iraq War, Unjust, Illegal, and Immoral, Paul Surlis
- Our Drug Laws, Scott Morgan
- Eminent Domain Abuse, John Kramer
And that’s just a tiny fraction of what goes on all over the world. Every day we see corrupt, lying politicians (and others) seeming to get away with murder and theft. Did you notice that God referred to this behavior as unfaithfulness against YHWH? It won’t last forever. The accounts always balance in the end.
Manual for Priests
Monday, March 22nd, 2010Ariel ben-Lyman HaNaviy makes a very good point in his teaching on Tzav this week. (Part A is great. Part B contains too much rabbinic mythology.) The book of Leviticus (aka Vayikra) is a manual for priests. Christian men claim to be the priests of their homes. LDS men claim to be priests of another sort. The Torah says that Israel is to be a kingdom of priests to the world, and John wrote that Yeshua has made all those who believe on him to be kings and priests. Here in Leviticus we have a manual for priests. Even though it was specifically addressed to the Levitical order, it is full of principles and patterns that apply to all priests of whatever order.
P.S. Here is an interesting thought. I have heard it taught that David was able to eat the bread of the Tabernacle without repercussion because he was also a priest, but of a different order. Being a foreshadowing of the Moshiach ben David, he too was a priest of the order of Melchizedek, which consists of a royal priesthood, men who are both kings and priests simultaneously. If Yeshua has made all those who believe on him to be both kings and priests, then this line of reasoning implies that all believers have the same (or parallel) responsibilities and privileges as the Cohanim. That does not mean that they are above the Law any more than David was. On the contrary, both priests and kings are held to a higher standard. I am not saying that this is a correct interpretation, only that it is a possibility worth considering.
Vayikra 5770 – Approaching under Cover
Saturday, March 20th, 2010Vayikra begins with a series of word plays:
Leviticus 1:1-2 And the LORD called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man of you bring an offering unto the LORD, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd, and of the flock.
There are two distinct word plays that I want to talk about. Let’s look at the less obvious one first.
This Torah portion–in fact, this entire book–is named “Vayikra” which means “called” or “summoned”, but there is something missing from the English translation. This isn’t the fault of the translators necessarily because the thing that is missing could not be translated directly. The Hebrew word vayikra in verse one is spelled strangely. Although Hebrew doesn’t use capital letters like we use in English, it does use cases. It has a standard case, an upper case, a lower case, and even an inverted case. In this case, the final letter in vayikra, aleph, is in lower case, almost like a subscript. There is another instance in the Torah where vayikra is spelled strangely: “And God met Balaam.” (Numbers 23:4) This vayikra has no aleph at all. The rabbis say (and the KJV translators seem to have agreed) that this is because vayiker implies a chance encounter while vayikra is a deliberate summoning. The rabbis go on to say that Moses used a small aleph in Leviticus 1:1 because he wanted to de-emphasize the fact that God sought him out from among all his peers to lead Israel to freedom and to deliver the Torah. Balaam’s encounter with God was made inevitable by the path he and Balak had chosen. Moses’ encounter, on the other hand, was pre-ordained. The small aleph is Moses’ way of saying, “Yes, God chose me, but that doesn’t mean I’m better than anyone else.” We are all called. The questions to be answered are, how do we respond to our calling and what are we to do with it?
The second word play is more apparent, although the English translation still obscures it a little. Did you notice in the above paragraph how I used the word “case” so many times in a row that it almost became irritating? The Hebrew scriptures, especially prophecy, do this frequently. It’s a trick God uses to flag a particularly important idea or an idea that isn’t immediately clear in the plain text. The Hebrew words for “called unto”, “bring”, and “offering” all have the same root, kar, which refers to coming near. Putting the Hebrew words in, this passage looks something like this:
Leviticus 1:1-2 And the LORD vayik’ra unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man of you yik’rib a kar’ban unto the LORD, ye shall yik’rib your kar’ban of the cattle, even of the herd, and of the flock.
To make the sense even more clear in English, “YHWH told Moses to approach him and spoke to him from out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘If anyone of you would approach God with an approaching, you will approach with an approaching from the animals of your herds and of your flocks.’”
So what is the message that is barely hidden here? It is the central theme of the entire book of Leviticus/Vayikra: drawing near to God. Although Leviticus describes a sacrificial system and priesthood that most people today view as obsolete and even barbaric, it also describes the only way that we might be restored to a close relationship with our Creator. Our restoration requires innocent blood to cover (atone for) our sins. (“Why” is another question entirely and might be beyond our understand.) We must first acknowledge our guilt and our inability to approach God on our own merits. Then we must accept the atonement that God has provided for us in his inestimable grace in the person of his Son, the Lamb of God. (Genesis 22:8 and John 1:29) The blood of Yeshua takes away our sins so that when God summons us we may draw near without being destroyed.
As in so many other cases, God has presented us with a choice. He told us to choose between life and death, blessings and cursings. In the Garden he provided the means of our destruction and on Calvary he provided the means of our salvation. We have but to choose and to surrender to the consequences.
On Which Thought Counts
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010Rabbi Stephen Baars, commenting on this week’s Torah portion, says something very similar to what I said last week:
Buying your wife a $1,000 pearl necklace may be a great sacrifice on your part. But it is not going to do the trick if she doesn’t like pearls. Nobody wants your sacrifices!
…The only thing we can possibly give another is a piece of ourselves by becoming closer to them. Anything else they can get on their own. They really don’t need you to buy the flowers or the wrench set. Similarly, God can sacrifice His own animals. The only thing no one can have, unless I give it, is me. That’s all I have to give.
I think this is an important clarification on what I said before. Neither the thought nor the deed count if they aren’t part of the same whole. God doesn’t want our sacrifices or tithes or even our obedience if it’s forced and resentful. He wants all of those things, but with a willing heart. More than anything else, he wants our love. If he has that, the rest will follow.
Abominations
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010I did a quick survey of “abomination” and its close synonyms in the Torah in response to a question from a good friend. I had to correct a couple of misconceptions that I have entertained for years. There are several Hebrew words used for this idea, but two in particular stood out:
Hebrew: Shekets/shakats/shikuts
English: Something detestable/abominable, to detest, to make detestable
Context: Non-kosher animals of all kinds are to be considered detestable to you. Things that are shekets are also tamay (from a root word meaning hidden, hence walled off, usually translated as unclean, defiled, or impure). Eating non-kosher swarming things (presumably all kinds of insects except a few approved locusts) makes you unclean/tamay.
Hebrew: Toaybah
English: Disgusting, abominable
Context: Idols, idolatry, idolaters, sorcery, witchcraft, copying pagan worship, homosexuality, bestiality, wife swapping, and using unjust weights are all toaybah to God and the land. Eating with Hebrews and sacrificing sheep are toaybah to Egyptians.
There is definitely a difference between the two words, but it seems to be lost on the English translators. The major difference that I can see is that “shekets” is used when God commands us to hold a thing to be detestable, like trying to train a child not to eat something he found on the ground. It’s not that the parent is repulsed by the child eating it so much as he needs to teach the child to be repulsed for himself. On the other hand, if something is “toaybah,” then God doesn’t want us to do it for his sake, because he finds it repulsive or because the land itself rebels against it.
With that perspective, it seems perfectly reasonable to say that God told us not to eat those animals because it’s bad for us to do so. Whether it’s bad physically or spiritually or both is another question. The last option gets my vote.
P’kudei 5770 – If You Love Me
Saturday, March 13th, 2010…you will obey my commandments, said Yeshua. In P’kudei, Moses recorded twenty times that the Israelites did exactly as Yahweh commanded.
Twenty iterations of “They did all that Yahweh commanded Moses,” or some slight variation thereof.
They made the furniture of the Tabernacle. They wove and embroidered the curtains and the priestly garments. They erected the structure, anointed its contents and its priests, and put the various articles in their assigned places. Finally they lit the menorah, placed the bread, and burned the incense. All exactly as Yahweh had commanded.
God gives us an enormous amount of freedom in how we are to live our lives, but as anyone who has lived long enough to outgrow the fiery idealism of our youth realizes, true freedom is not possible without some rules. Neither is love. A husband cannot say to his wife, “I will show my love for you by pouring red wine on all of your white blouses.” Well, I suppose he could say it, but I don’t think she would quite get the message he intended. Or maybe he could say, “Honey, I’m thinking of a very nice anniversary card and a set of beautiful diamond earrings.” Unless he followed his imaginings with happenings, they won’t be very well received.
We frequently hear people say that it’s the thought that counts, but we all know that isn’t literally true. It’s the thought plus the deed that really counts. If the husband in the examples above had poured his wife a glass of water (not on her blouse) and bought her a card and a bouquet of roses, then his grand intentions, however humbly expressed, would have counted for much, much more.
Several things are conspicuously missing from Vayakhel and P’kudei: green, orange, and yellow threads; iron and lead ingots; cowhides; marble. I am certain that some people wanted to give these things along with their gold and silver, but God was very specific about what materials could be used in his Tabernacle. Just like the man’s wife who didn’t want wine on her clothes, God didn’t want lead in his Holy Place. I can speculate all day and night about the spiritual significance of this or that metal and color, but it really comes down to this: God knows what he wants, and he doesn’t want just anything.
You have the freedom to serve him, but you do not have the freedom to serve him in any way you choose. If you love God, you will obey his commandments. God doesn’t want us all to be missionaries to Borneo or to give him a million dollars. He wants us to give him our best, and to give him what he asks. He wants our love, and he wants it by his rules, not ours.
P.S. Some interesting observations about the twenty statements of obedience in this parsha…
- The first time, the people did according to what Moses commanded.
- The next eleven times, the people did according to what Yahweh commanded Moses.
- The next seven times, Moses did what Yahweh commanded.
- The next time, all Moses plus the Cohanim did what Yahweh commanded Moses.
- Moses completed the work.
P’kudei says twelve times that the people did what they were commanded: once by the command of Moses and twelve by the command of God delivered through Moses. Twelve is the number of God’s people. There are twelve tribes, twelve gates, and twelve disciples. Except when one of those disciples followed the commands of men instead of God.
Seven represents perfection. Creation, including the establishment of the Sabbath, was completed in seven days. There are seven lamps on the menorah, seven spirits of God, and seven churches. David reminded us over and over that God’s Torah is perfect. Moses delivered God’s Law perfectly, just as God intended it to be, and he commanded us not to alter it. Yeshua reiterated that command when he said that anyone who relaxes even the tiniest part of it will be called the least in heaven.
Psalms 19:7 The law [Hebrew: torah] of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.
The final repetition doesn’t stand on its own. It is the eighth statement of Moses’ obedience, eight being the number of new beginnings, but this time, he was joined by the priests. The aim of the Torah is the Messiah who has become our High Priest. It teaches us about him and points us to him. It tells us how to recognize him, why we need him, and what he does for us. He is our Cohen Ha Gadol, our High Priest, albeit of a different order than the sons of Aaron. He is our new beginning, our rebirth, but notice that it was not the priest alone included in the eighth repetition, but Moses with him. Just as Jeremiah prophesied, the New Covenant brought by Yeshua does not leave Moses behind. In the New Covenant, the Law of Moses (aka the Torah) is to be written on our hearts and no longer on stone. God still wants his people to keep his Torah, but we are not condemned by it because we are not under its authority. We are children of the King and obey his laws because we love him, not because we are afraid of the King’s sheriff.
After all twenty statements are complete, the Torah says, “And Moses finished the work.” As James taught to the first century church, no one needs to keep the Torah in order to gain their salvation, but once a person becomes a citizen of the kingdom he would do well to begin learning and practicing its laws. (Acts 15:21)
Comment Spammers
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010The comment spammers are getting smarter. Frequently, their garbage is pertinent to the article on which they have posted, and actually makes sense. However, a quick Google will find the exact same comment on other blogs, and their email and web addresses clearly mark them as advertisers. <DELETE>